AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Schoenberg's music became very atonal (not in any key). Eventually he developed what he called twelve tone music. This was atonal music which was organized by putting the notes of a musical idea in a particular order which could be changed in many ways during the piece. This way of organizing music is called “serialism” (a “series” is a “row of things”). Many composers were influenced by Schoenberg, especially Alban Berg and Anton von Webern.
Stravinsky came from Russia. He was inspired by Russian culture. He wrote some music for a ballet called Rite of Spring. This music was very new. It had very irregular rhythms which the dancers found very difficult to dance to at first. It also used polytonality (being in more than one key at once). Later on Stravinsky was inspired by music from the 18th century. He used it, but made changes to it, adding dissonant notes and strange chords. This is called neoclassicism (“neo” means “new”). Stravinsky's music seemed to many people to be the opposite of serialism, but in his last years Stravinsky started to use serialism as well.
In France a movement called Impressionism was popular with painters. Composers were very interested in these paintings. Claude Debussy wrote music which is often called “Impressionistic”. The ideas of clear tonality (being clear about which key the music is in) are often deliberately blurred. He uses interesting chords just for the sound that they make. He used the whole tone scale and pentatonic scale and was inspired by Javanese music. Maurice Ravel’s music is sometimes similar, although he developed his own style. Later French composers include Olivier Messiaen who used a system of new scales which he called Modes of limited transposition. He was also interested in music from around the world, and he also used bird song in his music.
While all this was happening there were some composers who continued to write in a style which was basically Romantic. Edward Elgar ‘s music is often described as “Edwardian” (from the period of King Edward VII). Other British composers of the time were also inspired by English folkmusic, i.e. Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Butterworth, Roger Quilter and Gerald Finzi. Frederick Delius wrote Romantic music which was also quite Impressionistic. The Russian Sergei Rachmaninoff and the German Richard Strauss continued to write in a Romantic style until their deaths in the 1940s. The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and the Dane Carl Nielsen wrote great symphonies which were still in a tonal style, and in Italy Puccini was writing operas in a Romantic style, often called “verismo” (“like real life”).
In Russia, which became the Soviet Union after the 1917 Revolution, composers were not allowed to be experimental. It was difficult for them because they had to please the politicians who told them that their music should reflect “Socialist realism” (meaning the workers’ struggle against capitalism). The great tradition of writing symphonies continued with Sergei Prokofiev (who spent some time in exile) and Shostakovich (who remained in the Soviet Union).
The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók developed a modern style influenced by folk music from his country and other East European countries. His music is often quite neoclassical, for example the famous "Concerto for Orchestra".
In the mid-20th century a group of composers known as the “Darmstadt School” (because they often met in Darmstadt) continued to write music which was based on serialism. This included Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Many of them, including both Boulez and Stockhausen, also experimented with electronic music. The term Avant Garde is often used to describe their music. It means that it expands the limits, or pushes ahead into new ground (literally the “front guard”, a military analogy). Other American composers were experimental, e.g. Charles Ives and John Cage who is famous for using a “prepared piano” (a piano which makes strange sounds because strange objects are put inside it).
In America jazz was a big influence on classical composers. George Gershwin’s music is halfway between jazz and classical. Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein used jazz elements in their music. In Europe many composer used ideas from jazz, e.g. Maurice Ravel and Kurt Weill.
Around the 1960s some composers thought that a lot of music was getting too complicated. Music of the avant garde school such as Edgard Varèse, Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt was becoming too difficult for people to understand. People found it too mathematical and intellectual. They wanted music with feeling and emotion. A group of composers developed a style called Minimalism which uses music based around a simple idea which repeats itself again and again but gradually changes. Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, John Cage and to some extent John Adams all used minimalist techniques. It was a reaction against music that had become too complicated.
While all these different schools of thought were coming and going there were still some composers who managed to keep to a more traditional path and find new ways to use tonality in their music. The greatest figure in British music was Benjamin Britten who was an eclectic composer (i.e. he took ideas from many different people). Two other great composers were Michael Tippett and William Walton, who each developed their own style. In America there were composers such as Samuel Barber, Roy Harris and Alan Hovhaness. In Germany Paul Hindemith was one of the most important composers. Like Kurt Weill, he often wrote music which had a political purpose, but Weill's music is more jazz-inspired.
Some contemporary composers (alive today) write music which is deeply religious. These include John Tavener and Arvo Pärt. John Rutter and Bob Chilcott, who write music for choirs which sounds fresh and attractive to new audiences. Other composers have found various ways of creating their own style, e.g. the Scottish composers James MacMillan and Judith Weir and the Master of the Queen's Music: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. In Russia Sofia Gubaidulina and Galina Ustvolskaya are important voices in the search for new music.
Cuxhaven
Cuxhaven is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. About 55,000 people live there. It is on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven is the capital of the Cuxhaven district. It is a popular vacation spot on the North Sea.
In 1896, when the town was an exclave of Hamburg, the railway line from Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof was built.
Haifa Wehbe
Haifa Wehbe (, born March 10, 1972) is a female Lebanese singer, actress, model, and jewelry designer who is known in the Arab world. Wehbe was born in a rural town in South Lebanon and currently lives in Beirut. She started her music career with her debut album "Huwa az-Zaman" (, "It is Time").
Before she became a singer, she was a model. She won title "Miss South Lebanon" when she was sixteen. In 1995, she was the runner-up for Miss Lebanon before the public found out she had a daughter named Zeinab.
Her second 2005 album was "Baddi 'Ayš" (, "I Want to Live"). Her second songs was "Ana Haifa" ("I am Haifa").
She also appeared in Pepsi ad with French footballer Thierry Henry.
Dynamics (music)
In music, the dynamics in the piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases.
In written music the dynamics are shown by letters which stand for Italian words for the dynamic levels. They are listed in the table below. Notice that “piano” is pronounced the Italian way (“pi-AH-no”), to tell it apart from the
Use more than two ps or fs to show that the music is very, very soft, or very, very loud. Tchaikovsky sometimes used five ps or fs, though only up to three are normally found in sheet music.
Dynamic levels are not something that can be measured exactly. Exactly how loud mp should be depends on several things: what is happening in the music, the instrument, the size of the room in which the music is being played etc. The important thing is that dynamic levels should be correct in relation to one another.
Some composers are very precise about writing the dynamics they want. Others leave a lot to the performer to decide. Historically, composers several centuries ago, such as Bach, only wrote occasional dynamic marks. Even Mozart only wrote a few, mostly p and f. By the 19th century composers were writing dynamics in much more detail in their music.
Sometimes accents are shown by marks similar to dynamic marks. "Sforzando" means a strong, sudden accent and is abbreviated as sf, sfz or fz. The notation sfzp (or sfp) means a "sforzando" followed immediately by "piano"
The terms "crescendo", and "diminuendo" (or sometimes "decrescendo"), mean a gradual getting louder or softer. They can also be shown by signs known as "hairpins". A hairpin opening out is a "crescendo", one which closes is a "diminuendo".
For a quick change in dynamics, molto cresc. and molto dim. are often used ("molto" means "a lot"). For slow changes poco a poco cresc. and poco a poco dim. are used ("poco a poco" means "little by little", i.e. very gradually.)
Francesco Botticini
Francesco di Giovanni Botticini (ca. 1446 – July 22, 1498) was an Italian painter. He lived in the early part of the Renaissance period. He was born in Florence about 1446 and is best known for his painting called "Assumption of the Virgin".
He died in 1497 or 1498. After he had been an assistant to the painter Neri di Bicci he started his own workshop. The shop was famous for its decorative works, a few of which can be seen in the cloistered church of Empoli. Botticini was influenced by Filippino Lippi and Botticelli who were two very famous Florentine painters.
Grana Padano cheese
Grana Padano is a type of hard cheese. It is similar to parmesan cheese. The name comes from the noun "grana" (‘grain’), which refers to the distinctively grainy texture of the cheese, and the adjective "Padano", which refers to the river Po.
Grana Padano was created by the Cistercian monks of Chiaravalle. They used ripened cheese as a way of preserving extra milk. By the year 1477, it was regarded as one of the most famous cheeses of Italy. Today, this product is made in the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy and Veneto, and in the province of Trento.
Like Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano is a semi-fat hard cheese which is cooked and ripened slowly (for up to 18 months). It is produced by curdling the milk of grass-fed cows. The cows are milked twice a day, the milk is left to stand, and then partially creamed. It is produced all year round and the quality can vary seasonally as well as by year.
A wheel of Grana Padano is cylindrical, with slightly convex or almost straight sides and flat faces. The rind, which is thin, is white or straw yellow.
Grana Padano cheese has been produced since the 12th century, and production and quality are now overseen by the Consorzio per la Tutela del Formaggio Grana Padano.
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a trade agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The agreement was signed by U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and Mexican President Carlos Salinas on December 17, 1992 in San Antonio, Texas, and took effect on January 1, 1994. It removed taxes on products traded between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It also protects copyrights, patents, and trademarks between those three countries. It was updated with the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, which helped set more environment regulations and helped reduce pollution. It was also updated with the North American Agreement for Labor Cooperation, which helped people fight for better work conditions.
On September 30, 2018, it was announced that the United States, Mexico, and Canada had come to an agreement to replace NAFTA with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Since it took away taxes between products traded between the US, Canada, and Mexico. Mexico has been buying more products from the US. It saved U.S. companies on the cost of selling products to Mexico, and it saved Mexican companies on the cost of buying things from U.S. companies.
A benefit of the bill is that labels on products exchanged between the three countries come in French, English, and Spanish. That way, Mexicans and Americans who speak Spanish can read the Spanish label, Americans and Canadians can read the English label, and Canadians who speak French can read the French label.
NAFTA also encourages more immigration from Mexico to the US. Since small businesses can no longer be protected by tariffs, many small business owners in Mexico cannot compete with the prices of subsidized products from the US and therefore many of them have gone under, or they lost more money than they could make. As a result, many Mexicans have gone to the US looking for work. The human rights organization EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de la Liberación Nacional), a revolutionary Mexican grass roots movement, is a strong opponent of NAFTA and points out how its provisions only make the economic situation worse for the poorest in Mexico and better for multi-national corporations.
Small Business Chronicle
With the increased ease by which Mexico can import food products from the United States, the role of Mexican farmers is overwhelmed by the output of American farming. This is a notable con of NAFTA. According to Thomas Net Industry Market Trends, over 1 million Mexican farmers have lost their jobs as a result of the agreement.
The American economy lost about 683,000 jobs thanks to NAFTA -- more than 60% of which were in the manufacturing sector. Almost 35,000 Ohioans found themselves unemployed, or without jobs, thanks to a free trade agreement that’s been a disaster for our nation’s industrial base. - Sharrod Brown
It was possible that NAFTA would encourage Mexican citizens to stay in their country since their manufacturing work could still reach the American market easily. But since the creation of NAFTA, illegal immigration between Mexico and the United States has only gotten worse. Over the 10-year period between 1990 and 2000, the number of illegal immigrants per year doubled, or increased two times, despite the creation of NAFTA in 1994, according to Thomas Net Industry Market Trends. NAFTA not being more effective in preventing the immigration crisis is a disadvantage to the agreement.
Language revival
Language revival is people trying to make a language spoken often again when it is not spoken or is spoken very little. Language death happens when a language is not used by the people who used to speak it.
Language revival tries to save a language that is dead or endangered. The Hebrew language was once a language that was not spoken, but the language was revived, and people now speak and use it again. Many people are now trying to revive their languages. The revival of languages is good, beautiful, and useful.
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer and singer.
The youngest of six children, he was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey. His father, Salvatore Travolta (November 1912 – May 1995), was a semi-professional American football player of Italian descent. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke, January 1912 – December 1978), was an Irish-American actress and singer. He was raised Roman Catholic, but changed to Scientology in 1975.
Travolta was engaged with Diana Hyland who died of breast cancer in 1977, they met while filming "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble". He married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. The couple had a son, Jett (1992–2009). Their daughter, Ella Bleu, was born in 2000. On May 18, 2010, Travolta and Preston said she was pregnant with the couple's third child. Later they said it would be a boy. Their son, Benjamin, was born on November 23, 2010 in Florida.
He starred in the movies "Grease" with Olivia Newton-John, "Pulp Fiction" with Samuel L. Jackson and "Hairspray".
His wife, Preston died of breast cancer in July 2020.
Ukrainian might mean:
Objectivity (science)
Objectivity in science means that scientific measurement can be tested independent from the individual scientist (the subject) who proposes them.
To be properly considered objective, the results of measurement must be communicated from person-to-person, and then "demonstrated" for third parties, as an advance in understanding of the objective world. Such demonstrable knowledge would ordinarily confer demonstrable powers of prediction or technological construction.
To avoid the variety in subjective (equivocal) interpretation of quantifying terms such as "green", "hot", "large", "considerable", and "negligible", scientists strive, where possible, to eliminate human senses by use of standartized measuring tools (meter stick, stopwatch, thermometer, etc.) and mechanical/electronic measuring instruments (spectrometer, voltmeter, timer, oscilloscope, gravimeter, etc.) for performing the actual measuring process, eliminating much of the perceptive variability of individual observers. The results of measurements are expressed on a numerical scale of standard units - so that everybody else understands them the same way. Where data must need be used, the ideal is to use "hard", "objective" criteria for assigning the classifications (see definition), such that different classifiers would produce the same assignments.
Roundhay Garden Scene
Roundhay Garden Scene is a short movie made on October 14, 1888 in the garden of "Oakwood Grange", Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was made by a French man named Louis Le Prince. It was silent. The movie had Adolphe Le Prince, Sarah Whitley, Joseph Whitley, and Harriet Hartley walking in the garden of Oakwood Grange. It is believed to be the oldest surviving movie by many people. It is 1.66 seconds long. The digitalized version lasts 2.11 seconds.
Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with reptiles and amphibians. It is about cold-blooded animals like salamanders, frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, turtles, tuataras and crocodilians.
"Herp" is a vernacular term for reptiles and amphibians. It is derived from the old term "herpetile". Linnaeus grouped reptiles and amphibians together in the same class, and that is where the term comes from. The term has persisted, particularly in the names of herpetology, the scientific study of reptiles and amphibians, and herpetoculture, the captive care and breeding of reptiles and amphibians. There are over 6700 species of amphibians and over 9000 species of reptiles.
Batrachology is the study of amphibians. Batrachology can also mean that a person enjoys amphibians and are among their favorite pets.
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Objectivity
Objectivity can mean:
Fraud (or defrauding or scamming) is a crime in which someone tricks somebody else to get unfair or unlawful gain. Frauds are almost always about money, either directly or indirectly.
A "fraudster" or a "fraud" is the person who commits the fraud. "Fraudulence" is the adjective, as in "He tried to pass a fraudulent cheque." To "defraud" someone is to commit a fraud against them.
Fraudsters may find people to defraud by phone calls, emails, or websites. Fraud often starts by saying there is a free or low price item. The fraudster then asks for personal information, such as a home address and bank account numbers. Instead of giving an item, the fraudster takes their money. Fraudsters often target senior citizens.
Fraud is a criminal wrong: a fraudster may be prosecuted and imprisoned. It is also a civil wrong: a fraud victim may sue the fraudster to get compensation.
All societies have laws against fraud, but the details differ in each jusisdiction. In England an Act of Parliament defines three kinds of fraud.
Lesser cases are heard in a Magistrates' Court; more serious offences are tried in the High Court (jury proceedings).
A pump is a machine which moves a liquid from one place to another, often upwards.
Pumps need some kind of power, often kinetic energy, to make them work. Sometimes the power comes from a person. Sometimes the power comes from a motor.
There are many different kinds of pumps. Some types of pumps are:
Alpha (disambiguation)
Alpha may mean:
Alpha, a letter in the Greek alphabet. α may be used as the symbol for:
Ioan P. Culianu
Ioan Petru Culianu (January 5, 1950–May 21, 1991) was a Romanian historian of religion, culture, ideas, philosopher, political essayist, poet, mystic and short story writer.
He was 41 when he was shot in the head in the men's room in his University, Divine School where he was teaching on May 21 1991. At times he preached against communism and its system of brainwashing youth. It is alleged that he was killed on the orders of outgoing Romanian Communist Party leaders.
Single (music)
In popular music marketing, a single is a record release with only one or two songs. The first song (usually the one given the most promotion, and heard more often in the media) is called an A-side, while any other song on the single is called a B-side.
The pairing of recordings on a single comes from the days of and vinyl records, when discs had two playable sides. Modern compact disc singles may contain more than one version of either the A- or B-side, or sometimes an additional recording by the same performer. B-sides may be selections from an album, or songs not otherwise issued for sale.
Many times the chance to get a new song issued as an A-side creates competition between members of bands, or teams of songwriters. John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles tried to write better songs than each other, to get more A-sides than the other. George Harrison, also a Beatle, rarely had his songs chosen for singles, but had a hit with "Something" for the band.
In the days of vinyl singles, for both A- and B-sides were paid equally. Many listeners never played B-sides more than once, and radio focused on A-sides. Many people who made recordings knew this, and used it to earn extra money from sales, or to promote other music they made. Phil Spector sometimes used short by his studio band as B-sides to singles he produced.
Michael Nesmith of the Monkees wanted his songs to appear on Monkees singles. He would settle for B-sides, if he could not get an A-side. Don Kirshner, who oversaw the band's early music, wanted the B-sides to come from other songwriters who worked for him. Nesmith and Kirshner disagreed, and it caused tension for the Monkees and their company.
Records that include more than two or three songs are usually called EPs (for "extended play"), and may include four or more distinct songs, but not as many as on an album.
Captain America is a fictional superhero from the Marvel Comics. He made his first appearance in the comic book "Captain America Comics #1" in 1941"." He wears a suit that has a white star on his chest with 2 stripes (still white) on each side next to the star. His suit is blue. He also has an indestructible shield with a bullseye and a star on the front of it. He is also known as his alter ego Steve Rogers. Captain America had a sidekick (friend), Bucky who later became the Winter Soldier, is a very good fighter, both hand-to-hand and using his guns to take care of his enemies easily. Captain America has an nemesis called Red Skull. He later fights with a team called the Avengers to protect the world.
He appeared in Marvel's "The Avengers" movie series (2012 - present), and "" (2011), "" (2014) and "" (2016), Avengers: Endgame(2019) played by Chris Evans.
Captain America has superhuman strength, superhuman stamina, and can live without eating, sleeping and resting.
Objectivity (journalism)
Objectivity is a significant principle of journalistic professionalism. It involves presenting information that can be relied upon.
Objectivity may have several meanings in the eye of the public. "Fairness" involves making sure that multiple sides of an issue are presented. "Disinterestedness" means that the presenters are neutral in a story in which the people involved try to influence them. "Factuality" bases story content on facts that can be checked by an independent agent. "Nonpartisanship" means not taking sides, especially on political matters. Depending on the topic of a story, any or all of these factors may be relevant in the journalist's remaining objective.
The editorial board of media outlets such as the press or broadcast news chooses what information to present, so the editors' selection may be biased toward one position or belief system.
In many countries, "advocacy journalism," which supports a particular position, is considered as a legitimate sort of professional journalism. These stories may be either news or analysis. They may or may not be objective.
Few journalists would make a claim to total neutrality or impartiality. However, most try to keep distance from their own personal biases in their news work. In "Discovering the News" (1978), sociologist Michael Schudson argues that "the belief in objectivity is a faith in 'facts,' a distrust in 'values,' and a commitment to their segregation." In the United States, an objective story is typically considered to be one that steers a middle path between two poles of political rhetoric.
Journalism without any bias, as if one just came to Earth from another planet and had no opinions about our behavior or ways is rarely practiced, although some argue it would lead to radical changes in reporting. (See, for example, Noam Chomsky, The Journalist from Mars.)
The Genesis Nomad is a portable video game console released by the Sega Corporation. It has a colour screen and can play most games designed for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
It cannot be used with the Sega CD and Sega 32X unless special modifications are made. But such special modifications may not be safe.
Fewer than one million Genesis Nomads were sold.
Erlasee Solar Park
The Erlasee Solar Park is in one of the sunniest regions of Germany. On the former wine-producing Erlasee estate near Arnstein in Bavaria, in southern Germany, SOLON has constructed what is currently the largest tracking photovoltaic solar power station in the world with an output of 12 MW. Just under 1,500 "SOLON-Movers" modules convert sunlight into environmentally friendly power, generating as much as the average consumption of the nearby town of Arnstein.
The solar power plant cost £35 million and covers 77 hectares of land.
Khula
Khula is the right of a woman to ask her husband for a divorce and to offer him a compensation in case he does so. Following the Sharia the husband has no right to ask for a compensation of a higher value than that what he gave his wife when they married.
After divorce the former husband is responsible for education, food and residence of children. The children live with the mother for 7 years. After 7 years children have the right to live with father or mother, as they decide.
Hashemi Rafsanjani
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (Persian: اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی "Akbar Hāshemī Rafanjānī"), Hashemi Bahramani (هاشمی بهرمانی) (August 25, 1934 – January 8, 2017) was an influential Iranian politician. He has been the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran from 1989 until his death in 2017.
Forbes magazine listed Rafsanjani in their list of richest people in the world and has written that as the real power behind the Iranian government, he "has more or less run the Islamic Republic for the past 24 years." His wealth has earned him the infamous nickname of "Akbar Shah" in Iran.
He served as President of Iran from 1989 to 1997, losing on the second ballot to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 election on his attempt for a third term in office. After this, he has tried to use his position in the Expediency Council to denounce President Ahmadinejad's administration. He said he would do some privatizations and change foreign policy. However, President Ahmadinejad has noted Rafsanjani's failure to make a difference between privatization and self takeover of government-owned companies. Ahmadinejad has also commmented on the foreign policies of Rafsanjani's administration which lead to sanctions against Iran in 1995 and 1996.
Currently, one of his sons has been accused of receiving a bribe. Analysts expect that his son will not be put on trial, however.
Rafsanjani died on January 8, 2017 in Tehran from a heart attack, aged 82.
Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American boxer. He held both the world heavyweight championship and the world cruiserweight championship. He also won a bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
Holyfield was born in Atmore, Alabama. He became a professional boxer in 1984 and won the cruiserweight championship from Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1986. He moved to the heavyweight division in 1988 and won the world championship from James "Buster" Douglas in 1990. He defended the title three times, including fights against former champions Larry Holmes and George Foreman. He lost the title to Riddick Bowe in 1992 but won it back the next year. In 1994 he lost to Michael Moorer and briefly retired. He soon fought again, however, and surprised many by knocking out Mike Tyson in 1996. He had a draw against Lennox Lewis in 1998 and then lost a rematch to him in 1999.
In 2005, Holyfield was a contestant on season 1 of "Dancing with the Stars". He was a housemate in the January 2014 series of Celebrity Big Brother (UK).
Porthmadog F.C.
Porthmadog Football Club is a football team, playing in the League of Wales. The club was started in 1884.
Sharia
Sharia, Sharia law or Islamic law is a set of religious principles which form part of the Islamic culture. The Arabic word "sharīʿah" () refers to the revealed law of God and originally meant "way" or "path".
Classical sharia deals with many aspects of public and private life, including religious rituals, family life, business, crimes, and warfare. In former times, sharia was interpreted by independent jurists, who based their legal opinions on Qur'an, Hadith and centuries of debate, interpretation and precedent. Some parts of sharia can be described as "law" in the usual sense of that word, while other parts are better understood as rules for living life in accordance with God's will.
Modern countries in the Muslim world all have their own laws. In most of them only a small part of the legal system is based on classical sharia. Muslims disagree on how sharia should be applied in the modern world.
Some classic Sharia practices include serious human rights violations. (see, Apostasy in Islam)
People of different religions who speak Arabic use the word "sharīʿah" to describe a religious tradition that comes from teachings of prophets. Christians and Jews in the Middle East have used it to describe their own religion. For many Muslims the word "sharia" means simply "justice". They will say that any law agrees with sharia as long as it helps to build a more fair and prosperous society.
Most Muslims think that sharia should be interpreted by experts in Islamic law. In Arabic, the word "sharīʿah" refers to God's revelation, which does not change. In contrast, the rules of behavior created by scholars as they try to understand God's revelation are called "fiqh". These rules can change and Islamic scholars have often disagreed about them.
Scholars disagree about the origins of the word "sharia". Some say that "sharia" comes from the old Arabic word meaning "pathway to be followed". This would make it similar to "halakha" (the way to go), the Hebrew word for Jewish law. Other scholars think that the word "sharia" originally meant "path to the water hole". They say that knowing the way to a water hole could save a man's life in the dry deserts where many Arabs lived in ancient times, and that is why this word came to refer to God's guidance to man.
Islamic scholars who lived during the first centuries of Islam developed different methods for interpreting sharia. Most of them came to agree that sharia rules should be derived from the following main sources:
The process of deriving sharia rules from the Qur'an and hadith is called "ijtihad". Sharia rules classify actions into one of the following categories:
Sharia in Islam is viewed as the revealed law of God, which cannot be altered. On the other hand, its interpretation, called "fiqh", is the work of legal scholars, who have frequently differed in their legal opinions. Some parts of sharia are similar to what people in the West call "law", while other parts are better understood as rules for living life in accordance with God's will.
There are several schools of legal thought in Islam, of which the most important are the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools of Sunni Islam and the Ja'fari school of Shia Islam.
The divisions of sharia are called "branches" ("furu") in Arabic. The main branches are "ibadat" (rituals or acts of worship) and "mu'amalat" (human interactions or social relations). These branches are divided into many smaller branches, some of which are listed bellow:
The Five Pillars of Islam are:
There are two festivals that are considered Sunnah.
There are some special rituals used during these festivals:
Islamic law lists only some specific foods and drinks that are not allowed.
While Islamic law prohibits already-dead meat, this does not apply to fish and locusts. Also, hadith literature prohibits beasts having sharp canine teeth, birds having claws and talons in their feet, tamed donkeys, and any piece cut from a living animal.
There are some specific rules regarding the killing of animals in Islam.
Sharia recognises three categories of crime:
Although there is some disagreement about which crimes are "hudud" crimes, they usually include theft, highway robbery, zina (sex with forbidden partners), falsely accusing someone of "zina", and drinking alcohol. The prescribed punishments for these crimes range from 80 lashes to death. However, classical jurists developed very strict rules which restrict when these punishments could be applied, so that in many cases it became almost impossible to convict anyone under these rules. For example, there must be four adult male Muslim witnesses to a hudud crime or a confession repeated four times, before someone can be punished. If a criminal could not be convicted of a "hudud" crime, they could still receive a "tazir" punishment.
Murder, bodily injury and property damage - intentional or unintentional - is considered a civil dispute under sharia law. The victim, victim's heir(s) or guardian is given the option to either forgive the offender, demand Qisas (equal retaliation) or accept a compensation (Diyya). Under sharia law, the Diyya compensation received by the victim or victim's family is in cash.
Apostasy is punished by death unless the apostate agreed to return to Islam.
During the Islamic Golden Age, sharia was interpreted by experts in Islamic law ("muftis"), most of whom were independent religious scholars. Anyone could ask them a question about law, and they were expected to give an answer for free. Their legal opinions were called "fatwas".
When there was a legal dispute about family or financial matters, it would be handled in a court headed by a "qadi" (judge). These judges also had a legal education, and they were appointed to their post by the ruler. In simple cases, qadis would pronounce a verdict based on their own knowledge of sharia. In more difficult cases, they would express the details of the case in general terms and ask a mufti for his legal opinion.
Criminal cases were usually handled in "maẓālim" courts. These courts were controlled by the ruler's council. "Mazalim" courts were supposed to follow "the spirit of sharia". Qadis and muftis were present in those courts to make sure the verdicts did not go against it. However, these courts did not necessarily follow the letter of the law, and they had fewer legal restrictions than qadi's courts. "Mazalim" courts also handled complaints against government officials. Their purpose of "mazalim" courts was to "right wrongs" which could not be addressed through procedures of qadi's courts. Less serious crimes were often handled by local police and market inspectors according to local customs, which were only loosely related to sharia.
Non-Muslim communities living under Islamic rule were allowed to follow their own laws. The government kept out of their internal legal affairs, except when there was a dispute between people of different religions. Such cases were handled by a qadi. When that happened, sharia rules gave Muslims some legal advantages over non-Muslims. However, non-Muslims often won cases against Muslims and even against high government officials, because people thought that sharia was a reflection of divine justice which should defend the weak against the powerful.
In the modern era, most parts of the Muslim world came under influence or control of European powers. This led to major changes in the legal systems of these lands. In some cases, this was because Muslim governments wanted to make their states more powerful and they took European states as models of what a modern state should look like. In other cases, it was because Europeans who colonized these lands forced them to abandon parts of Islamic law and follow European laws instead.
In modern times, criminal laws in the Muslim world were widely replaced by codes which were inspired by European laws. Court procedures and legal education were also made similar to European practice. The constitutions of most Muslim-majority states mention sharia in one way or another. However, the classical rules of sharia were preserved mostly in family laws. In earlier times, sharia was interpreted by independent scholars who often disagreed with each other, and all their opinions were never written down in one place. In the modern era, it was the government who controlled the laws. Different states created their own legal codes, where the laws were clearly stated. The governments wanted to make family laws fit better in the modern world, but they still wanted people to view them as laws based on sharia. In order to do this, the scholars who wrote down these laws decided to pick and choose rules from the different legal opinions available in the classical books of law. When some of the laws they picked disagreed with the current norms of society, the government tried to solve this problem by creating additional court procedures. For example, when family laws in some states seemed to treat women unfairly to the population, the government created procedures that made it more difficult for men to take advantage of these laws in an unfair manner.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, many Muslims around the world became disappointed in their governments. These governments had adopted Western ways in their legal systems and other matters, but many people regarded their actions as oppressive, corrupt, and ineffective. More and more Muslims started to think that things would improve if their government returned to Islamic traditions. They began calling for return of sharia, and conservative members of the public wanted the government to deal with crime using all the traditional methods, including "hudud" punishments. In a few countries, the government put some elements of classical criminal law into the legal code. However, in some of these countries (for example, Iran and Sudan) the supreme court has rarely approved the harsher "hudud" punishments, while in the other countries which adopted "hudud" laws (for example, Pakistan and Nigeria), the supreme court never approves them.
In some countries, progressive Muslim reformers have been able to change how the state interprets sharia family laws to make them more fair to women.
Saudi Arabia is an exceptional case in the legal history of the Muslim world. It has always continued to use sharia in different areas of law, and it never codified its laws. Its judges have always tried to follow traditional sharia rules for dealing with crimes, and they often impose harsh punishments that inspire international protests. However, these punishments are not necessarily prescribed by sharia. Judges in Saudi Arabia follow the classical principle which says that "hudud" punishments should be avoided if at all possible, and the punishments which they apply are usually "tazir" punishments which are left to their own choice. Saudi Arabia is often criticized for its public executions, and their frequency has increased in recent decades. Executions became more frequent because the government and courts decided to crack down on violent crime which became more frequent during the 1970s, as also happened in the U.S. and China.
Wadowice
Wadowice () is a town in Poland in Lesser Poland Voivodeship in the mountainous range known as Zakopane region, southeast of Krakow - (former Polish capital).
Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) was born there on May 18 1920. He also attended elementary and high school there, graduating with honors in 1938.
The town is twinned with 4 others, all in Italy.
Piano duet
A piano duet is a piece of music written for two people to play at one piano. It is often called Piano 4 hands.
To play piano duets the two players sit with one person on the right (playing the high notes) and the other person on the left (playing the low notes). The person on the right is called “Primo” (“First”) and the person on the left is called “Secondo” (“Second”).
Piano duet music is usually printed with the Secondo part on the left-hand page and the Primo part on the right-hand page. Occasionally it is printed with the two parts underneath one another.
Playing piano duets is great fun and an excellent way to become a better musician. Like all group music making, each player has to learn to listen and adapt to what is going on in the other part. Sometimes one player will have to take away his or her hand quickly so that the other player can play the same note immediately afterwards. Sometimes the players have to cross their hands (secondo’s right hand crosses with primo’s left hand).
A lot of the time the primo’s part may have both hands written in the treble clef and the secondo’s part may have both hands written in the bass clef. This can sometimes be confusing at first.
The pedalling is usually done by the secondo player. This is because pedalling is very much about keeping chords going (“sustaining”), and it is the secondo who usually has the chords which give the harmony because these are in the lower part.
There are lots of piano duets available for people to play. Some of these are simple ones written for beginner pianists. Some are written by the great composers.
Some pieces that are really supposed to be played by an orchestra have been arranged for piano duet. In some cases the composer himself made this arrangement. Examples from famous composers include Stravinsky’s "Rite of Spring" which is extremely hard to play, and Maurice Ravel’s suite "Ma Mère l’Oie".
Some very famous piano duets which were originally written in this form include several sonatas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, several pieces by Franz Schubert including a "Fantasia in f minor", Gabriel Fauré’s "Dolly Suite", Debussy’s "Petite Suite" and Georges Bizet’s "Jeux d’Enfants" (which he also arranged for orchestra).
Some works are written for two people to play together using two pianos. These are usually called piano duos. Examples include Mozart’s Sonata in D major K448. The Sonata op 34 by Johannes Brahms started as a string quintet but he changed it to a piano concerto, then a piano duo, and eventually a piano quintet. The Suite op 17 by Rachmaninoff is another. Most piano duos are very hard to play and need very good pianists. Piano concertos can be played on two pianos, with one player playing the solo part and the other playing the orchestra’s music.
There is also a small repertoire of pieces for three people to play at one piano. This is called Piano six hands. These pieces are often fun pieces which are not too hard to play, although there are examples of serious pieces. The three people need to be good friends, because it is a bit of a squash. The player at the bottom ought to do the pedalling but it may be easier for the middle player to do it.
Piano six hands
Music described as piano six hands is for three pianists at one piano, as distinct from piano duet which is music for two pianists at one piano, and from piano trio which is music for piano, violin and cello. Not much music has been written for this combination, although there are several arrangements of music originally written for other forces.
Compositions include 5 pieces by Percy Grainger, Sergei Rachmaninoff's Romance and Valse, Alfred Schnittke's Hommage, Carl Czerny's op.17 and 741, Jean Cras's "Âmes d’enfants", Paul Robinson (composer)'s "Pensees" and "Monmartre", various pieces by German composer Armin Fuchs, Bulgarian composer Tomislav Baynov's "Metrorhythmia 1", John Pitts's "Are You Going?", Greek composer Dionysis Boukouvalas's "Fantasy on a theme by Steve Reich", Canadian composer Paul Frehner's "Slowdown" and Italian composer Fabio Mengozzi's "Promenade".
Rice wine
Rice wine is a word some people use to talk about alcoholic drinks. However, it is not a true wine, despite the name. True wine is made by fermenting grapes, and perhaps other fruit. In rice wine, the starch in the rice is first changed into sugar. This sugar is then fermented. This process is more like the fermentation as it is done in beer.
The "rice wines" made in this manner have more alcohol in them than normal wines (18–25% alcohol compared to 10–14% for normal wines). Beers on the other hand usually have 4–8% alcohol in them.
Many people use the term "rice wine" to refer to sake (which is just one variant of many different kinds of rice wines).
Alcopop
Alcopops are alcoholic drinks. They are also known as Ready-to-drink (RTD), Flavored Alcoholic Beverage (FAB) or Flavored Malt Beverage (FMB). They are usually available in bottles or cans. They contain about the same amount of alcohol as a beer. Usually, they are very sweet, so that the alcohol can not be tasted.
There are two different kinds of this drinks. In Europe, they are usually spirits mixed with lemonade, like vodka with lemon juice (and a lot of sugar, so the alcohol cannot be tasted), or rum with fruit juice (also very sweet). In the US, they tend to be beers, which taste very sweet.
Because they are very sweet, alcopops tend to be more popular among young people. Since the fact that they contain alcohol is usually not obvious from the taste, these drinks are considered to be dangerous for young people by many countries. These have either raised the taxes on the drinks, or they have outlawed the sale of these drinks to people under a certain age (usually 18, sometimes 21 years).
Pedal (music)
Pedals on musical instruments are used to control parts of the instrument, or provide extra notes.
There are several musical instruments which have pedals for various reasons.
The piano has at least two pedals; large concert grand pianos always have three. The pedal on the right (operated by the player's right foot) sustains the sound of the notes for as long as the pedal is depressed. It does this by lifting the dampers from the strings. Some of the other strings even start to vibrate as well ("in sympathy").
The pedal on the left makes the sound quieter. It is called the "una corda" pedal (Italian for "one string"). This is because, in the early days of the piano, the una corda pedal made all the hammers move over so that a hammer would only hit one string for each note instead of three (most notes on a piano each have three strings to make a bigger sound). On modern pianos the hammers actually hit two strings instead of just one. They also tend to hit the string at a point where the hammer is softer, away from the grooves which get worn in the hammerhead. On an upright piano the una corda pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings so that they do not hit them so hard.
On pianos which have a middle pedal (called a sostenuto pedal) any note or chord which the player is holding down when the pedal is pressed will be sustained, but any more notes he plays afterwards will not be affected.
On pipe organs there is a pedalboard with pedals which play notes in the same way that the fingers are playing notes. An organ pedalboard usually has two and a half octaves of notes. These are low notes written in the bass clef. An organist has to learn to play with the feet at the same time as with the hands. He uses the toes or the heels of his shoes. It is even possible to play four notes at once (four part chords) but this is very difficult and usually found in some modern French music.