AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
R.E.M. has been associated with many different bands within the years. Most of them from different parts of the world.
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is a natural freshwater lake in North America along the borders of New York and Vermont and partially across the United States-Canada border in the province of Quebec. The lake was named for the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who came there in 1609.
Lake Champlain is one of a large number of large lakes spread in an arc from Labrador through the northern United States and into the Northwest Territories of Canada. Although it is much smaller than the Great Lakes of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Superior, or Michigan, Lake Champlain is a large body of fresh water. The lake is about in area. It is about long. At its widest point, it is about wide. The maximum depth is about . It contains about 80 islands, including an the entire country of Grand Isle County in Vermont.
In the colonial times, Lake Champlain gave an easily blocked water (or, in winter, ice) passage between the Saint Lawrence and the Hudson Valleys. Boats and sledges were usually preferable to the unpaved and frequently mud-bound roads of the time. The northern tip of the lake at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec (St. John in colonial times) is a short distance from Montreal. The southern tip at Whitehall (Skenesborough in colonial times) is a short distance from Saratoga, Glens Falls, and Albany, New York.
Forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point (Fort St. Frederic) controlled passage of the lake in colonial times. Important battles were fought at Ticonderoga in 1758 and 1777. A important naval battle was fought in 1776 at Valcour Island: in the Battle of Valcour Island, Benedict Arnold delayed British ships enough to prevent the fall of these forts until the following year, allowing the Continental Army to grow stronger and allowing the later victory at Saratoga.
Fumie Suguri
Suguri is expressive, her program is called "Suguri World". Her younger sister Chika Suguri is figure skater likewise, too.
She was first Japanese skater to win the ISU Grand Prix Final in 2003, and got more Four Continents Championships titles in 2005, and got more World Championships medals than other Japanese figure skater in 2006.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is an agency of the United States Department of Labor. It was created by Congress under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and was signed by President Richard M. Nixon, on December 29, 1970. Its mission is to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths by making and enforcing rules (called standards) for workplace safety and health. As of March 2006, the agency is headed by Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin Foulke.
Arsenio Hall (born February 12, 1956) is an American actor and comedian. He hosted his own television talk show, "The Arsenio Hall Show", from 1989 to 1994 on the Fox network. He also had his own sitcom on ABC titled, "Arsenio"
Hall co-starred with Eddie Murphy in the movies "Coming to America" and "Harlem Nights". After his own television series ended, Hall sometimes guest-starred on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno.
Hall was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
Bezenye
Bezenye is a village in the north-west of Hungary. It is very close to the border with Slovakia and only 9 km from the Slovakian capital city Bratislava. The population is about 1600.
Archaeologists have found things under the ground which show that the first people to lived there were Old Germanic tribes. Later, Hungarian (Magyar) people lived there. Then troops from Turkey destroyed a lot of the village and the people fled. New people came to live in the area: Croatians and Germans. The Croatians called the village "Bizonja" and the Germans called it "Palersdorf". "Bezenye" is the Hungarian name. It comes from a Slav word "baza" meaning an elderberry tree.
After World War II many of the poorer Germans had to go and live in Germany. New Hungarian families from Slovakia came to live in Bezenye.
Today Bezenye is not a typical Hungarian village. The people speak a mixture of Hungarian, Croatian, Slovak and German. The Roman Catholic church of the Blessed Virgin Mary has services in Hungarian and Croatian.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III after Great Britain gained French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War. The purpose of the Proclamation was to organize Britain's large North American empire, and to make relations with Native Americans better and more stable by controlling trade, settlement, and land purchases on the western frontier. Parliament also wished to gain trust from the natives so they could place forts there.
The Proclamation stated that Americans could not settle or buy land west of a line along the Appalachian Mountains. This angered colonists. Tempted by great farm land, settlers continued to flow into the Ohio River Valley and Great Britain was unable to provide adequate protection for those colonists. Also, the Proclamation gave Great Britain a monopoly in land bought from Native Americans. The later Quebec Act, 1774 extended the rights of French Catholics, thus further angering English Protestant settlers.
Inkscape is a vector graphics (pictures made from lines instead of dots) drawing program published under the GNU General Public License. Its stated goal is to become a really good drawing tool while being able to fit in with standards for SVG graphics.
Inkscape was first made for Linux, but now it is cross-platform and runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and other Unix-like operating systems. As of 2007, Inkscape is actively being made better, and new features are added all the time.
Inkscape began in 2003 as a fork (break-off) of the Sodipodi project. Sodipodi, developed since 1999, was itself based on Raph Levien's Gill (Gnome Illustration Application).
Land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate - land or privileges - made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially as rewards for military service. Grants of land are also awarded to individuals and companies to help develop unused land in relatively unpopulated countries.
Roman soldiers were given rewards at the end of their service including cash or land ("praemia"). Augustus fixed the amount in AD 5 at 3000 denarii and by the time of Caracalla it had risen to 5000 denarii.
In old California, the King of Spain frequently gave land to people he liked, or who helped him.
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII (; , March 2, 1810—July 20, 1903), born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci, was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the 257th Pope from 1878 until his death.
Pope Gregory XVI granted Pecci the title Monsignore. In 1903, there were Golden Jubilee celebrations which recalled the 50 years since he was named a cardinal.
In 1846, he visited London where he had an audience with Queen Victoria.
Pecci was Bishop of Perugia for thirty-two years, from 1846 to 1878.
Pope Pius IX raised him to the rank of cardinal in 1853.
In 1878, Cardinal Pecci was elected Pope.
After his election, Pope Leo never went outside the gates of the Vatican.
Pope Leo was in office until the age of 93. He was the oldest pope and had the second longest papal reign before Pope John Paul II. He is known as the "Pope of the Working Man."
Age age 93, the pope died from pneumonia and old age.
The pope lay in State in St. Peter's Basilica. His final resting place is the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which is the official seat of the Bishop of Rome.
Konzum
Mother Teresa (born Skopje,North Macedonia), 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was a Roman Catholic nun who started the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work with people.For over forty years, she took care of needs of those without money, those who were sick, those without parents, and those dying in Calcutta (Kolkata), guided in part by the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi.
As the Missionaries of Charity grew under Mother's leadership, they expanded their ministry to other countries. By the 1970s she had become internationally well known as an advocate for the poor and helpless, due in part to a movie and book, "Something Beautiful for God" by Malcolm Muggeridge. She did not think women had the right to have abortions and said "The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me?".
Following her death she was beatified (the first stage of sainthood) by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Mother Teresa received criticism over the years, especially in recent years as debate about sex and abortion grew. Christopher Hitchens says that, instead of trying to help the poor, she encouraged them to endure pain and continue to suffer. Hitchens also thinks she was against ending poverty and raising the social status of women. Hitchens wrote a book on Teresa called "The Missionary Position". In an article for Slate, Hitchens writes "MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God".
JoJo (singer)
Joanna Noëlle Levesque (born December 20, 1990 ), known by her stage name JoJo, is an American singer. She was born in Brattleboro, Vermont and raised in Keene, New Hampshire and Foxborough, Massachusetts. She is a pop and R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She released her first album, "JoJo", in June 2004. The album's first single "Leave (Get Out)" was No.1 of the US "Billboard" Pop Chart.
Angela Aames
Angela Aames (27 February 27, 1956 in Pierre, South Dakota – 27 November 1988 in West Hills, California) was an American actress. She was famous for her role in the movie ’’Bachelor Party’’. She died of heart problems at the age of 32.
Willie Aames
Willie Aames (born Albert William Upton 15 July 1960 in Los Angeles, California) is an actor famous for the roles of Buddy Lembeck on "Charles in Charge", Tommy Bradford on "Eight is Enough" and the voice of Hank on "Dungeons & Dragons", the cartoon. He also hosted a game show "The Krypton Factor" from 1990-91.
Bruce Abbott
Bruce Paul Abbott (born 28 July 1954 in Portland, Oregon) is an American actor. He was in movies such as "Re-Animator", "Bad Dreams", "The Prophecy II", "Out of Time", "Bride of Re-Animator" and the television series "Dark Justice".
Bud Abbott
William Alexander “Bud” Abbott (October 2, 1895 – April 24, 1974) was an American actor, producer and comedian born in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He is famous for his role as the "straight man" of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. on April 16, 1947) is an American former professional basketball player and current assistant coach. He was known as Lew Alcindor before changing his name in the fall of 1971, several years after converting to Islam. He is considered one of the greatest players of all time. He has also had numerous television and movie appearances.
Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., was born in Harlem, New York City, on April 16, 1947. His family was not poor: His father was a graduate of the famed Juilliard School of Music in virtuoso trombone. He attended Power Memorial High School in New York.
Alcindor went to college at UCLA. When he played on the freshman team, it beat the UCLA varsity team that had won two national championships. When he played on the varsity team, it won three national championships. When Alcindor was at UCLA, the NCAA did not allow the dunk, so he developed a hook shot called the skyhook. Alcindor also got a degree in history.
Alcindor was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1969 NBA Draft. He lead the league in scoring twice with the Bucks. He also won three MVP awards with them. In 1975, Abdul-Jabbar was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. He won three more MVP awards with them, as well as five championships. Abdul-Jabbar played in the NBA until 1989. When he left, he had scored 38,387 points, which is more than any other player has. He was also one of the ten most accurate players, and blocked the third-most shots. Abdul-Jabbar was placed in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995.
Abdul-Jabbar studied martial arts with Bruce Lee, and appears in the Lee movie "Game of Death". He is also in the movie "Airplane!". Abdul-Jabbar has written several books. Some of them are on basketball, but he has also written a book about the Harlem Renaissance. His book was later made into a documentary movie. Abdul-Jabbar has also been an assistant coach for several NBA teams. Usually, he has helped tall players play better. Abdul-Jabbar has had leukemia since 2009. He accepted Islam after the game. He became an assistant coach after he retired.
Betty Aberlin
Jake Abel
Jacob Allen "Jake" Abel (born November 18, 1987 in Canton, Ohio) is an American actor.
He is best known for his roles in movie "Go Figure" as Spencer, and in "Threshold". He also played Kirk in an episode of "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody".
Baudrecourt, Moselle
Baudrecourt is a village in the Lorraine region of France. It is about half way between Metz and Nancy. The TGV high-speed line from Paris to Strasbourg currently ends there. In 1999, 172 people lived there.
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Lesley Panettiere (born August 21, 1989) is an American actress, singer, and a Grammy Award nominee.
She first appeared on TV as a baby in commercials, and had her first role at the age of four in the TV show "One Life To Live". She is also well known for her work in trying to stop whaling. In January 2008, Panettiere spoke at an anti-whaling meeting in Washington D.C., and later spoke to representatives from Norway, Iceland and Japan.
Her brother is actor Jansen Panettiere (born 1994).
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang in Europe) is an American animated television series which lasted for three seasons on Nickelodeon. The series was created by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and Aaron Ehasz. Based on an Asian-influenced world of Chinese martial arts and elemental manipulation, the show drew on elements from traditional Asian culture, blending the styles of anime and US domestic cartoons.
The series follows the adventures of the main character Aang and his friends, Katara, Sokka, and later Toph and Zuko who must save the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai and ending the destructive war with the Fire Nation, which began a hundred years ago.
The pilot episode (The Boy in the Iceberg) first aired on 21 February 2005 and the series concluded with a widely praised on 19 July 2008.
The show is obtainable from various sources, including on DVD, the iTunes Store, the Zune Marketplace, the Xbox Live Marketplace, the PlayStation Store, Netflix Instant Play, and on the Nicktoons Network.
"Avatar: The Last Airbender" was popular with both audiences and critics, garnering 5.6 million viewers on its best-rated showing and receiving high ratings in the Nicktoons lineup, even outside its 6–11-year-old demographic.
"Avatar" has been nominated for and won awards from the Annual Annie Awards, the Genesis Awards, the primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award among others. The first season's success prompted Nickelodeon to order second and third seasons. In other media, the series has spawned a live-action movie trilogy, the first titled "The Last Airbender", directed by M. Night Shyamalan, scaled action figures, a , three video games based on the , , and seasons, stuffed animals distributed by Paramount Parks, and two LEGO . An art book was also released in mid-2010. Nickelodeon announced on 21 July 2010 that "" premiered in 2012.
"Avatar: The Last Airbender" takes place in a world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. The world is divided into : the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation bases its society on the element (water, earth, fire, or air) that is in its name. Some people who live in each nation have the power to magically control and use, or "bend," the element of that nation. Those people are called "benders." They can use their powers of bending to fight. The way that the show portrays the fighting style from each nation is based on a martial art from real life. For instance, "waterbenders" (people who can magically control and use water) have a fighting style that is based on tai chi chuan from real life. Earthbending is mostly based on Hung Ga kung fu. Firebending is like Northern Shaolin kung fu. And Airbending is similar to baguazhang. Each nation is also connected to a season: autumn for the Air Nomads, winter for the Water Tribe, spring for the Earth Kingdom and summer for the Fire Nation.
In the world that "Avatar: The Last Airbender" shows, there is always only one person alive who can bend all four elements. That person is called the "Avatar." When one Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated, or born again in another body. The Avatar's next body always belongs to the next nation in the Avatar Cycle. The cycle always goes in this order: water, earth, fire, air. Then it starts over again with water. The Avatar must learn how to bend the elements in the same order. He or she begins by learning how to bend the element of the country where they were born. Then he or she learns the next three elements in order. Usually, it is a challenge for the Avatar to learn how to bend the element that is the opposite of their first, or "native," element. For instance, the main character of the show, Aang, was born to Air Nomads, so air was the first element he learned to bend. The "opposite" element to air is earth, so for Aang, it was difficult to learn earthbending. This is because Earthbending focuses on steadiness and facing your opponent directly. This is different from airbending, which focuses on getting to your opponents in many different ways and changing your style quickly if it is necessary.
One special power that the Avatar has is called the "Avatar State." When an Avatar goes into the Avatar State, he or she gains all of the knowledge and abilities that all of the past Avatars have had. The Avatar State is a defense mechanism. An Avatar goes into this state automatically. However, if he or she practices for a very long time, he or she can control when they go into the Avatar State and what they do while they are in it. If an Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, then the Avatar Cycle will be broken. Then there will be no more Avatars. Through the years, there have been many Avatars. They keep all of the four nations peaceful. Another special power that the Avatar has is being able to go into the Spirit World. He or she can link the physical world to the Spirit World. In this way, he or she can solve problems that regular benders cannot.
One hundred years before the story begins, a twelve-year-old Airbender named Aang learns that he is the new Avatar. He is not happy when he learns this, because he knows that being the Avatar is a big responsibility, and he does not think he is ready for it. He is also scared of having to leave his mentor, Monk Gyatso, whom he loves very much. Aang flees from home on his animal guide, a flying bison named Appa. But they fly into a big storm and crash into the ocean, and Aang goes into the Avatar State and freezes himself and Appa inside an iceberg. They are frozen in a state of suspended animation—they cannot move, grow older, or die. While this is happening, the Fire Nation is beginning a war against the other three nations. Fire Lord Sozin, the leader of the Fire Nation, knows that the new Avatar is an Air Nomad (because of the Avatar Cycle's pattern), so he kills all of the Air Nomads in a genocide. This is because he wants to make sure that the Avatar, who is very powerful, will not be able to defeat the Fire Nation in the war. The FIre Nation army is able to kill all of the Air Nomads because a comet called "Sozin's Comet" made their bending much more powerful. But because the actual Avatar, Aang, is frozen in an iceberg, he is not killed. He is the only Airbender to survive the attack. For one hundred years, everybody in the world believes that the Avatar does not exist anymore.
A hundred years later, Katara and Sokka, two siblings who live in the Southern Water Tribe, free Aang and Appa from the iceberg. Katara is the only waterbender in her small tribe. She has taught herself how to bend. Her older brother, Sokka, cannot bend, but he is a warrior. Katara, Sokka, and Aang travel to the Northern Water Tribe so Aang and Katara can learn waterbending from a master. Aang does not know about the war or the genocide of the Air Nomads. While on their journey, they visit the Southern Air Temple, where Aang used to live. There, Aang discovers that the Fire Nation destroyed the Air Nomads. He also meets his Avatar guide, Avatar Roku, who is the Avatar who came before Aang. Roku tells Aang that he must learn to bend all four elements by the summer solstice. This is because Sozin's Comet will return on that day, and it will make the firebenders' bending very powerful. If Aang does not defeat the current Fire Lord, Ozai, by the summer solstice, then the Fire Nation will take over the world and no one will be able to stop them anymore.
While Katara, Sokka, and Aang travel to the Northern Water Tribe, they are constantly chased by Prince Zuko. Zuko is the son of the current Fire Lord, Ozai, but Ozai banished him from the Fire Nation three years before the story starts. Zuko can only return to the Fire Nation and get back his honor if he captures the Avatar. He travels with his uncle Iroh, nicknamed "Dragon of the West", a legendary Fire Nation general and the older brother of Ozai. Zuko and another Fire Nation military officer, Admiral Zhao, compete to capture the Avatar. At the end of the season, Admiral Zhao leads the Fire Nation navy in attacking the Northern Water Tribe. During the attack, Zhao also kills the Moon Spirit. But Aang and his friends help fight back against this attack, and Yue, the princess of the Northern Water Tribe, sacrifices herself (in other words, she decides to die) so she can become the new Moon Spirit. In the end, Aang and his friends win the battle.
After leaving the North Pole, Aang continues to learn and master waterbending with Katara. Aang, Katara, and Sokka look for someone who can teach Aang how to earthbend. They soon meet Toph Bei Fong, a young girl who is one of the best earthbenders in the world. She is blind, but knows how to "see" (or sense her surroundings) through earthbending and by feeling vibrations, or small shakes, in the earth. She teaches Aang to do the same.
Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh are now fugitives from the Fire Nation. They escape to Ba Sing Se, the capital city of the Earth Kingdom, where they try to start new lives. Zuko, with the help of his uncle, tries to accept the difficult events he has gone through in his life, and he learns to not be so focused on capturing the Avatar. Aang and his friends (who are sometimes called "Team Avatar") learn about a solar eclipse that will happen in the future. When the eclipse happens, all firebenders will lose their bending for a short time. So Team Avatar makes plans to invade the Fire Nation on that day. This is when Aang plans to defeat Fire Lord Ozai.
While Team Avatar travels to Ba Sing Se so they can tell the Earth King about the eclipse, Zuko's younger sister Azula and her two friends Mai and Ty Lee try to capture them. Finally, the three of them capture the Kyoshi Warriors (friends of Team Avatar) and pretend to be them, so that they can invade Ba Sing Se. Azula persuades an elite group of Earthbenders called the Dai Li to instigate a coup d'état, allowing the Fire Nation to capture Ba Sing Se. At the end of the season, when Team Avatar is fighting against Azula and her allies, Zuko sides with Azula, who promises to restore his honor. When Aang enters the Avatar State, Azula shoots him with lightning. It hurts him very badly, and he almost dies. Katara brings Aang back to life with spirit water that she got from the North Pole in the previous season. But Aang's seventh chakra is blocked, and he cannot enter the Avatar State.
Aang awakens to find the group disguised as Fire Nation soldiers heading West on a Fire Nation ship, while Zuko has been restored to his position as crown prince. Sokka has planned a small-scale invasion of the Fire Nation to capture the Fire Lord's palace and defeat Fire Lord Ozai, taking advantage of the solar eclipse. The invasion will be staged by a ragtag group of benders and warriors who Aang has helped along his journey. Initially the invasion proceeds as planned, but Aang fails to find the Fire Lord before the eclipse ends, because Azula knew about the invasion. The invasion ultimately fails, and only Aang and his closest friends are able to escape. Zuko, in a change of heart, decides to defy his father and join the Avatar. Zuko catches up with Aang at the Western Air Temple and offers to teach Aang Firebending. After some reluctance from Katara and Sokka, Team Avatar allows Zuko to join the group. In the series finale, Aang defeats Fire Lord Ozai by taking away his ability to firebend. With Ozai defeated, the war quickly ends. Zuko is crowned the new Fire Lord and, with the help of the Avatar and his friends, begins rebuilding the four nations. The series ends as Aang and Katara kiss in front of the sunset.
Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen) is a 12 year old. He is the most important character in the series. He was frozen in ice with his flying bison, Appa, for 100 years. He was found by a young Waterbender named Katara. Now he is the Avatar, the master of 4 different powers: water, earth, fire and air. Aang is a hero, but he doesn't want to be a hero. He is trying to make the world good again.
Katara (Mae Whitman) is 14 years old. She is a Waterbender. This means she can move water by moving her body. She is in the Southern Water Tribe. Katara has a brother. His name is Sokka. They find Aang in a big ball of ice. He had been frozen for 100 years. Katara and Sokka go with Aang on an adventure to kill the evil Lord. His is called Fire Lord Ozai. She is his first teacher for water.<refgroup="Notes">Katara can do bloodbending. This means she can move peoples' bodies by "bending" their blood. She doesn't like to do this.
Sokka (Jack DeSena) is 15 years old. He is a warrior. He is also Katara's brother. He lives in the Southern Water Tribe. He goes with Aang on his adventure to kill the evil Fire Lord. He is very funny, so he says he is "meat-loving" and "sarcastic". Sokka is different from his friends. He cannot "bend" anything, he is a fighter and a thinker. He has lots of good ideas and weapons. He has a boomerang and a sword he made from a meteorite. Michael Dante DiMartino, who made the TV show, said that Sokka could have been a Waterbender, but he never learned how to do it.
Toph (Jessie Flower) is 12 years old. She is blind. She is an Earthbender. Her family is rich, but she doesn't like money. She is very strong and she likes to fight. When she meets Aang and his friends she thinks they are strange. She wants to help them, so she goes with them on their adventure. She is Aang's teacher for Earthbending. She is blind, but she can still see things. Toph "sees" with her feet. She feels the earth move a little bit. Then she knows what is happening. Toph is the most powerful Earthbender ever.
Zuko (Dante Basco) is 16 years old. He is the son of the evil Fire Lord, so he is a prince. In Season 1 he is the most important bad guy. Zuko's life was hard. Something happened and now his father doesn't like him. Zuko wants to catch the Avatar because he thinks his father would like that. Zuko does not like himself, he is angry, and his family is crazy. In the show Zuko learns how to be nice. He wears a blue mask to hide himself and then he saves people. In season three, he leaves the Fire Lord. He goes to Aang and becomes his friend. He becomes a Firebending teacher for Aang. At the end, he is the new Fire Lord.
Azula (Grey DeLisle) is a bad princess. She is a Firebender. She is Zuko's younger sister. She is an important bad guy in the show. Azula is very good at Firebending. It is easy for her to do it. She can make lightning. She is very mean to her friends Mai and Ty Lee. She uses fire to scare them. The Fire Lord likes her more than Zuko.
Iroh (Mako in season one and two, Greg Baldwin in season three) used to be a general for the Fire Lord. He can make fire in his nose and mouth, so they call him the Dragon of the West. He is Prince Zuko's uncle and teacher. The Fire lord is Iroh's brother. Iroh is older than the Fire Lord. He should be the Lord, but the Fire Lord lied, so that he could be the Lord. People think Iroh is nice, kind, and happy. He does silly things so people think he is not strong or smart. But Iroh is very smart and strong. Iroh has a secret group of friends. They are strong and good at fighting. The friends are called The Order of the White Lotus. In the last episode they fight the Fire Nation. They win and the world becomes a good place. Iroh is special because he learned how to do Firebending from Dragons.
"Avatar: The Last Airbender" was co-created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California. Animation work was done by the Korean animation studio DR Movie. According to Bryan Konietzko, the program was conceived in the spring of 2001 when he took an old sketch of a balding, middle-aged man and re-imagined the character as a child. Konietzko drew the character herding bison in the sky, and showed the sketch to Mike DiMartino. At the time, DiMartino was studying a documentary about explorers trapped in the South Pole.
Konietzko described their early development of the concept: The co-creators successfully pitched the idea to Nickelodeon VP and executive producer Eric Coleman just two weeks later.
The show was first revealed to the public in a teaser reel at Comic-Con 2004, and started show the episodes from 21 February 2005. In the United States, first two episodes of the series were shown together in a one-hour premiere event. A second twenty-episode season ran from 17 March 2006 through 1 December. A third and final season, beginning September 21, 2007, featured twenty-one episodes rather than the usual twenty. The final four episodes were packaged as a two-hour movie.
"Avatar" is notable for borrowing extensively from Asian art and mythology to create its universe. The show's character designs are heavily influenced by anime as well as Chinese art and history, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Yoga. Traditional East Asian calligraphy styles are used for nearly all the writing in the show. For each instance of calligraphy, an appropriate style is used, ranging from seal script (more archaic) to clerical script. The show employed a cultural consultant, Edwin Zane, and calligrapher Siu-Leung Lee as consultants for the show's cultural influences.
The choreographed martial art bending moves were profoundly affected by Asian cinema. In an interview, Bryan revealed that, "Mike and I were really interested in other epic 'Legends & Lore' properties, like Harry Potter and "Lord of the Rings", but we knew that we wanted to take a different approach to that type of genre. Our love for Japanese anime, Hong Kong action and kung fu cinema, yoga, and Eastern philosophies led us to the initial inspiration for "Avatar"."
All music and sound used in the series was done by Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn, who form "The Track Team". They made use of a wide range of different instruments (such as the guzheng, pipa and duduk) to compose a background music that fits into the world.
The term "Avatar" comes from the language of Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages of India. The word "Avatāra", (Sanskrit: ), which means "descent"; its roots are "ava" means "down," and "tri" means "to pass." In the Hindu scriptures, "avatara" signifies the descent of Divinity into flesh. One who attains union with Spirit and then returns to earth to help humanity is called an avatar. The Chinese characters that appear at the top of the show's title card mean "the divine medium who has descended upon the mortal world."
When Aang was young, he unknowingly revealed that he was the Avatar when he chose four toys out of thousands, each of which were the childhood toys of the previous Avatars. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a similar test for reincarnations of a Tulku Lama. In "Magic and Mystery in Tibet", Alexandra David-Neel writes that "a number of objects such as rosaries, ritualistic implements, books, tea-cups, etc., are placed together, and the child must pick out those which belonged to the late "tulku", thus showing that he recognizes the things which were "theirs" in their previous life." Each successor is expected to show signs of continuity with the previous Avatar, such as being born within a week of the death.
"Avatar" draws on the four classical elements common to many ancient philosophies for its bending arts: Water, Earth, Fire and Air. Although each has its own variation, most ancient philosophies incorporate these four elements in some way. Examples include the classical Hindu, Buddhist, and Greek elemental traditions. In the show’s opening, each element is accompanied by two Chinese characters: an ancient Chinese seal script character on the left representing the element being shown and a modern Chinese character on the right describing some feature of the element.
The character 水 (pinyin: "shui"), which stands for water, is shown with 善 (pinyin: "shan"), which means benevolence and adaptivity. The character 土 (pinyin: "tu"), which stands for earth, is shown with 強 (pinyin: "qiang"), which means for strength and stability. The character 火 (pinyin: "huo"), which stands for fire, is shown with 烈 (pinyin: "lie"), which means intensity and passion. Finally, the character 气 (pinyin: "qi"), which stands for air, is shown with 和 (pinyin: "he"), which means peace and harmony.
In addition to the use of four classical elements in the series, the fighting styles associated with each element are all taken from different styles of Chinese martial arts. The series employed Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a martial arts consultant. Each fighting style was chosen to represent the element it projected. Tai Chi was used for "Waterbending" in the series, and it focuses on alignment, body structure, breath, and visualization. Hung Gar was used for "Earthbending" in the series, and was chosen for its firmly rooted stances and powerful strikes to present the solid nature of earth. Northern Shaolin, which uses strong arm and leg movements was used for "Firebending". And Ba Gua, which uses dynamic circular movements and quick directional changes, was used for "Airbending".<ref name="avatar2/index.jhtml"></ref> The only exception to these styles is Toph, who can be seen practicing a Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis style.
When the show first was shown it was rated the best animated television series in its demographic; new episodes averaged 3.1 million viewers each. A one-hour special showing of "The Secret of the Fire Nation" which was shown on 15 September 2006, consisting of "The Serpent's Pass" and "The Drill", gathered an audience of 5.1 million viewers. According to the Nielsen Media Research, the special was the best performing cable television show airing in that week. In 2007, "Avatar" was syndicated to more than 105 countries worldwide, and was one of Nickelodeon's top rated programs. The series was ranked first on Nickelodeon in Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Belgium, and Colombia.
The series finale, "", received the highest ratings of the series. Its 19 July 2008 premiere averaged 5.6 million viewers, 95% more viewers than Nickelodeon had received in mid-July 2007. During the week of 14 July, it ranked as the most-viewed program for the under-14 demographic. "Sozin's Comet" also appeared on iTunes' top ten list of best-selling television episodes during that same week. "Sozin's Comet"s popularity affected online media as well; "Rise of the Phoenix King", a Nick.com online game based on "Sozin's Comet", generated almost 815,000 game plays within three days.
Dark Horse Comics released an art book titled "Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Art of the Animated Series", on 2 June 2010 which contains 184 pages of the original art and creation behind the "Avatar" animated series.
"Avatar"'s success has led to some promotional advertising with third-party companies, such as Burger King and Upper Deck Entertainment. "Avatar"-themed roller coasters at Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America and one formerly at "Kings Island" also appeared. During the show's runtime, Nickelodeon published two special issues of "Nick Mag Presents" dedicated entirely to the show. Various members of the "Avatar" staff and cast appeared at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International convention, while Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko appeared with Martial Arts Consultant Sifu Kisu at the Pacific Media Expo on October 28, 2006. "Avatar" also has its own line of T-shirts, LEGO , toys, a trading card game, a cine-manga, and three video games, as well as an MMO.
The Mattel-produced action figure toy line generated some controversy with its exclusion of any female characters. Mattel came to release information stating that they have taken account of Katara's increased role within the program, and that she would be included in the figure assortment for a mid 2007 release. The figure ultimately went unreleased, however, as the entire line was canceled before she could be produced.
Nickelodeon executives have since released optimistic plans for upcoming marketing strategies in regards to "Avatar". Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami openly stated his belief that the franchise "could become their "Harry Potter"". They expect consumers to spend about $121 million in 2007, rising to $254 million by 2009. The marketing plans are to be coincided with the release of the first live-action movie based on the series in 2010, which will be the first movie in a trilogy.
In the series of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" based a video game trilogy:
"Avatar: Legends of the Arena", a video game for Microsoft Windows, was launched on 25 September 2008 by Nickelodeon. Each user is able to create their own character, choose a nation, and to interact with others across the globe.
In the series of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" based the trilogy "The Last Airbender":
A series based on "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is currently in development at Nickelodeon and due for release in 2011. It will be created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. the creators of "Avatar: The Last Airbender". The show, tentatively titled "", will be a twelve-episode mini series that takes place in the same universe, 70 years after the of Fire Lord Ozai. The development period and release dates were announced at the annual Comic-Con in San Diego on 22 July 2010.
The series will focus on Korra, a teenage female protagonist and current incarnation of the Avatar, who, according to the president of Nickelodeon, will be "hotheaded, independent, and ready to take on the world". She has already mastered the elements of Water, Earth, and Fire, but needs to master Air. The character was partly inspired by Avatar Kyoshi of the original series, whom the creators say was very popular among fans. In order to avoid repetition of Aang's adventures, the creators wanted to root the show in one place, called Republic City. A concept drawing of the city, released with the announcement of the series, shows the city's design as inspired by Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, Hong Kong, Manhattan, and Vancouver. In the show, Korra will have to learn Airbending from master Tenzin, son of Avatar Aang and Katara, and contend with an anti-bender revolution taking place in the city.
While not targeting a different demographic than "Avatar: The Last Airbender", Michael and Bryan have stated that the show won't cover more mature subject material necessarily, just different mature subjects, "It won't be another war, but a different sort of conflict." The creators also explained that there would be some "cheesy teen romance" for the main character, Korra. At the 2010 Comic-Con, it was revealed that the creators will continue to work with Joaquim Dos Santos and Ryuki Hung on the animation and design of the show. The creators also confirmed that they will directly write all twelve episodes, explaining that as a mini-series, episode fillers will be omitted, allowing for a "really tight" and "cool" story. In late July, Jeremy Zuckerman, composer of the original series, was confirmed to be returning to score "The Legend of Korra".
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Amber is the common name for fossil resin. It occurs in different colours, and is widely used for making jewellery and other ornaments. Although not mineralized, amber is sometimes considered as a gemstone.
Most of the world's amber is in the range of 30–90 million years old. Semi-fossilized resin or sub-fossil amber is called copal. Baltic amber was called 'Freya's tears' by the Norse and the 'tears of the Heliades' by the ancient Greeks.
Amber consists of several resinous bodies that can mostly dissolve in alcohol, ether and chloroform, associated with a bituminous substance that does not dissolve.
Amber is formed from resin coming out of certain trees. It is not tree sap or gum. The resin soon becomes sticky, and later fossilises as amber. The amber can look different depending on its origin, and its later geological history.
To end up as amber, the starting resin must resist decay. Many trees produce resin, but usually it is broken down by physical and biological process. Exposure to weather tends to disintegrate resin, assisted by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. For resin to survive long enough to become amber, it must resist such forces, or be produced under conditions that exclude them.
Baltic amber (historically called Prussian amber) is found as irregular nodules in a marine sand, known as "blue earth," in the Lower Oligocene strata of Sambia in Kaliningrad Oblast, where it is now systematically mined.
"Agathis" amber comes from the conifer "Agathis", a tree that used to grow over a much wider area.
Amber from America and Africa often comes from the "Hymenaea protera", a genus of legume tree.
The resin can contain, in addition to the beautifully preserved plant-structures, remains of insects, spiders, annelids, frogs, crustaceans and other small organisms that became trapped while it was fluid. In most cases the organic structure has disappeared, leaving only a cavity, with perhaps a trace of chitin.
Amber can be found on all continents of the earth, with exception of the pole regions, mainly at the east coast of the USA, Canada, Burma, Mexico, Lebanon, Borneo, Romania and Sicily and other places. According to scientists, the oldest amber originates from the carbon time and has an age of approximately 345 million years (Upper Carboniferous, Northumberland, USA). There is Amber in Mexico and in the Caribbean, mainly in the Dominican Republic. But most of these offer by far a smaller yield than amber found in the Baltic Region around the Baltic Sea. Baltic amber is also the best known amber due to European history. Homer mentions it in his Odyssee, Book 15, 459-465, B.C.E.: “… a necklace of gold, with amber beads was it strung between…”. Amber from the "New World" like Mexico and the Dominican Republic was commercially mined only since the last century.
Baltic Amber is found along the shores of a large part of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The greatest amber-producing country is the promontory of Sambia, now part of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast. About 90% of the world's extractable amber is in the Kaliningrad region of Russia on the Baltic Sea.
This amber was deposited in the late Eocene and early Oligocene in a delta of a prehistoric river, in a shallow part of a marine basin. In addition to the coast near Kaliningrad, amber is also found elsewhere in the Baltic Sea region. Small amounts of Baltic amber can even be found outside the Baltic region, for example on the coastline of the south east of England. On the evidence of Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of amber and resin from living trees, that conifers of the family Sciadopityaceae were responsible. The only living representative of this family is the Japanese umbrella pine, "Sciadopitys verticillata".
Resin from the extinct tree Hymenaea protera is the source of Dominican amber and probably of most amber found in the tropics. Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber mainly by being nearly always transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil inclusions. This has enabled the detailed reconstruction of the ecosystem of a long-vanished tropical forest.
Amber is extensively used for beads and other ornaments, and for cigar-holders and the mouth-pieces of pipes. The Amber Room in the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg is notable. It is a reproduction of the original Amber Room, destroyed in WWII.
In Baltic countries, amber is often treated in autoclave, mainly to produce and enhance the colors and visual effects thus creating beautiful jewelry. When gradually heated in an oil-bath, amber becomes soft and flexible. Two pieces of amber may be united by smearing the surfaces with linseed oil, heating them, and then pressing them together while hot. Cloudy amber may be made clearer in an oil-bath, as the oil fills the numerous pores to which the turbidity is due. Small fragments, formerly thrown away or used only for varnish, are now used on a large scale in the formation of "ambroid" or "pressed amber". The pieces are carefully heated with exclusion of air and then pressed into one mass by intense hydraulic pressure, the softened amber being forced through holes in a metal plate. As mentioned, the product is extensively used for making cheap jewelry and articles for smoking.
Amber was much valued as an ornamental material in early times, but also for religious purpose. Rosary beads are used by Catholics and Muslims alike up too our days. Around 58 A.D., the Roman Emperor Nero sent a Roman knight on a search for this “Gold of the North” and brought hundreds of pounds of amber to Rome. In later days, from 1283 on, the Teutonic Knights, after returning from the crusades, became absolute rulers of Prussia and the Baltic sources of amber, as well as the manufacture of objects made of amber, punishing transgressors with death by hanging. History has it that when they arrived in 1492 at the Caribbean island of “La Hispaniola” (Dominican Republic), Columbus received from a young Taino prince a pair of shoes decorated with Dominican amber, in exchange for a strand of Baltic amber beads that he had offered.
Resin is a hydrocarbon secreted by many plants, especially coniferous trees.
Plants evolved many complex chemicals as defences against herbivores. That may be the origin of these resins, which are certainly not good to eat. Plants secrete resins for their protective benefits in response to injury.
The resin protects the plant from insects and pathogens. Resins confound a wide range of herbivores, insects, and pathogens. The volatile phenolic compounds may attract benefactors, that is, parasitoids or predators of the herbivores which attack the plant.
Humans value resins for the chemics in them, and for their many uses. They are used in varnishes, adhesives, as raw materials for organic synthesis, or for incense and perfume. Fossilized resins are the source of amber. The term is also used for synthetic substances with similar properties.
Resins are composed of atoms such as carbon, hydrogen and a little oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur etc. combined together with certain chemical-bond. Synthetic resins are used in laminates, adhesives, flooring, linings, etc.
Rosin, (also called 'colophony' or 'Greek pitch') is a solid form of resin. It is got from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers. Heating fresh liquid resin vaporizes light volatiles like terpenes.
Rosin is semi-transparent and yellow to black in colour. The term "colophony" comes from "colophonia resina" or "resin from the pine trees of Colophon", an ancient Ionic city.
Rosin has hundreds of uses, of which only a few can be mentioned here. These uses fall into groups, such as: