AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Numerous princely feuds, large and small wars between different lords, were tearing Rus. However, the ancient Ukrainian state did not fall apart. It only changed the form of its government: The personal monarchy was replaced by the federal one, Rus came to be co-ruled by the group of the most influential and powerful princes. Historians call this way of governing "the collective suzerainty." The Principality of Kyiv remained a national center, and the residence of bishops.
In 1206 the new powerful military-feudal Mongolian state headed by Genghis Khan started the war of conquest against his neighbors. In 1223 in the battle near the Kalka river 25,000 Tatar-Mongols won a crushing victory over the squads of Southern Rus Princes, who were unable to come together even in the face of grave danger. Under the leadership of Batu, Genghis Khan's grandson, from 1237-1238, they conquered Riazan, Volodymir, Suzdal, and Yaroslavl lands.
In 1240, they attacked Kyiv. The city was plundered and destroyed. According to the legend, the enemy saved governor Dimitri's life for his personal courage in the battle. Then Kamenetz, Iziaslav, Volodymyr, and Halych lost against invaders. Batu was able to attach most of Rus to his empire, the Golden Horde, which covered the whole territory from the Urals to the Black Sea,
After the fall of Kyivan State, the political, economic and cultural center of Ukrainian lands was transferred to the Halycian-Volyn Land. In 1245 Prince Danylo of Halych had to admit his dependence on the Golden Horde. Hoping to get help from Catholic Europe in his the struggle for independence, he also made a secret alliance with Poland, Hungary, Masovia and the Teutonic Knights. In 1253 he received the crown from Pope Innocent IV and became a King of Rus. In 1259, due to the lack of military aid from the West, the king was forced to re-recognize the supremacy of the Horde. His successor, Lev I had to take part in theTartar campaigns against Poland and Lithuania.
In 1308 the government moved to Danylo's grandchildren - Andrew and Lev II, who started the new struggle against the Golden Horde allied with the Teutonic knights and princes of Mazowia. However, after their death the last monarch Yuri II again had to claim himself as the Golden Horde vassal. He was murdered in 1340 and his death gave the rise to Poland and Lithuania (the neighbors who had a dynastic right for the throne of Rus) to start a war for the Halycian-Volyn heritage. In 1392 Galicia, with Belz and Chelm Lands were finally icorporated to the Kingdom of Poland and Volhynia to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
At the end of the 14th century, Ukrainian territories were divided between different states. Lithuania seized Kyiv, Chernihiv and Volyn Lands. Poland ruled in Halycian and Podolian. The Southern Ukraine was under the rule of the Crimean Khanate (formed in 1447) and the Eastern under the power of Muscovy. In 1569 Lithuania and Poland merged to the united state called Commonwealth (Polish: Rzecypospolyta) to deal with neighbors, as a result, the central Ukrainian lands of Lithuania came under Polish control.
Rus, or The Kyivan State, , ; often misspeled as "Kievan State" or even "Kievan Rus", using Russian spelling of its capital Kyiv ( [ˈkiɛf]).
As for the origin and definition of the name "Rus" there is no consensus among researchers. Several versions exist:
Ukrainian historians generally adhere to anti-Norman opinion, while not denying the contribution Varangians in the process of formation of Rus state system. Russ, or The Rus Land in their opinion means:
At the end of the 15th century, the groups of warriors who called themselves Cossacks appeared on the territory between the borders of Lithuania, Muscovy and the Crimea, in the "wild steppes" of Zaporizhia. From the 16th century the Sich became their military centre. Zaporizhian Cossacks participated in the wars on the side of the Commonwealth: the Livonian War (1558-1583), the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618), Khotyn war (1620-1621), and Smolensk war (1632-1634). Cossacks also organized their own campaigns in Moldavia, Muscovy, and Crimea, on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and in Asia Minor for looting. They willingly became mercenaries, particularly during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).
Due to the legal and social oppression of the nobility Cossacks repeatedly revolted. The largest rebellions were raised under the guidance of: Kosynskiy (1591-1593), Nalyvaiko (1594-1596), Zhmaylo (1625), Fedorovych (1630), Sulima (1635), Pavlyuk (1637) and Ostryanin (1638). Cossacks again and again defended the rights of the Ukrainian population in the Commonwealth who experienced religious and national oppression regularly.
For the conflict in the 1850s see Crimean War.
In 1917 an independent Ukrainian People's Republic was established. The Red Army freed it and made it into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Soviet Russia in the 1920s encouraged the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture. In the 1930s this policy changed to making the Ukrainians into Russians. There were mass repressions of Ukrainian poets, historians and linguists. As in other parts of the Soviet Union millions of people starved to death in 1932 and 1933.
During the first years of World War II Ukrainian nationalists collaborated with Nazis against Soviet Union hoping to reestablish Ukrainian independence or to get autonomy under the authority of Germany. Nationalists took part in mass murders of Jews, Roma people and other victims of Nazi regime. However hopes of independence was ruined and Ukrainian nationalists created Ukrainian Insurgent Army which fought against Nazi Germany but against the Soviet Union (mainly Soviet partisans) for the most part. They failed to get independence. Most Ukrainians fought on the side of the Soviet Union and participated in the liberation of Ukraine from Nazi Germany.
In 1986, the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded as a result of an improper test. The accident contaminated large portions of northern Ukraine and southern Belarus with uranium, plutonium, and radioactive isotopes. It was one of only two INES level 7 accidents (the worst level) in the history of nuclear power, the other being the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
Under the second Soviet occupation repressions against Ukrainian nationalists continued and lasted till dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In the Soviet epoch Ukraine was renamed to so-called a "Soviet Socialist Republic" incorporated into Soviet Union.
Independence day — 24 August 1991
President elections: 1 December 1991, July 1994, October-November 1999, October-December 2004, January 2010
Parliament elections: March 1994, March 1998, March 2002, March 2006, September 2007 (prematurely), October 2012
Constitution of Ukraine was adopted by Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) 28 July 1996 with changes 8 December 2004.
The political demonstrations in autumn-winter 2004 after the Presidential elections gathered millions of people all over the country. On November 26, 2004, Victor Yuschenko lost the Ukrainian presidential election (Viktor Yanukovych was declared winner). However, Yuschenko and his followers argued that the election had been corrupted. They argued that the election results had been falsified by the Ukrainian government, in support of the opposing candidate Victor Yanukovych. They organized political demonstrations in autumn-winter 2004 that gathered millions of people all over the country. They called the demonstrations "The Orange Revolution" (). Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was an important ally of Victor Yuschenko during the demonstrations. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine ordered a second round of elections, which Yuschenko won.
Big pro-European Union protests called Euromaidan () began in November 2013 and made the President go away in February.
In March 2014, Russia occupied Crimea, made a pseudo-referendum which proclaimed the Crimea independence and annexed it. Most countries did not recognize the referendum. The EU, OSCE, USA and Ukraine demanded that Crimea be returned. Several countries sought to use economic sanctions to punish Russia's leaders for this.
In April, 2014 Ukraine military attack against people in Donbass in eastern Ukraine, which has many Russian-speaking people. This began a war to control Donbass.
In 2016, the New Safe Confinement was built to cover the remains of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and prevent radiation from escaping.
Liechtenstein is a country in Western Europe. It is the sixth smallest country in the world and, with Uzbekistan, one of only two doubly landlocked countries. This means that it is landlocked by a landlocked country. Liechtenstein is between Austria and Switzerland.
Liechtenstein was linked with Austria until the end of World War I, after which it became linked with Switzerland in a customs union.
The official language in Liechtenstein is German.
The capital of Liechtenstein is Vaduz, a very small town of 5,000 people. Liechtenstein is famous for its many private banks.
Portugal is a country in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe and part of the Mediterranean. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. It has been a member of the European Union since 1986. It was under a dictatorship between 1926 and 1974. It has since prospered but was hit hard by the 2007-2008 recession.
It has a football team and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 meaning it hosts the event for the first time ever in 2018.
It once had an empire and was a powerful maritime nation from 1500s–1800s, the 10th-largest empire with a maximum land area of 10.4 million km² which included Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and even Macau in China (until 2002).
Three groups of islands in the Atlantic Ocean are also part of Portugal: the Azores ("Açores"), Madeira and the Savage Isles ("Ilhas Selvagens"). The Savage Isles are a small group of uninhabited islands, administered by Madeira.
Portugal claims that Olivença is also part of its territory, but it is controlled by Spain.
It's a popular holiday destination but, is sometimes overlooked in favour of larger countries like France, Spain and Italy. The Algarve region in the south and capital Lisbon are the most popular.
Portugal became its own kingdom in 1139 but was not officially recognized until 1143. Portugal has had links with England since the 1100s via a treaty. The border with Spain has been almost the same since the 13th century. Fishing and trade with other countries are important here.
Portugal was important in world exploration for two reasons. Henry the Navigator, a prince from Portugal, was very interested in exploration. Inventions in navigation led to a bigger knowledge of geography.
This world exploration began the Portuguese Empire. Portugal was a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries. It tried to colonize Canada in the 16th century. However, it lost a lot of money soon after this. Portugal and Spain were in the Iberian Union from 1580 to 1640. The city of Lisbon was destroyed in an earthquake in 1755. The country was occupied during the Napoleonic Wars. It lost its largest colony, Brazil, in 1822.
In 1910, Portugal became a Republic, and in 1926, a military group took control of the country from the Portuguese 1st Republic. This began a time of rule by authoritarian governments. During World War II they were neutral but friendly to Britain. In 1974 a peaceful left-wing army coup, called the "Carnation Revolution", happened. The coup changed how the country was run.
The next year, Portugal allowed its colonies in Africa to be on their own: Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe.
East Timor in Asia declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975, and was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces nine days later.
Portugal went into the European Union in 1986. Another Asian colony, Macau, became part of China
The main language of Portugal is Portuguese.
Some famous Portuguese people are D. Afonso Henriques, Henry the Navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Ferdinand Magellan, Luís de Camões, Fernando Pessoa, Amália Rodrigues, Álvaro Siza Vieira, Eduardo Souto de Moura.
Luís de Camões wrote the national poem of Portugal. It is called "Os Lusíadas" and was written in 1572.
Slovakia (Slovak: "Slovensko") (Official name The Slovak Republic, "Slovenská republika") is a country with no access to the ocean in Central Europe. It is bordered by Austria in the southwest, Hungary in the south, Ukraine in the east, Poland in the north and Czech Republic in the northwest. Its capital city is Bratislava, the only capital of the world that borders with other two countries. Other main cities are Košice, Prešov, Žilina, Banská Bystrica, Trenčín, Nitra and Trnava. Slovakia has been a member of the European Union since 2004 and its official currency is the Euro.
The Celts started to settle since 450 BC. The coins named "Biatec" represent the first use of writing in Slovakia. At the turn of millenniums, many different Germanic tribes like Quadi and Marcomanni started to overtake the area. The Roman Empire established many outposts along the Danube river. They even fought Germanic tribes, with the most northern presence being in Trenčín ("Laugaritio"), during the Marcomannic Wars.
Great Moravia was at first in constant quarrels with the Eastern Francia, and at the beginning of the 10th century, with the Magyars who arrived from Asia. The Magyars conquered Great Moravia in 906, and established the Hungarian Principality, resulting later in the creation of the Kingdom of Hungary in year 1000. Slovaks continued to live in the north, while most Hungarians were in the south.
A huge population loss resulted from the Mongol invasions in 1241. The Hungarian kings started to invite other settlers, for example Germans in the 13th century, and many others started to arrive in the kingdom, Vlachs from Romania in the 14th century and Jews.
In the 16th century the Ottoman Empire occupied the southern part of the kingdom including the two most important towns, Buda (capital) and Székesfehérvár (coronation capital). Many Hungarian nobles moved to Slovakia and the king moved to Bratislava ("Pressburg", "Pozsony" at that time). The wars against the Ottomans and an uprising against the Habsburgs caused much destruction. After the Ottomans started to retreat back from Hungary, Bratislava continued to be capital until 1848, when it was moved back to Budapest.
The creation of a dual monarchy, Austria-Hungary, enabled the Hungarian government to initiate a policy of suppressing the teaching of languages other than the Hungarian language in state schools. The official use of other languages than Hungarian was also discouraged. During this time, a nationalist movement arose among Slovakians. A part of this movement joined forces with a part of the Czech nationalist movement. During World War I, this movement convinced the future victorious powers to recognise a new state of Czechoslovakia after the war.
The territory of today's Slovakia was a part of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1938 and again from 1945 until 1989. Czechoslovakia was one of the states which came into existence after the breakup of Austria-Hungary at end of World War I in 1918. Czechoslovakia split up in 1939, when Slovakia, under Hitler's influence and pressure, declared independence and became an independent state. The state existed during World War II. It was a one-party totalitarian state which was a puppet ally of Nazi Germany. Under the regime, the state fought in the war on the side of Nazi Germany and deported about 70,000 of its Jewish citizens to Nazi extermination camps as part of the Holocaust.
The territory of Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II in 1945. After the liberation, Czechoslovakia was reunified and briefly existed as a democratic country. The Communist Party successfully performed a state coup in 1948 and ruled Czechoslovakia as a totalitarian one-party state which was a satellite of the Soviet Union. In 1989, the one-party rule of the Communist Party was overthrown during the Velvet Revolution, which was a series of large and peaceful demonstrations by the citizens in the streets.
Czechoslovakia again became a democratic country. However, it split up into two independent countries (Slovakia and Czech Republic) on January 1, 1993 in what became known as the Velvet Divorce. Slovakia has been a member of the European Union since May 1, 2004.
Slovakia is landlocked. It is noted primarily for its mountainous nature, with the Carpathian Mountains being in the north and various lowlands mostly in the south. The highest mountain range are the Tatra mountains with the highest peak, the Gerlachov Peak (Slovak: "Gerlachovský štít"; 2,654 m). Major Slovak rivers besides the Danube are the Váh and Hron.
At low altitudes, Slovakia's climate is humid continental ("Dfb" in the Koeppen climate classification, with warm summers and cloudy, cold and humid winters. At high altitudes it is subarctic and alpine.
About 5.5 million people live in Slovakia. Most people are Slovak (86%), but in southern regions of Slovakia live Hungarians (10%), with some municipalities even being with the Hungarian majority (for example, Komárno or Dunajská Streda), Ruthenian or Ukrainian are spoken in the northeast. A minority Roma population speak versions of the Romany language and are scattered mainly in the east.
The Slovak constitution guarantees a freedom of religion. The majority of Slovaks are Roman Catholics (69%), the next are the atheists (13%). Other religions include Lutheranism, Greek Orthodox and Calvinism. There are about 5,000 Muslims in Slovakia and 2,000 Jews.
There are currently 8 regions of Slovakia:
These are further divided into many districts. There are currently 79 districts of Slovakia.
Slovenia is a country in Southern Europe. The capital and largest city of Slovenia is Ljubljana. Its major language is Slovenian. Its current population is about 2.0 million. Slovenia's leading exports are manufactured goods and aluminium. It is a parliamentary republic It is a member of the European Union and NATO. The economy of Slovenia is small, open, and export-oriented.
A very long time ago, Illyrian and Celtics tribes lived in Slovenia. In the 1st century BC, Slovenia was ruled by the Romans. In the sixth century AD, Slavs lived there. Slovenia was ruled by Austria from 1335 until 1918. In 1918 it became a part of Yugoslavia. During World War II, Italy, Hungary and Germany took parts of the country but in 1945 it became part of Yugoslavia again.
In June 1991, following a 10-day war, Slovenia became an independent country.
Currently it is considered the most advanced country from what is called "Ex-Yugoslavia." It is also a member of the European Union.
Oldham Cricket Club
Oldham Cricket Club are a cricket team which currently plays in the Central Lancashire League.
The ground that the club plays at is called "The Pollards".
Denarius
The denarius was a small silver coin used by the Roman Empire and Roman Republic. The denarius weighed about 3 to 4.5 grams. It was the main coin of Ancient Rome. It became the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased in weight and silver content. The coin was then sometimes made of copper and painted silver in color. During the Empire the front side usually had a picture of the emperor on it.
The denarius was introduced in 211 BC, and was last made in 275 AD. By then it was made of bronze.
Luffa
Kimono are traditional Japanese style clothes. "Kimono" meant "something you wear" originally. About a century ago, most people in Japan wore the kimono every day. Now, people wear other clothing in Japan most of the time. However, they still wear the kimono for special occasions, such as formal ceremonies, but also for fun and fashion.
A kimono is a robe shaped like a "T". Normal kimonos reach to the ankles, and have long sleeves. The sleeves of some kimono for women also reach to the ankles, but most kimono sleeves reach to the hips.
Japanese people have been wearing garments that looked like the kimono for hundreds of years. It was during the Heian period that many Japanese people started using the kimono and wore some clothing that were like a kimono.
Originally, it was the Chinese visitors that wore the kimono. Later, the Japanese decided to use the kimono too. These clothes had long, triangle-shaped sleeves and were wrapped over the body. They were worn with a jacket and a skirt or trousers on top.
A few centuries later in the Heian period, these clothes changed to look more like a modern kimono. The garment looked more like a rectangle, and the sleeves were square instead of triangle-shaped.
Common people wore a piece of clothing called a "kosode", which means "short sleeve". This garment looked like a modern kimono, with a wider body and smaller sleeves. The overlap at the front of the robe was longer, the collar was wider, and the robe was shorter as well.
Noble people also wore the "kosode", but they wore several layers on top of it. Noble women wore clothing called "jūni hitoe", which means "twelve layers", though the number of layered robes varied. These robes were wider, longer and had larger sleeves than the "kosode" that the common people wore, and could weigh up to 20kg in total. Noblemen wore round-necked jackets with wide, long sleeves and "hakama" trousers. They would wear this with a small cap, which was usually black in colour.
Over time, wearing a lot of clothes became unfashionable. The government created laws to stop people from wearing lots of robes at once, and starting with the Muromachi period, women and men began to wear the "kosode" by itself or with two or three layers, with a small, thin belt called an obi, and for women, red "hakama" trousers. However, ceremonial clothing in the Imperial Court still looked like clothing from previous centuries, and even today, the new Emperor and Empress of Japan are coronated in Heian period clothing.
During the Genroku period, the common people began to get richer, especially the merchants. This led to people wearing expensive and beautiful "kosode", even if they were not nobility. People began to experiment with different ways to decorate their clothing, such as embroidery, and experimented with ways of dyeing their clothing.
This made them look like noble people, so the government introduced laws against commoners wearing certain things to prevent it. However, people did not want to give up their beautiful clothes, and instead found different ways of wearing them; a man, for instance, might wear a "haori" jacket made out of wool in a plain, boring colour, but line it with a fancy silk fabric.
This way of thinking about clothing and appearances became known as an aesthetic idea called "iki", which is still important to the way people wear kimono today.
Over time, the obi got wider and longer, especially for women. Because of this, the sleeves of the "kosode" were no longer sewn to the body entirely, and were instead only attached at the shoulder on "kosode" for women.
Sleeves also got longer for young women, as did the length of the "kosode", which started to be called the kimono sometime in the Edo period. The kimono would trail behind someone indoors, but had to be pulled up when going out so it would not become dirty. Women started tucking the extra length of their kimono into a hip fold, which became known as the "ohashori". Kimono are still worn by women today with the "ohashori".
Over time, very wide obi and very long kimono fell out of fashion. During World War Two, longer kimono sleeves were seen as very wasteful, and sleeves on kimono were usually shortened, sometimes a lot. This new sleeve length lasted, and modern kimono for women are still shorter than they were before the war. Older kimono, especially from the Taishō period, still have these longer sleeves sometimes.
Today, more women wear the kimono than men. Men wear kimono most often at weddings and Japanese tea ceremonies.
Kimono are made in different sizes for different people, and are made in different lengths for men and women. Men and women also wear kimono with different sleeves.
Kimono for women are much longer than kimono for men, and women fold the kimono at the waist in a tuck to make them the right size. The right length for a woman's kimono is usually the same as her height, though people who are very tall can struggle to find kimono that fits them.
The sleeves on a woman's kimono are not sewn to the body all the way down, and are open at the back. Part of the body of the kimono is open as well. The sleeves on a woman's kimono are longer than the sleeves on a man's kimono, and sometimes reach the ankle on kimono for young women. The curve at the edge of the sleeves is very round, especially on kimono for young women and girls.
Kimono for men do not need to be folded at the hip, and so do not have any extra length. The sleeves are shorter, and are attached almost all the way down to the body. The back of the sleeves is sewn shut, and the body is also sewn shut. The curve at the edge of the sleeve is not as round.
Kimono for men are usually one solid colour, but might have a very small geometric design. Kimono for women can be one solid colour, have a small design, or be decorated in larger, colourful patterns. More colourful kimono are usually worn by young women. Sometimes, these designs are only worn in certain seasons of the year.
People who are very tall or very heavy can struggle to find a kimono that fits them, and sometimes have kimonos made for them instead.
Kimonos come in different types for different occasions, and both men and women have formal and casual kimono. Formal kimono have a number of crests on them, called "kamon" or "mon". These are placed on the front of the shoulders, the back of the sleeves, and the centre of the back. Kimono with crests have either one, three, or five crests on them - the crest on the centre back, the centre back and the sleeves, or the centre back, the sleeves and the shoulders.
The most formal kimono have all five of these crests on them. The least-formal formal kimono have just one. These crests can be outlined or coloured in fully in white, with "kamon" that are just an outline being the least formal.
Kimono are usually made of silk, but there are cotton, polyester, hemp and linen kimono as well. Some kimono are also made of wool, or rayon. Formal kimono are always made out of fine silk, and are usually sewn by hand. However, not all silk kimono are formal kimono, and some types of silk, such as pongee (known as "tsumugi") are only ever worn to casual occasions.
The most informal type of kimono is the "yukata", worn in summer to festivals and in bath houses and inns by both men and women. They are not lined, are always made of cotton, and are worn with thin, brightly-coloured obi.
For formal occasions, men wear fine silk kimono with "haori" (a kimono jacket) and "hakama" (loose-fitting trousers). The "hakama" are usually striped in white and black, and the kimono and the "haori" will match in colour.
Women have a number of different types of kimono for different formal occasions. The designs on the kimono, how they are put onto the kimono, and where they are placed on the kimono all change how formal the finished outfit is. In order of formality, these are:
People wear a wide belt called an obi with their kimono. Obi are also colorful, and are very long. Some types of obi are not worn anymore, as they are too difficult to wear and put on. The "maru" obi is an example of a type of obi not worn any more. The "fukuro" obi replaced it, as it was less wide and easier to wear.
Kimonos can be very expensive, for example, the Furisode is very expensive to get. The obi belts can be very expensive too. The kimono most people have are not so expensive. Some people make their own kimono, or they buy them second-hand.
People who play some sports like kendo also wear kimono. These are tough, thick and short, not like the typical women's kimono. They are usually called "do-gi".
Most Japanese people do not know how to put on a kimono by themselves as it is very different from other clothing. Formal kimono for women can be very difficult to put on by yourself. Some people work as "kimono dressers". They help people to put on their kimono.
In Japan, people can take classes about wearing the kimono, and to learn about how to choose a kimono and how to tie the obi.
Sconce
Culture is a word for the 'way of life' of groups of people, meaning the way they do things. Different groups may have different cultures. A culture is passed on to the next generation by learning, whereas genetics are passed on by heredity. Culture is seen in people's writing, religion, music, clothes, cooking and in what they do.
The concept of culture is very complicated, and the word has many meanings. The word 'culture' is most commonly used in three ways.
Most broadly, 'culture' includes all human phenomena which are not purely results of human genetics. The discipline which investigates cultures is called anthropology, though many other disciplines play a part.
Cultures are what making the country unique and interesting. Each country has different cultural activities and cultural rituals. Culture includes material goods, the things the people use and produce. Culture is also the beliefs and values of the people and the ways they think about and understand the world and their own lives.
Different countries have different cultures. For example, some older Japanese people wear kimonos, arrange flowers in vases, and have tea ceremonies. Some countries oppose some things in their culture, like discrimination or religion.
Culture can also vary within a region, society or sub group. A workplace may have a specific culture that sets it apart from similar workplaces. A region of a country may have a different culture than the rest of the country. For example, in a large country like China or Canada a region may have a distinctive way of talking, different types of music, and different types of dances.
A group who acts or speaks differently may be said to be, or have, a subculture.
Ethnic groups such as the Romani people in Europe have a distinct culture.
Companies or other organizations (groups of people) can have a separate culture. Japanese manufacturing companies often have a different culture to Western companies; the workday starts with exercise, and the workers are very loyal to the company.
Companies in the high-technology sector often have a different culture than other companies. Software and computer companies sometimes allow employees to play games during the workday, or take time off work to relax, because these companies believe that this will help the workers to think better.
"Anthropology" is studying human beings and how they relate to each other. An "anthropologist" is a person who studies anthropology. Anthropologists study how culture shapes people and their lives. Cultures constantly change as people move and communicate with new groups of people.
For example, immigrants (people who move from one country to another) may keep some of their customs and traditions from their old country. By keeping their culture in this way, they bring pieces of their culture to a new place where others begin to experience it.
Houseplant
A houseplant is any kind of decorative plant. People grow them indoors, usually in a house, where these plants gets their name.
Waxed paper
Waxed paper (or wax paper) is a type of paper which has been coated on both sides with wax. This gives it a translucent look. It is used for wrapping food because grease, oil, and water cannot pass through it. It is also used to line food containers because many kinds of food which would stick to normal paper will not stick to wax paper. Many kinds of dry foods were once stored in wax paper because of its resistance to water. Wax paper has been replaced by plastic wrap for most purposes.
Safety razor blades are traditionally wrapped in wax paper to make holding them less dangerous. Wax paper can also be used to make paper boats that can be used for a long time without getting wet because of its high resistance to water.
Wax paper is also used to stick pieces of pattern to fabric while cutting it.
In photography, wax paper can be used as a light diffuser.
Wax paper is commonly used in cooking because it does not sticky foods cannot stick to it. It is also used in wrapping food. It is also used in arts and crafts.
The Japanese tea ceremony (called cha-no-yu, chado, or sado) is a special way of making green tea (matcha 抹茶). It is called the Way of Tea. It is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered tea. People who study the tea ceremony have to learn about different kinds of tea. They also have to learn about kimono (Japanese clothes), flowers, and many other things. It takes much practice to learn the tea ceremony.
Tea came to Japan from China in about 900 CE. Tea became very popular in Japan, and Japanese people started to grow tea in Japan.
In the 12th century, "matcha" (green tea powder), became popular. This tea comes from the same plant as black tea.
By the 16th century, all people in Japan, rich people and poor people, liked drinking tea. A man called Sen no Rikyu started teaching the ceremony. Many years have passed, but people still make tea the same way that Sen no Rikyu taught. Many schools of Japanese tea ceremony exist now (omote-senke, ura-senke, etc.), and each school teaches in a slightly different way.
People need many different things for a tea ceremony:
People do the tea ceremony in a special tea room or a special building called a "cha-shitsu". Most people wear kimonos.
When people go into the tea room they take off their shoes and sit on special floor mat called a tatami.
Cha-shitsu often are very small. The guests (the people who go to the tea ceremony) sometimes eat food and drink special Japanese wine called sake. Before they drink the matcha (green tea) they eat something sweet.
The host (the person who does the tea ceremony) symbolically purifies the tea bowl and the other tea things. Then he or she puts some green tea powder into the tea bowl. The host mixes the tea with hot water. He or she mixes it with a whisk. The guests drink tea from the bowl.
When everyone has finished drinking tea, the host cleans everything and puts them away. Then the guests leave.
A tea ceremony can take from about twenty minutes to about four hours.
Sideboard
A sideboard is a piece of furniture. It is often placed in a dining room with a long table and cupboard below to hold dishes, glasses, and other things.
A movie, or film, is a type of visual communication which uses moving pictures and sound to tell stories or teach people something. Most people watch (view) movies as a type of entertainment or a way to have fun. For some people, fun movies can mean movies that make them laugh, while for others it can mean movies that make them cry, or feel afraid.
Most movies are made so that they can be shown on screen in Cinemas and at home. Movies are shown in Cinemas for a period of a few weeks or months, they may be marketed through several other medias. They are shown on pay television or cable television, and sold or rented on DVD disks or videocassette tapes, so that people can watch the movies at home. You can also download or stream movies. Older movies are shown on television broadcasting stations.
A movie camera or video camera takes pictures very quickly, usually at 24 or 25 pictures (frames) every second. When a movie projector, a computer, or a television shows the pictures at that rate, it looks like the things shown in the set of pictures are really moving. Sound is either recorded at the same time, or added later. The sounds in a movie usually include the sounds of people talking (which is called dialogue), music (which is called the "soundtrack"), and sound effects, the sounds of activities that are happening in the movie (such as doors opening or guns being fired). In the 20th century the camera used photographic film. The product is still often called a "film" even though there usually is no film.
A screenwriter writes a script, which is the story of the movie with dialogue and things that the actors will say and do. A producer hires people to work on the movie and gets all of the money that will be needed to pay for the actors and the equipment. Producers usually get the money by borrowing it from a bank or by getting investors to lend money to the movie production. Some producers work for a movie studio; other producers are independent (they do not work for a movie studio).
Actors and directors read scripts to find out what to say and what to do. The actors memorize the words from the script that they will say in the movie, and learn the actions that the script tells them to do. Then, the director tells the actors what to do and a cameraman takes motion pictures of them with a motion picture camera.
When filming has finished, an editor puts the moving pictures together in a way that tells the whole story within a set amount of time. Audio engineers and sound engineers record music and singing and join it with the moving pictures. When the movie is done, many copies of the movie are made by movie labs and put onto film reels. Then the reels are sent to cinemas. An electric machine called a projector shines a very bright light through the film, and people sitting in a dark room see it on a big screen.
A genre is a word for a type of movie or a style of movie. Movies can be fictional (made up), or documentary (showing 'real life'), or a mix of the two. Although hundreds of movies are made every year, there are very few that do not follow a small number of set plots, or stories. Some movies mix together two or more genres.
Most movies lose money but some make profits in the hundreds of millions, be they dollars, euro or pounds. In India movies have become an enormous part of the economy. The industry has always been dominated by a few major movie studios like MGM/UA, Warner Bros., Columbia, Lucasfilm, Paramount or Disney.
There are many large companies that provide all of the services needed to make movies, such as special effects, lighting, set building. Many of these employees belong to trade unions who say how much their members must be paid. A huge number of smaller companies also offer services, such as music studios (which record the music for original movie sound tracks) and CGI computer animation.
Finally there are movie distribution companies (which send movies around the world or around a country), and advertising companies who let people know about the movie and promote it (try to make people want to see the movie).
Movies with famous stars and large budgets (lots of money), are designed to have a wide appeal, so that hopefully millions of people will pay to see them. These most expensive movies are called blockbusters.
Special effects can add a huge amount to the cost of a movie, especially the newest CGI effects, but people have come to expect them and every blockbuster movie tries to outdo the last. Even in 2008, some movies cost up to $200 million to make.
Very successful movies can make many times that amount in profit, and that's why the studios keep producing them. This kind of movie will have a lot of promotion through television advertising, billboards and internet sites.
In blockbuster movies, there is usually a happy ending, in which all of the problems in the plot (story) are figured out or fixed and almost everyone (except the baddie) live happily ever after. Some movies have been so successful that the studios keep releasing more and more sequels, or movies with the same characters and basic plots.
At the opposite end of the scale to the blockbuster, there is the independent, art, or Indie movie. These are usually made by small movie companies, or even just a small group of people that do not have much money. An example is The Blair Witch Project, which cost only about $60,000, but which has so far taken perhaps $200 million in ticket and DVD sales. Movies like this are very unusual and usually become popular 'underground' (word of mouth advertising), so that they become cult, or popular but not mainstream.
Independent movies often tell more creative or unusual (strange) stories, or may have sad endings that do not appeal to the big studios, because they can not be sure how the public will react to them. They rarely make a lot of money, but if they are successful, the big studios will quickly try to get the people involved to sign a contract with them, by offering them a lot of money to make another movie. Often the new movie, with its big budget and its stars will be less successful than the first.
Holland is the name of a region in the western part of the Netherlands. Holland was a county of the Holy Roman Empire and later the leading province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (1581–1795).
Today, there is no country called "Holland". There are two provinces called "Holland" in the Netherlands: North Holland () and South Holland (). Those provinces were created in 1840. The earlier country and province of Holland used to be bigger, but some parts of that province were given to other provinces during the French occupation (1795-1813). For example, Willemstad became part of North Brabant, the islands of Vlieland and Terschelling were given to Friesland, and the island of Urk to Overijssel. But for a short time during that period (1806–1810), there "was" a country called "Holland", the Kingdom of Holland, which was in the central and northern Netherlands and East Friesland in Germany.
Many people use the name "Holland" to refer to all of the Netherlands, including the other ten provinces. That is not correct and is like calling the United Kingdom, "England" or "Great Britain". Some Dutch people who do not live in Holland do not like it when people call the entire country Holland. But they don't mind using "Holland" when you mean the Dutch national football team, which they are used to calling "Holland".
The atoms of a chemical element can exist in different types that have very similar behavior, but weigh different amounts. These are called isotopes of the element. Atoms of the same element have the same number of protons, but different isotopes have different numbers of neutrons. Different isotopes of the same element have different masses because they have a different number of neutrons. Mass is the word for how much substance (or matter) something has. Things with different masses also have different weights.
Some isotopes are not stable so they change to another isotope or element by radioactive decay. These are called radioactive isotopes. Others are not radioactive. These are called stable isotopes.
Atoms of the same element have the same number of protons, which is called the atomic number. Different isotopes of an element have different numbers of neutrons. As a result, they also have different mass numbers, which is the number of protons plus the number of neutrons. An isotope is usually named by giving the element and the mass number. For example, the symbol for carbon is C and all carbon atoms have 6 protons. The most common isotope of carbon also has 6 neutrons, giving a mass number of 12, and it is written carbon-12 or C. The isotope of carbon that has 8 neutrons is written carbon-14 or C.
The word "isotope", meaning "at the same place", comes from the fact that isotopes of the same element are at the same place on the periodic table.
In any neutral atom, the number of electrons is the same as the number of protons. As a result, isotopes of the same element also have the same number of electrons and the same electronic structure. The way an atom acts is decided by its electronic structure, so isotopes of the same element have almost the same chemical behavior, such as the molecules it can form. It is very difficult to separate the isotopes of an element from a mixture of different isotopes because of how similar this behavior is.
Heavier isotopes react chemically more slowly than lighter isotopes of the same element. This "mass effect" is large for protium (H) and deuterium (H), because deuterium has twice the mass of protium. For heavier elements, the relative atomic weight ratio between isotopes is much less, so the mass effect is usually small.
Some isotopes are not stable so they change to a different isotope or element by radioactive decay. These are called stable isotopes, or radioactive isotopes. The average time it takes an isotope to decay is called the half-life. Other isotopes do not decay so they are not radioactive. They are called stable isotopes.
Every atom has an atomic nucleus, which is made from protons and neutrons that are held together by the nuclear force. Because protons have positive electrical charge, they repel each other. Neutrons are neutral and they stabilize the nucleus. The neutrons hold the protons slightly apart. This reduces the electrostatic repulsion between the protons, so the nuclear force can hold the protons and neutrons together. One or more neutrons are necessary for two or more protons to bind into a nucleus. As the number of protons increases, so does the number of neutrons needed to have a stable nucleus.
Some elements only have a single isotope that is stable. For example, fluorine-19 (F) is the only stable isotope of fluorine. The other isotopes of fluorine decay rapidly so they are not found in nature. Other elements have many stable isotopes. For example, xenon has seven stable isotopes. It also has two isotopes that decay very slowly that are found in nature. The largest number of stable isotopes for any element is ten, for the element tin. Some elements do not have any stable isotopes, such as curium. These only exist on Earth because they are created in nuclear reactors, nuclear explosions, or particle accelerators.
Some unstable isotopes exist naturally on Earth because they have a very long half-life. For example, uranium-238 has a half-life of 4468 million years. The half life of radium-226 is only 1600 years, and it is found in nature because it is constantly forming from the decay of uranium-238.
Hydrogen has three common isotopes. The most common isotope of hydrogen is called protium (H), which has one proton and no neutrons. A hydrogen atom that has a proton and a neutron (atomic mass of 2) is called deuterium (H). Hydrogen with one proton and two neutrons (atomic mass of 3) is called tritium (H). Protium and deuterium are stable isotopes, while tritium is a radioactive isotope.
The heaviest elements in the periodic table are all radioactive. All of the isotopes of radon, thorium, and uranium are radioactive, since they are very heavy. This is because the nuclear forces inside the nucleus of the atom cannot hold together all the protons and neutrons.
Crushing by elephant
In the past, many rulers in south and southeast Asia had people crushed by elephants as a death penalty. This was common for more than 4000 years. The Romans and Carthaginians also sometimes did this.
The elephant would step upon the head of the condemned, the one commanded to die. Usually, handlers trained the elephant to put its large foot gently on the person's head. At this point, witnesses looked under the elephant's foot to make sure the prisoner was the one who committed the crime. Often, the condemned would scream and beg the witnesses to say it was not him. If a witness stated this was not the criminal, they would probably commit perjury. Perjury means lying at a trial. In those days rulers could punish perjury with death. Few witnesses denied the condemned was the criminal, because then the elephant may crush them instead. Then the mahout, or elephant driver, gave the order, and the elephant would push down with its weight. The skull broke and the foot crushed the head flat.
Sometimes, the elephant would drag the condemned through streets before the crushing. Some elephants crushed the arms and legs first, to increase the pain.
Most rajahs, Indian rulers, kept elephants for death by crushing. The public could often see the deaths; this was the rulers' warning not to commit a crime. Many of the elephants were very large, weighing more than nine tons. Rulers wanted crushing by elephant to be bloody and gross. Some rulers in history condemned children, too.