AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
In 1285, the city became a part of the Hanseatic League. As a result, in the Middle Ages Tallinn was an important stop on the trade routes between Europe and Russia. During its history Estonia has been ruled at times by Sweden and by Russia. It became independent in 1918 after World War I, but after World War II it was ruled by the USSR. In March 1944 Tallinn was bombed by Soviet Air Force, killing 436 civilians and totally destroying 5073 buildings. Since 1991, Tallinn has been the capital of an independent Estonia.
Today more than 400,000 people live in Tallinn, which is one third of the population of Estonia. It is a big sea port. Its food and textile industries are important. The town has many pretty, old buildings.
The chart below shows the climate of Tallinn.
Lombardy
Lombardy ( ; Italian: "Lombardia" ]; Lombard: "Lombardia", ], ]) is a region in the northern part of Italy. It is the most populated region of the country, and has almost 9.4 million people. The capital is Milan. Lombardy has provinces within it.
To the north of Lombardy is the country of Switzerland (Canton Ticino e Grigioni). To the west is the region of Piedmont. To the east are the regions of Veneto and Trentino - Alto Adige. To the south is the region of Emilia-Romagna.
In the Italian language, Lombardy is called "Lombardia". This name comes from an old German word: "Langbardland" and means "country of the Lombards".
In the north of Lombardy there are very high mountains, (40% of the territory is mountains) the highest mountains are almost 4.000 meters in the Bernina Range.
In the south of the region flows the Po river, which is the longest river in Italy. The most important rivers are the Adda river, the Mincio and the Ticino river, all of them end in the Po river.
There are also a lot of lakes, the largest are the lake Maggiore, the Lake of Varese, the lake Como, and the lake Garda.
Lombardy is divided into 12 provinces:
Regions of Italy
Italy is a country in the south of Europe. It is divided into 20 regions. A region is a part of the country with a government and a president.
In Italy, regions can decide some things. They can give money to local business. They can decide some things about hospitals, schools, and transport.
In some regions, people speak other languages. In Alto Adige/Südtirol a lot of people speak mainly German. So this region is "special" and can decide more things.
Sardinia and Sicily are islands. They have different problems than other regions. They have also some different laws.
These regions are called "regions with special laws" ().
Every region has a capital. Here is the list of the regions, the capital and other information.
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov (April 22, 1899 – July 2, 1977) was a Russian-American author. He wrote his first books in Russian, and after he moved to the United States, he wrote in English. His most famous book is "Lolita", but others have also become famous, such as "Pnin", "Pale Fire", and "Ada or Ardor".
Nabokov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the first of five children. In 1919, he and his family went to Europe. In 1945, he became an American citizen. He died in Montreux, Switzerland.
Nabokov's father was a lawyer and politician. As a child, Vladimir learned Russian, English, and French. After the October Revolution, the family moved a few times, but settled in Berlin in 1920. Two years later, his father was shot and killed by mistake, because he had blocked the person the gunman was trying to murder. His mother and sister moved to Prague, but Vladimir stayed in Berlin. He wrote for other Russians who had left Russia to live there. He met Véra Slonin, a woman from a Jewish-Russian family, in 1923. They married in 1925. In 1934, they had their only child, Dmitri.
In 1937, Nabokov started to look for another job. He left for France that year, and his family followed. They all fled to America in 1940, except his brother Sergei, who died in a Nazi concentration camp.
Nabokov was an expert on butterflies. As a child he had read books by entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian which he found in the attic of his family's country home in Vyra.
During the 1940s, he was a research fellow in zoology. He organized the butterfly collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. His specialty was the tribe Polyommatini of the family Lycaenidae.
The genus "Nabokovia" was named after him in honor of this work, as were a number of butterfly and moth species (e.g. many species in the genera "Madeleinea" and "Pseudolucia" have names alluding to Nabokov or names from his novels). In 1967, Nabokov commented: "The pleasures and rewards of literary inspiration are nothing beside the rapture of discovering a new organ under the microscope or an undescribed species on a mountainside in Iran or Peru. It is not improbable that had there been no revolution in Russia, I would have devoted myself entirely to lepidopterology and never written any novels at all".
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon is a town in England. It is in the Thames Valley in southern England, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of Oxford. It is the seat (place of the government) of the Vale of White Horse district in Oxfordshire. Abingdon was once the county town of Berkshire. It is one of several places which claim to be Britain's oldest occupied town.
Abingdon is at a place where people were able to easily cross the Thames. The area has been lived in since the Bronze Age. The bridge over the Thames at Abingdon is more than 550 years old. Work started on the bridge in 1416, and it replaced an old wooden bridge.
The Abingdon Abbey was built in 675 AD by the Benedictines who called it Abbandun. By 1538 it was the sixth richest abbey in Britain. Most of it was destroyed after 1538 when King Henry VIII closed the monasteries. The gatehouse and several smaller buildings are still standing.
There is a market in Abingdon every Monday, which first started in 1556. A canal was built in 1810 to join Abingdon to other towns including London, Bristol and Birmingham. The canal was in use until 1906.
The MG motor cars were made in Abingdon for 50 years until the factory closed in 1980. However the headquarters of the MG Car Club are still in the town.
Yeadon
George Washington Carver (c. January 1860 – January 5, 1943) was an American educator, botanist (someone who works with plants), and inventor. He is best known for his work with peanuts, sweet potatoes, and other crops.
Carver's reputation is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, which also aided nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life.
The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts. He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.
He was born into slavery in January 1864 in Diamond, Missouri. The exact date of his birth is unknown. He studied in Simpson College when he was 22. Much of Carver's fame is based on his research. He died on January 5, 1943 after a fall he had in his home in Tuskegee, Alabama on January 5, 1943.
The Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE (708 AUC), was a reform of the Roman calendar. It was first used in 1 January 45 BCE. It was the main calendar in most of the world, until Pope Gregory replaced that with the Gregorian calendar in 4 October 1582.
During the 20th and 21st centuries, the date according to the Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian date.
The Julian calendar has two types of year: common years of 365 days and leap years of 366 days. There is a simple cycle of three common years followed by a leap year and this pattern repeats forever. However, the rule was not followed in the first years after the of the reform in 45 BCE. Due to a counting error, every 3rd year was a leap year instead of the 4th. The leap years were:
However, in 8 BCE (746 AUC), emperor Augustus Caesar corrected the problem. The next leap year was 7 CE (160 AUC).
With the simple cycle, the length of the Julian year is exactly 365.25 days (365 days and 6 hours), but the actual time it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun once is closer to 365.2422 days (about 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds). This difference is about 365.25 - 365.2422 = 0.0078 days (11 minutes and 14 seconds) each year, although Greek astronomers knew that. This made the seasons get out of track, since the real first day of spring in western Europe (the equinox - day and night the same length) was happening earlier and earlier before the traditional 21 March as the centuries went by. By the 1500s, it was starting around 11 March, ten days 'too early' according to the calendar.
The first step of the reform was to realign the 25 December with the Winter solstice by making 46 BCE (708 AUC) 445 days long. In ordinary Roman calendar, the common year had 355 days and the leap year (one year after the common year) had 378 days. The 46 BCE was a leap year, according to the calendar. Julius Caesar added 67 more days by adding two extra months (those are called "Prior" and "Posterior" in letters of Cicero) between November and December.
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar that is used throughout most of the world. It began being used in 1582. It replaced the previous Julian calendar because the Julian calendar had an error: it added a leap year (with an extra day every four years) with no exceptions. The length of the Julian year was exactly 365.25 days (365 days and 6 hours), but the actual time it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun once is closer to 365.2425 days (about 365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes). This difference is about eleven minutes each year.
This made the seasons get out of track, since the real first day of spring in western Europe (the equinox - day and night the same length) was happening earlier and earlier before the traditional March 21 as the centuries went by. By the 1500s, it was starting around March 11, ten days 'too early' according to the calendar. So what they did was to move the calendar forward ten days in 1582, and at the same time to make sure it did not happen again. To do this, they made an exception to the previous 'leap year rule' (add February 29 every four years). There would be no February 29 for every year that ends in 00 - unless it could be divided by 400. So the year 2000 was a leap year, because it could be divided by 400, but 1700, 1800, and 1900 would be common years, with no February 29.
It was first suggested by the Neapolitan doctor Aloysius Lilius, and was made official by Pope Gregory XIII, for whom it was named, on February 24, 1582. The official change took place the following October, when Thursday, 4th was followed by Friday, 15th.
The months of the Gregorian calendar year are, in order:
If February has 28 days, then the year is 365 days long.
If February has 29 days, then the year is called a "leap year" and it is 366 days long. A leap year usually happens once every four years. Some examples of leap years are 2004, 2008, and 2012. The next leap year is 2024.
Not every country started using the new calendar immediately. Spain, Portugal, and Italy started to use the new calendar on Friday, October 15, 1582, following Julian Thursday, October 4, 1582. In Europe's Protestant countries, people feared that the new calendar was an attempt by the Catholic Church to silence their movement. The England and the rest of the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752; by which time it was necessary to correct by "eleven" days (Wednesday, September 2, 1752 being followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752).
In the USSR, the October Revolution of 1917 was celebrated in November. In 1917 the Russian Empire still used the old Julian calendar. Changing the calendar meant 365 days after the revolution started was now in November 1918.
In 1923 some Eastern Orthodox Churches changed to the Gregorian calendar. Christmas Day is the same as the Catholic and Protestant churches, but the date of Easter continues to be worked out differently.
The Russian Orthodox Church, as well as some other Eastern Orthodox Churches such as Georgian and Serbian, did not want this change, so Russian Christmas Day is about two weeks after the rest of Europe.
Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar's way of working out leap years on January 1, 1873, but the months have numbers instead of names. Japan also starts year one with each new reign, but uses reign names not the name an emperor might be best known by in the west. For example, the reign names "Meiji" year 1=1868, "Taisho" 1=1912, "Showa" (Emperor Hirohito) 1=1926, "Heisei" (Emperor Akihito) 1=1989, and so on. The "Western calendar" (西暦, "seireki") using western year numbers, is also widely accepted by civilians and to a lesser extent by government agencies.
Some old dates in Britain were written and documented with two different years. This is because Britain did not start a new year until March 25, so for a few months it was one year in Britain and the next year in other countries.
The letters OS (for "Old Style") and NS (for "New Style") were used to help determine the year being used. For example, King Charles I died on January 30, 1649. In "Old Style" it is correct to say that Charles I died "January 30, 1648 (OS)". Using "New Style", as we determine dates now, the correct date and year would be February 9, 1649.
In the old calendar the year started on March 25. This became April 5, and was used as the first day of the year for working out taxes and rents. Taxes and rents went on using the old way of working out leap years so in 1800 the year started on April 6. But it was not changed in 1900, so the tax year in the United Kingdom still begins on April 6.
People sometimes use the term N.S. or New Style to mean the Gregorian calendar, with Old Style (or O.S.) meaning the Julian calendar.
Southern hemisphere
The Southern hemisphere is the half of Earth that is south of the equator. It has about 10 percent of world's population and only a small part of the world's land. A very small part of Asia, one-third of Africa, 90 percent of South America and all of Australia are in this hemisphere.
Sufism (also known as Tassawuf) is a group or branch in Islam with a mystic path or system. Someone who practices Sufism is called a Sufi, and may be a "Dervish" or a "Fakir".
At first, Sufism only meant making Islam more personal and internal. Some say it first came from constantly reciting the Qur'an, meditating, and through experience. Others believe that Sufism is trying to live as the Islamic prophet Muhammad did, to be closer to God. This is how the Prophet taught his disciples. Additionally, the Muslim conquests had brought large numbers of Christian monks and hermits, especially in Syria and Egypt, under Muslim rule. They believed in a deeply spiritual and mystical (even 'Platonic') way of life and many of their ways became part of early Sufism.
Some of these teachings were summarized in texts (in Arabic initially). Important contributions in writing are attributed to Uwais al-Qarni, Harrm bin Hian, Hasan Basri and Sayid ibn al-Mussib, who are regarded as among the first Sufis in the earliest generations of Islam. Harith al-Muhasibi was the first one to write about moral psychology. Rabia Basri was a Sufi known for her love and passion for God, expressed through her poetry. Bayazid Bastami was among the first theorists of Sufism.
Sufism already had a long history when some teachers began to set up formal schools or orders ("Tarika" or "Tariqah") in the early Middle Ages. Almost all existing Sufi orders today trace their roots and chain of transmission ("silsila") back to Muhammad, via one of these orders.
The main idea in Sufism is that people can have 'personal knowledge' or oneness with God in their lives. In order to be one with God, you have to destroy your idea of yourself, or your ego. This is known as "fanaa" (annihilation). Apart from saying Sufi prayers, that vary according to different orders, you should be humble, considerate, and only act in order to control your desires.
After "fanaa" is achieved, the you are reborn to live with, in, through and for God, ("baqaa", permanency). This is the state where you have achieved the divine love of God, and come ever closer to a unity with God. You should now strive to be one with God. A person who has crossed the various Sufi 'stages' and achieved this sort of mystic union with Allah, is called a "Wali" (a saint or friend of God) and the state is termed "Wilayat" (friendship/union).
In Sufism there exist many different orders ("tarikas"), that were founded from the 12th and 13th centuries until today/contemporary times. Some of the major Sufi orders are:
Some of the major, notable Sufis in history, from the 'classical age' of Sufism, include:
Modern practitioners, who have achieved the degree of "sheikh" (Master/Preceptor) and are accounted to have a high spiritual status, are still found in various places.
Sufi practices are usually defined within the basic tenets of Islam, the "Sharia" (or "Shariah") although some orders include singing and dancing in the love of God, something some Muslims frown on. Hence some Muslims of a more orthodox mind-set believe that any actions outside the scope of "Sharia", or Sufi activities practised by non-Muslims are 'wrong'. However the underlying message and aim of the quest for the love of God is true for all humanity. For a non-Muslim the most important ideas in Sufism are love for fellow human beings (which reflects one's love of God) and living ones life in such a way where all actions are against the self. This automatically starts him on the path of "fanaa". In terms of discipleship and training, almost all the major Sufi orders are themselves quite willing to take students who are not Muslims.
There are some Muslim schools of thought, such as the Wahhabi for example, who oppose Sufism because they feel it obliterates the difference between God and man and bypasses the common method of salvation as prescribed by their interpretations of "Sharia". Although there are non-Islamic versions of Sufism too (generally defined as 'Universal Sufism') puritanical and rigid people in Islam tend to view them with considerable hatred and anger. As a result, we often see a great deal of misunderstanding and conflict regarding Sufism and Sufic practices.
Historically speaking, orthodox Islam, especially fundamentalist groups like the Wahhabi and Salafi have been the most intolerant and violent against what they think of as 'Deviant Sufism'. In the past centuries, severe persecution has been carried out by them against the Kharijites, the Ismaili Shia cult (sometimes termed the 'Assassins'), the Ahmadiyya movement and several other groups and individuals with Sufi-like mystical tendencies and practices. During the time of the later Mughal Empire in India, even the early "gurus" of Sikhism were persecuted by orthodox Islamic "mullahs" (theologians) since they had chosen to incorporate some of the ideas and poetic verses of the Sufi saint Baba Farid into their holy scriptures. In more recent times, over the last two decades, considerable persecution has been made of the spiritual reformer and sage Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi and his followers in Pakistan. He was opposed and threatened and forced to flee the country and his books banned there, and anyone publicly supporting him is liable to immediate arrest.
Even proper, formal Sufi orders have suffered persecution for various reasons. In recent times the most notorious example was the outright banning of Sufism in Iran. This happened in spite of the famous "Amman Message", a joint declaration made by over 200 of the most noted moderate Islamic scholars in a conference in Amman, Jordan, in 2005, stressing that Sufism is very much 'part' of Islam.
Some volumes for further reading on Sufism include:
Pigeons or doves are the bird family Columbidae.
The common names "pigeon" and "dove" are often used interchangeably. In ornithology, "dove" tends to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones. The feral domestic pigeon is often called the "rock dove": it is common in many cities.
There are more than 300 species in the family. They usually make nests of sticks, and their two white eggs are incubated by both the male and the female parent. Doves feed on seeds, fruit and plants.
Unlike most other birds, the doves and pigeons produce a type of milk. It is produced in their crop, and called crop milk. Both sexes have this highly nutritious milk to feed their young.
Pigeons and doves are distributed everywhere on Earth, except for the driest areas of the Sahara Desert, Antarctica and its surrounding islands and the high Arctic. They have colonised most of the world's oceanic islands. They are in eastern Polynesia and the Chatham Islands in the Pacific, Mauritius, the Seychelles and Réunion in the Indian Ocean, and the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean.
The family has adapted to most of the habitats available on the planet. Doves may be arboreal or terrestrial or partly terrestrial. Species live in savannas, grasslands, deserts, temperate woodlands and forests, mangrove forests, and even the barren sands and gravels of atolls. Some species have large natural ranges.
The largest range of any species is that of the rock dove. This species lives in Britain and Ireland, northern Africa, across Europe, Arabia, Central Asia, India, the Himalayas and up into China and Mongolia. The range of the species increased dramatically after it was domesticated, because the species went feral in cities around the world. It lives in cities across most of North America, South America, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
The species is not the only pigeon to have increased its range due to the actions of man; several other species have become established outside of their natural range after escaping captivity. Other species have also increased their natural ranges due to habitat changes by humans.
The dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire are two famous flightless birds on the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. They are extinct, but were alive before sailors found the islands. They had no fear of humans, whom they had never seen. The sailors hunted them, and killed them for food. Both species are now extinct. Animals introduced by man may also have hunted them. Their anatomy (osteology) and DNA sequence analyses show they were are in the Columbidae.
In the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, doves were used as symbols for the Canaanite mother goddess Asherah, the Phoenician goddess Tanit, and the Roman goddesses Venus and Fortunata.
The Christian symbol of a dove with an olive branch in its beak represents peace and comes from Genesis 8:6 - 12, also John 1:32–34. The Christian stories came after very similar myths from earlier cultures.The Chaldean myth the "Epic of Gilgamesh", Utnapishtim releases a dove and raven to find land; however, the dove merely circles and returns. Only then does Utnapishtim send forth the raven, which does not return, and Utnapishtim concludes the raven has found land.
Several species of pigeons and doves are used as food, and probably any might be. The powerful breast muscles of the family make excellent meat. Domesticated or hunted pigeon were used as food in Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome and medieval Europe. It is familiar meat within Jewish, Arab, Assamese and French cuisines. According to the Tanakh, doves are kosher, and they are the only birds that may be used for a "korban" (offering). Other kosher birds may be eaten, but not brought as a "korban". It is also eaten in Asian cuisines, such as Chinese and Indonesian cuisine. Young pigeons in cuisine are known as "squabs".
In Europe, the wood pigeon is commonly shot as a game bird. Rock pigeons were originally domesticated as a food species, and many breeds were developed for their meat-bearing qualities. The extinction of the passenger pigeon in North America was partly due to shooting for food. Mrs Beeton's "Book of Household Management" has recipes for roast pigeon and pigeon pie, a popular, inexpensive food in Victorian industrial Britain.
Antonio Prohias
Antonio Prohias (January 17, 1921 – February 24, 1998) was a Cuban-born cartoonist. He is best known as the creator of Spy vs. Spy. The running gag is of two incompent spies-one in black clothing-one in white clothing-who consisity try to outdo each other in comic mayhem. Although one comic only identies their countries as Black/White another one tells their nationalities are given in an International border cartoon in which the Black Spy from the "East" tries to sneak over to the "West" [Guarded by the "White Spy."]-although a later cartoon identies their countries as "Black SpyLand" (and presumedly "White Spyland") Likewise the Spys parents and their Children are cloathed as Black/white Miniature copies of their fathers Even in childhood and old age the two spys began their mayhem against one another-although their feuding goes back to Caveman times and the Roman Empire In the Spy Vs Spy World even innocenet human bystanders toys and the Spys animals are cloathed in Black/White They even have their own Spy Cemeteries [ID only as Agent Number but no names]; and Fan Clubs; their newspapers are called "Spy News" The Spys weopons could be anything-from antique Biplanes to Jets Each spy would be attached to either their own embassy or their respective Spy Hq-a running gag is that each spy would try to steal secrets from the enemy spy embassy On occasion Prohias would introduce a variation in which one Spy would embaress -but not kill-the enemy spy Other variations-more than One spy of the same color vs enemy Spy; and occasionally the introduction of a third Spy..the femme fatalee female "Grey Spy" would always trick the two love struck bumblers to their doom. In Honor of St Patricks Day another Spy was introduced the "Green Spy". When "Mad Magazine" had its own TV Show they would show 3D Cartoons of Spy Vs Spy shorts. After Prohias demise the Cartoon has been drawn by Kupper
Chancellor
Chancellor is the leader of the government in Germany or Austria. The title "Chancellor" means the same thing as "Prime Minister".
For example, Italy has a Prime Minister while Germany has a Chancellor. They have the same job but a different title.
In the United Kingdom, the Chancellor means the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the person in charge of the country's finances (taxes and spending). Also in the United Kingdom, there is a Lord Chancellor.
Chancellor is also a title given to public officials in some other countries. For example, "Daijō-daijin" or Chancellor of the Realm was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods.
Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822–July 23, 1885), born Hiram Ulysses Grant, was an American general who helped the Union Army of the United States win the American Civil War. He later became the 18th President of the United States (1869-1877).
Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He was the oldest of six children born to Jesse and Hannah Grant. Jesse Grant was a tanner. It was hard smelly work but he made a good living at it. Young Grant worked for his father in the tannery but hated the work. He went to local schools. In 1838 he attended the Presbyterian Academy in Ripley, Ohio. In 1839 he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was not the best student though he was good at math. When he graduated, he was placed in the infantry.
When Grant arrived at West Point and discovered that the Academy had him registered under the wrong name as "Ulysses S. Grant". He was told that it didn't matter what he or his parents thought his name was, the official government application said his name was "Ulysses S." and that application could not be changed. If "Hiram Ulysses Grant" wanted to attend West Point, he would have to change his name.
Before becoming the president, Grant was an officer in the Union Army (North). He fought in the Mexican War and became a general at the start of the American Civil War. He served as head of the Army of Tennessee and won victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. He became the top general in the Union Army from 1864 to 1865, and fought several battles against Robert E. Lee.
Since he was able to do well fighting in the American Civil War, he gained popularity which helped him to become the candidate for president of the Republican party. The Republicans were then the strongest party. Even though he was a respected general and supported civil rights for African Americans, historians criticize his presidency because he appointed his friends into high political positions and tolerated their corruption (even though Grant himself was innocent). Grant was the youngest president, only 46 years old, and the first to have both his parents attend his inauguration. He was also the first elected because of African American voters, who could vote then, although there was a big fight about it, which ended with many Black voters losing the right to vote. In his election, he won about 500,000 votes from African Americans, while the majority of white voters supported the Democratic candidate, who was called Horatio Seymour. Grant supported the right of Black men to vote because of this, but also because he thought it was right.
In 1872, Republican reformers split the party and nominated Horace Greeley to be president. The Democratic Party also nominated him. Greeley wanted Civil Service reform and amnesty for all former Confederates. Grant won the election by a landslide.
Very soon into Grant's second term the Panic of 1873 started a depression in the United States that spread to Europe. In 1873, Republicans in Congress were caught in a bribery scandal by newspapers. They had collected large bribes to give large federal grants to the railroads. The bribes had taken place before Grant was president, but the news came out during his presidency making it seem even more corrupt. Also in 1873, Grant signed a bill that gave himself and congressmen a pay raise. The press attacked him for it calling it a money grab. Republicans were getting a bad reputation in the press. Mid-term, the Democrats won a majority of votes in the House. They started a number of congregational investigations. Grant's Secretary of the Treasury had to resign after being caught in a fraud scheme involving taxpayer kickbacks.
The Whiskey Ring was the largest scandal and involved widespread fraud. Grant had appointed an army friend John MacDonald as an Internal Revenue Service supervisor for the St. Louis area. In return for bribes, whisky distillers paid taxes only on a small portion of the whiskey they produced. They were cheating the U.S. government out of millions of dollars a year. MacDonald kept some of the money while some of it went to the Republican Party. The Whiskey Ring was paying some officials a regular salary to keep them from talking. Benjamin Bristow, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time, had no idea this was going on. Each time he sent inspectors on a raid to check out suspected cheaters, their records were always in good order. Bristow had no idea someone in his office was telling them in advance who was to be inspected. Meanwhile, Grant accepted expensive gifts from MacDonald not suspecting he was running a fraud scheme. MacDonald even told his friends in St. Louis that Grant was in on the scheme. In 1875, MacDonald and more than 350 distillers and government officials were indicted. This included Grant's personal secretary Orville Babcock. He was the one keeping ring members informed of any inspections. At his trial, witnesses lied and even President Grant wrote a letter stating Babcock was of good character. As a result, Babcock was exonerated of the charges, but the scandal prevented him from going back to his job in Washington. Of those accused, 60 paid fines while MacDonald and two others went to prison. The Whiskey Ring proved to most Americans that Grant's administration was filled with corruption.
After his presidency, Grant was suffering from throat cancer. He made a long trip to Europe and tried to become president again in 1880. Nobody had been elected three times before and it was seen as wrong by many because George Washington had refused to. In the end, the Republican party agreed to nominate (propose) congressman James Garfield instead. But Grant kept many supporters in the party. One of them shot Garfield the same year, and killed him. Grant never became president again, however, and only one man has been elected three times (actually four), Franklin Roosevelt. Grant was the first one to try, however.
Despite the problems during his second term, Grant was immensely popular, much like a modern-day movie star, and wrote a book about his life that sold millions of copies. He died three days after he finished writing it. He is buried with his wife Julia in Grant's Tomb, New York City, New York.
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: "Gwenad") is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea that received its independence from the United Kingdom in 1974. Its capital is St. George's.
The island was invaded by the American military in 1983 because of Cuba's presence there. In 2004, a hurricane named Ivan destroyed most of the island's resources.
Grenada is called the Spice Island on account of its most famous export, the nutmeg.
Accrington
Yateley
Yateley is a suburban town in England in the county of Hampshire. It had a population of 21,011 according to the 2001 census.
It is on the borders with Berkshire and Surrey. It lies some 35 miles (56 km) west-south-west of London and 15 miles (24 km) south of Reading. Other local towns and villages include Eversley, Finchampstead, Hartley Wintney, Blackwater, Camberley, Sandhurst, Crowthorne, Farnborough and Fleet.
Yateley mainly serves as a dormitory town for workers in London, Reading, Guildford, Farnborough and Camberley.
Public transport in Yateley is limited to a bus that serves Blackwater, Camberley and Aldershot. There is no train station.
There are two secondary schools in the town, Yateley School and Frogmore School, and many infant and primary schools.
Stratford-upon-Avon
Pune is the 8th largest metropolis in India. It is in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city is famous for the great "Maratha" king "Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj". The game of badminton was invented there in the 19th century. It is also the birthplace of spiritual teacher Meher Baba. Mula and Mutha are the two rivers that flow through the city. It has also"", ""Oxford of the East"", ""Detroit of India"" by some.
It has a major Information Technology (IT) center. This city is managed by the Pune Municipal Council (PMC).
Pune is a city of knowledge and often known as the Oxford of the east. In Marathi, it is known as "vidyeche maherghar." It means the hometown of education. The population of Pune was 8,242,142 by 2015.
The name Pune comes from the Sanskrit word - "". It means "city of virtue". Pune is known for its educational facilities, having more than hundred educational institutes and nine universities. Pune has well-established glass, sugar and metal forging industries since the 1950s. Pune is also known as the "Oxford of the East." Pune was once the centre of power for the Maratha Empire. It is known to have existed as a town since 847 AD. Pune was the first capital of Shivaji Maharaj.
It is the cultural capital of Maharashtra. There are many historic places like Shaniwar Wada, Lal Mahal and many museums like the Aga Khan Palace, Raja Kelkar Museum, and the National War museum.
The climate of Pune is suitable to reside in, so many people settled there. Today, Pune has many complexes, shopping malls and multiplexes. There are many research centres present in Pune.
Students not only from other cities and States come here to study, but international students from various countries are also found here. There are many clubs for different sports activities in this city. The main attraction of the city is the Ganesh Festival which is celebrated with great joy.
There are many educational institutions like Symbiosis, SP and Fergusson. Many people in Pune are food lovers, there are many famous Bhelpuri and Vada pav centres.
Beer (Devon)
A fly (plural: "flies") is an insect of the order Diptera. The Diptera is a large order of advanced flying insects.
Their most obvious distinction from other insects is in their flight. A typical fly has two flight wings on its thorax and a pair of halteres. The halteres, which evolved from the hind wings, act as flight sensors: they are balance organs. Also flies have large eyes with excellent wide-angle vision.
With the help of their eyes and halteres, flies are exceptional fliers. They can avoid most predators, and are the most difficult insects to capture by hand. Their jinks, dives and turns to avoid their predators is their main adaptation. "These flies do a precise and fast calculation to avoid a specific threat and they are doing it using a brain that is as small as a grain of salt"... "And they can fly like an ace at birth. It's like putting a newborn baby in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft and it knowing what to do".
The only other order of insects bearing two true, functional wings plus any form of halteres are the Strepsiptera, a small order of insects. In contrast to the flies, the Strepsiptera evolved their halteres from their front wings and their flight wings are their rear wings.
The presence of a single pair of wings distinguishes true flies from other insects with "fly" in their name, such as mayflies, dragonflies, damselflies, stoneflies, whiteflies, fireflies, sawflies, caddisflies, butterflies or scorpionflies.
Some true flies have become secondarily wingless, including some that live in social insect colonies.
Flies are also holometabolous, with complete metamorphosis.
There are an estimated 1,000,000 species, although only about 150,000 species have been described.
There are many different kinds of flies. Scientists have named 85,000 kinds (species).
Some flies do not have the word "fly" in their name, so people may not know they are flies.
Some insects have the word "fly" in their names, but they are not flies at all.
Dhikr
The Arabic word Dhikr means "remembrance". Another word is Dhikrullah ("remembrance of God").
Dhikr is a kind of worship to God. It is often performed by the Sufis in congregation, and each Sufi order has its special kind of Dhikr.
However all Muslims must do dhikr.There are many benefits of doing Dhikr according to Islamic theology.Such as the fact that it is a polisher of the heart, a way of gaining closeness to Allah, one can even gain trees in Paradise for it.
Jockey
George Lazenby
George Lazenby (born September 5, 1939) is an Australian-born model and actor. He was born in Goulburn, New South Wales. He is best known for his role as James Bond in the movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1968). He is the only actor to play the role of Bond only once in an official James Bond movie.
In common speaking and geometry, a cone is a solid object that one gets when one rotates a right triangle around one of its two short sides, the cone's axis. The disk made by the other short side is called the base, and the point of the axis which is not on the base is the cone's "apex" or "vertex". An object that is shaped like a cone is "conical".
In more technical terms, a cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines connecting a common point, the apex, to all of the points on a base that is in a plane that does not contain the apex. Depending on the author, the base may be restricted to be a circle, any one-dimensional quadratic form in the plane, any closed one-dimensional figure, or any of the above plus all the enclosed points. If the enclosed points are included in the base, the cone is a solid object; otherwise it is a two-dimensional object in three-dimensional space. In the case of a solid object, the boundary formed by these lines or partial lines is called the lateral surface; if the lateral surface is unbounded, it is a conical surface.
In the case of line segments, the cone does not extend beyond the base, while in the case of half-lines, it extends infinitely far. In the case of lines, the cone extends infinitely far in both directions from the apex, in which case it is sometimes called a double cone. Either half of a double cone on one side of the apex is called a nappe. The volume formula_1 of a cone is one third of the product of the area of the base formula_2 and the height formula_3
Ice cream is a frozen dessert made from cream and ice, with added flavors and sweeteners. This mixture is quickly frozen while it is stirred continuously in a mixer,so that large ice crystals do not form. Some ice cream is made with carrageenan, a gum found in seaweed so that it is not sticky and easily eatable. Nowadays, ice cream comes with different flavors, shapes, colours and textures. It has a melting point of .
Ice cream was first eaten as early as 500 B.C in Persia. In the Achaemid Empire, an ancient Persian empire, ice cream was made of ice combined with flavorings. Just like modern ice cream, this type of ice cream is eaten during summer. In 400 BC, the Persians invented a special type of ice cream reserved to the royalty during summers. This type of ice cream is made of rose water and vermicelli. The ice in this particular ice cream was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors.
In 200 BC, the Chinese used a frozen mixture of milk and rice to make ice cream.
Ice cream became very popular in the Mediterranean in the 1800s. Mediterranean people during the 1800s could easily afford ice cream. People started to make lots of recipes for ice cream.
From the 1950s onward, ice cream became a lot more popular. Refrigeration was easily affordable because many people owned fridges that could store ice cream for a very long time without melting.
There are lots of ways to make ice cream. Most people don't make ice cream, because it is easier to buy ice cream.
Shops make ice cream by mixing cream and other things like milk, sugar, and eggs. Then they add flavoring (something that adds flavor to a food). Then they freeze it.
You can also make ice cream by putting cream, milk, and sugar in a plastic bag. Then put ice and salt in a bigger bag. If you put the smaller bag inside the bigger bag, then shake it for 5-10 minutes, you get ice cream.
People sell ice cream through many ways. You can buy ice cream in ice cream containers from supermarkets. You can also buy ice cream on a cone from an ice cream truck.
There are many different flavors of ice cream. Ice cream often has things added to it for flavor, like chocolate chips, nuts, fruit, cookie dough, sweets, sauces or small candies.
Traditionally, the three most common flavors are vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. There are ice cream flavors that are very similar, such as French vanilla, vanilla bean, dark chocolate, chocolate chip, and strawberry cheesecake.
Chocolate chips, or little pieces of dark or white chocolate, are a common addition to ice cream. Three common chocolate chip ice creams are chocolate chip (made with vanilla ice cream), mint chocolate chip or mint 'n chip (made with peppermint, spearmint, or creme de menthe ice cream), and chocolate chocolate chip. Peppermint ice cream without chips is also a common flavor.
Many ice creams contain fruits. Besides strawberry, common fruit flavors are cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and peach. Some citrus fruits, such as orange and lime, are made into sherbets instead of ice cream.
Nut flavors include butter pecan, butter almond (both of which contain vanilla or caramel ice cream with nuts), pistachio, and peanut butter.
Coffee (mocha, cappuccino, espresso) and caramel (English toffee, butterscotch, rum) are also common ice cream flavors.
There are many ice cream flavors that contain some mixture of chocolate, fudge, coffee, caramel, nuts, and marshmallows. The most common is Rocky Road (chocolate ice cream, nuts and marshmallows), but others include Mocha Almond Fudge (made with almond nuts, fudge, and coffee ice cream) and Tax Crunch (coffee, nuts, and malt powder)
Some ice creams are a mixture of two or more ice creams. Neapolitan is a mixture of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry; while spumoni is a mixture of chocolate and various fruit flavors.
Outside of the United States and Canada, flavors include dulce du leche (Mexico), macupino and lychee (both China)
Ice cream mixed with milk and often sugar and syrups is called a Milk Shake.
Many ice cream parlors, such as Cold Stone Creamery, allow people to make something called a sundae, which is one or more flavors of ice cream mixed with things such as nuts, dark or white chocolate chips, bananas, cherries, pineapples, candies, cookies, marshmallows, and various syrups such as hot fudge, maple and butterscotch. Also, ice cream is often placed on a piece of pie, which is called "pie a la mode".
Grace Coolidge
Grace Anna Coolidge (née Goodhue; January 3, 1879 – July 8, 1957) was First Lady of the United States. She was the wife of United States President Calvin Coolidge. She acted as the First Lady of the United States from 1923 to 1929.
Her parents were Andrew and Lemira B. Goodhue. She was their only child. She spent her childhood at Burlington, Vermont. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 1902. She then started teaching at a school for the deaf children. The name of that school was the Clarke School for the Deaf, Northampton, Massachusetts. There she met Calvin Coolidge. They married in October 1905. The name of their first son was John Coolidge. The name of their second, born in 1908, son was Calvin, Jr.
During all these years, her husband was working as a lawyer. Then, he became the governor. During all these years, Grace Coolidge helped her husband actively. By 1921, her husband has become the Vice President. They moved to Washington. Grace Coolidge soon became very popular in the high society of Washington.
President Warren G. Harding died in 1923, and Calvin Coolidge became the President of the United States. Suddenly, their second son aged only 16 years died. She did not allow her personal sadness to disturb her work as the First Lady.
In 1929, the president retired, and the couple left Washington. They went to Northampton (Massachusetts) to live.
USA’s National Institute of Social Sciences awarded her a gold medal. In 1931, many people of America selected her as one of America’s living women.
In 1933, her husband died, but she lived for many decades. She died in 1957 at the age of 78. She lived a private life. In between, she took her first airplane ride and a trip to Europe.
List of U.S. state flowers
The state flower is a symbol for each state in USA, the state flowers for each state are:
A blacksmith is a person who works with iron and steel. The blacksmith hammers hot iron on an anvil to change its shape. Blacksmiths make iron and steel tools.
A smith is a person who works in metal. A blacksmith works with iron and steel. A thousand years ago, people only knew about seven metals (iron, gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, and mercury). By color: gold is yellow; copper is red; and silver, tin, lead, and mercury are different gray colors. Iron is also a gray color if you shine it, but usually its surface is covered with a black oxide, which is a kind of rust. This black color forms very fast in a blacksmith's fire. The other metals have light colors, but iron is a dark color, so it is called the black metal in English. A smith who works the black metal is a blacksmith.
A farrier works with iron like a blacksmith. The only ironwork a farrier does is to make horseshoes.
Iron must be very hot to shape with a hammer. Hot iron becomes cold very soon. A blacksmith has only a few seconds to hammer a piece of iron, before it must be put back in the fire to become hot again.
A forge is a special oven for metalworking. It burns coal or charcoal in a very hot fire. A bellows pushes air into the forge, to make the fire burn hotter. The blacksmith puts pieces of iron in the fire to make them hot and to keep them hot until they use it.
There are a few ways to change a piece of iron's shape with hammer and heat. Here are the most important ways that a blacksmith uses:
A punch is a tool like a short stick of iron. The end of the punch is flat.