AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Penjing (盆景 pinyin: pén jǐng, literally tray scenery) is the ancient Chinese art of growing trees and plants in containers. The plants are kept small by skilled pruning.
Penjing is similar to the Japanese art of bonsai.
The first historical reference to "penjing" is from the 9th century.
Kirby (character)
"For the game series see, Kirby (series)"
Kirby, Now sold over 42 million copies Is one of Nintendo’s Best sellers and even though he’s cute, he’s really Dangerous (To the bad guys.) from King Dedede (Who wants to be king of dreamland) to Void termina (Destroyer of Worlds) He’s defeated them all. He can swim, fly, inhale and take abilities from bad guys. But, we will talk about who Kirby is and how he came to be.
Kirby (originally named Popopo) has been the main character of some of games made by HAL Laboratory (or HALKEN, as it was called in the 90's). He appeared in over twenty games since 1992 and in the anime television series. The series has sold over 33 million copies worldwide. The original games of the series are platformers. They typically begin with an evil villain threatening his home of Dream Land ("Pupupuland" プププランド) on the planet Pop Star, usually the greedy King Dedede and Dark Matter other enemies are Magolor, Metaknight, and Landia.
Kirby can walk, run, jump, swim underwater, float, and inhale, and spit out or swallow enemies. After "Kirby's Dream Land", Kirby can copy abilities from enemies he swallowed, such as Fire, Sword, Fighter, Tornado, and Cutter. The character is named after lawyer John Kirby.
Kirby’s Dreamland. 1992 Sold on gameboy
Kirby’s Adventure. 1993 Sold on NES
Kirby’s pinball land. 1993 Sold on Gameboy
Kirby’s Dream Course. 1994 Sold on Super NES
Kirby’s avalanche. 1995 Sold on Super NES
Kirby’s Dreamland 2. 1995 Sold on gameboy
Kirby’s Block ball. 1995 Sold on Gameboy
Kirby Super Star. 1996 Sold on Super
Kirby’s Star Stacker. 1997 Sold On Gameboy
Kirby’s Dreamland 3. 1997 Sold on Super NES
Kirby 64 The crystal shards. 2000 Sold on Nintendo 64
Kirby Tilt’n’Tumble. 2000 Sold on Gameboy color
Kirby Nightmare in dreamland. 2002 Sold on Gameboy Advance
Kirby Airride. 2003 Sold on Gamecube
Kirby & the amazing mirror. 2004 Sold on Gameboy Advance
Kirby Canvas curse. 2005 Sold on Nintendo DS
Kirby Squeak Squad. 2006 Sold on Nintendo DS
Kirby Super Star Ultra. 2008 Sold on Nintendo DS
Kirby’s Epic Yarn. 2010 Sold on Nintendo DS
Kirby Mass attack. 2011 Sold on Nintendo DS
Kirby’s return to Dreamland 2011 Sold on Wii
Kirby’s Dream collection. 2012 Sold on Wii
Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe. 2014 Sold on Nintendo 3DS
Kirby Fighters Deluxe. 2014 Sold on Nintendo 3DS
Kirby Triple Deluxe. 2014 Sold on Nintendo 3DS
Kirby and the rainbow curse. 2015 Sold on WiiU
Kirby Planet Robobot. 2016 Sold on Nintendo 3DS
Team Kirby Clash Deluxe. 2017 Sold on Nintendo 3DS
Kirby’s Blowout Blast. 2017 Sold on Nintendo 3DS
Kirby Battle Royale. 2018 Sold on Nintendo 3DS
Kirby Star Allies. 2018 Sold on Nintendo Switch
Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn. 2018 Sold on Nintendo 3DS
Super Kirby Clash. 2019 Sold on Nintendo Switch
Kirby Fighters 2. 2020 Sold on Nintendo Switch
At first, Kirby was named Twinkle Popo but Masahiro Sakurai (The creator of Kirby) wanted American kids to enjoy it too so He and his team asked Nintendo of America for some names and the name “Kirby,” caught Sakurai’s eye out of maybe hundreds, But Kirby, just happened to be the name of Nintendo of America’s lawyer, John Kirby.
The backgrounds for the Kirby series are pretty but they made them in a different than usual way. Normally they would give the person who makes the maps to make the backgrounds too but instead they had a designer draw it then gave it to the mapper to make the maps and levels.
How Kirby got his shape is that Sakurai wanted a cute character that everyone can enjoy. People also draw characters they like in their notebook so he and his crew decided with a circular shape that’s easy to draw.
When they first made Kirby’s dreamland, people started saying That it was too easy or too short, so they decided to make something fun and easy, even for the skilled players, So they made Kirby’s adventure. With swallowing to get power-ups instead of just inhaling and spitting the enemy out to hit the other one.
When they published him they started seeing drawings of Kirby in parks and open spaces so that was a little surprise for the crew.
People were also thinking that Kirby was white, or yellow because think Pac-man he’s round and yellow people also thought he was white because the illustration of Kirby was white on Kirby's dreamland but Sakurai was the only person who said he was pink.
A capacitor (also called condenser, which is the older term) is an electronic device that stores electric energy. It is similar to a battery, but can be smaller, lightweight and a capacitor charges or discharges much quicker. Capacitors are used in many electronic devices today, and can be made out of many different types of material. The Leyden jar was one of the first capacitors invented.
Capacitors are usually made with two metal plates that are on top of each other and near each other, but that do not actually touch. When powered, they allow energy to be stored inside an electrical field. Because the plates need a lot of area to store even a small amount of charge, the plates are usually rolled up into some other shape, such as a cylinder. Sometimes, other shapes of capacitors are used for special purposes. A capacitor-like effect can also result just from two conductors being close to each other, whether you want it to exist or not.
The type of capacitor used depends on the application. Capacitors come in many sizes. They can be as small as an ant or as large as a dustbin. A few capacitors are adjustable.
All capacitors have two connections, or leads. Most kinds of capacitors can be replaced easily by someone who has basic skills in electronics. However, one of the more powerful types - the electrolytic capacitor - must be used the correct way, or they can explode violently.
While capacitors can store energy, as batteries do, capacitors can release all their stored energy very quickly, even faster than a second. A defibrillator or a photoflash capacitor uses this ability. It gradually charges, until it cannot be filled any more, and then quickly discharges its stored power to a device that needs to have it quickly.
Supercapacitors hold a bigger charge than regular capacitors. They are used to store electricity for motors and other purposes when batteries won't discharge quickly enough.
This type of capacitor is not for use in high frequency circuits, being made with a coil inside. They can charge and discharge even more quickly than other capacitors. They are used in filter circuits or timing circuits which run at several hundred KHz or less.
Electrolytic capacitors use a conducting surface inside a liquid electrolyte. They do not charge and discharge as rapidly as film capacitors do. They have polarity and so they have to be attached correctly. There are two leads; one will have a + and the other a -. This means one lead is "positive" and one is "negative". There are two different styles: axial, where the leads are connected to each end, and radial, where the leads are connected to one end. Electrolytic capacitors are printed with capacitance and voltage rating.
Since the voltage rating can be low, it is important to check that the electrolytic capacitor is not overcharged. Capacitors can be separated from a battery, then connected in series. Because the capacitor is polarized, the positive terminal must be connected to a negative terminal. This creates "correct polarity" through the electrical circuit and prevents breakdown.
Some electrolytic capacitors are unpolarized, meaning that either side can be positive or negative. These are mostly used in loudspeakers to block low-frequency signals (bass) from reaching high-frequency (tweeter) drivers.
Condenser may mean:
Strategy is a word which was first used by the military. It comes from an ancient Greek word for the general officer commanding all the armed forces of a state. A strategy is a long term plan on what to do to achieve a certain goal. When talking about the near future, people often use the word "tactics". Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said "tactics is the art of using troops in battle; strategy is the art of using battles to win the war". Today, the word "strategy" is in common use; people might talk about "business strategy", for example.
The distinction between strategy and tactics applies to any planning which might be done against an enemy or opponent. Strategy is what we broadly intend to do to reach our long-term goal or objective. Tactics is the detailed steps which are used as our progress is opposed by the opponent. For this reason, tactics are short-scale and flexible. Strategy, on the other hand, is changed as little as possible. It may be that our goal simply cannot be reached. In that case, a search goes on for a new goal and a new or adjusted strategy. Often, in war, chess or business, roughly the same tactics are still used to get to a different goal. Negotiation is another area where the distinction between strategy and tactics is especially clear.
In Computer science, a Design pattern is an abstract solution to a certain problem. Design patterns are used in object oriented programming. They give a possible solution to a problem of designing software.
Design patterns became popular around the year 1995. They also simplify the language between computer scientists. Ideally, a design pattern should be reusable many times. It is like a brick of a house, it can be used for many different problems. One can also build bridges with bricks, not only houses.
These examples are actual examples of design patterns as they are in use. They have not been simplified. It is only the language used to describe them that has been made simpler.
The flyweight design pattern is used to minimize the use of many similar objects. In a text-processing system each letter can have some attributes like formatting, typeface, and size. While it would be possible to create a new object for each character in the document and give it these attributes, it is extremely expensive.
Instead it would be better to create one object for each type of formatting and link the letter to that information. That needs a lot fewer objects. The only extra information that would need to be stored is the word or letter's position in the document. All similar letters would use the same object to define font, size, and other properties.
Another easy to understand pattern is called "Singleton". It is used when there can only be one instance of a given class. That class usually has some static method (e.g. getInstance()) which returns a new instance. It also saves the instance internally. So if it already created the instance, it can simply return it.
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in the northern part of Texas. The city's economy is mostly based on cattle. In 2000, 173,627 people lived there.
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
Lansdowne is a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the US.
Gillingham F.C.
Round (music)
A round in music is a song which can be sung by two or more groups of people. One group starts off and the next group start to sing the same song a bit later. It should sound nice together. When a group gets to the end of the song they start again. They can go round and round, singing it several times.
Usually rounds are in 2, 3 or 4 parts (meaning that they are for 2, 3 or 4 groups of people). When a group of people sing or play a round they usually sing it an agreed number of times. This means that the group which starts last also finishes last.
"Frère Jacques" is a famous French round. "London's Burning" is an English round. Both those rounds can be sung in 4 parts.
The oldest round that we know is "Sumer is icumen in". This is a very famous piece of music because it is the oldest piece of music we know that was written down. It was written around 1250 by a monk. It can be sung in 4 parts with 2 bass drones (held notes).
Writing music by making one part imitate another is called canonic writing. Rounds are a kind of canon.
Gall bladder
The gallbladder is a pear-shaped organ in your abdomen. It stores about 50 ml of acidic liquid (bile) until the body needs it for digestion. That liquid helps digest fat. The gallbladder is about 7-10cm long in humans. It is dark green in color because of the bile in it. It is connected to the liver and the duodenum by the biliary tract.
Addenbrooke's Hospital
Addenbrooke's Hospital is a large hospital in Cambridge, England. The hospital lets people in to look around, once every two years. You can visit the mortuary, the operating theatres and the hospital roof.
Koalas ("Phascolarctos cinereus") are herbivore marsupials that live in the eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia. They are the only living species in the family Phascolarctidae. They are related to the wombats.
Koalas are often called "koala bears", because a koala looks like a small bear or teddy bear. However, it is not a bear, it is quite a different type of animal.
Koalas have brownish-grey or silver-grey fur, and a big pink, dark red or/and black nose. They have sharp claws which help them to climb.
Koalas also have finger prints which look the same as human finger prints. Finger print experts have had difficulty in being able to tell if the prints are from a human or koala. Finger prints are rare among mammals that climb trees. Scientists do not know why the koala has them, but their best guess is that it helps the koala choose leaves to eat.
Koalas are mostly active at night. They live in trees and are rarely found on the ground. Koalas have two unusual characteristics.
They eat leaves of eucalyptus trees. Koalas do not drink often, they get most of their water from the eucalyptus leaves they eat. Eucalyptus leaves are poisonous, but koalas do not get poisoned. This is because they have certain bacteria in their digestive tract that can detoxify the poison in the leaves. Koalas, however, have to sleep long hours because eucalyptus leaves do not produce much energy and also because the digestive process takes a long time.
Koalas have a peculiar way of cooling themselves. Unlike humans who sweat and other animals, which either pant or lick their fur to stay cool, koalas reduce their body heat by hugging a tree. The temperature of the trunks of certain trees is up to 9 degrees Celsius lower than the air temperature. Koalas prefer to stay on these trees on a hot day even if they do not have the tastiest leaves.
Koalas live alone most of the time, but they have a social hierarchy with the other koalas who live near.
After a pregnancy of 35 days, the newly born koala is about a quarter of an inch long, and is born with no ears, eyes, or hair. It crawls into its mothers pouch on its own. After 12 months the young koala is old enough that it does not go into its mother's pouch or need milk anymore. The female koala can have another baby then. Young koalas usually leave their mothers when they are 18 months old, but if their mother does not have another baby they sometimes stay for up to three years. Koalas become mature when they are about two years old, but they often have their first baby after another two years.
The koala is not an endangered species, but it is a near vulnerable species. One reason is the loss of habitat, which means that koalas have less space to live. In some places there are very few koalas left. But there are also places, such as French Island (Victoria), with too many koalas that eat too much. Because of this the eucalyptus trees and other animals are in danger. A study looking at koala numbers at 1800 sites for 20 years, shows that the number of koalas is falling. The study, by the Australian Koala Foundation, estimates that there are only about 50,000 koalas left. there is over 500 types of gum trees in the world, however, koalas only eat 4-6 types that they prefer.
Many koalas are infected with Chlamydia. This is affecting the survival of the species. Koalas on French Island do not have the disease, and so groups of them are often moved to the mainland to repopulate some areas. The disease can cause blindness, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and reproductive tract infections.
John Adams (composer)
John Coolidge Adams is an American composer. He was born in 1947. His music often uses minimalism with large orchestras and lots of different sounds. He was named after John Adams, the 2nd President.
He studied music at Harvard University. After he had graduated he packed all his belongings into his Volkswagen and drove all the way across the United States to California where he got a job as a forklift operator. Soon he became part of the musical scene of San Francisco. He listened to the music of minimalist composers like John Cage, Terry Riley and Morton Feldman. By the mid-1980s he was earning a living as composer and conductor. The piece that made him famous was called "Harmonium". At times the music is made to sound like a harmonium instrument, but the title also refers to "harmony", showing that he is writing tonal music unlike some modern composers at the time whose music was getting harder and harder to understand because it was not in any key.
Adams wrote several short pieces such as "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" and "The Chairman Dances". This last piece is music from his opera "Nixon in China" which was widely performed but made some people angry because the Chinese leaders Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung are shown as human beings who deserve a certain amount of sympathy.
Adam's Violin Concerto has been performed over 100 times by many of the world's famous violinists. Adam's song "The Chairman Dances" appered in the game Civilization IV.
Handcuffs are a type of restraint, often used by police to ensure suspects cannot escape or hurt anyone. They do this by securing a person's wrists together. They are usually metal and are made up of two parts linked together by a chain. Handcuffs cannot be removed without the right key, and a handcuffed person cannot move their wrists more than a short distance apart.
There are three main types of handcuffs: chain, hinged, and solid bar. While they are harder to carry, rigid handcuffs allow a number of differences in cuffing. Both rigid and hinged cuffs can be used one-handed to apply pain-compliance/control techniques. Different accessories are available to improve the security or increase the hardness of handcuffs. These include boxes that fit over the chain or hinge and can be locked with a padlock.
In 1933 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used a type called "Mitten Handcuffs". These stopped criminals from being able to grab the officer's tools, such as their gun. It was used by some in law enforcement but it was never popular.
Handcuffs can be made from different metals, including carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminium, or from synthetic polymers.
The National Museum of Australia has a number of handcuffs in its collection. These can be from as early as the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Handcuffs with double locks have a piece that can stop the cuff from getting tighter. Tightening could be done on purpose or by struggling. Handcuffs may cause nerve damage or loss of circulation if they are tightened. Some wearers could tighten the cuffs to try to escape. They do this by trying to escape when the officer is loosening the cuffs. Double locks also make picking the locks more difficult.
There are three kinds of double locks described in a Smith & Wesson brochure:
Moving a lever on the cuff makes the lock move into a position that locks the bolt. No tool is needed to double lock this type of cuff.
A small peg on the key is inserted into a hole to engage the lock.
These are also used with a peg, but here it is inserted into a slot and moved sideways to engage the lock.
Plastic handcuffs, are lightweight plastic strips that look like electrical cable ties. Soldiers and police can carry a lot of them at once. This is useful for some situations, such as during big protests and riots. In recent years, airlines have started to carry plastic handcuffs to restrain troublesome passengers. Disposable handcuffs could be considered cost-inefficient. This is because they cannot be loosened, and have to be cut off to let a restrained person be fingerprinted, or to use the bathroom.
However, this usage means that cheap handcuffs are used in times where steel ones would normally be unused for long times. Recent products have been made that deal with this. These include disposable plastic restraints that can be opened with a key. These are more expensive than traditional plastic restraints, since they can only be used for a small number of times, and are not as strong. In addition, many people think plastic restraints are more likely to cause nerve or soft-tissue damage to the wearer than metal handcuffs.
When a suspect is extremely aggressive, leg irons may be used as well. Sometimes the chain connecting the leg irons to each other is looped around the chain of the handcuffs. In a few rare cases, people lying on their stomachs have died from positional asphyxia. This makes the practice very controversial, and has led to it being restricted, or even banned, in many places.
Most handcuffs today in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Latin America can be opened with the same key. This makes transporting prisoners easier. However, there are handcuff makers who use different keys. Maximum security handcuffs need special keys. Handcuff keys usually do not work with thumbcuffs. The Cuff Lock handcuff key padlock uses this same standard key.
In addition to the Universal handcuff key, a few modified designs exist. One kind of key is designed to fit behind an officer's badge.
A flashlight (in North American English) or torch (in most Commonwealth countries) is a small, portable spotlight.
Its function is a beam of light which helps to see. It usually requires batteries.
The light is made by a small light bulb. In the 20th century, it was usually an incandescent bulb. Nowadays most use LEDs, which work slightly differently. In 1896, the first dry cell battery was invented. Unlike previous batteries, it used a paste electrolyte instead of a liquid. This was the first battery suitable for portable electrical devices, as it did not spill or break easily and worked in any orientation. Sometimes the electricity comes from a small generator instead of a battery.
The torch can also refer to a flammable stick that is lit on fire to provide light and (or) heat.
Hundreds of years ago, people used candles for all indoor light. This was expensive, and once the candle was gone, you would have to buy or make a new one or be stuck in the dark. When electricity was discovered and the light bulb was invented, David Misell, a British man working in Hubert's New York shop in 1898, came up with the idea of a light bulb that you could take with you, anywhere you wanted to go. Then, the torch was invented. The first flashlight has three D batteries which powered a small incandescent bulb. The bulbs would glow with a simple ON/OFF switch.
Discrimination is when someone is treated unfairly or differently. Discrimination is when a person is treated unfairly or badly because the person is one of a particular group. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that all persons must be protected against any kind of discrimination, or even its inciting.
A person might be discriminated against because of their race, age, sex, politics, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, the way they look, a past criminal record, the person's lifestyle, their choice of clothing, their age or their disabilities whether they are a member of or fit in with a social clique (group), social class, social status or caste, and many other reasons.
Discrimination can take many forms. It can include being fired from a job, not being able to be hired for a job, being paid less money than others at the same job, being refused a home or apartment, teasing, harassment, or simply being treated differently than other people. Laws known as "equal opportunity legislation" protect people from discrimination. They say people should be employed whatever their race, age, sex or religion. There should be reasonable care for people with disabilities or accessibility. Two people in the same position must be paid the same wage if they have exactly the same job.
In some countries, discrimination against somebody on the basis of race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, age, or disability is illegal. Even in those countries where discrimination is unlawful, it still takes place for reasons not covered by the law. In some other countries, discrimination against somebody is legal or even official government policy. This especially takes place in countries in which there is an official religion, and people of other religions are discriminated against.
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, PC, FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand-born British scientist, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908, for his work on nuclear physics, and for the theory of the structure of the atom.
Rutherford was one of the first researchers in nuclear physics, after the discovery of radiation by the French physicist Henri Becquerel in 1896. Rutherford discovered the radioactive half-life, and the three parts of radiation which he named Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. He also discovered that alpha particles were the nuclei of Helium. Rutherford's Geiger–Marsden experiment led to what we know today about the atomic structure, where the atom is a nucleus and electrons orbit around it.
In 1919, Rutherford made the world's first artificial nuclear reaction, where he put alpha particles with nitrogen gas and created particles of oxygen isotopes and protons. This was nuclear transmutation, changing nitrogen gas into oxygen gas.
Rutherford was the leader of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. He proved the existence of the nucleus and that is was composed of protons and neutrons. In 1932 James Chadwick made an experiment at the Cavendish Lab that showed Rutherford was right.
Rutherford College, a school in Auckland, New Zealand, was named after him.
Serialism
Serialism is a way of composing music using a series of notes in a particular order and using this to build up a whole piece of music. These series and patterns can also be applied to other parts of music (like how loud or soft it is).
To show how serialism works we can take a very simple example. Let us use just five notes from the white notes of a keyboard. We can use the notes A, B, C, D and E. We are going to make a “tune” using all these five notes, but not repeating any until all five have been used (although we are allowed to repeat the note we have just had).
For example: we might have D, C, A, A, A, A, B, E. This is what we call our “row” or “series”, although usually one would expect a row of twelve different notes. It is the one we start off with, so we can call it our tone row.
We can change the tone row by playing it backwards. This is called retrograde. So we now get E, B, A, A, A, A, C, D.
We can also change it by playing it upside down. This means that instead of going up one step we go down one step, or instead of going up two steps we go down two steps etc. If we start on the same note D we now get: D, E, G, G, G, G, F, C. This is called inversion.
We can make it go backwards and upside down. So we get: C, F, G, G, G, G, E, D. This is called retrograde inversion.
We now have four ways of playing our row: tone row, retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion.
These can now be transposed to create many more options.
In 1923 the composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) developed what he called the “twelve-tone system”. Instead of using just five notes as in our example, he used all 12 notes in the octave (5 black and 7 white notes on the piano keyboard). Most music we listen to is in a particular key (tonality). This is called “tonal” music. For example: if we start “Twinkle, twinkle little star” on a C we finish on a C at the end and the piece sounds finished. It is “tonal” (in a particular key). In twelve-tone music all 12 notes are equal, there is no “key note” (it is “atonal”). This makes the music very hard to understand and it took people a long time to get used to the sound of Schoenberg’s new music.
Schoenberg was not the only composer to use this way of composing. His pupils Alban Berg (1885-1935) and Anton Webern (1883-1945) also wrote twelve-tone music. Schoenberg, Webern & Berg are sometimes called the "Second Viennese School"-The first was Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven a hundred years before. The composers Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Aaron Copland (1900-1990) started to write twelve-tone music when they were quite old. Composers such as Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) used it occasionally, often putting it together with music which was tonal (listen to Britten’s opera “Midsummer Night’s Dream”). When contrasted with tonal music in this way it can be very beautiful.
In the 1950s and 1960s some composers like Pierre Boulez (b.1925) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (b.1928) wrote music which was not only twelve-tone, but serial in other ways as well. For example: they organized levels of dynamics (from very quiet to very loud) in a series, and the lengths of notes (from very short to very long), and even timbre (the sound quality). By combining all these things their music became very complicated indeed. When all these things were used for the whole piece of music it was called “total serialism”. Boulez’s "Structures I" is an example of a piece which uses “total serialism”. A lot of people criticized this music, saying that it was too mathematical instead of being expressive. Such music can be hard to understand.
Frédéric Chopin
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849; pronounced SHOH-pen) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the greatest Romantic piano composers. Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A famous child prodigy, he grew up in Warsaw where he completed his music education and composed many of his mature works before leaving Poland in 1830 at age 20, shortly before the November 1830 Uprising.
After the Uprising, he lived in Paris as part of Poland's Great Emigration. During the last 19 years of his life, Chopin performed only about 30 times, usually in a salon. He supported himself by selling his compositions and teaching piano. After a romantic relationship with Polish women, including an abortive engagement, from 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French writer Amandine Dupin, better known as George Sand.
Since he composed many piano pieces, he was called the poet of the piano. Most of Chopin's works are for solo piano, though he also wrote two piano concertos, a few chamber pieces and some songs to Polish lyrics. His piano works are often technically difficult, especially because deep expression is involved along with the importance of considering each detail in his music. Chopin also created the instrumental ballade, along with the addition of new ideas to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu, scherzo and prélude. All of Chopin's works involve the piano.
Chopin suffered from poor health most of his life and died of tuberculosis in Paris in 1849 at age 39.
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804–1857) was a Russian composer, regarded as the first to become very famous.
Russia is a very large country. In the 18th century there was a lot of music in Europe, but Russian people had not yet heard it. A lot of them were very poor and modern transport did not exist. By the time Glinka was born Russian people in the large towns like Saint Petersburg were becoming very interested in European music.
Mikhail Glinka was born in a little village called Novospasskoye. His father was a rich landowner. Glinka was brought up by his grandmother who looked after him very carefully. She was always afraid he would be cold, so she wrapped him up in a fur coat in a room which was kept at 77 °F. He was not often allowed to play in the fresh air. Later in his life Glinka was always worrying about his health.
It was a long way to the big cities from where the child lived. There was no radio in those days, and no CDs. The only music he heard was the church bells, and the singing of the peasants (the simple people who worked on the land). They sang folksongs and made up harmony underneath the tunes.
After his grandmother died he was allowed to travel 6 miles to his uncle’s home. His uncle had a group of musicians who played music by European composers like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. He had never heard such music before.
When he was 13 he went to school in St Petersburg. Now he could hear lots of music and meet some good musicians. He had piano lessons and spent a lot of time at parties. He started to compose some songs.
In 1830 he went to Italy. Italy was famous for its music, especially for opera. Glinka met famous composers like Mendelssohn and Berlioz as well as Italian composers like Donizetti and Bellini. He like their music, and decided he wanted to write opera as well, but he wanted to make his music sound very Russian.
Glinka went back to Russia. He wrote two great operas. The first one was called "Ivan Susanin". The story of the opera, set in 1612, is about a poor peasant Ivan Susanin who dies to save the life of the Tsar (the Tsar was the ruler of Russia, like a king or emperor). The Tsar liked the opera and thought that it should be called "A Life for the Tsar". It was a big success when it was first performed in 1836.
He soon wrote his second opera: "Ruslan and Lyudmila". The story comes from a tale by the famous Russian poet Pushkin. The man who wrote the words for him did it very quickly while he was drunk, so the story is a bit muddled, but the music is wonderful. It is a fairy tale about a nasty dwarf Chernomor who has taken away a princess called Lyudmila. In the end Ruslan, the hero, rescues her. Some of the music sounds quite oriental. The overture that starts the opera is very famous.
Glinka also wrote piano music, songs and chamber music.
Glinka’s music is important because he was the first Russian composer to write music that sounded Russian. Later composers like Tchaikovsky were influenced by his music.
An ellipsoid is a shape like a sphere, but it may be longer in one or more directions, like an egg, or a rugby ball. It is the 3 dimensional analogue of an ellipse.
The Earth is shaped slightly like an ellipsoid. Its shape is called an oblate spheroid. An ellipsoid shaped like the Earth, called a reference ellipsoid, is often preferred to the geoid because it makes calculations simpler.
Liancourt Rocks
Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima　竹島 in Japanese, Dokdo 독도 in Korean) are a group of small islands in the Sea of Japan. The islands are currently occupied under the South Korean armed police. The name Liancourt Rocks comes from the French whaling ship Liancourt. The people on the Liancourt made a map of the islands in 1849. The islands have been in dispute for some time by both Korea and Japan. Japan has been suggesting to sort the dispute in International Court of Justice but South Korean government keeps refusing it.
Liancourt Rocks consists of two islets, that are 150 metres apart. These small islands are called West Islet and East Islet. The western islet is the larger of the two islets. Altogether, there are about 90 islets and reefs. The islands and rocks have a volcanic nature. A total of 37 of these islets are recognized as permanent land. The eastern islet formed 4.5 million years ago. Ulleungdo formed 2 million years later. Both are quickly eroding and weathering.
The total area of the islets is about 187,450 square meters. Their highest point is 169 meters on the western islet. The western islet is about 88,640 square meters in area; the eastern islet about 73,300 square meters. Liancourt Rocks is at about 131°52′ East longitude and about 37°14′ North latitude. The western islet is at and the eastern islet is at . The main islands coast lines are 217 km apart from mainland Korea and 212 km apart from main island's of Japan (Honshu). The nearest Korean territory (Ulleung-do) is 87 km away and can be visible on fair days; the nearest Japanese territory (Oki islands) is 157 km away.
The western islet is made of a single peak. It has many caves along the coastline. The cliffs of the eastern islet are about 10 to 20 meters high. There are two caves giving access to the sea, as well as a crater.
40 Korean people are staying on the islets, several Korean telecom service providers (namely SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+) have also installed stations on Liancourt Rocks to cover the islets in the South Korean wireless telephone network. There is also regular ferry service from Ulleung-do.
Although the islets themselves are barely habitable, the Exclusive Economic Zone surrounding them has rich fishing grounds and possible reserves of natural gas. As of 2006, the expected reserves have not been found. A wide variety of fish as well as seaweed, kelp, sea slugs, and clams live around the islets. Major fishery catches in the area are squid, Alaskan pollock, codfish, and octopus. There are 102 species of seaweed, although many of these have no economic value.
This area used to be one of the largest breeding grounds of sea lions ("Zalophus californianus japonicus") and a good spot for hunting them and also a spot for obtaining abalone at the end of the Meiji period (1868-1912). Until the 1950s, sea lions were observed on the islets by the voluntary guards.
Over 900 Korean citizens say that they live on the islands. Over 2,000 Japanese do the same. However, only two people, a married Korean couple, are living there permanently.
Because they are classified as a nature reserve, special permits are required for tourists to land on the islets rather than just circling them. There were 1,507 and 1,597 recorded tourists in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Visitors generally come by boat from Ulleung-do.
In 2005, the first wedding ceremony was held on the islets. The South Korean couple chose the location to protest against Japanese territorial claims.
Liancourt Rocks can have harsh weather conditions. This is because of its location, and small size. Sometimes, ships are unable to dock because of strong northwestern winds in winter. The climate is warm and humid. It is heavily influenced by warm sea currents. There is a lot of rain throughout the year (annual average - 1324 mm), with occasional snowfall. Fog is a common sight. In the summer, southerly winds dominate. The water around the islets is about 10 degrees Celsius in spring, when the water is coolest. It warms to about 25 degrees Celsius in August.
Like Ulleung-do, the islets are volcanic rocks, with only a thin layer of soil and moss. About 80 species of plants, over 22 species of birds, and 37 species of insects have been recorded on the islets, in addition to the local maritime life.
Since the early 1970s, trees and some types of flowers were planted along with the indigenous flora and fauna. (Trees are required under international law for the islets to be recognized as natural islands rather than reefs.)
Liancourt Rocks was declared "Natural Monument #336" by South Korea in the 1990s. Some birds actually live on the islands, but most are just using them as a stopover to fly elsewhere. The fork-tailed petrel, streaked shearwater, and black-tailed gulls live on the islands. The population of breeding birds counted on the rocks, however, has been declining in recent years.
In 1999, the islets were designated a special environmental protected area by the South Korean government. They are older than any other Korean volcanic islands, including Ulleung-do.
It was announced in 2005 that three new genera and five new species of bacteria had been identified by ROK scientists in the waters off the islets. The genera are "Dokdonella koreensis", "Dokdonia donghaenensis", and "Donghae dokdoensis". The newly identified species are "Virgilbacillus dokdoensis", "Maribacter dokdoensis", "Marimonas dokdoensis", "Polaribacter dokdoensis", and "Porphyrobacter dokdoensis".
The islets are of importance not only for economic reasons, but also for military ones. They have occasionally served as a military base, most notably during the Russo-Japanese War. The South Korean government has built a radar station and helicopter landing pad on the islets, enabling it to track foreign naval forces.
South Korean armed force captured 3929 and killed 44 Japanese people between 1952 and 1965 until was set. The dispute between South Korea and Japan over the islands has gained heat in 2008 with new Japanese school books mentioning the islands, and a visit by the South Korean Prime Minister in July. Ten years ago, no people lived on the islands. But South Korea started to populate the island to make its claim stronger. South Korea insists that the islet was called Usan-do or Sokdo in a past and later changed its name, but there is no historical proof which shows when the name was changed.
512: In the 13th year of King Jijeung of Silla, Isabu, conquered the umbrella country and incorporated it into Silla territory (Records of the Three Kingdoms)
An Yong-bok, fisherman : and 1693 shogunate mourning, Japan forcibly removed and to find why in the ocean near Ulleungdo to Dokdo and Ulleung Island is Korean territory Seogye for getting (the Annals of the reign.History).
Banpo Uldo Ulleung Island to King Gojong, an Imperial decree No. 41 : 1900, logistics and the guide and as the Dokdo uldogun to will result in a jurisdiction
Takeshima in 1905 : Japan, Dokdo, (Takeshima) by Shimane and as the number 40, and that Japan will result in (Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 in November 1905, to losing sovereignty,).
In 1907 : jurisdiction of Ulleungdo and Dokdo, Gangwon Province to Gyeongsang Province in two speed.
In 1946 : gho scapin in (Allied Supreme Command) (supreme head-quarters allied command) subparagraph at 677 in accordance with the Japan excluded from control over the Dokdo.
Dokdo : 1953 and a volunteer (Colon 32 agents, hongsunchil) garrison organizations.
And 1956 : National Police, Dokdo over expenses.
Dokdo : in 1981, first resident registration card (Choi Jong-Duk Dodong-ri, Ulleung-eup, bought 67).
State-designated cultural property : 1982, and was designated as Natural Monument No. 336 (Dokdo marine algae a breeding ground).
1998: Signing a fisheries agreement between Shinhan and Japan
State-designated cultural property : in 1999 and management organizations and Natural Monument No. 336, Dokdo a name change management guidelines, the Cultural Heritage (→ Dokdo a Dokdo algae reproduce natural resource conservation area).
Dodong-ri bought 42 : a lot number to 76 / Administrative divisions : name and number (Dodong-ri → the Eastern Island and Dokdo, (the opening. - Class 1 - 2 class : Regions), 2000 → Dokdo, a mountain, at 37 to 1.
Dokdo, and the Ministry of Information and Communication : In 2003, postal number ‘799 - 805’.
2005: Undesignation of 11 public areas (Dongdo) including the trail (Admission Permit System → Switch to the reporting system), and Zip Bungyeong (1-37 Mountains → 1-96 Streets)
And 2008 : Addressing the new street address 'Dokdo to Kim Isabu' and 'Dokdo An Yong-bok gil' according to changes in.
A pentagram is a five-pointed star, with all lines the same length and all angles the same. A 'pentangle', 'star pentagon', or 'pentalpha' means the same thing. It is a type of pentagon.
The word "pentacle" originally meant 'any symbol that protects against evil spirits'. There are many of such symbols, only a few of which include a pentagram. During the modern age of Wicca, the word 'pentacle' acquired a second definition, due to sounding similar to the word 'pentagram', and the fact that wiccan pentacles use a pentagram. That second definition of 'pentacle' is 'a circumscribed pentagram', which means 'a pentagram drawn inside a circle so that the points of the pentagram touch the circle'.
The pentagram means different things to different people. These meanings have changed over time.
In ancient times, the pentagram was used as a Christian symbol. It stood for the five wounds that Jesus Christ received during his crucifixion (the nails in each hand and foot, and the spear wound in his side).
In the past, the pentagram was commonly seen as a symbol for good and for protection against evil.
In Taoism, a pentagram shows how the five classical oriental elements (earth, water, wood, fire, and metal) are related.
Today, the pentacle, commonly mistaken as a pentagram, is the most commonly used symbol of Wicca. Some post-Gardnerian wiccans, imitating Taoism, associate the five points of the pentagram with the four classical Greek elements (fire, water, earth, and air) and spirit.
Some Satanists, especially members of the Church of Satan, use an upside-down pentacle as a symbol for their religion. The Church of Satan's official symbol is an upside-down pentacle with a goat head inside, called the "Sigil of Baphomet." (A 'sigil' is a symbol of a supernatural being). It was originally the influential 1800s French occultist Eliphas Levi who associated the pentagram with the goat-headed baphomet, by drawing a pentagram on the baphomet's forehead. Anton LaVey, who created the Church of Satan in 1966, took the idea from Levi.
In "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," a 14th century romance story, the pentagram is mentioned as a symbol for Gawain's good character and truth.
More recently, the meaning of the pentagram was discussed in "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. According to the book, the pentagram actually belonged to the ancient religion of Pagan Sun Worship, and was tied to the female planet Venus: every 8 years Venus traces a perfect pentagram across the sky. The book says that the pentagram was a symbol for the sacred female, but was later taken by Christianity and said to mean the devil in order to destroy beliefs that females were sacred.
A pentacle is on the flag of Morocco, as well as Ethiopia's.
Benzene, also known as benzol, is an organic chemical compound with the formula CH. It is a colorless and flammable liquid with a sweet smell. Benzene molecules are a ring of six carbon atoms that are each bonded to one hydrogen atom. It is an "aromatic" compound, meaning the ring has alternating double bonds.
Benzene is carcinogenic, which means it can cause cancer. It has many real-world uses. It is used as an additive in gasoline, plastics, synthetic rubber, dyes and it is an industrial solvent, which means it can dissolve many other chemical molecules. Benzene is also a natural part of crude oil and is therefore present in gasoline. Many medicines contain parts made from benzene.
Benzene has special properties called aromaticity. All six carbon atoms in the ring are on the same flat plane. To account for all the bonds on a six carbon ring, there must be alternating double carbon bonds (Conjugated system):
If benzene had three double bonds, three sides of its ring would be shorter than the other three sides. X-ray diffraction shows that all of six carbon-carbon bonds in benzene are of the same length of 140 picometres (pm). The C–C bond lengths are greater than a double bond (135 pm) but shorter than a single bond (147 pm). This intermediate distance is consistent with electron delocalization: the electrons for C–C bonding are distributed equally between each of the six carbon atoms. The molecule is planar. One representation is that the structure exists as a superposition of so-called resonance structures, rather than either form individually. (In other words, the molecule's double bonds switch quickly between pairs of carbon atoms.) The delocalization of electrons is one explanation for the thermodynamic stability of benzene and related aromatic compounds. It is likely that this stability contributes to the peculiar molecular and chemical properties known as aromaticity. To indicate the delocalized nature of the bonding, benzene is often depicted with a circle inside a hexagonal arrangement of carbon atoms.
As is common in organic chemistry, the carbon atoms in the diagram above have been left unlabeled. Realizing each carbon has 2p electrons, each carbon donates an electron into the delocalized ring above and below the benzene ring. It is the overlap of p-orbitals both above and below the ring that produces the pi clouds.