AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
He converted from Roman Catholicism to Judaism, from Judaism to Islam, and from Islam to Roman Catholicism.
He was married seven times and was the father of eight children. He practiced polygamy after his conversion to Islam.
Denard had Alzheimer's disease at the time of his death.
Eutheria
Eutheria is the taxonomical name for the main group of living mammals.
This taxon contains the placental mammals, of which humans are one species.
Eutheria was introduced by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1880. Members of Eutheria are now found on all continents and in all oceans.
The terms 'Eutheria and 'Placental' do not mean quite the same thing. A few early eutherians in the Lower Cretaceous were not placentals. "Eomaia" is the earliest example.
All living Eutherians are placental mammals. This means that a Eutherian fetus is fed during gestation by a placenta. The offspring of Eutherians are carried in the mother's uterus until fully developed.
Eutherians are different from other mammal groups such as monotremes and marsupials which (like the earliest eutherians) are not placental.
Monotremes, for example, lay eggs which protect the young until they are fully developed. Marsupials give birth to young who are not completely developed. Their young then move to a special pouch in the mother's body to continue their development.
The earliest known eutherian species is the extinct "Eomaia scansoria" from the Lower Cretaceous in China.
Tito Beltrán
Tito Ernesto Beltrán (born on July 1 1965) is a Swedish-Chilean tenor. Tito Beltrán was born in Punta Arenas, Chile. Beltrán left Chile in 1986 to study in Sweden where he now lives. He has performed at many opera houses around the world. He also performs at different scenes and tv-shows in Sweden. Since February 2007 he has been performing at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. This is where he sings in the operas "La Traviata" and "Tosca".
In October 2008, Beltrán was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for rape and sexual abuse. He got conditional liberty on February 2010.
Cetartiodactyla
Cetartiodactyla is the taxonomical superorder which includes whales (and dolphins) and even-toed ungulates. The name was created by merging the name for the two orders, Cetacea and Artiodactyla, into a single word.
Cetartiodactyla is used because it is thought that whales evolved from the artiodactyls. Because of this, their closest living land relative may be the hippopotamus.
Leonardo is a male given name. Many people have this name. The name is Germanic in origin. It means "Strong as a lion."
People with the name Leonardo include:
Tetrapod
Tetrapods (Greek "tetrapoda" = four feet) are vertebrate tetrapodomorph land animals. The basic tetrapod plan is four legs and feet. This kind of locomotion is quadrupedal. Amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals are all tetrapods. Even though snakes do not have limbs, they are tetrapods because they evolved from animals with four limbs.
The earliest tetrapods evolved from the Sarcopterygii, or lobe-finned fish, into air-breathing amphibians, perhaps in the Upper Devonian period. This means the transition took place in fish, before the land was the main habitat. This is typical of transitional fossils undergoing mosaic evolution.
Clear fossil tetrapod tracks from the mid-Devonian predate previous tetrapod records by 18 million years. These tracks are from the Middle Devonian of Poland, dated to nearly 400 million years ago. The footprints were made in the mud of a tropical lagoon, and no animal of that time could have made the tracks except a tetrapod. The find strongly suggests that the animals were fish, not amphibia, when the transition to limbs occurred. The term fishapod is becoming used. They would have been derived from lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii), but of a genus whose body fossil has not yet been found. The Polish team suggest the fish > tetrapod transition might have taken place as early as the Lower Devonian.
The earliest tetrapods lived entirely in water. They could not live on land. Earlier, it was believed that fish had first moved onto land – either looking for food (like modern mudskippers) or to find water when the pond they lived in dried out. It was believed that they later evolved legs, lungs, and other body parts to live better on land.
Nine genera of Devonian tetrapods have been described. These earliest tetrapods were not terrestrial. They lived in swampy habitats like shallow wetlands, coastal lagoons, brackish river deltas, and even shallow marine sediments. There is much to suggest that these are the kind of environments in which the tetrapods evolved. Also, because fossils of early tetrapods are found widely in the Old Red Sandstone continent, they must have spread by following the coastal lines. This means they could not have lived only in freshwater.
Still, they may have spent brief periods out of water and would have used their legs to paw their way through the mud. The earliest confirmed terrestrial forms are known from the early Carboniferous deposits, some 20 million years later.
Tetrapods adapted to terrestrial environments over time and spent longer periods away from the water. They also spent more of their juvenile stage on land before returning to the water for the rest of their life. It is also possible that the adults started to spend some time on land to bask in the sun, close to the water's edge. The first true tetrapods that were adapted to moving on land were small. Only later did they increase in size.
Between the lobe-finned fish tetrapods and the first amphibia and amniotes in the Middle Carboniferous lies a gap of 30 million years, with few satisfactory tetrapod fossils. This, noted in the early 1950s by Alfred Romer, is Romer's gap. Some new fossils were found in the 1990s, such as "Pederpes", right in the middle of the Romer Gap. The gap still hides details of the transition from fish to tetrapod, but not so much as before.
So far, only two fossil sites from the Tournasian (earliest Carboniferous) are known. One is Horton Bluff Formation at Blue Beach, Nova Scotia. Much of this material has not yet been scientifically described.
The only other place a Tournasian tetrapod was found is near Dumbarton in the West of Scotland. The articulated (connected) skeleton of "Pederpes" was found there. Now comes news of new finds from this formation in five places in the Scottish Borders. The paper describes five new Tournaisian tetrapods, with information about their habitat.
The authors say
Apparently, the split between the amphibians and the amniotes came soon after the extinction event as the tetrapods began to recover. "This accords with most molecular dates for the split, which place it at an average of 355  my ago, a date only 4 myr after the end-Devonian".
Whereas amphibia lay their eggs in water, all other tetrapods (the amniotes) lay cleidoic eggs. These eggs are like private little ponds, protecting and nourishing the embryo until it grows into a hatchling. This was a key evolutionary 'invention', which allowed the amniotes to invade the land. Once the amniotes were truly land animals, there followed a huge adaptive radiation. This was one of the most significant advances in vertebrate evolution.
Stem tetrapods are difficult to classify because they lack some or all of the key characteristics of the standard groups.
Descendants of fishapods which at first lived an amphibious life-style. The amniotes and later amphibia are their descendants. Features: able to support their body on land for long periods; had five fingers and toes (pentadactyl limb) in contrast to their fishapod ancestors. Have not yet developed the characteristic features of the main tetrapod groups.
The tetrapod clade separated from fish in the Devonian. The amniotes were the earliest to lay cleidoic eggs. The Synapsids (> mammals) and the Sauropsids (> reptiles) are sister clades, and in particular, reptiles did "not" give rise to mammals.
There are three main groups of living ("crown group") tetrapods. Each group also includes many extinct groups:
Snakes and other legless reptiles are tetrapods because they are evolved from ancestors who had four limbs. This is also true for caecilians and aquatic mammals.
A partial taxonomy of the tetrapods:
Voivodeship
A voivodeship, also spelled voivodship, voivodina or vojvodina (Romanian: "voievodat", Polish: "województwo", Serbian: "vojvodina" (војводина), "vojvodstvo" (војводство) or "vojvodovina" (војводовина), Hungarian: "vajdaság", Lithuanian: "vaivadija", Latin "Palatinatus" in Poland), is a geographical administrative division dating to medieval Romania, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and Serbia (see Vojvodina), ruled by a voivod ("voivode", "wojewoda"). The voivod (literal translation: "the one who leads the warriors", is the same as to Dux Exercituum / Herzog) was originally the military commander next to the ruler.
President of the Republic of Poland
The President of the Republic of Poland (Polish: "Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej") is the president of Poland. The president directly elected by the people to serve a term of five years. He can be reelected only once. His rights and responsibilities are determined by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
In agreement with the current Constitution, the President of the Republic of Poland is the head of state, the supreme representative of Poland and the guarantor of the continuity of government and is prevented from holding office for more than two consecutive terms. This means that the President heads the executive authority, is appointed to represent Polish interests on the international arena, ensures the observance of the Constitution, and is responsible for the security of the state. The President calls elections to the Sejm and the Polish Senate. He has a right to dissolve the parliament when it fails to form a Council of Ministers or pass the budget act. He can (with the Senate's consent) call a national referendum in matters important for the state, requiring the decision of all the citizens.
There are three living former Polish Presidents:
Tadeusz Kościuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (; 1746 – 1817) was a Polish national hero, general and a leader of the Kościuszko Uprising (which bears his name) against the Russian Empire. Tadeusz was born in February 1746 in Mereczowszczyzna, Polesie. (courrently located in Belarus) He fought in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army on the side of Washington. Because of his service he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in 1783, and became a legitimate citizen of the United States that same year. He died in Solothurn, Switzerland on October 15, 1817 due to a stroke.
Wes Archer
David Silverman
David Silverman (born on 15 March 1957 in New York City, New York) is an animator and writer. He is best known for directing many episodes of the animated television series "The Simpsons", where he would go on to be the supervising director of animation for several years, as well as animating on all of the original Simpsons "Tracey Ullman shorts".
Bill Kopp
Bill Kopp (born in Rockford, Illinois on April 17, 1962) is an American animator and voice actor. He performed the "Whammy" on the 1980s game show "Press Your Luck" and the title character on Nelvana's "Eek! The Cat". He was an animator for The Simpsons The Tracey Ullman Shorts, but left after the first season. He created "The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show and Mad Jack the Pirate". He studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts.
Klasky Csupo
Klasky-Csupo, Inc. (pronounced "Class-key Chew-po", although commonly mistaken as "Class-key Ka-zoo-po") is a multimedia entertainment production company. It was founded in 1981 by the artist/producer Arlene Klasky and the animator Gábor Csupó in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Bergkamen
Bergkamen is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is near the river Lippe, approx. 15 km north-east of Dortmund and 15 km south-west of Hamm.
Bergkamen, a German town in the East part of the Ruhrgebiet and south of the Münsterland, was founded in 1966 by the merging of at first five smaller communities.
Renewable energy commercialisation in Australia
Australia's renewable energy industries cover many energy sources and stages of commercialisation. Renewable energy technologies make up about 6 per cent of Australia's total energy supply and some 8 per cent of Australia's electricity supply, with hydro-electricity by far the largest single contributor.
Government policies have opened up more opportunities for "new" renewable energies such as wind power, photovoltaics, and solar thermal technologies. The use of these technologies helps to reduce greenhouse gases.
At the end of 2006, Australia had 817 MW of installed wind power capacity, mainly in South Australia. Initiatives are also being taken with solar power, ethanol fuel and geothermal energy.
Surveys show that there is much public support for the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Australia.
Renewable energy commercialization in the United States
The current status of renewable energy commercialization in the United States varies considerably between different renewable energy technologies, with some being commercialized at the present time.
Wind power is a growing industry in the United States. Latest American Wind Energy Association figures show that installed U.S. wind power capacity now exceeds 11,600 MW which is enough to serve three million average households. Texas is firmly established as the leader in wind power development, followed by California.
Several solar thermal power stations, including the new 64 MW Nevada Solar One, have also been built. The largest of these solar thermal power stations is the SEGS group of plants in the Mojave Desert with a total generating capacity of 354 MW, making the system the largest solar plant of any kind in the world. The largest solar photovoltaic plant in the U.S. is the 4.6 MW Springerville Generating Station, located near Tucson, Arizona.
In terms of renewable fuels for transportation, most cars on the road today in the U.S. can run on blends of up to 10% ethanol fuel, and motor vehicle manufacturers already produce vehicles designed to run on much higher ethanol blends.
Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research found that the amount of new solar electric capacity increased in 2012 by 76 percent from 2011, raising the United States’ market share of the world’s installations above 10 percent, up from roughly 5 to 7 percent in the last seven years.
Low kick
Low kick is a leg technique used in certain "boxes pieds-poings" (Burmese boxing, kickboxing and Thai boxing "Muay Thai") and certain martial arts. It consists in striking a blow with shinbone or a kick in the lower limb of the opponent (thigh or leg). According to the official rules concerning sport, it can be carried to the outer and to the inner part of the lower limb.
In fights in full contact (so-called "K.O. system"), these kicks are allowed in order to make an opponent not stable, indeed to have an advantage.
In the matter of hits in the legs, several kicks exist: circular or roundhouse kick, semicircular kick, balanced kicks (stick kick, crescent kick, axe kick...), kicks along the straight line (front kick and side kick), hooked-type kicks (hook kick), kicks that go down (hammer kick), etc.
In American or Japanese kickboxing, this type of kick can be only circular or semicircular according to the official rules.
Spider-Man (movie)
Spider-Man is an American 2002 superhero movie. It was made from the story of the Marvel Comics superhero, Spider-Man. It was the first in the "Spider-Man" movie series. It was written by David Koepp and directed by Sam Raimi. Tobey Maguire starred as Peter Parker / Spider-Man. Kirsten Dunst played the girl Peter loves, Mary-Jane Watson, and Willem Dafoe played the bad guy, Norman Osborn.
At the start of the movie, Peter Parker, a very smart teenager, is accidentally bitten by a spider that had been mutated (changed) in a science study. This allows him to climb up walls, make spider webs come from his wrists, jump high, move fast and become very strong. Peter lives with his aunt and uncle. His Uncle Ben teaches him that "with great power comes great responsibility." He uses these powers to win a wrestling competition. However, he does not get paid what he thought he would get paid. A criminal steals a lot of money from the cashier and runs off. Peter does not try to catch the criminal, as revenge for not getting paid as much as he wanted to be. The criminal then steals Ben's car and Ben dies. From then on, Peter becomes Spider-Man and vows to fight crime, using Ben's words to their fullest.
Meanwhile, Peter's friend Harry's father is in trouble. Norman is the CEO or head of his own company, but the executive board kicks him off. He tests a new kind of formula and becomes the Green Goblin. Norman also has a device that lets him fly around. Spider-Man and the Green Goblin begin to fight in various places. During a fire at a building, the Green Goblin uses his voice and pretends to be someone trapped. When Spider-Man goes to rescue the person, he finds the Green Goblin. During the fight, Spider-Man's arm is cut. Peter, Norman, Harry, Peter's friend Mary Jane Watson, and Peter's aunt then meet at Peter's apartment for Thanksgiving. Norman notices Peter's cut on his arm and realizes that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.
Norman then starts planning to hurt Peter. He scares Peter's Aunt May so badly that she has to go to the hospital. There, Peter realizes that the Green Goblin knows that he likes Mary Jane Watson, so he calls her up, but the Green Goblin has already taken her. Spider-Man goes out to a bridge in New York. The Green Goblin has Mary Jane in one arm and a group of kids in a bus on the other hand. He wants Spider-Man to fail at doing something – to choose between the person he loves and innocent civilians. He then drops both at once. Spider-Man grabs Mary Jane first and uses his webbing to save the kids. The Green Goblin is angry and attacks Spider-Man. A bunch of New York people start to throw trash and knock the Green Goblin off balance.
The Green Goblin then grabs Peter and they start to fight inside an abandoned building. The fight is very violent and Spider-Man starts to bleed. Finally, after Spider-Man knocks the Green Goblin down, the Green Goblin says that he is Norman Osborn. Spider-Man is very surprised. Norman then distracts Peter and talks to him as he tries to get his flying device to move and to kill Peter. Spider-Man ducks at the last second and the flying device impales Norman, killing him. Dying, Norman asks Peter not to tell Harry that he was the Green Goblin.
The last scene is at a cemetery for the funeral of Norman. During the ceremony, Harry tells Peter that he swears that Spider-Man will die because Spider-Man killed his father. Mary Jane implies that she loves Peter, but Peter tells her that he will always be a friend and be there for her, and that is all he can give to her.
A trailer containing original footage was shown for screenings of the 2001 movie . The trailer shows a group of bank robbers flying in a helicopter and land on a giant web between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. The trailer was recalled following the September 11 attacks. As a response, a scene where New Yorkers throw food at the Green Goblin and wave their flags while yelling "You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us" was added for reshoots.
After the movie was kept from being made for almost 25 years, it was shown in theaters on May 3, 2002. Critics liked it a lot and it broke many movie records. It made more money than any other movie in the year 2002. As of late 2007, "Spider-Man" is the seventh highest grossing movie in the United States and 17th highest world wide. It made enough money and two sequels have been made, "Spider-Man 2" (2004) and "Spider-Man 3" (2007).
John Bunyan (Harrowden, near Bedford, 28 November 1628 – London, 31 August 1688) was an English tinker, preacher and writer. He wrote a book called "The Pilgrim's Progress" which has been translated into more languages than any other book except the Bible. The book is a story about a man who is trying to lead a good life as a Christian. It is allegory. The characters in the story represent good things or bad things. Bunyan lived at a time when there was no religious freedom: everybody had to believe what the Church of England told them. Bunyan did not agree with some of the things the Church of England said. He started to preach about his ideas. He was arrested and put into prison because of his beliefs. He wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress" while he was in gaol (prison).
Bunyan’s father was a tinker: a metal worker who mends pots and pans. The Bunyan family had been living in Bedfordshire at least since the 12th century. They had gradually lost more and more of their land and had become quite poor. John Bunyan’s father had inherited a small cottage and 9 acres of land. He could not read or write.
John Bunyan only went to school for two, three or four years. He learned how to be a tinker from his father.
There was a lot of fighting in England at the time Bunyan was a child. Many people were against King Charles I so there was a Civil War and the king was executed. For several years England was a republic, ruled by Oliver Cromwell.
When Bunyan was 16 years old, he served in the parliamentary army at Newport Pagnell (1644 - 1647). After that, he started to work as a tinker, and in 1649, he married. His wife had two books, both of which were religious books. Bunyan started to be influenced by religion. He became very frightened because he realized he had done things which were wrong, and he wondered whether God would forgive him, so that he would go to heaven when he died, or whether he would be punished and go to hell. The kind of things he did which at that time were thought to be wrong (sins) were not things which would worry many people nowadays: ringing church bells, dancing, playing games on Sundays and, perhaps the worst of all, swearing. Other wrongs he had done in the past included disrespecting his parents, and very likely causing, or at least unremorsefully (unsorrowfully) helping along the early death of his mother and sister - which he did by refusing to take any of the burden or workload at home. It was only for lack of money that he did not spend his time with prostitutes, though he longed to join the gambling and "painted women" who attended fairs and other public events. In his book "Grace Abounding" Bunyan describes himself as the “Chief of Sinners”. He tells how one day he was walking along when he heard a group of women talking to one another about salvation. This made him think about these things.
In those days, people were supposed to worship God in the Church of England. There were, however, groups of people who wanted to worship God in different ways. These people were called “non-conformists”. In 1653, a sect (religious group) of non-conformists had taken over St John’s Church in Bedford. Their vicar was John Gifford. Bunyan discussed the Bible a lot with Gifford.
Bunyan lived in Elstow, near Bedford, until 1655, when his wife died. He moved to Bedford to be nearer to Gifford’s church . He married again in 1659. In 1660, the Restoration of the Monarchy took place: England had a king once more: Charles II became king. It was bad for religious freedom, because all non-conformist meetings were forbidden. St John’s Church had to become part of the Church of England again. Bunyan refused to go to church. He started to preach to groups of people anywhere they could meet: in barns or in the streets. Because he did not have permission to preach, he was arrested and put in gaol. At first, he was sentenced to 3 months, but because he refused to promise to stop preaching, he spent 12 years in gaol.
Bunyan spent the years 1660-1672 in gaol, and again he was in gaol for a short time in 1677. The gaol was at the top of Silver Street in the centre of Bedford, only 5 minutes walk from his house in St Cuthbert Street, which was then on the edge of the town. The gaol had 6 cells and 2 dungeons. He could probably have been free at any time if he had promised to give up preaching, but he did what he firmly believed to be right. He made some money in gaol by making shoelaces. His eldest daughter Mary, who was blind, brought him soup every day and also gave him books to read. Sometimes, he seems to have been let out of gaol for short periods of time. This was not really allowed, but often, the guards might let a prisoner out if they promised to come back. Bunyan even travelled as far as London once, and he must have gone home sometimes because he had two more children by his second wife during that time.
It was during this time in gaol that he wrote his allegorical novel: "Pilgrim's Progress". We do not know whether he wrote it all while he was in gaol. The book is in two parts. The first part finishes with the words: “So I awoke, and behold it was a dream”. When the second part begins he says “..as I slept I dreamt again”. This might mean that he wrote the second part in 1677 when he was in gaol again. This is only a guess, we do not know.
Bunyan was released in January 1672, when Charles II issued the “Declaration of Religious Indulgence” which meant that people were free to worship God in the way they wanted. The king had done this mainly because he wanted the Catholics to have less power. Non-conformist sects could register and get a license. Bunyan became pastor (priest) of the Bedford church. In March 1675, he was again imprisoned for preaching (because Charles II withdrew the Declaration of Religious Indulgence). This time he seems to have been in the Bedford town gaol on the stone bridge over the river Ouse. After a few months, he was let out. He was a very popular preacher, so he was not arrested again. His book "The Pilgrim's Progress" was published in 1678. He also wrote several other books about religion, but "The Pilgrim's Progress" was the one that became extremely popular. Because Bunyan did not have a formal education he wrote in a very direct style which ordinary people could understand. A passage from Part Two of "The Pilgrim's Progress" beginning "Who would true Valour see" is sung regularly as a hymn.
On his way to London, in 1688, he caught a severe cold from rats and bats, and died a painful death. His grave is in the cemetery at Bunhill Fields in London.
Smith (metalwork)
A smith, or metalsmith, is a person who makes things from metal.
Metal smiths were very important before industrialisation because they made metal tools for farming (especially the plough) and weapons for fighting in wars. Because of the importance of smiths, the name of their craft ('Smith') turned into a surname.
The word smith means "to hit" or "to strike". Originally, smiths made things from metal by using a hammer.
As an English suffix, "-smith" at the end of a word means a craftsmen. For example, a "locksmith" makes locks.
Types of smiths include:
The ancient traditional tool of the smith is a forge or "smithy", which is a fire which allows compressed air (through a bellows) to heat the inside of the forge until it is hot enough for metal to become more malleable so that it can be hammered into the shape that is required. Smith or smithy refers to the hammering onto the metal using an anvil to support the work. Anvils come in many sizes and shapes.
The term, "metalsmith", often refers to artisans and craftpersons who practice their craft in many different metals, including gold, copper and silver. Jewelers often refer to their craft as "metalsmithing", and many universities offer degree programs in metalsmithing, jewelry and blacksmithing as part of their fine arts programs.
A "tinker" is a metalsmith who mends kettles, pots and pans. They were often poor, itinerant workers (walking from place to place looking for jobs).
Machinists are metalsmiths who produce high-precision parts and tools. The most advanced of these tools, CNC machines, are computer controlled and largely automated.
An allegory is a term for a figure of speech. It is a story or picture with a hidden meaning. The characters in allegories are symbols which represent particular ideas. The story has a figurative meaning, not just a literal one.
Allegory is an example of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be a story in language. It may be something to look at, such as a painting or sculpture.
An allegory is like a long metaphor. People have to use their imagination to understand what it is trying to say. A fable or parable is a short allegory with one basic idea (a moral).
Sometimes people say that stories have meanings which the author, in fact, did not intend. For instance, many people have suggested that "The Lord of the Rings" was an allegory for the World Wars, but, in fact, it was written well before the outbreak of World War II, and J.R.R. Tolkien said that it was not an allegory. In this way people sometimes change the author’s ideas. Sometimes they do it for their own political reasons.
Allegory has been a favourite form in the literature of nearly every nation. It is often used as a way of criticizing things or people where it would not be possible to do so directly.
In classical literature Plato and Ovid wrote allegories. Dante Alighieri wrote allegories in "The Divine Comedy". In the Middle Ages "Everyman" was a morality play. John Bunyan’s "The Pilgrim's Progress" tells the story of a man trying to lead a Christian life. Jonathan Swift wrote "Gulliver's Travels", which tells about the strange customs of (made-up) faraway countries, but he was really criticizing things about his own country, the United Kingdom. "Animal Farm" by George Orwell is another example of an allegory, this time of the Soviet Union during Josef Stalin's era and the Russian Revolution. Some of the characters can be directly linked to figures during that time.
Songs may also include allegories. "Waist Deep In The Big Muddy" tells a story of American soldiers in the 1800s, ordered by their commander to march into the Mississippi River, which they could never cross on foot. In truth, it told the story of soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and being expected to do the white guy's bidding.
Allegories still continue to be popular today. Pictures, movies and plays can be allegories. William Golding’s novel "Lord of the Flies" also has allegorical meaning. "Star Trek" used a great deal of allegory, to look at social conditions and moral values in the present, while telling stories based in the future. Alien races were often a reflection of Earth's own races and countries.
Allegorical artworks include Sandro Botticelli's "La Primavera (Allegory of Spring)" and Jan Vermeer's "The Allegory of Painting".
Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell is a town in England. It is in the borough of Milton Keynes.
The town was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Neuport", which is an Old English word meaning "New Market Town". At that time it was fairly new, having been founded by Norman invaders. The suffix "Pagnell" came later, when the manor passed into the hands of the Pagnell (Paynel) family.
At one time Newport Pagnell was one of the largest towns in the County of Buckinghamshire but today the new town of Milton Keynes has made it much less important.
Tickford Bridge, over the River Ouze, was built in 1810. It is the only iron bridge in Britain that still carries main road traffic. This is the oldest iron bridge in the world that is still in constant use. There is a plaque near the footbridge on the side that gives details of its history and construction. A large set of sluice gates used to control downstream flooding of the River Great Ouse is near the bridge.
Since 1954, Tickford Street in Newport Pagnell has been the home of the Aston Martin site, where all Aston Martin cars were built, until the recent opening of the new Ford Motor Company luxury division plant for Aston Martin built at Gaydon, Warwickshire.
The modern civil parish of Newport Pagnell stops at the M1, but the ecclesiastical parish extends to include Broughton and Caldecote. The parish church is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul.
Swear or Swearing may refer to:
Amniote
The amniotes are a taxonomic group of animals: all the tetrapods except the amphibians.
They are the land vertebrates which lay cleidoic eggs.
Two super-groups make up the amniotes: the Synapsida (Pelycosaurs, Theriodonts and mammals) and the Sauropsida (all reptiles, including dinosaurs and birds).
The embryos of amniotes are either laid as eggs or develop in the female. These embyros are protected by several membranes, and have a much larger food supply than amphibian eggs.
The 'invention' of the cleidoic egg, and its embryonic membranes, is the main reason why the eggs of an amniote do not need to be laid in water.
Thus, as distinct from the amphibians, "amniotes are truly terrestrial". Secondarily, many reptiles and mammals returned to water, and mammals bear the young live, as do some reptile groups. This evolutionary flexibility is much less common in amphibians.
The first amniotes, such as "Casineria", looked like small lizards. They evolved about 340 million years ago, in the Mississippian or Lower Carboniferous. Their eggs could survive out of the water. This let amniotes move into environments that had less water. The amniotes moved across the Earth. Most vertebrates that live on land are amniotes, as are most of the air-breathing animals of the sea.
Very early in the evolutionary history of amniotes, they split into two main lines, the synapsids and the sauropsids, both of which persist into the modern era.
The oldest known fossil synapsid is "Protoclepsydrops" from about 320 million years ago, while the oldest known sauropsid is probably "Paleothyris", in the order Captorhinida, from the Middle Pennsylvanian epoch (about 306–312 million years ago).
One can assume the ancestors of the amniotes laid their eggs in moist places, as such modest-sized animals would not have difficulty finding depressions under fallen logs or other suitable places in the ancient forests, and dry conditions were probably not the main reason why the soft shell emerged.
In fish and amphibians there is only one inner membrane, also called an embryonic membrane. In amniotes the inner anatomy of the egg has evolved further and new structures have developed to take care of the gas exchanges between the embryo and the atmosphere, as well as dealing with the waste problems. To grow a thicker and tougher shell required new ways to supply the embryo with oxygen, as diffusion alone was not enough.
After the egg developed these structures, further sophistication allowed amniotes to lay much bigger eggs in much drier habitats. Bigger eggs allowed for bigger offspring, and bigger adults could produce bigger eggs, so amniotes grew bigger than their ancestors. Real growth was not possible, however, until they stopped relying on small invertebrates as their main food source and started to eat plants or other vertebrates, or returned to the water. New habits and heavier bodies meant further evolution for the amniotes, both in behavior and anatomy.
There are three main lines of amniotes, which may be distinguished by the structure of the skull and in particular the number of temporal fenestrae (openings) behind the eye. In anapsids (turtles) there are none, in synapsids (mammals and their extinct relatives) there is one, and in most diapsids (non-anapsid reptiles, including dinosaurs and birds) there are two.
The skeletal remains of amniotes have at least two pairs of sacral ribs, a sternum in the pectoral girdle (shoulders area) and an astragalus bone in the ankle.
A simplified phylogeny of tetrapods goes like this:
This is perhaps better than the older taxonomy, which lists recent branches like birds and mammals as classes on mere traditional grounds.
List of mayors of Hamburg
The ' is the First Mayor""' of Hamburg, Germany. He is the President of the Senate (government) of Hamburg. The Erster Bürgermeister is Hamburg's Minister President.
The constitution of 28 September 1860 says that the state is to be governed by the ten-member "Senate" headed by the "First Mayor" as the "President of the Senate". His deputy is the "Second Mayor". Until 1997 the First Mayor was elected by the Senate. Now he is elected by the "Bürgerschaft" (the city's parliament) and the Erster Bürgermeister has appointed and dismissed other Senators.
Synapsid
Synapsids ('fused arch'), is a taxonomic class of tetrapods. This class includes mammals and earlier groups related to mammals. Synapsids are one of the two major groups of amniotes. The sister group, which gave rise to the reptiles, is the Sauropsida. Both groups evolved from early amniotes about 345 million years ago during the early or mid Carboniferous period.
Synapsids include the Pelycosauria (Pennsylvanian to Permian), and the Therapsida (Lower Permian to present).
The pelycosaurs were dominant on land in the Permian, and went under at the Permian–Triassic extinction event. The therapsids were dominant on land in the Lower Triassic, but by the Upper Triassic the dinosaurs had taken over.
The mammal-like reptiles are traditionally divided into a primitive group and an advanced group, known respectively as pelycosaurs and therapsids. Pelycosaurs are a paraphyletic group of six primitive families of synapsids. They were all rather lizard-like with sprawling gait and possibly horny scutes. The therapsids contain the more advanced synapsids, having a more erect pose and possibly hair, at least in some forms. The latter are the ancestors of mammals. Thus both of the two synapsid groups represent evolutionary grades: the pelycosaurs have given rise to the therapsids, who in their turn have given rise to the mammals.
The therapsids ('beast face') used to be called mammal-like reptiles. This was a mistake, because they were never reptiles. The split between Synapsids and Sauropsids (the group which gave rise to reptiles) took place long before therapsids evolved.
There are a number of characteristics which cannot be seen on fossils, but which are of great importance. Mammals are distinguished from reptiles by fundamental differences in the development of the blood system. These differences are such that it would be almost impossible for mammals to be derived from reptiles.
This supports the division of amniotes into sauropsida and synapsida.
Synapsids evolved a fenestra (hole) behind each eye orbit on the lower part of the skull. It allows better attachment sites for jaw muscles than the original anapsid condition.
A parallel development took place in the diapsida, who evolved two rather than one opening behind each eye.
Originally, the opening in the skull left the inner cranium only covered by the jaw muscles, but in higher therapsids and mammals the sphenoid bone has expanded to close the opening.
Synapsids had differentiated teeth. These include the canines, molars, and incisors.
The trend towards differentiation is found in some labyrinthodonts and early anapsid reptilians. They have enlarged first teeth on the maxilla, forming a form of proto-canines. This trait was subsequently lost in the sauropsid line, but developed further in the synapsids. Early synapsids could have 2 or even 3 enlarged 'canines', but in the therapsids, the pattern had settled to one canine in each upper jaw half. The lower canines developed later.
Note: in evolutionary terms, the mammals are entirely within the Synapsida. Their status as a separate class is traditional Linnaean taxonomy: as a clade they are a sub-group of the Therapsida.
The Pilgrim's Progress is an English language book written by John Bunyan. It was published in two parts: the First Part in 1678, and the Second Part in 1684. Its full title is The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is to come. It is regarded as one of the most important books in English literature. It is a Christian allegory.
The book uses the dream story of a journey through the English county of Bedfordshire, to London. Bunyan uses this to tell the idea of Christianity from a Protestant point of view. Although the journey is imaginary, the places are based upon real places in 17th century Bedfordshire. The difficulties faced by "Christian", the main character, is meant to be an allegory of the difficulties faced by a true Christian in keeping to the 'straight and narrow path'. The author was jailed for preaching his opinions, yet after the book was published, it was translated into over 200 languages.
Bunyan started to write the book in jail. He got into trouble for preaching without a licence. Bunyan, who was a Reformed Baptist, did not qualify for a licence. Only ministers of the Church of England were allowed to preach. He spent 12 years in Bedford jail. He might have been freed if he had promised not to preach, but he refused. He was let out only when the law changed, in 1672. He was jailed again for a short time in 1677.
The book is divided into two parts, and is 108,260 words long. Each part is a continuous narrative, with no chapter divisions. When the first part was published in 1678, it immediately became extremely popular. Part Two was published in 1684. There were 11 editions of the first part during John Bunyan’s lifetime, and two editions of the second part.
The story is an allegory about a man called Christian, who goes on a journey, and meets many strange people. Christian is an 'everyman' character: he represents the reader or any ordinary person. Eventually he gets to the Celestial City. The strange people he meets are characters who represent good and bad things in life. The story is therefore an allegory of the life of a good Christian. To be precise, it is an allegory of the Protestant view of Christianity. It includes, as characters, the giants 'Pope' and 'Pagan', allegories of Roman Catholicism and paganism as persecutors of Protestant Christians. 'Pagan' is dead, indicating the end of pagan persecution, and 'Pope' is alive but decrepit (elderly), indicating the diminished power and influence of the Roman Catholic pope. The many indirect references to the Bible is a sure sign of Protestant belief. The Bible had not long been available in English, and its translation was opposed by the church in the reign of Henry VIII.
Many of the places Bunyan describes are based on places he knew in the Bedfordshire countryside. For example, the Slough of Despond is thought to be the marshes in Tempsford (now on the A1 road). House Beautiful is thought to be Houghton House (now a ruin), just outside Ampthill. The character of the Evangelist is that of his friend John Gifford, who was the leader of a non-conformist group at St John’s Church, Bedford. The heavy burden (the load), which Christian carries on his back, represents his sins: the things he has done wrong, and which trouble him. However, the burden is also based on the heavy anvil which he carried on his back as he walked from place to place. He worked as a tinker (someone who mends pots and pans).
Later, the Land of Beulah is Middlesex County, the Very Deep River is the Thames, and the Celestial City is London.
Part One tells how a man called Christian makes his way from the 'City of Destruction' (Earth) to the 'Celestial City' (Heaven) of Zion. Christian finds himself weighed down by a great burden which he gets from reading a book (obviously the Bible). He wonders what he can do to be saved. The character Evangelist appears several times during the story, pointing him in the right direction. Evangelist shows Christian the way to the 'Wicket Gate'. Christian tries to persuade his family to join him on the journey, but they refuse, so he leaves them behind.
The first person he meets is called Mr. Worldly Wiseman, who says he can be saved by looking at the law, and that Mr. Legality can help him. Evangelist stops him from going that way. He must go to the Wicket Gate.
At the Wicket Gate the gatekeeper, Goodwill, tells him to keep to the straight path. In the Second Part, Goodwill is shown to be Jesus himself. To Christian's query about relief from his burden, Goodwill directs him forward to the 'place of deliverance'.
Christian goes to the House of the Interpreter, where he is shown pictures and that show ideas of the Christian faith. Then he gets to the 'place of deliverance'. This is meant to be the hill with the cross where Jesus died. There his burden falls off his back, so he is very relieved. Three shining ones give him the greeting of peace. They give him new clothes and a passport to the Celestial City (heaven). This is like a Christian Baptism.
At the top of the Hill of Difficulty, Christian stops at the House Beautiful, which is an allegory of the local Christian congregation. Christian spends three days here. When he leaves he is wearing armour which protects him when he fights a battle with the monster Apollyon. Then he goes to the Shadow of Death. He is not afraid because his friend Faithful reminds him of the words of Psalm 23: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." The sun rises as he leaves.
Just outside the Valley of the Shadow of Death he meets Faithful, who also used to live in the City of Destruction. They go together to Vanity Fair, where they are both arrested because they do not like the kind of business which is being done at the fair, all based on greed. Faithful is put on trial, and executed. Hopeful, who lives in Vanity, takes Faithful's place as Christian's companion for the rest of the way.
Together Christian and Hope have several adventures. They are captured by Giant Despair, who takes them to Doubting Castle, where they are imprisoned, beaten and starved. The giant wants them to commit suicide, but they refuse. Suddenly Christian realizes that a key he has, called Promise, will open all the doors and gates of Doubting Castle. Using the key, they escape.
They come to the Delectable Mountains where the shepherds show them some of the wonders of the place also known as 'Immanuel's Land'.
On the way, Christian and Hopeful meet a man called Ignorance. He thinks he can enter the Celestial City even though he does not believe. A ferryman called Vain Hope ferries Ignorance across the River of Death, but Ignorance is turned away from the gates of Celestial City and thrown into hell.
Christian and Hopeful eventually reach the Celestial City.
The Second Part of "The Pilgrim's Progress" presents the pilgrimage of Christian's wife, Christiana; their sons and the maiden, Mercy. They visit the same places that Christian visited, but they take a longer time. This is because the story includes the marriage of his sons, and children for the four sons and their wives.
The story shows that women can be as brave as men. They visit the same stopping places that Christian did, but they take longer because they marry and give birth to children on the way. The hero of the story is Greatheart, the servant of the Interpreter, who is a pilgrim's guide to the Celestial City. He kills four giants, including Giant Despair, and helps to kill a monster that terrorizes the city of Vanity.
Expert critics think the second part is important, and brings in more ideas: "Part II, which appeared in 1684, is much more than a mere sequel to or repetition of the earlier volume. It clarifies and reinforces and justifies the story of Part I. The beam of Bunyan's spotlight is broadened to include Christian's family and other men, women, and children; the incidents and accidents of everyday life are more numerous, the joys of the pilgrimage tend to outweigh the hardships; and to the faith and hope of Part I is added in abundant measure that greatest of virtues, charity. The two parts of The Pilgrim's Progress in reality constitute a whole, and the whole is, without doubt, the most influential religious book ever written in the English language.
Part II shows human frailty: of women, children, and people with weak bodies or minds. When Christiana's party leaves Gaius's Inn, Mr. Feeble-mind lingers in order to be left behind. He is encouraged to come with the party by Greatheart: But brother ... I have it in commission, to comfort the feeble-minded, and to support the weak. You must needs go along with us; we will wait for you, we will lend you our help, we will deny ourselves of some things, both opinionative and practical, for your sake; we will not enter into doubtful disputations before you, we will be made all things to you, rather than you shall be left behind.