adityasasidhar/Wikipedia_Cleaned huggingface dataset:
A population is the number of living people that live together in the same place. A city's population is the number of people living in that city. These people are called inhabitants or residents. The population includes all individuals that live in that certain area. The world population was estimated to have reached 7.5 billion in April 2017. Asia is the most populous continent, with its 4.3 billion inhabitants being 60% of the world population. The most populous country is China with 1.4 billion people.
Population density is the average number of people in a place. Urban areas such as big cities have a high population density. People living there lives close to each other. In areas with a low population density, people usually live far away from each other, such as in rural areas out in the countryside.
A president is the leader and head of state of a country which is a republic. A president is usually elected directly through a vote by the citizens or indirectly by legislatures (parliaments) who were voted by the citizens and which represents them.
Some presidents are both the head of state and head of government, such as the President of the United States. In other countries, such as the Republic of Ireland, the President has a ceremonial role while the Prime Minister is the leader of the government. In France, the President and Prime Minister both share executive powers.
A president could also be the title of the head of a large business, company or organization.
Many republics have direct elections by citizens to elect a president. But some other republics do not. The President of the United States is elected by the electoral college. Some other republics choose a president this way. In some other republics, the parliament elects a president.
Countries that have a monarch as leader, are called monarchies. Some countries have neither a president or a monarch as leader, such as the Vatican City which is ruled by a religious leader called a Pope.
Companies also have presidents. They are elected by the people who own part of the company. In some companies, the people who are workers for the company elect (vote for) their company president.
The president of a country is not the same thing as a prime minister. A prime minister is part of a parliament, but a president is not. In some countries, (such as the United States or France), the president has more power and responsibility than anyone else. Such a president is often called the nation's chief executive. As chief executive, the president must take an active role in all phases of government. The republics where the president is both the head of state and head of government (and there is no prime minister) are called a presidential republics.
In other republics (such as India, Israel or the Republic of Ireland), to be president is more of an honor or a symbol, and the position has no real power. The real power in such republics is held by the prime minister, who is the head of government. In this kind of republics, the president is only the head of state, and are called parliamentary republics.
In some republics (such as France or Russia) both the president as the head of state, and the prime minister as the head of government, run the day-to-day affairs of the state, but often the president has more powers than the prime minister. Such republics are called semi-presidential republics.
Most monarchies that have a king or queen as their monarch and head of state, have no president, but very few monarchies, such as the United Arab Emirates has a president who is the head of state, who by custom (but not by law) is always the emir (monarch) of Abu Dhabi, which is "de facto" hereditary.
Galileo was born on 15 February 1564 in Pisa, Duchy of Florence. He was the eldest of five siblings. His father was Vincenzo Galilei, who was a scholar and a musician. In 1574, the Galilei family moved to Florence and he started his formal education in the Camaldolese monastery.
Galileo was not the first person to build a telescope. He was the first person to publish his observations of astronomical objects through a telescope. He discovered that the Milky Way is made of many stars. He discovered that the Moon has hills. He discovered the first moons not counting our own moon, these are the four biggest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymade and Callisto. Those moons are now called the Galilean moons. He discovered sunspots, which are dark areas of the Sun. He saw that the planet Venus has light and dark phases just like the Moon. This helped people to know that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System, as Nicolaus Copernicus had said.
Previously, he was buried in a small room next to the novices' chapel at the end of a corridor. Later, he was reburied in the main body of the basilica in 1737 after a monument had been built there in his honor.
An agreement is writing down a promise made. Agreements are common in law and business. For example, when a person takes out a loan or hires someone to work, an agreement is usually signed so that everyone understands what and when things must be done.
When a person agrees to do something or to "not" do something, that person is making a promise. A promise can be made verbally (by saying it), or it can be written down as a contract. "Breaking" a promise, or not keeping it, is often just bad manners, but it can sometimes be illegal, such as when a contract is not kept.
Clouds are heavy. The water in a cloud can have a mass of several million tons. Every cubic metre (m3) of the cloud has only about 5 grams of water in it. Cloud droplets are also about 1000 times heavier than evaporated water, so they are much heavier than air. They do not fall, but stay in the air, because there is warm air all round the heavier water droplets. When water changes from gas to droplets, this makes heat. Because the droplets are very small, they "stick" to the warm air.
Water is essential for life as we know it. It is present throughout the Solar System, and was part of the Earth from its formation. The source of the water was the same as the source of the Earth's rock: the cloud particles which condensed in the origin of the Solar System.
Solid is one of the four common states of matter. The molecules in solids are closely bound together, so they can only vibrate. This means solids have a definite shape that only changes when a force is applied. This is different to liquids and gases which move randomly, a process called flow.
Solids can resist forces applied to their surface.
Since metals are good conductors of electricity, they are valuable in electrical tools and for carrying an electric current over long distances with little energy loss. Because of this, electrical power grids rely on metal cables to get electricity. Home electrical systems, for example, are wired with copper for its good conducting uses. The high thermal conductivity of most metals also makes them useful for stovetop cooking utensils.
Minerals are natural solids formed through many geological processes and having a crystal structure with uniform physical things throughout..
Kolkata (spelled Calcutta before 1 January 2001) is the capital city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the second largest city in India after Mumbai. It is on the east bank of the River Hooghly. When it is called Calcutta, it includes the suburbs. This makes it the third largest city of India. It has 4,500,000 (4.5 million) people living in it. This also makes it the world's 8th largest metropolitan area as defined by the United Nations. Kolkata served as the capital of India during the British Raj until 1911. Kolkata was once the center of industry and education. However, it has witnessed political violence and economic problems since 1954. Since 2000, Kolkata has grown due to economic growth. Like other metropolitan cities in India, Kolkata struggles with poverty, pollution and traffic congestion.
The discovery of the nearby Chandraketugarh, an archaeological site has proved that people have lived there for over two millennia. The history of Kolkata begins when the English East India Company arrived in 1690. Job Charnock, an administrator with the company is traditionally known as the founder of this city. However some academics say that Charnock is not the city's founder.
At that time Kolkata, ruled by the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-Ud-Daulah, had three villages. They were Kalikata, Govindapur and Sutanuti. The British in the late 17th century wanted to build a fort near Govindapur. This was to become more powerful than Dutch, the Portuguese, and the French. In 1702, the British completed the construction of old Fort William, which was used to station its troops and as a regional base. Calcutta was declared a Presidency City, and later became the headquarters of the Bengal Presidency. When regular fights with French forces started, in 1756 the British began to upgrade their fortifications. When this was protested, the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-Ud-Daulah attacked and captured Fort William. This led to the infamous Black Hole incident. A force of Company sepoys and British troops led by Robert Clive recaptured the city the next year. Calcutta became the capital of British India in 1772. However, the capital shifted to the hilly town of Shimla during the summer months every year, starting from the year 1864. Richard Wellesley, the Governor General between 1797 and 1805, helped in the growth of the city and its public architecture. This led to the description of Calcutta as "The City of Palaces". The city was a centre of the British East India Company's opium trade during the 18th and 19th century; locally produced opium was sold at auction in Kolkata, to be shipped to China.
Another early writing instrument was the stylus, which was a thin stick of wood or metal, often lead. It was used for scratching onto black wax that covered white wood, a method used by the Romans. The word "pencil" comes from the Latin word which means "little tail". It is an invention of the 16th century in England.
Some time before 1565 (it may have been as early as 1500), a large deposit of graphite was found in Borrowdale, Cumbria. The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep. This deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid, and it could easily be sawn into sticks. This is still the only large scale deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form. Chemistry was in its early stages and the substance was thought to be a form of lead. Consequently, it was called "plumbago" (Latin for "lead ore"). The black core of pencils is still referred to as "lead", even though it never had the element lead.
The value of graphite was soon realized, mainly because it could be used to line the moulds for cannonballs. The mines were taken over by the Crown and guarded. When enough stocks of graphite had been added up, the mines were flooded to prevent theft until more was needed. Graphite had to be sneakily moved out for use in pencils. Because graphite is soft, it requires some form of holder. Graphite sticks were at first wrapped in string or in sheepskin for stability. The news of the usefulness of these early pencils spread far and wide, attracting the attention of artists all over the known world.
A few common brands of colored pencils (among other items) are Crayola, RoseArt, Derwent, Faber Castell, Caran d'ache, and Cra-Z-Art.
Logic is the study of reasoning. The rules of logic let philosophers make a guess about logical deductions about the world. Logic helps people decide whether something can be true or false.
A logical proof is a list of statements put in a specific order to prove a logical point. Each statement in the proof is either an assumption made for the sake of argument, or has been proven to follow from earlier statements in the proof. All proofs must start with some assumptions, such as "men exist" in the above syllogism. A proof shows that one statement, the conclusion, follows from the starting assumptions. With a proof, we can prove that "Aristotle is mortal" logically follows from "Aristotle is a man" and "All men are mortal".
Communism is an idea in politics consisting of economical equality that wants a world without different social class groups. Communists believe these differences are extremely bad behaviour by the powerful. They say that things like factories, tools and farms (the relations of production) are owned by the bourgeoisie, which gives them unfair power over workers. Communists want these things to be owned by the workers instead of the bosses. They believe this will bring about the end of all money and private property.
This is the opposite to capitalism where there is money, and a state and class structure. In capitalism, there is a working class (people who don't own the means of production, also called the proletariat) and the owning class (people who own the means of production, sometimes called the ruling class or the bourgeoisie).
Communist thinkers believe a communist world can happen if the working class take away the power of the bourgeoisie and start to control the means of production.
The most famous communist thinkers were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; other prominent thinkers include Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, and Mao Zedong.
In 1848, Karl H. Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The Communist Manifesto". It was a short book with the basic ideas of communism. Most socialists and communists today still use this book to help them better and more accurately understand politics and economics. Many non-communists read it too, even if they do not agree with everything in it.
Karl Marx said that for society to change into a communist way of living, there would have to be a period of change. During this period, the workers would govern society. This is called a dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx was very interested in the Paris Commune of 1870, when the workers of Paris ran the city after the Prussian Army defeated the French Army. He thought that this practical experience was more important than the theoretical views of the various radical groups.
Many groups and individuals liked Marx's ideas. By the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a worldwide socialist movement called Social Democracy. It was influenced by his ideas. They said that the workers in different countries had more in common with each other than the workers had in common with the bosses within their own countries. In 1917, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky led a Russian group called the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. They got rid of the temporary government of Russia, which was formed after the February Revolution against the Tsar (Emperor). They established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also called the Soviet Union.
During the 20th century, many people tried to establish workers' states. In the late 1940s, China also had a revolution and created a new government with Mao Zedong as its leader. In 1959, the island of Cuba had a revolution and created a new government with Fidel Castro as its leader. At one time, there were many such countries, and it seemed as though communism would overtake capitalism. However, communist party governments didn't use democracy. Because of this, the governments became separated from the people, making communism difficult. This also led to disagreements and splits between countries.
By the 1960s, one third of the world had overthrown capitalism and were trying to build communism. Most of these countries followed the model of the Soviet Union. Some followed the model of China. The other two thirds of the world still lived in capitalism, and this led to a worldwide divide between capitalist countries and communist countries. This was called the "Cold War" because it was not fought with weapons or armies, but competing ideas. However, this could have turned into a large war. During the 1980s, the United States and the Soviet Union were competing to have the biggest army and having the most dangerous weapons. This was called the "Arms Race". President Ronald Reagan called communist countries like the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire".
Mao Zedong of China thought that other classes would be important to the revolution in China and other developing countries because the working classes in these countries were small. Mao's ideas on communism are usually called Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought. After Stalin's death in 1953, Mao saw himself as the leader of worldwide communism until he died in 1976. Today the Chinese government is still ruled by the Communist Party, but they actually have what is called a mixed economy. They have borrowed many things from capitalism. The government in China today does not follow Maoism. Some revolutionaries in other countries like India and Nepal still like his ideas and are trying to use them in their own countries.
The word "communism" is not a very specific description of left-wing political organizations. Many political parties calling themselves "communist" may actually be more reformist (supportive of reforms and slow change instead of revolution) than some parties calling themselves "socialists". Many communist parties in Latin America have lost many members because these parties do different things than what they promised once they get into power. In Chile, between 1970 and 1973, under the left-wing Coalition (groups of parties) of Popular Unity, led by Salvador Allende, the Communist Party of Chile was to the right of the Socialist Party of Chile. This means it was more reformist than the socialist party.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is written about by the evangelists in the New Testament. They are the writers of the four Gospels in the New Testament. Christians believe the resurrection is a central part of the Christian faith. Jesus died on the cross to save mankind. When he was resurrected, Jesus defeated death. He is alive forever and sitting at God's right hand on a throne. This gives Christians the hope of a new life after death. This is because his resurrection mirrors the future for all Christians after they die.
All four Gospels tell about Jesus being raised from the dead. They also write about three times that Jesus brings a dead person back to life. However, these are not a true resurrection. These people were restored to a normal physical life. They later died a normal death, but a resurrected body is no longer mortal.
According to Alcor, resurrection of people will be possible in the far future. They are using cryonics to preserve some legally dead people until the invention of the resurrection.
A monarchy is a kind of government where a monarch, a kind of hereditary ruler (someone who inherits their office), is the head of state. Monarchs usually rule until they die or pass down (when a monarch resigns it is called abdication). Most monarchies are hereditary, but some are elected. The most famous elected monarch is the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Some well known titles for monarchs are King, Queen, Emperor, Empress, Czar, Kaiser, Shah, Emir, Khan and Sultan.
In less formal societies, the leader was often chosen by fighting. That was the way of warrior societies like the Zulu. Kings of England and Scotland were sometimes decided by battle. Warfare has been very frequent between human societies. "Wars of succession" is the general term for warfare caused by two or more individuals claiming the right of successor to a dead or deposed monarch.
Many people in countries such as the UK want to keep their royal family as they have remained a traditional icon and source of income for the country. However, in the UK their influence in the rule of the country is very small, leaving government to the governing political party elected by the people. This is because in a constitutional monarchy the monarch has only the power of head of state.
Monarchy is one of the oldest kinds of government. Most historians agree that the first monarchies were tribes or small groups of people who decided to let a war-chief or other leader pass on their office to their children. This created a dynasty. Over time, the rules for deciding who got to become the next monarch became more complicated. Primogeniture is usually the oldest son or, in some countries, daughter, becomes the next monarch when the old one dies. Akkad and Sumer were the first recorded monarchies.
A constitutional monarchy usually has separation of powers, and the monarch often has only ceremonial duties, such as representing the country while traveling or acting as a symbol for the whole country (not for a particular political party). Constitutional monarchs usually do not vote, even when it is legal for them to do so. Voting would mean that they picked a side in political arguments and then could not claim to represent everyone in the country. Some constitutional monarchies give the power to veto laws to the monarch, but in most countries where this is the case it is a power that is very rarely used. In countries where the monarch can dismiss or appoint governments, this is usually only done to make sure that the democratic process is respected, without taking sides in politics. Appointments to public office made by constitutional monarchs are generally approved by the democratically elected government beforehand.
While most monarchies are hereditary (meaning that the title passes on through inheritance), there have been cases where a monarch has been elected. This was especially common in the Holy Roman Empire, where the Emperor and many other rulers within the empire were elected to the position.
The country was founded in 1948 after it had been freed from Japanese occupation, and a socialist state backed by the Soviet Union was established. The Republic of Korea is the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, and was occupied by the United States, and the U.S. set up a democracy in the south. At first, there was a war between the north and south which is called the Korean War, but while the fighting stopped in 1953, the war never officially ended. North Korea had ties with China and Russia but never was formally allied with either and became more isolated over time. Soon afterwards, the North's main trading partners the Soviet Union, collapsed. This left North Korea stranded and isolated. Throughout the 1990s, North Korea suffered from famines and natural disasters. As South Korea got richer, North Korea got poorer and life became worse there. Afterwards, things stabilized but continued to lag behind the South. Worldwide economic sanctions and embargoes are thought to have significantly impacted the quality of life in North Korea.
North Korea is described as a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship by western media, while North Korea describes itself as a democratic worker's state. The country's leader Kim Il-sung said that the government was following his own ideology of "Juche", which means "self-reliance". Later on, the country's leaders began to remove "communism" from North Korean laws and philosophy, although Juche can be described as a variant of communism. After Kim Il-sung died during the disasters of the 1990s, his son Kim Jong-il took his place and was promoted by the government as the leader who led North Korea out of the disasters. North Korea was the only communist country in history where leadership was directly given to the former leader's son after his death. This is called hereditary rule. Kim Jong-il enacted a new policy of "Songun", or "military-first", which turned the country into a military state. When he died in 2011, his youngest son Kim Jong-un took his place and continues to rule the country today.
Although Pyongyang (which is the one of the few areas foreign travelers are allowed to visit) makes the country look like it is richer and more prosperous than it truly is, life looks extremely different throughout the rest of the country. Only the highest-ranking North Koreans are allowed to live in Pyongyang, and they must have permission from the government to do so. Unlike the rest of the country, people often own cars and bicycles, there is a subway system, and power exists throughout the city. Meanwhile, very few people in the countryside own a car, or even a bicycle, and animal-drawn carts are very common. Electricity in rural areas is rare, if it even exists at all. Proof(?) of this is that when seen from space, there are almost no lights that can be seen outside of Pyongyang. Even in Pyongyang, power cuts are common.
Even though the country only has fewer than 25 million people, the country still has the world's fourth largest standing military at 1.29 million soldiers. This is because North Korea has a law that requires all men to join the military for at least ten years after they graduate high school.
The government says it keeps a large military to protect the country from its enemies, particularly the United States and Japan. However, it is more likely that it exists to keep the government in power and to stop people from speaking out.
A fuel is a substance that is changed in some way to produce heat, electricity, or other forms of energy. This is usually by being burnt in fire, although there are exceptions, such as nuclear fuel. Fuel can be divided into two main types: fossil fuels and other fuels.
In January 2021, Estonia became the only country in the world led by women by having a female president (Kersti Kaljulaid) and female prime minister (Kaja Kallas). A few months later, Alar Karis replaced Kaljulaid as president.
The foreign intelligence service warned in 2024 that Russia intended to double the number of its troops stationed along its border. Estonia plans to spend more than 3% of GDP on defence.
Estonia is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland with Finland on the other side, to the west by the Baltic Sea with Sweden on the other side, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km).
In June 2023, the Estonian government passed a bill legalising same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption in Estonia. The bill went into effect on 1 January 2024, making Estonia the first Baltic state and country formerly occupied by the Soviet Union to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption.
Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea and member state of the European Union. Cyprus is both in Asia and Europe, but first, the country is often associated with Europe because of the culture, geology and history of the people. It is also closer to Africa than to Europe. The capital is Nicosia. A state called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is located to the north. The official languages are Greek and Turkish.
Cyprus is a popular tourist destination in Europe. In 2019, 4 million tourists visited the country. It is estimated, that Cyprus earned 2.7 billion euros in that year. Tourism is very important to the country, as tourism made up 23% of its economy in 2020;).
Cyprus, was conquered and became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1570. Likewise, Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire for several centuries. The British administered Cyprus from 1878 until 1960.
The Republic of Cyprus is a constitutional presidential republic. Each president is elected for a five-year term. The president has a lot of power. Cyprus is the only member of the European Union that is governed by a presidential system of government. It is one of few countries (along with San Marino) to have had a democratically elected communist government, in office from 2008 until 2013. Since 2013 governing party has been the Democratic Rally.
Latvia (Latvian: "Latvija"), officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvian: "Latvijas Republika"), is a country in Northern Europe. The capital is Riga. It is one of the Baltic States, together with Estonia in the north and Lithuania in the south. Latvia's neighbours to the east are the countries Russia and Belarus. Latvia is split into four parts called Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Zemgale, and Latgale.
During the 13-15th centuries there was the Teutonic Order state occupied Latvian territory.
Before World War I the aristocracy were mainly German.
During the Great Northern war (1700-1721) modern-day Latvia became the part of the Russian empire. There were organized Courland and Livonia.
Latvian workers took part in the revolutionary struggle in 1905.
In 1940 Latvia became the Soviet republic was incorporated in Soviet Union.
It was under Nazi occupation during World War II in 1941-1944.
After the war a lot of factories were opened. Latvia became one of the successful Soviet republics.
In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and the independent Latvian republic was restored.
In Copenhagen on 13 December 2002, Latvia and nine other countries were invited to join the European Union. On 20 September 2003, Latvians held an election to vote on joining. Two thirds of Latvians voted to join, and on 1 May 2004, Latvia became a member of the EU.
Latvia has been a NATO member since 29 March 2004.
There are 43 local government units, set up in 2020. 36 are municipalities (Latvian: "novadi") and 7 state cities. Before 2020 there were 110 municipalities and nine republic cities.
Lithuania (at that time - The Grand Duchy of Lithuania) made a Treaty with Poland in 1569. The country was taken over by the Russian Empire in 1795, ending the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It got back its independence on February 16, 1918.
On June 22, 1941, after German invasion, the republic was occupied. It continued until 1944.
Lithuania re-declared its independence on March 11, 1990. Currently, Lithuania is an independent, semi-presidential, democratic republic.
Main minorities in Lithuania include Poles 234,989 (6.7%), Russians 219,789 (6.3%), Belarusians 42,866 (1.2%), Ukrainians 22,488 (0.7%) and Jews 4,007 (2001 census data). There are smaller populations of Armenians, Azeris, Germans, Karaims (Karaites), Latvians, Moldovans, Roma, Tatars and Uzbeks in Lithuania.
The nursery schools and the kindergartens are the first-level education forms. However, they are not compulsory. The children start attending the primary school at age 7, where educational programs last for 4 years; then they must start attending secondary school (5th to 10th grades). After finishing 8th or 10th grade, the student can continue learning at the high school or choose courses at the vocational college. The students who finish the high school can join colleges and universities. Higher education is free for the students whose annual median of grades is 8 or higher. The others have to pay ~1300 Euros per semester at least.
Malta is a country in Southern Europe, and a member of the European Union. It is an island near the center of the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily. Although it is located geographically in the African Plate, Malta is recognized as a European country. The capital of Malta is Valletta. Around 500,000 people live in Malta and it is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Malta is 316 sq km, which makes it one of the smallest countries. Its many cities and towns grew close to each other over time.
Maltese is the national language of Malta. It is a Semitic language similar to the Maghrebi Dialects of North Africa, with a high amount of influence from Romance languages, in particular Italian, and more recently English. Maltese and English are the official languages in line with the constitution of the country. A majority of the people of Malta can speak three languages; Maltese, English and Italian.
Lisbon () is the capital city of Portugal. It is the largest city of Portugal. The city has a population of about half million people. In Lisbon's urban area live around 2.8 million people, being the 10th-most populous urban area in the European Union.
Lisbon is placed on the right bank (western) of the Tagus River, near the outfall. It has a pleasant climate and has about 220 days of sunshine each year. There are many beautiful beaches close to the city. There are also many seafood restaurants, historical sites and monuments, being one of the oldest cities in the world.
The municipality of Lisbon have 24 "freguesias" (civil parishes).
The Lisbon Metro connects the city centre to different districts, it also reaches some suburbs around the Lisbon metropolitan area, like Amadora and Loures.
Trams are a traditional public transport in Lisbon. It was first introduced in 1901, many of the electric trams were originally imported from the US, and were called "americanos". Trams in Lisbon are coloured yellow and is one of the tourist icons of the city, and their size is great for steep hills and narrow streets of the central city.
Surfing was invented by the Polynesians at least 4000 years ago. Surfing made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. It has become a popular sport among both men and women of all ages. With lifestyles and regimens freer than those of most sports, surfers comprise a unique culture. Though surfing is practiced in many other Pacific nations, its center remains Hawaii, where many rounds of the international surfing championships (the ASP) are held annually. Surfing is popular in Australia, the US, and Northern Europe.
Lyon (Arpitan: "Liyon") is a city in the southeast of France. It is the third-largest city in the country (behind Paris and Marseille), with about 513,000 people living there in 2015. It is the second largest "metropolis", or metro area, in France (behind only that of Paris), with about 2.3 million people in 2014.
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman. He was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He is the son of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and former U.S. First Lady Barbara Bush. Before becoming president, he was the Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. Bush is a member of the Republican Party.
He flew warplanes in the Texas and Alabama Air National Guard. After graduating from Yale College in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in the oil industry. In 1977, he married Laura Welch and ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team.
In 1994, he was elected Governor of Texas, defeating the incumbent governor, Democrat Ann Richards. As governor, Bush successfully backed legislation for tort reform, gave more money for education, set higher standards for schools, and changed the criminal justice system. Bush also helped make Texas the leading producer of wind powered electricity in the U.S.
In 2000, Bush was elected President of the United States when he defeated Democratic incumbent Vice President Al Gore in an extremely close election. He became the fourth person to be elected president without winning the popular vote. He is the second son of a former United States president to himself become president, the first being John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams.
Bush was inaugurated in January 2001. As president, his earlier focus was on domestic issues. He cut taxes, passed an education reform bill, made changes to Medicare, and changed abortion laws. On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by Al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization, via the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As a result of these attacks, Bush created the Department of Homeland Security and started a "War on Terror" that began with a war in Afghanistan in 2001. He also signed into law the Patriot Act in order to inspect on people believed to be terrorists. In 2003, he ordered an invasion of Iraq, which started the Iraq War. The reason why he did this was because his administration claimed that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program, and that the Iraqi government was a threat to the U.S. However, no WMDs or a program for WMDs were ever found.
He was re-elected to a second term in 2004, against Democrat John Kerry. In his second term, Bush reached multiple free trade agreements and was able to put John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. He wanted to make major changes to Social Security and immigration laws, but these changes did not pass in Congress. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continued, and in 2007 he sent more troops to Iraq. Bush received criticism from both sides politically for his handling of Hurricane Katrina and for the midterm dismissal of U.S. attorneys. Around December 2007, the U.S. entered the Great Recession. This made the Bush administration create programs for protection of the country's financial system, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Bush left office in January 2009, succeeded by Democrat Barack Obama, after an election against Republican John McCain. He has a ranch in Crawford, Texas, which is near Waco. In 2010, he published a memoir called "Decision Points". His presidential library opened in 2013. Though ranked a bit low in rankings of presidents by scholars and historians, public opinion on Bush has improved after his presidency ended. Bush received the highest recorded approval ratings right after the 9/11 attacks, but one of the lowest such ratings during the 2008 financial crisis.
Bush announced he was running for governor in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. His campaign focused on four themes: changing welfare, changing torts, crime reduction, and making education better.
He easily won the Republican primary. His opponent was popular Democratic incumbent Governor Ann Richards. During the campaign, he said that if he was elected, he would sign a bill that would allow Texans to get permits to carry concealed weapons (this means a person can carry a weapon on them, as long as it cannot be seen). Bush won the general election with 53.5 percent against Richards' 45.9 percent.
Bush used a budget surplus (when the government makes more money than it spends) to pass a $2 billion tax-cut, which was Texas's largest. He used government money to fund organizations that teach people of the dangers of alcohol and drug use and abuse, and helping to reduce domestic violence.
In 1998, Bush won re-election with a record 69 percent of the vote. He became the first governor in Texas history to be elected to two consecutive four-year terms. In his second term, Bush promoted faith-based organizations and had high approval ratings. He proclaimed June 10, 2000, to be Jesus Day in Texas, a day on which he asked all Texans to "answer the call to serve those in need". In 1999, Bush signed a law that said electric retailers needed to buy a certain amount of energy from renewable sources. This helped Texas become the leading producer of wind powered electricity in the U.S.
Critics said that during his time as governor, Texas ranked near the bottom in environmental evaluations. Supporters pointed to his efforts to raise the pay of teachers and improve educational test scores.
During Bush's first term, he was seen as a future presidential candidate. After he was reelected in 1998, this belief grew. In 1999, he decided to seek the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.
While he was president, George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law. It was an education reform bill.
Bush was the second President of the United States to deliver a speech in both Spanish and in English.
Bush tried to do many things to stop another terrorist attack from happening. He ordered an invasion of Afghanistan in 2002. He did this because the leaders of Afghanistan were helping Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for attacking America on September 11, 2001. Almost ten years later, on May 2, 2011 bin Laden was killed on orders of President Barack Obama. Bush asked Congress to do more to stop terrorism. As a result, Congress passed a law that created the Department Of Homeland Security, a government department which tries to prevent terrorist attacks from happening. It also responds to emergencies such as floods or diseases.
Later in 2008 December, stock market crashed and the country fell into its worst recession since the Great Depression. Bush helped create a 700 billion dollar bailout, which would give money to corporations (large businesses) to prevent them from being bankrupt and to try to prevent the recession from getting worse.
During the last few days he was president, Bush gave his farewell address. He was succeeded by Barack Obama on January 20, 2009.
After over a year and a half of saying little in public, in November 2010, Bush appeared on several television interviews and released a book called "Decision Points". The book focuses on fourteen big decisions he made in congress, including quitting drinking, running for president, Hurricane Katrina, invading Iraq, and his response to the financial meltdown in 2008.
Coal is a hard rock which can be burned as a fossil fuel. It is mostly carbon but also contains hydrogen, sulphur, oxygen and nitrogen. It is a sedimentary rock formed from peat, by the pressure of rocks laid down later on top.
Peat, and therefore coal, is formed from the remains of plants which lived millions of years ago in tropical wetlands (coal swamps), such as those of the late Carboniferous period (the Pennsylvanian). Charcoal is made by wood heated in an airless space.
Coal can be burned for energy or heat. About two-thirds of the coal mined today is burned in power stations to make electricity. Like oil, when coal is burned its carbon joins with oxygen in the air and makes a lot of carbon dioxide, which causes climate change. Many people die early because of illnesses from air pollution from coal. Most countries are turning to other sources of energy, such as solar power and wind power. But new coal power plants are still being built in some parts of the world, such as China.
Diamond is commonly believed to be the result of this process, but this is not true. Diamond is carbon but is not formed from coal.
Because of coal every year more than one hundred thousand people die early and millions of people get ill. Coal miners often get pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) from exposure to coal dust.
Peak coal means the year in which most coal is mined or burned. Many countries have already passed their peak coal years, for example Germany in 1985 and the United States in 2008. Now those countries are mining and burning less coal. But China still mines a lot of coal. The peak coal year for the world "may" have passed.
The world's top coal producer is China, which produces about four billion tonnes each year. India, the United States, Australia, Indonesia and Russia also produce coal, less than a billion tonnes a year each. The largest exporter by far is Australia and the largest importers are China, India and Japan.
Most petroleum is found by drilling down through rocks on land or off-shore on the continental shelf. Major producers are in the Middle East, the Americas, and Russia. It is the most important world fuel source. It supplies 38% of the world's energy and is also used to make petrochemicals.
There is a lot of crude oil left underground. Oil companies quote "reserves" which some people confuse with the actual amount of oil underground, but are more to do with the cost of extracting it by oil wells.
Most of the crude left underground is in the Middle East which is not a politically stable part of the world. Some governments with lots of oil reserves work together through OPEC to keep production low and prices high. People in countries that use oil complain about high oil prices. However, some environmentalists worry about damage being done by using oil as a fuel source (especially global warming) and are therefore happy when prices are kept high so that people use less oil.
There are none as far as we know. The small amounts of uncertain output from all wind and solar energy will not get near what is needed. The person who has proved this is Simon Michaux, an Australian expert. He has shown that the sum total of alternative energy sources comes nowhere near replacing oil. That is where we are at now.
Natural gas is a mixture of gases. It consists mainly of hydrocarbons. The main component is methane, which is a greenhouse gas. Natural gas is a natural resource, often found in the ground, either alone or together with petroleum. Landfills and natural processes produce a little methane. Usually it is transported to users in a pipeline.
Most natural gas is burnt as a fuel to produce energy. It burns with a blue flame. Like other flames, this can cause pollution with nitrogen oxides.
In the early 20th century, scientist found that matter itself can be created from energy (energy and matter are interchangeable, in spite of everyday experiences). This is just another change of form. After these discoveries, the conservation law of energy was extended to become the conservation law of matter and energy: matter and energy can neither be created from nothing nor destroyed to the point of complete erasure from reality. Albert Einstein was the first to mathematically show this. (E = mc)
Scientists have identified many types of energy, and found that they can be changed from one kind into another. These include:
Jewels (or gems or gemstones) are rare minerals. They usually come in colours and sizes. They begin in a rough rock form, but can be cut and polished to turn into a jewellery.
Most gemstones are hard. Soft minerals are used in jewelry too, because of their luster that gives them value.
The Ancient Greeks began to decide which gems are precious and semi-precious. This continued in other cultures.
Xenon is a non-metal chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is one of the few elements that are a gas at the standard temperature and pressure.
Kuala Lumpur () is the capital city and the largest city of Malaysia and a Federal Territory. After Putrajaya was constructed in the late 1990s, the administrative capital has been moved there. Kuala Lumpur has one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers.
The speed of light, in any medium, which is usually denoted by formula_1, is a physical constant important in many areas of physics. It is denoted by 'c^0' especially in vacuum medium, although the symbol 'c' can be used to refer to that in any medium. It is exactly by definition. A photon (particle of light) travels at this speed in a vacuum.
A consequence of this fact, that the speed of light is the same for all (inertial) observers, is that no matter how much energy is used, nothing with mass can be accelerated to reach or go faster than the speed of light. Other key consequences of the constancy of the speed of light, that the lengths of two identical objects, and the rate at which two identical clocks tick, also depend on the reference frame of the observer. These ideas were discovered in the early 1900s by Albert Einstein in his theory of Special Relativity which completely changed our understanding of space and time.
Another method is to use the aberration of light, discovered and explained by James Bradley in the 18th century. This effect results from the vector addition of the velocity of light arriving from a distant source (such as a star) and the velocity of its observer (see diagram on the right). A moving observer thus sees the light coming from a slightly different direction and consequently sees the source at a position shifted from its original position. Since the direction of the Earth's velocity changes continuously as the Earth orbits the Sun, this effect causes the apparent position of stars to move around. From the angular difference in the position of stars, it is possible to express the speed of light in terms of the Earth's velocity around the Sun. This, with the known length of a year, can be easily converted to the time needed to travel from the Sun to the Earth. In 1729, Bradley used this method to derive that light travelled 10,210 times faster than the Earth in its orbit (the modern figure is 10,066 times faster) or, equivalently, that it would take light 8 minutes 12 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth.
Tokyo () is the capital and largest city of Japan. It is on the island of Honshu in the region of Kanto. Tokyo is the center of the Japanese government. The Imperial Palace is in Tokyo, it's not actually public for tourist. Tokyo is the center of business, trade, and industry of Japan. The city is the center of the largest metropolitan area in the world. It faces Tokyo Bay.
Laozi (Lao Tsu, Lao-Tze) was a Chinese philosopher best known for Taoism, the Tao Te Ching, and becoming a deity of Taoism and Chinese folk religions. A legendary figure of Chinese culture, Laozi may have lived during the Warring States period. Laozi's work influenced anti-authoritarian and Legalist philosophers.