adityasasidhar/Wikipedia_Cleaned huggingface dataset:
Under Tigranes the Great, a member of this dynasty, during his reign, Kingdom of Armenia stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and the Kingdom of Armenia was called the "Armenian empire" during her reign. At one time, the domains of Tigranes the Great stretched from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, from Mesopotamia up to the Pontic Alps. The vast empire, formed of a varied mixture of diverse tribes, with their own dialects and cultures, could hardly be turned over- night into a cohesive and durable political structure. Inner disunity aided the designs of the Romans, who launched a series of onslaughts on the Armenian dynast, beginning with the invasion by Lucullus in 69-68 B.C, and culminating in the campaigns of Pompey in Armenia, Iberia and Colchis in 66-65 B.C. The downfall of Tigranes the Great was precipitated by the flight of his son, Tigranes the Younger, to the court of the Parthian king Phraates III, who supplied him with an army with which to invade Armenia, and join forces with the victorious Romans.
Later, the Armenian highland was divided between the Sassanids and their successors, the Arabs with the Eastern Rome.
The kingdom had its origins in the principality founded 1080 by the Rubenid dynasty, an alleged offshoot of the larger Bagratuni dynasty, which at various times had held the throne of Armenia. Their capital was originally at Tarsus, and later became Sis.
In 1198, with the crowning of Leo I, King of Armenia of the Rubenid dynasty, Cilician Armenia became a kingdom.
In 1226, the crown was passed to rival Hethumids through Leo's daughter Isabella's second husband, Hethum I. As the Mongols conquered vast regions of Central Asia and the Middle East, Hethum and succeeding Hethumid rulers sought to create an Armeno-Mongol alliance against common Muslim foes, most notably the Mamluks. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Crusader states and the Mongol Ilkhanate disintegrated, leaving the Armenian Kingdom without any regional allies. After relentless attacks by the Mamluks in Egypt in the fourteenth century, the Cilician Armenia of the Lusignan dynasty, mired in an internal religious conflict, finally fell in 1375.
Iranian and Russian Empires
Until the late fifteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in Eastern Armenia. At the close of the fifteenth century, with the rise of the Safavids, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia.
Some 80% of the population of Iranian Armenia were Muslims (Persians, Turkics, and Kurds) whereas Christian Armenians constituted a minority of about 20%, mainly because of the sixteenth-century wars with the Ottomans and the early seventeenth-century forced deportations of Armenians from the region by Shah Abbas I. As a result of the Treaty of Gulistan (1813) and the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), Iran was forced to cede Iranian Armenia (which also constituted the present-day Armenia), to the Russians.
After the Russian administration took hold of Iranian Armenia, the ethnic make-up shifted, and thus for the first time in three centuries, ethnic Armenians started to form a majority once again in one part of historic Armenia. The Russian offensive during the Caucasus Campaign of World War I, the subsequent occupation, and the creation of a provisional administrative government gave hope for ending Ottoman Turkish rule in Western Armenia. With the help of several battalions of Armenians recruited from the Russian Empire, the Russian army had made progress on the Caucasus Front, advancing as far as the city of Erzurum in 1916. The Russians continued to make considerable advances even after the toppling of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917.
From the mid-nineteenth century, Armenians faced large-scale land usurpation as a consequence of the sedentarization of Kurdish tribes and the arrival of Muslim refugees and immigrants (mainly Circassians) following the Russo-Circassian War. In 1876, when Sultan Abdul Hamid II came to power, the state began to confiscate Armenian-owned land in the eastern provinces and give it to Muslim immigrants as part of a systematic policy to reduce the Armenian population of these areas. This policy lasted until World War I. These conditions led to a substantial decline in the population of the Armenian highlands; 300,000 Armenians left the empire, and others moved to towns. Some Armenians joined revolutionary political parties, of which the most influential was the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), founded in 1890. These parties primarily sought reform within the empire and found only limited support from Ottoman Armenians.
Abdul Hamid's despotism prompted the formation of an opposition movement, the Young Turks, which sought to overthrow him and restore the 1876 Constitution of the Ottoman Empire, which he had suspended in 1877. Although skeptical of a growing, exclusionary Turkish nationalism in the Young Turk movement, the ARF decided to ally with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) in December 1907. In 1908, the CUP came to power in the Young Turk Revolution, which began with a string of CUP assassinations of leading officials in Macedonia. In early 1909 an unsuccessful countercoup was launched by conservatives and some liberals who opposed the CUP's increasingly repressive governance. When news of the countercoup reached Adana, armed Muslims attacked the Armenian quarter and Armenians returned fire. Ottoman soldiers did not protect Armenians and instead armed the rioters. Between 20,000 and 25,000 people, mostly Armenians, were killed in Adana and nearby towns. Unlike the 1890s massacres, the events were not organized by the central government but instigated by local officials, intellectuals, and Islamic clerics, including CUP supporters in Adana.
The ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire is widely considered a genocide, there are different estimates for the number of Armenians who died from the genocide range from 800,000 to 1,500,000.
The First Republic of Armenia was established in 1918, but collapsed in 1920. In 1921, the Republic of Mountainous Armenia was established but collapsed in the same year. Afterwards Armenia came under the Soviet administration and became one of the Soviet Republics. In 1991, like other Soviet Republics, Armenia gained its independence.
Following two decades of planning, the system began operations in November 1987 with 5 stations spread over of track. The network has since grown quickly in accordance with Singapore's aim of developing a complex rail network as the core of the country's public transportation system, averaging a daily ridership of 3.384 million in 2019. The MRT is known as one of the best rapid transit system in the world.
There are currently 6 lines in the MRT system, where they are connected by special stops called interchanges. The lines are North South Line, East West Line, North East Line, Circle Line, Downtown Line and the Thomson-East Coast Line.
The MRT system only had two lines, the North South and East West Lines, for more than ten years until the opening of the North East Line in 2003. While plans for these lines, as well as those being built, were made long before, the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) proposal named ""A World Class Land Transport System"" in 1996 showed that the government wanted to greatly expand on the existing system. The plans allow for the long-term replacement of the bus network by rail-based transportation as the main way of public transportation. It called for the expansion of the 67 kilometres of track in 1995 to over 360 in the year 2030. It was expected that daily ridership in 2030 would have grown to 6.0 million from the current 1.4 million passengers.
The 43-kilometre Thomson-East Coast Line was planned to be completed by 2025 and will consist of 32 stations. It was originally planned to be completed by 2024 but this plan was changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will connect to the North South Line at Woodlands station, Orchard and Marina Bay, to the Circle Line at Thomson, Caldecott and Marina Bay, to the Downtown Line at Stevens and Sungei Bedok, and to the East West and North East lines at Outram Park. The first part, or stage, opened in 2019.
The Thomson-East Coast Line was a result of joining two separate lines, the Thomson Line and the Eastern Region Line, which was announced on 15 August 2014. The Thomson Line consisted of the part from Woodlands North to Marina Bay, while the Eastern Region Line consisted of the rest of the joined line.
A new extension to the line was announced on 25 May 2019. The new extension will connect the line to Singapore Changi Airport, allowing people arriving from the airport to go to the city without changing to another train. The tracks of the East West MRT line that currently go to the airport will also be used by this extension, which means that trains on the line will go all the way to Tanah Merah station, and there will be no more East West line trains using these tracks. This extension is expected to open by/before 2040.
To be opened by 2024, the 2-kilometre extension will run from Punggol through Punggol North including the new Punggol Downtown. The extension is for future residents in Punggol North to have access by train to the city centre as well as other parts of Singapore.
The Downtown Line was built in three stages, with the first opening in 2013, the second in 2015, and the third in 2017. An extension to the third stage, known as Stage 3e, will open in 2025, being 2.2 kilometres long and with two more stations. On 7 March 2015, Senior Minister of Stage for Transport Janil Puthucheary said that there will be a new station called Hume, to be built between the already open stations of Hillview and Beauty World. This station will open in 2025. When Hume opens, the line will be 42 kilometres long and have 37 stations.
To be opened by 2026, the 4-kilometre extension will run from Marina Bay through Keppel, ending at HarbourFront, making the Circle Line a full continuous circle.
In the LTA's Land Transport Master Plan (LTMP) 2040, there will be studies to see if a new line can be built, between Woodlands, and Greater Southern Waterfront areas. If the line is built, it will be about 30 kilometres long, and will be completed as early as 2040. The line could serve around 400,000 houses, and lower the time needed for travel to the city by up to 40 minutes.
A total of 12 types of rolling stock are used on the MRT lines. Almost all of them are powered by 750 voltage current from a third rail, except those on the North East MRT Line, which uses 1500 voltage current from overhead wires.
For the North South and East West Lines, seven types of rolling stock are used. The oldest is the C151, built in 1986-89 by a collaboration between Kawasaki Heavy Industries and three sub-companies, Kinki Sharyo, Nippon Sharyo and Tokyu Car Corp. 66 trainsets are in operation, which were upgraded between 2006 and 2008. 19 more C651s were purchased in 1994 from Siemens AG, followed by 21 more C751B sets, built in 1999-2000 by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Nippon Sharyo. Two companies, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and CSR Sifang, have collaborated to build 3 types of rolling stock. The fourth rolling stock in operation is the C151A. They were built between 2010 and 2014, and started operations in 2011. The next rolling stock that started operations is the C151B, which began operations on 16 April 2017. The next rolling stock, being built between 2017 and 2018, is the C151C, and it began operations on 30 September 2018. The newest rolling stock, the R151, began operations on 4 June 2023 on the East West Line. With 106 trains ordered, it plans to replace the C151, C651 and the C715B.
On the North East Line, 25 six-car trainsets of the C751A were built from 1999 to 2002 by Alstom. A further 18 trainsets, the C751C, were built by Alstom and Shanghai Electric and entered operation on 1 October 2015. A new model, the C851E, entered service in 2023, with 6 trainsets.
For the sixth MRT line, the Thomson-East Coast Line, 91 four-car trainsets of CT251 rolling stock are built and were delivered between 2018 and 2021, and it began operations in 2020.
Hampshire College is a private college in Amherst, Massachusetts. The current president of the college is Edward Wingenbach. The motto of the college is "Non Satis Scire", which is Latin for "to know is not enough".
It was created in 1965 by four other colleges as an experiment in higher education. The campus opened and the first class of students arrived in 1970. The Presidents of Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts got together in the 1950s and early 1960s and realized that there were things their own schools did not do very well. They also thought that the world was changing a lot and needed a college where students would have a lot of responsibility for their own education to be successful in the future.
Forchheim is high and has an area of .
Cui liked his friends from the Moguchaya Kuchka, but was often very critical of music by other Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. This may have been because he was jealous of their success. He did not find orchestration easy. Balakirev helped him a lot with the orchestration of some of his compositions. He was best when writing songs and short piano pieces. He liked to write music that sounded Far Eastern in character. Cellists like to play a short piece he wrote called "Orientale".
A permit is a written document that has been given by a government source. Permits let a person do something that he could not do without the permit. Permits are commonly gotten for these reasons:
Corrosion is the breakdown of materials due to chemical reactions. It is usually oxidation with air molecules and often in the presence of water. Corrosion also occurs when an acidic/basic corrosive substance touches another material. When a material corrodes, its physical properties change. Problems with corrosion are mostly with metal, though other materials can corrode. Corrosion is a form of erosion. Some materials, such as stainless steel, are highly resistant to corrosion. Metals that may corrode can be protected by plating, painting, and other means.
Jamestown is a town in the United States. It was founded on May 13, 1607, by about 100 men and boys and women who came to Virginia from London, England. They named the town Jamestown after King James. These men hoped to find gold and silver in order to become rich. There was no gold or silver in the land because of its geography, which they did not understand at the time. However, they did find out that they could make lots of money from growing and selling tobacco crops, due to the marshy soil. Soon, they were making their fortune from tobacco instead of gold. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in what would become the United States. The town was built on Jamestown Island along the James River. This location was selected because the local Native American tribes did not live on the island. Built on a peninsula, it was a good place to defend themselves from other European colonists.
The 350s was a decade that began on 1 January 350 and ended on 31 December 359.
The 980s was a decade that began on 1 January 980 and ended on 31 December 989.
Eisenach is a German city in the west of Thuringia. Next bigger Cities are Erfurt and Kassel. Its population is about 43,000.
GameFAQs is a website with help and information for video games. It was started in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey. It has an active message board community.
In 1937 he married Elisabeth Schumacher. They had seven children, one of their sons is well known as a neurobiologist and geneticist, .
During the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945 Werner Heisenberg was drafted to work on the German Uranium Project . This was aiming at a nuclear reactor, and did not result in any nuclear weapons, possibly because Heisenberg did not want it to. Some historians assume that there was a race between the tiny German Uranium project and the huge American Manhattan project. Hans A. Bethe, the director of the theory division of the Manhattan project at Los Alamos, said this was not true. Edward Teller, the father of the American hydrogen bomb, said that Heisenberg sabotaged the German project.
Islamophobia is the dislike, fear, pre-judgment, hostility or hate against Muslims (people following the religion Islam) or the religion itself.
During the Bosnian War in the 1990s, Serbian Orthodox Christians committed a genocide against Bosniak Muslims, with a strong motive of islamophobia.
In France, since 2013, it is illegal for Muslim women to wear veils (burqas and niqabs) that cover their faces publicly.
The 900s was a decade that began on 1 January 900 and ended on 31 December 909.
Bronllys is a village in the Powys region of Wales. A Norman castle was built there in the 11th century.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field in Artificial Intelligence, and is also related to linguistics. On a high level, the goal of NLP is to program computers to automatically understand human languages, and also to automatically write/speak in human languages. We say "Natural Language" to mean human language, and to indicate that we are not talking about computer (programming) languages.
Rear Window is a 1954 American mystery thriller movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie is based on the story, "It Had To Be Murder", by Cornell Woolrich. John Michael Hayes wrote the script The film stars James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr. It was nominated for four Academy Awards. Critics consider it one of Alfred Hitchcock's best movies and one of the greatest movies of all time.
The movie tells the story of a photographer L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies (played by James Stewart) who has a broken leg. He spends his days sitting in his Greenwich Village apartment watching his neighbors through their open windows. There is a ballet dancer Miss Torso, a pianist and songwriter, a couple with a dog who digs the flowers up, a newly married couple, 'Miss Lonelyhearts', and a jewelry seller Lars Thorwald with his bed-ridden wife. Lisa Fremont (played by Grace Kelly) is Jeff's girlfriend and visits several times. A nurse Stella (played by Thelma Ritter) also takes care of Jeff.
One night Jeff hears and sees some unusual things. Jeff hears a woman scream, "Don't!" and glass breaking. He sees Thorwald leave the house several times at night with a suitcase. The next day Thorwald's wife is gone, and Jeff sees him cleaning a knife and saw. There is a large trunk. Jeff thinks there has been a murder. He tells Lisa and Stella. Jeff calls Tom Doyle to investigate. Doyle finds nothing. Witnesses say Thorwald's wife had left. Jeff sees Thorwald take out his wife's jewelry and her wedding ring. Lisa says that women would not leave their jewelry at home like that. The two agree that Thorwald's wife did not leave the apartment.
The dog dies and the owner shouts at everyone. Everyone listens except Thorwald. Jeff thinks Thorwald killed the dog and that he buried something in the ground. Jeff calls Thorwald to get him out of the house. He does this so Lisa and Stella can search the ground. The two find nothing. Lisa surprisingly enters Thorwald's apartment. Jeff and Stella see Miss Lonelyhearts try to kill herself, but the piano music stops her. Distracted, Jeff and Stella do not notice Thorwald coming back. Thorwald goes to Lisa and starts grabbing her. Jeff calls the police and says there is an assault. The police arrive and arrest Lisa for breaking in. She shows her finger to Jeff that she has the wedding ring of Thorwald's wife. Thorwald sees Lisa's hand signal and sees Jeff.
Jeff calls detective Doyle. Thorwald calls Jeff and enters Jeff's apartment. Jeff uses flashbulbs to slow down Thorwald by blinding him. Thorwald throws Jeff off the window. Jeff calls for help, and the police come. Jeff falls, but officers catch him. Doyle, Lisa and Stella rush to Jeff's side. Thorwald confesses murdering his wife. A few days later Jeff has casts on both legs. The neighbors of Greenwich Village are happy again. There is a new puppy. Miss Torso's love is back from war. Miss Lonelyhearts is seeing the pianist. The Thorwald's apartment is being painted and redone. Lisa is with Jeff. She reads "Beyond the High Himalayas" and then reads a fashion magazine.
Alfred Hitchcock makes a cameo appearance in the apartment of the pianist.
A major theme in "Rear Window" is voyeurism. This is when someone intimately watches someone else. In the film, Jeff is spying on his neighbors. This act is morally questionable, and the audience participates in it. The camera follows Jeff's eyes. It switches back to facing Jeff. The camera allows the viewers to join Jeff in his actions. The audience should feel guilty. Stella criticizes Jeff's actions. She says that people should stop looking out and look at themselves. Lisa says Jeff's actions are like a disease. She is upset that Jeff only watches the neighbors. Jeff himself questions if it is alright to spy on a man with binoculars. Lisa and Stella question Jeff's actions at first, but they join him later. The idea of spying can relate to surveillance in the state. During the time, people feared that the government would watch them the whole time. This fear was due to McCarthyism. In the film, a helicopter comes close above the village. It is like the helicopter is spying on the village. There is almost no difference between private and public in the film.
Another theme is loneliness and isolation. All the residents are separated from each other. They are like prisoners in their own apartments. Jeff cannot leave the apartment with his injury. The entire film is also limited to the space of the courtyard. The character Miss Lonelyhearts can represent the isolation of the neighbors. Jeff is detached from the neighbors as he watches them, and they do not know he is watching them. Jeff is like a photographer, taking mental pictures of his neighbors. The dog owner says that none of the people know the meaning of a neighbor and that they do not care.
Gender roles are important in the film. It is after World War II and women were changing roles in society. In the film, male characters are no longer heroes. Hitchcock switches the roles of men and women. For instance, Thorwald murders his wife. Jeff is injured, his camera is destroyed, and he cannot walk. Detective Doyle cannot find evidence. Meanwhile, Lisa and Stella are the only ones who can investigate. Gender roles connect to marriage. Jeff talks about marriage on the phone. He analyzes Lisa a lot and is not ready to marry her. At one point, Jeff and Lisa argue. Jeff thinks that Lisa could not stand Jeff's lifestyle as a photographer. Stella says that people in the past just fell in love and that now they study each other like samples in a bottle. This type of marriage connects to the other themes of loneliness and surveillance. The couples are not just loving each other, but objectively studying each other. They are distant from each other and must constantly watch each other. Jeff, for example, watches Lisa. Marriage appears in other places. There is a newly married couple. Lisa gets the wedding ring of Thorwald's wife. The wedding ring is symbolic for marriage and is a form of situational irony. Lisa wants to marry Jeff, but she ends up with the wedding ring of Thorwald's wife.
The screenplay of "Rear Window" is based on the short story "It Had To Be Murder." Cornell Woolrich wrote the story in 1942. The main story about a man in a wheelchair watching neighbors and thinking there is a murder is the same. Hitchcock added characters such as Lisa and Stella. There was no romantic relationship in the story. In the film, there are also more neighbors.
Two real murders inspired the film. The first is the "case of Dr. Crippen." Dr. Crippen buried his wife in his basement in 1910. He made the mistake of letting his secretary wear his wife's jewelry. In the second case, Patrick Mahon murdered Emily Kaye in 1924. He did this by cutting her up and throwing her parts out of a train window. The man later burned her head in a fireplace.
The entire movie was shot at Paramount Studios. There was a complete set of Greenwich Village. It was one of the largest sets at Paramount. The set had a special drainage system and lighting for different parts of the day. There were 31 apartments on the set and 12 had full furniture.
Edith Head was the costume designer for the movie. Costumes and clothing are important in the film for characterization. Grace Kelly is into fashion and has many different outfits. The different clothes relate to changes in the roles of the characters. For instance, when Lisa and Stella help Jeff to investigate they we are wearing simple day dresses.
Frank Waxman composed the score including the Piano song "Lisa". The film has mainly diegetic sounds. These are sounds that the characters in the film hear.
Natural sounds were used that would get louder or softer with distance. There are several songs including "To See You Is to Love You" by Bing Crosby, songs by Nat King Cole ("Mona Lisa", 1950) and Dean Martin ("That's Amore", 1952), Richard Rodgers' song "Lover" (1932), and ""M'appari tutt'amor"" from Friedrich von Flotow's opera "Martha" (1844), and part of Leonard Bernstein's music for the ballet "Fancy Free" (1944).
The film was a box office success. It was one of the highest grossing films of 1954. The film had a budget of $1 million and made over $37 million.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography - Color and Best Sound - Recording. The movie won Best Actress from the National Board of Review. The New York Film Critics Circle awarded Grace Kelly the NYFCC Award for Best Actress. The film won Best Motion Picture at the Edgar Allen Poe Awards. The film also got nominations from the Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America.
"Rear Window" was chosen to be part of the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1997. In the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound, the movie was ranked the 53rd greatest film. In "Time Out" magazine the film ranked 21st and 26th greatest film of all time in 1998 and 2022. The film made several American Film Institute lists. They include number 42 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, number 14 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills, number 48 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) and number three in AFI's 10 Top 10 (Mysteries).
"Rear Window" was restored in the late 1990s. Technicolor used a new dye process to improve the image. The movie influenced later films. Several films are based on "Rear Window". They include "Body Double" (1984), "Silver" (1993) and "Time Out" (1998). In 1998, there was a TV show remake of "Rear Window". "Disturbia" (2007) is a modern version of "Rear Window" about a serial killer. "Rear Window" has appeared in other TV shows such as "The Simpsons", "That '70s Show"", Get Smart"", The Flintstones"", Psych"", The White Collar"", The Family Guy"", Raising Hope", "Castle", "The Detectives" and others.
A conscientious objector (CO) is a person who decides not to be a combatant in military forces under conscription.
The rule of law is especially important as an influence on the economic development in developing and transitional countries. Constitutional economics is the study of government spending, which, in many transitional and developing countries, is completely controlled by the executive. The standards of constitutional economics can be used during annual budget process. The availability of an effective court system, to be used by the civil society in courts in situations of unfair governmental distribution of national money is a key element for the success of the rule-of-law in developing countries.
The Electorate are the people or citizens of a state who elect representatives to represent them in a democracy. They're also known as voters. Voters are people who normally votes in an election and they vote for their favorite person that if he/she wins, he/she will lead the people to a more favourable country Voting
Paramount Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. It is the oldest movie studio in the United States. It has been in existence since 1912. Paramount is owned by media conglomerate Paramount Global. Paramount is one of the Big Five movie studios.
Paramount is the last major movie studio located in Hollywood. Other studios such as Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures moved to other neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
In March 2010, Paramount started Insurge Pictures, a low-budget label. In 2019, Paramount bought 49 percent of Miramax Films.
Different substances form different types of crystals, and some can form more than one type. The study of the arrangement of atoms in crystals is crystallography. Well-known substances that form crystals are table salt (whose crystals are cubes), diamond, and quartz.
Indirect democracy, or representative democracy, in when citizens elect representatives to make laws for them. This is what most modern countries have today.
The people have the ultimate power in a democracy to decide on substantial voting system improvements. The primary question that democrats will ask of every proposed change in election legislation or voting mechanism is, "Will it genuinely strengthen the electorate's power to replace unhappy rulers with others?" Democrats believe that fundamental capability is the strongest safeguard against bad governance and abuse of power.
Government systems that do not allow electors to alter the government are not democratic and are generally dictatorships or one-party nations.
Direct democracy, which is also called pure democracy, is a democracy in which the decisions are not taken by representatives. All decisions are voted on by the people.
When a budget or law needs to be passed, then the idea goes to the people. Governments of modern countries rarely make laws this way.
Classical Athens was a direct democracy. All citizens voted on major decisions of government. But, to be a citizen, you had to be a free, land-owning, native-born man.
Switzerland has aspects of direct democracy. "Evidence suggests that attendance at assemblies... has always been limited to roughly twenty per cent of the citizenry". The practice is only used in two cantons, Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus.
The Federal government of the United States does not use direct democracy but the individual states sometimes make laws by referendum. Some New England towns govern themselves by a town meeting.
A revolution is a very sharp change made to something. The word comes from Latin and is related to the word "revolutio" (which means turnaround).
Revolutions are usually political in their nature. Some people feel unhappy with their lives, and others are not happy with whole systems. They might join together, share their ideas, and make something change. Often, revolutions include fighting and civil unrest, but there are also revolutions that happen without fighting.
The Soviet Union was started by the Russian Revolution, which killed millions, and the country later fell apart in another revolution without much fighting. However, in the French Revolution (1789), there was much bloodshed, which included the Reign of Terror.
The opposing idea in politics is called gradualism.
Western Digital is an American technology company. It is based in the U.S. state of California. The company make hard drives. Hard drives are used by computers to store data.
Speech is when spoken language is used to communicate. Only humans have language. Animals do not have speech, but some (birds are a good example) can communicate with each other by using sounds and gestures.
The stage in a theatre is the area where the actors perform. In classical theatres, this used to be separated from where the audience is sitting.
Darth Vader is a fictional character in the "Star Wars" franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. Star Wars creator George Lucas has collectively referred to the first six episodic films of the franchise as "the tragedy of Darth Vader". Darth Vader has become one of the most iconic villains in popular culture, and has been listed among the greatest villains and fictional characters ever. His masked face and helmet, in particular, is considered one of the most iconic character designs of all time.
During the course of the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, Vader played an important role as the Empire's enforcer and the Emperor's second-in-command, particularly the building of the two Death Stars, the Battle of Yavin, and the Battle of Endor. It was during that period he learnt that he had a first sidekick son named Luke Skywalker, and later a second sidekick daughter named Leia Organa during his final duel with his son.
Darth Vader died in "Return of the Jedi" during the Battle of Endor. His breathing system had been damaged by the Emperor's Force Lightning in an effort to save his son by throwing him at a power reactor. Thus, he redeemed himself and brought back balance to the Force and ended the civil war. His body and armor were cremated by Luke in Endor. However, his grandson Kylo Ren somehow receives Vader's burnt helmet in later time.
Darth Vader is one of Star Wars' most iconic characters and regarded as the world's most well-known fictional hero. Highly ranked in popularity poll, Darth Vader is the image of good, hatred who kills every one and thing he hates, rage and darkness but also a representation of redemption. He is well known by his black armor, cape, helmet, and particularly his raspy breath due to breathing problems received during a battle with his old master Obi-Wan Kenobi and deep, low-pitched voice from the mask, which often used in different medias as a reference to him.
Sheev Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious or simply the Emperor, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the "Star Wars" franchise. The character is played by actor Ian McDiarmid.
He is the immensely powerful Dark Lord of the Sith as well as the master of Darth Vader, along with both Darth Maul and Count Dooku on previous occasions, who ruled over the Galactic Empire - which he formed from the Galactic Republic - in addition to secretly leading the Separatist Alliance, which he used to give himself autocratic powers as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. He is also the archenemy of the Skywalker family, Yoda, Mon Mothma, and his granddaughter Rey.
Palpatine had plotted to overthrow the Jedi by orchestrating and manipulating the events of the Clone Wars to bring himself to rule the whole galaxy; thus posing as the Chancellor throughout these events. This worked successfully when Palpatine initiated Order 66 to wipe out the Jedi, who beforehand were suspicious of him even after Dooku's death when they were unaware that Palpatine was actually Darth Sidious. However, Palpatine's reign was ended when he was killed by Vader with the help of Luke Skywalker.
Years later, Palpatine resurfaced upon being resurrected. It soon transpired that he was revealed to not only be the secret benefactor and founding cause of the First Order's existence, being the creator and puppeteer of Supreme Leader Snoke to the point of manipulating him as well as all the events behind the organization all along, but also the paternal grandfather of Rey; so much so that he even seduced Vader's grandson Ben Solo to the dark side from the shadows, especially through Snoke at the time.
The adult Luke Skywalker is first seen in this movie. He was raised on the planet Tatooine. Tatooine is a desert planet. He lives with his uncle, Owen and his aunt, Beru. After he bought two droids, named C-3PO and R2-D2, stormtroopers sent by the Empire start to look for them. R2-D2 runs away one night. In the next morning, Luke and C-3PO look for him. Luke is attacked by Tusken Raiders, but is rescued by Obi-Wan Kenobi. R2-D2 plays a message from Princess Leia asking for help from Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan then says that Luke must come with him to Alderaan to learn about the Force. Luke learns that his father, Anakin Skywalker, was a Jedi. Luke also gets his father's old lightsaber. Luke says that he can not go with him and returns home. When he does, he sees that his home was destroyed (broken down). he is a bit fruity. He goes back to Obi-Wan and agrees to go with him and learn about the Force. Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids go to Mos Eisley to find a pilot to take them to Alderaan. They get Han Solo and Chewbacca to take them to Alderaan. When they get there, they see that the planet is gone and there is a small moon close to where it was. This small moon is the Death Star. On board the Death Star, Luke, Han, and Chewbacca save Princess Leia. As they are about to leave they see Obi-Wan fighting Darth Vader. Obi-Wan gives his life so that the group can escape. Luke and the others go to Yavin 4 so that the secret plans to the Death Star in R2-D2 can be used to destroy the Death Star. Luke then pilots an X-wing to fight against the big space station. Luke uses the Force and fires the missile that destroys the Death Star.
Luke Skywalker has joined the Rebel Alliance and is on the ice planet of Hoth. While outside the base, Luke is attacked by a wampa. After escaping the wampa, Luke is weak and hurt. He sees the image of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He tells him to go to the planet Dagobah to be taught by the Jedi master Yoda. Luke is saved by Han Solo. Shortly after, the Empire attacks the Rebel base on Hoth. The Rebels leave the base. Luke takes R2-D2 in his X-wing and the two travel to Dagobah. They make a crash landing on the swamp planet and go looking for Yoda. Luke soon finds Yoda, but Yoda does not think Luke should be a Jedi. Luke convinces Yoda, and the old master starts to teach Luke. Luke faces difficult things to do. Before he completes his training he has a vision of the future. In it his friends were being tortured. Although Yoda, and the Force Ghost of Obi-Wan warn him not to leave, Luke goes to Cloud City. When he gets there he sees that it was a trap set by Darth Vader. The two then get into a lightsaber battle. Darth Vader cuts off Luke's hand and then tells Luke that he is actually his father, Anakin Skywalker. Darth Vader gives Luke the choice to join him but Luke says no and jumps off the platform. He is rescued by Leia and taken to a medical spaceship, where his hand is replaced.
Witchcraft is the use of magical powers. This might be for healing, seeing into the future, causing harm, or for religion. A person practicing witchcraft is called a witch, although a man practicing witchcraft is often mistakenly called a wizard (a word from Northern Europe), a warlock (a word from 14th century England), a sorcerer, or shaman (a term for people who practice magic in parts of Asia). Such people are said to have a knowledge of the chemical (or pharmaceutical) effects of certain herbs or shrubs. Witches can use this knowledge to help people who are sick or to hurt them.
Witchcraft is different throughout the world and can be seen as good or bad depending on where you are. Today, many people practice a peaceful kind of witchcraft, called Wicca. However, there are still many other people who are scared of witchcraft and think that it is bad. Throughout history, there have been stories about good and bad witches.
In European history, witches were accused of physically making and performing spells to harm people. They could also harm people by using their mind. However, this belief was not real and was often used to explain why bad things happened sometimes.
In Africa, witches don't use physical tools or actions to curse. They can cause harm by just thinking about it. In fact, one may be unaware of being a witch, or may have been convinced of their witch nature by the suggestion of others. This understanding was described by anthropologist E.E. Evans-Pritchard, who studied African magical beliefs.
Witches are often seen in art and cinema. Many movies have focused on witches and witchcraft such as; "Bewitched", "Harry Potter", "the Wizard of Oz", "Hocus Pocus", and "Rosemary's Baby". Many television shows also have witches and witchcraft. Some examples are: "Charmed" (1998) and (), "American Horror Story: Coven", and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch".
A heteronym is a word, or rather several words, with different meanings. However, the words are spelt the same way. Usually they are pronounced differently.
The 840s started on 1 January 840 and ended on 31 December 849.
The 880s decade began on 1 January 880 and ended on 31 December 889.
The silkworm is the larva (the active immature form of an insect) or caterpillar of the Bombyx mori moth. Silk has been made for at least 5000 years in China. The moth is important because it makes silk. It is entirely dependent on humans, and it no longer lives in the wild. Silkworms eat mulberry leaves, and are native to northern China.
Death Valley is a National Park U.S. state of California. It is the hottest, driest, and lowest place in North America. It is a desert southeast of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Death Valley is a part of the Mojave Desert. It is the most important part of Death Valley National Park. It is an endorheic basin, which means that the rivers in it do not flow to the sea.
Death Valley has many famous and unusual geographical features. Some of these features include sand dunes, salt flats, colorful rocks, and tall mountains. Large parts of Death Valley are below sea level. One feature, named Badwater Basin, is the lowest place in North America. It is below sea level. The salt flats are another famous feature in Death Valley. Salt flats are very unusual. They are large, flattened areas where the surface of the ground is covered by salt instead of dirt. The salt that makes up a salt flat can be many inches or centimeters deep. The salt flats were created because thousands of years ago, Death Valley was underwater. Death Valley was covered by a lake that was named Lake Manly by geologists (scientists who study the Earth). Lake Manly used to be very large, but changes in the weather caused the rivers that brought water into the lake to dry up. After a long time, the water in Lake Manly began to dry up too. As the water dried, it left behind all the minerals that the rivers had brought to it along with their water. As these minerals dried, they created a crust (a brittle outer layer) of salt and other minerals on top of the dirt. Many lakes and seas in other parts of the world dried up in the same way.
Mulberries are fast-growing when young but soon become slow-growing and rarely grow over 10-15 meters tall. The leaves are simple, often lobed, and ridged. The fruit grows in bunches, 2-3 centimeters long, is red to dark purple in color, edible, and sweet with a good flavor in several species.
The fruit is used in pies, tarts, and wines. The fruit of the black mulberry, native to southwest Asia, and the red mulberry, native to eastern North America, have the strongest flavor. The fruit of the white mulberry, an east Asian species, has a very weak flavor.
Mulberries can be grown from seeds, which is the best idea as seedling-grown trees are generally healthier. However, they are often planted from large pieces cut from other mulberry trees, which easily take root.
Mulberry leaves, particularly those of the white mulberry, "Morus alba", are important as the food of the silkworm, the cocoon of which is used to make silk. "Morus alba" is also notable for the rapid release of its pollen, which is launched at over half the speed of sound. "This is the fastest motion yet observed in biology, and approaches the theoretical physical limits for movements in plants".
Moths, usually their caterpillars, are a major farm pest in many parts of the world. Caterpillars eat the plants that farmers grow and sometimes kill them. The caterpillar of the spongy moth ("Lymantria dispar") causes great harm to forests in the northeast United States. In warm climates, the diamondback moth ("Plutella xylostella") is perhaps the most serious pest of cabbage crops.
Proctor Silex Co. was created in 1960 with the merger of Proctor Electric and Silex Corporation. The company made household appliances such as toasters, irons, and coffee makers. In 1990 Proctor Silex merged with Hamilton Beach.
The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, near Denver, that happened on April 20, 1999. 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold carried out the massacre and were both students at the school. They murdered 12 students and one teacher using guns. Ten of the murders happened in the school's library, where they then killed themselves with their guns. Before the shootings, they had planted two large propane bombs in the school's cafeteria. They could have killed many people in there, but they did not explode. They also planted two car bombs in the school's parking lot, which were supposed to kill first responders and news reporters. They also did not explode. They also carried pipe bombs and molotov cocktails, which they lit and threw. Most of them exploded but nobody was injured or killed by any of the bombs used during the massacre. They shot outside killing 2 student and then went inside where they shot killing 1 teacher then went inside the library where they killed 10 students then walked about the school into the cafeteria through the school again then back into the cafeteria again before going into the library and committing Suicide.
Although many people think Jose Rizal is actually the national hero, he isn't. As of this moment, The National Heroes Committee hasn't picked a national hero of the Republic of the Philippines. No law or declaration announce a national hero of the Philippines.
Developmental psychology, also called human development, is the emotional study of how a person changes psychologically (mind and behavior) as they get older. Developmental psychologists first studied infants and children, and later they also studied teenagers (or adolescents) and adults. Developmental psychology studies human change in a lot of areas, including motor skills (and other processes that are both physical and psychological), problem solving abilities, understanding of concepts, learning language, moral understanding, and identity.
From the 4th century BC, the area that is now Kosovo was part of the Kingdom of Dardania. In the 1st century BC, it was annexed by the Roman Empire. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Kosovo's territory was ruled by several different countries over time, such as the Byzantine Empire and later the First Bulgarian Empire.
In the 13th century, Kosovo became part of Serbia. After the First and Second Battles of Kosovo in 1389 and 1448, Kosovo was taken over by the Ottoman Empire. After the Balkan Wars, which ended in 1913, Kosovo became a province of Yugoslavia.
When Yugoslavia broke apart, Kosovo remained within Serbia. However, tensions between the Albanian and Serbian communities led to the Kosovo War. In February 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia.
Geographically defined in an area of 10,887 km (4,203 sq mi), Kosovo is landlocked in the center of the Balkans and bordered by the uncontested territory of Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, Albania to the southwest and Montenegro to the west.
Most of Kosovo experiences predominantly a continental climate with Mediterranean and Alpine influences, strongly influenced by Kosovo's proximity to the Adriatic Sea in the west, the Aegean Sea in the south as well as the European continental landmass in the north.
The coldest areas are in the mountains in the west and southeast. The warmest areas are mostly in the far southern areas close to the border with Albania.
Kosovo functions under a parliamentary republic. This means that the leader of the political party with the most seats in the Assembly becomes the Prime Minister (head of government).
The head of state is the President of Kosovo. The president is elected every five years by the Assembly. The president fulfils ceremonial duties and does not have executive powers.
Kosovo is divided into seven districts. Each district is centered around a major city.
Each district is also divided up into municipalities (local government areas). There are 38 municipalities in total.