adityasasidhar/Wikipedia_Cleaned huggingface dataset:
Martin Scorsese's filmmaking style is marked by key elements, including violent themes, the use of music, intricate cinematography, exceptional performances, psychological depth, exploration of religious themes, collaboration with top talents, a strong connection to New York City, frequent use of voiceovers, and cinematic references.
Chabad
Rosales is an order of flowering plants. It includes nine families. The plants are grouped together because their genetics are similar. Some well-known members of Rosales include: roses; strawberries, blackberries and raspberries; apples and pears; plums, peaches and apricots; almonds; rowan and hawthorn; elms; figs; nettles; and hops and cannabis. The true roses are in the "Rosaceae".
Pyrotechnics is often thought to be synonymous with the manufacture of fireworks, but it also includes items for military and industrial uses.
A pyrotechnic show is a pre-planned complex that includes ground and high-altitude fireworks. Sometimes such events are accompanied by the performance of specially trained artists of the original genre with pyrotechnic equipment.
Yu-Gi-Oh! is the title of the first anime series based on the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga. It is not connected in any way to the "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" series (known internationally as simply Yu-Gi-Oh!). They are 2 different anime series that are based on the same manga series. Fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! use the fan name "Yu-Gi-Oh! A Shadow Game" when talking about this show. They may use "Yu-Gi-Oh! first season" or "zero season" to refer to this show but this is not correct. based on it by Stephen king
An asset is something valuable or useful. In business and accounting, the value of an asset is expressed as a certain amount of money. The amount of money can be calculated as the amount of economic value that the asset can produce in future. The calculation is based on past transactions or events. Correct evaluation can be useful in deciding what to do with an asset.
Aeneas was a Trojan prince and hero. His father was Anchises, his mother was the Greek goddess Aphrodite (Venus in the case of Roman sources). Both Homer and Virgil mention him in their stories. Virgil wrote a whole series of books about him. These books are called Aeneis in their original Latin. The usual English translation of the title is "Aeneid".
The books relate to the story of "pious Aeneas". and about how the city of Rome came to be.
A palace is a place with a grand and imposing building that is the official residence of a king or queen, a head of state such as a president, ruler, or leader. Many historical palaces are now museums that show what royal and aristocratic life was like when it was built.
Besides, it can mean a luxurious house or mansion (like Biltmore Mansion or Hearst Castle) or a large building for entertainment: a large public or private building with an imposing ornate style, used for entertainment or exhibitions and large events.
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism is a Jewish religious movement that was started by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, known as "Baal Shem Tov". It began in Eastern Europe in the middle of the 18th century, and there are now Hasidic communities all over the world. The followers of Hasidism are called Hasids.
Quincy is a city in the state of Illinois in the United States. In 2020 the number of people in the city was 39,463. The town was an important stop of the underground railroad during the 1800s. The town also has many German-style buildings.
A bunk bed is a stack of two or more beds. Metal poles or wooden beams connect the bottom bed (called the bottom bunk) to the top bed (called the top bunk). A ladder is used to get up to the top bunk. The ladder is usually attached to the bed.
In the Philippines, a bunk bed is called a double deck. Bunk bed is a modern solution; crafted when a one-bed frame is placed on top of another, making a rigid structure of two or more beds.
This way two beds are compacted together to form a single bed which is efficient. A bunk bed occupies less floor area, it is equal to the space normally necessary for only one bed.
Bunk beds are often used in institutions such as prisons. As well, they are often used in public facilities such as homeless shelters and bomb shelters. Bunk beds are also used in firehalls, to give firefighters a place to sleep. Many military organizations use bunk beds.
Navy ships and submarines use bunk beds for the sailors to sleep in. Army barracks sometimes have bunk beds for soldiers to sleep in.
A cupboard, also known as a cabinet, is furniture used for storage. Usually, a cupboard will be in the kitchen or bathroom of a house. It usually has one or more shelves to put items on. It can also have a door to close off the open shelves.
The Great Chilean Earthquake or Valdivian Earthquake was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. The quake occurred in the early evening (19:11 UTC) of May 22, 1960, and had a 9.5 rating on the Moment magnitude scale. The earthquake affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.
He is most famous for his resignation in the fall of 1973 after he was under investigation for the crimes of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. In October he was charged for taking bribes of more than $100,000 during his vice presidential term.
Agnew is the only U.S. vice president in history to leave office because of criminal charges. Ten years later, in January 1983, he paid the state of Maryland almost $270,000 as a result of a civil suit that came from the bribery allegations. He was only the second vice president to resign the office (John C. Calhoun had been the first).
Spiro Agnew was born in Baltimore, in the state of Maryland. His father was Theodore Spiros Agnew, a Greek immigrant who shortened his name from Anagnostopoulos when he moved to the USA (which was between 1897 and 1902), who married Margaret Akers, a native of Virginia. He joined the US Army and served in both World War II and the Korean War.
He resigned in disgrace in October 1973, and never spoke to Richard Nixon again (Nixon would himself resign in 1974 over a similar scandal). Agnew became a disgraced figure and never was very much involved in politics after that. His portrait was taken down in the Maryland Governor's Mansion and his bust was not put up as a former vice president. When both were put on display, many criticized the decision to display them. He died in 1996 of leukemia. He was not given a state funeral of any kind and had a small funeral service. He was buried at a cemetery in Maryland.
In finance, a share is a unit of account for many different financial things including stocks, mutual funds, limited partnerships, and REIT's. In British English, the word "share" alone to talk only about stocks is so common that it almost replaces the word stock itself. Capital means the money being invested to start a new business.
In financial markets, stock is the partial ownership of a company. Shareholders bear the financial (but not legal) risk of the corporation, and receive dividends, which are a piece of the net income.
A person or organization which holds "shares" of stocks is called a shareholder. The value of the stock multiplied by the shares outstanding is the market capitalization. This is the most common metric for valuing a publicly traded company.
Stocks can be bought and sold privately or on stock exchanges. Someone who buys and sells stock on the behalf of another individual is called a stockbroker.
Vaccinium myrtillus/The bilberry is the fruit of a type of shrub that grows close to the ground. It is a member of the genus "Vaccinium".
Rubus is a genus of plants in the family Rosaceae. These plants have sharp prickles like roses. They include the raspberry, dewberry, and blackberry, and some other plants, such as the cloudberry.
In countries that use the NTSC technical standard for television broadcasting, the Beta I version of Betamax was able to record one hour of video at a tape speed of 1.5 inches per second (ips), which was similar to a VHS standard-play mode (SP). Originally, VHS recorded two hours of video at 1.31 ips. Betamax's smaller-sized cassettes were not able to contain as much magnetic tape as VHS cassettes. They could not compete fit longer lengths of tape into the cassettes to match VHS's two-hour recording time. Instead, Sony had to slow the tape speed down to 0.787 ips (Beta II) in order to reach two hours of video recording in the same cassette size. This meant that the television picture produced by a Betamax tape was worse than VHS when comparing two-hour recordings. Sony eventually released a longer Betamax cassette called Beta III which allowed NTSC Betamax to record more than two hours, but by then VHS had already won the format war.
A DVD player is a home media device that plays DVDs (also called "digital versatile discs"). The first DVD player was created by Sony and Pacific Digital Company and released in Japan on November 1, 1996. The DVD player would later be released in the United States on March 19, 1997.
Labour or labor is work done by people. Labor is one of three factors of production. The other two factors are land and capital.
Zachary Israel Braff (born April 6, 1975) is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. He became famous in the early 2000s playing the part of "Dr. John Dorian" on the NBC/ABC series "Scrubs". Since then, he has written, starred in and directed the "Garden State". He also has directed multiple music videos. Braff is a Democrat and attended the 2012 Democratic National Convention in support of President Obama's re-election. He directed his first movie. It is called "Wish I Was Here".
Widescreen is a video format with a greater aspect ratio than 4:3. Widescreens have long been used in some movies. In the early 21st century it also became very popular for television and other things like Computer monitors.
Widescreen is often used as a nickname for the 16:9 aspect ratio of television screens. This means that if the television screen was sixteen inches wide it would have to be nine inches tall. Most 20th century television screens were 4:3 which means if it was four inches wide it would have to be three inches tall. A widescreen could be any size with the same ratio. For example, a screen could be 32 feet wide and 18 feet tall and still be considered widescreen.
Marketing is activity that connects producers with customers. It may be B2B (business to business) marketing or B2C (business to consumer). It may include market research and advertising.
The term "marketing", what is commonly known as attracting customers, incorporates knowledge gained by studying the management of exchange relationships and is the business process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers' needs and wants.
Buildings and structures: Finland's tallest structure is a tower that is 185 m tall.
Christian Klein
Christian Klein is a German manager who is the current chief executive officer at SAP SE.
There are two periods of Song dynasty history: Northern Song and Southern Song. Northern Song lasted from 960 to 1127 and controlled most of China. Southern Song was formed after Northern Song had lost control of North China to the Jin dynasty. Southern Song's capital was in Hangzhou and lasted from 1127 to 1279. Southern Song was conquered by the Mongols.
The Northern Song Dynasty ruled in China from 960 to 1127. The first emperor, Emperor Taizu of Song, set the capital in Bianliang (now we call this city Kaifeng) in northern China. The Northern Song Dynasty enjoyed the highest economic and cultural prosperity during the ancient Chinese history.
Since about the Middle Ages, sodomy is used for sexual acts that do not have the purpose procreation (making babies). In general, this refers to anal or oral sex. In some cases, it is also used to refer to sex with animals (which is usually called zoophilia). Depending on the time, the society and culture, there were laws that made sodomy a crime. Today, such laws have been overturned, or they are not enforced, in many countries of the world.
Countries where religion plays a large role may still have punishments for such crimes, as they are often mentioned in the scriptures of the religion which is important in the country.
Such laws, called sodomy laws, are sometimes also used to criminalize homosexuality.
Bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) is a mental illness where a person will have repeated, long-lasting feelings (episodes) of high (mania) and low mood (depression). It may occur with or without cycles of normal mood, called euthymia. A mixed episode occurs when both mania and depression are present at the same time. People with bipolar disorder experience the whole spectrum of emotional feelings from unimaginable grief to full blown euphoria whereas normal people experience only a section of the spectrum of emotional feelings somewhere between extreme grief and extreme happiness.
The exact cause of bipolar disorder is unknown. It is estimated that there is a 71 percent chance of bipolar disorder passing from parent to child. If one identical twin has bipolar disorder, there is a 40 to 70 percent chance that the other will develop bipolar disorder in their lifetime. MRI studies have shown that certain parts of the brain responsible for mood regulation are larger in bipolar patients. It is also possible for bipolar disorder to develop after a stroke, brain injury, or certain infections.Bipolar disorder can also be triggered due to certain environmental factors such as undergoing stressful events, overwhelming problems of everyday life, certain medications or recreational drugs.
A laptop is a computer which is easy to carry around. A modern laptop is self-contained, with a screen, keyboard and pointing device (like a touchpad or pointing stick), plus usually, speakers, a microphone and a camera (webcam). This is all powered by a built-in rechargeable battery, however, the user can also plug the laptop in, to use it and recharge the battery at the same time. Also, most other external devices can be attached if required. The laptop screen folds down over the keyboard, along a hinge, for carrying.
Like computers themselves, portable microcomputers were not invented at any one time by one person. They developed gradually.
Some historians, however, count as the first "true" portable the "Osborne 1". It was created in 1981 by Adam Osborne who was also a former book publisher. He was the founder of Osborne Computer. His portable computer weighed 11 kg (24 pounds) and had a five-inch (13 cm) screen, a serial port and two floppy disk drives. Several programs were included with the Osborne 1. Customers could also buy a 1-hour battery pack.
The development of laptops is continuing, with various upgrades and additional functions added, including various pointing devices and disk drives, colour screens and touch screens, all while the devices tended to get smaller and lighter. Notebook or netbook computers are small laptops with screens of about 10 inches (25cm) or less, but no disk drives. Despite these advances, after 2010, people bought fewer laptops because of the popularity of tablet computers, which are even more portable.
The FDP was founded in West Germany in September 1945 in the state of Hamburg. It became member of the state parliament of Hamburg in its first election.
It became more and more a single issue party with its only interest in a low tax tariff - especially for high incomes.
In 1998 it lost its power and became part of the parliamentary opposition.
Alliance 90/The Greens
In the 1970s, there were a lot of protests against nuclear power in Germany. The protesters had no support in the political parties in Germany so they got the idea to create their own party.
Since their aims were for civil rights and ecology, a lot of former Anti Vietnam War protesters joined the party. The Greens were pacifists and strictly against nuclear weapons. They wanted to reach a de-militarized Europe. After a short while some right-winged people left the party, so they became a centre-left party. The party has centrist and left-wing factions.
First chiefs of the party were Herbert Gruhl and Petra Kelly. Its current co-leaders are Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour, who were elected as the party's co-leaders in January 2022.
Alliance '90/The Greens support green politics. One of their main issues is saving the earth - especially the climate - without using nuclear power.
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany or "Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU)" is one of the two main right of centre political parties in Germany. It describes itself as a Christian democratic and conservative party.
In November 2005 the Federal leader of the CDU Angela Merkel became the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany; she left office in December 2021. It is currently led by General Secretary Carsten Linnemann, who was given his position in July 2023. The party's president is Friedrich Merz.
The CDU was founded after World War II. The first German Chancellor was Konrad Adenauer, a member of the CDU. He ruled from 1949 to 1963. During the Government of Helmut Kohl (1982-1998), Germany was reunited.
The CDU was the Government Party for most of the younger German history, only from 1969 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2005 there have been Chancellors from different parties.
For business, there is a difference between the US, where it most often means the amount of money that a company earns after paying for all its costs, and the world outside the U.S., where the term is usually profit or earnings.
In mathematics an algebraic structure is a set with one, two, or more binary operations on it. The binary operation takes two elements of the set as inputs, and gives one element of the set as an output.
The Leeward Islands are parts of the Society Islands in French Polynesia.
In mathematics, a binary operation, often shown as *, on a set is a way of combining a pair of elements in that set that results in another element of the set. For example, if we take a pair of natural numbers and let the operation * be addition, then their sum is also a natural number, and is the result of applying this particular binary operation. Another example of an operation on the natural numbers is multiplication. For instance, take the natural numbers 2 and 3. When multiplied together they give 6, another natural number.
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), is a mental disorder. Its old name was multiple personality disorder. It is listed in the mental health diagnosis manual DSM IV.
DID is one of the most controversial mental disorders because people disagree about what causes it. The main symptoms of DID are a person showing two or more "identities" or "personality states". The person behaves differently depending on which identity is in control. The second important symptom is when a person forgets important, personal things which people normally do not forget.
A person is not diagnosed with DID if the symptoms are caused by drugs, illness, or (with children) pretending to play with imaginary friends. Doctors must also rule out pretending to have DID for attention or sympathy, and malingering (pretending to have DID for some personal gain). Most patients with DID are also diagnosed with other mental disorders.
Dissociation is a symptom. Most people experience normal dissociation, where they stop paying attention to what is happening around them. People with DID have pathological dissociation, which is much more serious. It involves problems with memory and attention that make it hard for people to work, shop and have relationships with other people. Everyone can dissociate but some people can do it much more easily and to an extreme that can be unhealthy. Some doctors think trauma causes dissociation which is seen in disorders like DID.
There are two main ideas about what causes DID, but there is still disagreement about which is correct. The trauma theory says that DID is caused by parents or families that abuse or neglect their children. Some of these children deny the abuse is happening or pretend it is happening to someone else, and this eventually becomes a different identity or alter. Most people diagnosed with DID say they remember being abused by their parents or other caregivers when they were children. When asked about their childhood, patients with DID are more likely to say they were abused or neglected than people with any other diagnosis. However, the idea that DID develops in childhood is disputed because childhood memories are not very reliable and it is not clear if the abuse actually happened. Though DID has been diagnosed in children, there are reasons to believe the diagnosis is because of the influence of parents and doctors rather than abuse. There is not enough good scientific evidence about DID in childhood to be sure DID is actually caused by abuse or something else.
The iatrogenic or sociocognitive model (SCM) of DID says it is created during psychotherapy when the therapist creates false memories and patients become convinced they have multiple personalities. Some patients may be more likely to develop DID in these circumstances because they are naturally more likely to accept their therapists are right about DID. SCM supporters also think that patients have seen DID in movies and books, and this shows them how people with DID are supposed to behave, which makes it easier for them to change their behavior when they are supposed to be a new alter. They also say the criteria used by the DSM are unclear which makes it hard to agree on whether a patient has DID or another diagnosis.
There is also a DID community online. Online DID advocates believe that sometimes, DID should not be considered as a disease, but as multiplicity. They say multiplicity is a kind of neurodiversity, like being left-handed.
An employee is a term for workers and managers working for a company, organization or community. These people are the staff of the organization. In general, any person hired by an employer to do a particular job in exchange for payment is an employee, but there are different kinds of employees. In some countries, employers are required by law to do certain things, like obey minimum wage laws, provide a safe workplace, and sometimes pay a tax. Employers also have to give their official employees benefits, like paying for health insurance. Because of this, some employers like to hire independent contractors to do work instead of regular employees. In the United States, a worker is an employee if their employer gets to tell them what do, how to do it, and when to do it in a material way and an independent contractor if they get to make their own decisions about how to do what the employer wants.
If the employee is paid by the hour, then the money the employee earns is called their wage. If the employee is paid a set rate per pay period, then the money they earn is called their salary. Wages are paid for all hours worked, including overtime, but a salary is typically not paid more for more hours worked than the minimum.
Employers include everything from people hiring a babysitter to governments and businesses which may hire many thousands of employees. In most western societies governments are the largest single employers, but most of the work force is employed in small and medium businesses in the private sector.
The public sector is the part of economic and administrative life that deals with the delivery of goods and services by civil service and for the government, whether national, or local/. Examples of public sector activity range from delivering social welfare, administering infrastructure and urban planning and organising national defences.
"Mithril" is now often used in other fictional works, usually as a strong and magical metal. It other fictional works, "mithril" is also sometimes written differently, for example as "mythril" or "mithral".
Greater Manchester is a county in North West England. It has 2.7 million people living there. It was created on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. It is made up of ten Metropolitan boroughs: the cities of Manchester and Salford and the large towns of Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Stockport, Wigan and Bolton.
It has had a combined authority since 1 April 2011. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has the political leaders from each of the ten metropolitan borough councils, plus a directly elected mayor, with responsibility for economic development, regeneration and transport. Andy Burnham is the first Mayor of Greater Manchester, elected in 2017.
In English-speaking countries the league was usually three statute miles (4.828032 kilometres) on land or three nautical miles (5.556 km) at sea. However, in writing the word "league" often means the Spanish, Portuguese or French league.
The league was used by Ancient Rome, which defined it as being Roman miles (7500 Roman feet or 2.22 km). The origin is the "leuga gallica" " (also: leuca Gallica)", the league of Gaul. The ancient league was short but the unit grew longer over time.
In Argentina a league is a distance of 5 km.
In Brazil the league was 6 km but it is not used anymore.
The French league had different values at different times: 10 000, 12 000, 13 200 and 14 400 French feet, about 3.25 km to about 4.68 km. It was used for a while together with the metric system but it is not used now. The French league was three nautical miles.
The Spanish league was originally set as a fixed unit of distance of 5,000 varas (a Spanish yard), about 2.6 miles or 4.2 km. In 1568 Philip II of Spain officially abolished the league. However, in parts of Latin America, people still use it (with different meanings in different countries).
The gill (pronounced like the girl's name "Jill") is a unit for measuring volume. It is equal to a quarter of a pint. People do not use it much now apart from old spirit measures in the United Kingdom: usually a fifth or a sixth of a gill.
A corporation is a group of persons that sit together to make and run a business. This business is considered an entirely different human and not related to the group which manages it.
Because it is recognized by governments as a separate person entirely, the corporation must pay its own taxes and conform to state and federal law. This difference of persons and corporation gives it special powers. A corporation's special powers are determined by the law of the country in which the corporation is set up.
Investors(people who own a small part of the company) and entrepreneurs(The people who founded the company and its ideas) often form joint stock companies. Therefore, the term "corporation" often means such "business corporations". Corporations may also be formed for local government (municipal corporation), political, religious, and charitable purposes (not-for-profit corporation), or government programs (government-owned corporation). Condominiums are a common kind of non-profit corporation.
In 1997, Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) was established as a separate entity to consolidate the telecommunications and technology interests of the Orascom group of companies established in 1976. Founded in 1998 as part of the Orascom company, it became the largest cellular operator in the Middle East in only five years.
In 2010, Russian Vimpelcom acquired Orascom Telecom as well as Wind Telecomunicazioni from Weather Investments of the Egyptian entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris and merged the two companies to form Global Telecom Holding based in . Excluded from this transaction were the activities in North Korea (Koryolink) and Egypt, which were transferred to Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding, which remained majority-owned by Naguib Sawiris. The Italian activities of Wind Telecomunicazioni report directly to the parent company Vimpelcom and are not part of Global Telecom Holding.
Orascom Telecom Holding has been renamed to Global Telecom Holding in 2013. On 1 July 2019 Gerbrand Nijman (since June 2015 GTH's group CFO) has succeeded Vincenzo Nesci (retired) as GTH's CEO.
An oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next, without a writing system, by voice. People tell stories. Often the stories are made into poems and songs to make remembering easy. For example, the Homeric poetry of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" combined oral literature and oral history. Eventually they were written down.
The rank system in Air Cadets is founded in that ranking system used by the non-commissioned member's ranks of the pre-unification Royal Canadian Air Force with some modifications. Royal Canadian Air Cadets are not part of the Canadian Forces and do not have to enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces.
A Cadet who has held the rank of flight corporal for at least 6 months, has participated in the Cadet Fitness Assessment, and has successfully finish Level 3 training in air cadets is eligible for promotion to Sergeant on the recommendation of the appropriate Flight Commander. Cadets must attain a minimum of "completed without difficulty" in PO 303 (Leadership) to be promoted to the rank of Sergeant.
A legal case is a dispute between two parties that is resolved by a court or other legal process. A legal case may be either civil or criminal. The decision of a court is usually published in one form or another for later reference. In countries like the United States which have a common law system, decisions by a higher court are binding on lower courts when the facts and issues are similar. Stare decisis, or the concept of precedent, means to follow cases that were decided earlier when judging the current case.
929 was a common year.
The Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, is a 108-story, skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. The tower has 108 stories, though the building's owners count the main roof as 109 and the mechanical penthouse roof as 110. When it finished costruction in 1973, it beat the World Trade Center in New York City to become the tallest building in the world. It was the tallest building in the world for twenty-five years until the Petronas Towers were built in Malaysia. It was also the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere for 41 years, until the new One World Trade Center beat it in 2013.
Willis Tower is seen as the best work of architect Fazlur Khan. As of 2021, it is the third-tallest building in the United States and the Western hemisphere. It is also the 23rd-tallest in the world. Each year, more than one million people visit its observation deck, the highest in the United States. It is one of Chicago's most popular tourist places. The tower was renamed in 2009 after the Willis Group bought the tower.
The building's largest office partner is United Airlines, which moved its corporate headquarters from 77 West Wacker Drive in 2012. Other major company offices in the tower include Schiff Hardin and Seyfarth Shaw. Morgan Stanley moved into the tower in 2019.
It was known as the Sears Tower until 2009, as it was the headquarters of retail company Sears from its opening in 1974. Many people from Chicago still call the tower by its original name.
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck & Co. was the largest retailer in the world, with about 350,000 employees. Sears wanted to put many of its employees into one building on the western part of Chicago's Loop. The company was given a location by West Chicago Loop not far from Grant Park. Sears eventually bought the West Chicago loop location and bought 15 old buildings from 100 owners and paid $2.7 million to the city. Sears and the city of Chicago approved the design and construction began in April 1971.
With the floors left over Sears decided to rent them to other companies for offices. Small metal floors were added to give enough space to people working in the tower. Skidmore architects proposed a tower with large, floors in the lower part of the building. They also added metal floors with many setbacks, which would give the tower its well known look.
The tower passed the height of New York's unfinished World Trade Center to become the world's tallest building. The height was limited by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to protect air traffic. Two antennas were added at the top of the building for television and radio broadcasting. The building was completed in May 1973 and opened the next year. Construction cost about US$150 million.
In February 1982, two television antennas were added to the building, increasing its total height to . The western antenna was made bigger, bringing the overall height to on June 5, 2000. It was done to improve reception of local NBC station WMAQ-TV.
As the construction of the building reached as the 50th floor in 1972, people sued Sears and wanted to stop the building from passing 67 floors. The lawsuits said that above the 67th floor would make television signals bad.
The Illinois Citizens' Committee for Broadcasting wanted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to stop the building from getting taller. On May 26, 1972, the Commission did not take action as they did not have the power to do anything. On June 30, 1972, the Illinois Supreme Court supported their decision. On September 8, 1972, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit supported the FCC decision, ending the lawsuit.
The tower did not have as many companies buying office spaces and it was half-empty for many years. In the 2000s, many companies in the tower began to leave because of terrorist threats or because they found better office spaces.
In 1984, Sears decided to improve the appearance of the lower floors for civilians and tourists. Their solution was to create a new entrance, which became known as "Lunchbox Entrance". Sears wanted to sell the building in the late 1980s. In July 1990, with no possible buyers, Sears took out a mortgage loan on the tower for $850 million from MetLife and AEW Capital Management. Sears talked about the loan again in 1994. This led to an agreement where Sears would no longer be responsible for the $850 million loan, although it would only own the name of the building. As part of the 1994 agreement, AEW and Metlife would own the building in 2003.
In 1990, the law firm of Keck, Mahin & Cate wanted to move away from the tower and into 77 West Wacker Drive. Just two years later, Sears began to move out of the tower to Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
However, in 1997, the Canadian company TrizecHahn bought AEW's holdings of the building for $110 million. After the September 11 attacks, two of the largest office partners, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, quickly announced plans leave the building's 300,000 ft space. In 2003, Trizec sold its holdings of the tower to MetLife for $9 million.
In 2004, MetLife sold the building to a group of investors from New York City and Skokie, Illinois. The price was $840 million, with $825 million held in a mortgage.
In June 2006, seven men were arrested by the FBI and charged with plans to destroy the tower. The case went to court in October 2007. After three trials, five of the suspects were convicted and two acquitted. The leader of the group, Narseal Batiste, was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison. In response to the possible threat of an attack, the building's largest company space at this time, Ernst & Young, moved to North Wacker Drive in early 2009.
Since 2007, the owners had thought about building a hotel on the north side of the building. The second building was thought about in the original design. The plan was eventually cancelled as the city did not allow the construction of a tall building in that location.
In February 2009, the owners announced they were thinking about painting the building silver, an idea that was later stopped. It was hoped that a new paint-job would "rebrand" the building and show its energy efficiency for a cost of $50 million.
In 2015, the Blackstone Group bought the tower for a reported $1.3 billion, the highest price ever paid for a U.S. property outside of New York City. In 2017, Blackstone announced a $500 million renovation for the building, such as building a six-story commercial area in the tower's plaza area.
In May 2020, after many days of raining, the building's three basement levels were flooded. This caused the power to go out and many television and radio stations going off the air.
Sears' naming rights ended in 2003, but the building was still called the Sears Tower for many years. In March 2009, the British insurance company Willis Group Holdings agreed to rent a part of the building and got the naming rights. On July 16, 2009, the building was officially renamed the Willis Tower. On August 13, 2012, United Airlines said they were moving its corporate headquarters from 77 West Wacker Drive to Willis Tower.
The naming rights are legally kept for 15 years, making it is possible that the building's name change again soon. Many Chicagoans still call the tower by its old name. A July 2009 CNN article showed some Chicagoans did not want to call the tower by its new name. An October 2010 article from "Chicago" magazine called the building one of Chicago's 40 most important things. The author of the article did not want call it the "Willis Tower". "Time" magazine called the name change one of the top 10 worst corporate name changes.
On May 25, 1981, Dan Goodwin climbed the tower while using suction cups and wearing a Spider-Man costume. The Chicago Fire Department tried to stop him, but he made the first successful outside climb of the tower. Goodwin was arrested at the top after the seven-hour climb and was later charged with trespassing.
In August 1999, Alain "Spiderman" Robert climbed the building all the way to the top using only his hands and feet. He climbed at the last 20 stories of the building.
Since 2009, the Willis Tower has hosted SkyRise Chicago, the world's tallest indoor stair climb as a charity event. At the event, people can legally walk up the building's 103-story staircase.
Skidmore architects designed the Willis Tower to have large floors of in the lower part of the building. They got the design idea from an advertisement for a package of cigarettes.
From the ground to the top of the taller antenna, Willis Tower is tall. It leans about towards the west because of unequal weight on its foundation. The observation deck elevators are the fastest in the world at per minute. With clear weather, four states can be seen from the observation deck: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
The Willis Tower is the third tallest building in the Americas (after One World Trade Center and Central Park Tower) and the Western Hemisphere. With a height of with its antenna, it is the third-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas and eighth-tallest freestanding structure in the world.
On November 8, 2013, architects in Chicago and New York City started talking about the height of the One World Trade Center. They were saying that Willis Tower might be taller. Four days later, it was made official that One World Trade Center is taller than the Willis Tower.
At the bottom, the lowest level of Willis Tower is 43 feet below elevation. Many broadcast station transmitters are built at the top of Willis Tower.
The Willis Tower observation deck is called the Skydeck. It opened on June 22, 1974. It is on the 103rd floor. It is the highest observation deck in the United States and one of Chicago's most famous tourist attractions. About 1.7 million tourists visit the tower every year. Elevators reach the top of the building in about 60 seconds. People can feel the air pressure change as they go up. The tourist entrance is on the south side of the building on Jackson Boulevard. A second observation deck on the 99th floor was made as a backup and for private events.
In January 2009, work to improve the Skydeck began, such as adding glass balconies that go outside of the building. The all-glass boxes are called "The Ledge." Visitors can see the street below. The boxes can hold . It opened to the public on July 2, 2009. On May 29, 2014, the laminated glass flooring of one of the boxes broke while visitors were inside. Nobody was hurt. The flooring on that same box cracked on June 12, 2019.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave the tower ENERGY STAR certification in 2018 for good energy efficiency.
Beetles eat the most when they are larvae. Some beetle larvae eat the outside of plants; some eat inside plants. Some beetle larvae are predators, which means they hunt for other insects to eat. Other beetle larvae eat dead things, such as dead plants and corpses.
Not all beetle larvae look the same. Some beetle larvae are flat and move very fast. To describe these larvae, scientists use the descriptive word campodeiform. Some beetle larvae look similar to hard worms with tiny legs. These have an shape. Click beetle larvae have a special name: wireworms. Other beetle larvae are short and very thick and are called grubs. In a few beetles, the larvae change their shape after some time. Blister beetle larvae start out moving fast, such as campodeiform larvae, but end up slow and thick.
Beetles have a wide range of chemical defences, mostly got from plants their larvae eat. These chemicals make them taste bad when predators eat them. Blister beetles are so poisonous that if a horse eats only a few of them, the horse may die. Bombardier beetles squirt hot poisonous liquid at attackers. Lady beetles put out a cyanide compound when agitated. Lady beetles also have colours that warn predators that they taste bad. Insects which taste foul use warning colours which birds learn to avoid. Also, other species which are tasty copy those warning colours. This is a type of mimicry, and is quite common in insects.
Popular names are often misleading; that is why biologists use scientific names in Latin. People call some beetles by other names. Fireflies (also called lightning bugs) are actually beetles; so are ladybirds/ladybugs/lady beetles.
Harvestmen are eight-legged arachnids. Even though they are arachnids like spiders, harvestmen are not spiders. They are in the order Opiliones.
More than 6,400 species of harvestmen have been discovered, although the real number of extant species may be more than 10,000. Well-preserved fossils have been found in the 400-million year old Rhynie cherts of Scotland. Fossil harvestmen look surprisingly similar to modern harvestmen. Apparently, the basic body shape of harvestmen has not changed much.
Many species of harvestmen are omnivores--they eat anything they can find. Most of the time this is small insects, and some plants and fungi. Some are scavengers.
Harvestmen have exceptionally long walking legs compared to their bodies, although there are also some short-legged species. In harvestmen, the two main body sections (the abdomen and cephalothorax) meet at a wide point, so that they appear to be one oval structure. In more advanced species of harvestmen, the first five segments of the abdomen are fused into a "shield" on the harvestman's back called the scutum. In some species, this shield is only present in males. The second pair of legs is longer than the others and work as antennae. This can be hard to see in short-legged species.
The feeding apparatus (stomotheca) differs from other arachnids as they are able to eat their food in chunks, without needing to liquify it. Most species have a single pair of eyes in the middle of their heads, oriented horizontally. However, there are some eyeless species.
Crane flies that live in temperate places, such as "Tipula" species, may grow as big as 60 mm in size. Tropical crane flies may grow to more than 100 mm. The giant crane fly ("Holorusia rubiginosa") that lives in the western United States can reach 38 mm (1-3/8 inches). There are also small crane flies, the size of mosquitoes.
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who was Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Chancellor of the Exchequer and finally Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940.
Neville was born in Edgbaston, a district of Birmingham, England. His father was Joseph Chamberlain, an important politician. His half-brother (they had different mothers), Austen Chamberlain, also became a politician.
Neville went to Rugby School. He became interested in botany (plants), birds and fishing. He also loved music and literature (reading). He studied metallurgy at Mason College, which his father later made part of the University of Birmingham. Later, Neville became an apprentice in an accounting company.
He became a successful manager in a manufacturing company. He fell in love with Anne Cole and married her in 1910, when was 40. In 1911, when he was 42, the people of Birmingham elected (chose) Neville Chamberlain to be part of the city council. On the council, he had the job of planning improving the city, the same kind of work that his father had done. Neville planned new council housing for poor people. In 1915, he became Lord Mayor of Birmingham, also as his father had been. In that position, Neville worked to improve the city, including by starting the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
In 1916, Prime Minister David Lloyd George asked Chamberlain to become the director of conscription to force civilians to join the British Armys during the First World War. Chamberlain and Lloyd George often argued and soon did not like each other. Chamberlain left his job the next year. Instead, he entered the 1918 general election and became the Conservative Member of Parliament for Ladywood in Birmingham.
In 1923, Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law made Chamberlain the health minister. In that position, Chamberlain did more work to help poor people. For example, he had a law passed to connect rent prices to how good a building was. He was later Chancellor of the Exchequer, in charge of the economy, for a short time.
After the 1924 general election, he became health minister again, and he stayed there until the Conservatives lost the 1929 general election. Between 1924 and 1929, Chamberlain helped to make many new laws to help poor people, including a pensions system, which helped to make Britain's welfare state after the Second World War.
In 1929, the Conservatives lost the general election, and Ramsay MacDonald became the new Labour prime minister. The Conservative Party was trying to put tariffs (taxes) on imports to make trade in the British Empire stronger. Other people, including Lord Beaverbrook, a businessman who owned a lot of newspapers, disagreed by saying that trade should be free of tariffs. Beaverbrook started a new political party to fight the Conservatives. Chamberlain fought Beaverbrook's part in an election and won. That made him very popular in the Conservative party.
An economic crisis in 1931 led to another general election. Then, Chamberlain became Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1932, he was able to start a tariff system. His father had spent a long time working for a stronger British Empire when he was foreign secretary and also worked hard but failed for a tariff system because he believed it would make the empire economically independent. Neville was pleased that he had finally made his father's wishes come true.
By 1934, Chamberlain felt that the economy had recovered. However, many important people, including Chamberlain's half-brother Austen and Winston Churchill, were warning that Nazi Germany was rearming (reuilding its military). The men said that Britain must rearm, too. In July 1934, the government told Parliament that it had a plan to make the Royal Air Force much stronger.
However, not everybody was happy to see an arms race (a competition to build a bigger military) with Germany. The First World War was still in people's memories, and there was a strong pacifist movement in the country. Chamberlain, who had lost his cousin and best friend, Norman Chamberlain, during the war advised (suggested) Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to talk about rearmament during the 1935 general election. Baldwin was worried people that would not vote for them if they talked about making the military stronger, and Labour Party was strongly against rearmament. That made Baldwin talk about housing and unemployment instead.
Chamberlain worked hard to help improve the slow economy. The government bought factories that were not being used and spent money on making them new again. That idea helped after the war started because Britain had the most modern equipment. When he announced (told the public about) his budget (plan for the economy) in 1935, the Labour Party said that he wanted war, but other people still said that he was not doing enough to build the military. In 1936, the government announced plans to build the Royal Navy.