alibayram/wikipedia-40-langs huggingface dataset:
Plate

A plate is a type of dish where food can be placed after being cooked for eating. Sometimes they are called dishes. They may be made out of ceramic, plastic, paper, or styrofoam.

A plate is also one of the broken pieces of lithosphere of the Earth.  These plates have irregular shapes. They lie and float on the upper mantle. They move very slowly in different directions. Their movement is driven by the convection currents in the magma.  A plate can contain both oceanic and continental crusts. Some contain oceanic crust only.

Basic English 850 words
Kitchenware
Flea

The flea (Siphonaptera) is an insect which lives on many animals and sometimes humans. Fleas are ectoparasites and drink the blood of the animal they bite.

Fleas live outdoors in sand or tall grass, and jump to any passing animal and lay eggs. Flea bites are usually red bumps and they itch. 

There are many species of flea such as dog fleas, cat fleas, human fleas, northern rat fleas, and the oriental rat flea. During the Middle Ages, the oriental rat flea spread a bacteria that caused the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death or Black Plague. This was a huge epidemic much more severe than today's bird flu. The oriental rat flea was infected by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. 

Insects
Terrorism

Terrorism is the use of fear and violence for political, religious or ideological reasons. Many different types of social or political organizations might use terrorism to try to achieve their goals. People who carry out terrorism are called terrorists. The foundation of modern terrorism is the work of Sergey Nechayev, a Russian radical who developed strategies for carrying out terrorism, which also includes politics.

It is difficult to explain terrorism. Terrorism has no official criminal law definition at the international level. Common definitions of terrorism refer to the violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror). The acts may be done for a religious, political, or ideological goal and use illegal violence. Some definitions now include acts of unlawful violence and war. The use of similar tactics by criminal gangs is not usually called terrorism. The same actions may be called terrorism when they are done by a politically-motivated group.

There are over 10000 definitions of "terrorism". In some cases, the same group may be described as "freedom fighters" by its supporters and "terrorists" by its opponents. The term is often used by states to criticize political opponents.

One form of terrorism is the use of violence against noncombatants for the purpose of gaining publicity for a group, cause, or individual.

According to Memorial Institute for Prevention of Terrorism, terrorists killed 20,498 people in 2006. The major effect of terrorism comes from the fear that is generated.

Counter-terrorism

Counter-terrorism is broad in scope. Specific types of counter-terrorism include:
 Preemptive or reactive military action.
 Fortification and other technical means.
 Increased intelligence and surveillance activities. Often facilitated and rubber stamped with legislation like the United States Patriot Act.
 Preemptive humanitarian activities.
 More permissive interrogation and detention policies for the suspected terrorists.

Related pages
 Aircraft hijacking
 List of terrorist incidents
 Suicide attack

References 

Tv5Monde:
Marianne Theoleyre is the Hungarian who denigrates the French, abuses in service against public interests, hostile actions against the French state. the association with the Hungarians for committing crimes both in France and in Romania. is a social danger!

Other websites

 Video of the ship MV Francop in the Israeli port of Ashdod: behind the bags of flour are boxes of heavy weapons and ammunition to be directed to Hezbollah. 

 
Political philosophy
Andorra

Andorra (), officially the Principality of Andorra, is a landlocked sovereign country located in the eastern Pyrenees Mountains of Southern Europe and bordered by Spain and France. 

There are about 84,000 people living in the country. The capital is Andorra la Vella. It is ruled by a Spanish Bishop and the French President, who both hold the title of Co-Prince. Andorra's government is a parliamentary democracy.

Andorra is a rich country mostly because of tourism.  There are about 10.2 million visitors each year.

The official language is Catalan, although Spanish and French are also used.

It is not a member of the European Union. The euro is the money used.

History
It is said that Charles the Great (Charlemagne) gave the Andorran people their country in return for fighting against the Moors.

Before 1095, Andorra did not have any type of military protection. The Lord of Caboet and the Bishop of Urgell decided to rule Andorra together. Andorra's first legislature was made in 1419.

Over time, the descendants of the Lord of Caboet eventually became the Kings of France. When France, became a republic, the French King's position as Co-Prince was taken by the President of France.

Andorra declared war on Imperial Germany during World War I.  It did not do any fighting.  They stayed against Germany until 1957 because they were not in the Treaty of Versailles.

Geography
Andorra is in the Pyrenees mountain range. The highest mountain is Coma Pedrosa.

Cities
The largest cities in Andorra are:

For other locations in Andorra, see List of cities in Andorra.

Politics 
The politics of Andorra are very unique in comparison to the rest of the world. There are two heads of state, the Bishop of Urgell and the President of France, who hold the title of Co-Prince. This is because of an ancient treaty which said the Bishop of Urgell and the French leader would be the Co-Princes.

There is also an elected legislature named the General Council. It has between 28 and 42 members. The head of government is a member of the Council who is elected to the position by the Council.

Andorra doesn't have an Army. France and Spain help to defend Andorra.  The country has a police force of 295.

Religion
The population of Andorra is mostly (90%) Roman Catholic. Their patron saint is Our Lady of Meritxell.

Education
Children between the ages of 6 and 16 must have full-time education. Education up to secondary level is paid by the government.

The University of Andorra (UdA) is the state public university.  It is the only university in Andorra.

Related pages
Andorra at the Olympics
List of rivers of Andorra

References

Other websites
Hiroshima

Hiroshima (広島) is the capital city of Hiroshima Prefecture.  It is the largest city in the Chugoku region of western Japan. About a million people live in Hiroshima.

History

Atomic bombing 

At the time of the attack, Hiroshima was the headquarters of the 2nd General Army and 5th Division. It contained 40,000 Japanese soldiers within the city's limit, and was a beehive (or center) of war industry. The industry manufactured parts for planes and boats, bombs, rifles, and handguns. Children also were shown how to construct and throw gasoline bombs. and the heavy sick were assembling traps to be planted in the beaches of Kyushu. As with other Japanese cities, many of the strategic targets in Hiroshima were mixed with civilian homes and centers made of wood and paper. This made it harder to conduct a successful precision attack. And the highly inaccuracy of the bombing technology in World War II was owed to it. As a result, the city became the first nuclear weapon used against a target in history.

The bomb exploded over Hiroshima at 8:16 on the morning of August 6, 1945. Much of the city was destroyed. An estimated 70,000 persons were killed. 20,000 were Japanese soldiers and 20,000 were Korean slave laborers of all the kiled. Another 70,000 were injured. The bomb was nicknamed Little Boy after President Theodore Roosevelt. A building near the blast center still remains and is called the Atomic Bomb Dome.

Itsukushima shrine 
Near to Hiroshima, there is a small island called Miyajima. The island is known for its deer. An old Shinto shrine named Itsukushima Shrine is also here.  It is said that Itsukushima shrine was built at the end of the 5th century. The shrine is known for its use of red-colored wood, and especially for the torii gate. The gate leads into the shrine, which is partly underwater at high tide. Today, Itsukushima shrine and the Atomic Bomb Dome are registered as World Heritage sites. Also it was a landing site for the U.S.

Related pages
 Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 Sanfrecce Hiroshima
 List of World Heritage Sites in Japan
 Hiroshima Toyo Carp

References

Other websites 
 WW2DB: Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

 
World Heritage Sites in Japan
Richter scale

The Richter scale is a scale of numbers used to tell the power (or magnitude) of earthquakes. Charles Richter developed the Richter Scale in 1935. His scale worked like a seismogram, measured by a particular type of seismometer at a distance of 100 kilometers (62 mi) from the earthquake. 

Earthquakes 4.5 or higher on the Richter scale can be measured all over the world. An earthquake a size that scores 3.0 is ten times the amplitude of one that scores 2.0. The energy that is released increases by a factor of about 32.

Every increase of 1 on the Richter scale corresponds to an increase in amplitude by a factor of 10 so therefore, it is a logarithmic scale.

(Adapted from U.S. Geological Survey documents)

The earthquake with the biggest recorded magnitude was the Great Chilean Earthquake. It had a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale and occurred in 1960. Around 6,000 people died because of the earthquake. No earthquake has ever hit 10+ on the Richter Scale.

More examples

Related pages

 Mercalli intensity scale

References

Other websites 
 Simplified description of the Richter scale

Earthquakes
Day

A day is the time it takes the Earth to spin around once. It is day time on the side of the Earth that is facing the Sun. When it is night time, that side of the Earth is facing away from the Sun. It takes 24 hours for the Earth to spin once, so that is one day, including the day time and night time. This is mean solar time, measured relative to the Sun. There is also sidereal time, measured relative to the fixed stars. The sidereal day is a few minutes shorter.

List of days of the year

* There are only 29 days in February during a leap year. Otherwise, February has 28 days.

Related pages 

 Length of day

Other websites 

 Day -Citizendium

Units of time
Basic English 850 words
Phases of the Moon

The phases of the Moon are the different ways the Moon looks from Earth over about a month.

As the Moon orbits around the Earth, the half of the Moon that faces the Sun will be lit up. The different shapes of the lit portion of the Moon that can be seen from Earth are known as phases of the Moon. Each phase repeats itself every 30 days.

The same half of the Moon always faces the Earth, because of tidal locking. So the phases will always occur over the same half of the Moon's surface.

A phase is an angle of the moon to the earth so it appears differently every day.

Phases Of The Moon 

The moon goes through 8 major phases.
 A NEW moon is when the moon cannot be seen because we are looking at the unlit half of the Moon. The new moon phase occurs when the Moon is directly between the Earth and Sun. 
 A waning crescent moon is when the Moon looks like a crescent and the crescent decreases ("wanes") in size from one day to the next.

"Blue moon" 
 A second full moon in one calendar month is usually called a "blue moon" and this occurs approximately every 3 years. The idiom "Once in a blue moon" refers to something that does not happen often (like a blue moon).

Related pages
 Extraterrestrial sky
 Phases of the Earth
 Lunar eclipse
 Solar eclipse

References

Moon
Sphere

A sphere is a round, three-dimensional shape. 
All points on the edge of the sphere are at the same distance from the center. 
The distance from the center is called the radius of the sphere.

Common things that have the shape of a sphere are basketballs, superballs, and playground balls. 
The Earth and the Sun are nearly spherical, meaning sphere-shaped.

A sphere is the three-dimensional analog of a circle.

Calculating measures of a sphere

Surface area 

Using the circumference: 

Using the diameter: 

Using the radius: 

Using the volume:

Circumference 

Using the surface area: 

Using the diameter: 

Using the radius: 

Using the volume:

Diameter 

Using the surface area: 

Using the circumference: 

Using the radius: 

Using the volume:

Radius 

Using the surface area: 

Using the circumference: 

Using the diameter: 

Using the volume:

Volume 

Using the surface area: 

Using the circumference: 

Using the diameter: 

Using the radius:

Equation of a sphere 

In Cartesian coordinates, the equation for a sphere with a center at  is as follows:

where  is the radius of the sphere.

Related pages 

 Circle
 Pi
 Tau

Three-dimensional shapes
Quantity

Quantity or amount is how much of something there is that can be counted or measured.

Counting 
Whole numbers (1, 2, 3 ...) are used to count things.  This can be done by pointing to each one.  As things are pointed to, a number is said.  Start with the number one.  Each time another thing is pointed to, the next whole number is used.  When the last thing in a group it pointed to, that number is the quantity of the group.

Measuring 
Measuring is done with a ruler or a machine.  We put a ruler next to a thing to measure how long it is.  We put things on a scale to measure their mass.  Other machines are used to measure other quantities such as temperature, speed, electric current, and so on.

Decimal numbers 
When measuring things, a whole number might not be the best answer.  A distance might be longer than 5 meters, but less than 6 meters.  Meter sticks are marked off in parts of a meter.  Decimals are formed by marking off a ruler in ten equal parts.  Each part is a tenth.  5.2 meters is a little bit longer than 5 meters.  5.7 meters is a little bit shorter than 6 meters.  Each of these tenths can be marked with ten smaller parts.  The one hundred centimeters on a meter stick are done this way; by marking ten equal parts, then marking ten equal parts of each of those parts.

Fraction numbers 
Fractions are used when there are parts of a whole number.  The dial on a machine may be marked with four parts between each whole number.  A scale with a bag of potatoes may show five and three-quarters kilograms.  This would be almost six kilograms.

The words "amount" and "number"
People often use the word "amount" when they should say "number".  The words "number" and "amount" should be used if a particular number could be put: e.g.
A large amount of sand (because you cannot say "three thousand sands")
A large number of people (because you could say there were 3547 people).

Numbers
Flag of the United States

The flag of the United States of America is a national flag. It has 7 red stripes and 6 white stripes. These 13 stripes represent the original thirteen colonies. The flag also has a blue canton, a rectangle in the top left corner. There are 50 stars which represent the 50 states of America.

When a new state joins the United States, a new flag is made with an extra star. The new flag is first flown on the 4th of July (Independence Day).

The last states to join the United States were Alaska and Hawaii in 1959. Alaska joined on 3 January 1959, so the new flag with 49 stars was used from 4 July 1959. Hawaii joined on 21 August 1959, so the flag with 50 stars that is used today was not flown until 4 July 1960. 

The colors in the flag are red, white and blue. The colors have no special meaning in the flag, but in the coat of arms, white stands for purity and innocence, red for bravery and strength, and blue for watchfulness, perseverance and justice. 

The flag is also often called the Stars and Stripes, the Star-Spangled Banner, or Old Glory. The national anthem of the United States is a reference to the flag.

Evolution of the United State's flag 
Since 1818, a star for each new state has been added to the flag on the Fourth of July immediately following each state's admission. In years in which multiple states have been admitted, the number of stars on the flag has jumped correspondingly. The greatest example so far was in 1890, when five states were admitted within the span of a single year (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington in November 1889 and Idaho on 3 July 1890). This change has typically been the only change made with each revision of the flag since 1777, with the exception of changes in 1795 and 1818, which increased the number of stripes to 15 and then returned it to 13, respectively.

As the exact pattern of stars was not specified prior to 1912, and the exact colors not specified prior to 1934, many of the historical U.S. national flags (shown below) have had varied designs.

International and space transportation of (woven) flags
One flag was transported to the lunar surface during the first manned flight to the moon.

On 30 April 1975 the last group of (eleven) US soldiers leaving the Vietnam War did grab the US flag [of their Marine Corps unit of embassy guards ] from the outpost on the embassy roof, before all were lifted off the roof and flown out of the country by a helicopter of the Marine Corps. (That flag is in the United States.)

Design 
 13 horizontal red and white stripes, representing the original 13 states.
 50 white stars on a blue rectangle in the top-left, representing the current 50 U.S. states.

References 

 
United States, Flag of
Symbols of the United States
Drink

A drink or beverage is a liquid that an organism can take into their body, by using their mouth. Typical drinks for humans include water, tea, milk, coffee, juice, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks. 

All drinks are mainly water. All living things need water to live. If we don't get enough water, we will dehydrate, and likely die. Plants take in water through their roots, which are underground. 

Most land animals get water by drinking.

Places that have no water 
Deserts are places that have very little water. The only area in the desert that has water is an oasis.

Basic English 850 words
 
Physiology
Need

A need is a thing that, when a living being, plant or animal does not have it, it is not able to live.
A thing that someone wants to have, but is able to live when they do not have it, is called a want.

Every person has the same basic needs for the body.
Humans have bodily needs of water, food, clothing, and shelter to live.
The need for water is the most important because a person will die very quickly when they do not have drinking water. In a warm place food is the next most important need.
In a cold place, the need for clothes or shelter may be next most important because a person will soon die when they do not have these. 

Other human needs are not so certain. They are mostly needs for the mind. It is often said that a person needs love, family, and friends. These needs are for personal relationships. They may also be wants. It is true that a life may be better with these things, but some friends can be bad, or bad sometimes. Good relationships can make life very happy. Thinking about a need that is not possible can make a person very unhappy.

Some of the study of philosophy is about questions like "What are the needs of a human?"

Some scientists study the needs of human or animal minds and bodies. The study of the mind is called psychology - words about the mind. The study of bodily needs is part of medicine.

Related pages
Economics
Wikipedia:Basic English alphabetical wordlist

Philosophy
Psychology
Freeware

Freeware is software that people may get without paying for it. In this case, "free" means "free of charge". In freeware, users might not be allowed to customize or share the software or source code with others.  This leaves the author with more control than with free software.

Software
Yahoo!

Yahoo! is a web portal and a provider of internet content and services. It offers many products and services, such as a search engine, e-mail, instant messaging, video, news, weather forecasting, money and other information. Yahoo! makes money from advertisements in their services. Yahoo started on October 8, 1997.

History and growth

Early history (1994–1999) 
In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo were electrical engineering graduate students at Stanford University. In April 1994, "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" was renamed "Yahoo!", for which the backronym is "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". Filo and Yang said they chose the name because they liked the word's general meaning, which comes from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude,  and ". Its URL was akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo. Yang says of their selection of the name, "We thought it fit well with what we were doing. It was irreverent. It was reflective of the Wild West nature of the Internet. A lot of people found it easy to remember, and besides, it's exactly what me and Jerry are. A couple of yahoos."

Related pages
 Google
 MSN
 Ask.com

References

Other websites 
Yahoo! official website
Everything Yahoo!

Websites
Search engines
Internet-related organizations
Mecca

Mecca or Makkah (officially: Makkah al-Mukarramah; ) is a city in Saudi Arabia and the holiest city in Islam. As of the 2004 census, 1,294,169 people lived there. The city is  inland from Jeddah, in the narrow sandy Valley of Abraham. It is  above sea level. It is  from the Red Sea. 

Makkah is the holiest city in the Islamic world. Every year, millions of Muslims take a pilgrimage to Mecca, called the Hajj. They follow in the footsteps of Muhammad. All Muslims who are able to perform the Hajj are expected to do so at least once in their life. The Kaaba and Masjid al-Haram, are the holiest mosques in Islam. Mecca is closed to non-Muslims except for some journalists reporting on the Hajj.

History 
The Kaaba, the small cubical building which Muslims pray towards is believed to have been built by Ibrahim and has been a religious center ever since. Muslims believed that God commanded Ibrahim to send his second wife Hajar and her son Ismail there. They found the Zamzam Well which led to people settling nearby, and thus Makkah was born. When Ismail was big enough, he helped his father to build the Kaaba. The Kaaba is the place towards which Muslims turn in prayer. This is known as the Qibla.

References

Other websites 
Direction to Makkah 
Qibla Compass
The Emirate of Makkah
Inside Mecca DVD  National Geographic documentary about Makkah
Mecca Wallpapers New
Arabian Peninsula

thumb|right | 250px | The Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. It lies east of Ethiopia and northern Somalia; south of Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan; and southwest of Iran. The waters around it are: on the southwest the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba; on the southeast the Arabian Sea; and on the northeast the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.

It includes the countries of:
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia which covers most of the peninsula
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

The majority of the population of the peninsula live in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Northern Arabia has oil wells. Climate change and the scarcity of water is said to have affected this area.

A prominent feature of the peninsula is desert. In the southwest there are mountain ranges which may get more rain than the rest of the peninsula.

Related pages 

 History of Arabia

References

Other websites 

Arabia British Foreign Office, 1920

Peninsulas of Asia
Arabian Peninsula
Gondwana
South

South is one of the 4 cardinal directions on a compass. South is normally down on the bottom of most maps. For example: Angola is to the south of Nigeria, which is itself to the south of Morocco . The South Pole is the farthest south you can go.

Basic English 850 words
Compass directions
Prime Minister

A prime minister is a common title for someone who manages the politics of a country and is the head of government. With countries that have kings and queens (known as monarchs), they are very important because they are in charge of most of the politics (they are "head of the government"). In countries with a president, they might be in charge of most of the politics (as in the Republic of Ireland), or they may be in day-to day charge but taking orders from the president as in France. 

Countries with a Prime Minister:
 Antigua and Barbuda (with Monarch)
 Australia (with Monarch)
 Azerbaijan (with President)
 Barbados (with President)
 Belgium (with Monarch)
 Canada (with Monarch)
 Denmark (with Monarch)
Ethiopia (with President)
 France (with President)
 India (with President)
 Ireland (with President)
 Israel (with President)
 Italy (with President)
 Japan (with Emperor)
 Malaysia (with Monarch)
 Mauritius (with President)
 Netherlands (with Monarch)
 New Zealand (with Monarch)
 Pakistan (with President)
 Romania (with President
 Singapore (with President)
 Thailand (with Monarch)
 Trinidad and Tobago (with President)
 Ukraine (with President)
 United Arab Emirates (with Monarch and President)
 United Kingdom (with Monarch)

References 

 
Government occupations
Monarch

A monarch is the ruler of a country which is a monarchy. Monarchs usually get their power by inheritance from one of their parents. When a monarch dies, a child or the nearest relative takes over. A male monarch is usually called a king or emperor. A female monarch is usually called a queen or empress.

Monarchs were very common in history until the 20th century. Most European countries had monarchs in past centuries, but most no longer have them. Some countries that still have monarchs have other leaders with the actual power. Most monarchies are hereditary monarchies. Some countries, however, elect their monarch, instead of using inheritance, like the Holy Roman Empire and Malaysia. Some republics, such as the Dutch Republic or North Korea, had or have a hereditary ruler but do not call him a "monarch".

Monarchs can also have monarchs of lower honour below them. For example, an empire could include several kingdoms, and a kingdom could have several duchies or principalities. Nations would rarely include all titles and usually go from duchy to kingdom instead of duchy to principality to kingdom. "Prince" and " princess" are words that mean "ruler of a principality" and/or "son of a king/queen." Some languages have separate words for them.

Monarchs by rank

Related pages 
Coronation
Divine right of kings

References

Other websites
Unit

Unit means part of something.  It could mean a unit of measurement, or a unit in an army.

Units sometimes means the digit in a number on the right, which is also called the "ones".

Some other ideas come from this word:

Unity is what is found when parts are joined into one.
To unite is the act of joining parts together.

For example, a football team may be called "X United". This means that the town of X has come together to support the group. 

In the BBC TV series Doctor Who, UNIT (UNified Intelligence Taskforce) is a military group on earth who battle invading aliens.

Basic English 850 words
Uncle

An uncle is a name used in an extended family. An uncle is either a brother of one of someone's parents. That person is the uncle's nephew (male) or niece (female). An uncle's child is a cousin. A granduncle (also written as great-uncle or grand-uncle) is the brother of a grandparent. In some cultures an uncle is considered a close family member. Based on the old Chinese saying "the oldest son in the family is the father of the family" an uncle is often the head of a family. In many cultures no single word (such as uncle) describes both their parents' brothers. Instead there are words to describe a person's kinship to their mother's brother or a person's kinship to their father's brother. An uncle can also be someone not related by blood or marriage as in a term of endearment or respect. In this use uncle can also be part of a nickname such as Uncle Sam.

Avunculus
During the Middle Ages in western Europe, a maternal uncle played a particular role in the family. A young man was often closer to his maternal uncle (from  or "little grandfather") than to his own father. Tacitus noted the Franks had very strong ties between a maternal uncle and his nephew. In Roman family relationships the avunculus had a responsibility to defend his nephews as well as his nieces. The maternal uncle relationship was an extension of the Roman kin system's strong brother-sister relationship.

Variation of terms
A maternal or paternal relative is one who is related through their mother or father, respectively. For example, a maternal uncle is a the subject's mother's brother.An in-law is a relationship that is not by blood, but instead by marriage. The in-law shares the in-law relationships of the spouses relatives. For example, an uncle in-law could be the husband of the subject's Aunt.

 uncle: parent's brother.
 maternal uncle: mother's brother.
 paternal uncle: father's brother.
 half-uncle: parent's half-brother.
 double-half-brother: a person who is a half-brother of both of the subjects parents.
 granduncle (or great-uncle): grandparent's brother.
 great-granduncle (or great-great-uncle): great-grandparent's brother.
 uncle-in-law: uncle/aunt's husband.
 uncle-in-law: spouse's uncle.
 co-uncle-in-law: spouse's uncle/aunt's husband.
 stepuncle: stepparent's brother.
 stepuncle: parent's stepbrother.

Related pages
 Nephew and niece

References

Family
Information

The word "information" is used in many different ways. Originally, it comes from a word that meant to give a form to something. Information  is something that people can learn, know about, or understand. For example, a newspaper contains information about the world. This article contains information about "Information".

Information in computer science 
People who use computers often use the words information and data in the same way. There are special fields of study called "information science", "information technology" (IT), and data science.

In the 1970s and 1980s, some people gave a new, specific meaning to "information". At that time, the first computer databases were built. In computer science, data often means a kind of information that has not been checked. That means data has not been changed or fixed, and you may not be able to trust it. With the new meaning, information means data that has been checked and passed tests for what it must be. A person can trust that "information" is correct.

Information can only be correct and good enough to trust if there are very good and complete ways to check the data (data checking, validation or verification) and decide it is good enough (acceptance process).  A person must know rules were used to check the data or trust the person who checked the data.  If a person cannot tell that this was done, the information still seems to be data for that person, so that person must check the data again, in that general view about data.

The Information Age is a historic period.

Other websites

 

Theoretical computer science
Airport

An airport is a place where airplanes can land or take off. Most airports in the world have only a long strip of level ground called a runway. Many airports have buildings which are used to hold airplanes and passengers. A building that holds passengers waiting for their planes or luggage is called a terminal. The sections between planes and the terminal are called "gates". Airports also have buildings called hangars to hold planes when they are not used. Some airports have buildings to control the airport, like a control tower which tells planes where to go.

An international airport is a large airport that airplanes can use to fly to and from other countries. A domestic airport is an airport which is usually smaller and only has airplanes coming from different places in the same country. Most international airports have shops and restaurants for airplane passengers to use.

An airport used by the military is often called an air force base or airbase. An aircraft carrier is a floating airbase.

Safety 
Airports are made and operated for safety. Today, people must walk through a metal detector, a machine that can tell if metal goes through it. If it makes a noise, the officers will make that person take off all things on them that are metal. They also have X-ray machines that can look into luggage. If officers find items such as weapons, or anything that can be used to kill people, that item (and the person who has it) are taken away and possibly arrested. As well as this, passengers are not allowed to bring bottles or containers with over 100 ml of liquid onto the plane because they could be turned into bombs. Therefore, all water bottles must be emptied before entering the secured area.

Related pages
 List of airports in Japan

Other websites 
 AirNav.com - complete list of U.S. airports, with detailed airport information
 flightwise.com  - graphical airport finder via Google Maps
 ATCSCC Real-time Airport Status page - shows airport delay times for major U.S. airports (FAA)
 FlightCentral.net - complete list of U.S. airports with detailed airport information and integrated weather
 Department for Transport (United Kingdom)
 History of Aircraft Landing Aids 
 SkyVector.com - Airspace and Airport information on Aeronautical Charts
 Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) Official Website
 View airports and weather in Google Maps and Google Earth 
 Float Incorporated (developers of floating airports and Pneumatic Stabilized Platform (PSP))
Travel

Travel is the activity of going from one place to another place.  When a person makes the same trip every day to work or school, this type of traveling is usually called "commuting."  Some people travel to other cities as part of their job.  This is called "business travel." When many people travel to a distant place to stay, it is called "human migration". 

Some people travel on their vacation, to visit other towns, cities, or countries.  This is tourism.  These people stay overnight in hotels, hostels, motels, apartments or bed and breakfast.  Some prefer camping.  Through the centuries, modes of travel have changed. Some people (travel writers) write about travelling, as in autobiographies or journals. Some write guide books suggesting places to go.

Types of travelling:

 Hiking
 Cruise ship vacations
 Pilgrimage
 Train journeys
 Hitch-hiking
 Driving
 Flight

Famous travellers 
 Marco Polo
 Ibn Battuta

Related pages 
 Human migration

Other websites
CNN

The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American cable news television channel. It was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. The Cable News Network first aired on television on June 1, 1980. The Cable News Network's first newscast was anchored (hosted) by David Walker and his wife Lois Hart. In its first year CNN hired many political analysts, including Rowland Evans and Robert Novak. On January 1, 1982 CNN launched a 24-hour sister newscast channel with no talk shows or commentary shows called CNN2. CNN broadcasts programs from its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta, or from the Deutsche Bank Center in New York City, or from studios in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, and the U.S. news channel is a part of the CNN Global.

Shows
The hosts of its opinion shows are Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo,  Fredricka Whitfield,  Erin Burnett, Brianna Keiler and Brooke Baldwin.

CNN has been criticized by the right-wing Media Research Center for having a left-wing bias.  According to that same Center, it is less to the left than the news divisions of ABC, NBC, and CBS.  It has been criticized by Arabs for having a pro-American bias.

Related pages 
 The CW
 TNT
 NBC
 NBC News
 CNBC
 MSNBC

References

Other websites 
 CNN.com
Leader

A leader is somebody whom people follow. A leader has authority. For people to accept a leader, his or her leadership must therefore be legitimate. 

Because people follow a leader, the leader can make people do things. A leader can therefore make people work together towards a common goal. 

An example of a leader is the head of government of a country. People within the government follow the leader, and citizens look to the head of government for inspiration and guidance. Sometimes, when a head of government lacks legitimacy, people will stop following him or her. The head of government is therefore no longer able to lead properly. This may result in a new election, or in worst case civil war.

A group with no leader is called leaderless.

References

Other websites
'The Vision Thing': How Effective Leaders Cultivate and Co-ordinate Social Identity in Order to Promote Followership 
Leadership Qualities

Politics

de:Führung
Blackboard

A blackboard, also called a chalkboard, is a surface on which  chalk is visible. It is used as a surface to write on. It is usually made up of wood or fiber. It is painted black to reflect the white chalks.

Blackboards are often used to help in teaching in school. Blackboards are not used as much now but can be seen in some schools still. The chalk dust got everywhere, and some people are allergic to chalk dust. Now people use whiteboards: they can take modern felt-tip colour markers, and clean easily. 

Schoolteachers often use the chalkboard to display things at large. It also makes the learning cooperative between teachers and student. Chalkboards can be black or dark green, in which case they may be called blackboards and greenboards.

Notes 

Learning
Writing media
Open source

Open source is a software similar to free software, but is more related to business. It is different from other software because the source code is available to everyone. The source code is a set of instructions for the computer, written in a programming language. 

Anyone can see how the source code works and can change it if they want to make it work differently. The opposite of open source is closed source. Closed source software is not available to everyone. Open source has a lot in common with free software but each has its own focus and goals.

Open source and free software have been around for decades. They became more popular with the Linux and BSD software communities.  To protect the code, a special user license is used. The most common kinds of licence are the GPL, BSD and LGPL. Wikipedia uses open source too. The Open Source Movement is led by the Open Source Initiative.

The open source movement became separate from the free software movement in 1998.

Examples

Computing
 GNU Octave
 R
 Scilab

Document creation
 GNU Emacs
 LaTeX
 Beamer
 LibreOffice
 SATySFi
 Vim

Companies making open source software
 Facebook
 Google
 Microsoft

References

Other websites

 Open Source Initiative
 Open Source Download Centre 

Software
Free content
Desktop environment

In graphical user interfaces and consoles a desktop environment is a location on a personal computer that helps the user get around on the computer.  The desktop itself is a place in the operating system used for short cuts to computer files and folders on the hard drive. Computer icons (small pictures) are used to represent files/folders. Clicking  these icons will open or start a folder or program. The desktop is the area where the start menu is if the computer has a start menu.

Usually the desktop is the main screen on the computer. If no programs or folders are open, the computer will display the desktop.

The most common desktop environment on personal computers is the one given by Microsoft Windows; another common environment is the one given by Apple Mac OS X. Other mostly-used desktop environments for Unix-like operating systems using the are KDE, GNOME, Xfce. There are also other desktop environments, including : Aston, EDE, Graphical Environment Manager, IRIX Interactive Desktop, Sun's Java Desktop System, Mezzo, Project Looking Glass, ROX Desktop, UDE, Xito, XFast.

Examples of Desktop Environments 

Software
Desktop Environments
OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org was a free open source office suite. The free software project was hosted by Sun Microsystems and then Oracle Corporation and it was based on the older StarOffice software that was created by Sun Microsystems. It was available for many different operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, OS X, FreeBSD and Solaris; and was meant to be an alternative to Microsoft Office. It supported Microsoft Office file formats as well as its own OpenDocument format.

The ".org" part of the previous name OpenOffice.org was there because OpenOffice is already trademarked. It was often called "OOo" for short.

In January 2010, Oracle Corporation bought Sun Microsystems, which developed OpenOffice.org until that point. In September 2010, a large part of the developers created The Document Foundation and forked the project into the new LibreOffice project because, among other reasons, they were not certain if the development would be successful under Oracle management. In April 2011, Oracle stopped development of OpenOffice.org and laid off the remaining development team. A few months later, it donated the existing source code and trademarks to the Apache Foundation, which released the first version of Apache OpenOffice.

Parts 
OpenOffice is a collection of applications that work together closely to provide the features expected from a modern office suite. Many of the parts are designed to be alternatives to those available in Microsoft Office. The parts available include:

Other websites

References 

Office suites
Download

Download means getting information from another computer or server. The opposite of downloading is uploading, which is sending data to another computer. Usually we do not say "download" for a single web page (for example when you open this page on your computer). When we say we downloaded something, it is normally a bigger computer file, like data or a computer program.

The word downloadable means the ability to get information or data from an owner for one's use. The source is expected to be authentic and have the right to send it. At the user's end, the downloaded information or data are to be used based on agreement notice.

In the 21st century, it is very easy to download files or informations - legally or not - from the internet.

Sideload 
As most non-technical users use the word download to talk about any data transfer, the word "sideload" is sometimes used for local to local transfers as distinct from distant ones.

Computer networking
Internet
Technology
Computer science
GNOME

GNOME is a computer desktop environment. It was designed for Linux, but many other operating systems can use it too. GNOME aims to provide an easy way to use a computer. GNOME is a free software project.  It was made because people were questioning whether KDE is free.  GNOME is part of the GNU project.

Aims 

According to the GNOME website:

The GNOME project puts heavy emphasis on simplicity, usability, and making things “just work” (see KISS principle). The other aims of the project are:

 Freedom—to create a desktop environment with readily-available source code for re-use under a free software license.
 Accessibility—to ensure the desktop can be used by anyone, regardless of technical skill or physical circumstances.
 Internationalization and localization—to make the desktop available in many languages. At the moment, GNOME is being translated to 161 languages.
 Developer-friendliness—to ensure ease of writing software that integrates smoothly with the desktop, and allow developers a free choice of programming language.
 Organization—to adhere to a regular release cycle and maintain a disciplined community structure.
 Support—to ensure backing from other institutions beyond the GNOME community.

Applications 
GNOME has many applications written for it. Some of them include:

 Abiword - A word processor, used for writing documents
 Calculator - For doing maths
 Epiphany (software) - Internet browser
 Empathy - Internet messenger
 Ekiga - VoIP and video conferencing
 Eye of GNOME - View your picture files
 Gthumb - View your photos
 GIMP - Art and photo software
 Nautilus - File manager
 Totem - Play music and video

Related pages
 Ubuntu Linux

References

Other websites 
The GNOME website
News about GNOME

 
Linux
Desktop Environments
Blindness

Blindness is to not see anything. Some people are called blind, even though they can see a little bit. This is because they cannot see clearly, but only see unfocused shapes or colors. 

In modern countries, few young people are blind. In all the world, blindness is mostly caused by malnutrition and diseases of old people, like cataracts and trachoma. People can become blind because of diseases or accidents, but sometimes people are born blind.

Legal blindness is defined as a level of visual acuity low enough to qualify for disability benefits and\or special accommodations. Legal blindness is also defined as being unable to be completely corrected by prescription glasses or contact lenses.

Some people are color blind, which means they can see, but cannot tell certain colors apart. 

When people are blind they use such things as the alphabet in braille and guide dogs to do every day life things. 

Famous blind people have included Louis Braille, the inventor of the braille alphabet, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Helen Keller.

 Book on the history of blindness 
 Royal National Institute for the Blind 
 Scottish Sensory Centre 
 Blind Net
 Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

Disability
Vision
Sin

A sin is a bad act. Particularly, it is a bad act against another person(s), an animal, a spirit, or a god. 

In Abrahamic religions, such as Christianity and Judaism, it is an act that goes against what God wants. It turns people away from God and true happiness. In Exodus chapter 20, Moses was given the Ten Commandments by God, explaining important sins like murder and idolatry. This is not believed by all people, and not all societies have the same idea of sin.

There is a difference between sins and prohibitions. For example, Muslims and Jews say that it is wrong to eat pork, and Hindus do not eat beef. That is for them, but for others it is not wrong to eat these things.

Related pages
 Seven deadly sins

Religious terminology
Religious ethics
Summer

Summer is one of the four seasons. It is the hottest season of the year. In some places, summer is the wettest season (with the most rain), and in other places, it is a dry season. Four seasons are found in areas which are not too hot or too cold. Summer happens to the north and south sides of the Earth at opposite times of the year. In the north part of the world, summer takes place between the months of June and September, and in the south part of the world, it takes place between December and March. This is because when the north part of the Earth points towards the Sun, the south part points away.

Many people in rich countries travel in summer, to seaside resorts, beaches, camps or picnics. In some countries, they celebrate things in the summer as well as enjoying cool drinks. Other countries get snow in the summer just like winter.

 
Seasons
Month

A month is an amount of time used with calendars. It is about 1/12th of a year. It is a little longer than a natural synodic orbital period of the moon, ca. 29.5 days. Lunar calendars use the natural synodic month. For some purposes astronomers use the sidereal month of 27.3 days.

Other calendars, called "solar calendars", ignore the moon, and depend entirely on the Sun — for example, the Gregorian calendar of 365 or 366 days (12 months) used in much of the world today.

Basic English 850 words
Units of time