alibayram/wikipedia-40-langs huggingface dataset:
Soil erosion

Soil erosion is the washing or blowing away (by water or wind) of the top layer of soil (dirt). This is a serious problem for farmers.  If the soil has eroded, the crops that make food will not grow very well. 

Soil erosion was a big problem in the Midwestern United States in the 1930s dust bowl.

Erosion also leaves large sinkholes in the ground, which can weaken buildings and even cause them to collapse.   Urban areas are usually protected from soil erosion, so not many buildings collapse from erosion.

Steps for conserving soil from eroding 
Soil erosion can be conserved in several ways: 

 A wind break is a line of plants that are planted to stop or slow the wind.  A thick row of bushes or shrubs planted next to a field of crops can stop the wind from blowing the soil away.  This method also helps against water erosion, as the soil gets caught up against the roots of the bushes, rather than washing away.
 Terraces are level places that have been made on hill sides. They are used for Terrace farming.
 If the crops are growing on a slope, then one should plant them in contour lines that run across the slope, rather than up and down. So, if the slope goes downhill to the south, then the plants should be in rows that run from east to west.
 Groynes (wooden planks) along the beaches can resist erosion, or sea walls against cliffs can protect the cliffs.

Agriculture 
Soil
Compost

Compost is a type of fertilizer that is made from rotting plants. It is easy and cheap to make, as all it really requires is vegetable waste. The vegetable waste is broken down by bacteria (germs), and made into compost.

Making a compost heap 
To make a compost heap, you need some space fairly far from anyone who might have a problem with the smell. The bottom corner of a garden, or some other place a distance from the house is a good place. Compost heaps should also be placed on soil, or grass: a paved yard or concrete are bad places.
The compost heap should not be in a dark or closed corner.

The best base for a compost heap is a layer of sand, bricks or gravel about 1m long by 1m wide. This is not needed, but it can be a good idea. If using bricks, leave spaces to allow the air to move through. It also allows for the water to run away. The best compost heaps have lots of little spaces inside, to allow air to move around.

Once the first layer is down, one can begin adding the waste. 

Some good types of waste are:

Vegetable/fruit peels and scraps
Spoiled, rotten or moldy fruit
Cut grass
Leaves
Straw
Sawdust
Eggshells

Adding meat scraps is a bad idea, as they rot slowly, smell bad and attract rats and other vermin. Human or pet feces is also a very bad idea, as this can transmit disease. Waste from plants that have died of disease is also bad. The disease can spread to the plants that the compost is used with.

When making a compost heap, different types of waste should be layered. A layer of cut grass can be followed by a layer of vegetable waste and table scraps.

Watering the compost heap is a good idea, especially in dry areas. The water helps encourage the waste to rot and turn into compost.

In anywhere from 3 to 6 months, the compost will be ready. The compost is ready when it smells like thick earth, with no smell of decay or rot. Of course, if you have been adding waste all this time, the compost will all be at the bottom of the heap, and will have to be dug out.

The stuff that has not rotted can be used as part of a new compost heap.

Other websites 
The Look of Compost 
Cré, the Irish Composting Association Contains information on composting in Ireland.
Composting Basics  Canadian Gardening Magazine
An automatic composter

Fertilizers
1500s

The 1500s was a decade that started on 1 January 1500 and ended on 31 December 1509.

Events 
 People begin to make cutlery in Sheffield, England.
 Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
 Spanish arrive in present-day Gulf of Mexico
 Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil and claims the land for Portugal.
1880



Births 
 January 29 – W.C. Fields, American comedian

Events 
 Volapük created.

Deaths 
 Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger (b. 1854)
1864

1864 was a leap year starting on Friday using the Gregorian calendar. It was a leap year starting on Wednesday using the Julian calendar.

Events
 May 5 - American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness starts in Virginia.
 August 21 - American Civil War: In the Lawrence Massacre, Confederates attack the town of Lawrence, Kansas and kill 150 people.
 September 1 - The Charlottetown Conference starts.
 November 25 - The book Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne is published.

Date unknown
 Fort Baker is built near Las Vegas, Nevada.
 Father Damien goes to Hawaii.
 The Great Central Fair is held in June in Philadelphia.
 Ponsonby's Column is destroyed by lightning.

Births
 January 16 - Frank Bacon, American actor
 May 5 - Nellie Bly, American journalist
 June 14 - Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist

Deaths
 May 19 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American writer
 December 31 - George M. Dallas, 11th Vice President of the United States
Hodgenville, Kentucky

Hodgenville is a town in the American state of Kentucky. It is the county seat of Larue County. It is most famous as the birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln. A memorial featuring a replica (copy) of the cabin Lincoln was born in is near the town.

Cities in Kentucky
County seats in Kentucky
LaRue County, Kentucky
46 BC

Year 46 BC was the last year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Lepidus.

Events
 Titus Labienus defeated Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina.
 Julius Caesar defeated the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians at Thapsus.
 Caesar leaves for Farther Hispania to deal with rebellion in Rome.
 Caesar changes the Roman calendar to create the Julian calendar. The Julian Calendar remains the standard in the western world until the Gregorian Calendar in 1582.
 Caesar appoints his nephew Octavian his heir.

Births

 Publius Quinctilius Varus, Roman politician (d. 9 AD)

Deaths 

Cato the Younger (Marcus Porcius Cato) (b. 95 BC)
Metellus Scipio (b. c. 100 BC)
Vercingetorix, Gaul leader
Winter storm

Winter storms or snowstorms happen when warm, wet air meets with cold air. The warm, wet air mass and the cold air mass can each be  or more in diameter. Snowstorms affecting Northeastern United States often get their moisture from air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico and cold air from air masses coming down from the Arctic. In the Northwest United States warm, wet air from the Pacific Ocean cools when it is pushed upward by the mountains. Many different things can affect the direction of movement, moisture content and temperature of air masses. All of these differences affect the type and severity of the snowstorm.

Winter storms and blizzards can make several meters of snow that blow into big drifts. Sometimes the drifts can be over  tall. They could even cover a house.

History 
Lots of popular winter storms are part of North America's history. In 1846 the Donner Party traveled away by covered wagons from Illinois headed for Sutter's Fort near Sacramento, California. As an answer of bad decisions and slow going, they tried to go across the big Sierra Nevada Mountains in the late October. Usually, California is still warm at that time of the year. As the party crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains, they did not see any snow and was not worried.
However, after they left, a huge snowstorm hit. The party was forced to camp near Truckee, California. The snow was so deep that the wagon wheels became stuck, so they could not move anyplace. They tried to wait the storm out, but when one blizzard ended, another began immediately before they had time to escape.
Their food became short, so some of the people decided to hike out and find help rather than to starve to death. Most of them died in the freezing weather, and many of those who stayed behind in the camp survived. Of the 87 people who started in Illinois, only 47 lived.

References 

Severe weather
Natural events
Reptile

Reptile is the common name for one of the main groups of land vertebrates. It is not used so much by biologists, who use more accurate terms.

The name "reptile" comes from Latin and means "one who creeps". All living reptile species are cold blooded, have scaly skin, and lay cleidoic eggs. They excrete uric acid (instead of urea), and have a cloaca. A cloaca is a shared opening for the anus, urinary tract and reproductive ducts. Reptiles also share an arrangement of the heart and major blood vessels which is different from that of mammals. Birds have all of these features.

Many important groups of reptiles are now extinct, for example the mosasaurs. We used to say the dinosaurs were extinct, but they survive in the form of their feathered descendants (birds). Ancient reptiles that do survive include the turtles, the crocodiles and the Tuatara, the lone survivor of its group. The great majority of present-day reptiles are snakes and lizards.

The study of living reptiles is called herpetology.

Birds in relation to reptiles
Some reptiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles. Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards. Theropod dinosaurs are even more closely related, because birds evolved from them.

Cladistic writers prefer to put the birds (over 10,000 species) with what people usually call reptiles. (see Sauropsida)

Taxonomy
Reptilia is an evolutionary grade rather than a clade. The main reason is that the term 'reptile' does not include birds, the descendents of theropod dinosaurs. Another reason is that the word 'reptile' is misleading because many extinct types were very different from living reptiles.

So instead of Reptilia as a taxonomic class, today many experts use Class Sauropsida (which includes all reptiles and birds, living and extinct). Class Synapsida includes mammals and all their forebears. Reptile is still the usual informal term to describe living snakes and lizards. Mammals are a genuine clade, and so Mammalia is still the taxonomic term.

Since reptiles are not monophyletic, reclassifying them is one of the key aims of researchers. Some taxonomists, such as Benton, make Sauropsida and Synapsida class-level taxa. The two groups split in the Carboniferous, from stem-group Amniotes (the early tetrapods, which laid cleidoic eggs).

Eye feature
A membrane forms an inner eyelid in reptiles and birds. Whitish or translucent, it can be drawn across the eye to protect it from dust and keep it moist. It is called the nictitating membrane.

Size 
Reptiles can live in large and small sizes. Their land sizes can be both bigger and smaller than mammals. Titanosaurs were the largest land reptiles, and the smallest land reptile is a chameleon 13.5mm long.

Living reptiles 
 Reptiles (living groups only)
 Order Crocodilia (crocodiles, gavials, caimans, and alligators): 23 species
 Order Sphenodontia (Tuatara from New Zealand): 2 species
 Order Squamata (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenids ("worm-lizards"): about 7,000 species.
 Order Testudines (turtles, tortoises, and terrapins): approximately 300 species

References
Western world

Western world has meant various things at various times. In the earliest history of Europe, it referred to Ancient Greece and the Aegean. During the Roman Empire, it meant the Western Roman Empire (covering the area from Croatia to Britain). At other times, it has meant Western Europe or Europe or Christendom. During the Cold War, it sometimes meant the democratic countries or those allied with the various NATO powers.

In this day and age, it often refers to the places that have a European cultural heritage, called Western civilization. This European heritage itself is a combination of Judeo-Christian ethic, classical Greco-Roman thinking and the cultural practices of the "barbarian" peoples of Northern Europe. Under the strictest definition, it would include North America, Australia and Western/Central Europe: with the identities of Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, Singapore, Israel and South Africa being disputed due to the mix of both Western and non-Western cultures.

Related pages 
 Eastern world

Cultural geography
Political geography
Mouse

A mouse (plural mice) is a small rodent, which is a kind of mammal.  
It has a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail and a high breeding rate. Most belong to the mus genus. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (Mus musculus). Usually, house mice are brownish-gray. It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. They are known to invade homes for food and occasionally shelter.

These small animals are often used in science experiments, or sometimes kept as pets. Some mice carry diseases. In some places they damage crops. This causes some people to think of mice as vermin or pests. Many other people think mice are cute and fun animals. 

Mice are rodents, therefore they are related to squirrels, rats, and beavers. Mice eat weeds, seeds, berries, and more. They are eaten by owls, foxes, snakes, weasels, and cats, amongst others.

Types of mice 
The word "mouse" should only be used for small murines, but does get used for other distantly-related small rodents. The murines are the largest subfamily of mammals. In fact, it is larger than almost all mammal orders.

House mouse 

The common house mouse is thought of as a pest.  They are found in the homes of humans.

Vole 

Voles are not mice, they are in a different family of rodents.

Deer mouse 
These are not mice either, or only distantly related. These mice live in forests. They can run and jump better than mice, and they get their common name from this.

The aggressive grasshopper mouse rarely eats other mice, but it does like grasshoppers and insects. It is also only a distant relative.

Mice in media 
Anthropomorphism makes cartoon mice look and act more like people than like real mice.  For example, the Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse walk, talk, and act like people.  Jerry, the mouse star of Tom and Jerry cartoons, is similarly humanized.

References 

Old World rats and mice
Advance Wars

Advance Wars is a video game for the Game Boy Advance. It is based on earlier games for Nintendo systems such as the Famicom and Game Boy. It is a strategy game: players must think of ways to win.

The game can be played with two, three, or four players at a time. Each player takes turns controlling their military-style playing pieces, called "units." Every unit can move along the playing field, which is split up into squares. The amount of squares a unit can move in one turn is different for each unit.

Most units can attack other units. Each unit has its own strength and defense. Strength is how much damage the unit can do to another unit. Defense is how much damage it can avoid taking whenever it is attacked. For example, the tank unit has more defense than the soldier, so even though the helicopter always has the same amount of attacking power, it can do more damage to the soldier than the tank.

References

2001 video games
Game Boy Advance-only games
Intelligent Systems games
Wars series
Intestine

The intestines, divided into the small intestine and the large intestine, of an animal are like a tube through which food and bile from the stomach move.

The first part of the small intestine is called the duodenum, where most food is broken down by enzymes. Later, the small intestine absorbs useful compounds from the digested food, which is done using small villi or tiny microvilli  - hair-like structures in the walls of the intestine.

The large intestine, also called the bowel, absorbs water and any other nutrients, as well as vitamins made by the gut flora in the colon. Finally, waste is expelled through the anus.

References 

Anatomy of the digestive system
Lucifer

Lucifer is another name for Satan. This is because people interpret a passage in the Book of Isaiah of the Bible in a certain way. Lucifer is Latin. It is made of two parts, lux-lucis (light) and ferre (to bring).
There are two mentions of Lucifer in the Latin Vulgate. is used to refer to the morning star, the planet Venus that appears at dawn: once in  to translate the Greek word "Φωσφόρος" (Phosphoros), which has exactly the same literal meaning of "Light-Bringer" that "Lucifer" has in Latin; and once in  to translate "הילל" (Hêlēl), which also means "Morning Star".

Latin name for the Morning Star

Lucifer is the Latin name for the "Morning Star", both in prose and poetry, as seen in works by Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), Cicero (106-43 BC) and other early Latin writers

Cicero wrote:
Stella Veneris, quae Φωσφόρος Graece, Latine dicitur Lucifer, cum antegreditur solem, cum subsequitur autem Hesperos

The star of Venus, called Φωσφόρος in Greek and Lucifer in Latin when it precedes, Hesperos when it follows the sun.

And Pliny the Elder:
sidus appellatum Veneris … ante matutinum exoriens Luciferi nomen accipit … contra ab occasu refulgens nuncupatur Vesper

The star called Venus … when it rises in the morning is given the name Lucifer … but when it shines at sunset it is called Vesper

Poets also used the word "Lucifer". Ovid has at least eleven mentions of the Morning Star in his poetry.  Virgil wrote: 
Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura 
carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent

Let us hasten, when first the Morning Star appears, 
To the cool pastures, while the day is new, while the grass is dewy

And Statius:
et iam Mygdoniis elata cubilibus altoimpulerat caelo gelidas Aurora tenebras, 
rorantes excussa comas multumque sequentisole rubens; illi roseus per nubila seras
aduertit flammas alienumque aethera tardoLucifer exit equo, donec pater igneus orbem
impleat atque ipsi radios uetet esse sorori

And now Aurora rising from her Mygdonian couch had driven the cold darkness on from high in the heavens, shaking out her dewy hair, her face blushing red at the pursuing sun – from him roseate Lucifer averts his fires lingering in the clouds and with reluctant horse leaves the heavens no longer his, until the blazing father make full his orb and forbid even his sister her beams

Lucifer as Devil character of the Bible
Lucifer is the epitome of evil in the Christian religion. Lucifer is believed by some to be Satan's name when he was still an angel, but it is Latin for 'light bringer' and not originally in the Bible. 
The word Lucifer was also used in Latin to mean the "morningstar", the planet Venus, and this word was used in the Latin version of Isaiah 14, where the Hebrew version was speaking to a king of Babylonia.

References

Demons
Astrobiology

Astrobiology is the study of life in outer space. The field of astrobiology looks for conditions necessary for life, such as liquid water or a similar substitute, a good temperature, or the presence of oxygen.

Some possible places to find life in the solar system are Europa, Ganymede, moons of Jupiter, or Titan and Enceladus, both moons of Saturn. Some of these places may have liquid water, or, in the case of Titan, hydrocarbons that could support a different type of life. They may be too cold to support life on their surfaces, but if they have liquid water, the water must be warm enough to support life. Astrobiologists suggest that there may be a liquid water ocean under their surfaces.

Related pages

 Abiogenesis
 Astronomy
 Earliest known life forms
 Extraterrestrial life
 Extraterrestrial sky
 Panspermia

References

Other websites 
 Astrobiology.nasa.gov
 Spanish Centro de Astrobiología
 UK Centre for Astrobiology
 Astrobiology Research at The Library of Congress
 Astrobiology Survey – An introductory course on astrobiology

Branches of biology
Astrobiology
Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons is a website owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, based on a wiki. Anybody can upload images, sounds, videos, and other multimedia files to the website. The files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons can be used by any other Wikimedia Foundation project, like Wikipedia or Wiktionary. For example, Wikipedia uses images on Wikimedia Commons to include pictures in their encyclopedia articles. The files can also be freely used by anyone else because they have free licenses.

Wikimedia Commons has categories, which are groups of files that have something in common or similar. For example, there is a category for pictures of cats. Wikimedia Commons is a multilingual website, meaning that it can be used in every language. However, some parts of Wikimedia Commons are only in English, like names of categories.

Wikimedia Commons also has sound files. Not all of these are music. For example, there are recordings that read words out loud. These files are used in Wiktionary, a free dictionary, to teach people how to say words.

For every file on Wikimedia Commons, the person who made it has to let everybody use it and change it as much as they want, including companies (see Creative Commons).

Wikimedia Commons reached 10 million files on April 15, 2011.

Improvements 
The Wikimedia Foundation was given money to make it easier for people to use their websites. They used some of this money to make the UploadWizard, a new system for uploading files on Wikimedia Commons. People started using the UploadWizard in December 2010.

The UploadWizard also teaches new uploaders about copyright law.  It has a tutorial for users to read so that they can check if the file they are uploading is violating copyright.  Most uploads are by the UploadWizard.

Before, Wikimedia Commons only let people upload one file at a time. The UploadWizard lets people upload multiple files at the same time and include all the required information about each one.

Logo 
The logo of Wikimedia Commons has a red circle inside a blue circle. There are many small blue arrows pointing from the blue circle to the red circle in the middle, and one big blue arrow pointing upwards. The small blue arrows represent the different projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. The large arrow is to show that Wikimedia Commons is constantly improving.

This logo was chosen in a vote in 2004.

References

Other websites 
 Wikimedia Commons
 Simple English version of the Main Page
 2004 logo vote

Wikimedia
Wikis
Free content
Websites established in 2004
Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes in North America, but its maximum depth (802ft; 244m) is deeper than lake Erie's (210ft) and Lake Huron's (750ft). 

It forms most of the border between Ontario in Canada and New York in the United States of America. Its inlet is the Niagara River (from Niagara Falls), and its outlet is the Saint Lawrence River. Nearly 9 million Canadians live near Lake Ontario. It is the only Great Lake that does not touch the U.S. state of Michigan, the "Great Lakes State".

Great Lakes
Lakes of Canada
Geography of Ontario
Lake Superior

Lake Superior is a lake in Canada and the United States. 

The Ojibwe Native Americans call it Gitchigume. Lake Superior is in between Ontario and Minnesota to the north and Wisconsin and Michigan in the south, and is the largest of North America's Great Lakes. It is the world's third largest lake, and the world's largest freshwater lake (by area). Its outlet is the St. Marys River to Lake Huron. The Soo Locks allow carrying large amounts of iron ore and other cargo to the other Great Lakes.

Over 80 species of fish live in Lake Superior.

Great Lakes
Lakes of Canada
Geography of Ontario
Lakes of the United States
SS Edmund Fitzgerald

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an ore carrier on Lake Superior, carrying iron ore, which sank on November 10, 1975, at around 7:30 p.m. The ship was known for being the biggest of its time, weighing in at around 13,600 tons. The Edmund Fitzgerald was one of the largest "iron boats" working the Great Lakes. Nobody knows how the boat sank; however, it is very possible that the dangerously high weight of its cargo and the violent winds and waves caused the ship to sink. All 29 men aboard the boat died, and to this day, no bodies have been recovered. To remember the men on the S.S. Fitzgerald, a song was written by the Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot and titled The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The song describes the ship itself and touches on some theories on how it may have sunk; interestingly enough, the original song contained the following passage:

 When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya. At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in. He said Fellas, it's been good to know ya

This passage was proven to be false as a dive team sent in to recover the bodies found the main hatch to be in perfect condition. When informed of this, Gordon Lightfoot rewrote the verse to: 

 When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya. At 7 p.m., it grew dark, it was then he said, Fellas it's been good to know ya.

References

Other websites 
 News story from CBC
 SS Edmund Fitzgerald Online 

Ships of Canada
Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) was a Canadian singer and songwriter. He is famous around the world for his folk, country, and pop music songs. He was first heard in the 1960s. He had hit radio songs in the 1970s including "If You Could Read My Mind", "Sundown", "Carefree Highway", "Rainy Day People" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

Some of his songs have been recorded by other famous singers including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Barbra Streisand and Tony Rice.

Robbie Robertson of the Canadian music group called the Band said Lightfoot was his "favourite Canadian songwriter".

Lightfoot's music career lasted sixty years. He recorded more than 200 songs. His folk music of the 1960s and 1970s influenced many famous singers including Bob Dylan and Jim Croce. Like Robertson, Bob Dylan called Lightfoot one of his favourite songwriters.

Awards
In his career, Lightfoot received sixteen Juno Awards. He won Junos as top folk singer in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977. He won a Juno as top male vocalist in 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973 And he won in 1972 and 1976 for being composer of the year.

Lightfoot received ASCAP awards for songwriting in 1971, 1974, 1976 and 1977.

Lightfoot was nominated for five Grammy Awards.

In 1980, Lightfoot was named Canadian Male Recording Artist of the Decade for his music of the 1970s.

Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986. He was added to Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998. He was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

In May 2003, Lightfoot was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, which is one of Canada's highest awards.

Death
Lightfoot died at a hospital in Toronto on May 1, 2023. He was 84 years old.

Music 
1966 Lightfoot!
1967 The Way I Feel
1968 Did She Mention My Name
1968 Back Here on Earth
1969 Sunday Concert'
1970 Sit Down Young Stranger1971 Summer Side of Life1972 Don Quixote1972 Old Dan's Records1974 Sundown1975 Cold on the Shoulder1976 Summertime Dream1978 Endless Wire1980 Dream Street Rose1982 Shadows1983 Salute1986 East of Midnight1993 Waiting for You1998 A Painter Passing Through2004 Harmony2012 All Live2020 Solo''

Notes

Other websites 
Lightfoot.ca (official site)
Order of Canada Citation 
Lightfoot page at Canadian Encyclopedia 
CBC Digital Archives: Gordon Lightfoot: Canada's Folk Laureate
Clips and more about Gordon from CBC
Additional clips

1938 births
2023 deaths
Canadian pop musicians
Canadian singer-songwriters
Canadian guitarists
Musicians from Ontario
Folk musicians
Country musicians
Warner Bros. Records artists
Chameleon

Chameleons are a family of lizards. Most can change the colour of their skins for camouflage, or to signal mood to other chameleons. 

They are a distinct clade of lizards. They have parrot-like zygodactylous feet, Their eyes are separately mobile and stereoscopic. Their very long tongues can flick out, and their movement sways like leaves in the wind. Their prehensile (grabbing) tail can hang onto branches and many can change colour. They eat insects.

There are about 160 species, living in Africa, Madagascar, Spain and Portugal, across south Asia, Sri Lanka. They have been introduced to Hawaii, California and Florida, and are found in warm habitats that vary from rain forest to desert conditions. Chameleons are often kept as household pets.

Chameleons have long sticky tongues that they can fire out in a fraction of a second. They stretch up to twice their body size. Their eyes can move independently. The largest species is about 1.5 feet when fully grown. They are mainly insectivores, but larger species may take occasional smaller lizards and young birds.

Tiny chameleons 
The world's tiniest reptile has been found on Madagascar.  It is a chameleon 13.5mm long. It hunts for mites on the rainforest floor and hides from predators at night in blades of grass. Other species of tiny chameleons have been found.

Vision 

Chameleons have 360-degree eye-turning, the ability to zoom in and out, and binocular vision.

Each of the chameleon's eyes can move separately, allowing them to see all around them at all times. 

Chameleons have two eyes whose vision overlaps. This gives them  3D vision. They can switch to monocular vision, which is seeing with each eye independently. This gives them more flexible sight.

In popular fiction 

 In Disney's Tangled (2010 movie), the main character, Rapunzel, has a green chameleon named Pascal 
 In Rango (2011 movie), the main character, voiced by Johnny Depp, is a chameleon

References

Other websites 

 Chameleons! Online E-zine 
 Chameleon Care and Information Center website
 The Chameleon Forums
Interjection

An interjection is a spoken or written expression of emotion like "Wow!" for surprise, "Ouch!" for pain, or "Damn!" for anger, or "Argh!" for frustration. These phrases can stand alone, and are usually capitalized and punctuated.

Related pages 
Exclamation mark

Parts of speech
Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States. He was president from 1850 to 1853. He was the last Whig president, and the last president who was not a Democrat or Republican.

Fillmore became president in 1850 when the previous president, Zachary Taylor, died. The Whig party did not pick him to run for president in 1852. He ran for president in 1856 for the American Party but lost.

Early life
Millard Fillmore grew up in a poor family. He worked hard to do well in school, and went to college. He got a job as a lawyer in 1823. In 1828 he was voted to be part of the New York congress, and made friends in the Whig Party. This helped him get chosen to run for vice president in 1848.

Presidency
When he was vice president, Millard Fillmore was in charge of the United States Senate while it was fighting over a decision about slavery involving Texas and New Mexico.

When he became president, the slavery issue was very intense (to the point where the southern states were close to choosing to not be a part of the United States anymore).

Fillmore signed the Compromise of 1850 (five laws which would calm down the slavery issue by pleasing both the northern states and the southern states). Although the Compromise of 1850 made the northern states and the southern states get along, the peace did not last forever. In the late 1850s, the north and the south stopped getting along.

California was made a part of the U.S. on September 9, 1850. It became the 31st state.

His decision to sign the Compromise of 1850 made many of the people in his Whig Party upset at him. They stopped him from running for president in 1852.

He started the first library at the White House.

After being president 

After Fillmore, Franklin Pierce became the 14th president. Fillmore got a job in charge of the University of Buffalo. Fillmore joined the Know-Nothing Party and tried to run for president again, but the Know Nothing Party was not very successful. He died in Buffalo New York of a stroke at age 74

There is a statue of Millard Fillmore at City Hall in Buffalo, New York.

References

Other websites
 Fillmore's White House biography

1800 births
1874 deaths
Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage
 
Presidents of the United States
United States representatives from New York (state)
Lawyers from New York (state)
Deaths from cerebral infarction
Deaths from stroke
Politicians from Buffalo, New York
Unitarians
Whig Party (United States) politicians
19th-century American politicians
American mayors
Peter Davison

Peter Davison (born Peter Moffett 13 April 1951) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Tristan on All Creatures Great and Small, and as the Fifth Doctor on Doctor Who from 1981 to 1984.

1951 births
Living people

English television actors
Ballerina

A ballerina is a name given to a female ballet dancer. Only very good female ballet dancers are called ballerinas. A ballerina is a principal dancer in a classical ballet company. The highest ranking female dancer in a company was usually called the prima ballerina.

Today the term 'ballerina' has gone rather out of fashion. Now they are simply called 'Principal dancers'. Dancers in a company are ranked by the company, and paid accordingly. They have to prove themselves in lesser parts before they can get promoted. 

Example of the ranks in a modern dance company:

Corps de ballet (these do not dance named individual parts)
Coryphées (minor soloists)
Principal character artists (dance roles with significant acting)
Second soloists (dancers who take named solo roles)
First soloists (one rank up from the previous)
Principal dancers (if female, same as 'ballerinas'; they dance leading roles)
Principal guest artist (a well-known and sometimes famous dancer, usually from abroad)

References 

Ballet
Entertainment occupations
Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is a city in the U.S. state of New York. Buffalo is the second-biggest city in New York State. 

There are about 278,000 people in the city of Buffalo. There are more than a million people in the surrounding area.

Buffalo is on the east end of Lake Erie near the Niagara River. It is close to Niagara Falls, and to Canada. Buffalo was a small village when the Erie Canal connected it to the Hudson River and New York City. It became a city.

Sports
Buffalo has an NFL team called the Buffalo Bills (who play in the suburb of Orchard Park, NY) and an NHL team called the Buffalo Sabres. There is also a Minor League Baseball team called the Buffalo Bisons.

Gallery

 
County seats in New York (state)
1394



Events

 Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales.

Births 
 November 24 – Charles, Duke of Orléans, French poet
Hertford

Hertford (pronounced Hart-fud) is a town in Hertfordshire, England. In 2011, it had a population of 26,783 people.

It is Hertfordshire's county town, but the largest town is Watford.

The town centre is 19.2 miles (30.9 km) north of Central London and 16.7 miles (27.02 km) north east of Watford.

Transport

Rail
Hertford is served by two train stations, these are Hertford East and Hertford North.

Road
The A414 is just south of the town centre and runs to Harlow, Essex. The A10 is just east of the town.

Twin towns
Hertford is twinned with:
 Évron, France
 Wildeshausen, Germany
 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.

Gallery

County towns in England
Towns in Hertfordshire
Ron Weasley

Ronald Bilius "Ron" Weasley (1981-?) is a fictional character from the Harry Potter stories.

Story 
He is a red-haired child with lots of freckles. He comes from a poor background. He lives at The Burrow with his family of nine people. He is the youngest son in his family. He was a humorous and loyal boy. He wishes he had money, since he was born from the notoriously poor Weasley family. He is the sixth of seven children born to Molly Weasley (née Prewett) and Arthur Weasley, with five brothers and one sister, Ginny. He is Harry Potter's best friend. 
It is revealed in later books, that Ron is romantically interested in Hermione Granger. The two are hinted to be romantically involved in the Deathly Hallows. 

In movies, he is played by actor Rupert Grint.  Ron marries Hermione and they have two children: Rose Weasley and Hugo Weasley. He is the manager of the joke shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

References 

Fictional characters introduced in 1997
Harry Potter characters
Hermione Granger

Hermione Jean Granger (born September 19, 1979) is a character from the Harry Potter series. She met Harry Potter and Ron Weasley  for the first time on the Hogwarts Express. She was then looking for Neville's toad. She is referred to as the smartest witch of her age. In the Harry Potter movies, the character is played by Emma Watson.

Character 
Hermione is one of Harry Potter's best friends. She knows nearly every thing in the magical world. She spends a lot of time with Harry and Ron. Her parents are Muggles (not magical) but she is the brightest witch of her class. She was born on September 19, 1979 and when she arrived at Hogwarts for the very first time, she was almost 12, since she was born after September 1st, she has to wait a year later. Her parents are dentists. She is intelligent and her special skill is the ability to remember all that she has read. Because of this, Hermione is successful in her tests. Although she is smart, she also is brave and has street-smarts. She cares about house-elves  and has made the club S.P.E.W., the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, which Ron mockingly calls "Spew." She made scarfs and garments to liberate the elves of the slavery of the wizards. But none of the elves took the garments and Dobby (the old house elf of the Malfoy family) gathered them.  She is one of the prefects of Gryffindor with Ron. Her appearance is made up of bushy brown hair, dark brown eyes, and huge front teeth, which Draco Malfoy enlarged it in her fourth year. It is also noted at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that she marries Ron and they have two children together called Rose and Hugo, to which the children has taken after their parents' initials. Although in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire she was the dance partner of Viktor Krum. She belongs to Gryffindor house, which is known for bravery. The Sorting Hat thought about putting her in Ravenclaw house, which is known for wisdom, but finally it put her in Gryffindor. Hermione has a pet cat named Crookshanks, which Ron told her it was like a hairy pig.

In the first book Hermione had the personality of a snob, and a geek, and she is not very friendly but with the time she improves that. Hermione was teased as Mudblood (Witch/ Wizard born with no Magical parents, also known as an offensive insult on Muggle Born Witch/ Wizard) by many Slytherins, especially Draco Malfoy. Her name refers to The Winter's Tale, by William Shakespeare, and was the daughter of Helen of Troy from Ancient Greek Mythology.

Hermione Granger is in love with Ron Weasley and has 2 kids called Hugo Granger-Weasley and Rose Granger-Weasley

References

Fictional characters introduced in 1997
Harry Potter characters
Milk shake

A milk shake, or milkshake, is a cold drink made by mixing milk, ice cream, and sweet syrups like chocolate syrup. Usually a blender is used for the mixing. People usually drink milkshakes with a drinking straw and from a tall glass or cup.

Comparison between smoothies and milkshakes 
Milk shakes are similar to smoothies. Smoothies are a type of cold drink made with an electric blender. Smoothies are made with a liquid (either milk, fruit juice, or water), crushed ice or ice cubes, different fruits, and honey or maple syrup.

In popular culture 
Milk shakes and other cold drinks such as "ice cream floats" (a scoop of ice cream placed in a glass of cola or other carbonated soda drink) or "malts" (a milk shake with malt powder added to it) were popular among teenagers in the 1950s. Teenagers would go to ice cream parlors and order cold drinks.

Dairy products
Ice cream
American food
Bollington

Bollington is a town and civil parish in Cheshire. The village is home to over twenty pubs.  Bollington was home to the biggest water wheel in England and only second in Britain to the Laxey wheel in the Isle of Man. The wheel powered huge mills for the production of cotton. Two of the huge mills were the Adelphi and Clarence.

By 1914 Bollington had a population of around 6000 people and was dominated by fine cotton spinning. The symbol of Bollington has to be White Nancy. A small white cone-like house stands alone on top of a hill overlooking all of Bollington. It was built by the Gaskell family early in the nineteenth century. It has now been sealed. 

Sport has been important in the life of Bollington. Even though the village did not have a football team successful enough to rival the cricket team it was still very popular amongst the people of Bollington. The most popular team was St Johns team which was quite successful in the lower leagues. Today there are good teams competing in the amateur leagues such as Bollington United.

Towns in Cheshire
Civil parishes in England
Cytoplasm

The cytoplasm (not to be confused with cytosol) is the protoplasm of a cell outside the cell nucleus. It is the jelly-like material plus the organelles outside the nucleus, and inside the cell membrane. 

Many important functions of a cell take place in organelles, which are like bits of machinery for doing many jobs. The cytoplasm is highly structured: it is not liquidy, but more of a gelatinous substance, even though it is made out of 7580% water. 

The cytosol contains a complex mixture of cytoskeleton filaments, including the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus. It includes dissolved molecules, and water that fills much of the cell. Due to this network of fibres, membranes and the many dissolved macromolecules such as proteins, the cytosol does not act like a simple liquid. The main function of the cytoplasm is to hold the organelles in place.

Cells
Saladin

Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadhi (25 December 1138–1193), better known as Saladin, was a famous Kurdish Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria during the Crusades. 

A Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin led the Muslim opposition to the European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen and other parts of North Africa.

His father, who worked for the Seljuk governor, decided to raise him in Syria where he received his education. Another influential figure in his life was his uncle Shirkuh who was a military leader and later commanded for Saladin during the wars. The Muslim world consider him a hero for defeating the Crusaders over 20 years of battles and capturing their capital, Jerusalem. The Crusades were a series of battles between Christian Europe and Islamic Middle East over holy land in what is now known as Palestine. Saladin’s army protected Egypt from the Crusaders in 1168.  

The ruler of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt made him Vizier, meaning prime minister, even though he was not a Shia. Just before the Caliph died, Saladin was crowned Sultan of Egypt and Syria. His greatest victory was at the Horns of Hattin in July 1187 AD, after which Jerusalem fell to the Muslim army (October 1187) and was never again recovered by the Crusaders. He is also remembered for his series of battles and wins and losses against King Richard I of England. These were inconclusive and in the end resulted in a moral victory for Sultan Salah ad-Din, when Richard's Crusade failed and returned to Europe.

He founded the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt, Syria, Yemen (except for the Northern Mountains), Iraq, Mecca Hejaz and Diyarbakır. Salah ad-Din is a title which translates to The Righteousness of the Faith from Arabic.

Many books were written about Saladin, the things he did and the battles he won. Daastaan Imaan Farooshoon Ki is one book in Urdu written by Althamash that says very good things about Saladin and compares and contrasts him to other kings and princes, in a favourable light.

References

1138 births
1193 deaths
Crusades
Kurdish people
Muslims
1889



Events 
 Brazil becomes a republic
 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Paris Exhibition, where the Eiffel tower was first open to the public
 June 14 – the Treaty of Berlin (1889) is signed

Births 
 April 9 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist
 September 14 – Maria Esther de Capovilla, Worlds oldest woman (d. 2006)
 Alfonso Reyes
 April 20 – Adolf Hitler
 December 3 - Kshudiram Bose - Indian patriot against British Raj (d. 1908)
1877

1877 was a common year.

Events 

 Asaph Hall discovers the two moons of Mars.

Births 
 October 29 – Wilfred Rhodes, English cricketer
 November 9 – Muhammad Iqbal, national poet of Pakistan (d. 1938)
 Khan Sahib Abdul Majid Khan Tarin, OBE, British Indian judge, legislator and philanthropist (d. 1939)
 November 24 – Alben W. Barkley, 35th Vice President of the United States (d. 1956)

Deaths 
 October 29 – Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan
1860



Events 
 October 6 – The Introduction of the so-called Section 377 of the British Indian penal code (Law) was enacted on the 6th of October, in British India respectively.

Births 
 January 29 – Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (d. 1904)
 May 29 – Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (d. 1909)
 August 13 – Annie Oakley, American sharpshooter (d. 1926)
 December 7 – Joseph Cook, 6th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1947)
Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is the collective, name of three big waterfalls on the Niagara River in eastern North America, on the border between the United States and Canada. The three waterfalls are: the Horseshoe Falls, sometimes called the Canadian Falls, the American Falls, and the smaller Bridal Veil Falls. The American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls are separated with Goat Island, and the Bridal Veil Falls separated from the other waterfalls with Luna Island. Niagara falls is very well known for both its beauty and hydroelectric power. It has been a tourist attraction, commercial site and hydroelectricity source since the 19th century.

It is located near Niagara Falls, New York in the United States and Niagara Falls, Ontario in Canada.The volume of water approaching the falls during peak flow season may sometimes be as much as 225,000 cubic feet (6,400 m3) per second. The cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, and Niagara Falls, New York, United States, are connected by two international bridges.

Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age). Water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and the Atlantic Ocean. The Escarpment has hard limestone on top and soft shale below.

Although not very high, Niagara Falls is very wide, and is probably the most popular waterfall in the world. The Horseshoe Falls are the largest out of the three falls. It is named the Horseshoe Falls because it looks like a horse shoe. 

Niagara Falls is a very popular tourist destination and many people visit it on holiday in Canada.

Gallery

Related pages

 Iguaçu Falls

Waterfalls
Bodies of water of North America
Bodies of water of the United States
Geography of Ontario
1831

1831 was a common year.

Events 
 June 13 – James Clerk Maxwell born in Edinburgh
 October 30 – In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped slave Nat Turner is captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in United States history.
1842

1842 was a common year.

Art, music, theatre, literature 
 March 26 - August Bournonville's Napoli is first performed in Copenhagen by the Royal Danish Ballet

Births 
 January 11 – William James, American philosopher and psychologist
 September 21 – Abdul Hamid II, 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

Deaths 
 October 30 – Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet and writer.
Custard

Custard is a kind of food prepared with milk and eggs. Custard can be the dessert or its sauce.

Custard is an important part of dessert recipes from many countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Australia,  and Malaysia.

Desserts