alibayram/wikipedia-40-langs huggingface dataset:
Banana republic

A banana republic is a politically unstable country whose economy depends on the export of one product in limited supply, such as agricultural products like bananas or minerals. A banana republic has social classes that are divided by wealth. These include a large, poor working class and a small ruling class (elite) made up of the businessmen, politicians, and the military. The ruling class controls and exploits the country's economy. 

Characteristics of a Banana Republic

The way the phrase banana republic is used has evolved since it was introduced more than a century ago. It is no longer limited to countries in Central America or the tropics. Key characteristics of a banana republic in the modern world include:
 Widespread government corruption
 Tyrannical government
 Unstable government
 Civil unrest 
 Coup attempts/insurgency
 Economic dependency on exporting a limited natural resource (which may or may not be bananas)
 Infrastructure owned/supported by out-of-country interests
 Overall economic dependency on foreign investment or business entities
 Widespread poverty
 Significant stratification of social classes
 Enormous gap between the haves and have nots
 Lack of a middle class

Examples of Banana Republics

In the modern world, whether or not a country could accurately be described as a banana republic government is a matter of opinion. A number of countries have been described as banana republics at some point.

 Bangladesh
 United States
 Botswana
 Costa Rica
 Colombia
 Cuba
 Guatemala
 Honduras
 Nicaragua
 Nigeria
 Panama
 Zambia

A country that at some point might exhibit all of the characteristics of a banana republic could change, which would mean that the term would no longer apply. The fact that someone refers to a country as a banana republic does not mean that the country really is one. The phrase is a derogatory description rather than an actual type of government.

Related pages
 Puppet state

References

Country classifications
Banana Republic

Banana Republic is a clothing and accessories retailer. The retailer is owned by Gap Inc.. The restaurant was created by both Mel and Patricia Ziegler in 1978. The first store they opened was a two-store safari and travel themed clothing company. Banana Republic was acquired by The Gap, Inc. in 1983 and was rebranded as a mainstream luxury clothing retailer.

Since the end of Q1 2011, there are 642 stores in operation in 32 countries, shipped to 20 countries through company owned websites, and they had the ability to ship to more than 50 countries through a 3rd party.

References

Other websites
Official website

1978 establishments in California
American clothing companies
Companies based in San Francisco
Kingdom of Holland

The Kingdom of Holland was a country that existed from 1806 to 1810. It was in Central and North Netherlands and East Friesland in Germany. It was a puppet state created by France. The king of Holland was Louis Bonaparte.

Related pages
Holland

Former monarchies of Europe
19th-century establishments in the Netherlands
19th-century disestablishments in the Netherlands
1806 establishments in Europe
1810 disestablishments
Puppet states
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

Victor Emmanuel III (11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947) was king of Italy from 29 July 1900 to 9 May 1946. He was the son and successor of King Umberto I. He was a member of the House of Savoy.

Early life
Victor was born in Naples. His mother was Queen Margherita of Savoy. He became king in 1900, at age 31, after his father was killed by Gaetano Bresci.

History
After World War I, Benito Mussolini started the March on Rome and Victor Emmanuel III supported him. Mussolini became the Prime Minister and dictator. Because people said Victor Emmanuel III had worked together with Mussolini too much, Italy became a republic in 1946.

Titles and styles
 11 November 1869 - 29 July 1900: His Royal Highness The Prince of Naples
 29 July 1900 - 9 May 1946: His Majesty The King of Italy
 9 May 1936 - 5 May 1941: His Imperial Majesty The Emperor of Ethiopia
His Majesty The King of the Albanians
 9 May 1946 - 28 December 1947 His Majesty'' King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

References

Other websites

Genealogy of recent members of the House of Savoy
King Vittorio Emanuele III

1869 births
1947 deaths
Kings and Queens of Italy
World War II people
Princes and Princesses of Savoy
Alter ego

An alter ego (from Latin, "other I") is another self — a second personality within a person. It is also called leading a double life. The term "alter ego" was first used in the 19th century. It was inventory by psychologists in talking about dissociative identity disorder.

For example, in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Mr. Hyde was Dr. Jekyll's evil alter ego (same person, different personalities).

In literature
The term is also used in popular fiction, like comic books, for the secret identity of a superhero, vigilante, or crimefighter. The character would do this so people won't know that he or she is fighting crime. Examples of characters using alter egos include:

 Superman's alter ego is Clark Kent,
 Bruce Wayne’s is Batman,
 Peter Parker’s is Spider-Man

Music
Sometimes an artist uses an alter ego, like:

 Ziggy Stardust was an alter ego from David Bowie
 Marilyn Manson is the stage name of Brian Warner
 Slim Shady is the alter ego from rapper Eminem

Latin words used in English
Psychology
Human behavior
Ziggy Stardust

Ziggy Stardust is a fictional character. Ziggy was created and used by David Bowie, from 1970 to 1973.

Bowie used Ziggy Stardust as a second personality (alter ego). Ziggy appeared to be neither male nor female.

Ziggy's band was The Spiders From Mars. They recorded a couple of albums:
The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972)
Aladdin Sane (1973)

Ziggy's 'life' came to an end in a live concert at Hammersmith Odeon, on July 3, 1973. This show was in 1983 released in a movie: Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture. A 30th anniversary edition was released in 2003.

Fictional LGBT people
David Bowie
The Spiders from Mars

The Spiders from Mars was a Rock band from 1970 to 1973. It was a project from David Bowie. Bowie himself was the lead-singer. He created a secondary personality (alter ego) for this purpose: Ziggy Stardust. Ziggy's 'life' came to an end in a live concert at Hammersmith Odeon, on July 3, 1973. This show was in 1983 released in a movie: Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture. A re-release of this movie was in 2003: 30th Anniversary Edition.

Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars recorded a couple of albums:

 The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972)
 Aladdin Sane (1973)

Personnel
 Trevor Bolder - Bass guitar
 David Bowie - Guitar, Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals
 Mick Ronson - Guitar, Piano, Vocals
 Mick "Woody" Woodmansey - Drums

Related pages
Ziggy Stardust

Other websites 
The Ziggy Stardust Companion

English rock bands
David Bowie
Yokohama

is a Japanese city in Kanagawa Prefecture on the island of Honshū.  

Yokohama is the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture in the Kantō region. Yokohama is a neighbor city of Tokyo. It has been the second largest city of Japan since the 1980s. 

Yokohama has an international trade seaport.  It is the largest port in Japan.  Many cars and machinery are exported from the port.  The downtown area is around the port. Today, the area of Yokohama city includes its former suburb areas like Hodogaya or Totsuka.

In Minato Mirai, there are a lot of places for sightseeing. For example, there are amusement parks and shopping malls.

Yokohama was an entrance for foreign cultures for a long time. Still today Yokohama has the largest Chinatown in Japan.

The airports nearest to Yokohama are Tokyo International Airport and Narita International Airport. 

Many educational institutes are located in Yokohama, including Yokohama National University and Yokohama City University.

History
The Yokohama port was created in the middle of the 19th century for foreigners. It was five ports opened to foreign countries who demanded that Japan open its ports. And Yokohama was the nearest port to Tokyo, which was then called Edo.

In the Edo period, Hodogaya-juku was one of the fifty-three shogunate-maintained waystations (shuku-eki) along the Tōkaidō road which connected Edo and Kyoto.  Two other Tōkaidō rest stops are within the boundaries of modern Yokohama—in Kanagawa ward and Totsuka ward.

Wards of Yokohama 
 Aoba-ku, Yokohama
 Asahi-ku, Yokohama
 Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama
 Isogo-ku, Yokohama
 Izumi-ku, Yokohama

 Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama
 Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama
 Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama
 Kounan-ku, Yokohama
 Midori-ku, Yokohama
 Minami-ku, Yokohama
 Naka-ku, Yokohama
 Nishi-ku, Yokohama
 Sakae-ku, Yokohama
 Seya-ku, Yokohama

 Totsuka-ku, Yokohama
 Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama
 Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama

Related pages
 List of the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō
 The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō
 Yokohama F. Marinos

References

Other websites

 City of Yokohama website 
 Kanagawa Prefecture Tourism website
 

19th-century establishments in Japan
Axis powers

Axis countries and Axis Powers are the names for some countries that fought together against the Allies during World War II.  The war ended in 1945 with the Axis powers losing and their alliances broken.

Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis Powers 
The most important Axis countries formed an alliance called the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis Powers (1922 to 1945). They included:

 Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler
 Kingdom of Italy under Benito Mussolini
 Empire of Japan under Emperor Hirohito

All three countries had authoritarian governments, which were (and still are) often referred to as fascist.

Other countries

Subsequent signatories of the Tripartite Pact
In addition to the main three countries, the less important Axis countries were: 
 Hungary under Miklós Horthy
 Romania under Ion Antonescu 
 Bulgaria under Tsar Boris III

Other countries that helped the Axis without being a part of them were:

Co-belligerent states 
 Finland fought against the Soviet Union and participated in the Siege of Leningrad.
 Iraq
 Thailand

Client states 
 Slovakia
 Philippines (Second Republic)
 Vietnam (Empire of Vietnam)
 Manchukuo (Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia)
 Reorganized National Government of China
 Independent State of Croatia
 Province of Ljubljana

Controversial cases 

 Denmark signed treaty of mutual non-aggression.
 Spain was neutral, but gave non-military assistance.
 Vichy France agreed not to resist after Northern France was conquered. Allowed (forced?) to allow Japan to occupy French Indochina.

Several new or rebel governments that were created by the Axis during the war are:
 Burma (Ba Maw regime)
 India (Provisional Government of Free India)

Other websites 
 WW2DB: Tripartite Pact
 WW2DB: Axis Countries

World War II
Nazi Germany
20th century in Japan
20th century in Italy
Military alliances
Icelandic language

Icelandic is the language spoken by the people of Iceland.

It is a Germanic language. It comes from the Old Norse language, the language spoken by the Vikings. Because Iceland is far away from other countries, the language has not changed much. Icelandic people can still read words from hundreds of years ago.

Icelandic uses four characters that are not used in English: þ (thorn), (like 'th' in thin), ð (edh), (like 'th' in this), æ (pronounced like I) and ö (pronounced like the French U). It can also be said that ð is a "softer" version of þ.

Some linguists say there are only two Nordic languages, Eastern-Nordic and Western-Nordic, which includes Icelandic and Faroese because of their similarity.

Icelandic is also one of the most difficult languages to learn.

References

North Germanic languages
Languages of Europe
Passu

Passu is a small village by the Khunjerab River in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It lies at an altitude of 2500m.  The Batura and Passu glaciers and the Karakoram Highway are close to the village. The people speak the Wakhi language and follow the Ismaili sect of Islam.

Other websites 
Passu village
around Passu Hunza pakistan
Passu mentioned on ExplorePak.com 

Geography of Kashmir
Villages in Pakistan
Settlements in Gilgit-Baltistan
Equator

The equator is a line which is not real drawn around a sphere or planet, such as the Earth. It is one of the lines known as a line of latitude, or circle of latitude. The name "equator" is Latin for "even-maker"; at equator the day and night are exactly the same length around the year.

The equator is halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole. There, the surface of the planet is parallel to the axis of rotation. The equator divides the surface into the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere.

Climate 
Unlike the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere, countries around the equator do not experience the four seasons, and the climate is usually very humid.

Related pages

 Northern hemisphere
 Southern hemisphere
 Solstice and equinox
 Tropic of Cancer
 Tropic of Capricorn
 Arctic Circle
 Antarctic Circle
 Celestial equator

Lines of latitude
Rocket

A rocket may be a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which is pushed by a rocket engine. Some big rockets are launch vehicles and some are manned (e.g. Saturn V). Other rockets, for example missiles, are unmanned.  ("Manned" means that a person is in it; "unmanned" means that the machine goes without a person.)

Most rockets can be launched from the ground of spaceport because exhaust thrust from the engine is bigger than the weight of the vehicle on Earth. Some are used to bring satellites into orbit. Some rockets such as ion thrusters are too weak and heavy to lift themselves. They work after other rockets bring them to outer space.

The rocket was invented by the Chinese while using gunpowder. The first rockets were shaped like arrows and were not very fast. Most rockets still work by fire. The fire makes hot exhaust gases that expand and shoot out the back. This makes the rocket go forward.

Most rockets still use solid fuel to make the fire. The biggest ones use liquid fuel because it makes a hotter fire so the rocket is more powerful. However, handling the liquid fuel safely is difficult and expensive. Some satellite launch vehicles use both.

Rockets are also used for fireworks and weapons and to control moves in outer space.

Manned rockets, similar to other manned flying machines, are designed to limit their acceleration and vibration to protect the crew. Unmanned rockets however are not bound by the limits of humans.

Some rockets go faster than the speed of sound (). Those that go into Low Earth orbit go .

Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut who, on 12 April 1961, became the first human to fly into outer space. He was in the R-7 rocket launched by the Soviet Union.

Pioneers 
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Robert H. Goddard
Wernher von Braun
Hellmuth Walter

References

 
Ballistics
Advisor

An advisor (or adviser) is someone who gives advice. (Someone who advises.) The job of an advisor is to give good advice that helps the person that he or she is advising. Usually, only certain people, like businessmen or politicians, have advisors. This is because these kinds of people are usually very busy, and they do not have the time to make decisions alone.

In the United States, the President's advisors are called his "Cabinet." Some well-known cabinet members, current and former, from the Bush Administration are:

Donald Rumsfeld
Condoleezza Rice
Colin Powell

Occupations
Rendsburg

Rendsburg () is a town in Schleswig-Holstein with 30,000 people.

References

Other websites

Cities in Schleswig-Holstein
Geography of Schleswig-Holstein
Municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein
Towns in Schleswig-Holstein
Jacques Chirac

Jacques René Chirac (29 November 1932 – 26 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 1995 to 2007. He was re-elected in 2002. Before that, he was Prime Minister of France twice, and Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.

Assassination attempt
On 14 July 2002, during Bastille Day celebrations, a man tried to shoot Chirac. A lone gunman with a rifle hidden in a guitar case, the would-be assassin fired a shot toward the presidential motorcade. He was then overpowered by bystanders. The gunman, Maxime Brunerie, had psychiatric testing.

After Presidency
On 15 December 2011, Chirac was found guilty for corruption. He was allowed to serve his 2-year sentence without prison time.

As a former president, Chirac had a lifetime pension. He was a member for life of France's Constitutional Council.

Personal life
In 1956, he married Bernadette Chodron de Courcel.  They had two daughters: Laurence (1958–2016) and Claude (born 1962). Claude is a public relations assistant and personal adviser. Laurence, who had anorexia nervosa in her youth, did not participate in the political activities of her father.

Health
In 2005, Chirac suffered a stroke. He had been suffering from memory loss and was in ill health. On 10 December 2015, Chirac was hospitalized in Paris for undisclosed reasons, and although his state of health did not "give any cause for concern", he would remain under the intensive care unit.

Death
Chirac died at his home in Paris on 26 September 2019 at the age of 86.

References

Other websites

1932 births
2019 deaths
French criminals
Prime Ministers of France
French Roman Catholics
Mayors of Paris
Presidents of France
Princes of Andorra
Recipients of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
Mario Jeckle

Mario Jeckle (25 August 1974 – 11 June 2004) was a German computer scientist.

From 1997 to 2003, Jeckle attended the University of Applied Science in Augsburg.  In 1998, he received his computer science degree for his thesis (paper) "Prozeßkettenmodellierung am Beispiel der Gießwerkzeugentwicklung und prototypische Implementierung auf Basis des EDM/PDM - Systems Metaphase" (An example of process chain modelling in  casting tool development and prototype implementation on basis of the EDM/PDM - Systems Metaphase). At Augsburg, he taught Java, Java Threads, XML and software engineering.

In 2003, Jeckle became a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Furtwangen.  He taught about XML, databases, software engineering, and "eBusiness" (electronic business). 

Jeckle was also a W3C and OMG representative of DaimlerChrysler Research and developed technical standards for XML, UML 2.0, and others.  At the beginning of 2004, he was a member of the Technical Architecture Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Jeckle was also an writer of books and a well-known speaker at conferences and seminars (information groups).

Jeckle was a member of the International Red Cross.  On 11 June 2004, he died while giving aid to others who had a car accident on a German highway. While helping, another driver lost control and hit Jeckle and another man.

Memberships 
 Associate Editor of International Journal of Web Services Research
 Associate Editor of International Journal on Web Services
 Chairman of the mailinglist of GOOAL.net
 Editor of W3C-Dokuments Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Processing and Protocol Requirements 1.0
 Executive Committee Member of the IEEE Technical Community for Services Computing
 DaimlerChrysler Research member of the Advisory Committee des World Wide Web Consortiums (W3C)
 Headleader of the Masters of System Architekture in Furtwangen.
 Member of the Device Independence Working Group (W3C)
 Member of the Technical Architecture Group (W3C)
 Member of the Web Service Architecture Working Group (W3C)
 Member of the Editorial Boards des International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing
 Member of the Advisory Board des International Journal on Cases on Electronic Commerce
 Member of the Editorial Board des International Journal for Infonomics
 Member of the Editorial Board des International Journal of IT Standards & Standardization Research
 Member of the Fachbeirat the lecture "Java Spektrum"
 Member of the German Architect Board of ASQF
 Member of the IBM Developer Works Research Panel
 Member of the Java Community Process
 Member of the Technical Advisory Board der Gentleware AG

Other websites 
 private Homepage of Mario Jeckle (in German)
 Informatikpreis 1998  (in German)
  Tim Berners-Lee to the death of Mario Jeckle (W3C) 
  In Memoriam: Mario Jeckle (W3C)

German computer scientists
1974 births
2004 deaths
Eighty Years' War

The Eighty Years' War, also called Dutch Revolt, was a war between the Netherlands and Spain. It lasted from 1568 to 1648 but was interrupted by a truce between 1609 and 1621. The Peace of Westphalia ended the war. The Netherlands achieved independence in the Eighty Years' War.

 
Wars involving England
Wars involving France
Wars involving the Netherlands
Wars involving Spain
1568
16th century in Europe
1648
17th century in Europe
16th-century conflicts
17th-century conflicts
MacGyver

MacGyver was an American television series.  It was first shown in September 1985 on the television network, ABC. The main character, Angus MacGyver (played by Richard Dean Anderson), often prevented inevitable defeats, saved lives, distracted enemies, made weapons, and even performed everyday tasks usually using very few objects that seemed irrelevant or abnormal to use in such situations. His use of duct tape has led some parts of the world to call it "MacGyver tape."

The term "MacGyver" now means someone who is able to perform amazing feats with the use of very few and often irrelevant objects.

1980s American television series
1985 American television series debuts
1990s American television series
1992 American television series endings
Action television series
Spy television series
English-language television programs
Quark

A quark is an elementary particle which makes up hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons. Atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. It was once thought that all three of those were fundamental particles, which cannot be broken up into anything smaller, but after the invention of the particle accelerator, it was discovered that electrons are fundamental particles, but neutrons and protons are not. Neutrons and protons are made up of quarks, which are held together by gluons.

There are six types of quarks. The types are called flavours. The flavours are up (u), down (d), strange (s), charm (c), top (t), and bottom (b). Up, charm and top quarks have a charge of +, while down, strange and bottom quarks have a charge of -. Each quark has a matching antiquark. Antiquarks have a charge opposite to that of their quarks; meaning that up, charm and top antiquarks have a charge of - and down, strange and bottom antiquarks have a charge of +.

Only up and down quarks are found inside of atoms of normal matter. Two up quarks and one down make a proton ( +  -  = +1 charge) while two down quarks and one up make a neutron ( -  -  = 0 charge). The other four flavours are not seen naturally on Earth, but they can be made in particle accelerators. Some of them may also exist inside of stars.

When two or more quarks are held together by the strong nuclear force, the particle formed is called a hadron. Quarks that make the quantum number of hadrons are named 'valence quarks'. The two families of hadrons are baryons (made of three valence quarks) and mesons (which are made from a quark and an antiquark). Some examples of baryons are protons and neutrons, and examples of mesons are pions and kaons.

When quarks are stretched farther and farther, the force that holds them together becomes bigger. When it comes to the point when quarks are separated, they form two sets of quarks, because the energy that is put into trying to separate them is enough to form two new quarks. So scientists think it is not possible to have one quark by itself.

Quarks also have color charge and react via the weak force. For baryons, each quark is green, red or blue. One can be one color at one time. For mesons, the quark is red, green or blue and the antiquark is antired (cyan), antiblue (yellow) or antigreen (pink). Quarks can change color by emitting a W boson. For example, if a green color-charged quark emits a red-antigreen W boson to a red quark, the green quark will become red and the red quark will become green. Therefore, W and Z bosons (which mediate the weak force for neutrinos) help particles react via the weak interaction.

This also causes the beta and beta-plus decay of atoms where a neutron decays into a proton, electron and electron antineutrino, and makes a proton turn into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino.

The idea (or model) for quarks was proposed by physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig in 1964. Other scientists began searching for evidence of quarks, and succeeded in 1968.

References

Other websites 
 Basic quark site
Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the part of the planet that is north of the equator. It has about 90 percent of the world's population and most of the world's land. All of North America and Europe are in the Northern Hemisphere. Most of Asia, two-thirds of Africa and 10 percent of South America are also in this hemisphere. The three largest countries by population; India, China, and the United States, are in the Northern Hemisphere.

Related pages 
 Southern hemisphere
 Eastern hemisphere
 Western hemisphere
 Seasons
 Solstice and equinox
 Equator
 Tropic of Cancer
 Tropic of Capricorn
 Arctic Circle
 Antarctic Circle

Hemispheres
Yesterday

Yesterday might mean:

The day before today
"Yesterday" (Beatles song), a popular song by The Beatles from their album Help!
"Yesterday", a movie named after the song about a man who becomes the only person in the world to remember The Beatles after ending up in a freak accident.

Basic English 850 words
Messiah

Messiah or  the Anointed One is the figure promised by God to the Jews for the salvation of the world. 

Other people in real life or fiction are called messianic if they have the qualities of a messiah, or people think they will bring about a better world.

The How, Where, and Why
 Why: Jews believe the biblical prophets inspired by God to tell of his coming. During the period of the Roman rule in 1st century BC the idea of the messiah became very important in Jewish thought and teaching. According to the scriptures, the messiah would rescue the people from the Romans and restore the country.
 How: There are many of ideas about how the messiah will come: Judge, warrior, beggar, academic, Philosopher, healer or a common person.

Jesus as the Messiah
Christianity, which began in Israel with Jewish followers of Jesus (), holds that the Messiah foretold by the Jewish Scriptures is Jesus, and that in fulfillment of prophecy Jesus died for the sins of the world, rose from the dead and lives today, seated at the right hand of God until His return. Most Jews do not hold these beliefs; those who do are sometimes called Messianic Jews.  Some Messianic Jews and other Christians see the fact that a majority of Jews do not hold these beliefs as a fulfillment of prophecy. (see Epistle to the Romans chapter 10)

Muslims believe that Jesus was the son of Mary, that he was a mighty prophet of God and that he was the Messiah (though, in Islam, the Messiah has a different role than he does in Christianity or Judaism). They believe that he will come again one day in his Second Coming to fight besides the Mahdi against the Dajjal ("false messiah").

References

Christology
Islamic theology
Judaism
Jesus
César Chávez

Cesar Chavez (born César Estrada Chávez (March 31, 1927April 23, 1993) was an American farmworker, labor leader and civil rights activist. Chávez started the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) along with Dolores Huerta. He wanted equal rights for Mexicans working in the United States.  This union became the United Farm Workers. He led a boycott against grape companies to gain rights for workers. Chávez used nonviolence to make these changes.  Chavez is thought of as one of the leaders in the movement for Chicanos to gain more rights in the late-20th century.

Early life
Chávez was born near Yuma, Arizona and went to over 37 schools.  He graduated from the eighth grade. He did most of his organizing in California, especially near Bakersfield. Fred Ross taught him to lead unions. Fred Ross was a student of Saul Alinsky.

Activism
In 1965, Chávez and the NFWA started a strike for grape-pickers in California. At the same time, he asked Americans to boycott grapes from California. In 1970, the migrant workers won their fight for better pay.

He kept working against unfair labor rules. He stopped eating in protest three times because of low pay and bad working conditions. When he died, he was leading another grape boycott to stop the use of pesticides.

Legacy  
Chávez is respected in California and other states. In 2000, California's state legislature started a holiday to honor him. The holiday is on March 31, Chávez's birthday. This is the first time that a US public holiday honored a Mexican American or a union leader. Many cities have streets or places named for him. These cities include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Austin, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee, and Salt Lake City. In 1998 he was inducted into the Hall of Honor by the United States Department of Labor.

References

Other websites

 "The Story of Cesar Chavez" , United Farmworker's official biography of Chavez.
 César E. Chávez Chronology , County of Los Angeles Public Library.
 Five Part Series on Cesar Chavez , Los Angeles Times, Kids' Reading Room Classic, October 2000.
 "The study of history demands nuanced thinking", Miriam Pawel  from the Austin American-Statesman, 2009/7/17. A caution that histories of Chavez and the UFW should not be hagiography, nor be suppressed, but taught "wiktionary:warts and all"
 The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworker's Struggle, PBS Documentary.
 Farmworker Movement Documentation Project 
  New York Times obituary, April 24, 1993
 Walter P. Reuther Library – President Clinton presents Helen Chavez with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1994

1927 births
1993 deaths
People from California
American labor leaders
Nonviolence advocates
People from Arizona
Recipients of the Order of the Aztec Eagle
Shape

A shape is a geometric figure that can be made with mathematics. Shapes are sorted into kinds based on how the shape looks, and what the shape is made of. For example, shapes can be classified by how many dimensions they use.

Two-dimensional shapes will fit into a flat plane. Three-dimensional objects will not fit inside a plane, because they are not flat. Shapes made from other shapes of any dimension are called polytopes.

Two shapes are said to be equal, if one can be changed into the other by turning, moving, growing, shrinking, or more than one of these at once. Geometry is a section of mathematics which involves many shapes and sizes of different figures and their properties.

2D shapes 

These are two-dimensional shapes or flat plane geometry shapes. Their sides are made of straight or curved lines. They can have any number of sides. Plane figures made of lines are called polygons. Triangles and squares are examples of polygons.

 circle
 polygon
triangle
quadrilateral
square
rectangle

3D shapes 
These are three-dimensional shapes. Their sides are made of flat or curved surfaces. 3D shapes are most often made of polygon faces. These 3D shapes are called polyhedra.

 sphere
 tetrahedron
 cube
 cone
 pyramid
 hemisphere
 cuboid
 cylinder
 prism

4D shapes 
Four-dimensional shapes made of polyhedra are called polychorons. These shapes cannot be fully shown in the real world, but they are important ideas in geometry.
Geometry
Shapes
Quechua

Quechua, sometimes written Quichua or Ketchua, is a language spoken by 8 million people in the South American nations of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Colombia. It was also the language of the ancient Inca Empire. It's part of the Quechuan languages family.

It is the most-spoken Native American language in South America. It is also the most widely-spoken indigenous language. A quarter of people in Peru speak Quechua. People who speak Quechua as their first language are called Quechua Indians by Spanish-speakers. However, the Quechua refer to themselves as Runa ("the people") and call their language Runa Simi.

Quechua has only three vowel sounds: a, i, and u.

Quechua has given names to many places in Peru, including the Ancash Region.  is the Quechua word for blue, and it is thought that the name refers to the region's blue skies.

Other websites 

 A website that teaches Quechua

Languages of South America
Inca civilization
Drinking water

Drinking water, also known as potable water, is water that is safe to drink or to use for food preparation.

Water in rivers, stream, lakes and underground may contain organisms that cause disease. It may also contain chemicals that might cause illness.

'Water treatment'  involves filtering the water through sand beds and then adding a chemical to kill any remaining organisms.

The amount of drinking water needed for good health varies. Americans, on average, drink one litre of water per day and 95% drink less than three litres per day. For those who work in a hot climate, up to 16 litres a day may be required. Liquid water is essential for life.

In developed countries, tap water meets drinking water quality standards. Other uses include washing, toilets, and irrigation. Greywater (wastewater) may be used for toilets or irrigation. Using greywater for irrigation may have risks. Water may be unacceptable if it has high levels of toxins or suspended solids.

Related pages 
Joseph Bazalgette for the story of how modern water systems got free of dangerous bacteria.

References 

Drinking water
Pen

A pen (Latin: pinna, feather) is a tool used for writing or drawing. The ink of the pen is pressed onto paper and dries very fast.

Reed pens are the oldest known type of pen. They were made from reeds growing in the delta of the Nile. The ancient Egyptians invented them, and also invented black ink, using soot and gum arabic. Their pens had split nibs to regulated the flow of ink to the writing tip. This simple design is still used in calligraphy today.

Quill pens are one of the oldest type of pens.  A quill pen is the feather of a bird, usually a goose.  The end of the feather (the quill) was kept very sharp and had to be dipped into ink after every few words.

Reed and quill pens are dip pens because they have to be dipped in ink many times during writing or drawing. Modern dip pens have nibs made of metal.

Fountain pens are like dip pens, but can hold enough ink inside to write several pages before being refilled. Inside, the ink is held in a sac or cartridge. 

A ballpoint pen is generally cylindrical plastic shaft that holds ink and is smaller than a fountain pen. It has a small hard ball on the writing end that rolls the ink onto the paper.

A stylus is a pen that cannot write on paper, but can write on clay or wax. Styli of wood or metal have been used for thousands of years, for example in cuneiform writing. A modern computer stylus is usually made of plastic and may have electronics inside. It is used with a touchscreen.

The coming of the personal computer much reduced the need to write on paper. All the same, a personally written letter  suggests "I think so much of you that I took the effort to write a real letter."

Related pages 

 Pencil
 Ink
 Paper

References 

Basic English 850 words
Writing tools
Waterfall

A waterfall is a place where water rushes down a steep ledge. The water flows from higher land, then it falls down a big step of rock to lower land of softer rock where it will continue on its journey. Usually the lower land is in a gorge. Waterfalls are usually made when a river is young, in places where softer rock is underneath harder rock in the waterfalls.

Many people like to visit waterfalls. The roar from a big waterfall is very loud. Some people think it is beautiful music and that a waterfall is one of the most beautiful things in nature.

The highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela where the water falls .

Related pages
 Cataracts of the Nile

References
Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe. The site is not far from the country's border with Mozambique, which is in the southeast of the African continent.

Greater Zimbabwe was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country’s later Iron Age. The monument first began to be built in the 11th century, and work continued until the 14th century. It covered an area of  722 hectares (1,780 acres) which might have housed up to 18,000 people. It was a royal city for the Zimbabwean monarch. One of its most prominent features were its walls, some of which were over five metres high and which were constructed without mortar. Eventually the city was abandoned and fell into ruin.

The Kingdom of Zimbabwe included the River Zambezi in the north, the Transvaal in the south and Botswana in the east. The people who lived at Great Zimbabwe controlled trade between the coast and inland Africa. The modern country of Zimbabwe is named after it.

Archaeologists have found goods from as far as China that were used by the people. This shows they bought and sold things over great distances. The city had stopped growing when traders from Portugal came to southern Africa 500 years ago, but nobody is sure why this happened. Europeans at first thought that Great Zimbabwe had been built by foreigners. Now we know it was built by the local people. People who have studied the site have learned much about old Africa.

The earliest known written mention of the ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, Captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala, who recorded it as Symbaoe. The first visits by Europeans were in the late 19th century, with investigations of the site starting in 1871.

References 

History of Zimbabwe
Cities in Zimbabwe
World Heritage Sites in Africa
Prehistoric Africa
11th-century establishments in Africa
15th-century disestablishments
Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site in Peru, in South America.

The Incas built the city on a mountain ridge, 2430m above sea level. They lived there between 1200 and 1450 AD. Other people lived there before about 650 AD. 

The Incas built houses, fields and temples by cutting the rock on the mountain so it was flat. They built an observatory to look at the stars.

When the Spanish invaded Peru, the Incas left Machu Picchu. Nobody knows for sure why they did that, but some think it was because of diseases from Europe (such as smallpox). The city was left unfinished, most likely due to the Spanish invasion and/or a civil war between the ruling rival Inca brothers named Huascar and Atahualpa. The Spanish never found Machu Picchu or the lost city during their occupation.

Machu Picchu is very difficult to get to because it is so high in the mountains. It has only one way in and a stone wall to protect it. Most people on Earth did not know it was there until a Yale graduate named Hiram Bingham rediscovered it in 1911. He heard rumors of a hidden city which was already known to the native Peruvians, who guided him there. He led a restoration project that was partly funded by the National Geographic Society. Bingham made a deal with the government to take artifacts to the Peabody Museum for study. Peru is still trying to have those artifacts returned to them.

Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.

Today, there is a new road so that tourists can visit. People can also walk along the Inca Trail, or take a train from Cusco.

Other websites

 Information About Machu Picchu
 QuickTime Virtual Tour of Machu Picchu and Peru from destination360.com.
 Machu Picchu on National Geographic
 Machu Picchu on Google Maps.
 Machu Picchu travel guide.
 Machu Picchu. YouTube

Inca civilization
World Heritage Sites in South America
1450s establishments
Establishments in Peru
1572 disestablishments
16th-century disestablishments in South America
Cusco Region
3D

3D (or 3-D) means three-dimensional, or having three dimensions. For example, a box is three-dimensional; it is solid, and not thin like a piece of paper. It has volume, a top and bottom, left and right (sides), as well as a front and back. You can turn the box around to view it from another side (called a face, surface or simply side).

A dimension can be measured in inches, microns, miles, kilometers, or any other unit of length.

The three dimensions are often called length (or depth), width (or breadth), and height. Some purposes use other words. 

3D graphics are used to make video games or animated movies.  Many calculations are needed to make pictures seem three-dimensional on a screen. Modern computers usually have a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to handle these calculations.

Binocular vision helps people to see the third dimension easily.

In mathematics 

In the Cartesian coordinate system, length, width, and height are given in letters (variables) to make them easier to write, or if a value is not known. Often X is width, Y is height, and Z is length. Other 3D coordinate systems such as spherical coordinates use both linear and angular measurements.

The mathematical study of 3D shapes and dimensions is called solid geometry.

Space-time theory 

Some people think of time as if it were a fourth dimension. This is called space-time theory. In this idea, there are three dimensions of space, along with the dimension of time.

Related pages 
 3D printing
 Holography
 Perspective (graphical)

Computing
Animation
Geometry
Humidity

Humidity means water vapor in the air, but not to liquid droplets in fog, clouds, or rain.  Deserts usually have low humidity, and tropical regions have high humidity. The word "humid" often means that the humidity is high, which gives the feeling of being very damp (wet air), stuffy, or even sweltering when the temperature is also high. When the humidity is low, the air can be said to be "not humid" or "dry."

Higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of moisture from the skin.

The term "relative humidity" is used to note the amount of humidity as a percent, from 0-100%. Meteorologists use  hygrometers to measure the humidity in the air.

Humidity affects the rate of evaporation. With a higher humidity, the rate of evaporation is less.

Related pages
 Dew point
Relative humidity

Meteorology
Weather measurements
Calabi-Yau manifold

A Calabi–Yau manifold, or 'Calabi–Yau space', is a special type of manifold. It is described in certain branches of mathematics such as algebraic geometry.  

The Calabi–Yau manifold's properties, such as Ricci flatness, have applications in theoretical physics. Particularly in superstring theory, the extra dimensions of spacetime might take the form of a 6-dimensional Calabi–Yau manifold. This led to the idea of  string theory mirror symmetry.

Algebraic geometry
Duisburg

Duisburg (; , Ripuarian: Duisburch, Low Franconian: Duusbörg) is a German city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is where the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers meet. About 500,000 people live in Duisburg.

References

Other websites

Imperial free cities
Urban districts in Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf
Kuopio

Kuopio is a city in Northern Savonia, Finland. It is the biggest city and cultural center of Eastern Finland. In November 2015 the population was about 112.000. It is the 8th biggest city in Finland. 

The city is surrounded by lake Kallavesi. Many parts of the city are built on islands. Kuopio has always been a city of education. Two important schools are the University of Eastern Finland and the Savonia University of Applied Sciences.

History 
In 2011 the town of Karttula merged with Kuopio. In 2013 Nilsiä merged as well. In 2015, Maaninka merged with the city. In 2017 Juankoski merged with the city.

Twin towns — Sister cities

Kuopio is twinned with:

References

Cities in Finland
Municipalities of North Savo
Hammer

A hammer is a tool for putting nails into objects such as wood. It has a long handle, and a tip with a flat end for hitting nails. The most common type of hammer (sometimes called a claw hammer) has a curved end (on the other side of the hitting end) for pulling nails out.

A sledgehammer is a hammer that has a longer shaft, and a more massive head. The user can swing it with two hands and apply more force.

History 
Hammers were used around 3.3 million years ago. The first hammers were made without handles. Stones attached to sticks with strips of leather or animal sinew were being used. Hammers with handles were made in 30,000 BCE during the middle of the Paleolithic Stone Age. The hammer was used for building, food and protection.

Classification of hammers 
Hammers can be classified into two. They are:

Hand-powered hammers 

Hand-powered hammers are hammers that are used with the hand. Examples include:

 Ball-peen hammer
 Boiler scaling hammer
 Brass hammer
 Bricklayer's hammer
 Carpenter's hammer
 Cow hammer
 Cross-peen hammer
 Dead blow hammer
 Demolition hammer
 Drilling hammer
 Electrician's hammer
 Engineer's hammer
 Gavel
 Geologist's hammer
 Knife-edged hammer
 Lathe hammer
 Lump hammer
 Magnetic double-head hammer
 Magnetic tack hammer
 Mallet
 Railway track keying hammer
 Rock climbing hammer
 Rounding hammer
 Shingler's hammer
 Sledgehammer
 Soft-faced hammer
 Splitting maul
 Strike Tack hammer
 Stonemason's hammer
 Tinner
 Upholstery hammer
 Warrington hammer
 Welder's chipping hammer

Mechanically-powered hammer
Mechanically powered hammers are hammers that are used with a machine. Examples include:

 Hammer drill
 High Frequency Impact Treatment hammer
 Jackhammer
 Steam hammer
 Trip hammer

Hammers as weapons 
Big hammers were sometimes used as weapons. A tiny hammer is also used inside most small arms.

References 

Basic English 850 words
Tools
Feces

Faeces  (or faeces), also called poo or poop is the body's solid waste left over from eating food. Human feces leave the intestinal tract and are removed from the body through the anus. Feces are known for their unpleasant odor. The color, which can range from dark green through brown (the most common color) to bright yellow, depends on a lot of different things; for example, different foods can change the color of feces, so can some illnesses, like diarrhea. The consistency of feces changes too. In humans it is measured using the Bristol stool scale, a system for separating feces into 7 different types. It is used for medical diagnosis.

Although feces are generally thought to be waste, they actually have many uses. Feces are used by some scientists to follow animal populations. Feces from animals and humans can be used to create fertilizers for plant crops. Some feces are also used as a fuel for fires.

Animals can also poop. In informal language, there are many words for feces. These are often offensive or even vulgar. Examples include "shit", "poop", and "crap".

In popular culture, there are a few books about feces. Most of these books are for children. One is called Everyone Poops. It was written by Tarō Gomi, who is from Japan.

Smell of feces 
Poop smells like rotten eggs. It is known for its stinky smell.

References

Related pages 
 Diarrhea
 Constipation
 Coprophagia
 Urine
 Sanitation

Digestive system
Nail

A nail is a metal object with a flat head and a long, sharp tip. A hammer or nail gun is used to put it into another object. It is often used to join two objects together.

The history of the nail came in three periods:
 Hand-wrought (forged) nail (pre-history until 19th century)
 Cut nail (roughly 1800 to 1914)
 Wire nail (roughly 1860 to the present)

Nails date back at least to Ancient Egypt – bronze nails found in Egypt have been dated 3400 BC. The Bible has references to nails. King David gave iron to make nails for what would become Solomon's Temple.

The Romans made extensive use of nails. The Roman army left behind seven tons of nails when it evacuated the fortress of Inchtuthil in Perthshire, Scotland, in 86 or 87 AD.

References 

Basic English 850 words
Hardware (mechanical)