alibayram/wikipedia-40-langs huggingface dataset:
Vermont

Vermont is a state in the United States. Its capital city is Montpelier, and its largest city is Burlington. It is one of the six New England states. About 640,000 people lived there in 2020.

The states that border Vermont are Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north.

Vermont was home to the Abenaki and Iroquois Native American groups until France took control of the area when it was building colonies. Great Britain gained control after winning the French and Indian War. It is known for being one of only four states to be an independent nation before joining the United States. It was not a part of the 13 colonies and instead joined as the 14th state. Vermont became a state in 1791. It is world-renowned for its maple syrup industry, and many tourists go to see brilliant colors the trees become in the fall months. The tourism industry has become quite successful, with many tourists coming every year.

Related pages
 Colleges and universities in Vermont
 List of counties in Vermont

References

 
1791 establishments in the United States
South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the southeast United States. Its capital city is Columbia, and its most populous city is Charleston. The population of the state is about 5.2 million people, ranked 23rd in the United States. South Carolina has an area of 32,030 square miles, making it the 40th largest state in the United States.

Other important cities in South Carolina are Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Sumter, and Florence.

Major landforms include beaches, "barrier islands", salt marsh, sandhills , rolling piedmont, and the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Because of its natural beauty, the state attracts many tourists, especially to Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Hilton Head Island.
South Carolina became a state in 1788.  The economy was agriculture-based, known for cotton, rice, indigo, and tobacco by African American slaves.  After the American Civil War, the state lost much of its political and economic power.  Towards the end of the 20th century, the state began to strengthen its economy and add population.  Today, the major industries are tourism, textiles (clothing materials), golf, and manufacturing.  South Carolina has the second highest number of workers employed by international companies per capita in the United States.

South Carolina is bounded to the north by North Carolina, to the south and west by Georgia, located across the Savannah River, and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

History

The original inhabitants of South Carolina were Native Americans. At least 29 Native American tribes lived in South Carolina. The Native American population declined after the arrival of Europeans.

Farming 
Before the Civil War, South Carolina grew a lot of rice. African slaves worked on slave plantations in the state.

Participation In The Civil War & 1876-1966 Segregation

The Civil War 
South Carolina became the first of eleven states to secede from the union, on December 20, 1860, to protest the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. It joined the Confederacy. The first battle of the Civil War took place at Fort Sumter, in Charleston.

1876-1966 Segregation & Democratic Dominance 
After the Civil War, African-Americans in South Carolina got to vote for some time, but soon black codes were enacted, and white-supremacist groups like the KKK were reborn, restricting African-Americans from voting. South Carolina thus became a Democratic stronghold. In fact, in 1904, Republican Theodore Roosevelt, who was running for president, won less than 5% of the vote in the state. The Democratic candidate won over 95% of the vote. This cult of fear disabled most African-Americans in South  Carolina from voting till 1965, when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

Confederate Flag 
For a long time, South Carolina had the Confederate flag hanging over its capital. This is no longer the case.

Famous People 
U.S. President Andrew Jackson was born in South Carolina.

Related pages
 Colleges and universities in South Carolina
 List of counties in South Carolina

References

 
1788 establishments in the United States
Rhode Island

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the United States by area. The capital and largest city is Providence. It is called the "Ocean state" because of its bays and waterways. It was founded by Roger Williams for religious freedom. The Narragansett people lived there before Europeans came, but people like Roger Williams didn't respect them and used the land for their own reasons. The colonists fought a war against the native people and many of them were killed or ran away from the colonists.

Rhode Island was one of the original Thirteen Colonies. It became very important to the economy because of the slave trade, and more slaves were taken to the thirteen colonies through Rhode Island than any of the others in the 18th century. Slavers would send ships from Newport to buy slaves from Africa and make money by trading goods with others involved in slavery. Rhode Island became a state (the last of the thirteen to agree to the new United States Constitution) in 1790. But despite it joined the United States in 1790, it was founded in 1776.

Rhode Island is bordered on the north and east by Massachusetts, on the west by Connecticut, and on the south by Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. It shares a water border with New York. It is named for a large island in Rhode Island Sound, Rhode Island. Some thought the island looked liked Rhodes, an island in Greece.

An executive order was signed by Governor Gina Raimondo on June 22, 2020 to remove "Providence Plantations" from the official state name due to its ties to slavery.  Raimondo stated the change would go into effect "as soon as practicable."  In November 2020, the official name was voted to be changed to "State of Rhode Island".

Related pages
 Colleges and universities in Rhode Island
 List of counties in Rhode Island

Notes

References

Other websites

 
1790 establishments in the United States
New Jersey

New Jersey is one of the 50 states of the United States of America. It is in the northeastern section of the country along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is a geographically small state, shaped like a letter [S], and bordered on the west by Pennsylvania and Delaware across the Delaware River, on the north by New York, on the northeast by the Hudson River and New York City, on the east and southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the southwest by Delaware Bay.

The capital of New Jersey is Trenton and the largest city is Newark, though New Jersey is better known for bordering the large cities of New York City and Philadelphia. The state nickname is "The Garden State". The current governor is Phil Murphy.

New Jersey is the fourth smallest state, but has the eleventh highest number of people. It therefore has the highest population density (number of people for the amount of land) in the United States. New Jersey is also well known for its beaches, industries, swamps, and pine forests.

The climate is hot and humid summers and cold winters, with about  of precipitation every year. The average temperature in the summer is between  and , and in winter around 16 °F (-9 °C) to 34 °F (1 °C).

History
Before Europeans came, the land that is now New Jersey was inhabited by the Lenape (also known as Delaware Indians by the English), who were nomads, hunters, and farmers. The Dutch came to the northern area of the state in the 1630s, after Henry Hudson explored the area, thought it was a nice place, and claimed it for the Dutch. Towns quickly sprang up, occupied by the Dutch, Swedes, and Finns. People rushed in. The first towns, such as Bergen (now Jersey City), Trenton (the capitol), and Burlington developed. Many others started themselves upon the west bank of the Hudson. New Jersey was part of the area known at this time as New Netherland.

In 1664, the English took New Netherland from the Dutch and added it to their colonies. This part was renamed New Jersey after an island in the English Channel known as Jersey.

New Jersey took part in the American Revolutionary War, and was a scene of battles. On Christmas in 1776, George Washington's army entered New Jersey to attack British soldiers at Trenton and Princeton. The American army won, in two small but famous battles that were important in boosting American morale.

Later, the rebels drove the British residents out of Princeton and for a time established a national capital there. New Jersey was the third state to join the US and the first to approve the Bill of Rights.

Counties
New Jersey has 21 counties:

Mercer, Middlesex,

References

 
1787 establishments in the United States
New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in northeast United States. It is one of six states in the New England region. The capital is Concord and its largest city is Manchester. The second largest city is Nashua. Other major cities include Keene, Dover, Portsmouth, and Merrimack.

The state motto is "Live Free or Die"  and the nickname is the Granite State.  The state flower is the lilac and the state bird is the purple finch.  New Hampshire is part of New England.  It is bordered by Maine in the East, Massachusetts to the South, Vermont to the West, and Quebec, a Canadian province, to the North.

Its population was estimated to be 1,359,711 in 2019, so it is the ninth smallest state in the United States by population.

New Hampshire's tourist attractions include the Lakes Region, the White Mountains, the autumn leaves, and the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.  Some famous people from New Hampshire are Franklin Pierce, Adam Sandler, and members of the band Aerosmith. New Hampshire is also famous for being the first state to vote in the Presidential primaries.

New Hampshire was a British colony before the American War of Independence.  It became the ninth state on June 21, 1788 when it accepted the United States Constitution.

Related pages
 Colleges and universities in New Hampshire
 List of counties in New Hampshire

References 

 
1788 establishments in the United States
Watch glass

A watch glass is used for temporary storage of solids and sometimes liquids (in small amounts).

Laboratory equipment
Glass
Funnel

A funnel is an object with a wide top and a narrow tube at the bottom and this is used for pouring liquids into a container. A funnel is also a round metal chimney on top of a ship or train.

Tools
Ships

pl:Lejek (sprzęt laboratoryjny)
Constantinople

Constantinople (; ) was the capital city of the Roman Empire from 330 AD and later what historians called the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople was located in the Bosporus, the strait between the Balkans and Asia Minor.

History 
For centuries the city was not very large, and was called Byzantium. In the 4th century, Roman emperor Constantine the Great made Byzantium the capital of the Roman Empire and renamed it to Constantinople. 

In the 13th century, Constantinople was looted and captured by crusaders during the Fourth Crusade. The crusaders created the Latin Empire (12041261), with Constantinople as the capital city. In 1261, the Empire of Nicaea successfully restored the Byzantine Empire, under the rule of the Palaiologos dynasty.

In 1453 the Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror captured Constantinople. The city was renamed Istanbul and became the capital of the Ottoman Empire (14531922).

Over time, the city's short name in  became the name Istanbul. This name became the city's official name in 1930, during the government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Related pages
 Istanbul

Other websites 
 Monuments of Byzantium  - Pantokrator Monastery of Constantinople
 Mosaics of Hagia Sophia - The Deesis Mosaic from Hagia Sophia
 Constantinoupolis on the web Select internet resources on the history and culture of Constantinople
 Info on the name change from the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
 Welcome to Constantinople , documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople, compiled by Robert Ousterhout, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
 Constantinople, from History of the Later Roman Empire, by J.B. Bury

Constantinople
Ancient Roman cities
Mohammad Khatami

Seyyed Mohammad Khatami (سید محمد خاتمی), (born October 14, 1943) is an Iranian politician who was President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005 and was followed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khatami studied Islamic theology in Qom, and philosophy in Isfahan. Khatami built upon the idea of a lawful state, called Rechtsstaat, of democracy and of social equality. He was the first Iranian president to officially do so. These tenets led to conflicts with the government of Iran. Khatami is seen as a reformist. He is currently a prominent supporter of the Iranian Green Movement, and a critic of the government.

Other websites 
 Biography in I.R.I.B. Archive 
 Biography in Encyclopedia Britannica
 Web site of the International Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations

1943 births
Living people
Iranian politicians
Iranian Muslims
1499

Year 1499 (MCDXCIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events
 January 8 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany
 August 24 – Lake Maracaibo is explored by Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci.
 September 18 – Vasco da Gama arrives at Lisbon, returning from India
 Montenegro is added to the Ottoman Empire

 October 14 – Claude of France
Bison

Bisons are large, even-toed ungulates.  They are bovines, and are similar to cows. They are often called buffalo, but are not closely related to the African buffalo or water buffalo.  

Bison live in the northern part of the world. The American bison lives in North America where they once wandered around the prairies in huge herds. The wisent lives in Europe. Bison can also live in rugged areas.

American 
The American bison is the biggest mammals in North America.   There used to be as many as 30 million bison in the United States, but because of hunting, by 1890, only 1,000 bison were left. Through conservation efforts, there are now more American bison than there used to be, but still far fewer than there were before the 1800s.

European 
European bison (wisent) tend to live in lightly wooded to fully wooded areas and areas with increased shrubs and bushes, though they can also live on grasslands and plains.

Taxonomy 
They are classified in the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae.
 Genus Bison
 American bison (Bison bison)
 Wisent or European bison (Bison bonasus)

Life 
They live to be about 20 years old and are born without their "hump" or horns, which both males and females have. After shedding their lightly colored hair, and with their horns, they are grown at 2 to 3 years of age, but males keep growing slowly until seven years. Adult bulls are very dominant in mating season. Adult bison usually have one or two baby bison.

References 

Bovines
Mammals of North America
Mammals of Europe
Baseball cap

A baseball cap is a type of hat worn by baseball players when they play as part of their team's uniform, but other people wear them as well.

Cap
Hats
Windows 95

Windows 95 is an operating system created by Microsoft. It was released in August 1995. It is the first version to be part of Windows 9x. Windows 95 added new features to the last Microsoft Windows. which was Windows 3.x. Windows 95 was the first Windows with the "Start" menu. Since then, the Start menu has been used in all Windows operating systems except Windows 8. It was also the first Windows that included ways to connect to the [Internet]. Although Windows 95 is thought of as an operating system by itself, it works over MS-DOS. Windows 95 is like a visual version of MS-DOS. This means that Windows 95 can run both MS-DOS programs and Windows ones, but programs made just for Windows 95 will not work in MS-DOS.

Windows 95 was Microsoft's first operating system to support long file names. Before that, file names could only be eight characters (letters, numbers, or symbols) long, plus the file extension. Windows 95 was also Microsoft's first operating system to fully support CD-ROMs, though Windows 3.x could also access CD-ROMs.

It was popular from 1995 until 1998, when Microsoft replaced it with Windows 98. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 95 on December 31, 2000 and extended support ended 95 on December 31, 2001.

Editions 
Windows 95 Retail
Windows 95 OSR 1 and SP1
Windows 95 OSR 2.0
Windows 95 OSR 2.1
Windows 95 OSR 2.5

References 

Microsoft operating systems
Otto von Bismarck

Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen Duke of Lauenburg, (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), was an aristocrat and statesman of the 19th century in Europe. As Prime Minister of Prussia from 1862 to 1890, he was most responsible for the uniting most of the many independent German countries into the new German Empire in 1871 and became its first chancellor until 1890.

He was Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen (Count Bismarck-Schönhausen) in 1865. In 1871, he was Fürst von Bismarck (Prince Bismarck). In 1890, he became the Herzog von Lauenburg (Duke of Lauenburg). At first, he did not want to become a duke, but he accepted the title later.

Unification of Germany 
In the 1860s, he engineered a series of wars that lasted until 1871 and unified most of the German states except Austria into the new German Empire, which was led by Prussia. He "remained undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess for almost twenty years after 1871, [and] devoted himself exclusively, and successfully, to maintaining peace between the powers".

Bismarck conducted wars against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1871) to make Prussia more powerful. The Franco-Prussian War was very significant in the long run. France lost AlsaceLorraine during the German victory, which was led by the brilliant Helmuth von Moltke. The war also made Germany the most important country in Central Europe.

After the death of Kaiser Wilhelm I and that of his son, Frederick III, who briefly replaced him in 1888, a new era began without Bismarck and Moltke, with Wilhelm II now on the throne.

Policy at home 
Bismarck was very conservative, strongly connected to the monarchy and opposed to democracy. His most important goal was to make Prussia stronger, which he did by unifying Germany. Bismarck tried to stop the rise of socialism and to reduce the power of the Catholic Church.

One way to stop socialism was to make the working class happy. Bismarck did so by introducing many social reforms like public health and accident insurance, as well as pensions for old people. His 's pension scheme was the forerunner of the modern welfare state in Germany, and many other countries started similar systems.

References 

1815 births
1898 deaths
Chancellors of the German Empire
Ambassadors of Germany
Prussian generals
Prussian nobility
Members of the Reichstag (German Empire)
Prime Ministers of Prussia
Prussian politicians
People with foods named after them
Politicians from Saxony-Anhalt
Socialist country

A socialist country is a sovereign state in which everyone in society equally owns the factors of production.  

The four factors of production are labor, capital goods, natural resources and entrepreneurship. 

In a socialist country, people account for individual needs and social needs. The resources of the country go to both types of needs. Social needs include things like education, healthcare, defense, transportation and the preservation of natural resources, as well as caring for people who can't contribute to production (such as children, the elderly and the disabled).

Everyone in a socialist society receives a share of the production based on their individual needs and most things aren’t bought with money because they are distributed based on needs and not on means. If a person wishes to have more goods, they need to work more for this, but that would be more easy than in a capitalist society where most of the production don't stay in the hands of the worker.

The most socialist countries in the world include:
 China
 Cuba
 Laos
 Vietnam
 Wa State
 Transnistria

Former socialist countries include:
 Soviet Union
 Yugoslavia
 East Germany
 Democratic Kampuchea

A socialist country is vastly different from countries that practice capitalism.

The main goal of a socialist society is to end exploitation and improve the quality of life of their citizens. 

In a socialist society the logic of the profit dosen't exist so normally things will be cheaper and divided equally.

Forms of government
Hamster

Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 25 species in six or seven genera. They have become established as popular small house pets. They are a bit like a mouse. Wild hamsters live in the desert, but people all over the world keep domesticated hamsters as pets.

In the wild, hamsters are crepuscular and stay underground during the day. They feed on seeds, fruits, and vegetation, and occasionally eat burrowing insects. Hamsters are distinguished by their large cheek pouches, and relatively short tail. They use their long cheek pouches (extending to their shoulders) to carry food back to their burrows.

Even though the Syrian hamster or golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) was first described scientifically by George Robert Waterhouse in 1839, researchers were not able to successfully breed and domesticate hamsters until 1939.

Hamsters as pets 
There are six main types of hamsters: the Syrian hamster (the kind most people have as pets), winter whites, campbells, the Russian dwarf hamster (a hybrid of winter white and Campbell's dwarf hamsters), the Chinese hamster, and the Roborovski hamster. Unlike other species, the Chinese hamster has a long tail. All Syrian hamsters are the descendants of 12 baby hamsters found in Syria in 1930.

Pet hamsters should live in cages with wood shavings or recycled newspaper (pine or cedar shavings are toxic to hamsters). Plain toilet paper is also a cheap, safe option, but straw should only be given in small amounts. Hamsters eat mostly hamster food sold at a pet shop, but they can also eat many vegetables and fruits in small portions. Hamsters store food in natural pouches in the sides of their mouths.

Because they are rodents, hamster incisors grow constantly. They need wooden blocks and hard food to wear the teeth down and prevent them from getting too long. Most hamsters also have a wheel to run on for exercise. A 6-inch (15 cm) wheel is recommended for most dwarf hamsters, and at least an eight-inch (20 cm) wheel for Syrians. If the wheel is too small, the hamster's spine can become bent. Some people get other kinds of exercise equipment for their hamsters, like a "hamster ball" in which the hamster can roll around the floor (though these are not recommended by some animal welfare groups), or a long network of tubes with air holes for hamsters to crawl through. They should live in a tank or cage. Hamsters are not recommended for young children.

References
Watch

A watch is a small clock carried or worn by a person. It makes it easy to see the time. It is also a fashion accessory for men and women, and expensive watches are designed for this purpose. A watch may be one of the few accessories worn by a person.

A wristwatch is designed to be worn on a wrist, attached by a strap or other type of bracelet. A pocket watch is to be carried in a pocket. There are other variations. Nurses often wear a watch attached to the front of their uniform. It hangs down from a short strap: when lifted by the user it is right side up. 

A wrist watch has the advantage of being portable in comparison to traditional watches. 

Watches evolved in the 17th century from spring-powered clocks, which appeared as early as the 14th century. In 1524, Peter Henlein created the first pocket watch. 
The first watches were strictly mechanical, driven by clockwork. 

As technology developed, mechanical watches were largely replaced by vibrating quartz crystals, producing accurately timed electronic pulses. Some watches use radio technology to correct the time and date. The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.

Electronic movements, also known as quartz movements, have few or no moving parts, except a quartz crystal which is made to vibrate by the piezoelectric effect. A varying electric voltage is applied to the crystal, which responds by changing its shape so it works as an oscillator. It resonates at a stable frequency, which paces a timekeeping mechanism. Most quartz movements are primarily electronic but are geared to drive mechanical hands on the face of the watch to give a traditional analog display of the time. Most consumers prefer this.

Some watches are smartwatches, mobile devices similar to smartphones but smaller.

References
Agnosticism

Agnosticism is the philosophical view that it is unknown (or even, unknowable) whether any deities (god or gods) exist or not. 

Some people who call themselves "agnostic" say that it is not possible for anyone ever to know if there are any deities or not. Other agnostics, though, say only that they themselves currently do not know if there are any deities.

Thomas Henry Huxley, the English biologist, coined the word "agnostic" in 1869. In 1889 he wrote "Agnosticism... is not a creed, but a method... the fundamental axiom of modern science...  In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable".

There are several different kinds of agnosticism:
 Absolute agnosticism (also called hard agnosticism, closed agnosticism, strict agnosticism, strong agnosticism) is the belief that it is not possible to know whether a god/gods exists or not.
 Empirical agnosticism (also called soft agnosticism, open agnosticism, weak agnosticism, temporal agnosticism) is the belief that at present there is not enough information to know whether any god/gods exists or not, but that we might find out someday.
 Apathetic agnosticism is the belief that it does not matter whether any god/gods exists or not.

People often have difficulty telling agnosticism and atheism apart. Atheists do not believe in the existence of deities, and some say that they are sure that no deity exists. Some (perhaps most) atheists, though, say that it is up to theists (people who believe in a deity) to give the evidence for a god or to show why someone should believe in a god. They say that there is not enough evidence or a strong enough argument to believe any gods exist. So they reject belief that any exist. While agnostics think we cannot know for sure whether any deities exist, some agnostics do believe at least one deity exists  These people are both agnostic and theistic—they believe at least one deity exists, but do not claim to know that to be true. Some people are both atheist and agnostic—they reject belief in any deities without claiming to know that deities do not exist. Some agnostics cannot decide whether to believe any deities exist or not.

Beliefs related to agnosticism 
 Ignosticism is the belief that the idea of god/gods does not have a good enough definition, so saying "god exists" or "god does not exist" does not mean anything. 
 Agnostic theism believes in the existence of one or more gods. They accept this is unknown or inherently unknowable. 
 Agnostic atheism is the view that a god/gods may or may not exist, but there is no good reason to believe they do.
 Post-theism is the view that religion used to be important, but is not anymore.

All these beliefs point to the lack of evidence.

Related pages
 Atheism
 Religion
 Humanism
 Irreligion
 Skepticism

References 

Secularism
Philosophical movements and positions
Universal Media Disc

UMD can also mean University of Maryland.

The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc made by Sony for their PlayStation Portable handheld console. It can hold up to 900 megabytes (single layer) or 1.8 gigabytes (double layer) of data. The disc can store games, music, and video, along with updates for the PSP. It is the first optical disc format to be used for a handheld video game system. To prevent illegal copying, Sony has not made blank discs available for sale. This disc is not used with any other devices. The UMD is very fragile and can be broken from misuse.

Uses
The primary use for UMD discs is for a storage medium for PSP games, but the format is also used for the storage of movies.

Future
Even though with the release of the PSP Go, most new games continue to be made via UMD, and, aside from those published by SCE, not all have been released on the PSN.

Optical discs
Sony
First-person shooter

A first-person shooter (FPS) is a type of video game. In a first-person shooter, a player sees through the eyes of a character. The character uses a gun to shoot objects or enemies. The character travels and shoots in a three-dimensional world.

History 
The first first-person shooters were made in the 1970s and 1980s.  In the 1970s, schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Illinois made Maze War and Spacism. These games were not sold. In 1980, arcades got a tank game called Battlezone. In 1983, home computers got Battlezone. It was the first successful first-person shooter sold to many people.

In the 1990s, first-person shooters were very popular. Many people played the first-person shooters Wolfenstein 3D and Doom  because they were shareware. In 1998, Half-Life was made. Half-Life was different because it had a strong narrative.

First-person shooter examples:
 Battlefield (series)
 GoldenEye 007 
 Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike Source and Team Fortress 2 Unreal and Unreal Tournament Far Cry the Descent series (including Descent, Descent II and Descent 3)
 Doom Half-Life QuakeTeam Fortress 2 the Call of Duty series
 the Halo series
 Crossfire EU 
the Metroid Prime'' series

 
Types of video games
Video game genres
Read-only memory

Read-only memory (or simply ROM) is a type of computer memory. Unlike RAM, it keeps its contents even when the computer or device is turned off. Usually, ROM cannot be written to when the computer runs normally. ROM is used for the BIOS which tells the computer how to start, or important programs like the firmware of certain devices, which usually does not need to be modified. Usually, ROM comes on computer chips.

There are different kinds of ROMs:
 Masked ROM: This kind is written once, at the factory. It cannot be changed at all later on. Its main benefit is that it is very cheap to make.
 PROM: Can be programmed once. Comes unprogrammed from the factory. Programming consists in removing connections. Invented in 1956, hit has been replaced by EPROMs
 EPROM: This kind can be erased with UV light. Invented in 1972, it became rare early in the 21st century. 
 EEPROM: This kind can be erased using an electrical signal. Today, flash memory is often used.''

References

Computer memory
Computer science
Moss

Mosses are bryophytes, a group of plants without tissue to move water. Mosses evolved from liverworts.p75

Moss tissue does not have cells that move water. This means that they are non-vascular plants. Water must soak into mosses like a sponge. A patch of moss is made of many tiny moss plants packed together so that they can hold water for as long as possible. They do not have roots. Because mosses cannot find water, they live in two ways. They can live in places that are always wet like near a spring, a river, or in a place where there is a lot of fog or has a lot of rainfall. They can also pause their natural processes when they dry up. Mosses can survive months in this paused state. However, they eventually need water to live. This means they can never live in dry places like deserts.

Mosses cannot grow very large because they could not move water to the top of their growth. The largest moss grows in New Zealand. It is about 30 cm tall.

A moss does not make seeds. A moss does not have fruit. The green fuzzy part of a moss that is always there has only one set of DNA. Moss waits until there is lots of food and enough water. Then it produces spores that leave the parent plant and float away. The spores are like dust. They will make more moss. Each spore is male or female. It grows into the green fuzzy part of the moss called the gametophyte. Male gametophyte make sperm. Female gametophyte make eggs. Water moves the sperm from the male moss to the female moss. Then the sperm and the egg join to make a cell with two sets of moss DNA. This cell grows into a different shape called a sporophyte. The sporophyte gets all of its food from the green fuzzy female gametophyte. When the sporophyte grows up, it makes a tiny box with spores inside instead of seeds. The lid on the box falls and the spores float away to repeat the cycle again. This process is called alternation of generations.

Scientists divide the mosses into eight groups. Five of these groups are small, with just a few species; most mosses are in the group called Bryopsida.

References

Other websites
 
 
 

Bryophytes
Grunge music

Grunge music or Seattle sound (as it is called sometimes) is a style of rock music that has elements of punk rock and heavy metal. It started in the mid- 1980s in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, especially in the states of Washington and Oregon. It became more popular in the early 1990s. Grunge songs often had lyrics with nihilism, depression, unhappiness, or apathy as themes. The widespread use of heroin as a recreational drug found its way into the lyrics and careers of numerous grunge rockers, notably Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley of "Alice in Chains".

The songs often had light (or clean) guitar sounds in the verses, and the high energy boost of distorted (or dirty) guitars in the choruses. The line-up for these bands was the typical rock band of guitars, bass, drums and vocal.

Although grunge as a movement became less popular by the last 1990s, its influence is still heard in many bands. Grunge musical sounds were copied by post-grunge bands such as Foo Fighters and Nickelback and nu metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit.

Sound
Grunge music uses music from punk rock and heavy metal. Grunge guitar players use distorted electric guitar. Like punk and heavy metal, grunge bands use electric guitar, bass guitar, a drummer and a singer.

Grunge artists

Some well known grunge artists were:
 Alice in Chains
 Bush
 Smashing Pumpkins
 Hole
 Melvins, The
 Mother Love Bone
 Mudhoney
 Nirvana
 Pearl Jam
 Screaming Trees
 Soundgarden
 Stone Temple Pilots
 Tad
 Temple of the Dog

References 

Rock music
Alternative music
Music in Seattle
Punk rock
Carly Simon

Carly Simon (born June 25, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional children's book writer. She was born in New York City to businessman Richard L. Simon (1899-1960) and Andrea Heinemann Simon (1909-1994). She was raised in Riverdale, The Bronx. She has two sisters - singer Joanna Simon (born 1940) and composer Lucy Simon (born 1943). She also has a brother, photographer Peter Simon.

Simon's songs include: "You're So Vain", "Nobody Does It Better", "Coming Around Again" and "Let the River Run", and "Why".

Other websites 

1945 births
Living people
Best Original Song Academy Award-winning songwriters
Singer-songwriters from New York (state)
Golden Globe Award winners
Grammy Award winners
Singers from New York City
Warner Bros. Records artists
Toto (band)

Toto is a soft rock group that formed in Los Angeles in 1977, that was popular in the early 1980's. Their best known song is "Africa" (1982).

The current band members are Joseph Williams, Steve Lukather, David Paich, and Steve Porcaro.

The former band members were David Hungate, Fergie Frederiksen, Mike Porcaro, Jeff Porcaro, Simon Phillips, Greg Phillinganes, Jean-Michel Byron, Bobby Kimball, and Keith Carlock.

References 

American rock bands
Musical groups from Los Angeles
1970s American music groups
1980s American music groups
1990s American music groups
2000s American music groups
2010s American music groups
Sanford Dole

Sanford Dole (April 23, 1844 – June 9, 1926) was an American politician. Dole was a part of a group of businessmen who first forced a new Hawaiian national constitution on the country during King David Kalakaua's reign and then after his death removed Queen Liliuokalani from the throne and took control of the country in 1893. They removed the queen by threatening to use the warships of the U.S. Navy had in Honolulu harbor. 

Queen Liliuokalani did not want her people to be harmed so she agreed to do what the revolutionists wanted.  The Queen went to Washington and talked to the American President, Grover Cleveland.  Cleveland decided that this had been an act of war against the Hawaiian Kingdom.  Cleveland ordered Sanford Dole, the President of the newly formed republic, to make Liliuokalani the queen again.  

Dole refused to do this. He said that President Cleveland was interfering.  Dole remained the president of Hawaii from 1894 until 1900 after Cleveland was elected out of office.  The newly elected American president William McKinley signed the Newsland Resolution. The Newsland Resolution made Hawaii a territory of the United States.  This ended any legal or military chance of restoring the Queen and the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Dole served as governor of Hawaii from 1900 until 1903, he was the first when he accepted a position as United States District Court judge. He remained a judge until 1915.

Governors of Hawaii
1844 births
1926 deaths
Brisbane

Brisbane (, ; local nickname Brissie) is the seaport capital city and biggest city of Queensland in Australia. It has a population of 2.2 million people and is the third biggest city in Australia, after Sydney and Melbourne.

The central city is on the Brisbane River,  inland from Moreton Bay.

Brisbane is named after the Brisbane River, which is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane who was Governor of New South Wales from 1821 - 1825.

A penal colony was founded at Redcliffe,  to the north, in 1824. It was moved to North Quay in 1825. The first free settlers moved to Brisbane in 1842. Brisbane became the capital city when Queensland became a separate colony from New South Wales in 1859.

Brisbane has more than 50 skyscrapers more than  tall.

Climate 
Brisbane has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa). Summers are hot and wet. Winters are warm and quite dry.

Thunderstorms happen a lot from November to March every year. Very heavy thunderstorms caused big floods and a lot of damage in February 1893, January 1974, January 2011 and January 2013.

The warmest recorded temperature in Brisbane was  on 26 January 1940 and the coldest was  on 2 July 1896.

Local government 

The City of Brisbane, run by Brisbane City Council, covers a big part of the suburbs close to the city. The outer suburbs are part of Logan City to the south, Moreton Bay Region to the north, the City of Ipswich to the south west, Redland City to the south east, with a small part in the Scenic Rim Region to the west.

Education 
Brisbane has many universities and colleges including University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University. The Australian Catholic University, Central Queensland University, James Cook University, University of Southern Queensland and the University of the Sunshine Coast each have a campus in Brisbane.

There are three big vocational schools in Brisbane - Brisbane North Institute of TAFE, Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE and Southbank Institute of TAFE.

Most primary schools and secondary schools are run by the Queensland Government. There are also private, Catholic and other Christian schools.

Sport 

Brisbane hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games, the 1988 World Exposition (called World Expo 88), and some games at the 1987 Rugby World Cup and 2001 Cricket World Cup.

Big sports stadiums include the Brisbane Cricket Ground, Lang Park, Ballymore Stadium and the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.

Brisbane has teams in all Australian sports competitions.

Related pages
 List of tallest buildings in Brisbane

References

Other websites 

 City of Brisbane
 Official tourism website of Brisbane

 
1825 establishments
1820s establishments in Australia
Hawaiian language

The Hawaiian language () is the language of native Hawaiians. Aloha and mahalo are probably its most recognized words. The word lanai is also used in English. (That is different from Lanai, the name of one of Hawaii's islands.)

Related languages
There are related languages in the Marquesas, Raratonga, Samoa, some islands of what is now Fiji and New Zealand. Their languages have changed a lot over the last two thousand years or so. However, native speakers of all these languages can still understand each other.

Letters
The language has only 12 letters (A, E, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, W). There are 13 if you count the okina. The okina is a real letter and came from some "K" sounds in old Polynesian languages. The okina is pronounced as a glottal stop, like the break in the middle of the word "Uh-oh". The okina is written as a backward apostrophe (small numeral 6 above and before a vowel).

Dialects
The Niihau dialect still uses some T, S, R and "hints" of B sounds. People who live on that island are the only people who still speak Hawaiian only and their dialect is the truest to its roots.

Syllables
Every Hawaiian syllable ends with a vowel. There are some who think that makes the language sound "musical". Some think that final vowels helped the speakers remember chanted traditional stories and genealogies. Most linguists, however, think it is because of internal phonological processes.

There are two forms of each of the five vowels. One is regular, where the vowel is pronounced as a Spaniard would say it. The other is extended, in written form, where a horizontal bar called a kahako is over the vowel. The meanings (and pronunciations) of words spelled the same but with or without the appropriate kahakos or okinas can be very different, sometimes even embarrassing.

Learning
One might think that learning the language would be relatively easy, but that only applies to na keiki (children) who have never learned the 26 letters that English speakers use. There is a children's rhyme that goes on for a couple of minutes (and written, probably a couple dozen lines) that consists of nothing but both versions of the letters a, i and the okina. It talks of him (ia) eating (ai) his (iaia) fish (ia). 

When the missionaries made a written form of Hawaiian Language, they did not write the kahakos or okinas; leaving it to the context to make the meanings evident. 

Since the intent was to translate the Bible ("Paipala"), natives forgave some of the confusion created. They still learned how unintended "double entendres" could be funny in written form. When Hawaiian language newspapers started, native-speaking writers and editors were careful to avoid these (the type that was available to "set" did not include such "specialty" characters).

References

Polynesian languages
Hawaii
Skinhead

Skinheads, named after their short haircuts, are members of a subculture that originated in Britain in late 1960s, where they were closely tied to the Rude Boys and the Mods. They shave their heads, because originally most of them were workers in factories and they had to be bald, so their hair could not get caught in the machines. 

Traditional skinheads identify with the original skinhead movement ("The Spirit of '69") in music, style, and/or working class pride. Skinheads listen to ska, rocksteady, reggae, Oi! and punk music.

People who are not part of the group often see Skinheads as being politically close to the Neo-Nazi (or White Power) movement. Often Skinheads are seen as part of that movement. This is wrong, given that there are many young people in the movement who have no political views at all. Many Skinheads are also not violent, unless they are provoked.

Other websites 
 Libcom.org: A Brief History of Skinhead Culture
 Reggae, Reggae, Reggae  The Skinhead Movement and Reggae Music
 Papaskin American skinhead web site with news, images, forum, etc.
 Aussie Skins Australian skinhead web site with news, images, forum, etc.
 Oi! the Truth  History of Oi! according to Garry Bushell
 SHARP Skinheads  UK skinhead site with news, images, forum, etc.
 Skins and Punks in Indonesia! 1400 Photos

Lifestyles
Subculture
Sudan

Sudan is a country in Africa. The official name of Sudan is The Republic of the Sudan. Its capital and largest city is Khartoum.

Geography 
Sudan borders by Egypt to the north, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. Sudan has a sea to the northeast called the Red Sea.

Sudan used to have the largest area of all the countries in Africa.  However, on July 9, 2011, the southern part of the country left and became a new country, South Sudan. Sudan now has an area of . It is the third largest country in Africa by area.  The Nile flows through Sudan, providing water to crops.  There are many different tribal and ethnic groups, though the country is mainly divided between the north, which has more Arabic people, and the south, which has more people of African descent.

Culture 

People from Sudan are called Sudan People. About 45 million people live in Sudan. Almost two million people live in the capital Khartoum.

Arabic is the official language of Sudan. Most of the people speak in the Sudan People dialect, called Sudan People Arabic. Beja and Hausa are other Afro-Asiatic languages that are spoken in certain parts of the country. Dinka and Nuer are the main Nilo-Saharan languages spoken in Sudan. Several Nubian and Niger-Congo languages are also spoken. As a former colony of Great Britain, English is also spoken throughout the country.

Islam is the official state religion and the majority of Sudan people is Muslim, mostly sunni. Along the southern border there are also people who are Christian or animist.

The currency of Sudan is called the Sudan People Pound (SPG) (Jinneh Sudani).

War 
For several years, the Darfur conflict has been going on in Sudan. Over 400,000 people have died in it.

Related pages 
States of Sudan
List of rivers of Sudan
Sudan at the Olympics
Sudan national football team
Muhammed Ahmed, the Mahdi

References

Other websites

 
English-speaking countries
Least developed countries
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
1956 establishments in Africa
North African countries
OpenBSD

OpenBSD is a secure, free computer operating system. Many different types of computers can be used with OpenBSD, including Intel PCs and Apple Computer's PowerPCs.

Like the other open source BSDs and unlike with most Linux operating systems, the whole operating system is developed by the same group of people with OpenBSD. Programmes from other sources are available separately.

OpenBSD is often the first to add new security tools to make it harder to break, developers have also carefully read through the programming code to check for mistakes more than once. The project is led by Theo de Raadt from Calgary, Alberta, Canada and is released under conditions which put few restrictions on people that use the source code, the BSD licence.

OpenBSD releases new versions every six months, each version is supported for one year after release. OpenBSD 4.4 was released November 1, 2008.

OpenBSD's first mascot was a BSD daemon with a halo, it was replaced with Puffy, a pufferfish, on June 15th, 2000, with the release of OpenBSD 2.7.

The operating system's developers add in many new technologies to make the system more secure and harder to break, technologies like W^X, Stack Protection, malloc reconfigurations and ssh to replace telnet and rlogin.

Because it is so secure, OpenBSD is often used as a firewall and for other security-related jobs. It is also usable for on a desktop computer, it can act and look like one of several other operating systems like Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and others.

Related pages
 NetBSD
 FreeBSD
 DragonFly BSD
 POSSE project
 KAME project

Other websites 

 The OpenBSD homepage
 OpenBSD journal
 O'Reilly Network: An Interview with OpenBSD's Marc Espie 
 One floppy OpenBSD MP3 Player and router/NAT/Firewall 
 mdoc.su — short manual page URLs, a URL shortener written in nginx
 OpenBSD ports — full-text search to find applications ported to OpenBSD and available to install as packages
 BXR.SU — OpenBSD source code search (can be useful to see if your new computer parts are supported)

BSD
Free software
Operating systems