alibayram/wikipedia-40-langs huggingface dataset:
Counterpoint

Counterpoint is the art of composing music by combining different parts (voices) in a way that sounds nice.  Music composed like this is called contrapuntal.

If the tune of Twinkle, twinkle little star is played on the piano and then some chords are added, this is harmony, not counterpoint. Instead, if the tune of Twinkle, twinkle little star was played while another melody was played, this would be considered counterpoint.

A different way of playing it would be to start the tune with the right hand.  Then, in the second bar (measure), as the fifth note is played, the left hand starts to play the tune an octave lower.  This works well for a time, but in the fifth bar (on the word “Up” in the right hand part) it starts to get dissonant (sounding unpleasant), so changes need to made to the left hand to make it sound nicer.  This way of writing with a particular number of parts (in this case: two) is called "contrapuntal music".

In that example the left hand imitated the right hand at first.  This is called imitation.

If the second part had continued to imitate all the way through the piece it would have been a canon.  But “Twinkle, twinkle” does not work well as a canon.  One famous canon is by Thomas Tallis.  A canon that can be repeated is called a  round.  This is all contrapuntal music.

Counterpoint does not have to have imitation, although it often does.  The important thing is that each part (i.e. each voice) is equally important.  It is not one part singing the tune and the rest just accompanying.

Counterpoint does not have to be one note against one note.  There can be two or more notes in one part against one in the other e.g. crotchets (quarter notes) in one part and quavers (eighth notes) in another.  There is a whole system for this called “species”.

Counterpoint can be varied by inverting it, i.e. putting the top part at the bottom.  When music is written so that the parts can be swapped round it is called "invertible counterpoint".

The word “counterpoint” comes from the Latin “punctus contra punctum” meaning “point against point”.  The word “point” meant “note”.  Several hundred years ago composers found how to write contrapuntal music.  They often took a main tune (called a “Cantus Firmus”) and then added one or two or more parts to it.  The more parts there were the harder it was to compose because it all had to fit so that it sounded good.  Music for several voices written in this way is called polyphonic music.  Polyphony was used in all church music in the Renaissance.  The greatest composer of polyphony was Giovanni da Palestrina (1525-1594).  Students learning the art of composition today still learn counterpoint by taking Palestrina’s music as their model.

References

Related pages 
Fugue
canon (music)

Music genres
Music theory
Sterilisation

Sterilisation (which some people spell Sterilization) is a process that makes animals or humans that are able to bear offspring unable to do so.

Sterilisation often is done for a way of birth control or childfree. But it have been often done against the will of the person, this is called "compulsory sterilisation."

Related pages 
 Sterilization (microbiology)

Biological reproduction
Cerberus

In Greek mythology, Cerberus (, Kérberos; Latin: Cerberus) is the monstrous, multi-headed dog that guards the entrance to the Underworld, preventing the souls of the dead from leaving. 

Often called the "hound of Hades", Cerberus was one of the numerous offspring of the monsters Typhon and Echidna; he is usually depicted as having three heads, along with a serpent for a tail. Cerberus is primarily known for being captured by Herakles, as the last of the hero's Twelve Labors.

Other websites

Greek legendary creatures
Afterlife
Gods and goddesses of the underworld
Smallpox

Smallpox was a dangerous disease with a high mortality rate. It no longer exists as an epidemic disease. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977. The World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980 (said there was no more).

It was caused by a virus. There are two different species of viruses that can cause the disease. They are Variola major and Variola minor. Some people also call smallpox Variola, from the Latin work for "spotted" which is also the viruses' scientific name.

Only humans can get this disease, but it probably came from a virus which infected animals. Variola major killed between 20% and 40% of those who got it. Variola minor killed only about 1%. Many people who survived become blind because of the damage the virus did to the eyes.

During the first half of the 20th century, between 300 million and 500 million people died of this disease. Even in 1967, about 15 million people caught the disease, and about two million people died of it, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The first vaccine for smallpox used the results of cowpox infections. It was invented by Edward Jenner. It was used to stop people from getting smallpox.  The word "vaccine" came from "vaccina", the Latin word for cow, because cowpox was used. The WHO (World Health Organisation) vaccinated people all over the world. In 1980, the WHO said the disease no longer existed, and no one would ever get sick from it again. Live copies of smallpox are kept in maximum-security laboratories around the world to make sure the disease can never infect people again.

Some people believe that smallpox could be used as an agent for purposely infecting enemies in a war. Today, most people no longer receive a smallpox shot.

Related pages 
 Cowpox
 Poxviridae
 List of diseases

References
Shaka

Shaka kaSenzangakhona (sometimes spelled Tshaka, Tchaka or Chaka; ca. 1787 – ca. 22 September 1828) was the most important leader of the Zulu Empire. He joined the Zulu tribal groups together into the beginnings of a nation. This Zulu nation ruled a large area of southern Africa, between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu rivers. His leadership and his energy make him one of the greatest Zulu chieftains. He has been called a military genius for his changes and new ideas. However, there were also brutal and cruel things that happened when he was in charge.

Zulu leader 
Shaka maintained a good relationship with the Europeans in Africa, including the Colonial leaders. He was disliked by other Africans, including his own people, who hated his constant wars. 

Ten years of  warfare placed incredible strains on the Zulu nation. Shaka, unstable and worried about being replaced by an heir, finally snapped into madness after the death of his mother in 1828. He imposed a year of celibacy on his people. He killed anyone who did not show enough sadness at the death of his mother. He was killed within the year by his half-brother, Dingane, who succeeded him as ruler. 

Even though he created brutal conditions for his subjects, he created the powerful Zulu Kingdom.

References 

1781 births
1828 deaths
African people
History of South Africa
Assassinated people
Halo

A halo is a ring of light that surrounds an object. Also, in much religious art, it may be seen surrounding the heads of saintly people such as Jesus.

It is believed by some Hindus that the halo shown around the heads of holy people is a depiction of their  "activated" crown chakra.

Halos are visual phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of optical halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in certain types of clouds. The shape of the crystals changes the type of halo seen. Light is reflected by the ice and may split into colors, similar to the rainbow.

Other websites 

 Halo explanations and image galleries  at Atmospheric Optics

Optics
Greek underworld

The underworld is the place in Greek mythology where people go when they die. The underworld is controlled by Hades, one of the three main gods. The underworld's gates are guarded by the three-headed dog, Cerberus.  The underworld was surrounded by five rivers.  The Acheron was the river of woe, the Cocytus was the river of lamentation, the Phlegethon the river of fire, the Styx, the river of the unbreakable oath by which the gods took their vows, and the Lethe the river of forgetfulness.  When entering the underworld, Charon would take those with gold coins to the underworld.  Not everyone could enter, because not everyone had golden coins to pay the fare. 

Three judges, by the names of Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus, would then decide where you would go.  People that lived normal lives would go to The Fields of Asphodel.  Heroes would go to The Fields of Elysium.  People who did horrible things would go the Fields of Punishment.  If you were put into Elysium, you could choose to be reborn or stay.  If you went to Elysium three times, then you went to the Isle of the Blessed.  This was like the ultimate heaven. Tartaros () was another place in the underworld, where immortal enemies of the current Twelve Olympians are eternally punished, for example Kronos and the other Titans. Tartaros overlaps with the fields of punishment.

Other websites 

Underworld
Afterlife
Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire, (, ) was a Muslim empire in South Asia which existed from 1526 to 1858. The Mughal rule over India is called an Empire because it stretched over a large area.  When it was biggest it ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, then known as Hindustan, and parts of what is now India, Afghanistan and modern Pakistan and Bangladesh, between 1526 and 1707. Worth 25% of world GDP, it was the world's largest economy and it was well known for having signalled the proto-industrialization and for its lavish architecture.

The Mughal emperors were Turk-Mongols originally. Babur of the Timurid dynasty founded the Mughal Empire (and Mughal dynasty) in 1526 and ruled until 1530. He was followed by Humayun (1530-1540) and (1555-1556), Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627), Shah Jahan (1628-1658), and the Islamic Aurangzeb (1658-1707) and several other minor rulers until Bahadur Shah Zafar II(1837-1857). After the death of Aurangzeb, the rule through sharia ended and the Mughal Empire became weak. It continued until 1857-58. By that time, India came under the British Raj. Test of living male descendant show's Y-DNA R-M198 (R1A1).

The Mughal Empire was established by able Muslim rulers who came from the present-day Uzbekistan after defeating the Delhi sultanate. The Mughal rule in India saw the country being united as one single unit and being administered under one single powerful ruler. During the Mughal period, art and architecture flourished and many beautiful monuments were constructed. The rulers were skillful warriors and admirers of art as well.

References

 
1526 establishments
1858 disestablishments
1520s establishments in Asia
19th-century disestablishments in Asia
British Raj

The British Raj was a colony of the British Empire from 1858 to 1947.  "Raj" is a word in Hindi that means "rule" and so "British Raj" means rule by the British Empire in South Asia. The area is now in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The British Raj is also called the British Indian Empire or the Indian Empire.

The term "British Raj" is used for the direct British rule over areas that had been conquered by the British, which are known as British India and included the British influence over many independent princely states. Those areas were governed by their own traditional rulers although they were under the overall authority of the British crown.

Undivided India is another term to mean the whole area of British rule, but it does not include Burma, which became in 1937 its own British colony.  The colony of Aden came under the same government from 1858 to 1937, as were British Somaliland (now part of Somalia) from 1884 to 1898 and Singapore from 1858 to 1867.

British rule ended on 15 August 1947. The borders between India and Pakistan came into effect on the 18 August. Many people died during the Partition of India.

Jammu and Kashmir, like the other princely states, had not been under direct British rule. India and Pakistan went to war over the area, which is now divided between them.

The 1861 census showed that the British population in the subcontinent was 125,945. Only 41,862 of them were civilians as compared with 84,083 European officers and men of the Army. In 1880, the standing Indian Army consisted of 66,000 British soldiers, 130,000 natives, and 350,000 soldiers in the princely armies.

References

 
History of Pakistan
Myanmar
Viceroys
1858 establishments
1850s establishments in the United Kingdom
19th-century establishments in India
19th-century establishments in Pakistan
Establishments in Bangladesh
1947 disestablishments in India
1947 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
1850s establishments in Asia
1940s disestablishments in Asia
Lever

A lever is a simple machine. It is something that can be used in a lot of ways. One way is by measuring things, or by seeing which weighs more. A lever is supported by a fulcrum which it uses to lifts weights. It is one of six simple machines. There are three types of levers: first-class, second-class and third-class.

Early
The earliest remaining writings about levers are from the 3rd century BC. They were written by Archimedes. "Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth." is a famous quote from Archimedes who stated the correct mathematical principle of levers (quoted by Pappus of Alexandria).

Types of levers
There are three kinds of levers. The difference between them is where the fulcrum is and where the forces are acting.

First class

A first-class lever is a lever where the fulcrum is in between the effort and resistance (the load). Seesaws and crowbars are examples of first class levers.

Second class
A second-class lever is where the resistance is between the effort and the fulcrum. Wheel barrows and wrenches are examples of second class levers.

Third class
A third class lever is where the effort is between the resistance and the fulcrum. Staplers and your forearm are examples of third class levers.

References 

Engineering
Tools
Pulley

A pulley is a simple machine that is used to lift heavy objects. Block and tackle system is a modified form of a pulley. Pulleys are usually used in sets designed to make the amount of force needed to lift something smaller.A pulley may be simple, but this is used in complex things like elevators!

Types of pulleys
 Static A static or class 1 pulley has an axle that is "staticed" or is stationary, meaning that it cannot be moved.  A fixed pulley is used to redirect the force in a rope (called a belt when it goes in a full circle).  A fixed pulley has a mechanical advantage of 1. The static pulley has a wheel and an axle.
 Movable A movable or class 2 pulley has an axle that is "free" to move in space.  A movable pulley is used to transform forces.  A movable pulley has a mechanical advantage of 2.  That is, if one end of the rope is anchored, pulling on the other end of the rope will apply a doubled force to the objecT attached to the pulley.
 Compound A compound pulley is a combination fixed and movable pulley system.
 Block and tackle - A block and tackle is a compound pulley where several pulleys are mounted on each axle, further increasing the mechanical advantage.  Plutarch reported that Archimedes moved an entire warship, laden with men, using compound pulleys and his own strength.
Pulleys are useful in construction sites. 

Mechanics
Tools
1526



Events 
 First battle of Panipat – Babur becomes Mughal emperor of India, captures Delhi, and invades Northern India. Beginning of the Mughal Empire which would last until 1858.

Births 
 26 September 1511

Deaths
Isaiah Berlin

Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a British philosopher. He was born in Riga, Latvia, which at the time was a part of the Russian Empire. He was Jewish, and was the first Jew to win the prize of a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford University.

Reputation
Isaiah Berlin was an important person of the 20th century. People see him as an important thinker of Liberalist ideas. He was made a member of the Order of Merit and was a professor at the University of Oxford. He made a distinction between positive liberty and negative liberty. His most famous work is probably Two Concepts of Liberty (where he introduced this distinction.) He died 5 November 1997.

1909 births
1997 deaths
20th-century British philosophers
Jewish British academics
Jewish British scientists
Knights Bachelor
Latvian Jews
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
Order of Merit
People from Riga
Russian Jews
Latvian writers
Latvian scientists
Guru Granth Sahib

The Guru Granth Sahib , also called Adi Granth, is the holy book of the religion Sikhism. It contains prayers, and hymns of Sikh religion. Sikhs believe the Guru Granth Sahib to be a living Guru, hence the Guru Granth Sahib has its own place also commonly known as 'Sach Khand' (the Heaven).

The name of the book is made up of three words. The first word is Guru, and a Guru in Sanskrit language means a teacher. Granth is a word of Hindi, and this means a book. The third word Sahib is a word of Urdu language and it means master. Thus, the Guru Granth Sahib means a Master Book by the Teacher. The Guru Granth Sahib, is a collection of hymns of the first five "Sikh Gurus", the "Ninth Guru", and various saints, or bhagats Sikhs and others such as Baba Farid.

But what makes it so significant is that it has the solution to every problem in the World. The Granth teaches us how we should live, and promotes a modern ideology. This is why it makes it so important to Sikhs.

The book is usually placed in the centre of the gurdwara, high up under a roof.They treat it as a living guru, waving a chaura(fan) over it and decorate its "seat"

It is written in the script  called Gurmukhi. The first composition in the Guru Granth Sahib is Mool mantar by Guru Nanak Dev Ji. 

Sikhism
Religious texts
1600s books
Zeno of Elea

Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy. He was born about 495 BC and died about 430 BC: the exact dates are not known meaning he was around the age of 65 years old.

Zeno a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of dialectic. He is best known for his paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell has described as "immeasurably subtle and profound".

Zeno also founded the Stoic School of Philosophy.

He was labeled as the "inventor of dialect" by Aristotle

Works 
Although many ancient writers refer to the writings of Zeno, not one of his writings have survived intact.

Plato says that Zeno's writings were "brought to Athens for the first time on the occasion of" the visit of Zeno and Parmenides

According to Proclus in his Commentary on Plato's Parmenides, Zeno produced "not less than forty arguments revealing contradictions", but only nine are now known.

Zeno's arguments are perhaps the first examples of a method of proof called reductio ad absurdum, meaning to reduce to the absurd. This destructive method of argument was used by him to such an extent that he became famous for it.

Related pages 
Zeno's paradoxes

References 

490s BC births
5th-century BC deaths
Presocratic philosophers
Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium (sometimes called Zeno Apathea) (333 BC264 BC) was a Syrian philosopher. He was the student of Carates of Thebes, who was the most famous cynic at that time. He started the Stoic school of philosophy.

References

333 BC births
264 BC deaths
Ancient Greek philosophers
Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain is a term related to the Cold War. It means the border between the states that were members of the Warsaw Pact (in Eastern Europe), and those that were not (then called The West).

This border was between East Germany and West Germany, between Czechoslovakia and Austria, and between Hungary and Austria. 

At the end of World War II Austria, Germany and Berlin were divided into four zones. In 1955, a treaty was signed. The treaty said that the Allied forces must leave Austria. In return, the Austrian government promised to do certain things, like not form a territorial union with Germany and recognise certain minorities, amongst others. The whole of Europe was separated into a Soviet Union zone in the East and a neutral or US-dominated zone in the West. The splitting of Europe, Germany and especially Berlin into two political blocks was part of the Cold War between the United States of America and other western countries on one side and the Soviet Union and its allies on the other. The wartime Allied Forces split after their common enemy, Nazi Germany, was defeated in May 1945.

The idea of the Iron Curtain was referring to the separation of the communist Europe compared to the democratic west, it was the idea that what was happening in the satellite states and in Russia was secret to the rest of the world. Satellite state refers to a country being controlled by another, in this case Russia was controlling countries such as Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and others which were previously controlled by Germany in WW2.

The idea of the Iron Curtain was made public by Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in 1946 when he was invited to speak at American University by Harry S. Truman (the American president at the time). Churchill's speech was seen by Nikita Khrushchev; leader of the USSR from 1958 until 1964 as a declaration of war, as Churchill urged a struggle against the Soviet Union.

References

Other websites
 Homepage for Susanna Lapossy's book Life Behind the Iron Curtain (about Iron Curtain times in Hungary)

20th century in Europe
Communism
Indus Valley civilization

The Indus Valley civilization was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BC; mature period 2700–1700 BC).

The civilization was in the subcontinent. It was discovered by archaeologists in the 1880s.
It developed along the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River. These areas are now in modern Pakistan, north-west India and Afghanistan. 

The civilization started during the Bronze Age and the height of its development was between 2500 BC and 1500 BC. Including the civilizations directly before and after, it may have lasted from the 33rd to the 14th century BC.

The Indus Valley civilization covered a large area  from Balochistan (Pakistan) to Gujarat (Republic of India). The first city to be discovered by excavation (digging up) was Harappa and so this civilization is also called the 'Harappan Civilization'.

They were good builders. The ruins of the site shows skillful design. Their buildings had two or sometimes more storeys. The bathrooms were attached to the rooms.  One of the unique features of the city was its elaborate drainage system. A brick-lined drainage channel flowed alongside every street. Removable bricks were placed at regular intervals for easy cleaning and inspection.

The Harappan traders used seals on the knots of the sacks to be transported to make sure that they were not opened during the journey. Nobody knows how to read their writing system.

In 1842 Charles Masson wrote a book that mentioned the sites of Indus Valley Civilisation. Few people paid attention. Later, in 1921/22, John Marshall organised the first archaeological dig at Harappa.

References 

4th millennium BC
Ancient India
History of Afghanistan
3rd millennium BC
2nd millennium BC
Sumer

Sumer is the earliest known civilization in southern Mesopotamia (in modern-day southern Iraq). They may have been one of  the first civilizations in the world, as were Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley.

Sumer started around 3500 BC. The Sumerian civilization grew along the Tigris and Euphrates. This land was good for growing food. Sumerian culture is famous for its written cuneiform script - where letters were formed by pressing a triangle shaped reed into wet-clay tiles. They are also credited with creating the wheel, and dividing a day into 24 hours, and each hour into 60 minutes.

The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC. Early cuneiform script writing emerged in 3000 BC.

Sumerian communities were organized into city-states, each ruled by a priest or king, until Akkad conquered them in the third millennium BC. One of the most famous Sumerian cities was Ur (not the same city as Uruk, but near it).

Relations with the Akkadians 
During the 3rd millennium BC, a close cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians, who spoke a language isolate, and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism.

The Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, may have been the world's first city.

The Sumerians lost their identity with their language around 2000 BC, because a large group of different people, the Amorites, moved into their region. The Sumerian language continued as a religious language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, for as long as cuneiform was used.

Clothing
The Sumerians made their clothing by using the natural resources that were available to them. Clothing was made from wool or flax which Sumerians could raise and harvest. How thick or how coarse the clothing was related to the season in which it was worn. Heavier clothing was worn in the winter, lighter clothing in the summer.

Men were bare-chested and wore skirt-like clothes that tied at the waist. Women usually wore dresses that covered them from their shoulders to their ankles. The right arm and shoulder were left uncovered. Men were either clean shaven or had long hair and beards. Women wore their hair long, but they usually braided it and wrapped it around their heads. When entertaining guests, women placed headdresses in their hair.

Although both rich and poor Sumerians wore the same style of clothing, the richer Sumerians wore clothing that was made out of expensive and luxurious materials. Rich women and princesses also wore clothing that was colorful and bright.

Both men and women wore earrings and necklaces. During celebrations, even more jewelry was worn. The wealthier Sumerians often wore beautiful gold and silver bracelets and earrings. Sumerians also wore necklaces with bright, precious stones. Some of these stones were lapis lazuli and carnelian.

Related pages 
Ur
Uruk

References 

Mesopotamia
4th millennium BC
Cingular Wireless

Cingular Wireless was a mobile phone company from the United States. Cingular Wireless was created in 2000, by a joint venture of SBC Communications Inc. and the BellSouth Corporation.  AT&T Mobility LLC bought Cingular in 2006. Cingular became AT&T Wireless. The first  iPhone was sold in Cingular Wireless stores.

References

American telephone companies
Mobile phones
Companies based in Atlanta
2001 establishments in the United States
Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is an American comedy television series. It was made in the U.S. state of Minnesota from 1988 to 1999. The series was at first made for a local station in Minnesota. It was later moved to Comedy Central, and then The Sci-Fi Channel. The series was about a man (originally Joel Robinson, played by Joel Hodgson, the show's creator, and later Mike Nelson, played by Michael J. Nelson, the show's head writer), who is put in a spaceship by an evil scientist. He was forced to watch some of the worst movies ever made. Joel makes some robots to keep him company. Two of the robots, named Crow T. Robot (played by Trace Beaulieu and, later Bill Corbett) and Tom Servo (played by Josh Weinstein and later Kevin Murphy), watch the movies with him. While the movie is shown, the three make jokes and comments about the movie they watch.

Other websites 
Satellite News - The Official Mystery Science Theater 3000 Web Site
Complete episodes on Google video
MST3K Wiki

1988 American television series debuts
1999 American television series endings
1980s American television series
1990s American television series
American comedy television series
Netflix original series
English-language television programs
Blaze Starr

Blaze Starr (born Fannie Belle Fleming; 10 April 1932 – 15 June 2015) was an American stripper and burlesque star. In the 1950s, she became well known in the United States. Besides her burlesque dancing, her affair with Governor Earl Long of the state of Louisiana got her more popularity.

Early life
Starr was born in rural Wayne County, West Virginia. She lived in Washington, D.C. and in Baltimore, Maryland during her youth.

Affair with the Governor
When Blaze Starr first met Governor Long in 1958, her first feeling was fear. She was afraid she was going to jail when the Governor of Louisiana walked in with the police during a dance. When the Governor and the police gave Blaze a standing ovation, she was dumbfounded. Blaze had never known a politician who went to a show bar for any reason other than to cause the dancers trouble. After her show, the Governor asked for her to come to his table. They became friends.

Their relationship quickly grew into a love affair. Soon coworkers, reporters, and voters all knew of the affair. Mrs. Blanche Long, the Governor's wife, told hospital people that Earl was crazy and had him put away. She thought this would make Earl end the affair with Blaze. The affair continued until the day Earl died in 1960.

Her life was exciting and full of adventures. In the 1950s, stripping was more of an art form. It was not just women taking off their clothes to get men into bed. Blaze was close to her family. Blaze met her perfect match when she met Earl. He accepted her life style and she accepted his. They fulfilled each other's needs for companionship, compassion, and love.

Death
Starr died on June 15, 2015 at her home in Wilsondale, West Virginia.  She was 83 years old. She had been worried about the health of her dog, whom she adopted as a stray. Her sister, Cathy Fleming, believed this stress, along with a "severe heart condition", killed her. Her dog died hours later.

References

Other websites
Blaze Star Gems  (official site)

1932 births
2015 deaths
Actors from West Virginia
American adult models
Comedians from West Virginia
American erotic dancers
Disease-related deaths in West Virginia
Deaths from heart disease
Zip drive

The Zip drive is a data storage device. The company Iomega introduced it in late 1994.

Originally it only supported 100 MB disks, but later versions began to support 250 MB and 750 MB disks.

Higher capacity Zip disks must be used in a drive with at least the same capacity ability. Generally, higher capacity drives also handle all lower capacity media. However, it is slower to write data on a 100 MB disk with a 250 MB Zip drive than with a 100 MB Zip drive.

Zip drives can transmit data to the computer in various ways. Internal drives have been made with IDE and SCSI interfaces. External drives can use SCSI, parallel port or USB interface.

Zip disks are thicker than 3.5" (9 cm) floppy disks. Nevertheless, zip disks are quite similar in appearance to regular floppy disks. This means the Zip drive slot is large enough to accept such a floppy disk.  However, they are not interchangeable.

storage devices
Cantata

A cantata is a type of singing which is done accompanied by an instrument(s). By contrast, a cappella specifically refers to unaccompanied singing. The word(cantata) etymologically comes from the Italian word  which means "to sing".  The word "cantata" was used mainly in the 17th and 18th century to describe music with religious words that were sung by a choir or by soloists or both, accompanied by instruments. The most famous cantatas are those by Johann Sebastian Bach. Nearly all his cantatas are sacred (written for church services). Very often he used Lutheran hymn tunes (chorales) for the first and last movements. In between there are movements for solo singers: recitatives and arias. An example is Bach's cantata no 80 which is based on the chorale "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" (“A safe stronghold our God is still”). The whole work is about being safe in the hands of God. This is what the sermon would have been about. The congregation would join in singing the chorale towards the end of the cantata.

Other composers, such as Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) wrote cantatas which were secular (not religious). The word "cantata" has also been used in the 20th century by composers such as Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Benjamin Britten (1913-1976).

Thus the term came to apply to any and all forms of accompanied songs.

Musical forms
Clavichord

A clavichord is a musical instrument like a small keyboard. It was very popular for many years, especially in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

Sound 
The clavichord is a very quiet instrument. It is not suitable for playing with other instruments because it is so quiet. But it sounds very beautiful in slow, expressive music. It is used as a practice instrument by harpsichord players, or by organists who wanted to practice at home instead of in a (often very cold) church. They were so small that they could be lifted up and put on a table. They could be put one on top of another so that an organist could practise music written for a two-manual organ. Sometimes, they even had pedals for organists to practice this skill.

Uses 
Many German composers like Johann Sebastian Bach wrote music for the “Clavier”. This meant any keyboard instrument: harpsichord, clavichord or organ. The player could choose which they wanted to use.

When the piano suddenly became popular – in the 1760s and 1770s – people started to forget about harpsichords and clavichords. Today a few people make harpsichords and clavichords again so that people can play Renaissance and Baroque music - the music from when the clavichord was popular.

Other websites

Keyboard instruments
Early musical instruments
String instruments
Percussion instruments
Harmony

Harmony means playing several notes together to make “chords”.  The word comes from the Greek harmonia meaning "to join things up" .  A tune by itself can sound nice, but it can be “harmonized” by adding an accompaniment of chords.  Studying how to do this is called harmonization.  Music students learn which chords sound nice after one another.  These are called “chord progressions”.  Many music theorists have written books about harmony.

Music which is made of a tune with harmony underneath is called “homophonic”.  In a way it is the opposite of polyphonic which means that each part (each voice) is a tune in itself. However, even polyphony needs to make pleasant harmony. Harmony as we know it in European music had become fully developed by the Baroque period (17th century).

One can play a chord with three notes using the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale of whatever key the music is in.  This gives a chord which sounds like the “home chord”.  This means that at least three notes are needed for harmony.  In most homophonic music there are four: for example a choir will normally divide into soprano, alto, tenor and bass, or a string quartet will divide into violin 1, violin 2, viola and cello.

Harmony which uses just the notes of the key (e.g. just using white notes for C major) is called “tonal harmony”.

Harmony which adds lots of extra sharps and flats is called “chromatic harmony”.

If music is not in any key at all, like in some music by Arnold Schoenberg, it is “atonal”.  Harmony can be atonal.

music theory
Bow (weapon)

This article is about the weapon. For other meanings, see Bow (disambiguation).

A bow is a weapon used to shoot arrows. It is used in hunting, sport, and a long time ago, war.

Using a bow is called archery. A person who uses a bow is an archer and a person who makes bows is a bowyer.

A bow is  a long curved stick and a string which is tied to both ends. Ancient bows were made of natural materials like wood or bone and sinew, but today they are often made of plastic and similar materials.

To shoot a bow, the arrow is put on the bow, with one end to the string, which is pulled back. When the string is let loose, it throws the arrow forwards.

There are many different types of bows, for example the longbow or the automatic crossbow and the compound bow.  

There are many different ways that people protect themselves from arrow attacks. The Roman Army, for instance, had the testudo formate, or tortoise formation. They first made the shields lock into a somewhat tortoise like formation, which provide a shell that was make out of shields. The arrows would eventually run out, and the Romans would charge.

Reading
 

Archery
Weapons
Nuclear physics

Nuclear physics is the part of physics that studies the nucleus of the atom. Everything on the earth is made up of atoms; they are the smallest part of a chemical element that still has the properties of that specific element. When two or more atoms combine they create what we know as the molecule, which is the smallest part of a chemical compound which still has the properties of that specific compound. Understanding the structure of atoms is key in studies such as physics, chemistry, biology, etc.

Atoms

Structure 
Atoms are made up of electrons, neutrons, and protons. The protons and neutrons are in the center of the atom, which is called the nucleus. The protons and neutrons are the heaviest part of the atom and make up most of its mass. The electrons move around the nucleus very quickly, making what is called an electron cloud. The electron cloud has a very small mass, but it makes up most of the space of the atom. The electrons have a negative charge, and the protons have a positive charge. Due to the charges in the atom, that is how the atom stays together, by attraction of the electric charges present in the atom.

Properties 
Atoms have different features that single out one atom from another, and show how each atom can change in different conditions. These properties include atomic number, mass number, atomic mass and weight, and isotopes.

Forces acting 
In an atom there are three fundamental forces that keep atoms together. electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. The electromagnetic force keeps the electrons attached to the atom. The strong nuclear  force keeps the protons and neutrons together in the nucleus. The weak nuclear force controls how the atom decays.

Quantum 
In the early 20th century, scientists had trouble explaining the behavior of atoms using their current knowledge of matter. So to deal with this they made a brand new way to view matter and energy, and they called it quantum theory. Quantum theory explains how matter acts both as a particle and a wave.

Radiation 

Atoms emit radiation when their electrons lose energy and drop down to lower orbitals. The difference in energy between the orbitals determines the wavelength of the given radiation. This radiation can be shown by visible light or shorter wavelengths.

 
Nuclear energy
Seljuk Empire

The Seljuk Empire was an empire of the Seljuk Turks and a Muslim dynasty. It ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to the 14th centuries. It was founded by Tughril Beg in 1037. The Seljuk Empire stretched from Anatolia and the Levant to Afghanistan. It was replaced by the Khwarezmian Empire in 1194.

The Seljuk Empire united the eastern Islamic world, and fought against the Crusaders in the First Crusade and Second Crusade. The Seljuk Empire made several long lasting changes. These affected the region even after the empire was gone. Among them was making Farsi the language for history and events. They also shifted the center for the Arabic language culture from Baghdad to Cairo.

References

Other websites
 
 

Former monarchies of Asia
Former empires
History of Iran
Medieval Azerbaijan
Former countries in Asia
Former countries in the Middle East
Royal dynasties
11th-century establishments in Asia
14th-century disestablishments in Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region in Asia. The countries in Central Asia are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan (which are mainly Turkic states) but also includes Tajikistan, and parts of China and Mongolia. The United Nations also includes Afghanistan as part of Central Asia.

History 
People have lived in the region of Central Asia since prehistoric times. Most of the region was part of the Silk Road. It was a part of the Persian Empire until Alexander The Great captured it. When he died, the land was given to his general Seleucus. Seleucus slowly lost it to the Parthians.  When the Parthians (the Parthians were Persians) lost power, the Sassanids added it to their own Persian empire. However, a couple years later, during about the 600's A.D, Arab armies spreading the faith of Islam quickly captured it. A while later, an Iranian dynasty got semi- autonomy under the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad. They were known as the Samanids. The Samanids controlled most of Central Asia and Northwestern Iran. They had power over this area during the 10th century. With them, Central Asian cities, such as Bukhara and Samarkand, grew in culture. 

However, Turkic armies from this area took the region away from them. They were known as the Seljuk Turks. At the same time, Timur captured it. After his death, the Timurids (the name of the people of the dynasty Timur founded) could not hold unto their empire. They lost it to the Mongols. When the Mongols captured it, burned it to the ground. A while later, some rulers decided to make their own empires under that of the Mongols. These empires were known as Khanates. During the 19th century the Russian Empire conquered these lands. Many years later in 1991, all of the countries of Central Asia declared independence.

Economy 
Uzbekistan has much cotton. Kazakhstan is rich because it has sold oil, gas and metals to Europe and China. Turkmenistan has adjusted better to independence from the Soviet Union than the other Central Asian countries, but it has been run by a dictatorship. Other than Kazakhstan, most of Central Asia are mostly underdeveloped.

Related pages
 Dagestan
 East Turkestan (Xinjiang, China)
 Kashmir (Northern Pakistan and India)
 Kazakhstan
 Kyrgyzstan
 Tajikistan (South-central Asia)
 Tatarstan
 Turkmenistan (South-central Asia)
 Uzbekistan
 Mongolia (and Inner Mongolia, China)
 Soviet Union
 Soviet Central Asia

 General Map of Central Asia: I from 1874

References
Turkestan

Turkestan (Turkish: Türkistan, Kazakh: Түркістан, Uzbek: Turkiston, Turkmen: Türküstan, , Chinese: 突厥斯坦, literally "Land of Turks") is a region of Central Asia around the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea. Much of it is currently in China. During the 20th century, much of it was in the Soviet Union.

The main ethnic groups in the area are Turks, Chinese, Mongols and Persians.

Related pages 
 Turkic peoples

Other websites 
 Welcome to Turkistan 

Regions of Asia
Central Asia
Nationalism
Cathode ray tube

The cathode ray tube or CRT was invented by Karl Ferdinand Braun. It was the most common type of display for many years. It was used in almost all computer monitors and televisions until LCD and plasma screens started being used.

A cathode ray tube has an electron gun. The cathode is an electrode (a metal that can send out electrons when heated). The cathode is inside a glass tube. Also inside the glass tube is an anode that attracts electrons. This is used to pull the electrons toward the front of the glass tube, so the electrons shoot out in one direction, making a cathode ray. To better control the direction of the ray, the air is taken out of the tube, making a vacuum.

The electrons hit the front of the tube, where a phosphor screen is.  The electrons make the phosphor light up.  The electrons can be aimed by creating a magnetic field.  By carefully controlling which bits of phosphor light up, a bright picture can be made on the front of the vacuum tube.  Changing this picture 30 times every second will make it look like the picture is moving. Because there is a vacuum inside the tube (which has to be strong enough to hold out the air), and the tube must be glass for the phosphor to be visible, the tube must be made of thick glass.  For a large television, this vacuum tube can be quite heavy.

The cathode ray tube was invented in 1897, and used as an oscilloscope (a machine to show waves).  Later, along with other inventions and improvements, it was used for the first modern electronic television by Philo T. Farnsworth in the 1920s. The CRT was the main type of television screen until the liquid crystal display became popular in the early 2000s.

Related pages
 Liquid crystal display
 Vacuum tube

References 

Display technology
Television technology
Electronic components
Recitative

Recitative (Italian: “recitativo”) is music which is telling a story quite quickly, as if it were being spoken, "talky".  The word means: “to recite” i.e. to tell a story.

Recitative is used in opera, oratorio and cantatas.  When opera was invented around 1600 the composers needed to tell the story in music.  In recitative the story is sung quickly, with maybe just a harpsichord playing a few chords.  After a while, the situation in the story has changed, and the singer can sing an aria which is more interesting musically.

When recitative is just accompanied by a keyboard instrument it is called “recitativo secco” (dry recitative).  Sometimes the orchestra joins this.  This is called “recitativo accompagnato” (accompanied recitative).  There are no bar lines in recitative because there is no regular beat.

Recitative is simple musically, it can sometimes describe the words being sung in quite interesting or amusing ways.  Sometimes this might be improvised by the harpsichordist.

In the 19th century the difference between aria and recitative gradually disappeared.  Wagner wrote operas where everything had musical interest and the various sections flowed into one another.

musical forms
Partition of India

The Partition of India divided British India into the countries of India and Pakistan (East and West Pakistan) in 1947. That was part of the end of British Raj, British rule in the Indian subcontinent. One reason for partition was the two-nation theory, which was presented by Syed Ahmed Khan and stated that Muslims and Hindus were too different to be in one country. Pakistan became a Muslim country. India became a majority Hindu country and became a nominally secular country in 1974 when the word "secular" was added to the Preamble of the Indian Constitution.

The main supporter for partition was Muhammad Ali Jinnah; he became the first Governor-General of Pakistan.

Millions of people moved across the new Radcliffe Line between the two newly formed states. The population of British India in 1947 was about 570 million. After partition, there were 370 million people in India, 170 million in West Pakistan and 30 million people in East Pakistan.

Once the lines had been established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the safety of their religious majority. The 1951 Pakistani Census showed the number of displaced there at 7,226,600. They were presumably Muslims who had entered Pakistan from India. Similarly, the 1951 Indian Census showed 7,295,870 displaced people, apparently Hindus and Sikhs who had moved to India from Pakistan. Both numbers add up to 14.5 million. Other people came from China to take advantage of the open border.

The newly formed governments were unable to deal with the forced migration of such huge numbers. Massive violence occurred on both sides of the new border. Hundreds of thousands died; some estimates are in the millions.

The partition caused a lot of uncertainty in many parts of the new nations, especially in the region of Jammu and Kashmir, parts of which went to both countries, which went to war several times to try to take the whole region.

Further reading

References 

20th century in Bangladesh