cahya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
In cell biology, a receptor is a special structure that can be found in cell membranes. These are made of protein molecules such as glycoproteins. Receptors bind (attach) to specialised molecules. If the receptor has this molecule, it is activated, but if it does not it is deactivated. Depending on its state, a change inside the cell happens. 

Cell surface receptors (membrane receptors, transmembrane receptors) take part in communication between the cell and the outside world. Extracellular signalling molecules (usually hormones, neurotransmitters, cytokines, growth factors or cell recognition molecules) attach to the receptor. This triggers changes in the function of the cell. The process is called signal transduction: The binding starts a chemical change on the inside of the membrane.

Receptors work like locks and keys. With the key, the lock can be locked or unlocked. If it is unlocked, the door belonging to it can be opened.

Structure 
Part of the receptor sticks out of the cell membrane. The same applies to the membranes of cell organelles. A receptor's main function is to recognize and respond to a specific ligand, for example, a neurotransmitter or hormone. Some receptors respond to changes in 'transmembrane potential' (the difference in electric potential between the inside and the outside of a cell).

The middle part, inside the membrane itself, is a protein-lined pore through the membrane, or 'ion channel'. When the ligand binds to the surface, the pore becomes accessible to ions, which then pass through. In other cases, where differences in electric potential occur, the receptor changes in shape, which causes change inside the cell.

The inside (or cytoplasmic) part of the receptor interacts with the inside of the cell or organelle. There are several different kinds of receptor, each of which acts in a different way.

Related pages 
Signal transduction

Cell biology
Biochemistry
Constance, Countess Markiewicz, born as Constance Georgine Gore-Booth on February 4, 1868, died July 15, 1927), was an Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil.

She was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, but she did not take her seat.  Instead she and the other Sinn Féin TDs formed the first Dáil Éireann.  She is well known for founding Cumann na mBan.

She was also the first woman in Europe to be a cabinet minister, She was Minister of Labour of the Irish Republic between 1919 and 1922.

1868 births
1927 deaths
Politicians from London
Sinn Féin politicians
Fianna Fáil politicians
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927. The United Kingdom was formed by the merger of the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a merger of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland) and the Kingdom of Ireland. Its name was changed in 1927 after the majority of Ireland left the UK in 1922 and became the sovereign Irish Free State, thus leaving only six counties in the north within the UK.

List of monarchs 
The monarch continued to use the title of King or Queen of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1927. 

 George III (1801–1820) (monarch from 1760)
 George IV (1820–1830) 
 William IV (1830–1837)
 Victoria (1837–1901)
 Edward VII (1901–1910) 
 George V (1910–1922) (title used until 1927)

Related pages
 History of the United Kingdom

Other websites 
 British History Online
 Act of Union 1800 

1922 disestablishments in Europe
1801 establishments
1800s establishments in Europe
Operetta is a term which started to be used in the 19th century to describe an opera that was not too serious and often full of fun.  It is often described as “light opera” (“light” meaning “not serious“).  In an opera everything is usually sung.  In an operetta there is a lot of spoken dialogue, and songs and dances are added to this.  Similar traditions already existed in other countries, e.g. in Germany where the Singspiel tradition was popular (e.g. Mozart’s The Magic Flute).

The operetta tradition started in France and soon spread to Austria and other countries.  It remained popular until the mid-20th century, when it gradually turned into musical comedy.

The composer Jacques Offenbach can be thought of as the creator of the operetta tradition. It grew out of the opéra comique which had become quite long and serious.  There was a need for shorter, more humorous musical entertainments.  Offenbach was composing operettas in the 1850s in Paris.   In England such works were often called “comic operas” or “opera comedies”.   Then Johann Strauss became very popular in Vienna.  He was already very well known in the ballroom, but when he started to write for the theatre he soon became a rival to Offenbach, whose operettas had become very popular in Vienna.  Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus (“The Bat”) has been performed more than any other operetta.  In Spain the Zarzuela was a kind of operetta.

Many people were involved in the creating and performing of operettas.  The performers often had to both sing and act very well.  Bizet, Chabrier and Delibes all wrote operettas as well as operas and other types of music.  In England the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan were a kind of English form of operetta.

One of the most popular of all operettas was Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) by Franz Léhar.  It was produced in 1905 in Vienna.  Léhar wrote many other operettas as well.  Franz von Suppé is another composer who wrote operettas in the Austrian tradition. The most known Romanian operetta is Crai nou (New moon) by Ciprian Porumbescu. 

In the early 20th century the French operetta became less popular as there was more interest in the Viennese operetta.  After World War I Berlin was the centre of German operetta.  By the middle of the 20th century many composers were writing light operas which were based on American dance band music.  These were no longer called “operettas”.  The word “operetta” continued to be used for light operas which were more in the style of traditional central European music.

Musical forms
Opera genres
Investiture means the formal installation of somebody (heir, elect of nominee) in public office by formally giving him the "insignia".  The term is normally reserved for formal offices of state, aristocracy and church.

In the Middle Ages investiture was the ceremonial transfer of a fief by an overlord to a vassal.  The lord invested the vassal with a fiefdom, by giving a symbol of the land or office.  From feudal times up to the present, the term has been used in canon law to refer to a cleric receiving the symbols of spiritual office, such as the pastoral ring, mitre and staff, signifying transfer of the office.

United Kingdom 

In the United Kingdom, around 2,600 people are invested personally by The Queen or a member of the Royal Family. A list of those to be honoured is published twice a year, in either the New Year's Honours List or The Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Approximately 22 Investitures are held annually in Buckingham Palace, one or two at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and one in Cardiff.

Investiture Controversy 

The question who should invest (appoint) whom was the subject of a conflict between the Catholic church (mainly the papacy) and state (mainly the Holy Roman Empire) in the Middle Ages during the so-called lay investiture controversy.

Footnotes 

Ceremonies
For the electronics brand-name of the same name, see Best BuyFor the Cruise Ship Insignia see Oceania Cruises
For the Band Insignium see Insignium

Insignia (the plural of Latin insigne'': emblem, symbol) is a symbol or token of personal power, status or office, or of an official body of government or jurisdiction. Insignia are especially used as an emblem of a specific or general authority.

Typical examples of insignia are:

 Crowns
 Flags of a country or state
 Coats of arms and Heraldry
 Seals
 Ensigns
 Roundels
 Badges
 Cockades

 Other National Emblems
 Shoulder patch, or shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI)
 Military rank and unit markings:
 British Army officer rank insignia 
 British Army Other Ranks rank insignia 
 Croatian military ranks insignia 
 U.S. Army officer rank insignia
 U.S. Army enlisted rank insignia
 U.S. Navy officer rank insignia
 U.S. Navy enlisted rate insignia
 United States Air Force enlisted rank insignia
 United States Air Force officer rank insignia
 Polish Armed Forces rank insignia
 Nazi Party rank insignia
Official insignia are often protected by law as to allow their use only by people holding a specific office or staff members action on behalf of such a person. Misuse, defacement and destruction of such symbols is considered an offense in many countries.

Symbols
Military
(IRA) against the British soldiers (known as the Black and Tans because of the colour of their uniform) who were trying to keep Ireland under British control.

The war was fought between 1919 and June 1921. The fighting stopped while a peace treaty was worked out. 

It began because of the 1916 Easter Rising. The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)  men who fought the British soldiers that day wanted Ireland to be its own country and wanted Britain to move its army out of Ireland.

6 IRB members were killed including 3 who were executed. These executions angered the Irish people and caused many people to become Republicans. Republicans lived mostly in the south of Ireland. Ulster was considered to be the most unionist part of Ireland. This was caused by the Ulster Plantations. The Unionists wanted to stay under control of the British Government.

In 1917 the IRB was renamed the IRA and in 1919, the fighting started. By the end of 1919, the IRA had beaten the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Ireland had no police forces. In London, the British government began to debate about Ireland's rule. The war waged on until 1921 when Irish Sinn Féin leaders and British MPs made a peace treaty (called the Anglo-Irish Treaty). This treaty created the Irish Free State this meant that Ireland was given Dominion Status. The treaty gave all the same rights to the Irish government as that of the Canadian or Australian government.

It handed power of 26 of the 32 counties to the Irish Government. The 6 counties that were kept by the British Government were all in Ulster and formed Northern Ireland.

Related pages
 History of Ireland
Irish Republican Army

20th century in Ireland
Wars involving the United Kingdom
Irish War of Independence
Rebellions in Europe
20th century rebellions
1919 in the United Kingdom
1920 in the United Kingdom
1921 in the United Kingdom
A bishop () is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player starts the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen. The pieces are called either the king's bishop or the queen's bishop. In chess notation the starting squares are c1 and f1 for White's bishops, and c8 and f8 for Black's bishops.

History 
The bishop first appeared in that form in medieval European chess. In Chaturanga he was represented as an armed attendant who sat on the back of an elephant. The Arabs called this figure "al-fil", which means "elephant". The problem was that in Central Europe elephants were not known, so they could not recognize the figure. The bishops were interpreted differently by the different nations. That is why the bishop is a "Läufer" (runner) in Germany, a "fou" (fool) in France and a "alfiere" (standard-bearer) in Italy.

Using a bishop 
The bishop moves diagonally, and can move as far as a player wants it to unless another piece blocks it. A bishop can never leave the color of square that it starts on, and so can only move to 32 squares of the board.

Chess pieces
Opera buffa is an Italian term meaning “comic opera”.  It is mainly used for 18th century Italian comic operas.  Opera buffa contrasts with opera seria (“serious opera”) in which the story was a tragedy.  Opera seria was supposed to be “serious”, while opera buffa was an entertaining musical comedy.  Like the opera seria, everything was sung, there was no spoken dialogue.  This was different from comic opera in other countries.  The story in opera buffa is told in recitative and then there were arias for the characters to show their feelings and show off their voices.  

Although we use the term “opera buffa” today, in the 18th century they called such operas by other names, e.g. “commedia in musica”, “dramma giocosa”, “operetta”, “burlesca” etc.  An opera buffa was usually a full length work: one which would fill a whole evening’s entertainment.  It was different from an “intermezzo” or “farsa” which was a short musical comedy that was performed during the intervals of a musical tragedy, although the difference between the two is not always obvious.  The intermezzo became longer and longer during the 18th century and gradually developed into opera buffa.  Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrone was an intermezzo which became very famous after Pergolesi’s death.  It influenced opera buffa.  

Opera buffa always included a lot of caricature.  The characters showed human weaknesses such as , ,  and  (people who were pretending to be wise and important).  They often poked fun at the ruling classes.

In opera buffa the acting was always very important.  It was a very lively show, with a lot happening very quickly.  At the end of each act all the main characters sang together: this is called an “ensemble” (the French word for “together”).

Opera buffa started in Naples and gradually spread to other parts of Italy.  It was particularly popular at carnival time.  Important composers of opera buffa include Carlo Goldoni and Baldassare Galuppi.

By the end of the 18th century it was not always possible to tell the difference between an opera buffa and an opera seria.  Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, for example, has a lot of comedy, but there is also a serious side.

Opera genres
Opera seria  is an Italian term which refers to the "serious" style of Italian opera in the 18th century.  It was different from opera buffa which was a musical comedy.  Opera seria was supposed to be about serious tragedy.  The term “opera seria” only started to be used after the time when it was popular in order to talk about the historic period.

Italian opera seria was always in the Italian language, even when it was composed or performed in other countries such as Germany, Austria, England and Spain.  In France the opera seria was not so popular.  They had their own forms of opera.

Popular composers of opera seria included Hasse, Vinci, Jommelli, George Frideric Handel, Piccinni, Paisiello, Cimarosa, Gluck, and Mozart.

Opera seria was often called dramma per musica ("drama through music").  The story was told in recitative, a quick-flowing music with simple accompaniment.  Then there were arias which were the big songs where the singers could show off their skills.  They were normally in da capo form (a main section, a middle section, and the main section repeated).  The opera would start with an overture and there would also be some ensembles where several characters sung at once.

The stories of opera seria were usually about the ancient Greek and Roman gods or kings.  This was in contrast to opera buffa, which was about ordinary people and often made fun of kings and nobility.

The main singers in opera seria were mostly castrati, male singers who had been castrated when they were young so that they still sang with high voices.  Gradually during the 18th century the female singers got more of the main roles (the “prima donna” or “first lady”).

One of the first composers of opera seria was Alessandro Scarlatti. In England George Frideric Handel wrote many great opera seria. The most important man in the development of mid-18th century opera seria was Metastasio who wrote libretti.  His words were set by the greatest composers in Europe: Hasse, Porpora and, especially, Mozart.

In the later part of the 18th century Christoph Willibald Gluck changed a lot of traditions in opera.  He did not want opera to be just a way for singers to show off their voices.  He wanted the story to be important.  He did not use dry recitative but tried to make the drama, dance and music all important, especially the chorus. Orfeo ed Euridice was his first important opera, followed by others such as  Alceste. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was influenced by Gluck’s reforms.  His two great opera seria were Idomeneo (1780) and La clemenza di Tito (1791).  Mostly, however, Mozart was not so interested in writing about the old Greek gods and kings.  His other great Italian operas: Cosi fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni are something between opera seria and opera buffa.  These were set to libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte.  

Other important opera seria composers were Luigi Cherubini and Gaspare Spontini, followed by Rossini whose musical style made further changes to opera seria.

Opera genres
There are 32 historic counties on the island of Ireland. 26 are in the Republic of Ireland and 6 are in Northern Ireland.

The counties in italics do not have a county council, instead they are have two or more smaller administrative county councils (called districts, in Northern Ireland)

Several large towns are county boroughs.  These councils have the same powers and duties of a county council.

Ireland

Lists of counties
Melk Abbey or Stift Melk is a Benedictine abbey. It lies on the Danube, near the city of Melk. It is located in Lower Austria. It is one of the distinguishing features of a region known as Wachau. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The abbey was almost totally destroyed in a fire, on 14 August 1297. It was rebuilt in Baroque style at the beginning of the 18th century.

Images 

Benedictine abbeys
Buildings and structures in Austria
Christianity in Austria
Lower Austria
Walenstadt is a small city in east Switzerland. It is near Lake Walen and is divided in four part cities: Tscherlach, Berschis, Walenstadt and Walenstadtberg.

References

Other websites 

 Official website 

Municipalities of St. Gallen
Cities in Switzerland
Exhibitionism is a tendency some people have. These people derive pleasure from the fact that other people can see them naked, or while having sex. Exhibitionism is much more common in extraverts, especially people who have histrionic personality disorder. 

Exhibitionism is more common in women than in men.

Enjoying watching other people have sex, or being naked, is called voyeurism.

Human sexuality
The Zuiderzeewerken (Zuiderzee Works) are a system of dams, land reclamation and water drainage works in the Netherlands during the twentieth century. Plans for the works date back to the 1600s, but it was not until a very bad flood in 1916, that the Dutch parliament finally agreed to pay for the works. Now it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

First some dams or dykes were built to separate the South Sea () from the North Sea. The biggest was the Afsluitdijk ('closure dyke'). It is  long. When it was finished in 1932, the South Sea was completely cut off and from then on would become a lake called the IJsselmeer.

Land reclamation meant building more dams and pumping out the water inside. The new land is called a polder. Polders make new land for agriculture and make flood protection better, because the lake is smaller.

There are gates and sluices at the ends of the Afsluitdijk. The gates, called locks, can be opened to let ships through. The sluices let water out of the IJsselmeer. If there were no sluices the lake would fill up and flood the countryside. This is because it is always being filled with water from rivers and the polders which are still being drained.

Related pages
 Flood

Other websites 

 Nieuw Land Poldermuseum –A Flevoland museum on the Zuiderzee Works and Dutch water management in general.
 The Zuiderzee Museum–Dedicated to the history and culture of the former Zuiderzee.
 Directorate IJsselmeer Region –The administration responsible for maintaining most of the Zuiderzee Works.

Dams in Europe
Water infrastructure
Seven Wonders of the Modern World
Buildings and structures in the Netherlands
Geography of the Netherlands
History of the Netherlands
Flevoland
The Crook of Devon is a Perthshire village about 6 miles south west of Kinross on the A977. It was famous in the 17th century for its witch burnings. Down the road at the side of the Institute (Village Hall) on the right hand side is a field called Lamblaires and in the north west corner is the place where the witches were  strangled and then burned at the stake.

References

Other websites 
 Overview of Crook of Devon

Villages in Scotland
A Vaudeville was a French satirical poem or song in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was used a lot in French theatre where entertainments using such songs were called "comédie en vaudeville". Late in the 19th century, a type of variety show done in American theaters came to be called "vaudeville" which was popular from the early 1880s to the early 1930s. The typical American vaudeville performance was made up of a several different, unrelated performances which were grouped together into a single show. Entertainers typically traveled from town to town as arranged by a "vaudeville circuit". It became less popular after the rise of movies, cinema, and radio, which eventually took over as the main forms of public entertainment.

History 
The earliest vaudeville was the vau de vire, a Norman song of the 15th century, named after the valley of Vire. During the 16th century a style grew in the towns in France called the voix de ville ( city voices), whose name may have been a pun on vau de vire. These were also satirical. The two styles came together and in the 17th and 18th century. The term 'vaudeville' came to be used for songs satirizing political and court events.

Growth 
The comédie en vaudeville grew from the tradition of these simple songs. The Paris audiences in the late 17th and early 18th century enjoyed hearing the familiar vaudeville tunes to new words. These comedies then grew into opéra-comique.

References 
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vaudeville.

Song forms
Opera genres
is a city at the east side of Rotterdam. It is on the river IJssel and it has around 65,000 inhabitants. The place is well-known because the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende lives there.

Cities in the Netherlands
Settlements in South Holland
Municipalities of South Holland
A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Paperveroideae.

The name is used especially for the bright red flowers which are common in this group. They are symbolic, and used to remember the Armistice Day of World War I, now known as Remembrance Day. Now it is celebrated in the Commonwealth for those who died in all wars.

Some types can be grown and used to make the drug opium. Ancient Egyptian doctors had their patients eat seeds from a poppy to relieve pain. Poppy seeds contain small quantities of both morphine and codeine. These are pain-relieving drugs that are still used today. The morphine practically disappears from the seeds twenty days after the flower has opened, so from then on poppy seeds and their oils are not narcotic.
There are a number of showy flowers, typically one per stem, in to the poppy family. They include a number of attractive wildflower species with showy flowers growing singularly or in large groups. Many species are grown in gardens. These include large plants used in a mixed herbaceous border and small plants that are grown in rock or alpine gardens.

The flower color of poppy species include: white, pink, yellow, orange, red and blue. Some have dark center markings. The cultivated species include many other colors ranging from dark solid colors to soft pastel shades.  Before blooming, the petals are crumpled in bud, and as blooming finishes, the petals often lie flat before falling away.

The pollen of the oriental poppy, Papaver orientale, is dark blue. The pollen of the field poppy or corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is dark blue to grey. Bees use poppies for their pollen.

The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, is grown for opium, opiates or seeds to be used in cooking and baking.

Gallery

Related pages 
Morphine
Heroin

References 

Flowers
Ranunculales
A time signature is a set of two numbers, one on top of the other one, written right after the key signature in a piece of music. The two numbers in a time signature tell you how many of one kind of note there are in each measure in the song. For example,  means that there are four beats in each measure and the quarter note gets one beat.

Finding out what certain time signatures mean 
The number in the top of the time signature tells a player how many of a certain kind of note there are in each measure. The number in the bottom of the time signature tells what kind of note is used a certain number of times in each measure. The number on the bottom of the time signature can be any exponent of 2. So, 64  could be a number that is put in the bottom of the time signature, but 65 could not be one.

This table shows different numbers that could be the bottom of a time signature, and what they mean. Note that each note down lasts for one-half of the amount the note above it lasted. For example, one quarter note lasts one beat, and one-half note lasts one half of a beat, because one divided by two is one-half.

Time signatures that are used very often

Symbols that are used instead of time signatures 
The letter C has been used instead of using  time.
The symbol "" is called "cut time" (alla breve) and has been used instead of using  time, where every note is cut in half. So, in "cut time", a quarter note, which usually gets one beat, gets one-half of a beat.

Related pages
Key signature
Note (music)
Bar (music)

References 

Musical notation
Music theory
A European Union member state is any one of the twenty-seven countries that have joined the European Union (EU) since it was found in 1958 as the European Economic Community (EEC). From an original membership of six states, there have been five successive enlargements. The largest happened on 1 May 2004, when ten member states joined.
 
Following the addition of Croatia in 2013, the EU's membership now stands at twenty-eight. Negotiations are also under way with other states. The process of enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration. However, this term is also used to refer to the intensification of cooperation between EU member states as national governments allow for the gradual centralising of power within European institutions. Before being allowed to join the European Union, a state must fulfill the economic and political conditions generally known as the Copenhagen criteria: these basically require that a candidate member state must enjoy a secular, democratic system of government, together with the corresponding freedoms and institutions, and respect the rule of law. Under the terms of the Treaty on European Union, enlargement of the Union is conditional upon the agreement of each existing member state as well as approval by the European Parliament.

Bulgaria and Romania make up the second part of the EU's fifth enlargement, and joined the EU on 1 January 2007. This date was agreed upon at the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, confirmed at Brussels on 18 June 2004, and affirmed by the country reports of October 2004 and the final report delivered on 26 September 2006. Bulgaria and Romania signed their Treaty of Accession on 25 April 2005 at a ceremony held at Neumünster Abbey in Luxembourg.

The United Kingdom was a former EU member state.  It joined the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973.  On 23 June 2016, 51.9% of voters chose to leave the EU.  The country formally withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020.  This means there are 27 member states are left in the EU.

List of members

Current members

Former members

References 

European Union
 
Europe-related lists
Porter can mean:

 The family name Porter.
 The given name Porter.
 Many places are named for people named Porter
 A person who carries objects
 A person who works on a railroad and helps passengers
 A kind of beer

Basic English 850 words
A quetzal is a brightly colored bird in the trogon family. They are found in forests and woodlands, especially in humid highlands.

These birds live in the Americas. The word "quetzal" was first used for the resplendent quetzal, a famous long-tailed quetzal that lives in Central America. The resplendent quetzal is the national symbol of Guatemala.

They are strongly sexually dimorphic, as usual with the males being brighter. Parts of the female plumageis brown or grey. These largely solitary birds feed on fruits, berries, insects and small vertebrates (such as frogs). Even with their famous bright plumage, they can be hard to see in their natural wooded habitats.

In Aztec times, the quetzal was worshiped as the god of the air. Its long tail feathers, which can grow up to 2 ft (60 cm) long, were highly prized for making into costume and head-dresses.

Species 
Resplendent Quetzal

Pavonine Quetzal

Crested Quetzal

Eared Quetzal

White-Tipped Quetzal

Golden Headed Quetzal

References 

Birds
The Powerpuff Girls is an American comedy-action satirical adventure superhero children's animated television series. It aired on Cartoon Network in from 1998 to 2009. It is about three humanoid superheroines named Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup who live in Townsville, USA. They are in kindergarteners and have superpowers, who use their powers for good by saving the world from villains. The show is based off of a short made by the series creator from 1992 called Whoopass Stew. The original show was created by Craig McCracken and the 2016 revival series was developed by Nick Jennings and Bob Boyle. It was created and produced by Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios, who also developed a theatrical film adaption in 2002 titled The Powerpuff Girls Movie by Warner Bros Animation.

Characters 

Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are 3 kindergarten superheroes who live with their father, Professor Utonium, in the City of Townsville. Its their job to use their powers to reduce crime and defend the town from evil villains who want to take it over while also partaking in normal activities like chores and going to school.

Original Voice Cast
Cathy Cavadini - Blossom
Kath Soucie, Tara Strong - Bubbles
E. G. Daily - Buttercup
Tom Kane - Professor Utonium
Tom Kenny - The Mayor of Townsville
Jennifer Hale - Miss Keane, Sedusa, Princess Morbucks
Jennifer Martin - Miss Sarah Bellum

Home media
The show saw several VHS and DVD releases while it was on the air, and the entire series was released on DVD in 2009 as a celebration for the shows 10th anniversary.

Similar television series
 Dexter's Laboratory, which shared similar production staff and voice actors as Powerpuff Girls also features a child with uncanny abilities fighting against his neighbor named Mandark.

References

Other websites
 
 
 

American children's television series
2000s American animated television series
Cartoon Network series
1998 television series debuts
1990s American comedy television series
2000s American comedy television series
American science fiction television series
Animated adventure television series
2000s American sitcoms
 
American satirical television series
Action television series
Comedy television series
American television series revived after cancellation
Television series about sisters
Comedy science fiction
English-language television programs
24 is an Emmy and Golden Globe winning American television series broadcast by Fox Network in the US and shown worldwide. The show first came on TV on November 6, 2001, airing eight seasons of 24 episodes each until May 24, 2010. The show returned on May 5, 2014 for a 12 episode miniseries called Live Another Day that aired until July 14, 2014. The first six seasons were all focused the fictional Los Angeles branch of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). The seventh season focused on the Washington, D.C. branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The eighth season focused on the fictional New York City branch of CTU. Live Another Day focused on the London station of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

24 is shown in real time, with each season depicting a 24-hour period in the life of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), who works with the government as it fights threats to the country. Live Another Day, however, mainly depicted a 12-hour period over its 12 episodes, but ended the final episode with a 12-hour time jump to finish the 24 hour cycle. Bauer is often in the field for each season's main government agency as they try to protect America from terrorists. The show also follows the actions of other agents, government officials and terrorists associated with the plot. The first six seasons of the show were all based in Los Angeles and nearby locations  — both real and fictional  — in California, although sometimes other locations have been used as well. Some of the fourth and sixth seasons, and all of the seventh season, were in Washington, D.C.. The eighth and final season of the original series was in New York City. Live Another Day was set in London. Legacy was set in Atlanta.

Cast 
 Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer
 Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O'Brian
 Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida
 Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer
 Elisha Cuthbert as Kim Bauer
 Kim Raver as Audrey Raines
 James Morrison as Bill Buchanan
 Reiko Aylesworth as Michelle Dessler
 D.B. Woodside as Wayne Palmer
 Penny Johnson Jerald as Sherry Palmer
 Roger Cross as Curtis Manning
 Gregory Itzin as Charles Logan

References

Other websites 
 Official 24 website

2001 American television series debuts
2010 American television series endings
2000s American television series
2010s American television series
American crime television series
American drama television series
Emmy Award winning programs
Fox television series
Golden Globe Award winning programs
Spy television series
Television series set in Los Angeles
Television series set in New York City
Television series set in Washington, D.C.
English-language television programs
1948 Mister Roberts1949 Death of a Salesman
1950 The Cocktail Party1951 The Rose Tattoo
1952 The Fourposter1953 The Crucible
1954 The Teahouse of the August Moon1955 The Desperate Hours
1956 The Diary of Anne Frank1957 Long Day's Journey Into Night
1958 Sunrise at Campobello 1959 J.B.
1960 The Miracle Worker1961 Becket
1962 A Man for All Seasons1963 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1964 Luther1965 The Subject Was Roses
1966 Marat/Sade1967 The Homecoming
1968 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead1969 The Great White Hope
1970 Borstal Boy1971 Sleuth
1972 Sticks and Bones1973 That Championship Season
1974 The River Niger1975 Equus
1976 Travesties1977 The Shadow Box
1978 Da1979 The Elephant Man
1980 Children of a Lesser God1981 Amadeus
1982 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby1983 Torch Song Trilogy
1984 The Real Thing1985 Biloxi Blues
1986 I'm Not Rappaport1987 Fences (play)
1988 M. Butterfly1989 The Heidi Chronicles
1990 The Grapes of Wrath1991 Lost in Yonkers
1992 Dancing at Lughnasa1993 Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
1994 Angels in America: Perestroika1995 Love! Valour! Compassion!
1996 Master Class1997 The Last Night of Ballyhoo
1998 'Art'1999 Side Man
2000 Copenhagen2001 Proof
2002 Edward Albee's The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia?2003 Take Me Out
2004 I Am My Own Wife2005 Doubt
2006 The History Boys2007 The Coast of Utopia

Play
Queen Anne's Revenge was the name of Blackbeard's famous pirate ship. Built in 1710 as the Concord, it was captured by the French in 1711 and by pirates in 1717, before being run aground on an island near North Carolina

Ships
Piracy
History of North Carolina
Erskine Hamilton Childers (11 December 1905 – 17 November 1974), was the son of Robert Erskine Childers (author of the spy thriller The Riddle of the Sands.  He was the fourth President of Ireland from 1973 until his death in 1974, and a TD from 1938 until 1973. 

Childers held the following posts during his political career:
Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (1951–1954, 1959–1961, and 1966–1969), 
Minister for Lands (1957–1959), 
Minister for Transport and Power (1959–1969) and
Minister for Health (1969–1973). 

He was appointed Tánaiste in 1969.

Biography

Childers was born in London. He moved to Ireland after the First World War and lived in County Wicklow with his father Robert Erskine Childers.  His father helped bring guns to Ireland for the Easter Rising, and opposed the treaty that set up the Irish Free State. The younger Childers was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and Trinity College, Cambridge, hence his striking British upper class accent. 

In 1922, when Childers was 16, his father was executed by the Irish Free State. Before his execution the older Childers made his son promise from  to find every man who had signed his father's death warrant out and shake his hand. 

After finishing college in Britain Childers worked in a tourism board in Paris, until Éamon de Valera invited him back to Ireland to work for the Irish Press. He became a naturalised Irish citizen in 1938. 

As member of Fianna Fáil, he held a number of ministerial posts in the cabinets of Éamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch, becoming Tánaiste Deputy head of the government) in 1969. Erskine's period as a minister was controversial. One commentator described his ministerial career as "spectacularly unsuccessful", but others praised his willingness to take tough decisions. 

Childers was elected the fourth President of Ireland on 30 May, 1973, defeating Tom O'Higgins by 635,867 votes to 578,771.  Childers, though 67, was an extremely hard-working and   He died suddenly of a heart attack in November 1974, while making a public speech to the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin. 

Childers' state funeral in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, was attended by world leaders including Nelson Rockefeller, Vice-President of the United States,  Earl Mountbatten of Burma (representing Queen Elizabeth II), Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and presidents and crowned heads of state from Europe and beyond. He was buried  County Wicklow. At first it was expected that President Childers' widow, Rita, would be offered the office of president to continue his work, but it went instead to the former Chief Justice, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh. 

One of Childers' sons, also called Erskine was a UN civil servant and Secretary General of the World Federation of United Nations Associations. A daughter by 2nd wife Rita, Nessa Childers, is a councillor for the Green Party on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Political career

Notes

Additional reading
John N. Young, Erskine H. Childers: President of Ireland

1905 births
1974 deaths

Presidents of Ireland

Tánaistí of Ireland
Former members of Dáil Éireann
Politicians from London
The Irish Free State () was the name of Ireland from 1922 to 1937.  It replaced both the Irish Republic and Southern Ireland.

The government was called the Executive Council, and it was headed by the President of the Executive Council, instead of a Prime Minister.

Until 1927 it was ruled by a Governor General on behalf of the King of the United Kingdom.  After a row between the Governments in London and Dublin it was decided that the Governor General represented the King of Ireland, not the King of the United Kingdom, even though they were the same person.

The change meant that the King and the Governor General were advised by the Irish government about what to do in Ireland, and stopped the British government from having any control over Irish affairs.

The constitution of 1937 changed the name of the country to the Irish language , or , but the King stayed head of state until 1948.

|-

Irish Free State
Politics of Ireland
Former countries in Europe
1922 establishments in Europe
1930s disestablishments in Europe
1937 disestablishments
The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games, is a sporting event that took place in between February 9 and 25, 2018. The deadline for bids was January 2009. The winning city, Pyeongchang, South Korea, was announced on July 6, 2011.

Officially, it is being called 'PyeongChang', spelled that way so people don't confuse it with Pyongyang, which is in North Korea.

Official host city
  Pyeongchang, South Korea

Former potential bids

Asia
  Almaty, Kazakhstan
  Bursa, Turkey

Europe
On July 4, 2007, Sochi, Russia was selected to host the 2014 Winter Games, hurting European candidates' chances at a successful bid. The IOC rarely awards back-to-back games to the same continent.

  Munich, Germany
  Upper Carniola, Slovenia
  France
 Annecy (eliminated)
 Hautes-Alpes (eliminated)
 Grenoble (eliminated)
 Nice (eliminated)
  Sofia, Bulgaria
  Tromsø, Norway (cancelled bid)

North America
America was going to submit a bid, but the country changed its bid to the 2022 Winter Olympics. Here are the cities which had showed interest:
  United States
 Denver, Colorado
 Reno/Lake Tahoe, Nevada/California
 Salt Lake City, Utah
 Detroit, Michigan

South America
  Santiago, Chile

The Games

Sports

References

2018 in Asia
Olympics

February 2018 events
Sport in South Korea
Winter Olympics in Asia
2010s in South Korea
Southern Ireland was the twenty-six county Irish state created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920.  This Act divided the island of Ireland in two, Northern Ireland (covering approximately fifteen percent of the island, in the northeast) and Southern Ireland (covering the remaining territory to the south and west). Both were given bicameral (two houses) parliaments and separate governments.

The king was represented by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who also acted in Northern Ireland.

Southern Ireland never existed except on paper.  It was set up by law, but the first attempted meeting of its Parliament failed because it was short of a quorum (the number of members needed to hold a meeting).  The second sitting was only to confirm the decision of Dáil Éireann to confirm the Anglo-Irish Treaty, then dissolved it itself.

So the British government set up Southern Ireland but there was never any government to take power.

Birth of The Irish Free State
After the treaty was confirmed Michael Collins, head of Dáil Éireann's government became Chairman of the Provisional Government

According to the British he met the Lord Lieutenant and was made the King's prime minister.   According to the Irish viewpoint, Collins went to accept the surrender of Dublin Castle. Arthur Griffith became President of Dáil Éireann, and then both Dáil Éireann and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland were then replaced in a  new election, for the 'Third Dáil', sometimes called the 'Provisional Parliament' or the 'Constituent Assembly'.  When Griffith died and a week later Collins was assassinated both in August 1922, W.T. Cosgrave was appointed to both offices, so the Irish nationalist and the British both systems of government joined into one temporary system, until the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State came into force in December 1922.

Footnotes
Southern Ireland is sometimes erroneously used as a name for the Republic of Ireland or the earlier Irish Free State. However, officially the term has been wrong since 1922.

Related pages

 Irish Home Rule

Ireland, Southern
1920s in Ireland
1920s in the United Kingdom
1922 in Europe
"Sleeping sickness" is also another name for Narcolepsy.

Sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis, is an infectious disease.  It is caused by parasites from the species Trypanosoma brucei.

People get African trypanosomiasis from the tsetse fly.  Because of this, it is most common in certain areas of Africa, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, where the tsetse fly lives.  Researchers say that about 70 million people, in 36 countries, are at a high risk for getting sleeping sickness. As of 2010, sleeping sickness had caused around 9,000 deaths per year (compared to 34,000 in 1990). 

In 2013, about 30,000 people had African trypanosomiasis.  Also, about 7,000 more people were getting the disease every year.  More than 80% of these people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Medications can treat African trypanosomiasis.  The treatment is usually done in a hospital, because the drugs have many side effects.  For sleeping sickness that was not treated early, the medications used for treatment are based on arsenic, a poison.  These medications are dangerous, and about 5% of people die from taking them. 

The best way to protect against African trypanosomiasis is to protect against insect bites.

Signs and symptoms
The signs and symptoms of African trypanosomiasis happen in two stages.

The hemolyphatic phase
Common symptoms in this stage include:
 A fever that comes and goes
 Headaches
 Pain in the joints
 Itching
 Lymphadenopathy: As the parasite gets into the lymphatic system, the body's lymph nodes swell, sometimes to very large sizes
 A chancre (red sore) where the person was bitten by the tsetse fly (sometimes)

If African trypanosomiasis is not treated at this point, the parasite will also get into the circulatory system and defeat the body's natural defenses.  If this happens, the person can have:
 Anemia
 Kidney problems
 Problems with hormones
 Heart problems

The neurological phase
This phase begins when the parasite invades the central nervous system by passing through the blood–brain barrier.  

In this stage, one of the most common symptoms is trouble sleeping.  This is where the name "sleeping sickness" comes from.  People in this stage often cannot sleep normally, and may be up all night and then sleep during the day.. 

Other symptoms in this stage can include:
 Mental confusion
 Tremor
 Muscle weakness
 Weakness or paralysis of an arm or leg
 Movements that the person cannot control, like a person with Parkinson syndrome
 Psychosis
 Feeling easily annoyed or being aggressive

Without treatment, a person with African sleeping sickness will go into a coma; (thus the name) all their important organs will stop working; and they will die.Damage caused in the neurological phase cannot be fixed.

References

Diseases spread by insects
Diseases caused by protozoa
The Ayyubid or Ayyoubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origins which ruled Egypt, Syria, Yemen (except for the Northern Mountains), Diyar Bakr, Mecca, Hejaz and northern Iraq in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Ayyubids are also known as Ayoubites, Ayyoubites, Ayoubides or Ayyoubides.
The Ayyubid dynasty was begun by Saladin (Salah ah-Din). Saladin and his uncle Shirkuh conquered Egypt for the Zengid King Nur ad-Din of Damascus in 1169. The dynasty's name comes from Saladin's father and Shirkuh's brother, Najm ad-Din Ayyub.

References 

History of Islam
Kurdistan
History of the Middle East
Royal dynasties