cahya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a large community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in a particular area. The living and physical components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Ecosystems are of any size, but usually they are in particular places.

Each ecosystem has its own community. An aquarium community, for example, can have small fish and other organisms. A desert community may have cacti, small snakes, and scorpions. A pond community can have frogs, insects, snakes, and plants, and a forest community may have rabbits, foxes and pine trees. The species in a community are divided into populations according to the particular habitats and ecological niches in the ecosystem.

Energy 
Ecosystems are stable, but changeable. They react to major changes in the environment, especially climate changes. For example, the major rainforests have lasted for a long time (perhaps 50 million years or more in some cases). As the rainfall and temperature changes, they change. We know that the Amazon rainforest shrank in size during ice ages, and expanded in the warmer periods.

Primary production 
What drives all ecosystems is the primary production. Primary production is the production of organic matter from inorganic carbon sources. This happens through photosynthesis. It drives the carbon cycle, which influences global climate via the greenhouse effect.

Through the process of photosynthesis, plants capture energy from sunlight and use it to combine carbon dioxide and water to produce carbohydrates and oxygen. The photosynthesis carried out by all the plants in an ecosystem is called the gross primary production (GPP). About 48–60% of the GPP is consumed in plant respiration. The rest is known as the net primary production (NPP). Total photosynthesis is limited by a range of environmental factors. These include the amount of light available, the amount of leaf area a plant has to capture light (shading by other plants limits photosynthesis), the supply of carbon dioxide and water, and suitable temperatures for carrying out photosynthesis.

Types 
Some of the major types of ecosystem:
 Aquatic ecosystem
 Marine ecosystem
 Freshwater ecosystem
 Lake ecosystem
 River ecosystem
 Wetland
 Terrestrial ecosystem
 Forest
 Rain Forest
 Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
 Littoral zone
 Riparian zone
 Desert
 Grassland
 Tundra
 Taiga

Related pages 
 Biodiversity
 Biosphere Reserve
 Ecology
 Natural environment
 Vegetation
 Wildlife

References
Gregor Johann Mendel (Heinzendorf, Austria, 20 July 1822 – Brünn, Austro-Hungary, 6 January 1884) was an Austrian monk and botanist.

Mendel founded genetics by his work cross-breeding pea plants. He discovered dominant and recessive characters (genes) from the crosses he performed on the plants in his greenhouse. What he learnt is known today as Mendelian inheritance.

His work was not appreciated at first, but was 'rediscovered' in 1900 by  Carl Correns and Hugo de Vries. Erich von Tschermak's status as a third rediscoverer is now less convincing.

The experiments 
Mendel used the edible peas (Pisum sativum) for his crosses. He selected seven characters which were distinctive, and never blended; they occurred as either-or alternatives. Examples:  plant height (short or tall); colour of peas (green or yellow); position of flowers (restricted to the top or distributed along the stem).

When he crossed varieties which differed in a trait (e.g. tall crossed with short), the first generation of hybrids (F1) showed only one of the two alternatives. One character was dominant, and the other recessive. But when he crossed these hybrids with each other, the recessive character reappeared in the second (F2) generation. The proportion of plants showing the dominant as opposed to the recessive character was close to 3 to 1. Further analysis of the descendants (F3) of the dominant group showed that one-third of them were true-breeding and two-thirds were of hybrid constitution. The 3:1 ratio could therefore be rewritten as 1:2:1, meaning that 50 percent of the F2 generation were true-breeding and 50 percent were still hybrid. This was Mendel’s major discovery.

It could all be summed up by saying that inheritance was not blending, as Darwin had thought, it was particulate. The factors (genes) were not merged or mixed, they stayed separate and were passed on to the next generation unchanged.

He published his work in 1866, but at the time no-one saw how significant it was. 35 years later, the papers were rediscovered and, immediately, modern genetics began.

Related pages
List of biologists
 Mendelian inheritance

References 

 Iltis, Hugo 1932. Life of Mendel, transl. by Eden & Cedar Paul. Allen & Unwin, London. German original: Gregor Mendel: Leben, Werk und Wirkung. Springer, Berlin 1924.

Other websites 
 Mendel's Paper in English
 Mendel Museum of Genetics
 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia entry, "Mendel, Mendelism"
 Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man
 Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas at Brno
 Johann Gregor Mendel: Why his discoveries were ignored for 35 (72) years 

1822 births
1884 deaths
Austrian biologists
Botanists
Geneticists
Austrian Roman Catholics
Religious people
Farscape is a science fiction television show.  The series was filmed in Australia.  It was first shown from 1999 to 2004.  The show was cancelled after four seasons and ended with a cliffhanger.  The cliffhanger was resolved in a miniseries, The Peacekeeper Wars, in 2004.

Rockne S. O'Bannon came up the idea for the series.  It was produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment.

Plot
The show's main character is an astronaut named John Crichton.  He travels through a wormhole by accident.  He exits the wormhole at a distant part of the universe.  The astronaut joins an alien crew on board a living ship.  The members of the crew are escaped prisoners.

Cast
Ben Browder
Claudia Black
Virginia Hey
Anthony Simcoe
Gigi Edgley
Paul Goddard
Lani Tupu
Wayne Pygram
Jonathan Hardy

References

Other websites 

Karlsweb Farscape e-Zine
Farscape World
The Farscape Encyclopedia
Far-what?
SCI-FI.COM | Farscape 
What Is Farscape?
Watch Farscape 
BBC Online - Cult - Farscape
The Farscape Props Forum
Neural Cluster
Terra Firma
ScapeCast - The Farscape Podcast

Science fiction television series
English-language television programs
An interplanetary internet does not exist yet.  When people talk about an interplanetary internet, they are talking about a problem they are still trying to solve - the problem of making the internet to work between different planets.

Method 
The way the internet works here on Earth is simple. Computers need to connect to each and can share a network.  One computer sends another computer a message (called a packet) and then the other sends back a message saying it got it. Internet messages move at the speed of light, about 300 thousand kilometres in a second, which is very fast. But if you were sending that message to Mars, it would take about ten minutes for the message to get there, and another ten for it to get back.  That means we need to completely change the way computers talk to each other if we are going to communicate between different planets.  That is the problem people are trying to solve when they talk about the interplanetary internet. It's a new and a very interesting concept.

References

Other websites 
 The InterPlaNetary Internet Project IPN Special Interest Group

Internet
Briefs are a type of short underwear for males or females. They provide a close fit, and come in either white, or in other colors like blue, pink, or red.

For male briefs, before 2000s, briefs often came with hard elastic waistband. This would cause stretch marks, and this was eventually replaced by the soft elastic waistband. However, hard elastic waistbands are still found on generic store brand underwear (that save consumer and manufacturing costs by not being fashion forward).

Female briefs are also called knickers or panties.

Underwear
Kayastha is one of the social groups of India. They have a long history. They number around 5–7 million people and most of them live in India.

Hindus believe that Lord Brahma created the world. He then created 16 sons from different parts of his body. His 17th son, Shree Chitraguptjee, was created from his mind and soul. He is the only son to be made from the whole body, not just parts. In human form he is called kayastha, kaya meaning whole. Kayastha's have two roles in the caste system, as Kshatriya (a warrior) and Brahmin (a learned person or scribe). The Kayastha caste is divided into 12 sub-castes.

References

Indian people
Ethnic groups in Asia
Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer is an animated movie from 1985. It was produced by DiC Entertainment and Hallmark Cards, and released by Warner Bros.

This is the only movie in which the title character, Rainbow Brite, appears.

Other websites 

Moria.co.nz review 
Kiddie Matinee overview 

1985 movies
Animated movies
English-language movies
Warner Bros. movies
Arctic Monkeys are an Indie rock band from Sheffield, England. Arctic Monkeys' first album was Whatever People Say I am, That's What I'm Not. It reached #1 in the United Kingdom album charts. Over 300 thousand copies of the album were sold in the first week. This makes it the fasting selling first album by a band in British music history. It was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare was first released in Japan on April 18, 2007. Their third album, Humbug was released in England on 24 August 2009. In 2011 their fourth album Suck It and See was released. AM, the Monkeys' fifth album, was released 6 September 2013. The sixth Arctic Monkeys album, Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino was released in 2018. 

The members are:
Alex Turner (guitar and singing)
Jamie Cooke (guitar)
Nick O'Malley (bass guitar)
Matthew Helders (drums)
Andy Nicholson (bass guitar, left in 2006)

Studio albums 
 Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
 Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007)
 Humbug (2009)
 Suck It and See (2011)
 AM (2013)
 Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018)

References

2002 establishments in England
2000s British music groups
2010s British music groups
Brit Award winners
English rock bands
Indie bands
Musical groups established in 2002
Musical groups from Sheffield
Queen's University is a public university in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Queen's University was started on October 16, 1841.

References 

Colleges and universities in Canada
Opus or the shortened form op.  after the title of a piece of music means “work”.  It is followed by a number.  When a composer writes their first piece of music it is followed by the term “opus 1”.  The next composition would then be called “opus 2”, etc.

Giving pieces of music opus numbers helps us to identify which piece of music (from a certain composer) that composition is.  For example: Beethoven wrote lots of piano sonatas. His first Piano sonata in A flat major has the opus number of op.26. This shows that he wrote this sonata when he was young in his composing career.  Many years later, he wrote another piano sonata which is also in A flat major, and this piece one has the opus number of 110 (op. 110).

You cannot always tell from a composer’s opus numbers the order in which the works were composed.  Until around the end of the 18th century, opus numbers were only given to pieces of music which were published.

Some musicologists (people who study and write about music) have studied all the works by a famous composer and have given them a catalogue number.  For example Mozart’s music does not have opus numbers.  Some of them are long operas, others are tiny little pieces for the piano he might have written in a hurry one day.  A man called Köchel made a list of every single work by Mozart and gave them K numbers (K for Köchel). His numbering goes up to 622.  This is useful, for example, to tell the difference between his Symphony in G minor K183 and his Symphony in G minor K550.

The plural of “opus” is “opuses” in English.  This is because the Latin plural is opera which is rather confusing to English speakers as the word is already used in musical terminology. 

The word "opus" can also refer to the "work" of an artist. (For example: "This opus was composed by Chopin," or "This opus is the last Piano sonata that Beethoven composed")

An artist's "magnum opus" means his or her "greatest" work.

Musical terminology
The Yuan dynasty was a Mongol dynasty that ruled Mongolia and China from 1271 to 1368. Before this dynasty, China was ruled by the Song dynasty. After the Yuan dynasty, the Ming dynasty ruled China. Genghis Khan and his army of Mongols conquered many parts of China. His grandson Kublai Khan added more parts of China to his kingdom. He founded the Yuan dynasty in 1271.

In the year of 1206, Genghis Khan ruled the Mobi tribes(a part of a country)  to establish the Mongol country at the Onon River. Jin was the main race in Mongolia, but Jin and Xia were in decline, Mongolia had attacked the Western Xia and Jin in August 1227, and Jin lost, so Mongolia occupied the whole north of China in March 1234.   

In 1259, Möngke Khan died after the Song Yuan dynasty war. His brothers all wanted to be king. His fourth brother, Kublai, and his seventh brother, Ali Khan, fought to rule the Mobi tribes. And finally in 1264, Kublai won. Kublai made the name "DaYuan" in 1271 and proclaimed the Yuan Dynasty and said its founder was his grandfather Genghis. In 1276, Yuan ruled southern of Song, so yuan ruled the whole China in this year. In 1279, the Kublai subdued southern Song dynasty. The Yuan dynasty ruled China and brought different parts of China together that had been split since the late Tang dynasty. They were the first foreign dynasty to rule just about all of China. 

For centuries, most of what the West knew about China came from the book by Marco Polo about his visit to Kublai's empire. The Yuan dynasty  ended in 1368 when the Ming dynasty took control.

Related pages
 History of China

References 

Notes

Chinese dynasties
1271 establishments
1368 disestablishments
13th-century establishments in Asia
14th-century disestablishments in Asia
Births 
 1254 – Marco Polo

Deaths 
 1250 – Fibonacci
Life and Times of Michael K is a novel written by J. M. Coetzee in 1983. It won a Booker Prize.

The story is about a simple gardener called Michael K, trying to run away from South Africa in the Apartheid Era.

Some people think there is a link between Michael K and Josef K. in The Trial by Franz Kafka.

Novels
1983 books
Booker Prize winners
English-language novels
A lawsuit occurs when two people or organizations ask a court or judge to solve a disagreement or argument.  The two (or more) participants in a lawsuit are called the parties.  Each party is usually represented by a lawyer.  That means that the lawyer will talk to the judge for the party.

The party that starts the lawsuit is called the plaintiff because they are complaining about something the other side has done. This is also called "suing", or to "sue".  The other party is called the defendant because it must defend what it has done.  Both sides or parties will show evidence or proof that they are right and the other side or party is wrong.  The parties may also ask witnesses questions about what the argument or disagreement is about.

After both parties have shown evidence and asked witnesses questions, the judge or jury will decide which party is right.  Then the court will do something to make the winning party happy again.  The court might make the losing party pay the winner money, or it might make the losing party stop doing something that made the winner unhappy.

The conduct of a lawsuit is called litigation. The plaintiffs and defendants are called litigants and the attorneys representing them are called litigators. The term litigation may also refer to criminal trial.

References 

Law
Stefano Mei (born 3 February 1963 in La Spezia) was an Italian long distance runner in several international athletics (also called track and field) events.

Mei won the silver medal in the 5,000 metre race, and the gold medal in the 10,000 metre race during the 1986 European Championships in Athletics in Stuttgart, Germany. Mei also won a bronze medal in the 10,000 metre race during the 1990 European Championships in Athletics, in Split, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). He competed in the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics.

References
1986 European Championship results 
1990 European Championship results 

1963 births
Living people
1984 Summer Olympics
1988 Summer Olympics
Italian athletes
Italian Olympians
Liguria
The Bielsko-Biała Museum is a museum at Bielsko Castle, Poland. Since the 1970s there are three local branches: the Julian Fałat Museum, the Museum of Technology and Textile Industry and the Weaver's House Museum.

The castle
The castle was built in the 14th century by the Piast family, the rulers of the Cieszyn Duchy in Poland, the castle was used as one of their residences for over two centuries. In 1752 the Bielsko state became a duchy owned by the Sulkowski family. The castle was their property until 1945. After World War II the castle was taken over by the Polish State. Since 1983 its only owner has been the Bielsko-Biała Museum.

The permanent exhibition in the castle
In the west wing of the building the hunting room and armoury are located. The next two rooms display three centuries of art history from the 15th to the 17th century. Neighbouring with these rooms are a rococo concert hall and a Biedermeier room. The castle's east wing contains a gallery of the 19th and 20th century painting and graphic art. Next rooms located in the north wing display an exhibition of the history of the city and castle, as well as craftsman traditions of old Bielsko and Biała. The east wing of the castle is occupied by art gallery (the 19th century paintings displayed here include works of art representing realism and academism, Młoda Polska (Young Poland) paintings, works of artists connected with Bielsko-Biała during the twenty years of independence after World War I and during the modern times)

Museum of Technology and Textile Industry 

The museum shows traditions of wool industry in Bielsko-Biała, by means of collecting machines, equipment and documents. The exhibits are stored in four rooms and show the look of old textile factory A separate room displays machines for making hats and the history of Bielsko-Biała fire brigade. There is also a little printing office and a room where all the historical household equipments, radio sets, typewriters etc., are being stored.

The weaver’s house
Reconstruction of the weaver’s house and workshop owned by a guild master. It shows live and work in 19th and 20th centuries. There are two main rooms – workshop on the left and living room on the right, with a kitchen and a bedroom. 
The weaver’s house is an original example of the old wooden house. It tries to show craftsman’s work.

Julian Fałat’s villa
The museum of Julian Fałat in Bystra Śląska is housed in a historical villa of the artist, called “Fałatówka” and its visitors can see the art and some biographical documents of the artist. This is the house where the artists lived after he stoped being a headmaster of the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition presents oil paintings and watercolours: self-portraits, portraits of his family and friends, landscapes from his travels and hunting scenes.

Related pages
Poland

Other websites 

Museum in Bielsko-Biała

Museums in Europe
Castles
Buildings and structures in Poland
Education in Poland
14th-century establishments in Europe
The Moirai (The Fates) were the three goddesses of destiny in Greek mythology. They were Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos ().

They controlled the life and destiny of everyone. Clotho spins the thread of life (begins a person's or creature's life), Lachesis measures it (looks at the how long it currently is), and Atropos cuts the thread. When the thread is cut the person dies. The Moirai are capable of destroying an immortal.

The decisions of the Moriae about a person's life cannot be changed. Even Zeus is powerless to change their will.

The parents of the Moirai are not surely known. Some said they were the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Themis, or more likely of primordial beings like Nyx, Chaos or Ananke. 

Their Roman equivalent were the Parcae.

Sources: D'Aulaire's book of Greek Myths

Greek gods and goddesses
An opinion is something a person or a group of people think.  "What is your opinion?" is like saying: "What do you think about it?"

The person's answer might start with: "In my opinion..........." or "I think........."

Sometimes companies try to find out what people think about something by asking many people their opinion.  This is called an "opinion poll" and the people who do it are "pollsters".  They might be trying to find out whether people think something is good or bad, such as electricity or exercise or Wikipedia, or whether one politician or beer or sport team is better than another.

Related pages 
Endoxa

Basic English 850 words
Human communication
A school year is the time of year when students go to school. In some countries, it starts after summer, and goes to the next summer. The typical school year in the United States ranges from 170 days to 190 days. In the south, a school year is 180 days for students and 190 days for teachers.

Education
Academia

en:Academic term
Eating is taking in food to get energy or nutrients or for enjoyment. People and animals need to eat because they cannot make their own food inside their bodies like plants. All plants' energy comes from the sun. Plants take the sun's energy, and they are eaten by other animals as food. The animals then eat each other for the energy.

However, many people can not stop themselves from eating, and they become fat or obese. You can become fat by eating the wrong, unhealthy types of food and by eating too much. When a plant collects energy from the sun through its leaves, it is called photosynthesis. If a plant gets too much food, it can just store it until later. They use this stored food during the winter. When you are proven to be fat or obese through your body mass index (BMI), it means you are heavier than the average for your height. The taller you are, the heavier you should be, in theory. If someone is too heavy to be called fat, then they are called obese. When someone eats too much of one thing, they become fat. Someone can eat junk food, but they can also balance themselves by also eating fruits and vegetables. 
 

Food and drink
A bathroom (also known as a restroom, washroom, toilet or lavatory) is where people go for personal hygiene activities. This includes use of the toilet, wash their hands, brush their teeth, take a bath, or take a shower. The room may also contain a sink, often called a "wash basin", “hair basin” or "hand basin" (in parts of the United States) and often a "lavatory." In the United States, "bathroom" mostly means "a room containing a lavatory." In other countries this is mostly called the "toilet". The word "bathroom" is also used in the United States for a public toilet or "restroom." Bathrooms also have bathroom cabinets.

History
Baths go back to 3,000 B.C. Usually, a town would have a special building for people to take baths, which sometimes were part of a religious ceremony. Starting in the 16th century, public baths started declining. People at this time started building baths inside their homes.

Variations
Usually, a full bath will have a toilet, a sink, a bathtub, and/or a shower. If a bathroom has only a toilet and a sink, then it is called a half bath or a powder room. A master bath is connected to a master bedroom for the use of whoever lives in that bedroom and no one else.

Rooms
A shower is where a person cleans themself by using water. They stand up when they use a shower and usually do not wear clothes in a shower. Showers have a shower head that squirts out water usually from above.

There are different kinds of showers. One is a "power shower" where there are many jets of water from all around. Another is the one in the picture. Some are in baths, and others are on their own.

Hygiene
Gangtok is the capital of the Indian state of Sikkim, It has a population of 50,000. It is located at a height of 1,780 metres in the Himalayan Mountains . It is small town, filled with different cultures and religions living together. 

The city has wide roads, flyovers, markets, a modern hospital, schools, colleges and universities, fast food shops, discothèques, and all other modern amenities. One imposing man-made landmark of the town is the 200 ft-high TV tower which overlooks the town and is near the Enchey Monastery below Ganesh Tok. 

Capital cities in India
Settlements in Sikkim
Transposition or transposing in music means playing or writing music in a way that makes it sound higher or lower. This can be done by playing or writing the music in a different key, or by playing or writing it up or down an octave, without changing the key.

Transposing is a useful skill for people who play an instrument, especially the piano, organ, or some other keyboard instrument. If a pianist is accompanying a singer and the song is a little too high for the singer’s voice, it is very useful if he is able to transpose it down so that the music sounds in a lower key. For example, if the music is written in the key of C major, it could be transposed down a whole tone so that it sounds in B-flat major.

Most electronic keyboards and organs these days have buttons which can set notes to transpose automatically. This can be very useful, although it may be confusing for people with absolute pitch.

How to transpose 

It is a good idea for people who play keyboard instruments or other kinds of transposing instruments to practise transposing. There are two ways to do this:

Transpose each note, one at a time. For example, when transposing from C to B-flat major, each note has to be one tone lower: an A becomes a G, a G becomes an F, an F becomes an E-flat, and so on.
By watching or hearing the intervals between the notes in of the music and thinking of the same thing in the new key. For example: when a note leaps up a major third in the old key, the same needs to happen in the new key.

Transposing by intervals is the a better way of transposing, but when people transpose they sometimes also transpose the notes the first way, one by one.

There is another possibility which sometimes works: by thinking in a different clef. For example, someone who is used to reading music in the alto clef, such as a violist, can transpose up a tone from music written in the treble clef by imagining it was written in the alto clef and playing an octave lower (a note on the middle line in the treble clef is a B, but in the alto clef it is a C). They could also imagine the new key signature of 2 sharps – it becomes a C sharp.

It is very important to understand key signatures in order to be able to transpose.  This is why it is so useful to practise scales.

References 

Music
Music theory
The Erinyes (or Eumenides) were the goddesses of revenge in Greek mythology. They are also known as the Furies. These three female divinities were named Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera.

Description
The Erinyes were born from Mother Earth and the blood of Uranos. They avenged family crimes such as matricide and patricide. They also tormented evil men in the "Hell" of the underworld, Tartarus.

The Erinyes forever followed a person who did a crime. They even could make the person go mad. They are often shown with snakes on their heads, blood coming out of their eyes, and looking horrific.

In stories
A well known story about the Erinyes is that of Orestes. Orestes' mother Klytaimnestra, and her lover Aegisthos, killed Orestes' father Agamemnon. The god Apollo told Orestes to kill the murderers of his father, which he did. Orestes was then pursued by the Erinyes for his crime. With the help of Athena and Apollo Orestes went to a court in Athens. It was decided that Orestes acted correctly and nobody should hurt him. Even the Erinyes accepted the decision, and from then on they were also called Eumenides, which means "the kind ones", because they could also let people go in peace if their crime was done for a good reason.

Other websites

The Theoi Project, "The Erinyes"

Greek gods and goddesses
The Indian subcontinent is a term mainly used for the geographic region surrounded by the Indian Ocean: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The subcontinent was once part of Gondwana, the ancient southern supercontinent. Geologically, the origin of the Himalayas is the impact of the Indian tectonic plate travelling northward at 15 cm per year to slowly hit the Eurasian continent, about 40-50 million years ago. The formation of the Himalayan arc resulted as the lighter rock of the seabeds of that time were easily uplifted into mountains. An often-cited fact used to illustrate this process is that the summit of Mount Everest is made of marine limestone.

About 50 million years ago, this fast moving plate had completely closed the Tethys Ocean. The existence of the Tethys has been proved by sedimentary rocks settled on the ocean floor, and the volcanoes that fringed its edges. Since these sediments were light, they crumpled into mountain ranges rather than sank to the floor. The Indian plate is still driving horizontally below the Tibetan Plateau, which forces the plateau to move upwards.

The Indo-Australian plate is still moving at 67 mm per year, and over the next 10 million years it will travel about 1,500 km into Asia. About 20 mm per year of the India-Asia convergence is absorbed by thrusting along the Himalaya southern front. This leads to the Himalayas rising by about 5 mm per year, making them geologically active. The movement of the Indian plate into the Asian plate also leads to earthquakes from time to time.

Related pages 
South Asia

References

Other websites 
 India News
 India News In Tamil

Geography of Asia
South Asia
Gondwana
Dike or dyke, can mean:
 A slang term for lesbian
 Another word for levee, a long wall or bank built to hold water, or to separate land areas
 Dyke (geology), where magma or sediment cut across normal rock formations
 Another word for diagonal pliers, a hand tool used by electricians and others
 Dike, the Greek goddess of moral justice, one of the Horae
In Greek mythology, Andromeda (, Androméda or Ἀνδρομέδη, Andromédē) is an Aethiopian princess, the daughter of King Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeia boasted that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids, this angered the sea god Poseidon, who sent the sea monster Ceto to ravage the land as punishment. Desperate, King Cepheus consulted the Oracle of Delphi, who stated that Andromeda must be offered as a sacrifice to the sea monster; Andromeda was then chained to a rock by the shore. When the hero Perseus saw Andromeda (having flown over after beheading Medusa), he killed the sea monster and saved Andromeda. They were soon married, with Perseus going on to found the city of Mycenae. By Perseus, she is the mother of Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus and Electryon as well as two daughters Autochthe and Gorgophone. Andromeda is also the great-grandmother of Herakles. 

In Greek, her name means "ruler of men," from  ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός (anēr, andrós - "[of] man"), and medon ("ruler"). 

People in Greek mythology
A centaur is a creature in Greek mythology. It has the upper body of a human, but below the waist it has the body of a horse. There are also female centaurs. 

Famous centaurs are Chiron and Nessus.

Greek legendary creatures
Bruntál is a small city in the Czech Republic. Bruntál is in the Hrubý Jeseník mountains (part of Nízký Jeseník). Approximately 20,000 people live there. 

Bruntál was probably built in 1223. Its name is in the Unicov Charter published by Přemysl Otakar I. It is the oldest Czech city with Magdeburg Rights, meaning a city that can have its own wall and judges. Otakar I gave it these rights because of the gold, silver and other minerals from there.

Attractions 
In Bruntál there are many places that tourists visit – for example, the Castle of Bruntál, the Decanal church of the Virgin Mary, Gabriel's house, Mildner's villa, Klippel's column.

Notable people 

 Tereza Krones  - also known as Therese Krones
 Engelbert Adam  - writer 
 Jan Krištof Handke
 Rudolf Templer  - painter
 Viktor Heeger  - pedagogue
 Karl Anton Gebauer  explorer 
 Walter Gotschke  self-taught artist
 Emmerich Machold 

Some of the most notable authors who wrote about the place include: Erwin Weiser, Bruno Hanns Wittek, Josef Lowag, and Kurt Langer.

Schools 
There are 5 primary schools and 6 intermediate schools. Since 2003, there are 2 universities.

Culture 
There is one cinema, one theater, and one cultural building.

References 

Cities in the Czech Republic
A Concerto Grosso is a piece of music from the 18th century in which there are a small group of instruments and a large group of instruments.  These two groups are contrasted with one another. Sometimes both play together, sometimes one plays by itself, or the two groups might imitate one another.  The small group is called “concertino” and the large group is called "tutti", “ripieno” or “concerto grosso” (the same name as the musical piece).  “Concerto grosso” is Italian for “big concerto”.   The plural is “concerti grossi”.  Notice that the second “c” in “concerto” is pronounced like an English “ch”.

A concerto grosso has several parts that differ in speed and character. There are usually three movements; the first is fast, the second is slow, and the last is fast. The first movement contrasts the tutti and the soloists, the second movement is quiet, while the last movement is lively.

The composer who made the concerto grosso very popular was the Italian Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713).  The instruments in the small group of soloists in his concerti grossi were usually two violins and one cello.  George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) also used that combination for his concerti grossi.  

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote a set of six concertos known as the Brandenburg Concertos.  Each of the Brandenburg Concertos is for a different combination of instruments.  Most of them are concerti grossi.  The second one, for example, has a concertino group of four instruments: trumpet, violin, recorder and oboe.

After the Baroque period, few composers wrote concerti grossi.  They were more interested in the solo concerto.  However, in the 20th century, some composers, including Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Bela Bartok (1881-1945), wrote pieces of music that are like concerti grossi.

Related pages 
Concerto

Musical forms
The Hyundai Grandeur is an automobile made by Hyundai Motor Company. It was first sold in 1986. In North America the automobile was called Hyundai XG (third generation) and Hyundai Azera (fourth generation).

First generation (1986–1992) 

The first Grandeur of 1986 was developed together with Mitsubishi(Mitsubishi Debonair).

Second generation (1992–1998) 

The New Grandeur was developed together with Mitsubishi (Mitsubishi Debonair). Mitsubishi provided the powertrain and Hyundai took care of the exterior and interior design. Production of the car began in September 1992 and ended in 1998.

Third generation (1998–2005) 

The Grandeur XG, this time developed by Hyundai alone, used the same platform and engines as the Kia Amanti. In North America and Europe, it was called the Hyundai XG. Originally powered by a 3.0 L 6-cylinder engine, the XG300 was renamed to XG350 in 2002, to reflect the increase in engine size to 3.5 litres of displacement.

Fourth generation (2006–present) 

Sold as the Hyundai Azera in North America, the Grandeur TG is a full-size sedan introduced for the 2006 model year. It shares many of its components with the mid-size Sonata.

Being a step up from the Sonata, the Azera is the most luxurious model sold by Hyundai outside of Korea. Pricing for the base model starts at starts at US$24,995. The 2006 Hyundai Azera has a 3.8 L 6-cylinder engine, automatic gearbox, cruise control, automatic air-conditioning, power front seats, anti-lock brakes (ABS), electronic brake-force distribution (EBD), electronic stability control (ESC), and several airbags. The better equipped Limited trim level adds 17-inch alloy wheels, heated front seats, leather seat-upholstery, and a power sunshade for the rear window, and costs US$27,495.

Awards 
The Hyundai Azera was named "Best New Family Car (over CAN$35,000)" in the 2006 Canadian Car of the Year awards.

Other websites 
 Official US Site 
 AutoGuideWiki.com - Hyundai Azera
 RoadTests.com - Hyundai Azera

Grandeur
Front wheel drive vehicles
Sedans
1980s automobiles
1990s automobiles
2000s automobiles
2010s automobiles
Apes are mammals belonging to the primate family Hominoidea. Its members are called hominoids. They are native to Africa and Southeast Asia. Its living members are divided into two families:
Hylobatidae, the gibbons and siamangs;
Hominidae, consisting of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.

One clear difference between monkeys and apes is that monkeys almost always have tails, but hominoids never do. There are also differences in their teeth and the way they move their arms. They have a wide degree of freedom at the shoulder joint, which helps them swing by their arms in the trees (brachiation).

The diets of apes are similar to those of other primates. They eat fruits, nuts, seeds, leaves and sometimes other animals. They are generally omnivores, though most of their intake is herbivorous.

References

Other websites
Hattingen an der Ruhr is a city about 60.000 people in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It belongs to the Ruhr area. It lies south of Bochum and Essen. Very famous is its Altstadt.

References

Other websites

Ennepe-Ruhr Rural District
An accompaniment in music is music that accompanies (goes with) something else.

A piece of music may have a melody (tune) and an accompaniment underneath.  The music may be played on the piano with the right hand playing the tune and the left hand playing the accompaniment.  The accompaniment might also be played on a different instrument.

Music does not have to be a tune with accompaniment, although it often is.  The accompaniment does not always have to be lower than the tune.  To play the piano, the pianist has to learn to play a tune in the right hand and accompaniment in the left hand, or the tune might be passed from one hand to the other.  The tune should usually be played a little louder than the accompaniment.  The accompaniment must not ‘drown’ the tune.

An accompaniment might be single notes, or chords, or any other pattern. The accompaniments help us to feel the harmony. An accompaniment might be another tune (this is called counterpoint).  Tunes can be played or sung without accompaniment.  Folk songs are traditionally sung unaccompanied.

If one instrument accompanies another, the person who plays the accompaniment is an accompanist.  The piano is the most popular instrument for accompanying in Western music.  A good pianist can accompany a violin, cello, oboe, trumpet, singer or choir.  They have to listen carefully to the instrument(s) they are accompanying, and play with the same kind of feeling.

When a soloist plays a concerto the orchestra are accompanying the soloist.  An organist playing a hymn is accompanying the congregation.  A percussion player in a rock band is accompanying the lead instrument.

Guitars and electric keyboards are often used for accompaniment.  In Elizabethan times the lute was popular.  People sang songs and often accompanied themselves on the lute or harp.  In the Baroque period the accompaniment was often played by the basso continuo (harpsichord or organ with cello or bassoon on the bass line).

The pianist Gerald Moore was a famous accompanist.  When he started his career in the 1920s people did not think that the accompanist was very important.  Sometimes their name would not even be printed in the programme.  A singer would expect the audience to start to clap as soon as they had sung their last note, even if the piano had several more bars to play.  This might not matter too much with some music, but in songs by Schubert, Wolf and other composers of Lieder the piano parts are very important.  Gerald Moore made people realize how important the accompanist is.  A good performance can be ruined by a bad accompaniment.
Musical terminology
Tagalog is one of the main languages spoken in the Philippines and is the national language of the country. More than 22 million people speak it as their first language.

It was originally spoken by the Tagalog people in the Philippines, who were mainly in Bulacan, Cavite, and some parts of Luzon. Now, Tagalog is spoken nationwide and used by Filipinos from different parts of the country to understand each other.

It originally was used with an abugida, the Baybayin script, but the Latin alphabet is now used.

Sample phrases 

 Magandang Umaga! - Good Morning!
Magandang Gabi! - Good Evening!
Magandang Tanghali! - Good Afternoon!
Kumusta!/Kamusta? - How are you?/Hello! (Informal)
May __ ba kayo? - Do you have __?(Formal)
 Mayroon po: Response to "May __ ba kayo", meaning "Yes, sir".
 Wala po - Opposite of "Mayroon po".
 Kayo - you (formal), informally, it refers to "you all".
 Magkano ito? - How much is this?
 po: ma'am or sir (used in sentences to be polite to an elder speaker)
 Mabuhay! - Long Live
 Ako po si (Pangalan)... - I am (Name)...
 Mahal kita - I love you
 Nanay - Mom
 Tatay - Dad
 Hindi - No
 Bakit? - Why?
 Saan? - Where?
 Ano? - What?
 Kailan? - When?
 Sino? - Who?

Related pages
Tagalog Wikipedia

References

Other websites

Austronesian languages
Filipino culture
Basso continuo is a form of musical accompaniment used in the Baroque period. It means "continuous bass".

Basso continuo, sometimes just called "continuo", was played by an instrument providing chordal accompaniment such as a keyboard instrument or plucked string instrument such as the lute along with another bass instrument such as cello, violone, or bassoon. The keyboard instrument was normally a harpsichord but could also be an organ, such as a small portative instrument. 

It was not usual to write out all the notes for the keyboard player.  The composer normally just wrote the bass line which would be played by the left hand and doubled on the other bass instrument.  The composer would indicate what the harmony should be (which chords should be played) by writing figures underneath the music.

Examples

References

Music
Diwali (also: Deepawali) is one of India's biggest festivals. The word 'Deepawali' means rows of lighted lamps. It is a Festival of Lights and Hindus celebrate it with joy. During this festival, people light up their houses and shops with Diyas (small cup-shaped oil lamp made of baked clay). They worship the Lord Ganesha for  welfare and prosperity and Goddess Lakshmi for wealth and wisdom.

This festival is celebrated in the Hindu month of Kartikamasam which falls sometime during October or November.  It is celebrated to mark the return of Lord Rama after 14 years of exile and his victory over the Demon Ravana. In many parts of India, Deepawali is celebrated for five consecutive days.  Hindus regard it as a celebration of life and use the occasion to strengthen relationships. In some parts of India, it marks the beginning of a new year.  People clean and decorate their house before the festival.  They do colorful rangoli art works on floors.

Deepawali is celebrated and is a public holiday in countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. It is also a school holiday in many states of the United States with a large Hindu population. 
President George W. Bush had the first celebration of the holiday in the White House.

Hindus light up their homes and shops to welcome the Goddess Lakshmi and to give them good luck for the year ahead. A few days before Ravtegh, which is the day before Deepavali, houses, buildings, shops and temples are thoroughly cleaned, whitewashed and decorated with pictures, toys and flowers. On the day of Deepawali, people put on their best clothes and exchange greetings, gifts and sweets with their friends and family.

At night, buildings are illuminated with earthen lamps, candle-sticks and electric bulbs. Sweets and toy shop are decorated to attract the passers-by. The bazaars and streets are overcrowded. People buy sweets for their own families and also send them as presents to their friends and relatives. The Goddess Lakshmi is also worshiped in the form of earthen images, silver rupee. Hindus believe that on this day, Lakshmi only enters houses which are neat and tidy. People offer prayers for their own health, wealth and prosperity. They leave the light on in buildings believing that Lakshmi will not have difficulty in finding her way in.

Diwali is one of the most important festival of the Hindus.It is also known as deepawali or the  festival of lights. It comes on Amavasya day in the month of kartik. Both rich and poor wear new clothes on this day. Lots of sweets are made. People light diyas and burn crackers. They ex- change greetings and sweets. Goddess Laxmi is worshipped on this day.

References

Other websites 

The Ancient Origins of Diwali, India’s Biggest Holiday, Becky Little (2017)

Hinduism
Religious holidays
Arthashastra is an ancient book of India. Kautilya (also known as Chanakya) wrote this book. Kautilya was a minister of Chandragupta Maurya (321 BC – 297 BC), an emperor of Ancient India. After many revisions and additions, the book took its present form about 1800 years before, in the 2nd century. 

The book is divided into fifteen sections. It tells about politics and administration. Different sections of the book talk about many subjects, such as: war and politics "rule with a harsh hand"

Duties of the ruler
Training of the princes
Qualifications of ministers of state, home, and foreign offices
Civil services
Defense
Judiciary
Civil and criminal law
Corporation and guilds

History of India
Hanuman is one of the most popular gods of Hindus. He is also known by other names like Hanumat. His mother’s name was Anjana. Based on her mother’s name, Hanuman is sometimes called Anjaneya, that is, one born of Anjana. His father’s name was Kesari. 
He is blessed by Vayu as the god of winds. Hanuman’s image shows him as a strong man with the face of a monkey. He also has a tail it represents the morality, higher pride of being self.
Hanuman was awarded boon of Immortality by Mother Sita ( Wife of Lord rama) and is still alive

Hanuman is a very powerful and strong god. He finds an important place in the Ramayana. He was a devotee of Rama, a form (avatar) of Vishnu, a god of Hindus. Hanuman is a figure of strength, perseverance and devotion. When he was young he thought the sun a mango. One of his most famous stories was when he helped Rama rescue Sita from Ravana which is the famous story of Diwali.

Other websites 

Hindu mythology