cahya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The Carpathian Mountains are the eastern wing of the great Central Mountain System of Central Europe, curving 1500 km (~900 miles) along the borders of Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Serbia, and northern Hungary.

Geography 

The Carpathians begin on the Danube near Bratislava. They surround Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping towards the south-west, and end on the Danube near Orşova, in Romania. The total length of the Carpathians is over 1,500 km, and the mountain chain's width varies between 12 and 500 km.

The Carpathians are separated from the Alps by the Danube.

Divisions

Horizontal division 
 Outer Carpathians, containing the Outer Western Carpathians and Outer Eastern Carpathians, usually including the corresponding Outer Carpathian Depressions
 Inner Carpathians, containing the Inner Western Carpathians, Inner Eastern Carpathians, and all the remaining Carpathians

A major part of the western and northeastern Outer Carpathians in Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia is traditionally called Beskids.

Vertical and general division 

What follows is a practical outline of the Carpathian subdivisions (clockwise from the west, numbers refer to the map):
 Western Carpathians:
 1 Outer Western Carpathians:
 Austrian - South-Moravian Carpathians
 Central Moravian Carpathians
 Slovak-Moravian Carpathians
 West-Beskidian Piedmont
 Western Beskids
 Central Beskids
 Eastern Beskids
 Podhale-Magura Area
 2 Inner Western Carpathians:
 Slovenské rudohorie (Slovak Ore Mountains)
 Fatra-Tatra Area
 Slovenské stredohorie
 Lučensko-košická zníženina
 Mátra-Slanec Area/Northern Medium Mountains
 South Eastern Carpathians (= Eastern Carpathians in a wider sense):
 Eastern Carpathians:
 3 Outer Eastern Carpathians:
 4 Inner Eastern Carpathians:
 5 Southern Carpathians (also known as Transylvanian Alps):
 Făgăraş Mountains group
 [arâng Mountains group
 Retezat-Godeanu Mountains group
 6 Romanian Western Carpathians:
 Apuseni Mountains
 Poiana Ruscă Mountains (sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians)
 Banat Mountains (sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians)
 7 Transylvanian Plateau (sometimes not considered part of the Carpathians at all):
 Transylvanian Plateau
 Mureş-Turda Depression
 Făgăraş Depression
 Sibiu Depression
 8 Serbian Carpathians (sometimes considered part of the Southern Carpathians, or not considered part of the Carpathians at all)
 Outer Carpathian Depressions (they surround the Carpathians and are normally considered part of the corresponding adjacent above main groups)

Notes

Other websites
Pingu is a cartoon series for children about a penguin called Pingu. The series is popular in many countries because the characters only make sounds instead of saying words.

History
Pingu was made in Switzerland and United Kingdom on March 7, 1990. The show was made by Otmar Gutmann. It aired on CBBC from 1990 to 2002 and Cbeebies from 2002 to 2015. From 1993 to 2003, VHS releases were by BBC's Toybox line. As of 2003, all releases for DVD's are by HiT Entertainment.

Characters
The cast of Pingu includes the family and friends of Pingu.

 Pingu is the main character of the cartoon. He is a cheerful and bright emperor penguin. When he makes loud noises, his beak looks like a trumpet. 
 Pinga is the younger sister of Pingu. She is a little tomboyish.
 Robby is seal and a friend of Pingu. He is very clever and an artist.
 Pingi is Pingu's girlfriend.
 Pingo, Pingg, Pongi and Punki are friends of Pingu.
 Papa and Maman are Pingu's parents.

Personality of Pingu
He does not like green vegetables. They upset him.
His birthday is 22nd August.
Pingu's favorite toy is a bear doll, and Pinga's one is a rabbit doll.
He likes music.

References

Other websites
Pingu official website
Pingu at Toonopedia
 

Animated characters
1990 television series debuts
1990s television series
2000s television series
2006 television series endings
Fictional birds
Swiss culture
The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra (Tatry in both Slovak and Polish), constitute a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They occupy an area of 750 km², the major part (600 km²) of which lies in Slovakia. The highest Tatra peak, at 2655 m, is Gerlachovský štít, located in Slovakia. Rysy, at 2499 m, is the highest Polish peak.

The Tatra Mountains are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains. Although considerably smaller than the Alps, they are classified as having an alpine landscape. Their high mountain character, combined with great accessibility, makes them popular with tourists and scientists.

Bibliography 
Ján Lacika, Tatras (2nd edition), Bratislava 2006.

Other websites 

 Town of Vysoké Tatry – municipal website
 Zakopane – municipal website
 TANAP  – Slovak Tatra National Park
 TPN – Polish Tatra National Park

Commercial tourism-oriented websites 
 Tatry.cz  – travel guide (mainly Slovak side)
 Sky tour – travel guide (mainly Polish side)

Mountaineering 
 Tatry on ogdos.com  – mountaineer's notes

Photography 
 Atypical images of the Tatras 
 Spherical panoramas
 Panoramic view from Rysy (2499 m)

Films 
 Ski movie filmed in 1930

Mountain ranges of the Carpathians
Geography of Poland
Geography of Slovakia
Franklin G. Wells (March 4, 1932 - April 3, 1994) was the former President of Warner Bros. (1973-1977) and the Walt Disney Company (1984-1994). He climbed the highest mountain of every continent, but he did not reach the summit of the Mount Everest.

Frank Wells was born in 1932. At age 37, he became the Vice President of Warner Brothers, in 1973 the President and in 1977 the Vice Chairman. In 1982 he left Warner Bros. to pursue his dream of climbing to the top of the highest mountain on each continent. In 1984, he became part of the Disney concern as the second man behind Michael Eisner. Since 1984 he was the President and the Chief Operating Officer (COO). With Wells and Eisner at the top Disney became again one of the leading entertainment companies.

Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash at April 3, 1994 at age 62 while returning from a ski trip. The Disney animation movie, The Lion King, is dedicated to him.

1932 births
1994 deaths
Aviation deaths
Businesspeople from California
Disney people
Perfect could mean:

 Perfection (concept), a philosophical concept
 Perfection (law), a legal concept
 Perfect aspect, a grammatical concept
  Perfect, Liz homeberg

In mathematics:
 Perfect number
 Perfect group
 Perfect set
 Perfect graph

In biology:
 In botany and mycology, an organism is considered perfect if it is capable of sexual reproduction; otherwise it is imperfect.
 Fungi in the Division Deuteromycota (informally called the Fungi imperfecti) are so classified because sexual reproduction is unknown (or may not occur) in these species.
 A flower is called "perfect" (or synoecious) if it has both male and female reproductive parts. A perfect or hermaphroditic flower has both stamens and an ovary. If a flower has just male or just female parts it is termed 'imperfect'.

In music:
 Perfect interval, one of these music intervals:
 Perfect octave
 Perfect fifth
 Perfect fourth
 Perfect unison

As a proper name:
 Perfect (film)
 Perfect Records, a record label
 Perfect Developer, a tool for developing computer 
 Perfect, Alanis Morissette song
 Perfect, Fairground Attraction song
 Perfect John Cale song
 "Perfect" (Sara Evans song)
 Perfect, Simple Plan song
 Perfect, Smashing Pumpkins song
 "Perfect" (True Faith song)
 "Perfect" (Flyleaf song)
 Perfect (Exceeder), a song by Mason vs. Princess Superstar
 Perfect (Princess Superstar song), the original, unremixed, version of the aforementioned song
 Perfect (band), a band from Poland
 Perfect (Sam Shaber album)
The Bodhi Tree was a large and very old sacred fig tree (Ficus religiosa). It was at the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya. Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism, later known as Gautama Buddha, achieved Bodhi (spiritual enlightenment) while sitting under this tree. The Bodhi tree is easily recognised because of its heart-shaped leaves.

The word "Bodhi tree" is also applied to some existing trees, particularly the Sacred Fig growing at the Mahabodhi Temple, which is probably a direct descendant of the original tree. This tree is a frequent place for pilgrims to visit, being the most important of the four holy sites for Buddhists.

Historical events

The Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi Temple is called the Sri MahaBodhi. According to Buddhism, after his Enlightenment, Buddha spent a whole week in front of the tree, standing with unblinking eyes, gazing at it with gratitude. A shrine was later built where he had stood.

The spot was used as a shrine even in the lifetime of Buddha, the only shrine that could be so used. King Asoka held a festival every year in its honor in the month of Kattika. His queen, Tissarakkhā was jealous of the Tree, and three years after she became queen (i.e., in the nineteenth year of Asoka's reign), she caused the tree to be killed by means of mandu thorns. The tree, however, grew again, and a great monastery was attached to the Bodhimanda called the Bodhimanda Vihara. Among those present at the foundation of the Mahā Thūpa are mentioned thirty thousand monks from the Bodhimanda Vihara, led by Cittagutta.

To Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Some Part of Bodhi Tree was sent to Sri Lanka by Ashoka which was planted in 288 BC, making it the oldest verified specimen of any plant. In this year (the twelfth year of King Asoka's reign) the right branch of the Bodhi tree was brought by Sanghamittā to Anurādhapura and placed by Devānāmpiyatissa in the Mahāmeghavana. Buddha, on his death bed, had resolved "Mahavamsa" From Gayā, the branch was taken to Pātaliputta, then to Tāmalittī, where it was placed in a ship and taken to Jambukola, across the sea; finally it arrived at Anuradhapura, staying on the way at Tivakka. Those who assisted the king at the ceremony of the planting of

The trees of other Buddhas

According to the Ceylon Chronicles (e.g., Mhv.xv), branches from the Bodhi trees of all the Buddhas born during this kalpa were planted in Ceylon on the spot where the sacred Bodhi tree stands today in Anurādhapura. The branch of Kakusandha's tree was brought by a nun called Rucānandā, Konagamana's by Kantakānandā (or Kanakadattā), and Kassapa's by Sudhammā.

Other websites

The Bodhi-Tree Meditation
History of Bodhi-Tree

References 

Trees
Buddhism
Moraceae
Leslie Townes Hope  (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003), better known as Bob Hope, was an American-English actor, comedian and entertainer. He was the only person who received five honorary Oscars.

Early life 
Bob Hope was born on May 29, 1903, in London, England to a Welsh mother and English father. In 1908, the Hopes migrated to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1920, at age 17, Hope became a U.S. citizen.

Career 
Before he was an actor, Hope became a professional boxer. In this time he was called "Packey East". Years later, he was popular because of some musicals he played in. He was also part of some television and radio shows. At the same time, Bob Hope became a comedian. Hope visited the United States armed forces between 1941 and 1991 during the conflicts in that time period. These shows made Hope a household name and well liked by most Americans. Hope also entertained eleven U.S. Presidents.

In 1939, Bob Hope married Dolores DeFina (May 27, 1909 - September 19, 2011). The couple adopted four children: Eleanora, Anthony, Linda, and Kelly.

Awards 
Bob Hope was honored with more than 1500 awards. Among them are five special Oscars in 1941, 1945, 1953, 1960, and 1966. Between 1940 and 1978 he hosted the Academy Awards record seventeen times.

And in 1998 he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. Upon accepting the appointment, Hope quipped, "I'm speechless. 70 years of ad lib material and I'm speechless."

Death 
Bob Hope died of pneumonia on July 27, 2003, 2 months after his 100th birthday. He was buried 3 days later, reburied on July 22, 2005 in custom made grave in California.

References

Other websites 
An obituary on BBC

Academy Award Honorary Award winners
Actors from California
Actors from Cleveland, Ohio
American centenarians
American movie actors
American television actors
Comedians from London
Comedians from Cleveland, Ohio
Deaths from pneumonia
Infectious disease deaths in the United States
Kennedy Center honorees
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Congressional Gold Medal recipients
Screen Actors Guild Award winners
1903 births
2003 deaths
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Port-au-Prince (Pòtoprens in Kreyòl) is the capital city of Haiti.  Haiti is also divided into ten Départements; Port-au-Prince is the capital of the Ouest Département.

Port-au-Prince is Haiti's largest city.  According to the country's 2015 census, over 2.6 million people lived there.

History 
Port-au-Prince was built in 1749.  At that time, Haiti was a French colony called Saint-Domingue.  Before 1770, Cap-Français (now Cap-Haïtien) was the capital of Saint-Domingue.  In 1770, Port-au-Prince replaced Cap-Français as the capital of Saint-Domingue.

In 1804, the people of Haiti won the Haitian Revolution, and Haiti became an independent country.  Port-au-Prince became the capital of this new country.  During the French and Haitian Revolutions, it was called Port-Républicain, before Jean-Jacques Dessalines renamed it Port-au-Prince.

Shortly after it won its independence, Haiti's new leaders divided the country between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south.  Port-au-Prince remained the capital of the republic.

Port-au-Prince today 
Port-au-Prince is the cultural centre of Haiti. The State University of Haiti (L'Université d'État d'Haïti, or UEH, in French); the Université Quisqueya; and the Université Caraïbe are all located in the city.

Port-au-Prince is the nation's largest centre of economy and finance. It has the most important port in the country, where coffee and sugar are exported. Port-au-Prince has soap, textile, and cement factories, and others to process foods.

There is also an international airport about  north of the city.  It is named Aéroport International Toussaint L'ouverture after national hero Toussaint L'ouverture.

The city was very badly damaged and more than 100,000 people died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which is one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. Due to extreme poverty, the city has still not recovered from the earthquake, and many ruins still remain.

References

1749 establishments
Port-au-Prince
Establishments in the French colonial empire
1740s establishments in North America
In astronomy, an apsis, plural apsides (IPA: //) is the point of greatest or least distance of the elliptical orbit of an astronomical object from its center of attraction, which is generally the center of mass of the system.

The point of closest approach is called the periapsis or pericentre and the point of farthest excursion is called the apoapsis (Greek από, from, which becomes απ before a vowel, and αφ before rough breathing), apocentre or apapsis (the latter term, although etymologically more correct, is much less used). A straight line drawn through the periapsis and apoapsis is the line of apsides. This is the major axis of the ellipse, the line through the longest part of the ellipse.

Similar words are used to identify the body being orbited. The most common are perigee and apogee, referring to orbits around the Earth, and perihelion and aphelion, referring to orbits around the Sun (Greek ‘ήλιος hēlios sun). During the Apollo program, the terms pericynthion and apocynthion were used when referring to the moon.

Perihelion and aphelion 

The perihelion is the point in the orbit of an object that is nearest to the Sun. The aphelion is the point in the orbit of an object where it is farthest from the Sun.

All planets, comets and asteroids in our solar system have approximately elliptical (a kind of non-circular) orbits. Thus, they all have a closest and a farthest point from the sun: a perihelion and an aphelion. Orbital eccentricity measures the flatness of the orbit. Any single revolution of a body around the sun is only approximately elliptical, because the precession of the perihelion prevents the orbit from being a simple closed curve such as an ellipse. This causes Milankovich cycles.  

Earth comes closest to the sun every year around January 3. It is farthest from the sun every year around July 4. The difference in distance between Earth's nearest point to the sun in January and farthest point from the sun in July is . Earth is about  from the Sun in early January, in contrast to about  in early July.

When Earth is closest to the Sun, it is winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere. Thus it is possible to see that Earth's distance from the Sun does not noticeably cause the seasons to change; the relatively minor effects of differences in distance is somewhat masked by the mainly oceanic southern hemisphere vs the half-continental northern hemisphere. Therefore, the Earth's seasons come and go mainly because Earth does not rotate with its axis exactly upright with respect to the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Earth's axial tilt is 23.5 degrees. This puts the Sun farther south in December and January, so the north has winter and the south has summer. Thus winter falls on that part of the globe where sunlight strikes least directly. Summer falls on that part of the globe where sunlight strikes most directly.

References

Related pages 
 Orbital inclination

Orbits
The astronomical unit (AU) is a unit of length derived from the Earth's orbit.  It is the average distance the Earth gets from the Sun on the long axis of the ellipse. Its definition is:  the length of the semi-major axis of the Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun. "Semi-major" means half the long axis.

The AU is about 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles. Astronomers usually measure distances within the Solar System in astronomical units.  Mars is about 1.4 AU from the Sun, Jupiter lies at roughly 5.2 AU, and Neptune is roughly 30 AU from the Sun.  Light travels an AU in about 8.317 minutes.

More accuracy 
From 1976 to 2012 the AU was defined as “the radius of an unperturbed circular Newtonian orbit about the Sun of a particle having infinitesimal mass, moving with a mean motion of 0.01720209895 radians per day (known as the Gaussian constant)”.  In 2012, the IAU redefined it to be simply . 

In the IERS numerical standards, the speed of light in a vacuum is defined as c0 = , in accordance with the SI units. The time to cover an AU is τA = , resulting in the astronomical unit in metres as c0τA = . It is very roughly the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

References

Other websites 
 Astronomical Unit Citizendium

Astronomical distances
In mathematics, a degree is a common way to measure plane angle. It is written with the symbol , where  corresponds to the entire circle.

It is not an SI unit. The SI uses radian to measure plane angle. However, according to the SI brochure, it is an accepted unit by SI.

History 
The actual reason of choosing the degree as a way to measure plane angle is unknown. One theory says that it is related with the fact that a year is approximately 360 days. Some ancient calendars, for example the Persian calendar and the Babylonian calendar, used 360 days for a year.

Another theory says that the Babylonians divided the circle using the angle of an equilateral triangle. The angle was then divided into 60 parts. This is because they used sexagesimal or base-60 numeral system.

Related pages 

 Degree of a polynomial

References 

Angles
The Julian day or Julian day number (JDN) is the number of days that have passed since the initial epoch defined as noon Universal Time (UT) Monday, 1 January 4713 BC in the Julian calendar. That noon-to-noon day is defined as Julian day 0. Thus all JDNs that are evenly divisible by 7 are Mondays. Negative values may also be used; although, those predate recorded history.

For example, right now at  the JDN is  (). When this JDN is divided by 7, the remainder is , which is an integer expression for the day of the week with 0 representing Monday.

The Julian date (JD) is a continuous count of days and fractions elapsed since the same initial epoch. Currently the JD is . The integral part (its floor) gives the Julian day number. The fractional part gives the time of day since noon UT as a decimal fraction of one day or fractional day, with 0.5 representing midnight UT. Typically, a 64-bit floating point (double precision) variable can represent an epoch expressed as a Julian date to about 1 millisecond precision.

A Julian date of 2454115.05486 means that the date and Universal Time is Sunday 14 January 2007 at 13:18:59.9.

The decimal parts of a Julian date:
0.1 = 2.4 hours or 144 minutes or 8640 seconds
0.01 = 0.24 hours or 14.4 minutes or 864 seconds
0.001 = 0.024 hours or 1.44 minutes or 86.4 seconds
0.0001 = 0.0024 hours or 0.144 minutes or 8.64 seconds
0.00001 = 0.00024 hours or 0.0144 minutes or 0.864 seconds.

Almost 2.5 million Julian days have elapsed since the initial epoch. JDN 2,400,000 was November 16, 1858. JD 2,500,000.0 will occur on August 31, 2132 at noon UT.

The Julian day number can be considered a very simple calendar, where its calendar date is just an integer. This is useful for reference, computations, and conversions. It allows the time between any two dates in history to be computed by simple subtraction.

The Julian day system was introduced by astronomers to provide a single system of dates that could be used when working with different calendars and to unify different historical chronologies. Apart from the choice of the zero point and name, this Julian day and Julian date are not directly related to the Julian calendar, although it is possible to convert any date from one calendar to the other.

References 

Days
A meatball is meat that is ground up (finely cut), mixed with other ingredients, then shaped like a ball. Most meatballs are made out of beef. Meatballs can also be made out of chicken, fish, or other kinds of meat. The other ingredients (parts) are usually bread, onion, and eggs. Meatballs can be cooked by frying, baking, or steaming them. Meatballs are sometimes served with pasta or in a sauce. Meatballs originated from Turkey.There are many types of meatball like foggots,polpette,albondigas etc.

References

Meat dishes
Do not confuse this with the modern country Ghana.

The Ghana Empire was in what is now southeastern Mauritania, Western Mali, and Eastern Senegal.  It is also sometimes called the Wagadu Empire.  It started in about 750 and ended in about 1076. 
They had two sides; Muslim and Non-muslim what divided them was a 6 mile boulevard (street).
Ghana sat on top of a gold mine and was a very wealthy empire. Its capital was Koumbi Saleh. Surrounded Modern Northern Senegal and Southern Mauritania. Traded with Saharans in gold and salt. 

History of Mali
750 establishments
1076 disestablishments
8th-century establishments in Africa
Disestablishments in Africa
The Mali Empire was a West African country from 1235 to 1645. The Mandinka people lived there. It is also called the Manding Empire or Manden Kurufa. Sundiata Keita started the empire and the empire became famous because its rulers were very rich, especially Mansa Musa I. The Mali Empire had many important cultural effects on West Africa, spreading language, laws and customs along the Niger River. This was because of the spread of Islam by verbal wording.
For such a prolific empire, there are few written accounts of its greatness. Most of the written accounts that do exist came from Arab scholars who traveled through the region. In lieu of written accounts, most of the stories from the locals were passed down through oral histories, songs and poems. Until this day, ‘griots’ still tell stories of the ancient history in the area. Architects in the Mali Empire combined styles of the Sahel region and Middle East together, particularly after Emperor Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca. There were several royal palaces built during the time, many of which are still standing. Mud bricks, log beams and plaster helped these palaces to remain standing. The most famous work of architecture from the time period is the Great Mosque of Djenné, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mosque was rebuilt in 1907 and can still be visited in Djenné. However, if you aren’t a Muslim, you can’t go inside. 
The Mali Empire had one of the richest leaders in history. The richest and most famous of all the leaders of the Mali Empire was Mansa Musa. It is thought by some that Mansa Musa could have been the wealthiest person in history. According to stories, he took 60,000 people on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 along with camels loaded down with gold. 
Islam was very important to the Mali Empire. Most of the kings of the Mali Empire eventually converted to Islam, with their people subsequently practicing as well. However, unlike many empires, they didn’t make their subjects convert, and the version of Islam that they practiced was combined with the local traditions of the villages. You can still see many relics in cities like Bamako, Djenné and Timbuktu. 
The Mali Empire's most important industry was gold. People in the ancient world were drawn to it. The Mali Empire (Timbuktu in particular) was a huge trading center for the gold industry. Camel caravans would come to the area before leaving across the trans-Saharan trade routes. The empire had so much gold that it caused the market to crash for a period of time when Mansa Musa brought almost a ton of gold to Cairo. The army of the Mali Empire was massive.
During the height of the Mali Empire, the army numbered around 100,000 men and 10,000 cavalry, making it one of the largest in the world at the time. The empire used this army to gain new lands.

History of Mali
Former countries in Africa
1235 establishments
1645 disestablishments
1230s establishments in Africa
Disestablishments in Africa
Timbuktu is a city in Tombouctou Region, Mali. Sankore University and other madrasas are in the city. The city was important for thinking and for religion in the 15th and 16th centuries.  It was important in spreading Islam through Africa at that time. There are three great mosques: Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahya. They are reminders of Timbuktu's golden age. They are always being fixed, but are threatened because the desert is spreading.

Songhay, Tuareg, Fulani, and Mandé people live in Timbuktu. It is about 15 km north of the Niger River. There is a route across the Sahara Desert from east to west and this is used for trade. There is another from north to south. These two routes meet in Timbuktu. It is an entrepôt for rock salt from Taoudenni. This means that the salt is brought here and sold to other people to take it somewhere else, but no tax is charged.

Its location helped different people meet, so local people, Berbers and Arabs met here. It has a long history of mixed African trade, so it became famous in Europe for this reason. Therefore, western people often thought of Timbuktu as being exotic. It has a hot desert climate (BWh in the Koeppen climate classification).

Timbuktu has given a lot of research and study to Islam and to the world. Important books were written and copied in Timbuktu in the 14th century. This made the city become the center of writing in Africa.

References 

Cities in Mali
Jeanne Demessieux (born Montpellier, France, 13 February 1921; died Paris, 11 November 1968), was a French organist and composer.

Early years
She started to learn the piano when she was very young, before taking up the organ.  Her family moved to Paris so that she could continue to have music lessons there.  She became an organ student at the Conservatoire in 1933.  In the same year she got a job as organist of the St. Esprit church in Paris.  She had this job for 29 years.

Between 1936 and 1939, she studied organ privately with the great Marcel Dupré, and in 1939 she joined his organ class at the Conservatoire. After receiving a first prize in organ performance and improvisation in 1941, she studied five more years with Dupré in Meudon, before she played her first recital at Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1946. This was the beginning of her career as an international recitalist. She played more than 700 concerts in Europe and the United States.

Works
Gifted with an amazing musical memory, she could play more than 2,500 pieces from memory, including all the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, César Franck, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Dupré.

She was also a remarkable improviser.  When she gave her first solo concert in Paris at Salle Pleyel in 1946, she was given four musical themes and improvised a symphony in four movements.

A teacher of the organ at Nancy and Brussels, she made several LP recordings, of which those of music by Franck are probably the best known. She had plans to record all the organ works of Olivier Messiaen. However, she died relatively young, at age 47, of cancer, before she was able to finish this task.

She wrote many compositions, especially for the organ.  These include: Nativité, Six Études, Sept Méditations sur le Saint-Esprit, Triptyque, Twelve Choral-Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes, Te Deum, Répons pour les Temps Liturgiques, and Prélude et fugue en UT.

1921 births
1968 deaths
Disease-related deaths in France
20th-century French composers
French musicians
French organists
People from Montpellier
Women composers
House mouse (Mus musculus) the common mouse is one of the species of the genus Mus. Often, it is just called a  mouse. It is a small rodent. In most parts of the world, they live close to humans. Laboratory mice are types of house mice and are some of the most important organisms used for research in biology and medicine. They are the most commonly used laboratory mammal for experiments.

Description 
They are quite small, but are not the smallest mammals. House mice have an adult body length (nose to base of tail) of 7.5–10 cm (3.0–3.9 in) and a tail length of 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in). The weight is typically 10–25 g (0.4–0.9 oz). In the wild they vary in color from light to dark agouti (light to dark brown). Selected strains of mice can be got in various other colours.

It is a small, scaly-tailed mouse with a distinct notch in the cutting surface of upper incisors (seen best in side view). Its hair short; ears moderately large and naked.

Physiology 
The main problem of small mammals is their high surface to weight ratio: they have a big surface area for such a small mass. Since heat is radiated from the surface, they have adaptations to help them keep their temperature up to normal. They need to eat frequently, and live in areas where they are protected from the coldest weather. Easy access to high-quality vegetable food (such as grains) and a protected habitat helps them survive and multiply. That is why they are found in numbers living in human settlements.

Life cycle 
Their life-span in the wild averages about a year. They are eaten by a variety of small carnivores, but they reproduce rapidly, so that keeps the numbers up.  Females have 314 babies in a litter, and can have 5 to 10 litters a year. In good conditions, the mouse population rises quickly.

Habitat 

Although not native to North America, the house mouse was introduced accidentally to seaport towns. It is now widespread throughout the United States. It occurs either as a commensal or feral animal in practically all parts of the U.S. 

As commensal animals, house mice live in close association with man – in houses, outbuildings, stores, and other structures. Where conditions permit, feral mice may be found in fields, along watercourses, and in other places where vegetation is dense enough to hide them.

Old World rats and mice
Model organisms
Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel (May 13, 1930 – June 26, 2021) was an American Democratic politician. He was member of the Libertarian Party from 2008 to 2010 when he re-joined the Democratic Party. He served as a United States Senator from Alaska (1969-1981) and, previously, as member of the Alaska House of Representatives (1953-1966, speaker from 1965-1966). Gravel was a two-time presidential candidate in 2008 and in 2020.

Early years
Gravel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He studied at Assumption College, American International College and at Columbia University. He moved to Alaska in 1956.

Senate years
From 1953 to 1966, Gravel was a member of the Alaska House of Representatives. From 1965 to 1966, Gravel was Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives. In 1969, he was elected United States Senator from Alaska. 

Gravel is best known for his successful effort to end military draft during the Vietnam War and put the Pentagon Papers into the public record in 1971. He was seen as a possible running mate for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign.

Gravel lost to Clark Gruening in the Democratic Party for re-election in the 1980 Senate election.

Presidential campaigns

2008
As a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008 he wanted withdrawal of US Armed Forces from Iraq, more health care and social security, and  preventing global warming. He is also one of the earliest and the most famous supporters of direct democracy in the United States.

2020

On March 19, 2019, Gravel created an exploratory committee to run for President once again in the 2020 election. He said he would run not to win the nomination, but to raise awareness of bigger issues. On April 2, 2019, Gravel filed to officially run for office. He dropped out of the race on July 31, 2019 after failing to qualify for the debates. He endorsed Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard for President on August 5. His campaign manager was a 17 year old high school student.

Death
Gravel died on June 26, 2021 at his home in Seaside, California from multiple myeloma at the age of 91.

References

Other websites 
 Official campaign site
 Official youtube channel
 Congressional biography

1930 births
2021 deaths
Deaths from multiple myeloma
People from Springfield, Massachusetts
2020 United States presidential candidates
2008 United States presidential candidates
United States senators from Alaska
Politicians from Massachusetts
US Democratic Party politicians
Legislative speakers
US Libertarian Party politicians
Cancer deaths in California
American political activists
American political commentators
American political writers
Writers from Massachusetts
Writers from Alaska
Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Businesspeople from Alaska
People from Anchorage, Alaska
In astronomy, the argument of periapsis (ω) is a way of talking about the orbit of a planet, asteroid or comet. It is also known as the argument of perihelion or the argument of perifocus. It is the angle (starting from the center of the orbit) between an orbiting body's periapsis and its ascending node. Periapsis is the point when the orbiting object comes the closest to the thing it is orbiting around; for example, the moon is at periapsis when it is closest to the Earth. The ascending node is one of two places where an orbiting object passes through the reference plane, an imaginary flat surface which runs through the object being orbited around. The size of the angle depends on which way the object is orbiting.

The angle is measured in the orbital plane and in the direction of motion. For specific types of orbits, words such as "perihelion" (for Sun-centered orbits), "perigee" (for Earth-centered orbits), "pericenter" (general), etc. may replace the word "periapsis".

An argument of periapsis of 0° means that the orbiting body will be at its closest approach to the central body at the same moment that it crosses the plane of reference from south to north. An argument of periapsis of 90° means that the orbiting body will reach periapsis at its northmost distance from the plane of reference.

Argument of perihelion and Longitude of ascending node of planets.

Orbits
The longitude of the ascending node (☊ or Ω) is one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space.  It is the angle from a reference direction, called the origin of longitude, to the direction of the ascending node, measured in a reference plane.

References

Orbits

ru:Кеплеровы элементы орбиты#Долгота восходящего узла
Continental drift is a historical, scientific theory. The theory was first proposed by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. It was fully developed by the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1915. 

The theory said that parts of the Earth's crust move slowly on top of a liquid mantle of higher density. The theory has now been included in the wider theory of plate tectonics.

Evidence 
The theory was supported by finding the same minerals and fossils in western Europe and eastern North America.  There are also similar fossils on the western coast of Africa and the eastern South America. The shapes of these continents nearly fit together. The theory was plausible (believable), but there was no known mechanism to drive these great movements. This problem was later solved by plate tectonics.

The pattern of volcanic activity, mountain building (orogeny) and earthquakes is explained by continental drift. The existence of identical rocks widely apart supports the theory. 

Examples (there are hundreds):
Fossils of the fern Glossopteris are found in rocks from Australia, South America, Antarctica, India, Africa and Madagascar. These were all together in the supercontinent Gondwana, after the global continent Pangaea broke up.
Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and mountains south of Rio de Janeiro are made of identical rocks. This corresponds to the fit of Africa with South America in Pangaea. 
The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, and Fingal's Cave on Staffa, Inner Hebrides, Scotland is the same rock formation.

Mechanism 
The basic machine driving continental movement is heat moving from the Earth's mantle through the crust and out of the planet. The effect of this it to cause convection, and plate movement. 

Two events in particular are of huge importance:
The production of new crust at places such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The removal of crust by subduction (moving under) at the points where plates collide.

Footnote 

Plate tectonics
Saxe-Altenburg () was one of the Ernestine duchies of the House of Wettin.
Altenburg was independent for most of the 1600s until 1672. This is when the last male ruler died. Because only men could rule the Ernestine duchies Altenburg began to be ruled by the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, who had married the last ruler’s daughter.

In 1825 the ruler died, and he also had no male heirs. Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was split up. Gotha was given to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Altenburg to the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, who in exchange gave up Saalfeld and Hildburghausen to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. This family ruled in the duchy until the end of the monarchies in 1918. Saxe-Altenburg became part of the new state of Thuringia in the Weimar Republic in 1920.

Saxe-Altenburg had an area of  and a population of 207,000 (1905). Its capital was Altenburg.

The Saxe-Altenburg line became extinct following the death of Prince George Moritz in 1991.

Dukes of Saxe-Altenburg 
 Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1826-1834) (Previously Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen)
 Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1834-1848)
 Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1848-1853)
 Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1853-1908)
 Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1908-1918)

Heads of the Ducal House of Saxe-Altenburg, post monarchy 
 Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1918-1955)
 Georg Moritz, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Altenburg (1955-1991)

In 1991 the Saxe-Altenburg line became extinct.

Two branches descend from duke Ernest the Pious, the father of the progenitor of this Saxe-Altenburg branch: Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; according to old Wettin family law, they would have divided the actual territories between them (as happened to Gotha and Altenburg in 1826). The senior male agnate descending from duke Ernest the Pious, in 1991 , was prince Frederick-Alfred of Saxe-Meiningen (a monk, 1921-1997), and thus technically succeeded then as titular duke of Saxe-Altenburg and head of the whole branch; but, because he renounced all his succession rights in favor of his uncle Bernhard, was him instead Frederick-Alfred the general heir of the line of Saxe-Meiningen. His successor was Konrad, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, the present head of that branch.

Related pages
 Ernestine duchies

References

Other websites 

 Saxe-Altenburg family genealogy

Ernestine duchies
States of the German Confederation
States of the German Empire
States of the Holy Roman Empire
States of the North German Confederation
States of the Weimar Republic
Thuringia
A porcupine is a rodent with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that defend them from predators. The porcupine is the third biggest rodent, after the capybara, and beaver, and are not to be confused with hedgehogs. Most porcupines are about 60–90 cm long, with a 20–25 cm long tail. Weighing between 12-35 pounds (5–16 kg), they are rounded, large and slow. Porcupines come in various shades of brown, grey, and the unusual white. The name "porcupine" comes from Middle French porc d'épine "thorny pork", hence the nickname "quill pig" for the animal. The correct term for a baby porcupine is a porcupette. A porcupette has soft quills made of hardened hair. This protects the mother from injury as she gives birth.

The animal's quills or spines take on many forms, depending on the type, but all are hairs coated with thick plates of keratin, and they are in the skin musculature. Old World porcupines (Hystricidae) have quills in clusters, whereas in New World porcupines (Erethizontidae) single quills are mixed with bristles, underfur, and hair.

Porcupine quills are as sharp as needles, can be removed very easily, and will stay stuck in an attacker. Unlike needles, however, the quills of New World porcupines have small, backwards-facing barbs on the tip that catch on the skin making them hard and painful to pull out. Quills are about 75 mm long and 2 mm wide. If a quill becomes put in the tissues of an attacker, the barbs act to pull the quill farther into the tissues with the normal muscle movements of the attacker, moving up to many millimeters in a day. Animals who try to eat porcupines have been known to die because of quill penetration and infection. Quills can still penetrate animals and humans even after death. The ancient belief that porcupines can throw their quills at an enemy has long been proved to be incorrect.

Porcupines can live in a wide range of places in tropical and mild parts of Asia, Italy, Africa, and North and South America. Porcupines live in forests, deserts and grasslands. Some live in trees, others stay on the ground.

Porcupines in search of salt sometimes live in human places, eating plywood cured with sodium nitrate, certain paints, and tool handles, footwear, clothes and other items that have been coated in salty sweat. Porcupines like going near roads in areas where rock salt is used to melt ice and snow, and are known to gnaw on vehicle tires or wiring coated in road salt. Salt licks placed nearby can stop porcupine damage.

Natural sources of salt used by porcupines include different salt-rich plants (such as yellow water lily and aquatic liverwort), fresh animal bones, outer tree bark and mud in salt-rich soils.

References 

Rodents
was a Swedish reality program. It was first broadcast on August 4, 2000. It was broadcast by the station TV4. The program followed three American actresses who auditioned for the role as "Billie Jo" in the Swedish soap opera Nya tider.

The winner was Alexandra Sapot. The winner was chosen by Swedish viewers' televotes and the production company Jarowskij.

Contestants 

Tanya Gingerich  is an actress from Tarrytown, New York. She also played parts in series like Hamlet and Shame No More. 
Melissa Hanson is an actress born in Honolulu,Hawaii. She also played parts in series like Grace Under Fire and Who shot Patakango?.
Hope Harris is an American actress from Virginia. She also played roles in series like The Sullivan sisters,Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story and Angel in Training.
Alexandra Sapot is an actress and executive assistant on series like Entourage, and Now and Again.

Other websites

About the contestants

About the show 

Alex  blev Billie Jo (Alex Sapot won the role as Billie Jo, Aftonbladet article, in Swedish)

2000 television series debuts
Reality television series
The Sri Maha Bodhi is a Sacred Fig tree in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. The site where it's on, Sacred City of Anuradhapura, is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 

It is said to be a tree grown from a sapling from the famous Bodhi tree where the first Buddha became enlightened. It brought down by Mihindu (Mahinda) and Sanghamitta. It was planted in 288 BC. It is the oldest living human-planted tree in the world with a known planting date. 

It was planted on a high terrace about  above the ground. It is surrounded by railings to protect it. It is one of the most sacred objects of the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, and respected by Buddhists all over the world. 

Its wall was built during the reign of King Kirthi Sri Rajasingha, to protect it from wild elephants which might have attacked the tree.

History

In the 3rd century BC, the Buddha's fig tree was brought to Sri Lanka by Sangamitta, daughter of Emperor Asoka and founder of an order of Buddhist nuns, in Sri Lanka.

In 280 BC, Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi was planted in the Mahamevnāwa Park in Anuradhapura by King Devanampiya Tissa.

Related pages
 Bodhi tree

References

Other websites
Living Heritage - Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi 

Buddhism
World Heritage Sites
Dolores Hope (May 27, 1909 – September 19, 2011) was an American singer. She was the widow of Bob Hope.

Early life
Hope was born Dolores DeFina on May 27, 1909. She was of Italian and Irish ancestry. She was born and raised in New York City. She began her career in the 1930s.

Marriage to Bob
In 1933, she met Bob Hope the first time in a Manhattan nightclub. They married in 1934. The couple adopted four children: Eleanora, Anthony, Linda and Kelly.

She and her husband entertained U.S. troops from the 1940s until the 1990s. Dolores Hope did this job over the time of a half century until the 1990s. In 1990, she was the only female entertainer who was allowed to go to Saudi Arabia.

Awards
She was often awarded for her work, for example with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and seven honorary Doctorates. A street was named after Dolores Hope in the Bronx.

Later life
She was with her husband as he turned 100. Shortly after, and 69 years after their marriage, Bob Hope died in summer of 2003 at age 100. On May 27, 2009, Dolores Hope celebrated her 100th birthday. She died on September 19, 2011.

Other websites
 
 Dolores Hope biography 
 Anthony J. Hope, Bob Hope's Son, dies at 63

American centenarians
American musicians
Singers from New York City
1909 births
2011 deaths