cahya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
An anthem is a piece of music written for a choir to sing at an Anglican church service.  The difference between an anthem and a motet is that an anthem is sung in English.  Also most anthems are accompanied by an organ.

The word “anthem” has come to mean “a song of celebration”. Anthems are also patriotic songs adopted by countries of the world. It has 158 stanzas, written by the poet Dionysios Solomos (although the cut-down version is shorter than Uruguay's, which is more than five minutes long). The anthem of Greece "Hymn to liberty" is the longest anthem in the world.

Anthems for the church have been composed ever since King Henry VIII argued with the Pope and did not want to be Roman Catholic any more.  He founded (started) the English Anglican church.  Church composers were told to write music in English.  The words usually come from the Bible.  We know that as early as 1502 the composer Fayrfax was paid 20 shillings for composing an anthem.  After the Reformation many anthems were composed.  At first they were like motets, but in English.  Soon the English anthem developed differently from the continental motet.  Two kinds of anthem developed: the “Full Anthem” in which the whole anthem was sung by the full choir, and the “Verse Anthem” which was usually longer and had several verses which would be sung by soloists, with choruses for the full choir in between.

Almost every music director of cathedrals or large churches has written anthems.  A few of the most famous composers of anthems are:

 Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)
 William Byrd (1543-1623)
 Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
 Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
 George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
 William Boyce (1710-1779)
 Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)
 Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
 William H.Harris (1883-1973)
 Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
 William Mathias (1934-1992)
 John Tavener (1944-2013)
 John Rutter (b.1945)

References

musical forms
Improvisation is the art of performing without a script or rehearsal.

Music 
In music, improvisation is the art of playing an instrument (or singing) in which the musician or musicians make up the music as they play.  Improvising is inventing at the same time as one does something.  Some musicians only play music when they have written music in front of them, but it can be great fun to improvise music.  It is a way of composing. Improvisation is common during a jam session.

In Baroque times, all musicians were taught to improvise because composers often did not bother to write all the notes down.  Musicians would have improvised lots of ornaments, and even whole sections.

Many great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Liszt were famous for their keyboard improvisations.

Organists are often expected to improvise during a service.  In this way they can fill in gaps in the service when there would otherwise be silence, they can make a smooth link between one piece of music and the next, and they can create the right atmosphere.  In Baroque times, in the Lutheran church, organists would improvise a chorale prelude.  This was a piece of music which uses the melody of the chorale (hymn) that the congregation sang.  Bach was one of many composers who wrote many of his chorale preludes down.  In more recent times, some famous concert organists often finish an organ recital by playing an improvisation.  This might be quite a long piece with several linked movements, finishing with a fugue.  Somebody may give them the theme written on a piece of paper, so that it is quite unprepared. Charles Tournemire, Marcel Dupré, Pierre Cochereau, Pierre Pincemaille are known to be great organ improviser.

A lot of people who play folk music improvise.  Traditional folk music would not have been written down.

In traditional jazz the musicians usually improvise.  It is quite tricky when a group of people are improvising together.  They have to listen to one another and get ideas from one another.  It can be a very exciting way of making music.

Comedy
Improvisation also refers to a type of performance.  Improvisation (or improv for short) is often used in comedy.  Actors or Improvisers will create an entire show that they make up as they go along. They will often ask the audience for an idea or suggestion. They will then do a short performance based on the suggestion. This lets them do many different short performances during each night's show. This is called "Short-form improv".

musical performance techniques
Plays
Theatrical forms
The Reichstag building was designed as a home to the parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894. The original building's design was made by Paul Wallot. It was built on the site of an old palace in Berlin, Germany.

The building was used by the parliament of the German Empire until 1918. The parliament of the Weimar Republic, also called the Reichstag, sat there until the 1933 Reichstag fire. The Third Reich seldom used its parliament, so the building remained empty and derelict until after German reunification.

Then it became the seat of the German parliament again in 1999 after a reconstruction led by British architect Lord Norman Foster.

Today's parliament of Germany is called the Bundestag. The Reichstag as a parliament dates back to the Holy Roman Empire and ceased to act as a true parliament in the years of Nazi Germany (1933-1945). In today's usage, the German term Reichstag refers to the building, while the term Bundestag refers to the institution.

The Reichstag dome 
The original Reichstag dome was damaged in the 1933 fire and again during the war. It was replaced by a large glass dome. The new dome has a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from inside the dome, and natural light from above emits down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which would make the space too hot and dazzle those below. Construction work was finished in 1999 and the seat of parliament was transferred to the Bundestag in April of that year. The dome is no longer open to anyone without prior registration.

Other websites 

 panoramas and other images of the Reichstags building in Berlin 

Buildings and structures in Berlin
Landmarks in Germany
 
1894 establishments in Europe
1890s establishments in Germany
This article is about mythological creatures. For the noise-making siren see siren (noisemaker)

A siren is a creature in Greek mythology. The sirens were living on an island surrounded by rocks. sirens also have a mermaid form where they still sing but they hit the boat to sink it that way and sirens have a human form  Sailors would try to go to them because of their singing, and their ships would get destroyed on the rocks, and they would drown.

Originally they looked like bird-women, but in modern time they are often shown to look like fish-women or mermaids. Many people said they were Naiads (spirits of the sea).

They also appear in Homer's Odyssey. There Odysseus and his ship have to pass the siren's island. Odysseus tells his men to put wax in their ears, so they will not hear the song of the sirens. He also tells his men to bind him to the ship's mast, so he cannot go to the sirens when he hears their song. When Odysseus and his men pass the Sirens, Odysseus wants to go towards them, but his men pull the rope tighter to hold him down. His men can then look at Odysseus and see when he cannot hear the sirens anymore, because he is calm again. Then they can take the wax out of their ears, and free Odysseus.

Greek legendary creatures

et:Sireenid
This article is about the plant.  For the colour see Lavender (color).
Lavender is a type of plant found on almost all continents. It has a purplish colour.  It has a colour named after it, called lavender. Its Latin and scientific name is Lavandula.

Use in gardens 
Lavenders are very popular among gardeners. Sometimes their petals are dried and sealed in pouches for good scent, and sometimes put inside clothes to prevent moths, who can damage the clothes.

Use in food 
Lavenders are also used in cake decorating, because the flowers can become candied. Sometimes they are used in flavoring baked goods and chocolate desserts, and sometimes they use it to make a very delicious "lavender sugar". Lavender flowers are also used to make tea. The French make lavender syrup, which is used to make lavender scones and lavender marshmallows.

Medicine 
Lavender is sometimes put in medicine, and sometimes to prevent infection. Lavender oil was used in World War I to disinfect walls and floors of a hospital. As the folk wisdom says, lavender oil is also helpful to headaches when rubbed on your temple, and lavender tea helps you relax before bed time. Lavender is also helpful when applied to insect bites. There is a general lack of real knowledge about its effects.

Other uses 
Sometimes, dried petals of lavender are used to throw confetti at a wedding. It is also used for lavender theme wedding decoration where the flowers are put in the vases and kept on the venue table.

References 

Lamiaceae
Herbs
St. Gallen is a city in the eastern part of Switzerland. It is near Lake Constance. St. Gallen is the capital of the canton of St. Gallen. The city was founded as a monastery by the Irish monk Gallus in the 7th century. In the Middle Ages a city grew around the monastery. The role of the monastery (and the city) was very important in the Middle Ages. One of the three remaining manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied are from the monastery of St.Gallen. Today, the monastery, with its library, and parts of the old town are classed as an UNESCO World Heritage site.

The city is about 675 meters above sea level and is in a part of Switzerland with many hills. As of 2004, about 70,000 people lived in the city. The urban area has about 100,000 to 120,000 people.

In the 18th and 19th century the city became known for its embroideries, which are still very well-known. Every four years, there is the St.Galler Kinderfest (Children's festival). This is a large representation of the primary (and some secondary) schools in the city. It's usually in early summer.

The city also has an university, which is known for its courses in economics, and (to a lesser extent), law.

In Switzerland, the city is also known for St.Galler Bratwurst, and a fair centered around agriculture, held once a year, in autumn. That fair is called OLMA (Ostschweizerische Land- und Milchwirtschaftsausstellung, roughly translates to Exhibition of agriculture and milk economics of eastern Switzerland).

In early summer there is also an open-air rock festival. Its called Open-Air St.Gallen, and held in a valley, near the river. Since the weather is not always as good, in many years it's a battle with the mud.

Other websites 

 Official website of the city of St.Gallen 

 
Imperial free cities
Hollyoaks is a British television teen soap opera. It was first broadcast on 23 October 1995, on Channel 4. There is a new episode every weekday. It is set in Chester and is mostly filmed in Liverpool on Abbey Road.

Since 1995, the cast has expanded from just seven major characters to approximately 50 cast members. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill. It is the only British soap that uses incidental music.

Hollyoaks was the first British television programme to tackle the issue of gay domestic violence. Its first character with gender identity disorder, a trans man called Jason Costello, was in the show August 2010 to December 2011. In 2014 Hollyoaks introduced a new transgender character called Blessing Chambers.

Other websites 

1995 establishments in the United Kingdom
1995 television series debuts
1990s British drama television series
1990s British television series debuts
1990s soap operas
1990s teen television series
2000s British drama television series
2000s soap operas
2000s teen television series
2010s British drama television series
2010s soap operas
2010s teen television series
British soap operas
British teen television series
Chester
British teen drama television series
English-language television programs
Astrology is the belief the positions of the stars and movements of the planets of the Solar System, and also asteroids and other stars, but not as much, have an influence on the events, lives, and behavior of people.

An astrologer looks at the planets' positions and tries to understand a person's character or tries to predict the future. Modern astrologers see astrology as a symbolic language. It is also seen as an art, or a kind of divination.

Astrology and astronomy started out as the same thing, but today they are very different.

Newspapers and websites often print or post horoscopes. These horoscopes claim to predict a persons future based on their birth sign.

Astrological signs (in Western Astrology)
A person's astrological sign (usually referring to Sun sign) is based on their birthday. A list of astrological signs is below.

Arabian astrology

References

Other websites 

 Talk with astrologer: know Is astrology science or not?

 Astrology & Science: The Scientific Exploration of Astrology.
  – which also discusses ascension and declination errors in different systems of astrology
Black pepper is a plant that grows in the tropics, especially in India. The plant is a perennial vine that bears flowers. People cultivate the plant for its fruit, the peppercorn. The peppercorn can be used as a spice or condiment. Usually, it makes things hot.

There are several different plants called Pepper, all are in the Piper genus of Piperaceae.

From the 16th century onwards, people used the word pepper to also refer to the Chili peppers, which come from a completely unrelated plant. It was also called black gold in older times.

Culinary uses
Pepper is one of the most common spices used around the world. It is very common in European cuisine, and has been known and traded for a very long time. Very often, the peppercorns are ground, and the powder is used to make things taste hot. They get their heat from a chemical called piperine unlike other peppers that get it from capsaicin.

Medical uses

Like all eastern spices, pepper was historically both a seasoning and a medicine. Long pepper, being stronger, was often the preferred medication, but both were used.

Black peppercorns are mentioned in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicine in India. The 5th century Syriac Book of Medicines prescribes pepper (or perhaps long pepper) for illnesses such as constipation, diarrhea, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, liver problems, lung disease, oral abscesses, sunburn, tooth decay, and toothaches. Various sources from the 5th century onward also say pepper is good to treat eye problems. Often special ointments made with pepper have to be applied directly to the eye. There is no current medical evidence that any of these treatments has any benefit; pepper applied directly to the eye would be quite uncomfortable and possibly damaging.

For a long time, people believed pepper is the cause for sneezing; this is still believed true today. Some sources say that piperine irritates the nostrils, which will cause the sneezing; some say that it is just the effect of the fine dust in ground pepper, and some say that pepper is not in fact a very effective sneeze-producer at all. Few if any controlled studies  have been carried out to answer the question. 

Pepper can irritate the intestines. It is therefore eliminated from the diet of patients having abdominal surgery and ulcers. The replacement is usually called a bland diet.

Pepper contains small amounts of safrole, a carcinogenic compound.

References

Other websites
Nutritional benefits of Black Pepper 
Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages
Plant Cultures: History and botany of black pepper in South Asia 

Piperales
Spices
Chili pepper (not to be confused with the country called Chile) is the fruit of a series of plants called Capsicum (nightshade family). Chilis are now grown all over the world, but originally, they came from Mexico. They are used as spices or as vegetables, and also have some use in medicine.

Chili peppers are completely unrelated to the Piperaceae genus, which Black pepper is from.

History

Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BCE. Chili peppers were domesticated over 6000 years ago in Mexico. Since then, chili peppers could be farmed throughout all of Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America.

Spelling
The word "chili" is spelled differently in different countries. They can be spelled as chili, chilli, and chile.

Chili is widely used in the United States and Canada.
Chilli is widely used in other English-speaking countries.
Chile is the most common Spanish spelling in Mexico and several other Latin American countries.

References

Capsicum
Spices
Vegetables
This article is about the property of radioactive elements. For the video game, see Half-Life (video game).

The half-life of a substance is the time it takes for half of the substance to decay. The word "half-life" was first used when talking about radioactive elements where the number of atoms get smaller over time by changing into different atoms. It is now used in many other situations where something declines exponentially, like the time it takes for a drug in the body to be half gone. A Geiger-Muller detector can be used to measure the radioactive half-life; it is the time when the activity is half of the original.

Half-life depends on probability because the atoms decay at a random time. Half-life is the expected time when half the number of atoms have decayed, on average. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years. Taking one atom of carbon-14, this will either have decayed after 5,730 years, or it will not. But if this experiment is repeated again and again, it will be seen that the atom decays within the half life 50% of the time.

Radioactive isotopes are atoms that have unstable nuclei, meaning that the nucleus of each atom will decay after enough time has passed. Their nuclei are unstable because the arrangement of protons and neutrons in them are unsteady. This decay, which means they change into completely different types of atoms. This is known as radioactive decay. When they decay, they release particles such as alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays. Sometimes they decay by fission, which means to break into pieces, to make smaller nuclei. For example, a radioactive carbon-14 atom releases a beta particle to become nitrogen-14. As an example of fission decay, a fermium-256 atom can split into xenon-140 and palladium-112 atoms, releasing four neutrons in the process.

For example, uranium-232 has a half-life of about 69 years. Plutonium-238 has a half-life of 88 years. Carbon-14, which is used to find the age of fossils, has a half-life of 5,730 years.

After ten half-lives, about 99.9% of the atoms have decayed into different atoms, so only 0.1% of the original atoms are left, and 99.9% of the radioactivity from the original kind of atom is gone. Some atoms decay into other atoms that are also radioactive, so the remaining radioactivity depends on the type of atom.

Related pages 
Biological half-life

Nuclear physics
James Prescott Joule (24 December 1818 – 11 October 1889) was an English physicist, born in Salford, near Manchester. In his time he had great contribution to the world of electricity and thermodynamics. He was best known for discovering Joule's law, which described electric heating by saying the amount of heat produced each second in a conductor by a current of Electricity is proportional to the resistance of a conductor and to the square of the current. The unit for this is joule, equal to one watt-second. Later Joule worked with William Thomson to find out that the temperature of gas falls as gas expands. This principle was then known as the Joule-Thomson effect.

Early life 

The son of Benjamin Joule (1784–1858), a wealthy brewer, James Prescott Joule was born in the house next to the Joule Brewery in New Bailey Street, Salford on 24 December 1818. James was tutored at the family home  'Broomhill', Pendlebury, near Salford, until 1834 when he was sent, with his elder brother Benjamin, to study with John Dalton at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. They only received two years of education in arithmetic and geometry before Dalton was forced to retire because of a stroke.

Kinetic theory 

Kinetics is the science of motion. Joule was a pupil of Dalton and it is no surprise that he had learned a firm belief in the atomic theory, even though there were many scientists of his time who were still skeptical. He had also been one of the few people receptive to the work of John Herapath on the kinetic theory of gases. He was further greatly influenced by Peter Ewart's 1813 paper On the measure of moving force.

References 

1889 births
1818 deaths
English physicists
People from Salford, Greater Manchester
All planets in our solar system follow an elliptical path. This path is known as an orbit. Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle. If we were to draw the Earth's orbit on a sheet of paper as a perfect circle, the width of the line would be larger than the elliptical path of the Earth.

The Earth's orbit takes about 365 days, this is also called a year. This means that in 365 days (a year) the Earth has gone around the Sun. From this we can find that the orbital speed of the Earth is about  through space.

The closest distance Earth is to the Sun, or perihelion, is  and the farthest or aphelion is . It takes light (or any other electromagnetic radiation) just over eight minutes to travel from Sun to Earth.

The seasonal changes on Earth are because of the 23.44° axial tilt of its rotation and slightly elliptical path around the Sun.

The orbit varies over long periods of time according to the Milankovitch cycles. These cycles are one of the main causes of climate change.

Related links 
 Earth phase
 Spaceship Earth

Notes

Other websites 
 Earth – Speed through space – about 1 million miles an hour – NASA & (WP discussion)

Orbits
Earth
Penelope is a person in Greek mythology. She is the wife of Odysseus of Ithaca and mother of Telemachus. She became a symbol for the faithful wife.

When her husband Odysseus was on his long journey home, many people thought he was dead. Because of this, many suitors came who wanted to marry Penelope, because then they would own her land and wealth, and become king of Ithaca.
Penelope thinks of several tricks so that she does not have to marry one of the suitors. One trick is that she tells the suitors that she will first weave a cloth for the funeral of Odysseus' father, and when she was finished she would marry one of the suitors. But every night she undoes her weaving again, so that she never finishes it.

When Odysseus finally comes back after twenty years, he and his son Telemachos kill the suitors.

Sources
Richard Heitman 2005. Taking her seriously: Penelope and the plot of Homer's Odyssey. Michigan University Press, Ann Arbor. .

People in Greek mythology
Anemia (U.S. spelling) or anaemia is not having enough red blood cells or hemoglobin in the blood.

Types or causes of anemia

Microcytic anemia 
 Iron deficiency anemia is the most common type of anemia overall
 Hemoglobinopathies—much rarer
 Sickle-cell disease (once called sickle-cell anemia)
 Thalassemia

Normocytic anemia 
 Acute blood loss
 Anemia of chronic disease 
 Aplastic anemia (bone marrow failure)

Macrocytic anemia 
 Megaloblastic anemia due to not having enough of either vitamin B12 or folic acid (or both)
 Pernicious anemia is an autoimmune problem with the parietal cells of the stomach
 Alcoholism
 Methotrexate, zidovudine, and other drugs that stop DNA replication. This is the most common cause in nonalcoholic patients.

Dimorphic anemia 
Dimorphic anemia means two types of anemia at the same time. For example, macrocytic hypochromic, due to hookworm infestation leading to not enough of both iron and vitamin B12 or folic acid or following a blood transfusion.

Disorders
Memphis is the second-largest city in the state of Tennessee. The city has a large port on the Mississippi River. It is also well known for blues music and barbecue. The city is also home to FedEx, a leading company that ships packages around the world. Memphis is also known for being the home of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley. 

Memphis is named for Memphis, Egypt, an ancient capital city of Egypt.

History
The future area of Memphis was first settled by the Mississippian Culture before it was discovered by French and Spanish explorers. 

The United States took the land from Spain in 1797, and Andrew Jackson  implemented the Indian Removal Act that facilitated the expulsion of the Cherokee from the area, making it available to white settlers. The city was established in 1819. Until the American Civil War, Memphis was a hub of cotton and slave trade. Brutal riots of angry whites against black people took place in 1866, in which 46 African Americans were killed. Yellow fever struck the city in the 1870s, killing a lot of people. The city recovered, and its population more than doubled. 

The Memphis sanitation strikes was one of the key movements in the Civil Rights Movement. Musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and B.B. King influenced the city's identity as the birthplace of rock and roll.

Geography 
Memphis is located east of the Mississippi River. The Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, crosses the city.

Its metropolitan area extends into Arkansas and Mississippi.

Government 
Jim Strickland is the Mayor of Memphis.

References 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

References

Related pages 
Fugue
canon (music)

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

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

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

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

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

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

The first vaccine for smallpox used the results of cowpox infections. It was invented by Edward Jenner. It was used to stop people from getting smallpox.  The word "vaccine" came from "vaccina", the Latin word for cow, because cowpox was used. The WHO (World Health Organisation) vaccinated people all over the world. In 1980, the WHO said the disease no longer existed, and no one would ever get sick from it again. Live copies of smallpox are kept in maximum-security laboratories around the world.

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

Related pages 
 Cowpox
 Poxviridae
 List of diseases

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

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

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

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

References 

1781 births
1828 deaths
African people
History of South Africa
Assassinated people
A halo is a ring of light that surrounds an object. Also, in much religious art, it may be seen surrounding the heads of saintly people such as Jesus.

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

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

Other websites 

 Halo explanations and image galleries at Atmospheric Optics

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

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

Other websites 

Underworld
Afterlife
The Mughal Empire, (, ) was an Sunni Islam empire in Asia that existed from 1526 to 1858. The Mughal rule over India was an empire because it stretched over a large area. It once ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, then known as Hindustan,, and parts of what is now India, Afghanistan and modern Pakistan and Bangladesh between 1526 and 1707. It was the world's largest economy, at 25% of the world's GDP. It famously signalled the proto-industrialization and had a lavish architecture.

The Mughal emperors were originally Turk-Mongols. Babur of the Timurid dynasty founded the Mughal Empire and the Mughal dynasty in 1526 and ruled until 1530. He was followed by Humayun (1530-1540) and (1555-1556), Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627), Shah Jahan (1628-1658), and the Islamic Aurangzeb (1658-1707) and several other minor rulers until Bahadur Shah Zafar II(1837-1857). After the death of Aurangzeb, the rule through sharia ended and the Mughal Empire became weak. It continued until 1857-1858. By then, India came under the British Raj.

The Mughal Empire was established by able Muslim rulers who came from what is now Uzbekistan. The Mughal rule in India saw the country being united as one single unit and being administered under a single powerful ruler. During the Mughal period, art and architecture flourished and many beautiful monuments were constructed. The rulers were skillful warriors and also admirers of art.

The Mughals left a permanent mark on Indian society, culture, art and architecture. Their monuments, artifacts and literature show a period of great wealth and culture. Paintings in miniature style teach us about the clothing and lifestyle of the Mughal people.

The Mughal people is an ethnic group living in the Indian subcontinent that is a descendant of the Mongol and Turkic conquerors who came to North India from the 14th century. Mongol, Turkic, and local Indo-Iranian peoples took part in the formation of the Mughal people.

After 1858, when the Mughal Empire was taken over by the British Empire, some of the upper-class Indian Muslims went to exile to the Ottoman Empire. Their descendants today are named Muğallar (Mughals) in Turkish. They have become part of Turkish society and speak Turkish as their mother tongue.

References

 
History of Pakistan
History of India
History of Afghanistan
History of Bangladesh
1526 establishments
1858 disestablishments
1520s establishments in Asia
19th-century disestablishments in Asia
Mustafa Ali Turi
The Mughal emperor were Turk Mughal
The British Raj was the rule until 1947 by the British Empire in Southeast India. "Raj" is a word in Hindi that means "rule". so "British Raj" means rule by the British Empire in Southern Asia. The area is now in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and [[Myanmar. The British Raj is also called the British Indian Empire or the Indian Empire.

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

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

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

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

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

References

 
History of Pakistan
Myanmar
Viceroys
1858 establishments
1850s establishments in the United Kingdom
19th-century establishments in India
19th-century establishments in Pakistan
Establishments in Bangladesh
1947 disestablishments in India
1947 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
1850s establishments in Asia
A lever is a simple machine. It is something that can be used in a lot of ways. One way is by measuring things, or by seeing which weighs more. A lever is supported by a fulcrum which it uses to lifts weights. It is one of six simple machines. There are three types of levers: first-class, second-class and third-class.

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

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

First class

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

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

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

References 

Engineering
Tools
A pulley is a simple machine that is used to lift heavy objects. Block and tackle system is a modified form of a pulley. Pulleys are usually used in sets designed to make the amount of force needed to lift something smaller.

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

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

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

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

The book is usually placed in the centre of the temple, high up under a roof.

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

Sikhism
Religious texts

               E
Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy. He was born about 490 BC and died about 430 BC: the exact dates are not known.

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

Works 
Although many ancient writers refer to the writings of Zeno, none of his writings survive intact.

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

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

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

Related pages 
Zeno's paradoxes

References 

490s BC births
5th-century BC deaths
Presocratic philosophers
The Iron Curtain is a term related to the Cold War. It means the border between the states that were members of the Warsaw Pact (in Eastern Europe), and those that were not (then called The West).

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

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

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

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

References

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

History of Europe
Communism
The Indus Valley civilization was a Bronze Age civilization(3300–1300 BC; mature period 2700-1700 BC)

The civilization was in the subcontinent. It was discovered by archaeologists in the 1880s.
It developed along the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River and even  that areas are now in modern Pakistan, north-west India and Afghanistan. The civilization started during the Bronze Age and the height of its development was between 2500 BC and 1500 BC. Including the civilizations directly before and after, it may have lasted from the 33rd to the 14th century BC.

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

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

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

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

Gallery

References 

History of Pakistan
Ancient history
History of India
History of Afghanistan