cahya/wikipedia-simple-en huggingface dataset:
Sea of Okhotsk

The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast (including the Shantar Islands) along the west and north. The northeast corner is Shelikhov Gulf. It is named after Okhotsk, the first Russian town in the Far East.

Geography

The Sea of Okhotsk covers 611,000 sq.mi. (1,583,000 km2).  The average depth is 2,818 feet (859 metres). Its maximum depth is 11,063 feet (3,372 metres). It is connected to the Sea of Japan on the west through the Sakhalin Gulf and the Gulf of Tartary; on the south, through the La Pérouse Strait.

In winter, travelling on the Sea of Okhotsk becomes difficult, or even impossible, due tolarge ice floes.

Except for Hokkaidō, one of the Japanese home islands, the sea is surrounded on all sides by land of the Russian Federation. For this reason, it is generally said to be part of Russia.

Islands
Some of the Sea of Okhotsk's islands are quite large.  These include Japan's second largest island, Hokkaidō, as well as Russia's largest island, Sakhalin. Iony Island is the only island in open waters.  It belongs to the Khabarovsk Krai of the Russian Federation. Most of the sea's islands are have no people making them ideal breeding grounds for seals, sea lions, seabirds, and other sea island fauna.

Notable seaports

Abashiri, Hokkaidō, Japan
Magadan, Magadan, Russia
Monbetsu, Hokkaidō, Japan
Palana, Kamchatka, Russia
Wakkanai, Hokkaidō, Japan

References

Other websites

Seas of the Pacific Ocean
Geography of Russia
Solomon Sea

The Solomon Sea is a sea in the Pacific Ocean. It is between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Many major battles were fought there during World War II.

The Solomon Sea includes the New Britain Trench. It reaches its maximum depth at 29,988 feet (9,140 m) below sea level.

References

Other websites

Seas of the Pacific Ocean
Bodies of water of Oceania
Geography of Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands
Sulu Sea

Sulu Sea has a number of islands. The Cuyo Islands and Cagayan Sulu are part of the province of Palawan while Mapun and the Turtle Islands are part of the province of Tawi-Tawi. The Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park, one of the World Heritage Sites, is in Sulu.

References

Other websites

Seas of the Pacific Ocean
Bodies of water of Oceania
Geography of the Philippines
Geography of Malaysia
Jingū Seamount

is an underwater volcano (seamount) of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean.  Jingū is an extinct volcano.  

The seamount is also known as the "Jingū Guyot" because it has a flat top.  This undersea geologic feature is also called a "guyot" or "tablemount".

This seabed mountain is named after Empress Jingū of Japan.

The last eruption from Jingū seamount was 55 million years ago.

Related pages
 Submarine volcano
 Active volcano
 Dormant volcano

References

Other websites
 Seamount Biogeosciences Network,  database

Seamounts
Pacific Ocean
Volcanoes of Oceania
African forest elephant

The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is an elephant which lives in the forests of the Congo Basin. 

It is often considered a separate species from the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana); a 2010 study said that the two elephants were two different species. However, since the two groups can interbreed successfully, they may only be separate subspecies of Loxodonta africana. They are probably forest elephants whose small size is adapted to  the rainforest conditions.

Differences
The differences include that the African forest elephant has a long, narrow mandible (the African bush elephant's is short and wide), it has rounded ears (an African bush elephant's ears are more pointed), straighter and downward tusks, smaller size, and more toenails. The male African forest elephant rarely grows more than 2.5 metres (8 ft) in height, while the African bush elephant is usually over 3 metres (just under 10 feet) and sometimes almost 4 metres (13 ft) tall. The African bush elephant normally has 4 toenails on the frontfoot and 3 on the hindfoot, the African forest elephant normally has 5 toenails on the frontfoot and 4 on the hindfoot (like the Asian elephant).

Diet
The African forest elephant is a herbivore (plant eater) and commonly eats leaves, grass, fruit, and bark, and sometimes visits places where it can lick salt.

Other websites

BBC Wildlife Finder - video clips from the BBC archive 
ARKive - Images and movies of the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) 
PBS Nature: Tracking Forest Elephants 
Forest Elephant Program
Elephant Information Repository - An in-depth resource on elephants
The Elephant Listening Project - Information on forest elephants and their vocalizations.

Elephants
Amundsen Sea

The Amundsen Sea is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It is bounded by Cape Flying Fish, the northwestern tip of Thurston Island to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. East of Cape Flying Fish starts the Bellingshausen Sea. The sea is named for the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.

The sea is mostly ice-covered. The ice sheet which drains into the Amundsen Sea averages about  in thickness.  It is roughly the size of the state of Texas.  The area is known as the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE).  It forms one of the three major ice drainage basins of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Pine Island Bay 
Pine Island Bay () is a bay about  long and  wide.  The ice of the Pine Island Glacier at the southeast end of the Amundsen Sea flows into it. It was named for USS Pine Island.

Russell Bay 
Russell Bay () is a rather open bay in southwestern Amundsen Sea.  It goes along the north sides of Siple Island, Getz Ice Shelf and Carney Island, from Pranke Island to Cape Gates. It is named for Admiral James S. Russell, USN, Vice Chief of Naval Operations.

References

Other websites

Seas of the Southern Ocean
Great Australian Bight

The Great Australian Bight is a large bight, or open bay.  It is off the central and western parts of the southern coastline of mainland Australia.

The Bight's boundaries are from Cape Pasley, Western Australia, to Cape Carnot, South Australia.  This is a distance of 1,160 km or 720 miles.

The much more accepted name in Australia for the connected waterbody is the Southern Ocean rather than the Indian Ocean.

The settlements along the coastline with access to the Bight and facilities are Ceduna and Eucla. Some other locations on the Eyre Highway or on the Nullarbor do not have facilities or easy access.

Natural history

The coast line of the Great Australian Bight has cliff faces (up to 60 m high), surfing beaches and rock platforms, ideal for whale-watching. The Great Australian Bight receives very little of the runoff that fertilises most continental shelves.  It is essentially a marine desert. It is probably best noted for the large number of sharks that frequent its coastal waters, as well as the increasing numbers of Southern Right Whales that migrate in the region.

One location on the bight that is for the understanding of the natural history on its coastline is the Eyre Bird Observatory.

References

Other websites

Bays of Australia
Southern Ocean
Ross Sea

The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land.

Description
The Ross Sea was discovered by James Ross in 1841. In the west of the Ross Sea is Ross Island. In the east is Roosevelt Island. The southern part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf. In the west of the Ross sea, McMurdo Sound is a port which is usually free of ice during the summer. The southernmost part of the Ross Sea is Gould Coast, which is about two hundred miles from the Geographic South Pole.

All land masses in the Ross Sea are claimed by New Zealand.

A 10 metre (32.8 feet) long colossal squid weighing 495 kilograms (1,091 lb) was captured in the Ross Sea on February 22, 2007.

Ecological importance and conservation
The flora and fauna are similar to other southern Antarctic marine regions. In summer there are a lot of plankton.  They provide food for larger species, such as fish, seals, whales, and sea- and shore-birds.

The coastal parts of the sea have a number of rookeries of Adélie and Emperor penguins.  They have been seen at a number of places around the Ross Sea, both towards the coast and outwards in open sea.

The Ross Sea is one of the last parts of seas on Earth that is mostly unaffected by human activities. Because of this, it is almost totally free from pollution, overfishing and the introduction of invasive species. Some people want to make the area a world marine reserve.

References

Other websites

Bays
Seas of the Southern Ocean
Ōjin Seamount

is an underwater volcano (seamount) of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean.  Ōjin is an extinct volcano.  

The seamount is also known as the "Ōjin Guyot" because it has a flat top. This undersea geologic feature is also called a "guyot" or "tablemount".

This seabed mountain is named after Emperor Ōjin of Japan.

The last eruption from Ōjin seamount was 55 million years ago.

Related pages
 Submarine volcano
 Active volcano
 Dormant volcano

References

Other websites
 Seamount Biogeosciences Network,  database

Seamounts
Pacific Ocean
Volcanoes of Oceania
Scotia Sea

The Scotia Sea is partly in the Southern Ocean and mostly in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Location and description
Normally stormy and cold, the Scotia Sea is the area of water between Tierra del Fuego, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.  It is bordered on the west by Drake Passage. These island groups all sit on top of the Scotia Ridge. The Scotia Sea covers an area of about 900,000 km². About half of the sea stands above the continental shelf.

The islands are rocky and partly covered in ice and snow year round.

Flora and fauna
The islands do have vegetation.  They have been called Scotia Sea Islands tundra ecoregion.  These include South Georgia, the volcanic South Sandwich Islands and the South Orkneys in the Scotia Sea as well as the remote South Shetland Islands near the Antarctic Peninsula and the small isolated volcano Bouvet Island. All these islands are in the cold seas below the Antarctic convergence. These areas have tundra vegetation of mosses, lichen and algae. Seabirds, penguins and seals feed in the surrounding waters. 

Seabirds include four species of albatross: Black-browed Albatross (Diomedea melanophris), Grey-headed Albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma), Light-mantled Albatross (Phoebetria palpebrata), and Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans). There are only five species of bird that stay on land.  These include two endemic species: a race of the Yellow-billed Pintail duck(Anas georgica) and South Georgia Pipit (Anthus antarcticus).

Penguin species found here include large numbers of King Penguins, as well as Chinstrap Penguin, Macaroni Penguin, Gentoo penguin, Adelie Penguin, and Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome). 

Seals include the Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella) and Sub-Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus tropicalis) in large numbers, Leopard Seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddellii), the huge Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina), and Crabeater Seal (Lobodon carcinophagus).

South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and Bouvet Island are protected as nature reserves. Bird Island, South Georgia is a site of special scientific interest.

References

Other websites

Seas of the Southern Ocean
Seas of the Atlantic Ocean
Weddell Sea

The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and has the Weddell Gyre. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast, Queen Maud Land. Much of the southern part of the sea, up to Elephant Island, is permanent ice. The sea is claimed by Argentina and Britain.  There is also a part in the claim of Chile. At its widest the sea is around 2,000 km across. In area it is around 2.8 million km².

The sea is named after the British sailor James Weddell who entered the sea in 1823. 

The Weddell Seal is one of the animals that live in the area.

The Weddell Sea has said by scientists to have the clearest water of any sea.

Other websites

Seas of the Southern Ocean
Bab-el-Mandeb

The Bab-el-Mandeb, meaning "Gate of Tears" in Arabic, is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, Djibouti and Eritrea, north of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, and connecting the Red Sea to the Guardafui Channel and Gulf of Aden. It is sometimes called the Mandab Strait in the English language.

The strait gets its name from the dangers of traveling on it.  Or, according to an Arab legend, from the numbers who were drowned by the earthquake which separated Asia and Africa.

Bab el-Mandab acts is an important link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. In 2006, about  of oil passed through the strait per day, out of a world total of about .

The distance across is about 20 miles (30 km) from Ras Menheli in Yemen to Ras Siyan in Djibouti.  The island of Perim divides the strait into two channels. The eastern channel, known as the Bab Iskender (Alexander's Strait), is 2 miles (3 km) wide and 16 fathoms (30 m) deep. The western channel, or Dact-el-Mayun, has a width of about 16 miles (25 km) and a depth of 170 fathoms (310 m).  Near the coast of Djibouti is a group of smaller islands known as the "Seven Brothers".

References

Other websites

Straits
Indian Ocean
Middle East
Geography of Yemen
Bass Strait

Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.  The strait was named after George Bass who travelled it in 1798.

It is about 240 km wide at its narrowest point and generally around 50 metres deep. It has many islands, with King Island and Flinders Island home to many towns.

The water is very rough, with many ships lost in the 19th century. A lighthouse was built on Deal Island in 1848 to help ships in the eastern part of the Straits.  On the west, the Cape Otway Lighthouse was first lit in 1848. Another lighthouse was at Cape Wickham at the northern end of King Island in 1861.

Islands

There are over 50 islands in Bass Strait. Major islands include:

Western section:
King Island
Three Hummock Island
Hunter Island
Robbins Island

South eastern section:
Furneaux Group
Flinders Island
Cape Barren Island
Clark Island
and several other islands

North eastern section:
Kent Group
Deal Island
and 3 smaller islands
Hogan Island
 Curtis Island

References

Other websites

Straits
Bodies of water of Australia
Geography of Victoria, Australia
Geography of Tasmania
Davis Strait

Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It is between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis (1550–1605), who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage.  It is the world's broadest strait.

The water depth is between one and two thousand meters.  The strait is much shallower than the Labrador Sea to the south or Baffin Bay to the north. It is on the coast line of Canada.

Other websites

Straits
Geography of Greenland
Nunavut
Atlantic Ocean
Nine-banded armadillo

The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), or the nine-banded, long-nosed armadillo, is a species of armadillo. The nine-banded armadillo is an insectivorous animal. Ants, termites, and other small invertebrates make up most of its diet. The armadillo can jump  in the air when scared.

Range 

The nine-banded armadillo is spreading more far out in both the north and east of the United States. It crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in the late 19th century. At the same time, it was introduced in Florida by humans. By 1995, the species was found in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and recently seen as far north as southern Nebraska, Illinois, and Indiana.
The main reason of this fast expansion is because the species have few or no natural predators in the United States. It is also because Americans do not hunt or eat the armadillo. In late 2009, the state of North Carolina considered a hunting season for armadillo to slow them down.
Outside the United States, the nine-banded armadillo is in Central and South America and northern Argentina and Uruguay.

Diet
Nine-banded armadillos are mostly insectivores. They find their meals by pushing their snouts into soil and digging. They dig up grubs, beetles, ants, termites, and worms. They sometimes also eat amphibians, small reptiles, fungi, and carrion.

Behavior

Nine-banded armadillos do not live in groups. They are nocturnal, which means that they are lively at night instead of the day. The burrows they make are about  wide,  deep, and  long.
Armadillos usually mark their territory. The armadillo can jump  in the air when scared. This may be dangerous on roads, because it could get hit by a car.

Reproduction 
Mating is usually done from July to August in the Northern Hemisphere and November to January in the Southern Hemisphere. A single egg is fertilized. Then it splits into four identical embryos, each which makes its own placenta. The nine-banded armadillo gives birth to genetically identical quadruplets.

After birth, the quadruplets remain in the burrow, drinking the mother's milk for about three months. Then they begin to hunt for their meals with the mother. After six months to a year, they leave.

A single female can produce up to 56 young over the course of her life.

References

Louise H. Emmons and Francois Feer, 1997 - Neotropical rainforest mammals: a field guide.
eNature entry 
Nixon, Joshua. Armadillo Expansion , September 14, 2006, retrieved December 3, 2006.
Trapping the nine-banded armadillo 

Xenarthrans
Redundancy

In information theory, redundancy means that a message is encoded and transmitted using more bits that are necessary to encode the message. If a piece of information is redundant, it can be left out, without loss of information.  Redudant information such as checksums can be used to detect and correct errors in transmission or storage.

Operations like data compression reduce redundancy. This can be good, as the data can be sent more quickly and take less space.  It can also be bad, if an error can no longer be corrected automatically.

When using databases, redundancies must be avoided, as they can lead to inconsistencies. In this case, the process is called normalisation. 

Computer science
Hiroshima Toyo Carp

The  is a Japanese professional baseball team in the city of Hiroshima and Hiroshima Prefecture.  The Carp play in Japan's Central League or .

The team's  ballpark is Mazda Stadium.

The Carp is a team with the greatest number of perfect games Japanese professional baseball.

History
The team joined the Central League as the Hiroshima Carp in 1949.
Carp Won Central League Championship for the first time in 1975.

The team mascot "Slyly" bears resemblance to the Phillie Phanatic of the Philadelphia Phillies. "Carp Boya" is another team mascot.

League titles
 Japan series titles(3) 1979,1980,1984
 Central League Championship (6) 1975,1979,1980,1984,1986,1991

Notable players

Current manager

Current players

MLB players
 
 Alfonso Guilleard Soriano
 Colby Lewis

Gallery

Related pages
 Sports in Japan

References

Other websites 

  Hiroshima Carp official web site
  japanesebaseball.com Carp page
  Carp train (operated by Hiroden) 

Baseball teams
Baseball in Japan
Hiroshima Prefecture
1949 establishments
Hiroshima
Moyashimon

Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture, in Japan also known as Moyashimon (もやしもん), is a manga series created by Masayuki Ishikawa. It won the 2008 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Grand Prize and the 2008 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.

It is said that the setting is based on Tokyo University of Agriculture. However, the author has said that it is just any agricultural college, and is unrelated to a real university.

Plot 
Moyasimon follows the life of Tadayasu Sawaki, a first-year college student at an agricultural university.

He can see and communicate with microorganisms and bacteria.

Characters

Human
 Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki
 Kei Yūki 
 Keizō Itsuki
 Haruka Hasegawa
 Kaoru Misato
 Takuma Kawahama
 Aoi Mutō
 Hazuki Oikawa

Bacteria
 A.Orize (Aspergillus oryzae)
 A.Sōe (Aspergillus sojae)
 C.torikoidesu (Cladosporium trichoides)
 E.Kori (Escherichia coli)
 P.kurisogenumu (Penicillium chrysogenum)
 S.Serebishie (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)

Other websites 
 Moyasimon official website  
 Telecom Animation Film's official Moyasimon website  
 Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture  Funimation Channel on YouTube

References

Comedy anime and manga
Kōkō Seamount

is an underwater volcano (seamount) of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean.  Kōkō is an extinct volcano.  

The seamount is also known as the "Kōkō Guyot"' because it has a flat top.  This undersea geologic feature is also called a "guyot" or "tablemount".

This seabed mountain is named after Emperor Kōkō of Japan.

The last eruption from Kōkō seamount was 48 million years ago.  The north side of Kōkō Seamount was formed at least 52.6 million years ago; and the south side of Kōkō is dated at 50.4 million years ago.

Related pages
 Submarine volcano
 Active volcano
 Dormant volcano

References

Other websites
 Seamount Biogeosciences Network,  database

Seamounts
Pacific Ocean
Volcanoes of Oceania
Kammu Seamount

is an underwater volcano (seamount) of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean.  Kammu is an extinct volcano.  

The seamount is also known as the "Kammu Guyot" because it has a flat top.  This undersea geologic feature is also called a "guyot" or "tablemount".

This seabed mountain is named after Emperor Kammu of Japan.

The last eruption from Kammu seamount is unknown.

Related pages
 Submarine volcano
 Active volcano
 Dormant volcano

References

Other websites
 Seamount Biogeosciences Network,  database

Seamounts
Pacific Ocean
Volcanoes of Oceania
Staffordshire Hoard

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest find of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork in Britain. It was discovered in a field near the village of Hammerwich, Lichfield, in Staffordshire on 5 July 2009. It consists of over 3,500 items. 

The objects are nearly all martial (military) in character, and there are no objects which are specifically female. The artefacts are dated as 7th or 8th centuries, at the time of the Kingdom of Mercia. 

The hoard has been described by Leslie Webster, former keeper of the department of prehistory at the British Museum, as "absolutely the metalwork equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells", and "this is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries".  

Dr Roger Bland, Head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said: "It is a fantastically important discovery. It is assumed that the items were buried by their owners at a time of danger with the intention of later coming back and recovering them".

The average quality of the workmanship is extremely high. 
The hoard was valued at £3.285 million, and has now been purchased by the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.

References 

Staffordshire
Archaeological sites in England
Anglo-Saxons
History of England
Works of art
Treasure troves
Dietary supplement

A dietary supplement (or food supplement or nutritional supplement) is anything taken by mouth which helps enhance food that a person or animal eats. It can be in pill, powder, or a liquid form. 

The supplement provides nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids. People may want to take supplements because they may not have enough nutrients in their body or may want to get more healthier. Some countries define supplements as food. Others define them as drugs or natural health products. 

Bodybuilding supplements are dietary supplements for those involved in bodybuilding and athletics. These supplements can help with weight gain or weight loss, or to improve their performance.

Sources of advice 

 Natural Standard Research Collaboration
 Dietary Supplements Labels Database, from the United States National Library of Medicine
 International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements database from the U.S. National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements and USDA National Agricultural Library
 Dietary Supplement Information  from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
 What's in the Bottle? An Introduction to Dietary Supplements , from the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
 Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by the American Public : A report of the Institute of Medicine
 EPC Evidence Reports on Dietary Supplements
Dietary Supplements: General Resources for Consumers (PDF|131 KB) , Food and Nutrition Information Center, National Agricultural Library. List of resources that provides an overview of herbal and dietary supplements, including use, regulation, research, and cautionary information.
Questions to Ask Before Taking Vitamin and Mineral Supplements , Nutrition.gov.

Drugs
 
Healthy lifestyle
Eating disorders
Rana (genus)

Rana is a genus of frogs. There are over 90 species of these frogs. These include the pond frogs such as the common frog which lives in Europe. The brown frog, leopard frog, and the American bullfrog are also included. Members of Rana can be found in Eurasia, North American, Africa, Central America, and the northern parts of South America.

Species of Rana are very large in length. They have slim waists and wrinkled skin. Most of Rana frogs do not have warts like many toads. Rana frogs are great jumpers because of their long slender legs. All of the Rana frogs, including most frogs, have webbed feet. This allows them to swim in water. Rana frogs are mostly green and have brown on the top. They have darker and yellowish spots on their bodies.

Books
 Dubois, A. & Ohler, A. (1995) Frogs of the subgenus Pelophylax (Amphibia, Anura, genus Rana): a catalogue of available and valid scientific names, with comments on the name-bearing types, complete synonymies. proposed common names, and maps showing all type localities. In: : II International Symposium on Ecology and Genetics of European water frogs, 18-25 September 1994, Wroclaw, Poland. Zoologica Poloniae 39(3-4): 139-204
 Frost, Darrel R. (2006): Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 4, 2006-AUG-17.
 Hillis, D. M. & Wilcox, T. P. (2005): Phylogeny of the New World true frogs (Rana). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 34(2): 299–314.  PDF fulltext 
 Matsui, Masafumi (2007): Unmasking Rana okinavana Boettger, 1895 from the Ryukyus, Japan (Amphibia: Anura: Ranidae). Zool. Sci. 24: 199–204.  (HTML abstract)
 Pauly, Greg B., Hillis, David M. & Cannatella, David C. (2009): Taxonomic freedom and the role of official lists of species names. Herpetologica 65: 115-128.  PDF fulltext 
 Stuart, Bryan L. (2008): The phylogenetic problem of Huia (Amphibia: Ranidae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 46(1): 49-60.  (HTMl abstract)

Other websites

AmphibiaWeb
Amphibian and Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia 

Frogs
Roar (utterance)

A roar is a sound that is made from certain animals. This sound is a deep outburst from an open mouth. Roaring is made by using the hyoid. The hyoid is a small bone that is not completely rigid in adults. Animals roar for a few reasons. These include when animals claim their territory (such as territorial dispute), communication with other members, and when they are angry.

Other websites 

 Ananthakrishnan, Gopal, Robert Eklund, Gustav Peters, Gopal & Evans Mabiza. 2011. An acoustic analysis of lion roars. II: Vocal tract characteristics. In: Quarterly Progress and Status Report TMH-QPSR, Volume 51, 2011. Proceedings from Fonetik 2011. Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, 8–10 June 2010, pp. 5–8.Download PDF from http://roberteklund.info.
 Eklund, Robert, Gustav Peters, Gopal Ananthakrishnan & Evans Mabiza. 2011. An acoustic analysis of lion roars. I: Data collection and spectrogram and waveform analyses. In: Quarterly Progress and Status Report TMH-QPSR, Volume 51, 2011. Proceedings from Fonetik 2011. Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, 8–10 June 2010, pp. 1–4. Download PDF from http://roberteklund.info.

Animal communication
Daikaku-ji

is a Japanese Buddhist temple in Kyoto.

History
The earliest structures were built in the early Heian period as a villa of Emperor Saga (785-842). Osawa pond, the artificial lake in the Japanese garden, was created in Saga's lifetime.

After Saga's death, a Buddhist temple complex was established at the site.  Imperial princes were often appointed as abbot of the temple.

In the 14th century, the temple came to be associated with the Kameyama branch of the Imperial family.

Timeline
 July 16, 1324 (Genkō 4, 22nd day of the 6th month):: Former-Emperor Go-Uda died at the temple.
 August 38, 1338 (Ryakuō 1, 13th day of the 7th month): Ashikaga forces burned the temple.
 1626 (Kan'ei 3): Emperor Go-Mizunoo added an Edo period shinden.

Related pages
 History of Japan
 Daikakuji Seamount

References

Other websites

  Daikaku-ji website 
 Japan-guide.com, Daikaku-ji
 Kyoto National Museum  -- "Treasures of Daikaku-ji," including portrait of Go-Uda and the former-emperor's will 

Buddhist temples in Japan
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a British drama television programme about English migrant builders. The show was created by Franc Roddam and mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. It was shown on ITV from 1983-1986 and on BBC One from 2002-2004. It stars Christopher Fairbank, Christopher Holton, Tim Healy, Gary Holton, Jimmy Nail, Pat Roach, Timothy Spall and Kevin Whately.

In the first series, the men work on a building site in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Other websites 

The Auf Wiedersehen, Pet homepage

1983 television series debuts
2004 British television series endings
1980s British television series
1980s drama television series
2000s British television series
2000s drama television series
BBC Television programmes
British drama television series
ITV television programmes
English-language television programs
Daikakuji Seamount

is an underwater volcano (seamount) of the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean.  Daikakuji is an extinct volcano.  

The seamount is also known as the "Daikakuji Guyot" because it has a flat top. This undersea geologic feature is also called a "guyot" or "tablemount".

This seabed mountain is named after Daikaku-ji, which is a Buddhist temple long associated with the Imperial family.

The last eruption from Daikakuji seamount was 42 million years ago.

Related pages
 Submarine volcano
 Active volcano
 Dormant volcano

References

Other websites
 Seamount Biogeosciences Network,  database

Seamounts
Pacific Ocean
Volcanoes of Oceania
Bob Hoskins

Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 - 29 April 2014) was a British actor. He was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and raised in Finsbury Park, London. 

Hoskins' movies include: The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He won a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for his role as George in Mona Lisa. 

He was also awarded a doctorate degree (degree in acting) at the graduation ceremony of Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England. 

On 8 August 2012, Hoskins said he had retired, having being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in late 2011. He died of pneumonia on the morning of 29 April 2014 in London.

Filmography

References

Other websites 

1942 births
2014 deaths
Actors from London
Actors from Suffolk
BAFTA Award winning actors
Deaths from pneumonia
English movie actors
English movie directors
English movie producers
English television actors
English voice actors
Golden Globe Award winning actors
People with Parkinson's disease
Hakuchi (era)

was a  after the Taika era and before Shuchō in 686.  This period started in February 650 and ended in December 654.  The reigning emperor was .

History
In 650 (Taika 6,  The daimyo of Nagato Province brought a white pheasant to the court as a gift for the emperor.  It was considered to be a good omen, and the emperor caused the nengō to be changed to Hakuchi (meaning "white pheasant").

In Japan, this was the second nengō, which was developed from the Chinese system of eras (nianhao).   It became an example of growth in political power.

Timeline

The system of Japanese era names was not the same as Imperial reign dates.

Events of the Hakuchi era
 650 (Hakuchi 1):  Kōtoku commanded that all prisoners were to be granted liberty throughout the country.
 654 (Hakuchi 5, 1st month): A great number of rats moved into Yamato Province; and this was construed as a sign that the capital should be moved.
 654 (Hakuchi 5): Kōtoku died at the age of 59 after a reign of 5 years during Taika and 5 years during Hakuchi.

Related pages
 Asuka period

References

Other websites
 National Diet Library, "The Japanese Calendar" -- historical overview plus illustrative images from library's collection
 

Japanese eras
7th-century establishments in Japan
7th-century disestablishments in Japan
650 establishments
654 disestablishments
Tororo

Tororo () is a sticky food made from grating a yam. Tororo is mixed with other food that typically includes dashi, wasabi, and green onions, and the amount of these ingredients can be adjusted to suit one's taste. In Japan, tororo is eaten as a side dish, or added to noodles (udon or soba). Tororo has a lot of vitamin B1, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, and other vitamins and minerals.

Mugitoro
Mugitoro () is a wheat dish made by pouring cold tororo on top of cooked wheat.

Yamakake
Yamakake () is a dish made from tororo and tuna (maguro). Tuna seasoned with soy sauce and tororo with dashi give a mild taste. Sometimes, it is put on rice as Donburi.

Tororo udon/soba
Tororo is also eaten with udon or soba. In tororo udon/soba, it is often eaten with a raw egg or a yolk.
Japanese people think it is very healthy to eat tororo, so it is added to many foods.

Tororo Nattō
The Japanese food nattō is often eaten with tororo, too.

Other websites

References

 

Japanese food
Lego big morl

lego big morl is a Japanese rock band from Osaka, made up of four men: Takehiro Kanata(guitar & vocal), Hiroki Tanaka (guitar), Hiro Asakawa (drum), Shintarou Yamamoto (bass).
It is called merely "lego".

They started the band in Osaka in 2006, and had a tour a year later. After that, their song "Ray" was adopted as the featured song of a drama, "Akai ito". This made them a little famous and they made a major debut next year.

"Ray" was covered by Kou Shibasaki in 2010.

Members 
 Takehiro Kanata (1984.5.24)
 Hiroki Tanaka (1984.10.25)
 Shintarou Yamamoto (1984.10.18)
 Hiro Asakawa (1984.11.10)

History 
2006:

After Asakawa's band split up in March, he asked Kanata to form a band with him. Tanaka, who was in the same band as Kanata joined the new band, followed by Yamamoto, who was a friend of Kanata from high school.
They started to go into action mainly in Osaka.

2007:

They held a first live tour in Tokyo, Yokohama, Ibaraki, and Gunma in March.
They gave out free CDs "テキーラグッバイ(tequila goodbye)" at live studios.

2008:
The year of getting people to know them.
...They released a ¥100 SINGLE"moonwalk for a week", which reached number four on the indies chart.
They also released a first mini album "Tuesday and Thursday".
Starting from here, they attended many big music festivals and events.
In December, they released their first single "Ray", which became one of the soundtracks of the Fuji TV drama, and movie "赤い糸(akai ito)".

Discography

Single CDs
 ワープ(warp) (only sold at TSUTAYA)
 moonwalk for a week (only sold at TOWER RECORDS)
 Ray (1st single)
 溢れる (afureru) (2nd single) 
 ドリルドリル (drill drill) (3rd single)
 バランス (balance) (4th single)
 Flowers(5th single)
 knock to me (6th single)

Albums
 Tuesday and Thursday (1st mini album)
 Quartette Parade (1st full album)
 Mother Ship (2nd full album)
 for Flowers (studio album; only sold at TOWER RECORDS)
 Re:Union (3rd full album)

References

Japanese rock bands
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks

is a Japanese baseball team in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture.   The Hawks play in Japan's .

History
The history of the Hawks dates to the 1930s.  The team has had several names, including
 Nankai Hawks (~1947)
 Fukuoka Daiei Hawks (1988~2004) 
 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (2005~)

SoftBank Hawks won the first prize in the Japan championship in 2011. The owner of the Hawks is SoftBank, an IT company. The Hawks are very popular in Fukuoka. The mascot character is Harry Hawk.

Home stadium
The Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome in Fukuoka is their home stadium. This stadium is in the central ward of Fukuoka city,  near Tojinmachi subway station.

Notable players

Current Manager

Current players

Related pages
 Sports in Japan

References

Other websites

 Fukuoka Softbank Hawks website
 (@Hawks official)on Twitter

Baseball teams
Baseball in Japan
Fukuoka Prefecture
1930s establishments in Japan
Shōten

Shōten is a comedy Japanese television series. It is broadcast on Sunday afternoons in Nippon television Network corporation. The show started in 1966.

There are eight members of this TV program: Utamaru, Koyuuza, Kouraku, Kikuō, Rakutarou, Shōta, Taihei and Takao Yamada. They are very　famous comic storytellers except Yamada. Yamada carries Japanese cushion for other broadcaster. Yamada says "I carry not only cushion but also happiness."

References

Other websites 
 Shōten 
 

Japanese television series
Slalom skiing

Slalom skiing is a special event in the sport of Alpine skiing.

History
Slalom was first recognized as part of the Winter Olympic Games in 1936.

Analysis
Slalom is the most technical event in alpine skiing.

A slalom race involves skiing between and around a series of obstacles made of poles which are placed on the snowy slope.  These poles are called "gates".  There are many gates in a slalom run.

Smaller turns than Super G or Downhill are made because distance between gates is short.

World Cup
World Cup is the highest international competition of alpine skiing held by International Ski Federation (FIS).

Ingemar Stenmark (Sweden, his career 1973-1989) and Vreni Schneider (Switzerland, her career 1984-1995) are the record holder as the most World Cup titles in Slalom discipline. Stenmark won 8 times and Schneider won 6 times.

Equipment for competition
These are necessary items for the alpine skiing competitions.
Racing ski...Its length is different in each event and is fixed by FIS. 
In slalom (SL), 165 cm for men, 155 cm for ladies.
In giant slalom (GS), 195 cm for men, 188 cm for ladies.
In Super G (SG), 210 cm for men, 205 cm for ladies.
In Downhill (DH), 218 cm for men, 210 cm for ladies.
(Rules apply to 2012-2013 World Cup and Europe Cup)
Bindings
Helmet...All of the racers have a duty of wearing a helmet to protect the head. Especially for SL, racers absolutely need a helmet with a chin guard. 
Goggles
Poles...In SL, racers go through the course knocking down poles with their own hands, so they need poles with punch guards.
Shin guards...To protect racers' shins the same as punch guard.

References

Other websites

Skiing
Winter Olympic sports
Tumors of the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues

Blood cancer is a type of cancer or tumor. Blood cancer hurts the blood, bone marrow, lymph, and lymphatic system. Sometimes more than one body part is hurt.

The cause is usually different from other types of cancer. The way to find out if a person has this cancer is also different. 

People with blood cancers see a kind of doctor called a hematologist (blood doctor) or oncologist (cancer doctor). There are other blood problems that are not blood cancers.  A blood doctor also helps people with those problems.

Medical terms 
Tumors of the hematopoietic (blood cell forming) and lymphoid tissues are local growths. Hematopoietic and lymphoid malignancies are cancers that affect the blood, bone marrow, lymph, and lymphatic system. As the blood and lymph connect through both the circulatory system and the immune system, a disease affecting one will often affect the others as well.

Types 
There are three types: 
 Leukemia
 Lymphoma
 Multiple myeloma

Finding out
A doctor will do some tests to find out if a person has a blood cancer.  One common test is a complete blood count.  The cells that circulate in the bloodstream are generally divided into three types: white blood cells (leukocytes), red blood cells (erythrocytes), and platelets (thrombocytes).  The relative proportions is what picks up indications of a problem.

Sometimes the doctor will take a very small piece of the body out, to look at it.  This is called a biopsy.  Bone marrow is where new blood is made in the body. A bone marrow biopsy looks at the blood-making parts to see if they have cancer.

Treatment 
People with blood cancer often take drugs called chemotherapy or immunotherapy.  If the blood cancer is in one place, they may have radiotherapy.  A bone marrow transplant is a difficult way to kill blood cancers.

How many people get it
Thousands of people get blood cancers.  Each year, 30,000 people in the United Kingdom (UK) learn that they have blood cancer.

Lymphomas are more common than leukemias.

References

Other websites
 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website

Cancer
Blood disorders
Japanese calligraphy

is common art in Japan.

History
Japanese Calligraphy started with introduction of Kanji from China.

After Buddhism was introduced into Japan, Calligraphy spread rapidly.

Emperors such as Shotokutaishi (聖徳太子) and Shoumu (聖武天皇)　wanted people to copy sutras by hand. Also, Japanese envoys to Tang Dynasty China took Chinese culture back to Japan. This affected the way of Japanese Calligraphy.

References

Other websites

Japanese culture
Writing
Picnic

A picnic is an event to eat outdoors, have a break, enjoy the warm sunshine, and have fun in a free time. It is usually held in a park or other open places. People bring the food for picnics in lunch boxes or in picnic baskets. Food for picnics is prepared on location such as by grilling, or at home.  After the meal, people often play games and sports, for example, playing catch, badminton and Frisbee. As at other parties, some like to create their own original foods and games.A lakeside, park or other places with interesting view is perfect for a picnic. In picnic, we often get the freshness of the nature.

History
In the 12th century, a picnic was described in the Persian poetry of The Rubaiyat:
"A book of verse beneath the bough,
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou 
Beside me singing in the Wilderness – 
Ah, wilderness were paradise enough!"
  Omar Khayyam

In 1800, the Picnic Society in London was organized by people who met from time to time to dine together.

In art

A famous painting of a picnic is Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass). It was painted in 1862 by the French artist Édouard Manet.

Related pages 
 Hanami
 Bento

References 

Leisure
The Last Emperor

The Last Emperor is a historical movie released in 1987.

Plot
The movie follows the life of Pu Yi, who was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

Production
This movie was a collaboration by Italy, China, and Britain.

Awards
The Last Emperor received Golden Globe Awards.

The film won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

References

Other websites

1987 movies
Historical movies
1980s biographical movies
1980s epic movies
1980s historical movies
Chinese movies
British biographical movies
Italian movies
French biographical movies
American biographical movies
Golden Globe Award winning movies
Academy Award winning movies
English-language movies
Mandarin-language movies
Multilingual movies
Movies directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Kameoka, Kyoto

is a Japanese city in Kyoto Prefecture. It is in western Kyoto in a wide, flat valley.

History
Kameoka city was built around a castle. It is in a rural area.

Development
The population of Kameoka city is about 90,000 people. 

Special products found in Kameoka include Botan nabe and Matsutake.

Sister cities 
Knittelfeld, Austria - April 14, 1964
Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA - November 3, 1985
Jandira, Brazil - November 3, 1980
Suzhou, China - December 31, 1996

Festivals
The Kameoka festival is held in the city from October 23rd to 25th every year. It is called the Gion Festival in Tamba, or Fall festival in Kameoka.

References

Other websites

Settlements in Kyoto Prefecture
Cities in Japan
Soft tennis

Soft tennis is major sport in Japan. It is usually played by two players with rackets. It is similar to normal tennis, but the ball is soft.
Young and old of both sexes can enjoy playing soft tennis because the racket and ball are light.

History
Tennis came to Japan from England in about 1880's.

Equipment
Racket
Ball
In Japan, people were not able to make good hard ball those days. Imported balls were expensive. Therefore Japanese people used a rubber ball.

References

Sport in Japan
Tennis
Botan nabe

is a Japanese dish made with meat from wild boars. The name comes from the appearance of the meat as it is arranged before cooking. It looks like the flower "Botan (牡丹)" (English: peony). Another name for this food is Inoshishi-nabe (猪鍋).

Ingredients
It has a lot of ingredients: boar meat, vegetables, root vegetables, mushrooms, konyaku, fu, and tofu.

References

Other websites

 Tohoku University,  Botan-nabe (wild boar stew) party

Japanese food
Meat dishes
Monster

A monster is a type of creature in fiction. They are usually found in legends or horror stories. They are often ugly and may make people and other creatures scared. They also eat people sometimes.  A monster could be anything really, like a vampire or a witch or even a werewolf. Sometimes these creatures aren't bad or monsters as you would say because some protect other people. Anyhow anything can be a monster or a creature including you. 

Monsters
Denmark Strait

The Denmark Strait or Greenland Strait is an oceanic strait between Greenland (to its northwest) and Iceland (to its southeast). The Norwegian island of Jan Mayen is northeast of the strait.

It connects the Greenland Sea, an extension of the Arctic Ocean, to the Irminger Sea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean.  It is  long and  miles wide at its narrowest.

During World War II, the Battle of the Denmark Strait took place on 24 May 1941. 

It is the widest strait of the world found in the American continent. 

Straits
Arctic
Geography of Iceland
Geography of Greenland
Hudson Strait

Hudson Strait links the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay in Canada. It is between Baffin Island and the northern coast of Quebec.  Its eastern entrance is Cape Chidley and Resolution Island. It is  long. Its width varies from  at its largest point, to a minimum of .

The strait was discovered by explorer Henry Hudson in the year 1609. It was long thought to be the fabled Northwest Passage.

References

Straits
Geography of Canada
Atlantic Ocean
Kara Strait

The Kara Strait or Kara Gates is a 56 km (35 mi) wide channel of water between the southern end of Novaya Zemlya and the northern tip of Vaygach Island. This strait connects the Kara Sea and the Barents Sea in northern Russia. 

The Kara Strait was an important waterway in the early exploration of the Northern Sea Route.

Straits
Geography of Russia
Arctic
Variable Antshrike

The variable antshrike (Thamnophilus caerulescens) is a species of bird in the Thamnophilidae family found most in South America. It is (as its name) arguably the species of antbird with the most variable plumage. This leads to claims that it includes more than one species, but evidence suggests that this is incorrect.

The Variable Antshrike is about  long.

Distribution and habitat

The Variable Antshrike is found mostly in eastern and southern Brazil. It is also seen in Pernambuco and Alagoas. From southern Brazil, its range spreads through Uruguay, Paraguay, northern Argentina, Bolivia, and along the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru, as far north as the Amazonas Region.

It has many habitats, but most of it is found in foothills in north-eastern Brazil, and does not live in lands higher than 2600 meters (8500 ft).

References

Birds of South America
Passeriformes