cahya/wikipedia-simple-en huggingface dataset:
Wall

A wall is a vertical dividing surface. It divides space in buildings into rooms or protects buildings. It is usually made of stone or brick. Walls have two main purposes: to support the top part of buildings, and to divide space, giving protection from invasion, escape, and weather.

Before powerful artillery was invented, many cities had protective walls.  Since they are not suitable for defense any more, most city walls have been removed.

The term "the Wall" usually referred to the Berlin Wall, built during the Cold War, which fell in 1989, but may also refer to the Pink Floyd album of the same name.

Retaining wall 
A retaining wall is a structure made to hold soil from collapsing. It is made in special areas for any other construction work, such as farming or road making.

Types of retaining wall are:
 Anchored wall
 Cantilever wall
 Gravity wall
 Piling wall

Main type of walls 
Load Bearing Wall is a structural element. It carries the weight of a house from the roof and upper floors, all the way to the foundation. It supports structural members like beams, slab and walls on above floors.

Non-Load Bearing Wall doesn’t help the structure to stand up and holds up only itself.  It doesn’t support floor roof loads above.  It is a framed structure. Most are interior walls whose purpose is to divide the structure into rooms.

Partition Wall separates spaces from buildings.  It can be solid, constructed from brick or stone.  It is a framed construction.  The partition wall is secured to the floor, ceiling, and walls.  It is enough strong to carry its own load.  It resists impact.  It is stable and strong to support wall fixtures.  The partition wall works as a sound barrier and it is fire resistant. 

Cavity Wall A cavity wall or hollow wall consists of two separate walls, called leaves or skins, with a cavity or gap in-between. The two leaves of the cavity wall may be of equal thickness if it a non-load-bearing wall or the internal leaf may be thicker than the external leaf, to meet the structural requirements. 
 

Veneered Wall holds up the material.  It can be made of brick or stone.  The most famous veneered wall is made of brick.  The wall is only one wythe thick.  It became the norm when building codes began to require insulation in interior walls.  It is light weighted.  Veneered walls can be built quickly.

Related pages 
Fire wall
Wallpaper
Great Wall of China

References 

Basic English 850 words
Coordinated Universal Time

Coordinated Universal Time (or UTC) is the standard time system of the world. It is the standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is, within about 1 second, mean solar time at 0° longitude. 

The standard before was Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). UTC and GMT are almost the same. In fact, there is no practical difference which would be noticed by ordinary people. 

Some websites, for example Wikipedia, use UTC because it does not make any country look more important than the others. It offers one time for all the Internet (the same time can be used by people all over the world). 

Time zones are often named by how many hours they are different from UTC time. For example, UTC−5 (United States east coast) is 5 hours behind UTC. If the time is 07:00 UTC, the local time is 02:00 in New York (UTC−5) and 10:00 in Moscow (UTC+3).

07:00 UTC is also written more simply as 0700Z (or 07:00Z).

Note that UTC uses the 24-hour clock.  That means there is no 'AM' or 'PM'. For example, 4:00PM would be 16:00 or 1600. UTC also does not use daylight savings time - that way the time stays consistent the entire year.

When this page loaded, it was ,   ,  in UTC.

References 

Time zones

fi:Aikajärjestelmä#UTC
Television

Telegram television (also known as a TV) is a machine with a screen. Televisions receive broadcasting signals and change them into pictures and sound. The word "television" comes from the words tele (Greek for far away) and vision (sight).

Sometimes a television can look like a box. Older TVs had a large cathode ray tube in a large wooden frame and sat on the floor like furniture.  Newer TVs are much lighter and flatter. 

A TV can show pictures from many television networks.  Computers and mobile devices also can be used for watching television programs.

The television was invented in the 1920s but the equipment was expensive and the pictures were poor. By the 1950s, these problems had been fixed and TVs became widespread.

At first, all televisions used an antenna (or aerial). This would pick up television programmes from broadcasting stations. A TV station could be many miles or kilometers away, and still be received. TVs can also show movies from VCD and DVD players or VCRs. Cable TV and Satellite television can provide more programs at once than broadcast can. Video game consoles connect to most modern TVs. Some computers can also use a TV as a computer monitor.

All TVs have screens where the picture is viewed.  Before the 1950s these were usually "black and white", which made everything look grey, but all modern TVs show colors.  Most 20th century screens also had rounded corners.  That is because television screens were cathode ray tubes.  These are like heavy glass jars with one side bulging out to form the screen.  

Today flat panel displays are the usual kind.  These are usually flat rectangles with straight edges.  This long rectangle looks more like the shape of a movie theatre screen.  This is called widescreen.  If a widescreen set was 30 cm tall, it would be 53 cm wide.  For this to work best, TV shows also need to be made in widescreen.  Widescreen sets can still be any size, but they have the same widescreen shape.

The early 21st century is also when digital television transmission became more common than analog television.
Sky

The sky is the appearance of the atmosphere around the surface of the planet from our point of view. We see many objects that are actually in space such as the Sun, the Moon, and stars because they are in the sky. On a clear day the sky appears blue. At night it appears from very dark blue to black. The deepness of the blue increases as we look toward the horizon, and up to the point above us.

The sky, which is made up of gas molecules, is blue because of the random scattering of sunlight by the molecules. Rayleigh scattering defines the amount of scattering of light rays. Blue light scatters much more than red, which is why the sky appears blue on a clear day. Depending on the time of day, the sky may appear different colors. At dawn or dusk the sky may appear red, orange, or even green and purple depending on how low the sun is and how close it is to night.

Other planets have skies too. Because the types of gases in their atmospheres are different, they have different sky colors. For example, the sky on Mars is red.

Many things can be seen in the sky. There are objects from space like the Sun, Moon, and stars. There are also many weather events seen in the sky. For example, these can be clouds, rain, lightning, or fog. Weather is caused by different patterns and temperatures in the atmosphere. Other things that can be seen in the sky are birds, other flying animals, and aircraft.

Other websites 
 Day Sky Images 
 Night Sky Images 
 Sky Photo Gallery 
 Why is the sky blue?

References 

Basic English 850 words
Tone language

A tone language, or tonal language, is a language in which words can differ in tones (like pitches in music) in addition to consonants and vowels.

Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Punjabi, Yorùbá, Igbo, Luganda, Ewe, and Cherokee are tonal. The other languages, including Indo-European languages such as  English and Hindi, are not tone languages.

In some languages, it is pitch accent that is important instead. A word's meaning can then change if a different syllable is stressed. Examples include Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Swedish, Norwegian, Serbo-Croatian, Lithuanian, and some Asian languages like Japanese and Korean. However, pitch accent is different from tones.

Some tones may sound alike to people who do not speak a tone language. They are the most difficult part of learning a tone language for those people.

Example
In Mandarin, the most famous example "mā má mǎ mà ()" has four different words each pronounced in exactly the same way but with four different tones. If numbers identify the tones, they can be written ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4, which means "mom hemp horse scold." Some ways of romanization mark each tone by a different spelling; ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4 in Pinyin would be written ma mha maa mah in Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Most use numbers or accent marks (mā má mǎ mà in Pinyin). There is a passage called Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (). It has 92 characters; all read the same way in Mandarin ("shi") but with different tones.

Mandarin does not have many syllables: the words for "mother," "hemp," "horse," "scold," and a word put at the end of sentences to make it a question are all pronounced "ma:"
"Mother" is "ma" that is high and level.
"Hemp" is "ma" that starts low and ends high.
"Horse" is "ma" that starts fairly high, dips very low, and then goes back up again.
"Scold" is "ma" that starts high and ends low.
To make a question, "ma" is added at the end, but it is kept very soft and short and about the same level.

Mandarin has "first tone," "second tone," "third tone," "fourth tone," and "neutral tone." Other Chinese dialects have more tones, some as many as twelve.

Tonal markings
Vietnamese and Pinyin use accents as the tone marks for the Latin alphabet. Each accent shows an altered sound for the syllable. Most syllables have only one tone marking, but the letters in the syllable can be altered by other markings. Syllables usually form one word in un-hyphenated compound words.

Pinyin may have style differences because its use is to help Westerners. On the other hand, Vietnamese has a national script that always follows and uses the same style.

References
Dollar

A dollar is a type of currency. Many countries have named their money the dollar, so it is important to say which dollar is being talked about. The symbol for the dollar is a capital letter S, pierced by one or two vertical lines: $.

History 
The dollar is named after the thaler. The thaler was a large silver coin first made in the year 1518. The thaler named after the Joachimsthal (Joachim's valley) mine in Bohemia (Thal means valley in German). The later Spanish Peso was the same size and was often called "Spanish dollar" and the similar coin of the Dutch Republic was called “lion dollar”. In the 18th century it became a world currency. Many national currencies were originally Spanish dollars including the ones now called dollar or peso and the Japanese yenand Chinese Renminbi.

List of dollars
Australian dollar
Bahamian dollar
Barbadian dollar
Belize dollar
Canadian dollar
East Caribbean dollar
Hong Kong dollar
 Namibian dollar
New Zealand dollar
Singapore dollar
United States dollar
Zimbabwean dollar

Currency
Eurasia

Eurasia is the combined landmass of Europe and Asia in the northern part of Earth. It has the Atlantic Ocean on its west, and the Pacific Ocean to the east. The Arctic Ocean is to its north, and the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean to its south. It is the largest of the continents. Its name comes from adding the "Eur" from "Europe" to "Asia". It and Africa form a part of the world called "Afro-Eurasia". 

Some geographers say Eurasia is one continent, because Europe and Asia are mostly on the same tectonic plate and do not have a sea between them. The Ancient Greeks divided the world they knew into Europe, Asia and Africa. To them, the Aegean Sea was the division between the Balkan Peninsula in Europe and Asia Minor in Asia. North of the Sea of Marmara, the Greeks thought the lands on the western side of the Black Sea was Europe and the eastern side was Asia. The ancient Greeks did not know very much about the lands north of the Black Sea. Since Classical Antiquity, people have talked about Asia and Europe separately, so it is now a tradition to see them as two continents.

Some other continents, which are not completely divided by sea, are joined together by a thin strip of land (called an isthmus). An example is North America and South America, which are connected by the Isthmus of Panama. Europe and Asia are not divided by a sea, nor by any isthmus.

Outside of geological definitions, Eurasia also includes the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula.

Sometimes Eurasia is divided into West Eurasia and East Eurasia. Here, the dividing line is the Ural Mountains. West Eurasia includes Europe and the Middle East. Historians sometimes add North Africa to West Eurasia, because the Sahara Desert divides North Africa from Sub-Saharan Africa, and it is as difficult to cross as a sea. Also, North Africa is culturally linked to Europe by the Mediterranean Sea.

List of countries 

 
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 (EU) Geologically in Europe and Asia
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 (EU) Geologically in Europe and North America

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 Geologically in Europe and Asia
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 Geologically in Europe and North America

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 Geologically in Europe and Asia

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 Geologically in Europe and Asia

The OECD’s Eurasia activities involve 13 countries extending from the borders of the European Union to the Far East:

 Afghanistan
 Armenia
 Azerbaijan
 Belarus
 Georgia
 Kazakhstan
 Kyrgyzstan
 Mongolia
 Republic of Moldova
 Tajikistan
 Turkmenistan
 Ukraine
 Uzbekistan
 Turkey

Laurasia
North Pole

The North Pole is the point that is farthest north on Earth. It is the point on which axis of Earth turns. It is in the Arctic Ocean and it is cold there because the sun does not shine there for about half a year and never rises very high. The ocean around the pole is always very cold and it is covered by a thick sheet of ice. 

There is also a Magnetic North Pole. It is near the physical North Pole. A compass points toward the magnetic North Pole.

There is a star called the North Star (or Polaris) that is always in the sky above the North Pole. People can tell how far north they are by seeing how high the North Star appears in the sky.

Climate

Related pages
 South Pole

References

Arctic
Oceania

Oceania is a name used in geography for the region made up of Australia, Polynesia, Melanesia, and several other island nations in the surrounding area. It is often listed as one of the continents of the world.

The term "Oceania" does not have one single agreed definition. The widest definition of Oceania includes the entire region between continental Asia and the Americas, including Australasia, as well as islands in the Pacific Rim such as the Japanese archipelago, Taiwan, and the Aleutian islands.

On the other hand, the Oceania ecozone includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand. Sometimes, people use the term 'Oceania' to include only the Polynesian and Melanesian islands in the Pacific Ocean, as separate from Australasia. When Oceania is treated seperately from Australia, the region of Oceania is referred to as "Australia and Oceania".

In the United Nations' geographic regions, Oceania includes Australia and the nations of the Pacific from Papua New Guinea east, but not the Malay Archipelago or Indonesian New Guinea.

A smaller usage of Oceania as a continent includes only Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the islands between them. This part of the world is usually called Australasia instead. For these reasons, it is not correct to say that Australasia is part of Oceania, because what is meant by 'Oceania' is not clear. Australasia has an exact definition in biogeography and geology; Australasia includes New Zealand, Australia (including Tasmania), and Melanesia, New Guinea, and the islands just north and east of Australia. All these are south-east of the Bali–Lombok line, also known as the Wallace Line.

References

 

Oceania
Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean is the ocean around Antarctica. It means the waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans around the continent of Antarctica. Since the 1770s geographers have discussed its limits. Nowadays, sixty degrees south latitude is often accepted. Some people call this ocean the Antarctic Ocean.

The total area is 20,327,000 km², and the coastline length is 17,968 km.

Other websites 

 Oceanography Image of the Day, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
 The CIA World Factbook's  entry on the Southern Ocean
 The Fifth Ocean from Geography.About.com
 NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer  Plot and download ocean observations
 NOAA FAQ about the number of oceans 

 
Geography of Antarctica
Catalan language

The Catalan language is a Romance language spoken in Catalonia, Valencian Community, the eastern part of Aragon, the Balearic Islands, a small zone of Murcia (all of them in Spain), Andorra, North Catalonia (in France) and the Italian city of L'Alguer. Together, those places are often called the Catalan Countries.

The language that most similar is Occitan. Catalan also has similarities to other Romance languages, such as Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese. It came from Vulgar Latin and was first spoken in the in the Eastern Pyrenees in the Middle Ages.

There are about 4 million people who speak Catalan as a first language and about 6 million people as a second language. Catalan is the sixth-most-spoken Romance language and also the most-spoken language that is not an official language in the European Union.

References

Languages of Europe
Romance languages
Catalonia
Semiotics

Semiotics (or semiology) is a theoretical framework for the study of the meaning of language, signs and symbols. It was first developed in the early 20th century, separately, by the Swiss Ferdinand Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce of the U.S.A. It can be described as both a science and a technique: a science because it has its own theories and a technique because it is a way of studying systems of representation and meaning. The meaning can be intentional such as a word uttered with a specific meaning, or unintentional, such as a symptom being a sign of a particular medical condition. Signs can communicate through any of the senses, visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory.

History and terminology 
The importance of signs and signification has been recognized throughout much of the history of philosophy, and in psychology as well. The term derives from the Greek: σημειωτικός, romanized: sēmeiōtikos, "observant of signs" (from σημεῖον sēmeion, "a sign, a mark"). For the Greeks, "signs" occurred in the world of nature, and "symbols" in the world of culture. As such, Plato and Aristotle explored the relationship between signs and the world.

The general study of signs that began in Latin with Augustine culminated with the 1632 Tractatus de Signis of John Poinsot, and then began anew in late modernity with the attempt in 1867 by Charles Sanders Peirce to draw up a "new list of categories." More recently, Umberto Eco, in his Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, has argued that semiotic theories are implicit in the work of most, perhaps all, major thinkers.  

Semiotics is usually divided into three parts:
Semantics -  what was the meaning of the words or signs used; 
Pragmatics - who said it, to whom and in what circumstances and 
Syntactics - the formal rules of the language used.

The major branches of semiotics include:
Biosemiotics
Zoosemiotics
Semiotics of culture

Other page 
Philosophy of language

References

Language
Colour

Colour or color is a property of light as seen by people. In Commonwealth English, it is spelled “colour” (notice the U), while in American English it is “color” (no U).

The most common colour names are: 
 Red
 Orange
 Yellow
 Green
 Cyan
 Blue
 Magenta
 Purple
 White
 Black
 Gray (American English)
 Grey (Commonwealth English)
 Silver
 Pink
 Maroon
 Brown
 Beige
 Tan
 Peach
 Lime
 Olive
 Turquoise
 Teal
 Navy blue
 Indigo
 Violet

"Primary colours" can be mixed to make other colours. Red, yellow, and blue are the three traditional primary colours. The primary colours for television screens and computer monitors are red, green and blue. Printers and paints use magenta, yellow, and cyan as their primary colours; they may also use black. Sometimes this set of colours is simply called red, yellow, and blue.

People who can not see colours or have a distorted sense of colour are called colour blind. Most colour blind people are male.

Colours are sometimes added to food. Food colouring is used to colour food, but some foods have natural colourings, like beta carotene.

When something has no colour, it is transparent. An example is air.

The science of color is sometimes called chromatics, colorimetry, or simply color science.

A translucent material is not the same as a colourless material because it can still have a colour, like stained glass.

Related pages

 List of colours

References 

Basic English 850 words
Color
Vision
Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease (sickness). It is caused by not eating enough vitamin C. But scurvy can be prevented. It has many symptoms. People who have scurvy get spots on their skin, especially on their legs. Their teeth may loosen and/or fall out. They may bleed from the mouth, nose, and gums (mucus membranes). A person with scurvy will look pale and feel sad (see depression). They will not be able to move easily, because their joints hurt.

Scurvy can be easily cured. Oranges and other fruits can restore normal vitamin levels. In the past, sailors more commonly got scurvy due to being unable to access these foods. Fresh fruit could not be kept for long. The main cause of scurvy is lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. It is now uncommon.

Signs of scurvy

At first, a person with scurvy may:
Not want to eat (loss of appetite)
Feel sad (slight depression)
Lose weight or not get heavier even though they eat a lot
Have loose feces (diarrhea)
Breathe fast (tachypnea)
Be hot (have a high body temperature or fever)

A bit later a person with scurvy may:
Feel angry (irritability)
Have pains in the legs (and tenderness)
Find it hard to move (pseudo paralysis)
Have swelling of the arms and legs
Bleed from the mouth, nose and gums

Causes 
Not eating enough food that has vitamin C
Going on a long trip, often at sea, where there is no fresh food
Not having enough food (famine)
Breaking down the vitamin C by over-cooking (like boiling fruit juice)

Treatment

Eating vitamin C pills or giving it by needle (injection, also known as a shot). The injection almost always cures scurvy in babies.
Drinking orange juice is another treatment that works in babies. Before vitamin C was discovered this was the only treatment.

When a person gets help for scurvy, they usually get better very quickly. Babies start eating again after one or two days of help. The symptoms get better within seven days.

Food sources

Eating vitamin C prevents scurvy. How much vitamin C a person needs changes with his or her age and is different for pregnant and lactating women. The following is the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council's advice on how much vitamin C to eat every day:

 Infants (babies): 30–40 mg 
 Children and adults: 45–60 mg 
 Pregnant women: 70 mg 
 Mothers breast feeding: 90–95 mg

Foods with a lot of vitamin C include the following:

 Citrus fruits (for example: oranges, limes)
 Berries 
 Cantaloupe 
 Broccoli 
 Cauliflower 
 Cabbage 
 Spinach 
 Potatoes 
 Tomatoes
 Strawberries

References 

Diseases
Vitamin deficiencies
Ion

An ion is an electrically charged atom or group of atoms.
It can be made from an atom, or from a group of atoms (molecule). It is "charged" so it will move near electricity. This is because atoms are made of three smaller parts:

 neutrons (with no charge),
 number of protons with positive charges and
 equal number of negatively-charged electrons. 

An ion has unequal numbers of protons and electrons. Making an ion from an atom or molecule is called ionization.

The charge on a proton is chosen as +1 (positively charged). The charge on an electron is opposite to the charge on the proton.  The charge on the electron is -1 (negatively charged). An atom that is ionized makes two parts, one positive, and one negatively charged. For example, a neutral hydrogen atom has one proton and one electron. Ionizing the atom breaks it into two parts: (1) a positively charged hydrogen ion, H+ (2) a negatively charged electron.

A liquid with ions is called an electrolyte. A gas with lots of ions is called a plasma. When ions move, it is called electricity. For example, in a wire, the metal ions do not move, but the electrons move as electricity. A positive ion and a negative ion will move together. Two ions of the same charge will move apart. When ions move they also make magnetic fields.

Many ions are colourless. Elements in the main groups in the Periodic Table form colourless ions. Some ions are coloured. The transition metals usually form coloured ions.

Chemistry
In physics, atomic nuclei that have been completely ionized are called charged particles. These are ones in alpha radiation.
 
Ionization happens by giving atoms high energy. This is done using electrical voltage or by high-energy ionizing radiation or high temperature. 

A simple ion is formed from a single atom.

Polyatomic ions are formed from a number of atoms. Polyatomic ions usually consist of all non-metal atoms. But sometimes the polyatomic ion can have a metallic atom too.

Positive ions are called cations. They are attracted to cathodes (negatively charged electrodes).  (Cation is pronounced "cat eye on", not "kay shun".) All simple metal ions are cations.

Negative ions are called anions. They are attracted to anodes (positively charged electrodes). All simple non-metal ions (except H+, which is a proton) are anions. 

Transition metals can form more than one simple cation with different charges.

Most ions have a charge of less than 4, but some can have higher charges.

Michael Faraday was the first person to write a theory about ions, in 1830. In his theory, he said what the portions of molecules were like that moved to anions or cations. Svante August Arrhenius showed how this happened. He wrote this in his doctoral dissertation in 1884 (University of Uppsala). The university did not accept his theory at first (he only just passed his degree). But in 1903, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the same idea.

In Greek ion is like the word "go". "Anion" and "cation" mean "up-goer" and "down-goer". "Anode" and "cathode" are "way up" and "way down".

Common ions

Related pages
List of ions

References 

Chemistry
Cognitive science

Cognitive science studies how people make their ideas and what makes thoughts logical. It is often seen as the result of several different scientific fields working together. These fields are psychology (a study of the mind), neuroscience (biological study of the brain), computer science (the creation of programs and computers), and linguistics (the study of language). It does not refer to the sum of all these disciplines. It refers to their intersection on specific problems.

Other websites
 
 Cognitive Science Society
 Cognitive Science Movie Index: A broad list of movies showcasing themes in the Cognitive Sciences 
 List of leading thinkers in cognitive science 
 Dr. Carl Stahmer's history page at the University of Santa Barbara 

Science
Argon

Argon is a chemical element. Its symbol is argon is Ar and its atomic number is 18. It is part of the noble gas group. It is an odorless and tasteless gas. Argon is the third-most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere.

The name "argon" is gotten from the Greek word ἀργός meaning "lazy" or "inactive" because it doesn't react a lot.

Chemistry 
Argon atoms are found in air. About 1% of the Earth's atmosphere (the air around us) is argon. It is not toxic and it does not burn easily. Not many compounds can be made from Argon. However, some compounds have been formed, like argon fluorohydride (HArF). Argon is a heavier gas than helium, so if a balloon is filled with argon, it would sink.

History 
Argon was first removed from air in 1894 by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay at University College London by removing oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen from a sample of clean air.

Isotopes
The main isotopes of argon found on Earth are 40Ar (99.6%), 36Ar (0.34%), and 38Ar (0.06%). The most abundant isotope of argon is 40Ar. But other planets have different isotopes of argon.

Production
Argon is gotten industrially by the fractional distillation of liquid air. About 700,000 tonnes of argon are produced worldwide every year.

40Ar is made by the decay of 40K with a half-life of 1.25 billion years by electron capture or positron emission. Because of this, it is used in knowing how old rocks are.

Uses 
Argon is often used when welding steel and similar work, to push away the air around the weld, so the oxygen in the air can't join with the metal being welded. It can also be used in neon lights for a purple color. Argon is used in the poultry industry to asphyxiate birds. Argon is sometimes used for putting off fires.

Liquid argon is used in neutrino experiments and looking for dark matter. Argon is used to preserve food. Argon is sometimes used as the propellant in aerosol cans. Argon is also used as a preservative for such products as varnish, polyurethane, and paint. Argon has been used by athletes as a doping agent and has been banned as use. It is used to know how old rocks are.

Related pages
 List of common elements
 Periodic table

Sources

Noble gases
Light year

A light year (symbol: ly)  is the distance that light travels in empty space in one year. Since the speed of light is about 300,000 km per second (about 186,000 miles per second), then a light year is about 10 trillion kilometers (about 6 trillion miles). A light year is not a length of time.

The light year is used in astronomy because the universe is huge. Space objects such as stars and galaxies may be hundreds, thousands or millions of light years away.

Example
Think of a star at a distance of 100 light years from us on Earth. Light leaves the star and takes 100 years to get to us. When we see the star's light, we are seeing that star as it was 100 years ago.

Similar distance measurements
Light minute - The distance that light travels in one minute (about 18,000,000 km per minute, or 11,160,000 miles per minute).
For example, our Sun is about 8 light minutes from Earth
Light second - The distance that light travels in one second (about 300,000 km per second, or 186,000 miles per second)
For example, our Moon is about 1¼ light seconds from Earth

References

Units of length
Astronomical distances
English as a second language

English as a second language is a common phrase which has related acronyms, including
ESL, which means "English as a Second Language". This is most often used in a country where English is the primary language
EFL, which means "English as a Foreign Language". This is most often used in a country where English is not the primary language
EAL, which means "English as an Additional Language". This is rarely used.
ESOL, which means "English for Speakers of Other Languages". This is rare.
ELF, which means "English as a Lingua Franca", a term relating to Globalization.
Each of these acronyms means roughly the same thing. In each, the learners already have another native or "mother" language, and they want to learn English as well.

History
The teaching of English as a second language has a long history. For example, the official introduction of English into India's education system began in 1835.

Use
English as a second language is the single most popular subject in the world, after mathematics. English is a very important language in business. Many people study English as a foreign language, because they want a better job. English is also very important in education. Many pages on the internet are in English.

Many people who can not go to English language classes study on the internet, using websites like BBC Learning English.

Many people study English in a country where the people speak English. This way, many students learn to listen and speak English better.

Testing
There are many English exams. These English exams are important for learners. They may show how well a person can use English. It is very difficult to compare different English exams. Every exam is a little different. Read Testing English as a foreign language for more information.

Global Scale of English 
Global Scale of English (GSE) is a test for learners of English as a second or foreign language.   The GSE is a list of can-do statements based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for English. Learners' abilities are rated on a 10-to-90 point scale for each of the four basic skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). A learner reaches a level on the scale when she or he can correctly perform 50% of the can-do tasks at that level. The education company Pearson PLC developed the scale.

Teaching 
Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is referred to the practice of teaching the English language to the students with different first languages. It is taught in the state school system or privately with a language school or with a tutor. TEFL can also take place in an English-speaking country for people who have immigrated there. 

TEFL teachers may be native or non-native speakers of English. Other forms of TEFL are TESL (Teaching English as a second language), TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages), and ESL (English as a second language).

Additional types of TEFL certification include: CTBE (Certificate in Teaching Business English), CTYL (Certificate in Teaching Young Learners), CTO (Certificate in Teaching Online).

Related pages
 ELTon Award

References

Other websites 
 TESOL

English language
LOL

LOL, or lol, is an internet slang term that means "laugh(ing) out loud". It is commonly mistaken for "lots of love." LOL is often used in messages meaning "That is really funny."  

It also means mute in Persian and is a native Dutch word (not an acronym) which means "fun" ("lollig" means "funny"). In Welsh, lol means nonsense - e.g., if a person wanted to say "utter nonsense" in Welsh, they would say "rwtsh lol". LOL is usually used on the internet or when text messaging.

Words similar to "LOL"
 lolz, lulz, lul, lawls, or lawl/lawlzies: Sometimes used instead of LOL, but can have other meanings.
 LOOOOOL: For more emphasis. Any amount of "OL"s can be added to the end of LOL.  
 LMAO: Stands for "Laugh my ass off". Another way to say it is LMFAO ("Laugh my fucking ass off").
 ROFL: For "rolling on the floor laughing". It is often combined with LMAO to make ROFLMAO ("Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off"). Another way to write this is ROTFL.
ROTFLOL: Rolling on the floor laughing out loud; used by Weird Al in the song "White and Nerdy".
LEL: Basically lol; except used by those wanting to be different from the millions of internet users.
kek: The Japanese version of saying Lol.
LEL: Basically lol; except used by those wanting to be different from the millions of internet users

Related page
 Lolcat

References

Internet slang
Names of numbers in English

Here are some words for small numbers. Words in bold are irregular.

When writing other numbers between 21 and 99, you must use a hyphen (-).
 21: twenty-one
 29: twenty-nine
 64: sixty-four
 99: ninety-nine

The number 100 is written as "one hundred", but sometimes people say "a hundred".

The way numbers are written and spoken differs between American English and other forms of English, such as British English and Australian English, as follows.

American English 

To write a whole number from 100 to 999 in American English:
  First write how many hundreds.
  Then write the word "hundred".
  Then write the name of the two-digit number after the digit in the hundreds place.

In standard, written, American English, the word "and" is not in the word-name of any whole number even though many speakers insert it.

Examples:

 101: one hundred one
 102: one hundred two
 175: one hundred seventy-five
 200: two hundred
 300: three hundred
 512: five hundred twelve
 987: nine hundred eighty-seven

British and Commonwealth English 

To write a whole number from 100 to 999 in British and Commonwealth English:
  First write how many hundreds.
  Then write the words "hundred and".
  Then write the name of the two-digit number after the digit in the hundreds place.

In standard, written, British English (and the English spoken in many other places), the word "and" is in the word-name of many whole numbers.

Examples:

 101: one hundred and one (NOT: one hundred one)
 102: one hundred and two (NOT: one hundred two)
 175: one hundred and seventy-five (NOT: one hundred seventy-five)
 200: two hundred
 300: three hundred
 512: five hundred and twelve (NOT: five hundred twelve)
 987: nine hundred and eighty-seven (NOT: nine hundred eighty-seven)

Related pages
 Names of ordinal numbers in English
 Names for large numbers
 Names for small numbers

Numbers
Shape of the universe

The shape of the Universe cannot be discussed with everyday terms, because all the terms need to be those of Einsteinian relativity. The geometry of the universe is therefore not the ordinary Euclidean geometry of our everyday lives.

According to the special theory of relativity, it is impossible to say whether two distinct events occur at the same time if those events are separated in space.  To speak of "the shape of the universe (at a point in time)" is naive from the point of view of special relativity. Due to the relativity of simultaneity we cannot speak of different points in space as being "at the same point in time" nor, therefore, of "the shape of the universe at a point in time".

What astrophysicists do is ask whether a particular model of the universe is consistent with what is known through observations and measurements of the universe. If the observable universe is smaller than the entire universe (in some models it is many orders of magnitude smaller or even infinitesimal), observation is limited to a part of the whole. 

Consideration of the shape of the universe can be split into two:
 local geometry, which relates especially to the curvature of the universe, especially in the observable universe, and
 global geometry, which relates to the topology of the universe as a whole, measurement of which may not be possible.

The observable universe is the basis for testing any model of the universe. It is a spherical volume (a ball) centered on the observer, regardless of the shape of the universe as a whole. Every location in the universe has its own observable universe, which may or may not overlap with the one centered on Earth.

Recent measurements have led NASA to state, "We now know that the universe is flat with only a 0.4% margin of error".  Within one model, the FLRW model, the present most popular shape of the Universe found to fit observational data is the infinite flat model. There are other models that also fit the data.

References 

Geometry
Cosmology

zh:宇宙#宇宙的形状
Communication

Communication is when information is passed from a sender to a recipient using a medium. There are different media that can be used:
Visual communication (using body language or gestures)
Communicating with sounds (like human language, but may also be the barking of a dog)
Communication using touch
Using smell
Using writing

Communication can be spoken (a word) or non-spoken (a smile). Communication has many ways, and happens all the time. Not only humans communicate, most other animals do too. Some communication is done without thinking, such as by changing in posture.

Communication that tries to change somebody's mind may be called persuasion or propaganda.

How communication works 
Communication works by exchanging information or messages. In very basic terms
The sender makes a message, from an idea. This is usually called encoding
The sender transmits the message through the medium.
The recipient receives the message and decodes it.

Besides the content of the message, there are other things that are important. These are not part of the message itself, but rather of its context
Who is communicating, and what status does the communicator have?
Communication messages usually do not come alone, but are accompanied by other messages. These are also interpreted.

For a message exchange to be successful, the sender and the recipient must have agreed on a vocabulary. The word hedge can mean completely different things based on the context. In biology a hedge is a row of shrubs or trees that make a barrier or form a border. In finance, a hedge is an investment made to reduce the risk of another investment. In linguistics a hedge is a word or set of words that make other words less important. Without any information it is therefore very difficult to know which hedge is really meant by the speaker.

Related pages

References 
 Communication protocol
Language
Sign language
Miracle

A Miracle is an amazing, beneficial event that goes (or at least seems to go) against natural laws.  Some people say that a miracle is always an act brought about by God or other supernatural force (such as an angel). Others say that there can always be another explanation for it. And thirdly, some say the event is myth and never actually even happened in the first place.

According to the Bible
In the Bible a miracle is an act by God, where God's presence is shown. They can be an act that affects one person, or a gigantic disturbance of nature that changes the world.

Examples in the Bible
Here are seven types that can be found. These are just some of the many miracles in the Bible.

God’s authority
Moses parts the Red Sea so that the people of Israel could escape from Egypt
Jesus commands the storm winds to stop blowing
Healing
A man crippled since birth gets up and walks after Jesus heals him
Jesus makes a man who was born blind to see
Judgment for evil
People became so evil that God destroys them with a flood; Noah and his family are saved
Two members of the Jerusalem church are struck dead for lying
Provision
God gives manna to the Israelites as they traveled through the desert
Jesus feeds thousands of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish
Raising the dead
By the power of God, Elijah raises a widow’s dead son back to life
Jesus raises his friend, Lazarus, to life
Safety
King Nebuchadnezzar tries to burn Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to death in a fiery furnace, but God keeps them from burning
Visions
The prophet Isaiah has a vision of God seated on his throne surrounded by angels
Saul has a vision of Jesus that changed his life

In other books
Other religious books, like the Quran, Mahabharata and the Avesta, contains many references to this definition of miracle. An example of a miracle in the Quran is when Muhammad splits the moon into halves.

References

Theology
Kami

Kami (神) is a Japanese word for the spirits that are worshipped in the Shinto religion. Not all of Kami are gods of the personified type. Instead, they have to do with phenomena and events like the growth of trees, or rain, or wind, or other aspects of Nature; it is believed that these kami live in those natural things. 

It is usually said that there are . In Japanese the number "eight-million" is normally used to mean infinity.

Though the word kami can be translated multiple ways into English, no English word expresses its full meaning.

Some important kami  
 Amaterasu, the sun goddess 
 Inari, god of foxes
 Kotoamatsukami, the primary kami trinity
 Izanagi, the first man 
 Izanami, the first woman 
 Shinigami, kami of death
 Ryūjin, god of the sea
 Susanoo, god of storms
 Sarutahiko, kami of Earth

Related pages 
 Shinto 
 Shinto shrine
 Inugami

Other websites  
 Kami at Onmark database

Japanese deities
Shinto
Moselle

The Moselle River (German: Mosel)  is a river which flows through  France and Luxembourg, then becomes part of the Rhine River after it flows into Germany. It is  long.

Important cities at the Moselle river are Metz, Thionville, Trier, Bernkastel-Kues and Koblenz.

The valley of the Moselle river is famous for the wine of Elbling, Riesling, and Müller-Thurgau - grapes in the wine growing region Moselle-Saar-Ruwer.

Tributaries 
From the left:
Madon,
Terrouin,
Esch,
Rupt de Mad,
Orne,
Fensch,
Gander,
Syre,
Sauer,
Kyll,
Salm,
Lieser,
Alf,
Endert,
Brohlbach,
Elz.

From the right:
Moselotte,
Vologne,
Meurthe,
Seille,
Saar,
Olewiger Bach,
Avelsbach,
Ruwer,
Feller Bach,
Dhron,
Ahringsbach,
Kautenbach,
Lützbach,
Flaumbach,
Altlayer Bach,
Baybach,
Ehrbach.

Other websites 
 German page

Geography of Rhineland-Palatinate
Geography of Saarland
Rivers of France
Rivers of Germany
Rivers of Luxembourg
Grand Est
Bavaria

Bavaria (; , ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (, ; ), is a State (Bundesland) of Germany. The territory of this state is the largest of the 16 German states. The state capital is Munich with 1.3 million people. About 12.5 million people live in Bavaria.  

Like many German states, Bavaria was once independent. Ludwig II of Bavaria was its last independent king. Bavaria joined the German Empire in 1871.

Structure 
Bavaria has seven parts: Oberbayern (Upper Bavaria), Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria), Schwaben (Swabia), Mittelfranken (Middle Franconia), Unterfranken (Lower Franconia), Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) and Oberpfalz (Upper Palatinate). Bavaria has 71 districts and 25 free cities.

The highest point is the Zugspitze, which is also the highest mountain in Germany. Munich is the largest city, the second biggest city is Nuremberg (Nürnberg), which is famous for its gingerbread, a kind of Christmas bread that is often shaped like a Christmas tree, a snowman or Santa Claus.

Pope Benedict XVI was born in Bavaria.

Administrative divisions

Administrative regions

Bavaria is divided into seven administrative regions called  (singular ). For every Administrative regions exist a state agency called  (district government).
Altbayern:
 Upper Palatinate
 Upper Bavaria
 Lower Bavaria
Franconia:
 Upper Franconia
 Middle Franconia
 Lower Franconia
Swabia:
 Swabia

Districts (Bezirke)
Bavaria has "Bezirke" or districts; the others are the  and the  or . The  in Bavaria are identical with the . In the other larger states of Germany, there are only  as administrative divisions and no self-governing entities at the level of the  as the  in Bavaria.

Population and area

Districts
Bavaria is made up of 71 rural districts that are comparable to counties, as well as the 25 independent cities, both of which share the same administrative responsibilities and duties.

Rural districts:

Independent cities:

Municipalities
The 71 rural districts are on the lowest level divided into 2,031 regular municipalities. Together with the 25 independent cities, there are a total of 2,056 municipalities in Bavaria.

 

In 44 of the 71 rural districts, there are a total of 215 unincorporated areas (as of 1 January 2005), not belonging to any municipality, all unsettled and unpopulated, mostly forested areas, but also four lakes (-without islands, -without island , , which are the three largest lakes of Bavaria, and ).

Major cities and towns

Source: Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung

Notes

References

Sources

Other websites

 Official government website
 Official website of Bayern Tourismus Marketing GmbH
 Bavarian Studies in History and Culture
 Außenwirtschaftsportal Bayern
 Statistics
 

 
States of Germany