cahya/wikipedia-simple-en huggingface dataset:
Asikkala

Asikkala is a municipality of Finland. It is in the province of Southern Finland and the region of Päijänne Tavastia. The downtown of Asikkala is called Vääksy. It has a canal, Vääksyn kanava. Asikkala has an area of 756.2 km². 192.29 km² of it is water.

Asikkala is on the coast of the lake Päijänne. As of 31 May 2013, 8,444 people live in the municipality.

Other websites 

 The official Asikkala page  

Municipalities of Päijänne Tavastia
Lordi

Lordi is a Finnish heavy metal band, which is famous for their monster costumes and songs like "Would You Love a Monsterman?", "Hard Rock Hallelujah", "Devil Is a Loser", "Blood Red Sandman", "This Is Heavy Metal" and "Sincerely with Love".

Lordi was started in 1992 by Mr. Lordi. Its original members were Mr. Lordi (vocals), Kita (percussion), Amen (guitar), G-stealer (bass) and Enary (keyboards). The first single was "Would You Love a Monsterman?" in 2002. It was also included in the band's album Get Heavy. Their music and style has been compared to the American groups Kiss and Twisted Sister.

Members

Current members 
 Mr. Lordi (Tomi Putaansuu) - vocals (1992-)
 Amen (Jussi Sydänmaa) - guitar (1996-)
 Hiisi - bass guitar (2019-)
 Mana - drums (2012-)
 Hella - keyboards (2012-)

Former members 
 G-Stealer (Sami Keinänen) - bass (1996-1999)
 Magnum (Sami Wolking) - bass, backing vocals (1999-2002)
 Kalma (Niko Hurme) - bass, backing vocals (2002-2005)
 Enary (Erna Siikavirta) - keyboards, backing vocals (1996-2005)
 Kita (Sampsa Astala) - drums (2000-2010)
 Otus (Tonmi Lillman) - drums (2010-2012)
 Awa (Leena Peisa) - keyboards (2005-2012)
 OX (Samer el Nahhal) - bass guitar (2005-2018)

Discography

Albums 
 Napalm Market (demo album, 1993)
 Bend Over and Pray the Lord (1997)
 Get Heavy (2002)
 The Monsterican Dream (2004)
 The Monster Show (collection, 2005)
 The Arockalypse (2006)
 Deadache (2008)
 Zombilation – The Greatest Cuts (collection, 2009)
 Babez for Breakfast (2010)
 Scarchives Vol. 1 (collection, 2012)
 To Beast or Not To Beast (2013)
 Scare Force One (2014)
 Monstereophonic (Theaterror Vs. Demonarchy) (2016) 
 Sexorcism (2018)
 Killection (2020)
 Lordiversity (2021)

Singles and EPs 
 Would You Love a Monsterman? (2002)
 Devil is a Loser (2003)
 Blood Red Sandman (2004)
 My Heaven Is Your Hell (2004)
 Hard Rock Hallelujah (2006)
 Who's Your Daddy? (2006)
 Would You Love A Monsterman? (2006) (2006) (PROMO)
 It Snows In Hell (2006)
 They Only Come Out At Night (2007)
 Beast Loose In Paradise (2008)
 Bite It Like A Bulldog (2008)
 Famous Five (EP, 2008)
 Deadache (2008)
 This Is Heavy Metal (2010)
 Rock Police (2010)
 The Riff (2013)
 Nailed by the Hammer of Frankenstein (2014)
 Hug You Hardcore (2016)
 Your Tongue’s Got the Cat (2018)
 Naked in My Cellar (2018)
 Shake the Baby Silent (2019)
 I Dug a Hole in the Yard for You (2019)
 Like A Bee To The Honey (2020)
 Believe Me (2021)
 Abracadaver (2021)
 Borderline (2021)

Movies 

 The Kin (2004)
 Dark Floors (2008)

Comics 

 Monster Magazine (2002)
 The Uninvited Guests (2003)
 Keräilijä (2006)
 Alkuperä (2006)
 Verenjano (2007)
 Verensininen (2008)
 Graphic Novels (2013)
 Illustrated Lyrics (2014)

Other websites 

 The official Lordi page
 International fan club

Finnish musical groups
Finnish heavy metal bands
Hard rock bands
Eurovision Song Contest winners
CD-R

A CD-R (also called Compact Disc Recordable) is a compact disc that can be recorded once. When people record a compact disc, they put either music or data on it.

A compact disc that can be recorded multiple times (and erased) is the CD-RW.

When you put data onto a CD, it is called burning a disc. A laser "burns" pits into a dye layer on the disc, making them transparent. These transparent pits can later be read back by the CD drive or audio CD player as data or music.

The first CD-Rs from the early 1990s held 63 minutes of audio. In the mid-1990s, 74-minute discs became common. Most CD-Rs made from 2000 onward hold 80 minutes, or 700 MB of data. 90 and 99-minute CD-Rs are available, although they are non-standard and many players and recorders do not support them.

There are three types of dye used in CD-R discs. The most common is phthalocyanine, and it is usually light green. CMC Pro (formerly Taiyo Yuden) uses cyanine dye. It is usually teal or dark green. Verbatim uses phthalocyanine dye on some discs, and AZO dye on others. AZO dye is usually dark blue or blue-ish silver. The metal layer on the disc is usually made of silver. Archival discs and some professional audio discs use a gold top layer. Verbatim UltraLife discs have a silver main layer, and a gold upper protective layer, providing the reflectivity of silver and the chemical stability of gold. Early cyanine discs could decay and become unplayable within a few years. Recent cyanine discs have preservatives added to the dye to prevent this from happening. AZO and phthalocyanine dyes do not need preservatives and do not decay easily.

References

Compact Disc
The Truman Show

The Truman Show is a 1998 American comedy-drama movie. It is directed by Peter Weir and was written by Andrew Niccol. The main star of the movie is Jim Carrey.

Plot 
The movie is about a young man called Truman Burbank who lives in a fictional town called Seahaven. The whole town fits into a dome shape and Truman can be seen all over the world on television. He has been on the reality show since he was born. He was the one out of six unwanted babies to be in the show. He does not realise until later that the town he is living in is made-up. Christof is the creator of the show and some would call him a villain, because of the human rights abuse of Truman. He is in charge of making everything go right and cannot afford to lose Truman.

Related pages
The Truman Show delusion

Other websites

1998 comedy-drama movies
1990s satirical movies
American comedy-drama movies
American satirical movies
English-language movies
Movies directed by Peter Weir
Dystopian movies
Kesälahti

Kesälahti is a former municipality in Finland. It is part of the North Karelia region. There are almost 2,700 people living in Kesalahti.

History 
Kesalahti is the southernmost municipality of North Karelia. It was officially founded in 1873. The area of the municipality is 582.67 km². 195.42 km² of it is water.

Kesälahti is advertised as a popular summer destination for families enjoying camping. The Puruvesi lake shores host three active camping grounds with cabins,¨and tent and trailer lots to let. The name of the municipality can be translated as 'summer bay'.

The current mayor is Jorma Turunen.

It was merged with Kitee on 1 January 2013.

Villages 
Hummovaara, Kesälahti (centre), Marjoniemi, Purujärvi, Salokylä, Sarvisalo, Suitsansaari, Totkunniemi, Varmonniemi, Villala

Other websites 
 The official Kesalahti page  
 Advocate of Kesälahti and North Karelian culture 

Former municipalities of Finland
1873 establishments in Europe
1870s establishments in Finland
Sonata Arctica

Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band founded in 1996 in Kemi.

The band's original name was Tricky Beans. After releasing three demo recordings it was changed into Tricky Means. Afterwards the band adopted its current name.

Before they became as famous and popular as they are, they got attention from metal fans for touring and playing with the band Nightwish.

Sonata Arctica's first music album was Ecliptica. It was released on November 1999 in Finland and elsewhere in 2000. 30,000 copies were sold in Japan. The newest studio recording is
Stone grow her name (2012).

Line-up

Original members 
 Tony Kakko - vocals, keyboards
 Janne Kivilahti - bass
 Jani Liimatainen - guitar
 Tommy Portimo - percussion

Current members 
 Tony Kakko - vocals
 Henrik Klingenberg - keyboards
 Jani Liimatainen - guitar
 Marko Paasikoski - bass
 Tommy Portimo - percussion

Discography

Studio albums 
 Ecliptica (1999)
 Silence (2001)
 Winterheart's Guild (2003)
 Reckoning Night (2004)
 Unia (2007)
 The Days of Grays (2009)
 Stone grow her name (2012)
 Pariah's child (2014)
 The Ninth Hour (2016)
 Talviyö (2019)

Compilations 
 The End of This Chapter (2005 in Japan, 2006 in Europe)
 The Collection  (2006)

Live albums 
 Songs of Silence - Live in Tokyo (2002)
 For the Sake of Revenge (2006)
 Live in Finland (2011)

Mini Albums 
 Successor (2000)
 Orientation (2001)
 Takatalvi (2003)
 Don't Say a Word (2004)

Singles 
 Unopened (1999)
 Wolf and Raven (2001)
 Last Drop Falls (2001)
 Victoria's Secret (2003)
 Broken (2003)
 Don't Say a Word (2004)
 Shamandalie (2004)
 Replica 2006 (2006)
 Paid in Full (2007)
 The Last Amazing Grays (2009)
 Flag in the Ground (2009, promo)
 I Have a Right (2012)
 Shitload of Money (2012)
 Alone in Heaven (2013)
 The Wolves Die Young (2014)
 Cloud Factory (2014)
 Love (2014)
 Kingdom for a Heart (2014)
 Christmas Spirit (2015)
 Closer to an Animal (2016)
 Life (2016)
 A Little Less Understanding (2019)
 Cold (2019)

Demo recordings 
 Agree Pamppers (1996)
 Friend till the End (1996)
 PeaceMaker (1997)
 Fullmoon (1999)

Other releases 
 Wolf & Raven (Music Video, 2001)
 Broken Live (Music Video, 2003)
 Don't Say a Word (Music Video, 2004)
 For the Sake of Revenge (DVD, 2006)
 Paid in Full (Music Video, 2007)

Other websites 
 The official Sonata Arctica page

Finnish musical groups
Power metal bands
John Dalton

John Dalton (6 September 1766–27 July 1844) was a British chemist and physicist.  He was born in Cumberland to a Quaker family.  He is best known for his discoveries in atomic theory.  He also made the first important studies of color blindness.

Dalton's atomic theory 
Dalton's Atomic theory is a scientific theory about atoms. Dalton made the theory to explain why the elements would combine in certain ways The idea of atoms was already known at the time, but not widely accepted.  Dalton's theory of atoms was based on actual observation. Before this, ideas about atoms were based more on philosophy. 

His theory stated that:
Everything is made from atoms
Nothing can be simpler than an atom
Atoms can not be made or destroyed
Chemical reactions are made when atoms are moved around, put with other atoms or taken away from a group of other atoms
Atoms of the same element are the same, because they have the same atomic mass.
Atoms can only be joined in special ratios (see Law of definite composition)

Further readings 
 Claus Bernet: John Dalton (1766-1844), in: Biographisches-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, 31, 2010, 309-332.

References

Other websites 
 John Dalton -Citizendium 

1766 births
1844 deaths
English chemists
English physicists
British nuclear physicists
Nummi-Pusula

Nummi-Pusula is a former municipality in Finland. It was formed in 1981 from the existing municipalities of Nummi and Pusula. The municipality is in Uusimaa and in the province of Southern Finland. On 1 January 2013, it became a part of Lohja.

Nummi-Pusula has an area of .  of it is water. About 6,175 people lived there as of 31 December 2012.

Other websites 
 The official Nummi-Pusula page , in Finnish, English, German and Estonian

Former municipalities of Finland
1981 establishments in Europe
20th-century establishments in Finland
Medicine man

A medicine man is a traditional Native American healer. Healing was only part of their function. Another part of their role was as guardian of their belief system, and their rituals. 

A very similar role was played in many other mesolithic and neolithic societies, such as pre-modern Africa and New Guinea. This person, man or woman, might help cure physical, mental, or spiritual health problems. A term such as shaman or witch doctor reflects the supernatural element in such roles.

References 

Native American
Religious people
Health care
Basement

The basement is the lowest room in some buildings, almost always below the ground. There is another type of basement, called a subcellar. A subcellar is just like a basement, but more below it.

Most basements have lights.

History 
The first famous basements were made sometime in the 1950s. After that, many other kinds of basements were built and made. Later, most basements were used to have washing machines and other items in basements.

Soon, basements were used to contain or save water.

References

Construction
Human reproductive system

For a wider discussion see sexual reproduction. See also male reproductive system.

A reproductive system is the part of an organism that makes them able to sexually reproduce. Humans and other animals use their reproductive systems to have sexual intercourse as well as reproduce. The reproductive system is one of the human organ systems. 

The illustrations here show only human reproductive systems. Other mammals have similar reproductive systems.
Pacific Islands

Pacific Islands are islands that are in the Pacific Ocean. There are about 20,000 or 30,000 of them. These islands are sometimes called Oceania. The Pacific Islands are in three groups. These groups are Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. People who live on these islands are called Pacific Islanders. These islands can be made by volcanoes or made on coral reefs. The islands made by volcanoes are bigger, and more people can live on them. The islands made on coral reefs are smaller, and fewer people can live on them. One of Oceania's biggest economic advantages are tourism. As many vacationers come to see the wildlife and the beautiful beaches that span the islands. Major countries and territories include Samoa, Hawaii (U.S), Federal States of Micronesia and French Polynesia. 

Island countries in the Pacific Ocean, such as Malaysia, Philippines, East Timor, Japan, Taiwan and most of Indonesia are not considered Pacific Islands since they do not lie in any of the three Oceanic regions. People inhabiting those islands, therefore are not Pacific Islanders.
Large intestine

The large intestine is also called the colon or large bowel. It connects the small intestine to the rectum and anus. It is about 1.5 meters long or 5 feet. It is shorter than the small intestine, but its diameter is larger.

Water is absorbed here and the remaining waste material is stored as faeces before being removed by defecation.

References

Anatomy of the digestive system
Tuupovaara

Tuupovaara was a municipality in the North Karelia region of Finland. It was merged with Joensuu on January 1 2005. Before 1913 the place was known as Kovero.

In 2004 there were 2,217 people living in Tuupovaara.

Villages 
Eimisjärvi, Hartiovaara, Heinäaho, Herajärvi, Hoilola, Kinnasniemi, Kokinvaara, Konnunniemi, Kortevaara, Kovero, Luutalahti, Mannervaara, Pirttijärvi, Revonsonkaja, Saarivaara, Sonkajanranta, Tuupovaara, Öllölä

Municipalities of Finland
Urine

Urine is a liquid created by the body in the kidneys. It is stored in the bladder and comes out of the human body through the urethra, a tube which leads from the bladder to the urethral meatus (meatus is an opening in the body), at the tip of the penis (men) or the vulva (women). Urinating is how the body gets rid of unwanted or unneeded substances in the blood. Urine is the liquid that these substances are put in. After the blood has circulated through the body, its composition has changed, because some substances in the blood have been absorbed by the body, and because the body has released other substances into the blood. The blood has also absorbed substances produced from our food. The liver removes many toxins (harmful substances) and adds other substances that the blood needs (amino acids, proteins, coagulation factors, hormones, etc.). Then the kidneys remove excess amounts of urea, salts, etc. by putting them into the urine. After the blood has passed through the liver and the kidneys, it has the correct composition that the body needs.

Urine is mostly water, and contains mineral salts, and about 2% urea, which is produced in the liver to remove ammonia, which is a very toxic substance. Urea has a very low toxicity, although a continuous high level of urea in the blood (a condition called hyperuremia) can cause disease.

The color of urine normally ranges from colourless to yellow. The yellow color is caused by urobilins, which are produced by the breakdown of hemoglobin, the substance that gives blood its red color. If a person is dehydrated, less urine will be produced (maybe less than one liter per day), and it will be more concentrated. If a person drinks a lot of water, more urine will be produced (maybe as much as two liters per day) and it will be less concentrated.

Urine lets the body get rid of:

 Extra water
 Extra electrolytes (salts)
 Urea (mostly not needed by the body)
 Drugs
 Toxins (poisons in the body)( Note that most toxins are removed in the bile of the liver, which transfers the toxins to the feces. Many descriptions of urine say that some toxins are removed in urine, but do not say what toxins these are).
Some slang terms for urine are "pee" and "piss".

Urinary system
Rudolf Vrba

Rudolf "Rudi" Vrba (September 11, 1924 – March 27, 2006), was a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia in Canada. His birth name was Walter Rosenberg. In April 1944, he escaped from the Auschwitz concentration camp. After escaping, he passed information to the Allies who were fighting the Axis Powers during the Second World War. He informed the authorities about the mass murder that was taking place at the camp.

1924 births
2006 deaths
Canadian academics
Canadian Jews
Canadian scientists
Czechoslovak people
Holocaust survivors
Jewish academics
Jewish British scientists
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
Pharmacologists
Slovakian Jews
Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Friedrich Dürrenmatt (January 5, 1921 in Konolfingen, canton of Bern; † December 14, 1990 in Neuchâtel) was a writer and philosopher from Switzerland.

Personal life 
Dürrenmatt was the son of a protestant pastor. He was always interested in drawing. He went to school until 1941, afterwards he studied philosophy, sciences (deep point physics) and German literature at the University of Bern. He dropped studies in 1946, when he published his first written work.

One year later he married the Swiss actress Lotti Geissler (1919–1983). They had three children. The financial situation of the family got better, when Dürrenmatt began to write radio dramas and crime fiction.

In 1984 he married the german actress and television director Charlotte Kerr (1927–2011).

His world-wide success is based on two plays: The Visit and The Physicists.

Selected Works 
Romulus the Great (Romulus der Große, 1950, play)
The Judge and His Hangman (Der Richter und sein Henker, 1950, novella)
Suspicion (Der Verdacht, 1951, also known as The Quarry, novella)
The Tunnel (Der Tunnel, 1952, short story)
The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi (Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi, 1952, play)
Theatre Problems (Theaterprobleme, 1954, essay)
Once a Greek (Grieche sucht Griechin, 1955, novel)
The Visit (Der Besuch der alten Dame, 1956, play)
A Dangerous Game (Die Panne, 1956, novel / novella, also known as Traps)
The Pledge (Das Versprechen, 1958, novella)
The Physicists (Die Physiker, 1962, play)
King John (König Johann, 1968, play)
Play Strindberg (1969, play)
Monster Lecture on Justice and Law (Monstervortrag, 1969, lecture)
The Coup (Der Sturz, 1971, short story)
Achterloo (1982, play)
The Execution of Justice (Justiz, 1985, novel)
The Assignment (Der Auftrag, 1986, novella)
Switzerland, A Prison: A Speech for Václav Havel (Die Schweiz — ein Gefängnis, 1990, speech)

Secondary Literature 
Goertz, Heinrich: Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Reinbek 1987, .
Rüedi, Peter: Dürrenmatt oder Die Ahnung vom Ganzen, Zürich 2011, .

Other websites 
Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel
National Library Switzerland

1921 births
1990 deaths
Swiss writers
20th-century philosophers
Kampala

Kampala is the capital of Uganda. More than 1,800,000 people live there. The city is on the shore of Lake Victoria.

The Ugandan National Theatre is in Kampala. There is also a university in the city.
The home team; Kampala City Council (KCC) Footbal Club is a leading Africa FIFA Club team player.

References

Capital cities in Africa
Settlements in Uganda
1890 establishments
Common wombat

The common wombat, Vombatus ursinus, is one of three wombat species living in Australia. It is found the mountains and hills of southeast Australia, Tasmania, and Flinders Island in Bass Strait. They look like a small bear, which is what the name ursinus means. It is a marsupial, a type of mammal that carried its young in a pouch. It is the largest burrowing plant-eating mammal in the world. Its closest living relative is the koala.

Description
They are a short and muscular animal that walks on four strong legs. The feet and claws are designed to help the wombat dig tunnels in rocky ground. They are between 70–120 cm in length and weigh between 15–35 kg. It is covered in a very rough and coarse fur which can be anywhere from black to silver grey, from dark brown to sandy brown. Wombats have very tough skin on their rump.

Breeding
Wombats live alone but meet up to breed in April to June on mainland Australia. In Tasmania the breeding can occur at any time of the year. The young wombats are tiny, about two cm long, when they are born after a gestation of only 21 days, and move into the mother's pouch. Wombats normally only have one baby although the pouch has two nipples. Unlike a kangaroo, the pouch opens backwards, which would prevent it from filling with dirt as it crawls into its burrow. The young wombat lives in the pouch for about six months, and finally becomes independent of the mother at about 18 months of age. Wombats live for about five years, although some in captivity have lived for 26 years.

Diet

Wombats live in burrows that they dig with their sharp claws. They are nocturnal animals, and come out their burrows in the evening to look for food. It is a herbivore, so it only eats grass, tree and shrub roots, bark, leaves, and fungi. Wombat faeces are cube shaped. The wombat will use them to mark things in its territory, so it is common to find the cubes on top of leaves, rocks, and branches. Because of their shape they do not roll off.

Burrows
The burrows can be as small as two metres or as long as 30 metres. They dig with their front feet, kick the soil backwards with their back feet, and then use their rump like a bulldozer to push the dirt out of the burrow. Only one wombat lives in each burrow, but wombats may have up to four burrows in the area they live.

Living with wombats
Farmers see the Common Wombat as a pest. It often destroys fences by burrowing, and the burrow openings are a danger to grazing animals. It is still common in Australia, but the areas it lives in are being reduced because of land clearing for farms.

The common wombat has no natural predators. It is not scared of people and is often seen in camping areas. They can make good pets.

References

Marsupials of Australia
Bonobo

The bonobo (Pan paniscus) is a great ape and the smaller of the two species making up the genus Pan (the other is Pan troglodytes, the common chimpanzee). The bonobo is sometimes called the dwarf or pygmy chimpanzee. Although the name "chimpanzee" is sometimes used to refer to both species together, it is usually understood to mean the common chimpanzee, while Pan paniscus is usually referred to as the bonobo.

The bonobo lives in rain forest, in a  area south of the Congo River. This is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa.

The bonobo has high levels of sexual behavior. Sex functions in conflict appeasement, affection, social status, excitement, and stress reduction. It occurs in virtually all partner combinations and in a variety of positions. This may explain the lower levels of aggression in the bonobo as compared to the common chimpanzee and other apes. Bonobos are matriarchal and a male's rank in the social hierarchy is often determined by his mother's rank.

The two chimpanzee species are separated by the huge Congo River. Its formation 1.5–2 million years ago may have led to the speciation of the bonobo. Their population is between 29,000 and 50,000 individuals. The species is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. It is threatened by habitat destruction, human population growth and commercial poaching. The bonobo lives for about 40 years in captivity, though its lifespan in the wild is unknown.

References

Hominins
Genoa

Genoa (, Ligurian: Zena, Zêna) is a city and capital of the Liguria region in Italy. The population of Genoa in 2006 was 620,316. It is the most important seaport in Italy. Before Italy was united into one country in the 1800s, Genoa was a republic that also included the island of Corsica. Genoa was famous for its merchants, or traders, who traded everywhere from England to Istanbul. Famous Genoese people include, Andrea Doria, Niccolò Paganini, and Christopher Columbus.

Other websites 
 Comune di Genova

 
Regional capitals in Italy
Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is a famous opera house  in London. Sometimes it is called  "Covent Garden" because it is in the area of London called Covent Garden.  The Royal Opera House is the home of the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet.  There is an orchestra which plays there for all the operas and ballets.

The building that is now the Royal Opera House is the third building in that place.  The first theatre to be built there in 1732 was burnt down in 1808.  The second theatre opened in 1809 but was burnt down in 1856.  Today's building was built in 1858, although a lot of it was rebuilt between 1996 and 2000.  The auditorium (the main part where the audience sits) is nearly the same, but all the backstage rooms are new: the dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, office space etc.  There is an extra small theatre called the Linbury Theatre which is used for smaller performances.  Together with the new restaurant areas it has helped to get more young people to come.

The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people.  There are seats downstairs (the stalls), four tiers of boxes, a balcony and a gallery.

The conductor ("Musical Director") of the Royal Opera House Orchestra is Antonio Pappano who is a young British conductor.

Other websites 
 Royal Opera House
Opera houses
Buildings and structures in London
Raidas

Ravidas, also spelt as Raidas, was an Indian saint and poet of 15th century. He belonged to a family of leather workers, he even claimed to be an achhoot or untouchable. Some of his verses found place in Guru Granth Sahib, the main text of Sikhism.

Mirabai, a Rajput lady of a royal family of Rajasthan, was one of the followers of Ravidas. They follow his teachings and consider him their Guru, the teacher. 

Raidas wrote poems in Braj Bhasha. A few of his poems are "ab kaise chutey ram nam", "aasi Lal tujh binu".

Raidas refuted the prevalent Caste System of the time and stated that all people were equally cared upon by god. He also, like many contemporary Bhakti saints, refuted complex Brahminical Rituals and Sacrifices, in favour of true and complete devotion to god by means of song, dance, or japa (simple chanting of god's name).

Related pages 
BR Ambedkar

Buddhism
Indian people
Rishi

Rishi is a word used in many Hindu scriptures. A simple translation of the word into English would mean a sage. Hindu scriptures and Hindu mythology tell about a number of rishis. They describe a rishi as an old person, with a lot of knowledge and wisdom. They also say that some of the rishis had great powers, and sometimes even some gods of Hindus like Indra were afraid of rishis. Some of the rishis were famous for becoming angry very quickly and easily. Their anger sometimes resulted in the rishis cursing people. 

Rishis used to live in deep forests. Many young men from villages and towns also lived with them as their students and disciples. Rishis taught them in schools called Gurukuls. After education, these young men returned to live with their families. However, some of them shall always remain with the rishis as their disciples. Sometimes, even kings and other members of the ruling families would go to them to seek advice and blessings. Sometimes these rishis and their disciples would go to the royal courts and participate in discussions there. 

Seven such rishis were the most famous. Hindu scriptures have named them as saptarishis, that is, the seven sages. The seven sages were Kashyapa, Atri, Vashitha, Vishvamitra, Gautam, Jamdagni, and Bharadvaja. According to Hindu mythology, these seven sages had become like divine beings. Ancient astrology of Hindus identified these seven sages with the stars of the sky, the Great Bear. Their wives formed the Pleiades.

Related pages
 Kashyapa
 Atri
 Vashitha
 Vishvamitra
 Gautam
 Jamdagni
 Bharadvaja

Hindu mythology
Tiruvannamalai

Tiruvannamalai is a place in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus. In Tiruvannamalai, there is a famous and ancient temple of Shiva, a god of Hindus. The temple is one of the five such temples of Shiva in south India. 

In this temple, people worship Shiva in the form of a linga. Many Hindus go to this place all around the year. In the months of November and December, a festival lasting for ten days takes place. During this festival, people light up an entire hill near Tiruvannamala.

Related pages
Linga

Other websites
Tiruvannamalai 

Hinduism
Hindu mythology
Tiruvannamalai district
Genetic disorder

A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by abnormalities in the genome. They are heritable, and may be passed down from the parents' genes to their children and to later generations. If a genetic disorder is present from birth, it is described as a congenital defect. Some defects only show up in later life.  

The mutation responsible can occur spontaneously before the embryo develops, or it can be inherited from parents who are carriers of a faulty gene.

Most genetic disorders are quite rare and affect one person in every several thousands or even millions. Sometimes they are relatively frequent in a population. If they are frequent, it suggests these recessive gene disorders give an advantage in certain environments when only one copy of the gene is present. Sickle cell anaemia is an example of this.

The same disease, such as some forms of cancer, may be caused by an inherited genetic condition in some people, by new mutations in other people, and by nongenetic causes in still other people. A disease is only called a genetic disease if it can be inherited.

Related pages 
Birth defect
List of genetic disorders

References
Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco (January 5, 1932 – February 19, 2016) was an Italian writer and professor of medieval history in Bologna.

Eco was born in 1932 in northern Italy.
As a student, he studied philosophy, history, literature, and educational sciences.
He finished his studies in 1954 with a doctoral thesis about Thomas Aquinas. In 1962, he married.

His career as an author began with The Name of the Rose in 1980, after he already written many academic papers.

Biography 
Eco was born on January 5, 1932 in Alessandria. His family had 13 sons. He studied philosophy and humanities at the University of Turin. He received a Ph.D. there.

Eco worked as a professor in different places. Starting in 1971, he held the chair of semiotics at the University of Bologna. At a university, a "chair" is the highest rank a professor can earn. He was also given honorary degrees by thirty different universities.

He had been named satrap of pataphysics for his humorous works.  One of his most important books is How to Travel with a Salmon.

He was a member of UNESCO's Council of Sages. In 2000, he received the Princess of Asturias Award for Communications and Humanities.

Eco worked in the mass media as well, creating cultural programs. His interests were the Middle Ages, languages, and the classics. He was also an expert on James Bond.

On February 19, 2016, Eco died at his home in Milan, Italy, of pancreatic cancer. He was 84.

More famous works

Novels 
 Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose, 1980) - A historical novel set in the Middle Ages.  This novel made Eco famous after it was turned into a best-selling movie. 
 Il pendolo di Foucault (Foucault's Pendulum, 1988) - Three workers at a publishing house are trapped in their own fiction. 
 L'isola del giorno prima (The Island of the Day Before, 1994) - A nobleman from the 17th century gets trapped on a yacht and wonders about how time is passing.
 Baudolino (2000) - An emperor mistakes a young peasant for his own child.  This is a picaresque novel (a novel whose main character is a dishonest person or a criminal.  This person tells their story in bits and pieces). 
 La Misteriosa Fiamma della Regina Loana (The Mysterious Flame of the Queen Loana, 2004) - A man who loses his memory tries get it back.  This novel is set in the times of Eco's youth.

Other works 
 Opera Aperta
 Minimal Diary  
 Kant and the Ornithorhynchus
 Semiotics and philosophy of the language 
 The firm
 Art and Beauty in the Medieval Aesthetic 
 The Limits of Interpretation
 Six Walks for the Narrative Forests
 Lector in fabula
 Apocalyptics and Integrates
 On Literature
 Searching the Perfect Language
 History of Beauty
 On Ugliness

References

Other websites 

 Foundation Prince of Asturias, Prince of Asturias of Communication and Humanities 2000   

1932 births
2016 deaths
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Italian philosophers
Novelists
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Semioticians
Writers from Piedmont
People from Alessandria
Former Roman Catholics
Balloon

A balloon is a bag that is usually filled with gas. This gas can be helium, hydrogen, or air. 

A long time ago, balloons were made out of animal bladders. Now small balloons are made from a thin and stretchy material like rubber or plastic. Big balloons are made from fabric. 

Balloons are used for many purposes.

Most small balloons are made for parties or hiccup cures. These balloons are sometimes made to look like animals. 

Some balloons are very big. Big balloons are used for people to fly into the sky. Big balloons are called aircraft.  Most balloon aircraft are filled with hot air. They are called hot air balloons.

Balloons can also be filled with water. They are called "water balloons".  Water balloons are a kind of toy.

Related pages

Balloon (aircraft)

Aircraft
Toys
1823
Einsteinium

Einsteinium is a chemical element with the atomic number 99. It is a synthetic element, so all isotopes are radioactive.

Einsteinium is the 7th element in the actinide series. The most stable isotope of Einsteinium has 99 protons and electrons and 153 neutrons. There are 19 different (radioactive) isotopes. 
Einsteinium is named after Albert Einstein. It was found for the first time in 1952 by Albert Ghiorso and his team of scientists in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb explosion, and identified as an element at the University of California, Berkeley.

Einsteinium isotopes have a half-life between 40 and 471 days.

Uses 
Einsteinium has been used to create the element Mendelevium for the first time in 1955, although no practical uses are known. It has been used before as a calibration marker in a chemical analysis spectrometer.

Actinides
Chemical elements
Deism

Deism is the belief that a higher being (like the Christian God) exists, but that the only revelation of God is in nature and reason, not in sacred books or prophets. Deism says that people should rely on logic and reason, and not traditions of a religion that is based on a holy book. People who follow deism are called deists.

Deists believe that a Higher Power created the world. They do not believe that the creation of the universe happened because of a spontaneous event. They usually reject supernatural events like miracles, and believe that God has set up natural laws, which govern how the universe works and how people should act, and does not interfere with these laws. Most deists also see holy books, such as the Bible and Qur'an, as writings made by people, rather than the writings of God.

Famous deists from history include American political leader and inventor Benjamin Franklin, French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte, French philosopher Voltaire, British philosopher Thomas Paine, and French revolutionary leader Maximilien de Robespierre. Many historians think Thomas Jefferson was a deist, though he didn't say so.

References

Other websites 
 English Deism - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
 World Union of Deists

Theology
Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians are a Major League Baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are part of the American League Central Division. Under the team's former name of Cleveland Indians, the Guardians won two World Series championships in 1920 and 1948.  Currently, they hold the longest championship drought in MLB.

The team was founded in 1894 in Grand Rapids, Michigan as the Grand Rapids Rustlers, playing in the late-1890s Western League, which became the American League in 1900. In that same year, the team moved to Cleveland, taking the name of Lake Shores. The next year, the team became the Cleveland Bluebirds, also known as Blues. Players didn't like that name, and failed in a try to change the name to "Broncos" in 1902. In that same year, the team traded for star player Nap Lajoie, who later became player-manager, and it soon became known as the "Naps" in his honor. The team was called the Cleveland Naps until Lajoie left at the end of the 1914 season. 

After Lajoie left, the team looked for a new nickname and settled on "Indians" for the 1915 season, partly in honor of the Boston Braves who had won the 1914 World Series. In more modern times, their nickname was often thought to be a poor choice. It is considered offensive to name a team for a race or ethnic group. However, there was no serious effort to change the name until the 21st century. After growing criticism, the team started to move away from the nickname in 2018, retiring its controversial "Chief Wahoo" logo of a caricatured Native American. In 2020, team owner Paul Dolan announced that the "Indians" name would be retired after the 2021 season. The new nickname of Guardians was announced on July 23, 2021. The name refers to the Guardians of Traffic, statues sculpted into pylons of the Hope Memorial Bridge that crosses the Cuyahoga River near downtown Cleveland. The Cleveland Guardians name took effect on November 19, 2021.

In the 1990s, the then-Indians were in the postseason several times.  They made it to the World Series in 1995 and 1997 but lost to the Atlanta Braves and the Florida Marlins respectively.  They returned to the World Series in 2016, and again they lost, this time to the Chicago Cubs in seven games.  In 2017, they set an American League record of winning 22 straight games.  They won 102 games during the season.  However, they lost to the New York Yankees in the Division Series.

References
Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is a region in the north-east of Italy on the Adriatic Sea. The capital is Trieste. The population is 1,191,588.  FVG has a border with the Italian region of Veneto to the west, Austria to the north and Slovenia on the east.

People in this region speak the Italian, Friulian, Slovene and German languages.

Provinces 
 Trieste (capital)
 Udine
 Gorizia
 Pordenone

Geography 
Friuli  - Venezia Giulia has an area of 7,858 km² and is Italy's most north-eastern region.  It is the 5th smallest region in Italy.  The Alps lie to the north of the region, and the beaches and cliffs of the Adriatic Sea are on the south edges.

Cuisine 
Friulani, Giuliani, Austrian, Slovene and Hungarian influences over the centuries have created a wide range of food and drink typical of the region.  Some examples include:
 Jota (Istrian stew)
 Radicchio
 Goulash
 Gnocchi alla spinache

Other websites 
 Official Site (IT)
Günter Grass

Günter Wilhelm Grass (16 October 1927 in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) – 13 April 2015 in Lübeck) was a German writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was known for writing the controversial, but yet classic novel The Tin Drum.

Life 
Grass was born in Danzig in 1927 and went to school there. In the World War II he had to serve in the military, afterwards he was a prisoner of war of the U.S. army. In 1945 and 1946 he worked as a stonemason. During the rise of Nazi Germany, Grass drafted into the Waffen-SS, the elite armed wing of the Nazi Party. He revealed this in 2006. He said if he had joined the armed wing when he was older, he would have faced war crimes.

From 1946 he studied arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and the Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste) in West Berlin. He was a member of the German group of writers known as group 47.

He has lived in North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein. He lived in Lübeck. In 1959 he published The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel), his most famous work. Grass was always interested in politics and helped in the election campaigns of the SPD. He was a friend of Willy Brandt. Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1999.

Grass died from a lung infection at his home in Lübeck, aged 87.

Bibliography 
 Danziger Trilogie
 Die Blechtrommel (Tin Drum) (1959)
 Katz und Maus (Cat and Mouse)(1961)
 Hundejahre (Dog Years)(1963)
 Örtlich betäubt (Local Anaesthetic) (1969)
 Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke (From the Diary of a Snail) (1972)
 Der Butt (1979)
 Das Treffen in Telgte (1979)
 Kopfgeburten oder Die Deutschen sterben aus (1980)
 Die Rättin (1986)
 Zunge zeigen. Ein Tagebuch in Zeichnungen (1988)
 Unkenrufe (1992)
 Ein weites Feld (1995)
 Mein Jahrhundert (1999)
 Im Krebsgang (2002)
 Letzte Tänze (2003)

English Translations 
 The Danzig Trilogy
 The Tin Drum (1959)
 Cat and Mouse (1963)
 Dog Years (1965)
 Four Plays (1967)
 Speak out! Speeches, Open Letters, Commentaries (1969)
 Local Anaesthetic (1970)
 From the Diary of a Snail (1973)
 In the Egg and Other Poems (1977)
 The Meeting at Telgte (1981)
 The Flounder (1978)
 Headbirths, or, the Germans are Dying Out (1982)
 The Rat (1987)
 Show Your Tongue (1987)
 Two States One Nation? (1990)
 The Call of the Toad (1992)
 The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising (1996)
 My Century (1999)
 Too Far Afield (2000)
 Crabwalk (2002)

References

Other websites 
 Nobel prize biographical notes  (in English, also available in French, German, and Swedish)
 Nobel Laureate Flays Bush, June 1, 2006 

1927 births
2015 deaths
Deaths from respiratory tract infection
German essayists
German Nobel Prize winners
German novelists
German writers
People from former German territories
People from Gdańsk
Playwrights
Waffen-SS people
Occitan language

Occitan (; ), known also as lenga d'òc by its native speakers (), is a Romance language spoken in the south of France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, the Val d'Aran of Catalonia and Monaco. The regions together are sometimes known unofficially as Occitania.

Occitan took a different path from Latin to the main official languages. It is sometimes called lenga d'òc ("language of oc", French: langue d'oc) because its word for yes is òc, as opposed to oil (oui) or sì in other languages. That is one way to classify Romance languages.

Occitan is an official language of Catalonia. Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran.

Dialects 

 Alpine (also named Vivaro-Alpine or Provençal Alpine)
 Auvergnat
 Gascon (including Aranese spoken in Val d'Aran, Catalonia, Spain)
 Languedocien
 Limousin
 Provençal

Some of the names (Provençal, Limousin, Gascon) were once used to name the whole language.

Sources

Other websites 

 Dictionary (written in Occitan)
 Ethnologue report page for language with code OCI (Occitan)
 English-Occitan lexicon
 Orbilat.com , Overview and grammar of Occitan
 Occitanet.free.fr, a guide to the language
  Ostaldoccitania.net The house of occitan associations of Toulouse
  Eonet.ne , "LexRomEdic", Electronic version of Lexique Roman of Rainouard (A provisional version is available).

Romance languages
Languages of Europe
Bass (singer)

A singer who is a bass is a man with a low singing voice.  Some basses may be able to sing down to C two octaves below middle C.  Even low A is sometimes needed in Russian church music.

In opera, basses often have the part of the villain, or the king, or a priest. A buffo-bass is a character role in which the bass singer needs a wide range for the comedy of the part.  The part of Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni needs a buffo bass.  The lowest kind of bass is called a basso-profondo.  An example is the priest Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute.

Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) was a famous Russian bass.
Southern gospel singer J.D. Sumner held the world record for lowest bass singer for a number of years, from 1988 until he was beaten by Tim Storms in 2016
A baritone is a voice between tenor and bass in range, but some low baritones describe themselves as bass-baritones. Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen is a bass-baritone part. Bryn Terfel is a famous Welsh bass-baritone.
Johnny Cash is well-known for his bass-baritone voice 

Vocal ranges
Plankton

Plankton are drifting organisms that live in the surface layers of the ocean. They live in the top layer of the ocean, called the epipelagic zone. They are not strong enough to swim against ocean currents. The term is in contrast to nekton, who can control their movements. There are three groups:
 Phytoplankton: which live at the surface of the ocean and photosynthesise (use light to make sugars and other molecules). 
 Eukaryote algae: diatoms, coccolithophores, some dinoflagellates.
 Bacteria: cyanobacteria.
 Zooplankton: small protozoans or metazoans: Ctenophores; jellyfish; rotifers; foraminifera; tiny crustacea and other animals. Some eggs and larvae of larger animals such as fish, crustaceans, and annelids. Apart from the eggs, they all feed on other plankton. 
 Some groups fall into both categories. Dinoflagellates can be either photosynthetic producers or heterotroph consumers; many species are mixotrophic depending upon their circumstances. It is also hard to fit viruses into this scheme; yet they are present in great numbers.

Plankton are important in the ocean's food chain. They are the main source of food for almost all fish larvae as they switch from their yolk sacs to catching prey. Basking sharks and blue whales feed on them directly; other large fish feed on them indirectly, by eating fish of smaller size, such as herrings.

The distribution of plankton is governed more by nutrients than by temperature. Large tracts of ocean are blue and sterile. The reason is that these areas lack one or more crucial nutrients for the photosynthetic plankton, upon whom all the others depend. Broadly speaking, areas near land masses get nutrients by rivers and wind. The key nutrient lacking in the Pacific ocean is iron, essential in molecules such as ferredoxins, iron-sulfur proteins which do electron transfer in a range of metabolic reactions.

References 

Biological oceanography
Ecology
Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a round sea, called a gulf. Land in North America is around much of it. The United States of America, Mexico, and Cuba are the countries around it. The Straits of Florida connect to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Yucatán Channel connects to the Caribbean Sea.   

Petroleum is found near the north and west coast of this gulf. Many hurricanes hit this area, for example, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita hurt many of the oil wells in 2005 in the United States. There is also a big fishing industry in the gulf.

Mexico
Atlantic Ocean
Bodies of water of the United States
Geography of Cuba
Geography of Mexico
Zaire

Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire () was the name of a country that is now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It used this name from 27 November 1971 to 17 May 1997. The name "Zaire" comes from a Portuguese corruption of the Kongo word nzare, meaning "river".

References 

1971 establishments in Africa
1997 disestablishments
1990s disestablishments in Africa
Former countries in Africa
History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
States and territories established in the 20th century
States and territories disestablished in the 20th century

ja:コンゴ民主共和国#ザイール共和国（モブツ政権）時代