cahya/wikipedia-simple-en huggingface dataset:
Swedish language

Swedish () is a language mostly spoken in Sweden and in parts of Finland, typically along the southern and western coasts and on the Åland islands. More than nine million people speak Swedish. It is similar to two of the other Scandinavian languages, Norwegian and Danish, and a person who understands one of these languages can understand the others. Other Scandinavian languages, such as Icelandic and Faroese, are less closely related and cannot be understood by Swedish speakers. Standard Swedish is spoken and written throughout Sweden, but there are some local dialects with differences in grammar and vocabulary in small towns and rural areas.  

Swedish began as a dialect of Old Norse, which was a language that everyone in Scandinavia understood during the Viking Age. Around the 12th century Swedish began to slowly become different from the other dialects.  These dialects later became what we today call Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese and Danish. Swedish is a Germanic language with some similarities to English because of the Vikings that invaded England in the 10th Century. It is even more similar to German and Dutch, partly because of the Hanseatic League of the Middle Ages, when Sweden traded very openly with Germany.

There are three characters in the Swedish language that are not used in English. These are å, ä and ö.  The letter å is a vowel sound between [a] and [o], similar to the English word awe.  The letter ä is a vowel sound similar to [ɛ], like in the English word bed.  The letter ö is a vowel sound between [o] and [ɛ], pronounced [øː] like the u in the English word burn.  These characters are also used in the Finnish language, while Norwegian and Danish languages replace ä and ö with similar characters æ and ø.   

Swedish also has some important differences in grammar. Definite articles are suffixed onto the end of their nouns, so ett hus (a house) becomes huset (the house). Also unlike English, Swedish uses two grammatical genders called Common and Neuter. Nouns of the Common gender are sometimes called "en words", and many words for living (or once-living) things are "en words". Nouns of the Neuter gender are sometimes called "ett words".

Example of some words in Swedish

Basic Swedish Expressions

References

Other websites 

Swedish Dictionary  from Webster's Dictionary 
An introduction to Swedish 
Lexin Swedish-English dictionary

Germanic languages
Languages of Europe
Swedish culture
Walter Mikac

Walter Mikac is an Australian writer and motivational speaker. 

Walter Mikac's wife and two small children were killed at the Port Arthur massacre. He has written two books, one called To Have And To Hold and the other is called Circle of Life: Sustenance for the Soul. It is about handling grief and tragedy. He helped create the Alannah and Madeline Foundation to help children who are the victims of violent crime

Other websites 
 The Alannah and Madeline Foundation 
 Walter Mikac - Saxton Speaker Bureau 
 The Port Arthur Massacre - Crime Library 

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Australian writers
Rugby League

Rugby League is a ball sport. Two teams of thirteen players play against each other. The ball used is oval in shape. The field is a rectangle shape. It is 100 metres long and 70 metres wide. It is played for 80 minutes (40 minutes each half). 

A try is scored when a player scores or touches the ball down in the in-goal area (the try line included). A try is worth 4 points and if its converted (the goal kicker kicks the ball in between the top of the goal post), the team gets an extra 2 points. Another method of scoring points is through drop goals which are worth 1 point, or penalty goals which are worth 2 points.

Rugby League is played in over 30 countries in the world. The countries that play it the most are Australia, England, Ireland and New Zealand. The Rugby League World Cup has been played by Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, France, Wales, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Scotland, United States, Italy, Cook Islands, Lebanon, Russia and South Africa. The current world champions are Australia, who won the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. The 2021 Rugby League World Cup will be held in England.

Other websites

Rugby
Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor. He has been in many movies.

Early life 
Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the younger son of Lillian, a jazz pianist, and Harry Hoffman, who worked as a prop supervisor/set decorator at Columbia Pictures before becoming a furniture salesman. His brother, Ronald, is a lawyer and economist. Hoffman's family was Jewish, although he was not brought up religious. His family was also from Yviv in what is now Ukraine. He graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955.

Dustin Hoffman's movies 
Hoffman starred in The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Stranger than Fiction, Meet the Fockers and Rain Man.

Personal life 
In 2013, Hoffman had successful treatment for cancer.

References

Other websites 
 

Academy Award winning actors
Actors from Los Angeles
American movie actors
American television actors
Cancer survivors
Jewish American actors
Kennedy Center honorees
Movie producers from California
1937 births
Living people
Ukrainian Americans
Chopper Read

Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read (November 17, 1954 – October 9, 2013) was an Australian mobster who was born in Melbourne, Victoria. During his criminal career in the Melbourne mafia scene, he was convicted of many crimes, including armed robbery, assault, attempted murder, arson, impersonating a police officer and kidnapping. Read retired from a life of crime and wrote a series of fiction books based on his life as a criminal.
  
Read started his criminal career as a child; robbing drug dealers as a teenager. During this time he was the leader of a gang. While in prison as an adult, Read made another prisoner cut off his ears so he could leave prison where a gang wanted to have him killed. Read claims that he killed 19 people during his time as a criminal. His first book was written in 1991 while he was in prison. In 2000, a movie called Chopper was made about Read's life and based on his books, it stars Eric Bana as Read.

Read has stated that he had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, hepatitis C, cirrhosis and liver cancer. He died of liver cancer in Melbourne.

References 

1954 births
2013 deaths
Arsonists
Australian criminals
Autobiographers
Cancer deaths in Victoria (Australia)
Deaths from liver cancer
Kidnappers
Mafia
People convicted of assault
People convicted of attempted murder

Robbers
Writers from Melbourne
Elle Macpherson

Elle Macpherson (born Eleanor Nancy Gow on 29 March 1964, in Killara, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian supermodel and actress.  She first became famous because of her advertisements for Coca-Cola where she wore a string bikini.  She became a supermodel and became very famous.  She is part owner of a cafe in America.  She has been in a movie called Sirens. Macpherson is nicknamed "the body" because some people say she has a perfect body.

In 2010, she became the host and executive producer of Britain & Ireland's Next Top Model. She is currently the host and an executive producer NBC's Fashion Star.

Personal life
Macpherson met Gilles Bensimon in 1984 on a photo-session for Elle magazine. They were married in May 1986, and divorced in 1989.
Macpherson has two sons, Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson (born 14 February 1998), and Aurelius Cy Andrea Busson (born 4 February 2003). The father is her former partner, French financier Arpad Busson. 

Macpherson lives most of the time in Britain along with her two sons. She speaks fluent French and conversational Italian and Spanish.

From 2010 to early 2012, Macpherson was in a relationship with property developer Jeff Soffer.

Filmography

References

1964 births
Living people
Australian movie actors
Australian television actors
Australian models
Actors from Sydney
African-American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a name for the way that some African-American people talk in English. Linguists named AAVE, which is used by some non-black people. Some of the dialect's pronunciations and grammar are similar to how people talk in West Africa.

AAVE first came about in the 16th and the 17th centuries. It became famous in 1996, when some educators in Oakland, California, said they wanted to use AAVE to help teach black kids. They called it Ebonics, but the term often has a negative connotation. 

There are many rules that govern how the sounds of AAVE are different from Standard English. Some have to do with pronunciation and vocabulary (or lexicon), but most have to do with grammar, including verb tenses and sentence structure.

Hip hop music has made AAVE more famous since the 1980s. Some people think it is cool and try to speak or learn it even if they are not really familiar with it. Some non-black people speak it well.

Phonology 

Many features set AAVE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American). McWhorter argues that what truly unites all AAVE accents is a uniquely wide-ranging intonation pattern or "melody", which characterizes even the most "neutral" or light African-American accent. 

Many multisyllabic words in AAVE differ from General American in their stress placement. For example, police, guitar, and Detroit are pronounced with initial stress instead of stress on the last syllable or neutral stress.

Related pages
 Southern American English

References 

African-American history
American English
60s BC



Things that happened 
 Philip II Philoromaeus ruled parts of Syris for a short time.

Important people 
 Pompey, Roman general, lived 106–48 BC
 Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, lived 132–62 BC
 Philip II Philoromaeus
 Gaius Antonius Hybrida, became praetor in 66 BC
Tsukuba, Ibaraki

Tsukuba is a new city in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It is 50 km northeast of Tokyo and 40 km from Narita International Airport.

It has been recognized as a special city since 2007.

References

Other websites 
 The Tsukuba Wiki for foreign people

Cities in Japan
Settlements in Ibaraki Prefecture
Pup

Pup means the babies of several species of animals, such as:
Dog
Other members of the canine family (a group of animals)
Seal
Shark
Fox
Mouse
Ring-tailed lemur
Rat
Pig
stingray

Pup could also mean:
Sopwith Pup, a biplane fighter aircraft with only one seat. It was used by the British in World War I
National Security Agency

The National Security Agency (NSA) is part of the US government. The agency was started in 1952, and its main office is in Maryland.

Its stated goal is to protect the US people by
Worldwide "earsdropping," secretly listening to what people are saying in other countries. It monitors, collects, decodes, translates and analyses information and data. That is known as signals intelligence (SIGINT).
 Protecting the US from eavesdropping and SIGINT spying by foreign governments and agencies, called "penetration and network warfare." The agency does so by clandestine (secret) means, such as bugging electronic systems, and sabotaging their computer networks with viral software.

Related pages
 Central Intelligence Agency
 Federal Bureau of Investigation
 Venona project

References 

 Official NSA website
 NSA for kids

Further reading 
 Bamford, James, The Puzzle Palace, Penguin Books, .
 Bamford, James, The Shadow Factory, Anchor Books, 2009, .
 Church Committee, Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans: 1976 US Senate Report on Illegal Wiretaps and Domestic Spying by the FBI, CIA and NSA, Red and Black Publishers (May 1, 2008).
 
 Aid, Matthew, The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency, 432 pages, , Bloomsbury Press (June 9, 2009).
 Shaker, Richard J. "The Agency That Came in from the Cold." (Archive, Archive #2) Notices. American Mathematical Society. May/June 1992 pp. 408–411.
 
 "National Security Agency Releases History of Cold War Intelligence Activities." George Washington University. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 260. Posted November 14, 2008.
 

1952 establishments in the United States
National security
United States Department of Defense agencies
United States government agencies
Robert Wadlow

Robert Pershing Wadlow (February 22, 1918 – July 15, 1940) was the tallest person who ever lived.

Early life
Robert Pershing Wadlow was born to Addie Johnson and Harold Wadlow in Alton, Illinois on February 22, 1918, and was the oldest of five children. During elementary school, they had to make a special desk for him because of his size. In 1936, after graduating from Alton High School, he enrolled in Shurtleff College with the intention of studying law.

Height
Robert Wadlow was normal at birth but started growing abnormally when he was two, after a double hernia operation. He was six feet tall at age six. By the time he was 17, he was eight feet tall. Because he was so tall, he got lots of attention and became very famous, but his bones were very weak and he had to wear leg braces. In 1940, he was walking in a Fourth of July parade, when one of his braces made his ankle get infected; he died on the 15th of that month. When he died he was 8' 11.1". Robert was 6' 5" on his knees.

Death
Wadlow died at the age of 22. Four days later, at his funeral, 40,000 people attended and it took 12 people to carry his coffin. People remember him as the "Gentle Giant" and there is a statue of him at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Dental Medicine. People now say Wadlow had something called gigantism, which made him so tall.

References 

1918 births
1940 deaths
Infectious disease deaths in the United States
People from Alton, Illinois
World record holders
Deaths from hernia
Code

A code is a way of changing information into something else.  Sometimes this is done as a way of keeping a message secret. This is called encryption or cryptography. 
One source gives this explanation: a code is "a word, number or some other symbol used to represent a word, phrase or syllable in plaintext". It is one of the earliest forms of cryptography. Contrast code with cypher, in which the individual letters are encrypted (changed).

Sometimes it is done as an easier way of sending a message.  For example, when people on two different boats want to send a message, they may be too far away to shout, but they can send messages with a flag code.  Another code that people use is called Morse code, which changes letters to dots and dashes, like this:

  SOS:   ···−−−···

Computers use codes, by changing letters into 1's and 0's. This method was invented for punched tape. Now the usual alphanumeric code is ASCII.

Some people write codes as a kind of game.  They think it is fun to make ciphers, and fun to break them.  Breaking a code means taking it apart to understand how it works, and then you can understand messages that are written in that code. Cryptanalysis is also serious business. Nations and other organizations have been breaking each other's ciphers for many centuries.

The algorithm (code) for making a message secret is called the encryption algorithm.  To change a secret message back a decryption algorithm is needed.

References 

Cryptography
Human communication
Wikispecies

Wikispecies is a sister project of Wikipedia, and so it is a wiki supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. It is a free directory of species that wants to make a full catalogue of all living things. It tells of how species are classified into groups (taxonomy), and how those groups are similar to one another. It calls itself the "directory of life". 

It is supposed to be written and used by scientists, not by normal people. The people who write Wikispecies do not need to show their education but need to show their general understanding in the area. 

It was started in August 2004, with biologists around the world invited to help. Now, the project has become a good directory listing the Linnaean taxonomy with links to Wikipedia articles on individual species since April 2005. The links are provided in different languages. 

The articles in Wikispecies are all written in the Latin names, so that scientists around the world, no matter what language that use, can use the website. There is information in the article telling people what the article's living thing is called in every other language that has a common name for it. Still, Wikispecies is mostly in English; its main page is in English, and it is run in English. 

The taxoboxes in Wikipedia come from Wikispecies, where people in Wikipedia can go to refer.

As of July 1, 2014, Wikispecies has over 400,000 articles.

References

Other websites 
Official Site
Simple English version
WikiSpecies Community Portal

Wikimedia
Science websites
Websites established in 2004
Audiolingual method

The Audiolingual Method is a method for teaching foreign languages.  Linguists at the University of Michigan invented this method in the late 1950s. In the Audiolingual method, students first hear a language. Later, they speak the language, and after that, they read and write in it.  This way of language teaching is similar to the Direct Method.  Like the Direct Method, the Audiolingual Method does not use the students’ native language. For example, if you are in an English class in Turkey, the teacher only speaks English, and no Turkish.  However, unlike the Direct Method, the Audiolingual Method does not teach vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drills grammar.  In the Audiolingual method, grammar is most important for the student.  In other words, the student must repeat grammar patterns after the teacher. The students do not learn lots of vocabulary. This method also uses psychology.  The students get a reward for speaking correctly. They get punishment if they speak incorrectly; because it is based on habit formation, which is establishesd by stimulus, response and reinforcement. It gives priority to speaking the target language, and using the native language is not allowed.

Learning
Language
Montenegro

Montenegro (meaning Black Mountain) is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is on the Adriatic Sea, between Albania (to the South) and Croatia to the North. Inland (to the East and South-East) it also has a common border with Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The country came to exist when its people decided to split from the country Serbia and Montenegro on May 21, 2006. For most of the 20th century it was part of Yugoslavia. It had also been independent before World War I and existed as a kingdom. Its leader is Filip Vujanović.

The national song is called Oj, svijetla majska zoroMontenegrin Cyrillic: Ој, свијетла мајска зоро"Oh, Bright Dawn of May."

The size of the economy's GDP is $4.114 billion and it has a population of 625,000 people. The traditional old capital of Montenegro is Cetinje, but Podgorica is the new one. The country adopted the Euro unilaterally as Montenegro  does not have its own currency, but the adoption has raised the national debt to 57 percent of GDP in 2011.

Geography

History

Economy

Demographics
There are 621,873 people in Montenegro in 2020.

Related pages
 List of rivers of Montenegro
 Montenegro at the Olympics
 Montenegro national football team

References

 
European Union candidate states
Alton, Illinois

Alton is a city in Madison County, Illinois, in the United States.  About 34,500 people lived in Alton as of the year 2006.

References

Other websites

 Official Website for the City of Alton

Cities in Illinois
Minneapolis

Minneapolis is a large city in Minnesota next to St. Paul. St. Paul and Minneapolis are known as the Twin Cities because they are right next to each other. Minneapolis is the biggest city in Minnesota with about 392,000 people. The Mississippi River runs through the city.

Etymology  
Minneapolis derives from Minne ha-ha and the Greek word for "city" or polis. Thus Minneapolis means "City of Waters." A nearby city called St. Anthony then joined with Minneapolis. The first mayor was Dorilus Morrison.

History 
The American Indians first lived in Minneapolis around Lake Calhoun and St. Anthony Falls waterfall. They are called the Dakota or Ojibwe. They thought St. Anthony Falls was a spiritual place. Dakota hunted, fished, and planted food. The United States wanted the land in 1800 and bought it with the Louisiana Purchase. The army built Fort Snelling. Soon, people from the East Coast or "Yankees" came to Minneapolis. They used the waterfall for their flour mills. They named the new city Minneapolis.

Land and weather 
Minneapolis is flat near the river and hilly away from it. The city is also in the middle of the country. The weather is like many places in America with hot summers and cold winters. The winter is very long, very cold, and there is almost no spring. The summer, on the contrary, is humid, meaning a lot of water is in the air. Mosquitos are also common in the city.

People 
Minneapolis residents are sometimes known as "Minnesota Nice." That means that they are generally more polite than other people. Most residents of Minneapolis live in houses and apartments, and some now live in tall buildings like condos. Kids and parents work and play in the city. Many different people make up what is Minneapolis today. After the Dakota Indian were people from Britain, French Canada, and Spanish Mexico. They were followed by Scandinavians who are from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Soon people from almost all parts of the world started arriving including East Europe, Russia, and Asia. Today the newcomers are from East Africa (Somali) and Southeast Asia (Hmong). Once, Minneapolis was even larger than it is today with 520,000 people. Later, many people moved away to suburbs.

Work and shopping 
Numerous large companies are located Downtown in skyscrapers. These include lawyers, doctors and people in banks. They work near Nicollet Mall where there are restaurants and shops. Minneapolis also has neighborhoods. People there work in small stores too, like barber shops, grocery stores, hardware stores, and coffee shops. Internet is widely available in Minneapolis for work and other purposes.

Theatre and art 
There are lots of art and shows in the city. The biggest theater is the Guthrie Theater, and the Children's Theatre Company puts on productions directed at younger audiences. There are also art museums, such as the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center.

Sports 
Minneapolis hosts lots of sport teams for the state. The Minnesota Vikings play at US Bank Stadium. The Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Nearby is the Target Center where the Minnesota Timberwolves play.

References 

 
County seats in Minnesota
Albert Coady Wedemeyer

General Albert Coady Wedemeyer  (1897–1989) was an American army officer during World War II.

Wedemeyer was born in Omaha, Nebraska on July 9, 1897. He studied at the United States Military Academy in West Point and graduated in 1919. After the start of World War II, he was made a temporary Lieutenant Colonel in 1941. Between 1941 and 1943, he served as a staff officer in the war-plans division of the U.S. War Department. He was the chief author of the 1941 Victory Program which advocated the defeat of the German armies in Europe. When the U.S. entered the war this plan was adopted and expanded. He helped plan the invasion of Normandy.

In 1943, Wedemeyer was made Chief of Staff to Lord Mountbatten, the supreme Allied commander of the South East Asia Command (SEAC) in the Southeast Asian Theatre.

Between 1944 and 1946, he was Chief of staff to General Chiang Kai-shek and commander of U.S. forces in China under the command SEAC. The China Burma India Theatre assigned to Joseph Stilwell was split in two with command of the Burma–India theatre going to General Daniel Sultan. Wedemeyer had been commander of the U.S. China Theatre (USFCT) in 1944–1945. He had an intimate knowledge of the Allied airlift from India over the Himalayas into China. This airlift was both to supply the Nationalist Chinese Army and the U.S. Twentieth Air Force engaged on Operation Matterhorn.

In 1948, as the Army Chief of Plans and Operations, Wedemeyer supported Lucius D. Clay's intention to create an airbridge during the Berlin Crisis. His expertise in this area was considerable as he had been U.S. Army theater commander in China during World War II and had been supplied by air over the mountains from India by army transport planes. This earlier operation had been commanded by Lieutenant General William H. Tunner, who was later named to head the Berlin Airlift operation.

Wedemeyer retired in 1951. He was promoted to general in 1954.  He died December 17, 1989 in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. His son Albert Dunbar Wedemeyer was a captain in the U.S. army and a Central Intelligence Agency operative.

Other websites 
 Arlington Cemetery biography 
 Photo 
 Berlin Airlift 
 Britannica biography 
 Fact Finding Mission to China: Report by Wedemeyer  (September 19, 1947)

American people of World War II
People from Omaha, Nebraska
1897 births
1989 deaths
American military people
Sarasota, Florida

Sarasota is a city on the West coast of Florida, in the United States. It is the place where the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has its home. In 2000, 52,715 people lived there (US. Census 2000).  Many famous people have lived in the city, such as: Tom Cruise (actor), Brian Johnson (band singer), and Paul Reubens (the actor, "Pee-wee Herman").

Twin towns 
  Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

References 

 
County seats in Florida
1902 establishments in the United States
1900s establishments in Florida
Paul Reubens

Paul Reubens (born Paul Rubenfeld; August 27, 1952) is an American actor, writer, movie producer, game show host, and comedian, best known for portraying Pee-wee Herman. He is of Jewish descent. He appeared in many movies and television series in the late 1970s and early 1980s and worked with a group called "The Groundlings". Around this time, Reubens created Pee-Wee for a stage show, which was a parody of old kids programs. In 1985, he starred in a movie called Pee-ee's Big Adventure, which was very successful. The next year, he got his own television program, Pee-wee's Playhouse. It was very popular.

Early life
He was born in Peekskill, New York and grew up in Sarasota, Florida.

Personal life
In 1991, Reubens was arrested for masturbating in an adult movie theatre. This ended the Pee-Wee craze and forced Reubens to stop playing the character.

He has since appeared in many other movies and there have been rumors that he would return as Pee-wee. These rumours have not been denied by any official.

Filmography

Movies

Television

Video games

References

Other websites

 Official website
 

1952 births
Living people
People from Peekskill, New York
Actors from New York
American movie actors
American stage actors
American television actors
American television personalities
American voice actors
Comedians from New York
Jewish American actors
Jewish American comedians
Jewish American writers
Jewish businesspeople
Jewish screenwriters
Movie producers from New York
Writers from New York
Peekskill, New York

Peekskill is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the birthplace of New York Governor, George Pataki. Other famous people born there include Paul Reubens and Mel Gibson.

Cities in New York
Małkinia Górna

Małkinia Górna is a village in Małkinia Dolna Community, Ostrowian County (head town of the county: Ostrów Mazowiecka), Masovian Voivodeship, Poland. There is probably the greatest village in Europe (by population) and one of the greatest places without town status.

 Area: 6,97 km²
 Population (as of 2006): 6000
 Stanisław Tym (a famous Polish actor) birthplace
 Rail tracks Siedlce-Ostrołęka

Related pages
 Ostrów Mazowiecka
 Brok

Villages in Poland
Ostrowian County (Poland)
John C. Calhoun

John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was the vice president of the United States for John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Calhoun was Vice President under two different presidents.   George Clinton is the only other vice president to serve under two presidents.  Calhoun's father was an Irish immigrant. 

Calhoun is probably best remembered for his strong beliefs in slavery and nullification, which said any US state had the right to reject a federal law if it was unconstitutional. President Andrew Jackson hated nullification and this disagreement started a feud between them. Calhoun was the first vice president in U.S. history to resign from office, doing so on December 28, 1832. In 1844 and 1845 he was United States Secretary of State.

References

Other websites 
 John C. Calhoun -Citizendium

1782 births
1850 deaths
Politicians from South Carolina
United States Secretaries of State
United States Secretaries of War
19th-century American politicians
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace is a science fiction movie released in 1999.  This movie is the fourth movie that director George Lucas made in the Star Wars series.

Cast 
Ian McDiarmid as Senator Palpatine
Ahemed Best as Jar Jar Binks
Kenny Baker as R2-D2
Frank Oz as Yoda

Story 

Two Jedi Knights, Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, are sent on a mission by the Galactic Republic to engage in peace talks with the greedy Trade Federation of Neimoidia. They learn that the Neimoidians are sending a blockade to the planet of Naboo. In order to warn the people of Naboo, they transport themselves on Trade Federation battleships, after their ship was destroyed purposely. They reach the swamps of Naboo, separately. Qui-Gon Jinn meets Jar Jar Binks, and they find Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon Jinn asks Jar Jar to tell them of a safe place to hide from the attacking droids. Jar Jar takes them to Otoh Gunga, his birthplace, but Jar Jar was sent into exile from Otoh Gunga years ago. As such, when he returned, Boss Nass, the Gungan leader, ordered Jar Jar to be executed. Obi-Wan, following his master's instructions, rescues Jar Jar and flees to the city of Theed on a bongo, a water transport system. They find the Queen, Amidala, who escapes with them to the Republic, but in the blockade, their ship's engine was damaged. 

They barely had enough power to reach Tatooine, and still needed a new T-14 hyperdrive generator so as not to be stuck on the planet forever. They were not able to afford any, as the planet concentrates only on money, not galactic credits. Luckily, they met Anakin Skywalker, a young slave, who helped them gain the money by participating in a very dangerous podracing event. Finding abnormal midi-chlorians in the boy, Qui-Gon attempts to take Anakin as his Padawan, but was disallowed by the Jedi Council. On the other hand, war at Naboo breaks out and during the war, Qui-Gon, who faced a battle with a Sith apprentice named Darth Maul, died in the battle. Obi-Wan agrees to train Anakin as his Padawan. Anakin turns out to be a very successful padawan and later loses his mom.

Other websites

 
 
 
 Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace The Movie Database

1999 movies
1999 science fiction movies
Movies composed by John Williams
Prequel movies
Phantom Menace, The
Movies directed by George Lucas
Movies with underwater settings
3D re-releases
Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital city of the country of Serbia. Before the wars of the 1990s, it was the capital of Yugoslavia.

Belgrade is also one of the most popular travel destinations in Southeastern Europe. It is famous for a very busy nightlife and a lot of entertainment activities.

The main tourist attractions in Belgrade are:
 Kalemegdan Fortress
 Knez Mihailova Street
 Belgrade Zoo
 Memorial Complex "Josip Broz Tito"

History 
The first settlements on the city's territory date back to Vinča cutlure. The city itself (under the name Singidunum) was founded by the Celtic Scordis tribe in the 3rd century BC. Then it was owned by the Romans, Byzantines, Avars, Slavs, etc. In 878 it was first mentioned as Belgrade. In 1403 it became the Serbian capital. In 1521, the city was conquered by the troops of the Ottoman Empire. In 1815 it again became the capital of Serbia. From 1918 to 2003 it was the capital of Yugoslavia. In 2003-2006, Belgrade was the unofficial capital of the confederal union of the two states of Serbia and Montenegro.

Related pages 
 Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra

Other websites 

 WorldFlicks in Belgrade: Photos and interesting places on Google Maps
Hydrogen economy

A hydrogen economy is a hypothetical future economy in which the primary energy used for automobiles and other vehicles as well as creating electricity comes from hydrogen and renewable energy sources, like windmills and solar panel.

Purpose 
The reason to use this is to replace the use of petroleum. It would also stop the use of fossil fuels which causes carbon dioxide along with many other greenhouse gases, such as carbon monoxide and methane, to be created. These float up into the atmosphere, damaging it. This is bad for the ecology.

Hydrogen
Economics
Energy
Odysseus

In Greek mythology, Odysseus was the great grandson of the Greek god Hermes. He was the king of the island Ithaca. He was married to Penelope. Odysseus and Penelope had a son called Telemachos. Odysseus is a major character in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Odysseus fought in the Trojan War. He invented the Trojan Horse, which helped the Greeks win the war. After the war, his adventurous journey home took 10 years. The story of that journey is told in the Odyssey. Odysseus angered Poseidon, the god of seas, when he half blinded his cyclops son Polyphemos. In anger, Poseidon stopped him from leaving the island. The Latin name for Odysseus is "Ulysses".

There have been many movies about Odysseus, because of his heroic and intelligent battle strategies.

Other websites

Odysseus
Adult Swim

Adult Swim (stylized as [adult swim] or shortened to [as]) is an American adult-oriented nighttime programming block of the basic cable network Cartoon Network that is programmed by its in-house production studio, Williams Street. Marketed as a separate network for ratings purposes, Adult Swim broadcasts nightly from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. ET/PT.

Debuting in 2001, Adult Swim serves as the nighttime identity of Cartoon Network, and it was established as alternative programming during late night hours when Cartoon Network's primary target audience would normally be sleeping. By 2005, Adult Swim would be granted its own separate Nielsen ratings report from Cartoon Network due to it targeting a different audience. The block features stylistically varied animated and live-action shows, including original programming, syndicated series, anime, original video animations, and short films with generally minimal or no editing for content.

Adult Swim has frequently aired adult animation features, mockumentaries, sketch comedy, and pilots. The block's shows are known for their sexual themes, frank sexual discussion, nudity, strong language, and graphic violence. Many of its programs are aesthetically experimental, transgressive, improvised, and surrealist in nature. Adult Swim has contracted with various studios known for their productions in absurd and shock comedy.

References

2001 establishments in California
Adult Swim
American television networks
American television series
American television stations
Time Warner subsidiaries
WESC

WESC is a Swedish company. The company makes clothing, like jeans and shirts.  Many people like these clothes, and they can buy them in many countries, for example in the United States, Japan and Germany. Because some famous people use the clothes, other people want to buy them too.

Companies of Sweden
Clothing companies
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

Yarmouth is a town in the province of Nova Scotia in the country of Canada. In 2011, the population of Yarmouth was 6,761.

References

Other websites 
Yarmouth official town government Website 

Towns in Nova Scotia
Placenta

The placenta is a temporary organ found in eutherian female mammals while they are pregnant.  

The placenta is connected to the fetus by the umbilical cord, which is made of blood vessels and connective tissue. When the fetus is delivered, the placenta is delivered afterwards. The placenta is often called the afterbirth.

Function

The placenta protects the mother and fetus 
One of the placenta's jobs is to make sure blood from the mother and fetus never mixes. The placenta acts as an exchange surface between the mother and the fetus. Nutrients and oxygen are passed over by diffusion only. If the mother's and fetus's blood mixed, it could be deadly for both of them. If the mother and the fetus had different blood types, they might both die if their blood mixed.

The placental barrier protects the fetus 
The placenta has two parts, one of which is genetically and biologically part of the fetus, the other part of the mother. It is implanted in the wall of the uterus, where it receives nutrients and oxygen from the mother's blood and passes out waste. This forms a barrier called the placental barrier, which filters out some substances which could harm the fetus. 

However, the placental barrier is not able to protect the fetus from everything that could hurt it.  For example, alcohol goes through the placental barrier into the fetus.  This is why drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.  The placenta is also unable to filter out many other things.  Chemicals that can cross the placental barrier and hurt the fetus are called teratogens. 

Some infectious diseases may also cross this barrier and infect the fetus.

In other types of mammals 
Prototherial (egg-laying) and metatherial (marsupial) mammals produce a type of placenta that provides nutrients mostly from the egg sac, instead of from the mother's blood. It is positioned in the female's body similar to eutherian mammals. Some snakes and lizards have evolved a system of internal development with a placenta-like tissue: this is an example of convergent evolution.

References 

Pregnancy and childbirth
Urbana, Illinois

Urbana is a city in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the twin city of Champaign, Illinois and is separated by a single street.  The main campus of the University of Illinois is in Urbana and Champaign. As of 2019, it has population of 42,214.

Population 
Population (2010) • City 41,250

Estimate (2016) 42,014
Density 3,552.08/sq mi (1,371.49/km2) 
Metropolita area 231,891

References 

cities in Illinois
county seats in Illinois
Montgomery Ward

Montgomery Ward was an American department store chain. It currently exists only as an online retail website since 2004. It only delivers in the United States. 

It started as a mail-order catalog (called a "Wish Book") and department store in 1872. It owned Jefferson Ward discount stores. Jefferson Ward stores in the northern US were sold to Bradlees in 1985. The rest closed in 1988. All its stores closed in 2000. In 2004, it reopened as an online store.

Montgomery Ward was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward, a Chicago entrepreneur.

References 

American department stores
1872 establishments in the United States
2001 disestablishments in the United States
Companies based in Illinois
Chicago, Illinois
Raptor

Raptor can mean:
 Birds of prey, the group of birds which includes eagles, hawks, and falcons.
 Feathered dinosaurs of the Dromaeosaur family, including Velociraptor and Deinonychus
 F-22 Raptor fighter jet
 The Toronto Raptors, a National Basketball Association team that play in Toronto, Ontario
Fencing

This is about the sport. You may be wanting to read about a fence.

Fencing is a sport that includes two people with swords. The aim is to score hits. There is also a referee.
In the olden times when two people argued they fenced the first one to draw blood was wrong and the person would be dead, so the person that won would claim the dead person's house and belongings.

Weapons

Foil 

The foil is a light and easy to bend weapon, first made in mid 17th century as a weapon for practice. 'Hits' can only be scored by hitting the target area with the point of the sword. The target area is the torso.

Épée 

The épée is the heaviest of the three weapons. To score a hit, the push-button on the end of the weapon must remain fully down for 2-10 milliseconds, and must arrive (hit) with a force of at least 7.35 newtons. The target area for Épée is the entire body. This includes the feet and the head.

Sabre 

The sabre is the "cutting" weapon, with a curved guard (to protect the hand) and a triangular blade. However, in modern electric scoring, a touch with any part of the sabre, (point, flat or edge, as long as it is on target) will count as a hit. The target area in sabre is everything from the waist up, except for the hands.

Uniform 
Fencers wear a uniform to avoid injury. They wear a mask of black mesh with a bib. Also, a jacket, short pants and a sort of half-a-shirt (called an underarm protector or plastron), all of white fabric. They must also wear socks that cover their legs. Women must wear a chest protector. These are collectively called "whites."

Other websites 

 Fédération Internationale d'Escrime The organisation responsible for all international fencing

Fencing
Administrator

Administrators are people who organize things like businesses.  All businesses have administrators.  They make decisions, organize the people who work there and make sure that things are working alright and there are no problems. Their work is called "administration". The administrators are part of the "management".

An administrator is also the person in charge of some of the small territories of the United Kingdom,  for example Ascension Island and the British Antarctic Territory which are too small to run their own government.

Internet
Occupations
The Hague

The Hague (with capital T; Dutch: also called , commonly ) is the third-largest city in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It has a population of about 546,000 (2020) and an area of around 98 km². It is in the west of the country, in the province South Holland. It is the capital of the province. About 1 million people live in the urban area of The Hague, on about 405 square kilometers.

The Hague is the location of the Binnenhof, the building where the national government of the Netherlands meets. Built in the 13th century, the Binnenhof is the home of the "Eerste Kamer" (literally "First Chamber") or "Senaat", and the "Tweede Kamer" (literally "Second Chamber"). These are the same as the upper and lower houses in some other countries. They form the "Staten Generaal" (literally the "Estates-General").

Willem-Alexander, the king of the Netherlands, lives and works in The Hague. His home is called the Noordeinde Palace and it is not far away from the Binnenhof. All foreign embassies and government ministries of the country are in the city, as well as the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden (The Supreme Court) and many lobbying organisations.

All of this is unusual for a country, because The Hague is not the capital of the Netherlands, which is Amsterdam. This is made so by the Constitution of the Netherlands.

Besides the buildings used by the government, the International Court of Justice of the United Nations is based in the Peace Palace, which is also in The Hague and often referred to as "The Hague" by metonymy. A tourist attraction is Madurodam, which has lots of tiny buildings that look like the real things.

The Hague is part of a large conurbation called the Randstad, where most Dutch people live. It is only an hour away from Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol by train (most of which are run by Nederlandse Spoorwegen) and with its two train stations, is easy to get to from many places in the Netherlands and all around Europe.

Partner cities 
 Warsaw, Poland

Things to see

Related pages
Residentie Orchestra

References

 
Cities in the Netherlands
Settlements in South Holland
Provincial capitals of the Netherlands
S.A.S.

The S.A.S. or Special Air Service, is a Special Operations Organisation of the British Army. It was founded in 1941 to attack behind the German line of defence in North Africa, in World War II. They are one of the best schooled units in the world, that makes them very valuable. There are about 500 active SAS soldiers.

The SAS is a secret organisation. Its members often do not tell anyone except close family that they are in it. The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) rarely speaks of the SAS and mission details are never released until much later.

The badge of the organisation is a flaming excalibur. It shows the motto: Who Dares Wins.

Current SAS roles include:

 Gathering intelligence behind enemy lines.
 Destroying targets far behind enemy lines.
 Protecting The Royal Family, and important government members.
 Training special forces of other nations.
 Performing counter-terrorism operations.

The SAS is thought of all over the world as one of the best, if not the best Special Operations organisations.
This is mainly because of the intense training they are put through. The hardest part of this is intense interrogation (questioning while under torture) which the trainees must go through.

The SAS is respected worldwide and used to train many other Special Forces Units. Several special operations units are modeled after the SAS. For example, the U.S. Army's Delta Force was founded due in large part to Charles Beckwith, a U.S. Army special operations officer, serving as an exchange officer with the SAS. He felt that the U.S. Army was vulnerable in not having a unit comparable to the SAS.

Related pages
 Central Intelligence Agency
 Secret Intelligence Service
 Special forces

Sources 

1941 establishments in Europe
Military of the United Kingdom
Special Forces
1940s establishments in the United Kingdom
Lancashire

Lancashire is a ceremonial county in the North West of England. Its two cities are Lancaster and Preston. Before 1974, Liverpool and Manchester were part of administrative county of Lancashire.

Rivalry
The county has developed a fierce rivalry with Yorkshire, the next county east. This comes from rivalry in sport, such as in cricket, and comes from the War of the Roses.

Places
A big attraction in Lancashire is Blackpool, an English seaside resort, which has a theme park called Blackpool Pleasure Beach. It has the second largest rollercoaster in Europe ("The Big One") and Blackpool Tower, a tower which was made to look like the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Lancashire has market towns (like Chorley) and small villages (like Bretherton, Croston and Eccleston). It is just south of an area of outstanding natural beauty called the Lake District. Lancashire also has a lot of pleasant countryside such as White Coppice and the Rivington Moors.

Food
A famous food from Lancashire is "Lancashire Hot pot" which is made of meat, onion or other vegetables and potatoes. It is often found on many pub menus in the county and in other places in Britain.

People
The people of Lancashire are known for their friendly nature. Humour is also an important part of Lancashire life.

Ceremonial counties of England