cahya/wikipedia-simple-en huggingface dataset:
Tunicate

Tunicates (sea squirts or Urochordata) are a subphylum of the Chordates. 

They are sea filter-feeders: they live mainly on plankton. They are called tunicates because the adult form is covered by a leathery tunic. This tunic supports and protects the animal. The adults are sessile, stuck to rocks.  

Many tunicates are colonial or semi-colonial in their adult stage. They are quite a large group, containing about 3,000 species. The adults live mostly on the sea floor, in the littoral zone.

Feeding 
The sea squirt has two openings in its small body. One opening, called the oral siphon, sucks water into the animal; the other opening, called the atrial siphon, squirts water out of the animal. Inside is a little basket-like sieve which traps food: so these sea squirts are filter feeders. The Sea squirt can close the holes in its siphons, like a drawstring can close the opening in a bag.

Life cycle 
When in its larval state, it looks like a tadpole and is sometimes called a tadpole larva. Like many sea creatures, a sea squirt larva looks very different from an adult sea squirt. The larva swims for a short time and then attaches itself to something on the sea floor, like a rock, transforming into its adult form. It usually stays in one place for the rest of its life.

Relationships 
Tunicates are more closely related to craniates (hagfish, lampreys, jawed vertebrates) than to lancelets, echinoderms, hemichordates, or other invertebrates.

Discoveries 
Chemical substances which might help fight diseases like cancer or  various viruses have been found in some species. 

Scientists have also found out that some species can heal some damage done to them, over several generations. A similar process might be possible for humans.

Related pages 
Salp: these are noticed in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Their huge swarms may outnumber the krill.

References

Solomon E. Berg L. & Martin D. 2002. Biology. Brooks/Cole.

Chordates
List of elements

This page shows a list of all 118 chemical elements that have been identified.

Legend
Categories and subcategories in the metal–nonmetal range

List

Notes
 The element does not have any stable nuclides, and a value in brackets, e.g. [209], indicates the mass number of the longest-lived isotope of the element. However, three elements, Thorium, Protactinium, and Uranium, have a characteristic terrestrial isotopic composition, and thus their atomic mass given.
 The isotopic composition of this element varies in some geological specimens, and the variation may exceed the uncertainty stated in the table.
 The isotopic composition of the element can vary in commercial materials, which can cause the atomic weight to deviate significantly from the given value.
 The isotopic composition varies in terrestrial material such that a more precise atomic weight can not be given.
 The atomic weight of commercial Lithium can vary between 6.939 and 6.996–analysis of the specific material is necessary to find a more accurate value.
 This element does not solidify at a pressure of one atmosphere. The value listed above, 0.95 K, is the temperature at which helium does solidify at a pressure of 25 atmospheres.
 This element sublimes at one atmosphere of pressure
 The transuranic elements 99 and above do not occur naturally, but some of them can be produced artificially.
 The value listed is the conventional value suitable for trade and commerce. The actual value may differ depending on the isotopic composition of the sample. Analysis of the specific material is necessary to find a more accurate value.
 Electronegativity on the Pauling scale. Standard symbol: χ

References 

 (for atomic weights of elements with atomic numbers from 1–102)

 (for atomic weights of elements with atomic numbers 103–118)
IUPAC (2016). "Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 are now formally named nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts), and oganesson (Og)"

Elements
Georg Büchner Prize

The Georg Büchner Prize (German: Georg-Büchner-Preis) is the most important literary prize of Germany. It was created in 1923 in memory of German writer Georg Büchner and was only given to artists who came from or were closely tied to Büchner's home of Hesse. 

In 1951, the prize changed to a general literary prize, given yearly by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. It goes to German language authors, and the annual speech by the recipient takes place in Darmstadt. Since 2002, the prize has been endowed with 40,000 Euros.

Famous recipients of the literary prize, since 1951 

2004 Wilhelm Genazino (1943-2018)

1998 Elfriede Jelinek (1946–)

1986 Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)

1973 Peter Handke (1942–) 

1972 Elias Canetti (1905–1994)

1967 Heinrich Böll (1917–1985)

1965 Günter Grass (1927-2015)

Famous recipients 1923-1950

1947  Anna Seghers (1900-1983)

Other websites
 http://www.deutscheakademie.de/preise_buechner.html
 The spell of a tender eel, on 2006 prizewinner Oskar Pastior

Literary awards
Darmstadt
Brigham Young University Hawaii

Brigham Young University Hawaii, or BYU-Hawaii for short, is an undergraduate university that educates 2,400 students from Asia, the Pacific islands, the United States, and other parts of the world. 

The campus is in Laie, Hawaii. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was founded in 1955 by the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - David O. McKay.

Colleges and universities in Hawaii
Mormonism
1955 establishments in the United States
20th-century establishments in Hawaii
Australopithecus africanus

Austalopithecus africanus was first discovered by Raymond Dart in 1925. He found a well-preserved skull of a young australopithecine, three to four years old. This skull is often called the Taung Child, after Taung, South Africa where it was found. It is perhaps the most complete skull of A. africanus known. Based on current data A. africanus dates to between 3.03 and 2.04 million years ago.

Australopithecus africanus had a dish shaped facial structure with teeth that were large compared to modern humans. While it had larger front teeth compared to the back, the emphasis was on back tooth grinding. Males had a sagital crest on the tops of their skulls. Large muscles were attached to this ridge that helped to support the heavy jaw.

Related pages
 Taung Child
 Human evolution

References 

Australopithecines
Homo

Homo is a genus of upright primates that walk on two legs. The only living species is Homo sapiens (humans).

The genus began about 2.3 million years ago. Their ancestors were almost certainly some line of Australopithecine apes. Species of Homo have:
A larger brain (above 900ml)
Improved walking and running ability. 

As the process continues, the forehead becomes more vertical, the skull becomes rounder, the teeth are reduced in size, arms are shorter and legs are longer. The skeleton becomes more delicate. particularly in our species. 

All species used stone tools, but there is no evidence of when language developed. Human evolution is a much studied topic.

Species
 Homo habilis
 Homo rudolfensis
 Homo ergaster
 Homo erectus
 Homo floresiensis
 Homo rhodesiensis
 Homo georgicus
Homo naledi
 Homo antecessor
 Homo cepranensis
 Homo heidelbergensis
 Homo neanderthalensis
 Denisovans
 Homo sapiens

References 

Hominins
Poverty in India

Poverty in India is an important issue. India has some of the poorest people in the world.

The Government of India says that the poverty line for rural areas is ₹ 816 per month and ₹ 1000 per month in urban areas. This means that many people do not have enough money. India's proposed but not yet adopted official poverty line is ₹972 (US$14) a month in rural areas or ₹1,407 (US$21) a month in cities.

In India, the average calorie requirement of an average man is 2400 calories per day in Rural area and 2100 calories per day in Urban area.

In 2012, the latest report by the Planning Commission of India (Tendulkar Committee) reported that 26% of all people in India fall below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. Over the last decade, poverty has been witnessed a consistent decline with the levels dropping from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10. The number of poor people is now estimated at 250 million.

Analysis 

In 1947 the average income in India was similar to South Korea. South Korea became a developed country by the 2000s, but India did not.

For the first 40 years, India followed the Soviet-style economic planning, nationalization programs and government ownership of industry. Its economic growth averaged about 3.5%, while Asian economies such as South Korea grew on average more than twice that rate annually. Adjusted for population growth in India, its  income per head grew at 1.49% annually, while incomes of South Koreans - rich and poor - rose rapidly.

India's Soviet-style economy included the "Licence Raj": the elaborate licences, regulations and red tape needed to set up and run a business in India between 1947 and 1990. The License Raj was a result of India's decision to have a planned economy, where all aspects of the economy are controlled by the state. Licences were only given to a select few. Corruption flourished under this system. Under this system, the country created few jobs and little wealth. Widespread poverty remained.

References 

Economy of India
History of India
Poverty
The Christian Community

The Christian Community (original German name: Die Christengemeinschaft) is a Christian denomination. It was founded in 1922 in Dornach (Switzerland) by a group of theologians and pastors, led by the Protestant pastor Friedrich Rittelmeyer. He was helped by Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher and founder of anthroposophy.

Other websites
The Christian Community in North America with extensive introductory articles
The Christian Community in the UK and Ireland also with introductory articles

Protestant denominations
Flag of Kurdistan

The Flag of Kurdistan (Kurdish: Alaya Kurdistanê) has three colours and are placed horizontally. The top colour is red, the middle is white and the bottom is green. In the middle of the white is a sun with 21 rays. The 21 rays represent Navruz.

Kurdistan
Kurdistan
K
Vector graphics

Vector graphics (also called graphical modeling, or object-oriented graphics) is a type of computer graphics. Vector graphics uses geometrical objects, like points, lines, curves, and polygons to model the image. Mathematics can be used to describe the graphics. Most often vectors and matrices are used. The first major use of vector graphics was in the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment air defense system.

The other way to model computer graphics is to use raster graphics. Raster graphics model images as a collection of pixels. Unlike raster images, vector-based images can be scaled indefinitely without loss of quality. Vector graphics are most often used for diagrams, and other things that can be described using simple shapes. Photographs are most often raster images.

Related pages
Raster graphics

Computer graphics
Vector graphics
Silence (band)

Silence is a German rock - heavy metal band. It was founded in 1995 in Bavaria, Germany. Its founding members were Stefan Mueller (guitar), Holger Kronester (drums), and the brothers Bernd (guitar) and Marco Wolf (bass). They played a mix of rock and metal music. Their music always had a dark, depressive side.

The band's first successful album was Enola. It was listed as "Album of the month" in German Metal-Hammer. The album was released in 2000. Three years later they recorded the p/o/u/r letters. It got very good reviews all over Germany and Europe. In 2007 they released their 5 track EP The Badtime Stories. With this album they got a record deal with the German record label Biohazzard Records, a sublabel of Danse macabre.

In 2010 they released the follow-up full-length album to the p/o/u/r letters. It was titled Life: Failed. 

The today's members of the band consists of Stefan (singer), Bernd (guitar), Sebastian (keyboard), Bastian (guitar), Oliver (bass) and Bastian (drums).

Discography 
 1996 Empty Souls (Demo)
 2000 Enola
 2003 The p/o/u/r letters
 2007 The Badtime Stories
 2010 Life: Failed

Other websites 
 Official website 
 Myspace-Site

German rock bands
German heavy metal bands
Ludwig Büchner

Friedrich Karl Christian Ludwig Büchner (29 March 1824 – 1 May 1899) was a German philosopher, physiologist and physician who became one of the exponents of 19th century scientific materialism. 

Büchner was born at Darmstadt, Germany, on 29 March 1824. From 1842 to 1848 he studied physics, chemistry, botany, mineralogy, philosophy and medicine at the University of Giessen. In 1852 he became lecturer in medicine at the University of Tübingen, where he published his great work Kraft und Stoff: Empirisch-naturphilosophische Studien (Force and Matter: Empiricophilosophical Studies, 1855). In this work, he sought to demonstrate the indestructibility of matter and force. The extreme materialism of this work excited so much opposition that he was compelled to give up his post at Tübingen. He retired to Darmstadt, where he practiced as a physician and contributed regularly to pathological and physiological magazines. 

He died at Darmstadt on 1 May 1899. 

Ludwig Büchner was the brother of Georg Büchner, a famous playwright.

References

Other websites
Some brief excerpts from Büchner's Force and Matter 

1824 births
1899 deaths
German philosophers
People from Darmstadt
Writers from Hesse
Goitre

A goitre or goiter (Latin: struma), also called a bronchocele, is a swelling in the neck (just below Adam's apple or larynx).  It happens when the thyroid gland gets larger (usually because the body is not getting enough iodine).

Classification 
Goitres are classified in different ways (put into different categories): 

 A diffuse goitre is a goitre that has spread through all of the thyroid.  A diffuse goitre can be a "simple goitre" or a "multi nodular goitre."
 Toxic goiter is a goitre with hyperthyroidism.  These most commonly caused by Graves disease, but they can also be caused by inflammation or a multinodular goitre.
 Any other type of goitre is called a non-toxic goitre.  These may be caused by lithium, some kinds of autoimmune diseases, or other problems.  People with non-toxic goiters have low thyroid levels (hypothyroidism) or normal thyroid levels.

Causes 

Some of the causes of goitre include:
 Thyroid cancer
 Iodine deficiency (not having enough iodine in the body)
 Hashimoto's thyroiditis
 Graves-Basedow disease
 Congenital hypothyroidism (hypothyroidism that babies have when they are born, caused by errors in the way the body makes thyroid hormone)
 Thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid gland)
 Side effects of certain medications

New research says that some people may be more vulnerable to goitre (more likely to have goiters) because they inherited that vulnerability (it was passed down to them from their parents).

Famous goitre sufferers 
 Within two years of each other, President George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara Bush both were diagnosed with Graves disease and larger-than-normal thyroid glands.  President Bush's disease caused hyperthyroidism and cardiac dysrhythmia (irregular heart rate).

References

Other websites 
 National Health Services, UK 
 Network for Sustained Elimination of Iodine Deficiency
 Network for Sustained Elimination of Iodine Deficiency  - alternate site at Emory University's School of Public Health

Diseases
Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball from Cincinnati, Ohio, are the oldest team in professional baseball, established in 1869. The was knowns as the Cincinnati Red Stockings until 1878, when the team changed the name to the current Cincinnati Reds. The Reds joined the National League in 1876 The Reds have won World Series championships in 1919, 1940, 1975, 1976 and 1990. The strong Reds teams of the 1970s were nicknamed "The Big Red Machine".  From 1912 to 1970, the Reds home stadium was Crosley Field, from 1970-2002 home games were played at Riverfront Stadium. Since 2003 the Reds have played home games at Great American Ballpark

 
Sports in Cincinnati, Ohio
1869 establishments in the United States
19th-century establishments in Ohio
Josh Beckett

Joshua Patrick Beckett (born May 15, 1980) is an American former Major League Baseball starting pitcher. He has played for the Florida Marlins, Boston Red Sox, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Other websites 

1980 births
Living people
American baseball players
Boston Red Sox players
Sportspeople from Texas
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Curt Schilling

Curtis Montague (Curt) Schilling (born November 14, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska) is an American Major League Baseball starting pitcher. Schilling is a right-handed starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He has won World Series championships in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in 2004 and 2007 with the Red Sox. Schilling began his career on September 7, 1988 playing for the Baltimore Orioles.

On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 Schilling revealed that he has been diagnosed with and is being treated for cancer.

In 2016, Schilling announced that he is interested in running for President of the United States in the future if Hillary Clinton were to win.

References

Other websites 
 Official Curt Schilling's Blog 
 
 Curt Schilling  - Official Red Sox Web Site

1966 births
Living people
People with cancer
People from Anchorage, Alaska
American baseball players
Boston Red Sox players
Arizona Diamondbacks players
Sportspeople from Alaska
National League All-Stars
Adam Dunn

Adam Troy Dunn (born November 9, 1979, in Houston, Texas), nicknamed "Big Donkey", is an American retired Major League Baseball first baseman, outfielder, and designated hitter. He played for the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, Washington Nationals, Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics. He batted left-handed and throws right-handed. Dunn retired after the 2014 season.

References

Other websites

Official Facebook
 JockBio.com profile 

1979 births
American baseball players
American football quarterbacks
American League All-Stars
Arizona Diamondbacks players
Chicago White Sox players
Cincinnati Reds players
Living people
National League All-Stars
Oakland Athletics players
Sportspeople from Houston, Texas
Washington Nationals players
Raster graphics

Raster graphics (or bitmap graphics) is one of two kinds of computer graphics. With raster graphics, images are modeled as big collections of pixels. Usually they form an image shaped like a rectangle. Each pixel holds something, like color or transparency. Raster images are used very often. Computer screens are made of a raster of points. Vector graphic images are rasterised that way. Images that are difficult to make as a vector, like photographs, are often made in the form of a raster image. 

Many printers today use computer languages like Postscript or PCL. These languages are based on vectorized images, most of the time. To be printed, these images need to be translated into raster graphics first. This is done by a part called a Raster Image Processor. Most modern printers have those processors inside the printer. Some printers use a special piece of software on the computer to do that job.

References

Computer graphics
Postscript

Postscript is a programming language. It was developed by Adobe, in 1984. It is a standard used by many computer printers. There are three different versions of it, Postscript Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3.

The Portable Document Format is another standard, also from Adobe. It is better adapted to printing. Many things computer languages have, have been dropped to develop PDF.

"Hello world"
And finally, a Hello World program, the customary way to show a small example of a complete program in a given language, might look like this in Postscript:
 %!PS
 /Courier findfont
 20 scalefont
 setfont
 72 500 moveto
 (Hello world!) show
 showpage

or if the output device has a console

 %!PS
 (Hello world!) =

Programming languages
Horse chestnut

The other kind of chestnut is called sweet chestnut. It is not related to this tree

A horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), also known as the horse-chestnut, buckeye, conker tree, or Spanish chestnut, is a large deciduous tree. It is native to southern Europe, in the Balkans. It is often grown in temperate climates. It can grow up to 36 metres tall.  The name of the tree (and the whole genus of similar trees) is because its fruit, the conker, was used to treat horses, against cough and some parasite worms. 

Horse chestnuts are not edible for humans. The trees are not closely related to sweet chestnuts.

Trees
Sapindaceae
Bingo

Bingo or Housie is a game where people try to match numbers drawn at random with numbers on a card. When someone does this, they call "BINGO!" or "HOUSE!" very loud so everyone playing can hear.

The game was invented in Italy in the 1500s. The game slowly moved to other countries like France, Great Britain, and other parts of Europe. Bingo originates from the Italian lottery, Il Gioco del Lotto d'Italia. In Paris the game was known as Le Lotto, played by the rich part of French society. Since then the game become popular all over the world and today Charitable Bingo in US is worth $3 Billion.

In the United Kingdom, the game is played by marking a card. The card has 27 squares in 3 rows of 9. 15 squares have a numbers between 1 and 90. 5 numbers on each row. The winner is the first player to mark the 5 numbers in one line or all fifteen numbers on the card.

Bingo cards are normally printed in strips of six. A strip of six cards has every number between 1 and 90. Many people buy only 4 cards, so that the other two cards were usually wasted.  Edward Thompson and Company, the largest printer of bingo tickets in the UK found a way to print strips of 12 so that there would be less waste, and so that any 6 tickets had all of the numbers 1 to 90.

In the UK, all money used to buy the bingo ticket must be given back in prize money. The owner of a bingo club is allowed to charge an entrance fee and also a "participation fee" (a fee to be allowed to take part in the bingo game).

In the United States, the game is played by a group of people. All of the group has cards and tokens. When a number is called that you have on your card, you place a token on that spot. The first person to make a line of 5 tokens up or down, across, or diagonally wins the game. This game is played for prizes usually.

References

Games
9 (number)

Nine is the Arabic number which comes after 8 and before 10. It is an odd number, and is the highest single-digit number.  It is also a square number. In Roman numerals, nine can be written as IX.Square numbers
Integers
5 (number)

The number five is a number that comes after four and before the number six. In Roman numerals, it is V.

Mathematics 
Five is the third prime number, after two and three, and before seven. The number five is also an odd number.

Most people have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.

Creation 

It is not known for certain who and how the shape of the number five was created, but most people think it was made by the Brahmin Indians.

Integers
Prime numbers
Hurling

Hurling (in Irish, iománaíocht or iomáint) is an Irish outdoor team sport similar to hockey, played by two teams of 15 people.

The object of the game is for players to use a wooden axe-shaped stick called a hurley (in Irish a "camán", pronounced kam-awn), or a hurl, to hit a small ball called a sliotar (pronounced slith-er) between the opponents' goalposts either over the crossbar for one point, or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for one goal, which is equivalent to three points.

The ball can be caught in the hand and carried for not more than four steps, struck in the air, or struck on the ground with the stick. It can be kicked or slapped with an open hand (the hand pass) for short-range passing. A player who wants to carry the ball for more than three steps has to bounce or balance the ball on the end of the stick, and the ball can only be handled twice while in his possession.

Statistics 

 In a team there are 15 players, or "hurlers."
 The hurley or hurl (hurl), or camán, is generally 70–100 cm (32–36 inches) in length
 The goalkeeper's hurley usually has a bás (the flattened, curved end) twice the size of other players' hurleys to provide some advantage against the fast moving sliotar.
 The ball, known as a sliotar has a cork center and a leather cover; it is between 23 and 25 cm in circumference, and weighs between 100 and 130 g
 A good strike with a hurley can propel the ball up to 150 km/h (93 mph) in speed and 100 m (305 ft) in distance.
 A ball hit over the bar is worth one point. A ball that is hit under the bar is worth 3 points which is called a goal.

Playing field 
 Hurling is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide The goals at each end of the field are formed by two posts, which are usually 6 m high, set 6.4 m apart, and connected 2.44 m above the ground by a crossbar. A net extending in back of the goal is attached to the crossbar and lower goal posts.

Related pages
 Shinty

Other websites 

 Rules
 Official website of the Gaelic Athletic Association
 'An Fear Rua - The GAA Unplugged!' 
 Video introductions to hurling: Part One, Part Two, Part Three. 
 The Continental Youth Championships 
 A Brief History of the Argentine Hurling Club 
 Hurling in Australia and New Zealand 
 Gaelic Football, Hurling are Irish Passions, National Geographic News
 The First Hurling Match in the United States 
 Sliotar Hurling & Camogie Magazine 
 Selection of hurling photos 
 Seamus J. King, author website
 What is Hurling, youtube

Team sports
Sport in Ireland
6 (number)

The number six is a natural number that comes after the number five and before the number seven. Six is also the first perfect number which means that the sum of its factors (1, 2 and 3) are equal to the number itself (6). The next perfect number is 28. In Roman numerals, it is VI.

Mathematics 
In mathematics, the number six is an even number.

Integers
4 (number)

The number four is a number and a numeral. It comes after the number three, and before the number five. In Roman numerals, it is IV.

Mathematics 
In mathematics, the number four is an even number and the smallest composite number. Four is also the second square number after one.
A small minority of people have four fingers and four toes, on each hand and foot, respectively.  This proves difficult to count on your fingers. Four squared is 16, and four doubled is 8.

Square numbers
Integers
Mathematics
7 (number)

The number seven is a natural number that comes after six and before eight. In Roman numerals, it is VII.

Mathematics 
In mathematics, the number seven is an odd number and a prime number.
It is also a Mersenne prime.

Divisibility Rule
 To test if an integer is divisible by 7 or not,
 Take off the last digit and multiply it by 2. 
 Subtract the root number from the product .
 Repeat the second step again and again until it is clearly that the number is divisible by 7 or not.
Example

918785
 5×2=10, 91878-10=91868
 8×2=16, 9186-16=9170
 0×2=0, 917-0=917
 7×2=14, 91-14=77
77 is divisible by 7, so the original number 918785 is also divisible by 7.

Proof:
Pretend  is the root number and  is the last digit. Then  is the whole number.
If the whole number () is divisible by 7,  is also a multiple of 7. And  also divide 7. That proves  is divisible seven, since 3 and 6 are both multiples of 3. So  is also divisible by 7.

In the world
There are seven colors in the rainbow.
The atomic number of nitrogen.
The number of horizontal rows of elements in the periodic table.
Seven gates of heaven (QUR'AN  15th chapter AL-HIJR verse 44)915:44)
Seven days in a week
Seven seas and seven continents.
Seven major parts of the human body (2 legs, 2 hands, trunk,  neck and head)

References 

Integers
Prime numbers
8 (number)

The number eight is a natural number that comes after the number seven and before the number nine. In Roman numerals, it is VIII.

Mathematics 
In mathematics, the number eight is an even number and a composite number. Eight is also a power of two, being 2 times itself 3 times.

Integers
Donatello

Donatello (born Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, c. 1386 – 13 December 1466) was an Italian sculptor during the Renaissance. He lived in Florence. He worked in stone, bronze, wood, clay, and wax  with several assistants. His reputation as a great artist was stated by Vasari, and has always stood well. He worked in Rome, Sienna and Padua as well as Florence, and worked for the Church, for Cosimo de' Medici, and for various city authorities.

He was the son of Niccolo di Betto Bardi, and was born in Florence. His mother's name is not known. When Donatello was older, he studied with Filippo Brunelleschi the architect. He also helped the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti to make statues for the Battistero di San Giovanni.

Donatello's work was inspired by ancient sculpture. He was the first sculptor of his time to celebrate the human body, an idea that had died out after Greek and Roman times. His life-size statue of David is his best-known work. The David is the first known free-standing nude statue made since antiquity. Much of his work was done for display in grand churches. Between 1415 and 1426, he made five statues for the Florence Cathedral, also known as the Duomo.

Donatello was a realist: an artist whose sculpture showed the subjects as real people. Naturalism and the showing of human feelings are his influences.

Related pages 
 Italian Renaissance art

References 

Italian sculptors
People from Florence
1466 deaths
1386 births
Hurley (stick)

A hurley(Irish: Camán), also known as a ‘hurl’, is a wooden stick measuring between 70 and 100 cm (26 to 40 inches) long with a flattened, curved end (called the bas), used to hit a sliotar (leather ball) in the Irish sport of hurling. It is also used in camogie, the female equivalent, and there often called a camogie stick. 

Hurleys are made from ash wood, and are usually bought from local craftsmen in Ireland, who still use traditional production methods. 

No matter how well crafted the hurley is, a hurler may well expect to use several hurleys over the course of the hurling season. The hurleys often break if two collide in the course of a game, or occasionally they break off on the other players (arms, legs, etc.). Two hurleys colliding is colloquially known as "the clash of the ash." Throwing the hurley (e.g. to block a ball going high over one's head) is illegal, but camogie players may drop it to make a handpass.

References 

Sports equipment
Sliotar

A sliotar (or sliothar) is a hard solid sphere slightly larger than a tennis ball, consisting of a cork core covered by two pieces of leather stitched together. Sometimes called a "puck" or "hurling ball", it resembles an American baseball with more pronounced stitching.  It is used in the Gaelic games of hurling, camogie, rounders and shinty.

Early sliotars used various materials, depending on the part of the country:

 hollow bronze
 wood and leather
 wood, rope and animal hair.

Sports equipment
Camogie

Camogie (in Irish, camógaíocht) is an Irish team sport, organised by the Camogie Association of Ireland, the women's variant of hurling. The rules are almost identical to hurling with a few exceptions.

One is that goalkeepers wear the same colours as outfield players and a player in camogie can handpass a score, which is not allowed in the men's game. All games last 60 minutes (senior inter-county hurling games last 70), and dropping the camogie stick to handpass the ball is allowed. The All-Ireland Final is held every year in Croke Park during September, usually the week between the hurling final and Gaelic football final. There are two main competitions; the National League which is staged during the winter-spring months and is used as a warm-up to the All-Ireland Championships during the summer.

The reigning champions are Cork.

The name "camogie"
Camogie/hurling is unique in that it uses a different name for the version played by men and women. The reason is complicated: men play using a curved stick called in Irish a camán. Women would use a shorter stick, called by the diminutive form camóg. The suffix -aíocht was added to both words to give names for the sports: camánaíocht (which became iománaíocht) and camógaíocht. When the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in 1884 the English-origin name "hurling" was given to the men's game. When an organisation for women was set up in 1904, it was decided to Anglicise the Irish name camógaíocht to camogie.

Clubs 
 Tara Camogie Club, London
 Kilcoole Camogie Club, Kilcoole Co. Wicklow
 Green Isle Camogie Club London

References

Other websites
 Camogie.ie Official Camogie Association Website

Sport in Ireland
Rounders

Rounders  is a sport which originated in Great Britain and Ireland. The game is regulated by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Ireland and the National Rounders Association (NRA) in the UK.  Both have different, although broadly similar, game-play and culture.  Competitions are held between teams from both traditions, often with one version being played in the morning and the other being played in the afternoon.

Game-play centers around innings where teams act at turns being batters and fielders.  A maximum of nine players are allowed to play in fielding positions at one time. Points ("rounders") are scored by the batting team by completing a circuit around the field through four bases/posts without being put 'out' - for example, by a ball they batted being 'caught-out' or touching a tagged base/post.

The earliest nationally formalised rules of play were devised by the GAA in Ireland in 1884. 

Although it is generally considered a school game, rounders is played at international level as well. Currently, teams from Canada, England, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales compete against each other. 
Some theories on the origin of baseball claim that baseball is based on rounders. Rounders is a sport played with a bat and ball when the ball is thrown to you the ball is meant to be hit with the bat.

Other websites
 Gaelic Athletic Association
 Rounders Council of Ireland 
 National Rounders Association
 Schools Rounders
 DMOZ - Rounders 
 Welsh Baseball Union 

Official rules of rounders:
 Ireland: GAA Rules for Playing Rounders 
 England: NRA Simplified Rules  (and information on purchasing official rule books)

Team sports
Cricket (insect)

Crickets, family Gryllidae (also known as true crickets), are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets (family Tettigoniidae). They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennae. There are about 900 species of crickets. They tend to be nocturnal and are often confused with grasshoppers because they have a similar body structure including jumping hind legs.

Cricket chirping 
Crickets are known for their chirp (which only male crickets can do; male wings have ridges or "teeth" that act like a "comb and file" instrument). The left forewing has a thick rib (a modified vein) which bears 50 to 300 "teeth". The chirp is made by raising their left forewing to a 45 degree angle and rubbing it against the upper hind edge of the right forewing, which has a thick scraper (Berenbaum 1995). This sound producing action is called "stridulation" and the song is species-specific. There are two types of cricket songs: a calling song and a courting song. The calling song attracts females and repels other males, and is fairly loud.

Jurassic chirp reconstructed 
Night-time in the Jurassic included the sound of chirping bush crickets. This is according to scientists who have reconstructed the song of a cricket that chirped 165 million years ago. "A remarkably complete fossil of the prehistoric insect enabled the team to see the structures in its wings that rubbed together to make the sound".

References

Other websites 

 Intro on house crickets
 How to raise your own crickets
 Crickets in the Classroom  drawings and activities
  
 The cricket   suicide (video) 
 Singing Insects of North America  An online field guide

Orthoptera
Rounders (movie)

Rounders is a 1998 movie about the underground world of high-stakes poker. The movie was directed by John Dahl and starred Matt Damon and Edward Norton. It follows two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a huge debt. The term “rounder” refers to a person whose sole means of earning a living is by playing cards.

The movie opened to mixed reviews and only made a modest amount of money. However, with the growing popularity of Texas hold 'em and other poker games, Rounders has become a cult hit.

Featured cast
 Matt Damon as Mike McDermott
 Edward Norton as Lester 'Worm' Murphy
 John Malkovich as Teddy KGB

Other websites 

 HomePokerGames review
 

1998 drama movies
Buddy movies
American drama movies
Miramax movies
Multilingual movies
American independent movies
Gaelic Athletic Association

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael) is an organisation which is mostly focused on promoting Gaelic Games - traditional Irish sports, such as hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball, and rounders. The organisation also promotes Irish music and dance, and the Irish language. It is the largest and most popular organisation in Ireland with some 800,000 members out of the island's population of almost 6 million.

Gaelic football and Hurling are the main and most popular activities promoted by the organisation.

Gaelic football is a contact sport that combines the skills of soccer, basketball, and some of the skills of volleyball in a high-scoring game in which players punch or kick the ball over the crossbar  for one point, or kick the ball into a  net on the bottom for three points.  The game also has similarities with Australian Rules Football (see below).

Hurling is a stick-and-ball game that combines many of the skills of field hockey, lacrosse, and baseball but pre-dates all three.  Players can catch the ball and use a hurley (Irish: camán) to hit a ball (sliotar) between the goalposts using the same scoring system as in Gaelic football and on the same size of field.  It is not to be confused with the Scottish game of shinty.

Bibliography
 The GAA: A History by Marcus de Burca, Gill & MacMillan, 1984 & 2000, 
 Illustrated History of the GAA, by Eoghan Corry, Gill & MacMillan, 2005, 
 The GAA Book of Lists, by Eoghan Corry, Hodder Headline, 2005, 
 The Gaelic Athletic Association And Irish Nationalist Politics 1884-1924 by W F Mandle (Gill & MacMillan and Christopher Helm 1987). 240pp 
 Michael Cusack and The GAA by Marcus De Burca, Anvil, 1989, 192pp,  
 Micheal Ciosog by Liam P O Cathnia, Clochomhar Tta, 1982. 
 Croke Of Cashel by Mark Tierney, Gill And MacMillan, 1976.
 Maurice Davin (1842-1927) First President Of The GAA by Seamus O'Riain, Geography Publications, 1994, 
 Croke Park by Tim Carey, Collins Press, 2004, 
 God and the Referee: Unforgettable GAA Quotations, by Eoghan Corry, Hodder Headline, 2005, 
 History of Hurling, by Seamus King, Gill & MacMillan, 2005, 
 Sceal Na hIomana by Liam P O Cathnia, Clochomhar Tta, 1980.
 Caman, 2000 Years Of Irish Hurling by Art O Maolfabhail, 1973.
 Gaelic football, by Jack  Mahon, Gill & MacMillan, 2002 & 2006, 
 Bairi Cos In Eirinn by Liam P O Cathnia, Clochomhar Tta, 1984.
 Legends of the Ash, by Brendan Fullam, Wolfhound Press, 1998,

References

Other websites 
GAA official website
Rules and Regulations Part 1
Rules and Regulations Part 2
An Fear Rua: The GAA Unplugged! - analysis, discussion forums, satire and humour on GAA topics.
Hogan Stand
National GAA Results and Fixtures on Aertel
Local GAA Results and Fixtures on Aertel
GAA World by The Irish News
Index of GAA club sites
Squareball - The First GAA Fashion Brand 
GAA News Results and Fixtures from Sports.ie 
GAA Results 
Hurling Blog - News, analysis, stats and opinion on hurling
Michael Cusack Visitor Centre

Sport in Ireland
Gaelic Games

Gaelic games are the traditional sports played in Ireland. The two main Gaelic games are Gaelic football and hurling. Both are organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Other games organised by the association include camogie, rounders, Gaelic handball. During the late 19th century 21, Gaelic games in Ireland were dying out. This decline was stopped by the GAA and the Irish national Gaelic Revival. Today they are the most popular games in Ireland.

Gaelic football 
Gaelic football is the most popular of the gaelic games  and is played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The object is to score by driving the ball through the goals. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins. It combines the skills of soccer and basketball in a fast-paced, high-scoring contact sport.

A slightly different rule set is used for women's Gaelic football (officially called "ladies' Gaelic football"). The women's game also uses 15-player teams and H-shaped goals, but allows less physical contact.

Hurling
Hurling is a stick-and-ball game played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The primary object is to score by driving the ball through the goals. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins.  It is over three thousand years old, and is said to be the world's fastest field game, combining skills from lacrosse, field hockey, and baseball in a hard-hitting, highly skilled game.

Camogie
Camogie is a game almost identical to hurling, but played only by women. Like hurling, it is a stick-and-ball game played by teams of 15, with the pitch and goals the same as those in hurling. Other rules are almost the same between the two sports, but camogie does not allow as much physical contact.

Rounders
Rounders is a bat and ball game which is played in Ireland; a similar version is played in England. Rounders is the least popular of the GAA gaelic games and is organised by a sub division of the GAA known as the Rounders Council of Ireland. It is similar to baseball.

Gaelic handball
Gaelic handball is a game where two players use their hands to return a ball against a wall. The game is similar to  American handball; Gaelic handballers play against their US counterparts.

Other Gaelic Games 
Other Gaelic Games such as gaelic athletics have nearly or completely died out. Pastimes such as Road bowling, a sport played in Ireland for a long time, could be considered Gaelic games.

References

Other websites
THE SÉAMUS Ó CEALLAIGH COLLECTION - Limerick sports history and Gaelic Games 

Sports competitions
Sport in Ireland
Sport in Northern Ireland
Gaelic handball

Gaelic handball is a game where two players use their hands to return a ball against a wall. The game is similar to American handball; Gaelic handballers play against their US counterparts.

Other websites 

HandballCity.com
Colorado Handball Association in USA
www.handball.ie
Irish Handball Results
www.gaa.ie
United States Handball Association
Collegiate Handball in Ireland 
World Pro Handballl
handballvideo.com
Handball Social Network 

Handball
Sport in Ireland
American handball

American (or court) handball, usually referred to simply as handball, is an American form of fives played against one or more walls.

History 
It is a common belief that American handball was brought to the United States in the 1880s by Irish immigrants. The Gaelic handball sport was played since the 15th century in Ireland and Scotland.

Play
American handball is played on a court 12.2 meters long by 6.1 meters wide (40 feet long by 20 feet wide) with either a single (front) wall, three walls, or in a fully enclosed four-wall court (the most common). The four-wall court is a rectangular box. The front wall is 6.1 meters (20 feet) square, and the side walls are 12.2 meters (40 feet) long and 6.1 meters (20 feet) high. In the middle of the floor of the court lies the short line, that divides the floor into two 6.1 meter (20 feet) squares. Also along the floor is the service line, which is 1.5 meters (5 feet) in front of the short line. The service zone is the area between these two lines. The back wall of the court is usually 3.7 meters (12 feet) high, with an above gallery for the referee and scorer, and also spectators. A few courts have a glass back wall and/or glass side walls to allow for a better view of the match. (In three-wall court handball, the court often has a front wall and two full side walls, or the front wall is flanked by two triangular wings.)

Related pages
 Basque pelota
 Gaelic handball

References 

 Time magazine, May 11, 1942.
 http://www.handballcity.com/Ervin%20Irizarry%20Interview.html
   http://www.handball.ie/newsite/start.php?subaction=showfull&id=1161381646&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2&
 http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=boxing&ID=126

Other websites 
 US Handball
 Colorado Handball Association
 Official rules of the USHA
 Southern California Handball Association
 Toledo Handball Club
 Los Angeles Athletic Club - Handball 
 Nothingbuthandball.com Promoting the Sport of Handball 
 HandballCity.com Promoting the Sport of Handball
 Social Network for the Sport of Handball 

Handball
Fives

Fives is a British sport believed to come from the same origins as many racket sports. In fives, a ball is propelled against the walls of a special court using gloved or bare hands as though they were a racquet.

Background 

The name may be derived from the slang expression "a bunch of fives" (meaning a fist). The game has also been known as hand-tennis and historically was often played between the buttresses of church buildings in England. There are links between Fives and the Irish and North American handball games and indeed, in recent years, British clubs have begun to establish ties with clubs in those countries.

Fives is not the same as Long Fives, which is played in a real tennis court.

There are two main forms of the game Rugby Fives and Eton Fives. 
Eton Fives is played competitively as a doubles game, whilst Rugby Fives is played as both a singles and a doubles game.

Other websites 
 Eton Fives
 Rugby Fives Association (UK)
 Cambridge University Rugby Fives Club 
 Executioners (A London Fives Club) 
 White Rose Fives Club (A Club based in West Yorkshire) 
 Old Merchant Taylors Rugby Fives Club 

Handball
Miami Heat

The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team in the National Basketball Association in Miami, Florida. It was started in 1988. They play their home games at the FTX Arena. They won the 2006 NBA Finals where they defeated the Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 2. Dwyane Wade was the Finals MVP. The two teams met again in the Finals in 2011 with the Mavericks winning the rematch 4 games to 2. The Heat won again in the 2012 NBA Finals where they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 4 games to 1. LeBron James was the Finals MVP for the first time in his career. They also defeated the San Antonio Spurs in 2013 4 games to 3. LeBron was the Finals MVP for the second straight year. They lost to the Spurs in the 2014 rematch over five games. The Heat became the first Eastern Conference team to reach four straight Finals. After four years with the Heat, LeBron returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers and spent another four years there. The Heat returned to the Finals in 2020, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.

References

Other websites

National Basketball Association teams
Sports in Miami, Florida
1988 establishments in the United States
1980s establishments in Florida
Buttress

A buttress is a structure placed against the walls of a building to give it more support, or to help it to hold the roofs. Buttresses are common in ancient buildings, especially in Europe.  A buttress can be an inside or outside support.

Architectural elements
Walls