cahya/wikipedia-simple-en huggingface dataset:
Mongolic languages

The Mongolic languages are a group of languages that are spoken in Central Asia. Some linguists propose to put Mongolic languages in the same group as the  Turkic and Tungusic languages. They call this group the Altaic languages, but not all linguists agreed upon this.

The best-known member of this language family is Mongolian. In Cyrillic orthography as it is used in Mongolia it is written Монгол Хэл, and in the vertical Uygur-derived script as used in it is Inner Mongolia in China it is written Mongγol Kele). It is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia, and is spoken by around 5.7 million people in Mongolia, Russia, and China.

References

 Γarudi (2002): Dumdadu üy-e-yin mongγul kelen-ü bütüče-yin kelberi-yin sudulul [The study of grammatical forms in Middle Mongolian]. Kökeqota: Öbür mongγul-un arad-un keblel-ün qoriy-a.
 Janhunen, Juha (ed.) (2003): The Mongolic languages. London: Routledge.
 Janhunen, Juha (2003a): Written Mongol. In: Janhunen 2003: 30-56.
 Janhunen, Juha (2003b): Para-Mongolic. In: Janhunen 2003: 391-402.
 Janhunen, Juha (2003c): Proto-Mongolic. In: Janhunen 2003: 1-29.
 Poppe, Nicholas (1964 [1954]): Grammar of Written Mongolian. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
 Rybatzki, Volker (2003): Middle Mongol. In: Janhunen 2003: 47-82.
 Sechenbaatar, Borjigin (2003): The Chakhar dialect of Mongol - A morphological description. Helsinki: Finno-Ugrian society.

Other websites
Ethnologue report on Mongolic languages
Ethnic groups of Mongolia
Ethnic map of Mongolia
Tungusic languages

The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus, Tungus) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. Some linguists consider them to be part of the Altaic languages but many others do not think so.

Many Tungusic languages are in danger, and the long-term future of the family is uncertain.

Classification
Linguists working on Tungusic have proposed a number of different classifications based on different criteria, including morphological, lexical, and phonological characteristics. 
 
Northern Tungusic
 Evenki (obsolete: Tungus), spoken by Ewenkis in central Siberia and northeastern China and
 Even (Lamut) of eastern Siberia

These languages can be considered dialects or related languages of Evenki:
 Oroqen
 Negidal
 Solon
 Manegir

Southern Tungusic
Southeast Tungusic
 Nanai (Gold, Goldi, Hezhen)
 Akani
 Birar
 Kile
 Samagir
 Orok
 Ulch
 Oroch
 Udege

Southwest Tungusic (or the Jurchen-Manchu group)
 Manchu of Manchuria, the language of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty of China.  
 Sibe - spoken in Xinjiang autonomous region by descendants of a Manchurian tribe dispatched by the Qing Dynasty to Xinjiang as a military garrison.
Jurchen - an extinct language of the Jin Dynasty of China. 
Jurchen-Manchu (Jurchen and Manchu are simply different stages of the same language).

References

 Ethnologue entry for Tungus languages
Kane, Daniel. The Sino-Jurchen Vocabulary of the Bureau of Interpreters. Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series, Volume 153. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, 1989.

Other websites
Monumenta Altaica - Altaic Linguistics. Grammars, Texts, Dictionaries, Bibliographies of Mongolian and other Altaic languages 
Tungusic Research Group at Dartmouth College 

Languages of Asia
Pioneer program

The Pioneer program is the name of a few unmanned space missions done by NASA between 1958 and 1978. Problably the best-known of these probes were Pioneer 10 and 11, launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively.
Both carried a plaque as shown.
Cystitis

Cystitis is the infection of the urinary bladder. Women get this more often than men, but men can get it also. It also affects all age groups.

Infectious diseases
Urinary system
Royal Academy

The Royal Academy (RA), is an art institution based in Burlington  House, Piccadilly, London. It is a club for top painters and sculptors. They elect their own members, and give regular exhibitions of art works.

The Royal Academy was formed to rival the Society of Artists after an leadership dispute between two leading architects, Sir William Chambers and James Paine. Paine won, but Chambers used his strong connections with King George III to create the Royal Academy, in 1768. It was formally launched the following year.

Membership of the Royal Academy is up to 80 practising artists, each elected by ballot of the General Assembly of the Royal Academy. They are known as Royal Academicians (RA, or more traditionally as R.A.). The Royal Academy is governed by these Royal Academicians.

Sir Joshua Reynolds was its first president, and Benjamin West its second.

Related pages 
 List of Royal Societies

References

Museums in London
Art museums in the United Kingdom
The Last Judgement (Michelangelo)

The Last Judgment is a fresco by Michelangelo painted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Clement VII commissioned the painting in 1534, the last year of his papacy. After the election of Paul III Farnese, Michelangelo, aged 61, began work in 1536. He completed the Last Judgement in the autumn of 1541. 

The Last Judgment shows the Second Coming of Christ, as described by John the Evangelist in the apocalypse. The painting depicts the moment when the living and dead are judged by Christ, and their souls consigned to heaven or hell.

The painting was not unanimously admired at the time. Due to his depiction of holy persons in the nude, with exposed genitals, Michelangelo was accused of immorality and obscenity. The cardinal said that this could not be tolerated inside the most important church of Christianity. A censorship campaign was started, known as the "Fig-leaf campaign". Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (Mantua's ambassador) launched the campaign to remove the frescoes.  When the Pope's own Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, said "it was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully," and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather "for the public baths and taverns," Michelangelo worked the Cesena's semblance into the scene as Minos, judge of the underworld (far bottom-right corner of the painting). It is said that when Cesena complained to the Pope, the pontiff responded that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell, so the portrait would have to remain.

The genitalia in the fresco were later covered by the artist Daniele da Volterra, whom history remembers by the derogatory nickname "Il Braghettone" ("the breeches-painter").

In the painting, Michelangelo does a self portrait depicting himself as St. Bartholomew after he had been flayed (skinned alive) This is reflective of the feelings of contempt Michelangelo had for being commissioned to paint the Last Judgement.

References

Paintings with Christian themes
16th-century paintings
Fancy rat

The fancy rat or pet rat is a type of the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) that is bred to be a pet.  The name fancy rat has nothing to do with the "fanciness" of how they look. It comes from the phrase animal fancy.  A person who keeps pet rats is said to be involved in "rat fancy."  Some people domesticate black rats (Rattus rattus), and Gambian pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus). These types of rats are not usually called fancy rats because the hobby does not center around them.

Fancy rats have been bred as pets at least since the late 19th century. They can have many different colors and coat types.  They are sociable, intelligent animals. They can learn to come when called, use a litter box, and do many different tricks. Pet rats act differently from rats found in nature. The number of generations since they have been removed from the wild and how they were bred has an effect on how much they act differently. They are not any more of a health risk than other common pets. 

In the 19th century france, Fancy Rats were quite a popular attraction of entertainment, they could be taughtt a handfull of tricks.

Fancy rats do not have the diseases and illness as a wild rat would have.
Fancy rats can have ears on the top of their head (standard) or at the side (dumbo)

Old World rats and mice
Gymnasium (ancient Greece)

In Ancient Greece the Gymnasion (or Gymnasium, romanized name) was a place where athletes could train for the competitions in public games, such as the Olympic Games. Gymnos means naked. Only men were allowed to enter, and train; they did so fully naked (as the name implies). Athletes also competed in the nude. This was said to encourage aesthetic appreciation of the male body. It was believed to be a tribute to the Gods. Gymnasia and palestrae were under the protection and patronage of Heracles, Hermes and, in Athens, Theseus.

Layout 
 The picture above shows the Pompeii gymnasium from the top of the stadium wall. The depression in the center-left of the picture was filled with water and used for swimming practice as well. Mock sea battles (naumachiae) took place in the flooded arena floor or a specially dug pool in the arena. According to Oscar Brockett in his History of the Theatre, 5th Ed. (1987), p. 70, "Perhaps the most spectacular of all entertainments were the naumachiae, or sea battles. The first was given in 46 B.C. by Julius Caesar on a lake dug for the occasion; it featured a battle involving 2,000 marines and 6,000 oarsmen. Later the amphitheatres were sometimes flooded for such events. By far the most ambitious of all the naumachiae was given in 52 A.D. on the Fucine Lake east of Rome to celebrate the completion of a water conduit. On that occasion, 19,000 participants fought and many died. To the right of the picture (partially behind a tree trunk) is a line of carbonized tree stumps. These are the remains of trees (each hundreds of years old) that were part of the palaistra. They were burned in the volcanic eruption of 79. Between these and the colonnade is a line of saplings recently planted as a replacement.

References 

Ancient Greece
Buildings and structures in Greece
Sports buildings
Nudity
Arnold Rikli

Arnold Rikli (1823-1906) was a healer. He proposed various therapies, mostly based on exposing the body to sun and air (called Sun tanning, preferably done while naked). He is one of the forefathers of a movement called naturism today.

1823 births
1906 deaths
Swiss people
Eastern White Pine

The eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), also known as the white pine, Weymouth pine (British), and soft pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the extreme south of Georgia.

It's the state tree of Maine and Michigan.

Conifers
Plants of North America
Forget-me-not

Myosotis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae that are commonly called Forget-me-nots. Similar names and variations are found in many different languages.

Flowers
Boraginaceae
Willow Grouse

The willow grouse (Europe) or willow ptarmigan (North America) (Lagopus lagopus) is a medium-sized gamebird in the grouse family. It is a sedentary species, breeding in birch and other forests and tundra across northern Eurasia, and in Alaska and northern Canada. It is the state bird of Alaska. During the last ice age, the species occurred in continental Europe (Tomek & Bocheński 2005).

Galliformes
Watershed (television)

Today, television can show a number of programmes. Usually the content of these programmes is rated, by a number of people (usually called advisory board). Some of the programmes may be suitable for children (of different ages), other content may not be suitable for children. The watershed is the time of the day where content not suitable for children may be shown. This is usually during the night (starting in the later evening, and ending in the early morning)

Content that children should not see
The content that is not suitable for children to see usually includes sex or nudity outside a functional context. People bathing naked in a lake may be ok, people doing a striptease in a night club or cabaret may not be. Other content generally not suitable includes various levels of violence or the use of illegal drugs. Sometimes strong language (full of expletives) is also seen as unfit for children.

Television
Spot-billed pelican

The spot-billed pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) is a member of the pelican family. It breeds in southern Asia from southern Pakistan. It is a bird of large inland and coastal waters, especially shallow lakes. The nest is a heap of vegetation in a tree. Three to four eggs is the usual clutch size.

Birds of Pakistan
Pelecaniformes
Lake Manasarovar

Lake Manasarovar or Lake Manasa Sarovar (, Mapham Yutso; ) is a fresh-water lake. It is in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China,  from Lhasa. Lake Manasarovar is the source of the Pakistani river Sindhu. Sindhu flows west to the Arabian Sea.

Geography of China
Bathing

Bathing is putting the body into a fluid, most often water, or a solution with water. Usually it is done for hygiene or for religious purposes, or for fun. Sometimes bathing is also done as a form of therapy.

When people talk about bathing, they most often mean being immersed in water. But people have also "bathed" in other substances. Some therapies involve bathing in mud. People have also bathed in other substances, like Champagne, beans, or chocolate. A form of bathing quite common is bathing in sunlight.

Reasons for bathing 

 
Bathing serves several purposes:
 Hygiene, and the physical appearance of cleanliness
 Decontamination from chemical, biological, nuclear or other exposure-type hazards.
 Recreation
 Therapy (e.g. hydrotherapy), healing, rehabilitation from injury or addiction, relaxation (e.g. Blessed Rainy Day)
 Religious, or, less frequently, other ceremonial rites (e.g. Baptism, Mikvah)
 Celebration and socialization, e.g. running through fountains after winning the World Series, or jumping through a hole cut in the ice over a lake on New Year's Eve.
 Ensuring people are free of certain items such as weapons or other contraband: In Chicago, Russian baths were a safe meeting place for rival gang leaders. Weapons are difficult to conceal on a nearly naked body. If the meeting resulted in reconciliation, the gangs would meet upstairs for bagels, cream cheese and borscht. Many homeless shelters, and almost all prisons have an intake facility or intake process that includes a supervised shower with change of clothes to ensure that no contraband or contamination enters the facility.

References

Other websites 
 A virtual exhibition about bathing in art, from Cranach to Fellini

Hygiene
Water
Pygmy marmoset

Pygmy marmosets are the smallest marmosets and one of the smallest of all primates. They inhabit Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. Most pygmy marmosets lives in troops of two to nine individuals, with a dominant male, a breeding female, and up to four successive litters of offspring. The modal size of a standard stable  troop would be 6 individuals.
 
Pygmy marmosets have tawny agouti fur (the tip of the hair is a different color to the base) with an indistinctly dark-ringed tail. They can range in size from 4.6 in to 6 in but could possibly be half that size when they are first born since they are the size of a human thumb.

They are expected to live as long as 15-20 years.

Habitat 
They live in flooded forest near rivers, bamboo thickets and the edges of agricultural fields. They're mostly native in South Africa but can also be found around the western part of the amazon rainforest. Can also be found in Bolivia, Peru, Columbia, and Western Brazil.

Diet 
Pygmy marmosets mainly feed on gum (tree exudates, sap), but they also eat fruit, nectar and insects. They gouge holes in the bark of trees, and revisit these holes daily to collect the sap. The marmosets hang on with specially adapted claws.

References 
2. Tardif , S., Smucny , D., Abbott , D., Mansfield , K., Darkin, N. S., & Yamamoto , M. E. (2003). National Library of Medicine . Reproduction in Captive Common Marmosets (Callithrix Jacchus), 364–368.

3. University of Salford. (2018, February 27). Smallest monkey's evolutionary secret. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 19, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180227094726.htm

4. Jean P. Boubli, Maria N.F. da Silva, Anthony B. Rylands, Stephen D. Nash, Fabrício Bertuol, Mário Nunes, Russell A. Mittermeier, Hazel Byrne, Felipe E. Silva, Fabio Röhe, Iracilda Sampaio, Horacio Schneider, Izeni P. Farias, Tomas Hrbek, How many pygmy marmoset (Cebuella Gray, 1870) species are there? A taxonomic re-appraisal based on new molecular evidence, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 120

Marmosets
Mammals of South America
Patras

Patra () is the third biggest Greek city. Patra is in southwest Greece on the west coast of the Peloponnese. It is the capital of the prefecture of Achaia and also the capital of the Greek perifereia (district) of Western Peloponnese. 171,616 lived there in 2001. The total population of Patra, including all its suburbs, is over 200,000 people. Patra is a coastal city, so it has a big port. Patra's port connects Greece with east-facing Italian ports such as Bari, Brindisi and Ancona.

History 

Patra developed in the third century BC. During the Roman period, Patra became an important city. In Patra Christianity arrived quite early, approximately in the first century AD, by St Andrew, who was martyred there. During the Middle Ages Patra was not very significant. Patra developed again after the Greek liberation from the Turks, in 1830 following the Greek revolution of 1821.

Sights 

The most important site in Patra is the contemporary Bridge Rion-Antirion which links Peloponnese and Sterea Ellada. This bridge is located a short distance from Patra's center, in the district of Rio. Opposite Rio is Antirio and it ends at the bridge. Other significant sites in Patra are the church of Agios Andreas and the Apollon theater. The cathedral of Agios Andreas is the third biggest churches in Greece. Patra is known for its wines, with the famous and oldest Winery in Greece, Achaia Clauss founded in 1861.

References

Cities in Greece
Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela (also Saint James of Compostela) is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia. It is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. The city is in the northwest of Spain in the Province of A Coruña.

The city's Cathedral is the destination of an important pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James (Galician: Camiño de Santiago, Spanish: Camino de Santiago). Pilgrims have been following this route since the ninth century.

The cathedral is believed to be where James, son of Zebedee is buried. Saint James was one of the apostles of Jesus Christ.

Capital cities in Spain
Christopher Nolan

Christopher Jonathan James Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American director, producer and screenwriter. He often works with his brother, author Jonathan Nolan. Nolan rose to prominence for directing the psychological thriller Memento, and for reviving the Batman movie franchise as the director of The Dark Knight Trilogy. Each of them are Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). He is also the founder of the production company, Syncopy Films through which his movies Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017) were released.

In July 2012, Nolan became the youngest director to be honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Dark Knight 

In the months following the release of The Prestige (another of Nolan's movies, released in 2006), Nolan made many comments suggesting that he would return to direct the sequel to Batman Begins. In late July 2006, the sequel was officially confirmed as The Dark Knight with Nolan at the helm and Heath Ledger joining the cast as The Joker, Batman's nemesis.  Nolan and his brother Jonathan wrote a script, based on a treatment written by himself and David S. Goyer.  The movie began production in early 2007. It was released on July 18 2008 in the United States, to overwhelming critical acclaim. It has also made a lot of money, setting the record for the highest-grossing weekend opening in the U.S. with over $158 million.

Casting 
Nolan has frequently cast the following;

Director filmography

Major motion pictures 
 Following (1998) (also writer/producer)
 Memento (2000) (also writer)
 Insomnia (2002)
 Batman Begins (2005) (director/also writer/producer)
 The Prestige   (2006) (also co-writer/producer)
 The Dark Knight (2008) (director/also co-writer/producer)
 Inception (2009) (director)
 The Dark Knight Rises (2012) (director/co-writer/producer)
 Man of Steel (2013) (producer/writer)
 Transcendence (2014) (producer)
 Interstellar (2014) (director/co-writer/producer)
 Dunkirk (2017) (director/writer/producer)
 Tenet (2020) (director/co-writer/producer)

Short movies 
 Tarantella (1989) (Also writer/producer)
 Larceny (1996) (Also writer/producer)
 Doodlebug (1997) (Also writer/producer)

References

Other websites 

NolanFans.com Fansite and community for Christopher Nolan. 
 Telegraph.co.uk  Interview with Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale

 
1970 births
Living people
English movie directors
English movie producers
English writers
Movie directors from London
Saturn Award winners
Writers from London
Foucault pendulum

The Foucault pendulum, or Foucault's pendulum (named after the French physicist Léon Foucault) was pendulum created as an experiment to show the rotation of the Earth.

The experiment 

On  January 3, 1851, Foucault did the following experiment: He mounted a 2 metre long pendulum, and let it swing, in the basement of his house. On the floor, he marked the axis, along which the pendulum was swinging. After some time, he noticed, that the pendulum no longer swung along the axis he had marked on the floor, but on an different axis. When he tried to explain this, he considered, what could have caused the axis to change. He considered gravity. Gravity could not have caused the axis to change, as it only acts vertically. There were no other forces acting on the pendulum. So: according to Newton's laws, the pendulum did not change the axis it was swinging in. So it was the floor (or the earth) that changed this axis, because it rotated. 

Vincenzo Viviani (1662-1703) had made similar observations, but he didn't attribute them to the rotation of the earth.  

On the 3rd of February 1851, he repeated the experiment, with a 12m pendulum at the Paris observatory. On 26th of March he presented the experiment to the public: At the Panthéon, he used a 67m long pendulum, with a weight of 28kg. At the bottom of the pendulum, there was a tip that left a trace in a sandbox. This was an easy way to show the earth's rotation to common people. The metal ball of this pendulum still exists: Until 1946, it was stored at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, then it was returned to the Panthéon.

Caspar Garthe repeated the experiment at Cologne Cathedral, Friedrich Magnus Schwerd did in Speyer Cathedral. Their results were deceptive, and not nearly as good as those obtained in Paris. In 1879, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes wrote his thesis on the subject, doing extra calculations on the exact magnitude of the effect. In his thesis, he  also pointing out the problems the people had encountered in Cologne and Speyer.

An exact copy of the original has been operating in the Panthéon since 1995. It takes 31h 50min to do a full rotation (of 360 degrees). 

Because a Foucault pendulum is an easy way to show the rotation of the earth, such devices can be found in many science museums around the world today.

References 

Pendulums
Jaguar S-Type

Jaguar S-Type was a car produced by Jaguar from 1998 till 2008. It was first shown at the 1998 Birmingham Motor Show, and shared 'retro' styling with the Rover 75, which was shown at that same show.

Replacement and discontinuation
The S-Type was replaced by the Jaguar XF in the spring of 2008.

Automobiles
Muskrat

Muskrats are rodents that live in freshwater and saltwater marshes, lakes, ponds, and streams. Muskrats often build dome-shaped houses in marshes. These houses, made of plants, protect the muskrat from predators, since the only entrance is underwater. Some muskrats live in burrows on the water banks. Muskrats are excellent swimmers but are slow on land. 

Muskrats are native to North America, but have been brought to Europe and Asia, where they now live in the wild. Muskrats got their name because they have musk glands that produce a strong scent. 

Rodents
Mammals of North America
Griffith's experiment

Griffith's Experiment was an experiment done in 1928 by Frederick Griffith. It was one of the first experiments showing that bacteria can get DNA through a process.

Griffith used two strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae. He then uses the bacteria to infect the mice, which have many similar characteristics to humans. He used a type III-S (smooth) and type II-R (rough) strain. The III-S strain covers itself with a polysaccharide capsule that protects it from the host's immune system. This means that the host will die. The II-R strain does not have that protective shield around it and is killed by the host's immune system.

In this experiment, bacteria from the III-S strain were killed by heat, and their remains were added to II-R strain bacteria. While neither harmed the mice on their own, the blend of the two was able to kill mice.

Griffith was also able to get both live II-R and live III-S strains of S. pneumoniae from the blood of these dead mice. He concluded that the type II-R had been "transformed" into the lethal III-S strain by a "transforming principle" that was somehow part of the dead III-S strain bacteria.

Today, we know that the "transforming principle" Griffith saw was the DNA of the III-S strain bacteria. While the bacteria had been killed, the DNA had survived the heating process and was taken up by the II-R strain bacteria. The III-S strain DNA contains the genes that form the shielding polysaccharide part from attack. Armed with this gene, the former II-R strain bacteria were now protected from the host's immune system and could kill the host.

The exact nature of the transforming principle was confirmed in one of many experiments done by Avery, McLeod and McCarty, as well as Hershey and Chase.

Related pages
Genetics
Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment
Hershey–Chase experiment

References 

Hartl, Daniel and Jones, Elizabeth 2005. Genetics: analysis of genes and genomes. 6th ed, Jones & Bartlett. 
The original experiment by Griffith. Original article and 35th anniversary reprint available.

1928
Genetics experiments
Bacteria
Molecular biology
Frederick Griffith

Frederick Griffith (1879 - 1941) was a English medical officer and geneticist. In 1928, during an experiment, he discovered what he called a transforming principle, but today we call DNA.

Early life
He was born in Hale, Lancashire and attended Liverpool University where he studied genetics. In his younger days he worked at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, the Thompson Yates Laboratory, and the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis.

Griffith's experiment

The experiment began when Griffith was trying to make a vaccine to prevent pneumonia infections in the "Spanish flu" influenza pandemic after World War I, by using two strains of the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium.

Later life
Griffith was killed at work in his laboratory in 1941, along with longtime friend and bacteriologist William M. Scott in London during an air raid in the London blitz. Years later Griffith's "transforming principle" was identified as DNA by Oswald Avery, along with coworkers Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty, in 1944. The Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment.

References

Other websites
Frederick Griffith Lancet, (3 May 1941): 588. Obituary
The Famous DNA Experiments 
Griffith's Experiment on Bacterial Transformation 

1871 births
1941 deaths
English geneticists
English physicians
Streptococcus pneumoniae

Streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus, is a gram-positive, alpha-hemolytic diplococcus aerotolerant anaerobe and a member of the genus Streptococcus. An important human pathogen, S. pneumoniae was recognized as a major cause of pneumonia in the late 19th century and is the subject of many humoral immunity studies.

References 

Gram-positive bacteria
Strain (biology)

In biology, a strain is a low-level taxonomic rank below the rank of species. This is seen in microbiology where strains are got from a single cell colony, and are quarantined by being in a Petri dish. Strains are also commonly referred to in virology, in horticulture, and with rodents used in experimental studies.

Microbiology/Virology
A strain is a genetic variant or subtype of a microorganism, that is to say a virus or bacterium or fungus. For example, a "flu strain" is a certain biological form of the influenza or "flu" virus. Properly speaking, bacteria, archaea and viruses do not have species, because they do not have eukaryote-type sexual reproduction. Bacteria do exchange DNA, but they may exchange it between different kinds of bacteria, which shows their difference from eukaryotes. Strains are therefore an essential part of bacterial identification.

Plants
In botany, the term is not used to rank plants. It is sometimes used to refer to all the descendants produced from a common ancestor that share a uniform morphological or physiological character. A strain is a designated group of offspring that have descended from a modified plant, produced ether by conventional breeding or by biotechnological means or result from genetic mutation. 

For example, some rice strains are made by inserting new genetic material into a rice plant, all the descendants of the genetically modified rice plant are a strain with a unique genetic code that is passed on to later generations. The strain designation, a number or a formal name, covers all the plants that descend from the originally modified plant. The rice plants in the strain can be breed to other rice strains or cultivars, and if desirable plants are produced, these are further breed to stabilize the desirable traits; the stabilized plants that can be propagated and come true, are given a cultivar name and released into production to be used by farmers.

Rodents
A mouse or a rat strain is a group of animals that is genetically uniform. Strains are used in laboratory experiments. Mouse strains can be inbred or genetically engineered, while rat strains are usually produced by inbreeding.

Other websites
International Mouse Strain Resource (IMSR)
Rat strain index

References

rank32
Classical genetics
Hannes Schäfer

Dr. Johannes Schäfer, born 2nd October 1965 in Göttingen, Germany, was the bass player of the German rock band Fury in the Slaughterhouse from the beginning (1987) until 1996. Today (2008) he is a doctor.

Schäfer's first band was 1982 the punk band Defekt in Hanover, Germany, where he was singer and bass player. From 1985 until 1987 he played in the jazz rock band CIT., together with Mousse T. and at the same time he worked as a studio musician at the Stakkato Studio in Hannover.

In 1987 Schäfer founded the rock band Fury in the Slaughterhouse together with Kai and Christian Wingenfelder, Rainer Schumann and Christoph Stein-Schneider. He played the bass in this band until 1996, when he was followed by Christian Decker. Together with his band Schäfer was awarded golden recording sales certifications for the Fury albums Fury in the Slaughterhouse (1988), Mono (1992), and the Hearing and the Sense of Balance (1995). Fury in the Slaughterhouse sold about three million recordings of albums made in their time with Hannes Schäfer (1987-1996).

After leaving Fury in the Slaughterouse Schäfer studied medicine and today (2008) he works as a doctor in the hospital Vinzenzkrankenhaus in Hanover.

Other websites
Homepage of Fury in the Slaughterhouse
the hospital Schäfer works at today

1965 births
Living people
German musical entertainers
The Prestige

The Prestige is a 2006 period movie directed by Christopher Nolan. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, enemy stage magicians in fin de siècle London.  Obsessed with creating the best stage Magic, they take part in a competition with tragic results.

Cast and characters 
 Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier, a classy magician with a talent for performance.
 Christian Bale as Alfred Borden, a working-class magician who knows magic.
 Michael Caine as John Cutter, the stage engineer who works for Angier.
 Rebecca Hall as Sarah Borden, Borden's wife.
 Scarlett Johansson as Olivia Wenscombe, Angier's assistant and Borden's lover.
 David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, the inventor (Tesla was a real person) who creates a device for Angier.
 Piper Perabo as Julia McCullough, Angier's wife.
 Andy Serkis as Mr. Alley, Tesla's assistant.
 Ricky Jay as "Milton the Magician", an older magician Borden and Angier work for at the beginning of the story.
 Roger Rees as Owens, a solicitor working for Lord Caldlow.
 W. Morgan Sheppard as Merrit, the owner of a theater where Angier initially performs.

Release dates

Other websites 
 Official Website 
 
 
 Writer Christopher Priest's website 

2006 movies
American science fiction movies
Warner Bros. movies
Movies based on books

Movies directed by Christopher Nolan
Javon Ringer

Javon Ringer (born February 2, 1987, Dayton, Ohio) is an American football running back for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Michigan State University. He attended Chaminade Julienne High School, where he set many running records.

Other websites 
 Ringer's official site 
 Javon Ringer statistics, ESPN.com
 MSU Spartans Player Profile 
 CBS Player Page 

1987 births
Living people
American football running backs
Tennessee Titans players
Sportspeople from Dayton, Ohio
Running back

A running back (RB) is the position of a player on an American football team. They are the players who carry the ball the most. They receive handoffs, catch passes, and block for other runners.

References 
 Football 101: Basic Football positions
 http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-the-running-backs-do-in-a-football-game.html

American football positions
Heisman Trophy

The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award (often known simply as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman), named after the former college football coach John Heisman, is awarded annually by the Downtown Athletic Club of New York City to the most outstanding player in collegiate football.

Other websites 

The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award website
StiffArmTrophy.com (attempts to project the Heisman Trophy winner through "exit polls" of actual Heisman voters)
HeismanPundit.com (commentary and discussion)
New Home of the Heisman - Sports Museum of America
Place of birth

The place of birth is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Sometimes a person's place of birth decides the ethnicity of the person.

Human geography
Migration
Identification documents
Run, Fat Boy, Run

Run Fat Boy Run is a 2007 British romantic comedy directed by David Schwimmer, written by Michael Ian Black and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Dylan Moran, Thandie Newton, Harish Patel, India de Beaufort and Hank Azaria. It was released in the UK on 7 September 2007, in Canada on 10 September 2007 and in the United States on 28 March 2008.

Characters and cast
 Simon Pegg as Dennis Doyle
 Thandie Newton as Elizabeth Olivia 'Libby' Odell
 Hank Azaria as Whit
 Dylan Moran as Gordon
 Harish Patel as Mr. Goshdashtidar
 India de Beaufort as Maya Goshdashtidar
 Matthew Fenton as Jake
 Simon Day as Vincent
 Ruth Sheen as Claudine
 Tyrone Huggins as Grover
 Nevan Finegan as Mickey

Guest appearances
 Chris Hollins (sports reporter)
 Peter Serafinowicz (reporter voice over)
 Denise Lewis (British athlete)
 Stephen Merchant (injured runner)
 David Walliams (customer in Libby's shop)

References

Other websites
 Official site
 
 
 
 
 
 Official Canadian site 
 Interview with director David Schwimmer at YouTube

2007 comedy movies
2007 romance movies
2000s romantic comedy movies
2000s sports comedy movies

British romantic comedy movies
English-language movies
Movies set in London
And Now for Something Completely Different

And Now for Something Completely Different is a British movie spin-off from the comedy television series Monty Python's Flying Circus. The movie feature favorite sketches from the first two seasons. The title was used as a catchphrase in the series.

Other websites 

 
 

1971 movies
British comedy movies
Abu Ghraib prison

Abu Ghraib prison is a prison in Abu Ghraib, a city 32 km west of Baghdad, Iraq. It became known when Saddam Hussein tortured and executed dissidents there. After the United States had invaded Iraq, there was also a scandal where US forces tortured prisoners.

Prisons
Buildings and structures in Iraq
Trade (sports)

In professional sports, a trade is when one (or more) player's contract and/or draft picks is traded between sports teams. Cash is another thing that may be added with contracts and/or draft picks to make a trade.  Most often, trades are done between two teams, but there are times where trades are made between three or more teams.

Sports words
Jet (band)

Jet is a hard rock band from Melbourne, Australia. They were formed in 2001. They have made two albums, Get Born and Shine On. Get Born sold over three and a half million copies worldwide.

References

Australian hard rock bands
2000s music groups
Australian alternative rock bands
Musical groups from Melbourne
Musical groups established in 2001
2001 establishments in Australia
Get Born

Get Born is the first album by Australian band Jet.  It was recorded in 2003. It was released on September 14, 2003.  The song "Cold Hard Bitch" reached the top spot on the Modern Rock charts.

Track Listing
 "Last Chance" – 1:52
 "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" – 3:34
 "Rollover DJ" – 3:17
 "Look What You've Done" – 3:50
 "Get What You Need" – 4:08
 "Move On" – 4:21
 "Radio Song" – 4:32
 "Get Me Outta Here" – 2:56
 "Cold Hard Bitch" – 4:03
 "Come Around Again" – 4:30
 "Take It Or Leave It" – 2:23
 "Lazy Gun" – 4:42
 "Timothy" – 4:32
 "Sgt. Major" – 4:04 *

(*) Bonus track in Limited Edition CD

References

2003 albums
Debut albums
Rock albums
Tom Wills

Thomas Wentworth "Tom" Wills (19 August 1835 – 3 May 1880) was an Australian all-round sportsman who helped invent Australian Football and helped write the Laws of Australian Football.

Wills was born in south-east New South Wales, Australia either near Gundagai or Queanbeyan.  

From the age of 14 he went to Rugby School in England.  At school he played both rugby football and cricket very well. By his final year in England, he was captain of the Rugby XI and he was listed in Bells Sporting Life as being one of the most promising young cricketers in England.

In 1859, Wills was involved with others in creating a set of football rules that were like a cross between rugby, soccer and Gaelic football. He made up the game for cricketers to keep in shape during the off-season (winter). Wills had help from people who included his cousin Henry Colden Harrison, and W.J. Hammersly and J.B. Thompson.  This game is now Australian Rules Football. 

Wills grew up with Indigenous Australians.  He spoke the language of the people who lived near him and played with the children.  It has been suggested that Australian Rules Football is based in part on Marn Grook, an Aboriginal game with some similar rules to Australian Rules Football. Because the indigenous people Wills played with as a child would have played Marn Grook, Wills would have been influenced by this game when creating the rules for Australian Rules Football.

Willis was an alcoholic. He committed suicide by stabbing himself in the heart.

References

1835 births
1880 deaths
Australian cricketers
Australian rules footballers
Sportspeople from New South Wales
Sportspeople who committed suicide
Suicides by blade weapons
Suicides in Australia
Simple Plan (album)

Simple Plan is the third, self-titled studio album by pop punk band Simple Plan.

Track listing
"When I'm Gone" - 3:49
"Take My Hand" - 3:51
"The End" - 3:22
"Your Love Is a Lie" - 3:42
"Save You" - 3:45
"Generation" - 3:02
"Time to Say Goodbye" - 2:56
"I Can Wait Forever" - 4:54
"Holding On" - 5:03
"No Love" - 3:15
"What If" - 5:54

References

2008 albums
Pop punk albums
Simple Plan albums
N-type semiconductor

An N-type semiconductor is a impurity mixed semiconductor material used in electronics. 

The pentavalent impure atoms like phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth or some other chemical element are used to produce n-type semiconductors. These impure atoms are called donor impurities because they give free electrons to a semiconductor. The doping increases the number of charge carriers in the material for conduction (read more: why do we need doping in semiconductor?). A n-type semiconductor is a lot more conductive than the pure silicon or germanium.

Introduction
Semiconductor materials like silicon and germanium have four electrons in their outer shell. The outer shell of electrons is called the valence shell. The four electrons are used by the semiconductor atom in forming bonds with its neighboring atoms. This leaves a low number of electrons available for conduction. 

Pentavalent elements are those elements which have five electrons in their outer shell. To make the n-type semiconductor, pentavalent impurities like phosphorus or arsenic are added. Four of the impurities' electrons form bonds with the surrounding silicon atoms. This leaves one electron free. The resulting material has a large number of free electrons. Since electrons are negative charge carriers, the resultant material is called an n-type (or negative type) semiconductor. The pentavalent impurity that is added is called a 'dopant' and the process of addition is called 'doping'.

Manufacture
N-type semiconductors are manufactured by doping pure semiconductor material. The amount of impurity added is very small compared to the amount of semiconductor. The way this new semiconductor works is changed by controlling the quantity of the dopant.

Properties 

 n-type semiconductors are not the pure semiconductors. They are extrinsic semiconductors.
 To get n-type semiconductor, pentavalent atoms like Arsenic (As), Phosphorus (P) are doped in an intrinsic semiconductor like Si, Ge etc.
 Majority carriers in n-type semiconductors are free electrons. That means concentration of free electrons in n-type semiconductor is greater than the concentration of holes.
 n-type semiconductors can be converted into intrinsic or pure semiconductor by increasing its temperature to a high value.

Examples 
Arsenic doped Silicon, Phosphorus doped Silicon, Arsenic doped Germanium, Phosphorus doped Germanium etc. are the examples of n-type semiconductor.

Related pages
 Semiconductor
P-type Semiconductor

Other websites
 The Doping of Semiconductors - Hyperphysics
Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductor material - Electronics & Physics
N-type semiconductor materials - concepts

Electronic components
Pay television

Pay television or premium television are subscription-based television services. They are found mainly on cable television or satellite television. Some parts of the world, like France and the US, have also offered encrypted analogue terrestrial signals, available if you pay a subscription.

Television technology
Plug-in hybrid

A plug-in hybrid car is similar to a conventional hybrid vehicle—both use a gasoline engine as well as an electric motor. A plug-in hybrid differs primarily in that it can be plugged in to charge the batteries, while a conventional hybrid relies solely on energy generated from braking, coasting or from the gasoline engine.

However, a plug-in hybrid uses larger battery packs that can be recharged by connecting to common household electricity. Plug-in hybrids can be driven for long distances—from a few miles to as much as 40 miles—without using any gasoline. Plug-in hybrid cars are also known as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles or PHEVs. Plug-in hybrid cars that use a gas engine exclusively for recharging batteries—rather than directly powering the wheels—are also called Extended-Range Electric Vehicles or E-REVs.

Fueling a car with electricity is about 5 times cheaper than fueling it with gasoline. That is equivalent to buying gasoline at less than $1 per gallon. It also reduces greenhouse pollution and helps reduce crude oil imports. Also plug-in hybrids produced substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions than either conventional gasoline cars or unplugged hybrids. The reduction in emissions results from electric operation being much more efficient than gasoline operation.

Criticisms
Criticisms of the hybrid include the additional cost, weight, and size of a larger battery pack. But The extra weight of the batteries will be offset somewhat by the reduced weight of the gas engine. 

It is obvious for most people that internal combustion engine cars cannot represent the future anymore because of the oil reserves that are estimated to be finished in forty or fifty years. Obviously, Plug-in vehicles cannot be considered a short term option because we lack the needed infrastructure and capable batteries for increasing the autonomy that is currently limited. The general opinion was that, at least for the next seven or eight years, Plug-ins are not going to become the standard in hybrid vehicles and that regular HEVs will have the biggest proportion on the market.

Green vehicles