cahya/wikipedia-simple-en huggingface dataset:
Caving

Caving (or spelunking) is the hobby of exploring caves. People who explore caves are called spelunkers.

Spelunkers and their equipment
Wise spelunkers explore in groups, to prevent being lost or stranded in a cave. Spelunkers need reliable equipment, because the descent into a cave is like mountain climbing in the opposite direction. Basic spelunking equipment is similar to what mountain climbers use. Strong ropes make climbing possible and special tools attach ropes to cave walls. Special footwear makes it easier to explore hard-to-reach places, and hard hats protect spelunkers from falling rocks above. Caves are extremely dark, so spelunkers have to carry light sources (like torches and flares). One torch attaches to a spelunker's helmet so it is with him or her at all times. Caves are also very cold, so most spelunkers wear warm clothing.

Spelunkers tie their ropes with different kinds of knots, like the farmer's hitch knot and the alpine butterfly knot. Spelunkers choose different knots for different purposes. Some knots work well to hold people as they climb. Other knots are best for tying ropes together.

Modern caving
Caving today has become a hobby for many different reasons. Some cavers are interested in conservation. Others are interested in gathering hard data about caves (called speleology). Geologists explore caves for the purpose of learning about the formation of rocks. But, for most of the rest, the purpose of caving is just to have fun.

Caves can generally be explored during any season of the year. Most caves remain at the same temperature all year round. The common rules of thumb apply:
Always wear protective headgear.
Always check to be sure there is no danger of flooding while you plan to be in the cave.
Never go alone. A minimum of three cavers is best.
Always make sure someone on the surface knows where you are caving.
Carry a minimum of three light sources per person.
The cave environment is more fragile than people realize. And, since water that flows through a cave eventually comes out in streams and rivers, any pollution will wind up in someone's drinking water and can seriously affect the surface environment as well.
Remember the cavers motto: Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.

References

Other websites 
The National Speleological Society  American organization devoted to caving, cave science, and cave conservation
 Speleological Abstract (SA/BBS) Annual review of the world's speleological literature, edited by the Bibliography Commission of the UIS.
The latest news from the caving scene. 
Photos of caving in the UK
Caving Photos 

Hobbies
Caves
Poygan, Wisconsin

Poygan is a town in Winnebago County of the state of Wisconsin in the United States.  1,037 people were living in Poygan as of the 2000 census.  Poygan has a total area of 41.9 square miles, says the United States Census Bureau.

References

Towns in Wisconsin
Winnebago County, Wisconsin
Winnebago County, Wisconsin

Winnebago County is a county of the state of Wisconsin in the United States.  156,763 people were living in Winnebago County as of the census of 2000. The county seat of Winnebago County is Oshkosh.

Geography
Winnebago County has an area of , says the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nearby counties
 Waupaca County - northwest
 Outagamie County - northeast
 Calumet County - east
 Fond du Lac County - south
 Green Lake County - southwest
 Waushara County - west

Divisions
The following is a list of cities, villages, and towns found in Winnebago County:

Unincorporated places
 Butte des Morts
 Eureka
 Larsen
 Pickett
 Metz (partial)
 Minden
 Waukau
 Winnebago

References

Other websites
 Official website
 Commemorative Biographical Record of the Fox River Valley Counties of Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago

Winnebago County, Wisconsin
1840 establishments in the United States
1840s establishments in Wisconsin Territory
Sand dollar

The Sand dollars are species of flattened, burrowing sea urchins belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. Echinarachnius parma, the Common Sand Dollar, is widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, from the intertidal zone to considerable depths. Sand dollars can be found in temperate and tropical zones, but not in Great Britain.p76

All sand dollars have a rigid skeleton known as a test. This is the typical white disk found washed up on beaches. The living animals have a skin of movable spines on the test. Movement is done by the action of the spines. Like other sea urchins, sand dollars have five paired rows of pores. The pores are arranged in a petal-like pattern. These pores are perforations in the endoskeleton through which the tube feet, used in gas exchange, project from the body.

Description 

Living sand dollars have small spines covering its entire body. They are softer and much shorter than those of the sea urchin. Like all echinoderms, sand dollars have tube feet. They are not used to move around, but simply to breathe. The sand dollar's tube feet actually stick out of the top of the sand dollar. On a sand dollar test, there is usually a pattern that looks like the petals of a flower. That pattern is made up of many tiny holes, and it is through these holes that the sand dollar's tube feet came out when it was alive.

A sand dollar uses its tiny spines to move around, and to dig into the sand. It often does this to bury itself in the sand. Sometimes, a sand dollar will only partially bury itself in the sand, and ends up poking up from the sand, standing on its side.

On the underside of a sand dollar, there is a star pattern spreading out from the center where the mouth is. This star pattern is made up of  that are called food grooves. Sand dollars filter sand and water, catching plankton and other things on their spines. Then, with cilia, the spines move the food into a food groove, and the food travels down the food groove to the mouth. Its food consists of crustacean larvae, small copepods, diatoms, algae and detritus.

Life style 
The sand dollars are the most specialised sea urchins. All their features are adaptations for burrowing. They live just beneath the sand, either flat or at an angle. At an angle they keep the edge facing the oncoming currents, presumably to catch food. This excellent habitat has been taken up by other groups of sea urchins. The heart urchins, another order, are even more effective in burrowing.p76 Sand dollars can live for up to 10 years.

Colours 
Most living sand dollars have dark colours, like brown or purple. Their darker color helps them stay camouflaged, easily hiding in the sand or mud or on the sea floor. The tests of sand dollars do not have bristles and tube feet, and because of the sun, they usually become  white.

References

Other websites 

 
 The Common Sand Dollar by Cheryl Page 
  The Biogeography of the Western Sand Dollar - Dendraster excentricus
 Video showing the life cycle of Clypeaster subdepressus

Echinoderms
Hyperbolic trajectory

In astrodynamics, a hyperbolic trajectory (which is also an escape trajectory) refers to an object (such as an asteroid) which follows a path similar to a hyperbola around a central object. This motion follows Kepler's Laws. A hyperbolic trajectory occurs when the eccentricity of its orbit is greater than 1.

Other types of motion in astronomy include circular orbit, elliptical orbit, and parabolic trajectory.

Orbits
Babcock, Wisconsin

Babcock is an unincorporated community in Wood County of the state of Wisconsin in the United States.  The ZIP code of Babcock is 54413.

References

Wood County, Wisconsin
Unincorporated communities in Wisconsin
Green County, Wisconsin

Green County is a county that is found in the state of Wisconsin in the United States.  33,647 people live in Green County as of the 2000 census.  The county seat of Green County is Monroe.

Geography
Green County has an area of 585 square miles, says the United States Census Bureau.

Nearby counties
 Dane County, Wisconsin - north
 Rock County, Wisconsin - east
 Winnebago County, Illinois - southeast
 Stephenson County, Illinois - south
 Lafayette County, Wisconsin - west
 Iowa County, Wisconsin - northwest

Divisions
The following is a list of the cities, towns, villages, and unincorporated communities that are found in Green County:

Unincorporated communities
Attica
Clarence
Jordan Center
Juda
Postville

References

Other websites

Green County government website

1837 establishments in Wisconsin Territory
Kefalonia

Kefalonia (and Kephalonia or Cephalonia) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the largest of the Ionian islands and the sixth largest Greek island after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. Its area is 781 square metres and its population is 36,404 according to a 2001 Greek census.

Geography
Kefalonia is home to the highest mountain in the Ionian islands. The mountain is named Ainos and its altitude is 1, 628 metres. The biggest town on the island is Argostoli which is the capital of the Kefalonia prefecture. The second biggest town is Lixouri which is located opposite Argostoli. Beside Kefalonia is the island Ithaca, the place of birth of ancient hero Odysseus. Some archaeologists believe that Kefalonia is the place of birth of Odysseus.

Sites
Kefalonia has many beautiful beaches and it is one of the most popular tourist destinations. The most popular beach on the island is Myrtos which is located in the north-west of the island. Kefalonia hosts a truly beautiful natural environment with many forests mainly on Ainos mountain. Also in Kefalonia there is a famous cave-lake which is named Melissani and is located in the east of the island

References

Islands of Greece
Tommy Lee

Tommy Lee (born October 3, 1962) is an American musician and drummer for the band Mötley Crüe. In 1999 he started a band called Methods of Mayhem. They have released two albums. He has also released two solo albums.

He was married to Pamela Anderson from 1995 until they divorced in 1998. They had two sons, Brandon and Dylan. He is a proud dog lover and owns 10 miniature chihuahuas.

1962 births
Living people
American heavy metal musicians
American rock drummers
People from Athens
Billy Bishop

William Avery "Billy" Bishop (8 February 1894 – 11 September 1956) V.C. was a Canadian flying ace from World War I. He won 72 fights, making him the top Canadian flying ace.In 1919 Bishop was photographed with Canadian Ace William George Barker V.C.

References

1894 births
1956 deaths
Aviators
Canadian people
2050s

The 2050s decade will begin on January 1, 2050 and will end on December 31, 2059.

Notable predictions and known events 
 World population is expected to reach 9.3 billion people.
China, United States, India, Brazil and Mexico will be the largest economies in the world, according to a Goldman Sachs study.

Fictional events
 The Dexter's Laboratory movie, Ego Trip, has some scenes that take place in 2055.
 The movie Minority Report takes place in 2054.
 The movie Renaissance takes place in Paris in 2054.
 The movie Red Planet takes place in 2057.
 The movie Lost In Space begins in 2058.
 John Christopher's novel The Guardians takes place during the years 2052 and 2053.
 J.D. Robb's In Death mystery series takes place during the years 2058–59.
 The computer game Deus Ex takes place in 2052.
 The short story A Sound of Thunder takes place in 2055.
 According to the movie Star Trek: First Contact, World War III will end in 2053.
 The Disney movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century takes place in the late 2040s. The second movie Zenon: The Zequel takes place in 2051, two years after the first movie, and the 3rd movie in the series, Zenon: Z3 takes place in 2054.
 The racing video game Wipeout takes place in the year 2052.
 The movie Love Story 2050 takes place in 2050.
 The anime Macross Frontier takes place in 2059.
 The Waters of Mars episode of Doctor Who takes place in 2059.
 The movie Repo! The Genetic Opera takes place in 2057.

References
Kim Mitchell

Joseph Kim Mitchell (born July 10, 1952) is a Canadian guitarist. Mitchell was the singer and guitarist for the band Max Webster and now hosts a radio show for CILQ-FM (Q107) in Toronto.

References

Other websites
Official website

1952 births
Canadian guitarists
Canadian rock musicians
Living people
People from Ontario
Canadian radio personalities
Ot en Sien

Ot en Sien (Ot and Sien) are two little children who appear in a series of stories which were written in the Dutch language more than a hundred years ago.   Ot (short for “Otto”) is a little boy and Sien (pronounced like the English word “seen”), whose name may be short for “Francine”, is the little girl who lives next door.  Although they are now very old-fashioned, the books are still popular in Holland.  They were written in rhyme and were illustrated with colourful pictures.

The author of the stories was called Hendricus Scheepstra.  The ideas for the stories were given to him by Jan Ligthart.  Cornelis Jetses made the illustrations.

The stories are set in Drenthe, which is in the north-eastern part of the Netherlands.  Drenthe was a very poor part of the country, but Ot and Sien live in a nice house and are quite well-off.  They are often seen playing in the garden with their toys which include a wooden horse on wheels and a doll in a dolly’s pushchair.  The cat is often in the picture.  They are also seen at school.

The authors wrote the stories to show a happy family life.  Everyone is very friendly in the book, and strangers help them when they get lost in the street.  The family have a servant who helps in the house.

The stories were widely read by children in schools in the Netherlands until after the Second World War.  By then they had become very old-fashioned.  The daily life of Ot and Sien seemed to belong to a time long ago in history.   Hardly any Dutch children now live in a family with a servant.  No Dutch child nowadays goes for a walk dressed in sailor’s costume with a father who wears a cloak and hat.  The books are no longer read in schools, but they continue to be popular with Dutch people at home.  In 2004, one hundred years after the first book was written, a special exhibition about Ot and Sien was held.

There is a statue to Ot and Sien in The Hague, made in 1930.

Dutch expressions referring to Ot and Sien 

In the Dutch language there are expressions which refer to Ot and Sien.
 Als Ot en Sien, (Like Ot and Sien) means: “in a simple, child-like way”
 Uit de tijd van Ot en Sien (from the time of Ot and Sien) means: “a long time ago”, like the English expression “in the good old days”.

Children's books
Characters in written fiction
Drenthe
Pulaski, Wisconsin

Pulaski is a village in the Brown, Oconto, and Shawano counties of the state of Wisconsin in the United States.  3,060 people were living in Pulaski as of the 2000 census.  The parts of Pulaski that are in the Oconto and Brown Counties are part of the Green Bay metropolitan area.  Pulaski has an area of 2.5 square miles, says the United States Census Bureau.

References

Other websites
Pulaski Chamber of Commerce

Villages in Wisconsin
Brown County, Wisconsin
Oconto County, Wisconsin
Shawano County, Wisconsin
Norah Jones

Norah Jones (born March 30, 1979) is an American singer and pianist. Her first album, Come Away with Me was released in 2002. It was a mix of contemporary jazz, folk, and country music. The album won five Grammy Awards in 2003. She released her second album, Feels Like Home in 2004, which sold over a million copies in its first week of its release. "Sunrise" won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2005 Grammy Awards. Her third album, Not Too Late was released in 2007. That year Jones also acted in a movie for the first time. The movie, Blueberry Nights, had a song by Jones on its soundtrack. In 2009, The Fall was released. According to Billboard, Jones is the 60th highest-selling artist of the 2000s. In 2011 Jones sung on Seth MacFarlane's first album. Jones' fifth album Little Broken Hearts was released in 2012. It was produced by Danger Mouse. On November 25, 2013, an album Jones made with Billie Joe Armstrong called Foreverly was released.

Early life
Jones was born Geetali Norah Jones Shankar in 1979 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, to Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and American concert producer Sue Jones. When Jones was sixteen she changed her name to Norah Jones.

Discography
 Come Away with Me (2002)
 Feels Like Home (2004)
 Not Too Late (2007)
 The Fall (2009)
 Little Broken Hearts (2012)

References

Other websites

1979 births
Living people
American blues musicians
Country musicians from New York
American folk musicians
American guitarists
American jazz musicians
American pianists
American pop musicians
Singer-songwriters from New York
Brit Award winners
Grammy Award winners
Musicians from New York City
Singers from New York City
Exhibition

An exhibition is an organized event in which a collection of special objects can be viewed by the public.  The objects are often brought together from many places for the period of the exhibition.  The objects on show are called exhibits.

Museums often organize special exhibitions, such as paintings by a famous painter.  These paintings will mostly be “on loan”, i.e. specially borrowed from other museums.  Exhibitions can be about anything.  They may be to do with art, or they can also be science exhibitions.

Some exhibitions show things which can be bought.  Firms exhibit the things they have made, hoping to encourage business.  These exhibitions are called trade fairs.  They are sometimes called expositions or expos.  They may be open to the public, but others are just for invited business people.

Related pages
Art exhibition
The Great Exhibition
Convention center
World's Fair

Trade
Events
Come Away with Me

Come Away with Me is the first album by American jazz singer Norah Jones. It was released on February 26, 2002 on Blue Note Records. The main genre is considered contemporary jazz. The album is actually contemporary jazz with some country, folk music, and pop. Some jazz musicians do not think that the album is actually jazz, because of the changes Norah Jones made to some of the jazz songs she covered.

Come Away with Me reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and won eight Grammy Awards. It sold over 10 million copies in the first three years of its release. It is Norah Jones' best-selling album, and the best-selling jazz album of all time.

Track listing

Awards
Grammy Awards

Other websites
 Come Away with Me at Discogs
 Come Away with Me at Metacritic
 Album Review at All About Jazz

2002 albums
Debut albums
Jazz albums
Ruben Bierer

Ruben Bierer (Dr. Rubin Bierer, often: Reuben Bierer; * about 1845 in Lviv; † 1931 ibid.) was a doctor in Sofia and one of the first pioneers of the Jewish nationalism and one of the first active zionists in Galicia and Bulgaria, adherent of Hovevei Zion in Galicia, Austria and Bulgaria.

In 1867 he was in Lviv a co-founder of the first Jewish-political association of Austria-Hungary, Shomer Israel. As an opponent against Polish assimilation of the Jews he established for the 1873 elections of the Reichsrat a Jewish-ruthenian electoral alliance. In 1879 he separated from the Shomer Israel and went to Vienna for the purpose of medical studies where he – together with Peretz Smolenskin – found the Jewish-political association Ahavath Zion (for the reason of colonisation of the holy land).

In 1882 he was a cofounder of the Viennese Kadima Studentenverbindung. In 1883 he returned to Lviv where he founded the first Jewish-national association of the Austrian east, Miqra Kodesh.

In 1885 he went to Serbia, in 1900 he returned to Lviv where he  successless tried to reactivate the Shomer Israel. 

Nathan Birnbaum coined the word zionism about the year 1890. But he is not the creator of this word, it was already in use, e.g. you can find in a letter of Ruben Bierer from the 9th December 1888 the expression zionist brother's greeting. The word zionist is found already in the year 1877 in an in Roumanian written pamphlet (annual report of the order "Zion" in Bucharest).

References

1845 births
1931 deaths
Austrian Jews
Bulgarian Jews
People from Sofia
Physicians
Zionists
Hezekiah

Hezekiah (meaning God will strengthen) or   Ḥizqiyyāhu (Hebrew), also translated as Ḥizkiyyahu (and sometimes as Ezekias (Greek), Khizkiyahu, Yəḥizqiyyāhu, Y'khizkiyahu), was a king of Judah that appears in the book of 2 Chronicles, chapters 18 to 32, and the book of 2 Kings chapters 18 to 20. He was one of the few kings who is compared favorably with David, and is unique for his trust in the Lord: "There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease (stop) to follow him" (NIV).

Hezekiah was the son of Judah's King Ahaz, and is best known for turning his people away from the sins of his father Ahaz, restoring worship in the temple, and having his life made 15 years longer. The Book of 2 Chronicles tells more about Hezekiah than any other king after Solomon, and suggests that he is a "second Solomon" in his celebration of the Passover, his wealth, his honor, and his land.

Toward the end of his reign, he became very sick and close to death. He prayed to the Lord, who healed him miraculously. The king of Babylon heard about it and sent men with a letter and gift to Hezekiah. Because Hezekiah was proud of his riches, he showed all of his treasures to the visitors. The prophet Isaiah predicted that it all would later be taken by the Babylonians. His prediction came true.

References

Other websites 
"Hezekiah." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
King Hezekiah  from Jerusalem Mosaic
Hezekiah See all Bible verses pertaining to King Hezekiah
The Reign Of Hezekiah  by John F. Brug
 Sennacherib's Invasion of Hezekiah's Judah in 701 BCE - by Craig C. Broyles
 Interactive Map of Sennacherib's Invasion of Hezekiah's Judah, including the accounts of Sennacherib, Herodotus, 2 Kings, Isaiah and Micah 

Old Testament people
Kings of ancient Israel
Kings of ancient Judah
Tine Thing Helseth

Tine Thing Helseth (Norwegian:ˈtiːnɛ tɪŋ hɛlsɛt; born 1987 in Oslo) is a Norwegian trumpet soloist who specialises in playing classical music.

Helseth began playing trumpet when she was seven years old and stuides at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo. She has studied under both Heidi Johanessen (a member of the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra) and, since 2002, Arnulf Naur Nilsen (member of the Oslo Philharmonic).

Honours
National Soloist Championship of Norway no-age-limit open class 1st Prize 2004 
International Trumpet competition "Theo Charlier" Brussels, Belgium 2nd prize 2005 
Oslo Music Teachers Foundation Prize of Honour 2005 
Yamaha Music Foundation Europe Scholarship 2006 
Eurovision Young Musicians Competition 2006 2nd place 
NRK Radio P2 Prize for 2006/2007

Performances
Helseth has played concerts with such orchestras as the Wiener Symphoniker, Beethoven Academie, Capella Cracowiensis, The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Radio Symphony Ljubljana, Oslo Camerata, Camerata Nordica, Württemberg Philharmonic, the Trondheim Soloists, Norwegian symphony orchestras, Norwegian Army bands and other brass and wind groups.

She has appeared at many different music festivals, including the Bergen International Festival, Kissinger Summer Festival and Usedomer Music Festival.

She performed at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Concert and is the leader of an all-female brass group, tenThing.

Recordings
Helseth has put out two CDs. Her self-titled debut album was released January 1, 2007 and contained the trumpet concertos of both Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Josef Haydn. Her second album was released November 23, 2009 and contains musical works by Gustav Holst, Georg Friedrich Händel and J.S. Bach.

References

Other websites
MySpace Site
Personal website (in English)
TenThing homepage

1987 births
Living people
Trumpeters
Norwegian musical entertainers
Musicians from Oslo
White-eared Hummingbird

The white-eared hummingbird, (Basilinna leucotis), is a species hummingbird. It is 9-10 cm long, and weighs about 3-4 grams. Adults are colored green on their upperparts and breast. The undertail is white. The tail is darkly colored and straight. The most non-normal thing is the white eyestripe found in both males and females. It is more boldly colored in the male. The bill of the male is straight and very thin. It is red in coloration, and shows a black tip. His throat is a "metallic torquoise green." His crown and face is violet and black.

References 
  Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

Other websites 
 White-eared Hummingbird photo gallery VIREO Photo-High Res
 White-eared Hummingbird photo-High Res ; Article  at tpwd.state.tx.us

Birds of North America
Hummingbirds
Usher

Usher Raymond IV (born October 14, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. He became well known in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way (1997). The album's single "Nice & Slow" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2000, My Way was given a 6x platinum certification by the RIAA for sales of 6 million copies in the United States alone.  His next album, 8701, released two number one singles. These include "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad". 8701 was given a 4x platinum certification by the RIAA in July 2002.

Confessions (2004) sold over 10 million copies in the United States. It was given a diamond award by the RIAA in 2008. At 1.1 million, Confessions has the highest first week sales for an R&B singer in history. The album had four number one Billboard singles. These include "Yeah!", "Burn", "Confessions Part II", and "My Boo". Usher's next album, Here I Stand (2008), sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The lead single, "Love in This Club" reached number one on the Hot 100 chart.

Two years later, Usher released his sixth album Raymond v. Raymond (2010). It became his third album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. It was then certified platinum by the RIAA. Its single "OMG" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Usher's ninth number one single in the United States. Because of this, he became the first 2010s artist to have number one singles in three consecutive decades (1990s, 2000s, and 2010s). Versus (2010) was released as an extended play and a deluxe edition of Raymond v. Raymond. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love", a single from the album, reached number four on the Hot 100 chart.

According to RIAA, Usher is one of the best-selling artists in American music history. He has sold over 23 million albums in the United States alone and over 65 million albums worldwide. This makes him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Usher has won a lot of awards. These include eight Grammy Awards. According to Billboard in 2009, Usher was named the number one Hot 100 artist of the 2000s. While they ranked him second for the most successful artist of the 2000s. His 2004 album Confessions was ranked at the top solo album of the 2000s. Billboard also placed Usher at number six on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Past 25 Years. Usher has nine Hot 100 number one songs (as lead artist). He also has eighteen Hot 100 top-ten songs.

Discography
 Usher (1994)
 My Way (1997)
 8701 (2001)
 Confessions (2004)
 Here I Stand (2008)
 Raymond v. Raymond (2010)
 Looking 4 Myself (2012)
 Hard II Love (2016)

References

Other websites 

 
 
 
 [ Usher] at Billboard.com

Usher
1978 births
Actors from Texas
Musicians from Dallas, Texas
Grammy Award winners
Living people
Oriental magpie

The Oriental magpie (Pica sericea) is a species of magpie found in East Asia. It is a common symbol of Korea, and has been adopted as the "official bird" of many South Korean cities and counties.

It is similar to the Eurasian magpie, with a shorter tail and longer wings. It has black and purple colors, but very little green. The Oriental magpie has the same chattering call as Eurasian magpies, though it is much softer.

Magpie myths 
Koreans believed that magpies delivered good news, and when they saw a magpie chattering, they believed that visitors were coming.The most famous painting related to a magpie is the one with striped tiger (ggach'i wha horangi minhwa, ): the magpie is chirping to a tiger. The magpie represented good news and the tiger symbolized good luck, since its pronunciation in Chinese sounds similar to good luck (bok). There are many folktales about magpies.

The Chinese called magpies "Birds of Joy" or "Happy Magpies". Under the Manchu dynasty it also represented imperial rule: a few Manchu people in Northeast China even thought they were gods. In the west, though, magpies were often a symbol of pride.

References 

Corvids
Cumulus cloud

Cumulus clouds are white clouds that are dense and large. They are known to look like cauliflower. Mostly, you can see easily that cumulus clouds have flat bottoms but the tops are always changing shape. 

Seeing a cumulus cloud means that the air is well mixed by up and down vertical drafts. When a cumulus cloud grows into a thunderstorm, the cloud is called a cumulonimbus cloud. This is a sign that the air is rising to the stratosphere.

References

Other websites

AMS Glossary of Meteorology
Cumulus cloud at BBC Weather 
Cumulus cloud page at University of Richmond internal site 
Time-lapse of the formation of Cumulus clouds

Clouds
Alyosha Karamazov

Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov is the "hero" of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamazov. He is also called Alyosha, Alyoshka, Alyoshenka, Alyoshechka, Alexeichik, Lyosha, and Lyoshenka. He is the youngest of the Karamazov brothers, being "then only twenty (his brother Ivan was twenty-three and their older brother, Dmitry, twenty-seven)". The author's preface and first chapters declare that he is the novel's hero.

Description 

Alyosha is physically described as:

 

His personality is remarkably unselfish, extremely mature in his religious faith, sensitive to other people's feelings, and loving - "he certainly loved people: throughout his life he seemed to believe in people and to trust them, and yet no one ever thought him simple-minded or naive. There was something in him (and it stayed with him all his life) that made people realize that he refused to sit in judgment on others, that he felt he had no right to, and that, whatever happened, he would never condemn anyone." He passes on the influence of Zosima to the "younger generation" (the schoolboys) of the town. Even with all his kind goodness, he has a gentle personality that makes almost everybody love him and feel comfortable around him. Proud young Kolya Krasotkin says that the best thing about Alyosha is that he treats him like "an equal".

Criticism 

Anna-Theresa Tymieniecka says that Alyosha, like Prince Myshkin, the protagonist in another Dostoevsky novel, The Idiot, are almost Jesus-like characters, who are, however, unable to stop the greatest suffering of those around them. She suggests that Alyosha is too calm, and does not do much action in the events of the novel.

Rufus W. Mathewson, however, argues that Alyosha Karamazov is a more successful positive hero than Prince Myshkin. He argues that Alyosha's most impressive success as helping Dmitri. He describes Alyosha as using forgiveness, kindness and natural justice, rather than trying to change people.

Inspiration 

It is probable that Dostoevsky used his friend Vladimir Solovyov's character for Alyosha. Vladimir Solovyov was a Russian poet and philosopher who was very generous, even giving away his clothes to people in the street.

References 

Characters in written fiction
Russian literature
Stratus cloud

Stratus clouds are low altitude gray clouds that make a flat base. The name comes from the Latin word stratus, which means to "stretch" or "extend." You can see stratus clouds as thick cloud blankets near the sea. They are sometimes called "high fogs".  Light rain and drizzle often fall from stratus clouds. When rain falls from stratus clouds they are mostly called nimbostratus  The name derives from the Latin word nimbus = rain, and stratus = spread out.

References

Clouds
Pliosaur

The Pliosaurs were a group of large submarine plesiosaur reptiles from the Mesozoic era. They had short necks and large heads, in contrast to other plesiosaurs. Their sizes ranged from two to 15 metres, and they were predators of large fish and other reptiles. Their streamlined body shape suggests they swam and ate under water.p29

The first specimen was found by Mary Anning, on the 'Jurassic Coast' of Lyme Regis, England in the 1820s. Many of her finds are on display in the Natural History Museum, London.

It was suggested by D.M.S. Watson that plesiosaurs fell into two groups. The pliosaurs were large predators which ate large prey in deep water. The other plesiosaurs were long-necked with smaller heads. Their method was as surface swimmers, mostly eating with their head above water, darting down to snatch smaller fish which were feeding on plankton.

Rhomaleosaurus
Pliosaurus
Liopleurodon
Kronosaurus

References  

Plesiosaurs
Marine reptiles
Ball lightning

Ball lightning is a glowing ball of lightning that sometimes appears in a thunderstorm, but usually lasts much longer than lightning. Scientists do not understand ball lightning very well, and some even do not think ball lightning is real, because it is so strange. However, it has been widely reported in weather journals by many trustworthy people. So, it is very possible that it is real.

Description 

Those who have seen it say it's the size of a grapefruit or basketball; it has even been said to be as big as a car. The glowing ball is either red, orange, or yellow. A few people have seen it falling from clouds. Sometimes, ball lightning floats or glides just above the ground for a few seconds, or it can roll on the surface of an object. Hissing noises come from the fiery orb. Some have even thought it was a UFO. Ball lightning sometimes explodes loudly, while other times it just quietly disappears. It has been known to smash or simply go through windows, hopping and sizzling across the floor, and then disappear into things like TVs or up the chimney. Some say that ball lightning can kill humans, while others say that its effect on humans are harmless.

Sightings 

Many people are said to have seen ball lightning. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer wrote about "globular lightning", saying they may fall to the ground or explode like a cannon. Laura Ingalls Wilder writes in her book about ball lightning, saying that when she was little, she saw balls of light, which her mother chased away with a broom. 

Czar Nicholas II, Russia's last emperor, said he had seen ball lightning:

References

Other websites 
 A video of a microwave plasma ball experiment
 CityTV report on lightning striking a car

Weather
Sauropterygia

The Sauropterygia was a superorder of successful aquatic reptiles that flourished during the Mesozoic era. They are united by an adaptation of their shoulder, designed to support powerful paddle strokes. Some later sauropterygians like the pliosaurs developed a similar mechanism in their pelvis.

Origins and evolution
The earliest sauropterygians appeared about 245 million years ago, at the start of the Triassic period. At first they were small, less than a metre. They were semi-aquatic lizard-like animals with long limbs (called pachypleurosaurs). They developed into a group called the nothosaurs, several meters long. The sauropterygians included another very distinctive group: the placodonts. They were bottom-feeders on shellfish, and possessed flat, crushing teeth to handle their prey.p148–151

The end-Triassic extinction event wiped them all out except for the plesiosaurs. During the earliest Jurassic these diversified quickly into the long-necked small-headed plesiosaurs proper, and short-necked large-headed pliosaurs.

Orders 
Nothosaurs
Pachypleurosaurs
Placodonts
Plesiosaurs

Position uncertain 
Pistosaurus

References

Other websites 
 A review of the Sauropterygia . Adam Stuart Smith. The Plesiosaur Directory. Retrieved April 17, 2006.
 Paleofile taxalist - lists every species and synonyms. Retrieved February 26, 2006
Oceanic trench

Ocean trenches have relatively steep sides falling to the ocean floor.

Ocean trenches are typically caused when an oceanic crustal plate slides under a lighter continental plate or another oceanic plate. It is believed to work by density.  Where one plate slides under another, this is called subduction. As the heavier plate descends, the long, narrow feature caused is called the "subduction zone." It is here that oceanic trenches form. They can be 1,500 miles (2,400 km) long, several miles deep, and as much as 70 miles (112 km) wide.
 
At least five trenches are over 6 miles (10 km) deep. The greatest ocean depth to be sounded is in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 
 below sea level.  Oceanic lithosphere moves into trenches at a global rate of about 3 km2/yr.

Trenches are active with earthquakes and resulting tsunamis. Most volcanism associated with trenches occurs on the continent and not on the sea floor. However, many of the ocean's volcanic islands and seamounts are found in what are called island arcs, bending chains of islands rising from the sea floor, usually paralleling the concave edges of an oceanic trench. The western Pacific has island arcism as do the Aleutian Islands.

Near the island of Guam is the famous Mariana Trench where the Pacific Plate descends under the leading edge of the Eurasian Plate. Measured at 36,201 feet - over 6.8 miles (11 km) deep, this trench is the deepest known spot in any ocean. In 1960, two men in the bathyscaph Trieste reached bottom of the Mariana Trench.  

Other extensive trench regions around the world include the South Sandwich Trench between South America and Antarctica, the Peru-Chile Trench, and the Aleutian Trench.

References 

Shukman, David 2013. Deep ocean undersea vents. BBC News Science & Technology .

Landforms
Oceanography
North Kosovo

North  Kosovo is a Serbian enclave  in Kosovo.  It has  over  80,000 residents, at least 98% of them are Christian Serbs. There are about 3,000 Albanians, and about 2000 Turks, Greeks, Gorans, Romas and others.

Unlike the Strpce municipality which is autonomous, North Kosovo is directly run by the Government of Belgrade.

In North Kosovo, Serbian car plates are still used and the Serbian dinar is used as the official currency.

The  enclave consists of the 3 municipalities of Zvecan, Leposavic, Zubin Potok (as well as part of Mitrovica. The enclave's area is  (11% of the country's total area). Lake Gorazdevac is also in the enclave.

The United Nations does not recognize Kosovo as a country because of the 1999 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. Other world governing bodies do not recognise it as a country, either.

References

Kosovo
Violet-fronted brilliant

The violet-fronted brilliant (Heliodoxa leadbeateri) is a species of hummingbird. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

References 
 BirdLife International 2004.  Heliodoxa leadbeateri .   2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.   Downloaded on 10 July 2007.

Birds of South America
Hummingbirds
SS Yongala

SS Yongala was a passenger ship that was launched in 1903. It sank off Cape Bowling Green on 23 March 1911 on its way to from Melbourne, Australia to Cairns she entered into a cyclone and sank without a trace south of Townsville. All passengers onboard drowned and the shipwreck was found in 1958 off the coast of Townsville.

Related pages
Death of Tina Watson  - A drowning in 2003 at the shipwreck that became world news.

References

Other websites 
 Townsville Maritime Museum
 Dive spot description plus underwater pictures and videos of the Yongala wreck

1903 establishments in Australia
1911
Disasters in the 20th century
1900s in Australia
Maritime disasters
Queensland
Ships
Parides childrenae

The Green-celled Cattleheart (Parides childrenae) is a species of butterfly. It belongs in the family Papilionidae. It is found in southern North America and northern South America.

Description
The upper side of the wings is black. The male has a bright green patch on the fore wing (top wing). There is a small pale yellow spot near the tip of the fore wing. There is a red patch on the hind wing (bottom wing). The female has a small white patch on the fore wing. There are a few pale spots on the fore wing. There is a band of red spots on the hind wing. The underside of the wings is also black. The male has small pale spots near the tip of the fore wing and a few red spots on the hind wing. The female's underside is the same as the upper side.

References

Other websites

 Parides childrenae at funet.fi

c
Oviparous animals

Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by laying eggs. This is how most fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects, and arachnids reproduce. All birds and monotremes also reproduce like this.

The eggs that of most animals that live on land are protected by hard shells. They fertilize their eggs internally. Water-dwelling animals like fish and amphibians lay eggs that have not been fertilized yet. Then the males lay sperm on top of the eggs, which is called external fertilization.

Related pages 
Viviparity
Ovoviviparity

Zoology
Aplacophora

The Aplacophora is a class of small, deep-water, exclusively benthic, shell-less marine molluscs. They are found in all oceans of the world. They are a small group of molluscs which have deviated from the normal molluscan form. There are approximately 100 known species living today. They are rather worm-like and average about an inch (2.5 cms.) in length.

Description 
Most live in deep water, except a few more northern species.  One group bury themselves into the sand and mud of the ocean bottom where they feed on annelids and other small invertebrates. The rest of the known aplacophorans parasitize hydroids and other corals.

This class used to be classified as sea cucumbers in the echinoderms. In 1987, they were officially recognized as molluscs and given their own class. The class is polyphyletic, and consists of two clades.

References 

Molluscs
Monoplacophora

Monoplacophora  is a class of molluscs. They have a cap-like shell and live on the bottom of the sea. 

They were well-known as a fossil group from the Cambrian to the Devonian. One species was dredged up from the Pacific Ocean off Mexico in 1952. It was found to be a Monoplacophoran, and given the genus of Neopilina.  This was one of the most remarkable modern discoveries of a 'living fossil', and a Lazarus taxon. 

More than that, they are the most extreme example of the pull of the recent, which is a term in palaeontology. All fossil groups have a first and last appearance in the fossil record but, for living species, their last appearance is the present day. This may be very much later than their last appearance as a fossil. The discovery of the living monoplacs extended their time range by 400 million years.

The anatomy of Neopilina shows "serially repeated structures" such as gills. Serial repetition of anatomical structures such as gills and muscles may have evolved once in the common ancestor of chitons and monoplacophorans. It suggests the ancient ancestor of molluscs had bilateral symmetry, and segments.

Reference 

Molluscs
Zebra turkeyfish

The Zebra Turkeyfish (Dendrochirus zebra) is a very venomous fish. It lives in the Indian and Pacific seas. The fish has 13 venomous spines along its back, used to look after itself. The fish is slow and quiet, but can be a danger. The fish rests in dark places such as under a rock or a piece of coral. They aren't affected by each other's venom. They are solitary fish that are not scared of anything, as they have no predators other than groupers.

Teleosts
Aris Thessaloniki F.C.

Aris Thessaloniki F.C. is a Greek football club based in Thessaloniki. Their colors are yellow and black, and the emblem is the ancient god of war, Ares. The club is the fifth most successful Greek club, as it has won three championships and one Greek cup. Aris won the first Greek championship in 1928.

Other websites
Official website of Aris 

Greek football clubs
Thessaloniki
1926 establishments in Greece
Slender loris

The slender loris is a nocturnal hunter. It moves slowly through trees and grips branches tightly with its opposable thumbs and toes. When it attacks prey it goes closer and then snatches it with both hands.

Description 
The slender loris is about the size of a squirrel, and has small finger nails. It has two brown eyes, and has white fur on its chest.

Habits
The slender loris usually spends its time on trees. They like to groom and wrestle with each other.

Food
These animals eat insects, lizards, birds, but will also eat things like slugs, flowers, shoots, young leaves, and sometimes even eggs. They would also like termites and roaches for a tasty treat.

History
Native people thought that the slender lorises had magical powers. It is not clear how many slender lorises survive in the wild.

References

Lorisoidea
Panionios F.C

Panionios is a Greek football club. It was founded in 1890 in Smyrni, Turkey by Greek people who lived there. During the Greek-Turkish war in 1922 the Greek people left from there and they went to Greece. So, the club came to Greece to the Athenian suburb Nea Smyrni. The colours of the club are red and blue. Panionios has won two Greek cups.

References

Other websites
Official football club website 

Greek football clubs
1890 establishments in Europe
İzmir
Thessaloniki
Establishments in Greece
Dave Meltzer

Dave Meltzer (born in 1961) is a man who writes about professional wrestling for his magazine, and also on the Internet. Meltzer's website is called the Wrestling Observer. Before Meltzer, most writers wrote that professional wrestling was real, but Meltzer writes that it is not. He has also written two books called Tributes and Tributes II.

References

1961 births
Living people
List of chess grandmasters

This is a list of chess grandmasters rated 2700+, plus other players of the highest status.

Chess grandmasters

Living 
Michael Adams
Ben Finegold
Eric Hansen
Evgeny Alekseev
Zoltan Almasi
Viswanathan Anand 
Ulf Andersson 
Levon Aronian
Etienne Bacrot
Evgeny Bareev 
Magnus Carlsen
Fabiano Caruana
Maia Chiburdanidze
Pavel Eljanov
Jaan Ehlvest
Laurent Fressinek
Nona Gaprindashvili
Boris Gelfand 
Alexander Grischuk
Hou Yifan
Robert Huebner 
Vassily Ivanchuk
Dmitry Jakovenko
Baadur Jobova
Gata Kamsky 
Sergey Karjakin
Anatoly Karpov 
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Garry Kasparov
Alexandra Kosteniuk
Vladimir Kramnik 
Peter Leko 
Ding Liren
Vladimir Malakhov
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Luke McShane
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Motylev
Sergei Movsesian
Henrique Mecking 
Hikaru Nakamura
David Navara
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Illya Nyzhnyk
Fridrik Olafsson 
Judit Polgar 
Susan Polgar 
Ruslan Ponomariov
Lajos Portisch 
Teimour Radjabov
Yasser Seirawan
Alexei Shirov 
Nigel Short 
Sanan Sjugirov
Wesley So
Boris Spassky 
Jonathan Speelman 
Peter Svidler
Jan Timman
Evgeny Tomashevsky
Veselin Topalov 
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Francisco Vallejo Pons
Nikita Vitiugov
Hao Wang
Yue Wang
Radoslaw Wojtaszek
Jun Xie
Ethan Evans Damani
Vidit Gujhrati
Akiko Sato
Arnold Tadeus

Deceased 
Paul Morphy 
Adolf Anderssen 
Johannes Zukertort 
Pal Benko 
Efim Bogolyubov
Mikhail Botvinnik
David Bronstein
José Raúl Capablanca
Max Euwe
Bobby Fischer
Vugar Gashimov
Svetozar Gligoric 
Paul Keres
Viktor Korchnoi
Bent Larsen 
Tony Miles
Aaron Nimzovich
Lembit Oll
Tigran Petrosian
Samuel Reshevsky
Akiba Rubinstein
Vasily Smyslov
Howard Staunton
Mikhail Tal
Carlos Torre Repetto

Related pages
List of World Chess Champions

Other websites
 FIDE top players
Chessgraphs.com - Rating history of world chess champions and grandmasters

Grandmasters
Lists of people