community-datasets/selqa huggingface dataset:
Article: Mona Lisa
Section: Frame

Question: Why were the beech crosspieces switched to maple in 1970?

Because the "Mona Lisa"'s poplar support expands and contracts with changes in humidity, the picture has experienced some warping.
In response to warping and swelling experienced during its storage during World War II, and to prepare the picture for an exhibit to honor the anniversary of Leonardo's 500th birthday, the "Mona Lisa" was fitted in 1951 with a flexible oak frame with beech crosspieces.
This flexible frame, which is used in addition to the decorative frame described below, exerts pressure on the panel to keep it from warping further.
In 1970, the beech crosspieces were switched to maple after it was found that the beechwood had been infested with insects.
In 2004–2005, a conservation and study team replaced the maple crosspieces with sycamore ones, and an additional metal crosspiece was added for scientific measurement of the panel's warp.
The "Mona Lisa" has had many different decorative frames in its history, owing to changes in taste over the centuries.
In 1909, the Comtesse de Béhague gave the portrait its current frame, a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of the "Mona Lisa".
The edges of the painting have been trimmed at least once in its history to fit the picture into various frames, but no part of the original paint layer has been trimmed.
Article: Mona Lisa
Section: Abstract

Question: Who was the Mona Lisa painted by?

The Mona Lisa (Monna Lisa or La Gioconda in Italian; La Joconde in French) is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.
"The painting, thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel, and is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506, although Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517.
It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at The Louvre museum in Paris since 1797.
The ambiguity of the subject's expression, which is frequently described as enigmatic, the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modeling of forms and the atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.
Article: Apollo 11
Section: Launch and flight to lunar orbit

Question: What NASA chief commented on the tv mission highlights for Apollo 11?

Mission highlights.
Launch and flight to lunar orbit.
In addition to throngs of people crowding highways and beaches near the launch site, millions watched the event on television, with NASA Chief of Public Information Jack King providing commentary.
President Richard M. Nixon viewed the proceedings from the Oval Office of the White House.
A Saturn V launched Apollo 11 from Launch Pad 39A, part of the Launch Complex 39 site at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969 at 13:32:00 UTC (9:32:00 a.m. EDT local time).
It entered orbit twelve minutes later.
After one and a half orbits, the S-IVB third-stage engine pushed the spacecraft onto its trajectory toward the Moon with the Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) burn at 16:22:13 UTC.
About 30 minutes later the command/service module pair separated from this last remaining Saturn V stage and docked with the Lunar Module still nestled in the Lunar Module Adaptor.
After the Lunar Module was extracted, the combined spacecraft headed for the Moon, while the third stage booster flew on a trajectory past the Moon and into heliocentric orbit.
On July 19 at 17:21:50 UTC, Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon and fired its service propulsion engine to enter lunar orbit.
In the thirty orbits that followed, the crew saw passing views of their landing site in the southern Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis) about southwest of the crater Sabine D (0.67408N, 23.47297E).
The landing site was selected in part because it had been characterized as relatively flat and smooth by the automated "Ranger 8" and "Surveyor 5" landers along with the "Lunar Orbiter" mapping spacecraft and unlikely to present major landing or extra-vehicular activity (EVA) challenges.
Article: Vincent van Gogh
Section: Influence

Question: Who was the inspiration behind Francis Bacon's series of paintings that began in 1957?

In his final letter to Theo, Van Gogh admitted that as he did not have any children, he viewed his paintings as his progeny.
Reflecting on this, the historian Simon Schama concluded that he "did have a child of course, Expressionism, and many, many heirs."
Schama mentioned many artists who have adapted elements of Van Gogh's style, including Willem de Kooning, Howard Hodgkin and Jackson Pollock.
The Fauves extended both his use of color and freedom in application, as did German Expressionists of the Die Brücke group, and as other early modernists.
Abstract Expressionism of the 1940s and 1950s is seen as in part inspired from Van Gogh's broad, gestural brush strokes.
In the words of art critic Sue Hubbard: "At the beginning of the twentieth century Van Gogh gave the Expressionists a new painterly language that enabled them to go beyond surface appearance and penetrate deeper essential truths.
It is no coincidence that at this very moment Freud was also mining the depths of that essentially modern domain – the subconscious.
This beautiful and intelligent exhibition places Van Gogh where he firmly belongs; as the trailblazer of modern art.
"In 1957, Francis Bacon (1909–1992) based a series of paintings on reproductions of Van Gogh's "The Painter on the Road to Tarascon", the original of which was destroyed during World War II.
Bacon was inspired by not only an image he described as "haunting", but also Van Gogh himself, whom Bacon regarded as an alienated outsider, a position which resonated with Bacon.
The Irish artist further identified with Van Gogh's theories of art and quoted lines written in a letter to Theo, "painters do not paint things as they are...
They paint them as "they themselves" feel them to be."
An exhibition devoted to Vincent van Gogh's letters took place in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from October 2009 to January 2010 and then moved to the Royal Academy in London from late January to April.
The Van Gogh Museum hosted an exhibition "Van Gogh at Work" featuring 200 paintings and drawings, 150 of them by van Gogh and others including Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard; from May 1, 2013 until January 12, 2014.
Article: Spain
Section: Etymology

Question: Hispania is possibly a derivation of I-Shipania, a Punic word. What does this translate as?

The origins of the Roman name "Hispania", from which the modern name "España" was derived, are uncertain and are possibly unknown due to the inadequate evidence.
"Hispania" may derive from the poetic use of the term "Hesperia", reflecting the Greek perception of Italy as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" ("Hesperia", "Ἑσπερία" in Greek) and Spain, being still further west, as "Hesperia ultima".
It may also be a derivation of the Punic "I-Shpania" (אי שפניא), meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean; Roman coins struck in the region from the reign of Hadrian show a female figure with a coney at her feet, and Strabo called it the "land of the rabbits".
There is also the claim that "Hispania" derives from the Basque word "Ezpanna" meaning "edge" or "border", another reference to the fact that the Iberian peninsula constitutes the southwest of the European continent.
The Renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word "Hispania" evolved from the Iberian word "Hispalis", meaning "city of the western world".
Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the term "span" is the Phoenecian word "spy", meaning "to forge metals".
Therefore "i-spn-ya" would mean "the land where metals are forged".
Two 15th century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abrabanel and Shelomó ibn Verga, have given a different explanation as to how Spain derived its name.
Don Isaac Abrabanel was one of the principal persons of Spain’s Jewish community and one of the king’s trusted courtiers who witnessed the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.
Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem.
This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had been given a kingdom in Spain.
He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, who also ruled over a kingdom in Spain.
Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España (Spain) took its name.
Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c. 350 BCE.
Article: Dallas Buyers Club
Section: Soundtrack

Question: "Life is Strange" is done by who?

 "Sweet Thang" by Shuggie Otis – 4:09 
 "Following Morning" by The Naked And Famous – 5:03 
 "Hell and Back" by The Airborne Toxic Event – 3:52 
 "Ready to Be Called On" by My Morning Jacket – 3:46 
 "Life of the Party" by Blondfire – 3:23 
 "The Walker" (Ryeland Allison remix) by Fitz And The Tantrums – 3:28 
 "Shudder to Think" by Tegan & Sara – 3:24 
 "Mad Love" (Acoustic) by Neon Trees – 3:39 
 "Main Man" (T. Rex cover) by Portugal.
The Man – 6:15 
 "Stayin' Alive" (Bee Gees cover) by Capital Cities – 4:03 
 "Romance Languages" by Cold War Kids – 2:52 
 "Burn It Down" (Innerpartysystem remix) by AWOLNATION – 4:56 
 "After the Scripture" by Manchester Orchestra – 4:36 
 "City of Angels" (Acoustic) by Thirty Seconds To Mars – 4:29 
 "Main Man" by T. Rex – 4:13 
 "Life Is Strange" by T. Rex – 2:32
 "Ballrooms of Mars" by T. Rex
Article: Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Section: Criticism of FBI

Question: Who investigated whether Lee Harvey Oswald was to blame for the assassination of JFK?

The FBI's murder investigation was reviewed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979.
The congressional Committee concluded:
 The Federal Bureau of Investigation adequately investigated Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination and properly evaluated the evidence it possessed to assess his potential to endanger the public safety in a national emergency.
 The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a thorough and professional investigation into the responsibility of Lee Harvey Oswald for the assassination.
 The Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to investigate adequately the possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate the President.
 The Federal Bureau of Investigation was deficient in its sharing of information with other agencies and departments.
Article: Magnetic resonance imaging
Section: How MRI works

Question: How do you control the orientation of an MRI image?

To perform a study the patient is positioned within an MRI scanner which forms a strong magnetic field around the area to be imaged.
Most medical applications rely on detecting a radio frequency signal emitted by excited hydrogen atoms in the body (present in any tissue containing water molecules) using energy from an oscillating magnetic field applied at the appropriate resonant frequency.
The orientation of the image is controlled by varying the main magnetic field using gradient coils.
As these coils are rapidly switched on and off they create the characteristic repetitive noises of an MRI scan.
The contrast between different tissues is determined by the rate at which excited atoms return to the equilibrium state.
Exogenous contrast agents may be given intravenously, orally or intra-articularly.MRI requires a magnetic field that is both strong and uniform.
The field strength of the magnet is measured in tesla – and while the majority of systems operate at 1.5T commercial systems are available between 0.2T–7T.
Most clinical magnets are superconducting which requires liquid helium.
The lower field strengths can be achieved with permanent magnets, which are often used in "open" MRI scanners for claustrophobic patients.
Article: Das Boot
Section: Criticism by novelist Buchheim

Question: What is the length of "Das Boot"?

Even though impressed by the technological accuracy of the film's set-design and port construction buildings, novelist Lothar-Günter Buchheim expressed great disappointment with Petersen's adaptation in a film review published in 1981, especially with Petersen's aesthetic vision for the film and the way the plot and the effects are, according to him, overdone and clichéd by the adaptation.
He also criticised the hysterical overacting of the cast, which he called highly unrealistic, while acknowledging the cast's acting talent in general.
Buchheim, after several attempts for an American adaptation had failed, had provided a script detailing his own narrative, cinematographical and photographical ideas as soon as Petersen was chosen as new director.
It would have amounted in full to a complete six-hour epic; however, Petersen turned him down because at the time the producers were aiming for a 90-minute feature for international release.
However, today's Director's Cut of "Das Boot" amounts to over 200 minutes, and the complete TV version of the film is 282 minutes long.
Buchheim, himself a U-boat correspondent, attacked specifically what he called Petersen's sacrificing of both realism and suspense in dialogue, narration, and photography for the sake of cheap dramatic thrills and action effects (for example, in reality one single exploding bolt of the boat's pressure hull would have been enough for the whole crew to worry about the U-boat being crushed by water pressure, while Petersen has several bolts loosening in various scenes).
Buchheim also criticized depictions of the crew's loud behaviour during patrols as unrealistic and celebrations after achieving a torpedo hit or surviving a bombing as unprofessional.
Furthermore, an officer—even an outsider like Lt. Werner—would have commanded special respect and that throwing an oil-drenched towel into his face would not have been tolerated.
Uttering concerns about the end result, Buchheim felt that unlike his clearly anti-war novel the adaptation was "another re-glorification and re-mystification" of the German World War II U-boat war, German heroism and nationalism.
He called the film a cross between a "cheap, shallow American action flick" and a "contemporary German propaganda newsreel from World War II".
Article: Scuba diving
Section: Nitrogen narcosis

Question: When does narcosis start to affect some divers?

Nitrogen narcosis or inert gas narcosis is a reversible alteration in consciousness producing a state similar to alcohol intoxication in divers who breathe high pressure gas at depth.
The mechanism is similar to that of nitrous oxide, or "laughing gas," administered as anesthesia.
Being "narced" can impair judgment and make diving very dangerous.
Narcosis starts to affect some divers at 66 feet (20 m).
At this depth, narcosis manifests itself as a slight giddiness.
The effects increase drastically with the increase in depth.
Almost all divers are able to notice the effects by 132 feet (40 meters).
At these depths divers may feel euphoria, anxiety, loss of coordination and lack of concentration.
At extreme depths, hallucinogenic reaction and tunnel vision can occur.
Jacques Cousteau famously described it as the "rapture of the deep".
Nitrogen narcosis occurs quickly and the symptoms typically disappear during the ascent, so that divers often fail to realize they were ever affected.
It affects individual divers at varying depths and conditions, and can even vary from dive to dive under identical conditions.
However, diving with trimix or heliox dramatically reduces the effects of inert gas narcosis.
Article: Argentina
Section: Education

Question: When are children required to go to school?

Argentina built a national public education system in comparison to other nations, placing the country high in the global rankings of literacy.
Today Argentina has a literacy rate of 97.4%, and 16.2% over age 15 have completed secondary school studies or higher.
School attendance is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 17.
The Argentine school system consists of an elementary or lower school level lasting six or seven years, and a secondary or high school level lasting between five to six years, depending on the jurisdiction.
There are forty-seven national public universities across the country, as well as forty-six private ones.
The universities of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, La Plata, Rosario, and the National Technological University are among the most important.
Public universities faced cutbacks in spending during the 1980s and 1990s, which led to a decline in overall quality.
Four out of five Argentine adults have completed grade school, over a third have completed their secondary education and one in nine Argentine adults have college degrees.
Likewise, Argentina has the highest rate of university students in Latin America: official sources recently reported roughly 1,500,000 college students within the Argentine University System.
Article: American Gothic
Section: Reception

Question: What competition was the painting American Gothic entered into?

Wood entered the painting in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The judges deemed it a "comic valentine", but a museum patron persuaded them to award the painting the bronze medal and $300 cash prize.
The patron also persuaded the Art Institute to buy the painting, which remains there today.
The image soon began to be reproduced in newspapers, first by the "Chicago Evening Post" and then in New York, Boston, Kansas City, and Indianapolis.
However, Wood received a backlash when the image finally appeared in the "Cedar Rapids Gazette".
Iowans were furious at their depiction as "pinched, grim-faced, puritanical Bible-thumpers".
Wood protested that he had not painted a caricature of Iowans but a depiction of his appreciation, stating "I had to go to France to appreciate Iowa."
Nan, apparently embarrassed at being depicted as the wife of someone twice her age, began telling people that the painting was of a man and his daughter, which Grant seems to confirm in his letter to a Mrs. Nellie Sudduth in 1941.
Art critics who had favorable opinions about the painting, such as Gertrude Stein and Christopher Morley, also assumed the painting was meant to be a satire of rural small-town life.
It was thus seen as part of the trend toward increasingly critical depictions of rural America, along the lines of Sherwood Anderson's 1919 "Winesburg, Ohio", Sinclair Lewis's 1920 "Main Street", and Carl Van Vechten's 1924 "The Tattooed Countess" in literature.
Yet another interpretation sees it as an "old-fashioned mourning portrait... Tellingly, the curtains hanging in the windows of the house, both upstairs and down, are pulled closed in the middle of the day, a mourning custom in Victorian America.
The woman wears a black dress beneath her apron, and glances away as if holding back tears.
One imagines she is grieving for the man beside her..." Wood had been only 10 when his father had died and later had lived for a decade "above a garage reserved for hearses", so death was on his mind.
However, with the onset of the Great Depression, the painting came to be seen as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit.
Wood assisted this transition by renouncing his Bohemian youth in Paris and grouping himself with populist Midwestern painters, such as John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton, who revolted against the dominance of East Coast art circles.
Wood was quoted in this period as stating, "All the good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."
Article: NASA
Section: Space Shuttle program (1972–2011)

Question: How many missions did NASA's space shuttle program have before ending?

Space Shuttle program (1972–2011).
The Space Shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s.
Planned as a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttle orbiters were built by 1985.
The first to launch, "Columbia", did so on April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of the first space flight by Yuri Gagarin.
Its major components were a spaceplane orbiter with an external fuel tank and two solid fuel launch rockets at its side.
The external tank, which was bigger than the spacecraft itself, was the only component that was not reused.
The shuttle could orbit in altitudes of 185–643 km (115–400 miles) and carry a maximum payload (to low orbit) of 24,400 kg (54,000 lb).
Missions could last from 5 to 17 days and crews could be from 2 to 8 astronauts.
On 20 missions (1983–98) the Space Shuttle carried Spacelab, designed in cooperation with the ESA.
Spacelab was not designed for independent orbital flight, but remained in the Shuttle's cargo bay as the astronauts entered and left it through an airlock.
Another famous series of missions were the launch and later successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and 1993, respectively.
In 1995 Russian-American interaction resumed with the Shuttle-Mir missions (1995–1998).
Once more an American vehicle docked with a Russian craft, this time a full-fledged space station.
This cooperation has continued with Russia and the United States as the two of the biggest partners in the largest space station built: the International Space Station (ISS).
The strength of their cooperation on this project was even more evident when NASA began relying on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS during the two-year grounding of the shuttle fleet following the 2003 Space Shuttle "Columbia" disaster.
The Shuttle fleet lost two orbiters and 14 astronauts in two disasters: "Challenger" in 1986, and "Columbia" in 2003.
While the 1986 loss was mitigated by building the Space Shuttle "Endeavour" from replacement parts, NASA did not build another orbiter to replace the second loss.
NASA's Space Shuttle program had 135 missions when the program ended with the successful landing of the Space Shuttle "Atlantis" at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011.
The program spanned 30 years with over 300 astronauts sent into space.
Article: Wrestling
Section: Sambo

Question: Where is Sambo from?

Sambo is a martial art that originated in the Soviet Union (specifically Russia) in the 20th century.
It is an acronym for "self-defence without weapons" in Russian and had its origins in the Soviet armed forces.
Its influences are varied, with techniques borrowed from sports ranging from the two international wrestling styles of Greco-Roman and freestyle to judo, jujitsu, European styles of folk wrestling, and even fencing.
The rules for sport sambo are similar to those in competitive judo, with a variety of leg locks and defense holds from the various national wrestling styles in the Soviet Union, while not allowing chokeholds.
Article: Volleyball
Section: Pass

Question: What is another name for a reception in volleyball?

Also called reception, the pass is the attempt by a team to properly handle the opponent's serve, or any form of attack.
Proper handling includes not only preventing the ball from touching the court, but also making it reach the position where the setter is standing quickly and precisely.
The skill of passing involves fundamentally two specific techniques: underarm pass, or bump, where the ball touches the inside part of the joined forearms or platform, at waist line; and overhand pass, where it is handled with the fingertips, like a set, above the head.
Either are acceptable in professional and beach volleyball, however there are much tighter regulations on the overhand pass in beach volleyball.