ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
Cork cambium is a tissue in many vascular plants as part of the bark (periderm).  The cork cambium is a lateral meristem and is responsible for secondary growth that replaces the epidermis in roots and stems. It is found in woody and many herbaceous dicots, gymnosperms and some monocots, which usually have no secondary growth. Cork cambium is one of the plant's meristems - the tissues that consist of embryonic (not specialized) cells from which the plant grows. It is one of the many layers of bark, between the cork and primary phloem. The function of cork cambium is to produce the cork, a tough protective material. Synonyms for cork cambium are bark cambium, pericambium or phellogen.
Cork is a material that is harvested for commercial use primarily from the bark of the Cork Oak tree. As the cork is harvested. Portugal produces 50% of cork worldwide. Cork is made up of suberin, a hydrophobic substance. In general, cork is made up of suberin (average of about 40%), lignin (22%), polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicellulose) (18%), extractables (15%) and others. Properties and uses. Cork's elasticity together with its near-impermeability makes it suitable as a material for bottle stoppers, especially for wine bottles. Cork stoppers represent about 60% of all cork based production. Cork's low density makes it a suitable material for fishing floats and buoys, as well as handles for fishing rods (as an alternative to neoprene). Cork is also used in the manufacture of musical instruments, particularly woodwind instruments, where it is used to fasten together different segments of the instrument and make the seams airtight.  Since cork has suberin in its cell walls, this makes the cells consist of sealed elements. And having sealed elements make it greater for acoustic insulation and even thermal insulation. Sealed elements are capable of trapping and absorbing sound. In short, suberin is mostly responsible for noise reduction! Also, lignin is another constituent of cork. It makes up about 22% of cork. One study says that it’s also associated with soundproofing and thermal insulation!  The cork industry is generally regarded as environmentally friendly. The sustainability of its production and the easy recycling of cork products and by-products are two of its most distinctive aspects.  Cork demand has increased due to a larger proportion of wine being sealed with cork rather than being sold in bulk. Top quality corks are quite expensive, so many cheaper brands have switched to lower quality cork, synthetic plastic stoppers, screwcaps, or other closures.
The cork oak ("Quercus suber") is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree. It grows southwest Europe and northwest Africa. It grows to up to 20 m, but in its native environment it is usually not that tall. The leaves are 4–7 cm long, dark green above, paler beneath, with the leaf margins often downcurved. The acorns are 2–3 cm long. The tree forms a thick, corky bark. Over time this bark can develop considerable thickness and this is harvested every 10–12 years as cork. The harvesting of cork does not harm the tree and a new layer of cork regrows, making it a renewable resource. The tree is widely cultivated in Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Morocco, France, Italy and Tunisia. Cork oak forests cover approximately 2.5 million hectares in those countries. Portugal accounts for 50% of the world cork harvest. Cork oaks cannot legally be cut down in Portugal, except for forest management felling of old, unproductive trees. Cork oaks live about 150–250 years. Virgin cork (or 'male' cork) is the first cork cut from generally 25-year-old trees. Another 10–12 years is required for the second harvest, and a tree can be harvested a dozen times in its lifetime. Cork harvesting is done entirely without machinery. The European cork industry produces 340,000 tonnes of cork a year, with a value of €1.5 billion. 30,000 people work at it. Wine corks represent 15% of cork usage by weight but 66% of revenues. Cork oaks are sometimes planted as individual trees. So they provide a small income to their owners. The tree is also sometimes cultivated for ornament. Hybrids with turkey oak ("Quercus cerris") are regular, both in the wild in southwest Europe and in cultivation; the hybrid is known as Lucombe Oak "Quercus × hispanica". Some cork is also produced in eastern Asia from the related Chinese cork oak ("Quercus variabilis"). Seed predation. In many different species of trees seed predation is considered a problem for the
The acorn is the fruit of the oak tree. It is a nut, and has a single seed (rarely two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell. Acorns vary from 1 – 6 cm long and 0.8 – 4 cm broad. Acorns take between about 6 or 24 months (depending on the species) to mature. Acorns are one of the most important wildlife foods in areas where oaks grow. Creatures that make acorns an important part of their diet include birds, such as jays, pigeons, some ducks, and several species of woodpeckers. Small mammals that feed on acorns include mice, squirrels, and several other rodents. Such large mammals as pigs, bears, and deer also eat large amounts of acorns: they may constitute up to 25% of the diet of deer in the autumn. In some of the large oak forests in southwest Europe, traditionally called "dehesas", pigs are still turned loose in oak groves in the autumn, to fill and fatten themselves on acorns.  Acorns contain tannins, which are toxic to some animals such as horses. The tannins can be soaked out, using water.
Clubmosses are a group of plants in the Lycopodiophyta, which are the most ancient group of land plants. The clubmosses are an order Lycopodiales, (or a subclass Lycopodiopsida). Clubmosses are thought to be structurally similar to the earliest vascular plants, with small, scale-like leaves, homosporous spores borne in sporangia at the bases of the leaves, branching stems (usually dichotomous), and generally simple form. A powder known simply as "lycopodium", consisting of dried spores of the common clubmoss, was used in Victorian theater to produce flame-effects. A blown cloud of spores burned rapidly and brightly, but with little heat. It was considered safe by the standards of the time. Taxonomy. The group is now split into two families:
The horsetails are a class in the Pteridophyta (ferns). They were one of the most important plant groups in the Palaeozoic era.  For over 100 million years they were varied, and dominated the understorey of late Paleozoic forests. They are seen in the coal measures of the Carboniferous period, and some were trees reaching up 30 metres. The group is now almost extinct, but one genus survives. They are vascular plants that reproduce by spores and not by seeds. The name "horsetail" came because the branched species somewhat look like a horse's tail. "Equisetum". Modern horsetails first appeared during the Jurassic period. Equisetum is the only living genus of horsetails. The name "Equisetum" comes from the Latin ("equus" = horse; and "seta" = bristle). The genus includes 15 species. Horsetails are native on all continents except Australasia and Antarctica. They are perennial plants. They are either herbaceous (they die back in winter  like most temperate species) or they are evergreen (some tropical species, and some temperate species). They mostly grow 0.2-1.5 m tall, though "E. telmateia" can reach 2.5 m, and the tropical American species "E. giganteum" 5 m, and "E. myriochaetum" 8 m. In these plants the leaves are very small, in whorls joined together to make sheaths around the stem. The stems are green and photosynthetic, also distinctive in being hollow, jointed and ridged, usually with 6-40 ridges. There may or may not be whorls of branches at the nodes; when present, these branches are identical to the main stem except smaller. The spores are borne under sporangiophores in strobili, cone-like structures at the tips of some of the stems. In many species the cone-bearing shoots are unbranched, and in some (e.g. "E. arvense", field horsetail) they are non-photosynthetic, produced early in Springtime.
Green algae are microscopic protists. One can find them in all sorts of natural water: salt water, freshwater and brackish water. The group is less used in classification today. Although most are descended from a common ancestor, some are not. Some of their descendants, the land plants are not included in the group, so the group is not monophyletic. The green algae are the large group of algae from which the higher plants developed. The green algae include unicellular and colonial flagellates, usually but not always with two flagella per cell, as well as various colonial, coccoid, and filamentous forms. In the Charales, the closest relatives of higher plants, full differentiation of tissues occurs. There are about 6000 species of green algae. Many species live most of their lives as single-cells, other species form colonies or long filaments.
Brackish water (less commonly brack water) is salt water and fresh water mixed together. It is saltier than fresh water, but not as salty as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers.  Some human activities can produce brackish water, mostly certain civil engineering projects such as dikes and the flooding of coastal marshland to produce brackish pools for freshwater prawns.  Technically, brackish water contains between 0.5 and 30 grams of salt per litre—more often expressed as 0.5 to 30 parts per thousand (ppt or ‰). Thus, "brackish" covers a range of salinity regimes and is not considered a precisely defined condition. It is characteristic of many brackish surface waters that their salinity can vary considerably over space and/or time. Etymology. The term brackish water comes from the Low German word "Brack", which is a small lake made when a storm tide breaks a dike and floods land behind the dike. Brackish water habitats. Estuaries. The most important brackish water habitats are estuaries, where a river meets the sea, mixing salt and fresh water. The River Thames flowing through London is one of the most familiar of river estuaries. Mangroves. Another important brackish water habitat is the mangrove swamp or mangal. Brackish seas and lakes. Some seas and lakes are brackish. The Baltic Sea is a brackish sea adjoining the North Sea. The Caspian Sea is the world's largest lake and contains brackish water with a salinity about one-third that of normal seawater. The Caspian is famous for its peculiar animal fauna, including one of the few non-marine seals (the Caspian seal) and the great sturgeons, the source of caviar. Important brackish bodies of water. Brackish seas Brackish water lakes Coastal lagoons, marshes, and deltas Estuaries
Sustainable energy is energy that is created in an environmentally friendly way. It involves both energy efficiency and renewable energy. Both resources help to stabilize and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Efficient energy use allows energy demand to slow so that rising clean energy supplies can make big cuts in fossil fuel burning. If energy use grows too fast, renewable energy development will chase a receding target. Unless clean energy supplies grow rapidly, slowing demand growth will only begin to reduce total emissions. Reducing the carbon content of energy sources is also needed. Any serious vision of a sustainable energy economy thus requires major commitments to both efficiency and renewables.
Neoprene is the DuPont Performance Elastomers trade name for a family of synthetic rubbers based on polychloroprene (polymer form of Chloroprene). Neoprene was invented by DuPont scientists after Dr. Elmer K. Bolton of DuPont attended a lecture by Fr Julius Arthur Nieuwland, a professor of chemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Applications. It is used in a wide variety of environments, such as in wetsuits, laptop sleeves, cars, bombs, electrical insulation, and car fan belts. Its chemical inertness makes it well suited for industrial applications such as gaskets, hoses, and corrosion-resistant coatings. It can also be used as a base for adhesives.
Pioneer 11 (also known as Pioneer G) was a NASA space probe to explore space and gather information. It was the second mission to visit Jupiter and the first mission to visit Saturn. The space probe was launched on April 5, 1973 and flew by Jupiter on December 2, 1974 and Saturn on September 1, 1979.  In 1983, Pioneer 11 was predicted to be surpassed by Voyager 1 in the distace to the Sun and later by Voyager 2 around March 1988. The probe was last heard on November 24, 1995 when the last communication between Earth and the probe ended due to power limitation and vast diatance, when it was 44.1 AU (4.1 billion miles or 7.5 billion km) from Earth. By Nov. 5, 2017, Pioneer 11 was estimated to be about 97.590 AU (9.1 billion miles or 14.599 billion kilometers) from Earth. Both Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 had plaques etched in gold. The plaques were designed by a team lead by Carl Sagan to communicate with extraterrestrial life should the spacecraft come into contact with it. By 2027, Pioneer 11 is predicted to have exited the heliosphere and entered interstellar space.
Medical Tourism is when patients visit other countries for medical care. The patients usually come from developed countries to find treatment at lower prices. Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry. Examples of common medical procedures done for medical tourists are surgeries like joint replacement, heart surgery, cosmetic surgery, weight loss, dental treatment, and addictions rehabilitation (or recovery from addiction). Etymology. The term "medical tourism" can also be called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare. It was initially developed by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care.mainly it is for curing people and a lot of countries believe on this. Countries. Countries that are popular for Medical Tourism are: Cost savings. To get an idea of the potential cost savings from medical tourism, in Denver, Colorado, USA, a person without health insurance who needs a hip replacement will pay about US$60,000 (EUR 44751). In comparison, in Cuba, going through medical tourism firm Choice Medical Services, the same procedure costs about US$8000 (EUR 5967) or about an 80 percent savings. Risks. People who are obese may get medical treatment to lose weight. In Britain there are long waiting lists for weight loss surgery. It is very easy to get this surgery in Turkey. Seven Britons have died after having weight loss surgery there since 2019 and many more have had serious problems.
An aquifer is an underground layer where the material contains water. That can be less solid material like sand, gravel, clay or silt, but it can be rock as well, as long as the rock allows water to get in (that means that it is water-bearing). Groundwater can be taken out of the ground by digging a well. The study of water in aquifers is called hydrogeology. Groundwater in rock formations. One kind of groundwater is found in underground rivers in caves where water flows freely underground. This may occur in eroded limestone areas known as karst topography, but those are only found in small parts of the Earth. Usually, groundwater is found in the pore spaces, or tiny openings, of rocks under the ground. The pores in the rocks are saturated, or filled up, with water, much like a kitchen sponge. The groundwater can be pumped out for agricultural, industrial, or municipal uses. If a rock unit of low porosity is highly fractured, it can make a good aquifer (via fissure flow), if the water can get through it. Porosity is important, but, "alone", it does not make an aquifer. The Deccan Traps (a flood basaltic lava) in west central India are good examples of rock with high porosity but low permeability, so they are poor aquifers. The (Upper Cretaceous) Chalk of south east England has a reasonably high porosity, but low grain-to-grain permeability. Much of its good water-yielding characteristics being due to micro-fracturing and fissuring. Exploitation. Aquifers can occur at various depths. Those closer to the surface are not only more likely to be exploited for water supply and irrigation, but are also more likely to be topped up by the local rainfall. Many desert areas have limestone hills or mountains within them or close to them which can be exploited as groundwater resources. If more water is taken out than get in again one speaks of over-harvesting. Along the coastlines of certain countries, such as Libya and Israel, population growth has led to over-population which has caused the lowering of water table and the subsequent contamination of
Voyager 2 is a space probe. It was used by NASA to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. It is the only spacecraft that has come near to Uranus and Neptune. Because of this, most pictures of these two ice planets are from this spacecraft. It was identical in form to its sister space probe, "Voyager 1". The space probe is currently moving away from the Solar System. It is heading out into interstellar space. "Voyager 2" was launched on August 20, 1977. It is now in an extended mission. Its encounter with the largest natural satellite of Neptune, Triton sent it on a hyperbolic trajectory out of the Solar System. It was moving at about . This is much faster than escape velocity. Both "Voyager 1" and "Voyager 2" hold the Voyager Golden Record. This is a recording of sounds and images of life on Earth. It was designed by a team led by Carl Sagan. The Golden Record is to communicate with extraterrestrial life. Voyager 2 is the second spacecraft to exit from the Solar System and enter into the interstellar space. It did so 6 years after Voyager 1. In 2018, NASA said that Voyager 2 had reached the heliopause on 5 November 2018. On July 18, 2023, Voyager 2 overtook Pioneer 10 to become the 2nd farthest spacecraft from the Sun, at a distance of 133.917 AU (nearly 12.45 billion miles or approximately 2034.00 billion km) from the Sun.
Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American movie actor. He was most popular during the late 1950s and early 1960s. He is famous for his light comic roles, especially his musician escaping from gangsters in "Some Like It Hot" (1959). He has also acted in more serious and dramatic movies, like "The Defiant Ones" (1958), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He has appeared in over 100 movies since 1949, and made frequent television appearances. He was the father of actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis. Early life. Curtis was born in The Bronx, New York. His birth name is Bernard Schwatz. He is one of three sons of Helen (née Klein) and Emanuel Schwartz. His parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants from Mátészalka, Hungary. Hungarian was Curtis's only language until he was five or six, postponing his schooling. His father was a tailor and the family lived in the back of the shop—his parents in one corner and Curtis and his brothers Julius and Robert in another. His mother once made an appearance as a participant on the television show "You Bet Your Life", hosted by Groucho Marx. Curtis said, "When I was a child, Mom beat me up and was very aggressive and antagonistic." His mother was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. His brother Robert was also institutionalized with the same mental illness. Death. He died on September 29, 2010, aged 85 of cardiac arrest in Henderson, Nevada.
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian actor. He was known for his swashbuckler roles in movies like "Adventures of Don Juan" and "The Sea Hawk". Early years. Errol Flynn was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. His father Theodore Thomson Flynn, was a lecturer (1909) and later professor (1911) of biology at the University of Tasmania. Flynn was born at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Battery Point. His mother was born Lily Mary Young. She dropped the first names Lily Mary shortly after she was married and changed her name to Marelle. Flynn described his mother's family as "seafaring folk". This may account for his lifelong love of the sea and boats. First movies. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1942. He is remembered for his successful on-screen partnership with Olivia de Havilland. They appeared together in eight movies: "Captain Blood" (1935, his first great success), "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1936), "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938), "Four's a Crowd" (1938), "Dodge City" (1939), "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" (1939), "Santa Fe Trail" (1940), and "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941). This partnership started rumors of romance. De Havilland denied these rumors. She said her relationship with Flynn was one of friendship only. WWII years. Flynn tried to enlist in every branch of the United States Armed Services during WWII. He was classified 4F because of numerous health issues. Hollywood executives kept his health issues a secret to protect his screen image. He never served and was criticized for this. As the years passed, Flynn's manly image diminished. He became an alcoholic, gained weight, and had a seedy appearance. Flynn wrote his autobiography "My Wicked, Wicked Ways" in 1959. He died of a heart attack at age 50. His last words were reportedly, "I've had a hell of a lot of fun and I've
David Niven (March 1, 1910 – July 29, 1983) was an English actor. He won the Academy Award for "Best Actor" for his role in the movie "Separate Tables" in 1958. Originally, he was the actor who was to play the first James Bond, but the producers later decided to give the role to Sean Connery instead. Some of the movies that he was in include The Pink Panther, Around the World in 80 Days, The Guns of Navarone, and Casino Royale.  Niven started his career as an extra. He died of motor neurone disease.
Rudolph Valentino (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926) was an Italian actor of silent movies. He was born Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero Filiberto Guglielmi in Castellaneta, Italy. He became popular as one of the first sex symbols in Hollywood in the 1920s. He grew up in Italy. His father died while he was young, and his mother spoiled him. Valentino did not live long enough to see movies with sound replace silent movies. He died of peridontis on August 23, 1926, at the age of 31.
Jo Raquel Tejada (September 5, 1940 – February 15, 2023), usually called Raquel Welch, was an American actress and model. She became famous during the 1960s as one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. She won the Golden Globe Award in 1975. On February 15, 2023, Welch died from cardiac arrest at her home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82. She also suffered from Alzheimer's disease.
Margarita Carmen Cansino, usually called Rita Hayworth (October 17, 1918–May 14, 1987), was an American actress of Spanish and Irish origin. She became famous as the greatest sex symbol of the 1940s. She died of Alzheimer's at age 68 in Manhattan, New York. Other websites:
Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and movie director. He won the Academy and the Golden Globe awards in 1993 for his role in the movie "The Fugitive". Early life. He was born in Texas in 1946. His mother, Lucille Marie (née Scott), was a police officer, school teacher, and beauty shop owner, and his father, Clyde C. Jones, was an oil field worker. The two were married and divorced twice. Jones has stated that his grandmother was of Cherokee ancestry. He was raised in Midland, Texas. Jones was given an athletic scholarship to go to a school in Dallas, Texas. After finishing school he worked on the oil rigs before going to Harvard University to study English. He finished university in 1969 and moved to New York to be an actor. His first role was in the Broadway play, "A Patriot For Me." He had many small parts until he got the main role in the movie "JFK". He won the Academy Award for the best actor in a supporting role for the movie "The Fugitive".