ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
The common barn owl ("Tyto alba") is a species of owl in the genus "Tyto". It is the most widely distributed species of owl, and one of the most widespread of all birds. The barn owl family Tytonidae is one of two main lineages of living owls, the other being the typical owls (Strigidae). It is known by many other names in different parts of the world, which is one of the problems with 'common names'. It is one of the main reasons Linnaeus invented his system of scientific naming. This owl has long wings, a pale face, and a square-shaped tail. It lives in rural areas like farms and woodland. The barn owl has a wing span of 75–110 cm and its body length measures up to around 25–50 cm. It weighs between 187 and 800 grams. Barn owls' breeding season is spring. It breeds in nests in trees. It eats small mammals, reptiles, fish, insects and smaller birds. Ecology. "Tyto alba" is nocturnal, as usual for owls. However, it often becomes active shortly before dusk and can sometimes be seen during the day, when it moves from a sleeping place it does not like. This is a bird of open country such as farmland or grassland with some interspersed woodland. This owl prefers to hunt along the edges of woods. It has an effortless wavering flight as it moves over pastures or similar hunting grounds. Like most owls, the Barn Owl flies silently; tiny serrations on the leading edges of its flight feathers help to break up the flow of air over its wings, thereby reducing turbulence and the noise that accompanies it. Diet and feeding. It hunts by flying low and slowly over an area of open ground, hovering over spots that conceal potential prey. They may also use fence posts or other lookouts to ambush prey. The Barn Owl feeds primarily on small vertebrates such as rodents. Studies have shown that an individual Barn Owl may eat one or more rodents per night; a nesting pair and their young can eat more than 1,000 rodents per year. Locally superabund
The North American river otter ("Lontra canadensis"), or the common otter, is an aquatic mammal native to only North America in the countries Canada, and the United States. River otters are a distant relative of the weasel family. North American river otters can reach a length of 3.9 ft and weigh 3 lbs. The river otter's life expectancy is 10 to 15 years in the wild and 25 years in captivity. The main habitat of the river otter are near freshwater rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, swamps, and coastal waters. They prefer fish, though they will eat amphibians such as frogs, turtles, and crayfish. They have also been reported to eat small mammals and birds. About 290 North American river otters are currently in captivity.
is a district near Nara in Nara Prefecture, Japan. According to tradition, the Shiki District was sometimes the site of an Imperial Palace, including
Gavar is a city in Armenia. It is the capital of Gegharkunik. It was called Nor Bayezet or Novyi Bayazet until 1959. Then the name changed to Kamo until 1996. The town is in the mountains. It is only a few miles away from the western shores of Lake Sevan. In 2001 there were 23,302 people. The people of Gavar are mainly Christians. They belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Notable people. Here are some notable people who were born or raised in the town of Gavar:
is a Japanese city in Kyoto Prefecture on the island of Honshū. History. According to tradition, Kyōtanabe was the site of an Imperial Palace, including the Tsutsuki Palace during the reign of Emperor Keitai.
Kingdom of Armenia may mean: sometimes also called "Kingdom of Armenia" or "Armenian kingdom" are:
Hrazdan () is the capital of the Kotayk Province of Armenia. The name Hrazdan is from the Middle-Persian name "Frazdan" which was transliterated as "Hrazdan" in the Armenian language. "Farzdan" is connected to the Zoroastrian mythology. With 52,900 people it is the fifth-largest city in Armenia. The town was formed under Soviet rule. During the Soviet years it was one of the highly-industrialized towns of the Armenian SSR. The Hrazdan River is by the town.
was a after "Reiki" and before "Jinki." This period started in November 717 and ended in February 724. The reigning empress was .
Vanadzor is the third-largest city in Armenia. In 2001 there were 107,394 people. It is the capital of the Lori Province. It was named Kirovakan during the Soviet era and Karakilisa during the Tsarist period. Much of the city's history is unknown. The history of the area possibly dates back to the Bronze Age. It was part of the Kingdom of Armenia. The town had a lot of damage from the 1988 Spitak earthquake. Most of the people belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Vanadzor is the home of the Diocese of Gougark.
Kapan is a town in the south of Armenia. It was also named Gafan and Madan. It is the capital of the Syunik Province. In 2010 there were 45,488 people. Kapan is the city with the most peoplecity in the province and southern Armenia. Kapan is from the Armenian word "kapel" which mean "to lock".
Ijevan is a city in northern Armenia. It was named Istibulagh and Karavansara. It is the capital of Tavush region. The city's current name, Ijevan means "inn" in Armenian. The former name Karavansara means "inn" in Persian. In 2009 there were 20,500 people. This made it the most populated city in the province. Ijevan has had a railway station since 1870. Tradition says that about 2000 years ago, King Artavasdes I built a city here. A branch of Yerevan State University is in the city.
was a after "Yōrō" and before "Tenpyō." This period started in February 724 and ended in August 729. The reigning emperor was . The new era name meant "Sacred tortoise".
The Monarchy of Australia is a form of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign of Australia according to the rules of the Australian Constitution. This means that the job of King or Queen of Australia passes down through the Royal Family. When the King or Queen dies, the job passes to their son, daughter or next in line to the throne. As monarch of Australia, they then have ceremonial and constitutional duties as part of the government of Australia. The Governor General of Australia does the work of the monarch for the national Government. State Governors do the work of the monarch for State Governments of Australia. History. The British First Fleet of convict ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 and New South Wales became a Crown Colony, with King George III of England as its King. The British set up other colonies all around Australia with powerful colonial governors chosen by Britain. From the 1820s, these colonies began to get more and more self-government and from the 1850s they began to become parliamentary democracies, which kept the Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom as their Heads of State, with royal duties done by Colonial Governors who had less and less real power. In 1901, after a vote, the British colonies of Australia decided to become one country, with a constitutional monarchy with Queen Victoria as the monarch. The Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V) opened the first Parliament of Australia in 1901 and the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) opened the first Parliament in Canberra in 1927. The Balfour Declaration of 1926, changed the situation in the British Empire, so that United Kingdom and the Dominions (like Australia, Canada and New Zealand) were to be seen as equal and independent, but "united by a common allegiance to the Crown". This situation of independent monarchies was confirmed by the Statute of Westminster. The Curtin Labor Government chose Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (the brother of King George VI), as Governor-General during the Second World War. Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia in 1954, greeted by huge crowds across the nation. Her son Prince Charles
The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The lower house is the House of Representatives. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years. But some senators have three year terms. The Senate has a lot of power from the Australian Constitution. There are currently 76 people in the Senate.
Usually, an automatic rifle is a rifle that continuously fires bullet as long as the trigger is pressed. Cartridge shells are ejected and new cartridges are loaded into the chamber automatically. However, most automatic rifles are designed to give both semi- and fully automatic fire. This is called selective fire. They also rifle bullets from a magazine. These features makes them different from other automatic firearms like the machine gun and submachine gun. Use. Soldiers in the United States Army who carry the M249 SAW are called "automatic riflemen". The weapon is also called an "automatic rifle". However, it is a fully automatic firearm. These are normally called squad automatic weapons (SAW) or light machine guns. An assault rifle is quite similar to an automatic rifle. However, it uses less powerful bullets than the machine gun or battle rifle. This allows the soldier using it to control the recoil of the weapon without using a bipod or something similar. Bullets like these are called "intermediate" bullets. For example, the AK-47 assault rifle often uses a 7.62x39mm bullet. The bullet is the same diameter. However, it is smaller and less powerful compared to the 7.62x54mmR. The 7.62x54mmR was what was being used with rifles when the AK-47 was brought in to service. History. The very first automatic rifle was the Mexican Mondragón rifle. It was designed by General Manuel Mondragón. He began working on the weapon in 1882. He patented it in 1887. In the 20th century, automatic rifles go back to World War I. This is where the Browning Automatic Rifle (B.A.R.) and Huot were first used. They were supposed to be used like light machine guns to help soldiers attack. However, only the Mondragón rifle and the B.A.R. were used in World War I.
Country Code: +61&lt;br&gt; International Call Prefix: 0011&lt;br&gt; Trunk Prefix: 0 The Australian telephone numbering plan is how phone numbers work in Australia. It has changed many times. The most recent major change was between 1994 and 1998. Present numbering plan Overview. Australia is divided geographically into four large area codes. The standard telephone number in Australia has ten digits. The first digit is '0'. The first digits are for the type of service. The following list is a high level of numbering plan presented in domestic format. Geographical region boundaries do not exactly follow state borders. Overview of plan between 1980s and 1994. 000 is the emergency telephone number in Australia.
The Kingdom, Op. 51, is an oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra composed by Edward Elgar. It was first performed at the Birmingham Music Festival on 3 October 1906, with the orchestra conducted by the composer, and soloists Agnes Nicholls, Muriel Foster, John Coates and William Higley. History of its composition. Elgar thought for a long time about the idea of writing an oratorio about the apostles. He decided in the end to write not just one, but three oratorios (a “trilogy”). The first one was to be about the apostles being called to follow Jesus. This one was called "The Apostles" and was composed and performed in 1903. The second one was to be about the apostles being persecuted. This one, first performed in 1906, was given the title The Kingdom. The third one was going to be about the Last Judgement. Elgar never got round to composing it, although he thought about it as late as the 1920s. Elgar prepared the words of "The Kingdom" himself. He describes events from the Acts of the Apostles, and he also put in lines from the Gospels, the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. A lot of the music is calm and thoughtful rather than dramatic. If Elgar had completed all three oratorios, "The Kingdom" would have been the middle one: quiet and relective between two more dramatic ones. As in "The Apostles" , Elgar used the idea of the Leitmotif. This is something that Richard Wagner had developed in his operas: the technique of having short tunes (motifs) which represent particular characters or events in the story. The oratorio is divided into a prelude which is played by the orchestra, and five parts. Performers. "The Kingdom" is written for a large orchestra. There is a double chorus (the choir split into 8 parts) with semichorus, and four soloists who represent The Blessed Virgin (soprano), Mary Magdalene (contralto), St John (tenor), and St Peter (
Broadheath with Lower Broadheath is a civil parish officially known as "Lower Broadheath", in the Malvern Hills district of Worcestershire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,713. The parish also includes Upper Broadheath, which is about 3 miles north-west of Worcester. There are many housing estates in the village. The village has a village hall, church, post office and shop, a village green with a football pitch, running track and many children's play areas. There is a large village common. There is also a primary school (Broadheath C.E. Primary School). The school has about 150 children, from the age of four up to eleven. There are also three pubs in the village. Broadheath is the birthplace of the English composer Edward Elgar.
The Statute of Westminster 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed on 11 December 1931. The Act gave equality to the self-governing dominions of the British Empire. It is still law in each of the Commonwealth realms. The Statute is important because it gave legislative freedom to these countries. Its current relevance is that it sets the basis for the continuing relationship between the Commonwealth realms and the Crown.
The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 is an Act of the Australian Parliament. They formally accepted the Statute of Westminster 1931. It happened on 9 October 1942. The Act is more important for its symbolic value than for the legal effect of its provisions. Australia was becoming more independent from the United Kingdom. This Statute showed the independence to the world.
The Australia Act 1986 is the name of a pair of separate but related pieces of legislation. One was an Act of the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia. The other was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. These nearly identical Acts were passed by the two parliaments because no one knew which one had the power to do so. The "Australia Act" ended the possibility for the UK to make laws for Australia. Also the UK could not be involved in Australian government. And no one could appeal from any Australian court to a British court.
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales. It is a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay. Two runways of Sydney Airport extend into the bay. On 29 April 1770, Botany Bay was the site of James Cook's first landing of HMS "Endeavour" on the continent of Australia. Later the British planned Botany Bay as the site for a penal colony. Out of these plans came the first European to live in Australia at Sydney Cove. Aboriginal lived in this area dating back 5,000 years. The Aboriginal people of Sydney were known as the Eora. Even though it is a busy port, there are many types of marine life. The area around its entrance is some of the best scuba diving in the Sydney area. The world's largest population of weedy sea dragon found was on the southern side.
The Blue Mountains is a region in New South Wales, Australia. The foothills start about west of the state capital, Sydney. The area begins on the west side of the Nepean River. It goes west as far as Coxs River. The Blue Mountains is an Australian natural wonder and World Heritage-listed area. Geography. It is mainly a sandstone plateau. The highest point of the range is Mount Werong. It is above sea level. A large part of the Blue Mountains is in the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site. The area has seven national park areas and a conservation reserve. The Blue Mountains area includes the local government areas of the City of Blue Mountains, the City of Hawkesbury, the City of Lithgow and Oberon. Transport. The Blue Mountains area has one train line that ends at Lithgow. There is also a bus network that ends at Mount Victoria. You can use the Blue Mountains Bus Wiki to see a list of bus routes that are in the Blue Mountains. Fauna. The Greater Blue Mountains Area has over 400 different forms of animals. Among them are rare mammal species like Spotted-tailed Quoll, the Koala, the yellow-bellied Glider, and Long-nosed Potoroo. There are also some rare reptiles, like the Blue Mountain Water Skink. There are also some dingos in the area. They are the top predators and hunt for grey kangaroos.
Gregory Blaxland (17 June 1778 – 1 January 1853) was a pioneer farmer and explorer in Australia. Early life. Gregory Blaxland was born 17 June 1778 at Fordwich, Kent, England. He was the fourth son of John Blaxland, mayor from 1767 to 1774. His mother was Mary, daughter of Captain Parker, R.N. Gregory attended The King's School, Canterbury. In July 1799 he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Spurdon. They had five sons and two daughters. The Blaxlands were friends of Sir Joseph Banks. Banks influenced Gregory and his older brother, John, to move from England. The government promised them land, convict servants and free passages. Gregory sailed in the William Pitt on 1 September 1805 with his wife, three children, two servants, an overseer, a few sheep, seed, bees, tools, groceries and clothing. When he reached Sydney he sold many of these goods for a good amount of money. He bought eighty head of cattle. Blue Mountains expedition. In 1813, he led the first known European trip across the Blue Mountains. He went along with William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth. Their trip opened up the inland of the continent. Blaxland visited England and in February 1823 he published his "Journal Of A Tour Of Discovery Across The Blue Mountains". Later the same year Blaxland was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Society of Arts for some wine he had sent to London. Five years later he got the gold medal. In January 1827 Blaxland was elected by a public meeting with two others to ask Governor Darling for "Trial by jury" and "Taxation by Representation" for the colony. Blaxland is noted as one of the first settlers to plant grapes for wine-making purposes. He died by his own hand in 1 January 1853 in New South Wales. He is buried in All Saints Cemetery in Parramatta. Recognition. The township of Blaxland in the Blue Mountains is named after him. So is the Division of Blaxland. In 1963 he was honoured, together with Lawson and Wentworth, on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post showing the Blue Mountains crossing. Romeo Smith has a boat on Home and away called the Blaxland.
William Lawson (2 June 1774 – 16 June 1850) was an explorer of New South Wales, Australia. He helped discover a passage inland through the Blue Mountains from Sydney. Lawson was born in Finchley, Middlesex, England. He is the son of Scottish parents. Lawson came to Sydney as an ensign with the New South Wales Corps in November 1800. He was soon posted to Norfolk Island. After 1808, Lawson was appointed aide-de-camp to George Johnston. He was given 500 acres (2 km²) at Prospect. He built a 40-room mansion there. In 1813 Lawson, with Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth, led a trip west from Sydney to cross the Blue Mountains. They left on 11 May 1813 with four servants, five dogs and four horses. The route they travelled is still the one used by travellers today. On 31 May 1813 they reached Mount Blaxland and could see the plains to the west. Lawson was rewarded with a grant of 1,000 acres (4 km²) of land. He ended up one of the largest land-holders in Australia. He was made a magistrate and was appointed commandant at Newcastle. In 1819 Governor Lachlan Macquarie made a new settlement, Bathurst. He made Lawson commander of the Bathurst settlement. Lawson had this job until 1823. From Bathurst, Lawson explored as far north as Mudgee. After leaving the army, Lawson was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1843 to 1848. He died at Veteran Hall on 16 June 1850. The town of Lawson in the Blue Mountains is named for him. In 1963 Lawson was honoured, together with Blaxland and Wentworth, on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post showing the Blue Mountains crossing.
William Charles Wentworth (13 August 1790 – 20 March 1872) was an Australian poet, explorer, journalist and politician. He was one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales. He was the first native-born Australian to get a reputation overseas. He wanted self-government for the Australian colonies. Early life. In 1796 Wentworth arrived in Sydney. It was then a poor prison settlement. The family lived at Parramatta. His father became a prosperous landowner. In 1802 he was sent to England. He went to a school in London. He returned to Sydney in 1810. He was appointed acting Provost-Marshall by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. He was given a land grant of on the Nepean River. On 15 October 1810, at Hyde Park, Wentworth won the first official horse races on Australian soil. Crossing the Blue Mountains. In 1813 Wentworth, along with Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson, led the trip which found a route across the Blue Mountains. The town of Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains is named for him. As a reward he was given another . Studying in England. Wentworth returned to England in 1816. There he was admitted to the bar, travelled in Europe, and studied at Cambridge University. In 1819 Wentworth published the first book written by an Australian: "A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land, With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States of America". He said there should be an elected assembly for New South Wales, trial by jury and settlement of Australia by free emigrants rather than convicts. Wentworth successfully completed his legal studies by 1822 and was called to the bar. In 1823 he was admitted to Peterhouse, Cambridge. That year he also published an epic poem "Australasia", which contains lines now famous in Australia: "And, O Britannia!... may this — thy last