ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
American Sign Language (old names: Amslan, Ameslan) is the most popular sign language for deaf people in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in parts of Mexico. Although the United Kingdom and the United States share English as a spoken and written language, British Sign Language (BSL) is different from American Sign Language. ASL actually comes from French Sign Language, as Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet went to England for help learning sign language to teach to his deaf neighbors. He could not find anyone willing to teach him the British Sign Language, but did find some French people who were willing to help, he convinced one of them to travel back to the United States with him to set up the first deaf school in the U.S. ASL is also used (sometimes with other sign languages) in the Philippines, Singapore, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Mauritania, Kenya, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe. Like other sign languages, its grammar is different from any spoken language. ASL includes fingerspelling. Fingerspelling is a way to show the written letter. ASL uses one hand to show the English alphabet, although there are ways to show alphabets from other languages. Names of people and places can be fingerspelled. Fingerspelling is also used for words that have no sign, or for when people are confused about what a used sign means. Statistics. Counting the number of ASL speakers is difficult because ASL users have never been counted by the American census. ASL use in the general American population has not been directly measured. The ultimate source for current estimates of the number of ASL users in the United States is a report for the National Census of the Deaf Population (NCDP) by Schein and Delk (1974). Based on a 1972 survey of the NCDP, Schein and Delk provided estimates consistent with a signing population between 250,000 and 500,000. The survey did not distinguish
A sign language is a way of communicating by using the hands and other parts of the body. It should not be confused with body language. Sign languages are an important way for deaf people to communicate. Deaf people often use them instead of spoken languages. Spoken languages use sounds from the mouth and are understood with the ears. Sign languages use hands and are understood with the eyes. Deaf people can use sign languages more easily than spoken languages. Language learning and use. Deaf people sometimes learn a sign language from their family, especially if their parents are deaf. But, most deaf children have hearing parents, so they learn a sign language from other deaf people. They may meet other deaf people at school or in the streets. Hearing people may learn to sign directly from deaf people. Or, they may learn a sign language by going to signing classes or by studying a sign language workbook, which can come with an interactive DVD. Sometimes deaf people do use a spoken language, especially when talking with hearing people. Sometimes hearing people use a sign language with each other, rather than speaking. But, deaf people tend to use sign languages, and hearing people tend to use spoken languages. Some deaf people can also understand spoken words by looking at a speaker's lips. This is known as lip-reading. It is hard to learn, and few people do it well. Sometimes signing and lip-reading are combined, especially when deaf and hearing people are talking to each other. History. Sign languages have always existed in deaf communities. In ancient texts we see authors commenting about deaf people and sign language. In the western world, the first studies dedicated to sign languages date from the 17th century. In 1620, in Spain, the priest Juan Pablo Bonnet published a text about teaching deaf people to speak, using gestures as a tool. The language of signs created by Bonet was used by Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée, to create a fingerspelling alphabet in the 18th century. This alphabet has changed very little since then, and is used with sign languages in many countries. The sign alphabet created by Charles-Michel de l'Épée, however, is not the origin of
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges is a city in the northeast of France, in Lorraine. Demography. Now about 23,000 people live there. Tourism. Surrounded by the Vosges mountains, it is a popular resort for tourists. Events. The city is famous for the International Festival of Geography, which takes place every autumn.  Higher education. Electronics, computer science, graphic design and communication are studied at the University Institute of Technology. In French it is called "IUT" (Institut universitaire de technologie).
Rhodesian Ridgeback is a breed of dog.  It has a red-brown coat of fur on its body and a line of hair down its back which is different from the rest of hair on its body. They are sometimes called "The African Lion Dog", because they were used by hunters in Africa to find and confuse lions while the hunter shot the lion.
A glove is a piece of clothing that covers a hand. There are many different kinds of gloves. Gloves are made of many different fabrics and materials, and gloves are used in many ways. Gloves worn for protection. People wear thick gloves, usually made of wool or fabric, to keep their hands warm in cold weather. They wear thin gloves (usually made of rubber or plastic) to keep their hands clean. People also wear thin gloves made of rubber or plastic to keep things they touch clean. Some workers wear gloves made of heavy rubber to protect their hands from chemicals. A mitten is a glove which has a separate place for the thumb, but the other four fingers are together. There are also mittens, which are very similar to gloves. Gloves and mittens are usually used to protect people from cold, and chemicals. People use latex gloves during Earth day to clean up. Gloves worn for fashion. There are also gloves that are worn for fashion, because they look good. These type of gloves are made from leather, fur, or different fabrics. Gloves worn in sport. Gloves are worn in sports, the most common reason being for extra grip for the competitors hands. Like in golf, baseball and goalkeepers in soccer. Mittens. The word is used for certain kinds of usually knitted gloves. Some don't have separate finger pieces, and are made for children. Others have separate finger pieces without tips, so the wearer can use his fingers for delicate work, and keep his hands warm at the same time. some are fingerless gloves .
Sky High is a 2005 movie from Walt Disney Pictures, starring Kurt Russell. Plot. This movie is about superheroes. Will Stronghold has two superhero parents. His dad, Steve, is The Commander, who is very strong. His mother, Josie, is Jetstream, who can fly. Will is expected to have great powers of his own, but he finds that he does not have any. He enters his school, Sky High, where the students are sorted into "hero" and "sidekick." Will is given the position of a sidekick and takes different classes than the hero track. He later tells his dad about this, who is not happy that his son will not be like him. At school, Will also has an enemy named Warren Peace. The Commander put Warren's father away for three life terms. During a lunch, Warren gets very mad at Will and starts throwing fireballs, which is his superpower. Will dives under a bench. It is here his power comes to him; super strength, like his dad. He manages to defeat Warren and both are put in a time out room where their powers do not work. His mother is not happy, but his dad is very happy that Will has powers. Steve shows Will the hiding place where the Stronghold family does all of their activities. Will's new powers put him up in the hero track, where he is partnered with a girl named Gwen Grayson. Will soon falls for Gwen and does not keep up with the friends he made as a sidekick. Will has an old friend named Layla, whose power is to grow plants. Will gets more popular. Gwen gets him to invite all the popular kids for a party. When Layla comes over to tell Will that she loves him, Gwen stops her and tells her that Will has new friends. Layla is upset. When Will learns about it, he breaks off the date. He was going to go to the prom with Gwen, but now decides to stay home. His parents go to the prom instead. There was going to be a ceremony to honor the best superhero of all time. During the prom, however, it is revealed that Gwen is really a villain named Royal Pain. The
Tales of Symphonia is a role-playing video game released in 2004 for the Nintendo GameCube. It is a fantasy RPG. Story. The main character Lloyd Irving and his friends, Genis Sage and Colette Brunel, are sent away from the town where Lloyd lived. Genis' sister Raine and the mercenary Kratos join them. While traveling, Colette begins to change into an angel. Lloyd learns that she is in charge of saving the world. Two groups of people want her to stop. They are the Desians, bad guys that enslave humans, and Sheena, a woman that wants to kill Colette. Sheena and Colette save each other from the Desians and become friends. Eventually, they get ready to save the world. Kratos betrays Colette and the others to Cruxis, the angels who control the Desians. Lloyd and the others manage to escape. They go to a different world called Tethe'alla. There, they make three new friends called Zelos, Presea, and Regal. Kratos still wants to find them and the Cruxis leader, Mithos, is very angry. Lloyd's group learns that if they want to save the world, they need to have Sheena gain the power of the eight "Summon Spirits". The spirits are magical creatures. After using the power of the summon spirits, the problem gets worse. Lloyd and Kratos need to work together to save the world from being destroyed by the Giant Kharlan Tree. Yuan uses a drug where it puts people to sleep on everyone. After this, Lloyd wakes up in the middle of the night. Kratos is with Yuan and two of Yuan's henchman. Lloyd learns that Kratos is his father. Kratos dives in front of Lloyd to stop him from being hurt. Kratos then tells Lloyd that there is a ninth Summon Spirit by the name of Origin. Lloyd has to fight Kratos to get its help because Origin was sealed by Kratos himself. The Summon Spirit helps Lloyd use the eternal sword. After this, they go to Derris Kharlan and there is one last battle with Mithos.
The Protestant Reformation was a series of events that happened in the 16th century in the Catholic Church. Because of corruption allegations in the Catholic Church, some people saw that the way it worked needed to change. People like Erasmus, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Luther and John Calvin protested the corruption and tried to stop it. This led to a split in the church, into Catholics and various Protestant churches. The Protestant reformation triggered the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Martin Luther's posting of The Ninety-Five theses at Wittenberg is seen as the start of the Protestant Reformation. This happened in the year 1517. John Knox brought Luther's ideas to Scotland and founded the Presbyterian Church. As various countries adopted Protestant ideas, wars broke out between Catholic and Protestant factions and countries. Many people died in these wars, which included the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War. These wars were not just about religion. Since most countries have recognized (state) religion, many of the disputes were political. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 recognized Protestants when the signers agreed not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. This included their chosen religion. The recent invention of the printing press helped spread awareness of the Church's abuses. A start was made in translating the Bible into various local languages. For example, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale worked on translating it into the English language. Much of Tyndale's translation was used in the King James version of the Bible. Luther translated the Bible into German. Causes of Reformation. The start of the 16th century, many events led to the Protestant reformation. Clergy abuse caused people to begin criticizing the Catholic Church. The greed and scandalous lives of the clergy had created a split between them and the peasants. Furthermore, the clergy did not respond to the population's needs, often because they did not speak the local language, or live in their own diocese. The papacy lost prestige. However, the split was more over doctrine than corruption. The main points of criticism were: In 1515, the Pope started a new indulgence campaign to raise money for
Sand is a mixture of very small pieces of different rocks or minerals. It is the same minerals from which those pieces are broken, such as granite and feldspar. Sand is gritty to touch. It is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. Sand is also formed various rocks by weathering and erosion. Erosion breaks large boulders into smaller rocks. They get smaller and smaller until they reach the beach or a low-lying area as sand. Sand grains are smaller than gravel grains, (from to ), and larger than silt, (around to ). Sand is mostly found on beaches, and in deserts. The most common types of sand are made of silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2). Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is the second most common. Sand dunes are made when wind or a river pulls sand into a mountain-like shape. They can be found in deserts, but sometimes high up on beaches too. Applications. Sand is crucial in the process of mixing concrete. It can also be used to make sand castles. Sand is sometimes used in households for aesthetic purposes.
Alsatian (, ) is a Germanic language. It is spoken in Alsace (eastern part of France). It is used for a number of dialects, spoken in Alsace, Franche-Comté, and Jura. Linguistically, we are looking at a number of dialects, with common properties.  Most of the Alsatian dialects are Germanic. Alsatian is also used for a few dialects that are based on French, and that are spoken in the Vosges, Franche-Comte, territoire de Belfort, and Jura (on both sides of the border).  There are slight differences in the dialects, the one in the north have a sligtly different vocabulary and grammar to the ones in the south. The dialect spoken in the city of Strasbourg is also slighlty different from those in the sourrounding areas.  Statistics. In 2012, the Office pour la Langue et la Culture d’Alsace did a survey: Of those who speak Alsatian: Those who speak Alsatian are generally older: In the three big cities of the region (Strasbourg, Colmar and Mulhouse), Alsatian is spoken less. There, fewer than a third of the adults say they speak Alsatian. Around Wissenbourg, Haguenau, and Saverne, over half the people answered they were good speakers.
Ian Russell McEwan , , , (born 21 June 1948), is an English novelist (who is also called "Ian Macabre" because of the type of his early work). Biography. McEwan was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, England and spent much of his childhood in the Far East, Germany and North Africa where his father, an officer in the army, was posted. He was educated at the University of Sussex and the University of East Anglia, where he was the first graduate of Malcolm Bradbury's pioneering creative writing course. He has been married twice. His second wife, Annalena McAfee, is the editor of the Guardian's Review section. In March and April 2004, just months after the British government had invited him to a dinner with First Lady of the United States Laura Bush, McEwan was denied entry into the United States by the United States Department of Homeland Security for not having the proper visa for earning a living (McEwan was preparing to give a series of paid lectures). Only after several days and publicity in the British press was McEwan admitted because, as he said a customs official had told him, "We still do not want to let you in, but this is attracting a lot of unfavourable publicity." He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999. He was awarded a CBE in 2000. Works. His first published work was the collection of short stories "First Love, Last Rites" (1975), which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976. "The Cement Garden" (1978) and "Black Dogs" (1992) were his early novels. His 1997 novel, "Enduring Love", about a person with de Clerambault's syndrome, is regarded by many as a masterpiece, though "Atonement" has received equally high acclaim. In 1998, he was controversially awarded the Booker Prize for his novella,
Mahjong is a game for four players that was created in China. It is a game of skill, intelligence, calculation and luck. The Set-Up. A Mahjong game is played at a square table (four sides all the same length). The dealer is called the "east" player and everyone else is called a different direction because of where they are sitting - so the person to East's left is South, the person across from East is West, and the person to East's right is North. If East wins, he is the dealer again for the next round; if he does not, the dealer is the person to his right (North). That person then becomes East. A game of Mahjong ends when every player has been the dealer four times, or when they have played the number of rounds they said they would play before they started. Solitaire. A single-player version of this game exists, called Mahjong Solitaire. It is based on the four-player game, but can be played by one person, so it is one of the games that are played often on computers (such as Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, or Minesweeper). Mahjong Solitaire is much simpler than four-player Mahjong: it is played without dice or chips, by removing tiles (set up in the shape of a pyramid) from the board in sets of two. Each set of two has to match - they are either exactly the same, or go together (two "flowers" tiles, for example). A Mahjong Solitaire player wins when he picks up all the tiles, or he loses when he runs out of sets of two that he can pick up.
A harmonic of a wave is the part of a signal's frequency that is a whole multiple (an integer) of the fundamental frequency. The fundamental frequency is the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. If "f" is the fundamental frequency (that is, 1"f"), then the "harmonics" have frequencies 2"f", 3"f", 4"f"..., and so on. The second harmonic (2"f") has a frequency twice that of the fundamental frequency, the third harmonic three times, and so on. This concept applies to wave motions of any form of energy, but is most often related to acoustics. Frequencies that lie between one harmonic and another harmonic are called "interharmonics". For example, 1"f" is an interharmonic between the fundamental frequency (or first harmonic) and the second harmonic. Interharmonics is a term invented, or at least standardised, by the international electronics industry about 1999, particularly for use in electrical energy. However, interharmonic frequencies also occur naturally in other radiant energies, for example music or any type of sound.
The Art Ross Trophy is given to the top scoring player each year in the National Hockey League (NHL). The player with the most points (goals plus assists) is given the trophy. If two players have the same number of points, the award goes to the player with the most goals. If they are tied in goals, it goes to the player who has played fewer games. If they are tied in games, it goes to the player who scored his first goal of the year the soonest. Wayne Gretzky has won this trophy ten times, the most of any player. Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux each won six trophies; Phil Esposito and Jaromir Jagr won five; Stan Mikita won four; and Bobby Hull and Guy Lafleur each won it three times. The Art Ross Memorial Trophy was first awarded in 1948. This list includes all NHL scoring champions: Winners. Bold Player with the most points ever scored in a season.
A towel is a form of cloth or paper used for drying things. There are many types of towels, such as a beach towel and a washcloth, a small towel used for cleaning dishes and bodies. Towels have many different uses, such as drying yourself after a shower, or wiping a table clean. For the body, fabric terry towels are mainly used, consisting mainly of cotton fibers due to their high absorbency (reaching up to 300%). Fabric towels belong to the group of piece textiles. Textile towels often have a sewn loop with which they can be hung on wall furniture hooks for use (previously it was recommended to sew a loop at both ends so that the towel wears out more evenly). In addition to hooks, towels can also be placed in a state thrown over a barbell, and thanks to this straightened suspension, they dry faster. Fabric towels can have finishes such as lace, embroidery, appliques and others. Disposable towels can be made both in piece form and in a roll, both from paper and non-woven material.
A vein is a type of blood vessel in the body. All veins carry blood to the heart. Most veins carry blood that is low in oxygen, except for the pulmonary vein and the umbilical veins which carry blood that is high in oxygen.  A vein has a large lumen (width) and less pressure than an artery. There are smaller amounts of smooth muscle and elastic fibres in the vessel wall. Most veins have one-way valves that keep blood from going backwards.  The vena cava, the biggest vein in human body, collects blood from the other veins and delivers it to the heart. Other important veins are the coronary veins (veins on the heart) and renal veins (veins on the kidney). Veins are mainly seen just below the skin, and are easily seen from the outside, where they look blue because of the lack of oxygen. The blood carried by veins is dark red, but when a vein is cut or pierced, the dark blood immediately reacts with the oxygen in the air and becomes bright red colored. The vein appears blue because of the scattering of light through the skin and the way the eye perceives color and light. Veins contain blood even after death. This is why a dead body appears blue.
The Ottawa Senators are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Senators play their home games at the 21,347-seat Canadian Tire Centre, which opened in 1996. The team was started by Ottawa real estate developer Bruce Firestone, the team is the second NHL franchise to use the Ottawa Senators name. The original Ottawa Senators, founded in 1883, had a rich history, winning 11 Stanley Cups and playing in the NHL from 1917 until 1934. On December 6, 1990, after a two-year public campaign by Firestone, the NHL awarded a new franchise, which began play in the 1992–93 season. The current team owner is Eugene Melnyk, and in 2011, the club was valued by "Forbes Magazine" at $201 million. The team has had success, qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs in twelve of the past fourteen seasons, four division titles, the Presidents' Trophy in 2003 and appeared in the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals. The success has been reflected in attendance. The club has averaged over 20,000 fans per game since 2005–06, peaking at 21,821 in 2007–08. Players and personnel. Head coaches. Statistics are accurate through the hiring of D.J. Smith. General managers. Source: "Ottawa Senators 2009–10 Media Guide", p. 206. Team record. Season-by-season record. "This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Senators. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Ottawa Senators seasons" "Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes" Team scoring leaders. These are the top-ten regular season point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. "Note: Pos = Position; GP