ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
A continent is a large area of the land on Earth that is joined. There are no strict rules for what land is considered a continent, but in general the Earth is known to have seven continents; these being, Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania (or Australia). Statistics. The most populous continent by population is Asia, followed by Africa. The third most populous continent is Europe. The fourth most populous is North America, and then South America. In sub-Saharan Africa, the largest age group are denarians (in their teens). In north Africa, the largest age group are vicenarian (in their twenties). In Europe, most people are tricenarian (in their thirties) or quadragenarian (in their forties). Continents. Geologists use the term "continent" to mean continental crust, a platform of metamorphic and igneous rock, largely of granitic composition. Continental crust is less dense and much thicker than oceanic crust, which is why it "floats" higher than oceanic crust on the underlying mantle. This explains why the continents form high platforms surrounded by deep ocean basins. Australia. Some sources say that Australia is one of the seven continents. Others say that Australia is part of a larger continent, such as Australasia, or Oceania. Oceania is a region which includes Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Australasia includes at least all countries on the Australian continental plate. This includes the islands of New Guinea, Tasmania, New Zealand and a number of smaller islands. It is on the south-eastern side of the Wallace Line, with distinct differences in its biology from the Asian side of the line. "It includes all the islands of the Malay Archipelago... as well as the various groups of islands in the Pacific. The term has been used in very different senses". Zealandia. Zealandia is an almost entirely submerged land mass, and 93% of it still remains under water. Zealandia may have broken off the Australian plate between 85 and 130 million years ago. North and South America. North America and South America together are often described as one continent, "the
The Greek classical elements are fire, air, water, and earth. In Greek philosophy, science and medicine, these make up a whole. The image below has two squares on top of each other. The corners of one are the classical elements. The corners of the other are the properties. Galen said these elements were used by Hippocrates to describe the human body. The elements are linked to the four humours: phlegm (water), yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth), and blood (air). In Chinese Taoism the elements are metal, wood, water, fire, earth ().
China ( Pinyin: Zhōngguó) is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and a nation in East Asia. The official name is People's Republic of China or PRC. The latest Chinese Civil War (19271949) resulted from two different political powers today: China is one of the world's oldest civilizations, having the oldest continuous civilization near the Yellow River region. There is archaeological evidence found that is over 5,000 years old. China also has one of the world's oldest writing systems (and the oldest in use today). China has been the source of making many major inventions. Geographically, China’s longest river is the Yangtze River, which runs through mega cities and is home to many species. It is the world’s third longest river. Origins. The first recorded use of the word "China" is dated to be 190. It is derived from "chīnī", a Persian adjective meaning 'Chinese' which was popularized in Europe by Marco Polo. History. Ancient (2100 B.C. 1500 A.D.). Ancient China was one of the first civilizations, and was active since the 2nd millennium BC as a feudal society. Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing, with the others being Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization, the Maya civilization, the Minoan civilization of ancient Greece, and Ancient Egypt. Ancient China reached its golden age during the Tang Dynasty (c. A.D. 10th century). Home of Confucianism and Daoism. Before the Qin Dynasty united China, there were many small feudal states, nominally loyal to the Zhou King, which typically fought each other for hundreds of years in battles for control of China. The majority of these states were ruled by relatives and clansmen of the Zhou royal house and carried the surname Ji (姬), and were tied by family bonds to the Zhou king, to whom they were ritually subordinate, as members of collateral or lesser lineages. A minority of these states, such as the Qin and Chu, were ruled by non-Zhou clansmen, and were awarded their fiefs on account of some merit. Over time
A country is a distinct territory with defined borders, boundaries, people and government. Most countries are sovereign states while others make up one part of a larger state. The people that live in a country are referred to as a nation. The government that runs the country is called the state. Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Canada and other countries. Number of countries. There is no universally accepted answer as to how many countries in the world there actually are, however the minimum answer is 195, though there are 193 United Nations members. This can be developed on even further by adding the constituent countries of the United Kingdom, The Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Denmark which could add anywhere from three to eleven more countries. There are multiple organisations that have their own lists of countries, one example being the Travellers Century Club which recognises 330 countries as of January 2022. Disputed countries. Palestine is classified as a country. However, there is an ongoing dispute over Palestine’s independence with Israel. There are a number of disputed areas that have declared independence from their parent state and receive limited recognition. For example, Kosovo, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Northern Cyprus, Chechnya, Tibet, East Turkestan and Somaliland. These are just some of the many examples of territories with limited to no recognition that are sometimes classed as countries. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the above examples and quite often any of these territories may be counted as countries purely based on opinion. If all of the above were added the list of U.N members there could be anything up to 211 countries. There are, however, many more territories with unique political circumstances that could also be counted. Depending on how loosely the dictionary definition for the word country is used there could be many more than 193 countries in the world. The matter is purely subjective depending on varying opinions. Constituent country. Constituent country is a term sometimes used, usually by official institutions, in contexts in which a number of countries are part of a sovereign state. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has used the term referring to the former Yugoslavia, and
Colchester is a city in the northern part of the English county of Essex. It has a population of 130,245 people. People believe that Colchester is the oldest Roman town in England. History. Before Roman times, Colchester was "Camulodunon". This is a Celtic name that came from Camulos. Camulos was the Celtic god of war. The Romans called Colchester "Camulodunum" (written "CAMVLODVNVM") and made it the capital of Roman Britain. Colchester was attacked and burnt by Boudicca in 61 AD. The Romans moved their capital of Britannia to Londinium (now London), but Camulodunum remained an important city until the fifth century, when the Saxons conquered the region.  The Roman town of "Camulodunum", officially known as "Colonia Victricensis", reached its peak in the Second and Third centuries AD. It may have reached a population of 30,000 in those centuries, but when the Romans withdrew from Britannia in 410 AD it probably had fewer than 5,000 inhabitants.  The church at the Benedictine abbey of Saint John the Baptist was destroyed in 1539. This action was part of the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII. Only a gate remains, that people still go to visit. King Cunobelinus (or "Cunobelin") was from Colchester. Until 2022, Colchester was officially a town, not a city. On 5 September, Queen Elizabeth II signed letters patent to grant it city status. This was planned as part of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations. However, she died three days later. On 29 September, these letters were publicly released. Twin cities. Colchester is twinned with the following cities:
Cartography is making maps. It is part of geography. How people make maps is always changing. In the past, maps were drawn by hand, but today most printed maps are made using computers and people usually see maps on computer screens. Someone who makes maps is called a cartographer. Making a map can be as simple as drawing a direction on a napkin, or as complicated as showing a whole country or world. Anyone can make a map, but cartographers spend their lives learning how to make better maps. For many centuries maps were usually carefully drawn onto paper or parchment. Now they are made on a computer which makes them look neater with accurate images. Maps are of two main types: General maps are produced in a series. Governments produce them in larger-scale and smaller-scale maps of great detail. Thematic maps are now very common. They are necessary to show spatial, cultural and social data.
A creator is a person who creates something. In some religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) God (or Allah meaning the God in Arabic) is the most important and original creator of the whole universe - including Man who is made "in his image" (see Genesis) to observe it and control it like God. The idea that anything that a person is creating, like an idea, can be owned as property comes from the ethical traditions and legal codes that came from these religions. In other traditions (Buddhism, Native American mythology) anyone has this potential for creating, and can become part of the greater creating of the universe. Stewardship of home, land and all of Earth is a test for participating in this, or just good sense.
Chorizo is a pork (pig-meat) sausage which people first made in the Iberian Peninsula. It is made with large pieces of fatty pork, chili pepper and paprika. The special taste of this sausage comes from the mild Spanish paprika in it.  In the western hemisphere, the Mexican and Caribbean types are better known. These types of chorizo are made with smaller pieces of pork and different seasonings and peppers are used. Cured smoked chorizo is edible and can be eaten without cooking. Fresh chorizo must be cooked before eating. It can be eaten by its self, or as part of meal. It can also be used in place of ground beef or pork. Chorizo can be fresh. Also it can be dried. It can be spicy or not spicy depending on the recipe. There are many ways to eat chorizo. It can be sliced and eaten as a snack, or cooked. Dishes like stews, soups and rice dishes also use Chorizo. In Spain, chorizo is served as a small plate of food with drinks. In Latin America, chorizo is served with beans and eggs for breakfast. To make chorizo, the pork is cut into small pieces. Then it is mixed with spices and other ingredients. The mixture is then put into a casing. Casing is a thin, tube-like skin. Casing is made from the intestine of a pig. The chorizo is then left to dry for a few weeks. By doing this chorizo gets its special flavor and texture. There are many kinds of chorizo. Recipe of chorizo also different in different countries. In Spain, there are two main kinds of chorizo: chorizo de verdeo, and chorizo de cantimpalo. Chorizo de verdeo made with white wine and chorizo de cantimpalomade with red wine. In Latin America, chorizo is made with a mixture of chili peppers and other spices. It makes chorizo spicy. There are a few different ways to cook with chorizo. One popular way is to slice the chorizo and fry it in a pan until it is crispy. It can then be added to dishes like soups, st
Creativity is the ability of a person or group to make something new and useful or valuable, or the process of making something new and useful or valuable. It happens in all areas of life - science, art, literature and music. As a personal ability it is difficult to measure. The reason is that we don't understand the mental processes that help some people be more creative than others. Judging who and what is creative is also controversial. Some people say only things that are historically new are creative, while other people say that if it is new for the creator and the people around them, then it is also creativity. Some think that creativity is an important thing that makes humans different from apes. Others recognize that even apes, other primates, other mammals, and some birds adapt to survive by being creative (for example - primates using tools). Liane Gabora believes that all culture comes from creativity, not imitation. Therefore, these people say, human science should focus on it (pay special attention to it): Ethics for example would focus on finding creative solutions to ethical dilemmas. Politics would focus on the political virtues that need some creativity. Imitation would not be the focus of education. Linguistics might be more interested in how new words are created by culture, rather than in how existing ones are used in grammar. Intellectual interests (recognized as intellectual rights or intellectual property in the law) are a way to reward creativity in law, but they do not always work very well. A good example is copyright which is supposed to pay writers and artists, but may only pay lawyers to make (imitative) arguments in court. Creativity is a central question in economics, where it is known as ingenuity (the ability to come up with new ideas) or individual capital - capacities that individuals have, that do not arise from simple imitation of what is known already. This is separate from the instructional capital that might try to capture some of that in a patent or training system that helps others do what the individual leader or founder of the system can do. In urban economics there are various ways to measure creativity - the Bohemian Index and Gay Index are two attempts to do this accurately and predict the economic growth of cities based on creativity.
The Cathar faith was a version of Christianity. They were usually considered Gnostics. The word 'Cathar' comes the Greek word "katharos" meaning 'unpolluted' (from Tobias Churton, "The Gnostics") or "the pure ones". They used a bible in the language people spoke. Most other Western Christians used a Bible in Latin. Latin was spoken only by the priests. Doctrines. The Cathars believed that the world had been made by a bad god. They believed that this bad god had taken them from the good god and put them in the world, but inside their bodies there was a spirit, and that spirit needed to return to the good god. They were famous for a belief in a form of reincarnation and believed that when someone died the bad god would put that person's spirit in a new body. They believed this cycle of coming back to life could be escaped by a ritual cleansing. They were opposed to the doctrine of sin.  Women were prominent in the faith. They were pacifists. They didn't eat anything that was made from other animals, including meat and cows milk. The only exception to this was fish. Fish was OK to eat because they believed fishes were not alive but just things that were sometimes produced from dirt and water. They preached tolerance of other faiths. They rejected the usual Christian rules of marriage and only believed in the New Testament. An earlier 10th-century Bulgarian heresy, Bogomilism and also Manichaeism started some of these trends.  Problems. In 1145, open challenge to Catholic dominance began. In about 1165, the first Cathars said that the Church was "full of ravening (starving) wolves and hypocrites" and "worshipping the wrong God", right in front of the most powerful Catholics. In 1166, the Council of Oxford in England wiped out the English Cathars. They were also suppressed in Northern France. In 1167, Cathar bishops met to discuss organizing a counter Church - in the South of France, the Languedoc nobles protected it, and many noble women became "Perfects".
Cosmology is the branch of astronomy that deals with the universe.  NASA defines cosmology as "The study of the structure and changes in the present universe". Another definition of cosmology is "the study of the universe, and humanity's place in it". Modern cosmology is dominated by the Big Bang theory, which brings together observational astronomy and particle physics. Though the word "cosmology" is recent (first used in 1730 in Christian Wolff's "Cosmologia Generalis"), the study of the universe has a long history. History. Until the Renaissance people thought the universe was only the planets up to Saturn, and stars. With the invention of the telescope, we could see more of the universe. Early in the 20th century, astronomers thought the Milky Way was the entire universe. Later, with astrophotography and spectroscopy, astronomers (for example Edwin Hubble) showed that the Milky Way was only one of many galaxies.  Modern cosmology is considered to have started in 1917 with the final paper of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This made physicists realize that the universe changed. When a scientific discipline begins to change an idea that is believed by many people, it is known as a paradigm shift. Many scientists debated if there were other galaxies. The debate ended when Edwin Hubble found Cepheid Variables in the Andromeda Galaxy in 1926. The Big Bang model was then proposed by Belgian priest, Georges Lemaître in 1927. This was supported by Edwin Hubble's discovery of the redshift in 1929. Later the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation was made. This was found by Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson in 1964.  All of these discoveries have been supported in the 21st century. Some more observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation were found by the COBE, WMAP, and Planck satellites. Some more observations of the redshift were found by the 2dfGRS and SDSS. An astronomical survey looks at a place in space. A redshift survey is a survey that looks for redshifts. On 1 December 2014, at the
A church is a building that was constructed to allow people to meet to worship together. These people are usually Christians, or influenced by Christianity. Some other non-Christian religious groups also call their religious buildings churches, most notably Scientology. The following description is about Roman Catholic churches, although some parts are the same in Episcopalian and Lutheran churches. Depending on the number of people that are in a community, the churches come in different sizes. Small churches are called chapels. The churches in a particular geographical area form a group called the diocese. Each diocese has a cathedral. In most cases, the cathedral is a very big church. Cathedrals are the seat of bishops. History of church buildings.   In the early days of Christianity people met in private buildings. Church buildings are mentioned for the first time around A.D. 260 when the Emperor Galienus ordered an end of a persecution and to return the places of worship. In the third century we hear of large church buildings. We do not know, how these early buildings looked. Only in Dura-Europos (Syria) a building was discovered, which had been a private house modified for Christian services. After the death of the Roman emperor Constantine in A.D. 337, Christians were allowed to have buildings to worship in. These first churches were built on a similar plan to Roman basilicas. This plan was later used for the fine Gothic cathedrals and churches that were built at the end of the Middle Ages. The parts of a church. There are several parts in the architecture of a church. Not all churches will have all these parts: In Roman Catholic churches there is always a stoup (bowl) of holy water near the entrance of the church. This tradition comes from the fact that Roman basilicas had a fountain for washing in front of the entrance. The font is a bowl where people (often babies) are baptized. This is also near the entrance of the church. This is a symbol of the fact that it is welcoming the people into the Christian church. Traditionally the nave has long benches for the congregation to sit on. These are called pews. Some churches may now have replaced their p
A city is a place where many people live close together. A city has many buildings and streets. It has houses, hotels, condominiums, and apartments for many people to live in, shops where they may buy things, places for people to work, and a government to run the city and keep law and order in the city. People live in cities because it is easy for them to find and do everything they want there. A city usually has a "city center" where government and business occur and suburbs where people live outside the center. Definition. No rule is used worldwide to decide why some places are called "city," and other places are called "town." Some things that make a city are : In American English, people often call all places where many people live cities. (See below: Size of cities ) Size of cities. The sizes of cities can be very different. This depends on the type of city. Cities built hundreds of years ago and which have not changed much are much smaller than modern cities. There are two main reasons. One reason is that old cities often have a city wall, and most of the city is inside it. Another important reason is that the streets in old cities are often narrow. If the city got too big, it was hard for a cart carrying food to get to the marketplace. People in cities need food, and the food always has to come from outside the city. Cities that were on a river like London could grow much bigger than cities that were on a mountain like Siena in Italy, because the river made a transport route for carrying food and other goods, as well as for transporting people. London has been changing continually for hundreds of years, while Siena, a significant city in the 1300s, has changed very little in 700 years. Modern cities with modern transport systems can grow very large, because the streets are wide enough for cars, buses, and trucks, and there are often railway lines. U.S.A. usage. In the US, the word "city" is often used for towns that are not very big. When the first European people went to America, they named "city" to new places. They hoped the places would be great cities
Cooking is a process to make food ready to eat by heating it. Methods. Cooking is often done in a kitchen using a stove or an oven. It can also be done over a fire (for example, over a campfire or on a barbecue). The heat for cooking can be made in different ways. It can be from an open fire that burns wood or charcoal. It can be on a stove or in an oven that uses propane, natural gas, or electricity. There are several different ways to cook food. Boiling cooks food in hot water. Frying (deep or shallow) cooks food in hot butter, fat or oil. Baking and roasting cook food by surrounding it with hot air. Grilling means cooking food on a metal grill that has heat under it. People often cook meat by boiling, roasting, frying, or grilling it. Some foods such as bread or pastries are usually baked. Usually food is cooked in some kind of pot or pan. Sometimes people cook food by putting it directly into the fire, or by wrapping the food in leaves before they put it into the fire. Cooks. A person whose job it is to cook food may be called a "cook" or a "chef". The word "cooker" means a machine or tool that a cook might use to cook food. Rice cookers and pressure cookers are examples.