ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
In an essay or research paper, a thesis statement is a statement at the start or the end of an introduction that shows the reader the argument of the essay. A thesis statement gives concise information about what the whole essay is about, including the topic of the paper. It is usually just one sentence but it may have more than one sentence. The thesis statement is explained further using body paragraphs. Thesis statements are not obscure, because obscurity happens when a "writer himself is not quite sure of his meaning. He has a vague impression of what he wants to say, but has not, either from lack of mental power or from laziness, exactly formulated it in his mind, and it is natural enough that he should not find a precise expression for a confused idea.” (W. Somerset Maugham). Clarity and unity of a thought in an essay flows from a good thesis statement. Rubrics of a good essay involve good sentence development and formation acceptable to grammatical standards and relevant word choices organized in forms of phrases, clauses and sentences. Characteristics. The thesis statement is developed, supported, and explained in the course of the paper by means of examples and evidence. Thesis statements help organize and develop the body of the writing piece. They let readers know, what the writer's statement is and what it is aiming to prove. A thesis statement does not necessarily forecast organization of an essay which can be more complex than its purpose. Structure. The thesis statement will reflect the kind of paper being written. There are three kinds of papers: analytical, expository, and argumentative. The structure of a thesis statement depends upon the nature of controlling essay type. In simple terms, first a thesis statement will have a main topic sentence formed from questioning the topic, then the writer's statement regarding the topic sentence, and finally ends with the specific supporting points detailing the writer's statement for justifying its relation with the topic sentence. In general, it should have a supportable opinion (specific/focused) and clear intent for the essay.
The Metropolitan City of Bari () is a metropolitan city in the Apulia region of Southern Italy. Its capital, and of the Apulia region, is the city of Bari. It replaced the Province of Bari and includes the city of Bari and some forty other municipalities ("comuni"). It was first created by the reform of local authorities (Law 142/1990) and then established by the Law 56/2014. It has been operative since January 1, 2015. Geography. The Metropolitan City of Bari is in the central part of Apulia and has an area of . The Metropolitan City is bordered on the east by the Adriatic Sea, to the northwest by Basilicata (province of Potenza), to the north by the province of province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, to the west with Basilicata (province of Matera), to the southeast by the province of province of Brindisi and to the south with the province of Taranto. Population. , there are 1,263,820 persons living in the province, for a population density of inhabitants/km². Administration. The province has 41 "comuni". The "comuni" with more people living in them (more than 30,000) areː The largest "comune" is Altamura, with and the smallest is Cellamare, with . The "comune" with fewest inhabitants is Poggiorsini, with 1,450 inhabitants.
Scheunen was a municipality in the administrative district of Bern-Mittelland in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014, the former municipalities of Scheunen and Münchringen merged into the municipality of Jegenstorf.
A candidate, or "nominee", is a person (or a thing) which is being considered for something. For a person, it might be an award or honor or membership of a group. An election, for example, often chooses one or a few, among two or more candidates. The word comes from a Latin word for white, because men who wanted to be chosen would wear white so everyone would notice them.  The word is also used in problem-solving. In chess, a distinction is made between legal moves and candidate moves. The candidate moves are those selected for a more detailed examination.
The Brown Bess is a nickname for the British Short Land Pattern Musket. It was produced from 1725 to 1838. The Land Pattern, or more popularly known as the "Brown Bess", and its versions were all .75 caliber smoothbore flintlock muskets. They were the standard guns for all land forces in the British Empire. It was one of the most important military firearms ever designed. It helped win the British Empire. The Brown Bess was replaced after 1838 by smoothbore percussion cap muskets. Its effective range was about but in most battle situations the distance between forces was only about . Even at that range the gun was not particularly accurate. The British tactic was to fire in vollies followed by a bayonet attack. While the origins of the name Brown Bess are uncertain, a plausible explanation is the name was based on the German "Braun buss", meaning strong gun. The gun was commissioned during the reign of King George I of Great Britain, who was from Germany. History. One of the earliest forms of flintlock musket used by the English Army was the "dog lock". Very similar to the snaphaunce it was the first to introduce the half-cocked position of the hammer. This made the gun much safer to handle and load. It was in use during the English Civil War and many found their way to the British North American colonies. Another name for the dog lock was the English lock, and the gun was a Swedish styled musket. Some of these have been found at Jamestown and Yorktown, Virginia by archaeologists. Between 1710 and 1720 the first King's pattern musket called “Long Land Service” came into use. It had a barrel, iron furniture and the French lock (or "true" flintlock) style of flintlock. Later the metal parts (furniture) were changed to brass and the wood ramrod which broke easily was replaced by an iron ramrod. About 1722, the British Long Land Pattern musket was developed. It created a pattern for arms makers to the British Army to follow, creating a standard weapon. The Long
The administrative district of Emmental in the Swiss canton of Bern has 42 municipalities in an area of 691 km². About 98.000 people live in the area. The area is rural. The biggest city is Burgdorf, with about 15.000 people. The second-biggest is Langnau, with about 9.000 people. Langnau is also where the district administration is. The cheese with the same name was originally produced in the district.
The Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani () is a province in the Apulia region of Southern Italy. The capital is shared by three cities: Barletta, Andria and Trani. The province borders the Adriatic Sea. History. It was created from 10 municipalities ("comuni"), which were formerly in the provinces of Bari (7 municipalities) and Foggia (3 municipalities), taking its name from the three cities which share the new administrative functions of the province. Geography. The province of Barletta-Andria-Trani is in the central part of Apulia and has an area of . The province borders to the northwest by the province of Foggia, to the north and northeast by the Adriatic Sea, to the east with the Metropolitan City of Bari, to the south by province of Potenza (Basilicata region). The main river of the province, and of the Apulia region, is the Ofanto river, that flows into the Adriatic Sea between Margherita di Savoia and Barletta. The highest point in the province is "Monte Caccia", high; it is in the "Altopiano delle Murge", a karstic plateau of rectangular shape in southern Italy. Population. , there are 393,534 persons (194402 males and 199,132 females) living in the province, for a population density of inhabitants/km². Administration. The province has 10 "comuni".
Dissociatives are a type of hallucinogenic drug. Dissociatives can make the user feel separated or "dissociated" from their body and environment. They are often used as anesthetic, to make people unconscious during operations or for other medical uses.  Dissociatives change users perceptions and can cause hallucinations, trance and euphoria. They are usually only used on animals or children, who won't notice these effects. However, for this reason they are also used recreationally or for fun. In many countries however, they are illegal to use for this purpose. Some dissociatives, like that produced from "Salvia divinorum", enter the bloodstream and attach to opioid receptors in the brain. Others attach to dopamine receptors. Most block the chemical glutamate from its normal action in the brain. Glutamate is important in how the brain processes memory and pain. The most commonly available dissociatives around the world are ketamine, phencyclidine (PCP) and dextromethorphan or DXM.
The US Springfield Model 1795 Musket was the first smoothbore flintlock musket produced in the United States. It was based on the French Model 1763 Charleville musket and like the French design was a .69 caliber musket. The Charleville and the Brown Bess were the two most famous muskets during the 18th century. The Charleville musket had been the primary musket used by Americans during the American Revolutionary War. The Charleville being the more accurate of the two, it was selected as the model for a new American musket. History. About the middle of the 18th century, French gunsmith Honoré Blanc developed the concept of interchangeable parts for muskets. Blanc tried to interest other European gunsmiths, but they were not impressed by the idea. But he did interest the American Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson quickly saw that mass production of weapons parts would free America from dependence on European sources for parts. He could not get Blanc to move to the United States but he did convince President George Washington it was a good idea. In 1798, Eli Whitney got the first contract for 10,000 muskets to be delivered within two years. Whitney used a large force of unskilled workers and machinery to produce standardized identical parts at a low cost. Congress had already decided to pattern the new musket after the 1763 French Charleville model. Whitney, like other contractors, had been given 2 or 3 to work with. The Model 1795 muskets were the first muskets produced at the Springfield Armory and also the Harpers Ferry Armory. The Harpers Ferry Armory did not begin producing the muskets until 1798 at the earliest and more probably started around 1800. There were some distinct differences in the muskets produced at the two armories. The models from the Springfield Armory have dates of manufacture on the lockplate and have an eagle stamp with the word "Springfield". Between 1795 and 1816, the Springfield Armory produced about 85,000 muskets. Between the two armories,
South Italy ( or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a NUTS1 level region. South Italy is defined only for statistical and for some elections. It should not to be confused with the "Mezzogiorno", or Southern Italy, which generally refers to all the southern half of the Italian State, including the island of Sicily and sometimes even Sardinia. The two islands form a distinct statistical region.region. Geography. South Italy borders to the north with Central Italy (to the northwest with Lazio and to the northeast with Marche). The Adriatic Sea is to the east and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, and the Ionian Sea to the south. The Apennines are mountain ranges that goes from north to south through South Italy. The highest point in the region is the Corno Grande () (part of the Gran Sasso) that is high. Regions. Central Italy encompasses six of the 20 regions of Italy, including 24 provinces and 1,789 comuniː The "comuni" with more than 100,000 persons living in them areː
History. Several inventors have had the idea of interchangeable parts in the past. But their version of the idea revolved around parts that had very loose tolerances or were used only for very simple parts. In 1720 a Swedish inventor named Christopher Polhem used interchangeable parts for clocks in his workshop. But the idea was not used outside his shops.  About the middle of the 18th century, French gunsmith Honoré Blanc developed the concept of interchangeable parts for muskets. Blanc tried to interest other European gunsmiths, but they were not impressed by the idea. But he did interest the American Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson quickly saw that mass production of weapons parts would free America from dependence on European sources for parts. He could not get Blanc to move to the United States but he did convince President George Washington it was a good idea. It came at a critical time when Congress was preparing for a war with France. In 1798, Eli Whitney got the first contract for 10,000 muskets to be delivered within two years. Whitney used a large force of unskilled workers and machinery to produce standardized identical parts at a low cost. What he produced was the first smoothbore flintlock musket produced in the United States, the Springfield Model 1795 Musket. Whitney's idea of using machines to create interchangeable parts started what came to be known as the "American system" of mass production. Mass production. The concept of mass production depends on the use of interchangeable parts. One of the most famous inventors to use interchangeable parts, mass production and the assembly line was Henry Ford. Unlike other cars of the time, his Ford Model T used the same identical parts in each vehicle. Parts were created in large quantities and delivered to his assembly plant where workers built the cars on an assembly line. This allowed Ford to produce a quality vehicle ready to go in just 93 minutes. Ford raised workers' wages in 1914 to $5 a day. That was an excellent wage at the time, so much so that it allowed many of his workers to buy their own Model T. That same year Ford produced more cars than all other car manufacturers combined. His least expensive model in 1914, the Runabout, sold for $440. By 1925 he was able to sell a Model T for as little as $260.
In 2016, social media had the biggest effect ever on the United States presidential election. For the first time, social media created the change (of plans for Democratic and Republican primaries) rather than talking about it. Many journalists expected this. Benefits to candidates. Many presidential candidates benefited from the use of social media in the 2016 election.  Bernie Sanders. Many people think social media is the reason Bernie Sanders did so well in the Democratic primaries. In May 2016, 450,000 people belonged to the pro-Sanders Facebook group "Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash". Another pro-Sanders group, "Bernie or Hillary?", exists. Donald Trump. Social media is also thought by most people to be the reason Donald Trump did so well in the Republican primaries. Activity by Donald Trump supporters on social media was one of the things talked about at the first Republican debate. Trump mentioned that his social media accounts provided a tremendous platform for his election and helps keep people interested.  "Right Side Broadcasting Network" often uploads live footage of Donald Trump rallys on YouTube, causing their popularity to go way up. Hillary Clinton. In April 2016, Correct the Record, a pro-Clinton super PAC, started a program called "Barrier Breakers" that wants to compete with the mostly online volunteer efforts of Sanders and Trump supporters. With $1 million in funding, Correct the Record hired a paid staff of people that used to be reporters, bloggers, public affairs specialists, designers to post good things about Clinton. On June 9, 2016, as a response to Donald Trump's tweet about Obama's endorsement to Clinton, she wrote with a three word tweet: "Delete your account". This tweet has become her most retweeted tweet of all time. By the end of June 2016, this most retweeted tweet of all time got more than 1,000,000 interactions.  Memes. One form of social media being used in the 2016 election are memes. "The Guardian" compared Internet memes to political cartoons, saying, "For the first time in a US election cycle, community-generated (created) memes have grown to play a significant (important) role in political discourse (debate), similar to the classic printed cartoon. While an Internet meme is unlikely to destroy a political career, lots of memes targeting a candidate might." Many memes attacked Ted Cruz.
Mettauertal is a municipality of the district Laufenburg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010, the former municipalities of Etzgen, Hottwil, Mettau, Oberhofen and Wil merged into the new municipality of Mettauertal.
Unterehrendingen is a village and former municipality in the district of Baden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. On 1 January 2006 the former municipalities of Unterehrendingen and Oberehrendingen merged into the new municipality of Ehrendingen
Lodano is a village and former municipality of the district of Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 4 April 2004 the former municipalities of Aurigeno, Coglio, Giumaglio, Lodano, Moghegno and Someo merged into the municipality of Maggia.
Honoré Blanc (1736–1807) was a French gunsmith and inventor. He was one of the first to use the concept of interchangeable parts. Blanc was born in Avignon, France in 1736. At age 12 he became an apprentice to a gunsmith. He was an armorer at the Charleville armory in Charleville-Mézières, Ardennes, France. In 1763 he became the controller of gunlocks at the Saint-Étienne arms factory. Just before the French Revolution, he came up with the idea of interchangeable parts for gun locks.  Interchangeable parts. By the 1760s, Blanc was making specialized machinery and tools to make gunlocks. His design for the Musket Model 1777 was accepted and he was made chief controller for three arms factories. In 1785, in an experiment, Blanc mixed parts from 25 gunlocks and assembled several models with ease. His demonstration showed the benefit of interchangeable parts and how it worked. He repeated the experiment for military policy makers in 1790. The French Academy of Sciences supported his idea in 1791. But the Legislative assembly would not fund his work. Blanc shifted his attention to setting up a private company to produce gunlocks using interchangeable parts in 1791. Even after receiving permission and s from the French government, he was very slow in getting started. He did not produce any gunlocks until 1796. His factory was still making gunlocks in 1807 when Blanc died. In the United States. While European gunsmiths were not impressed by the idea, he did interest the American Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson quickly saw that mass production of weapons parts would free America from dependence on European sources for parts. He could not get Blanc to move to the United States but he did convince President George Washington it was a good idea. In 1798, Eli Whitney got the first contract for 10,000 muskets to be delivered within two years. Whitney used a large force of unskilled workers and machinery to produce standardized identical parts at a low cost. This was the first time in the US Blanc's ideas of mass production were put to use. Congress had already decided to pattern the new musket after the 1763 French Charleville musket. This was one that Blanc had worked on early in his career. What resulted was the Springfield Model 1795 Musket, the first military musket made in the United States.
Seedorf is a municipality in the administrative district of Seeland in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Villages. Seedorf, Lobsigen, Wiler, Frieswil, Baggwil, Ruchwil, Dampfwil, Aspi, Grissenberg and Frienisberg.
Long range shooting is a relative term generally meaning accurate shooting at distances ordinary shooters with ordinary rifles could not hit. For example, Daniel Boone, using a flintlock rifle could probably hit a target at up to . Today, expert marksmen are hitting targets well over away. Modern long range shooting is more than just using modern machined actions and precision gun barrels. These produce a rifle that a decent shooter can hit targets at about 250 yards, ranges that were unheard of by black powder shooters.  Calculations. The ability to hit a target at (or 10 football fields away) requires the shooter to become an expert in ballistics. First, the shooter has to know exactly how far away target is. They have to be able to compensate for windage (the effects of wind on a bullet). Next, the shooter has to compute the "elevation". This is how far "above" the target the shooter must aim to compensate for the force of gravity on the bullet at a given distance. Shooters have to compensate also for shots uphill or downhill from their position.  Other factors include "bullet Drift". This means a bullet that fired out of the barrel with a muzzle velocity (speed at the muzzle) of 2800 FPS that exits a barrel with 1:12 rifling is spinning at 168,000 RPMs. At just the bullet will drift about in the direction it was spinning. If the rifle has a right-hand twist, the bullet will go to the right of the target. Spotter. Long range shooters, and especially snipers, operate as a team. As difficult as long range shooting is, it would be even harder without a spotter. Spotters are also trained snipers or long range shooters. The spotter has a number of jobs. He helps locate the target. He does most of the calculations for elevation, windage, and hitting a moving target. With several targets, the spotter decides which to hit first. Spotters also measure the humidity, temperature, and the angle of the shot. He then tells the sniper/shooter what adjustments to make to the rifle scope. Finally, the spotter tells the shooter where the round hit—on target or a miss—and what adjustments to make to get back on-target.
A battle rifle is a weapon that fires a powerful bullet such as 7.62×51mm NATO (.308 caliber) or 7.62×54mmR. They were most often used in the Cold War. Today, most armies use smaller, intermediate bullets like the 5.56×45mm NATO, but many many soldiers from different countries still use battle rifles - for example, in a sniper role.  Some of the most popular battle rifles are the FN FAL, G3, and M14, all first made during the Cold War. Newer examples of this type of weapon include the Belgian or the American . There are also older weapons that can be described as battle rifles - for example, the M1 Garand rifle, used in World War II. While battle rifles are much less popular now than in past decades, some armies are going back to the idea of giving their soldiers larger caliber rifles. In 2022, the United States Army decided to replace the old 5.56 M4 carbine with the , which fires a much bigger 6.8×51mm bullet. And the Turkish army uses the , a .308 battle rifle, as its standard issue weapon.
The Ofanto () is a river in South Italy that flows through the regions of Campania, Basilicata, and Apulia, and into the Adriatic Sea. Geography. The Ofanto river has a length of , and a drainage basin with an area of approximately . Course. The Ofanto river starts in the Apennines mountains, within the "Irpinia" (a historical region of the southern Apennines around Avellino), at an elevation of about , in the "comune" of Torella dei Lombardi, Province of Avellino, Campania. From there it runs southeast flowing into "Lago di Conza", a man-made reservoir. The river forms the border between the province of Avellino and the province of Potenza and then turns to the north, forming the border between the province of Foggia and the province of Potenza. It then turns to the northeast and forms the border between the province of Foggia and the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. Finallly, the river flows, in the community of "Fiumara" between Margherita di Savoia and Barletta, into the Adriatic Sea near the Gulf of Manfredonia. The Ofanto flows through 3 regions, 4 provinces and 33 "comuni", all in South Italy: Main tributaries. Most tributaries of the Ofanto river are small streams. Some of them are: