ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950) is a retired American basketball player. He went to Roosevelt High school. He is best known by the nickname Dr. J. Other nicknames include The Doctor and J. W. Erving. Erving helped create the modern style of basketball. Jumping and playing above the rim of the basket became a more important part of the game. Career. Erving was the best known player in the American Basketball Association (ABA) when it joined with the NBA in 1976. He won three championships and four Most Valuable Player Awards. He scored the most points in the league three times. He did it while playing with the ABA's Virginia Squires and New York Nets and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. He is the fifth-highest scorer in professional basketball history. He scored 30,026 points (NBA and ABA combined). He was the only player to have been voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA. Erving was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time team. In 1993, he was added into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Many think that Erving is one of the best basketball players ever. He was well known for slam dunking from the free throw line. He was one of the best dunkers of all time. His best known dunk was the "slam" dunk. Since then, this move has become a regular term in basketball and is felt by most the be a basic part of the game. He is also credited with making the "cross-over" dribble and the "no look" pass a part of the game.
Stephen John Coogan (born 14 October 1965) is a British actor, comedian, writer and television producer. He has played roles in sitcoms and movies. His best known character is Alan Partridge. Life. Coogan was born in Middleton, Lancashire and raised in Alkrington. He lives in East Sussex.
Crow Island School is an elementary school in Winnetka, Illinois. Several architects worked together to design the building. Eero Saarinen worked with the architectural firm of Perkins, Wheeler and Will. The building was finished in 1940. It is different from many other schools because of its design and its ideas about education. Now, kindergarten through fourth grade students go to this school. The first jungle gym is here. It used to be at the Horace Mann School, but that school building was taken down in 1940. People who ran the school moved this special playground equipment to the Crow Island School then. The building won the Twenty-five Year Award in 1971. The school was named a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
The Río Grande, or Río Bravo (del Norte), is a river in the United States and Mexico. The name "Río Grande" means "great river" in Spanish. In Mexico, it is known as "Río Bravo" or "Río Bravo del Norte"; and the Spanish word "bravo" has many meanings, including "brave", "courageous", "rough" or "wild", and "Norte" means "North". The source of the Río Grande is in the San Juan Mountains of the Rocky Mountains range in Colorado. It flows through the U.S. states of Colorado and New Mexico, and Texas, and forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. The Río Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
Dorota Aqualiteja Rabczewska, nicknamed Doda or Doda Elektroda, (born February 15, 1984, in Ciechanów, Poland) is a famous Polish singer with one of the largest number of awards in Poland. She was first known as a member of the Polish rock band Virgin. After the group disbanded she continued with a solo career releasing an album in 2007, called "Diamond Bitch" and another album "The Seven Temptations" which was released in 2011. She was featured on CNN, as the tenth most famous Pole in history. In 2011 Polish magazine Viva! put her among ten most influential women in Poland. According to Forbes Poland, Doda was listed among the 100 most valuable stars of Polish show business every year from 2006 to 2014. She was also featured on CNN's 2008 list of the 10 most famous Poles in history, Machina's list of the 50 best Polish female singers in 2010, and Polish magazine Viva! listed her among the 10 most influential women in Poland in 2011. Wprost named Doda one of the 100 most influential Poles in 2011 and one of the 50 most influential Poles in 2019.
Snowstar Records is an independent Dutch record label based in Utrecht. The label was founded in 2003 by Cedric Muyres. Snowstar is specialised in Indie, singer/songwriter and folk. Signed artists include I Am Oak, Donna Blue, Jack Poels, Remy van Kesteren and broeder Dieleman. History. Since 2003 Snowstar Records is active in the alternative pop music scene. Initially as a punk rock label operating from Limburg, but the focus shifted to indie, singer/songwriter, folk and americana. Since 2008 the label is based in Utrecht. With the release of I Am Oak, On Claws in 2010 the label obtained a high brand awareness. Stefan Breuer (band member I Am Oak and Lost Bear) is involved in the production process (recording and mixing) by most of the releases from Snowstar Records, while Tammo kersbergen (also band member I Am Oak and Lost Bear) has provided much of the mastering. In 2008 Snowstar Record celebrated their fiftieth anniversary with five new releases and a party in DB’s, Utrecht (the Netherlands). Rest of the World / abroad. Snowstar is also building on their releases abroad, by working together with foreign labels. The album from The Secret Love Parade is released in Japan and the albums from I Am Oak in Belgium and Germany.
The Akutan Zero, also known as Koga's Zero and the Aleutian Zero, was a type 0 model 21 Mitsubishi A6M Zero Japanese fighter plane. This type of airplane was the Imperial Japanese Navy's most common fighter plane during World War 2. It crashed on Akutan Island, Alaska Territory, during June 1942. It was the first flyable Zero that the United States got during the war. The Americans fixed the plane and test pilots flew it to find out how it worked. American tacticians were able to find ways to defeat the Zero. Tadayoshi Koga was the pilot. He was a 19-year-old flight petty officer first class. He launched from the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō as part of a June 4 1942 raid on Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Small gun fire cut the oil line in the plane. Without oil, the plane crashed and killed the pilot. The plane did not break apart in the crash. The pilots of other Zero planes flying with Koga thought that he might be alive. Because of this, they did not try to destroy his plane. The Americans got the plane in July. The Akutan Zero was very important to the American war effort. Some said it may have been "one of the greatest prizes of the Pacific war". Japanese historian Masatake Okumiya thought that losing the Akutan Zero to the Americans was similar to Japan losing the Battle of Midway. He said it made Japan lose the war sooner. On the other hand, John Lundstrom is among those who do not agree with "the contention that it took dissection of Koga's Zero to create tactics that beat the fabled airplane". The Akutan Zero was destroyed in a training accident in 1945. Parts of the plane are kept in several museums in the United States.
The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act (37th United States Congress, Sess. 2., ch. 126, ) was a federal law. A very disputed subject in the 1860s the act banned men having more than one wife at the same time (bigamy). It also limited the amount of property that a church and non-profit could own in any territory of the United States to $50,000. Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont sponsored it. President Abraham Lincoln signed it on July 8, 1862. History. The act wanted to stop the Mormon practice of plural marriage and the property dominance of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Utah Territory. The measure had no funds allocated for enforcement. Lincoln chose not to enforce this law. Instead, Lincoln gave Brigham Young tacit permission to ignore the Morrill Act in exchange for not becoming involved with the Civil War. General Patrick Edward Connor, commanding officer of the federal forces garrisoned at Fort Douglas, Utah beginning in 1862 was explicitly instructed not to confront the Mormons over this or any other issue. In 1878 the Supreme Court ruled in "Reynolds v. United States" that religious duty was not a suitable defense for breaking this law. Many Mormons went into hiding. The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was amended in 1882 by the Edmunds Act, and then again in 1887 by the Edmunds–Tucker Act. By 1904, the LDS church stopped bigamy.
is an old province of Japan in the area of Shiga Prefecture on the island of Honshū. It was also known as . The ancient capital city of the province was near Ōtsu. Lake Biwa in Ōmi is Japan's largest lake. History. In the Kamakura period, Hōjō Tokimasa was made daimyo of Ōmi in 1200 ("Shōji 2"). In the Sengoku Period, the northern part of the province was the fief of Ishida Mitsunari. After the Battle of Sekigahara, Ōmi was controlled by the Ii clan who built the castle and town of Hikone. In the Edo period, the Tōkaidō road was the main route between the Imperial capital at Kyoto and the main city of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The road passed through Ōmi.  Eight of the 69 Stations of the Nakasendō were in Ōmi.  In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures. The maps of Japan and Ōmi Province were reformed in the 1870s. Shrines and Temples. "Takebe taisha" was the chief Shinto shrine ("ichinomiya") of Ōmi.  "Enryaku-ji" is one of the most important Buddhist centers. The monastery is on Mount Hiei ("Hieizan").
is an old province in the area of Fukushima Prefecture on the island of Honshū. It was sometimes called . The history of the province started in 1868 and ended in 1872. History. In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures. The maps of Japan and Iashiro Province were reformed in the 1870s.
is an old province in the area of western Fukushima Prefecture on the island of Honshū. The history of the province started in 718 and ended in 722 or 724. History. Iwase Province was created during the reign of Empress Genshō.  The province was established in 718. The area of the province reverted to Mutsu some time between 722 and 724.
Grover is a blue Muppet character on the popular television show "Sesame Street". He calls himself lovable, cute and furry. He is a monster who rarely uses contractions when speaking or singing. Grover was first performed by Frank Oz. He provided the character's voice regularly from his earliest appearances until 2001. Eric Jacobson began performing Grover in 1998. He has performed the character regularly since 2002, although Oz still performs him some times. Grover's birthday is October 14.
Vernon Carver Rudolph (June 30, 1915, Marshall County, Kentucky - August 16, 1973) was the founder of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. Rudolph was the oldest of two boys who were born to Plumie and Rethie Rudolph. As he got older, he began to help in the general store that his father owned. When he graduated from high school, he went to Paducah, Kentucky with his uncle. In 1933, Rudolph's uncle bought a doughnut shop and recipe for yeast-raised donuts. He bought them from a French federal employee named Joe La-beau. This all happened during the middle of the great depression, so they moved to Nashville, Tennessee to see if they could get better business there and secure their financial future.
Haemocyanin (or hemocyanin) is a protein which transports oxygen in the bodies of some invertebrates. Their active centre has two copper atoms which reversibly bind a single oxygen molecule (O2). Unlike the hemoglobin in red blood cells found in vertebrates, hemocyanins are not bound to blood cells. The molecules are carried in the haemolymph.  Hemocyanins are found only in the Mollusca and Arthropoda. However, the molecule is used only in a few insects. This is because insects evolved another system: the direct transfer of oxygen to tissues by a system of tubes called trachea. This delivers oxygen direct to the wing muscles and other organs.
Linear programming or Linear optimisation is a field of mathematics that deals with finding optimal values or solutions that can be described with linear equations and inequalities. Very often this involves finding the minimal or maximal values, given some conditions, or constraints. Linear programming is often used for problems where no exact solution is known, for example for planning traffic flows. Linear programming is one of the main methods used in Operations research. Linear optimization is a special case of Convex optimization. It forms the basis for several methods of solving problems of Integer programming. In many cases, the solutions of linear programs can be mapped to Polyhedra, which allows solving and modelling certain problems geometrically.  In the case of linear programming, the word "programming" should be seen as "planning"; George Dantzig coined the term in the 1940s, long before computers were used to solve such problems. Looking at the information theory complexity, linear programming problems are simple, and can be solved efficiently using algorithms such as the interior point method. In many cases, the Simplex algorithm developed by Dantzig has proven to be very fast, even though its complexity is exponential, in the worst case.  Leonid Kantorovich developed the first methods of linear programming in 1939.
Xtranormal is a website that hosts text-to-speech based computer animated videoclips, featuring animated three-dimensional characters speaking in monotone computer voices. Users who log into the site may create videos by scripting the dialog and choosing from a menu of camera angles and predesigned characters and scenes. Xtranormal videos may also be created through an interface on the Youtube web site, and Xtranormal's animation software, called State, may be downloaded free and run offline. Xtranormal launched in June 2010, after four years of earlier software development. Although it was originally intended as a way for filmmakers to quickly produce storyboards, its emphasis shifted towards satires of workplace misbehavior after one of its videos, about a cellphone salesman, went viral. In 2010, the short movie "Sleeping with Charlie Kaufman" by director J. Roland Kelly, animated entirely with Xtranormal, premiered at the Little Rock Film Festival and was shown at The Rome International Film Festival in Rome, Georgia. Xtranormal videos form a recurring feature on the late night Fox talk show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, and have been featured as part of a GEICO advertising campaign.On July 31, 2013, Xtranormal was shut down officially.
Holly G. Frankel (born July 13, 1979), also known as Holly Gauthier-Frankel, is an American voice actress, singer, and Burlesque dancer. She is the daughter of Ron Frankel and Mary Lou Gauthier. Frankel is best known being the voice of Fern in "Arthur", Sagwa in "Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat", Teri in later episodes of "What's with Andy?", Rita in "Hugo the Jungle Animal", Lou Lou in "Wimzie's House", Tessa in "The Triplets", Gertie and Gloria in "The Little Lulu Show", Julie and Dee Dee in "Caillou", Belinda in "Mona the Vampire" and Flora in the Cinélume's English dub of Winx Club. She is also known for her alter-ego as burlesque performer Miss Sugarpuss.
was an old province of Japan in the area of Chiba Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture on the island of Honshū. It was also known as or .  The province had borders with Kazusa Province to the south, Musashi and Kōzuke Provinces to the west, and Hitachi and Shimotsuke Provinces to the north.  History. Shimōsa was part of a larger territory known as . Fusa which was divided into Kazusa and Shimōsa during the reign of Emperor Kōtoku (645-654).  In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures. The maps of Japan and Shimōsa Province were reformed in the 1870s. Shrines and Temples. "Katori jinja" was the chief Shinto shrine ("ichinomiya") of Shimōsa.
Ricky Dene Gervais (born 25 June 1961) is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. Gervais was born and raised in Reading, Berkshire, England. He was half of 1970s New Wave duo Seona Dancing. He is known for television series including "The 11 O'Clock Show", "The Office", "Meet Ricky Gervais", "Extras", "An Idiot Abroad", "Life's Too Short" and "Derek". He wrote a children's book, "Flanimals". He has performed stand-up shows "Animals", "Politics", "Fame" and "Science". He has starred in movies: "Ghost Town", "The Invention of Lying" and "Cemetery Junction". He has won seven BAFTA awards and two Emmy awards. Gervais hosted the Golden Globe Awards in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Personal life. He is an atheist. He lives between Hampstead, England, and New York City with his partner, producer and author Jane Fallon. Gervais has said that they aren't going to get married because "there's no point in us having an actual ceremony before the eyes of God because there is no God". They have also chosen not to have children.
Pino Presti (pseudonym of Giuseppe Prestipino Giarritta, is an Italian bass player, arranger, composer, conductor, record producer, born 23 August 1943, in Milan. He is a 5th-dan black belt in Shotokan Karate. Presti, son of an accomplished violinist, Arturo Prestipino Giarritta, has been studying music since the age of 6. He was seventeen years old when he first entered the music business. Presti started as a bass guitar player, than gradually began as an arranger, a composer, an orchestra conductor and a producer. Among his collaborations in different genres of music like jazz, pop, funk, soul, we can find great names such as Mina (the most famous Italian pop singer), Gerry Mulligan, Ástor Piazzolla (the bassline in the famous composition "Libertango" belongs to him), Quincy Jones, Wilson Pickett, Shirley Bassey, Maynard Ferguson, Franco Cerri, Stéphane Grappelli, Aldemaro Romero and many others. He is considered one of the most important Italian arrangers/conductors. Martial Arts. Presti has trained in Shotokan karate and Goshindo under master Hiroshi Shirai from 1967 to 1985. He has also trainded on several occasions under other famous Japanese masters such as Taiji Kase, Hidetaka Nishiyama, Keinosuke Enoeda, Takeshi Naito, Hideo Ochi. Presti holds a fifth degree black belt obtained n Rome, in 1987.
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. He was born in New York City. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also a notable arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. Mulligan's pianoless quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the more important cool jazz groups. Mulligan was also a skilled pianist and played several other reed instruments. Mulligan reportedly had a relationship with actress Judy Holliday until she died in 1965, and with actress Sandy Dennis from 1965 until they broke up in 1976. Mulligan died of problems caused by knee surgery while suffering from liver cancer on January 20, 1996 at a hospital in Darien, Connecticut at the age of 68.
Cedar (scientific name "Cedrus") is a genus of cone-bearing trees in the plant family "Pinaceae". They are native to the Mediterranean region.  Cedars are trees up to (occasionally ) tall. They have spicy-scented wood, thick ridged or square-cracked bark, and broad, level branches. The shoots are of two kinds, long shoots, which form the framework of the branches, and short shoots, which carry most of the leaves. The leaves are evergreen and needle-like, 8–60 mm long, arranged in an open spiral on long shoots, and in dense spiral clusters of 15–45 together on short shoots; they vary from bright grass-green to dark green to strongly glaucous pale blue-green, depending on the thickness of the white wax layer which protects the leaves from drying out. The female seed cones are barrel-shaped, 6–12 cm long and 3–8 cm broad, green at first, then maturing grey-brown, and, as in Abies, disintegrate when mature to release the winged seeds. The seeds are 10–15 mm long, with a 20–30 mm wing; as in Abies, the seeds have 2–3 blisters, containing an unpleasant-tasting resin, thought to be a defence against squirrels eating them. Cones take one year to mature, with pollination in autumn and the seeds maturing the same time a year later. The male pollen cones are slender, egg-shaped, 3–8 cm long, produced in late summer and shedding pollen in autumn. Naming of species. Cedar cones have a similar structure to fir cones. For many years in the past, experts thought they were closely related. Modern scientific investigation has shown that they belong to the same family but are not closely related. There are several types of cedars and experts cannot agree how they are related. Some scientists put them all in one group while others separate them into different groups. These are the names of the different kinds of cedars:
Anna Maria Quaini, (née Mazzini; born 25 March 1940), known as Mina, is an Italian pop singer. She was a staple of Italian television variety shows. She was also a popular person in Italian pop music from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. She was known for her three-octave vocal range, as a presenter, as her soprano voice and her image as an emancipated woman.
Marion Strecker (b. São Paulo, October 17, 1960) is a Brazilian journalist, photographer and businessperson. She is known as one of the pioneers of the Internet industry in South America. Since 2011 she has been living in San Francisco, California, and working as an Editor-at-Large for UOL. UOL is the major content portal in Brazil. Since 2010, she has also been a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo, the largest newspaper in Brazil. She writes in the Market section about technology, innovation and behavior. Strecker is one of the founders of UOL. She was the Content VP of the company from 1996 until 2011. UOL soon became a very large website. It reached about 70% of the online audience in Brazil with news, entertainment and services. Before joining the team that founded UOL, Marion Strecker worked at Folha de S.Paulo from 1984 to 1996. She was a writer, an art critic, editor of the cultural section, planning coordinator, reporter, director of the archives and director of the Folha News Agency. Strecker was one of the authors of the “Folha Newsroom Manual”. After coordinating the Digitization of the Newspaper Archives Project in the early 90s, Strecker led a team that created many high tech products. These included like audiotext services (1993), the newspaper’s full text yearly CD-ROMs (1994-96) and a system similar to a BBS. This system gave all the Folha de S.Paulo journalists and foreign correspondents access to the archives online, using telephone lines and microcomputers. Because of this work, Strecker was given the Folha Award on Journalism, Special Category, in 1995. She also led the team which created the first website for Folha’s Media Group in Brazil. It was first used on 9 July 1995. Later that year, Strecker created the first content team for the launch of UOL in April 1996. UOL soon became the leader in the Brazilian internet market. Since the 80s, she has
Richard "Rick" Jones (born July 5, 1957) is an Canadian director, writer, content developer, voice actor, actor, and comedian. He was the voice of Fu-Fu in "Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat". Since 1982, he's worked with Fox, Disney, Universal, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Kids' WB, Alphanim, Cinar and Nelvana. Jones has been nominated for a Gemini Award twice in 1985 and 2003. He also was known for being the voice of Slax in "X-DuckX", and Razmo in "Ratz". He also played Keisha's dad in 1990 Ivan Reitman film "Kindergarten Cop". Early life. He was born Richard Jones.