ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff (; April 29, 1938 – April 14, 2021) was an American former investor, former stockbroker and former non-executive chairman for NASDAQ Stock Market. He was the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme which is the largest financial fraud in United States history. Ponzi scheme. In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. Thousands of investors lost billions of dollars. Madoff said he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s. However, federal investigators believe the fraud began as early as the 1970s. The people who are hunting for the missing money believe the investment operation may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts, including fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. The court-appointed trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion. On June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed. Personal life. Madoff was of Jewish descent. He was married to Ruth. The elder of their two sons committed suicide by hanging in 2010. The younger son died of lymphoma in 2014.  Health. In December 2013, Madoff suffered from a heart attack. In January 2014, he said he had stage 4 kidney cancer. Death. Madoff died on April 14, 2021 at a prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina after suffering from kidney disease for many years, at the age of 82. His cause of death was hypertension caused by heart and kidney disease.
Duckboards are wooden walkways. They are usually put over muddy ground. Doing this means that people can walk on the dry duckboards instead of the muddy ground. Hiking. Duckboards are used to allow hikers to walk over wet and/or muddy ground, like a swamp or shores of a lake. Very wide duckboards are used sometimes so that wheelchair users can use them. Duckboards can be nailed into logs with wooden stakes. World War I. During World War I, duckboards were put along the ground of trenches on the Western Front. This is because the trenches usually flooded. Mud and water would stay in the trenches for months. The boards helped to keep the soldiers' feet dry. It also helped stop soldiers get a disease called trench foot. Trench foot is caused by standing on wet, muddy ground for a long time. They also helped soldiers move along the trenches faster. Sometimes, falling from duckboards could be deadly. Some unlucky soldiers drowned in mud because of their heavy equipment.
20Q is a game where somebody thinks of an object and the goal is to figure out what it is in 20 questions or fewer. It is available as a handheld game, a website, and a game show. It usually starts out by asking whether the object is an "animal, vegetable, mineral, or other". Other websites. 20Q website
William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. (April 13, 1917 – May 29, 2011) was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction. Clements' eight years in office were the most served by any Texan governor prior to former Governor Rick Perry. Early career. Clements was born in Dallas and worked as an oil driller for many years. He studied at Southern Methodist University (SMU) but did not finish a degree. He founded SEDCO in 1947, which became the world's largest offshore drilling company. He entered politics as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. From 1975-1977 he worked under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In 1975, he married political organizer Rita Crocker Clements. Governor. On January 16, 1979, Clements replaced Democrat Dolph Briscoe as governor of Texas. He defeated State Representative Ray Hutchison in the Republican primary by a vote of 115,345 to 38,268. Clements won the November 1978 general election defeating Democrat John Hill. Hill had been the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court and had been the Texas Attorney General for six years. Clements got 49.96% of the votes. With help from the votes of several minor candidates he narrowly won the election.  Clements ran for reelection in 1982 but was defeated by Democratic Attorney General Mark White. People think that he lost votes because the economy was bad. The 1986 return. After being defeated, Clements was chairman of the board of governors of SMU in Dallas. He ran again in 1986 and won a primary against U.S. Representative Thomas Loeffler of New Braunfels and former Democratic turned Republican Congressman Kent Hance of Lubbock. At the election Clements defeated Governor White getting 52.7% of the votes. Clements as governor. His first term
"Jingle Bell Rock" is a popular Christmas song. It was first sung by Bobby Helms in 1957. It is often played on the radio during the Christmas season. "Jingle Bell Rock" was composed (written) by Joseph Carleton Beal (1900–1967) and James Ross Boothe (1917–1976). Since 1957, other singers have recorded their own versions of this song including, Jessica Simpson, Hilary Duff, Johnny Mathis, Hall &amp; Oates and Brenda Lee. Many others have done so as well.
Sam Chelladurai () (born 7 December 1952) is the Senior Pastor of the Apostolic Fellowship Tabernacle, a church in Chennai, India. His sermons at the church are televised in Tamil, English, and Hindi. Also, all his church services are "webcast" live on his website, www.revsam.org. He also leads the Full Gospel Bible Institute and an Evangelistic Outreach Program (Campaign India). He prints a Monthly Magazine in Tamil (Vettriyum Vaazhvum). He speaks at Teaching Seminars throughout South India. Sermon Titles. Sam Chelladurai taught on many different topics, including the following:
Seydou Keïta (; anglicised to Keita; born 16 January 1980) is a Malian former professional footballer. Sources: Source: "Scores and results list Mali's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mali goal". Honours. Lorient Lens Sevilla Barcelona Mali Individual
Ibrahim Afellay (born 2 April 1986 in Utrecht, Netherlands) is a Moroccan-Dutch former footballer. He made 53 appearances for the Netherlands. "Scores and results list the Netherlands' goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Afellay goal." Honours. PSV Barcelona Olympiacos Netherlands Individual
Pope Pius II (; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), born Enea Silvio Piccolomini , was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the 211th Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Early life. Pius II was born at Corsignano, which is near Siena. He was the oldest of 18 children. He studied at the University of Siena. He was ordained in 1446. Bishop. In 1447, Pope Nicholas V made Piccolomini Bishop of Trieste. In 1450, he was made Bishop of Siena. Cardinal. In 1456, Pope Calixtus III raised Bishop Piccolomini to the rank of cardinal. Pope. Cardinal Piccolomini was elected pope in 1458. The pope chose to be called "Pius" because of the adjective pious which recurs in the phrase "pius Aeneas" in Virgil's "Aeneid". Pope Pius was involved in Italian and European political disputes. According to Niccolò Machiavelli, "Pius showed himself mindful above all of the welfare of Christendom and of the honour of the Church, independent of any private passion or interest of his own." St. Catherine of Siena was canonized during his reign. Selected works. In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Pope Pius II, OCLC/WorldCat includes roughly 20+ works in 30+ publications in 5 languages and 120+ library holdings.
Pope Pius III (; 29 May 1439 – 18 October 1503), born Franchesco Todeschini and also known as Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the 216th Pope from 22 September to 18 October 1503. Early life. Francesco Todeschini was born in Siena. He was the nephew of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, who would become Pope Pius II. He was allowed by uncle to take his mother's maiden name of Piccolomini. His studies in law at the University of Perugia led to a doctorate degree. Bishop. In 1460, Pius II appointed Todeschini to be Bishop of Siena. Cardinal. Todeschini was named Cardinal of St. Eustachio in 1460. He was sent on diplomatic missions by Pope Paul II, Pope Sixtus IV and Pope Alexander VI. Pope. Cardinal Piccolomini was elected pope on September 22, 1503, His choice of name honors his uncle Pius II. This pope's reign lasted less than a month.
Tidal stream power is the hydropower of the tidal movement of water. A tidal stream generator is a machine that extracts energy from moving water in tides. Tidal stream generators draw energy from water currents in much the same way as wind turbines draw energy from air currents. Tidal stream power is the cheapest and the least ecologically damaging among the three main forms of tidal power generation. Tidal stream power is a relatively new technology. It was first conceived in the 1970s during the oil crisis. The potential for power generation by an individual tidal turbine can be greater than that of similarly rated wind energy turbine. Water is about 800 times the density of air. So, water pushing against a turbine can provide much more power than air pushing against a similar turbine at the same speed. Also, the lowest water speeds needed for an economic power project is lower than the wind speed needed for a wind turbine project. In practice, the tide must move at speeds of at least 2 knots (1 m/s) even close to neap tides to be a source of power.  As with wind power, selection of location is critical for the tidal turbine. Tidal stream systems need to be located in areas with fast currents where natural flows are concentrated between obstructions, for example at the entrances to bays and rivers, around rocky points, headlands, or between islands or other land masses.  Environmental impact. The main concern has been whether the turbines kill fish. Very little direct environmental research or observation of tidal stream systems exists. Most direct observations consist of releasing tagged fish upstream of the device(s) and direct observation of mortality or impact on the fish. One study of the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE, Verdant Power) project in the East River (New York City), had 24 split beam hydroacoustic sensors (scientific echosounder) to detect and track the movement of fish both upstream and downstream of each of six turbines. The results suggested (1) very few fish using this portion of the river, (2) those fish which did use this area were not using the portion of the river which would subject them to blade strikes, and (3) no evidence of fish traveling through blade areas. Work is currently being conducted by the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC) to explore and establish tools and protocols for assessment of physical and biological conditions and monitor environmental changes associated with tidal energy development.
Cliff-dwllings are dwellings found by archaeologists formed by caves in high cliffs. They have been found in countries such as the United States, India, China, and Mexico. Some dwellings are still used today in the United States by Native Americans in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. They are also used in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Ohio County is a county in West Virginia. It was created in 1776. It was named for the Ohio River which forms its western border. West Liberty (formerly Black's Cabin) was the county seat from 1777 to 1797. The city of Wheeling, West Virginia has been the county seat since then. As of 2020, 42,425 people lived there. Ohio County is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia metropolitan area. Bordering counties. Ohio County is one of four US counties to border the state with whom it shares its name (the others are Nevada County, California, Texas County, Oklahoma, and Delaware County, Pennsylvania).
Pope Pius IV (; 31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the 225th Pope from 1559 to 1565. Early life. Giovanni Angelo Medici was born in Milan. He was not closely related to the Medicis of Florence. He studied at University of Pavia and the University of Bologna where he earned a law degree. In 1527, Medici went to Rome where he joined the church bureaucracy. Cardinal. In 1549, Pope Paul III made Medici a cardinal. Pope Leo III sent him on diplomatic missions to Germany and to Hungary. During the reign of Pope Paul IV, Cardinal Medici was out of favor. Pope. Cardinal Medici was elected Pope on 25 December 1559. In the context of the Counter-Reformation, this pope moderated the Inquisition in Italy. Council of Trent. Pope Paul III presided over the last session of the Council of Trent which was the major event of his papacy. In part, the Tridentine Creed reflects the thinking of church leaders at the Council of Trent. After his death. After his death in 1565, the body of Pope Pius IV was entombed at the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a way of expressing information. JSON is usually easy to understand. It can express information like XML. It is based on JavaScript's notation for object literals. However, JSON is stricter.  JSON and XML are both often used in AJAX. Even though JSON is named after JavaScript, it can be used in other programming languages, such as Python (, etc.) Example. This is an example of JSON:  "firstName": "John",  "lastName" : "Smith",  "age" : 25,  "address" :  "streetAddress": "21 2nd Street",  "city" : "New York",  "state" : "NY",  "postalCode" : "10021"  "phoneNumber":  {  "type" : "",  "number": "212 555-1234"  {  "type" : "fax",  "number": "646 555-4567"  ] JSON Encoding and Decoding in Python Encoding: import json sampleDict = {  "firstName": "John",  "lastName" : "Smith" sampleJson = json.dumps(sampleDict, indent=4) Decoding: import json sampleJson = """{ "firstName": "John", "lastName" : "Smith"}""" sampleDict = json.loads(sampleJson) print(sampleDict['firstName']) print(sampleDict['lastName'])
"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" is a Christmas song with words and music by British songwriter Tommie Connor. The original recording by 13-year-old Jimmy Boyd rose to #1 on the "Billboard" charts in December 1952. The words tell of a child who sees Mommy kissing Santa Claus underneath the mistletoe. The Roman Catholic Church in Boston hated the song because it is a Christmas song that also mentions sex. Radio stations in several markets banned it. Boyd went to church leaders to talk about the words. The ban on the song was lifted. The song has been performed by various musicians, including but not limited to the Ronettes, Jackson 5, Jessica Simpson, John Mellencamp, Amy Winehouse and other singers throughout the years.
The Ronettes were an American girl group. They were based in New York City and were popular in the 1960s. The girls began singing as adolescents around Spanish Harlem in 1959. They were originally a five-member group, Ronnie and the Relatives, who became a permanent act at the "Peppermint Lounge", earning $10 a night per girl to dance "The Twist" and sing a song during the show. Later, Ronnie and the Relatives became 'The Ronettes'. They had eight songs on the "Billboard" Top 100. They were the only girl group to tour with the Beatles, in August 1966. The group broke up in 1967. Influence of Phil Spector. The trio worked with Phil Spector from 1963. Veronica Bennett was married to Phil Spector from 1968 to 1974, and took his name professionally. She claimed he abused her physically and mentally. Ronnie stated in her autobiography that she walked out of the house through the closed and locked rear sliding glass door, shoeless, shattering the glass as she left, and feet all cut up by the time she got to the gate. She never returned. Ronnie Spector filed for divorce in 1972. She wrote a book about her experiences, and said years later: "I can only say that when I left in the early 1970s, I knew that if I didn't leave at that time, I was going to die there". She and Spector separated in 1973 and divorced one year later. In August 2011, Spector admitted that she went to rehab in order to escape living with Phil. Top hits. The first top hit credited to the Ronettes was "Be My Baby" in 1963. They had already recorded several hits which were issued and credited to another group, the Crystals. "Walking in the Rain" (Ronette version) won a Grammy Award in 1965, and "Be My Baby" went into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Other hits were "Silhouettes", "Baby, I Love You', "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up".
Yahoo! Search is an Internet search engine. It is owned by Yahoo! Inc. In December 2009, it was the 2nd most used search engine- 6.42% of internet searches were done on Yahoo! Search. Google was the most used with 85.35% and Baidu was 3rd with 3.67%, according to Net Applications. Yahoo! Search started as a web directory of other websites, organized in a hierarchy. Then, in the late 1990s, Yahoo! changed into a portal with a search interface and, by 2007, a limited version of selection-based search. Yahoo! Search used to be called "Yahoo! provided Search interface". It would send queries to a searchable index of pages and its directory of sites. The results were shown on the screen under the Yahoo! brand. Originally, none of the actual web searching and storage/retrieval of data was done by Yahoo! itself. In 2001 the searchable index was run by Inktomi and later was run by Google until 2004, when Yahoo! Search became independent. On July 29, 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that Bing would run Yahoo! Search. All Yahoo! Search customers and partners were moved to Bing by early 2012.
Andretti Autosport is an American car racing team that races in the IZOD IndyCar Series. They have won many series titles, the last one with Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2007. They were called Andretti Green Racing until 2010. It is owned by Mario Andretti and his son Michael Andretti. Their 2011 drivers were  Danica Patrick the first woman to win an IndyCar race. She is being replaced for 2012 and will move to NASCAR. she drove the #7 car sponsored by domain name provider GoDaddy.com. Patrick was supposed to be replaced by Dan Wheldon but he was killed in an accident before his first race with the team. Marco Andretti the son of the team owner who won the 2011 Iowa Corn Indy 200. He drives the #26 car sponsored by Dr. Pepper and Venom Energy Drink. Mike Conway is a British driver that joined the team for 2011. He won the Long Beach Grand Prix. Conway drives the #27 Buffalo Wild Wings car. The team replaced him with James Hinchcliffe for 2012. Ryan Hunter Reay also drives for the team, which he joined in 2010. His car is No. 28 and is sponsored by Sun Drop and DHL. He won the 2012 IndyCar Series championship. Currently, their drivers for 2014 are Marco Andretti, Kurt Busch, James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Carlos Muñoz.
The Royal Irish Constabulary (Irish: Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann) was the police force of Ireland when it was part of the United Kingdom. It was made by legislation, which was sponsored by Sir Robert Peel in 1814. It was given its name by Queen Victoria for its loyalty during an Irish rebellion in 1867. It was made up mainly of Irish Roman Catholics. In 1870 the RIC took over the police forces of Londonderry and Belfast. The RIC worked together with the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It is headed by Enrique Peña Nieto since 2019. It was shut down when Ireland left the UK in 1922. The Irish Free State Civic Guard has taken its place in Ireland, and in Northern Ireland it was replaced by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
The Congo Free State () was a large area in Central Africa. It was privately owned by Leopold II, King of the Belgians. Leopold convinced the international community that he was involved in humanitarian work. He attracted scientific and humanitarian backing for the International African Association (), which he formed during a Brussels Geographic Conference of geographic societies, explorers, and leaders he hosted in 1876. Leopold used the Association and the defunct "Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo" () as a way to claim most of the Congo Basin.  Leopold created the International Association of the Congo () as a new organization. The entity was officially recognized by the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 and various governments. On May 29, 1885, the king named his new colony the Congo Free State () and ruled it as a despot (even though he never visited his colony and Africa). The Congo Free State under Leopold II used forced labor and mutilation of their hands, in order to get full control and force the natives to work at extracting natural resources, mainly rubber and ivory, for Leopold II's personal profit. His harsh rule was responsible for the deaths of between five to 10 million Congolese people. The Congo became one of the most infamous international scandals of the early 20th century. As a result, Leopold II was forced to give control of it to the government of Belgium. The Belgian government took control in 1908 and created the Belgian Congo.
The national flag of the Republic of Ireland () is a tricolour vertical flag of green, white, and orange. It is also known as the Irish tricolour. The flag proportion is 1:2 (length twice the width). To unionists it is frequently seen as antagonistic to their history and culture. Its meaning is not explained in the Irish Constitution, but the Irish government has stated that:
The Gallipoli peninsula (; ; ) is in Turkish East Thrace, the European part of Turkey. To the west there is the Aegean Sea and to the east there are the Dardanelles straits. History. After an earthquake in 1354, the Greek city of Gallipoli was abandoned, then occupied by Turks from Anatolia. This made it the first Ottoman position in Europe. The peninsula was part of the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire slowly conquered it from 13th century to the 15th century. By the 19th century, thirty thousand people lived in the city: Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Jews and Xoraxane Roma. It was a big military camp for the British and French forces during the Crimean War (1854). It was also a stopping-off point on the way to Constantinople. In World War I, Gallipoli was the site of the Gallipoli Campaign launched by British and French forces against the Ottoman Empire. Etymology. The name is from Greek "Καλλίπολις" ("Kallipolis"), meaning "Beautiful City". In antiquity, it was called the Thracian Chersonese (, ).
God Save the Queen is a song by English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was the band's second single, and featured on their only album, "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols". The lyrics, as well as the cover, were controversial at the time. The BBC banned the song. It has been covered by various bands, including Motorhead.
Wessex Sound Studios was a recording studio in Highbury New Park, London, England. Many renowned music artists recorded there, including The Sex Pistols, King Crimson, The Clash, Theatre of Hate, XTC, The Sinceros, Queen, Talk Talk and The Rolling Stones. It was sold to a residential development company in 2003.
Dryosaurids were primitive iguanodonts from the Middle Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous. They are found in what is now Africa, Europe, and North America. There are 11 genera, of which "Dryosaurus" is the best known.