ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
Scordatura in music is a technique in which players of string instruments tune their strings to different notes from a normal tuning. The word “scordatura” is an Italian word which means “mistuning”. It was used for lutes, guitars, viols and instruments of the violin family. Using a scordatura tuning made the instrument sound different. For example: a string tuned to a slightly higher note will sound louder and brighter because it is tighter. Care has to be taken not to tune it too high otherwise it will break. Scordatura also made it possible to play unusual chords or combinations of notes in string-crossing (when the bow moves quickly from one string to another). When a composer writes for an instrument using scordatura tuning he shows at the beginning of the music what notes the strings must be tuned to. The music is then written, not as it sounds, but so that the player can read it as if the instrument were being played normally, e.g. if a G string is tuned up to G# and the composer wants a G# he simply writes a G, but it will sound G#. Scordatura in the Baroque period. Scordatura tuning was mainly popular in the Baroque period from 1600-1750. Composers such as Heinrich Biber often used it. He composed a group of sonatas for violin and accompaniment called the "Rosary Sonatas". In each sonata the violin is tuned in a different way. In Sonata XI (called "Resurrection") he even asks the violinist to make the two middle strings cross over between the bridge and the tailpiece so that the violin is tuned to two Gs and two Ds. Scordatura in the Classical Period. In the classical period a famous example of scordatura is Mozart’s, "Sinfonia Concertante" for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in which he asks the viola to tune all four strings a semitone higher than usual. This makes it sound louder and brighter so that it matches the brightness of the violin, especially as the violin is playing with normal tuning in the key of E flat, which sounds a soft key (because the
The 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be officially known as the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, is a sporting event that will happen from July 21 to August 6 in Los Angeles, California, United States. Football (soccer) will be held at various locations across California, while canoe slalom and softball will be held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Applying to host the games was supposed to begin in 2019. The host city was supposed to be announced in 2021. In July 2017, The International Olympic Committee decided to award 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time. On July 31, 2017, an agreement was announced that Los Angeles would apply to host the 2028 Summer Olympics. The agreement made Paris, France host the 2024 Summer Olympics. On September 13, 2017, the hosts for both Olympic games was announced at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru.
There are three main hypotheses as to the origins of the Etruscan civilization. Autochthonous development "in situ" out of the Villanovan culture, as claimed by the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus who described the Etruscans as indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria. A migration from the Aegean sea, as claimed by a couple of Greek historians: Herodotus, who described them as a group of immigrants from Lydia in Anatolia, and Hellanicus of Lesbos who claimed that the Tyrrhenians were the Pelasgians originally from Thessaly, Greece The third hypotheses is reported by Livy and Pliny the Elder, the Etruscans as related to Rhaetian people to the north and other populations living in the Alps. German linguist Helmut Rix proposed the Tyrsenian language family, with Etruscan related to the Rhaetic language spoken in the Alps north of Etruria, and to the Lemnian language spoken in Lemons. In particular the Lemnian language could have arrived in the Aegean Sea during the Late Bronze Age, when Mycenaean rulers recruited groups of mercenaries from Sicily, Sardinia and various parts of the Italian peninsula. The latest mtDNA study (2013) suggests that the Etruscans appear to fall very close to a Neolithic population from Central Europe and to other Tuscan populations.
The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscans in the ancient area of Etruria (what is now Tuscany, western Umbria and northern Latium) and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna (where the Gauls took the place of the Etruscans), in Italy. Inscriptions have been found in northwestern and west-central Italy in the region that still has a name that came from the Etruscans, Tuscany (from Latin "tusc" "Etruscans") and in Latium, north of Rome, in Umbria west of the Tiber, around Capua in Campania and in the Po Valley to the north of Etruria. That is probably the area in Italy in which the language was once spoken.
The Albanian language ("") is an Indo-European language. It is spoken mostly in Albania (3,500,000), Kosovo and (500,000) Republic of North Macedonia. Dialects. Ghegs, Tosks, Arbëresh, Arvanites, Arbanasi
The Kura-Araxes culture or the Early trans-Caucasian culture, a people that lived from 3400 BC until about 2000 BC. The earliest evidence for this culture is found on the Ararat plain; thence it spread to Georgia by 3000 B.C. The land they lived in are now Armenia, Georgia , Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.
Biodiesel is a type of fuel prepared by changing vegetable oil, animal fat, special types of algae and possibly even sewage. It is considered a type of renewable energy, since it all comes from living plants and animals. It can be used to power an engine, usually for vehicles, including airplanes. It replaces diesel that comes from petroleum, a type of fossil fuel.  Biofuel prepared from biomass is different since it does not start from oil and uses a different chemical process to make the fuel. Advantages and disadvantages. Biodiesel is much cleaner and has less pollution than diesel fuel made from fossil fuels. It also acts as a solvent (like soap). In fact, it cleans the engine so much that it might pull out old dirt in the engine and clog up the filters. After the filters are replaced then it is fine. In the United States and several other places, new laws say that regular diesel fuel must be low in sulfur. This gets rid of pollution, especially acid rain, but it also makes the fuel less slippery. Adding in biodiesel helps keep the fuel slippery and the engine running smoothly.  Most biodiesel comes from plants. This means a lot of farmland is used to grow plants for fuel instead of for feeding animals and people. There are scientists, chemical engineers and agricultural engineers who are studying ways to use algae and saltwater plants to make oil. This would not take away farmland that is used to grow food. Also, some biodiesel comes from waste oil and waste animal fat, that would otherwise be thrown away. NASA is testing biodiesel made from chicken fat to fuel their airplanes.  All diesel fuel has a problem starting an engine in cold weather, but biodiesel has more of a problem. This can be solved by mixing biodiesel and regular diesel at the right mixture. Or by heating the fuel before it is used by the engine. There might be a heater built into the vehicle for this. Biodiesel from plants. Most biodiesel is made from oilseed. Oilseed is any type of seed that has enough oil in it to be useful in making vegetable oil.  In Brazil, castor beans are the best plants to make biodiesel. In Germany biod
Age of Empires is a series of real-time strategy computer games made by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios.  History. Four games in the main series are: "Age of Empires", "Age of Empires II" , "Age of Empires III" and "Age of Empires IV". There is also a spinoff game called "Age of Mythology". It is similar to "Age of Empires", but players can also control monsters like the cyclops. After Ensemble Studios had closed down, another game called "Age of Empires Online" was made. It is "free to play", which means that you do not have to pay money to play the game, but you can buy things in the game if you want to. "Age of Empires I" (2018), "Age of Empires II" (2019) and "Age of Empires III" (2020) come in "Definitive Editions" with better graphics et cetera. Gameplay. In "Age of Empires", the player usually guides a small tribe of people to build a city. The people, called villagers, can hunt deer, collect berries, and farm for food. They can chop trees for wood. They can collect gold and stone at mines in the ground. The villagers build buildings to make a large city. There are enemy cities that the player must destroy. When the player has enough food, wood, gold, and stone, the player can train soldiers to fight the enemy. At the beginning of the game, the player only gets weak soldiers, but the player can get better and better units as time goes on. Each game takes place over four or five time periods called ages. Each players starts in the first age and wants to get to the last age. Each game has a different set of ages: When a player has enough food and gold to advance to the next age, the player must wait. After about a minute, the city reaches the next age. The player's buildings look different and the player can do new things to improve his town and soldiers. New, powerful soldiers such as archers (people that shoot with a bow and arrow), cavalry (war
A bridge on a string instrument is something that stands on the body of the instrument and supports the strings. It sends the vibrations of the strings to the main part of the instrument so that the sound can be heard. The bridge of an instrument in the violin family (violin, viola, cello and double bass) can be seen very clearly. It is a piece of hardwood which is shaped like a bridge. The top is like an arch in shape because the player needs to be able to play on one string at a time. The feet of the bridge have to be shaped to fit on the front of the instrument (the “belly”) which is curved. The bridge is not fixed to the instrument: it is only held up because of the tension (tightness) of the strings. The soundpost, a small wooden column inside the body, is also held up by tension of the strings and the bridge. The part of the string which vibrates and gives the note is the part between the bridge and the top of the fingerboard (or the part between the bridge and where the player puts his finger). The other end of the string is fixed to a tailpiece. On a banjo the bridge works in the same way, but on a guitar the bridge is fixed to the instrument and the strings are fixed to the bridge. There are even instruments with moveable bridges such as the Japanese koto which has a separate bridge for each string.
Brazilwood or Pau-Brasil, sometimes known as Pernambuco wood ("Caesalpina echinata") is a Brazilian tree. It has a dense, orange-red wood (which takes a high shine), and it is the most frequently used wood for making bows for string instruments from the violin family. The wood also gives a red dye called brazilin. There are several trees in this family which have very similar properties, including the development of red dye. The term "brazilwood" is sometimes used for these other species as well. The tree was exploited for their dye in the 18th century, and is now lost over much of its original range. When Pedro Álvares Cabral explored Brazil, he named it after the brazilwood that he found there.
Chav (male) and chavette (female) are mainly negative, unkind slang words used in the United Kingdom for a subcultural stereotype of young underclass white people. Chav: "a young working class person who dresses in casual sports clothing or a baseball cap". They may wear fashion based on American hip-hop such as fake gold jewellery and designer clothing, combined with elements of working class British street fashion. Many are either school age or late teens/early twenties and may come from a family culture of social security claimants ("SS claimants"). The term first appeared in dictionaries in 2005. They tend to listen to R&amp;B, hip hop, UK garage, grime and reggae and drum &amp; bass music. "Chav" has started to mean a variety of things. Most chavs do not wear Burberry – this happened mostly in the '90s and early '00s. Chavs are stereotypically narrow-minded and more often than not, below average intelligence. Chavs also tend to use slang language to appear "cooler" and more "edgy". Chavs may be associated with criminality, including: assault, mugging, robbery, burglary and car crime. Anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) were introduced to tackle such persistent offending. “Chavette” is a term used to describe female chavs. Pop culture. In 2011, Owen Jones published his first book, "Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class". Jones says in it that 'chav' is a word used to make working-class people seem less human.
The council house is a form of public housing found in Ireland and the United Kingdom, sometimes called social housing in modern times. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to help the local population. Council houses were built and operated by local councils. The aim was to supply uncrowded, well-built homes with lower rents to working-class people. Council house building began in the late in the 1860s in London and Liverpool. The Housing of The Working Classes Act, 1890 gave local councils powers to buy land and build houses. The Housing, Town Planning, &amp;c. Act 1919 gave them money to pay for the building and powers to build outside their own areas.. Between 1919 and 1939, local councils built a total of 1.1 million homes.  It peaked in the mid-20th century. The Housing Act 1980 gave tenants the Right to Buy their home at a large discount. Gerald Kaufman, then in the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet and a former Environment Minister himself, said the Act would "not provide a single new home and [would] deprive many homeless people or families living in tower blocks from getting suitable accommodation". As of 2005, approximately 20% of the country's housing was owned by local councils or by housing associations. The largest council estate in the country (and one of the largest in the world) is Becontree, Dagenham, with a population of over 100,000. Building started in the 1920s and took nearly 20 years to finish. The Republic of Ireland has a similar public housing system, Local Authority Accommodation.
Midnight Madness is a 1980 comedy movie from Walt Disney Productions, starring David Naughton. The movie is about a group of college students who participate in an all night puzzle solving race. It is Michael J. Fox's first film role. The movie did not do well in theaters and many critics did not like it. However, the movie has gained a cult following, and has been the inspiration for many real-life puzzle and alternate reality games.
Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island in the Western Isles (or Outer Hebrides) of Scotland.  Its biggest town is called Stornoway, which has a population of over 5000. Most people on the island speak Gaelic. On the island, there is a town called Barvas, which is the place which has the biggest percentage of Gaelic speakers (74.7% of the people speak Gaelic).
Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. More than 9000 people live there, and half of the people speak Gaelic. The main settlement is Portree, known for its picturesque harbour. The island has been occupied since the mesolithic period and has a colourful history. It was rule by the Norse for 400 years, then dominated by Clan MacLeod and Clan Donald. The Highland Clearances of the 19th century caused a decline in the population from over 20,000 to around 9,200 in the early 21st century. The population has risen 4% from the census of 1991. The main industries are tourism, agriculture, fishing and whisky-distilling. Skye is part of the Highland Council local government area and is now linked to the mainland by a road bridge. The island is renowned for its spectacular scenery, vibrant culture and heritage, and its abundant wildlife, including the Golden Eagle, Red Deer and Atlantic Salmon. The Clans. Skye has a rich heritage of ancient monuments from the clans, especially castles. Dunvegan Castle has been the seat of Clan MacLeod since the 13th century. It may have been inhabited by a single family for longer than any other house in Scotland. The 18th century Armadale Castle, once home of Clan Donald was abandoned as a residence in 1925 but now hosts the Clan Donald Centre. Nearby are the ruins of two more MacDonald strongholds, Knock Castle, and Dunscaith Castle, the legendary home of Queen Scáthach. Geography. At 1,656 square kilometres (639 sq mi), Skye is the second-largest island in Scotland after Lewis and Harris. The Black Cuilin. The Black Cuillin, low mountains mainly composed of basalt and gabbro, include 12 peaks the Scots call 'Munros'. This is some of the most dramatic and challenging mountain terrain in Scotland. The ascent of Sgùrr a' Ghreadaidh is one of the longest rock climbs in Britain and the Inaccessible Pinnacle is the only peak in Scotland that requires technical climbing skills to reach the summit. A full crossing of the Cuillin ridge may take 15–20 hours to complete.
The 2024 Summer Olympics, which is officially known as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, was a sporting event that happened from July 26 to August 11 in Paris, France. On July 11, 2017, a proposal to choose the 2024 and 2028 Olympic host cities at the same time was approved by an Extraordinary IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland. On July 31, 2017, the International Olympic Committee made a deal with Los Angeles to host the 2028 Summer Olympics. It made Paris host the 2024 Summer Olympics. On September 13, 2017, the hosts for both Olympic games were announced at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru. Competing nations. 204 out of 206 National Olympic Committees are in the Summer Games. 54 of the teams are from Africa. 48 of the teams are from Europe. 44 of the teams are from Asia. 41 of the teams are from the Americas. 17 of the teams are from Oceania. North Korea is also in the games, after missing the 2020 Olympics. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the IOC did not allow the Olympic teams of Russia and Belarus to compete. Russian and Belarusian athletes are "Individual Neutral Athletes" (AIN). This means that they do not compete for their country. They are allowed to compete, as long as they do not support the war. Individual neutral athletes have to be allowed to compete by the international federation and IOC. Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees Calendar. This is the official schedule of the olympic games. However, the schedule may change. &lt;section begin="Calendar"/&gt; "All times and dates use Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)" &lt;section end="Calendar"/&gt; Medals. &lt;onlyinclude&gt;&lt;/onlyinclude&gt; Cancelled Potential Bids. Europe. Thomas Bach stated that Hamburg would apply for 2024 Olympic Games. Hamburg would have hosted the games the first time in history and would therefore have received the virtue over Berlin as Berlin's inhabitant had a negative atmosphere towards the
Guarneri is the name of a family of famous violin makers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Together with the families Amati and Stradivari they made some of the best violins the world has known.  Andrea Guarneri ( - 7 December 1698) was a pupil in the workshop of Nicolo Amati from 1641 to 1646 and returned to make violins for Amati from 1650 to 1654. He married a rich lady and they were able to buy a large house which became known as the “Casa Guarneri”. They had seven children. Two of his sons: Pietro Giovanni and Giuseppe Giovanni, became violin makers. Andrea Guarneri produced some fine violas, one of which was played by William Primrose in the early 20th century. Pietro Giovanni Guarneri (18 February 1655 - 26 March 1720), known as Peter of Mantua ("Pietro da Mantova") to distinguish him from his nephew Pietro Guarneri. He worked in his father's workshop from around 1670 until his marriage in 1677. He had settled in Mantua by 1683, where he worked both as a musician and a violin maker. His instruments are generally better than his father's. However, he did not make so many instruments because he spent a lot of his time playing them. None of his children became violin makers. Joseph Szigeti played one of his instruments. Andrea's younger son, Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Guarneri (25 November 1666 - 1739 or 1740), known as "filius Andreae", joined his father's business in Cremona. He inherited it in 1698. He is one of the great violin makers. Giuseppe Giovanni Battista was father to two other instrument makers: Pietro Guerneri who settled in Venice and Bartolomeo. Pietro Guarneri (Peter of Venice or "Pietro da Venezia") (14 April 1695 - 7 April 1762) made some instruments that are as
Amati is the name of a family of Italian violin makers. They made violins between about 1549 and 1740. They worked in Cremona in Italy, the town which is famous for violin making.  Andrea Amati: the founder of the family. The most famous member of the family was Andrea Amati who was born some time before 1511 and died in Cremona on 24 December 1577. He can be thought of as the inventor of the modern violin. He made violins, violas and cellos. A small number of his instruments are still in existence. They are dated between 1564 and 1574 and they have the coat of arms of Charles IX of France on the back. His sons Antonio and Girolamo Amati. Andrea Amati’s two sons were Antonio Amati who was born about 1540 in Cremona and died there on 14 February 1607 and Girolamo Amati who was born about 1561 in Cremona and died of the plague there on 21 October 1630. They are known as "The Brothers Amati", but they did not work much together. However, they both produced some great instruments. They made the shape of the f holes perfect and gave their instruments more strength. They also made some large violas and cellos. They had an enormous influence on all other violin makers. Nicolò Amati. Nicolò Amati was the son of Girolamo Amati. He is now the most famous member of the family. He was born on 3 December 1596 and died on 12 April 1684. He was the most eminent of the family. He had become a very skilled violin maker by 1630 when his father died. During the next few years there was a lot of suffering because of the plague and not many people could afford to buy instruments. Then, after 1640, there was more demand again and Nicolò made many great instruments. Those that have survived are among the most sought-after and expensive violins today. He made instruments that were slightly wider and were known as the “Grand Pattern”. Many other violin makers learned from
The Guardians of Scotland were appointed to act as King during the two "interregnums" of 1290-1292 and 1296-1302. An interregum is a time when a monarchy has no king. It is from the Latin for "between reigns".
Hassan Hamin Assad (born Alvin Antonio Burke Jr.; October 28, 1973) is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is better known by the ring name Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP). He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the co-leader and Manager (professional wrestling) of the stable The Hurt Syndicate. He has also worked with WWE, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Ring of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW).  Porter became famous in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he first wrestled from 2005 to 2010. During this time, he became a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion with Matt Hardy and a two-time WWE United States Champion. He was released from his WWE contract in December 2010, but returned in the 2020 Royal Rumble match. That same year, he formed a stable called The Hurt Business with Bobby Lashley, Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin. In September 2024, MVP made his debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He spent six months in a juvenile detention center after a robbery and later completed 9½ years of an 18½ year prison sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping which at the time he started it he was sixteen. He has a rare heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. He converted to Islam while in prison but has since described himself as a nonbeliever.