When a person sneezes, many small drops of saliva and mucus blow out from the nose and mouth. These tiny drops often contain viruses and bacteria. Some of these are germs, which can make other people sick. To keep this from happening as much, is important to block the sneezed air with something like cloth or tissue to catch the drops. It also helps to move away from other people, go outside, or face away.
A common thing to say to people when they sneeze is "Bless you!", or sometimes in the United States sometimes "Gesundheit!" (from German, meaning "Good health"). There is a story that the blessing started with Pope Gregory VII (540–604 AD). He said a blessing might stop people from getting the bubonic plague which was killing people in Rome at the time. There is a myth that when you sneeze your heart and all internal organs stop functioning.
The sound of a sneeze is written "achoo!" in English. Other languages write it differently. For example, in Swedish it is "atjoo!", in French it is "atchoum!" and in German it is "Hatschi!".
Some involuntary ways that people move air in or out of the lungs are: to sneeze, laugh, cough, hiccups, or yawn.
Puma
Pumas ("Puma concolor"), also called cougars, mountain lions or brown panthers, are large wild cats that live in the western half of North America, along with Florida, and most of Central and South America. Pumas are mainly tan-color, and can be up to 9 feet long, although average length is 6 – 8 feet. They can weigh from 29 kilograms to 90 kilograms. (The males are larger.) Most pumas live up to 21 years. Although pumas are very large and some are larger than humans, the puma is classified as a small cat. That means that, in scientific terms, the puma is more closely related to the domestic cat than they are to lions. Unlike the big cats in the genus "Panthera", the puma cannot roar. Instead, it can growl, hiss, screech, and purr. Since pumas are, in the biological sense, small cats, they are capable of purring continuously. The big cats can only purr while breathing out.
Pumas are carnivores because they eat only meat. Pumas are apex predators. They hunt deer, raccoons, squirrels, foxes, rabbits and skunks. They can also eat mice, beavers, coyotes, bobcats, birds, porcupines, cattle, goats, fish and bear cubs. They hunt at night. Cougars can see better at night than people can. They can hear well too. Pumas stalk their prey, which means they walk slowly and quietly, they hide and then when close, they jump or run fast to catch their prey by surprise. They live and hunt alone. Female cougars take care of their babies until they are old enough to take care for themselves. Baby cougars are called cubs or kittens.
Pumas live in the mountains and forests far from people. However, encounters with humans happen sometimes. 26 people have been killed by cougars in North America in the last 30 years. However, many more cougars have been killed by humans. Cougars used to be found all in eastern North America, but they were hunted to extinction there by the beginning of the 1900s. Also, recent sightings of cougars have been reported from Michigan, New Brunswick, southern Indiana, Kentucky, and Vermont. For now, the only confirmed, population of cougars east of the Mississippi River is in Florida, where a subspecies of the cougar called the Florida Panther lives.
Schools that have a cougar as their mascot include:
Google Talk
Google Talk (also called Google Chat) was an instant messaging service that was offered by Google. It let users communicate by using texting and voice chatting. The service was sometimes called Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage by its users.
It is built on the XMPP platform. A web-based version was also available online.
Armour
Armour (or armor U.S.) is a protective covering or clothing to prevent injury from attack. Armour can be worn by a person, or it can be used to protect machines, animals, even buildings. Armour has always been made from the strongest materials available at the time, but weight has always been a problem. Early body armour was made from leather. Later, metals were used (e.g. mail or plate armour). Some modern armour, like bullet-proof vests, are made from plastics that do not stretch or break, such as Kevlar. These plastics may be woven into a cloth and used in layers, which makes them even stronger.
Plastic lamination (layers) is often used to protect windows against bullets. Many jewellery stores, embassies, and vehicles have bullet-proof glass with this feature.
Armour put on vehicles is usually made of metal and can include one layer over another with open spaces in between (spaced armour) or multiple layers of metal; ceramics (baked clay), and other materials. Another type of armour uses blocks of explosive that explode when another explosion goes off near it. This explosive armour protects by pushing against the other explosion. Vehicle armor is often angled to increase the amount of armour that must be shot through to get inside and to make the shot bounce off rather than piercing the armour.
Tanks have the heaviest armour of all land vehicles. Other military vehicles have armour, but not as much as a tank.
Sometimes armour is put in non-military vehicles, such as limousines used by leaders of a country or by anyone who thinks they might be attacked, e.g. film stars or presidents of major companies.
In the past, armour has also been used in wars to protect animals such as dogs, elephants, and horses. Today, police dogs and horses sometimes wear woven plastic bullet-proof vests.
Many sports involve violent physical contact and may be highly dangerous if the players are unprotected. Such sports include ice hockey, American football and kendo. Sports armour is usually made from hard plastic.
North Star Computers
North Star Computers was one of the earliest manufacturers of microcomputers. Before they started making their first computer, the "North Star Horizon", they made floppy disk drives for S-100 bus computers. They included a disk operating system called "North Star DOS" (or "N*DOS"). The Horizon used the North Star disk controller and operating system. It was one of the first microcomputers that had multi-user features.
Their second computer, called the "North Star Advantage", ran CP/M, and had the keyboard and monitor built-in. The graphics were very powerful for their time. When the IBM PC came out, North Star made an MS-DOS compatible processor card that could be added to the "Advantage".
Their third computer, the "North Star Dimension", was multi-user like the "Horizon", but MS-DOS based.
Because their products in the early 1980s were only MS-DOS compatible, not fully PC compatible, they never sold very many, and the company went out of business.
Mario Bros.
Mario Bros. is a video game made in 1983. In the game, Mario and/or Luigi must defeat enemies by jumping on them from below and then kicking them, when they are knocked down. It is the first game to feature Luigi as a playable character as well as the first game in which Mario is named Mario. In "Donkey Kong", Mario was called Jumpman. It was later remade for other game consoles at the time. "Mario Bros." was also included with the four "Super Mario Advance" games.
Oval
An oval is a shape. It is round but a bit longer in one direction.
Focus
Focus is a Latin word for hearth. In English it means many things.
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a keyboard instrument in which the sound is made by air blowing through pipes. A person who plays the organ is called an organist. The organist plays the instrument using both the hands and the feet. The hands play the keyboards (called manuals), while the feet play pedals which also make notes.