Firefighters or firemen are people whose job is to put out fires and rescue people. Besides fires, firefighters rescue people and animals from car wrecks, collapsed buildings, stuck elevators and many other emergencies. Firefighting is a job which requires bravery, strength, quick thinking and a wide range of skills.
Firefighters are based at a building called a "fire station" (also known as a "firehouse" or "fire hall"). When their help is needed, they drive a vehicle called a "fire engine" or "fire truck" to the scene responding code 1 code 2 or code 3.These vehicles can pump water and foam to put out fires. Fire engines also carry ladders, cutting tools and lots of different types of rescue equipment. Most carry first aid kits to help people who are injured or hurt.
Firefighters wear heavy clothing to protect them from the heat when they are fighting with a fire. This is called "bunker gear" or "turnout gear". They wear a breathing apparatus to protect themselves from breathing in smoke.
Depending on the country, the agency firefighters work for is called a "fire department", "fire service", "fire and rescue service" or "fire brigade". Fire departments are usually government agencies that are funded by taxes and look after a local area. Some sites employ their own firefighters, such as airports and some factories.
Some fire departments employ firefighters who work full-time and wait at the fire station to be called out. They have to work both in the daytime and at night, though they can usually have a rest if they have nothing to do at night. Villages and small towns usually have part-time firefighters who have other jobs outside of the fire service. These firefighters will drive from their home or workplace to the fire station when their help is needed. They may be volunteers, or they may be paid for doing this (known as "retained firefighters" in the UK).
In some places such as large US cities, it is common for the fire department to run the emergency medical services. In those departments, such as the New York City Fire Department, most of the fire department's calls are medical emergencies rather than fires. Although these are usually dealt with by full-time paramedics, many firefighters are trained in first aid and they may assist in medical emergencies, even bringing the fire engine to the scene.
Random
Random is a term used in mathematics (and less formally) to mean that there is no way to reliably predict an outcome (to know what will happen "before" it happens) or sense a pattern. Something that is chosen at random is not chosen for any conscious reason, and therefore thought to be purely by chance. An example of a random event is winning a lottery.
A computer can make lists of apparently random numbers. Humans are unable to do this, because the brain works in patterns. If someone is asked to keep saying "heads" or "tails" at random, a smart human observer or properly programmed computer might eventually be able to tell which one the person is likely to say next because the computer notices the patterns.
On a website such as English Wikipedia the user can click on "Random page" to get a random article. The chances of any one page appearing are exactly the same as for any other page.
Sometimes the word "random" is used more loosely. There are websites of random jokes, which just means: a variety of jokes about all sorts of things.
In recent years young people have started to use the word "random" even more loosely to describe anything which is rather strange or has no logic. Sentences such as "the mouldy cheese is escaping" or "I like pie and spam" might be described as "random", although this is not the proper dictionary or mathematical meaning of the word.
There are several ways in which a process or system can be seen as "random":
There are many uses for random numbers. The need has led to methods for generating data which is more or less random (pseudorandom). These methods vary as to how unpredictable (statistically random) they are, and how quickly they can generate random numbers.
There are computational random number generators, generating large amounts of sufficiently random numbers. Before then, tables were published as pseudo-random number tables.
There are two ways computers can make what appear to be random numbers.
Keys for encryption must be random in order to be secure. Key generation by a faulty random number generator has sometimes led to successful cryptanalysis.
Political status of Taiwan
The political status of Taiwan is a difficult situation that many people disagree about. There are two countries in the world that call themselves China. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is the country most people think of when they hear the name China. The Republic of China (ROC) also calls itself China. It is better known in most of the world as Taiwan.
Taiwan was a part of China from the late 1600s. After the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan and Penghu were given to Japan by China. After World War II, the Japanese on Taiwan surrendered to the Chinese. This gave Taiwan back to the Chinese. After losing a civil war in 1949, the ROC government fled to the island of Taiwan. It took control of Taiwan and several nearby islands. The PRC controlled mainland China. It also said it owns the island of Taiwan (which is also known as Taiwan province) and the other islands. The ROC said that it was the rightful government of China and it included all of China, including Taiwan and Mongolia. In 1971, the ROC lost its United Nations seat as China. The seat was given to the PRC instead. This made the PRC the rightful government of China internationally. Most countries have accepted the PRC as the leaders of China. Several countries, including the United States, have been careful to not say officially which parts of the original China are part of the PRC. 23 countries have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Nearly all of the other countries still have some diplomatic relations with them. The major problems are about whether Taiwan is a still part of the PRC or should be an independent country.
People who live in Taiwan have different ideas, and it is difficult to find out what most people believe because small changes in how polls are worded can change the results a lot. Taiwan has not been ruled by mainland China since 1895. Today, Taiwan is a democracy. China is ruled by a communist government. The idea of freedom in communism is different than how people in a democracy think freedom should be. Few people in Taiwan want to become part of Communist China. Almost none want to give up their idea of freedom. Some people in Taiwan want Taiwan to formally become the Republic of Taiwan, an independent country. Most of the people in Taiwan want to keep everything like it is now. They want to wait for the best time to become the Republic of Taiwan.
Today, most countries of the world see the PRC as China. Most countries however still have a very close economic and cultural relationship with Taiwan, even if they have major tensions with the PRC.
The relations between the PRC and Taiwan are tense. The PRC believes that Taiwan is a part of the PRC. The government of the PRC has said that if the people of Taiwan vote to become the Republic of Taiwan, that they will invade Taiwan and stop this from happening. In March of 2004, they passed a law that will allow China to invade Taiwan if Taiwan tries to leave the PRC and become an independent country. This law has caused problems with the people in Taiwan. It has caused even more people in Taiwan not to want to be a part of PRC China.
Cellular respiration
Cellular respiration is what cells do to break up sugars to get energy they can use. Cellular respiration takes in food and uses it to create ATP, a chemical which the cell uses for energy.