juno-labs/simple_wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Yiddish

**Yiddish** is a language spoken by some Jews. It is a dialect of German that Jews began speaking in 11th-century Europe. It is still used in the United States, especially in New York City, and other countries with surviving Jewish populations.

## Overview

Most Yiddish words come from German and Hebrew. Some Yiddish words come from Slavic languages (particularly Polish), Latin, French, Hungarian. Yiddish is often written in Hebrew alphabet and spoken by about 3,000,000 people worldwide, mainly Hasidic Jews. In Sweden and the Netherlands, Yiddish is protected by the _European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages_.

## English words of Yiddish origin

Some modern English words derive from Yiddish, including but not limited to:
|Word|Original Yiddish word|Romanized transliteration|Meaning|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|בײגל|_bey-gol_|A ring-shaped bread roll made by boiling, or steaming, and then baking||
|חצפּה|_hoozpa_|Courage||
|דרעק|_drec_|Rubbish||
|געלט|_gelt_|Money, or the chocolate coins given to children on Hanukkah||
|גליטש|_glich_|A minor malfunction||
|גוי|_goi_|Someone who is not Jewish (plural: goyim)||
|מענטש|_mansh_|A decent person||
|נודניק|_nut-nik_|Something annoying||
|שמאָק|_shmug_|A stupid person||
|אוי וויי|_oi-fay_|An exclamation of grief and horror||
|יאַרמלקע|_yar-mol-ka_|Also known as kippah, a round cloth skullcap worn by observant Jewish men||

## Related pages

- Ashkenazi Jews
- Ladino language

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Yiddish
- **altname**: Judaeo-German
- **nativename**: , ,
_yidish_, _idish_
- **states**: Central, Eastern, and Western Europe
- **region**: Europe, Israel, North America, South America, Jewish diaspora, other regions with Jewish populations
- **ethnicity**: Ashkenazi Jews
- **speakers**: ≤ 600,000
- **date**: 2021
- **familycolor**: Indo-European
- **fam2**: Germanic languages, Germanic
- **fam3**: West Germanic languages, West Germanic
- **fam4**: Elbe Germanic
- **fam5**: High German languages, High German
- **ancestor**: Old High German
* Middle High German
- **script**: Hebrew alphabet (Yiddish orthography)
 occasionally Latin alphabet
- **agency**: No formal bodies
YIVO (_de facto_)
- **iso1**: yi
- **iso2**: yid
- **iso3**: yid
- **lc1**: ydd
- **ld1**: Eastern Yiddish
- **lc2**: yih
- **ld2**: Western Yiddish
- **lingua**: 52-ACB-g = 52-ACB-ga (West) + 52-ACB-gb (East); totaling 11 varieties
- **glotto**: east2295
- **glottoname**: Eastern Yiddish
- **glotto2**: west2361
- **glottoname2**: Western Yiddish
- **dia1**: Eastern Yiddish
- **dia2**: Western Yiddish
- **dia3**: Klezmer-loshn
- **dia4**: Lachoudisch
Year

The **year** (symbol: **y** or **a**, also known as the **annum** or **annus**) is about 365 days (except in a leap year). It is the time it takes the Earth to go completely around (orbit) the sun once. A year is actually almost 365.25 days long, but the Gregorian and Julian calendar has 365 days, except in a leap year, which has 366 days.

The year starts on January 1 and ends on December 31 in the Gregorian and Julian calendar.  A fiscal year or a school year can start or end on a different day.

There are several ways used to measure the length of a year.

- a **Solar** year, also called **tropical year**, is based on the seasons.  The Gregorian calendar is based on a tropical year of 365.2425 days.  This is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the cycle of seasons, as seen from Earth; for example, the time from vernal equinox to vernal equinox, or from summer solstice to summer solstice.  The word "tropical" in this sense comes from the Greek _tropical_ meaning "turn".
- a **Lunar** year is based on the Moon and is
- usually 12 Lunar months (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes each) or 354 or 355 days long.
- a **sidereal** year measures the time between when a selected fixed star is highest in the night sky.
- an **anomalistic year** is the difference between the times when the Earth gets closest to the Sun.
- an **eclipse** year is the time between node passages. This is when the Sun moves through a part of the sky where it is possible for the Sun, Earth and moon to be in a line.  It is when eclipses can happen.

Solar and lunar years are used by different calendars for daily life. The other measurements are used by astronomers.

- **Ma** (for megaannum) — one million years.  The term "Ma" is often used in scientific disciplines such as geology, paleontology, and astronomy to signify very long time periods into the past or future.  The simpler term "**mya**" for "million years ago" is generally preferred on this wiki as being intuitively more simple for non-technical readers.

A specific calendar is provided for the liturgical year.
You

**You** is a second-person English pronoun. The word can be singular or plural. It is what a person says when he or she is addressing another person in second person. Sometimes, just using the English letter "u" is acceptable, and "ur" for the words "you're" and "your". This is very informal, and is mostly used in texting.
Yard (disambiguation)

The **yard** is a unit of length.

**Yard** can also mean:
- Yard (land), an open space around a building.
- Yard (sailing), a spar on a traditional sailing ship
- Brickyard, a place where bricks are made or stored
Zoology

**Zoology** is the science of studying animal life. It is part of biology_. _Animal life is classified into groups called _phyla_, of which there are at least thirty.

**Zoologists** are scientists who study animals. They may work in laboratories, or do field research. The methods are many and various. At the heart, they cover the structure, function, ecology and evolution of animals. The structure is investigated by dissection, and microscopic examination. The function is investigated by observation and experiment. Palaeontology gives information about extinct animals. Zoologists may have jobs in zoos, museums, universities, and/or non-profit organizations.

## Select zoologists

- Aristotle
- John Ray
- Julian Huxley
- Ernst Haeckel
- Jennifer Clack
- Charles Darwin
- Conrad Gessner
- Richard Dawkins
- Stephen Jay Gould
- Henry Walter Bates
- Thomas Henry Huxley
- John Gould (ornithology)
- Theodosius Dobzhansky
- Dian Fossey (primatology)
- Jane Goodall (primatology)
- Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
- Fritz Müller
- Gilbert White
- James D. Watson
- August Weismann
- John Maynard Smith
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Konrad Lorenz (ethology)
- Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
- Louis Leakey (palaeoanthropology)
- Louis Agassiz (malacology, ichthyology)
- Carolus Linnaeus (father of systematics)
- Richard Owen (Natural History Museum)
- Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
- E.O. Wilson, (entomology, founder of sociobiology)

## Related pages

- Cell
- Botany
- Physics
- Ecology
- Cytology
- Genetics
- Evolution
- Chemistry
- Biophysics
- Biochemistry
- Louis Pasteur
- Gregor Mendel
- Molecular biology
- List of animal phyla
- Classical mechanics
- Quantum mechanics
- Mendelian inheritance
Zebra

**Zebras** are mammals of the family _Equidae_. Zebras are African horses. They are in the same genus as the common horse, _Equus caballus_, and donkeys. Zebras are known for having many black and white stripes. There are three main species of zebra, Grevy's Zebra, the Plains Zebra, and the Mountain Zebra.

## Species

- Genus _Equus_
    - Grevy's Zebra (_Equus grevyi_)
    - Plains Zebra (_Equus quagga_)
        - Crawshay’s Zebra (_Equus quagga crawshaii_)
        - Selous' Zebra (_Equus quagga borensis_)
        - Grant’s Zebra or Boehm's Zebra, (_Equus quagga boehmi_)
        - Chapman's Zebra (_Equus quagga chapmani_)
        - Burchell's Zebra (_Equus quagga burchellii_)
        - Quagga (_Equus quagga quagga_)
    - Mountain Zebra (_Equus zebra_)

## Appearance

All zebras have very short fur because they live in hot areas. Their fur has black and white stripes. The main part of the body has mostly vertical stripes, and the legs have horizontal stripes. They also have a dark line directly down their spine. Each of the different zebra species has different types of stripes. Each zebra has a unique pattern.

Despite many attempts, we do not really know what the advantage is of having those characteristic stripes. There are different species and sub-species of zebra, and they all have stripes, so scientists think it must be important.

## Life

Zebras are social animals that spend time in herds, they graze together and sometimes even groom each other. They can have babies (foals) when they are about five years old and can have one every year. Zebras mainly eat grass. They always live near water and are an endangered species.

Zebras live in Africa, south of the Sahara desert.
Zoo

A **zoological garden**, **zoological park**, or **zoo** is a place where many different species types of animals are kept so that people can see and watch them.

Modern zoos try not only to be for people's entertainment, but for education, research, and the conservation and protection of animals. Many zoos are centers where rare animals are preserved when they are in danger of dying out. These modern zoos also want to give the animals a natural life, so that they are healthy and behave normal. This is done for the animals, but also that people can see the animals as if they were in nature, and not in a zoo.

Zoos cost money. They educate the public on the biological diversity that makes up the world. They help people and wildlife successfully coexist. They pursue continuing research and education for people. They preserve crucial natural resources.  They work to provide the most natural environment possible for wildlife in their care.  Without enough money they cannot do these things.

Many zoos are not like the modern type of zoo. There the animals are held in bad conditions. They are kept in small cages. They get bored. They also get sick.  Animals can also get very stressed in zoos.

## Types

There are different types of zoo all over the world. They are:

- In a safari park visitors can drive their own vehicles or ride in vehicles given by the park to see the animals. Sometimes, visitors can feed the animals through the car windows.  The first safari park was Whipsnade Park in Bedfordshire, England. It was opened by the Zoological Society of London in 1931.

- A public aquarium has many aquatic animals and plants for people to see. Most public aquariums have very large tanks. They may also have smaller tanks. The first public aquariums were made in the mid-19th century.

- A petting zoo has domestic animals and some wild animals that are very calm so that the visitors can touch and feed them. Most petting zoos feature very calm herbivorous domesticated animals, such as: donkeys, goats, pigs, ponies, rabbits or sheep, to feed and touch them safely. Few petting zoos have wild animals (such as pythons or big cat<nowiki/>s) touch. These are rare and usually found outside Western countries.

- An animal theme park is a combination of a theme park and a zoo. It mainly built for entertainment, amusement, and commercial reasons. Many animal theme parks combine theme park elements, like entertainment and amusement rides, with zoo elements such as live animals kept inside cages so that visitors can see them.
Simple English

**Simple English** might mean:
- Simple English Wikipedia gives information about a certain subject using fewer words and simpler grammar than the normal English Wikipedia.
    - Simple English Wiktionary
- Basic English, created by Charles Kay Ogden, which only contains 850 words
- Learning English, by the Voice of America broadcasting service
    - Special English: the Voice of America form  of simple English used for public radio news items for a large audience.
- Specialized English SPOTLIGHT word list for broadcasting in a controlled version of the English language.
- Plain English Campaign: a commercial advocate for the use of simple ("plain") English to communicate with the public.
- Simplified English word list of ASD Simplified Technical English. This is for the European Association of Aerospace Industries (AECMA, now ASD www.asd-europe.org).
Jail

A **jail** (also spelled **gaol**) is a protected place where people are locked up. The police or other, similar groups, who are meant to protect people, are in charge of it.

Some of the people locked in jails are:

- People who might have done something against the law (doing this is a crime) and have not yet been to court (where whether or not they did it is found out for sure), or who cannot pay the bail amount set by the court, or who the court thinks are too dangerous to be let out.
- People whose court trial is still happening.
- People who have returned from prison to appeal their prior court trial; or,
- People who have been convicted of a lesser (often misdemeanor) crime with a sentence of usually less than a year.

## Related pages

- County jail
- Prison
Atlantic Ocean

The **Atlantic Ocean** is the world's second largest ocean. It covers a total area of about , about 20 percent of the Earth's surface.

It is named after the Ancient Greek god Atlas, the Titan in Greek mythology.

## Geologic history

The Atlantic formed when the Americas moved west from Eurasia and Africa. This began sometime in the Cretaceous peiod, roughly 135 million years ago. It was part of the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea.

The East Coast of South America is shaped somewhat like the West Coast of Africa, which gave a clue that continents have moved over long periods of time in what is called continental drift. The Atlantic Ocean is still growing because of seafloor spreading from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and the Pacific Ocean is shrinking because the sea floor is subducting, or folding under itself, into the mantle.

## Geography

The Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Barents Sea. It connects with the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar.

In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean. The 20th meridian east defines its border.

In the southwest, the Drake Passage connects it to the Pacific Ocean. The Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific.

The Atlantic Ocean is the largest ocean after the Pacific and had an area of . The volume of the Atlantic, along with its bordering seas, is 354,700,000 cubic kilometres.

The average depth of the Atlantic, along with its bordering seas, is . The greatest depth is Milwaukee Deep near Puerto Rico, where it is  deep.

The RMS _Titanic_ currently rests at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

### Gulf Stream

The Atlantic Ocean has important ocean currents. One of them, called the Gulf Stream, flows across the North Atlantic.  Water gets heated by the sun in the Caribbean Sea and then moves northeast toward the North Pole, which makes France, the British Isles, Iceland, and Norway, all in Europe, much warmer in winter than Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, both in Canada. Without the Gulf Stream, the climates of northeast Canada and northwestern Europe might be the same because both places are about the same distance from the North Pole.

There are also currents in the South Atlantic, but the shape of the sea makes it have a smaller effect on South Africa.

## Geology

The main feature of the Atlantic Ocean's seabed is a large underwater mountain chain, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs from north to south under the ocean at the boundary of four tectonic plates: Eurasian, North American, South American, and African. The ridge extends from Iceland in the north to about 58° south.

The salinity of the surface waters of the open ocean ranges from 33 to 37 parts per thousand and varies by latitude and season.

## Other websites

- LA Times special Altered Oceans
- Oceanography Image of the Day, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer  Plot and download ocean observations
- www.cartage.org.lb
- www.mnsu.edu
Mercury

**Mercury** may mean:

- Mercury (mythology), the Roman god
- Mercury (planet), the first planet from the Sun in our solar system
- Mercury (element), the chemical element or atom
- Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight program by the United States' NASA
- Mercury (programming language), a programming language
- Mercury automobile, a make of car owned by the Ford Motor Company
- Mercury, France, a local government in the Savoie _département_ of France

- Bristol Mercury, a 9-cylinder aircraft engine
- Freddie Mercury, singer of the group Queen
Butter

**Butter** is a dairy food. It is made by moving the milk from whole cream for a long time. The fat in the cream separates from the liquid. The fat is butter.

Butter is often used on bread, as a main ingredient in biscuits, as a shortening agent in some baking and cooking recipes, and for frying foods.

Often, butter is made from cows' milk. However, it can be made from the milk of other mammals, like sheep, goats, bison, and yaks. Salt, flavorings and preservatives are sometimes added to butter.

Many people use butter in their foods instead of oil.

It has a melting point of about .

There are 717 calories in  of butter.

## Types

**Cultured butter** is made from fermented cream. **Sweet cream butter** is made from pasteurized fresh cream. **Raw cream butter** is made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream.
Mainland China

**Mainland China**, also called the **Chinese Mainland**, is the part of China not including the Republic of China controlling Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores.  The term also excludes Hong Kong and Macau.

In the Qing Dynasty (Manchu Dynasty), all of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, the Pescadores, and Mongolia were part of the Manchu Empire. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau were colonized by foreigners for some years (Taiwan to the Japanese, Hong Kong to the British, and Macau to the Portuguese).

By the end the Qing Empire, China became Nationalist China (the Republic of China) and it got Taiwan back in 1945. After the Communists (the People's Republic of China) took over most of China, the Nationalists kept only Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores.  Mongolia became an independent state later.

Since then, Communist China only includes the part on the continent (mainland) and some small islands that are very near (the largest communist island is Hainan). This region is Mainland China.

Later Hong Kong and Macau were returned to the government of China, but because the government calls them "special administrative regions" under a "one country, two systems" idea, they are still not thought of as part of Mainland China.
Climate

**Climate** means the usual condition of the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, and other meteorological patterns in an area of the Earth's surface for a long time. In simple terms, climate is the average condition for about thirty years. Climate and weather are different: weather is the day to day conditions in the atmosphere.

**The types of climates are**: Tropical, Desert/dry, Temperate, Polar, Mediterranean.
- Polar climate (also called boreal climate), has long, usually very cold winters, and short summers. For example, near the north and south poles.
- Temperate climates have four seasons. Some of the countries which have a temperate climate are: most of the European countries.
- Deserts are very dry. They just have one or two seasons such as: Saudi Arabia and many African countries.
- Tropical climates have warm temperature and only two seasons; wet and dry. An example of a place with a tropical climate is the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.
- The Mediterranean climate is usually hot and dry in summer, and is cool and wet in winter. An example of a country with a Mediterranean climate is Spain.

The latitude, ground, and height can change the climate of a location. It is also important to note if oceans or other large bodies of water are nearby. Climates are most commonly classified by temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used classification was the Köppen climate classification, first made by Wladimir Köppen. The Thornthwaite system, which was used from 1948, not only uses temperature and precipitation information, but evapotranspiration too. This makes it useful for studying how many different kinds of animal species there are, and about the things that could happen when climates change. The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus more on where the air masses which help make climates come from.

Climates can change after a long time. Nowadays people are making the world warmer in many places, but not in all: 12/2023 "Beijing shivers through coldest December on record" (BBC). North Korea and Japan are also unusually cold, Decenber 2023.

## Related pages

- Climatology
- Köppen climate classification
Fold (geology)

A **fold** is rock that is bent, instead of being broken, by its deformation. The term is used in geology when one or a stack of surfaces that were originally flat and level, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of high pressures and temperatures. The basic cause is likely to be some aspect of plate tectonics.

When two forces act towards each other from opposite sides, rock layers are bent into _folds_. Folds are formed by compression, known as **folding**, which is an endogenetic process (it takes place within the Earth's crust).

Folds in rocks vary in size from microscopic crinkles to mountain-sized folds. They occur singly as isolated folds and in extensive fold trains of different sizes on a variety of scales. A set of folds distributed on a regional scale is a _fold belt_, a common feature of orogenic zones.

There are large-scale and small-scale folds. Large-scale folds are found mainly along a collision boundary between two tectonic plates.

## Structure of a fold

The upfold is called an anticline. The downfold is called a syncline.

The imaginary line joining the highest points along the upfold is called the crest line.

The flanks of a fold are known as the limbs.

The central line from which the rock strata dip away in opposing directions is called the axis of fold.

According to the degree of folding of the layers, folds can be classified into five main types.
- Symmetrical fold: two limbs are of equal steepness
- Asymmetrical fold: one limb is steeper than the other
- Overfold: one limb is pushed over the other
- Recumbent fold: two limbs are nearly parallel
- Overthrust fold: the compressional force is so great that the rock strata are broken and slide over one another.

## Formation of a fold mountain

Large depressions called geosynclines form between plates. Seas filled the geosynclines and rivers flowing into them carried sediments (sand and silt) which build up on the sea bed.

Over millions of years, the sediments were compressed by their own weight into sedimentary rocks: sandstone, limestone, etc.

## Landforms formed by folding

Large-scale folding develops parallel ranges of round-top mountains along destructive plate boundaries, which are known as fold mountains.

Examples of fold mountain ranges:
- Alps
- Andes
- Himalayas
- Rocky Mountains
Volcanism

**Volcanism** (or **vulcan activity**) is the eruption of magma onto the surface of the Earth.

Magma under the crust is under very great pressure. When folding and faulting occur, cracks or fractures appear. These are lines of weakness.

When these lines of weakness develop downward in the crust and reach the magma, they will release the pressure in the magma. This allows magma to rise up along the lines of weakness and intrude into the crust. Some magma may even reach the Earth's surface as lava.

## Volcanoes

Volcanoes are the places where magma reaches the earth's surface. The type of volcano depends on the location of the eruption and the consistency of the magma.

## Intrusions

Intrusive volcanism is when magma is forced into the rocks that make up the Earth's crust.   When it cools and become solid while still underground, different features called plutons are formed. The rock formed is intrusive igneous rock.

These plutons will be exposed at the surface of land when the overlying rocks are removed after a long time of denudation (laid bare by erosion).

Major features formed by intrusive volcanicity include: batholith, laccolith, dyke, pipe and sill.
- Batholiths: Have large scale magma that has been solidified at the base of the mountain.
- Dyke: Is a small scale magma cooled within the earths crust that stands vertically to the existing rocks.
- Sill: Is a small scale magma cooled near the earths surface that lies horizontally to the existing rocks.
- Laccolith: A small scale magma that pushes the overlying layers of rocks to form a dome shaped structure.

## Extrusions

The molten magma under great pressure forces its way through the fissure of underground rocks and reaches the Earth's surface to form "igneous extrusion".
Major extruded materials include gas, liquid and solid.

- Gas - sulphur, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and hot steam (geysers). When uprising magma decreases in pressure suddenly, gases within magma explode to the Earth's surface and cause destruction.
- Solid - pyroclast. Mainly composed of: country rock, fragments of solidified lava and fine materials (volcanic ash and dust). It can be classified by size into volcanic bombs, volcanic blocks, lapilli, volcanic ash and volcanic dust.
- Liquid - lava, hot springs.

Features formed are:
- Caldera: a large depression in a former volcanic site. When it is filled with water it is called a 'caldera lake'.
- Composite cones: a large volcanic mountain formed by solidified lava on the surface.
- Geysers: eruption of hot water and steam shooting into the air at regular intervals.
- Hot springs: springs of hot water that flow out continuously without shooting up into the air.
Pacific Ocean

The **Pacific Ocean** is the largest ocean and covers one third of the surface of the entire world. The body of water is between Asia and Australia in the west, the Americas in the east, the Southern Ocean to the south, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. It joins the Atlantic Ocean at a line drawn south from Cape Horn, in Chile andArgentina, to Antarctica, and it joins the Indian Ocean at a line drawn south from Tasmania, in Australia, to Antarctica.

As the Atlantic is slowly getting wider, the Pacific is slowly shrinking by folding the sea floor towards the centre of the Earth in what is called subduction. The bumping and grinding is so hard that there are many earthquakes and volcanoes when the pressure builds up and is quickly released as large explosions of hot rocks and dust. When an earthquake happens under the sea, the quick jerk causes a tsunami. That makes tsunamis more more common around the edge of the Pacific than anywhere else in the world. Many of the Earth's volcanoes are islands in the Pacific or on continents within a few hundred kilometers of the ocean's edge. Plate tectonics is another reason for the Pacific to be shrinking.

## Other websites

- EPIC Pacific Ocean Data Collection Viewable on-line collection of observational data
- NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer  plot and download ocean observations
- NOAA PMEL Argo profiling floats Realtime Pacific Ocean data
- NOAA TAO El Niño data Realtime Pacific Ocean El Niño buoy data
- NOAA Ocean Surface Current Analyses – Realtime (OSCAR) Near-realtime Pacific Ocean Surface Currents derived from satellite altimeter and scatterometer data
Indian Ocean

The **Indian Ocean** is the world's third-largest ocean, at . It is surrounded by Asia to the north, Australia and the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Southern Ocean to the south, and Africa and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It is named for the Indian subcontinent which projects into it. The Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea are all parts of the ocean.

The deepest point in the Indian Ocean is in the Java Trench, near the Sunda Islands, in the east, at . The ocean's average depth is . The majority of the ocean is in the southern hemisphere.

## Other websites

- Maps of the indian Ocean
- Océan Indien in easy French
- NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer  Plot and download ocean observations
- The Indian Ocean in World History: Educational Website Interactive resource from the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center
- The Regional Tuna Tagging Project-Indian Ocean with details of the importance of Tuna in the Indian Ocean..
- Detailed maps of the Indian Ocean
- The Indian Ocean Trade: A Classroom Simulation
- CIA - The World Factbook, Oceans: Indian Ocean
Basket

A **basket** is a container. It is usually light in weight.

Basket makers use a wide variety of materials to create a basket, such as bark, willow rods, leaves, wire, plastic, paper, and rope.  There are three basic kinds of baskets—coiled, twined, or woven.  A woven basket is made of spokes and weavers:  the spokes run up and down and the weavers go over and under the spokes. A coiled basket is made by sewing rings of a fibrous material to the previous ring. Twined baskets have flexible weavers that are twined around the spokes in a variety of patterns.

Basketmaking is a very old practice; it features in myths from various cultures. Baskets were often used to carry fruits, berries, and other things to be gathered. Nowadays, baskets are less practical but still common. Ancient baskets can be found in many cultures. Basket weaving is one of these activities, either for practical use or fun. In Native American culture, basket weaving is a common activity.

---

In basketball, the basket is an open net fixed to a metal ring in which players try to throw the ball.
Software

**Computer software,** also called software, is a set of instructions and documentation that tells a computer what to do or how to perform a task. Software includes all different programs on a computer, such as applications and the operating system. Applications are programs that are designed to perform a specific operation, such as a game or a word processor. The operating system (e.g., macOS, Microsoft Windows, Android and various Linux distributions) is a type of software that is used as a platform for running the applications, and controls all user interface tools including display and the keyboard.

The word software was first used in the late 1960s to emphasize on its difference from computer hardware, which can be physically observed by the user. Software is a set of instructions that the computer follows. Before compact discs (CDs) or development of the Internet age, software was used on various computer data storage media tools like paper punch cards, magnetic discs or magnetic tapes.

The word firmware is sometimes used to describe a style of software that is made specifically for a particular type of computer or an electronic device and is usually stored on a Flash memory or ROM chip in the computer. Firmware usually refers to a piece of software that directly controls a piece of hardware. The firmware for a CD drive or the firmware for a modem are examples of firmware implementation.

Today, software has become an important part of our lives. Software is used everywhere. Software engineers are responsible for producing fault-free software, which has become an essential part of our daily lives. Changeability and conformity are two of the main properties of software design. There are also different processing models for designing software including Build and Fix, Waterfall and Agile software processing design methods.

## Types of Software

The  different types of software can be put into categories based on common function, type, or field of use. There are three broad classifications:
1. _Application software_ are the computer programs for performing user tasks, such as word processing and web browsers.
1. _System software_ is used to start and run computer systems and networks. This includes operating systems.
1. _Computer programming tools_ (also known as _development software_) are used to create application and system software. This is done by translating and combining computer program source code and libraries into executable RAMs. These include compiler and linker.

## Related pages

- Computer program
- Free software
- software engineering
- Concepts of Programming Languages
- Cloud Computing Companies in USA

- Software Models
Container

A **container** is an object used for holding something.  People put things in a container. The use of shipping containers is called Containerization.

## Types of container

- Bottle
- receptacle
- Box
- Can
- Tin
- Jug (container)
- Jar
- Pan
- Tub
- Carton
- Packet
- Barrel
- Vessel
- Crate
Bed

A **bed** is an item of furniture that people sleep on. It normally has a soft mattress on a bed frame. Many beds also have bed sheets to cover the mattress and additional sheets for the people to sleep under. People also use a pillow under their heads.  A bed comes in many different sizes including a single, double and king size.

## History

In August 2020 archaeologists reported the discovery of the oldest grass bedding from Middle Paleolithic (at least 200,000 years ago). This was much older than the oldest previously known bedding.

They found insect-repellent plants and ash layers beneath the bedding. This would have made a dirt-free, insulated base which helped to keep away insects. Early beds like these were little more than piles of straw or some other natural material (e.g. a heap of palm leaves, animal skins, or dried ferns).

Here's an example of what they said: "Several cultures have used ash as an insect repellent because insects cannot easily move through fine powder. Ash blocks insects' breathing and biting apparatus, and eventually dehydrates them. _Tarchonanthus_ (camphor bush) remains were on top of the grass from the oldest bedding in the cave. This plant is still used to deter insects in rural parts of East Africa".

Mattresses stuffed with feathers were first used in Ancient Rome.

In Ancient Egypt, beds were considered to be status symbols. While the lower classes simply slept on a heap of palm bows or straw, the wealthy constructed wood platform beds that were ascended by stairs, were often curtained, and piled high with cushions for comfort.

In Ancient Rome, the bed was utilized as a multi-purpose reclining surface rather than just a place to sleep. Several beds, or "dining couches" were arranged around the perimeter of the home's living space, and friends and family would recline in bed while socializing, studying, and dining.

## Types of beds

There are several kinds of bed in use today. Several terms refer to the size of the mattress. Some kinds are usually temporary, such as camp cots, air mattresses, and hammocks.
- Single bed
- Double bed
- Bunk beds
- Twin beds
- Camp bed/ Cot
- Futon
- Cot/ Crib
- Carrycot/Portacrib
- Cradle
- Hospital bed
Asia

**Asia** is the largest continent on Earth by area and number of people. It is mainly in the northern hemisphere. Asia is connected to Europe in the west and Africa on the south, and separated from North America at the east. Sometimes Asia and Europe are combined to form a larger continent called Eurasia. Some of the oldest human civilizations began in Asia, for example Sumer, China, and Pakistan. Asia was the birthplace of many religions, for example Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism. It was also home to some large empires, for example the Persian Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Mongol Empire, and the Ming Empire. Asia has 48 countries. Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Greece have territory in both Europe and Asia.

## Area

Asia includes a large amount of land. Covering about 30% of the world's land area, it has more people than any other continent, with about 60% of the world's total population. Stretching from the icy Arctic in the north to the hot and steamy equatorial lands in the south, Asia contains huge, empty deserts, as well as some of the world's highest mountains and longest rivers.

Asia is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. It is separated from Europe by the Pontic Mountains and the Turkish Straits. A long, mainly land border in the west separates Europe and Asia. This line runs north–south down the Ural Mountains in Russia, along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, and through the Caucasus Mountains to the Black Sea.

## Regions

- East Asia
- Southeast Asia
- South Asia
- Central Asia
- West Asia
- North Asia

## List of countries in Asia

- (geographically in Europe and Asia)
- (geographically in Europe and Asia)
- (geographically in Asia and Oceania)
- (geographically in Europe and Asia)
- (geographically in Europe and Asia)
Some countries are in both Europe and Asia, for example Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkey.

## Related pages

- Asia Minor
- Asian Games
Wall

A **wall** is a vertical dividing surface. It divides space in buildings into rooms or protects buildings. It is usually made of stone or brick. Walls have two main purposes: to support the top part of buildings, and to divide space, giving protection from invasion, escape, and weather.

Before powerful artillery was invented, many cities had protective walls. Since they are not suitable for defense any more, most city walls have been removed.

The term "the Wall" usually referred to the Berlin Wall, built during the Cold War, which fell in 1989, but may also refer to the Pink Floyd album of the same name.

Sealing people behind walls, in the form of immurement has historically been a method of human sacrifice and punishment.

## Retaining wall

A **retaining wall** is a structure made to hold soil from collapsing. It is made in special areas for any other construction work, such as farming or road making.

Types of retaining wall are:
- Anchored wall
- Cantilever wall
- Gravity wall
- Piling wall

## Main type of walls

**Load Bearing Wall** is a structural element. It carries the weight of a house from the roof and upper floors, all the way to the foundation. It supports structural members like beams, slab and walls on above floors.

**Non-Load Bearing Wall** doesn't help the structure to stand up and holds up only itself. It doesn't support floor roof loads above. It is a framed structure. Most are interior walls whose purpose is to divide the structure into rooms.

**Partition Wall** separates spaces from buildings. It can be solid, constructed from brick or stone. It is a framed construction. The partition wall is secured to the floor, ceiling, and walls. It is enough strong to carry its own load. It resists impact. It is stable and strong to support wall fixtures. The partition wall works as a sound barrier and it is fire resistant.

**Cavity Wall** A cavity wall or hollow wall consists of two separate walls, called leaves or skins, with a cavity or gap in-between. The two leaves of the cavity wall may be of equal thickness if it a non-load-bearing wall or the internal leaf may be thicker than the external leaf, to meet the structural requirements.

**Veneered Wall** holds up the material. It can be made of brick or stone. The most famous veneered wall is made of brick. The wall is only one wythe thick. It became the norm when building codes began to require insulation in interior walls. It is light weighted. Veneered walls can be built quickly.

## Related pages

- Fire wall
- Wallpaper
- Great Wall of China
Coordinated Universal Time

**Coordinated Universal Time** (or **UTC**) is the standard time system of the world. It is the standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is, within about 1 second, mean solar time at 0° longitude.

The standard before was Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). UTC and GMT are almost the same. In fact, there is no practical difference which would be noticed by ordinary people.

Some websites, for example Wikipedia, use UTC because it does not make any country look more important than the others. It offers one time for all the Internet (the same time can be used by people all over the world).

Time zones are often named by how many hours they are different from UTC time. For example, UTC−5 (United States east coast) is 5 hours behind UTC. If the time is 07:00 UTC, the local time is 02:00 in New York (UTC−5) and 10:00 in Moscow (UTC+3).

07:00 UTC is also written more simply as 0700Z (or 07:00Z).

Note that UTC uses the 24-hour clock.  That means there is no 'AM' or 'PM'. For example, 4:00PM would be 16:00 or 1600. UTC also does not use daylight saving time - that way the time stays consistent the entire year.

When this page loaded, it was **,   ,  in UTC**.
Television

A **television set** (also known as a **television receiver** or **televisor** or simply a **television**, **TV set**, **TV receiver** or **TV**) is a machine with a screen or set of lenses. Televisions receive broadcasting signals and change them into pictures and sound. The word "television" comes from the words ***tele*** (_far away_) and ***vision*** (_sight_).

Sometimes a television can look like a box. Older TVs had a large cathode ray tube in a large wooden frame and sat on the floor like furniture. Newer TVs are much lighter and flatter.

A TV can show pictures from many television networks. Computers and mobile devices also can be used for watching television programs.

The television was invented in the 1920s but the equipment was expensive and the pictures were poor. By the 1950s, these problems had been fixed and TVs became widespread.

At first, all televisions used an antenna (or aerial). This would pick up television programmes from broadcasting stations. A TV station could be many miles or kilometers away, and still be received. TVs can also show movies from VCD and DVD players or VCRs. Cable TV and Satellite television can provide more programs at once than broadcast can. Video game consoles connect to most modern TVs. Some computers can also use a TV as a computer monitor.

All TVs have screens where the picture is viewed. Before the 1950s these were usually "black and white", which made everything look grey, but all modern TVs show colors. Most 20th century screens also had rounded corners. That is because television screens were cathode ray tubes. These are like heavy glass jars with one side bulging out to form the screen.

Today flat panel displays are the usual kind. These are usually flat rectangles with straight edges. This long rectangle looks more like the shape of a movie theatre screen. This is called widescreen. If a widescreen set was 30 cm tall, it would be 53 cm wide. For this to work best, TV shows also need to be made in widescreen.  Widescreen sets can still be any size, but they have the same widescreen shape.

The early 21st century is also when digital television transmission became more common than analog television.

## Also see

This section needs expansion.
Sky

The **sky** is the appearance of the atmosphere around the surface of the planet from our point of view. We see many objects that are actually in space such as the Sun, the Moon, and stars because they are in the sky. On a clear day the sky appears blue.

## Physics

At night, it appears from very dark blue to black. The deepness of the blue increases as we look toward the horizon, and up to the point above us. The sky, which is made up of gas molecules, is blue because of the random scattering of sunlight by the molecules.

### Rayleigh scattering

Rayleigh scattering defines the amount of scattering of light rays. Blue light scatters much more than red, which is why the sky appears blue on a clear day. Depending on the time of day, the sky may appear different colors. At sunrise or sunset, the sky may appear red, orange and other colors depending on how low the sun is and how close it is to night.

Many objects can be seen in the sky. There are objects from space like the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. There are also many weather events seen in the sky. For example, these can be fog, clouds, rain or lightning. Weather is caused by different patterns and temperatures in the atmosphere. Other things that can be seen in the sky are birds, other flying animals, and aircraft.

## Solar System

Other planets have skies too. Because the types of gases in their atmospheres are different, they have different sky colors. For example, the sky on Mars is pink.

## Related pages

- Weather
- Atmosphere
- Atomic physics
- Atmospheric chemistry
- Environmental chemistry

## Other websites

- Day Sky Images
- Night Sky Images
- Sky Photo Gallery
- Why is the sky blue?
Tone language

A **tonal language** or **tone language** is a language in which words can differ by tones (like pitches in music) in addition to consonants and vowels.

Many languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, Hmong, Meitei, Punjabi, Yorùbá, Igbo, Luganda, Ewe, Lingála, Cilubà, and Cherokee are tonal. Other languages, including Indo-European languages such as  English and Hindi, are not considered tonal languages but can use intonation in different ways.

In some languages, pitch accent is important instead. A word's meaning can then change if a different syllable is pronounced with a higher pitch. Examples include Ancient Greek, Swedish, Norwegian, Serbo-Croatian, Lithuanian, and some Asian languages like Japanese.

Some tones may sound alike to people who do not speak a tone language. They are the most difficult part of learning a tone language for those people.

## Example

In Mandarin, the most famous example is "_mā má mǎ mà_ (), " which has four different words, which are pronounced in exactly the same way but with four different tones. If numbers identify the tones, they can be written m_a1 ma2 ma3 ma4_, which means "mom hemp horse scold." Some ways of romanization mark each tone by a different spelling; _ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4_ in Pinyin would be written _ma mha maa mah_ in Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Most use numbers or accent marks (_mā má mǎ mà_ in Pinyin). There is a passage called Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (). It has 92 characters, all of which read the same way in Mandarin ("shi") but with different tones.

Mandarin does not have many syllables. The words for "mother," "hemp," "horse," "scold," and a word put at the end of sentences to make it a question are all pronounced "ma:"
- "Mother" is "ma" that is high and level.
- "Hemp" is "ma" that starts low and ends high.
- "Horse" is "ma" that starts fairly high, dips very low, and then goes back up again.
- "Scold" is "ma" that starts high and ends low.
- To make a question, "ma" is added at the end, but it is kept very soft and short and about the same level.

Mandarin has "first tone," "second tone," "third tone," "fourth tone," and "neutral tone." Other Chinese dialects have more tones, with some as many as twelve.

## Tonal markings

Vietnamese and pinyin use accents as the tone marks for the Latin alphabet. Each accent shows an altered sound for the syllable. Most syllables have only one tone marking, but the letters in the syllable can be altered by other markings. Syllables usually form one word in un-hyphenated compound words.

Pinyin may have style differences because it is made to help Westerners. On the other hand, Vietnamese has a national script that always has the same style.
Dollar

A **dollar** is a type of currency. Many countries have named their money _the dollar_, so it is important to say which dollar is being talked about. The symbol for the dollar is a capital letter S, pierced by one or two vertical lines (**$**).

## History

The dollar is named after the thaler. The thaler was a large silver coin first made in the year 1518. The thaler named after the Joachimsthal (Joachim's valley) mine in Bohemia (_Thal_ means valley in German). The later Spanish Peso was the same size and was often called "Spanish dollar" and the similar coin of the Dutch Republic was called “lion dollar”. In the 18th century it became a world currency. Many national currencies were originally Spanish dollars including the ones now called dollar or peso and the Japanese yen and Chinese Renminbi.

## List of dollars

- Australian dollar
- Bahamian dollar
- Barbadian dollar
- Belize dollar
- Brunei dollar
- Canadian dollar
- East Caribbean dollar
- Hong Kong dollar
- Jamaican dollar
- Namibian dollar
- New Zealand dollar
- New Taiwan dollar
- Singapore dollar
- United States dollar
- Zimbabwean dollar