open-index/open-wikipedia-markdown huggingface dataset:
Bucharest

**Bucharest** is the capital city of Romania. It is the largest city in the country. The city has a population of 1.9 million people. It is made up of 6 "sectors". It has a humid continental climate (*Cfa* in the Koeppen climate classification). It became the capital of Romania in 1862. It is the centre of Romanian media, culture and art. Bucharest is the 6th largest city in the European Union by population within city limits.

According to European standards, Bucharest is an old city. The first mention of it appears in 1459. Its eclectic architecture is a mixture of historical, transitional, Communist and modern styles. In the period between the two World Wars, thanks to the elegant urban architecture and ingenuity of the urban elite, Bucharest was named "Paris of the East", or "Little Paris" (Micul Paris).

## References
Avalanche

]]

An **avalanche** is a natural disaster linked to snow. When there is too much snow on a mountain, some of the snow may fall, causing damage to things in its path. This is called an avalanche. People talk about avalanches because they may be  to skiers and other people doing winter sports.

Large avalanches may carry stones, boulders and trees with them. They may bury people under them. If the people are not found rapidly enough by rescue teams they will die of suffocation (not getting enough air) or of hypothermia (freezing cold).

The chance of surviving an avalanche is as follows:
* 92% if found within 15 minutes
* 30% if found within 35 minutes (victims die of suffocation)
* nearly zero after two hours (victims die of injuries and hypothermia)

## European avalanche risk table 
In Europe, the avalanche risk is widely rated on the following scale, which was adopted in April 1993 to replace the earlier non-standard national schemes. Descriptions were last updated in May 2003 to enhance uniformity pdf .

**[1] Stability:**
* Generally described in more detail in the avalanche bulletin (regarding the altitude, aspect, type of terrain etc.)

**[2] additional load:**
* heavy: two or more skiers or boarders without spacing between them, a single hiker or climber, a grooming machine, avalanche blasting.
* light: a single skier or snowboarder smoothly linking turns and without falling, a group of skiers or snowboarders with a minimum 10 m gap between each person, a single person on snowshoes.

**Gradient:**
* gentle slopes: with an incline below about 30°.
* steep slopes: with an incline over 30°.
* very steep slopes: with an incline over 35°.
* extreme steep slopes: extreme in terms of the incline (over 40°), the terrain profile, proximity of the ridge, smoothness of underlying ground.

**Avalanche size:**

## Surviving avalanches 
Surviving avalanches is very difficult, as the snow rushes at a very fast rate and can bury anyone alive in seconds. However, the snow in an avalanche acts like a liquid when descending. Thus, the best way is to actually 'swim' a backstroke. This will help as the person will be able to keep his/her face up and breathe, and also not get submerged in the snow at the same time (the force of swimming backwards is in contrast and opposes the force of the snow coming in his/her direction, rather than the snow totally taking over). 

Another way is to hold on to something immediately after an avalanche occurs. The item should be strong so it itself doesn't get drifted away by an avalanche, like a tree or large and heavy rock.
Foot (unit)

The **foot** is a unit for measuring length. It is one of the Imperial units and US customary units. The shortest way of writing the unit "foot" is by the abbreviation "ft" (or "ft."), or by a prime symbol (&nbsp;′&nbsp;).

One foot contains 12 inches. This is equal to 30.48&nbsp;centimeters. It is called a foot, because it was originally based on the length of a foot.

## History 
The foot was a common unit of measurement throughout Europe. It often differed in length not only from country to country but from city to city. Because the length of a foot changed between person to person, measurements were not even consistent between two people, often requiring an average. Henry I of England was attributed to passing the law that the foot was to be as long as a person's own foot. This was one of the first times a standard unit of measurement was put into place.

In 1835, during the metrication process, twelve cantons of Switzerland adopted a concordat based on the federal foot (exactly 0.3 m), which entered into force in 1836. In 1868 the metric system was legalized alongside the federal foot, which was a first step towards the definitive introduction of the metre.

In 1959, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom all signed a treaty known as the 'International Yard and Pound Agreement'. This standardised the avoirdupois weight and length of all nations. Those standards are still officially used in both the Imperial system and US customary units.

## Usage 
Road signs with height restrictions in the United States and the United Kingdom are in feet and inches. They are less commonly seen in Canada and Ireland. In the US and the UK, people usually measure a person's height in feet and inches. If a person is "five foot eleven", this means that person is 5 feet and 11 inches, or about 180 centimeters. The height is written *5′ 11″*

Many people born before metrication in a number of Commonwealth nations still use feet and inches. Altitude measurements are still sometimes given in feet, even in metricated nations.

## Length 
## References
Erfurt massacre

The **Erfurt massacre** was a mass shooting that happened at the Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany, on 26 April 2002.  

A boy that had been expelled from the school 2 months earlier, 19-year-old Robert Steinhäuser, was the person who did all the shooting. In anger, he came into the gymnasium, and shot dead 12 teachers, a secretary, two students, and a police officer. After a teacher caught him and put him in an empty room, Steinhäuser shot himself dead. In total, 17 people were killed.

According to students, he ignored them and aimed only for the teachers and administrators, although two students were unintentionally killed by shots fired through a locked door.

## References
Gymnasium (school)

A **gymnasium** is a form of higher education in some   European countries, especially Germany. It has the same status as a grammar school. Gymnasiums are also common in Hungary and Austria. Graduating from a gymnasium is considered an accomplishment .

Upon completion of the 12th or 13th grade, students undergo examinations called the Abitur. Successful completion of these exams results in graduation from secondary school with a certificate of advanced secondary education. This certification enables students to pursue higher education at a university or a university of applied sciences. Alternatively, they have the option to opt for vocational training and enter the workforce directly.

## References
Huascarán

**Huascarán** is the highest mountain in Peru, and the fourth-highest mountain in South America. The top of it is 22,205 feet (6,768 meters) high.

The mountain is located in the Ancash Region of Peru.  Huascarán has turned into a tourist attraction for mountain climbers.

Huascarán is made of granite brought to the surface by a major fault.  It has been staying at about the same elevation, but keeps loosing ice.  As recently as 1970, the Ancash Earthquake caused a big part of the mountain to crumble and fall off.  That part of the mountain was all rock and ice, and it killed almost 17,000  in small towns around the mountain.

## Related pages 
* List of Mountains in the Andes
* Fault

## References
1490

## Events 
* *Tirant Lo Blanc* by Joanot Martorell, Martí Joan De Galba is published.
* Yoshitane becomes Ashikaga shogun of Japan.
* Charles John Amadeus of Savoy becomes Duke of Savoy at age 1, mother Blanche of Montferrato is regent.
* Aldus Manutius moves to Venice.
* John Colet receives M.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford.
* Castle Church in Wittenberg is begun.
* Pedro de Covilham arrives in Ethiopia.
* Catholic missionaries arrive in the African kingdom of Kongo.
* Regular postal service connects the Habsburg residences of Mechelen and Innsbruck, the first in Germany.
* Leonardo da Vinci observes capillary action in small-bore tubes.
* December 19 – Anne of Brittany married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy

## Births 
* Wijerd Jelckama, Frisian warlord and rebel (d. 1523)

## Deaths
1571

**1571** (MDLXXI) was a common year starting on Monday in the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Friday in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

## Events 
* January 11 – Austrian nobility is granted Freedom of religion.
* October 7 Spanish, Venetian, and Papal naval forces under Don John of Austria defeat the Turkish fleet of Ali Monizindade Pasha.
* The Ottoman Empire captured the city of Nicosia on the island of Cyprus.

## Births 
* February 15 – Michael Praetorius, German composer (d. 1621)
* October – Tirso de Molina, Spainish dramatist and poet (d. 1648)
* December 27 – Johannes Kepler, German astronomer (d. 1630)
401

## Events 
* Pope Innocent I succeeds Pope Anastasius I. 
* The Vandals start their westward trek from Dacia and Hungary (or 400).
*The Visigoths begin to attack the northernmost reaches of Italy, causing destruction in the countryside.
*Kumarajiva arrives in Changan.
*Western Roman Empire general Stilicho leads an extensive campaign against the Vandals in Rhaetia.
*Synod of Turin
1068

## Events 
* January 1 &ndash; Eudocia Macrembolitissa marries the general Romanus Diogenes who becomes Byzantine Emperor
* Emperor Go-Sanjō ascends the throne of Japan
* William the Conqueror takes Exeter, England after a brief siege
* Saint Herfast becomes the first Lord Chancellor of England in London, England at the age of 68. He does the job for two years before he retires
## Births 
* September 1 &ndash; King Henry I of England, English royal (d. 1135)
Acre

:*For the state in Brazil, see Acre (state).*

An **acre** is the area of a rectangle, whose length is one furlong and width one chain.

Acre is an English unit of area, which is also used in the United States and some Commonwealth countries. It is most often used to describe areas of land.
* By the official definition it is 4,046.8564224 m2 (4,840 square yards). It is the area of one furlong by one chain. 
* The *international acre* is 4,046.8564224 m2, or 0.404686 hectares. This is based on *international foot* of 0.3048 m.
* The length of the side of a square, whose area is one acre, is 209.71 feet.

An acre is approximately equal:
* the area of an American football field.

Originally, it was seen as the area of land a farmer could plough with an ox in a day. Since this definition depended on the farmer and the ox, it looked variable. Therefore, Edward I, Edward III, Henry VIII and George IV passed laws fixing its size. The Commonwealth countries, including the United States then also introduced these laws.

## Other websites
* The Units of Measurement Regulations 1995
* NIST Handbook 44
Urbain Grandier

**Urbain Grandier** (born 1590 in Bouère, Mayenne, France ; died April 18, 1634 in Loudun, France) was a free-thinking cleric. A satirical publication against Richelieu was attributed to him. After this, Pierre-Martin de Laubardement, a statesman was charged to lead the  against Grandier in 1633. He was charged of having bewitched the ursuline nuns of Loudun. They became obsessed by him. His friend, Claude Quillet agreed to defend him in court, but without success. 

He was condemned to burn at the stake as a witch in 1634.

## English literature
**The Devils of Loudun*, by Aldous Huxley, published in 1952
Belaying

**Belaying** is a way to hold and control a rope for a person who is rock climbing. A climber has to be attached to a rope so they do not fall very far. A person on the ground who is belaying is called a *belayer*.

The belayer usually puts the rope through a *belay device*, which lets the rope move through the device in one direction (as the climber being belayed goes up). If the climber falls, the device lets the belayer also hold the rope still, so the climber hangs in the air but does not hit the ground. 

A belayer can hold the weight of the climber with the rope and help prevent an injury caused by a fall.

## Reference
Cardinal Richelieu

**Armand Jean du Plessis**, better known as **Cardinal Richelieu** (9 September 1585–4 December 1642) was a French clergyman, noble, and statesman. His full name was *Armand Jean du Plessis*. He was later created the Duke of Richelieu and duke of Fronsac.

In order to keep the diocese of Luçon, Armand Jean needed to become a monk. He joined the Grande Chartreuse, the main monastery of the Carthusian order. This monastery is in the Isère département, near Grenoble. As a comparison, Luçon is near La Roche-sur-Yon.

He was consecrated as a bishop in 1607. For this he obtained a dispensation of the pope; at age 21, he was too young to become a bishop.  He later entered politics and became a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Church and the state. He became a cardinal in 1622. He became King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; then Jules Cardinal Mazarin became chief minister.

The Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the King's "Chief Minister". As a result, he is sometimes said to be the world's first Prime Minister. He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strongly centralized state. His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty; although a Roman Catholic cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers. With these alliances, he tried to achieve this goal. His tenure was marked by the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.

As an advocate for Samuel de Champlain and of the keeping of Quebec, he founded the Compagnie des Cent-Associés and saw the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye return Quebec to French rule under de Champlain, after the settlement had been captured by the Kirkes in 1629. This in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of French-speaking culture in North America.

Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts; most notably, he founded the Académie française, the learned society responsible for matters of the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet ''l'Éminence rouge'' ("the Red Eminence"), from the red shade of a cardinal's vestments and the style "eminence" as a cardinal.
South Vietnam

**South Vietnam**, officially the **Republic of Vietnam** was a country that existed from 1955 to 1975. It occupied in the southern of what is now Vietnam. The country was south of the local Demilitarized Zone.

## History
**South Vietnam** established on 26 October, 1955 after the 1955 Referendum. It was first ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem until 1963. After the 1963 coup, **South Vietnam** was run by a military government. It lasted until 1967. From 1967, On 1 April, 1967, the Second Republic was established. This Second Republic lasted until the Fall of Saigon when the president Duong Van Minh surrendered to North Vietnam and Viet Cong. **South Vietnam** ceased to exist on 30 April, 1975. This day is also known as **Black April** to Vietnamese anti-communists.

## Related pages
*State of Vietnam

## References
**Notes**
Robert Ludlum

**Robert Ludlum** (May 25, 1927 - March 12, 2001) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of *The Bourne Identity* from 1980, which was made into a movie in 2002.

## Other websites 
* Official website of Robert Ludlum 
*
1170s

The **1170s** was a decade that started on 1 January 1170 and ended on 31 December 1179. It is distinct from the decade known as the ***118th decade*** which began on January 1, 1171 and ended on December 31, 1180.   
## Events and trends 
* 1170 – Assassination of Thomas à Becket
* 1171 – Saladin ends the Islamic ruling of Fatimid, bringing back Sunni rule in Egypt.
* 1179 – Third Council of the Lateran condemns Waldensians and Cathars as heretics (people who turn away from certain religious beliefs); reformation of clerical life

## Significant people 
*
Mebibyte

The **mebibyte** (symbol: **MiB**) is a unit of information or computer data storage. 

:1 MiB = 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes = 1,024 kibibytes

The mebibyte is closely related to the megabyte (MB). The megabyte refers to 106 bytes = 1 000 000 bytes (see binary prefix for background). The two units are relatively close together, but mistaking the two has nevertheless led to problems. 

The unit MiB was defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in December 1998.  Use of mebibyte and related units is strongly endorsed by IEEE and CIPM and is becoming more common.

One mebibyte equals 1024 (= 210) kibibytes, and 1024 mebibytes equal one gibibyte.

## Related pages
*Megabyte
*Kibibyte
*Gibibyte
*Tebibyte

## Other websites 
*NIST Prefixes for binary multiples
Clergy

Clergy is the name for people who are leaders in their religious community. Their roles and functions vary, but usually they preside over specific rituals. They are also experts, and help establish the doctrines of their faith. Usually, there are specific rituals that make people become part of the clergy. Sometimes, clergy are elected by a group of people. The ritual that make people part of the clergy in Christianity is called ordination or consecration. 

Not everyone can become part of the clergy. Different denominations exclude different groups of people. 
 during a prayer ceremony]]

## Related pages
* Clergyman
* Estates of the realm
* Muslim clergy
* Rabbi
* Priest
Acre (state)

**Acre** is a state in the Northern Region of Brazil. It borders other two states, Amazonas and Rondônia. It also borders two countries, Bolivia and Peru. Its capital city is Rio Branco. Other important cities are: Cruzeiro do Sul, Tarauacá, Sena Madureira, and Brasiléia. Acre is divided into 22 municipalities.

The state is mostly covered by the Amazon Rainforest. There are many rivers in Acre. Some of the rivers are the Juruá, Purus River, Acre River, Tarauacá, Muru, Embirá, and Xapuri.

The economy is based on agriculture, cattle animal husbandry, and rubber production.

Until the start of the 20th century, Acre was a territory of Bolivia. Since the 19th century, most people from Acre were Brazilian people, and they created an independent state.

In 1889, the Bolivians tried to control the area again and there were fights.

On November 17, 1903, Acre become a Brazilian territory. On June 15, 1962, it was unified and became a state.

## References
Arab people

The **Arabs** () are an ethnic group in West Asia and North Africa. They speak Arabic which is one of the Semitic languages, and which is also the name of the ethnic family which they belong to. Genealogically, Arabs are those who can trace their ancestry back to the people who first lived on the Arabian Peninsula. During the Middle Ages, Islam and Christianity fostered a vast Arab union, leading to significant Arab migrations around the world under the rule of Arab empires such as the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid.

## Who is an Arab 
There are three points which decide whether someone is considered Arab or not:
* Political: whether they live in a country which is a member of the Arab League (or the Arab world); this definition covers more than 450 million people.
* Linguistic: whether their main language is Arabic; this definition covers more than 423 million people.
* Genealogical: whether they can trace their ancestry back to the people who first lived on the Arabian Peninsula.

Minorities are the Iraqi Turkmens in some Arab countries. The same goes for Berbers (Amazigh) and Bedouins.

There are many people who can be called Arabs by these points, but who do not think of themselves as Arab. Examples include modern Copts, Kurds, the Assyrians and Moroccans. Although they live in countries like Syria or Egypt which is part of the Arab League and speak the official language-Arabic, they are different ethnic groups. They have their own languages, culture, identity and churches, such as the Coptic Church, Assyrian Church of the East, and the Syriac Orthodox Church. Even though a number have assimilated to Arab society, they have their own heritage that spans 3,000 years.

## Traditional genealogy 
In Islamic and Jewish tradition, Arabs are a Semitic people from the Ishmaelites, who trace their ancestry from Ishmael, a son of the ancient patriarch Abraham and Hagar and of the sons from Abhraham and his wife Keturah. Medieval Arab genealogists separate the Arabs into two groups: the "original Arabs" (Bedouin) of South Arabia, descending from Qahtan (identified with the biblical Joktan) and the "Arabized Arabs" (musta`ribah) of North Arabia (The Levant), descending from Adnan who is descended from Ishmael.

## Religion
Most Arabs today follow the religion of Islam, whose central prophet is Muhammad. Christianity makes up the largest religious minority - most of the Christians that do consider themselves Arabs belong to the Greek Orthodox Church with smaller numbers of Roman Catholics.

While Coptic and Maronite Catholic Christians are native Arabic-speakers, many reject the Arab pan-ethnicity, but are still considered Arab by outsider sources.

There are some small communities practicing Judaism and polytheism (the worship of many gods).

## Notes
## References 
## Other websites 
* A is for Arabs: What the world owes Arabs and Muslims 
* Maps of the Arab World 
* News from Arabic countries
* Business news from Arab countries
* Arabia in ancient history - with a discussion of the ancient usage of the word *Arab*
* Araboo.com - Arab Guide
* Arabic Search  - Arabic ThroughSearch
Bahia

**Bahia** is a state in the northeast area of Brazil on the Atlantic Ocean coast.

## Geography
The capital city of Bahia is Salvador. Other cities where many people live are Feira de Santana, Vitória da Conquista, Itabuna, Ilhéus, and Juazeiro. Almost all of Bahia is 200 m above the sea level. The São Francisco River is the longest river in Bahia. Salvador was the capital of Brazil from 1549 until 1763.

## Economy
Bahia is the sixth richest Brazilian state. The economy of Bahia is based on industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, tourism, mining and services.

## Culture
Bahia is said to have the greatest and most African influence, in terms of culture and customs, in Brazil.  Some of these are the martial art of capoeira and African-derived music such as samba, afoxé, and axé.

Acarajé is a popular street food. It is one of the symbols of the culture of Bahia.

## References
Zimbabwean dollar

The **Zimbabwe dollar** was a currency for Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2009. Zimbabwe had the highest rate of inflation in the world. The rate of inflation grew to 231,150,888.87% in July 2008.

Because of hyperinflation, or inflation that is out of control, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had to print banknotes with higher values to cope with the rising cost of living. In January 2009, Zimbabwe released a banknote for one hundred trillion dollars, or $100,000,000,000,000.

The Zimbabwe dollar had to be revalued three times due to the rising cost of living: in August 2006, August 2008 and February 2009. In August 2006, the first revaluation dollar was violent and too quick, meaning that many people lost their savings because they were unable to convert it into the new currency without fear of violence and corruption.

Since 12 April 2009, Zimbabwe stopped using the Zimbabwean dollar and adopted currencies from other countries, such as the United States Dollar and the Euro.

## References
;Notes

;Sources
Serial killer

, of the late 1960s, and possibly early 1970s. His identity is unknown.]]
, was a serial killer in London, in the late 19th century. This is an illustration in a newspaper, of 1888.]]
A **serial killer** is someone who murders several people at different times (similar killers of more than one person are mass murderers and spree killers). The victims are usually people the serial killer does not know, and the killer commits his crimes to get a certain kind of excitement or other feeling. They usually have no practical motive such as robbery or .

*Serial killer* first became a commonly used phrase for this kind of killer in the 1970s. This was the result of the crimes of people like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. Jack the Ripper is thought by many to be one of the first serial killers that many people knew about, even though his victims were killed long before the phrase was invented.

A serial killer's crimes are nearly always alike in some way. The killer may only attack a certain type of person, for instance women of a certain age or appearance (young or old, blonde or dark-haired). He may always use the same kind of weapon to kill his victims, or may treat them in a certain manner, such as tying them up with the same kind of rope or adhesive tape. Some serial killers have had very strange habits which leave evidence of their work at each crime; for instance Albert de Salvo, the Boston Strangler, would tie the cord with which he had strangled a woman around her neck in a special bow. To law enforcement officers a serial killer's habits are known as his signature, and they are always valuable leads in detecting who he is and capturing him.

Some of the worst serial killers have been doctors. Harold Shipman, a British general practitioner, is thought to have killed up to 250 of his . John Bodkin Adams, also British, is thought to have killed 163 patients. Burke and Hare, the 'resurrectionists', killed to sell bodies to a doctor, Robert Knox.

## References
Body modification

**Body modification** (or **body alteration**) is when a person changes their body in a way that lasts forever or for a long time. There are many different kinds of body modification, like piercing, circumcision, or tattoos. Almost all cultures do some kind of body modification.

## Arguments
People who do not like body modification sometimes call it "disfigurement" or "mutilation." They believe that if someone changes their body, it is wrong and they are doing something dangerous or unethical.

## Why people do body modification
Body modification is done for different reasons. Religions might tell people that they should change their bodies to look a certain way. Other people with body modifications might just like the way the body modifications look, or how they feel good during sex.

## Kinds of body modification
### Common body modification
* *Body piercing* is when a hole is made through the skin, and a piece of jewelry is put into the hole. Some piercings can be stretched so they fit larger, thicker kinds of jewelry.
* *Tattooing* is when ink is put under the skin to make a picture. Whole body tatooing and tattooing of the lips and eyes would be thought extreme by some.
* *Scarification* is when part of the skin is removed to create a scar.
* *Branding* is when the skin is burned to create a scar.

### "Extreme" body modification
* *Tongue splitting* is when a person's tongue is split in two like a snake's.
* *Subdermal implant* is when a small object is placed right underneath a person's skin.
* *Transdermal implant* is when a small object is placed underneath a person's skin, but part of it pokes out of the skin and is visible.
* *Extra ocular implant* (eye jewellery) is when a tiny chip of metal is placed in someone's eye.

### Other body modification
* *Amputation* is when a body part is cut off.

## References
Deforestation

**Deforestation** is when forests are destroyed by cutting trees (logging) or burning them purposefully, without replanting more. The most common reason is to clear the land to make space for farms and ranches.  They also cut trees for firewood and lumber and replace them with cities.  Deforestation destroys the habitat of many animals, leading to their death.  The loss is more severe in primary or old-growth forests, which are forests that have yet been untouched by humans.  Deforestation also releases sequestered carbon.

Restoring trees in deforested places is called reforesting.

## Causes of deforestation 
Land has other uses besides growing trees.  Farming and ranching are the two main motives that contribute to deforestation. Some land is also used for roads and buildings, especially in urban area. As the population grows, people need to remove more trees.  They also use the wood from the trees as lumber to make buildings and other things, or they burn the trees as firewood.

Advantages to preserving forests: 
* Regulates the water cycle to some extent
* Produces soil, and prevents soil erosion
* Provides habitats for animals
* Provides *some* of our oxygen (some is produced in the sea)
* Regulates temperature to some extent

Forests are often planted to protect against natural disasters.  When forests are lost, very often the soil they protected is also lost. This loss of soil is called erosion.

Trees are important for carbon sequestration. To combat deforestation we need to first acknowledge the problems in front of us and come with innovative solutions. When the trees burn or rot, the carbon in them returns to the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, deforestation causes global warming.  Tropical deforestation is responsible for about 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation continues.

## References 
## Related pages
*Desertification
*Illegal logging
*Reforesting

## Other websites
*APP & APRIL announces end to deforestation in Indonesia
World Wide Fund for Nature

The **World Wide Fund for Nature** (**WWF**) is an international environmental organization. It was founded as the **World Wildlife Fund**, which is still its official name in Canada and the United States. 

Most of its offices are in Switzerland. Their mascot, or logo, is the Giant Panda. It is the world's largest independent wildlife management organization. It has over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 90 countries. WWF supports 15,000 conservation and environmental projects around the world. It is a charity. About 90% of its fundraising money is from donations by private individuals and businesses.

The group says its mission is "to halt and reverse the destruction of our natural environment". Much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world's biodiversity: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts. Among other issues, it is also concerned with endangered species, pollution and climate change. The organization runs more than 1,200 field projects worldwide each year.

## References
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills

Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, '''AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills'* is a list of the top 100 thrilling movies in American cinema. The American Film Institute presented it on June 12, 2001.

# *Psycho* (1960)
# *Jaws* (1975)
# *The Exorcist* (1973)
# *North by Northwest* (1959)
# *The Silence of the Lambs* (1991)
# *Alien* (1979)
# *The Birds* (1963)
# *The French Connection* (1971)
# *Rosemary's Baby* (1968)
# *Raiders of the Lost Ark* (1981)
# *The Godfather* (1972)
# *King Kong* (1933)
# *Bonnie and Clyde* (1967)
# *Rear Window* (1954)
# *Deliverance* (1972)
# *Chinatown* (1974)
# *The Manchurian Candidate* (1962)
# *Vertigo* (1958)
# *The Great Escape* (1963)
# *High Noon* (1952)
# *A Clockwork Orange* (1971)
# *Taxi Driver* (1976)
# *Lawrence of Arabia* (1962)
# *Double Indemnity* (1944)
# *Titanic* (1997)
# *The Maltese Falcon* (1941)
# *Star Wars* (1977)
# *Fatal Attraction* (1987)
# *The Shining* (1980)
# *The Deer Hunter* (1978)
# *Close Encounters of the Third Kind* (1977)
# *Strangers on a Train* (1951)
# *The Fugitive* (1993)
# *The Night of the Hunter* (1955)
# *Jurassic Park* (1993)
# *Bullitt* (1968)
# *Casablanca* (1942)
# *Notorious* (1946)
# *Die Hard* (1988)
# *2001: A Space Odyssey* (1968)
# *Dirty Harry* (1971)
# *The Terminator* (1984)
# *The Wizard of Oz* (1939)
# *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* (1982)
# *Saving Private Ryan* (1998)
# *Carrie* (1976)
# *Invasion of the Body Snatchers* (1956)
# *Dial M for Murder* (1954)
# *Ben-Hur* (1959)
# *Marathon Man* (1976)
# *Raging Bull* (1980)
# *Rocky* (1976)
# *Pulp Fiction* (1994)
# *Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid* (1969)
# *Wait Until Dark* (1967)
# *Frankenstein* (1931)
# *All the President's Men* (1976)
# *The Bridge on the River Kwai* (1957)
# *Planet of the Apes* (1968)
# *The Sixth Sense* (1999)
# *Cape Fear* (1962)
# *Spartacus* (1960)
# *What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?* (1962)
# *Touch of Evil* (1958)
# *The Dirty Dozen* (1967)
# *The Matrix* (1999)
# *The Treasure of the Sierra Madre* (1948)
# *Halloween* (1979)
# *The Wild Bunch* (1969)
# *Dog Day Afternoon* (1975)
# *Goldfinger* (1964)
# *Platoon* (1986)
# *Laura* (1944)
# *Blade Runner* (1982)
# *The Third Man* (1949)
# *Thelma and Louise* (1991)
# *Terminator 2: Judgment Day* (1991)
# *Gaslight* (1944)
# *The Magnificent Seven* (1960)
# *Rebecca* (1940)
# *The Omen* (1976)
# *The Day the Earth Stood Still* (1951)
# *The Phantom of the Opera* (1925)
# *Poltergeist* (1982)
# *Dracula* (1931)
# *The Picture of Dorian Gray* (1945)
# *The Thing from Another World* (1951)
# *12 Angry Men* (1957)
# *The Guns of Navarone* (1961)
# *The Poseidon Adventure* (1972)
# *Braveheart* (1995)
# *Body Heat* (1981)
# *Night of the Living Dead* (1968)
# *The China Syndrome* (1979)
# *Full Metal Jacket* (1987)
# *Blue Velvet* (1986)
# *Safety Last* (1923)
# *Blood Simple* (1984)
# *Speed* (1994)
# *The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938)
Kibibyte

The **kibibyte** (symbol: **KiB**) is a unit of information. The kibibyte is 1024 bytes, 1024 kibibytes makes one mebibyte.

:1 KiB = 210 bytes = 1024 bytes

## Related pages
* Kilobyte
* Mebibyte
* Gibibyte
* Tebibyte
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

***Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life*** is a 2003 action movie from Paramount Pictures. It is the second movie to star Angelina Jolie as the title character from the *Tomb Raider* video games.
Amplitude

The **amplitude** or **peak amplitude** of a wave is a measure of how big its oscillation is.

Amplitudes are always measured as positive numbers (for example: 3.5, 1, 120) and are never negative (for example: -3.5, -1, -120). That's because distance can only be greater than zero or equal to zero; negative distance does not exist.

The distance from the top of one peak to the bottom of another is called *peak-to-peak amplitude*. Another way to describe peak-to-peak amplitude is to say that it is the distance between the maximum positive value and the maximum negative value of a wave is the maximum displacement of a wave from an equilibrium position

## Related pages
* Waves and their properties:
** Frequency
** Period
** Wavelength
* Amplitude modulation
* Oscilloscope
* Vibration control
* Vibration isolation
Viriato Clemente da Cruz

**Viriato Clemente da Cruz**, an Angolan poet and politician, was born in 1928 in Kikuvo (Porto Amboim), Angola and died in Beijing, China on 13 June 1973.

He is considered one of the most important Angolan poets of his time. He wrote poems in Portuguese and Angolan languages. He took part in the fight to free Angola from Portuguese rulers.

## Political work
He was educated in Luanda, the capital of Angola, which was then ruled by Portugal. As a young man in 1957 he went to Paris, where he met Mario Pinto de Andrade, another Angolan poet and politician, who helped with his political ideas. In the 1960s they helped create the group called the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA—from the Portuguese name ''*).

The MPLA was in not in Angola at this time, but was first in Conakry (the capital of Guinea) and then later in Leopoldville, Congo (now Kinshasa the capital of the DRC). Viriato da Cruz became secretary-general of the MPLA. After some time he and others, did not agree with some people in the group and this led to fighting in the streets of Leopoldville.

## Exiled in China
Viriato da Cruz went to Beijing, China in the 1960s because of the fighting in the MPLA. At first, the Chinese government welcomed him. He was well known because he had helped create the MPLA. The Chinese wanted Viriato da Cruz to help them bring Maoist socialism to Africa.

This was a big problem for Viriato and his family. His ideas were not the same as the Maoists. He thought that stronger countries can not bring a socialist revolution to other places. He was very brave and did not change his ideas. This was against the Chinese Maoist idea of world revolution.

Viriato da Cruz wanted to leave China and return to Africa, but the Chinese government would not let him go and they were not good to him. This may be because he could have made trouble for their work in Africa.

## Last years of life
The last years of the life of Viriato da Cruz were unhappy and difficult. He was weak, without much food, and he died on 13 Jun 1973. His dead body was taken away in a military vehicle and his burial was without any ceremony.

Some Angolan people think that this was shocking, because Viriato da Cruz worked hard for Angola and was one of the leaders of the liberation from Portugal.

## Principal books
Poems (1961). Among these poems, *Namoro*, *Sô Santo* and *Makézu'' are well-known.
Switch

A **switch** is something that changes the flow of an electrical circuit. The most common kind of **switch** is something (for example a railroad switch) which can be taken off of one course and put onto another. The term "switch" usually means electrical power. In applications where more than one switch is needed, (i.e. a telephone service) mechanical switches have been replaced by electronic switches which can be controlled automatically.

The switch is called a "gate" when used in a mathematical form. In logic, arguments are represented as logic gates. The use of electronic *gates* to work as a system of logical gates is the basic idea behind the computer —i.e. a computer is a lot of electronic switches that work as logic gates.

## Types of switch 
There are many types of switches. Some of these are: 
*DIP switch
*Reed switch
*Rocker switch
*Micro switch
*Relay switch
*Rotary switch
*Surface mount switch
*Toggle switch
*Tilt switch
*Time switch

## Other meanings 
)]]
The word 'switch' can also mean to change between two things. For example, on a railway line, sometimes the track can split into two different tracks. If the train is travelling on one line and changes over to the other, it has just done a switch.

## Related pages
*Electricity
*Railway
Ska

**Ska** is a popular music from Jamaica that began in the 1950s. Ska music that was first played at a slower tempo then became reggae in the late 1960s.

Ska music bands include singers, electric guitars, electric bass guitar, piano, organ, saxophone, trumpet, and trombone. In ska, the electric guitar and piano normally play short chords on the off-beat. If you go "one and two and three and four", the off-beat is the "and". 

A ska singer does a style of Jamaican singing called "toasting." When a singer is "toasting", they make sounds, repeat words, invent rhymes, and shout into the microphone. The Jamaican "toasting" style of singing and talking was adapted into rap music in the 1980s.

## How Ska musicians dress 
Musicians who play ska dress in hats and suits. Many ska bands wear clothes with a chessboard pattern of black and white squares. Doc Martens are a common type of shoe. This pattern symbolizes the way that ska music mixes of Black and White musicans and styles of music.There was a British genre of ska-punk influenced by The Specials, Madness and the English Beat, that began to dress in kilts.

## 1980s Ska Revival 
Even though ska was developed in the 1950s, it became popular again in the 1980s in Britain. In the 1980s, ska bands such as The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, UB40 and Madness played ska music.

## 1990s Ska mixed with punk rock 
In the 1990s, some bands mixed ska music with Punk rock to make ska-punk. This kind of ska music is from England and the United States. Some pop-punk bands from the 1990s mixed pop-punk with ska-punk.

## Ska bands and singers 
* No Doubt
* The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
* The Specials
* The Selecter (British band)
* The Beat (British band)
* Madness (English band)
* Sublime
* Prince Buster (Jamaican singer)
* Desmond Dekker (Jamaican singer)
* The Bodysnatchers (female British band)
* The Skatalites (Jamaican band)
* Streetlight Manifesto (American band)
* The Toasters (American band)
* The Slackers (New York City band)
* Rusted Root (American band)
* Westbound Train (Boston band)
* Reel Big Fish
* Suburban Legends (American band)
* Catch 22 (American band)
* Less Than Jake
* Lord Creator (Jamaican singer)
* The King Blues (British band)

## Related pages 
* Scat singing

## References 
## Other websites 
* Going to a Ska Show? Here's What to Wear (*LA Weekly*)
Sled dog

**Sled dogs**, known also as **sleigh dogs**, **sledge dogs** or **sleddogs** are types of dogs that are used to pull a wheel-less vehicle on runners (a sled or sleigh) over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines.

## Related pages
*Sled dog racing
Overland Expedition

The **Overland Expedition**, also called the **Overland Relief Expedition** or **Point Barrow-Overland Relief Expedition**, was a long trip in 1897–8, by three officers of the United States Coast Guard (then named the *U.S. Revenue Cutter Service*), with the help of two , using sled dogs and reindeer to rescue more than 250 whalers trapped in the Arctic Ocean by  ice around their ships.

The rescue was ordered by then-U.S. President William McKinley. McKinley later talked about the rescue in a letter dated January 17, 1899 to the United States Congress, in which he asked Congress to award the officers Congressional Gold Medals, and to pay the civilians for their help:

It will be remembered that in the month of October, 1897, reports were
received here of the probable loss of the whaling fleet in the Arctic
regions, and of the likelihood that nearly 300 men, composing the
officers and crews of the fleet, would perish from hunger unless succor [an old word for help] could reach them early in the spring. ...
The overland expedition was formed, and consisted of First Lieut. David
H. Jarvis, Revenue-Cutter Service, commanding; Second Lieut. Ellsworth
P. Bertholf, Revenue-Cutter Service, and Dr. Samuel J. Call, surgeon of
the *Bear*, all volunteers. ...
They were materially aided by Mr. W.T. Lopp, agent of the American Missionary Society at Cape Prince of Wales, and Artisarlook, a native of that region, both of whom, at great personal sacrifice, left their families and accompanied the reindeer herd to Point Barrow.
The overland expedition, after a difficult and hazardous journey of
nearly 2,000 miles through the storms and bitter cold of an Arctic
winter, reached Point Barrow with the herd on the 29th of March, 1898,
three months and twelve days from their landing from the *Bear* at
Cape Vancouver, Alaskan coast of Bering Sea. They arrived none too soon. ... [due to] bad sanitary conditions and want of proper food, the men from the whale ships quartered there were found upon the verge of great suffering, while sickness had broken out among them. ...
I have therefore the honor to submit the following recommendations and
to ask your favorable action: ...
That gold medals of honor of appropriate design, to be approved by
the Secretary of the Treasury, be awarded to Lieutenants Jarvis and
Bertholf and Dr. Call, commemorative of their heroic struggles in aid of
suffering fellow-men. ...
That the sum of $2,500 be appropriated to be disbursed by the
Secretary of the Treasury in bestowing rewards upon W.T. Lopp,
Artisarlook, and native herders, who rendered material aid to the relief
expedition.

## References
**Fog, Men, and Cutters: A Short History of the Bering Sea Patrol*, by Dennis L. Noble, Ph.D. from the USCG website
*William McKinley papers from Project Gutenberg
*List of Congressional Gold Medal Recipients from the Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives
Francis Bacon

**Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban**  KC, (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), was an English philosopher, statesman, and author. He has been described as one of the greatest thinkers ever whose ideas have changed the way people think.
## Life
He was born in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and the nephew of Queen Elizabeth's advisor, William Cecil. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. His first job was as a lawyer. He later became a Member of Parliament and in 1586 he took a leading part in having Mary Queen of Scots executed. He became a friend of Robert Deveraux, the Earl of Essex, in 1591, and received many valuable gifts from him. After Essex led a rebellion against the Queen, Bacon was one of the people who led the investigation which led to Essex's Execution in 1601.

Bacon was often in trouble for spending too much, and in 1601 he was arrested for debt. When King James became king in 1603, Bacon's position improved. He was knighted in 1603. He was one of the people who argued for the joining of England and Scotland together as one country, which happened after his lifetime, in the 1700s. Bacon married Alice Barnham in 1606, and the next year he was made the Solicitor General. He continued to be given better paying positions including Attorney General, Lord Keeper, and Lord Chancellor.

He was made **Baron Verulam** in 1618, and **Viscount St Albans** in 1621. Because he did not have children both titles ended when he died.

He used his positions to make more money for himself, and in 1621 the Parliament found that he was corrupt. He was fined £40,000 and removed from all his jobs. King James overturned the fine, but he was kept as a prisoner in the Tower of London for a while.
## Studies
He became best known as a leading thinker in new ways of looking at the world. His writings started and made famous a way of thinking about science. This way of thinking is now called the *Baconian method*. It is based on looking at the world by making experiments. After watching the results the scientist comes up with an idea to explain what has happened. This idea or hypothesis is then further tested by more experiments. This way of thinking about science is called inductive methodology. In Bacon's time these methods were linked with magic including hermeticism and alchemy. Alchemy was the study of fire, earth, water and air. Alchemists tried to make gold from lead.

## Notes 
## Other websites
*
*
*
*The Francis Bacon Society 
*Contains the New Organon, slightly modified for easier reading
*Francis Bacon of Verulam. Realistic Philosophy and its Age  (1857) by Kuno Fischer and John Oxenford in English
Kaba Ma Kyei

The **National Anthem** (; ) is the national anthem of Myanmar. The song and lyrics were made by Saya Tin with help from a Burmese nationalist group called Thakins. It is made up of two parts. The first half is a traditional Burmese part. The second half is a Western-style orchestra part. Because of the second half, the "National Anthem" is commonly known as "''''''" (, ; ).

## Lyrics
## Notes
## References