the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
Amphibians are the only vertebrates to go through metamorphosis.
This means that their young look different from their adult.p8 Amphibians usually reproduce in early spring to late summer, though some reproduce in winter and fall.p156 Most frogs and toads, such as the common frog (Rana temporalis), gather in large groups to ponds, rivers, swamps and lakes to breed.p10 Male frogs and toads may croak to attract a female.
When a female frog has chosen a mate, the male frog hops on top of her.
They swim together as she lay eggs in the water.
Sometimes, males fight to mate with a female.p7 Frogs can lay up to 100 to 60,000 eggs in one clutch.
This is called "frogspawn".
It is a fundamental feature of amphibia that their reproduction is, one way or another, tied to water.
This is because their eggs, although covered by jelly, cannot survive long in dry conditions.
Most female amphibians lays her eggs in water.
Males release sperm to fertilize them.
The eggs are laid one by one or in batches.
Batches of eggs can look like a long chain or a ball of foam.
They may wrap their eggs around plants in the water.
They do this so their eggs will not drift away.p8
Tree frogs usually lay their eggs on a leaf in a rainwater pool.
Bullfrogs, such as the male American bullfrog and the male African bullfrog, stay with their tadpoles and protect them from predators.
They also move their tadpoles by using their nose to dig a channel to another place where there is more water.p9 They do this so their tadpoles do not dry up.
Most amphibians leave their eggs to look after themselves.
Fish and other animals eat most of their eggs.
Male midwife toads carry their eggs on their backs.
When they are ready to hatch, the toad goes back to the water and release them.p10
Tadpoles do not have lungs when they hatch and instead have gills.
Because gills have a large surface area, tadpoles can get more oxygen by using them.
Young tadpoles have their gills exposed.
When they get older, their gills are covered over by skin.p6  When they hatch, tadpoles eat constantly.
The tadpoles eat what is left of their eggs, this is usually their first food.p8
Frog, toad and newt tadpoles eat plants such as algae and pondweed or filter feed.
When they get older, they may start to feed on tiny animals in the water.
Salamander tadpoles and surinam horned toad tadpoles are carnivorous throughout their tadpole stage.p9 Surinam horned toad tadpoles are very aggressive.
They eat other tadpoles if food is nowhere to be found.
The eggs of the spadefoot toad hatches in three days.
Their tadpoles complete their metamorphosis in six to eight days.
This is because spadefoot toads lay their eggs in places where water will dry up soon.p13
Tadpoles of frogs and toads start to grow their back legs first.
They then grow front legs a few weeks later.
When tadpoles grow their limbs they are called "froglets".
This is because they look rather like a smaller version of adult frogs and toads.
Tadpoles will also start to grow a backbone after growing their front limbs.
After this, their mouths get bigger and their eyes will stick out more.
After a tadpole has grown its hands, their tails continue to get shorter until there is nothing left of them.p11
Salamanders and newts can be found living in streams.
Salamanders can be found in rotten logs, holes or underground places that are wet such as under leaves.p152 Web-toed salamanders live in habitats where there are a lot of rocks.
They like to hide under rocks and stones.p195 The tailed frogs, like to live in cold water habitats.p199 In their habitat, amphibians like to live where there are a lot of places to hide.
These include nearby small trees, logs and plants.
While underwater they like to hide near aquatic plants and rocks.
Tree and dart frogs like to live in forests on trees, plants and on the ground under leaves.
Some amphibia can be found living in the desert or the arctic.p12 The desert froglet lives in the desert.
They are only active at night, when temperatures are much cooler.
It rarely rains in the desert and because of this, desert frogs will burrow to keep cool.
They use their mucus to keep them wet.
They will spread it all over their bodies.
The mucus will harden to keep the water it produces from escaping.
Once the desert frog has done this, it will stay in its cocoon and will not move.
They will stay like this for several months to years until a rainstorm.
Desert frogs and toads lose water more quickly.
The spadefoot toad will spit on the ground.
Once they have done this, they will lay on it.
Their bodies will take in the water.
Their bodies are thin and have a lot of blood vessels, this helps them to be able to take water through their skin.
The California newt can survive a fire by spreading its mucous over its body.p12
Arctic frogs such as the wood frog, moor frog and the common frog has to live with freezing temperatures for a long time.
They will burrow in places where they can get into a cocoon.
Like every living organisms, amphibians must have water to survive.
Amphibians however, need freshwater.
Some frogs such as burrowing frogs can keep water in their bladders.
This allows them to stay underground without drying up.
The crab-eating frog lives near water that is somewhat salty.
They will eat saltwater crabs.
Torrent salamanders lives in cold waters.
Because of this they have shorter lungs.
Short lungs helps them to float easily.
Many amphibia have secretions in their skin which makes them toxic.
They do not produce toxins themselves.
They get toxins from what they eat.
They eat insects in their habitat.
These insects get the poison from a plant.
The toxin has been discovered in beetles.
This means that they are likely the cause of poisons found in amphibians.
Amphibians do not produce batrachotoxin in captivity, which means that it is not harmful to touch them.
The American Indian tribe comechingóns used the toxins of the arrow dart frogs when hunting.
Newts in the genus Taricha has a poison called tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin.
Scientists believe that toxins in newts are caused by bacteria in the genera Pseudoalteromonas, Pseudomonas and Vibrio.
Because of this, the newts do not have a lot of predators.
However, some species of snakes have develop a resistance.
This means that they can eat newts without the toxin hurting them.
It is a case of co-evolution.
Senses and skeletal system
Amphibians' eyes have lids, glands and ducts.
They have good colour vision  Caecilian eyes are small and dark.
Most of them are blind.
Most amphibians have a good sense of smell, even underwater.
The skeletal system of amphibians are similar to other four-legged animals.
They have a spine, rib cage, long bones such as the humerus and femur.
They also have short bones such as the phalanges, metacarpals, and metatarsals.
Most amphibians have four limbs, except for caecilians.
The bones in amphibians are hollow and do not weigh much.
Amphibians are predatory animals.
They mostly eat live invertebrates and animals that do not move too quickly.
These include caterpillars, earthworms, crayfish, water beetles, snails and dragon fly larvae.p667 Many amphibians use their sticky tongues to catch their prey.
They will swallow the animal whole, but may chew it just a bit for it to go down their throats.
The Ranidae family and the Ceratophrys genus will eat almost anything they can fit into their mouths.p668 These include rodents, birds, ducklings, small fish and small mammals.
Most frogs are cannibalistic, and will eat each other if food is no where to be found.
Some amphibians will even eat their own tadpoles and eggs if there is no food for them.
Feeding in captivity
In captivity, pet frogs will be given crickets, worms, small fish, rodents and fruit flies.
Adult amphibians can help decrease the mosquito population by eating most of their larvae.
Caecilians eat earthworms, termites and beetle larvae, and also small lizards.p31 Caecilians rely on their smell to find food.
They like to eat earthworms and will find them by picking up their chemical signals.
Salamanders and newts are fed a lot of different types of worms.
These include blood worms and earthworms.
They can eat small fish such as goldfish, fathead minnows and guppies.
Salamanders also eat crickets and pinkies, which are baby rats.p771
The amphibian population have been decreasing from all locations in the world.
Scientists have said that the declining of amphibians is one of the most critical threats to global biodiversity.
A number of causes are believed to be involved.
These include habitat destruction, over-exploitation, pollution, introduced species, climate change, destruction of the ozone layer, and diseases like chytridiomycosis.
Ultraviolet radiation damages the skin, eyes and eggs of amphibians.
However, the declines of amphibian population are still not understood.
The Amphibian Conservation Action Plan (ACAP) have released a global strategy to help the amphibian population.
It was developed by over 80 leading experts.
The Amphibian Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) are working on another global strategy to help amphibian populations.
The Amphibian Ark (AA) is an organization that was created to help the public be aware of the decline in amphibian populations.
They have been working with zoos and aquaria around the world.
They try to encourage them to create a natural habitat for threatened amphibians.
Another project is the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project (PARCP) which are trying to spread awareness about chyridiomycosis.
The disease is spreading into eastern Panama and threatening all amphibians living there.
On January 21, 2008, Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) released a statement to the public.
It was created by Helen Meredith, who identified nature's most endangered species.
Meredith explains that 85% of the top 100 endangered amphibians list are receiving little to no conservation attention.
Human use
As food
Bullfrog legs are a source of food for Southern United States and the Midwestern United States.
People hunt bullfrogs at night near rivers.
The bullfrogs' legs are cooked, while their backs are fried.p9 In China, bullfrogs are sold alive for eating.
However, they are later cooked dead with vegetables.
In the state of California, people must have a license to catch bullfrogs for food.p256 In schools, bullfrogs are dissected in biology classes.
Usually, this is done in grammar school.p85 The dissecting is a method for teaching students the anatomy of a bullfrog.p85 The emperor newt is hunted in China for food.
They are also used there for medicine.
Burrowing frogs are able to hold water in their bladder, because of this indigenous Australians use them to drink water.p13
As pets
Amphibians are also kept as pets.p4 They are kept in aquariums or a terrarium.
A terrarium is a tank that is decorated with plants and soil on one side.
On the other side, there is water.
Most amphibians would need one place for land and another for water.p8 Each type of amphibian should have its special needs taken care of.
Semi-aquatic amphibians need both land and water divided in the tank.
Tropical frogs would need mist and high humidity in their terrariums.p7 Water for amphibia needs dechlorination.
The chlorine in tap water can kill amphibia.
Some amphibians popular exotic pets, and are found in pet stores that sell reptiles.p22
Amphibian Specialist Group
AmphibiaWebEcuador
Amphibian Ark
Global Amphibian Assessment
USGS—Online Guide for the Identification of Amphibians in North America north of Mexico
General amphibian biology information—Living UnderWorld
Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project
Atlanta Botanical Garden Amphibian Conservation Program
Froglife (British conservation charity)
A guide to Amphibians
A father (also called dad or daddy) is a male parent.
Most human beings are born from a mother and a father.
The father of a person's husband or wife is their father-in-law.
Fathers determine the gender of their child through a sperm cell which either contains an X chromosome (female), or Y chromosome (male).
Gills are what fish, amphibians, and some other animals use to breathe in water.
They have feathery parts which cause water to move across the animal's body, which contains dissolved oxygen, after the animal has swallowed the water.
The oxygen is absorbed into the animal's blood, causing carbon dioxide moves out of the animal's blood and into the water through the gills.
Fish and frog gills are hidden on the sides of their heads.
Sharks have many gills slits on their necks.
Baby salamanders have gills that stick out like leaves from their heads.
Some insects that live in water have a plastron, which is a kind of gill.
It is a patch of special hairs that keeps the water away from the insect's spiracles.
This allows them to continue to take in oxygen and remove carbon dioxide while they are under water.
Anatomy of the respiratory system
Frogs are amphibians and vertebrates of the order Anura.
There is not much difference between frogs and toads, and they are not classified separately.
This is because the toad lifestyle, with its dry, rough, skin, is an adaptation to living in drier habitats.
The toad form has evolved a number of times independently, an example of convergent evolution.
Frogs can live on land and in fresh water.
They cannot survive in salt water.
Their development is by metamorphosis.
They usually hatch as tadpoles  from eggs, which are laid by a female frog.
The eggs are called frogspawn.
Tadpoles have tails and gills.
The next stage, the "froglet," develops lungs to breathe air instead of gills, but still have tails.
The fully grown frog has long legs and no tail.
Adult frogs can jump with their legs.
They have long tongues that they use to catch bugs.
They make a sound called a croak.
Some species live in trees, and some types of frog are protected by being poisonous.
Frogs live all over the world.
If a foreign species of frogs is introduced to another country, the local ecosystem might be affected.
Frog legs are sometimes eaten as food in France, China, and the Midwest of the United States.
The killing of frogs might have an effect on the ecosystem.
For example, frogs eat mosquitoes.
If frogs are killed, then there are fewer frogs to eat mosquitoes, so more and more mosquitoes are born.
Therefore, in these areas, there are more diseases that mosquitoes carry, because there are more mosquitoes.
However, for this to apply, frogs would have to be a major predator of mosquitoes.
This would only rarely be the case.
Frogs are cold blooded animals.
This means that they need heat to keep up their body temperature.
If the temperature outside is cold, amphibians will not be active.
Amphibians can get heat from the sun, usually indirectly: whereas reptiles can bask in the sun, amphibia usually do not, because it dries their skin.
Some frogs aestivate during winter or during droughts.
They usually look for underground place to aestivate.
These include burrowing in muds and holes.
They survive by getting oxygen through their skin.
They come out when the weather outside is favourable.
Frogs have skin with no scales or hair.
They can take in oxygen from either water or air.
Mucus that helps their skin to stay wet and slippery.
Many amphibians have toxic skin.
They have secretions which makes their skin poisonous.
Many frogs are semi-aquatic.
They may live on both land and in water, and in any event prefer damp places.
These include ponds, swamps, rivers and lakes.
Most adults live where they grew up.
Most amphibians lay their eggs in foam nests.
A toad is a large type of frog.
It is not a scientific term, but a popular one.
The reason it is not used in taxonomy is that the toad life-style has evolved a number of separate times in various groups of frogs.
Toads mainly evolved in dry climates, so many toads have rougher, browner skin.
Many toads also burrow, though that depends on the environment that the toad evolved in.
Toads lay eggs in strings attached to rocks, unlike true frogs which lay eggs in a jelly-like mass.
Also, toads generally have shorter legs and fatter bodies.
Toads have paratoid glands behind their eyes which are used to make poison.
Even though it is true that most frogs develop from tadpoles, and tadpoles develop from eggs laid in water, there are exceptions.
Normally the eggs are fertilised after they are laid, that is, outside the body.
However, some use internal fertilisation, though how the males do it is not known.
When they are fertilised internally, they also lay eggs, but this time the eggs are already fertilised.
However, a new species has been discovered in Sulawasi, Indonesia, which gives birth to live tadpoles.
The frog is now known as Limnonectes larvaepartus.
The Limnonectes family are known as 'fanged frogs' because of twin projections on their lower jaws that are used in fighting.
Sulawesi is an island which is rapidly losing its forests.
The tropical forest is where this frog lives.
Distribution and habitats
Despite these limitations, frogs are widespread, and have adapted to many climates, even deserts.
They rely on specific adaptations to survive.
Members of the genus Cyclorana live in the Australian central desert.
They bury themselves underground where they create a waterproof cocoon in which to aestivate during dry periods.
Once it rains, they come out, find a temporary pool, and breed.
Egg and tadpole development is very fast in comparison to those of most other frogs, so breeding can be completed before the pond dries up.
Some frog species are adapted to a cold environment.
The wood frog (Rana sylvatica), whose habitat extends into the Arctic Circle, buries itself in the ground during winter.
Although much of its body freezes during this time, its high concentration of glucose in its vital organs protects them from damage.
There are a number of tiny tree frogs which develop from eggs laid in water pools on tropical leaves many meters above the ground.
Most of these species do not come to the ground except to mate.
Tree frogs have evolved a number of times, but they all have almost identical adaptations.
Many millions of years of convergent evolution have resulted in almost identical morphology and habits.
Overall, frogs are a successful and widespread group.
There are about 4,800 recorded species, which is over 85% of living amphibian species.
They are one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders.
Largest, smallest
The largest frog is the African Goliath frog (Conraua goliath).
The maximum recoreded weight is 3.8 kg (8.4 lb), and a snout-to-vent length of 39 cm (15 in).
Paedophryne amauensis is not just the smallest frog, but the smallest vertebrate, 7.7 millimetres (0.30 in) long.
A chemical compound is a chemical formed from atoms of different chemical elements.
The different atoms are joined by chemical bonds.
Each compound has a fixed ratio between the elements (crystal)
The elements stick together so strongly that the compound behaves like one substance.
The chemical that is made depends upon what atoms it is made of and how they are joined together.
Chemical compounds can be liquids, like water which is made from atoms of hydrogen and oxygen joining together.
They can also be solids, like sodium chloride that contains sodium and chlorine atoms.
We get compounds from natural sources such as plants or make them in laboratories.
Compounds can be made from others by scientists and these are called synthetic chemicals.
Some chemical compounds can be dangerous but are safe if they are used the right way.
Most dangerous chemicals are only used by scientists who have had special training in how to handle and use them.
These chemicals might be poisonous, corrosive, explosive, they may catch fire easily, or they may react with other substances.
Wood is the main substance in trees.
It is mainly formed by the xylem vessels which carry water up the plant.
The two main substances in wood are cellulose and lignin.
Wood is used to make buildings and furniture, and also for art.
Firewood is a fuel.
Paper is made from wood fibres.
Wood is a renewable resource although it has become scarcer in recent centuries.
Wood is hard to cut, but it is also strong.
A lumberjack is a person who cuts down trees.
After a tree falls, the wood in it can be cut into long, straight pieces called lumber.
Lumber can then be used to make posts, or put together with nails, screws, or even glue to make wooden frames for other shapes.
Wood comes in many different kinds.
Oak, maple (hardwood) and pine and redwood (softwood) are widely used types of wood.
Woods are usually divided into softwood (from conifers) and hardwood from flowering plants.
For a long time and even today, many buildings, mostly houses, have been made of wood.
To build a house with wood, lumber is put together into frames that are the shape of each wall, floor, and roof of the house.
Then the frames are placed into the shape of a house.
Then the frames can be covered to make solid walls.
Sometimes the walls are made of more wood.
When the outside of a house or building is covered in wood, the wooden pieces are usually flat and stacked.
These pieces are called shingles.
Wood is also sometimes used in other parts of the house, like doors and staircases.
Wood is also used to make fences.
Carpenters make houses of mostly soft wood such as pine.
For many kinds of furniture they use harder wood such as maple or oak.
When someone builds something with wood, they often paint it.
Paint protects and beautifies the wood.
Some people like the look of wood, so they put clear paint called varnish on it.
This helps to protect the wood and gives it a shiny finish.
Some people make art with wood.
Sometimes sculptures are built with wood: see Grinling Gibbons.
Regular pencils are made of wood.
Inside is the "lead", which is not actually lead.
Clay or wax and graphite form the "lead" in a pencil.
Wood is turned into paper in large factories called paper mills.
Heat, chemicals and machines separate the cellulose fibers from other parts and press the fibers into paper.
Jane F.W. 1970.
The structure of wood.
2nd ed, edited by K. Wilson & D.J.B. White.
London: Adam & Charles Black.
Wood -Citizendium
It was made by calcareous (CaCO3) skeletons of tiny planktonic algae called coccoliths.
They live in the sea in huge numbers.
They make chalk (CO2) as a by-product of their photosynthesis.
The chalk cliffs of Dover and elsewhere were made when England was below the equator in a tropical sea.
It was in the Upper Cretaceous, when the Earth was even warmer than now.
There are coccoliths today, but not the same species as formed the white cliffs.
Air and water do not wear chalk away easily, so when chalk is next to the sea, it often makes a large cliff.
The "White Cliffs of Dover" in Kent, England are a good example of this.
Chalk holds water, so these chalk hills may have a lot of water in them.
When the weather is very dry, water comes slowly from the chalk.
Blackboard chalk is not real chalk.
It is really gypsum (calcium sulfate), but people call it "chalk".
People use it for drawing on hard things, because it is soft.
If this chalk is rubbed on something hard or rough, it will leave a mark.
People often write with chalk on a chalkboard or blackboard.
A chalk eraser or water can be used to clean the chalk marks away so the board is clean again.
Shops usually sell blackboard chalk in sticks that are about 5 cm long.
There are also big pieces of soft chalk for children to write on the ground with, for example on concrete (such as a sidewalk) or on asphalt.
It is usually okay to write on the ground with this kind of chalk, because the rain will wash the chalk away.
Tailors' chalk is not real chalk either.
It is talc (magnesium silicate).
Tailors use it to draw on material when they are making clothes.
Carbonate rocks
Utilitarianism is the view that the right thing to do is whatever is most useful.
It is a  about ethics.
The word "utilitarianism" comes from the word "utility", which means "usefulness".
In most forms of utilitarianism, things that increase human well-being or happiness are called useful.
This is not limited to the happiness caused by a single action but also includes the happiness of all people involved and all future consequences.
Bentham wrote about this idea with the words "The greatest good for the greatest number," but did not use the word utilitarianism.
It was Mill, a follower of Bentham's ideas, who named the idea.
Utilitarianism in Practice
Many philosophers argue that utilitarianism has important practical implications for how we should live ethically.
For instance, according to utilitarianism we should help the poor, prevent animal suffering, and ensure that future generations have good lives.
Maslowism
Maslowism or Maslow's hierarchy of needs can be divided into social and physical needs.
Social needs in Maslowism include physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.
Maslowist themes like physiology suggests you need food while Maslowist themes like love suggests humans need sex.
A village is a place where people live, normally in the countryside.
It is usually larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town or city.
In some places, it may be a kind of local government.
The dwellings in a village are clustered fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape.
In the past, villages were where most people lived.
Villages were a usual form of community for societies that do subsistence agriculture, and for some non-agricultural societies.
After the industrial revolution, when people started making a lot of things in factories, people lived more in towns.
Moving to towns is called urbanization.
When villages grow a lot they can grow into towns and then cities.
This is what happened to Dubai and Chicago.
Incorporated villages
The word "village" is not used in most states.
However, in twenty  US states, a "village" is a sort of local government, similar to a city but with less power and for a smaller place.
But this is not so in all the United States.
In many states, there are villages which are bigger than the smallest cities in the state.
The difference is not the population, it is how much power the different sorts of places have, and what they do for people living there.
Unincorporated villages
In many states, a "village" is only a place where people live, with no legal power, similar to a hamlet in New York state.
The name for these is "unincorporated villages".
Chelmsford is the only city in the county of Essex, England.
It is 32 miles northeast of London, about halfway to Colchester.
It is nearly in the centre of the county and it is the county town of Essex, but it is not the biggest or the oldest town in the county.
It is the centre of the borough of Chelmsford, which is a bigger place than the city.
Chelmsford has the smallest cathedral in England.
John Dee, who wrote the English version of Euclid, went to the Cathedral school in the sixteenth century.
Chelmsford is also home to some of the Anglia Ruskin University campuses.
About 20,000 people from Chelmsford travel to London every weekday.
Another 20,000 people work in Chelmsford who live outside the city.
This makes Chelmsford the busiest "ordinary" railway station in England (not including junctions and terminuses). (
The busiest of all is Clapham Junction railway station).
Chelmsford has been an important centre for industry since the 19th century.
It became home to the UK's first electrical engineering works (in 1878), and its first ball bearing factory (in 1898).
In 1898, Guglielmo Marconi, the "father of radio" opened the World's first radio factory in Hall Street, with about 50 workers.
In 1920 the factory was also the home of the first official sound (radio) broadcasts (radio people could listen to from a long way) in the United Kingdom.
In 1922 the world's first regular radio broadcasts started at the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle near Chelmsford.
Places of Interest
Places of interest in and near Chelmsford are for example Writtle, where Robert I of Scotland was perhaps born, and Pleshey, where the ruins of a castle in William Shakespeare's play Richard II are.
Hylands House and Park, west of the town, is an old country house.
People can visit it, and in the last years it has been the place for a popular yearly music festival, the V Festival.
In 1199 the Bishop of London gave a Royal Charter (a special paper) for the town to have a market.
But there have been people living here since pre-historic times.
The Romans also lived in Chelmsford.
An octagonal temple is under the Odeon roundabout.
In World War II bombs hit Chelmsford a number of times.
The worst single loss of life happened on Tuesday December 19, 1944.
The 367th V-2 rocket which hit England fell near the Hoffmans' ball bearing factory.
39 people were killed and 138 hurt, 47 of them badly.
A lot of buildings were destroyed and hundreds more were damaged.
From over 600,000 years ago, the early River Thames went through the place where Chelmsford is now, from Harlow to Colchester.
Then it went over  today's North Sea and went into the Rhine.
Annonay in France
Backnang in Germany
People from Chelmsford
Anne Knight (born 1786), anti-slavery campaigner and pioneer of feminism
Nearby places
Great Baddow
Chelmsford Borough Council
Diocese of Chelmsford
21st World Scout Jamboree
Do-Aklin or Gangnihessou (Ganye Hessou) or Dogbari was the first of twelve kings of Dahomey in Africa.
Gangnihessou might have been the king around the year 1620.
One of his symbols was a bird called "gangnihessou" after his name.
His other symbols were a drum, and sticks used for throwing or hunting.
He had a younger brother called Dakodonou, who was a king.
Some historians think Gangnihessou was not actually a king.
Instead, Gangnihessou might have led people by giving advice to his brother.
16th-century births
17th-century deaths
Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game which is played by two pairs of players, one pair against the other pair.
Partners sit opposite each other at a table.
Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home.
It is one of the world's most popular card games.
The World Bridge Federation is the governing body for international competitive bridge.
The game consists of a number of "deals".
Each deal goes through four phases: dealing the cards, the auction (also referred to as bidding), playing the cards, and scoring the results.
Most club and tournament play uses duplicate bridge, where the cards are not re-dealt during a session.
The same deals are played by most or all players.
This allows comparative scoring.
Early history of bridge
It is played with the standard 52 cards in four suits.
The game developed out of whist, which is a relatively old card game.
Bridge developed in a series of stages from about 1890 to about 1930.
The stages included bridge-whist and auction bridge, and the developments took place mostly in New York and London.
The origin of the word "bridge" in this context is not really known.
One possibility is that it is taken from an 1886 book, Biritch, or Russian Whist by John Collinson.
Playing method
Whist is played with the trump suit chosen by chance, whereas in bridge it is chosen by a process called "bidding".
A trump is a card which can beat any card from the other three suits.
In whist, the winners had to get most of the tricks (a trick is a round of four cards), that is, seven or more tricks.
However, in bridge the players bid in sequence to decide what the "contract" shall be.
The contract is decided by the last bid, and will be in one of the four suits, or in "no trumps", without a trump suit.
The scoring rules and the bidding process evolved through stages between 1890 and about 1930.
Bids at the one level are offers to make at least seven tricks.
Bids at the seven level are offers to make all thirteen tricks.
The lowest bid one can make is "one club" and the highest bid is "seven no trumps".
The scoring system for bridge is very much more complicated than it is for whist.
Fundamentally, it depends on whether or not declarer makes his contract or not.
If he does not, the defending side collect penalty points.
If he does make the contract his side wins points.
How many points are won or lost depends on the scoring system (not discussed here).
Harold S. Vanderbilt played a key role in designing the scoring system, and in 1927 the Whist Club of New York produced a code for contract bridge.
They and the Portland Club of London became the authorities who guided the later minor changes to the rules.
The set-up for playing the cards is also different from whist.
The side which wins the bidding sequence plays with only one partner ("declarer") controlling both hands.
His or her partner is called "dummy", and that hand is played face up on the table so all players can see it.
Duplicate bridge
Like much else in the game, the idea of duplicate play was invented for whist.
At "whist drives" North/South pairs sat in the same positions throughout, East/West pairs moved up the series of tables and boards moved down.
This simple movement was invented in the 19th century.
The first game of duplicate whist was organised by "Cavendish" in London 1857, but it was not followed up.
It was played in Chicago in 1880, and the first book about it was written in 1891 by John T. Mitchell.
His simple method is known as the Mitchell movement.
Publicity in the 1930s
Contract bridge became one of the most popular pastimes when it was publicised by Ely Culbertson, a leading American player and organiser.
Anglo-American matches got huge publicity in the newspapers, cinema and radio of the 1930s.
Example of a bidding sequence
In the example on the right, West was the dealer and first to bid.
The bidding goes as shown with South becoming the declarer in a 4 spades contract, he being the first to bid spades.
East-West become the defenders and West becomes the opening leader, North becomes the dummy and spades the trump suit.
Mechanical dealing
Mostly, bridge is a social game played in clubs.
A number of tables play the same set of hands, which allows for the scoring of individual pairs to be ranked.
The deal is done by a computerised method.
A pseudo-random algorithm sets the hands (the sets of cards held by each player).
The computer is linked to a mechanical device which deals the cards and delivers them into the hands.
These are put into the holding boards.
The boards are then put on the tables.
Daniels, David 1980.
The Golden Age of Contract Bridge.
New York: Stein and Day.
ISBN 978-0812825763.
Includes all stages from the history of whist to contract bridge, up to about 1950.
No is an English word which has a negative meaning.
It is the antonym (opposite) of the word Yes, which is a positive term.
No is used when someone is denying or turning away something.
It can also be used in different figures of speech.
In both sentences and talking, the words "No" and the word "Not" can both be used, though the word "No" is mainly used when speaking to other people.
In some cases, however, "Not" is not acceptable, and vice versa.
These words are not to be confused with the similar sounding words know and knot.
Is this green?
There is no way round the back.
This is not the way (but there is another way).
That is no the way you do it.
Oh not!
I know how to tie a knot. (
Disambiguation)
I didn't no that!
I can no go.
(; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij and Trotzky; October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 in Kropyvnytskyi (nowadays Ukraine) - August 21, 1940 in Coyoacán, Mexico) was the public name of Leib or Lev Davidovich Bronstein.
He was a Russian revolutionary and political theoretician.
He was of Jewish-Ukrainian descent.
After leading the Red Army in the Russian Civil War, he disagreed with other Bolsheviks and had to leave Russia.
Trotsky was a socialist and a Marxist.
In 1905 there was a revolution in Russia.
Trotsky helped organize a committee of workers in St Petersburg which was called the Soviet.
When the leader of the Soviet was arrested, Trotsky became leader of the Soviet in his place.
Trotsky helped to expand on the idea of Permanent Revolution, which is a theory originally thought up by Karl Marx.
After the revolution Trotsky left Russia for his own safety.
In 1917, he returned to Russia because of the Russian Revolution.
He helped to bring about communism in Russia and defend it during the Russian Civil War.
He was in charge of the army at this time.
When the leader of the Bolsheviks (the party who led the revolution) Vladimir Lenin died, Trotsky became involved in a power struggle with Joseph Stalin for the leadership of the party.
He lost, and Stalin came to power.
He had to leave Russia because of Stalin, who was now his own enemy and wanted to harm Trotsky.
In 1938 Trotsky founded the Fourth International.
Stalin had one of his spies, Spaniard Ramón Mercarder, stab Trotsky to death in Mexico in 1940.
People who believe in Trotsky's ideas are called Trotskyists and follow Trotskyism.
The main Trotskyist organizations today are the Fourth International (post - Reunification), the Socialist Workers Party in the UK and the International Socialist Tendency.
In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, Trotsky is represented by Snowball the pig and Stalin is represented by Napoleon who was also a pig.
The book reflected real world events.
Fourth International (post-reunification)
Story of Trotsky's Murder
Trotsky's Grave
1940 deaths
Government ministers
Jewish politicians
Jewish writers
People murdered in North America
Russian historians
Russian Jews
Russian murder victims
Russian politicians
Soviet Jews
Ukrainian Jews
The Second International (1889–1916) was an organization created on July 14, 1889, by socialist and labour parties who wanted to work together for international socialism.
It continued the work of the First International, which stopped being an organization in 1886.
However, it did not include the still-powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement and trade unions.
The International's permanent executive and information body was the International Socialist Bureau (ISB).
It was located in Brussels and formed after the International's Paris Congress of 1900.
Emile Vandervelde and Camille Huysmans of the Belgian Labour Party were its chair and secretary.
Vladimir Lenin was a member from 1905.
International organizations
1889 establishments
Political organizations
1916 disestablishments
Devon is a county in southwest England.
Sometimes called by its historical name Devonshire.
Devon is the fourth largest county in England by area, and has the longest road network of any county in England.
After the last ice age, Devon was one of the first places in England where people started to live.
Archaeologists have found many old places in Devon with ancient buildings.
For example, many ruins of old buildings have been found in an area called "Dartmoor", which is now a National Park.
Devon gets its name from the Dumnonii, a name that the invading Romans gave to the Celtic tribe in that area.
The Romans invaded Devon about AD 50.
The name Dumnonii means "a person who lives in a deep valley", and it comes from the hills and valleys of the area.
The Roman army stayed in Devon for about 350 years.
Their base was in the city of Exeter.
It was a long time before anyone else invaded Devon.
Saxons came to Devon in the 7th century, and the King of Wessex may have attacked in 614.
There was a conflict between Devon and Wessex for 200 years.
Some historians think that Wessex won the war by about 715 but others think this did not happen until at least 936.
Eventually Wessex took control, but the Kings of Devon still had some power.
A person living at the time called William of Malmesbury said that in Exeter both Britons and Saxons were equal in 927 but that King Athelstan of Wessex then chased the Britons from Exeter.
From place names and church dedications it seems that the British did not go far and later came back into Exeter because an area in the city was called "Britayne" until recently.
A large number of Devon placenames include (or are) the word "combe" (e.g. Ilfracombe).
This word comes from the Brythonic (Celtic) language and is like the Welsh word "cwm".
Another typical Devon word is "tor" which is also Brythonic, and like the Welsh word "twr".
Both of these words are often found in neighbouring counties, but Devon has the greatest number.
Overall Devon has a number of other placenames that are Brythonic and others that come from Old English, and a few that come from Norse.
Devon's placenames are like those of western Somerset and eastern Cornwall which was also part of the old kingdom of "Dumnonia".
Starting in the 9th century, groups of Viking raiders tried to invade Devon.
This continued until the Norman Conquest.
The name of Lundy Island comes from the Viking language, which was called Norse.
The Vikings are remembered for moving the cathedral from Crediton to Exeter.
During the Norman Conquest of England, Exeter was surrounded by William the Conqueror's army for 18 days.
In 1140, the towns of Exeter and Plympton were both defended against King Stephen.
There were small battles in Devon during the Wars of the Roses.
The army of Perkin Warbeck surrounded and attacked Exeter in 1497.
The Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549: rebels from Cornwall and Devon marched towards London.
The towns of Exeter and Dartmouth were both besieged (surrounded by the enemy) during the English Civil War.
When William of Orange invaded Britain in 1688 (the Glorious Revolution), he landed at Brixham.
There are many famous (well known) people from Devon, especially seamen.
For example, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Walter Raleigh all come from Devon.
Many other famous people were also born in Devon: for example, the author Agatha Christie was born in the town of Torquay.
Devon has its own flag.
It is linked to St Petroc, who is a local saint with links to Devon and nearby counties.
The flag was chosen after winning a competition on the BBC Devon website in 2003.
Devon is less wealthy than many parts of England, for example the south east.
This is because the traditional industries of Devon, for example fishing, mining and farming are declining.
The European Union has given parts of Devon help (Objective 2).
For example, grants of money have been given to help new industries grow.
Tourism has become more important recently as a part of the economy of Devon.
An epidemic of Foot and Mouth disease in 2001 led to many farmers losing their cattle, so they lost a lot of money.
Other industries also lost a lot of income because of this.
The main city of Devon is Plymouth.
Exeter is where the county council is based.
The county of Devon is split up into districts.
Each district is run by a district council.
Some things are the job of the county council and others are the job of the district council.
There are also smaller town and parish councils inside the districts.
Plymouth and Torbay are not run by the county council, but have their own special councils.
These councils do the jobs of both a county and a district council.
These type of areas are called unitary authorities.
Districts in Devon
East Devon
North Devon
Torridge
West Devon
Teignbridge
Plymouth, Devon (Unitary)
Torbay (Unitary)
Members of Parliament
Angela Browning
Geoffrey Cox
Oliver Colvile
Linda Gilroy
Nick Harvey
Alison Seabeck
Sarah Wollaston
Gary Streeter
Hugo Swire
Richard Younger-Ross
Cities towns and villages
Interesting places
Jurassic Coast (a World Heritage Site)
Lundy Island
Buckfast Abbey
Castles in Devon
River Axe
River Erme
River Tamar (the border between Devon and Cornwall)
Note: The links below are not in simple English.
BBC Devon
Latin or Roman script, is a writing system used to write many modern-day languages.
It is the most used writing system in the world today.
It is the official script for nearly all the languages of Western Europe and of some Eastern European languages.
It is also used by some non-European languages such as Turkish, Vietnamese, Malay language, Somali, Swahili and Tagalog.
It is an alternative writing system for languages such as Serbian and Bosnian.
The alphabet is a writing system which evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet.
It was the Etruscans who first developed it after borrowing the Greek alphabet, and the Romans developed it further.
The sounds of some letters changed, some letters were lost and gained and several writing styles ('hands') developed.
Two such styles were combined into one script with upper and lower case letters ('capitals' and 'small letters').
Modern capital letters differ only slightly from their Roman counterparts.
There are few regional variations.
Original Latin alphabet
The modern version of the alphabet is used for writing many languages.
Indo-European languages, especially those of Western Europe, are mostly written with the Latin alphabet.
These languages include the Germanic languages (which includes English, German, Swedish, and others) and the Romance languages (which includes French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and others).
There are of course Indo-European languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, like Greek and Russian, as well as non-Indo-European languages that do, like Vietnamese.
Nearly all languages using the Roman alphabet include diacritics, which are symbols found above or below the letters.
They are used for things such as tones and pronunciation.
English is the only major European language that does not have any of these marks, at least not for native words.
Words taken from other languages sometimes use diacritics to make clear the correct pronunciation.
The Roman script has fewer letters than the sounds in some of the languages that use it.
Some languages make up for the lack of letters by using diacritic marks, such as ă, â, á, é, í, î, ó, ẹ, ị, ọ, ụ, ã, ả, ẻ, ỉ, ỏ, ủ, ñ, č, ď, ě, í, ň, ř, š, ș, ť, ț, ú, ů, ž and đ.
In effect, this increases the number of letters in their alphabet.
Languages which use some of these characters are French, Czech, Polish, Magyar (Hungarian), Romanian, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Esperanto, and Igbo.
Many languages changed their writing systems to the Latin script.
In some countries, Europeans made native people use it.
The Vietnamese language was written in Chinese characters, and there is a Chinese-based Vietnamese writing system called chu nom.
However, Chinese script requires a large number of characters to be learnt before a person is truly literate.
The Vietnamese government switched to the Latin alphabet in the early 20th century so they could increase the country's literacy rates.
The Vietnamese kept using the Latin alphabet even after independence since it was much faster to learn than Chinese characters (chu nom).
After the Russian Revolution, when the Russian Empire fell, the Latin alphabet in Turkic countries was started by Azerbaijan in 1918.
When the Soviet Union broke up, some of its smaller languages began using the Latin alphabet.
It is now used in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan.
Kazakhstan announced in 2018 that the Latin alphabet would become the Kazakh language's main writing system.
Changing the way a language is written to Latin letters is called romanization.
Many people who do not speak the language read a romanized version to know roughly how the words will sound, even if that is not the normal way to write the language.
Some languages, like Chinese and Japanese, use the Latin alphabet in their languages so that they can be typed on a computer more easily.
In mainland China, pinyin is the official romanization for Mandarin Chinese, and it is used to type Chinese characters on the computer by typing them phonetically.
Even though many Japanese computers have kana keyboards to type Japanese on the computer, Japanese can also be typed using the Latin alphabet.
Software called IME (input method editor) converts the Latin letters, called romaji in Japanese, into Japanese kana and kanji.
Roman Alphabet -Citizendium
Alphabet, Roman
An insectivore is an animal or insect that eats mostly insects for food.
An Anteater is an animal that eats ants.
Insectivorous plants also eat insects.
The Venus fly-trap is one of them.
To eat insects for food is not very easy because insects are small.
Large insect-eating animals must eat many of them.
Anteaters eat hundreds of ants every day.
Some omnivores like humans and bears also eat insects for food.
There was once a taxonomic group of mammals called Insectivora.
Most of its animals are now called Eulipotyphla.
Herbivore - an animal that eats mostly plants
Carnivore - an animal that mostly eats meat from other animals.