the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
1971 The Go-Between (United Kingdom)
1972 La classe operaia va in paradiso (Italy)
1972 Il Caso Mattei (Italy)
1973 The Hireling (United Kingdom)
1973 Scarecrow (United States)
1974 The Conversation (United States)
1975 Chronicle of the Years of Fire (Algeria)
1976 Taxi Driver (United States)
1977 Father and Master (Italy)
1978 L'Albero degli zoccoli (Italy)
1979 Apocalypse Now (United States)
1979 Die Blechtrommel (West Germany)
1980 All That Jazz (United States)
1980 Kagemusha (Japan)
1981 - 2000
1981 Czlowiek z zelaza (Poland)
1982 Missing (United States)
1982 Yol (Turkey)
1983 Narayama bushiko (Japan)
1984 Paris, Texas (West Germany)
1985 Otac Na službenom putu (Yugoslavia)
1986 The Mission (United Kingdom)
1987 Sous le soleil de Satan (France)
1988 Pelle erobreren (Denmark)
1989 Sex, Lies, and Videotape (United States)
1990 Wild at Heart (United States)
1991 Barton Fink (United States)
1992 Den goda viljan (Denmark)
1993 霸王别姬 (China)
1993 The Piano (New Zealand)
1994 Pulp Fiction United States
1995 Underground (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
1996 Secrets & Lies (United Kingdom)
1997 Ta'm e guilass (Iran)
1997 Unagi (Japan)
1998 Mia aioniotita kai mia mera (Greece)
1999 Rosetta (Belgium)
2000 Dancer in the Dark (Denmark)
2001 - 2020
2001 La stanza Del figlio (Italy)
2002 The Pianist (France)
2003 Elephant (United States)
2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 (United States)
2005 L'enfant (Belgium)
2006 The Wind that Shakes the Barley (United Kingdom)
2007 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile (Romania)
2008 Entre les murs (France)
2009 Das weiße Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (Austria)
2010 Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat / ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ (Thailand)
2011 The Tree of Life (United States)
2012 Amour (Austria)
2013 Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Tunisia)
2014 Winter Sleep (Turkey)
2015 Dheepan (France)
2016 I, Daniel Blake (United Kingdom)
Feature Movies
Prix de la mise en scène
Prix du Jury
Prix du scénario
Prix d'interprétation féminine du Festival de Cannes
Prix d'interprétation masculine du Festival de Cannes
Prix un certain regard
Short Movies
Palme d'Or du Festival de Cannes - court métrage
Prix du Jury - court métrage
Camera d'Or - Created in 1978 to honor the best first movie in any category
Cannes Film Festival at the Internet Movie Database
Film Festival
Entertainment in France
Festivals in Europe
Lists of movies
Movie festivals
1939 establishments
1930s establishments in France
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was the King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547.
He is perhaps one of England's most famous monarchs because he split England from the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope, and because he married six times.
Henry VIII increased the power of the monarchy and government over the country.
Many people he did not like were executed under his orders, including two of his own wives.
He was easily led by whoever his favourite advisor was: Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer and Richard Rich.
More and Cromwell were also executed.
He passed laws to merge Wales into England and was the first English monarch to be King of Ireland.
His government was able to raise more money because they stopped paying money to the Roman Catholic Church and because they closed down the monasteries.
But he also spent far more money on his own enjoyment and on wars with France and Scotland.
These wars did not achieve much.
He made the Royal Navy much bigger and made other improvements to the armed forces.
Early in his reign he was seen as a handsome young man who had studied a lot and enjoyed sports, music and writing.
Later in his reign he became weak, ill and hugely obese.
He also became unpredictable, bad-tempered and unable to admit to making mistakes.
He died at the age of 55 in 1547.
The next king was his son Edward VI.
Henry was born at Greenwich Palace on 28 June 1491, and was the son of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York.
He was one of their seven children.
Four of them survived infancy  – Arthur, Prince of Wales; Margaret; Henry; and Mary .
He had his own servants and minstrels, including a fool named John Goose.
He even had a whipping boy who was punished for Henry when he did something wrong.
Prince Henry enjoyed music and jousting was very good at both of them.
At the age of 10, he could play many instruments, including the fife, harp, viola and drums.
Henry was a scholar, linguist, musician and athlete at his early age.
He could speak fluent Latin, French and Spanish.
He had the best tutors and he also had to learn jousting, archery, hunting and other military arts.
Henry was very religious.
Henry's older brother Arthur was the heir to the throne.
This means he would have become the king when Henry VII died.
Arthur married a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon (her name in Spanish was Catalina de Aragon).
Prince Arthur died a few months later.
He was 15 years old, and Henry was 10 years old.
After his brother died, Henry was the heir to the throne.
While his father was alive he was watched closely, because the King feared for the safety of his only remaining male heir.
Henry could go out only through a private door, and then he was watched by specially appointed people.
No one could speak to Henry.
He spent most of his time in his room, which could only be entered through his father’s bedroom.
Henry never spoke in public, unless it was to answer a question from his father.
He kept his enthusiastic personality under control on public occasions because he feared his father's temper.
He was given little training for his future role as King by his father and relied heavily on his counselors in the early years of his reign.
In 1509, Henry VII died of tuberculosis as well and his son became King Henry VIII.
He was 17 years old.
Three months after becoming king, Henry married Catherine of Aragon.
They tried to have children, as Henry wanted a son who could be the next king.
In 1511, she gave birth to a son who they named Henry, but he died seven weeks later.
She later gave birth to a girl, the future Queen Mary I. All her other children were stillborn (died before birth).
He did have one son (Henry Fitzroy) through a woman he was not married to.
This son could not become king.
Early on, Henry had two of his father's advisors executed.
They were not popular and Henry claimed they had been stealing from the money they had been looking after.
Henry would often execute anyone he did not like during the rest of his reign.
From 1514, Thomas Wolsey became an important advisor to Henry.
Wolsey helped Henry change the government to give the king more power.
Wolsey later became a cardinal, making him an important figure in the church.
At first, Henry wanted to be friends with the King of France.
But soon, he instead joined with Spain, the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire to weaken France.
He dreamed of gaining more lands in France.
The results were mixed: England won some battles against France in 1513.
The alliance weakened France`s power over the Pope.
Scotland invaded England in 1514 but lost badly at the Battle of the Flodden.
But Henry spent a lot of money and did not gain much land.
In 1520, an event named; 'The Field of the Cloth of Gold', took place in Calais (at the time, the city was part of England rather than France).
It was held to celebrate peace between France and England because they had been at war for a long time.
Loads of money was spent on it.
People enjoyed music, dancing, food, wine and culture for two-and-a-half weeks.
Henry famously wrestled King Francis I of France and lost.
Despite this, England and France were soon fighting again.
After they signed a treaty in 1525, there was less fighting.
Split with Rome
The most important event that happened in England when Henry was the king was the country's change in religion.
At first, there was no sign that Henry would do this.
Eight years into Henry's reign, the Protestant Reformation began in Germany.
Until then, all of Western Europe had been part of the Roman Catholic Church.
When the Reformation began, some countries broke away from the Roman Catholic Church to form Protestant churches.
At first, Henry was against this.
The Reformation did not spread to England straight away.
But by the 1530s, there were many powerful people in England who liked the idea of the Reformation.
Henry became desperate to have a son.
By 1527, Henry was wanting to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn.
The Roman Catholic Church said he could not divorce without asking the Pope.
Henry asked the Pope, but the Pope would not do this.
The Pope said it went against the teachings of the church.
Henry blamed Wolsey for failing to change the Pope's mind.
He sacked Wolsey and ordered him to be put on trial, though Wolsey died before the trial could happen.
After that, Thomas More became his main advisor.
But More opposed the divorce, so he was replaced a few years later by Thomas Cromwell.
Henry also chose a man called Thomas Cranmer to be the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Henry knew that Cranmer would do what he wanted, and Cranmer agreed that Henry could have a divorce from Catherine.
The Pope did not know this, so he let Cranmer become the archbishop.
A powerful ruler might have forced the Pope to change his mind, but the most powerful rulers would have opposed the divorce.
Catherine's nephew was Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and Catherine came from Spain, the largest Catholic country.
In 1534, attempts to reach an agreement over the divorce failed.
Henry asked Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy, which meant that the king, not the pope, was the head of the church in England.
This created the new Church of England.
The Pope was so angry that he excommunicated Henry, meaning Henry was thrown out of the church.
Henry then forced all priests and bishops to accept him as the new leader.
Anyone who refused was punished.
Among those killed were Thomas More and his old teacher John Fisher.
Henry was not a true Protestant.
He wanted the Church of England to be similar to the Roman Catholic Church but under his control.
Some Protestants were even executed, including Anne Askew.
However, Henry was easily led by people like Thomas Crownell, Thomas Cranmer and Anne Bolyen, who secretly wanted the country to become Protestant.
It was not until the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I that the Church of England became fully Protestant.
Henry and Cromwell thought that monasteries, in which Roman Catholic monks and nuns lived, had more money and land than the monks and nuns needed.
Henry forced the monks and nuns to move out of the monasteries.
Then Henry gave their money and land to men who supported him.
Most of the men who received money and land from the closed monasteries were Protestants.
This event was called the dissolution of the monasteries.
Later marriages
After his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn, who was younger than Catherine and still able to have children.
Henry soon became unhappy with the marriage.
He and Anne did not get on well as they had before they married.
Anne had many enemies in the government, including Henry's most loyal minister, Thomas Cromwell.
Henry was also unhappy that Anne, just like Catherine, only had a daughter and no sons.
Henry started looking for another wife.
In January 1536, Henry fell off a horse while jousting and was badly injured.
He took a long time to wake up and his leg was wounded.
The wound never properly healed, and he had painful ulcers on his leg for the rest of the his life.
This meant it was hard for him to do exercise, so after this he started to become obese.
The head injury may have also caused him to become more bad-tempered.
Later that year, Cromwell helped Henry to find a way to get rid of Anne, by finding people who said that she had been the lover of several other men.
Anne was put on trial and found guilty, and she was executed by having her head chopped off by a French swordsman.
Henry's third wife was Jane Seymour.
She soon gave birth to a son called Edward.
Although this made Henry very happy, a few days later Jane died.
Henry had loved her very much and he never got over his sadness at her death.
He lost interest in everything, and became bigger in size.
He became angry with Thomas Cromwell when Cromwell suggested that he should get married again after Jane's death.
After a while, Henry changed his mind.
As he still only had one son, he realised that it might be a good idea to marry again, and he agreed to marry Anne of Cleves, a German princess.
When Anne arrived, Henry did not think she was as pretty as she looked in the pictures he had seen, and he was not satisfied with her.
Anne was also unhappy and agreed to be divorced from Henry after only a few months.
Cromwell had helped arrange the marriage.
Henry was angry with Cromwell and had him executed.
In the meantime, Henry had noticed a young lady at court, called Catherine Howard, and thought that she might make a good wife.
Catherine Howard was a cousin of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn.
Henry and Catherine got married in 1540, but Catherine was much younger than Henry and she soon got tired of him and started to flirt with other men.
After they had been married for just over a year, Henry found out that Catherine had been having an affair with someone else.
She was found guilty of treason and was executed, just like Anne Boleyn had been a few years before.
Henry's sixth and last wife was called Catherine Parr.
She was a woman in her thirties who had already been married twice.
Her first two husbands had been much older than she was, and both had died.
Henry thought that she would be more sensible and faithful than his other wives, and he turned out to be right.
Catherine Parr stayed married to Henry for over three years until he died, but they did not have any children.
After divorcing Catherine of Aragon, Henry began to suffer many different ailments, he never again regained health.
He died on 28 January 1547 at the age of 55 and was buried in Windsor Castle.
Henry was the father of two queens and one king.
They were Mary I of England, Elizabeth I of England, and Edward VI of England.
None of them had any children of their own.
In 1536, the Act of Union was passed under Henry's rule which had a long-lasting effect on Wales as a nation.
The Act of Union meant that Welsh people were forced to speak English and things such as road signs were translated into English.
The royal family, who were based in London, were now officially in charge of Wales.
However, the Act also meant that Welsh citizens were given the same legal rights as the English so there was an upside to this new law.
Henry often liked to be captured in his portraits with either food or pets.
He had many pets.
Henry was often seen with his dog.
He owned a white pug and was very aware of how much his dog represented him as a wealthy man.
Henry VIII spent a lot of time at a magnificent building named Hampton Court Palace that belonged to his friend, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
After falling out with Wolsey, Henry took the palace for himself.
He made the palace far larger, building things such as tennis courts and jousting yards.
Ancestry
Ives, E. W. "Henry VIII (1491–1547)", in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), online at OUP, a good starting point
Pollard, A. F. Henry VIII (1905) 470 pp; the first modern biography, accurate and still valuable online edition
Rex, Richard.
Henry VIII and the English Reformation. (
205 pp.
Ridley, Jasper.
Henry VIII. (
473 pp.
popular biography
Starkey, David. "
Henry." (
Very detailed biographical account of Henry's early life
VIII on Citizendium
1500s in Europe
1510s in Europe
1520s in Europe
1530s in Europe
1540s in Europe
People from Kent
An orchestra is a group of musicians playing instruments together.
They make music.
A large orchestra is sometimes called a "symphony orchestra" and a small orchestra is called a "chamber orchestra".
A symphony orchestra may have about 100 players, while a chamber orchestra may have 30 or 40 players.
The number of players will depend on what music they are playing and the size of the place where they are playing.
The word "orchestra" originally meant the semi-circular space in front of a stage in a Greek theatre which is where the singers and instruments used to play.
Gradually the word came to mean the musicians themselves.
The conductor
The orchestra is directed by a conductor.
He/she helps the players to play together, to get the right balance so that everything can be heard clearly, and to encourage the orchestra to play with the same kind of feeling.
Some small chamber orchestras may play without a conductor.
This was usual until the 19th century when the orchestras got very big and needed a conductor who made decisions and stood in front so that all the players could see him.
The instruments
The instruments of the orchestra are divided into districts: the strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.
Each section (group of instruments) will have a player who is the "Boss".
The principals will make decisions about seating arrangements, and about technical ways of playing the music: for example the principal of the string sections will make sure all the players move their bows up and down in the same direction.
The violins are divided into first and second violins.
The first violins usually have the tune while the seconds, most of the time, are part of the accompaniment.
The principal of the first violin is the leader (or concertmaster) of the orchestra.
In a professional orchestra they will be the most highly paid member of the orchestra.
The string family
The strings are the biggest section, although there are only five kinds of instruments: violin, viola, cello, double bass, and harp.
This is because they are playing most of the time and usually form the basis of the music.
If they are not playing the tune they will probably be accompanying.
The first and second violins play different notes: the firsts usually have the tune.
The strings sit at the front of the stage in a fan-shape in front of the conductor.
The first violins are on the conductor's left, then come the second violins, then the violas and then the cellos.
The double basses are behind the cellos.
Some conductors prefer to have the second violins on their right and the cellos between the first violins and violas (see image of the Dohnanyi Orchestra).
The woodwind family
The woodwind sit in one or two rows (depending on the size of the orchestra) behind the strings.
There are five main woodwind instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon.
Each of these instruments also come in different versions:
The flute has a small version called the piccolo which plays an octave higher.
It is the highest instrument in the orchestra.
Occasionally there is an alto flute which is longer and plays a fifth (half an octave) lower than the flute.
Most woodwind instruments need a reed, but the flute does not have a reed.
The bassoon has a larger version: the contrabassoon or double bassoon which sounds an octave lower.
It is one of the lowest instruments in the orchestra.
The clarinet has a larger version as well; the bass clarinet.
It reaches the same depth as a bassoon.
Usually only one is found in a modern orchestra.
There is also an alto clarinet but because it plays the same part an alto saxophone plays, it is typically regarded as an unnecessary instrument.
A formal orchestra will always consist of two of the four main instruments.
The variations of the instruments are used where the piece asks for it.
Usually, the newer pieces written after 1850 will have more instruments.
Sometimes a player will double on these extra instruments, for example: one of the flute players may also play the piccolo in the same piece.
It depends on the piece of music.
Obviously a player cannot play the flute and piccolo at the same time.
If the two instruments do play at the same time an extra player will be needed for the piccolo.
The brass family
The brass section has four sections: trumpet, trombone, French horn, and tuba.
Some of these come in several sizes.
The article on transposing instruments explains more about it.
The trumpet may have several slightly different sizes.
The lowest kind is a bass trumpet.
The trombone may be an alto, tenor, bass or contrabass trombone.
The French horn, like the other brass instruments, has changed over the years.
Modern horns have at least three valves and are usually in F. They often sit in a different place to the other brass.
The tuba comes in different sizes and the player or conductor must decide which to use for the piece they are playing.
There are large ones called contrabass tubas.
A small tuba is commonly also seen and is called a euphonium or a baritone horn.
The percussion family
The percussion section has the largest variety of instruments.
The timpani (or "kettle drums") can be tuned to particular notes.
They are the most common percussion instrument.
Composers such as Haydn and Mozart nearly always used them, even with their small orchestras.
This is the most commonly used percussion instruments and is used in almost all pieces.
The rest of the percussion section can include tuned percussion instruments like the xylophone.
Non-tuned percussion can be other kinds of drum like bass drum, snare drum, and a variety of others: simple to name the most common ones.
The principal percussion player will have to decide which player will play which instrument(s).
The percussionists have to work well together as a team so all parts can be covered.
The history of the orchestra
It is difficult to say when the orchestra was invented because instruments have played together for many centuries.
If we say that an orchestra is a group of string instruments with several players playing the same part, and that there may be wind instruments (i.e. woodwind and brass) or percussion playing as well, then the 17th century is the time that orchestras started.
In Paris in 1626 King Louis XIII had an orchestra of 24 violins (called "24 Violons du Roi").
Later in the century the English king Charles II wanted to be like the French king and so he, too, had a string orchestra.
Gradually the other instruments were added.
At this time there was usually someone playing the harpsichord (the continuo part).
It was often the composer himself, who would have conducted from the keyboard at important moments like the beginning and end of the piece.
Clarinets came into the orchestra at the end of the 18th century, and trombones at the beginning of the 19th century.
Orchestras were still quite small, though.
The saxophone was invented in the middle of the 19th century, but although they started to use it in orchestras, it soon became an instrument that was used in wind bands and later jazz bands.
The opera composer Richard Wagner made the orchestra much bigger because he kept asking for extra instruments.
He asked for a bass clarinet in his opera Lohengrin, and for his cycle of four operas called The Ring of the Nibelung he asked for an exact number of players: 16 first violins, 16 second violins, 12 violas, 12 cellos, 8 double basses, 3 flutes and piccolo, 3 oboes and cor anglais, 3 clarinets and bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 3 trumpets and bass trumpet, 3 tenor trombones and a double bass trombone, 8 horns with 4 of them playing a specially designed tuba, a bass tuba, percussion, and 6 harps.
Not all pieces written after that need quite such a large orchestra, but concert halls had become bigger and composers had got used to a bigger variety of sounds.
Later composers sometimes added all sorts of unusual instruments: wind machine, sandpaper block, bottles, typewriter, anvils, iron chains, cuckoo, Swannee whistle etc.
None of these are normal orchestral instruments.
Sometimes a piano is used in the percussion section, e.g. Igor Stravinsky used one in Petrouchka.
Sometimes voices are also used.
The orchestra today
Today orchestras can usually be heard in concert halls.
They also play in opera houses for opera and ballet, or in a large stadium for huge open-air concerts.
Orchestras may record in studios for making CDs or recording music for movies.
Many of them can be heard easily and cheaply every summer in London at the BBC Proms.
Some of the greatest orchestras today include: the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo).
Opera houses usually have their own orchestra, e.g. the orchestras of the Metropolitan Opera House, La Scala, or the Royal Opera House.
In many countries there are opportunities for school-age children who play instruments well to play in youth orchestras in their areas.
In Britain some of the very best are selected to play in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Other world-famous youth orchestras include the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1980; ed.
Stanley Sadie;
Orchestration by Walter Piston, London 1965.
Homosexuality is a sexual orientation.
A homosexual person is romantically or sexually attracted to people of their own gender.
Men who are romantically or sexually attracted to other men are called gay.
Women who are romantically or sexually attracted to other women can be called gay as well, but are usually called lesbians.
People who are romantically or sexually attracted to men and women are called bisexual.
Together homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people make up the LGBT community, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender.
It is difficult to say how many people are homosexual.
Homosexuality is known to exist in all cultures and countries.
Other titles for homosexuality
One may say that homosexuality is the term used for people that feel romantically or sexually attracted to their own sex, but other definitions also exist.
When one views homosexuality as the term for people that feel romantically or sexually attracted to their own sex, more people are gay than when one might view homosexuality as only a term for people who do have sexual relationships with their own sex.
Usually, the term is used to view all the people who are romantically or sexually attracted to their own sex, as well as those with such attractions who have not had a sexual relationship with their own sex yet.
Nonetheless, the most visible form of homosexuality is the actual relationship.
Most 'evidence' of homosexuality in ancient cultures comes from drawings of the men in an intimate relationship or sex, because it's the most obvious.
The word homosexual comes from the Ancient Greek word homo, meaning "same", and the Latin word for "gender".
People in the LGBT community usually say "gay" instead of "homosexual."
Some people also use the term homophile (from Greek   ("homos", meaning the same) and  ("philein"; meaning to love).
This term emphasizes romantic interest in the same sex, rather than sexual attraction.
There are many different words to describe homosexual people.
Some of these are used to insult homosexual people.
However, the LGBT community sometimes uses these words to describe themselves because the word "homosexual" can sound too clinical.
This is done to make the words less hurtful.
Some words to describe homosexual men are gay and queer.
Words to describe homosexual women are lesbian and dyke.
Lesbian is used most often.
Dyke is used less often and is sometimes used to describe lesbians who are more masculine (act or dress more like men).
However, "queer" and "dyke" are sometimes used against gay people as insults, so they can sometimes be offensive.
When homosexual people keep their sexual orientation a secret, they are said to be "in the closet". "
Out" or "out of the closet" is a slang term that means a homosexual person is open about their sexual orientation.
This means they do not hide the fact that they are homosexual.
Some gay and lesbian people stay in the closet because of fear of what would happen or because they live in a place that is not safe for homosexual people.
Sometimes people who are 'out' also say they are 'proud'. "
Out" means they are not hiding their sexual orientation. "
Proud" means that they are pleased about it. "
Proud" or "Pride" has a special meaning in the LGBT community.
It means they are celebrating and being happy that they are homosexual.
It is not 'pride' meaning that they have done something to be proud of, but 'pride' meaning the opposite of shame.
Many cities have "Pride Parades".
These used to be protest marches.
Today, they are usually celebrations of the LGBT community.
They usually occur in June, in memory of the 'Stonewall Riots' that happened in New York City in 1969.
These riots happened because police harassed and arrested people for being homosexual. '
Stonewall' or the 'Stonewall Riots' are sometimes called the start of the LGBT rights movement.
The causes of homosexuality and bisexuality are controversial (people do not agree on them).
The causes of homosexuality are not all understood, but genetics and the effects of the prenatal environment and hormones (when a baby is growing in its mother) are thought to be causes.
There is not much evidence that the social environment is a cause of homosexuality.
Scientists also show that homosexuality happens not only in humans.
Some animals (like penguins, chimpanzees, and dolphins) often show homosexuality, and some (rams) even for lifelong periods as is the case with humans.
Doctors used to treat gay people as if they had mental illnesses.
However, homosexuality is no longer called a disease by doctors in many countries.
There are some religious and non-religious groups who still try to 'cure' homosexuality.
This is sometimes called 'conversion therapy'.
In therapies like this one, homosexual individuals have tried to become heterosexual and have even claimed they were changed, but most people do not believe it is possible.
Conversion therapy or reparative therapy aims to change people's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual.
It is condemned by medical and psychiatry groups such as the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, Royal College of Psychiatrists, National Association of Social Workers, Royal College of Nursing, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
These scientific and educated groups are concerned that such therapy is a violation of the ethical principles of health care, and violates human rights.
Many people believe that it is unfortunate to discuss causes of homosexuality and bisexuality without discussing causes of heterosexuality, too.
Although it is easy to understand why heterosexuality exists (heterosexual sex produces babies), that does not explain how the brain develops to produce heterosexual people.
Heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality all have causes, and some people believe that to discuss only the causes of homosexuality and bisexuality suggests that there is something wrong with people who have those orientations.
Gay people can fall in love and have lifelong relationships.
In most countries, they cannot legally marry their partners.
However, they still have relationships in the same way as heterosexual people.
Some homosexual people have wedding ceremonies even though governments do not recognize or accept them.
They may call their partner a spouse, wife, or husband despite the law.
But to them, the important part about marriage is not just the name.
Married people get many benefits from being married.
Depending on the country, these benefits can include paying less taxes, getting their spouse's insurance, inheriting property, social security benefits, having or adopting children together, emigrating to a spouse's country, being able to make choices for a sick spouse, or even being allowed to visit a sick spouse who is in a hospital.
Today there are numerous countries that allow homosexual people to marry, including: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Uruguay, the United States and Wales.
The Netherlands was first in 2001.
It is also legal in six Native American tribes.
Instead of marriage, some countries or states offer homosexuals civil unions or domestic partnerships.
This gives them some of the protections and benefits of marriage, but not all.
Civil unions and domestic partnerships are sometimes seen by the LGBT community as being 'second class' (not as good as 'first class').
They do offer some benefits for gay and lesbian couples, but they also suggest that these couples are not as important or valid as heterosexual couples.
Some people even say this is like the "separate but equal" rules that were used to segregate people by race in the United States.
They believe that separate is never equal and homosexuals should not accept being second class citizens.
Many religions teach that homosexual sex is a sin.
Such religions traditionally include Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
Usually, it is only the act of sexual intercourse that is considered sinful and not natural.
Not all believe the attraction, is sinful, just the actions in response to the desire.
However, some denominations (different parts) of these religions and some eastern religions now accept homosexuality.
There are several other religions that are accepting of homosexuality, particularly new religions.
There are also some religions which are indifferent to homosexuality, such as Zoroastrianism and Jainism.
Problems homosexuals face
In many countries, homosexual people are discriminated against.
A homosexual person can be fired from a job because they are gay, even if they are a good worker.
Homosexual people can be denied renting a home or being able to eat in a restaurant because of their sexual orientation.
In some countries, homosexual people can experience violence.
For example, Islamic law is used in some places to kill homosexuals or place them in jail.
Some groups believe over 4,000 homosexual people have been killed in Iran since 1979 because of their sexual orientation.
In 2005, after fourteen months of prison and torture, two teenage boys were hanged in Iran for homosexuality.
In modern times, homosexuality has become more accepted in Western countries.
Most western countries have laws that protect homosexuals from violence and discrimination.
In the United Kingdom, homosexuality used to be a crime.
Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish writer was imprisoned for it, and as a result, it destroyed his reputation and career as a wit and playwright.
Alan Turing, the man who helped the Allies in World War II by breaking the Enigma Code used by the Germans, was convicted of this crime and according to some speculations he ultimately killed himself over the effects of the attempt to cure his homosexuality.
Today in the United Kingdom, homosexual people are safer.
Homosexual sex between adults is not a crime.
Gay and lesbian couples can marry.
Gay people can be in the military.
Homosexual behaviour in animals
Homosexual behaviour has also been seen in animals.
Homosexual, transgender and bisexual behaviour includes sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding, and parenting.
Homosexual behaviour is widespread among animals.
Bruce Bagemihl did research in 1999.
It shows that homosexual behaviour has been observed in close to 1500 species, from primates to gut worms, and is well documented for 500 of them.
The sexual behaviour of animals takes many different forms, even within the same species.
The motivations for these behaviours are only partly known, mainly because the respecive species has not been fully studied yet.
According to Bagemihl, "the animal kingdom [does] it with much greater sexual diversity—including homosexual, bisexual and nonreproductive sex—than the scientific community and society at large have previously been willing to accept."
There are national and international groups or organizations for the LGBT community.
These organizations are often political.
They fight for the rights and safety of homosexuals.
The International Lesbian and Gay Association
The Human Rights Campaign
GLAAD, The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
Egale Canada
LGBT variations
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower(  (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, from 1953 to 1961.
He was known across the world for his help leading the Allied invasions in World War II.
Dwight David Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, at 609 S. Lamar Avenue in Denison, Texas.
He was the third of seven sons.
His mother originally named him David Dwight, but she switched two names after his birth so that there wouldn't be two Davids in the family.
In 1892, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, which Eisenhower considered his hometown.
Dwight became very interested in exploring the outdoors.
He learned about hunting and fishing, cooking, and card playing from a man named Bob Davis who camped on the Smoky Hill River.
Eisenhower went to Abilene High School.
He graduated with the class of 1909.
He and brother Edgar both wanted to go to college, but they did not have enough money.
They decided to take different years at college while the other worked to earn money to pay the tuitions.
Edgar took the first turn at school, and Dwight was working a job as a night supervisor at the Belle Springs Creamery.
When Edgar asked for a second year, Dwight accepted and worked for a second year.
At that time, a friend named "Swede" Hazlett was applying to the Naval Academy.
He wanted Dwight to apply to the school, since there was no tuition.
Eisenhower asked for consideration for either Annapolis or West Point with his U.S. Senator, Joseph L. Bristow.
Though Eisenhower was one of the winners of the entrance-exam competition, he was too old for the Naval Academy.
He then accepted an appointment to West Point in 1911.
At West point, Eisenhower liked the traditions and the sports.
In sports, Eisenhower later said that "not making the baseball team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest".
He joined the varsity football team and was a starter as running back and linebacker in 1912.
He tackled the legendary Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle Indians.
Eisenhower got a torn knee while being tackled in the next game, which was the last he played; he re-injured his knee on horseback and in the boxing ring, so he turned to fencing and gymnastics.
Eisenhower later served as junior varsity football coach and cheerleader.
He graduated in the middle of the class of 1915.
That class became known as "the class the stars fell on", because 59 members became general officers.
Military Career
Eisenhower was born into a family which did not have much money.
He joined the United States Military Academy at West Point as a cadet in 1911, and as an officer served in many different places including the Panama Canal Zone, Washington, D.C. and the Philippines.
During World War II, he was a general.
He directed the invasion of Morocco and Algeria during the North African Campaign.
He became a 5-star general and was the Supreme Allied Commander for Operation Overlord (an attack on Germany which was one of the most important battles of the war).
After World War II ended, he was considered a war hero.
In the 1952 U.S. presidential election, the American public begged Eisenhower to run for President.
Eisenhower (whose political views were unknown at the time) joined the Republican Party.
He chose Richard Nixon as his vice-presidential candidate and won the election by beating Adlai Stevenson II.
Presidency, 1953–61
He served two terms from 1953–1961.
Eisenhower was the first President of the United States to be president of all 50 states.
During the beginning of his first term, he oversaw a ceasefire (which stopped the fighting) during the  Korean War.
He created NASA (the United States space program) which began a space race against the Soviet Union.
Eisenhower believed that the United States should not try to fight wars overseas, but instead that United States should make more nuclear weapons so it could have an advantage in the Cold War.
The United States was able to keep the Soviet Union in check without spending a lot of money.
For this reason, the U.S. government had balanced budgets during his presidency and did not have to borrow money.
He intimidated the Soviet Union by making them believe that the United States would respond to any act of aggression with the use of nuclear weapons.
That policy is called brinkmanship, new look, and massive retaliation.
He also authorized planes to spy on the Soviet Union, but when a U.S. spy plane accidentally crashed into the Soviet Union near the end of Eisenhower's term, it hurt relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
McCarthyism (when Senator Joseph McCarthy was accusing hundreds of people of being communist spies without evidence) was also an issue during his presidency.
Eisenhower disliked Joseph McCarthy and tried to bring him down behind the scenes, but Eisenhower did not like to make enemies, so he did not talk about McCarthy much.
Domestically (in the country), the economy was doing very well and the nation was prosperous.
Eisenhower supervised the creation of the interstate highway system and created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Eisenhower was a moderate conservative (near the center of the political spectrum).
He wanted to continue some New Deal programs such as Social Security, but at the same time, he wanted the government to be limited.
At first, many criticized him for not doing enough to give civil rights to African Americans, but later during his presidency, he signed two civil rights acts and sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to make sure schools were desegregated.
When Eisenhower's presidency ended he was not very popular with scholars.
Over time his reputation slowly improved and historians now generally consider him to be a good president.
In September 2020, a presidential memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. honoring Eisenhower.
White House biography on Eisenhower
WW2DB: Dwight Eisenhower
1890 births
1969 deaths
Cardiovascular disease deaths in Washington, D.C.
Military-industrial complex
Military people from Texas
Politicians from Texas
Kansas Republicans
People from Denison, Texas
a number in mathematics;
a chemical in science.
a character in the game Dungeons & Dragons.
Ball (dance), a formal dance occasion
Something in the shape of a sphere
A round object which is used in sports and games.
Slang term for testicles
Ferrocement is both a method and a material used in building or sculpting with cement, sand, water and wire or mesh material.
It is often called the thin shell.
Thin shell ferrocement offers strength and economy and can be used in many ways including: building homes, creating sculptures, or building boats and ships.
FerroBoats.com
Ferrocement.com (multi-lingual)
Ferrocement Educational Network
Water Storage book by Art Ludwig, includes Ferrocement Tanks & Excel Water Tank Calculator
Water Tank Design  Water Tank Design information
A camera lens is the part of a camera that directs light to the film or, in a digital camera, to a computer chip that can sense the light.
Many cheap lenses are plastic but better ones are made from glass.
The lens makes an image by focusing the light.
The majority of cameras only have one lens that users cannot change or take out.
This is called a fixed lens design.
More expensive cameras usually have lenses that come off, so anyone can take out one lens and put in another.
A lens may be simple, or may actually be made of several lenses.
Photographers can use different lenses (objectives) to make different kinds of pictures.
For example, a telephoto lens can take a picture of something far away.
A  wide-angle lens is the opposite.
A zoom lens is more versatile; it can do both.
Lenses for large sheet film cameras are especially difficult to design.
Cameras and their lenses have been made since the 19th century.
Some from before World War II, are still usable today.
Computers now let engineers make better lenses, though, because they can calculate the way that light goes through the lens and find the best design for each task.
Camera lenses
A boy is a young male human, either a child or teenager.
Little boys still have the body of a child.
It is not until they reach puberty (adolescence) that their bodies start to mature and they become a man.
The word “boy” was used a long time ago in Anglo-Saxon English.
The opposite of a boy is a girl.
The way boys are brought up will be vary a lot between different cultures.
Boys are supposed to be tougher than girls.
It is their job to do work which is physically hard, including fighting in the army when they are grown up.
However, people’s attitudes are changing and nowadays many girls like to do the same things as boys.
In Western cultures boys traditionally wear trousers (pants) while girls wear dresses or skirts.
However, many girls also wear trousers these days, like boys, especially when dressed informally.
Boys often have shorter hair than girls, although this can vary a lot according to quickly changing fashions.
Traditionally boys like rough games (such as soccer or rugby) and enjoy playing with mechanical things such as toy cars and trains.
People today have long discussions about whether this is because they are born like that, or because that is the way society expects them to behave.
The traditional colour for a boy is blue.
For girls it is pink.
When a baby is born in a hospital it usually gets a blue or pink tag on its wrist or ankle, according to whether it is a boy or a girl.
Some names are boys’ names, others are girls’ names.
There are some names which can be for boys and girls (although they may be spelt differently, e.g. “Lesley” for a boy and “Leslie” for a girl).
In some countries such as Britain an “old boy” means a grown up who used to be a pupil at a particular school (e.g. “He is an old boy of Cransbury High School”).
The expression can also be used in a very informal, friendly way, e.g. “Nice to see you, old boy!”.
Responsible for performing clerical and administrative duties in an office setting.
Assists executive assistants and secretaries by sorting mail, filing, answering phones, greeting clients, scheduling meetings, and restocking supplies.
Sir James Paul McCartney  (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and composer.
He is internationally known as a singer and bassist of the Beatles.
With singer and guitarist John Lennon, he contributed music and lyrics to a lot of the band's songs.
The Beatles (1962–1970)
McCartney began writing songs before he was sixteen, and has written well over two hundred.
His most famous song is "Yesterday", recorded by the Beatles in 1965.
Since then around 2000 artists have recorded the song.
Other songs written by McCartney for The Beatles include "Can't Buy Me Love", "Hey Jude", "Penny Lane", "Eleanor Rigby" and "Let It Be".
Often, Beatles songs would have "Lennon/McCartney" written on the record, and it would look like that they had written it together.
In fact, most Lennon/McCartney songs were written by only one of them, or with one adding only small parts to the other's work.
Each counted on the other to help make their songs better, so they agreed to share the credit equally.
Since the Beatles had stopped working together in 1971, McCartney started a new band called Wings with his wife Linda.
Wings also had many hit records, including "Band On The Run" and "Mull Of Kintyre".
McCartney wrote "Live and Let Die", which became the theme song to a James Bond film with the same title.
Wings disbanded in 1981.
Later McCartney recorded a single called "Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder, then "The Girl is Mine" and "Say, Say, Say" with Michael Jackson.
A song with Jackson called "The Man" was released on McCartney's fifth solo album Pipes of Peace.
He and Jackson became friends, but this ended after Jackson outbid McCartney for ownership of the publishing company which owned most of the Beatles's music.
McCartney had other hit songs, and also wrote and starred in the movie, Give My Regards to Broad Street, with Linda.