the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
The Missouri was used as the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804-1806.
In the 19th century, the Missouri was very important in the North American fur trade and for transportation of army troops and supplies as well as general transportation and trade as the West was settled.
Rivers of Montana
Rivers of Kansas
Rivers of Nebraska
Rivers of South Dakota
Rivers of North Dakota
Many religions, viewpoints, and creative artists have tried to find the meaning of life, but have no sensible answer.
Some people say that we will never know what the meaning of life is.
Many religions claim to offer some answers.
There are also sets of ideas called philosophies which try to answer this question.
There are also artists who paint or create sculptures to try expressing life.
There are musicians who write music and writers who write stories that try to explain life.
Many have different opinions on what the meaning is.
Some say life is a war zone where we are the soldiers fighting in that war for survival.
Some think it is all about the relationships that we make in our life.
Some people say that life is full of violence and hatred but some say that life is full of hope and happiness.
Still, other people say that the meaning of life is to achieve the goals you set in life.
According to Douglas Adams, the answer to the question is 42.
The biological answer is to have children, which is to pass on your genes.
Others say the meaning of life is simply to live your life to the fullest.
Some say, however, the meaning of life is simply to give life a meaning.
However, life can also be an illusion, or maybe a mere mirror of a different universe.
Maybe we really don't have any control over our or the universe's actions, since we are all just imitating a different universe.
We can never really know.
Philosophies such as nihilism and absurdism deny that life has any meaning.
Or maybe the true meaning of life is to live it completely how you want to, then find out the meaning of it at the end.
The meaning could be unique to all of us.
Others, like Solomon, argue that 'life is useless'. (
Ecclesiastes 1:2)
Drainage basin is a geographic term about rivers.
It is also called  catchment, catchment area, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin, and water basin.
It is an area of land.
All water that falls on that land flows into one river.
It can flow directly into the river or go through tributaries (smaller rivers that flow into the bigger river) first.
One river can drain a large area.
For example, more than half of the United States is drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries.
The Amazon basin is similarly large.
River basins are an open system with inputs and, outputs.
Water comes in as precipitation and goes out as discharge.
Meaning drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins
Meaning drainage basin in North American usage. (
an area of land where surface water converges)
The Great Plains is a large space of level land or prairie in the middle and western parts of North America.
It is a steppe or grassland.
The western boundary is the Rocky Mountains.
In the east, the Great Plains grassland becomes the tallgrass of the Mississippi River basin.
The prairie is (in whole or part) in eleven U.S. states, and in the southern parts of three Canadian provinces.
In the Great Plains, summers are hot and humid, but winters are cold.
Bison used to number millions, and were the main food for people there.
Now the area is mainly sown with cereal crops which feed cattle and people.
North Dakota State University: The Geologic Story of The Great Plains
Kansas Heritage Group: Native Prairie, Preserve, Flowers, and Research
Library of Congress: Great Plains
University of Nebraska-Lincoln: The Great Plains Study
Regions of Canada
Regions of the United States
Mythology refers to the collected myths of a group of peopletheir body of stories which they tell to explain nature, history, and customs.
It can also refer to the study of such myths.
A myth is a story about the remote past which is considered true within the society in which it is told.
Creation myths take place before the world reached its present form in the most remote time – the first existing period of time known as the primordial age.
The characters are normally non-human; they can be gods, demigods, and other supernatural figures.
Myths are often associated with religion or spirituality and can be very important to those who believe in them.
Some myths are used to explain how a particular reality came into existence, explaining why a society works and is structured the way it is.
Myths are different from folktales and legends.
The definitions of these are not yet agreed upon but myths are generally understood to be true, about the remote past, and containing non-human characters.
In contrast, legends usually feature human characters and folktales are understood as fiction.
The word myth is often used to mean false.
For this reason, some religious people object to their beliefs being called myths and some scholars choose to avoid it in favour of other terms.
Other scholars choose to call all religious stories myths in order to avoid treating one religion as more important or true than another.
Content of myths
All cultures have developed their own mythology over time.
Mythology includes the legends of their history, their religions, their stories of how the world was created, and their heroes.
These stories have great symbolic power, and this may be a major reason why they survive as long as they do, sometimes for thousands of years.
The main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods, or supernatural humans, while legends generally feature humans as their main characters.
Many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid.
Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and closely linked to religion or spirituality.
In fact, many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths to be true accounts of their remote past.
Creation myths take place in some early primordial age when the world had not reached its present form.
Other myths explain how the society's customs, institutions and taboos were established and sanctified.
A separate space is created for folktales, which are not considered true by the people who tell them.
As stories spread to other cultures or as faiths change, however, myths can come to be considered folktales.
Sometimes myths and legends get merged.
Their divine characters get recast as humans or as demihumans (such as giants, elves, and faeries).
Creation myths describe the "official" belief as to how world was created.
These myths differ greatly between societies, as any collection of myths clearly shows.
Over the last three centuries, the power of myths over the minds of people has been challenged by the growth of science.
Historians' views on myths
Although myths are often considered to be stories of events that have not happened, many historians think myths are about actual events that have become connected with strong symbolic meaning, or that have been changed, or shifted in time or place, or even reversed.
One way of thinking about this process is to imagine 'myths' as lying at the far end of an imaginary line.
At one end of the line is 'dispassionate account', and 'legendary occurrence' or 'mythical status' is near the other end.
As an event progresses toward the 'mythical' end of this line or continuum, the way people think, feel and say about the event changes.
It may gain greater historical significance while the 'facts' become less important.
By the time one arrives at the mythical end of the line, the story has "taken on a life of its own" and the facts of the original event have become almost unimportant.
The Minnesota River is a river in the United States.
It is in the northern United States, in the state of Minnesota.
It is about 534 km long.
The source of the river is a lake in western Minnesota.
The lake is called Big Stone Lake.
The lake is on the border between the state of Minnesota and the state of South Dakota.
From its source, the Minnesota flows southeast.
At Mankato, it turns northeast.
It joins the Mississippi just south of the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
Mythology is the collection of myths for a culture.
A myth is a story or series of stories used to explain the world around you and describe what is happening, such as why weather happens.
Myths usually have heroes, gods, and creatures that are bigger or more fantastic than real life, or sometimes just normal people doing amazing things.
Some myths try to explain the natural world.
One example is the Greek myth of Arachne.
She believed that she could weave far better than anyone else, including the goddess Athena.
So, Athena challenged Arachne to a weaving contest.
Arachne lost, then was turned into a spider.
This myth explains why spiders weave webs.
Manipuri mythology (Meitei mythology)
Etruscan mythology
Māori mythology
Iranian mythology
Korean mythology
Slavic mythology
African mythology
Polynesian mythology
Inuit mythology
Babylonian mythology
Sumerian mythology
Egyptian mythology
Mayan mythology
Inca mythology
Hindu mythology
The Wisconsin River is a river in the United States.
It is located in the state of Wisconsin.
It is approximately 692 km long.
The source of the Wisconsin is in the forests of northern Wisconsin.
The source is a small lake on the border between Wisconsin and Michigan.
The river flows south across Wisconsin.
It flows through a plain made by a glacier during the last ice age.
It passes the cities of Wausau and Stevens Point.
In southern Wisconsin, the river meets a moraine.
The moraine was made during the last ice age.
The river enters a beautiful gorge, called the Wisconsin Dells.
North of the city of Madison, the river turns to the west.
It flows west through the hills of southwest Wisconsin.
It joins the Mississippi 15 km south of the city of Prairie du Chien.
Alaska (), officially the State of Alaska, is a state in the United States.
It is in the Northwest corner of the continent of the United States West Coast.
Alaska does not touch other US states.
It has borders with Canada, the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, and the Bering Strait.
Alaska is the biggest state in the United States.
It is the 3rd least populated state.
It has the lowest population density of all the states.
As of the 2011 census, 722,718 people live in Alaska.
The United States bought Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867.
This was called the Alaska Purchase.
It cost $7.2 million.
Today, that would be $120 million.
The price was about $0.02 per acre ($4.74/km2).
Alaska became an organized (or incorporated) territory on May 11, 1912.
It became the 49th state on January 3, 1959.
The name Alaska comes from the Aleut word alaxsaq.
This means "the mainland" or "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed."
The land is also called Alyeska, which is another Aleut word that means "the great land."
The Russian name was Аляска.
Alaska mainly exports seafood, primarily salmon, cod, Pollock and crab.
The oil and gas industry is very important in the Alaskan economy.
More than 80% of the state's revenues is from petroleum extraction.
The capital city is Juneau, but the biggest city is Anchorage.
Alaska is the biggest state in the United States, but it has one of the smallest populations.
It is also the least densely populated with more than half of the population residing in the Anchorage Metropolitan Area.
Alaska has almost 20% of all the land in the U.S., but only about 0.2% of the people.
It is not connected to any other states by American land, but it is connected to the territories of Yukon and British Columbia in Canada.
Alaska has many glaciers, some of which are can be seen from passing cruise ships.
Some are coastal, and others are not by the ocean.
It is a popular tourist destination, as there is a very rich culture along with beautiful scenery.
There are many wild animals in Alaska.
Some of them are the brown bear, the moose, and the wolf.
There are some important industries in Alaska, like oil, fishing, mining, transportation, tourism, and forestry.
Oil is the biggest industry in Alaska.
Most of the oil is very far north in the Alaskan arctic.
A very long pipeline starts at the northern coast of Alaska and runs to the southern coast.
It is over  long.
There were many gold rushes in Alaska.
The Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) is ranked as the world's fourth busiest cargo airport.
Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians in Alaska.
One of the world's largest tides occur in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage, where the differences in the tides can be more than 35 feet (10.7 m).
Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States can be found in Southeast Alaska.
The state capital Juneau, and the former capital Sitka, can be found in Southeast Alaska.
State Motto: North to the Future
Nicknames: "The Last Frontier" or "Land of the Midnight Sun" or "Seward's Icebox"
State bird: Willow Ptarmigan, decided by the Territorial Legislature in 1955.
It is a small (15–17 inches) Arctic grouse that lives among willows and on open tundra and muskeg.
Feathers are brown in summer, changing to white in winter.
The Willow Ptarmigan is common in much of Alaska.
State dog: Alaskan Malamute, since 2010.
State fish: King Salmon, since 1962.
State flower: wild/native Forget-me-not, decided by the Territorial Legislature in 1917.
It is a perennial that is found throughout Alaska, from Hyder to the Arctic Coast, and west to the Aleutians.
State fossil: Woolly mammoth, since 1986.
State gem: Jade, since 1968.
State insect: Four-spot skimmer dragonfly, since 1995.
State land mammal: Moose, since 1998.
State marine mammal: Bowhead Whale, since 1983.
State mineral: Gold, since 1968.
State song: "Alaska's Flag"
State sport: Dog Mushing, since 1972.
State tree: Sitka Spruce, since 1962.
Official Website of Alaska
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), known by the BBC, is an organisation in the UK.
The BBC also sells its programmes to other broadcasting companies around the world.
The governors appoint a Board of Management to take care of running the business of the BBC.
The head of the Board of Management is called the Director General.
BBC Charter
In 2006, the British Government looked at the charter to see if it needed changing.
Another agreement, which goes with the Charter, recognises that the BBC should be independent from any other organisation.
It also says what the BBC should do for the people in Britain (the public).
Every household in the UK that watches or records "live" programmes, (as they’re being broadcast, or distributed to the public in any other way) or watches BBC Iplayer, is required, by law, to pay for a TV Licence.
As the BBC gets its money from TV licences, it does not take money from companies or shareholders, so it does not have to do what they want.
Also, it is not allowed to broadcast commercials in the middle of a programme, although they can show commercials in between programmes.
The BBC makes extra money in several ways.
One way is by selling its programmes to other broadcasting companies.
Another way is by selling audio tapes and CDs of its best radio programmes, and videos and DVDs of its best television programmes.
Still another way is by selling books based on programmes, and magazines about science and natural history.
Radio Times
In 1923, BBC Magazines started publishing a magazine which printed listings of the week's BBC radio and television programmes in the United Kingdom.
The magazine was called the Radio Times.
In 1991, the magazine began to print listings of programmes broadcast by other providers in the United Kingdom.
Today the magazine is still printed and provides online listings too.
It also prints stories about programmes, the people who make them, and the people who appear in them.
The Radio Times is one of the best selling magazines in the United Kingdom.
In August 2011, the BBC agreed to sell the magazine to Exponent, if Britain's Office of Fair Trading approves.
BBC Report
The headquarters of the BBC is Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London.
The BBC also has other offices such as the BBC Television Centre in White City, London, BBC Radio Berkshire, as well in other cities like Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Southampton and Newcastle upon Tyne.
Rather than hire local reporters everywhere, the BBC's journalists work in many countries across the world.
This means BBC workers are sometimes in danger, especially in war zones.
Most recently Alan Johnston was kidnapped and held hostage for many months in Gaza before being safely released.
Between October 2005 and 28 February 2006, the BBC offered a service called the BBC iPlayer on their website - bbc.co.uk.
It allowed people to catch up on the last seven days of TV and radio on the BBC.
Users could either watch (stream) it or download the content on their computers.
The downloading options are for Microsoft Windows computers and Apple devices.
The iPlayer service was released to the public on 25 December 2007.
The slogan for BBC iPlayer is 'Making the Unmissable, Unmissable.'
BBC Homepage
BBC News Front Page
1922 establishments in the United Kingdom
The Illinois River is a river in the United States.
It is in the state of Illinois.
It is an important tributary of the Mississippi River.
The length of the river is about 439 km.
The source of the river is in northeastern Illinois, near the city of Joliet.
It flows west across Illinois, then southwest.
It passes the city of Peoria, the largest city on the river.
It flows into southwestern Illinois.
It joins the Mississippi River 40 km north of Saint Louis, Missouri.
The river was used for transportation by the Native Americans.
It was also used by early French trappers.
It was an important route between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.
In the 19th century a canal was built that connected the river to Lake Michigan.
Large ships now use this canal to go from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.
The canal goes through the city of Chicago.
It is one of the reasons that Chicago became a big city.
Milk is a white liquid made by mammals, like cows, dogs, and humans.
It is made in the mammary glands (breasts, udders, or teats) of female mammals.
Because newborn babies have no teeth, they must be given milk before they can eat solid food.
Milk has many nutrients to help babies grow and be healthy.
It is also a rich source of calcium which is good for their bones and teeth.
Storing milk
If milk is not kept cold in a refrigerator, it will become sour after some time.
When milk is warmed, it turns sour.
Fermentation makes this happen.
Lactic acid bacteria change the milk sugar into lactic acid.
Fermentation is used when making dairy products.
Milk is often pasteurised before humans drink it.
It is made into dairy products like cream, butter, yogurt, ice cream, or cheese.
Pasteurised cows' milk will turn sour if it is not kept in a refrigerator.
Milk should be stored between 1° and 4° Celsius.
If milk is treated with very high temperatures, it will last longer before spoiling.
This means it does not have to be put in the refrigerator until it is opened.
Milk contains a chemical called lactose.
Babies make an enzyme called lactase inside their bodies.
Adults make less lactase.
If they do not have enough, they may not be able to digest lactose anymore.
This problem is called lactose intolerance and it affects many adults.
There are many medicines that help adults digest lactose.
Many lactose-intolerant people drink soy milk instead of animal milk, because it does not contain lactose.
Soy milk tastes similar to animal milk, but it is chemically very different and is made from soybeans.
Goat milk
Goat's milk is the milk from a goat.
It can be drunk, both by humans or baby goats, or cheese can be made from it.
This cheese is called goat's milk cheese.
Coconut milk is not real milk because it comes from a plant instead of an animal.
However, it looks similar to real milk because it is white.
It also does not have as many nutrients as real milk.
It is made by removing the white "meat" from a coconut, pressing or squeezing the "meat", then adding water.
It is sometimes used in cooking, for example, in Thai curry.
Almond milk
Almond milk is produced by grinding almonds and processing that liquid for drinking.
Milk forms an important part of a person's daily balanced diet.
It contains a lot of calcium that helps bones and teeth to grow stronger.
Also, milk provides the body with high quality proteins, and helps in meeting the body's requirement for vitamins.
One glass of milk gives about 44% to the recommended daily vitamins intake.
Some kind of milks, though, do not have good calcium.
These kind of milk products include cream, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and cream cheese.
Symbols of Oklahoma
Weather is the day-to-day or hour-to-hour change in the atmosphere.
Weather includes wind, lightning, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, rain, hail, snow, and lots more.
Energy from the Sun affects the weather too.
Changes in weather can affect our mood and life.
We wear different clothes and do different things in different weather conditions.
We choose different foods in different seasons.
Weather stations around the world measure different parts of weather.
Ways to measure weather are wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity.
People try to use these measurements to make weather forecasts for the future.
These people are  scientists that are called meteorologists.
They use computers to build large mathematical models to follow weather trends.
Severe weather can hurt people and their property.
It can also just be a bother.
Some examples of severe weather are:
Tropical cyclones
Rainstorms
Causes of weather
Weather happens because different parts of the Earth get different amounts of heat from the Sun.
This makes different climates.
The tropics get the most heat because the Sun shines straight down on them, while the poles get the least heat because the Sun shines on them from a low angle.
Warmer air is lighter than cooler air and rises higher in the sky by convection.
The air always has some water mixed with it.
This is called humidity.
When it cools, the water can change from a gas to a liquid through condensation.
Then the water can fall from the sky as rain or snow.
After the air rises, it gets colder and goes back towards the ground.
Because the air lost its water before, it is dry when it comes back to the ground.
When two air masses of different temperatures meet, this is called a warm front or cold front.
The ways that the air moves around the Earth are called atmospheric circulation.
Internet Geography's weather page
Natural events
British Columbia (BC) is the westernmost province in Canada.
It was originally two separate colonies of Great Britain, the colony of Vancouver Island, and the colony of British Columbia.
British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation In 1871.
The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, but the city with the most people is Vancouver.
Before European contact, British Columbia was home to large numbers of indigenous people.
These people, for the large part, still live in the province.
Because BC has a large amount of resources, the native people who dwelled here lived comfortably enough.
The large number of resources, in particular, led to the creation of very complex hierarchical societies in British Columbia, long before the government of the Europeans.
Oregon Dispute
The Oregon dispute was an important factor in determining the physical shape of British Columbia, and as the political impetus for British investment in protecting her lands in British Columbia.
During the middle of the 19th century, the Democratic Party of the United States, appealing to the public attraction to the Manifest Destiny (a philosophy preaching American Supremacy and expansionism), declared that the United States had a claim over the entirety of Columbia District/Oregon Territory.
This attitude was reflected even further, as 54*-40' or fight, referring to the end of Columbia District, and the start of Russian Territory of Alaska.
This alarming attitude, caused many in London to fear that yet another war, in less than a century, was brewing.
Ultimately, however, it was resolved, at the 49th parallel.
British Columbia lost Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver, Washington), and lots of the gulf islands.
To this day, the Oregon Treaty is criticized by historians, as being too lenient for the Americans.
Hudson's Bay Corporation
While British Columbia was technically a British colony, it was the private corporation, the Hudson's Bay Company that really ran the place.
The first Governor of Vancouver Island (then a separate colony), actually resigned over the fact that the Queen, had no say, above the interests of the Colony.
After him, the next governor of the Island, was also, coincidentally, the head of the HBC's operations in British Columbia and Vancouver Island.
The first major gold rush in British Columbia started in 1858, after gold was discovered, on the upper reaches of the Fraser River.
The sudden onslaught of uncouth Americans led to the declaration that British Columbia shall be a crown colony, instead of the unincorporated region it was, after the Oregon spat.
James Douglas was appointed the governor of the newly formed colony, as well as the Colony of Vancouver Island, and for military convenience, the Capital of British Columbia was declared Queensboro, then renamed New Westminster.
As massive numbers of Americans came, fears that the Americans would try to bluster themselves another chunk of territory became more and more concrete.
Thus, a contingent of Royal Engineers and Marines were deployed to New Westminster.
To this day, the neighbourhood of Sapperton, is known, for its history as a site of the barracks for the Engineers, nicknamed the Sappers.
The infrastructure ordered by James Douglas, to support the vast amount of capital flowing from the gold industry, caused high debt for British Columbia.
By 1864, British Columbia was £200,000 in debt, plus an additional £18,000, from various spats with natives, and constant policing required to maintain law and order.
Its vast amount of gold was useless, while BC was in debt.
British Columbia amalgamated with Vancouver Island, forming one super-colony.
Vancouver Island would undertake the debt, and British Columbia's capital would be in Victoria.
Confederation With Canada
British Columbia at the middle of the 19th century, had 3 options: Remain a colony of Britain, annex itself to the United States, or join the Dominion of Canada.
The option of remaining a colony was undesirable, for Britain had long adopted a "little Briton" policy, under which the key to economic efficiency, and reduction of bloat, was to cut off connections to its various colonies.
The option of joining with Canada was also viewed as impractical, and unlikely to occur; the closest Canadian neighbor lay more than a thousand kilometers away, to the east.
For most British Colombians, annexation to the United States seemed most logical.
Ultimately, however, British Columbia did confederate.
The advocacy of the Confederation League, resulted in British Colombian's demanding that BC join Canada.
On July 20, 1871, British Columbia joined Canada.
In return, BC was absolved of its debt, which became Canada's responsibility, and Canada promised to build a railway to BC within 10 years.
British Columbia's industry is primarily, and has always been, resource centered.
For large parts of its history, including the entire time it was a colony, BC was dominated by the big 4: Forestry, Mining, Logging, and Agriculture, which have shaped British Columbia's culture, and society.
Forestry in British Columbia
British Columbia's forestry industry has always been booming.
BC had a bonanza of massive trees, thanks to its location in the Pacific Rainforest region.
This provided ample opportunity for entrepreneurs to build businesses.
Massive sawmills sprung up, all over British Columbia, especially in what is now Vancouver and surrounding regions.
However, this required massive amounts of human capital - which was surprisingly in short supply.
To overcome this, massive numbers of immigrants were invited to Vancouver, and places like so.
This changed BC's demographic makeup so much, that to try to stop it, the government passed several acts, to try and limit the number of immigrants.
However, the change was already underway - BC subsequently became one of the most diverse places in North America, with people calling it home, from places like Asia, Europe, and even the Pacific Islands.
Mining in British Columbia
British Columbia's large mineral resources also led to a large mining industry.
For the most of the 19th century, and well into the 20th century, mining was highly profitable.
For the immigrants, once again, this was another opportunity to exploit.
Large numbers of immigrants, skilled from their experience mining at home, filled up the labour demands, and quickly, new towns were formed.
The city of Nanaimo, for instance, was founded thanks to a large amount of coal found in its harbour.
Coal especially, was the fuel of the industry, as coal was required for everything it the time, from ships, to trains, to the heater in everyone's homes.
Fishing in British Columbia
Thanks to BC's location on the coast, fishing has been very prevalent in British Columbia.
Before agriculture had developed very far in BC, and well before farming fish was even a viable option, fishing was the only reliable way to get food.
The native people of BC already had a very active fishing industry, with large hauls of salmon, and other creatures sustaining them.
When civilization came, the fishing industry took off, as everybody needed to eat, and there was not enough agricultural goods to go around.
In fishing, once again, it was the immigrants that pulled it off.
Mostly Japanese workers, and their families, came.
Using their rich heritage of industrialized fishing, they were able to out compete every other fisherman, that by the turn of the century, the dockyards, canneries, and fishing fleets were filled to the brim with the Japanese.
Only the forced Japanese internment in WW2 put a halt to the monopoly the Japanese had on fishing in British Columbia.
Today, fishing is still a powerful force, although fettered by ordinances to prevent overfishing.
Agriculture in British Columbia
The agriculture industry in BC is, and always has been humble.
However, as they say, good things come in small packages, and the agricultural goods of BC, are about as good as they come.
Due to the fact that BC has only about 2% arable land, the remainder being too dry, or too cold, or too remote, or a plethora of other reasons, BC has never been able to sustain a primary food agricultural industry.
Even today, BC cannot grow enough food to feed its entire population, and imports foods instead, from the eastern provinces, such as Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
However, where BC does grow food, the food is scrumptious, and award-winning.
The Okanagan valley, is known for its award-winning fruits, and wine-related products.
However, that is not where all the food is produced.
In the Fraser valley delta, large amounts of other food crops are grown, such as wheat, and berries.
Housing in British Columbia
The value of real estate in British Columbia has increased a lot in recent years.
Property assessed values have increased by  $1-trillion since 2007.
In 2018 the value was $1.861 trillion.
In 2007 it was only  $808 billion.
The provincial health insurance plan in British Columbia is called Medical Services Plan (MSP).
In order to join MSP a person:
must be a citizen of Canada or be lawfully admitted to Canada for permanent residence
must make his or her home in B.C.; and
Eligible B.C. residents (citizens of Canada or persons who are lawfully admitted to Canada for permanent residence) who are outside B.C. for vacation purposes only, are allowed a total absence of up to seven months in a calendar year.
British Columbia's premier is John Horgan, leader of the provincial New Democratic Party, a social democratic party.
The NDP governs British Columbia through a deal with the provincial Green Party, led by Andrew Weaver.
The BC Liberal Party is the main opponent to the NDP, and is led by Andrew Wilkinson.
Other parties are active in British Columbia, such as the Conservative Party, led by Scott Anderson, although only the NDP, BC Liberal Party, and Green Party currently have seats.
The flag of British Columbia was adopted in 1960.
It is based on the provincial arms and the union jack.
Provincial Archives including online photo database
Vancouver Public Library; Historical Photographs of BC & the Yukon
B.C. Multicultural Photographs from the Vancouver Public Library - searchable photo database
BC Govt online map archive
1871 establishments
1870s establishments in Canada
The 20th century began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000.
It was the century that saw two world wars, the Soviet Union rise and fall, the coming of the telephone, sound recording, film and television, airplanes, atomic weapons, genetics and DNA, computers and electronics in general.
Science and industrialization spread; medicine became more scientific.
The human population increased more during this century than any previous one.
Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Côte d'Ivoire
Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia
Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya
Idi Amin, Uganda
Nelson Mandela, South Africa
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt
Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana
Julius Nyerere, Tanzania
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libya
Cecil Rhodes, South Africa
Haile Selassie, Ethiopia
Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal
William McKinley, USA
Theodore Roosevelt, USA
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, USA
Harry S. Truman, USA
Dwight D. Eisenhower, USA
John F. Kennedy, USA
Richard Nixon, USA
Ronald Reagan, USA
George H. W. Bush, USA
Bill Clinton, USA
Wilfrid Laurier, Canada
William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada
Pierre Trudeau, Canada
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Argentina
Fidel Castro, Cuba
Raúl Castro, Cuba
Juan Perón, Argentina
Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentina
Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentina
Salvador Allende, Chile
Augusto Pinochet, Chile
Emiliano Zápata, Mexico
Pancho Villa, Mexico
José María Velasco Ibarra, Ecuador
León Febres Cordero, Ecuador
Sixto Durán Ballén, Ecuador
Mao Zedong, People's Republic of China
Deng Xiaoping, People's Republic of China
Pol Pot, Cambodia
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
Mahatma Gandhi, India
Indira Gandhi, India
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh
Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia
Jawaharlal Nehru, India
Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, India
Emperor Hirohito, Japan
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Sun Yat-sen, Republic of China
Chiang Kai-shek, Republic of China
Achmad Sukarno, Indonesia
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore
Kemal Atatürk, Turkey
Neville Chamberlain, United Kingdom
Winston Churchill, United Kingdom
Margaret Thatcher, United Kingdom
Charles de Gaulle, France
Éamon de Valera, Ireland
Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, Austria-Hungary
Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany
Václav Havel, Czech Republic
Adolf Hitler, Germany
Helmut Schmidt, Germany
Helmut Kohl, Germany
Gerhard Schröder, Germany
Benito Mussolini, Italy
Francisco Franco, Spain
Adolfo Suárez, Spain
Jozef Pilsudski, Poland
Josip Broz 'Tito', Yugoslavia
Milan Kučan, Slovenia
Slobodan Milošević, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Olof Palme, Sweden
Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania
Lech Walesa, Poland
John Paul II, World
Anwar Sadat, Egypt or United Arab Republic
David Ben-Gurion, Israel
Golda Meir, Israel
Menachem Begin, Israel
Hafez el Assad, Syria
Saddam Hussein, Iraq
King Hussein, Jordan
Russia and Soviet Union
Tsar Nicholas II
Scientists and physicians
Howard Walter Florey
Werner Karl Heisenberg
Economics and business
Aerospace pioneers
Wernher Von Braun
Wright Brothers
Military leaders
Douglas Haig
George Patton
Religious figures
Mother Theresa of Calcutta
The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Rev. Billy Graham
Wassily Kandinsky
Singers, actors, actresses and bands
Michael Dapaah
Writers and Poets
W. B. Yeats
Sports figures
Sir Edmund Hillary
People widely known for something bad
Note: movie years before or after the twentieth century are in italics.
In 2007, 145,917 people lived there.
But the area around it, known as the Brussels-Capital Region, had 1,031,215 people (which makes it the largest city area in Belgium).
The people of Brussels speak mainly French and Flemish (a type of Dutch).
There are lots of other languages spoken as well, because the European Union offices are there and because many thousands of immigrants from all over the world live there.
The city is at 50° 50 North, 04° 21 East.
It has an oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification).
It is also well known for a style of building known as Art Nouveau.
Interactive map of Brussels
Site of the Brussels-Capital Region
About the Cartoon Wall Paintings in Brussels
Thuringia (German: Thüringen) is a Bundesland of Germany.
It lies in central Germany and has an area of .
This means Thuringia is the sixth smallest state in Germany by area.
It has 2.1 million inhabitants, so it is the fifth smallest state in Germany by population.
The capital is Erfurt.
1920 the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, the Duchies of Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg and Saxe-Gotha (part of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and the Principalities of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Greiz and Gera united to make the Free State of Thuringia.
1949 Thuringia and Erfurt became a new state of the DDR
1952 It became divided in three Districts Bezirke (Erfurt, Gera and Suhl)
1990 Thuringia became a Bundesland in the reunited Germany.
The most conspicuous geographical feature of Thuringia is the Thuringia Forest (Thüringer Wald).
In the northwest Thuringia includes a small part of the Harz mountains.
The Saale river runs through Jena.
List of Minister-Presidents of Thuringia
1945: Hermann Brill
1945 - 1947: Rudolf Paul
1947 - 1952: Werner Eggerath
1990 - 1992: Josef Duchac
1992 - 2003: Bernhard Vogel (CDU)
2003 - 2009: Dieter Althaus (CDU)
2009 - 2014: Christine Lieberknecht (CDU)
since 2014: Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke)
Cities in Thuringia
Saxony ( ; ), officially the Free State of Saxony (German:  , Upper Sorbian: ), is one of 16 states of Germany.
It is in the southeast of the country, north of Czech Republic.
To the east of Saxony is Poland.
The biggest city is Leipzig.
The capital is called Dresden.
Saxony is the border of Germany to the two countries Poland and Czech Republic.
In the north of Saxony is Brandenburg, another German state.
Saxony's west border is to Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Bavaria.
A big part of the border to the Czech Republic are the Ore Mountains in the south of Saxony.
Saxony is divided into 3 administrative districts (Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig).
These are subdivided into 10 districts:
(The car licence plate of the areas are in brackets)
Urban districts
Chemnitz (C)
Dresden (DD)
Leipzig (L)
The first Free State of Saxony was founded in 1918, after the first World War.
After the second World War, in 1945, the "country of Saxony" was founded.
Later the Country was divided into 3 administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic, and thus robbed of its sovereignty.
Population development
Official governmental portal
Nature of Saxony
Facts about Saxony (Statistisches Landesamt)
Christmas time in Saxony
some facts about Saxony
1990 establishments in Germany
Internet Explorer (IE); formerly known as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, was a series of graphical web browsers made by Microsoft.
It was part of the Microsoft Windows operating system, starting in 1995.
It was first released as part of the add-on package Microsoft Plus!
for Windows 95, that year.
Later versions were free downloads, or in service packs, and included in releases of Windows 95 and later versions of Windows.
IE has been the most popular web browser since 1999, with up to 95% usage share during 2002/2003 with IE5 and IE6.
Since its peak of popularity, its usage share has decreased to 55% due to rival web browsers, and is slowly trending downward.
Microsoft spent over $100 million per year on IE in the late 1990s, with over 1000 people working on it by 1999.
The latest release is Internet Explorer 11.
Internet Explorer was originally planned to be removed from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in Europe, but Microsoft later dropped the plans, and instead included a browser ballot screen with the products, allowing users to select a different web browser if they wish.
Windows 10 comes with a new web browser called Microsoft Edge.
Internet Explorer 11 was still included, but was meant to be used for sites that do not work properly with the new rendering engine in Microsoft Edge.
Windows 11 dropped support for Internet Explorer 11 in favor of Microsoft Edge in 2021.
The Internet Explorer project was started in the summer of 1994 by Thomas Reardon, using source code from Spyglass, Inc. Mosaic, an early commercial web browser with formal ties to the pioneering NCSA Mosaic browser.
In late 1994, Microsoft licensed Spyglass Mosaic for a quarterly fee plus a percentage of Microsoft's non-Windows revenues for the software.
Although bearing a name similar to NCSA Mosaic, the Spyglass Mosaic had used the NCSA Mosaic source code sparingly.
Internet Explorer 1 made its debut on August 16, 1995.
It was a reworked version of Spyglass Mosaic, which Microsoft had licensed, like many other companies initiating browser development, from Spyglass Inc. It came with Microsoft Plus!
for Windows 95 and the OEM release of Windows 95.
It was installed as part of the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Plus!.
The Internet Explorer team began with about six people in early development.
Internet Explorer 1.5 was released several months later for Windows NT and added support for basic table rendering.
However, by including it for free on their OS, they did not have to pay royalties to Spyglass Inc., which resulted in a lawsuit and a multi-million USD settlement.
Internet Explorer 2 was released for Windows 95, Windows NT 3.5, and NT 4.0 on August 24, 1996 (following a 2.0 beta in November 1995).
It featured support for SSL, cookies, VRML, RSA, and Internet newsgroups.
Version 2 was also the first release for Windows 3.1 and Macintosh System 7.0.1 (PPC or 68k), although the Mac version was not released until January 1996 for PPC, and April for 68k.
Version 2.1 for the Mac came out in August 1996, although by this time, Windows was getting 3.0.
Version 2 was included in Windows 95 OSR 1 and Microsoft's Internet Starter Kit for Windows 95 in early 1996.
It launched with twelve languages including English but this expanded to 24, 20, and 9 for Win 95, Win 3.1, and Mac respectively by April 1996.
The 2.0i version supported double-byte character-set.
Internet Explorer 3 was released on August 13, 1996, and went on to be much more popular than its predecessors.
Internet Explorer 3 was the first major browser with CSS support, although this support was only partial.
It also introduced support for ActiveX controls, Java applets, inline multimedia, and the PICS system for content metadata.
Version 3 also came bundled with Internet Mail and News, NetMeeting, and an early version of the Windows Address Book, and was itself included with Windows 95 OSR 2.
Version 3 proved to be the first more popular version of Internet Explorer, which brought with it increased scrutiny.
In the months following its release, a number of security and privacy vulnerabilities were found by researchers and hackers.
This version of Internet Explorer was the first to have the 'blue e' logo.
The Internet Explorer team consisted of roughly 100 people during the development of three months.
The first major IE security hole, the Princeton Word Macro Virus Loophole, was discovered on August 22, 1996 in IE3.
Backwards compatibility was handled by allowing users who upgraded to IE3 to still use the last IE, because the installation converted the previous version to a separate directory.
Internet Explorer 4, released in September 1997, deepened the level of integration between the web browser and the underlying operating system.
Installing version 4 on a Windows 95 or Windows NT 4 machine and choosing Windows Desktop Update would result in the traditional Windows Explorer also being replaced by a version more akin to a web-browser interface, as well as the Windows desktop itself being web-enabled via Active Desktop.
The integration with Windows, however, was subject to numerous packaging criticisms (see United States v. Microsoft).
This option was no longer available with the installers for later versions of Internet Explorer but was not removed from the system if already installed.
Internet Explorer 4 introduced support for Group Policy, allowing companies to configure and lock down many aspects of the browser's configuration as well as support for offline browsing.
Internet Mail and News was replaced with Outlook Express, and Microsoft Chat and an improved NetMeeting were also included.
This version also was included with Windows 98.
New features were added that allow you to save and retrieve posts in comment forms which are still not being used today.
Internet Explorer 4.5 offered new features such as easier 128-bit encryption.
It also offered a dramatic stability improvement over prior versions, particularly the 68k version which was especially prone to freezing.
Internet Explorer 5
Internet Explorer 5 was launched on March 18, 1999, later included with Windows 98 Second Edition and came with Office 2000.
The creation of Internet Explorer 5 was another significant release that supported bi-directional text, ruby characters, XML, XSLT, and the ability to save web pages in MHTML format.
IE5 was bundled with Outlook Express 5.
Also, with the release of Internet Explorer 5.0, Microsoft released the first version of XMLHttpRequest, giving birth to Ajax (even though the term "Ajax" was not coined until years later).
It was the last with a 16-bit version.
Internet Explorer 5.01, a bug fix version, was released in December 1999.
Windows 2000 includes this version.
Internet Explorer 5.5 followed in July 2000, improving its print preview capabilities, CSS and HTML standards support, and developer APIs; this version was bundled with Windows Me.
However, version 5 was the last version for Mac and UNIX.
Version 5.5 was the last to have Compatibility Mode, which allowed Internet Explorer 4 to be run side by side with the 5.x.
The IE team consisted of over 1,000 people by 1999, with funding on the order of 100 million USD per year.
Internet Explorer 6 was released on August 27, 2001, a few months before Windows XP.
This version included DHTML enhancements, content restricted inline frames, and partial support of CSS level 1, DOM level 1, and SMIL 2.0.
The MSXML engine was also updated to version 3.0.
Other new features included a new version of the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK), Media bar, Windows Messenger integration, fault collection, automatic image resizing, P3P, and a new look-and-feel that was in line with the Luna visual style of Windows XP, when used in Windows XP.
Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 offered several security enhancements and coincided with the Windows XP SP1 patch release.
In 2002, the Gopher protocol was disabled and support for it was dropped in Internet Explorer 7.
Internet Explorer 6.0 SV1 came out August 6, 2004 for Windows XP SP2 and offered various security enhancements and new color buttons on the user interface.
IE6 updated the original 'blue e' logo to a lighter blue and more 3D look.
Microsoft now considers IE6 to be an obsolete product and recommends that users upgrade to IE8.
Many corporate IT users have not upgraded despite this.
Internet Explorer 7 was released on October 18, 2006.
It includes bug fixes, enhancements to its support for web standards, tabbed browsing with tab preview and management, a multiple-engine search box, a web feeds reader, Internationalized Domain Name support (IDN), Extended Validation Certificate support, and anti-phishing filter.
With IE7, Internet Explorer has been decoupled from the Windows Shell - unlike previous versions, the Internet Explorer ActiveX control is not hosted in the Windows Explorer process, but rather runs in a separate Internet Explorer process.
It is included with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and is available for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later, and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and later.