the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
In 1000 AD, the Eastern Empire was at its largest point, and culture and trade flourished.
However, the expansion was suddenly stopped in 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert.
This finally made the empire start becoming weaker.
After centuries of fighting and Turkic invasions, Emperor Alexius I Comnenus called for help from the West in 1095.
The West responded with the Crusades, eventually resulting in the Fourth Crusade which conquered Constantinople in 1204.
Several Roman states took pieces of the now smaller empire.
After the recapture of Constantinople by the Romans, the empire was little more than a Greek-speaking state confined to the coast of the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
The empire came to an end when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453.
Roman houses
The Roman Law Library  By Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev
Links for Middle School students from the Courtenay Middle School Library Collection
Globalization is the connection of different parts of the world resulting in the expansion of international cultural, economic, and political activities.
It is the movement and integration of goods, contacts and people among different countries.
There are advantages and disadvantages to globalization, all of which have economic, social, political, and cultural impacts.
Globalization describes mainly trade practices, extending also to the communication patterns and cultural system that underlie these practices.
It is a term which may be used broadly to mean doing things as distant people do them, or more narrowly to mean complying to global standards in economy, politics, culture, education, environment or other matters.
It describes the way countries and people of the world interact and integrate.
Many things have become globalized as people come into contact.
Economic globalization is how countries are coming together as one big global economy, This is all making international trade easier.
In the late 20th century, many people agreed to lower tariffs, or taxes on goods that are imported from other countries.
Telegraphy and bull other communication technologies have helped people to buy and sell products from around the world, thus bringing globalization.
Herman E. Daly has said that there is an important difference between internationalization and globalization.
Internationalization is about nations working together for the same goals.
These are things like treaties, alliances, and other international agreements.
Globalization is about international trade that are
Political globalization is how institutions and countries can influence the whole world.
The United Nations are an example of globalization because most countries of the world are members of its General Assembly.
This international organization can make countries follow rules and apply economic sanctions to a country that doesn't.
This means the countries in the U.N will punish them by not talking or trading with them, so they don't benefit from globalization.
Cultural globalization is how culture is becoming homogeneous, which means that people from all over the world act in similar way.
For example, many people around the world write with the Latin alphabet, wear T-shirts and jeans and watch Hollywood movies and other media.
Some people, like Noam Chomsky, do not like globalization because they feel it only helps rich people get richer by making poor people poorer.
Offshore outsourcing, such as a company hiring workers in a developing country, is often a part of globalization.
This sometimes means that some people in a developed country lose their jobs.
Joseph Stiglitz said that international groups like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have made it harder for poorer nations to get richer.
Globalization also means that problems from other countries will affect your country.
For example, the Great Depression of the 1930s started in the United States but affected the entire world.
Many countries also dislike it when international organizations such as the United Nations tell them what to do.
However they obey to avoid sanctions.
Many people also criticize the fact that globalization means that fewer people are deciding what  brands, like Coca-Cola and McDonald's, taking over smaller, local shops and businesses.
They criticize the fact that powerful countries have bigger influence on world culture than others.
For example, the United States is the biggest cultural exporter, which means that countries around the world are becoming like the United States.
However, this hurts local cultures.
Jean Baudrillard believes that globalization hurts local cultures and is the cause of most terrorism.
He also believes that most supporters of globalization just want to stay in power.
Gregory Meyjes interprets globalization as a largely hegemonic, unequal process of socio-cultural imposition.
Questioning the various processes (economic, political, cultural) by which globalization or globalisation has favored rapid Anglo-cultural dominance over a more gradual, egalitarian evolution towards an inclusive world civilization, Meyjes argues for cultural policies that support "ecological" relations between local ethnocultural traditions, by protecting cultural specificity in the short term and allow as many cultural groups as possible to organically contribute to the whole.
At the global level, Meyjes therefore proposes the term universalization or universalisation to denote a process of (largely) non-imposed socio-cultural exchange between state-level and sub-state-level groups and "nations" – i.e. a transnational process that informs the gradual emergence of a universal civilization.
Others, like Thomas Friedman, believe that globalization can bring people together and make everyone richer without getting rid of local cultures.
People who support globalization also believe that it makes war less likely because it is bad for business.
Francis Fukuyama also argued that globalization would eventually lead to a system of world governance which would cause wars to end.
Many believe that globalization helps out poorer nations by bringing them business.
A report by the World Bank said that poverty in India and Indonesia was cut in half because of globalization.
The report also said that people in poorer nations are living longer and better because they were making more money.
More Reading
Peter Berger, Four Faces of Global Culture (The National Interest, Fall 1997).
North Holland is a province (area with a local government) of the Netherlands.
It is in the northwest.
The capital is called Haarlem.
Other cities in the province are Amsterdam, Hilversum, Alkmaar, Zaandam, and Hoorn.
About 2,888,000 people are living in North Holland (2021).
Folk music is music that represents the tradition or culture of the area/place/state.
It is traditional music that people learn by listening to other people playing it and then copying them.
We say that the tradition is “orally transmitted” or “handed down orally”, meaning that the music is not written down but taught by speaking (“oral” means “belonging to the mouth”).
Every country has its own traditional music.
Folk song is part of folk music.
A folksinger is a person who sings folk songs.
There are three categories of Folk Music -
Folk Singing
Folk instruments
In the 1960s a new type of music was started by Bob Dylan who mixed traditional folk song with rock and roll.
This music is sometimes called “folk rock” .
Folk music is music for everybody to play and listen to.
In this way it is different from classical music which is mainly developed by professional musicians for a smaller group of people.
Folk music is part of a popular culture, although the term “popular music” or “pop music” today refers to a kind of music which people can hear through television, radio and other means of recording.
In many parts of the world nearly all music is folk music.
The term “folk music” is usually used for European and American music which is part of an oral tradition.
Folk music as an oral tradition, is much less important than before, in part because of new technology (radio, television etc, and recordings of music ).
Folk tunes are now often written down, and they have influenced other kinds of music, so that the differences between various types of music are harder to see.
The traditional origins
In older times folk music was part of “communal recreation”.
This means that small communities such as villages or families would relax by playing and singing music together.
People would often make up a new song or new piece of music, or make changes to music that they already knew.
In this way music was always changing.
People would get musical ideas from other groups nearby.
This is why folk music from neighbouring countries often sound similar.
Ballads were a popular kind of folk music.
These were folk songs which told a story (they were “narrative”).
Sometimes they had a refrain after each verse so that everybody could join in.
Ballads told stories of love, myths or folklore.
This is how stories were handed down from one generation to another.
Instrumental folk music was used for dancing.
Some of the instruments may have been very simple, such as a pair of sticks, rattle or a simple drum.
Other instruments may include fiddle (the folk word for “violin”), bagpipes, harp, zither, or various wind instruments, depending on the time of history and the country.
Some singing was polyphonic, i.e. there were two or more parts (voices).
Very often two voices would sing in parallel (going up and down together).
In countries such as Russia persons sings in three or four parts, e.g. in the tradition of “podgolosnaya” (“underneath the voice”).
In countries such as Britain this polyphonic tradition did not exist.
Folk songs there were sung by one singer, unaccompanied.
Folk music used different scales.
These are called modes.
The Ionian mode (like our major scale) was the most common in Western Europe.
In some parts of Eastern Europe modes with several semitones were used, but for the most part, half steps were avoided.
This results is the tunes being described as tetratonic (four notes per octave) or pentatonic (five notes per octave).
Folk music was sung by people as they worked.
In the early days of European immigration in America the pioneers sang as they travelled, cowboys sang as they worked, slaves sang in the cottonfields.
Influence on classical music
In the 18th century folk music started to have an influence on classical music (or “art music”).
People from the higher classes started to be interested in folk music because they were conscious of being part of a tradition.
Composers such as Mozart and Schubert wrote folk dances for orchestras or small groups of instruments.
Folk music was used by many composers in the Romantic period.
Gustav Mahler used folk song in a lot of his music.
In the early twentieth century some composers travelled around collecting folk music which was being played or sung by people in the country.
They often used some of these ideas in their music.
Bartok did this in Hungary as well as in Bulgaria and in the United States, and people such as Cecil Sharp and the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams collected folk music in England.
In the United States the influence of jazz on classical music is all part of the story of folk music.
Abraham (originally Abram) is a man in the Book of Genesis and the Qur'an.
There, he is said to be the father of all Jews.
This is because he is their ancestor.
Abraham is part of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions.
Abraham is considered the father of these three religions, which are called Abrahamic religions.
Abraham is the father of Isaac with his wife Sarah.
He also has Ishmael with Hagar, Sarah's handmaid, and he has other children with Keturah, whom he marries after Sarah's death.
He is the grandfather of Jacob and Esau.
Abraham is believed to be the founding patriarch of the Israelites, Ishmaelites and Edomites.
Abraham was the third son of Terah and the grandson of Nahor.
Abraham's older brothers were named Nahor and Haran.
"Journey and Life of the Patriarch Abraham" is an old map from 1590 that is about Abraham
Tao Te Ching ( []) is the Chinese name of a book by a man named Laozi (or Lao Tzu, which literally means "old master").
Laozi was a sage (a wise man) and he was a record-keeper.
The title can mean "The Book of the Way and its Virtue."
People believe the book was written around 600 BC.
It is an important text to Chinese culture.
It is very important in Chinese philosophy (way of thinking) and religion.
It is the main book for Taoism, which is both a philosophy and part of Chinese folk religion.
It also influenced other philosophies in and around China.
Dào/Tao 道 means "way", "road", "path", or "route," but was given the extra meaning "path ahead", "way forward", "method", "principle", or simply "the Way".
This word was also used in different ways by other Chinese philosophers (including Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, and Hanfeizi).
It has special meaning in Taoism, where it means the basic way of the universe (that can not really be explained).
Dé/Te 德 means "virtue" as in "personal character" or "inner strength".
People who followed the teachings of Confucius used it to mean "morality".
A long time ago in English, "virtue" could mean "power" (as in the phrase "healing virtue of a drug").
The same thing was true in Chinese: the word meant "power" a long time ago but now means "virtue".
Jīng/Ching 經 originally meant "norm", "rule", or "plan", was given the extra meaning "scripture", "great book", or "classic".
The book is constructed of a series of poems, each  containing a rule, way or belief to becoming successful.
Structure of the book
The Tao Te Ching is a short book of about 5,000 Chinese characters.
It has 81 short chapters.
It has two parts: Part One is the Tao Ching (道經) "Way Rules", which is chapters 1–37; Part Two is the Te Ching (德經) "Virtue Rules", which is chapters 38–81.
The Tao Te Ching is one of the most translated books in history, alongside the Bible and the Quran.
Why are there thousands of translations?
The text is short, the meaning is difficult.
There are many interpretations, or ways to understand what the book says.
Online English versions
老子 Lǎozǐ 道德經 Dàodéjīng verbatim + analogous + poetic; deep analysis: Chinese + English + German
Tao Te Ching, James Legge
Tao Te Ching, John H. McDonald
Tao Te Ching , Stephen Mitchell
Daode jing , Charles Muller
Lao Tsu's Tao Te Ching Online, Elyxr
Tao Te Ching , Stan Rosenthal
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, 3 translations: James Legge, D.T. Suzuki, and Dwight Goddard
Dao De Jing (Way Power Book) by Lao-zi, Sanderson Beck
Tao Te Ching – The Way of Life, Raymond B. Blakney
The Daode Jing (Tao Te Ching) of Laozi (Lao Tzu) , Chad Hansen
The Dynamic Tao and Its Manifestation.
Wayne L. Wang
The Tao Te Ching, Frederic H. Balfour
The Tao Te Ching, Ron Hogan (in several formats, including iPod )
The Tao Te Ching, Lin Yutang
The Tao Te Ching , Stan Rosenthal
Tao Te Ching audio edition , narrated by Michael Scott
The Tao Teh King, Aleister Crowley
Jade Purity: Dao De Jing , Siji Tzu (far from a word-for-word translation)
Online multilingual versions
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse  28 Chinese versions (Wang Bi, Heshang Gong, Fu Yi, Mawang Dui, Guodian), translations in 24 languages (84 in English), including side-by-side comparison of two or four translations, Lao Zi Projekt
老子 Lǎozĭ - 道 德 經 Dàodéjīng Romanian Version, Serban TOADER PhD, PDF black and white and colour
老子 Lǎozĭ - 道 德 經 Dàodéjīng Chinese-English-German, Hilmar KLAUS, The Tao of Wisdom.
verbatim + analogous + poetic, 2009, 600 p.
Dao De Jing, comparison of Chinese versions (Pinyin, Wang Bi, Heshang Gong, and Mawangdui), Nina Correa
Laozi Daodejing , English and German translations, Chinese in seal script
The Tao by Lao-tse, Rick Harbaugh
The Way and Its Power - Dao De Jing Chinese, English (Waley, Lau), French (Julien), and German (Wilhelm), Association Française des Professeurs de Chinois
Bacon is a type of meat that comes from pigs.
It is taken from the sides, back, or belly of the pig.
It is often cut in thin slices, unlike other cured or smoked pork products.
It is usually fried or grilled.
It can also be microwaved.
In the U.S., back bacon and smoked ham is sometimes called Canadian bacon.
Bacon has lots of fat.
Because bacon comes from pigs, people of some religions will not eat it.
In some cultures and religions (such as Islam and Judaism), eating pork may be considered "unclean."
Because of this, other varieties of bacon are also made out of turkey or chicken instead.
Turkey bacon and chicken bacon usually contain half of the fat of pork-based bacon.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, otherwise known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact, was signed by Vyacheslav Molotov (Stalin's Soviet foreign minister) and Joachim von Ribbentrop (Hitler's German foreign minister) on 23 August 1939.
The agreement promised that neither the Soviet Union nor Nazi Germany would attack each other.
Only nine days later, on 1 September 1939, the German invasion of Poland began.
On 17 September, the Soviet invasion of Poland began.
About 250,000 to 454,700 Polish soldiers and policemen were captured and interned by the Soviet authorities.
About 125,000 were imprisoned in camps run by the NKVD, and 43,000 soldiers born in western Poland, which was under German control, were transferred to the Germans.
In turn, the Soviets received 13,575 Polish prisoners from the Germans, which showed how close the co-operation was between the Germans and the Soviets.
On 3 September, France and the United Kingdom declared war soon because both had promised to defend Poland if it was attacked.
Since neither of them was ready for war, they did nothing to help Poland for some time, but the Second World War clearly had started on that day.
Hitler later broke the pact in June 1941 by invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
The war would end by the Soviet victory in 1945.
1930s treaties
1930s in the Soviet Union
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (;  in Kukarka – November 8, 1986 in Moscow) was a Soviet politician and diplomat.
He was a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he came to power.
He was a protégé of Joseph Stalin until the 1950s, when Nikita Khrushchev dismissed him from office.
Molotov was the main Soviet signatory of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939.
The pact was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, and both countries promised not to attack each other.
The pact lasted about two years until Germany started the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
Ambassadors of the Soviet Union
Babylonia was a city state in Mesopotamia in the 2nd millennium BC, over 3000 years ago.
Its capital city was Babylon, which meant The Gate of the Gods.
They built an empire out of the lands of the former Akkadian empire.
Mesopotamia is the region of the two rivers, Euphrates and Tigris.
At that time the region also included the city states of Assyria to the north, and Elam to the south-east.
It is part of the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East.
It was there people first lived together in a civilization, with farming, cities and writing.
Old Babylonia
The Babylonians had a written language that they used for trade and communication.
They got it from the Sumerians, who invented it.
The Babylonians used the same cuneiform system of pressing triangular shapes into soft clay.
They wrote in two different languages: Sumerian for religious purposes and Akkadian language for official purposes.
Hammurabi was a king of Babylon who fought wars and made Babylonia into an empire by putting Assyria under a vassal (puppet) king.
He created the earliest written set of laws, called the Code of Hammurabi.
It has 280 judgments and can be seen today in the Louvre, a museum in Paris.
Whereas the earlier Sumerian punishments had not been harsh, Babylonian law was quite severe.
The death penalty was given for theft, murder, and other crimes.
The houses in Babylon had open roofs, so that on hot nights, the family could sleep there.
The living rooms, dining rooms, and the kitchens were, of course, downstairs.
Lamps burned with olive oil, and every house had a chapel for burial and worship ceremonies.
Since Mesopotamia had only clay for use in building, the strong wooden supports for the houses were imported from Lebanon.
Eventually, people began baking their bricks and improved the strength of their buildings.
Sack of Babylon
Later, Babylon was sacked by the Hittite king Musilis I, which led to the so-called 'Dark Ages' of the Bronze Age, where there is little evidence in writing.
The date of the sacking of Babylon is debated by archaeologists, who have proposed no fewer than four chronologies.
Possible dates for the sack of Babylon are:
ultra-short chronology: 1499 BC
short chronology: 1531 BC
middle chronology: 1595 BC
long chronology: 1651 BC
Later dynasties
After the Hittite destruction, Babylon was ruled by Kassites for 576 years.
Next it was ruled by Elam, and then regained its independence for about three centuries.
They were then conquered by the Neo-Assyrians.
A century later they again became free, to form the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire.
This constant conquest and re-conquest is partly due to geography.
There are no natural boundaries except the rivers, and it is easy to get at the cities from north or south.
The king Nebuchadnezzar II reigned for 43 years.
He conquered Phoenicia in 585 BC.
It was in 549 BC that Cyrus put an end to the empire of the Medes.
Three years later Cyrus had become king of the Achaemenid Empire (Persia), and was engaged in a campaign in northern Mesopotamia.
In 539 BC Cyrus invaded Babylonia.
A battle was fought at Opis in the month of June, where the Babylonians were defeated; and immediately afterwards Sippara surrendered to the invader.
Two days after the capture of Sippara, "the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting".
Cyrus did not arrive until the 3rd of Marchesvan (October), Gobryas having acted for him in his absence.
Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon.
Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of their god Bel-Marduk.
The invasion of Babylonia by Cyrus was doubtless helped by the presence of foreign forced exiles like the Jews, who had been planted in the midst of the country.
One of the first acts of Cyrus was to allow these exiles to return to their own homes, carrying with them the images of their god and their sacred vessels.
The permission to do so was embodied in a proclamation, whereby the conqueror endeavored to justify his claim to the Babylonian throne.
The feeling was still strong that none had a right to rule over western Asia until he had been consecrated to the office by Bel and his priests; and accordingly, Cyrus henceforth assumed the imperial title of "King of Babylon."
Like the Sumerians, the Babylonians ate vegetables, fruits, meat, and fish.
They also ate bread and enjoyed toasting and eating the pesky but crunchy locusts which destroyed their precious crops.
Art and science
The Babylonians loved art.
Beautiful vessels ornamented with sparkling gold were buried with the kings.
In those days books dealt with floods which were thought to be caused by sin, or about the journey of Abraham.
Life was rich, full, and usually peaceful.
People rarely thought about war or how to protect the city.
As a result, Babylon was conquered in 730 BC by the Assyrians and Kassites.
This great civilization then ended.
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop ("von" was added only later) (30 April 1893 in Wesel – 16 October 1946 in Nuremberg) was the foreign minister of Germany from 1938 to 1945.
He was executed by hanging for war crimes after the Nuremberg trials.
Executed Nazis
People from Wesel
Noise is another word for sound.
It usually means it is not wanted.
Noise is perceived by our ears.
They can be damaged by noise.
Noise is created through any object, which produces vibration unnecessarily.
Noise can also mean data (information) that typically does not have a meaning, like white noise.
Loudspeaker measurements can use white noise for measuring loudspeakers frequency response.
Noise can also refer to some math that makes random numbers.
Click here to learn about it.
In electronics, heat produces noise in resistors.
Depending on the type of resistor, the amount of noise may differ.
Most audio devices are designed not to produce noise.
Karma is a word meaning the result of a person's actions as well as the actions themselves.
It is a term about the cycle of cause and effect.
According to the theory of Karma, what happens to a person, happens because they caused it with their actions.
It is an important part of many religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
In Shinto (a religion often syncretised with Buddhism), Karma is interpreted as Musubi (むすび), a view of karma is recognized in Shinto as a means of enriching, empowering and life affirming.
In terms of spiritual development, Karma is about all that a person has done, is doing and will do.
Karma is logically about punishment or reward.
It makes a person responsible for their own life, and how they treat other people.
The "Theory of Karma" is a major belief in Hinduism, Ayyavazhi, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
All living creatures are responsible for their karma - their actions and the effects of their actions.
Karma is often misconstrued as the universal principle of cause and effect.
Our actions, both good and bad, come back to us in the future, helping us to learn from life’s lessons and become better people.
In religions that include reincarnation, karma extends through one's present life and all past and future lives as well.
Karma is basically energy.
One person throws out energy through thoughts, words and actions, and it comes back, in time, through other people.
Karma is the best teacher, forcing people to face the consequences of their own actions and thus improve and refine their behavior, or suffer if they do not.
Even harsh karma, when faced in wisdom, can be the greatest spark for spiritual growth.
The conquest of karma lies in intelligent action and unemotional response.
Supporting any action, with the claim, "I am doing it," is karma.
Claiming doership of any action, binds karma.
To support the action with the belief 'I am the doer' is called binding the karma.
It is this support of the belief of 'doership' that binds karma.
If you know that you are not the doer and are aware of who the true doer is, 'I am not the doer' and 'who is the doer' then the action will not have any support and the karma will be shed.
Examples of karma
The process of action and reaction on all levels—physical, mental and spiritual—is karma.
One must pay attention to thoughts, because thought can make karmas—good, bad and mixed.
“I say kind words to you, and you feel peaceful and happy.
I say harsh words to you, and you become ruffled and upset.
The kindness and the harshness will return to me, through others, at a later time.
Finally, what I give is what I get back.”
“An architect thinks creative, productive thoughts while drawing plans for a new building.
But were he to think destructive, unproductive thoughts, he would soon not be able to accomplish any kind of positive task even if he desired to do so.”
Karma in Hinduism
Hindus look at time as a circle, as things cycle around again.
Karma is a very just law which, like gravity, treats everyone the same.
The law of karma puts man at the center of responsibility for everything he does and everything that is done to him.
Understanding the way karma works, Hindus try to live a virtuous life.
This is called dharma.
sanchita karma, the sum total of past karmas yet to be resolved;
prarabdha karma, that portion of sanchita karma that is to be experienced in this life; and
kriyamana karma, the karma that humans are currently creating, which will bear fruit in future.
The role of divine forces
Karma is considered one of the natural laws of the mind, just as gravity is a law of matter.
Just as God created gravity to bring order to the physical world, He created karma as a divine system of justice that is self-governing and infinitely fair.
It automatically creates the appropriate future experience in response to the current action.
Several different views exist in Hinduism regarding the role of divine beings.
In Hinduism, many see the deities or devas as playing some kind of role.
Other Hindus, such as the Mimamsakas, reject such notions and see karma as acting independently, considering the natural laws of causation sufficient to explain the effects of karma.
Some interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita suggest an intermediate view, that karma is a law of cause and effect yet God can mitigate karma for His devotees.
It is said in Bhagavad Gita that only the karma that is done with a sense of doership and with attachment to the karma could cause good or bad reactions.
Karma that is done with an attitude of duty and without attachment to the results will not create any effect and will move one closer to God.
Just-World phenomenon is like Karma
Karma as explained in the Buddhist Encyclopedia  (buddhism.2be.net)
The Law of Karma  (Heart of Hinduism)
What is Karma ?
The Cause and Effect of Karma
Karma by American Buddhist monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The western hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that is west of the Prime Meridian.
Pretend that the earth is cut in half, from the North Pole, through England, to the South Pole.
The Western Hemisphere is the half to the west.
A Molotov cocktail, also known as a petrol bomb, fire bomb, or benzine torch, is a simple incendiary device.
It is relatively easy to make and is used by irregular paramilitary forces and by rioters.
It is also used for arson.
A Molotov cocktail consists of a glass bottle partly filled with a flammable liquid.
The liquid will typically be gasoline, alcohol, methanol or ethanol.
The mouth of the bottle is closed with a cork or other type of tight sealing made of rubber, glass, or plastic, and a cloth rag is fixed securely around the mouth.
The weapon is used by first soaking the rag in a flammable liquid immediately before using it, lighting the rag, and throwing the bottle at the target.
The bottle breaks when it lands, spilling the flammable liquid over the target, which is then ignited by the burning rag.
Many substances may be added to the basic Molotov cocktail to enhance its use as a weapon.
Substances that will ignite by themselves when hitting the target, for example White phosphorus
Substances that will help the liquid stick to the target, for example tar
Acid will help the penetration of non-flammable surfaces
Substances that will increase the explosive effect, for example gunpowder
Molotov cocktails are similar to napalm bombs in principle.
Napalm was originally made by combining flammable naphthalene and petrol with a thickening agent palmitic acid.
The latter two are the main ingredients of Molotov cocktails.
When gasoline is used as the main ingredient, motor oil is commonly added to help the gasoline cling to the target.
The name "Molotov cocktail" is derived from Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, a Soviet politician.
He was the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, or the Foreign Minister, of the Soviet Union.
During the early part of World War II, when Finland refused to surrender some land to the Soviet Union, the Soviets invaded it.
The poorly equipped and heavily-outnumbered Finnish Army faced Red Army tanks in what came to be known as the Winter War.
The army borrowed an improvised incendiary device from the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War.
In that conflict, the Spanish Nationalists under the orders of General Francisco Franco had used the weapon against Soviet T-26 tanks.
Those tanks helped the Spanish Republicans in a failed 1936 Soviet assault near Toledo, 30 km from Madrid.
When Molotov claimed in radio broadcasts that the Soviet Union was not dropping bombs but rather delivering food to the starving Finns, the Finns started to call the air bombs satirically "Molotov bread baskets".
Soon they responded by saluting the advancing tanks with "Molotov cocktails."
At first the term was used to describe only the burning mixture itself, but the term was soon applied to the combination of both the bottle and its contents.
This Finnish use of the hand- or sling-thrown explosive against Soviet tanks was repeated in the subsequent Continuation War.
Molotov cocktails were eventually mass-produced by the Finnish military, bundled with matches to light them.
These weapons saw widespread use by all sides in World War II.
They were very effective against light tanks, and very bad for enemy morale.
The following is a first-hand description of their effects, written during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943:
The well-aimed bottles hit the tank.
The flames spread quickly.
The blast of the explosion is heard.
The machine stands motionless.
The crew is burned alive.
The other two tanks turn around and withdraw.
The Germans who took cover behind them withdraw in panic.
We take leave of them with a few well-aimed shots and grenades.
During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, members of the Israeli Kibbutz Degania managed to stop a Syrian tank assault by using Molotov cocktails.
They were frequently used against Soviet tanks with great efficiency in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
The weapon has been used against tanks effectively because of the conformation of parts of tanks, particularly around the undersides and fuel tank "entrances".
A Molotov cocktail could blow up the fuel tank, destroying the machine, particularly for older (before 1940) tank models.
Molotov cocktails are much more effective against gasoline engines than diesel engines' tanks.
This is because diesel has a high flashpoint of 64 °C – making it more difficult to ignite compared to petrol.
Some Soviet tanks actually had an entry to the gas tank on the side of the vehicle, which could be opened by combatants in close quarters, letting out the highly flammable liquid and making destruction of the tank even easier.
These tactics are effective only inside a small space, where tanks cannot easily maneuver.
In such conditions quick-moving enemies, armed with incendiary bombs, have a huge advantage.
Petrol bombs were widely used throughout the Troubles in Northern Ireland in riot situations, directed towards the RUC or the British Army.
As well as occasional situations where they continue to be used against the PSNI and army, they are frequently used in sectarian attacks on homes and businesses by both communities.
Fireworks and homemade grenades, known as blast bombs now commonly accompany petrol bomb attacks on the security forces.
As such things can cause a lot of damage, and actually kill people, it is illegal in most countries to make or possess them.
When they are used against property, this usually counts as arson.
When they are used against people, the charges range from manslaughter to murder.
Recent use
Ukrainians were using these to fend off Russian tanks late February 2022.
Molotov cocktails were put to use recently during the riotous 2005 civil unrest in France.
Another situation with popularity for them is the Palestinian Intifada.
In Sydney, during the Cronulla Riots, rioters carrying Molotov cocktails were apprehended when they carried open bottles in a bus.
The resulting smell of petrol alerted the driver, who in turn alerted the police.
During the Columbine High School massacre, the two gunmen built and threw several Molotov cocktails; however, none of them exploded.
It is presumed that this was due to bottles being overfilled.
La Unidad Italiana de Carros-Artillería, los T-26 Soviéticos y la Batalla de Seseña
Eyewitness reporting for the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa|Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization), 1943-04-19
A detailed technology of the Molotov cocktail
Incendiary weapons
Flammability or inflammability means that something can be set on fire easily.
It will burn easily.
The words come from Latin.
The word at the base is in-flammare (late Latin).
It means something like "to put fire to a thing".
Inflammable and flammable are used to mean the same thing.
People sometimes get confused and think that inflammable means "not flammable" because the prefix in is often used to mean not.
For example, something that is inhuman is not human.
Since many people do not know that inflammable means "burns easily", flammable is used more often in public places as a warning.
Flammability can be tested.
Paper, for example, is more flammable than wood, and less flammable than natural gas.
Arson is a crime.
When someone deliberately sets fire to a building, vehicle, etc.
they do not own and they want to cause damage, it is called arson.
A person who commits arson is an arsonist.
Arsonists usually use gasoline or kerosene to start a fire.
A cocktail is a kind of mixed drink.
Usually, it is made with alcoholic drinks such as vodka, gin or rum.
Since such spirits do not have much taste of their own (at around 40% alcohol), other ingredients are added.
Common ingredients are fruits, fruit juice, sugar, crushed ice, and ice cubes.
If the cocktail is served in a bar or nightclub, it often comes with a piece of fruit on top.
For example, a gin and tonic could have a lemon, a Piña Colada could have a pineapple and a cherry.
A popular cocktail in Cornwall UK is the McVey, 440ml of strongbow and 125ml of Malibu.
Most cocktails were invented in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
People began drinking a lot of cocktails in the United States in the 1920s due to Prohibition.
Around that time, cocktails from Cuba, such as the mojito, became popular around the world.
Common cocktails
There are many kinds of cocktails.
A martini is the most common cocktail.
It is made with gin and vermouth, and served with an olive
There are many variations on a martini, which include a Gibson (martini with an onion instead of an olive), a Bronx (Martini plus orange juice), and an Appletini (made with apple liqueur instead of vermouth)
The old-fashioned is thought to be the first cocktail.
It is made with whiskey, sugar, bitters, and soda water
A margarita is made with tequila, triple sec and lime juice.
It came from Mexico, and is commonly served in Mexican cuisine.
A sidecar is similar to a margarita, but is made with cognac instead of tequila
A Manhattan is made with rye whiskey, vermouth, and bitters
If it is made with scotch, it is called a Rob Roy
A mojito is made with rum, lime juice, sugar, water and spearmint leaves.
A mint julip is similar to a mojito.
It made with bourbon, sugar, water, and spearmint leaves.
It is popular in the Southern United States, especially at the Kentucky Derby
A daiquiri is made with rum and lime juice.
Like many popular cocktails, it came from Cuba.
A piña colada is an iced cocktail made with pineapple juice, coconut cream and rum.
It came from Puerto Rico.
A bloody Mary is made with tomato and lemon juices, plus vodka.
It is different not only because of its blood-red color, but because it is served with a pickle or celery.
Wikibooks:Bartending for many recipes
April 27 – Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, goes into exile after falling out with Henry I of England
Amadeus III becomes Count of Savoy
Bohemund I of Antioch is released from imprisonment among the Turks
The Scandinavian city of Lund becomes a see within the Roman Catholic Church
Emperor Toba of Japan
A sneeze is a reaction in the body that suddenly presses air out of lungs so it flows quickly out through the mouth and nose.
Air and mucus (the liquid found in the nose) are forced out quickly.
Sneezing often happens after breathing dust or other small things that irritate the membranes in the nose.
The function of sneezing is to clean the space in the nose by removing the mucus and irritating things.
Sneezing is mostly involuntary, which means that it happens without trying.
A sneeze consists of a deep inward breath that fills the lungs, a closing or partial closing of the throat, and a sudden increase in pressure in the lungs that forces air out.
This increase in pressure is a result of muscles near the lungs that contract (tighten and shorten).
Sneezing never happens during sleep because reflex signals do not pass to the part of the brain that causes muscles to move.
When people sneeze, their eyes close.
The speed of the air from sneezing is about 150 kilometers per hour or more.
When a person sneezes, many small drops of saliva and mucus blow out from the nose and mouth.
These tiny drops often contain viruses and bacteria.
Some of these are germs, which can make other people sick.
To keep this from happening as much, is important to block the sneezed air with something like cloth or tissue to catch the drops.
It also helps to move away from other people, go outside, or face away.
A common thing to say to people when they sneeze is "Bless you!",
or sometimes in the United States sometimes "Gesundheit!" (
from German, meaning "Good health").
There is a story that the blessing started with Pope Gregory VII (540–604 AD).
He said a blessing might stop people from getting the bubonic plague which was killing people in Rome at the time.
There is a myth that when you sneeze your heart and all internal organs stop functioning.
The sound of a sneeze is written "achoo!"
Other languages write it differently.
For example, in Swedish it is "atjoo!",
in French it is "atchoum!"
and in German it is "Hatschi!".
Some involuntary ways that people move air in or out of the lungs are: to sneeze, laugh, cough, hiccup, or yawn.
Pumas (Puma concolor), also called cougars, mountain lions or brown panthers, are large wild cats that live in the western half of North America, along with Florida, and most of Central and South America.
Pumas are mainly tan-color, and can be up to 9 feet long, although average length is 6 – 8 feet.
They can weigh from 29 kilograms to 90 kilograms.
(The males are larger.)
Most pumas live up to 21 years.
Although pumas are very large and some are larger than humans, the puma is classified as a small cat.
That means that, in scientific terms, the puma is more closely related to the domestic cat than they are to lions.
Unlike the big cats in the genus Panthera, the puma cannot roar.
Instead, it can growl, hiss, screech, and purr.
Since pumas are, in the biological sense, small cats, they are capable of purring continuously.
The big cats can only purr while breathing out.
Pumas are carnivores because they eat only meat.
Pumas are apex predators.
They hunt deer, raccoons, squirrels, foxes, rabbits and skunks.
They can also eat mice, beavers, coyotes, bobcats, birds, porcupines, cattle, goats, fish and bear cubs.
They hunt at night.
Cougars can see better at night than people can.
They can hear well too.
Pumas stalk their prey, which means they walk slowly and quietly, they hide and then when close, they jump or run fast to catch their prey by surprise.
They live and hunt alone.
Female cougars take care of their babies until they are old enough to take care for themselves.
Baby cougars are called cubs or kittens.
Pumas live in the mountains and forests far from people.
However, encounters with humans happen sometimes.
26 people have been killed by cougars in North America in the last 30 years.
However, many more cougars have been killed by humans.
Cougars used to be found all in eastern North America, but they were hunted to extinction there by the beginning of the 1900s.
Also, recent sightings of cougars have been reported from Michigan, New Brunswick, southern Indiana, Kentucky, and Vermont.
For now, the only confirmed, population of cougars east of the Mississippi River is in Florida, where a subspecies of the cougar called the Florida Panther lives.
School Mascots
Brigham Young University (Cougars)
College of Charleston (Cougars)
Chicago State University (Cougars)
Eastern Illinois University (Panthers)
Florida International University (Panthers)
Georgia State University (Panthers)
High Point University (Panthers)
University of Houston (Cougars)
University of Northern Iowa (Panthers)
Pennsylvania State University (Nittany Lions)
University of Pittsburgh (Panthers)
Prairie View A&M University (Panthers)
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (Cougars)
Washington State University (Cougars)
Alvarado Middle School (Cougars)
University of Sioux Falls (Cougars)
IUCN
Information on Pumas
Google Talk (also called Google Chat) was an instant messaging service that was offered by Google.
It let users communicate by using texting and voice chatting.
The service was sometimes called Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage by its users.
It is built on the XMPP platform.
A web-based version was also available online.
Armour (or armor U.S.) is a protective covering or clothing to prevent injury from attack.
Armour can be worn by a person, or it can be used to protect machines, animals, even buildings.
Armour has always been made from the strongest materials available at the time, but weight has always been a problem.
Early body armour was made from leather.
Later, metals were used (e.g. mail or plate armour).
Some modern armour, like bullet-proof vests, are made from plastics that do not stretch or break, such as Kevlar.
These plastics may be woven into a cloth and used in layers, which makes them even stronger.
Plastic lamination (layers) is often used to protect windows against bullets.
Many jewellery stores, embassies, and vehicles have bullet-proof glass with this feature.
For vehicles
Armour put on vehicles is usually made of metal and can include one layer over another with open spaces in between (spaced armour) or multiple layers of metal; ceramics (baked clay), and other materials.
Another type of armour uses blocks of explosive that explode when another explosion goes off near it.
This explosive armour protects by pushing against the other explosion.
Vehicle armor is often angled to increase the amount of armour that must be shot through to get inside and to make the shot bounce off rather than piercing the armour.
Tanks have the heaviest armour of all land vehicles.
Other military vehicles have armour, but not as much as a tank.
For animals
In the past, armour has also been used in wars to protect animals such as dogs, elephants, and horses.
Today, police dogs and horses sometimes wear woven plastic bullet-proof vests.
For sports
Many sports involve violent physical contact and may be highly dangerous if the players are unprotected.
Such sports include ice hockey, American football and kendo.
Sports armour is usually made from hard plastic.
North Star Computers was one of the earliest manufacturers of microcomputers.
Before they started making their first computer, the North Star Horizon, they made floppy disk drives for S-100 bus computers.
They included a disk operating system called North Star DOS (or N*DOS).
The Horizon used the North Star disk controller and operating system.
It was one of the first microcomputers that had multi-user features.
Their second computer, called the North Star Advantage, ran CP/M, and had the keyboard and monitor built-in.
The graphics were very powerful for their time.
When the IBM PC came out, North Star made an MS-DOS compatible processor card that could be added to the Advantage.
Their third computer, the North Star Dimension, was multi-user like the Horizon, but MS-DOS based.
Mario Bros. is a video game made in 1983.
In the game, Mario and/or Luigi must defeat enemies by jumping on them from below and then kicking them, when they are knocked down.
It is the first game to feature Luigi as a playable character as well as the first game in which Mario is named Mario.
In Donkey Kong, Mario was called Jumpman.
It was later remade for other game consoles at the time.
Mario Bros. was also included with the four Super Mario Advance games.
1983 video games
An oval is a shape.
It is round but a bit longer in one direction.
An oval can look like an egg or an ellipse.
Focus is a Latin word for hearth.
In English it means many things.
Focus (geometry), one of the two points around which a conic section is built
Focus (optics), the bringing together of light rays by a lens
Ford Focus, a car
The hypocenter of an earthquake
The place where a nuclear explosion goes off
The pipe organ is a keyboard instrument in which the sound is made by air blowing through pipes.
A person who plays the organ is called an organist.
The organist plays the instrument using both the hands and the feet.
The hands play the keyboards (called manuals), while the feet play pedals which also make notes.
Organs have been made for many centuries.