the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
A large percentage of the people of the Distrito Federal live outside the city now.
The white color is for peace.
The green and yellow colors in the middle refer to the national colors of Brazil.
The four yellow arrows are for the native people of Brazil.
The arrows pointing into the four cardinal directions of the compass stands for the power moving out from the center.
The yellow arrows also form a cross.
This is a symbol of the Southern Cross carried by the explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral.
The flag was created by the poet Guilherme de Almeida, and was adopted by decree no.
1090 on August 25, 1969.
Informative Federal District page, with aeroplane view
Feature article on CityMayors.com
Distrito Federal at Google Maps
Map of the Brazilian Federal District
1960 establishments
1960s establishments in Brazil
Hiromu Shinozuka (, born 27 March 1979 in Fukuoka) is a Japanese manga artist.
She writes in Ciao.
She came out with Takkyu shoujo in 1999.
Chenge!
Mirrumo de pon!
Koisuru purin
Chibi☆debi!!
Profile at Ciao Magazine site
Hiromu Shinozuka  at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
People from Fukuoka Prefecture
Zvečan is a town in north Kosovo, Serbia, near Kosovska Mitrovica. ,
about 16,600 people lived there.
The town was first mentioned at the time of border disputes between Serbia and the Byzantine Empire between 1091 and 1094.
Rosario is a city in the center-east of Argentina, about  northwest from Buenos Aires.
It is the main city of Santa Fe Province.
As of 2008 Rosario metropolitan area has a population of around 1,300,000 inhabitants, making it Argentina's third-largest city.
The city is on the Paraná River.
It is called Rosario because of the Virgin of the Rosary, whose image remains at the cathedral, in the same place as the original chapel.
Gymnastics is a sport which involves doing exercises which need strength, flexibility, balance and control.
This may include running, jumping, tumbling, somersaulting, flipping and balancing.
In women's gymnastics, there are four activities: floor, uneven bars, balance beam, and vault.
In men's gymnastics, there are six activities: floor exercise, parallel bars, high bar, pommel horse, vault, and rings.
Gymnastics began as a form of exercise in ancient Greece.
It was one of the first sports in the Olympics.
Forms of gymnastics
There are several forms of gymnastics, including rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, acrobatics, trampolining, and wheel gymnastics and no handed gymnastics.
In artistic gymnastics, gymnasts perform short routines using different pieces of equipment.
Acrobatics involves showing balance and performing flips on the floor or in the air.
In trampolining, gymnasts do routines using only the trampoline.
Wheel gymnasts exercise in a large wheel called a German wheel.
In rhythmic gymnastics, gymnasts perform with ribbons, rope, ball, hoop and clubs.
Usually, only females do rhythmic gymnastics because they are more flexible than males.
FM Gymnastics - a list of Techniques and free animated comic tutorials for Floor Gymnastics.
Websites of the federations
Gimnasia Argentina
Gymnastics Australia
Brazilian Gymnastics Federation
Gymnastics Canada
Chinese Gymnastics Association
Fédération Française de Gymnastique
Federazione Ginnastica d'Italia
Japan Gymnastic Association
Mexican Gymnastics Federation
Romanian Gymnastics Federation
Russian Gymnastics Federation
British Gymnastics
USA Gymnastics
Atahuallpa or Atawallpa (c. 1502 – 1533) was the 13th and last sovereign emperor of the Tahuantinsuyo, or Inca empire.
He became emperor after defeating his younger half-brother Huáscar in a civil war that followed the death of their father, Inca Huayna Capac, from an infectious disease (maybe malaria or smallpox).
During the civil war, the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro arrived and captured Atahuallpa, and used him to control the Inca empire.
Eventually, the Spanish executed Atahuallpa.
So ended the Inca Empire (although several weak puppet successors followed him.)
On the death of their father, the Emperor Huayna Capac, and their older brother, Ninan Cuyochi, who had been the heir, the empire was divided between the two surviving brothers, Huáscar and Atahualpa.
Huascar got the major part of it with the capital Cusco, and Atahualpa the northern parts, including Quito (now the capital of Ecuador).
For a couple of years, the two brothers reigned without problems.
But Huascar demanded that Atahuallpa swear an oath to him.
Atahuallpa refused, and the civil war began.
The final battle took place at Quipaipan, where Huascar was captured.
Atahuallpa was resting in the city of Cajamarca in the Andes with his army of 80,000 troops on his way to the south and Cusco to claim his throne.
By this time the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro had established the city of Piura, the first Spanish settlement in Peru on July of 1532.
After two months on the march, Pizarro had arrived at Cajamarca with just 168 men under his command and sent Hernando de Soto, friar Vicente de Valverde and native interpreter Felipillo to speak with Atahuallpa about the Spanish presence.
According to Spanish law the Spanish officially declared war on the Inca people.
When Atahuallpa coldly asked the priest Valverde by what authority he and his people could say such things, Valverde offered him a Bible, saying that the authority came from the words in it.
He examined it and then asked why did it not speak to him.
He then threw it to the ground.
That gave the Spaniards the excuse they needed to wage war on the Incas.
They opened fire, and over the course of 2 hours more than two thousand Inca soldiers were killed.
The Spanish then imprisoned Atahuallpa in the Temple of the Sun.
Atahuallpa still could not believe the Spanish intended to take control of his kingdom.
He thought that if he gave them the gold and silver they sought they would leave.
In exchange for his release, he agreed to fill a large room with gold and promised the Spanish twice that amount in silver.
Although he was stunned by the offer, Pizarro had no intention of releasing the Inca because he needed the ruler's influence over the native people to maintain order in the surrounding country.
But then Pizarro decided to have him executed because he feared he could be freed by an Inca General.
Pizarro staged a mock trial and found Atahuallpa guilty of revolting against the Spanish and murdering Huáscar, his own brother.
Atahuallpa was sentenced to execution by burning.
He was horrified, since the Inca believed that the soul would not be able to go on to the afterlife if the body were burned.
Friar Vicente de Valverde, who had earlier offered the Bible to Atahuallpa, intervened again, telling Atahuallpa that if he agreed to convert to Christianity he would convince the rest to commute the sentence.
Atahualpa agreed to be baptized into the Christian faith.
He was given the name Juan Santos Atahualpa and then was strangled with a garrote instead of being burned.
Atahuallpa died on August 29, 1533.
The Discovery and Conquest of Peru by William H. Prescott
Conquest of the Incas, John Hemming, 1973.
The Royal Hunt of the Sun, by Peter Shaffer, 1964.
Capture of an Inca King
Inca rulers
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) is an opera by Richard Wagner.
It is the only comic opera that Wagner wrote.
Wagner wrote the words (the libretto) in 1862 and composed the music in 1867.
It was first performed in Munich in 1868.
The story is set in the town of Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) in 16th century Germany.
It is about a group of Mastersingers.
The Mastersingers (German: Meistersinger) were a guild of singers in Germany many centuries ago.
The most famous of them was a man called Hans Sachs, who lived in the 16th century.
Although Hans Sachs was a real person, the story of the opera was made up by Wagner.
It is a story about a song contest.
The prelude (orchestral introduction) to the opera is very famous and is often played by itself at concerts.
It has several tunes which are sometimes cleverly played at the same time (counterpoint).
These tunes are used during the opera and are associated with particular people or ideas (such tunes are called leitmotifs).
The young knight Walther is in church and sees a beautiful young girl, Eva.
He wants to know whether she is married.
She tells him that she will be married to the person who wins the singing contest the next day.
Walther tries to learn the art of the Mastersingers from David, who works for Hans Sachs, the cobbler.
David himself is in love with Magdalene.
The apprentices start to prepare the stage for the contest.
If Walther is to win the contest he will have to compose his own mastersong and sing it.
He will have to compose it according to a lot of strict rules (the number of lines, the rhyming patterns etc.).
When he meets the other Mastersingers he introduces himself, saying that he learned the art of singing from the ancient poet Walther von der Vogelweide and from nature itself.
He sings this in a song which is very beautiful, but it does not obey the rules of the Mastersingers.
The Mastersingers are not able to understand the beauty of his song.
One of the Mastersingers is the town clerk.
His name is Beckmesser.
He is a comic figure and Wagner makes him look very silly.
Beckmesser is the “marker”.
This means something like: an “adjudicator”.
When a singer makes a “mistake” (disobeys the rules) the marker puts a chalkmark on the board.
When Walther sings his song Beckmesser makes lots of chalkmarks.
Hans Sachs is the only person who realizes the beauty of his song.
There is a lot of shouting and Walther has to stand on a chair to finish his song.
A street in Nuremberg at night.
Eva’s grand house is opposite Hans Sachs’ simple house.
Eva’s father realizes she is in love with Walther.
Hans is thinking about the young knight and how well he sings.
Eva asks Hans who he thinks will be likely to win the song contest.
Then she is called back by her father.
Beckmesser has come and would like to serenade her (sing her a love song).
Walther meets up with Eva and they wonder whether they should elope (run away together).
Eva changes clothes with her maid.
Hans Sachs stops them as they are about to elope.
Beckmesser is tuning his lute ready to sing.
Walther would like to argue with him but Eva gets him to sit quietly while Beckmesser sings.
Hans Sachs, who is mending Beckmesser’s shoe, has other ideas: he sings a song himself, and this annoys Beckmesser who is trying to sing to the girl he thinks is Eva (but it is Eva’s maid in disguise).
He tells Hans to stop singing.
Hans says that he will stop, but he will hammer on his shoe every time he hears Beckmesser make a mistake.
Beckmesser starts singing again, and Hans hammers lots of times.
All the neighbours wake up and come into the street and argue and fight.
In the end the night watchman comes and everybody goes back into their houses.
David is preparing a song for the midsummer festival.
Then Walther arrives and tells Hans that a song came to him in a dream.
Hans helps him to prepare the song for the contest.
When they have left the workshop Beckmesser comes in and sees the piece of paper with the song.
He picks it up when Hans returns and says that it is obvious that he, Hans, wants to enter the contest.
Hans tells Beckmesser that he can have the song.
Beckmesser is delighted and thinks he can now win Eva in marriage.
At the song contest Beckmesser tries to sing the song, but he sings it to his own tune which does not fit the words, and he gets the words all muddled up.
Everyone laughs and he leaves the stage angrily, saying that Sachs wrote the song.
Walther now sings his prize song.
This time people realize how beautiful it is although it does not obey the usual rules.
Walther can marry Eva.
Wagner’s operas have continuous music which develops is very logical ways using leitmotifs.
In the prelude we hear several tunes which are leitmotifs that are to be important during the opera: a theme that represents the dignity of the mastersingers, a theme for passion which later becomes Walther’s prize song, the chattering of the apprentices etc.
The music at the beginning of Act Three is also often played separately in the concert hall.
There are many beautiful moments in the opera.
Wagner cleverly changes the style to suit the action, for example when Eva’s father is talking about the Mastersingers’ reputation in Germany we hear an old-fashioned recitative.
Beckmesser is made to look stupid through his music which contrasts with Walther’s romantic music.
Interpretations of the opera
People have explained the meanings behind this opera in several ways.
The basic story is
about the wonderful German art of singing.
It is also about the fact that composers should be able to write music which is beautiful without having to obey rules that were made up long ago and have become old-fashioned.
Wagner was trying to bring lots of changes to opera, making the drama the most important thing.
Some people found his new ideas quite difficult to follow, and this may be why he chose, for once, to write a comic opera instead of a serious one based on mythology.
The character of Beckmesser is a caricature of Eduard Hanslick, a famous music critic who did not like the music of Wagner and Bruckner but preferred the more traditional music of Brahms and Antonín Dvořák.
The opera has been criticized because Wagner may have meant the story to have an anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) meaning.
This is certainly the way that Hitler understood it.
It was his favourite opera, and the idea of praising German art and song fitted in nicely with his racist views.
The character of Beckmesser is also a caricature of a stereotype Jew.
Allahu Akbar is a Muslim saying.
The exact words in Arabic mean  "God is greater", but people know that saying "God is great" in the right time and place means the same as "God is Greater." "
Allahu Akbar" is the first part of the Adhan, which people hear 5 times a day where Muslim people live together.
Saying "God is Great" tells people in a few words what Islam believes and teaches.
This Arabic phrase was added to the Iraqi flag, in Saddam Hussein's handwriting, in 2001.
Muslims say it before changing positions during their prayers.
Allahu Akbar was the anthem of Libya during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.
A shire is an administrative area of Great Britain (also county) and Australia.
The first shires were created by the Anglo-Saxons in central and southern England.
Shires were controlled by a royal official known as a "shire reeve" or sheriff.
In modern English usage shires are sub-divided into districts.
Individually, or as a suffix in Scotland, the word is pronounced  (to rhyme with "fire").
As a suffix in an English or Welsh place name it is pronounced  (rhymes with "fir").
Shires in Great Britain
It can also be used in a narrower sense, referring only to traditional counties ending in "shire".
These counties are typically (though not always) named after their county town.
Shires in England
Of these, all but Huntingdonshire and Yorkshire are also administrative counties (but with different boundaries).
Huntingdonshire is now administered as a district of Cambridgeshire, and Yorkshire is split between East, North, South and West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cumbria and County Durham.
Shires in Wales
In Wales, the counties of Merioneth and Glamorgan are occasionally referred to with the "shire" suffix.
The only traditional Welsh county that never takes "shire" is Anglesey.
Shires in Scotland
Shires in Australia
Shire is the most common word in Australia for the smallest local government areas by population.
The states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia use shire for this unit.
South Australia and Tasmania use district.
A shire has the same powers as the next largest units, the town and city.
In NSW, the expression 'The Shire' commonly refers to the Sutherland shire.
Counties of the United Kingdom
Fairy Tail is a shonen manga published in the Weekly Shônen Magazine from August 2, 2006 to July 26, 2017.
It was created by Hiro Mashima.
It has 545 chapters and 63 tankōbon volumes.
The series is also aired.
Some video games are released by Konami.
In August 2012 The Phoenix Priestess, a Fairy Tail movie, was released.
In the beginning, Lucy is a young sorceress (a "mage"), who wants to join Fairy Tail Guild.
On her trip, she meets Natsu, a young boy, who is looking for Igneel the Salamander.
She offers Natsu and Happy (his partner) a lunch and Natsu explains that Igneel is a dragon.
Lucy talks about her dream to join a famous guild, which she later told him was the Fairy Tail Guild.
Later, she is tricked and taken by Bora of Prominence to be sold as a slave.
She is rescued by Natsu, who is the real Salamander, and a true member of Fairy Tail Guild.
He offers her to be a member of Fairy Tail.
Lucy says yes and joins the guild.
Since then, Natsu and Lucy formed a team.
This is the beginning of the adventures that the two have while carrying out missions from the guild.
According to Oricon, Fairy Tail was the eighth best-selling manga series in Japan for 2009.
It became the fourth best in 2010 and 2011 and the fifth best of 2012.
It also won the 2009 Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen manga.
Fairy Tail World (US)
2012 anime OVAs
The viol (rhymes with "mile") is a string instrument that is played with a bow.
The viol was a popular instrument from the 15th to the 18th century.
Small viols are held on the lap, and the larger ones are held between the knees, which gave them the name of "viol da gamba", meaning a leg viol.
The bow is held with the palm of the hand facing upwards: the other way round from today's bowhold for violins, violas or cellos.
The viol is a gentle-sounding instrument.
When the violin family became popular in the 17th century and people started to go to concerts in large concert halls, and to operas, the viols became less important.
They were never used in orchestras.
Viols are made of wood, and are similar to the violin family.
Most viols have six strings, although this number did vary during the centuries.
The strings were made of gut, and are not as tight as on a violin.
The fingerboard has frets like a guitar, except that they were also made of gut.
They were tied around the fingerboard, and could be moved for tuning.
These frets help the player to find the exact place to put their fingers.
Sometimes the top of the scrolls on the fingerboard were beautifully decorated.
The instruments have sloped shoulders and a flat back.
The viol, like the vihuela, from which it developed, has a bridge that is flatter than the bridge of a modern violin.
This makes it easier to play chords.
The bow was convex in shape, where a violin bow is concave.
Viols were made in different sizes.
A set of viols of different sizes - perhaps four or five instruments - were sometimes kept together in a chest (large box) which is why they were called a "chest of viols".
When they were played together people talked of a "consort of viols".
A consort would normally have at least one treble, tenor and bass instrument.
A "broken consort" meant a mixture of different instruments: viols, recorders etc.
Lute and bass viol were often played together.
They were tuned in fourths, with a major third in the middle.
The strings of a bass viol (equivalent to the cello in the modern violin family) are tuned (from the lowest note, nearly two octaves below middle C, upwards) to D - G - C - E - A -D.  The tenor viol was often called a viola da gamba (literally: "viol of the leg").
It was the most popular size for solo music and many composers wrote sonatas for the viola da gamba.
The biggest viol is called the violone.
It developed into the modern double bass.
This is why the double bass is a little different in shape from the violin, viola and cello.
Some double bass players today hold the bow with the palm (inside) of the hand facing upwards, like viol players.
The viol was popular in the houses of rich people, and in the royal court.
During the reign of Elizabeth I and, later, King Charles I  composers such as William Byrd, John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons, John Jenkins and William Lawes wrote viol music.
Solo sonatas were written by many composers including Marin Marais, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Karl Friedrich Abel.
Some of the last and greatest fantasies for viol consort were written by Henry Purcell.
After the mid-18th century people forgot about the viol until the 20th century when there was a new interest in early music and people like Arnold Dolmetsch started making them again so that Renaissance and Baroque viol music could be played.
Today there are many societies for people who are interested in playing the viol.
There are now many societies for people with an interest in the viol.
One of these, The Viola da Gamba Society  has a worldwide membership.
Some modern composers have also written for the viol e.g. John Tavener, Sally Beamish, Thea Musgrave, Tan Dun and Poul Ruders.
There is a group called Fretwork which perform viol music.
The Regnitz is a river in Bavaria, Germany.
It is a left tributary of the Main and is 58 km in length.
The river is formed by the confluence of the rivers Rednitz and Pegnitz, which meet in the city of Fürth.
It finally meets the Main in the city of Bamberg.
Geir Ivarsøy (June 27, 1957 – March 9, 2006) was the main programmer at Opera Software.
He and Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner were part of a research group at the Norwegian state telephone company (now known as Telenor).
They made browsing software called MultiTorg Opera.
Telenor stopped them from working on the program, but in 1995 Ivarsøy and Stephenson von Tetzchner got the rights to the software.
They created a company of their own, and continued working on it.
Now known as Opera, the Internet browser has become very popular.
Opera Software has grown to more than 380 employees since it first moved to its present offices in Oslo.
In January of 2004, Geir Ivarsøy said he wanted to resign as a board member in Opera Software, though he kept working in the company after that.
In June of 2005 he was elected as a member of the nomination committee of the company.
Death in the Family — an obituary
The color wheel most commonly used today is called the HSV color wheel which means hue, saturation, value.
The digital form of the HSV color wheel is called the RGB color wheel (shown below).
The HSV/RGB color wheel is described below.
There are two versions: one in which red, green and blue are regarded as the primary colors (called the electronic or computer color wheel); and one in which magenta, yellow, and cyan are regarded as the primary colors (called the printer's color wheel).the primary colours are on the top.
The primary colors
(* Primary means first)
In the electronic color wheel used for electronic devices such as televisions and computers, red, green, and blue are regarded as the primary colors and   magenta, yellow, and cyan are regarded as the secondary colors.
The primary colors always appear on the color wheel.
There are the three primary colors of light.
These are called the three additive colors.
They are red (made in pigment by mixing yellow and magenta), green (made in pigment by mixing cyan and yellow), and blue (made in pigment by mixing magenta and cyan).
The three primary colors of light are the secondary colors on the printer's color wheel.
The primary colors of light can be mixed together to make secondary colors.
A long time ago, people used to think that the primary colors were red, yellow and blue.
Now we know they were wrong.
The secondary colors
(* Secondary means second)
The secondary colors are on all color wheels.
Secondary colors are made by mixing the primary colors of light together.
The secondary colors of light are the primary colors of pigment on the printer's color wheel--the color wheel used for color printing.
These three colors are called the subtractive colors.
They are magenta (a bright pink), yellow and cyan (a light greenish blue).
The primary colors of light are the secondary colors on the "printer's color wheel".
The three primary colors of pigment can be mixed to make red (magenta and yellow), green (yellow and cyan), and blue (cyan and magenta), but they do not appear as bright when they are made with pigment instead of light.
The secondary colors can be mixed with the primary colors to make tertiary colors.
The tertiary colors
(* Tertiary means third) The tertiary colors are made by mixing a secondary and primary color together.
The tertiary colors are orange, made by mixing red and yellow; chartreuse green (yellow-green), made by mixing green and yellow; spring green, made by mixing green and cyan; azure, made by mixing blue and cyan; violet, made by mixing blue and magenta; and rose, made by mixing red and magenta.
The tertiary   colors are the same for both the printer's color wheel and the electronic color wheel.
The 12 major colors of the color wheel
The 12 major colors of the color wheel, at 30 degree intervals on the HSV color wheel (shown above), are the following: red (0 degrees or 360 degrees), orange (30 degrees), yellow (60 degrees), chartreuse green (90 degrees), green (120 degrees), spring green (150 degrees), cyan (180 degrees), azure (210 degrees), blue (240 degrees), violet (270 degrees), magenta (300 degrees), and rose (330 degrees).
This constitutes the complete set of primary, secondary, and tertiary color names.
The 12 major color wheel colors color comparison chart
RYB color wheel
A rerun is a repeat of the same broadcast media, when that program is played again.
This is usually a television show, but can also be a radio show.
A cutaway in movieing is a camera shot that interrupts the program.
Its subjects are related.
It is going on at the same time as the main action of the program.
Cherie Blair CBE QC (born 23 September 1954) is a British barrister, sometimes known as Cherie Booth.
She is the wife of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair.
She was born at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Lancashire, and grew up in Waterloo, Lancashire.
She is a daughter of actor Antony Booth.
She qualified as a barrister in 1976, and took silk in 1995.
In 1999 she became a Recorder in the County Court and Crown Court.
Blair specialises in Human Rights law.
Brief biog on her Chamber's website
Spouses of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Since 1949 (except 1990-1996), Slovakia has been divided into a number of kraje (singular kraj, usually translated as Regions, but mean rather county).
Slovakia is currently divided into 8 regions.
Each kraj is then divided into many okresy (singular okres, usually translated as districts).
Slovakia currently has 79 districts.
Bratislava Region, capital Bratislava - 8 districts, pop.
599,015, 2053km²
Trnava Region, capital Trnava - 7 districts, pop.
550,103, 4108km²
Trenčín Region, capital Trenčín - 9 districts, pop.
605,582, 4501km²
Nitra Region, capital Nitra - 7 districts, pop.
713,442, 6343km²
Žilina Region, capital Žilina - 11 districts, pop.
692,232, 6788²
Banská Bystrica Region, capital Banská Bystrica - 13 districts, pop.
662,121, 9455km²
Prešov Region, capital Prešov - 13 districts, pop.
789,968, 8993km²
Košice Region, capital Košice - 11 districts, pop.
766,012, 6753km²
Geography of Slovakia
ro:Împărțirea administrativă a Slovaciei
Several districts form one region.
On the other hand, one district is made of several municipalities, which are further divided into cadastral areas.
The current districts exist since 1996, which at first had their own offices, but in 2004, they were abolished and replaced by the Circuit Offices, which are usually responsible for several districts (except for the Nové Zámky District, which has two Circuit Offices), reducing districts to a little more than statistical units.
Alphabetical list of all Slovak districts
Bratislava I
Bratislava II, Bratislava III
Bratislava IV, Bratislava V
Košice I
Košice II
Košice III
Košice IV
Košice - okolie
Žilina (German: Sillein, Hungarian: Zsolna) is a city in northwestern Slovakia.
The city is located in the northwestern Slovakia, at the confluence of Váh, Kysuca and Rajčanka rivers.
It is surrounded by numerous mountains ranges, for example Lesser Fatra, Strážov Mountains and many others.
The Slavs started to move here in the 5th century.
German colonists started to live here since the 13th century.
When the Hussites burned the city down, it declined it for some time.
It regained its position in the 19th century, when it became an important railway junction.
Today, it is the fifth largest town in Slovakia and the third most important industrial centre in Slovakia.
The centre of the city is the Mariánske námestie, with the city hall, baroque statue of the Virgin Mary and so on.
The Budatín Castle
Wooden church of St. George (one of the few outside north-eastern Slovakia)
Church of St. Stephen the King
Orthodox synagogue
Žilina is the main industrial and business centre of the Váh river.
The biggest employer is the Kia Motors company, which invested here 1 billion dollars and created 3000 work positions.
Bielsko-Biała, Poland
Corby, England
Changchun, China
Maykop, Russia
Nanterre(part of Paris), France
Piatra Neamţ, Romania
Photo gallery of Žilina
Žilina information
Renting (also called leasing) is where someone pays money to use something for a definite amount of time.
This can be anything from a car or house to a DVD.
The document that has all the details written on it is called the lease.
The person who owns the item that will be leased or rented is called the lessor.
The person who is paying the money to use the item is called the lessee.
If it is a house, building, or land that is being leased, the person who pays the money is called the tenant.
For example, a tenant farmer is a person who rents a farm from its owner.
Prešov (; ) is a city in eastern Slovakia.
With a population of approximately 91,000 it is the third-largest city in the country.
Prešov is a city lying in the Torysa river valley, in the historical Šariš region.
It is located 33 km north of Košice, connected by the motorway D1.
People have lived in the area since the Paleolithic period.
Prešov is first mentioned in 1247.
It became a free royal town in 1374.
Salt mining started here in the 16th century, in the nearby town of Solivar (which is now part of Prešov).
Nyíregyháza, Hungary
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Nowy Sącz, Poland
Mukacheve, Ukraine
Prague 10, Czech Republic
Remscheid, Germany
Keratsini, Greece
La Courneuve, France
Comune di Brugherio, Italy
Trnava (German: Tyrnau, Hungarian: Nagyszombat) is a city in western Slovakia, around 50 km from the capital Bratislava.
Because it has so many churches with its town walls, it is commonly called Little Rome or Slovak Rome.
The town was first mentioned in 1211.
It received royal free town privileges as the first town in Slovakia in 1238.
The town had its height as a cultural and religious centre, as it was seat of archbishopric  from 1541 to 1820.
The first horse-drawn railway in the Kingdom of Hungary was built to Trnava from Bratislava in 1846.
It is again an seat of archbishopric since 1978.
In 2003, French car manufacturer PSA started construction of automobile plant.
It was finished in 2006
Scranton, Pennsylvania (United States)
Trnava Official website (in Slovak only)
Trnava travel guide
Nitra (Hungarian: Nyitra / Nyitria [archaic]; German: Neutra ()) is a city in western Slovakia (and the fifth largest urban settlement in Slovakia) situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the Nitra River valley.
Nitra is one of the oldest cities in Slovakia.
It existed as a town since at least the early 9th century.
Nitra is a city with special history.
People have lived there for at least 6000 years.
It was an important center of the Celts (in the last few hundred years BC), and later the seat of the first known rulers of what is today Slovak territory, i.e. of :
the Germanic Quadi around 396? (
disputed)
the Slavic/Slovak Principality of Nitra:
an independent state (late 8th century - 833)
Principality of Nitra as part of Great Moravia (833 - ?
Principality of Nitra under Hungarian rule (?
925/970 - 1107) [between 1000 and 1030 temporarily under Polish rule ]
Bački Petrovac, Serbia
České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Gosford, New South Wales, Australia
Kroměříž, Czech Republic
Naperville, Illinois, USA
Osijek, Croatia
Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia
Zielona Góra, Poland
Zoetermeer, Netherlands
Trenčín (German: Trentschin; Hungarian:  Trencsén; Latin: Laugaritio) is a town in western Slovakia (close to the Czech border) on the Váh river.
The site is inhabited since time immemorial.
Trenčín is best known for Roman writing below the Trenčín castle.
In the 13th century, the castle was home to the legendary Matthew Csák, "Lord of the river Váh and the Tatra mountains".
Cran-Gevrier, France
Uherské Hradiště, Czech Republic
Zlín, Czech Republic
Tarnów, Poland
Casalecchio di Reno, Italy
Békéscsaba, Hungary
Kragujevac, Serbia
Banská Bystrica (German: Neusohl, Hungarian: Besztercebánya, Latin: Villa Nova), is a large town in central Slovakia, on the Hron river.
It was first mentioned in 1255 as a royal free mining town.
The town had rich ore deposits, mainly copper, and to a lesser extent silver, gold and iron.
As the deposits were depleted, the town has reoriented to the industry.
During the World War II, the Slovak National Uprising broke out in the town.
- Durham, England
- Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
- Salgótarján, Hungary
- Tula, Russia
- Herzliya, Israel
- Larissa, Greece
- Montana, Bulgaria
- Tarnobrzeg, Poland
- Zadar, Croatia
- Ascoli Piceno, Italy
- Halberstadt, Germany
- Dabas, Hungary
- Budva, Montenegro
- Radom, Poland
- Kovačica, Serbia
- Vršac, Serbia
Social realism is a style of art, fiction, movies and plays.
It describes the daily life of workers and poor people.
Social realist artists try to show people and their lives in a realistic way.
This means that they often show things which are not beautiful or attractive.
They may show people who are elderly, sick, sad, insane or have a disability.
This does not mean that a Realist work of art or literature is ugly.
It can be made beautiful by the way that the artist or writer creates it.
Social realism art does not belong to one period of history, but has been the style of some artists in different centuries and different countries.
Caravaggio, who was a late Renaissance artist, painted "Realist" pictures.
Several Spanish painters were "Realists": Velazquez, Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Goya.
There were many realist painters in the 19th century, including Gustave Courbet in France and Luke Fildes in England.
Social Realism was popular in Russian art and literature.
In the 20th century it became the main type of literature in the Soviet Union.
It was also used by David Siqueiros to depict daily struggles of the people in his country, Mexico.
Competition format
The SPL is in a league format – a team gains points by playing another team in the league.
Three points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw.
Once all the games have been played, the team at the top of the league wins the SPL trophy.
If two or more teams are equal on points, then the difference between of goals scored and goals against is considered.
The season runs from August until May each year.
Each club will play each other at least three times before the table splits in half for the last part of the competition.
Each club will then play five more games against clubs in their half of the table.
Each team plays a total of 38 games.
Once every team has played each other three times the league splits into two halves for another five games.
This means that the top six teams play each other once, and the bottom six teams play each other once.
Many people do not like the SPL splitting.
Many managers such as Jim Jeffries, the manager of Hearts at the time, has publicly asked for the split to be removed.
The man in charge of the SPL, the Chief Executive, said that 11 out of the 12 SPL teams would need to agree and out of eight teams asked, five said that they wanted the split kept.
Teams cannot move between the two splits, meaning that even if a team in seventh place has more points than the team in sixth they will not move above them in the league.
This happens often, for example in the 2005–06 season, the seventh placed club, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, gained more points than the fourth placed club, Hibernian but finished the league in seventh.
Winter break
In the 2000–01 season, the SPL decided to stop the "winter break", forcing teams to play through January.
This means that many games are stopped because of the damage to the pitch and very bad weather.
Former Celtic manager Martin O'Neill, former Dundee manager Jim Duffy, and former Rangers manager Walter Smith are among those who have asked to start the winter break again.
Former Rangers manager Alex McLeish accused the SPL of taking Scottish football "back to the Dark Ages" after its decision to stop the winter break, meaning that they were going back to an old, outdated system.
European qualification
A total of four clubs can qualify for European competitions.
The teams who finish first in the SPL qualify for the UEFA Champions League.
The second and third-placed team, and the winner of the Scottish Cup, qualify for the UEFA Europa League.
Rangers and Celtic have recently played in the final of the UEFA Cup, with neither club winning in the final match.
In 2003 Celtic played FC Porto in Seville, Spain but Porto won 3– 2.
More recently, in 2008 Rangers played FC Zenit St. Petersburg in Manchester, England, but lost 2– 0.
More than 200,000 Rangers fans went to Manchester to watch the game on several large televisions.
Normally, the team who finishes last in the SPL is relegated to the Scottish First Division and the team who finishes first in the First Division is promoted to the SPL.
However, there are some criteria that the team must meet in order to be promoted.
In 2003, Falkirk finished first in the Scottish First Division but their stadium did not meet the agreed criteria.
Instead, they asked if they could share a stadium with Airdrie United while their own stadium was expanded.
This caused arguments as the chairmen of the SPL clubs voted against this idea.
Because Falkirk's stadium was too small, they were not promoted into the SPL, and the team who finished last in the SPL (Motherwell) was not relegated.
This situation almost happened again in 2004.
There were many votes and threats of legal action from Partick Thistle, the team who finished last in the SPL.
The situation was solved and Inverness Caledonian Thistle were allowed promotion, as long as they shared a stadium with their rivals Aberdeen at Pittodrie, a stadium over 100 miles (160 km) away.
In 2005, the stadium size criteria was reduced.
A team playing in the SPL must now have at least 6,000 seats (down from 10,000).
Standing room is not allowed in SPL grounds for safety reasons.
This then allowed Inverness Caledonian Thistle to return to their home stadium during the 2005–06 season.
In the SPL, there are no restrictions on clubs signing players.
The only rule on signing players is with general Scottish employment law.
There are no salary caps or age restrictions.
There are no restrictions on the size of the playing squad or restrictions on the number of players from other countries.
The only rule is the "Under-21" rule.
This means that every club must name at least three players under the age of 21 in their match day squad.
They do not need to play.
There has been some criticism over this rule.
Walter Smith, Gus MacPherson and Jim Jeffries all showed their disapproval.
Media coverage and sponsorship
Television coverage
Between the 1998–99 season and the 2001–02 season, the right to show SPL matches on television was held by Sky Sports, with highlights being shown by STV's Scotsport.
Sky Sports withdrew from the SPL when their offer for £45 million, to continue showing live games on TV, was declined by the SPL.
The SPL asked for more money.
Discussions began in 2002 for a new pay-per-view satellite television channel, called "SPL TV".
However Rangers and Celtic did not like the idea, and rejected it.
Because of this, the remaining 10 SPL clubs announced their intention to resign from the league.
Even though a two-year television deal had been agreed with BBC Scotland in July 2002 (for less than the money previously offered by Sky Sports), the 10 non-Old Firm clubs confirmed their resignation from the SPL in August 2002, because they were unhappy with how the league voted which allowed the Old Firm clubs to stop any attempts to change SPL rules.
The ten clubs withdrew their resignations in January 2003 after an agreement was reached to change the voting rules and to change the way the money from TV was given out to the SPL teams.
With BBC Scotland's television contract due to expire after the 2003–04 season, the SPL agreed a new television deal with Irish company Setanta Sports in February 2004 in a four-year deal worth £54 million.
In June 2008, it was announced that a further four-year deal would start for the 2010–11 season, with the deal worth £125 million.
However, Setanta went bankrupt in June 2009.
In July, Sky Sports and ESPN agreed a £65 million five-year deal with the SPL.
The right to broadcast SPL games on radio is currently held by BBC Radio Scotland, who have held the rights since the SPL started in the 1998–99 season.
BBC Radio Scotland also provide internet webcasts to all Scottish Premier League matches, having became the first broadcaster to introduce such a service in June 2000.
As with many sport competitions, the name of the SPL has been sold to a sponsor, currently the Clydesdale Bank, a Scottish Bank.
The Clydesdale Bank bought the name in the 2007–08 season for £8 million, taking over from another Scottish bank, the Bank Of Scotland.
The SPL is now known as the "Clydesdale Bank Premier League".
Until the start of the 2012-13 season the two Glasgow football clubs known as the Old Firm played in the SPL, Rangers  and Celtic.
The Old Firm was criticised by some due to the fact that they held such a strong position in Scottish football.
The amount of money they made was very large compared to the other teams in Scotland.
In 2001 their income was £90 million, almost double the income of the other ten teams, whose income was £48 million combined.
Every year since the SPL started one of the Old Firm has won the league.
Only once, in the 2005–06 season, did the Old Firm clubs not come first and second in the SPL.
Rangers entered administration in 2012 because they owed money which they could not afford to repay.
Some of this money was owed to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) as Rangers had not paid the tax they should have.
Rangers asked HMRC if they would take only some of the money owed to them, called a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) however HMRC demanded the full amount and Rangers were closed.
The people who owned Rangers have set up a new company ('newco') and bought Ibrox stadium, the training buildings and other things.
This 'newco' was forced out of the SPL moved to the Scottish Third Division from the 2012-13 season.
Although the two teams had a strong position over other Scottish teams, they still cannot compete with other leagues for players because other leagues, particularly the English Premiership, have a lot more money to spend.
There were rumours about the Old Firm splitting from the SPL, and joining the English Premiership, but this was stopped by FIFA.
Current teams
Former SPL members
Inverness Caley Thistle and St Mirren are the only clubs to have been promoted into the SPL twice.
Dunfermline Athletic are the only club to have been relegated from the SPL twice.
Updated on 28 October 2009; and partly on 07/10/12
Most goals in a season: Celtic, 105 goals, 2003–04
Fewest goals in a season: St. Johnstone, 23 goals, 2010–11
Most points in one season: Celtic, 103 points, 2001–02
Fewest points in a season: Gretna, 13 points, 2007–08
Fewest goals conceded in one season: Celtic, 18 goals, 2001–02
Most goals conceded in a season: Aberdeen, 83 goals, 1999–00 & Gretna, 83 goals, 2007–08
Biggest goal difference in a season: Celtic, 80, 2003–04
Biggest home win: Celtic 9-0 Aberdeen (2010-11) Celtic 7-0 Aberdeen (1999–00 and 2002–03); Rangers 8-0 Hamilton Academical (2020-21);Hibernian 7-0 Livingston (2005–06); Celtic 7-0 St Mirren (2008–09);
'Biggest away win: St. Johnstone 0-7 Rangers (1998–99); Dunfermline Athletic 1-8 Celtic (2005–06)
Highest scoring match: Motherwell 6-6 Hibernian (2009–2010)
Most away wins in a season: Celtic, 13, 2000–01
Fewest away wins in a season: Dunfermline, 0, 1998–99
Most away defeats in a season: Livingston, 16, 2005–06
Fewest home defeats in a season: Celtic, 0, 2001–02, 2002–03,
Top goalscorer in a single season: Henrik Larsson, 35 goals, 2000–01 Celtic
Player with most hat-tricks: Henrik Larsson, 12, 1998–2004
Top goalscorer in any one game: Kenny Miller, 5, 4 November 2000, Rangers v St. Mirren; Kris Boyd, 5, 25 September 2004, Kilmarnock v Dundee United; Kris Boyd, 5, 30 December 2009, Rangers v Dundee United,
Oldest player: Andy Millen, for St. Mirren vs Hearts, 42 years 279 days, 15 March 2008
Youngest player: Scott Robinson, for Hearts vs Inverness CT, 16 years, 45 days
Youngest goalscorer: Fraser Fyvie (Aberdeen) 16 years & 10 months, v Hearts 27/01/10.
Fastest goalscorer: Anthony Stokes, for Hibernian v Rangers, 12.4 seconds
Most consecutive clean-sheets: Robert Douglas, Celtic, 7 games, 16 December 2000 - 21 February 2001
Most SPL appearances: Steven Pressley, 306 (correct to the end of the 2008–09 season)
Highest attendance: 60,440, Celtic v St. Mirren, 7 April 2001
Lowest attendance: 431, Gretna v Inverness CT, 5 April 2008
Highest average attendance: 59,369, Celtic, 2000–01
Lowest average attendance: 2,283, Gretna, 2007–08
Highest transfer fee paid Tore André Flo, from Chelsea to Rangers, £12m, 23 November 2000
Highest transfer fee received:
Craig Gordon, from Heart of Midlothian to Sunderland, £9m, 8 August 2007
Alan Hutton, from Rangers to Tottenham Hotspur, £9m, 30 January 2008
Highest transfer fee between two SPL clubs: Scott Brown, from Hibernian to Celtic, £4.4m, 1 June 2007
2013 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
There are six metropolitan counties in England, which each cover large urban areas, typically with populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million.
They were created in 1974 and are each divided into several metropolitan districts.
There are no county councils any more since 1986.
Most of their functions were taken over by the individual boroughs.
So the boroughs became unitary authorities.
The remaining functions were taken over by so-called joint-boards.
The metropolitan counties have population densities of between 838 (South Yorkshire) and 28 (West Midlands) people/km².
Individual metropolitan districts range from 4 people/km² in Liverpool to only 500 people/km² in Doncaster.
Counties and districts
The structure of Greater London is similar to the metropolitan counties, but it is not one.
It was created earlier in 1965, by the London Government Act 1963.
Since 1995, the cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield have come together in the English Core Cities Group.
This organisation has no distinct legal status but seems to move towards a role of these cities as regional capitals outside of London.
A unitary authority is a type of local authority that is responsible for all local government functions within its area.
This is different from a system where local government functions are divided between different authorities.
Typically unitary authorities cover large towns or cities, which are large enough to be independent of county or regional administration.
Sometimes they consist of counties which have no lower level of administration.
Until 1996 a similar system existed in Scotland and Wales but this has now been replaced by a fully unitary system.
The unitary system has existed in Northern Ireland since 1973.
when the administrative responsibilities of the Counties of Northern Ireland were replaced by a system of 26 unitary authorities.
In practice most unitary authorities in the UK are not entirely unitary, as they often run some services on a joint basis with other authorities, these typically include policing, fire services, and sometimes waste disposal and public transport.
In addition some unitary authorities contain civil parishes, which effectively form another limited  of local government
When the metropolitan councils were abolished in 1986 their functions were given to the boroughs.
These became unitary authorities in all but name.