the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
December 17 - Sony stops the release the movie "The Interview" about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, following threats from hackers.
It is later released in private cinemas.
December 17 - US President Barack Obama declares a normalization in diplomatic relations with Cuba.
December 22 - Building work begins on a project to build a canal across Nicaragua.
December 25 - The movie The Interview is released in private cinemas in the United States, despite threats by hackers.
December 28 - "Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501" goes missing on a flight from Surabaya, Java, Indonesia to Singapore.
It is later revealed to have crashed, killing all 162 people on board.
December 28 - The ferry MS Norman Atlantic catches fire off the island of Corfu, while travelling from Patras, Greece to Ancona, Italy.
At least 13 people die, while most of the passengers are rescued.
December 29 - Elections are called for January 2015 in Greece, after the parliament failed to elect a new President.
December 31 - The first same-sex marriages in Scotland take place.
December 31 - All US and UK combat missions in Afghanistan end.
Physiology or Medicine: John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser, Edvard Moser
Physics: Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, Shuji Nakamura
Chemistry: Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, William E. Moerner
Literature: Patrick Modiano
Peace: Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi
Economics: Jean Tirole
Major holidays and dates
January 6 - Epiphany Christian celebration
January 7 - Orthodox Christmas
February 1 – Imbolc (Celebrated on February 2 in some places)
March 4 – Shrove Tuesday
March 5 – Ash Wednesday
March 17 – St. Patrick's Day
March 20 – Spring Equinox
April 13 - Palm Sunday
April 18 - Good Friday
April 20 – Easter Sunday
April 21 - Easter Monday
May 1 – May Day
June 21 – Summer solstice, also known as Midsummer
August 1 – Lammas
September 23 – Fall Equinox
October 4 – Eid al-Adha
October 23 - Diwali (Hinduism)
November 1 – All Saints Day and Samhain
November 30 - First Sunday of Advent
December 21 – Winter solstice
Moon Child (2003)
The Flash movie EPIC 2014 concludes in this year.
In the Supernatural episode "The End", the angel Zachariah sends Dean Winchester to this year to convince him to be a host for Michael.
In this future, the Croatoan virus has spread across the world, Sarah Palin is president, and Sam Winchester is the host for Lucifer.
In Desperate Housewives, Edie Britt dies and her ashes scattered across Wisteria Lane.
Soldiers of Anarchy (2002)
Shattered Union: The Second American Civil War begins in this year.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (2007)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)
Anime and manga
Neon Genesis Evangelion some events in this series take place.
Alien Nine (2001)
One of the time arcs in 20th Century Boys takes place in 2014.
Mike Reiss (born September 15, 1959 in Bristol, Connecticut) is an American television comedy writer.
He went to Harvard University.
He was co-president with Jon Vitti of the Harvard Lampoon.
He has frequently collaborated with his writing partner Al Jean as a writer for The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and writers/producers for many episodes of The Simpsons.
The duo created and executive produced The Critic and Teen Angel, which was cancelled in its first season.
Reiss independently produced a short internet cartoon series entitled Queer Duck for Icebox.com.
In 2002, the series was picked up by Showtime, where it aired as a supporting feature to Queer as Folk.
Queer Duck: the Movie was released on DVD July 18, 2006.
The feature film reunites the Queer Duck cast.
As a professional speaker, Reiss has lectured on comedy and the Simpsons at colleges.
He has published six children's books, including How Murray Saved Christmas.
He also won an Edgar Award for his mystery story "Cro-Magnon PI".
Reiss feature in The Tattoo Teen Newspaper, including audio about writing for "The Simpsons"
Channel4 - 100 Greatest Cartoons
writers from Connecticut
Al Jean (born January 9, 1961 in Farmington Hills, Michigan) is an American television comedy writer best known for his work on The Simpsons.
He has been showrunning (managing) The Simpsons since season 13.
Washington Post - A Q&A with Al Jean
wikipediar.org
Sam Simon (June 6, 1955 - March 8, 2015) was an American television producer and writer, most notable as one of the original developers of The Simpsons, along with Matt Groening and James L. Brooks.
He is perhaps best known for his creation of many Simpsons characters.
In late 2012, Simon was diagnosed with terminal colorectal cancer which later metastasized in his other organs, including his liver and kidneys.
Simon died in his Los Angeles home from complications from the disease on March 8, 2015.
60 Minutes interview with Sam Simon
Sam Simon's Foundation for animal welfare
William Henry Macy (born March 13, 1950 is an Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated American Actor.
He was in the movie Fargo.
He is also a teacher and director in theatre, movie and television.
He is now known for his award-winning role as Frank Gallagher in the television series Shameless.
Macy and actress Felicity Huffman dated on-and-off for 15 years and married on September 6, 1997.
They have three children, two daughters, Sophia Grace (born December 1, 2000) and Georgia Grace (born March 14, 2002), and a son James Robert (born February 23, 2003).
William H. Macy  at Tv.com
Actors from Miami, Florida
Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, DD, PC, FBA (born 14 June 1950) was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 until 2012.
In this role he was the most senior bishop in the Church of England and the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Williams is a distinguished theologian and poet.
He is the current Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
He is married and has a daughter and son.
Williams was ordained as a priest in 1978, and was consecreated as a bishop in 1992.
He served as Bishop of Monmouth from 1991.
He held the office of Archbishop of Wales from 2000 until his election as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Following his retirement as archbishop, he was created a life peer as Baron Williams of Oystermouth.
Archbishop of Canterbury official site
The Anglican Communion's official website
Canterbury Cathedral official site
Conservative Evangelical critique of the Archbishop's theology
"The Archbishop's guide to Muslim intolerance"  - critical op-ed in Haaretz
Church must be 'safe place' for gay and lesbian people
Anglican archbishops
Nash was born in Brent.
She grew up in Harrow, North West London.
Her father is English; her mother is Irish.
She first became interested in music during her childhood when she learned how to play the piano.
Nash's début single was a double-A side single (recorded in Iceland), was released through independent record label Moshi Moshi Records in February 2007.
Only 1000 copies were released, and it was on available on 7" vinyl.
Because the single was so popular, 1000 additional copies of the single were made and sold out extremely fast.
The A-side was called "Caroline's a Victim", is an electronic sounding song about Kate Nash's friend Caroline.
A video for the song was released and received a lotof  airplay on the music television channel, MTV2.
The video was directed by Kinga Burza and it featured Nash playing different instruments at the same time that her friend "Caroline" sits in her room playing music, taking photographs, trying on different clothes, listening to David Bowie, putting on makeup and sitting at her computer checking a website.
During the promotion for "Caroline's a Victim/Birds", Nash supported an English singer who goes by the name of Get Cape.
Wear Cape.
Fly on his national tour before leaving to go on her own headlining tour around the UK.
In April 2007, Nash and other up-coming London acts were mocked through a nasty imitation of Nash's song, "Caroline's a Victim" entitled "LDN Is A Victim."
The song  mocked Nash and Lily Allen, among others, for singing in a Cockney accent, despite their privileged backgrounds.
Following the fast, and unpredicted, success of "Foundations", Fiction Records announced plans to release Nash's album earlier than expected, to 6 August 2007.
The album, which was named: Made of Bricks, included many of the tracks which Kate Nash had been performing on her two nationwide tours, on her tours Kate Nash was supported by a British duet, called Peggy Sue & The Pirates.
The album received mixed reviews, The Independent describing it as being in "pole position for worst album of the year.".
Kate Nash's album, Made of Bricks reached the UK Number 1.
In June 2007 Nash performed at many summer music festvals, for example, O2 Wireless Festival, the Bestival, Electric Gardens, Glastonbury Festival and the Latitude Festival, she also played at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, Oxegen and T in the Park, as well as other festivals.
Kate Nash made her first official Television performance on Later with Jools Holland, also appearing on other TV shows, for example: Popworld, The Friday Night Project, GMTV and This Morning during 2007.
On 4 March 2013 she released her third album Girl Talk.
She released it on her own record label 10p Records.
It was not as successful as Nash's first two albums and reached No.85 in the UK Albums Chart.
Nash was featured on the Top of the Pops Christmas special on 25 December 2007.
She performed her single, Foundations.
Nash features on rapper, Kano's album which is called London Town, in a song titled "Me & My Microphone".
She is also featured in the song "Look What You've Done" from Lethal Bizzle's latest albumwhich is named, Back To Bizznizz.
Nash stated in an interview with NME that she is writing a series of short stories influenced by Roald Dahl, including one based around a seven-foot transvestite named Roy, and would like to release a collection.
Nash will probably release her books under a false name.
People from the London Borough of Brent
A person is called single if he or she is not married, not in a civil union, and not in a sexual or romantic relationship.
In a more general sense, the word also means that person currently has no exclusive partner, like a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Such people can be classified into different types:
People who choose to live alone.
This includes hermits and shamans.
The Catholic Church does not want that their priests marry.
There are also some restrictions in the Orthodox church.
Nuns and monks are also not allowed to marry.
Such singles are often part of a religious order or community.
People who live alone because of social norms.
This was especially true for children who were born outside a marriage, in the Middle Ages.
People who have not yet found their partner.
Some people actively search for a mate, others simply wait until the right person comes along.
People whose partner died, or who are divorced.
In English, male singles used to be called bachelors, female singles used to be called spinsters (or bachelorettes, more recently).
In general, the word single is used more often now, because it also does not make a difference between the two sexes.
Catfish are an order of teleost fish, the Siluriformes.
There are about 40 families in the order.
They are called catfish because their barbels look like the whiskers of a cat.
They are very diverse.
The heaviest is the Mekong giant catfish, up to  350 kg (770 lb).
The longest is the wels catfish, up to 4 m (13 ft).
There are also detrivores in the group.
There are some tiny parasitic catfish called candiru.
Some catfish are grown for food, in fish farms.
Some catfish can be kept in aquaria.
Special lifestyles
Most catfish do not harm people, but some of them can cause problems.
It is said that the candiru can enter the human urethra, where they stay as parasites.
In normal life they are parasites on fish gills.
The Malapteruridae are a family of electric catfish.
Several species of the family can produce an electric shock of up to 350 volts using electroplaques of an electric organ.
The Adam's apple is a feature of the human neck.
The medical name in English for it is the laryngeal prominence.
This lump is formed by the angle of the thyroid cartilage (a type of soft bone) around the larynx (part of the throat which holds the vocal chords).
The Adam's apple can usually be seen better in adult men than in women, girls, or boys.
The Adam's apple is only part of the thyroid cartilage around the larynx.
A large Adam's apple is commonly seen as a male secondary sex characteristic, although not all males have it and quite a few women have one too.
It is called "Adam's apple" as a reference to the forbidden fruit, which according to a traditional Jewish belief, got stuck in Adam's throat.
Different languages use the same term, for instance Adamsappel (Dutch), pomme d'Adam (French) and Adamsapfel (German).
Until the 19th century, the medical term was also generally Pomum Adami.
When the Basle Nomina Anatomica was introduced in 1895, it became Prominentia laryngea.
Adam's Apples, a 2005 Danish movie
Adam's Apple (album), a 1966 album by Wayne Shorter
"Adam's Apple" (song), a 1975 song by Aerosmith
Adam's Apple (2004 album), by John Wesley Harding
The words forbidden fruit stand as a metaphor (an image).
The metaphor comes from the book of Genesis in the Bible.
There Adam and Eve are thrown out of Paradise because they eat from the tree of knowledge.
The fruit has commonly been represented as an apple due to wordplay of the Latin word for apple, malus, which can mean both "evil" and "apple".
The Bible does not specify a fruit, but locates it as being at the very center of The Garden of Eden.
In Judaism the fruit is believed to be either a grape, a fig, a citron or wheat.
Most scholars say that the type of fruit is not forbidden, it was just the fruits of that particular tree that were.
In general, the term can also refer to something illegal or immoral to do.
It might also be dangerous.
Many times this is about sex outside of marriage.
Real Sociedad de Fútbol is a Spanish football team.
The team is in Donostia-San Sebastián in the Spanish province of Guipuzcoa.
It was created in 1909.
In the 2006/07 season, the team was in La Liga.
After 40 years in this division, in the season 2007/08 Real Sociedad plays in Segunda División.
The colors of the team are blue and white.
1909-1931 Real Sociedad
1931-1939 Donostia F.C.
1939-present Real Sociedad
Anoeta
Anoeta Stadium is the stadium of Real Sociedad.
Anoeta has a capacity of 32 000.
Anoeta Stadium was opened in 1993.
La Liga (2): 1981 and 1982
Copa del Rey (2): 1909 and 1987
Supercup (1): 1982
Real Sociedad has not won any trophies in Europe.
Richard Mentor Johnson (October 17, 1780 – November 19, 1850) was the ninth vice president of the United States, serving with President Martin Van Buren.
A resident of Kentucky, Johnson served as a U.S. representative and senator from Kentucky, and in the Kentucky House of Representatives.
Johnson started his career as a lawyer representing many people for free.
He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1806.
During the War of 1812, Johnson led troops against the British.
Johnson later served in the Senate before being chosen as vice president.
Johnson was elected by the Senate and not through the normal election because he did not have enough electors to win.
This happened because Johnson lived with a slave named Julia Chinn, had two children with her, and treated her like his wife.
Johnson was not chosen to run with Van Buren in 1840.
Johnson served in the Kentucky House of Representatives again as well as ran for a Senate seat again.
In 1850 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives again but died two weeks into his term on November 19, 1850.
1780 births
An allemande () is a dance that was popular in Baroque music of the 17th and early 18th centuries.
The word comes from the French word for "German".
Composers of the Baroque period often wrote a group of dances called a suite.
There was usually an allemande, a courante, a sarabande and a gigue, in that order.
Sometimes there were one or two other dances as well.
Sometimes a suite started with a prelude (an introductory movement) before the allemande.
The allemande was played at a moderate speed - not very fast, nor very slow.
There were usually 4 beats in a bar (4/4 time) but also sometimes in 2/2 time, and it started with an anacrusis (an upbeat, i.e. one, or possibly a small group of notes which were not on the first beat of a bar).
The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market and includes the growing, making, distribution, and sale of illegal drugs.
While some drugs are legal to possess and sell, in most areas laws do not allow the trade of some drugs.
Those drugs often include heroin, cocaine, marijuana or others.
Drug traffickers may punished with time in prison for several years.
In some countries, the crime carries the death penalty.
News, information, laws and photos of illegal drugs, narcotics and drug trafficking
United Nations - Drug Programme
Geopium: Geopolitics of Illicit Drugs in Asia  (English and French)
United Nations World Drug Report
Illicit drug issues by country, by the CIA
Mortadella di Bologna is an Italian kind of sausage.
It is made of ground pork meat.
Salt, pepper, sugar as well as small cubes of pork fat are added.
It is then made into big sausages.
It is then cooked in special ovens at 90°C (194° Fahrenheit).
Some kinds of Mortadella have other spices in them.
Outside Italy
Mortadella is also produced and consumed in other countries.
It is very popular in Spain, and Portugal.
Many Italians emigrated to South America in  the early 20th cenury.
For this reason, Mortadella is also very popular in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela.
In these countries it is spelled ''mortadela'', and its recipe is quite similar to the traditional Italian, with additional pepper grains.
A courante () is a dance that was popular in Baroque music in the 17th and early 18th centuries.
The word comes from the French word for to "run".
The courante was a fast, running dance with 3 beats in a bar (the time signature was often 3/2, although sometimes it was 3/4).
During the 17th century the French courante started to become slower than the Italian corrente, and it often had more counterpoint (imitating parts).
However, this was not a strict rule, and the courantes that Bach wrote were both Italian and French in style, and sometimes he called them "courante" and sometimes "corrente".
Composers of the Baroque period often composed a group of several dances.
This was called a suite.
There was usually an allemande, then the courante was the second dance, followed by a sarabande and a gigue and sometimes one or two other dances or as well.
There was usually an Allemande, a Courante, a Sarabande and a Gigue, in that order, and sometimes two Bourrées as well.
The sarabande was a slow, stately dance with 3 beats in a bar (3/4 time or Simple Triple).
There was always a small stress (Tenuto) on the second beat of the bar.
The note on the first beat would often be played quite short so that the second beat would feel heavy.
Like the other dance movements in the suite, the Sarabande was in Binary form.
The sarabande seems to have come from Central America where it was known as "zarabanda".
Although it was mainly used in the Baroque Period, composers in the 20th Century such as Debussy, Satie, Howells and Britten sometimes wrote Sarabandes.
Perhaps the most famous Sarabande is one written by an unknown composer.
The piece is called La folie espagnole.
Many Baroque composers such as Monteverdi and Corelli and even some modern ones used this well-known tune.
The sarabande has been used a lot in movies, including one by Ingmar Bergman called Saraband (2003).
It uses the sarabande from the 5th suite for solo cello by Bach.
The gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance.
"Gigue" (pronounce "jeeg") is the French word, and "giga" (pronounce "jee-ga") is the Italian word.
The English word is "jig" and in England this refers to a folk dance.
The gigue was one of the movements in a series of dance movements called suites written by Baroque composers.
The Baroque suite normally had an Allemande, a Courante, a Sarabande and a Gigue to finish with.
Sometimes there were one or two other movements as well.
The gigue usually has a compound metre such as 6/8, 6/4, 9/8 or 12/16.
They often have a contrapuntal texture and each phrase is usually four bars long.
Like all the dances in the Baroque suite, the gigue is in binary form.
The second half will usually start with the main tune in inversion (upside down).
It is not to be confused with Cannobio in nearby Italy.
http://www.canobbio.ch
Capriasca was created on 15 October 2001 by a merger of the former municipalities of Cagiallo, Lopagno, Roveredo, Sala Capriasca, Tesserete and Vaglio.
Carabietta is a former municipality of the district Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
On 1 April 2012, it was incorporated into the municipality of Collina d'Oro.
Capolago was a municipality of the district Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
Capolago on the City of Mendrisio's website
Carona is a former municipality of the district Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
Caslano is a municipality of the district Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino.
It is near to the Italian border.
Altentreptow () is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte Rural District, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany.
Altentreptow is the chief town of the Treptower Tollensewinkel amt
It is on the river Tollense,  north of Neubrandenburg and  south of Greifswald.
The town was called Trybethowe in 1175.
From 1191 it was being called Trebutowe, and Tributowe in 1245.
The name Treptow was being used is 1254.
In 1295 the Latin Antiquum Treptow was used.
This means Old Treptow, or in
Until 1939 the city's name was Treptow an der Tollense (Treptow on the Tollense).
The town was burned down several time in the 1500s.
Later, during the Thirty Years War the Holy Roman Empire's army was forced to leave the town by the Swedish Army.
Later Prussian troops returned, threw the Swedes out, and looted (robbed) the town.
The modern town
By the 18th century wars had made the town very poor.
The city wall was taken down to get new land for growing food.
Later a new mill, but this was burned down ´in 1999.
A railway line connected the town with Neubrandenburg and Stralsund, and a school, a bank, a hospital and a post office were opened.
Electricity arrived in the city in 1916.
This encouraged more people to move to the city and build.
The official name of the city was Treptow an der Tollense until 26 January 1939.
A big residential area arose with 1049 flats was built between 1960 and 1985.
In the middle of the 1960s the old primary school was changed to a home for old people and a zoo was opened in 1972.
After the German reunification the old town centre was rebuilt.
A modern hospital was opened with 108 beds in 2001.
This newly repaired historical old town with the Little Tollense River, the market place and the town gates.
The half-timbered houses at Oberbaustraße 26 were built in 1663 and 1823.
The St. Petri church was built in the 14th and 15th centuries
Two gates from the old town wall still exist.
The Brandenburg Gate and the Demminer Gate were built in 1450.
The Fritz Reuter House. (
The writer Fritz Reuter lived and worked in the town from 1850 to 1856).
The fountain on the market.
Water sprays in all directions
The city hall of 1869 in the neo-Gothic style.
The meadow landscape along the Tollense.
The cloister mountain steeped in history with facilities for culture, leisure time, sports and relaxation.
Treptower Tollensewinkel Amt
Cavagnago is a former municipality of the district of Leventina in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
Caviano is a former municipality of the district Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
On 25 April 2010 the former municipalities of Caviano, Contone, Gerra Gambarogno, Indemini, Magadino, Piazzogna, San Nazzaro, Sant'Abbondio and Vira Gambarogno merged to form the new municipality of Gambarogno.
Cavigliano is a former municipality of the district Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
Cerentino is a municipality of the district Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
Certara is a former municipality of the district Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
Cevio is the capital of the district Vallemaggia in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
On 22 October 2006, Cevio became bigger when it came together with the villages of Bignasco and Cavergno.
Both were municipalities of Ticino before this coming together.
Cevio can be found about 23 kilometers northwest of the city of Locarno in the upper Vallemaggia.
Most of the area of the municipality, about 64 percent, is covered with trees.
About 25 percent of the area has mountains.
Only 5 percent of the langer is used for farming.
Cevio has been the main town of the district for a long time.
In 1858, the municipality of Linescio broke off from it.
Bignasco is a village in the district of Vallemaggia, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.
Bignasco is not a free municipality anymore after merging with another village to become Cevio.
Cavergno is a village in the district of Vallemaggia, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.
Cavergno is not a free municipality anymore after merging with the village Bignasco to form the municipality Cevio.
Lucca is a city in the Italian region of Tuscany.
The city is on the river Serchio in a very fertile plain near the Tyrrhenian Sea.
It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca.
Lucca was founded by the Etruscans.
It later became a Roman village in 180 BC.
The Romans built an amphitheatre that is still seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.
Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the 6th century, when Narses attacked it over and over again for several months in 553.
During the 10th and 11th centuries, Lucca was the capital of the feudal territories of Tuscany, with more power about the Roman Emperor.
After the death of Matilda of Tuscany, the city began an independent commune.
For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an independent republic.
There were many minor communes in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany (which was filled by the Malaspina).
Tuscany in this time was part of feudal Europe.
Dante’s Divine Comedy was written to remember the days spent in his exile in Lucca.
In 1273 and again in 1277, Lucca was ruled by a Guelph (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio.
In 1314, after internal problems Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa make himself lord of Lucca.
The people of the city made him leave two years later and condottiere gain the leadership.
In 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Lucca soldiers defeated Florence's Guelphs with the help of Castracani, a leader of the city in time of war.
After they won, Castracani was named "Duke of Lucca" by Louis IV the Bavarian.
Until the French Revolution in 1789, Lucca was independent from Venice and Genoa.
It was a city controlled by democracy or sometimes by oligarchy.
Republic of Lucca
Lucca was the second largest Italian city-state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune").
In 1805 Lucca was taken over by Napoleon, who put his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi in the place reserved for the "Queen of Etruria".
The city became a part of Tuscany in 1847 and later a part of Italy.
Important monuments
The walls around the old town are intact as the city grew and became more modern.
This is unusual for cities in the region.
A famous place is the house where Puccini was born.
Piazza dell'Anfiteatro
Piazza Napoleone
Duomo di San Martino (St Martin's Cathedral)
Church of San Michele in Foro
Basilica di San Frediano
Church of San Giorgio in the locality of Brancoli, built in the late 12th century
The ancient Roman amphitheatre
The Ducal Palace (The original project was begun by Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1577-1582, and continued by Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century.)
Torre delle ore ("The Clock Tower")
Casa and Torre Guinigi
Museo Nazionale Guinigi
Museo e Pinacoteca Nazionale
Orto Botanico Comunale di Lucca, a botanical garden dating from 1820
Palazzo Pfanner
Every year in Lucca there are two important festivals.
The Lucca Summer Festival is a rock music festival. "
Lucca Comics and Games" is the largest meeting about comics and games of Italy.
Golgolin
Famous People born in Lucca
Pompeo Batoni, painter
Luigi Boccherini, musician and composer
Elisa Bonaparte, ruler of Lucca
Castruccio Castracani, ruler of Lucca (1316-1328)
Alfredo Catalani, composer
Mario Cipollini, athlete
Matteo Civitali, sculptor
Saint Frediano
Gemma Galgani, Saint
Francesco Geminiani, musician and composer
Gioseffo Guami, composer
Pope Lucius III
Felice Matteucci, engineer
Leo Nomenelli Pro Football Hall of Famer
Marcello Pera, politician
Giacomo Puccini, composer
Eros Riccio, chess player
Marco Rossi, athlete
Renato Salvatori, actor
Rolando Ugolini, Goalkeeper
Giuseppe Ungaretti, poet
Antonio Vallisneri, scientist and physician
Saint Zita
Tourist Site about Lucca
Massa is a town and "comune" in Tuscany, Italy, in the centre of province of Massa-Carrara.
It is in the northern part of the Tuscany region.
In 1829, the city was handed by the Austrian Este family.
In 1859, during the unification of Italy process, it joined the Kingdom of Sardinia.
The Malaspina Castle (15th century)
The Renaissance Ducal Palace, on the Piazza Aranci
The Cathedral.
Towns in Tuscany
Carrara was ruled by Pisa in (1235), Lucca in (1322), Genoa in (1329), and Milan in (1343).
After Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan died in 1477, Carrara was controlled by Tommaso Campogregoso, lord of Sarzana, and the Malaspina family.
In 1929, the cities of Carrara, Massa and Montignoso were mixed in a single big city, called Apuania.
In 1945 "Apuania", was separated, and the cities, were returned free.
Cathedral (12th century).
Ducal Palace (16th century), now the seat of the Fine Arts Academy.
Economy and culture
Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome for buildings, like the Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome.
Many sculptures of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's David, were made from Carrara marble.
The city has academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuaries and antiquities.
The local marble is exported around the world.
Famous people born in Carrara
Pietro Tacca, an important sculptor
Pietro Tenerani, sculptor born in 1800
Carlo Finelli, sculptor
Gianluigi Buffon, goalkeeper of the Juventus team and of the Italian National Football Team
Pellegrino Rossi, economist and politician
Emanuele Repetti, geographic
Domenico Zaccagna, geologist
Maurizia Cacciatori, volleyball player
Danese Cattaneo, sculptor and poet
Arturo Dazzi, sculptor
Gino Lucetti, anarchist
Giorgio Chinaglia, football player
Belgrado Pedrini, partisan and anarchist
Renato Ricci, an important man in the fascist era
Goliardo Fiaschi, anarchist
298 Baptistina is a common Main belt asteroid.
It was found by Auguste Charlois on September 9, 1890 in Nice.
A 2007 US-Czech study decided that 298 Baptistina may be the biggest remnant of a 170 km (110 mile) asteroid that was destroyed about 160 million years ago in an impact with a smaller body, making the Baptistina family of asteroids and that the Baptistina event may have created the eventual impact asteroid believed by many to have caused the K/T extinction event about 65 million years ago.
This is the K/T impactor believed to be shown in the geological record.
This theory has not, as yet, found general acceptance among the scientific community.
It is a highly portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer that supports many kinds of audio and video.
VLC can repair and play corrupt files, damaged or unfinished.
VLC uses a large number of free decoding and encoding libraries.
Many of its codecs are provided by the libavcodec codec library from the FFmpeg project, but it uses mainly its own muxer and demuxers.
VLC gained honor as the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux by using the libdvdcss DVD library.
VLC was initially the client for the VideoLAN project, and it was originally made by students at the École Centrale de Paris, and was released under the GPL license on the 1 February 2001.
It now has supporters and contributors worldwide.
VLC has a very flexible design, which makes it easier to include modules for new file formats, codecs or streaming methods.
There are more than 300 modules in VLC.
VLC also supports highly personalizable skins through the skins2 interface, Winamp 2 and XMMS skins and can play high definition recordings of D-VHS tapes duplicated to a computer using CapDVHS.exe
Comparison of media players
List of multimedia (audio/video) codecs
Guitar Hero is a music video game, released on November 8, 2005 for the PlayStation 2.
The game uses a guitar-shaped controller that allows players to simulate the playing of rock music.
Guitar Hero has earned comparisons to Dance Dance Revolution played with a guitar.
Despite a high price for the guitar/game bundle, Guitar Hero was very successful and had several sequels; Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, as well as other games in the music game genre.
The game features artists such as David Bowie, Judas Priest, Sum 41 and Deep Purple
Guitar Hero II is a music video game, released for the PlayStation 2 on November 7, 2006 and the Xbox 360 on April 3, 2007.
It is the sequel to Guitar Hero.
The game features a guitar-shaped controller that allows players to simulate the playing of rock music.
Much like the original game, Guitar Hero II was very successful and helped the Guitar Hero series become a cultural phenomenon.
The game features artists such as Aerosmith, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine and Guns N' Roses.
PeaZip created and can open the "Pea" archive format, made by the same corporation of the archiver.
Peazip is written in Free Pascal, using Lazarus.
Peazip is under  the GNU Lesser General Public License, PeaZip is free software.
Full support formats
Just extract or reading formats
List of file archivers
Comparison of file archivers
PeaZip's official website
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a music video game, released on October 28, 2007.
The game, like Guitar Hero II, was made for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, but this time it was also released for PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, PC and Mac home computers.
The game features a guitar-like controller that simulates the playing of rock music.
The game has a number of controllers like microphones and keyboards that can be bought.
There are songs in this game by many bands and singers.
Some of these include "Anarchy in the U.K." by the Sex Pistols, "Paint it Black" the Rolling Stones, "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam, "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce, "Before I Forget" by Slipknot, "Story of my Life" by Social Distortion, "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer and "The Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden.
In volcanology, the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) is the way to measure the strength of a volcanic eruption.
The Volcanic Explosivity Index measures how large or strong volcanic eruptions are.
The index is a scale of 0 to 8.
0 is very small, and 8 is huge and very rare.
The largest eruption in modern times, the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, was a 5 on the index.
The Oruanui eruption of the Taupo Volcano in New Zealand was the world’s largest known eruption in the past 70,000 years was an 8.
Another eruption of the Taupo volcano happened about 1,800 years ago.
It was the most violent eruption in the world in the last 5,000 years.
Mt Tambora was a 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.
Supervolcanoes have a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 8; and if the definition is expanded, also include volcanoes with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7.
VEI glossary entry  from a USGS website
How to measure the size of a volcanic eruption , from The Guardian
The size and frequency of the largest explosive eruptions on Earth, a 2004 article from the Bulletin of Volcanology
List of Large Holocene Eruptions (VEI > 4) from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program
he:התפרצות געשית#מדד התפרצות געשית
For the band, see U2 (band).
The U-2 (nicknamed the Dragon Lady) is an espionage fixed-wing aircraft made by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin).
It first flew in 1955 and was introduced in 1957.
It flies a lot like a glider.
It was made during the Cold War, because the United States needed a way to look at the Soviet military from high up.
Taiwan also used it to spy on China.
The United States wanted to keep the purpose of the U-2 secret, but on May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his U-2 by a Soviet SAM SA-2 missile.
In 1962, Powers was released and traded for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
After this, the SR-71 Blackbird started spying on the Soviet Union, which was faster and harder to see on radar.
U-2 details (U-2 model)
The U-2S is 62.99 feet (19.20 meters) long, 104.99 feet (32 meters wide), and is 15.75 feet (4.80 meters) tall.
It weighs 14,991 pounds (6,800 kilograms) empty, but when full, it weighs 41,006 pounds (18,600 kilograms).
It is powered by one General Electric F118-101 engine with 17,000 pounds (7711.2 kilograms) of thrust.
It can go 475 miles per hour (764 kilometers per hour), fly 7,000 miles (11,265 kilometers) without refueling, and can fly upwards of 70,000 feet (21,336 meters), possibly as high as 84,974 feet (25,900 meters).
In 2006, he started presenting a radio show, The Russell Brand Show, on BBC Radio 6 Music.
In 2007 the show was moved to BBC Radio 2.
He was involved in a controversy over a prank phone call with Jonathan Ross in 2008.
After this Brand quit his job at the BBC.
He presented Russell Brand's Ponderland in 2007 and 2008.
He wrote a book in 2007 about his life, which is called My Booky Wook.
In October 2014, he wrote another book called Revolution.
Many people notice his unusual fashion sense; his choice of clothing and hairstyle is unique.
He has been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder.
He has had bulimia nervosa and been addicted to crack cocaine, heroin and alcohol.
As of March 2013, Brand has not used drugs or alcohol for ten years.
From 2006 to 2008, Brand won The Sun's Shagger of the Year award.
He has been arrested 12 times.
He married Katy Perry in October 2010.
He filed for divorce from her in January 2012, which was finalised in July 2012.
He dated Jemima Khan from 2013-2014.
Russell currently is married to Scottish lifestyle blogger Laura Gallacher, with whom he has a daughter.
He lives in Shoreditch, London.
British columnists
Comedians from Essex
A cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption (coding) or decryption (decoding).
It is a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure.
To encipher or encode is to convert information from plain text into cipher or code.
In non-technical usage, a 'cipher' often means the same thing as a 'code'; but in cryptography, ciphers are distinguished from codes.
One 20th century source gives this explanation: a cipher is "a method in which the basic unit of concealment is the letter.
In comparison, a code is a form of concealment in which the basic unit is the word".
Late in the century, "codes" in this cryptographic sense became rare.
21st century cryptography mostly encrypts bitstreams.
Codes operated by substituting according to a large codebook which linked a random string of characters or numbers to a word or phrase.
For example, "UQJHSE" could be the code for "Proceed to the following coordinates".
A cipher is used to turn the original information ("plaintext") to the encrypted form "ciphertext".
The ciphertext message contains all the information of the plaintext message, but cannot be read by human or computer without the proper mechanism to decrypt it.
To encipher or decipher, you need the "key".
In encryption, a key specifies the particular transformation of plaintext into ciphertext, or vice versa during decryption.
symmetric key algorithms (private-key cryptography): the same key is used for encryption and decryption, and
asymmetric key algorithms (public-key cryptography): two different keys are used for encryption and decryption.
The word cipher in French is cifre and in Medieval Latin cifra, from the Arabic sifr, meaning 'zero'.
The first known English use of zero was in 1598.
They have no more powers than any of the other judges of the Supreme Court, who are called Associate Justices.
The Chief Justice is responsible for organizing the Court's schedules and administration.
By tradition, the Chief Justice administers the oath of office to the President of the United States.
The only time this has not happened is when Calvin Coolidge became president.
List of chief justices
The Sturmabteilung (; often shortened to SA) was a paramilitary group for the German Nazi Party.
Their leader was Ernst Röhm.
The group was important in helping Adolf Hitler gain power in the 1930s.
In English, they are often called the Stormtroopers or the Brownshirts, while Sturmabteilung literally translates to " detachment" or "assault section".
They wore a brown uniform, similar to the black uniform worn by Mussolini's Blackshirts.
The word Sturmabteilung was used before the founding of the Nazi Party in 1919.
It originally comes from the specialized assault troops used by Germany in World War I using Hutier infiltration tactics.
The SA played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s.
In 1934, however, he abolished the organization and sent the Schutzstaffel to arrest and kill their leaders.
The night of long knives
Green Card or Permanent Resident Card is an identification card that proves that someone who is not a United States citizen is a permanent resident of the United States.
The holder of the card is allowed to live, work and study in the United States on a permanent basis.
Most people get Green Cards after being sponsored by a family member, such as a wife or husband, or by an employer that is located in the United States.
Other people may become permanent residents through refugee or asylum programs, or similar programs designed to protect their human rights.
In some cases, a person may be allowed to file for their own Green Card without a sponsor.
The Council of Chalcedon was an ecumenical council that took place from October 8 to November 1, 451, at Chalcedon (a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor).
Chalcedon is today part of the city of Istanbul on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.
Confession of Chalcedon
Catholic Encyclopedia: Council of Chalcedon
Catholic Encyclopedia: Robber Council of Ephesus
Coptic interpretations of the Fourth Ecumenical Council
Council of Ephesus
For the Ecumenical Council of 451, see Council of Chalcedon.
Chalcedon (Χαλκηδών, sometimes transliterated as Chalkedon) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari (modern Üsküdar).
Today, in modern Turkish, Chalcedon is called Kadıköy and a district of Istanbul, Turkey.
Bithynia was an old kingdom of a Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor.
It was at the coast of the Black Sea.
It was named after the Bithyni, a tribe that moved there from Thrace.
It was an important territory for the Roman empire.
Bithynia was also the site of early Christian activities in the first and second centuries AD.
Stanley Jonathon Storey, Bithynia: history and administration to the time of Pliny the Younger (Ottawa, National Library of Canada, 1998)
Kadıköy is a large district on the Anatolian side of İstanbul, Turkey.
It is on the shore of the Sea of Marmara.
It faces the historic city centre on the European side of the Bosporus.
Kadıköy was known as Chalcedon in ancient history.
Kadıköy Municipality
Districts in Istanbul
Generally it means "ancient history," and may be used for any historical period before the Middle Ages.
More specifically it means the classical antiquity of ancient Greece and Rome.
It may also be used for several periods of ancient history, like Ancient Egypt, Ancient Manipur (Antique Kangleipak), ancient Mesopotamia or other early civilizations of the Near East.
It is less commonly used for civilizations of the Far East.
The term, almost always in the plural in modern usage, is also used of antiquities, or archaeological or other objects surviving from ancient cultures.
Antiquity (journal) is a quarterly journal of archaeological research.
Antiquities (Magic: The Gathering) an expansion to the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game.
The Bosporus or Bosphorus is a strait that forms part of the boundary between the European part of Turkey and its Asian part (Anatolia).
It connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara.
It is about 30 km long, with a maximum width of 3,700 metres at the northern entrance, and a minimum width of 700 metres between Kandilli and Aşiyan; and 750 metres between Anadoluhisarı and Rumelihisarı.
The depth varies from 36 to 124 metres in midstream.
The shores of the strait are heavily populated as Istanbul is nearby.
Three bridges and one tunnel cross the strait.
High Resolution Pictures of Bosphorus
Google Maps link to Bosphorus
A strait is a narrow channel of water between two land areas.
A strait connects two bodies of water.
Straits often connect two seas.
Many straits are economically and strategically important.
Straits may be part of important shipping routes.
So, someone who controls a strait can control the shipping.
Wars have been fought to control them.
Although rivers and canals often connect two large lakes or a lake and a sea, they are not straits.
Straits are much larger and wider and do not have water running in a single direction.
Well-known straits
Bosporus and the Dardanelles, which connect the Mediterranean and the Black Sea
Strait of Dover, between England and France, which connects the North Sea with the English Channel
Strait of Gibraltar, the only natural passage between the World Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea
Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia, which connects the Pacific and Arctic Oceans
Strait of Magellan, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of Tierra del Fuego
Palk strait, between India and Sri Lanka, the location of Ram Sethu and rich in natural resources
Strait of Hormuz connecting the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea, through which Persian Gulf petroleum is shipped to the world
Strait of Malacca, which separates the Malay Peninsula from Sumatra, and connects the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea. (
It is one of the highest-volume shipping lanes in the world.)
Bass Strait, which is between mainland Australia and Tasmania, and connects the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.
Torres Strait which is between Australia and New Guinea.
Cook Strait, between New Zealand's North and South Islands, and connects the Tasman Sea and the South Pacific Ocean.
In a general sense channel means connection.
In a more specific sense it may mean:
a connection between two bodies of water
Canal, a manmade water channel
English Channel, the part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Great Britain from northern France
Television channel, a television station or its cable/satellite counterpart
Audio channel, the track or location from where the sound comes
Channel (marketing), the distribution "channel" for selling and delivering a product or service to a company's customers
Active Channel, a website type which was introduced by Internet Explorer 4.0 in 1997
Ion channel, a channel in a plasma membrane which helps certain ions to enter/exit a biological cell
Chanel, a Parisian fashion house
The strait is at the east end of the English Channel, where it joins the North Sea.
Its width is the shortest distance between France and England.
On a clear day, it is possible to see the coastline on the other side and the buildings on the shore without the help of binoculars.
The shortest distance across the strait is from the South Foreland, some 6 km (4 mi) north-east of Dover in the county of Kent, England, to Cap Gris Nez, a cape near Calais in the département of Pas-de-Calais, France.
Between these two points – the most popular route for cross-channel swimmers – the distance is just 33 km (20 mi).
Channel Navigation Information Service
Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation
Depth Chart showing straits and former course of Rhine
SA is an abbreviation.
It can stand for different things.
Countries and territories
It can refer to Schengen Area
It is the official two letter shorthand for Saudi Arabia.
It is the official state abbreviation for South Australia.
It is used to mean Saline County, Kansas
It is sometimes used to refer to South Africa.