the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
A gargoyle is a grotesque statue that is attached to a building.
It is carved out of stone, usually granite.
It is used to get water away from the building when it rains.
Gargoyles are often made to look like animals or people.
The collected water comes out of their mouths.
Most gargoyles were made a long time ago.
People used to believe that they scared away evil spirits.
Many cathedrals have gargoyles.
New buildings use rain gutters instead of gargoyles to move water.
There are not many gargoyles in America.
Gargoyles are often confused with grotesques.
They are similar, but only gargoyles get rid of rainwater through their mouths.
Spa towns in Belgium
Municipalities of West Flanders
Abuja  ()  is a city in Nigeria.
It is the national capital of Nigeria.
Around 2.5 million people live there.
Abuja is in the middle of the country, in the center of the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria.
It replaced Lagos, the country's most populous city but very small in size, as the capital on 12 December 1991.
Abuja is a planned city, which means that architects designed it specifically to be Nigeria's capital city.
Construction of the first parts of the city was finished in the late 1980s.
Cities in Nigeria
Establishments in Nigeria
Irony is a term for a figure of speech.
Irony is when something happens that is opposite from what is expected.
It can often be funny, but it is also used in tragedies.
There are many types of irony, including those listed below:
Dramatic irony, when the audience knows something is going to happen on stage that the characters on stage do not.
Socratic irony, when someone (usually a teacher) pretends to be stupid in order to show how stupid his pupils are (while at the same time the reader or audience understand the situation).
Cosmic irony, when something that everyone thinks will happen actually happens very differently.
Situational irony e.g. Mr. Smith gets a parking ticket.
This is ironic because Mr. Smith is a traffic warden.
Verbal irony is an absence of expression and intention.
Sarcasm may sometimes involve verbal irony.
Irony of fate is the misfortune in the result of fate or chance.
The difference between of things seem to be or reality.
In Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, Juliet takes a potion that will put her to sleep, making her look dead.
She does this in the hopes of being reunited with Romeo.
He incorrectly learns of her death, and kills himself.
This is an example of dramatic irony, as the reader/viewer knows she is not dead, but Romeo does not.
A common example of cosmic irony could be that a child wants some kind of pudding, and misbehaves to try to get it.
The parent withholds it because of the child's behavior.
Verbal irony can be found in sarcasm, but not just that.
In Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus acts out based on the knowledge of his fate which in turn leads to the fulfillment of the tragic fate.
This is an example of how fate plays on irony.
An assault rifle is a rifle that has a removable magazine, automatic-fire and semi-automatic modes, and uses intermediate cartridges.
These cartridges do not have as much power as other rifles’, like hunting rifles or battle rifles, but have more power and penetration than pistol cartridges fired by sub-machine guns.
Two rifles made in Italy and Russia before World War I are sometimes called assault rifles.
The Germans were the first to use assault rifles in large numbers.
The term “assault rifle” comes from the firearm Sturmgewehr 44 (StG 44), translated to “Assault Rifle 1944”.
The armed forces of other sovereign states adopted assault rifles later.
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquess of Dalí of Púbol  (; ; ; 11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989) was a Spanish painter who became famous for the unusual images he used in his paintings.
He was born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain.
He was a key figure in surrealist art.
His most famous work was The Persistence of Memory (1931), which is now in MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
It is a dream-like landscape with a soft, melted pocket-watch.
Dalí died of heart failure in Figueras.
Salvador Dalí had a wife called Gala Dalí.
Cardiovascular disease deaths in Spain
People from Catalonia
Anne de Mowbray, Baroness Mowbray (10 December 1472 - 19 November 1481) was the daughter of John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk and Elizabeth Talbot.
She was born in 1472 in Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, England.
She also became Baroness Segrave.
When Anne's father died in 1476 Anne became very rich.
She also became Countess of Norfolk.
Anne was married to Richard of York on 15 January, 1478 in Westminster Abbey.
Richard was the son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville.
Richard's father had married him to Anne so that he could have control of her fortune.
When he married Anne became known as the Duchess of York
Anne died when she was 8 years old at Greenwich, London, England in 1481.
Her body was placed in a lead coffin in the Chapel of St Erasmus of Formiae in Westminster Abbey.
However, when this chapel was knocked down around 1502 to make room for the Henry VII Lady Chapel, Anne's coffin became lost.
In December 1964, construction workers in Stepney, London, accidentally found Anne's coffin.
It was opened and Anne's remains were looked at by scientists.
Anne's body still had a shroud wrapped around her and there was still red hair on her skull.
Her body was later reburied in Westminster Abbey.
1472 births
British nobility
Framlingham Castle is a castle in Framlingham, Suffolk, England.
It was once the home of the Dukes of Norfolk, and was where Anne Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk was born in 1472.
Warwick Castle (pronounced 'Worrick') is a large castle in Warwickshire, England.
It is near the town of Warwick.
The castle was once the family home of the Earls of Warwick.
There are many rooms in the castle.
Some of the rooms have mannequins in them that look like real people.
These are dressed in .
They are used to show how people might have lived in the castle hundreds of years ago.
Warwick Castle has a dungeon.
One part of the castle is said to be haunted.
Actors play the part of the ghost and the servant who killed him in a dramatic "Spook Experience".
Lights and sounds are used to add to the effect.
The castle has a very high wall walk.
It can be explored, so that visitors can see from where the guards looked for enemies.
A long, steep flight of steps leads up to the highest part of the castle where the flagpole is.
There are many paintings in the castle.
There are portraits of English Kings and Queens as well as of members of the family who owned the castle.
It is possible to see the private chambers, or bedrooms, where the family and their most important guests slept.
Warwick Castle in photos
Edinburgh Castle is a castle in Edinburgh, Scotland.
It is built on the volcanic Castle Rock in the centre of Edinburgh, and is easy to see from the main shopping streets.
In 1103, Edinburgh Castle was built which makes the Castle over 900 years old.
Castles in Scotland
Alfred Charles Kinsey (June 23, 1894  August 25, 1956) was an American biologist.
In the first part of his career he was an entomologist specializing in gall wasps of the family Cynipidae.
Later, he became famous for the research he did on human sexuality.
His research had a great influence on social and cultural values in many parts of the world.
It also had an influence on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s.
Kinsey and his co-workers wrote two books which became known as the Kinsey Reports.
They were based on thousands of interviews with men (first report), and then women.
The aim was to find out how widespread or differentiated human sexual practices were.
He developed the Kinsey Scale to measure sexual orientation.
On one end of the scale, at the value 0, the individual is entirely heterosexual.
On the other end, at value 6, he or she has a purely homosexual orientation.
Kinsey was bisexual.
A biopic of him, Kinsey, was released in 2004.
People from Hoboken, New Jersey
Sexologists
Sexual revolution
The Kinsey Reports are two books, published in 1948 and 1953 by Alfred Kinsey and his co-workers.
The books Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, were based on thousands of interviews by Kinsey and his team.
The books were shocking when they came out, as they talked about subjects that were taboo.
It also questioned widely-held beliefs about sexuality.
They were controversial.
Findings of the reports
There are different sexual orientations: about 46% of men have reacted to both sexes; this means they are not completely heterosexual.
37% had at least one homosexual experience.
About 10% were more or less openly homosexual.
With women these numbers are lower.
About 7% of single women, and about 4% of the women had been married  were about halfway on the scale (3 out of 6), more or less equally homosexual, and heterosexual.
2%-6% of married women, and 1-3% of unmarried women were more or less exclusively homosexual.
Masturbation is common: about 62% of women, and about 92% of men have used masturbation at least once.
How often they have sex: women reported to have had sex 2.8 times a week (in the late teens), 2.2 times a week by age 30, and once a week by age 50.
Sadomasochism: 12% of women, and 22% of men said they were sexually aroused by a sadomasochistic story.
55% of women, and 50% of men have had an erotic reaction when they were bitten.
People said that the selection of the sample (those asked) was not well done.
One in four were prisoners, and 5% were male prostitutes.
The institute, or location Kinsey did these tests, then did another such tests, without asking prisoners or prostitutes, and the findings were more or less the same.
People also say that child abuse may have been involved when collecting the data.
The Kinsey scale attempts to describe a person's sexual history or episodes of their sexual activity at a given time.
It uses a scale from 0 to 6.
0 means the person tested is exclusively heterosexual.
A person scoring 6 is exclusively homosexual.
In the Kinsey Reports, an extra grade was used for asexuality.
The scale  was first published in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948).
It was also  important in the complementary work Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953).
"Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual.
The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats.
It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories... The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects.
"While emphasising the continuity of the gradations between exclusively heterosexual and exclusively homosexual histories, it has seemed desirable to develop some sort of classification which could be based on the relative amounts of heterosexual and homosexual experience or response in each history... An individual may be assigned a position on this scale, for each period in his life.... A seven-point scale comes nearer to showing the many gradations that actually exist." (
Kinsey et al 1948.
639, 656)
Men: 11.6% of white males aged 20–35 were given a rating of 3 for this period of their lives.
Women: 7% of single females aged 20–35 and 4% of previously married females aged 20–35 were given a rating of 3 for this period of their lives.
2 to 6% of females, aged 20–35, were given a rating of 5, and 1 to 3% of unmarried females aged 20–35 were rated as 6.
The Kinsey Institute Website
Ruthenium is a chemical element.
It has the chemical symbol Ru.
It has the atomic number 44.
It is a rare metal.
Ruthenium is found in platinum ores.
Niobium is a chemical element.
It is sometimes named columbium.
It has the chemical symbol Nb.
It has the atomic number 41.
Niobium is soft and grey.
It is ductile.
Niobium was discovered in a variety of a mineral called columbite (now called niobite).
Niobite is an ore of niobium.
Niobium is considered a technology-critical element.
It is used in alloys, such as to make special steels and strong welded joints.
Less than 0.1% of Niobium significantly improves the strength of steel.
It is in the superconducting alloys used in MRI scanners, which are one of the most important medical inventions of the modern age.
An explosion is a fast increase in volume and increase in energy made available.
It normally makes high temperatures and makes gases.
Many natural events can make explosions, such as lightning, volcanic eruptions, meteors, and supernovae.
People make explosions mostly by using chemical explosive materials.
A chemical explosion starts pressure waves in the medium where it happens.
Explosions are categorized as deflagrations if the pressure waves are subsonic and detonations if they are supersonic.
When a detonation happens, the resulting pressure waves are named shock waves.
Unintentional explosions
Unintentional explosions can be caused when chemicals are mixed together, or when pressurized containers or flammable materials are heated or exposed to flames.
To cause an explosion, pressure does not have to be present but is always a result of an explosion.
Several safety measures are used to prevent unintentional explosions.
Many countries require that chemicals, fuels, and pressurized containers that may explode be labelled with warning labels.
As well, many countries have regulations restricting the possession and use of potentially explosive materials so they will only go to appropriate industrial and research uses.
Transportation regulations require potentially explosive chemicals, fuels, and pressurized containers to be transported safely.
Intentional explosions
Intentional explosions are caused when armies fire artillery or when air forces drop bombs on enemies.
Military engineers handle explosives and arrange intentional explosions during wartime.
Intentional explosions are also used by civilians in demolition.
They break up old and obsolete buildings and bridges, and break rock and stone for construction.
Explosions are made for activities such as mining, construction, and large-scale civil engineering projects such as building tunnels, roads, railways, and dams.
Rhodium is a chemical element.
It has the chemical symbol Rh.
It has the atomic number 45.
It is silver white and hard.
Rhodium is found in platinum ores.
Rhodium is used as a catalyst in some platinum alloys.
It is the most expensive precious metal.
Tellurium is a chemical element.
It has the chemical symbol Te and the atomic number 52.
It has 52 protons and 52 electrons.
Its mass number is 127.6.
It has 8 natural isotopes.
4 are stable and 4 are radioactive.
One of the radioactive ones lasts longer than any other isotope.
It has a half life of 2.2 x 1024 years (2.2 septillion years).
It is a brittle silver-white semimetal.
When it is pure it has a metallic shine.
It is ground easily.
It can be made in an amorphous form.
It changes conductivity a little when light shines on it, similar to selenium.
It is corrosive to many metals when molten.
Tellurium is an unreactive element.
It can react with reactive metals to make tellurides.
It can burn in air to make tellurium dioxide.
It can be oxidized even more to tellurium trioxide.
It does not corrode.
The chemistry of tellurium is similar to some chemistry of selenium and sulfur, although its compounds are more reactive and the element is less reactive.
It does not dissolve in most acids, although it dissolves in concentrated sulfuric acid to make a special red tellurium cation.
Tellurium makes chemical compounds in several oxidation states: -2, +2, +4, and +6.
-2 compounds are normally found in tellurides.
They are strong reducing agents.
Tellurides are normally the main ore of tellurium.
Most natural tellurides are not pure, so they are much less reactive.
+2 compounds are found in some tellurium halides, like tellurium(II) chloride and tellurium(II) bromide.
They are the rarest oxidation state.
+4 compounds are found in tellurites and tellurous acid.
They are weak oxidizing agents, that can be reduced to tellurium.
Tellurites are made by reacting tellurium dioxide with a metal oxide.
+6 compounds are found in tellurates and telluric acid.
They are powerful oxidizing agents.
Tellurates are made by reacting telluric acid with metal oxides.
Tellurium is a very rare mineral.
There is 14 times more silver in the earth than there is tellurium.
Tellurium is sometimes found as an element, but most of the times is found as tellurides.
Gold tellurides (Calaverite) are found in the earth.
They are valuable ores of both tellurium and gold.
This gold ore was not recognized as gold during one gold rush and was used as a filler.
It was then discovered that it was gold telluride, making another gold rush.
Telluride cannot replace sulfide in elements like selenide does.
Tellurium can be taken from gold telluride by dissolving the gold telluride in concentrated sulfuric acid.
The tellurium dissolves to make a red solution, while the gold sinks to the bottom.
A more common way of extracting tellurium from tellurides is to heat the tellurides.
The tellurides are heated with sodium carbonate and air.
This makes sodium tellurite.
Selenites are normally found as an impurity.
They are separated by reacting them with sulfuric acid.
The selenites stay in solution.
The tellurites turn into tellurium dioxide.
Then the tellurium dioxide is reacted with sulfur dioxide dissolved in sulfuric acid to make tellurium metal.
The tellurium can be melted and reformed to make bars of tellurium metal.
The main use of tellurium is in alloys.
It is used in iron, copper, and lead alloys.
It makes the metals more easily machinable (able to be shaped by a machine).
It improves strength and durability of lead and makes it more resistant to corrosion by sulfuric acid.
Tellurium is also used in cadmium telluride solar cells.
These are very efficient.
It can be alloyed with both cadmium and mercury to make mercury cadmium telluride, an infrared sensitive semiconductor.
It is used in some rewritable (able to be erased and written again) optical discs.
Lead telluride is used in another type of infrared sensor.
It is also used to color ceramics.
It is used to make fiberglass that is used in telecommunications (telephones, internet, etc.).
It helps increase the refraction.
It is also used in delay blasting caps.
Rubber can be ha.
Tellurium is not really used in any living things.
Some fungi, though, can use tellurium instead of selenium or sulfur.
Most organisms can metabolize tellurium to make dimethyl telluride, which is a garlic-smelling chemical.
If someone eats a tellurium compound, it gives them garlic breath.
Tellurium compounds
Indium is a chemical element.
It has the chemical symbol In.
It has the atomic number 49.
It is a rare metal which is soft, malleable, and poor (post-transition).
Indium looks like zinc.
Pieces of indium can easily be joined by pushing one piece into another.
The chemistry of indium is quite like aluminium or gallium.
Zinc ores are the main source of indium.
The main use of indium is in the chemical compound indium tin oxide in liquid crystal displays.
It is also used in very thin layers as a lubricant.
In World War II it was used to coat bearings in aircraft.
Francium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Fr and an atomic number of 87.
In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the alkali metals.
Francium is very radioactive.
It is in very small amounts in uranium and thorium ores.
It has the lowest electronegativity and electron affinity of all the chemical elements.
Francium is one of the hardest to find elements on the planet Earth.
It is estimated that there are only about 15 grams or half an ounce in the Earth's crust at a single time.
Although chemists knew the element number 87 in the periodic table should exist, it was a long time before it was discovered.
In the early 1900s, nearly all boxes on the periodic table had been filled.
Chemists knew that one element had been found to fit into each box.
Francium was discovered in 1939 by a French chemist called Marguerite Perey.
She named it after her home country, France.
There are 34 known isotopes of francium ranging in atomic mass from 199 to 232.
Francium-223 and francium-221 are the only isotopes that occur in nature.
Francium-223 is the most stable isotope, with a half-life of 21.8 minutes.
Francium-223 is the fifth product of the actinium decay series as the daughter isotope of actinium-227.
Francium-223 then decays into radium-223 by beta decay (1.149 MeV decay energy), with a minor (0.006%) alpha decay path to astatine-219 (5.4 MeV decay energy).
Francium-221 has a half-life of 4.8 minutes.
It is the ninth product of the neptunium decay series as a daughter isotope of actinium-225.
Francium-221 then decays into astatine-217 by alpha decay (6.457 MeV decay energy).
Rhenium is a chemical element.
It has the chemical symbol Re.
It has the atomic number 75.
In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements called the transition metals.
The chemistry of rhenium is similar to manganese.
Discovered in 1908, rhenium was the second-last stable element to be discovered ('stable' meaning not radioactive).
It was named after the river Rhine in Europe.
Nickel-based superalloys of rhenium are used in the combustion chambers, turbine blades, and exhaust nozzles of jet engines.
These alloys contain up to 6% rhenium, making jet engine construction the largest single use for the element.
The second-most important use is as a catalyst: rhenium is an excellent catalyst for hydrogenation and isomerization.
Rhenium is used in some manganese alloys.
Rhenium-molybdenum alloys are superconductors.
Rhenium was discovered by Walter Noddack, Ida Noddack, and Otto Berg in Germany.
In 1925, they reported that they detected the element in a platinum ore and in the mineral columbite.
In 1928, they were able to remove 1 g of the element from 660 kg of molybdenite.
Rhenium is a silvery-white metal.
It has the third highest melting points of all elements.
It is also the third densest element.
Rhenium has one stable isotope which is rhenium-185.
Rhenium that is found in nature is made up of 37.4% rhenium-185 and 62.6% rhenium-187.
Rhenium has 33 known radioisotopes.
They range from rhenium-160 to rhenium-194.
The longest-lived radioisotope of rhenium is rhenium-183 which have a half-life of 70 days.
Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in Earth's crust.
It the 77th most abundant element in the Earth's crust.
Rhenium may not be found free in nature.
It is found in small amounts in the mineral molybdenite.
Commercial rhenium is gotten from molybdenum roaster-flue gas.
Some molybdenum ores contain 0.001% to 0.2% rhenium.
Rhenium metal is made by reducing ammonium perrhenate with hydrogen at high temperatures.
Rhenium is used in superalloys, such as CMSX-4 (2nd generation) and CMSX-10 (3rd generation).
These superalloys are used in industrial gas turbine engines like the GE 7FA.
Rhenium filaments are used in mass spectrometers, ion gauges and photoflash lamps in photography.
Rhenium-platinum alloys are used as a catalyst for catalytic reforming.
Rhenium-188 and Rhenium-186 are used to treat of liver cancer.
Thallium is a chemical element.
It has the chemical symbol Tl.
It has the atomic number 81.
Its standard atomic weight is 204.4.
It is found in Group 15 of the periodic table.
Thallium is a gray metal that is very toxic.
Thallium is a soft, malleable, grayish post-transition metal.
It can be cut with a knife at room temperature.
It melts at a low temperature, 304 °C.
This is typical of a post-transition metal.
Thallium has 25 isotopes and two stable (nonradioactive) ones.
It is extremely toxic.
Thallium is a moderately reactive metal.
It corrodes easily in air with a blue-gray color that is similar to lead.
If it is kept in air for a long time, a large amount of thallium(I) oxide will build up.
It corrodes in the presence of water to make the hydroxide.
It burns with a greenish flame.
It reacts with most acids.
Thallium makes chemical compounds in two oxidation states: +1 and +3.
The +1 state is more common and less reactive.
Its chemical compounds are very similar to potassium or silver compounds.
It makes a hydroxide that in a strong base when dissolved in water.
Most other transition metal and post-tranansition metal hydroxides do not dissolve in water.
This reacts with carbon dioxide to make thallium(I) carbonate, which is also water-soluble and very heavy.
It is the only heavy metal carbonate that can dissolve in water.
Other compounds are similar to silver compounds.
Thallium(I) bromide turns yellow when exposed to light, similar to silver(I) bromide.
Thallium(I) sulfide is black, similar to silver(I) sulfide.
The +3 state compounds are oxidizing agents.
The black oxide, thallium(III) oxide and the hydroxide, thallium(III) hydroxide, are the only stable +3 compounds.
They break down to oxygen and thallium(I) oxide when heated.
Thallium and its compounds are rare because they are toxic and polluting.
+1 compounds are quite unreactive.
It is the more common oxidation state.
They are made when thallium dissolves in acids or corrodes in air.
Thallium(I) bromide, yellowish solid, turns black when in light
Thallium(I) carbonate, colorless solid, dissolves in water
Thallium(I) chloride, colorless solid, does not dissolve in water
Thallium(I) fluoride, colorless solid, dissolves in water
Thallium(I) hydroxide, yellow solid, strong base, dissolves in water
Thallium(I) iodide, yellow or red solid, does not dissolve in water
Thallium(I) oxide, black solid, dissolves in water
Thallium(I) sulfate, colorless solid, dissolves in water
Thallium(I) sulfide, black solid, does not dissolve in water
+3 compounds are oxidizing agents.
They are quite rare.
Thallium(III) halide, the thallium(III) fluoride, chloride, and bromide
Thallium(III) hydroxide, white solid
Thallium(III) oxide, white solid, semiconductor
Thallium was found by spectroscopy in 1861 by a bright green line in its spectrum.
The main use for thallium, rat poison, was banned in many countries in the 1970s.
Thallium was used to poison people, similar to the more popular arsenic.
Thallium is found most in certain clays and granites.
It cannot be gotten easily from these, though.
Thallium is normally gotten from the waste after other ores like galena are processed.
Hutchinsonite is another mineral that has thallium in it.
When lead and zinc are taken from their ores, many impurities are left behind.
Sulfuric acid is used to dissolve the thallium from it as thallium(I) sulfate.
Then the thallium(I) sulfate is electrolyzed to make thallium metal.
It is used in rat poisons and insecticides.
The use of thallium as a poison has been reduced or banned in many countries because these countries think that thallium might cause cancers.
It is also used in infrared detectors.
It has been used in some murders.
Like arsenic, the use of thallium in murders has given it the name "inheritance powder".
Thallium compounds are used in glass for infrared light.
Thallium was also used to kill skin infections, but it is too toxic to be used for that now.
A superconductor that can work at higher temperatures than normal ones do uses thallium.
A radioactive thallium isotope was used for nuclear scans.
An alloy of thallium and mercury has a low freezing temperature and is a liquid.
A very dense solution of a thallium compound was used to test minerals for specific gravity, but it is too toxic for use.
Thallium is very toxic.
Many of its salts easily dissolve.
Some are colorless, tasteless, and odorless, but are very toxic.
Some think that it is a carcinogen.
Thallium can be a pollutant if the thallium waste from metal processing is washed away.
Néstor Kirchner (February 25, 1950 - October 27, 2010) was President of Argentina between 2003 and 2007.
He was born in Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, where he was governor.
On May 4, 2010 he became the first Secretary General of UNASUR.
He died in Calafate on October 27, 2010 from heart failure which was caused by an earlier case of a heart attack.
He was elected President in 2003, preceded by Eduardo Duhalde.
Kirchner's widow, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is the current president of Argentina.
Death and state funeral of Néstor Kirchner
The Cunning Little Vixen (original title: Příhody lišky bystroušky, literally translates to The Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears) is an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček.
Janáček loved animals, and in this opera some of the characters are humans but some are animals.
Some of the little animals, (like the grasshopper, frog and cricket) are usually sung by children.
Janáček got the idea of this opera from a cartoon strip called “Sharp-ears” (in Czech: "Bystrouška").
The cartoon was published in a popular daily newspaper Lidové noviny.
It was about a vixen (a female fox) and her adventures in the forest.
He thought that the story would make a good opera.
He made a few changes to the story: he left out a some characters, changed the order of the story a little, and made the humans and the animals behave in a similar way.
It was first performed in Brno on 6 November 1924.
The Story of the opera
A forester is sleeping under a tree.
Nearby a young vixen (here, vixen means baby fox) is playing.
She nearly catches a frog, but the frog jumps away and lands on the forester’s nose.
He wakes up and sees the little vixen playing.
He catches the vixen and take her home with him.
He gave her a name: “Sharp-ears”.
Sharp-ears is unhappy at the forester’s cottage.
She is tied up with a rope in the yard.
The hens keep teasing her and the dog is boring.
One day she tells the hens that they are silly to stay in the farmyard being bossed about by the rooster.
She tells them they ought to fly away to freedom.
She pretends to die, then jumps up and starts to catch them.
When the forester’s wife comes out Sharp-ears bites through the rope and disappears into the forest.
She finds a nice sett (badger's hole) where a badger lives.
She wants to live there herself so she chases the badger out of his home.
One winter’s night the forester is drinking in the inn.
He teases the priest and the schoolmaster for not having found someone to love.
They in turn tease the forester for having let the vixen go.
The schoolmaster starts to go home.
He sees the vixen who reminds him of his former lover, but he is too drunk to catch hold of her.
Sharp-ears meets a handsome young male fox called Goldskin.
When she realizes she is pregnant the fox and vixen get married.
The woodpecker is the priest who marries them.
The cubs (baby foxes) are born in the spring.
The forester is still searching the forest for Sharp-ears.
One day he finds a dead hare.
The poacher persuades the forester to make a trap, because he thinks that Sharp-ears will come back to eat the hare.
The cubs arrive and play near the trap.
Sharp-ears realizes the poacher is trying to catch her.
She teases him cruelly and dares him to kill her.
He shoots her with his rifle, then he is very sad.
Some time later the forester is sleeping under a tree.
He wakes up when a frog lands on his hand.
He sees a young vixen playing in front of him.
He tells the young cub that she looks just like her mother.
He reaches out for her but catches a frog instead.
He lets it go.
He realizes that life must go on.
Meaning of the story
Janáček made some changes to the story in the cartoon.
This made it more suitable for an opera.
He did not have all the characters that are in the cartoon, and he changed the order of the story to make it more dramatic.
He compares the human beings with the animals.
For example: we see vixen Sharp-ears falling in love and having a family.
But the forester’s friends: the school master and the priest, have not been so lucky with their love-life.
The priest looks like the badger, the woodpecker is like the priest.
When the opera is performed the same singer sometimes sings both parts.
The end of the opera is like the beginning.
This shows that life carries on and one generation follows another.
The music matches the story beautifully.
There are a lot of tunes with very exciting harmonies.
Sometimes he uses modes and whole-tone scales.
Janáček often makes his music sound like folk music of his country.
1920s operas
Compositions by Leoš Janáček
1924 works
The Guaraní alphabet is a system used to write the Guaraní language.
The Guaraní language is used in Paraguay and some countries near it.
The alphabet has 35 letters.
A, Ã, CH, E, Ẽ, F, G, G̃, H, I, Ĩ, J, K, L, M, MB, N, ND, NG, NJ, NT, Ñ, O, Õ, P, R, RR, S, T, U, Ũ, V, Y, Ỹ, ʼ.
"A", "E", "I", "O", "U", "Y" are vowels, just like English.
Those letters with tildes on top make the same sound, except more nasal sounding.
The apostrophe sounds like a glottal stop.
The other letters are consonants.
Lake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza (also known as Ukerewe and Nnalubaale) is a lake in Africa.
It is bordered and governed by the countries of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
The lake is in the western part of Africa's Great Rift Valley.
Lake Victoria is 68,800 square kilometres (26,560 mi²) in size.
It is Africa's largest lake, and the second largest fresh water lake in the world.
It was named for Queen Victoria.
The White Nile flows out of the lake.
Lake Victoria Citizendium
Lakes of Africa
Tonsillitis is a disease.
It is also known as pharyngitis, laryngitis and Tonsillar infection.
Tonsillitis is caused by either a virus or bacteria.
It is the inflammation and infection of the tonsils.
The tonsils are in the back of the throat.
The tonsils get inflamed and red.
Other symptoms include headaches, fevers, back and neck aches, chills, bad breath, weak voice, fatigue, having trouble swallowing, and more.
There are treatments for tonsillitis.
One treatment is antibiotics.
Medicines to relieve pain like Tylenol and Advil are also suggested.
The tonsils may be removed surgically if it is medically necessary.
This operation is called a tonsillectomy.
It is the most effective way to get rid of the infection.
All kinds of tonsillitis are contagious.
Tonsillitis is spread by human contact.
Encephalitis is sudden inflammation (swelling) in the brain.
It is usually caused by viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens.
As the brain swells, it can get damaged when it gets crushed against the skull.
Encephalitis can cause serious symptoms, like seizures and strokes, and can be fatal.
In 2013, encephalitis killed about 77,000 people in the world.
Usually, adults with encephalitis have a fever that starts suddenly, a headache, confusion, and sometimes seizures.
Younger children or infants may be irritable (easily upset), not want to eat, and have a fever.
Usually, patients are either very tired or confused.
Viral encephalitis can happen when a virus infects the brain.
The most common causes are the rabies virus, herpes simplex virus (HSV), the polio virus, and the measles virus.
Viral encephalitis can also be caused by a latent virus - a virus that hides from the body's immune system the brain's nerve cells.
Two examples of viruses that cause latent infection are the varicella-zoster viruses, which can hide in the brain after causing chicken pox, and the herpes simplex virus.
About 100 different viruses can infect the brain.
Other examples include West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus, and Japanese encephalitis virus.
Encephalitis can happen when a person gets a bacterial infection, like bacterial meningitis.
It can also be a complication of an infectious disease that a person already has, like syphilis.
This is called "secondary encephalitis."
Examples of other bacteria which can cause encephalitis are Staphylococcus aureus, which causes toxic shock syndrome; Bordetella pertussis, which causes pertussis (whooping cough); and types of Borellia bacteria, which cause Lyme disease.
Some parasites can infect the brain, especially in people who have weak immune systems.
Examples include Toxoplasma gondii, which causes toxoplasmosis; two parasites from the species Trypanosoma brucei, which cause African trypanosomiasis (African sleeping sickness); and Plasmodium parasites, which cause malaria.
Autoimmune diseases can cause encephalitis if the body's immune system attacks the brain, the spinal cord, and their nerves.
Two examples are autoimmune encephalitis and acute disseminated encephalitis.
An MRI (brain scan) can show brain swelling, and also show whether there are other brain problems causing a patient's symptoms
An EEG (a picture of the brain's electrical activity) will show signals that are not normal
A lumbar puncture (spinal tap) will show whether there is an infection in the cerebrospinal fluid (which bathes the brain and spinal cord)
Blood tests or urine tests may show whether a person has encephalitis, or if they have another illness instead
Viral encephalitis is treated with anti-viral medications
Bacterial encephalitis is treated with antibiotic medications
Other treatments are "supportive" - they treat the symptoms of encephalitis.
Steroid medications are used to decrease swelling in the brain
Anticonvulsant medications can stop seizures
Sedative medications can help with restlessness and irritability
Acetaminophen can decrease fever and headache
Physical therapy and speech therapy can help if the person has trouble moving or speaking after their infection is gone
Vaccines have made encephalitis from some diseases much less common.
These diseases include measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), polio, varicella (chicken pox), and pertussis (whooping cough).
There are also vaccines for rabies, bacterial meningitis, Japanese encephalitis, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), and some other diseases that can cause encephalitis.
People can protect themselves from diseases that are spread by insects, like Lyme disease and malaria, by avoiding insect bites.
For example, they can use bug spray; wear long sleeves and long pants; sleep under a mosquito net; and make sure they have good window and door screens.
Diseases and disorders of the brain
Mitosis is a part of the cycle of cell division.
The chromosomes of a cell are copied to make two identical sets of chromosomes, and the cell nucleus divides into two identical nuclei.
Before mitosis, the cell creates an identical set of its own genetic information – this is called replication.
The genetic information is in the DNA of the chromosomes.
At the beginning of mitosis the chromosomes wind up and become visible with a light microscope.
The chromosomes are now two chromatids joined at the centromere.
Since the two chromatids are identical to each other, they are called sister chromatids.
Mitosis happens in all types of dividing cells in the human body except with sperm and ova.
The sperm and ova are gametes or sex cells.
The gametes are produced by a different division method called meiosis.
Phases of mitosis
There are five phases of mitosis.
Each phase is used to describe what kind of change the cell is going through.
The phases are prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.
During prophase, chromatin (tangled-up DNA) in the nucleus condense into chromosomes (bunched-up DNA).
Pairs of centrioles move to opposite sides of the nucleus.
Spindle fibers begin to form a bridge between the ends of the cell.
Prometaphase
During prometaphase, the nuclear envelope around the chromosomes breaks down.
Now there is no nucleus and the sister chromatids are free.
A protein called a kinetochore forms at each centromere.
Long thin proteins reach across from opposite poles of the cell and attach to each kinetochore.
During metaphase, the pair of chromatids are aligned by the pushing and pulling of the attached kinetochore microtubules, similar to a game of "tug of war".
Both sister chromatids stay attached to each other at the centromere.
The chromosomes line up on the cell's equator, or center line, and are prepared for division.
This is the longest phase of mitosis.
Anaphase
During anaphase, the sister chromatids split apart and move from the cell's equator (metaphase plate) to the poles of the cell.
The kinetochore is attached to the centromere.
The microtubules hold on to kinetochore and shorten in length.
Another group of microtubules, the non-kinetochore microtubules, do the opposite.
They become longer.
The cell begins to stretch out as the opposite ends are pushed apart.
Telophase
Telophase is the final stage in mitosis: the cell itself is ready to divide.
One set of chromosomes is now at each pole of the cell.
Each set is identical.
The spindle fibers begin to disappear, and a nuclear membrane forms around each set of chromosomes.
Also, a nucleolus appears within each new nucleus and single stranded chromosomes uncoil into invisible strands of chromatin.
Cytokinesis, even though it is very important to cell division, is not considered a stage of mitosis.
During cytokinesis, the cell physically splits.
This occurs just after anaphase and during telophase.
The cleavage furrow, which is the pinch caused by the ring of proteins, pinches off completely, closing off the cell.
The cell now has reproduced itself successfully.
After cytokinesis, the cell goes back into interphase, where the cycle is repeated.
If cytokinesis were to occur to a cell that had not gone through mitosis, then the daughter cells would be different or not function properly.
One would still have the nucleus and the other would lack a nucleus.
Cytokinesis is different in both animals and plant cells.
In plant cells, instead of splitting into two halves, it forms a cell plate.
This is a cell wall that forms between the two nuclei after they have split apart.
This must happen because the cells have a rigid shape, and must be completely covered in the cell wall to function.
Inflammation is the first reaction of the immune system to an infection or irritation.
It is an attempt of the immune system to dispel invaders and repair the body.
It can happen in many parts of the body and often involves the following five steps:
The inflamed spot becomes red.
The inflamed spot becomes hot.
The inflamed spot begins to swell.
The inflamed spot begins to feel uncomfortable.
The inflamed spot might cause surrounding organs to dysfunction.
The first four of these reactions have been known for a long time, since antiquity.
Finding them is attributed to Celsus.
The last one was added by Rudolf Virchow in 1858.
There are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic.
Acute inflammations are more intense but short-lived, while chronic inflammations are less intense but long-lived.
Examples of acute inflammation include skin disorders (e.g., psoriasis, dandruff) and arthritis, while chronic inflammation can be responsible for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
Adoption of healthy diet, physical exercise and rest are some of the ways to reduce Inflammations.
Car rental is when you rent a car.
The company providing you the car becomes the car rental service provider, whereas you become the car hirer, as you hire the car for a fee.
They can be found primarily located near airports or busy city areas.
The internet is changing the car rental industry with companies that are now called online car rental companies.
Travelers can pre-book their rental car online anywhere across the globe directly from the service providers like Hertz, Budget, Alamo, Sixt Rent a Car, Thrifty, Travelauto.com, Dollar, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Europcar.
Car rental agencies are mainly for people who need a car for a short period of time, for example travellers who are out of town, people whose cars were damaged or destroyed.
Car rental agencies may also rent trucks for self-moving industry
Car rentals are subject to many conditions which vary from one brand to another.
The vehicle must be returned in a good condition and must not exceed a maximum driven distance, otherwise extra fees may be incurred.
Additionally, some companies set up a minimum age for the vehicle driver, which in some cases is as high as 25, even in countries where the minimum legal age to hold a driver's license is much lower.
Recent conditions have used GPS technology to limit maximum speeds or driving to specific regions.
Global market
North America and Europe are leading the car rental market, followed by Asia-Pacific.
North America is dominating the car rental market, owing to the high usage rate of car rental services by daily commuters, office-goers, and tourists in the country.
Also, the growing trend of car sharing also boosts the usage of car rental in this region.
Mechanical engineering is a branch of engineering that applies the principles of Mechanics and Materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems.
It involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the design, production, and operation of machines and tools.
They can range from building a rocket ship down to things as small as an integrated circuit.
It is one of the oldest and broadest engineering disciplines.
Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor.
He was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
His mother was a Slovak; his father was a Jew who had one parent from Hungary and the other from Poland.
Although Paul Newman was not a Jew by Orthodox Jewish standards he considered himself Jewish and would have been accepted as one by other Jewish movements.
He was known especially for the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
He played Butch Cassidy in the movie.
He was married to actress Joanne Woodward.
He died of lung cancer in 2008.
Newman retired from acting in May 2007.
He said "You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention.
So I think that's pretty much a closed book for me."
He came out of retirement to narrate the 2007 documentary movie Dale, about the life of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt.
He also narrated the 2008 BBC documentary Meerkats: The Movie.
It was recorded at a studio near his home shortly before his death.
The Meerkats was the last movie credit of Newman's long career.
Newman/Haas Racing
The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp
Jewish philanthropists
People from Shaker Heights, Ohio
The Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground.
It is coloured dark blue on the Tube map.
It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year.
It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1.
However, there are a number of surface sections mostly in its westernmost parts.
Out of the 53 stations served, 25 are underground.
It is the second longest line on the system, after the Central Line.
Like most Underground lines, the Piccadilly line is operated by a single type of rolling stock.
In this case it is the 1973 tube stock.
The trains are painted in the standard London Underground livery of blue, white and red.
Seventy-six trains out of a fleet of 88 are needed to run the line's peak service.
One unit (166-566-366) was severely damaged by the terrorist attack of 7 July 2005.
The stock was recently refurbished, and was due for replacement by 2014, but the order for new trains was cancelled in July 2010.
There are sidings at Oakwood, South Harrow, Arnos Grove, Rayners Lane, Down Street, Wood Green, Acton Town, Ruislip and Uxbridge.
The line is controlled from the control centre at Earl's Court, which it used to share with the District line.
It is in need of resignalling, and this work is planned to be carried out by 2014.
6 trains per hour  –  (via Terminals 1, 2, 3)
6 trains per hour Cockfosters –  (returning around the loop and serving Terminals 1, 2, 3)
3 trains per hour Cockfosters –
6 trains per hour Arnos Grove –
Often late evening services terminate at  instead of Cockfosters.
Trains will also make an additional stop at  during early mornings and late evenings but will not stop at the station during the main part of the day.
(In order from east to west.)
Cockfosters branch
Extension to Hounslow and Uxbridge
Heathrow branch
Uxbridge branch
Closed stations
opened on 30 November 1907 as the Strand tube station.
It was at the end of a branch line from the main line at .
An evening through-northbound 'Theatre' train ran until 1910.
From 1917 onwards, it was served only by a shuttle from Holborn.
In the same year it was renamed Aldwych when Charing Cross on the Northern line was renamed Strand.
It was temporarily closed in 1940 during World War II to be used as an air-raid shelter.
It re-opened in 1946.
The possibility of extending the branch to Waterloo was discussed, but the scheme never proceeded.
Aldwych was finally closed on 30 September 1994; the level of use was said to be too low to justify the £1 million in estimated costs of a complete replacement of the lifts.
The station is regularly used by film makers.