the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
This is a functional group of two silicon atoms and one oxygen atom frequently combined with carbon and/ or hydrogen.
They are typically heat-resistant and rubber-like.
Silicones are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medicine, cooking utensils, and thermal and electrical insulation.
Some common forms include silicone oil, silicone grease, silicone rubber, silicone resin, and silicone caulk.
Silicone is also used for cosmetics.
Silicone has very little to do with the element silicon ().
Oxfordshire (short Oxon, from the Latinised form Oxonia) is a county in the South East of England, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire.
It is divided into five local government districts: Oxford, Cherwell, Vale of the White Horse (after the Uffington White Horse), West Oxfordshire and South Oxfordshire.
The county has a major tourism industry.
The area is known for the concentration of motorsport companies and facilities.
Oxford University Press has headed a concentration of print and publishing firms; the university is also linked to the concentration of local biotechnology companies.
Other significant settlements are Bicester, Banbury, and Chipping Norton to the north of Oxford; Witney to the west; Thame and Chinnor to the east; and Abingdon, Wantage, Didcot and Henley-on-Thames to the south.
Future population growth in the county is hoped to be concentrated around Banbury, Bicester, Didcot and Witney, near the South Midlands growth area.
Historically the area has always had some importance, it has been good agricultural land resting between the main southern cities and Oxford (whose name came from Anglo-Saxon Oxenaford = "ford for oxen").
The area was part of the Cotswolds wool trade from the 13th century.
The Great Western Railway reached Didcot in 1839.
Morris Motors was founded in Oxford in 1912 and MG in Abingdon in 1929.
The importance of agriculture as an employer has gone down in the 20th century; today less than one percent of the county's population are involved.
Abingdon (In Berkshire until 1974)
Bicester
Burford
Carterton
Chipping Norton
Didcot (In Berkshire until 1974)
Faringdon (In Berkshire until 1974)
Wallingford (In Berkshire until 1974)
Wantage (In Berkshire until 1974)
Witney
Blenheim Palace — UNESCO World Heritage Site
Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway — A heritage railway operated with steam and diesel locomotives
Cholsey and Wallingford Railway
Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens
Didcot Railway Centre — Museum of the Great Western Railway
Kelmscott Manor — Home of William Morris
River and Rowing Museum
Rousham House and Gardens
Wallingford Museum
University of Oxford (including links to the individual colleges).
Oxford Canal
Blewbury
Oxfordshire County Council
Results of the 2005 county council election
Thisisoxfordshire Oxfordshire news, sport & information
Flags of Oxfordshire
Minnie Mouse is an American cartoon character.
She is Mickey Mouse's significant other.
They were both created by Walt Disney.
Her birthday is on 18th November 1908.
She only first appeared in 1928, in “Plane Crazy”.
She is also known as Princess Minnie and Maestro Minnie.
Minnie's favorite foods are cheese, chocolate and cake.
She loves listening to jazz music, cooking, baking, shopping and makeup.
Minnie Mouse’s parents are unknown, but Marcus Mouse may be her father’s name.
His name was first used in the comic strip story “Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers” (published 22 September — 26 December, 1930).
The same story featured photographs of Minnie's uncle Milton Mouse with his family and her grandparents Marvel Mouse and Matilda Mouse.
She also has an uncle named Mortimer Mouse and twin nieces, Millie and Melody Mouse.
Minnie Mouse has two pets, a dog and a cat.
The dog is called Fifi.
Fifi has 5 puppies with Mickey’s dog, Pluto.
Pluto was Mickey’s first dog; he was called Rover at that time.
She also has a cat called Figaro.
This is the same cat which appears in the Disney movie Pinocchio.
It has been recently discovered that she has adopted two new pets, a lizard and a snake, their names are Lolly and Pop, respectively.
This is due to her sudden fascination with reptiles.
Marriage to Mickey
Walt Disney said in a interview in 1933 that in private Mickey and Minnie are married.
He also said that many people asked him about this.
Depending on the movie, Minnie and Mickey are married or sometimes not married.
They also, at least in public, have no children yet.
Gossip about Minnie's name
From 19th January 1942 to 2nd May 1942 there was a comic magazine called “The Gleam”.
In this magazine once it said that Minnie’s real name was Minerva Mouse.
But the Walt Disney head office said that there is no register about her real name as Minerva.
There is not much information about Minerva, but she is similar to Minnie’s character.
Therefore, many people misunderstood that Minerva was Minnie’s real name.
Formally Minnie’s name is only registered as “Minnie Mouse”.
More likely is that Minnie's original name was the German/Dutch Wilhelmina, which is about the only name for which Minnie is the "official" abbreviation (http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Minnie).
Possibly, this fact was suppressed during the 1930s, as Germany became more unpopular due to its political and racial leanings.
In episode 14 of season 4 of the series Mickey Mouse, which began airing on the Disney Channel in June 2013, Mickey addresses Minnie as "Minifred" (a pun on the name Winifred), but this is non-canon.
It seems that Minnie’s closest friends are Daisy Duck, Donald Duck’s girlfriend, and also sometimes Clarabelle Cow.
She often goes shopping with Daisy and she spends a lot of time with her.
Her friendship with Daisy is more of a product of recent cartoons, as they never interacted with each other during the classic shorts.
Minnie also has another friend called Honor the Hippo and they keep their secrets in bits of moss on the pavement.
Minnie's other friend Carly the Cat has a middle parting in her long hair.
The order Notostraca has just two living genera in it.
Triops and Lepidura.
The two genera are considered 'living fossils', as they have not changed in outward form since the Triassic.
Notostracans, or tadpole shrimps, are omnivores living on the bottom of temporary pools and shallow lakes.
They live in pools of water on every continent except Antarctica.
They grow very quickly, and can reach adulthood in a week.
Triops only live for a short time; a record-breaking female only lived to be 100 days.
When their pools dry up,adult tadpole shrimp die.
Their eggs, however, stop developing for a time.
When they are in water again, they come to life, and new Triops are hatched.
This is because of a state known as diapause, where eggs can lie dormant for up to twenty years before hatching again.
Evolution and fossil record
The fossil record of Notostraca is extensive.
They occur in a wide range of geological deposits, reaching back to the Carboniferous.
The lack of major morphological change since 250 million years ago has led to Notostraca being described as living fossils.
Notostracans keep the ancient condition of having two separate compound eyes.
These touch but do not become united, as does happens in other groups of Branchiopods.
Branchiopods
Porphyria is the name for certain medical conditions or diseases, which have been known since the days of Hippocrates.
Those who suffer from the disease can not make certain substances in the blood.
They have disorders of certain enzymes which normally work in the production of porphyrins and heme.
The condition is usually caused by a genetic deficiency, but chemicals which affect metabolism may also cause it.
Arsenic is an example.
It can be triggered by various drugs or by some environmental conditions.
The disease causes skin problems, or some diseases of the nervous system, or both.
Severe pain is often present.
Drugs are available that can at least treat the symptoms.
This disease is most common in European countries and often affects the skin.
When someone is affected by porphyria they will start to lose their hair about two weeks after having an attack.
There is no cure for the hair loss.
However, there is medication available to help prevent attacks.
Diatoms ( = through +  temnein = to cut: "cut through") are a big group of eukaryotic algae.
They are one of the most common types of phytoplankton.
Most diatoms are unicellular, although some form chains or simple colonies.
Diatom cells are encased within a unique cell wall made of silica (SiO2).
These walls, called frustules, take many forms, some quite beautiful and ornate.
They usually consist of two asymmetrical sides with a split between them, which gives the group its name.
Diatom chloroplasts were probably derived from those of red algae.
The fossil record of diatoms starts in strata of the Lower Jurassic, ~185 million years ago.
Molecular clock evidence suggests an earlier date for their origin.
The entire genomes of two species of diatom have been analysed.
The analysis reveals that hundreds of genes in both species came from bacteria.
Diatoms have some practical uses.
Diatom communities are a popular tool for monitoring environmental conditions, past and present.
They are commonly used in studies of water quality.
They are also of interest to nanotechnology.
Decapitation or beheading is the act of cutting off the head from the rest of the body of a living thing.
Beheading usually means that the removal of the head is deliberate.
It is generally done during an execution with an axe, sword, or guillotine.
If the removal of the head is an accident or unintentional, it is called decapitation.
It can happen because of an auto accident, explosion, factory accident, a mistake during a hanging or some other violent accident.
Decapitation is always fatal, that is, the result is always death.
This is because it causes all other organs to stop receiving nervous signals from the brain that are needed to function, while the supply of blood, and therefore oxygen, to the brain itself is also cut off.
Decapitation can also describe the removal of a head from a body that is already dead.
In these situations, the head is usually a trophy or a public display of warning.
Beheading was the usual means of death penalty in Scandinavian countries in the past.
Noblemen were beheaded with a sword, commoners with an axe.
The last execution by beheading in Finland occurred in 1822, when a farmhand Tahvo Putkonen was beheaded for murder.
The last beheading in Sweden occurred in 1910, when Johan Andersson-Ander was guillotined for murder.
Also Germany, France and Belgium favoured beheading in the past.
In those countries was carried out by guillotine.
Some countries, especially Arab countries or former French colonies, still use beheading as the means of execution.
In Saudi Arabia, the convicts are beheaded with a sword.
Famous people who have been beheaded
Biblical
John the Baptist in the Gospels
Holofernes in the Book of Judith
Apostle James, traditionally
Apostle Paul, traditionally
Guan Yu
Anne Boleyn (1536)
Catherine Howard (1542)
Mary, Queen of Scots (1587)
Sir Walter Raleigh (1618)
Charles I, King of England and Scotland (1649)
Blackbeard (1718)
The Colonial Americas
Panama: Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1519)
Louis XVI of France
Shosei Koda
Kim Sun-il
Kenneth Bigley
Nick Berg
Eugene Armstrong
Jack Hensley
Maher Kemal
Wildhans von Breitenlandenberg and 61 companions following the siege of Greifensee during the Old Zürich War (1444).
Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (born 8 February  (O.S. 27 January) 1834 near Tobolsk – 2 February (O.S. 20 January 20) 1907 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian chemist who created the periodic table of elements.
Many of the predictions made in his periodic table (such as the properties of elements undiscovered at the time) were later proved correct by experiments.
Chemical element 101 was named Mendelevium.
Mendeleev was born in village of Verkhnie Aremzyani, near Tobolsk, to Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev and Maria Dmitrievna Mendeleeva (née Kornilieva).
His grandfather was Pavel Maximovich Sokolov, a priest of Russian Orthodox Church from the Tver region.
Ivan, with his brothers and sisters, got new family names while attending theological seminary.
Later in life, he invented the periodic table of elements.
Mendeleev is thought to be the youngest of 14 siblings, but the exact number differs between sources.
At the age of 13, after the death of his father and the destruction of his mother's factory by fire, Mendeleev attended the Gymnasium in Tobolsk.
In 1849, the now poor Mendeleev family went to Saint Petersburg, where he entered the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1850.
After graduation, tuberculosis caused him to move to the Crimean Peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea in 1855.
While there he became a science master of the Simferopol gymnasium №1.
He returned with fully restored health to Saint Petersburg in 1857.
Others in the 1860s suggested that elements group together.
For example, John Newlands, published his Law of Octaves in 1865.
The lack of spaces for undiscovered elements and the placing of two elements in one box were criticized and his ideas were not accepted.
Another was Lothar Meyer, who published a work in 1864, describing 28 elements.
Neither attempted to predict new elements.
In 1863 there were 56 known elements with a new element being discovered at a rate of approximately one each year.
Mendeleev made other important contributions to chemistry.
The Russian chemist and science historian L.A. Tchugayev called him "a chemist of genius, first-class physicist, a fruitful researcher in the fields of hydrodynamics, meteorology, geology, certain branches of chemical technology (explosives, petroleum, and fuels, for example) and other disciplines adjacent to chemistry and physics, a thorough expert of chemical industry and industry in general, and an original thinker in the field of economy".
Mendeleev was one of the founders, in 1869, of the Russian Chemical Society.
He worked on the theory and practice of protectionist trade and on agriculture.
1834 births
The wakizashi is a traditional Japanese sword.
It is shorter than the katana, which was well known in the beginning of the 17th century as a kodachi sword.
The two swords were always carried together: the wakizashi finished off the work of the katana sword.
Such a sword could be from 30cm to 60cm (12 to 24 inches) long.
A small version was called a "ko-wakizashi", a longer one was called an "o-wakizashi".
The wakizashi has a handle made of stingray skin and the blade is made from the finest metal and stone.
A wakizashi had a slightly curved blade with a square-shaped hilt (handle).
The hilt and the scabbard (the case in which the sword is kept) of a wakizashi was richly decorated with traditional motifs.
A wakizashi was more decorated than a katana because it was not used as much as a katana, but still carried everywhere.
Another distinctive feature is the scabbard (called a "saya").
The sayas were made to be like the katana but they could have extra pockets for smaller knives, a hair arranger, etc.
The katana and the wakizashi together are called a daishō, which is translated as "large and small".
The first part of the word (dai) means "big" and stands for the katana sword; the second (sho) stands for wakizashi.
Wakizashi was more decorated than a katana and it was thinner, this is why it was designed to cut through softer targets.
So it was a sword to make dangerous cuts in weak points of the human body.
The use of a daishō on the battlefield gave its user a big advantage.
With the two swords the samurai could keep the enemies within a radius of action ranging from 2 to 7 feet (1 to 3 1/2 meters).
Miyamoto Musashi, a famous Japanese samurai, was especially skilful at using the daishō.
A wakizashi sword was an irreplaceable weapon for a samurai.
The tradition says that when entering a house or any other building, the samurai has to leave his katana with a servant, but the wakizashi could be worn at all times and places.
This is why the wakizashi is often called the samurai's side arm.
The wakizashi followed his master even when he went to sleep, because it was always near the bed.
The wakizashi was carried along the thigh and was usually used with one hand; the other hand was used for the katana.
The wakizashi proved to be very effective when the katana's length and weight made it hard to use.
The wakizashi needs less force to use and it is more maneuverable.
The wakizashi was also the sword used by merchants and artisans (types of traders) who were forbidden from wearing a katana.
This fact explains a greater number wakizashi swords were found than katanas.
There are even more wakizashi swords than katana swords, although the katana swords had greater meaning for Japanese society.
The wakizashi sword was much used in the ritual of seppuku (suicide because of lost honor).
In this ritual it was used along with the shortest Japanese sword - Tanto.
The wakizashi was thrust into the torso (body), cutting open vertically.
This kind of death was considered honorable for a samurai.
When a female samurai committed seppuku she would only cut her own throat.
Technique of Katana Sword Drawing - IAI-DO  - Facts about katana and wakizashi, how to take them out of the scabbard and notable terminology.
Albert Camus (7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher and writer.
Camus wrote novels and plays.
Camus was born in Algeria, a country in North Africa.
He had French parents.
Camus was an existentialist philosopher.
Existentialism is a philosophy that is very different from other ways of thinking.
Camus won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.
He was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, after Rudyard Kipling, and the first African-born writer to receive the award.
He is the shortest-lived of any Nobel literature laureate to date, having died in an automobile accident just over two years after receiving the award.
Albert Camus was born in Algeria to a poor working-class family.
His mother was Spanish and his father was French.
His father died in battle and he was left to live with his grandmother.
When he was 17 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which was very impactful on him at that point in his life.
It limited him greatly in his athletics as well as in his career opportunities, due to the fact that tuberculosis is quite contagious.
For this reason he claimed that his disease “set him free” because he would have done something else with his life had he seen the opportunity.
He went to the University of Algiers, where he graduated with a degree in 1935.
In the 1930s, Camus became interested in politics.
In 1935, Camus joined the French Communist Party, a political group.
In the late 1930s, Camus was a writer for the socialist newspaper, the Alger-Republicain.
In 1941, Camus wrote his first novel, which was called The Stranger.
During World War II, Camus joined the French Resistance to fight against the Nazi army.
After World War II, Camus became friends with another writer named Jean-Paul Sartre.
Camus and Sartre often talked about philosophy and politics in small restaurants called cafés.
Camus wrote books about philosophy (ways of thinking) which said that life was "absurd" (makes no sense, or has no meaning).
In the 1950s Camus tried to improve human rights.
In 1960, Camus died in a car crash.
He had two children, Catherine and Jean.
Some of his novels (stories)
The Stranger (l'étranger) (sometimes called The Outsider) (1942)
The Plague (la peste) (1947)
The Fall (la chute) (1956)
Some of his books about philosophy
Betwixt and Between (1937)
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
The Rebel  (1951)
Caligula (1938)
The Misunderstanding (1944)
State of Siege (1948)
The Just Assassins  (1949)
The Possessed (1959)
Albert Camus, Maria Casarès.
Correspondance inédite (1944-1959).
Édition de Béatrice Vaillant.
Avant-propos de Catherine Camus.
Collection Blanche, Gallimard.
Parution : 09-11-2017.
Books about Camus
Camus (1959) by the writer Germaine Brée
Albert Camus, A Study of His Work (1957) by the writer Usamah Siddiqui
Heiner Wittmann: Sartre and Camus in Aesthetics.
The Challenge of Freedom.
v. Dirk Hoeges.
Dialoghi/Dialogues.
Literatur und Kultur Italiens und Frankreichs, Band 13, Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2009
Nobel Prize in Literature (1957)
Fonds Albert Camus - Cité du livre d'Aix en Provence
Société des Études Camusiennes
The Albert Camus Society
Accidental deaths in France
The Angevin Empire was a collection of states ruled by the Angevin Plantagenet dynasty.
The Plantagenets, Henry II of England, Richard I of England, and John of England, ruled over an area from the Pyrenees to Ireland during the 12th and early 13th centuries.
Their empire was roughly half of medieval France as well as all of England and Ireland.
The name Angevin came from the French region and town of Anjou which was the home of the Plantagenet family.
13th century in Europe
The spine is a column of vertebrae in the back part of the torso (upper body).
It is also called the backbone or vertebral column.
There is a spinal canal that runs through the length of the spine.
Inside this canal is the spinal cord.
Animals that have a spine are called vertebrates, and animals that do not have one are called invertebrates.
Humans have a spine, so we are vertebrates.
Many vertebrates, including mammals, have intervertebral discs separating the vertebrae.
The vertebral column has five regions.
These regions from top to bottom are:
Cervical - Shown in red, this region supports the head.
It is made up of 7 vertebrae.
The first two, called the atlas and axis, connect the spine to the skull.
Thoracic - Shown in blue, this region supports the ribs.
It is made up of 12 vertebrae.
Lumbar - Shown in yellow, this region is located in the lower back.
It is made up of 5 vertebrae.
Sacral - Shown in green.
It is made up of 5 vertebrae that are fused together.
Coccygeal - Shown in purple.
It is made up of 3 to 5 vertebrae.
The spinal column has an opening called spinal canal and this opening is used for nerves.
The part of the central nervous system in the spinal column is called spinal cord.
Gray's Anatomy: The Vertebral Column - The 1917 Gray's Anatomy is available via the Bartleby project.
It is available with full colour diagrams.
The initial version of this article was copied and pasted from the 1917 Gray's anatomy, which is in the public domain.
North American Spine Society is a multidisciplinary medical organization that advances quality spine care through education, research and advocacy.
Spinal anatomy and back pain
Spine anatomy illustrations
Spine anatomy
Vertebral column basics
The Pyrenees (; ; ; ; ; ) are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain.
They separate the Iberian Peninsula from France, and extend for about 430 km (267 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay) to the Mediterranean Sea (Cap de Creus).
Great Routes: Pirineos , from a website of the Instituto de Turismo de España
Official website  of France's Pyrenees National Park
Cycling the French High Pyrenees and Ariege Pyrenees photos and video by steephill.tv bike travelogue
The Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales  Online resource for the Aude & Pyrénées-Orientales departments of the Languedoc-Roussillon.
Geography of Andorra
The Sea of Galilee is Israel's largest freshwater lake, about 53 kilometers (33 miles) around, about 21 km (13 miles) long, and 13 km (8 miles) wide; it has a total area of 166 km², and a depth of about 43 meters.
At 209 meters below sea level, it is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth, and the second lowest lake in the world after the Dead Sea, a saltwater lake.
It is not a real sea - it is called a sea because of tradition.
The lake is also known on modern maps as Lake Galilee or Lake Tiberias, in the region of Galilee.
In modern Hebrew, it is known as  (), "Sea of Kinnereth" (Numbers 34:11; Joshua 13:27).
It has also been called the Lake of Gennesaret or the Sea of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1) after the name of a small fruitful plain on its western side.
The Arabic name for the lake is  (بحيرة طبريا) meaning Lake Tiberias.
Other names are:  Ginnosar, Lake of Gennesar, Sea of Chinneroth, Sea of Tiberias (Roman) and Waters of Gennesareth.
Its main source is the Jordan River, which flows through it from north to south.
The lake is deep in the Jordan Great Rift Valley, the valley caused by the separation of the African and Arabian Plates.
Because of this, the area has earthquakes and, in the past, volcanic activity.
Due to its low-lying position in the rift valley, surrounded by hills, the sea can get sudden violent storms; as in the New Testament story about Jesus calming the storm.
A main feature of the lake seems to be that it is always changing.
It is still famous, just as in New Testament times, for having plenty of fish, and in today's restaurants, "St. Peter's Fish" (tilapia) is very popular.
History and scripture
The Sea of Galilee is on the ancient Via Maris road which linked Egypt with the northern empires.
The Greeks, Hasmoneans, and Romans started towns and settlements here: Gadara, Hippos, Tiberias and others.
The 1st century historian Flavius Josephus wrote of a large fishing industry at this time, with 230 boats regularly working in the lake.
Much of the ministry of Jesus was on the shores of Lake Galilee.
In those days, there were many settlements and villages all around the lake and plenty of trade and ferrying by boat.
The gospels of Mark (1:14-20), Matthew (4:18-22), and Luke (5:1-11) tell how Jesus got four of his apostles from the shores of Lake Galilee: the fishermen Simon and his brother Andrew, and the brothers John and James.
One of Jesus' famous teachings, the Sermon on the Mount, was given on a hill overlooking the lake.
Many of his miracles were also recorded to have been here: his walking on water, calming a storm, feeding five thousand people and many others.
In 135, the second Jewish revolt against the Romans, called Bar Kokhba's revolt, was put down.
The Romans responded by sending all Jews away from Jerusalem and not letting them come back.
The center of Jewish culture and learning thus moved to the region of the Kinneret, particularly to the city of Tiberias.
In the time of the Byzantine Empire, the lake's importance in Jesus' life made it a major destination for Christian pilgrims.
This led to the growth of a tourist industry, with package tours and plenty of comfortable inns.
Medieval times
The lake lost importance when the Byzantines lost control of it.
The area came under the control of the Umayyad Caliphate and later Islamic empires.
Except for Tiberias, little by little, the major towns and cities began to be left empty.
In 1187, Saladin defeated the armies of the Crusades at the Battle of Hattin, mainly because he cut the Crusaders off from the valuable fresh water of the Sea of Galilee.
In 1909 Jewish pioneers built their first cooperative farming village (kibbutz), Kvutzat Kinneret which trained Jewish immigrants in farming and agriculture.
Kinneret was the center of the Kibbutz culture of early Zionism.
In 1923 an agreement between the United Kingdom and France set the border between the British Mandate of Palestine and the French Mandate of Syria.
The British gave the southern Golan Heights to the French in return for the northern Jordan Valley.
The border was drawn again so that both sides of the Jordan river and the whole of the Sea of Galilee, including a 10-meter wide strip along the northeastern shore, were made a part of Palestine  .
The 1947 UN Partition Plan put this area inside the Jewish state.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Syria occupied the lake's northeastern shore.
In 1967, the State of Israel took control of the entire Sea of Galilee, as well as the Golan, during the Six Day War.
Syria still claims the northeastern shore of the sea  , arguing it is a part of the Golan Heights.
Israel's National Water Carrier, built in 1964, takes water from the lake to the population centers of Israel, and is the source of most of the country's drinking water.
Israel also supplies water from the lake to the West Bank and to Jordan (under the terms of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace).
More demand for water and some dry winters have resulted in a lower water level that is sometimes dangerous.
Today, tourism is again very important in the area.
The entire Sea of Galilee is a popular holiday resort area.
The many historical and spiritual sites around the lake, especially its main town Tiberias, are visited by millions of local and foreign tourists every year.
Other economic activities include fishing in the lake and agriculture, particularly bananas, in the fertile belt of land surrounding it.
A key attraction is the site where the Kinneret's water flows into the Jordan River.
Thousands of pilgrims from all over the world come to be (re-)baptized there every year.
World Lakes Database entry for Sea of Galilee
Bibleplaces.com: Sea of Galilee
Dartmoor is a national park in Devon, a county in England.
Its highest point is High Willhays, 621 metres high.
This is the highest point in the south of England.
It has a large area of moorland, and is very hilly.
There is much woodland on its lower slopes.
Dartmoor is famous for its tors—outcrops of rock on top of many of its hills.
These are the remains of volcanic activity in the Carboniferous period.
Animal life on Dartmoor includes birds such as the ring ouzel and dunlin, and the endangered marsh fritillary butterfly.
Its bogs are home to many unusual plants such as the sundew.
Dartmoor National Park Authority
Ten Tors Official Website
Geography of England
National parks in the United Kingdom
Cirencester is a town in Gloucestershire in England.
People first moved there in Roman times.
It currently has a population of 19,000.
It is 93 miles west of London, and is between Swindon, Cheltenham and Gloucester.
Towns in Gloucestershire
Seppuku is a Japanese ritual where a samurai kills himself by cutting into his belly.
After one had done so, a second person would cut off his head.
It was thought that seppuku was an honorable way to die.
Sometimes, it is called hara-kiri, which is translated from Japanese as belly-cutting.
Seppuku first developed in the 12th century as a means for samurai to achieve an honorable death.
Swordsmen performed the ritual to avoid capture following battlefield defeats, but it also functioned as a means of protest and a way of expressing grief over the death of a revered leader.
Beginning in the 1400s, seppuku evolved into a common form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed crimes.
In each case, it was considered an act of extreme bravery and self-sacrifice that embodied Bushido, the ancient warrior code of the samurai.
There was even a female version of seppuku called “jigai,” which involved cutting the throat using a special knife known as a “tanto.”
Seppuku was a key part of bushido, the honor code of the samurai warriors.
It was used by warriors so that they would not fall into enemy hands and be shamed.
It was possible also that a samurai received an order from his master to commit seppuku.
Because seppuku was an honorable act, a warrior who was caught by the enemy was sometimes given the choice between seppuku and being executed.
If he chose seppuku, he could protect his honor.
Samurai women had to ask for permission to commit seppuku.
The main weapon used was the samurai's knife called tantō or the short sword, called wakizashi.
A samurai who wants to commit seppuku would take the weapon, open his kimono and stab the blade into his belly.
He would make a deep cut from Right to left.
An assistant of the warrior committing seppuku (called kaishakunin) would immediately cut off his head.
Seppuku fell out of favor with the decline of the samurai in the late-19th century, but the practice didn’t disappear entirely.
Japanese General Nogi Maresuke disemboweled himself in 1912 out of loyalty to the deceased Meiji Emperor, and many troops later chose the sword over surrender during World War II.
Perhaps the most famous case in recent history concerns Yukio Mishima, a renowned novelist and Nobel Prize nominee who committed ritual seppuku in 1970 after leading a failed coup against the Japanese government.
A sow bug or woodlouse is a small land arthropod (jointed-legged animal).
They are often confused with centipedes, millipedes or insects, but are actually crustaceans.
They have fourteen legs and breathe through gills.
Because of the gills, woodlice need water in the air around them.
They mostly eat dead plants, and are considered helpful, because they act as "garbage collectors."
Some species can roll up into a ball when in danger.
In such position, their hard shell faces out, protecting the softer parts of the body.
isopods
For the sports comedy movie, see Ladybugs
Lady beetles are the Coccinellidae, a family of beetles.
All species are protected by noxious fluids based on cyanide, and most have warning colouration, such as red with black spots or black stripes.
Coccinellids are found worldwide, with over 5,000 species.
Most species are insectivorous, feeding mainly on
the true bugs, the Hemiptera.
These are insects which feed on plants, such as aphids (greenfly) or scale insects.
Ladybeetle larvae are also voracious (greedy) eaters of greenfly.
Harmonia axyridis (or harlequin ladybug) was introduced into North America from Asia in 1988 to control aphids.
It is now the most common species there, out-competing many of the native species.
It has since spread to much of western Europe, reaching the UK in 2004.
Coccinellids are often brightly coloured to warn potential predators.
This phenomenon is called aposematism.
It works because predators learn by experience to associate certain prey phenotypes (appearance) with a bad taste or being poisonous.
Mechanical stimulation (such as a predator attack) causes "reflex bleeding" in both larval and adult ladybird beetles.
A toxin is put through the joints of the exoskeleton, deterring feeding.
This method works well: birds and cats seldom try twice.
Most people know lady beetles as small, round, red beetles with black spots on their backs.
In Europe, the most common lady beetle is seven-spotted Coccinella septempunctata.
Not all lady beetles are red, and not all red lady beetles have spots.
Some lady beetles are very small, black and hairy.
Lady beetles vary in color as red, orange, pink, or yellow with black spots.
They can also be black with red spots.
Some are missing spots altogether.
There are even a few kinds of ladybeetles with metallic blue iridescence, and some have checkerboard markings or stripes.
The (usually) black front part (pronotum) of the ladybeetle is the thorax and the head.
Life and food supply
Most coccinellids overwinter as adults.
In Harmonia axyridis, eggs hatch in 3–4 days from clutches numbering from a few to several dozen.
Depending on the supply of aphids, the larvae pass through four instars over 10–14 days, after which pupation occurs.
After several days, the adults become reproductively active and are able to reproduce again, though not late in the season.
On average, the lifespan on the lady beetle is 1-2 years.
It only takes about four weeks for the ladybeetle to transform from a tiny egg to an adult.
Some females can lay up to 1,000 eggs in one summer.
The ladybeetle may lay her eggs near an aphid colony, or on plants where the larvae will have a ready supply of food when they hatch.
Almost all lady beetles are insectivores: they eat other insects.
Many of these insects have soft bodies, such as aphids.
Even the larvae eat other insects.
Aphids are a huge problem for farmers and gardeners, and therefore a ladybug is a great help to the farmer.
Some species of ant herd aphids like sheep, and will attack a ladybeetle that tries to eat one of their aphids.
Lady beetles can typically be found on plant foliage located in areas the get direct sunlight.
They play important roles in keeping the diversity around gardens and forest under control through pest control.
Jessica Sickler created a research program called "The Lost Ladybug Project" to get families and children outside and looking at wildlife.
The team are able to keep track of what species of lady beetles are located in what regions.
Families are invited to join.
Louis Jay Pearlman (June 19, 1954 - August 19, 2016) was an American record producer and fraudster.
He was born in Flushing, Queens, New York City.
He used to live in Orlando, Florida.
In 2008, Pearlman was convicted and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.
He died of a stroke in prison in Texarkana, Texas.
Cited as Henderson 2006.
Cited as Pearlman 2002.
officialloupearlman.com
American fraudsters
The Thirteen Colonies were colonies in British North America in what is now the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.
They were founded for different reasons.
Some people thought that they would make a lot of money in new goods in America that could not be found in Europe, such as tobacco.
Others left to find freedom of religion or just to make a new start.
Some wanted to be in charge and to change things that they did not like back at England.
The first colony was Virginia, which was started in 1607 at Jamestown.
The last colony of the thirteen to be started was Georgia in 1732.
Virginia Colony
The colonies are often divided into three groups.
The northern group was called New England and included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
The South had large plantation farms that grew tobacco and later cotton.
Plantations were farmed first by indentured servants, who would work for a period of years in return for their passage to America and land.
They were later replaced by slaves.
The Middle Colonies had medium-sized farms.
They also had people from many different cultures with many different beliefs.
All three regions were tied to the "Atlantic economy".
Colonists built merchant vessels, and merchants traded slaves, agricultural goods, gold, fish, lumber, and manufactured goods between America, the West Indies, Europe and Africa.
After the French and Indian War, Great Britain made new taxes and other laws that angered some people in the colonies.
That led to a war between Great Britain and its former colonies: the American Revolutionary War.
Jamestown, South Australia
Holetown, Saint James, Barbados; sometimes called its founding name, Jamestown
Mount Olive-Silverstone-Jamestown, a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario
Jamestown, Ghana, a district of the city of Accra
Jamestown, County Laois
Jamestown, County Leitrim
Jamestown, New Zealand
Jamestown, the name of a former town on the edge of Morton Bay on Nevis in the late 17th century
Jamestown, South Africa
Jamestown, Rossshire, Scotland
Jamestown, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Jamestown, Fife, Scotland
Jamestown, Saint Helena, a harbour and the capital of Saint Helena
Jamestown, California
Jamestown, Colorado
Jamestown, Indiana, in Boone County
Jamestown, Elkhart County, Indiana
Jamestown, Missouri
Jamestown, New York, the largest American city bearing the name
Jamestown, North Carolina
Jamestown, North Dakota, the second largest city bearing the name
Jamestown, Pennsylvania
Jamestown, South Carolina
Jamestown, Tennessee
Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States
Jamestown Settlement, the living history museum reconstruction of the town
Historic Jamestowne, the archaeological site of the original town
Jamestown S'Klallam Indian Reservation, Washington
Jamestown, West Virginia
Jamestown, Wisconsin
James Town, Wyoming
Jamestown Township, Steuben County, Indiana
Jamestown Charter Township, Michigan
Jamestown Township, Blue Earth County, Minnesota
Jamestown Dam, a dam in North Dakota
Jamestown (horse), American Champion racehorse
The Indian massacre of 1622, often referred to as the Jamestown Massacre, in the Virginian town of Jamestown
Jamestown (video game), a video game developed and published by Final Form Games.
A stillbirth happens when a fetus (unborn baby) dies while still inside the mother or dies during delivery (childbirth).
It is said that the delivered baby is stillborn.
Stillbirth is different from a miscarriage because a stillbirth happens after the baby has been living inside its mother 20 to 24 weeks (depending on the country).
It is called a miscarriage if the baby lived inside the mother for less time.
nicotine, alcohol, or drugs taken by the mother during pregnancy
physical trauma
radiation poisoning
Rh disease
umbilical cord problems
The number of stillbirths in the United States is about 1 in 115 births, which is about 26,000 a year, or one every 20 minutes.
In developing countries, where medical care is not as advanced or good, the number of stillbirths is higher.
After stillbirth
The death of the baby is usually treated like the death of an older baby.
The family may have a funeral.
The body of the dead baby can be buried or cremated (burned).
In some places, there are special places for putting the bodies or the ashes of stillborn babies.
The mother may be ill.
Her body may be hurt from having the baby.
Legal definitions of stillbirth
In the UK, any baby that leaves its mother's body after 24 weeks and does not show any signs of life is called a stillbirth.
The mother or father must tell the government about the baby.
A Stillbirth Certificate is given to the family.
The United States does not have a formal definition of stillborn babies.
All pregnancies are legally called either: live birth, fetal death, or induced termination of pregnancy (abortion).
The law does not have a difference between a stillbirth and a miscarriage.
However, it is recommended to register infants who weighed over 350 grams or who lived over 19 weeks inside the mother before dying.
Footnotes and references
Pregnancy Institute founded by Dr. Jason H. Collins, OB/GYN specializes in umbilical cord research
March of Dimes: Quick reference and fact sheet
Investigating perinatal death: a review of the options when autopsy consent is refused.
Stillbirth at h2g2 - written by a bereaved mother
The Wisconsin Stillbirth Service Program (WiSSP), a branch of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Clinical Genetics Center.
One of the foremost authorities on the causes of stillbirth and responsible for many stillbirth evaluation protocols, including the widespread use of the Kleihauer-Betke test in deciding whether Rh disease is to blame for a stillbirth.
First-person story of one woman's journey through stillbirth
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.
They are the oldest continuous professional American football club in the United States, founded in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois.
They moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1960 before moving to Phoenix in 1988.
The head coach of the team is Kliff Kingsbury.
As of 2019, their starting quarterback is Kyler Murray.
Drew Stanton is currently the number 2 quarterback.
Arizona Cardinals play their home games at State Farm Stadium.
The Arizona Cardinals played in Super Bowl XLIII, but lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Totnes is a town in South Devon, South West England.
7,800 people live there.
It has many old buildings dating back to Tudor times, and it has the remains of a Norman castle.
The town stands on the River Dart, at the highest point reached by the tide.
Totnes is well known in Britain for its large New Age community, although some of these people are moving away from the town.
The town has many interesting shops selling health food and books, and there are also many art and craft shops.
A local legend says that Totnes was begun by Brutus of Troy after the Trojan war.
There is a stone in the high street called the Brutus Stone.
This is where people say he first stepped on British soil.
Totnes Museum
Totnes Community Magazine
Towns in Devon
A chiffon cake is a type of sponge cake.
It is a cake that is made using vegetable oil instead of butter.
This gives the cake a foam-like texture.
Because there is no butter in the cakes, they are more healthy but have less flavor.
Chiffon cakes are usually served by soaking the cake layer in a cake syrup (which is nothing more than 2 parts water to 1 part sugar) to provide it with moisture since it's dry in nature.
The chiffon cake was invented in 1927 by Harry Baker, a California insurance salesman turned caterer.
Baker kept the recipe secret for 20 years until he sold it to General Mills.
At this point the name was changed to "chiffon cake" and a set of 14 recipes and variations was released to the public in a Betty Crocker pamphlet published in 1948.
The Three Character Classic, Trimetric Classic or San Zi Jing (三字經, 三字经) is a written work from China.
Many people believe that Wang Yinglin wrote it during the Song Dynasty.
It is named Three Character Classic because each line has three Chinese words, which are called "characters."
It is often used to teach children how to say words.
Song dynasty Chinese text with English translation.
The Three Character Classic in Chinese with the Herbert Giles English Translation.
Another English translation.
Art films are a type of movie that is very different from the popular Hollywood blockbuster movies.
Art films have many other names.
Some people call them art movies, independent films, indie films, arthouse films, auteur films ("auteur" is a French word which means "author") or experimental films.
Art films are usually made by smaller movie companies.
These companies do not have much money compared to the Major movie studios large movie studios, for example, Paramount or Disney.
Art films usually have different plots (stories) than blockbuster movies.
They usually tell more creative or unusual stories than blockbuster movies.
Art films often show controversial or sad stories.
These types of movies may have sad endings.
They are sometimes hard to understand, because the movie may be about people's feelings, thoughts, or dreams.
For these reasons, art films are not shown in many cinemas or theaters.
They do not have large audiences and do not make much money.
They are generally promoted by word of mouth.
People see the movie and then tell their friends to go see it.
A comparison of an art movie and a blockbuster movie
The opposite of an art film is a popular blockbuster movie.
Blockbuster movies have famous actors and large budgets.
Some have expensive special effects.
They are made so that millions of people will pay money to see the movie.
Blockbuster movies are part of the reason why people make art films.
Movie directors making art films try to make them very different from blockbuster movies.
The movie is a more personal statement by the director.
Blockbusters are made for commercial reasons and art films are made for personal reasons.
The large budgets of blockbuster movies are not only to make the movie.
The money also pays for advertisements.
Art movies have small budgets.
They usually have unknown or little-known actors.
Some even use amateur actors.
Some art films will even use regular people with no experience as actors to work as the actors.
It is not uncommon for Art film directors to use friends and family members as actors.
Blockbusters often use simple stories and characters that have been used before in other movies.
Art movies usually use strange or unusual stories and characters that the audience may not have seen before.
In blockbuster movies, there is usually a happy ending.
All of the problems in the story are figured out or fixed by the end of the movie.
In art movies, there is often a sad ending.
They can also have endings which are either hard to understand or could mean many different things.
These endings are used so that the audience will have to think about what might have happened in the story.
Blockbuster movies have a large amount of television advertising, billboards and internet sites.
Art films often have little or no advertising.
Blockbuster movies are very popular.
This causes more movies to be made using the same story and characters.
For example, the James Bond movies all tell stories about the British spy named James Bond.
The Star Wars science fiction movies all tell stories about spaceships and outer space wars.
Art films are very rarely made into franchises with sequels.
This is because directors of art films are often trying to create a new movie with new ideas for each movie they make.
Some art films do have sequels.
This will most often happen when the movie was very well liked and the director wanted to tell more stories using some of the same characters.
Art film becomes Hollywood franchise
Rarely, an art film can be so well liked that a franchise is created because of it.