the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
In an ordinary atom, the number of electrons equals the number of protons.
If it has more or fewer electrons, it is an ion.
In addition, the electrons orbit in electron shells.
Each shell can only contain a certain number of electrons before new electrons must migrate to the next shell or "energy level."
Starting with the third energy level, however, electrons sometimes move up a level even before the current one is full.
The rule
Every atom tries to have 8 electrons in its outermost (or valence) shell.
This may require them to give up, share, or take electrons.
As stated above, the number of electrons normally equals the number of protons.
This means that some atoms are "happier" than others.
For example, neon, as with other noble gases, naturally has 8 valence electrons. (
10 total - 2 in the 1st energy level = 8 in the 2nd) Not surprisingly, neon hardly ever reacts with anything. (
Neon lights require high voltages to work.)
By contrast, the atoms in the Alkaline metals column, such as sodium, have only one valence electron, with a layer containing 8 electrons in the shell below.
This means that sodium only has to give up one valence electron in order to complete the octet rule, and will do so if given the chance, hence why sodium is so chemically reactive.
Dreieich is in the Rhine Main area.
Its northern urban district Sprendlingen is 10 km south of Frankfurt.
In the south it touches the City of Darmstadt.
The whole area of the town is 53.33 km2 large and it is 140 m above sea level.
About 35 to 20 million years ago in the Age of Tertiary the whole region was lying under sea level.
The city consists out of the towns Dreieichenhain and Sprendlingen and the 3 former independent villages Buchschlag, Götzenhain and Offenthal, all now urban districts of Dreieich.
On 1 January 1977 they were united and became the City of Dreieich.
The name Dreieich means three oaks.
This is a hint to the former landscape.
In the Middle Ages the Dreieich area was a huge forest with a lot of wild animals, where only the emperor had the right of hunting.
Neu-Isenburg (North)
Rödermark, Dietzenbach and Heusenstamm (East)
Messel (Darmstadt-Dieburg Rural District) and Darmstadt (South)
Langen (West)
In the 9th century the names of Sprendlingen and Offenthal were written down in documents for the first time.
But people think, that especially Sprendlingen is much older because of its name.
They say the name was given by the Alamanni, a band of west germanic tribes (see also: germanic peoples), which had settled in the area a long time before.
Formerly the people in the Dreieich area were mostly farmers and craftsmen but not tradesmen.
Montier-en-Der, France
Joinville, France
Bleiswijk, Netherlands
Stafford, Great Britain
Official website of Dreieich, looked up on 17 January 2010, German.
, looked up on 17 January 2010, German.
(Mapudungun for small forest ) is a city and commune of the central zone (centre part) of Chile.
It is the capital of the Province of Cardenal Caro.
The beach of Pichilemu is called one of the best beaches in the world for surfing.
The most famous beach in Pichilemu is Punta de Lobos, where competitions are often held.
The city has become a beach resort.
Promoucaes were the first people that populated Pichilemu.
They were hunter gatherers and fishermen.
José Toribio Medina did his first archeological investigations in Pichilemu, and he published in 1908 Los Restos Indígenas de Pichilemu.
He said there that Pedro de Valdivia gave land in what is now central Chile to Juan Gómez de Almagro on February 24, 1544.
Pichilemu was between the areas of the Palloquierbico, Topocalma, and Gulaquien.
The name Pichilemu comes from the Mapudungún words  (little) and  (forest).
Some of the first land owners of Pichilemu were the Ortúzar family.
Daniel Ortúzar is known as one of the founders of the original village of Pichilemu.
The family of Ortúzar Cuevas, from the San Antonio de Petrel Hacienda, made a mid-century maritime dock which was as a fishing port for some years.
They also built homes along the dock on what is now Ortúzar Avenue.
More recently, other large land owners are Pedro Pavez Polanco and the Hacienda of San Antonio de Petrel.
In 1891, during the Chilean Civil War, Daniel Ortúzar and the priest of Alcones were taken prisoners from Pichilemu through the dock.
During the war, the dock was burned down.
After the civil war, Pichilemu got its formal name and status.
President Jorge Montt and his Minister, Manuel José Irarrázabal, the city was officially established on December 22, 1891.
Pichilemu has become the historic capital of the province called Cardenal Caro which is named for the first Chilean Catholic Church Cardinal.
His father was the first mayor in the city.
Ross was very rich and based on his European background, he bought a 300-hectare piece of land and named it "La Posada" (), or Petren Fund, in 1885.
Ross designed an urban place of high environmental value and landscape, turning "La Posada" into a hotel (Great Hotel Pichilemu, later Hotel Ross, or Ross Hotel), and building a casino, embankments, stone walls, a balcony facing the beach.
Additionally, he built a park and a forest of more than 10 hectares.
Agustín Ross turned Pichilemu into a summer resort town for the people from Santiago.
Some of his buildings were named National Monuments.
Pichilemu is located  west of San Fernando, Chile and just east of the Pacific Ocean.
It is around a three-hour drive to the Andes Mountains.
It is also near the coastal mountain range.
Pichilemu borders Litueche to the north, Paredones  to the south, Marchigüe and Pumanque to the east, and the Pacific Ocean  to the west .
In the 17th century, Pichilemu had 1,468 inhabitants.
In 1787, Pichilemu had 1,688 inhabitants.
In 1907, Pichilemu had 7,787 inhabitants.
However, the city's population progressively decreased; in 1920, it was 7,424; in 1930, it was 6,929, and in 1940, it was 6,570.
In 1952, the city's population increased to 7,150 inhabitants; in 1992, that figure had increased to 10,510.
As of the 2002 census, 12,392 people live in the town.
The census recorded that 9,459 people (76.3%) are from urban places of the city, and 2,933 people (23.7%) are from rural places of the city, there are 6,440 (52.0%) men and 5,952 (48.0%) women.
The area of Pichilemu is .
According to the CASEN 2002 census, 544 inhabitants (4.4%) of the population of Pichilemu live in extreme poverty compared to the average in the greater Region of O'Higgins of 4.5%, and 1,946 inhabitants (15.7%) live in mild poverty, compared to the regional average of 16.1%.
The current Mayor of Pichilemu is Roberto Córdova.
The last popularly-elected mayor was Marcelo Cabrera, elected in 2008 with 42.08% of the vote, who served from May 2009 to August 2009 due to legal action.
The municipal council selected Córdova as the new mayor on September 9, 2009, almost a year after the municipal elections.
The current councilors are Aldo Polanco Contreras, Andrea Aranda Escudero, Viviana Parraguez Ulloa, Juan Cornejo Vargas and Marta Urzúa Púa.
Surfing is one of the tourist attractions, particularly at Punta de Lobos.
According to travel guide Fodor's,
Every October and December the International Championship of Surf takes place at La Puntilla Beach.
Punta de Lobos hosts the Campeonato Nacional de Surf () each summer.
Pichilemu has many dark sand beaches.
The water is cool year-round, though many tourists choose to swim during the summer months.
Bodyboarding, surfing, windsurfing, and kitesurfing can be practiced.
The beach that is farthest north is San Antonio Beach or Main Beach (), which is found in front of the Ross Park.
It is known for good surfing.
Las Terrazas Beach () is the busiest beach during the summer.
Many surf schools, La Ola Perfecta and Lobos del Pacífico, are found near the beach, as is the Caleta de Pescadores (), where fisherman sell their fish.
found at the south of the town and around the other side of the Puntilla, the Infiernillo Beach is found.
It is used for fishing.
At the south of Infiernillo, Playa Hermosa is found, which is great for walking and fishing.
Further south,  from Pichilemu, Punta de Lobos is found .It is an increasingly popular destination for tourists and specially for surfers.
Several surf contests are held there, including an international big-wave contest during the Chilean fall.
The size of waves varies throughout the year, but large swells in fall and winter can reach heights of up to 50 feet (15 metres).
It is widely considered one of the best beaches for surfing worldwide.
Pichilemu's official website
Queen of Sheba in the Bible
The Queen of Sheba appears in the Bible to King Solomon, because of the fame of his riches and wealth and wisdom.
She comes, "with a very great caravan - with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones - she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind" (1 Kings 10:2).
Solomon answered all the questions she asked; returned her quizzes and riddles with wit and correct wisdom; and was kind to her.
Awed and astonished by all these things, she rewarded his achievements with "120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones.
Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon" (1 Kings 10:10), and Solomon returned it by giving "all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty" (1 Kings 10:13).
BBC history of Queen Sheba
More information on Queen Sheba
The Cynodonts are a sub-order of the Therapsida.
Cynodonts, one of the most diverse groups of therapsids, are named after their dog-like teeth.
A true reflex is a behaviour done by the reflex arc.
This is the path the signal of a reflex takes.
That path is from the outside stimulus to the central nervous system (CNS), then the path from the CNS to the appropriate muscle.
The nerve cells responsible for reflexes are not always in the brain, but often in the spinal cord.
This way, reflexes are processed faster.
Nerve cells in the brain still get feedback that the reflex action occurred.
And, of course, reflex actions involving sight and sound are done by the brain.
With invertebrate animals, the brain is not so dominant, and more is done by local reflex arcs in the segments.
Reflexes may take place even after death.
The bite of a poisonous snake can be triggered up to several hours after it has died.
If the behaviour is complex, the stimulus is called a releaser, and the behaviour which follows may involve the whole animal for a long time in what is called a fixed action pattern.
However, this is not the usual use of the term "reflex".
It is studied in ethology because it usually involves two animals of the same species.
The word 'reflex' can also be used as a metaphor for something done quickly, without much thinking.
The Audi A3 is a car produced by Audi since 1996.
It is based on the Volkswagen Golf's platform, and it is currently in its fourth generation.
The first generation was produced between 1996 and 2003 with a 5-door added in 1999 and a facelift in late 2000.
The second generation was produced from 2003 to 2012, and was facelifted in 2005 and again in 2008 with a convertible version added.
The third generation was launched in 2012 with a saloon version added a year later.
It was facelifted in 2016, commemorating the A3's 20th anniversary.
In 2020, the fourth generation model launched, sold only with 5-door hatchback and saloon versions.
Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American former professional basketball player.
He most recently played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association.
Bryant played as a shooting guard.
During the 2005-2006 season, he scored 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors.
He is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
Bryant retired on April 13, 2016 after scoring 60 points in a Lakers win against the Utah Jazz.
He won an Oscar and Emmy for his movie Dear Basketball.
Bryant was born in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.
He is the youngest child of three children of his family.
His father was a basketball player and coach Joe Bryant.
Kobe Bryant won five championship rings from 2000-2002 and again in 2009-2010.
He was awarded the Most Valuable Player in the 2007-08 NBA season after the Los Angeles Lakers went to the 2008 NBA Playoffs as the first seed in the Western Conference was the winner of 18 times NBA all-star, 15-time member of the NBA, 12-time member of the all-defensive team and 1-time slam dunk champion.
Bryant earned 14 selections for All-NBA teams and 12 for All-Defensive teams.
He led the league in scoring twice.
He received 4 all-star game MVPs in 14 appearances.
He also won 2 finals MVP awards.
He was also the youngest player to reach 30,000 points, passing Shaquille O Neal and Michael Jordan and becoming third on the all-time scoring list.
Bryant is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players in NBA history.
Sexual assault investigation
In the summer of 2003, the sheriff's office of Eagle, Colorado, arrested Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by a 19-year-old hotel employee.
In September 2004, the assault case was dropped by prosecutors after the accuser refused to testify at the trial.
On January 26, 2020, Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California at the age of 41.
His 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Bryant, and seven others also died in the crash.
The Turks in Germany are the largest ethnic minority in Germany.
Most of these immigrants came from Turkey when Germany invited them to work as guest workers between 1961-73 due to labour shortages.
Some of them was of Romanlar Background.
Romanlar
Babenhausen is in the Rhine-Main area 35 km south east of Frankfurt.
The whole area of the town is 66,87 km2 large and it is 127 m above sea level.
The city consists out of the town Babenhausen and the 5 former independent villages Hergershausen, Harpertshausen, Harreshausen, Sickenhofen and Langstadt.
Rodgau, Seligenstadt and Mainhausen (North) (all Offenbach Rural District)
Stockstadt and Großostheim (East) (all Aschaffenburg Rural District)
Schaafheim and Groß-Umstadt (South)
Münster and Eppertshausen (West)
It is a Hessian dialect (German: Hessisch) spoken in the south of Hesse.
Today the dialect speakers are a minority and  the majority of them does not speak the real dialect.
Babenhausen and the former villages are early places where people lived.
In the time of the 7th to the 9th century new places to live got name endings like -hausen and -stadt.
But the names of the places were not written down.
In 1236 the name of Babenhausen was written down in a document for the first time.
About 50 years later it got the town privileges (1295).
During the Thirty Years' War the military made a lot of damages to the city.
Many people died because of diseases and hunger (Bubonic plague).
Formerly the people in the Babenhausen area were mostly farmers and craftsmen but not tradesmen.
In World War II Babenhausen was a central place for Russian soldiers, who where caught in the fights with the German.
They lived here as war prisoners and had to work for the German people.
After World War II it became a central place for Jewish people that were prisoners of the NAZI concentration camps.
Bouxwiller, France
Official website of Babenhausen
Alamosaurus was a long-necked, whip-tailed dinosaur.
It was about 69 feet (21 m) long and weighed perhaps 33 tons (30000 kg).
Fossils have been found in New Mexico, Texas, and Utah.
Fossils include fragmentary skeletons (and no skulls).
Skeletal elements of Alamosaurus are among the most common Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils found in the American Southwest and are now used to define the fauna of that time and place.
There was a climate change in this area, it became drier, and this caused changes in the fauna.
Thomas M. Lehman describes it as "the abrupt reemergence of a fauna with a superficially 'Jurassic' aspect".
These faunas are dominated by Alamosaurus and feature abundant Quetzalcoatlus in Texas.
The Alamosaurus  Quetzalcoatlus association probably represent semi-arid inland plains.p201
Computer Space is a video arcade game released in November 1971 by Nutting Associates.
It was created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who later started the company Atari.
This article is about iron the metal.
For the tool called iron, see ironing.
Iron is a chemical element and a metal.
It is the most common chemical element on Earth (by mass), and the most widely used metal.
It makes up much of the Earth's core, and is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust.
The metal is used a lot because it is strong and cheap.
Iron is the main ingredient used to make steel.
Raw iron is magnetic (attracted to magnets), and its compound magnetite is permanently magnetic.
In some regions iron was used around 1200 BCE.
That event is considered the transition from bronze age to iron age.
Iron is a grey, silvery metal.
It is magnetic, though different allotropes of iron have different magnetic qualities.
Iron is easily found, mined and smelted, which is why it is so useful.
Pure iron is soft and very malleable.
Iron is reactive.
It reacts with most acids like sulfuric acid.
It makes ferrous sulfate when reacted with sulfuric acid.
This reaction with sulfuric acid is used to clean metal.
Iron reacts with air and water to make rust.
When the rust flakes off, more iron is exposed allowing more iron to rust.
Eventually, the whole piece of iron is rusted away.
Other metals like aluminum do not rust away.
Iron can be alloyed with chromium to make stainless steel, which does not rust under most conditions.
Iron powder can react with sulfur to make iron(II) sulfide, a hard black solid.
Iron also reacts with the halogens to make iron(III) halides, like iron(III) chloride.
Iron reacts with the hydrohalic acids to make iron(II) halides like iron(II) chloride.
Iron makes chemical compounds with other elements.
Normally the other element oxidizes iron.
Sometimes two electrons are taken and sometimes three.
Compounds where iron has two electrons taken are called ferrous compounds.
Compounds where iron has three electrons taken are called ferric compounds.
Ferrous compounds have iron in its +2 oxidation state.
Ferric compounds have iron in its +3 oxidation state.
Iron compounds can be black, brown, yellow, green, or purple.
Ferrous compounds are weak reducing agents.
Many of them are green or blue.
The most common ferrous compound is ferrous sulfate.
Ferric compounds are oxidizing agents.
Many of them are brown.
The most common ferric compound is ferric oxide, the same thing as rust.
One reason why iron rusts is because ferric oxide is an oxidizing agent.
It oxidizes iron, rusting it even under paint.
That is why if there is a small scratch in the paint, the whole thing can rust.
Iron(II) compounds
Compounds in the +2 oxidation state are weak reducing agents.
They are normally light colored.
They react with oxygen in air.
They are also known as ferrous compounds.
Iron(II) sulfide, a shiny chemical that reacts with acids to release hydrogen sulfide, found in the ground
Iron(II) sulfate, a blue-green crystalline chemical made by reacting sulfuric acid with steel, used to reduce poisons like chromate in concrete
Iron(II) chloride, a pale green crystalline chemical made by reacting hydrochloric acid with steel
Iron(II) hydroxide, a dark green powder made by electrolyzing water with an iron anode, reacts with oxygen and turns brown
Iron(II) oxide, black, flammable, rare
These compounds are rare; only one is common.
They are found in the ground.
Iron(II,III) oxide, a black mineral, used as ore of iron, contains iron in the +2 and +3 oxidation state.
Iron(III) compounds
Compounds in the +3 oxidation state are normally brown.
They are oxidizing agents.
They are corrosive.
They are also known as ferric compounds.
Iron(III) oxide, rust, red-brown, dissolves in acid
Iron(III) chloride, poisonous and corrosive, dissolves in water to make dark brown acidic solution.
Made by reacting iron with hydrochloric acid and an oxidizing agent
Iron(III) nitrate, light purple, corrosive, used in etching
Iron(III) sulfate, rare, light brown, dissolves in water.
Made by reacting iron with sulfuric acid and an oxidizing agent.
Where iron is found
There is a lot of iron in the universe because it is the end point of the nuclear reactions in large stars.
It is the last element to be produced before the violent collapse of a supernova scatters the iron into space.
The metal is the main ingredient in the Earth's core.
Near the surface it is found as a ferrous or ferric compound.
Some meteorites contain iron in the form of rare minerals.
Normally iron is found as hematite ore in the ground, much of which was made in the Great Oxygenation Event.
Iron can be extracted from the ore in a blast furnace.
Some iron is found as magnetite.
There are iron compounds in meat.
Iron is an essential part of the hemoglobin in red blood cells.
Making iron
Iron is made in large factories called ironworks by reducing hematite with carbon (coke).
This happens in large containers called blast furnaces.
The blast furnace is filled with iron ore, coke and limestone.
A very hot blast of air is blown in, where it causes the coke to burn.
The extreme heat makes the carbon react with iron ore, taking off the oxygen from iron oxides, and making carbon dioxide.
The carbon dioxide is a gas and it leaves the mix.
There is some sand in with the iron.
The limestone, which is made of calcium carbonate, turns into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide when the limestone is very hot.
The calcium oxide reacts with the sand to make a liquid called a slag.
The slag is drained, leaving only the iron.
The reaction will leave pure liquid iron in the blast furnace, where it can be shaped and hardened after cooling down.
Almost all ironworks are today part of steel mills, and almost all iron is made into steel.
There are many ways to work iron.
Iron can be hardened by heating a piece of metal and splashing it into cold water.
It can be softened by heating it and allowing it to slowly cool.
It can also be stamped by a heavy press.
It can be pulled into wires.
It can be rolled to make sheet metal.
Iron is used more than any other metal.
It is strong and cheap.
It is used to make buildings, bridges, nails, screws, pipes, girders, and towers.
Iron is not very reactive, so it is both easy and cheap to extract from ores.
It is very strong once made into steel, and is used to reinforce concrete.
There are different types of iron.
Cast iron is iron made by the way described above in the article.
It is hard and brittle.
It is used to make things like storm drain covers, manhole covers, and engine blocks (the main part of an engine).
Steel is the most common form of iron.
Steels come in several forms.
Mild steel is steel with a low percentage of carbon.
It is soft and easily bent, but it does not crack easily.
It is used for nails and wires.
Carbon steel is harder but more brittle.
It is used in tools.
There are other types of steel.
Stainless steel, because of the chromium content, is rust resistant, and nickel-iron alloys can remain strong at high temperatures.
Other steels can be very hard, depending on the alloys added.
Very pure iron is soft, and can rust (oxidize) easily.
It is also fairly reactive.
As compounds
Iron compounds are used for several things.
Iron(II) chloride is used to make water clean.
Iron(III) chloride is also used.
Iron(II) sulfate is used to reduce chromates in cement.
Some iron compounds are used in vitamins.
Human bodies need iron to help oxygen get to our muscles, because it is at the heart of some essential macromolecules such as hemoglobin.
Many cereals have some added iron (the element metal iron).
It is added to cereal in the form of tiny metal filings.
It is even possible to see the slivers sometimes by taking an extremely strong magnet and putting it into the box.
The magnet will attract these pieces of iron.
Eating these small metal shavings are not harmful to our body.
Iron is most available to the body when added to amino acids – iron in this form is ten to fifteen times more digestible than than it is as an element.
Iron is also found in meat, for example steak.
Iron provided by diet supplements is in the form of a chemical, such as Iron(II) sulfate, which is cheap and is absorbed well.
The body will not take up more iron than it needs, and it usually needs very little.
The iron in red blood cells is recycled by a system which breaks down old cells.
Loss of blood by injury or parasite infection may be more serious.
Iron is toxic when large amounts are taken into the body.
When too many iron pills are taken, people (especially children) get sick.
Also, there is a genetic disorder which damages the regulation of iron levels in the body.
Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister) is a weekly event in the British Parliament.
It is a chance for the Leader of the Opposition and other Members of Parliament to ask the Prime Minister questions.
Until 1997 there were two short PMQs each week.
Now there is one longer event, which is on a Wednesday.
It can often be a loud and rowdy event with lots of MPs shouting.
Once Michael Heseltine grabbed the mace and waved it around his head.
The Leader of  the Opposition is the name given to the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of  parliamentary government.
The Leader of the Opposition is often seen as the alternative Prime Minister, Premier or Chief Minister.
They lead an alternative government known as the Shadow Cabinet  or Opposition Front Bench.
In  many Commonwealth realms the full title is Leader of Her  Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
This is not used in Australia.
It is the duty of the Opposition party to ask questions to the Prime Minister or other ministers during Question Time.
Leader of the Opposition (Australia)
Leader of the Opposition (Australian Capital Territory)
Leader of the Opposition (New South Wales)
Leader of the Opposition (Northern Territory)
Leader of the Opposition (Queensland)
Leader of the Opposition (South Australia)
Leader of the Opposition (Tasmania)
Leader of the Opposition (Victoria)
Leader of the Opposition (Western Australia)
Leader of the Opposition (Canada)
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Canada)
Leader of the Opposition (Alberta)
Leader of the Opposition (British Columbia)
Leader of the Opposition (Manitoba)
Leader of the Opposition (New Brunswick)
Leader of the Opposition (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Leader of the Opposition (Nova Scotia)
Leader of the Opposition (Ontario)
Leader of the Opposition (PEI)
Leader of the Official Opposition (Quebec)
Leader of the Opposition (Saskatchewan)
Leader of the Opposition (Yukon)
Leader of the Opposition (Dominica)
Leader of the Opposition (Fiji)
Leader of the Opposition (India)
Leader of the Opposition (Malaysia)
Leader of the Opposition (Malta)
Leader of the Opposition (Pakistan)
Leader of the Opposition (Sri Lanka)
Leader of the Opposition (South Africa)
Leader of the Opposition (Thailand)
The age of the Earth is estimated at a little over 4.5 billion years.
Working this out was a difficult problem to solve.
For most of human history, the basic facts about the planet were unknown.
The problem was tackled by Earth scientists in the twentieth century.
Modern estimates are based on radioactive dating methods.
The oldest minerals on Earth – small crystals of zircon from the Jack Hills of Western Australia – are at least 4.4 billion years old.
Ca-Al-rich inclusions – the oldest known solid bits in meteorites formed within the solar system – are 4.567 billion years old.
This gives an age for the solar system and an upper limit for the age of Earth.
Early science
The first facts about the Earth were worked out by the Ancient Greeks.
A good estimate of the Earth's size was made by Eratosthenes (276 BC–194 BC), using trigonometry.
The first estimate of the Earth's age based on evidence was by Benoît de Maillet (1656–1738), a French diplomat, philosopher and naturalist.
He thought the Earth must have developed by slow, natural forces.
He studied geology in the field.
He could see signs of erosion on land and sedimentation in the sea.
He hid his ideas under the guise of a talk with an Indian philosopher, to avoid conflict with the Catholic Church.
His work stayed in manuscript until after his death, when it was published after its editor had made changes which damaged it.
Now there is a better modern edition based on the manuscripts.
de Maillet estimated that the Earth was older than two billion years.
He also recognized the true nature of fossils, and had early ideas about evolution.
In the last quarter of the 19th century there was a long-running debate on the age of the Earth.
In Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830–33), he showed that the Earth had changed slowly, and that what we see is the result of gradual changes.
This uniformitarianism clearly meant that the Earth was ancient, though Lyell did not try to work out how old.
His younger friend Charles Darwin believed this, too.
Darwin saw that if evolution had taken place, it would have required a long time.
Also, a huge amount of sedimentary rock lies between the early fossils in the Cambrian strata, and the present land surface.
Darwin and Lyell agreed that it would have taken a very long time for so much rock to be deposited.
In the first edition of On the origin of species (1859), Darwin had estimated that the erosion of the Sussex Weald must have taken 300 million years.p314 Both he and Lyell were surprised when the physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) said the Earth could not be as old as they thought.
He made the calculation based on how long it must have taken the Earth to cool down to its present temperature, given a starting point of 2,000oC. Kelvin's result was based on the idea that the near-surface geothermal gradient reflects the conductive cooling of the solid Earth.
He did this calculation a number of times, making various assumptions.
In 1862 his estimate was between 20 and 400 million years; but in 1866 he reduced the top estimate to 100 million years, and attacked Darwin and Lyle for not taking notice of his calculation.
We know Darwin was anxious and worried that this would not be long enough to allow for evolution.
Thomas Henry Huxley remarked that Kelvin's calculations were good, but his assumptions were wrong.
In 1897 Kelvin did the calculation one last time, and came up with 20 to 40 million years.
This, of course, would definitely not be long enough to allow for evolution.
Oliver Heaviside also disagreed, and proposed an alternative geothermal model.
Both Kelvin and Heaviside were eventually shown to be wrong.
Viscous mantle
Right at the end of the 19th century, someone realised that if the mantle was a highly viscous (sticky) fluid, that would make a great difference to the calculations.
In 1895, John Perry, a former assistant to Kelvin, produced an age of Earth estimate of 2 to 3 billion years old using a model of a convective mantle and thin crust.
In Kelvin’s model, heat on the Earth’s surface is derived from the cooling of a shallow outer crust, assuming a solid Earth.
But if the conductivity inside the Earth were much higher than at the surface, then the Earth's core and lower mantle would also cool.
This would provide a huge store of energy to the surface.
In that case, Kelvin’s estimate of the age of the Earth would be too low by many times.
"… much internal fluidity would practically mean infinite conductivity for our purpose".
We now know that the existence of a viscous fluid under a thin crust is a much greater factor than the discovery of radioactivity, which was the textbook explanation for many years.
The rediscovery and reexamination of Perry's work is quite recent.
In 1896 Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity.
In 1903, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity".
Eventually, it was realized that radioactivity was a major source of heat inside the Earth.p206 In 1921 came the first modern estimate, using radiometric dating.
It was based on uranium-lead dating: the rate of decay of uranium to lead in the crust of the Earth, by Henry Norris Russell.
He came up with 2 to 8 billion years.p27, table 3.1 In 1949, H.E. Suess estimated 4 to 5 billion years, based on a whole array of radioactive isotopes.
This is close to the time we estimate today, which has been refined further to about 4,560 million years.
The calculation makes use of convection in a viscous fluid as well as radioactivity, so it combines Perry's idea with the effect of radioactivity, even though Perry's contribution had been forgotten.
The later knowledge of plate tectonics made it quite certain that the lower mantle was a viscous fluid.
The formation and evolution of the Solar System is estimated to have begun 4.568 billion years ago with the gravitational collapse of a small part of a giant molecular cloud.
Basically, the whole system developed in the same period of time.
Use of the scientific method assumes uniformitarian methods for calculating Earth's age.
The Hindu religion comes closest to the present-day scientific estimate.
Some Christians and Jews believe the Genesis creation narrative is literally true, which would mean that the Earth was created between 5000 and 10,000 years ago, and the methods used to calculate age have not been consistent throughout Earth's history.
However, these days most people think such questions are best answered by scientific methods.
Age of the Earth -Citizendium
Angara is a family of rockets which are being developed in Russia.
The family contains many different rockets.
For example, there is a rocket for lifting small payloads and a rocket for lifting heavy payloads.
The rockets are designed by a company called Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.
The first rocket is expected to be ready in 2012.
Angara is being developed using money given by the Russian government.
The government decided to finance Angara because they wanted to make sure that Russia has independent access to space.
Many of Russia's current rockets can only be launched from Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakshtan.
Many of them also use foreign technology.
However, Angara is better since it does not use any foreign technology (it is 100% Russian) and can be launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, located in Russian territory.
Another reason why it was decided to build Angara is because Russia needed a rocket which does not use toxic fuels, like some current rockets do.
The first part of all Angara rockets consists of an engine called Universal Rocket Module (in short: URM).
The small version, Angara 1.1 has only one URM, while the heavier Angara 5 has 5 URMs.
For this reason, Angara 5 can lift heavier payloads.
The second part (called the second stage) of Angara 1.1 is called Briz-KM and the second stage of Angara 5 is called Block I.
The rockets are meant for launching unmanned payloads such as satellites.
However, Khrunichev has also suggested building a version that could launch humans into space: Angara 5P.
The first flight of Angara is expected to take place in 2012 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
In the future, the flights on Angara rockets will be sold to other companies, who want to get their satellites into space.
The price for an Angara 1.1 flight is expected to be about 20 million dollars.
Samsara is a Buddhist term, meaning the conditioned state of mind.
It is the cycle of ignorance, leading to disturbing emotions and clumsy actions.
They in turn are cause for suffering and new disturbing feelings and so on.
According to Buddha’s teachings there are three main disturbing feelings: ignorance, anger and desire.
They are called three poisons of mind and are told to have 84 000 combinations.
The only way to completely get rid of suffering is to reach Nirvana or the perfect state of Buddha.
All the teachings Buddha gives lead to this goal.
The Six Realms
Hell or paranoia realm is connected with anger.
Preta or hungry ghost realm is connected with greed.
Animal realm is connected with ignorance.
Human realm is connected with desire and attachment.
Asura or Semigod realm is connected with jealousy and envy.
Realm of Gods is connected with pride.
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine CH PC (born 21 March 1933) is a British politician and businessman.
He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 as a member of the Conservative Party.
He was born in Swansea, Wales and studied at the University of Oxford.
He was briefly conscripted into the army, before becoming a self-made millionaire in the 1960s.
At the 1966 General Election, Heseltine became the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Tavistock in Devon.
From 1970 to 1974, he was a junior minister in the government of Edward Heath.
From 1979 to 1983, he was in the cabinet of Margaret Thatcher as Secretary of State for the Environment.
He was Defence Secretary from 1983 to 1986, but resigned in 1986 and became a backbencher.
As a backbencher, Heseltine became very critical of Thatcher's government and refused to support the Poll Tax in 1989.
In November 1990, Heseltine challenged Thatcher for Conservative Party leadership and this led to Thatcher resigning, but Heseltine did not get to become party leader.
New Conservative Prime Minister John Major made Heseltine Secretary of State for the Environment (1990-1992), President of the Board of Trade (1992-1995) and Deputy Prime Minister (1995-1997).
In 2001, Heseltine stood down as an MP and entered the House of Lords.
He was considered to be one of Britain's top 200 richest people in 2004, owning a wealth of about £240 million.
Michael Heseltine, Raising The Sights - A Tory Perspective, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.91, no.2, Aug/Sept 1987 edition, London.
Julian Critchley, Heseltine - The Unauthorised Biography, André Deutsch, London, September 1987,
Michael Crick, Michael Heseltine: A Biography, Hamish Hamilton, 1997,
Michael Heseltine, Life in the Jungle, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, , written with the acknowledged assistance of Heseltine's lifelong friend Anthony Howard.
Politicians from Swansea
Geff Harrison (also known as Richie West, August 24, 1947, Manchester, United Kingdom), is an English singer-songwriter, mostly known for his bands King Ping Meh and Twenty Sixty Six And Then.
He created the band Modern Talking along with Dieter Bohlen.
Controversy with Dieter Bohlen
In January 20, 1986, Harrison filled a lawsuit against Dieter Bohlen claiming that he wrote English lyrics for Modern Talking and C.C.Catch, but the lawsuit was settled out of court.
According to the ruling of the court, Bohlen and Harrison created the group Modern Talking together.
James Phillip McAuley (12 October 1917 – 15 October 1976) was an Australian poet who also composed hymns.
He was a Catholic whose hymns were used in Catholic liturgy and now by other denominations.
McAuley was born in Lakemba, Sydney.
His first book of verse, Under Aldebaran, was published in 1946.
He died of liver cancer in Hobart.
Cancer deaths in Australia
Freedom of information is the right to freedom of expression on the Internet and other information technology.
Freedom of information is the ability to access the Web without censorship or restrictions.
Freedom of information is a human right recognised in international law.
Freedom of speech includes not only the text and pictures but also the means of expression.
Freedom of information may also refer to the right to privacy in the context of the Internet and information technology.
The right to privacy is a human right and freedom of information is an extension of this right.
Elijah of Tishbe is a person in the Abrahamic religions.
His name means "Yahweh is God".
He was a prophet in Israel in the 9th century BC.
He appears in the Hebrew Bible, Baha'i scripture, Mishnah, New Testament, and the Qur'an.
He is best known for being Israel's most famous prophet, his brave challenge to Baal's prophets on Mt. Carmel, and going up to heaven in a whirlwind.
The Widow At Zarephath
Elijah went to the king, Ahab, who rejected God because of his even more sinful wife, Jezebel of Tyre, who stood as a symbol of Israel's unfaithfulness.
He went to Ahab and God said through his lips (1 Kings chapter 17, NIV), "As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word."
But then the brook dried up because of so little rain, and Elijah received the message from the Lord: "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.
I have commanded a widow in the place to supply you with food" (1 Kings 17:9).
But when he called her and requested her to get himself some jar in a water and bread, she objected, (1 Kings 17:12) "As surely as the Lord your God lives, I don't have any bread - only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.
I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it - and die."
Then Elijah said to the widow, "Don't be afraid.
Go home and do as you have said.
But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.
For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up nd the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.'"
So the widow did as Elijah told her to do, and there was enough food in the widow's house for everybody.
But then the son of the widow grew ill.
He finally, after growing more and more worse, stopped breathing.
The widow became so very worried, and called Elijah--"What do you have against me, man of God?
Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"
And Elijah replied, "Give me your son."
He took him and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.
Then he cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?"
Then he stretched himself upon the boy three times (probably to give to the boy his body warmth, though his prayer shows that he expected the life of the child to come back as an answer to prayer, not by physical touch), and cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him!"
And the boy returned to life, making the woman admit that Elijah is "a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth": a confession the Lord's own people Israel had not made.
This is the first example of raising the dead in the Bible.
Obadiah and Ahab
Then Elijah went to "present himself to Ahab" as the Lord commanded him to, and he met Obadiah, the honorable man who had kept loyal to the Lord and had hidden 100 priests of God that King Ahab had tried to kill.
Obadiah recognized Elijah and respectfully bowed down to the ground, exclaiming, "Is it really you, my lord Elijah?"
Elijah replied yes, and ordered him to go and tell Ahab that he is here.
Obadiah refused, crying, "What have I done you wrong that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?"
and declaring how he had "hid a hundred of the Lord's prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water."
and that if Ahab came and saw that Elijah was gone and not here, he would surely kill him.
So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
They argued, and Elijah told Ahab to "summon the people from all over Israel" to meet him on the Mount Carmel, and to "bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table".
And surprisingly, Ahab obeyed him.
Then, when all the Israelis and prophets of Baal were summoned, they prepared two altars - one for Elijah, and for the Lord the God of Israel - and one for the priests of Baal.
Then Elijah went to the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions?
If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him."
but the people did nor say anything, so he continued: "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.
Get two bulls for us.
Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.
I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.
Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord.
The god who answers by fire--he is the God." (
1 Kings 18:20)
The people agreed to this, and they did as Elijah said.
Then the priests of Baal all prepared the bull, and called to Baal all morning till noon. "
O Baal, answer us!"
but the so-called "Baal" made no reply at all - and the prophets grew weary and discouraged.
Elijah, however, was pleased, and he teased them (1 King 18:27), "Shout louder!
Surely he is a god!
Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling.
Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened."
So they shouted even louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears wildly, as was their custom, until the blood flowed from their wounds.
After midday passed, it was Elijah's turn - and nobody paid attention to the Baal prophets anymore - so he prepared the sacrifice, and ordered (1 Kings 18:33), "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood."
(verse 34) And he said, "Do it again."
and they did it again, and a third time, as he said.
Then, after there was so much water it ran down the trench, he stepped forward and prayed (1 Kings 18:36 to 37): "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.
Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."
Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
All the people were awed, and they "fell prostrate" and repented.
Then they all seized the prophets of Baal, as Elijah had told them to, and slaughtered them at Kishon Valley.
And Ahab went off to eat and drink as Elijah told him to.
Then, after climbing the mountain of Carmel and asking his servant seven times if he saw anything above the ocean, the servant answered him at the seventh time--"A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea."
And Elijah told his servant to inform Ahab to go home, because a big rainstorm was coming.
Ahab rushed into his chariot and raced home, but the "Power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel".
Elijah flees to Horeb
After that, Ahab told to Jezebel about what had happened about Elijah and how the prophets of Baal had been killed by the people of Israel.
Jezebel got angry, and sent a message to Elijah that "by this time of the day tomorrow" she would make his "life like that of one of them", referring to the prophets of Baal.
Elijah became scared, and ran away to Beersheba in Judah, left his servant there, and went ahead for a day's journey in the desert.
Finally, he came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die (1 Kings 19:4). "
I have had enough, Lord," he complained unhappily, "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."
And he lay down and fell asleep.
But the Lord sent an angel to wake him up and feed him some water and a cake of bread "baked over hot coals".
Elijah ate and drank and lay down again, and the angel came back again and woke him, and gave him more food.
Strengthened by that food, Elijah got up and traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
There he went into a cave and spent the night.
He replied not the answer to the Lord's question, but instead of how he had "been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty" and how the Israelites were being unfair to him.
The Lord told him to go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord.
Then the Lord sent a great and powerful wind, and an earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in neither: and finally he came in a gentle whisper, and Elijah went out, pulling his cloak over his face.
The Lord had tried to show him through all those winds and earthquakes and fires that the Lord was not always harsh, but was more gentle.
The Lord asked once again, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
but Elijah again ignored the question and complained about how he had been "Zealous for the Lord God Almighty".