the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
There were large Kurdish populations in the biggest cities (Aleppo and Damascus), and there were also Kurdish nomads (people with no fixed living place) and Yazidi Kurds on the hills of Jabal Sam'an.
The Kurds' lands were discontinuous and Kurdish populations were a mixture.
Kurdish refugees from Turkish Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan helped the Kurds become active in political work.
A political movement of "pan-Kurdism" (for all the Kurds) started to come into existence, together with different Kurdish identities.
In 1924, Kurdish delegate from the Kurd Mountains made a petition to the French Syrian government, requesting for self-rule in Kurdish-majority lands in French Syria.
In 1927, Kurds from Turkish land started Xoybûn in Beirut.
Xoybûn was an important pan-Kurdish political movement making early arguments for Kurdish nationalism.
Xoybûn supported a military resistance in Turkish Kurdistan, but in French Syria, Xoybûn worked for self-rule in Syrian Kurdistan.
Xoybûn were popular in Syrian Kurdistan and Xoybûn delegates were elected from Kurd Dagh, Jarabulus, and the Jazira in the elections of 1931.
The French government refused Xoybûn's requests for self-rule.
In 1936, the French government and the First Syrian Republic made an agreement on Syria's independence from France: the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence.
World War II meant that this process was not completed.
After the Battle of France, Nazi Germany occupied France, and Syria came under the control of Vichy France.
When Syria was captured by the Allies of World War II in 1941's Syria–Lebanon campaign, they accepted the Syrian Republic's independence and sovereignty (right to self-rule).
Xoybûn had worked all through the war, but they disbanded in 1946.
Syrian Republic (1946–1963)
Syria was given independence in 1946.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) was formed in 1957.
They were the first Kurdish national political party in Syria, and worked to better the lives of Syrian Kurds.
The KDPS did not request the independence of Syrian Kurdistan, and worked for a "Syrianized" agenda.
Oil was discovered in Syrian Kurdistan in the 1960s.
At the same time, events in Iraqi Kurdistan meant that the lives of the Kurdish population Syria became much worse.
In August 1961, the Syrian government ordered a special census of al-Jazira Province in November that year.
By the time the census was done, the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan had risen up to claim self-rule.
The census took away Syrian citizenship and civil rights from about 120,000 Kurds in al-Jazira Province.
The government decree (order) in August 1961 said that Kurds were "illegally infiltrating" from Turkish Kurdistan into Syria, in order to "destroy its Arab character".
The Kurdish lands in the Kurd Mountains were not changed by this census, and Kurdish people there kept their citizenship and were not made stateless.
In 1962 the Syrian government started the Arab Belt plan to "save Arabism" and stop the "Kurdish threat".
The Arab Belt plan was to move the Kurdish population away from the Syria–Turkey border.
In the Kurds' place, the government would move more Arabs onto the land.
The Kurds would be moved to other parts of Syria, away from one another.
The government's decision was made after the discovery of an oil field at Qaratchok, in the Kurdish Jazira.
Much of the land in the Arab Belt was fertile arable land (for growing crops) and had rich oil fields.
More than half (50–60 percent) of all the petroleum in Syria is near Derik in the Jazira.
Syrian Arab Republic (1963–2011)
Things became worse for the Kurdish population when the ultra-nationalist Ba'ath Party of Michel Aflaq took power by a coup d'état in Damascus in March 1963.
In November, the party published a pamphlet named Study of the Jezireh Provnce in its National, Social, and Political Aspects and written by the al-Jazira Province's chief of police, Mohamed Talab Hilal.
Hilal was an Arab nationalist, and said he used "anthropological" arguments to "prove scientifically" that Kurds "do not constitute a nation".
He wrote that "the Kurdish people are a people without history or civilization or language or even definite ethnic origin of their own.
Their only characteristics are those shaped by force, destructive power and violence, characteristics which are, by the way, inherent in all mountain populations".
Hilial also wrote in the pamphlet that "The Kurds live from civilization and history of other nations.
They have taken no part in these civilizations or in the history of these nations."
The Ba'ath Party's pamphlet had twelve plans to Arabize (make Arab) al-Jazira Province.
The planned steps were:
dispossession (batr)  the Kurds were to be moved off the land and made to live somewhere different
obscurantism (tajhil)  education of the Kurds was to be stopped, including teaching in Arabic language
famine (tajwii)  Kurds were to be taken out of employment
extradition  refugees from Turkish Kurdistan were to be handed over into Turkish custody
factionalism  arguments between Kurdish political groups were to be encouraged, to weaken them by divide and rule
the Arab Belt (hizam)  Arabs were to be moved onto old Kurdish lands, as the government had planned in 1962
colonization (iskan)  "pure and nationalist Arabs" were to be moved into Syrian Kurdistan so Kurds might be "watched until their dispersion"
the Syrian Army was to be sent to the lands in the Arab Belt, to help the government complete the plan
"socialization"  "collective farms" (mazarii jama'iyya) were to be built on the Kurds' old lands.
Arabs would be brought to live in them and given training and weapons by the government
"anybody ignorant of the Arabic language" was to be stopped from voting in elections or holding political office
Kurdish ulemas (Muslim religious teachers) were to be moved away to the south and replaced with Arabs
"a vast anti-Kurdish campaign amongst the Arabs" was to be begun by the government
Many of these steps were taken over the following years and the Arab Belt continued to be the government's plan.
The 120,000 Kurds of al-Jazira Province whom the government decided were non-Syrians could not get education or health care, and could not marry or vote.
They could, however, be conscripted into the Syrian military.
They could be sent to fight on the Golan Heights (lands fought over by Syria and Israel).
These Kurds were victims of the Arab Belt plan.
The government planned to move 140,000 Kurds off their land and move Arabs onto it.
In 1966, the government was considering doing the same in the Kurd Mountains. (
Like all of Syrian Kurdistan, the Kurd Mountains are on the Syria–Turkey border, and they are to the west of the areas first named as Arab Belt land.)
In 1967, the lands of Kurds in al-Jazira Province were nationalized by a law named the Plan to establish model state farms in the Jezireh Province.
This was a euphemism for the Arab Belt plan.
The Six-Day War meant that the plan was not fully completed.
Many of the Kurds did not leave their lands when the government ordered them to do so.
In 1975, the Syrian government built forty "model villages" in the Arab Belt area, and moved in 7,000 armed Arab peasant families to live in them.
The government built the "model villages" in an area stretching from Amuda to Derik, with some near Qamishli.
The government gave Derik (a Kurdish name) the new Arabic language name al-Malikiyah.
Water from the new Lake Assad flooded the lands of Arabs living in the Euphrates valley when Syria built the Tabqa Dam.
The Arabs whose lands were flooded were moved to the mostly Kurdish al-Jazira Province.
The Ba'athist government moved slowly, in order not to get attention from other countries.
The government suppressed Kurdish culture, harassed Kurdish people, and confiscated Kurdish literature and Kurdish music.
The government sent people in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria to jail for years for what the government said were "anti-Arabist" crimes.
Official government documents in Syria do not mention Kurds or other non-Arab people.
There were Kurdish people in the People's Council of Syria (the legislature of Syria), but the official identity was Arab-only for everyone in the Syrian Arab Republic.
Between 1965 and 1975, 30,000 Kurds left al-Jazira Province to escape persecution or look for work.
According to Kurds, the government took  of land away from Kurdish farmers in al-Jazira Province: the government was following Hilal's plan.
In the Kurd Mountains, the government's land reforms mostly redistributed land to Kurdish farmers, but in other parts of Syria, the government took many Kurds' lands and gave them to Arabs.
Even in the Kurd Mountains, which were outside the lands of the Arab Belt in al-Jazira Province, all schools taught in Arabic language only and Kurdish language was marginalized in public life.
In 1976, Hafez al-Assad stopped the Arab Belt plan going any further by not building any more Arab villages.
The villages the government had built and the Arabs the government had moved stayed where they were.
Kurdish music was again heard and official harassment became less intense.
The position of Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan was related to the changing political positions of Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In 1977, the government changed all Kurdish language place names in the Kurd Mountains to official Arabic language names, as in other parts of Syria.
The 120,000 Kurds whose citizenship the Syrian government removed in 1961 – and all their descendants – were not given official documents or passports.
The government was still conscripting these Kurds into the Syrian military in the 21st century.
Eastern Kurdistan or Iranian Kurdistan is the part of Iran inhabited by Kurds, or the part of Kurdistan that is within Iran.
Some of Iranian Kurdistan is in Iran's Kurdistan Province.
Iranian Kurdistan is next to the Iraqi Kurdistan.
Further to the west are Turkish Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan.
Eastern Kurdistan is the name for the western and north-western regions of Iran.
Iranian Kurdistan is between the central Zagros Mountains and the north-western international border of Iran.
The lands of Kurdistan Province, West Azarbaijan Province, Kermanshah Province, Ilam Province are part of Iranian Kurdistan.
The lands in parts of Hamadan Province where people speak Kurdish are also a part of Kurdistan.
The area of Iranian Kurdistan is more than .
There are important rivers and forests and Kurdistan.
At Kermanshah, there is an oil field.
Lake Urmia is a salt lake that is the largest lake in Kurdistan.
The mountains of Kurdistan have always been important for military strategy.
The northern and central Zagros Mountains are where two important trade routes of the Silk Road economic system passed through Iran.
The most common crops in all of Kurdistan are cereals and tobacco.
The most common livestock in Kurdistan are domestic sheep.
Farmers grow strawberries and other fruits in southern Iranian Kurdistan.
Saqqez can be one of the coldest places in all Kurdistan.
It can be  in the winter at Saqqez.
Iran has the second-largest population of Kurds in the world. (
Only Turkey has a larger Kurdish population.)
Kurds are the third-largest ethnic group in Iran, and only the Persians and Azerbaijani people have larger populations.
Iranian Kurdistan is next to Iran's international borders with Turkey, Armenia, and Iraq.
There are different estimates of how many Kurds are in Iran.
In the Routledge Handbook on the Kurds, scholars write that there are about 7 million Kurds in Iran.
The Kurdish population is about one tenth of Iran's whole population.
In The Kurds: An Encyclopedia, there scholars write that there are between eight and ten million Kurds in Iran.
The Kurdish population is between 11% and 15% of Iran's whole population.
Between five and seven million Kurds live in Iranian Kurdistan.
Most are Sunni, but about 1.5 million are Shia Kermanshahi Kurds, who have not interest in Kurdistan becoming independent.
Kurds in Khorasan
Not all of Iran's Kurds live in Iranian Kurdistan, and many Kurds live in Khorasan Province.
There are Kurdish populations in the cities of Khorasan, where there are many Kurdish villages spread over .
There may now be about two million Kurds in Khorasan, and many of them speak Kurmanji Kurdish.
Most of the Kurds of Khorasan live in villages, but there are also populations in Nishapur, Mashhad, Sabzevar, Quchan, Bojnoord, and Esfarayen.
In the past, the land of Kurdistan was in two parts.
From the 17th century, one part was inside the Ottoman Empire, and the other part was Iranian Kurdistan.
Iranian Kurdistan was inside Iran.
Many of the Kurds in Khorasan Province are descendants of the tens of thousands of Kurds whom Abbas the Great, the shah of Iran, moved from Iranian Kurdistan to the borders of Afghanistan and the land that is now Turkmenistan.
The government had moved many Kurds there in the 16th century, in order to make the Kurds fight against the Uzbek people who were then attacking Iran.
After the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911, the Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan's towns supported the new system of local government, but the Kurdish tribes in the countryside supported the shah (the king of Iran).
The armies of the Russian Empire took control of Iranian Kurdistan in World War I, during the Persian Campaign.
The February Revolution in Russia meant that the Russian provisional government no longer wanted to control Iranian Kurdistan.
Nikolai Baratov, a Russian army general acting for the government, made an agreement with the local Iranian Kurds.
They would attack the Ottoman army and help the Russians, and the Russian government would help set up an independent Kurdish state.
When the Ottoman Empire fell apart after World War I, the British Empire and the French Empire took parts of Ottoman Kurdistan.
Although the governments in Britain and France said that a Kurdish state could be set up in Turkish Kurdistan, they did not say that Iranian Kurdistan should join it.
Britain and France did not want to anger Iran, and they made no plans for Iranian Kurds to be part of a new Kurdish state.
Iran kept Iranian Kurdistan.
At a Kurdish congress, Sheikh Ubeydullah brought together Kurds from Iranian Kurdistan and Kurds from the parts of Kurdistan in the Ottoman Empire.
Sheikh Ubeydullah worked for the unification of Iranian Kurdistan with Ottoman Kurdistan, and for political independence in Kurdistan.
Iran's Islamic Republic stopped letting foreign scholars travel into Iran in the 1980s.
Because of this, people outside Iran do not know much about Kurds in Iran or about Iranian Kurdistan.
The Iranian government is fighting a slow battle with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK).
The fighting has increased in 2005 and takes place around the Qandil Mountains and the international border with Iraq.
The PJAK started as a branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from Turkish Kurdistan.
The United Nations says that the Iranian government oppresses Kurds in Iran.
The Iranian government assassinated Iranian Kurdish leaders living in Europe in the 1980s.
Asma Jahangir told the United Nations Human Rights Council that almost half of all the political prisoners in Iran were Kurds.
One fifth of all the people executed in Iran during 2016 were Kurds.
Languages and writing
Kurds in Iran speak a number of Kurdish languages.
Kurdish language is the most important sign of Kurdish cultural identity in Iran.
Kurdish is an Iranian language and an Indo-European language like the Persian language, but people that speak Persian do not understand Kurdish.
Most Kurds in Iran speak the Sorani dialect.
Kurds in the Kurdish cities of Mahabad, Saqqez, Sanandaj, and Marivan speak Sorani.
Kurds also speak Sorani in Arbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Kirkuk in nearby Iraqi Kurdistan.
In Kermanshah, Kurds speak the Kirmanshani dialect.
In the Lorestan area, the Lurs people speak the Luri language.
The Luri language has similarities with the Kirmanshani dialect.
Kermanshah is next to Lorestan.
Around the city of Paveh and some other towns, Kurds speak the Gorani language.
Poetry is important for Iranian Kurds, because their position is made difficult by the ideology and oppression of Iran.
The culture of Iranian Kurdistan is close to Iraqi Kurdistan's culture.
Modern Kurdish language poetry in Iranian Kurdistan came from the Kurdish poetry of modern Iraqi Kurdistan and from modern Persian language poetry.
The most important poets are Sware Ilkhanizadeh, Fateh Sheikh, Ali Hasaniani and Solayman Chireh.
After the Republic of Mahabad fell in 1946, three important Iranian Kurdish poets moved to Iraqi Kurdistan: Abdurrahman Sharafkandi (known as Hazhar); Muhammad Amin Shiekholeslami (known as Hemin); and Khalid Hisami (known as Hedi).
Iraqi Kurdish poetry was most important for Iranian Kurdish poets in the 1980s.
From the 1990s, newer poets like Azad Rostami and Behzad Kordestani used newer forms in their poetry.
Omid Warzandeh, Raza Alipour, Kambiz Karimi, Jalal Malaksha and Saleh Suzani are now among the poets of Iranian Kurdistan.
Some Iranian Kurdish writers have written novels which are important to Kurdish literature.
Writers have published novels in Iraqi Kurdistan as well as in Iranian Kurdistan.
Ata Nahayee, Qader Hedayati, Shahram Qawami and Kamran Hamidi are among these writers.
Many Iranian Kurds have worked to improve Kurdish culture in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, written works by Iranian Kurdish writers are very common.
Publishers in Arbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan make Sorani Kurdish translations of works written in other Kurdish dialects.
Most of the provinces of Iran on the country's international borders (with the inclusion of Iranian Kurdistan) have lower rates of literacy than the average for Iran.
Before Iran's Literacy Movement Organization () started, it was mostly madrasas and other Islamic schools that worked for the education of the population in Iranian Kurdistan.
These schools did not teach much science or technology, and the teachers taught religion and literature.
In Iran, literacy is a synonym for being able to read and write in the Persian language. (
Persian is the official language of Iran and the only language used in government schools.)
Because of this, many Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan cannot read or write in Kurdish.
Many Kurdish children do not learn Kurdish, and tutors and private schools are important in teaching Kurdish language and literature.
Although Iran's constitution makes Persian the only official language, it also makes allowance for other languages to be taught and published as a political right.
Until the 21st century however, there was a total ban on Kurdish in schools until the Ministry of Education gave approval to Kurdish language teaching in middle schools.
In 2015, the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology gave its approval to a Bachelor of Arts academic degree programme at Sanandaj's University of Kurdistan.
Many Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan follow the religion of Yarsanism.
About 37 percent of the two million people in Kermanshah Province follow Yarsanism.
There may be one million followers of Yarsanism altogether.
Around Kermanshah, some Kurds belong to Shia Islam.
There are Faili Kurds who belong to Shia Islam in both Iranian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan.
Starting in the 1960s, about 150,000 Faili Kurds were sent out of Iraq into Iran.
These Faili Kurds could not prove they had citizenship in Iraq because Faili Kurds in the past had not wanted citizenship in the Ottoman Empire.
Before the 1950s, there were many Jewish people in Kurdistan.
There were 19 Jewish communities in Iranian Kurdistan in 1948.
Most Jewish people left Kurdistan after that time, but there is still a population of Jews in Iranian Kurdistan.
Iranian Jewish Kurds were more integrated with local people than Jews in the rest of Iran were.
In the 1950s, there were 3,000–4,000 Jewish Kurds in Iran.
Most of the Jews in Iranian Kurdistan lived in the cities of Sanandaj, Kermanshah and Urmia.
Many of them were physicians or merchants.
After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, many Jews left Iranian Kurdistan.
There used to be many Christian people living in the plain around Urmia who belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East.
They were in a lower position in society than the Kurds, the Turks, and the Persians.
The plain of Urmia is one of the only places in Kurdistan where there is a large Christian population.
sv:Kurdistan#Kurdistans utbredning
John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is a Professional Football Manager and former  English professional football player.
Terry played as a defender and captained  Chelsea in the English Premier League and  the England national team.
John Terry is Manager of League 2 Side, Bristol Rovers.
Terry is known as one of the best defenders in the world.
He was voted best defender in the UEFA Champions League in 2005.
He was also the only English player to be named in the group of best players for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
He wears the number 26 shirt for Chelsea and the number 6 shirt for England.
Terry missed the penalty which could have won the Champions League 2008.
He slipped when he was taking the penalty, giving Manchester United the title.
Terry was a Chelsea Youth player.
Before he became a defender he was a midfielder in 1992.
To help Terry get some first team experience he was loaned out to Nottingham Forest in 2000 until 2002, when he came back to Chelsea.
Terry is married to his childhood sweetheart Toni Poole, who supported him financially when he was a Chelsea F.C trainee.
They married on 15 June 2007, in Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
They have twins, Georgie and Summer, born in 2006.
|1998/99||rowspan="2"|Chelsea||rowspan="2"|Premier League||2||0||3||0||1||0||1||0||6||0
|1999/00||4||0||4||1||1||0||colspan="2"|-||9||1
|1999/00||Nottingham Forest||First Division||6||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||6||0
|2000/01||rowspan="10"|Chelsea||rowspan="10"|Premier League|||22||1||3||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||26||1
|2001/02||33||1||5||2||5||0||4||1||47||4
|2002/03||20||3||5||2||3||0||1||1||29||6
|2003/04||33||2||3||1||2||0||13||0||51||3
|2004/05||36||3||1||1||5||0||11||4||53||8
|2005/06||36||4||4||2||1||1||8||0||49||7
|2006/07||28||1||4||0||2||0||10||0||46||1
|2007/08||23||1||2||0||2||0||10||0||37||1
|2008/09||34||1||2||0||1||0||11||2||48||3
|2006||14||2
Total||58||6
"Umbrella" is a song by Barbadian singer Rihanna and features American rapper Jay-Z. It is the lead single from Rihanna's  third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad.
It was written by Jay-Z, Terius Nash and Christopher Stewart.
It was released on March 29, 2007 as a single and digital download.
It was very successful worldwide reaching number one in numerous countries.
The song is 4 minutes and 35 seconds long.
Background and single release
The songwriters of "Umbrella" offered the song to a number of labels before Rihanna finally accepted and recorded it.
The song was first offered by Britney Spears but she turned it down.
Although it was released officially on March 29, 2007, it was released in some parts of the United States on March 28.
In the United Kingdom, the single was released as a digital download on May 14 and as a physical single on May 28.
The music video for "Umbrella" was directed by Chris Applebaum on April 13, 2007.
It premiered on April 26 at the thisisrihanna.com website.
The video was released on May 11, and reached the number one spot for eight weeks.
The video features Jay-Z rapping in the beginning while in a rain of sparks.
Rihanna is then shown singing in a steamy place.
In the first chorus, Rihanna walks around en pointe while in the rain.
In the second verse, she is seen dancing with an umbrella in a different place.
Later, she is painted silver and posing in several positions while nude.
At the end of the video, Rihanna is again dancing with an umbrella while in a shower of sparks falling like rain.
A number of remixes were made for the song.
Lil' Mama is featured in one remix.
Chris Brown performed an answer song with different lyrics, called "Cinderella."
Chart performance
"Umbrella" reached the number one spot in a number of countries.
It topped the charts in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Norway and Switzerland at the same time.
It peaked at the top spot in the United Kingdom for ten weeks in a row from May 20 to July 29, 2007.
It was the longest running number one song since "Love Is All Around" by Wet Wet Wet in 1994 (that song spent 15 weeks).
It was knocked off the number one spot in the UK by Timbaland's "The Way I Are".
The song's reign at number one in the UK happened when the country was hit by extreme rainfall and flooding, which led some people to jokingly suggest the two events were related, calling it the "Rihanna Curse".
Interestingly in Greece (the single's worst performing market) "Umbrella" was released at a time when people were suffering through a summer of several heatwaves topping 45C/113F and the worst forest fires of modern history, killing 60.
The song only reached number fourteen in the Greek singles chart.
"Umbrella" on YouTube
Rihanna songs
Jay-Z songs
Hip hop songs
R&B songs
| name              = Shirley MacLaine
| birthname         = Shirley MacLean Beaty
| birth_place        = Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
| nationality       = American
| residence         =
| image             = Shirley MacLaine (2005).jpg
| caption           = Shirley MacLaine at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, photo by Tony Shek
| academyawards     = Best Actress1983 Terms of Endearment
| emmyawards        = Outstanding Special - Comedy-Variety or Music1976 Gypsy in My Soul
| goldenglobeawards = Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy1961 The Apartment1964 Irma la Douce Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama1984 Terms of Endearment1989 Madame SousatzkaCecil B. DeMille Award1998 Lifetime Achievement
| baftaawards       = Best Actress1960 Ask Any Girl1961 The Apartment''
| spouse            = Steve Parker(m.
1954-1982, divorced)
| children          = Sachi Parker
| relatives         = Warren Beatty (brother)Annette Bening(sister-in-law)
}}Shirley MacLaine''' (born April 24, 1934) is an American movie and theatre actress.
She is famous for her acting as well as her strong belief in reincarnation.
She is the writer of a many autobiographical works, some about her New Age beliefs, as well as her Hollywood career.
She is the older sister of Warren Beatty.
She won the Academy Award for "Best Actress" in 1983, and has also received many other awards, including the Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards.
MacLaine's official website
Shirley MacLaine interviewed by Ginny Dougary  (2005)
Actors from Richmond, Virginia
A British crown dependency is a special type of state.
The head of state is the British monarch, who is represented by a Lieutenant-Governor.
Each dependency has a parliament, government and prime minister to make all laws, except laws about defence and foreign affairs.
Defence and foreign affairs are looked after by the British Government.
The Isle of Man,
The Bailiwick of Jersey, and
The Lieutenancies Act sets out the areas in which Lords-Lieutenant work in Great Britain.
It came into force on 1 July 1997.
These areas are usually called "ceremonial counties" or "preserved counties" in Wales.
In Scotland a Statutory Instrument (rule written by a minister) defines the size of the lieutenancy.
They are usually one local council area, but some council areas are too small or to large for one Lord Lieutenant.
Text of the act
1997 in the United Kingdom
A meristem is a tissue in plants made of dividing cells.
They are in parts of the plant where growth can take place.
Plant cells which are differentiated generally cannot divide or produce cells of a different type.
Therefore, cell division in the meristem is necessary to get new cells.
This allows for the growth of tissues and new organs needed by the plant.
Meristematic cells have the same function for plants as stem cells have for animals.
They are incompletely or not at all differentiated, and are capable of continued cell division.
The cells are small and protoplasm fills the cell completely.
The vacuoles are extremely small.
The cytoplasm does not contain plastids (such as chloroplasts, but they are there in rudimentary form ('proplastids').
Meristematic cells are packed closely together without intercellular cavities.
The cell wall is a very thin primary cell wall.
Apical meristem
It begins growth of new cells in young seedlings at the tips of roots and shoots (forming buds, among other things).
Specifically, an active apical meristem lays down a growing root or shoot behind itself, pushing itself forward.
Apical meristems are very small, compared to the cylinder-shaped lateral meristems.
Primary meristems
Protoderm – around the outside of the stem and develops into the epidermis.
Procambium – just inside of the protoderm and develops into primary xylem and primary phloem.
It also produces the vascular cambium, a secondary meristem.
Ground meristem develops into the pith.
It produces the cork cambium, another secondary meristem.
Secondary meristems
These meristems cause secondary growth, or an increase in width.
There are two types of secondary meristems:
Vascular cambium – produces secondary xylem and secondary phloem, which may continue through the life of the plant.
It is what gives rise to wood in plants.
Such plants are called arborescent.
It does not occur in plants which do not go through secondary growth, that is, herbaceous plants.
Cork cambium – gives rise to the bark of a tree.
Neil A. Campbell and Jane B. Reece Biology, 6th edition.
Benjamin Cummings.
Schoof et al.
The stem cell population of Arabidopsis shoot meristems is maintained by a regulatory loop between CLAVATA and WUSCHEL genes.
Cell 100: 635-644.
Research on meristems: meristemania.org
The vascular cambium is a  meristem.
It is the source of both the secondary xylem (inwards, towards the pith) and the secondary phloem (outwards), and  is between these tissues in the stem and root.
Only a few leaves even have a vascular cambium.
Vascular cambium is a type of meristem - a tissue consisting of embryonic (not specialized) cells which can produce other (and more differentiated) plant tissues originate.
Primary meristems are the apical meristems on root tips and shoot tips.
Another lateral meristem is the cork cambium, which produces cork, part of the bark.
wood cambium
main cambium
bifacial cambium
Pictures of  Vascular cambium
Detailed description - James D. Mauseth
The cork cambium is a lateral meristem and is responsible for secondary growth that replaces the epidermis in roots and stems.
It is found in woody and many herbaceous dicots, gymnosperms and some monocots, which usually have no secondary growth.
Cork cambium is one of the plant's meristems - the tissues that consist of embryonic (not specialized) cells from which the plant grows.
It is one of the many layers of bark, between the cork and primary phloem.
Commercial cork comes from the bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber).
Cork has many uses including wine bottle stoppers, bulletin boards, coasters, hot pads to protect tables from hot pans, insulation, sealing for lids, flooring, gaskets for engines, handles for tennis rackets, etc.
Many types of bark are used as mulch.
Junikka, L. (1994) Macroscopic bark terminology.
IAWA Journal 15(1): 3-45
Trockenbrodt, M. (1990) Survey and discussion of the terminology used in bark anatomy.
IAWA Bulletin, New Series 11: 141-166.
Cork is a material that is harvested for commercial use primarily from the bark of the Cork Oak tree.
As the cork is harvested.
Portugal produces 50% of cork worldwide.
Cork is made up of suberin, a hydrophobic substance.
Properties and uses
Cork's elasticity together with its near-impermeability makes it suitable as a material for bottle stoppers, especially for wine bottles.
Cork stoppers represent about 60% of all cork based production.
Cork's low density makes it a suitable material for fishing floats and buoys, as well as handles for fishing rods (as an alternative to neoprene).
Cork is also used in the manufacture of musical instruments, particularly woodwind instruments, where it is used to fasten together different segments of the instrument and make the seams airtight.
Since cork has suberin in its cell walls, this makes the cells consist of sealed elements.
And having sealed elements make it greater for acoustic insulation and even thermal insulation.
Sealed elements are capable of trapping and absorbing sound.
In short, suberin is mostly responsible for noise reduction!
Also, lignin is another constituent of cork.
It makes up about 22% of cork.
One study says that it’s also associated with soundproofing and thermal insulation!
The cork industry is generally regarded as environmentally friendly.
The sustainability of its production and the easy recycling of cork products and by-products are two of its most distinctive aspects.
Cork demand has increased due to a larger proportion of wine being sealed with cork rather than being sold in bulk.
Top quality corks are quite expensive, so many cheaper brands have switched to lower quality cork, synthetic plastic stoppers, screwcaps, or other closures.
Cork Board Sheets Information
Cork Information
Cork production
Cork Supply USA
Instituto de Promoción del Corcho, Extremadura (Spain)
The cork oak (Quercus suber) is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree.
It grows southwest Europe and northwest Africa.
It grows to up to 20 m, but in its native environment it is usually not that tall.
The leaves are 4–7 cm long, dark green above, paler beneath, with the leaf margins often downcurved.
The acorns are 2–3 cm long.
The tree forms a thick, corky bark.
Over time this bark can develop considerable thickness and this is harvested every 10–12 years as cork.
The harvesting of cork does not harm the tree and a new layer of cork regrows, making it a renewable resource.
The tree is widely cultivated in Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Morocco, France, Italy and Tunisia.
Cork oak forests cover approximately 2.5 million hectares in those countries.
Portugal accounts for 50% of the world cork harvest.
Cork oaks cannot legally be cut down in Portugal, except for forest management felling of old, unproductive trees.
Cork oaks live about 150–250 years.
Virgin cork (or 'male' cork) is the first cork cut from generally 25-year-old trees.
Another 10–12 years is required for the second harvest, and a tree can be harvested a dozen times in its lifetime.
Cork harvesting is done entirely without machinery.
The European cork industry produces 340,000 tonnes of cork a year, with a value of €1.5 billion.
30,000 people work at it.
Wine corks represent 15% of cork usage by weight but 66% of revenues.
Cork oaks are sometimes planted as individual trees.
So they provide a small income to their owners.
Hybrids with turkey oak (Quercus cerris) are regular, both in the wild in southwest Europe and in cultivation; the hybrid is known as Lucombe Oak Quercus × hispanica.
Some cork is also produced in eastern Asia from the related Chinese cork oak (Quercus variabilis).
Seed predation
In many different species of trees seed predation is considered a problem for the continued growth and reproduction of trees, in this case Rabbits are affecting the cork oak tree.
During the development of a plant species the seed / acorn stage in development is considered to be the most important yet most vulnerable stage.
The cork oak tree encounters many challenges during its seedling stage.
Predation from other species
Diseases and pathogens
Limited resources
Seeds are often found in the form of acorns that fall to the ground close by to the base of the tree.
Those acorns become the beginning development of new trees, which develop over time.
However many different species use those acorns as a source of food.
When rabbits are living in the same area as the cork oak tree seed regeneration is not affected in a negative way.
An acorn that has partial damage is classified as only having damage to the non-vital parts of the propagule.
Therefore, when the acorn embryo is damaged the development of the seed is negatively affected.
The affected development causes a difference in shoot and root biomass because the cotyledon is lost.
The cotyledon is a necessity of plants and in this case becomes the leaves of the plant.
In other cases it helps scientists determine which type of flowering plant it will later develop into.
The cotyledons are also an essential source of energy for the development of the seed and plant.
Community interaction
There are two common types of soil that are used in scientific studies, nutrient rich soil and nutrient poor soil.
The predation of the seeds is not as important as the nutrient level of the soil.
Different plants over time have adapted to grow in these different conditions over time.
The acorns of the cork oak tree have better regeneration and development in nutrient rich soil.
The smaller cotyledon acorns that grow in nutrient rich soil develop.
APCOR – Associação Portuguesa de Cortiça (Portuguese Cork Association)
Photograph of cork oaks in Portugal
Mancilla-Leytón J.M. et al Growth and survival of cork oak (Quercus suber) seedlings after simulated partial cotyledon consumption under different soild nutrient contents.
Plant Soil.
370:380-392.
Mancilla-Leytón J.M.  et al The impact of the common rabbit on cork oak regeneration in SW Spain.
213:1503-1510.
Oak, Cork
The acorn is the fruit of the oak tree.
It is a nut, and has a single seed (rarely two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell.
Acorns vary from 1 – 6 cm long and 0.8 – 4 cm broad.
Acorns take between about 6 or 24 months (depending on the species) to mature.
Acorns are one of the most important wildlife foods in areas where oaks grow.
Creatures that make acorns an important part of their diet include birds, such as jays, pigeons, some ducks and several species of woodpeckers.
Small mammals that feed on acorns include mice, squirrels and several other rodents.
Such large mammals as pigs, bears, and deer also eat large amounts of acorns: they may constitute up to 25% of the diet of deer in the autumn.
In some of the large oak forests in southwest Europe, traditionally called "dehesas", pigs are still turned loose in oak groves in the autumn, to fill and fatten themselves on acorns.
Acorns contain tannins, which are toxic to some animals such as horses.
The tannins can be soaked out, using water.
Nutrition Facts for Acorn Flour
Nupa Acorn Soup (Miwokan recipe)
Cooking With Acorns: A Major North American Indian Food
How to whistle an acorn
The president of the Republic of Belarus (, ) is the head of state of Belarus.
The office was created in 1994.
A president is chosen by other Belarusians every five years in a national vote.
Alexander Lukashenko is the only person who has been president.
List of presidents of Belarus (1994–present)
Politics of Belarus
The jays are several species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy birds in the crow family Corvidae.
Jays in culture
The word "jay" has an archaic meaning in American slang meaning a stupid or dull person, from which is derived the term jaywalking
Organizational symbols
The Toronto Blue Jays, a Major League Baseball team based in Toronto, Ontario.
Ericson, Per G. P.; Jansén, Anna-Lee; Johansson, Ulf S. & Ekman, Jan (2005): Inter-generic relationships of the crows, jays, magpies and allied groups (Aves: Corvidae) based on nucleotide sequence data.
Journal of Avian Biology 36: 222-234.
Jay videos on the Internet Bird Collection
Clubmosses are a group of plants in the Lycopodiophyta, which are the most ancient group of land plants.
The clubmosses are an order Lycopodiales, (or a subclass Lycopodiopsida).
A powder known simply as lycopodium, consisting of dried spores of the common clubmoss, was used in Victorian theater to produce flame-effects.
A blown cloud of spores burned rapidly and brightly, but with little heat.
Lycopodiaceae: the typical clubmosses.
Their spores are on a club-like structure.
Their typical chromosome count is n=34.
Huperziaceae: the firmosses.
Their spore-bearing structures are in the axils of unmodified leaves.
The family has a basal chromosome count of n=67.
The horsetails are a class in the Pteridophyta (ferns).
They were one of the most important plant groups in the Palaeozoic era.
For over 100 million years they were diverse, and dominated the understorey of late Paleozoic forests.
They are seen in the coal measures of the Carboniferous period, and some were trees reaching up 30 metres.
The group is now almost extinct, but one genus survives.
They are vascular plants that reproduce by spores and not by seeds.
The name horsetail arose because the branched species somewhat resemble a horse's tail.
Equisetum
Equisetum is the only living genus of horsetails.
The name Equisetum comes from the Latin (equus = horse; and seta = bristle).
The genus includes 15 species.
Horsetails are native on all continents except Australasia and Antarctica.
They are perennial plants, either herbaceous, they die back in winter (most temperate species) or they are evergreen (some tropical species, and the temperate species Equisetum hyemale, E. scirpoides, E. variegatum and E. ramosissimum).
They mostly grow 0.2-1.5 m tall, though E. telmateia can exceptionally reach 2.5 m, and the tropical American species E. giganteum 5 m, and E. myriochaetum 8 m.
In these plants the leaves are very small, in whorls joined together to make sheaths around the stem.
The stems are green and photosynthetic, also distinctive in being hollow, jointed and ridged, usually with 6-40 ridges.
There may or may not be whorls of branches at the nodes; when present, these branches are identical to the main stem except smaller.
A superficially similar flowering plant (Hippuris, "mare's tail", in the family Plantaginaceae), unrelated to the genus Equisetum, is occasionally misidentified as a horsetail.
UK National Collection - includes a taxonomic list of all known species and hybrids
The Wonderful World of Equisetum
Giant horsetails
HDRA organic weed management: field horsetail - includes occurrence, biology, persistence and spread, management and discussion
frr:Equisetales
Green algae are microscopic protists.
One can find them in all sorts of natural water: salt water, freshwater and brackish water.
The group is less used in classification today.
Although most are descended from a common ancestor, some are not.
Some of their descendants, the land plants are not included in the group, so the group is not monophyletic.
The green algae include unicellular and colonial flagellates, usually but not always with two flagella per cell, as well as various colonial, coccoid, and filamentous forms.
In the Charales, the closest relatives of higher plants, full differentiation of tissues occurs.
There are about 6000 species of green algae.
Many species live most of their lives as single-cells, other species form colonies or long filaments.
Euglena, a protist that includes a green alga within its cells
Green algae and cyanobacteria in lichens
Green algae (UC Berkeley)
Monterey Bay green algae
Brackish water (less commonly brack water) is salt water and fresh water mixed together.
It is saltier than fresh water, but not as salty as seawater.
It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers.
Technically, brackish water contains between 0.5 and 30 grams of salt per litre—more often expressed as 0.5 to 30 parts per thousand (ppt or ‰).
Thus, brackish covers a range of salinity regimes and is not considered a precisely defined condition.
It is characteristic of many brackish surface waters that their salinity can vary considerably over space and/or time.
The term brackish water comes from the Low German word Brack, which is a small lake made when a storm tide breaks a dike and floods land behind the dike.
Brackish water habitats
The most important brackish water habitats are estuaries, where a river meets the sea, mixing salt and fresh water.
The River Thames flowing through London is one of the most familiar of river estuaries.
Brackish seas and lakes
The Baltic Sea is a brackish sea adjoining the North Sea.
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest lake and contains brackish water with a salinity about one-third that of normal seawater.
The Caspian is famous for its peculiar animal fauna, including one of the few non-marine seals (the Caspian seal) and the great sturgeons, the source of caviar.
Important brackish bodies of water
Baltic Sea (the world’s largest pool of brackish water)
Caspian Sea (world’s largest lake)
Lake Charles in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA
Chilika Lake, Odisha, India
Pangong Tso (Lake) in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, India
The Burgas Lakes near the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
Kaliveli Lake, near Pondichery, India
Kerala Backwaters, Series of lagoons and lakes in Kerala
Lagos Lagoon in Lagos, Nigeria
Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Pulicat Lake, north of Chennai, India
The Rann of Kutch, on the border of India and Pakistan
Parts of the Rhône Delta, France: An area known as the Camargue
Amazon River, empties so much freshwater into the Atlantic Ocean that it reduces the salinity of the sea for hundreds of miles
Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland, USA
The Fleet lagoon, Dorset, England
Hampton Roads, Virginia, USA
Lower Hudson River, in New York and New Jersey, USA
Lingding Yang, Guangdong, the People's Republic of China
Port Royal Sound part of Beaufort County, South Carolina, USA
Saint Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers, the part downstream from Québec and Saguenay respectively
The Thames Estuary in South East England
Flagellates are cells with one or more whip-like organelles called flagella.
Some cells in animals may be flagellate, for instance the spermatozoa of most phyla.
Flowering plants and fungi do not produce flagellate cells, but the closely related green algae and chytrids do.
Many protists take the form of single-celled flagellates.
They are found in most lines of eukaryotes, and it is likely that all surviving eukaryotes developed from them.
Ciliate cells have many cilia, which have the same structure as flagella, but are smaller
It involves both energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Both resources help to stabilize and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Efficient energy use allows energy demand to slow so that rising clean energy supplies can make big cuts in fossil fuel burning.
If energy use grows too fast, renewable energy development will chase a receding target.
Likewise, unless clean energy supplies come online rapidly, slowing demand growth will only begin to reduce total emissions; reducing the carbon content of energy sources is also needed.
Neoprene is the DuPont Performance Elastomers trade name for a family of synthetic rubbers based on polychloroprene (polymer form of Chloroprene).
Neoprene was invented by DuPont scientists after Dr. Elmer K. Bolton of DuPont attended a lecture by Fr Julius Arthur Nieuwland, a professor of chemistry at the University of Notre Dame.
It is used in a wide variety of environments, such as in wetsuits, laptop sleeves, cars, bombs, electrical insulation, and car fan belts.
Its chemical inertness makes it well suited for industrial applications such as gaskets, hoses, and corrosion-resistant coatings.
It can also be used as a base for adhesives.
balls; diaphragms as in diaphragm valve
sheet: glove
foam: wetsuit; glove
adhesive: adhesive tape; liquid adhesive
Information about Neoprene at DuPont Performance Elastomers
Pioneer 11 (also known as Pioneer G) was a NASA space probe the second mission to visit Jupiter and the first mission to visit Saturn.
The space probe was launched on April 6, 1973 and flew by Jupiter on December 4, 1974 and Saturn on September 1, 1979.
The probe was last heard from November 1995 when the last communication between Earth and the probe ended due to power limitation and vast diatance.
Both Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 had plaques etched in gold.
The plaques were designed by a team lead by Carl Sagan to communicate with extraterrestrial life should the spacecraft come into contact with it.
Pioneer Project Home Page
Pioneer 11 Profile  by NASA's Solar System Exploration
Ted Stryk's Pioneer 11 at Saturn page
NSSDC Pioneer 11 page
Pioneer Odyssey, NASA SP-396, 1977 - This is an entire book about the Pioneer 10 and 11 project, with all pictures and diagrams, on-line!
Scroll down to click on the "Table of Contents" link.
Medical Tourism is when patients visit other countries for medical care.
The patients usually come from developed countries to find treatment at lower prices.
Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry.