the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
After a few months he was taken prisoner and executed by firing squad.
After he died, several other people, such as Vicente Guerrero, kept fighting against the Spanish until 1821, when Mexico became an independent country.
Hidalgo is remembered today as a great liberator in Mexico.
Mexican poets
People executed by firearm
1753 births
1811 deaths
[[File:Capital punishment in the world.svg|thumb|500px|
{{legend|#E0A040|Abolitionist-in-practice countries (have executed nobody during the last 10 years or more '  and   have an established practice of not carrying out executions): 28}}
Death penalty, a form of capital punishment, is when a government or state executes (kills) someone, usually but not always because they have committed a serious crime.
A crime that can be punished with the death penalty is called a capital crime or a capital offense.
Executions in most countries have become rarer in recent centuries.
The death penalty is a disputed and controversial topic.
About one third of the countries in the world have laws that allow the death penalty.
The United States, the People's Republic of China, Japan, Indonesia and Iran are examples of countries that have a death penalty.
Canada, Australia, Mexico and all members of Council of Europe are examples of countries that have abolished the death penalty.
109 countries have gotten rid of the capital punishment for all crimes.
Another 28 can be considered abolitionist in practice.
Countries are considered abolitionist in practice if they retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years or more.
Most of the countries that have a death penalty use it on murderers, and for other serious crimes such as rape or terrorism.
Other countries especially ones with Authoritarian or Totalitarian governments, however, also use it for smaller crimes like theft, drugs, or for saying bad things about the government.
Which countries execute the most people?
China (4000+) data not officially released.
Iran (at least 314+)
Iraq (at least 129+)
Saudi Arabia (79+)
United States (43)
Yemen (28+)
Oman (25+)
Sudan (19+)
Afghanistan (14)
China (1,067)
Democratic Republic of the Congo (100)
United States (68)
Iran (66)
Egypt (48)
Belarus (33)
Taiwan (32)
Saudi Arabia (29)
Singapore (28)
Rwanda (24)
Sierra Leone (24)
Although unconfirmed, Amnesty International also received reports of many hundreds of executions in Iraq.
A total of 557 people were executed in the United States between 1977, when the death penalty was reintroduced after a 10-year break, and 2000.
During this period, 20 states did not carry out any executions.
Here are the states with the most executions during this time:
Texas (239)
Virginia (81)
Florida (50)
Missouri (46)
Oklahoma (30)
Louisiana (26)
South Carolina (25)
Alabama (23)
Arkansas (23)
Georgia (23)
First countries to abolish capital punishment
*The Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, as part of the Soviet Union, reinstated capital punishment during the time of the Soviet Union.
Common reasons for execution
It is common to have people executed for crimes including murder, manslaughter and attempted murder, but there are also other crimes that carry the death penalty.
Some of these are:
Bank robbery (Saudi Arabia)
Kidnapping (India)
Treason (North Korea, India)
Trafficking with human beings (this is like slavery) (China)
General robbery if at least one person dies (America)
Rape (North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia)
Trafficking or possessing certain illegal drugs in a certain quantity (Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, North Korea and others)
Bribery and Corruption (China)
Piracy (North Korea)
Adultery (Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan)
Homosexuality (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan and Mauritania)
Prostitution (both prostituting oneself and forcing others to do the same) (Iraq until 2003, Saudi Arabia)
Apostasy in Islam (Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Sudan)
Witchcraft (Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
Treason (attempting to overthrow a government)
Espionage (spying)
Who may not be executed
According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that became valid in 1976, people that were not at least eighteen years old at the time they committed the crime may not be executed.
According to the European Convention on Human Rights, specifically its 13th amendment (2002), no one must be executed.
There is a lot of different opinions on the topic of capital punishment.
As it is an important topic, each country has very strong feelings.
Many people say the death penalty is reasonable  because it scares people away from doing things that are illegal, however many others say there is a potential of executing an innocent man; one says justice, retribution, and punishment; the other side says that execution is murder.
Most people know the threat of crime to their lives, but the question lies in the methods and action that should be used to deal with it.
Throughout human history, governments and rulers have used many death penalty methods to execute people, such as crucifixion, flaying, and hanging.
Some methods like crucifixion and flaying are no longer used by governments, because people think that these methods of killing are too cruel.
The gas chamber was found unconstitutional in the United States (that is: against the United States constitution not allowing "cruel and unusual punishments") and is no longer used.
The Council of Europe has abolished all death penalty by 13th amendment of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Amnesty International oppose all death penalty on ground of the right to life and prohibition of all tortures or any cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment insisted by Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Forms of death
Electric chair: The prisoner is killed by a strong source of electricity attached to their head and leg.
Lethal injection: The prisoner is poisoned with a mix of chemicals that are put into their body.
Some countries use chemicals that are controversial.
After the electric chair was abolished as a form of death penalty in the United States by be considered a too brutal punishment and be replaced by lethal injection, this method became the most widely used since then.
Firing squad: Some people shoot the prisoner with rifles.
Firing squads are often used for soldiers during wars.
One or more of those firing may have false ammunition that does not kill so that no one knows which person fired the shot that killed.
A firing squad is a traditional military execution.
Deserters, traitors and spies are sometimes shot.
Hanging: The prisoner has a rope tied around their neck.
They are then dropped from a height.
The person can die from their neck being broken.
They might die from choking (asphyxiation), if the drop is too small or knot was badly made.
If the drop is too long or the prisoner too heavy, their head might be torn off.
Japan, India and former British colonies use hanging.
Strangulation, by hand or by garrote.
The garrote was the main type of capital punishment in Spain for hundreds of years.
Originally, the convict was killed by hitting him with a club (garrote'' in Spanish).
This later developed into putting a loop of rope placed around the neck.
A wooden stick was placed in the loop, and rotated to tighten the rope until the condemned person was strangled to death.
Stoning: Stones are thrown at the prisoner until they die.
Stoning is still used in some Middle Eastern countries.
Decapitation: The victim has his or her head cut off with a sharp blade, such as sword, axe or guillotine.
This was the traditional means of execution in central Europe and many other places.
Decapitation is also called beheading'''.
Decapitation is still used in some Middle Eastern countries, but the only country to actively use it is Saudi Arabia.
Ten anti-death penalty fallacies: the case against capital punishment relies on myth, misinformation, and misplaced emotionalism. (
Crime and Punishment)- The Open Library
Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 1938 – 18 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat.
He served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations.
He did this from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006.
Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
They were awarded the prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world".
Annan was born in Kumasi, Ghana, to an elite family.
His parents, Henry Reginald and Madam Rose Eshun are from the two major ethnic groups that make up the Akan – one of the groups of indigenous people of Ghana.
His father was half Asante and half Fante; his mother was Fante.
The Asante were gold merchants while the Fante tribe were the middlemen in the gold trade between the Asante and the British.
Annan, whose first name means "born on a Friday", also had a twin sister, who died in 1991 from a still yet unknown disease.
In Ghanaian culture, twins are considered special and are adored.
Annan probably got his first lessons in politics and diplomacy early on from his family.
Both of Annan's grandfathers and his uncle were tribal chiefs.
Upon his retirement, Annan's father, who worked as an export manager for the cocoa exporter Lever Brothers, was elected governor of Ghana's Asante province.
In 1954, Annan attended Mfantsipim School, an Methodist boarding school in central Ghana.
The Secretary-General says that the school taught him "that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere".
Annan went to Macalaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota and graduating in 1961.
He was a Sloan Fellow at MIT in 1971–72, getting a master's degree in management.
His work at the United Nations
Annan became Secretary-General of the United Nations in January 1997, succeeding Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt.
Annan was a U.N. veteran who took his first job with the organization in 1962 and worked his way up through various posts including Deputy Director to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (1980–83) and head of the U.N.'s peacekeeping efforts (1995–96).
Annan was the first Secretary-General chosen from the ranks of the U.N.'s staff.
He is also the first black man to hold the post and the second African (after Boutros-Ghali).
His second term began in 2002 and ran through the end of 2006.
List of African scientists by country
1938 births
Disease-related deaths in Switzerland
African politicians
African diplomats
Ghanaian people
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
The United Nations General Assembly is made up of all United Nations member states.
The Assembly meets once a year, which usually begins on the third Tuesday in September and ends in mid-December.
The first meeting was held on 10 January 1946.
Voting in the General Assembly on important questions, for example suggestions on world peace, human rights and security, is by two-thirds of those present and voting.
Other questions are decided by popular vote.
Each member country has one vote.
At present, the Holy See (Vatican City) and Palestine are the only two observer states at the United Nations.
Switzerland also had that status until it became a member state.
The current President of the United Nations General Assembly is Abdulla Shahid since 14 September 2021.
United nations general assembly observers have the right to speak in the assembly.
The observers have no rights to vote in the assembly.
List of Members of the United Nations
1946 establishments
Explosives that explode when they are hit are also called mine; Two common types are Land mines and Naval mines.
Mining is the process of digging things out of the ground.
Any material that cannot be grown must be mined.
Mining things from the ground is called extraction.
Mining can include extraction of metals and minerals, like coal, diamond, gold, silver, platinum, copper, tin and iron.
Mining can also include other things like oil and natural gas.
Some mining is done by scraping away the soil (dirt) from the top of the ground.
This is called surface mining.
Some mining is done by going deep underground into a mine shaft.
This is called underground mining.
Some mining, such as gold mining, is done in other ways.
Gold can be mined by searching in the bed of a river or other stream of water to remove the flakes of gold.
This is called panning or placer mining.
A worker in a mine is called a miner.
Underground mining is a dangerous job.
Many mines have accidents.
Hundreds of miners die every year from accidents, mostly in poor countries.
Safety rules and special safety equipment is used to try and protect miners from accidents.
Underground coal mining is especially dangerous because coal can give off poisonous and explosive gases.
Some towns are mining towns.
People live there because they can make money as miners or by doing things for miners.
When mining stops the town may become a ghost town.
Mining operations often make the environment worse, both during the mining activity and after the mine has closed.
Hence, most countries have passed regulations to decrease the effect of mining.
Work safety has long been a concern, and has been improved in mines.
A bomber is a type of airplane that is used to attack ground targets, mainly by dropping bombs.
The first bombers were made at the start of World War I.
Bombers often fly low to the ground to confuse enemy radar.
Most cannot fly very fast.
Because of this, bombers are not outfitted to fight other airplanes.
To make up for this, bombers in the past had many machine guns for defense.
Dive bombers were numerous in World War II.
They attacked surface targets including tanks and ships.
Strategic bombing became important.
Bombers had large crews, sometimes as many as 12 people.
Usually a bomber had a pilot, a bombadier, a co-pilot/navigator, and many machine gunners all around to shoot at enemy fighter aircraft defending the target.
Friendly fighters often came along to help fight the defenders.
Bombers now have one or two people in them.
The other positions have been replaced by computers.
Bombers have very few guns on them partly because they are much faster.
In bombing missions now, the pilot drops a bomb and leaves as quickly as possible.
During the Cold War, a few bombers were made that could travel supersonic, so a nuclear bomb could be dropped without killing the people in the airplane.
They were never used that way, however.
WW2-era Bombers
Bomber aircraft -Citizendium
A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species Bos taurus.
They are more muscular and aggressive than the female of the species, the cow.
The bull has long been an important symbol in many cultures, and plays a large role in beef ranching, dairy farming.
They are also important in other cultural activities, including bull fighting and bull riding.
The management of livestock animals in hot climates is a challenge.
The physiological and behavioral changes induced in these animals compromise their welfare, breeding, health, and zootechnical performance, resulting in final products (eggs, milk, and meat) with unsatisfactory characteristics.
The bull semen market is very lucrative.
Animal agriculture forcefully breeds animals to have what it considers the best traits for food production.
In 2011, the U.S. exported $124.7 million worth of bull semen to other nations, representing 32 percent of the global market.
In February 2019, an Angus bull named SAV America 8018 sold for the record-breaking price of $1.5 million due to “superior genetics.”
Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) are the largest animal testing company in Europe.
They were founded in 1951 and are based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.
They also have a laboratory in New Jersey, United States.
Huntingdon Life Sciences is an international contract research organisation offering a comprehensive range of non-clinical development services.
The UK lab carries out medical and product research for many organisations.
Many people feel strongly against HLS.
The Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign group are the main opposition group.
SHAC were set up in 1999.
The opposition to HLS has had many forms.
While most animal rights people have used legal means of protest, some people have become extremists and done very bad things.
Thus the opposition to HLS has become an example to many people of a good cause gone wrong.
1951 establishments in the United Kingdom
Companies of the United Kingdom
Huntingdon is a town in Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom.
It stands on the River Ouse near the A1, a major road in England.
Huntingdon also has the largest meadow in England; Portholme Meadow.
There are many small villages in Huntingdon, it has a high street and a main supermarket.
The A14 runs through it.
Towns in Cambridgeshire
ru:Huntingdon
A condom is a thin cover that is put on a man's penis and used during sexual intercourse.
It is normally made of latex.
Condoms are a form of birth control, they can prevent a pregnancy.
They can also prevent the spread of certain  sexually transmitted infections, such as  gonorrhea, syphilis, or HIV.
Another name for a condom is prophylactic sheath.
In 2009, most condoms were made of latex.
For people with latex allergy, plastic condoms are available.
The first condoms were made of tissue paper.
Later models were made of the intestines of animals, such as sheep.
Such condoms can still be found sometimes.
Certain people prefer sheepskin condoms over latex ones, because sheepskin condoms can transfer body warmth better.
However they do not prevent diseases as effectively as latex condoms.
Condoms are popular for several reasons.
They are inexpensive and can be bought without a prescription by either a man or a woman.
They can be bought at many locations, and they are easy to use (once the couple learns how.)
They have no health-related side effects for either the man or the woman, and they are one of the few types of birth control that also reduce the spread of infections.
If the couple decides to have a baby, they can stop using condoms at any time and begin trying to get pregnant with no delay.
But condoms have some disadvantages.
During sex, the couple must stop to put on the condom just before beginning intercourse, which interrupts and distracts them at an exciting time.
Condoms reduce the physical feelings of intercourse, especially for the man, who cannot feel the heat and sensation of the woman's vagina as much.
Condoms can also reduce the emotional closeness the man and woman feel during intercourse because there is something between them.
Condoms are less effective than many other types of birth control, and if a couple is in a steady relationship and are having sex very often, condoms can become more expensive to use.
For these reasons, once a man and woman are in a steady relationship and are sure they are free of infection, the woman often begins to use birth control pills or some other highly effective contraceptive, after which the couple stops using condoms.
Condoms are rolled up when they are packaged, and are meant to be rolled over an erect penis.
They are most commonly made of latex, but are available in other materials.
Condoms normally have an expiration date on them.
Condoms weaken after this date, and may not work properly.
Condoms are also not designed to be used more than once.
It is important to know how to use a condom before using one.
If a mistake is made, the condom may not work.
When using a condom for the first time, it could help to try using it alone to get familiar with condoms without any danger.
Nowadays women also can use condoms.
Like male condoms, they increase protection for partners from pregnancy and STD's.
Female condoms look like a sheath with a flexible ring on both sides of this sheath.
With these rings the condom is attached to the vagina.
It covers the vagina and cervix to prevent sperm from getting inside the woman's uterus.
It is necessary to know that female and male condoms should not be used at the same time.
In this case, both condoms may rub against each other, and this will result in failure.
The oldest condoms ever found were from the 1640s.
They were made from animal and fish intestines.
In preventing pregnancy
There are two ways to see how effective condoms are.
They are method effectiveness, where how many couples that use the condom every time they have sex do not get pregnant; and actual effectiveness, where the number of people that use condoms either correctly or incorrectly and do not get pregnant are looked at.
Most studies show results of effectiveness over a year.
The method failure rate of condoms is 2% per year.
The actual failure rate is different in different places, and the rates can be anywhere between 10 and 18% per year.
In preventing sexually transmitted infections
Reduces the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission by approximately 85%.
Reduces the risk of gonorrhea for men by approximately 71%.
Other sexually-transmitted infections may be affected as well, but they could not draw definite conclusions from the research they were working with.
In particular, these include STIs associated with ulcerative lesions that may be present on body surfaces where the condom does not cover, such as human papillomavirus (HPV), genital herpes simplex (HSV), chancroid, and syphilis.
If contact is made with uncovered lesions, transmission of these STIs may still occur despite appropriate condom use.
Additionally, the absence of visible lesions or symptoms cannot be used to decide whether caution is needed.
An article in The American Journal of Gynecologic Health showed that "all women who correctly and consistently used Reality® were protected from trichomonas vaginalis" (referring to a particular brand of female condom).
Causes of failure
The most common reason for a condom failing is that the user has not put it on properly.
A condom can also fail because it has been damaged, because the latex has weakened, or because it has come off the penis during sexual intercourse.
Something else that can cause a condom to not work, as it should, is sabotage.
This can be when one of the partners wants a baby, but the other one does not.
Usually they pierce a condom with a sharp object, making the condom useless.
Some people see it as not ethical, because one of the two sex partners does it without the other one's knowledge.
There are websites that show how to do it, if the woman wants a baby, but the man does not.
One method of testing condoms for microscopic holes involves placing the condom being tested over one conducting form with another on the other side of the condom.
If the condom does not prevent an electric current from flowing between the two conducting forms, it fails the test.
Holes in condoms are unlikely if proper handling conditions (see below) are followed.
Arguments against condom use
Arguments by religious communities
They say there is a difference in having sex for making babies, and having sex for fun (to make the relationship between the partners stronger).
They say that using a condom to prevent a pregnancy is bad.
Rather than using a condom, natural methods should be used to prevent pregnancy.
Such methods include choosing the time of the month carefully. (
This does not stop sexually transmitted diseases)
Other communities are not as strict, and only look at the result.
They leave it to those involved to choose the correct means.
Some people say the use of condoms is against Nature (unnatural).
Boston Women's Health Book Collective, 2005.
Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era.
New York: Touchstone.
MacPhail, Catherine and Campbell, Catherine (2001 Jun). "
I think condoms are good but, aai, I hate those things: condom use among adolescents and young people in a Southern African township."
2001, 52(11): 1613-1627.
Kulczycki, Andrzej. "
The Sociocultural context of condom use within marriage in rural Lebanon".
Studies in Family Planning 35.4 (Dec 2004): 246(15).
Crossley, Michele L. (2004). "
Making sense of 'barebacking': Gay men's Narratives, unsafe sex and the 'resistance habitus'".
British Journal of Social Psychology, 43: 225-244.
Watt, Emily (2005 April 24). "
Older Adults Shy Away from Safe Sex Advice".
The Sunday Star-Times (Auckland, New Zealand).
Semple, S.J., Patterson, T.L., & Grant, I. (2004). "
Determinants of condom use stage of change among heterosexually-identified methamphetamine users".
AIDS & Behavior, 8(4): 391-400.
University of California, Santa Barbara's SexInfo  - Explains how to correctly use condoms along with information on the advantages, disadvantages, and effectiveness.
Planned Parenthood of America — Provides information and training for all forms of birth control from their website and locations across the U.S.
Condom Research from FHI - Family Health International's topic page on condoms.
Fact sheet on condoms and sexually transmitted diseases - from the US Center for Disease Control in PDF form.
Requires AdobeReader.
is the capital city of Osaka Prefecture which faces Osaka Bay and the Seto Inland Sea.
Osaka is in the Kansai region.
It is the economic and cultural center of the Kansai region.
Sometimes it is called by its historical name Naniwa.
Because it is by the sea, it is good for transportation.
That is why an ancient emperor made Osaka the capital city.
In the early part of the 8th century Naniwa was one of capitals of Japan.
In the middle of the 16th century Toyotomi Hideyoshi founded Osaka castle and governed Japan in Osaka.
The basis of development of Osaka was prepared in those times.
Osaka castle was destroyed once by Tokugawa Ieyasu but Ieyasu choose Osaka as one of the political centers in the Western Japan.
He made Osaka a direct dominion of the shogun.
During the Edo period Osaka was a center of commerce, finance, pharmacy and other products.
It was a center for literature and theater.
Kabuki in Osaka is as famous as Kabuki in Edo and Kyoto.
It is also known for bunraku (a traditional puppet theater) and manzai (a kind of stand-up comedy).
Traditional Osaka food dishes include okonomiyaki (pan-fried batter cake) and takoyaki (octopus dumplings).
After the Meiji restoration Osaka was modernized and industrialized.
It was a center of Japanese industry.
After the World War II its economical importance was relatively less because Tokyo grew as an international city and many companies moved their headquarters to Tokyo.
But Osaka is still a large, important city.
Sightseeing spots
Universal Studios Japan – This is the most famous theme park in Osaka.
There are shows, popular characters and musicals.
Kaiyuukan – This is the most famous aquarium in Osaka.
They have animals including whale sharks and penguins.
Yoshimoto shinkigenki – It is a traditional comedy in Namba Grand Kagetsu.
Seasonal spots
In spring, good places to see cherry blossoms are the Mint and Banpakukinen Park.
In summer, there are displays of fireworks at the Tenzin festival, Yodo river festival and PL art of fireworks.
In winter, there are Christmas decorations at Nakanoshima and Midosuzi.
Football clubs in Osaka
Baseball teams in Osaka
Mind sports in Osaka
Kansai Ki-in (Non-profit organization to promote Go in Osaka)
The piano is an acoustic, keyboard and stringed musical instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather).
It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.
It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700 (the exact year is uncertain),
The piano has been an extremely popular instrument in Western classical music since the late 18th century.
The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy.
He made his first piano in 1709.
It developed from the clavichord which looks like a piano but the strings of a clavichord are hit by a small blade of metal called a “tangent”.
In the piano the strings are hit by a block of wood called a hammer.
The early keyboarded instruments, such as the clavichords, harpsichords and organs that were used at that time, had a much shorter keyboard than they do today.
Gradually the keyboard became longer until it had the 88 notes (7 octaves plus three notes) of the modern piano.
At first the instrument was called the “fortepiano”.
This means “loud-soft” in Italian.
It was given this name because it could be played either loudly or softly, depending on how hard the note was hit (the harpsichord could not do this, and the clavichord could only make a tiny difference between louder and softer).
Later this name changed to “pianoforte”.
This is normally shortened to “piano”.
The word “fortepiano” is sometimes used to describe the pianos of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
In some languages, such as Russian, “fortepiano” is the normal word for a piano.
Although the piano was invented at the beginning of the 18th century, it was not until 50 years later that it started to become popular.
The first time the piano was played in a public concert in London was in 1768 when it was played by Johann Christian Bach.
The upright piano was invented in 1800 by John Isaac Hawkings.
Seven years later T. Southwell invented “over-stringing”.
This means that the strings for the low notes go diagonally across the soundboard so that they can be longer and make a much bigger sound.
The early pianos had strings that were fastened to a frame made of wood.
They were not very heavy, but they were not very strong or loud, so they could not be heard very well in a big concert hall.
In 1825 the cast-iron frame was invented in America.
This made the piano much stronger so that it could make a bigger sound and the strings were not likely to break.
One of the most known fortepiano builders was Johann Andreas Stein from Augsburg, Germany.
Stein developed the "Viennese" action, popular on Viennese pianos up to the mid-19th century.
Another important Viennese piano maker was Anton Walter.
Mozart’s own Walter fortepiano is presently at the Mozart Museum in Salzburg, Austria.
Haydn also owned Walter piano, and Beethoven expressed a wish to buy one.
The most famous early-romantic piano maker was Conrad Graf (1782–1851), who made Beethoven's last piano.
His instruments were played by Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann.
Johannes Brahms had preferred pianos by Johann Baptist Streicher.
The English piano school builders included Johannes Zumpe, Robert Stodart and John Broodwood.
Prominent piano makers among the French during the era of the fortepiano included Erard, Pleyel (Chopin’s favorite maker) and Boisselot (Liszt’s favorite).
The production of this older type of instrument had stopped in the end of the 19th century.
In the second half of the 20th century people started to be more interested in period instruments, including harpsichord and fortepiano.
Some of the more known fortepiano builders included in this 20th-century fortepiano revival have been Philip Belt, Margaret F. Hood, Christopher Clark and Paul McNulty.
Piano parts
A piano has a keyboard with white keys and black keys.
When a key is pressed down, the damper comes off the string and a hammer hits the string.
It hits it very quickly and bounces off so that the string is free to vibrate and make a sound.
Each key is a level that makes a hammer inside the piano hit a string inside, producing a sound.
Each string has a different length and so produces-a different note.
When the player takes their finger off the key the damper falls back onto the string and the sound stops.
The strings are stretched very tightly across the frame, passing over a bridge on the way.
The bridge touches the soundboard.
This means that the vibrations are sent to the soundboard.
The soundboard is a very important part of the piano.
If it is damaged the piano will not make a sound.
The mechanism which makes the hammer bounce off the string very quickly is called the “escapement”.
In 1821 Sebastian Erard invented a kind of double escapement.
This made it possible to repeat the note very quickly.
The hammer only touches the string for about one thousandth of a second.
The hammers are covered with felt which is a mixture of wool, silk and hair.
At the bottom of every modern piano, there are at least two pedals, which are levers that the pianist presses down with his or her feet to change the sound.
Many pianos have three pedals, but a few have even more.
Each pedal changes the sound in a different way.
The damper pedal (also called the sustain pedal) is the pedal on the right, and the one that is used most often.
For this reason, it is often called just "the pedal".
It is pressed with the pianist's right foot, and makes the dampers (which look a bit like the hammers) that usually rests on the strings come off, so the strings are free to vibrate.
As long as the pianist holds this pedal down, the notes he plays will keep on sounding even when he takes his fingers off the keys.
Some other strings will also vibrate very lightly (this is called “sympathetic vibration”), which makes the sound smoother and richer.
Pianists have to learn how to use this pedal well.
This will depend on such things as the style of the music, the size of the piano, the size and the acoustics of the room in which the instrument is in.
The soft pedal (also called the una corda pedal) is the pedal on the left, and is pressed with the pianist's left foot.
As its name suggests, this pedal makes the notes sound quieter.
On a grand piano, the whole keyboard and action shift a bit to the left so that the hammers only hit two strings instead of three.
The soft pedal is usually used only in classical music and is normally kept down for the whole of a piece or a section of a piece.
On pianos with three pedals, the pedal in the middle does different things on a grand and upright piano.
On a grand piano, it is the sostenuto pedal, and is pressed with the pianist's left foot.
Like the right pedal, it keeps the sound going, but only on the notes that are being played at the moment when the middle pedal is pressed down.
This makes it possible to keep one chord going while playing other notes that will not carry on.
All concert grand pianos have a sostenuto pedal, and some modern upright pianos do as well.
The middle pedal on some upright pianos is not a sostenuto pedal at all, but a practice pedal.
It places a piece of cloth in front of the strings, making the sound very quiet so that a pianist can practice without disturbing other people.
The practice pedal can usually be pressed down and put in a slot so that it will stay in place.
Pedal marks in music
The damper pedal is the most important pedal, and so many composers often write down in a piece of music when the pianist should press and when he or she should let go of the damper pedal.
In most classical music, there is a sign that says Ped.
where the pedal should be pressed, and one that looks like an asterisk where the pedal should be let go.
Pedal marks can also appear as a straight line under the staff.
Often, the pianist will let go of the pedal and press it again right away; this is called changing pedal.
Sometimes, the music will simply say con pedale, which in Italian means with pedal.
It means that the damper pedal should be used, but the pianist should know when to change the pedal.
Another sign, which tells a pianist to press the soft pedal is una corda, (Italian for one string).
It is held down until another sign, tre corde (meaning three strings), appears, telling the pianist to let go of the soft pedal.
In early pianos, it was possible to press the pedal a little way so that the hammers hit two strings, then press it further so that they hit only one string.
Famous piano composers
Once the piano became popular in the late 18th century many composers wrote music for the piano.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart started to learn on harpsichords when he was very small, but the piano was becoming popular when he was a young man and he wrote many sonatas and concertos for the piano.
Franz Joseph Haydn also wrote a lot of piano music.
Ludwig van Beethoven was a very famous pianist before he became very famous as a composer.
His piano compositions include 5 concertos and 32 sonatas.
In the Romantic period many composers wrote for the piano.
They include Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin.
Later composers include Sergei Rachmaninoff, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich and Bela Bartok.
Famous piano players
Some famous piano players from the early days of the piano include Dussek, Mozart, Muzio Clementi, John Field and Chopin.
In the 19th century Franz Liszt was a very great influence on the piano by composing and performing very difficult music.
Other great pianists include Clara Schumann and Anton Rubinstein.
20th century pianists include Artur Schnabel, Vladimir Horowitz, Josef Hofmann, Wilhelm Kempff, Dinu Lipati, Claudio Arrau, Artur Rubinstein,  Sviatoslav Richter and Alfred Brendel.
Among the greatest pianists today are Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Leif Ove Andsnes, Boris Berezovsky and Evgeny Kissin.
Connor Farrow
Pianists who play popular music include  Liberace, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Elton John, Billy Joel, Thelonious Monk, Tori Amos and Ray Charles.
Perhaps the greatest jazz pianist was Fats Waller.
Also a number of modern harpsichordists and pianists have achieved success in fortepiano performance, including Paul Badura-Skoda, Malcolm Bilson, Andras Schiff, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Ronald Brautigam, Alexei Lubimov, duet Katie and Marielle Labeque, Yuan Sheng, Gary Cooper, Jörg Demus, Richard Egarr, Richard Fuller, Robert Hill, Geoffrey Lancaster, Vladimir Feltsman, Robert Levin, Steven Lubin, Bart van Oort, Trevor Pinnock, Viviana Sofronitsky, Andreas Staier, Melvyn Tan, Jos van Immerseel and Olga Pashchenko.
Playing the piano
The piano has been a very popular instrument ever since the mid 18th century when it soon replaced the clavichord and the harpsichord.
By the early 19th century the sound that the piano made was big enough to fill large concert halls.
Smaller pianos were made for use in people’s homes.
At first these included square pianos and giraffe pianos, later on the upright pianos became popular for home use.
Pianos are not often used in orchestras (if they are, they are part of the percussion section).
They may, however, be used for piano concertos (pieces for solo pianist accompanied by orchestra).
There is a vast amount of music written for piano solo.
The piano can also be used together with other instruments, in jazz groups, and for accompanying singing.
Keyboard instruments
The Channel Islands are a group of islands near the coast of France.
The five largest islands are:
The main industries are tourism, horticulture (growing plants for food) and financial services (businesses to do with money).
Most people speak English, although some people in Guernsey, Jersey and Sark still speak the traditional language of their island.
Constitutionally, the islands are part of the British crown, but are not part of the United Kingdom.
Being part of the mediaeval duchy of Normandy, allegiance is owed to the Queen but not to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which cannot pass laws for the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey except for defence and diplomatic matters, except if the bailiwicks ask it to.
In general, the bailiwicks are self-governing, but they often pass laws which are like United Kingdom laws.
However some of their laws are still based on Norman law.
Hedonism is the view that pleasure and suffering are the basis for what is good or bad.
It is a  that first appeared in ancient philosophy. ""
is the ancient Greek word for "pleasure".
There are many different beliefs in hedonism.
But in all forms of hedonism, people think that what makes them happy is good.
They also think avoiding suffering is good.
Some people think pain is the opposite of pleasure, but others do not.
Some forms of hedonism say it is important to get as many pleasurable experiences as possible.
Others say that the quality of the pleasure matters.
Hedonism is often wrongly said to be related to sex.
Sex can be a very pleasurable experience, but when philosophers talk about hedonism, they think more about the pleasure of reading a good book, listening to classical music, or discussing with other philosophers.
Two main types of hedonism are Cyrenaicism and Epicureanism.
Cyrenaicism is where people make themselves happy in the fastest amount of time.
Epicureanism is where people like to be happy but they do so slowly so that they cause less pain to themselves.
They also look more into the future and go for the higher pleasures in life.
On the other hand, Maslowism is the term for when you combine the concepts of utilitarianism and hedonism.
The  is a group of high-speed rail lines in Japan, upon which the famous "Bullet Trains" run.
It is the world's first high-speed rail.
The Shinkansen are run by the many JR companies.
In the past, Japan Railway was called Japanese National Railways.
It is now one group of private companies.
JR also run commuter trains and inter-city trains around Tokyo.
The name "Bullet Train" is the English translation of the Japanese word dangan ressha (弾丸列車), which was the name given to the project while it was being studied in the 1940s.
Nowadays, the trains are called Shinkansen trains.
The name Shinkansen means "New Trunk Line".
The trains are called "Super Expresses".
Japan was the first country to build railway lines for high speed travel.
Because Japan has many mountains, the network that already existed was made of 3'6" gauge (1067 mm) narrow gauge lines, which tended to take non-direct routes and could not be adapted to higher speeds.
Because of this, Japan had a greater need for new high speed lines than countries where the existing standard gauge or broad gauge rail system could be upgraded easily.
Unlike the older lines, Shinkansen lines are standard gauge, and use tunnels and viaducts to go through and over obstacles, rather than around them.
Construction of the first section of the Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka started in 1959.
The line opened on October 1, 1964, just in time for the Tokyo Olympics.
The line was an immediate success, reaching the 100 million passenger mark in less than three years on July 13, 1967 and one billion passengers in 1976.
The first Shinkansen trains ran at speeds of up to , later increased to .
Some of these trains, with their classic bullet-nosed appearance, are still in use for stopping services between Hakata and Osaka.
A driving car from one of the original trains is now in the British National Railway Museum in York.
Many more advanced models of train followed the first type, generally each with its own distinctive appearance.
Shinkansen trains now run regularly at speeds of up to , putting them among the fastest trains running in the world, along with the French TGV and German ICE trains.
Originally meant to carry passenger and freight trains by day and night, the Shinkansen lines carry only passenger trains.
The system shuts down
between midnight and 6:00 AM every day to allow maintenance to take place, including the running of Doctor Yellow test trains.
The few overnight trains that still run in Japan run on the old narrow gauge network which the Shinkansen runs parallel to.
In 2003, JR Tokai reported that the Shinkansen's average arrival time was within 6 seconds of the scheduled time.
This includes all natural and human accidents and errors and is calculated from about 160,000 trips Shinkansen made.
The previous record was from 1997 and was 18 seconds.
The first derailment (train accident) of a Shinkansen train in passenger service occurred during the Chuetsu Earthquake on October 23, 2004.
6 of the total of 8 cars of the train on the Joetsu Shinkansen derailed near Nagaoka Station in Nagaoka, Niigata.
In 1965 pay phones were made available on Shinkansen trains.
That service ended on 29 June 2021, because of the widespread ownership of mobile phones by passengers.
In recent years, due to noise pollution, increasing speed is getting harder.
Thus, the current research is aimed to reduce the amount of noise, mainly when trains exit a tunnel.
The first ever Shinkansen line (built in 1964) travelled at  and was called the Tōkaido Shinkansen.
In 1972 a second one was developed and the improvements on infrastructure allowed it to travel at around .
In 2003 the Japanese built the world's fastest ever Shinkansen, with a top speed of .
List of Shinkansen lines
Tōkaidō Shinkansen (Tokyo - Shin-Ōsaka)
Sanyō Shinkansen (Shin-Ōsaka - Hakata)
Tōhoku Shinkansen (Tokyo - Shin-Aomori)
Jōetsu Shinkansen (Ōmiya - Niigata)
Hokuriku Shinkansen (Takasaki - Kanazawa)
Kyūshū Shinkansen (Hakata - Kagoshima-Chūō)
Hokkaidō Shinkansen (Shin-Aomori-Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto)
Yamagata Shinkansen (Fukushima-Shinjo)
Akita Shinkansen (Morioka-Akita)
Hakata Minami Line (Hakata-Hakata-Minami)
Gala-Yuzawa Line (Echigo-Yuzawa – Gala-Yuzawa)
Hokkaidō Shinkansen (under construction, Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto - Sapporo)
Hokuriku Shinkansen (under construction, Kanazawa - Tsuruga)
Kyūshū Shinkansen (under construction, Takeo-Onsen-Nagasaki)
Chūō Shinkansen (maglev, under construction, Shinagawa - Nagoya)
Most Shinkansen lines that were proposed during the boom of the early 1970s have been postponed indefinitely.
These include a link to Shikoku by the Honshu-Shikoku bridge system, a link from Tokyo to New Tokyo International Airport, and a route covering the entire Sea of Japan coast of Honshu.
List of Shinkansen train models
0 Series (disused)
100 Series (disused)
200 Series (disused)
300 Series (disused)
400 Series (Mini-Shinkansen, disused)
500 Series (disused in Tōkaidō Shinkansen)
700 Series (disused in Tōkaidō Shinkansen)
N700 Series
N700S Series
E1 Series (Max,disused)
E2 Series
E3 Series (Mini-Shinkansen)
E4 Series (Max)
E5 Series
E6 Series (Mini-Shinkansen)
E7 Series
H5 Series
W7 Series
List of types of Shinkansen services
Aoba (disused)
Asahi (disused)
Hikari Rail Star
Komachi
Max Asahi (disused)
Max Nasuno
Max Tanigawa
Max Toki
Max Yamabiko
Nasuno
Tanigawa
Yamabiko
hakutaka
East meets West, a story of how the Shinkansen brought Tokyo and Osaka closer together.
Copper is a chemical element.
It is the 29th element in the periodic table.
Its atomic weight is 63.55.
It is a transition metal in the middle of the periodic table.
The symbol for copper is "Cu", which comes from the Latin word cuprum, which, in turn, came from the Latin word for the island of Cyprus, where copper was found.
Copper is one of the few coloured metals.
Most metals are gray or silver.
Gold, copper, caesium and osmium are the only four coloured metals.
Copper is green as copper(II) carbonate and copper(II) hydroxide.
It turns green because it oxidises.
After a time in the air, copper forms green copper carbonate at the surface, called verdigris.
That is why the copper roof of a building looks green.
Copper is very flexible and ductile.
It can be stretched into wires easily.
Copper is also very soft, it has a Mohs hardness of 2.5 to 3.
That means that it is harder than a fingernail but softer than a steel pocketknife.
It reacts with solutions of hydrochloric acid or ammonia containing oxygen.
It can also dissolve in a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid.
This makes copper(II) chloride.
It does not dissolve in weak acids.
It can dissolve in nitric acid to make copper(II) nitrate and nitrogen dioxide or nitric oxide.
Copper forms chemical compounds.
In these compounds, it has two normal oxidation states: +1 and +2.
+2 is more common.
Most +2 copper compounds are blue.
+1 copper compounds can be white.
Copper compounds are weak oxidizing agents.
They corrode many metals.
This corrosion takes the metal and puts it in the chemical compound, leaving the copper behind.
An example would be iron and copper(II) sulfate reacting to make copper and iron(II) sulfate.
+1 copper compounds are reducing agents when in air.
They are normally made by reduction of +2 compounds.
Copper(I) compounds
Copper(I) compounds have copper in +1 oxidation state.
They are weak reducing agents.
They react with air to make copper(II) compounds.
They also disproportionate to copper and copper(II) compounds.
Most of them do not dissolve in water.
Copper(I) acetylide, reddish brown, explosive
Copper(I) chloride, white when pure, green when oxidized
Copper(I) iodide, colorless solid
Copper(I) oxide, reddish-brown
Copper(II) compounds
Copper(II) compounds have copper in +2 oxidation state.
They are weak oxidizing agents.
They are greenish when hydrous (water molecules added).
They are more stable in air than copper(I) compounds.