the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
More recently, Afghanistan has been damaged by many years of war.
This has resulted in there not being enough jobs.
The country is around  in size.
There are 30 million people in Afghanistan.
There are about 3 million Afghan refugees (people who had to leave the country) who are in Pakistan and Iran for some time.
In 2011, its capital, Kabul, had about 3,691,400 people living in it.
United Nations Human Rights Council decided in October to appoint (an independent expert, or) United Nations special rapporteur on "Afghanistan to [find out about, or] probe violations carried out by the Taliban and" others who are now part of a [big] conflict, media said.
Afghanistan has many mountains.
The mountains are called the Hindu Kush and Himalayas.
The tallest mountain in Afghanistan is Mount Nowshak.
There are plains (which have soil that is good for growing plants) and foothills.
Parts of the country are also dry, especially the Registan Desert.
Afghanistan has snow and glaciers in the mountains.
Amu Darya is the big water stream, or river.
The country has an abundance of a valuable stone called lapis lazuli, which was also used to decorate the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Afghanistan has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters.
Having no water sometimes causes problems for farmers.
Sandstorms happen a lot in the desert.
Plants and animals
Southern Afghanistan has not many plants because it is dry.
There are more plants where there is more water.
Mountains have forests of pine and fir, cedar, oak, walnut, alder, and ash trees.
Afghanistan's wild animals live in the mountains.
There are wolves, foxes, jackals, bears, and wild goats, gazelles, wild dogs, camels, and wild cats such as the snow leopard in the country.
The birds are falcons, eagles and vultures.
The Rhesus Macaque and the red flying squirrel are also in Afghanistan.
Many years of war, hunting, and years of no water have killed animals in Afghanistan.
There used to be tigers in Afghanistan, but now there aren't any.
Bears and wolves are almost gone.
People and culture
Many people have moved through or invaded the land of Afghanistan.
Today's people of Afghanistan are known as Afghans.
They have many traits passed down from these previous peoples.
The largest group of people are the Pashtuns.
These make up about half the population.
Tajiks are the second-largest ethnic group, making up about one-fifth of the population.
Before the 20th century, Tajiks were called Sarts and some come from the Iranian peoples.
Most Pashtuns are also related to the Iranian peoples.
Some Pashtuns and Tajiks marry each other but at the same time they are rivals.
The third-largest group are the Hazaras.
They are native to the Hazaristan area in central Afghanistan.
The country's other groups include the Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Nuristani, Baloch, Pashayi and a few others.
Dari-Persian and Pashto are the official languages of Afghanistan.
Many people speak both languages.
Both are Indo-European languages from the Iranian languages sub-family.
They are usually written with the Arabic alphabet.
Uzbek and Turkmen are widely spoken in the north and Nuristani and Pashai are spoken in the east.
Around 99% of all Afghans follow the religion of Islam.
Afghanistan is a largely rural country.
This means there are only a few major cities.
About one fifth of the population live in cities.
Kabul, the capital, is the largest city.
It is  south of the Hindu Kush range and alongside the Kabul River.
Other cities in Afghanistan include Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, and Jalalabad.
The rural population is made up of farmers and nomads.
The farmers live mainly in small villages along the rivers.
The nomads live in tents while moving from place to place with their animals and belongings.
Some people live in the high central mountains.
Some live in the deserts in the south and southwest.
Millions of people left Afghanistan to get away from the wars that happened in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Most of them lived in neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
Afghanistan is in the path of important trade routes that connect southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East.
Because of this, many empire builders have decided to rule over the area.
Signs that these emperors were near Afghanistan still exist in many parts of the country.
Afghanistan is near what used to be the Silk Road, so it has many cultures.
From up to 8,000 years ago, the peoples of Afghanistan helped develop (create) major world religions, traded and exchanged many products, and sometimes controlled politics and culture in Asia.
Archaeologists digging a cave in what is now northeastern Afghanistan (in Badakhshan), discovered that people lived in the country as early as 100,000 years ago.
They found the skull of a Neanderthal, or early human, as well as tools from about 30,000 years ago.
In other parts of Afghanistan, archaeologists uncovered pottery and tools that are 4,000 to 11,000 years old—evidence that Afghans were among the first people in the world to grow crops and raise animals.
Farmers and herders settled in the plains surrounding the Hindu Kush as early as 7000 B.C. These people may have grown rich off the lapis lazuli they found along riverbeds, which they traded to early city sites to the west, across the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia.
As farms and villages grew and thrived in Afghanistan, these ancient people eventually invented irrigation (digging ditches for water so it flows to crops) that allowed them to grow crops on the northern Afghanistan desert plains.
This civilization (advanced state of organization) is today called BMAC (Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex), or the "Oxus civilization".
The Oxus civilization expanded as far east as western edge of the Indus Valley during the period between 2200 and 1800 B.C. These people, who were the ancestors of the Indo-Aryans, used the term "Aryan" to identify their ethnicity, culture, and religion.
Scholars know this when they read the ancient texts of these people; the Avesta of Iranic peoples and the Vedas of Indo-Aryans.
Before the middle of the sixth century BCE, Afghanistan was held by the Medes.
Then the Achaemenids took over control of the land and made it part of the Persian empire.
Alexander the great defeated and conquered the Persian Empire in 330 BCE.
He founded some cities in the area.
The people used Macedonian culture and language.
After Alexander, Greco-Bactrians, Scythians, Kushans, Parthians and Sassanians ruled the area.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan were giant statues, a reminder of Buddhism in Afghanistan.
They were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
There were international protests.
The Taliban believe that the ancient statues were un-Islamic and that they had a right to destroy them.
Medieval history
Arabs introduced Islam in the 7th century and slowly began spreading the new religion.
In the 9th and 10th centuries, many local Islamic dynasties rose to power inside Afghanistan.
One of the earliest was the Tahirids, whose kingdom included Balkh and Herat; they established independence from the Abbasids in 820.
The Tahirids were succeeded in about 867 by the Saffarids of Zaranj in western Afghanistan.
Local princes in the north soon became feudatories of the powerful Samanids, who ruled from Bukhara.
From 872 to 999, north of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan enjoyed a golden age under Samanid rule.
In the 10th century, the local Ghaznavids turned Ghazni into their capital and firmly established Islam throughout all areas of Afghanistan, except the Kafiristan region in the northeast.
Mahmud of Ghazni, a great Ghaznavid sultan, conquered the Multan and Punjab region, and carried raids into the heart of India.
Mohammed bin Abdul Jabbar Utbi (Al-Utbi), a historian from the 10th century, wrote that thousands of "Afghans" were in the Ghaznavid army.
The Ghaznavid dynasty was replaced by the Ghorids of Ghor in the late 12th century, who reconquered Ghaznavid territory in the name of Islam and ruled it until 1206.
The Ghorid army also included ethnic Afghans.
Afghanistan was recognized as Khorasan, meaning "land of the rising sun," which was a prosperous and independent geographic region reaching as far as the Indus River.
All the major cities of modern Afghanistan were centers of science and culture in the past.
The New Persian literature arose and flourished in the area.
The early Persian poets such as Rudaki were from what is now Afghanistan.
Moreover, Ferdowsi, the author of Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran, and Rumi, the famous Sufi poet, were also from modern-day Afghanistan.
It has produced scientists such as Avicenna, Al-Farabi, Al-Biruni, Omar Khayyám, Al-Khwarizmi, and many others who are widely known for their important contributions in areas such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, physics, geography, and geology.
It remained the cultural capital of Persia until the devastating Mongol invasion in the 13th century.
Timur, the Turkic conqueror, took over in the end of the 14th century and began to rebuild cities in this region.
Timur's successors, the Timurids (1405–1507), were great patrons of learning and the arts who enriched their capital city of Herat with fine buildings.
Under their rule Afghanistan enjoyed peace and prosperity.
Between south of the Hindu Kush and the Indus River (today's Pakistan) was the native land of the Afghan tribes.
They called this land "Afghanistan" (meaning "land of the Afghans").
The Afghans ruled the rich northern Indian subcontinent with their capital at Delhi.
From the 16th to the early 18th century, Afghanistan was disputed between the Safavids of Isfahan and the Mughals of Agra who had replaced the Lodi and Suri Afghan rulers in India.
The Safavids and Mughals occasionally oppressed the native Afghans but at the same time the Afghans used each empire to punish the other.
In 1709, the Hotaki Afghans rose to power and completely defeated the Persian Empire.
Then they marched towards the Mughals of India and nominally defeated them with the help of the Afsharid forces under Nader Shah Afshar.
In 1747, after Nader Shah of Persia was killed, a great leader named Ahmad Shah Durrani united all the different Muslim tribes and established the Afghan Empire (Durrani Empire).
He is considered the founding father of the modern state of Afghanistan while Mirwais Hotak is the grandfather of the nation.
Since the 1800s
During the 1800s, Afghanistan became a buffer zone between two powerful empires, the British Indian Empire and the Russian Empire.
As British India advanced into Afghanistan, Russia felt threatened and expanded southward across Central Asia.
To stop the Russian advance, Britain tried to make Afghanistan part of its empire but the Afghans fought wars with British-led Indians from 1839 to 1842 and from 1878 to 1880.
After the third war in 1919, Afghanistan under King Amanullah gained respect and recognition as a completely independent state.
The Kingdom of Afghanistan was a constitutional monarchy established in 1926.
It was the successor state to the Emirate of Afghanistan.
On 27 September 1934, during the reign of Zahir Shah, the Kingdom of Afghanistan joined the League of Nations.
During World War II, Afghanistan remained neutral.
It pursued a diplomatic policy of non-alignment.
The creation of Pakistan in 1947 as its eastern neighbor created problems.
In 1973, political crises led to the overthrow of the king.
The country's new leader ended the monarchy and made Afghanistan a republic.
In 1978, a Communist political party supported by the Soviet Union seized control of Afghanistan's government.
This move sparked rebellions throughout the country.
The government asked the Soviet Union for military assistance.
The Soviets took advantage of the situation and invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.
Most people in Afghanistan opposed the sudden Soviet presence in their country.
For nearly a decade, anti-Communist Islamic forces known as Mujahideen were trained inside neighboring Pakistan to fight the Soviets and the Afghan government.
The United States and other anti-Soviet countries supported the Mujahideen.
In the long war, over one million Afghan civilians were killed.
The Soviet Army also lost more than 15,000 soldiers in that war.
Millions of Afghans left their country to stay safe in neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
In 1989 the Soviet Army withdrew the last of its troops.
After the Soviets left in 1989, the Afghan Civil War started; different Afghan warlords began fighting for control of the country.
The warlords received support from other countries, including neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
A very conservative Islamic group known as the Taliban emerged in an attempt to end the civil war.
By the late 1990s the Taliban had gained control over 95% of Afghanistan.
A group known as the Northern Alliance, based in northern Afghanistan near the border with Tajikistan, continued to fight against the Taliban.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan according to their strict version of Islamic law.
People whom the Taliban believed violated these laws were given cruel punishments.
In addition, the Taliban completely restricted the rights of women.
Because of such policies, most countries refused to recognize the Taliban government.
Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) accepted them as the official government.
The Taliban also angered other countries by allowing suspected terrorists to live freely in Afghanistan.
Among them were Osama bin Laden and members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
In September 2001, the United States blamed bin Laden for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. The Taliban refused to hand him over to the United States.
In response, the United States and its allies launched a bombing campaign against al-Qaeda in October 2001.
Within months the Taliban abandoned Kabul, and a new government led by Hamid Karzai came to power, but fighting between the Taliban and US-led armies continued.
Taliban fighters have gone into Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan.
Afghans accuse Pakistan's military of being behind the Taliban militants but Pakistan has rejected this and stated that a stable Afghanistan is in Pakistan's own interest.
In December 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan.
NATO began rebuilding Afghanistan, including its military and government institutions.
Many schools and colleges were built.
Freedom for women has improved.
Women can study, work, drive, and run for office.
Many Afghan women work as politicians, some are ministers while at least one is a mayor.
Others have opened businesses, or joined the military or police.
Afghanistan's economy has also improved dramatically, and NATO agreed in 2012 to help the country for at least another 10 years after 2014.
In the meantime, Afghanistan improved diplomatic ties with many countries in the world and continues.
In August 2021, the Cabinet of Afghanistan lost its power.
Most of the country fell to the Taliban on 15 August 2021 with President Ashraf Ghani escaping the country.
As of 18 August 2021, the former government's last remaining holdout is the Panjshir Valley.
Since the Taliban captured Kabul on 15 August 2021, the governance of Afghanistan is disputed between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
According to Transparency International, Afghanistan remains in the top most corrupt countries list.
As of 2004, there are thirty-four provinces.
Each province is divided into districts. (
For cities see List of cities in Afghanistan.)
Relationship with other countries
Russia's ambassador (Dmitrij Zjirnov) had a meeting with representatives from Taliban on 18 August 2021; Russia's embassy was still in operation (or open).
An "Indian [ diplomat or] envoy to Qatar" had [at least one] meeting "with Taliban leader Stanekzai in Doha in late August", media said.
A United States "team led by" [then] "Deputy Special Representative Tom West and [a] top USAID humanitarian official" had meetings, in Qatar in October, with Afghanistani officials.
Women's rights was a subject during the talks.
Norway's ambassador visited Afghanistan - and had meetings with Taliban - during a two-day visit in the middle of January 2022.
Representatives of the Taliban leadership will come to Norway and meet diplomats from different countries, during 23.-25.
January.
Also, Norway has stopped (as of 2022's first quarter) supporting with money - (to) the authorities of Afghanistan, media said.
Previously, Norwegian diplomats had at least two meetings with Taliban in Doha, in 2021's fourth quarter; There are no political talks yet (as of 2021's fourth quarter); the talks are about  humanitarian aid and evacuation.
Turkey's foreign minister had a meeting (in Turkey) with "a delegation led by" foreign minister of Afghanistan, in 2021's fourth quarter.
In Russia, a meeting about Afghanistan was held on October 20; "The participants [... were] India, USA, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran and Central Asian"  countries, media said.
Diplomatic missions that still represent the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
The ambassador in Oslo, Norway does not recognize the Taliban-led government (as of 2021's fourth quarter).
Government of Afghanistan
Afghan Studies Center
Least developed countries
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in southern Africa.
It shares borders with Namibia in the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the north, and Zambia in the east.
Its west border touches the Atlantic Ocean.
Its coastline is 1600 kilometers.
Angola's capital is Luanda.
The country has many natural resources.
Angola is the seventh largest country in Africa,  The capital and most populated city of Angola is Luanda.
After independence there was a civil war from 1975 to 2002.
Cuba and the Soviet Bloc supported the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).
South Africa supported the insurgent National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) until the end of apartheid.
The war ended after the rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was killed.
Angola is the world's twenty-third largest country.
Angola is bordered by Namibia to the south, Zambia to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north-east, the Republic of the Congo via the exclave of Cabinda, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west.
Angola's average temperature on the coast is  in the winter and  in the summer.
It has two seasons; dry (May to October) and hot rainy (November to April).
Portuguese-speaking countries
1975 establishments in Africa
Argentina (officially the Argentine Republic)  is a country in South America.
Argentina is the second-largest country in South America and the eighth-largest country in the world.
Spanish is the most spoken language, and the official language, but many other languages are spoken.
There are minorities speaking Italian, German, English, Quechua and even Welsh in Patagonia.
In eastern Argentina is Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, it is also one of the largest cities in the world.
In order by number of people, the largest cities in Argentina are Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza, La Plata, Tucumán, Mar del Plata,  Salta, Santa Fe, and Bahía Blanca.
Argentina is between the Andes mountain range in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east and south.
It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast, and Chile in the west and south.
It also claims the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Most citizens of the Argentine Republic are descendants of immigrants from Europe.
They are united by citizenship and not necessarily by ethnicity.
Most Argentinians embrace both their ethnic origins and Argentinian nationality.
The name Argentina comes from the Latin argentum (silver) as the Spanish conquistadors believed the area had silver.
In the Americas (South and North), Canada, US, Brazil and Argentina are the largest countries (in that order).
The oldest signs of people in Argentina are in the Patagonia (Piedra Museo, Santa Cruz), and are more than 13,000 years old.
In 1480 the Inca Empire conquered northwestern Argentina, making it part of the empire.
In the northeastern area, the Guaraní developed a culture based on yuca and sweet potato however typical dishes all around Argentina are pasta, red wines (Italian influence) and beef.
Other languages spoken are Italian, English and German.
Lunfardo is Argentinean slang and is a mix of Spanish and Italian.
Argentinians are said to speak Spanish with an Italian accent.
Argentina declared independent from Spain in 1816, and achieved it in a War led by José de San Martín in 1818.
Many immigrants from Europe came to the country.
By the 1920s it was the 7th wealthiest country in the world, but it began a decline after this.
In the 1940s, following the "infamous decade" where the country's politics were not stable, Juan Peron came to power.
Peron was one of the most important people in the country's history and many politicians today call themselves Peronist.
Peron was forced out of power in 1955.
After spending years in exile he returned to power in the 1970s.
In 1976, the country was falling into chaos, and the military took power.
This was not the first time the military had done this.
Leading the new government was Jorge Rafael Videla.
Videla was one of history's most brutal dictators.
Thousands of people disappeared or were killed during his time as president.
Videla retired in 1980.
One of his successors was another general turned dictator, Leopoldo Galtieri.
By the time Galtieri was in office in 1981 the dictatorship became unpopular.
To stir up support, Galtieri ordered an invasion of the Falkland Islands, starting the Falklands War.
Argentina lost the war, and soon the country fell into chaos again.
Galtieri was removed from power and eventually democracy was restored.
Galtieri and Videla would be charged with "crimes against humanity" because of the mass murder and other crimes that they ordered as president.
In the early 21st century Argentina is one of the most important countries in Latin America, though it still has many problems.
It has a large economy and is influential in the "southern cone" of South America and a member of the G20 developing nations.
Argentina is a federal republic.
The people of Argentina vote for a President to rule them and Senators and Deputies to speak for them and make laws for them.
The President is Alberto Fernández since December 2019.
Argentina is divided into 23 provinces (provincias; singular: provincia), and 1 city (commonly known as capital federal):
Argentina is almost 3,700 km long from north to south, and 1,400 km from east to west (maximum values).
It can be divided into three parts: the Pampas in the central part of the country, Patagonia in the southern part down to Tierra del Fuego; and the Andes mountain range along the western border with Chile, with the highest point in the province of Mendoza.
Cerro Aconcagua, at 6,960 metres (22,834 ft), is the Americas' highest mountain.
River Plate was incorrectly translated though, and should have been translated to English as River of (the) Silver.
River Plate is also a famous Buenos Aires soccer team.
The majority of the Argentineans are descendants of Europeans mainly from Spain, Italy, Germany, Ireland, France, other Europeans countries and Mestizo representing more than 90% of the total population of the country.
More than 300,000 Roma gypsies live in Argentina.
Since the 1990s, Romanian, Brazilian and Colombian gypsies arrived in Argentina.
Football or soccer is the most popular sport, although the national sport of the country is Pato.
Argentina has a number of highly ranked Polo players.
Field hockey (for women) rugby and golf are also favorites.
Argentina is a Christian country.
Most of Argentina's people (80 percent) are Roman Catholic.
Argentina also has the largest population of Jewish community after Israel and US.
Middle Eastern immigrants who were Muslims converted to Catholicism, but there are still Muslims as well.
Medicine is socialized and so is education, making Argentina's literacy rate about 98%.
State University is free as well.
General information and maps
Geography and tourism
Pictures from Argentina grouped by provincia
Argentina.gov.ar - Official national portal
Gobierno Electrónico  - Official government website
Presidencia de la Nación  - Official presidential website
Honorable Senado de la Nación - Official senatorial website
Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación - Official lower house website
Secretaría de Turismo de la Nación - Official tourism board website
Spanish-speaking countries
Austria (, ;  ), officially the Republic of Austria ( ), is a country in Central Europe.
Around Austria there are the countries of Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
Currently, the chancellor is Karl Nehammer The previous chancellor was Alexander Schallenberg (2021).
Austria has been a member-state of the United Nations since 1955 the European Union since 1995 and OPEC since 2019.
The people in Austria speak German, a few also speak Hungarian, Slovenian and Croatian.
The capital of Austria is Vienna (Wien).
Austria is more than a thousand years old.
Its history can be followed to the ninth century.
At that time the first people moved to the land now known as Austria.
The name "Ostarrichi" is first written in an official document from 996.
Since then this word has developed into the Modern German word Österreich, which literally means "East Empire."
Austria is a democratic republic.
It is a neutral state, that means it does not take part in wars with other countries.
It has been in the United Nations since 1955 and in the European Union since 1995.
Burgenland (Burgenland)
Carinthia (Kärnten)
Lower Austria (Niederösterreich)
Salzburg(erland) (Salzburg)
Styria (Steiermark)
Tyrol (Tirol)
Upper Austria (Oberösterreich)
Vienna (Wien)
Vorarlberg (Vorarlberg)
More information: States of Austria.
Ancient times
There has been human settlement in the area that is now Austria for a long time.
The first settlers go back to the Paleolithic age.
That was the time of the Neanderthals.
They left works of art such as the Venus of Willendorf.
In the Neolithic age people were living there to dig for mineral resources, especially copper.
Ötzi, a mummy found in a glacier between Austria and Italy, is from that time.
In the Bronze Age people built bigger settlements and fortresses, especially where there were mineral resources.
Salt mining began near Hallstatt.
At that time, Celts began to form the first states.
The Roman cities and their modern names
The Romans came 15 B.C. to Austria and made the Celtic Regnum Noricum to a province.
Modern Austria was part of three provinces, Raetia, Noricum and Pannonia.
The border in the north was the Danube.
Shown on the map
Vindobona-Vienna
Carnuntum- Petronell and Bad Deutsch-Altenburg
Savaria- Szombathely  (Hungary)
Favianis- Mautern an der Donau
Lauriacum- Lorch near Enns
Boiotro- Passau (Germany)
Iuvavum- Salzburg
Sabiona- Säben bei Klausen (Italy)
Aguntum- close to Lienz
Teurnia- close to Spital an der Drau
Virunum - Zollfeld in Carinthia
Brigantium- Bregenz
Lentia- Linz
Ovilava- Wels
Veldidena- Wilten (now part of Innsbruck)
Flavia Solva- near Leibniz
Austria was the Austrian Empire from about 800 to 1867 and was ruled by The House of Habsburg for most of that period.
Between 1867 and 1918 it was a part of Austria-Hungary.
Then it became a republic.
The First Republic was from 1918 to 1938.
From 1938 to 1945 Austria was part of Nazi Germany.
The Second Republic was started in 1945.
Austria is a mountainous country since it is partially in the Alps.
Grossglockner is the tallest mountain in Austria.
The high mountainous Alps in the west of Austria flatten somewhat into low lands and plains in the east of the country where the Danube flows.
Music and Arts
Many famous composers were Austrians or born in Austria.
There are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Johann Strauss, Sr.,
Johann Strauss, Jr. and Gustav Mahler.
In modern times there were Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg, who belonged to the Second Viennese School.
Famous Austrian dishes are Wiener Schnitzel, Apfelstrudel, Schweinsbraten, Kaiserschmarren, Knödel, Sachertorte and Tafelspitz.
But you can also find a lot of local dishes like Kärntner Reindling (a kind of cake), Kärntner Nudeln (also called "Kärntner Kasnudeln", you may write it "...nudln" too), Tiroler Knödl (may be written "...knödel"; ), Tiroler Schlipfkrapfen (another kind of "Kärntner Nudeln"), Salzburger Nockerl (also may be written ..."Nockerln"), Steirisches Wurzelfleisch (..."Wurzlfleisch") or Sterz ("Steirischer Sterz").
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Austria
Historic Centre of Salzburg — 1996
Schönbrunn Palace — 1996
Hallstatt–Dachstein Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape — 1997
Semmering Railway — 1998
Historic Centre of Graz and Schloss Eggenberg — 1999 (extended in 2010)
Wachau Cultural Landscape — 2000
Historic Centre of Vienna — 2001
Lake Neusiedl — 2001
Austria Maps
European Union member states
German-speaking countries
Armenia is officially the Republic of Armenia.
It is a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia.
It is in Eastern Europe and Western Asia on the Armenian Highlands,
Armenia is bordered by Turkey to the west and Georgia to the north.
The de facto independent Republic of Artsakh and Azerbaijan is to the east, and Iran and Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.
Armenia is a multi-party, democratic nation-state in Asia.
Hayasa-Azzi may have played a significant role in the ethnicity of Armenians.
It has an ancient cultural heritage.
One of the earliest Armenian kingdoms such as Urartu was established in 860 BC and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia.
The Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great in the 1st century BC and became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion in the late 3rd or early 4th century AD.
The official date of state adoption of Christianity is 301.
Foreign invasion
Between the 16th century and 19th century, the traditional Armenian homeland composed of Eastern Armenia and Western Armenia came under the rule of the Ottoman and Iranian empires, repeatedly ruled by either of the two over the centuries.
By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by the Russian Empire, while most of the western parts of the traditional Armenian homeland remained under Ottoman rule.
In 1918, following the Russian Revolution, all non-Russian countries declared their independence after the Russian Empire ceased to exist, leading to the establishment of the First Republic of Armenia.
By 1920, the state was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, and in 1922 became a founding member of the Soviet Union.
In 1936, the Transcaucasian state was dissolved, transforming its constituent states, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, into full Union republics.
Armenia is divided into ten provinces, with the city of Yerevan having special administrative status as the country's capital.
The chief executive in each of the ten provinces is the marzpet (marz governor), appointed by the government of Armenia.
The Republic of Armenia recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church, the world's oldest national church, as the country's primary religious establishment.
The unique Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD.
Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Council of Europe and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Armenia supports the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh, which was proclaimed in 1991.
Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of the human past.
It looks at remains and objects left by the people who lived long ago.
These remains may include old coins, tools, buildings, and inscriptions.
Archaeologists, the people who study archaeology, use these remains to understand how people lived.
When archaeologists do fieldwork, they look for remains, often by digging in the ground.
As settlements (places where people lived in groups) change and grow, old buildings get buried.
Usually, this is a natural process.
A typical student project is to leave an object in a place where there is nothing going on.
It will get covered rather quickly, because wind, water and plants will bury it.
Sometimes buildings are deliberately buried to make way for new buildings.
Ancient Rome, for example, is now up to 40 feet (12 metres) below the present city.
This process of natural or man-made burial is why archaeological fieldwork involves digging, and is expensive and takes a long time.
When things are found, or even when nothing is found, the results of the fieldwork are taken back to a base.
Short term, the base is often on or near the site.
Longer term, the results will usually go to a university or museum.
Everything is written down on paper or entered into a computer.
Gradually, they build up a picture of what happened long ago.
Archaeologists publish their research so others can understand what they learned.
Fields of interest
Archaeologists do not all study the same topics.
They have specialties.
Some fields of interest include Ancient Egypt (these specialists are called Egyptologists), Ancient China, or the Vikings.
Archaeologists study every civilization that is known, especially the ones where there is no written history.
They can study any time period.
For example, one might study the beginning of human life in Africa, or study World War II.
Marine archaeologists study things that are now underwater.
They search for sunken ships or cities that have been lost under the sea.
Subdisciplines
There are many different ways of doing archaeology.
these depend on the methods used, the things studied, and the environment.
Some of these subdisciplines overlap with each other.
Marine archaeology
Archaeology relating to oceans, seas and lakes is usually done underwater.
It includes the study of sunken ships and submerged coastlines. "
Maritime archaeology" is a part of this subdivision.
It refers to the archaeological investigation of past ships and seafaring.
A famous example of maritime archaeology is the recovery and restoration of the ship burial at Sutton Hoo.
Ice-patch archaeology
When a glacier melts, objects that were captured in it are revealed.
The recovery and study of these objects is called "ice-patch archaeology".
A famous example is Ötzi the Iceman.
Historical archaeology
Historical archaeology deals with places, things, and issues from the past or present at or related to sites with written records or oral traditions.
Or it can be defined as "the archaeological investigation of any past culture that has developed a literate tradition."
A prominent example of historical archaeology is the work done at Colonial Williamsburg.
Archaeozoology, or zooarchaeology, is the study of the relationships between humans and animals in the archaeological record.
This includes the study of bones, feathers, teeth and other body parts as well as their interpretation.
Experimental archaeology
This field involves attempts at replicating the actions and conditions of ancient cultures.
Good examples are Butser Ancient Farm and Overton Down.
Sometimes archaeological sites are found when foundations are dug for new buildings.
Archaeologists have to work quickly when this happens, because people who are building often don't have a lot of time.
As soon as the archaeologists are done with their work, the remains that they have found will be covered over, unless they are very important.
Archaeology -Citizendium
In medicine, 'application' means putting some drug or ointment usually on the skin where it is absorbed into the human body.
In computer software, an application is a type of program which is designed for a particular function.
Example: word processing.
In business or government, an application is a (usually paper) form filled out and handed in by a person seeking a privilege from a state or company, such as work, credit, some type of license or permit, or a place to live.
At work, generally engineering, when dealing with certain materials or objects, an "application" is a purpose that material or object can be used for.
Wood and steel have many applications.
Application is application!
Animals (or Metazoa) are living creatures with many cells.
They are eukaryotes.
Animals get energy from other living things.
Usually they eat them or are parasites.
Some have photosynthetic protists as symbionts.
The study of animals is called zoology.
The study of ancient life is called palaeontology.
Most animals are mobile, meaning they can move around.
Animals take in oxygen, and give out carbon dioxide.
This cellular respiration is part of their metabolism (chemical working).
In both these ways they are different from plants.
Also, the cells of animals have different cell membranes to other eukaryotes like plants and fungi.
Grouping animals
There are many different types of animals.
The common animals most people know are only about 3% of the animal kingdom.
When biologists look at animals, they find things that certain animals have in common.
They use this to group the animals in a biological classification.
Several million species may exist, but biologists have only identified about one million.
Animals can mainly be divided into two main groups: the invertebrates and the vertebrates.
Vertebrates have a backbone, or spine; invertebrates do not.
Vertebrates are the only group to have an adaptive immune system, which may be partly responsible for their size and success.
fish (or 'fishes': both ways are correct)
crustaceans
molluscs (like a snail or squid)
Life styles
The animal mode of nutrition is called heterotrophic because they get their food from other living organisms.
Some animals eat only plants; they are called herbivores.
Other animals eat only meat and are called carnivores.
Animals that eat both plants and meat are called omnivores.
The environments animals live in vary greatly.
By the process of evolution, animals adapt to the habitats they live in.
A fish is adapted to its life in water and a spider is adapted to a life catching and eating insects.
A mammal living on the savannahs of East Africa lives quite a different life from a dolphin or porpoise catching fish in the sea.
The fossil record of animals goes back about 600 million years to the Ediacaran period, or somewhat earlier.
During the whole of this long time, animals have been constantly evolving, so that the animals alive on Earth today are very different from those on the edges of the sea-floor in the Ediacaran.
Everyday language
In scientific usage, humans are animals.
But in everyday use, humans are often not regarded as animals.
Ethology, the study of animal behaviour
Acceleration is a measure of how fast velocity changes.
Acceleration is the change of velocity divided by the change of time.
Acceleration is a vector, and therefore includes both a size and a direction.
Acceleration is also a change in speed and direction, there is:
Distance is how far you traveled
Time is how long it took you to travel
Speed is how fast you are moving - Speed = Distance / Time
Displacement is how much your position has changed in what direction
Velocity is how quickly your position is changing and in what direction
Velocity = Displacement / Time
An object was moving north at 10 meters per second.
The object speeds up and now is moving north at 17 meters per second.
The object has accelerated.
An apple is falling down.
It starts falling at 0 meters per second.
At the end of the first second, the apple is moving at 9.8 meters per second.
The apple has accelerated.
At the end of the second second, the apple is moving down at 19.6 meters per second.
The apple has accelerated again.
Jane is walking east at 3 kilometers per hour.
Jane's velocity does not change.
Jane's acceleration is zero.
Tom was walking east at 3 kilometers per hour.
Tom turns and walks south at 3 kilometers per hour.
Tom has had a nonzero acceleration.
Sally was walking east at 3 kilometers per hour.
Sally slows down.
After, Sally walks east at 1.5 kilometers per hour.
Sally has had a nonzero acceleration.
Finding acceleration
Acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object.
Acceleration  can be found by using:
is the velocity at the start
s the time at the start
is the time at the end
Sometimes the change in velocity  is written as Δ. Sometimes the change in time  is written as Δt.
In difficult situations, the acceleration can be calculated using mathematics: in calculus, acceleration is the derivative of the velocity (with respect to time), .
Acceleration has its own units of measurement.
For example, if velocity is measured in meters per second, and if time is measured in seconds, then acceleration is measured in meters per second squared  (m/s2).
Other words
Acceleration can be positive or negative.
When the acceleration is negative (but the velocity does not change direction), it is sometimes called deceleration.
For example, when a car brakes it decelerates.
Physicists usually only use the word "acceleration".
Newton's second law of motion
Newton's laws of motion are rules for how things move.
These rules are called "laws of motion".
Isaac Newton is the scientist who first wrote down the main laws of motion.
The formula of Newton's Second Law of Motion is ,
where  is the acceleration,  is the force, and  the mass.
This formula is very well-known, and it is very important in physics.
Newton's Second Law of Motion, in short "Newton's Second Law", is often one of the first things that physics students learn.
Deceleration is negative or backwards acceleration.
This means that something slows down instead of speeding up.
For example, when a car brakes, it is decelerating.
Basic physics ideas
Black pudding is an English name for zwarte pudding.
It is food made by cooking down the blood of any mammal (usually pigs or cattle) with meat, fat or filler until it is thick enough to congeal (become firm or solid) when cooled.
Types of black pudding
In Great Britain, blood sausage is called  "black pudding".
The ingredients include pig's blood, suet, bread, barley and oatmeal.
The most common kind of German Blutwurst is made from fatty pork meat, beef blood and filler such as barley.
Though already cooked and "ready to eat" it is usually served warm.
Other kinds of blood sausage include boudin noir (France), boudin rouge (Creole and Cajun) and morcilla (Spain).
A legend says that blood sausage was invented in a bet between two Bavarian butchers drunk on the alcoholic drink absinthe during the 14th century.
Homer's Odyssey from Ancient Greece says that "As when a man besides a great fire has filled a sausage with fat and blood and turns it this way and that and is very eager to get it quickly roasted...".
A boot device is used to start a computer.
It is named after a boot which fits on the foot.
The word bootstrap is also closely related, and means, to use something simpler to get something more complex to make itself work better.
It comes from the English phrase "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps."
Before a computer can operate normally, it must have operating system instructions that tell it how to perform basic functions.
A boot device loads the operating system into the memory of the computer.
Devices that can boot a computer are usually boot disks or boot drives (normally a hard drive or Solid State Drive, but can be a floppy disk, flash drive or a CD).
Some network computers use boot chips that get the operating system over a network.
Web phones also use such chips to identify the user to the mobile phone network.
Boot card standards may let many users boot kiosk computers with full privacy and access to all application software they own.
There are also boot boards or boot add-in cards that are more permanent than boot cards.
The boot in boot device is the same as booting (or starting up).
This is short for bootstrapping, or to start with simple stuff and make complex stuff out of it.
A boot is a type of footwear that protects the foot and ankle.
Boots are higher and larger than shoes and sandals.
Some boots are high enough to protect the calves (lower part of the leg) as well.
Some boots are held on with bootstraps or bootlaces.
Some also have spats or gaiters to keep water out.
Most have a very strong boot sole, the bottom part of a boot.
Types of boots
Rain boots (or rubber boots) are made from rubber or plastic.
Rain boots protect a person's feet from water and rain.
People who work on fishing boats and farmers wear rubber boots to keep their feet dry.
People who work in chemical factories wear rubber boots to protect their feet from dangerous chemicals.
Winter boots are boots that keep a person's feet warm in cold weather.
People in cold countries such as Canada and Sweden wear winter boots during the cold season.
Winter boots can be made from many different materials, such as leather, fabric, or plastic.
Winter boots are insulated with wool or fur to keep the feet warm.
Most winter boots also keep people's feet dry.
Work boots (or "construction boots") are designed for people who work in construction or factory jobs.
Work boots often have a steel toe cover to protect the person's toes.
Work boots are usually made of strong leather, to protect the person's foot from sharp objects or dangerous chemicals.
Some work boots have a flat piece of steel in the sole to protect the foot from sharp nails.
Many countries require construction workers to wear work boots when they are on a construction site.
Fashion boots are boots that are worn for style than for protection.
Usually the term is used for women's boots.
These kind of boots come in many heights, where the top ends at the ankle, the knee, or the thigh.
The ones that are tall are usually closed by a zipper or can stretch for putting it on easily.
This is because using shoe laces would take time for the taller types.
Bankruptcy is a legal process which happens when a person or an organization does not have enough money to pay all of its debts.
Legally they are insolvent.
Where it is a person who cannot pay their debts, the person's creditors may ask the court to appoint a trustee in bankruptcy.
This is a professional accountant who is appointed by the court, to take control of the bankrupt person's assets.
Some assets are protected by law, but the trustee in bankruptcy will sell off all of the other assets and use the money to pay as much of that person's debts as possible.
After the process is complete the person is discharged from bankruptcy, and the person is free from any further liability to pay those claims, but normally that person will be limited in their ability to borrow money again because their credit rating will be damaged.
Where it is an organisation which cannot pay its debts, the creditors may ask the court to appoint a liquidator.
The liquidator does a very similar job to the trustee in bankruptcy except that there are no assets which are protected so the liquidator can sell everything.
Once all of the assets of the organisation have been sold, the organisation is then dissolved and no longer exists.
Organisations do not get discharged from bankruptcy in the same way that a living person does.
Insolvency or bankruptcy
People often confuse the terms bankruptcy and insolvency, and sometimes they use one word when they really mean the other.
Insolvency usually just means that a someone does not have enough money to pay their debts or (sometimes) that the total amount of their debts is worth more than the total amount of their assets.
Bankruptcy is a formal legal process in front of the courts.
Although the two terms are connected, just because a person is insolvent does not necessarily mean that they will go into bankruptcy.
Alternatives to bankruptcy
In various countries, individual people can try and reach individual voluntary arrangements (or IVAs) with their creditors.
This means that the creditors agree to take less money to discharge their debts.
There are similar processes for companies and other organisations, and they go by various different names in different countries, but in many countries they are called schemes of arrangement.
Bankruptcy protection