timescale/wikipedia-22-12-simple-embeddings huggingface dataset:
Earth and the other planets formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Their origin was quite different from that of the Sun. The Sun was formed almost entirely of hydrogen, while the planets were formed mostly from higher elements. The smaller "rocky" planets are made almost entirely of higher elements. The Sun must have moved through areas where supernovae had previously exploded. All the planets have higher elements which are only made in supernovae. Only the so-called "gas giants" have much hydrogen and helium.
Earth's water came from different places. Condensing water vapour, and comets and asteroids hitting Earth, made the oceans. Within a billion years (that is at about 3.6 billion years ago) the first life evolved, in the Archaean era. Some bacteria developed photosynthesis, which let them make food from the Sun's light and water. This released a lot of oxygen, which was first taken up by iron in solution. Eventually, free oxygen got into the atmosphere or air, making Earth's surface suitable for aerobic life (see Great Oxygenation Event). This oxygen also formed the ozone layer which protects life from ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Complex life on the surface of the land did not exist before the ozone layer.
Earth's land and climate has been very different in the past. About 3 to 3.5 billion years ago almost all land was in one place. This is called a supercontinent. The earliest known supercontinent was called Vaalbara. Much later, there was a time (the Cryogenian) when Earth was almost entirely covered by thick ice sheets (glaciers). This is discussed as the Snowball Earth theory.
Overall, Earth is made of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%). The 1.2% left over is made of many different kinds of other chemicals. Some rare metals (not just gold and platinum) are very valuable. Rare Earth metals are used in all types of electronic phones and computers.
The Earth's crust is solid but made of parts which move very slowly. The thin skin of hard rock on the outside of the Earth rests on hot liquid material below it in the deeper mantle. This liquid material moves because it gets heat from the hot center of the Earth. The slow movement of the plates is what causes earthquakes, volcanoes and large groups of mountains on the Earth.
The outside of the Earth is not even. There are high places called mountains, and high flat places called plateaus. There are low places called valleys and canyons. For the most part, moving air and water from the sky and seas damages rocks in high places and breaks them into small pieces. The air and water then move these pieces to lower places. Because of this, the Earth would have been very flat a long time before now. The fundamental cause of the differences in the Earth's surface is plate tectonics. The shape of the entire planet itself is not even a ball. Because of its velocity, Earth has a slight bulge at the Equator.
All around the Earth is the of air (the atmosphere). The mass of the Earth holds the gasses in the air down and does not let them go into outer space. The air is mostly made of nitrogen (about 78%) and oxygen (about 21%) and there are a few other gasses as well. Most living things need the air (or parts of the air gripped in the water) to breathe and live. They use the gasses—especially oxygen and carbon dioxide—to make and use sugar and to give themselves power.
The air animals and plants use to live is only the first level of the air around the Earth (the troposphere). The day to day changes in this level of air are called weather; the larger differences between distant places and from year to year are called the climate. Rain and storms come about because this part of the air gets colder as it goes up. Cold air becomes thicker and falls, and warm air becomes thinner and goes up. The turning Earth moves the air as well and air moves north and south because the middle of the Earth generally gets more power from the Sun and is warmer than the north and south points. Air over warm water evaporates but, because cold air is not able to take in as much water, it starts to make clouds and rain as it gets colder. The way water moves around in a circle like this is called the water cycle.
Even though air seems very light, the weight of all of the air above the outside of the Earth (air pressure) is important. Generally, from sea level to the top of the outer level of the air, a space of air one cm across has a mass of about 1.03 kg and a space of air one sq in across has a weight of about 14.7 lb. Because of the air, small meteorites generally burn up long before they get to the earth.
The air also keeps the Earth warm, specially the half turned away from the Sun. Some gasses – especially methane and carbon dioxide – work like a blanket to keep things warm. In the past, the Earth has been much warmer and much colder than it is now. Since people have grown used to the heat we have now, though, we do not want the Earth to be too much warmer or colder. Most of the ways people create electric power use burning kinds of carbon—especially coal, oil, and natural gas. Burning these creates new carbon dioxide and can cause more warming. A large discussion is going on now about what people should do about the Earth's latest warming, which has gone on for about 150 years. So far, this warming has been acceptable: plants have grown better. The weather has been better than when it was colder. Bad things may happen if the warming goes on.
About eight billion people live on Earth. They live in about 200 different lands called countries. Some, for example, Russia, are large with many large cities. Others, for example, Vatican City, are small. The seven countries with the most people are China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil and Nigeria. About 90% of people live in the northern hemisphere of the world, which has most of the land. Human beings originally came from Africa. Now, 70% of all people do not live in Africa but in Europe and Asia.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born on (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956), popularly known as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer. He inspired the Dalit Buddhist Movement and campaigned against social discrimination against Untouchables (Dalits), and also supported the rights of women and labour. He was independent India's first law minister, the principal architect of the Constitution of India.
Between the 17th and mid 20th-centuries, Britain was a world power. It became a colonial empire that controlled large areas of Africa, Asia, North America and Oceania. At its height in 1922, more than 458 million people lived in the British Empire, one-fifth of the Earth's population. Its area was 13,012,000 square miles: almost a quarter of the Earth's land area. The empire was sometimes called 'the empire on which the sun never sets', meaning it is always daytime someplace in the empire. Almost all countries left and became independent from the empire in the 20th century, although Britain keeps links with most countries of its former empire.
The "UK" is a common abbreviation of "United Kingdom", which derives from when England's multiple Kingdoms had been United.
Species of humans have lived in Britain for almost a million years. They did not live there all the time, probably because the climate was too extreme at times for people to live there.
Written history began in Britain when writing was brought to Britain by the Romans. Rome ruled in Britain from 44 to 410. They ruled the southern two-thirds of Great Britain. The Romans never took over Ireland and never fully controlled Scotland , the land north of the valleys of the River Forth and River Clyde. Their northern border varied from time to time and was marked sometimes at Hadrian's Wall (in modern England), sometimes at the Antonine Wall (in modern Scotland).
The physical geography of the UK varies greatly. England consists of mostly lowland terrain, with upland or mountainous terrain only found north-west of the River Tees-River Exe line. The upland areas include the Lake District, the Pennines, the North York Moors, Exmoor, and Dartmoor. The lowland areas are typically traversed by ranges of low hills, frequently composed of chalk, and flat plains. Scotland is the most mountainous country in the UK and its physical geography is distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault which goes across the Scottish mainland from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich is the defining point of the Prime Meridian.
The weather of the United Kingdom is changeable and unpredictable. Summers are moderately warm, winters are cool to cold. Rain falls throughout the year, and more on the west than the east because of its northerly latitude and the warm water from the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf Stream. The usually moderate prevailing winds from the Atlantic may be interrupted by Arctic air from the northeast or hot air from the Sahara.
Unlike the House of Commons, the people in the House of Lords are not elected. The people who sit in the House of Lords are called peers. Most peers are appointed by the government. There are some who are hereditary peers (who inherit their peerages from ancestors or other family members). Certain bishops in the established Church of England also attend the House of Lords. (The Church of England is the national church in England. The Church of Scotland does not have bishops, and neither Wales nor Northern Ireland has an established national church.) Together, the two houses make a bicameral legislature, in which the House of Commons has more power. In the past, the House of Lords had more power. Before the 20th century, the prime minister was often a member of the House of Lords. As the House of Lords lost its powers, as political reforms tried to improve democracy, the House of Commons became more powerful and the prime minister started always to be a member of the House of Commons.
The United Kingdom is a developed country with the sixth-largest economy in the world. It was a superpower during the 18th, 19th and early 20th century and was considered since the early 1800s to be the most powerful and influential nation in the world, in politics, economics (For it was the wealthiest country at the time.) and in military strength.
The University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and London universities (University College London, the London School of Economics, King's College London and Imperial College London) collectively form the Golden Triangle of universities in the south-east of England. A broader group of twenty universities from the Russell Group of research universities.
The system of rail transport was invented in England and Wales, so the United Kingdom has the oldest railway network in the world. It was built mostly during the Victorian era. At the heart of the network are five long-distance main lines which radiate from London to the major cities and secondary population centres with dense commuter networks in the regions. The newest part of the network connects London to the Channel Tunnel from St Pancras station.
The British Rail network is partly privatized, with privately-owned train operating companies providing service along particular lines or regions. The tracks, signals, and stations are owned by a Government controlled company called Network Rail. In Northern Ireland, the NI Railways is the national railway. The system of underground railways in London, known as the Tube, has been copied by many other cities.
Most domestic air travel in the United Kingdom is between London and the major cities in Scotland and the North of England and Belfast. London-Heathrow is the nation’s largest airport and is one of the most important international hubs in the world. Other major airports with principal international service include London-Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. An extensive system of ferry networks operates. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands also have domestic passenger and freight routs.
When the settlers looked west from Sydney, they saw a range of mountains which they called the Blue Mountains. They were not very high and did not look very rugged but for many years no-one could find their way through them. In 1813 Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and a 17-year-old called William Charles Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains and found land on the other side which was good for farming. A road was built and the governor, Lachlan Macquarie founded the town of Bathurst on the other side, 160 km (100 miles) from Sydney. Bathurst became Australia's first inland settlement.
The earliest alphabet-related system of numerals used with the Greek letters was a set of the acrophonic Attic numerals, operating much like Roman numerals (which derived from this scheme), with the following formula: Ι = 1, Γ = 5, Δ = 10, ΓΔ = 50, Η = 100, ΓΗ = 500, Χ = 1000, ΓΧ = 5000, Μ = 10000 and ΓΜ = 50000.
Mainland France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is sometimes referred to as "L’Hexagone" ("The Hexagon") because of the shape of its territory.
France is a unitary semi-presidential republic. The head of state is the President, who is also a politician. The Prime Minister is secondary to the President. This slightly strange system was chosen by General Charles de Gaul in 1970. The main ideals are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
An interesting fact is that the French King Louis XIX only enjoyed 20 minutes of royal fame after his father Charles X abdicated, leaving him to ascend the French throne in July 1830.
France has the second-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world. It covers 11,035,000 km (4,260,637 sq mi). Only the United States has a larger one .
France had a monarchy until the French Revolution in 1789. King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed in 1793. Thousands of other French citizens were killed. Napoleon Bonaparte took control of the Republic in 1799. He later made himself Emperor of the First Empire (1804–1814). His armies conquered most of continental Europe. The metric system was invented by French scientists during the French revolution. That time 3 estates were developed.
France's economy has nearly 2.9 million registered companies. The government has a considerable influence over railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunications firms (as it owns big companies like SNCF and EDF (French electricity)). France has an important aerospace (design of aircraft and spacecraft) industry led by Airbus. It can also launch rockets from French Guiana.
France is the leading agricultural producer and exporter in Europe. France exports wheat, poultry, dairy products, beef, and pork. It is also famous for its wine industry. France received 10 billion euros in 2006 from the European Community as subsidies to its farmers.
On 1 January 2008, it was estimated that 63.8 million people live in France, including in the Overseas Regions of France. 61,875,000 of these live in metropolitan France, the part of the country that is within Europe.
France is the number one tourist destination in the world. In 2007, 81.9 million foreign tourists visited France. Spain comes second (58.5 million in 2006) and the United States comes third (51.1 million in 2006).
Prince Rogers Nelson (better known as Prince) (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) was an American musician and dancer. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
When throwing the ball, the pitcher stand on top of the pitcher's mound with both feet. The pitcher's rubber is on top of the mound. The pitcher cannot take more than one step forward when he throws the ball. That makes the pitcher throw the ball slower. Many major-league pitchers can throw the ball up to 100 miles per hour (145 km/h). Throwing a baseball that fast can be bad for the body, and they can be injured often. Doctors often will perform Tommy John surgery on a pitcher with an elbow injury. The operation is named after Tommy John, the first pitcher to have the surgery. Today, pitchers are able to recover from their injuries much faster and better than before Tommy John surgery.
Grasses are an important food for many animals, like deer, buffalo, cattle, mice, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and many other grazers. Unlike other plants, grasses grow from the bottom, so when animals eat grass they usually do not destroy the part that grows. This is a part of why they are successful. Without grass, earth may wash away into rivers (erosion).
The C programming language is a low-level (close to the computer) computer programming language that was developed to do system programming for the operating system UNIX and is an imperative programming language. C was developed in the early 1970s by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs. It is a procedural language, which means that people can write their programs as a series of step-by-step instructions. C is a compiled language. This means that the computer doesn't have to build the application every time it is opened.
Because the ideas behind C are kept close to the design of the computer, the compiler (program builder) can generate machine code/native code for the computer. Programs built in machine code can be very fast. C has a variety of uses. From writing simple console applications, to even operating systems, such as Linux, MacOS and UNIX. The language itself has very few keywords, and most things are done using libraries, which are collections of code made to be reused. C has a big standard library called stdio, which stands for standard input/output.
Grass is a plant with narrow leaves growing from the base. A common kind of grass is used to cover the ground in places such as lawns and parks. Grass is usually the colour ‘green’. Grasses are monocotyledon, herbaceous plants.
The grasses include the "grass", of the family Poaceae (also called Gramineae). Also sometimes it is used to include the sedges (Cyperaceae) and the rushes (Juncaceae). These three families are "not" closely related but belong to different clades in the order Poales. They are similar adaptations to a common life-style.
Many grasses are short, but some grasses, like bamboo can grow very tall. Plants from the grass family can grow in many placesans make grasslands, even if they are very cold or very dry. Several other plants that look similar but are not members of the grass family are also sometimes called grass; these include rushes, reeds, papyrus, and water chestnut. Seagrass is a monocot in the order Alismatales.
Judaism (Hebrew: יהדות) is the world's oldest Abrahamic religion. It is almost 4,000 years old and originated in Israel. There are about 15 million followers. They are called Jews or Jewish people. It is the oldest monotheistic religion. The Torah is the most important holy book of Judaism. The laws and teachings of Judaism come from the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible and oral traditions. Some of these were first oral traditions and later written in the Mishnah, the Talmud, and other works.
Both Christianity and Islam are related to Judaism. These religions accept the belief in one God and the moral teachings of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), which includes the Torah or "תורה."
The most important teaching of Judaism is that there is one God, who wants people to do what is just and compassionate. Judaism teaches that a person serves God by learning the holy books and doing what they teach. These teachings include both ritual actions and ethics. Judaism teaches that all people are made in the image of God and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Jews believe that God is one – a unity: God is one whole, complete being. God cannot be divided into parts and people cannot say how God looks in words; they can only say how God is and what God does.
Judaism says that God exists forever, that God is everywhere, and that God knows everything. God is above nature (“supernatural”) but God is in the world and hears those who pray to God and will answer them. God is the main power in the universe.
Judaism teaches that God allows people to choose what to do – this is called “free will.” Free will is the freedom to do whatever a person wants, but that they must be responsible for their own actions. People are responsible for their actions. God rewards people who do good, and will punish those who do wrong. God gives a person a reward or a punishment in this world, but God gives the final reward or punishment to the soul of the person after their death.
Jews believe that God made an agreement called a “covenant” with Abraham, the ancestor of the Jewish people. The Bible says that God promised to bless Abraham and his descendants if they worshipped God and were faithful to God. God made this covenant with Abraham's son, Isaac, and with Isaac's son, Jacob. God gave Jacob another name, Israel. This is how Jacob’s descendants got the name the “Children of Israel” or “Israelites.” God later gave the Torah to the Israelites through their leader, Moses. The Torah told the Israelites how to live and build their community. God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments and other laws in the Torah (613 in total).
The Jews are sometimes called the “Chosen People". This is because the Bible says God told them, “You will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6) and “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord chose you to be God's own special nation out of all peoples on the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:2). Jews understand that this means they have special duties and responsibilities commanded by God. For example, Jews must build a just society and serve only God. Jews believe that this covenant works in two ways: if they follow God’s laws, God will give them God's love and protection, but they are also responsible for their sins – bad actions – and disobeying what God told them. Jews believe that they must teach other people that God exists and that God wants all people to do good actions. Jews believe that their job in the world is to be "a light to the nations" (Isiah 49:6) by showing the people of the world ways to make the world a better place.
Jews believe that God has given them a special job which is to repair the world. Their job is to make the world a better place with more good in it. They must use the things in the world to increase good and come closer to God. They call this “"tikkun olam"” – repairing the world. Jews see themselves and all people as partners with God. People must repair the world in any way they can – to find ways to lessen suffering of people and animals, to make more peace, bring respect between people and protect the earth’s environment from destruction.
Jews believe that God tells them in the Torah the way of life that they must follow. The Torah says God wants the people of Israel to walk in God's ways, to love God, and to serve God, and to keep God’s commandments (Deut. 10:12–13). Actions are more important than beliefs and beliefs must be made into actions.
In World War I the Ottoman Empire was one of the Central Powers. During the war, 500,000 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were massacred in the so-called Armenian genocide. Turkey denies that the event was genocide. The Central Powers lost the war and the Ottoman Empire was destroyed, but after that Atatürk led the newly formed Turkish army to get rid of foreign enemies, like the Greeks and ousted the imperial Ottoman family from Anatolia.
Many "mitzvot" in the Torah are about the Land of Israel. The Talmud and later books call these "mitzvot" “commandments connected to the Land” because Jews can only do them in the Land of Israel. For example, Jews give gifts to the poor or the priests from their fields every year, and before the Temple was destroyed, take fruit or animals to the Temple in Jerusalem, and must stop working on the land every seven years (the “shmittah” – sabbatical year).
The Jewish people believe their history as a nation begins with Abraham. The story of Abraham in the Torah begins when God tells Abraham to leave his country. God promises Abraham and his descendants a new home in the land of Canaan. This is now known as the Land of Israel. It is named after Abraham's grandson, Jacob, who was also called Israel and who was the father of the twelve tribes. This is where the name “Land of Israel” comes from. The land is also called “the Promised Land” because in the Torah, God promises to give the land to the children of Abraham (, , , ).
The story of leaving Egypt, called the Exodus, is very important in the way the Jewish people understand the world. The Torah tells how God took a group of slaves, the Israelites, from slavery, and tells them how to be God's partner to build the world. Jews see this story as a model for the whole world. In the future, the whole world will change, and all the people of the world will serve the one God. This will be God’s kingdom on Earth. They believe the whole of Jewish history, and world history, is part of this process.
Green is a colour between the yellow and blue colours in the rainbow. Green is a primary colour (a colour that can be mixed with another color) of light. The others are red and blue.
In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus and later established the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Denktaş became the first Turkish Cypriot president.
In 2022, the government of Turkey started to use the Turkish spelling of Türkiye in both Turkish and English. However, Turkey remains the more common name.
They are one of the most popular pets in the world. They are kept by humans for hunting rodents and as friends.
The word 'cat' is also used for other felines. Felines are usually called either big cats or small cats. The big, wild cats are well known: lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, pumas, and cheetahs. There are small wild cats in most parts of the world, such as the lynx in northern Europe. The big cats and wild cats are not tame, and can be very dangerous.
In the past, mostly in Egypt, people kept domestic cats because they hunted and ate mice and rats. Today, people often keep cats as pets. There are also domestic cats which live without being cared for by people. These kinds of cats are called "feral cats" or "stray cats".
Cats are active carnivores, meaning that in the wild they hunt live prey. Their main prey is small mammals (like mice). They will also stalk, and sometimes kill and eat, birds. Cats eat a wide variety of prey, including insects such as flies and grasshoppers. Their main method of hunting is "stalk and pounce". While dogs have great stamina and will chase prey over long distances, cats are extremely fast, but only over short distances.
The basic cat coat colouring, tabby (see top photo), gives it good camouflage in grass and woodland. The cat creeps towards a chosen victim, keeping its body flat and near to the ground so that it cannot be seen easily, until it is close enough for a rapid dash or pounce. Cats, especially kittens, practice these instinctive behaviours in play with each other or on small toys. Cats can fish. They use a flip-up movement of a front paw which, when successful, flips the fish out of water and over the cat's shoulders onto the grass. Dutch research showed this to be an innate (inherited) behaviour pattern which developed early and without maternal teaching.
Cats only mate when the queen is "in heat". Heat periods occur about every two weeks and last 4 to 6 days. Mating in cats is a spectacular event. Several toms may be attracted to a [queen] in heat. The males will fight over her, and the victor wins the right to mate. At first, the female will reject the male, but eventually the female will allow the male to mate. The female will utter a loud yowl as the male pulls out of her. This is because a male cat's penis has a band of about 120-150 backwards-pointing spines, which are about one millimeter long. When the penis is withdrawn, the spines rake the walls of the female's vagina, which is a trigger for ovulation. After mating, the female will wash her vulva thoroughly. If a male attempts to breed with her at this point, the female will attack him. After about 20 to 30 minutes. once the female is finished grooming, the cycle will repeat.
House cats can become "overweight" through lack of exercise and over-feeding because people don't watch them. When they get "spayed" or neutered ("fixed"), they tend to exercise less. Spaying is done for queens, and neutering is done for toms. It is important to fix cats, and here are some reasons. First of all, if a female cat has kittens, they will need homes. Finding homes for kittens is often quite difficult. If a tom is not fixed, it develops a disgusting smell. Breeders who have entire toms keep them in a special hut outside the house, for that reason. Fixing also helps to avoid over-population. Over-population means that there are too many cats, and some will be put to sleep (put down) in animal pounds (animal shelters).
Kittens are sometimes born with defects. People who receive cats as gifts are recommended to get it examined for its health. Some birth defects need attention. Others are harmless, like polydactyly. Polydactyly means many digits, or many "fingers" from poly (many) and dactyl (digit). Sometimes, there is a mutation (change) in cat families. Most cats have only four to five toes per paw, depending on whether it is the front or back paw. These mutated cats have six, seven, and in rare cases even more. All of these cats are called "polydactyl cats". They can also be called "Hemingway cats" because author Ernest Hemingway owned some of these cats.
According to religiosity poll conducted in Turkey in 2019 by OPTİMAR, 89.5% of the population identifies as Muslim, 4.5% believed in God but did not belong to an organized religion, 2.7% were agnostic, 1.7% were atheist, 0.5% were belonged to the other religions, and 1.1% did not answer. Another poll conducted by Gezici Araştırma in 2020 interviewed 1,062 people in 12 provinces and found that 28.5% of the Generation Z in Turkey identify as irreligious.
Apartheid was a racist political and social system in South Africa during the era of white minority rule. It enforced racial discrimination against non-whites, mainly focused on skin colour and facial features. This existed in the twentieth century, from 1948 until the early-1990s. The word "apartheid" means "distantiation” in the Afrikaans language. Racial segregation had existed in Southern Africa for centuries. In the elections of 1948 the National Party took power and in the next few years made new apartheid laws. The new laws more strictly enforced segregation. In theory, it was to bring independence to the African majority in their own little countries to be created from South African territory.
Under this system, the people of South Africa were divided by their race and the different races were forced to live separately from each other. There were laws to keep them separated. The apartheid system in South Africa was abolished in 1994, when a new constitution was ratified which abolished the previous system of segregation. The last President who held office during the apartheid era was Frederik Willem de Klerk; who was responsible for holding negotiations with political prisoner Nelson Mandela to bring an end to apartheid. Following these successful negotiations, Nelson Mandela was elected to the Presidency of South Africa after multi-racial elections were held in April 1994, and became the first black person to hold the position. He was 75 years old The pair were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. Today, the term apartheid is sometimes used for similar segregational systems in other countries.
The first multiracial election in which all races could vote, was held on 27 April 1994. Nelson Mandela was elected president, with De Klerk and Thabo Mbeki as deputies. This date considered the end of apartheid. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created to help victims speak out and seek justice. It was chaired by Desmond Tutu in the 1990s.
In a poem on Nelson Mandela by Isaiah Ogedegbe, the term apartheid has been used as "a symbol of oppression".
Leonardo wanted to know everything about nature. He wanted to know how everything worked. He was very good at studying, designing and making all sorts of interesting things. He is not to be confused with Leonardo Vinci, Italian music composer.
In reproduction the job of the penis is to carry sperm from the testicles into a woman's body so that a sperm can join together with the woman's ovum (egg cell) to form a new cell that will grow into a baby. The process of fusion of a sperm and an ovum is called fertilization.
A man's penis is usually soft, quite short and hangs down. When a man becomes aroused (sexually excited), the inside of his penis fills with blood. This causes the penis to become bigger, thicker and harder and to stand upright, and is called having an erection. When a man has an erection, he is able to have sexual intercourse by putting his penis into a woman's vagina. During an erection, a valve stops urine from entering the urethra so that only semen flows along it. This is why it is very difficult for a man to urinate when he is having an erection.
Horses are a diverse group of animals of the family "Equidae". They are herbivores, which means they eat grass and other plants. Some plants are dangerous for them like ragwort, lemongrass (oil grass) and sometimes acorns.
Leonardo started work on a new painting. He drew a large "cartoon". (This means a drawing that is a plan for the painting.) The cartoon showed the Virgin Mary sitting on the knee of her mother, St Anne. Mary holds the baby Jesus in her arms. Jesus stretches out his hands to his young cousin John the Baptist. Vasari says that everyone was so amazed by the beautiful drawing that "men and women, young and old" came in large groups to see it "as if they were attending a great festival". The drawing is now in the National Gallery, London. Even though it is old and faded and is kept in a dark room, people go to the gallery to sit in front of it every day. .
A movie or film is a type of visual art that uses images and sounds to tell stories or teach people something. Most people watch movies to entertain themselves or to have fun. Some movies can make people laugh, but other movies can make them cry, or make them feel afraid.
Movies with famous stars (actors who are well known) and large budgets (lots of money), are designed to have a large appeal (something a person would like about the , so that hopefully millions of people will pay to see them. These most expensive movies are called blockbusters.
‘’’Christmas’’’ (which means “The Mass of Christ”) is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God. Christmas is also a cultural holiday for many non-Christians.
Christmas Day is celebrated on the 25th day of December. It is one of the most important days of the year for Christians, along with Easter (which celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus). The season of Advent begins on a Sunday about four weeks before Christmas. During Advent, people prepare for Christmas.
The Christmas season (called Christmastide) ends 6 January, also called the Twelfth Day of Christmas. On this day, Christians celebrate ‘’Epiphany‘’.
People celebrate Christmas in many places around the world. Some people celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. In some places, Christmas is a time of celebration for Christians and non-Christians alike. Christmas traditions are different in different countries. However, they almost always include a feast; giving gifts or cards; and enjoying church or public festivities, like singing Christmas carols and songs. Christmas is not limited to Christianity.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. There are four different Gospels in the Bible which talk about Jesus’s birth. The Gospel of Luke gives details about Jesus’s birth. The Gospel of Matthew tells another part of the story. The Gospel of John says that Jesus came from God to bring his “Word” (his message) to all people. Christians believe these Gospels are based on fact.
The Gospels say that many years before Jesus’ birth, prophets had told a promise to the Jewish people that God would send them a Messiah, or holy teacher. Christians believe that the promised Messiah was Jesus. His mother was a young woman called Mary, who was engaged, but not yet married to a carpenter called Joseph. Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant and was upset. He was wondering what he should do, when an angel came from God to tell him that the baby was the Holy One. The angel said that he must ‘’name the baby’’. This was a sign that he would take care of it like his own child.
The baby Jesus had two lots of visitors. On the night he was born, angels told some shepherds in the fields that they would find a newborn king lying in an animals’ feed bin (or ‘’manger’’). Jesus’ other visitors were some wise men who saw a new star in the sky and followed it, until they found the house where the family was now living and gave the young child expensive gifts of gold, incense and a precious herb called myrrh. (The wise men are often traditionally called the Three Kings, because there were three very expensive presents but the Bible does not say how many wise men there were.)
All these parts of the Christmas story are remembered and celebrated in different ways at Christmas: in pictures, songs, plays, stories and in models that are called “cribs”, “creches” or “presepe”.
Some Christians, like Jehovah's Witnesses, do not celebrate Christmas because there is no instruction from Jesus in the Bible which tells Christians to celebrate his birth. Mormons celebrate Christmas on 25 December but they believe that Christ’s actual birth took place on 6 April.
Before the 4th century AD, Christians could only worship and celebrate in secret. The feast of Christmas probably began while Constantine was the Emperor of Rome, because it was he who made Christianity a legal religion and built some of Rome’s oldest churches. Some old stone coffins or ‘’sarcophagi’’ from this time are carved with pictures of Mary and baby Jesus and the Wise Men.
For many centuries, the celebration of Christmas often began with a church service or mass, which lasted from late at night to after midnight on Christmas morning. Christmas Day was a time of feasting. On the following day, the Feast of Saint Stephen people from rich households would carry boxes of food out to the street for the poor and hungry. Many people would go back to work but employers would give gifts of money to their workers. The Holy Days continued with the feast of Saint John and Holy Innocents' Day. The feasting and parties ended on the Feast of the Epiphany, the day of the Three Wise Men, often called the “Three Kings”. The season is nowadays remembered by the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. William Shakespeare wrote a play to be performed as part of the celebration, called “Twelfth Night“.
For many, Christmas has become a time when having parties, sending messages to family and friends and giving presents has become more important than the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Manufacturers and stores have responded to the feasting and present-giving with lots of advertising, decorations and displays. In the US, the Christmas displays are put up right after Thanksgiving, late in November. In some countries such as Australia, stores put up decorations at the beginning of November. Given that Jesus himself called people making money in the Jewish Temple ‘robbers’ (Matthew 21:13) many Christians are uneasy about profit instead of prophets at Christmas.
It is the custom in many churches to set up a Crib (or ‘’Creche’’) scene of the ‘’Nativity’’ or birth of Jesus. The first scene of this type was set up by St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century. They have been very popular in Italy ever since then, and the custom has spread to other countries.
Christmas Dinner, usually eaten in the middle of the day, is an important part of the family celebration. The food differs from country to country and also from family to family. In the Northern Hemisphere, roasted meat and vegetables are generally the main courses of the meal. Usually one of several types of meat are served, which may include Turkey, , , , or . There are often several courses, with special treats that are usually only eaten at Christmas.
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A traditional part of Christmas is the theatre entertainment. This includes the performance of classical music such as Handel’s Messiah as well as orchestral concerts and band recitals. Pantomimes are often played at Christmas and favourites include “Peter Pan and Wendy“ and “Cinderella“. Many children’s movies are released during the Christmas season.
Some families have a tradition of carol singing, and might go around the streets, to hospitals and other such places singing with members of their church. Other families like to watch certain television programs together, which might include carol services and the Queen’s Message. Some families use Christmas as a time to play music and sing together, or to read a favourite book such as “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. In countries in the Southern Hemisphere, a visit to the beach or a swim in a pool is often part of the Christmas Day tradition.
Many families have a Christmas cake or a special bread instead of a pudding (or as well as a pudding). These are very different depending on the country, but often have marzipan which is made from almonds and is traditional in many countries at Christmas. In France ‘’Buche de Noäl’’ or gingerbread men and women are decorated and hung on the Christmas tree. In Scotland a pastry biscuit called shortbread is made and has become a popular tradition in many countries. A German tradition is ‘’pfeffernuss’’, spiced cookies rolled in powdered sugar. Other Christmas food includes fruit cakes, sultanas, ginger, Greek baklava, almonds, chocolates, caramel toffee, candy canes and cookies.
In most homes when Christmas is celebrated, people set up a Christmas tree in the house. This old Yuletide custom began in Germany as the “Tannenbaum” (German for ‘’Fir Tree’’). These are traditionally evergreens, the best type being the Fir Tree which does not shed its needles or lose its fragrance. The tree may be a cut tree that is bought from a plantation or taken from the forest. Artificial trees are sometimes preferred to real trees. The Christmas tree is decorated with lights, shiny coloured balls, sparkly tinsel and other ornaments. A wreath of leaves or pine is often put on the front door of a house as a sign of welcome. Other plants that have special significance at Christmas are holly which is used as decoration and mistletoe which is hung in the centre of a room. The tradition is that people who meet under the mistletoe must kiss.
In the 4th century, in a Greek village that is now part of Turkey, there was a good man who would secretly given presents to the poor to help them. He became a bishop and is called Saint Nicholas. Over the centuries, he became a very popular saint and lots of churches were named after him. He was very popular in places where there were lots of sailors. One of those places was the Netherlands. In the Netherlands and many other European countries, presents are given on the feast of Saint Nicholas, 6 December. Traditionally, the presents are not big, and are sometimes hidden, or have a funny joke or poem that must be read. In many towns of Europe a man dressed in bishop’s robes comes on a horse or in a boat, acting as St. Nicholas. His name was often shortened to Sante Claus, or Santa Claus in English.
Air can be polluted by some gases (such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides), smoke, and ash. This air pollution causes various problems including smog, acid rain and global warming. It can damage people's health and the environment. There are debates about whether or not to act upon climate change, but soon enough the Earth will heat up to much, causing our home to become too hot and not support life! Some say less people would die of cold weather, and that is true but there is already a huge amount of people dying from heat and that number is and will keep increasing at a frighting height.
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In June 2022, it was announced that the group was taking time to make solo projects. Their record label confirmed that this was not a hiatus
Farming is growing crops and keeping animals for food and raw materials. Farming is a part of agriculture.
Agriculture started thousands of years ago, but no one knows for sure how old it is. The development of farming gave rise to the Neolithic Revolution as people gave up nomadic hunting and became settlers in cities.
Agriculture and domestication probably started in the Fertile Crescent (the Nile Valley, the Levant and Mesopotamia). The area called Fertile Crescent is now in the countries of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. Wheat and barley are some of the first crops people grew. People probably started agriculture slowly by planting a few crops, but still gathered many foods from the wild. People may have started farming because the weather and soil began to change. Farming can feed many more people than hunter-gatherers can feed on the same amount of land.
Arable farming means growing crops. This would include wheat or vegetables. Growing fruit means having orchards devoted to fruit. They cannot be switched easily with growing field crops. Therefore, they are not classed as arable land in the statistics.
In produced weight, these crops are the most important (global production in thousand metric tonnes):
Japan (; Romanised as "nihon" or "nippon") is a country in East Asia. It is a group of many islands close to the east coast of Korea, China and Russia. The Pacific Ocean is to the east of Japan and the Sea of Japan is to the west. Most people in Japan live on one of the four islands. The biggest of these islands, Honshu, has the most people. Honshu is the 7th largest island in the world. Tokyo is the capital of Japan and its biggest city.
The first people in Japan were the Ainu people and other Jōmon people. They were closer related to Europeans or Mongols. They were later conquered and replaced by the Yayoi people (early Japanese and Ryukyuans). The Yayoi were an ancient ethnic group that migrated to the Japanese archipelago mainly from southeastern China during the Yayoi period (300 BCE–300 CE). Modern Japanese people have primarily Yayoi ancestry at an average of 97%. The indigenous Ryukyuan and Ainu peoples have more Jōmon ancestry on the other hand.
This new contact with Europeans and Americans changed the Japanese culture. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 stopped some old ways and added many new ones. The Empire of Japan was created, and it became a very powerful nation and tried to invade the countries next to it. It invaded and annexed Ryukyu Kingdom, Taiwan, and Korea. It had wars with China and Russia: the First Sino-Japanese War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, World War I.
In 1918, World War I allowed Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies, to capture German possessions in the Pacific and in China. which grew to become a part of World War II when Japan became allies with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.