title: Lysergic acid diethylamide

paragraphs: LSD is the shorter name for a drug called Lysergic acid diethylamide. LSD is often called by the slang name acid. LSD is a psychedelic drug that causes people who take it to witness illusions. It also alters their thought processes.

paragraphs: LSD was investigated as an adjunct to psychiatric therapies for disorders such as alcoholism. Currently, LSD is being investigated as a clinical tool for treating people with anxiety and depression associated with having a terminal illness. Since there is no recognized medical use for LSD, its use in medicine is experimental. The vast majority of LSD use extramedical and thus considered "drug abuse" according to some definitions.

paragraphs: LSD does not occur in nature, so it must be chemically synthesized. It was invented in 1938 by a Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann, at the Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland. Hofmann was trying to produce a new circulatory and respiratory stimulant (an 'analeptic'). He produced LSD because of its similarity to nicotinic acid diethylamide, a known respiratory stimulant.

paragraphs: One day in 1943, Hofmann accidentally ate a small amount of LSD, and noticed strange light patterns in the sky as he went home. He believed that what he had experienced were the effects of the drug. He tried a larger amount next. He ended up with a much stronger reaction to the drug than he expected. Hofmann lay on a couch, afraid he had made himself insane for life. When a neighbor came, found him in trouble, and stayed to look after Hofmann, he was able to calm down, and even said he began to enjoy the plays of colorful shapes and patterns that occurred behind his closed eyes. The next day Hofmann reported to have waken up refreshed and clear-headed, though somewhat physically tired. He also noted that his breakfast tasted unusually delicious that morning.

paragraphs: Sandoz began to offer LSD to doctors and therapists. Sandoz saw it as a help to doctors and therapists so they could get a chance to gain insight into how someone who was mentally ill might see the world. It is known today, that the effects of LSD are very different from those of delusional mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. For their patients, it was a chance to uncover hidden feelings and thoughts, which could be dealt with in therapy. LSD showed promise in the treatment of problems like alcoholism. Some alcoholics who tried the drug found their need to drink alcohol lessened or went away. They understood better why they had abused alcohol. Unlike other drugs, the desire for alcohol was not replaced by a craving for LSD. The study showed a 50% success rate, compared to 10% for "cold turkey" methods, which is when the person suddenly stops drinking alcohol completely.

paragraphs: In the United States, the Central Intelligence Agency tested the drug on subjects for different reasons. The name for one of these test projects was MK-ULTRA. Subjects did not know they were given the drug. It was used in interrogations to see if it would make people tell the truth, or remember things they had forgotten. It was also used to convince people they were becoming insane, or that things had happened which really had not, such as an invasion from outer space, or a Communist takeover of the country, or that their bodies were transformed in some way. The CIA supposedly felt it was important to learn how ordinary citizens might react to such things if they happened. The drug sometimes made the scenarios more believable. The effects of these experiments were often harmful to the subjects, even years later, because of the intense anxiety or fear caused when someone unknowingly takes a drug like LSD.

paragraphs: LSD first became popular in the 1960s. A Harvard psychology professor, Timothy Leary, began to encourage people to try the drug then. College students willingly took part in LSD experiments. These experiments were made by psychologists and other professionals. Leary and two of the people he worked with, Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzner, thought the transforming effects of the drug could be a kind of 'rebirth' of users, in the same way as many religions offered them. They wrote a book, "The Psychedelic Experience", which was based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Leary eventually became well known in the 1960s hippie movement for his slogan about LSD: "Turn on, tune in, drop out". The Hippies were a countercultural movement. A number of famous rock bands, including the Beatles and the Grateful Dead, became known for their use of LSD, and even a new type of rock music, called "acid rock", was born from the fad.

paragraphs: LSD quickly became a popular drug outside of the medical profession. Many people began using or giving LSD out casually. "Acid parties" and "acid tests" became a social fad. The drug would sometimes be slipped to persons unknowingly, often through "spiked" punch or drinks. Some problems developed, as some casual users began to experience side effects, such as "flashbacks" and psychotic symptoms, though both of these are rare. Sometimes signs of depression and instability were seen. Due to the spread of LSD use outside of the medical community, the United States government banned LSD (made it against the law to make, have or use) in 1967. Other countries soon followed.

paragraphs: The most common danger of taking LSD is having a bad experience, which is called a "bad trip". During a bad trip, people may feel very scared and worried, and they may have very sad thoughts. A bad trip can lead to lasting bad memories and even mental harm. Users who get out of control, or who try to harm themselves, should be taken for medical help.

paragraphs: Storing LSD in an improper manner could end up destroying the blotter and cause adverse effects like nausea and brain fatigue. The safest method to store LSD is wrapping it in aluminum foil or in a Mylar bag. Avoid storing it in books, papers, or box packaging as it could drastically lower the dosage of the blotter and potentially cause unwanted effects upon ingesting it.

paragraphs: Many illegal drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, are very addictive. This means that people who start taking the drug will want to keep taking it, even if it is damaging their physical and mental health. LSD is not addictive to the body or to the mind.

paragraphs: Another danger from using LSD is that it makes a person impaired (intoxicated). When people are impaired, they may have accidents or do things that they would not normally do. In some rare cases, people taking LSD develop a psychosis.

paragraphs: Frequent or regular use of LSD can result in flashbacks. In a flashback, the person feels the drug beginning to affect him or her again, even though he or she has not taken a dose that day. This can be brought on by stress. Note that over 75% of LSD users claimed never to have "flashed back".

paragraphs: It has been said that some people who use LSD can end up with damage to their chromosomes, but this is a myth based on one wrong report that was disproved soon after it was published.

paragraphs: LSD is illegal in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and most of Europe. Some countries enforce the laws against LSD very harshly. Other countries do not enforce the law very much. LSD has been manufactured illegally since the 1960s.


title: Triple H

paragraphs: Paul Michael Levesque (born July 27, 1969) is an American business executive, semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, and former bodybuilder. He is better known by the ring name Triple H, an abbreviation of his former Hunter Hearst Helmsley name. He is currently the COO ("Chief Operating Officer") of WWE.

paragraphs: Before joining WWE, Levesque began his wrestling career with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1993, wrestling under the name Terra Ryzing. He would then be repackaged as Jean-Paul Lévesque, a French Canadian aristocrat, before joining World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1995.

paragraphs: Since joining WWE, he has become a 14-time world champion (current): a nine-time WWE Champion and a five-time World Heavyweight Champion In addition, he won the 1997 King of the Ring, the 2002 Royal Rumble, and was the second Grand Slam Champion.

paragraphs: He married Stephanie McMahon in 2003, becoming the son-in-law of WWE chairman Vince McMahon. Outside of wrestling, Levesque has made many guest appearances in film and on television. He is starring in the upcoming WWE Film "Journey of Death".

paragraphs: At the 2008 edition of "Backlash", Triple H won the WWE Championship. He lost the title at Survivor Series 2008 to Edge.

paragraphs: At the 2009 No Way Out, Triple H won back the WWE Championship in an Elimination Chamber match for the 8th time, beating The Rock's record of 7 times.

paragraphs: After entering the 2016 Royal Rumble match at no. 30, he eliminated Ambrose to win the Royal Rumble and become a 14 time world champion. He later lost the title to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 32.


title: Ernő Rubik

paragraphs: Ernő Rubik (born 13 July 1944) is a Hungarian inventor and professor of architecture. He is the inventor of the Rubik's Cube. He was born in Budapest, Hungary.


title: Michael Richards

paragraphs: Michael Anthony Richards (born July 24, 1949) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for a notable controversy when his shouting of racial slurs at African American hecklers in a comedy club was broadcast worldwide in news reports.


title: Sitting Bull

paragraphs: Sitting Bull (about 1831 – December 15, 1890), real name Tatanka Yotanka, was the chief of a Native American tribe called Hunkpapa-Lakota-Sioux. At the age of about 14, Slow participated in a war party against the Crow (warriors).

paragraphs: At the age of 10, however, he killed his first buffalo.

paragraphs: He was a very important chief and fought for the freedom of Native Americans. He fought with Crazy Horse and Big Foot at the Little Bighorn River against General George A. Custer and won. They are the most deadly tribe.

paragraphs: He was shot and killed by Red Tomahawk, a police sergeant, during an attempt to arrest him.


title: Michelle Kwan

paragraphs: Michelle Kwan (born July 7, 1980) is a retired American figure skater. She has won five world championships and nine U.S. championships.

paragraphs: Michelle Kwan was born on July 7, 1980, in Torrance, California. Kwan showed interest in figure stating when she followed Ron and Karen, her brother and sister, onto the ice, saying that all she could remember was "every day, tying up my skates and a big smile on my face, excited to go on the ice". She attended public school until eighth grade, when she began being homeschooled in 1994.

paragraphs: Kwan won the world junior championship in 1994. The same year, at the age of 13, she came in the top 10 in the world senior championship. She became world champion in 1996, when she was 15.


title: Frank Jack Fletcher

paragraphs: Frank Jack Fletcher (29 April 1885 - 25 April 1973) was an Admiral in the United States Navy. He was born at Marshalltown, Iowa, of the same family line as Captain Frank "Pat" Fletcher and of Rear Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher, noted men in the Navy. He attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and had jobs on many warships. In 1914 he got the Medal of Honor at Vera Cruz. Then he was in control of a destroyer in World War I received the Navy Cross. Later he took Naval and Army War College training, became chief of staff Asiatic Fleet, aide to Secretary of the Navy Swanson, and Commanding Officer of battleship "New Mexico." He became Rear Admiral in control of Cruiser Division 3 in 1939. He was Commander of Cruisers, Pacific Fleet at the time

paragraphs: of Pearl Harbor. In the very bad, first six months of the war, he was Task Force Commander at the Battle of Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, and the Battle of Eastern Solomons. Vice Admiral Fletcher then became Commander North Pacific Forces where he took the surrender of the Imperial Northern Fleet. After the war he became Chairman of the Navy General Board till he retired. Admiral Fletcher rests at Arlington National Cemetery.

paragraphs: "Frank Jack Fletcher, was the best fighting commander in the U.S. Navy in the twentieth century. He came out best in all three aircraft carrier battles in which he fought -- there were only five such fights in of all history. Admiral Fletcher was outnumbered at all times and when the other side was at its highest point in the early years of the Pacific War. He did not let the other side take Australia, Midway, and Guadalcanal. He put down six of the ten Japanese carriers with four of the six great carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor. His acts were completely his own, because there was no such thing as carrier fighting experience before him to learn to fight ships from the air. He kept the Pacific safe which let much support to go to Europe and started the Allied victory in World War II."


title: Irina Slutskaya

paragraphs: Irina Slutskaya (ru: Ирина Слуцкая) (born February 9, 1979 in Moscow), is a Russian figure skater. She has won two world championships and six European championships.

paragraphs: Irina began skating when she was four years old. She has had the same coach, Zhanna Gromova, since she was six years old. By 1996, she was European champion and came third in the world championships (at age 17). She went to school at the Moscow Academy of Physical Culture, graduating in the year 2000.


title: Lu Chen

paragraphs: Lu Chen (Simplified Chinese: 陈露, Traditional Chinese: 陳露, Chen Lu in Chinese) (born November 24, 1976, in Changchun) is a Chinese figure skater. She was world champion in 1995.

paragraphs: Chen's mother played table tennis and her father coached ice hockey. She started skating at the age of five in Jilin, and also took ballet dancing. She won the bronze medal at the world junior championship in 1992, and came third at the world senior championships the same year, at the age of 16.

paragraphs: Her nickname is "Lulu," and she is also known as "Butterfly on Ice." She is admired for her artistic ability.

paragraphs: Chen skated for the professional show "Stars on Ice" for two years. Now she runs an ice skating club in Shenzhen. This club is named after her.


title: Oksana Baiul

paragraphs: Oksana Baiul (born November 16, 1977 in Dnipropetrovsk) is a Ukrainian figure skater. She came first at the 1993 world championships and at the 1994 winter olympics.

paragraphs: Baiul's grandfather gave her first skates to her when she was three years old. When her mother died, she became an orphan (had no parents). But she kept skating, and won the world championships when she was only 15 years old. She became famous for her artistic ability when she skated as "the swan" to win the Olympics when she was 16.

paragraphs: She has skated for many professional shows such as "Champions on Ice" and "Stars on Ice". A T.V. movie was made about her - "A Promise Kept: The Oksana Baiul Story". She now lives in New Jersey. She still skates professionally, and also makes figure skating clothes.


title: Hobo

paragraphs: Hobo is a word for a homeless person who travels to different cities and towns to look for work. Hobos usually travel by train "hopping" (riding in empty train freight railcars without paying for a ticket), or sometimes "riding the rods" (lying dangerously near the train wheels, underneath the cars).

paragraphs: Hobos stay in very cheap hotels in cities, or camp in simple shelters ("shanties") in shanty towns near the rail yards. There were many hobos during the Great Depression in the United States because many people lost their jobs and homes. Many people blamed President Herbert Hoover for the Depression, so hobo camps were sometimes called "Hoovervilles".


title: Wicca

paragraphs: Wicca is a neo-pagan (meaning "new pagan") religion that was created by a British man named Gerald Gardner in the mid-to-late 1940s. Gardner popularized the new religion through books of his that were printed in 1949, 1954, and 1959. Those three books are "High Magic's Aid", "Witchcraft Today", and "The Meaning of Witchcraft". Gardner called Wicca the "witch cult" and "witchcraft", and called its followers the "Wica" (or "Wicca"). In his 1959 book he also called them the "Wicca" (with two 'c's), which is where that word came from. The word "wicca" means "witch" in Old English. People who follow Wicca are called "Wiccans". Before the name "Wicca" was adopted, the religion was sometimes called simply "the craft".

paragraphs: Wicca is now used as an umbrella term for many different paths that have branched off from Gardner's original practices.

paragraphs: Some time from 1945 to 1949, Gerald Gardner changed, and added content to, the rituals of an earlier group, called the New Forest Coven. In so doing, Gerald Gardner created Wicca. The many elements from the grimoire (old hand-written book) called the "Key of Solomon" are present in Wicca. Those are also in Gardner's 1949 book, "High Magic's Aid", and were most likely added by Gardner himself, rather than by the New Forest Coven that came before him.

paragraphs: The New Forest Coven was created in the city of Christchurch, England (on the southern coast of England), some time in the 1930s. It was created by a group of low-ranking rosicrucians who belonged to the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship. Members of that group read the books about witches by Margaret Murray and Charles Leland, which gave them the idea to create a witch coven.

paragraphs: Some time after Gerald Gardner joined the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship in Christchurch, he was drawn to the group of low-ranking rosicrucians. They initiated him into the New Forest Coven in September of 1939, shortly after Gardner had lost all faith in the rosicrucian order's leadership on September 3rd.

paragraphs: There are many different traditions of Wicca, yet many are common beliefs that are shared by all Wiccans, such as the afterlife, magic, and morality.

paragraphs: Most Wiccans believe in a horned male god and a moon goddess. The only wiccans who do not believe in both the goddess and the god are those who belong to the unorthodox sect called Dianic Wicca; such wiccans believe in the existence of only the goddess. Some wiccans believe that the god and the goddess are equal. However, some other wiccans believe that the goddess is more important than the god.

paragraphs: The main Wiccan moral teaching is called the "Wiccan Rede". The word rede means ""advice"" or ""council"" in Old German. ""An ye harm none, do what ye will"" is the very basic Wiccan Rede, which means, ""Do what you want to do, but do not harm anything in the process"." This is most likely based from Crowley's "Do what though wilt, shall be the whole of the law".This means that you must think about how your actions will affect other beings and yourself.

paragraphs: There is a rule in Wiccan (branched from Pagan belief) that is called "the rule of threefold return" or "the threefold rule" or "the rule of three", or called equivalent names that use the word "law" instead of "rule". The rule of threefold return is a belief that what you do for good or bad will return to you 3 times the original intent. Therefore, you should only send out or work with good intentions to avoid three-times the bad return as Karma. The rule of threefold return is revealed to second-degree initiates (though they are usually already familiar with it) during the second-degree initiation ritual, in which the initiator scourges the initiate, and then the initiate returns three times the number of scourgings to the initiator. That second-degree initiation ritual, along with the threefold rule within it, were made public by Gerald Gardner's 1949 book "High Magic's Aid", in chapter 17.

paragraphs: In 1986, a wiccan named Raymond Buckland, through his popular wiccan book "Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft", created a new definition for the rule of threefold return. In Buckland's definition, the rule of threefold return is not a rule of conduct, but a law of karma, which states that every beneficial action or harmful action that a person does returns to them three times as powerful. Buckland's definition of the threefold rule became more well-known than the original definition of the threefold rule.

paragraphs: There is a book that wiccans use, in which they read from and use to practice witchcraft with

paragraphs: Many Wiccans have special places at home where they perform rituals, magic, and worship. These places are called "altars". Originally, there was only one altar that was used by the coven, when the coven was gathered. But as solitary wiccan practice became more popular, wiccans started to use personal altars.

paragraphs: Wiccans put holy and special objects on their altars, such as the following items:

paragraphs: Some Wiccans put other objects on their altars, such as statues of gods or goddesses, a bell, candles, incense, and/or a besom (an old-fashioned broom that is made of all-natural materials). A besom is often used to "sweep" away negative energy or spirits.

paragraphs: Those objects that are common on solitary altars are derived from the various objects that are used in the wiccan group rituals. Those ritual objects include a sword (also called a 'magic sword'), a black-handled knife (called an athame), a bowl containing water, a bowl containing salt, an asperger (an object that sprinkles water), candles, a bell, a white-handled knife (which is now usually called a 'bolline', due to being confused with a different object), a wand, a cup (also called a chalice), a pentacle, a censer (a container that burns incense), a scourge (a short whip with several whipping cords), and binding cords. Gerald Gardner, a founder of modern Wicca, started the practice of calling such objects by the misnomer 'tools' or 'working tools', because he was imitating Freemasonry, which used actual tools, such as a trowel.

paragraphs: Wiccans have two types of holidays, called "sabbats" and "full moon esbats". There are eight sabbat holidays throughout the year. As the name suggests, full moon esbats take place during a full moon, so there are twelve or thirteen of them per year. Many post-Gardnerian wiccans use the neo-druidic term 'wheel of the year' to refer to the cycle of eight sabbats.

paragraphs: In Wicca, a private book containing spells, rituals, potions, and occult knowledge, called a "Book of Shadows", is kept. In some types of Wicca, such as Gardnerian Wicca, the contents of the book are kept secret from anyone but other members of the group, or . However, some versions of the book have been published. Some parts of these published versions, such as the "Wiccan Rede" and the "Charge of the Goddess" have been used by non-Wiccans or Wiccans. Many eclectics create their own personal books, and keep them to themselves.

paragraphs: Wicca music or Wicca rock is music influenced by the Wicca religion and its beliefs relating to nature and conservation.

paragraphs: An early band called Themis toured Canada and the USA singing and talking about Wicca. The Themis body of works promotes things that are Wiccan, such as the divinity of nature; the Lord and Lady (dual deity aspect of Wicca) and an ethical credo (moral code) that resembles Wiccan philosophies.

paragraphs: Another Canadian band, a group of vocalists from Vancouver Canada, the Chalice and Blade, also perform original pieces based on the beliefs of Wicca and "sing songs which show (their) reverence for the earth and the balance of the God and Goddess" -Chalice and Blade

paragraphs: According to The Religion Newswriters Foundation "Wicca is moving into the mainstream" smashing stereotypes as their movement matures. Throughout America, Wiccans are organizing congregations and youth groups, training clergy, pursuing charity work, sharing parenting tips and fighting for civil rights


title: Indochinese tiger

paragraphs: The Indochinese tiger ("Panthera tigris corbetti") is one of the six living tiger subspecies, and is found in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and southwestern China. The Indochinese tiger is also known as the "Corbett's tiger", named after Jim Corbett. It has been listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. In Myanmar it is the National animal of the country.

paragraphs: Males are around 8–9 ft (2.4-2.7 meters) long, and weigh around 330 to 430 pounds. Females are around 7–8 ft (2.1-2.4 meters) long, and weigh around 221 to 287 pounds. Indochinese tigers are darker in colour than the Bengal tiger, and have narrow stripes which usually break up into a row of spots. Their belly, chin and cheeks are white in colour.

paragraphs: The Indochinese tiger is found throughout Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam. It also lived in China, but no Indochinese tiger has been seen in China since 2007.

paragraphs: It is found mostly in lowland and highland tropical deciduous, semi-evergreen and evergreen forests. The Indochinese tiger is also found in hilly and mountainous areas.

paragraphs: Indochinese tigers feed mainly on medium-sized and large-sized wild ungulates. Sambar deer, wild pig, serow, and large bovids such as banteng and young gaur make up most of the Indochinese tiger's diet. Some of its prey, like the kouprey and Schomburgk's deer, are extinct, but some, like the Eld's deer, hog deer and wild water buffalo, are still living but rare. Indochinese tigers also feed on muntjac deer, porcupines, macaques and hog badgers.

paragraphs: They have been known to supplement their diet with birds, fish, monkeys and reptiles.

paragraphs: Female Indochinese tigers are pregnant for around 3–4 months, before giving birth to about 5 cubs. Newborn Indochinese tigers weigh around 1 kg (2 lb), and are blind and helpless. The mother feeds them milk for about 2 months and then the Indochinese tiger cubs are introduced to meat. Indochinese tiger cubs depend on their mother for the first 18 months and then they start hunting on their own.


title: Office

paragraphs: An office is generally a room or other area where administrative work is done. It may also be a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it. For example, the office of treasurer. An office is a design phenomenon. It can be a small office such as a bench in the corner of a very small business. It can also be anything up to and including large buildings full of offices. In modern use an office usually means the location where white-collar workers are employed.

paragraphs: Men have done administrative work for many centuries. But it is not clear when the room where paperwork was created began to be thought of an office. In the earliest European history it may have been a room in a palace where some kind of accounting was done for the king. Earlier forms of keeping records were known but were not confined to a room or rooms. For example, in ancient China string was knotted to keep count of things as a record. But the record-keeper's "office" was not a room but wherever he needed to be to count something.

paragraphs: In the early Middle Ages many monasteries had a scriptorium. This was a place where texts of all kinds were written and copied. All of the work was done by hand. This may actually be one of the first uses of a room as an office.

paragraphs: The High Middle Ages (1000–1300) saw the rise of the medieval chancery. This was usually the place where most government letters were written and where laws were copied in the administration of a kingdom.

paragraphs: With the growth of large, complex organizations in the 18th century, the first actual office spaces were constructed. As the Industrial Revolution grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, the industries of banking, rail, insurance, retail, petroleum, and telegraphy grew dramatically. A large number of clerks were needed. As a result, more office space was needed for these activities. The time and motion study, pioneered in manufacturing by F. W. Taylor led to the “Modern Efficiency Desk” with a flat top and drawers below. This was designed to allow managers an easy view of the workers. However, by the middle of the 20th century, it became apparent that offices various degrees of privacy. Gradually the cubicle system evolved.

paragraphs: The main purpose of an office is to support its occupants in performing their job. Work spaces in an office are typically used for conventional office activities such as reading, writing and computer work. There are also meeting rooms, lounges, and spaces for support activities, such as photocopying and filing. Some offices also have a kitchen area where workers can make their lunches. There are many different ways of arranging the space in an office and whilst these vary according to function, managerial fashions and the culture of specific companies can be even more important.

paragraphs: While offices can be built in almost any location and in almost any building, some modern requirements for offices make this more difficult, such as requirements for light, networking, and security. The primary purpose of an office building is to provide a workplace and working environment primarily for administrative and managerial workers. These workers usually occupy set areas within the office building, and usually are provided with desks, PCs and other equipment they may need within these areas.


title: Phenomenon

paragraphs: A phenomenon (Greek: ", pl. ") is an observable event or, quite literally, something that can be seen.

paragraphs: It comes from the noun ("phainomenon, df. appearance") and is also related to the verb ("phainein, df. to show"). Its plural is phenomena. Its antonym is "lathomenon", meaning "something lying beneath the surface".

paragraphs: Phenomenon can also mean a "surprising development" or "unusually successful person".

paragraphs: In science, "phenomenon" stands for any event which we can sense or detect or record. In science, the word "observe" means more than just "visible to the naked eye". It means "sensible", available to our senses. The senses we are born with are extended by a whole range of instruments which record things we cannot see, and make them visible to us.

paragraphs: So, while some events are easy to observe, others need technology to make observation possible.


title: Konstantin Chernenko

paragraphs: Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (Russian language: Константи́н Усти́нович Черне́нко September 24, 1911 – March 10, 1985) was the leader of the Soviet Union for a short time. He became the leader in 1984. He had emphysema, hepatitis and cirrhosis. He ruled for 13 months until his death in from heart failure in Moscow in 1985. Chernenko had a son called Albert.


title: Shetland Sheepdog

paragraphs: A Shetland Sheepdog is a kind of small dog whose ancestors came from the Shetland Islands. Many people call them ""Shelties"". They are popular pets in many countries. Shelties have the same origins with Rough Collie and Border Collie. Shelties are a working dog and are sometimes used for herding.

paragraphs: A Sheltie can have a mix of several colors in its coat. Most shelties are sable and white (brown and white) or tri-color (black, white and tan). Their fur is long and they shed twice a year. Shelties range in size from 13 to 16 inches. They usually weigh about 25-30 pounds.

paragraphs: Shelties are very energetic dogs that run and bark a lot. They are great with children.

paragraphs: It was said that Shelties were sheep dogs so they try to please their master and have a strong sense of responsibility. They do not need very much discipline. Shelties rank in the top ten smartest dogs. They learn new things very quickly and remember them well. Shelties make great family pets as long as you do not mind a dog that barks.


title: Belief

paragraphs: A belief is a firm thought that something is true, often based on revelation. Belief is usually a part of belonging to a religion. It is different to scientific knowledge that can be tested, but belief is not able to be tested. For example, a person may believe in God or gods.

paragraphs: The word is also used to describe what a person expects will happen based on limited information. For example, "I believe Amy will come around today". Belief is also something you believe in but you cannot prove exactly.


title: German Shepherd

paragraphs: The German Shepherd (), also known as the Alsatian, is a breed of medium-large dog. It was first developed in Germany. They are often used as police dogs, but they have many other uses. They have been used as herding dogs, guard dogs, military dogs, eyes for the blind and as pets between others. Because of their intelligence, speed, drive, eagerness and balance, they are now called 'multi-terrain' dogs as well as 'most complete dog breed' also considered the most versatile breed both in adaptability and suitability.

paragraphs: An important modern use is the dog's ability to perform search and rescue. In former times the American Rescue Dog Association only used air-scenting Alsatians to locate people who are missing or lost. They search in wilderness, disaster, human body remains and water search and rescue and recovery missions. The breed is smart, athletic and can live in a wide variety of climate conditions.

paragraphs: Male German Shepherds usually weigh around . Females usually weigh around .

paragraphs: The term Alsatian wolf dog, instead of German Shepherd dog, was first popularly used by the British in the First World War. This was because the country was at war with the German Empire. Adolf Hitler, a German dictator, was also known to have German Shepherds as companions.

paragraphs: The German Shepherd Dog breed, as it is currently known, was developed by the founder and the first president of the Association for the German Shepherd Dog breed Max Emil Friedrich von Stephanitz at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.


title: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

paragraphs: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back is the second film in the "Star Wars saga". The movie was released in 1980 and is a mix of science fiction, fantasy, action, and drama.

paragraphs: The Rebels hide from the Empire on the icy planet Hoth. The Empire finds the Rebels and they have to leave the planet after a battle.

paragraphs: Luke Skywalker finds Yoda, a 900-year-old Jedi Master and begins the training to become a Jedi. Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C-3P0 are caught by the Empire and Solo is frozen in carbonite. In his Jedi training, Luke gets a vision that his friends are in danger and tries to help them. He has to confront Darth Vader, and the two of them fight. When Luke fights Vader, he cuts off Luke's hand and Luke also learns that Vader is his father. His hand is replaced with a prosthetic one, including nerves, muscles, and some other stuff.


title: Church of the SubGenius

paragraphs: The Church of the SubGenius is a religion founded by Ivan Stang and Philo Drummond. Originally based in Dallas, Texas, it is now based in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. In 2009, Stang said that The Church of the Subgenius has 40,000 followers, but the real number of followers is not known.

paragraphs: The church's beliefs are said to be very complex. The church teaches that it was founded by a salesman named J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. In 1953 "Bob" was fixing his TV which he made, and the Space God JHVH-1 gave him knowledge of the past and future, and the idea of "Slack". The church teaches that there is a conspiracy to make humans work, so that they can't have "Slack". It says that its members are descended from Yetis. It also said that aliens would come to earth on 5 July 1998.


title: Terry Bradshaw

paragraphs: Terry Bradshaw is a former American athlete. He is also a sports presenter. He was born September 2, 1948 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Bradshaw is a former quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League, and a television and American football host. Over six years, he won four Super Bowl titles with Pittsburgh (1975, 1976, 1979 and 1980). He went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989.


title: Squid

paragraphs: Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida. They are the sister group to the octopods. Squid are carnivores, but they are also hunted as prey. The largest squid, the giant squid and colossal squid, are eaten by sperm whales and sleeper sharks.

paragraphs: Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs, and two longer tentacles with suckers.

paragraphs: All squid have a mouth with a radula, and jet propulsion with the siphon from the mantle. The radulla is a scraping organ in the mouth that scrapes nutrients from food sources.

paragraphs: Tentacles are used for locomotive power and capturing food sources. All squids are carnivores; they eat other animals, not plants.

paragraphs: Like other cephalopoda, squid are intelligent animals. Squids have a head-like structure, with sense organs and brains in the front end. Although the squids lack exterior shells they have a vestigial shell inside, made of chitin.

paragraphs: The skin is covered in chromatophores, which enable the squid to change colour to suit its surroundings, making it effectively camouflaged. Controlled by the nervous system, the camouflage can change in 'real time'.

paragraphs: After a male and female mate, the female squid lays eggs. The eggs are laid inside an egg case. Since the squid is usually a part of a shoal, it is laid with many other egg cases from many other squids, and then anchored to the sea floor. Because of this, squid eggs are often (many times) found in clumps, and those clumps often look like a flower.

paragraphs: Often, the male will die a short time after mating, and the female will die once she has released her eggs. Because of this, squids usually lay eggs only once. Squids do not live very long. Although there are some long-lived species, most squids live for only one or two years.

paragraphs: Most squid are no more than long, although the giant squid may reach .

paragraphs: In 1978, sharp, curved claws on the suction cups of squid tentacles cut up the rubber coating on the hull of the USS "Stein". The size suggested the largest squid known at the time.

paragraphs: In February 2007, a New Zealand fishing vessel caught a colossal squid weighing and measuring around off the coast of Antarctica. This specimen is the largest invertebrate ever found. Squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom.

paragraphs: Giant squid are featured in literature and folklore with a frightening connotation. The Kraken is a legendary tentacled monster possibly based on sightings of real giant squid.


title: Giant squid

paragraphs: The giant squid "Architeuthis" is a genus of deep-ocean dwelling squid. Giant squid can grow to a tremendous size: recent estimates put the maximum size at 12 metres (39 ft) or 13 metres (43 ft) for females and 10 metres (33 ft) for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles.

paragraphs: There is a larger squid, known as the Colossal Squid.

paragraphs: Until 2005, nobody had ever seen a giant squid that was alive. Only dead giant squids had been found. On 30 September 2004, researchers from Japan took the first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat. Several of the 556 photographs were released a year later. The same team successfully filmed a live adult giant squid for the first time on December 4, 2006.

paragraphs: There is no agreement as to how many species there are. The Kraken is also believed to be a giant squid,

paragraphs: For many years, people would hear stories from fishermen about giant squids at sea. According to the stories, an enormous squid would wrap its arms around a whale, causing a terrible fight to start. Whalers said that sometimes, when they caught a whale, it would have scars as big as dinner plates on its body. Other times, when they cut open the stomach of some of their whales, they would find squid arms as long as 30 ft with suckers up to four inches wide. The whalers who told these stories either chopped up the squid parts to eat or use as bait, or they threw them back out to sea before scientists were ever able to examine them. However, in 1861, a French ship was able to bring back parts of a giant squid so scientists could study them.

paragraphs: Then, in the late 18th century, several giant squids washed up on shore, proving that giant squids really exist. After that, many giant squids were found washed ashore or dead at sea. Scientists grew very interested in these mysterious creatures, but few ever saw them alive. Scientists think they spend most of their time in deep, cold ocean.

paragraphs: In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia got the intact body of a giant squid, preserved in a giant block of ice. It had been caught by fishermen off the coast of New Zealand's South Island that year.

paragraphs: The number of known giant squid specimens was close to 600 in 2004, and new ones are reported each year.


title: Googol

paragraphs: A 9-year-old Milton Sirotta, nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner, first used the word googol. Sirotta made this word in 1937, for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros.

paragraphs: The company Google was named after the number "googol." Its creators originally called it BackRub because it used backlinks to tell how important each page was. Someone suggested "googolplex." They shortened it to "googol" and then spelled the word wrong when looking for a domain name that was not taken yet.


title: National Football League

paragraphs: The National Football League (NFL) is an American football league. There are 32 teams in the league. The league is one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. The players are one of the highest paid athlete in the world. A league is a competition between a number of teams. The teams play other teams, and the results are used to list the teams in order of who is The team at the top of the list (called a league table) is the best team and the team at the bottom is the worst team.

paragraphs: It is now the most popular professional league in the United States by number of television viewers. The NFL also has the highest per-game attendance of any professional league in the world; in the most recently completed 2014 season, the average crowd at an NFL game was more than 67,000. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is an unofficial national holiday in the U.S., and is seen by more people than any other American television program.

paragraphs: In terms of number of players and people involved, the NFL is the largest professional sports league in the world. It is widely considered the top level of competition in the world for American football.

paragraphs: In 1920, an American football league was formed. It was called the American Professional Football Association. In 1921 it changed its name to the National Football League. In 1960 another league was formed, called the American Football League. In 1970 the National Football League and the American Football League joined together so that the teams from each league could play each other. The league called the National Football League changed its name to the National Football Conference (usually called the NFC) and the league called the American Football League changed its name to the American Football Conference (usually called the AFC). The two conferences together are now called the National Football League. People can also call it by the acronym NFL for short.

paragraphs: Because the U.S. is a big country and it would be hard for teams to travel a long way to play other teams, the teams are separated into smaller regional divisions based on where they are in the country. The teams are separated like this:

paragraphs: The teams in the NFL play games against each other from September to January. This time is called a season. Each team plays 16 games. This is how which games a team will play is chosen:

paragraphs: Since the 2006 season, the NFL has used a "flexible scheduling" system for the last seven weeks of the regular season where there is a Sunday night game. The system is designed so that the league has the flexibility in selecting games to air on Sunday night that will feature the current hottest, streaking teams.

paragraphs: Under the system, all Sunday games in the affected weeks will tentatively have the "early" start time of 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, except those played in the Pacific or Mountain time zones, which will have the tentative start time of 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. On the Tuesday 12 days before the games, the league will move one game to the prime-time slot, and possibly move one or more 1 p.m. slotted games to the 4 p.m. slot. During the last week of the season, the league could re-schedule games as late as six days before the contests so that as many of the television networks as possible will be able to broadcast a game that has playoff implications.

paragraphs: At the end of every NFL season, the eight teams that finish the season at the top of their leagues and two teams from each conference that were the best teams apart from the eight league winners (these four teams are called Wild Cards) enter a competition to see who is the best team in the whole league. This is called the Playoffs. There are a total of 12 teams in the Playoffs, six from the NFC and six from the AFC. The six teams in each conference are listed in order of how well they played in the season. This is called seeding and it is done to make it easier for the better teams to win. The teams that did not win their leagues (the Wild Cards) are always the fifth and sixth seeds in the list, even if they were better than a team that won a different league.

paragraphs: In the first part of the playoffs (called Wild Card Weekend) there are four games.

paragraphs: The teams that lose these games are not in the playoffs competition any more. Now there are only 8 teams left.

paragraphs: In the second part of the playoffs (called the Divisional Playoffs) there are four games.

paragraphs: The teams that lose these games are not in the playoffs competition any more. Now there are only 4 teams left.

paragraphs: In the third part of the playoffs (called the Conference Championship Games) there are two games.

paragraphs: The last part of the playoffs is called the Super Bowl. The AFC Champion and the NFC Champion teams play each other to decide who is the best team in the NFL.


title: Super Bowl

paragraphs: The Super Bowl is a special American football game played every year to decide the winner of that National Football League (NFL) season. The best team from the National Football Conference plays the best team from the American Football Conference to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which was named after the first coach to win a Super Bowl. For most American football fans, it is a very special event.

paragraphs: Some people who do not like American football still watch it for the television advertisements and the half-time show. The TV advertisements during Super Bowl are the most expensive in the world in per second value. Because of the high cost of advertising, companies usually produce unique advertisements. As a result, watching advertisements has been a well publicized event in itself.

paragraphs: The Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots are the teams with the most Super Bowl Wins with six victories each. The San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys currently are tied for the second-most Super Bowl wins with five. The Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and the Jacksonville Jaguars have never played in a Super Bowl. The New York Jets have not played in the Super Bowl since the American Football League (AFL) and the NFL joined together in 1970.


title: We Will Rock You

paragraphs: "We Will Rock You" is a song by Queen. It is one of their most famous songs. It is used at a lot of sports events. The main song has the band stamping their feet twice, and clapping once. At the end, a short guitar part is played.


title: Lagos

paragraphs: Lagos is the second largest city in Africa and the most populous city in Nigeria and in West Africa. There are about 12.5 million to 18 million people living in Lagos, which makes it one of the biggest cities in Africa. Lagos is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The city is made of several local government areas. Some of these areas are Somolu Koshofe, Ifelodun, Surulere, Agege, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Ajegunle, Oshodi, and Maryland.

paragraphs: Each Local government area has a presence of the central government with the establishment of general hospital, judiciary and police stations.

paragraphs: Lagos was the capital of Nigeria until 1992, when the capital became Abuja. Lagos is still the commercial capital of Nigeria and a gateway to West Africa. Lagos is made up of different islands like Victoria island, Bananna island, Snake island, and the mainland


title: Infinitive

paragraphs: The infinitive is a verb form. It has no person, number, mood, or tense.

paragraphs: In English, there are two main forms of the infinitive:

paragraphs: After a modal verb you must use an infinitive. For example, "I must go", "he must go" ("he must goes" is not correct)

paragraphs: To express time relationships, here are 6 types of infinitives:


title: Real number

paragraphs: A real number is a rational or irrational number, and is a number which can be expressed using decimal expansion. Usually when people say "number", they usually mean "real number". The official symbol for real numbers is a bold R, or a blackboard bold formula_1.

paragraphs: Some real numbers are called positive. A positive number is "bigger than zero". Real numbers can be thought of as an infinitely long ruler. There is a mark for zero and every other number, in order of size. Unlike a physical ruler, there are numbers below zero. These are called negative real numbers. Negative numbers are "smaller than zero". They are like a mirror image of the positive numbers, except that they are given minus signs (–) so that they are labeled differently from the positive numbers.

paragraphs: There are infinitely many real numbers, because there is no smallest or biggest real number. No matter how many real numbers are counted, there are always more which need to be counted. There are no empty spaces between real numbers, which means that if two different real numbers are taken, there will always be a third real number between them. This is always true no matter how close together the first two numbers are.

paragraphs: If a positive number is added to another positive number, then that number gets bigger. If zero, which is also a real number, is added to a number, then that number does not change. If a negative number is added to another number, that number gets smaller.

paragraphs: The real numbers are uncountable, which means that there is no way to put all the real numbers into a sequence. Any sequence of real numbers will miss out a real number, even if the sequence is infinite. This makes the real numbers special, because even though there are infinitely many real numbers and infinitely many integers, there are "more" real numbers than integers. This is often expressed by saying that the integers are "countable" and that the real numbers are "uncountable".

paragraphs: Some simpler number systems are inside the real numbers. For example, the rational numbers and integers are all in the real numbers. There are also more complicated number systems than the real numbers, such as the complex numbers. Every real number is a complex number, but not every complex number is a real number.

paragraphs: There are different types of real numbers. Sometimes all the real numbers are not talked about at once. Sometimes only special, smaller sets of them are talked about. These sets have special names. They are:

paragraphs: The number 0 ("zero") is special. Sometimes it is taken as part of the subset to be considered, and at other times it is not. It is the Identity element for addition, which means that adding zero does not change the original number. For multiplication, the identity element is 1.

paragraphs: One real number that is not rational is formula_2. This number is irrational. If a square is drawn with sides that are one unit long, then the length of the line between its opposite corners will be formula_2.


title: Elvis Stojko

paragraphs: Elvis Stojko (born March 22, 1972 in Newmarket, Ontario ) is a Canadian figure skater. He was world champion three times, and Canadian champion seven times.

paragraphs: Stojko was named after Elvis Presley, and sometimes skates to Presley's music. He grew up in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He started skating when he was four years old. He also became a black belt in karate (which has influenced some of his skating). Stojko was the first person to do a quadruple-triple jump combination. He became known for his athletic ability.

paragraphs: Today he is a professional skater, and also competes in karate.


title: Album

paragraphs: An album is a collection of sound recordings. It is usually made by a musician, and is sold in stores to people. Albums today mainly come in the form of compact discs, although many artists also release their albums on vinyl records.

paragraphs: There are two main types of albums, studio albums and live albums. Studio albums are recorded at a recording studio. Live albums are normally recorded while the musicians are performing for an audience. Live albums are usually recorded at concerts.

paragraphs: Albums are normally separated into "Tracks". Each track is a part of the album which has one song in it. The term is often used to mean a specific song on the album by number. For example, the "fourth track" or "track four" from an album is the fourth song on the album when it is played from the beginning.


title: Baker Island

paragraphs: Baker Island is a small coral island, or atoll, in the North Pacific Ocean. It is just above the equator. It belongs to the United States. The United States Department of the Interior is in charge of the island. It is called the "Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge".

paragraphs: The island has no trees. The island is surrounded by a coral reef. This makes the atoll hard to approach in a boat.


title: Hermaphrodite

paragraphs: Hermaphrodite is a term which comes from Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. It is used as a scientific term in biology.

paragraphs: In zoology, an animal which can produce both sperm and ova is a hermaphrodite. As an example, most earthworms are hermaphrodites. A simultaneous hermaphrodite has both sets of sex organs throughout life. A sequential hermaphrodite has ovaries at first, replaced by a testis later, or the other way round.

paragraphs: In botany, hermaphrodite is used for 'complete' flowers with both male and female parts, and for plants which have bisexual reproductive units. See flowering plant sexuality for details.

paragraphs: With people, the term hermaphrodite is not correct, because true functioning hermaphrodites are not possible in humans. What sometimes happens is errors in development which lead to intersex persons. A definition of intersex is :

paragraphs: People who are intersex may have a very small penis and no testicles, or a very small and short vagina and a large clitoris that looks like a penis.


title: Epididymis

paragraphs: The epididymis is the part of the human male reproductive system. It is the tube that holds the testicles in place. It stretches from the back of each testicle to the van deferens.

paragraphs: Sperm made in the testis go into the head ("caput") of the epididymis, go through the body ("corpus") and stop at the tail ("cauda"), where they are stored. When sperm are first made and travel to the head, they are not yet ready to be ejaculated. They cannot swim or fertilize an egg. By the time they reach the tail, the sperm can fertilize an egg. The sperm are transferred to the Seminal visicle through the vas deferens. The sperm can not swim yet, so muscle contractions push the sperm to the seminal vesicle where final development is finished. .

paragraphs: When the sperm are ejaculated, they move through the tail of the epididymis. There are so many sperm that they cannot swim, but use peristalsis from muscles in the vas deferens.

paragraphs: An injury or infection of the epididymis causes epididymitis, a painful condition that can take months to heal. Sometimes the testicle has to be removed. There does not seem to be any single cause, or treatment for this condition. Some doctors treat it with antibiotics, some take a "wait and see" attitude. At times just one testicle is affected and at others, both.


title: Mammary gland

paragraphs: Mammary glands are the part of the female body designed for the making milk for baby mammals to drink. In humans they are in the breasts.


title: Kurt Browning

paragraphs: Kurt Browning (born June 18, 1966 in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta) is a Canadian figure skater. He won four world championships and four Canadian championships.

paragraphs: Browning did the first ever quadruple jump (four turns) in competition. He is well known for his footwork. As a professional, he has skated for Stars on Ice and Tom Collins Tour of Champions, won several professional championships, and did some T.V. skating specials. He has also talked during skating events on T.V. He has helped the charity Muscular Dystrophy.

paragraphs: Browning was raised in Caroline, Alberta. He married a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, Sonia Rodriguez, in 1996. They have a son Gabriel, born in 2003.


title: Airbus

paragraphs: Airbus (, , , ) is a company which makes aircraft. It is owned by EADS, a European aerospace company. Airbus has its headquarters in Blagnac, France.

paragraphs: Airbus began as a consortium (a group) of aircraft makers called Airbus Industrie. Later, in 2001, it became a joint-stock company. It was owned by EADS (80%) and BAE Systems (20%). BAE sold its part of the company to EADS on 13 October 2006, so EADS now completely owns the company.

paragraphs: Around 55,000 people work for Airbus in sixteen places in four European Union countries: France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. The final part of Airbus aircraft making is done in Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; Seville, Spain; and, since 2009, Tianjin, China.

paragraphs: Airbus makes and sells the first digital fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320. Airbus also makes the biggest airliner in the world, the Airbus A380.

paragraphs: "Airbus Industrie" started as a consortium (group) of European aircraft makers. The companies came together to compete with American companies like Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed.

paragraphs: Even though a lot of European planes had a lot of new features, even the most successful planes were not made for long. In 1991, Jean Pierson, who was then the CEO and Managing Director of Airbus Industrie, gave some reasons why American plane makers were bigger: because the United States is so big, people preferred to fly; a 1942 agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States meant that the United States would make transport planes; and World War II had given the United States "a profitable, vigorous, powerful and structured aeronautical industry."

paragraphs: In the 1960s, some plane makers were thinking about coming together. Some aircraft companies had already thought that this would need to happen. In 1959, Hawker Siddeley thought about making an "Airbus" version of the Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy. This version would "be able to lift as many as 126 passengers on ultra short routes at a direct operating cost of 2d. per seat mile." However, European aircraft makers knew that making this plane would be dangerous. They knew that they would have to work together to make a plane like this. At the 1965 Paris Air Show, big European airlines began to think about the specifications for the "airbus". In that same year, Hawker Siddeley joined with Breguet and Nord to design the airbus. By 1966, Sud Aviation (became Aérospatiale) (France), Arbeitsgemeinschaft Airbus (became Deutsche Airbus) (Germany) and Hawker Siddeley (UK) were all working together. The partners asked for money from the French, German and British governments in October 1966. On 25 July 1967, the three governments gave the money and decided to continue with the airbus.

paragraphs: In the two years after this, both the British and French governments thought the project would fail. 75 orders were needed before 31 July 1968. The French government thought about leaving the partnership, because it was worried about the costs of the Airbus A300, Concorde and the Dassault Mercure. The French government was persuaded to stay. The British government left the partnership on 10 April 1969. Hawker Siddeley was helping until the British government left, and France and Germany did not want to design the airbus' wing (which Hawker Siddeley was doing). Hawker Siddeley was allowed to keep helping, but it did not have any help from the British government.

paragraphs: Airbus Industrie was officially started as a "Groupement d'Interet Économique" (Economic Interest Group or GIE) on 18 December 1970. The name "Airbus" was taken from a word used by airlines in the 1960s. It meant an aircraft with a certain size and range. Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus each owned 36.5% of the company, Hawker Siddeley owned 20% and Fokker-VFW owned 7%. Each company made its own parts of the plane, and they were completely ready when they were delivered. In October 1971, the Spanish company CASA took 4.2% of Airbus Industrie. Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus lowered their share to 47.9%. In January 1979, British Aerospace, which had taken over Hawker Siddeley in 1977, took 20% of Airbus Industrie. Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus lowered their share even more, to 37.9%. CASA kept its 4.2%.

paragraphs: The Airbus A300 was to be the first aircraft which was designed, made and sold by Airbus Industrie. By 1967, the "A300" label was given an airliner which Airbus Industrie was thinking about making, with 320 seats and two engines. Roger Béteille was made the technical director of the A300 design. Béteille decided which companies would make which parts of the plane: France would make the cockpit, flight controls and part of the fuselage; Hawker Siddeley made the wings; Germany made part of the fuselage; the Dutch made the flaps and spoilers; and Spain made the horizontal tailplane. On 26 September 1967 the German, French and British governments signed an agreement in London, which allowed Airbus Industrie to continue designing the plane. Rolls-Royce made the engines.

paragraphs: Airlines did not really want a 300+ seat Airbus A300, so Airbus Industrie made the A250 proposal. This later became the A300B, which had 250 seats and did not need a new engine design. This made the plane much cheaper to design, as the Rolls-Royce RB207 which would have been used in the A300 made up a lot of the costs. The RB207 had also had design problems and delays, since Rolls-Royce was concentrating on designing a different jet engine, the RB211, for the Lockheed L-1011 The A300B was smaller but lighter than its American rivals.

paragraphs: In 1972, the A300 made its first flight. The first type of A300, the A300B2, began being used by airlines in 1974. However, not much attention was paid to the A300 because of the launch of Concorde. At first, the A300 was not very successful. However, airlines began to order more and more. Part of this was because of the Airbus Industrie CEO Bernard Lathière, who tried to sell the plane to airlines in America and Asia. By 1979, Airbus Industrie had 256 orders for the A300. Airbus Industrie had also designed a more advanced aircraft, the Airbus A310, the year before. It was the A320 in 1981 which made Airbus Industrie a very big aircraft maker. More than 400 orders were made for the A320 before it even flew. Only 15 were made for the A300 before it first flew.

paragraphs: Since Airbus Industrie's planes were made by different companies, Airbus Industrie really only sold and advertised the planes. It became obvious that Airbus was no longer a temporary group made just to make one plane. It had become a big company which could make more planes. By the late 1980s, Airbus Industrie was working on two medium-sized planes: the Airbus A330 and the Airbus A340.

paragraphs: In the early 1990s, the Airbus CEO Jean Pierson said that the partnership should be closed, and Airbus Industrie should become its own company. However, the difficulties of integrating and valuing the assets of four companies, as well as legal issues, delayed the initiative. In December 1998, when British Aerospace and DASA were close to merging with each other, Aérospatiale stopped the negotiations. The French company thought that if BAe and DASA merged, that company would own 57.9% of Airbus. Aérospatiale insisted that each company own half of Airbus each. However, the problem was fixed in January 1999, when BAe merged with Marconi Electronic Systems instead. This company became BAE Systems. Then in 2000, three of the companies which made Airbus Industrie (DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, the new Deutsche Airbus; Aérospatiale-Matra, the new Sud-Aviation; and CASA) merged. This merger made EADS. EADS now owned Airbus France, Airbus Deutschland and Airbus España, which was 80% of Airbus Industrie. BAE Systems and EADS created the new company, Airbus . Both companies owned part of Airbus.

paragraphs: Throughout 1988, some Airbus engineers, led by Jean Roeder, began secretly designing a very big plane. It was made to allow Airbus to rival Boeing, whose 747 had been the only very big plane since the 1970s. Airbus made the project public at the 1990 Farnborough Air Show. Airbus wanted to make this plane 15% cheaper to use than the Boeing 747-400. In June 1994, Airbus named the plane the A3XX.

paragraphs: Five A380s were made for testing, and also to demonstrate the plane to airlines and the public. The first A380 was shown to the public on 18 January 2005, and it first flew on 27 April 2005. The head test pilot said that flying the A380 was like "like handling a bicycle". On 1 December 2005, the A380 reached its maximum speed, Mach 0.96. On 10 January 2006, the A380 made its first flight across the Atlantic, to Medellín, in Colombia.

paragraphs: On 3 October 2006, Airbus' CEO Christian Streiff said that the Airbus A380 was delayed because of problems with the software used to design the aircraft. The Toulouse factory used the latest version of CATIA (made by Dassault), but the people who were designing the plane in the Hamburg factory were using an older version. The 530 km of cables which go through the aircraft had to have their design completely changed. No airlines cancelled their orders, but Airbus still had to pay a lot of money because of the delay.

paragraphs: The first A380 was delivered to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007. It began to be used on 25 October 2007, when it flew between Singapore and Sydney. Two months later, Singapore Airlines' CEO Chew Choong Seng said that the A380 was better than both the airline and Airbus thought. It used 20% less fuel per passenger than the Boeing 747-400. Emirates was the second airline to get an A380 on 28 July 2008, and it used the A380 to fly between Dubai and New York on 1 August 2008. Qantas got the A380 on 19 September 2008, and its A380s flew between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October 2008.

paragraphs: On 6 April 2006, it was announced that BAE Systems would sell its 20% of Airbus. Its share was worth about €3.5 billion (US$4.17 billion). At first, BAE wanted to agree a price with EADS informally.

paragraphs: On 2 July 2006, BAE's part of the company was thought to be worth about £1.9 billion (€2.75 billion), which was much less than what BAE, analysts, and even EADS thought. In September 2006, BAE sold its part of Airbus for £1.87 billion (€2.75 billion, $3.53 billion). On 4 October, BAE's shareholders decided that the sale should go ahead, meaning that Airbus is now completely owned by EADS.

paragraphs: On 28 February 2007, CEO Louis Gallois said that Airbus was planning to make some changes. The programme was called Power, and it got rid of 10,000 jobs over four years: 4,300 in France, 3,700 in Germany, 1,600 in the UK and 400 in Spain. Airbus factories in Saint Nazaire, Varel and Laupheim could be sold or closed, while Meaulte, Nordenham and Filton are "open to investors". Unions in France and Germany threatened to go on strike because of the job cuts.

paragraphs: At the 2011 Paris Air Show, Airbus got 730 orders for Airbus A320neo family planes. These orders were worth $72.2 billion, and the number of orders is a new record in aviation. The A320neo was announced in December 2010, and it got 667 orders. Together with the orders before that time, there were 1029 orders made within six months after the plane was launched, which is also a new record.

paragraphs: The first Airbus plane was the A300, the world's first twin-engined aircraft to have two aisles. A shorter version of the A300 is called the Airbus A310. Airbus launched the A320, which is special as it is the first commercial plane to use a digital fly-by-wire control system. The A320 has been, and still is, a very big success. The A318 and A319 are shorter versions, and the A321 is a longer version, of the A320. The A320's main rival is the Boeing 737 family.

paragraphs: The long-range wide-body planes, the Airbus A330 and the Airbus A340, have efficient wings, which also have winglets. The Airbus A340-500 can fly for , which is the second-longest range for any commercial plane, after the Boeing 777-200LR. All Airbus aircraft after the A320 have similar cockpits, which makes it easier to train pilots. Airbus stopped making A340s in 2011 because not enough planes were being sold compared to other planes like the Boeing 777.

paragraphs: Airbus is studying a replacement for the A320. This plane is called the Airbus NSR, for "New Short-Range aircraft". Those studies said that the NSR could burn 9–10% less fuel than the current A320. Instead of making a brand new plane, Airbus decided to make changes to the current A320 by adding winglets and other improvements. This updated type of A320 is called the "A320 Enhanced" and it should use 4–5% less fuel.

paragraphs: In July 2007, Airbus gave the last A300 to FedEx, which was when Airbus stopped making A300/A310s.

paragraphs: Airbus made parts and helped maintain Concorde until it was retired in 2003.

paragraphs: Airbus Executive and Private Aviation is the part of Airbus which makes private jets. After Boeing started the Boeing Business Jet, Airbus made the A319 Corporate Jet in 1997. As of December 2008, 121 corporate and private jets are being used and 164 aircraft have been ordered.

paragraphs: In the late 1990s Airbus became interested in designing and selling aircraft to the military. Airbus made planes for aerial refuelling with the Airbus A310 MRTT and the Airbus A330 MRTT, and tactical airlift with the A400M.

paragraphs: In January 1999, Airbus started another company, Airbus Military , to design and make a tactical transport aircraft, the Airbus Military A400M. The A400M was designed by several NATO members: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey, and the UK, so that these countries did not have to use foreign transport planes. The A400M has had many delays.

paragraphs: Airbus is in a fierce rivalry with Boeing. NAirbus won more plane orders in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, Airbus got 1111 orders, and Boeing got 1029. In 2006, Airbus had its second-best year ever, when it got 824 orders. The year before that was even better. In August 2010, Airbus said that it would be making more A320 airliners, so that 40 would be made every month by 2012, when Boeing was making more 737s, so that 35 would be made every month.

paragraphs: As of April 2013, 7,264 Airbus aircraft are being used. There are 21% more Boeing aircraft than Airbus, because Airbus has not existed as long as Boeing. However, Airbus is catching up, as older Boeings are being retired.

paragraphs: Recently, more Boeing 777s have been sold than Airbus planes like the A330-300. The A330-200 is the main rival of the 767, and the A330-200 has sold more than the 767.

paragraphs: Airbus has also made the Airbus A350 XWB to be a rival to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This was done because airlines were asking Airbus to make a plane to rival the 787.

paragraphs: Boeing has complained that Airbus gets unfair help from European governments. However, Airbus has said that Boeing gets money illegally from the United States government, as the U.S. government buys many of Boeing's military products.

paragraphs: The WTO said in August 2010 and in May 2011 that Airbus was given unfair help by governments of European countries. In February 2011, the WTO found that Boeing had been given help by U.S. governments which broke the WTO rules.

paragraphs: Airbus has many different factories for different planes. These are:

paragraphs: Airbus uses the "Beluga" to move different parts of Airbus planes from one factory to the other. Boeing also uses some Boeing 747s to do this to transport parts for the 787. However, some parts of the Airbus A380 are too large to be carried by the Beluga. These big A380 parts are brought to Bordeaux on a ship. They are then taken to Toulouse on the Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit.

paragraphs: Airbus opened a factory in Tianjin, People's Republic of China in 2009.

paragraphs: Airbus started making a $350 million factory in Harbin, China in July 2009. When it is finished, 1,000 people will work there.

paragraphs: Airbus has started "Flightpath 2050", which will lower the amount of noise, CO and NOx made by Airbus planes.

paragraphs: Airbus has joined Honeywell and JetBlue Airways to lower the amount of pollution and how much oil planes need to use. They are trying to make a biofuel which could be used by 2030.

paragraphs: Airbus recently had the first flight using special fuel. It used 60% kerosene and 40% gas to liquids (GTL) fuel. It gave out the same amount of carbon, but less sulphur. The special fuel worked with Airbus' engine, so this type of fuel should not need new engines. This flight is thought to be a good advance towards environmentally-friendly planes.

paragraphs: Airbus names its planes in a special way. The format is: the plane name, a dash, and a three-digit number.

paragraphs: The three-digit number after the plane name means the aircraft series, the company which makes the engines, and the version of the engines. For example, an A320-200 with version one International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 engines would be called the A320-231.


title: Rapid City, South Dakota

paragraphs: Rapid City is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota. It is in the western part of the state on the eastern edge of the Black Hills. Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County.

paragraphs: It is a good starting point for the area around it, which is a tourist area. Local tourist sites include Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, the Badlands, and Custer State Park.


title: Year without a Summer

paragraphs: The Year without a Summer was 1816. The year before that, in 1815, a volcano had erupted in the Dutch East Indies. The volcano's name was Mount Tambora. The volcanic ash from the eruption spread across the world. It darkened the sky, and made the Earth's surface colder.

paragraphs: In much of Europe and northern North America, summer never came. In New England and Germany, there were frozen lakes in the middle of June. Flowers never bloomed, and every day was cold. These places and China suffered famine.


title: Capitol building

paragraphs: A capitol building (or just capitol) is a building in a capital city. People who control government work there to make laws. The building may have many offices.

paragraphs: Some offices are for legislators, the people who make the laws.

paragraphs: Some offices are for people who enforce laws, for example a president or governor. These people lead all people, and help them obey the laws.

paragraphs: Sometimes, there are offices for judges, people who help all people understand the laws. These judges are very powerful. A group of these judges can be called a supreme court or superior court.

paragraphs: Buildings similar to capitols are in other places. A smaller government like one in a county can be in a court house. A city government can be in a city hall.


Dissolve


title: Jersey City, New Jersey

paragraphs: Jersey City is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is just across the Hudson River from New York City.


title: San Jose, California

paragraphs: San Jose is a city in Santa Clara County, California in the United States. It is the third biggest city in California, after Los Angeles and San Diego. It is the tenth biggest city in the United States. It is south of San Francisco. The city has about 1,000,000 people. It has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ("Csb" in the Koeppen climate classification).


title: Venus, Texas

paragraphs: Venus, Texas is a town in the United States. Around 2,960 people lived there (about 1,981 males and 979 females) in 2010.


title: Evergreen, Colorado

paragraphs: Evergreen, Colorado is a community in the United States, about 30 miles from Denver, Colorado.


title: Queens

paragraphs: Queens is a borough of New York City and a county of New York State. It was named for Catherine of Braganza, the Queen of England and wife of King Charles II of England.

paragraphs: About 2.6 million people live in Queens and it is the largest borough of New York City in size and second in population. According to the United States census, Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the USA. That means that it has the most people from different kinds of places, religions, and ethnic groups of any place in the USA. Large parts of Queens are urban and an equal part is suburban. Until 1899 Nassau County, New York was part of Queens County.

paragraphs: Queens is home to both of New York City's airports, LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Queens is connected to the Bronx by three bridges: the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge and the Triborough Bridge. It is connected to Manhattan by two bridges and one tunnel: the Triborough Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge, and the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

paragraphs: Many controlled-access highways cross Queens, including I-495 (the Long Island Expressway), I-278 (the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), and I-678 (the Van Wyck Expressway, pronounced Van Wike). Important state highways in Queens include the Grand Central Parkway, which becomes the Northern State Parkway when it crosses the Queens border into Nassau County.

paragraphs: Many New York City Subway lines go through Queens. The most famous is the Flushing Line, the 7 Train, which has the nickname "International Express" because it goes through many neighborhoods where many immigrants live. Other subway lines in Queens include the A Train, C Train, E Train, F Train, G Train, J Train, M Train, N Train, R Train, V Train, W Train, and Z Train.

paragraphs: Queens has a very large bus system that goes to all parts of the borough. Some bus routes go to Brooklyn, Manhattan, or the Bronx.

paragraphs: The Long Island Rail Road also has many stations in Queens. The Port Washington Line crosses northern Queens. There are busy stations at Woodside, Queens, Forest Hills, and Flushing. The central depot and main station for the railroad is in the neighborhood of Jamaica.

paragraphs: The New York Mets of the National League of Major League Baseball play in Citi Field in Queens. The U.S. Open, a famous and important tennis tournament, is played in Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows Park south of the baseball stadium.

paragraphs: Queens has dozens of neighborhoods and named areas. These include:


title: Toller Cranston

paragraphs: Toller Cranston (April 20, 1949 – January 24, 2015) was a Canadian figure skater.

paragraphs: Cranston was born in Hamilton, Ontario. He grew up in Kirkland Lake, Ontario. He was Canadian champion six times, and, despite never coming higher than third at a world championship, he came first in the free skate four times. He was well-respected for his artistic ability, and is recognized as someone who brought a new level of artistry to men's figure skating.

paragraphs: He skated as a professional for many years, choreographed (designed movement patterns for) skating routines, and was a commentator (talked about events) on T.V. during skating events. Many people don't realize that Toller was also an extremely successful and talented fine art painter. He funded his career off the sale of his artworks, and continued to paint ferociously until the end of his days.

paragraphs: After his retirement, Cranston lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He was found dead at his home in San Miguel de Allende on the morning of January 24, 2015. He was 65 years old. His cause of death was later said to be a heart attack.


title: Montreal Canadiens

paragraphs: The Montreal Canadiens are an ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL). Their nickname is the "Habs" (short for the French "Habitants", early settlers in Quebec from France). They have won the Stanley Cup championship 24 times, more than any other team.

paragraphs: The Canadiens (who use the French spelling of "Canadian") were formed in 1909, as part of the National Hockey Association.

paragraphs: They won their first Stanley Cup in 1916, with star players such as Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde and goaltender Georges Vezina. The Canadiens joined the NHL in 1917; Canadien Joe Malone won the first NHL scoring title (Art Ross Trophy). They won the Cup again in 1924, with players such as Billy Boucher. Howie Morenz was a big star in the early years of the NHL. He was a great skater. Morenz won the Hart Trophy, as the league's top player, three times. Goalie George Hainsworth played at the same time, and along with others such as Aurel Joliat, they won the Stanley Cup in 1930 and 1931.

paragraphs: It took 13 years before they won the Cup again. A young Maurice "The Rocket" Richard, star goalie Bill Durnan,Hector "Toe" Blake, and Elmer Lach led the Canadiens to the cup again in 1944, as well as 1946. Richard scored 50 goals in a 50-game season in 1944-45. No one did that again for 36 years. He led the NHL in goals five times.

paragraphs: The Canadiens became a very powerful team in the 1950s. Led by legendary center Jean Beliveau, Doug Harvey (who won seven Norris Trophies as best defence, six on Montreal), Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, Dickie Moore, Jacques Plante (who won seven Vezina Trophies for goalies), and Richard (along with his younger brother, Henri, the "Pocket Rocket"), the team won the Cup in 1953, and five times in a row, 1956 through 1960. They won again in 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1969.

paragraphs: New players led the team in the 1970s: Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden, Bob Gainey, Larry Robinson, and Yvon Cournoyer led them to the cup in 1971, 1973, and four times in a row, 1976 through 1979. By 1979, they had won the Stanley Cup 16 times in 27 years.


title: Hockey

paragraphs: Hockey is a type of sport in which players try to get points by hitting an object into the other team's goal with a stick. Others believe hockey came from the French word “hoquet” which means shepherd's stick. James Creighton, an engineer who learned how to play the game of hockey while living in Nova Scotia, is credited for bringing the game to a new level. He taught his friends at McGill University in Montreal how to play the game. There are three main ways that hockey is played.

paragraphs: Evidence exists that shows ancient Aztecs, Greeks and Romans played similar forms of the game. The modern game of field hockey came to fruition in the mid-19th century in Great Britain. The British army brought the game to its colonies, and the first international competition took place in 1895.


title: Tyresta National Park

paragraphs: Tyresta National Park is a small national park in Sweden. It only has about 50 square kilometers (or 19 square miles) of land. It is located near the capital city of Stockholm. A large fire burned almost 10 percent of the park in 1999, but the animals and plants have come back and are now doing fine.


title: St. Basil's Cathedral

paragraphs: St. Basil's Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Intercession, is a very famous cathedral in Moscow, Russia. It was commissioned by Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible), for Saint Basil the Blessed. It is in the area called Red Square. It was built in 1555-1561.

paragraphs: The cathedral is very magnificent. It has 8 distinctive onion-shaped towers. The building itself is made up of separate chapels. There is a ninth spire in the middle, forming an eight-point star. The Cathedral should not be mistaken for the Moscow Kremlin.

paragraphs: The cathedral has escaped destruction many times. Napoleon Bonaparte decided to take it to Paris, but such an undertaking would have been impossible. Instead, he ordered it to be demolished. Explosives were lit, but torrential rain suddenly started, extinguishing the fuses.

paragraphs: Joseph Stalin also ordered it to be destroyed, since it interfered with parades. Pyotr Baranovsky, who was the architect in charge, objected and was sent to the GULAG but the demolition was cancelled. The city of Moscow also caught fire numerous times, and the cathedral wasn't spared. Even so, it still stands to this very day.


title: Newport, Wales

paragraphs: Newport is a city in the southeast of Wales, Great Britain. It is in the county of Monmouthshire, and in the historic Welsh kingdom of Gwent. Its name in Welsh is Casnewydd. It is the third biggest city in Wales. Newport became a city in 2002. About 140,000 people live in Newport.

paragraphs: A few years ago, Newport had lots of people working in the steel factory and other heavy industries. This has changed, now many people work in electronics, such as making computers, phones and microchips.


title: Monmouthshire

paragraphs: Monmouthshire is a county in Wales in the west of Great Britain. From the end of the Middle Ages until the year 1974 Monmouthshire was a part of England for some things and a part of Wales for other things. Then in 1972 Parliament decided that it was going to be in Wales from 1974 onwards.

paragraphs: The chief town in the area is Newport. Other important towns are Cwmbran, where the county council meets, Monmouth, the county town and Abergavenny.


title: Death grunt

paragraphs: A death grunt is when a singer uses a scream which is very low and deep. It is used in many types of music, but usually death metal. In many people's opinions, it is hard to understand the death grunt. However, some people who listen to them a lot think they are not so hard to understand. Some people believe that death grunts in music sound "scary", so they do not like them.

paragraphs: Bands that use death growls include Necrophagist, Morbid Angel, Opeth, and many more.

paragraphs: Bands that use higher screams that come from the throat include Escape the Fate, Alesana and Greeley Estates.

paragraphs: Other terms for death grunts are death growls, harsh vocals, and unclean vocals.


title: Clique

paragraphs: A clique is a small group of people who like the same things. Sometimes, people use the word clique to talk about groups of young people. The word is also used to talk about groups of adults, usually groups of politicians.

paragraphs: In a clique there are leaders and followers. A clique may also have people they do not like. Such people are called outcasts. The outcasts were followers, then they were not liked.


title: Goth subculture

paragraphs: A goth is a word usually used to describe a person who listens to gothic music and/or dresses in a goth style clothes. Goths often wear black and unusual jewelry. Both goth men and goth women often wear make-up.

paragraphs: The "goth subculture" originated in the early 1980s among fans of the first gothic rock group, Bauhaus.

paragraphs: The word goth comes from the word "Gothic" which actually means "gloomy" or "dark". This meaning of the word comes from "gothic fiction", a type of literature popular during the late 18th and early 19th century.

paragraphs: People who call themselves a goth are those who live up the meaning of the name through wearing clothes or putting on makeup that is in colours that represent death, decay, or gloominess, such as the colour black, deathly white face makeup, dark bloody red colours, or the tones of the colour puce.

paragraphs: Goth people may also make and listen to "Goth music".

paragraphs: Goths wear normal black clothes and mix them with other colours to make a new look.

paragraphs: Goth people are often mistaken to be emo or punk because of the everyday stereotypes.


title: Cigarette

paragraphs: Cigarettes can be any dried leaf that people roll in thin paper to smoke, but the word is most often used to refer ones with dried tobacco leaves. The nicotine in the tobacco can be addictive to people. The nicotine from cigarettes makes people want to smoke more, even if they do not like the taste or its other effects. The smoke also has other things that are bad for people's health. Many countries have laws saying who can smoke tobacco cigarettes and where they can smoke them. They can cause lung cancer, heart disease and many other diseases. Most packs of cigarettes have warning labels on them. Until the mid-1950s, cigarettes were advertised as being healthy or at least not harmful. Tobacco companies used images of doctors in their advertisements to falsely convince the public that cigarettes were safe. Cigarettes were advertised as a remedy for throat irritation, the common cold, obesity, indigestion, and even asthma. Today, all of the major tobacco companies admit that cigarettes are harmful to health.

paragraphs: Smokers have symptoms such as frequent coughing, chest pain, and breathlessness. Doctors say that people should not smoke, as it can harm almost every organ in the body.

paragraphs: Cigarette smoke contains many harmful substances. Among them are nicotine, tar, carcinogens and carbon monoxide.


title: Gdańsk

paragraphs: Gdańsk is a city in the north of Poland in Pomeranian Voivodeship, near the place where the Vistula river meets the Baltic Sea. It is Poland's 6th largest city (population of 500 000 people) and the largest and most important sea port.

paragraphs: It has existed since the 10th century and many times played a very important role in Poland's history. In the 19th century it was part of Prussia. This is where Solidarity, the movement which helped end Communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, came to life.

paragraphs: Gdansk has a humid continental climate ("Dfb" in the Köppen climate classification).

paragraphs: The sixth Wikimania was hosted in this city in 2010.


title: Montserrat

paragraphs: Montserrat is a Caribbean island. It is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. Montserrat got its name from Christopher Columbus in 1493. The governor of Montserrat is Deborah Barnes-Jones. The capital is officially Plymouth, but the government has moved to Brades after a volcano, Chances Peak, destroyed Plymouth in 1995.


title: Malawi

paragraphs: Malawi ("Republic of Malawi") is a country in south-east Africa. It has borders with the countries of Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique. The capital of Malawi is Lilongwe and the spoken languages are English and Chichewa. The official language of Malawi is English. The total size is about 118480 km² and there are about 100 people per km². The country is also called "The Warm Heart of Africa". Malawi is one of the smallest countries in Africa. Lake Malawi takes about a third of Malawi's area.

paragraphs: Bantu people started living in Malawi in the 10th century. In 1891 the area became a colony of the United Kingdom. In 1953 Malawi, then called as Nyasaland, as a protectorate of the United Kingdom, became an almost independent country called Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was ended in 1963. In 1964 the protection of the United Kingdom over Nyasaland was ended. Nyasaland became an independent country which was ruled by Queen Elizabeth and was called Malawi. Two years later it became a republic. After getting independence it became a one-party rule which was ruled by Hastings Banda. He was president until 1994. Peter Mutharika is the current president. Malawi has a democratic, many party government. Malawi has a small military: army, a navy and an air support. Malawi has good relations with Western countries and most countries in the world. Malawi has joined some international organizations.

paragraphs: Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. Economy is based in farming. Most of the population live in field areas. Country gets aid from other countries. Government has a hard time building and expanding the economy and develop health care, education and environment safety. Since 2005 some programs have been developed to focus on these problems.

paragraphs: Malawi has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. People become ill with AIDS. Africans, Asians and Europeans are living in the country and they speak in different languages.

paragraphs: People have lived in the area of Malawi for thousands of years. At first they were hunter-gatherers. Bantu groups came to the area around the 10th century. Most of the Bantu groups went to south but some started living there and made ethnic groups based on familiar race.

paragraphs: By 1500 AD groups came together and made Maravi empire, which streched from north of what is now Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River and from Lake Malawi to the Luangwa River in what is now Zambia.

paragraphs: After 1600 the area was united under one ruler and began trading and making connection with Portuguese traders and members of the military through the Mozambican port which was occupied by Portuguese. By 1700 the empire had broken up into areas that were controlled by individual groups of people which was known by the Portuguese by collecting information. The Swahili-Arab slave trade had its highest amount in the middle of 1800s when about 20,000 people were forced to become slaves and were sold every year.

paragraphs: In 1859 British explorer David Livingstone found Lake Malawi (then it was called Lake Nyasa) and thought that Shire Highlands to the south of the lake was a good place for Europeans to make a colony. Many British missions were done in the area in the 1860s and 1870s. The African Lakes Company Limited was made in 1878 to set up a trade and transport that helped with the missions, and a small mission and trading area was made at Blantyre in 1876 and a British Consul started living there in 1883.

paragraphs: Malawi became an independent country in 6 July 1964. Hastings Banda became the first president. Constitution made Malawi become a republic and one-party state. Banda's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was the only legal party in the country. In 1971, Banda became president for life. For almost 30 years, Banda ruled over a harsh government which kept Malawi out from war.

paragraphs: Banda showed how a poor country with no access to sea, big population and no minerals can develop farming and industries. Banda made a business empire that produced one-third of the country's GDP and used 10% of the workers who got paid. All money made by Banda was used to develop Malawi.

paragraphs: Under pressure for free politics, Banda held an referendum in 1993, where population voted for many party, democratic government. In late 1993 a presidential council was made, president for life was ended and new constitution was put in place, ending MCP rule. In 1994 the first many party elections were held in Malawi, and Banda was defeated by Bakili Muluzi.


title: Electromagnetic radiation

paragraphs: Electromagnetic waves are waves that contain an electric field and a magnetic field and carry energy. They travel at the speed of light.

paragraphs: Quantum mechanics developed from the study of electromagnetic waves. This field includes the study of both visible and invisible light. Visible light is the light one can see with normal eyesight in the colours of the rainbow. Invisible light is light one can't see with normal eyesight and includes more energetic and higher frequency waves, such as ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays. Waves with longer lengths, such as infrared, micro and radio waves, are also explored in the field of Quantum mechanics.

paragraphs: Some types of electromagnetic radiation, such as X-rays, are ionizing radiation and can be harmful to your body.

paragraphs: Ultraviolet rays are near the violet end of the light spectrum and infrared are near the red end. Infrared rays are heat rays and ultraviolet rays cause sunburn.

paragraphs: The various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum differ in wavelength, frequency and quantum energy.

paragraphs: Sound waves are not electromagnetic waves but waves of pressure in air, water or any other substance.

paragraphs: In physics, it is well known that the wave equation for a typical wave is

paragraphs: The problem now is to prove that Maxwell's equations explicitly prove that the electric and magnetic fields create electromagnetic radiation. Recall that two of Maxwell's equations are given by

paragraphs: By evaluating the curl of the above equations and vector calculus one can prove the following equations

paragraphs: Note: the proof involves making the substitution

paragraphs: The equations above are analogous to the wave equation, by replacing f with E and B. The above equations mean that propagations through the magnetic (B) and electric (E) fields will produce waves.