title: Carbon dioxide

paragraphs: Carbon dioxide (CO) is a chemical compound. It is a gas at room temperature. It is made of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. People and animals release carbon dioxide when they breathe out. Also, every time something organic is burnt (or a fire is made), it makes carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide to make food. This process is called photosynthesis. The properties of carbon dioxide were studied by the Scottish scientist Joseph Black in the 1750s.

paragraphs: Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases trap heat energy. Greenhouse gases change the climate and weather on our planet, Earth. This is called climate change. Greenhouse gases are a cause of global warming, the rise of Earth surface temperature.

paragraphs: Carbon dioxide is an end product in organisms that obtain energy from breaking down sugars, fats and amino acids with oxygen as part of their metabolism. This is a process known as cellular respiration. This includes all plants, animals, many fungi and some bacteria. In higher animals, the carbon dioxide travels in the blood from the body's tissues to the lungs where it is breathed out. Plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to use in photosynthesis.

paragraphs: Dry ice, or solid carbon dioxide, is the solid state of CO gas below -109.3 °F (-78.5°C). Dry ice does not occur naturally on earth but is man made. It is colorless. People use dry ice to make things cold, and to make drinks fizzy, kill gophers, and freeze warts. The vapor of dry ice causes suffocation and eventually, death. Caution and professional assistance is recommended whenever dry ice is in use.

paragraphs: At usual pressure it will not melt from a solid to a liquid but instead changes directly from a solid to a gas. This is called sublimation. It will change directly from a solid to a gas at any temperature higher than extremely cold temperatures. Dry ice sublimates at normal air temperature. Dry ice exposed to normal air gives off carbon dioxide gas that has no color. Carbon dioxide can be liquified at pressure above 5.1 atmospheres.

paragraphs: Carbon dioxide gas that comes off of dry ice is so cold that when it mixes with air it cools the water vapour in the air to fog, which looks like a thick white smoke. It is often used in the theater to create the appearance of fog or smoke.

paragraphs: Chemists can get carbon dioxide from cooling air. They call this air distillation. This method is inefficient because a large amount of air must be refrigerated to extract a small amount of CO2. Chemists can also use several different chemical reactions to separate carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is made in the reactions between most acids and most metal carbonates. For example, the reaction between hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate (limestone or chalk) makes carbon dioxide:

paragraphs: The carbonic acid (HCO) then decomposes to water and CO. Such reactions cause foaming or bubbling, or both. In industry, such reactions are used many times to neutralize waste acid streams.

paragraphs: Quicklime (CaO), a chemical that has widespread use, can be made heating limestone to about 850 °C. This reaction also makes CO:

paragraphs: Carbon dioxide is also made in the combustion of all carbon-containing fuels, such as methane (natural gas), petroleum distillates (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, propane), coal or wood. In most cases, water is also released. As an example the chemical reaction between methane and oxygen is:

paragraphs: Carbon dioxide is made in steel mills. Iron is reduced from its oxides with coke in a blast furnace, producing pig iron and carbon dioxide:

paragraphs: Yeast metabolizes sugar to produce carbon dioxide and ethanol, also known as alcohol, in the production of wines, beers and other spirits, but also in the production of bioethanol:

paragraphs: All aerobic organisms produce when they oxidize carbohydrates, fatty acids, and proteins in the mitochondria of cells. The large number of reactions involved are exceedingly complex and not described easily. (They include cellular respiration, anaerobic respiration and photosynthesis). Photoautotrophs (i.e. plants, cyanobacteria) use another reaction: Plants absorb from the air, and, together with water, react it to form carbohydrates:

paragraphs: Carbon dioxide is soluble in water, in which it spontaneously interconverts between CO and (carbonic acid). The relative concentrations of , and the deprotonated forms (bicarbonate) and (carbonate) depend on the acidity (pH). In neutral or slightly alkaline water (pH > 6.5), the bicarbonate form predominates (>50%) becoming the most prevalent (>95%) at the pH of seawater, while in very alkaline water (pH > 10.4) the predominant (>50%) form is carbonate. The bicarbonate and carbonate forms are very soluble. So, air-equilibrated ocean water (mildly alkaline with typical pH = 8.2–8.5) contains about 120 mg of bicarbonate per liter.

paragraphs: Industrial carbon dioxide is produced mainly from six processes:

paragraphs: Carbon dioxide can be created with a simple chemical reaction:


title: Intermission

paragraphs: An intermission or interval is a break in a performance. An intermission may be twenty minutes or longer: time for people to have a drink and time for the performers to relax. Plays and operas are usually divided into acts. The intermission will come where there is a suitable break between the acts. There are a few operas (e.g. those by Richard Wagner) which are so long that there may be two intermissions.


title: David Duchovny

paragraphs: David Duchovny (born August 7, 1960) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Fox Mulder on the television series, "The X-Files". On August 13, 2007, his series "Californication" began airing on the Showtime television network.


title: Laramie, Wyoming

paragraphs: Laramie is a city in the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is near the University of Wyoming. It is the county seat of Albany County.

paragraphs: The University of Wyoming is located in Laramie.

paragraphs: In 1998, Matthew Shepherd was murdered in this town.


title: Black Death

paragraphs: The Black Death was an outbreak of disease that killed millions of people across Europe and Asia. Most people think that the disease was the bubonic plague. Around 50 million people were killed by the bubonic plague, and was at its worst between 1347 and 1351. The disease may have started in Asia. This disease is carried and spread by fleas living on rats. Traders from the Silk Road may have brought the infected fleas to Europe.

paragraphs: Fleas started the problem; the infected fleas were carried by black rats. Rats that were carrying the fleas would go into cities. When the fleas bit somebody, they would inject a little bit of the bacteria into the wound. This would cause the person to be infected. Rats were often on ships. This meant the disease spread extremely quickly, all over Europe.

paragraphs: In humans, the disease caused swelling in the groin, under the arms and behind the ears. These swellings were a black and purple colour, hence the name 'The Black Death'. The dark swellings were called buboes. People were in pain and victims died a horrible death. The symptoms could be seen 3–7 days after victims were bitten by a flea carrying the disease.

paragraphs: The disease killed around a third of Europe's population, with variation between areas. It killed at least 75-200 million people across Europe, the Middle East, India, and China.

paragraphs: The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe every generation with different degrees of intensity and fatality until the 1700s. Later outbreaks include the Italian Plague of 1629-1631, the Great Plague of London (1665–1666), the Great Plague of Vienna (1679), the Great Plague of Marseille in 1720–1722 and the 1771 plague in Moscow. In its virulent form it seems to have disappeared from Europe in the 18th century.

paragraphs: There is some controversy over the identity of the disease. Anthrax and Viral hemorrhagic fevers are other ideas for what specific disease the Black Death might have been.

paragraphs: The Black Death had a very big effect on Europe's population. It changed Europe's social structure. It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in widespread persecution of minorities such as Jews, Muslims, foreigners, beggars and lepers. The uncertainty of daily survival influenced people to live for the moment, as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in "The Decameron" (1353).

paragraphs: The initial fourteenth-century European event was called the "Great Mortality" by contemporary writers and, with later outbreaks, became known as the 'Black Death'.

paragraphs: The Black Death has been used as a subject or as a setting in modern literature and media.

paragraphs: Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death (1842) is set in an unnamed country during a fictional plague that bears strong resemblance to the Black Death.

paragraphs: Albert Camus uses this theme too. His novel, "The Plague" (1947) is set against an outbreak of the plague in Algeria and how people handle it.

paragraphs: Sufferers of the bubonic plague develop fevers, severe flu symptoms and buboes that could swell to the size of an average apple. These buboes appear mainly in the groin, armpit and apparently sometimes on the thighs. The buboes were not only large but also were filled with pus and turned a purple color.

paragraphs: The medical knowledge of the time was based on Hippocrates' theory of humorism. This said the body consists of different fluids. If they are in harmony, the person is healthy. If they are not, disease results. Very often, diseases were also seen as a punishment of God.

paragraphs: Such a theory can of course not account for the spreading of a disease from one person to another one. Infection was said to occur from bad winds (called "Miasma"). The bad air could also come from within the earth, and thereby cause the disease. Remedies against the disease included to only open windows towards the north, to not sleep during the day, and not to work too hard.

paragraphs: The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris concluded that the Black Death was caused by a bad conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars on 20 March, 1345. They had been asked by Philipp VI about the cause of the disease in 1348. Since the answer was scientifically founded, it was soon taken to be the real cause, and translated into many languages.

paragraphs: Therefore, the doctors often limited their actions to telling people to go to Confession, so that their sins would be forgiven if they died. In the long run, the pandemics caused the doctors to change their ideas on how the human body worked, to get away from the theories of Hyppocrates and Galenos, more towards empirical science. Only 200 years later did Girolamo Fracastoro discover that diseases spread through infection.


title: Liverpool

paragraphs: Liverpool is a city in North West England, United Kingdom with a population of about 485,000 in 2015. It is part of the Liverpool-Birkenhead metropolitan area, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the UK. The local government is Liverpool City Council.

paragraphs: Liverpool is on the eastern side of the River Mersey. It used to lie in the old area of West Derby in the south west of Lancashire. It became a borough in 1207 and a city in 1880. In 1889, it became separate from Lancashire. Liverpool's growth as a large port was matched by the growth of the city during the Industrial Revolution.

paragraphs: It was most famous as a port during the late 19th and early 20th century. It is the birthplace of the famous rock group The Beatles. It is also famous because of its football teams, Everton F.C. and Liverpool F.C.

paragraphs: People from Liverpool are called Liverpudlians or Scousers. People from Birkenhead are called "true Scousers" by some.

paragraphs: It became very important due to trade in sugar, tobacco and slaves. In 1818, the Black Ball Line, with a fleet of sailing ships, offered the first regular passenger service with emphasis on passenger comfort, from England to the United States.

paragraphs: In the 19th Century, transatlantic trade and passenger travel was served to destinations such as New York City from Liverpool by;

paragraphs: In 1830, Liverpool and Manchester became the first cities to have a railway connecting them to each other, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Not including airports in London, Liverpool Airport was the first airport in Britain opening in 1930. In 2008 it was awarded the title European Capital of Culture.

paragraphs: Liverpool is a city on the River Mersey, on the coast next to the Irish Sea. On the other side of the river Mersey is the Wirral. In 1846 the Albert Dock was opened and in 1988, turned into a shopping centre.

paragraphs: The city is the birthplace of the famous rock group The Beatles and the musical style Merseybeat. It has several art galleries, museums and theatres. The Tate Liverpool is a gallery of modern art, the Walker Art Gallery displays classical art. Museums include the World Museum, the Maritime Museum and the Museum of Liverpool. There are two cathedrals, Liverpool Cathedral which is known as Anglican and Metropolitan Cathedral which is Catholic. There are two famous football clubs, Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C. It has several parks including Sefton Park and Stanley Park.

paragraphs: Liverpool Airport opened in 1930, it was later renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport. It has three tunnels under the River Mersey, one for trains and two (Queensway and Kingsway) for cars travelling to and from Wirral.

paragraphs: It has a local train network called Merseyrail and the station Liverpool Lime Street provides train travel to and from the rest of the United Kingdom. Until the 1950s it also had Liverpool Overhead Railway and Liverpool Corporation Tramways. Liverpool is connected to the West Coast Main Line railway connecting London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

paragraphs: Motorways running into Liverpool include the M62 from Manchester, the M58 and the M53 from Wirral. The inner ring road is Queens Drive and the outer ring road is the M57.

paragraphs: Liverpool Cruise Terminal opened in 2007 and provides travel to Europe. Regular ferries services operate to Wirral and the Isle of Man. River cruises operate down the Manchester Ship Canal and the Leeds Liverpool Canal also connects into Liverpool.

paragraphs: There has been a lot of development work which is part of a regeneration plan for Liverpool. It is because Liverpool was the Capital of Culture for 2008.


title: Serfdom

paragraphs: A serf is a worker who has to stay in a lords area. Serfs were the lowest social class of the feudal society. Serfs were different from slaves. Serfs could have property. In most serfdoms, serfs were legally part of the land, and if the land was sold, they were sold with it.

paragraphs: Serfdom is the forced labour of serfs, on the fields of the land owners. Serfs got protection and the right to work on the leased fields. Serfs worked in fields, and other agricultural-related works, like forestry, transportation (both land and river-based), work in craft and even in manufacturing.

paragraphs: Serfdom came from agricultural slavery of the Roman Empire and spread through Europe around the 10th century. Most people lived in serfdoms during the Middle Ages of Europe.

paragraphs: In England, serfdom lasted up to the 1600s, in France until 1789. In most other European countries serfdom lasted until the early 19th century.

paragraphs: All land was owned by landowners - nobility, Church and monarchs. A serf is any peasant who has to do manual labor for someone else in order to get to keep his land. While most serfs were farmers, some serfs were craftsmen - like the village blacksmith, miller or innkeeper.

paragraphs: The serfs had a feudal contract, just like a baron or a knight. A serf's feudal contract was that he would live on and work a piece of land held by his Lord. The serf would get protection in return.

paragraphs: During that time, people said that a serf "worked for all", a knight or baron "fought for all" and a churchman "prayed for all." Everyone had his place and all was right with God's world. The serf did not have as good a position as the knights or barons, but was better than slavery. Serfs had some rights in the feudal contract.

paragraphs: A manorial Lord could not sell his serfs like Romans sold slaves. If his Lord sold some land, the serf of that land went with it to serve the new Lord. A serf could not leave his lands without permission. A serf could not sell his lands.

paragraphs: A free man usually became a serf because he owed a large debt. He would make an agreement with the Lord of the land. The Lord would keep him safe, give money for his debt, and give him land to work on, and he would do work for the Lord. All his children would become serfs.

paragraphs: The usual serf "paid" his fees and taxes by working for the lord 5 or 6 days a week. At different times in the year he would do different things. A serf could plough his lord's fields, harvest crops, dig ditches, or repair fences. The rest of his time he could take care of his own fields, crops and animals.

paragraphs: The big problem for a serf was that he had to do the work for the Lord before he could do his own work. When his Lord’s crops needed to be harvested, his needed to be harvested, too. The Lord would give them very good food when they worked for him.

paragraphs: The serfs also had to pay taxes and fees. The Lord decided how much taxes they would pay from how much land the serf had, usually 1/3 of their value. They had to pay fees when they got married, had a baby, or there was a war. Money was not very common then, so usually they paid by giving food instead of money.

paragraphs: There were strange tests to decide if something was good enough to be given for taxes. A chicken, for example, had to be able to jump over a fence. That showed that the chicken was young and healthy.

paragraphs: A serf had some freedom. A serf could get and keep property and money. Some serfs had more money and property than their free neighbours. A serf could sometimes buy his freedom.

paragraphs: Serfs could grow what they wanted on their lands. Sometimes their taxes had to be paid in wheat, which is difficult to grow. They could take the wheat they did not give for taxes to the market. Mostly they were subsistence farming, eating what they grew. Their heirs usually got an inheritance.

paragraphs: The lord could not make the serfs leave his land unless he had good reasons. The lord was supposed to protect them from criminals or other lords, and he was supposed to give them charity during famines.

paragraphs: The rules for serfdom were different at different times and places. In some places, serfdom changed into different types of taxation.

paragraphs: In different places and times, serfs had to work different amounts. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 13th century it was 2 – 3 days a year. In the 14th century, serfs had to work one day per week. They had to work 4 days per week in the 17th century. They had to work 6 days per week in the 18th century.

paragraphs: Sometimes, serfs were soldiers during war. They could get freedom or even ennoblement for bravery in war. In other cases, serfs could also purchase their freedom, be manumitted by their enlightened or generous owners, or flee to towns or newly settled land where few questions were asked. Laws varied from country to country: in England a serf who made his way to a chartered town and evaded recapture for a year and a day obtained his freedom.

paragraphs: In many cases, serfs had to get permission from their lord to marry someone who was not a serf for that lord.

paragraphs: Sometimes a serf had to pay money because of something he had done. This is called a fine. A serf had to pay a fine when he inherited money or property. He had to pay a fine if he became a priest or monk. A serf had to pay a fine if his children went to the city instead of staying and being a serf. Serfs had to give their best animal to their lord when they died, so that their children would get to stay on the land.

paragraphs: Serfs had to pay to use the lord’s grain mill and bread oven. They had to pay to use the lord’s carts to carry their produce. The serfs were very angry about that. Many peasants had to pay a fine because they used their own grain mill. The miller charged a fee called (multure), which was usually 1/24 of the total grain milled. The serfs often thought the millers were not honest. Many lords made the serfs use the lord's oven to bake their daily bread.

paragraphs: Serfdom began to change because barter became less important as money was used more. Lords could make money by renting the land. Many Lords "freed" their serfs when their work was less valuable than money.

paragraphs: Still, the serfs' lives were not seriously changed; they still had to farm their land, take care of their families and pay their taxes. The main difference was that they could be forced off their lands if they did not pay the rent, or if their Lord decided he wanted to use their fields for raising sheep (for example) rather than corn. Even though the serfs were “free”, their life was often harder.

paragraphs: The helots in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta and the peasants working on government lands in ancient Rome worked like serfs, but they did not use that name. They were called coloni, or "tenant farmers”. When Germanic tribes took over the Roman Empire they took the lands from the wealthy Romans. They became the new lords of the same economic system of serfdom.

paragraphs: The serfdom of medieval times began with the breakup of the Carolingian Empire around the 10th century. This empire had ruled most of western Europe for more than 200 years. It was followed by a long time when there were no strong central governments in most of Europe.

paragraphs: During this time, feudal lords worked to make serfdom the common way for people to live. Serfdom was the system where great landlords could make sure other people worked to feed them and are forced, legally and economically, to keep doing that.

paragraphs: This system gave most of the agricultural labor during the Middle Ages. There was slavery during the Middle Ages, but it was not common. Usually they were only slaves to take care of people’s houses. Parts of Europe, including much of Scandinavia, never used serfdom or other feudal institutions.

paragraphs: In the later Middle Ages serfdom began to go away west of the Rhine even as it grew in Eastern Europe. This was one important cause for the deep differences between the societies and economies of eastern and western Europe.

paragraphs: In Eastern Europe, the rise of powerful monarchs, towns, and an improving economy weakened the manorial system through the 13th and 14th centuries. Serfdom was not common after the Renaissance.

paragraphs: Serfdom in Western Europe mostly ended in the 15th and 16th centuries. This was because of changes in the economy, population, and laws about what lords could make their tenants do in Western European nations. The end of serfdom in England around 1600 conincides approximately with the start of chattel slavery in the English-speaking parts of the Western hemisphere.

paragraphs: At the same time, there were more protests by serfs and peasants, like Wat Tyler’s Rebellion in England in 1381. This put pressure on the nobility and the clergy to change the system and make it better. The new ways of renting the land gave people more freedom.

paragraphs: The Industrial Revolution helped end serfdoms. Farmers wanted to move to towns to make more money than working in the fields. Land owners also put their money into industries that made more money for them. This caused urbanization.

paragraphs: Serfdom reached Eastern European countries later than Western Europe. It became the main way around the 15th century. Before that time, Eastern Europe had fewer people than Western Europe. The lords of Eastern Europe tried to make people want to move there from Western Europe. Serfdom developed in Eastern Europe after the Black Death epidemics. That stopped the people moving to Eastern Europe, and many people who were already there died.

paragraphs: There was still serfdom in Russia until February 19, 1861. In Russian Baltic provinces it ended in the beginning of 19th century (Russian Serfdom Reforms). Russian serfdom was different than in other Eastern European countries, because it was not changed by German law and people coming from Germany. The serfdom and manorialism systems were forced by the crown (Tsar), not the nobility.

paragraphs: Some people say that planned economies, especially those based on Soviet-style Communist economics, such as the Soviet collective farm system, are government-owned serfdom. Friedrich Hayek said that in his book "The Road to Serfdom". Mikhail Gorbachev believed that, too. In some Communist countries, farmers were tied to their farms. Some were called kolkhoz which were supposed to be collectives. Some were called sovkhoz which were state-owned. The government used a system of internal passports and household registration (such as China's hukou system) to make people stay on their farms. They had to plant crops according to instructions from the central authorities, especially if they were on state-run farms. These authorities would then "buy" their agricultural produce at low prices and use the money they made to invest in heavy industry.

paragraphs: This kind of serfdom lasted in Russia until 1974 (with a brief break during the Civil War). USSR Government Decree #667 gave peasants identification documents, with an unrestricted right to move within the country. This was the first time in Russian history that had happened. It is possible that a system like this still is happening in rural China.


title: Refrigerator

paragraphs: A refrigerator is a machine for keeping things cold. It is sometimes called a fridge or an icebox. It is normally maintained at 4-5 degree Celsius for household use. People put food and drinks in it, to keep those items cold or good (unspoiled) for a longer time. A refrigerator has a heat pump. It takes heat away from the air inside the fridge. The heat gets added to the air outside. The heat pump is usually driven by an electric motor.

paragraphs: There are also ice boxes available that do not use electricity because they are filled with ice to provide the colder temperature. The ice can keep things cold until the ice melts. These ice boxes can be taken on camping trips. Sometimes they are called coolers. Refrigerator-sized iceboxes were used before electricity was available.

paragraphs: Most modern refrigerators are available in a variety of colours, although normally fridges are white, as shown in the picture. Smaller versions of the popular refrigerator are also used. These are mainly used in hotels and college dorm rooms.

paragraphs: A freezer is a special type of refrigerator that stores food at freezing temperatures. Inside a freezer, it is normally . Freezers can be found in household refrigerators, as well as in industry and commerce. When stored in a freezer, frozen food can be stored safely for a longer time than storing at room temperatures.

paragraphs: Domestic freezers can be a separate compartment in a refrigerator, or can be a separate appliance. Household refrigerators usually have a separate compartment where the heat pump is used to pump even colder temperatures to the contents. Most household freezers maintain temperatures from . Some freezer-only units can achieve and lower. Most household refrigerators generally do not achieve a temperature lower than , because it is difficult to control the temperature for two different compartments. This is because both compartments shares the same coolant loop.

paragraphs: Domestic freezers normally stand upright, resembling refrigerators. Sometimes a domestic freezer is laid on its back to look like a chest. Many modern upright freezers come with an ice dispenser built into their door. Many commercial freezers stand upright and have glass doors so shoppers can see the contents.


title: Janis Ian

paragraphs: Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink, April 7, 1951) is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction writer. She stated singing folk in the mid-sixties while she was still a teenager. She sang the most in the 1960s and the 1970s, but she's still singing today. In 1975, Ian won a Grammy Award for her song, "At Seventeen".

paragraphs: Ian is openly lesbian and is married to a woman.


title: Vilnius

paragraphs: Vilnius is the capital city of Lithuania. It is also the largest city in that country. Vilnius is the largest city and the capital of Lithuania, with a population of 553,904 (850,700 together with Vilnius County) as of December 2005. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County. Vilnius lies 312 kilometres (194 mi) from the Baltic Sea and Klaipėda, the chief Lithuanian seaport. Vilnius is connected by highways to other major Lithuanian cities, such as Kaunas (102 km/63 mi away), Šiauliai (214 km/133 mi away) and Panevėžys (135 km/84 mi away).

paragraphs: According to the 2001 census by the Vilnius Regional Statistical Office, there were 542,287 inhabitants in the Vilnius city municipality, of which 57.8% were Lithuanians, 18.7% Poles, 14% Russians, 4.0% Belarusians, 1.3% Ukrainians and 0.5% Jews.

paragraphs: The climate of Vilnius is considered as Humid Continental or Hemiboreal by Köppen climate classification. Summers can be hot, with temperatures above thirty degrees Celsius throughout the day. Winters can be very cold, with temperatures rarely reaching above freezing

paragraphs: Vilnius is a cosmopolitan city with diverse architecture. There are more than 40 churches in Vilnius. Restaurants, hotels and museums have sprouted since Lithuania declared independence. Like most medieval towns, Vilnius was developed around its Town Hall. The Old Town, the historical centre of Vilnius, is one of the largest in Europe (3.6 km²). The most valuable historic and cultural sites are concentrated here. The main sights of the city are Gediminas Castle and Cathedral Square, symbols of the capital. The Old Town of Vilnius was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. In 1995, the first bronzecast of Frank Zappa in the world was installed near the center of Vilnius with the permission of the government.

paragraphs: Vilnius is the major economic centre of Lithuania and one of the largest financial centres of the Baltic states.

paragraphs: The city has many universities. The biggest are:

paragraphs: Specialized higher schools with the university status are:

paragraphs: Vilnius is the Roman Catholic center of the country, with the main church institutions and Archdiocesan Cathedral located here. There are many churches in the city as there are many monasteries and religion schools. The Church architecture in the city includes Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical styles, these styles can be foundin the Old Town. Vilnius is considered one of the main centers of the Polish Baroque movement in architecture of churches. Vilnius has been home to an Eastern Orthodox Christian presence since the thirteenth century. A famous Russian Orthodox monastery, named for the Holy Spirit, is located near the Gate of Dawn. St. Paraskeva's Orthodox Church in the Old Town is the site of the baptism of Hannibal, the great-grandfather of Pushkin, by Tsar Peter the Great in 1705. A number of Protestant and other Christian groups are present in Vilnius, most notably the Lutheran Evangelicals and the Baptists.

paragraphs: Islam came to Lithuania in the 14th century from Crimea and Kazan, through the Tatars. Tatars in Lithuania have maintained their religious practices: currently, about 3,000 Tatar Muslims live in Lithuania. There are same few groups of pre-Christian pagan in the city.

paragraphs: The city of Vilnius is made up of 21 elderates that are based on neighbourhoods:

paragraphs: Vilnius is the starting point of the Vilnius-Kaunas-Klaipėda motorway that runs across Lithuania and connects the three major cities. The Vilnius-Panevėžys motorway is a branch of the Via-Baltica.

paragraphs: Vilnius International Airport serves most Lithuanian international flights to many major European destinations.

paragraphs: Vilnius has a public transportation system. There are over 60 bus and 19 trolleybus routes, the trolleybus network is one of the biggest in Europe. Over 250 buses and 260 trolleybuses transport about 500,000 people every day. In the end of year 2007 a new electronic monthly ticket system was introduced.


title: Fungus

paragraphs: A fungus (plural: fungi) is a kind of living organism: yeasts, moulds and mushrooms that exist as a single filamentous or multicellular body. The filament is known as hyphae multinuclear with cell wall containing chitin or cellulose or both, others are parasitic saprophytic on other organisms and reproduce sexually and asexually.

paragraphs: The fungi are a separate kingdom of living things, different from animals and plants.

paragraphs: Fungi have cells with nuclei. Their cell walls contain chitin, unlike the cell walls of plants, which contain cellulose. These and other differences show that the fungi form a single group of related organisms, called the Eumycota or Eumycetes. They share a common ancestor and are a monophyletic group.

paragraphs: Their basic mode of life is "saprophytic": a fungus breaks down dead organic matter around it, and uses it as food.

paragraphs: Despite the infobox on the right, the earliest fungi were probably in existence long before the Devonian period. One problem has been what to make of various traces in the Precambrian.

paragraphs: Fungi reproduce both sexually and asexually. Some fungi grow mushrooms: these are fruiting bodies. Under the cap there are gills; the gills bear spores that will disperse, and may develop into new fungi. Otherwise, fungi use a sporangium to bear asexual spores by mitosis, or sexual spores by meiosis. The spores are haploid.

paragraphs: Fungi may be single celled or multicellular. Yeast is single-celled, and reproduces either sexually or asexually. Asexual reproduction occurs by simple budding (binary fission).

paragraphs: The mycelium is the vegetative (non-reproductive) part of a fungus. It is usually underground (or inside some other substance), and made of filaments called hyphae.

paragraphs: Hyphae look like threads, or rootlets. The mat of hyphae may be very thickly woven. The fungus uses them to extract nutrients.

paragraphs: Hyphae are usually syncytia. This means the cell walls (septa) are mostly not complete, and the cell nuclei are not separated from each other as in normal cells. Details differ between species.

paragraphs: Symbiosis means living together. Lichens are a symbiosis between a fungus and an alga or bacterium. In this partnership the algal cells live inside the fungus tissue. The end result is a new mat-like life-form which clings to rock and other surfaces. About 20% of all fungi are lichenized.

paragraphs: Another important kind of symbiosis is mycorrhiza. This is when a fungus lives inside plant roots; most trees have mycorrhizal roots, and so do many crop plants. Both sides benefit in this arrangement.

paragraphs: Some fungi cause crop diseases; others cause serious disease in humans. Some are highly poisonous: never eat a mushroom picked in the wild unless you know what you are doing.


title: Guernsey

paragraphs: Guernsey is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy. It is one of the Channel Islands, and is the main administration island of the Bailiwick of Guernsey'. Elizabeth II is the head of state, but it has a government of its own, with its own laws and special status when it comes to taxes.

paragraphs: Castel, Forest, St Andrews, St Martins, St Peter Port, St Pierre du bois, St Sampson, St Saviour's, Torteval, Vale.

paragraphs: St Peter Port is the biggest parish by terms of population, with 16,500 people living there.

paragraphs: Guernsey has its own dialect of the Norman language, called Guernésiais. It is spoken by only 2% of the population, but is understood by around 14%. This means that only 1300 people speak it, and most of these people are elderly. Only 1 in every 1000 young people can speak it.


title: Pottery

paragraphs: Pottery is the ceramic material which makes up potteryware. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a "pottery" (plural "potteries"). Pottery also refers to the art or craft of a potter or the making of pottery. A dictionary definition is simply clay fired in a kiln.

paragraphs: Pottery objects are made from damp clay mixed with other materials. They are then fired in a special oven called a kiln at high temperatures. Firing makes the clay hard. The potter may then apply a glaze to the surface before firing the object again. The fired glaze makes the surface of the pottery shiny, decorative and water-tight.

paragraphs: Some potters make objects which are not useful and are really artistic objects or sculpture. Bare pottery objects without a glaze are called "bisque" or just earthenware. The finest pottery objects, made of porcelain or bone china are quite strong, yet are translucent.

paragraphs: Pottery originated before the Neolithic period. The earliest example we have is from eastern Europe, dating to 25,000 years ago or earlier. It is a female figurine known as the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, from a palaeolithic site in Moravia, Czech Republic. It may have been made as part of a fertility ritual. There are some similar figures from other nearby sites.

paragraphs: Since the invention of agriculture, and the building of cities, containers for food and drink have been found at almost all archaeological sites.

paragraphs: This means the area of Stoke-on-Trent in England, sometimes called the Staffordshire potteries. There were six towns, Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton, which now make up Stoke-on-Trent.

paragraphs: The area was the centre of the English pottery industry. The area had local supplies of clay, salt, lead and coal. Canals were used to transport the product inland. It was a large exporter of pottery for about 200 years: roughly from 1760 to about 1960. Plastic crockery after World War II and cheap ceramic production in China largely destroyed the Stoke pottery industry.


title: Screenwriter

paragraphs: A screenwriter is a person who writes the screenplay (or script) for a movie or television show - that is, a screenwriter writes the words that the actors and actresses speak.

paragraphs: A script conveys the dialogue of the movie, and will briefly describe visuals, although not too much, as this is left up to the director.

paragraphs: There are certain rules as to how to format a movie script. If these are not followed, then it is highly unlikely that it will ever be taken seriously. In order to test the effectiveness of a script, actors will do a first reading of it. If the format is not clear, then it will probably cause the actors confusion, and will make the task very difficult to complete.


title: Sacramento, California

paragraphs: Sacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California. The governor and legislature of California are in Sacramento. About 400,000 people live in Sacramento. About 1,700,000 live in and around Sacramento.

paragraphs: Sacramento comes from Spanish and Portuguese for holy rite. A sacrament is a religious act that gives people "divine grace" (being liked or favored by God.)

paragraphs: Sacramento was started in 1848 by John Sutter. It was a very important place during the California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush was the time after gold was found in California. Many people came to California to find gold. They did this to make money. During the Gold Rush, Sacramento was where the railroad ended. It was also where the Pony Express stopped.

paragraphs: Sacramento is near where the American River meets the Sacramento River. This was important when Sacramento was founded. It meant that ships could bring things to Sacramento from the Pacific Ocean. Sacramento was a "railroad town". This made Sacramento a "port town". This made it a "very" important place for business.


title: Alexander Scriabin

paragraphs: Alexander Scriabin (also spelt: Skryabin) (born Moscow January 6 1872; died Moscow April 27 1915) was a famous Russian composer and pianist. He wrote music for the orchestra and for the piano. His music belongs to the Late Romantic period, but his later works sound quite modern, and he was influenced by Impressionism. He had some very unusual ideas about combining all the arts into one work.

paragraphs: Scriabin was the only child in a family which had an aristocratic background. He was always proud of having been born on Christmas Day (6 January is Christmas Day in the Russian Orthodox church). His mother died when he was a year old and his father spent most of his time abroad working as a diplomat. He was looked after by his aunt, grandmother and great-aunt, all of whom fussed over him so that he was a very spoilt child. When he grew up he was very short and his hands could only just stretch one octave (eight notes) on the piano.

paragraphs: Scriabin was educated in the Moscow Cadet Corps. He learned to play the piano and became friends with the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff who was just one year younger. He won the second gold medal ever to be awarded at the Moscow Conservatoire (Rachmaninoff had won the first one). He practised a piece called "Islamey" by Balakirev but damaged his right hand doing it. He still managed to continue his career as a pianist, but he wrote a few piano pieces for the left hand only. In 1895 he toured through many countries in Europe giving concerts and composing a lot of piano music. He married in 1897. He went with his wife to Odessa where he played his Piano Concerto and then spent several months in Paris. He taught at the Moscow Conservatoire and wrote some important orchestral music. Later he left his wife and children and went to Europe for several years with another woman. She inspired a lot of his music. Scriabin continued to travel and play the piano until the end of his life. When he was in London in 1914 he had a boil on his lip, which got steadily worse until he died a year later.

paragraphs: Scriabin liked the music of Chopin and he wrote a lot of short pieces called Preludes which show Chopin’s influence. As he got older his music became more and more personal. He was very egocentric (thought only about himself and not about other people) and he had some strange ideas. He wanted to write a work which combined all the arts and all the senses: music, dance, poetry, colours and even smells. He wanted this work to be performed beside a lake in India. This work was never finished or performed, and we do not know whether he seriously thought it would happen, but he did buy himself a sun helmet.

paragraphs: Scriabin tried using different harmonies in his music. He had a favourite chord which he called his “mystic chord” (from the bottom upwards: C, F sharp, B flat, E, A, D). He used it in lots of ways. His orchestral works include a Piano Concerto, 3 symphonies, "Le poème de l’extase" ("The poem of extasy") and "Prométhée, le poème du feu" ("Prometheus, the poem of fire"). His music which is mysterious and dream-like and shares some similarity French Impressionist composers like Debussy.


title: Robert Mugabe

paragraphs: Robert Gabriel Mugabe (21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean politician. He was the President of Zimbabwe from 1987 to 2017. Before that, he was Prime Minister, the head of government, after being elected in 1980. For many years before he resigned, Mugabe ruled his country in the style of a dictator.

paragraphs: His first years as leader were prosperous. He introduced land reforms, which were supposed to give the land owned by white people back to the "original" black owners. This has had a serious impact on how the country is seen from outside. In recent years, Mugabe has allowed violence against the white citizens of the country as well as to opposition leaders of all races. The reforms were done in 1998. In 2001, the United Nations imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe. This was done because human rights abuses came to the attention of the United Nations.

paragraphs: On November 15, 2017, he was placed under house arrest as Zimbabwe's military took control in a coup. On November 21, 2017, Mugabe resigned as President of Zimbabwe. It ended his rule of 40 years.

paragraphs: Mugabe was hospitalized in April 2019, making the last of several trips to Singapore for medical treatment. He died on 6 September 2019 at a Singapore hospital, at the age of 95. The cause of death was prostate cancer.


title: Guyana

paragraphs: The Co-operative Republic of Guyana is a country in South America. It is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world (700,000 people live there inside its over 200,000 km² of area). Georgetown is the capital; like most of the country's settlements, it is on a flat coastal plain that goes from northwest to southeast. Venezuela claims the land west of the Essequibo River as part of Guayana Esequiba.

paragraphs: Guyana's current president is Irfaan Ali. The country gained independence from the United Kingdom on May 26, 1966 (before which it was called British Guiana).

paragraphs: Guyana is member of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is ranked first in suicides per capita worldwide.


title: Sen no Rikyu

paragraphs: Sen no Rikyu (, 1522–1591) made important and lasting changes to the Japanese tea ceremony. He was a follower of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Besides the tea ceremony, Rikyu practiced ikebana and wrote poetry. He also studied zen.


title: Oscar Wilde

paragraphs: Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer, poet and playwright. He wrote "The Picture of Dorian Gray", and the plays "Salomé", "The Importance of Being Earnest", "An Ideal Husband", and "Lady Windermere's Fan".

paragraphs: Wilde was bisexual. He was married, and had two children. His downfall came as a result of his affair with a younger man, Lord Alfred Douglas.

paragraphs: Wilde was an outstanding classical scholar, at Trinity College, Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford University. In London, he worked as a journalist for four years. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant clothes, and glittering conversation, Wilde was one of the best known personalities of the day. It was his only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which brought him full recognition. Then he turned to writing drama. He wrote "Salomé" in French in Paris in 1891, but it was refused a licence. Despite this, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London.

paragraphs: At the height of his fame and success—his masterpiece, "The Importance of Being Earnest", was still on stage in London—Wilde sued his lover's father for libel. After a series of trials, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency with other men and sentenced to two years of hard labour in Reading Gaol (jail). In prison he wrote "De Profundis", a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure.

paragraphs: Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to the British Isles. There he wrote his last work, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", a long poem commemorating prison life. Living in a Paris hotel, he was destitute, with little money and few friends. His last memorable words were: "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death."One of us has got to go". He died of cerebral meningitis in Paris at the age of forty-six.

paragraphs: Wilde's wife, Constance Lloyd, changed the family name to Holland after his conviction, and took the children to Switzerland.

paragraphs: Wilde's lover was the son of the Marquess of Queensbury, who was known for his outspoken atheism, brutish manner and creation of the modern rules of boxing. Queensberry, who argued a lot with his son, confronted Wilde and Lord Alfred about the nature of their relationship. In June 1894, he visited Wilde at 16 Tite Street without an appointment, and said: "If I catch you and my son again in any public restaurant I will thrash you."

paragraphs: On the 18 February 1895, the Marquess left his calling card at Wilde's club, the Albemarle, inscribed: "For Oscar Wilde, posing as a sodomite".

paragraphs: Wilde, egged on by Douglas and against the advice of his friends, initiated a private prosecution against Queensberry, and had him arrested on a charge of criminal libel. As sodomy was then a crime, Queensberry's note amounted to a public accusation that Wilde had committed a felony, forming the legal basis for libel charges. Queensberry could avoid conviction for libel only by demonstrating that his accusation was, in fact, true.

paragraphs: In his opening speech for the defence, Counsel for Queensbury, Edward Carson, announced that he had found several male prostitutes who were to testify that they had sex with Wilde. On the advice of his lawyers, Wilde then decided to drop the libel prosecution against Queensberry. Queensberry was found not guilty, as the court declared that his accusation that Wilde was "posing as a sodomite" was justified, "true in substance and in fact".

paragraphs: Under the Libel Act 1843, Queensberry's acquittal rendered Wilde legally liable for the considerable expenses Queensberry had incurred in his defence, which left Wilde bankrupt.

paragraphs: After Wilde left the court, a warrant for his arrest was applied for on charges of sodomy and gross indecency. Friends found Wilde at a hotel; they advised him to go to Dover and try to get a boat to France. His mother advised him to stay and fight like a man. Wilde was duly arrested and then imprisoned on remand at Holloway, where he received daily visits from Douglas.

paragraphs: Events moved quickly. His prosecution opened on the 26 April 1895 and Wilde pleaded not guilty. He had already begged Douglas to leave London for Paris, and Douglas fled to the Hotel du Monde. Under cross examination Wilde was at first hesitant, then spoke eloquently:

paragraphs: Charles Gill (prosecuting): "What is "the love that dare not speak its name?""

paragraphs: Wilde: " 'The love that dare not speak its name' in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as 'the love that dare not speak its name', and on that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an older and a younger man, when the older man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it".

paragraphs: This response was, however, counterproductive in a legal sense as it only served to reinforce the charges of homosexual behaviour. The trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict. Wilde's counsel, Sir Edward Clark, was finally able to agree bail. The Reverend Stewart Headlam put up most of the £5,000 bail, having disagreed with Wilde's treatment by the press and the courts. Wilde was freed from Holloway and, shunning attention, went into hiding at the house of Ernest and Ada Leverson, two of his firm friends. Edward Carson approached Frank Lockwood (QC) and asked "Can we not let up on the fellow now?" Lockwood answered that he would like to do so, but feared that the case had become too politicised to be dropped.

paragraphs: At the final trial, Wilde and Alfred Taylor were convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour. The judge described the sentence as "totally inadequate for a case such as this", although it was the maximum sentence allowed for the charge under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. Wilde's response "And I? May I say nothing, my Lord?" was drowned out in cries of "Shame" in the courtroom.


title: U2 (band)

paragraphs: U2 are an Irish rock band. The four members of the band are lead singer Bono (born "Paul David Hewson"), lead guitarist The Edge (born "David Howell Evans"), bassist Adam Clayton, and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. U2 are a very popular band all over the world and have been since the 1980s. They have sold more than 170 million albums and have won 22 Grammy Awards. This is more than any other rock band.

paragraphs: U2 formed in Dublin in 1976, when none of the members were very good musicians. However, they got better as they got older. They were more popular for playing live shows than for releasing albums. This changed with their hit record in 1987, "The Joshua Tree". In 1991, U2 released a new album called "Achtung Baby". This album sounded very different from their other albums because it was inspired by alternative rock and dance music. "Achtung Baby" and its worldwide Zoo TV Tour were both very popular. U2 experimented for the rest of the 1990s, making two other very different albums, "Zooropa" and "Pop".

paragraphs: In the 21st century, U2 returned to a more traditional sound, but they continue to be very popular and successful. They are involved in charities and helping people with groups such as Amnesty International, Make Poverty History, the ONE Campaign, Live Aid, Live 8, Bono's DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) campaign, and Music Rising.

paragraphs: In 2014, the group won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for their song "Ordinary Love" which was used in the movie "".

paragraphs: U2 was formed in the city of Dublin, Ireland on September 25, 1976. It was founded by 14-year-old drummer Larry Mullen Jr. He posted a note on his school's notice board, asking for musicians to create a new band. There were seven teenage boys who went to their first practice. At first, the bandBand", but they later changed their name to "Feedback" and then "The Hype". The band became smaller over time, eventually becoming just four people, and they finally changed their name to "U2" once Bono, The Edge, Clayton, and Mullen were left.


title: Bono

paragraphs: Paul David Hewson, (born 10 May 1960) is an Irish musician, best known as the lead singer of rock band U2.

paragraphs: He became a member of the band U2 on 25 September 1976, when he responded to a message that was placed by Larry Mullen Jr. to form a rock band.

paragraphs: The name "Bono" was a type of hearing aid and in Latin means "good voice".

paragraphs: Bono married Alison Stewart. They have four children. Jordan (b. 1989), Eve (b. 1991), Elijah (b. 1999) and John (b. 2001).

paragraphs: Bono is known for doing a lot of charity work. For this, he was named Time Person of the Year in 2005. Bono has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, though he did not win it.


title: Adam Clayton

paragraphs: Adam Clayton (born 13 March 1960 in Chinnor, Oxfordshire, England) is the bassist for the rock band U2. He lives in County Dublin now, and he has a house in Southern France too.

paragraphs: When Adam was five years old, he and his family moved to Malahide near Dublin. He started playing guitar when he went to school. He joined the other members of the future U2 band in the same time. Their band was first named "Feedback" and then they changed its name to "The Hype". However, they released their second album on 1981 under the name of U2.

paragraphs: All other U2 members were married by 2006, and Adam was the only member who was still single. In 2006, it was announced that Adam was going to marry Suzanne "Susie" Smith; they dated for almost 10 years before this news was announced. They were planning to marry in the summer of 2007, but they split up in February 2007.

paragraphs: In January 2011, Adam revealed that he was the father of a baby boy, born in 2010. On September 4, 2013, Adam married Mariana Teixeira de Carvalho, in a wedding in Dublin. She is a fashion model from Brazil.


title: The Edge

paragraphs: David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known as The Edge, is an English-born musician. He is known best as the guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist for the Irish rock band U2.

paragraphs: David Howell Evans was born at the Barking Maternity Hospital, in Essex, England. His parents, Garvin and Gwenda Evans, are Welsh. When he was one, his family moved to County Dublin, Ireland. There, he attended St. Andrew's National School. He received piano and guitar lessons with his brother, Dik Evans. At Mount Temple Comprehensive School, they both answered an advertisement posted by Larry Mullen Jr. wanting musicians to form a band. The band accepted both of them. This band went through several major changes before emerging as U2 in March 1978. Dik Evans left the band just before the name change. U2 began performing in various venues in Ireland and eventually began developing a following. Their first album, "Boy", was released in 1980.

paragraphs: In 1981, Evans came very close to leaving U2 for religious reasons, but he was persuaded to stay. During this time, he became involved with a group called Shalom Tigers. Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were also involved in this group. Shortly after deciding to remain with the band, he wrote a piece of music that later became "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The Edge married his high school girlfriend Aislinn O'Sullivan on 12 July 1983. The couple had three daughters together: Hollie in 1984, Arran in 1985 and Blue Angel in 1989. The couple separated in 1990, but were unable to get officially divorced until 1996 because of Irish laws regarding marriage; divorce was made legal in 1995.

paragraphs: During U2's Zoo TV Tour, The Edge began to date Morleigh Steinberg. The couple began dating in 1993, and had their daughter, Sian, and a son, Levi. They were married on June 22, 2002.

paragraphs: The Edge appeared in the 2009 music documentary film "It Might Get Loud". He is also a Methodist.


title: Larry Mullen Jr.

paragraphs: Larry Mullen Junior (born 31 October 1961) is an Irish drummer. He is a member of the rock band U2. Mullen was born in Dublin, Ireland.

paragraphs: Besides U2, Larry has worked with other musicians, including: Nanci Griffith, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Robbie Robertson, Paul Brady and B.B. King. Because of the Irish National Football team's bid for the World Cup in 1990, Mullen co-wrote and co-produced the anthem "Put 'Em Under Pressure." He also worked with U2's Adam Clayton on the theme for the 1996 movie "". Mullen and Clayton joined with Mike Mills and Michael Stipe of R.E.M. to form the group "Automatic Baby" for Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration in 1993 at MTV's Inaugural Ball.


title: Mariah Carey

paragraphs: Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1969 or 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, philanthropist, and author. She has sold over 281 million copies worldwide and is one of the best-selling artists of all time.

paragraphs: Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1969 or 1970, in Long Island, in Huntington, New York. Her father was of African American and Venezuelan ancestry and her mother is of Irish ancestry. She practiced playing piano when she was a young girl.

paragraphs: In December 1988, Carey started making her first album.

paragraphs: She released her self-titled debut studio album in 1990. It was released from Columbia Records. The album was certified multi-platinum by the RIAA. Four singles from the album all reached number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart ("Vision of Love", "Love Takes Time", "Someday", and "I Don't Wanna Cry"). It reached number one on the US "Billboard" 200. It was certified 9× platinum. This means that 9 million copies of the album were shipped in the US. Carey married Tommy Mottola, the head of Sony Music, in 1993. Mottola was the executive producer for Carey. Many critics believed that this helped Carey's musical career.

paragraphs: In 1991, her album "Emotions" reached number four on the "Billboard" 200. It was certified 4× platinum and sold less than her previous album. Her songs "Emotions" (#1), "Can't Let Go" (#2), and "Make It Happen" (#5) were released as singles from the album. Carey released her first EP "MTV Unplugged" (1992). It reached number three on the "Billboard" 200. The songs "I'll Be There" (#1) and "If It's Over" were released as singles from the album. Carey's third album "Music Box" (1993) reached number one on the "Billboard" 200. As of 2012, the album has sold 10,000,000 copies in the US, according to Nielsen Soundcan, and was certified Diamond because of this. Worldwide, it sold 32 million copies and became one of the best-selling albums of all time. "Dreamlover" (#1), "Hero" (#1), "Without You" (#3), "Never Forget You" (#3), and "Anytime You Need a Friend" (#12) helped Carey to become more popular.

paragraphs: Her first holiday album, "Merry Christmas" (1994), reached number three on the "Billboard" 200 chart. Two singles were released: "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and "Joy to the World". Carey's fifth album "Daydream" became her third number-one album in the US. It was given a diamond award from the RIAA. This means that 10 million copies of the album were shipped in the US. There were six singles for the album. They include "Fantasy" (#1), "One Sweet Day" (#1), "Open Arms", "Always Be My Baby" (#1), "Forever" (#9) and "Underneath the Stars". On September 16, 1997, Carey released her sixth album "Butterfly". The album reached number one on the "Billboard" 200 chart. The album released five singles. They include "Honey" (#1), "Butterfly" (#16), "The Roof (Back in Time)", "Breakdown" (#53) and "My All" (#1).

paragraphs: On November 2, 1999, her seventh album "Rainbow" was released. After selling 323,000 copies the first week, it debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200 chart. It featured her fifteenth number-one US single, "Thank God I Found You" (with R&B singer Joe and boy band 98°), along with a cover of singer Phil Collins' song "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)". The cover reached number one in the UK.

paragraphs: Carey starred in the movie "Glitter" in 2001. It did not do so well and grossed $5,271,666 out of a $20,000,000 budget. It was released on the day of the September 11 attacks. It was nominated for several "worst movie" categories. The soundtrack did better than the movie. The single "Loverboy" reached number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100.

paragraphs: In 2002, her album "Charmbracelet" was released. Her 2005 album, "The Emancipation of Mimi", became one of her most successful albums. Many music critics believed it was her "comeback album". It contained her sixteenth and seventeenth US number-one hits, "We Belong Together" and "Don't Forget About Us". "We Belong Together" was the number-one song of 2005 and of the 2000s decade in the US. Her following album, "E=MC²" (2008), featured her eighteenth number-one song, "Touch My Body". With this, Carey holds the most US number-ones for a solo artist in history. However, this album, along with its followups "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" (2009) and "Merry Christmas II You" (2010), did not sell well. She played the role of a social worker, Ms. Weiss, in the 2009 movie "Precious".

paragraphs: In 2013, she was a judge on the competition series "American Idol". Carey's fourteenth album, "Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse", was released in 2014 and reached number three on the "Billboard" 200. The song "#Beautiful", featuring R&B singer Miguel, was released in May 2013 as the first single from the album. It reached the top fifteen in the US and was certified platinum. The next single, "The Art of Letting Go", was released on November 11, 2013. "You're Mine (Eternal)" was released in time for Valentine's Day in 2014 as the third single from the album.

paragraphs: Carey released a greatest hits collection, "#1 to Infinity", in 2015. It features all eighteen of her US number-one songs along with a new song, "Infinity". She performed a Las Vegas residency show at Caesars Palace called "Mariah Carey #1 to Infinity" and completed her Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour across Europe.

paragraphs: She performed at the New Year's Eve countdown show, "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest", on December 31, 2016. This performance was not received well by viewers. Her in-ear monitors were not working, which led her to walk around the stage and eventually lip-sync "We Belong Together".

paragraphs: On February 3, 2017, she released a new single, "I Don't", featuring rapper YG. Footage was shown of Carey recording the song on her docuseries, "Mariah's World". In October 2017, a new song, "The Star", was released for the soundtrack of a film of the same name.

paragraphs: During Christmas 2017, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" reached a new high of #9 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Carey again performed at "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest" on New Year's Eve 2017. This performance was much more acclaimed than the one of the previous year. The song finally reached number one for the week ending December 19, 2019. It became Carey's nineteenth US number-one, continuing her record of the most number-ones in the US by a soloist.

paragraphs: Carey revealed that she had joined rapper JAY-Z's company, Roc Nation, for management.

paragraphs: In 2020, Carey announced that she would be releasing an autobiography, "The Meaning of Mariah Carey", on September 29, 2020. She is also releasing a compilation album, "The Rarities", on October 2, 2020.

paragraphs: During the release of "Glitter", Carey suffered a breakdown and was put in the hospital for exhaustion.

paragraphs: Carey married Nick Cannon in April 2008. They have two children, twins Moroccan and Monroe. They separated in 2014, with Cannon filing for divorce, which was finalized in 2016.

paragraphs: Carey became engaged to Australian billionaire James Packer in 2016. However, Carey's E! docuseries, "Mariah's World", showed their breakup while she was on the Sweet Sweet Fantasy Tour.

paragraphs: She dated her backup dancer, Bryan Tanaka, on and off from November 2016 until April 2017 before resuming their relationship later in 2017.

paragraphs: In November 2017, Carey was accused of sexual harassment by a former security official, Michael Anello. On April 18, 2018, Carey was accused of sexual harassment by a former manager Stella Stolper. Carey denies the allegations.


title: Andrology

paragraphs: Andrology is the study of male health, especially male sexual organs and reproduction.

paragraphs: It is similar to the study of women's health, called gynaecology. Andrology has only been studied since the late 1960s. The first specialist journal on the subject was the German periodical "Andrologie", published from 1969 onwards.

paragraphs: Men are more susceptible to heart disease than women. They also usually have a slightly shorter natural average life span. However, men get many conditions, such as osteoporosis, less than women.


title: Herbert Hoover

paragraphs: Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. He was a world-famous mining engineer and humanitarian administrator. As a United States Commerce Secretary in the 1920s under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted economic modernization. Soon after he became president, the Great Depression started. Many people blamed Hoover for not doing enough to help people during that time.

paragraphs: He was born in West Branch, Iowa. He is the first president born west of the Mississippi River.

paragraphs: Herbert Hoover was a businessman. He was the United States Secretary of Commerce. In 1927, Hoover appeared in the first public demonstration of television broadcast.

paragraphs: Hoover and his wife learned Mandarin Chinese while he worked in China. They used it in the White House so the White House staff wouldn't understand them.

paragraphs: A couple months after he was elected, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression was beginning.

paragraphs: Unlike Andrew Mellon and Calvin Coolidge who believed that the federal government should keep its hands off the economy, Herbert Hoover believed that some action from the federal government is necessary.

paragraphs: While he opposed a welfare state which would give money to people for doing nothing, he wanted to create jobs through several government programs, including the construction of a huge dam which would be later named Hoover Dam.

paragraphs: The federal government received less money in tax revenues because of the bad economy, and the government was spending more money than it was taking in, so Hoover tried to increase the government's revenue to balance the budget. He signed the Revenue Act of 1932, which was a large tax increase. He also signed the largest tariff (a tax on goods that are traded between foreign countries and the United States) increase in American history which worsened the Great Depression, even though 1000 economists warned him not to sign that.

paragraphs: Hoover denied giving promised retirement money to poor World War 1 veterans (called the Bonus Army) earlier than what was agreed to, so they went on strike. Hoover ordered the United States army to force them to leave. It resulted in a bloody conflict which hurt Hoover's reputation.

paragraphs: Hoover was uncharismatic and did not relate to the people well, which made many people consider him as mean-spirited.

paragraphs: Hoover supported the very unpopular prohibition of alcohol, and did not want to make alcohol legal.

paragraphs: While Hoover did support some government involvement in the economy, he was against Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, because he thought it called for too much government involvement in the economy.

paragraphs: Due to his failure to fix the Great Depression, he lost the 1932 election to Franklin Roosevelt.

paragraphs: Hoover died at the age of 90 in his suite in New York City from gastrointestinal bleeding caused by colorectal cancer.


title: James A. Garfield

paragraphs: James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 - September 19, 1881) was the 20th (1881) President of the United States and the 2nd President to be assassinated (killed while in office). President Garfield was in office from March to September of 1881. He was in office for a total of six months and fifteen days. For almost half that time he was bedridden as a result of an attempt to kill him. He was shot on July 2 and finally died in September the same year he got into office.

paragraphs: Garfield was born in Orange Township, now Moreland Hills, Ohio. His father died in 1833, when James Abram was 18 months old. He grew up cared for by his mother and an uncle.

paragraphs: In Orange Township, Garfield attended school, a predecessor of the Orange City Schools. From 1851 to 1854, he attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later named Hiram College] in Hiram, Ohio. He then transferred to Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he was a brother of Delta Upsilon. He graduated in 1856 as an outstanding student who enjoyed all subjects except chemistry. He then taught at the Eclectic Institute. He was an instructor in classical languages for the 1856-1857 academic year, and was made principal of the Institute from 1857 to 1860.

paragraphs: On November 11, 1858, he married Lucretia Rudolph. They had seven children (five sons and two daughters): Eliza A. Garfield (1860-63); Harry A. Garfield (1863-1942); James R. Garfield (1865-1950); Mary Garfield (1867-1947); Irvin M. Garfield (1870-1951); Abram Garfield (1872-1958); and Edward Garfield (1874-76). One son, James Rudolph Garfield, followed him into politics and became Secretary of the Interior under President Theodore Roosevelt. Garfield could write in Greek with his left hand and Latin with his right hand at the same time.

paragraphs: Garfield decided that the academic life was not for him and studied law privately. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1860. Even before admission to the bar, he entered politics. He was elected an Ohio state senator in 1859, serving until 1861. He was a Republican all his political life. He was a general in the American Civil War, and fought in the Battle of Shiloh and the Chattanooga Campaign.

paragraphs: Garfield became President March 3, 1881 and was shot in Washington, D.C. on July 2. Garfield was shot in the back by Charles J. Guiteau at about 9:30 am. Guiteau helped Garfield's campaign for president, and then asked for a job when he won, but the president told him no. He was less than four months in term as the 20th President of the United States. Garfield died eleven weeks later on September 19, 1881, aged 49. The 31st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives James G. Blaine was at Garfield's side when he was shot down. At this time, it was not common for the president of the United States to have bodyguards, although Lincoln had protection during the civil war.

paragraphs: Vice President Chester A. Arthur became President when Garfield died. Guiteau was tried for murder, and many thought he would be found not guilty because he was insane. He was actually found guilty and hanged for the murder, reading a poem before he walked up the gallows. It is now believed Garfield was in fact killed because of his doctors, who stuck their fingers inside his wounds while treating him and causing a bad infection. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, tried to locate the bullet with a primitive metal detector, but failed because the bed was lined with steel wire (which he did not know). While Garfield was still alive, news of his condition was broadcasted across the country by telegraph, which was something new.


title: Robert Reed

paragraphs: Robert Reed (October 19, 1932 – May 12, 1992) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as Mike Brady on "The Brady Bunch". He also played major roles in "The Defenders" and "Rich Man, Poor Man". He was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards during the 1970s.

paragraphs: Reed was born John Robert Rietz in Highland Park, Illinois. He also grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma and Navasota, Texas.

paragraphs: Reed was gay but kept this private. He died on May 12, 1992, in Pasadena, California. He was 59 years old. His death was originally said to have been caused by colon cancer. It was later revealed to have been hastened by HIV.


title: Dishwasher

paragraphs: The word dishwasher means either the person who washes (cleans) dishes or a machine that does the same thing. A person could wash dishes either by hand or by operating a dish washing machine.


title: John Quincy Adams

paragraphs: John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth President of the United States. He was the first President who was a son of a President. Also, Adams was the first president to be photographed, instead of painted.

paragraphs: Adams was a Federalist and served in the administrations of all the presidents that preceded him. He was Secretary of State under James Monroe, his predecessor as president. He began his service when he was just 27 in 1794 when he was named United States Minister to the Netherlands by President Washington.

paragraphs: Adams led the fight against slavery in Congress. In 1838, at age 71, he spoke for the African slaves of the slave ship "Amistad". He won the case. He also challenged the constitutionality of the Gag Rule in Congress and saw through its removal in 1844 after an eight-year struggle against it.

paragraphs: He was born in 1767 in Braintree, Massachusetts. As a child he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill, a fight of the American Revolutionary War, from his family's farm. When his father, John Adams, traveled to Europe, John Quincy went with him as his secretary. He became good at speaking other languages. Aside from English, he was also fluent in Latin and French, and had partial knowledge of Dutch, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and Russian.

paragraphs: He went to Harvard College and became a lawyer. At age 26, he was appointed Minister to the Netherlands and then he went to Berlin. In 1802, he was elected to the United States Senate. Six years later, President James Madison appointed him as Minister to Russia.

paragraphs: As Secretary of State when James Monroe was President, Adams organized joint control of Oregon with the United Kingdom and helped get Florida from Spain. He also helped make the Monroe Doctrine.

paragraphs: In the 1830s, slavery emerged as an increasingly polarizing issue in the United States. A longtime opponent of slavery, Adams used his new role in Congress to fight it, and he became the most prominent national leader opposing slavery. After one of his reelection victories, he said that he must "bring about a day prophesied when slavery and war shall be banished from the face of the earth." He wrote in his private journal in 1820:"The discussion of this Missouri question has betrayed the secret of their souls. In the abstract they admit that slavery is an evil, they disclaim it, and cast it all upon the shoulder of…Great Britain. But when probed to the quick upon it, they show at the bottom of their souls pride and vainglory in their condition of masterdom. They look down upon the simplicity of a Yankee's manners, because he has no habits of overbearing like theirs and cannot treat negroes like dogs. It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of moral principle. It establishes false estimates of virtue and vice: for what can be more false and heartless than this doctrine which makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the color of the skin?"In 1836, partially in response to Adams's consistent presentation of citizen petitions requesting the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the House of Representatives imposed a "gag rule" that immediately tabled any petitions about slavery. The rule was favored by Democrats and Southern Whigs but was largely opposed by Northern Whigs like Adams.

paragraphs: In late 1836, Adams began a campaign to ridicule slave owners and the gag rule. He frequently attempted to present anti-slavery petitions, often in ways that provoked strong reactions from Southern representatives. Though the gag rule remained in place, the discussion ignited by his actions and the attempts of others to quiet him raised questions of the right to petition, the right to legislative debate, and the morality of slavery. Adams fought actively against the gag rule for another seven years, eventually moving the resolution that led to its repeal in 1844.

paragraphs: In 1841, at the request of Lewis Tappan and Ellis Gray Loring, Adams joined the case of "United States v. The Amistad". Adams went before the Supreme Court on behalf of African slaves who had revolted and seized the Spanish ship "Amistad". Adams appeared on February 24, 1841, and spoke for four hours. His argument succeeded; the Court ruled in favor of the Africans, who were declared free and returned to their homes.

paragraphs: Adams was elected president by the United States House of Representatives after the 1824 United States presidential election gave nobody a majority of electoral votes. People who wanted Andrew Jackson to win said there was a deal between Adams and Speaker of the House Henry Clay; Adams had made Clay his Secretary of State.

paragraphs: Adams passed law for U.S. improvements as part of what he called the "American System." This means he created roads, canals, and used high tariffs, or taxes on imports. Among his proposals were the creation of a national university, a naval academy, and a national astronomical observatory. Adams fought Congress many times as many supporters of Andrew Jackson did not like his support of a national bank and tariffs.

paragraphs: Adams lost the 1828 election to Jackson. The election was noted for the personal attacks made by the candidates against each other.

paragraphs: Adams returned to Massachusetts for a short time after he was lost. He returned to Washington D.C. in 1831 after being elected to the United States House of Representatives. He was a leading opponent of slavery. He remained in Congress until the day of his death on February 23, 1848.

paragraphs: On February 21, 1848, Adams suffered a stroke in the House chamber. He collapsed and died in the House two days later on February 23, 1848. He was eighty years old. It was the 7th (and arguably the most significant) death of a US president.


title: Peter Fonda

paragraphs: Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor. He and Dennis Hopper starred in the motorcycle movies, "The Wild Angels" and "Easy Rider". He appeared in many other movies, including "Ulee's Gold", in which he was nominated for an Academy Award, "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" and "The Passion of Ayn Rand".

paragraphs: Fonda wrote an autobiography, "Don't Tell Dad: A Memoir", which was published in 1998. He had a home in Paradise Valley, Montana in 1975. Fonda died of respiratory failure and lung cancer on August 16, 2019.


title: Dennis Hopper

paragraphs: Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 - May 29, 2010) was an American television, movie, stage, and voice actor, artist, photographer, writer, movie director, and an art collector. He has appeared in many movies and television shows, since the 1950s.

paragraphs: Hopper was born on May 17, 1936 in Dodge City, Kansas. He spent his life in Kansas City, Missouri and in San Diego, California. Hopper studied to be an actor at Helix High School and at the Actors' Studio. Hopper has two brothers.

paragraphs: Hopper is probably best known for directing, co-writing, and starring in the Oscar-nominated movie "Easy Rider" (1969). In 1994, Hopper had a role in the thriller movie "Speed". He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

paragraphs: Hopper was married to Brooke Hayward from 1961 until they divorced in 1969. Hopper was then married to Michelle Phillips from 1970 until they divorced weeks later. He was married to Daria Halprin from 1972 until they divorced. He was later married to Katherine LaNasa from 1989 until they divorced in 1992. Hopper was married to Victoria Duffy from 1998 until they divorced in 2010, months before his death. Hopper had 3 daughters and a son.

paragraphs: Hopper once insulted actor Rip Torn after he said "Texans are hippie-hatting rednecks" and was sued for a total of $475,000 dollars.

paragraphs: On October 29, 2009, his manager announced that Hopper had prostate cancer. He was terminally ill. He died of the disease on May 29, 2010 in Venice, California. He was 74. He was buried at Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. "Alpha and Omega" was his last movie and was dedicated to his memory.


title: Todd Rundgren

paragraphs: Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Two of his best-known songs are "I Saw The Light" and "Hello It's Me". Both were on his 1971 album "Something/Anything?". Most of the songs on that album were performed by Rundgren alone, using multitrack recorders and playing many musical instruments.

paragraphs: Apple Records hired Rundgren to produce an album, "Straight Up", for the band Badfinger during 1971. Badfinger had not heard of Rundgren and did not know his music, until they bought copies of some of his records. They liked what they heard, and when Rundgren met the band, they got along well, and worked well together.

paragraphs: In the early 2000s, Rundgren replaced Ric Ocasek as bandleader of The Cars, when they reunited to tour.

paragraphs: Actress Liv Tyler used to believe that Rundgren was her father.


title: Al-Qaeda

paragraphs: al-Qaeda (, "al-qāʿidah", "the base"), is an armed Islamic group that was started between August 1988 and late 1989. It works as a network, as a stateless army, and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad. Most of the world thinks it is a Takfiri and terrorist organization.

paragraphs: Members of al-Qaeda have performed many acts of terrorism. Most of these have been done against the United States and Shias. Some of its most well-known attacks have been the September 11 attacks, the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the attack on the U.S. Navy ship USS Cole in 2000. al-Qaeda has done suicide attacks and simultaneous (at the same time) bombings of different targets.

paragraphs: Among al-Qaeda's goals is for other countries to stop influencing Muslim countries and for a new Islamic caliphate to be made. There have been reports that al-Qaeda believes that Christian and Jewish Islamophobia is trying to destroy Islam and that the killing of bystanders and civilians is religiously justified in jihad.

paragraphs: There have been guesses that there are 500–1,000 operatives in Afghanistan and around 5,000 worldwide. However, there is no confirmation of this.

paragraphs: In June 2001, al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which had been associated with each other for many years, merged into 'Qaeda al-Jihad'.

paragraphs: Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri is the highest-ranking surviving member of al-Qaeda's leadership after Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011.

paragraphs: Senior al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed in a drone strike on June 4, 2012. He ranked second to Ayman al-Zawahiri at the time. The strike was carried out in the northwest tribal area of Waziristan. The Pakistan Government has protested to the U.S. about the strike.


title: Tallinn

paragraphs: Tallinn is the capital of Estonia. It is on the north-eastern coast of Estonia and borders the Gulf of Finland. The city is next to many lakes. The largest of these lakes is called Lake Ülemiste, and most Tallinnites get their drinking water from this lake.

paragraphs: Tallinn's Old Town, which is the historic town center, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

paragraphs: Tallinn first appeared on a map in 1154, when the cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, calling the city "Qlwn", added it to his map of the world. After being conquered by the Danes, the city was known as Reval until Estonia became an independent nation in the 1920s.

paragraphs: In 1285, the city became a part of the Hanseatic League. As a result, in the Middle Ages Tallinn was an important stop on the trade routes between Europe and Russia. During its history Estonia has been ruled at times by Sweden and by Russia. It became independent in 1918 after World War I, but after World War II it was ruled by the USSR. In March 1944 Tallinn was bombed by Soviet Air Force, killing 436 civilians and totally destroying 5073 buildings. Since 1991, Tallinn has been the capital of an independent Estonia.

paragraphs: Today more than 400,000 people live in Tallinn, which is one third of the population of Estonia. It is a big sea port. Its food and textile industries are important. The town has many pretty, old buildings.

paragraphs: The chart below shows the climate of Tallinn.


title: Lombardy

paragraphs: Lombardy is a region in the northern part of Italy. It is the most populated region of the country, and has almost 9.4 million people. The capital is Milan. Lombardy has provinces within it.

paragraphs: To the north of Lombardy is the country of Switzerland (Canton Ticino e Grigioni). To the west is the region of Piedmont. To the east are the regions of Veneto and Trentino - Alto Adige. To the south is the region of Emilia-Romagna.

paragraphs: In the Italian language, Lombardy is called "Lombardia". This name comes from an old German word: "Langbardland" and means "country of the Lombards".

paragraphs: In the north of Lombardy there are very high mountains, (40% of the territory is mountains) the highest mountains are almost 4.000 meters in the Bernina Range.

paragraphs: In the south of the region flows the Po river, which is the longest river in Italy. The most important rivers are the Adda river, the Mincio and the Ticino river, all of them end in the Po river.

paragraphs: There are also a lot of lakes, the largest are the lake Maggiore, the Lake of Varese, the lake Como, and the lake Garda.


title: Regions of Italy

paragraphs: Italy is a country in the south of Europe. It is divided into 20 regions. A region is a part of the country with a government and a president.

paragraphs: In Italy, regions can decide some things. They can give money to local business. They can decide some things about hospitals, schools, and transport.

paragraphs: In some regions, people speak other languages. In Alto Adige/Südtirol a lot of people speak mainly German. So this region is "special" and can decide more things.

paragraphs: Sardinia and Sicily are islands. They have different problems than other regions. They have also some different laws.

paragraphs: These regions are called "regions with special laws" ().

paragraphs: Every region has a capital. Here is the list of the regions, the capital and other information.


title: Vladimir Nabokov

paragraphs: Vladimir Nabokov (April 22, 1899 – July 2, 1977) was a Russian-American author. He wrote his first books in Russian, and after he moved to the United States, he wrote in English. His most famous book is "Lolita", but others have also become famous, such as "Pnin", "Pale Fire", and "Ada or Ardor".

paragraphs: Nabokov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the first of five children. In 1919, he and his family went to Europe. In 1945, he became an American citizen. He died in Montreux, Switzerland.

paragraphs: Nabokov's father was a lawyer and politician. As a child, Vladimir learned Russian, English, and French. After the October Revolution, the family moved a few times, but settled in Berlin in 1920. Two years later, his father was shot and killed by mistake, because he had blocked the person the gunman was trying to murder. His mother and sister moved to Prague, but Vladimir stayed in Berlin. He wrote for other Russians who had left Russia to live there. He met Véra Slonin, a woman from a Jewish-Russian family, in 1923. They married in 1925. In 1934, they had their only child, Dmitri.

paragraphs: In 1937, Nabokov started to look for another job. He left for France that year, and his family followed. They all fled to America in 1940, except his brother Sergei, who died in a Nazi concentration camp.

paragraphs: Nabokov was an expert on butterflies. As a child he had read books by entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian which he found in the attic of his family's country home in Vyra.

paragraphs: During the 1940s, he was a research fellow in zoology. He organized the butterfly collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. His specialty was the tribe Polyommatini of the family Lycaenidae.

paragraphs: The genus "Nabokovia" was named after him in honor of this work, as were a number of butterfly and moth species (e.g. many species in the genera "Madeleinea" and "Pseudolucia" have names alluding to Nabokov or names from his novels). In 1967, Nabokov commented: "The pleasures and rewards of literary inspiration are nothing beside the rapture of discovering a new organ under the microscope or an undescribed species on a mountainside in Iran or Peru. It is not improbable that had there been no revolution in Russia, I would have devoted myself entirely to lepidopterology and never written any novels at all".


title: Abingdon, Oxfordshire

paragraphs: Abingdon is a town in England. It is in the Thames Valley in southern England, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of Oxford. It is the seat (place of the government) of the Vale of White Horse district in Oxfordshire. Abingdon was once the county town of Berkshire. It is one of several places which claim to be Britain's oldest occupied town.

paragraphs: Abingdon is at a place where people were able to easily cross the Thames. The area has been lived in since the Bronze Age. The bridge over the Thames at Abingdon is more than 550 years old. Work started on the bridge in 1416, and it replaced an old wooden bridge.

paragraphs: The Abingdon Abbey was built in 675 AD by the Benedictines who called it Abbandun. By 1538 it was the sixth richest abbey in Britain. Most of it was destroyed after 1538 when King Henry VIII closed the monasteries. The gatehouse and several smaller buildings are still standing.

paragraphs: There is a market in Abingdon every Monday, which first started in 1556. A canal was built in 1810 to join Abingdon to other towns including London, Bristol and Birmingham. The canal was in use until 1906.

paragraphs: The MG motor cars were made in Abingdon for 50 years until the factory closed in 1980. However the headquarters of the MG Car Club are still in the town.


title: Yeadon

paragraphs: Yeadon is a town near Leeds in England. It is in West Yorkshire and part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is home to Leeds Bradford International Airport.


title: George Washington Carver

paragraphs: George Washington Carver (c. January 1860 – January 5, 1943) was an American educator, botanist (someone who works with plants), and inventor. He is best known for his work with peanuts, sweet potatoes, and other crops.

paragraphs: Carver's reputation is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, which also aided nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life.

paragraphs: The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts. He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.

paragraphs: He was born into slavery in January 1864 in Diamond, Missouri. The exact date of his birth is unknown. He studied in Simpson College when he was 22. Much of Carver's fame is based on his research. He died on January 5, 1943 after a fall he had in his home in Tuskegee, Alabama on January 5, 1943.


title: Julian calendar

paragraphs: The Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE (708 AUC), was a reform of the Roman calendar. It was first used in 1 January 45 BCE. It was the main calendar in most of the world, until Pope Gregory replaced that with the Gregorian calendar in 4 October 1582.

paragraphs: During the 20th and 21st centuries, the date according to the Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian date.

paragraphs: The Julian calendar has two types of year: common years of 365 days and leap years of 366 days. There is a simple cycle of three common years followed by a leap year and this pattern repeats forever. However, the rule was not followed in the first years after the of the reform in 45 BCE. Due to a counting error, every 3rd year was a leap year instead of the 4th. The leap years were:

paragraphs: However, in 8 BCE (746 AUC), emperor Augustus Caesar corrected the problem. The next leap year was 7 CE (160 AUC).

paragraphs: With the simple cycle, the length of the Julian year is exactly 365.25 days (365 days and 6 hours), but the actual time it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun once is closer to 365.2422 days (about 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds). This difference is about 365.25 - 365.2422 = 0.0078 days (11 minutes and 14 seconds) each year, although Greek astronomers knew that. This made the seasons get out of track, since the real first day of spring in western Europe (the equinox - day and night the same length) was happening earlier and earlier before the traditional 21 March as the centuries went by. By the 1500s, it was starting around 11 March, ten days 'too early' according to the calendar.

paragraphs: The first step of the reform was to realign the 25 December with the Winter solstice by making 46 BCE (708 AUC) 445 days long. In ordinary Roman calendar, the common year had 355 days and the leap year (one year after the common year) had 378 days. The 46 BCE was a leap year, according to the calendar. Julius Caesar added 67 more days by adding two extra months (those are called "Prior" and "Posterior" in letters of Cicero) between November and December.