title: Calvin Coolidge

paragraphs: Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the President of the United States between 1923 and 1929. He was a conservative who supported business and lower taxes.

paragraphs: He was the only President of the United States to be born on July 4. He was married to Grace Coolidge and had 2 children:

paragraphs: John Calvin Coolidge III (born September 6, 1906 - died May 31, 2000) and John Calvin Jr. (born April 13, 1908 - died July 7, 1924). His younger son John Calvin Coolidge IV died at 16 while playing tennis at the White House. His son was wearing tennis shoes without socks and died from a toe infection. He was buried at the foot of Hill Cemetery. After this, President Coolidge may have been depressed.

paragraphs: Coolidge served as the Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts. He later served as the Governor of Massachusetts. As governor, he became famous because of his response during the Boston Police Strike. Coolidge fired the police who went on strike and gave the jobs to unemployed World War 1 veterans (he gave the same bonuses that the striking policemen asked for to the veterans).

paragraphs: In 1920, he was nominated Vice President under Warren G. Harding. The Harding-Coolidge team won easily. Harding died in 1923 and Coolidge became the next President. He was inaugurated at his family farm in Vermont by his father John Calvin Coolidge Sr.

paragraphs: Coolidge finished Harding's term and was elected in 1924 to continue to be the country's president.

paragraphs: Coolidge was president during a prosperous economy and the country did not face many challenges. He believed that the federal government should be as small as possible. He supported tax cuts and wanted the federal government to keep its hands off the economy. Some think this is linked to the Great Depression.

paragraphs: Coolidge was criticized for refusing to give subsidies to farmers and when a giant flood happened in Mississippi during 1927, he did not want the federal government to be involved. This was part of his belief of federalism, that the country's problems should be solved mainly by state governments and local governments rather than the federal government.

paragraphs: He surprised many people by choosing not to run for re-election during 1928.

paragraphs: The legacy of Calvin Coolidge is mixed. People who support more federal government involvement in the economy do not like him. People who support less federal government involvement in the economy like him.

paragraphs: Calvin Coolidge was nicknamed "Silent Cal" because he did not talk much.


title: Harry S. Truman

paragraphs: Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 - December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States, from 1945 to 1953. He became president when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office.

paragraphs: As president, Truman made important foreign policy decisions, such as using atomic weapons on Japan to end World War II; repairing Europe (which was destroyed during the war); beginning the Cold War, and getting the U.S. involved in the Korean War.

paragraphs: Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri. The initial S in Truman's name has no meaning.

paragraphs: Truman was raised in Independence, Missouri. He lived for 12 years as a Missouri farmer.

paragraphs: The presidential election of 1892 happened when Truman was eight years old. He wanted Grover Cleveland, a Democrat like Truman's family, to win. Grover Cleveland did win.

paragraphs: Truman joined the United States Military in 1917. He went to France in World War I and became a captain in the Field Artillery.

paragraphs: Truman left the military in 1919. That same year, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace. He opened a clothing store in Kansas City.

paragraphs: On February 17, 1924, Bess had a baby girl and named her Mary Margaret Truman.

paragraphs: Truman was active in the Democratic Party. In 1922, he was elected judge of Jackson County Court.

paragraphs: Two years later, Truman lost the next county judge election. However, he was elected county judge again in 1926.

paragraphs: In 1934, Truman was elected Senator of Missouri. He became a member of the Interstate Commerce Committee. He was also the vice-chairman of a subcommittee on railroad safety.

paragraphs: In 1940, Truman ran for re-election to the Senate. First he would have to beat another Democrat, Governor Lloyd Stark, in a primary election. The primary election would decide which Democrat would go on to face a Republican candidate in the final elections in November.

paragraphs: President Franklin Roosevelt and St. Louis Mayor Bernard Dickmann both wanted Stark to win. Truman had a hard time getting money. Most people thought he would lose. However, about a month before the primary election, the railroad unions said that they wanted Truman to win. Then, two days before primary election day, Bernard Dickmann also said that he wanted Truman to win.

paragraphs: Truman won by about 8,000 votes. He also won the election in November.

paragraphs: Truman became the head of a committee that looked at how much money the United States was spending on defense during World War II. He found billions of dollars of spending that he thought was a waste, and could be cut out of what the U.S. was spending. Truman supported Roosevelt's leadership of the country in the war, but wanted to make the government less wasteful and more effective. He became well known for leading that committee.

paragraphs: In 1944, President Roosevelt ran for re-election again. Roosevelt was in bad health and he did not have much longer to live. The Democratic Party realized that whoever they selected as Vice President could be the next president of the United States. (In the U.S. government, if the President dies, the Vice President automatically becomes the new president.)

paragraphs: Henry A. Wallace, Roosevelt's former Vice President, was not chosen because he had a friendly attitude toward the Soviet Union, which many people saw as a dictatorship. Roosevelt wanted Truman as his Vice President, and Truman was chosen.

paragraphs: They won the election, and Roosevelt began his fourth term as president. On April 12, 1945, shortly after his fourth inauguration, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. Truman became president.

paragraphs: About becoming President, Truman said: "it felt like the moon, the stars, and all of the planets had fallen upon me."

paragraphs: Truman had become president during the last few months of World War II. While Truman was vice president, Roosevelt never told him much about World War II. At that time, people did not think of the Vice Presidency as an important job in politics. Because of this, Truman entered the presidency knowing not much more than the average person about what the U.S. military was doing in World War II.

paragraphs: Nazi Germany surrendered less than a month after Truman became president. This ended the war in Europe. However, the Japanese kept fighting. The Allies of World War II made the Potsdam Declaration, telling Japan to surrender or it would face "prompt and utter destruction." Japan did not surrender, so Truman ordered the first atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6th, 1945. Three days later, Truman ordered the second atomic bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrendered and the war ended.

paragraphs: The huge destructive power of the atomic bombs razed both cities, and killed over one hundred thousand people, with many more dying of radiation induced illnesses over subsequent years. People who disagreed with the decision, like General and future president Dwight Eisenhower, believe it was a cruel and inhumane attack on innocent people, when Japan was already close to being beaten. Other people thought it was a good decision because it ended the war early. Truman thought that if the U.S. had invaded Japan instead of using the bombs to end the war quickly, many more Americans would have died.

paragraphs: After the war, Truman ordered Europe (which was destroyed during the war) to be repaired with the Marshall Plan. Germany was divided into two parts after the war. The Soviet Union controlled East Germany. The United States, Britain, and France controlled West Germany. During the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, Truman ordered the Berlin Airlift, which flew in tons of food to West Germany to feed the starving people.

paragraphs: Truman also helped create the United Nations, an organization which was based on the League of Nations. The United Nations still exists today. Its goal is for different countries to work together to help humanity and to promote peace.

paragraphs: After World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were the only two powerful countries left. With Germany being divided between the Soviet Union and the United States, tensions began to increase between the two countries. The Cold War began. This was a war where the Soviet Union and the United States did not fight directly, but each wanted to have a bigger influence than the other over the world. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism around the world. (Communism is the belief that the government should own the economy to make everybody equal). Truman believed in a policy called containment: that the U.S. should contain communism and stop it from spreading. Truman declared the Truman Doctrine, which said the United States should give money to Turkey and Greece so that they could be strong enough to defend themselves from communism.

paragraphs: Truman sent Congress his "Fair Deal." It was based on Roosevelt's New Deal. It gave more money to education, more money to farmers, and a higher minimum wage for workers. Labor union leaders asked him for higher wages and more benefits.

paragraphs: After coal miners went on strike, Truman had the Department of the Interior take over the mines. While Truman sympathized with the working class, when there was a huge railroad strike, Truman believed it was illegal. He also thought it was unfair to people who could not get to work because the railroads were not running. He reacted by threatening to force the strikers to go into the army if they did not return to work.

paragraphs: Truman de-segregated the military, allowing blacks and whites to fight together.

paragraphs: In 1948, Truman ran for a second term as President against Thomas Dewey. He was the underdog and everyone thought he was going to lose. The Chicago Tribune published a newspaper on the night of the election with the title "Dewey Defeats Truman". To everyone's surprise, Harry Truman won the election.

paragraphs: On June 25, 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea. China supported North Korea. North Korea wanted to bring Communism into South Korea.

paragraphs: The U.S. fought the Korean War to defend South Korea and keep communism from spreading there. General Douglas MacArthur wanted to bomb China. Truman thought it was too dangerous to do that, so he fired MacArthur. Many people respected MacArthur, so they were angry at Truman. He made Mathew B. Ridgeway general.

paragraphs: During the end of his term, Harry Truman's approval rating was at an all-time low. He was very unpopular because thousands of Americans died in the Korean War; there was a medium amount of corruption in his government; and people were accusing many of Truman's employees of being communists. He left office on January 20, 1953. The Korean War ended about six months later.

paragraphs: As time passed, Truman's reputation got better. Many historians now believe that Harry Truman was a great president.

paragraphs: Truman moved back to Missouri. He died on December 26, 1972 in Kansas City, Missouri of multiple organ failure caused by pneumonia at the age of 88.


title: John Adams

paragraphs: John Adams, Jr. (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was the second President of the United States (1797–1801), and father of the sixth President, John Quincy Adams. He was also the first Vice President of the United States (1789–1797).

paragraphs: Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts. He was the son of Lt. Col. John Adams, Sr. (1691-1761) and Susanna Boylston (1708-1797). He went to Harvard College. He married Abigail Adams in 1764.

paragraphs: Adams wanted the Thirteen Colonies to be free from Great Britain. However, Adams was fair and thought every person should be treated fairly. Even though he did not want British soldiers in Boston, he was the lawyer who defended the British soldiers who were involved in the Boston Massacre.

paragraphs: Adams was a representative from Massachusetts during the Second Continental Congress. He helped Thomas Jefferson write the United States Declaration of Independence. During the American Revolutionary War, Adams helped make peace with Great Britain. He served in France, the Netherlands and England as an ambassador in the 1780s.

paragraphs: Adams was the first vice president under George Washington. After Washington chose not to run again, Adams won the 1796 election. Adams is thought to have been the first president to belong to a political party, but like George Washington, he thought himself above any particular party. He ran for president on the Federalist ticket. He beat Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party. President candidates and vice president candidates did not run together like they do today. Since Jefferson got the second highest number of votes, he became vice president.

paragraphs: During his term, he resolved a conflict against France peacefully. He also passed the Alien and Sedition Acts which made it illegal to say bad things about the government. Many people did not like those acts because they felt it took away their freedom of speech. Adams was not re-elected president and lost to Thomas Jefferson. The Federalist Party was not as popular as it was when Adams was elected. One of his last acts as president was to make John Marshall the Chief Justice of the United States. This made sure that the Federalist Party would still be important.

paragraphs: Of the first five U.S. presidents, Adams was the only one who did not own slaves. He was also the only one to be from New England.

paragraphs: Adams died on July 4, 1826 of heart failure. This was the same day that Thomas Jefferson died, and was also exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.


title: Bill Clinton

paragraphs: William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician and humanitarian activist who served from 1993 to 2001 as the 42nd President of the United States. He was 46 years old when he was elected and the third youngest president.

paragraphs: He took office at the end of the Cold War. Clinton was the first president from the baby boom generation. Clinton was the second president to be impeached. He was impeached in 1998 for lying about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Before he was president, Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992, Attorney General of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

paragraphs: Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. His biological father, William Jefferson Blythe. Jr, died in a car accident, three months before Clinton was born. His mother, Virginia Clinton Kelley was a Nurse anesthetist. He took the last name Clinton because it was his stepfather, Roger Clinton, Sr.'s name. Clinton grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In high school, Clinton played the saxophone. Clinton went to college at Georgetown University. During his college years, Clinton worked under several politicians. He later went to Oxford University and Yale Law School. Clinton did not fight in the Vietnam War because he was in the ROTC for a short time.

paragraphs: Clinton married Hillary Rodham in 1975. In 1980, their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was born.

paragraphs: After law school. Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976 and governor of Arkansas in 1978. At 32, he was the youngest governor in the country at that time. Clinton was governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1993. Clinton was known for being a "New Democrat" while governor. During his time as governor, Clinton changed the state's school system. There was also a scandal called Whitewater during Clinton's term.

paragraphs: In the 1992 presidential election, he beat Republican George H. W. Bush. During the early part of Clinton's first term, he put in place a tax code which would increase taxes on the rich.

paragraphs: In 1994, during Clinton's first term in office, the Congress switched to a Republican majority. However, Clinton still beat Republican Bob Dole in the 1996 election.

paragraphs: The Republicans defeated Clinton's proposal for the U.S. government to adopt universal health care. The Republicans proposed many new ideas to Congress to limit the size of government such as requiring the budget to be balanced and to stop people from abusing the welfare system.

paragraphs: Clinton was sued by Paula Jones for sexual harassment, but the lawsuit was officially dismissed after Jones failed to prove damages. This made him the first sitting United States president to be sued.

paragraphs: President Clinton was accused of wrongdoing by the U.S. House of Representatives in December 1998 during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and was impeached. Although he lied that they did not engage in sexual activity, he was found to have done nothing wrong by the U.S. Senate in February 1999.

paragraphs: The country faced few challenges during his term. The Cold War was over and there was very little need for the U.S. military to get involved in the world's affairs, so defense spending was significantly lowered. The economy was doing very well during his term, though there is a debate whether the economy was well because of Clinton's policies or because of the Republicans' policies.

paragraphs: The decade ended with the being the first time the United States did not have to borrow money to pay for its budget. Clinton left office with high approval ratings and was succeeded by George W. Bush.

paragraphs: After his presidency, he wrote some books and traveled around the world helping out the United States. He is married to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and now lives in New York. He has written "My Life", a book about his life, and several other books. Clinton has received two Grammy Awards, both for books he read on tape. He is now the U.N.'s envoy to Haiti. He also became a vegetarian.

paragraphs: In 2013, Clinton started following Buddhist meditation to help him relax.<ref name="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183101/Bill-Clinton-turns-art-Buddhist-meditation-relax.html"></ref>

paragraphs: On November 20, 2013, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the United States, by President Barack Obama.


title: Yield

paragraphs: In economics, the yield is how much money somebody is paid each year for leaving his or her money invested somewhere. Unlike a corporate dividend, a yield is fairly certain, unless there is a bankruptcy. This means that somebody usually knows how much money they are going to make from their yield ahead of time.

paragraphs: Yields can be different because of inflation. However, there is usually an order for which are most risky and which are the least: the least risky instruments, such as Treasury bonds, yield the least, then safe and "guaranteed" instruments like long-term deposits, then overnight deposits, and so on to the various municipal bond and corporate bonds. Extremely risky instruments with high yield are usually called junk bonds.


title: Moral purchasing

paragraphs: Moral purchasing is when a person uses moral reasoning to decide what to buy. For example, when a person chooses to buy local goods instead of those from other countries, helps neighbours and processes that one can point to quickly.


title: Social network

paragraphs: A social network is a set of people who interact. This includes group organizations. The social relationships may include friendship/affect, communication, economic transactions, interactions, kinship, authority/hierarchy, trust, social support, diffusion, contagion, and so on.

paragraphs: Calling social relationships a network calls attention to the pattern or structure of the set of relationships.

paragraphs: A community social network is the pattern of relationships among a set of people and/or organizations in a community. Each of these networks can involve social support, give people a sense of community, and

paragraphs: lead them to help and protect each other.

paragraphs: How big a personal network becomes depends on the individual and the type of relationships considered. "The set of people that a person knows well or with whom a person frequently interacts seldom exceeds several hundred". As the size of a network grows, keeping relationships is strained by the size. There is a so-called "Law of 150" which suggests that about 150 people is the best size for a village or large clan though most people live in much bigger towns. Some experts think that a corporation has an ideal size of about 70 people: these people and their spouses would also make a large social network.

paragraphs: The free rider problem is that someone uses the social network but does not give help when needed. Social networks are vulnerable to them, since the circumstances where help is required, like disasters, occur by surprise. It might happen that someone cannot help at that one time - it might also happen that they are not there the next time. Only slowly does it become obvious who is and is not contributing to the safety of the group, or who is avoiding this duty.

paragraphs: Social networks are held together by common interest. This may be employment, common interest in a sport or pastime, a religion (a mosque, church or temple is almost always a center of a social network). Often the network has an identity of its own which is quite real, even though it may have no official recognition. Networks may be centered on places, or on families, or on worldwide communities with common interests.


title: Cabal

paragraphs: A cabal is a group of people who try to control things in a secret way. Cabals are often an important part of a conspiracy theory.

paragraphs: Sometimes people say "There Is No Cabal", or use the abbreviation TINC to mean "There Is No Cabal". The joke is that since a cabal is necessarily secret, only those who are in the cabal can know.

paragraphs: The former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, of the Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the foreign policy of George W. Bush's administration were run by a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal". With this word he meant that the President had not really the power that he is given by the constitution and that the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense had more influence than they should have.


title: Creating

paragraphs: Creating is making new things that have not existed before, usually by combining two or three things that existed. Art is almost always called creative, but so are other activities like music, mathematics, technology, business, craft, building, gardening and forestry, if they combine things to get new things.

paragraphs: When several people cooperate in more than one process of creating, that is a creative network. This cuts risk since anything creative involves some chance that it will simply not work.

paragraphs: What is "not creative" is usually called imitative, and includes anything that is mostly trying not to do what has never been done – like law, sports, science, war and especially education. These involve more direct competition, so risk comes from the competitor who may do it better. The word team is used for such groups.

paragraphs: Most people fear change and new things, and so what is most stable and considered important by society tends to be imitative and done in teams. But unless society encourages creating it loses out to others by competition in business or technology, so there must be some creative networks, somewhere, in labs or art studios.

paragraphs: Views of control of creative work also depend very much on religious and spiritual views of nature (or a creator) creating Man, according to economist Lester Thurow. Those ethical traditions that see "Man in the image of God" have created legal codes (see guild, intellectual right, intellectual interest, intellectual property) to tightly control what they are creating or have created. These are now the basis of organizations such as WIPO or ICANN. Often, such laws also create control over things which are merely found, not created.

paragraphs: Many people give away what they have created and never think about it as property – other people try to control it and get paid every time anyone sees it – or even every time they just talk about it.

paragraphs: Wikipedia uses the GNU FDL which is a content license that tries to get people to combine what they are creating, with no one clearly in control. This is considered strange by many people, who are uncomfortable with that idea, or seek to control some aspect of it themselves.


title: Human science

paragraphs: Human science is the science of humans: what makes them different from animals, and their limits, which tend to be the same as those of other animals. Because human bodies are animal bodies, human science is part of biology which leads to Life Science. However human behaviour includes the use of words, measures, numbers, knowing time and having memory, and such habits as trade - thus economics and psychology are considered to be part of human science. A general human science is anthropology which studies only the differences between humans and near relatives.

paragraphs: One important debate in human science is whether the exchange of culture (or in economics instructional capital), is only among humans or if it also goes on among our Great Ape near relatives. If so, then culture is part of primatology and there is no clear line between human science and life sciences.

paragraphs: Another name for human science is Social Science, since the most complex thing about humans is how they relate to each other in society. The most general social science is ethics, or economics, depending on your point of view.

paragraphs: However, life science also deals with humans as objects of study (notably in medicine), while hard science such as chemistry deals with humans as the observer who "does" the study - sets the scale at which observation can happen, incurs observer effects - as studied in philosophy of science.

paragraphs: Often sciences have different names based on whether they study humans or not. For instance economics is the study of how humans make a living, while ecology is the study of how non-humans make a living. Medicine is normally restricted to humans while veterinary medicine refers to the same techniques made on other species. One relies more on ethics and less on economics when dealing with humans, at least according to any ethical tradition.

paragraphs: The living, social, and sensory observing aspects of humans are probably all part of the human sciences to the degree they affect how humans view themselves.

paragraphs: Specific human sciences are (in addition to anthropology and ethics and economics) include psychology, sociology and linguistics. There is debate as to whether mathematics is something human or if it is universal - see philosophy of mathematics on this.


title: Flaying

paragraphs: Flaying is a form of torture, mutilation, and execution. It is the act of stripping the skin and flesh from the bones. Flaying an enemy while alive is an ancient practice. Accounts attribute the practice to the ancient Assyrians, who were said to flay the skin from a captured enemy or rebellious ruler and nail it to the wall of his city, as warning to all who would defy their power. Searing or cutting the flesh from the body was sometimes used as part of the public execution of traitors in medieval Europe. A similar mode of execution was used as late as the early 18th century in France; one such episode is graphically recounted in the opening chapter of Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" (1979).


title: Rice

paragraphs: Rice ("Oryza sativa") is a type of [vegetables] and food. In origin, it is a swamp grass. It is eaten as staple food in many parts of Asia. It is grown in warm parts of the world, mainly Asia, Africa, northern Italy, and the west coast of North America.

paragraphs: Rice accounts for 80% of the calories eaten in Asia, or one-fifth of the calories eaten worldwide by humans. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production (rice, 741.5 million tonnes in 2014), after sugarcane (1.9 billion tonnes) and maize (1.0 billion tonnes). However, judged by value, the world trade in wheat is greater than all other crops combined. All these cereals are grasses.

paragraphs: Rice used to be the main diet in many countries. Various kinds of food processing prepare rice for eating. It is usually cooked. In some areas, such as Spain, rice is first fried in olive oil or butter, then cooked with water or soup. In other areas, such as India, rice is eaten with sauce, curry, or soup. Rice can also be used to make alcohol, such as Japanese sake rice wine.

paragraphs: Rice is believed to have been first grown in ancient southern China and India around 2500 BC. Rice-growing was brought to Japan possibly in the 1st century BC, and became popular during the 2nd century and the 3rd century. From India, rice spread to southern Europe and Africa.

paragraphs: Alluvial loamy and clayey soil is ideal for growing rice. The rice crop needs about 24°C or above with minor variations during sowing, growing and harvesting seasons. It grows well in the areas where rainfall is above 100cm. Deltas, river valleys, coastal plains and terraced fields in mountainous regions are ideal for its cultivation.

paragraphs: Rice is usually planted in a flat field filled with water. Before cropping, the water is drained from the field. Before farmers developed a good farming system and fertilizers, they used to let lands rest for 1 to 2 years while farming in other lands.

paragraphs: In some hot areas, close to the equator, farmers do double-cropping which means raising two crops one year.

paragraphs: Rice contains a lot of carbohydrates. There are different ways of milling rice. Brown rice has only had the outer layer removed. It contains more fibre than the completely milled white rice.

paragraphs: There are several grains called "rice": they have been cultivated for thousands of years. There are a huge number of varieties.

paragraphs: Asian rice ("Oryza sativa)" is most widely known and most widely grown, with two major subspecies and over 40,000 varieties. Also notable are varieties of African rice ("Oryza glaberrima") and wild rice (genus "Zizania"). Rice may vary in genetics, grain length, color, thickness, stickiness, aroma, growing method, and other characteristics.

paragraphs: Rice can be divided into different categories on the basis of each of its major characteristics. The two subspecies of Asian rice, "indica" and "japonica" have different length and stickiness. Indica rice is long-grained and unsticky, while japonica is short-grained and sticky.

paragraphs: For instance, over nine major varieties of rice exist for the purpose of making sake alone.

paragraphs: A naturally occurring strain of rice, IR8, is believed to have saved many lives.

paragraphs: The new strain, part of the Green Revolution, had defects. It lacked taste, and the team spent 20 years improving its quality, and its resistance to fungi and pests. The team's later work was to reduce its bad effect on diabetes type 2 and on its vitamin A content.


title: Yoga

paragraphs: Yoga is an old discipline from India. It is both spiritual and physical. Yoga uses breathing techniques, exercise and meditation. It helps to improve health and happiness. "Yoga" is the Sanskrit word for "union". Patanjali was a pioneer of classical yoga. He defined yoga as "the cessation of the modification of the mind" ("stopping changing the mind").

paragraphs: A person doing yoga will move from one posture (called "asana") to another. For example, the "sun-salutation" contains 12 poses of asanas, one after the other, and is said to help balance body and soul. There is a specific mantra for each asana. The "sun-salutation" is popularly known as "Suryanamaskar".

paragraphs: Yoga was introduced by Indian Ascetic. Ascetic practices ("tapas") are referenced in the (900 to 500 BC), early commentaries on the Vedas. Several seals discovered at Indus Valley Civilization (~3300–1700 B.C.) sites in Pakistan depict figures in positions resembling a common yoga or meditation pose. The pose shows "a form of ritual discipline, suggesting a precursor of yoga", according to archaeologist Gregory Possehl. Scholars think there must be some type of connection between the Indus Valley seals and later yoga and meditation practices, though there is no conclusive evidence.

paragraphs: A yogasana is a pose in which a person can sit. The intention of yogasana is to exercise the body and make it free of pains and problems.

paragraphs: Yogi is a person who has mastered yoga or has achieved great success in yoga. Yogasanas are also called "Asana" or "Asanas" (plural). A Yogi can sit in any asana for a given time.

paragraphs: This yogasana helps to release gas in the stomach.

paragraphs: This yogasana makes the spine more relaxed.


title: Human development theory

paragraphs: Even though economics is all about choice on the basis of what is available rather than what should be available, the big question relates to who decides how resources should be distributed and how economics can embrace a trade-off between different groups which each seek to make the most of their allocation of resources. If "what should be" cannot be incorporated, the subject of economics will be as dry as desert as described by Ayn Rand. The challenge therefore is to construct a model combining "what is" to "what should be" and make the same acceptable to common man as well as politicians. Not being able to sell the idea as such is a defeat to the discipline. The issue is that of influence and not of theory, as Adam Smith perceived that no group of business men ever met other than to exploit the consumer.


title: Cattle

paragraphs: Cattle is a word for certain mammals that belong to the genus "Bos". Cattle may be cows, bulls, oxen, or calves. Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated hoofed animals. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae.

paragraphs: Cattle are large grazing animals with two-toed or cloven hooves and a four-chambered stomach. This stomach is an adaptation to help digest tough grasses. Cattle can be horned or polled (or hornless), depending on the breed. The horns come out on either side of the head above the ears and are a simple shape, usually curved upwards but sometimes down. Cattle usually stay together in groups called "herds". One male, called a "bull" will usually have a number of "cows" in a herd as his harem. The cows usually give birth to one "calf" a year, though twins are also known to be born. The "calves" have long strong legs and can walk a few minutes after they are born, so they can follow the herd.

paragraphs: Cattle are native to many parts of the world except the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. Cattle have been domesticated for about 9,000 years. They are used for milk, meat, transport, entertainment, and power.

paragraphs: The word "cattle" has been used in English for about 1,000 years and the meaning has changed. In books such as the King James Version of the Bible, the word is used for all sorts of farm animals, including horses, sheep and goats. The word comes from the "Old French" word,'chattels', meaning all the things that a person owns.

paragraphs: The word "cattle" is used for some wild animals as well as for domesticated cattle. Wild cattle include the water buffalo from South East Asia, the musk ox and yak from Central Asia, the bison of North America and Europe and the African buffalo. The last aurochs, wild cattle of Europe, were killed in Masovia, Poland in 1627.

paragraphs: An intact male bovine is called a bull. A young male bovine is called a bullock. A mature female that has given birth to at least one or two calves is called a cow. A young bovine between birth and weaning is called a calf. Two or more of these young bovines are calves. A female that has never had a calf is called a heifer, (pronounced "heffer"). Calving is the act of a cow or heifer giving birth to a calf.

paragraphs: Because very few bulls are needed to breed with many cows and heifers and to form a complete breeding herd, most male cattle are used for meat. They are "castrated" by removing the testicles to prevent them from being able to breed other cows and heifers, and to take away the male characteristics that are common with bulls. A male that has been castrated before reaching puberty is called a steer. An ox is a male bovine that has been castrated after puberty and is trained and used for draft purposes, such as pulling a plow or a wagon. Cattle can either be horned, which are two bony points coming out on either side of a beast's head, one on each side, or polled, where no horns are grown but a somewhat pointy poll is found at the top of a cow's head.

paragraphs: The adjective that is used to describe something that is like a cow or an ox is "bovine".

paragraphs: The words "cow", "bull" and "calf" are also used to describe some other large animals that are not related to cattle, such as elephants, moose and whales.

paragraphs: Cattle are found all over the world, from as far north as Canada and Russia to the dry inland of Australia. The only continent they are not found on is Antarctica. Different types and breeds of cattle are suited to different environments. "Bos indicus" cattle such as the Brahman breed are suited to subtropical and tropical areas, whereas "Bos taurus" cattle such as Angus cattle are more suited to temperate or colder climates. Their large wide hooves are good in both wet areas and dry grassland. Their hairy coat grows much longer in the winter and has an extra fluffy layer to hold in warmth. They shed this extra layer in springtime in preparation for the hot summer ahead. Most cattle, except those of the "Bos indicus" subspecies do not have sweat glands in their skin, but their wet nose is a useful cooling system. They can also pant like a dog as well.

paragraphs: Cattle can make a range of noises, from a gentle "moo" to a low growl in warning or to attract females, especially among bulls. When they are angry or upset, they can bellow or bawl quite loudly. Calves are said to bawl, cows moo and bulls bellow.

paragraphs: Cattle are herbivorous, meaning that they are plant-eating (primarily grass) animals. Eating grass is called "grazing". They have very strong tongues and strong lower front teeth that help them to graze. Unlike a horse, cattle do not have any upper front teeth. A cow often swallows grass whole. After a cow has eaten its fill and is resting, they return or regurgitate the grass from their stomach to their mouth and rechew it with their very large back teeth to break it down further. This is called "chewing the cud". Other ruminants like deer, sheep and goats also do this. Horses do not. This means that cattle do not need as much food as horses, even though they are about the same size.

paragraphs: Cattle are ruminants which mean they have a stomach with several chambers which helps digest their food more efficiently. A cow's stomach has four chambers called the "reticulum", "rumen", "omasum" and "abomasum". The reticulum is known as the "hardware" stomach because it is mainly used as a storage area for hard things that the cow might accidentally swallow like nails, rocks and other objects. The rumen is the largest chamber in a ruminant's stomach, and in cattle it can hold up to 50 gallons feed. It is the chamber where fermentation takes place to help break down the grass that the cow has eaten. The omasum, also known as "many piles" is a compartment that squeezes or absorbs all the water that has accumulated from the digestion that has gone on in the rumen. The fourth chamber is the abomasum which similar in function to a human's stomach, and so is called the "true stomach."

paragraphs: Cows have "breasts" called "udders" which are joined together in a large sac, often pink in colour, found hanging between the back legs. The udder is divided into four parts, or quarters, each with a large "teat" that the calf is able to grasp with its mouth to suckle from. Cows begin milk production a few days before a calf is born, and can continue to produce milk when bred again and when pregnant with their next calf. Heifers, unless they have given birth to their first calf, do not produce milk. Dairy cows tend to have much larger udders than beef cows, and as such, these type of cows will usually produce more milk than what is needed to feed one calf. "Dairy cows" are female cattle that are raised to produce lots of milk for human consumption. "Beef cows", on the other hand, are female cattle that are used to raise a calf from birth that is used for beef later in its life. Both types of cows will keep producing milk as long as it is demanded, either by the calf, by the milking machine, or by the human that is hand-milking them. When milk from them is no longer needed, they will not explode: they simply "dry up," where the milk they produce is absorbed or taken back in by their bodies. Cows are pregnant for around 9 months, or an average of 280 days.

paragraphs: Bulls can often be fierce and dangerous, especially in the presence of their herd of cows and heifers. In the wild, they will often fight each other over mating rights and their herds of cows and will use their horns to "gore" each other. Some bulls will fight to the death: others will fight until either one of the bulls decides to run off. They also protect the herds from other animals such as wolves, jackals, bears, tigers and lions. On farms, bulls are usually quieter and more docile and can be led by a nose-ring by their owners, but they can be aggressive with other bulls and with strange people or animals who might get too near his herd. Dairy bulls like Jerseys and Holsteins tend to be more aggressive than bulls of beef breeds like Hereford and Angus. Not all cattle have horns. Bulls with no horns fight by head-butting the other's head, neck, side or belly, and will use their heads to push each other around.

paragraphs: For the reasons above, most male cattle are either sent to slaughter while they are still calves or are castrated so that they are much less likely to fight each other, or be aggressive towards the farmer that is raising them, making them safer to handle and keep until it is time to send them to market. Steers have no other purpose except to be raised, sold and slaughtered for beef.

paragraphs: Ever since people started using cattle in prehistoric times, cattle have been a sign of wealth. In many countries, particularly in Africa and Asia, a person's wealth is judged by the number of cattle they own. Different breeds are used differently.

paragraphs: Cattle are very useful animals. Their flesh can be eaten as meat. Their milk can be drunk and turned into cheese and yoghurt. Their skin can be used as leather. They can pull carts and plows. They can make the power to turn flour mills or pump water. The food that they eat is not expensive, and often not in competition with what people eat.

paragraphs: Dairy cattle are kept and raised specially for milking. Herds of cows are kept and are regularly mated with a bull, so that they produce calves. This keeps the milk supply going. However, most commercial dairy farms do not keep bulls because of the concern that such bulls are very dangerous when being handled. Instead, cows are artificially inseminated with bull semen that is stored kept frozen in liquid nitrogen, and is "bred" by a person who artificially inseminates cows for a living.

paragraphs: Some large dairy herds, especially those used to produce organic or "free-range" milk are kept on pasture where there is a good supply of grass and the fields are relatively small, but not so small that they are not able to graze regularly during the season when grass is growing. This is because the cows need to be brought in for milking every day, twice a day, and should not have far to travel.

paragraphs: A number of dairy herds are kept in barns or sheds for most of their lives and are given feed that has been especially made for them. This feed contains grain like corn, hay including grass and alfalfa or clover, and fermented chopped feed called silage that is usually made from corn, wheat or barley. Cows are often kept in stalls where they have enough room to lay down comfortably. Such large dairies must supply straw or saw dust for the cows to rest on without getting sore from the hard concrete floor.

paragraphs: Cows can be milked by hand, but in many countries where there are large dairies, the cows are milked by a "milking machine". The milk is collected in a large stainless steel container where it undergoes pastuerization, a process that heats milk to a very high temperature to kill any bacteria that are living in the milk. The milk is then taken by truck to a milk or dairy factory to be made into the milk we drink by being separated to remove most of the cream. It is then put into bottles or cartons to be sold. Some milk is also turned into cheese, ice cream, butter, cream and even yogurt. All of these dairy products are packaged or put into cartons or bottles and sold.

paragraphs: Many types of cattle are used for milk. They include:

paragraphs: Beef cattle are bred and raised specifically to provide meat or beef. "Steers" are the best type for this purpose because they can be kept in herds without fighting each other. "Heifers" are also often used for beef, especially those that are not suitable to be used in a breeding herd. The cows of beef cattle are used to give birth to and raise calves for meat. They are not usually used for milk, although some types of cattle, such as the Red Poll, Dexter or Red Devon (also known as the North Devon or Devon) are used for both. These type of cattle are called dual purpose breeds.

paragraphs: Beef cattle are often allowed graze over large areas because they do not have to be brought in every day like dairy cattle. The biggest farms in the world are "cattle stations" in Australia, "ranches" in North America and "ranchos" in Latin America where they run beef cattle.

paragraphs: Until the mid 20th century, beef cattle were often sent to market "on the hoof". Cowboys or drovers would herd the cattle along the roads or on trails to the cattle markets in big towns or cities, or to railway stations where they would be loaded and shipped to these towns or cities. In Australia, sometimes the cattle would travel for hundreds of miles along roads known as 'Traveling Stock Routes'. Big herds would have thousands of 'heads of cattle'. (Cattle are counted by the "head".) Nowadays cattle are usually sent to the market in huge lorries known as road-trains. In North America, cattle are sent to auction marts, slaughter plants or other farms or ranches by large semi-trucks called cattle liners.

paragraphs: The meat from a calf is called 'veal' and from an older beast, 'beef'. Meat that is cut into flat pieces for frying or grilling is called 'steak'. Every part of a beast can be used. The skin becomes leather. The meat which is not used by humans becomes pet food and almost everything that is left over becomes garden fertilizer. Many other products can be and are often made from cattle: for example, car tires, home insulation, paint, hand lotion, soap, jello, and many drugs are made from parts of cattle. Cow's blood is often used in special effects in the creation of action or horror movies. Bones from cattle can be made into knife handles or napkin rings. The list is endless.

paragraphs: "Oxen" are cattle trained as work animals. The word "ox" is used to describe just one. They are castrated males (steers).

paragraphs: An ox is over four years old and grown to full size when it begins to work. Oxen are used for pulling plows and wagons, for hauling heavy loads like logs or for powering different machines such as mills and irrigation pumps.

paragraphs: Oxen are most often used in teams of two for light work such as plowing. In past days, very large teams of fourteen to twenty oxen were used for heavy work such as logging. The oxen are put into pairs and each pair must work together. A wooden yoke is put about the neck of each pair, so that the work is shared across their shoulders. Oxen are chosen from certain breeds with horns, since the horns hold the yoke in place when the oxen lower their heads, back up or slow down.

paragraphs: Oxen must be trained from a young age. The owner must make or buy as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes as the animals grow. Ox teams are steered by shouted commands, whistles or the noise of a whip crack. Men who drove ox teams were called teamsters in America, wagoners in Britain, or in Australia, "bullockies". Many bullockies and teamsters were famous for their voices and for their foul language.

paragraphs: Oxen can pull harder and longer than horses, especially for very large loads. They are not as fast as horses, but they are less often injured or less likely to startle than horses are. Many oxen are still in use all over the world, especially in poor countries.


title: Thunder

paragraphs: Thunder is a very loud sound that is made sometimes during a very big rain storm.

paragraphs: Thunder is so loud, it can be heard from a very far distance.

paragraphs: It can sound like a boom, a crash, or a rumble.

paragraphs: The energy from the lightning heats up the air so much that it makes a kind of explosion.

paragraphs: When lightning is very near, thunder will be heard soon after the lightning flash, and the sound will be very loud. If the lightning is farther away, the thunder will be a few seconds or many seconds after the lightning. People can guess how far away the lightning is by counting the number of seconds between the time they see the lightning and hear the thunder.


title: 1

paragraphs: The year 1 (I) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The year started on a Monday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the first year of the 1st century and 1st millennium.

paragraphs: It is one of only seven years to use just one Roman numeral. The seven are 1 AD (I), 5 AD (V), 10 AD (X), 50 AD (L), 100 AD (C), 500 AD (D), and 1000 AD (M).

paragraphs: At the time, it was known as the "Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Paullus". The denomination 1 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the main method in Europe for naming years. The year before this is 1 BC in the widely used Julian calendar.


title: 2

paragraphs: The year 2 (II) was a common year that started on Sunday, according to the Julian calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Tuesday.

paragraphs: At the time, it was known as the "Year of the Consulship of Vinicius and Varus". It was the 2nd year of the 1st century.


title: 3

paragraphs: The year 3 (III) was a common year which started on a Monday. according to the Julian calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Wednesday. At the time, it was known as the "Year of the Consulship of Lamia and Servilius". The year is called 3 since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the usual method in Europe for naming years. It was the 3rd year of the 1st century.


title: 4

paragraphs: The year 4 (IV) was a leap year which started on a Tuesday, according to the Julian calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Thursday. At the time, it was known as the "Year of the Consulship of Catus and Saturninus". It was called the fourth year since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the usual method in Europe for naming years. It was the 4th year of the 1st century.


title: 5

paragraphs: 5 (V) is a common year of the Julian calendar which started on a Thursday. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Saturday. It was known as the "Year of the Consulship of Messalla and Cinna". It was the 5th year of the 1st century.


title: 6

paragraphs: 6 (VI) is a common year of the Julian calendar which started on a Friday. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Sunday. It was the 6th year of the 1st century.


title: 7

paragraphs: 7 (VII) is a common year of the Julian calendar which started on a Saturday. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Monday. It was the 7th year of the 1st century.


title: 8

paragraphs: 8 (VIII) is a leap year of the Julian calendar which started on a Sunday. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Tuesday. It was the 8th year of the 1st century.


title: 9

paragraphs: 9 (IX) is a common year of the Julian calendar which started on a Tuesday. According to the Gregorian calendar, it started on a Thursday. It was the 9th year of the 1st century.


title: 3 (number)

paragraphs: The number three (3) is one more than two and one less than four. It is the first Mersenne prime. Three is an important number for many cultures (groups of people living together). It is also a prime number. It is the first odd prime. In Roman numerals, it is III.


title: 10 (number)

paragraphs: 10 (ten ) is the number that is after nine and before eleven. Most people have ten fingers and ten toes.

paragraphs: Ten is the smallest positive whole number with two digits. Ten is an important number because most people write numbers using multiples of ten. This is called the decimal number system.


title: Man

paragraphs: A man is a male adult human. He is the opposite of a woman. People use the word "man" (one "man", two or more "men") to talk about gender. Manhood is the period in a male's life after he changes from a boy. A boy is a male child; a female child is called a girl. After boys reach maturity, they can be called a man.

paragraphs: Like most other male mammals, a man inherits an X chromosome from his mother and a Y chromosome from his father. The men's rights movement is a group that tries to fight for men's rights and opposes misandry.

paragraphs: Someone who changes gender to male would also be called a man.

paragraphs: There are some sexual differences between a man and a woman. Men have sex organs which we call "external" (not inside the body). But many parts of the male reproductive system are internal too. The study of male reproduction and sex organs is "andrology".

paragraphs: Men normally have the same illnesses as women, but there are some sexual illnesses which men have only, or more often.

paragraphs: There are more differences between men and women, not only sexual differences.

paragraphs: Some examples of secondary sexual characteristics in male humans:

paragraphs: Biology is not the only thing which makes people feel they are men, or that other people are men. Perhaps one in 100,000 men were born without a male body. We call these "transgender" or "transsexual" men. Some men can have a hormone or chromosomal difference (for example "androgen insensitivity syndrome"). Some men have other intersex conditions. Some of those intersex people who people said were female (girls) when they were born want to change this later in their lives.


title: Woman

paragraphs: A woman is a female human adult. People use the word "woman" (one woman, two or more women) to talk about biological sex. Sometimes, the term woman is used regardless of age, as in phrases such as "Women's rights", to fight social issues such as misogyny.

paragraphs: A woman usually has a uterus or "womb". A baby develops in the uterus, a sexual organ exclusive to females.

paragraphs: While women have gained many more rights and freedoms in most of the developed world, especially since the beginning of the 20th century, many women still face discrimination and harassment worldwide. In earlier centuries, women in most of the world did not have rights, including the right to vote, and were treated with even less respect than today.

paragraphs: The symbol for the goddess Venus is used for women.

paragraphs: The Latin "fēmina", whence "female", is likely from the root in "fellāre" (to suck), in reference to breastfeeding.

paragraphs: A transgender is a woman who was born with a male reproductive system and chose to be identified as a woman.

paragraphs: Among hunter-gatherers, women often work at gathering food and looking after children. This especially happened in the past.

paragraphs: In some modern societies, these roles have changed to allow single, career oriented women to become a regular part of society. Feminism has helped make this possible.

paragraphs: However, women still face sexism in the industry today, including difference in salary compared to men.

paragraphs: Violence against women are still a big problem even in modern society. Many societies have traditionally patriarchal values, where men are considered to be the leader of the family.

paragraphs: Before modern societies, education of women has been limited. In developed countries, most women have access to education, and even perform better than men at many levels. In the United States in 2005 and 2006, women have earned 62% of associate degrees, 58% of bachelor's degrees, 60% of master's degrees, and 50% of doctorates.

paragraphs: The lack of education in women has been decreasing, and more women today have at least completed tertiary education.

paragraphs: Throughout history, women have made contributions to science, literature, and art.

paragraphs: There were many female writers, but gaining attention is difficult unless a writer would take up a male name to publish their work under.

paragraphs: In the field of music, women have been composers, songwriters, performers, singers, conductors, scholars, teachers, critics and more.


title: Position

paragraphs: Position is a way to explain where something is. "Position" can also mean other things:

paragraphs: To find which is your left hand side, hold your hands palms down, point your index fingers and stick your thumbs out at right angles. The finger and thumb of your "left" hand will form a capital letter L.

paragraphs: If the letter L you make is reversed, you found your right hand. Left and right are called opposite sides.

paragraphs: Middle is between "up" and "down" and is between "left" and "right".

paragraphs: In or inside means that something is protected and surrounded by something else. Out or outside means that it is not inside something else.

paragraphs: Far means that something is a long way away from you. Near means it is "close" to you. Things can also be near and far other persons and other things.

paragraphs: In many sports, the term "position" is used to show what occupation a person has on their team. For example, in baseball, positions include catcher, shortstop and pitcher.

paragraphs: The position of something is where that thing is in space and time. Usually people use Cartesian coordinates to write down a position. So a scientist might say that the balloon was at "x", "y", "z" when it popped at a certain time.

paragraphs: The position of a person is his status or responsibility in a community or group of people. It is called rank in the army.

paragraphs: In a factory the manager is a typical position.


title: Arundel Castle

paragraphs: Arundel Castle is a castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was built by Edward the Confessor.


title: Religious Society of Friends

paragraphs: The Religious Society of Friends is a group with Christian roots that began in England in the 1650s. The formal title of the group is the Society of Friends or the Religious Society of Friends.

paragraphs: People in the Society of Friends are called "Friends" or Quakers - both mean the same thing. Most Quakers are Christian but the group today includes a few other people. They live all over the world, but the largest groups are in Kenya, the United States of America, Bolivia, Guatemala, the United Kingdom (England), and Burundi.

paragraphs: The Society of Friends began in the 1650s in England. A man named George Fox spent several years struggling to figure out how to be a good Christian. He finally heard God's voice telling him that Christ would make it clear to him what he should do. Fox went around preaching to people. He told them they could talk to God themselves - that they did not need a priest or minister to do it for them. He told them that if they listened within themselves they would hear Christ telling them what to do. Fox found other people who had similar experiences. Together they started a religious movement that later became the Religious Society of Friends.

paragraphs: The government of England did not like this new group; at the time it was against the law not to belong to the Church of England. They put a lot of Friends in jail, or made them pay money as a punishment. At first, the word "Quaker" was a name used to make fun of Friends, but after a while those people came to like it and use it for themselves.

paragraphs: Seeking freedom of religion, some Quakers moved away to places like America. A young Quaker named William Penn started a new colony there. He got the land because King Charles II of England owed his father a lot of money. This new colony was called Pennsylvania, and it was a place where people could belong to any religion. Penn wanted people to be fair to each other, and he called the biggest city in his new colony Philadelphia, which means "The City of Brotherly Love." Soon there were many Quakers in America.

paragraphs: The Quakers were very active in America in the nineteenth century (1800s). Many of the leaders of the abolition and women's rights movements, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, were Quakers.

paragraphs: Today there are about 375,000 Quakers in the world. This number is very small compared to other religious groups. Even so, a lot of people have heard of the Quakers, because they have worked hard to make our world more fair and just.

paragraphs: Quaker worship services are called "meetings for worship". They start with everybody sitting quietly. This is because they are trying to listen to God. Sometimes, a Quaker will feel that God wants him or her to say something. When this happens, the person stands up and tells everyone. Then they all sit quietly again. At some meetings, a many people will speak. At other meetings, nobody speaks. Quakers feel that a meeting for worship helps them to understand what God wants. Usually, worship lasts about an hour.

paragraphs: Quakers also have meetings for worship for weddings and funerals—when two people get married, or if someone dies. When two people get married, the meeting is about them and the life that they will live together. When someone has died, the meeting is about remembering things about the person and the life they had.

paragraphs: Many Quakers in North America, South America, and Africa have a different kind of worship service, like other Christian services. They sing hymns and a pastor gives a sermon. They also have a quiet time, but it does not last as long. These Quakers often have strong Christian beliefs.

paragraphs: And at other times these meetings also decide what Quakers should do - these meetings can be called "meetings for business", but other people call them "meetings for worship for business", because they include parts of both worship and business.

paragraphs: Quakers seek religious truth in their inner experiences. They rely on conscience to guide what they do. They emphasise direct experience of God rather than ritual or ceremony. They believe that priests and rituals are unnecessary and can get between the believer and God. What Quakers say matches what they do.


title: Size

paragraphs: The size of something is how much space the thing takes. It can also be described as how big or small something is.

paragraphs: Sizes can be measured. When a size is measured, it is given a number.


Opposite


title: Direction

paragraphs: Direction follows an imaginary line connecting two points.

paragraphs: Something following the line is moving in that "direction". People show directions by pointing.

paragraphs: The word "direction" is made from the root "direct" meaning to guide.

paragraphs: These are words used to talk about a direction:


title: Starvation

paragraphs: Starvation is when a person or animal has not eaten food for such a time that they are unable to do things in a normal way.

paragraphs: After the stomach has been left empty for so long the body starts to give up.

paragraphs: There are many effects of starvation. These can include:

paragraphs: The metabolism naturally lowers when a person is starved. This makes weight loss slower.

paragraphs: Consistently not being able to eat enough will lead to permanent damage to the organs. This is the case for humans when they do not eat enough for about 1-2 months. A process called catabolysis will break down body tissues, using them as fuel to keep vital functions (the nervous system and the heart) working. It will first use muscles before it starts destroying fat.

paragraphs: Starvation was also used to inflict a death penalty. People who eat nothing usually die in a few months.

paragraphs: In 1944 Ancel Keys started a scientific experiment about starvation. The participants were all men. They ate 1800 calories a day.


title: Microsoft Word

paragraphs: Microsoft Word or MS Word (often called Word) is a graphical word processing program that users can type with. It is made by the computer company Microsoft. Its purpose is to allow users to type and save documents.

paragraphs: Similar to other word processors, it has helpful tools to make documents.

paragraphs: Microsoft Word is a part of Microsoft Office, but can also be bought separately.

paragraphs: Many of the ideas and features in Microsoft Word came from Bravo, the first graphical writing program.

paragraphs: Microsoft bought the Bravo program, and changed its name to "Microsoft Word".

paragraphs: When it first came out, it was not very popular, and did not sell as well as other writing programs like WordPerfect.

paragraphs: Although it was not very popular when it came out, it had a feature called "WYSIWYG" (What You See Is What You Get), which meant that people can change the visual style of writing (e.g. bold, italics), by clicking on buttons, when in other programs like WordPerfect, people had to add special 'codes' to change the style of writing. "WYSIWYG" is now a common feature of all computer writing programs.

paragraphs: There are versions for Microsoft Word for other operating systems as well as Microsoft Windows. New versions support fewer operating systems, although they always support Windows.

paragraphs: Without configuration the program saved the document in a proprietary file format, so other programs could not open it. When the user sent his document to a friend, the friend needed a copy of Microsoft Word to read the document. Then that friend would probably also save documents in the same secret format of Word. This gave Microsoft Word a dominant position.


title: Ant

paragraphs: Ants are a kind of insect that live together in big groups. Scientists sometimes use the name Formicidae when talking about all of the different kinds of ants that have lived.

paragraphs: Ants are a lot like wasps and bees. They all came from the same kind of animal a long time ago, but now they are different. There are about 22,000 different kinds of ants, but we only know of 12,500 for sure. Every kind of ant has a thin part in the middle of their body and two long body parts on their heads called antennae.

paragraphs: Ants live in groups that can be big or small. Some kinds of ants live in small groups and eat other animals. Some ants work together in very big groups. These groups can have millions of ants in them that travel outside every day in a big area. Ants are small, but they are very strong. Some ants are strong enough to carry things that are as heavy as 20 ants. Some ants are called workers. Workers dig tunnels and carry food back to the colony so that other ants and the queen ant can eat.

paragraphs: The groups that ants live in are called colonies. A colony has a female ant called a queen which lays eggs. Those eggs will grow into more ants. Big colonies of ants have different kinds of ants that grow from the eggs. These are called different castes of ants. Some are "workers" which do jobs like carrying and digging, and "soldiers" which fight other animals. Worker and solider ants are females. Another type of ant are "drones" which are male ants.

paragraphs: Really big ant colonies are sometimes called "superorganisms". This means the ants work together so well that they are like little parts of one big animal. Ants cannot live by themselves for very long because they need to work with other ants.

paragraphs: Ants have colonies almost everywhere on planet Earth. Places that do not have ants are Antarctica because it's very cold and there's not much food, far away places that ants can't get to, or islands because there's not enough things that ants need there.

paragraphs: The family Formicidae belongs to the order Hymenoptera, which also includes sawflies, bees and wasps. Ants evolved from a lineage within the vespoid wasps.

paragraphs: Phylogenetic analysis suggests that ants arose in the Lower Cretaceous period about 110 to 130 million years ago, or even earlier. One estimate from DNA studies places the origin of ants at ≈140 million years ago (mya). Another study puts it in the Jurassic at 185 ± 36 mya (95% confidence limits).

paragraphs: After the rise of flowering plants about 100 million years ago ants diversified. They became ecologically dominant about 60 million years ago.

paragraphs: In 1966 E.O. Wilson and his colleagues identified the fossil remains of an ant ("Sphecomyrma freyi") from the Cretaceous period. The specimen, trapped in amber dating back to more than 80 million years ago, has features of both ants and wasps. "Sphecomyrma" was probably a ground forager but some suggest that primitive ants were likely to have been predators underneath the surface of the soil.

paragraphs: During the Cretaceous period, a few species of primitive ants ranged widely on the Laurasian super-continent (the northern hemisphere). They were scarce in comparison to other insects, representing about 1% of the insect population.

paragraphs: Ants became dominant after adaptive radiation at the beginning of the Cainozoic. By the Oligocene and Miocene ants had come to represent 20-40% of all insects found in major fossil deposits. Of the species that lived in the Eocene epoch, approximately one in ten genera survive to the present. Genera surviving today comprise 56% of the genera in Baltic amber fossils (early Oligocene), and 92% of the genera in Dominican amber fossils (apparently early Miocene).

paragraphs: Termites, though sometimes called "white ants", are not ants and belong to the order Isoptera. Termites are actually more closely related to cockroaches and mantids. Termites are eusocial but differ greatly in the genetics of reproduction. The similar social structure is attributed to convergent evolution. Velvet ants look like large ants, but are wingless female wasps.

paragraphs: The life of an ant starts from an egg. If the egg is fertilised, the progeny will be female (diploid); if not, it will be male (haploid). Ants develop by complete metamorphosis with the larval stages passing through a pupal stage before emerging as an adult. The larva is fed and cared for by workers.

paragraphs: Food is given to the larvae by trophallaxis, a process in which an ant regurgitates liquid food held in its crop. This is also how adults share food, stored in the 'social stomach', among themselves.

paragraphs: Larvae may also be given solid food brought back by foraging workers, and may even be taken to captured prey in some species. The larvae grow through a series of moults and enter the pupal stage.

paragraphs: The differentiation into queens and workers (which are both female), and different castes of workers, is influenced in some species by the food the larvae get. Genetic influences, and the control of gene expression by the feeding are complex. The determination of caste is a major subject of research.

paragraphs: A new worker spends the first few days of its adult life caring for the queen and young. It then does digging and other nest work, and later, defends the nest and forages. These changes are sometimes fairly sudden, and define what are called "temporal castes". An explanation for the sequence is suggested by the high casualties involved in foraging, making it an acceptable risk only for ants that are older and are likely to die soon of natural causes.

paragraphs: Most ant species have a system in which only the queen and breeding females can mate. Contrary to popular belief, some ant nests have multiple queens (polygyny). The life history of "Harpegnathos saltator" is

paragraphs: exceptional among ants because both queens and some workers

paragraphs: The winged male ants, called "drones", emerge from pupae with the breeding females (although some species, like army ants, have wingless queens), and do nothing in life except eat and mate.

paragraphs: Most ants produce a new generation each year. During the species specific breeding period, new reproductives, winged males and females leave the colony in what is called a "nuptial flight". Typically, the males take flight before the females. Males then use visual cues to find a common mating ground, for example, a landmark such as a pine tree to which other males in the area converge. Males secrete a mating pheromone that females follow. Females of some species mate with just one male, but in some others they may mate with anywhere from one to ten or more different males. Mated females then seek a suitable place to begin a colony. There, they break off their wings and begin to lay and care for eggs. The females store the sperm they obtain during their nuptial flight to selectively fertilise future eggs.

paragraphs: The first workers to hatch are weak and smaller than later workers, but they begin to serve the colony immediately. They enlarge the nest, forage for food and care for the other eggs. This is how new colonies start in most species. Species that have multiple queens may have a queen leaving the nest along with some workers to found a colony at a new site, a process akin to swarming in honeybees.

paragraphs: A wide range of reproductive strategies have been noted in ant species. Females of many species are known to be capable of reproducing asexually through parthenogenesis, and one species, "Mycocepurus smithii" is known to be all-female.

paragraphs: Ant colonies can be long-lived. The queens can live for up to 30 years, and workers live from 1 to 3 years. Males, however, are more transitory, and survive only a few weeks. Ant queens are estimated to live 100 times longer than solitary insects of a similar size.

paragraphs: Ants are active all year long in the tropics but, in cooler regions, survive the winter in a state of dormancy or inactivity. The forms of inactivity are varied and some temperate species have larvae going into the inactive state (diapause), while in others, the adults alone pass the winter in a state of reduced activity.

paragraphs: It may seem strange that ants have uses, but there are some. Some people use ants for food, medicine and rituals. Some species of ants are used for pest control (they eat pests that destroy food for humans). They can damage crops and enter buildings, though. Some species, like the red imported fire ant, live in places where they came to by complete accident.


title: Scissors

paragraphs: Scissors are a tool used for cutting thin material like:

paragraphs: Knives are better than scissors for some uses. Unlike a knife, scissors have two sharp edges.

paragraphs: Some types of scissors, like children's scissors, are not very sharp. Children's scissors are often protected with plastic. These are called "Safety Scissors".

paragraphs: Scissors can be made for left-handed or right-handed people. Using scissors made for the wrong hand is very hard for most people.

paragraphs: There are many kinds of scissors used for cutting different materials and shapes.


title: Indigo

paragraphs: Indigo is a shade of blue. The color shown at right, "electric indigo", is the closest color it is possible to display on a computer to the color of the indigo color band in the rainbow.

paragraphs: Isaac Newton named and defined indigo as a spectrum color when he divided up the spectrum into the seven colors of the rainbow. The spectral range of indigo is between 450 and 420 nanometers.

paragraphs: The name of the color indigo originally came from the indigo plant. Indigo is a dye made from the indigo plant, used to dye cloth. Indigo dye also is used to dye denim cloth, which is used to make what are called blue jeans (they should really be called "indigo jeans"). This shade of indigo, called "indigo dye" (shown at left above in the picture and in the color chart below), is darker than the spectrum indigo shown above.

paragraphs: The indigo plant originally came from the nation of India. The Ancient Greek language word for the dye is "indikon". The Romans used the term "indicum", which passed into Italian dialect and eventually into English as the word indigo.


title: Violet (color)

paragraphs: Violet is the sixth color of the rainbow--it is the color on the inner edge of the rainbow. Violet is the color between blue and purple. The name of the color comes from the violet, which is a small flower grown in most parts of the world.

paragraphs: The first written use of "violet" as a color name in English was in 1370.


title: Malcolm IV of Scotland

paragraphs: Malcolm IV of Scotland (c. 1141- December 9, 1165) was the grandson of David I of Scotland. He succeeded his grandfather as King of Scotland in 1153. He never married or had children. Not much is known about him.


title: David I of Scotland

paragraphs: David I of Scotland (1084 – May 24, 1153) was the son of Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret of Scotland.


title: Saint Margaret of Scotland

paragraphs: Saint Margaret of Scotland (c. 1045 - 16 November 1093) was married to Malcolm III of Scotland. She was the mother of David I of Scotland, Alexander I of Scotland and Edgar. She was the daughter of Edward the Exile, and the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. She was probably born in Hungary.

paragraphs: Margaret died four days after her husband.


title: Alexander I of Scotland

paragraphs: Alexander I of Scotland (c. 1078 - 23 April 1124) was the son of Malcolm Canmore and Saint Margaret of Scotland. He became the King of Scotland in 1107. In the same year, he married Sybilla, who was an illegitimate daughter of Henry I of England.


title: Henry I of England

paragraphs: Henry I of England (c. 1068 C.E. - 1 December 1135 C.E.), also called Henry Beauclerc (meaning good scholar), was the King of England. He ruled from, 1100 until his death in 1135. Henry was born in Selby, Yorkshire. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and Queen Matilda of Flanders. Henry was the only child born in England. His mother had come to England for her coronation in 1068.

paragraphs: Henry was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. His parents probably raised him to go into the Church when he was old enough. On William's death in 1087, Henry's two older brothers were each left half of their father's kingdom. Robert Curthose became Duke of Normandy. William Rufus became king of England. But Henry, still a minor, was left with no inheritance. Henry purchased the County of Cotentin in western Normandy from Robert. But Robert and William Rufus forced him out in 1091. Henry gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin. He then allied himself with William against Robert. Henry was present when William died in a hunting accident in 1100. Robert was away on Crusade. Henry, who was present when William was killed, rushed to seize the English throne for himself.

paragraphs: As King, Henry tried to make social reforms. He issued the Charter of Liberties which is considered a predecessor of the Magna Carta. He put back in place some of the laws of Edward the Confessor.

paragraphs: Henry and his wife had two children, Matilda and William Adelin. William died in the White Ship sinking on November 25, 1120. Henry also fathered more illegitimate children than any other English King. Estimates by various historians place the number between 20 and 25.

paragraphs: Henry died in 1135. He was visiting his daughter and grandchildren in Normandy. After his death, his daughter Mathilda and his nephew, Stephen, argued over who would become the ruler of England, and started a civil war called The Anarchy.