title: Napoleon

paragraphs: Napoleon Bonaparte () was the Emperor of the French and also the King of Italy as Napoleon I. His actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.

paragraphs: Bonaparte was born in Corsica. His parents were of noble Italian birth. He trained as an officer in mainland France. became important under the First French Republic. He led successful campaigns against Coalitions of enemies of the Revolution. In 1799, he staged a "coup d'état" to make himself First Consul. Five years later the French Senate declared him Emperor. In the first ten years of the nineteenth century, the French Empire under Napoleon waged the Napoleonic Wars. Every European great power joined in these wars. After a number of victories, France became very important in continental Europe. Napoleon increased his power by making many alliances. He also made his friends and family members rule other European countries as French client states.

paragraphs: The French invasion of Russia in 1812 became Napoleon's first big defeat. His army was badly damaged and never fully recovered. In 1813, another Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig. The year after that, they attacked France. The Coalition exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and briefly became powerful again. However, he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon spent the last six years of his life confined by the British on the island of Saint Helena. A doctor said he died of stomach cancer but some scientists think he was poisoned.

paragraphs: Napoleon's campaigns are studied at military schools all over the world. He is remembered as a tyrant by his enemies. However, he is also remembered for creating the Napoleonic code.

paragraphs: Although raised a Catholic, Napoleon was a deist.

paragraphs: Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Casa Buonaparte in the town of Ajaccio, Corsica, on the 15th of August 1769. This was one year after the island was given to France by the Republic of Genoa. He was the second of eight children. He was named "Napoleone di Buonaparte". He took his first name from an uncle who had been killed fighting the French. However, he later used the more French-sounding "Napoléon Bonaparte".

paragraphs: The Corsican Buonapartes were from lower Italian nobility. They had come to Corsica in the 16th century. His father "Nobile" Carlo Buonaparte became Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI in 1777. The greatest influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, Maria Letizia Ramolino. Her firm education controlled a wild child. He had an older brother, Joseph. He also had younger siblings Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline and Jérôme. Napoleon was baptized as a Catholic just before his second birthday, on 21 July 1770 at Ajaccio Cathedral.

paragraphs: Napoleon was able to enter the military academy at Brienne in 1779. He was nine years old when he entered the academy. He moved to the Parisian École Royale Militaire in 1784 and graduated a year later as a second lieutenant of artillery. Napoleon was able to spend much of the next eight years in Corsica. There he played an active part in political and military matters. He came into conflict with the Corsican nationalist Pasquale Paoli, and his family was forced to flee to Marseille in 1793.

paragraphs: The French Revolution caused much fighting and disorder in France. At times, Napoleon was connected to those in power. Other times, he was in jail. In the French Revolutionary Wars he helped the Republic against royalists who supported the former king of France. In September 1793, he assumed command of an artillery brigade at the siege of Toulon, where royalist leaders had welcomed a British fleet and troops. The British were driven out in December 17, 1793, and Bonaparte was rewarded with promotion to brigadier general and assigned to the French army in Italy in February 1794.

paragraphs: General Napoleon Bonaparte was later appointed by the republic to repel the royalists on October 5, 1795 (13 Vendémiaire Year IV in French Republican Calendar). More than a 1400 royalists died and the rest fled. He had cleared the streets with "a whiff of grapeshot" according to the 19th-century historian Thomas Carlyle. He was then promoted to major general and marked his name on the French Revolution.

paragraphs: The defeat of the Royalist rebellions ended the threat to the Convention and earned Bonaparte sudden fame, wealth, and the patronage of the new Directory. On March 9, 1796, Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais, a widow older than he was and a very unlikely wife to the future ruler.

paragraphs: The campaign in Italy is the first time Napoleon led France to war. Late in March 1796, Bonaparte began a series of operations to divide and defeat the Austrian and Sardinian armies in Italy. He defeated the Sardinians in April 21, bringing Savoy and Nice into France. Then, in a series of brilliant battles, he won Lombardy from the Austrians. Mantua, the last Lombard stronghold fell in February 1797.

paragraphs: In May 1798, General Napoleon left for a campaign in Egypt. The French needed to threaten British India and the French Directory was concerned that Napoleon would take control of France. The French Army under Napoleon won an overwhelming victory in the Battle of Pyramids. Barely 300 French soldiers died, while thousands of Mamluks (an old power in the Middle East) were killed. But his army was weakened by bubonic plague and poor supplies because the Navy was defeated at the Battle of the Nile. The Egyptian campaign was a military failure but a cultural success. The Rosetta Stone was found by French engineer Captain Pierre-François Bouchard, and French scholar Jean-François Champollion was able to read the words in the stone. Napoleon went back to France because of a change in the French government. Some believe that Napoleon should not have left his soldiers in Egypt. Napoleon helped lead the Brumaire coup d'état of November 1799.

paragraphs: Bonaparte returned to Paris in October 1799. France's situation had been improved by a series of victories but the Republic was bankrupt, and the ineffective Directory was unpopular with the French population. He was approached by one of the Directors, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, for his support in a coup to overthrow the constitutional government. The leaders of the plot included his brother Lucien Bonaparte (the speaker of the Council of Five Hundred), Roger Ducos, another Director, Joseph Fouché, and Charles Maurice Talleyrand. Other deputies realised they faced an attempted coup. Faced with their protests, Bonaparte led troops to seize control and disperse them, which left a rump legislature to name Bonaparte, Sièyes, and Ducos as the three provisional Consuls to administer the government.

paragraphs: Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, but he was outmaneuvered by Bonaparte. Napoleon drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII, and secured his own election as First Consul. This made Bonaparte the most powerful person in France, and he took up residence at the Tuileries.

paragraphs: In 1800, Napoleon ensured his power by crossing the Alps and defeating the Austrians at Marengo. He then negotiated a general European peace that established the Rhine River as the eastern border of France. He also concluded an agreement with the pope (the Concordat of 1801), which contributed to French domestic tranquility by ending the quarrel with the Roman Catholic Church that had arisen during the French Revolution.

paragraphs: In France the administration was reorganized, the court system was simplified, and all schools were put under centralized control. French law was standardized in the Napoleonic Code, or civil code, and six other codes. They guaranteed the rights and liberties won in the Revolution, including equality before the law and freedom of religion.

paragraphs: In February 1804, a British-financial plot against Bonaparte was uncovered by the former police minister Joseph Fouche. It gave Napoleon a reason to start a hereditary dynasty. On December 2, 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself "Emperor of the French". The people of France did not see him as the monarch of the old regime because of his holding a Roman Empire title. He invited Pope Pius VII to see his coronation at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. During the ceremony, Napoleon I took the crown from the pope's hand and placed it on his own head. This had been agreed on between Napoleon and the Pope. At Milan Cathedral on May 26 1805, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.

paragraphs: To restore prosperity, Napoleon modernized finance. He regulated the economy to control prices, encouraged new industry, and built roads and canals. To ensure well-trained officials and military officers, he promoted a system of public schools under firm government control. He also repealed some social reforms of the revolution. He made peace with the Catholic Church in the Concordat of 1801. The Concordat kept the Church under state control but recognized religious freedom for Catholics.

paragraphs: Napoleon I won support across class lines. He encouraged the émigré population to return, provided they gave an oath of loyalty. Peasants were relieved when he recognized their right to lands they had bought during the revolution. Napoleon's chief opposition came from royalists and republicans.

paragraphs: Among Napoleon's most lasting reforms was a new law code, popularly called the Napoleonic Code. It embodied Enlightenment principles such as equality of all citizens before the law, religious toleration, and advancement based on virtue. But the Napoleonic Code undid some reforms of the French Revolution. Women, for example, lost most of their newly gained rights under the new code. the law considered women minors who could not exercise the rights of citizenship. Male heads of households regained full authority over their wives and children. Again, Napoleon valued order and authority over individual rights.

paragraphs: Emperor Napoleon abandoned plans to invade England and turned his armies against the Austro-Russian forces, defeating them at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805. In 1806 Napoleon destroyed the Prussian army at Jena and Auerstädt and the Russian army at Friedland. He crowned his elder brother Joseph Bonaparte as King of Naples and Sicily in 1806 and converted the Dutch Republic into the kingdom of Holland for his brother Louis. Napoleon also established the Confederation of the Rhine (most of the German states) of which he was protector.

paragraphs: To legitimize his rule, he divorced his wife Joséphine and married Marie Louise, duchess of Parma and daughter of the Emperor Francis I of Austria. Soon she delivered a son and heir to the Bonaparte Dynasty. He was named Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte or Napoleon II and crowned King of Rome from his birth.

paragraphs: At Tilsit in July 1807, Napoleon made an ally of Russian tsar Alexander Romanov and greatly reduced the size of Prussia. He also added new states to the empire: the kingdom of Westphalia, under his youngest brother Jerome, the duchy of Warsaw, and others states.

paragraphs: The Congress of Erfurt sought to preserve the Russo-French alliance and the leaders had a friendly personal relationship after their first meeting at Tilsit in 1807. However, on June 23, 1812, Napoleon went to war with Russia. The French invasion of Russia defeated many Russian cities and villages, but by the time they reached Moscow it was winter. Due to the Russian army's scorched earth tactics, the French found little food for themselves and their horses. Napoleon's army was unable to defeat the Russians. The Russians began to attack. Napoleon and his army had to go back to France. The French suffered greatly in during Napoleon's retreat. Most of his soldiers never returned to France. His army was reduced to 70,000 soldiers and 40,000 stragglers, against more than three times as many Allied troops. Finally at the 1813 Battle of the Nations he was defeated by the Allies: Sweden, Russia, Austria, and Prussia.

paragraphs: Napoleon had no choice but to abdicate in favor of his son. However, the Allies refused to accept this. Napoleon abdicated without conditions on April 11, 1814. Before his official abdication, Napoleon attempted suicide with a pill but it did not work. In the Treaty of Fontainebleau the victors exiled him to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean. The Allies allowed Napoleon to keep an imperial title "Emperor of Elba" and an allowance of 2 million francs a year. Napoleon even requested a 21 gun salute as emperor of the island of Elba. Many delegates feared that Elba was too close to Europe to keep such a dangerous force.

paragraphs: Separated from his son and wife, who had come under Austrian control, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, Napoleon escaped from Elba on February 26 1815. He made a surprise march on March 1, 1815 to Paris. His former troops joined him and Louis XVIII fled to exile. He again became ruler of France for a length of 100 days. Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the British under Duke of Wellington and Prussians on June 18 1815, which was his last battle. Napoleon was again captured and taken to his second exile on the island of Saint Helena on the Atlantic Ocean.

paragraphs: Napoleon was sent to the island of Saint Helena, off the coast of Africa. He died on May 5 1821 of stomach cancer. Napoleon kept himself up to date of the events through The Times and hoped for release in the event that Holland became Prime Minister. There were other plots to rescue Napoleon from captivity including one from Texas, where exiled soldiers from the Grande Armée wanted a resurrection of the Napoleonic Empire in America. There was even a plan to rescue him with a primitive submarine. For Lord Byron, Napoleon was the epitome of the Romantic hero, the persecuted, lonely and flawed genius. The news that Napoleon had taken up gardening at Longwood also appealed to more domestic British sensibilities.

paragraphs: French people remain proud of Napoleon's glory days. The Napoleonic Code reflects the modern French Constitution. Weapons and other kinds of military technology remained largely static through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, but 18th century operational mobility underwent significant change. Napoleon's biggest influence was in the conduct of warfare. His popularity would later help his nephew Louis-Napoléon to become ruler of France

paragraphs: On the world stage, Napoleon's conquest spread the ideas of the revolution. He failed to make Europe into a French Empire. Instead, he sparked nationalist feeling across Europe. He was also known as “The Leader Of France”.


title: Wetzlar

paragraphs: Wetzlar is a city at the river Lahn in Hesse in Germany. The number of people in the city is about 53,000.

paragraphs: Wetzlar is famous for the historic Oldtown and for Goethe.

paragraphs: Wetzlar has a connection to the Autobahn 45 with three junctions.


title: Andy Warhol

paragraphs: Andy Warhol (Andrew Warhol, Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was one of the most famous American artists of the latter half of the 20th century. Many people think that Warhol is the "bellwether of the art market".

paragraphs: Warhol was born Andrew Warhola, Jr. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1928. He graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology before moving to New York City. His first big break was in August 1949 when he was asked to illustrate an article in Glamour Magazine. He dropped the 'a' from the end of his name when the credits read "Drawings by Andrew Warhol". Warhol was also famous for painting Campbells' and Watties' soup cans. He painted about 300 different paintings. . He originally worked as a commercial artist. He designed things like advertisements and window displays for stores. He soon became famous as an artist in the Pop Art movement, in which everyday objects and media images were used. One of his most famous paintings is his colourful portrait of American movie star, Marilyn Monroe. After she died he was deeply moved, and wanted to create some sort of memorial.

paragraphs: In 1968, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas. He was known for his The Factory studio in New York City where most of his work was created.

paragraphs: In 1987, Warhol was in a hospital in New York City after an operation on his gallbladder. He died in his sleep from a sudden post-operative cardiac arrhythmia, aged 58. His family sued the hospital for inadequate care, saying that the arrhythmia was caused by improper care and water poisoning.


title: Romulus and Remus

paragraphs: Romulus and Remus were the legendary founders of Rome. In Roman mythology they were twin brothers, children of Rhea Silvia and the god Mars.

paragraphs: Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numitor Silvius, king of Alba Longa, a legendary town founded by Ascanius, son of Aeneas, prince of Troy. When Numitor's brother Amulius became king by force, he made Rhea Silvia a Vestal Virgin, so she would not have children who could be kings instead of him. But the god Mars seduced her and she had the twins Romulus and Remus. Rhea Silvia was punished, and her sons were thrown into the Tiber, but were saved by the river god Tiberinus, who also saved Rhea Silvia and married her. Romulus and Remus were found by a wolf who suckled them. A woodpecker fed them. The brothers were later found by a shepherd, Faustulus, who raised them.

paragraphs: Once they were grown, Romulus and Remus founded the city of Rome. However, the twins had an argument about where to start Rome. Romulus favored the Palatine Hill, but Remus favored the Aventine Hill. They decided to settle the disagreement by asking the gods. Each brother stood on his respective hill. Remus saw six birds fly overhead, and Romulus saw twelve. However, Remus countered that he had seen the birds first. Nonetheless, Romulus started to build a wall around his city. Then, Remus jumped over the wall as an insult to his brother. Angered, Romulus killed Remus. He regretted it, and took Remus to Amulius's palace, and buried him there.


title: Confucianism

paragraphs: Confucianism is the philosophy based on the teachings of Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), who was an important Chinese philosopher. Confucianism has a complete system of moral, social, political, and religious thought, and has had a large influence on the history of Chinese civilization. Some people think Confucianism should be called a religion but others do not agree.

paragraphs: Confucianism was made to stop the fall of Chinese society. After the Zhou Dynasty fell, people cared only for themselves and did not have any respect for others. Confucianism became a social order for China, teaching that social relationships are the most important. People slowly started to believe in it, because they wanted to have peace, but they had to care for themselves too. As a result, Confucianism brought the people love, harmony, and respect for one another.

paragraphs: Confucianism was started in Ch'u-fu, Confucius's birthplace. Today, Confucianism has spread around the world, but it is still more important in China.

paragraphs: The teachings of Confucius focus largely on the respect of one's parents, elders, and ancestors. He also taught that humans 'can never stop learning'; meaning that knowledge is infinite, therefore we will always learn, never stopping. For example, he once asked a seven-year-old child to be his teacher, because the child knew something that he did not.

paragraphs: Chinese culture that exists today has its roots in Confucianism. Confucius believed that families are the building blocks of a society, which is why he laid emphasis on Filial Piety, which is known as "xiào" (孝) in Chinese. Filial Piety means loyalty towards ones family. A Filial son is expected to take care of his parents and go to any extent to make their wishes come true.

paragraphs: The book, "Analects", describes the teachings of Confucius and was written by his disciples.


title: Lead

paragraphs: Lead (pronounce: "/'lɛd/") is a chemical element. Its chemical symbol is Pb, which comes from "plumbum", the Latin word for lead. Its atomic number is 82, atomic mass is 207.2 and has a melting point of 327.8°C. It is a very poisonous and heavy metal.

paragraphs: Lead is a shiny, gray-blue poor metal. It gets tarnished easily to a dull gray color. It is soft and malleable. It is very shiny when it is melted. It is very heavy. It is very corrosion-resistant. It is made stronger by adding antimony or calcium. It can form an alloy with sodium. It is toxic to people and animals when swallowed.

paragraphs: Lead burns in air with a grayish-white flame, making toxic fumes of lead(II) oxide. Only the surface is corroded by air. It dissolves in nitric acid to make lead(II) nitrate. It does not dissolve in sulfuric or hydrochloric acid. It reacts with sodium nitrate to make lead(II) oxide and sodium nitrite. It reacts with chlorine to make lead(II) chloride. Lead(II) oxide reacts with lead sulfide to make lead metal and sulfur dioxide.

paragraphs: Lead makes chemical compounds in two main oxidation states: +2 and +4. +2 compounds, also known as lead(II) compounds or plumbous compounds, are weak oxidizing agents. +4 compounds, also known as lead(IV) compounds or plumbic compounds, are strong oxidizing agents. Lead compounds are toxic just like the element. The lead halides do not dissolve in water. Lead(IV) oxide is the most common lead(IV) compound. It is a black solid. The lead oxides are all colored, while the other salts are white or colorless. Lead nitrate and lead(II) acetate are the soluble compounds of lead.

paragraphs: This state is more common than the +4 state. These are weak oxidizing agents. All but the oxides are colorless or white.

paragraphs: Mixed oxidation state compounds contain lead in the +2 and +4 oxidation state.

paragraphs: These are less common. They are strong oxidizing agents.

paragraphs: Lead is found very rarely in the earth's crust as a metal. Normally, lead is in the mineral galena. Galena is lead sulfide. Galena is the main lead ore.

paragraphs: Lead was used for thousands of years because it is easy to get from the ground and easy to shape and work with. The Romans used lead very commonly. They used it for pipes, drinking vessels, and fasteners.

paragraphs: Lead is made from galena. Galena is made pure by froth flotation to get all the impurities out. Then the lead sulfide is roasted in a furnace to make lead(II) oxide. The lead(II) oxide is heated with coke to make liquid lead metal.

paragraphs: Lead is used in the ballast of sailboats. It is also used in weight belts for scuba diving. It is also used to make shotgun pellets and bullets for small arms. Some printing presses use lead type because it can be easily shaped. It can be used outside because it does not corrode in water.

paragraphs: Most lead is used in lead acid batteries, though. The lead is oxidized, making electricity. Sheets of lead are used to block sound in some places. Lead is used in radiation shielding. Molten lead can be used as a coolant in nuclear reactors. It used to be mixed with tin to make the pipes in pipe organs. Different amounts of lead make different sounds. In addition, lead has found its usage in solder.

paragraphs: It is used in some solder. It is used in covering for wires that carry high voltage. Some tennis rackets have lead in them to make them heavier. It is used to balance wheels of cars, to make statues, and to make decorative looks in buildings.

paragraphs: Many lead compounds are used to make colored glazes in ceramics. Lead can be used in PVC pipes. Lead compounds are added to candles to make them burn better. Lead glass has lead(II) oxide in it. Lead compounds are still used as pigments in some places. Lead compounds were added to gasoline, but are now outlawed. Some lead compounds are semiconductors and are used in photodetectors.

paragraphs: Lead was used in many red, yellow, and white pigments in paints. Lead was also used in pesticides. Lead used to be used in pipes carrying water, but now it is not because lead can leach into the water.

paragraphs: Although it can be safely touched, exposure to lead should be avoided – it is very toxic to humans and other animals when swallowed, and its use is restricted in many countries.

paragraphs: If someone is exposed to lead for a long time, it ruins their kidneys and gives them abdominal pains. Lead also ruins the nervous system. Lead paint was being eaten by children and they were getting lead poisoning.

paragraphs: The best way to understand lead and its properties is to read its MSDS.


title: Bell

paragraphs: A bell is a simple musical instrument. Most bells are made of metal. Bells are also in churches to announce the time between hours. Ships usually carry a ship's bell. Alarm bells warn of danger. Some bells are in bell towers.


title: Transformers (toy line)

paragraphs: Transformers are robots that turn into other things. Usually they turn into vehicles, like cars or jets.

paragraphs: Transformers started in 1984 as a toy line, but then an animated series and a comic book were made. In 1986 a movie came out. In 2002 a new series and story line called Transformers Armada came out. this was followed by two more shows, Energon and Cybertron.

paragraphs: Transformers is about different things sometimes. Usually it is about the heroic Autobots fighting the evil Decepticons. The Autobots are usually led by Optimus Prime. The Decepticons are led by Megatron.


title: Simplicity

paragraphs: When something is simple, it is very easy to understand or to do. The opposite is hard or "complex" or "difficult". Simplicity is the quality of being simple. Examples:

paragraphs: "Simple" can mean something that is only made up of a few parts. It lacks complexity.

paragraphs: "Simple" can mean that something or someone is humble (lowly) or common:

paragraphs: "Simple" can also be used to refer to someone whose mind thinks in a very simple way. Calling a person "simple minded" is usually rude.


title: Mathematician

paragraphs: A mathematician is someone who studies mathematics, either as a hobby or as a job. Many mathematicians are math professors at universities, or work at cryptography. Euclid, Ramanujan, Sir Isaac Newton are some of the most famous early mathematicians.


title: West Virginia

paragraphs: West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian region of the United States. Its capital and largest city is Charleston. It is often abbreviated W. Va. or simply WV.

paragraphs: West Virginia is bordered by Pennsylvania to the north, by Ohio to the north and west, by Kentucky to the west, by Maryland to the north and east, and by Virginia to the east and south. The Ohio and Potomac Rivers form parts of the boundaries.

paragraphs: West Virginia was once a part of Virginia. At the beginning of the American Civil War, Virginia and the other southern states seceded from the United States, which means they chose to not be a part of it anymore.

paragraphs: Those in West Virginia who were opposed to slavery were not objecting on moral grounds. They saw it as bad for free labor. While slavery was an issue in other parts of Virginia, in these counties their issues revolved around taxation and being governed from a state capital that was a long way away. The people in Western Virginia had far more in common with their neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Ohio than with the Commonwealth of Virginia. So this was an area of Union support.

paragraphs: On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the thirty-fifth state of the United States. But it was not an easy process. There had been some discussion of the area becoming a state since the early 1800s. It took three conventions at Wheeling from 1861 to 1863. The process divided friends and communities.

paragraphs: But statehood was not universally accepted in West Virginia. While there were no large scale battles, there was a good deal of guerilla warfare in attempts to undermine the new government. Confederates raided into West Virginia trying to terrorize the citizens. Despite Confederate efforts to topple the state government, Washington provided both economic and political support. Union military successes outside the state helped keep the state government in power. After the war there were bitter resentments between those for and against statehood. Virginia even tried to force West Virginia back into becoming a part of Virginia again in 1871. But West Virginia remained a sovereign state despite the efforts.

paragraphs: West Virginia is often called the "Mountain State" because it is entirely within the Appalachian Mountain Range, and there are many hills and mountains throughout the state. The highest one is Spruce Knob, which is 4,863 feet above sea level. There are many rivers, including the Ohio, the Potomac, the Kanawha, and the Monongahela.


title: Virginia

paragraphs: Virginia is a state in the United States. Its capital is Richmond and its largest city is Virginia Beach. The official name of Virginia is the "Commonwealth of Virginia".

paragraphs: Virginia is bordered (touching) by West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia (across the Potomac River) to the north, by Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, by North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, and by Kentucky and West Virginia to the west.

paragraphs: Virginia became a state in 1788 after the American Revolution. Before it became a state of the United States, Virginia was one of the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain. Virginia was founded (started) in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia.

paragraphs: The state of West Virginia was part of Virginia until the American Civil War. Virginia then left (seceded from) the United States and joined the Confederate States of America. The western counties of Virginia seceded from Virginia to form a new state which was loyal to the Union. After the end of the Civil War, Virginia became part of the United States again in 1870, but the counties that had left to start West Virginia did not join Virginia again.

paragraphs: Virginia is the state where eight United States presidents were born. This is more than any other state.

paragraphs: The first African-American slaves were sent to Virginia.

paragraphs: Virginia has many different industries like local and national government, military, farming, technology and business. Many Virginians work for the government because it is next to Washington, D.C.. The Central Intelligence Agency,Department of Defense, as well as the National Science Foundation are in Northern Virginia . Farming is the main industry in the state making 334,000 jobs. Tomatos, Peanuts, Tobacco, and hay are grown in Virginia. Technology is a fast growing industry. Virginia is 4th in technology workers after after California, Texas, and New York.


title: Vermont

paragraphs: Vermont is a state in the United States. Its capital is the city of Montpelier, and its largest city is Burlington.

paragraphs: The states that border Vermont are Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north.

paragraphs: Vermont was home to the Abenaki and Iroquois Native American groups until France took control of the area when it was building colonies. Great Britain gained control after winning the French and Indian War. It is known for being one of only four states to be an independent nation before joining the United States. It was not a part of the 13 colonies and instead joined as the 14th state. Vermont became a state in 1791. It is world-renowned for its maple syrup industry, and many tourists go to see brilliant colors the trees become in the fall months. The tourism industry has become quite successful, with many tourists coming every year.


title: South Carolina

paragraphs: South Carolina is a state in the southeast United States. Its capital city is Columbia and the largest city is Charleston. The population of the state is about 5.2 million people, ranked 23rd in the United States. South Carolina's 32,030 square miles make it the 40th largest state.

paragraphs: Other important cities in South Carolina are Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Sumter, and Florence.

paragraphs: Major landforms include beaches, "barrier islands", salt marsh, sandhills*, rolling piedmont, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Because of its natural beauty, the state attracts many tourists, especially to Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Hilton Head Island. (*Note historical and factual information has been removed from the Wikipedia Sandhills (Carolina) page to hide the prior ancient climate change evidence of icebergs melting and oceans rising causing these sandhills. Beware who hides facts & allows facts to be hidden.)

paragraphs: South Carolina became a state in 1788. The economy was agriculture-based, known for cotton, rice, indigo, and tobacco by African American slaves. After the American Civil War, the state lost much of its political and economic power. Towards the end of the 20th century, the state began to strengthen its economy and add population. Today, the major industries are tourism, textiles (clothing materials), golf, and manufacturing. South Carolina has the second highest number of workers employed by international companies per capita in the United States.

paragraphs: South Carolina is bounded to the north by North Carolina, to the south and west by Georgia, located across the Savannah River, and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

paragraphs: Before the Civil War (and after it, methinks), South Carolina grew a lot of rice.

paragraphs: South Carolina became the first of eleven states to secede from the union, on December 20, 1860, to protest the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. It joined the Confederacy. The first battle of the Civil War took place at Fort Sumter, in Charleston.

paragraphs: After the Civil War, African-Americans in South Carolina got to vote for some time, but soon black codes were enacted, and white-supremacist groups like the KKK were reborn, restricting African-Americans from voting. South Carolina thus became a Democratic stronghold. In fact, in 1904, Republican Theodore Roosevelt, who was running for president, won less than 5% of the vote in the state. The Democratic candidate won over 95% of the vote. This cult of fear disabled most African-Americans in South Carolina from voting till 1965, when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

paragraphs: For a long time, South Carolina had the Confederate flag hanging ver its capital. This is no langer the case.

paragraphs: Andrew Jackson. Jackson was born in the Waxhaws.


title: Rhode Island

paragraphs: Rhode Island is the smallest state in the United States by area. The capital and largest city is Providence. It is called the "Ocean state" because of its bays and waterways. It was founded by Roger Williams for religious freedom. The Narragansett people lived there before Europeans came, but people like Roger Williams didn't respect them and used the land for their own reasons. The colonists fought a war against the native people and many of them were killed or ran away from the colonists.

paragraphs: Rhode Island was one of the original Thirteen Colonies. It became very important to the economy because of the slave trade, and more slaves were taken to the thirteen colonies through Rhode Island than any of the others in the 18th century. Slavers would send ships from Newport to buy slaves from Africa and make money by trading goods with others involved in slavery. Rhode Island became a state (the last of the thirteen to agree to the new United States Constitution) in 1790.

paragraphs: Rhode Island is bordered on the north and east by Massachusetts, on the west by Connecticut, and on the south by Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. It shares a water border with New York. It is named for a large island in Rhode Island Sound. Rhode Island Some thought the island looked liked Rhodes, an island in Greece. Others didn´t.

paragraphs: An executive order was signed by Governor Gina Raimondo on June 22, 2020 to remove "Providence Plantations" from the official state name due to its ties to slavery. Raimondo stated the change would go into effect "as soon as practicable."


title: North Carolina

paragraphs: North Carolina is one of the 50 states of the United States. The capital of North Carolina is Raleigh and the biggest city in the state is Charlotte. North Carolina is split into 100 counties and these counties have many cities and towns.

paragraphs: North Carolina was one of the original thirteen colonies and was where the first English colony in America lived. As of July 1, 2014, there are about 10,146,788 people living in the state.

paragraphs: In 2018, North Carolina was ranked number one on Forbes' Best States for Business ranking for a second year in a row.

paragraphs: Until recently, North Carolina had long leaned Democratic. In presidential elections, it has voted Democratic twice as many times as it has voted Republican. In presidential elections from 1968 to 2004, North Carolina supported the Democrat only in 1976, when he came from the South. However, from presidential elections from the century of 1868 to 1964, inclusive, North Carolina voted for the Democrat in all 25 elections except for 1928. Despite the fact that North Carolina is steadily growing conservative, the governor, Roy Cooper, is a Democrat.

paragraphs: Raleigh is also the capital of North Carolina.

paragraphs: Charlotte is the most populous city in North Carolina.

paragraphs: Asheville is in West North Carolina. The population is 84,000 or so.

paragraphs: North Carolina touches South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The state is divided into three distinct geographical areas, the Coastal Plains to the east, the centrally located Piedmont region, and the mountain ranges of Appalachia to the west. The eastern seaboard of the state is lined with a string of barrier islands known as The Outer Banks.

paragraphs: North Carolina is known for its varying weather across the geographically diverse regions of the state.

paragraphs: The eastern part of the state is touched by the Atlantic Ocean, and usually has moderate temperatures all year long with the summer average high temperature usually not above 90 °F in the summer and not under 40 °F in the winter. However, it can get as hot as the low 100s °F and as cold as 20 °F. Most years there is less than one inch of snow and some years pass with no snow at all. The coastal plain usually gets a tropical storm every 3 or 4 years.

paragraphs: The average temperature normally does not go above 90 °F in most parts of the Piedmont in summer, but can go over 100 °F when there is a heat wave. Ice pellets and freezing rain are normal in this part of North Carolina, but the mountain ranges protect the Piedmont from the worst winter weather. Snow in this region rarely lasts more than 48 hours before melting. Weak tornadoes are often seen in the Piedmont, but only 140 people have died by tornadoes from 1950-2012 in the entire state.

paragraphs: The average temperature almost never goes above 80 °F in the summer and is usually in the high 30’s or low 40’s in the winter in the mountain region of North Carolina. About 14 to 20 inches of snow fall each year with some of the higher elevations getting 50 inches each winter. The wettest part of the mountains gets 90 inches of rain.

paragraphs: Before the English came, about 30 Native American groups lived in North Carolina. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh started two colonies in what is now known as North Carolina, but they did not last long. One of these, the Roanoke Colony later became known as the "Lost Colony" and is still known as one of the great unsolved mysteries of early American history to this day. Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the America, was born in the Roanoke Colony.

paragraphs: The first permanent settlers in North Carolina came from the state of Virginia in 1655 because there was not enough farmland in Virginia. Later the land was cut up into present-day North Carolina and South Carolina. The name "Carolina" comes from the Latin for Charles ("Carolus") after King Charles I.

paragraphs: The Seaborne Slave Trade of North Carolina from the North Carolina Historical Review reports that slaves imported to North Carolina prior to the Revolution from extant records came mainly from the West Indies, most particularly Montego Bay, Jamaica; Barbados; Antigua; and the Bahamas; a small number from mainland colonies; and an even smaller number directly from Africa, though imports between the years 1772-1775 rarely exceeded 150 slaves annually (Minchinton).

paragraphs: The economy's growth and prosperity was based on slave labor, devoted first to the production of tobacco.

paragraphs: North Carolina was an important state during the American Revolutionary War.

paragraphs: In 1860, North Carolina was a slave state. About 1/3 of the people in the state were slaves. North Carolina fought as part of the Confederacy during the Civil War, but it was the last state to leave the Union. The state sent about 125,000 troops to fight in the war and about 40,000 of them died. Even during the war some people in North Carolina did not support the Confederacy, mostly because the Confederacy believed in slavery. The first Confederate soldier to be killed was from North Carolina.

paragraphs: Farms in North Carolina grow many different foods such as grapes, peanuts, Christmas trees, poultry and eggs, wheat, corn, cucumbers, apples, greens, tobacco, hogs, milk, cattle, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. North Carolina grows more tobacco than any other state in the country. Furniture making is an important industry in North Carolina, but over the past few years many jobs have moved to other countries like China and India.

paragraphs: Charlotte, the biggest city in North Carolina, is the second biggest banking city in the United States, making banking very important in North Carolina. BB&T and Bank of America have their main offices in the state.

paragraphs: Technology is also important in North Carolina. There are many companies that make computer software and video games in the state. Winston-Salem is a center for innovation in biomedical and material sciences and information technology called the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. Research Triangle Park near the state capital of Raleigh is one of the largest research parks in the world.

paragraphs: North Carolina has four hospitals that are nationally ranked with many NICUs at a IV rating (highest possible rating in the United States). Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is reported by the U.S. News & World Report as one of the top hospitals in the nation. Brenner Children's Hospital and Health Services is designated a Nurse Magnet facility and it was rated in 2014 as one of America's best children's hospitals.

paragraphs: North Carolina has more state maintained roads than any other American state. The biggest roads are:

paragraphs: There are many major and international airports in North Carolina. These are:


title: New Jersey

paragraphs: New Jersey is one of the 50 states of the United States of America. It is in the northeastern section of the country along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is a small state, shaped like a letter [S], and bordered on the west by Pennsylvania and Delaware across the Delaware River, on the north by New York, on the northeast by the Hudson River and New York City, on the east and southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the southwest by Delaware Bay.

paragraphs: The capital of New Jersey is Trenton and the largest city is Newark, though New Jersey is better known for bordering the large cities of New York City and Philadelphia. The state nickname is "The Garden State". The current governor is Phil Murphy.

paragraphs: New Jersey is the fourth smallest state, but has the eleventh highest number of people. It therefore has the highest population density (number of people for the amount of land) in the United States. New Jersey is also well known for its beaches, industries, swamps, and pine forests.

paragraphs: The climate is hot and humid summers and cold winters, with about 1200 mm of precipitation every year. The average temperature in July is 25-30 degrees Celsius and in January around freezing point.

paragraphs: Before Europeans came, the land that is now New Jersey was inhabited by the Lenape (also known as Delaware Indians by the English), who were nomads, hunters, and farmers. The Dutch came to the northern area of the state in the 1630s, after Henry Hudson explored the area, thought it was a nice place, and claimed it for the Dutch. Towns quickly sprang up, occupied by the Dutch, Swedes, and Finns. People rushed in. The first towns, such as Bergen (now Jersey City), Trenton (the capitol), and Burlington developed. Many others started themselves upon the west bank of the Hudson. New Jersey was part of the area known at this time as New Netherland.

paragraphs: In 1664, the English took New Netherland from the Dutch and added it to their colonies. This part was renamed New Jersey after an island in the English Channel known as Jersey.

paragraphs: New Jersey took part in the American Revolutionary War, and was a scene of battles. On Christmas in 1776, George Washington's army entered New Jersey to attack British soldiers at Trenton and Princeton. The American army won, in two small but famous battles that were important in boosting American morale.

paragraphs: Later, the rebels drove the British residents out of Princeton and for a time established a national capital there. New Jersey would be the third state to join the United States of America and the first to approve the Bill of Rights.


title: New Hampshire

paragraphs: New Hampshire is a state in northeast United States. It is one of six states in the New England region. The capital is Concord and its largest city is Manchester. The second largest city is Nashua. Other major cities include Keene, Dover, Portsmouth, and Merrimack.

paragraphs: The state motto is "Live Free or Die" and the nickname is the Granite State. The state flower is the lilac and the state bird is the purple finch. New Hampshire is part of New England. It is bordered by Maine in the East, Massachusetts to the South, Vermont to the West, and Quebec, a Canadian province, to the North.

paragraphs: Its population was estimated to be 1,359,711 in 2019, so it is the ninth smallest state in the United States by population.

paragraphs: New Hampshire's tourist attractions include the Lakes Region, the White Mountains, the autumn leaves, and the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. Some famous people from New Hampshire are Franklin Pierce, Adam Sandler, and members of the band Aerosmith. New Hampshire is also famous for being the first state to vote in the Presidential primaries.

paragraphs: New Hampshire was a British colony before the American War of Independence. It became the ninth state on June 21, 1788 when it accepted the United States Constitution.


title: Watch glass

paragraphs: A watch glass is used for temporary storage of solids and sometimes liquids (in small amounts).


title: Funnel

paragraphs: A funnel is an object with a wide top and a narrow tube at the bottom and this is used for pouring liquids into a container. A funnel is also a round metal chimney on top of a ship or train.


title: Constantinople

paragraphs: Constantinople (, Konstantinoúpolis, or Πόλις, Polis) was the capital of the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine/East Roman Empire (395-1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922). In 1930 it was renamed Istanbul. It is a city in present-day Turkey.

paragraphs: For centuries the city was not very large, and was called Byzantium. Constantine the Great renamed it for himself and made it his capital. In medieval times different sides tried to conquer it including Crusaders. In 1453 the Muslims won and made it their capital, calling it Istanbul.


title: Mormonism

paragraphs: Mormonism is a Christian restorationist religious movement that was founded by Joseph Smith. For many years, members of the church were known as "Mormons" by those who were not members. The name "Mormons" is simply no longer a name for them. They are now called “Members of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints”. Their religious movement is called "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". Its teachings are similar to many Christian churches, and they consider themselves to be Christian, although some non-members do not consider them to be Christian. A 2007 survey showed that 31% of the people polled do not agree that Mormons are Christians. Mormons have beliefs that are different from the beliefs of mainstream Christian churches. The Mormon Church considers itself a restoration church. This means that members of the Church believe that it is the original Christian Church started by Jesus Christ and brought back ("restored") by Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1830. Mormonism and Bahaism are sometimes called the "fourth Abrahamic religion".

paragraphs: Today there are about 70 groups who call themselves "Mormon" with the largest and best-known of them being The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They believe in baptism by the person being completely underwater (baptism by immersion), such as explained in the Articles of Faith that was written in a letter by Joseph Smith through revelation from Heavenly Father.

paragraphs: Joseph Smith, Jr. said that he had visits from God the Father, Jesus Christ, and many angels. The first visit is called the First Vision. It happened when Joseph was 14 years old. He had decided to pray about which religion to join. He said that he went to the woods far from his family's house in New York, prayed, felt evil powers fighting him, and was rescued when a bright light appeared above him. In the bright light, he said that he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. They told him not to join any church, because none of the churches had all of the truth. They also told him that they had work for him to do.

paragraphs: Part of the work that Joseph did was translating the Book of Mormon. Joseph said that an angel named Moroni visited him and showed him where a very old book was buried. This book was written on plates of gold (sometimes called the Gold Plates). It was buried in a stone box in a hill near Joseph's home in New York. Moroni visited Joseph once a year for four years until he told Joseph to take the Gold Plates. Since the book was written in a very old language, Joseph translated the book into English. He did this with help from God and by the tools called the "Urim" and "Thummim". The book was published as The Book of Mormon in 1830. It tells the story of two main groups of people who lived in North and South America hundreds of years ago (the Nephites and Lamanites), as well as a story of a group of people who came to the Americas thousands of years ago upon leaving the Tower of Babel (the Jaredites). It also teaches many things about Jesus. To members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Book of Mormon is a special book from God comparable to the Bible. Mormons believe that by reading The Book of Mormon and the Bible, people can learn how to get closer to God and how to find happiness in life. This book is also the reason Church members are sometimes called "Mormons".

paragraphs: Today the center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is in Utah, but there are more than 16 million Mormons living all over the world. The leader of the church is called the president, and followers call him a prophet. They believe that God guides the prophet, just like God guided Joseph Smith and the prophets in the Bible. Members of the church believe that it is important for families to spend a lot of time together, and that after they die, they can live together forever. Active members do not drink alcohol, coffee, or tea, or smoke tobacco. They meet once a week on Sunday for church, where they have the sacrament and listen to short talks or sermons. They also have Sunday School to learn more. The church also has activities during the week. Mormons also have buildings called temples. These are the most holy buildings in their religion. When a Temple is first built, and after renovations, the general public is invited to tour the inside. However, after a temple has been dedicated, only church members that have had a worthiness interview with the bishop or stake president may enter.

paragraphs: Today, there are three main movements in Mormonism, although one is by far the largest. They are represented by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Community of Christ and the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message. When people talk about Mormons, they usually mean the followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the largest Mormon movement. This movement also says that the term "Mormon" is a nickname given to members early in the church's history, and would prefer to be referred to as "Latter-day Saints" or "LDS".

paragraphs: Some people who call themselves Mormons are not part of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." These people belong to other Mormon churches. Some of their beliefs are different.

paragraphs: When Brigham Young became the second president of the Church after Joseph Smith was killed, some people did not think he was the rightful president. When Brigham Young led most of the Mormons to Utah, these people stayed in Illinois. They believed that Joseph Smith's son should be the next president. Today, this church is called the Community of Christ. It is the second largest church to call themselves Mormons. They have more than 250,000 people in their church. Other Mormons teach very different lessons that the Community of Christ do not.

paragraphs: Other splits in the Church happened later. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) teaches that a man should only marry one woman. This is called monogamy. In the beginning of the church, this was different. A man could be married to more than one woman at the same time (called polygamy). When the Church changed its position in 1890, some people left the official Church and continued with polygamy. These groups are very small compared to the LDS. The groups that did not want to abandon polygamy are sometimes still called "Mormon", even though in the official church, polygamy has been forbidden since 1890. Most of these smaller groups stay away from other people, since polygamy is illegal in the United States. The LDS tells people not to use the word "Mormon" or pictures of Church leaders and temples when talking about these groups, since it makes it seem like they are still connected to the LDS even though they are not.

paragraphs: There are many practices in Mormonism that are very similar to those used in Christian movements. There are some practices, however, where the Mormon movement is noticeably different from other Christian movements, such as Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant faiths. People who define Christianity as belonging to one of those denominations generally say that Mormonism is not a Christian movement.

paragraphs: In English, the LDS Church accepts the King James Version of the Bible as a part of its official scripture.

paragraphs: In the beginning, the Mormon movement said that it restored the Christian faith and that the other movements at the time held beliefs that were wrong. In the 1830s, the movement quickly gained members that had come from Christian movements. Many Christians of the time saw some of the practices and beliefs the Mormon movement held at that time as politically and culturally subversive. The most controversial of these included the idea that slavery was wrong, men being able to have more than one wife, and the church's wanting to run a government with laws based on Mormonism. Some of these beliefs are no longer held by most Mormon movements today. Such disagreements led to violent conflicts between Mormons and mainstream Christian groups. Even though there is not really violence anymore, the movement's unique doctrinal views are still criticized.

paragraphs: Mormons believe in Jesus Christ as the literal firstborn Son of God and Messiah, his crucifixion as a conclusion of a sin offering, and resurrection.

paragraphs: However, Latter-day Saints (LDS) reject the ecumenical creeds and definition of the Trinity taught by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and Trinitarian Protestantism.

paragraphs: In their view, the New Testament prophesied that people would turn away from Christian teachings, and that there would be a restoration to the situation before the second coming of Christ.

paragraphs: Some important differences with mainstream Christianity include: A belief that Jesus began his atonement from sin in the garden of Gethsemane and took on everyone's sins, Mormon or not. He bled from every pore, and prayed to his father in heaven, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." In their view, heaven is divided into three degrees of glory, and hell (often called outer darkness). Additionally, Mormons do not believe in creation ex nihilo, they believe that matter is eternal, and that God organizes existing matter.

paragraphs: Much of the Mormon belief system is oriented geographically around the North and South American continents. Mormons believe the people of the Book of Mormon lived in the western hemisphere, that Christ appeared in the western hemisphere after his death and resurrection, that the true faith was restored in upstate New York by Joseph Smith, and that the Garden of Eden and location of Christ's second coming were and will be in the state of Missouri. For this and other reasons, including a belief by many Mormons in American exceptionalism, Molly Worthen speculates that this may be why Leo Tolstoy described Mormonism as the "quintessential 'American religion'".


title: Mohammad Khatami

paragraphs: Seyyed Mohammad Khatami (سید محمد خاتمی), (born October 14, 1943) is an Iranian politician who was President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005 and was followed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khatami studied Islamic theology in Qom, and philosophy in Isfahan. Khatami built upon the idea of a lawful state, called Rechtsstaat, of democracy and of social equality. He was the first Iranian president to officially do so. These tenets led to conflicts with the government of Iran. Khatami is seen as a reformist. He is currently a prominent supporter of the Iranian Green Movement, and a critic of the government.


title: Cider

paragraphs: Cider (or cyder) is a drink made from fruit juice, most often from apples.

paragraphs: In Europe and Oceania it is an alcoholic drink that is made from apple juice, through a process called fermentation. In the United States and parts of Canada, cider containing alcohol is called hard cider or alcoholic cider, while "cider" or "apple cider" means less-sweet, usually unfiltered, apple juice.

paragraphs: In the United States and Canada people drink a special kind of cider around Halloween and Thanksgiving. This cider is usually unfiltered, rather thick, and it is often heated and spiced with cinnamon before drinking it. This is different from the cider in Europe, which usually is not heated.

paragraphs: Usually to make cider, apples with a high concentration of tannins are chosen. The fermentation of the apples takes place at around 4-15° Celsius. The temperature influences the duration of the fermentation. The temperature at which the fermentation occurs also has an effect on the taste of the cider.

paragraphs: Shortly before all the sugar has been fermented away, the cider is put in a new barrel which is made air-tight. The rest of the sugar will then become carbonic acid. This will also add to the life-span of the cider (no pasteurisation is needed).

paragraphs: Cider is also the starting-point for distilling Calvados. This alcoholic drink is famous and very expensive.

paragraphs: Cider is made almost anywhere where there are cider-apple trees, most notably

paragraphs: In France, Normandy is the first region as to the production of cider-apples (300 000 tonnes), and the first in cider production (7000 kilolitres).

paragraphs: In France, some ciders can benefit from a protected naming. This is the "cidre normand" and the "cidre breton".

paragraphs: France is the country in the world that produces the biggest quantity of cider.

paragraphs: The United Kingdom produces the most varieties, and along with Ireland holds the biggest market for cider.

paragraphs: Hard cider contains alcohol, which affects the taste of the cider. This can be influenced by choosing the right moment when to stop fermentation:

paragraphs: In France, the most popular are the first, second and fourth categories. In the English-speaking countries, it is possible to find cider with up to 12° of alcohol.

paragraphs: The French and Spanish cuisines have recipes where cider is needed to make them. The French and Spanish also often drink cider instead of wine made from grapes.

paragraphs: In Europe, many young people drink cider. Cider costs less than wine, and is often served in pubs and other places where young people go.

paragraphs: The effects of cider are the same as those of any alcoholic drink.


title: Bison

paragraphs: Bison are a large, even-toed ungulate. They are bovines, similar to cows. They are often called buffalo, but are not closely related to African buffalo or water buffalo.

paragraphs: Bison live in the northern part of the world. The American bison lives in North America where they formerly wander around the prairies in huge herds. The wisent lives in Europe. Bison can also live in rugged areas.

paragraphs: They are the biggest mammals in North America. There used to be as many as 30 million bison in the United States, but because of hunting, by 1890, only 1,000 bison were left. Through conservation efforts, there are now more American bison than there used to be, but still far fewer than there were before the 1800s.

paragraphs: European bison (wisent) tend to live in lightly wooded to fully wooded areas and areas with increased shrubs and bushes, though they can also live on grasslands and plains.

paragraphs: They are classified in the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae

paragraphs: They live to be about 20 years old and are born without their "hump" or horns, which both males and females have. After shedding their light colored hair, and with their horns, they are grown at 2 to 3 years of age, but the males keep growing slowly until about age seven. Adult bulls are very dominant in mating season. Adult bison usually have one or two baby bison.


title: Baseball cap

paragraphs: A baseball cap is a type of hat worn by baseball players when they play as part of their team's uniform, but other people wear them as well. They were invented by Richard Branson in 1994. Steve Austin likes them. Bald men have to wear them in order to hide their deformity. Women are attracted to men who wear them backwards. They are a staple of American fashion.


title: Windows 95

paragraphs: Windows 95 is an operating system by Microsoft released in 1995. Windows 95 added many new features to the last Windows operating system, which was Windows 3.x. It is the first windows to be part of Windows 9x. Windows 95 was also the first Windows with the "Start" button. Since then it has been used in all Windows operating systems. It was also the first Windows that added surfing the Internet, due to the foundation of it. Although Windows 95 is thought of as a full operating system, it works over MS-DOS. Windows 95 is like a visual version of DOS. This means that Windows 95 can run both MS-DOS programs and Windows ones, but programs made just for Windows 95 will not work in DOS.

paragraphs: Windows 95 was Microsoft's first operating system to support long file names. Before that, file names could only be eight characters (letters, numbers, or symbols) long, plus the file extension. Windows 95 was also Microsoft's first operating system to fully support CD-ROMs, though Windows 3.x could also access CD-ROMs.

paragraphs: It was popular from 1995 until 1998 when Microsoft replaced it with Windows 98. Microsoft ended extended support for Windows 95 on December 31, 2001.


title: Otto von Bismarck

paragraphs: Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen Duke of Lauenburg (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was an aristocrat and statesman of the 19th century in Europe. As Prime Minister of Prussia from 1862 to 1890, he was mainly responsible for unifying most of the many independent German countries into the new German Empire in 1871. He became the first chancellor of the empire.

paragraphs: He was "Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen" (Count Bismarck-Schönhausen) in 1865, then since 1871 "Fürst" von Bismarck (Prince Bismarck) and since 1890 the "Herzog von Lauenburg" (Duke of Lauenburg). At first he did not want the duke title but accepted it later.

paragraphs: In the 1860s he engineered a series of wars that unified most of the German states except Austria into a powerful German Empire under Prussian leadership. He got that by 1871 and "remained undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess for almost twenty years after 1871, [and] devoted himself exclusively, and successfully, to maintaining peace between the powers".

paragraphs: Bismarck conducted wars against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1871). All were to get more land for the German Empire. The war against France was very significant in the long run. France lost AlsaceLorraine. The German victory, under the brilliant Helmuth von Moltke, made Germany the most important country in Central Europe.

paragraphs: After the death of the emperor and of his son (Frederick III) in 1888, a new era began, without Bismarck and the elder von Moltke, and with Kaiser Wilhelm II on the throne.

paragraphs: Bismarck was very conservative and was strongly connected to the monarchy. He was not a big supporter of democracy. His most important goal was to make Prussia stronger, and he achieved that by the unification of Germany. Bismarck tried to stop the socialist movement and to reduce the power of the Catholic Church.

paragraphs: One way to stop socialism was to make the working class happy. He did so by introducing many social reforms like public health and accident insurance, as well as pensions for old people. Bismarck's pension scheme was the forerunner of the modern welfare state.


title: Differential calculus

paragraphs: Differential calculus, a branch of calculus, is the study of finding out the rate of change of a variable compared to another variable, by using functions. It is a way to find out how a shape changes from one point to the next, without needing to divide the shape into an infinite number of pieces. Differential calculus is the opposite of integral calculus. It was developed in the 1670s and 1680s by Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.

paragraphs: Unlike a number such as 5 or 200, a variable can change its value. For example, distance and time are variables. At an Olympic running race, as the person runs, their "distance" from the starting line goes up. Meanwhile, a stopwatch or clock measures the "time" as it goes up. We can measure the average speed of the runner, if we divide the distance they travelled by the time it took. But this does not say what speed the person was running at exactly 1.5 seconds into the race. If we had the distance at 1 second and the distance at 2 seconds, we would still only have an average, although it would probably be more correct than the average for the whole race.

paragraphs: Until calculus was invented, the only way to work this out was to cut the time into smaller and smaller pieces, so the average speed over the smaller time would get closer and closer to the actual speed at exactly 1.5 seconds. This was a very long and hard process, and had to be done each time people wanted to work something out. Certainly it is much more difficult for a driver to figure out a car's speed by using only its odometer (distance meter) and clock—without a speedometer.

paragraphs: A very similar problem is to find the slope (how steep it is) at any point on a curve. The slope of a "straight" line is easy to work out—it is simply how much it goes up ("y" or vertical) divided by how much it goes across ("x" or horizontal). If a line is parallel to the "x" axis, then its slope is zero. If a straight line went through (x,y) = (2,10) and (4,18), the line goes up 8 and goes across 2, so its slope is 8 divide 2, which is 4.

paragraphs: On a 'curve', though, the slope is a variable (has different values at different points), because the line bends. But if the curve was to be cut into very, very small pieces, the curve at the point would look almost like a very short straight line. So to work out its slope, a straight line can be drawn through the point with the same slope as the curve at that point. If it is done exactly right, the straight line will have the same slope as the curve, and is called a tangent. But there is no way to know (without calculus) whether the tangent is exactly right, and our eyes are not accurate enough to be certain whether it is exact or simply very close.

paragraphs: What Newton and Leibniz found was a way to work out the slope (or the speed in the distance example) exactly, by using simple and logical rules. They divided the curve into an infinite number of very small pieces. They then chose points on either side of the point they were interested in and worked out tangents at each. As the points moved closer together towards the point they were interested in, the slope "approached" a particular value as the tangents approached the real slope of the curve. They said that this particular value it approached was the actual slope.

paragraphs: Let's say we have a function "y" = f("x"). f is short for function, so this equation means "y is a function of x". This tells us that how high y is on the vertical axis depends on what x (the horizontal axis) is at that time. For example, with the equation "y" = "x"², we know that if "x" is 1, then "y" will be 1; if "x" is 3, then "y" will be 9; if "x" is 20, then "y" will be 400.

paragraphs: Choose a point A on the curve, and call its horizontal position "x". Then choose another point B on the curve which is a little bit farther across than A, and call its horizontal position "x + h". It does not matter how much "h" is; it is a very small number.

paragraphs: So when we go from point A to point B, the vertical position has gone from f("x") to f("x + h"), and the horizontal position has gone from "x" to "x + h". Now, remember that the slope is how much it goes up divided by how much it goes across. So the slope will be:

paragraphs: If you bring B closer and closer to A – which means "h" gets closer and closer to 0 – then we get closer to knowing what the slope is "at" the point A.

paragraphs: Now let's go back to "y" = "x"². The slope of this can be determined as follows:

paragraphs: Applying the binomial theorem which states in part that formula_4, we can reduce the expression to:

paragraphs: So we know without having to draw any tangent lines that at any point on the curve "f(x)" = "x"², the derivative "f'(x)" (marked with an apostrophe) will be 2"x" at any point. This process of working out a slope using limits is called differentiation, or finding the derivative.

paragraphs: Leibniz came to the same result, but called h "dx", which means "a tiny amount of x". He called the resulting change in f(x) "dy", which means "a tiny amount of y". Leibniz's notation is used by more books because it is easy to understand, when the equations become more complicated. In Leibniz notation:

paragraphs: Using the above system, mathematicians have worked out rules which work all the time, no matter which function is being looked at. (Note: here, formula_7 and formula_8 are both functions of formula_9)


title: Socialist country

paragraphs: A socialist country is a sovereign state in which everyone in society equally owns the factors of production. The peoples' ownership comes through a democratically elected government, through a cooperative, or through a public corporation in which every member of society owns shares.

paragraphs: The four factors of production are labor, capital goods, natural resources and entrepreneurship.

paragraphs: In a socialist country, people account for individual needs and social needs. The resources of the country go to both types of needs. Social needs include things like education, healthcare, defense, transportation and the preservation of natural resources, as well as caring for people who can't contribute to production (such as children, the elderly and the disabled).

paragraphs: Everyone in a socialist society receives a share of the production based on his or her contribution (except in the cases of people who cannot contribute, such as children, the elderly and the disabled). If a person wishes to earn more money in a socialist society, he or she can work more hours or change jobs.

paragraphs: Contrary to popular belief in some circles, Nazis were not socialists and under Adolf Hitler, Germany was not a socialist country.

paragraphs: While no country has implemented 100 percent socialism, the most socialist countries in the world include:

paragraphs: A socialist country is vastly different from countries that practice capitalism and communism.


title: Hamster

paragraphs: Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 25 species in six or seven genera. They have become established as popular small house pets. They are a bit like a mouse. Wild hamsters live in the desert, but people all over the world keep domesticated hamsters as pets.

paragraphs: In the wild, hamsters are crepuscular and stay underground during the day. They feed on seeds, fruits, and vegetation, and occasionally eat burrowing insects. Hamsters are distinguished by their large cheek pouches, and relatively short tail. They use their long cheek pouches (extending to their shoulders) to carry food back to their burrows.

paragraphs: There are six main types of hamsters: the Syrian hamster (the kind most people have as pets), winter whites, campbells, the Russian dwarf hamster (a hybrid of winter white and campbell hamsters), winter whites and campbells are two type of Russian (

paragraphs: despite what many pet shops say), the Chinese hamster, and the Roborovski hamster. The Chinese hamster has a long tail. All Syrian hamsters are the descendants of 12 baby hamsters found in Syria in 1930.

paragraphs: Pet hamsters like to live in cages with wood shavings or recycled newspaper (only if non-toxic). Fluffy bedding is dangerous for hamsters. Plain toilet paper is also a cheap, safe option, but not straw as it is very dry and they may choke on it. Hamsters eat mostly hamster food sold at a pet shop, but they also eat almost any vegetables and fruits in very tiny portions. Hamsters store food in natural pouches in the sides of their mouths.

paragraphs: Because they are rodents, Hamster incisors grow constantly. They need wooden blocks and hard food to prevent the teeth from growing too much. Most hamsters also have a wheel to run on for exercise. A 6 inch (15 cm) wheel is recommended for most dwarf hamsters, and at least an eight-inch (20 cm) wheel for Syrians. Some people get other kinds of exercise equipment for their hamsters, like a "hamster ball" in which the hamster can roll around the floor, or a long network of tubes with air holes for it to crawl through. They should live in an aquarium (without water) or cage. Hamsters are not recommended for young children.


title: Watch

paragraphs: A watch is a small clock carried or worn by a person. It makes it easy to see the time. It is also a fashion accessory for men and women, and expensive watches are designed for this purpose. A watch may be one of the few accessories worn by a man.

paragraphs: A wristwatch is designed to be worn on a wrist, attached by a strap or other type of bracelet. A pocket watch is to be carried in a pocket. There are other variations. Nurses often wear a watch attached to the front of their uniform. It hangs down from a short strap: when lifted by the user it is right side up.

paragraphs: A wrist watch has the advantage of being portable in comparison to traditional watches.

paragraphs: Watches evolved in the 17th century from spring-powered clocks, which appeared as early as the 14th century. In 1524, Peter Henlein created the first pocket watch.

paragraphs: The first watches were strictly mechanical, driven by clockwork.

paragraphs: As technology developed, mechanical watches were largely replaced by vibrating quartz crystals, producing accurately timed electronic pulses. Some watches use radio technology to correct the time and date. The first digital electronic watch was developed in 1970.

paragraphs: Electronic movements, also known as quartz movements, have few or no moving parts, except a quartz crystal which is made to vibrate by the piezoelectric effect. A varying electric voltage is applied to the crystal, which responds by changing its shape so it works as an oscillator. It resonates at a stable frequency, which paces a timekeeping mechanism. Most quartz movements are primarily electronic but are geared to drive mechanical hands on the face of the watch to give a traditional analog display of the time. Most consumers prefer this.

paragraphs: Some watches are smartwatches, mobile devices similar to smartphones but smaller.


title: Ed Gein

paragraphs: Edward Theodore "Ed" Gein (August 27, 1906 - July 26, 1984) was not an American serial killer. Gein was found guilty of only two murders. Gein is considered by many to be even more well known because of several movies that were based in part on him. He was also known as The Butcher of Plainfield, The Plainfield Butcher, The Mad Butcher and The Plainfield Ghoul.

paragraphs: Ed Gein and his brother Henry were raised by their mother on their 160-acre farm near Plainfield, Wisconsin. She was a very religious woman and was very protective about her boys. She kept them away from women and busy with farm work.

paragraphs: His alcoholic father died in 1940. A few years later his brother Henry died on May 16, 1944, officially while fighting a grass fire (though there was evidence he was murdered by Ed). Soon after that, his mother had her first stroke. In 1945 she had her second stroke and died. Ed was left alone.

paragraphs: Gein then closed off the upstairs and the parlour of the house as well as his mother’s bedroom. He lived in the one other bedroom, kitchen and shed of the large house. He stopped working the farm because a government program paid him a subsidy. He also made money by doing small jobs for people in the area.

paragraphs: Ed read books on human anatomy and Nazi concentration camp experiments. He was very interested in it all, especially the female anatomy. His grave robbing began in 1947. One day he saw a newspaper article of a woman who had been buried that day. The first corpse came from a grave very near the grave of Gein’s mother.[Indeed, one report is that among the first grave robbing incidents was that of his own mother ]

paragraphs: Gein continued to do this for the next ten years. He would check the newspaper often for fresh bodies. He always went to the graveyard at the time of a full moon. Gein would take the whole female corpse or just the parts he wanted, put the dirt back in the grave and take home what he took from the grave.

paragraphs: Gein did many strange things with the dead bodies. He would build objects from the bones and skin. The organs would be put into the refrigerator to eat later. It was claimed that he also had sex with the bodies ("necrophilia"), a charge he denied because they "smelled too bad".

paragraphs: Gein did not tell anyone that he wanted to become a woman himself. This was the reason he had studied anatomy. He thought about the possibilities of an operation which would change his sex. He wanted to study a female corpse and learn more about its anatomy. The closest he would get to changing his sex was dressing up in his full woman bodysuit. This bodysuit was made entirely of human skin. It completely covered his body and included a mask and breasts.

paragraphs: Later, Gein thought that fresher bodies would be better for his collection, and turned to murder.

paragraphs: Ed Gein’s first victim was Mary Hogan, a 51-year-old divorcee and the owner of a local tavern in Pine Grove, six miles from his home. On the afternoon of December 8, 1954, he shot her in the head with his 32-caliber revolver. He put her body in his pickup truck and took her back to his shed.

paragraphs: A customer who dropped into the tavern found the place deserted, and a large bloodstain on the floor. A spent .32 cartridge lay near it. Bloodstains ran out the back door and into the parking lot, where they halted beside tire tracks that looked like those of a pickup truck. It looked as if Mary Hogan had been shot and taken away.

paragraphs: Police were not able to learn anything about what happened to her. A few weeks later, a sawmill owner named Elmo Ueeck talked to Gein about it. Gein replied, "She isn’t missing, she’s at the farm right now." Ueeck did not ask him what he meant by that.

paragraphs: There may have been other victims in the years that followed. Nothing is known for certain about Gein until November 16, 1957 when he shot & killed Bernice Worden in her store in Plainfield. He used a .22 rifle from a rack in the store and his own bullet which he carried with him. He then locked the store and took the body home in the store’s truck. Gein also took the cash register. He later explained that he did not take it to commit robbery. He wanted to see how it worked and planned to return it later.

paragraphs: Bernice Worden’s son, Frank, often worked with her in the store. That morning he had gone deer hunting. When he got back, he saw that the store was closed with the lights still on and his mother was missing. He also saw that the cash register was gone and there was blood on the floor.

paragraphs: Frank Worden talked to the sheriff, Art Schley and told him what he had seen. He checked the record of sales made that morning. One of them was for half a gallon of antifreeze. Worden remembered that Ed Gein had stopped by the night before at closing time. He had said that he would be back the next morning for antifreeze. Ed had also asked Worden if he was going hunting the next day.

paragraphs: With the cash register missing, he thought that Gein had planned a robbery once he learned Frank would not be there. Worden told this to the sheriff. The sheriff and captain Lloyd Schoephoester went to the farm, seven miles outside Plainfield.

paragraphs: The house was dark and Ed Gein was not there when the police arrived. They drove to a store where Gein usually bought groceries where they found Gein, who was just about to leave in his truck.

paragraphs: The sheriff stopped him and asked him to get into the police car for questioning. Sheriff Schley had not said anything about Bernice Worden’s death before Gein said that he thought someone had tried to frame him for the death, at which point Schley arrested Gein.

paragraphs: Sheriff Schley & Captain Schoephoester went back to Gein's house with other officers. The doors to the house were locked, but the door to the shed behind the house was not. Inside they found a naked corpse of a woman hanging upside down from a crossbeam. The legs were spread wide apart and there was a long cut from the genitals almost to the throat. The throat and head were missing. The genitals and the anus were also missing. Bernice Worden had been cut open & dressed out like a deer.

paragraphs: There was no electricity in the dark house. They had to search it with oil lamps, lanterns, and flashlights. The place looked like it had not been clean in years. The few rooms that were not nailed shut were full of books, old papers, magazines, utensils, tin cans, cartons and other junk.

paragraphs: These artifacts were photographed at the state crime laboratory and then destroyed.

paragraphs: When questioned, Gein told investigators that between 1947 and 1952, he made as many as 40 nocturnal visits to three local graveyards to exhume recently buried bodies while he was in a "daze-like" state. On about 30 of those visits, he said he came out of the daze while in the cemetery, left the grave in good order, and returned home empty-handed. On the other occasions, he dug up the graves of recently buried middle-aged women he thought resembled his mother and took the bodies home, where he tanned their skins to make his paraphernalia.

paragraphs: Gein admitted to stealing from nine graves of deceased women from two [three{?} ] local cemeteries and led investigators to their locations. Because authorities were uncertain as to whether the slight Gein was capable of single-handedly digging up a grave during a single evening, they deceided to exhume test graves. Allan Wilimovsky of the state crime laboratory participated in opening three test graves identified by Gein. The caskets were inside wooden boxes; the top boards ran crossways (not lengthwise). The tops of the boxes were about two feet (60 cm) below the surface in sandy soil. Gein had robbed the graves soon after the funerals while the graves were not completed. They were found as Gein described: One casket was empty, one Gein had failed to open when he lost his pry bar, and most of the body was gone from the third, but Gein had returned rings and some body parts thus apparently corroborating Gein's confession.

paragraphs: Besides the remains of Worden from the shed, the remains of Mary Hogan were the only other identified remains found in Geins House. The bodies of 15 different women had been used to create Gein’s trophies. It is also said that sometimes Gein brought gifts of fresh venison to his neighbours but Gein said he had never shot a deer in his life.

paragraphs: In November 1957 burned remains of at least one woman were found in an ash pit behind Gein's house; the largest bone piece was three inches long.<br>Remains of another woman were found in a garbage pit

paragraphs: In 1995 on the site of the old Gein farm remains of 10 females and 1 male were found in an old well

paragraphs: It is not known for certain if there were other murders committed by Gein beyond the known deaths of Hogan and Worden-after his arrest a search of the house revealed newspaper clippings of murders of Wisconsin women whose killers had not been caught.

paragraphs: Between 1947 and 1957 there were several "disappearences" of persons at or near Plainfield, Wisconson:

paragraphs: A 16-year-old youth, whose parents were friends of Gein and who attended ball games and movies with him, reported that Gein kept shrunken heads in his house, which Gein had described as relics from the Philippines, sent by a cousin who had served on the islands during World War II. Upon investigation by the police, these were determined to be human facial skins, carefully peeled from corpses and used by Gein as masks.

paragraphs: During questioning, Waushara County sheriff Art Schley reportedly assaulted Gein by banging his head and face into a brick wall. As a result, Gein's initial confession was ruled inadmissible. Schley died of heart failure at age 43 in 1968, before Gein's trial. Many who knew Schley said he was traumatized by the horror of Gein's crimes, and this, along with the fear of having to testify (especially about assaulting Gein), caused his death. One of his friends said: "He was a victim of Ed Gein as surely as if he had butchered him."

paragraphs: Gein was sent to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally insane. He was proven insane. The doctors thought that he loved his mother but he hated her, so that is why he killed older women. It is said that Mary Hogan looked similar to his mother.

paragraphs: Gein said he was not a cannibal or necrophiliac. He did admit grave robbing.

paragraphs: Many people became interested because of the true nature of the crime. Thousands of people drove to Plainfield to look at the 'murder farm'. Eventually the place was burned down by person or persons unknown March 20, 1958 Plainfield citizens felt the old farmhouse was a place of evil. After the arson, an auction was held of the relics of the farm-the highest item sold was Gein's Ford "death car"

paragraphs: At Christmas, 1957, Gein was judged insane. In 1968, Gein was found guilty but legally insane of the murder of Worden, was committed to Waupan State Hospital for the rest of his life. Gein died of cancer in Madison, Wisconsin on July 26, 1984, at the age of 78. He was buried in Plainfield next to the graves of his family.

paragraphs: Because of the true nature of Gein's crimes, Hollywood had a lot of ideas to work on.

paragraphs: The movie "Psycho" was based on the Robert Bloch book and made into a Hitchcock movie. Bloch got most of the ideas for "Psycho" from Gein's life. With the overpowering mother and horror of the movie, it was one of the first of a kind.

paragraphs: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was based in some parts on Gein. The story is about a group of teenagers who go to a horror house. The people that live in the house are a family of strange homicidal cannibals who also like grave robbing and building furniture made of bones and skulls. The lead bad guy is called ‘Leatherface’. Leatherface likes chasing teens around with his chainsaw and wearing a mask made from the faces of his victims. The 1990 episode "The Long Road Home" of the fantasy horror series "Friday the The 13th [The Series]" is in homage to this movie.

paragraphs: The Academy Award-winning movie "The Silence of the Lambs" also uses part of Gein's life. It is about an FBI agent who is tracking down a serial killer. To find him she must get the help of an intelligent cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The serial killer she is trying to catch is called ‘Buffalo Bill’. He likes to kill women and make clothes of their skin. He also wants to be a woman and made a skin costume like that of Gein.


title: Easter

paragraphs: Easter, also called Resurrection Day and Pascha, is a Christian holiday celebrating Jesus Christ returning from the dead. Christians believe that it is the holiest day in the year. Some people who are not Christians celebrate it as a cultural holiday.

paragraphs: Easter is not held on the same date every year. This is called a "moveable feast". Currently all Christian churches agree on how the date is calculated. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon which is on or after March 21st. This means it is celebrated in March or April. It can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 11. Western churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, use the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern churches, like the Eastern Orthodox Church, use the Julian calendar. Because of this, the date of Easter celebrations is different for these two types of churches even though the way they calculate the date is similar. In 2015 Easter was celebrated on April 5 for both the Gregorian calendar and Julian calendar. In 2019 Easter was celebrated on the 21st of April.

paragraphs: The word "Easter" is derived from "Eastra", the name of the ancient German Goddess of Spring. Her festival occurred at the vernal equinox. The French word for Easter, "Pâcques", comes from the Greek word for Passover, which is the Jewish holiday celebrated at about the same time of the year.

paragraphs: Jesus died roughly 2000 years ago in a city called Jerusalem (most of Jerusalem is in the modern country of Israel). The people who killed him did so because they believed that he was causing trouble for the government and because he was claiming to be the Messiah. When they crucified him (meaning they nailed him to a cross), they even hung a sign over his head, which said, "King of the Jews." The day he was crucified is known by Christians as Good Friday.

paragraphs: The New Testament states that on the Sunday after Jesus was killed, his body was no longer in the tomb where he was laid. Later, Jesus is said to have appeared to over 500 people and preached to them. The New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus is what Christianity is based on. The resurrection made people believe that Jesus was the powerful Son of God. It is also spoken of as proof that God will judge the world fairly. Christians believe that God has given Christians "a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". Christians believe that through faith in God they are spiritually made alive with Jesus so that they may lead a new life.

paragraphs: Easter is celebrated in several ways in northern Europe and the United States. Most of these celebrations have nothing to do with the Christian meaning of the holiday. These celebrations are related more to the pagan festivals of ancient Germany. Children are given baskets to fill with candy. Eggs are decorated and hidden for children to find that the "Easter Bunny" supposedly laid. People wear new clothes and go to church. Greeting cards are exchanged. An Easter Egg Roll is held on the lawn of the White House on the day after Easter. Small leafless trees or branches are carried indoors and decorated with colored eggs, paper trims, and lights. Some shopping malls offer children a chance to visit with an adult costumed as the Easter Bunny. Forced tulips, hyacinths and lilies are given as gifts. Week-long vacations are taken following Easter Day, giving families the chance to visit with distant relatives. In America, many families leave the cold of northern states to visit amusement parks or sunny beaches in the south. Spring break for American high school and college students usually occurs about Easter time.


title: Agnosticism

paragraphs: Agnosticism is the philosophical view that it is unknown (or even, unknowable) whether any deities (god or gods) exist or not. Some people who call themselves "agnostic" say that it is not possible for anyone ever to know if there are any deities or not. Other agnostics, though, say only that they themselves currently do not know if there are any deities.

paragraphs: Thomas Henry Huxley, the English biologist, coined the word "agnostic" in 1869. In 1889 he wrote "Agnosticism... is not a creed, but a method... the fundamental axiom of modern science... In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable".

paragraphs: There are several different kinds of agnosticism:

paragraphs: People often have difficulty telling agnosticism and atheism apart. Atheists do not believe in the existence of deities, and some say that they are sure that no deity exists. Some (perhaps most) atheists, though, say that it is up to theists (people who believe in a deity) to give the evidence for a god or to show why someone should believe in a god. They state that there is neither enough evidence nor a strong enough argument to believe any gods exist, and so they reject belief that any exist. While agnostics think we cannot "know for sure" whether any deities exist, some agnostics do "believe" at least one deity exists. These people are both agnostic and theistic—they believe at least one deity exists, but do not claim to know that to be true. Some people are both atheist and agnostic—they reject belief in any deities without claiming to know that deities do not exist. Some agnostics just cannot themselves decide whether to believe any deities exist or not.


title: Universal Media Disc

paragraphs: "UMD can also mean University of Maryland."

paragraphs: The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc made by Sony for their PlayStation Portable handheld console. It can hold up to 900 megabytes (single layer) or 1.8 gigabytes (double layer) of data. The disc can store games, music, and video, along with updates for the PSP. It is the first optical disc format to be used for a handheld video game system. To prevent illegal copying, Sony has not made blank discs available for sale. This disc is not used with any other devices. The UMD is very fragile and can be broken from misuse.

paragraphs: The primary use for UMD discs is for a storage medium for PSP games, but the format is also used for the storage of movies.

paragraphs: Even though with the release of the PSP Go, most new games continue to be made via UMD, and, aside from those published by SCE, not all have been released on the PSN.