title: Walpurgis Night

paragraphs: Walpurgis Night ("Valborgsmässoafton" in Swedish, "Vappu" in Finnish, "Volbriöö" in Estonian, "Valpurģu nakts" or "Valpurģi" in Latvian, "Walpurgisnacht" in German), "Čarodějnice" in Czech is a holiday celebrated on April 30 or May 1, in Finland, Sweden, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Estonia, Latvia and Germany.

paragraphs: The festival is named after Saint Walburga (known in Scandinavia as "Valborg"; alternative forms are "Walpurgis", "Wealdburg", or "Valderburger"), born in Wessex in 710 a niece of Saint Boniface. According to legend, she was a daughter to the Saxon prince St. Richard. Together with her brothers she travelled to Württemberg, Germany where she became a nun and lived in the convent of Heidenheim, which was founded by her brother Wunibald. Walburga died on 25 February 779 and that day still carries her name in the Catholic calendar. However she was not made a saint until 1 May in the same year, and that day carries her name in the Swedish calendar.

paragraphs: Historically the Walpurgisnacht is derived from Pagan spring customs, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night. Viking fertility celebrations took place around April 30 and due to Walburga being declared a saint at that time of year, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walburga was worshipped in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration.

paragraphs: In Germany, Walpurgisnacht, the night from April 30 to May 1, is the night when allegedly the witches hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of Spring. When the travel to that mountain is too far, they may also chose another hill in the region they live.

paragraphs: ""Walpurgis Night (in German folklore) the night of April 30 (May Day's eve), when witches meet on the Brocken mountain and hold revels with their Gods...""

paragraphs: ""Brocken the highest of the Harz Mountains of north central Germany. It is noted for the phenomenon of the Brocken spectre and for witches' revels which reputably took place there on Walpurgis night.

paragraphs: The Brocken Spectre is a magnified shadow of an observer, typically surrounded by rainbow-like bands, thrown onto a bank of cloud in high mountain areas when the sun is low. The phenomenon was first reported on the Brocken.""


title: Bird flu

paragraphs: Bird flu (also called avian influenza, avian flu, bird influenza, or grippe of the birds), is an illness caused by a virus. The virus, called "influenza A" or "type A", usually lives in birds, but sometimes infects mammals, including humans. It is called influenza when it infects humans.

paragraphs: There are many types of influenza A, which was first found in a bird in Italy in 1878. Most types have weak symptoms, such as breathing problems, similar to the common cold.

paragraphs: But some types kill birds, and a few kill humans and other mammals. One type of bird flu, called "Spanish flu", killed 50 to 100 million people in 1918/1920. Another type, called "Asian Flu" killed one million in 1957, and another one, called "Hong Kong Flu", also killed one million people in 1968.

paragraphs: A subtype, called "H5N1", killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997, but did not kill again until 2003, this time in China. Until the middle of 2005, it was primarily found in southeast Asia but since then has spread to parts of Africa and Europe. It has killed tens of millions of birds and resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of millions of other birds to limit its spread. So far it is mostly a bird disease and rarely infects humans. The concern about H5N1 is that it is constantly evolving at a very fast rate and could create a human flu pandemic that could kill many millions of people. Governments around the world are spending billions of dollars to deal with this problem: studying H5N1, creating vaccines, conducting pandemic practice exercises, stockpiling useful flu medication, and many other important activities.


title: Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

paragraphs: The "Jyllands-Posten" Muhammad cartoons controversy is a controversy about a series of cartoons. They were first published in a Danish newspaper. The publication led to an outcry, and sparked violent protests in the Islamic world, with many people dying.

paragraphs: The crisis began after cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad were published in the Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" on September 30, 2005. Danish Muslim organizations staged protests in response. As the controversy has grown, some or all of the cartoons have been reprinted in newspapers in more than fifty other countries. The protests got worse when fake cartoons were released.

paragraphs: One of the cartoons showed Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Some people thought this was saying that all Muslims are terrorists. But other cartoons made fun of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. One insulted the editors of the newspaper, by using the language Farsi.

paragraphs: Critics claims that the cartoons are culturally insulting, Islamophobic, blasphemous, and intended to humiliate a "marginalized" minority. However, supporters of the cartoons claim they illustrate an important issue and their publication exercises the right of free speech. They have also claimed that similar cartoons are made relative to other religions, arguing that Islam and its followers have not been targeted in a discriminatory way.


title: Blasphemy

paragraphs: Blasphemy is a word that means "speaking badly about a religion", or "insulting a god". Some religions see blasphemy as a religious crime. Many countries witha state religion have laws that make blasphemy a crime. For example, blasphemy can be punished with the death penalty in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. In other countries, the punishment for the crime is a fine, or imprisonment.

paragraphs: Some countries do not have laws against blasphemy. For example, after the French Revolution, France made blasphemy legal to make sure people would have freedom of religion and the freedom of the press.

paragraphs: The United States, Canada, and many European countries, have laws to protect people who speak badly about religion. Sometimes people do this in a satirical way, like with a movie that makes fun of a religion. In these countries, profanity is often protected by freedom of speech as well.


title: Brie

paragraphs: Brie is a type of soft cheese with a yellowish interior and a white layer (the "rind") on the outside of the cheese. The rind is eaten as well as the inside of this cheese. Like other cheeses, Brie is a dairy product made from cows' milk. Brie cheese may be served with fruit as a dessert at the end of a meal, or with a relish.

paragraphs: The cheese is sometimes served slightly melted or baked, in a round, lidded ceramic dish, and topped with nuts or fruit, or both.

paragraphs: Brie is a French cheese, and protected by AOC ("Appellation d'origine contrôlée"). This means only this cheese from this region (near Paris) can properly call itself "brie". This is ignored by some countries outside Europe, but the system of AOC is used in the wine business, so many parts of the world do honour it, and have similar arrangements.

paragraphs: The milk of soft cheeses ("à pate molle" in French) is not heated during the production of the cheese. Talleyrand said about this kind of cheese that it was the "king of cheeses". He said that in the 19th century. This kind of cheese has been made for at least 1000 years.

paragraphs: In Europe this cheese is usually not treated chemically, so it might change in consistency or color. It will go bad if it is not kept cool. If that means it is kept in a refrigerator, note that it should not be eaten that cold. It is best eaten when it is somewhat below normal room temperature. In most countries, brie-style cheeses are made with Pasteurized milk.

paragraphs: Brie can be aged, that is, carefully treated for up to a year. Then it has a darker colour and a stronger taste. This is rarely seen outside of France.

paragraphs: Cheeses are made into round loaves, of about 36 cm in diameter. The cheeses then weight about 2.5 kilograms. It is best tasted from April to October, after a ripening period of 8 to 10 weeks. About 2% of the production occurs on farms.

paragraphs: The Brie de Melun is smaller than the Brie de Meaux, but more salt is added to it. The ripening period is 10 weeks. It is best consumed April to September, but it can be found March to November, in some locations. About 5% of production occurs on farms.

paragraphs: When people buy Brie, they should make sure that it has the following traits:


title: Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

paragraphs: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (February 2, 1754 - May 17, 1838) was a French diplomat.

paragraphs: He was a bishop and worked successfully for Louis XVI. He changed sides and served the French Revolution and Napoleon I. When Napoleon started losing his wars, Talleyrand changed sides again and served Louis XVIII. He represented France at the Congress of Vienna. He changed sides once more and served Louis Philippe I. Since the beginning of the 19th century he was known simply as "Talleyrand". He is widely seen as one of the most versatile and influential diplomats in European history. He was known to accept bribes from other European powers, especially while serving under Napoleon.


title: Pasteurization

paragraphs: Pasteurization (or pasteurisation) is a process of heat processing a liquid or a food to kill pathogenic bacteria to make the food safe to eat. It involves heating the food to kill most harmful microorganisms. Producers pasteurize dairy and other foods to make them safe to eat. The process is named after Louis Pasteur. He was the first person to learn how to do it successfully. The first pasteurization was done by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard on 20 April 1862.

paragraphs: Unlike sterilization, pasteurization is not intended to kill all microorganisms in the food. Instead, pasteurization gets a "log reduction" in the number of microorganisms. It brings their number down so they are unlikely to cause disease if the product is kept in the refrigerator and consumed before its sell-by date. Commercial sterilization of food is not common, because it tends to destroy the flavour of the food.

paragraphs: Pasteurization is usually done to milk, which was first suggested by Franz von Soxhlet in 1886. There are two popular ways to pasteurize milk. First, high temperature/short time (HTST), and second, ultra-high temperature (UHT). HTST is the most common method. Milk only labeled "pasteurized" (or "past") is usually treated with the HTST method, whereas milk labelled "ultra-pasteurized" or "UHT" must be treated with the UHT method. HTST is when the milk is at a temperature of 72 degrees Celsius (or 161.5 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least 15 seconds. UHT is when the milk is at a temperature of 138 °C or 280 °F for at least two seconds.

paragraphs: Pasteurization rules are usually set by national food safety agencies (like the USDA in the United States and the Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom). These agencies say milk has to be HTST pasteurized to have the "pasteurized" label. There are different rules for different dairy products, depending on the fat content and what they will be used for. For example, the pasteurization rules for cream are different than the rules for fluid milk, and the standards for pasteurizing cheese are designed to keep the phosphatase enzyme fresh, which helps in making the cheese.

paragraphs: HTST pasteurized milk normally has a refrigerated shelf life of two or three weeks, but ultra pasteurized milk can last much longer when refrigerated, sometimes two or three months. When UHT pasteurization is mixed with safe handling and container technology, it can even be stored unrefrigerated for even longer periods of time.

paragraphs: In addition to the standard HTST and UHT pasteurization standards, there are other lesser-known pasteurization techniques. The first technique, called "batch pasteurization", involves heating large batches of milk to a lower temperature, typically . The other technique is called higher-heat/shorter time (HHST), and it lies somewhere between HTST and UHT in terms of time and temperature. Pasteurization causes some irreversible and some temporary denaturization of the proteins in milk.

paragraphs: In most legislations, double pasteurization is not allowed. A heat treatment at a lower temperature or for a shorter time is sometimes performed. Possibly, such milk could be called "raw milk" or, confusingly, "unpasteurized milk". It cannot be called "pasteurized", even though a significant number of pathogens are destroyed during the process.

paragraphs: In recent years, there has been some consumer interest in raw milk products, due to perceived health benefits. Advocates of raw milk maintain, correctly, that some components survive in milk that has not been pasteurized. Specifically, raw milk contains immunoglobulins and the enzymes lipase and phosphatase, which are inactivated by heat. Raw milk also contains vitamin B6 of which up to 20% may be lost on heat treatment. It is also claimed to contain beneficial bacteria which aid digestion and boost immunity.

paragraphs: Commercial distribution of packaged raw milk is not allowed in most US states.

paragraphs: Some doctors (and some raw milk advocates) acknowledge that certain people should not drink raw milk, including pregnant or breast-feeding mothers, those undergoing immunosuppression treatment for cancer, organ transplant, or autoimmune diseases; and those who are immunocompromised due to medical conditions such as AIDS.

paragraphs: In fact, some doctors suggest that babies and breast-feeding mothers avoid all but UHT pasteurized dairy products.

paragraphs: In Africa, it is common to boil milk whenever it is harvested. This intense heating greatly changes the flavor of milk, which the people in Africa are accustomed to.

paragraphs: Milk pasteurization standards have been subject to increasing scrutiny in recent years, due to the discovery of pathogens that are both widespread and heat resistant (able to survive pasteurization in significant numbers). Researchers have developed more sensitive diagnostics, such as real-time PCR and improved culture methods, that have enabled them to identify pathogens in pasteurized milk.

paragraphs: One bacterium in particular, the organism "Mycobacterium avium" subspecies "paratuberculosis" (MAP), which causes Johne's disease in cattle and is suspected of causing at least some Crohn's disease in humans, has been found to survive pasteurization in retail milk in the U.S., the U.K., Greece, and the Czech Republic. The food safety authorities in the U.K. have decided to re-evaluate pasteurization standards in light of the MAP results and other evidence of harmful, pasteurization-resistant pathogens.

paragraphs: The USDA (which is responsible for setting pasteurization standards in the U.S.) has not re-evaluated their position on pasteurization adequacy. They do not dispute the studies, which are at this point accepted by the scientific community, but maintain that the presence of MAP in retail pasteurized milk must be due to post-pasteurization contamination. However, some researchers within the FDA, which is responsible for food safety in the U.S., have begun pushing for a re-evaluation of these results. There is a small but growing body of criticism directed at these agencies by Crohn's disease sufferers, scientists, and doctors. Some have suggested that the U.S. dairy industry has been successful in suppressing the agencies' response to a potential health crisis, for fear of consumer panic which would lead to a decrease in milk consumption. It is worth noting that while MAP has not been definitely proven to be harmful in humans, all other mycobacteria are pathogenic, and it has been definitively shown to cause disease in cattle and other ruminants.

paragraphs: A newer method called flash pasteurization involves shorter exposure to higher temperatures, and is claimed to be better for preserving color and taste in some products.

paragraphs: The term cold pasteurization is used sometimes for the use of ionizing radiation (see food irradiation) or other means (e.g. chemical) to kill bacteria in food. Food irradiation is also sometimes called "electronic pasteurization".


title: Soft cheese

paragraphs: Soft cheese (in French: "Fromage à pate molle") is cheese that does not get heated during production.

paragraphs: An example of soft cheese would be Brie.


title: Cult

paragraphs: A cult is a group of people who have a religion or a set of beliefs. In modern times the term "cult" usually does not mean a mainstream religion, but a group set up "in opposition to a centre of established authority". New Age religions were often called cults because they were thought to be deviant social movements.

paragraphs: The word cult originally meant a system of ritual practices. It was first used in the early 17th century to mean homage paid to a divinity. It came from an ancient Latin word "cultus" meaning "worship".

paragraphs: A cult is often a small, newly started religious movement. Cults have beliefs or practices that many people think of as being odd, or that have practices that most people in the world do not practice. More than that, cults have often been led by people who are not elected, and control the group according to their own wishes. Some cult leaders have been dangerous criminals (Charles Manson; Peoples Temple) or even lunatics. Killings and mass suicides have occurred in cults (Order of the Solar Temple; Heaven's Gate). Of course, a "suicide" enforced by armed guards carrying sub-machine guns (Peoples Temple; Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God) is not a simple suicide as generally understood. It is at least an assisted and coerced suicide.

paragraphs: Whether a religious group is or is not a cult can be a hard question to answer. What is at one point in time considered a cult may later be accepted as a religion and what at one point of time is considered an accepted religion may later become a cult.

paragraphs: Some form of persuasion or mind control can be used to recruit and maintain members. The objective is to prevent the faithful from thinking critically, and making choices in their own best interest.

paragraphs: The following methods have been used in some or all cults studied:

paragraphs: This view is disputed by some. "Society for the Scientific Study of Religion" stated in 1990 that there was not sufficient research for a consensus, and that "one should not automatically equate the techniques involved in the process of physical coercion and control with those of nonphysical coercion and control".

paragraphs: An oft-repeated criticism of cults is that their management style is dictatorial and exploitative. The following is one example:

paragraphs: Ownership of weapons and violence has occurred in some cults. The Branch Davidians under the direction of David Koresh used violence against Federal agencies, with tragic results for both sides. The later FBI report reveals the extent of their arms stockpile.

paragraphs: The People's Temple included guards armed with submachine guns. These guards killed the visiting U.S. Congressman Ryan, and stood around the believers as they committed suicide. Members of the Manson Family were convicted of several murders.


title: The Cult

paragraphs: The Cult are a English rock band. They formed in 1982 under the name Death Cult and later renamed to Southern Death Cult in 1983, then was again renamed to their current name The Cult.


title: James A. Michener

paragraphs: James Albert Michener (February 3, 1907 - October 16, 1997) was an American writer. His books include "Tales of the South Pacific", "Hawaii", "The Drifters", "Texas", and "Poland". Most of his 40 books are very large sagas. They are about the lives of many generations in a particular place. His non-fiction writings include the 1992 book "The World is My Home" and "Sports in America".

paragraphs: Michener wrote that he did not know who his parents were or exactly when and where he was born. He was raised by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Some have argued that Mabel was his birth mother. He graduated from Swarthmore College, where he played basketball, in 1929. He later studied at the Colorado State Teachers College. He taught there for several years. He also taught at Harvard University.

paragraphs: His writing career began during World War II. He was assigned to the South Pacific Ocean as a naval historian. He used his time there as the basis for "Tales of the South Pacific", his first book. This book was the basis for the musical "South Pacific".

paragraphs: Michener met his wife Mari while in Japan. His novel "Sayonara" is autobiographical.

paragraphs: On January 10, 1977, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gerald R. Ford.

paragraphs: In his final years, he lived in Austin, Texas, where he died of kidney failure on October 16, 1997 at the age of 90.


title: War of 1812

paragraphs: The War of 1812 was fought between the British Empire and the United States from 1812 to 1815 on land in North America and at sea. The British forces were helped by Canadian militia (volunteers) and Native Americans. This was because British soldiers were busy fighting Napoleon in Europe. In nearly every battle, the British defeated the attacking American forces. In the beginning, the war increased levels of nationalism in both Canada and the United States.

paragraphs: One reason given for Americans declaring war against Great Britain was because the British were harassing American ships. The British were also seizing American sailors at sea and forcing them to serve in the British Navy. This was called Impressment. The numbers of American seamen pressed into British service is not well known and may have been seriously exaggerated. The British were also sponsoring Native American territories in the west to stop the United States from expanding westward. This was the reason that about 10,000 Native Americans fought on the side of the British.

paragraphs: Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, staged a French invasion of Russia in 1812 just as the United States and Britain started the War of 1812.

paragraphs: Fighting began when the United States started to attack the Canadian provinces beginning in 1812. But the British and Canadians successfully defended the borders. In 1813, British and American ships fought in the Battle of Lake Erie. Americans under Oliver Hazard Perry won, giving America control of Lake Erie. American forces raided and burned Toronto, then called York.

paragraphs: In 1814, Napoleon abdicated the French throne. This freed up experienced British troops to be sent to North America. They burned an unfinished Washington D.C. and also attacked Baltimore. During this battle an American lawyer, Francis Scott Key, wrote a poem. The poem was later used to give the words to a new national anthem for the United States: "The Star Spangled Banner." The final battle of the war took place in January of 1815. The British attacked New Orleans and were successfully repulsed by Americans under General Andrew Jackson. Unknown by both sides at the time, the Battle of New Orleans took place after the peace treaty had been signed.

paragraphs: The two countries signed the Treaty of Ghent, which was supposed to end the war, on December 24, 1814, in Belgium. Fighting continued into January 1815 because the combat forces did not know about the treaty. But no great changes took place. The British stopped impressing sailors because the Napoleonic Wars were finished. Most Americans heard of the victory in the Battle of New Orleans before they heard of the treaty. The Federalist Party, which had opposed the war, became disliked and disappeared.

paragraphs: From the British perspective, the War of 1812 was a minor sideshow. The Americans called it their victorious "Second War for Independence". The British remember it as the Americans trying to take advantage of their being involved in a war against the French Empire and pay no attention to American grievances.

paragraphs: In Canada, the War of 1812 was an unwanted war. It concerned the distant capitols of Washington DC and London, not them. In Lower Canada, now Quebec it was considered an Anglo-Saxon war. In Quebec there was little love for the British, but the British had guaranteed their right to speak French. If the Americans took over it was unknown how it would affect them. Choosing the lesser evil, they supported the British. Upper Canada (later part of the Province of Ontario) had been settled by American Loyalists who fled after the Revolutionary war. They had little love of their former countrymen in the US but had become outnumbered by Americans who came North to settle. When the Americans attempted to invade Canada, the Canadian militias were eager to defend their homeland.

paragraphs: In US history, the War of 1812 is the most obscure conflict. The average American remembers very little about the war. Some may remember The Star Spangled Banner, the Burning of Washington or the Battle of New Orleans. But otherwise it is a little understood conflict. The issues are complex. Most scholars would agree it was fought over maritime issues. Since the British Navy was the most powerful in the world at the time, it was easier to attack them on land by invading Canada. Former president Thomas Jefferson predicted the "acquisition of Canada, will be a mere matter of marching."

paragraphs: British who knew about this little war felt they won, no matter what Americans thought. The Canadians kept Canada, so they felt that they won. The Americans felt they won despite failing to take Canada, because they didn't lose what they had, repelled the invasion of Maryland, were free to fight the Indians without British interference, and were not being impressed on the high seas. Of all three, the British are perhaps the happiest because they have completely forgotten about it.


title: Chandigarh

paragraphs: Chandigarh, also called "The Beautiful City", is a city in India. It is a union territory, because it is the capital of two states: Punjab and Haryana. As a territory it does not belong to either state. Before 1 november,1966 it was capital of Punjab, but after formation of Haryana on 1 November, 1966 it become a union territory.There are many tourism places in Chandigarh like Rock garden, Rose garden and Sukhna lake.

paragraphs: Chandigarh came into existence in 1952 when its first stone was laid. It is one of the modern cities of India, designed by a French architect Le Carbusier. It was the dream city of India's first Prime Minister, Sh.Jawahar Lal Nehru.

paragraphs: It is well known for its mixed cultural background and its fast development in the field of Information Technology. It has outlets of many famous multinational companies established here and is emerging as a hub for business development. The territory covers an area of 44 mi² or 114 km², it is bigger than Montserrat but smaller than Jersey. It's also the proposed capital of Khalistan.


title: Convection

paragraphs: Convection is the movement of heat because of the movement of warm matter.

paragraphs: For example, atmospheric circulation moves warm air to cool places, causing wind. Wind, in turn, can enter and cool a room if the window is open. The movement of the clouds, the ocean currents and many types of heaters are examples of convection.

paragraphs: Convection can happen naturally ("natural convection") or because of a moving device ("forced convection").

paragraphs: The fan is a device that produces the movement of the air artificially. The air in this case is moving because of the rotation of the fan. This is an example of "forced convection".

paragraphs: Natural convection happens because a fluid is lighter if is hot and it is heavier if is cold, so if a fluid has a hot part and a cold part, the hot part will naturally move upward and the cold part naturally moves downward. For example, if the water in a pot is hotter near the bottom because of the fire, it moves from the bottom to the surface. At the same time the water near the surface is colder so it moves to the bottom.

paragraphs: Convection currents occur when there are significant differences in temperature between two parts of a fluid. When this happens, hot fluids rise and cold fluids sink. This causes movements or currents in the fluid. Atmospheric circulation, for example, is made by convection currents.


title: Chipmunk

paragraphs: A chipmunk is a small squirrel-like rodent. It is in the Sciuridae family. About twenty-three species fall under this title, with one species in North America.

paragraphs: The name may have originally been spelled "chitmunk" (perhaps from a Native American word meaning "red squirrel"). However, the earliest form comes from the Oxford English Dictionary (in 1842) as "chipmonk". Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck".

paragraphs: Chipmunks are hoarders, meaning they store food for winter.

paragraphs: Chip 'n Dale, two Disney cartoon characters, are famous chipmunks in pop culture. Another such trio is Alvin, Simon and Theodore (created by Ross Bagdasarian).


title: Vicente Mondéjar Piccio

paragraphs: Major General Vicente Mondéjar Piccio (1 March 1927 – 28 April 2015) was a Filipino soldier. He was Chief of the Philippine Air Force during the last years of the dictatorship of Marcos, notably during the 1986 People Power Revolution.


title: Piccio

paragraphs: The Piccio family is a family of Portuguese Jewish origin. The family's name is an Italianisation of the original Portuguese Figo.


title: Donald Duck

paragraphs: Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by Walt Disney. He is a white duck with an yellowish-orange bill and legs. He usually wears a sailor cap, a blue sailor shirt and a black or red bow tie. He first appeared on-screen in "The Wise Little Hen" on 9 June 1934. Donald is Scrooge McDuck's nephew. His girlfriend is Daisy Duck. His nephews are Huey, Dewey and Louie. Donald appeared in animated shorts, comic books, and newspaper comic strips. Donald Duck appears frequently in "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse".

paragraphs: Donald Duck is the third most popular cartoon character of all time, after Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. Donald Duck has had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 2004.


title: Montevideo

paragraphs: Montevideo is the capital and the largest city in Uruguay. It was founded by the Portuguese in 1717. Its best neighbourhood is called Carrasco. This neighbourhood is very exclusive due to its architectural styles.


title: Book of Esther

paragraphs: Esther is the name of a book in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and the Old Testament, and also its title heroine. It is the basis for the Jewish celebration Purim.

paragraphs: Although it is never said who wrote the book of Esther, from inside evidence it is possible to make some guesses about the author and when it was written. The author was a Jew, because he emphasizes where the Jewish festival came from and from the Jewish nationalism inside the story. The author probably lived in a Persian city, because he knew Persian customs well, and does not say anything about the land of Judah or Jerusalem. The earliest date of the book would be a little while after the events were told, for instance, about 460 B.C. (before Ezra's return to Jerusalem). It is also thought that the festival of Purim had been celebrated some time before this book was written.

paragraphs: The author's main purpose was to write about how the yearly festival of Purim started and to make people remember the saving of the Jewish people during King Xerxes' reign. The book shows both the start of the festival and why it should continue to be celebrated.

paragraphs: In the book, the author repeatedly talks about the conflict between Israel and the Amalekites, a conflict that began during the exodus and continued through Israel's history. The author of Esther views them as the symbol of all the powers of the world against God's people. Now that Israel has been released from captivity, Haman's dangerous edict is the final try in the Old Testament time to get rid of them. When Haman is defeated, Israel enjoys a time of rest.

paragraphs: Feasting is another important theme in Esther, as seen in the picture on the left. Banquets are the setting for important parts of the story. There are ten banquets.

paragraphs: Repetition is one of the main stylistic features of the book of Esther. The three groups of banquets come in pairs; there are two lists of the king's servants; two reports that Esther hid her identity; two gatherings of women; two houses for the women; two fasts; two talks by Haman with his wife and friends; two sudden visits to the king by Esther; two coverings of Haman's face; two royal commands; two cool-downs of the king's anger; two days for the Jews to protect themselves and take vengeance; and two letters about how Purim started.

paragraphs: Another important feature of this book that has often been wondered about is that it never directly talks about God, worship, prayer, or sacrifice. This has made some people think the book is not as religious as other books. However, it is possible that the author purposefully did not say anything about God or anything religious to show more clearly that it is God who controls all the "unimportant" coincidences that are in the story and ends in saving the Jews.

paragraphs: The Book of Esther is about a Jewish girl adopted by her uncle, Mordecai, after her parents died.

paragraphs: The Persian King Xerxes kicked out his wife, Queen Vashti, after she refused his demand, and fell in love with Esther at a beauty contest. He took Esther as the new Persian queen, not knowing she was an Israelite.

paragraphs: Haman, Xerxes' prime minister, developed a grudge against Mordecai because he would not bow down to him, but only to the God of Israel. He despised Mordecai because he was a Jew, and tried to trick the king into making a law to kill all Jews. Haman was unaware that Queen Esther herself was a Jew.

paragraphs: Queen Esther discovered the plot by Haman and worked to stop it. She invited the king to dine with Haman present so she could tell him about the plot. But her courage failed her and she said nothing.

paragraphs: She again invited King Xerxes and Haman to dine and this time she told the king of Haman's plot. The king, furious, stormed out and Haman begged Esther for mercy. When the king returned, he mistakenly believed Haman had molested his queen, and had him hanged on the same gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordecai. In the end, thanks to Esther's courage and influence, the king changed the law and saved the Jewish people.


title: Clay

paragraphs: Clay is a fine-grained silicate mineral made when rocks break down. Wet clay is soft and can be shaped to make pottery, bricks and other things. When it is shaped and then fired in a kiln to make it hard, it becomes pottery.

paragraphs: Clay often contains some water because the water molecules stick to the tiny grains. There may also be some organic materials in the clay.

paragraphs: There are 35 recognized clay mineral species on Earth, they make muds stick together ('cohesive'), or able to flow ('plastic'). The thixotropy of clay sometimes causes landslides.

paragraphs: Quartz, feldspars, iron oxides, and carbonates can weather to sizes of a typical clay mineral. The formation of clay is well understood. It can come from soil, volcanic ash, and glaciation. Ancient mudrocks are another source, because they weather and disintegrate easily.

paragraphs: Clay is by far the smallest particles recognized in mudrocks. A clay particle is about 1/1000th the width of a sand grain. This means a clay particle will travel 1000 times further at constant water velocity, thus requiring quieter conditions for settlement. Where the grains are more than a few millimeters wide, the material is called silt, not clay.


title: Rifle

paragraphs: The rifle is a gun with a stock to brace against the shoulder and a barrel with twisting grooves. The grooves are called rifling and make bullets spin as they fly through the air. Rifles are made to shoot many different sizes of bullets using different amounts of gunpowder. Rifles are usually made to be able to hit targets at long ranges. Modern rifles are made for many different purposes. Some are made for hunting animals. Some are made for soldiers to use in war. Others are made for police to have in case they need them. Some rifles are made for target shooting.

paragraphs: Rifles can work in different ways. Some rifles have what is called a bolt action. A small handle is used to move a part of the rifle called a "bolt". By moving the bolt backward, then forward, allows the shooter put a bullet in the chamber ready for firing. It also ejects any spent shells still in the chamber from any previously fired rounds. The rifle in the picture above is a bolt action. Some rifles are semi-automatics, where a bullet is loaded (automatically) and fired each time the trigger is pulled. Some are fully automatic, which work like semi-automatics but allow the shooter to fire more than one bullet at a time by holding down the trigger. The automatic rifle stops firing when the trigger is released or it runs out of ammunition.


title: Deuterocanonical books

paragraphs: Deuterocanonical books means "second canon" in Greek. It usually means the parts of the Bible that are only used by some Christian churches (mostly Roman Catholic and Orthodox). The books were originally written in Greek language and they were written between 250 and 50 BC.

paragraphs: The books are not part of the Jewish Tanakh (also called the "Hebrew Bible") since their original language is Greek and not Hebrew. Some books considered deuterocanonical by Catholics are:

paragraphs: The "Book of Daniel" and the "Book of Esther" are longer in Catholic Bibles than in Protestant Bibles because they have more stories.

paragraphs: Most Protestant Christian churches do not think that the deuterocanonical books were inspired by God. They call these books Apocrypha. Martin Luther considered these books good to read while John Calvin read and studied them but did not think they should be part of the Bible.


title: Sidekick

paragraphs: A sidekick is someone who regularly travels with, and helps, another person. In fiction, the other person is often a crimefighter or superhero, such as Batman and his sidekick Robin. Some people consider Sancho Panza, Don Quixote's ever-faithful companion, to be a type of sidekick, even though the book was written long before the word sidekick was invented. Annabeth Chase is nobody's sidekick.


title: Jurist

paragraphs: A jurist (from medieval Latin) is someone who researches and studies jurisprudence (theory of law).


title: Nicobar Islands

paragraphs: The Nicobar Islands are an island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are part of India.

paragraphs: The Nicobar islands include 22 islands of different sizes. The largest one is Great Nicobar. The total land area of the chain is 1841 km². The highest point on the Nicobars is Mount Thullier at 642 m. The population of the islands was 42,026 in 2001, roughly 65% of whom are indigenous peoples (the Nicobarese and Shompen peoples, listed among the Scheduled Tribes of India), and 35% migrants from India and Sri Lanka.

paragraphs: The Nicobars are located southeast of the Indian subcontinent.They are separated form the subcontinent by the Bay of Bengal by about 1,300 km and are separated from the Andaman Islands to the north by the 150 km wide Ten Degree Channel and are 189 km from the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southeast. The Andaman and Nicobar islands separate the Bay of Bengal from the Andaman Sea. Until the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Indira Point, south of Great Nicobar, was the southernmost point in India.

paragraphs: The islands cluster into three groups. The northern group includes Car Nicobar (127 km²) and uninhabited Batti Malv (2 km²). The central group includes Chowra (8 km²), Teressa (101 km²), Poahat (13.3 km²), Katchal (174 km²), Camorta (188 km²), Nancowry (67 km²), and Trinket (86 km²); the Isle of Man and Tillangchong (17 km²) are uninhabited. Tillangchong is a wildlife sanctuary. The southern group includes Great Nicobar (1045 km²), Little Nicobar (157 km²), Kondul (4 km²) and Pulomilo (1 km²); the islets of Meroe, Trak, Treis, Menchal, Cubra, Pigeon, and Megapod are uninhabited. Megapod is a wildlife sanctuary.

paragraphs: Administratively the Islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union territory of India. The capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory is Port Blair on South Andaman. The Union Territory is divided into two districts, Andaman district and Nicobar district (the latter encompassing all of the Nicobars). The Indian Government presently restricts access to the Nicobars by special permit, and in general non-Indian citizens are forbidden from visiting the Nicobar Islands.


title: Andaman and Nicobar Islands

paragraphs: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a union territory of India. The name is often shortened to A & N Islands, or ANI.

paragraphs: The islands are in the Indian Ocean, in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal. The capital of this territory is the Andamanese town of Port Blair.

paragraphs: It is made of two island groups - the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands - separating the Andaman Sea to the east, from the Indian Ocean. These two groups are separated by the 10° N parallel, the Andamans lying to the north of this latitude, and the Nicobars to the south. The channel that separates ANI is the 10° degree channel. This islands have the only active volcano in India, Barren Island. These islands are also uninhabitated. It also has the lowest point in India, The Indira Point

paragraphs: The territory's population in the last (2001) census of India was 356,152. Added together, the total land area of the territory is around 6,496 km² or 2,508 mi², it is larger than the Palestinian territories but smaller than Georgia territory of Abkhazia.


title: Kazan

paragraphs: Kazan (; ) is the capital city of Tatarstan and one of Russia's largest cities. It is a major industrial, commercial and cultural center, and remains the most important center of Tatar culture. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga (İdel) and Kazanka (Qazansu) rivers in central European Russia.

paragraphs: The origin of the name is unclear. The literal translation of Tatar qazan is a boiler or cauldron. Alternately, it may have been derived from qazğan, Tatar for "dug [ditch]".

paragraphs: "Qazan" is originally a name for a special cooking pan, a variant of a wok, but more solid and heavier. It was believed that the city of Kazan is named after this object because of its geographical similarity with a "qazan"-pan; namely the city is situated in a U - shape lowland.

paragraphs: Another, more romantic legend tells a story of a Tatar princess Söyembikä, who dropped a golden dish (golden qazan) into the river on which the city is located while washing it.

paragraphs: Nevertheless, Chuvash legends refer to Bulgarian prince "Khusan" (Chuvash rendering of Muslim name Hassan) and Chuvashes call this city Хусан after the name of this prince.


title: Tornado

paragraphs: A tornado is a tube of violently spinning air that touches the ground. Wind inside the tornado spins fast, but the actual 'circle' of wind around them is huge. This makes tornadoes very dangerous. Tornadoes are especially dangerous to people in cars or mobile homes and about 60 people are killed by tornadoes every year.

paragraphs: Tornadoes destroy things. They can tear houses to pieces and often leave people homeless. Tornadoes can be caused by winds that have been going opposite directions with humidity. They are smaller than hurricane but stronger. Nearly three quarters of the world's tornadoes happen in the United States. However, they can happen anywhere.

paragraphs: Tornadoes mostly happen during strong thunderstorms called super cell storms. They cause a lot of damage to anything in their path. Tornadoes are ranked on the Enhanced Fujita scale, from EF0 to EF5. EF0 for tornados that caused the least damage, and EF5 for the ones that caused the most.

paragraphs: Tornadoes can happen in nearly any part of the world. In the United States, a tornado has happened in all states. The middle part of the United States is nicknamed 'Tornado Alley' for the number of tornadoes there. A tornado can have wind speeds of over 300 miles per hour (480 km/h). Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across and travel a few miles before disappearing. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirls, and steam devil; downbursts are frequently confused with tornadoes, though their action is not similar.

paragraphs: A tornado does not necessarily need to be visible; however, the extremely low pressure caused by the high wind speeds and rapid rotation usually causes water vapor in the air to condense into a visible "condensation funnel". The tornado is the vortex of wind, not the condensation cloud.

paragraphs: A single storm may produce multiple tornadoes and mesocyclones. Tornadoes produced from the same storm are referred to as a "tornado family". Sometimes multiple tornadoes from distinct mesocyclones occur at the same time.

paragraphs: Occasionally, several tornadoes are spawned from the same very large storm. If there is no break in their activity, this is considered a "tornado outbreak", although there are various definitions. A period of several successive days with tornado outbreaks in the same general area (spawned by multiple weather systems) is a "tornado outbreak sequence", occasionally called an "extended tornado outbreak".

paragraphs: Sometimes, tornadoes happen in groups. 148 tornadoes struck on the same day in April 1974. Many towns in the midwestern United States and Canada were destroyed. More than 300 people died. They were hit by flying wrecks, buried under houses, and thrown by powerful winds. That day, students in Xenia, Ohio were practicing for a play on the auditorium stage. One girl looked out the window and saw the tornado. The students ran into the hall, covering their heads. A few seconds later, all the school buses flew right onto the stage.

paragraphs: A man in another town hid under the couch in his living room. He held onto one couch leg. The tornado struck his house, and winds blew around him. When the tornado left, he was outside. There was no house. The couch had disappeared, and he was only holding onto one couch leg.

paragraphs: The Fujita scale and the Enhanced Fujita Scale rate tornadoes by how much damage they cause. The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale was an update to the older Fujita scale. The updated scale uses engineered wind estimates and has better damage descriptions. The EF Scale was designed so that a tornado rated on the Fujita scale would get the same numerical rating, and was used in the United States since 2007. An EF0 tornado will probably damage trees but not big buildings, whereas an EF5 tornado can rip buildings off their foundations leaving them destroyed and even damage big skyscrapers.

paragraphs: In the United States, 80% of tornadoes are EF0 and EF1 (T0 through T3) tornadoes. Less than 1% of tornadoes are violent tornadoes (EF4, T8 or stronger).

paragraphs: A "tornado watch" is given when the weather conditions look like a tornado could form. A 'PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation)' watch is given when a likely tornado outbreak is to start, many strong tornadoes will form in the area, or an ongoing tornado outbreak is in the works in the area. A "tornado warning" is given if somebody has actually seen a tornado or if a tornado 'signature' (usually the storm has a 'hook' or 'U' echo) has shown up on radar. Tornado emergencies are issued in Special Weather Statements or Tornado Warnings saying that a powerful tornado is about to hit an area with a lot of people in it (especially cities in Tornado Alley), a tornado has been spotted, and the tornado is expected to cause deaths.

paragraphs: It is often thought that opening windows will lessen the damage caused by a tornado. While there is a big drop in atmospheric pressure inside a strong tornado, it is unlikely that the pressure drop would be enough to cause the house to explode. Opening windows may actually increase the tornado's damage. A violent tornado can destroy a house whether its windows are open or closed.

paragraphs: Another common misconception is that highway overpasses provide adequate shelter from tornadoes. Due to the Venturi effect, tornadic winds are stronger in the small space of an overpass. In the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak of May 3, 1999, three highway overpasses were directly hit by tornadoes. At each of the three places there was a death, along with many life-threatening injuries. By comparison, during the same tornado outbreak, more than 2000 homes were completely destroyed, with another 7000 damaged, and yet only a few dozen people died in their homes.

paragraphs: There are areas which people believe to be safe from tornadoes, whether by being in a city, near a major river, hill, or mountain, or even protected by supernatural forces. Tornadoes have been known to cross major rivers, climb mountains, hit valleys, and have damaged several city centers. As a general rule, no area is safe from tornadoes, though some areas are more likely to be hit than others.

paragraphs: To keep safe in a tornado, here are some tips you can follow:


title: Hard disk

paragraphs: A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk or hard drive, is a data storage device for computers which uses magnetic storage to store data. The capacity of a hard drive is usually measured in gigabytes (GB), however hard disk capacity can also be measured in terabytes when the capacity is over 1000 gigabytes. A gigabyte is one thousand megabytes and a megabyte is one million bytes, which means that a gigabyte is one billion bytes. Some hard drives are so large that their capacity is measured in terabytes, (TB) where one terabyte is a thousand gigabytes (1 TB = 1000 GB).

paragraphs: Over the years there have been many disk interface types, though all used the same rotating platter recording technology. Differences were in how the data was encoded to binary, data integrity, data transfer speeds, cabling requirements, and cost. In 2009, it was common to attach a hard disk using a Serial ATA connection. The connection that came before that was called "IDE" and is called Parallel ATA today. In large data centers, Fibre Channel is often used.

paragraphs: For servers, the SCSI interface is very popular. There are several types and versions of SCSI interface, like parallel and Serial Attached SCSI, each stepping-up in terms of speed and price. Within servers, several SCSI drives are often used in conjunction with each other, in order to safeguard against data loss or corruption (this is known as RAID - and there are many configurations to choose from).

paragraphs: An HDD has a disk motor and an actuator motor that positions the read/write head. Wires from the actuator connect to the read/write head to amplifiers. They are bridged by the head support arm. In modern drives, acceleration at the head reaches 550 "g", so a head support arm connects the actuator and the read/write head.

paragraphs: The actuator controls the read/write head and acts as a permanent magnet. A metal plate supports a squat neodymium-iron-boron (NIB) magnet. Beneath this plate is the voice coil, which is attached to the actuator hub. Beneath the actuator hub is a second NIB magnet, mounted on the bottom plate of the actuator.

paragraphs: The voice coil is shaped like an arrow. It is made up of a magnet with plastic insulation. This magnet interacts with the actuator magnet, causing the disk to move. If the magnetic field were uniform it would cancel out, but the surface magnet is divided between north and south poles in the middle so force is produced instead of canceled out.

paragraphs: There are several reasons behind the corruption of internal and external hard drive.

paragraphs: Virus & Malware Attack:- If a system is attacked by a virus, the important boot files stored in the internal hard disk may be deleted, leading to boot failure. Meanwhile, the crucial data and the complete partition may also be deleted by the virus or malware attack.

paragraphs: Due to Physical Damage:- It is also called hardware failure, and consists the following types: Overheating of hard drive, Read/write head crash, Cracked or poor-contact data line, Scratch on magnetic platters, Short circuit in the control circuit board and much more. The data lost due to these kinds of reasons can hardly be repaired. A user have no choice but to turn to expert for data recovery from hardware damaged hard drive.

paragraphs: Corruption of Boot Sector:- The boot sector is the first sector of the hard drive. This is used to load processor control and then move it to the Operating System. When, the boot sector is damaged, you will not be able to enter the system and access any data stored in the internal hard drive.

paragraphs: Damaged file system:- The file system is used by the Operating System to define the approach for organizing files on the storage device. To be particular, it is like a gateway to access data stored on hard drive partitions. If the file system on the internal hard drive is unluckily damaged somehow, the drive may become inaccessible and the system may fail to start.

paragraphs: Software Clash:- All kinds of applications you installed on your local machine currently may not able to be fully supportive with each other, so software clash occurs now and then to lead to sudden computer shutdown and cause internal hard drive corruption.


title: Magnet

paragraphs: A magnet is a very special metal. When a magnet goes near a special kind of metal or other magnets, and the poles (sides) touching are opposite, it will pull, or "attract" the other metal or magnet closer. Also, if the two poles are the same, the two magnets will push away, or "repel", from each other. This is called "magnetism". Magnets can make some other metals into magnets when they are rubbed together.

paragraphs: Soft magnets (or impermanent magnets) are often used in electromagnets. These enhance (often hundreds or thousands of times) the magnetic field of a wire that carries an electrical current and is wrapped around the magnet. The field of the "soft" magnet increases with the current.

paragraphs: Permanent magnets have ferromagnetism. They occur naturally in some rocks, particularly lodestone, but are now commonly manufactured. A magnet's magnetism decreases when it is heated and increases when it is cooled. It has to be heated at around . Like poles (S-pole and S-pole/N-pole and N-pole) will repel each other while unlike poles (N-pole and S-pole) will attract each other.

paragraphs: Magnets are only attracted to special metals. Iron, cobalt and nickel are magnetic. Metals that have iron in them attract magnets well. Steel is one. Metals like brass, copper, zinc and aluminum are not attracted to magnets. Non-magnetic materials such as wood and glass are not attracted to magnets as they do not have magnetic materials in them.

paragraphs: Neodymium iron boron magnets and Alnico magnets are two kinds of permanent magnet.

paragraphs: Natural/permanent magnets are not artificial. They are a kind of rock called lodestone or magnetite.

paragraphs: A compass uses the Earth's magnetic field, and points to the North magnetic pole. A north side of the magnet is attracted to the south side of another magnet. However, the north side of the compass points to the north pole, this can only mean that the "north pole" is really the magnetic south, and the "South magnetic pole" is really the magnetic north.

paragraphs: The first people to discover naturally magnetic rocks were the Chinese. At first, the Chinese used the stones to carry out fortune-telling and magic tricks. Later on they used these "lodestones" to invent the compass.


title: By-product

paragraphs: A by-product is something that is made or produced while a product is manufactured in a factory. Usually, the by-product is not used, and it becomes waste that is put in a landfill or garbage dump. Sometimes by-products are toxic materials which are dangerous to humans, animals, and plants.

paragraphs: Some companies are trying to find ways to reuse or recycle the by-products, instead of putting them into landfill or garbage dumps as waste.

paragraphs: Animal "by-products" are produced by slaughterhouses (places designed to kill animals for food). Animal by-products are the parts of the animals that cannot be eaten by humans. Animal by-products are sometimes included in non-human foods, such as pet food or animal feed (for farm animals).


title: Toxic waste

paragraphs: Toxic waste is any sort of waste that is harmful to people, plants, or animals, but usually it is said about waste that hurts people. Toxic wastes are usually liquid chemicals. They are made as by-products of making other things, usually by manufacturing but sometimes they are chemicals used for farming.


title: Space Runaway Ideon

paragraphs: Space Runaway Ideon was an animated television series from 1980. It lasted for 39 episodes before being cancelled. It was originally aired in Japan, where it was well known. It also had two movies called "A Contact" and "Be Invoked".


title: Comic book

paragraphs: Comic books are books with comics, with pictures that make a story. Comics were started in the 1900s. Some famous examples are Spider-Man and Batman. Some comic companies are Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Many comic books are about superheroes, but many others are about other things. Very often, characters in books, video games, movies and television appear in comics, and sometimes comic book characters are used in movies, TV shows or video games.

paragraphs: There are three different kinds of comic books: single issues that are usually 32 pages long are called comic books. These are printed and bound like a magazine, with the pages folded and stapled together through the centerfold. Several comics may be put together in a trade paperback. These have spines like a book and are glued together. A bigger comic book that is bound like a trade paperback but is all new, instead of collecting older comics, is called a graphic novel.

paragraphs: In English speaking countries, you read the speech bubbles left to right. Then you read the row below it left to right. This is different from Japanese comics, called manga.


title: Spider-Man

paragraphs: Spider-Man is a fictional superhero in the Marvel Comics and the main protagonist in the Marvel Universe. He is Marvel's flagship character. He is a character that was created by writer Stan "the man" Lee and artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in "Amazing Fantasy" #15 in August 1962. The premise was that he was an orphan being raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben as an ordinary teenager. He would deal with the normal struggles of being young as well as the struggles of being of a costumed crime fighter. His powers were super strength, agility, the ability to cling to almost every surface, the ability to shoot spider-webs using a device that he invented which he calls "web-shooters," and reacting to danger quickly with his "spider-sense", enabling him to combat many foes similar to that of a spider.

paragraphs: Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, when teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist. The series featured Peter Parker, a high school student who frequently suffered the same rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness, that most young readers could easily relate to. Unlike some teen heroes, such as Bucky and Robin, Spider-Man never had any adult mentors like Captain America and Batman to teach him to be a superhero. He had to learn for himself that "with great power comes great responsibility" — a quote that he would cherish from his late Uncle Ben.

paragraphs: Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several comic book series such as "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Sensational Spider-Man" over the years. Peter Parker has developed from shy high school student to troubled but outgoing college student to married high school teacher. But his most associated adult role is that of being a single freelance photographer. He has also been a member of both the New Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. Spider-Man has had a lot of nicknames over the years such as being referred to as "Spidey," "web-slinger," "wall-crawler," or "web-head." He is also called "arachnid" by some villains and calls himself "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man."

paragraphs: Spider-Man has been one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes. Often considered to be Marvel's flagship character and company mascot, he has appeared in many forms of media such as animation and movies and he has been played by actors such as Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, among others. "Spider-Man" (2002), "Spider-Man 2", "Spider-Man 3", "The Amazing Spider-Man", "The Amazing Spider-Man 2", "", and "".

paragraphs: The first time that Spider-Man (who is also known as) Peter Parker appeared was in the "Amazing Fantasy" #15 comic book in August 1962. Because of its success, a new comic book series began called "The Amazing Spider-Man". Others were created including "Spectacular Spider-Man", "Sensational Spider-Man" and "Ultimate Spider-Man".

paragraphs: Spider-Man wears a red and blue super suit. This has a webbing design on the red parts of the suit which are the mask, torso, boots and gloves. The leggings and sleeves are blue.

paragraphs: In Peter Parker's first appearance, he is introduced as an orphaned science whiz teenager living with his aunt and uncle in the Forest Hills section of New York City. He is a brilliant student but also gets picked on by his peers who accuse him of being a bookworm, and constantly gets bullied by Eugene "Flash" Thompson, who calls him "Puny Parker" and humiliates him daily. One day, he is bitten by a radioactive spider which then gives him his powers that turn him to Spider-Man.

paragraphs: As Spider-Man, he then becomes a successful TV star. The career then goes to his head that one day at a studio he refuses to stop a thief, saying that it is the job of the police, not that of a star. He then returns home to learn that his beloved Uncle Ben, has been murdered and as Spider-Man he angrily sets off to capture the killer. When he does, he is horrified to find that the man is none other than the Burglar he refused to subdue. Learning that with great power comes great responsibility, Spider-Man becomes a vigilante. After his uncle died, Peter and his aunt become desperate for money, so he gets a job as a photographer at the "Daily Bugle" selling photos to J. Jonah Jameson, who seems to be jealous of Spider-Man and makes Spider-Man look bad in the paper. As he battles many enemies for his first time, Parker finds it difficult juggling both his personal life and costumed adventures at the same time. In time, he would then graduate from high school, and enroll at Empire State University, where he meets roommate and best friend Harry Osborn and his second girlfriend (having been romantically involved with Betty Brant before) Gwen Stacy, Peter also discovers his best friend Harry has a drug problem and that Harry's father is revealed to be one of Spider-Man's nemeses the Green Goblin, Peter then attempts to give up his costumed identity. In the course of his adventures though Spider-Man has made quite a few of friends and contacts within the superhero community, who often come to his aid when he faces problems that he cannot solve on his own.

paragraphs: His loved ones are frequently endangered by enemies including a Spider-Man costume which turns out to be an alien symbiote. After noticing the symbiote's true nature Peter then rejects the symbiote after a difficult struggle. In a controversial storyline, Peter becomes convinced that Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider who is actually a clone of Peter created by his college professor Miles Warren is the real Peter Parker, and that he, Peter, is actually the clone. Peter gives up the Spider-Man identity to Reilly for a while until Reilly is killed by the returning Green Goblin and revealed to be the clone after all. He for a little bit develops additional spider-like abilities including biological web-shooters, toxic stingers that extend from his forearms, the ability to stick individuals to his back, enhanced Spider-sense and night vision, and increased strength and speed. He even becomes a member of the New Avengers, and reveals his civilian identity to the world, which causes more problems such as Aunt May being shot. Due to his Aunt May almost dying, his marriage to Mary Jane and public unmasking are later erased due to a deal made with the demon Mephisto, resulting in several adjustments to the timeline, such as the resurrection of Harry Osborn and Spider-Man original powers. After months of just Peter knowing Spider-Man's identity he then unmasks himself to the New Avengers and the Fantastic Four.

paragraphs: Spider-Man is one of the most well known superheroes ever created. He is normally considered to Marvel Comics' flagship character. His quote "With great power comes great responsibility" is one of the most popular superhero quotes ever used. He has also been adopted in other media such as television and video games and most popularly Sam Raimi's film trilogy which includes "Spider-Man", "Spider-Man 2", and "Spider-Man 3". "The Amazing Spider-Man" movies are also popular.

paragraphs: Spider-Man has appeared on television numerous times, in both live-action and animated television programs. In animation he has appeared in a 1967 television series named after him, he also appeared in "Spidey Super Stories" on "The Electric Company", he appeared as an guest star in a "Spider-Woman" animated series. There was also a 1981 animated series of him and then an animated series called "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" soon after. And then in the Marvel Animation Age in 1994 there was another series about him and there was a spin off of it called "Spider-Man Unlimited". After the Sam Raimi movies there was an animated series of Spider-Man in MTV called "Spider-Man: The New Animated Series" and in 2008 there is an animated series called "The Spectacular Spider-Man". It is also said that he will appear in "The Super Hero Squad Show". In live action there is "Amazing Spider-Man" and an tokatsu series of Spider-Man in Japan.

paragraphs: Supporting characters in the Spider-Man series include:

paragraphs: Villains in the Spider man series include:


title: Peanuts

paragraphs: Peanuts was a comic strip written and drawn by Charles M. Schulz. It was about a boy named Charlie Brown, his dog named Snoopy who is his best friend, and the lives of their best friends named Linus, Schroder, Sally (Charlie Brown's little sister), Lucy, Patty, Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Woodstock. It started in 1950 and ended in 2000 when Schulz died. The Peanuts characters and concepts were adapted to several half-hour animated television programs over the years.


title: Eddie Cantor

paragraphs: Eddie Cantor (January 31, 1892 - October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, singer, actor, songwriter. Familiar to Broadway, radio and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname, Banjo Eyes, and in 1933, the artist Frederick J. Garner caricatured Cantor with large round and white eyes resembling the drum-like pot of a banjo. Cantor's eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and leading to his appearance on Broadway in the musical "Banjo Eyes" (1941). He was the original singer of 1929 hit song "Makin' Whoopie".


title: Days of Our Lives

paragraphs: Days of Our Lives is a popular American television show on the NBC television network. It is one hour long and is broadcast during the day. Betty and Ted Corday made the show in 1965. Two companies, Corday Productions and Sony Pictures Television make "Days of Our Lives". In November 2005, the show celebrated 40 years on TV. It is currently in its 47th season with 11,855 episodes (as of June 1, 2012). They began filming the show in HD in 2010.

paragraphs: "Days of Our Lives" takes place in the city of Salem. The main families on the show are the Bradys, the DiMeras and the Hortons. Many good and bad things happened to the Brady family and the Horton family. One character named "Stefano DiMera" does some of the bad things that happen to characters on this show. Stefano is still on the show.

paragraphs: Here is a list of some of the main couples on the show:


title: Recorder

paragraphs: The recorder is a musical instrument that is a type of flute. It is shaped like a tube with one end bigger than the other end. A recorder player puts the bigger end in their mouth and blows into it.

paragraphs: In Europe, people started to play the recorder in medieval times. The recorder was often used by musicians to sound like bird songs. Purcell, Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi all wrote music for the recorder. By the 1900s very few people played the recorder. They liked the flute and other instruments better than the recorder. These instruments are louder than the recorder and are better for playing difficult music.

paragraphs: In the 1900s more people started to learn the recorder again. One reason was that people wanted to play old music on old kinds of instruments. A second reason was that the recorder is a good instrument for children to learn about music.

paragraphs: Whistles are very old instruments. People have found some whistles that were made in the Iron Age. A recorder is a type of whistle. It has holes for seven fingers and one thumb. It also has one end bigger than the other. The first recorders were made in the 1500s. Some remains of these have been found in Germany, the Netherlands and Greece.

paragraphs: Many people played the recorder in Europe in the 1500s and 1600s. King Henry VIII of England had 76 recorders. William Shakespeare talks about recorders in his play "Hamlet" and John Milton talks about them in his poem "Paradise Lost". Recorders from that time are now called Renaissance recorders.

paragraphs: In the 1600s, the people who made recorders tried new ways to make them sound better. They also wanted them to play more difficult music. Recorders from this time are called Baroque recorders. They were thinner than Renaissance recorders. They were also made in several parts that fitted together. In the picture at the top of the page, one of the recorders is in three parts.

paragraphs: From the second half of the 1700s, people preferred to play the flute and clarinet instead of the recorder. Flutes are good for playing music which has a large range of notes. Flutes are also better for playing music which needs many chromatic notes.

paragraphs: In the 1900s people wanted to play old music with old kinds of instrument. In England, Arnold Dolmetsch was one of the people who was famous for this. Other musicians also began to play the recorder at serious music concerts. Some of these people were Frans Brüggen, Hans-Martin Linde, Bernard Kranis and David Munrow. In modern times, people have written new music for the recorder. Some of these people are Paul Hindemith, Luciano Berio, John Tavener, Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, Gordon Jacob and Edmund Rubbra.

paragraphs: The recorder is sometimes used in popular music. The Beatles played the recorder in their song "Fool on the Hill" and the Rolling Stones used a recorder in "Ruby Tuesday (song)".

paragraphs: Plastic recorders were invented in the 20th century. They are cheap and vary greatly in quality (that is often not related to the price) depending on the manufacturer. They are easy instruments to play simple music. Many elementary schools use plastic recorders to teach music to children.

paragraphs: The head joint of the recorder is used as a noise, rhythm and effect instrument, and as a toy musical instrument with children. Because the recorder head works like a whistle, it can be used as such. With a bit practice, it is easy to play all kind of rhythms. Effects are made by opening and covering the lower end of the head joint with the hand while blowing. Many players blow harder like "normal" recorder playing (like with a pea whistle), to get a very shrill and loud sound. Professor Agnes Dorwarth of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg argues this is an attractive way to get children to play with part of the instrument, which can make playing the entire instrument more inviting.

paragraphs: Recorders are made in different sizes. The lowest note of most recorders is either C or F. This is the note that is heard when the player covers all the finger holes and the thumb hole. The soprano recorder is the size of recorder which is usually played in schools, also known as a Descant. The lowest note of the soprano recorder is C. Some recorders are smaller than the soprano recorder but are not common. The alto recorder is bigger than the soprano recorder. Its lowest is F. The other main sizes are the tenor recorder (with lowest note C) and the bass (with lowest note F). Instruments larger than the bass are made but are not common. These include the Great Bass, Contrabass, Subgreatbass and Subcontrabass. Recorders higher than a soprano recorder include the Sopranino and Garklein recorders.

paragraphs: The recorder is a very social instrument. Many people enjoy playing in small or large groups. Groups often play music that is written for several different sizes of recorder together. Often there is a separate musical part for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders. This covers a wider range of notes, from high sounds to low, than any single instrument could play. Some music is written for a recorder duet (two instruments), trio (three), or quartet (four). These groups are called "ensembles," from the French word for "together." Some people play in recorder orchestras. These sometimes have 50 or 60 players with nine sizes of instrument.


title: Adolphe Sax

paragraphs: Antoine-Joseph (known as Adolphe) Sax (November 6, 1814 – February 4, 1894) was a Belgian inventor and musician who played the flute and clarinet. He is best known for inventing the saxophone.

paragraphs: Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant in Wallonia, Belgium. Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age. He entered two of his flutes and a clarinet into a competition at the age of fifteen. He studied those two instruments at the Royal School of Singing in Brussels.

paragraphs: Adolphe's first important invention was an improvement of the bass clarinet design. He patented this at the age of twenty-four. In 1841, Sax moved to Paris. Around this time he invented the saxophone.

paragraphs: He got a job teaching at the Paris Conservatoire starting in 1867.

paragraphs: Sax suffered from lip cancer between 1853 and 1858 but made a full recovery. He died in 1894 in Paris.


title: Unforgiven

paragraphs: Unforgiven is a 1992 American western movie directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris. It ranks #98 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies and won the Best Picture Academy Award. It is set in the 1880s in Wyoming and Kansas about an aging outlaw and killer.


title: Bucharest

paragraphs: Bucharest is the capital city of the country of Romania. It is the largest city in the country. The city has a population of 1.9 million people. It is made up of 6 "sectors". It has a humid continental climate ("Cfa" in the Koeppen climate classification). It became the capital of Romania in 1862. It is the centre of Romanian media, culture and art. Bucharest is the 6th largest city in the European Union by population within city limits.


title: Tocantins

paragraphs: There are also some small Brazilian cities called "Tocantins".


title: Avalanche

paragraphs: An avalanche is a linked to snow. When there is too much snow on a mountain, some of the snow may fall, causing damage to things in its path. This is called an avalanche. People talk about avalanches because they may be dangerous to skiers and other people doing winter sports.

paragraphs: Large avalanches may carry stones, boulders and trees with them. They may bury people under them. If the people are not found rapidly enough by rescue teams they will die of suffocation (not getting enough air) or of hypothermia (freezing cold).

paragraphs: The chance of surviving an avalanche is as follows:

paragraphs: In Europe, the avalanche risk is widely rated on the following scale, which was adopted in April 1993 to replace the earlier non-standard national schemes. Descriptions were last updated in May 2003 to enhance uniformity pdf.

paragraphs: Surviving avalanches is very difficult, as the snow rushes at a very fast rate and can bury anyone alive in seconds. However, the snow in an avalanche acts like a liquid when descending. Thus, the best way is to actually 'swim' a backstroke. This will help as the person will be able to keep his/her face up and breathe, and also not get submerged in the snow at the same time (the force of swimming backwards is in contrast and opposes the force of the snow coming in his/her direction, rather than the snow totally taking over).

paragraphs: Another way is to hold on to something immediately after an avalanche occurs. The item should be strong so it itself doesn't get drifted away by an avalanche, like a tree or large and heavy rock.


title: Foot (unit)

paragraphs: The foot is a unit for measuring length. It is one of the Imperial units and U.S. customary units. The shortest way of writing the unit "foot" is by the abbreviation "ft" (or "ft."), or by a prime symbol ( ′ ).

paragraphs: One foot contains 12 inches. This is equal to 30.48 centimetres. It is called a foot, because it was originally based on the length of a foot.

paragraphs: The foot was a common unit of measurement throughout Europe. It often differed in length not only from country to country but from city to city. Because the length of a foot changed between person to person, measurements were not even consistent between two people, often requiring an average. Henry I of England was attributed to passing the law that the foot was to be as long as a person's own foot. This was one of the first times a standard unit of measurement was put into place.

paragraphs: In 1959, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom all signed a treaty known as the 'International Yard and Pound Agreement'. This standardised the avoirdupois weight and length of all nations. Those standards are still officially used in both the Imperial system and U.S customary units.

paragraphs: Road signs with height restrictions in the United States and the United Kingdom are in feet and inches. They are less commonly seen in Canada and Ireland. In the U.S. and the UK, people usually measure a person's height in feet and inches. If a person is "five foot eleven", this means that person is 5 feet and 11 inches, or about 180 centimeters. The height is written "5′ 11″"

paragraphs: Many people born before metrication in a number of Commonwealth nations still use feet and inches. Altitude measurements are still sometimes given in feet, even in metricated nations.


title: Acre

paragraphs: An acre is an English unit of area, which is also used in the United States and some Commonwealth countries. It is most often used to describe areas of land.

paragraphs: Originally, it was seen as the area of land a farmer could plough with an ox in a day. Since this definition depended on the farmer and the ox, it looked variable. Therefore, Edward I, Edward III, Henry VIII and George IV passed laws fixing its size. The Commonwealth countries, including the United States then also introduced these laws.


title: Erfurt massacre

paragraphs: The Erfurt massacre was a series of shootings that happened at the Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany, on 26 April 2002.

paragraphs: A boy that had been expelled from the school, Robert Steinhäuser, was the person who did all the shooting. In anger, he came into the Gymnasium, and shot dead 12 teachers, a secretary, two students, and a police officer.

paragraphs: After a teacher caught him and put him in an empty room, Steinhäuser shot himself dead. In total, 17 people were killed.


title: Gymnasium (school)

paragraphs: The gymnasium is a form of higher education in Western Europe, especially in Germany. It is the same as a grammar school Gymnasiums are also common in Hungary and Austria. Graduating from a gymnasium is considered an accomplishment seeing as how difficult it is to do so.


title: Huascarán

paragraphs: Huascarán is the highest mountain in Peru, and the fourth-highest mountain in South America. The top of it is 22,205 feet (6,768 meters) high.

paragraphs: The mountain is located in the Ancash Region of Peru. Huascarán has turned into a tourist attraction for mountain climbers.

paragraphs: Huascarán is all that is left of an extinct volcano. It has been getting smaller and smaller. As recently as 1970, the Ancash Earthquake caused a big part of the mountain to crumble and fall off. That part of the mountain was all rock and ice, and it killed almost 17,000 people in small towns around the mountain.


title: Australian Rules Football

paragraphs: Australian rules football is a sport created in Australia. It is the national sport and is the most popular sport in Australia. The main league of Australian rules football is the Australian Football League.

paragraphs: In 1858, Tom Wills, a former student of the Rugby school and Cambridge College, created a set of football rules that were like a cross between rugby, soccer and Gaelic football. He made up the game for cricketers to keep in shape during the off-season (winter). Wills had help in making up the game from other people like his cousin H.C.A. Harrison, and W.J. Hammersly and J.B. Thompson.

paragraphs: Wills grew up with Indigenous Australians. He spoke the language of the people who lived near him and played with the children. It has been suggested that Australian Rules Football is based in part on "Marn Grook", an Aboriginal game with some similar rules to Australian Rules Football. Because the indigenous people Wills played with as a child would have played "Marn Grook", Wills would have been influenced by this game when creating the rules for Australian Rules Football.

paragraphs: The Melbourne Football Club was founded on 14 May 1859; the Melbourne Football Club is one of the oldest surviving football clubs in the world. A game of football was played between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School. It was played over three days on an oval next to the present day Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the two schools have played an annual game ever since. This game became known as Melbourne Rules Football, one of many local varieties of football that existed at that time, another notable one being Sheffield Rules Football. Then following its decision to not join either the association rules (1863) or rugby rules (1871), it became known as Victorian Rules, although it closely resembled the two former rule sets. Then in the 1880s as rugby and association rules began to diverge in a much greater way, Victorian Rules which resembled the 1850s type of football that both rugby and the association had based their rules on remained much the same except for moving to oval fields from rectangular fields and eventually introducing more posts. After the sport became popular in other states, people started calling it "Australian Rules".

paragraphs: The Victorian Football League ( VFL ) was created in 1896. The next year, the first official games were played. The first clubs were Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda, and South Melbourne. In 1908, Richmond and University joined. University left after the 1914 season. In 1925, Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne joined the VFL.

paragraphs: In 1990 the Victorian Football League was changed to the Australian Football League (AFL). Footscray changed its name to the Western Bulldogs in 1997. North Melbourne changed its name to the Kangaroos in 1999, but changed back in 2008.

paragraphs: Football is the most popular sport in Australia, with crowd attendances of 50-80,000 people common to normal home and away matches and capacity crowds of 100,000 people at the home of football the MCG during the finals and special matches. The record crowd still remains at 121,696, who watched that most history-making of all Grand Finals in 1970, between Carlton and Collingwood, where Carlton came from a 44-point deficit at half-time to win the game by implementing an entirely new system of play, handballing out of the backline, which changed the game forever, and marked the beginnings of the transition of the game from one of a 'territorial' base to 'possession football'.

paragraphs: There are 16 teams in the AFL . Each team has 22 players during game day with team lists of 40-45 players.During the game, each team has 18 players on the field, consisting of 6 forwards, 3 centres, 6 backmen, and 3 followers. The 4 remaining players are reserves three of which can be interchanged with any other player in the team as often as the coach wants. The forth can replace a player but the replaced player can not come back on to the field of play.

paragraphs: Every game consists of 4 quarters, being 20 minutes and overtime (stoppage time, time-keepers acting upon central umpire signals to determine how long). After every quarter the teams swap direction. The quarter is started when the umpire blows his whistle and bounces the ball in the middle of the field (similar to a basketball "tip")and opposing players try to tap or punch the ball to their team-mates.

paragraphs: The idea of the game is to kick more goals than the other team. At each end of the field are 4 poles. Players score points by kicking the ball between the poles. A goal is a kick between the centermost posts. It is worth 6 points. A "Behind" (worth 1 point) is a kick that goes between the outer posts. Players can bounce the ball and hit it with their hand (handball it) to other players . If a player catches a ball after the ball has been kicked in the air by another player, then this is a "mark" and the player cannot be tackled until he plays on.

paragraphs: It is the only "football" code where the major score can ONLY be scored with the foot.


title: Australian Football League

paragraphs: The Australian Football League (AFL) is the Australian national league in the sport of Australian Rules Football. The league is the most popular sports competition in Australia. In 2017, more than 7.2 million people watched a game in a stadium.

paragraphs: The league started in the city of Melbourne, and was known as the Victorian Football League from 1897 to 1989. In the 1980s, the league expanded outside the state of Victoria into New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, and entered South Australia in 1991. With the league becoming more national, the VFL changed its name to the Australian Football League in 1990.

paragraphs: Since 2012 the league has 18 teams, who play against each other in 22 games over 23 rounds between late March and early September. These matches are followed by a series of finals matches which end up in the two best teams playing off for the premiership in the AFL Grand Final, one of the largest domestic club championship events in the world.

paragraphs: The chief executive, titled "Commissioner", is Gillon McLachlan.

paragraphs: Since the 2012 season, there are nine clubs from Melbourne, one from Victoria's second largest city, Geelong, two teams from South Australia's capital of Adelaide, two from the Perth area in Western Australia, two from Queensland and two from Sydney, New South Wales.

paragraphs: AFL is the dominant league in television, print and radio news in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Also Australian rules football has more people playing than any other football code in these states and territories.

paragraphs: The AFL is becoming more popular in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. This happened after the finals wins by the Brisbane Lions (2001, 2002 and 2003) and Sydney Swans (2005). With the success of these sides, interest in Australian rules football has grown rapidly in these states in recent years. This directly led to new clubs being added in both states in the 2010s—Gold Coast in 2011 and Greater Western Sydney in 2012.

paragraphs: In 1996, twelve Hall of Fame members were declared "Legends of the Game". Another member of the Hall of Fame is declared a legend every few years. The following is a list of "Legends of the Game".


title: Urbain Grandier

paragraphs: Urbain Grandier (born 1590 in Bouère, Mayenne, France ; died April 18,1634 in Loudun, France) was a free-thinking cleric. A satirical publication against Richelieu was attributed to him. After this, Pierre-Martin de Laubardement, a statesman was charged to lead the process against Grandier in 1633. He was charged of having bewitched the ursuline nuns of Loudun. They became obsessed by him. His friend, Claude Quillet agreed to defend him in court, but without success.

paragraphs: He was condemned to burn at the stake as a witch in 1634.


title: Cardinal Richelieu

paragraphs: Armand Jean du Plessis, better known as Cardinal Richelieu (9 September 1585–4 December 1642) was a French clergyman, noble, and statesman. His full name was "Armand Jean du Plessis". He was later created the Duke of Richelieu and duke of Fronsac.

paragraphs: In order to keep the diocese of Luçon, Armand Jean needed to become a monk. He joined the Grande Chartreuse, the main monastery of the Carthusian order. This monastery is in the Isère département, near Grenoble. As a comparison, Luçon is near La Roche-sur-Yon.

paragraphs: He was consecrated as a bishop in 1607. For this he obtained a dispensation of the pope; at age 21, he was too young to become a bishop. He later entered politics and became a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Church and the state. He became a cardinal in 1622. He became King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; then Jules Cardinal Mazarin became chief minister.

paragraphs: The Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the King's "Chief Minister". As a result, he is sometimes said to be the world's first Prime Minister. He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strongly centralized state. His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty; although a Roman Catholic cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers. With these alliances, he tried to achieve this goal. His tenure was marked by the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.

paragraphs: As an advocate for Samuel de Champlain and of the keeping of Quebec, he founded the Compagnie des Cent-Associés and saw the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye return Quebec to French rule under de Champlain, after the settlement had been captured by the Kirkes in 1629. This in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of French-speaking culture in North America.

paragraphs: Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts; most notably, he founded the Académie française, the learned society responsible for matters of the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet "l'Éminence rouge" ("the Red Eminence"), from the red shade of a cardinal's vestments and the style "eminence" as a cardinal.


title: Belaying

paragraphs: Belaying is a way to hold and control a rope for a person who is rock climbing. A climber has to be attached to a rope so they do not fall very far. A person on the ground who is belaying is called a "belayer".

paragraphs: The belayer usually puts the rope through a "belay device", which lets the rope move through the device in one direction (as the climber being belayed goes up). If the climber falls, the device lets the belayer also hold the rope still, so the climber hangs in the air but does not hit the ground.

paragraphs: A belayer can hold the weight of the climber with the rope and help prevent an injury caused by a fall.


title: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills

paragraphs: Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills is a list of the top 100 thrilling movies in American cinema. The American Film Institute presented it on June 12, 2001.


title: South Vietnam

paragraphs: South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam was a country that existed from 1955 to 1975. It occupied in the southern of what is now Southern Vietnam. The country was south of the local Demilitarized Zone.

paragraphs: South Vietnam establised on 26 October, 1955 after the 1955 Referendum. It was first ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem until 1963. After the 1963 coup, South Vietnam was run by a military government. It lasted until 1967. From 1967, On 1 April, 1967, the Second Republic was established. This Second Republic lasted until the Fall of Saigon when the president Duong Van Minh surrendered to Viet Cong. South Vietnam ceased to exist on 30 April, 1975. This day is also known as Black April to Vietnamese anti-communists.


title: Robert Ludlum

paragraphs: Robert Ludlum (May 25 1927 - March 12 2001) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of "The Bourne Identity" from 1980, which was made into a movie in 2001.


title: Arab people

paragraphs: The Arabs ( ʻarab) are an ethnic group widespread in the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic is one of the Semitic languages, which is also the name of the ethnic family which they belong to.

paragraphs: There are three points which decide whether someone is considered Arab or not:

paragraphs: There are many people who can be called Arabs by these points, but who do not think of themselves as Arab. Examples include modern Egyptians (Coptics) and the Syriacs (Aramaics/Assyrians). Although they live in countries like Syria or Egypt which is part of the Arab League and speak the official language-Arabic, they are different cultural groups. They have their own languages, culture, identity and churches, such as the Coptic Church and the Syriac Catholic and Orthodox churches. Even though many have assimilated to Arab society, they have their own heritage that spans 3,000 years.

paragraphs: In Islamic and Jewish tradition, Arabs are a Semitic people who trace their ancestry from Ishmael, a son of the ancient patriarch Abraham and Hagar. Medieval Arab genealogists separate the Arabs into two groups: the "original Arabs" of South Arabia, descending from Qahtan (identified with the biblical Joktan) and the "Arabized Arabs" (musta`ribah) of North Arabia, descending from Adnan who is descended from Ishmael.

paragraphs: Most Arabs today follow the religion of Islam, whose greatest prophet is Muhammad. Christianity makes up the largest religious minority - most of the Christians that do consider themselves Arabs belong to the Greek Orthodox Church with smaller numbers of Roman Catholics.

paragraphs: While Coptic and Maronite Catholic Christians are native Arabic-speakers, many reject the Arab pan-ethnicity, but are still considered Arab by outsider sources.

paragraphs: There are some small communities practicing Judaism and polytheism (the worship of many gods). Yazidis are sometimes counted as Arabs.


title: Mebibyte

paragraphs: A mebibyte is a unit of measure. It represents 1024 * 1024 bytes.

paragraphs: A mebibyte (a contraction of mega binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, symbol MiB.

paragraphs: The mebibyte is closely related to the megabyte (MB). This can either be a synonym for mebibyte, or refer to 10 bytes = 1,000,000 bytes, depending on context (see binary prefix for background). The two numbers are relatively close together, but mistaking the two has nevertheless led to problems.

paragraphs: The unit MiB was defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in December 1998. Use of mebibyte and related units is strongly endorsed by IEEE and CIPM and is becoming more common.

paragraphs: One mebibyte equals 1024 (= 2) kibibytes, and 1024 mebibytes equal one gibibyte.

paragraphs: Mibibyte is a common misspelling, presumably from the "i" in the abbreviation or confusion about how the surrounding prefixes (i.e. "kibi" and "gibi") were actually formed. The "i" is actually from the end of the prefix. Tebi- and pebi- are similarly abbreviated Ti- and Pi-, but they are not usually misspelled, as storage sizes (and corresponding terms) currently are only this large in specialized situations.


title: Clergy

paragraphs: Clergy are people who have an office in a Christian church or other religion such as a rabbi or a priest. Clergy are often ordained before they are allowed to do their work.


title: Acre (state)

paragraphs: Acre is a state in the Northern Region of Brazil. It borders other two states, Amazonas and Rondônia. It also borders two countries, Bolivia and Peru. Its capital city is Rio Branco. Other important cities are: Cruzeiro do Sul, Tarauacá, Sena Madureira, and Brasiléia.

paragraphs: The state is mostly covered by the Amazon Rainforest. There are many rivers in Acre. Some of the rivers are the Juruá, Purus River, Acre River, Tarauacá, Muru, Embirá, and Xapuri.

paragraphs: The economy is based on agriculture, cattle animal husbandry, and rubber production.

paragraphs: Until the start of the 20th century, Acre was a territory of Bolivia. Since the 19th century, most people from Acre were Brazilian people, and they created an independent state.

paragraphs: In 1889, the Bolivians tried to control the area again and there were fights.

paragraphs: On November 17, 1903, Acre become a Brazilian territory. On June 15, 1962, it was unified and became a state.