title: Fish

paragraphs: Fish (plural: fish) are an aquatic group of vertebrates which live in water and respire (get oxygen) with gills. They do not have limbs, like arms or legs, and they do have digits (fingers & toes). This is a definition which does not quite work: some amphibia also live in water and have external gills, but they are not fish.

paragraphs: Fish used to be a class of vertebrates. Now the term covers five classes of aquatic vertebrates:

paragraphs: There are more fish than tetrapods (land vertebrates): there are over 33,000 described species of fish. Fish are usually covered with scales. They have two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. Most fish are cold-blooded (poikilotherm). A fish takes in the oxygen from the water using gills. There are many different kinds of fish. They live in fresh water in lakes and rivers, and in salt water in the ocean. Some fish are less than one centimeter long. The largest fish is the whale shark, which can be almost 15 meters long and weigh 15 tons. Most fish live in the water. A group of fish called the lungfish have developed lungs because they live in rivers and pools which dry up in certain parts of the year. They burrow into mud and aestivate until the water returns.

paragraphs: 'Fish' is a paraphyletic term in cladistics because it lacks a monophyletic group of descendants. It does not include the land vertebrates or tetrapods, which descended from fish.

paragraphs: Though often used interchangeably, these words have different meanings. Fish is used either as singular noun or to describe a group of specimens from a single species. Fishes describes a group of different species.

paragraphs: Fish, the oldest vertebrate group, includes a huge range of types, from the Middle Ordovician, about 490 million years ago, to the present day. These are the main groups:

paragraphs: Certain animals that have the word "fish" in their name are not really fish: Crayfish are crustaceans, and jellyfish are Cnidarians. Some animals look like fish, but are not. Whales and dolphins are mammals, for example.

paragraphs: Most kinds of fish have bones. Some kinds of fish, such as sharks and rays, do not have real bones. Their skeletons are made of cartilage, and so they are known as cartilaginous fish.

paragraphs: All fish are covered with overlapping scales, and each major group of fish has its own special type of scale. Teleosts ('modern' fish) have what are called "leptoid" scales. These grow in concentric circles and overlap in a head to tail direction like roof tiles. Sharks and other chondrichthyes have "placoid" scales made of denticles, like small versions of their teeth. These also overlap in a head to tail direction, producing a tough outer layer. Shark skin is available for purchase as shagreen, a leather which as original is smooth in one direction, and rough in the other direction. It may be polished for use, but is always rough in texture and resistant to slipping.

paragraphs: The scales are usually covered with a layer of slime which improves passage through the water, and makes the fish more slippery to a predator.

paragraphs: 41% of all fish live in freshwater. There are also some important fish which breed in rivers, and spend the rest of their life in the seas. Examples are salmon, trout, the sea lamprey, and three-spined stickleback. Some other fish are born in salt water, but live most of their adult lives in fresh water: for example the eels.

paragraphs: Species like these change their physiology to cope with the amount of salt in the water.

paragraphs: Fish swim by exerting force against the surrounding water. There are exceptions, but this is usually done by the fish contracting muscles on either side of its body in order to generate waves of flexion that travel the length of the body from nose to tail, generally getting larger as they go along. Most fishes generate thrust using lateral movements of their body & tail fin (caudal fin). However, there are also species which move mainly using their median and paired fins. The latter group profits from the gained manoeuvrability that is needed when living in coral reefs for example. But they can not swim as fast as fish using their bodies & caudal fins.

paragraphs: Fish can swim slowly for many hours using red muscle fibres. They also make short, fast bursts using white muscle. The two types of muscle have a fundamentally different physiology. The red fibres are usually alongside a much greater number of white fibres.

paragraphs: The white fibres get their energy by converting the carbohydrate glycogen to lactate (lactic acid). This is anaerobic metabolism, that is, it does not need oxygen. They are used for fast, short bursts. Once the lactic acid builds up in the muscles, they stop working, and it takes time for the lactate to be removed, and the glycogen replaced. Using their white fibres, fish can reach speeds of 10 lengths per second for short bursts.

paragraphs: Swimming for long periods needs oxygen for the red fibres. The oxygen supply has to be constant because these fibres only operate aerobically. They are red because they have a rich blood supply, and they contain myoglobin. Myoglobin transports the oxygen to the oxidising systems. Red muscle gets its energy by oxidising fat, which weight for weight has twice as much energy as carbohydrate or protein. Using their red fibres, fish can keep up a speed of 35 lengths per second for long periods.

paragraphs: Many fish swim in groups. Schools of fish can swim together for long distances, and may be chased by predators which also swim in schools. Casual groups are called 'shoals'.

paragraphs: The shape of the body of a fish is important to its swimming. This is because streamlined body shapes makes the water drag less. Here are some common fish shapes:-

paragraphs: The picture on the right shows a shark. This shark's shape is called "fusiform", and it is an ovoid shape where both ends of the fish are pointy. This is the best shape for going through water quickly. Fishes with fusiform shapes can chase prey and escape predators quickly. Many live in the open ocean and swim constantly, like marlins, swordfish, and tuna. Ichthyosaurs, porpoises, dolphins, killer whales all have similar shapes. This is an example of convergent evolution.

paragraphs: The long, ribbon-like shape of an eel's body shows another shape. This enables them to hide in cracks, springing out quickly to capture prey, then returning quickly to their hiding spot.

paragraphs: Flatfish live on the bottom of the ocean or lake. Most use camouflage: they change colors to match the ocean floor.

paragraphs: Fish with compressed shapes have flat, vertical bodies, with one eye on each side. They swim upright and can be very thin. They usually live in reefs where their flat bodies can slip in and out among the corals, sponges, and rocks, keeping hidden from predators. Angelfish, surgeonfish, and butterflyfish are all compressed fish.

paragraphs: Some people eat many different kinds of fish. These include carp, cod, herring, perch, sardines, sturgeon, tilapia, trout, tuna, and many others. A person who buys and sells fish for eating is called a fishmonger.

paragraphs: The word "to fish" is also used for the activity of catching fishes. People catch fish with small nets from the side of the water or from small boats, or with big nets from big boats. People can also catch fish with fishing poles and fishhooks with bait. This is often called angling. Anglers also different types of fishing lures.

paragraphs: Because people are catching too many fish for food or other uses, there are less and less fish in the sea. This is a problem known as Overfishing.

paragraphs: Selective breeding of carp made them into the domesticated koi in Japan, and goldfish in China. This breeding began over 2,000 years ago. The Chinese brought their goldfish indoors during the Song Dynasty. They kept them in large ceramic vessels. That we now do in glass fish tanks.


title: Foot

paragraphs: A foot (one "foot", two or more feet) is a body part on the end of a leg. It is used when walking. It is also important for balance: it helps people stand straight. People also use it to kick, in both fighting and sports, football being an example.

paragraphs: People's hands and feet have the same shape: they both have five "digits" (the fingers and toes). Many other animals with backbones also have five digits. The part of the foot which joins it to the leg is called the "heel". The bottom of the foot is called the "sole". Half the bones in our body are in the foot. Doctors who work with people's feet are "podiatrists" or "chiropodists".

paragraphs: Most land vertebrates have feet, and there are many different sorts of foot. The feet of monkeys are much like the hands. The hard foot of an ungulate is a hoof. When an animal has soft feet, or feet with soft parts on the underside, we often call it a "paw". Many invertebrates also have feet.

paragraphs: Many people like to use footwear, especially outside. It has special names, for example "sandals", "shoes", and "boots". When people always wear footwear, especially in hot places or when they are very active, their feet can smell badly ("foot odour)". Wearing footwear that is too big or small can be bad for the feet. People who have foot, leg, and back problems can also get help from special shoes.

paragraphs: People have different traditions in different parts of the world for when to wear footwear. For example, in much of Europe and Canada, people usually do not wear their shoes or boots in a home or visiting. In the United States people often wear shoes inside a home. In Japan, people do not wear shoes in homes, and floors are often made of very soft materials, too soft for shoes. In cultures where people always wear shoes, people sometimes think it is bad not to wear them. Not wearing shoes can be good for the feet, especially for children's feet.

paragraphs: Conditions like Athlete's foot affect the feet, causing the feet to feel dry and cracked.

paragraphs: In a human foot, there are 26 bones. They are made up of 14 phalanges (toes), 5 metatarsals (sole bones) and 7 tarsals (ankle bones).


title: France

paragraphs: France ( or ; ), officially the French Republic (, ), is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various overseas islands and territories located in other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as "L’Hexagone" ("The Hexagon") because of the shape of its territory. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its main ideals expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

paragraphs: Metropolitan France is bordered (clockwise from the north) by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. France's overseas departments and collectivities also share land borders with Brazil and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and the Netherlands Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin). France is linked to the United Kingdom by the Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English Channel.

paragraphs: France is the largest country in the European Union and the second largest in Europe. It has been one of the world's foremost powers for many centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonized much of North America; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built one of the largest colonial empires of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Pacific islands. France is a developed country and possesses the fifth largest economy in the world, according to nominal GDP figures. It is the most visited country in the world, receiving 82 million foreign tourists annually. France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. It is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, NATO, and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and owns the largest number of nuclear weapons with active warheads and nuclear power plants in the European Union.

paragraphs: France's official language is French, also being official in 29 other countries. Some francophone countries include Haidi, Belgium, and Nigeria.

paragraphs: France is located in Western Europe. France shares its borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. France has two mountain ranges near its borders: the Alps in the east and the Pyrenees in the south. There are many rivers in France, including the Seine and the Loire. In the north and the west of France, there are low hills and river valleys.

paragraphs: In France there are many different climates. The Atlantic has a major effect on the weather in the north and west. This means the temperature is about the same most of the year. It is in the marine west coast climate region. In the east, winters are cold and the weather is good. Summers are hot and stormy. In the south, winters are cool and wet. Summers are hot and dry. The north has a temperate climate similar to that of the United Kingdom and other Northern European countries.

paragraphs: France has the second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world. It covers 11,035,000 km (4,260,637 sq mi). Only the United States has a larger one .

paragraphs: The name "France" comes from the Latin word Francia ', which means "land of the Franks" or "Frankland".

paragraphs: The borders of modern France are about the same as those of ancient Gaul. Celtic Gauls inhabited Ancient Gaul. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul for Rome in the 1st century BC. Eventually, the Gauls adopted Roman speech (Latin, from which the French language evolved) and Roman culture. Christianity first appeared in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. It became firmly established by the fourth and fifth centuries.

paragraphs: In the 4th century AD, the Germanic tribes, principally the Franks invaded the Gauls. This is how the name "Francie" appeared. The modern name "France" comes from the name of the Capetian Kings of France around Paris. The Franks were the first tribe of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Christianity rather than Arianism. The French called themselves "the most Christian Kingdom of France".

paragraphs: The Treaty of Verdun (843), divided Charlemagne's Empire into three parts. The biggest area was Western Francia. It is similar to modern France.

paragraphs: The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet became King of France. His descendants, the Direct Capetians, the House of Valois and the House of Bourbon, unified the country with many wars and dynastic inheritance. The monarchy was the most powerful during the 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV of France. At that time, France had the largest population in Europe. The country had a big influence over European politics, economy, and culture. French became the common language of diplomacy in international affairs. Much of the Enlightenment happened in France. French scientists made big scientific discoveries in the 18th century. France also conquered many overseas possessions in the Americas and Asia.

paragraphs: France had a monarchy until the French Revolution in 1789. The Great King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed in 1793. Thousands of other French citizens were killed. Napoleon Bonaparte took control of the Republic in 1799. He later made himself Emperor of the First Empire (1804–1814). His armies conquered most of continental Europe. The metric system was invented by French scientists during the French revolution.That time 3 estates were developed.

paragraphs: After Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, another monarchy arose. Later Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte created the Second Empire in 1852. Louis-Napoléon was removed after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. The Third Republic replaced his regime.

paragraphs: The large French colonial empire in the 19th century included parts of West Africa and Southeast Asia. The culture and politics of these regions were influenced by France. Many ex-colonies officially speak the French language.

paragraphs: The country actively took part in both the First and Second World Wars, with battles taking place on its soil. During the First World War, millions were killed in the trenches including over a million in the Battle of the Somme. The conditions were extremely difficult for the soldiers on the front. The last surviving veteran was Pierre Picault who died on 20 November 2008 at the age of 109.

paragraphs: During the Second World War, Nazis occupied France. The Allies landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944 and began the Battle of Normandy. German forces lost France in just a few months.

paragraphs: The 13 regions and 96 departments of metropolitan France include Corsica. France is divided into (administrative) regions:

paragraphs: Corsica has a different status than the other 12 metropolitan regions. It is called "collectivité territoriale".

paragraphs: These four overseas regions have the same status as the metropolitan ones. They are like the overseas American states of Alaska and Hawaii.

paragraphs: Then France is divided into 101 departments. The departments are divided into 342 arrondissements. The "arrondissements" are re-divided into 4,032 cantons. The smallest subdivision is the commune (there are 36,699 communes). On January 1, 2008, INSEE counted 36,781 communes in France. 36,569 of them are in metropolitan France and 212 of them are in overseas France.

paragraphs: The government of France is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The constitution declares the nation to be "an indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic". It provides for a separation of powers.

paragraphs: The French armed forces are divided into four branches:

paragraphs: France has about 359,000 military personnel. France spends 2.6% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. This is the highest in the European Union. France and the UK spend 40% of the EU defence budget. About 10% of France's defence budget is for its nuclear weapons force.

paragraphs: France is a member of the United Nations. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and has veto rights. It is also a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It hosts the headquarters of the OECD, UNESCO and Interpol. In 1953, the United Nations asked France to choose a coat of arms to represent them internationally. The French emblem is now on their passports.

paragraphs: France was a founding member of the European Union. In the 1960s, France wanted to exclude the United Kingdom from the organisation. It wanted to build its own economic power in continental Europe. France and Germany became closer after World War II. This was to try to become the most influential country in the EU. It limited the influence of the new Eastern European members. France is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). However, under President de Gaulle, it left the joint military command. In the early 1990s, France received criticism for its underground nuclear tests in French Polynesia. France vigorously opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. France retains strong political and economic influence in its former African colonies. For instance it has supplied economic aid and troops for peace-keeping missions in the Ivory Coast and Chad.

paragraphs: France is a member of the G8 group of leading industrialised countries. France has the eighth-largest economy in the world by Gross domestic product (GDP) (which takes into account how much it costs to live in different countries and inflation rates). France and 11 other European Union members jointly launched the euro on 1 January 1999 and started using it in 2002.

paragraphs: France's economy has nearly 2.9 million registered companies. The government has a considerable influence over railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunications firms (as it owns big companies like SNCF and EDF (French electricity)). France has an important aerospace (design of aircraft and spacecraft) industry led by Airbus. It can also launch rockets from French Guiana.

paragraphs: France has invested a lot in nuclear power. This made France the smallest producer of carbon dioxide among the seven most industrialised countries in the world. As a result, 59 nuclear power plants generate most of the electricity produced in the country (78% in 2006, up from only 8% in 1973, 24% in 1980, and 75% in 1990).

paragraphs: France is the leading agricultural producer and exporter in Europe. France exports wheat, poultry, dairy products, beef, and pork. It is also famous for its wine industry. France received 10 billion euros in 2006 from the European Community as subsidies to its farmers.

paragraphs: At one time, the Factory Act of 1833 limited the workday for women and children to 11 hours a day.

paragraphs: On 1 January 2008, it was estimated that 63.8 million people live in France, including in the Overseas Regions of France. 61,875,000 of these live in metropolitan France, the part of the country that is within Europe.

paragraphs: The major ethnic groups living in France today are descended from Celtic people and Roman people. The significant minority groups living in France are:

paragraphs: French is the official language of France. It belongs to the Romance language group, which includes Italian and Spanish. Many regional dialects are also used in France. Alsatian, a German dialect, is spoken in Alsace and in parts of Lorraine in eastern France. French was the language of diplomacy and culture in Europe between the 17th and 19th century and is still widely used.

paragraphs: Some people in France also speak Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, German, Flemish, and Occitan.

paragraphs: France is a secular country and the constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The population is about 51% Roman Catholic, and 31% of people are agnostics or atheists. 5% are Muslim, 3% say they are Protestant and 1% say they are Jewish. 10% are from other religions or do not have an opinion about religion. There are also Zoroastrian, Unitarian Universalist, Jain and Wiccan communities. Religions founded in France include Raelism.

paragraphs: French literature began in the Middle Ages. French was divided into several dialects at the time. Some authors spelled words differently from one other.

paragraphs: During the 17th century, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Molière, Blaise Pascal and René Descartes were the main authors.

paragraphs: In the 18th and 19th centuries, French literature and poetry reached its best. The 18th century saw writings of authors, essayists and moralists as Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

paragraphs: As for French children's literature in those times, Charles Perrault wrote stories such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "Beauty and the Beast", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Puss in Boots".

paragraphs: Many famous French novels were written in the 19th century by authors such as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne. They wrote popular novels like The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte-Cristo, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables. Other 19th century fiction writers include Emile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Théophile Gautier and Stendhal.

paragraphs: Famous novels were written during the 20th century by Marcel Proust, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Houellebecq.

paragraphs: The Tour de France cycling race in July is one of the best-known sporting events. It is a three-week race of around 3,500 km that covers most of France and ends in the centre of Paris, on the "Avenue des Champs-Elysées". Football is another popular sport in France. The French team won the FIFA World Cup in 1998 and 2018. They also won the UEFA European Football Championship in 1984 and 2000. France also hosts the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race. France also hosted the Rugby World Cup in 2007 and finished fourth.

paragraphs: France is closely associated with the Modern Olympic Games. At the end of the 19th century, the Baron Pierre de Coubertin suggested having the Olympic Games again. France hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1900 and 1924, in Paris. France will host the Summer Olympics in 2024, in Paris. France also hosted the Winter Games three times: in 1924 in Chamonix, in 1968 in Grenoble, and in 1992 in Albertville.

paragraphs: French cuisine has influenced the style of cooking throughout Europe, and its chefs work in restaurants throughout the world.

paragraphs: The roots of modern "haute cuisine" lie in chefs like La Varenne (1615–1678) and the notable chef of Napoleon, Marie-Antoine Carême (1784–1833). These chefs developed a lighter style of food compared to the food of the Middle Ages. They used fewer spices, and more herbs and creamy ingredients.

paragraphs: Typical ingredients like roux and fish stock, and techniques such as marinading, and dishes such as ragout, were invented. Carême was an expert pâtissier (pastry-maker), and this is still a mark of French cooking. He developed basic sauces, his 'mother sauces'; he had over a hundred sauces in his repertoire, based on the half-dozen mother sauces.

paragraphs: French cuisine was introduced in the 20th century by Georges Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935). He was a genius at organisation. He worked out how to run large restaurants, as in a big hotel or a palace; how the staff should be organised; how the menu was prepared. He had methods for everything. Escoffier's largest contribution was the publication of "Le Guide Culinaire" in 1903, which established the fundamentals of French cookery. Escoffier managed the restaurants and cuisine at the Savoy Hotel and Carlton Hotel in London, the Hôtel Ritz Paris, and some of the greatest cruise ships.

paragraphs: Escoffier, however, left out much of the culinary character to be found in the regions of France.

paragraphs: Gastro-tourism and the "Guide Michelin" helped to make people familiar with the rich bourgeois and peasant cuisine of the French countryside in the 20th century. Gascon cuisine has also had great influence over the cuisine in the southwest of France. Many dishes that were once regional have become common all over the country. Cheese and wine are a major part of the cuisine, playing different roles regionally and nationally. In the north of France, people often prefer to use butter to cook. In the south, they prefer olive oil and garlic. In France, each region has its own special dish; choucroute in Alsace, quiche in Lorraine, cassoulet in the Languedoc-Roussillon, and tapenade in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

paragraphs: In November 2010, French gastronomy was added by UNESCO to its lists of the world's 'intangible cultural heritage'.

paragraphs: France is the number one tourist destination in the world. In 2007, 81.9 million foreign tourists visited France. Spain comes second (58.5 million in 2006) and the United States come third (51.1 million in 2006).

paragraphs: Some of the most famous attractions in Paris, are the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Another one is Mont Saint Michel, in Normandy.

paragraphs: A European Disneyland is located in a suburb east of Paris. The resort opened in 1992 and is also a popular tourist destination in Europe.


title: Finland

paragraphs: Finland (Finnish: "Suomi") is a country in Northern Europe and is a member state of the European Union. Finland is one of the Nordic countries and is also part of Fennoscandia. Finland is located between the 60th and 70th latitudes North. Its neighbours are Sweden to the west, Norway to the north, Russia to the east and Estonia to the south, beyond the sea called Gulf of Finland. Most of western and southern coast is on the shore of the Baltic Sea.

paragraphs: The capital of Finland is Helsinki; the second largest city is Tampere. The official currency of the country is the euro (EUR); before 2002 it was the markka, the Finnish mark (FIM). The president of Finland is Sauli Niinistö. 5.5 million people live in Finland. Finnish and Swedish both are the official languages of Finland; the most spoken languages is Finnish, mother tongue of about 90% of the population. Swedish is spoken by the Swedish speaking minority of Finland, called the Finnish Swedes, who make up 5% of the total population. Finland became independent of Russia on 6 December 1917.

paragraphs: The most important cities and towns in Finland are Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku, Oulu, Lahti, Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Pori.

paragraphs: Finland is a highly industrialised First World country. The most important Finnish industrial products are paper, and steel products such as machines and electronics. Nokia (the mobile company) is originally a company of Finland, named after a small town called Nokia.

paragraphs: Finland has been top of the list of least corrupt countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index more times than any other country.

paragraphs: The people of Finland are called Finns. Most Finns speak Finnish as their mother tongue. About six percent of Finns have the Swedish language as their mother tongue. They live mostly in the western part of Finland and on Åland (Finnish Ahvenanmaa)

paragraphs: Finns also study mandatory English and Swedish in school. Most Finns work either in services (that is: shops, banks, offices or businesses) or in factories. Finns often like saunas and nature. Many Finnish families have summer cottages, small houses where they go to relax on their summer holidays. The most important festivals that Finnish people celebrate are Midsummer and Christmas.

paragraphs: The most popular sports in Finland are ice hockey, skiing, track and field and association football (soccer). Finns have also won events in swimming, motor sports and gymnastics.

paragraphs: There is a group of a few thousand Samis (also called Lapps) in the most northern part of Finland, called Lapland. Most of the Samis live in Norway and Sweden. Many Sami people farm reindeers. Originally, Samis were hunter-gatherers. In the past the Sami were nomads, but nowadays they live in regular houses.

paragraphs: Very few people in Finland are from other countries. In 2016 about 4% of residents were born in another country.

paragraphs: Most of Finland is covered by pine forest. The swan, which was considered holy long ago, is the national bird of Finland. Wood is the most important natural resource of Finland. It is estimated that up to one-third of all wood resources of the European Union are in Finland.

paragraphs: The national animal of Finland is the brown bear. The largest animal is the elk, a type of moose, which is a member of the deer family.

paragraphs: There are hundreds of rivers and thousands of fresh water lakes. Fishing is a popular sport. It is estimated there are almost 180,000 lakes in Finland.

paragraphs: Many islands in the Baltic Sea belong to Finland, too. Thousands of islands are part of the Åland archipelago. Tourists from all over the world come to see the fells and the northern lights in Lapland.

paragraphs: The highest mountain of Finland is Halti, which is 1328 meters high. The largest lake is Saimaa, 4,400 square kilometres. The longest river of Finland is Tornionjoki. The largest river (by watershed) is Kemijoki, 552 kilometres long.

paragraphs: The weather in Finland varies widely by season. Summer usually lasts from May to early September, and temperatures can reach up to +35 °C. Autumns are dark and rainy. Winter snow usually begins to fall in Helsinki in early December (in Lapland it can fall as early as October) and in the winter the temperature can drop to -30 °C. Winter usually lasts to mid-March, when the snow melts in Helsinki (in Lapland the snow usually doesn't melt until early May), and Spring lasts till late May. Spring can be erratic, and the weather can change from frost to sunshine within a matter of days. The famed Northern Lights are common in Lapland.

paragraphs: People first came to Finland 10,000 years ago. That was just after an ice age, after a glacier that covered the ground had receded.

paragraphs: Some think the first people in Finland already spoke a language similar to the Finnish language that is spoken today. It is known that an early form of the Finnish language was spoken in Finland in the Iron Age. (The Iron Age in Finland was 2,500–800 years ago).

paragraphs: The first residents in Finland hunted animals, as "hunter-gatherers". Some people started to farm crops about 5,200 years ago. Farming slowly became more and more popular and became the major way of life until the modern age.

paragraphs: The ancient Finns were pagans. The most important god of the Finnish pantheon was Ukko. He was a god of sky and thunder, much like Odin, another Scandinavian god-king. These powers were common among the pagan god kings in pantheons ranging from the Finnish Ukko, to the Scandinavian/Germanic/Saxon Odin, all the way east to Zeus of the Greeks and Jupiter of the Romans.

paragraphs: Around a thousand years ago, when most of Europe was adopting Christianity, Finland also began following Christianity. During the Reformation of Christianity in the 16th century, most Finns became Protestants. Some pagan practices still remain amongst the now Christian Finns, such as bear worship.

paragraphs: From the Middle Ages Finland was a part of Sweden. Then, in the year 1809, Russia took Finland from Sweden. Finland was a part of Russia, but after a short period of time it became autonomous. The Finns essentially controlled Finland, though the Tsar was in control officially. Finns could create their own laws and had their own currency, (called the "markka"), their own stamps and own customs. However, Finland did not have its own army.

paragraphs: During the 1905 Russian Revolution, in the Grand Duchy of Finland:

paragraphs: the Social Democrats organised the general strike of 1905 (). The Red Guards were formed. On , Russian artillerymen and military engineers rose to rebellion in the fortress of Sveaborg (later called Suomenlinna), Helsinki. The Finnish Red Guards supported the Sveaborg Rebellion with a general strike, but the mutiny was quelled by loyal troops and ships of the Baltic Fleet within 60 hours.

paragraphs: On 6 December 1917, Finland became independent, which meant that it no longer was a part of Russia. There was a communist revolution in Russia and after 1922 Russia was a part of the Soviet Union. There were communists in Finland too, who tried to create a revolution in Finland

paragraphs: This attempt at revolution caused the Finnish civil war. The communists lost the civil war, and Finland did not change its old capitalist system

paragraphs: Stalin, who was the leader of the Soviet Union, did not like having a capitalist country as its neighbour. Stalin wanted Finland to become a communist state and be a part of the Soviet Union. The leaders of Finland refused: they wanted to stay independent. The Soviet Union sent many troops across the eastern border of Finland to try to make Finland join them, which resulted in the Winter War. The Soviet Union eventually won, and took most of Karelia and other parts of Finland.

paragraphs: Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Germany, and he wanted to invade the Soviet Union. Finland wanted to retrieve the areas that it had lost, so they joined the German invasion, which started with Operation Barbarossa in 1941. The Finnish part of the Second World War is called the Continuation War in Finland. However, Finland was not a fascist or an antisemitic country. Finns were interested in freedom rather than dictatorship.

paragraphs: While Germany was losing the war, Finland had already progressed into the Soviet Union in order to regain the areas lost in the previous peace. Finland wanted to end the war with the Soviet Union, which resulted in peace. Once again Finland had to give up the areas they had conquered. This time, the peace with the Soviet Union made Finland and Germany enemies. Finns fought the Germans, and Germans retreated to Norway, burning down all of Lapland behind them. This is called the Lapland War. Finland remained independent.

paragraphs: After the war, many factories were built in Finland. Many people moved from farms to cities. At that time, big factories manufactured products like paper and steel. More and more people worked in more advanced jobs, like high technology. Also, many people went to universities to get a good education. Finland was one of the first countries where most people had Internet connections and mobile phones. A well-known company that makes mobile phones, Nokia, is from Finland.

paragraphs: Finland joined the European Union in 1995. The Finnish currency was changed to the euro in 2002.

paragraphs: Finland has a mixed economy. Free market controls most of production and sales of goods, but public sector is involved in services. In 2013, taxes were 44% of gross national product. This is 4th largest in Europe, after Denmark, France and Belgium.

paragraphs: In 2014 services were 70% of the gross national product.

paragraphs: The largest company in 2014 was oil refinery Neste Oil. The second largest was Nokia. Two forest industries Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene, were numbers three and four. Number five was Kesko which sells everyday goods in K-supermarkets.

paragraphs: Elections are organized to select 200 members to the Parliament of Finland. Also selected are the president of Finland, members of town and city councils and Finnish members to the European Parliament. The elections are secret and direct. People vote directly for the person they want to be elected. In presidential elections votes are only cast for a person, not for a political party. All the other elections are proportional. The system is a combination of voting for individuals and parties. The right to vote is universal and equal. In general elections everybody has one vote.


title: Fruit

paragraphs: In botany, a fruit is a plant structure that contains the plant's seeds. To a botanist, the word "fruit" is used only if it comes from the part of the flower which was an ovary. It is an extra layer round the seeds, which may or may not be fleshy. However, even in the field of botany, there is no general agreement on how fruits should be classified. Many do have extra layers from other parts of the flower.

paragraphs: In general speech, and especially in cooking, fruits are a sweet product, and many botanical fruits are known as vegetables. This is how ordinary people use the words. On this page, we describe what botanists call a fruit.

paragraphs: The fleshy part of a fruit is called the mesocarp. It is between the fruit's skin (exocarp) and the seeds. The white part of an apple, for example, is the "fleshy" part of the apple. Usually, when we eat a fruit, we eat the "fleshy" part.

paragraphs: If the entire fruit is fleshy, except for maybe a thin skin, we call the fruit a berry. A berry might contain one seed or many. Grapes, avocados, and blueberries are berries. They all have a thin skin, but most of the fruit is fleshy. Strawberries, however, are actually "not" berries, because the seeds are on the outside: on a real berry, the seed or seeds must be inside.

paragraphs: A pepo (pronounced "pee' po") is a modified berry. Its skin is hard and thick and is usually called a "rind". Pumpkins and watermelons, for instance, are pepos.

paragraphs: A hesperidium is another modified berry. It has a leathery skin that is not as hard as the skin of a pepo. All citrus fruit like oranges and lemon are hesperidiums.

paragraphs: A pome (pohm) is a fruit that has a core surrounded by fleshy tissue that we can eat. The core is usually not eaten. Berries are different - the seeds are "inside" the fleshy part, not separated from it by a core. Apples and pears are pomes.

paragraphs: Drupes are also called stone fruit. A drupe is a fleshy fruit with a hard stone around the seed. We usually call this "stone" the "pit" of the fruit. Peaches and olives are drupes. Actually, the almond fruit is a drupe, too, though we eat the seed that is inside the "pit" of the almond fruit.

paragraphs: Since fruits are produced from fertilised ovaries in flowers, only flowering plants produce fruits. Fruits are an evolutionary 'invention' which help seeds get dispersed by animals.

paragraphs: The botanical term includes many that are not "fruits" in the common sense of the term. such as the vegetables squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, tomato, peas, beans, corn, eggplant, and sweet pepper and some spices, such as allspice and chillies.

paragraphs: An accessory fruit or false fruit (pseudocarp) is a fruit in which some of the flesh is derived not from the ovary but from some adjacent tissue.

paragraphs: A fig is a type of accessory fruit called a syconium. Pomes, such as apples and pears, are also accessory fruits: the core is the true fruit.

paragraphs: Strictly speaking, these are not botanical fruits:

paragraphs: These are fruits which you can buy in shops, and which are also acceptable as botanical fruits:

paragraphs: Many fruits come from trees or bushes. For plants, fruits are a means of dispersal, usually by animals. When the fruit breaks apart, the seeds can go into the ground and begin to grow. Most fruits we eat contain a lot of water and natural sugars, and many are high in Vitamin C. They have a large amount of dietary fibre. Fruits are usually low in protein and fat content, but avocados and some nuts are exceptions to this. Not only humans, but our closest living relatives (primates) are keen fruit-eaters. So are many other groups of herbivorous mammals and many birds.

paragraphs: Seedlessness is an important feature of some fruits of commerce. Commercial bananas, pineapple, and watermelons are examples of seedless fruits. Some citrus fruits, especially oranges, satsumas, mandarin oranges, and grapefruit are valued for their seedlessness.

paragraphs: Seedless bananas and grapes are triploids, and seedlessness results from the abortion of the embryonic plant which is produced by fertilisation. The method requires normal pollination and fertilisation.


title: Farm

paragraphs: A farm is a piece of land used to grow crops and/or raise animals.

paragraphs: People who grow these plants or raise these animals are called farmers. This work is called farming.

paragraphs: Land that is used to grow plants is called farmland. Land that is used to feed animals with its grass is called pasture. Land that can be used to grow plants for food is called arable land.

paragraphs: Many farms are very large and can cause damage. In some places farms are many and small, and can also cause damage.

paragraphs: There are many types of farming. Some people farm to eat the food they produce (subsistence agriculture). Other farms, including large ones, sell their products to markets far away in urban areas (commercial or industrial farming). Most subsistence farms are in poorer countries, while industrial farms are in richer countries.


title: Geography

paragraphs: Geography (from Greek: , "geographia", literally "earth description") is the study of earth and its people. Its features are things like continents, seas, rivers and mountains. Its inhabitants are all the people and animals that live on it. Its phenomena are the things that happen like tides, winds, and earthquakes.

paragraphs: A person who is an expert in geography is a geographer. A geographer tries to understand the world and the things that are in it, how they started and how they have changed.

paragraphs: Geography is divided into two main parts called physical geography and human geography. Physical geography studies the natural environment and human geography studies the human environment. The human environmental studies would include things such as the population in a country, how a country's economy is doing, and more. There is also environmental geography.

paragraphs: Maps are a main tool of geography, so geographers spend much time making and studying them. Making maps is called cartography, and people who specialize in making maps are cartographers.

paragraphs: Physical geography (or physiography) focuses on geography as an Earth science. It aims to understand the physical problems and the issues of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere, and global flora and fauna patterns (biosphere).

paragraphs: Physical geography can be divided into many broad categories, including:

paragraphs: Human geography is the social science that covers the study of people and their communities, cultures, economies and their interaction with the environment. Geographers studying the human environment may look at:

paragraphs: The oldest known world map dates back to ancient Babylon from the 9th century BC. The best known Babylonian world map is the "Imago Mundi" of 600 BC. Star charts (maps of the sky) are of similar age.

paragraphs: During the Middle Ages, people in Europe made fewer maps. People in the Islamic world made more. Abū Zayd al-Balkhī created the "Balkhī school" of mapping in Baghdad.


title: Good

paragraphs: The word good can be an adjective that means something that is wanted. Something that is good is not bad. See good in the dictionary.


title: Goodness

paragraphs: Goodness can mean that something is good, or it can mean the amount that something is good.

paragraphs: What goodness is has been talked about by philosophers who try to explain what goodness is.

paragraphs: In food, goodness is the part that is beneficial.


title: Grammar

paragraphs: Grammar is the study of words, how they are used in sentences, and how they change in different situations. The Ancient Greeks used to call it "grammatikē tékhnē", the craft of letters. It can have any of these meanings:

paragraphs: When we speak, we use the native person's grammar, or as near as we can. When we write, we try to write with correct grammar. So, speaking and writing a language each have their own style.

paragraphs: All languages have their own grammar. Most European languages are rather similar.

paragraphs: English makes few changes to its word endings ('suffixes'). In the Italic or 'Romance' languages (such as French, Italian, and Spanish), word endings carry a lot of meaning. In English we have just a few: plurals and possessives ("John's") are the most common. In our verbs we have dropped most endings except one: I love, you love, but "she loves". That final 's' comes from the Anglo-Saxon, which had more suffixes. Verbs do have endings which show changes in tense: walked, walking.

paragraphs: Word order is the other big difference. Romance languages normally put adjectives after the nouns to which they refer. For example, in English, a person may say "I like fast cars", but in Spanish, it is "Me gustan los coches rápidos". The order of the words has changed: if just the words, without the grammar, are translated into English, it would mean 'to me they please the cars fast'. This is because Spanish and English have different rules about word order. In German, verbs often come near the end of sentences (as: "Die Katze hat die Nahrung gegessen."), whereas in English we usually put them between subject and object, as: "the cat has eaten the food".

paragraphs: Written grammar changes slowly but spoken grammar is more fluid. Sentences which English speakers find normal today, might have seemed strange 100 years ago. And they might not, because many of our favourite sayings come from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible, and from Shakespeare.

paragraphs: Different people speak with grammar that differs from that of other people. For example, people who use the dialects called General American English and BBC English might say, "I didn't do anything", while someone who speaks what is called African American Vernacular English or AAVE might say, "I didn't do nothing". London working class version: "I ain't done nuffink!" These are called "double negatives", and are found almost entirely in spoken English, and seldom written.

paragraphs: These differences are called dialects. The dialect a person uses is usually decided by where they live. Even though the dialects of English use different words or word order, they still have grammar rules. However, when writing in American English, grammar uses the rules of General American English. When people talk about using 'proper English', they usually mean using the grammar of general British English, as described in standard reference works. The models for "spoken" English in Britain are often called Received Pronunciation or BBC English.

paragraphs: Grammar studies nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, sentences, phrases, clauses, interjections.

paragraphs: Nouns are 'thing' words like 'table and 'chair'. They are objects, things you see in everyday life. Proper nouns are names of specific places, people, or other things like days of the week. The name 'James' is a proper noun, as is 'Wednesday' and 'London'. Nouns can also be abstract things, such as 'suffering' or 'happiness'.

paragraphs: Verbs are words that describe actions: "Ryan threw the ball". State: "I am worried". The basic verb form is called the infinitive. The infinitive for existence is "to be". A famous example is the speech of Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is the question".

paragraphs: Variations of the infinitive create verb tenses.

paragraphs: Adjectives describe nouns. For example, the pretty in "pretty bicycle" says that the bicycle is pretty. In other words, the "pretty" is describing the bicycle. This can also happen with a place. For example, the tall in "that's a tall building" is describing the building.

paragraphs: Grammar studies syntax which is how the "parts of speech" fit together according to rules and create sentences. Sentences fit together and create paragraphs.


title: Great Lakes

paragraphs: The Great Lakes are five large lakes in east-central North America. They hold 21% of the world's surface fresh water.

paragraphs: Four of the Great Lakes are on the border between Canada and the United States of America. The other, Lake Michigan, is completely inside the United States.

paragraphs: All together, by volume, they are the largest group of fresh water lakes in the world. No one of the Lakes is larger than Lake Baikal (Russia) or Lake Tanganyika (East Africa).

paragraphs: The cities of Chicago, Illinois (9.8 million people, on Lake Michigan), Toronto, Ontario (5.5 million, on Lake Ontario); Detroit, Michigan (5.3 million, on the Detroit river); Montreal, Quebec (3.9 million, on the St. Lawrence River), Cleveland, Ohio (2.9 million, on Lake Erie), Buffalo, and Ottawa (1.2 million, Ontario, on the Ottawa River) are on the shores of the Great Lakes or their rivers.

paragraphs: Though the five lakes have separate basins, they form a single, connected body of freshwater. The lakes connect the east-central interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie are approximately equally high and ships can easily pass from one to the next. Water flows from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan into Lake Huron; then through the Detroit River into Lake Erie; then through Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario; and then through the Saint Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. Water also drains from the Chicago River on the south.

paragraphs: Many rivers flow through a large watershed into the lakes. The lakes have about 35,000 islands. The Great Lakes region includes the five lakes and many thousands of smaller lakes, often called "inland lakes".

paragraphs: Lake Michigan and Lake Huron hit all-time record low levels in 2013.

paragraphs: The unusual shape of the Great Lakes has created the possibility of large waves called seiche. If a storm causes a fast, strong increase in air pressure on one side of a lake, the water level on that side of the lake will drop and suddenly push up the water level on the opposite side of the lake. A 10 foot tall wave in Chicago caused several deaths in 1954.

paragraphs: The Great Lakes are home to a variety of species of fish and other organisms. In recent years, overfishing caused a decline in lake trout. The drop in lake trout increased the alewife population. In response, the government introduced salmon as a predator to decrease the alewife population. This program was so successful that the salmon population rose rapidly, and the states surrounding Lake Michigan promoted 'salmon snagging'. This has been made illegal in all of the Great Lakes states except for a limited season in Illinois. Lake Michigan is now being stocked with several species of fish. However, several invader species such as lampreys, round goby, and zebra mussels threaten the native fish populations.

paragraphs: Accidentally introduced species are a big problem. Since the 19th century about 160 species have invaded the Great Lakes ecosystem, causing severe economic and ecological impacts. According to the Inland Seas Education Association, they deprive fish of food, cause blooms of toxic algae, and foul boats, spawning areas and drinking water intakes. On average a new invasive species enters the Great Lakes every eight months.

paragraphs: Two important infestations in the Great Lakes are the zebra mussel, first discovered in 1988, and the quagga mussel in 1989. These molluscs are efficient filter feeders. They compete with native mussels, and also reduce available food and spawning grounds for fish.

paragraphs: Also, the mussels hurt utility and manufacturing industries by clogging or blocking pipes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that the economic impact of the zebra mussel will be about $5 billion over the next decade. Because the quagga mussel is good at filtering plankton from the lake water, sunlight reaches deeper into the lake. This increases the growth of algae.

paragraphs: Chemicals from industrial plants run off the land into rivers and arrive in the lakes. Some of these chemicals are highly toxic, such as mercury. Contaminated water from sewer overflows also reaches the lakes, and beaches get closed because of the threat of pathogenic bacteria.


title: GNU Free Documentation License

paragraphs: The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for open content such as software. It was made by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU project. It was initially created for use with software documentation, but can be applied to other types of works as well, such as Wikipedia.

paragraphs: As a copyright license, the GFDL is a type of contract between the creator of a copyrightable work (such as a book, an encyclopedia article, a painting, or a piece of music) and anyone else who might want to use it. The GFDL is considered "copyleft" because the license is meant to make it easier to use and re-use the copyrighted work, not to restrict its use.

paragraphs: If a copyrightable work is released under the GFDL, the creator of the work is saying that anyone else may reproduce, distribute, or modify the work, as long as they follow a set of requirements specified in the GFDL. Among the requirements of the GFDL are that any new work created from the original work is also licensed under the GFDL—that is, once something is licensed as GFDL, it will always stay licensed as GFDL, and anything which uses it also is licensed as GFDL.

paragraphs: The GFDL also says that in order to distribute or modify a work licensed with the GFDL, the re-user must give credit to any previous authors of the work, and include a list of changes they made to the work.

paragraphs: Finally, any work licensed with the GFDL must contain, somewhere, the entire text of the license. This provision has been criticized, because it is not always easy to include an entire, long license with a copyrighted work. In a book, for example, it is easy to include one extra page with the license, but if the work is something like a song, or a photograph, it is not easy.

paragraphs: The GFDL has other requirements that are more complicated. For example, if part of the work is labeled as an "invariant section," it cannot ever be removed or changed by someone using the work ("invariant" means "does not change").

paragraphs: Works licensed under the GFDL may be included in with non-GFDL-licensed works only if it is clear which parts of the work are licensed as the GFDL. For example, in a book of poetry it would be easy to label some poems as licensed under the GFDL and some not licensed under it. But it would not be easy to label if part of a song was licensed as GFDL and the rest was not, so this would not be allowed.

paragraphs: Any use of GFDL material which violates the terms of the GFDL is potentially copyright infringement. Infringement issues are managed through a community based approach with the approval and assistance of the Free Software Foundation.

paragraphs: A number of online projects use the GFDL. An online project to license its content under the GFDL is Wikipedia.

paragraphs: The GFDL has been criticized by many people who wish that it made it even easier for content to be re-used. Among the criticisms are that it is very hard to combine GFDL material with other copyleft licenses, that it is not always clear and easy to understand, and that some of its requirements, such as the "invariant sections", are not free at all.

paragraphs: The GFDL was released in draft form for feedback in September 1999. After revisions, version 1.1 was issued in March 2000, version 1.2 in November 2002, and version 1.3 in November 2008. The current state of the license is version 1.3.

paragraphs: Material licensed under the current version of the license can be used for any purpose, as long as the use meets certain conditions.


title: Glass

paragraphs: Glass is a hard material that can be made in many shapes. It is usually transparent, but it can also be made in colours. Glass is mainly made of silica; glass made of silica only is called silica glass.

paragraphs: Glass used to make windows and bottles is a specific type called soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silicon dioxide (SiO), sodium oxide (NaO) from sodium carbonate (NaCO), calcium oxide, also called lime (CaO), and several minor additives.

paragraphs: By changing the proportions, and adding different ingredients, many kinds of glass can be made. Coloured glass is made by adding small amounts of metal oxides. For example, a blue colour is given by tiny amounts of cobalt oxide.

paragraphs: Crystal glass is made by adding lead and zinc oxides. It is not actually a crystal because all glass is a non-crystalline solid. Crystal glass is called cut glass if it has been cut by hand:

paragraphs: Because glass is used to make lenses, the word "glasses" often means eyeglasses.

paragraphs: The myth that glass is actually a liquid comes from the fact that old windows in houses and churches (200–300 years old) are sometimes a little out of shape: thicker at the bottom than the top. This is actually due to the process of glass making in the past which led to the glass pane being thicker at one edge than the other. It was sensible to install the windows with the thick edge at the bottom. Sometimes a window can be found with the thick edge at the top of the window.

paragraphs: Glass can be recycled over and over. Glass bottles and jars can easily be recycled to make new glass bottles and jars or used in industry as aggregate (building material) or sand.


title: God

paragraphs: According to certain philosophies, religions and mythologies, God is the creator of the Earth and of everything else. Hinduism says that there is one God who can come in many forms. Theists believe that God created everything that exists and has ever existed. In most religions, God is believed to be immortal (cannot die), and to have unlimited power.

paragraphs: The belief that God or gods exist is usually called theism. People who reject belief that God or any deities exist are called atheists. Agnostics think we cannot know for sure whether God or gods exist, but still might (or might not) believe at least one deity exists. People who believe in God but not in traditional religions are called "deists". People who believe that the definition of ""God"" should be defined before taking a theological position are ignostic.

paragraphs: In some religions there are many gods. This is called polytheism. They may or may not believe in a Supreme Being above the gods. Some polytheistic religions are Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, Wicca and variants of Buddhism that syncronised with traditional folk religions it came into contact with. The belief that there is only one god is called monotheism. People who only believe in one god usually write God with an uppercase first letter. Some monotheistic religions are Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Bahá'í Faith and Sikhism. In English the word "gods" is written in lowercase letters. "God" is usually written with an uppercase letter when it refers to the Supreme Being. Some polytheists also use uppercase when talking about their most important god.

paragraphs: Many people have asked themselves if God exists. Philosophers, theologians, and others have tried to prove that it exists, and others have tried to disprove the theory. In philosophical terminology, such arguments are about the epistemology of the ontology of God. The debate exists mainly in philosophy, as science does not address whether or not supernatural things exist.

paragraphs: There are many philosophical issues with the existence of God. Some definitions of God are not specific. Arguments for the existence of God typically include metaphysical, empirical, inductive, and subjective types. Some theories are built around holes in evolutionary theory, as well as order and complexity in the world. Arguments against the existence of God typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive arguments. Conclusions sometimes include: "God does not exist" (strong atheism); "God almost certainly does not exist" ("de facto" atheism); "no one knows whether God exists" (agnosticism); "God exists, but this cannot be proven or disproven" (deism or theism); and "God exists and this can be proven" (theism). There are many variations on these positions, and sometimes different names for some of them. For example, the position "God exists and this can be proven" is sometimes called "gnostic theism" or "strong theism".

paragraphs: There are different names for God in different religions. Some examples are Yahweh, Elohim in Judaism and Christianity, Allah in Islam, Baha in Bahá'í Faith, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism.

paragraphs: By the year 2000, approximately 53% of the world's population were part of one of the three main Abrahamic religions (33% Christian, 20% Islam, less than 1% Judaism), 6% with Buddhism, 13% with Hinduism, 6% with traditional Chinese religion, 7% with various other religions, and less than 15% as non-religious. Most of these religious beliefs involve God or gods. Some religions do not believe in god or do not include the concept of god.

paragraphs: Abrahamic religions are very popular monotheistic ones. Well-known Abrahamic religions include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Monotheistic means the people in these religions believe there is only one God. The name of God is usually not allowed to be said in Judaism, but some Jews today call him YHWH (Yahweh) or Jehovah. Muslims say the word Allah, which is the Arabic word for "God."

paragraphs: Believers in the Abrahamic religions (except Islamic believers) believe that God has created human beings in his image, but this idea is not easily understood by humankind. One artistic idea is that of an wise elder man in use since the Renaissance.

paragraphs: The Christian Holy Bible talks about God in different ways. Within Christian canon the Old Testament talks about "God the Father", whilst the New Testament is about Jesus, or "God the Son". Many Christians believe that Jesus was God's incarnation on Earth. Christians consider the Holy Spirit to be God as well, the third person of God.

paragraphs: In the New Testament, there are three beings who are said to be God in different forms: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (also known as the Holy Ghost). This is called the Holy Trinity. Although the word "Trinity" is not in the Bible, the word used for God in chapter one of Genesis is actually plural, and the phrase "in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit' is used in the New Testament, (e.g. Matthew 28:19). Another word that Christians believe has exactly the same meaning as "Trinity" is the word "Godhead", which "is" in the Holy Bible.

paragraphs: Christians believe that God incarnated in a human body, through the normal birth process, normally growing up into a man named Jesus or (Yeshua), coming to Earth specifically to give every person an opportunity of salvation from their own evil, called sin. The effect of personal evil far transcends the repercussions humans cause to one another in the world, but affects one's relationship with God the Father, and that aspect of the self cannot be addressed through one's own self-improvement efforts, but requires God to intervene in order to set one right. When Jesus prayed and talked to God, he called him "Father," and taught others to do the same.

paragraphs: Jesus also taught that one must be born again in order to receive God's Spirit, otherwise one remains separated from God, acting merely from their own mind, thus being vulnerable to deception by human philosophies or the many spiritual philosophies which do not come from God but from Fallen angels, which are within various false religions. After a person consciously accepts the free gift of eternal life, which Jesus's sacrifice offers, God comes to live in the individual, as God lived in humankind before the Fall.

paragraphs: In Hinduism, there is only one God, named Brahman, but Brahman is said to have taken on many different incarnations. Some of these are Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Shiva, Kali, Parvati, and Durga. To many outsiders, the worship of God's different incarnations is considered to be the worship of many gods. However, it is really only the worship of one God in different ways.

paragraphs: Some Hindus also believe that the spirit of God lives in everyone. This idea is called Advaita Vedanta, which is the Hindu term for Monism.

paragraphs: Religions like Buddhism and Confucianism involve the worship of many gods, or sometimes no gods at all.

paragraphs: In Shinto, there is not a single specific God, as is in most religions, but instead, a wide variety of deities called "kami", they are the spirit and essence of all nature things, both animate and inanimate, even including rocks, trees and poetry, for example. As Shinto is a polytheistic religion, it is usually believed that there are "eight-million Kami" (八百万の神 yaoyorozu-no-kami), in the Japanese language, the number "eight-million" is normally used to mean infinity.

paragraphs: Philosophers can talk about God or god; sometimes they talk about a specific god, but other times they are just talking about the idea of god.

paragraphs: One of the earliest Western philosophers to write about God in a monotheistic way was the Greek Aristotle, who describes god as the Supreme Cause. Aristotle saw God as a being that makes everything happen, but is not influenced by anything else.

paragraphs: The idea of an "all powerful" God raises some interesting questions. One of them is called the God paradox. It asks whether God can make a mountain (or rock) that is so heavy he cannot lift it. The question considers if a god "who can do anything" could do two things that are mutually contradictory.

paragraphs: There have been several attempts to prove the existence of God with logic. Blaise Pascal said that it is better to believe there is a god, than to believe there isn't. This argument is known as Pascal's wager today. Note that Blaise Pascal was a mathematician, and he used this argument to illustrate the concept of expected value in statistics. Other attempts known as the ontological argument, the cosmoolgical argument, and teleological argument today. Kurt Gödel formulated an argument for the existence of God using modal logic in the 1970s.


title: Ghost

paragraphs: A ghost is considered to be the spirit of a dead person. Scientists say that there are no real ghosts, but many people believe that there are.

paragraphs: There are huge amount of stories about ghosts in books and movies. Sometimes the ghost is the spirit of a person who was killed by someone or who was already dead. The ghost may stay on Earth because he or she has unfinished problems or is still trying to say good bye to people who they missed. Sometimes ghosts are said to live in a particular locality, for example an abandoned house.

paragraphs: Sometimes the ghosts in these stories exist because of some problem the person had during life or to say good bye to loved ones, that was not solved before he or she died. The ghost stays on the Earth trying to fix the problem. If the problem is fixed, the ghost can leave the Earth. Many people say they have seen or heard ghosts. People who try to talk to ghosts as their job are called mediums.

paragraphs: There can be bad ghosts and there can also be good ones. There have never been any ghosts that have actually hurt or killed people, although people tell stories about it.

paragraphs: Many people believe they have seen ghosts. Others believe they have felt ghosts near them. Often the ghost is said to appear as a feeling of cold and a light or a misty cloud, but sometimes people say they have seen ghosts that look more like people. Sometimes ghosts are said to come in human form. Some ghosts might cause fear in the person who sees them, by being seen suddenly. Some ghosts are said to be friendly and help people who have problems.

paragraphs: Ghosts are said to form right after they die, or even centuries later. Many people make up stories or urban legends. Many try to prove the existence of these paranormal creatures with special technology such as heat sensors. They also make TV shows dedicated to proving the existence of ghosts. They often investigate cases where a person has seen one or visit a place of sighting.

paragraphs: Stories of ghosts can be found all over the world. Chinese philosopher Confucius said "Respect ghosts and gods, but keep away from them."

paragraphs: The most feared spirit in Thailand is Phi Tai Hong, the ghost of a person who has died suddenly of a violent death. The Koran discusses spirits known as "jinn". In Europe there is the recurring fear of "returning" or "revenant" deceased who may harm the living. This includes the Scandinavian "gjenganger", the Romanian "strigoi", the Serbian "vampir", the Greek "vrykolakas" among others.


title: Green

paragraphs: Green is a color. It is one of the colors of the rainbow. Green is between the yellow and blue colors in a rainbow. Green paint can be made by mixing yellow paint and blue paint together.

paragraphs: Green light, like all light, is quanta—composed of photons. The wavelength of green light is about 550 nanometers (one-billionth of a meter).

paragraphs: Most leaves of growing plants, such as trees and bushes, are green. This is because there is a chemical in leaves, called chlorophyll, which is colored green.

paragraphs: Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by range with a wavelength of roughly 570-520 nm.


title: God's eye view

paragraphs: God's eye view is a name for a point of view where the speaker or writer assumes they have knowledge only God would have. It appears several ways:

paragraphs: A special case of the last is in a wiki with a GodKing. Often this person can get others to believe what they say about what is right, without making any special effort to be fair to other views.

paragraphs: Many people think René Descartes took a God's eye view when he said cogito ergo sum. George Berkeley argued that optics from Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler also had this problem.


title: Google

paragraphs: Google is a multinational corporation from the United States of America. It is known for creating and running one of the largest search engines on the World Wide Web (WWW). Every day more than a billion people use it. Google's headquarters (known as the "Googleplex") is in Mountain View, California, part of the Silicon Valley. The current motto of Google is "Do the right thing".

paragraphs: Ever since the 2 September 2015, Google is owned by a new holding company called Alphabet Inc, which has taken over some of Google's other projects, such as its driverless cars. It is a public company that trades on the NASDAQ under the tickers GOOG and GOOGL.

paragraphs: Google's search engine can find pictures, videos, news, Usenet newsgroups, and things to buy online. By June 2004, Google had 4.28 billion web pages on its database, 880 million pictures and 845 million Usenet messages — six billion things. Google's American website has an Alexa rank of 1, meaning it is the most widely visited website in the world. It is so widely known that people sometimes use the word "google" as a verb that means "to search for something on Google"; but because more than half of people on the web use it, "google" has been used to mean "to search the web".

paragraphs: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University, USA, started BackRub in early 1996. They made it into a company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. In February 1999, the company moved to 165 University Ave., Palo Alto, California, and then moved to another place called the Googleplex.

paragraphs: In September 2001, Google's rating system (PageRank, for saying which information is more helpful) got a U.S. Patent. The patent was to Stanford University, with Lawrence (Larry) Page as the inventor (the person who first had the idea).

paragraphs: Google makes a percentage of its money through America Online and InterActiveCorp. It has a special group known as the Partner Solutions Organization (PSO) which helps make contracts, helps making accounts better, and gives engineering help.

paragraphs: Google makes money by advertising. People or companies who want people to buy their product, service, or ideas give Google money, and Google shows an advertisement to people Google thinks will click on the advertisement. Google only gets money when people click on the link, so it tries to know as much about people as possible to only show the advertisement to the "right people". It does this with Google Analytics, which sends data back to Google whenever someone visits a web site. From this and other data, Google makes a profile about the person, and then uses this profile to figure out which advertisements to show.

paragraphs: The name "Google" is a misspelling of the word "googol". Milton Sirotta, nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner, made this word in 1938, for the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes (10). Google uses this word because the company wants to make lots of stuff on the Web easy to find and use. Andy Bechtolsheim thought of the name.

paragraphs: The name for Google's main office, the "Googleplex," is a play on a different, even bigger number, the "googolplex", which is 1 followed by one googol of zeroes 10


title: Gallon

paragraphs: A gallon is a volumetric unit of measurement. People have used many different gallons throughout history. There is only one type of gallon still commonly used.


title: Government

paragraphs: A government is a group of people that have the power to rule in a territory, according to the administrative law. This territory may be a country, a state or province within a country, or a region.

paragraphs: Plato listed five kinds of government in "The Republic:"

paragraphs: The most common type of government in the Western world is called democracy. In democracies, people in a country can vote during elections for representatives or political parties that they prefer. The people in democracies can elect representatives who will sit on legislatures such as the Parliament or Congress. Political parties are organizations of people with similar ideas about how a country or region should be governed. Different political parties have different ideas about how the government should handle different problems. Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.

paragraphs: However, many countries have forms of democracy which limit freedom of choice by the voters. One of the most common ways is to limit which parties who can for parliament, or limit the parties access to mass media such as television. Another way is to rig the voting system by removing votes from opposition voters and substituting votes for the party in power. Few countries are textbook democracies, and the differences between them has been much studied.

paragraphs: A monarchy is a government ruled by a king or a queen who inherits their position from their family, which is often called the "royal family." There are two types of monarchies: absolute monarchies and constitutional monarchies. In an absolute monarchy, the ruler has no limits on their wishes or powers. In a constitutional monarchy a ruler's powers are limited by a document called a constitution.

paragraphs: In modern times, monarchies still exist in Great Britain and the Commonwealth, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand, along with several other countries. A monarch may have one of several titles: King or Queen, Emperor or Empress, or Emir.

paragraphs: An aristocracy is a government run by the people of a ruling class, usually people who come from wealthy families, families with a particular set of values, or people who come from a particular place. A person who rules in an aristocracy is an aristocrat. Aristocracy is different from nobility, in that nobility means that one bloodline would rule, an aristocracy would mean that a few or many bloodlines would rule, or that rulers be chosen in a different manner.

paragraphs: Under a dictatorship, the government is run by one person who has all the power over the people in a country. Originally, the Roman Republic made dictators to lead during time of war. The Roman dictators (and Greek tyrants) were not always cruel or unkind, but they did hold on to power all by themselves, rather than sharing power with the people. The Roman dictators only held power for a short period of time.

paragraphs: In modern times, a dictator's rule is not stopped by any laws, constitutions, or other social and political institutions, and can last many years or even decades. After World War II, many governments in Latin America, Asia, and Africa were ruled by dictators. Examples of dictators include Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Augusto Pinochet, Idi Amin, Muammar al-Qaddafi, and Gamal Abdul Nasser. The rules of these dictators continued from when they took power until when they died, because they would not allow any other person or law to take power from them. There is no evidence of a woman serving as a dictator in modern times.

paragraphs: An oligarchy is a government ruled by a small group of powerful people. These people may spread power equally or not equally. An oligarchy is different from a true democracy because very few people are given the chance to change things. An oligarchy does not have to be hereditary or passed down from father to son. An oligarchy does not have one clear ruler, but several powerful people. Some past examples of oligarchy are the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Apartheid South Africa. A fictional example is the dystopian society of "Oceania" in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. Some critics of representative democracy think of the United States as an oligarchy. This view is shared by anarchists.

paragraphs: The simplest idea of government is those who rule over people and land. This may be as small as a community or village or as big as a continent (like Australia and India).

paragraphs: The people who rule can allow others to own land. It is a deed by government that gives this right in the way that laws describe. Some think they have the right to hold land without government permission. This view is called libertarianism. Others think they can do without government. This view is called anarchism.

paragraphs: Almost every place on Earth is connected to one and only one government. Places without government are where people follow traditions instead of government rules, small border disputed areas and the continent of Antarctica, because almost no people live there. For every other place on Earth there is a government that claims 'sovereign control' over it. The word "sovereign" is old and means "control by a King" (sovereign). Governments of villages, cities, counties and other communities are subordinate to the government of the state or province where they exist, and then to that of the country.

paragraphs: It is from Kings and feudalism that modern governments and nation states came. The capital of a country, for instance, is where the King kept his assets. From this we get the modern idea of capital in economics. A government may regulate trade as well as to rule over land.

paragraphs: Governments also control people and decide things about what morality to accept or punish. In many countries, there are strict rules about sexual intercourse and drugs which are part of law and offenders are punished for disobeying them.

paragraphs: Tax is how government is paid for in most countries. People who buy, sell, import, invest, own a house or land, or earn money are made to pay some of the money to a government.

paragraphs: There are many theories of how to organize government better. These are called theories of civics. Many people think leaders must be elected by some kind of democracy. That way, they can be replaced at election. Many governments are not a democracy but other forms in which only a few people have power.

paragraphs: There are many theories of how to run a government better, and keep people from hurting each other. These theories are part of politics.


title: Galaxy

paragraphs: A galaxy is a group of many stars, with gas, dust, and dark matter. The name 'galaxy' is taken from the Greek word "galaxia" meaning milky, a reference to our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

paragraphs: Gravity holds galaxies together against the general expansion of the universe. In effect, the expansion of the universe takes place between groups of galaxies, not inside those groups. Gravity holds the galaxy together. The same applies to groups and clusters of galaxies, such as our Local Group where the Milky Way is, and the Virgo Cluster, a collection of more than 1,000 (might even be 2,000) galaxies. The gravitation is produced by the matter and energy in a galaxy or group of galaxies. Everything in a galaxy moves around a centre of mass, which is also an effect of gravity.

paragraphs: There are various types of galaxies: elliptical, spiral and lenticular galaxies, which can all be with or without bars. Then there are irregular galaxies. All galaxies exist inside the universe. The observable Universe contains more than 2 trillion (10) galaxies and, overall, as many as an estimated stars (more stars than all the grains of sand on planet Earth).

paragraphs: There are galaxies of different sizes and type. Typical galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million (10) stars up to giants with a hundred trillion (10) stars, all orbiting the galaxy's center of mass. Galaxies may contain many multiple star systems, star clusters, and various interstellar clouds. The Sun is one of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy; the Solar System includes the Earth and all the other objects that orbit the Sun.

paragraphs: Star clusters are not galaxies, they are inside galaxies. Globular clusters are spherical-shaped star clusters which are part of the outer halo of the Milky Way. One of the largest (and oldest) known star clusters, Messier 15, has several million stars, packed closely together, with a black hole at its centre. The stars are too closely packed to get an accurate count, but it certainly has more stars than some of the smaller galaxies.

paragraphs: Within galaxy clusters, galaxies move relative to other galaxies. They can and do collide. When this happens, the stars generally move past each other, but gas clouds and dust interact, and can form a burst of new stars. Gravity pulls both galaxies into somewhat new shapes, forming bars, rings or tail-like structures.

paragraphs: Many galaxies continue to form new generations of stars. The Milky Way, and all spiral shaped galaxies like it (see right side image of NGC 2997), produce new stars at a rate of one or two stars per year. This star formation happens in the vast interstellar clouds that account for about 1% to 10% of the mass of these galaxies. Globular star clusters, on the other hand, are not currently forming stars because this activity happened billions of years ago and then stopped once all of the gas and dust clouds were used up.

paragraphs: In the astronomical literature, the word 'Galaxy' with a capital "G" is used for our galaxy, the Milky Way. The billions of other galaxies are written as 'galaxy' with a lowercase "g". The term "Milky Way" first came out in the English language in a poem by Chaucer.

paragraphs: When William Herschel wrote his catalogue of deep sky objects, he used the name "spiral nebula" for objects like the Andromeda Galaxy. 200 years later astronomers discovered that they are made of stars as the Milky Way is, so the term 'nebula' is now only used for diffuse structures within a galaxy.

paragraphs: There are two main kinds of galaxies, spiral galaxy and elliptical galaxy. They are classified according to the Hubble Sequence.

paragraphs: A spiral galaxy is a galaxy that has a spiral shape. Most of the galaxies in the universe observed by astronomers are spiral galaxies (about 77%).

paragraphs: NGC 1300 and NGC 1672 are examples of barred spiral galaxies. The Whirlpool galaxy and Messier 81 are examples of unbarred spiral galaxies.

paragraphs: The identifying characteristics of a spiral galaxy are disk-shaped rotating, spiral arms, and a bulge in the galactic core. The spiral arms are where new hot stars are born. "Bulge" in the galactic core has old stars. This feature is common to the most spiral galaxies.

paragraphs: An elliptical galaxy is a galaxy that has a ellipsoid (3D of ellipse) shape. This type of galaxy are dominant in universe, especially in galaxy clusters. The shape ranges from circle, ellipse, and cigar-shaped. In Hubble Sequence, this shape can be represented as class :

paragraphs: Elliptical galaxy can have a large range in size. The giant elliptical galaxy can be over a more 1 million light years and the smallest (know as "dwarf elliptical galaxy") are less than one-tenth the size of Milky Way The size of an elliptical galaxy can be measured as an effective radius which defines the area from which half its light comes. The mass of elliptical galaxy is also large. A giant elliptical galaxy can have mass of 10 (many trillions) of solar masses.

paragraphs: A lenticular galaxy is a galaxy seen in a disc shape. Determining the shape of a lenticular galaxy is difficult because the shape can be between spiral galaxy and elliptical galaxy. The shape can be known by looking at the bulge of the galactic center. If the bulge is very bright, it is a spiral galaxy


title: Geometry

paragraphs: Geometry is the part of mathematics that studies the size, shapes, positions and dimensions of things. We can only see or make shapes that are flat (2D) or solid (3D), but mathematicians (people who study math) are able to study shapes that are 4D, 5D, 6D, and so on.

paragraphs: Squares, circles and triangles are some of the simplest shapes in flat geometry. Cubes, cylinders, cones and spheres are simple shapes in solid geometry.

paragraphs: Plane geometry can be used to measure the area and perimeter of a flat shape. Solid geometry can also measure a solid shape's volume and surface area.

paragraphs: Geometry can be used to calculate the size and shape of many things. For example, geometry can help people find:

paragraphs: Geometry is one of the oldest branches of mathematics. Geometry began as the art of Surveying of land so that it could be shared fairly between people. The word "geometry" is from a Greek word that means "to measure the land". It has grown from this to become one of the most important parts of mathematics. The Greek mathematician Euclid wrote the first book about geometry, a book called "The Elements".

paragraphs: Plane and solid geometry, as described by Euclid in his textbook Elements is called "Euclidean Geometry". This was simply called "geometry" for centuries. In the 19th century, mathematicians created several new kinds of geometry that changed the rules of Euclidean geometry. These and earlier kinds were called "non-Euclidean" (not created by Euclid). For example, hyperbolic geometry and elliptic geometry come from changing Euclid's parallel postulate.

paragraphs: Non-Euclidean geometry is more complicated than Euclidean geometry but has many uses. Spherical geometry for example is used in astronomy and cartography.

paragraphs: Geometry starts with a few simple ideas that are thought to be true, called axioms. Such as:


title: Graph theory

paragraphs: Graph theory is a field of mathematics about graphs. A graph is an abstract representation of: a number of points that are connected by lines. Each point is usually called a "vertex" (more than one are called "vertices"), and the lines are called "edges". Graphs are a tool for modelling relationships. They are used to find answers to a number of problems.

paragraphs: A visualization of the Seven Bridges of Königberg. Leonhard Euler solved this problem in 1736, which led to the development of topology, and modern graph theory.

paragraphs: A graph is an abstract data structure. It holds nodes that are usually related to each other. A node is a dataset, typically in the form of ordered pairs. Nodes are either connected or not connected to another node. The relation between nodes is usually defined as an Edge. Graphs are useful for their ability to associate nodes with other nodes.

paragraphs: There are a few representations of Graphs in practice.

paragraphs: Leonhard Euler used to live in a town called "Königsberg." (Its name changed to Kaliningrad in 1946). The town is on the river Pregel. There is an island in the river. There are some bridges across the river. Euler wanted to walk around and use each of the bridges once. He asked if he could do this. In 1736, he published a scientific article where he showed that this was not possible. Today, this problem is known as the Seven Bridges of Königsberg. The article is seen as the first paper in the history of graph theory.

paragraphs: This article, as well as the one written by Vandermonde on the "knight problem," carried on with the "analysis situs" initiated by Leibniz. Euler's formula was about the number of edges, vertices, and faces of a convex polyhedron was studied and generalized by Cauchy and L'Huillier, and is at the origin of topology.

paragraphs: The fusion of the ideas coming from mathematics with those coming from chemistry is at the origin of a part of the standard terminology of graph theory. In particular, the term "graph" was introduced by Sylvester in an article published in 1878 in "Nature".

paragraphs: One of the most famous and productive problems of graph theory is the four color problem: "Is it true that any map drawn in the plane may have its regions colored with four colors, in such a way that any two regions having a common border have different colors?"

paragraphs: Graph theory is an important part of mathematics and computer science. To many such problems, exact solutions do exist. Many times however, they are very hard to calculate. Therefore, very often, approximations are used. There are two kinds of such approximations, Monte-Carlo algorithms and Las-Vegas algorithms.


title: Goatee

paragraphs: A goatee is a beard formed by a tuft of hair under the chin, resembling that of a billy goat.


title: Herm

paragraphs: Herm is the smallest of the Channel Islands that is open to the public.

paragraphs: Herm is only 1½ miles long. Cars are banned from the small island just like its Channel Island neighbour, Sark. Unlike Sark, bicycles are banned too. The sandy white beaches make Herm a walker's paradise.


title: History

paragraphs: History is the study of past events. People know what happened in the past by looking at things "from" the past including sources (like books, newspapers, and letters) and artifacts (like pottery, tools, and human or animal remains.) Libraries, archives, and museums collect and keep these things for people to study history. A person who studies history is called a historian. A person who studies pre-history and history through things left behind by ancient cultures is called an archaeologist. A person who studies mankind and society is called an anthropologist. The study of the sources and methods "used to study and write" history is called historiography.

paragraphs: People can learn about the past by talking to people who remember things that happened at some point in the past. This is called oral history. For example, when people who had been slaves and American Civil War survivors got old, some historians recorded them talking about their lives, so that history would not be lost.

paragraphs: In old times people in different parts of the world kept separate histories because they did not meet each other very often. Some groups of people never met each other. The rulers of Medieval Europe, Ancient Rome and Ancient China each thought that they ruled the only important parts of the world and that other parts were "barbarian". But they were still connected, even if they didn't realize it.

paragraphs: Current events, modern economic history, modern social history and modern intellectual history take very different views of the way history has affected the way that we think today.


title: Health

paragraphs: Health is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease" according to the World Health Organization (WHO). "Physical" is about the body. "Mental" is about how people think and feel. "Social" talks about how people live with other people. It is about family, work, school, and friends.

paragraphs: Physical fitness refers to good body health. It is dependent on genetic determinators and also on social, economic and ecological factors. That means, one's genes are partly responsible for one's physical health, but also other circumstances: where you live, how clean or polluted your water and the air around you is and also how good your social and medical system is. It is also the result of regular exercise, proper diet and nutrition, and proper rest for physical recovery. A person who is physically fit will be able to walk or run without getting breathless and they will be able to carry out the activities of everyday living and not need help. How much each person can do will depend on their age and whether they are a man or woman. A physically fit person usually has a normal weight for their height. The relation between their height and weight is called their Body Mass Index. A taller person can be heavier and still be fit. If a person is too heavy or too thin for their height it may affect their health.Better health is central to human happiness and well-being. It also makes an important contribution to economic progress, as healthy populations live longer, are more productive, and save more. Many factors influence health status and a country's ability to provide quality health services for its people.

paragraphs: Mental health refers to a person's emotional and psychological well-being. "A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her thinking and emotional (feeling) abilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life."

paragraphs: One way to think about mental health is by looking at how well a person functions. Feeling capable and efficient; being able to handle normal levels of stress, have good friends and family, and lead an independent life; and being able to "bounce back," or recover from hardships, are all signs of mental health.It’s normal for all of us to feel worried, sad, upset, or have difficult emotions from time-to-time. For most people though, these feelings are only temporary and are resolved without causing any long-term problems. However, for some people, these negative feelings can become worse over time and lead to a mental health problem such as depression, anxiety, stress or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

paragraphs: Public health refers to trying to stop a disease that is unhealthy to the community, and does not help in long life or promote your health. This is fixed by organized efforts and choices of society, public and private clubs, communities and individuals.

paragraphs: It is about the health of many people, or everybody, rather than one person. Public health stops instead of encouraging a disease through surveillance of cases. To prevent being sick, it is good to act according to some simple advice: Hand washing, regular check-ups, vaccination programmes, drinking clean water and using condoms. When infectious diseases break out, washing hands for about 30 seconds may be especially important. Sometimes it is necessary to avoid masses of people or wear a surgical mask to protect yourself and to stop the spreading of the disease. Teaching people how to live healthily and educate them, especially about sex and child-birth, is also very important.


title: Harbor

paragraphs: Harbour means to shelter or keep safe. A harbor (or harbour) is a place where ships may shelter. Some harbours are used as ports to load and unload ships. The port will have quays or piers where the ships may be moored or tied up and a transport system for taking goods inland. Often railway and road transport will be used. Goods also move by pipeline transport and by smaller ships on rivers.

paragraphs: Harbors can be natural as in San Francisco or artificial as in ancient Carthage or a mix of both. During the D-Day operations of 1944, two artificial harbors (named mulberry) were built just off the beaches where the invasion was going to happen.