title: Heinrich Heine

paragraphs: Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (born as "Harry Heine" 13 December 1797–17 February 1856) was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century.

paragraphs: Heine was born into an assimilated Jewish family in Düsseldorf, Germany. His father was a tradesman.

paragraphs: After his father's business failed, Heine was sent to Hamburg. His uncle in Hamburg was a very successful banker, so Heine started learning his business, but he droped it later on. Then Heine started to study law at the universities of Göttingen, Bonn and Berlin, but he was more interested in literature than in law. He took a degree in law in 1825. At the same time he had decided to convert from Judaism to Protestantism. This was necessary because of the severe restrictions on Jews in the German states. Only Christians were allowed to have certain businesses or to be clerks of the state. Jews were also forbidden to become university professors, which was a particular ambition for Heine. Heine himself said, his conversion was "the ticket of admission into European culture".

paragraphs: Heine is best known for his lyric poetry, much of which was set to music by lieder composers, esp. Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann.

paragraphs: His start as poet Heine made with "Gedichte" ("Poems") in 1821. Heine's one-sided infatuation with his cousins Amalie and Therese later inspired him to write some of his loveliest lyrics; "Buch der Lieder" ("Book of Songs", 1827) was Heine's first comprehensive collection of verse.

paragraphs: Heine left Germany for Paris, France in 1831. There he associated with utopian socialists. He met people who fellowed Count Saint-Simon, who preached an egalitarian classless society.

paragraphs: He remained in Paris for the rest of his life. His only visit to Germany was in 1843. German authorities banned his works and those of others who were considered to be associated with the Young Germany movement in 1835.

paragraphs: Heine continued to comment on German politics and society from a distance. Heine wrote "Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen" ("Germany. A Winter's Tale"). In 1844; his friend, Karl Marx, published it in his newspaper "Vorwärts" ("Forward") in 1844.

paragraphs: One of the books was burned by the Nazis. One of Heine's most famous lines is now: "Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too" ("Almansor", 1821).


title: Cabbage

paragraphs: Cabbage ("Brassica oleracea" Capitata Group) is an edible plant. It is a lot like broccoli, cauliflower or Brussels sprouts. Cabbage is eaten in many ways around the world. Coleslaw and sauerkraut are popular foods that use cabbage. It is also used to make kimchi and borscht, and can also be used in salads. Red cabbage juice can be used as a pH indicator. Cabbages are usually green, but they can also be red.

paragraphs: Cabbages can come in many different types, such as the previously mentioned red and green cabbages, but they can also be in other types. These include white cabbage, also known as Dutch cabbage, and Savoy cabbage.


title: Pool

paragraphs: The word pool refers to many different things:


title: Rupee

paragraphs: The rupee is the name of a currency amount ("denomination" of money) in various countries.

paragraphs: It is used in the Republic of India and Pakistan. It was also used in British India, the former East Pakistan until 1971, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius, and the Seychelles. In past times, rupees were also the name of the money used in Burma and in the German and British colonies in East Africa. The name comes from a Sanskrit word meaning silver. The rupiah of Indonesia and the rufiyah of the Maldives are kinds of money that also got their name from this word. All of these were previously Spanish dollars.


title: Diesel fuel

paragraphs: Diesel oil or diesel fuel is a type of fuel for cars. It is also an oil used for an energy source. It is made from petroleum and from various other sources.

paragraphs: It is named after Rudolf Diesel who in 1892 invented the diesel engine.


title: Düsseldorf International Airport

paragraphs: Düsseldorf International Airport (; is an airport in Germany. It is eight kilometres from Düsseldorf. The airport has the IATA Airport Code DUS. There is one other airport named "Düsseldorf Express Airport, Mönchengladbach", but that is only a continental airport and has only a few lines, mostly private jets.

paragraphs: The international airport supports flights to 180 destinations on four continents and hosts 70 airlines. The airport has 800 takeoffs and landings per day.

paragraphs: The airport was opened on April 19, 1927, after two years of construction. However, the first aircraft to land in northern Düsseldorf was the Zeppelin LZ-III in 1909.

paragraphs: On April 11, 1996 there was a fire in the airport, probably caused by welding work on the roof. 17 people were killed, mostly due to smoke inhalation. The terminal building was badly damaged, and was closed for five years. By July 1, 2001 it had been nearly completely re-built and was re-opened.

paragraphs: A suspended monorail connects the terminal building with the InterCity and ICE train station (High speed and extremely high speed trains). The so-called "SkyTrain" travels the 2.5 kilometers between the terminal and station at a maximum speed of 50 km/h. It started operation in 2002, replacing a shuttle bus service, and is not free of charge to use.

paragraphs: Currently, the following airlines operate routes to and from Düsseldorf International Airport:

paragraphs: Before September 11 Düsseldorf International Airport had many flights from the United States. Now the only direct flight to the United States is from Privatair. Privatair has a flight going to New York Newark airport, which is codeshared with Lufthansa.


title: Sauna

paragraphs: A sauna is a small room or building that is made hot. The heat of a sauna is calming and makes the person using it sweat. This is believed to help people be more healthy though it causes stress on the body by overheating. Today many countries and groups of people have different ways of heating and using a sauna. The temperature is often 80°C in Finnish saunas. The heat can be more than 100°C. Finnish and Swedish saunas have lower humidity (the air is less wet) to make this high heat comfortable.

paragraphs: The Turkish hammam has a high humidity (the air is more wet) and a lower temperature.

paragraphs: Today saunas can often be found at hotels and places for sports and exercise. In Finland, they are more common and are also often in private apartments and office

paragraphs: In almost every house in Finland they have a sauna.

paragraphs: In some cultures, swimsuits must be worn in a sauna. In other cultures swimsuits are not be worn. Swimsuits are more often worn when men and women use a sauna together. Some saunas are only for men, or only for women. Some places have fixed times when each gender can use a sauna. Private saunas may have their own rules.


title: Joseph Beuys

paragraphs: Joseph Beuys (pronounced "boyce") (12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist who made arts in many forms including sculpture, performance art (happening, fluxus), video art, and installations. He was an important artist in the second half of the 20th century.

paragraphs: Beuys was born in Krefeld on 12 May 1921, but grew up in the nearby city of Kleve. His family was profoundly catholic. As a young child he began his interest in art by often engaging in making watercolours. He first saw modern art when visiting the studio of Achilles Moortgat. At the age of seventeen in 1938, he joined Hitler Youth, like many young German men at that time. He studied many disciplines before engaging in his art practice, and was particularly interested in natural sciences and history, including alchemy, and focussed on medicine with the intention of becoming a doctor. During his studies, however, World War II began, and he became a soldier in the German air force. There, he was a rear gunner (gunner in the back) in a military airplane. In 1943 one of his close friends died in a concentration camp.

paragraphs: One fascinating aspect of Joseph Beuys's personal history is the reason he consistently used felt and fat in his works. He is quoted as saying: "For me, fat was a great discovery, because it was the very material that could seem the most chaotic and indeterminate. I could use it with heat or cold, I could transform it with means that are not the traditional ones for sculpture- with temperature, for example. So I could turn the character of this fat from a chaotic and fluctuating condition to that of a rigid form... So I took an extreme position in sculpture and a material that was absolutely fundamental for life and not associated with art.”

paragraphs: Many people believe that this use of felt and fat recalled a plane crash experienced while flying for the "Luftwaffe" in the Crimea in the winter of 1942-43. Beuys claimed that he had been saved by a nomadic tribe of Tartars who, sympathetic to the Germans after persecution by the Soviets, ‘covered my body in fat to help it regenerate warmth, and wrapped it in felt as an insulator to keep warmth in’. In fact this episode was fabricated, partly on the basis of a dream, but he consistently referred to this episode and it can be seen as a private mythology of his.

paragraphs: After the war Beuys studied at the academy in Düsseldorf from 1946 to 1951. For most of the 1950s he was mostly drawing.

paragraphs: In 1961 he became professor of sculpture there, but was fired in 1972 because he said that his classes must be open to anybody who wanted to take them. He thought that classes should be free and he worked in his classes with everybody who wanted. His students protested when he was fired, so he was allowed to hold his studio there, but he still lost his job.

paragraphs: In 1962 Beuys was member of the "Fluxus movement". They made art together by drawing, sculpting, making music, and literature.

paragraphs: Beuys believed that arts has an important rule in society.

paragraphs: His first problems with politicians were when he lost his job as professor.

paragraphs: In the 1980s he was part of the Peace Movement and protested against nuclear missiles in Germany. He was one of the first members of the Green Party in the 1980s.

paragraphs: In 1979, a large retrospective of Beuys' work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City confirmed his reputation as one of the most important artists of his time. He died in 1986 in Düsseldorf.

paragraphs: The web comic Cat And Girl makes frequent reference to Joseph Beuys, including his art (reference 1 reference 2) and cultural references.


title: Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

paragraphs: The Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well-known all over the world by its most famous members like Joseph Beuys.

paragraphs: The arts school started 1762 as school of drawing by Lambert Krahe (1710 - 1790), in 1773 it became Academy of drawing, painting and sculpturing of the Earls of Palatine.

paragraphs: In time of the Napoleonic Wars it moved to Munich. So the government of Prussia, who annexed the region of Düsseldorf after Napoleon surrendered, to open a new Royal Arts Academy in Düsseldorf. It started in 1822.

paragraphs: In the 1850s the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf became an international well-known arts school. The "Düsseldorfer Malerschule" was internationally known as a special kind of drawing countryside. Many students came from Scandinavia, Russia, and the United States of America to Düsseldorf.


title: Poet

paragraphs: A poet is someone who writes poetry. Poetry can be written in any language by a poet.

paragraphs: Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet. She lived in Lesbos, Greece. She was famous for writing lyric love poems to women. She wrote in the Ancient Greek language.

paragraphs: Famous English poets are William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, William Blake, John Keats, and Percy Shelley. They wrote in the English language. Their poetry comes in different styles and forms. Often their poetry is lyrical and rhymes.

paragraphs: The most famous American poets are Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. They wrote in English. Often their poetry did not rhyme. They lived in the 19th century in the United States. Later 20th century American poets include Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton.

paragraphs: Modern French poets are Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire. Rimbaud was famous for his poetry collection called “Illuminations.” Baudelaire wrote of beauty, decay, and spirituality in his famous work “Flowers of Evil.”

paragraphs: Great Spanish poets are Garcilaso de la Vega Frederico García Lorca, Antonio Machado, and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. Vicente Aleixandre won the Nobel Prize.

paragraphs: Three Latin American poets won the Nobel prize in the 20th century. They include Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz. They wrote in Spanish.

paragraphs: Famous Caribbean poets include Derek Walcott who won the Nobel Prize. Walcott wrote epic poetry in English called Omeros. Giannina Braschi writes epic poetry in English, Spanglish, and Spanish.

paragraphs: Ancient Chinese poets are Wang Wei, Du Fu, and Qu Yuan. They wrote in Chinese about the nature and man.


title: Ruhr-Universität Bochum

paragraphs: The is one of the biggest universities in Germany. It is in the Ruhr-Area, in the city of Bochum.

paragraphs: The Ruhr-Universität was the first public university that was founded in West Germany after World War II (in 1962). Later in the 1960s, education expanded in West Germany and more universities were founded, but Bochum has a bright selection of subjects because it was the beginning of education expanding.

paragraphs: The Ruhr-University was one of the fourth largest university in Germany in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more than 40,000 students. But after the state of North Rhine-Westfalia decided to earn study fees, many students left the university and school examiners do not start studying anymore. Actually the fees are 1,000 Euro in the year (about 1,100 US $), but the Ruhr-Area is traditionally a working class region. Sommer Semester 2011 was the last semester with tuition fees http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/studienbeitrag/. The number or students now is more than 34 000 http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/universitaet/fakten/menschlich/index.html

paragraphs: The university of Bochum was one of the first to have Bachelor and master's degrees instead of the traditional German Diplom and Magister degree.

paragraphs: The Ruhr-University has about 34,000 students.http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/universitaet/fakten/menschlich/index.html Academically it is an upper middle-class university with a lot of international affairs, especially with Eastern Europe and Asia. The Ruhr-University Bochum lost some subjects by when the state reduced its budget.

paragraphs: The main focuses in research are neurosciences, engineering, European law, plasma physics, solidstate physics, biochemistry, economics, Middle Ages and modern history, philosophy and languages.


title: Aachen

paragraphs: Aachen is a German city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has about 260,000 inhabitants and a well-known university, the .

paragraphs: The Romans built a spa over hot water springs here in ancient times.

paragraphs: In the Middle Ages, it was the capital city of the Frankish emperor, Charlemagne. The city was called Aix-la-Chapelle by the French.

paragraphs: Charlemagne ordered the building of a cathedral in 786 AD. He was buried in a tomb in this cathedral. German emperors were crowned in the cathedral in Aachen until 1531.

paragraphs: European countries made two important peace agreements in Aachen. In 1668, the first treaty (agreement) ended the War of Devolution between France and the alliance of England, Holland and Sweden. The treaty allowed France to keep most of the towns it had captured in Flanders the year before. In 1748, the second treaty ended the War of the Austrian Succession. In this war, France, Prussia, and other nations tried to take territory from the Austrian Empire. The treaty said that Maria Theresa of Austria was the ruler of these territories. It also gave Prussia the territory of Silesia.

paragraphs: Since 1972, Aachen has been part of the Cologne Government Region.


title: Marburg

paragraphs: Marburg is a city in Hesse, Germany, on the Lahn river. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Rural District. It has about 80,000 inhabitants and a small, but well-known university.


title: Akron, Ohio

paragraphs: Akron is a large city in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is found near the Ohio & Lake Erie canal. It is home to the U.S. rubber industry, including Goodyear tires.


title: Philipps University of Marburg

paragraphs: The Philipps-University Marburg is the oldest Protestant university of the world, and was founded by Martin Luther's friend Philipp of Hesse in the time of the reformation.

paragraphs: Major areas of research are medicine, nano-science, materials science, and near eastern studies.


title: Youngstown, Ohio

paragraphs: Youngstown is a city in Ohio, United States. It is the county seat of Mahoning County. Part of Youngstown is also in Trumbull County. The town is on the Mahoning River. It is about southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Youngstown has its own metropolitan area; it is often thought of as part of the Pittsburgh Tri-State area and Greater Cleveland. Youngstown is west of the Pennsylvania state line. It is midway between New York City and Chicago via Interstate 80.

paragraphs: The city was named for John Young. He was an early settler from Whitestown, New York, who started the town's first sawmill and gristmill. Youngstown is in an area of the United States that is often called the Rust Belt. The town was known as a center of steel making. Youngstown was forced to change itself when the U.S. steel industry fell into decline in the 1970s. Towns in the area did not have a lot of business after that. Youngstown also falls within the Appalachian Ohio region, among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The 2010 census showed that Youngstown had a total population of 66,982, making it Ohio's ninth largest city. The city has had a decline of over 60% of its population since 1960.

paragraphs: According to the 2010 Census, the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) contains 565,773 people and includes Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio, and Mercer County in Pennsylvania. The Steel Valley area as a whole has 763,207 residents.

paragraphs: Youngstown was named for New York native John Young. He surveyed the area in 1796. He moved there soon after. On February 9, 1797, Young bought the town of from the Western Reserve Land Company for $16,085. The 1797 start of Youngstown was officially recorded on August 19, 1802.

paragraphs: The area of today's Youngstown was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. This was a part of the Northwest Territory for settlers from the state of Connecticut. While many of the area's early settlers came from Connecticut, Youngstown also had a large number of Scots-Irish settlers from neighboring Pennsylvania. The first European Americans to settle in the area were Pittsburgh native James Hillman and his wife, Catherine Dougherty. By 1798, Youngstown was the home of several families who were lived near the point where Mill Creek meets the Mahoning River. Boardman Township was started in 1798 by Elijah Boardman. He was a member of the Connecticut Land Company. Also started in 1798 was Austintown by John McCollum. He was a settler from New Jersey.

paragraphs: In 1800, governor Arthur St. Clair made Trumbull County (named for Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull). He named the smaller town of Warren as its "county seat". In 1813, Trumbull County was divided into townships, with Youngstown Township being a big part of what became Mahoning County. The village of Youngstown was incorporated in 1848, and in 1867 Youngstown was chartered as a city. It became the county seat in 1876.

paragraphs: The discovery of coal by the community in the early 19th century helped Youngstown become part of the Erie Canal. The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal Company was organized in 1835. The canal was completed in 1840. David Tod, who was later Ohio governor during the Civil War, persuaded Lake Erie steamboat owners that coal from the Mahoning Valley could fuel their vessels if canal transportation were available between Youngstown and Cleveland. The arrival of the railroad in 1856 made it easier for more economic growth.

paragraphs: Youngstown's industrial development made the Mahoning Valley different. The community's coal industry made hundreds of immigrants from Wales, Germany, and Ireland come to the area. With the start of steel mills in the late 19th century, Youngstown became a popular destination for immigrants from Eastern Europe, Italy, and Greece. In the early 20th century, the community saw more immigrants from non-European countries including what is today's Lebanon, Israel, and Syria. By the 1920s, this change in the town's population made people who were there earlier upset. Because of their anger, the Mahoning Valley became a center of Ku Klux Klan activity. The situation reached a climax in 1924, when street clashes between Klan members and Italian and Irish Americans in neighboring Niles led Ohio Governor A. Victor Donahey to declare martial law. By 1928 the Klan was in steep decline; and three years later, the group sold its Canfield, Ohio, meeting area, Kountry Klub Field.

paragraphs: The growth of industry made more people from the United States and Latin America come to Youngstown. By the late 19th century, African Americans were well represented in Youngstown. The first local African Methodist Episcopal Church was started in 1871. In the 1880s, local attorney William R. Stewart was the second African American elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. A large increase of African Americans in the early 20th century was because of changes in the industrial area. During the national Steel Strike of 1919, local industrialists recruited thousands of workers from the South, many of whom were Black. This move upset local Whites, and for decades, African-American steelworkers experienced discrimination in the workplace. Migration from the South rose dramatically in the 1940s, when the mechanization of southern agriculture brought an end to the exploitative sharecropping system, leading onetime farm laborers to seek industrial jobs.

paragraphs: The city's population became more diverse since the end of World War II, when a seemingly robust steel industry attracted thousands of workers. In the 1950s, the Latino population grew significantly; and by the 1970s, St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church and the First Spanish Baptist Church of Ohio were among the largest religious institutions for Spanish-speaking residents in the Youngstown metropolitan area. While diversity is among the community's enduring characteristics, the industrial economy that drew various groups to the area collapsed in the late 1970s. In response to subsequent challenges, the city has taken well-publicized steps to diversify economically, while building on some traditional strengths.

paragraphs: The United States Census Bureau says the city has a total area of . Land is of that area, and water is .

paragraphs: Youngstown is in the Mahoning Valley on the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau. The glaciers left behind a plain with valleys at the end of the last Ice Age. The valleys were caused by the Mahoning River crossing the plain. Lakes made by glaciers that dammed small streams were eventually drained. This left behind fertile land.


title: Dortmund

paragraphs: Dortmund is a German city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is part of the Arnsberg Government Region

paragraphs: Dortmund has about 590,000 inhabitants and is in the Ruhr Area. There is a university in Dortmund. The biggest soccer club is Borussia Dortmund.


title: Netherlands Antilles

paragraphs: The Netherlands Antilles was a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country was originally a group of six islands in the Caribbean Sea. Some were discovered in 1493 by Christopher Columbus, and some were discovered in 1499 by Alonso de Ojeda.

paragraphs: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are part of the Leeward Islands. They are near Venezuela. Saint Martin, Sint Eustatius, and Saba are part of the Windward Islands. They are near Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Of these, the island Sint Maarten is in fact part of two countries: the northern part belongs to France (as Saint Martin), but the southern part is Dutch (as Sint Maarten).

paragraphs: Aruba left the Netherlands Antilles in 1986. When Curaçao and Sint Maarten did the same thing on 10 October 2010, the country no longer existed. The remaining BES Islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba now belong to the Netherlands and are called the Dutch Caribbean islands.

paragraphs: Because the Netherlands Antilles was a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands proper was also the Queen of the Netherlands Antilles, but the islands' residents had a government of their own. Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are now separate countries within the Kingdom. All of these places still have King Willem-Alexander as their monarch today.

paragraphs: The last Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles was Emily de Jongh-Elhage. The last Governor was Frits Goedgedrag, who is since the 10 October 2010 the first Governor of Curaçao.


title: Alfred Nobel

paragraphs: Alfred Nobel () (October 21, 1833 – December 10, 1896) was a Swedish scientist, engineer, and weapons manufacturer. He is well known for the invention of dynamite and for creating the Nobel Prize.

paragraphs: He left instructions in his will that his money should create the Nobel Prize after reading an article in a French newspaper that called him the "merchant of death" and said that he would be remembered for his invention of dynamite and its ability to kill more people than ever before. Nobel left 31 million kronor (the Swedish currency) to the awards after his death on December 10, 1896. The artificial element Nobelium is named for him.

paragraphs: Nobel was born on October 21, 1833. His father, Immanuel Nobel, was an engineer and inventor. His mother was Andriette Ahlsell Nobel. In 1833, Immanuel Nobel was forced into bankruptcy due to losses in his construction company.


title: Pharmacy

paragraphs: A pharmacy is a shop where therapeutic drugs are sold. Sometimes a pharmacy is also called a "drug store or chemist and druggist store". The people working in a pharmacy are called pharmacists, druggist or chemists (British English). These people can recognise simple diseases and formulate or dispense drugs for some of them.

paragraphs: Certain drugs are special, because they can be addictive, or they change the way other drugs act, or they need to be taken in a special way. These drugs cannot simply be bought at a pharmacy. A prescription is necessary to get them. Medical doctors give out prescriptions, which can then be used to get the drug.

paragraphs: Many pharmacies do not sell drugs only. They also sell beauty products and hygiene-related products, like tampons for women and contraceptives.

paragraphs: Pharmacy is also a branch of chemistry that studies the molecular structure of drugs to find better drugs.


title: Kiss

paragraphs: People kiss each other, usually by using their lips and mouth to touch each other. However, there are many different types of kiss, with different meanings. Also, the meaning of kissing may be different in different cultures. Most often, people kiss to show love or affection for each other. Sometimes, people kiss as a sign of friendship, sometimes it is a ritual performed to greet someone.

paragraphs: Greeting kisses are not given for sexual passion, but simply a sign of friendship. In many parts of the world, women often kiss on meeting female friends, but men do not. And the female greeting kiss may not actually touch the friend's face. In the past of many western countries men used to kiss the back of a woman's hand when being introduced. This suggests that a direct kiss from a man to a woman was too intimate to be just a greeting.

paragraphs: There are different ways of kissing. People might kiss on the cheeks to greet someone, or to bid them farewell. Depending on the culture it usually does not mean that the kisser loves the person he or she kissed. Kissing when female friends meet is usual in many countries, with some interesting variations. Parisian females often do a rapid double 'air kiss' or 'cheek kiss': a kiss on each side twice, but without lips touching flesh.

paragraphs: French kissing is an erotic gesture. It involves touching tongues while kissing. It is more intimate than other forms of kissing.

paragraphs: A kiss may be a ritual, that is, a symbolic or social gesture showing devotion, respect or greeting. Temples, religious books or icon are sometimes given a ritual kiss. A bride and groom kissing at the end of a wedding ceremony or national leaders kissing each other in greeting, are examples.

paragraphs: It is possible to spread diseases through kissing, but it is also possible to exaggerate the danger. Exotic diseases like herpes and mononucleosis can be spread, but that is rare, and spreading HIV this way is almost unknown. Colds and the flu are much more likely to be spread. Mononucleosis is well known for being spread through kissing. Many diseases that can be spread by sharing drinks can also be spread by kissing.

paragraphs: The upside to this is that, usually, kissing makes people happier. That has health benefits.


title: Brothel

paragraphs: A brothel is a bar, nightclub or hotel where prostitutes work. People go there to buy sex for money. Different countries have different regulations as to prostitution.

paragraphs: Some countries where prostitution is legal allow it to happen in a brothel, others allow it to happen "on the street", still others allow both forms. Generally, prostitution in a bothel is seen as safer for the prostitute than prostitution on the street.

paragraphs: In some countries operating brothels is legal, in other countries it is illegal. Examples of countries where brothels are illegal are Canada and most of the United States. Brothels are legal in some countries from Europe, for example. A country which has permissive laws regarding prostitution is the Netherlands. Laws can be unclear on whether brothels with sexbots are legal or not.

paragraphs: Most of the time, where legal, brothels need to be registered like other businesses. However even if it is legal to run a brothel, there may still be conflicts with the law. Examples of problem cases are:

paragraphs: Brothels have been known for most of recorded history. At first there was temple prostitution in many Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries.

paragraphs: In Ancient Greece and Roman civilizations, brothels were established. Sometimes they were licensed institutions. This was first recorded in Athens in 594 BC. Public sources of the time said it was good that Solon installed the brothel. People said this would reduce the problems caused by sexually unfulfilled sailors and workers. It would also fill money into the public purse. This first official brothel was soon followed by many others, and also influenced the creation of special schools in which various classes of prostitutes (from slavegirls to future courtesans) were trained for their profession. In 2017, a brothel was opened with sexbots instead of human workers.

paragraphs: Brothels use a variety of business models:

paragraphs: The third option (the brothel owner renting space and facilities to prostitutes) gives some way for the brothel owner to say he did not know what is going on. This is especially the case where prostitution is forbidden or restricted. Brothel owners often disguise their actions as running a massage parlor, a bar or a similar venue.

paragraphs: Allowing such places (while forbidding prostitution) can also give politicians a way to save face when they do not want to put the laws against prostitution into practice.


title: Latitude

paragraphs: The latitude of the Earth gives the distance north or south of the equator. It is measured in degrees. Latitude is represented by the Greek letter phi, formula_1. It is usually used along with a measurement of longitude in order to pinpoint a location on Earth.

paragraphs: The equator is numbered 0 degrees. Everything north or south of the equator is designated either as north latitude or south latitude. The Antarctic Circle, Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, and Arctic Circle are all circles of latitude.


title: Jaleel White

paragraphs: Jaleel White (born November 27, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for playing of Steve Urkel in the television series "Family Matters" and the first English voice of Sonic the Hedgehog.


title: Chemical substance

paragraphs: A chemical substance is any material with a known chemical composition. For example, water has the same properties and the same ratio of hydrogen to oxygen whether it came from a river or was made in a laboratory. Typical chemical substances found in the home include water, salt (sodium chloride) and bleach. Generally, substances exist as a solid, a liquid, or a gas, and may change between these "phases of matter" when there are changes in temperature or pressure.


title: South China tiger

paragraphs: The South China tiger ("Panthera tigris amoyensis") is an almost extinct subspecies of the tiger. There are now 20-30 of them left in the wild and 60 left in captivity. It is one of the world's ten most endangered animals and the most endangered of the six surviving tiger subspecies. The South Chinae tiger is also known as the "Chinese", "Amoy", or "Xiamen" tiger.

paragraphs: It can be distinguished from other tiger subspecies by its narrow face, it's longer nose, more intense orange colour, short fur, longer legs, and shorter stripes which are spaced far apart from each other compared to other tiger subspecies. The South China tiger has the least amount of stripes out of all the tiger subspecies, and is the second smallest tiger.

paragraphs: A male South China tiger is around 2.3 to 2.65 m (91 to 104 in) long, and weighs 130 to 175 kg (290 to 390 lb). Females are smaller and are around 2.2 to 2.4 m (87 to 94 in) long, and weigh 110 to 115 kg (240 to 250 lb). The smallest length of the skull in males is 318 to 343 mm (12.5 to 13.5 in), and in females 273 to 301 mm (10.7 to 11.9 in).

paragraphs: The South China tiger is a carnivorous predator, hunting its prey by stalking it until the South China tiger has the opportunity to catch it off guard. South China tigers usually hunt large mammals like deer, wild boar, cattle and goats.

paragraphs: The South China tiger is found on mountains, and in temperate, upland forests of southern-China.

paragraphs: Females are pregnant for around 3 to 4 months before giving birth to around 5 cubs. Newborn South China tiger cubs weigh about 1 kg (2 lb) and are blind and helpless. The mother feeds them milk for about 2 months and then the South China tiger cubs are introduced to meat. South China tiger cubs depend on their mother for the first 18 months and then they start hunting on their own.


title: Windows XP

paragraphs: Windows XP is a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system for personal computers. The letters "XP" stand for "eXPerience". Microsoft released Windows XP on October 25, 2001. Windows XP replaced Windows 2000 and Windows ME, which helped complete the unification of the NT and 9x branches of Windows. It was replaced by Windows Vista. Windows XP was the second most used computer operating system in the world as late as April 2012. Following the release of Windows XP, many computer manufacturers including (but not limited to) Dell, Hewlett Packard, Acer, IBM, Compaq, and Toshiba rebadged their computers (mostly laptops) to Windows XP from Windows 2000. You can tell a laptop from that time was initially sold with Windows 2000 if the Windows (WIN) key on the keyboard has the previous Windows logo.

paragraphs: Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP on April 8, 2014 (with exceptional security updates being made e.g. in 2019, to address ransomware threats) and Microsoft and authorities warn users against still using Windows XP. However, Windows XP remained a popular operating system for a long time after its discontinuation around the world. By August 2019, Microsoft (and others) had ended support for games on Windows XP. As of October 2019, 1.32% of Windows PCs run Windows XP. Windows XP became the most popular operating system from 2001–2007, the operating system, individually and pre-installed, selling over 500 million copies.

paragraphs: Home Edition is an edition that was made for home users.

paragraphs: Professional was made for business users, as well as power users. It had advanced management features like backup recovery, Group Policy and could support two Central processing units.

paragraphs: Media Center Edition was for people who liked to use their computer as a television box. It has essentially the same features as Windows XP Professional but included Windows Media Center, a program which could manage TV shows and play music, and even Netflix.

paragraphs: Tablet PC Edition was for users with pen-based laptops and early tablet PCs.

paragraphs: 64-bit Edition was for computers that ran on Intel's 64-bit Itanium platform. This should not be confused with "Windows XP x64 Edition", as x64 and Itanium are completely different architectures. Unlike Windows XP x64 Edition, 64-bit Edition has fewer features than Windows XP Professional. Some of these features included NTVDM and Windows on Windows, which means that 16-bit MS-DOS applications will not be able to run. It also was missing Windows Media Player features, but Windows XP 64-bit Edition Version 2003, released on March 2003, added back these media features.

paragraphs: Professional x64 Edition was for users with 64-bit x86-based computers. It has the same features as Windows XP Professional except for NTVDM, and introduced Windows on Windows 64, which lets 32-bit applications run on a 64-bit operating system and processor.

paragraphs: Starter Edition was sold mostly in developing countries. The price was low because Microsoft wanted to fight the high software piracy rate in those countries. It could only be bought with a new computer.

paragraphs: The system requirements for Windows XP Home and Professional editions are:


title: Crotram

paragraphs: CROTRAM is a group of Croatian companies that make trams. They make a tram called TMK 2200.

paragraphs: Crotram is a consortium (a group of companies that cooperate) made of three companies: Elektroindustrija Koncar(cro. Končar) and Gredelj, both from city of Zagreb, and Duro Dakovic (cro.Đuro Đaković), from Slavonski Brod.

paragraphs: Crotram sells their trams to ZET, the company that is in charge of all the public transport for the city of Zagreb. So far Crotram has only sold TMK 2200s to Zagreb, but they are trying to sell them in other cities.

paragraphs: The TMK 2200 is 32 meters long, and it can go as fast as 70km/h. 202 people can ride at one time.


title: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

paragraphs: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope is the first film in the "Star Wars" saga. The movie was released in 1977 and is a mix of science fiction, fantasy, action and drama.

paragraphs: Princess Leia Organa is a prisoner of the evil Empire. She was captured by Darth Vader, who is helping the Empire stop a rebellion, by using the Death Star. Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Han Solo work together to rescue her. They are helped by the droids (or robots) R2-D2 and C-3PO. With the princess, they try to stop the Empire and bring peace and happiness to the galaxy.


title: Saint Kitts and Nevis

paragraphs: The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis (, also known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis), is a federal nation made up of two small islands in the Caribbean Sea. It is the smallest independent country in the Western Hemisphere.

paragraphs: The capital city is Basseterre. It is on the main island of St Kitts, also called Saint Christopher. The island of Nevis has some rights of self-government and two seats in the federal parliament.

paragraphs: St Kitts and Nevis is about one-third of the way from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and Tobago.

paragraphs: The headquarters of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank is in St Kitts. That bank controls the East Caribbean dollar.

paragraphs: The two islands were part of the Leeward Islands Colony from 1871 to 1956, and of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962.

paragraphs: The Islands, plus Anguilla, got limited self-government in 1967. Anguilla objected and the Metropolitan Police were sent there in 1968 to stop rioting. Until 19 December 1980 the official name of St Kitts and Nevis was Saint Christopher, Nevis and Anguilla.

paragraphs: St Kitts and Nevis became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1983, Anguilla has stayed a British overseas territory.

paragraphs: In 1970, a movement to make Nevis separate from St Kitts started.

paragraphs: In 1983, the constitution set up a 15-member National Assembly. The Assembly is unicameral, that is, it only has one chamber. 3 members of the Assembly are appointed by the Governor General, on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The other members are elected. If the Speaker decides to stand for re-election he is automatically elected, without a contest.

paragraphs: Nevis is responsible for its own internal affairs. There is an eight-member Nevis Island Assembly, and an Island administration headed by the premier.

paragraphs: The country has two main islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis. The highest peak, at 1,156 metres, is Mount Liamuiga. There is also a smaller island named Booby Island. No one lives on Booby Island.

paragraphs: The islands are of volcanic origin. There are large central peaks covered in tropical rainforest. People do not live on the steeper slopes leading to these peaks. Most of the people on both islands live closer to the sea. There are many rivers coming from the mountains of both islands. These give fresh water to the people. St. Kitts also has one small lake.

paragraphs: The federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is divided into fourteen parishes. There are nine divisions on Saint Kitts and five on Nevis.

paragraphs: These are some of the more important cities and towns in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

paragraphs: Cricket is common in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Top players go to the West Indies cricket team. The late Runako Morton was from Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest country on Earth to ever host a World Cup event. It was one of the host venues of the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

paragraphs: The St. Kitts and Nevis national football team, also known as the "Sugar Boyz", has had some international success. They went to the semifinal round of qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the CONCACAF region. Led by Glence Glasgow they defeated U.S. Virgin Islands and Barbados. They then lost to Mexico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

paragraphs: The St. Kitts and Nevis Billiard Federation, SKNBF, is the governing body for cue sports across the two islands.

paragraphs: Kim Collins is the country's best known track and field athlete. He has won gold medals in the 100 metres at both the World Championships in Athletics and Commonwealth Games. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics he was the country's first athlete to reach an Olympic final. He and three other athletes represented St. Kitts and Nevis at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The four by one hundred metre relay team won a bronze medal in the 2011 world championships.

paragraphs: American writer and former figure skater and triathlete Kathryn Bertine was given dual citizenship. She tried to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics representing St. Kitts and Nevis in women's cycling. She did not make enough points to go the Olympics.

paragraphs: St. Kitts and Nevis had two athletes ride in the time trial at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships. Athletes included Reginald Douglas and James Weekes.


title: Danish language

paragraphs: Danish is the Germanic language spoken in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and parts of Greenland and Germany (Southern Schleswig). Around 5.5 million people speak Danish. It is used as a second language in Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Danish people, or "Danes", call their language "dansk".


title: Niger

paragraphs: Niger is a country in western Africa. The capital is Niamey, and the official language is French. It is surrounded by Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, and Burkina Faso and Mali to the west. Niger is landlocked, meaning it has no coastline. Niger gets its name from the Niger River, whose name possibly comes from the Berber word "River of Rivers".

paragraphs: The Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire both had land in what is now Niger. Later France controlled the land that is now Niger. Niger has a population, or the number of people living in an area, of 15,306,252 and an area of 1,267,000 square kilometres. Much of Niger is desert.

paragraphs: After a military coup in 2010, Niger is now a democratic, multi-party state. Most of the people live in rural areas, and have little access to advanced education.

paragraphs: Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world with a lack of contraception. 41.4% live in poverty. Hunger plagues the country.

paragraphs: Niger’s main exports are uranium ore, livestock, cowpeas and onions. Millet and sorghum are grown in the south, as well as cassava and sugarcane. Rice is grown in the Niger River valley. Peanuts are the most important cash crop. Other important crops are cotton and pulses.

paragraphs: Niger is home to the critically endangered addax antelope. West African giraffes are the only giraffes in West Africa that exist in Niger.

paragraphs: Niger is on the border between the Sahara and Sub-Saharan regions. Niger's area is of which is water. It is the world's twenty-second largest country. Niger borders seven countries. The longest border is with Nigeria to the south.

paragraphs: The lowest point is the Niger River, with an elevation of . The highest point is Mont Idoukal-n-Taghès in the Aïr Mountains at .

paragraphs: This table shows cities with a population over 10,000, according to 2001 census.

paragraphs: Niger's subtropical climate is mainly very hot and dry. Much of it is covered by desert. In the extreme south there is a tropical climate on the edges of the Niger River basin. The land is mostly desert plains and sand dunes. There is flat to rolling savanna in the south and hills in the north.

paragraphs: The literacy rate (the amount of the adult population who can read or write) of Niger is among the lowest in the world. In 2005 it was estimated to be only 28.7% (42.9% male and 15.1% female). Primary education in Niger is required for six years. The primary school enrollment and attendance rates are low, particularly for girls. Children are often made to work rather than attend school. This is particularly true during planting or harvest periods.


title: Zealand

paragraphs: Zealand (Danish: "Sjælland") is an island in the eastern part of Denmark. It is just west of Sweden and a strait called the Øresund lies between the two. It has an area of 7,031 km² and is the largest island in the country.

paragraphs: About 2,268,000 people were living in Zealand as of 2016. Most of these people live in and around Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, which is on the eastern shore of Zealand.

paragraphs: A number of bridges and tunnels link Zealand to other parts of Denmark. They include:


title: Brunei

paragraphs: Brunei (officially called the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace) is a country in Southeast Asia. It is north of Malaysia on the island of Borneo. The country is rather landlocked by Malaysia. To the north is the South China Sea and the Philippines to the northeast. The capital of Brunei is Bandar Seri Begawan. The country is small and has a small population. The leader of the country is the Sultan of Brunei. Due to the sale of his oil, he is one of the richest people in the world. The official religion in Brunei is Islam. There are also minorities of people who follow Buddhism or Animism. The native language of Brunei is Malay and English is the second language. Brunei is one of the smallest Muslim countries in the world.

paragraphs: From the 14th to the 16th centuries Brunei Darussalam was the seat of a powerful sultanate extending over Sabah, Sarawak and the southern Philippines. Thus, the current Sultan represents one of the oldest continuously ruling dynasties in the world. By the 19th century, the Brunei Darussalam Empire had been whittled away by wars, piracy and the colonial expansion of European powers.

paragraphs: In 1847, the sultan ended a treaty with Great Britain and in 1888 Brunei Darussalam officially became a British protectorate. In 1906, the Residential System was established in Brunei Darussalam. A British Resident was nominated as a representative of the British government to advise the sultan in all matters except Malay customs, traditions and Islamic religion.

paragraphs: The 1959 Agreement established a written constitution which gave Brunei Darussalam internal self-government. In 1971, the agreement was amended and revised to assert full internal independence except defence and external affairs.

paragraphs: In June 5, 1966 His Highness Sultan Haji Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien abdicated in favour of his son Pengiran Muda Mahkota Hassanal Bolkiah. On January 1, 1984 Brunei Darussalam resumed full independence and the Sultan took office as Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Home Affairs Minister, presiding over a cabinet of six. In October 1986, the cabinet was expanded to 11 members, with His Majesty relinquishing the portfolios of Finance and Home Affairs and taking over the Defence portfolio which his late father had held since 1984. In 1988 another reshuffle brought about the elevation of the deputy minister to a full minister and the creation of the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources designed to boost the country's development.

paragraphs: In spite of the sizable non-Muslim population (about 1/3 of the population) and criticism by the international community, the Sultan still announced Brunei's adoption of Sharia law in 2013 to fully enforce on the Muslim majority and partially enforce on non-Muslims. It was expected to take full effect in 2016 after 3 phases, and had begun partial enforcement in its first phase in 2014. It is the first country in East and Southeast Asia to practice Sharia law.

paragraphs: Brunei is divided into four districts ("daerahs") and 38 subdistricts ("mukims").

paragraphs: The daerah of Temburong is physically separated from the rest of Brunei by the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

paragraphs: Over 90% of Brunei's total population lives in 15 of the 38 mukims.

paragraphs: Officially, there are no places in Brunei that have "city" status. Some of the important places are:

paragraphs: Given that Brunei is an oil-rich country, Brunei gets most of its income from selling natural resources. .

paragraphs: Brunei uses the Brunei Ringgit to trade. However, the Singapore dollar can be used here as both currencies are of the same value.


title: Taka

paragraphs: The Taka is the currency of Bangladesh. The most commonly used symbol for the Taka is Tk and ৳. This is used on receipts while purchasing goods and services. One taka is divided into 100 poisha.

paragraphs: In Bengali, the word "taka" is also used to mean any money, currency, or notes.

paragraphs: Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country, prints the currency, except for one taka and two taka notes, which are made by the Ministry of Finance.


title: Bogotá

paragraphs: Bogota is the capital (city) of Colombia. As of 2009, more than 7 million people live in Bogota, which makes it the largest city in Colombia. It is about 2,640 meters above sea level, on top a plateau (a mountain with a flat top). This makes it the third highest capital in the world. With many universities and libraries, Bogotá has become known as "The Athens of South America".The weather is usually nice during the day and cool at night. It has a series of bike paths (trails that are made for bikes) that wind through the city. It has many recreational and amusement parks open to the public. The current mayor is Claudia López.

paragraphs: Originally, Native Americans called Muisca lived in the area. Then, in 1538, Gonzalo Jimenes de Quezada, a Spanish conqueror, founded Bogota. Bogota became a center of trade, art, and education. Some of the oldest universities in the Americas are in Bogota. After Independence from Spain, Bogota became the capital of Gran Colombia in 1819.

paragraphs: Bogota has had extremely awful moments. In 1948, a presidential candidate, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, was murdered while doing a speech in front of hundreds of persons. This tragic moment brought with it terrible consequences: one of the most remembered one is the "Bogotazo". The "Bogotazo" started as a political party war, the blue party, self named the "conservatives", began to hunt and kill every single member of the red party, the "liberals". The remaining blue party members decided to create the "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia" (FARC); however, this group was ironically created to protect the oppressed people from their oppressors. Nowadays, this group is known as terrorists and murderers;nevertheless, Colombia's capital city, Bogota, has not being attacked in the last few years.


title: Aymara people

paragraphs: The Aymara are members of a tribe of Native Americans that live in Bolivia and Peru. They are native to the area around Lake Titicaca. They speak the Aymara language. They call themselves Aymaras.

paragraphs: The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is Aymara.

paragraphs: The many-colored flag of the tribe is called the Wiphala.


title: Perihelion

paragraphs: The perihelion is the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid or comet that is nearest to the sun. It is the opposite of aphelion, which is the point farthest from the sun.

paragraphs: The word perihelion stems from the Greek words "peri," meaning near, and "Helios," meaning the Greek god of the sun. So it referred to as perihelion. (The similar word, perigee, refers to the nearest point in some object's orbit of Earth.)

paragraphs: All planets, comets and asteroids in our solar system have approximately elliptical (a kind of non-circular) orbits. Thus, they all have a closest and a farthest point from the sun: a perihelion and an aphelion. Orbital eccentricity measures the flatness of the orbit. Any single revolution of a body around the sun is only approximately elliptical, because the precession of the perihelion prevents the orbit from being a simple closed curve such as an ellipse. This causes Milankovich cycles.

paragraphs: Earth comes closest to the sun every year around January 3. It is farthest from the sun every year around July 4. The difference in distance between Earth's nearest point to the sun in January and farthest point from the sun in July is 3.1 million miles (5 million kilometers). Earth is about 91.4 million miles (147.1 million kilometers) from the sun in early January, in contrast to about 94.5 million miles (152 million kilometers) in early July.

paragraphs: When Earth is closest to the sun, it is winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere. Thus it is possible to see that Earth's distance from the sun does not noticeably cause the seasons to change; the relatively minor effects of differences in distance is somewhat masked by the mainly oceanic southern hemisphere vs the half- continental northern hemisphere. Therefore, the Earth's seasons come and go mainly because Earth does not rotate with its axis exactly upright with respect to the plane of our world’s orbit around the sun. Earth's axial tilt is 23.5 degrees. This puts the Sun farther south in December and January, so the north has winter and the south has summer. Thus winter falls on that part of the globe where sunlight strikes least directly. Summer falls on that part of the globe where sunlight strikes most directly.


title: Johnston Atoll

paragraphs: The island is named after Captain James Johnston, who discovered it in 1807. The island was mined for guano until 1890. After that, it was used as an army base.


title: Llama

paragraphs: A Llama ("Lama glama") is a mammal of the "Camelidae" family. It is from South America, the Andes Mountains of Peru and Ecuador.

paragraphs: Sometimes the name "llama" is used for all four South American camelids.

paragraphs: The llama was domesticated about 5000 years ago. It was and is used for carrying things, and for wool. The llama was very important for the Incan people. Even today, llamas are used for similar reasons, but will more commonly be used as domesticated pets.

paragraphs: The llama's close relative is the alpaca, who is a more demure, petite animal in comparison to the llama. Llamas have three related cousins - the alpaca, the guanaco, and the vicuña. The llama is the national symbol of Bolivia.

paragraphs: Llamas spit, and travel together. Llamas also have a high content of hemoglobin which causes their blood cells to be oval and not circular.


title: Mexican–American War

paragraphs: The Mexican–American War took place between 1846 and 1848 between United States and Mexico.

paragraphs: When Mexico got independence from Spain in 1821, Texas was part of Mexico. Americans and other settlers came into Texas when Mexico allowed non-Spanish settlers to settle there. After many settlers came to Texas, disputes led to the Texas Revolution in which 1836 Texas became independent. Mexico refused to recognize the republic of Texas, as an independent country. Texas soon asked to become a state of the United States.

paragraphs: The United States moved quickly to annex Texas after the 1844 election of James K. Polk. In his campaign, Polk had called for the "re-annexation" of Texas and the "re-occupation" of the Oregon Territory. Polk also wanted California and the rest of what is now the Southwestern United States.

paragraphs: In 1845, the US annexed Texas. But Mexico still did not recognize its independence or recognize the annexation by the U.S. The United States offered to buy from Mexico the land extending from Texas to the Pacific Ocean, but Mexico wanted to keep that vast area.

paragraphs: In 1846, a dispute over the border between Texas and Mexico resulted in armed conflict, and the Mexican–American War began. After offering to buy the territory, Polk moved U.S. troops into a place that Mexico said was not in Texas, but rather part of the Mexican state of Coahuila. The Mexican army attacked them.

paragraphs: The main cause of the war was the westward expansion of the United States. All through the 19th century Americans believed it was their right to expand westward. At the time they believed they could conquer the people already living on the land and take it for the United States. Southerners wanted to see more slave states.

paragraphs: Antonio López de Santa Anna became President again. Many Mexicans hated him and did not want to follow him into war. Many Americans, including young Abraham Lincoln, also disliked the war.

paragraphs: In addition to small units sent to California and New Mexico, the United States sent two major armies into Mexico under the commands of General Winfield Scott and future President of the United States General Zachary Taylor.

paragraphs: After the U.S. had entered Mexico, the Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna took command of the Mexican soldiers in early 1847. The U.S. forces fought Santa Anna near Monterrey and Buena Vista. After Buena Vista, the Mexican army had many problems, including starvation, disease, and desertion. The Mexican government was unstable. In March 1847, Scott landed at Veracruz. His force included future Civil War generals Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson and George G. Meade, as well as Commodore Perry. Scott took Puebla in May, and took Mexico City in September after the battle of Battle of Chapultepec.

paragraphs: When American soldiers came to California, the Bear Flag Revolt was happening. Some Californians were attempting to leave Mexico and form their own country, as Texas had done. In July and August 1846, American soldiers captured Monterey, Yerba Buena and Los Angeles. After a counterattack by the "Californios", the Americans had taken much of California by 1847. The Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico, left the state.

paragraphs: The United States won the war and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The treaty gave the U.S. lands that would become the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, southwestern Colorado, and southwestern Wyoming. Mexico received 15 million dollars and gave up its claims to Texas.

paragraphs: The slavery debate in the United States became more intense with the addition of the new territory and the question of whether slavery would be legal in these new territories. Also, many of the officers who would lead troops in the American Civil War fought in the war and would use their experiences in the coming Civil War.


title: Revolutions of 1848

paragraphs: The European Revolutions of 1848 were a series of revolts in Europe. In some places they are called Spring of Nations or the Year of Revolution.

paragraphs: These revolutions started in January with a Palermo republican uprising. The larger French Revolution of 1848 in February was followed in March by several other revolutions amongst them the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. In Ireland, the rebellions began because of famine conditions in their country.

paragraphs: People in the various countries tried to take over their governments.


title: Edvard Grieg

paragraphs: Edvard Grieg (born 15 June 1843 Bergen, Norway; died 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is Norway’s most famous composer. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor and for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt", which includes movements called "Aubade" and "In the Hall of the Mountain King". He wrote many pieces for piano, including a collection of 66 pieces called "Lyric Pieces". He also wrote songs to Norwegian and to German words.

paragraphs: Grieg was born in Bergen on 15 June 1843. His ancestors were Scottish people who had moved to Norway around 1770. The original family name was spelt "Greig".

paragraphs: Grieg came from a musical home. His mother was his first piano teacher. He went to several schools, and started composing when he was young. He used to take his compositions to school, but the teacher did not show much interest in them.

paragraphs: In the summer of 1858 Grieg met the great Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, who was a friend of the family, and whose brother was married to Grieg's aunt. Bull noticed the 15-year-old boy's talent and persuaded his parents to let him go to Leipzig in Germany to study music.

paragraphs: Grieg enrolled in the conservatory, concentrating on the piano, and enjoyed all the concerts and recitals given in Leipzig. He did not like the discipline of the conservatory course of study, but he still got very good grades. The first piano recital he gave was in Sweden. In 1862 he finished his studies in Leipzig and went back to Bergen where he gave another recital.

paragraphs: In 1863 Grieg went to Copenhagen, Denmark, and stayed there for three years. He met the Danish composers J. P. E. Hartman, and Niels Gade. Gade told him to go and write a symphony. Grieg did not feel happy writing a long symphony although he did try. He also met the Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak who had composed the Norwegian national anthem. Nordraak showed Grieg how wonderful Norwegian folk music was. Grieg had hardly heard any Norwegian folk music until then. When Nordraak died, Grieg composed a funeral march in his honour.

paragraphs: On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin Nina. The next year their only child, Alexandra, was born. The following summer, Grieg wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor while on holiday in Denmark. Edmund Neupert gave the concerto its first performance on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen. Grieg himself was unable to be there because he was conducting in Christiana (now called “Oslo”).

paragraphs: In the summer of 1869, Grieg's daughter Alexandra became ill and died, at the age of 13 months.

paragraphs: In 1870, he met Franz Liszt in Rome. Liszt had made it possible for Grieg to get a travel grant. They played Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 1 together, which Liszt liked very much. On a second visit, in April, Grieg brought with him the manuscript of his Piano Concerto which Liszt played by sight. Liszt gave him some advice about the orchestration.

paragraphs: Grieg spent most of his time conducting and playing the piano in concerts. He often travelled, and in 1876 he went to Bayreuth to hear the first performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle. He wrote a review of the operas for a Norwegian newspaper.

paragraphs: In 1876, Ibsen asked Grieg to write some incidental music for the first performance of the play he had written about the Norwegian hero Peer Gynt. Many of the pieces from this work became very popular. They are played by orchestras as well as in arrangements for piano or for piano duet.

paragraphs: In 1883 he and wife parted for a while, although friends managed to persuade the couple to come together again and they spent four months in Rome. They built a house called Troldhaugen in Bergen, with a view of the fjord. They moved into the house in 1885 and Grieg lived there for the rest of his life. They continued to travel and give concerts. Nina had a good voice and sang her husband’s songs. Grieg only performed his own works at concerts. During his last years he received many honours.

paragraphs: In his later life Grieg became famous, although never rich. The Norwegian government gave him a pension. Grieg made some recordings of his piano pieces. These are some of the very first gramophone recordings that were made. The sound is not very good, but they show that Grieg was an excellent pianist. He also recorded music rolls on a pianola.

paragraphs: Edvard Grieg died in the autumn of 1907, aged 64, after a long illness. He had suffered from respiratory problems ever since he was very ill in 1860 as a student in Leipzig. At his funeral thousands of people went out on the streets of his home town to honour him. Following his wish, his own funeral march for Rikard Nordraak was played, as well as the funeral march by Frederic Chopin. His and his wife's ashes are buried in a mountain crypt near his house, Troldhaugen.

paragraphs: Grieg was often inspired by Norwegian folk music. This can be heard in his songs and some of his instrumental music. His chamber music includes 3 violin sonatas and a cello sonata as well as a piano sonata and many shorter piano pieces. However, he has become very well known all over the world through his Piano Concerto and his music for "Peer Gynt". Another popular work is his "Holberg Suite" which was originally written for the piano but later arranged for string orchestra.

paragraphs: The famous opening of Grieg’s Piano Concerto featured in a comedy sketch by Morecambe and Wise in the 1970s. The conductor André Previn was their special guest in the sketch which has become a classic.


title: Palmyra Atoll

paragraphs: Palmyra Atoll is an island in the North Pacific Ocean. No one lives there, but 4 to 20 people use this island, mainly scientists. It is managed as a nature reserve by the United States. It is known as the "Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge".

paragraphs: In 2005, a team of scientists from around the world started to build a research station on the island. They wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the environment of the island.

paragraphs: Palmyra Atoll was claimed by the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1862, and was taken by the United States in 1898 along with Hawaii. The atoll was not included in the Hawaii Admission Act of 1959, which made Hawaii a state, so it remained a US territory.


title: Kingman Reef

paragraphs: Kingman Reef is a coral reef in the North Pacific Ocean, owned by the United States.

paragraphs: It is the farthest north of the Northern Line Islands. It is only sometimes above water.

paragraphs: Palmyra Atoll is the other U.S. territory in the Northern Line Islands.


title: Jarvis Island

paragraphs: Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island) is an uninhabited island owned by the United States. The small island is a part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, a group of mostly uninhabited islands.

paragraphs: Jarvis Island was officially made part of the United States in 1858. People used to mine guano there, but they then abandoned it. The United States treats it as a nature reserve.

paragraphs: Located 25 miles south of the equator, Jarvis Island, is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean. Jarvis has no known natural freshwater sources, and very little rain. This creates a very bleak, flat landscape with plants no larger than shrubs. Jarvis Island has no ports or docks, other than a reef the guano miners blew up in order for the cargo boats to be able to drop anchor. Its grass, vines and low-growing bushes are primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for wildlife. The island has a tropical desert climate, with high temperatures in the day, constant wind, and a very hot sun. There is no evidence that the island has ever supported a native human population, but on August 30, 1913, the Amaranth was carrying a cargo of coal from Newcastle, New South Wales, to San Francisco when it crashed on Jarvis' southern shore. Ruins of ten wooden buildings, and a two-story house among them, could still be seen by the "Amaranth" crew, who left Jarvis aboard two lifeboats. Also, Settlers were moved to Jarvis Island in 1935 to maintain a weather station and plan a landing field. A settlement called Millersville was established on the west coast of the island because of it was the highest elevation. The Japanese shelled the island in 1942 and the men living on Jarvis were evacuated soon afterward. The United States claimed possession of Jarvis under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. The Act gave American citizens the right to claim any unclaimed, uninhabited islands for the purpose of mining guano. Because at the time guano was a very valuable asset used for fertilizer.


title: Robert E. Lee

paragraphs: Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a colonel in the United States Army. He became the General-in-chief of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He led the Army of Northern Virginia in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. He started out as an engineer but then moved up the ranks. Before the Civil War, Lee was an officer in the Mexican-American War. He was also head of West Point. As a colonel in the United States Army he led a battalion of marines to put down the rebellion at Harpers Ferry Armory and captured their leader, John Brown.

paragraphs: Lee was born at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on January 19, 1807. His parents were American Revolutionary War General and Governor of Virginia, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, and his wife, Anne Carter Lee. In 1818, Lee's father died in the West Indies without ever seeing his son again. Robert was raised by his mother in Alexandria, Virginia.

paragraphs: Lee and George Washington were both descendants of Augustine Warner, Sr. and his wife, Mary Towneley Warner. Lee was descended through their daughter, Sarah. Washington was descended through their son, Augustine, Jr. Lee and Washington were third cousins, twice removed.

paragraphs: Lee attended Eastern View, a school in Fauquier County, Virginia. He may have attended schools in Shirley, Virginia, and in Alexandria, Virginia. His mother instructed him in the Episcopalian faith. Lee attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, and graduated second in the class of 1829.

paragraphs: On June 30, 1831, Lee married Mary Custis at Arlington House. She was the granddaughter of George Washington's stepson, John Parke Custis. They made their home at Arlington House. They had seven children.

paragraphs: Lee fought in the Mexican–American War under General Winfield Scott as a captain. Later, Scott wrote about Lee calling him "the very best soldier I ever saw in the field." After the war, Lee helped the army build forts. In 1855, Lee became a lieutenant colonel, and joined a cavalry regiment. As a Colonel, Lee was called on to stop the "slave rebellion", otherwise known as John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Brown's raid was ended in less than an hour by Lee.

paragraphs: Lee inherited a number of slaves with Arlington House. He proved not to be a very good slave master. He tried kindness and refused to use torture. But the slaves knew their freedom had been granted them in the will and refused to work. Lee wanted to grant them their freedom but needed them to help him see out the work at Arlington House. Personally, Lee hated slavery calling it an "evil" to both blacks and whites. But he thought it had to be ended gradually or the economy of the South would wikt:collapse. But Lee did agree with other Southerners thinking that blacks were inferior. He believed God would work out the problem in his own time. Lee, like Thomas Jefferson had mixed feelings about slavery.

paragraphs: The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused several states to secede in protest. This put Lee in a difficult position. The newly formed Confederate States of America offered Lee the rank of brigadier general. Lee did not respond to the offer. Winfield Scott offered him command of the army of U.S. volunteers. He didn't answer this offer, either. Between April 12–14, 1861, U.S. troops were bombarded at Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina. The same day Virginia seceded from the Union. Lee did not support secession but he could not fight his own state of Virginia. Lee resigned his U.S. Army commission on April 22, 1861, at Arlington House. He told his friends that he would not be a part of an invasion of the South. Several days later he accepted command of all Virginia forces.

paragraphs: At first, Lee did not command any soldiers in battle. Instead, he helped Confederate president Jefferson Davis make military decisions. In 1862, he became the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. He would lead the army for the rest of the war. He would win many battles, even though the Union army in the battles had more men and weapons. At the Battle of Gettysburg, he tried to invade the Union in order to end the war. But his army was defeated and he had to retreat back into Virginia.

paragraphs: During 1864 and 1865, Lee fought Union general Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia. During the end of 1864 and the beginning of 1865, Lee and Grant fought near Richmond, Virginia in a series of battles called the Siege of Petersburg. In April 1865, Grant forced Lee to retreat from Richmond. After a series of battles, Grant surrounded Lee near Appomattox Courthouse and forced Lee to surrender. Before he surrendered, he said "I would rather die a thousand deaths than surrender".

paragraphs: President Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation granting amnesty and pardon to those Confederates who were a part of the rebellion against the United States. It contained 14 exempted classes and members of these groups had to make an application to the President of the United States asking for a pardon. Lee sent an application to General Grant. On June 13, 1865, Lee wrote to President Johnson:

paragraphs: On October 2, 1865, Lee became president of Washington College in Virginia. That same day Lee signed his Amnesty Oath as required by President Johnson. But Lee was not pardoned and his citizenship was not restored.

paragraphs: His amnesty oath was found over a hundred years later in the National Archives. It appears United States Secretary of State William H. Seward had given the application to a friend to keep as a souvenir. The State Department had simply ignored Lee's application and it was never granted. In a 1975 Joint resolution by the United States Congress, Lee's rights as a citizen were restored with the effective date of June 13, 1865. The act was signed into law by President Gerald R. Ford on August 5, 1975.

paragraphs: Lee had a stroke on September 28, 1870 and died on October 12, 1870. Washington College changed its name to Washington and Lee University in Lee's honor. Lee's birthday is celebrated in several southern states as a holiday.


title: Isaiah

paragraphs: Isaiah was a prophet of God in Judaism, Islam, Christianity and Bahá'í. He lived from about 740 to 681 BC. The name "Isaiah" means "the Lord is salvation" in the Hebrew language.

paragraphs: Isaiah is also the name of a book in the Old Testament of the Bible, which tells the story of the Israelites in Isaiah's time. According to Christianity, Isaiah predicted in this book, the birth and then death of Jesus, hundreds of years before it actually happened. Judaism does not agree with that interpretation.

paragraphs: Isaiah was known to be the Shakespeare of the Bible due to his good education and the quality of the passages he wrote. He was cut in half by King Manasseh which led to his gruesome death. Most of Isaiah's Bible passages begin with 'God's message to'.


title: Leopold Poetsch

paragraphs: Leopold Poetsch was a German antiSemitic professor and a high school teacher of Adolf Hitler who influenced the future leader's later views.

paragraphs: Poetsch came from the southern German border area. There, political fights between Slavs and ethnic Germans angered him and made him one who was for the Pan-German movement. He started to teach in Maribor, Slovenia and later moved to Linz, Austria to teach history.

paragraphs: Hitler was very interested in what Poetsch said. Poetsch hated the Habsburgs and argued that all ethnic Germans should be united by a single government. He said that the Aryan race was stronger, in better health, and more fit to rule than all other people. Poetsch said that Jews and Slavs were what he called "inferior races". (This view was held a lot in Germany after World War I.)

paragraphs: Hitler began reading an anti-Semitic newspaper in his area. In his later years, Hitler spoke of Poetsch as a "great man." As dictator of Germany, Hitler tried to get all German-speaking people together and persecuted Slavs, Jews, Gypsies, and others. Hitler later tried to kill them all in the "Final Solution."


title: Armenian Genocide

paragraphs: The Armenian Genocide was the forcible deportation and massacring of Armenians during the government of the Young Turks from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire.

paragraphs: In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire went into the World War I on the side of the Central Powers. İsmail Enver, who was then the Minister of War, launched a disastrous military campaign against Russian forces in the Caucasus in hopes of capturing the city of Baku. His forces were routed at the Battle of Sarikamis, and many more of his men froze to death.

paragraphs: Returning to Istanbul, Enver largely blamed the Armenians living in the region for actively siding with the Russians. In spite of these obstacles, the Armenians thrived under Ottoman rule. The Armenians tended to be better educated and wealthier than their Turkish neighbors, who in turn tended to resent their success. This resentment was compounded by suspicions that the Christian Armenians would be more loyal to Christian governments (that of the Russians, who shared an unstable border with Turkey) than they were to the Ottoman caliphate.

paragraphs: In 1914, the Ottoman Empire's "War Office" had already begun a propaganda drive to present Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire as a liability and threat to the country's security. An Ottoman naval officer in the War Office described the planning:

paragraphs: The Ottoman government, moving quickly, arrested an estimated 250 Armenian intellectuals on the night of 24 April 1915. The acts of Genocide against the Armenians continued for 9 years until 1922, with around 388,000 Armenians remaining.

paragraphs: The Turkish massacres of Armenians in 1894, 1895, 1896, and 1909 were still fresh in their minds.

paragraphs: In the beginning, around 1915-1916, Armenians were kicked out of their homes, which were claimed by Turks. During a 'Turkification' campaign, the government squads kidnapped children, converted them to Islam and gave them to Turkish families. In some places, they raped and forced women to join Turkish “harems” or serve as slaves. Women would mar their bodies with scars or burn a part of their face to be unfit to join a harem. Muslim families moved into the homes of deported Armenians and seized their property.

paragraphs: At the same time, the Turks created a 'Special Organization', which in turn organized 'killing squads' or 'butcher battalions' to carry out, as one officer put it, “the liquidation of the Christian elements”. These killing squads were often made up of murderers and other ex-convicts. People were drowned in rivers, threw off cliffs, crucified and burned alive.

paragraphs: Guenter Lewy claims in his book,"The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide", that there is not enough evidence of the Young Turk regime organizing the killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

paragraphs: According to Lewy, even though their fate in World War I proved tragic, it was not a ‘‘real’’ genocide, because ‘‘there were no centrally organized and state-sponsored premeditation and genocidal intention‘‘.

paragraphs: A major obstacle for wider recognition of the genocide in the world is the official position of Turkey, which they state that there was no systematic attempt to annihilate the Armenian population and the 1915 massacres were made because of the Tehcir Law and WW1. In December 2008 a group of Turkish scholars launched an online petition for people who wanted to apologize for what happened. The people who created the petition didn’t use the word “genocide” instead they used the word “the Great Catastrophe” regarding the event. Many Turks viewed the Armenians as having been a threat to the Ottoman Empire in a time of war, arguing that people of various ethnicities were killed during the violence. Turkey and their leaders fear that recognizing the word “genocide” could likely cost the considerable sums of money in reparations, as well as public embarrassment.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

paragraphs: The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of the Government of the United Kingdom and the chair of the cabinet. The Prime Minister directs both the executive and the legislature of the United Kingdom and is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons. The current office holder is Boris Johnson. He took office after Theresa May's resignation on 24 July 2019. Before this, Johnson served as the Foreign Secretary and Mayor of London

paragraphs: Boris Johnson was elected for office by the 160,000 members of the UK's Conservative and Unionist Party. He beat his rival Jeremy Hunt. The two candidates topped a poll of Conservative MPs to qualify for the ballot of party members

paragraphs: The Prime Minister is usually the leader of the political party which wins most seats after a general election. There are 650 are available in the United Kingdom. Voters vote for their own local MP, not for the Prime Minister.

paragraphs: The first Prime Minister was Robert Walpole in the eighteenth century. He was known as the "First Lord of the Treasury". The first person to be officially called "Prime Minister" was Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1905.

paragraphs: Well-known prime ministers in the 20th century include Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. The Prime Ministers usually live and work at No.10 Downing Street or Chequers House while in office. Chequers was donated to the country by Sir Winston Churchill.

paragraphs: There are several other official residences, some owned by the government, others held by trusts. The 3,500-acre Chevening House estate, in Kent is an example. Dorneywood is another.


title: River Forth

paragraphs: The source is Loch Ard, in Kinlochard. The river flows through the city of Stirling, and the city of Edinburgh is on the south of the Firth of Forth estuary.


title: Alejandro Toledo

paragraphs: Alejandro Toledo is a former president of Peru. He won the 2001 election for President.

paragraphs: He is from the town of Chimbote in Ancash Region, Peru. He is married to Eliane Karp of Belgium.


title: Inuktitut

paragraphs: Inuktitut is a language of the Arctic, spoken by Inuits in Canada and in Greenland. Inuktitut is a very complex language. It is an official language in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

paragraphs: The Inuit write Inuktitut in two ways. One way to write Inuktitut is by using the Roman alphabet. The other way to write Inuktitut is by using an abugida, which is a kind of alphabet which has letters based on syllables.

paragraphs: The uses a small part of the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, a set of letters made up for writing down many of the languages of the First Nations people in Canada.

paragraphs: Some words in English come from Inuktitut or another Inuit language. Among them are the words anorak, igloo, and kayak.


title: Fall Out Boy

paragraphs: Fall Out Boy (often shortened to FOB) is an alternative rock band, that make music, from Chicago, Illinois, USA. The members are Pete Wentz (bassist), Patrick Stump (vocals), Andy Hurley (drums), and Joe Trohman (guitar). They have written successful songs, including "Thnks fr the Mmrs", "Sugar, We're Goin Down" and "Dance, Dance".

paragraphs: Their music is mostly like the pop-punk style, or genre, of music. The band got the name "Fall Out Boy" from a character who appeared in one episode of The Simpsons. "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" was the first single from their album "From Under the Cork Tree". It has peaked at number eight on the "Billboard" charts. The second single was "Dance, Dance" which picked up major airplay in the U.S. The third single was "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More Touch Me." Their third album is "Infinity on High" and it had lots of success around the world.

paragraphs: Two songs from the album were very popular across the world. They are "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" and "Thnks fr th Mmrs". The second song's title is "Thanks for the Memories" without the vowel letters, which is meant to look as if it were from a text message.

paragraphs: The third single from "Infinity on High" is called "The Take Over, The Breaks Over". The fourth is "I'm Like a Lawyer With the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)". Their fourth album "Folie à Deux", was released on December 16, 2008. "I Don't Care" was the first song released from the album. In late 2009 the band took a rest. Patrick Stump went solo and released his debut album "Soul Punk" on October 18, 2011.

paragraphs: His EP "Truant Wave" was released on February 22, 2011. Bassist Pete Wentz formed the electropop band Black Cards. Guitarist Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley formed a rock band The Damned Things with people from Anthrax and Every Time I Die.

paragraphs: Fall Out Boy came off hiatus in 2013, releasing a new single "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)" and an album "Save Rock and Roll", along with a supporting tour, They went on the Save Rock and Roll Arena Fall Tour September of 2013 with fellow rock band Panic! at the Disco in support of the album as well. In September 2014, they released a new single, called "Centuries".


title: Greek alphabet

paragraphs: The modern Greek alphabet has 24 letters. It is used to write the Greek language. The Greek alphabet is also frequently used in science and mathematics to represent various entities. Most letters in the Greek alphabet have equivalent in the English language.

paragraphs: The Greek alphabet is thought to be where all important European alphabets came from. The alphabet was borrowed from the Phoenician alphabet around the 10th century BC, with many changes to make it fit the Greek language. The main change was that some of the Phoenician letters that were for sounds not used in Greek were turned into vowels. The Phoenicians had written their alphabet without any vowels, so this change made reading easier. This change was also better fit for Indo-European languages, which did not use consonant-based roots (meaning the word's central meaning is based on the consonant string) like those in Semitic languages such as Phoenician, Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Another change is that some new letters were invented for sounds that were in Greek but not in the Phoenician language. At first, Greek was written from right to left, same as Phoenician, but after the 6th century BC, it was written from left to right.

paragraphs: There were some differences in the early Greek alphabet depending on what part of the Greek world it was used in. The two main kinds were the eastern and western ones. But over time, all Greeks started to use the same alphabet, especially after the Ionic alphabet of Miletus was officially adopted in Athens in 403 BC. A little later, the rest of Greece did the same, and by 350 BC, during the life of Alexander the Great, almost all Greeks were using the same twenty-four letter Greek alphabet.

paragraphs: Later, Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 257185 BC), a Greek scholar and grammarian, invented the three diacritics (accent marks): acute, grave, and circumflex, to mark the tone or pitch of Greek words.

paragraphs: Although the Greek letters accurately represented all the main sounds of the Greek language early on, the sounds of the Greek language changed over time. Some of the vowel sounds began to sound similar to one another, aspirated voiceless stops became voiceless fricatives, and voiced stops became voiced fricatives. One can get an idea of how older Greek pronunciations sounded like, by looking at the Latin and English spellings of Greek loanwords like "philosopher", "Chimera", "Cyprus", and "Thessalonica" .

paragraphs: Another diacritic is a comma, usually above initial vowels. This signaled whether or not the sound of the letter 'H' was present. It is not available in our standard character-set. If this comma-like diacritic above the vowel is reversed, it indicates the presence of an /h/ sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. Thus, the Greek name "Ἕκτωρ" is pronounced Hektōr, not Ektor. Another example is ἥρως, pronounced hḗrōs ("hero").

paragraphs: In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as "monotonic", was adopted for official use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. It uses only a single accent mark, the acute accent. This marks the stressed syllable of polysyllabic words, that is, words with more than one syllable.


title: Good Charlotte

paragraphs: Good Charlotte is an American punk music band. They are from Waldorf, Maryland. They have many popular songs, including "The Anthem", "Girls and Boys", and "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".

paragraphs: Their third album is unique. "The Chronicles of Life and Death" came in two different versions: the Life version, and the Death version. The only difference between them is the last song on the CD. The Life version has "Falling Away", and the Death version has "Meet My Maker".

paragraphs: The lead singer of the band is Joel Madden. His twin brother, Benji, is also in the band. But besides them, there is Billy (guitarist), Paul (bassist) and Dean (drums).


title: Battle Creek, Michigan

paragraphs: Battle Creek is a city in western Michigan, USA. The headquarters of the Kellogg's cereal company is located in this city.


title: Grand Rapids, Michigan

paragraphs: Grand Rapids is a large city in western Michigan, United States. About 200,000 people were living here in 2018.

paragraphs: Former American president Gerald Ford grew up in Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids is also the birthplace of Amway and the Meijer store chain.

paragraphs: Grand Rapids is the county seat of Kent County. It is the second largest city in the state, after Detroit. The third largest is Warren.

paragraphs: The city has many attractions, including the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park and John Ball Park, which is a zoo. Grand Valley State University has a campus in downtown Grand Rapids.

paragraphs: Many Reformed Christians from Dutch ancestry live in Grand Rapids.


title: Evo Morales

paragraphs: Juan Evo Morales Aima (born October 26, 1959) was the President of Bolivia from 2006 through 2019. He is an Aymara Native American, and is politically a leftist. He is the founder and leader of the Movement toward Socialism (or MAS) political party. "Movimiento al Socialismo" is its Spanish name.

paragraphs: On January 22, 2006, he became President of Bolivia. His party has declared that he is the first indigenous person to be president of Bolivia. Not everyone believes this to be true because of his mestizo heritage and similar backgrounds of several past Bolivian presidents. Nonetheless, he is likely the first "culturally" indigenous president of Bolivia.

paragraphs: Born in Oruro, Morales was a leader in a union of coca growers. Morales has said he does not like United States policy toward Latin America, criticizing the country's past failures to stand up for democracy, trade agreements which he feels have not helped Bolivia, and especially for the US's anti-drug policies. Coca is a component in cocaine, but is also an important part of Bolivian culture. Morales became well known for this, and he was elected to Congress.

paragraphs: Even though he was forced out of Congress in 2002, he became a very popular person in Bolivia, and won the country's presidential election in 2005. As president, he focused on economic changes that moved the country toward a more socialist economy, instead of a capitalist one. He also worked with other leaders in South America like Rafael Correa and Nestor Kirchner. Morales has been a popular president, and has been reelected in 2009 and 2014. During this time he has criticized both George W. Bush and Barack Obama and has had arguments with the United States.

paragraphs: In 2016, Morales wanted to pass a Constitutional amendment that would allow him to run for another term in 2019. Many people in Bolivia saw this as a power grab, and the amendment lost the election.

paragraphs: On 20 October 2019 Morales won 47.1% of the vote in the first round of the 2019 Bolivian general election. The results were immediately challenged and led to widespread protests. On 9 November 2019 the Organization of American States published a preliminary report that there were "clear manipulations". The police joined the protests against Morales and on 10 November the military forced him to resign.