title: BDSM

paragraphs: BDSM is an initialism for bondage/discipline ("BD"), dominance/submission ("DS"), and sadism/masochism ("SM"). It means some kinds of sex play, sometimes these are called kink or fetish. They all have to do with trying to get sexual pleasure out of things that are often painful or upsetting. People try to do this in a safe way by agreeing on a "safe word". If someone says this word the whole play stops. This is to stop the play from going too far and causing real physical or emotional hurt.

paragraphs: BDSM is thought about as a safe thing to do if it does some things. These things are often said in one of two different ways. The first way they are said is to say "Safe, Sane, and Consentual" (SSC). The second way they are said is "Risk Aware Consentual Kink" (RACK). What those sayings mean is that both people have to agree on what to do. They also have to be safe, which means that they have to know the risks and be careful. People who do BDSM play are very careful to follow those rules because they can hurt or kill their partner if they do not.

paragraphs: Safe words are used to make sure BDSM is safe. Sometimes one person thinks they are playing in an ok way, but the other person does not. The person who does not think the play is ok will use a safe word or gesture to stop playing. This means that the play stops as soon as they do so nobody gets hurt or injured.

paragraphs: Bondage is the use of items like handcuffs, ropes or chains to keep a willing person from moving. Bondage often has to do with sex, but not always. Bondage is done because some people like the feeling of being not able to move while having sex. In this case, bondage sometimes has to do with BDSM, as often in the case of rope bondage and bondage of the female breasts. The letter "B" in BDSM stands for "bondage". Bondage may also be done just because people may like the feelings it creates.

paragraphs: Some couples include bondage as foreplay in their otherwise traditional sex lives at some time during their relationship. These bedroom bondage games are often with one partner willingly being restrained with rope or cuffs. Sometimes they can also be blindfolded or gagged.

paragraphs: Domination and submission is a lifestyle. Often it is seen as a form of erotic play. Usually two people do this. With this lifestyle or context, one of the two people has the dominant role. He or she can tell the other (called submissive) to do things. The submissive has to obey. The roles are usually agreed on beforehand. The submission is voluntary. Sadomasochism may be seen as a variation of domination and submission. A person who plays both roles is called a switch.


title: Şalom

paragraphs: Şalom is a Jewish weekly newspaper published in Turkey. Its name is the Turkish spelling of the Hebrew word "shalom" meaning "Peace". It was established on 29 October 1947 by the Turkish Jewish journalist Avram Leyon. It is printed in Istanbul and is published every Wednesday. Apart from one Ladino page, it is published in Turkish. İvo Molinas is its publisher. Yakup Barokas is its editor-in-chief. Its circulation is about 5,000.


title: Talmud

paragraphs: The Talmud is a collection of texts which are important in Judaism. These texts are about discussions Rabbis had about Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. The Talmud has two parts, the Mishnah and the Gemara. The Mishnah was written down about 200 C.E. The Mishna is about the oral laws of Judaism. The Gemara was written down around the year 500. It discusses the Mishnah, writings of the Tannaim, and the Tanakh. The Talmud is taken very seriously. The Talmud is studied and used every day by Jewish people all over the world and is considered an extremely necessary component of the Jewish religion.


title: Hibernate (OS feature)

paragraphs: Hibernation is a technology used in certain operating systems. It allows to save the contents of the system memory onto a hard disk or other permanent storage. The computer can then be powered off. When it is powered up again, this information can be read again. That way the system will start up much faster.

paragraphs: The amount of free space on the hard disk needs to be greater than the amount of RAM in order for hibernation to work.


title: Isospora belli

paragraphs: Isospora belli is a species of internal parasites classified under Coccidia.

paragraphs: It is responsible for the condition isosporiasis.


title: Return to the Blue Lagoon

paragraphs: Return to the Blue Lagoon is a 1991 American romantic adventure movie starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause, produced and directed by William A. Graham. The screenplay was by Leslie Steven. It tells the story of two young people growing up on a small, remote tropical island. It is the sequel to "The Blue Lagoon".


title: Tab (GUI)

paragraphs: On computers using graphics for an interface, a tab is a way to switch between different controls (such as in a configuration screen), or documents (such as in a web browser or word processor). Only one tab can be active at a time.

paragraphs: More recently tabs have become a popular feature of most web browsers. This allows you to have more than one website open in the same window.


title: Mark McGwire

paragraphs: Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963 in Pomona, California) is a former right-handed First baseman in Major League Baseball who played for the Oakland Athletics (1986–1997) and the St. Louis Cardinals (1997–2001). He had a career .263 Batting average, and 583 Home Runs.

paragraphs: Although McGwire has never admitted to or been convicted of any steroid use, many of his accomplishments, particularly his historic home run surge late in his career, have come into question due to his connection to the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball.


title: Cryptosporidium

paragraphs: Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite which causes outbreaks of diarrhea.

paragraphs: A number of species of "Cryptosporidium" can infect mammals. The most common species to infect man is "Cryptosporidium parvum". The diarrhea can become severe in children, and in people whose immune system is weakened. It is often found in HIV patients who have diarrhea. In healthy adults, the infection is usually brief.

paragraphs: It is difficult to identify in the laboratory. The oocytes can be seen under a microscope, but they may be confused. Most cryptosporidia are 3-6 μm in size, but some reports have described larger cells. New real-time monitoring can detect "Cryptosporidium" better than the older spot testing and batch testing methods.

paragraphs: If "Cryptosporidium" is suspected in the water, the safest option is to boil water used for drinking.


title: Dodecahedron

paragraphs: A dodecahedron is a solid shape that has 12 surfaces. Each face is a pentagon (has five edges). In total there are 20 corners (also called vertices) and 30 edges altogether. A dodecahedron which looks exactly the same from all faces is also a platonic solid.

paragraphs: If "a" is the length of one of its edges, the surface area and volume of a regular dodecahedron are:


title: Jorginho

paragraphs: Jorginho (born 17 August 1964) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Ricardo Roberto Barreto da Rocha

paragraphs: Ricardo Roberto Barreto da Rocha (born 11 September 1962) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Ronaldo Rodrigues de Jesus

paragraphs: Ronaldo Rodrigues de Jesus (born June 19, 1965) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for the Brazilian national team.


title: Branco

paragraphs: Branco (born 4 April, 1964) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Zinho

paragraphs: Zinho (born 17 June 1967) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Zetti

paragraphs: Zetti (born 10 January, 1965) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Márcio Roberto dos Santos

paragraphs: Márcio Roberto dos Santos (born 15 September 1969) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Mazinho

paragraphs: Mazinho (born 8 April, 1966) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Paulo Sérgio Silvestre do Nascimento

paragraphs: Paulo Sérgio Silvestre do Nascimento (born, 19) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Müller

paragraphs: Müller (born January 31, 1966) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played the Brazilian national team.


title: Viola (footballer)

paragraphs: Viola (born 1 January 1969) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Gilmar Rinaldi

paragraphs: Gilmar Rinaldi (born 13 January 1959) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Ricardo Gomes

paragraphs: Ricardo Gomes (born 13 December, 1964) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Alemão

paragraphs: Alemão (born 11 October, 1961) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Valdo Filho

paragraphs: Valdo Filho (born 12 January 1964) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Acácio Cordeiro Barreto

paragraphs: Acácio Cordeiro Barreto (born 24 January, 1959) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Carlos Mozer

paragraphs: Carlos Mozer (born 19 September 1960) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Renato Gaúcho

paragraphs: Renato Gaúcho (born 9 September 1962) was a Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Tita

paragraphs: Tita (born 1 April 1958) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Mauro Galvão

paragraphs: Mauro Galvão (born 19 December, 1961) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: José Carlos da Costa Araújo

paragraphs: José Carlos da Costa Araújo (born 7 February 1962) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Sebastião Lazaroni

paragraphs: Sebastião Lazaroni (born 25 September, 1950) is a Brazilian football manager.


title: Custer's Revenge

paragraphs: Custer's Revenge is a game for the Atari 2600, where the player must dodge arrows to rape a woman in each level. The game is based on US General George Custer. It is a pornographic adult game. There were many complaints when the game was released in the early 1980's.


title: Myelodysplastic syndrome

paragraphs: The Myelodysplastic syndrome is a group of diseases and conditions that affect how blood is made. These diseases were formerly known as preleukemia, mostly because sometimes they can lead to leukemia. Often, its name is shortened to MDS.

paragraphs: Myelodysplastic syndromes affect the bone marrow stem cells. The production of blood does not rely on good stem cells, but ones that have been modified genetically. This means that the production of red blood cells, sometimes of white blood cells and blood platelets changed. The production becomes inefficient, or goes wrong altogether. Most of the time, this manifests in anemia - not having enough blood. Depending on the severity of the condition, it can also cause hemorrhages and infections with fever.

paragraphs: Most of the people who have these conditions are 60 years or older, but younger people can get it too, especially if they went through a form of chemotherapy. Most of the suffers die from the disease, usually after six to thirty months. The only known cure is a stem cell transplant. About a third of those suffering contract leukemia within a few months to a few years.


MDS


title: Bone marrow

paragraphs: Bone marrow is a type of tissue that can be found in hollow bones of many animals including humans. In adults, the bone marrow in large bones makes new blood cells. Bone marrow makes up about 4% of an adult human's weight (about 2.6 kilograms).

paragraphs: There are two types of bone marrow. Red marrow is made mostly of myeloid tissue (which makes new blood cells). Red blood cells, platelets, and most white blood cells are created by red marrow. Yellow marrow is made mainly of fat cells. Both types of bone marrow contain many blood vessels and capillaries.

paragraphs: When a person is born, all of their bone marrow is red. As the person ages, more and more of the bone marrow changes to the yellow type. By adulthood, about half of a person's bone marrow is red.

paragraphs: Red marrow is found mainly in the flat bones - like the hip bone, breast bone, skull, ribs, vertebra (the bones that make up the spinal column), and shoulder blades - and in the cancellous ("spongy") material at the ends of the long bones like the femur (thigh bone) and humerus (upper forearm bone). Yellow marrow is found inside the hollow middle section, or medullary cavity of the long bones.

paragraphs: In cases of severe blood loss, the body can change yellow marrow back to red marrow so that more blood cells are made to replace the lost blood.


title: Cyclospora cayetanensis

paragraphs: Cyclospora cayetanensis is a protozoan that causes disease in humans, and perhaps other primates. They are cause of clinical diseases in immunosuppressed hosts is related with prolonged severe and highly recurrent diarrheas.


title: Stem cell

paragraphs: (somatic cells) which can divide and become differentiated.

paragraphs: When an organism grows, stem cells specialize, and take specific functions. For instance, mature tissues like skin, muscle, blood, bone, liver, nerves, all have different types of cells. Because stem cells are not yet differentiated, they can change to become some kind of specialized cells. Organisms also use stem cells to replace damaged cells.

paragraphs: Stem cells are found in most, if not all, plants and animals. They divide and differentiate into a range of cell types.Research in the stem cell field grew out of findings in the 1960s.

paragraphs: The two broad types of mammalian stem cells are embryonic stem cells, and adult stem cells, which are found in adult tissues. In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into "all" of the specialised embryonic tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing specialized cells, but also maintain the normal turnover of blood, skin, and intestinal tissues.

paragraphs: Stem cells can be grown in tissue culture. In culture, they can be transformed into specialised cells, such as those of muscles or nerves. Highly plastic adult stem cells can be taken from a variety of sources, including umbilical cord blood and bone marrow. They are now used in medical therapies, and researchers expect that stem cells will be used in many future therapies.

paragraphs: Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are stem cells taken from the inner cell mass of the early stage embryo called a "blastocyst". Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4-5 days after fertilization. At that time, they are made up of between 50 and 150 cells.

paragraphs: The stem cells' state, and what the daughter cells turn into, is influenced by signals from other cells in the embryo.

paragraphs: Adult stem cells exist throughout body after embryonic development has completed. They are found inside different types of tissue and remain in a "non-dividing state" until disease or tissue injury. They have changed permanently into specialised cells and have lost the ability to divide and specialise further. An advantage of adult stem cells is that it provides a lesser probability of rejection. A disadvantage would be that there is a limited availability to get them.

paragraphs: Plant stem cells are unspecialised, and can develop into any type of plant cell. They become specialised into cells of roots, leaves or flowers. The stem cells are found in meristem, at root and stem apices. They make it possible for growth to continue.

paragraphs: These are plants which have been grown from cuttings (therefore the same plant). They are dipped in "hormone rooting powder" to develop bigger root systems. They turn into tissues (eg. xylem and phloem) and organs (eg. roots, leaves and flowers), therefore becoming a completely new plant.

paragraphs: Cloning plants is a cheap way of producing a new plant.

paragraphs: Some cancers "may" be treated by stem cells. Leukemia, a cancer of white blood cells (WBC) is an example.


title: Springbok

paragraphs: The Springbok Antelope ("Antidorcas marsupialis") is a medium sized brown and white gazelle that stands about high. It is in the same family as antelope and goats. They are the national animal of South Africa and live in the Savannah Biome.


title: Lythraceae

paragraphs: Lythraceae is a family of flowering plants. It includes 500-600 species of mostly herbs, with some shrubs and trees, in 32 genera.


title: Textual criticism

paragraphs: Textual criticism is the study of different copies of books or manuscripts. The purpose is to find the original, and see what changes were made to the later versions.

paragraphs: Textual criticism started with the study of the Bible, but now these techniques are used to study many texts.

paragraphs: The basic problem, as described by Paul Maas, is as follows:

paragraphs: The lack of autograph manuscripts applies to many cultures other than Greek and Roman. In such a situation, a key objective becomes the identification of the first "exemplar" before any split in the tradition. That exemplar is known as the "archetype". "If we succeed in establishing the text of [the archetype], the reconstruction of the original is considerably advanced".

paragraphs: The textual critic's ultimate objective is the production of a "critical edition". This contains a text most closely approximating the original, which is accompanied by a critical apparatus that presents:


title: Carlos Roberto Gallo

paragraphs: Carlos Roberto Gallo (born 4 March, 1956) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Édson Boaro

paragraphs: Édson Boaro (born 3 July, 1959) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Edino Nazareth Filho

paragraphs: Edino Nazareth Filho (born 5 June, 1955) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Leovegildo Lins da Gama Júnior

paragraphs: Leovegildo Lins da Gama Júnior (born 29 June 1954) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Walter Casagrande

paragraphs: Walter Casagrande (born 15 April, 1963) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Zico

paragraphs: Zico (born March 3, 1953) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for the Brazilian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time.


title: Edivaldo Martins Fonseca

paragraphs: Edivaldo Martins Fonseca (13 April 1962 – 13 January 1993) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Paulo Vitor

paragraphs: Paulo Vitor (born 7 June, 1957) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for the Brazilian national team.


title: Josimar

paragraphs: Josimar (born 19 September, 1961) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Júlio César da Silva

paragraphs: Júlio César da Silva (born 8 March, 1963) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Elzo Coelho

paragraphs: Elzo Coelho (born 22 January, 1961) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Telê Santana

paragraphs: Telê Santana (26 July 1931 – 21 April 2006) was a former Brazilian football player and manager.


title: Race to Witch Mountain

paragraphs: Race to Witch Mountain is a 2009 movie starring Dwayne Johnson as Jack Bruno, A Las Vegas cabbie enlists the help of a UFO expert to protect two siblings, named Sarah and Seth played by AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig, with paranormal powers from the clutches of an organization that wants to use the kids for their nefarious plans.

paragraphs: The movie stars Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig and Carla Gugino.


title: OpenStreetMap

paragraphs: OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people from the entire world.

paragraphs: People make the maps using data from a GPS device and pictures from airplaces. Map vector information can be downloaded under the Open Database License, and the map pictures can be downloaded under Creative Commons Share-Alike license.

paragraphs: OpenStreetMap allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth.


title: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

paragraphs: The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) is a world-famous orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Michael Tilson Thomas has been their main conductor (“musical director”) since 1995.

paragraphs: When the conductor Henry Hadley started the orchestra in 1911 they only had sixty musicians. They gave pop concerts as well as concerts of classical music. In 1915 Alfred Hertz became their conductor. He improved their playing and made several radio broadcasts in the late 1920s. Hertz retired in 1930 and was followed by Basil Cameron and Issay Dobrowen. During the Great Depression, the orchestra had hardly and money and they did not play during the 1934-35 season. Then the people of San Francisco managed to get funding for the orchestra so that they could carry on.

paragraphs: The famous French conductor Pierre Monteux was asked to come and get the orchestra back to a good standard. He was very successful and the orchestra were soon offered more recordings. In 1949, Monteux invited Arthur Fiedler to lead summer "pops" concerts in the Civic Auditorium. Fiedler worked with the orchestra until the mid 1970s.

paragraphs: When Monteux left the orchestra in 1952, several conductors led the orchestra, including Leopold Stokowski, Georg Solti, Erich Leinsdorf, Karl Münchinger, George Szell, Bruno Walter, Ferenc Fricsay, and William Steinberg.

paragraphs: Two years later the young Spanish conductor Enrique Jordá became their music director. At first things went well. He had a lot of energy, and sometimes his baton flew out of his hand as he conducted. Gradually the orchestra became less happy with Jordá who did not seem to be able to control the orchestra and did not rehearse them properly. Eventually, after George Szell, the conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, criticized him, the orchestra got rid of him.

paragraphs: In 1963, the Austrian conductor Josef Krips became music director. He was very strict and rehearsed them in great detail. He started a tradition of playing a special concert every New Year's Eve, "A Night in Old Vienna." with music by Johann Strauss and other 19th century Viennese composers. The Japanese Seiji Ozawa was their next conductor. He gave very exciting concerts which were always sold out. They made many recordings together. He sometimes conducted operas and ballets which were partly acted, and he used university choirs for choral works.

paragraphs: Ozawa was followed by Edo de Waart, the young Dutch conductor. He did not show off like Ozawa had done, but he kept the standard of the orchestra very high. He conducted the orchestra's very first performances in the Davies Symphony Hall. The orchestra used the huge new organ in the Hall for works such as Saint-Saëns' Third Symphony. In de Waart's final season, 1984-85, there were four sold-out performances of Mahler's hugh Eighth Symphony with the Symphony Chorus, the Masterworks Chorale, the San Francisco Boys Chorus, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.

paragraphs: The orchestra started to do world tours under their next conductor Herbert Blomstedt who improved the orchestra’s sound. He is still an honorary conductor (Conductor Laureate).

paragraphs: Michael Tilson Thomas became music director in 1995. He had conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and had guest conducted the SFSO in 1974. He made sure the orchestra played more American music as well as plenty of Russian music. The standard of orchestral playing continues to be excellent today.


title: Rammstein

paragraphs: Rammstein is a German heavy metal band that started in Berlin in 1994. The band members are Till Lindemann, who is the singer; Richard Z. Kruspe, who plays the lead guitar and is a backing singer; Paul H. Landers, who plays the rhythm guitar and is also a backing singer; Oliver Riedel, who plays the bass guitar; Christoph Schneider, who plays the drums and electronic musical instruments; and Christian Lorenz, who plays the keyboard (also known as an electronic piano). The language that they sing in is almost always German, although they have made a couple of songs in the English language and the Russian language. As of 2005, they had sold over 10 million records around the world, and have made a total of 6 albums. Rammstein's music is published by Universal Music Group. Since the band was created, they have had no members join or leave.


title: MythBusters

paragraphs: MythBusters is an American scientific television show, which began on January 23, 2003. The hosts, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman along with Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara attempt to test whether certain myths are "true or false", referred to on the show as "confirmed or busted", respectively. The show has had a total of 267 episodes as of September 5, 2015. Two more episodes are to come in January 2016.


title: Mountain Dew

paragraphs: Mountain Dew is a citrus-flavored soft drink, made by the PepsiCo company. The drink has more "caffeine" (a stimulant) than other soft drinks like Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

paragraphs: "Mountain Dew" was first a slang word for moonshine or homemade whisky. The name for the soft drink was first trademarked by Ally and Barney Hartman in the 1940s. Early bottles were printed with the words: “Yahoo Mountain Dew…It’ll tickle your innards.” The bottles were green and had a cartoon drawing of a hillbilly moonshiner with a gun. This design lasted until the mid 1960s.


title: Sturt National Park

paragraphs: Sturt National Park is a national park in north west New South Wales (Australia), 1059 km northwest of Sydney. The park is named after the explorer, Charles Sturt, who travelled through the area in 1845. The park was created in the 1970's from six large sheep and cattle stations (farms). These stations included Mount Wood, Olive Downs, Whitta Brinna, Mount King, Binerah Downs and Fort Grey.

paragraphs: The park is large, covering more than of arid area. The east of the Sturt National Park has flood plains, some trees and small rocky gorges and creek beds. Lake Pinnaroo, near Fort Grey, is a Ramsar listed wetland.

paragraphs: The central area of the park, near the old Olive Downs sheep station, has "jump-ups", flat topped mesas rising up to above the plains. In the far west of the National Park, the gibber (stone) plains are replaced by the red sand dunes of the Strezlecki Desert.

paragraphs: The Mount Wood Station used to cover and had 86,000 sheep. It employed 100 people. The homestead buildings have been renovated and an outdoor farm museum has been started. The historic homestead, built in 1884, has been turned into a place for up to 15 tourists to stay, and the old shearer's house can hold 38 people. There is also camping areas at Dead Horse Gully at Tibooburra, Olive Downs, Fort Grey and Mount Wood.

paragraphs: Cameron's Corner is a very but popular place for tourists to visit. It is where the borders of the states of New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland meet.

paragraphs: Sturt National Park was shown on a British TV documentary called ""Planet Earth"".

paragraphs: Red Kangaroos, Western Grey Kangaroos, Eastern Grey Kangaroos and Euros are common throughout the park.


title: Costume drama

paragraphs: A costume drama is a show in which complex costumes and sets are used to try make the set look like a particular time in history. The most common type of costume drama is the historical costume drama, both on stage and in movies.


title: Wilsthorpe Community School

paragraphs: Wilsthorpe Business and Enterprise College is a school for children in the town of Long Eaton in south east Derbyshire. The school is close to Nottinghamshire. The school delivers free education to local children when they are eleven until they leave school. Wilsthorpe was the first school in England to have a policeman on site in 2003. In their 2013 report, Ofsted said that the school 'requires improvement'.


title: Meaghan Jette Martin

paragraphs: Meaghan Jette Martin is an American actress and singer. She played the role of "Tess Tyler" in the Disney Channel movie "Camp Rock". She has also been on "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody", "Close to Home", and "Just Jordan". She had two songs in Camp Rock, "Too Cool" and "2 Stars". She also sings "When You Wish Upon a Star" on the 2009 DVD/Blu-ray release of Disney's "Pinocchio". She is the new voice of "Naminé" in "". She has been given a role in the new ABC Family series "10 Things I Hate About You". Martin will also star in "Camp Rock 2", which is being made in 2009.


title: Beaker culture

paragraphs: The Bell-Beaker culture (or Beaker culture, Beaker people or Beaker folk) is the name of a cultural phenomenon which occurred in large parts of Western Europe, roughly between 2800 BC and 2200 BC (in Great Britain until about 1900 BC). Today, it is unclear whether this can be seen as a culture.

paragraphs: Paul Reinecke was the first to use the word "Glockenbecher" (bell-shaped cup) in German, around 1900. Other historians from Italy and Czechoslovakia had used similar terms before.

paragraphs: Gordon Childe thought that the people were missionaries, who also had the knowledge how to make copper. They spread from the Iberian peninsula on the "edges" of Europe with the oceans. The typical items linked to the movement were prestige items reserved to the upper class, according to Steven Shennan. Christian Strahm talk about a "Glockenbecherphänomen" (bell-shaped cup phenomenon), to avoid the word "culture".

paragraphs: People of the movement were buried in a special way: Often stone chests were used. In the western part of the culture, burials in megalithic tombs and caves are common - the burial rites are often adapted to local customs. People where buried in an embryonic position:

paragraphs: This means that both looked east, when buried.

paragraphs: Today, little is known about the settlements used by the culture. The only places where settlements/remains of settlements that were done at approximately the same time were found is in Knowth in Ireland, and one in Switzerland.

paragraphs: Another culture that might have influenced the Beaker culture is the Corded Ware culture, mainly found in Northern Europe.


title: Adelardo López de Ayala

paragraphs: Adelardo López de Ayala y Herrera (1828-1879), Spanish writer and politician. He was born at Guadalcanal, Seville on 1 May 1828. At a very early age he began writing for the theatre of his native town.


title: Red mercury

paragraphs: Red mercury is a term used for a number of substances that are supposed to exist (or that could possibly exist). So far, no such substance has been found. The chemical element mercury most often occurs in a mixture with Sulphur, as "HgS". That mixture is known as Cinnabar, and reddish in color. In pure form, mercury is silver in color.

paragraphs: The following assumptions about red mercury have been proved as false:


title: Continuation War

paragraphs: The Continuation War was a war between Finland and the Soviet Union. It was fought between June 25, 1941 and September 19, 1944. It continued the Winter War. Nazi Germany helped Finland as part of the Eastern Front (World War II). The ceasefire started on September 4 at 7.00 am in the Finnish side. The Soviet Union's ceasefire started on September 5. The first peace treaty was signed on September 19 and the final one on February 10, 1947 in Paris.


title: Los Angeles Philharmonic

paragraphs: The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil, LAP, or LAPO) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. They give concerts every year from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July to September. Their conductor is Gustavo Dudamel.

paragraphs: The orchestra are world famous, and well known for playing a lot of music written by modern composers.

paragraphs: The orchestra was started in 1919 by William Andrews Clark. He was a business man who had a lot of money and he paid the orchestra himself. They gave their first concert eleven days after their first rehearsal. Clark played the violin himself and sometimes played with the second violin section. Their conductor was Walter Henry Rothwell. After he died several other conductors led the orchestra, including Georg Schnéevoigt and Artur Rodziński.

paragraphs: The famous conductor Otto Klemperer led the orchestra in 1933. He was one of many German emigrants fleeing from Nazi Germany. He gave many new orchestral pieces their first performance, and introduced the audience to the music of Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. The orchestra played well for him, but Klemperer had health problems and suffered from manic depression.

paragraphs: William Andrews Clark died without leaving the orchestra an endowment. A new orchestra called the Southern California Symphony Association was started to try to keep the concerts going. Then a businessman called Harvey Mudd offered to pay Klemperer’s salary, and the orchestra started to earn more money playing in the Hollywood Bowl.

paragraphs: so they managed to keep going during the Great Depression.

paragraphs: After the 1939 Klemperer left because of serious health problems. Four years later he was followed by Alfred Wallenstein. Wallenstein had been the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic and had then been the youngest member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic when it was founded in 1919. Arturo Toscanini had encouraged him to become a conductor. He had conducted the LA Phil several times. During his years as conductor of the LAPhil Wallenstein recorded several concertos with famous soloists such as Jascha Heifetz.

paragraphs: By the mid-1950s the rich business woman Dorothy Buffum Chandler was funding the orchestra. They were looking for a really good conductor to be their musical director. They had hoped to get Eduard van Beinum, but he suddenly died. Then Georg Solti agreed to come for three years. He was going to begin officially in 1962 but then he resigned because he had not been consulted when the orchestra had appointed Zubin Mehta as assistant conductor. So Zubin Mehta became musical director.

paragraphs: In 1969 Ernest Fleischmann became the manager of the orchestra. He had some new ideas, including starting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society and the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group. Both these groups had musicians from the large symphony orchestra in them. It gave the musicians a change to play different sorts of music. Other orchestras in the world gradually copied this idea.

paragraphs: When Zubin Mehta left to go to the New York Philharmonic in 1978, Carlo Maria Giulini took over as Music Director. Giulini left when his wife became ill and went back to Italy. André Previn was the next conductor. He was a good conductor, but he had some arguments with Fleischmann and so he resigned in 1989 and Esa-Pekka Salonen took over. He has conducted every season since then.

paragraphs: At the beginning of Salonen's time with the orchestra they gave regular performances at the Salzburg Festival and they played for a production of the opera "Saint-François d'Assise" by Olivier Messiaen. Salonen later took the orchestra on many other tours of the United States, Europe, and Asia, and conducted regularly at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the BBC Proms in London, in Cologne for a festival of Salonen's own works, and, in 1996, in Paris for a Stravinsky festival conducted by Salonen and Pierre Boulez.

paragraphs: Today the orchestra play in the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

paragraphs: Salonen left the LAPhilharmonia in 2009. Their conductor is now Gustavo Dudamel.


title: Walt Disney Concert Hall

paragraphs: The Walt Disney Concert Hall is a concert hall in Los Angeles, California. It is the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. It seats 2,265 people.

paragraphs: The building opened in 2003. It was designed by Frank Gehry. The acoustics of the hall are very good.

paragraphs: The hall has a very large pipe organ which was completed in 2004. It was built by the German organ builder, Caspar Glatter-Götz. It has 6,125 pipes.


title: Symphony Center

paragraphs: Symphony Center is a music complex in Chicago, Illinois. It is home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta. The Symphony Center includes Orchestra Hall, which dates from 1904; Buntrock Hall, a rehearsal and performance space; a public multi-story rotunda; Rhapsody restaurant; and administrative offices. Between 1995 and 1997 a lot of work to improve the buildings took place. The Orchestra Hall was called a National Historic Landmark in 1994. It was designed by Daniel Burnham.


title: Sailboat

paragraphs: A sailboat, sailing boat or yacht is a boat that has a mast and sails. It moves by using the wind in its sails but it may also have an engine.

paragraphs: There are a great many different sailboats.

paragraphs: A sailing dinghy is a small boat up to about 7 metres (23 ft.) which usually has a centreboard. It does not have a cabin. Usually, a sailboat has two sails: a mainsail and a jib and sometimes a spinnaker.

paragraphs: A sailing yacht is a larger boat with a keel and it normally has a cabin. These types of boats can sail long distances, sometimes even around the world. Sometimes they have only one mast but they can have two or three.

paragraphs: A tall ship is an even larger sailing boat which were used before steam engines were invented. These were used for carrying cargo from port to port in days gone by. Now they are usually used as training ships for young people. A tall ship usually has more than one mast.


title: Galápagos Islands

paragraphs: The Galápagos Islands ("Archipiélago de Colón" in Spanish) are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean which now belongs to Ecuador. The islands are famous for having many native animals, including giant tortoises, that are found nowhere else on Earth. These animals helped Charles Darwin towards his theory of evolution by natural selection after he visited the islands in 1835.

paragraphs: 97% of the islands are a national park, all except the inhabited parts. The Galápagos National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1978), a marine reserve (1980), and a biosphere reserve (1986).

paragraphs: The Galápagos Islands are on the equator, 973 km (604 miles) from Ecuador in South America. There are 19 islands with a total of 8,010 square km (3,093 sq. miles) of land. The islands were made from volcanoes, and volcanoes are still making the islands of Isabela and Fernandina today. The most recent volcanic eruption was Cerro Azul in May 2008 on Isabela Island.

paragraphs: In 2001, about 18,000 people lived in the Galápagos Islands. Most people have come from mainland Ecuador to live in the islands within recent years (about 3500 people lived on the islands in 1972). Most people are from the Mestizo ethnic group, which are the descendants of Spanish and Native American peoples.

paragraphs: People live on only 5 of the 19 islands of the Galápagos: Baltra, Floreana, Isabela, San Cristobal and Santa Cruz. Puerto Ayora is the biggest town, where about 10,000 people live. Puerto Ayora is on Santa Cruz Island. The second biggest town is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal with about 5,600 people. Puerto Villamil is the town of Isabela Island, where about 2,000 people live. There are approximately 30,000 people living in the Galapagos as of 2012.

paragraphs: Tourism has steadily grown over the last two decades; in 2012 it is estimated that 200,000 tourists will visit the Galápagos Islands.

paragraphs: The islands are one of the 24 provinces of Ecuador. The capital of the province is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, a town with 5,600 people.

paragraphs: There are three cantons in the province. Each canton has a "seat", which is a town like a capital. All of the islands of the province are in one of the three cantons.


title: Helix pomatia

paragraphs: Helix pomatia is the edible snail, also known as the 'Burgundy' or 'Roman' snail. It is a species of large, edible, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial gastropod in the family Helicidae. It is cooked and eaten as an "escargot".


title: Field Marshal

paragraphs: A Field Marshal is the highest rank in the British Army, and some other armies, such as the German Army. The equivalent rank in the U.S. Army is the Five-star General.

paragraphs: The rank of Field Marshal is never awarded except to a General who has commanded an army in war.


title: Panzer

paragraphs: A panzer, pronounced , is a German tank used in World War II. The term also means armoured military groups, as in "panzer divisions" or "panzer battles".


title: Nathaniel Hawthorne

paragraphs: Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer. He was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. His first novel "Fanshawe" was published anonymously in 1828. Some short stories were published in 1837 as "Twice-Told Tales". He married Sophia Peabody in 1842. They had three children. The family moved about Massachusetts for a few years, but finally settled in Concord, Massachusetts. "The Scarlet Letter" was published in 1850. "The House of the Seven Gables" was published in 1851. A political appointment sent Hawthorne and his family to Europe. They returned to Massachusetts in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864.

paragraphs: Hawthorne's works belong to the cultural movement called romanticism. His novels and short stories are cautionary tales. They suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of humanity. Many of his works are inspired by Puritan New England. They combine historical romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes. They border upon surrealism. His depictions of the past are a version of historical fiction used only as a vehicle to express common themes of ancestral sin, guilt and retribution.

paragraphs: Hawthorne, a famous short story author, whose childhood was not very good. But many people believe that he was lucky, because he had a wealthy uncle. Hawthorne had two sisters, he was the only son in his family. His father died because of yellow fever when he was four years old. Only his mom took care of him and his sisters. However, Hawthorne’s mother, Elizabeth, had a wealthy brother, so after Hawthorne’s father died, they lived with Elizabeth’s brother. Because of Hawthorne’s wealthy uncle, he attended a very good college, Bowdoin College. During his college time, Hawthorne met and befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and future-president Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne started to write novels during the time that he came back home after he finished college. He published his first work in 1828.

paragraphs: Hawthorne’s books are still very popular now, many students are still reading his books today. Hawthorne’s books are very useful in education. His books reflect many dark parts in American History, they are very good sources to help people learn about history.Also,His books were the very good examples of the Romantic Era of literature.

paragraphs: Hawthorne’s most famous work, “The Scarlet Letter” was published in 1850. “The Scarlet Letter” was a book that was written down when Hawthorne felt into a deep depression. In 1849, Hawthorne lost his mother. Actually, Hawthorne really loved his mother. Because he had no father, his mother was his only parent. So his mother’s death has been a serious problem for Hawthorne. “The Scarlet Letter” was written down when he was in this condition. In 1851, Hawthorne’s last daughter, Rose was born. Hawthorne has three children, one son, and two daughters. In 1853, president Franklin gave Hawthorne a political appointment as U.S. Consul in Liverpool, but in 1857, Hawthorne lost this position. Before Hawthorne died, he published his last works, “Our Old Home “ and “The Marble Faun”. On May 19, 1864, Hawthorne died in Plymouth, Massachusetts.


title: Hemel Hempstead

paragraphs: Hemel Hempstead is a town in England. It is 25 miles north-west of London. The town is off the M1 motorway, 20 minutes drive from Luton Airport and 40 minutes from London itself.

paragraphs: The town began as an Anglo Saxon village where two river valleys met in the Chiltern Hills. The local area grew very good grain. By Tudor times, the village became a market where grain and straw were sold. The town also had many water mills to grind the grain. Local people also earned money by plaiting the straw to be made into hats.

paragraphs: From about 1800, the town changed as the Industrial revolution took place. It is on the shortest route between London and the Birmingham. As trade between these two cities increased, a canal and a railway were built that passed very close to the town. Some of its water mills were changed from grinding grain to places where paper was made by machine. Some of these grew into giant paper making factories.

paragraphs: After the Second World War, the government in London wanted to build many new homes for people who had had their homes destroyed by bombs in the war. It decided to build some new towns where houses could be built in an very good environment. Hemel Hempstead was chosen to be one of these towns. Many new districts were built during the 1950s and 1960s all around the old town of Hemel Hempstead. It grew into a middle size town of over 80,000 people.

paragraphs: Many new industries came to the town helped by money from the government and because it is where important motorways cross each other.

paragraphs: Hemel Hempstead became world famous for a brief time in 2005 when an oil depot in the town at Buncefield exploded. It caused a big toxic smoke cloud to cover all the surrounding areas. Millions of pounds in damage was done, but no one was killed.


title: Shock wave

paragraphs: A shock wave is when lots of energy comes from a very small spot and shakes the material around it. The energy makes the material around the spot move very quickly, and very hard. This is a special type of vibration, and it is very strong.

paragraphs: The shock wave can be so powerful that it can knock things over. For example, bombs create shock waves. A shock wave can be destructive because it vibrates the material around the point in an extremely hard and fast wave, which causes other things that the material touches to vibrate too, and even make them explode. Shock waves make bombs more dangerous and sometimes are the most dangerous part of an explosion. However, the shock wave moves much faster than the rest of the bomb's energy, and fades away quickly. It is called a shock "wave", and not simply a shock, because the force goes up and down, like an ocean wave.

paragraphs: A shock wave can move through any material. An earthquake is a shockwave traveling through the ground. Shock waves can also be felt in water. A shock wave is affected by the materials it travels through, and different materials have different effects. A thick material, like water, might help the shock wave travel further, where as a thin material, like air, would not. This is similar to the way that sound waves are affected by what they move through, but sound waves and shock waves are not the same.

paragraphs: A sound wave is similar to a shock wave in the way it looks, but the two are not the same. While a sound wave can be described as the ripples created when you drop a small rock in a bucket of water, a shock wave is faster and not as smooth. If you were to draw a picture of a perfect sound wave, it would be a smooth line, up and down by the same amount. If you were to draw a picture of a shock wave, it would be like many big bumps on a road - the line goes up very quickly, but it does not go down as much. Some of the words people use to talk about sound waves and shock waves are the same, like amplitude or frequency, but this does not mean that they are the same.


title: Intimacy (album)

paragraphs: Intimacy is the third studio album by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It was recorded in two weeks in different places around London and Kent in the UK. Bloc Party liked the idea of releasing their album by download over the Internet, so on 21 August 2008, people could buy it online.

paragraphs: A Compact Disc version was released a few days later on 24 August 2008. It got to number 8 on the UK Albums Chart and to number 18 on the Billboard 200 Chart in the USA.


title: Wichita Recordings

paragraphs: Wichita Recordings is a London-based independent record label. They are home to Bloc Party, Peter, Bjorn and John and other United Kingdom-based bands.

paragraphs: The label's first release was the Bright Eyes album, "Fevers and Mirrors", released in 2000.


title: Shoreditch

paragraphs: Shoreditch is area in Central, East, and North East London, England. It is in the London Borough of Hackney and Tower Hamlets.


title: Believe (song)

paragraphs: "Believe" is a song by English electronica duo The Chemical Brothers.

paragraphs: The song was on the album "Push the Button". The single released in early May 2005. It peaked at #18 in the UK Singles Chart.


title: The Chemical Brothers

paragraphs: The Chemical Brothers are a British electronica duo based in Manchester. They have released nine albums, five of which reached number one on the UK album charts. They are part of the big beat genre, along with the likes of The Prodigy, The Crystal Method and Fatboy Slim.


title: Drowned in Sound

paragraphs: Drowned in Sound is an independent music webzine based in the United Kingdom.


title: Music session

paragraphs: A music session (also called a jam session or simply session) is a gathering of musicians to make music together. It can be a social gathering, or a live performance where the music is played for an audience. A suitable venue might be a local hotel, public bar or private home.


title: Trash Aesthetics

paragraphs: Trash Aesthetics is a British independent record label. It was started in 2004 by Rob Fawkes and Claire Hewitson. The company is based in South London.


title: So Here We Are

paragraphs: "So Here We Are" is a single by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It appeared on their debut album, "Silent Alarm".


title: Designer

paragraphs: A designer is someone who designs things. Some things they might design are:


title: Push the Button

paragraphs: Push the Button is an album by British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers.


title: Silent Alarm Remixed

paragraphs: Silent Alarm Remixed is a collection of remixes of "Silent Alarm", the debut album by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It was released in August 2005.


title: Paul Epworth

paragraphs: Paul Epworth (born 25 July 1974) is an English music producer and songwriter. He produced Bloc Party's debut album, "Silent Alarm". He also produced the UK number one album "Made of Bricks" by Kate Nash. In 2013, he and Adele won the Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Original Song for the song "Skyfall" from the movie "Skyfall". He won 4 Grammy Awards in 2012. These included Record, Album and Song of the Year with Adele as well as "Producer of the Year".


title: War Child

paragraphs: War Child is a British charity aiding child victims of war. It was started in 1993 by British filmmakers Bill Leeson and David Wilson. In 2013 it got the Special Recognition BRIT Award.


title: The Streets

paragraphs: The Streets are an rap/garage band whose lead singer, multi-instrumentalist & record producer was Mike Skinner, a British rapper. Born in Birmingham, Skinner has often been criticised for using a "mockney" accent during interviews and in many songs.

paragraphs: They released their first album, "Original Pirate Material", in 2002, The album's singles were "Has It Come To This", "Let's Push Things Forward", "Don't Mug Yourself", "The Irony Of It All" and "Weak Become Heroes. His next album, called "A Grand Don't Come For Free" came out in 2004 and is their most successful album. All the songs on the album help tell a story about a man with a broken TV who lost £1000, with other things happening while trying to get the TV repaired. The album includes his most successful singles "Fit But You Know It" and "Dry Your Eyes" which became number 1 in the charts. The album afterwards was named "The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living" which was released in 2006. The album is mostly about the good and bad things of being famous. The album after that, called "Everything Is Borrowed" came out in 2008. He is going to bring out one last album, called "Computers And Blues", but it's release date is unknown. And the reunion in 2017.


title: Jacknife Lee

paragraphs: Garret "Jacknife" Lee is a guitarist and music producer from Dublin, Ireland. He has worked with U2, R.E.M., Snow Patrol, Bloc Party and Taylor Swift.


title: The Prayer

paragraphs: "The Prayer" is a single by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It appeared on "A Weekend in the City".


title: I Still Remember (song)

paragraphs: "I Still Remember" is a single by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It appeared on "A Weekend in the City".


title: Hunting for Witches

paragraphs: "Hunting for Witches" is a single by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It appeared on "A Weekend in the City".


title: Flux (song)

paragraphs: "Flux" is a single by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It appeared on "A Weekend in the City".


title: BBC 6 Music

paragraphs: BBC 6 Music is a UK radio station owned by the BBC.


title: Amenia (CDP), New York

paragraphs: Amenia is a community in Dutchess County, New York, United States.


title: Arlington, New York

paragraphs: Arlington is a community in Dutchess County, New York, United States.


title: Brinckerhoff, New York

paragraphs: Brinckerhoff is a community in Dutchess County, New York, United States.


title: Maida Vale

paragraphs: Maida Vale is an area in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom.


title: T in the Park

paragraphs: T in the Park is an annual music festival in Kinross, Scotland, run by Tennents.


title: Argyll

paragraphs: Argyll is a British county on the west coast of Scotland.

paragraphs: Argyll has many spits of land and many islands. The largest islands are the Isle of Mull and the Isle of Islay. The county town is Lochgilphead. Inveraray is the home of the Duke of Argyll.

paragraphs: Argyll's name comes from the Gaelic words for "Borderland of the Gael", because it was the first place in Great Britain settled by Gaelic-speaking settlers from Ireland.

paragraphs: For local government, most of Argyll is in the Argyll and Bute council area.


title: Topman

paragraphs: Topman is the male clothing section of the Topshop franchise. The men's clothing stores are located throughout the United Kingdom.

paragraphs: As of 2016, Topman has over 400 stores. They continue to expand throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia.


title: Talons (song)

paragraphs: "Talons" is a music single by British indie rock band Bloc Party.


title: BBC Electric Proms

paragraphs: The BBC Electric Proms were annual music festivals run by the BBC in a similar format to The Proms, but involving rock music.


title: Splendour in the Grass

paragraphs: Splendour In The Grass is an annual music festival. It is held in July at North Byron Parklands at Yelgun (30 km from Byron Bay), New South Wales, Australia. The festival started in 2001 as a one-day event. It became a two-day event in 2002. In 2012, over 20,000 people attended the festival.


title: Austin City Limits Music Festival

paragraphs: The Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day music and art festival in Austin, Texas' Zilker Park. The Festival brings together more than 130 bands on eight stages, including rock, country, folk, indie, Americana, hip-hop, reggae, and bluegrass, and attracts a crowd of about 65,000 visitors each day. Named after the legendary PBS concert series, The festival is produced by C3 Presents, who also co-produce the Lollapalooza and Big State festivals.


title: Austin City Limits

paragraphs: Austin City Limits is an American television music program from the Public Broadcasting Service. It first aired in 1976. It has become American television's longest-running concert music program. From 1976 to 1987, "Austin City Limits" was produced by The Southwest Texas Public Broadcasting Council. Beginning in 1988, the show was produced by The Capital of Texas Public Telecommunications Council, KLRU-TV. From 1977 to 2004 (seasons 2-29), Gary P. Nunn's "London Homesick Blues" was the show's theme song. For Seasons 7-23 (1982-1998), the opening theme music was composed by John Mills.


title: Exmoor Singers

paragraphs: The Exmoor Singers of London Chamber Choir is a choir with a strong focus on music by living composers and in particular British composers.

paragraphs: In 2007, the choir collaborated with rock group Bloc Party to perform at the BBC Electric Proms, which was broadcast on both BBC2 television and BBC Radio 1. The choir subsequently recorded tracks for Intimacy (Bloc Party album) released in 2008. The choir also recorded with rock group Snow Patrol and feature on the album A Hundred Million Suns. Members of the choir subsequently performed with the band on BBC1 television on Later... with Jools Holland. Most recently members of the choir recorded with folk rock group Noah and the Whale.


title: Oxegen

paragraphs: Oxegen was an annual music festival held between 2004 and 2013. It was sponsored by Heineken and was Ireland's biggest festival. The event was promoted by MCD Productions. Oxegen was originally a two-day festival, but in 2008 was increased to four days. It took place at the Punchestown Racecourse in County Kildare, Ireland with an average attendance of around 80,000 people a day, with around 70,000 of these camping on site for the duration, and the rest travelling to the site each day. It took place on the same weekend as T in the Park in Scotland, and would sometimes share similar line-ups each year. Oxegen was also somtimes compared to England's Glastonbury Festival, with the Oxegen 2008 festival sharing three of the same headliners. The festival attracted attention from outside Ireland, with some visitors travelling from overseas.


title: Connect Music Festival

paragraphs: The Connect Music Festival is a music festival that takes place at Inveraray Castle, on the banks of Loch Fyne in Argyll, Scotland. It is aimed at older music fans and recent headliners have included the Beastie Boys, Björk and Franz Ferdinand.


title: Virgin Mobile Festival

paragraphs: The Virgin Festival (known from 2008 as the Virgin Mobile Festival in the United States) is a rock music festival held in the United States and Canada, a spin-off from the V Festival held in the UK. In North America the Virgin name, and later the Virgin Mobile brand, has been used in full to make the brand more effective there, compared with the UK and Australian festivals, where association is simply implied through the use of the V.


title: Syracuse University

paragraphs: Syracuse University is a private research university in Syracuse, New York. It was founded as a university in 1870, but started off as a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 which eventually became Genesee College. In 1870, Methodist ministers moved the college from Lima, New York to Syracuse, where it was chartered by the State of New York as a university. Since 1920, the university has identified itself as against sectarianism. Syracuse was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1966, but withdrew from the group in 2011 when it decided it could no longer meet the group's standards.

paragraphs: The school's sports teams, nicknamed "Orange", mostly play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, having moved from the original Big East Conference in 2013. The women's ice hockey team plays in College Hockey America.


title: Q Awards

paragraphs: The Q Awards are the United Kingdom's annual music awards run by the music magazine Q. Since they began in 1990, the Q Awards have become one of Britain's biggest and most advertised music awards, helped by the often bad behaviour of the celebrities who turn up. In the ceremony of 2004, Elton John accused Madonna of cheating fans by miming on stage, after she had been nominated for a Best Live Act award.


title: Great Pacific Garbage Patch

paragraphs: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a big patch of garbage and debris in the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean. It is caught in the water currents. It formed because currents near the center of the Northern Pacific Ocean move around in a kind of circle, which catches and holds floating pieces of plastic.

paragraphs: The "Yellowwood Island" actually has two areas, described as an eastern patch and a western patch, which are separated because of ocean currents. Scientists estimate that the size of the "plastic island" is approximately equal to the land area of Texas, United States, but it could be as much as twice the size. Also, it is not really a floating island. It is more like a soup of plastic pieces floating in the ocean just below the surface. It is from California, between Hawaii and Japan.

paragraphs: Ships try to avoid this patch of garbage because it can get caught in their screws.

paragraphs: Many birds, turtles, and other sea animals go to Pacific Islands to lay their eggs and raise their young. Unfortunately, they eat the smaller pieces of plastic, thinking that they are food swimming in the ocean. They also get caught in the garbage. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that the plastic soup causes the death of one million sea birds and 10,000 sea animals every year. Some micro-invertebrates have also been found to eat tiny pieces of plastic with similar results.

paragraphs: For a long time, people thought the garbage patch was mostly plastic that had been used by ordinary people, like plastic straws and forks. In 2018, scientists found out that most of the plastic in the patch was lost fishing nets and other fishing tools used on large fishing boats.

paragraphs: Since the plastics are organic compounds, they tend to absorb other organic compounds, such as pesticides. Scientists have discovered high levels of DDT and other organic compounds in this deadly plastic soup.

paragraphs: The pieces of plastic come from all over the world. Any country that has a shore or river, where such pieces blow or wash out to sea is a source. Scientists estimate that the United States and other industrial countries contribute less garbage to the plastic island due to modern garbage disposal; but such countries also produce and sell much of the plastic that becomes garbage for non-industrial countries.

paragraphs: Changing winds and currents often cause parts of this plastic island to break away and send pieces of plastic toward the beaches and shorelines of Pacific Islands and the continents. It's considered a major problem for tourism, and because of the problems that it causes the island and ocean environments.

paragraphs: This is a world wide environmental problem.

paragraphs: In April 2008, Richard Sundance Owen, a building contractor and scuba dive instructor, started the Environmental Cleanup Coalition to solve the problem of the pollution in the North Pacific. They are working with other groups to find ways to safely remove plastic and organic compounds from the oceans.

paragraphs: Project Kaisei is a project to study and clean up the garbage patch launched in March 2009. In August 2009 two ships from the project, the RV New Horizon and the Kaisei, went to research the patch and decide the possibility of a commercial scale collection and recycling operation.


title: Tiscali

paragraphs: Tiscali SpA () is a European telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Italy, and provides internet and telecommunications services to Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Czech Republic. The company acquired many European Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throughout the late 1990s, although in subsequent years many of those assets were sold on to other companies.


title: Vice Records

paragraphs: Vice Recordings is the record label run by independent free Vice magazine of Vice Media, Inc.

paragraphs: Vice Recordings has released albums and singles, mainly in the United States, by Action Bronson, The Black Lips, Bloc Party, The Streets, The Raveonettes, 120 Days, Justice, The Stills, Death from Above 1979, Fucked Up, Chromeo and Charlotte Gainsbourg.


title: V2 Records

paragraphs: V2 Records (or V2 Music) is a record label that is owned by Universal Music Group as of October 2007. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI.

paragraphs: In 2013, Universal Music sold V2 to Play It Again, Sam for $500,000.


Leon


title: Amazon Kindle

paragraphs: Amazon Kindle is a machine for reading electronic books (e-books). The Kindle is designed by Lab126, a part of the Amazon.com company. The first Kindles were sold in the United States on November 19, 2007. Six hardware devices, known as "Kindle", "Kindle 2", "Kindle 3", "Kindle 4", "Kindle Touch", and "Kindle Fire" support this platform. There are also software versions of Kindle than can be used on smartphones and computers.

paragraphs: The hardware Kindles (except for the Kindle Fire) use an electronic paper display and download books and websites over Amazon Whispernet using the Sprint Nextel EVDO network. A Wireless network can also be used. Kindles can be used without a computer, and Whispernet is accessible without any fee. These devices also provide free internet access to Wikipedia.

paragraphs: Upon the initial launch of the Kindle, Amazon's Kindle Store had more than 88,000 digital books available for download, with the number of books increasing. Amazon's first offering of Kindle sold out in five and a half hours and the device remained out of stock until late April 2008.

paragraphs: The Kindle retailed for $399; Amazon subsequently lowered the price to $359. Amazon does not sell the Kindle outside the United States as Whispernet only works in the U.S. Plans for a launch in the UK and other European countries are being delayed by problems with signing up suitable Wi-Fi operators. The CDMA technology in the Kindle does not allow for its use in the UK due to the lack of a CDMA network operator in the UK.

paragraphs: The internal memory of the Amazon Kindle can hold approximately 200 books without pictures, and the memory is expandable with a memory card.

paragraphs: A reviewer from CNET expressed concern with the presentation of the device despite its comfortable design. The picture to the left displays a distinctly beige colored device. In point of fact, both Kindle versions are a matte bright white with all button labels and text colored gray. The Kindle 1 is exactly the same color as the Kindle 2 pictured in the upper right-hand corner of this page.

paragraphs: On February 9, 2009, Amazon announced the Kindle 2, which became available for purchase on February 23, 2009 for the price of $359, and lowered on July 8, 2009 for $299. The new Kindle features improved battery life, 20 percent faster page-refreshing, a text-to-speech option to read the text out loud, and overall thickness reduced from 0.8 to 0.36 inches (9.1 millimetres). The Kindle 2 has 2 GB of internal memory. Amazon estimates that the Kindle 2 will hold about 1500 books. Unlike the original Kindle, Kindle 2 does not have a slot for memory cards. To promote the new Kindle, author Stephen King has made his new book named "UR" only available through Kindle.

paragraphs: According to an early review by website iFixIt, the new Kindle 2 features a 532 MHz 90 nm processor, 2GB main memory, and 1530 mAh lithium polymer battery.

paragraphs: The Kindle 3 comes in 2 models. A wi-fi and a 3G. The Wi-Fi can only download books over wireless internet. However the 3G Kindle can download books over Wi-Fi and 3g.


title: Basidiomycota

paragraphs: Basidiomycota is one of two large phyla that, together with the Ascomycota, comprise the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "Higher Fungi") within the Kingdom Fungi, that includes jelly and shelf, or bracket, mushrooms, puffballs, and stinkhorns; and the rusts and smuts.


title: Waldir Peres

paragraphs: Waldir Peres (2 January, 1951 – 23 July 2017) was a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.

paragraphs: Peres died in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil on 23 July 2017 from a heart attack at the age of 66.


title: José Leandro Ferreira

paragraphs: José Leandro Ferreira (born 17 March, 1959) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Flamengo and Brazil national team.


title: Luiz Carlos Ferreira

paragraphs: Luiz Carlos Ferreira (born 22 October, 1958) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Paulo Isidoro

paragraphs: Paulo Isidoro (born 3 August, 1953) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Serginho Chulapa

paragraphs: Serginho Chulapa (born 23 December, 1953) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Éder Aleixo de Assis

paragraphs: Éder Aleixo de Assis (born 25 May 1957) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Paulo Sérgio de Oliveira Lima

paragraphs: Paulo Sérgio de Oliveira Lima (born 24 July, 1954) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Edevaldo de Freitas

paragraphs: Edevaldo de Freitas (born 28 January, 1958) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Juninho Fonseca

paragraphs: Juninho Fonseca (born 29 August, 1958) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Pedro Luís Vicençote

paragraphs: Pedro Luís Vicençote (born 22 October, 1957) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: João Batista da Silva

paragraphs: João Batista da Silva (born 8 March, 1955) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Carlos Renato Frederico

paragraphs: Carlos Renato Frederico (born 21 February 1957) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Roberto Dinamite

paragraphs: Roberto Dinamite (born 13 April, 1954) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for the Brazil national team.


title: Dirceu

paragraphs: Dirceu (born 15 June, 1952 — 15 September, 1995) was a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Antônio Dias dos Santos

paragraphs: Antônio Dias dos Santos (born 7 June, 1948) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: João Justino Amaral dos Santos

paragraphs: João Justino Amaral dos Santos (born 25 December, 1954) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Zé Sérgio

paragraphs: Zé Sérgio (born 8 March 1957) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: José Reinaldo de Lima

paragraphs: José Reinaldo de Lima (born 11 January, 1957) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Roberto Rivelino

paragraphs: Roberto Rivelino (born 1 January 1946) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Nelinho

paragraphs: Nelinho (born 26 July, 1950) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Abel Braga

paragraphs: Abel Braga (born 1 September, 1952) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: José Fernando Polozzi

paragraphs: José Fernando Polozzi (born 1 October, 1955) is a former Brazilian football player. He was included in the Brazil national team for the 1978 FIFA World Cup, but he never played in an international match.


title: José Rodrigues Neto

paragraphs: José Rodrigues Neto (6 December 1949 – 29 April 2019) was a Brazilian footballer. He played for the Brazil national football team.


title: Gilberto Alves

paragraphs: Gilberto Alves (born 24 December, 1950) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Jorge Mendonça

paragraphs: Jorge Mendonça (born 6 June 1954) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Francisco Jezuíno Avanzi

paragraphs: Francisco Jezuíno Avanzi (30 January 1949 – 8 October 2008) was a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team.


title: Cláudio Coutinho

paragraphs: Cláudio Coutinho (5 January, 1939 – 27 November, 1981) was a former Brazilian football manager.


title: Technical drawing

paragraphs: Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of making detailed drawings. These drawings visually communicate how something works or how it is to be made.

paragraphs: Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering.

paragraphs: To make drawings easier to understand, people use familiar symbols. They use standard units of measurement, notation systems, visual styles, and page layouts. These drawing conventions are internationally accepted standards. Technical drawings are a universal way of communicating complex mechanical concepts. Technical drawing are very different from the expressive drawing of the visual arts. Artistic drawings may have many meanings. Technical drawings are understood to have one intended meaning.

paragraphs: Technical drawings are used to make electronic parts as well as mechanical parts. They are used in commercial and residential construction. Roads, bridges, and wastewater systems are just some of the things that need technical drawings. Almost anything that is manufactured requires technical drawings.

paragraphs: A drafter, draftsperson, or draughtsman is a person trained to make technical drawings. A professional drafter who makes technical drawings is sometimes called a drafting technician. Professional draftspersons bridge the gap between engineers and manufacturers. They contribute experience and technical expertise to the design process.


title: Florence Nibart-Devouard

paragraphs: Florence Jacqueline Sylvie Devouard, was born 10 September 1968 and was the leader of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation from October 2006 to July 2008, taking over from Jimmy Wales. She joined the board of the Wikimedia Foundation in June 2004 and helped start Wikimedia France in October 2004.

paragraphs: Nibart-Devouard was born in France, grew up in Grenoble and studied in Nancy, and later lived in Antwerp in Belgium and in Arizona in the United States. As of 2008, she lives in the village of Malintrat in France. On 9 March 2008, she was elected member of the municipal council of Malintrat. On 16 May 2008, she was made a knight of the French national Order of Merit.


title: La Altagracia Province

paragraphs: La Altagracia is the easternmost province of the Dominican Republic. It was created on 1961 and its capital city is Higüey.

paragraphs: To the north and east of the province is the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and to the south is the Caribbean Sea, with the Mona Passage (a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea) to the southeast. The province is bordered to the west by La Romana and El Seibo provinces.

paragraphs: The region of the province was part of the El Seibo until 1944 when it was made part of the new province of La Romana. In 27 February 1961, the La Romana province was split in two provinces: La Romana and La Altagracia.

paragraphs: The province was created with the municipalities of Higüey and San Rafael del Yuma with the city of Salvaleón de Higüey as capital of the province. Las Lagunas de Nisibón was made a municipal district in 1982, La Otra Banda in 1987, Boca del Yuma in 2001, Bayahibe in 2002, and Verón Punta-Cana in 2006.

paragraphs: The province was named La Altagracia ("High Grace") because the "Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia" ("Our Lady of High Grace Basilica") is in the city of Higüey, capital city of the province.

paragraphs: In (last national census), there were people living in the La Altagracia province, and 222,802 () living in towns and cities. The population density was persons/km².

paragraphs: Its population represents of the total population of the country and the province is ranked as the 9th (out of 31 plus the National District) more populated province.

paragraphs: , the total estimated propulation of the province is 322,653 inhabitants.

paragraphs: The largest city of the province is Higüey, its head municipality or capital, with a population (in ) of 168,501 inhabitants.

paragraphs: The La Altagracia province has a total area of . It has of the area of the Dominican Republic and it is ranked as the second (out of 31 plus the National District) largest province.

paragraphs: The altitude of Salvaleón de Higüey, provincial capital, is .

paragraphs: The main protected area in the province is the "Parque Nacional del Este" ("Eastern National park").

paragraphs: There are some low mountains in the northern part of the province. Those mountains are part of the "Cordillera Oriental" ("Eastern mountain range"). Savannas are found everywhere in the province.

paragraphs: There are not many rivers in this province. The main river is the Yuma that flows from north to south, into the Caribbean Sea.

paragraphs: The climate of the province is a tropical climate, hot most of the year.

paragraphs: There are 2 municipalities and 5 municipal districts (M.D.) in the province. The municipalities and its municipal districts (M.D.) are:

paragraphs: The most important economic activities in the province are farming (cattle and sugar cane) and tourism. The eastern coast of the province, in the region of Punta Cana and Bávaro, is the most important touristic centre of the country with many hotels along beaches with white sand. Bayahibe, in the southern coast, is also an important touristic centre.


title: Just Say No

paragraphs: "Just Say No" was an advertising campaign, part of the U.S. "War on Drugs", dominant during the 1980s and early 1990s, to discourage children from engaging in illegal recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying no. This also expanded the realm of "Just Say No" to violence and premarital sex. The slogan was created by First Lady of the United States Nancy Reagan during her husband, Ronald Reagan, presidency.


title: La Romana Province

paragraphs: La Romana is a province of the Dominican Republic. It is in the southeastern part of the country. Its capital city has the same name, La Romana.

paragraphs: It was created in 1959. It was a municipality of the El Seibo province before being elevated to the category of province.

paragraphs: La Romana province is in the southeast part of the country. It is bordered to the northwest by the El Seibo province, to the northeast and east by the La Altagracia province and to the west by the San Pedro de Macorís province. The Caribbean Sea is to the south.

paragraphs: The province was created in 1944 with the name of La Romana, with two municipalities: La Romana (the capital city) and Higüey; before that date, it was part of the El Seibo province. But that same year, the name of the province was changed to La Altagracia. Its original name was given back to the province in 1961 when the new La Altagracia province was created.

paragraphs: Guaymate was made a municipality of the province in 1971 and Villa Hermosa in 2004. Cumayasa was made a municipal district in 2004 and Caleta in 2006.

paragraphs: In (last national census), there were people living in the La Romana province, and 231,312 () living in towns and cities; it is one of the few provinces of the country where most of the people lives in cities. The population density was persons/km², one of the highest in the country.

paragraphs: Its population represents of the total population of the country and the province is ranked as the 10th (out of 31 plus the National District) more populated province.

paragraphs: , the total estimated propulation of the province is 262,551 inhabitants.

paragraphs: The largest city of the province is La Romana, its head municipality or capital, with a population (in ) of 130,426 inhabitants.

paragraphs: Blacks are the main ethnicity of this providence, at 90% of the population. The rest of the 10% is mostly composed of mulattoes.

paragraphs: The La Romana province has a total area of . It has of the area of the Dominican Republic, one of the smallest province of the country, and it is ranked as the 30th (out of 31 plus the National District) largest province.

paragraphs: The altitude of La Romana, provincial capital, is .

paragraphs: There are only a few low hills in the province and almost all the land is flat. The most important rivers are:

paragraphs: The small islands of "Saona" and "Catalina" are part of the province.

paragraphs: There are 3 municipalities and 2 municipal districts (M.D.) in the province. The municipalities and its municipal districts (M.D.) are:

paragraphs: There are several important industries in the province; the oldest and one of the most important is the production of sugar. There is also a very important "zona franca" ("free zone" where the industries do not pay taxes and all the production is sent to other countries).

paragraphs: Tourism is very important in the province, around the capital city and with many people going to the beaches in the Saona and Catalina islands.


title: Bischofshofen

paragraphs: Bischofshofen is a city in Salzburgerland, Austria.

paragraphs: It is famous because of its Ski Jump Championships.


title: Freedom Party of Austria

paragraphs: The Freedom Party of Austria (German: "Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs", shortened to FPÖ) is an Austrian political party led by Norbert Hofer

paragraphs: Their ideology is national conservative. They are the third biggest party in the Austrian Parliament. The party leader is currently Norbert Hofer.


title: The Greens – The Green Alternative

paragraphs: The Greens – The Green Alternative (, shortened to GRÜNE) is an Austrian political party. Its leader is Werner Kogler and it is founded 1993.

paragraphs: The party is a member of the European Green Party and its ideology is Center-Left. The main ideology is green politics that aims to create an ecologically sustainable society.


title: Cubicle

paragraphs: A cubicle is a small room. It can be a small work space often seen in offices. It can also be a place used for changing clothes in, often found at swimming pools and gymnasiums.

paragraphs: Robert Propst designed the first cubicle in 1964. He wanted to "empower" people, and make them work better. Propst worked for a home furnishings company called Herman Miller at the time. In 1968, when the company started selling the cubicle, it did not sell well. Herman Miller later designed a new type of cubicle that was cheaper. The cubicle is now very popular in offices around the world.


title: Navel lint

paragraphs: Navel lint, also called belly button lint, belly button fluff or navel fluff, is a collection of fluffy fibres in one's navel.

paragraphs: Many people find that, at the beginning and end of the day, a small lump of fluff has appeared in the navel cavity. People have wondered why this happens for many years. In 2001, Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki of the University of Sydney, Australia, did a survey to find out why this happens. This is what he found out:

paragraphs: Dr. Kruszelnicki was awarded the for Interdisciplinary Research in 2002. The Ig Nobel Prize is given for "achievements that cannot or should not be repeated".

paragraphs: Austrian scientist Georg Steinhauser has also done research on the navel lint.


title: Viking Age

paragraphs: The Viking Age was a period of time in Northern European and Scandinavian history from the eighth to eleventh centuries. Scandinavian Vikings, also called Norsemen, explored the oceans and rivers of Europe through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, and Anatolia. Some Vikings are believed to have settled at L'Anse aux Meadows, an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland, Canada, at a place they called Vinland.

paragraphs: In England the Viking Age began dramatically on June 8, 793, when Norsemen destroyed the abbey on Lindisfarne. Monks were killed in the abbey, thrown into the sea to drown, or carried away as slaves along with the church's wealth. The Viking devastation of Northumbria's Holy Island shocked and alerted the royal courts of Europe. "Never before has such an atrocity been seen," declared the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York. More than any other single event, the attack on Lindisfarne cast a shadow on the perception of the Vikings for the next 1100 years. In the 1890s scholars outside Scandinavia began to rethink the achievements, artistry, technological skills and seamanship of the Vikings.

paragraphs: Until Victoria's reign in Britain, Vikings were portrayed as violent and bloodthirsty. The stories from medieval England had always portrayed them as 'wolves among sheep'. During the nineteenth century, public opinions changed. The first challenges to the many anti-Viking images in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Some scholarly works on the Viking Age became available to readers in Britain. Archaeologists began to dig up Britain's Viking past. Linguists started to work on identifying Viking-Age origins for rural idioms and proverbs. The new dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled the Victorians to study some of the Icelandic Sagas.

paragraphs: During the second half of the 18th century the Icelandic Sagas were still used as important historical sources, but the Viking Age was regarded as a barbaric and uncivilized period in the history of the Nordic countries. Until recently, what was known about the history of the Viking Age was based on the Icelandic Sagas, the history of the Danes written by Saxo Grammaticus, the Russian "Primary Chronicle" and "the War of the Irish with the Foreigners". Few scholars still accept these texts as reliable sources; historians nowadays rely more on archaeology and numismatics, which have helped people understand the period.

paragraphs: The Norsemen were explorers, colonizers and traders as well as plunderers. The Vikings from Norway explored the North Atlantic and settled Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney Islands, Caithness in Scotland, Greenland and (briefly) North America. The Vikings from Denmark raided ports and coastal towns along the coasts of Europe and Britain. The Vikings from Sweden pushed east, into areas that are now parts of Russia and Ukraine, establishing trade connections with the Middle East and beyond.

paragraphs: By the 9th century, a strong central authority was established in Jutland, and the Danes were looking beyond their own territory for land, trade and plunder. Norway had been settled over many centuries by Germanic peoples from Denmark and Sweden who made farming and fishing communities around its coasts and lakes. The mountains and fjords formed strong natural boundaries. The communities remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in Denmark which is lowland. By the year 800, there were 30 small kingdoms in Norway. The sea was the easiest way of communicating between these Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. In the eighth century Scandinavians began to build war ships and send them on raids. The Viking longships were capable of travel on the open seas but also had a very shallow "draft", meaning they could sail into shallower bays and farther up rivers than other ships of their time. This led to the term "Viking", which came from the Old Norse word "vīk" (meaning inlet or bay). A person who went on raids was said to go "viking".

paragraphs: It is unknown what triggered the Vikings' expansion and conquests. This era was at the same time as the Medieval Warm Period (800 – 1300) and stopped with the start of the Little Ice Age (about 1250 – 1850). The lack of pack-ice during their time may have allowed the Norsemen to go "a-viking" or "raiding". It is believed that the heathen Norsemen suffered from unequal trade practices by Christian merchants who were given preference through a Christian network of traders. A two-tiered system of pricing existed among merchants who secretly traded with the Norse heathens. Viking raids occurred both separately and together with regular trading expeditions.

paragraphs: Historians also suggest that the Scandinavian population was too large for the peninsula and there were not enough crops to feed everyone. This led to a hunt for more land to feed the ever-growing Viking population. Internal conflicts, especially during the period of conquest and settlement that followed the early raids, caused the progressive centralisation of power into fewer hands. This meant that lower classes who did not want to be oppressed by greedy kings went in search of their own lands. Those who settled Iceland created Europe's first modern republic with a yearly assembly of elected officials called the "Althing".

paragraphs: The earliest date given for a Viking raid is 787 AD when, according to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", a group of men from Norway sailed to Portland, in Dorset. There, a royal official mistook them for merchants. They killed him when he tried to lead them to the king's manor to pay a trading tax on their goods. The beginning of the Viking Age in the British Isles is, however, often given as 793. It was recorded in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" that the Northmen raided the important island monastery of Lindisfarne:

paragraphs: ""AD. 793. This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island "(Lindisfarne)", by rapine and slaughter."" -"Anglo Saxon Chronicle"

paragraphs: In 794, according to the "Annals of Ulster", there was a serious attack on Lindisfarne's mother-house of Iona, which was followed in 795 by raids on the northern coast of Ireland. From bases there, the Norsemen attacked Iona again in 802, causing great slaughter amongst the "Céli Dé" Brethren, and burning the abbey to the ground.

paragraphs: The end of the Viking Age is traditionally marked in England by three major events: the failed invasion by Haraldr Harðráði, who was defeated by Saxon King Harold Godwinson in 1066 at the Battle of Stamford Bridge; in Ireland, the capture of Dublin by Strongbow and his Hiberno-Norman forces in 1171; and in Scotland by the defeat of King Hákon Hákonarson at the Battle of Largs in 1263. Harold Godwinson was subsequently defeated within a month by William, Duke of Normandy, who was another descendant of Vikings. Normandy had been acquired by "Normans" (Norsemen) in 911. Scotland took its present form when it regained territory from the Norse between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries.

paragraphs: Most Scandinavian historians and archaeologists give a different definition. Instead, the Viking age is said to have ended with the establishment of royal authority in the Scandinavian countries and the adoption of Christianity as the dominant religion. The date is usually put somewhere in the early 11th century in all three Scandinavian countries. The end of the Viking Age in Norway is marked by the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. They proclaimed Norway as a Christian nation, and Norwegians could no longer be called Vikings.

paragraphs: The Kingdom of the Franks under Charlemagne was especially hard-hit by Viking raiders, who could sail down the Seine without much difficulty. Near the end of Charlemagne's reign and throughout the reigns of his sons and grandsons, a string of Viking raids began, leading to a Scandinavian conquest and settlement of the region now known as Normandy.

paragraphs: In 911, French King Charles the Simple made an agreement with the Viking warleader Rollo, a chieftain of either Norwegian or Danish origin. Charles gave Rollo the title of duke and granted him possession of Normandy. In return, Rollo swore fealty to Charles, converted to Christianity, and swore to defend the northern region of France against raids by other Viking groups. Several generations later, the Norman descendants of these Viking settlers identified themselves as French and brought the French language and their variant of French culture to England in 1066. With the Norman Conquest, they became the ruling aristocracy of Anglo-Saxon England, leading to the change from Old English to Middle English language.

paragraphs: At the start of the Viking age, the Vikings believed in the Norse religion. They believed in a of gods and goddesses, as well as "Valhalla", a heaven for warriors. The lower class of society would go to a place called "hel", similar to life on earth. According to Viking beliefs, Viking chieftains would please their war-gods by their bravery, and would become "worth-ship"; that is, the chieftain would earn a "burial at sea". They also performed land burials which often still included a ship, treasure, weapons, tools, clothing and even slaves and women buried alive with the dead chieftain, for his journey to Valhalla and adventure in the after-life. Poets composed sagas about the exploits of these chieftains, keeping their memories alive.

paragraphs: Freyr and his sister Freya were gods of "fertility", which means being able to grow. They made sure that people had many children and that the land produced plenty of crops. Some farmers even called their fields after Freyr, in the hope that this would ensure a good harvest. Toward the end of the Viking Age, more and more Scandinavians were converted to Christianity, often by force. The introduction of Christianity did not immediately end Viking voyages, but it may have been a factor that helped the Viking Age to an end.

paragraphs: Some of the most important trading ports during the period include both existing and ancient cities such as Jelling (Denmark), Ribe (Denmark), Roskilde (Denmark), Hedeby (Denmark, now Germany), Aarhus (Denmark), Vineta (Pomerania), Truso (Poland), Kaupang (Norway), Birka (Sweden), Bordeaux (France), Jorvik (England), Dublin (Ireland) and Aldeigjuborg (Russia).

paragraphs: In the late 19th century (1800s), Richard Wagner and other artists in the Romantic period made operas and other artwork about ancient Germanic culture. They liked the Vikings because they were not Greeks or Romans. They came up with the idea of Vikings wearing fur clothes and helmets with wings or horns on them and drinking out of hollowed-out animal horns. Some ancient Germans wore helmets with horns on them, but real Vikings did not. Wagner and his partners deliberately dressed the actors in the opera "Ring des Nibelungen" so they would look like ancient Germans and so the audience would feel like modern Germans came from medieval Vikings.


title: Collusion

paragraphs: A collusion is a secret agreement between two or more people or groups, usually to create unlawful advantages over other groups. Collusions often organize secret agreements to gain an advantage by modifying the market unfairly. In businesses, this is often done by intentionally by secretly changing the supply and demand of goods and services.

paragraphs: Sometimes major companies will use collusions to make significant advantages over other companies by the use of cartels (the creation of unfair trade deals).


title: Claret

paragraphs: Claret is a type of French red wine. It is also known as Bordeaux after its region of "appellation d'origine contrôlée". This is the French system which certifies where food and drink comes from.

paragraphs: The wine from Bordeaux was a dark rosé spiced drink in the Middle Ages. That's why it was called "claret", from the French "clairet". It changed to the present dry dark red in the 18th century.

paragraphs: The wine industry in Bordeaux has economic problems. It faces fierce competition from New World wines. Also, the French drink less wine nowadays.

paragraphs: In 2004, exports to the U.S. dropped 59% in value over the previous year. Sales in Britain dropped 33% in value during the same period. The UK, a major market, now imports more wine from Australia than from France. Chilean red wine is also extremely popular now.

paragraphs: Probably there is no single reason for these changes. Bordeaux wines are almost always blends from two or more types of vine. Many New World wines are single vine strains such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot noir, Syrah (Shiraz), and the white wine grapes Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc. Bottles labelled by type of grape (and so by taste) has caught on with the public. Also, the cheaper French wines are much more expensive when exported. All wines and spirits into countries like the UK are heavily taxed. A cheap French (or Spanish or Italian) wine which might sell in at home fore under £1, will sell for £4 or more in the UK. Customers have evidently decided that wine from elsewhere is a better deal.

paragraphs: The situation is quite different for sophisticated Bordeaux wines. The Waitrose wine list for 2015/16 lists 11 red Bordeaux wines which sell for over £100 a bottle, and the top prices are: