title: Hundred Years' War

paragraphs: The Hundred Years' War was fought between France and England during the late Middle Ages. It lasted 116 years from 1337 to 1453. The war started because Charles IV of France died in 1328 without an immediate male heir (i.e., a son or younger brother). Edward III of England then believed he had the right to become the new king of France through his mother.

paragraphs: The French did not want a foreign king, so Philip VI of France said he ought to be king because by the Salic law women could not rule or transmit the right to rule to their sons. The two countries went to war because of this disagreement.

paragraphs: At the beginning of the war France was the stronger of the two countries as it was wealthier, more populous while French knights and heavy cavalry also enjoyed a great military reputation in all of Christendom. France had about 17 million people while England had only about 4 million people. France was however a decentralised feudal monarchy in the middle ages, so was not as unified. France had an alliance with Scotland and Bohemia, while England was supported by parts of the Low Countries and by some regions in France loyal to the Plantagenet kings of England. The English won a major victory at sea in the Battle of Sluys in 1340 which prevented France from invading England. After that most of the war was fought in France. England then won an overwhelming victory at the Battle of Crécy in 1346 against all odds: the use of the English longbow and stakes to counter the French cavalry played a decisive role in the victory.

paragraphs: From 1348 to 1356 there was very little fighting because of the Black Death which killed many people in England and even many more people in France. Then Edward, the Black Prince won another brillant victory at the Battle of Poitiers for England. King John II of France was captured during the battle. The English invaded France again but were not able to take any more cities. A truce in 1360 gave England about one quarter of France. This first part of the Hundred Years' War is called the Edwardian War.

paragraphs: The war started again in 1369. The new king Charles V of France was more successful, with Bertrand du Guesclin as his best knight. France allied itself with Castile against England and Portugal and some of the fighting spilled into Spain and Portugal. France won back most of the land previously given to the English during this time and Bertrand du Guesclin won great victories at the battles of Cocherel and Pontvallain for France. A peace followed from 1389 to 1415. This second part of the war is called the Caroline War.

paragraphs: The most famous part of the war began in 1415. Henry the V of England invaded France and won the infamous Battle of Agincourt again thanks to his great longbowmen. A sizeable part of the French nobility is said to have been killed in that battle. King Charles VI of France was insane and unable to rule, and nearly all his sons died young. The queen of France, Isabeau of Bavaria, married one of her daughters to Henry V and signed the Treaty of Troyes to make Henry V the next king of France. Both Henry V and Charles VI died around the same time in 1422. So the English believed his son Henry VI of England was now the rightful king of France and many French people agreed. Charles VI's last son Charles VII of France said he ought to be the new king, but many French people said he did not deserve to be king because somebody else had probably been his father.

paragraphs: The English continued to capture land in France and formed an alliance with Burgundy. They won another major victory at the Battle of Verneuil. But in 1429, Joan of Arc led the French army to success at the Siege of Orleans. Then at the Battle of Patay that same year, French knights led by La Hire won a great victory and the French heavy cavalry killed most of the veteran English longbowmen. Joan regained many cities in the north-east of France and brought Charles VII to his coronation, but she did not recover Paris. She was captured by the Burgundians in 1430, convicted of heresy and burned at the stake in 1431. After her death, the French continued to take back their territory piece by piece. France had a diplomatic win in 1435 with the Treaty of Arras where Burgundy stopped being England's ally and made peace with France. In 1450, France won another great victory at the Battle of Formigny and reconquered Normandy.

paragraphs: The war ended in 1453 with a crushing victory of the French at the Battle of Castillon where nearly 300 cannons made by Jean Bureau and his brother Gaspard were used for the first time in a battle. This third and last part of the war is called the Lancastrian War.


title: Isabeau of Bavaria

paragraphs: Isabeau of Bavaria (c. 1371 – September 24, 1435) was queen of France and wife of Charles VI of France. She married on July 17, 1385 and played an important role in running the country when her husband developed insanity. She was very unpopular and the country was losing the Hundred Years' War during this time.


title: Cockroach

paragraphs: The cockroach is an insect of the suborder Blattaria of the order Blattodea. There are 4,000 species. About 30 species invade human homes. This is less than 1% of all the cockroach species. Four species are pests.

paragraphs: The families of Mantodea, Isoptera, and Blattaria are usually combined by entomologists into a larger group called Dictyoptera. Current evidence strongly suggests that termites have evolved directly from true cockroaches, and many authors now consider termites to be in the family of cockroaches.

paragraphs: Historically, the name Blattaria has been used largely interchangeably with the name Blattodea. Blattodea refers to a larger group that includes fossil groups related to roaches, but not true cockroaches themselves. These earliest cockroach-like fossils ("Blattopterans" or "roachids") are from the Carboniferous period between 354–295 million years ago. However, these fossils differ from modern cockroaches in having long ovipositors and are the ancestors of mantis as well as modern cockroaches. The first fossils of modern cockroaches with internal ovipositors appear in the Lower Cretaceous.

paragraphs: A proposed phylogeny of the families is shown in the diagram.

paragraphs: Cockroaches in the broader sense (Blattodea) have existed a very long time. The earliest cockroach fossils are 354–295 million years old. Science student, Cary Easterday, found a giant 300 million year old fossil cockroach long, in a coal mine in Ohio.

paragraphs: Most cockroaches are omnivores. They are tough, and hard to kill. A cockroach can live for two weeks without a head.

paragraphs: Cockroaches become adults in 3-4 months and can live up to one year. A female German cockroach can produce 8 egg cases in her lifetime and each egg case may contain 30-40 eggs.

paragraphs: Cockroaches are eaten as snacks and used for medicine in China.

paragraphs: The 1996 MTV musical movie "Joe's Apartment" had 5,000 singing cockroaches. Some parts of the movie were made with clay roaches and some with real roaches.

paragraphs: In the 1996 computer game "Bad Mojo", the main character is turned into a cockroach and must move through a building to get back to his human body.


title: Anti-Armenianism

paragraphs: Anti-Armenianism is hostility toward or prejudice against Armenian people, Armenian culture and the Republic of Armenia, which can range in expression from individual hatred to institutionalized persecution. Several organizations have stated that difficulties currently experienced by the Armenian minority in Turkey are a result of an anti-Armenian attitude by the Turkish government as well as by ultra-nationalist groups such as the Grey Wolves.

paragraphs: Modern anti-Armenianism often seems to lacks a racial and cultural basis and appears to be based more on geopolitics and history, in addition to diplomatic and strategic interests, involving the modern states of Turkey and Azerbaijan. The controversy and emotions surrounding the Armenian Genocide and Nagorno-Karabakh are two examples of intense anti-Armenianism in both countries. Modern Anti-Armenianism is usually associated with either extreme opposition to the actions or existence of the Armenian Republic, and belief in an Armenian conspiracy.

paragraphs: For several months in 1994, Ahmet Coşar going by the alias of Serdar Argic posted thousands of messages, claiming that the Armenian Genocide did not happen or that Armenians massacred Turks, on Usenet newsgroup threads mentioning the word Turkey. Samuel Weems published the book "Armenia: The Secrets of a "Christian" Terrorist State" where he has made such claims as the "number one export of Armenia is terrorism" and that there was no Armenian Genocide. American historian Justin McCarthy is known for his controversial support of Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide. Azeri cartoonist "Kerim Kerimov Mammadhan" has produced around 4500 Anti-Armenian cartoons, most of which depict crude caricatures of Armenians. His cartoons are often included with the phrase “Terrorism, narkomania, and armenism are the same disease”. His works also often mocks the Armenian Genocide and its recognition by foreign countries, especially countries in Europe. Murad Gumen is another individual who espouses anti-Armenian rhetoric in his website "Tall Armenian Tale". Barbaros Agri uses the social networking site Facebook to advocate anti-Armenianism by being the creator of "The Biggest Lie Ever Told: The Armenian Genocide". The cause has 5000 plus members.


title: Istanbul pogrom

paragraphs: The Istanbul Pogrom was a pogrom directed primarily against the Istanbul's Greek minority on September 6 and 7, 1955. Jews and Armenians living in the city and their businesses were also targeted in the pogrom, which was, according to some circles, orchestrated by the Turkish government.

paragraphs: A Turkish mob, most of which was trucked into the city in advance, assaulted Istanbul’s Greek community for nine hours. Although the leaders of the pogrom did not explicitly call for Greeks to be killed, between 13 and 16 Greeks (including two Orthodox clerics) and at least one Armenian died during or after the pogrom as a result of beatings and arson.

paragraphs: Thirty-two Greeks were severely wounded. In addition, dozens of Greek women were raped, and a number of men were forcibly circumcised by the mob. 4,348 Greek-owned businesses, 110 hotels, 27 pharmacies, 23 schools, 21 factories, 73 churches and over a thousand Greek-owned homes were badly damaged or destroyed.

paragraphs: Estimates of the economic cost of the damage vary from Turkish government's estimate of 24.8 million US$, the British diplomat estimates of 100 million GBP (about 200 million US$), the World Council of Churches’ estimate of 150 million USD, and the Greek government's estimate of 500 million US$.

paragraphs: The pogrom greatly accelerated emigration of ethnic Greeks from the Istanbul region, reducing the 200,000-strong Greek minority in 1924 to just 2,500 in 2006.


title: Gossip Girl

paragraphs: Gossip Girl is an American television teen drama based on the popular novel series of the same title written by Cecily von Ziegesar. "Gossip Girl" revolves around the lives of a group of rich teenagers grown up on New York's Upper East Side as they attend private school while dealing with typical teenage adolescent issues such as sex and drugs.

paragraphs: The series begins with Serena van der Woodsen' returning from a half-year at boarding school in Cornwall. "Gossip Girl" is the name of an anonymous blogger, who knows everything in Upper East Side but nobody knows who she is. Gossip Girl is voiced by nourah


title: Lene Alexandra

paragraphs: Lene Alexandra Øien (born October 29, 1981 in Trøgstad, Norway) is a Norwegian singer and model for FHM magazine, as well as for Norwegian lad's mags Lek and Cats. She began her musical career in 2007 at age 25 when she released her first single entitled "My Boobs Are OK.


title: Backnang

paragraphs: Backnang is a town in Germany, in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg (formerly the kingdom of Württemberg), northeast of Stuttgart. Its population has grown over the past century or so, from 7,650 (1900) to 35,761 (2005).


title: Bad Buchau

paragraphs: Bad Buchau is a small town in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. About 4,000 people live there.

paragraphs: It is near Lake Federsee, which is separated from the town by a wide reed belt.


title: Bad Dürrheim

paragraphs: Bad Dürrheim is a town in the district of Schwarzwald-Baar, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is north of Donaueschingen, and southeast of Villingen.


title: Bad Friedrichshall

paragraphs: Bad Friedrichshall is a small town with about 18.000 inhabitants. It is in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

paragraphs: Bad Friedrichshall is at the "confluence" (place where two rivers join) of the Neckar and the Kocher, north of Heilbronn.

paragraphs: Bad Friedrichshall is famous for its salt-mine.


paragraphs: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is the largest group in the Mormon movement. It was started in 1830 in New York by Joseph Smith. They believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet who restored the church Jesus Christ set up on earth when he was alive. They teach that they are the only church that has the full gospel. They also believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate individuals, but all have the same purpose. LDS scriptures include the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Members of the church, often called Mormons, and properly known as Latter-Day Saints are known for being active in missionary work. They also believe in the importance of families.

paragraphs: The center of the Church is in Salt Lake City, Utah, but there are more than 15 million members living all over the world. About six million of them live in the United States. Four and a half million of them live in the Western United States and 1.8 million live in Utah. It is the second fastest growing church in the United States. It is the fourth largest in the United States. The leader of the Church is called the President of the Church, and members respect him as a prophet. Right now, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Russell M. Nelson. Latter-day Saints believe that God guides their prophet, just like Catholics believe God guides the Pope.

paragraphs: Latter-day Saints believe in the Holy Scriptures including the Bible and Book of Mormon- Another Testament of Jesus Christ. They also believe that it is important for families to spend a lot of time together, and that after they die, they can live together forever. Latter-day Saints do not drink alcohol, coffee, or tea; smoke tobacco; or use other drugs. They meet once a week on Sunday for church, where they take the sacrament and listen to short talks by members of their own congregation. They also have Sunday school to learn more about their religion. The Church also has activities during the week. Latter-day Saints also have buildings called temples. These are the most holy buildings in their religion. After a temple has been dedicated, only Latter-day Saints that are living lives in accordance with the teachings of the church can go in the temple.

paragraphs: Latter-day Saints believe in helping poor and needy people all around the world. Because of this, Latter-day Saints have given $1.2 billion, since 1985, in cash and assistance to other people. They also believe it is important to learn their family history, often called genealogy. They also help others to learn their family histories, and give access to all their family history records for free, through the internet, on the website Familysearch.org.

paragraphs: In 1842, Joseph Smith wrote 13 paragraphs describing what the Church and its members believe. These are those 13 beliefs:

paragraphs: There are several divisions of the Church. The biggest ones are areas. An area might be a whole country, or part of a continent. Another division is a temple district. A temple district contains all the congregations served by one temple. This often means a whole state, region, or large city. Still another division is the mission, which is an area to which missionaries are assigned; almost all of the world is part of a mission, whether or not missionaries live or seek converts there.

paragraphs: Another division of the church is the stake. Stakes contain all the Latter-day Saints in a geographic area (for example, the stake in Whittier, California serves all the Latter-day Saints in Whittier, Pico Rivera and La Mirada). A stake often contains several thousand members. Stakes are divided into wards.

paragraphs: In areas where the church is less established and there are not enough members to form a stake, a district is formed. Districts serve much the same role as stakes. In turn, districts are divided into branches. If the church membership grows large enough, a district will be changed into a stake and the branches into wards.

paragraphs: Each congregation is one ward (or branch). A ward might contain only people who speak a language other than the local language of its area. Examples include areas next to large U.S. military bases in foreign countries, where English-language wards may be organized, and major U.S. cities with many immigrants, where wards using Spanish, dialects of Chinese, or other languages are often formed. In some places, there are special wards for deaf people, where the services are held in the local sign language (such as American Sign Language in English-speaking North America). The church also has "singles wards", in which the congregation is made up only of single adults. In turn, there are two types of singles wards—Young Single Adult (YSA), for ages 18 to 30, and Single Adult (SA), for those over 30.

paragraphs: The church was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 in upstate New York. It was probably due to the Book of Mormon, which Smith said he had translated from gold plates that were buried in a nearby hill. Smith's followers first went to Kirtland, Ohio in 1831. The first temple was built in Kirtland, and by the mid-1830s, there were over 17,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In 1838, the Latter-day Saints settled in Independence and Far West, Missouri. They were driven out because people in Missouri did not trust Latter-day Saints. The Latter-day Saints then moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. There, Smith started to practice polygamy and tried to start a "theodemocracy," which combined Latter-day Saints rule with American democracy. In 1844, an attempt by Smith to shut down the Nauvoo newspaper led to Smith being accused of treason, followed by him being killed by a mob.

paragraphs: After Smith's death, there was a controversy over who should replace Smith. Brigham Young led most of the Latter-day Saints to Utah in 1847. When Utah became a territory in 1850, it was somewhat of a theocracy. Later in the 1850s, there was conflict between the Latter-day Saints and the U.S. government over control of the territory. This was called the Utah War. The Mountain Meadows massacre was part of the Utah War. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Latter-day Saints settled the "Mormon Corridor" in Utah and surrounding states in the Western United States. Some of the places they settled were Mesa, Arizona; San Bernardino, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Cardston, Alberta. By 1890, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had built temples in three Utah cities.

paragraphs: Brigham Young died in 1877. Around that time, the U.S. government made polygamy against the law. Polygamy had been practiced by Young and some members of the church since the 1840s. Laws by the U.S. government led to many Latter-day Saints leaders going into hiding, and many polygamists being sent to jail. In 1890, the church stopped polygamy. This is thought to be the beginning of the modern era of the Mormon church.

paragraphs: In the early 20th century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints grew, and opened its first temples outside of Utah. Soon into the 20th century, tithing (giving money to the Church) was made a part of being a good member. In 1995, Gordon Hinckley became President. He got the church to build many temples in the United States and elsewhere around the world. The current President is Russell M. Nelson after the death of Thomas S. Monson in January 2018.

paragraphs: Young people are encouraged to go on missions when they get old enough. Men may go for two years after they are 18 years old (as long as they have graduated from high school), and women may go for 18 months after they are 19 years old. Before an August 2012 change in church policy, men had to be 19 in most countries, and women throughout the world 21, before they could go on missions. More men go on missions than women do. These missionaries go to a "Missionary Training Center" for a few months where they learn how to be good missionaries, and then live in another place for their mission. The Church tells them where they need to go. Then they work with one other missionary who is the same gender as they are (called a "companion"), and change companions often so they are not always with the same person. Missionaries will go to people who live near them and teach them about the Church, and baptize people who want to join the Church. They also help people around them, even if these people are not in the Church. Often they help by building houses for people who need them.

paragraphs: Older people sometimes go on missions after their children grow up. They get to go with their spouse. There are many different kinds of missions for "senior missionaries". Some of them are only a few months, and some of them are a few years. These missions can be "service missions", which means that they go to help people who live in the area. Sometimes the senior missionary is a "mission president". This means that they lead and help young missionaries in the place where they go to live.

paragraphs: The LDS church has been heavily criticized since its creation. Some of the criticisms are listed below.


title: Fenrir

paragraphs: In Norse mythology, Fenrir (Old Norse: “he who dwells in the marshes”), also known as Fenrisúlfr (Old Norse: “Fenrir's wolf”), or Vanargand ("Monster of the River Van"), is a giant, monstrous wolf, son of Loki and the giantess Angrboða, and the brother of Hel and Jörmungandr.

paragraphs: Fenrir was tied up by the gods, but was destined to break free from his bonds and devour Odin during Ragnarök, afterwhich he is killed by Odin's son, Víðarr.

paragraphs: Fenrir has two sons, Hati ('hate') and Skoll.

paragraphs: Odin found out about a prophecy that the children of Loki and Angora would cause trouble for the gods. He had Fenrir brought to him along with its brother Jörmungandr and its sister Hel.

paragraphs: After throwing Jörmungandr into the sea and sending Hel into the land of the dead, Odin had the wolf raised among the Æsir. Only the god Týr was brave enough to feed the growing monster. The wolf got stronger and stronger. The gods were scared that he would eventually destroy them. They tried to chain it up. He agreed to be chained two times. Both times he easily broke the chains.

paragraphs: Odin had the dwarfs make the chain Gleipnir ("deceiver" or "entangler"). It looked like a silken ribbon but was made of six magical ingredients: the sound of a cat's step, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, bear's sensibility, fish's breath, and bird's spittle.

paragraphs: The gods challenged Fenrir to break this chain as well. The wolf saw how thin and well made Gleipnir was and thought it was a trick. He agreed to try and break the chain, but only if one of the gods would put his hand in the wolf's mouth. He believed this would force them to free him if he could not break the chain. Only Týr was willing to put his hand in the wolf's mouth. Fenrir tried to break the chain. The more he tried, the tighter the chain held him. When the gods would not free him, the wolf bit off Týr's hand at the wrist.

paragraphs: It is said that at Ragnarök, the wolf will break free. He will join forces with the enemies of the gods and will then eat Odin. After that Viðarr, Odin's son, will slay the wolf to avenge his father's death.


title: Russell Crowe

paragraphs: Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor with New Zealand citizenship who lives in Australia. He is most well known for the movie "Gladiator". This movie gave him his fame in America. He won the Academy award (Oscar) for Best actor in 2001, for acting in "Gladiator". He also starred as Jor-El in the 2013 movie "Man of Steel".

paragraphs: Crowe had attended Auckland Grammar School before moving to Australia.

paragraphs: He is married to Danielle Spencer. She is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. They have two sons, Charles Spencer Crowe (born 2003) and Tennyson Spencer Crowe (born 2006).


title: Renin

paragraphs: Renin is an enzyme that is made by the kidneys. It is released into the circulatory system to raise blood pressure. This causes more blood to be sent to the kidneys.


title: Knight

paragraphs: A knight was a professional heavy cavalry soldier in the Middle Ages. They were the top soldiers to the kingdom, and protected it at all costs. Knights worked for lords or nobles, who in exchange would give them land if the knight would fight for them. Knights thought honour was very important, and they had a code of honour called chivalry. They always had a coat of arms, also called a crest.

paragraphs: Knights of the Commonwealth Realms today are named by the Sovereign One of the British orders of knighthood is known as the Order of the British Empire. These knights today are called 'Sir' and then their first name. Many members of nobility are descended from knights. For example: Wijerd Jelckama descended from a knight who died at the siege of Antioch (1199).

paragraphs: Knights were first used in the 4th century in the late Roman armies. The era of the knights ended in the 16th century as national armies replaced feudal armies. Many knights were recruited as officers in the new armies. Today's officer corps in Western armies began as groups of knights.

paragraphs: Although knights no longer fight as elite warriors, the act of knighting, or being given knighthood by a king or queen, still exists. The most well-known example of knighting today are tapping the shoulders of the person being knighted with the flat side of a sword. People who are alive today who have been given knighthood include Sean Connery, Bill Gates, Clint Eastwood, Michael Caine, as well as former U.S. president, the late George H.W. Bush.


title: Kuiper belt

paragraphs: The Kuiper belt is an area of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune (at 30 astronomical units) to 50 AU from the Sun.

paragraphs: The objects within the Kuiper Belt together with the members of the "scattered disk" beyond, are together called trans-Neptunian.

paragraphs: Many objects such as dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt are much bigger than the ones in the asteroid belt and are round. At least some Kuiper belt objects are icebound.

paragraphs: The first objects in the Kuiper belt to be found were Pluto and Charon (moon) but the belt was only identified and named in 1992 when more Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) were found. A few thousand have since been discovered and more than 70,000 KBOs over 100 km (62 mi) in diameter are thought to exist.


title: Mole

paragraphs: Moles are small mammals adapted to a burrowing (under the ground) lifestyle. This lifestyle is called "fossorial".

paragraphs: Moles are found in North America, Europe and Asia. They eat insects, larvae or worms. Moles have velvety, soft fur. They have powerful front paws so they can dig. A mole has an extra thumb.

paragraphs: The family includes the shrew moles and the desmans. There are

paragraphs: three subfamilies, 17 genera and 46 species in total in this very common group of mammals. Moles have poor vision.

paragraphs: The largest type of mole is the Russian desman. The smallest type of mole is the American shrew mole.


title: Terence Tao

paragraphs: Professor Terence Chi Shen Tao is a Chinese-Australian mathematician who currently resides in the United States. In 2006, Tao won the Fields Medal for his work in number theory. Tao shared the award with three other mathematicians. He also won the FRS in 2007. He is known for his studies in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatorics, analytic number theory and representation theory. Tao teaches math at UCLA.

paragraphs: Tao was born on 17 July 1975 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. His parents are Han. Tao is the youngest person to be in the International Mathematical Olympiad.

paragraphs: Ever since he was a young child he had shown great skills in mathematics and logic.

paragraphs: His father claimed that at the age of 2, during a family gathering, the infant Tao taught a 5-year-old child mathematics and English. According to Smithsonian Online Magazine, Tao taught himself arithmetic by the age of two. When asked by his father how he knew numbers and letters, he said he learned them from "Sesame Street". Aside from English, Tao speaks fluent Cantonese, but does not write Chinese. He was promoted to a full professor at age 24. He currently lives with his wife and son in Los Angeles, California.


title: Fritz Lang

paragraphs: Fritz Lang (5 December 1890 – 2 August 1976) was a Austrian director, screenwriter, and movie producer. His movies include "Metropolis" and "M". He is one of the most famous German expressionist filmmakers.

paragraphs: Lang was born in Vienna. He died in Beverly Hills, California.


title: Scattered disc

paragraphs: The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant part of the solar system. The area has small icy minor planets known as scattered disc objects (SDOs). The part of the scattered disc closest to the sun is in an area of space called the Kuiper belt. The Oort cloud lies beyond the scattered disc. The first SDO was found in 1995 by Spacewatch.

paragraphs: The scattered disk is still not understood well. Astronomers believe that it was created when objects in the Kuiper belt were "scattered" by the gravity of the outer planets, mainly Neptune. Unlike most objects in the Solar System which move in a round and flat path, scattered disc objects go every which way. Different SDOs have different orbital eccentricity and orbital inclination.


title: Flatworm

paragraphs: Flatworms (Platyhelminthes, Greek "platy"': flat; "helminth": worm) are a phylum of invertebrates. They are relatively simple animals. They have soft bodies.

paragraphs: With about 25,000 known species, they are the largest phylum of animals without a body cavity. Flatworms can be found in marine, freshwater, and even damp terrestrial environments.

paragraphs: A troublesome terrestrial example is the New Zealand flatworm, "Arthurdendyus triangulatus". It is an invasive species which colonized large areas of Ireland and Scotland. It was brought there by accident in the 1960s. Since then, it has destroyed most of the indigenous earthworms.

paragraphs: Most free-living flatworms found in Britain are very small ranging from 5mm to less than 1 cm. They are usually black and can easily be mistaken for debris. These are mostly found in freshwater rivers or streams and are of the Turbellaria class.

paragraphs: Most flatworms (over 50%) are parasitic on other animals. There are four classes:

paragraphs: Flatworms are one of the invertebrate groups which are studied in school biology. The main reason for this is that they may infect humans, pets and farmyard animals, and this was a problem. some do enormous harm to humans and their livestock. Schistosomiasis, caused by one genus of trematodes, is the second most devastating of all human diseases caused by parasites, surpassed only by malaria. Effective treatments are now available for these infections. Also, in first-world countries, regulations on domestic cattle prevent infected meat from reaching the human hosts.


title: Trematode

paragraphs: The Trematodes are a class of flatworms in the phylum Platyhelminthes. They are called flukes, and are internal parasites of molluscs and vertebrates. Most trematodes have a complex life cycle with at least two hosts. The primary host, where the flukes sexually reproduce, is a vertebrate. The intermediate host, which is the agent of dispersal, is usually a snail.

paragraphs: The trematodes or flukes are estimated to include 18,000 to 24,000 species


Fluke


title: Period instruments

paragraphs: The period instruments are musical instruments which have been made in the same way they were made hundreds of years ago. This is done so that earlier music will sound like it did when it was first composed.

paragraphs: Musical instruments have changed a lot during the last few centuries. Composers like Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote music for instruments which sounded differently from the way they do today. Although most of the orchestral instruments we use nowadays were already in use in Bach’s day, instrument makers have made changes to them. These changes often gave the instruments a bigger sound so that they could be heard well in large concert halls. Orchestras also have increased in size.

paragraphs: During the 20th century musicians started to realize that the way we play the music of Bach and other composers was making the music sound different from how it would have been first heard. People became interested in hearing what the music would have sounded like back in the 17th and early 18th centuries (the Baroque period). Few of the old instruments still existed and many that had survived had been “modernized”. So instrument makers started to make instruments in the old ways. Some musicians and orchestras started to play these instruments. The instruments are often called “period instruments” (or "authentic instruments" or "historical instruments") because they are made so that they are like instruments of earlier periods.

paragraphs: Today's instruments of the string family (violin, viola, cello and double bass) may look almost the same as the old ones, but there are differences: the old fingerboards were shorter and the strings used to be made of gut, not metal. The bows were shaped differently, and the technique of playing was also different.

paragraphs: Woodwind instruments have changed a lot since the old times. Flutes, oboes and bassoons hardly had any keys (the metal keys which help to cover the holes). The keys were added in the 18th century and it made it much easier to play difficult music with lots of sharps and flats. Clarinets were not invented until the late 18th century, but even they have developed a lot since Mozart’s time (1756-1791).

paragraphs: Brass instruments like the trumpet and French horn now have valves which make it easier to play in different keys. The trombone is the only instrument which has not changed. The tuba was invented in the early 19th century.

paragraphs: Percussion instruments include the timpani which have changed a lot. In Baroque times they had calf-skin heads but now the heads are made of plastic. This makes a very different sound.

paragraphs: Baroque keyboard instruments included the harpsichord and clavichord. The piano was invented during the 18th century. It still sounded very different when Mozart wrote for it. The frame was made of wood, not of cast iron, and the hammers had leather heads instead of felt. A modern piano sounds quite different.

paragraphs: The interest in period instruments started in the mid 20th century. People like Wanda Landowska played Baroque keyboard music on the harpsichord instead of the piano. Conductors like Nikolas Harnoncourt have trained small orchestras to play on period instruments using techniques which were used in Baroque times. Gradually musicians also started using period instruments for music from the Classical music period (the time of Mozart and Beethoven). Even in the mid 18th century the modern orchestra had not yet evolved. In recent years conductors like John Elliot Gardiner have performed music by Hector Berlioz on period instruments. There are now many small instrumental groups and orchestras who regularly perform on period instruments e.g. The English Concert and the English Baroque Soloists.

paragraphs: Does old music sound better on period instruments? Musicians do not all agree about this question and they still argue a lot about the way that some of the music should be played. However, it is important to listen to the way that period instruments are played. Musicians such as the violinist Andrew Manze have done a lot of research in old books and old music and have done a lot to make people rethink the way in which music from former centuries should be performed.


title: Monogenea

paragraphs: Monogenea are a type of flatworm. They are parasites which means that they always need another creature to live on. They live on the outside of their host. Some parasites, like tapeworms, live on the inside of a larger creature.

paragraphs: Monogenea are especially common on the skin, fins and gills of fish. Less commonly, they can be found in the urinary bladder and rectum of cold-blooded vertebrates. No types of Monogenea infect birds, but one ("Oculotrema hippopotami") infects mammals. It is a parasite in the eye of a hippopotamus.

paragraphs: Monogenea are usually hermaphrodites. This means that they have both sexes. First they are males, and only later do they become females as well. They have direct life-cycles with no asexual reproduction (unlike the Digenea). In those types of Monogenea that lay eggs, the young ones grow to a larval stage called an "oncomiracidium". It is at the "larva" stage that they are able to travel from one host creature to another. When they are adults, Monogenea eat the blood, mucus, and epithelial cells of their host creature.


title: Turbellaria

paragraphs: Turbellaria are a class of free-living flatworms. They are not parasites. Most of them are carnivores. They actively search for food. Most of them are small, less than 60 cm in size. Almost all of them are aquatic. Some also live on land, in damp places.


title: Bifröst

paragraphs: In Norse mythology, Bifröst is the bridge between the land of mortals, Midgard, and the land of the gods, Asgard. The gods cross it every day to meet and decide things at Urdarbrunn (Well of Urd) under the tree Yggdrasill. The bridge is a rainbow. It was built by the Æsir and is guarded by the god Heimdall.

paragraphs: Only the thunder god Thor was not allowed to use the rainbow, because he may break it. The bridge will be destroyed at the end of the world, Ragnarök, when the relentless army of giants and the dead run on it to attack Asgard.

paragraphs: Alternative names: Bilröst, Ásbrú, Bifrost.


title: Mendoza Province

paragraphs: Mendoza is a Province of Argentina. It is in the region called Cuyo. The province borders San Juan in the north, San Luis and La Pampa in the east, Neuquén in the south, and Chile to the west.

paragraphs: It is the major wine producer of Argentina and has many other crops. It has the highest mountain in the country, Aconcagua.

paragraphs: Mendoza has a population of 1,579,651 people (2001). Spanish is the main language but many people also speak English, Italian and Portuguese.


title: Dosimeter

paragraphs: A dosimeter is a tool that can measure different levels of hazardous environments. Common dosimeters are those used for sound (They measure how loud a certain noise is) and radiation (they measure how much radiation there is in an environment).


title: Geiger counter

paragraphs: A Geiger counter (sometimes called Geiger-Müller counter) is an instrument that measures ionizing radiation such as alpha particles, beta particles, or gamma rays. It is best known as a hand held radiation survey instrument, but it can also be used as a bench instrument or permanently installed.

paragraphs: The original operating principle was discovered in 1908 and since the subsequent development of the Geiger-Müller tube in 1928 the counter has been a very popular instrument due to its robust sensing detector and element and relatively low cost.

paragraphs: The radiation sensor is a Geiger-Müller tube which gives out an electronic signal when radiation is present.

paragraphs: The readout is counts or radiation dose. The counts display is commonly "counts per second". Radiation dose rate is displayed in a unit such as the sievert.

paragraphs: The readout can be analogue or digital, and modern instruments have communications with a computer or network.

paragraphs: There is usually an option to produce audible representing the radiation intensity. This allows the user to concentrate on manipulation of the instrument without looking at the display.

paragraphs: For alpha particles and low energy beta particles the "end window" type of GM tube is used as these particles have a limited range even in free air and are easily stopped by a solid material.

paragraphs: Geiger counters can be used to detect gamma radiation, and for this the windowless tube is used. A special type of the Geiger tube is used to measure neutrons.

paragraphs: For hand-held units there are two fundamental physical configurations: the "integral" unit, with both detector and electronics in the same unit, and the "two-piece" design which has a separate detector probe and an electronics module connected by a short cable.

paragraphs: There is a particular type of gamma instrument known as a "hot spot" detector which has the detector tube on the end of a long pole or flexible conduit. These are used to measure high radiation gamma locations whilst protecting the operator by means of distance shielding.

paragraphs: In 1908 Hans Geiger, developed a technique for detecting alpha particles that would later be used in the Geiger-Müller tube. This counter was only capable of detecting alpha particles but in 1928 Geiger and Walther Müller developed the sealed Geiger-Müller tube which could detect more types of ionizing radiation and it became a practical radiation sensor. Once this was available, Geiger counter instruments could be produced relatively cheaply.


title: Wide area network

paragraphs: A world wide area network, or WAN, is made up of several computer networks connected together, often over the Internet. In most cases, the networks in WANs all belong to the all same company or school.

paragraphs: WANs are used to connect LANs and other types of networks together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations. Many WANs are built for one particular organization and are private. Others, built by Internet service providers, provide connections from an organization's LAN to the Internet. WANs are often built using leased lines. At each end of the leased line, a router connects to the LAN on one side and a hub within the WAN on the other. Leased lines can be very expensive. Instead of using leased lines, WANs can also be built using less costly circuit switching or packet switching methods. Network protocols including TCP/IP deliver transport and addressing functions. Protocols including Packet over SONET/SDH, MPLS, ATM and Frame relay are often used by service providers to deliver the links that are used in WANs. X.25 was an important early WAN protocol, and is often considered to be the "grandfather" of Frame Relay as many of the underlying protocols and functions of X.25 are still in use today (with upgrades) by Frame Relay.

paragraphs: Academic research into wide area networks can be broken down into three areas: mathematical models, network emulation and network simulation.

paragraphs: Performance improvements are sometimes delivered via WAFS or WAN optimization.


title: Corporate network

paragraphs: A corporate network is a group of computers, connected together in a building or in a particular area, which are all owned by the same company or institutions.


title: Disk

paragraphs: A disc or disk generally refers to a round flat object, although the usage varies between different variants of English. Common types of disc include:


title: Noodle

paragraphs: Noodles are thin strips of pasta which are made from dough. The dough for the noodles can be made in different ways:

paragraphs: Noodles are usually cooked in boiling water. Sometimes, after boiling, noodles are fried in a pan with other ingredients while being moved around in order to be mixed well, which is called stir frying.


title: Gaia Online

paragraphs: Gaia Online is a website created around anime and chatting. In Gaia, users can work on an online economy, chat with other people with the same interests, and even play online games found around the site. Also, you have to be 13 and older to join.


title: Jotunheim

paragraphs: Jötunheimr (or Jotunheim) is the land of the giants in the Norse mythology. Two kinds of giants (or Jotuns) live in Jötunheimr, rock giants and frost giants. From here they can attack the humans in Midgard and the gods in Asgard. Jotunheim is ruled by King Thrym.


title: Leia Organa

paragraphs: Princess Leia Organa, born Leia Amidala Skywalker, is a character from the "Star Wars" universe. Leia was played by Carrie Fisher in the original three "Star Wars" movies: "", "", and "". She is also a main character in many novels that are set in the "Star Wars" universe.

paragraphs: Organa is the daughter of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker. She has a twin brother, Luke Skywalker. Her mother died giving birth to her and her brother. The twins were taken at birth and given to different families to raise. Leia was raised by the family of Alderaan's Senator Bail Organa as his daughter.

paragraphs: Leia was in a romantic relationship with Han Solo and both have a child Ben Solo. Kylo Ren becomes evil and becomes the main villain in "".


title: Ayrton Senna

paragraphs: Ayrton Senna da Silva (March 21, 1960 – May 1, 1994), better known as Ayrton Senna, was a Brazilian Formula 1 driver who won the championship three times, in 1988, 1990 and in 1991. He died in an accident that took place on the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, better known as Imola, in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. He is considered by many people to be the most skilled driver in the history of motor racing.

paragraphs: Senna was born in São Paulo, a city in Brazil. When he was four years old, he first got into a kart. When he was 13, he entered a karting competition for the first time. A fun fact is that he started his first kart race on pole position. The start places were written on pieces of paper and put in a driver's helmet, and he drew number one. Because he was a lot lighter than the other racers, he was much faster than all of them. He won the "South American Kart Championships" in 1977 and was runner-up in the World Championship, but he never won it.

paragraphs: In 1981 he raced in the British Formula Ford 1600 championship, and won it as well. He also changed his name to Senna, since da Silva is used a lot in Brazil.

paragraphs: In 1982 Senna won two European championships; the European and the British Formula Ford 2000. After testing with Williams, McLaren, Brabham and Toleman, he got a place within the Toleman team for the 1984 Formula One season.

paragraphs: The Toleman team was a very small team compared to other famous teams like Williams, McLaren and Brabham. Even though, the team built a car good enough to let Senna impress with his talents. Ayrton Senna scored his first championship point on April 7, 1984 at the South African Grand Prix. Three races later, Senna impressed at the Monaco Grand Prix, where it was raining. Senna started on the 13th position, but right after the race started, he soon was gaining position after position on the track that is known for its small roads. On the 19th lap, he took second place from Niki Lauda and was making up a lot of time to the race leader, Alain Prost. It started to rain harder and the race was stopped on the 31st lap. Even though almost everyone agrees Senna should have won the race, Senna had a result to be proud of. In the rest of the season he would finish third place in two races, the Britisch and the Portuguese Grand Prix. He finished his first year in Formula One racing on a shared 9th position and 13 points, sharing his 9th position with Nigel Mansell.

paragraphs: Senna did not just race in Formula One that year. He also co-drove a Porsche 956 with Henri Pescarolo and Stefan Johansson in the 1000km Nürburgring race. He also raced in a race to celebrate the opening of the new Nürburgring. He won this race.

paragraphs: The following year, joined the Lotus team, and many thought he would be able to meet his potential. The other driver for Lotus was Elio De Angelis. Ayrton scored his first of 65 pole positions in his career during the Brazilian Grand Prix, but was not able to win the race. He retired with an electrical problem after 48 laps. He did not had to wait a long time for his first ever victory in Formula 1, however, because he won the next race, the Portuguese Grand Prix starting off from pole position again. He showed his true talent driving in such bad weather which even later champion Alain Prost could not race in (he spun into a wall). The rest of the season was not too good for Senna though. He scored a lot of points but often retired because of mechanical problems. He won the Belgian Grand Prix in another wet race and finished 4th at the end of the season, scoring 38 points total. He also took two first places, two second places, two third places and seven pole positions.

paragraphs: His second season with Lotus, in 1986, was better than his first. The Lotus Car was a lot more reliable. He finished second in the Brazilian Grand Prix, with only Nelson Piquet being faster than Ayrton. He even took the lead in the World Championship standings during the Spanish Grand Prix after managing to keep Nigel Mansell away from stealing the victory. The gap between both drivers was only 14 thousand of a second. He did not have a lot of time to enjoy his lead, however, because his Lotus did not have the reliability Ayrton needed to chase after the title.


title: Adriano Emperado

paragraphs: Adriano Emperado (June 16, 1926 - April 4, 2009) is a Filipino-Hawaiian martial artist. He is one of five martial artists who developed a system of self-defense called Kajukenbo.

paragraphs: As a young man in Honolulu, Hawaii, Emperado began his early training in the Filipino art of Escrima. That had a huge impact on his development of Kajukenbo. Emperado later became interested in Kenpo Karate. After years of training, he earned a fifth-degree black belt under the direction of William K.S Chow.

paragraphs: The first school of Kajukenbo was directed by Adriano Emperado and his brother, Joe Emperado. In 1959, Emperado began combining Wushu into Kajukenbo. Adriano Emperado's life has been about teaching the martial arts. "Black Belt Magazine" named him its Instructor of the Year 1991.


title: Paramaribo

paragraphs: Paramaribo (, nickname: Par′bo) is the capital city of Suriname. About 250,000 people live in the city. It is at the Suriname River about 15 km before the river flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

paragraphs: Paramirbo used to be called in French "Bourg nommé des Juifs" because so many Jewish people lived there.


title: Ancient Domains of Mystery

paragraphs: ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery) is a computer game. More specifically, it's a Roguelike.


title: Jagdterrier

paragraphs: Jagdterriers are a breed of dogs. Their full name is Deutscher Jagdterrier. This translates to German terrier to mean a hunting dog.


title: Erwin Schrödinger

paragraphs: Erwin Schrödinger (Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger, 12 August 1887, Vienna-Erdberg 4 January 1961, Vienna) was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist. He was one of the founding fathers of quantum theory and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.

paragraphs: Schrödinger went to the Academic Gymnasium from 1898 to 1906.

paragraphs: Afterwards he studied mathematics and physics in Vienna and wrote his habilitation up from 1910.

paragraphs: He was a soldier in World War I. Afterwards he got professorships in Zürich, Jena, Breslau and Stuttgart. In 1920 he married.

paragraphs: In 1927 he went to Berlin to fellow Max Planck.

paragraphs: After the take-over of power by the Nazis, Schrödinger left Germany and got a new professorship in Oxford.

paragraphs: Three years later he returned to Austria and became professor in Graz.

paragraphs: In 1938 he had to leave Austria, because the Nazis had taken over government.

paragraphs: He went to Dublin and became director of the School for Theoretical Physics.

paragraphs: In 1956 he returned to Vienna and got a professorship for Theoretical Physics.

paragraphs: Schrödinger's most important work is the wave mechanics – a formulation of quantum mechanics, and especially the Schrödinger equation. He also worked on the field of biophysics. He invented the concept of negentropy and helped to develop molecular biology.


title: Dioxin

paragraphs: Dioxins is the name for a group of chemical compounds. These are organic compounds. Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), or simply dioxins, are a group of halogenated organic compounds which are significant because they act as environmental pollutants. They are very poisonous. Many dioxins cause cancer.

paragraphs: Today, Dioxins are no longer made. They can occur as a by-product of other processes, though. Examples where dioxins can result are the production of PVC or the bleaching of paper. In nature, they are produced in volcanoes and forest fires.

paragraphs: A chemical accident where a lot of dioxin was released was the Seveso disaster.


title: Arnold Sommerfeld

paragraphs: Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (December 5, 1868 in Königsberg, East Prussia – April 26, 1951 in Munich) was a German mathematician and theoretical physicist.

paragraphs: Sommerfeld was the son of a practical physician. After finishing school in 1886, he started studying mathematics at the University of Königsberg.

paragraphs: In 1891 he wrote his doctorate thesis about arbitrary functions in mathematical physics.

paragraphs: Then he went to Göttingen. He became assistant at the institute for mineralogy, but was still interested in mathematical physics.

paragraphs: In 1894 he became assistant of Felix Klein. The year after he wrote his habilitation about the mathematical theory of optical diffraction and became docent for mathematics in Göttingen.

paragraphs: In 1897 Sommerfeld married. In the same year he became ordinary professor for mathematics at the mining college of Clausthal. Three years later he got a professorship at the Technical University of Aachen.

paragraphs: In 1906 he became professor for theoretical physics in Munich, were he stood for his lifetime.

paragraphs: While he was professor in Munich, he travelled two times around the world - in 1922/23 he was guest professor in Wisconsin and travelled afterwards through India, China and Japan, in 1928/29 he made a journey through the USA as teacher on universities.

paragraphs: In 1935 he went in pension, but he still worked until 1940.

paragraphs: There was big trouble about choosing the person who should follow him. Sommerfeld wanted to have Werner Heisenberg on his seat, but in the time of the Nazi regime the job could only go to a person who taught the so-called German Physics, which included a kind of mysticism. Sommerfeld tried to prevent that.

paragraphs: Sommerfeld died in 1951 in a traffic accident.


title: James Clerk Maxwell

paragraphs: James Clerk Maxwell (born 13 June 1831 in Edinburgh – died 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician, physicist and discoverer of Maxwell's equations.

paragraphs: Maxwell grew up in a rich religious family. In 1845, when he was only 14, he wrote a paper describing a way of drawing mathematical curves with a piece of string. In 1847 he started studying mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. In 1850 Maxwell changed to Peterhouse and then Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He won prizes from the university for his work and was given his degree in 1854. From 1855 to 1872 he did research on colour blindness.

paragraphs: In 1856 Maxwell was made a professor of 'Natural Philosophy' (which is what science was called then) at Marischal College, Aberdeen. He worked there until the two colleges in Aberdeen joined together in 1860 and he lost his job. He then became a professor at King's College London. In 1861 he was elected to the Royal Society.

paragraphs: In 1871, became the first Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge. He studied many things, but is known best for his mathematical work on electromagnetism and on the behaviour of gases.

paragraphs: He lived at Glenlair House, his family estate near the village of Parton, Castle Douglas in Kirkcudbrightshire. Maxwell died in 1879 from cancer, and is buried in the graveyard at Parton Church.


title: Roman Vishniac

paragraphs: Roman Vishniac (; ; August 19, 1897 – January 22, 1990) was a Russian-American photographer and a biologist. He is well known for taking pictures of Jewish culture in Central and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. Many of these pictures are in his book, "A Vanished World", published in 1983.


title: Penicillin

paragraphs: Penicillin is a common antibiotic, used to treat bacterial infections. It was one of the first to be discovered, and worked well against staphylococci and streptococci. Many strains of bacteria are now resistant. Chemists keep changing part of its structure in the effort to keep it working against the bacteria.

paragraphs: Penicillin was discovered by Scottish scientist Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, but it was not mass-produced until 1940. The antibiotic is naturally produced by fungi of the genus "Penicillium". There is now a whole group of antibiotics derived from "Penicillium" including penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V.

paragraphs: Penicillin is sometimes used to treat syphilis, tonsillitis, meningitis, and pneumonia as well as other diseases. It was first used widely during World War II.

paragraphs: Penicillin was discovered when Fleming noticed a mold that was stopping bacteria from growing in a petri dish. Australian scientist Howard Walter Florey made the penicillin mold into a medicine. Together with another scientist Ernst Boris Chain, Fleming and Florey were given the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.

paragraphs: Some people are allergic to penicillin. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, or rash. Rarely, patients who are allergic to penicillin get a fever, vomit, or have serious skin irritation. Because it is such a popular antibiotic, penicillin is the most common cause of serious allergic reactions to a drug. They are now used regularly in hospitals.

paragraphs: Chemist John C. Sheehan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) did the first chemical synthesis of penicillin in 1957.


title: Depleted uranium

paragraphs: Depleted uranium is what is left over after uranium is enriched. Enriched uranium can be used in nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. Depleted uranium is made up mostly of the isotope uranium-238. Uranium-238 is mildly radioactive. It is very dense, or heavy for its size. Because of this, depleted uranium is used in armor piercing bullets and heavy machine guns. Its high density allows weapons to put more energy into a fired bullet which causes more damage to its targets. Bullets made from it will burn when they hit something hard, and their smoke is dangerous to breathe.

paragraphs: Depleted uranium has long been thought to be useless for producing nuclear energy, but a new kind of "traveling wave reactor" has been proposed to use it.


title: Commuting

paragraphs: A commuter is a person who travels from home to a workplace every day. This was uncommon until the 19th century, when the word was invented for people who used public transport daily. For many commuters, home is a suburb and work is in the inner city; but the reverse is sometimes the case and is called a reverse commute. Commuters may use other transport, such as cars or bicycles.


title: Anne Redpath

paragraphs: Anne Redpath (1895-1965) was a Scottish artist. She was born in Galashiels, Scotland.

paragraphs: She was the daughter of a tweed designer. Her father's work had an effect on her use of colour and texture in her paintings. "I do with a spot of red or yellow in a harmony of grey, what my father did in his tweed", she said. She went to France during 19201933.


title: CD-RW

paragraphs: A CD-RW (which stands for Compact Disc ReWritable) is a Compact disc that can be recorded and erased multiple times. It can hold data or music. Most of the time it will hold data, since many CD players can not play CD-RWs. During its development, the format was known as CD-E, which stands for Compact Disc Erasable. The standard was introduced in 1997. It replaced the less successful CD-MO.

paragraphs: The disk used for this is an optical disc. Phase change technology is used to write to the disk. A laser beam is used to heat a certain point of the disk. Once this point is hot, the information stored there can be changed.

paragraphs: According to what the manufacturers of these disks say, it is possible to record and erase such a disk up to 1000 times. They behave very much like CD-Rs, otherwise. Entire sessions can be written. As long as there is space on the disc, new sessions can be appended. To be readable in an ordinary CD drive, all sessions must be closed though.

paragraphs: CD-RWs never gained the popularity of CD-Rs. This is because they are more expensive to make and to buy. Also, not all CD drives can read them. Reading and writing speeds are also lower than those of pre-made CDs and CD-Rs.

paragraphs: Also, like with the CD-R, it is impractical (and slow) to use these disks to quickly add or remove small files. Other formats, like Zip disk, Jaz disk, Magneto-optical disks, and USB flash drives are More used for quickly reading, writing, or erasing small (sets of) files. When a deletion needs to be made, the whole CD needs to be erased.

paragraphs: CD-RWs (like CD-Rs) are more used for backups. They are usually cheaper than tape-based solutions.

paragraphs: Depending on the method used to write, and the type of disk used, usable capacities range from about 500 to 700 megabytes.

paragraphs: Pretty much the same concepts are used for DVD-RWs, which have a much higher capacity.


title: Magneto-optical drive

paragraphs: A Magneto-optical drive is a disk drive for computers. It can read and write data to magneto-optical disks. The technology was made at the end of the 1980s. Both 5.25" and 3.5" media exist. The disks look like CD-ROMs, but they are protected with a plastic cover. The MiniDisc is a Magneto-optical disk. The other disks look similar but have a bigger physical size.

paragraphs: The operating system sees (and uses) the disk like a normal hard-drive. 3.5" disks can hold between 128 megabytes (MB) and 2.3 gigabytes (GB) of data. 5.25" disks hold between 650 MB and 16.7 GB.

paragraphs: All disks have a physical write protection switch (like 3.5" floppy disks). They are pretty resistant to data change, can support temperatures up to about 100 °C, and do not care much about light.

paragraphs: DVD-RAM disks are very similar in appearance, they are optical though.


title: U.S. Presidential line of succession

paragraphs: The United States Presidential line of succession is the order in which government officials replace the president of the United States if the president leaves office before an elected successor is inaugurated. If the President dies, resigns, or is removed from office, the Vice President becomes President for the rest of the term. If the Vice President is unable to serve, the Speaker of the House acts as President.

paragraphs: The United States Constitution says that the Vice President of the United States is the person who will replace the President if the President is not able to continue.

paragraphs: The laws about succession (after the Vice President) were first created in 1792. The second in line, after the Vice President was the leader of the Senate. The next in line was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1868, during the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, Benjamin Wade was the leader of the Senate. He almost became president, but Johnson was found not guilty by one vote. Johnson had been the Vice President for Abraham Lincoln. He became President after the assassination of Lincoln. Because of Lincoln's assassination, there was no Vice President at the time.

paragraphs: In 1886, after the death of Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks, Congress passed a law that took out the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives from the line of succession. The new person behind the Vice President in line was Secretary of State, followed by other Cabinet members. The leaders of the Senate and House were restored to the line of succession by the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.

paragraphs: Below is the current line of succession for the President of the United States:


title: Oulu

paragraphs: Oulu () is a city in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the biggest city in the Northern Finland. The population of Oulu was about 193,000 in January 2014. It is the sixth largest city in Finland.

paragraphs: Municipalities next to Oulu are Hailuoto, Ii, Kempele, Liminka, Lumijoki, Muhos, Pudasjärvi, Tyrnävä and Utajärvi.

paragraphs: There is a university in Oulu. The university is one of the largest in Finland, with over 15,000 students.

paragraphs: Many people work in technology firms making mobile phones, computers and software.

paragraphs: Oulu was established in 1605, so it is more than 400 years old. In the old days, Oulu was famous for selling tar all over the world.


title: James Boswell

paragraphs: James Boswell (October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795) was a Scottish lawyer and author. He is best known for having written the Life of Johnson, a biography of his close friend Samuel Johnson, published in 1791. In the 1920s and 1930s, a large number of his personal papers and journals were discovered. They have since then been published by Yale University.


title: Gondola

paragraphs: A Gondola is a kind of boat. Gondolas are mainly used in Venice. Unlike other boats, a long oar is used to move the gondola.


title: MiniDisc

paragraphs: A MiniDisc (MD) is a small magneto-optical disk. It is used as a replacement for the Audio cassette. It was developed by Sony to store music. Later it was modified, so it can also store data. The music it stores is compressed in some way, like an MP3. Recent Hi-MD models have the option to not compress audio, and offer audio identical to CD-quality.

paragraphs: MiniDisc recorders allow the user to modify the contents of (recordable) disks. That way, tracks can be split, combined or rearranged. Audio tracks can be input while a live recording is in progress, too, for example, while recording a live concert or interview via the microphone input on a MiniDisc recorder.


title: Lolita

paragraphs: Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The book was written in English. It was published in Paris in 1955. It was translated into Russian by Nabokov. The story is about the sexual relationship that develops in the United States between a middle-aged British professor and a 12-year-old girl after he becomes her stepfather. It was a very controversial book. The novel was made into a movie by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and remade in 1997.


title: Angela Haynes

paragraphs: Angela Haynes (born September 27, 1984 in Bellflower, California ) is a professional tennis player from the United States. Haynes's top WTA singles ranking is World No. 95 which she got in August, 2005. Angela was ranked World No. 157, race-singles World No. 120 and World No. 171 in doubles as of November 7, 2009.

paragraphs: Haynes' brother, Dontia Haynes, who used to be a San Diego State University tennis player ranked among the top 100 ranked collegiate tennis players in the United States, died on 23 September 2005.

paragraphs: Angela's clothes are made by Adidas. Her racquets are made by Babolat. Angela's current racquet is believed to be the Babolat Pure Storm. Angela likes to wear bandanas while playing.

paragraphs: Angela appears in "Top Spin 2" which is for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Game Boy, and Nintendo DS.


title: Vania King

paragraphs: Vania King (born February 3 1989) is an American tennis player. She was born in Monterrey Park, California. King was ranked the 50th best player in the world in 2006.

paragraphs: She won her first singles title against Tamarine Tanasugarn at Bangkok, Thailand. Vania won 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. King also won the doubles title at Bangkok with partner Jelena Kostanic. King got second place with her partner Alexa Glatch at the 2005 US Open Juniors.


title: Bottle cap

paragraphs: Bottle caps are used to seal the opening of bottles. For glass bottles, these are usually small, specially adapted pieces of metal. With plastic bottles, plastic caps are used instead.

paragraphs: The original bottle cap was called Crown cork. It is pressed onto the bottle, and can be removed, using a bottle opener.

paragraphs: In recent years bottle caps with screw on mounts are used that way, a bottle opener is no longer required.


title: Quality

paragraphs: Quality is how good something is. If the quality of a product is high then that means that it is fit for its purpose. If the quality of an item is low that means that the product may break easily or not work properly. When people say something is a quality product that means that the product is of good quality. Usually higher-quality products cost more money, because the materials used to make them are better, or the way they were made was more effective. In other words, things that are low quality are cheap.

paragraphs: Quality is understood differently by different people, depending on what they consider quality to be. Generally, though, it is how well a product is suited to the purpose it was made for.


title: Gargoyle

paragraphs: A Gargoyle is a grotesque statue that is attached to a building. It is carved out of stone, usually granite. It is used to get water away from the building when it rains. Gargoyles are often made to look like animals or people. The collected water comes out of their mouths. Most gargoyles were made a long time ago. People used to believe that they scared away evil spirits. Many cathedrals have gargoyles.

paragraphs: New buildings use rain gutters instead of gargoyles to move water. There are not many gargoyles in America.

paragraphs: Gargoyles are often confused with grotesques. They are similar, but only gargoyles get rid of rainwater through their mouths what's in the mouths I don't know .


title: Oostende

paragraphs: Oostende (German / French: Ostende, English Ostend) is a city in the Belgian province of West Flanders.


title: Abuja

paragraphs: Abuja () is a city in Nigeria. It is the national capital of Nigeria. Around 2.5 million people live there. Abuja is in the middle of the country, in the center of the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria.

paragraphs: The capital of Nigeria used to be Lagos, but it was moved to Abuja in 1976.

paragraphs: Abuja is a planned city, which means that architects designed it specifically to be Nigeria's capital city. Construction of the first parts of the city was finished in the late 1980s.


title: Irony

paragraphs: Irony is a term for a figure of speech. Irony is when something happens that is opposite from what is expected. It can often be funny, but it is also used in tragedies. There are many types of irony, including those listed below:


title: Assault rifle

paragraphs: An assault rifle is a rifle that has a removable magazine, automatic-fire and semi-automatic modes, and uses intermediate cartridges. These cartridges do not have as much power as other rifles’, like hunting rifles or battle rifles, but have more power and penetration than pistol cartridges fired by sub-machine guns.

paragraphs: Two rifles made in Italy and Russia before World War I are sometimes called assault rifles. The Germans were the first to use assault rifles in large numbers.

paragraphs: Examples of an 'assault rifle' are the English L85, Russian AK-47, the American M16.

paragraphs: The term “assault rifle” comes from the firearm Sturmgewehr 44 (StG 44), translated to “Assault Rifle 1944”. The armed forces of other sovereign states adopted assault rifles later.


title: Salvador Dalí

paragraphs: Salvador Dalí (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989) was a Spanish painter who became famous for the unusual images he used in his paintings. He was born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. He was a key figure in surrealist art.

paragraphs: His most famous work was "The Persistence of Memory" (1931), which is now in MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is a dream-like landscape with a soft, melted pocket-watch.

paragraphs: Dalí died of heart failure in Figueras. Salvador Dalí had a wife called Gala Dalí.


title: Anne Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk

paragraphs: Anne de Mowbray, "Baroness Mowbray" (10 December 1472 - 19 November 1481) was the daughter of John Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk and Elizabeth Talbot. She was born in 1472 in Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, England. She also became Baroness Segrave.

paragraphs: When Anne's father died in 1476 Anne became very rich. She also became Countess of Norfolk. Anne was married to Richard of York on 15 January, 1478 in Westminster Abbey. Richard was the son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. Richard's father had married him to Anne so that he could have control of her fortune. When he married Anne became known as the Duchess of York

paragraphs: Anne died when she was 8 years old at Greenwich, London, England in 1481. Her body was placed in a lead coffin in the Chapel of St Erasmus of Formiae in Westminster Abbey. However, when this chapel was knocked down around 1502 to make room for the Henry VII Lady Chapel, Anne's coffin became lost.

paragraphs: In December 1964, construction workers in Stepney, London, accidentally found Anne's coffin. It was opened and Anne's remains were looked at by scientists. Anne's body still had a shroud wrapped around her and there was still red hair on her skull. Her body was later reburied in Westminster Abbey.


title: Framlingham Castle

paragraphs: Framlingham Castle is a castle in Framlingham, Suffolk, England. It was once the home of the Dukes of Norfolk, and was where Anne Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk was born in 1472.


title: Warwick Castle

paragraphs: Warwick Castle (pron. 'Worrick') is a large castle in Warwickshire, England. It is near the town of Warwick. The castle was once the family home of the Earls of Warwick.

paragraphs: There are many rooms in the castle. Some of the rooms have mannequins in them that look like real people. These are dressed in . They are used to show how people might have lived in the castle hundreds of years ago. Warwick Castle has a dungeon. One part of the castle is said to be haunted. Actors play the part of the ghost and the servant who killed him in a dramatic "Spook Experience". Lights and sounds are used to add to the effect.

paragraphs: The castle has a very high wall walk. It can be explored, so that visitors can see from where the guards looked for enemies. A long, steep flight of steps leads up to the highest part of the castle where the flagpole is.

paragraphs: There are many paintings in the castle. There are portraits of English Kings and Queens as well as of members of the family who owned the castle. It is possible to see the private chambers, or bedrooms, where the family and their most important guests slept.


title: Edinburgh Castle

paragraphs: Edinburgh Castle is a castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is built on the volcanic Castle Rock in the centre of Edinburgh, and is easy to see from the main shopping streets. The castle has a military display every year, called a "tattoo", where soldiers show their skills at marching and competitions, and there are brass bands and bands of bagpipes.


title: Alfred Kinsey

paragraphs: Alfred Charles Kinsey (June 23, 1894 August 25, 1956) was an American biologist. He was born in Hoboken, New Jersey.

paragraphs: In the first part of his career he was an entomologist specializing in gall wasps of the family Cynipidae. Later, he became famous for the research he did on human sexuality. His research had a great influence on social and cultural values in many parts of the world. It also had an influence on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s.

paragraphs: Kinsey and his co-workers wrote two books which became known as the Kinsey Reports. They were based on thousands of interviews with men (first report), and then women. The aim was to find out how widespread or differentiated human sexual practices were. He developed the Kinsey Scale to measure sexual orientation. On one end of the scale, at the value 0, the individual is entirely heterosexual. On the other end, at value 6, he or she has a purely homosexual orientation. Kinsey was bisexual.

paragraphs: Kinsey died of heart disease and pneumonia in Bloomington, Indiana.

paragraphs: A biopic of him, "Kinsey", was released in 2004.


title: Kinsey Reports

paragraphs: The Kinsey Reports are two books, published in 1948 and 1953 by Alfred Kinsey and his co-workers. The books "Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male" and "Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female", were based on thousands of interviews by Kinsey and his team.

paragraphs: The books were shocking when they came out, as they talked about subjects that were taboo. It also questioned widely-held beliefs about sexuality. They were controversial.

paragraphs: Kinsey found the following, amongst other things:

paragraphs: People said that the selection of the sample (those asked) was not well done. One in four were prisoners, and 5% were male prostitutes. The institute, or location Kinsey did these tests, then did another such tests, without asking prisoners or prostitutes, and the findings were more or less the same. People also say that child abuse may have been involved when collecting the data.

paragraphs: The Kinsey scale attempts to describe a person's sexual history or episodes of their sexual activity at a given time. It uses a scale from 0 to 6. "0" means the person tested is exclusively heterosexual. A person scoring "6" is exclusively homosexual. In the "Kinsey Reports", an extra grade was used for asexuality. The scale was first published in "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" (1948). It was also important in the complementary work "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" (1953).


title: Ruthenium

paragraphs: Ruthenium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Ru. It has the atomic number 44. It is a rare metal. It is silver white. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the transition metals. It is also part of the platinum group. Ruthenium is found in platinum ores.

paragraphs: Ruthenium is used as a catalyst in some platinum alloys.


title: Niobium

paragraphs: Niobium is a chemical element. It is sometimes named columbium. It has the chemical symbol Nb. It has the atomic number 41. It is a rare metal. Niobium is soft and grey. It is ductile. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the transition metals. Niobium was discovered in a variety of a mineral called columbite (now called niobite). Niobite is an ore of niobium.

paragraphs: Niobium is considered a "technology-critical element". It is used in alloys, such as to make special steels and strong welded joints. Less than 0.1% of Niobium significantly improves the strength of steel. It is in the superconducting alloys used in MRI scanners, which are one of the most important medical inventions of the modern age.


title: Explosion

paragraphs: An explosion is a fast increase in volume and increase in energy made available. It normally makes high temperatures and makes gases. Many natural events can make explosions, such as lightning, volcanic eruptions, meteors, and supernovae. People make explosions mostly by using chemical explosive materials.

paragraphs: A chemical explosion starts pressure waves in the medium where it happens. Explosions are categorized as deflagrations if the pressure waves are subsonic and detonations if they are supersonic. When a detonation happens, the resulting pressure waves are named shock waves.

paragraphs: Unintentional explosions can be caused when chemicals are mixed together, or when pressurized containers or flammable materials are heated or exposed to flames. To cause an explosion, pressure does not have to be present but is always a result of an explosion.

paragraphs: Several safety measures are used to prevent unintentional explosions. Many countries require that chemicals, fuels, and pressurized containers that may explode be labelled with warning labels. As well, many countries have regulations restricting the possession and use of potentially explosive materials so they will only go to appropriate industrial and research uses. Transportation regulations require potentially explosive chemicals, fuels, and pressurized containers to be transported safely.

paragraphs: Intentional explosions are caused when armies fire artillery or when air forces drop bombs on enemies. Military engineers handle explosives and arrange intentional explosions during wartime. Intentional explosions are also used by civilians in "demolition". They break up old and obsolete buildings and bridges, and break rock and stone for construction. Explosions are made for activities such as mining, construction, and large-scale civil engineering projects such as building tunnels, roads, railways, and dams.


title: Rhodium

paragraphs: Rhodium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Rh. It has the atomic number 45. It is a rare metal. It is silver white and hard. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the transition metals. It is also part of the platinum group. Rhodium is found in platinum ores.

paragraphs: Rhodium is used as a catalyst in some platinum alloys. It is the most expensive precious metal.


title: Tellurium

paragraphs: Tellurium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Te and the atomic number 52. It has 52 protons and 52 electrons. Its mass number is 127.6. It has 8 natural isotopes. 4 are stable and 4 are radioactive. One of the radioactive ones lasts longer than any other isotope. It has a half life of 2.2 x 10 years (2.2 septillion years).

paragraphs: It is a brittle silver-white semimetal. When it is pure it has a metallic shine. It is ground easily. It can be made in an amorphous form. It is a semiconductor. It changes conductivity a little when light shines on it, similar to selenium. It is corrosive to many metals when molten.

paragraphs: Tellurium is an unreactive element. It can react with reactive metals to make tellurides. It can burn in air to make tellurium dioxide. It can be oxidized even more to tellurium trioxide. It does not corrode. The chemistry of tellurium is similar to some chemistry of selenium and sulfur, although its compounds are more reactive and the element is less reactive. It does not dissolve in most acids, although it dissolves in concentrated sulfuric acid to make a special red tellurium cation.

paragraphs: Tellurium makes chemical compounds in several oxidation states: -2, +2, +4, and +6. -2 compounds are normally found in tellurides. They are strong reducing agents. Tellurides are normally the main ore of tellurium. Most natural tellurides are not pure, so they are much less reactive. +2 compounds are found in some tellurium halides, like tellurium(II) chloride and tellurium(II) bromide. They are the rarest oxidation state. +4 compounds are found in tellurites and tellurous acid. They are weak oxidizing agents, that can be reduced to tellurium. Tellurites are made by reacting tellurium dioxide with a metal oxide. +6 compounds are found in tellurates and telluric acid. They are powerful oxidizing agents. Tellurates are made by reacting telluric acid with metal oxides.

paragraphs: Tellurium is a very rare mineral. There is 14 times more silver in the earth than there is tellurium. Tellurium is sometimes found as an element, but most of the times is found as tellurides. Gold tellurides (Calaverite) are found in the earth. They are valuable ores of both tellurium and gold. This gold ore was not recognized as gold during one gold rush and was used as a filler. It was then discovered that it was gold telluride, making another gold rush. Telluride cannot replace sulfide in elements like selenide does.

paragraphs: Tellurium can be taken from gold telluride by dissolving the gold telluride in concentrated sulfuric acid. The tellurium dissolves to make a red solution, while the gold sinks to the bottom.

paragraphs: A more common way of extracting tellurium from tellurides is to heat the tellurides. The tellurides are heated with sodium carbonate and air. This makes sodium tellurite. Selenites are normally found as an impurity. They are separated by reacting them with sulfuric acid. The selenites stay in solution. The tellurites turn into tellurium dioxide. Then the tellurium dioxide is reacted with sulfur dioxide dissolved in sulfuric acid to make tellurium metal. The tellurium can be melted and reformed to make bars of tellurium metal.

paragraphs: The main use of tellurium is in alloys. It is used in iron, copper, and lead alloys. It makes the metals more easily machinable (able to be shaped by a machine). It improves strength and durability of lead and makes it more resistant to corrosion by sulfuric acid.

paragraphs: Tellurium is also used in cadmium telluride solar cells. These are very efficient. It can be alloyed with both cadmium and mercury to make mercury cadmium telluride, an infrared sensitive semiconductor. It is used in some rewritable (able to be erased and written again) optical discs. Lead telluride is used in another type of infrared sensor.

paragraphs: It is also used to color ceramics. It is used to make fiberglass that is used in telecommunications (telephones, internet, etc.). It helps increase the refraction. It is also used in delay blasting caps. Rubber can be ha.

paragraphs: Tellurium is not really used in any living things. Some fungi, though, can use tellurium instead of selenium or sulfur. Most organisms can metabolize tellurium to make dimethyl telluride, which is a garlic-smelling chemical. If someone eats a tellurium compound, it gives them garlic breath.


title: Indium

paragraphs: Indium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol In. It has the atomic number 49. It is a rare metal. It is a soft, malleable and poor metal. Indium looks like zinc. Pieces of indium can easily be joined together by pushing one piece into another. The chemistry of indium is quite like aluminium or gallium. Zinc ores are the main source of indium.

paragraphs: The main use of indium is in the chemical compound Indium tin oxide in liquid crystal displays. It is also used in very thin layers as a lubricant. In World War II it was used a lot to coat bearings in aircraft.


title: Francium

paragraphs: Francium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Fr and an atomic number of 87. It is a metal. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements named the alkali metals. Francium is very radioactive. It is in very small amounts in uranium and thorium ores. It has the lowest electronegativity and electron affinity of all the chemical elements.

paragraphs: Francium reacts violently with water, as do all of the elements in group 1 on the periodic table.

paragraphs: Francium is one of the hardest to find elements on the planet Earth. It is estimated that there are only about 15 grams or half an ounce in the Earth's crust at a single time.

paragraphs: Although chemists knew the element number 87 in the periodic table should exist, it was a long time before it was discovered. In the early 1900s, nearly all boxes on the periodic table had been filled. Chemists knew that one element had been found to fit into each box. Francium was discovered in 1939 by a French chemist called Marguerite Perey. She named it after her home country, France.

paragraphs: There are 34 known isotopes of francium ranging in atomic mass from 199 to 232. Francium-223 and francium-221 are the only isotopes that occur in nature.

paragraphs: Francium-223 is the most stable isotope, with a half-life of 21.8 minutes. Francium-223 is the fifth product of the actinium decay series as the daughter isotope of actinium-227. Francium-223 then decays into radium-223 by beta decay (1.149 MeV decay energy), with a minor (0.006%) alpha decay path to astatine-219 (5.4 MeV decay energy).

paragraphs: Francium-221 has a half-life of 4.8 minutes. It is the ninth product of the neptunium decay series as a daughter isotope of actinium-225. Francium-221 then decays into astatine-217 by alpha decay (6.457 MeV decay energy).


title: Rhenium

paragraphs: Rhenium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Re. It has the atomic number 75. It is a rare metal. It is silver white. In chemistry it is placed in a group of metal elements called the transition metals. The chemistry of rhenium is similar to manganese. Discovered in 1908, rhenium was the second-last stable element to be discovered ('stable' meaning not radioactive). It was named after the river Rhine in Europe.

paragraphs: Nickel-based superalloys of rhenium are used in the combustion chambers, turbine blades, and exhaust nozzles of jet engines. These alloys contain up to 6% rhenium, making jet engine construction the largest single use for the element. The second-most important use is as a catalyst: rhenium is an excellent catalyst for hydrogenation and isomerization.

paragraphs: Rhenium found as a by-product of molybdenum refinement.

paragraphs: Rhenium is used in some manganese alloys. Rhenium-molybdenum alloys are superconductors.

paragraphs: Rhenium was discovered by Walter Noddack, Ida Noddack, and Otto Berg in Germany. In 1925, they reported that they detected the element in a platinum ore and in the mineral columbite. They also found rhenium in gadolinite and molybdenite. In 1928, they were able to remove 1 g of the element from 660 kg of molybdenite.

paragraphs: Rhenium is a silvery-white metal. It has the third highest melting points of all elements. It is also the third densest element.

paragraphs: Rhenium has one stable isotope which is rhenium-185. Rhenium that is found in nature is made up of of 37.4% rhenium-185 and 62.6% rhenium-187. Rhenium has 33 known radioisotopes. They range from rhenium-160 to rhenium-194. The longest-lived radioisotope of rhenium is rhenium-183 which have a half-life of 70 days.

paragraphs: Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in Earth's crust. It the 77th most abundant element in the Earth's crust. Rhenium may not be found free in nature. It is found in small amounts in the mineral molybdenite.

paragraphs: Commercial rhenium is gotten from molybdenum roaster-flue gas. Some molybdenum ores contain 0.001% to 0.2% rhenium. Rhenium metal is made by reducing ammonium perrhenate with hydrogen at high temperatures.

paragraphs: Nickel-based superalloys of rhenium are used in the combustion chambers, turbine blades, and exhaust nozzles of jet engines. Rhenium is used in superalloys, such as CMSX-4 (2nd generation) and CMSX-10 (3rd generation). These superalloys are used in industrial gas turbine engines like the GE 7FA. Rhenium filaments are used in mass spectrometers, ion gauges and photoflash lamps in photography. Rhenium-platinum alloys are used as a catalyst for catalytic reforming. Rhenium-188 and Rhenium-186 are used to treat of liver cancer.


title: Thallium

paragraphs: Thallium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Tl. It has the atomic number 81. Its standard atomic weight is 204.4. It is found in Group 15 of the periodic table. Thallium is a gray metal that is very toxic.

paragraphs: Thallium is a soft, malleable, grayish post-transition metal. It can be cut with a knife at room temperature. It melts at a low temperature, 304 °C. This is typical of a post-transition metal. Thallium has 25 isotopes and two stable (nonradioactive) ones. It is extremely toxic.

paragraphs: Thallium is a moderately reactive metal. It corrodes easily in air with a blue-gray color that is similar to lead. If it is kept in air for a long time, a large amount of thallium(I) oxide will build up. It corrodes in the presence of water to make the hydroxide. It burns with a greenish flame. It reacts with most acids.

paragraphs: Thallium makes chemical compounds in two oxidation states: +1 and +3. The +1 state is more common and less reactive. Its chemical compounds are very similar to potassium or silver compounds. It makes a hydroxide that in a strong base when dissolved in water. Most other transition metal and post-tranansition metal hydroxides do not dissolve in water. This reacts with carbon dioxide to make thallium(I) carbonate, which is also water-soluble and very heavy. It is the only heavy metal carbonate that can dissolve in water. Other compounds are similar to silver compounds. Thallium(I) bromide turns yellow when exposed to light, similar to silver(I) bromide. Thallium(I) sulfide is black, similar to silver(I) sulfide. The +3 state compounds are oxidizing agents. The black oxide, thallium(III) oxide and the hydroxide, thallium(III) hydroxide, are the only stable +3 compounds. They break down to oxygen and thallium(I) oxide when heated. Thallium and its compounds are rare because they are toxic and polluting.

paragraphs: +1 compounds are quite unreactive. It is the more common oxidation state. They are made when thallium dissolves in acids or corrodes in air.

paragraphs: +3 compounds are oxidizing agents. They are quite rare.

paragraphs: Thallium was found by spectroscopy in 1861 by a bright green line in its spectrum. The main use for thallium, rat poison, was banned in many countries in the 1970s. Thallium was used to poison people, similar to the more popular arsenic.

paragraphs: Thallium is found most in certain clays and granites. It cannot be gotten easily from these, though. Thallium is normally gotten from the waste after other ores like galena are processed. Hutchinsonite is another mineral that has thallium in it.

paragraphs: When lead and zinc are taken from their ores, many impurities are left behind. Sulfuric acid is used to dissolve the thallium from it as thallium(I) sulfate. Then the thallium(I) sulfate is electrolyzed to make thallium metal.

paragraphs: It is used in rat poisons and insecticides. The use of thallium as a poison has been reduced or banned in many countries because these countries think that thallium might cause cancers. It is also used in infrared detectors. It has been used in some murders. Like arsenic, the use of thallium in murders has given it the name "inheritance powder". Thallium compounds are used in glass for infrared light. Thallium was also used to kill skin infections, but it is too toxic to be used for that now. A superconductor that can work at higher temperatures than normal ones do uses thallium. A radioactive thallium isotope was used for nuclear scans. An alloy of thallium and mercury has a low freezing temperature and is a liquid. A very dense solution of a thallium compound was used to test minerals for specific gravity, but it is too toxic for use.

paragraphs: Thallium is very toxic. It can be absorbed through skin. Many of its salts easily dissolve. Some are colorless, tasteless, and odorless, but are very toxic. Some think that it is a carcinogen. Thallium can be a pollutant if the thallium waste from metal processing is washed away.


title: Néstor Kirchner

paragraphs: Néstor Kirchner (February 25, 1950 - October 27, 2010) was President of Argentina between 2003 and 2007. He was born in Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, where he was governor. On May 4, 2010 he became the first Secretary General of UNASUR. He died in Calafate on October 27, 2010 from heart failure which was caused by an earlier case of a heart attack. He was elected President in 2003, preceded by Eduardo Duhalde. Kirchner's widow, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is the current president of Argentina.