title: Lesbian

paragraphs: A lesbian is a homosexual woman. This means a woman who is sexually attracted to other women, and not to men.

paragraphs: The word lesbian comes from Lesbos (), an island in Greece. An ancient poet, Sappho, lived on Lesbos. Sappho wrote mostly poems about love. Many of her love poems are written to women. So her name and the island where she lived make people think about women who love women. Sometimes lesbians are also called "Sapphists" from the name Sappho.

paragraphs: Lesbians were involved in the early feminist (a movement of women who want to be treated equally to men) movement. Feminism is the political and social movements that promote women's equality and rights. However, there was conflict between lesbians and straight (heterosexual) women in the feminist movement. In the 1960s and 1970s some straight (women who like men) feminists wanted the lesbians out of the women's rights movement. They wanted feminism to be accepted by society. They believed lesbians were less accepted by society and might hurt the feminist movement.

paragraphs: Eventually, the women's rights movement accepted its lesbian members. Now many important feminist leaders are out (out means that they make it known that they are lesbians) lesbians.

paragraphs: Many lesbian couples want to have children of their own. In order to raise children, they sometimes adopt. However some places do not allow homosexual couples to adopt children, so many of them want to be able to adopt children.

paragraphs: Some lesbian couples also have their own biological children. To do this they may have artificial insemination. This is when sperm from a donor male is placed in a woman to make a pregnancy. Some lesbian women do this at home with a friend they choose to be the donor. However many may use "sperm banks". These are medical businesses that match couples who need donor sperm with men who will donate. Sometimes this is done "anonymously" which means the couple does not know the donor. Sometimes this is done with the donor known and even chosen by the couple.

paragraphs: Unlike gay sex between males, lesbian sex is not against the law in as many places. Some religions that condemn gay male sex say nothing about lesbian sex. Abrahamic religions usually see gay as well as lesbian relations as immoral. Saint Paul in Epistle to the Romans 1:26 describes lesbianism as 'unnatural' and 'shameful'. There are some religions, however, mostly new religious movements that accept lesbian relations.

paragraphs: In most parts of the world lesbian couples cannot marry. This means they do not have the legal benefits and protection of marriage. This can cause lesbians, and gay men, many problems. A lesbian relationship wherein one of the partners is underage is called "korephilia".


title: Maine

paragraphs: Maine is the northeast-most state in the United States. The capital is Augusta, although the city of Portland, farther south, is the largest in the state. Maine became the 23rd state, on March 15, 1820. It was previously a part of Massachusetts. Commercial Fishing, including lobster trapping, is a traditional and still vital part of the coastal economy. Tourism is a large industry in southern Maine because of its many beaches and picturesque coastal villages. Southern Maine is the part of the state that has the most people. Many other areas, to the North, are far more rural.

paragraphs: To the south and east is the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and northeast is New Brunswick, and the country of Canada. The Canadian province of Quebec is to the northwest. Maine is both the northernmost state in New England and the largest, accounting for nearly half the region's whole land area. Maine also has the distinction of being the only state to border just one other state (New Hampshire to the west). The municipalities of Eastport and Lubec are the easternmost city and town in the United States. Estcourt Station is Maine's northernmost point and also the northernmost point in the New England region of the United States.

paragraphs: Maine's "Moosehead Lake" is the biggest lake that is completely in New England (Lake Champlain is located between Vermont and New York, which is not considered part of New England). A number of other Maine lakes, like as South Twin Lake, are said by Thoreau. Mount Katahdin is both the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, which to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and the southern of the new "International Appalachian Trail" which, when finished, will run to "Belle Isle", Newfoundland and Labrador.

paragraphs: Maine is the only state that shares its borders with only one other American state since it only borders New Hampshire and Canada.

paragraphs: Maine has a humid climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb), with warm (although mostly not hot), humid summers. Winters are cold and snowy all over the state, and are mostly more severe in the northern parts of Maine. Coastal areas are moderated somewhat by the Atlantic Ocean. Daytime highs are mostly in the 75–80 °F (24–27 °C) range all over the state in July, with overnight lows in the high 50s°F (around 15 °C). January temperatures range from highs near 32 °F (0 °C) on the southern coast to overnight lows below 0 °F (−18 °C) in the far north.

paragraphs: Maine is mostly safe from hurricanes and tropical storms. By the time they reach the state, many have become and few hurricanes have made landfall in Maine. Maine has fewer days of thunderstorms than any other state east of the Rockies, with most of the state with less than 20 days of thunderstorms a year. Tornadoes are rare in Maine, about two per year, mostly happening in the southern part of the state.

paragraphs: In January 2009, a new record low temperature for the state was set at −50 °F, tying the New England record. The state's record high temperature is 105 °F, set in July 1911.

paragraphs: As of 2008, Maine has an estimated population of 1,321,504, which is an increase of 6,520, or 0.5%, from the past year and an increase of 46,582, or 3.7%, since the year of 2000. This has a natural increase since the last census of 6,413 people (that is 71,276 births minus 64,863 deaths) and an increase because of "net migration" of 41,808 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States made a net increase of 5,004 people, and migration within the country made a net increase of 36,804 people. The population density of the state is 41.3 people per square mile.

paragraphs: The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Maine's total gross state product for 2007 was $48 billion. Its per capita personal income for 2007 was $33,991, 34th in the country.

paragraphs: People in Maine produce agricultural goods like poultry, eggs, dairy products, cattle, wild blueberries (the state makes 25% of all blueberries in North America, making it the largest blueberry maker in the world), apples, maple syrup and maple sugar. Aroostook County is known for its potato crops. Commercial fishing, once a mainstay of the state's economy, maintains a presence, mostly lobstering and groundfishing. Western Maine and springs are a big source of bottled water. Maine's company outputs make paper, lumber and wood products, electronic stuff, leather things, food products, textiles, and bio-technology. Naval shipbuilding and building remain key as well, with Bath Iron Works in Bath and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. Naval Air Station Brunswick is also in Maine, and serves as a large support base for the U.S. Navy. However, the BRAC campaign recommended Brunswick's closing, despite a new government-funded effort to upgrade its facilities.


title: Niuatoputapu

paragraphs: Niuatoputapu is an island in Tonga. It has a population of about 1200 people. Niuatoputapu is located in the north of the country, near to Samoa.


title: Samoa

paragraphs: The Independent State of Samoa is a country in Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. It has two islands, including Upolu and Savai'i. The capital of Samoa is Apia. It is on the island of Upolu. The head of the country is Va'aletoa Sualauvi II.

paragraphs: The languages spoken in Samoa include Samoan and English.

paragraphs: The sport that is most popular in Samoa is Rugby, and many Samoan people play Rugby.

paragraphs: Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 18 September 1962.

paragraphs: A measles outbreak began in October 2019 and continued through December. As of December 28, there were 81 deaths out of 5667 cases.

paragraphs: Samoa has eleven political districts. These are called "itūmālō". These are the traditional eleven districts that were made well before European arrival.

paragraphs: Samoa is south of the equator. It is about halfway between Hawai‘i and New Zealand in the Polynesian part of the Pacific Ocean. The main island of Upolu is home to nearly three-quarters of Samoa's people

paragraphs: The two large islands of Upolu and Savai'i are 99% of the total land area. There are eight small islets. These are the three islets in the Apolima Strait: Manono Island, Apolima and Nu'ulopa. There are four Aleipata Islands off the eastern end of Upolu. They are: Nu'utele, Nu'ulua, Namua, and Fanuatapu. And there is Nu'usafe'e.

paragraphs: East of Samoa is a group of islands called American Samoa. They are part of the United States, but they are similar to the country Samoa, because they also speak Samoan.

paragraphs: Samoa used to be east of the international date line. In 2011, the line changed, so that Samoa would be to the west of the date line. This change took effect on the night of 29 December. Friday was skipped altogether and the following day was Saturday 31 December.

paragraphs: Samoa has 194,320 people. 92.6% are Samoans, 7% Euronesians (people of mixed, European and Polynesian ancestors) and 0.4% are Europeans.

paragraphs: Religion in Samoa includes the following: Christian Congregational Church of Samoa 35.5%, Roman Catholic 19.6%, Methodist 15%, Latter-day Saints 12.7%, Samoan Assemblies of God 10.6%, Seventh-day Adventist 3.5%, Worship Centre 1.3%, unspecified 0.8%.There is also about 522 Jehovah's Witnessses in Samoa since 1931. Samoa has one of seven Bahá'í Houses of Worship in the world. It is in Tiapapata.

paragraphs: Many people say that Samoan people are related to Māori people because lots of the language words are very similar to Maori language.

paragraphs: As with other Polynesian cultures (Hawai'ian, Tahitian and Māori), Samoans have two gender specific and culturally important tattoos. For males, it is called the Pe'a, It is intricate and geometrical patterns tattooed on areas from the knees up towards the ribs. A male who has such a tatau is called a soga'imiti. A Samoan girl or "teine" is given a malu. It covers the area from just below her knees to her upper thighs.


title: Davy Jones (musician)

paragraphs: David Thomas "Davy" Jones (December 30, 1945– February 29, 2012) was an English singer and actor. He was born in Manchester, England.

paragraphs: His father wanted him to be a jockey, but he wanted to be a performer. He appeared in the television programme, "Coronation Street" and in the London and Broadway versions of "Oliver!". In 1966, he joined The Monkees, a musical group created for a television series of the same name. The series was cancelled in 1968 and the group disbanded in 1970.

paragraphs: Jones continued to perform until his death from a heart attack caused by atherosclerosis in 2012 in Stuart, Florida.


title: Michael Nesmith

paragraphs: Michael Nesmith (born December 30, 1942) is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman and philanthropist.

paragraphs: He was born in Dallas, Texas on December 30, 1942. His mother, Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid Paper in 1951 and made the family very rich. In the 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles to start a recording career, he wrote the song "Different Drum" which was a hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys. In 1966, he became a member of the Monkees, a made-for-TV rock band, he left the group in 1969 and started a solo career. He is considered one of the forefathers of the country-rock movement of the 1970s with his song "Joanne", he also worked as a producer and is considered one of the pioneers of the music video industry. Nesmith's 1981 video-movie "Elephant Parts" won the first Grammy award for a music video


title: Peter Tork

paragraphs: Peter Tork (February 13, 1942 – February 21, 2019) was an American actor and musician. His real name was Peter Halsten Thorkelson. He was born in Washington, D.C. He started as a folk musician in Greenwich Village. In 1966, he became famous as a member of The Monkees. He was recommended for the group by his friend Stephen Stills. Shortly after The Monkees television series ended 1968, he left the band. He played with the other members of the group at times, but often played with his own bands and tours.I

paragraphs: Tork died on February 21, 2019 in Mansfield, Connecticut, aged 77. He suffered from a rare form of throat cancer in the years before his death.


title: Micky Dolenz

paragraphs: George Michael Dolenz, Jr. (born March 8, 1945), better known as Micky Dolenz is an American actor, singer, director, and voice artist. He is most famous as a member of The Monkees.


title: Goldstar beer

paragraphs: Goldstar is an Israeli beer that has been brewed in Israel since the 1950s.

paragraphs: It is defined as a Munich-style beer. Goldstar contains 4.9% alcohol.


title: Dominique de Villepin

paragraphs: Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (born November 14, 1953), simply known as Dominique de Villepin, was Premier (or Prime Minister) of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007. He was made Premier by Jacques Chirac after the French President removed Jean-Pierre Raffarin from the premiership. Raffarin failed to gain the support of the French people for the European Constitution.

paragraphs: Dominique de Villepin said that his government's most important task would be job creation. He knew that the French people were concerned about the condition of the French economy. This was one of the reasons they had voted against the European Constitution in the referendum on 29 May 2005.

paragraphs: On 15 May 2007, the last full day of President Jacques Chirac's term, Villepin gave his resignation from the office of Prime Minister and it was accepted by the President. He was replaced two days later by François Fillon.


title: Francis Drake

paragraphs: Vice Admiral Sir Francis Drake (1540 – 27 January 1596) was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. He was born in Tavistock and grew up in Kent where he learned to be a sailor. Soon he was a shipmaster (captain).Elizabeth I awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581 which he received on the Golden Hind in Deptford. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the second circumnavigation of the world, from 1577 to 1580, during which he attacked towns of the Spanish Empire. He had always been a powerful enemy to the Spanish.

paragraphs: He died of dysentery in January 1596 after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico. His exploits were legendary. He was a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards. King Philip II was reported to have offered a reward of 20,000 ducats, about £4,000,000 English Pounds (About $6.5 Million US Dollars) by modern standards for him to be assassinated.


title: House of Commons of the United Kingdom

paragraphs: The term House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is made up of Members of Parliament elected by the people. Sometimes it is called the 'lower house'. (The 'upper house' is called the House of Lords.) Other countries also have a bicameral parliament with a House of Commons working in the same way.

paragraphs: In the British parliament, there are 650 Members of Parliament or MPs. Each MP represents a constituency, which covers an area of the country. The people of each constituency vote at a general election or a by-election to choose one person to represent them in the House of Commons. Usually, the people choose someone who belongs to a political party. When all the parties get together, the party or coalition with the most members is the government and runs the country. The leader of that party is called the Prime Minister.

paragraphs: The House of Commons hold their meetings in the Palace of Westminster. Their chief officer is the Speaker of the House who elected by MPs. The current Speaker is Lindsay Hoyle, who was elected in 2019. The Clerk of the House of Commons is the Principal Adviser to the Speaker. The Serjeant-at-Arms is in charge of the security.


title: Wank

paragraphs: Wank is a mountain in the Bavarian Alps, by Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, close to the Austrian border.

paragraphs: Wank is 1780m tall, and has a cable car, the "Wankbahn", which takes people almost all the way to the top. Near the peak, there is an inn called the "Wankhaus" which was built in 1911 that allows people to spend the night.


title: Hank Aaron

paragraphs: Henry Louis Aaron (born February 5, 1934) is a retired baseball player. He played baseball professionally for 22 years. He hit 755 home runs. Even though he has 755 home runs in his career, he never hit 50 or more in a season. He was selected for 25 All-Star games. He was put into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. Hank Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama.


title: Vishnu

paragraphs: Lord Maha Vishnu is Supreme Godhead (Para Brahman or Nirguna Brahman).Vishnu is one of the three main gods in Hinduism and the Absolute Supreme being in Vaishnava tradition. Vishnu is one of the Trimurtis in Hinduism. Vishnu is the preserver god, which means he protects the universe from being destroyed and keeps it going, according to this religion, and he has come to earth in nine forms (called avatars) so far, with one yet to come Kalki Avatar at the end of Kali yuga to Destroy the evil. His most famous incrinations are Rama,Krishna,Narasimha. Vishnu's wife is Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of fortune.

paragraphs: Vishnu is usually shown with light blue skin and four arms. He holds a lotus, mace (gada), conch (shankha) and disc (chakra) in each of his four hands. He is famously taken many guises. But three main forms of Vishnu are Mahavishnu Karanodakshayi Vishnu (Mahavishnu), Garbhodaksayi Vishnu and Kshirodakashayi Vishnu. The latter two being the expansion of Karanodakshayi Vishnu.

paragraphs: There are 10 Avatars of Vishnu (in the order they appeared):

paragraphs: Vishnu holds items in his four hands. He holds a conch in the lower right hand, a discus in the upper right hand, a lotus (flower) in the upper left hand and a mace in the lower left hand.

paragraphs: Kodlamane Shree Vishnumurthy Temple : of Serenity and Mystery, is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and is ancient Tirth Kshetra. Visiting such a Shrine away from the crowd is pleasing for the heart. There is no other place like this anywhere in Brahamanda


title: Money laundering

paragraphs: Money laundering is something some criminals do to hide the money they make from crimes. Criminals do money laundering to make it hard for the police to find out where the criminal got the money.

paragraphs: One way criminals launder money is by using the money earned from illegal activities to buy things (like gold and silver, shares or casino chips, other legitimate business activities like food or liquor stores) and then selling those items to get the money back. If a criminal buys and sells things many times it is hard for the police to find out where the criminal got the money.

paragraphs: Some countries have laws to try to stop money laundering. These laws help the police to find out when criminals try to do money laundering. Under the laws in some countries, business people must:

paragraphs: In 1989, some countries set up a group of people from different Governments to tell countries the best ways to stop money laundering. This organization is called the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering. The following countries have joined the Financial Action Task Force (FATF/GAFI):

paragraphs: In Canada money laundering is a serious issue. The government of Canada has allocated more than $70 million to fight money laundering.

paragraphs: The province of British Columbia announced it is holding a public inquiry into this issue.


title: Zeus

paragraphs: Zeus is the god of the sky, lightning and the thunder in Ancient Greek religion and legends, and ruler of all the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the sixth child of Cronos and Rhea, king and queen of the Titans. His father, Cronos, swallowed his children as soon as they were born for fear of a prophecy which foretold that one of them would overthrow him. When Zeus was born, Rhea hid him in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete, giving Cronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow instead. When Zeus was older he went to free his brothers and sisters; together with their allies, the Hekatonkheires and the Elder Cyclopes, Zeus and his siblings fought against the Titans in a ten-year war known as the Titanomachy. At the end of the war, Zeus took Cronos' scythe and cut him into pieces, throwing his remains into Tartarus. He then became the king of gods.

paragraphs: The supreme deity of the Greek pantheon, Zeus was universally respected and revered throughout Ancient Greece; the ancient Olympic Games were held at the site of Olympia every four years in honor of him. Highly temperamental, Zeus was armed with the mighty thunderbolt, said to be the most powerful weapon among the gods. Zeus was married to his sister, Hera, though he was infamous for his infidelity, taking on an almost innumerable amount of lovers and consorts, both mortal and divine including Karis and Hercules' mother. Zeus was known for throwing thunderbolts at people.

paragraphs: The god of honor and justice, Zeus was the one who both established and enforced law, and served as the standard for kings to follow, ensuring they did not abuse the power of their position. His symbols were the thunderbolt, a sceptre, an oak tree, and the eagle and bull were his sacred animals. His Roman equivalent is Jupiter. Zeus was the strongest Greek god, the ruler of all gods. In Norse, Zeus is Odin.


title: Evolutionary biology

paragraphs: Evolutionary biology is a subfield of biology that studies how species start and change over time; or in other words, how species evolve. Someone who studies evolutionary biology is known as an evolutionary biologist.

paragraphs: Evolutionary biology became an academic subject as a result of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s. It was not until the 1970s and 1980s that universities had departments that used the term "evolutionary biology" in their titles.

paragraphs: In the United States, as a result of the rapid growth of molecular and cell biology, many universities have split their biology departments into "molecular and cell biology"-style departments and "ecology and evolutionary biology"-style departments. These have included older departments such as paleontology, zoology and the like.


title: Mozilla Firefox

paragraphs: Mozilla Firefox (branded as Firefox Quantum or simply known as Firefox) is a free and open source web browser which is made by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It works on common operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. With Firefox, browsing features can be added or removed and users can customize Firefox to fit their needs. This was done to make Firefox safe and simple to use.

paragraphs: Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine to load web pages, which uses up-to-date web standards. However, Firefox for iOS, which was released in late 2015, does not use Gecko due to Apple's restrictions which only allow third-party web browsers to use the WebKit-based layout engine that is built into iOS.

paragraphs: Firefox was created in 2002, under the name "Phoenix" by the Mozilla community members who wanted a standalone browser rather than a bundle of different Mozilla applications. Even in its beta phase, Firefox proved to be popular with its testers and was praised for its speed, security, and add-ons compared to Microsoft's then-popular Internet Explorer 6. Firefox was released in November 2004 and was highly successful with 60 million downloads within nine months, marking the first time that Internet Explorer's popularity was being challenged. Firefox is considered the spiritual successor of Netscape Navigator since the Mozilla community was created by Netscape in 1998.

paragraphs: Firefox 3.0, while it was being made, was given the name "Gran Paradiso". Like other Firefox development names, "Gran Paradiso" is an actual place; in this case, it is the second-highest mountain group in the Graian Alps.

paragraphs: In 2006, the development team asked people who used Firefox to submit ideas for features in Firefox 3.

paragraphs: NetApplications says that the use of Firefox 3 had been going up quickly to a usage share of 23.75% in September 2009. They believe that this means that Firefox 3 is stable and that users are making it their main browser.

paragraphs: The date for the launch of Firefox 3 was June 17, 2008, named "Download Day 2008." Firefox was aiming to set the record for most Firefox downloads in 24 hours. As of June 18, 2008, more than 6.88 million people have downloaded Firefox 3.

paragraphs: Many people tried going to the Mozilla website on June 17, making it unavailable for at least a few hours. The site was not updated for the download of Firefox 3 until 12:00 PDT. "Download Day" ended at 11:16 AM PDT June 18. Firefox 3 has been downloaded 28,340,281 different times.

paragraphs: Features include tabbed browsing, spell checking, incremental find, live bookmarking, Smart Bookmarks, a download manager, private browsing, location-aware browsing (also known as "geolocation") based on a Google service, and an integrated search system.

paragraphs: Extensions let a user add new things to the browser or change how it does something. They are created by other users. Because extensions are able to access all parts of the computer that Firefox can, extensions that can harm a computer could be made. However,the extension can only change system settings if you have administrator privileges.

paragraphs: Firefox also has themes or skinning which change the way the browser looks to the user. Some themes that can make Firefox look like other browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Netscape.

paragraphs: Tabbed browsing is a feature used in the browser where many webpages can be opened in one window, with labeled tabs on top to select the webpage. To make a new empty tab, type control-T.

paragraphs: There is a search box in Firefox that can be seen in the top right corner of the window. When someone using Mozilla Firefox types something in the search box and presses enter, the browser will search the Internet using a search engine like Google or Yahoo!.

paragraphs: There are ""search suggestions"" in Firefox 2. When words are typed in the search box, suggested words will appear. For example, if ""wiki"" is typed, the browser will suggest ""Wikipedia"".

paragraphs: Firefox can use spell checking, if a word is typed badly into a text box, like the one where someone changes a Wikipedia page, the program will underline the word that is spelled wrong with a red line. If you scroll over that word and right click, Mozilla Firefox will list words which use the right spelling. For example: the wrong word "chekc" will have "check" as a suggestion.

paragraphs: Firefox's international usage grew to 32% by the end of 2009. After the release of Google Chrome, Firefox's popularity began to decline. , Firefox has between 9% and 16% of worldwide usage as a desktop browser, making it the second most-popular web browser. Firefox continues to be the most popular browser in Cuba, Eritrea, and Germany, with 85.93%, 79.39%, and 38.36% of the market share, respectively. According to Mozilla, there were 170 million Firefox users around the world in December 2017. With Internet Explorer declining, Firefox has reached second place in April 2018 as a desktop browser, behind Google Chrome.

paragraphs: Mozilla Firefox has been given a number of awards by many organizations. These awards include:


title: Lenny Kravitz

paragraphs: Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American actor, rock singer, songwriter and musician. He is of African-American, Afro-Bahamian and Ashkenazi Jewish (from Russia and Ukraine) descent. His mother, Roxie Roker (1929-1995), was an actress on "The Jeffersons" in the 1970s and His daughter Zoë Kravitz who is also an actress. Some of his biggest hit songs include "It Ain't Over Til It's Over", "Again", and "Fly Away". He sung on "(I Can't Make It) Another Day" Michael Jackson's 2010 album "Michael". He also wrote and produced the song.


title: Birdbox

paragraphs: A birdbox is a human-made, usually wooden box used as a house for birds. It is suitable as a bird home because it is similar to a natural bird home, such as a hollow tree, and birds often make nests inside birdboxes. Birdboxes are often put on trees. They are often made by people who are fond of birds, but they are also useful for studying birds. For domesticated birds, birdboxes are often used for breeding.

paragraphs: Most birdboxes feature a simple design with of six planks ordered in a cube, with a hole in a wall where birds can go in and out. Common additions include a small stick outside the hole on which birds can sit on, and a sloping roof to make rainwater run off. Some can however be highly detailed and decorated, depending on the maker's preferences. They can also be made from things like logs or gourds. They come in many sizes, depending on the size of the bird type the box is made for. Most birdboxes are small, but some, such as ones made for owls or parrots, can be quite large.

paragraphs: Although birdboxes are intended for birds, many other animals can inhabit them as well. Examples include bees that make beehives inside them, and squirrels.


title: Accent

paragraphs: Some people pronounce words differently. A lot of the time, different countries that speak the same language pronounce the same words in a different way. Usually they can understand each-other, but they will notice that they sound a little different.

paragraphs: Sometimes, people will talk about someone's accent. They might say that the person has a German accent, or an Australian accent. An accent is the way you say the words. If you notice someone has (for example) a British accent, you can understand them (you know what they are saying), but also know they came from Britain.

paragraphs: The way a person says words usually comes from where the person was a child (where they "grew up", or their "home town") and the other people where the person lives. People learn how to say words and sentences and so they sound the same people near them when they speak.

paragraphs: People speaking the same language can have different accents. Even people in the same country can have different accents. Sometimes people can tell what city someone lived in when they were a child by the way that person speaks. One example is a New York City accent. They might say "bwoll" () instead of ball (normally in America), like used in sports and games; or they might say "hwot dwog" () instead of hot dog (normally or in that country). It sounds different, but people still know they mean "ball" or "hot dog" when they're talking.

paragraphs: When first trying to learn a new language, often a person will still have the old accent from their first language. That often allows other people to guess which country or place that person lived in before.

paragraphs: If someone can learn another language well enough, someone may not have the old accent anymore and may get a new accent in the new language. If someone studied German in Austria, for example, people in Germany may think that person was Austrian.

paragraphs: Sometimes it can be confusing for people learning a language if there are more than one common accents. If you're learning English but hear a mix of British, American, Canadian and Australian people and people from Singapore and India often, like in your school or on the Internet, it might confuse you when you hear them say the same sounds or words differently. Sometimes, people think it's better to learn the language with one accent so you can be less confused, and when you're good enough at the language, you can start to tell the different accents different people from different countries have.


title: Louis Braille

paragraphs: Louis Braille (4 January 1809 - 6 January 1852) was a French inventor. He was born in Coupvray. He invented the script braille system, which helps blind people to read. Braille is read by passing one's fingers over characters made up of an arrangement of one to six embossed points. It has been adapted to almost every known language.

paragraphs: Braille was the child of a leather maker. He was the youngest of four children. He had three older siblings, two sisters and a brother. He became blind at the age of three. He accidentally stuck a stitching awl into one eye while he was in his father's workshop. There were no antibiotics and soon his injured eye was infected. It spread to his other eye and soon, he became blind in both eyes. He went to the Royal Institute of Blind Youth at the age of 10. Braille was a good student, especially when it came to science and music. Later he became a church organist. He was also a teacher at the Institute of Blind Youth. Braille died in Paris at the age of 43 of tuberculosis.


title: Marsupial

paragraphs: Marsupials are the main part of an infraclass of mammals called the Metatheria. This consists of the marsupials and their extinct ancestors. There are about 320 different species.

paragraphs: Marsupials give birth to living young. The young are called "joeys". The joeys feed on milk. They are born very small.

paragraphs: Marsupials have a special pouch where they carry their joeys. After the birth the joey goes into its mother's pouch, where it can drink milk and is kept warm and safe. When the joeys are young they stay in the pouch all the time, but when they are older they can leave it for short times. When they are old enough and too big for the pouch they do not go into their mother's pouch anymore.

paragraphs: Marsupials evolved before the southern supercontinent Gondwana broke off from Pangaea 100 million years ago. Early marsupial fossils have been found in Asia, from 125 million years ago.

paragraphs: They were outcompeted on Laurasia by placental mammals, but the placentals did not get into the Australasian part of Gondwana before it broke away into a separate supercontinent. That is why marsupials now found native only on the southern continents of Australasia and South and Central America, with the single exception of the "Virginia opossum".

paragraphs: Some of the 100 living species of South American marsupials have migrated north: 13 species to Central America and one to North America.

paragraphs: There are 334 species of living Australasian marsupials. They are mostly in Australia and New Guinea, and some are on the smaller islands.

paragraphs: In more recent times the land bridge between the Americas, and reintroductions to Australia, have brought in placental mammals. They have caused the recent extinction of many marsupial species.

paragraphs: The extinct genus "Yalkaparidon" (Order Yalkaparidontia) is a bizarre fossil found in the Oligocene/Miocene deposits of Riversleigh, NE Australia. Its teeth are so strange that palaeontologists call it a 'Thingodont'.

paragraphs: The borhyaenids and the sabertooth "Thylacosmilus" are no longer considered to be marsupials. They are sparassodont metatherians, the sister group of the marsupials.


title: B.J. Thomas

paragraphs: Billy Joe "BJ" Thomas (born August 7, 1942) is a country singer. His most famous songs are "Hooked upon a feeling" and "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", which was in the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". He sang throughout the 1970s. He changed to Christian music in the 1980s.


title: Laws of war

paragraphs: The Laws of war are some simple rules or international law which most people accept about fighting out of humanitarianism. Many people think that because there is fighting, there should be no rules. This is called "total war". However, laws of war have been made so that wars do not get worse than they need to be.

paragraphs: These laws come from various treaties. Some of these treaties are:


title: Maharashtra

paragraphs: Maharashtra () is the name of a state of India. Its language is Marathi. In area it is the third-biggest state of India. Only one Indian state has more people (Uttar Pradesh). Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra. (The name "Mumbai" comes from the original name of the city, Mumbapuri.) Pune is the cultural and educational capital.

paragraphs: Maharashtra is in the west part of India. It is on the coast of the Arabian Sea. Six other states of India have borders with Maharashtra. It covers an area of . It is bigger than Italy, but smaller than Oman. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the West Indian zone.

paragraphs: Maharashtra has more business than any other one state of India.

paragraphs: There are some well-known cave monuments like Ajanta and Ellora. The first oil mill is in Mumbai.Some of the crops grown in Maharashtra are Bajra, Jowar, Rice, Wheat, etc. The neighbouring States are Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Goa, and Chhattisgarh. A famous dish in Maharashtra is Pithla Bhakri.

paragraphs: Most people in Maharashtra are Hindus and you can see it in the culture of Maharashtra. There are many temples in Maharashtra and some of them are very old. The architecture of these temples is a mixture of architecture from North and South India. The temples also have ideas from Hindu, Buddhist and Jain cultures. Maharashtra has many forts like Raigad and Pratapgad which were very important in the early history of the Maratha Empire and also sea forts like the one at Sindhudurg.

paragraphs: The folk music of Maharashtra is mixed.Famous dance form in Maharashtra is lavni

paragraphs: An early piece of Marathi literature is Bhawarthadeepika (known as Dnyaneshwari) by Dnyaneshwar. The religious songs called bhajans by Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdev,chokhamela,Savta Mali are very popular. Modern Marathi literature also has some great poets and authors likeJyotirao Govindrao Phule,Savitribai Jyotirao Phule,Dr.Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Anna Bhau Sathe, Namdev Dhasal, M.M. Deshmukh,P. L. Deshpande, Kusumagraj, Prahlad Keshav Atre, and Vyankatesh Madgulkar. Many books are published every year in Marathi.

paragraphs: The theater, movies, and television in Maharashtra are mostly made in Mumbai, and the actors in each area (like television) can work in the others. Some important people in the movie industry are Dadasaheb Phalke, Dada Kondke, Ashok Saraf, Laxmikant Berde, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Mahesh Kothare and V. Shantaram. Early Marathi theatre had important playwrights (people who write plays) like Kolhatkar, Khadilkar, Deval, Gadkari and Kirloskar. They wrote musical plays called Sangeet Naatak. The music from those plays is called Natyasangeet. Important actors at this time were Bal Gandharva, Keshavrao Bhosle, Bhaurao Kolhatkar, and Dinanath Mangeshkar.

paragraphs: Some of the popular Marathi television channels are Mi Marathi and ETV Marathi. They have many kinds of shows: soap operas, cooking, travel, political satire, and game shows.

paragraphs: The food of Maharashtra is different in each place. The people in the Konkan region eat more rice and the ones near the ocean eat a lot of fish. In eastern Maharashtra, most people eat a lot of wheat, jowar, and bajra. Other important things people eat in Maharashtra are lentils, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, chilies, garlic, ginger, and aamras. Many people also eat chicken and mutton.

paragraphs: In the past, women wore a long sari and men wore a dhoti or pajama with a shirt. Today, women in the cities often wear other clothes like Salwar kameez (dresses from the Punjab), and men in the cities wear trousers and a shirt.

paragraphs: Cricket is very popular in Maharashtra. Many people play it and many others watch it. Kabaddi is also popular. Children play Viti-Dandu and Pakada-pakadi (Tag).

paragraphs: Hindus in Maharashtra follow the Saka era calendar. Gudi Padwa, Diwali, Rangapanchami, Gokulashtami, and Ganeshotsav are some of the festivals that are celebrated in Maharashtra. Ganeshotsav is the biggest festival. The Hindus celebrate it with reverence and festivity in Maharashtra and it has also become popular in other parts of India. The festival which lasts ten days is in honor of Ganesha, the Hindu god of learning and knowledge.


title: Pete Best

paragraphs: Randolph Peter Best or Pete Best (born Randolph Peter Scanland; 24 November 1941) was The Beatles's original drummer. He was born on 24 November 1941 in Madras, India to an Indian mother and an English father. His mother, Mona, later owned the Casbah Club in Liverpool, where The Beatles would sometimes perform. Best was drummer for the group from 1960 until 16 August 1962, when the band and their new manager, Brian Epstein, fired him and replaced him with Ringo Starr. The reason was because when the band auditioned for EMI, record producer George Martin was not satisfied with Best's drum skills, and planned to replace him on their recordings.

paragraphs: Best was devastated, and tried to form other bands with little success. He attempted suicide in 1965. He went on to work as a civil servant. In 1995, when The Beatles released their "Anthology" albums, which featured Best on some recordings, he received a large sum of money from the sales. He also found a new career, appearing at Beatles-related events such as conventions, where he sometimes played drums, with more skill than he showed in earlier days.


title: Dionne Quintuplets

paragraphs: The Dionne Quintuplets were the first quintuplets (five babies born at the same time from the same mother) to survive after being born. They were born in Ontario, Canada on May 28, 1934 to Elzire and Oliva Dionne. They were:

paragraphs: The babies were delivered by Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, who later was given custody of the girls by the Canadian government and the Ontario government housed them in a special theme park-like area, just across the street from the house their parents and 6 other siblings lived in. At one time 6,000 people visited Quintland each day to see the sisters, they also had dolls made out of them, and appeared in commercials for products like corn syrup and Quaker oats like oatmeal. Then in 1943, the girls' father, Oliva, finally got custody of them again and the girls moved back to live with their real family. Dr. Dafone died soon after that. The girls later claimed their father abused them. In 1998 the surviving sisters sued the government of Ontario for being exploited as kids and were rewarded 4 million Canadian dollars.


title: All's Well That Ends Well

paragraphs: All's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare. It is a comedy. It was based on a story in Boccaccio's "Decameron". The date "All's Well" was written is uncertain, but it was probably written between 1600 and 1603. It was probably first performed about 1602-1603, and probably first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The play is about Helena's love for the unresponsive Bertram.


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title: Christ (title)

paragraphs: In Christianity, the Christ (; ) is a title for the savior and redeemer who would bring salvation to the Jewish people and mankind. Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew title "Messiah" (; anointed one), the figure promised by God to the Jewish people and mankind for the salvation of the world. Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah called Christ of the Christian Old Testament and fulfilled the messianic prophecies of Christian tradition. "Christ", used by Christians both as a name and as a title, is synonymous with Jesus.


title: Christian Bale

paragraphs: Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. He is from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. Bale is best known for playing Batman in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Trilogy". He began in a movie of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun. He also played in "American Psycho" and "The Machinist". In 2010, Bale won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his performance in "The Fighter". He played Dick Cheney in the biopic movie "Vice", and won another Golden Globe Award. He is married to Sandra Blažić since 2000 and they have one child together.


title: Eric Clapton

paragraphs: Eric Patrick Clapton (born 30 March 1945, in The Green, Ripley, Surrey, England) is an English guitarist, singer and composer. Clapton is the son of a sixteen-year-old, Patricia Clapton, and Edward Fryer, a Canadian soldier stationed in England. "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked him number 2 on its list of "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003.

paragraphs: Eric Patrick Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey, England on March 30, 1945. Clapton's father, who already had a wife, returned to Canada after World War II. His mother, was not able to bear the shame of raising an illegitimate child (a child of unmarried parents) in post-war Britain. She left Clapton with his grandparents Jack and Rose Clapp (Clapton by her first marriage) and moved to Germany where she married another Canadian soldier. Clapton was raised believing his mother was his sister. His grandmother did not tell him the truth until he was nine years old.

paragraphs: A polite and well-behaved boy, the young Clapton was an above-average student, though in 1956 he failed the eleven-plus and went to St. Bedes Secondary Modern School. Two years later however, he passed the review and went to 13-plus on the strength of his art accomplishment and got a scholarship to a school in Tolworth, near Surbiton. He liked art very much. He wanted to learn to play the guitar after watching Jerry Lee Lewis on television. Clapton's obsession with playing blues music caused him to be expelled from Kingston College of Art because he was playing the guitar in class.

paragraphs: Working as a labourer to pay his way, Clapton spent most of his free time playing his electric guitar. Eventually he joined a local band, The Roosters. He later joined Casey Jones And The Engineers with fellow band member Tom McGuiness. In 1963, Clapton was asked to join The Yardbirds. It was in the Yardbirds that he earned his nickname of 'Slowhand'. The name came from his forceful string-bending that often caused broken guitar strings. He would replace the strings on stage while the crowd slowly clapped their hands.

paragraphs: After about 18 months with the Yardbirds, musical differences led Clapton to move on to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, where his talent grew even more. It was at this part in his career that Eric's fans gave him his second, and ultimate, nickname - "God"!

paragraphs: In mid-1966 he left the Bluesbreakers, whose members had grown to include Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. The band he formed with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker would become Eric's best-known band, and rock's first-ever supergroup, Cream. Cream became the "pre-eminent (best) rock trio of the Sixties"; the name came from its members being among the top session musicians in England. They played both their own songs ("Strange Brew", "Sunshine Of Your Love", "White Room") and cover versions of other people's songs ("I'm So Glad"). Like his contemporary Jimi Hendrix, Clapton helped to pioneer the use of the wah-wah pedal. He played a famous guitar called The Fool. He also developed what he called the "woman tone" on his guitar and used it to great effect. For instance, at one point during the song "Tales of Brave Ulysses", he combines the woman tone with feedback (overdriven amplifier) to create a unique sound.

paragraphs: Clapton became friends with Beatle George Harrison, who asked him to play guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", for 1968's "White Album". Clapton also played on John Lennon's "Yer Blues", in a filmed performance.

paragraphs: While Cream were popular and had several hit records, problems between Baker and Bruce, and the increasing drug use of all three caused tensions that eventually broke the band up in 1969. George Harrison teamed with Clapton, to write and record "Badge" for Cream's final album.

paragraphs: Clapton played again with John Lennon and his new wife Yoko Ono, as a member of the Plastic Ono Band. He appeared with them onstage in Toronto that September, and played guitar on "Cold Turkey", Lennon's song about heroin addiction. At that time, the Beatles were getting ready to break up. Lennon thought about asking Clapton to join his and Ono's new band, but decided not to have a permanent lineup.

paragraphs: Clapton and Baker joined with Rick Grech and Steve Winwood to form Blind Faith. Blind Faith lasted only a few months, and released one album. After Blind Faith broke up, Clapton formed another band, called Derek and the Dominos. Their most popular song was "Layla". He performed a concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London on 13 January 1973, thanks to his friend Pete Townshend of The Who. He started work on a new album, "461 Ocean Blvd", which was released July 1974.

paragraphs: The inspiration for "Layla" was fashion model Pattie Boyd. She was married to Clapton's friend, George Harrison. Clapton was in love with Boyd. He was not happy because he could not be with her because she was married to his friend. In time, Boyd and Harrison grew apart, and Clapton and Boyd got together. They married in May 1979. All three remained friends, and Clapton and Harrison called themselves "husbands-in-law", though for some years afterwards, the friendship between them was understandably strained. Clapton and Boyd were divorced in 1989, after they also grew apart.

paragraphs: Following the death of his four-year-old son Conor, who fell from a window of a 53rd-floor New York apartment owned by his mother's friend on March 20 1991, Clapton arrived at the apartment shortly after the accident. Clapton's grief was expressed in the song "Tears in Heaven", which was featured on his "Unplugged" album and for the 1991 "Rush film soundtrack." The song was Clapton's best-selling single in the United States and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It won three Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. In 2004, "Rolling Stone" ranked "Tears in Heaven" 362nd on the magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". "Unplugged" is the best-selling live album of all time.

paragraphs: Along with his drug problems, Clapton had trouble with alcohol, sometimes drinking a whole bottle or more of liquor in a day. In the 1990s, he was finally able to stop drinking alcohol. He also found out more about his father, who had died, and about a half-brother (by his mother) he had never met, who was mentally challenged and lived in a hospital.

paragraphs: Clapton is still making music and performing, sometimes with other musicians such as B.B. King.

paragraphs: Clapton also enjoys fishing at Eastlodge fishing.


title: Buenos Aires

paragraphs: Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city in the South American country of Argentina.

paragraphs: Buenos Aires city is also known as "Capital Federal" to differentiate the city from the Buenos Aires Province.

paragraphs: Until 1994 Buenos Aires city was under the presidential government, but after a constitutional reform in that year, the city became self-governed, allowing citizens to elect their city authorities.

paragraphs: Buenos Aires has a population of 3,040,000 inhabitants. Spanish is the main language, but English is widely spoken and understood well. Italian is also widespread.

paragraphs: Buenos Aires has a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa" in the Koeppen climate classification). The average temperature is 17 °C. During the 20th century the temperature went up because of the urbanization. Rainfall is 1222.6 mm. per year. Summers are hot and humid. Winters are mild, the highest medium temperature is 13.7 °C during this season. Temperature rarely reaches 0 °C or below. Fog is frequent.

paragraphs: Buenos Aires is divided into 48 neighborhoods. Most populated areas are:

paragraphs: Buenos Aires is the most visited city in South America. The most touristic areas are the historical center, Palermo, Recoleta and San Telmo.

paragraphs: The fifth Wikimania was hosted in this city in 2009.


title: Lyndon B. Johnson

paragraphs: Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973) was a member of the Democratic Party and the 36th president of the United States serving from 1963 to 1969. Johnson took over as president when President Kennedy was killed in November 1963. He was then re-elected in the 1964 election.

paragraphs: His time as head of government had two chief parts, his policies inside the country which included Civil rights and caring for the poor, and also his policies that were open to argument which resulted in the United States fighting the Vietnam War.

paragraphs: Johnson was born in Texas. His father was a politician who had worked for the Texas state government. As a young adult, he was a teacher. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1937, then to the Senate in 1948. He won the Senate election by just 87 votes.

paragraphs: In the Senate, Johnson very quickly became powerful and in 1955 became leader of the Senate and was the youngest to have ever held that position. He started great programs for the public. It helped that he knew the other Senators well and could often persuade them to support his ideas. In 1960, he ran for President, but during the contest to see who the Democrats would support, he lost to John F. Kennedy. Johnson was then selected by Kennedy as the candidate Vice President. Kennedy narrowly won the election and Johnson became Vice President. Like most Vice Presidents, Johnson did not like the job. It gave him too little power.

paragraphs: Lyndon B. Johnson was well known as someone who could persuade other lawmakers in Congress to pass laws. To gain more support for his ideas, he often arm-twisted other politicians (meaning he would threaten them if they didn't agree with him).

paragraphs: Johnson took over as President after Kennedy was assassinated. He finished Kennedy's term as president then in 1964 he ran for re-election and won easily against Barry Goldwater. Johnson won 61.1% of the vote. This is the highest percentage of the vote ever won by someone running for President since 1820.

paragraphs: Johnson began a "war on poverty". He created the Great Society (a series of government programs intended to improve the living standards of the country). These programs include public broadcasting, protecting the environment, Medicare (health care for the elderly), Medicaid ([health care for the poor). He supported civil rights for African Americans and continued where Kennedy left off in giving them freedom. The Voting Rights Act in 1965 gave the government powers to stop them from being denied the right to vote. Compared to Kennedy's weak relationship with Congress, Johnson was able to convince politicians to support some of the same policies which they opposed under Kennedy.

paragraphs: At the same time, Johnson increased the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. Johnson increased the number of soldiers in Vietnam from 16,000 to 500,000 in order to stop the Viet Cong - the Communist rebels in South Vietnam. As the years passed, Johnson became more and more unpopular as the war kept on going without an end in sight. By 1968, almost 1000 American soldiers were being killed in Vietnam every month and the enemy still had not been defeated. In March Johnson said he would not run for re-election.

paragraphs: Johnson's time as president ended in January 1969. He went back to Texas to live his ranch in Stonewall.

paragraphs: Johnson died at his ranch on January 22, 1973, at age 64 after having a heart attack. Johnson had a state funeral. The final services took place on January 25. The funeral took place at the National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C. Despite the disaster in Vietnam, Johnson is still thought of as being a good president by historians because of what he achieved with civil rights. In 1973 The Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston was renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.


title: Catholic Church

paragraphs: The Catholic Church is the largest Christian church in the world. Over one billion people are members of the Catholic Church. It is the world's largest religious group. It is part of the same Church started by Jesus Christ and his former protégé 2,000 years ago. The headquarters of the Catholic Church is in the Vatican City.

paragraphs: The word "catholic" comes from the Greek word ""katholicos"", which means "universal." It was first used in the Nicene Creed. Often, the word "Roman" is added because its headquarters is in Vatican City, a country that is inside the city of Rome, Italy. People who call themselves "Catholics" are members of the Catholic Church.

paragraphs: Almost half of all Catholics are in Latin America. The continent with the second-largest number of Catholics is Europe. Millions of Catholics live in other places all over the world.

paragraphs: The Catholic Church is led by the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, who lives in Vatican City. According to Catholics, the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit who also guides the Pope. The Church teaches that when the Pope speaks officially on the subject of Catholic faith and morals, he cannot be wrong. The Popes have used this infallibility throughout history; some examples include the Tome of St. Leo, the declaration of the Immaculate Conception, and various anathemas (religious condemnations issued by the Popes against certain heresies).

paragraphs: The Catholic Church teaches that the first Pope was Saint Peter. The current pope is Pope Francis.

paragraphs: Like other Christians, Catholics believe Jesus is a divine person, the Son of God. They believe that because of his love for all people, he died so that all people will live forever in heaven.

paragraphs: The Catholic Church also recognizes the Trinity; that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are together the only God.

paragraphs: The leader of the Roman Catholic Church is called the Pope, which literally means "father". Catholics say Jesus Christ established the Catholic Church, and appointed the first Pope, a disciple of his named Saint Peter, to lead all Christians.

paragraphs: Over the last 2,000 years, different Popes have led the church. The current Pope is the 266th and is called Francis and he lives in the Vatican City, a very small country inside the city of Rome, Italy.

paragraphs: For centuries, Popes have not used their birth names, but instead use a regnal name. This custom started in the sixth century when a man named Mercury was elected Pope, it was seen as inappropriate to have a Pope named after a pagan god so he named himself John II, in honor of his predecessor, John I; it became customary in the tenth century. Since the death of Marcellus II 1555, every Pope has taken a Papal name.

paragraphs: The Catholic Church is made of 23 "particular churches", otherwise known as "rites". As well as being head of the Latin Rite of the church (which is the largest with over 1 billion members), the Pope is ultimately the leader of 22 Eastern Catholic Churches, these churches are of the Orthodox tradition of Christianity and it is often the case that they have broken away from their Orthodox mother church to come into communion with (join) the Pope and submit to his authority as successor of St. Peter. The Eastern Catholic Churches are based all over the world, from the United States to the Middle East to India.

paragraphs: The exercise of infallibility takes several forms (see "Catechism of the Catholic Church", no. 890-891, citing "Lumen Gentium", 25). One form is exercised by the Pope when speaking "ex cathedra" (literally, “from the chair” of St. Peter, in his authority as pope) on matters of faith or morals, even if he does so without the support of the bishops. This is an exercise of the Extraordinary Magisterium of the Church. While the pope has always held the power to exercise the Extraordinary Magisterium by speaking "ex cathedra", the actual occurrence of an "ex cathedra" statement is quite rare. It is generally understood to have only occurred twice: Pope Pius IX’s definition of the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception in 1854 and Pope Pius XII’s definition of the dogma of Mary’s Assumption in 1950. In both of these cases, the Pope was not teaching something new. Rather, he was confirming and clarifying something that the Church had already believed as part of God’s revelation.

paragraphs: Some of the traditional practices of Roman Catholics carried out each time they pray at home or at Church include making the sign of the cross, kneeling, and bowing.

paragraphs: Their main ceremony is the Mass. Catholics are normally required to go to amass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation. In the United States, the Holy Days of Obligation are: Mary, Mother of God (January 1), The Assumption of Mary (August 15), The Immaculate Conception (of Mary) (December 8), The Ascension of Jesus (40 days after Easter), Christmas (December 25) and All Saints Day (November 1). The taking of the Eucharist is the height of the Mass.

paragraphs: Catholics worship Jesus. They also venerate the Virgin Mary more than other Christians, calling her the "Mother of God," based on Elizabeth's greeting, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" and also on the belief that all Christians hold that Jesus is fully man and fully God at the same time. Yet, Mary, who has nothing to do with the Divine, was chosen as the human vessel God would use to enter into the world. It is important to note that Catholics do not worship Mary. Instead, they honor her as one honors a Queen.

paragraphs: An important Catholic prayer is the Rosary. This prayer is done with Rosary beads used to count each prayer. The Rosary is made up of five decades, each decade being made up of 1 Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, and 1 Glory Be, as well as saying the Sacred Mysteries. It is made up of passages taken from scripture. It is recommended by the clergy to continue the very old practice of praying the Rosary daily, as it has not only many powerful requests but is made up of words taken directly from scripture, like the Lord's Prayer (Our Father) and the Hail Mary. The Rosary is not complete unless one thinks about the passion of Christ while praying out loud.

paragraphs: The Catholic Church celebrates seven sacraments. A sacrament is "an outward sign instituted (started) by Christ to give grace" (a supernatural gift of God that someone did nothing to deserve).

paragraphs: The seven sacraments are: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony (marriage). The Holy Eucharist is the most important of the sacraments, because Catholics believe that Jesus Christ becomes truly present in the form of bread and wine. This happens through transubstantiation which takes place in the Mass.

paragraphs: Catholics believe in the necessity of love, hope and faith in order to gain salvation, but that these all come from grace. This is different from the 16th century interpretation created by Luther.

paragraphs: Catholics interpret the Bible (God-given book) according to Tradition. Tradition is the transmission of the early church's life and teaching, as especially recorded in the writings of the Fathers of the Church who lived in the first centuries. At that time the holy books where accepted in the Bible, which is the collection of the books considered revealed.

paragraphs: A basic rule for Catholics is that "Truth cannot contradict truth". They translate the Bible with this in mind. No interpretation can be accepted if it contradicts another revealed truth.

paragraphs: Catholics, like many Christians, accept the Nicene Creed, a combination of the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) and the later Council of Constantinople (AD 382) as true. It is as follows:

paragraphs: "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us men and our salvation He came down from heaven: and, by the Holy Spirit, was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake, He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, Who, with the Father and the Son, is adored and glorified, Who has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen."

paragraphs: Eastern Orthodox and Protestants believe many of the same things. They sometime disagree on the role of the Virgin Mary and other saints, on what a priest can do, and on how exactly God should be worshipped, among other things.


title: Villeneuve-d'Ascq

paragraphs: Villeneuve-d'Ascq (which means "New city of Ascq" in French) is one of the main cities of the metropolis of Lille, in France. It is between Lille and Roubaix, at the crossroads of the principal freeways towards Paris, Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels,

paragraphs: Villeneuve-d'Ascq has more than 65,000 people and attracts 50,000 students.

paragraphs: The average age of people there is 29 years.

paragraphs: The city has about 10 km² of greenspace, lakes, forests and farmland.

paragraphs: The roots of the city go up in Celtic Gaul, and are anchored in two feudal mounds, a Gallo-Roman site and a Carolingian one.

paragraphs: Its site was selected in the 1960s to accommodate the new town of Lille-Est, which was to channel the development of the agglomeration. The commune of Villeneuve-d'Ascq was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of the three communes (Ascq, Annapes and Flers). Its name evokes at the same time the new city and the memory of Ascq, martyr city of April 1, 1944, date on which the Nazis massacred 86 men.


title: Hillary Clinton

paragraphs: Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is an American politician. She was the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. Clinton was the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election. She is a former U.S. Senator, First Lady of the United States and First Lady of Arkansas.

paragraphs: From 2009 to 2013, she was the 67th Secretary of State, serving under President Barack Obama. Before that, she was the junior United States Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. She is married to former President of the United States Bill Clinton in 1975. When her husband was president, she had the title of First Lady of the United States. She was a candidate in the 2008 election of a new President. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

paragraphs: Hillary Clinton was the first former First Lady to be elected to the U.S. Senate and to hold a federal cabinet-level position. She ran for re-election to the Senate in 2006, which she won, and was considered by many in the media and politics as having a good chance to win in the race for the Democratic Party's US presidential nomination in 2008, but she lost to Barack Obama.

paragraphs: In April 2015, Clinton announced that she would be running for president once again for the 2016 United States presidential elections. During the Democratic presidential primaries, Clinton faced challenges from United States senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders. On June 6, 2016, Clinton reached the number of delegates to become the presumptive Democratic Party nominee. She lost the election to Donald Trump on November 8, 2016.

paragraphs: Hillary Diane Rodham was born at Edgewater Medical Center in Chicago. She was raised in Park Ridge, a suburb located northwest of downtown Chicago. Her parents were Hugh E. Rodham and Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham. She is of Welsh, English, French and French Canadian ancestry. Hillary grew up with two younger brothers, Hugh and Tony.

paragraphs: She studied at Maine East High School and Maine South High School. She finished high school in 1965, and enrolled at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

paragraphs: In 1969, Rodham entered Yale Law School. She received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Yale in 1973. Then, she began a year of post-graduate study on children and medicine at the Yale Child Study Center.

paragraphs: When she was First Lady, she tried to change the health care system. Some people didn't like it when the planning meetings were kept secret away from the public. In the end, too many people did not want the changes that she wanted.

paragraphs: Another major event during the time she was First Lady was when the public found out in 1998 that Bill Clinton had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky in the mid 1990s. There was stress in the marriage partly because Bill had to go to trial (impeachment) because he was accused of lying to the court (during a deposition).

paragraphs: When she decided that she wanted to be Senator, she chose New York even though she never lived there. Some accused her of "carpetbagging" because of this. She went on to win the election and won a second term in 2006.

paragraphs: When the war between the United States-led coalition and Iraq was about to start, she voted in favor of the war. Now she is opposed to the war and wants American troops to stop fighting rebel Iraqis.

paragraphs: Hillary Clinton had raised more money than anybody else in the 2008 Presidential campaign, but later had big money problems for her campaign by May 7, 2008. She lost the party nomination to Barack Obama, but she campaigned for Obama after this.

paragraphs: In mid-November 2008, Obama and Clinton talked about whether she could be the next U.S. Secretary of State in his presidency. On November 21, there were reports that said Hillary Clinton had accepted his offer.

paragraphs: During her term as Secretary of State, Clinton used her position to make women's rights and human rights a focus of U.S. initiatives. She became one of the most traveled secretaries of state in American history. She promoted the use of social media to convey the country's positions. She also led U.S. diplomatic efforts in responding to the Arab Spring and military intervention in Libya.

paragraphs: Clinton did not want to serve a second term as secretary. Once Barack Obama won his re-election, he announced that John Kerry would succeed Clinton as secretary. Clinton left office on February 1, 2013.

paragraphs: In 2016, Clinton became the first woman in the History of the United States to be a major party presidential candidate. Clinton did not want to run for president in 2016, but after much of a majority support from the Democratic party, on April 12, 2015, speculation ended as Clinton formally announced her candidacy via email and the release of a video saying, "Everyday Americans need a champion. And I want to be that champion." In the polls, Clinton maintained her lead for the nomination although she faced several challenges from Senator Bernie Sanders. A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted in May found Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in a tie. Clinton and Trump were the least popular likely candidates in the poll's history. This made it difficult for her campaign.

paragraphs: Clinton became the presumptive nominee on June 6, 2016.

paragraphs: Clinton lost the general election to Donald Trump winning 227 of the electoral college to Trump's 304. Clinton won the popular vote however 48% to Trump's 46%.

paragraphs: In April 2017, Clinton said that she will not seek public office again.

paragraphs: While working as a faculty member at the Law School of the University of Arkansas, she married Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975. He was also working as a faculty member at the same university. Both knew each other and were classmates at the Yale Law School. Their only child is daughter Chelsea Clinton, born on February 27, 1980.


title: Andhra Pradesh

paragraphs: Andhra Pradesh () () is a state in the Republic of India. It has a population of 75,727,000 people according to the census of 2001. The eastern boundary is a coastline along the Bay of Bengal. Its latitude and longitude is 17.3660°N and 78.4760°E. The state has an area of . It is bigger than Burkina Faso but smaller than Ecuador. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the South Indian zone. It was divided into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, because of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014. According to this Act, both states will have the same capital city Hyderabad, for a period of 10 years. The present Chief Minister of the state is Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSR Party.

paragraphs: Andhra Pradesh has a gross domestic product (GDP) of 123,560 (in millions of US dollars). That makes it the third largest state in India in terms of GDP, after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Most of this money comes from agriculture. Andhra Pradesh is sometimes called the "Rice Bowl of India", as a very large amount of rice or paddy is grown in the coastal plains of the state. Recently the state is also involved in newer businesses like biotechnology and information technology.


title: Alberto Vargas

paragraphs: Alberto Vargas (1896-1982) was a Peruvian-born painter, best known for his pin-up paintings of beautiful women.

paragraphs: A painting of Alberto's, "Varga Girl", was put on the Beatles - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. She is pictured in the upper right-hand corner (next to Richard Menkin, the man in the hat).


title: George Lucas

paragraphs: George James Walton Lucas (born May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California) is an American movie director, producer, and screenwriter most famous for his Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie series.

paragraphs: He also directed the movies "THX 1138" (1970) and "American Graffiti" (1973). He made the "Indiana Jones" series with Steven Spielberg. He is also an innovator for what he has done with special effects, and has founded companies that make not only movies, but also things like video games, theme park rides, and TV shows.

paragraphs: Lucas founded the Pixar animation studio and later sold it to Steve Jobs in 1986 for $10 million.

paragraphs: He has three children: Katie, Amanda and Jett Lucas (born 1993). Jett has had cameo appearances in "" and "" as "Zett Jukassa".

paragraphs: Lucas began dating Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments and chair of DreamWorks Animation, in 2006. Lucas and Hobson announced their engagement in January 2013, and married on June 22, 2013 at Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California.

paragraphs: A George Lucas Cultural Arts Museum was to be built in San Francisco, California, but after talks failed, Lucas decided not to build the museum in San Francisco.

paragraphs: Soon afterwards, the Chicago Tribune reported that Lucas wanted to build the museum in Chicago, Illinois. Lucas said: ""The city of Chicago has enthusiastically welcomed me and I consider Chicago to be my second home," Lucas said in a statement. "I look forward to working with community leaders to see if Chicago can become home to the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum. "" The office of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel confirmed that talks between the two were ongoing. A potential lakefront site on Museum Campus in Chicago was proposed in May 2014. On June 24, 2014, the "Chicago Sun-Times" reported that Chicago was selected as the location, pending approval of the Chicago Plan Commission. The commission approved the idea and the museum will be built in Chicago.


title: Telugu

paragraphs: Telugu is an Indian language spoken in the southern part of India. It is the official language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It is one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India. Telugu is the second most spoken language in India and 15th largest spoken language in the world. As it is one of the oldest languages in the world, Government of India gave it the status of a Classical language.

paragraphs: Aitereya Brahmanyam which is a part of Rigveda (literature dates to 7000 years before CE) written thousands years before CE, has mentioned Telugu. Telugu also finds mention in Rajatarangini, written by Bilhana Kavi. As per Hindu mythology, one of the sons of Bali Chakravarthy (the one who was sent to Pathaala by Vamana) is Andhra or Andhrudu. Telugu region i.e. Andhra or AP was ruled by him, long before the times of Ramayana and Mahabharata (literature is proven to be of the period 3000 years before CE).

paragraphs: Telugu is the only language other than Sanskrit which has the linguistic prakriya (literature game) called Avadhana, which disappeared in other languages with the passage of time. Languages also have become more and more simple and adopted simple pronunciations, the reason for some typical sounds of Telugu being missing in many other languages.

paragraphs: Sri Krishnadeva Raya has said "Desa bhashalandu Telugu Lessa" which means "Among the nation's languages, is Telugu lesser than?" Being a mellifluous language, British authors in the 19th century called Telugu, Italian of the East. It is believed that Italian explorer Niccolò Da Conti, who visited Vijayanagara empire during the reign of Vira Vijaya Bukka Raya in the fifteenth century, coined the phrase.

paragraphs: According to linguists, Proto-Dravidian gave rise to 21 Dravidian languages. They can be broadly classified into three groups: Northern group, Central group, and Southern group of Dravidian languages. The central group consists of ten languages, out of which only Telugu became a civilized language and the rest of the nine languages remained tribal languages. Telugu is the most widely spoken language of the Dravidian family which consists of 24 languages spanning all of South Asia, from Baluchistan to Sri Lanka.

paragraphs: In India the history of scripts has been almost independent of the history of languages. The current similarity in scripts between Telugu and Kannada, which falls under the southern group of Proto-Dravidian languages along with Tamil, Malayalam, Tulu and others, has a lot more to do with the rule of the Chalukyas than the similarity between the languages.

paragraphs: Telugu is mainly spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Yanam district of Puducherry as well as in the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, some parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal in India. It is also spoken in the United States, where the Telugu diaspora numbers more than a million, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Bahrain, Canada, Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Ireland, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and many western European countries, where there is also a considerable Telugu diaspora. Telugu speakers abroad are often some of the wealthiest ethnic groups in the countries they go to due to their high educational attainment and intelligence; in the US, the average Telugu family makes $115,000 a year. In Tamil Nadu, about 6.3% of the population speak Telugu, where it commonly known as Telungu. It is the largest spoken and most dominant language in South India.

paragraphs: With 56 letters [16 vowels and 36 consonants, 4 removed], Telugu has more letters in its alphabet than any other language. There were letters for sounds Al, Aluu, which were later removed from the alphabet. Every Telugu word ends with an vowel.

paragraphs: అ ఆ ఇ ఈ ఉ ఊ ఋ ౠ ఎ ఏ ఐ ఒ ఓ ఔ అం అః


title: PlayStation 3

paragraphs: PlayStation 3 is Sony's third video game console. It was released in Japan on November 11, 2006. It came out on November 17, 2006 in North America, and was released in Australia and Europe on 23 March 2007. It is competing against the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii consoles. Sony's previous consoles were the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation (PSOne).

paragraphs: The console is sold in two models. One costs $399 and has a 40 gigabyte hard drive. This model cannot play PlayStation 2 games. The other costs $499 and has an 80 gigabyte hard drive. When the PlayStation 3 was released, there were two different models. One had a 20 gigabyte hard drive and cost $399. The other had a 60 gigabyte hard drive and cost $599. Sony stopped making the 20 gigabyte console in North America after the 60 gigabyte version "sold ten times as many" as the 20 gigabyte version.

paragraphs: The PS3 is, according to Sony, the most powerful seventh generation console. However, many people that create computer games have recently stated that both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are about equal. It is more expensive than the Xbox 360 or Wii. An upside is that to access the online mode to play and interact with other people is free unlike the Xbox in which must be paid for.

paragraphs: It is the only seventh generation console that can Play Blu-ray discs.

paragraphs: In July 2007, Sony announced that they would cut the price of the PS3 in the United States. Sony also replaced the 60 gigabyte version with an 80 gigabyte version.

paragraphs: In October, a new version of the PlayStation 3 which is the 40 gigabyte model was introduced and the price of the 60 gigabyte model was further reduced. A white version of the 40 gigabyte model was also set to release in Japan in November.

paragraphs: Currently, the PS3 is sold in a new, slimmer and more efficient model with a 160 GB or 320 GB of Hard Drive memory.


title: PlayStation 2

paragraphs: The PlayStation 2 is Sony's second video game console. It was released in March of 2000. The one before this was PlayStation (or PS1). The next PlayStation is PlayStation 3 which was released in November 2006. The controllers of the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 are the same, but the PlayStation 3 is used wirelessly and doesn't have an analog button. Some games are online e.g. "Call of Duty World at War Final Fronts" and a few connect with the PlayStation Portable (or PSP). The PS2 is very successful and games are still made for it. The PlayStation 2 is the world's best-selling console. It has sold around 150 million units since its launch in March 2000, and is fully compatible with PlayStation (PS1) games. It competed with the Nintendo GameCube and the Microsoft Xbox. Sony announced that they had discontinued the PlayStation 2 in Japan on December 28, 2012 and worldwide on January 4, 2013.

paragraphs: The PSX was released in 2003. It was a video recorder that allowed you to play PlayStation 2 games. It had a built-in hard drive (up to 250 GB). It did not sell well, because it cost too much money, so was not released outside of Japan.

paragraphs: "" became the most sold game, with over 27.5 million copies sold.


title: Sony

paragraphs: Sony is a technology company, based in Japan, which makes many electric products. Among its most popular products is the video game console PlayStation, which was followed by PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and now the PlayStation 4. They also sold the Walkman invented by Andreas Pavel - a small music audio cassette player that could fit in your pocket - they later made Walkman systems that could play CDs, MiniDiscs or MP3s instead of tapes, and they often could receive radio too.

paragraphs: The company also makes music players, televisions, headsets, mobile phones (Sony Ericsson) and computers (named Sony Vaio), and game players (PlayStation).

paragraphs: It owns the American movie studios, Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures, through Sony Pictures.

paragraphs: Sony began its activity from a department store in Tokyo. At that time, 1946, the store was damaged by bombs. One engineer and one physicist invested a capital of about $1,600 to create a company which would include 20 employees. The name of the engineer was Masaru Ibuka and the name of the physicist was Akio Morita. People working in their new company repaired electrical equipment. Later they started creating their own products.

paragraphs: The company achieved success in 1954, when it received license that allowed producing transistors. Although transistors were already created in United States, they were not used in production of radios. Sony produced its first transistor radio in May of 1954.

paragraphs: From that period Sony started leading in the field of electronics. Its revolutionary devices included: Trinitron Color Television, created in 1968; color video cassette, produced in 1971 as well as the world's second home video system, created in 1975. Other revolutionary inventions of Sony include: 1979 – Walkman; 1981 – Electronic camera; 1982 – CD player; 1983 – Camcorder and the list continuous with many other devices. One of the most popular Sony products was Sony PlayStation, created in 1995. With its help Sony became the leader in videogames.

paragraphs: In 45 years Sony has grown from a small firm, employing 20 workers, to a multinational corporation, employing about 100,000 workers. The company created its American branch in 1960 and its UK branch in 1968. In recent years the company focused on leadership in software and hardware. Sony acquired, in 1988, CBS Records and formed Sony Music Entertainment. A year later the company bought Columbia Pictures to create Sony Pictures Entertainment.

paragraphs: Sony would later join forces with BMG to form "Sony BMG." BMG Music Publishing was sold to Universal in 2007. Sony bought all of BMG's record labels in 2008, ending the "BMG" name.


title: Xbox 360

paragraphs: The Xbox 360 is the second video game console released by Microsoft, after 2001's Xbox. It was released on November 16, 2005, 1462 days after the original Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes against the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3. All three are called next-generation or seventh generation consoles. The Xbox 360 was officially revealed on MTV on May 12, 2005. The successor to the Xbox 360, the Xbox One, was announced on May 21, 2013. Even though the Xbox One was released on November 22, 2013, the Xbox 360 continues to be sold.

paragraphs: Before Microsoft revealed the console's real name, it was called the Xbox 2, Xenon, Xbox Next, NextBox and other names. During the development, Microsoft, said it would launch the High-Definition era for video game consoles, promising visuals looks that would look better and much more real. The Xbox 360 uses standard DVD's to play games and other media.

paragraphs: The Xbox 360 was released in the United States and Canada on November 22, 2005 in Europe on December 2, 2005, and in Japan on December 10, 2005. It was later launched in Malaysia, Mexico, Colombia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, India, Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, and Russia. When the console was first released in North America, demand was more than the supplies and the console sold out at many stores. Many people sold the console on eBay for higher prices, and it was not until early 2006 that the Xbox 360 became more available in stores again.

paragraphs: A number of accessories can be purchased for the Xbox 360. These include both wired and wireless controllers, custom faceplates that cover the front of the console, headsets for chatting while online,a webcam, a steering wheel for driving games and various other accessories.

paragraphs: Kinect is a major accessory that Microsoft is planning for the Xbox 360. It is a new way to control games without a controller. Kinect is being developed, and may be in stores in late 2010. It has already won many awards. When it was first being made, it was called Project Natal.

paragraphs: The Xbox 360 is a multimedia console. It can play music and videos streamed or downloaded from a computer. It can also play DVDs and HD-DVDs if a HD-DVD Drive is connected. The Xbox 360 plays games on either a disc or on its hard drive. There are many games for Xbox 360.

paragraphs: The NXE (New Xbox Experience) update had many new features. One new feature is an avatar system. You can make the avatar look like you. The avatar is used in games and more. The menus were changed too. The NXE shows your friends and what they are doing. Another new feature is the ability to add people to an Xbox Live Party. People can talk online in a party. It does not matter if you are on the dashboard or playing another game, up to seven of your friends or anyone else can join a party. Another option is to add friends to the party and game, which will invite them to both your game and party.

paragraphs: Xbox Live now has Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm. You can use them on Xbox Live, but some features are different. 1080p High definition movies are also on Xbox Live. You can pay to download them.

paragraphs: The most recent update on the 360 was allowing users to input a USB memory device, allowing USB drives with memory over 1 GB to be used for storing data such as avatar items, or game saves, up to a maximum of 16 GB of data.

paragraphs: The white Arcade console breaks down a lot. When this happens, what is known as the Red Ring of Death (RRoD) appears: three of the four warning lights surrounding the power button on the console flash in red. The Red Ring of Death shows that there is a hardware problem, which usually means that the console no longer works. On later models for example, the Xbox 360 S, these three lights show that there is an over-heating problem.


title: Xbox (console)

paragraphs: The Xbox is a video game console (a machine that plays video games and DVDS). It was made by Microsoft from November 2001 to October 2005. A person plays the games with a controller. The controllers were very large in the beginning, but were made smaller later. The Xbox video game console can play music, DVDs, and games. Microsoft discontinued the Xbox because they made the next version of the Xbox, the Xbox 360. The Xbox was first discontinued in 2006 in Japan, later in 2007 in Europe, then in 2009 in the USA.

paragraphs: In 1998, four engineers from Microsoft's DirectX team, Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase and DirectX team leader Otto Berkes, took apart some Dell laptop computers to construct a prototype Microsoft Windows-based video game console. The team hoped to create a console to compete with Sony's upcoming PlayStation 2.

paragraphs: During development, the original DirectXbox name was shortened to Xbox. Microsoft's marketing department did not like the Xbox name, and suggested many alternatives.

paragraphs: Xbox was the first video game console by Microsoft. It was a very large video game console, and it had a cost of $299.99 in the United States. It was launched one year after the PlayStation 2 and at the same time as the Nintendo GameCube. was the first very popular game for the Xbox.


title: GameCube

paragraphs: The Nintendo GameCube (called GameCube, NGC, or GC for short) is the fourth video game home console made by Nintendo. Nintendo's previous console was called the Nintendo 64. Nintendo's next console is called the Nintendo Wii, released in 2006 with models released before November 2011 being backwards compatible with GameCube games. The last game for the console was "Madden NFL 08" (also released for the Wii and Nintendo DS), which was released on August 14, 2007. However, first-party development ended six months prior.

paragraphs: The GameCube also had many new features compared to other Nintendo video game consoles, and was the first Nintendo console to officially support Internet play (playing together without wires). It could also connect to the Game Boy Player to allow special features and play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games.

paragraphs: The console was released on September 14, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia. The GameCube sold 21.74 million units worldwide was discontinued in early 2009 to focus production on the Wii and DS.

paragraphs: The GameCube's controllers have two analog joysticks. In many games, one of them is used to control a character, while the other is used to control the camera, or some other secondary function. In addition to the analog sticks and the directional pad (D-pad), there are eight buttons: A, B, Y, X, L, R, Z, and Start.

paragraphs: Nintendo later released a wireless version of the controller, called the WaveBird. Instead of wires, it used RF signals to communicate with the console and was powered by standard AA batteries.

paragraphs: The Nintendo GameCube was known of its popular first games, which includes:


title: Fangame

paragraphs: Fangames are computer games created by fans based on popular video games. They are often made using C++, The Games Factory, Multimedia Fusion Express, and GameMaker. But now with free versions available of powerful game development tools available, some fangames are made in either Unity or Unreal Engine.


title: Wrocław

paragraphs: Wrocław is over 1000 years old. It was originally a Slavic town. During the Middle Ages it became a German city, but before that Wrocław was a Czech city. It was called Breslau for a long time. During the Second World War the city was badly damaged. About 70% of the buildings were damaged. Many of them were rebuilt. After the war, the city became Polish, and the German citizens were forced to leave. It has been called by its Polish name Wrocław ever since.

paragraphs: Johannes Brahms wrote his Academic Festival Overture to thank the University of Breslau in Wrocław. This was for an honorary doctorate he was awarded by the university.

paragraphs: Its population in 2004 was 638,000. There are 10 universities in the city. It is famous for its beautiful historical town square (Polish "rynek") and cathedral (large church).

paragraphs: In 1997 the Oder River flooded, causing a lot of damage.

paragraphs: 10 people from Wrocław have won the Nobel Prize. They are:


title: Lou Albano

paragraphs: Louis Vincent Albano (born July 29, 1933 - died October 14, 2009) was a very famous American professional wrestler in the 1980s. Albano is best known as Captain Lou Albano. He also appeared in Cyndi Lauper's music video "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and played Mario on "The Super Mario Brothers Super Show", based on the series of video games.


title: Lip synching

paragraphs: Lip synching is when a person moves his or her lips at the same time as a recorded sound or with another person. Some artists lip sync a live performance because they are not as confident and want to avoid hitting possible bad notes.

paragraphs: The word "synch" is short for "synchronize", meaning to do something at the same time.


title: Faith Evans

paragraphs: Faith Evans (born June 10, 1973 in Lakeland, Florida). She grew up in Newark New Jersey. She is an American R&B singer. Her first husband, "The Notorious B.I.G.", died in a drive-by shooting in 1997 . She has been arrested for cocaine and marijuana. Evans' album "R&B Divas" was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards.