title: We Ski

paragraphs: We Ski, also known as Family Ski in Japan and Europe is a video game for the Wii. It is the first third-party game (and second game behind "Wii Fit") released that makes use of the Wii Balance Board.

paragraphs: A sequel, "We Ski & Snowboard", which adds snowboarding to the game, was released in Japan November 13, 2008.


title: Denison, Texas

paragraphs: Denison is a city in Grayson County, Texas, United States. The amount of people living there was 22,773 at the 2000 census, but had increased to an estimated amount of 24,103 in July 2007. It is one of two principal cities in the Sherman-Denison Metropolitan Statistical Area.

paragraphs: The city of Denison was founded in 1872 in conjunction with the MKT or "Katy" depot It was named after the rich Katy vice President George DenisonBecause the town was made at the intersection of the MKT and the Red River (both important conduits of transportation in the industrial era), it came to be an important commercial center in the 19th century American West.

paragraphs: The name of Denison was given by French people because during the 19th century a horticulturalist from this place saved the grapes of France. During the same century a famous president of the USA, Dwight David Eisenhower was born there. The next century has contributed to Denison history because there was a conflict about some artworks that showed up in Denison in the 1980s.

paragraphs: Denison contains a population of around 24,000. For females we have 12,704 (52.9%) and for males 11,297 (47.1%). Median resident age is estimated at 38.5 years. In 2000, median house value was estimated at $52,100 and in 2008 median house hold income was estimated at $38,843.

paragraphs: Denison is a city of Texas. It has its own mayor named Robert Brady. Denison and all the state of Texas have two representative senators: John Coryn and Key Bailey Hutchison.

paragraphs: The diversity of religions and the government laws create the spread of different cultures and arts. Therefore, Denison was designated by the Texas Commission on the Arts as one of seven pilot cities for the Texas Arts and Cultural District in September 2009.


title: Mentha

paragraphs: Mentha (mint) is a genus of about 25 species (and many hundreds of varieties) of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae (Mint Family).


title: Lamiales

paragraphs: The order Lamiales is a taxon in the asterid group of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It includes about 11,000 species divided up into about 10 families. A few well-known members of this order are the lavender, the lilac, the olive, the jasmine, the ash tree, the teak, the snapdragon, and a number of table herbs such as mint, basil, and rosemary.


title: Lamiaceae

paragraphs: Lamiaceae or Labiatae, also known as the mint family, is a family of plants. It includes about 210 genera and about 3,500 species. It has been considered closely related to Verbenaceae but 1990s phylogenetic studies have shown that a lot of the genera classified in Verbenaceae belong instead in Lamiaceae, whereas the core genera of Verbenaceae are not closely related to Lamiaceae and are more closely related to other members of the Lamiales.


title: Nepeta

paragraphs: Nepeta is a genus of about 250 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae.

paragraphs: Some members of this group are known as catnip or catmint because of their effect on house cats. The oil in the leaves of some "Nepeta" species gives cats euphoria, that is, it makes them feel good. They get a "high", roll around, and may cry out, jump and behave in an unusual way.


title: Garden angelica

paragraphs: Garden angelica ("Angelica archangelica"; syn. "Archangelica officinalis" Hoffm., "Archangelica officinalis" var. "himalaica" C.B.Clarke, "Angelica sativa" Mill.) is a biennial plant from the umbelliferous family Apiaceae. Other English names are Holy Ghost, Wild Celery, and Norwegian angelica.

paragraphs: People can eat the stem and roots. It looks very similar to some poisonous species ("Conium", "Heracleum", and others). Because of this it is important to know for certain it is garden angelica before eating it.

paragraphs: During its first year it only grows leaves. The flowers blossom in July. There are many small flowers that are yellowish or greenish in colour.

paragraphs: It grows wild in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, mostly in the northern parts of the countries.

paragraphs: From the 10th century on, angelica was grown as a vegetable and medicinal plant. It is used to flavour liqueurs or aquavits, omelettes, trout and jam. The long bright green stems are also candied and used as decoration.


title: Rosemary

paragraphs: Rosemary ("") is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves. It is native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae, which also includes many other herbs.

paragraphs: Numerous cultivars have been selected for garden use. The following are frequently sold:


title: Liquorice

paragraphs: Liquorice (UK) or licorice (US) (see spelling differences) (, or ) is the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, from which a sweet flavour can be extracted. The liquorice plant is a legume (related to beans and peas) and native to southern Europe and parts of Asia. It is an herbaceous perennial, growing to 1 m in height, with pinnate leaves about 7–15 centimetres (3–6 inches) long, with 9–17 leaflets. The flowers are 0.8–1.2 cm (1/3 to 1/2 inch) long, purple to pale whitish blue, produced in a loose inflorescence. The fruit is an oblong pod, 2–3 centimetres (about 1 inch) long, containing several seeds.


title: Faboideae

paragraphs: Faboideae is a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family.

paragraphs: This subfamily is widely distributed and members are adapted to a wide variety of environments. Faboideae may be trees, shrubs or herbs. The flowers are usually papilionaceous and root nodulation is very common. Vetch, Laburnum, and Sweet pea are all members of Faboideae.


title: Galegeae

paragraphs: Galegeae is a tribe of the subfamily Faboideae. The tribe is found mostly in the northern hemisphere, but can also be found in Australia, Africa, and South America. The type genus is "Galega".


title: Glycyrrhiza

paragraphs: Glycyrrhiza is a genus of about 18 species in the family Fabaceae (Leguminosae). It is found in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. It is best known for liquorice (British English; licorice in American English), which is the product of "G. glabra", a species from the Mediterranean region. Very little "G. glabra" is grown in North America, but American Licorice "G. lepidota" is a common native species there. Russian Liquorice ("G. echinata") and Chinese Liquorice ("G. uralensis", Chinese: "gāncǎo", 甘草 lit. "sweet grass" or "sweet herb") are also grown, the latter being important in traditional Chinese medicine.


title: Cumin

paragraphs: Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) sometimes spelled cummin is a flowering plant, native from the east Mediterranean to East India. Its seeds are used in the cuisines of many different cultures. The use of cumin is very common in Indian and Pakistani foods.


title: Savory (herb)

paragraphs: Satureja is a genus of aromatic plants of the family Lamiaceae, related to rosemary and thyme. There are about 30 species called savories, of which Summer Savory and Winter Savory are the most important in cultivation.


title: Superchunk

paragraphs: Superchunk is an American indie rock band. Superchunk first came together in 1989 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with Mac McCaughan singing and playing guitar, Laura Balance playing bass, Jack McCook playing guitar and Chuck Garrison playing drums. The members of the band are now Mac McCaughan, Laura Balance, Jon Wurster playing drums and Jim Wilbur playing guitar.

paragraphs: Superchunk is well known for their style of loud and fairly simple songs that are about things that happen in ordinary life.

paragraphs: For their self-titled first album, Superchunk was signed to Matador Records. Starting with their next album, "No Pocky for Kitty", they have released all of their albums on a label they made themselves called Merge Records.


Semi-automatic


title: Semi-automatic firearm

paragraphs: A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a gun that requires only a trigger pull for each round that is fired, unlike a single-action revolver, a pump-action firearm, a bolt-action firearm, or a lever-action firearm, which require the shooter to manually chamber each successive round. Also, unlike a double-action revolver, power from one shot is used load the next, instead of using power from pulling the trigger.


title: Semi-automatic rifle

paragraphs: A semi-automatic rifle is a type of rifle that fires a single bullet each time the trigger is pulled, without the need manually to operate a bolt, lever, pump or other firing or loading mechanism. Such a rifle can fire single rounds like this until the firearm's bullets in the cartridges is gone. On the other hand, a "fully" automatic weapon (a machine gun, for example) keeps firing until the trigger is released, and can fire hundreds of shots for every trigger press.


title: Bolt action

paragraphs: A bolt action gun has a breech (back part of the barrel) that is opened and closed by hand with a small handle. They can only be fired once before the breech must be opened for a new round to enter the chamber, where it can then be fired from. Many older sniper rifles, as well as many hunting rifles today, work in this way.

paragraphs: When the bolt is opened, the first cartridge in the gun is loaded. After firing the gun, opening the bolt takes out the empty cartridge, and closing the bolt puts in a new one. Bolt action rifles are usually the most accurate type of small arms, leading them to be used widely as marksman rifles. The rifle won't cycle a round without the shooter doing it manually, causing less movement of parts and gases while the round is being fired. This improves accuracy, but also increases recoil compared to automatic rifles of the same caliber.

paragraphs: Despite being significantly slower to fire than lever-action rifles, which were invented around the same time, militaries across the world chose to replace their muzzleloader muskets with bolt action guns rather than lever action ones, because bolt action rifles are loaded over the barrel. This allows easier loading by a shooter lying on the ground, without affecting aim. With lever action guns, on the other hand, the ground is in the way of loading downwards, and to load the gun would mean to throw off the shooter's aim since the gun must be turned sideways.

paragraphs: Famous bolt action rifles include the Springfield M1903, the G98, the Lee-Enfield, and the Mosin-Nagant.


Trigger


title: Trigger (firearms)

paragraphs: A trigger is a mechanism that you pull on a firearm to shoot. Triggers almost always have levers or buttons for the index finger.


title: Afghanistan War

paragraphs: The terms Afghan War or War in Afghanistan may mean:


title: Diatomic molecules

paragraphs: Diatomic molecules are molecules made only of two atoms, of either the same or different chemical elements.

paragraphs: Two atoms are bonded together to form a unit known as a diatomic molecule.

paragraphs: Examples are hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O), and carbon monoxide (CO).


title: Fragile Future

paragraphs: Fragile Future is the third album by Hawthorne Heights. It was released in 2008. It was their first album without Casey Calvert, because he died in late 2007. Casey was the backing vocalist who used death growls in the songs. This album has no death growls or harsh vocals at all because the band decided not to replace Casey with a new person who could do death growls.

paragraphs: Hawthorne Heights did not have a lot of success on the singles, but it was seen as a new start for the band.

paragraphs: While much of the album was inspired by things that had been happening to the band, it never says the words "Casey" or "Victory Records"

paragraphs: The album art includes a picture of Casey Calvert near a lamppost.


title: Dundalk

paragraphs: Dundalk () is a town in County Louth, Republic of Ireland, near the border with Northern Ireland. It takes its name from , "Dalga's fort" and officially became a town in 1189. It is located at a ford on the Castletown River. The town's crest reads "Mé do rug Cú Chulainn Cróga" (I gave birth to brave Cú Chulainn)

paragraphs: Dundalk is twinned with the town of Rezé in France.

paragraphs: Dundalk has a large population of 29,037 inhabitants. In 2003, Dundalk was amongst nine cities and towns to be given "Gateway status" in the Irish Government's "National Spatial Strategy". "Gateway towns" will be the first to get funding for improving their towns.


title: County Louth

paragraphs: County Louth () is a county on the east coast of Ireland, on the border with Northern Ireland.

paragraphs: The county town is Dundalk, which is also the largest town in Louth. Most people that live in Louth live in the two biggest towns, Dundalk and Drogheda. The 2006 Census showed that Dundalk and Drogheda as not only the largest towns in the Louth, but also the second and third largest towns in Ireland.

paragraphs: Louth is nicknamed "the Wee County" because it is the smallest county in Ireland ("wee" means small).

paragraphs: The old Irish name of the county Lughbhaidh comes from the place where people worshipped the Celtic god whose festival was celebrated at .

paragraphs: The name is now spelled as An Lú. This is just the modern way of spelling Lughbhaidh. 'Lú' means 'small' in Irish, but this is not where the name comes from.

paragraphs: The history of Louth goes back a long time. Before people wrote down histories and dates, a famous Irish story is supposed to have happened in Louth. It is called the Táin Bó Cúailge. In this story, a famous warrior called Cúchulainn fights a whole army by himself to protect a brown bull from being stolen.

paragraphs: There are some old monasteries in the county including Monasterboice and Mellifont Abbey

paragraphs: In the fourteenth century the Scottish army of Edward Bruce lost the Battle of Faughart near Dundalk. Edward was killed in the battle. Oliver Cromwell attacked Drogheda in 1649 killing the Royalist garrison (Siege of Drogheda).


title: Robot Chicken

paragraphs: Robot Chicken is a comedy stop-motion television series. It is shown on a part of Cartoon Network called "Adult Swim". It was created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.


title: Victor Hammer (businessman)

paragraphs: Victor Hammer (1901 in New York City - July 21, 1985), was a businessman, founder and owner of the famed Hammer Galleries in New York City, and the younger brother of Armand Hammer.

paragraphs: Victor attended Princeton University, where he graduated in 1921 with a degree in Art History.

paragraphs: Victor was business partner to his brother Armand Hammer on several business ventures, including Hammer Galleries in New York City, founded in 1928 as a way to funnel profits made in Soviet Russia out of that country. At one point, British Intelligence believed Hammer Galleries was a front for Soviet Intelligence. The Hammer brothers had been in contact with Soviet authorities for a number of reasons, such as famine relief as well as when the Soviets sought a buyer for the treasures of the Hermitage as a way to earn hard currency. Victor was responsible for acquisitions for Hammer Galleries, including the so-called Romanov Treasures and Fabergé eggs. In 1937, Time Magazine described Victor and Armand as "Two of the most startling characters in the U. S. art world are the Brothers Armand and Victor Hammer, one with a medical degree, both friends of Soviet Russia.".

paragraphs: Victor Hammer was a prolific philanthropist. He, along with his brothers Harry and Armand, purchased Campobello Island and donated it to the US and Canada as the countries' first joint park, known as Roosevelt Campobello International Park


title: MySims

paragraphs: MySims is a video game for the Wii and Nintendo DS.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

paragraphs: The Sun is a tabloid daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland. By circulation it is the eighth largest newspaper in any language in the world. It is published by News Group Newspapers of News International, itself a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. The Sun has many different categories, for example Sport.

paragraphs: There is also a Scottish ("The Scottish Sun"), Irish ("The Irish Sun") and Polish (the "Polski Sun") edition.


title: M2 Browning

paragraphs: The M2 Machine Gun, or Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun is a heavy machine gun. It was nicknamed "Ma Deuce" by US troops or simply called "fifty-cal." due to its caliber.

paragraphs: John Moses Browning (1855–1926) of Ogden, Utah, was the inventor. His military arms were considered to be outstanding. German Field Marshal Hermann Göring said, "If the "Luftwaffe" (German Air Force) had the Browning .50-caliber, the Battle of Britain would have turned out differently".

paragraphs: Browning began work on the .50-caliber machine gun in July 1917 and it was introduced in 1918. It was a belt-fed, automatic weapon that came in both air-cooled and water-cooled versions. The gun was capable of single-shot or fully automatic fire. The U.S. Army, Army Air Forces, and Navy all adopted it immediately.

paragraphs: The Browning .50 caliber machine gun has been used as a vehicle weapon and for aircraft by the United States from the 1920s to the present day. It was used during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, as well as during operations in Iraq in the 1990s and 2000s. It is the primary heavy machine gun of NATO countries, and has been used by many other countries. It is still in use today, with only a few modern improvements. Right now, it is the longest serving machine gun in the US military.


title: Stealth

paragraphs: Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles


title: Stealth technology

paragraphs: Stealth technology also known as LOT (Low Observability Technology) is a sub-discipline of military (like Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard and National Guard in the North American United States) electronic countermeasures which covers a range of techniques used with aircraft, ships and missiles, in order to make them less visible.

paragraphs: For example, stealth technology was developed to make aircraft difficult to detect with radar.


title: Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians

paragraphs: The Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) is a political party created by Makhdoom Amin Fahim. The party is an electoral extension of the Pakistan Peoples Party.


title: Bangladesh Nationalist Party

paragraphs: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ জাতীয়তাবাদী দল Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Dôl, BNP) is the immediate past ruling political party of Bangladesh.


title: Rosmarinus

paragraphs: Rosmarinus is a small genus of woody, perennial herb with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves in the family Lamiaceae, native to the Mediterranean region.


title: Apiales

paragraphs: The Apiales are an order of flowering plants. The families given at right are typical of newer classifications, though there is some slight variation, and in particular the Torriceliaceae may be divided. These families are placed within the asterid group of dicotyledons.


title: Apiaceae

paragraphs: The Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of usually aromatic plants with hollow stems, commonly known as umbellifers. It includes cumin, parsley, carrot, coriander/cilantro, dill, caraway, fennel, parsnip, celery, anise, Queen Anne's Lace and other relatives. It is a large family with about 300 genera and more than 3,000 species.

paragraphs: The family includes a number of food plants, and a number of poisonous plants. Several poisonous plants go by the name of hemlock, and have rather similar paralysing effects.


title: Angelica

paragraphs: Angelica is a genus of about 50 species of tall biennial and perennial herbs in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, reaching as far North as Iceland and Lapland. They grow to 1-3 m tall, with large bipinnate leaves and large compound umbels of white or greenish-white flowers.

paragraphs: Some species can be found in Purple Moor and Rush Pastures.


title: Blephilia

paragraphs: Blephilia ("Downy Pagoda Plant" or "Wood Mint") is a genus of three species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. They are all herbaceous plants native to eastern North America. The species are most often found in thin woods and in granite and limestone soils. Blephilia hirsuta and Blephilia ciliata are considered threatened or endangered in some states.


title: Ballota

paragraphs: Ballota (horehound) is a genus of about 35 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, native to temperate regions of Europe, north Africa and western Asia, with the highest diversity in the Mediterranean region. They are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera including "Coleophora" case-bearers: "C. ballotella", "C. lineolea" (which has been recorded on "B. nigra") and "C. ochripennella".

paragraphs: The genus is closely related to "Marrubium", with some species having been included in that genus in the past.


title: Agastache

paragraphs: Agastache, is a genus of 9–12 species of perennial herbs in the family Lamiaceae, native to eastern Asia (one species) and North America (the rest).


title: Acrocephalus (plant)

paragraphs: Acrocephalus is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae, containing about 130 species.


title: Acinos

paragraphs: Acinos is a genus of ten species of annual and short-lived evergreen perennial woody plants native to southern Europe and western Asia. Its name comes from the Greek word "akinos", the name of a small aromatic plant. They are small, tufted, bushy or spreading plants growing to 10–45 cm tall. The 2-lipped, tubular flowers are borne on erect sprikes in mid-summer.


title: Acanthomintha

paragraphs: Acanthomintha is a genus of the Lamiaceae, or mint family. The "Acanthomintha" genus is commonly referred to as Thornmint. There are a number of species within this genus, including the endangered species "Acanthomintha duttonii". All four thornmints are native to the California Floristic Province. The origin of the genus name is from the identical Greek word meaning "thornmint".

paragraphs: There are four species of "Acanthomintha":


title: Franz von Papen

paragraphs: Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen (29 October 1879 - 2 May 1969) was a German nobleman, Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat. He was Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor in 1933-1934. He was a member of the Catholic Centre Party of Germany until 1932. Papen was one the people who said that they could control Adolf Hitler when he becomes Chancellor of Germany.

paragraphs: Von Papen was one of the 24 people charged at the Nuremberg Trials. The court decided he was not guilty.

paragraphs: Before and during the war he was an ambassador, from 1934 to 1938 in Austria, and from 1939 to 1944 in Turkey.


title: Lemon balm

paragraphs: Lemon balm ("Melissa officinalis") is a perennial herb in the mint family Lamiaceae, native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean region. It grows to 70–150 cm tall. The leaves have a gentle lemon scent, related to mint. At the end of the summer, little white flowers full of nectar appear and attract bees. Its flavour comes from the terpenes citronellal, citronellol, citral, and geraniol.


title: Bronchitis

paragraphs: Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi caused by irritation. It may also refer to acute bronchitis or chronic bronchitis. It can be caused by infection or other causes such as smoking, or being exposed to cigarettes.


title: Common year

paragraphs: A common year is a year that is not a leap year. In the Gregorian calendar a common year has 365 days. This means a common year has 52 weeks and one day. So if a certain year started on a Monday, the following year will start on a Tuesday. Stated differently, a common year always begins and ends on the same day of the week. (For example, in 2009, both January 1 and December 31 fell on a Thursday.)

paragraphs: In the Gregorian calendar, 303 out of every 400 years are common years. In the Julian calendar, 300 out of every 400 years were common years. All the other years are special and known as leap years.

paragraphs: There are 7 months with 31 days. There are 4 months with 30 days. There is 1 month with 28 days. In the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, every 4 years there is 29 days in February which is called a leap year. This happens because every year is 365 and 1/4 days but instead of us having a spare quarter of a day in each year we add them all up every 4 years and make an extra day to avoid confusion and make things easier for everyone.

paragraphs: In the Gregorian Calendar, which was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, because the Julian calendar added a bit too many years, three leap years were removed for every 400 years. These are those that are multiples of 100, but not multiples of 400. Thus, in the Gregorian calendar, 2004 is a leap year even though 2003 and 2005 are not, 1900 is not a leap year even though 1904 and 1896 are, and 2000 is a leap year even though 1900 and 2100 are not.


title: Decade

paragraphs: A decade (pronounce: DEK-aid) is a period of 10 years. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word for ten: "deka". 10 decades make a century, while 100 decades make a millennium. A decade is any 10 year period: There are different ways to refer to different groupings of ten years. For example, the period from 2001 to 2010 can be described as the 1st decade of the 21st century. An individual who has been alive two full decades is referred to as being in their 20s for the next decade of their life, from age 20 to 29. Decades are also considered specific groups of ten years sharing the same tens digit, identified by name, as in the nineteen-eighties (1980s) referring to the period from 1980 to 1989 and the nineteen-nineties (1990s) referring to the period from 1990 to 1999. This is the sense meant when someone refers to decades without other context, for example saying 'next decade' in any year between 2020 and 2029 would indicate the 2030s. Sometimes this is shortened to just the decade, where the context is clear, as in the eighties (80s) or the nineties (90s). No apostrophe is used before the s in the names of these decades.

paragraphs: Some decades also have nicknames, such as the Roaring Twenties (1920s), the Gay Nineties (1890s) (US), the Naughty Nineties (1890s) (UK), and the Swinging Sixties (1960s).


title: 19th century

paragraphs: The 19th century is the century from 1801 to 1900. Most of this century is normally called the Victorian period because Queen Victoria ruled the United Kingdom.

paragraphs: The Industrial Revolution started in this century in most western countries. George Burns was also born in the 19th century until he died at the age of 100 in 1996.

paragraphs: Note: Years before or after the 19th century are in italics.


title: 21st century

paragraphs: The 21st century started on January 1, 2001 and will end on December 31, 2100. It is the current century.

paragraphs: Note: movie years before or after the twenty-first century are in "italics".


title: Ijtihad

paragraphs: Ijtihad is the process of reaching a legal decision on the basis of one's own interpretation of Islamic law. The word is related to the better-known "jihad".


title: Standard temperature and pressure

paragraphs: In order to be able to reproduce experiments, standard conditions for temperature and pressure have been defined in different fields of science. Very often these are also called standard temperature and pressure. The table below gives some examples:


title: STP

paragraphs:
STP usually refers to:
STP may also refer to:


title: Jungle

paragraphs: The jungle is a place in a rain forest where the forest floor is crowded with plants. Like other rainy places, they have many rivers or streams. Scientists think that more types of animals and plants live in the jungles than everywhere else. When people talk about jungles, they sometimes mean the whole rainforest.

paragraphs: The crowding in a jungle leaves little room to walk. This may make it dangerous to people.


title: Light

paragraphs: Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength which can be detected by the human eye. It is a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum and radiation given off by stars like the sun. Animals can also see light. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics. When light hits an opaque object it forms a shadow.

paragraphs: Light is electromagnetic radiation that shows properties of both waves and particles. Light is a form of energy.Light also keeps the Earth warm. Light exists in tiny energy packets called photons. Each wave has a wavelength or frequency. The human eye sees each wavelength as a different color. Rainbows show the entire spectrum of visible light. The separate colors, moving in from the outer edges, are usually listed as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Other colors can be seen only with special cameras or instruments: Wavelengths below the frequency of red are called infrared, and higher than of violet are called ultraviolet.

paragraphs: The other main properties of light are intensity, polarization, phase and orbital angular momentum.

paragraphs: In physics, the term "light" sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not. This article is about visible light. Read the electromagnetic radiation article for the general concept.

paragraphs: The law of reflection is what allows us to see an object reflected in a mirror.

paragraphs: In a vacuum, light moves at the speed of light, which is 299,792,458 meters per second (or about 186,282 miles per second). This means it takes about 8 minutes for light to reach Earth from the Sun. In glass it travels at about two-thirds as fast.

paragraphs: Light moves in a straight line, creating shadows when the path of light is blocked. More solid things will have a darker shadow, things that are more clear have a lighter shadow, and transparent things will have none or very little shadow. Light can pass through transparent things the most easily. When light is not in a vacuum, it travels more slowly than its maximum speed of light. The slowest light ever recorded moved at 39 miles per hour.

paragraphs: Our eyes react to light; when we see something we see the light it reflects, or the light it emits. For example, a lamp gives off light, and everything else in the same room as the lamp reflects its light.

paragraphs: Every color of light has a different wavelength. The shorter the wavelength, the more energy the light has. The speed at which light moves does not depend on its energy. Going through partly clear objects can slow light down by a very small amount.

paragraphs: White light is made up of many different colors of light added together. When white light shines through a prism, it splits up into different colors, becoming a spectrum. The spectrum contains all of the wavelengths of light that we can see. Red light has the longest wavelength, and violet (purple) light has the shortest.

paragraphs: Light with a wavelength shorter than violet is called ultraviolet light. X-rays and gamma rays are also forms of light with even shorter wavelengths than ultraviolet. Light with a wavelength longer than red is called infrared light. Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength even longer than infrared light. The microwaves that are used to heat food in a microwave oven are also a form of electromagnetic radiation. Our eyes cannot see those kinds of energy, but there are some cameras that can see them. The various forms of light, both visible and invisible are the electromagnetic spectrum.

paragraphs: When light is refracted in raindrops, a rainbow is made. The raindrop acts like a prism and refracts the light until we can see the colors of the spectrum.

paragraphs: Light and color are forms of analog information. However, electronic cameras and computer displays work with digital information. Electronic cameras or document scanners make a digital version of a color image by separating out the full color image into separate red, green, and blue images. Later, a digital display uses pixels of just those three colors. Computer screens use only these three colors in different brightness levels. The brain combines them to see all of the other colors in the image.

paragraphs: People think of objects as having color. This is because the molecules that make up the object absorb certain light waves, leaving the other light waves to bounce off. The human eye sees the wavelengths of all of the light that was not absorbed, and the combination of those leaves the brain with the impression of a color.


title: Stockholm

paragraphs: Stockholm is the capital city of Sweden. It is also the biggest city in Sweden. It is on the east coast of the country. The city is built on islands, with canals and open water in the inner city. Stockholm is found between Sweden's third largest lake, Mälaren, and the Baltic Sea.

paragraphs: Tyresta National Park is near Stockholm.

paragraphs: Central Stockholm has four different parts - Kungsholmen, Södermalm, Norrmalm and Östermalm. Kungsholmen and Södermalm are islands, while Norrmalm and Östermalm are parts of the mainland. Also, there are several smaller islands in the inner city - Gamla Stan, Riddarholmen, Djurgården and Skeppsholmen. Since Stockholm has so many islands, it is sometimes referred to as the "Venice of the North".

paragraphs: Gamla Stan is the oldest part of the city - the name means "Old Town", and is usually called that in English. Djurgården is mostly a large park, but there are buildings on the island. Most of these are museums that commemorate Sweden's and Stockholm's past - like Skansen, a zoo with a Swedish theme. Skeppsholmen is an island that used to be a training ground and military school, but most of the buildings are now used for museums and art galleries, such as the Modern Museum, or the East Asian museum. Riddarholmen is a part of Gamla Stan, but actually a different island.

paragraphs: All of the islands in Stockholm are connected by several bridges. The biggest one is Västerbron, going from Kungsholmen to Södermalm.

paragraphs: Birger Jarl is considered the founder of Stockholm. It is believed that he rebuilt a defense building in the 13th century on what is today the island of the Old town. Around the fortification, a town grew. The town grew mainly because of its sea and land trading.

paragraphs: The last Wikimania conference is hosted in this city in 2019.


title: Rain

paragraphs: Rain is a kind of precipitation. Precipitation is any kind of water that falls from clouds in the sky, like rain, hail, sleet and snow. It is measured by a rain gauge. Rain is part of the water cycle.

paragraphs: Clouds will often absorb smoke to create rain, commonly referred to as "nature's laundry" due to this process.

paragraphs: Some places have frequent rain. This makes rainforests. Some have little rain. This makes deserts.

paragraphs: A rainstorm is a sudden heavy fall of rain. It may cause flash floods in valleys. Heavy rain for a long time may make floods that destroy houses and drown people. Also, landslides may happen.

paragraphs: When the Sun heats the Earth's surface, the ground heats the air above it. Convection makes the air rise and cool. When it cools to the dew point, clouds form and rain follows.This usually occurs on flat land. This type of rainfall often causes summer showers and thunderstorms.

paragraphs: Relief rain usually occurs along coastal areas where a line of hills runs along the coast. When wet onshore wind from the sea meets a mountain, hill or any other sort of barrier, it is forced to rise along the slope and cools. When the air temperature falls to its dew point, water vapour condenses to form clouds. When the clouds can no longer hold the water droplets, relief rain begins to fall on the windward slope of the mountain. On the leeward slope, air sinks, it is warmed and further dried by compression. Therefore, the leeward slope is known as rain shadow. Moist winds blow in from the sea and are forced to rise over the land. The air cools and the water vapour condenses, forming rain drops. The rainiest places in the world are places that have relief rainfall.

paragraphs: Frontal rain happens when cooler air and warmer, humid air meet in a weather front. The less dense warm air rises and condenses forming clouds. These clouds grow and eventually create rain. In some places on the northern temperate zone the cold air front tends to come from the north west and the warm air front comes from the south west.

paragraphs: Some people collect rain in a rainwater tank. People use rainwater for watering plants, cleaning the house, bathing, or drinking. It is not always safe to drink rainwater. It can have bacteria, parasites, viruses, and chemicals that could make people sick.


title: Gambling

paragraphs: Gambling is a contest where a player bets on the result of an event. The bet is generally in the form of money. The rules and the amount of money bet have to be decided on before the event happens.

paragraphs: There are three variables common to all gambling.

paragraphs: There are many types of gambling. Casino games, sports betting (especially horse racing), and state lotteries are some of the most common forms of gambling. Investments, such as stocks, bonds and real estate, are also sometimes considered forms of gambling. Generally, the odds are not in favor of the gambler.

paragraphs: Many people gamble for fun and entertainment. For others it becomes an addiction and a financial burden. Gambling addiction is a serious mental health issue that can become life-threatening. People with a gambling problem should seek help. Research shows that older people are more vulnerable and how the brain can get addicted to gambling.

paragraphs: Gambling regulation differs in different countries. Some have established specific legal institutions. However, some countries have only overseeing laws. A well-known executive institution is The Gambling Commission in the UK. Its main function is controlling commercial gambling in partnership with people in charge of licensing. An example of strict ruling is the Gambling Law in the USA. The law decides gaming rules for local, state, and federal businesses.

paragraphs: In some places, such as mainland China, gambling is illegal. Chinese people cannot do so inside their country, so they go outside of it, such as to Macau, which is known as the "gambling capital of the world" because of its many big casinos. Other countries and local governments, such as Hong Kong, have some kind of gambling control board to make sure people don't gamble too much while allowing them to gamble.


title: Monty Python

paragraphs: Monty Python, also known as The Pythons, is a group of British comic actors. They have acted in several comedy movies (most famously, Monty Python and the Holy Grail). They had a television show, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" between 1969 and 1974, which is still well-known and watched around the world.

paragraphs: The members of Monty Python are: John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes regularly appeared in their movies.

paragraphs: Monty Python started with their first movie, "And Now For Something Completely Different", and finished with their final movie, "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life".


title: Time zone

paragraphs: Time zones give specific areas on the Earth a time of day that is earlier or later than the neighboring time zones. This is because when it is daytime on one side of the earth, it is night-time on the other side. There are 24 time zones dividing the earth into different times, each with its own name, like the North American Eastern Time Zone. The North American Eastern Time Zone contains large cities in North America like New York City and Miami.

paragraphs: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) began in 1675. This was when the Royal Observatory, Greenwich was built to help ships find their longitude at sea. GMT was a standard reference for time keeping when each city kept a different local time. When railways began carrying many people quickly among cities keeping different time, they adopted time zones to simplify operations. By about 1900, almost all time on earth was in the form of standard time zones.

paragraphs: Greenwich Mean Time is now called UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). UTC is the time standard of the world. All other parts of the world are offset (plus or minus) according to their longitude. Most of the zones are offset by a full hour, but there are some offset by half an hour or 45 minutes.

paragraphs: In some parts of the world they follow the Daylight Saving Time (DST), and during this period of time in summer they add one hour to their normal solar hour.

paragraphs: In the poles, the time is UTC in the North Pole and UTC+12 in the South Pole.

paragraphs: The time zones are numbered in relation to the UTC, so in Los Angeles the time zone will be UTC−8, in London UTC+0, in Rome UTC+1, and in New Delhi UTC+5:30.


title: Market

paragraphs: A market is a place where people go to buy or sell things. When people have products to sell, they set up a market place. There may be a special building for the market place, or the market may be held in an open space where the sellers can put up a stall (like a kind of tent) and then take the stall down at the end of the day.

paragraphs: The word market can also have a more general meaning in the economy. It can mean the way things are bought or sold. "There is a big market for dishwashers" means that lots of people want to buy dishwashers, so therefore a business that makes dishwashers is likely to be able to make a lot of money. When things are sold, people buy the product, and this "stimulates the economy" (helps people to spend and earn money). The market needs to balance supply and demand. There is no point in supplying (making) lots of dishwashers if people do not want them. In the market prices may change quickly if supply or demand changes.

paragraphs: If a seller of a good cannot supply what customers want or ask for too high of a price, other sellers may try to supply that good. If other sellers enter the market for that good, in competition, that will tend to fulfill demand and lower prices. Sellers who do not like competition may try to kill the competition. This would establish a monopoly, and many countries have laws to protect the free market against such practices.


title: Electron

paragraphs: An electron is a very small piece of matter and energy. Its symbol is e. It was discovered by J. J.Thomson in 1897.

paragraphs: The electron is a subatomic particle. It is believed to be an elementary particle because it cannot be broken down into anything smaller. It is negatively charged, and may move almost at the speed of light.

paragraphs: Electrons take part in gravitational, electromagnetic and weak interactions. The electricity that powers televisions, motors, mobile phones, and many other things is actually many electrons moving through wires or other conductors.

paragraphs: Electrons have the smallest electrical charge. This electrical charge equals the charge of a proton, but has the opposite sign. For this reason, electrons are attracted by the protons of atomic nuclei and usually form atoms.

paragraphs: An electron has a mass of about 1/1836 times a proton.

paragraphs: One way to think about the location of electrons in an atom is to imagine that they orbit at fixed distances from the nucleus. This way, electrons in an atom exist in a number of electron shells surrounding the central nucleus. Each electron shell is given a number 1, 2, 3, and so on, starting from the one closest to the nucleus (the innermost shell). Each shell can hold up to a certain maximum number of electrons. The distribution of electrons in the various shells is called electronic arrangement (or electronic form or shape). Electronic arrangement can be shown by numbering or an electron diagram. (A different way to think about the location of electrons is to use quantum mechanics to calculate their atomic orbitals.)The electron is one of a type of subatomic particles called leptons. The electron has a negative electric charge. The electron has another property, called spin. Its spin value is 1/2, which makes it a fermion.

paragraphs: While most electrons are found in atoms, others move independently in matter, or together as cathode rays in a vacuum. In some superconductors, electrons move in pairs. When electrons flow, this flow is called electricity, or an electric current.

paragraphs: An object can be described as 'negatively charged' if there are more electrons than protons in an object, or 'positively charged' when there are more protons than electrons. Electrons can move from one object to another when touched. They may be attracted to another object with opposite charge, or repelled when they both have the same charge. When an object is 'grounded', electrons from the charged object go into the ground, making the object neutral. This is what lightning rods (lightning conductors) do.

paragraphs: Electrons in their shells round an atom are the basis of chemical reactions. Complete outer shells, with maximum electrons, are less reactive. Outer shells with less than maximum electrons are reactive. The number of electrons in atoms is the underlying basis of the chemical periodic table.

paragraphs: Electric "charge" can be directly measured with a device called an . Electric "current" can be directly measured with a galvanometer. The measurement given off by a galvanometer is different from the measurement given off by an . Today laboratory instruments are capable of containing and observing individual electrons.

paragraphs: In laboratory conditions, the interactions of individual electrons can be observed by means of particle detectors, which allow measurement of specific properties such as energy, spin and charge. In one instance a was used to contain a single electron for 10 months. The magnetic moment of the electron was measured to a precision of eleven digits, which, in 1980, was a greater accuracy than for any other physical constant.

paragraphs: The first video images of an electron's energy distribution were captured by a team at Lund University in Sweden, February 2008. The scientists used extremely short flashes of light, called attosecond pulses, which allowed an electron's motion to be observed for the first time. The distribution of the electrons in solid materials can also be visualized.

paragraphs: The antiparticle of the electron is called a positron. This is identical to the electron, but carries electrical and other charges of the opposite sign. When an electron collides with a positron, they may scatter off each other or be totally annihilated, producing a pair (or more) of gamma ray photons.

paragraphs: The effects of electrons were known long before it could be explained. The Ancient Greeks knew that rubbing amber against fur attracted small objects. Now we know the rubbing strips off electrons, and that gives an electric charge to the amber.

paragraphs: Many physicists worked on the electron. J.J. Thomson proved it existed, in 1897, but another man gave it the name 'electron'.

paragraphs: The model views electrons as holding indeterminate positions in a diffuse cloud around the nucleus of the atom.

paragraphs: The uncertainty principle means a person cannot know an electron's position and energy level at the same time. These potential states form a cloud around the atom. The potential states of electrons in a single atom form a single, uniform cloud.


title: Chile

paragraphs: Chile (officially called Republic of Chile) is a country on the south-western side of South America. Most people there speak Spanish.

paragraphs: Chile, which claims a part of the Antarctic continent, is the longest country on earth. The Atacama Desert, in the north of the country, is the driest place on earth. The average rainfall there is less than per year. The center of Chile, with the two cities Santiago and Valparaíso, has a Mediterranean climate with an average temperatures of in January and in July. In the middle of Chile, the country is very good for growing things.

paragraphs: There are about 16.9 million people living in Chile in 2009. About 10 million people live in the center of Chile around Valparaíso and Santiago, on about 20% of the total land.

paragraphs: Chile is a well-educated country. Only 2.7% are not able to read or write. Some believe that Chile has one of the best school systems in South America.

paragraphs: About 95% of Chileans are people with a combination of European descent, mostly Spanish, but also German, English, Italian and Arab people. Around 2% of the population is Native American, but most people have native ancestors. Immigrants are 7% of the population. including Peruvians, Bolivians, Colombians, Haitians, Chinese and Europeans. The majority of people are Roman Catholic (62.8%), but many do not go to church. About 10% are Protestant, and there are some Jews and Muslims as well. The country's official language is Spanish. Chili peppers, first cultivated by Native Americans from other Latin American countries and the United States, did not come from this country, although it has a similar name.

paragraphs: Chile borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. It is over north to south, but only at its widest point east to west.

paragraphs: The northern Atacama Desert has great mineral wealth, mostly copper and nitrates. Chile is the largest producer of copper. The Andes Mountains are on the eastern border.

paragraphs: Chile controls Easter Island and Sala y Gómez Island, the easternmost islands of Polynesia.

paragraphs: Only a few of the many distinctive South American animals are found in Chile. Among the larger mammals are the puma or cougar, the llama-like guanaco and the fox-like chilla. In the forest region, several types of marsupials and a small deer known as the pudu are found.

paragraphs: There are many species of small birds, but not most of the larger common Latin American types. Few freshwater fish are from Chile, but North American trout have been successfully introduced into the Andean lakes. The coast of Chile is close to the Humboldt Current, so ocean waters have many fish and other forms of marine life. This in turn supports a rich variety of waterfowl, including several penguins. There are many whales, and six species of seals in the area.

paragraphs: Just over 3,000 species of fungi are recorded in Chile. This number is far from complete. The true total number of fungal species in Chile is likely to be far higher. The generally accepted estimate is that only about 7 percent of all fungi worldwide have so far been discovered.

paragraphs: The northernmost coastal and central region is largely empty of vegetation. It is the most close to an absolute desert in the world. On the slopes of the Andes, besides the scattered tola desert brush, grasses are found. The central valley has several species of cacti, the hardy espinos (a kind of acacia tree), the Chilean pine, the southern beeches and the copihue, a red bell-shaped flower that is Chile's national flower.

paragraphs: In southern Chile, south of the Biobío River lots of rain has made dense forests of laurels, magnolias, and various species of conifers and beeches, which become smaller and more stunted to the south.

paragraphs: The cold temperatures and winds of the extreme south make it impossible for heavy forestation. Grassland is found in Atlantic Chile (in Patagonia).

paragraphs: Much of the Chilean plant life is different from that of neighboring Argentina. This shows that the Andean barrier existed during the formation of Chile.

paragraphs: Chile is divided into 16 regions. The regions are then divided into provinces. Each province is divided into communes.

paragraphs: Chileans call their country "país de poetas"-country of poets. Gabriela Mistral was the first Latin American to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature (1945). Chile's most famous poet, however, is Pablo Neruda. He also received the Nobel Prize for Literature (1971).

paragraphs: Among the list of other Chilean poets are Lily Garafulic, Vicente Huidobro, Pablo Simonetti, and Paulo Coloane. Isabel Allende is the best-selling Chilean novelist, with 51 millions of her novels sold worldwide. Novelist José Donoso's novel "The Obscene Bird of the Night" is said by critic Harold Bloom to be one of the important works of 20th century Western literature. Another internationally recognized Chilean novelist is Roberto Bolaño. His translations into English have had an excellent reception from the critics.

paragraphs: Chilean food shows the differences in the land across the country. There is an assortment of seafood, beef, fruits, and vegetables. Traditional recipes include asado, cazuela, empanadas, humitas, pastel de choclo, pastel de papas, curanto and sopaipillas.

paragraphs: Crudos is an example of the mixture of culinary additions from the various ethnic groups in Chile. Onions were brought by the Spanish colonists, and the use of mayonnaise and yogurt was introduced by German immigrants, as was beer.

paragraphs: Chile's most popular sport is association football. Chile has been in eight FIFA World Cups which includes hosting the 1962 FIFA World Cup. Other results by the national football team include four finals at the Copa América, one silver and two bronze medals at the Pan American Games, a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics and two third places finishes in the FIFA under-17 and under-20 youth tournaments. The top league in the Chilean football league system is the Chilean Primera División. It was named by the IFFHS in 2011 as the ninth strongest national football league in the world.

paragraphs: Tennis is Chile's most successful sport. Its national team won the World Team Cup clay tournament twice (2003 & 2004). They played the Davis Cup final against Italy in 1976. At the 2004 Summer Olympics the country took gold and bronze in men's singles and gold in men's doubles. Marcelo Ríos became the first Latin American man to reach the number one spot in the ATP singles rankings in 1998. Anita Lizana won the US Open in 1937. She was the first woman from Latin America to win a grand slam tournament. Luis Ayala was twice a runner-up at the French Open and both Ríos, Nicolas Massu Friedt and Fernando González Ciuffardi reached the Australian Open men's singles finals. González also won a silver medal in singles at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

paragraphs: At the Summer Olympic Games Chile has a total of two gold medals (tennis), seven silver medals (athletics, equestrian, boxing, shooting and tennis) and four bronze medals (tennis, boxing and football). In 2012 Chile won its first Paralympic Games medal (gold in Athletics).

paragraphs: Rodeo is the country's national sport. It is practiced in the more rural areas of the country. A sport similar to hockey. Skiing and snowboarding are practiced at ski centers in the Central Andes. Surfing is popular at some coastal towns. Polo is professionally practiced in Chile. In 2008 Chile won top prize in the World Polo Championship.

paragraphs: Basketball is a popular sport. Chile earned a bronze medal in the first men's FIBA World Championship held in 1950. They won a second bronze medal when Chile hosted the 1959 FIBA World Championship. Chile hosted the first FIBA World Championship for Women in 1953 finishing the tournament with the silver medal. Other sports such as marathons and ultramarathons are also increasing in popularity. San Pedro de Atacama is host to the yearly "Atacama Crossing," a six-stage, 250-kilometer footrace which has about 150 competitors from 35 countries each year. The Dakar Rally off-road automobile race has been held in both Chile and Argentina since 2009.

paragraphs: A few European immigrants settled in Chile during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mainly from Spain. The general picture is as follows:

paragraphs: The national flower is the copihue ("Lapageria rosea", Chilean bellflower), which grows in the woods of southern Chile.

paragraphs: The coat of arms shows the two national animals: the condor ("Vultur gryphus", a very large bird that lives in the mountains) and the huemul ("Hippocamelus bisulcus," an endangered white tail deer). It also has the saying "Por la razón o la fuerza" ("By reason or by force").

paragraphs: The flag of Chile has two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red. There is a blue square the same height as the white band. The square has a white five-pointed star in the center. The star is a guide to progress and honor. Blue is for the sky, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red stands for the blood spilled to get independence.


title: Ambassador

paragraphs: An ambassador is a person sent by the government of a country to a different country. The ambassador is the official representative of their country. The ambassador speaks to officials of the other country about any problems and issues between the two countries.

paragraphs: In past years, communication between countries could take days or weeks. It was necessary to have a person in each foreign capital to have meetings and make negotiations between countries. Nowadays, communication is much faster, and often governments can be in direct contact with each other. However, it is still true that many problems need person-to-person meetings, so ambassadors are still needed.

paragraphs: Often an ambassador will live in the foreign country for a number of years. An embassy is where the ambassador lives. Embassies are most often in the capital of the foreign country. An ambassador may bring people with him to help him and work at the embassy. Some of the high ranking people may be called embassy officials.

paragraphs: It is both tradition and law that the ambassador and many embassy officials have diplomatic immunity. They cannot be arrested or prosecuted in the foreign country. The only possibility is to send a person back to their own country.


title: Monday

paragraphs: Monday is a day of the week. In some countries, it is the second day of the week. In other parts of the world, including some countries in Europe, Monday is the first day of the week.

paragraphs: The International Standards Organization considers Monday the first day of the week.


title: Nuclear war

paragraphs: A nuclear war is a war in which countries fight with nuclear weapons. Because nuclear weapons are extremely powerful and could cause destruction throughout the world, the possibility of nuclear war has had a great effect on international politics.

paragraphs: So far, two nuclear weapons have been used during warfare. They were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and resulted in the deaths of approximately 120,000 people. Thousands of much more powerful bombs were made in later years. They have not yet been used in war.

paragraphs: Nuclear bombs were invented by the United States with Canadian and British help during World War II to help make that war stop. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender. They are still the only nuclear weapons that have ever been used in fighting a war. At that time only the United States had the technology needed to make the bomb, but within a few years the Soviet Union had developed it too. In the new Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were enemies and each had many nuclear weapons, but they did not dare to use them against each other, either directly or by attacking the other country's allies. Since either country could be completely destroyed by the other's weapons, nuclear war could no longer be limited to the use of only one or two bombs; if they were used anywhere by one side, the other would attack with its own nuclear weapons, and the fighting would almost certainly become greater. This situation came to be known as the "balance of terror," or Mutually Assured Destruction, and stopped conflicts between the two superpowers from leading to a third world war.

paragraphs: Since the end of Communist rule in Russia and Eastern Europe, tensions between America and Russia have eased and war has become less likely. However, today there is more worry about nuclear proliferation. Countries around the world who already have their own bombs include Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea; as all kinds of technology tend to become cheaper and easier to get and use, there is a fear that nuclear weapons could become available to countries with unstable governments. There is also the possibility that terrorists might be able to capture or build nuclear weapons and use them.

paragraphs: Ever since the end of World War II, writers, film-makers, and artists have created works of fiction imagining how a nuclear war might happen and what life would be like afterwards. Most have pictured widespread death and destruction, and a grim post-armageddon world where a few survivors struggle to live without power, medicine, or food. Some have pictured civilization breaking down completely, and primitive societies developing; with the past world becoming forgotten.


title: Tax

paragraphs: Tax is money that people have to pay to the government.

paragraphs: The government uses the money it gets from taxes to pay for things. For example, taxes are used to pay for people who work for the government, such as the military and police, provide services such as education and health care, and to maintain or build things like roads, bridges and sewers.

paragraphs: There are many different kinds of taxes. They may be direct tax or indirect tax.

paragraphs: Often because different parts of governments use taxes for different things, people end up paying lots of taxes.

paragraphs: In the United States, for example, the national government has an income tax; most states have an income tax or a sales tax, or both; and cities and towns may have a sales tax or a property tax. In some states such as Ohio, the sales tax is different in each county.

paragraphs: In ancient times, people from one city or area would attack another place, and make the people there pay "tribute". Tribute meant that the attacked people would pay money (or other things), and the attacker would stop attacking them. A famous tribute was the Danegeld, when people from Denmark conquered part of England and made the English pay thousands of silver coins.

paragraphs: Anarchists and Libertarians are against all taxes or against high taxes. As people are paying them unwillingly and under the threat of sanctions, they say that taxation is the same as robbery.


title: Florida

paragraphs: Florida is a state in the southeast United States. It is a peninsula, which means that water surrounds the state on three of four possible sides. To the west is the Gulf of Mexico, to the south is the Florida Straits, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2015, the population of Florida is 20,271,272. The highest elevation in Florida is Britton Hill.

paragraphs: Florida was discovered in 1513 by the Spanish Ponce De Leon, who called this peninsula "Tierra de la Pascua Florida" (Land of the Easter flowered) because it was discovered on Easter: in the next centuries only the last word remained.

paragraphs: Northern Florida contains hills because it is at the very end of the Appalachian Mountains. The highest hill in Florida is Britton Hill, in northern Walton County near the town of Lakewood, Florida. It is above sea level. It is the shortest of the highest points in all other states.

paragraphs: Florida has the longest coastline in the continental United States.The Gulf Stream ocean current goes through the Atlantic Ocean near the east coast of Florida, so the water is warmer than the Pacific Ocean. The Gulf of Mexico is on the west coast of Florida.

paragraphs: In the center of southern Florida is a lake called Lake Okeechobee. It is the seventh largest freshwater lake in the United States and the second largest freshwater lake entirely within the lower 48 states. Okeechobee is 730 square miles (1,890 km²), about half the size of the state of Rhode Island, and is very shallow for a lake of its size, with an average depth of only 9 feet (3 m).

paragraphs: A lot of south Florida used to be covered by a swamp called the Everglades. When Florida was first being settled, farmers found out the soil there was fertile, so they drained some of the wetlands in 1882 for farming. In 1947, the state constructed levees and canals to make more room for farming and houses. The Everglades is now about half the size it used to be. Most of what is left is now the Everglades National Park. Lots of animals live there, including alligators and Florida panthers. Recently, Florida has been trying to restore the Everglades.

paragraphs: At the southernmost tip of Florida is a chain of islands called the Florida Keys. There are 4500 islands in the Keys. The most famous one is Key West.

paragraphs: Florida is nicknamed the Sunshine State. During the summer, temperatures may rise up to as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit (or 40.5 degrees Celsius). Its annual average temperature is much warmer than many of the other states, but during winter, temperatures occasionally fall below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. In Florida, a dozen palm tree species are native to the state. Florida has both a rainy season and dry season. Southern Florida does not have four separate seasons.

paragraphs: Florida's sunny climate attracts visitors. The summer is great for surfing the waves and enjoying the beaches. The most popular sport in Florida is fishing.

paragraphs: Florida is vulnerable to hurricanes due to its proximity to the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30, but sometimes a hurricane will occur outside of this period. Hurricane Andrew was a destructive hurricane that hit Florida on August 23, 1992. Florida's most active recorded hurricane seasons were in 2004 and 2005, when it was hit by hurricanes Charley (August 13), Frances (September 4–5), Ivan (September 16), Jeanne (September 25), Katrina (August 25), and Wilma (October 24).

paragraphs: Florida has many types of wildlife including:

paragraphs: In the 1930s, the Red imported fire ants were accidentally brought from South America to North America. Since then, they have spread to most of the Southern United States, including Florida. They are more aggressive than most native ant species and have a painful sting.

paragraphs: A lot of non-native snakes have been released in the wild. In 2010 the state created a hunting season for Burmese, Indian and African rock pythons, green anacondas, and Nile monitor lizards.

paragraphs: The capital of Florida is Tallahassee, and Jacksonville is the state's largest city. Tallahassee is in the part of Florida called the panhandle, or the narrow part in the northwest. There are other big cities in Florida, like Tampa, Orlando and Miami.

paragraphs: Orlando is home to many amusement and theme parks, like Walt Disney World Resort, Sea World, and Universal Studios. Millions of tourists visit Orlando each year. There is also Busch Gardens in Tampa, which is another tourist attraction.

paragraphs: The oldest city in Florida is St. Augustine, which was founded by the Spanish in 1565.

paragraphs: The Kennedy Space Center is on Merritt Island, near Cape Canaveral, on Florida's Space Coast.

paragraphs: Florida has eleven state universities. They are Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida. The University of Central Florida has the most students. There are 28 private universities in Florida.


title: Mario

paragraphs: Mario is a hero who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom in most games. In the "Mario" games, he tries to stop the evil Bowser from taking Princess Peach away. He is often being helped by his brother Luigi. He also has other enemies like Donkey Kong, Waluigi, and Wario, although they are friends in other games.

paragraphs: Mario is one of the most famous video game characters of all time. Over 200 million copies of "Mario" games have been sold.

paragraphs: Mario first appeared in the arcade game "Donkey Kong" as a carpenter named "Jumpman". In Japan, he was called "Mr. Video". Later, he was named "Mario", after Mario Segale, who was a lot like Mario. Mario Segale was the owner of the land where Nintendo of America's office was built.

paragraphs: Mario later appeared with his younger brother Luigi in an arcade game called "Mario Bros." When the Nintendo Entertainment System was out in shops, "Super Mario Bros." was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System the same year as the game console itself, and has often been considered one of the best games on it next to "Super Mario Bros. 3" and Legend Of Zelda.

paragraphs: Back then, games were hard to make and Nintendo could not make Mario move without making his arms "disappear". Changing his clothes fixed it. They also did not have the space to give him a mouth or ears, and they could not make hair, so Mario had a moustache, sideburns, and a cap so it would not look like he was bald. Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, said that he gave Mario a cap because he has a hard time drawing hair. Mario is currently voiced by Charles Martinet, who also voices Luigi, Wario and Waluigi, respectively, and other characters like Toadsworth.

paragraphs: Mario is Nintendo's mascot (the face of the company). Mario's rival was Sega's mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, who was first seen in 1991. The two mascots were trying to get more people to buy their games for years until 2001 when "Sonic Adventure 2: Battle" was released on a Nintendo machine since Sega games started to be released on game machines that were not made by Sega. Mario and Sonic appeared together in a sports game, "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games", and again in "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" as well as "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U". To this day, Mario and Sonic continue to appear together in Nintendo’s spinoff titles such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

paragraphs: Mario was first seen as "Jumpman" in "Donkey Kong" in 1981. He was first named "Mario" in the arcade game "Donkey Kong Junior" in 1982, the only game where he is a villain. His twin brother Luigi was first seen in 1983 in "Mario Bros." He was next seen in "Super Mario Bros." for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which would quickly be one of the most famous games on the console.

paragraphs: By 2007, more than 200 million copies of Mario games had been sold all over the world. The game that was best sold was "Super Mario Bros. 3". Mario was also seen in some Game & Watch games. Mario has appeared in almost every type of video game, like platform, puzzle, racing, sports, fighting, role-playing and educational games.

paragraphs: Mario has been seen in many games, and is seen in games that are not Mario games as well, like "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!" where he is a referee. He is also a character you can play as in the "Super Smash Bros." series. Mario has even appeared as a secret character which any player can play as in GameCube version of "NBA Street V3" and "SSX on Tour", which are both from Electronic Arts. In some games, he only makes very small appearances: in both "" and "", a picture of Mario can be seen, and in "" small Mario and Yoshi statues can be seen.

paragraphs: After the Game & Watch game "Mario Bombs Away", the first "Mario" non-platformer game, "Dr. Mario", was sold in 1990. There are two educational "Mario" games that have been made. They are called "Mario Paint", was sold in 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and "Mario Pinball Land" for the Game Boy Advance. 1996's "" for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is the first "Mario" role-playing game. There have also been five more Mario RPG's: "Paper Mario", for the Nintendo 64; "", for the Game Boy Advance; "", for the Nintendo GameCube; "", for the Nintendo DS and "Super Paper Mario", for the Wii. Now, there is a new RPG game that came out called "" for the Nintendo DS.

paragraphs: There have been more series based on the original "Mario" series. The "Mario Kart" series' first game was "Super Mario Kart" for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The "Mario Kart" series is the most successful racing video game series of all time. The "Mario Kart" series is a type of "Mario" sports game. There have been other "Mario" sports games like "Mario Golf" and "Mario Tennis", and the baseball and soccer games "Mario Superstar Baseball" and "Super Mario Strikers". In 1999, the "Mario Party" series started on the Nintendo 64. In the "Mario Party" games, players have to play-through a lot of mini-games.

paragraphs: There has been a few TV shows and a movie for the "Mario" series. The name of the first TV show is "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!" and the movie is called "Super Mario Bros.". The TV show starred "Captain" Lou Albano as Mario, and the movie starred Bob Hoskins as Mario. There have also been "Mario" toys sold in some places.

paragraphs: Mario was first a 2D character but since technology has changed, Nintendo has remade Mario in 3D. He is a plumber who lives in the land of Mushroom Kingdom. He is the older, shorter brother of Luigi, and they are both plumbers. In the television series, Mario and Luigi are from Brooklyn, although "" says he was born in the Mushroom Kingdom.

paragraphs: Mario's looks have changed over the years although he has several staple features. He is a short, stubby man wearing a hat with an "M" on it, brown hair, black moustache, a very large nose, white gloves, and denim overalls. In most appearances, Mario wears a red hat and shirt with blue overalls. However, in the original "Super Mario Bros." video game, Mario wears a brown shirt and red overalls.

paragraphs: Mario's clothes depend on the game he is in. For example, in the "Super Mario Strikers" soccer game, Mario wears a football kit instead of overalls, and in "Super Mario Sunshine," a very sunshiny tropical game, the character wears a red T-shirt and can also put on sunglasses and a Hawaiian-style shirt. In some games, Mario can turn into different forms, each with different clothes.

paragraphs: Mario is a kind-hearted and brave hero, with a love of pasta and pizza. People know Mario has a great, happy, personality since he has a high pitched, funny voice. Since "Mario's Game Gallery", Charles Martinet has been his voice actor. In the games, Mario speaks in English with a thick Italian accent. In other things like TV shows, he has a more Brooklyn-styled accent. Mario does not say many things. He usually says: "Okey dokey!", "Woohoo!", "Let's a-go!", "It's-a me! Mario!", "'ere we go", "Mama mia!" and more, though in sports games, he says things relevant to the sport, in Mario Golf he says "Fore!" for example. Mario hardly ever speaks properly in any games, leaving the talking to other characters. He does speak normally in the DiC animated cartoons and the anime series.

paragraphs: Mario is a plumber (he was a carpenter). He only acts like a plumber in the games, "" and the original "Mario Bros.", but pipes are always one way to get around. Mario was seen plumbing during the animated series. He knows a lot about tools and fixing pipes in the movie. In the first Donkey Kong games when Mario was called Jumpman, he was a carpenter.

paragraphs: In the "Dr. Mario" games first seen in 1990, Mario is a doctor. In 2001, Mario appeared in "Dr. Mario 64", an updated version of the original puzzle game. Dr. Mario appeared as an secret character in the Nintendo GameCube game "Super Smash Bros. Melee", and in another newer version, "Dr. Mario Virus Buster", for WiiWare. In the Game Boy game "Mario's Picross", Mario is an archaeologist.

paragraphs: Mario usually saves Princess Peach (AKA Princess Toadstool), Princess Daisy and . And he usually has to defeat villains, like Bowser(AKA King Koopa in Japan) Most characters in the games know who he is because he acts like a hero, as shown in "", where they are called "superstars", or celebrities.

paragraphs: In "", it is said that Mario has a toy-making company that earns him money.

paragraphs: Since his first game, Mario has to save the "damsel in distress" of the game. Originally, he had to rescue his girlfriend Pauline in "Donkey Kong". Pauline was soon replaced by a new damsel-in-distress, Princess Peach, in "Super Mario Bros." (she was first named "Princess Toadstool" or simply "the Princess" in English-speaking places until 1993, when "Yoshi's Safari" was sold, even though the name was not widely used until "Super Mario 64" was sold three years later). Pauline returned in the Game Boy remake of "Donkey Kong" in 1994, and later "" in 2006, although the character is now said to be "Mario's friend".

paragraphs: Mario has rescued Princess Peach lots of times since "Super Mario Bros.". In a role reversal, Peach rescues Mario in "Super Princess Peach". Some people say the two could be a couple.

paragraphs: Luigi is Mario's younger brother. He is usually a companion on many of Mario's adventures and the character whom players play as in two-player sessions of many of the video games. His demeanor is sometimes that of a "scaredy cat" who sets off to help Mario but instead needs rescuing himself, though he has also had to rescue Mario occasionally as displayed in "Mario is Missing!" and "Luigi's Mansion". Yoshi is another one of Mario's friends.

paragraphs: Mario rescued Princess Daisy in "Super Mario Land" for the Game Boy. In "Super Smash Bros. Melee", the text explaining Princess Daisy's trophy states that "after her appearance in Mario Golf, some gossips portrayed her as Luigi's answer to Mario's Peach", although Luigi and Daisy were previously paired as a romantic couple in the live-action "Super Mario Bros" movie.

paragraphs: "" for the Game Boy saw the arrival of Wario, Mario's counterpart. Though there is no clear relationship between the two, Wario was once referred to as Mario's cousin in Nintendo Power. Wario is designed to act, in a way, as an anti-Mario.

paragraphs: Baby Mario is Mario when he was a child. He first appeared in "", released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and has appeared in several titles since. Baby Mario has often appeared in Nintendo-sports titles, such as "Mario Golf", "Mario Tennis", "Mario Superstar Baseball", "", "Mario Super Sluggers", and "Mario Kart Wii". These games imply Mario and Baby Mario are separate characters, but those games are considered to be outside the continuity of the main "Mario" series. More recently, he has appeared in "", in which Baby Mario appeared via time travel along with Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, and Baby Bowser, which could explain the separation of the two characters. Like the older Mario, Baby Mario is voiced by Charles Martinet.

paragraphs: During the development of "Donkey Kong", Mario was known as "Jumpman". Jumping—both to access places and as an offensive move—is a common gameplay element in "Mario" games, especially the "Super Mario Bros." series.

paragraphs: Mario's most commonly portrayed form of attack is jumping to stomp on the heads of enemies, first used in "Mario Bros.". This jump-stomp move may entirely crush smaller enemies on the stage, and usually deals damage to larger ones, sometimes also causing secondary effects. This attack often enables Mario to knock the turtle-like Koopa Troopas into their shells, which can slide into and damage other enemies or Mario.

paragraphs: Subsequent games have elaborated on Mario's jumping-related abilities. "Super Mario World" added the ability to spin-jump, which allows Mario to break blocks beneath him. Later, the Game Boy version of "Donkey Kong" allows Mario to jump higher with consecutive jumps, and perform a back-flip. In "Super Mario 64", Mario has several jumping abilities, such as a sideways somersault, a "ground pound", which makes Mario hit the ground under him hard, and the "Wall Kick", which propels him upwards by kicking off walls.

paragraphs: Mario uses many items, which give him various powers. The one that shows up the most often is the "Super Mushroom", which allows Mario to grow to twice his size, becoming "Super Mario" (after the name of the series), and can take a hit before shrinking back down to "regular" Mario. If "Super Mario" collects a "Fire Flower", he will transform into "Fire Mario", who can throw fireballs at enemies. Picking up a "Star" makes it so nothing can hurt Mario for several seconds.

paragraphs: A common theme in the "Mario" series' power-ups is the fact that many items give Mario a semi-animal appearance, sometimes related to the item itself, for example "Super Mario Bros. 3"s Frog Suit, which turns Mario into a frog, and ""s Power Carrot, which transforms Mario into a rabbit. Other times the item may not be related to the power; for example, the Raccoon Leaf gives him raccoon ears, a tail, and the power of flight. Other power-ups are overall more useful; in "Super Mario World", the Cape allows Mario to fly and glide, and a balloon in a later game in the series allows similar effects. "New Super Mario Bros." introduced other types of Mushroom power-ups, such as the "Mega Mushroom", which causes Mario to grow to a screen-filling size and the "Mini Mushroom" that makes him shrink to a very small size.

paragraphs: When Mario reached the three dimensional format, "Super Mario 64" introduced a feature that made Mario take extra damage without his signature hat on; in addition to this, different types of caps gave him powers of flight, invincibility, and invisibility. Along with these basic features, caps gave more practical abilities as well. For example, the Metal cap allowed Mario to sink to sea floors and the Invisibility cap allowed him to walk through thin surfaces such as iron grates.

paragraphs: "Super Mario Sunshine" has several few power-ups with a water theme. He is granted a F.L.U.D.D. (Flash Liquidizing Ultra Dousing Device) pack that performs his main attack and squirts paint and enemies with water, named the Squirt Nozzle. He has three other expansion packs including the Hover Nozzle, which allows him to hover for short distances, the Turbo Nozzle, which allows him to move a lot faster and break through some barriers, and the Rocket Nozzle, which charges water up, then blasts Mario high into the air.

paragraphs: "Super Mario Galaxy" introduced several new power-ups along with a few older items re-done. These include the Bee Shroom, which allows him to float short distances and stick to certain surfaces; the Boo Shroom, which makes him capable of floating as well as traveling through walls; the Life Shroom, which gives him three more life wedges; the Rainbow Star, granting him brief invincibility; the Fire Flower, which appeared for the first time in a 3D game; and the Ice Flower, which allows him to turn water into solid ice so he can go to otherwise unreachable or deadly places. A hidden power-up is the Flight Star, which allows Mario to fly for a while.

paragraphs: Mario uses hammers in numerous games, such as "Super Mario Bros. 3", the original "Donkey Kong", and "Super Mario RPG". Hammers are used to attack and for other things, like flicking switches and solving puzzles. He often picks up and throws various projectiles around him, however, starting in "Super Mario Bros. 2". He tosses items such as vegetables, giant blocks and Bob-ombs.

paragraphs: In the Mario Kart series, there are a number of items to use. For example, a mushroom makes the characters go faster for 1 second.

paragraphs: As Nintendo's mascot, many people think that Mario is the most famous video game character of all time. The "Mario" series of video games has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the best selling game series of all time. Mario was the first video game character to get a wax figure in the Hollywood Wax Museum in 2003. In 1990, a national survey showed that more kids knew Mario than Mickey Mouse.

paragraphs: Since he was created, Mario has become a very famous person having been in many television shows, comic books, and in a movie. He has been on lunch boxes, T-shirts, magazines, commercials, in candy form, on Shampoo bottles, cereal, badges, and as a stuffed toy. Nintendo of Japan made a 60-minute anime (Japanese cartoon) movie starring Mario and his friends in 1986, but this movie has never been shown or sold on DVD outside of Japan. The animated series "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!" had a live-action series of episodes starring former WWF manager "Captain" Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi. There was even a book series, the Nintendo Adventure Books. In 2005, Jonathan Mann even wrote an opera based on the character, and performed "The Mario Opera" at the California Institute of the Arts.

paragraphs: Bergsala, the distributor of Nintendo's products in the Nordic and the Baltic countries, is located at Marios Gata 21 (Mario's Street 21) in Kungsbacka, Sweden, named after Mario.

paragraphs: Mario's legacy is recognized by Guinness World Records, who awarded the Nintendo Mascot and his games seven records in the "Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008". These records include, "Best Selling Video Game Series of All Time", "First Movie Based on an Existing Video Game", and "Most Prolific Video Game Character", with Mario appearing in 116 distinct titles (not including remakes or re-releases).

paragraphs: In a poll conducted in 2008, Mario was voted as the most popular video game character in Japan.

paragraphs: Mario's theme music in "Super Mario Bros.", composed by Kōji Kondō, is highly recognizable. Former NHL hockey player, Mario Lemieux was given the nickname "Super Mario" by the media during his career. Mario Williams, the #1 draft pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, was also given the nickname "Super Mario", as was pro-cyclist, Mario Cipollini. German international footballer Mario Basler was affectionately referred to as "Super Mario" by fans and the media. Another sportsman who received this nickname was the Brazilian soccer player Mário Jardel, famous for his jumps and headers. There is also the popular Mario parody channels, the most famous of which being "SuperMarioGlitchy4", or "SMG4", Which makes various forms of Mario "Parody" content.


title: Video game

paragraphs: Video games are electronic games played on a video screen (normally a television, a built-in screen when played on a handheld machine, or a computer).

paragraphs: There are many types, or genres, of these games: role-playing games; shooters, first-person shooters, side-scrollers, and platformers are just a few.

paragraphs: Video games usually come on CDs, DVDs or digital download. Many games used to come on cartridges. A specialised device used to play a video game at home is called a console. There have been many types of consoles and home computers used to play video games. Some of the first were the Atari 2600, the Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s. Newer video game consoles are the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. The best selling video game console of all time is the PlayStation 2, made by Sony.

paragraphs: People can also use computers to play games, which are sometimes called PC games. The older consoles do not have new games developed for them often, although console games are emulated for PCs (see emulator). This means that new computers can play many old console games along with games made just for new computers. Older games are often more popular emulated than when they were first on sale, because of the ease of download.

paragraphs: People can play portable video games anywhere. Mobile devices (running operating systems such as iOS or Android) also can download games, making them portable game machines. Mobile phones have many games, some of them using a mobile emulator for games from consoles. Not all PC or console Games are on mobile or iPad/ iPod/Tablet.

paragraphs: Competitions of video game players are called electronic sports.

paragraphs: Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) came out in 2004. A new version, the PlayStation Vita, first came out in 2012.

paragraphs: Also in 2004, Nintendo released the Dual Screen (DS), which has two separate screens, one of which is a touchscreen. New versions came out in later years, such as the Nintendo DSi in 2008 and the Nintendo DSi XL. The Nintendo 3DS, the first handheld console with 3D graphics, came out in 2011. The 2DS followed in 2013. The New 3DS XL, which is similar to the 3DS but with updated graphical capabilities, was released in 2015. The latest entry into the DS lineup is the "New 2DS XL", released on the 28th of July 2017.

paragraphs: In March 2017, Nintendo began selling a new console called the Nintendo Switch, which looks like a tablet computer but can also be plugged into a TV. It is the first example of a "hybrid console" that can be used as both as a TV-based model and a handheld device.

paragraphs: The first video game ever is often said to be "Tennis for Two", a rudimentary tennis game to be played with two people developed in 1958. Another early example is "Spacewar!", developed in 1962.

paragraphs: In the 1950s, when the first computers began to be made, three people had some ideas to create the basis of actual video games. In 1951, Ralph Baer, an American engineer of Loral Electronics, tried to create "the best television", proposing to add a gaming module, but his employer did not like his idea. Even if his idea was never realized, he is the first man to have thought of the idea of video games, later creating the first video game console, the Odyssey. Later, in 1952, A.S Douglas, of the Cambridge University in the UK, made a video game on a computer in order to illustrate one of his speeches. The game, called "OXO", was a tic-tac-toe game, with two players (the person itself and the opponent, the computer) .In 1953, Willy Higinbotham made a game called "Tennis For Two", similar to the later "Pong", to entertain visitors to Brookhaven National Laboratory. Another early video game is a version of checkers, but this is largely overlooked.

paragraphs: One of the most famous and one of the earliest video games ever is called "Space Invaders". "Space Invaders" was made in 1978 as a coin operated arcade game but a version has been made for almost every game console and home computer ever available.


title: Oboe

paragraphs: An oboe is a woodwind instrument with a double reed. It looks very similar to the clarinet, and may be confused with it. While the clarinet's shape remains cylindrical, the oboe's body is conical. The sounds produced by clarinets and oboes are very different. An oboe's sound is produced by blowing air through the double reed at the upper end of the instrument which forces the two reeds to vibrate together which produces the sound. The oboe has four parts: the bell, lower joint, upper joint, and the reed. A person that plays the oboe is called an oboist. A typical orchestra may have two oboes but sometimes three. Sometimes there is also a cor anglais which sounds a fifth lower than the oboe. Very occasionally there is also a bass oboe, which sounds an octave below the oboe. Gustav Holst used one in his Suite "The Planets".

paragraphs: The oboe came from the shawm which was a medieval and Renaissance instrument. It became popular in the Baroque period. Bach and Handel both used it in most of their orchestral music. Many Italian composers such as Antonio Vivaldi wrote concertos for the instrument, and it is used in a lot of chamber music. At this time it hardly had any keys, but over time more keys were added which made it easier to play the sharps and flats.

paragraphs: Later composers to write for the oboe as a solo instrument include Mozart, Weber, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams and Francis Poulenc.

paragraphs: It is normal for the principal oboist in an orchestra to play the note A for the rest of the orchestra to tune their instruments to.

paragraphs: The name "oboe" comes from French language "hautbois", meaning "high wood", a high-pitched woodwind instrument.


title: GURPS

paragraphs: The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a role-playing game system created by Steve Jackson Games. It emphasizes a set of rules that can be used in any time or world. Characters are created using a point-based system. There have been four releases of the GURPS core rules and dozens of game supplements that extend the core rules with genre or setting-specific information.

paragraphs: In 1990, GURPS became the focus of a Secret Service investigation when an as yet unreleased GURPS Cyberpunk game supplement was misconstrued by the Secret service as being a handbook for computer crime.


title: Eric Idle

paragraphs: Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English comedian, actor, voice actor, author, singer-songwriter, musician, writer and comedic composer. He is one of the members of Monty Python. Monty Python is a British comedy team.

paragraphs: Eric Idle was born in South Shields, County Durham, United Kingdom on 29 March 1943. He studied English at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

paragraphs: Eric is known for his songwriting and singing skills. The songs he wrote or sang were put to best use in his work with Monty Python, in the television programme and in the movies. He wrote the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". This song was written as the closing song of the movie Life of Brian.


title: Enemy

paragraphs: An enemy is a person or group of people who is against another person or group. In war, the enemy is anyone fighting for the other side of the war.

paragraphs: In the Bible, Saint Peter states that: ' your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour' (1 Peter 5:8)


title: Adelaide

paragraphs: Adelaide is a city in Australia. It is the capital city of the state of South Australia, and it has an approximate population of 1.2 million people.

paragraphs: It is the fifth biggest city in Australia, behind Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Adelaide was founded in 1836 by Colonel William Light, who named it after Queen Adelaide.

paragraphs: Adelaide is near the Southern Ocean and is north of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It has a river going through it called the River Torrens. Many festivals are held there. Adelaide has a hot-summer and cool-wet-winter Mediterranean climate. Grapes for wine production are grown in the Barossa Valley about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of Adelaide, in the McLaren Vale about 30 kilometres south of Adelaide and parts of the Mt Lofty Ranges to the east.


title: Yoshi

paragraphs: Yoshi is a fictional dinosaur who appears in the "Mario" series of video games.

paragraphs: Yoshi's best-known ability is his ability to eat enemies. He has a long tongue which he uses to grab enemies and eat them. In some games, after Yoshi eats enemies, they turn into eggs, which can be thrown. One of Yoshi's best friends is Mario who helps Yoshi throughout the dangerous situations. Sometimes, Mario can ride Yoshi.

paragraphs: Yoshi also can jump very high, and can also float in the air a little bit by kicking his legs. He can also ground pound enemies by quickly jumping on them.

paragraphs: Yoshis are usually green, but can come in many other colors. These other colors include green, red, cyan, blue, pink, yellow, brown, black, or white. Blue Yoshi is especially in Super Mario World. In Super Mario 64 DS, Rec Room there's a light blue color in one of Yoshi's minigames Tox Box. In Vs Mode. Multiplayer, it has a dark blue color and the third player can play him.

paragraphs: In some games, Yoshi gains powers, like flying or shooting fireballs, by eating the shells of enemies known as Koopalings, which look like turtles.

paragraphs: Yoshi first appeared in the game "Super Mario World" (SNES), which was released in 1990 in Japan and 1991 in the United States.

paragraphs: Yoshi is a very well-known character in the "Mario" series. Yoshi is also seen a lot in Mario toys, games, and shirts. Yoshi was in two of the Mcdonald's Happy Meal Mario toy promotions, which only starred Mario, Donkey Kong and Yoshi himself. In a 2008 poll, Yoshi was voted as the third favorite video game character in Japan. Cloud Strife and Mario were second and first place, in that order.


title: Lake

paragraphs: A lake (from Latin "lacus") is a large body of water (larger and deeper than a pond) within a body of land. As a lake is separated from the ocean, it is not a sea. Some lakes are very big, and people in the past sometimes called them seas. Lakes do not flow like rivers, but many have rivers flowing into and out of them.

paragraphs: Most lakes on the surface of the Earth are fresh water and most are in the Northern Hemisphere. More than 60% of the lakes of the world are in Canada. Finland is known as "The Land of the Thousand Lakes" (there are 187,888 lakes in Finland, of which 60,000 are large).

paragraphs: Many lakes are man-made reservoirs built to produce electricity, for recreation, or to use the water for irrigation or industry, or in houses.

paragraphs: If there are not rivers flowing out of the lake (see Endorheic basin), or they are few and small, the lake loses water only by evaporation or because the water flows through the soil pores. Where the water evaporates rapidly and the soil around the lake has a high salt level, as in very dry places, the water of the lake has a high concentration of salt and the lake is called a salt lake. Examples of salt lakes are the Great Salt Lake, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and the Dead Sea.


title: East

paragraphs: East is one of the 4 main directions on a compass (called cardinal directions). East is normally to the right on most maps. For example: Japan is east of China, which is itself east of Pakistan. When “The East” is described: it usually refers to the countries of Asia (especially from Pakistan eastwards like China and India). The sun and moon are also seen to rise in the east.