title: Profanity

paragraphs: Profanity means swear words. The adjective is 'profane'. Profanities can also be called curse ("cuss") words, dirty words, bad words, foul language, obscenity, obscene language, or expletives. It can be called swearing, although this also has a normal meaning of making a "solemn promise". A profanity usually refers to religion, sex, or bodily functions. These are things that people feel very strongly about. In some languages, such as French, there is more profanity about religion than most other topics. This is the original meaning, from a Latin word meaning "before the temple".

paragraphs: Religious profanity is called blasphemy. The verb is to blaspheme and the adjective is 'blasphemous'. Saying “God!” or “Jesus Christ!” as an expression of surprise or annoyance is considered by many to be blasphemy, mostly because one of the Ten Commandments says not to use God's name "in vain" (without substance or without relevance). Swearing oaths can also be considered wrong by some who follow Jesus' teaching against swearing oaths in the Gospels (such as Matthew 5:34).

paragraphs: A profanity can be a word or gesture or some other form of behavior.

paragraphs: Different words can be profane to different people, and what words are thought of as profanity in English can change over time.

paragraphs: Whether a word is a profanity will always depend on the way people think. Some people will be offended by something, while others will not be. Words which should not be used are taboo words. Using such words is thought by some people to be a sin. For example, some Christians and some Muslims believe that swearing is a sin.

paragraphs: Some people call profanity "crude," but some say that it is no cruder to say "damn" or "crap" than it is to use "hate" (a word that is about a very strong emotion, but not a swear word). People who use profanity do not always mean to make anybody feel bad, and tolerance for different forms of profanity can vary widely, from person to person. Most often, using profanity is a verbal outlet for strong feelings (usually unpleasant ones), that might otherwise cause a physical reaction. At other times, some people may use profanity as humor.

paragraphs: Coprolalia is a mental condition that makes people use profanity constantly. This is called coprolalia. It is different from Tourette syndrome. Tourette syndrome is actually a group of symptoms that only includes coprolalia 15% of the time. The condition can be made worse by stress.

paragraphs: Several of these words come from Anglo-Saxon or old Norse names for body parts, and bodily functions. They came to be thought of as profanity mostly after the Normans brought French and Latin words for them to England.

paragraphs: These are mostly performed while facing another person and can be meant toward them, or about them. These gestures are considered as strong as profane words in most cases.


title: People's Republic of China

paragraphs: The People's Republic of China (PRC) () is a one-party state in East Asia governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It was founded on 1 October 1949. It currently has more than 1.4 billion people (as of 2017), which is more than any other country in the world. It covers an area of 9.6 million square kilometers.

paragraphs: The capital city is Beijing and Shanghai is the city with the most people living in it. Along with the cities of Tianjin and Chongqing, these four cities are "municipalities" directly controlled by the national government. Two other cities are given the status of "special administrative region" (SAR). They are Hong Kong, which was once a colony of the United Kingdom and given back to China in 1997 and Macau, which Portugal gave back in 1999. These two cities remain highly autonomous or have much of their own power. Aside from the "municipalities" and the "SAR's", there are 23 provinces and five "autonomous regions" or regions with more law-making rights than the provinces and with many people of a minority group population. They are the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region or Nei Mongol Autonomous Region and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

paragraphs: In the SAR's, the central government is responsible for defense and foreign affairs but not the daily operations for 50 years. PRC claims Taiwan as one of its many provinces. However, PRC does not have control of Taiwan which has an entirely different political system and officially known as the Republic of China (Taiwan).

paragraphs: China has one of the world's oldest civilizations and has the oldest continuous civilization. It has archaeological evidence over 5,000 years old. It also has one of the world's oldest writing systems (and the oldest in use today), and is viewed as the source of many major inventions.

paragraphs: Ancient China was one of the first civilizations and was active since the 2nd millennium BC as a feudal society.

paragraphs: Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing, with the others being Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization, the Maya civilization, the Minoan civilization of ancient Greece, and Ancient Egypt. It reached its golden age during the Tang Dynasty (c. A.D. 10th century). Home of Confucianism and Daoism, it had great influence on nearby countries including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam in the areas of political system, philosophy, religion, art, and even writing and literature. China is home to some of the oldest artwork in the world. Statues and pottery, as well as decorations made of jade, are some classic examples.

paragraphs: Before the Qin Dynasty united China, there were hundreds of small states that fought each other for hundreds of years in a war to control China. This is known as the Warring States Period. Although the continuing wars made people suffer, it was at this time when many of the great philosophies of the East were born, including Confucianism and Daoism. Confucianism and Daoism alone have been the foundation of many social values seen in modern eastern-Asian cultures today.

paragraphs: Its geography mostly looked like that of modern China, except with northern and western edges that varied. It was often attacked by northern nomadic people such as the Turkic tribes and the Mongols lead by Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan. During the history of ancient China, the northern nomadic people and the Chinese people had been fighting each other and taking turns to rule the land and the people of China. However, when the northern people beat the Chinese people and came to rule the kingdom, they also Incorporated the Chinese way of living and became like the Chinese. Many of the strongest dynasties of China were ruled by the northern people, including the Qin, Tang, Yuan (Mongolian), and Qing (Manchu). Each time, they also brought new elements into the Chinese culture.

paragraphs: While China achieved many things in the First millennium and early 2nd millennium, it became an isolationist country in the 15th century C.E. This was because Spain found a lot of silver in the newly explored continents of North and South America. Silver was the main currency (money) in China and Europe at the time, and China did not want to be bought by the foreigners.

paragraphs: By the time of the Renaissance, European powers started to take over other countries in Asia. During this time the opium epidemic was growing in China. Foreign traders (primarily British) had been illegally exporting opium mainly from India to China since the 18th century, but that trade grew dramatically from about 1820. The resulting widespread addiction in China was causing serious social and economic disruption there. This led to what is now known as the first opium war. The first Opium War between China and Great Britain lasted from 1839 to 1842. The conflict was the result of years of attempts by the British to exploit China as a market for British goods. Britain eventually relied on its superior military capabilities to force open the lucrative Chinese market, while imposing an illicit trade in opium on the Chinese people.

paragraphs: While China was never actually taken over by Europeans, many European countries, such as Britain and France built spheres of influence in China. Since China had cut itself off from the world over the previous few centuries, by the Qing Dynasty, it had fallen behind other countries in technology, and was helpless to stop this from happening. This had become clear when it lost the Opium Wars to Britain in the 19th century.

paragraphs: In 1912, the Qing dynasty was overthrown by the Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang, a nationalist party, and the Republic of China established. Over time, Marxist ideas grew popular and the Communist party was formed.

paragraphs: The Chinese Civil War later started between the Kuomintang (Nationalists) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Communists of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Communists wanted to make China like the Soviet Union, whereas the other side wanted to keep China in its current state at the time. The Communists were led by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and others. Later Liu lost influence with Mao and his death to this day remains unresolved. The Communists eventually won the war. The Nationalists (led by Chiang Kai-shek) fled to the island of Taiwan and set up their new capital city in Taipei. After the Chinese Civil War, the Communist leader Mao Zedong declared a new country, the People's Republic of China (PRC), in Beijing on October 1, 1949.

paragraphs: In 1927, the Chinese Civil War began as the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communists fought one another.

paragraphs: Amidst the turmoil brewing between the Nationalist and Communist parties who were vying for control of China at the time, Japan had launched an invasion of Manchuria in 1934 and began to creep steadily inland. China, the Nationalist party in particular, owed Japan immense amounts of money, which they could not pay whilst infused in their own civil war. The Treaty of Versailles promised the Japanese government land in China in return for forgiveness of their debt. This ended up not being a popular sentiment and was rallied against all over the country, and most famously during the May 4th Movement in Beijing in 1919. When the Chinese did not readily give up their rights to their land, Japan tried to take it by force. This was the beginning of World War II in the Pacific Theater.

paragraphs: By 1949, the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party had gained control over mainland China and Mao Zedong announced the creation of the People's Republic of China. Chiang Kai-shek and the other nationalists fled to Taiwan.

paragraphs: As the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao began many social and economic reform projects with mixed results. The Great Leap Forward, from 1958 to 1961, tried to industrialize China and increase its food production, but resulted in one of the largest famines in history. It is estimated that 45 million people died as a result of this reform project. In 1966, Mao began the Cultural Revolution to remove capitalist influences from society and government. Major government officials and ordinary citizens were accused of being "revisionists" - people who disagreed with some parts of Marxism - or "counter-revolutionaries" and were persecuted. Many universities and schools were closed, and historical and religious sites were destroyed. Although the program officially ended in 1969, it continued until Mao's death in 1976.

paragraphs: During this time period, the People's Republic of China did not get along with the capitalist countries of the Western world. Beginning in the 1960s, relationships between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union also became increasingly unfriendly in the Sino-Soviet Split. In 1972, to counter the power of the Soviet Union, Chairman Mao and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai met with US President Richard Nixon in Beijing. This began to improve relationships between China and the Western world.

paragraphs: After Mao's death, there was a power struggle between the Gang of Four and Chinese Premier Hua Guofeng, the man Mao had chosen to be the next leader of China. Eventually, Deng Xiaoping, one of the veterans of the revolution, took power. He began a "Reform and Opening Up" () campaign. These reforms tried to make the People's Republic of China a modern, industrial - but still socialist - nation by moving towards a market system. Deng's policies would be known as "socialism with Chinese characteristics."

paragraphs: Although Deng's policy helped loosen restrictions on citizens, the People's Republic of China continues to have problems with the amount of control the government has over citizens' private lives. In 1979, the one-child policy, which limits most couples to one child, was created because of the overpopulation problem in the People's Republic of China. This policy is highly controversial and many Westerners have criticized it. News and Internet sites are also censored by the government.

paragraphs: In 1989, the Chinese Communist Party used soldiers and tanks to stop a protest in Beijing's Tiananmen Square organized by students seeking political reform. This action received worldwide criticism and led to economic sanctions being placed on the Chinese government.

paragraphs: In August 2008, China hosted the Summer Olympics for the first time.

paragraphs: The People's Republic of China is the third- or fourth-largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, and (in some sources) the United States and the second-largest by land area. China has every kind of climate in the northern hemisphere except the polar climate. It is also the largest country without any land north of the Arctic Circle. China borders 14 nations, which is more than any other country in the world. It borders Vietnam, Laos, and Burma in Southeast Asia; India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan in South Asia; Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia; a small section of Russian Altai and Mongolia in Inner Asia; and the Russian Far East and North Korea in Northeast Asia.

paragraphs: China has two major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. There is also the Taklamakan and the Gobi Desert.

paragraphs: The world's highest point, Mt. Everest (8848m), is on the border between China and Nepal. The country's lowest point, and the world's fourth-lowest, is the dried lake bed of Ayding Lake (−154m).

paragraphs: China is one of 17 megadiverse countries. It is in two of the world's major ecozones: the Palearctic and the Indomalaya. In the Palearctic zone, mammals such as the horse, camel, tapir, and jerboa can be found. Among the species in the Indomalaya region are the Leopard Cat, bamboo rat, treeshrew, and various monkey and ape species. Some overlap is between the two regions; deer, antelope, bears, wolves, pigs, and many rodent species can all be found in China's environments. The famous giant panda is found only in a limited area along the Yangtze River. China has a continuing problem with trade in endangered species. There are now laws to stop such activities.

paragraphs: China also has a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests cover most of the north of the country. The forest have animal species such as moose and the Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species. Moist conifer forests can have thickets of bamboo. It is replaced by rhododendrons in higher montane stands of juniper and yew. Subtropical forests, which are mostly in central and southern China. These support as many as 146,000 species of flora. Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, have a quarter of all the plant and animal species found in China.

paragraphs: China is a one-party state wherein the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) holds ultimate power and authority over state and government and serves as the paramount leader. The current General Secretary is Xi Jinping, who took office on 15 November 2012 and was re-elected on 25 October 2017.

paragraphs: The President is the titular head of state, elected by the National People's Congress. The current president is Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making him China's Paramount leader. The Premier is the head of government, heading the State Council alongside with four vice premiers and the heads of ministries and commissions. The current premier is Li Keqiang, who is also a senior member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, China's "de facto" top decision-making body.

paragraphs: The PRC Armed Forces, also known as the People's Liberation Army (PLA), is one of the most powerful armies in the world. Nowadays PRC is among the atomic powers in the world. It also has the largest standing army in the world of over 2 million soldiers on active duty.

paragraphs: There are 56 recognized ethnic minority groups in China. Han is the largest ethnic group in China. Mandarin Chinese is the main spoken language.

paragraphs: China is the origin of Eastern martial arts, called Kung Fu or Wushu. China is also the home of the well-respected Spa Monastery and Wudang Mountains. Martial art started more for the purpose of survival, defense, and warfare than art. Over time some art forms have branched off, while others have retained their distinct Chinese characteristics.

paragraphs: China has had renowned artists including Wong Fei Hung and many others. Art has also co-existed with a variety of paints including the more standard 18 colors. Legendary and controversial moves like Big Mak are also praised and talked about within the culture.

paragraphs: China has many traditional festivals, such as the Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and so on. The most significant is Chinese New Year. Another important holiday is the National Day celebration around October. Weekends are moved around to make sure everyone has a week-long holiday for it, just like during the lunar new year.

paragraphs: Chinese New Year lasts fifteen days, including one week as a national holiday. It starts with the first day of the Chinese lunar year and ends with the full moon fifteen days later. It is always in the middle of winter, but is called the Spring Festival in Chinese because Chinese seasons are a little different from English ones. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, people call on friends and relatives. Because most people watch the special performances on CCTV all the night on New Year's Eve and don't go to bed until 12:00 AM, they usually get up later in the next day. The fifth day of the Chinese New Year is the day to welcome the god of Wealth (Chinese:财神爷), many people make and eat dumplings (Chinese:饺子. Pinyin: Jaozi). They believe that dumplings can hold the god of Wealth and bring luck. The last day of the Chinese New Year is the Lantern Festival. On this day, the moon becomes the full moon. People go out and watch the lantern festivals everywhere. After that, they eat sweet dumpling (Chinese:汤圆,元宵), a kind of dumpling which is round and looks like the full moon.

paragraphs: Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet of the State of Chu during the Warring States period. He persuaded his emperor not to accept Qin's diplomats's offers several times but his emperor did not listen to him. He was very sad and ended up jumping into the river to end his life. The people loved him so much that they did not want the fish to eat his corpse. They made and threw rice dumplings into the river. They hope the fish eat these dumplings instead of the poet's corpse. They also rowed dragon boats in the river to get rid of the fish. Eating rice dumplings and holding dragon boat races, became what the Chinese do in this festival nowadays.

paragraphs: Held on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival for families. Now when the festival sets in, people sit together to eat moon cakes, appreciate the moon and the moon itself, celebrate the bumper harvest, and enjoy the family love and happiness. To the Chinese people, the full moon symbolizes family reunion, as do the moon cakes. Hence why the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Family Reunion Festival.

paragraphs: Trains are commonly used for moving from one place to another, mainly for long distances. Bullet trains are faster and more common in the cities. China has more high-speed trains than any other country in the world. Buses and air transport are also very common.


title: Psychoneuroimmunology

paragraphs: Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body. PNI takes an interdisciplinary approach.

paragraphs: The main interests of PNI are the interactions between the nervous and immune systems and the relationships between mental processes and health.

paragraphs: Interest in the relationship between psychiatric syndromes or symptoms and immune function has been a consistent theme since the beginning of modern medicine.

paragraphs: Claude Bernard, a French physiologist, founded the concept milieu interieur in the mid 1800s. In 1865, Bernard described the perturbation of this internal state “… there are protective functions of organic elements holding living materials in reserve and maintaining without interruption humidity, heat and other conditions indispensable to vital activity. Sickness and death are only a dislocation or perturbation of that mechanism." (Bernard, 1865)

paragraphs: Walter Cannon, a professor of physiology at Harvard University coined the term homeostasis in his book "The Wisdom of the Body" in 1932. In his work with animals Cannon observed that any change of emotional state in the beast, such as anxiety, distress, or rage was accompanied by total cessation of movements of the stomach (Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage, 1915). These studies into the relationship between the effects of emotions and perceptions on the autonomic nervous system, the responses that led to the freeze, fight or flight response.

paragraphs: In 1975 Robert Ader and Nicholas Cohen advanced PNI with a demonstration of classic conditioning of the immune function, and coined the term "psychoneuroimmunology". Ader was investigating how long conditioned responses might last in laboratory rats. The highly reproducible results showed that conditioned rats exposed to the conditioned stimulus were immuno suppressed. In other words, a signal via the nervous system (taste) was affecting immune function. This was one of the first scientific experiments that demonstrated that the nervous system can affect the immune system.

paragraphs: In 1981 David Felten, then working at the Indiana University of Medicine, discovered a network of nerves leading to blood vessels as well as cells of the immune system. The researchers also found nerves in the thymus and spleen terminating near clusters of lymphocytes, macrophages and mast cells, all of which help control immune function. This discovery provided one of the first indications of how neuro-immune interaction occurs.

paragraphs: Ader, Cohen and Felten went on to edit the groundbreaking book "Psychoneuroimmunology" in 1981, which laid out the underlying premise that the brain and immune system represent a single, integrated system of defense.

paragraphs: Stressors can produce profound health consequences. In one epidemiological study, for example, all-cause mortality increased in the month following a severe stressor – the death of a spouse. Theorists propose that stressful events trigger cognitive and affective responses which, in turn, induce sympathetic nervous system and endocrine changes. These ultimately impair immune function. Potential health consequences are broad, but include rates of infection, HIV progression, and cancer incidence and progression.


title: Political party

paragraphs: A political party is an organized group of people or bodies who seek to capture political power through an election in order to run the affairs of a country. It often puts forward candidates for public office. In a democracy, leaders must "run for office" in an election. In a dictatorship, there is generally only one party allowed, that can approve a new leader without non-members having a choice.

paragraphs: A political party is similar to a faction, and can be the same thing. In some systems, members of one party in the legislature are all expected to vote the same way. The laws written by the party or faction with the majority of votes become adopted by the country, so this means whatever party is elected to over half the seats, gets to run the government. The next largest party is often called the "opposition". Sometimes when there are more than two parties with seats, no one party has over half of the seats. Then two or more parties might join together to form what is called a "coalition".

paragraphs: Some parties are formed around a single issue or interest group. Others form policies to address all matters of government, known as a "platform".

paragraphs: Many political parties have a set of ideas and beliefs (called its "ideology"). People often describe these ideologies using words such as "conservative" and "liberal".

paragraphs: Common ideologies include environmentalism, socialism (ranging from social democracy to Marxism and Communism), conservatism, democracy, liberalism, and nationalism.

paragraphs: Political parties can be against the law in some places. When some parties get a lot of power, they can make all other political parties illegal. For example, the Nazi Party did this in Germany, and the Communist Party did it in several countries. Some countries make extreme-right parties illegal (such as Vlaams Blok in Belgium). At other times, countries have outlawed far-left parties. For example, West Germany banned the Communist Party in 1956.

paragraphs: A handful of countries like China, North Korea and Cuba still have one-party dictatorships. In a few other dictatorships, such as Saudi Arabia, all political parties are banned and there is no parliament at all.

paragraphs: In all big democratic countries, parties are very important. But there are a few very small countries, such as the island of Jersey, where most politicians do not belong to any party and where parties do not matter much.

paragraphs: In some democracies, there are only two big political parties. For example, in the United States, there is the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Some other parties exist but are very small and do not hold seats in Congress.

paragraphs: In other countries there are larger numbers of parties. In the German federal Parliament (or Bundestag), six parties have seats. In the United Kingdom, there are two big parties, one medium-sized party, and many small ones.


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title: Pet

paragraphs: A pet is a domesticated animal that lives with people, but is not forced to work and is not eaten, in most instances. In most cases, a pet is kept to entertain people or for companionship. Some pets such as dogs and cats are placed in an animal shelter if there is no one willing to take care of it. If no one adopts it or the pet is too old/sick, the pet may be euthanized.

paragraphs: Dogs, cats, fish, rodents, lagomorphs, ferrets, birds, certain reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of arthropods such as tarantulas and hermit crabs are the most common pets in North America. Horses, elephants, oxen, and donkeys are usually made to work, so they are not usually called pets. Some dogs also do work for people, and it was once common for some birds (like falcons and carrier pigeons) to work for humans.

paragraphs: Rodents are also very popular pets. The most common are guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters (especially Syrian and dwarf hamsters), mice and rats.


Product


title: Program

paragraphs: The term Program can be used in many ways.


title: Platonic realism

paragraphs: Platonic realism is the theory of reality developed by Plato, and explained in his theory of Forms. Platonic realism states that the visible world of particular things is a shifting exhibition, like shadows cast on a wall by the activities of their corresponding universal Ideas or Forms. Whereas the visible world of particulars is unreal, the Forms occupy the unobservable yet true reality and are real.

paragraphs: Platonism is a similar, yet sometimes modified, view of reality.

paragraphs: Among the natural philosophers in ancient Greece, the problem of universals was the mystery of where particular things derive their traits that we perceive as universals—for instance "red" or "apple" or "good" or "woman" or "truth".

paragraphs: Plato explained that the particular things of the visible world are imperfect, transient copies of the universal Ideas that are the perfect, lasting Forms. Existing exist outside space and time, the Forms are the universals and act as templates from which particulars manifest.

paragraphs: In his "Metaphysics", Aristotle, a student of Plato, explained that Socrates and his own student Plato held it significant that the world is in flux, much as Heraclitus had commented, "You cannot step into the same river twice", a theme of the Eleatics, a group of pre-socratic philosophers.

paragraphs: Plato considered that only the mind could access the timeless reality of truths, the realm of the Forms casting the visible world. Plato's metaphorical allegory of the cave—whereby humans only know reality as shadows of the real things they see interacting on a wall—suggests the practical consequences of Platonic realism as to "natural philosophy" in its endeavor to explain the natural world and as to values in human society. (Value theory comprises ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy.)

paragraphs: Plato had led the focused application of geometry, developed by Euclid, to explain the natural world. Yet by his view of nature, Plato regarded astronomy as similar to seeking a theoretical proof in geometry—abstract and not the real world—whereupon the mind's insights derived from a quest to hold other truths through the mind's probing of ethics and aesthetics would yield discovery of truths within the realm of Forms, outside space and time.

paragraphs: Aristotle, a student of Plato, answered the problem of universals differently. Aristotle explained that universals are concepts corresponding to traits borne and shared by the particular things themselves. Aristotle did not regard all reality as visible, as he recognized existence of souls, yet regarded souls as unobserved parts of the visible world, real in itself. Aristotelianism largely shaped the course of Western thought.

paragraphs: Aristotle developed a more or less full description and explanation of the natural world and developed logic—syllogistic logic—to derive conclusions of the relations among things. Aristotle's grounding in the visible world was a metaphysical approach that suggested what evolved by some 2 000 years later into empirical science.

paragraphs: Some mathematicians and physicists are Platonists, for instance Max Tegmark and Roger Penrose. Yet today's Platonists usually view entities within the visible world as real, and simply regard universal abstractions like numbers, sets, propositions, and geometry as corresponding to real and timeless entities that also exist, though "pure" Platonists regard only the Forms or their realm as real.

paragraphs: By way of string theory and the holographic principle, some physicists conjecture that Plato's allegory of the cave approximates the natural world's structure. Tegmark, who regards only the mathematical structure of the universe as real, has been called a "radical" Platonist.


title: Paradox

paragraphs: A paradox is a sentence in logic that cannot be true but also cannot be false. Many famous problems of this kind exist.

paragraphs: A famous paradox is called the liar's paradox. It is the simple sentence "This sentence is a lie", or equivalently, "This statement is false."

paragraphs: If the sentence is true, then it is a lie as it says. But if it is a lie, it cannot be true. A lie cannot also be a truth. So the sentence being true makes it a lie.

paragraphs: On the other hand, if the sentence is a lie, then it is not as it says: it is true. But that is just what the sentence says, which makes the content of the sentence true. So the sentence being a lie makes it true.

paragraphs: This paradox is not just true in English, but in any language powerful enough for a sentence to make a claim about itself. This is true of mathematics as well. Paradox can never be removed from any symbol system that makes claims about itself.

paragraphs: Another example is the statement that "there is no cabal". Only a cabal can know if there is no cabal, so this is either a guess, or, it is a cabal trying to pretend it does not exist.

paragraphs: Not all paradoxes are true logical paradoxes, since they can also be common-sense-defying statements that appear true. Some famous examples of this kind of paradox include:

paragraphs: A paradox can also arise in ethics. Assuming power over others may sometimes be required to protect them while diminishing their right to autonomy. This is defined as an , which means "a paradox arising in ethics". Similarly, an ethical dilemma may be resolved by re-framing of the problem to reveal the false contradiction.

paragraphs: Because a paradox forces one to think "out of the box" about possibilities other than true or false in logic, right or wrong in morality, it is often brought up for educational purposes. People who do not see a paradox where others do are likely to be too certain that they are right.


title: Potato

paragraphs: A potato is a root vegetable, the "Solanum tuberosum". It is a small plant with large leaves. The part of the potato that people eat is a tuber that grows under the ground.

paragraphs: A potato contains a lot of starch and other carbohydrates. Potato usually has a light-brown or yellowish skin and is white or yellow inside. If the potato gets light on it, the tuber turns green and will be poisonous.

paragraphs: The potato is originally from the high and cool areas of the Andes mountains. It was grown as a food crop thousands of years ago. When Spanish conquistadores came to South America in the 1500s they took potatoes back to Europe.

paragraphs: It took nearly 200 years for the potato to become a widely grown crop. In the 1780s the farmers in Ireland began growing potatoes because they grew well in the poor soils. They also have most of the vitamins that people need to live. When a potato plague destroyed the crop in 1845 the Irish Potato Famine killed many people.

paragraphs: The potato plant is now grown in many different parts of the world. Captain William Bligh planted potatoes on Bruny Island, Tasmania in 1792. In Australia they are now the largest vegetable crop.

paragraphs: The English word "potato" comes from the Spanish word "patata".

paragraphs: Scientists in Germany have used genetic engineering to make a potato called the Amflora, which could be grown to make starch for making other things in factories.

paragraphs: Potatoes are almost always eaten cooked. People cook potatoes by boiling, baking, roasting, or frying them. French fries or "chips" are potatoes cut into long pieces and fried until they are soft. Potato chips, often called crisps, are potatoes cut into very thin round pieces and fried until they are hard.

paragraphs: William Shakespeare wrote that the potato was an aphrodisiac, but there is no evidence to show this is true.


title: Plant

paragraphs: Plants are one of six big groups (kingdoms) of living things. They are autotrophic eukaryotes, which means they have complex cells, and make their own food. Usually they cannot move (not counting growth).

paragraphs: Plants include familiar types such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The scientific study of plants, known as botany, has identified about 350,000 extant (living) species of plants. Fungi and non-green algae are not classified as plants.

paragraphs: Most plants grow in the ground, with stems in the air and roots below the surface. Some float on water. The root part absorbs water and some nutrients the plant needs to live and grow. These climb the stem and reach the leaves. The evaporation of water from pores in the leaves pulls water through the plant. This is called transpiration.

paragraphs: A plant needs sunlight, carbon dioxide, minerals and water to make food by photosynthesis. A green substance in plants called chlorophyll traps the energy from the Sun needed to make food. Chlorophyll is mostly found in leaves, inside plastids, which are inside the leaf cells. The leaf can be thought of as a food factory. Leaves of plants vary in shape and size, but they are always the plant organ best suited to capture solar energy. Once the food is made in the leaf, it is transported to the other parts of the plant such as stems and roots.

paragraphs: The word "plant" can also mean the action of putting something in the ground. For example, farmers plant seeds in the field.

paragraphs: Photosynthesis is a process that is taken place by the leaves on the plant. The leaves are the only parts of a plant that can do this process (as they adapted). This is also known as how the plant gets its food.You can make the process quicker by adding more CO2, light and chlorophyll.

paragraphs: At least some plant cells contain photosynthetic organelles (plastids) which enable them to make food for themselves. With sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide, the plastids make sugars, the basic molecules needed by the plant. Free oxygen (O) is produced as a by-product of photosynthesis.

paragraphs: Later, in the cell cytoplasm, the sugars may be turned into amino acids for proteins, nucleotides for DNA and RNA, and carbohydrates such as starch. This process needs certain minerals: nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium.

paragraphs: Plant nutrition is the study of the chemical elements that are necessary for plant growth.

paragraphs: Micronutrients (trace elements) include:

paragraphs: The roots of plants perform two main functions. First, they anchor the plant to the ground. Second, they absorb water and various nutrients dissolved in water from the soil. Plants use the water to make food. The water also provides the plant with support. Plants that lack water become very limp and their stems cannot support their leaves. Plants which specialise in desert areas are called xerophytes or phreatophytes, depending on the type of root growth.

paragraphs: Water is transported from the roots to the rest of the plant through special vessels in the plant. When the water reaches the leaves, some of it evaporates into the air. Many plants need the help of fungi to make their roots work properly. This plant/fungi symbiosis is called mycorrhiza. Rhizobia bacteria in root nodules help some plants get nitrogen.

paragraphs: Flowers are the reproductive organ only of "flowering" plants (Angiosperms). The petals of a flower are often brightly colored and scented to attract insects and other pollinators. The stamen is the male part of the plant. It is composed of the "filament" (a stalk) that holds the anther, which produces the pollen. Pollen is needed for plants to produce seeds. The carpel is the female part of the flower. The top part of the carpel contains the stigma. The style is the neck of the carpel. The ovary is the swollen area at the bottom of the carpel. The ovary produces the seeds. The sepal is a leaf that protects a flower as a bud.

paragraphs: The process by which pollen gets transferred from one flower to another flower is called pollination. This transfer can happen in different ways. Insects such as bees are attracted to bright, scented flowers. When bees go into the flower to gather nectar, the spiky pollen sticks to their back legs. The sticky stigma on another flower catches the pollen when the bee lands or flies nearby it.

paragraphs: Some flowers use the wind to carry pollen. Their dangling stamens produce lots of pollen that is light enough to be carried by the wind. Their flowers are usually small and not highly coloured. The stigmas of these flowers are feathery and hang outside the flower to catch the pollen as it falls.

paragraphs: A plant produces many spores or seeds. Lower plants such as moss and ferns produce spores. The seed plants are the Gymnosperms and Angiosperms. If all the seeds fell to the ground besides the plant, the area might become overcrowded. There might not be enough water and minerals for all the seeds. Seeds usually have some way to get to new places. Some seeds can be dispersed by the wind or by water. Seeds inside juicy fruits are dispersed after being eaten. Sometimes, seeds stick to animals and are dispersed that way.

paragraphs: The question of the earliest plant fossils depends on what is meant by the word "plant".

paragraphs: By the Silurian, fossils of whole plants are preserved, including the lycophyte "Baragwanathia". From the Devonian, detailed fossils of rhyniophytes have been found. Early fossils of these ancient plants show the individual cells within the plant tissue. The Devonian period also saw the evolution of the first tree in the fossil record, "Wattezia". This fern-like tree had a trunk with fronds, and produced spores.

paragraphs: The coal measures are a major source of Palaeozoic plant fossils, with many groups of plants in existence at this time. The spoil heaps of coal mines are the best places to collect; coal itself is the remains of fossilised plants, though structural detail of the plant fossils is rarely visible in coal. In the Fossil Forest at Victoria Park in Glasgow the stumps of "Lepidodendron" trees are found in their original growth positions.


title: Prediction

paragraphs: A prediction is a statement that someone makes about what they think is going to happen. It is often very helpful to know what is going to happen to help prepare for these future events. Predictions are based on the idea that two beginning positions that are like each other will have similar results. By watching something happen, it is possible to predict what will happen if something similar happens. Predictions are given by science or fortune tellers or horoscopes.

paragraphs: The most common example of a prediction is the weather forecast. Studying how weather happens lets people predict what the weather will be by looking at what is currently happening. This is helpful because by knowing that it is going to rain, a person can wear the right clothes for it.

paragraphs: Nostradamus has made many predictions about the future.


title: Probability

paragraphs: Probability is a part of applied mathematics. It has to do with chance, the study of things that might happen or might not happen.

paragraphs: For example, using probability, one can show that by throwing a coin up in the air and letting it land, half of the time it will land with one side facing up, and half of the time with the other side facing up. Many coins have a picture of the face of a famous person on one side, and something else on the other side. Often people call the side with the face "heads", and the other side "tails".

paragraphs: The probability (p) of an event "E", written formula_1, is always between zero (impossible) and one (certain).

paragraphs: If we roll a die (plural: dice), then the chance that it will land on 1 is 1/6 (because there are 6 numbers on a die). Similarly, the chance it will land on 2 is also 1/6. The chance it will land on any number between 1 and 6 is 1, because every time we roll the die, it will always land on a number between 1 and 6.

paragraphs: Probability can be figured out using mathematics. For example, if one rolls six dice, the chance of them getting a number more than ten is not obvious, but can be figured out using math and science.

paragraphs: One of the most interesting things about chance is that to figure out the probability that two things will both happen, one usually multiply their two probabilities together. For example, suppose that one wants to know the probability of rolling two dice and getting a certain combination (it could be two 6s or a 3 then a 5, just any two). The possibility of getting a 3 is one in six (⅙), and the possibility of getting a 5 is also one in six, so the chances of getting a 3 then a 5 is ⅙×⅙=⅟36. If that number is expressed as somewhere between 0 and 1, it equals 0.027...7, which is fairly low. The possibility of getting a 3, then a 5, and then a 2 would be ⅙×⅙×⅙=⅟216 or 0.00463, which is a much lower probability.

paragraphs: People like Jacob Bernoulli, Pierre-Simon Laplace, or Christiaan Huygens used the word probability, as described above. Other people thought about frequencies; the notion of probability is usually called frequency probability.


title: Probability experiment

paragraphs: A probability experiment is a situation where chance affects the result of an experiment. If the experiment can only have two outcomes, it is named Bernoulli trial. A coin flip is a probability experiment because chance affects whether a coin will land heads or tails when it is flipped.


title: Protein

paragraphs: Proteins are long-chain molecules built from small units known as amino acids. They are joined together with peptide bonds.

paragraphs: They are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides folded into a round or fibrous shape.

paragraphs: A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids. The sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide comes from the DNA sequence of a gene. The genetic code specifies 20 standard amino acids. Shortly after synthesis, some amino acids are chemically modified. This alters the folding, stability, activity, and function of the protein. Sometimes proteins have non-peptide groups attached, as cofactors.

paragraphs: Proteins are essential to all cells. Like other biological macromolecules (polysaccharides and nucleic acids), proteins take part in virtually every process in cells:

paragraphs: Proteins have different functions depending on their shape. They can be found in meat or muscle. They are used for growth and repair, as well as for strengthening the bones. They help to make tissue and cells. They are in animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and also in the human body.

paragraphs: Muscles contain a lot of protein. When protein is digested, it is broken down into amino acids. These amino acids can then be used to build new protein. Proteins form an important part in foods like milk, eggs, meat, fish, beans, spinach, and nuts. There are four factors that determine what a protein will do. The first is the order of the amino acids. There are 20 different types of amino acids. The second is the little twists in the chain. The third is how the entire structure is folded up. The fourth is whether it is made up of different sub-units. Haemoglobin molecules, for example, are made of four sub-units.

paragraphs: Most proteins are enzymes, and mutations may slow them or stop them working. 50% of human cancers are caused by mutations in the tumour suppressor p53. p53 is a protein which regulates cell division.

paragraphs: Proteins are necessary in an animal's diets, since animals cannot make all the amino acids they need (they can make most of them). They must get certain amino acids from food. These are called the "essential amino acids". Through digestion, animals break down ingested protein into free amino acids. The amino acids are then used in metabolism to make the enzymes and structures the body needs.

paragraphs: There are nine essential amino acids for humans, which are obtained from food. The nine essential amino acids are: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. Meat contains all the essential amino acids humans need; most plants do not. However, eating a mixture of plants, such as both wheat "and" peanut butter, or rice "and" beans, provides all the essential amino acids needed. Soy products like tofu provide all the essential amino acids—as does quinoa—but these are not the only way to get the protein humans need.

paragraphs: The scientist Jöns Jacob Berzelius gave proteins their name, but many other scientists have studied proteins.


title: Periodic table

paragraphs: The periodic table of the chemical elements is a list of known chemical elements. In the table, the elements are placed in the order of their atomic numbers starting with the lowest number of one, hydrogen. The atomic number of an element is the same as the number of protons in that particular nucleus of an atom. In the periodic table the elements are arranged into "periods" and "groups." A row of elements across the table is called a "period". Each period has a number; from 1 to 8. Period 1 has only 2 elements in it: hydrogen and helium. Period 2 and Period 3 both have 8 elements. Other periods are longer. Elements in a period have consecutive atomic numbers.

paragraphs: A column of elements down the table is called a "group". There are 18 groups in the standard periodic table. Each group has a number: from 1 to 18. Elements in a group have electrons arranged in similar ways, according to the number of valency electrons, which gives them similar chemical properties (they behave in similar ways). For example, group 18 is known as the noble gases because they are all gases and they do not combine with other atoms.

paragraphs: There are two systems of group numbers; one using Arabic numerals (1,2,3) and the other using Roman numerals (I, II, III). The Roman numeral names were used in most of the 20th century. In 1990 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) decided to use the new system with Arabic numerals, to replace the two old group systems that used Roman numerals.

paragraphs: The periodic table has been used by chemists to observe patterns and relationships between elements. There are 3 main groups in the Periodic Table; metals, metalloids, and nonmetals. For example, elements to the bottom and far left of the table are the most metallic, and elements on the top right are the least metallic. (e.g. cesium is much more metallic than helium). There are also many other patterns and relationships.

paragraphs: The periodic table was invented by the Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev (18341907). In his honor, element 101 was named after him, mendelevium.

paragraphs: The version of the periodic table shown above is the one most used. Other widespread versions are shown below:


title: Physiology

paragraphs: Physiology is the study of how living things work. Physiologists can study how organs of an organism work together to make things happen. In human beings, for example, the digestion of food hormones and other chemicals are made by the stomach, liver, and pancreas. Muscle contraction happens because of chemical messages made by nerves of that muscle. By learning how the body functions normally, physiologists and physicians can better understand what happens when organs do not function normally. For example, an understanding of how the thyroid gland functions has helped in treating goitre. Studies of the circulatory system and the nervous system have helped physicians understand and treat such illnesses like heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure.

paragraphs: The field is usually divided into human physiology, animal physiology, and plant physiology.


title: Planet

paragraphs: <onlyinclude>A planet is a large object such as Jupiter or Earth that orbits a star. Planets are smaller than stars, and they do not produce light. Jupiter is the biggest planet in the Solar System.

paragraphs: Planets are shaped like a slightly squashed ball (called a spheroid). Objects that orbit planets are called satellites. A star and everything which orbits it are called a star system.

paragraphs: There are eight planets in the Solar System. Pluto used to be called a planet, but in August 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided it was a dwarf planet instead. There are four more known dwarf planets in the Solar System, Ceres, Makemake, Eris and Haumea.

paragraphs: The name "planet" is from the Greek word "πλανήτης" ("planetes"), meaning "wanderers", or "things that move". Until the 1990s, people only knew of those in the Solar System. As of June 2017, we know of 3,610 other planets. These newly found planets are orbiting other stars: they are "extrasolar" planets. Sometimes people call them "exoplanets".</onlyinclude>

paragraphs: The planets are composed of material quite different from the Sun. The Sun is almost entirely composed of hydrogen, and some helium. Its energy comes from the conversion of hydrogen to helium. In contrast, the "terrestrial" planets are composed almost entirely of larger atoms and molecules which "cannot" have come from the Sun. It follows, therefore, that the material which forms those planets must have come from another source or sources. Those sources were the atoms formed in supernovae explosions by much larger and much shorter-lived stars in the Sun's neighbourhood as it moved in the galaxy. This material was captured by the Sun's gravity and pulled along to become the basic material out of which the planets condensed. The same considerations apply to other planetary systems in the galaxy.

paragraphs: The gas giants are composed of hydrogen gas from the same source as the Sun, plus (at their centres) higher "metallic" elements like the terrestrial planets. This is known from the drive-by data gathered by satellites, and by drive-into probes like the Galileo (spacecraft). There is a huge amount of data collected about each planet. The data is stored on computer files, and there are summary volumes in print.

paragraphs: The planets in the Solar System have names of Greek or Roman gods, apart from Earth, because people did not think Earth was a planet in old times. However, Earth is occasionally referred by the name of a Roman god: "Terra". Other languages, for example Chinese, use different names. Moons also have names of gods and people from classical mythology. The names of the moons of Uranus are from the plays written by Shakespeare.

paragraphs: Here is a list of planets in the Solar System. They are ordered by how close they are to the Sun, nearest first.

paragraphs: Astronomers speak about "major" (or true) planets, and minor planets, which are smaller objects that go around the Sun. Some examples of "minor planets" are asteroids, comets, and trans-Neptunian objects.

paragraphs: Planets in the Solar System are of three sorts:

paragraphs: Many objects in the Solar System that are not planets are also "icy". Examples are the icy moons of the outer planets of the Solar System (like Triton).


title: Political problems of China

paragraphs: Many people say the government stops people from having freedom of speech, freedom of religion and other political rights that people in other countries have. China still has one-party rule, and is not a democracy.

paragraphs: The following territories are claimed by China (PRC and/or ROC) and by another country or more.

paragraphs: Unequal treaties were forced onto Asian countries when European imperialism reached Asia.

paragraphs: The list includes claims from PRC and ROC, as well as unofficial historical claims.

paragraphs: "Note: Japan's and Korea's unequal treaties have been resolved since the end of WWII."


title: Police

paragraphs: Police are a group of people whose job is to enforce laws, help with emergencies, solve crimes and protect property. A person who carries out this duty is known as a police officer. They work out of a police station. Police are trained in first aid and rescue, because police officers are often one of the first people to get to a place where people are sick or injured, such as a car accident, or a fire.

paragraphs: A police agency may be called a "police force", "police department", "police service", "constabulary", "civil guard" or "protective service". A "gendarmerie" is a police force that is part of the military, although its members rarely do actual military work.

paragraphs: Most police forces in the United States name themselves as "[Place] Police Department", such as New York City Police Department. State police forces are usually known as either "[State] Highway Patrol" or "[State] State Police". In the United Kingdom, most are "[Place] Police" or "[Place] Constabulary". In Canada and other English-speaking countries, "[Place] Police Service" is common. Ireland's police are called the Garda Síochána.

paragraphs: A "law enforcement agency" is any agency that enforces the law. In the United States, there are some law enforcement agencies that are not called police forces but carry out similar work, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations. One common type is a "sheriff's office" (also "sheriff's department"), an agency that is led by a "sheriff".

paragraphs: Those who carry out policing duties are known as "police officers". They may also be known as "policemen" (men only), "policewomen" (women only), "peace officers", "constables", "rangers" or "civil guards". In a sheriff's office, they are known as "sheriff's deputies" or "deputies" for short. In Ireland they are known by the Irish language word "gardaí" ("garda" if singular) or as "guards".

paragraphs: The police have different powers to help them do their job. These powers are different in different countries. Most police officers have the power to arrest people, search people, and search houses/properties. They sometimes carry equipment such as guns, batons, tasers, or pepper spray. The area where police officers can use these powers is called their jurisdiction. If officers are outside of their jurisdiction, another police force with jurisdiction can then use their powers.

paragraphs: Most police departments have officers in two main groups: a "patrol" group with officers who wear uniforms, and a "detective" group with officers who wear normal clothing.

paragraphs: Not all countries use the same words to describe these groups. In the United Kingdom, for example, patrol officers form the "uniform branch", while detectives work within the CID ("Criminal Investigation Department"). Also in the United Kingdom, not all police officers are armed, these police officers form an "Armed Response Unit" which comes under other names in different constabularies, in the Metropolitan Police Service, it falls under SFC (Specialist Firearms Command) which all MET Armed Police fall under

paragraphs: Police uniforms, equipment and methods vary depending on the country. In some places, groups of police train for special jobs such as dealing with riots or dealing with highly dangerous criminals.

paragraphs: Different countries have different ways of organizing their police. Some countries like South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand have just one police force. Other countries have more than one. France has two police forces, one for cities and another for rural areas. Chile also has two, one for patrol and another for investigations.

paragraphs: Some countries have two or more levels of police forces. For example, most policing in Australia is carried out by the six state police forces, but there is also the Australian Federal Police who police the whole country. Germany has a similar system. The United Kingdom and Switzerland have many local police forces and several national agencies, but no actual national police force. In Canada, local governments can choose to either run their own police force or give the job to a bigger one. So most Canadian cities have their own police, while most rural areas are policed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is also the national police.

paragraphs: The United States has over 17,000 law enforcement agencies. Many areas have four levels of law enforcement agencies. For example, Los Angeles has the Los Angeles Police Department but there are many other agencies that can work in the city. This includes the county-level Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, the state-level California Highway Patrol and over 100 federal (or national) law enforcement agencies.

paragraphs: Worldwide, police are a small percentage of the number of people they serve. On average there are 303.3 police officers per 100,000 people.

paragraphs: In most countries, police officers carry guns during their normal duties. In the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland and a few other countries, most police officers do not carry guns.

paragraphs: Officers communicate using radio devices. The radios can be on both the uniform and in the patrol vehicle.


title: Pi

paragraphs: Pi (or π) is a mathematical constant. It is the ratio of the distance around a circle to the circle's diameter. This produces a number, and that number is always the same. However, the number is rather strange. The number starts as 3.141592653589793... and continues without end. Numbers like this are called irrational numbers.

paragraphs: The diameter is the largest chord which can be fitted inside a circle. It passes through the center of the circle. The distance around a circle is known as the circumference. Even though the diameter and circumference are different for different circles, the number pi remains constant: its value never changes. This is because the relationship between the circumference and diameter is always the same.

paragraphs: Pi is often written as , or the Greek letter π as a shortcut. Pi is also an irrational number, meaning it cannot be written as a fraction (formula_1), where 'a' and 'b' are integers (whole numbers). This basically means that the digits of pi that are to the right of the decimal go forever—without repeating in a pattern, and that it is impossible to write the exact value of pi as a number. Pi can only be approximated, or measured to a value that is close enough for practical purposes.

paragraphs: A value close to pi is 3.141592653589793238462643... A common fraction approximation of pi is formula_2, which yields approximately 3.14285714. This approximation is 0.04% away from the true value of pi. While this approximation is accepted for most of its use in real life, the fraction formula_3 is more accurate (giving about 3.14159292), and can be used when a value closer to pi is needed. Computers can be used to get better approximations of pi.

paragraphs: In March 2019, Emma Haruka Iwao calculated the value of pi to 31.4 trillion digits.

paragraphs: The value of pi was known to Ancient Indian mathematicians like Bhaskaracharya and Aryabhatta.

paragraphs: Mathematicians have known about pi for thousands of years, because they have been working with circles for the same amount of time. Civilizations as old as the Babylonians have been able to approximate pi to many digits, such as the fraction 25/8 and 256/81. Most historians believe that ancient Egyptians had no concept of π, and that the correspondence is a coincidence.

paragraphs: The first written reference to pi dates to 1900 . Around 1650 , the Egyptian Ahmes gave a value in the "Rhind Papyrus". The Babylonians were able to find that the value of pi was slightly greater than 3, by simply making a big circle and then sticking a piece of rope onto the circumference and the diameter, taking note of their distances, and then dividing the circumference by the diameter.

paragraphs: Knowledge of the number pi passed back into Europe and into the hands of the Hebrews, who made the number important in a section of the Bible called the Old Testament. After this, the most common way of trying to find pi was to draw a shape of many sides inside any circle, and use the area of the shape to find pi. The Greek philosopher Archimedes, for example, used a polygon shape that had 96 sides in order to find the value of pi, but the Chinese in 500 were able to use a polygon with 16,384 sides to find the value of pi. The Greeks, like Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, were also busy with finding out other properties of the circle, such as how to make squares of circles and squaring the number pi. Since then, many people have been trying to find out more and more exact values of pi.

paragraphs: In the 16th century, better and better ways of finding pi became available, such as the complicated formula that the French lawyer François Viète developed. The first use of the Greek symbol "π" was in an essay written in 1706 by William Jones.

paragraphs: A mathematician named Lambert also showed in 1761 that the number pi was irrational; that is, it cannot be written as a fraction by normal standards. Another mathematician named Lindeman was also able to show in 1882 that pi was part of the group of numbers known as transcendentals, which are numbers that cannot be the solution to a polynomial equation.

paragraphs: Pi can also be used for figuring out many other things beside circles. The properties of pi have allowed it to be used in many other areas of math besides geometry, the study of shapes. Some of these areas are complex analysis, trigonometry, and series.

paragraphs: Today, there are different ways to calculate many digits of π. This is of limited use though.

paragraphs: Pi can sometimes be used to work out the area or the circumference of any circle. To find the circumference of a circle, use the formula C (circumference) = π × (diameter). To find the area of a circle, use the formula π (radius²). This formula is sometimes written as formula_4, where "r" is the variable for the radius of any circle and "A" is the variable for the area of that circle.

paragraphs: To calculate the circumference of a circle with an error of 1 mm:

paragraphs: People generally celebrate March 14 as Pi Day, because March 14 is also written as 3/14, which represents the first three numbers 3.14 in the approximation of pi. Pi day started during 2001.


title: Proper noun

paragraphs: A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing a unique thing (such as "London", "Jupiter", "John Hunter", or "Toyota"), as opposed to a common noun, which represents a class of things (for example, "city", "planet", "person" or "corporation"). Proper nouns are the only nouns in English which have the first letter capitalized.

paragraphs: In English, proper nouns are not normally preceded by an article or other limiting modifier (such as "any" or "some"), and are used to denote a particular person, place, or object without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may have (for example, a town called "Newtown" may be, but does not necessarily have to be, a new [recently built] town).

paragraphs: Which nouns are considered proper names depends on language. For example, names of days and months are considered proper names in English, but not in Spanish, French, Swedish, Slovenian or Finnish, where they are not capitalized.


title: Plastic

paragraphs: A plastic is a material that can change its shape. Many things are made of plastics, usually because making them to the right shape is easy. There are many types of plastic. Some can be shaped only when they are freshly made; then they become hard. Others are thermoplastic and can be softened by heating them. These plastics can be used for 3D printing, because the plastic will become soft enough to form into different shapes, and then become hard again when they cool down.

paragraphs: Most plastics are man-made; they do not occur in nature. The process of making plastics is usually quite complicated. Most of the materials that are called "plastic" are polymers. Polymers are long chains of atoms bonded to each other. In most plastics, the long chain is a chain of carbon atoms with other atoms attached to them. The different atoms and the shape and length of the chains change how the plastic looks and works.

paragraphs: People experimented with plastics based on natural polymers for a very long time. Alexander Parkes, an English inventor (1813-1890), created an early form of plastic in 1855. It was hard but flexible and transparent. He called it "Parkesine" but now it is called "Celluloid."

paragraphs: Old plastics are usually thrown away and put in landfills. Some plastics release toxic fumes when heated. Some plastics are recycled so they won't become waste. Some plastics have other materials added to them, like glass, because they make the plastic stronger and stiffer.

paragraphs: Plastics are mostly petrochemicals, made from natural gas or from petroleum, a type of oil. Chemical engineers refine the petroleum which goes through a heating process. It develops ethylene and propylene, which are the chemical building blocks for many plastics. These chemicals are then combined with other chemicals to produce a polymer.

paragraphs: Today, some of these plastics are also being made without oil. Instead, other sources like plants and bacteria are used to make the plastic. These plastics are called bioplastics. They are useful because they can be eaten by other bacteria instead of throwing them away.


title: Product stewardship

paragraphs: Product stewardship includes waste disposal measures in the distribution of an industrial product. That is, paying for the safe and proper disposal when you pay for the product, and relying on those who sold it to you, to dispose of it.

paragraphs: The slightly more specific idea of product take-back means that the service of waste disposal is paid for at time of purchase. It is often applied to paint, tires, and other goods that become toxic waste if not disposed of properly. It is most familiar as the deposit bottle - where one pays for the loan of the bottle at the same time as one purchases what is inside it. The container deposit charged for a deposit bottle may be a fee to "buy" the bottle, separately from the fee to buy what it contains. If one returns the bottle, the fee is returned, and the supplier must return the bottle for re-use or recycling. If not, one has paid the fee, and presumably this can pay for landfill or litter control measures that dispose of say a broken bottle. Also, since the same fee can be collected by anyone finding and returning the bottle, it is common for people to collect these and return them as a means of surviving. This is quite common for instance among homeless people.

paragraphs: Legal requirements vary: the bottle itself may be considered simple property of the purchaser of the contents, or, the purchaser may have some obligation to return the bottle to some depot so it can be recycled or re-used. For the more toxic items, it is more likely that returning it is required:

paragraphs: This principle is applied very broadly beyond bottles to paint and automobile parts such as tires. When purchasing paint or tires in many places, one simultaneously pays for the disposal of the toxic waste they become. In some countries, such as Germany, law requires attention to the comprehensive outcome of the whole extraction, production, distribution, use and waste of a product, and holds those profiting from these legally responsible for any outcome along the way. This is also the trend in the UK and EU generally. In the United States, there have been many class action suits that are effectively product stewardship liability - holding companies responsible for things the product does, which it was never advertised to do.

paragraphs: Rather than let liability for these problems be taken up by the public sector or be haphazardly assigned one issue at a time to companies via lawsuits, many accounting reform efforts focus on achieving full cost accounting. This is the financial reflection of the comprehensive outcome - noting the gains and losses to all parties involved, not just those investing or purchasing. Such moves have made moral purchasing more attractive, as it avoids liability and future lawsuits.

paragraphs: So these are partial implementations of a strict service economy ideal.

paragraphs: Those who advocate these measures are concerned with the later phases of product lifecycle and the comprehensive outcome of the whole production process. It is considered a pre-requisite to a strict service economy interpretation of (fictional, national, legal) "commodity" and "product" relationships.


title: Peace

paragraphs: Peace is a time without any fights or wars. In a larger sense, peace (or peacefulness) can mean a state of harmony, quiet or calm that is not disturbed by anything at all, like a still pond with no ripples.

paragraphs: Many people and organizations want peace. One organization that was set up to bring peace among the nations and try to make war a thing of the past was the League of Nations after World War I. When it did not stop World War II, it was replaced by the United Nations which tries to make the world peaceful. This means that if any member is attacked or invaded by another country without attacking that country first, the other members will come to help the country that was attacked first. This idea was used by the United Nations to defend both South Korea and Kuwait when they were attacked.

paragraphs: Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in a letter he sent from the Birmingham jail that, "True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice." In other words, Real peace is more than just problems being gone: there must be fairness to have peace.

paragraphs: Alfred Nobel created an annual award, the Nobel Peace Prize, for the person who had done the most to bring peace to the world.

paragraphs: Buddhists think that peace can be gotten once all suffering ends.To get rid of suffering and get this peace, many try to follow a set of teachings called the Four Noble Truths

paragraphs: Jews and Christians believe that true peace comes from a personal relationship with God. Jesus Christ (also called the "Prince of Peace" in the Book of Isaiah) said: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." ()

paragraphs: Inner peace (or peace of mind) refers to a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of stress. Being "at peace" is considered by many to be healthy and the opposite of being stressed or anxious. Peace of mind is generally associated with bliss and happiness.

paragraphs: Peace of mind, serenity, and calmness are descriptions of a disposition free from the effects of stress. In some cultures, inner peace is considered a state of consciousness or enlightenment that may be cultivated by various forms of training, such as prayer, meditation, Tai chi chuan or yoga, for example. Many spiritual practices refer to this peace as an experience of knowing oneself.

paragraphs: A movement that seeks to get ideals such as the ending of a particular war, minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace. Means to achieve these ends usually include advocacy of pacifism, non-violent resistance, conscientious objector, diplomacy, boycotts, moral purchasing, supporting anti-war political candidates, demonstrations, and lobbying to create legislation on human rights or of international law.

paragraphs: Many different theories of "peace" exist in the world of peace studies, which involves the study of conflict transformation. The definition of "peace" can vary with religion, culture, or subject of study.

paragraphs: Peace is a state of balance and understanding in yourself and between others, where respect is gained by the acceptance of differences, tolerance persists, conflicts are resolved through dialog, people's rights are respected and their voices are heard, and everyone is at their highest point of serenity without social tension.


title: Quebec

paragraphs: Quebec ( or ; ) is a province in the eastern part Canada situated between the Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It is the largest of Canada's ten provinces by size. It also has the second-highest number of people, after Ontario. Most of Quebec's inhabitants live along or close to the banks of the Saint Lawrence River. Not many people live in the north part of the province.

paragraphs: Unlike the other provinces, most people in Quebec speak French (Canadian French) and French is the only official language. There is a strong French-language culture, which includes French-language newspapers, magazines, movies, television and radio shows. Their culture and language, though, is different from that of France mainly because of anglicisation, having words that come from the larger English-speaking parts of Canada.

paragraphs: The government of Quebec has its offices in the capital, Quebec City, which is one of the oldest cities in North America. But the city with the most people in the province is Montreal, which is also the second-largest city in all of Canada.

paragraphs: Quebec has many natural resources that are used to create jobs. Quebec also has many companies that create products for information and communication technologies, aerospace, biotechnology, and health industries. It has also developed close relations with the Northeastern United States.

paragraphs: Quebec was part of New France until 1760, then under British control. Quebec became a province in the Canadian Confederation in 1867. Since then, some people in Quebec have wanted to leave Canada. Since Quebec is a mainly French-speaking province, most of the people there feel that it is very different from the rest of Canada, and want to keep it that way. Some feel that for this to happen, Quebec must leave Canada and become its own country. However, the people of Quebec are still divided as to its place in Canada.

paragraphs: Quebec held democratic votes in 1980 and 1995 to decide whether to leave Canada. In 1995, the people of Quebec chose to stay in Canada by a 1% margin.

paragraphs: Aboriginal people and Inuit groups were the first peoples who lived in what is now Québec. These Aboriginal people lived by hunting, gathering, and fishing. Some of the Aboriginal people, called Iroquoians, planted squash and maize. The Inuit fished and hunted whales and seals for fur and food. Sometimes they warred with each other.

paragraphs: Vikings came in longboats from Scandinavia in 1000 AD. Basque whalers and fishermen traded furs with Aboriginal people throughout the 1500s.

paragraphs: The first French explorer to reach Quebec was Jacques Cartier. He sailed into the St. Lawrence River in 1534 and established a colony near present-day Quebec City.

paragraphs: Samuel de Champlain came from France and traveled into the St. Lawrence River. In 1608, he founded Quebec City as a permanent fur trading outpost. Champlain signed trading and military agreements with the Aboriginal people. Voyageurs, coureurs des bois, and Catholic missionaries used river canoes to explore the interior of the North American continent.

paragraphs: After 1627, King Louis XIII of France made a rule that only Roman Catholics could go to live in New France. Jesuit clerics tried to convert New France's Aboriginal people to Catholicism. New France became a Royal Province of France in 1663. The population grew from about 3,000 to 60,000 people between 1666 and 1760. Colonists built farms on the banks of St. Lawrence River.

paragraphs: In 1753 France began building a series of forts in the British Ohio Country. Britain asked the French to remove the forts, and the French refused. By 1756, France and Britain were at war. In 1758, the British attacked New France by sea and captured the French fort at Louisbourg.

paragraphs: In 1759, British General James Wolfe defeated General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm outside Quebec City. France gave its North American land to Great Britain in 1763. In 1764, New France was renamed the Province of Quebec.

paragraphs: In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act, giving recognition to French law, Catholic religion, and French language in the colony. The Quebec Act gave the Quebec people their first Charter of rights. The Quebec Act made American colonists angry, so they launched the American Revolution. A 1775 invasion by the American Continental Army was stopped at Quebec City. In 1783, Quebec gave the territory south of the Great Lakes to the new United States of America. In 1867 the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the British North America Act, which brought most of the provinces together.

paragraphs: The conservative government of Maurice Duplessis dominated Quebec politics from 1944 to 1960 with the support of the Catholic Church. The Quiet Revolution was a period of social and political change. During the Quiet Revolution, English Canadians lost their control over the Quebec economy, the Roman Catholic Church became less important, and the Quebec government took over the hydro-electric companies.

paragraphs: In 1963, a terrorist group that became known as the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) began doing bombings, robberies and attacks on government offices. In 1970 the FLQ kidnapped James Cross, the British trade commissioner to Canada. The FLQ also kidnapped and assassinated Pierre Laporte, Minister of Labour and Deputy Premier of Québec. Laporte's body was found in the trunk of Paul Rose's car, on the South Shore of Montreal on October 17 1970. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, and 497 people were arrested.

paragraphs: The Quiet Revolution was so named because it was not marked by protests or violence.

paragraphs: In 1977, the newly elected Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque introduced the Charter of the French Language. Often known as Bill 101, it defined French as the only official language of Quebec.

paragraphs: The government is based in the provincial capital, Quebec City. The government is led by a lieutenant-governor (pronounced "lef-") who represents the Crown. As of 2019, he is Michel Doyon. The political leader of the province is the premier. He is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir de Quebec (CAQ), elected in 2018.


title: Reading

paragraphs: Reading is what we do when we understand writing.

paragraphs: More fully, it a cognitive process of understanding information represented by printed or written language. It is a way of getting information and insights about something that is written. Reading involves understanding the symbols in that language. It can only be done if one knows the language. Reading and hearing are the two most common ways to get information. Information gained from reading can include entertainment, especially when reading fiction or humor.

paragraphs: "Proofreading" is a kind of reading that is done to find mistakes in a piece of writing

paragraphs: Directed Reading-Thinking Activity is a method which aims to develop better reading.


title: Religion

paragraphs: A religion is a set of beliefs that is passionately held by a group of people that is reflected in a and in expected beliefs and actions (which are often ritualized).

paragraphs: There are many different religions, each with a different set of beliefs. The beliefs are about the world and the people in it, about how they came into being, and what their purpose is. These beliefs according to some religious sects, are often linked to supernatural beings such as God, a number of gods or spirits. They may also be linked to an idea such as a path that the spirit of each person should take towards goodness, truth and duty. This they called spirituality.

paragraphs: Each religion has different ideas about these things. Each religion also has a "moral code" which is a set of beliefs about how humans should act. Each religion usually has their own type of "devotions" when people worship or pray. They often have rituals (special things that are always done in the same way) for certain times of the year or certain times of a person's life. Other words that are used for religion are "faith" and "belief system". Altogether, followers of religion can be known as 'believers', or 'the faithful'. Few people follow more than one religion at a time.

paragraphs: The largest religions are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, Judaism and Jainism. There are many other religions. People who do not believe in any gods are called atheists. People who say that there is no evidence are called agnostics.

paragraphs: In many religions, one of the main beliefs is that there is a "deity" (or god) who is a great creator spirit. In many religions, there is just one deity that the people believe in. In other religions, there are many deities who each have different roles in the universe. In many religions, there are other types of spirits. These may include angels, devils and other such things which can be both good and bad.

paragraphs: Giving honour to God, the gods or the spirits is an important part of most religions. While this may often be done privately, it is also often done with gatherings of people and rituals. These rituals are often based on old traditions, and may have been done in almost the same way for hundreds, or even thousands of years.

paragraphs: Another main belief is that humans have a "soul" or spirit which lives on after their body has died.And they believe that they must kill thou to any one in the earths name. The person's spirit is on a journey through life that continues after death. Most religions believe that what a person does during their lifetime will affect what happens to their spirit in the afterlife. Many religions teach that a good person's spirit can reach a special place of peace and happiness such as Heaven or Nirvana, and that a bad person's spirit can travel to a place of pain and suffering such as Hell. Still other religions believe in reincarnation - that instead of going either to Heaven or Hell, spirits of the dead return to earth in a new body.

paragraphs: "Morals" are the way a human behaves to other humans. Most religions make rules about human morals. The rules of how people should act to each other are different in different religions.

paragraphs: For some religions, following a "path" of goodness, truth and duty is very important. This is called Tao in China. In the teachings of Judaism, people were told to "love your neighbour as yourself". In the teachings of Jesus, people were told to think of every single person as their "neighbour" and treat them with love.

paragraphs: Not every religion teaches people to be kind to all other people. In many religions, it has been common for people to believe that they have to act kindly only to some people and not to others. In some religions, people believed that they could please a god by killing or sacrificing another person.

paragraphs: A religion is passed on from one person to another through teachings and stories (which are often called "myths") which may be written down like the Bible, or told from memory like the Dreamtime stories of Australian Aboriginal people. In many religions, there are people who take the role of "priest" and spend their lives teaching others about the religion. There are also people who take the role of "pastor" and spend their life caring for other people. A person may be both a priest and a pastor. They are called by different names in different religions.

paragraphs: Symbols are used to remind people of their religious beliefs. They are also used or worn as a sign to other people that the person belongs to a particular religion. A symbol might be something that is drawn or written, it might be a piece of clothing or jewellery, it might be a sign that a person makes with their body, or it might be a building or monument or artwork. Picture symbols for different religions are shown in the box in the introduction to this article.

paragraphs: In many religions, it is thought important that people should show other people that they are following a particular religion. This might be done in a general way by wearing a symbol or a type of clothing. Many people believe that it is important to tell other people about their religion, so that they can believe as well. This is called "witnessing".

paragraphs: There are many ways to witness. A young person might simply say to their friends "I do not use drugs or get drunk because of my religion". This is a witness. A person may tell their classmates, workmates and friends about their beliefs. A person might go to other people's houses and talk about their beliefs, or invite the people to join in the rituals of the religion, such as going to church or to a religious festival. A person might have printed material such as books or leaflets that they give to other people to read. A person might travel to a different country to teach, to work in a health service or to help people in some other way. (People who do this are called "missionaries".) These are different ways that people witness to their religion.

paragraphs: When a person hears a witness and decides that they will join the religion, this is called a "conversion". Usually a person decides to join a religion because they like what they have read or been told, and they believe that they are hearing the truth. They join the religion because they choose. However, throughout history there have been many times when people have been forced to join a religion by violence and threats. This is still happening today.

paragraphs: In most countries of the world, people are free to belong to whatever religion they choose. This is generally thought of as a basic human right. However, there are parts of the world where it is illegal (against the law) to witness to any religion except the one accepted by the government of the country. People who belong to other religions may be threatened, put in jail or murdered.

paragraphs: Rituals are an important part of the tradition of many religions. In many religions, it is the tradition for people to meet for a celebration on one day in every week. There are also major celebrations that may be held only at certain times of the year, for example, on the birthday of a person who is honoured in that religion. Some religions have celebrations for different seasons of the year, or when the sun or moon is in a certain part of the sky.

paragraphs: In nearly every religion, the important stages of a person's life have a religious celebration. Birth, naming, reaching an age to think for oneself, reaching adulthood, marriage, childbirth, sickness and death are all celebrated by some religions. Having a celebration or special traditions when a person dies is very common.

paragraphs: It is the traditions that are about death that give the earliest evidence of religious beliefs. Scientists have discovered that 120,000 years ago, Neanderthal people started burying their dead. Early Homo sapiens put tools and other things into graves with the bodies, as if they could use them in the afterlife. From 40,000 years ago, many of the objects in graves are small artworks. Scientists believe that these objects were put there for religious reasons.

paragraphs: An institution is one name for an organization. Many religions have organizations that manage the way that people who follow the religion are to act. The organization might employ religious leaders, educate people into the ideas of the religion, manage money, own buildings and make rules. Many religions have sub-groups which are called denominations. In Islam, for example, there is Ahmadiyya, Sunnism, Shi'ism and Sufism.

paragraphs: Most religions have special buildings where people meet. They are often called temples. In Judaism, they are called synagogues. In Christianity, they are called churches. In Islam, they are called mosques. In Buddhism there are pagodas, temples and monasteries. In Hinduism they are called Mandirs. People often try to make their religious building as beautiful as possible. Some religious buildings are great works of architecture.

paragraphs: People often make artworks that are about their religion, or that are used in religious celebration, or are put in a religious building. Religious art comes in all shapes and sizes, from tiny pieces of jewellery to huge statues and paintings. Artworks often give important clues to historians about different ancient religions that are not well understood.

paragraphs: Music is often important in religious celebrations. Singing, chanting and playing musical instruments are often part of regular religious gatherings of people. Special music is often used on special occasions. Many famous composers have written religious music. The words of songs that are 3,000 years old are used every day in Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.


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title: Rudyard Kipling

paragraphs: Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English author and poet. He was born in Bombay, India. He wrote children's fiction, like "Kim", "The Jungle Book" and "Puck of Pook's Hill". He also wrote the well-known poems, "If —" and "Gunga Din", and many short stories set in India. He was awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. He spent part of his life living and writing in New England with his American wife but returned to England to live in Sussex.

paragraphs: Kipling died of a perforated duodenal ulcer in Fitzrovia, London in 1936 and is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.


title: Recreation

paragraphs: Recreation or fun is a person's time of refreshing his or her body and mind.

paragraphs: There are many different forms of recreation which are shaped by individual interests and by environment; a few examples being reading, playing or listening to music, watching movies or TV, gardening, hunting, hobbies, sports, studies, and travel. These activities are just some of a wide variety of recreation activity available in day to day life.

paragraphs: Public places such as parks and beaches are very important for many recreational activities. Tourism profession has recognized long ago that many of their clients are specifically attracted by recreational offerings.


title: Red

paragraphs: Red is the color that is on the outside edge of the rainbow. It is one of the three primary colors, along with blue and yellow. Red light has a wavelength between 630-740 nanometers.

paragraphs: Red is the color of some apples and mostly, raspberries.

paragraphs: Red is the color of some blood and the occasional cherry.

paragraphs: It is sometimes used to mark things that are wrong, important or dangerous.

paragraphs: Red is also commonly used as a warning to stop.

paragraphs: red also has the meaning of strong desire for love or to be in a relationship.


title: Raw food

paragraphs: Most things are good to eat raw, but some can be poisonous.

paragraphs: There's currently no solid evidence to suggest that raw food is more healthy than cooked food.

paragraphs: Raw food can sometimes make people sick because of bacteria which would otherwise be destroyed by cooking.