title: Hong Kong Island

paragraphs: Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong SAR. Most of the city of Hong Kong was built on the island. Hong Kong Island is in size.

paragraphs: In 2008, 1,289,500 people lived on Hong Kong Island (16,390 people per square kilometre). Years ago, when the British first took over Hong Kong Island, 3,000 people were living there in fishing villages. China officially gave the island to the United Kingdom in 1842. The British built a city on it, which they called the city of Victoria.

paragraphs: The northern part of the island has the southern shore of Victoria Harbour. This area is the historical, political, and economic centre of Hong Kong. The northern part of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon form the central urban area of Hong Kong. The island also includes the area of Aberdeen.

paragraphs: There are many famous places on the island, like Victoria Peak and Ocean Park. There are places that are important to history and large shopping centres. People like to hike on the mountains around the island.


title: Communist Party of China

paragraphs: From 1943-82 the most powerful position in the party was Chairman. In 1982, members of the Central Committee voted to name the leader of the party General Secretary again. The current General Secretary is Xi Jinping.

paragraphs: The CPC tries to keep good relationships(how good or bad they feel with each other) with other communist parties. Other communist parties also send people to have meets with the CPC. For example, the chairman of Portuguese Communist Party, Jeronimo de Sousa, met with Liu Qibao, a member of the Central Politburo in 2007. For another example, Pierre Laurent, the National Secretary of the French Communist Party (FCP), met with Liu Yunshan, a Politburo Standing Committee member.

paragraphs: Also, the CPC gives help to the communist party of Cuba in a wide range and a deep degree. After the disintegration of the USSR (USSR was not a whole country anymore), the CPC became the only major helpers of Cuba.

paragraphs: Communism had fallen in the Western Europe. The CPC began to make good party-to-party relations with other non-communist parties. The CPC also used this way to learn.

paragraphs: The relationships between the CPC and the Kuomintang and other parties in Taiwan, has loosened since Jiang Zemin’s time.


title: Tatar language

paragraphs: The Tatar language is a Turkic language that is spoken by the Tatar people, and is the official language of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia.

paragraphs: Like many other Turkic languages, different alphabets are used to write the Tatar language.

paragraphs: In Russia, the Tatar alphabet is Cyrillic by a federal government law passed in 2002. It has 39 letters, of which 33 are the same as in Russian. The other 6 (and their positions in the alphabet) are:

paragraphs: In 2001, the government of the Republic of Tatarstan created a Latin alphabet for the Tatar language called "Zamanälif". But the next year, the federal government did not allow it to be made official. The "Zamanälif" alphabet has these 35 letters:

paragraphs: A, Ä, B, C, Ç, D, E, F, G, Ğ, H, I, İ, Í, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, Ö, P, Q, R, S, Ş, T, U, Ü, V, W, X, Y, Z

paragraphs: There was another Latin alphabet for Tatar called "Yañalif". It was used from 1928 to 1940, when it was replaced with Cyrillic by a Soviet law.

paragraphs: There have been two Arabic alphabets used to write Tatar: "İske imlâ" and "Yaña imlâ". "İske imlâ" is the older of the two and was used until 1920, when it was changed to become "Yaña imlâ" and remained in use until it was replaced by the Latin "Yañalif" alphabet. However, Tatars in China still use "İske imlâ".

paragraphs: Since 2012, it is possible for people and organizations to write to the Tatarstan government in either the Latin or Arabic scripts, but the government has to answer in Cyrillic.


title: House of Medici

paragraphs: The House Medici (pronounced med-ee-chee) or Medici family was a very important family in Florence, Italy from the year 1300 to about 1600. They were the richest family in Europe for many years. Many leaders of Florence during the Renaissance were Medicis. The Medicis were important because they ran many banks, including the most important bank in Europe. They were so powerful they became like a royal family. 4 popes of the Catholic Church were from the Medici. Their names were Pope Leo X (the 10th), Pope Clement VII(the 7th), Pope Pius IV (the 4th), and Pope Leo XI (the 11th) 2 Queens of France were from the medici- Catherine de’ Medici and Marie de’ Medici.The heir to the Tuscan throne was traditionally known as the Grand Prince.

paragraphs: The family ruled the state with the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany.

paragraphs: Giovanni Bicep de' Medici, (1360-1429), was the first important member of the family. He invested his money very wisely and became rich. He and his son, Cosmo de' Medici, (1389-1464), began the Medici Banking Company, which did so well that they soon had branches of the bank in large cities all over Europe, including London and Paris. Giovanni Bicep and Cosmo were the richest men in Europe, and their family was politically the most powerful in Florence.

paragraphs: Florence already had an industry, the cloth industry. Florentine merchants (traders) traded with Lombard traders from the north of Italy. They bought English wool and Chinese silk to be woven into the most magnificent cloth in Europe at the riverside factories of Florence. Florence was perfectly sited for making cloth. A lot of water is needed to make cloth. Other towns nearby are high on the tops of hills, but Florence is in a wide valley, with the broad Arno River flowing through it. There was a harbor on the coast near Pisa. The Pisans were not very friendly towards Florence, so Florence took them over. Then the rich traders of Florence could have their own ships and did not have to worry about the Lombard traders who brought their goods across Europe and over the mountains on the backs of donkeys.

paragraphs: Cosimo de' Medici was a patriot and a patron. He was a "patriot" because he acted like a father to his city. He became part of the town council. They were a group of men called the "signorina" (the seniors or elders). Cosimo made laws that adjusted the taxes. Some of the rich people did not like this at all and left the city, making Cosimo more powerful. He took good care of industry, of trade and of farming, because Florence needed all these things. He particularly needed the loyalty of all the farms and villages, because a city in a valley is easy for an army to attack. Cosimo built public buildings and when he had a palace built for himself, he had long stone seats built along the walls for the poor and the elderly to sit on.

paragraphs: He was a patron because he supported the church, and lots of writers, artists, architects and students. He founded a "Platonic Academy" where students could study the works of Ancient Greek writers and talk about politics, religion and new ideas. The head of the Academy was a philosopher called Marsillio Ficino. Cosimo encouraged architects to design buildings in the style of Ancient Rome. He collected a huge library of books and gave them to the monastery of San Lorenzo to be used by students. When he wanted some quiet time, he went to friary, (which is like a monastery), Sant Marco's, where he encouraged one of the "brothers", Fra Angelico, to paint beautiful sacred pictures.

paragraphs: After the death of Cosimo, his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici became even more famous. He was called Lorenzo il Magnifico (the Magnificent). It was during the time of Lorenzo that some of the most famous artists in world history were alive in Florence, and worked for the Medici:- Botticelli, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.


title: Giordano Bruno

paragraphs: Giordano Bruno (January 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian friar of the Dominican Order. He was also a philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for believing in the infinity of the universe. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model.

paragraphs: Bruno thought the Sun was just one of an infinite number of independently moving heavenly bodies. He is the first man to have thought the stars we see at night are identical in nature to the Sun. For publishing beliefs contrary to Roman Catholic dogma about transubstantiation, trinity and other matters, he was burnt at the stake as a heretic by the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church.

paragraphs: Bruno also wrote extensive works on the art of memory, a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles.

paragraphs: The Catholic Church made the following accusations against Bruno:

paragraphs: Bruno did accept and promote Copernicus' idea that the Earth revolves round the Sun. Many believe this was one of main reasons for his downfall; others think his theological beliefs were more critical. In 1584 he published two dialogues which argued for his idea on astronomy. Eight years later he was arrested, and his trial took another eight years. His accusers demanded complete recantation of all his 'erroneous' beliefs. He refused, and went to his death. Later the Inquisition used his example to terrify Galileo into withdrawing his works from publication.


title: Wheel of Fortune (US game show)

paragraphs: Wheel of Fortune 1975-1982 (Daytime) 1983-present (Nighttime) is a game show on television. It was created by Merv Griffin in 1975. It was first hosted by Chuck Woolery from 1975 until 1981. Pat Sajak has been hosting the show since 1981 Then Susan Stafford & Vanna White Replaced 1982. The show has been aired in syndicated format since 1983. Another Show in 1983-2019 The show is currently in its 37th season on September 9th, 2019.

paragraphs: Three contestants compete. The game combines the game of hangman with a prize wheel. At the beginning of the show, there is a $1,000 Toss-Up puzzle. During a Toss-Up puzzle, one letter at a time appears on the board. Contestants can ring in to solve the puzzle before the last letter is revealed. An incorrect solution locks out that contestant for the rest of that Toss-Up. New it Call Triple Toss Up on September 9 2019 Same $2,000

paragraphs: Next, a second Toss-Up is worth $2,000 and determines who starts round one. There are 24 spaces on the wheel. A contestant who lands on a cash space is credited with that amount multiplied by how many of a particular letter is in the puzzle. A contestant can buy a vowel for $250. A, E, I, O, and U are the 5 Vowels.

paragraphs: Any contestant who lands on Lose a Turn loses his or her turn but not the winnings they have earned during the round. Landing on Free Spin space means they must guess a letter in the puzzle to earn it. If a contestant lands on Bankrupt, he or she will lose all of his or her winnings they have earned during the current round as well as a Wild Card, or any prizes they have at that point, plus loss of turn (unless they possess the Free Spin). The Wild Card is used to call for another consonant while the wheel is still on the cash space a contestant landed on. Also on the wheel are two "1/2 Car" tags. If a contestant wins a round with both tags, they win a car. Both tokens offer $500 per letter if claimed. There is also a prize wedge and a Gift Tag. The prize wedge is a prize announced before the first round. To win it, a contestant has to land on the wedge, call a correct letter, and solve the puzzle without hitting Bankrupt. The Gift Tag is $1,000 credit for purchases from a company. Both tokens offer $500 per letter if claimed. In the first three rounds, there is a special $1,000,000 wedge that, if claimed and brought to the bonus round, allows the contestant a chance to play for $1,000,000 in the bonus round. If a contestant lands on Free Play, the contestant can do anything without any risk. They can buy a vowel even if they have no money. If they do have money, the vowel is free. If they call a letter that is not in the puzzle, they don't lose their turn. They can even choose to solve the puzzle, and if they're wrong, they don't lose their turn. A consonant on the Free Play is worth $500. The top dollar value on the wheel is $2,500 in round one, $3,500 in the second and third rounds, and $5,000 from the fourth round on.

paragraphs: In round two, two mystery wedges are added to the wheel. One hides $10,000 and the other hides a Bankrupt. A contestant who lands on a mystery wedge calls for a letter. He or she may take $1,000 per letter occurrence or turn over the wedge. The $10K is a cash prize, and it can only be won if the person who has it solves the puzzle without landing on Bankrupt. If one wedge was turned over, the other acts as a regular $1,000 space and cannot be turned over. Round three is the Prize Puzzle round. The contestant who solves the puzzle wins a prize. Also in round three is an Express wedge. If a contestant lands on this wedge and calls a correct letter, they can continue playing the game like normal, or choose to play for $1,000 per letter without spinning. If a contestant chooses to play for $1,000 per letter without spinning and calls a wrong letter, or takes too long to call a letter, it will count as a Bankrupt.

paragraphs: Starting in Season 37, there is a Triple Toss-Up, in which there are three consecutive puzzles worth $2,000 apiece and under the same category. The third puzzle determines who starts Round 4. When time runs short, a bell sounds. The host spins the wheel. Remaining consonants are worth $1,000 plus the value in front of the left-most contestant. The contestants take turns calling for letters. A vowel can be called at no cost. Then, the contestant in control has three seconds to solve

paragraphs: The contestant with the most cash at the end of the game advances to the bonus round. If the game ends in a tie, another toss-up puzzle is played to determine who goes to the bonus round. The contestant who wins the game gets to pick from one of three categories for the bonus round, starting in Season 35. The contestant spins the bonus wheel, which has 24 prizes, just like the main wheel. The category is announced. A bonus puzzle is revealed. The contestant is given the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E. In the early 1970s and on the 1988 Present Season 6, the contestant then calls for three more consonants and a vowel. If a contestant has a Wild Card in the bonus round, a fourth consonant is called. Then, the contestant has 10 seconds to solve the puzzle. If the puzzle is solved, the contestant wins the prize that they landed on. If they don't, then the board shows the correct answer. The host then shows the prize in the envelope regardless of the result. Prizes include cash amounts ranging from $35,000 to $50,000 in $5,000 amounts, again, prior to season 35, a car with $5,000 cash, and a top prize of $100,000. If the Million Dollar Wedge is bought to the bonus round, the $100,000 envelope is replaced with a $1,000,000 one.


title: Shalom

paragraphs: Shalom (שלום) is a Hebraic word which means "peace". Like in English, it can mean the peace between two parts, as well as an inner peace, being calm or the quietness of a person. It is also used as a method of greeting like "hello", "good day (morning, afternoon, high noon...)" or "good bye".

paragraphs: The root of the word "shalom" can be related to "le-shalem" which means "to complete, to reward, to pay, to compensate". This means that it is more than the absence of conflict or struggle or the breaking of unfriendliness: It also means a return to the balance, to justice, and to the complete equality.

paragraphs: In general, one uses the word "shalom" as the short form of the sentence "Shalom Aleichem" (exactly "Peace is with you") that can be translated as "good day (morning, afternoon, high noon...)" (a greeting). This is very similar to the Arabic phrase "Salam Alaykum" (سلام عليكم) which is again a greeting meaning "Peace be with you".


title: Villa Gordiani

paragraphs: Villa Gordiani is a park situated in Rome. Several Roman ruins,some of them still well preserved, are scattered throughout the park.


title: Massachusetts Bay Colony

paragraphs: The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement in the 17th century on the east coast of North America. The colony was later called New England and what is now the cities of Salem and Boston. The Bay Colony also included what is now known as the States of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

paragraphs: John Winthrop, the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, continued to work on the colony, and improve it any possible way. He knew that the Church of England was bad, so he decided to improve it at the New World; either colonizing the natives or getting rid of them.

paragraphs: There were two companies who brought settlers in the New World. The first company was the Dorchester Company but was a failure. The second company was in 1628 and called the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This was successful and brought approximately 20,000 people to the Colony.

paragraphs: At first the colonists had a good friendship with the Native Americans but as more Europeans moved to these areas there were problems over land borders. The Native Americans also had many different customs. These differences led first to the Pequot War (1636–1638), and then to King Philip's War (1675–1676). After these wars, the Native Americans became peaceful and others moved to different places.

paragraphs: The colony was doing well and made money trading with England. They also traded with the West Indies. In 1686 there was a civil war in England. King James II wanted to have total control over the colonies. After the war, the colonies remained the same until 1692. Then Sir William Phips arrived and Massachusetts Bay and the Plymouth Colony were combined. The colonists helped in the running of the government and how it would spend its money.

paragraphs: From the earliest times many Native American lived in this area. They farmed and hunted within their own land borders and did not cross each other's land. Early in the 1600s, explorers, Samuel de Champlain and John Smith made a map of the area.

paragraphs: Living in the New World was very hard work for the first settlers. Many became ill and died though the cold winter. There was not enough food, and the rest of the people decided to return to England after one year. For awhile there was no more talk of settling people in those parts. English ships did still come to the New England area for fishing and trading with the Indians.

paragraphs: In November 1620, a group of Europeans arrived and started Plymouth Colony. Other settlements were tried near there but they failed and the people either joined the Plymouth Colony, returned to England, or lived nearby the Colony.

paragraphs: The people of Plymouth faced many problems during the first years and could not pay back their investors. In 1627 the companies left the colonists to take care of themselves. Edward Winslow and William Bradford, two of its leaders, wrote about the "Mayflower" and the colony they created, called Plymouth Colony. It was published in England in 1622 called "Mourt's Relation". The two men have different opinions but it was written to encourage people to come to the New World to live.


title: About a Girl (TV series)

paragraphs: About a Girl is a Canadian comedy television series, which was first shown on October 5, 2007 on The N in the United States, and Global in Canada. It is the first scripted comedy for The N. On February 25, 2008, actor Sandy Robson announced that the show was getting cancelled. The show ended with 13 episodes in one season.

paragraphs: The series centers around Amy, a young college co-ed who moves in an apartment off campus with four guys, when she finds out her dorm room is a uninhabitable sty. Her new roommates are wild, unpredictable, and...kind of hot.


title: Number line

paragraphs: A number line is a line with integers (simply ordinary numbers, ...-3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3...) on it extending forever in both directions. Usually, zero (0) is placed in the middle of the line. The numbers have an equal space from each other. Other numbers in between the numbers on the line represent rational, irrational, and other types of real numbers.

paragraphs: There is another number line, equally valid and useful, that extends vertically through 0 (the origin) at right angles to our traditional number line and uses imaginary numbers ("i"). These so-called imaginary numbers extend above and below the traditional number line and are used in very real calculations in many areas of science and technology and also extend in both directions forever (into infinity).

paragraphs: A number line is usually drawn as a simple horizontal line. Another form is the helical number line. If the line of numbers is wrapped around a cylinder following an upward helical path, it becomes a helical number line.

paragraphs: If the circumference of the cylinder is equal to the length occupied by ten numbers on the number line, it then becomes a decimal helical number line, and the numbers arrange themselves into columns, each number in a particular column having the same number ending.


title: Tunicate

paragraphs: Tunicates (sea squirts or Urochordata) are a subphylum of the Chordates.

paragraphs: They are sea filter-feeders: they live mainly on plankton. They are called tunicates because the adult form is covered by a leathery tunic. This tunic supports and protects the animal. The adults are sessile, stuck to rocks.

paragraphs: Many tunicates are colonial or semi-colonial in their adult stage. They are quite a large group, containing about 3,000 species. The adults live mostly on the sea floor, in the littoral zone.

paragraphs: The sea squirt has two openings in its small body. One opening, called the "oral siphon", sucks water into the animal; the other opening, called the "atrial siphon", squirts water out of the animal. Inside is a little basket-like sieve which traps food: so these sea squirts are filter feeders. The Sea squirt can close the holes in its siphons, like a drawstring can close the opening in a bag.

paragraphs: When in its larval state, it looks like a tadpole and is sometimes called a "tadpole larva". Like many sea creatures, a sea squirt larva looks very different from an adult sea squirt. The larva swims for a short time and then attaches itself to something on the sea floor, like a rock, transforming into its adult form. It usually stays in one place for the rest of its life.

paragraphs: Tunicates are more closely related to craniates (hagfish, lampreys, jawed vertebrates) than to lancelets, echinoderms, hemichordates, or other invertebrates.

paragraphs: Chemical substances which might help fight diseases like cancer or various viruses have been found in some species.

paragraphs: Scientists have also found out that some species can heal some damage done to them, over several generations. A similar process might be possible for humans.


title: Zheng He

paragraphs: Zheng He or Ma He (Chinese 郑和; 1371–1433) was an explorer, diplomat, and admiral from China. He lived during the Ming Dynasty. Zheng He was the leader of a very large fleet of ships that traveled all over the Indian Ocean and Southwest Asia. Zheng He was an eunuch of China's Imperial Court. The fleet that Zheng He commanded had 317 ships that were very large. 28,000 Chinese soldiers were on board these ships.

paragraphs: Zheng He was born in Kunyang, a village in Yunnan. He was born with the name Ma He (Chinese 马三宝). He and his family were Muslim. At the time, Yunnan was ruled by Mongols. In 1381, however, a Ming army invaded and took control of the area.

paragraphs: Ma He was taken as a prisoner by the Ming armies. He was about 10 years old. He was castrated and then taken away to serve the Prince, Zhu Di (the future emperor). Ma He became a servant at the Imperial Court. The name Zheng He was given to him by the Prince. He also came to be called "Sanbao", a reference to the Three Jewels of Buddhism.

paragraphs: From 1405 to 1433, Zheng He went on seven journeys to the Indian Ocean, or what the Chinese people called the "Western Ocean". He was the leader of a large fleet of ships and a big army.

paragraphs: In his first three journeys he visited the countries of Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka. In his fourth to seventh journeys he went as far as the east African coast. In his journeys he gave the countries he visited gifts of silk, porcelain, gunpowder and other goods. He got lots of unusual gifts as well, including giraffes and zebras.

paragraphs: He had his first journey from 1405–1407, but it is not known why the journey was made. He travelled from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Vietnam, as well as the south of India. His fleet was made up of 317 ships, more than 27,000 men, and the cargo included porcelain, silk, and lacquerware. He used a treasure fleet which is known as the largest wooden ships ever built, being long, and about wide. On his first voyage, he defeated a famous pirate in the Strait of Malacca.

paragraphs: For the next 28 years, Zheng He traveled on six more voyages. From 1407–1409, he visited Calicut, Thailand and Java. From 1409–1411, he saw Ayutthaya, Malaya, Sumatra and Sri Lanka. From 1413–1415, he went to Sri Lanka, Bengal, India, Hormuz, Arabia and Aden. On his fifth journey, from 1417–1419, he visited the Ryukyu Islands, Brunei, and east Africa. Then from 1421–1422, he expanded on his fifth journey. His final journey, from 1433–1435, he revisited many of the previous places and brought back gifts from many rulers.

paragraphs: Zheng He visited over 30 countries, and is believed to have died in 1433 on the journey home during the final treasure fleet voyage. After Zheng He died at sea in 1433, his treasure fleet quickly faded, even though his voyages had been a success. Less than 100 years after his death, all of the ships from China were destroyed.


title: Georg Büchner Prize

paragraphs: The Georg Büchner Prize (German: Georg-Büchner-Preis) is the most important literary prize of Germany. It was created in 1923 in memory of German writer Georg Büchner and was only given to artists who came from or were closely tied to Büchner's home of Hesse.

paragraphs: In 1951, the prize changed to a general literary prize, given yearly by the "Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung". It goes to German language authors, and the annual speech by the recipient takes place in Darmstadt. Since 2002, the prize has been endowed with 40,000 Euros.


title: Brigham Young University Hawaii

paragraphs: Brigham Young University Hawaii, or "BYU-Hawaii" for short, is an undergraduate institution that educates some 2,400 students from Asia, the Pacific islands, the United States, and other parts of the world.

paragraphs: The campus is located in Laie, Hawaii. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was founded in 1955 by the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - David O. McKay.


title: Australopithecus africanus

paragraphs: Austalopithecus africanus was first discovered by Raymond Dart in 1925. He found a well-preserved skull of a young australopithecine, three to four years old. This skull is often called the Taung Child, after Taung, South Africa where it was found. It is perhaps the most complete skull of "A. africanus" known. Based on current data "A. africanus" dates to between 3.03 and 2.04 million years ago.

paragraphs: "Australopithecus africanus" had a dish shaped facial structure with teeth that were large compared to modern humans. While it had larger front teeth compared to the back, the emphasis was on back tooth grinding. Males had a sagital crest on the tops of their skulls. Large muscles were attached to this ridge that helped to support the heavy jaw.


title: Australopithecus

paragraphs: Australopithecus is a genus of extinct hominids closely related to humans.

paragraphs: The first "Australopithecus" described was the Taung Child, discovered by Raymond Dart, and described in 1925.

paragraphs: Their remains are mostly found in East Africa, and the first fossil is from 3.9 million years ago (mya). The split from other apes would have taken place earlier, perhaps about 5 mya.

paragraphs: It is widely believed that the group of which they are part gave rise to the genus "Homo", and hence to human beings.

paragraphs: The genus "Australopithecus" originally included two rather different forms. One form was lightweight: the gracile australopithecines. The other form was bulkier, the robust australopithecines.

paragraphs: It is still under discussion whether they should be put in separate genera. Here we treat the gracile forms; the robust forms are described elsewhere as "Paranthropus".

paragraphs: Gracile australopithecines shared several traits with modern apes and humans. They were widespread throughout Eastern and Northern Africa 3.9 to 3 million years ago.

paragraphs: The brains of most species of "Australopithecus" were roughly 35% of the size of that of a modern human brain. This is not much more than the brain of a chimpanzee. Brain size in hominins does not increase significantly until the arrival of the genus "Homo".

paragraphs: The Taung specimen had short canine teeth, and the position of the foramen magnum was evidence of bipedal locomotion.

paragraphs: Most species of "Australopithecus" were diminutive and gracile, usually standing between 1.2 and 1.4 m tall (approx. 4 to 4.5 feet). There is a considerable degree of sexual dimorphism. Modern hominids do not show sexual dimorphism to the same degree — particularly, modern humans display a low degree of sexual dimorphism, with males being only 15% larger (taller, heavier) than females, on average.

paragraphs: In "Australopithecus", however, males can be up to 50% larger than females, though usually less pronounced than this.

paragraphs: The skeleton, the fossil footprints found at Laetoli, Tanzania, the canine teeth and the foramen magnum all show that these apes had achieved bipedalism.

paragraphs: "Australopithecus africanus" used to be regarded as ancestral to the genus "Homo" (in particular "Homo erectus").

paragraphs: However, fossils assigned to the genus "Homo" have been found that are older than "A. africanus". Thus, the genus "Homo" either split off from the genus "Australopithecus" at an earlier date (the latest common ancestor being "A. afarensis" or an even earlier form, possibly "Kenyanthropus platyops"), or both developed from a common ancestor independently.

paragraphs: According to the Chimpanzee Genome Project, both human ("Ardipithecus", "Australopithecus" and "Homo") and chimpanzee ("Pan troglodytes" and "Pan paniscus") lineages diverged from a common ancestor about 5 to 6 million years ago, if we assume a constant rate of evolution.

paragraphs: However, hominins discovered more recently are somewhat older than the molecular clock would suggest. "Sahelanthropus tchadensis", commonly called ""Toumai"" is about 7 million years old and "Orrorin tugenensis" lived at least 6 million years ago. Since little is known of them, they remain controversial because the molecular clock in humans has determined that humans and chimpanzees had an evolutionary split at least a million years later.

paragraphs: One theory suggests that the human and chimpanzee lineages diverged somewhat at first, then some populations interbred around one million years after diverging. More likely, the assumptions behind molecular clocks do not hold exactly. The key assumption behind the technique is that, in the long run, changes in molecular structure happen at a steady rate.

paragraphs: Researchers such as Ayala have challenged this assumption.


title: Homo

paragraphs: Homo is the genus of which man is a species, "Homo sapiens".

paragraphs: The genus began about 2.3 million years ago. Their ancestors were almost certainly some line of Australopithecine apes.

paragraphs: The physical characteristics of these species are larger brain (above 900ml), and various changes to the skeleton which improve walking and running ability. As the process continues, the forehead becomes more vertical, the skull becomes rounder, the teeth are reduced in size, arms are shorter and legs are longer, and the skeleton becomes more delicate. All species used stone tools, but there is no evidence of when language developed. Human evolution is a much studied topic.


title: Poverty in India

paragraphs: Poverty in India is an important issue. India has some of the poorest people in the world.

paragraphs: The Government of India says that the poverty line for rural areas is ₹ 816 per month and ₹ 1000 per month in urban areas. This means that many people do not have enough money. India's proposed but not yet adopted official poverty line is ₹972 (US$14) a month in rural areas or ₹1,407 (US$21) a month in cities.

paragraphs: In India, the average calorie requirement of an average man is 2400 calories per day in Rural area and 2100 calories per day in Urban area.

paragraphs: In 2012, the latest report by the Planning Commission of India (Tendulkar Committee) reported that 26% of all people in India fall below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. Over the last decade, poverty has been witnessed a consistent decline with the levels dropping from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10. The number of poor people is now estimated at 250 million.

paragraphs: In 1947 the average income in India was similar to South Korea. South Korea became a developed country by the 2000s, but India did not.

paragraphs: For the first 40 years, India followed the Soviet-style economic planning, nationalization programs and government ownership of industry. Its economic growth averaged about 3.5%, while Asian economies such as South Korea grew on average more than twice that rate annually. Adjusted for population growth in India, its income per head grew at 1.49% annually, while incomes of South Koreans - rich and poor - rose rapidly.

paragraphs: India's Soviet-style economy included the "Licence Raj": the elaborate licences, regulations and red tape needed to set up and run a business in India between 1947 and 1990. The License Raj was a result of India's decision to have a planned economy, where all aspects of the economy are controlled by the state. Licences were only given to a select few. Corruption flourished under this system. Under this system, the country created few jobs and little wealth. Widespread poverty remained.


title: The Christian Community

paragraphs: The Christian Community (original German name: "Die Christengemeinschaft") is a Christian denomination. It was founded in 1922 in Dornach (Switzerland) by a group of theologians and pastors, led by the Protestant pastor Friedrich Rittelmeyer. He was helped by Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher and founder of anthroposophy.


title: Flag of Iraqi Kurdistan

paragraphs: The Flag of Iraqi Kurdistan (Kurdish: "Alaya Kurdistanê") has three colours and are placed horizontally. The top colour is red, the middle is white and the bottom is green. In the middle of the white is a sun with 21 rays. The 21 rays represent Navruz.


title: Vector graphics

paragraphs: Vector graphics (also called graphical modeling, or object-oriented graphics) is a type of computer graphics. Vector graphics uses geometrical objects, like points, lines, curves, and polygons to model the image. Mathematics can be used to describe the graphics. Most often vectors and matrices are used. The first major use of vector graphics was in the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment air defense system.

paragraphs: The other way to model computer graphics is to use raster graphics. Raster graphics model images as a collection of pixels. Unlike raster images, vector-based images can be scaled indefinitely without loss of quality. Vector graphics are most often used for diagrams, and other things that can be described using simple shapes. Photographs are most often raster images.


title: Silence (band)

paragraphs: Silence is a German rock - heavy metal band. It was founded in 1995 in Bavaria, Germany. Its founding members were Stefan Mueller (guitar), Holger Kronester (drums), and the brothers Bernd (guitar) and Marco Wolf (bass). They played a mix of rock and metal music. Their music always had a dark, depressive side.

paragraphs: The band's first successful album was "Enola". It was listed as "Album of the month" in German Metal-Hammer. The album was released in 2000. Three years later they recorded "the p/o/u/r letters". It got very good reviews all over Germany and Europe. In 2007 they released their 5 track EP "The Badtime Stories". With this album they got a record deal with the German record label Biohazzard Records, a sublabel of Danse macabre.

paragraphs: In 2010 they released the follow-up full-length album to "the p/o/u/r letters". It was titled "Life: Failed".

paragraphs: The today's members of the band consists of Stefan (singer), Bernd (guitar), Sebastian (keyboard), Bastian (guitar), Oliver (bass) and Bastian (drums).


title: Georg Büchner

paragraphs: Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of prose. He was the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. Many people think that he might have become as important as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller if he had lived longer.

paragraphs: He was the son of a doctor and born in Goddelau near Darmstadt, Hesse-Darmstadt. Büchner went to a secondary school that focused on Latin, Greek and on modern languages (including French, Italian and English). But he was mainly interested in science and when he went to university he studied medicine in Strasbourg.

paragraphs: In 1828 he became interested in politics and joined a group which later on probably became the Gießen and Darmstadt section of the "Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte" (Society for Human Rights). In Strasbourg, he studied not only medicine but French literature and political thought as well.

paragraphs: While Büchner continued his studies in Gießen he started a secret society which wanted revolutionary change. With the help of the Protestant theologian Friedrich Ludwig Weidig he published the leaflet "Der Hessische Landbote", a revolutionary text that criticized social problems in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The authorities charged them with treason and issued a warrant of apprehension. While Weidig was arrested, tortured and died imprisoned in Darmstadt, Büchner fled across the border to Strasbourg where he wrote most of his literary work and translated two plays by Victor Hugo, "Lucrèce Borgia" and "Marie Tudor". Two years later, his dissertation, "Mémoire sur le Système Nerveux du Barbeaux (Cyprinus barbus L.)" was published in Paris and Strasbourg. The ideas of François-Noël Babeuf and Claude Henri de Saint-Simon had an important influence on his work. In October 1836 he got a job at the University of Zürich as a lecturer in anatomy and went back to Zürich where he spent his final months writing and teaching until he died of typhus at the age of twenty-three.

paragraphs: In 1835, his first play, "Dantons Tod" (Danton's Death), about the French revolution, was published, followed by "Lenz". It is a novella based on the life of the Sturm und Drang poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. In 1836 his second play, "Leonce and Lena" he describes the nobility. His unfinished and most famous play, "Woyzeck", was the first literary work in German whose main characters were members of the working class. Published after Büchner's death, it became the basis for Alban Berg's opera "Wozzeck" which was first performed in 1925.

paragraphs: By the 1870s, Büchner was nearly forgotten in Germany when Karl Emil Franzos edited his works; these later became a major influence on naturalism and expressionism. Arnold Zweig described "Lenz", Büchner's only work of prose, as the "beginning of modern European prose".

paragraphs: There are many translations of the individual plays.


title: Ludwig Büchner

paragraphs: Friedrich Karl Christian Ludwig Büchner (29 March 1824 – 1 May 1899) was a German philosopher, physiologist and physician who became one of the exponents of 19th century scientific materialism.

paragraphs: Büchner was born at Darmstadt, Germany, on 29 March 1824. From 1842 to 1848 he studied physics, chemistry, botany, mineralogy, philosophy and medicine at the University of Giessen. In 1852 he became lecturer in medicine at the University of Tübingen, where he published his great work "Kraft und Stoff: Empirisch-naturphilosophische Studien" (Force and Matter: Empiricophilosophical Studies, 1855). In this work, he sought to demonstrate the indestructibility of matter and force. The extreme materialism of this work excited so much opposition that he was compelled to give up his post at Tübingen. He retired to Darmstadt, where he practiced as a physician and contributed regularly to pathological and physiological magazines.

paragraphs: Ludwig Büchner was the brother of Georg Büchner, a famous playwright.


title: Goitre

paragraphs: A goitre or goiter (Latin: "struma"), also called a bronchocele, is a swelling in the neck (just below Adam's apple or larynx). It happens when the thyroid gland gets larger (usually because the body is not getting enough iodine).

paragraphs: Goitres are classified in different ways (put into different categories):

paragraphs: New research says that some people may be more vulnerable to goitre (more likely to have goiters) because they inherited that vulnerability (it was passed down to them from their parents).


title: Cincinnati Reds

paragraphs: The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball from Cincinnati, Ohio, are the oldest team in professional baseball, established in 1869. The was knowns as the Cincinnati Red Stockings until 1878, when the team changed the name to the current Cincinnati Reds. The Reds joined the National League in 1876 The Reds have won World Series championships in 1919, 1940, 1975, 1976 and 1990. The strong Reds teams of the 1970s were nicknamed "The Big Red Machine". From 1912 to 1970, the Reds home stadium was Crosley Field, from 1970-2002 home games were played at Riverfront Stadium. Since 2003 the Reds have played home games at Great American Ballpark


title: Josh Beckett

paragraphs: Josh Beckett (born May 15, 1980) is a former Major League Baseball starting pitcher. He has played for the Florida Marlins, Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers.


title: Curt Schilling

paragraphs: Curtis Montague (Curt) Schilling (born November 14, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska) is an American Major League Baseball starting pitcher. Schilling is a right-handed starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He has won World Series championships in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in 2004 and 2007 with the Red Sox. Schilling began his career on September 7, 1988 playing for the Baltimore Orioles.

paragraphs: On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 Schilling revealed that he has been diagnosed with and is being treated for cancer.

paragraphs: In 2016, Schilling announced that he is interested in running for President of the United States in the future if Hillary Clinton were to win.


title: Adam Dunn

paragraphs: Adam Troy Dunn (born November 9, 1979, in Houston, Texas), nicknamed "Big Donkey", is an American retired Major League Baseball first baseman, outfielder, and designated hitter. He played for the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, Washington Nationals, Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics. He batted left-handed and throws right-handed. Dunn retired after the 2014 season.


title: Stroke

paragraphs: A stroke is an illness in which part of the brain loses its blood supply. This can happen if an artery that feeds blood to the brain gets clogged, or if it tears and leaks.

paragraphs: A stroke is when there is a lack of blood flow to the brain. There are two types of strokes. One is when there is a blood clot blocking the artery. The other type of stroke is when a blood vessel bursts and there is blood moving around freely in the brain.

paragraphs: A stroke is the rapid loss of brain function(s) due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can happen because of ischemia (lack of blood flow) caused by blockage (thrombosis, arterial embolism), or a haemorrhage (leakage of blood).

paragraphs: As a result, the affected area of the brain cannot work properly. Symptoms might include: hemiplegia (an inability to move one or more limbs on one side of the body), aphasia (inability to understand or use language), or an inability to see one side of the visual field.

paragraphs: A stroke is a medical emergency. It can cause permanent damage. If it is not quickly treated, it may lead to death. It is the third most common cause of death and the most common cause of disability for adults in the United States and Europe.

paragraphs: Strokes happen on both the left and right side of the brain. When a stroke happens on the left side of someone’s brain, it affects the right side of the body. It can also cause problems with the patient’s speech and language. If a stroke affects the right side of the brain, it affects the left side of the body. It also changes patient’s spatial (relating to space) perceptions. Getting a stroke on the right side of the brain can also cause people to not acknowledge their illness. Patients behave impulsively and neglect the side of their body.

paragraphs: Factors that increase the risk of a stroke include old age, high blood pressure, a previous stroke, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking, atrial fibrillation, migraine with aura, and thrombophilia (a tendency to thrombosis). Of those factors, the most easy to fix are high blood pressure and smoking.

paragraphs: The Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale was designed to help "pre-hospital" medical professionals (like EMTs) identify a possible stroke before the patient gets to the hospital. It tests three basic signs. If any of these signs are not normal, the patient may be having a stroke and should be transported to a hospital as soon as possible.

paragraphs: About 72% of patients who cannot do one of these three tasks normally are having an ischemic stroke. More than 85% of patients who cannot do all three tasks are having an acute stroke.

paragraphs: The 'spot a stroke' campaign, created by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association, teaches everyday people how to recognize a stroke. It teaches the basic tests from the Cincinnati Stroke Scale, using the acronym FAST:

paragraphs: Once the patient is in the hospital, doctors can find out for sure whether they are having a stroke by looking at their brain with special scanning machines, like an MRI or a CT scanner.

paragraphs: Strokes can kill. To prevent a stroke, doctors advise people to:


title: Wheel of Fortune

paragraphs: Wheel of Fortune could mean a popular TV game show:


title: The Wheel of Fortune

paragraphs: The Wheel of Fortune, or "Rota Fortunae", is a concept in medieval and ancient philosophy and means the unpredictable nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna, who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel - some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls.

paragraphs: The Wheel of Fortune motif appears significantly in the "Carmina Burana" (or "Burana Codex"), over one thousand poems and songs — often profane in content — written by students and clergy in the early 13th century. Excerpts from two of the collection's better known poems, ""Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" (Fortune, Empress of the World)" and ""Fortune Plango Vulnera" (I Bemoan the Wounds of Fortune)," read:The concept developed in antiquity; it was used by Cicero. The Wheel originally belonged to the Roman goddess Fortuna, whose name seems to derive from "Vortumna", "she who revolves the year". Fortuna eventually became Christianized: the Roman philosopher Boethius (d. 524) was a major source for the medieval view of the Wheel, writing about it in his"Consolatio Philosophiae".vv

paragraphs: Fortune and her Wheel have remained an enduring image throughout history.

paragraphs: William Shakespeare in "Hamlet" wrote of the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and, of fortune personified, to "break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel." And in "Henry V", Act 3 Scene VI, are the lines:

paragraphs: Selections from the "Carmina Burana", including the two poems quoted above, were set to new music by twentieth-century classical composer Carl Orff, whose bombastic and well-known "O Fortuna" is based on the poem "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi".

paragraphs: Fortuna does occasionally turn up in modern literature. She is often associated with gamblers, and dice could also be said to have replaced the Wheel as the primary metaphor for uncertain fortune.


title: Raster graphics

paragraphs: Raster graphics (or bitmap graphics) is one of two kinds of computer graphics. With raster graphics, images are modeled as big collections of pixels. Usually they form an image shaped like a rectangle. Each pixel holds something, like color or transparency. Raster images are used very often. Computer screens are made of a raster of points. Vector graphic images are rasterised that way. Images that are difficult to make as a vector, like photographs, are often made in the form of a raster image.

paragraphs: Many printers today use computer languages like Postscript or PCL. These languages are based on vectorized images, most of the time. To be printed, these images need to be translated into raster graphics first. This is done by a part called a Raster Image Processor. Most modern printers have those processors inside the printer. Some printers use a special piece of software on the computer to do that job.


title: Postscript

paragraphs: Postscript is a programming language. It was developed by Adobe, in 1984. It is a standard used by many computer printers. There are three different versions of it, Postscript Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3.

paragraphs: The Portable Document Format is another standard, also from Adobe. It is better adapted to printing. Many things computer languages have, have been dropped to develop PDF.

paragraphs: And finally, a Hello World program, the customary way to show a small example of a complete program in a given language, might look like this in Postscript:


title: Horse chestnut

paragraphs: A horse chestnut is a large deciduous tree. Its Latin name is Aesculus hippocastanum. It is native to southern Europe, in the Balkans. It is often grown in temperate climates. It can grow up to 36 m tall. The name of the tree (and the whole genus of similar trees) is because its fruit, the conker, was used to treat horses, against cough and some parasite worms.

paragraphs: Horse chestnuts are not edible for humans. The trees are not closely related to sweet chestnuts.


title: Francisco Pizarro

paragraphs: Francisco Pizarro González, Marqués de los Atabillos (1471– June 26, 1541) was a Spanish conquistador. Today, he is known as the conqueror of the Inca Empire. He also founded Lima, La Ciudad de los Reyes, capital of Peru. Pizarro was born in Trujillo, Extremadura, Spain.

paragraphs: He was an illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro Rodríguez de Aguilar (senior) who as colonel of infantry served in the Italian campaigns under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, and in Navarre, with some distinction. His mother was Francisca González Mateos, a woman of slender means from Trujillo. Through his father, Francisco was second cousin to Hernán Cortés, the famed conquistador of Mexico.

paragraphs: In 1502, Pizarro traveled to the New World where he joined in several expeditions to see the Pacific Ocean. In 1513 Pizarro joined the expedition of Vasco Núñez de Balboa across the Isthmus of Panama to become one of the first Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean. In 1524, after hearing stories about the exploration of Peru, he joined Diego de Almagro and Hernando de Soto. Together, they agreed to travel to Peru and look for gold. The expedition was a disaster, but Pizarro made connections with the Inca people.

paragraphs: In 1528 he returned to Spain, where the king allowed him to conquer the new land for Spain. Pizarro himself was to be named governor of Peru. In 1531 he landed in Peru again, leading fewer than 300 soldiers. The country was devastated by a recent civil war between Atahualpa and Huascar, the sons of the dead emperor. In November 1532, Pizarro met Atahualpa in the city of Cajamarca and managed to capture him, even though the Inca was protected by thousands of soldiers. The weapons of the Spaniards proved superior. In 1533, after paying a huge ransom for his release, Atahualpa requested to be let free but Pizarro killed him anyway. He then continued south into Peru and captured the capital of Cuzco.

paragraphs: In 1535, Pizarro founded a new capital named La Ciudad de los Reyes, today known as Lima. However, some Spaniards had not been part of the capture of the Inca and therefore had not been paid any gold. Led by Almagro, the "Almagristas", Almagro's men, marched south into present-day Chile to find new riches, while Pizarro stayed in Peru. The Inca were treated very poorly and their riches stolen by the Spaniards, who built huge estates or brought gold back to Spain.

paragraphs: Pizarro became the richest and most powerful of them all.

paragraphs: In 1536, the Inca tried to overthrow him in a rebellion, but failed since Pizarro managed to subdue the Incas after a year of fights.

paragraphs: However, the Spaniards had became so weakened that when Almagro returned, he took power and expelled Pizarro to the north. Pizarro returned with an army in 1538 and defeated Almagro. Almagro was executed in the plaza of Cuzco and Pizarro was again sole ruler.

paragraphs: However, Almagro had a son who swore revenge, and in 1541, Pizarro was killed in his palace in Lima by a number of men following Diego Almagro the younger. He was himself caught and executed the following year, so was the last brother of Pizarro struggling for power in Peru, in 1548. Then the Spanish king took personal control over the country by a personal envoy, the "Viceroy".


title: Bingo

paragraphs: Bingo or Housie is a game where people try to match numbers drawn at random with numbers on a card. When someone does this, they call "BINGO!" or "HOUSE!" very loud so everyone playing can hear.

paragraphs: The game was invented in Italy in the 1500s. The game slowly moved to other countries like France, Great Britain, and other parts of Europe. Bingo originates from the Italian lottery, Il Gioco del Lotto d'Italia. In Paris the game was known as Le Lotto, played by the rich part of French society. Since then the game become popular all over the world and today Charitable Bingo in US is worth $3 Billion.

paragraphs: In the United Kingdom, the game is played by marking a card. The card has 27 squares in 3 rows of 9. 15 squares have a numbers between 1 and 90. 5 numbers on each row. The winner is the first player to mark the 5 numbers in one line or all fifteen numbers on the card.

paragraphs: Bingo cards are normally printed in strips of six. A strip of six cards has every number between 1 and 90. Many people buy only 4 cards, so that the other two cards were usually wasted. Edward Thompson and Company, the largest printer of bingo tickets in the UK found a way to print strips of 12 so that there would be less waste, and so that any 6 tickets had all of the numbers 1 to 90.

paragraphs: In the UK, all money used to buy the bingo ticket must be given back in prize money. The owner of a bingo club is allowed to charge an entrance fee and also a "participation fee" (a fee to be allowed to take part in the bingo game).

paragraphs: In the United States, the game is played by a group of people. All of the group has cards and tokens. When a number is called that you have on your card, you place a token on that spot. The first person to make a line of 5 tokens up or down, across, or diagonally wins the game. This game is played for prizes usually.


title: 9 (number)

paragraphs: Nine is the Arabic number which comes after 8 and before 10. It is an odd number, and is the highest single-digit number. It is also a square number. In Roman numerals, nine can be written as IX.


title: 5 (number)

paragraphs: The number five is a number that comes after four and before the number six. In Roman numerals, it is V.

paragraphs: Five is the third prime number, after two and three, and before seven. The number five is also an odd number.

paragraphs: Most people have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.

paragraphs: It is not known for certain who and how the shape of the number five was created, but most people think it was made by the Brahmin Indians.


title: Hurling

paragraphs: Hurling (in Irish, "iománaíocht" or "iomáint") is an Irish outdoor team sport similar to hockey, played by two teams of 15 people.

paragraphs: The object of the game is for players to use a wooden axe-shaped stick called a hurley (in Irish a "camán", pronounced kam-awn), or a hurl, to hit a small ball called a sliotar (pronounced slith-er) between the opponents' goalposts either over the crossbar for one point, or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for one goal, which is equivalent to three points.

paragraphs: The ball can be caught in the hand and carried for not more than four steps, struck in the air, or struck on the ground with the stick. It can be kicked or slapped with an open hand (the hand pass) for short-range passing. A player who wants to carry the ball for more than three steps has to bounce or balance the ball on the end of the stick, and the ball can only be handled twice while in his possession.

paragraphs: Hurling is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide The goals at each end of the field are formed by two posts, which are usually 6 m high, set 6.4 m apart, and connected 2.44 m above the ground by a crossbar. A net extending in back of the goal is attached to the crossbar and lower goal posts.


title: 6 (number)

paragraphs: The number six is a natural number that comes after the number five and before the number seven. Six is also the first perfect number which means that the sum of its factors (1, 2 and 3) are equal to the number itself (6). The next perfect number is 28. In Roman numerals, it is VI.

paragraphs: In mathematics, the number six is an even number.


title: 4 (number)

paragraphs: The number four is a number and a numeral. It comes after the number three, and before the number five. In Roman numerals, it is IV.

paragraphs: In mathematics, the number four is an even number and the smallest composite number. Four is also the second square number after one.

paragraphs: A small minority of people have four fingers and four toes, on each hand and foot, respectively. This proves difficult to count on your fingers. Four squared is 16, and four doubled is 8.


title: 7 (number)

paragraphs: The number seven is a natural number that comes after six and before eight. In Roman numerals, it is VII.

paragraphs: In mathematics, the number seven is an odd number and a prime number.

paragraphs: 77 is divisible by 7, so the original number 918785 is also divisible by 7.


title: 8 (number)

paragraphs: The number eight is a natural number that comes after the number seven and before the number nine. In Roman numerals, it is VIII.

paragraphs: In mathematics, the number eight is an even number and a composite number. Eight is also a power of two, being 2 times itself 3 times.


title: Donatello

paragraphs: Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, c. 1386 – 13 December 1466) was an Italian sculptor during the Renaissance. He lived in Florence. He worked in stone, bronze, wood, clay, and wax with several assistants. His reputation as a great artist was stated by Vasari, and has always stood well. He worked in Rome, Sienna and Padua as well as Florence, and worked for the Church, for Cosimo de' Medici, and for various city authorities.

paragraphs: He was the son of Niccolo di Betto Bardi, and was born in Florence. His mother's name is not known. When Donatello was older, he studied with Filippo Brunelleschi the architect. He also helped the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti to make statues for the Battistero di San Giovanni.

paragraphs: Donatello's work was inspired by ancient sculpture. He was the first sculptor of his time to celebrate the human body, an idea that had died out after Greek and Roman times. His life-size statue of David is his best-known work. The David is the first known free-standing nude statue made since antiquity. Much of his work was done for display in grand churches. Between 1415 and 1426, he made five statues for the Florence Cathedral, also known as the Duomo.

paragraphs: Donatello was a realist: an artist whose sculpture showed the subjects as real people. Naturalism and the showing of human feelings are his influences.


title: Sarah Bernhardt

paragraphs: Sarah Bernhardt (23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress, and has often been called "the most famous actress in the history of the world". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon working in Europe and the United States. She developed a reputation as a serious actress, getting the nickname "The Divine Sarah."

paragraphs: She was born in Paris as Marie Henriette Bernardt, the daughter of Julie Bernardt and a Dutch father. She added the letter "H" to her first and last name, and used the name of Edouard Bernardt, her mother's brother, as the name of her father. This was probably done to hide the fact that her father was unknown.

paragraphs: Bernhardt's career started in 1862, when she was a student at the Comédie-Française. She was not very successful there, and left to become a courtesan by 1865. She became famous in Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand all over Europe and in New York. She may have been the most famous actress of the 19th century. She coached many young women in the art of acting, including Liane de Pougy.

paragraphs: In 1905, while performing in Rio de Janeiro, Bernhardt hurt her right knee during the final scene when she jumped from a high wall. The leg never healed properly, showing signs of bruising. By 1915, gangrene had set in and her entire right leg was amputated, meaning she was in a wheelchair for several months. Nonetheless, she continued her career. She carried out a successful tour of America in 1915, and died on returning to France. On 26 March 1923, Bernhardt died of uremia following kidney failure. She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

paragraphs: Sarah Bernhardt has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street.


title: Kevin Rudd

paragraphs: Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is a former Australian politician who was twice Prime Minister of Australia serving from 2007 to 2010 and again from 27 June 2013 to 18 September 2013. He also served as Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010. Rudd was the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs from 14 September 2010 to 22 February 2012. He was member for Griffith in Brisbane from 1998 to 2013.

paragraphs: Rudd went to the Australian National University and studied International Studies. He learned to speak the Chinese language. He became a diplomat for the Australian government. He lived and worked in Sweden, and later in China. Rudd won a seat in Parliament in 1998. The Australian Labor party elected him the Leader of the Opposition in December 2006. After 11 years of the Liberal Party being in power, the Labor Party won the 2007 federal election. During the election Rudd talked a lot about work agreements (industrial relations laws) and global warming. As prime minister he signed the Kyoto Protocol and "apologised" to Aboriginal Australians for bad things done by the government long ago. He spoke about human rights in China in the Chinese language to Chinese students. Australia and China were doing lots of trade, but the Chinese government did not like this talk. He also supported the Afghanistan war and took Australian troops out of the Iraq conflict.

paragraphs: Rudd was Prime Minister at the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis. His government, with Wayne Swan as treasurer, spent a lot of money to try and keep the economy going. Australia did not have a recession, but management of this government spending started problems for Rudd. His government was seen as being unable to cope with and this started to affect Rudd's popularity.

paragraphs: Rudd planned a new tax on the huge profits being made mining companies in Australia. These companies and their leaders started a huge advertising campaign against the Labor government. He also decided to delay his election promises to do something about Global Warming. His leadership style was unpopular with many members of the Labor Party. members of parliament felt that they were not able to take part in making important decisions. They felt that Rudd left things until the last moment, and then acted quickly when things had almost became a crisis. With these things happening, the Labor Party decided that there had to be some changes. Realizing that he had lost support, Rudd resigned as leader of the Labor Party, and as Prime Minister. Julia Gillard was elected to the position of leader, and therefore prime minister. He was really sad. Gillard promised that Rudd would be made Foreign Minister if they won the 2010 election.

paragraphs: After the 2010 Election, Gillard chose Rudd to be Foreign Minister. In February 2012, Rudd decided that he should again be leader of the Labor Party. He said he could not work with Gillard because she did not trust him. He resigned as Foreign Minister, and said he would challenge Gillard for the leadership. The Labor Party held a meeting on 27 February 2012 and held a new vote for the leader's position. Rudd only received 31 votes while Gillard got 71 votes. Rudd returned to the backbench, and not have any positions of responsibility in the government until on 26 June 2013, Gillard announced another caucus ballot on the leadership. Rudd won it so he became the Leader of the Labor Party for a second time. On 27 June 2013, Rudd was sworn in as Prime Minister. Rudd is the first former Prime Minister to return to the office since Robert Menzies in 1949 and the second Labor Prime Minister to do so.

paragraphs: On 31 May 2012 Rudd became a grandfather when his daughter Jessica gave birth to a baby girl.

paragraphs: On 7 September 2013, Labor lost the 2013 election to the Coalition led by Tony Abbott.

paragraphs: On 13 November 2013, Rudd announced that he would be retiring from politics at end of week. His resignation took effect on 22 November 2013.


title: Hurley (stick)

paragraphs: A hurley is a wooden stick measuring between 70 and 100 cm (26 to 40 inches) long with a flattened, curved end (called the "bas"), used to hit a "sliotar" (leather ball) in the Irish sport of hurling. It is also used in camogie, the female equivalent, and there often called a camogie stick.

paragraphs: Hurleys are made from ash wood, and are usually bought from local craftsmen in Ireland, who still use traditional production methods.

paragraphs: No matter how well crafted the hurley is, a hurler may well expect to use several hurleys over the course of the hurling season. The hurleys often break if two collide in the course of a game, or occasionally they break off on the other players (arms, legs, etc.). Two hurleys colliding is colloquially known as "the clash of the ash." Throwing the hurley (e.g. to block a ball going high over one's head) is illegal, but camogie players may drop it to make a handpass.


title: Sliotar

paragraphs: A sliotar (or sliothar) is a hard solid sphere slightly larger than a tennis ball, consisting of a cork core covered by two pieces of leather stitched together. Sometimes called a "puck" or "hurling ball", it resembles an American baseball with more pronounced stitching. It is used in the Gaelic games of hurling, camogie, rounders and shinty.

paragraphs: Early sliotars used various materials, depending on the part of the country:


title: Camogie

paragraphs: Camogie (in Irish, "camógaíocht") is an Irish team sport, organised by the "Camogie Association of Ireland", the women's variant of hurling. The rules are almost identical to hurling with a few exceptions.

paragraphs: One is that goalkeepers wear the same colours as outfield players and a player in camogie can handpass a score, which is not allowed in the men's game. All games last 60 minutes (senior inter-county hurling games last 70), and dropping the camogie stick to handpass the ball is allowed. The All-Ireland Final is held every year in Croke Park during September, usually the week between the hurling final and Gaelic football final. There are two main competitions; the National League which is staged during the winter-spring months and is used as a warm-up to the All-Ireland Championships during the summer.

paragraphs: Camogie/hurling is unique in that it uses a different name for the version played by men and women. The reason is complicated: men play using a curved stick called in Irish a "camán". Women would use a shorter stick, called by the diminutive form "camóg". The suffix -"aíocht" was added to both words to give names for the sports: "camánaíocht" (which became "iománaíocht") and "camógaíocht". When the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in 1884 the English-origin name "hurling" was given to the men's game. When an organisation for women was set up in 1904, it was decided to Anglicise the Irish name "camógaíocht" to "camogie".


title: Rounders

paragraphs: Rounders is a sport which originated in Great Britain and Ireland. The game is regulated by the "Gaelic Athletic Association" (GAA) in Ireland and the "National Rounders Association" (NRA) in the UK. Both have different, although broadly similar, game-play and culture. Competitions are held between teams from both traditions, often with one version being played in the morning and the other being played in the afternoon.

paragraphs: Game-play centers around innings where teams act at turns being batters and fielders. A maximum of nine players are allowed to play in fielding positions at one time. Points ("rounders") are scored by the batting team by completing a circuit around the field through four bases/posts without being put 'out' - for example, by a ball they batted being 'caught-out' or touching a tagged base/post.

paragraphs: The earliest nationally formalised rules of play were devised by the GAA in Ireland in 1884.

paragraphs: Although it is generally considered a school game, rounders is played at international level as well. Currently, teams from Canada, England, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales compete against each other.

paragraphs: Some theories on the origin of baseball claim that baseball is based on rounders. Rounders is a sport played with a bat and ball when the ball is thrown to you the ball is meant to be hit with the bat.


title: Cricket (insect)

paragraphs: Crickets, family Gryllidae (also known as true crickets), are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets (family Tettigoniidae). They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennae. There are about 900 species of crickets. They tend to be nocturnal and are often confused with grasshoppers because they have a similar body structure including jumping hind legs.

paragraphs: Crickets are known for their chirp (which only male crickets can do; male wings have ridges or "teeth" that act like a "comb and file" instrument). The left forewing has a thick rib (a modified vein) which bears 50 to 300 "teeth". The chirp is made by raising their left forewing to a 45 degree angle and rubbing it against the upper hind edge of the right forewing, which has a thick scraper (Berenbaum 1995). This sound producing action is called "stridulation" and the song is species-specific. There are two types of cricket songs: a calling song and a courting song. The calling song attracts females and repels other males, and is fairly loud.

paragraphs: Night-time in the Jurassic included the sound of chirping bush crickets. This is according to scientists who have reconstructed the song of a cricket that chirped 165 million years ago. "A remarkably complete fossil of the prehistoric insect enabled the team to see the structures in its wings that rubbed together to make the sound".


title: Rounders (movie)

paragraphs: Rounders is a 1998 movie about the underground world of high-stakes poker. The movie was directed by John Dahl and starred Matt Damon and Edward Norton. It follows two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a huge debt. The term “rounder” refers to a person whose sole means of earning a living is by playing cards.

paragraphs: The movie opened to mixed reviews and only made a modest amount of money. However, with the growing popularity of Texas hold 'em and other poker games, "Rounders" has become a cult hit.


title: Gaelic Athletic Association

paragraphs: The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: "Cumann Lúthchleas Gael") is an organisation which is mostly focused on promoting Gaelic Games - traditional Irish sports, such as hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball, and rounders. The organisation also promotes Irish music and dance, and the Irish language. It is the largest and most popular organisation in Ireland with some 800,000 members out of the island's population of almost 6 million.

paragraphs: Gaelic football and Hurling are the main and most popular activities promoted by the organisation.

paragraphs: Gaelic football is a contact sport that combines the skills of soccer, basketball, and some of the skills of volleyball in a high-scoring game in which players punch or kick the ball over the crossbar for one point, or kick the ball into a net on the bottom for three points. The game also has similarities with Australian Rules Football (see below).

paragraphs: Hurling is a stick-and-ball game that combines many of the skills of field hockey, lacrosse, and baseball but pre-dates all three. Players can catch the ball and use a hurley (Irish: "camán") to hit a ball (sliotar) between the goalposts using the same scoring system as in Gaelic football and on the same size of field. It is not to be confused with the Scottish game of shinty.


title: Gaelic Games

paragraphs: Gaelic games are the traditional sports played in Ireland. The two main Gaelic games are Gaelic football and hurling. Both are organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Other games organised by the association include camogie, rounders, Gaelic handball. During the late 19th century, Gaelic games in Ireland were dying out. This decline was stopped by the GAA and the Irish national Gaelic Revival. Today they are the most popular games in Ireland.

paragraphs: Gaelic football is the most popular of the gaelic games and is played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The object is to score by driving the ball through the goals. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins. It combines the skills of soccer and basketball in a fast-paced, high-scoring contact sport.

paragraphs: A slightly different rule set is used for women's Gaelic football (officially called "ladies' Gaelic football"). The women's game also uses 15-player teams and H-shaped goals, but allows less physical contact.

paragraphs: Hurling is a stick-and-ball game played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The primary object is to score by driving the ball through the goals. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins. It is over three thousand years old, and is said to be the world's fastest field game, combining skills from lacrosse, field hockey, and baseball in a hard-hitting, highly skilled game.

paragraphs: Camogie is a game almost identical to hurling, but played only by women. Like hurling, it is a stick-and-ball game played by teams of 15, with the pitch and goals the same as those in hurling. Other rules are almost the same between the two sports, but camogie does not allow as much physical contact.

paragraphs: Rounders is a bat and ball game which is played in Ireland; a similar version is played in England. Rounders is the least popular of the GAA gaelic games and is organised by a sub division of the GAA known as the Rounders Council of Ireland. It is similar to baseball.

paragraphs: Gaelic handball is a game where two players use their hands to return a ball against a wall. The game is similar to American handball; Gaelic handballers play against their US counterparts.

paragraphs: Other Gaelic Games such as gaelic athletics have nearly or completely died out. Pastimes such as Road bowling, a sport played in Ireland for a long time, could be considered Gaelic games.


title: Gaelic handball


title: American handball

paragraphs: American (or court) handball, usually referred to simply as handball, is an American form of fives played against one or more walls.

paragraphs: It is a common belief that "American handball" was brought to the United States in the 1880s by Irish immigrants. The Gaelic handball sport was played since the 15th century in Ireland and Scotland.

paragraphs: American handball is played on a court 12.2 meters long by 6.1 meters wide (40 feet long by 20 feet wide) with either a single (front) wall, three walls, or in a fully enclosed four-wall court (the most common). The four-wall court is a rectangular box. The front wall is 6.1 meters (20 feet) square, and the side walls are 12.2 meters (40 feet) long and 6.1 meters (20 feet) high. In the middle of the floor of the court lies the short line, that divides the floor into two 6.1 meter (20 feet) squares. Also along the floor is the service line, which is 1.5 meters (5 feet) in front of the short line. The service zone is the area between these two lines. The back wall of the court is usually 3.7 meters (12 feet) high, with an above gallery for the referee and scorer, and also spectators. A few courts have a glass back wall and/or glass side walls to allow for a better view of the match. (In three-wall court handball, the court often has a front wall and two full side walls, or the front wall is flanked by two triangular wings.)


title: Fives

paragraphs: Fives is a British sport believed to come from the same origins as many racket sports. In fives, a ball is propelled against the walls of a special court using gloved or bare hands as though they were a racquet.

paragraphs: The name may be derived from the slang expression "a bunch of fives" (meaning a fist). The game has also been known as hand-tennis and historically was often played between the buttresses of church buildings in England. There are links between Fives and the Irish and North American handball games and indeed, in recent years, British clubs have begun to establish ties with clubs in those countries.

paragraphs: Fives is not the same as Long Fives, which is played in a real tennis court.

paragraphs: There are two main forms of the game Rugby Fives and Eton Fives.

paragraphs: Eton Fives is played competitively as a doubles game, whilst Rugby Fives is played as both a singles and a doubles game.


title: Miami Heat

paragraphs: The Miami Heat are a team in the National Basketball Association in Miami, Florida. It was started in 1988. They play their home games at the American Airlines Arena. They won the 2006 NBA Finals where they defeated the Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 2 and they also won the 2012 NBA Finals where they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 4 games to 1. They also defeated the San Antonio Spurs in 2013; 4 games to 3. They lost to the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 over five games.


title: Buttress

paragraphs: A buttress is a structure placed against the walls of a building to give it more support, or to help it to hold the roofs. Buttresses are common in ancient buildings, especially in Europe. A buttress can be an inside or outside support.


title: Real tennis

paragraphs: Real tennis is the original racket sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, developed. It is also known as "jeu de paume" in France and as "court tennis" in some parts of United States.

paragraphs: Real tennis is still played at a small number of active courts in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and France. The sport is supported and governed by


title: Jeu de paume

paragraphs: Jeu de paume was originally a French game similar to lawn tennis, but played without racquets. The players hit the ball with their hands as in volleyball. "Jeu de paume" literally means: game of palm (of the hand). After some time gloves replaced bare hands. But even when bats, and finally racquets, became standard equipment for the game, the name did not change. It became known as "tennis" in English (see History of tennis), and later "real tennis" after lawn tennis became more popular than the parent game.

paragraphs: Some important buildings in France are known by the name "jeu de paume", in general because they are near to tennis courts or to sites on which courts once stood. Several works of art also bear this name, including the famous "serment du jeu de paume" ('the Tennis Court Oath') in the Palace of Versailles. It depicts the formal announcement of the French revolution made in the Royal Tennis Court there on 20 June, 1789.


title: Palace of Versailles

paragraphs: The Château de Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal castle in Versailles, France.

paragraphs: In English one often speaks of the Palace of Versailles. When the castle was built, Versailles was a country village, but it is now a suburb of Paris.

paragraphs: From 1682, when King Louis XIV moved from Paris and lived in this palace, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in 1789, the Court of Versailles was the centre of power in the Ancien Régime. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of absolute monarchy.


title: Château

paragraphs: A (plural "") is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry.

paragraphs: It may have fortifications, but often has none. The term comes from French-speaking regions and is used most often for buildings in these regions. Where clarification is needed, a fortified château (that is, a castle) is called a "château fort". But the word is not used in the same way as "castle" is in English, and most châteaux are more appropriately described as "palaces" or "country houses" in English than as "castles". For example, the Château de Versailles is so called because it was in the country when it was built, but it does not bear any resemblance to a castle, so it is usually known in English as the Palace of Versailles.The Château de Montsoreau is the first Renaissance château to have been built in France, in the world famous Loire Valley. The Château de Montsoreau is also the only one to have been built in the Loire riverbed.


title: Positron

paragraphs: A positron (also called an antielectron) is the antimatter version of an electron. It has the same mass and spin as an electron. However, it has a positive electric charge, whereas an electron has a negative charge. Like all antimatter, when it meets its so-called counterpartner, each are annihilated and turned into energy. The electron and positron disappear, and the total mass decreases. There is no name for this type of energy, as it is neither mechanical, radiation, chemical, electrical, nuclear, nor thermal. Although the energy does emit light photons when annihilated, it is converted from some form of energy that has not been named.

paragraphs: A positron also very rarely makes a structure called positronium. Positronium is like an atom in many ways, but is very unstable, and usually quickly annihilates.


title: Basque pelota

paragraphs: Pelota in Spanish, pilota in Basque and Catalan, or pelote in French (from Latin "pila") is a name for several court sports played with a ball using one's hand, a racket, or a wooden bat ("pala"), against a wall ("frontón" in Spanish, "frontoi" in Basque, "frontó" in Catalan) or, more traditionally, with two teams face to face separated by a line on the ground or a net. Their roots can be traced to the Greek and other ancient cultures, but in Europe they all come from real tennis (see "Jeu de paume"). Today, Basque Pelota is widely played in several countries: in Spain and France, specially in the Basque Country and its neighbour areas.


title: Pump-jet

paragraphs: A pump-jet or water jet is a marine system that creates a jet of water for propulsion. The mechanical arrangement may be a propeller with nozzle, or a centrifugal pump and nozzle.

paragraphs: Pump jets have some advantages over bare propellers for certain applications, usually related to requirements for high-speed.


title: Propulsor

paragraphs: A propulsor is a mechanical device that gives propulsion. The pump-jet is an example.


title: Valencian language

paragraphs: Valencian ("valencià") is the historical, traditional, and official name used in the Valencian Community (Spain) for the language spoken in this region, also known as Catalan ("català") in the Spanish Autonomous Communities of Catalonia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands; in the country of Andorra; in the southern French region of the Roussillon; and in the Italian city of Alghero on the island of Sardinia.

paragraphs: In linguistics "Valencian" is also used to identify this distinctive variant spoken in central and southern Valencia which has gained its own currency within the Catalan domain.


title: Valencian pilota

paragraphs: "Pilota Valenciana" or Valencian pilota ("pilota" means "ball" in Valencian) is a traditional handball sport played in the Valencian Community. Its origins are not known, but seems to be related to the French Jeu de paume.

paragraphs: Rules vary from area to area but the common trait is that the ball is struck with a bare, or almost bare, hand (only some minimal protection is applied in some versions of the sport). The general rule involves two teams made from two up to five players each (the numbers depend on the particular version played).

paragraphs: The second characteristic is that it is not played against a wall. Instead, similarly to modern tennis, two individuals or teams are placed face to face separated either by a line on the ground or a net.

paragraphs: A distinctive trait of Valencian pilota is that the spectators are often seated or standing very close to the court which means that they may be impacted by the ball and thus become an (unwilling) part of the game.

paragraphs: Valencian pilota origins are not known with certainty, but it's commonly supposed to be a variant from the middle-aged Jeu de paume, as many other European handball sports (Basque "laxoa", French Longue paume, Frisian handball and Italian Pallone) similar to the actual Valencian llargues variant.

paragraphs: "Jeu de paume" is documented at Paris in 1292 since there were 13 ball workshops and many "tripots" (courtfields), it was first played with the hands, and the scoring system was very similar to the current Valencian one. There were so many resemblances with the "Valencian pilota" sport that, in the 16th century Joan Lluís Vives compared both games in his "Dialogues" and claimed them to be exactly the same despite some minor differences.


title: Trapezoid

paragraphs: A trapezoid (in North America) or trapezium (in Britain and elsewhere) is a quadrilateral, which is defined as a shape with four sides, which has one set of parallel sides. In North America, they call a trapezium as an irregular quadrilateral by people outside of North America.

paragraphs: To calculate the area of a trapezoid, you must add the two parallel sides together, divide that by 2, then times that by its height.


title: Frisian handball

paragraphs: Frisian handball ("Dutch: kaatsen, Frisian: Keatsen") is a traditional Frisian sport, related to American handball and fives, that is most commonly practiced by people from the northern province of Fryslân, or Friesland. It is believed to be one of the oldest ballgames. The score is similar to tennis. The first team that scores six games, wins the match. It is played by the ethnic group of the Frisians.

paragraphs: In parts of Belgium, a similar game is played, there called "Jeu de Pelote". This game is played by teams of 5 players on a trapezium shaped field, mostly on marketplaces.


title: Gaelic football

paragraphs: Gaelic Football (Irish: "Peil", "Peil Ghaelach" or "Caid" ), commonly referred to as "football", or "Gaelic", is a form of football played mainly in Ireland. It, along with Hurling, is the most popular spectator sport in Ireland.

paragraphs: Gaelic football is played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The object is to score by kicking/striking the ball with your hand and getting it through the goals. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins.

paragraphs: Players advance the ball up the field with a combination of carrying, "soloing" (dropping and then toe-kicking the ball upward into the hands), kicking, and hand-passing to their team-mates.

paragraphs: Gaelic football is one of four Gaelic Games run by the Gaelic Athletic Association, the largest sporting organization in Ireland. It has strict rules on player amateurism. The game is believed to have come from ancient Irish football known as caid which dates back to 1537, although the modern game took shape in 1887.

paragraphs: The grass pitch is rectangular, stretching 130–145 metres long and 80–90 metres wide. There are H-shaped goalposts at each end with a net on the bottom section. The same pitch is used for hurling; the GAA, which organizes both sports, decided this to facilitate dual usage. Lines are marked at distances of 13m, 20m and 45m from each end-line. Shorter pitches and smaller goals are used by under-12s and under 10s.

paragraphs: All Gaelic football matches last for 60 minutes, divided into two halves of thirty minutes, with the exception of senior inter-county games which last for 70 minutes (two halves of 35 minutes). Draws are decided by replays or by playing 20 minutes of extra time (two halves of 10 minutes).

paragraphs: Teams consist of fifteen players (a goalkeeper, two corner backs, a full back, three half backs, two mid fielders, three half forwards, two corner forwards and a full forward) plus up to fifteen substitutes, of which five may be used. Each player is numbered 1–15, starting with the goalkeeper, who must wear a different coloured jersey.

paragraphs: The game is played with a round leather football, similar to a soccer ball, but heavier, and with horizontal stitching rather than the hexagon and pentagon panels often used on soccer balls, and similar to a standard volleyball.


title: Caid (sport)

paragraphs: Caid was the name given to several ancient and traditional Irish football games. "Caid" is now used by some people for modern Gaelic football.

paragraphs: The word "caid" originally meant the ball which was used. It was made out of animal skin, with a natural bladder inside.

paragraphs: Some people believe that "caid" has influenced the modern sport of Gaelic football the rules of which were officially published in 1887.

paragraphs: The first recorded mention of football in Ireland was in 1308, when John McCrocan, a spectator at a football game was charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard. Football games are mentioned in the "Statute of Galway", 1527, which allowed the playing of football and archery, but banned ""hokie" – the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves", as well as other sports.

paragraphs: "Caid" was especially popular in rural areas.

paragraphs: There is some evidence that "caid" was taken around the world by the Irish diaspora, and that it may have influenced the development of Australian rules football, although this is controversial.

paragraphs: By the late 19th century, "caid", like many aspects of native Irish culture, was in steep decline.


title: Longue paume

paragraphs: Longue paume is an outdoor version of jeu de paume and therefore an ancestor of modern lawn tennis. Hundreds of years ago it was quite popular, particularly in France. It was part of the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics, but not all think that the medals that were awarded for longue paume at that Olympics have full value. Today, the sport is played regionally in Picardie. The governing body of the sport is the "Fédération Française de Longue Paume" with its headquarter in Amiens.


title: Pallone

paragraphs: Pallone (Italian for an inflated ball, similar to the word "balloon") is the name of several traditional ball games, played in various regions of Italy, with minimal differences in regulations.

paragraphs: "Pallone col bracciale" was particularly popular throughout Italy in the 18th century then in 19th century and 20th century until 1930 was the most popular sport of ancient Italian national sports; its first official regulations date back to 1555. The "pallone col bracciale" players are called "pallonisti" and during 19th century Italian professional pallonisti were richest and best rewarded sportsmen of all the world. This sport and his champions were described by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Giacomo Leopardi, Edmondo de Amicis, Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Ottavio Rinuccini, Gabriello Chiabrera, Tommaso Grossi, Giuseppe Gioachino Belli. Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) includes a brief film depiction of this game.

paragraphs: Balls are struck back and forth with a wooden cylinder, called "bracciale", worn over the forearm, if carelessly played, a broken arm can result: in fact bracciale weighs 2 or 1 kilogram. Originally the ball of 934 grams was inflated, but now hard rubber ball of 350 grams is used. Scoring is by fifteens, as in tennis and the team which wins 12 games is final winner of the match. A special feature is that the ball is put into play by a designated server, who otherwise is not part of the game. The receivers can reject serves at will. Pallone is played on courts marked out on town streets. Registered players of official championships dispute their matches in a kind of stadium named "sferisterio" or "sferodromo" in Italian language. Nowadays they play two forms of this sport: 3 players a side with lateral wall and 4 players a side in open playing field without lateral wall.

paragraphs: Celebrated former professional champions include:

paragraphs: "Pallapugno", one time named "pallone elastico", is a game from Piedmont and Liguria and it is played with a bandaged fist; rubber ball has diameter of 10,5

paragraphs: centimetres and weighs 190 grams. Scoring is also by fifteens, but in this version a second bounce can result in a "chase" rather than an outright point, similar to real tennis. Every team has 4 players and the team which wins 11 games is final winner of the match. Professional players dispute their matches in sferisterio 90 metres long and 18 metres large with lateral wall. Professional Italian pallapugno league is top level of competitions: in 2008 10 teams competed.

paragraphs: This sport is played in various nations and they dispute a world championship.

paragraphs: "Pallapugno leggera" is played in courtfield which has same size of volleyball's courtfield without net (device). Each team has 4 players with 2 reserve players. A match consisted of one set or three sets.

paragraphs: "Pantalera" or "pallapugno alla pantalera" is generally played on the urban streets. First action of every match consisted of shot pushing up the ball for rebound on a roof called pantalera in Piedmontese language. Other rules are the same of pallapugno.

paragraphs: "Pallonetto" or "pallonetto ligure al lungo" is generally played on the urban streets with tennis balls without covering felt. Playing field is long between 60 and 90 metres and it's large 18 metres with or without lateral wall. Players push the ball using one bandaged hand.


title: Palla

paragraphs: Palla, Italian language for ball, is the name of various traditional ball games of Italy. In Italian they also call "pallacanestro" for basketball, "pallavolo" for volleyball, "pallamano" for handball and "pallanuoto" for water polo.

paragraphs: "Palla eh!" is an old Tuscan ball game from Maremma towns between Siena and Grosseto. It has this name because players call out "eh!" before serving.

paragraphs: Small hand-made balls contain a lead wrapped in rubber and wool with a leather cover. The game is played by facing teams who strike, not catch, the ball with either a bare or gloved hand: every team include 3, 4 or 5 athletes. Courts are marked out with painted lines on town streets, but there is no net, and players can move between sides. Adjacent buildings, objects, and sometimes spectators, are considered "in play." Play does stop for oncoming automobiles. Similar to real tennis, a second bounce can result in a "chase" rather than an outright point, marked in chalk where the ball stops rolling. In one version of palla, scoring is identical to that of tennis: 15-30-40-game.

paragraphs: In a variant called "palla 21" scoring is 7-14-21 or game. In this form they use a rubber or plastic ball of 35-40 grams. Firstly a palla 21 tournament was played in Chicago during 2007 with Italian national team.

paragraphs: "Palla elastica" is a team game: every team include 5 athletes who catch a rubber ball, similar to tennis ball, with either a bare hand. The team which wins 11 games is final winner of the match: each game consists of 4 points. Registered players of official championships dispute their matches in a kind of stadium, 75 metres long with lateral wall, named "sferisterio" or "sferodromo" in Italian language.

paragraphs: "Pallamuro" is Italian name of American handball.

paragraphs: "Palla prigioniera" is Italian name of prisoner ball.

paragraphs: "Pallacorda" or "palla della corda" is the Italian name of ancient form of real tennis where a cord of rope was strung across the street and players used hands, racket or tamburello alias "tambourine" in English language. Pisa, Prato, Rome, Siena, and various Tuscan towns still have streets named "via Pallacorda" or "via Della Corda".

paragraphs: "Pallamaglio" is an other ancient game called pall mall in English language and his modern form named skittles is played in England, Germany, Austria and Switzerland currently.

paragraphs: "Pallina" means "small ball" and it is a team game: every team include 4, 5 or 6 athletes who catch a rubber ball, of almost 50 grams, with either a bare hand.


title: Pellet

paragraphs: Pellet is a term used for a small particle or grain, typically one created by compressing an original material. The term is used in a variety of specific contexts.