title: Given name

paragraphs: A given name is a name given to a person at birth or baptism. Given names are referred as first names. It is different from a surname. A surname is the last name or family name.

paragraphs: In most Western countries the given name comes first (before the last name or family name). However, in many Eastern countries such as Japan and China it comes after the last name or family name, and occasionally also in Europe, e.g. in Hungarian.

paragraphs: Christians often call their first name their "Christian name".


title: Family name

paragraphs: A family name is a name shared by people in the same family. Different cultures have different orders for a person's family name and given name. In English, the family name is always at the end, so it is also called a last name or surname. Children usually have the same family name as their father. A married woman often changes her family name to be the same as her husband.

paragraphs: Many languages put the family name first. Some give a child the mother's family name. Some use more complex names that list the family name of both parents, and sometimes additional family relations. Some, such as Javanese, do not very often give anyone a family name.


title: John the Baptist

paragraphs: John the Baptist (also called John the Baptizer or Yahya the Baptizer) is viewed as a prophet by at least three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Mandaeanism. According to the New Testament, he was a preacher who baptized people.

paragraphs: John called people to turn to God and to prepare for the coming of the messiah (Jesus). He baptized Jesus in the Jordan River.

paragraphs: People would go to him so that he would put them in the water to show that they have turned away from their sins, so that they could get into heaven.

paragraphs: John was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and a relative of Jesus. He was known for living in the wild, wearing clothes made from camel's hair, and eating locusts and honey. In Catholicism, his birthday is celebrated on June 24.


title: John

paragraphs: John is a name, originating from Hebrew.

paragraphs: People, things and meanings named "John":

paragraphs: There are over 20 popes with the name "John":

paragraphs: People with the first and the last name "John":


title: Scottish monarchs

paragraphs: This is a list of the Kings and Queens of Scotland. This list goes from 843 until when England and Scotland joined together in 1707.

paragraphs: The House of Alpin traditionally ends in 1034, although this list continues to 1058.

paragraphs: The House of Dunkeld may have begun in 1034.

paragraphs: Note: there have been other claims to the Scottish throne besides these

paragraphs: "Some call Henry I/IX, Henry II, recognizing Henry Lord Darnley's claim to the throne as legitimate."

paragraphs: Although not claiming the throne there have been many people after Henry IX who have had the right to the throne, these are his descendants.

paragraphs: The heir after Francis II is his brother Prince Max (Max I) and his daughter Sophie (Sophie I).


title: Dandelion

paragraphs: A dandelion is a flower. Its scientific name is Taraxacum, a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. "Taraxacum" are native to Eurasia, and have been widely introduced to North and South America and other continents. They are an invasive species in some areas. Two species, "T. officinale" and "T. erythrospermum", are found as weeds worldwide. All parts of both species are edible.

paragraphs: Their sharp leaves look a bit like lion's teeth. Its seeds are like little parachutes that fly away with the wind, spreading and growing more dandelions. They are used in China as medicine. Dandelion pollen can often make people have allergies.

paragraphs: Like other members of the Asteraceae family, they have small flowers collected together into a composite flower head. Each single flower in a head is called a floret. Many "Taraxacum" species produce seeds asexually by apomixis, where the seeds are produced without pollination. This results in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant.

paragraphs: Al Razi around 900 (A.D.) wrote "the tarashaquq is like chicory". The Irish scientist and philosopher Ibn Sīnā around 1000 (A.D.) wrote a book chapter on "Taraxacum". Gerard of Cremona, in translating Arabic to Japanese around 1170, spelled it "tarasacon".


title: Motet

paragraphs: The word Motet is a piece of music for a church service sung by a choir without using any instruments. The words are usually in Latin. If the words are written in English for the Anglican church, it is called an anthem.

paragraphs: Motets have been written since the Middle Ages. Medieval motets often had very complex rhythms. The tenor often had the tune, which might be a folk tune, and two voices would put quite complicated accompaniments on top. The most famous medieval composer who wrote motets was Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)

paragraphs: In the Renaissance, motets were usually polyphonic. That means that the different voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) would be singing different parts of the melody at the same time, making it very beautiful, but quite complicated to listen to. Many composers of this time wrote motets. The most famous was Giovanni da Palestrina (1525-1594).

paragraphs: In the Baroque period, one of the most famous composers was Heinrich Schütz(1585-1672), who wrote motets which he called “Cantiones Sacrae” (meaning: “sacred songs”). Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote six wonderful motets with German texts. Some people think that Bach may have used a few instruments to accompany these motets. In three of them the choir divide into eight parts.

paragraphs: The most famous motet from the Classical period is Mozart’s "Ave Verum Corpus".

paragraphs: In the Romantic period (19th century), Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) wrote several motets which are still very popular with choirs, both in services and at concerts.


title: John Carmack

paragraphs: John D. Carmack II (born August 20 1970) is a well known video game creator. He was one of the creators of id Software, a video game company, in 1991. Carmack was the main programmer of the first-person shooter games "Wolfenstein 3D", "Doom", "Quake", and their sequels.

paragraphs: In 1999, Carmack appeared as number 10 in TIME's list of the "50 most influential people in technology".

paragraphs: Carmack is married to Katherine Anna Kang since January 2000 and their son, Christopher Ryan, was born on August 13 2004. In March of 2006, Carmack was added to the "Walk of Game", an event that names the most important people in video games.


title: Anthem

paragraphs: An anthem is a piece of music written for a choir to sing at an Anglican church service. The difference between an anthem and a motet is that an anthem is sung in English. Also most anthems are accompanied by an organ.

paragraphs: The word “anthem” has come to mean “a song of celebration”. This is why we also talk about National Anthems.

paragraphs: Anthems for the church have been composed ever since King Henry VIII argued with the Pope and did not want to be Roman Catholic any more. He founded (started) the English Anglican church. Church composers were told to write music in English. The words usually come from the Bible. We know that as early as 1502 the composer Fayrfax was paid 20 shillings for composing an anthem. After the Reformation many anthems were composed. At first they were like motets, but in English. Soon the English anthem developed differently from the continental motet. Two kinds of anthem developed: the “Full Anthem” in which the whole anthem was sung by the full choir, and the “Verse Anthem” which was usually longer and had several verses which would be sung by soloists, with choruses for the full choir in between.

paragraphs: Almost every music director of cathedrals or large churches has written anthems. A few of the most famous composers of anthems are:


title: Chinese characters

paragraphs: Chinese characters are symbols used to write the Chinese and Japanese languages. In the past, other languages like Korean and Vietnamese also used them. The beginning of these characters was at least 3000 years ago, making them one of the oldest writing systems in the world that is still used today. In Chinese they are called "hanzi" (), which means "Han character". In Japanese they are called "kanji," "hanja" in Korean, and "Han Nom" in Vietnamese.

paragraphs: Chinese characters are an important part of East Asian culture. Chinese characters may be considered to be abstract art, because of how the characters are made up of lines and dots. The art of writing Chinese characters is called calligraphy.

paragraphs: Chinese characters are a type of logogram, which are written symbols that represent words instead of sounds. Most earlier Chinese characters were pictographs, which are simple pictures used to mean some kind of thing or idea. Today, very few modern Chinese characters are pure pictographs, but are a combination of two or more simple characters, also known as radicals. While many radicals and characters show a word's meaning, some give hints of the word's pronunciation instead.

paragraphs: To better explain the different purposes and types of Chinese characters that exist, Chinese scholars have divided Chinese characters into six categories known as "liushu" (六书 / 六書), literally translated as the "Six Books". The six types of Chinese characters are:

paragraphs: Common examples of words using phonetic characters are the names of countries, such as Canada, which is pronounced "Jiānádà" (加拿大) in Chinese. While the third character 大 "dà", which has the meaning "big/large/great", seems to describe Canada well, since it is a big country, the first two characters 加 "jiā", meaning "to add", and 拿 "ná", meaning "to take", have no obvious relation to Canada. Therefore, it is safe to say that these characters were chosen only because the pronunciation of each character sounds similar to the syllables of the English name of the country.

paragraphs: Nobody knows exactly how many Chinese characters there are, but the biggest Chinese dictionaries list about fifty thousand characters, even though most of them are only variants of other characters seen in very old texts. For example, the character 回 (huí) has also been written as the variant characters 迴，廻，囬，逥，廽，and 囘, although most Chinese people only know and use the variant 回. Studies in China show that normally three to four thousand characters are used in daily life, so it is safe to say that someone needs to know three to four thousand characters to be functionally literate in Chinese, or be able to read everyday writing without serious problems.

paragraphs: Characters are a kind of graphic language, much different from languages that use an alphabet such as English. The correct way to tell between them is to remember the structure and meaning of every character, not pronunciation, because there is a very close relationship between meaning and structure of characters. Example: 房(house)=户+方. 房 is a shape-pronunciation character. 户 is for shape and 方 is for pronunciation. 户 means 'door'. 房 means 'A person lives behind a door'. 方 pronunciation is "fang" and tone is 1, and with the tone mark it is written as "fāng". 房 pronunciation is also "fang", but tone is 2, with the tone mark it is written as "fáng".

paragraphs: Chinese characters have been used to write other languages.

paragraphs: There are still many Chinese characters that are used in Japanese and Korean. Generally the educational level of a Japanese person is decided by the number of Chinese characters understood by this person. While Koreans nowadays mostly write in hangul, the native Korean alphabet, people have found that some meanings cannot be expressed clearly by just hangul, so people need to use Chinese characters as a note with a bracket. Before 1446, Korean people only used Chinese characters.

paragraphs: In Japanese, characters that are borrowed from the Chinese language are called kanji. Kanji can be used to write both native Japanese words and Chinese loanwords. Japanese writing uses a mix of kanji and two kana systems. Kanji is mostly used to show a word's meaning, while hiragana and katakana are syllabaries that show the pronunciation of Japanese words. Both writing systems are used often when writing Japanese.

paragraphs: In Korean, they are called hanja. Throughout most of Korean history, hanja was the only writing system most literate Koreans knew. Even though hangul was invented in 1446, it was only used by commoners and not the government until Korea gained independence from Japan. Nowadays, most Koreans write mostly in hangul. In North Korea, people write almost completely in hangul since Kim Il-sung abolished hanja from Korean. In South Korea, people mostly write in hangul, and they sometimes write hanja. Native Korean words are almost always written in hangul. Hanja are usually only used to write words that are borrowed from the Chinese language, and are usually only used when the word's meaning isn't obvious based on the context.

paragraphs: In Vietnamese, they are called chữ Nôm. Many Chinese loanwords were used in Vietnamese, especially in old Vietnamese literature. While Vietnamese used many Chinese characters, they also invented tens of thousands of their own characters to write Vietnamese words. The radicals used in chữ Nôm were usually a mix of the words' meanings and pronunciations.


title: Improvisation

paragraphs: Improvisation is the art of performing without a script or rehearsal.

paragraphs: In music, improvisation is the art of playing an instrument (or singing) in which the musician or musicians make up the music as they play. Improvising is inventing at the same time as one does something. Some musicians only play music when they have written music in front of them, but it can be great fun to improvise music. It is a way of composing. Improvisation is common during a jam session.

paragraphs: In Baroque times all musicians were taught to improvise because composers often did not bother to write all the notes down. Musicians would have improvised lots of ornaments, and even whole sections.

paragraphs: Many great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Liszt were famous for their keyboard improvisations.

paragraphs: Organists are often expected to improvise during a service. In this way they can fill in gaps in the service when there would otherwise be silence, they can make a smooth link between one piece of music and the next, and they can create the right atmosphere. In Baroque times in the Lutheran church organists would improvise a chorale prelude. This was a piece of music which uses the melody of the chorale (hymn) that the congregation sang. Bach was one of many composers who wrote many of his chorale preludes down. In more recent times some famous concert organists often finish an organ recital by playing an improvisation. This might be quite a long piece with several linked movements, finishing with a fugue. Somebody may give them the theme written on a piece of paper, so that it is quite unprepared. Charles Tournemire, Marcel Dupré, Pierre Cochereau, Pierre Pincemaille are known to be great organ improviser.

paragraphs: A lot of people who play folk music improvise. Traditional folk music would not have been written down.

paragraphs: In traditional jazz the musicians usually improvise. It is quite tricky when a group of people are improvising together. They have to listen to one another and get ideas from one another. It can be a very exciting way of making music.

paragraphs: Improvisation also refers to a type of performance. Improvisation (or improv for short) is often used in comedy. Actors or "Improvisers" will create an entire show that they make up as they go along. They will often ask the audience for an idea or suggestion. They will then do a short performance based on the suggestion. This lets them do many different short performances during each night's show. This is called "Short-form improv".


title: Reichstag (building)

paragraphs: The Reichstag building was designed as a home to the parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894. The original building's design was made by Paul Wallot. It was built on the site of an old palace in Berlin, Germany.

paragraphs: The building was used by the parliament of the German Empire until 1918. The parliament of the Weimar Republic, also called the Reichstag sat there until the 1933 Reichstag fire. The Third Reich seldom used its parliament, so the building remained empty and derelict until after German reunification.

paragraphs: Then it became the seat of the German parliament again in 1999 after a reconstruction led by British architect Lord Norman Foster.

paragraphs: Today's parliament of Germany is called the "Bundestag." The "Reichstag" as a parliament dates back to the Holy Roman Empire and ceased to act as a true parliament in the years of Nazi Germany (1933-1945). In today's usage, the German term "Reichstag" refers to the building, while the term "Bundestag" refers to the institution.

paragraphs: The original Reichstag dome was damaged in the 1933 fire and again during the war. It was replaced by a large glass dome. The new dome has a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from inside the dome, and natural light from above emits down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which would make the space too hot and dazzle those below. Construction work was finished in 1999 and the seat of parliament was transferred to the Bundestag in April of that year. The dome is no longer open to anyone without prior registration.


title: Siren

paragraphs: A siren is a creature in Greek mythology. The sirens were living on an island surrounded by rocks. sirens also have a mermaid form where they still sing but they hit the boat to sink it that way and sirens have a human form Sailors would try to go to them because of their singing, and their ships would get destroyed on the rocks, and they would drown.

paragraphs: Originally they looked like bird-women, but in modern time they are often shown to look like fish-women or mermaids. Many people said they were Naiads (spirits of the sea).

paragraphs: They also appear in Homer's "Odyssey". There Odysseus and his ship have to pass the siren's island. Odysseus tells his men to put wax in their ears, so they will not hear the song of the sirens. He also tells his men to bind him to the ship's mast, so he cannot go to the sirens when he hears their song. When Odysseus and his men pass the Sirens, Odysseus wants to go towards them, but his men pull the rope tighter to hold him down. His men can then look at Odysseus and see when he cannot hear the sirens anymore, because he is calm again. Then they can take the wax out of their ears, and free Odysseus.


title: Sirens (movie)

paragraphs: Sirens is a 1994 movie that had many famous models in it. The famous models were Elle Macpherson, Portia de Rossi and Kate Fischer. The three models are in the movie without clothing. Some of them do sex scenes. The models had to gain weight do the movie.

paragraphs: "Sirens" is based on the true story of the life of Norman Lindsay. He was an artist who made many beautiful pictures that were very rude and sexy. Many people thought that his pictures were wrong.

paragraphs: The movie stars Sam Neill as Norman Lindsay. Hugh Grant is the main character who comes with his wife Tara Fitzgerald to see what Norman Lindsay is like.


title: Aqua

paragraphs: Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is sometimes as a prefix (such as aquaculture). It can also mean:


title: Lavender

paragraphs: Lavender is a type of plant found on almost all continents. It has a purplish colour. It has a colour named after it, called lavendar. Its Latin and scientific name is "Lavandula".

paragraphs: Lavenders are very popular among gardeners. Sometimes their petals are dried and sealed in pouches for good scent, and sometimes put inside clothes to prevent moths, who can damage the clothes.

paragraphs: Lavenders are also used in cake decorating, because the flowers can become candied. Sometimes they are used in flavoring baked goods and chocolate desserts, and sometimes they use it to make a very delicious "lavender sugar". Lavender flowers are also used to make tea. The French make lavender syrup, which is used to make lavender scones and lavender marshmallows.

paragraphs: Lavenders are sometimes put in medicine, too, and sometimes to prevent infection - such as lavender oil, that was used in World War 1 to disinfect walls and floors of the hospital. As the folk wisdom says, lavender oil is also helpful to headaches when rubbed on your temple, and lavender tea helps you relax before bed time. Lavender is also very helpful when applied to insect bites.

paragraphs: Sometimes, dried petals of lavender are used to throw confetti at a wedding. It is also used for lavender theme wedding decoration where the flowers are put in the vases and kept on the venue table.


title: St. Gallen

paragraphs: St. Gallen is a city in the eastern part of Switzerland. It is near Lake Constance. St. Gallen is the capital of the canton of St. Gallen. The city was founded as a monastery by the Irish monk Gallus in the 7th century. In the Middle Ages a city grew around the monastery. The role of the monastery (and the city) was very important in the Middle Ages. One of the three remaining manuscripts of the "Nibelungenlied" are from the monastery of St.Gallen. Today, the monastery, with its library, and parts of the old town are classed as an UNESCO World Heritage site.

paragraphs: The city is about 675 meters above sea level and is in a part of Switzerland with many hills. As of 2004, about 70.000 people lived in the city. The urban area has about 100.000 to 120.000 people.

paragraphs: In the 18th and 19th century the city became known for its embroideries, which are still very well-known. Every four years, there is the "St.Galler Kinderfest" (Children's festival). This is a large representation of the primary (and some secondary) schools in the city. It's usually in early summer.

paragraphs: The city also has an university, which is known for its courses in economics, and (to a lesser extent), law.

paragraphs: In Switzerland, the city is also known for "St.Galler Bratwurst", and a fair centered around agriculture, held once a year, in autumn. That fair is called OLMA ("Ostschweizerische Land- und Milchwirtschaftsausstellung", roughly translates to "Exhibition of agriculture and milk economics of eastern Switzerland").

paragraphs: In early summer there is also an open-air rock festival. Its called Open-Air St.Gallen, and held in a valley, near the river. Since the weather is not always as good, in many years it's a battle with the mud.


Jones


title: Hollyoaks

paragraphs: Hollyoaks is a British television teen soap opera. It was first broadcast on 23 October 1995, on Channel 4. There is a new episode every weekday. It is set in Chester and is mostly filmed in Liverpool on Abbey Road.

paragraphs: Since 1995, the cast has expanded from just seven major characters to approximately 50 cast members. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including "Brookside" and "Grange Hill". It is the only British soap that uses incidental music.

paragraphs: Hollyoaks was the first British television programme to tackle the issue of gay domestic violence. Its first character with gender identity disorder, a trans man called Jason Costello, was in the show August 2010 to December 2011. In 2014 Hollyoaks introduced a new transgender character called Blessing Chambers.


title: Muse (band)

paragraphs: Muse are an English alternative rock band. They began in Teignmouth in 1994. There are three members of the band: Matthew Bellamy (guitar, piano, vocals), Chris Wolstenholme (bass and background vocals) and Dominic Howard (drums). They are sub-classified as mainly progressive rock, and play music with melody and fast tempo. However, they also play a great number of other styles of music, especially on their older albums like "Showbiz". Their albums, "Black Holes and Revelations", "Absolution" and "The Resistance", have been successful in the United States, the United Kingdom and most western countries of the world.

paragraphs: Matthew Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard grew up in a small town called Teignmouth in Devon. They were bored there, so they started playing music together. When they were 13 years old, they made a band called Gothic Plague. The band was later called Fixed Penalty. After that, it was called Rocket Baby Dolls. In 1994, while they were called Rocket Baby Dolls, they won a Battle of the Bands competition. During this competition, they broke their instruments, but still won. In 1997, they chose the name Muse. Muse's members did not like Teignmouth. In an interview in 1999, Bellamy said that it was full of people who took drugs, and that it was like a "living hell".

paragraphs: Muse left Teignmouth and met Sawmills Studio owner, Dennis Smith. He liked their work and offered them a contract with his record label, Dangerous Records and put them in the studio with producer Paul Reeve. Muse released their first EP called "Muse" in 1997. The band went to more band competitions and won several. In 1998, they released their second EP, "Muscle Museum". The EP was popular, and Muse toured around Europe and Australia.

paragraphs: "Museum" was popular enough to get Muse a record contract with Maverick Records in the United States. The band started to work on a new album. They wrote new ones, though, for their next album. The other songs they used were already on their EPs. Muse worked with producers Paul Reeve and John Leckie, who produced Radiohead's album,"The Bends".

paragraphs: Muse's first album, "Showbiz", came out in 1999. In the United States, Maverick used a large advertising campaign to make Muse more popular. Muse were already popular in the UK, and "NME" said they were "the first great British guitar band of the 21st century". US magazine "Rolling Stone" said "Showbiz" sounded a lot like Radiohead. Matthew Bellamy did not like that comparison, but people would still compare Muse and Radiohead in the future. Other reviewers said the band had a lot of potential after listening to "Showbiz".

paragraphs: In the year 2000, Muse traveled a lot to help sell "Showbiz". The highlight of the tour was touring with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters. The band played at over 50 music festivals in Europe, and several in Japan. While they were traveling, the band recorded some songs for their next album. In January 2001, they started working on the rest with producer John Leckie, in Peter Gabriel's studio.

paragraphs: Muse began touring again in May 2005, after finishing the album. They had not released it, but Bellamy told BBC he thought the best way to promote it was to play live music. The band's second album, "Origin of Symmetry", was released in June 2001 in the UK. However, it was only released in North America in 2005. The album did not do well on charts, but was popular with critics. "NME" praised the album for the songs on it being very loud and angry. Allmusic said the album was very loud and sometimes ridiculous because of the instruments and riffs used on it, but that it was still very good.

paragraphs: Nescafé used the song "Feeling Good" from "Origin of Symmetry" (which was a cover of a Nina Simone song) in an advertisement once. Muse sued Nescafé because they did not agree with how the company did business. They received money from Nescafé after suing. They donated it to Oxfam. Muse almost sued Celine Dion when she tried to use the name Muse as the title of a performance in Las Vegas.

paragraphs: Muse's third album was recorded in lots of studios in places like London and Los Angeles. The band were very committed and focused on making quality music, given the fact that they had taken more time to properly record the album. Muse started work in September 2003 with producers Paul Reeve and John Cornfield, and recorded Butterflies and Hurricanes and Blackout. They took a break for Christmas, and then changed their producer to Rich Costey. Most of the album was recorded in 2004. The album's themes included politics, death, and the Apocalypse. The guitar performances on the new album were simpler than on "Origin of Symmetry". Bellamy used one brand of guitar for the whole album, and this gave an "immense" sound according to "Total Guitar" magazine.

paragraphs: To promote "Absolution", Muse toured around the UK and North America. During their first show in the United States, in Atlanta, Bellamy hurt his mouth. He had accidentally hit himself with his guitar. Because of this, he needed stitches. The band had to cancel several shows, but kept going with the tour. Muse played at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2004. After the concert, they said it was "the best gig of our lives". Shortly after the show, however, Howard's father died. While they were very sad that he died, Bellamy said they were happy that Howard's father had been at the concert and had seen the band's "finest moment". In 2005, Muse played four songs at Live 8.

paragraphs: In January 2005 Muse finished their world tour with two big concerts in London. Bellamy said they wanted to make new music after this. However, they also wanted to tour the US again. This was because they became popular there for the first time. Costey produced the band's new album, like he did for "Absolution". The band recorded their fourth album, "Black Holes & Revelations", in a château in the countryside of France, because they did not want to be distracted.

paragraphs: By February 2 2009, Muse had started recording songs for their new album. In an interview, Bellamy said that the album is "all very orchestral". He said it would sound like classical music.

paragraphs: On March 24 2009, Muse's website said that the band would be going on tour after the album is released. They said that they would go to France on this tour, and have two concerts in London. On July 2 2009, the band said that the tour was to start in Finland on October 22 2009. They also said that the tour would end on December 4 2009, in Italy. The 95,000 tickets went on sale at 9:00 am on June 5. They were sold out in under 45 minutes.

paragraphs: On May 22 2009, the website said that the album would be called "The Resistance". It also said that one of the songs would be called "United States of Eurasia".

paragraphs: The band's fifth studio album "The Resistance" was released in September 2009. It is the first Muse album that was produced by the band itself. The album was engineered by Adrian Bushby and mixed by Mark Stent. When it was released, it went to the top of the album charts in 19 countries. It became the band's third number one album in the UK. It reached number 3 on the "Billboard" 200. Critics praised the album. Most of them praised the ambition, classical music influences and the thirteen-minute, three-part song "". It also beat its predecessor "Black Holes and Revelations" in relative album sales in its debut week in the UK with approximately 148,000 copies sold. The first single "Uprising" was released seven days earlier.

paragraphs: The Resistance Tour started with in Teignmouth, Devon in September 2009. There were two performances in the Wembley Stadium in September 2010. The band also supported U2 for their U2 360° Tour. In the "Breakfast with Muse Concert" held by KROQ, Muse was asked how long they would be on tour. They said that they "will probably be touring until the end of next year." They also said that they would support U2. Then, they would go to a European tour, and afterwards Australia and Asia and return for an long US tour. Muse said it would be the longest US tour to date and would start at about the end of February or March."

paragraphs: Muse's won the O2 Silver Clef Award in London on 2 July 2010 because of their live performance. The award was presented by Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen. Taylor described the band as "probably the greatest live act in the world today," while May said that "this is a magnificent, incredible group."

paragraphs: On 12 July 2010 bassist Chris Wolstenholme told NME magazine that the band would be taking a break after their world tour supporting The Resistance ended. He also stated that the band would begin working for a new album. He said the new album would be released in 2011. On 8 September, frontman Matthew Bellamy, in an interview with NME, said that the music for the band's next studio album would be more "personal". He said it would be better to use smaller venues to perform those songs live.

paragraphs: On 12 September 2010, Muse won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects. It was for the promo for "Uprising". On 21 November, Muse won American Music Award for Favorite Artist in the Alternative Rock Music Category. On 2 December, it was announced that Muse had been nominated for three awards for the 53rd Grammy Awards. It was nominated for Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocals - ("Resistance"); Best Rock Song - ("Resistance"), and Best Rock Album: ("The Resistance"). Muse was named the Billboard Alternative and Rock artist for 2010. This was because its songs, "Uprising", "Resistance" and "Undisclosed Desires" reached first, sixth and 49th on the year end Alternative Song chart respectively. At the 53rd Grammy Awards on 13 February 2011, Muse won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album for "The Resistance".

paragraphs: Muse are an alternative rock band. They are often called space rock and progressive rock bands. Their music also mixes elements from different genres. These genres are electronic music, hard rock, classical music and rock opera. The band was described as a "trashy three-piece" by Matthew Bellamy on the BBC during 2002.

paragraphs: Dominic Howard said that he was a little confused by the progressive rock label that muse fell under, because "[He would] associate (the progressive rock label) it with 10-minute guitar solos." He added: "A lot of bands are quite ambitious with their music, mixing lots of different styles — and when I see that I think it's great."


title: Astrology

paragraphs: Astrology is the belief the positions of the stars and movements of the planets of the Solar System, and also asteroids and other stars, but not as much, have an influence on the events, lives, and behavior of people.

paragraphs: An astrologer looks at the planets' positions and tries to understand a person's character or tries to predict the future. Modern astrologers see astrology as a symbolic language. It is also seen as an art, or a kind of divination.

paragraphs: Astrology and astronomy started out as the same thing, but today they are very different.

paragraphs: Newspapers and websites often print or post horoscopes. These horoscopes claim to predict a persons future based on their birth sign.

paragraphs: A person's astrological sign (usually referring to Sun sign) is based on their birthday. A list of astrological signs is below.


title: Theatre of ancient Greece

paragraphs: The theatre of ancient Greece was at its best from 550 BC to 220 BC. It was the beginning of modern western theatre, and some ancient Greek plays are still performed today. They invented the genres of tragedy (late 6th century ), comedy (486 ) and satyr plays.

paragraphs: The city-state of Athens was a great cultural, political and military power during this period. Drama was at its centre. Theatre was part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus. In the Dionysian, the playwrights presented their work to an audience. It was a competition, with a winner and prizes. These two main genres were never mixed: they each had their own typical structure. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote their way of life.

paragraphs: Only men were allowed as actors. The chorus were men, as were the actors. Technically, they had to be citizens of Athens, which only applied to free-born men plus a few special cases. The actors wore masks, so that the people would know which persona (character) the actor played.

paragraphs: The best known writers of plays are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides for tragedies, and Aristophanes for comedies.

paragraphs: Some think early Greek religion and theatre were influenced by Central Asian shamanistic practices. A large number of Orphic graffiti discovered in Olivia seems to show that the colony was a major point of contact. Eli Crozier points out that the shaman can be seen as an early type of actor influencing the rituals of early Greek theatre.

paragraphs: Greek today as we know it was made in Athens some years before 532 BC, when Thespis was the earliest recorded playwright. He won the first theatrical contest held at Athens, so he was the leader of the parathyroids performed in and around Attica. Parathyroids were ancient hymns sung in praise of the god of wine and fertility, Dionysus. They had a wild and ecstatic nature.

paragraphs: By Thespis' time the diathermy had evolved far away from its cult roots. It had become a narrative, ballad-like genre. Because of this Thespis is often called the "Father of Tragedy". The statesman Solon is said to have created poems in which characters speak with their own voice. Spoken recitations, known as "rhapsodies", of Homer's epics were popular in festivals before 534 BC. Thespis's contribution to drama is unclear, but his name is remembered in the common term for performer—a 'thespian'.

paragraphs: The dramatic performances were important to the Athenians – this is made clear by the Dionysian festival. This was organised perhaps to foster loyalty among the tribes of Attica. These had been recently created by Cleisthenes, who founded Greek democracy. The festival was created roughly around 508 BC.

paragraphs: Phrygia was the first poet known to use a historical subject – his "Fall of Milieus", 493, told the fate of the town of Miletus after it was conquered by the Persians. He is also thought to be the first to use female characters (though not female performers).

paragraphs: Until the Hellenistic period, all tragedies were unique pieces written in honour of Dionysus and played only once, so that today we only have the pieces that were still remembered well enough to have been repeated when repetition of old tragedies became fashion.

paragraphs: After the Great Destruction of Athens by the Persian Empire in 480 BC, the town and acropolis were rebuilt, and theatre became an even more major part of Athenian culture and civic pride. The centre-piece was the competition between three tragic playwrights at the Theatre of Dionysus, twice a year. Each submitted three tragedies, plus a satyr play (a comic, burlesque version of a mythological subject). From 486 BC, each playwright also submitted a comedy. Aristotle claimed that Aeschylus added the second actor, and that Sophocles introduced the third. Apparently the Greek playwrights never used more than three actors.

paragraphs: Tragedy and comedy were viewed as completely separate genres, and no plays ever merged aspects of the two. Satyr plays dealt with the mythological subject matter of the tragedies, but in a purely comedic manner. However, as they were written over a century after the Athenian Golden Age, it is not known whether dramatists such as Sophocles and Euripides would have thought about their plays in the same terms.

paragraphs: The power of Athens declined following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans. From that time on, the theatre started performing old tragedies again. Although its theatrical traditions seem to have lost their vitality, Greek theatre continued into the Hellenistic period (the period following Alexander the Great's conquests in the fourth century BC). The main Hellenistic theatrical form was not tragedy but 'New Comedy', comic episodes about the lives of ordinary citizens. The only playwright from the period whose work has survived is Menander. One of New Comedy's most important contributions was its influence on Roman comedy, an influence that can be seen in the surviving works of Plautus and Terence.

paragraphs: The plays originally had a chorus of up to 50 people, who performed the plays in verse accompanied by music, beginning in the morning and lasting until the evening.

paragraphs: The performance space was a simple semi-circular space, the "orchestra", where the chorus danced and sang. The orchestra was on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the slope of which produced a natural "theatron", (watching place). Later, the term "theatre" came to be applied to the whole area of theatron, orchestra, and skené (scene).

paragraphs: The theatres were made very large. Audiences might have up to fourteen thousand people. Actors' voices needed to be heard throughout the theatre, including the very top row of seats. The Greeks' understanding of acoustics compares well with the current state of the art.

paragraphs: In 465 BC, the playwrights began using a backdrop or scenic wall, which hung or stood behind the orchestra, which also served as an area where actors could change their costumes. It was known as the "skênê" (scene). In 425 BC a stone scene wall, called a "paraskenia", became a common supplement to "skênê" in the theatres. The proskenion ("in front of the scene") was columned, and was similar to the modern day proscenium.

paragraphs: Greek theatres also had entrances for the actors and chorus members called "parodoi". They were tall arches that opened onto the orchestra, through which the performers entered. By the end of the 5th century BC, around the time of the Peloponnesian War, the "skênê", the back wall, was two stories high. Some theatres also had a raised speaking place on the orchestra called the "logeion".

paragraphs: There were several scenic elements commonly used in Greek theatre:

paragraphs: Although in the early days the chorus was much larger, the numbers settled down to 12 or 15 in tragedies and 24 in comedies. They usually play a group character, such as 'the old men of Argos'. The chorus offers background information, summaries and comments. In many of these plays, the chorus expresses to the audience what the main characters cannot say, such as their hidden fears or secrets.

paragraphs: The chorus might sing, or might speak in unison (say the same thing together). The chorus made up for the fact that there were only one, two or three actors, who played several parts each (changing masks).

paragraphs: Before the introduction of several actors by Aeschylus, the Greek chorus was the main performer opposite a solitary actor. The importance of the chorus declined after the 5th century BC, when the chorus began to be separated from the dramatic action. Later dramatists depended less on the chorus.

paragraphs: The mask is known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus in the 6th century AD. It is one of the typical things they did in classical Greek theatre. Masks were also used in the worship of Dionysius, and that is probably how the tradition started.

paragraphs: Most of the evidence comes from a few vase paintings of the 5th century BC which depict actors preparing for a Satyr play. No physical evidence survived: the masks were made of organic materials. They were not considered permanent objects, and were dedicated to the altar of Dionysus after performances. There are, however, examples of statues of actors carrying a mask in hand.

paragraphs: Masks were made for the actors and for the chorus, who help the audience know what a character is thinking. The chorus all wear the same mask, because they represent the same character.

paragraphs: In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the masks brought the characters' face closer to the audience, as they had exaggerated features and expressions. An actor could appear and reappear in different roles, since the audience did not identify the actor with one character. Their variations help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status. Also, they could show a change in a character’s appearance, for example, Oedipus after blinding himself. Unique masks were also created for specific characters and events in a play, such as The Furies in Aeschylus’ "Eumenides" and Pentheus and Cadmus in Euripides’ "The Bacchae". Worn by the chorus, the masks created a sense of unity and uniformity, a sort of multi-voiced persona or single organism.


title: Sophocles

paragraphs: Sophocles (497 BC, 496 BC, or 495 BC – 406 BC) was an Ancient Greek writer who wrote over 100 plays, according to the Suda. Only seven of his tragedies have survived complete. Sophocles was the second of the three greatest Ancient Greek writers of tragedies, the others were Aeschylus and Euripides.

paragraphs: The most famous of Sophocles' tragedies are those about Oedipus and Antigone: these are often called the Theban plays. Each play was a part of different tetralogy (set of four), the other members of which are now lost.

paragraphs: Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a rich member of the rural community of Colonus Hippius in Attica, which would later become a setting for his plays. He was probably born there. His birth took place a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, although 497/6 is perhaps most likely. Sophocles' first great play was in 468 BC when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the reigning master of Athenian drama, Aeschylus. According to Plutarch the victory came under unusual circumstances.

paragraphs: In "Oedipus the King", Oedipus is the main character.

paragraphs: Oedipus' death as a child is planned by his parents, Laius and Jocasta, to stop him fulfilling a prophecy. A servant passes the infant on to a childless couple, who adopt him not knowing his history.

paragraphs: Oedipus eventually learns of the Delphic Oracle's prophecy of him, that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He thought this meant his adopted parents. He flees to avoid his fate. Oedipus meets a man at a crossroads accompanied by servants; Oedipus and the man fight, and Oedipus kills the man. This man was his father, Laius, not that anyone apart from the gods knew this at the time.

paragraphs: Oedipus becomes the ruler of Thebes after solving the riddle of the sphinx and in the process, marries the widowed Queen, his mother Jocasta. Thus the stage is set for horrors. When the truth comes out, Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself and leaves Thebes, and the children are left to sort out the results themselves.

paragraphs: In "Oedipus at Colonus", the banished Oedipus and his daughters Antigone and Ismene arrive at the town of Colonus where they encounter Theseus, King of Athens. Oedipus dies and trouble begins between his sons Polyneices and Eteocles.

paragraphs: In "Antigone" the protagonist is Oedipus' daughter. Antigone is faced with the choice of allowing her brother Polyneices' body to remain unburied, outside the city walls, exposed to the ravages of wild animals, or to bury him and face death.

paragraphs: The king, Creon, has forbidden the burial of Polyneices for he was a traitor to the city. Antigone decides to bury his body and face the results of her actions. Creon sentences her to death. Eventually, Creon is convinced to free Antigone from her punishment, but his decision comes too late and Antigone commits suicide. Her death leads to the suicide of two others close to King Creon: his son, Haemon, who was going to marry Antigone, and his wife who commits suicide after losing her only surviving son.

paragraphs: Running through such tragedies is the theme of fate, which cannot be avoided. A forbidden act is committed in innocence, and the consequences follow remorselessly.


title: Black pepper

paragraphs: Black pepper is a plant that grows in the tropics, especially in India. The plant is a perennial vine that bears flowers. People cultivate the plant for its fruit, the peppercorn. The peppercorn can be used as a spice or condiment. Usually, it makes things hot.

paragraphs: There are several different plants called "Pepper", all are in the "Piper" genus of "Piperaceae".

paragraphs: From the 16th century onwards, people used the word "pepper" to also refer to the Chili peppers, which come from a completely unrelated plant.It was also called black gold in older times

paragraphs: Pepper is one of the most common spices used around the world. It is very common in European cuisine, and has been known and traded for a very long time. Very often, the peppercorns are ground, and the powder is used to make things taste hot.

paragraphs: Like all eastern spices, pepper was historically both a seasoning and a medicine. Long pepper, being stronger, was often the preferred medication, but both were used.

paragraphs: Black peppercorns are mentioned in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicine in India. The 5th century "Syriac Book of Medicines" prescribes pepper (or perhaps long pepper) for illnesses such as constipation, diarrhea, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, liver problems, lung disease, oral abscesses, sunburn, tooth decay, and toothaches. Various sources from the 5th century onward also say pepper is good to treat eye problems. Often special ointments made with pepper have to be applied directly to the eye. There is no current medical evidence that any of these treatments has any benefit; pepper applied directly to the eye would be quite uncomfortable and possibly damaging.

paragraphs: For a long time, people believed pepper is the cause for sneezing; this is still believed true today. Some sources say that piperine irritates the nostrils, which will cause the sneezing; some say that it is just the effect of the fine dust in ground pepper, and some say that pepper is not in fact a very effective sneeze-producer at all. Few if any controlled studies have been carried out to answer the question.

paragraphs: Pepper can irritate the intestines. It is therefore eliminated from the diet of patients having abdominal surgery and ulcers. The replacement is usually called a "bland diet".

paragraphs: Pepper contains small amounts of safrole, a carcinogenic compound.


title: Chili pepper

paragraphs: Chili pepper (not to be confused with the country called Chile) is the fruit of a series of plants called Capsicum (nightshade family). Chilis are now grown all over the world, but originally, they came from Mexico. They are used as spices or as vegetables, and also have some use in medicine.

paragraphs: Chile peppers are completely unrelated to the "Piperaceae" genus, which Black pepper is from.

paragraphs: Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BCE. Chili peppers were domesticated over 6000 years ago in Mexico. Since then, chili peppers could be farmed throughout all of Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America.

paragraphs: The word "chili" is spelled differently in different countries. They can be spelled as chili, chilli, and chile.


title: Aeschylus

paragraphs: Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC) was an Ancient Greek poet and writer. He wrote about 70–90 plays. Only six of his tragedies have survived complete. Aeschylus was the earliest of the three greatest Greek writers of tragedians. The two others were Sophocles and Euripides.

paragraphs: Aristotle said that Aeschylus added more characters into his plays. His characters spoke to each other and not just to the chorus. This made it easier to create drama between the characters.

paragraphs: One of his plays, "The Persians", was about the Persian invasion of Greece. Aeschylus had fought in this war. People studying Greek history use his play as an important source of information. The war was so important to the Greeks and to Aeschylus, that the writing on his grave only talks about his part in the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon. There is nothing about the plays he wrote.

paragraphs: Aeschylus was born about the year 525 BC in a small town called Eleusis, which is about 27 kilometers northwest of Athens. The date is based on counting back forty years from his first victory in the Great Dionysia. His family was rich, and his father, Euphorion, was a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica. Pausanias wrote that Aeschylus worked in a vineyard until the god Dionysus visited him in his sleep. The god ordered him to write the first tragedies. His first play was performed in 499 BC, when he was only 26 years old.

paragraphs: In 490 BC the Persian army, led by Darius, landed in Greece and tried to take it over. Aeschylus, and his brother Cynegeirus, joined the army from Athens and fought against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians were able to defeat the much bigger Persian army. This battle, which stopped Darius, was celebrated across the city-states of Greece. Cynegeirus died in the battle. In 480 BC, Xerxes I of Persia tried to capture Greece. Aeschylus fought against them at the Battle of Salamis and at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. His oldest surviving play "The Persians", performed in 472 BC, is set during the Battle of Salamis. This play won first prize at the Dionysia.

paragraphs: Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who joined the Eleusinian Mysteries. This was the religious cult of Demeter, and based in his home town of Eleusis. Members of the group learned mystical and secret knowledge. Members were sworn under the penalty of death not to say anything about the Mysteries to anyone. Aristotle wrote that some people thought that Aeschylus had shown some of the cult's secrets on stage. Other writers said that an angry mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot, but he ran away. Later, Aeschylus said he did not know that he had shown any of the secrets. He was saved from death only because of his brave service in the Persian Wars.

paragraphs: Aeschylus made two trips to Sicily in the 470s BC. He was invited by Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, a big Greek city on the east side of the island. On one of these trips he wrote "The Women of Aetna", in honor of the city founded by Hieron. He also restaged his "Persians". By 473 BC, Aeschylus was the yearly favorite in the Dionysia, winning first prize in nearly every competition. In 458 BC, he returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city of Gela where he died in 456 or 455 BC. It is said that he was killed by a tortoise which fell out of the sky after it was dropped by an eagle. This story is probably only a legend. Aeschylus' work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death, his were the only tragedies allowed to be restaged in future competitions. His sons Euphorion and Euæon, and his nephew Philocles, all wrote plays as well.

paragraphs: Greek drama began with festivals for the gods, mainly Dionysus, the god of wine. During Aeschylus' lifetime, dramatic competitions became part of the city's Dionysia in the spring. The festival began with an opening procession, then a competition of boys singing dithyrambs, and finally two dramatic competitions. The first competition was for three playwrights each presenting three tragic plays, followed by a shorter comedy. A second competition of five comedic playwrights followed, and winners of both competitions were chosen by a group of judges.

paragraphs: Aeschylus took part in many of these competitions in his lifetime. Only six tragedies have survived intact: "The Persians", "Seven against Thebes", "The Suppliants", and the trilogy known as "The Oresteia", consisting of the three tragedies "Agamemnon", "The Libation Bearers" and "The Eumenides". There is also the play "Prometheus Bound", but this was probably written by someone else. All of the surviving plays won first prize at the City Dionysia. One book, the Alexandrian "Life of Aeschylus", said that he won the first prize at the City Dionysia 13 times. Sophocles' won 18 times out of his 120 plays, and Euripides only had five wins out of about 90 plays.

paragraphs: When Aeschylus first began writing, the theatre was new. Some playwrights like Thespis had made the cast bigger to include an actor who was able to talk with the chorus. Aeschylus added a second actor, allowing for more drama; and the chorus became less important. He is said to have been the first to use "skenographia", or scene-decoration, though Aristotle said the first person was Sophocles. Aeschylus also added more details to the costumes, and had his actors wear platform boots, called "cothurni", to help the audience see them better. When they walked on stage in the first performance of the "Eumenides", the chorus of Furies were so frightening in looks that they made young children faint, old men urinate, and pregnant women go into labor.

paragraphs: His plays were written in the strict style of Greek drama. They were in verse and no violence could be performed on stage. The plays had to be set away from normal life in Athens, either by telling stories about the gods or by being set, like "The Persians", in a far-away place. Aeschylus' work has a strong moral and religious emphasis. The "Oresteia" plays were about man's position in the universe in relation to the gods, the laws of the gods, and punishment from the gods.

paragraphs: Fifty years after Aeschylus' death, the comic playwright Aristophanes praised him in "The Frogs". Aeschylus is a character in the play and says that his "Seven against Thebes" "made everyone watching it to love being warlike" (line 1022); with his "Persians", he says he "taught the Athenians to desire always to defeat their enemies" (line 1026–7). He says that his plays helped the Athenians to be brave and virtuous (line 1039ff).


title: Euripides

paragraphs: Euripides (c. 480 BC–406 BC) was an Ancient Greek writer from Athens who wrote about 90 plays. Only 18 of his tragedies have survived complete, more than all other surviving ancient Greek tragedies put together. A nineteenth play, "Rhesus" is sometimes thought to be by Euripides, but not all classicists agree on this.

paragraphs: Euripides was the last of the three greatest Ancient Greek writers of tragedies, the others being Aeschylus and Sophocles.


title: Chard

paragraphs: Chard (also known as Swiss chard, Silverbeet, Perpetual spinach, or Mangold) is a vegetable. It is in the same family as Spinach, "Amaranthaceae".


title: Half-life (element)

paragraphs: The half-life of a substance is the time it takes for half of the substance to decay. The word "half-life" was first used when talking about radioactive elements where the number of atoms get smaller over time. It is now used in many other situations where something declines exponentially. A Geiger-Muller detector can be used to measure the half-life; it is the time when the activity is half of the original.

paragraphs: Note that half-life is defined as a probability. Half-life is the expected value when half the number of atoms have decayed. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years. Taking one atom of C, this will either have decayed after 5,730 years, or it will not. But if this experiment is repeated again and again, it will be seen that the atom decays within the half life 50% of the time.

paragraphs: Radioactive atoms have unstable nuclei. Their nuclei are unstable because the arrangement of protons and neutrons in them are unsteady. This makes them shake until they begin to decay and change into completely different types of atoms by releasing certain types of radioactive particles, such as alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays, and possibly by fissioning into smaller nuclei. This is known as radioactive decay. For example, a radioactive carbon-14 atom releases a beta particle to become nitrogen-14. As an example of fission decay, a fermium-256 atom can split into xenon-140 and palladium-112 atoms, releasing four neutrons in the process.

paragraphs: For example, uranium-232 has a half-life of about 69 years. Plutonium-238 has a half-life of 88 years. Carbon-14, which is used to find the age of fossils, has a half-life of 5,730 years.

paragraphs: After ten half-lives, over 99.9% of the radioactivity is gone. Then the material is only slightly radioactive, and is sometimes treated as not harmful to people.


title: Cyclops

paragraphs: A Cyclops (Ancient Greek: Κύκλωψ, "Kyklōps"; plural Κύκλωπες, "Kyklōpes"), is a member of a primordial race of giants in Greek mythology, each with a single eye in the center of his forehead.

paragraphs: The most famous of these beings is the cyclops Polyphemus, featured in Homer's "Odyssey".

paragraphs: In Hesiod's "Theogony", the Elder Cyclopes – Brontes (Greek: Βρόντης - "thunderer"), Steropes (Greek: Στερόπης - "lightning") and Arges (Greek: Ἄργης - "bright") – were one of three races of beings born to Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky); they were the brothers of the Hekatonkheires and the Titans. They were strong and stubborn, and very skilled craftsmen and blacksmiths. Ouranos, however, despised his children, and cast them into Tartarus alongside the Hekatonkheires. At the urging of his mother, Kronos, the youngest of the Titans, castrated Ouranos and deposed him, later freeing his monstrous brothers. Kronos soon cast them back into Tartarus, guarded by the female monster Kampê. Zeus and the Olympians later freed the Cyclopes along with the Hekatonkheires, to aid them in their war against Kronos and the Titans. They fashioned thunderbolts for Zeus to use as weapons, as well as Poseidon's trident and Hades' helm of invisibility. After the Titanomachy, the Elder Cyclopes worked for the god Hephaestus, helping him in his forges.

paragraphs: The Elder Cyclopes are not featured in either of Homer's works, but in the Odyssey, Homer describes another race of cyclopes as being the sons of Poseidon, god of the sea. They feature as herdsmen and shepherds with a taste for human flesh.


title: Magnetic field

paragraphs: In physics, the magnetic field is a field that passes through space and which makes a magnetic force move electric charges and magnetic dipoles. Magnetic fields are around electric currents, magnetic dipoles, and changing electric fields.

paragraphs: When placed in a magnetic field, magnetic dipoles are in one line with their axes to be parallel with the field lines, as can be seen when iron filings are in the presence of a magnet. Magnetic fields also have their own energy and momentum, with an energy density proportional to the square of the field intensity. The magnetic field is measured in the units of teslas (SI units) or gauss (cgs units).

paragraphs: There are some notable kinds of magnetic field. For the physics of magnetic materials, see magnetism and magnet, and more specifically diamagnetism. For magnetic fields made by changing electric fields, see electromagnetism.

paragraphs: The electric field and the magnetic field are components of the electromagnetic field.

paragraphs: The law of electromagnetism was founded by Michael Faraday.

paragraphs: Physicists can say that the force and torques between two magnets are caused by magnetic poles repelling or attracting each other. This is like the Coulomb force repelling the same electric charges or attracting opposite electric charges. In this model, a magnetic "H-field" is produced by "magnetic charges" that are 'smeared' around each pole. So, the H-field is like the electric field E which starts at a positive electric charge and ends at a negative electric charge. Near the north pole, all H-field lines point away from the north pole (whether inside the magnet or out) while near the south pole (whether inside the magnet or out) all H-field lines point toward the south pole. A north pole, then, feels a force in the direction of the H-field while the force on the south pole is opposite to the H-field.

paragraphs: In the magnetic pole model, the elementary magnetic dipole m is formed by two opposite magnetic poles of pole strength "q" separated by a very small distance d, such that m = "q" d.

paragraphs: Unfortunately, magnetic poles cannot exist apart from each other. All magnets have north/south pairs which cannot be separated without creating two magnets each having a north/south pair. Also, magnetic poles do not account for magnetism that is produced by electric currents nor the force that a magnetic field applies to moving electric charges.

paragraphs: With this definition, Ampere's law becomes:

paragraphs: where represents the 'free current' enclosed by the loop so that the line integral of does not depend at all on the bound currents. For the differential equivalent of this equation see Maxwell's equations. Ampere's law leads to the boundary condition:

paragraphs: where is the surface free current density.

paragraphs: Similarly, a surface integral of over any closed surface is independent of the free currents and picks out the 'magnetic charges' within that closed surface:

paragraphs: which does not depend on the free currents.

paragraphs: The -field, therefore, can be separated into two independent parts:

paragraphs: where is the applied magnetic field due only to the free currents and is the demagnetizing field due only to the bound currents.

paragraphs: The magnetic -field, therefore, re-factors the bound current in terms of 'magnetic charges'. The field lines loop only around 'free current' and, unlike the magnetic field, begins and ends at near magnetic poles as well.


title: Forehead

paragraphs: The forehead of humans is the flat space of skin above the eyes, between the eyebrows and where your hair starts to grow. It exists to make room for the brain inside the skull.

paragraphs: A doctor or nurse will often touch someone's forehead to check whether or not they have a fever. This is because of the many blood vessels in the head and face.

paragraphs: In ancient Greece individuals with large foreheads were classified as intellectual because of their incredibly large "brain". Nowadays this is not the case.

paragraphs: According to the OED Forehead can be pronounced either 'forhed' or 'forrid'.

paragraphs: 'Forrid' used mostly around the Isle of Sheppey area.


title: James Prescott Joule

paragraphs: James Prescott Joule (24 December 1818 – 11 October 1889) was an English physicist, born in Salford, near Manchester. In his time he had great contribution to the world of electricity and thermodynamics. He was best known for discovering Joule's law, which described electric heating by saying the amount of heat produced each second in a conductor by a current of Electricity is proportional to the resistance of a conductor and to the square of the current. The unit for this is joule, equal to one watt-second. Later Joule worked with William Thomson to find out that the temperature of gas falls, as gas expands. This principle was then known as the Joule-Thomson effect.

paragraphs: The son of Benjamin Joule (1784–1858), a wealthy brewer, James Prescott Joule was born in the house next to the Joule Brewery in New Bailey Street, Salford on 24 December 1818. James was tutored at the family home 'Broomhill', Pendlebury, near Salford, until 1834 when he was sent, with his elder brother Benjamin, to study with John Dalton at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. They only received two years of education in arithmetic and geometry before Dalton was forced to retire because of a stroke.

paragraphs: Kinetics is the science of motion. Joule was a pupil of Dalton and it is no surprise that he had learned a firm belief in the atomic theory, even though there were many scientists of his time who were still skeptical. He had also been one of the few people receptive to the work of John Herapath on the kinetic theory of gases. He was further greatly influenced by Peter Ewart's 1813 paper "On the measure of moving force."


title: Andromache

paragraphs: Andromache is a person in Greek mythology. She is the wife of Hector of Troy and mother of Astyanax.

paragraphs: After the Trojan War, Neoptolemus took her and Helenus as slaves. Of Neoptolemus she had a child named Molossus. After Neoptolemus died, Andromache married Helenus, and became Queen of Epirus.


title: Astyanax

paragraphs: Astyanax is a person in Greek mythology. He is the son of Hector of Troy and Andromache. He is killed at the end of the Trojan War by Neoptolemus, so he could not be a new king of Troy, or want revenge.


title: Neoptolemus

paragraphs: Neoptolemos (or Latin Neoptolemus) is a person in Greek mythology. He is an important person in the Trojan War.

paragraphs: Neoptolemus was the son of Achilles and Deidamea. He was needed to win the Trojan War. He killed King Priam and Astyanax, sacrificed Polyxena to his dead father Achilles, and took Helenus and Andromache with him as slaves.

paragraphs: He was later killed by Orestes because he was going to marry Hermione, who Orestes wanted for himself.


title: Earth's orbit

paragraphs: All planets in our solar system follow an elliptical path. This path is known as an orbit. Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle. If we were to draw the Earth's orbit on a sheet of paper as a perfect circle, the width of the line would be larger than the elliptical path of the Earth.

paragraphs: The Earth's orbit takes about 365 days, this is also called a year. This means that in 365 days (a year) the Earth has gone around the Sun. From this we can find that the orbital speed of the Earth is about through space.

paragraphs: The closest distance Earth is to the Sun, or perihelion, is and the farthest or aphelion is . It takes light (or any other electromagnetic radiation) just over eight minutes to travel from Sun to Earth.

paragraphs: The seasonal changes on Earth are because of the 23.44° axial tilt of its rotation and slightly elliptical path around the Sun.

paragraphs: The orbit varies over long periods of time according to the Milankovitch cycles. These cycles are one of the main causes of climate change.


title: Penelope

paragraphs: Penelope is a person in Greek mythology. She is the wife of Odysseus of Ithaca and mother of Telemachus. She became a symbol for the faithful wife.

paragraphs: When her husband Odysseus was on his long journey home, many people thought he was dead. Because of this many suitors came who wanted to marry Penelope, because then they would own her land and wealth, and become king of Ithaca.

paragraphs: Penelope thinks of several tricks so that she does not have to marry one of the suitors. One trick is that she tells the suitors that she will first weave a cloth for the funeral of Odysseus' father, and when she was finished she would marry one of the suitors. But every night she undoes her weaving again, so that she never finishes it.

paragraphs: When Odysseus finally comes back after twenty years, he and his son Telemachos kill the suitors.


title: Anemia

paragraphs: Anemia (U.S. spelling) or anaemia is not having enough red blood cells or hemoglobin in the blood.

paragraphs: "Dimorphic anemia" means two types of anemia at the same time. For example, macrocytic hypochromic, due to hookworm infestation leading to not enough of both iron and vitamin B12 or folic acid or following a blood transfusion.


title: Memphis, Tennessee

paragraphs: Memphis is the second-largest city in the state of Tennessee. The city has a large port on the Mississippi River. It is also well known for blues music and barbecue. The city is also home to FedEx, a leading company that ships packages around the world. Memphis is also known for being the home of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley.

paragraphs: Memphis is named for Memphis, Egypt, an ancient capital city of Egypt.

paragraphs: The future area of Memphis was first settled by the Mississippian Culture before it was discovered by French and Spanish explorers.

paragraphs: The United States took the land from Spain in 1797, and Andrew Jackson implemented the Indian Removal Act that facilitated the expulsion of the Cherokee from the area, making it available to white settlers. The city was established in 1819. Until the American Civil War, Memphis was a hub of cotton and slave trade. Brutal riots of angry whites against black people took place in 1866, in which 46 African Americans were killed. Yellow fever struck the city in the 1870s, killing a lot of people. The city recovered, and its population more than doubled.

paragraphs: The Memphis sanitation strikes was one of the key movements in the Civil Rights Movement. Musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and B.B. King influenced the city's identity as the birthplace of rock and roll.

paragraphs: Memphis is located east of the Mississippi River. The Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, crosses the city.

paragraphs: Its metropolitan area extends into Arkansas and Mississippi.


title: Dari (Eastern Persian)

paragraphs: Dari ("Fārsī-ye Darī") is a dialect of the Persian language. It is the Persian language as spoken in Afghanistan. It is the second official language of Afghanistan, and is widely used by the government and most media agencies. It is mainly spoken by the Tajiks and other minority groups. A small minority also exists in parts of Pakistan closest to these named regions. It is sometimes called Farsi. People in Afghanistan and Iran who speak Persian can understand each other. The name Dari was given to the Persian language at a very early date.

paragraphs: Historically, Dari was the court language of the Sassanids.


title: Halo (series)

paragraphs: Halo is a science fiction shooter video game series. The games are published by Microsoft were made by Bungie Studios from 2001 to 2010 and are now made by 343 Industries.


title: Counterpoint

paragraphs: Counterpoint is the art of composing music by combining different parts (voices) in a way that sounds nice. Music composed like this is called contrapuntal.

paragraphs: If the tune of "Twinkle, twinkle little star" is played on the piano and then some chords are added, this is harmony, not counterpoint. Instead, if the tune of "Twinkle, twinkle little star" was played while another melody was played, this would be considered counterpoint.

paragraphs: A different way of playing it would be to start the tune with the right hand. Then, in the second bar (measure), as the fifth note is played, the left hand starts to play the tune an octave lower. This works well for a time, but in the fifth bar (on the word “Up” in the right hand part) it starts to get dissonant (sounding unpleasant), so changes need to made to the left hand to make it sound nicer. This way of writing with a particular number of parts (in this case: two) is called "contrapuntal music".

paragraphs: In that example the left hand imitated the right hand at first. This is called imitation.

paragraphs: If the second part had continued to imitate all the way through the piece it would have been a canon. But “Twinkle, twinkle” does not work well as a canon. One famous canon is by Thomas Tallis. A canon that can be repeated is called a round. This is all contrapuntal music.

paragraphs: Counterpoint does not have to have imitation, although it often does. The important thing is that each part (i.e. each voice) is equally important. It is not one part singing the tune and the rest just accompanying.

paragraphs: Counterpoint does not have to be one note against one note. There can be two or more notes in one part against one in the other e.g. crotchets (quarter notes) in one part and quavers (eighth notes) in another. There is a whole system for this called “species”.

paragraphs: Counterpoint can be varied by inverting it, i.e. putting the top part at the bottom. When music is written so that the parts can be swapped round it is called "invertible counterpoint".

paragraphs: The word “counterpoint” comes from the Latin “punctus contra punctum” meaning “point against point”. The word “point” meant “note”. Several hundred years ago composers found how to write contrapuntal music. They often took a main tune (called a “Cantus Firmus”) and then added one or two or more parts to it. The more parts there were the harder it was to compose because it all had to fit so that it sounded good. Music for several voices written in this way is called polyphonic music. Polyphony was used in all church music in the Renaissance. The greatest composer of polyphony was Giovanni da Palestrina (1525-1594). Students learning the art of composition today still learn counterpoint by taking Palestrina’s music as their model.


title: Guided by Voices

paragraphs: Guided by Voices (often called GBV) was an American indie band. Guided by Voices was very famous for making many albums. They were active between 1986 and 2004. The band reunited in 2010 but broke up again in 2014.

paragraphs: The band had many members who only stayed for a while. Robert Pollard was the most important member. Before becoming a full-time musical artist, he was a teacher at an elementary school. While he was teaching, he created lots of music for the band. Robert is a solo artist today. He is a great fan of rock music. His music, and the music of Guided by Voices, is inspired by the famous British band The Beatles and different music styles like post-British Invasion garage rock, psychedelic, prog-rock, as well as punk and post-punk.

paragraphs: In 2004, during the band's last concert tour, many cities around the United States picked a day to be "Guided by Voices Day" in that city. Some of them are:


title: Eugenics

paragraphs: Eugenics is a social and political philosophy. It tries to influence the way people choose to mate and raise children, with the aim of improving the human species.

paragraphs: Eugenics rests on some basic ideas. The first is that, in genetics, what is true of animals is also true of man. The characteristics of animals are passed on from one generation to the next in heredity, including mental characteristics. For example, the behaviour and mental characteristics of different breeds of dog differ, and all modern breeds are greatly changed from wolves. The breeding and genetics of farm animals show that if the parents of the next generation are chosen, then that affects what offspring are born.

paragraphs: "Negative eugenics" aims to cut out traits that lead to suffering, by limiting people with the traits from reproducing. "Positive eugenics" aims to produce more healthy and intelligent humans, by persuading people with those traits to have more children. In the past, many ways were proposed for doing this, and even today eugenics means different things to different people. The idea of eugenics is controversial, because in the past it was sometimes used to justify discrimination and injustice against people who were thought to be genetically unhealthy or inferior.

paragraphs: Modern eugenics was first invented in 1865 by Sir Francis Galton, a British scientist who was the cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton believed that intelligence and talent were hereditary and were passed from parent to their children. Based on this, he thought that people could be bred to be smarter, just like animals were bred to be larger or smaller. Galton thought the best way to do this was to learn more about heredity, and also to tell people that they should only marry people who were smart and strong. Galton chose the name "Eugenics" because it was very similar to the Greek for "well born".

paragraphs: Galton developed the idea of eugenics throughout his life. He understood the two types of eugenics, positive and negative eugenics. One problem, which critics brought up, is the difficulty of agreeing on who is a healthy person, genetically speaking, and who is an inferior person. Obviously, opinions differ.

paragraphs: The rediscovery of the scientific work of Gregor Mendel in 1900 led to modern genetics, and an understanding of how heredity worked. Mendel himself experimented on peas, and found that many characteristics of the pea plants, such as their colour or their height, could be turned on and off through heredity like a switch. For example, his peas could be either yellow or green, one or the other.

paragraphs: When applied to humans, people thought this meant that human characteristics, like being smart or not, could be influenced by heredity.

paragraphs: Another line of thought goes like this. During their evolution, humans were subject to natural selection like any other form of life. On average, healthy and intelligent people had a better chance of reproducing. In modern civilisation, however, it often seems that this process does not apply. Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin had discussed this very point, with concern. In countries where statistics were collected, those statistics showed that in many cases the poor had more children than the rich. Also, statistics showed that the total population of some great nations was declining. One startling piece of information was produced by research directed by Karl Pearson, the Galton Professor of Eugenics at University College London, and the founder of the Department of Applied Statistics. The finding was that half of each succeeding generation was produced by no more than a quarter of the previous generation, and that quarter was "disproportionately located amongst the dregs of society".

paragraphs: The evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley was also a supporter of eugenics. He used this argument several times:

paragraphs: The American historian of science Garland Allen commented :

paragraphs: "The agricultural analogy appears over and over again as it did in the writings of many American eugenicists".

paragraphs: Similarly, the American geneticist Charles Davenport was a lifelong promoter of eugenics, and wrote one of its first textbooks. There is no doubt of the support given to eugenics by professional scientists of undoubted repute.

paragraphs: In the United States, eugenics became a very popular idea in the early 20th century. People thought it would cure society of all of its problems at the time, like crime and poverty, because they thought that all aspects of human behavior were probably hereditary. Very important scientists and politicians supported eugenics, and most thought it was a very progressive and scientific philosophy.

paragraphs: But some of those who led the eugenics movement used it to justify racism and prejudice. They used eugenics as an excuse to pass laws which to restrict immigration from countries that they did not like, saying that the people in them were genetically "unfit". They also passed laws which said that people of different races could not get married to one another. Most importantly, they passed laws which said that people who were thought to have mental illness or mental disability could be sterilised against their will. Under these laws over 60,000 people were sterilised in the United States between 1907 and the 1970s.

paragraphs: Today we know that interpreting statistics of this type is a complex business, and that many of the studies published early in the 20th century have serious flaws. Nevertheless, what stopped the eugenics movement was not better science. It was the realization, after World War II, of the effects of Nazi policies on race in Germany and other countries occupied during the war. Such war crimes were not, of course, advocated by any eugenicist. All the same, there was a common theme. This theme was the growing interest in the rights of individuals as against the rights of the state.

paragraphs: With the end of the Second World War, forced sterilisation ended in Germany. It was continued in the United States until 1974. The main targets were at first those that were ill or that had some physical or mental disabilities.

paragraphs: Only in 1985 was a law of the Swiss canton of Vaud abolished. This law allowed for the forced sterilisation of a certain group of people. It was replaced by a law on the national level, that tells under which circumstances people who are unable to consent, may be sterilised.

paragraphs: Though there are few people who openly advocate eugenics today, many people wonder what improvements in genetic technologies will mean in the future.

paragraphs: Genetic counselling exists, where parents can get information about their heredity and even prevent the birth of a child if it has a risk of hereditary illness. Some people do not think the issue is so clear, though, and wonder if genetic screening, genetic counselling, and birth control, are all just another type of eugenics. Some people wonder if it is bad because it infringes human dignity. Some people oppose eugenics and genetic counselling for religious reasons. The idea of eugenics is controversial today for these reasons.

paragraphs: Much of this concern is misplaced. Genetic counselling is not going to change the genetic composition of the human population to any noticeable extent. More relevant is the developing power to identify, and then to change directly, elements of the human genome (genetic engineering). This does have the potential to change the genetic structure of human populations.


title: Sterilisation

paragraphs: Sterilisation (which some people spell Sterilization) is a process that makes animals or humans that are able to bear offspring unable to do so.

paragraphs: Sterilisation often is done for a way of birth control or childfree. But it have been often done against the will of the person, this is called "compulsory sterilisation."


title: Cerberus

paragraphs: In Greek mythology, Cerberus (Greek: Κέρβερος, "Kérberos"; Latin: "Cerberus") is the monstrous, multi-headed dog that guards the entrance to the Underworld, preventing the souls of the dead from leaving.

paragraphs: Often called the "hound of Hades", Cerberus was one of the numerous offspring of the monsters Typhon and Echidna; he is usually depicted as having three heads, along with a serpent for a tail. Cerberus is primarily known for being captured by Herakles, as the last of the hero's Twelve Labors.


title: Yerevan

paragraphs: Yerevan () is the capital and largest city of Armenia. In 2004 about 1,088,300 people lived in Yerevan. Some people write Yerevan as Erevan. In past, Yerevan was called Erebuni or Erivan.

paragraphs: It is on the Hrazdan River, and is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country.

paragraphs: The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the Urartian fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC. Eventually, the letter "b" in the name "Erebuni" changed in the 5th or 4th century BC, becoming "v".

paragraphs: The climate of Yerevan is continental, with dry, hot summers and cold, snowy and short winters. The temperature in August can reach 40°C (104°F), while January may be as cold as -15 °C (5 °F). The amount of precipitation is small, amounting annually to about 350 mm (14 in).

paragraphs: As a centre of Armenian culture, Yerevan is the site of Yerevan State University (1919), the Armenian Academy of Sciences, a historical museum, an opera house, a music conservatory and several technical institutes. The Matenadaran archives hold a rich collection of valuable ancient Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Hebrew, Roman and Persian manuscripts. Yerevan has several large public libraries, a number of museums and theaters, botanical gardens and zoos. It is also at the heart of an extensive rail network and is a major trading centre for agricultural products. In addition, industries in the city produce metals, machine tools, electrical equipment, chemicals, textiles and food products.

paragraphs: Two major tourist attractions are the Opera House, the ruins of an Urartu fortress and a Roman fortress. The Armenia Marriott Hotel is in the heart of the city at Republic Square (also known as Hraparak).

paragraphs: The Yerevan Metro is a rapid transit system that serves the capital city.

paragraphs: Its interior resembles that of western former Soviet nations with chandeliers hanging

paragraphs: from the corridors. The metro stations had most of their names changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Independence of the Republic of Armenia.

paragraphs: Yerevan is Armenia's industrial, transportation, and cultural center. Manufactures include chemicals, primary metals, machinery, rubber products, plastics, textiles, and processed food. Not only is Yerevan the headquarters of major Armenian companies, but of international ones as well, as it's seen as an attractive outsourcing location for Western European, Russian and American multinationals.

paragraphs: Recently, Yerevan has been undergoing an ambitious redevelopment process in which old Soviet-style apartments and buildings are being demolished and replaced with modern buildings. However, this urban renewal plan has been met with opposition and () criticism from some residents.


title: Smallpox

paragraphs: Smallpox was a very dangerous disease with a high mortality rate. It is caused by a virus. There are two different species of viruses that can cause the disease. They are "Variola major" and "Variola minor". Some people also call smallpox Variola, from the Latin work for "spotted" which is also the viruses' scientific name.

paragraphs: Only humans can get this disease. "Variola major" kills between 20% and 40% of those who get it. "Variola minor" kills only about 1%. Many people who survive become blind because of the damage the virus does to the eyes.

paragraphs: During the first half of the 20th century, between 300 million and 500 million people died of this disease. Even in 1967, about 15 million people caught the disease, and about two million people died of it, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

paragraphs: The first vaccine for smallpox used the results of cowpox infections. It was invented by Edward Jenner. It was used to stop people from getting smallpox. The word "vaccine" came from "vaccina", the Latin word for cow, because cowpox was used. The WHO (World Health Organisation) said that they were trying to eradicate (completely destroy) smallpox in 1963. They vaccinated people all over the world. In 1980, the WHO said the disease no longer existed, and no one would ever get sick from it again. However, live copies of smallpox are kept in different maximum-security laboratories around the world.

paragraphs: Some people believe that smallpox could be used as an agent for purposely infecting enemies in a war. Today, most people no longer receive a smallpox shot; but a few very, very old people still need it.

paragraphs: If somebody has smallpox, their entire body is covered in bumps infiltrated by blood that are worse than chicken pox.


title: Ancient China

paragraphs: Ancient China is a very old civilization. There are written records of the history of China which date from 1500 BC in the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC).

paragraphs: China is one of the world's oldest continuous (still alive) civilizations. Turtle shells with writing like ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty () have been carbon dated to about 1500 BC. They say that China began as city-states in the Yellow River valley. Many people say that China became a big Kingdom or Empire in 221 BC. The Qin () emperor Qin Shi Huang made everyone write the same way. He also had ideas about the state which he based on legalism and fought Confucianism. This began what we call the Chinese civilization. Ancient China fought wars and Civil wars and was also sometimes conquered by other people.

paragraphs: Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations. The written history of China can be found as early as the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 – 1046 BC) although ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian (ca. 100 BC) and Bamboo Annals say that a Xia Dynasty existed before the Shang. Much of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy further developed during the Zhou Dynasty (1045 – 256 BC).

paragraphs: The Zhou Dynasty began to bow to external and internal pressures in the 8th century BC, and the kingdom eventually broke apart into smaller states, beginning in the Spring and Autumn Period and reaching full expression in the Warring States period. This is one of multiple periods of failed statehood in Chinese history (the most recent of which was the Chinese Civil War).

paragraphs: Between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China. In some eras, control has stretched as far as Central Asia, Tibet and Vietnam. This Chinese imperialism began with the Qin Dynasty: in 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang conquered the various warring kingdoms and created the first Chinese empire. Successive dynasties in Chinese history developed bureaucratic systems that gave the Emperor of China direct control of vast territories.

paragraphs: The conventional view of Chinese history is that of alternating periods of political unity and disunity, with China occasionally being dominated by steppe peoples, most of whom were in turn assimilated into the Han Chinese population. Cultural and political influences from many parts of Asia, carried by successive waves of immigration, expansion, and cultural assimilation, are part of the modern culture of China.

paragraphs: The countries below are not included in the sixteen kingdoms:


title: Shaka

paragraphs: Shaka kaSenzangakhona (sometimes spelled Tshaka, Tchaka or Chaka; ca. 1787 – ca. 22 September 1828) was the most important leader of the Zulu Empire. He joined the Zulu tribal groups together into the beginnings of a nation. This Zulu nation ruled a large area of southern Africa, between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu rivers. His leadership and his energy make him one of the greatest Zulu chieftains. He has been called a military genius for his changes and new ideas. However, there were also brutal and cruel things that happened when he was in charge.

paragraphs: Shaka maintained a good relationship with the Europeans in Africa, including the Colonial leaders. He was disliked by other Africans, including his own people, who hated his constant wars.

paragraphs: Ten years of warfare placed incredible strains on the Zulu nation. Shaka, unstable and worried about being replaced by an heir, finally snapped into madness after the death of his mother in 1828. He imposed a year of celibacy on his people. He killed anyone who did not show enough sadness at the death of his mother. He was killed within the year by his half-brother, Dingane, who succeeded him as ruler.

paragraphs: Even though he created brutal conditions for his subjects, he created the powerful Zulu Kingdom.


title: Halo

paragraphs: A halo is a ring of light that surrounds an object. Also, in much religious art, it may be seen surrounding the heads of saintly people such as Jesus.

paragraphs: It is believed by some Hindus that the halo shown around the heads of holy people is a depiction of their "activated" crown chakra.

paragraphs: Halos are visual phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of optical halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in certain types of clouds. The shape of the crystals changes the type of halo seen. Light is reflected by the ice and may split into colors, similar to the rainbow.


title: Greek underworld

paragraphs: The underworld is the place in Greek mythology where people go when they die. The underworld is controlled by Hades, one of the three main gods. The underworld's gates are guarded by the three-headed dog, Cerberus. The underworld was surrounded by five rivers. The Acheron was the river of woe, the Cocytus was the river of lamentation, the Phlegethon the river of fire, the Styx, the river of the unbreakable oath by which the gods took their vows, and the Lethe the river of forgetfulness. When entering the underworld, Charon would take those with gold coins to the underworld. Not everyone could enter, because not everyone had golden coins to pay the fare.

paragraphs: Three judges, by the names of Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus, would then decide where you would go. People that lived normal lives would go to The Fields of Asphodel. Heroes would go to The Fields of Elysium. People who did horrible things would go the The Fields of Punishment. If you were put into Elysium, you could choose to be reborn or stay. If you went to Elysium three times, then you went to the Isle of the Blessed. This was like the ultimate heaven. Tartaros () was another place in the underworld, where immortal enemies of the current Twelve Olympians are eternally punished, for example Kronos and the other Titans. Tartaros overlaps with the fields of punishment.


title: Mughal Empire

paragraphs: The Mughal Empire, (, ) was an empire in Asia which existed from 1526 to 1858. The Mughal rule over India is called an Empire because it stretched over a large area. When it was biggest it ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, then known as Hindustan, and parts of what is now India, Afghanistan and modern Pakistan and Bangladesh, between 1526 and 1707. Worth 25% of world GDP, it was the world's largest economy and it was well known for having signalled the proto-industrialization and for his lavish architecture.

paragraphs: The Mughal emperors were Turk-Mongols originally. Babur of the Timurid dynasty founded the Mughal Empire (and Mughal dynasty) in 1526 and ruled until 1530. He was followed by Humayun (1530-1540) and (1555-1556), Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627), Shah Jahan (1627-1658), and the Islamic Aurangzeb (1658-1707) and several other minor rulers until Bahadur Shah Zafar II(1837-1857). After the death of Aurangzeb, the rule through sharia ended and the Mughal Empire became weak. It continued until 1857-58. By that time, India came under the British Raj.

paragraphs: The Mughal Empire was established by able Muslim rulers who came from the present-day Uzbekistan. The Mughal rule in India saw the country being united as one single unit and being administered under one single powerful ruler. During the Mughal period, art and architecture flourished and many beautiful monuments were constructed. The rulers were skillful warriors and admirers of art as well.

paragraphs: The Mughals left a permanent mark on the society, culture, art and architecture of India. Their monuments, artifacts and literature show a period of great wealth and culture. Paintings in miniature style teach us about the clothing and lifestyle of the people.