title: Paul Gray

paragraphs: Paul Dedrick Gray (April 8, 1972 – May 24, 2010) was an American musician and bassist for Nu Metal band Slipknot. He was born in Los Angeles, California and moved to Slipknot's home town when he was just a baby.

paragraphs: He was the only member of Slipknot who was not from Des Moines, Iowa.

paragraphs: On May 24, 2010, "The Des Moines Register" said that Gray had been found dead in a hotel room in the TownePalace Suites hotel in Urbandale, Iowa.

paragraphs: An autopsy performed on June 21, 2010 showed that Gray died of an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl. It also showed that he had signs of a "significant heart disease".

paragraphs: His physician Daniel Baldi was charged with involuntary manslaughter in September 2011. Baldi was accused of continuing to write high-doses of prescription drugs for Gray even though it was known that Gray was a known drug addict. He was also charged with the deaths of seven others and pleaded not guilty when he faced charges.


title: Smog

paragraphs: Smog is a type of air pollutant; the word "smog" is a combination of smoke and fog. Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area and is caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide.

paragraphs: London is where it first happened. Coal fires are now illegal in London, and trains are driven by other fuels. In cities like Los Angeles it is the exhaust fumes of cars which cause the smog.

paragraphs: Delhi is supposed to be the most polluted city on Earth. Smogs cause lung diseases and increase the death rate. According to one estimate, air pollution causes the death of about 10,500 people in Delhi every year.

paragraphs: Peking (Beijing) is another city where air pollution is serious. Car emissions and coal burning are the main reasons for their pollution. They also get pollution from some neighbouring regions, due to the pattern of air movement in the area.


title: Island Records

paragraphs: Island Records is a Jamaican-British record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in England for many years, but is now owned by Universal Music Group of the United States, and is operated through The Island Def Jam Music Group.

paragraphs: This list is probably incomplete, and some of the dates are uncertain.


title: Fiction Records

paragraphs: Fiction Records is a record label that was founded in 1978 by Chris Parry as a home for The Cure. Other notable acts to release on Fiction around this time were the Purple Hearts, Back To Zero , Associates and Eat (band). The label's first #1 record was "Wish" by The Cure in 1991, going #1 in the United Kingdom. The band left the record label in 2001, signing to Geffen at the end of the year.

paragraphs: After a period of several years, the label was then re-started in 2004 by Joe Munns, Paul Smernicki and Jim Chancellor as a Polydor imprint. The first release of this record label was a single by Snow Patrol.


title: Foals (band)

paragraphs: Foals are a dance-punk band from Oxford who play a mixture of Indie, techno and Math-Rock. The band work with Transgressive Records.

paragraphs: In August 2007, the band appeared in a mini episode of "Skins", which aired on Myspace.

paragraphs: The band appeared on the 16th November 2007 episode of Later With Jools Holland playing their songs 'Balloons' and 'Red Socks Pugie'.

paragraphs: The band have also appeared on T-Mobile's Transmission on Channel 4 where they performed the song Hummer.


title: Polydor Records

paragraphs: Polydor Records is a record label currently based in the UK, and is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

paragraphs: Though Polydor's American branch is gone, in the United Kingdom, however, Polydor continues to sign chart-topping acts and remains one of the strongest imprints in the country — with artists such as Klaxons, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Take That and Kaiser Chiefs.

paragraphs: It also acts as the UK label for American-based acts under Interscope-Geffen-A&M like Eminem and Gwen Stefani.

paragraphs: In spring 2006, Polydor launched Fascination Records, a music label dedicated to pop music. Both Girls Aloud and Sophie Ellis-Bextor transferred to the new label.


title: Fascination Records

paragraphs: Fascination Records is a Polydor sub-label that launched in spring 2006. The record label is managed by former TOTP Magazine editor Peter Loraine.

paragraphs: As part of Polydor Records UK, the label will concentrate on a small number of pop acts and will complement the re-activated Fiction rock imprint.


title: Laura Marling

paragraphs: Laura Marling (born 1 February 1990) is a British folk singer-songwriter. Marling won Best Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards.

paragraphs: Marling was born in Hampshire. She went to Leighton Park School. When she was 16 she moved to London.

paragraphs: Marling has toured with a number of well-known indie artists in the UK including Jamie T, who personally invited her on tour with him last year after he attended her second-ever gig.

paragraphs: She performed at this summer's 02 Wireless Festival

paragraphs: and also performed at the first Underage Music Festival in August 2007 at Victoria Park, East London. She has also performed at Electric Gardens Music festival in Kent .

paragraphs: Her debut single came out on WayOutWest Records, with a new single coming out soon on Virgin Records.

paragraphs: She appeared on Later with Jools Holland where she performed the song "New Romantic". Marling's first album "Alas I Cannot Swim" was released on 4 February 2008. Her single Ghosts was out on 15 January 2008.

paragraphs: Marling's second album "I Speak Because I Can" was released in 2010.

paragraphs: In 2011 her third album "A Creature I Don't Know" was released.

paragraphs: In 2013 Marling's fourth album "Once I Was An Eagle" was released. It got good reviews. It reached number three in the UK Album Chart. Marling was nominated for Best British Female at the 2014 Brit Awards.


title: Self-replication

paragraphs: Replication is a general word for making a copy. Self-replication is a process by which a thing might make a copy of itself. Biological cells, in suitable environments, reproduce by cell division. The process is self-organising, given the basic machinery of a cell. During cell division, DNA is replicated and can be transmitted to offspring during reproduction.

paragraphs: Other kinds of replication occur. RNA viruses use the mechanism of a cell to replicate their own RNA strand and make its protein coat. Retroviruses are one of most important RNA viruses; there are a number of other types. Viruses can only reproduce by taking over the reproductive machinery of cells through a process of infection. Computer viruses reproduce using the hardware and software already present on computers.

paragraphs: Memes reproduce using the human mind and culture as their reproductive machinery.


title: Josquin des Prez

paragraphs: Josquin des Prez (born near St Quentin some time between 1450 and 1455; died St Condé-sur-l’Escaut, 27 August 1521) was a French composer. He was one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance. He changed music from the sound of medieval compositions and developed the style which led to the great compositions of the 16th century Renaissance composers such as Adrian Willaert, Palestrina, Lassus and Byrd.

paragraphs: Josquin was born ca. 1450-55 and died in 1521.

paragraphs: The name Josquin was a common name in Northern France and Flanders at that time. It was the name of a Breton saint who had lived in that area in the 7th century. The name Des Prez started off as a nickname in the family, and gradually it became the family name. The name Josquin des Prez is spelt in several different ways in old documents. He is often simply called “Josquin”.

paragraphs: We know very little about his life. We know very little about what people thought about him during his life, although after his death many people admired his music. Even his birthplace is uncertain. We do not know where he got his musical training. He was described as a “pupil of Ockeghem”, but that may just mean that he studied Ockeghem’s music.

paragraphs: We know that he became a singer in the chapel of Aix-en-Provence, the chapel of the Duke of Anjou. After the duke’s death in 1480 he worked for King Louis XI of France until he, too, died in 1483. We do not know where he worked after that, but he had some music published, including six chansons. He probably worked for some time in Milan.

paragraphs: In 1489 Josquin went to Rome and worked in the pope’s chapel. He stayed there at least until 1495, possibly later. There he wrote music for the chapel, including some motets. His music was becoming well known in some parts of northern Italy. It was a time of war in Italy. Several times the king of France invaded parts of Italy. Josquin seems to have written several pieces for the French royal court, including some funeral music on the death of King Louis XII in 1515.

paragraphs: For a year (1503-1504) he was maestro di cappella in Ferrara. He may have left that job because of an outbreak of the plague. A few months after he left the famous composer Jacob Obrecht took over the job. Obrecht was only paid half the salary that Josquin had been given. Very soon afterwards, Obrecht died of the plague.

paragraphs: From 1504 until his death in 1521 Josquin was back in Northern France, where had the job of provost in Condé-sur-l’Escaut, which may possibly have been his birthplace. The church was a very important one, and it had an excellent choir.

paragraphs: Before he died Josquin paid a lot of tax to make sure that after his death his property did not go to the local lord of the manor but would be given to his church. After his death his house was sold, and the money was used for special church services to remember him. There was a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the wall of his old house, and when church processions passed by they stopped in front of it and sang Josquin’s motets "Pater Noster" and "Ave Maria".

paragraphs: His music is nearly all choir music. It consists mainly of church music: motets and masses, although he also wrote some secular (non-religious) music, including some chansons (French songs) and some instrumental music. One popular song is called "El Grillo ". It means “the cricket” and it describes the sound of a cricket singing in the grass.

paragraphs: Josquin was a master of polyphony. His name had become so famous that, after his death, many publishers printed music by other composers and pretended it was by Josquin so that more people would buy it. During recent years musicologists have studied many of these manuscripts very carefully and tried to decide which ones were really by Josquin.


title: Beppe Grillo

paragraphs: Giuseppe Piero Grillo, better known as Beppe Grillo (born 21 July 1948), is an Italian comedian and actor. He has worked in theatres and television.

paragraphs: Grillo was born in Savignone, a small town in the Province of Genoa, Liguria. Grillo became a comedian improvising a monologue at an audition. Two weeks later he was discovered by Italian television presenter Pippo Baudo. He participated in the variety show "Secondo Voi" for two years (1977-78). Later, in 1979, he was in "Luna Park" and "Fantastico".

paragraphs: In 1984 he participated to "Te la do io l'America" (four episodes) and "Te lo do io il Brasile" (6 episodes). On these shows, he spoke about his visits to the United States and Brazil and talked about their culture and lifestyle.

paragraphs: His popularity grew more and more. He became the protagonist of another show called "Grillometro" ("Grillometer"). Soon after this, his performances started to have more and more political satire. He often insulted politicians. In 1987 during the Saturday night television programme "Fantastico 7", he made comments about the Italian Socialist Party and its leader Bettino Craxi who had just taken a trip to China. Grillo said, "If the Chinese are all socialists, whom do they steal from?" The Italian Socialist Party did not like this because he was calling them thieves. After this episode, Grillo slowly was banned from the publicly owned television. Grillo not back on television until the political party was forced to disband several years later.

paragraphs: In 1993, Grillo was allowed on public television one more time. This show was watched by 16 million of Italians. This was the most viewers ever for Italian television.

paragraphs: Grillo has a daily blog where he speaks about alternative energy, globalization, and technology. Versions of the blog are in English, Italian and Japanese. Posts in the Italian version will commonly get thousands of comments and replies from people. His blog is one of the 10 most viewed blogs. He often gets letters from important people who support his blog. These people include Antonio Di Pietro (Italian Minister Of Infrastructures), Fausto Bertinotti (President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies), Renzo Piano, and even Nobel Prize Winners like Dario Fo, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dalai Lama, Muhammad Yunus.

paragraphs: Grillo commonly fights against corruption in his blog. He has used it to help create change in the Italian government. He wants any politician who have been found guilty of a crime to be removed from office.

paragraphs: Grillo founded the politic party Five Star Movement in 2009.

paragraphs: In 1980, Grillo was found guilty of manslaughter for a car accident in which he was the driver. Three passengers lost their lives.

paragraphs: Grillo never hesitates to name firms and people he believes are corrupt. He always supports his views with data and documents. This has caused him to be sued several times for libel by many people and organizations which he had exposed, such as Telecom Italia.

paragraphs: Grillo is often criticized for his lifestyle. They do not think it is correct for him to own a motor yacht and a Ferrari when these things are against his ecological statements. Beppe Grillo said that he did own them, but that he had sold them since then. It is also said that he is just saying what is wrong about politicians based on the popular opinions of the people and does not give any other ways things should be done.


title: Tor

paragraphs: Tor is a part of land that is made of rock. It is created by weathering, which is a form of erosion. It is mostly found near hills.


title: Palladium (band)

paragraphs: Palladium is an English Pop Rock band. It started in September 2006.

paragraphs: The four band members are Peter, Rufio, Fez and Rocky. They met each other during various tours on the session musician circuit.

paragraphs: They played their first gig together under the name, "The Peppernotes" at a Caribbean Restaurant dressed as Peter Pan in drag. Since then they have changed their name to Palladium and played alongside Amy Winehouse, Mika and The Thrills.

paragraphs: They were soon signed to Virgin Records. The deal being signed whilst they were on tour in Japan.

paragraphs: Through their live shows Palladium have gained many fans, including Amy Winehouse, Mystery Jets and Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly.

paragraphs: Their debut single, "Happy Hour", was released on 23 July 2007.

paragraphs: They have recorded their debut album, "The Way It's Not", with Tony Hoffer (The Kooks, Beck, The Fratellis). It was announced that the album was due to be released on 28 January 2008. However, according to HMV and Amazon.co.uk it is now expected to be released on 17 March 2008.

paragraphs: They were announced as main support for Mika's late 2007 UK tour.

paragraphs: Palladium get ideas from a wide range of music. Pink Floyd, The Police, Toto, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder and Hall and Oates have all been mentioned by the band. They have also played at Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith.


title: Meme

paragraphs: A meme (pronounce as "meem") is a way of describing cultural information.

paragraphs: One idea is that culture builds in a way similar to living things. An example would be how viruses spread to different organisms. Memes change as they go, creating controversy, and sculpting society. Just as a virus would, memes evolve from their state, being photoshopped, and exaggerated. Memes can be about anything.

paragraphs: Biologist and evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins invented the word "meme" in 1976. He said that tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothing fashions, ways of making pots, and the technology of building arches were all examples of memes.


title: Analogy

paragraphs: An analogy is a comparison between two things that are similar in some way. When you draw an analogy between two different things, you are comparing them because you want to make a concept easier to understand.

paragraphs: There is a difference between superficial analogies and profound analogies. Two things might look alike, but work quite differently, or they might look different, but work in ways like each other. Most effort is put into finding profound analogies which teach us something worth knowing. As another philosopher puts is:

paragraphs: Mario Bunge sees analogy as a main way of getting new hypotheses which can be tested. He points out that analogies may be based on similarities in behaviour, or in structure.


title: Legitimacy

paragraphs: The word Legitimacy means something which is good and right. Why the thing is right may be because it follows the law, a religion says it is right, or maybe it is naturally right. People may not agree about what is right, and because of this they may not agree what "Legitimacy" is and what is "Legitimate". There are two different uses of the word "Legitimacy"

paragraphs: When a government is accepted by many people it is considered to have "Legitimacy". In the past, some different reasons were used to make people accept a government. In the Zhou Dynasty of old China the rulers said they were given the "Mandate of Heaven" which means that the ruler was chosen by God. This is similar to the divine right of kings doctrine in Europe, where kings would say they were chosen by God.

paragraphs: In the time of The Enlightenment, John Locke wrote that Legitimacy came from the agreement of the people under the government. In Western thinking, this has become the accepted meaning. Not all the people must agree, only most of the people. Most of the people must agree that the government is the best way to make laws and rule, if the government has Legitimacy.

paragraphs: Max Weber said there are three kinds of political Legitimacy:

paragraphs: In common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to each another. In the opposite, illegitimacy describes someone whose parents were not married. Such a person was called "illegitimate", literally means “not legal” (against the law). Virtually everyone alive today has ancestors who were born illegitimately.

paragraphs: People’s attitude towards illegitimacy has varied in different parts of the world. In the Western world, especially in countries which were very religious, it was thought to be very bad for parents to have a child if they were not married. It was thought to be a sin. Illegitimate children were often called bastards. Historically, under English law, an illegitimate child was (a child of no one) and so could not get an Inheritance from his or her parents. In older times, such children were often brought up by other people, sometimes by relatives.

paragraphs: Today people’s attitude has changed, and the laws have changed so that people born to unmarried parents are not discriminated against unfairly. In the United States, people are not described any longer as “illegitimate” but as “born out of wedlock” (“wedlock” means “marriage”). In the United Kingdom the idea of illegitimacy was stopped by law in 1991. Fathers now have a responsibility to their children, even if they were born out-of-wedlock. Many religions still maintain that sex outside marriage is a sin, although they no longer say that the child lives in a state of sin.


title: The Championships, Wimbledon

paragraphs: The Wimbledon Championships is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. It is played in Wimbledon, a suburb of London in England, Great Britain. The Championships are unique because they are the only Grand Slam played on a grass court. Wimbledon is the third tennis grand slam of the year and is widely seen as the biggest event on the sport's calendar.

paragraphs: Wimbledon was first competed in 1877. The women's single and the mens doubles events began seven years later in 1884. It has always been played during the summer. It is played over two weeks, from late June to the beginning of July. The tournament is played after the French Open and before the U.S. Open. In 1968, the championships were opened up to both professionals and amateurs for the first time, with Rod Laver and Billie Jean King winning their respective singles titles.

paragraphs: The winners in 2016 were Andy Murray and Serena Williams.

paragraphs: In every tennis competition, players are given a seed to help decide their place in the draw. At Wimbledon, they use a player's performances (whether good or bad) on grass to help decide the seed. At other tennis competitions, seedings are chosen based only on rankings.

paragraphs: The umpires (referees) and linesmen all have to wear special dark green and mauve clothing. The players have to wear all white.

paragraphs: Female players used to have their names announced with "Miss" or "Mrs"; this was unlike any other Grand Slam tournament. However, this changed for the 2009 tournament. In this tournament, only the surnames were used. If The Queen is in the audience, it is normal for players to bow to her.


title: Legume

paragraphs: A legume is a type of dry fruit. It is usually produced by plants in the family Fabaceae. Legumes can be a variety of fruits: peas and beans are types of legumes.

paragraphs: Legumes grow from the carpel, the female reproductive part of a plant. The fruit of a legume is found inside a pod that can be split on both sides. However, there are some foods that grow inside pods that are not legumes.

paragraphs: Legumes contain many healthy nutrients, such as protein. They are a good source of protein for vegetarians and vegans, or people who do not eat meat and fish. They also contain fibre. This helps to have a healthy digestive system. However, they contain some nutrients which humans find difficult to digest. It is recommended that legumes are soaked (left in water) before cooking to help with nutrient absorption (taking in more nutrients). Some amino acids, such as methionine, are not found very much in some legumes. However, they are needed to help the body use protein.

paragraphs: India imports (buys from other countries) the most legumes. This may be because a lot of Indians follow the religion of Hinduism, which does not let people eat meat. Legumes are a cheap and plentiful source of food in a country where around 22% of the population are in poverty. The top four producers and exporters (selling to other countries) of legumes are:

paragraphs: The USA uses legumes for a variety of reasons. It is the highest producer. It uses soybeans to feed cattle and make vegetable oil. Peanuts are a popular snack food in the USA and these are also a type of legume.


title: Bifocals

paragraphs: Bifocals are eyeglasses with lenses that are split between two different strengths. Usually the lower half of each lens is made to help the wearer read, while the upper one is to help the wearer see at a distance.


title: Lightning rod

paragraphs: A lightning rod or lightning conductor is an iron rod that is used to make lightning strike it, rather than strike something else. It is part of a lightning protection system. Such a system is made of many such rods. These rods are usually placed at high points of buildings and structures. In addition, paths are made the electricity can take from the rooftop to the ground, it was made in the year 1749 later improved in 1752.

paragraphs: Lightning can damage structures made of most materials (masonry, wood, concrete and even steel). The huge currents involved can heat materials, and especially water to high temperatures. This will cause fire, loss of strength and explosions from super-heated steam and air.

paragraphs: The church tower was usually the highest structure or building in medieval European towns and villages. It was also the building very often hit by lightning. Early on, Christian churches tried to prevent the damage of lightning by prayers. Priests prayed,

paragraphs: Peter Ahlwardts ("Reasonable and Theological Considerations about Thunder and Lightning", 1745) said people who sought to protect themselves from lightning should go anywhere except in or around a church.

paragraphs: In Europe, the lightning rod was invented by a theologian and natural scientist, Václav Prokop Diviš, between 1750 and 1754. He is the inventor of the first grounded lightning rod, which he erected on 15 July 1754 in the garden of his home in Přímětice u Znojma. It consisted of 400 sharp metal spikes attached at the top of a 42 m tall supporting pylon. The structure was fastened by three metal chains, conductively attached to the iron grounding cones buried in the packed down soil. He described his 'weather machine' in the treatise 'Descriptio machinae meteorologicae'. The original idea was to continually sap the electricity out of the clouds and so actually "prevent" the lightning and the storms, only in case this failed, the machine should have also been able to directly attract the lighting and channel it to the ground. He proposed his machine to be used on church towers and ships. He was sending his observations regarding the machine operation to Jan Antonín Scrinci, the physics professor at the Charles University in Prague, who published them in 'Prager Postzeitungen', 'Brünner Intelligenz-Zettel' and in 'Stuttgartisches Journal'. The machine is also mentioned by Leonhard Euler in 'Lettres à une Princesse d' Allemagne'. In 1755 Diviš asked the Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria to let him build more machines on several places for the welfare of the people. The emperor let the mathematicians in Vienna judge the proposal, but they refused it. Abbé Marci, court mathematician and Diviš' friend commented: 'Blasphemant, quae ignorant' (condemning what they do not know). In 1756 the machine was damaged by wind and then rebuilt, and then on 10 March 1760, angry villagers of Přímětice tore down the structure, blaming Diviš for drought which struck the region that year. Later in the year, after the summer during which the thunderstorms did a lot of damage to the fields and vineyards, the people besought him to rebuild the machine, which he did in the precinct of Loucky monastery, and built another one on the top of the church tower in Přímětice.

paragraphs: In the United States, the pointed lightning rod conductor, often incorrectly referred to as the "lightning attractor," was invented by Benjamin Franklin as part of his groundbreaking explorations of electricity. Franklin thought that, with an iron rod sharpened to a point at the end,

paragraphs: ""The electrical fire would, I think, be drawn out of a cloud silently, before it could come near enough to strike [...].""

paragraphs: Franklin speculated about lightning rods for several years before his reported kite experiment. This experiment, in fact, took place because he was tired of waiting for Christ Church in Philadelphia to be completed so he could place a lightning rod on top of it. There was some resistance from churches who felt that it was defying divine will to install these rods. Franklin countered that there is no religious objection to roofs on buildings to resist precipitation, so lightning, which he proved to be simply a giant electrical spark, should be no different. As an act of philanthropy, Franklin decided against patenting the invention.

paragraphs: In the 19th century the lightning rod became a symbol of American ingenuity and a decorative motif. Lightning rods were often embellished with ornamental glass balls (now prized by collectors). The ornamental appeal of these glass balls has also been incorporated into weather vanes.

paragraphs: Balls of solid glass occasionally were used in a method thought to prevent lightning strikes to ships. It is worth noting here not because it worked, which it did not, but because it reveals a lot about pre-scientific thought. Glass objects do not conduct electricity well. They are seldom struck by lightning. Therefore, goes the theory, there must be something about glass that repels lightning. Hence the best method for preventing a lightning strike to a wooden ship was to bury a small solid glass ball in the tip of the highest mast. The random behavior of lightning ensured that the method gained a good bit of credence even after the development of the marine lightning rod soon after Franklin's initial work.

paragraphs: Nikola Tesla's was an improvement in lightning protectors. The patent was granted due to a fault in Franklin's original theory of operation; the pointed lightning rod actually ionizes the air around itself. This makes the air conductive, which in turn raises the probability of a strike. Many years after receiving his patent, in 1919 Dr. Tesla wrote an article for The Electrical Experimenter entitled "Famous Scientific Illusions", in which he explains the logic of Franklin's pointed lightning rod and discloses his improved method and apparatus.


title: Ashland, Alabama

paragraphs: Ashland is an American city in the state of Alabama. It is the county seat of Clay County. The city has a population of about 2,000 people. Ashland is the hometown of Alabama's 52nd governor Bob Riley. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black is from Ashland.

paragraphs: Ashland has an area of 7.2 miles. The city is Alabama's highest elevated county seat at 1130 feet.


title: Bob Riley

paragraphs: Robert Renfroe "Bob" Riley (born October 3, 1944) is an American politician. He is a member of the Republican party. He was the 52nd Governor of Alabama from 2003 until 2011. He was first elected to office in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. Riley was born in Ashland.

paragraphs: He has a wife, four children (one is dead), and seven grandchildren.


title: Leon Czolgosz

paragraphs: Leon Czolgosz (May 5, 1873 - October 29, 1901) was an American assassin and an anarchist best known as the murderer of William McKinley. He was born in Alpena, Michigan to Polish Catholic immigrant parents. Czolgosz shot President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York on 6 September 1901. The President died from his injury on September 14, 1901, 8 days later. Czolgosz shot the president because he believed the President committed war crimes in the American Philippines war (1899-1913) and was an enemy of the people. He was influenced by Emma Goldman. Some people have questioned the sanity of Czolgosz.

paragraphs: Czolgosz was found guilty of murder in a very fast trial. He was executed by electric chair in Auburn prison, New York on October 29, 1901.


title: Federal district

paragraphs: The federal district is the area around the national capital in some federal countries.

paragraphs: A federal district is made so that no state in the country can claim to be more important than the others because the national capital is inside the state, or to stop one state trying to have control over the national capital.

paragraphs: Countries with a federal district include:

paragraphs: Belgium is a federal country, but its capital (Brussels) is not a federal district, but is its own language region. To show that the French language and the Flemish language are equal Brussels is a special bilingual (two-languages) region.


title: Baldwin County, Alabama

paragraphs: Baldwin County is a county in the U.S. state of Alabama.

paragraphs: It is named in honor of Abraham Baldwin, a member of the United States Senate from Georgia who never actually lived in Alabama. In 2000 the population was 140,415. The estimated 2005 population from the U.S. Census Bureau is 162,586. The county seat (capital city) is Bay Minette.

paragraphs: Baldwin County was made on December 21, 1809 ten years before Alabama became a state. Before this, the county had been a part of the Mississippi Territory until 1817 when the area passed into the Alabama territory

paragraphs: The borders of the county has often changed, and many armies have invaded.

paragraphs: In the first days of Baldwin County, the town of McIntosh Bluff (now in Mobile County) on the Tombigbee River was the county seat. Then the county seat moved to the town of Blakeley in 1810, and then to the City of Daphne in 1868. In 1900, by an Act of the Legislature of Alabama said that the county seat should move to the City of Bay Minette. The City of Daphne was not happy about this move, because being the county seat meant more people visit the city and businesses can sell more. To move the county seat to Bay Minette, some men from Bay Minette pretended that there had been a murder. When the sheriff and his deputy left the City of Daphne to look for the murderer the men from Bay Minette went to the City of Daphne. These men got the records from the Baldwin County Courthouse and took them back to the City of Bay Minette. A New Deal mural in the Bay Minette post office is a painting of this story.

paragraphs: Baldwin County is close to the Gulf of Mexico. This is why it often has tropical weather systems which often are Hurricanes. Weather dameage can sometimes be very bad, and sometimes the county is made a "disaster area". For example, in September 1979 due to damage from Hurricane Frederic, in July 1997 due to Hurricane Danny, in September 1998 from Hurricane Georges in September 2004 due to damage from Hurricane Ivan and again in August 2005 due to damage from Hurricane Katrina.

paragraphs: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of . of it is land and is water. Baldwin County is the 12th largest county east of the Mississippi River.

paragraphs: Two parts of Baldwin County have been called "Outstanding Alabama Water" by the Alabama Environmental Management Commission which oversees the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. As of April, 2007, only two other areas in Alabama have received what is the "highest environmental status" in the state. The areas are

paragraphs: Officials think that having very clean areas of water and sea will encourage tourists to vistit the county.

paragraphs: The census in 2000, there were 200,100 people, 55,336 households, and 40,284 families living in the county. The population density was 88 people per square mile (34/km²).

paragraphs: The people in the county are 87.15% White, 10.29% Black or African American.

paragraphs: There were 55,336 households out of which 31.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.30% were married couples living together, 10.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.20% were non-families. 23.30% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.94.

paragraphs: All public schools in Baldwin County are operated by Baldwin County Public Schools.


title: Wayne Rooney

paragraphs: Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985 in Liverpool) is an English football who plays for Derby County.

paragraphs: Rooney was born in Croxteth, Liverpool, to Jeanette Marie Rooney and Thomas Wayne Rooney. He is of Irish descent, and was brought up as a Roman Catholic with his 2 younger brothers Graham and John. All three attended Our Lady and St Swithin's primary school, and De La Salle School.

paragraphs: Wayne Rooney grew up in Liverpool, where there are two big football clubs; Liverpool and Everton. As a child, he supported Everton and began playing football for them at the age of just 15, when he became the youngest Premiership scorer, scoring a game-winning goal against Arsenal. Rooney was the youngest goalscorer at Euro 2004, an international tournament where he played for England. Soon, other clubs were very eager to buy him because of his great performances. Newcastle United and Manchester United both made offers to Everton for him. It was Manchester United who signed him eventually, for £23m in the summer of 2004. Rooney was only 18 at the time, and the £23m paid for him is the highest amount ever paid for a teenager in the world.

paragraphs: Rooney is the top goal scorer for Manchester United. When he arrived to the team, they gave him the number 8 shirt, but then changed his shirt to number 10. On 12 February 2011, Rooney scored a stunning bicycle kick in the 78th minute of the Manchester derby, which ended up to be the winning goal in their 2–1 win over Manchester City. After the game, he said it was the best goal he had ever scored in his career. Rooney was made captain of the team by manager Louis van Gaal before the 2014–15 Premier League season began.

paragraphs: Rooney has appeared in advertisements for FIFA videogames and Coca-Cola. He also has a sponsorship deal with Nike.


title: Mobile County, Alabama

paragraphs: Mobile County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named after a tribe of Indians, the "Maubila" tribe. As of 2003, 399,747 people lived there. Its county seat is Mobile. The entire county is included in the Mobile metropolitan statistical area.

paragraphs: The county-wide government is a 3 member district county commission which represents both the unincorporated residents and the residents of other municipalities.

paragraphs: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it (25.00%) is water.

paragraphs: The census of 2000 said that there were 399,843 people, 150,179 households, and 106,777 families living in the county. The population density was 324 people per square mile (125/km²).

paragraphs: The racial makeup of the county was 63.07% White, 33.38% Black or African American.

paragraphs: All of the public schools in Mobile County are operated by the Mobile County Public School System.


title: Mike Cross

paragraphs: Mike Cross (born in 1946) is an American singer and guitar player.

paragraphs: Cross was born in Maryville, Tennessee, he started playing guitar when he was at college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

paragraphs: Cross plays acoustic blues and novelty songs. He also plays funny songs like "The Scotsman" and "The Drunkard". He describes himself as a "wandering hillbilly hippie folk singer."


title: Arthur Crudup

paragraphs: Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was a delta blues singer and guitarist. He wrote songs that Elvis Presley later sang.

paragraphs: Crudup was born in Forest, Mississippi, and worked as a migrant worker until he and his family went back to Mississippi in 1926.

paragraphs: Crudup sang gospel music and blues music. He played in a band called the Harmonizing Four in 1939. A record producer called Lester Melrose got him work with the Bluebird label.

paragraphs: Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s. His last Chicago recording was in 1951. He also recorded in 1952–54 for a radio station called WGST in Atlanta. In the 1960s he started recording again with Fire Records and Delmark Records.

paragraphs: In the mid 60s, Crudup went back to working as a farmer in Virginia, where he lived with his family: his three sons and several of his own siblings.

paragraphs: He died because of heart disease and diabetes. He died in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia, also on the Eastern Shore in 1974.


title: David Honeyboy Edwards

paragraphs: David "Honeyboy" Edwards (June 28, 1915 – August 29, 2011) was an American blues guitarist and singer. Honeyboy was the last original Delta Blues guitarists still performing.

paragraphs: Edwards was born in Shaw, Mississippi, United States. He was friends with Robert Johnson, and was with him when he died.

paragraphs: Culture expert Alan Lomax recorded Edwards in 1942 for the first time. In his later years, Honeyboy still played concerts around the world, sometimes up to 100 concerts a year. He died on August 29, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois from congestive heart failure, at the age of 96 years.

paragraphs: Edwards has also written a book, "The World Don't Owe Me Nothin'," which was published in 1997 by Chicago Review Press. The book is about his life from childhood to when he arrived in Chicago. It describes his journeys through the South in the early 1950s.

paragraphs: His albums "White Windows", "The World Don't Owe Me Nothing", "Mississippi Delta Blues Man", and Henry Townsend were all nominated for the W. C. Handy Award.


title: Houston County, Alabama

paragraphs: Houston County is a county in the state of Alabama, United States

paragraphs: It is the newest county in Alabama, as it was only created on 9 February 1903. It is named after the former state Governor George Smith Houston.

paragraphs: Houston County is mostly agricultural. Peanuts, cotton and corn are the main things that are grown. Small grains, melons and vegetables are also grown a lot. Beef cattle, hogs and dairy cattle are the main animals farmed in the County.


title: Pompeii

paragraphs: Pompeii was a Roman city. Now it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

paragraphs: On 24 August, 79 AD, a volcano called Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the city and its people, killing 2,000 of them.

paragraphs: Pompeii is now considered one of the world's most important historical sites because of the way the volcanic ash preserved the city and its people. This gives historians and archaeologists a vivid picture of life in the Roman Empire around 2,000 years ago.

paragraphs: Archaeologists have found graffiti written by the people who lived in the town.

paragraphs: People often wrote on walls, and archaeologists have been able to read some of what they wrote. Pompeii is an interesting attraction for tourists from around the world and is visited by 2.5 million people every year.

paragraphs: The town was started around the year 600 BC. It was started by a group of people from central Italy, the Osci. They chose to start it in this location because it was already an important location for trade by both land and sea. By the 5th century BC, Pompeii had become part of Rome. While under Roman control, Pompeii was improved a lot. The Romans built Aqueducts, and these were used to provide the citizens with water.

paragraphs: Before the eruption, Pompeii was a beautiful and wealthy city. At the time of the eruption, the town may have had about 11,000 people living there. It was in an area where Romans had holiday villas. Modern professor William Abbott said, "At the time of the eruption, Pompeii had reached its high point in society as many Romans frequently visited Pompeii on vacations."

paragraphs: Pliny The Younger was a witness to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He sent letters to a friend describing the eruption. For he was much too scared to go any closer, he stayed where he was. He was quite a distance from the sight, but close enough to see the eruption clearly.

paragraphs: Recent research has questioned the day of the eruption, with some scholars arguing for an autumn date.


title: Henry Sloan

paragraphs: Henry Sloan (January 1870 – 13 March 1948?) was an African American musician. He played the Delta Blues and is known for teaching Charlie Patton to play the blues, and moved to Chicago after World War I.

paragraphs: David Evans says that Sloan was born in Mississippi in 1870. He moved to a Plantation near Indianola at between 1901 and 1904.

paragraphs: There is a rumour that Sloan was a hobo which was seen by musician W.C. Handy playing guitar at Tutwiler train station in 1903. Handy describes him as


title: Blacks and Whites' Carnival

paragraphs: Blacks and Whites' Carnival ("Spanish: Carnaval de Negros y Blancos") is a carnival in the Colombian city of Pasto, and was proclaimed by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The carnival happens each year, from January 2 to January 7. Many tourists visit it.

paragraphs: It has two stages: pre-carnival with "Fool's Day" and "New Year's Eve Puppets" (parade and burning); and the carnival itself with four celebration days: "Colonies Day", "Carnavalito" (Children's Carnival), the "Arrival of the Castañeda Family", "Blacks' Day" and "Whites' Day" with the "Grand Parade" (this being the most important day for its beauty).

paragraphs: Colonies Day was added as an official day into the traditional Carnival programing, with several new acts: Tribute to the Virgin of Mercy, Colonies Parade, and Rock Day.

paragraphs: Carnavalito (Children's Carnival) began in 1966, as a copy of the adults' carnival, originally with little floats, accompanied by child musicians and dancing girls.

paragraphs: The Arrival of the Castañeda Family began in 1929 as a salute to the settlers in the east of the country.

paragraphs: Blacks' Day originally commemorated the day in which the African slaves had a free day, after the 1607 slave rebellion in the Colombian town of "Remedios". It is said that when news reached Popayan, the African population there went to the streets and danced, and blackened all the white walls of that city with coal. In Pasto the celebration has probably taken place since 1857, when white people began to paint their faces black.

paragraphs: Whites' Day (and the modern carnival) began in 1912 as a new way to celebrate the Epiphany. The people began to paint their faces white with cosmetics and powder. In 1926 the Great Parade began, full of colorful and giant floats, and people began playing with streamers and confetti.

paragraphs: Today the carnival is very important for tourism. People use costumes and masks, and still play with black cosmetics and white powder.


title: Le Corbusier

paragraphs: Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (birth name), (6 October 1887 – 27 August 1965), known by the popular name of Le Corbusier, was an architect and writer born in Switzerland. In the 1930s, he became a French citizen. He is famous for his theories about modernism in architecture. His plans included the improvement of housing for people in large cities. This was because many people lived in poverty at that time. Many of his designs have been built across the world.

paragraphs: He also liked to paint and was skilled at designing furniture.

paragraphs: Le Corbusier grew up in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a small town in the north of Switzerland. In 1907, aged 19, he moved to the French city of Paris. He travelled across Europe, and learned a lot of new ideas. He learned to speak German and worked with famous architects, such as Peter Behrens.

paragraphs: During World War I, Le Corbusier went back to Switzerland and became a teacher. Soon, he opened his own architectural business with his cousin, and they worked together until 1940. It was in 1918 that he met a painter, Amédée Ozenfant, who would become a great friend. They combined their ideas to create a new type of art called Purism.

paragraphs: After the war, Le Corbusier concentrated on his art until 1922. After this, he began designing apartments that could be stacked on top of each other, to house people and meet their needs. This type of low-density housing was to deal with the problem of over-crowding in Paris. He said this transformation was needed, or a revolution could occur from the unhappy lower classes. He created a design for an ideal city (Ville Contemporaine) that was never built. It was a plan developed around a lot of skycrapers. He presented this plan to the French government, who refused it. This did raise their awareness of overcrowding in the city though.

paragraphs: Le Corbusier began to dislike capitalism, and said that people's house size should depend on the size of their family, and not by how rich they were.

paragraphs: Le Corbusier was not active in politics from 1942. Instead, he built smaller housing blocks around France.

paragraphs: The name, Le Corbusier, is French. It is a different version of his grandmother's surname, Lecorbésier. The name translates in to English as "the crowlike one". He chose this name in 1920.

paragraphs: He considered speed in architecture by saying that house is a machine to live in. This machine's purpose is to speed up the activities of the people who live in it.

paragraphs: He introduced an idea of building a residence with just some slabs, columns, and, stairs. These three things can produce any kind of residence, for any class of people.


title: Anna Karenina

paragraphs: Anna Karenina (), also Anglicised as Anna Karenin, is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

paragraphs: Tolstoy considered this book his first true novel.

paragraphs: Anna Arkadyevna Karenina is romantic and has a very strong character. For example, she likes to write children's books and admires art. She is described as being very beautiful, and there is a lot of energy in her. She loves her son very, very, much, and this is one of the biggest reasons why she is afraid of running away with Vronsky. Although she does not love her husband, Karenin, she feels sorry and guilty. However, she says that "I hate him for his virtues!" She is emotionally honest and really does not like to pretend. She thinks that Karenin loves to pretend, and this is one of the greatest reasons why she does not like him. She thinks that love is more important than anything, even duty.

paragraphs: Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky is a handsome, rich, passionate soldier. He is romantic and charming, but he, too, is just a man. Anna is disappointed after she runs away with him and commits adultery because he is not perfect. His head begins to become bald, he loses at horse games, and he does not care about Kitty's feelings. He becomes a bored, embittered man. Tolstoy does not often write about his thoughts and feelings as he does about the other characters.


title: Prada

paragraphs: Prada is an Italian fashion company (also known as a "fashion label" or "fashion house"). It has shops and products around the world.

paragraphs: The company, originally named Prada Brothers, was started in 1913 by Mario Prada in Milan, Italy. Mario Prada did not believe that women should have a role in business and prevented any female family members from joining his company.

paragraphs: However when he died in 1958, his son had no interest in running the company so his daughter, Luisa Prada, took over and ran the company until 1978.

paragraphs: Miuccia Prada, Luisa’s daughter, took over then and has been running the company since. Miuccia made the company bigger by giving it a more bohemian style.

paragraphs: Miu Miu is a second clothing, which is often simpler, and fits with the 'high' image of vintage items. Miu Miu is the nickname of Miuccia Prada when she was a child. After, Prada Sport 'Linea Rossa' was made.

paragraphs: Today, Prada is seen as one of the most important clothing designers in fashion.

paragraphs: After many other fashion companies started to buy or join with many other fashion companies, Prada tried to do the same thing. It went into debt so that it could buy Fendi in the early 1990s. Fendi was not making much money, and needed help. Prada could not help Fendi, so it sold it to LVMH. Prada is still in debt after buying Fendi. In 1999, the company bought "Church's", an English company that makes quality shoes. More recently 45% of "Church's" has been sold to Equinox.

paragraphs: Other big buys by Prada in the 1990s were Helmut Lang and Jil Sander. However, by 2006, Prada had sold both. Jil Sander was sold to 'Change Capital Partners', which is run by Luc Vandevelde (the chairman of Carrefour). Helmut Lang is now owned by Japanese fashion company 'Link Theory'.

paragraphs: In May 2007, Prada and mobile phone maker LG Electronics worked together to make the LG Prada (KE850) phone. The phones were sold for $800 each.

paragraphs: The Prada Foundation () is a foundation dedicated to contemporary art and culture. It was founded in 1993. It is run by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli. The foundation promotes art exhibitions and movie festivals.

paragraphs: The main site of the foundation is in Milan on Largo Isarco. The foundation also has a special gallery for photographs in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan and a site in Venice at the Palazzo Corner della Regina,

paragraphs: Prada has paid for several famous architects, the most famous are Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron, to make their shops around the world.

paragraphs: In 2005, near the West Texas towns, Valentine and Marfa, two Scandinavian artists, Emily Milne and Zoe Brown, opened 'Prada Marfa', a sculpture of a Prada mini-boutique. The sculpture is on U.S. Highway 90 and is a long way from any other buildings. Prada helped pay for the building, which is 15 by 25-foot. The building does not actually sell clothes, but there are clothes in the window, as this is just for art.

paragraphs: Prada has 9 small shops and 2 big stores in the USA


title: Cross section (geometry)

paragraphs: A cross section is what one gets if one cuts an object into slices.

paragraphs: In geometry the correct definition of "cross section" is: the intersection of a body in 2-dimensional space with a line, or of a body in 3-dimensional space with a plane.

paragraphs: A cross section, or section is also an orthographic projection of a 3-dimensional object from the position of a plane through the object. A floor plan is a section viewed from the top.


title: Space (physics)

paragraphs: Space, in everyday language, is something that we all know. It is measured in the three dimensions of distance: length, width, and height.

paragraphs: In modern physics, space is a "boundless four-dimensional continuum" known as spacetime. Disagreement exists about whether it is an entity (something that actually exists). It may be just a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework.

paragraphs: The standard space interval, called a metre (or meter), is defined as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of about 1/300,000,000 of a second.

paragraphs: Before Einstein's work on relativistic physics, time and space were viewed as independent dimensions. Einstein's discoveries have shown that due to relativity of motion space and time can be mathematically combined into space-time.


title: Horace

paragraphs: Quintus Horatius Flaccus (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known to English speakers as Horace, was a famous poet in the Roman Empire.

paragraphs: Horace was born in the small Italian town of Venusia. His father used to be a slave, but was known as a freedman because his master had freed him. They moved to Rome a short time later. Horace's father had a job taking items from the seller to the buyer. He received money from these sales. His father became richer and was able to send Horace to the best schools in Rome. He was also able to send him to Athens (Greece) to study the Greek language and philosophy. Horace's native language was Latin. Horace was incredibly proud of his father, and said he felt no shame in being the son of a freedman.

paragraphs: In his early adult life, Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was killed. War was declared against the people who killed him. Horace joined the army. When the war was over, Horace returned to Italy to find that other people were living in his apartment. His father was also gone. Horace became very poor. Eventually, he found a job in the treasury. This involved sorting the country's money.

paragraphs: His friends, Lucius Varius Rufus and Virgil, who were also writers, introduced him to Maecenas. Maecenas was a close friend of Augustus, the emperor of Rome. Horace lived in Tivoli, an area of Rome. When he died, he gave the land he owned to Augustus, to increase the land the state owned. Today, other writers visit the land to remember him.

paragraphs: Horace wrote many famous quotes in his poems. These lines are still spoken today, by speakers of every language, in the original Latin.

paragraphs: Some of Horace's poems are difficult to translate because of their syntax, grammar and structure, which is sometimes very different to modern languages.

paragraphs: Horace is viewed by many people, including experts, to be one of the best Latin poets.


title: Space

paragraphs: Space in simple understanding is an area or volume.


title: Physical body

paragraphs: In physics, a physical body (sometimes called simply a body or even an object) is a collection of masses, when you look at them as one object only.

paragraphs: For example, a cricket ball can be understood as an object but the ball also consists of many particles (pieces of matter).

paragraphs: A human's and animal's physical body is made up of organs and tissues and is a part of the total living being which in the human being may also include a psychological or spiritual component.


title: Ebisu

paragraphs: Ebisu (恵比須, 恵比寿, 夷, 戎), also known as Yebisu or Hiruko (蛭子) or Kotoshiro-nushi-no-kami (事代主神), is the Japanese god of fishermen, good luck and working men, and also the guardian of the health of children. He is one of the Seven Lucky Gods.

paragraphs: Ebisu was first named "Hiruko", meaning "leech child". He was the first child of Izanagi and Izanami, born without bones (or, in some stories, without arms and legs) because of his mother's mistake in her marriage. Hiruko tried hard to survive but he was thrown to the sea in a boat made out of reeds. He was eventually washed ashore and was cared for by the Ainu people "Ebisu Saburo" (戎三郎).

paragraphs: The weak child overcame many problems, grew legs, and became the god Ebisu. He remains slightly crippled and deaf, but is still joyful (which is why he has the title, "The Laughing God"). He is often shown wearing a tall hat — the "Kazaori Eboshi" (風折烏帽子) — holding a fishing rod and a large sea bass.

paragraphs: The brand name Evisu is named after Ebisu.


title: Dominican peso

paragraphs: The Dominican peso is the money of the Dominican Republic. Its official name is "Peso oro" and its symbol is "$" with RD in front of it ("RD$") to differentiate it from other "pesos" or "dollars". The ISO 4217 for the Dominican peso is DOP. Each peso is divided into 100 "centavos" (English, "cents").

paragraphs: The first Dominican peso was introduced in 1844. It replaced the Haitian money. In 1905, the peso was replaced by United States currency. The peso oro was introduced in 1937, although the US dollar continued to be used alongside the peso oro until 1947.

paragraphs: Coins were introduced in 1937 in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavos. Since 1991, coins of denominations 1, 5, 10 and 25 pesos have been introduced. However, due to inflation, coins below 1 peso are now rarely found. Banknotes in use are 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 pesos.


title: Proprioception

paragraphs: Proprioception is the sense that people have of knowing where the parts of their body are. It is also called kinesthetic sense.

paragraphs: Proprioception is used when a person touches the tip of their nose while keeping their eyes closed. Even though they cannot see their finger or their nose, they can sense how to touch them together.


title: Permutation

paragraphs: A permutation is a single way of arranging a group of objects. It is useful in mathematics.

paragraphs: A permutation can be changed into another permutation by simply switching two or more of the objects. For example, the way four people can sit in a car is a permutation. If some of them chose different seats, then it would be a different permutation.

paragraphs: The factorial has special application in defining the number of permutations in a set which does not include repetitions. The number n!, read "n factorial", is precisely the number of ways we can rearrange n things into a new order. For example, if we have three fruit: an orange, apple and pear, we can eat them in the order mentioned, or we can change them (for example, an apple, a pear then an orange). The exact number of permutations is then formula_1. The number gets extremely large as the number of items (n) goes up.

paragraphs: In a similar manner, the number of arrangements of r items from n objects is consider a partial permutation. It is written as formula_2 (which reads "n permute r"), and is equal to the number formula_3 (also written as formula_4).


title: 1 E6 m²

paragraphs: To help in showing the sizes of different geographic regions, areas between 1 km² (100 hectares) and 10 km² (1000 hectares) are listed below.


title: Lipid

paragraphs: A lipid is a type of organic molecule found in living things. It is oily or waxy. Fats are made from lipid molecules. Sources of lipid can be found in algae, seeds, meat, cheese, butter and fish. Lipids are long chains of carbon and hydrogen molecules. Lipids are classified as simple and complex. Examples of complex molecules could be steroids or phospholipids.

paragraphs: A very important biological function of lipids is as lipid bilayers, the basis of many cell membranes. Another function of lipids is to serve as an energy reserve. Lipids can be hydrophobic (non-polar), or amphipatic (containing both polar and non-polar parts).

paragraphs: Lipids are a group of naturally occurring molecules that include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E, and K), glycerides, phospholipids, and others. The main biological functions of lipids include storing energy, signalling, and acting as components of cell membranes.


title: Group theory

paragraphs: In mathematics and abstract algebra, group theory studies a type of algebraic structure called a group. Group theory is often used in mathematics as a starting point for the study of many algebraic structures, such as a set of numbers along with its addition and multiplication. Because group theory is also useful for studying symmetry in nature and abstract systems, it has many applications in physics and chemistry.

paragraphs: A group is a set (collection) "G" whose members are called "elements". The elements can be numbers of some kind, or other abstract objects. The elements can even be material objects. There is also a binary operation which combines any two elements of "G" and results in another element of "G". This new element may be different from either of the original two, but it does not have to be: it only has to be an element of "G". To be a group, the following four conditions must be true of "G" and the operation defined over "G":

paragraphs: An important fact about groups is that when two elements are combined using the operation, the order of the elements matters. Switching the order of two combined elements typically gives a different result. This means that we have many cases with "a" • "b" ≠ "b" • "a".

paragraphs: However, if the order of a and b actually does not matter (for "any" a and b, we "always" have "a" • "b" = "b" • "a"), then the group is called an abelian group (or commutative group).

paragraphs: If a group contains finitely many elements, then it is called a finite group. If a subset of a group is also a group, then the subset is called a subgroup.

paragraphs: A simple example of a group is the set of integers (called Z) with the addition operator +. This group is called "G" = (Z, +). Each of the required conditions is true of "G", so "G" is a group. If we replace • with the + sign, then we can easily check that these conditions are true:

paragraphs: The addition operator is also commutative: the order of "a" and "b" does not matter. For any two integers "a" and "b" in G, "a" + "b" = "b" + "a". For example, 7+3 is the same as 3+7. Thus, "G" is also an abelian group.

paragraphs: Commutative operators are common in our daily lives. For example, 7 · 3 is also the same as 3 · 7. However, not all operations are commutative. For example, 7÷3 is different from 3÷7 (and neither of these results is an integer), and 7 is different from 3. Therefore, not all combinations of number sets and mathematical operations can form an abelian group—or even a group at all.


title: St. Vartan Cathedral

paragraphs: St. Vartan Cathedral is the first cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church to be constructed in North America. It is located in New York City on the corner of Second Avenue and 34th Street. It was built to resemble the St. Hripsime Church in Etchmiadzin.


title: Margherita of Savoy

paragraphs: Margherita of Savoy or "Margaret of Savoy" (born November 20, 1851 in Turin, died January 4, 1926 in Bordighera), was an Italian queen of the Kingdom of Italy during the reign (1878-1900) of her husband, Humbert I.

paragraphs: She was a daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa and Elizabeth of Saxony. Her paternal grandparents were Charles Albert of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria. Her maternal grandparents were John of Saxony and Princess Amalie Auguste of Bavaria.

paragraphs: She married her first cousin Humbert (Prince "Umberto" of Savoy) on April 21, 1868. In November 1869, Margherita gave birth to Victor Emmanuel.

paragraphs: On January 9, 1878, Humbert succeeded as the new King of Italy. She became his Queen consort and remained by his side for the rest of his reign. Humbert was assassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci on July 29, 1900.

paragraphs: Margherita supported artists and writers,and the Red Cross, and founded cultural institutions, like the Società del Quartetto, and the Casa di Dante.

paragraphs: In 1889 the pizza "Margherita" was named after her. It is the colors of the Italian flag. Red sauce, green basil and white cheese. After the pizza, a Peak was named like the queen, and then in 2007, the third highest mountain in Africa.


title: Consonance and dissonance

paragraphs: In music, consonance and dissonance are words which are used to describe certain musical intervals or chords. The adjectives are consonant and dissonant.

paragraphs: A consonant interval or chord is one which sounds stable and pleasant. It could, for example, be the end of a piece of music. For example: C and E sound well together, or the chord C, E and G (a C major chord).

paragraphs: A dissonant interval or chord is one which sounds unstable. It may even sound harsh by itself. The notes seem to clash. It cannot be the end of the piece of music (if the music is a normal, traditional tonal piece). It sounds as if it wants to move on to a consonant interval (this is called "resolving" onto a consonant chord). The notes C and Fsharp together make a dissonant interval. The chord C - Dsharp - Fsharp is a dissonant interval: it is full of tension, and it sounds as if it wants to "resolve" onto C - E - G.

paragraphs: Scientifically a consonant interval is one in which the two notes vibrate at frequencies which have a simple mathematical relationship, e.g. in two notes which are an octave apart the higher note vibrates exactly twice as fast. If they are a fifth apart the top note vibrates 1 1/2 times as fast as the lower note. The more complicated mathematically the interval, the more dissonant it will sound.


title: Carpe diem

paragraphs: Carpe diem is a famous phrase from one of the poems of Horace. It means "seize the day" in Latin.

paragraphs: Especially during the Baroque era, the phrase was important. In the 17th century there was the Thirty Years' war, which lasted roughly from 1618 to 1648. For the people of the time, death was present almost everywhere. To compensate for that there were the concepts of "Carpe diem" (There is little time left, use it as best you can), "Vanitas" (Vanity; things are not what they seem), and Memento mori (Remember you will die).

paragraphs: The poem is originally from "Odes" 1.11. It is given in Latin and English below.

paragraphs: A better translation of the phrase would probably be "pluck the day" (as a fruit might be plucked from a tree).


title: Gustav Heinemann

paragraphs: Gustav Walter Heinemann (born 23 July 1899 in Schwelm; died 7 July 1976 in Essen) was a German politician. He was Interior Minister under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. He resigned when Adenauer started getting ready to set up the German Army. He later resigned from the CDU and joined the SPD. He also served as Justice Minister before he was elected Federal President in 1969. He served for one term, and left office in 1974.


title: Schwelm

paragraphs: Schwelm is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr Rural District the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

paragraphs: Schwelm is in the southeast of the ""Ruhrgebiet"", the Ruhr Area of Germany, between Westphalia and the ""Bergisches Land"". Schwelm is commonly known as the ""Pforte Westfalens"" ("Gate to Westphalia").

paragraphs: The history of Schwelm goes back to the ninth century, where it is first mentioned as "Suelmiu". The city of Schwelm was officially established in 1496 and became seat of the Ennepe-Ruhr district in 1929. According to its area, Schwelm is the smallest town in North Rhine-Westphalia.

paragraphs: Schwelm is home to the ""Brauerei Schwelm"", the Schwelm Brewery, one of the few remaining private breweries in Germany. It was started in 1830 by Haarmann & Kathagen, the brewery was one of the first worldwide to switch from wooden to metal barrels. The original office building of the brewery, the "Rietz'sche Haus" built in 1701, is still in use today.

paragraphs: The oldest piano manufacturer in the world is in Schwelm. Since 1794, ""Rud. Ibach Sohn"" has been building pianos and, until 1904, organs in Schwelm.


title: Bundesarbeitsgericht

paragraphs: The Bundesarbeitsgericht or "Federal Labour Court" is the German federal supreme court of appeals for cases of labour law. This includes "individual" labour law (mostly about contracts of employment) and "collective" (more than one) labour law (e.g. cases about strikes and collective bargaining). The court hears cases from the "Landesarbeitsgerichte" (Superior State Labour Courts), which, in turn, are the courts of appeals against decisions of the "Arbeitsgerichte" (ordinary State Labour Courts).

paragraphs: The "Bundesarbeitsgericht" is in the city of Erfurt.


title: Bundessozialgericht

paragraphs: The Bundessozialgericht (German for "Federal Social Court") is the German federal supreme court of appeals for social security cases. The court was created on 11 September 1954 to hear cases about public health insurance, long-term care insurance, pension insurance and occupational accident insurance plans. These cases usually start in the "Sozialgerichte" ("Social Courts"), then the "Landessozialgerichte" ("Superior State Social Courts"), before the cases wind up at the "Bundessozialgericht".

paragraphs: The "Bundessozialgericht" is located in the city of Kassel.


title: Federal Administrative Court of Germany

paragraphs: The Bundesverwaltungsgericht or Federal Administrative Court is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. It is the federal court of appeals for generally all cases of administrative law. These cases are mainly arguments between people and the government, but sometimes are disputes between two different parts of government.

paragraphs: The Federal Administrative Court was set up on 8 June 1953. It was based in Berlin, but in 2002 moved to the city of Leipzig in Saxony.

paragraphs: It hears appeals from the "Oberverwaltungsgerichte", or Superior Administrative Courts, which, in turn, are the courts of appeals for decisions of the "Verwaltungsgerichte" (Administrative Courts).

paragraphs: Although cases about social security law and tax law are arguments between a person and the government, there are special courts for these matters. The Bundessozialgericht is federal court of appeals for social security law, cases about tax and customs law are decided by the "Finanzgerichte" (Finance Courts), and lastly by the Bundesfinanzhof.

paragraphs: The "Bundesverwaltungsgericht" has its headquarters at the former "Reichsgericht" (Reich Court of Justice) building in Leipzig.


title: Santa María de Iquique School Massacre

paragraphs: The Santa María de Iquique school Massacre was on December 21, 1907. At that time Chile's government was led by Pedro Montt. Hundreds of workers died in the front of the school "Santa María de Iquique".

paragraphs: The workers had been walking from saltpetre mines of Tarapacá, striking to get better life conditions.

paragraphs: The strikers first went to San Lorenzo, and then to Iquique. They arrived in Iquique on December 16. They stayed peacefully in the school. Military forces arrived, and without provocation General Silva Renard give the order to shoot the people there in front of school. Hundreds of people were killed.


title: Grid

paragraphs: Meaning an array of squares or rectangles:


title: Skype

paragraphs: Skype () is a software program that uses the Internet to make telephone calls (using a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). It was created in 2003 by the Swedish and Danish Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, and is currently run by a company in Luxembourg called Skype Technologies S.A.R.L, which since 2011 is part of Microsoft. (From 2005 to 2011, Skype was owned by eBay.)

paragraphs: The Skype program works on computers Microsoft Windows, MacOS and Linux and is available as mobile apps for different platforms including iOS and Android. By using VoIP to make the calls, it is very cheap to call another phone. It does not cost money to call another Skype user. Every Skype user has a unique name by which other users can find and talk to. Skype also has additional features such as video calls and multiple members in a conversation. In the chat you can also find a selection with a variety of emojis available.

paragraphs: Skype has an encryption system for security. This system cannot be turned on or off. Skype provides an uncontrolled registration system for users. People can use the system safely without revealing their real-life identity to other users of the system, but there is no way to know that the person they communicate with is the one they say they are.


title: Wookieepedia

paragraphs: Wookieepedia (the "Star Wars" Wiki) is an online encyclopedia for information on the "Star Wars" fictional universe—including information of six films, as well as Expanded Universe. It is a more specialized and useful wiki for those who wish to go farther than the basics in the "Star Wars" universe, and is almost entirely in-universe. The name Wookieepedia is a mix of Wookiee and encyclopedia, based on the name of Wikipedia. Wookieepedia is hosted by Wikia.


title: Chianti

paragraphs: Chianti is a kind of red wine. It is produced in Tuscany in the famous area of "Chianti" inside the provinces of Arezzo, Florence, Pisa, Pistoia, Prato and Sienna.


title: Maxïmo Park

paragraphs: Maxïmo Park (sometimes spelled Maximo Park) are an English indie rock band who formed in 2001.

paragraphs: Maxïmo Park formed in 2001 (with frontman Paul Smith coming from Billingham in Teesside). To Start off with, the four founding members played only a little amount small shows, with Archis Tiku on vocals, constantly switching the instruments he played. Almost about to split up, but instead they decided to look for somebody else to sing vocals. Singer Paul Smith was discovered by the then-girlfriend of drummer Tom English in a pub while he was singing along to a Stevie Wonder song. Having found someone with a stage presence, they started to write their first songs together, all despite the fact that the frontman never imagined himself as a frontman of a band. Paul Smith had never sung on stage before.

paragraphs: Around March 2004, a friend of the band's paid for 300 copies of a 7" red vinyl single "Graffiti" and later released a vinyl of their tracks ("The Coast Is Always Changing"/"The Night I Lost My Head") that they’d recorded in their house in Fenham. After some time of doing shows around their home town, Steve Beckett of the dance-electronic label Warp Records found one of these records and decided to sign Maxïmo Park to his record label.


title: Math rock

paragraphs: Math rock is a guitar-based style of indie rock which has complex rhythms. This genre started in the late 1980s. A closely-related genre is post-rock. Some of the same bands might be called both. Post-rock is usually characterized by a stronger jazz influence.


title: Middle Kingdom of Egypt

paragraphs: The Middle Kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, roughly between 2030 BC and 1640 BC.

paragraphs: The period had two phases, the 11th Dynasty, which ruled from Thebes and the 12th and the following dynasties which revolved around el-Lisht. These two dynasties were originally considered to be the full extent of this unified kingdom, but historians now consider the 13th Dynasty to at least partially belong to the Middle Kingdom.


title: Thebes, Egypt

paragraphs: Thebes (, "Thēbai") was a city in Ancient Egypt about 800 km south of the Mediterranean Sea, on the east bank of the river Nile (). It was the capital of "Waset," the fourth Upper Egyptian nome.


title: Politics of Germany

paragraphs: Politics of Germany are based on a federal parliamentary democratic republic. The government is elected by the people in elections where everyone has an equal vote. The constitution is called the "Grundgesetz". As well as setting out the rights of the people, it describes the jobs of the President, the Cabinet, the Bundestag, Bundesrat and the Courts.

paragraphs: The President is the head of state. The Federal Chancellor is the head of government, and of the majority group in the legislature (law making body) which is called the Bundestag. Executive power is exercised by the government. The power to make federal law is given to the government and the two parts of parliament, the Bundestag and Bundesrat. The ministers of the government are members of the parliament, and need parliamentary support to stay in power.

paragraphs: From 1949 to 1990, the main political parties were the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with its "sister party", the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). After the reunification of Germany the Green Party and Alliance '90(Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) became more important and was in government between 1999 and 2005. Other important political parties after reunification have been the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) which was based on East Germany's Socialist Unity Party of Germany. It joined with The Left Party (Die Linkspartei) of western Germany. In 2007 Die Linke and WASG joined together under the leadership of Oskar Lafontaine

paragraphs: As Germany is a federal country, a lot of the work of government is done by the 16 states ("Länder"). Power is shared between the national (or federal) government and state governments. The national government cannot abolish the state governments.

paragraphs: The political system is set out in the 1949 constitution, the "Grundgesetz" (Basic Law), which stayed in effect after 1990's German reunification.

paragraphs: The constitution puts freedom and human rights first. It also splits powers both between the federal and state levels and between the legislative (law-making), executive (government), and judicial (courts) branches. The 1949 "Grundgesetz" was written to correct the problems with the Weimar Republic's constitution. The Weimar Republic collapsed in 1933 and was replaced by the dictatorship of the Third Reich.

paragraphs: The courts of Germany are independent of the government and the lawmakers. Senior judges are appointed by the Bundestag for a fixed term.

paragraphs: The "Bundeskanzler" (Federal Chancellor) heads the "Bundesregierung" (Federal Cabinet) and thus the executive branch of the federal government. He or she is chosen by and must report to the "Bundestag", Germany's parliament. Germany, like the United Kingdom, can thus be said to have a parliamentary system.

paragraphs: The Chancellor cannot be removed from office during a 4-year term unless the "Bundestag" has agreed on a successor. This Constructive Vote of No Confidence () is stop what happened in the Weimar Republic. There the government did not have a lot of support in the parliament. The small parties often joined together to vote against the government, but could never stay together and choose a new government.

paragraphs: Except in the periods 1969-72 and 1976-82, when the social democratic party of Chancellor Brandt and Schmidt came in second in the elections, the Chancellor has always been the candidate of the largest party. Usually the largest party is helped by one or smaller more parties to get a majority in the parliament. Between 1969-72 and 1976-82 the smaller parties decided not to help the largest party, but the second biggest party instead.

paragraphs: The Chancellor appoints a Vice-Chancellor (Vizekanzler), who is a member of his cabinet, usually the Foreign Minister. When there is a coalition government (which has, so far, always been the case, except for the period of 1957 to 1961), the Vice-Chancellor usually belongs to the smaller party of the coalition.

paragraphs: The Chancellor is responsible for policy guidelines. This means he, or she, sets the broad ideas of what the government will do. To help carry out these ideas the Chancellor can change the make-up of the federal ministries whenever they want. For example, in the middle of January 2001, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture was renamed to Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture. This was to help fight the "Mad Cow Disease" BSE problem. At the same time some of the jobs ("competences") of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Health were moved to the new Ministry of Consumer Protection.

paragraphs: Reporting to the cabinet is the Civil service of Germany.

paragraphs: The duties of the "Bundespräsident" (Federal President) are mostly representative and ceremonial; The power of the executive is exercised by the Chancellor.

paragraphs: The President is elected every 5 years on May 23 by the Federal Assembly ("Bundesversammlung"). The Bundesversammlung only meets to elect the President. Its members are the entire "Bundestag" and an equal number of state delegates selected especially for this purpose in proportion to election results for the state parliaments.

paragraphs: In February 2017, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the SPD was elected. The reason that the President is not directly elected by the people is to stop him from claiming to be more powerful than the government and the constitution, which happened in the Weimar Republic.

paragraphs: Germany has a bicameral legislature, that means that the parliament has two houses. The "Bundestag" (Federal Diet) has at least 598 members, elected for a four-year term. Half of the members (299) are elected in single-seat constituencies according to first-past-the-post. The other 299 members are chosen from statewide party lists.

paragraphs: The total percentage of constituency members and regional list members a party has should equal the percentage of votes that a party gets. This is called proportional representation.

paragraphs: Because Voters vote once for a constituency representative, and a second time for a party Germany is said to have mixed member proportional representation.

paragraphs: Sometimes a party already has more constituency seats in a "land" (state) than it should have to keep the percentage of votes and seats equal. The party does not lose seats. Instead it gets no land seats. This means that the Bundestag sometimes has more than 598 members. In the current parliament there are 16 overhang seats, giving a total of 614.

paragraphs: A party must get 5% of the national vote or win at least three constituency seats to be represented in the "Bundestag". This rule, often called the "five percent hurdle", was made to stop lots of small parties being in the Bundestag. Small parties were blamed for the problems of the Weimar Republic's Reichstag.

paragraphs: The first "Bundestag" elections were held in the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") on August 14, 1949. Following reunification, elections for the first all-German "Bundestag" were held on December 2, 1990. The last election was held on September 24, 2017, the 19th Bundestag met on October 24, 2017.

paragraphs: The "Bundesrat" (Federal Council) is the representation of the state governments at the federal level. The Bundesrat has 69 members who are delegates of the 16 "Bundesländer". Usually the 16 Ministers President are members, but they do not have to be. The "Länder" each have from three to six votes in the "Bundesrat", depending on population. "Bundesrat" members must vote as their state government tell them.

paragraphs: The legislature has powers of exclusive jurisdiction (it can make laws by itself) and concurrent jurisdiction with the "Länder" (the länder can also make laws). What laws and what type of laws are set out in the Basic Law.

paragraphs: The "Bundesrat" must concur (agree) to laws about money shared by the federal and state governments and those making more work for the states. Often this means that the "Bundesrat" often needs to agree to a law, because federal laws are often carried out by state or local agencies.

paragraphs: Since the political make-up of the "Bundesrat" is often different from that of the "Bundestag", the Bundesrat is often the place for opposition parties to put their point of view, rather than for the states to look after their interests, as the constitution intended.

paragraphs: To limit, members of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat form a Vermittlungsauschuss which is a joint committee to try to reach agreement when the two chambers can not agree on a certain piece of legislation.

paragraphs: The following parties are represented in the German Bundestag since the federal elections of 2017:

paragraphs: The Pirate Party Germany and the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) got no seats.

paragraphs: The Federal Council is composed by representatives of the State governments.

paragraphs: Germany has had a court system that was free of government control for longer than it has had democracy.

paragraphs: This means that the courts have traditionally been strong, and almost all state actions are subject to judicial review (being looked at by the court).

paragraphs: There is the "ordinary" courts system that handles civil and criminal cases

paragraphs: There is also a system of specialist courts, that deall with certain areas of the law. These generally have a state court and state appeals court before coming to the federal supreme court for that area of law. The other federal supreme courts are

paragraphs: Unlike the United States, all courts are state courts, except for the top level supreme courts.

paragraphs: Germany also has another supreme court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht Federal Constitutional Court. The "Grundgesetz" says that every person may complain to the Federal Constitutional Court when his or her constitutional rights, especially the human rights, have been violated by the government or one of its agencies, and after he or she has gone through the ordinary court system.

paragraphs: The Bundesverfassungsgericht hears complaints about laws passed by the legislative branch, court decisions, or acts of the administration.

paragraphs: Usually only a small percentage of these constitutional complaints, called "(Verfassungsbeschwerden)" are successful. Evenso, the Court is often angers both the government and the law-makers. The judges even say that they do not care about the reactions of the government, the Bundestag, or public opinion or about the cost of one of the court's decisions. All that matters is the constitution.

paragraphs: The Bundesverfassungsgericht is very high popular with ordinary people, because it protects them from government wrongdoing.

paragraphs: Only the Constitutional Court can handle some types of cases, including arguments between government bodies about their constitutional powers.

paragraphs: Only the Constitutional Court has the power to ban political parties for being unconstitutional. However so far the Constitutional court has only used this power twice, outlawing the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) and the SRP (Socialist Reich Party, a successor to the NSDAP) because both parties ideas went against the constitution.

paragraphs: In the 1998 election the SPD said they wanted to reduce high unemployment rates and said new people were needed in government after 16 years of Helmut Kohl's government.

paragraphs: Gerhard Schröder said he was a centrist "Third Way" candidate like Britain's Tony Blair and America's Bill Clinton.

paragraphs: The CDU/CSU said people should look at how well off they were because of Kohl's government, and that the CDU/CSU had experience in foreign policy.

paragraphs: But the Kohl government was hurt at the polls by slower growth in the east in the previous two years, which meant the gap between east and west widened as the west got richer and the east did not.

paragraphs: The final seat count was enough to allow a "red-green" coalition of the SPD with Alliance '90/The Greens ("Bündnis '90/Die Grünen"), bringing the Greens into a national government for the first time.

paragraphs: The first months of the new government had policy disputes between the moderate and traditional left wings of the SPD, and some voters got fed up. The first state election after the federal election was held in Hesse in February 1999. The CDU increased its vote by 3.5%. The CDU became the largest party, and replaced a SPD/Green coalition with a CDU/FDP coalition. The result was seen in part as a referendum on the federal government's ideas for a new citizenship law, which would have made it easier for long-time foreign residents to become German citizens, and also to keep their original citizenship as well.

paragraphs: In March 1999, SPD chairman and Minister of Finance Oskar Lafontaine, who represented a more traditional social democratic position, resigned from all offices after losing a party-internal power struggle against Schröder.

paragraphs: In state elections in 2000 and 2001, the respective SPD- or CDU-led coalition governments were re-elected into power.

paragraphs: The next election for the "Bundestag" was September 22, 2002. Gerhard Schröder led the coalition of SPD and Greens to an 11-seat victory over the CDU/CSU headed by Edmund Stoiber (CSU). Two factors are generally cited that enabled Schröder to win the elections despite poor approval ratings a few months before: good handling of the 2002 European floods and firm opposition to the USA's 2003 invasion of Iraq.

paragraphs: The coalition treaty for the second red-green coalition was signed October 16, 2002. There were a lot of new ministers.

paragraphs: In February 2003, elections took place in the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony, were won by the conservatives. In Hesse, the CDU minister president Roland Koch was re-elected, with his party CDU gaining enough seats to govern without the former coalition partner FDP.

paragraphs: In Lower Saxony, the former SPD minister president Sigmar Gabriel lost the elections, leading to an CDU/FDP-government headed by new minister president Christian Wulff (CDU).

paragraphs: The protest against the Iraq war changed this situation a bit, favouring SPD and Greens.

paragraphs: The latest election in the state of Bavaria led to a landslide victory of the conservatives, gaining not just the majority (as usual), but two thirds of parliamentary seats.

paragraphs: In April 2003, chancellor Schröder announced massive labour market reforms, called Agenda 2010. This included a shakeup of the system of German job offices (Arbeitsamt), cuts in unemployment benefits and subsidies for unemployed persons who start their own businesses. These changes are commonly known by the name of the chairman of the commission which conceived them as Hartz I - Hartz IV. Although these reforms have sparked massive protests they are now credited with being in part responsible for the economic upswing and the fall of unemployment figures in Germany in the years 2006/7.

paragraphs: The European elections on June 13, 2004 brought a staggering defeat for the Social Democrats, who polled only slightly more than 21%, the lowest election result for the SPD in a nationwide election since the Second World War. Liberals, Greens, conservatives and the far left were the winners of the European election in Germany, because voters were disillusioned by high unemployment and cuts in social security, while the governing SPD party seems to be concerned with quarrels between its members and gave no clear direction. Many observers believe that this election marked the beginning of the end of the Schröder government.

paragraphs: In September 2004, elections were held in the states of Saarland, Brandenburg and Saxony. In the Saarland, the governing CDU was able to remain in power and gained one additional seat in the parliament and the SPD lost seven seats, while the Liberals and Greens re-entered the state parliament. The far-right National Democratic Party, which had never got more than 1 or 2% of the vote, received about 4%, although it failed to earn a seat in the state parliament (a party must obtain at least 5% of the vote to achieve state parliamentary representation).

paragraphs: Two weeks later, elections were held in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony: once again, overall, the ruling parties lost votes and although they remained in power, the right to far-right parties made the big leaps. In Brandenburg, the Deutsche Volksunion (DVU) re-entered the state parliament after winning 6.1% of the vote. In Saxony, the NPD entered a non-competition agreement with the DVU and obtained 9.2% of the vote, thus winning seats in the state parliament. Due to their losses at the ballots, the ruling CDU of Saxony was forced to form a coalition with the SPD. The rise of the right to far-right worries the ruling political parties.

paragraphs: On May 22, 2005 as predicted the SPD was defeated in its former heartland, North Rhine-Westphalia. Half an hour after the election results, the SPD chairman Franz Müntefering announced that the chancellor would clear the way for premature federal elections by deliberately losing a vote of confidence.

paragraphs: This took everyone by surprise, especially because the SPD was below 25% in polls at the time. On the following Monday the CDU announced Angela Merkel as conservative candidate for chancellorship.

paragraphs: Whereas in May and June 2005 victory of the conservatives seemed highly likely, with some polls giving them an absolute majority, this changed shortly before the election at September 18, 2005, especially after the conservatives introduced Paul Kirchhof as potential minister of the treasury, and after a TV duel between Merkel and Schröder where many considered Schröder to have performed better.

paragraphs: New for the 2005 election was the alliance between the newly formed Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG) and the PDS, planning to join into a common party (see Left Party.PDS). With the former SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine for the WASG and Gregor Gysi for the PDS as prominent figures, this alliance soon found interest in the media and in the population. Polls in July saw them as high as 12%.

paragraphs: After success in the state election for Saxony, the alliance between the far right parties National Democratic Party and Deutsche Volksunion (DVU), which planed to leapfrog the "five-percent hurdle" on a common party ticket was another media issue.

paragraphs: The election results of September 18, 2005 were surprising. They were very different from the polls of the previous weeks. The conservatives lost votes compared to 2002, reaching only 35%, and failed to get a majority for a "black-yellow" government of CDU/CSU and liberal FDP. The FDP polled a 10% of the votes, one of their best results ever. But the red-green coalition also failed to get a majority, with the SPD losing votes, but polling 34% and the greens staying at 8%. The left party alliance reached 8.7% and entered the German Parliament, whereas the NPD only got 1.6%.

paragraphs: The most likely outcome of coalition talks was a so-called "grand coalition" between the conservatives (CDU/CSU) and the social democrats (SPD), with the three smaller parties (liberals, greens and the left) in the opposition. Other possible coalitions include a "traffic light coalition" between SPD, FDP and Greens and a "Jamaica coalition" between CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens. Coalitions involving the Left Party were ruled out by all parties (including the Left Party itself), although the combination of one of the major parties and any two small parties would mathematically have a majority. Of these combinations, only a red-red-green coalition is politically even imaginable. Both Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel announced that they had won the election and should become next chancellor.

paragraphs: On October 10, talks were held between Franz Müntefering, the SPD chairman, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel and Edmund Stoiber, the CSU chairman. In the afternoon it was announced that the CDU/CSU and SPD would begin formal coalition negotiations with the aim of a Grand Coalition with Angela Merkel as the next German chancellor.

paragraphs: Angela Merkel is the first woman, the first East German and the first scientist to be chancellor as well as the youngest German chancellor ever. On November 22, 2005 Angela Merkel was sworn in by president Horst Köhler for the office of Bundeskanzlerin.