title: Sex

text: In humans, sex is normally either male or female. For example: John's sex is male. Jane's sex is female. Most of the time, the sex of a person depends on what sex chromosomes that person got from his or her parents. A woman's ovum (egg cell) contains one X chromosome. A man's sperm contains either an X or a Y chromosome. When a sperm and ova combine to form a fertilised egg, the baby may get either of these chromosomes from its father. If the baby gets two X chromosomes, it will develop into a female. If the baby gets one X and one Y, it will develop into a male. Before babies are born, their sex parts are already formed, but not ready yet. During Puberty, the sex parts finish developing as well as other parts of the body like breasts and body hair.


title: Sex

text: There are some exceptions to this rule. Sometimes, the process of meiosis, which makes the sex cells, can go differently. This can result in a person having 3 X chromosomes, or 2 Y chromosomes or XXY instead of XY. Other times, the body may not follow exactly what their chromosomes are telling it to do.


title: Sex

text: Sexual reproduction first appeared about a billion years ago. It evolved within single-celled eukaryotes. The scientific community still discusses why it appeared, and why it still exists. Reasons commonly given include:


title: Sex

text: Sexual reproduction is a process that can only be found in eukaryotes. These cells have a nucleus and mitochondria. There are other kinds of organisms (other than animals, plants and fungi), the other eukaryotes – such as the malaria parasite – that also engage in sexual reproduction. Some bacteria use conjugation to transfer genetic material between bacteria. This is not the same as sexual reproduction, but it results in a similar mixture of genetic traits.


title: Sex

text: In sexual reproduction the cells used for reproduction, called gametes, are either eggs or sperms. Fertilisation needs two different such cells. The mechanism of cell division only works when one sperm alone enters the egg. Once it is in, a fast reaction goes through the egg cell wall to shut off all other sperm.


title: Sex

text: Sex determination in biology is about the function of sex, not what individuals look like. In humans, males and females usually look different. In many species they do not, except for the sex organs.


title: Sex

text: Usually, sex is determined by an organism's genes. With genetic sex determination, most alleles or genes that influence sexual development are on the same chromosome. That chromosome is then called the sex chromosome. Because genetic sex determination is controlled by a pair of sex chromosomes (or if of one of the chromosomes is there or not), there are usually the same number of male and female offspring. In humans, for instance, sperms carry either an X or a Y chromosome, and they occur in roughly equal numbers.


title: Sex

text: For some species sex is not determined by inheritance, but instead by environmental factors experienced during development or later in life. Many reptiles have temperature-dependent sex determination: the temperature embryos experience during their development determines the sex of the organism. In some turtles, for example, males are produced at lower incubation temperatures than females; this difference in critical temperatures can be as little as 1-2 °C.


title: Sex

text: Some fish change sex over the course of their life. This phenomenon is called "sequential hermaphroditism". In clownfish, smaller fish are male, and the dominant and largest fish in a group becomes female. In many wrasse the opposite is true—most fish are female at birth and become male when they reach a certain size. Sequential hermaphrodites may produce both types of gametes over the course of their lifetime, but at any given point they are either female or male.


title: Sex

text: In some ferns the default sex is hermaphrodite. Ferns which grow in soil which has previously supported hermaphrodites are influenced by hormones remaining to develop as male.


title: Mathematics

text: Mathematics is the study of numbers, shapes and patterns. The word comes from the Greek "μάθημα" (máthema), meaning "science, knowledge, or learning", and is sometimes shortened to maths (in British Commonwealth countries) or math (in North America).


title: Mathematics

text: Applied math is useful for solving problems in the real world. People working in business, science, engineering, and construction use mathematics.


title: Mathematics

text: Mathematics solves problems by using logic. One of the main tools of logic used by mathematicians is deduction. Deduction is a special way of thinking to discover and prove new truths using old truths. To a mathematician, the reason something is true (called a proof) is just as important as the fact that it is true, and this reason is often found using deduction. Using deduction is what makes mathematics thinking different from other kinds of scientific thinking, which might rely on experiments or on interviews.


title: Mathematics

text: Logic and reasoning are used by mathematicians to create general rules, which are an important part of mathematics. These rules leave out information that is not important so that a single rule can cover many situations. By finding general rules, mathematics solves many problems at the same time as these rules can be used on other problems. These rules can be called theorems (if they have been proved) or conjectures (if it is not known if they are true yet). Most mathematicians use non-logical and creative reasoning in order to find a logical proof.


title: Mathematics

text: Sometimes, mathematics finds and studies rules or ideas that we don't understand yet. Often in mathematics, ideas and rules are chosen because they are considered simple or neat. On the other hand, sometimes these ideas and rules are found in the real world after they are studied in mathematics; this has happened many times in the past. In general, studying the rules and ideas of mathematics can help us understand the world better. Some examples of math problems are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, calculus, fractions and decimals. Algebra problems are solved by evaluating certain variables. A calculator answers every math problem in the four basic arithmetic operations.


title: Mathematics

text: There is no Nobel Prize in mathematics. Mathematicians can receive the Abel prize and the Fields Medal for important works.


title: Mathematics

text: The Clay Mathematics Institute has said it will give one million dollars to anyone who solves one of the Millennium Prize Problems.


title: Lion

text: The lion ("Panthera leo") is a large mammal of the "Felidae" (cat) family. Some large males weigh over . Today, wild lions live in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia. Lions are adapted for life in grasslands and mixed areas with trees and grass. The relatively small females are fast runners over short distances, and coordinate their hunting of herd animals.


title: Lion

text: Lions have disappeared from North Africa and southwest Asia in historic times. Until the late Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. They were found in most of Africa, across Eurasia from western Europe to India, and in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru. The lion is now a vulnerable species. There was a decline in its African range of 30–50% over two decades in the second half of the 20th century. Habitat loss and conflicts with humans are the greatest causes of concern.


title: Lion

text: Lions are often called the "king of the beasts". They are used as symbols representing courage. They appear in heraldry more often than any other animal. They are an icon of courage and royalty.


title: Lion

text: Lions live for 10 to 14 years when they are in the wild. When they are captured, they can live longer than 20 years. In the wild, males do not usually live longer than 10 years. This is because wounds from fighting with other males make their lives shorter. They usually live in savanna and grassland. These areas do have bushes and trees, but lions are mainly adapted to catch prey on grasslands. Compared to other cats, lions are social. A group of lions is called a pride. In a pride of lions, there are related females, their young, and one or two adult males. Groups of female lions often hunt together.


title: Lion

text: Lions are carnivores and scavengers. Lions are apex predators. Lions feed on antelope, buffalo, zebras, warthogs, wildebeest, birds, hares, turtles, fish, giraffes, and young elephants. Lions scavenge animals either dead from natural causes (disease) or killed by other predators. They keep a constant lookout for circling vultures, because this means there is a dead or injured animal close by.


title: Lion

text: They have an archetypal roar which is used to communicate with other group members and warn different intruders of territorial boundaries.


title: Lion

text: They have long, retractable claws which help the lion to grab and hold prey. They also have a rough tongue that helps them peel the skin of prey animals away from flesh and flesh away from bone. Across their belly, they have loose skin which allows the species to be kicked by prey with little chance of an injury.


title: Lion

text: There are about 30,000 lions left in the wild in Africa. Only 350 lions (of the Asiatic lion subspecies) are left in Asia. They live in the Gir Forest in the state of Gujarat, India.


title: Lion

text: Lions hunt many animals, such as gnus and antelopes. Male lions usually weigh between . Large lions have reached . Females (lionesses) are usually . Mature male lions are the only cats with a mane. The lion has a long body, short legs, large claws, big head, and a yellowish-brown coat.


title: Lion

text: Lions live in groups that are called prides. 10 to 40 lions may live in a pride. Each pride has a home area that is called its territory. Lions do not allow other carnivores (meat-eating animals) to hunt in their territory. A territory can be as large as .


title: Lion

text: The lions' roar is distinct to each individual. It is used for territorial marking and warning off other lions in separate prides (or lone individuals). This however, is usually carried out by competing males. Other male lions will challenge the alpha of the pride to a fight in order to take their spot of dominance if they win. Lions actually have prides in order to strengthen their species throughout the generations (Boothalingam 2018).


title: Lion

text: Lions are not as built for extreme speed as cheetahs are, but hunt in packs. This is unusual in cats. The females usually do the hunting for the pride. However the males can sometimes help if needed, to take down large animals. After lions have brought down a prey, they suffocate it by biting the front of its face to prevent it breathing. Lions prey are zebra and deer. Lions also have long retractable claws which act like grappling hooks, to keep hold of the prey.


title: Lion

text: Even though a lion is good at killing prey for food, they are not among the most dangerous animals for humans.


title: Lion

text: A lioness is ready to have young when she is 2–3 years old. Young lions are called cubs. Cubs are born after months. The cubs are born blind; their eyes do not open until they are about a week old, and cannot see well until they are about two weeks old. Lions do not have a den (home) where they would live for a long time. The lioness conceals the cubs in thick bush, gullies, or rocky outcrops. If the hiding place has been seen by other predators, then the lioness will move the cubs to a new hiding place. The cubs will be introduced to the pride at about 6 weeks old. The cubs are very vulnerable when the lioness goes out to hunt and needs to leave the cubs behind. Also, when a new male takes over a pride from another male, he usually kills all of the cubs. The cubs' mothers will then mate with the new pride male, which means that the first batch of new cubs will be his offspring. A litter of 2-6 cubs are born. Usually, only 1-2 cubs survive until introduced to the pride, at which point they are protected by the whole pride.


title: Lion

text: In zoos, lions have been known to breed with tigers. If the parents are a male lion and a female tiger, the offspring is called a liger. If the parents are a male tiger and a female lion, the offspring is called a tigon.


title: Lion

text: Lions appear in heraldry more often than any other animal. They traditionally symbolise courage, valour and royalty.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: Martin Luther King, Jr. (born Michael King, Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He was best known for improving civil rights by using nonviolent civil disobedience, based on his Christian beliefs. Because he was both a Ph.D. and a pastor, King is sometimes called the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. (abbreviation: the Rev. Dr. King), or just Dr King. He is also known by his initials MLK. He was the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King worked hard to make people understand that not only black people but that all races should always be treated equally to white people. He gave speeches to encourage African Americans to protest without using violence.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: Led by Dr. King and others, many African Americans used nonviolent, peaceful strategies to fight for their civil rights. These strategies included sit-ins, boycotts, and protest marches. Often, they were attacked by white police officers or people who did not want African Americans to have more rights. However, no matter how badly they were attacked, Dr. King and his followers never fought back.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. The next year, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King fought for equal rights from the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 until he was murdered by James Earl Ray in April 1968.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: Michael King, Jr. was born at 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. Although the name "Michael" appeared on his birth certificate, his name was later changed to Martin Luther in honor of German reformer Martin Luther.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: As King was growing up, everything in Georgia was segregated, 70 years after the Confederacy was defeated and blacks were later separated away from white people. This meant that black and white people were not allowed to go to the same schools, use the same public bathrooms, eat at the same restaurants, drink at the same water fountains, or even go to the same hospitals. Everything was separate. However, the white hospitals, schools, and other places were usually much better than the places where black people were allowed to go.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: At age 6, King first went through discrimination (being treated worse than a white person because he was black). He was sent to an all-black school, and a white friend was sent to an all-white school.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: Once, when he was 14, King won a contest with a speech about civil rights. When he was going back home on a bus, he was forced to give up his seat and stand for the bus ride so a white person could sit down. At the time, white people were seen as more important than black people. If a white person wanted a seat, that person could take the seat from any African American. King later said having to give up his seat made him "the angriest I've ever been in my life."


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King went to segregnobel. He went on to Morehouse College in Georgia, where his father and grandfather had gone. After graduating from college in 1948, King decided he was not exactly the type of person to join the Baptist Church. He was not sure what kind of career he wanted. He thought about being a doctor or a lawyer. He decided not to do either, and joined the Baptist Church.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King went to a seminary in Pennsylvania to become a pastor. While studying there, King learned about the non-violent methods used by Mahatma Gandhi against the British Empire in India. King was convinced that these non-violent methods would help the civil rights movement.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King first started his civil rights activism in 1955. At that time, he led a protest against the way black people were segregated on buses. They had to sit at the back of the bus, separate from white people. He told his supporters, and the people who were against equal rights, that people should only use peaceful ways to solve the problem.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King was chosen as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was created during the boycott. Rosa Parks later said: "Dr. King was chosen in part because he was relatively new to the community and so [he] did not have any enemies." King ended up becoming an important leader of the boycott, becoming famous around the country, and making many enemies.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King was arrested for starting a boycott. He was fined $500, plus $500 more in court costs. His house was fire-bombed. Others involved with MIA were also threatened. However, by December 1956, segregation had been ended on Montgomery's buses. People could sit anywhere they wanted on the buses.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: After the bus boycott, King and Ralph Abernathy started the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The group decided that they would only use non-violence. Its motto was "Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed." The SCLC chose King as its president.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: In 1963, King helped plan the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This was the largest protest for human rights in United States history. On August 28, 1963, about 250,000 people marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. Then they listened to civil rights leaders speak. King was the last speaker. His speech, called "I Have a Dream," became one of history's most famous civil rights speeches. King talked about his dream that one day, white and black people would be equal.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: That same year, the United States government passed the Civil Rights Act. This law made many kinds of discrimination against black people illegal. The March on Washington made it clear to the United States government that they needed to take action on civil rights, and it helped get the Civil Rights Act passed.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When presenting him with the award, the Chairman of the Nobel Committee said:


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: "Today, now that mankind [has] the atom bomb, the time has come to lay our weapons and armaments aside and listen to the message Martin Luther King has given us[:] "The choice is either nonviolence or nonexistence"..."


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: "[King] is the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence. He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races."


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King and many others then started working on the problem of racism in voting. At the time, many of the Southern states had laws which made it very hard or impossible for African-Americans to vote. For example, they would make African Americans pay extra taxes, pass reading tests, or pass tests about the Constitution. White people did not have to do these things.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: In 1963 and 1964, civil rights groups in Selma, Alabama had been trying to sign African-American people up to vote, but they had not been able to. At the time, 99% of the people signed up to vote in Selma were white. However, the government workers who signed up voters were all white. They refused to sign up African-Americans. In January 1965, these civil rights groups asked King and the SCLC to help them. Together, they started working on voting rights. However, the next month, an African-American man named Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by a police officer during a peaceful march. Jackson died. Many African-American people were very angry.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: The SCLC decided to organize a march from Selma to Montgomery. By walking 54 miles (87 kilometers) to the state capital, activists hoped to show how badly African-Americans wanted to vote. They also wanted to show that they would not let racism or violence stop them from getting equal rights.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: The first march was on March 7, 1965. Police officers, and people they had chosen to help them, attacked the marchers with clubs and tear gas. They threatened to throw the marchers off the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Seventeen marchers had to go to the hospital, and 50 others were also injured. This day came to be called Bloody Sunday. Pictures and film of the marchers being beaten were shown around the world, in newspapers and on television. Seeing these things made more people support the civil rights activists. People came from all over the United States to march with the activists. One of them, James Reeb, was attacked by white people for supporting civil rights. He died on March 11, 1965.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: Finally, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to send soldiers from the United States Army and the Alabama National Guard to protect the marchers. From March 21 to March 25, the marchers walked along the "Jefferson Davis Highway" from Selma to Montgomery. Led by King and other leaders, 25,000 people who entered Montgomery on March 25. He gave a speech called "How Long? Not Long" at the Alabama State Capitol. He told the marchers that it would not be long before they had equal rights, "because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: On August 6, 1965, the United States passed the Voting Rights Act. This law made it illegal to stop somebody from voting because of their race.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King had made enemies by working for civil rights and becoming such a powerful leader. The Ku Klux Klan did what they could to hurt King's reputation, especially in the South. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) watched King closely. They wiretapped his phones, his home, and the phones and homes of his friends.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: On April 4, 1968, King was in Memphis, Tennessee. He planned to lead a protest march to support garbage workers who were on strike. At 6:01 pm, he was shot while he was standing on the balcony of his motel room. The bullet entered through his right cheek and travelled down his neck. It cut open the biggest veins and arteries in King's neck before stopping in his shoulder.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital. His heart had stopped. Doctors there cut open his chest and tried to make his heart start pumping again. However, they were unable to save King's life as he died at 7:05 p.m.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: In March 1969, James Earl Ray was found guilty of killing King. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Ray died in 1998.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: Just days after King's death, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the Act, usually called the Fair Housing Act, made it illegal to discriminate in housing because of a person's race, religion, or home country. (For example, this made it illegal for a realtor to refuse to let a black family buy a house in a white neighborhood.) This law was seen as a tribute to King's last few years of work fighting housing discrimination in the United States.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: After his death, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. King and his wife were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: In 1986, the United States government created a national holiday in King's honor. It is called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is celebrated on the third Monday in January. This is around the time of King's birthday. Many people fought for the holiday to be created, including singer Stevie Wonder.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: In 2003, the United States Congress passed a law allowing the beginning words of King's "I Have a Dream" speech to be carved into the Lincoln Memorial.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: King County in the state of Washington, is named after King. Originally, the county was named after William R. King, an American politician who owned slaves. In 2005, the King County government decided the county would now be named after Martin Luther King, Jr. Two years later, they changed their official logo to include a picture of King.


title: Martin Luther King Jr.

text: More than 900 streets in the United States have also been named after King. These streets exist in 40 different states; Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico. and many others


title: Fascism

text: Fascism is a far-right form of government in which most of the country's power is held by one ruler or a small group, under a single party. Fascist governments are usually totalitarian and authoritarian one-party states. Under fascism, the economy and other parts of society are heavily and closely controlled by the government, usually by using a form of authoritarian corporatism, where companies and workers are supposed to work together under national unity. The government uses violence and police power to arrest, kill or stop anyone it does not think useful.


title: Fascism

text: Three large fascist countries were Italy under Benito Mussolini, Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, and Spain under Francisco Franco.


title: Fascism

text: Mussolini invented fascism in Italy in the late 1910s, and developed it fully in the 1930s. He came to power in late 1922 and introduced a complete dictatorship in the mid-1920s, by eliminating all other parties and changing the electoral law to make sure his Fascist party got the most seats. When Hitler came to power in Germany in the 1930s, he copied Mussolini. Mussolini wrote a political paper, which is called "The Doctrine of Fascism" in English. He started writing it in 1927, but it was only published in 1932. Most of it was probably written by Giovanni Gentile, an Italian philosopher who joined fascism and became an important influence.


title: Fascism

text: Not all scholars agree on what fascism is. Philosopher Jason Stanley of Yale University says it is "a cult of the leader who promises national restoration in the face of humiliation brought on by supposed communists, Marxists and minorities and immigrants who are supposedly posing a threat to the character and the history of a nation." That is, fascism focuses on one person as leader, fascism says communism is bad, and fascism says that at least one group of people is bad and has caused the nation's problems. This group could be people from other countries or groups of people within the country. Under Hitler's fascist Germany, the government blamed Jews, communists, homosexuals, the disabled, Roma and other people for Germany's problems, arrested those people, and took them to camps to be killed.


title: Fascism

text: The name fascism comes from the Italian word "fascio" for "bundle". This word comes from the Latin word "fasces" which was an axe surrounded by a bundle of sticks. In Ancient Rome, leaders carried the fasces as a symbol of their power.


title: Fascism

text: A journalist named Benito Mussolini invented fascism. He started Italy's fascist party in 1919. He became Italy's prime minister in 1922. He was not elected. His supporters walked into Rome in large numbers, and the king of Italy made him prime minister. Although, officially, the fascist party in Italy was ruled by a "grand council" from 1922 until the end of World War II, Benito Mussolini really had almost all the power in the country.


title: Fascism

text: According to scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Mussolini believed democracy had failed. He had been a Socialist but left the movement because he thought it was not strong enough, and it had refused to join the First World War. He believed democracy failed because of social class and was too weak to stand against Communism. Under fascism, people would focus on the nation and people would not think about social class but instead pull together for the national good.


title: Fascism

text: However, Mussolini also believed that to make fascism work, he and his followers had to remove anything that could distract people from the nation. He also believed he should get to decide who in Italy counted as part of the Italian nation and he should get to throw out or arrest anyone he said did not consider real Italian. He believed it was right to use violence to remove those distractions and those people. Groups of people with weapons would go out into the streets and beat up or even kill people Mussolini did not like.


title: Fascism

text: Mussolini believed that Italy should be made of white people, so he encouraged white women to have more babies and persecuted people who were not white.


title: Fascism

text: One of the reasons fascism spread in the early 20th century was because the Russian Revolution had just happened and people were afraid of communism. Sometimes landowners and business owners would support fascists because they were afraid of what would happen if the country became communist instead.


title: Fascism

text: In her work, "The Origins of Totalitarianism", published in 1951, Hannah Arendt compared National Socialism, Stalinism and Maoism. She does not talk about these regimes being fascist; according to her, they are totalitarian. In 1967, German philosoper Jürgen Habermas warned about a "left-wing fascism" of a protest movement in Germany of the 1960s, commonly known as Ausserparlametarische Opposition, or APO.


title: Fascism

text: There is more than one reason why people living in democratic states oppose fascism, but the main reason is that in a Fascist government the individual citizen doesn't always have the option to vote, nor do they have the option to live a lifestyle which may be seen as immoral, useless, and unproductive towards society. If you are not heterosexual (homosexual, cross-dressing, changing genders, etc.) you can be arrested and put on trial.


title: Fascism

text: The fascist governments in Italy and Germany were removed after they lost World War II, but fascism continued as military dictatorships under Salazar in Portugal, Franco in Spain, in some parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.


title: Catholicism

text: Catholicism is the traditions and beliefs of Catholic Churches. It refers to their theology, liturgy, morals and spirituality. The term usually refers to churches, both western and eastern, that are in full communion with the Holy See.


title: Catholicism

text: In 2012, there were more than 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide. This makes up more than 17% of the world population.


title: Catholicism

text: The word "Catholicism" comes from the Greek word "catholikismos" (). This means "according to the whole".


title: Catholicism

text: The word "Catholicism" refers to many things, including its religious beliefs (called theologies and "doctrines"), and its form of religious worship (called liturgies). The word also refers to Catholic religious beliefs about ethics (things that are right and wrong). It also refers to the ways that members of the Catholic religion live and practice their religion.


title: Catholicism

text: Many people use the word Catholicism to talk about religious beliefs of the Catholic Church, whose leader is called the "Bishop of Rome" and often called the "Pope". The Catholic Church is based in the Vatican City, a small independent country in the city of Rome, Italy. Sometimes the word also refers to beliefs of other Christian churches, including the Eastern Orthodox Churches, who have many beliefs similar to the Catholic Church, but do not believe the Bishop of Rome is their leader.


title: Catholicism

text: The word Catholicism is often used to tell the difference between the beliefs of Catholic Christians and the beliefs of others called Protestant Christians. Catholic and Orthodox churches use church leaders, called bishops, to determine beliefs. Protestants, however, often use each member's own understanding of the Bible to determine beliefs. Protestants use guidelines from the 16th-century Protestant Reformation to understand the Bible. It is the world's second largest religious denomination after Sunnism.


title: Catholicism

text: The oldest document that uses the name "Catholic Church" is a letter written by a man named Ignatius. Ignatius lived in the ancient city of Antioch. In the year 107, Ignatius wrote a letter addressed to the Christian community in the ancient city of Smyrna. In this letter, Ignatius encouraged the Christian Community to be loyal to their leader, the Bishop. Ignatius wrote:


title: Catholicism

text: "Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude of the people also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."


title: Catholicism

text: Many different denominations (groups) of Christians call themselves "catholic". Often these groups have special beliefs about their leaders, called bishops. They believe Jesus of Nazareth (whom Christians believe is the Son of God) appointed the first bishops, who appointed future bishops, who eventually appointed each community's current bishops. This appointing of leaders is called "Apostolic Succession".


title: Catholicism

text: Not all communities believe that other communities use the term "catholic" properly. Also, not all communities believe that the other communities have apostolic succession either. For example, the Catholic Church believes that the Eastern Orthodox have apostolic succession. However, the Catholic Church does not believe that the Anglicans or Lutherans have it.


title: Catholicism

text: Eastern Orthodox have similar beliefs about Anglicans and Lutherans. Not all Eastern Orthodox believe that the Catholic Church has apostolic succession. Different members of the Eastern Orthodox churches have different opinions.


title: Catholicism

text: However, the Anglicans and Lutherans generally believe that all Christians are part of the "catholic" church. These groups have a very different understanding of the term "Catholic".


title: Catholicism

text: Catholicism was started as a result of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish man whom Christians believe is the Son of God, a Christian belief known as the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Catholics believe Jesus to be a descendant of David, a Jewish king from a long time ago. Jesus was crucified by the Romans in the year 33 AD. Catholics believe Jesus rose from the dead, and spoke to his followers, called the twelve Apostles. They also believe that Jesus rose into Heaven, and then sent the Holy Spirit to guide his followers at an event known as Pentecost.


title: Catholicism

text: One of his followers, the apostle named Saint Peter, was appointed leader by Jesus and later became recognized as the first Pope, or Bishop of Rome, soon after that he was captured and was martyred in Rome. Catholics believe that Saint Peter was given the "keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," meaning that Jesus made him and the apostles in charge of forgiving sins. Catholics believe that Saint Peter passed the Apostolic Power (the ability to ordain priests and consecrate the Eucharist), given to him by Christ, to the Popes, who continue to pass the power through the papacy to this day. At the current time, the pope is Pope Francis, who is the leader of the Catholic Church. The word "pope" comes from the Latin word for "father."


title: Catholicism

text: In 325, the First Council of Nicaea agreed on how to organize the church. The council agreed the Church had five patriarchs (patriarch was the highest type of church leader). The five leaders were the archbishops of Rome (the Pope), Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The Patriarch of Rome was honored as "first among equals."


title: Catholicism

text: In time, several groups split off from the Catholic Church because of differing opinions of theology. This caused breaks from the Church called schisms. Most schisms happened because people had different beliefs about what is true.


title: Catholicism

text: In 451, a church division happened when all the church leaders meeting at the Church Council in the city of Chalcedon excommunicated (cut off) three leaders, because they held to monophysitism and would not accept the view that Jesus had two natures (fully divine and fully human). These three were the bishops of Egypt, Syria, and Armenia. Of course, these three bishops did not accept being excommunicated either, so the churches under them are still known today as Oriental Orthodox Churches.


title: Catholicism

text: In 1054, an Eastern part of the Catholic Church severed itself, in the East-West Schism. The church in Western Europe which followed the Pope, became known as the Roman Catholic Church. The churches in the rest of the world, which did not think that the Pope should lead all Christians, became known as the Orthodox Church. "Orthodox" means "correct belief;" as they believe that they have kept the teachings of the early church, and the Roman Catholics have not.


title: Catholicism

text: The next big secession was the Protestant Reformation. Protestants resisted the valid central authority of the Church in Rome and rejected many practices, beliefs and disciplines. The Reformation started in Germany, where Martin Luther sent his demands for change to the Church. Because of politics in Europe, many nations supported Luther. The Lutheran Church was started. Later the Calvinist or Presbyterian Church started.


title: Catholicism

text: In England, King Henry VIII started the Anglican church. He wanted to divorce his first wife; but the Pope wouldn't allow it, as the marriage was valid. At first, the church of King Henry VIII, the Church of England, was very similar to the Catholic Church. The major difference was that the king was head of the church, instead of the Pope. Later, under his son, Edward VI, the Anglican Church became more reformed or Protestant. Anglicans, and several other Protestant denominations, still believe they are reformed Catholics. Puritanism arose among Anglicans who thought the reforms didn't go far enough.


title: Catholicism

text: After the Reformation, many other Churches began because of disagreements over beliefs and practices of earlier Protestant doctrine. According to the 2010 U.S. Religious Congregations and Membership Study, this accounts for most of the Protestant denominations in the United States. There are about 314,000 of these. Two examples of these Protestant (or Reformed) churches are Methodist and Baptist.


title: Physics

text: Physics is a branch of science. It is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines. The main goal of physics is to explain how things move in space and time and understand how the universe behaves. It studies matter, forces and their effects.


title: Physics

text: The word "physics" comes from the Greek word ἡ φύσις, meaning "nature". Physics can also be defined as "that department of knowledge which relates to the order of nature, or, in other words, to the regular succession of events".


title: Physics

text: Physics is very important in the development of new technologies, such as airplanes, televisions, computers and nuclear weapons. Mechanics, a branch of physics, helped develop the mathematical field of calculus.


title: Physics

text: Modern physics connects ideas about the four laws of symmetry and conservation of energy, momentum, charge, and parity.


title: Physics

text: Astronomy, a part of physics, is the oldest natural science. In the past it was a part of 'natural philosophy' with other fields of science, such as chemistry and biology. During the scientific revolution, these fields became separate, and physics became a distinct field of knowledge.


title: Physics

text: Astronomy is the oldest natural science. The Sumerians, and Ancient Egyptians studied the stars, mostly with a view to prediction and religion. The first Babylonian star maps date from about 1200 BC. That astronomical events are periodic also dates back to the Babylonians. Their understanding was not scientific, but their observations influenced later astronomy. Much astronomy came from Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Greece. Astronomers from Egypt built monuments that showed how objects in the sky moved, and most of the names for the constellations in the Northern hemisphere came from Greek astronomers.


title: Physics

text: Natural philosophy started in Greece around 650 BC when a movement of philosophers replaced superstition with naturalism, which refuted the spiritual. Leucippus and his student Democritus suggested the idea of the atom around this period.


title: Physics

text: Islamic scholars continued to study Aristotelian physics during the Islamic Golden Age. One main contribution was to observational astronomy. Some, like Ibn Sahl, Al-Kindi, Ibn al-Haytham, Al-Farisi and Avicenna, worked on optics and vision. In "The Book of Optics", Ibn al-Haytham rejected previous Greek ideas concerning vision and proposed a new theory. He studied how light enters the eye, and developed the camera obscura. European scientists later built eyeglasses, magnifying glasses, telescopes, and cameras from this book.


title: Physics

text: Physics became a separate field of study after the scientific revolution. Galileo's experiments helped to create classical physics. Although he did not invent the telescope, he used it when he looked into the night sky. He supported Copernicus' idea that the Earth moved around the Sun (heliocentrism). He also investigated gravity. Isaac Newton used Galileo's ideas to create his three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. Together these laws explained the motion of falling bodies near the earth and the motion of earth and planets around the sun.


title: Physics

text: In a couple centuries, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing and many more discoveries were made in many fields of science. The laws of classical physics are good enough to study objects that move much slower than the speed of light, and are not microscopic. When scientists first studied quantum mechanics, they had to create a new set of laws, which was the start of modern physics.


title: Physics

text: As scientists researched particles, they discovered what classical mechanics could not explain. Classical mechanics predicted that the speed of light varied, but experiments showed the speed of light stayed the same. This was predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity. Einstein predicted that the speed of electromagnetic radiation through empty space would always be the same. His view of space-time replaced the ancient idea that space and time were quite separate things.


title: Physics

text: Max Planck came up with quantum mechanics to explain why metal releases electrons when you shine a light at it, and why matter emits radiation. Quantum mechanics applies for very small things like the electrons, protons, and neutrons that make up an atom. People like Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, and Paul Dirac continued to work on quantum mechanics and eventually we got the Standard Model.


title: Physics

text: Physics is the study of energy and matter in space and time and how they are related to each other. Physicists assume the existence of mass, length, time and electric current and then define (give the meaning of) all other physical quantities in terms of these basic units. Mass, length, time, and electric current are never defined but the standard units used to measure them are always defined. In the International System of Units (abbreviated SI from the French Système International), the kilogram is the basic unit of mass, the metre is the basic unit of length, the second is the basic unit of time, and the ampere is the basic unit of electric current.


title: Physics

text: In addition to these four units, there are three other ones: the mole, which is the unit of the quantity of matter, the candela which measures the luminous intensity (the power of lighting) and the kelvin, the unit of temperature.


title: Physics

text: Physics studies how things move, and the forces that make them move. For example, velocity and acceleration are used by physics to show how things move. Also, physicists study the forces of gravity, electricity, magnetism and the forces that hold things together.


title: Physics

text: Physics studies very large things, and very small things. For instance, physicists can study stars, planets and galaxies but could also study small pieces of matter, such as atoms and electrons.They may also study sound, light and other waves. As well as that, they could examine energy, heat and radioactivity, and even space and time.


title: Physics

text: Physics not only helps people understand how objects move, but how they change form, how they make noise, how hot or cold they will be, and what they are made of at the smallest level. In short, physics is the branch of science that deals with properties of matter and energy along with the interaction between them.


title: Physics

text: Physics is a quantitative science because it is based on measuring with numbers. Mathematics is used in physics to make models that try to predict what will happen in nature. These predictions are compared to the way the real world works. Physicists are always working to make their models of the world better.


title: Physics

text: Classical mechanics contains major topics such as Newton's laws of motion, Lagrangian mechanics, Hamiltonian mechanics, kinematics, statics, dynamics, chaos theory, acoustics, fluid dynamics, continuum mechanics. Classical mechanics is all about forces acting on a body in nature, balancing forces, maintaining equlibrium state, etc .


title: Physics

text: Electromagnetism is study of charges on a particular body. It contains subtopics such as Electrostatics, electrodynamics, electricity, magnetism, magnetostatics, Maxwell's equations, optics .


title: Physics

text: Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are related with temperature. It includes main topics such as Heat engine, kinetic theory. It uses terms such as heat(Q), work(W), and internal energy (U). First law of thermodynamics gives us the relation them by the following equation (ΔU = Q − W)


title: Physics

text: Quantum mechanics is the study of particle at the atomic level taking into consideration the atomic model. It includes subtopics Path integral formulation, scattering theory, Schrödinger equation, quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics.


title: Physics

text: Physics is the science of matter and how matter interacts. Matter is any physical material in the universe. Everything is made of matter. Physics is used to describe the physical universe around us, and to predict how it will behave.


title: Physics

text: Physics is the science concerned with the discovery and characterization of the universal laws which govern matter, movement and forces, and space and time, and other features of the natural world.


title: Physics

text: The sweep of physics is broad, from the smallest components of matter and the forces that hold it together, to galaxies and even larger things. There are only four forces that appear to operate over this whole range. However, even these four forces (gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force associated with radioactivity, and the strong force which holds protons and neutrons in an atom together) are believed to be different parts of a single force.


title: Physics

text: Physics is mainly focused on the goal of making ever simpler, more general, and more accurate rules that define the character and behavior of matter and space itself.


title: Physics

text: One of the major goals of physics is making theories that apply to everything in the universe. In other words, physics can be viewed as the study of those universal laws which define, at the most basic level possible, the behavior of the physical universe.


title: Physics

text: Physics uses the scientific method. That is, data from experiments and observations are collected. Theories which attempt to explain these data are produced. Physics uses these theories to not only describe physical phenomena, but to model physical systems and predict how these physical systems will behave. Physicists then compare these predictions to observations or experimental evidence to show whether the theory is right or wrong.


title: Physics

text: The theories that are well supported by data and are especially simple and general are sometimes called scientific laws. Of course, all theories, including those known as laws, can be replaced by more accurate and more general laws, when a disagreement with data is found.


title: Physics

text: Physics is more quantitative than most other sciences. That is, many of the observations in physics may be represented in the form of numerical measurements. Most of the theories in physics use mathematics to express their principles. Most of the predictions from these theories are numerical. This is because of the areas which physics has addressed work better with quantitative approaches than other areas. Sciences also tend to become more quantitative with time as they become more highly developed, and physics is one of the oldest sciences.


title: Physics

text: Classical physics normally includes the fields of mechanics, optics, electricity, magnetism, acoustics and thermodynamics. Modern physics is a term normally used to cover fields which rely on quantum theory, including quantum mechanics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, particle physics and condensed matter physics, as well as the more modern fields of general and special relativity, but these last two are often considered fields of classical physics as they do not rely on quantum theory. Although this difference can be found in older writings, it is of little new interest as quantum effects are now understood to be of importance even in fields that before were called classical.


title: Physics

text: There are many ways to study physics, and many different kinds of activities in physics. The two main types of activities are the collection of data, and the development of theories.


title: Physics

text: Some subfields of physics can be studied by experiment. For example, Galileo Galilei invented kinematics by making experiments and studying the data. Experimental physics focuses mainly on an empirical approach. Some experiments are done to explore nature, and other experiments are performed to produce data to compare with the predictions of theories.


title: Physics

text: Some other fields in physics like astrophysics and geophysics are mostly observational sciences because most of their data has to be collected passively instead of through experimentation. Galileo, for example, could only look at Jupiter and discover that it has moons. However, observational programs in these fields use many of the same tools and technology that are used in the experimental subfields of physics.


title: Physics

text: Theoretical physics often uses quantitative approaches to develop the theories that attempt to explain the data. In this way, theoretical physicists often use tools from mathematics. Theoretical physics often can involve creating quantitative predictions of physical theories, and comparing these predictions quantitatively with data. Theoretical physics sometimes creates models of physical systems before data is available to test and support these models.


title: Physics

text: These two main activities in physics, data collection, theory production and testing, use many different skills. This has led to a lot of specialization in physics, and the introduction, development and use of tools from other fields. For example, theoretical physicists use mathematics and numerical analysis and statistics and probability and computer software in their work. Experimental physicists develop instruments and techniques for collecting data, using engineering and computer technology and many other fields of technology. Often the tools from these other areas are not quite appropriate for the needs of physics, and need to be changed or more advanced versions have to be made.


title: Physics

text: It is frequent for new physics to be discovered if experimental physicists do an experiment that current theories cannot explain, or for theoretical physicists to generate theories which can then be put to the test by experimental physicists.


title: Physics

text: Experimental physics, engineering and technology are related. Experiments often need specialized tools such as particle accelerators, lasers, and important industrial applications such as transistors and magnetic resonance imaging have come from applied research.


title: China

text: China ( Pinyin: Zhōngguó) is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and a nation in East Asia. The official name is People's Republic of China or PRC.


title: China

text: China is one of the world's oldest civilizations: it has the oldest continuous civilization near Yellow River region There is archaeological evidence over 5,000 years old. China also has one of the world's oldest writing systems (and the oldest in use today). China has been the source of many major inventions. Geographically, China’s longest river is the Yangtze River which runs through mega cities and is home to many species. It is the world’s third longest river.


title: China

text: The first recorded use of the word "China" is dated 1555. It is derived from "chīnī", a Persian adjective meaning 'Chinese' which was popularized in Europe by Marco Polo.


title: China

text: Ancient China was one of the first civilizations and was active since the 2nd millennium BC as a feudal society. Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing, with the others being Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization, the Maya civilization, the Minoan civilization of ancient Greece, and Ancient Egypt. It reached its golden age during the Tang Dynasty (c. A.D. 10th century). Home of Confucianism and Daoism, it had great influence on nearby countries including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam in the areas of political system, philosophy, religion, art, writing and literature. China is home to some of the oldest artwork in the world. Statues and pottery, as well as decorations made of jade, are some classic examples.


title: China

text: Before the Qin Dynasty united China, there were many small feudal states, nominally loyal to the Zhou King, that fought each other for hundreds of years in a war to control China. The majority of these states were ruled by relatives and clansmen of the Zhou royal house and carried the surname Ji (姬) and so were tied by family bonds to the Zhou king, to whom they were ritually subordinate, as members of collateral or lesser lineages. A minority of these states, such as the Qin and Chu, were ruled by non-Zhou clansmen, and were awarded their fiefs on account of some merit. Over time, these feudal states attained to power and wealth, that exceeded that of their Zhou nominal overlord, whose direct authority became confined to a very small territory near present-day Zhengzhou. These states also began to acquire some distinctive characteristics and identities of their own during the long centuries of loose control by the Zhou. Eventually, the Zhou kings were eclipsed in power by two especially problematic vassals - the Qin and Chu, and the functional independence of the Qin later led to its gradual conquest of all other vassal states and the formal supplantation of the Zhou to form a heavily centralised Empire.


title: China

text: The long decline of the Zhou, incidentally the longest ruling dynastic house of China, is known as the Warring States Period. Despite the bloodiness and strife of the period, this was the time when many great philosophies emerged - including Confucianism and Daoism as a response to disintegrating central authority of the Zhou kings and fluctuating power of the vassal states, and the general uncertainty of that era. Confucianism and Daoism have been the foundation of many social values seen in modern east Asian cultures today.


title: China

text: Other notable dynasties include the Han (from which is derived the ethnonym the Han Chinese, which is synonymous with the older self-referential term - the Huaxia) as well as dynasties such as the Tang, Song, and Ming, which were characterised by periods of affluence, wealth, population growth, and the proliferation of literature.


title: China

text: During the later years, China was often raided or invaded by northern nomadic people such as the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Jurchens and the Mongols (the latter led by Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan). One effect of regular nomadic invasion and the collapse of native dynasties was the massive migration of Han Chinese - especially the aristocratic elite and the literati, to sparsely populated frontier regions south of the Yangzi river such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian. Several notable waves of Han Chinese immigration to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian took place during the collapse of the Jin, the Tang, and the Song.


title: China

text: Some nomadic groups succeeded in conquering the whole territory of China, establishing dynasties such as the Yuan (Mongol) and Qing (Manchu). Each time, they also brought new elements into Chinese culture - for instance, military uniform, the qipao and the pigtail, the latter of which was deeply resented by the Han Chinese.


title: China

text: While China achieved many things in the First millennium and early 2nd millennium, it became an isolationist country in the 15th century C.E. This was because Spain found enormous silver in the new continent, which was the main currency (money) in China and Europe at the time, and China did not want to be bought by the foreigners.


title: China

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


title: China

text: Still influenced by Western sources, China faced internal strife. The Taiping Rebellion or Taiping War occurred in China from 1851 through 1864. The Taiping Rebellion was led by Hong Xiuquan from Guangdon. Hong Xiuquan was influenced by Christian missionaries and declared himself the brother of Jesus. Hong made his mission to bring down the Qing Dynasty. Gaining influence on the southern Chinese population, the Taiping Rebellion attracted tens of thousands of supporters. The Taiping regime successfully created a state within the Qing Empire with the capital at Nanjing. Hong called his new state the Taiping Tianguo or "The Heavenly State of Great Peace". Local armies eventually suppressed the rebellion at the final battle of Nanjing.


title: China

text: In 1911, the Republic of China was founded by Sun Yat-sen, but its government was very weak. Warlords controlled many areas. Chiang Kai-shek led wars against them, and he became president and dictator.


title: China

text: In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, a place in the northeastern part of China. On July 7, 1937, the Japanese attacked the rest of the country, starting what was called the Second Sino-Japanese War. The war later became part of World War II. The war was fought for eight years and millions of Chinese people were killed.


title: China

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


title: China

text: Under Mao the country stayed poor while Taiwan became richer. His attempt at industrialization and collectivization with the Great Leap Forward led to the deaths of many people from famine. The Cultural Revolution caused great social upheaval. After 1976, China underwent market economy reforms under Deng Xiaoping, and experienced rapid economic growth, which made the former progress made by Taiwan became overshadowed. China is now one of the largest economies in the world, relying mainly on exports.


title: China

text: In recent history, China has had problems with protests, blocking of information on the Internet, and censorship of news. 1989 was notable for the controversial Tiananmen Square protests. Since the 2008 Olympics, China has hosted many major international events, and the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing, China.


title: China

text: China's landscape is vast and diverse. It ranges from the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in the north to subtropical forests in the south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern coast. The Yangtze River is the third-longest river in the world while the Yellow River is the sixth-longest. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers (9,000 mi) long. It is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China connects through the Kazakh border to the Eurasian Steppe. The Eurasian Steppe has been an artery of communication between East and West since the Neolithic through the Steppe route. The Steppe Route is the ancestor of the terrestrial Silk Road(s).


title: China

text: China's constitution states that The People's Republic of China "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants". It also states the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism." The PRC is one of the world's only socialist states openly being communist.


title: China

text: With 2.3 million active troops, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the largest standing military force in the world. The PLA is commanded by the Central Military Commission (CMC). China has the second-biggest military reserve force, only behind North Korea. The PLA consists of the Ground Force (PLAGF), the Navy (PLAN), the Air Force (PLAAF), and the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF). According to the Chinese government, China's military budget for 2017 was US$151,5 billion. China has the world's second-largest military budget.


title: China

text: China was once a world leader in science and technology up until the Ming dynasty. There are many Ancient Chinese discoveries and inventions. For example, papermaking, printing, the compass, and gunpowder are known as the Four Great Inventions. They became widespread across East Asia, the Middle East and later to Europe. Chinese mathematicians were the first to use negative numbers. By the 17th century, Europe and the Western world became better than China in science and technology.


title: China

text: The national census of 2010 recorded the population of the People's Republic of China to be about 1,370,536,875. About 16.60% of the population were 14 years old or younger, 70.14% were between 15 and 59 years old, and 13.26% were over 60 years old. The population growth rate for 2013 is estimated to be 0.46%.


title: China

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


title: China

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


title: China

text: China has many traditional festivals, such as Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-autumn Festival and so on. The most important is Chinese New Year. People in China will have holidays to celebrate these festivals.


title: China

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


title: China

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


title: Hebrew calendar

text: The Hebrew calendar or Jewish calendar is the calendar used in Judaism. It is used to set the dates of the Jewish holidays and the weekly public reading of the Torah. It is used to set the date for a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah, the day a young person is considered an adult in Judaism. It sets the "Yahrzeit," the anniversary of the death of a relative. The daily Jewish prayer service changes depending on the day of the Hebrew calendar.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: The Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar which depends on both the moon and the sun. Months of the Hebrew calendar are based on the appearance of the new moon. At the same time, the holiday of Passover must be in the spring. For this reason, years of the Hebrew calendar are based on the sun.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: One solar (sun-based) year lasts about 365 days, but twelve lunar (moon-based) months only last about 354 days. For this reason, the Hebrew calendar adds an extra lunar month seven times in each cycle of 19 years. This rule makes the average Hebrew calendar year about the same length as a solar year, 365 days.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: The seven-day week is used to figure out the day for Shabbat, the day of rest. The week does not depend on the solar year or lunar month. Instead, it depends on a count of seven days that is believed to go back to ancient times. The week is also an important part of the Hebrew calendar.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: According to the Book of Exodus, Jews have been using a lunisolar calendar since the time they left Egypt. The first commandment the Jewish people received as a nation was the commandment to determine the New Moon. Very soon after that, the Jews received the commandment to make sure that Passover falls in the spring.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: In the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), the months are usually numbered rather than named. (See table below.) Only four month names appear in the Tanakh from before the Babylonian Exile (see table). The month names of the modern Hebrew calendar were taken from the month names in the Babylonian calendar during the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE).


title: Hebrew calendar

text: At first, a new month began when witnesses came to the Sanhedrin (high rabbinical court) and testified that they saw the new crescent moon in the sky. The Sanhedrin also decided when an extra month should be added to the calendar to keep Passover in the spring. (See Metonic cycle.) After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, it became harder for the Sanhedrin to meet and hear witnesses. For that reason, the Sanhedrin established a fixed, rule-based form of the calendar. Maimonides fully described the modern Hebrew calendar around the year 1178 CE.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: In the modern Hebrew calendar, years are counted as "Anno Mundi" (Latin for "year of the world"). This represents the traditional count of years since the creation of the world as described in Genesis. This year is "anno mundi" .


title: Hebrew calendar

text: In the small Karaite Judaism community, the calendar is very similar. However, Karaites use witnesses to set the date of the new crescent moon. They still use the ripening of barley to decide whether to add an extra month to the year. For those reasons, the Karaite calendar can be slightly different from the main Jewish calendar.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: In the Hebrew calendar, the meaning of "day" is taken from the Hebrew Bible: "And there was evening, and there was morning, one day". Because "evening" comes before "morning", a "day" in the Hebrew calendar starts in the evening. For many purposes, the "day" in the Hebrew calendar begins at sunset. But when it is important to make sure the previous day is completely over, the day begins at nightfall.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: People who print calendars, or who write calendar programs for computers, ignore that rule. They treat the Hebrew calendar date and the Gregorian calendar date that has the same midnight as being the same day. They assume that people reading a Hebrew calendar know the sundown rule. Whenever a holiday, birthday or anniversary appears on a printed calendar, it actually begins on the day before, at sundown.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: In the Hebrew calendar, every seventh day is Shabbat, the day of rest. The "week" is the cycle of counting out each set of seven days ending in Shabbat. The week is not affected by any other calendar calculation. In Hebrew, the only name for the first six days of the week is a counting name: "First day", "Second day", etc. The only day of the week with a special name is the seventh day—Shabbat. (See table above.)


title: Hebrew calendar

text: The calculation of the Hebrew calendar year and month start with the "molad". "Molad" is a Hebrew word meaning "birth". The word refers to the "birth" of the new moon each month. The modern Hebrew calendar uses a calculated "molad:" the "average" length of the cycle from new moon to new moon over many years. The length of the molad is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, seconds.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: A year of 12 lunar months would be 354 days long; but a Hebrew calendar year must be a solar year—about 365 days long. Also, a Hebrew calendar year must have either 12 months or 13 months. It is not allowed to have "part" of a month, so a thirteenth month is added seven times in every cycle of nineteen years. This is an adaptation of the Metonic cycle, a calendar cycle that was well known in ancient times. By convention, the Hebrew calendar adds the extra month during years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19 of the cycle.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: Hebrew calendar months are supposed to be lunar months. For that reason, the calculation of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, starts with the "molad" for the month of Tishrei. Starting from there, the calendar rules allow two main reasons to delay Rosh Hashanah by one or more days:


title: Hebrew calendar

text: Once the dates for this year's and next year's Rosh Hashanahs are known, calculating the calendar in between is easy.


title: Hebrew calendar

text: The length of a "molad" is just a little over days. Since a month must have a whole number of days, calculating the calendar starts with alternating months of 30 and 29 days. This gives an average of days and a 12-month total of 354 days. Starting from there, the month lengths are changed as follows:


title: Hebrew calendar

text: The first day of the Hebrew calendar month, known as "Rosh Hodesh" (), is always close to the astronomical new moon. It often is not exactly on the astronomical new moon. There are two reasons for that:


title: Epic poetry

text: Epic poetry tells a dramatic story in a poem. There are characters in the story. It is usually long, and takes place in different settings. Epic poems started in prehistoric times as part of oral tradition. The Kyrgyz Epic of Manas is one of the longest written epics in history.


title: Epic poetry

text: "Beowulf" is a typical example, written in Old English. Well-known people who wrote epics were Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Edmund Spenser and Milton. William Wordsworth's Prelude plays with epic ideas though the poem is autobiography.


title: Georgia (country)

text: Georgia is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and western Asia. It is on the coast of the Black Sea. It is largely encircled by the Greater and Lesser Caucasus mountain ranges. During 1918–1921, and 1991–1995 its full name was the Republic of Georgia. Since 1995 it is Georgia, as written in the Constitution. It was part of the Soviet Union between 1921 and 1991, but now it is an independent republic. The capital city is Tbilisi. Almost 4 million people live there.


title: Georgia (country)

text: The Georgians are an ancient people. Their capital Tbilisi was founded around AD 400, by the king Vakhtang I of Iberia. Western Georgia was part of the Roman Empire before then. The Arabs captured it in 635 AD. The culture continued and flourished through trade.


title: Georgia (country)

text: In the 900s Arab influence diminished in Caucasia. In 1008 Kingdom of Georgia was formed. It was the major country in the region until the Mongol Empire invaded it in 1223. Georgia was part of the Mongol Empire for a century on and off until 1334, when King Giorgi V took over. In the 1400s Georgia dissolved into several principalities. In the 1500s the Persians invaded Eastern Georgia four times from 1541 to 1544. In 1555 the Kings of Kartli ruled through the will of the Persian Shahs.


title: Georgia (country)

text: In 1783 The treaty of Georgievsk was signed between Catherine the Great of Russia and King Heraclius II, giving Russia the power to protect Georgia. Then, in 1798 the Persians burned Tbilisi to the ground.


title: Georgia (country)

text: From 1811 to 1918 Georgia was under the Tsar of Russia. Their culture survived intact. From 1918 to 1921 Georgia was independent, and then was part of the Soviet Union.


title: Georgia (country)

text: In 1991 most people from Georgia voted to be a free nation again, and Georgia declared their independence from the Soviet Union. Newly established Republic of Georgia saw bloody Civil War resulting in downfall of first-ever president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Georgia was also involved in War in Abkhazia. There was a rough patch between 1994 and 1995 when the economy was poor, although Georgia saw significant improvements in last few years. Now Georgia is applying to NATO and European Union.


title: Georgia (country)

text: Georgia is next to the countries of Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It also has a coast on the Black Sea. It is at the edge of Europe and Asia.


title: Georgia (country)

text: Georgia has many mountains. Its highest point is 5,193 m above sea level. The mountains running through Georgia are called the Caucasus Mountains.


title: Georgia (country)

text: The highest mountain in Georgia is Mount Shkhara at 5,193 m. The coastline of Georgia is 310 km long. Georgia has about 25,000 rivers. The largest river is the Mtkvari.


title: Georgia (country)

text: Georgia is divided into 9 regions, 1 city, and 2 autonomous republics. These in turn are divided into 67 districts and 12 self-governing cities.


title: Georgia (country)

text: The region of Abkhazia declared independence in 1999. South Ossetia is officially known by Georgia as the Tskinvali region. Georgia considers both regions as occupied by Russia.


title: Georgia (country)

text: About 4 million people live in Georgia. About 1.2 million live in Tbilisi. People from Georgia are called Georgians. Most of them speak Georgian as their first language, though some people also speak Azerbaijani, Armenian, Russian or other languages.


title: Georgia (country)

text: Georgians use three alphabets/scripts, Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli, with Asomtavruli being the very first Georgian Script, which was said to be invented by King Pharnavaz I of Iberia


title: Flood

text: A flood is an overflow of water. This is most commonly due to an overflowing river, a dam break, snowmelt, or heavy rainfall. Less commonly happening are tsunamis, storm surge.


title: Flood

text: The most deadly flooding was in 1931 in China and killed between 20,00,000 and 40,00,000 people. The Kerala flood in India was another flood that has destroyed people's houses.


title: Flood

text: During a flood, people try to move themselves and their most precious belongings to higher ground quickly. The process of leaving homes in search of a safe place is called a flood evacuation.


title: Flood

text: During a flood there is plenty of water logging and overflow of water, it is mostly polluted and not safe to drink. If people drink this dirty water, they may suffer from diseases such as typhoid and cholera, hepatitis and other such diseases. People can get ready to survive a flood by filling many containers with fresh and clean drinking water and storing other emergency supplies; like: medicine and food. During flood people try to go to higher sides because the flood water wouldn't reach high areas. Also drains overflow and mix with clean water and people who drink it might fall ill.


title: Flood

text: Flooding is usually caused when a volume of water within a water body, such as a lake, overflows outside it.Sometimes if a dam breaks, it suddenly releases a large amount of water. The result is that some of the water travels to land, and 'floods' the area. Many rivers are in a channel, between river banks. They flood when the strength of the river causes it to flow beyond the banks. This is more common at bends or meanders. Flood damage can be prevented by moving away from places that flood. However, people have long liked to have their homes and businesses alongside water because water is good for agriculture and transport and in other ways. Floods are also caused due to improper management of drains. Rainfall is the most common cause. Snow melt is also a cause of flooding. Tsunamis and Storm Surge are less common ways that floods happen. Coastal Flooding is another common cause of flooding, and this is caused by low pressure systems or storms.You can control floods by improving the drainage and grading of your home. Installing a flood detection system in your home also helps to prevent flooding.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Olympic Games () is an important international event featuring summer and winter sports. Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games are held every four years. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in Ancient Greece at Olympia. The first games were in 776 BC. They were held every four years until the 6th century AC. The first "modern" Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece. Athletes participate in the Olympics Games to represent their countries.


title: Olympic Games

text: Over time the Olympics have become bigger. In old times, women were not allowed, but now there are women's events. The Winter Games were created for ice and snow sports. The Paralympic Games were created for athletes with physical disabilities. As well, the Olympics became bigger with the addition of the Youth Olympic Games for teenage athletes. World War I and World War II led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Games. As the decision-making body, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for choosing the host city for each Olympic Games. The IOC is also responsible for choosing what sports are in the games. The creator of modern Olympics is Baron Pierre de Coubertin.


title: Olympic Games

text: The celebration of the Games includes many rituals and symbols, such as Olympic flag and torch, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. The first, second, and third-place finishers in each event receive, respectively, gold, silver, and bronze medals.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Olympics of Ancient Greece featured mainly athletic but also combat and chariot racing events. During the Olympic Games all struggles among the participating city-states were postponed until the games were finished. The origin of these Olympics is shrouded in mystery and legend According to legend, it was Heracles who first called the Games "Olympic" and established the custom of holding them every four years. The most widely accepted date for the beginning of the Ancient Olympics is 776BC; based on inscriptions of the winners of a footrace held every four years starting then. The Ancient Games featured running events, a pentathlon (consisting of a jumping event, discus and javelin throws, a foot race and wrestling), boxing, wrestling, and equestrian events.


title: Olympic Games

text: There is no agreement on when the Games officially ended, but many historians think it is 393AD, when the emperor Theodosius I declared that all Pagan religious practices should end. Another date might be 426AD, when the next emperor Theodosius II ordered the destruction of all Greek temples. After the Olympics stopped, they were not held again until the late 19th century.


title: Olympic Games

text: An attempt to copy the ancient Olympic Games was the "L'Olympiade de la République annually from 1796 to 1798 in Revolutionary France. The competition had several sports from the ancient Greek Olympics.


title: Olympic Games

text: Greek interest in bringing back the Olympic Games began with the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. It was first proposed by poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead", published in 1833. Evangelis Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic Games. Zappas sponsored the first Olympic Games in 1859, which was held in Athens. Athletes from Greece and the Ottoman Empire participated. Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic stadium so that it could host all future Olympic Games.


title: Olympic Games

text: Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival. It was created by John Hulley and Charles Melly, with support from Dr. Brookes. These games were unfair in nature since only Men could compete. In 1865 Hulley, Dr. Brookes and E.G. Ravenstein founded the National Olympian Association in Liverpool, a forerunner of the British Olympic Association. Its articles of foundation provided the framework for the International Olympic Charter.


title: Olympic Games

text: Dr. Brookes copied the sports which were in the Olympics held in Athens in 1859 in future Wenlock Olympian Games (Brookes created this first as a class in 1850 and then as an event in 1856.). In 1866, a national Olympic Games in Great Britain was organized by Dr. Brookes at London's Crystal Palace.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Panathinaiko Stadium hosted Olympics in 1870 and 1875. Thirty thousand spectators attended that Games in 1870, although no official attendance records are available for the 1875 Games. In 1890, after attending the Olympian Games of the Wenlock Olympian Society, Baron Pierre de Coubertin created the International Olympic Committee. Coubertin built on the ideas and work of Brookes and Zappas with the aim of creating an Olympic Games that would occur every four years in a different country. He presented these ideas during the first meeting of the newly created International Olympic Committee (IOC). This meeting was held from June 16 to June 23, 1894, at the Sorbonne University in Paris. On the last day of the meeting, it was decided that the first Olympic Games, to be controlled by the IOC, would take place two years later in Athens. The IOC elected the Greek writer Demetrius Vikelas as its first president.


title: Olympic Games

text: The first Games held under the IOC was hosted in the Panathenaic stadium in Athens in 1896. These Games brought 14 nations and 241 athletes who competed in 43 events. Zappas and his cousin Konstantinos Zappas had left the Greek government money to fund future Olympic Games. This money was used to pay for the 1896 Games. George Averoff paid for the refurbishment of the stadium in preparation for the Games. The Greek government also provided money, which was paid back through the sale of tickets. Money was also paid back through the sale of the first Olympic commemorative stamp set.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Greek officials and public were excited about hosting these Games. This feeling was shared by many of the athletes, who even demanded that Athens be the host of the Olympic Games on a permanent basis. The IOC did not approve this request. The IOC stated that each games would be held in a different country.


title: Olympic Games

text: Following the success of the 1896 Games, the Olympics entered a period of stagnation that threatened their survival. The Olympic Games held at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and the World's Fair at St. Louis in 1904 were side-shows. The Games at Paris did not have a stadium, however this was the first time women took part in the games. The St. Louis Games hosted 650 athletes, but 580 were from the United States. The homogeneous nature of these celebrations was a low point for the Olympic Movement. The Games rebounded when the Intercalated Games (so-called because they were the second Games held within an Olympiad, a period of time lasting four years) were held in Athens. These Games are not officially recognized by the IOC and no Intercalated Games have been held since. These Games were hosted at the Panathenaic stadium in Athens. The games attracted an international field of participants and generated great public interest.


title: Olympic Games

text: Between 1912 and 1948 art competitions were a part of the Olympics. Medals were awarded for works of art inspired by sport, divided into five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. The juried art competitions were abandoned in 1954 because artists were considered to be professionals, while Olympic athletes were required to be amateurs. The competitions were part of the original intention of the Olympic Movement.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Winter Olympics were created for snow and ice sports that were not part of the Summer Games. Figure skating (in 1908 and 1920) and ice hockey (in 1920) were Olympic events at the Summer Olympics. At the 1921 Olympic Congress, in Lausanne, it was decided to hold a winter version of the Olympic Games. A winter sports week (actually 11 days) was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The IOC ruled that the Winter Olympic Games be celebrated every four years on the same year as the summer games. This pattern continued until the 1992 Games in Albertville, France. After this, beginning with the 1994 Games, the Winter Olympics were held on the third year of each Olympiad.


title: Olympic Games

text: Starting in 2010, Youth Games help to develop young athletes for the Olympic Games. Athletes between the ages of 14 and 18 compete. The Youth Olympic Games were created by IOC president Jacques Rogge in 2001 and approved during the 119th meeting of the IOC. The first Summer Youth Games were held in Singapore from 14–26 August 2010. The first Winter Games was hosted in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2012. These Games are shorter than the Olympic Games. The summer version will last twelve days and the winter version will last nine days. The IOC will allow 3,500 athletes and 875 officials to take part at the Summer Youth Games. 970 athletes and 580 officials will take part at the Winter Youth Games. The sports to be played will be the same as at the Olympic Games.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Olympic Movement includes a large number of national and international sporting organizations and federations. As the group in charge of the Olympic Movement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is responsible for selecting the host city. Overseeing the planning of the Olympic Games. Changing the sports involved. Agreeing sponsorship and broadcasting rights.


title: Olympic Games

text: French and English are the official languages of the Olympic Movement. The other language used at each Olympic Games is the language of the host country.


title: Olympic Games

text: In 1998, it was uncovered that several IOC members had taken bribes from members of the Salt Lake City bid committee for the hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics. This was done to make sure that Salt Lake City won. The IOC investigated and four members resigned and six people were sacked.


title: Olympic Games

text: A BBC documentary entitled "Panorama: Buying the Games", aired in August 2004, investigated the taking of bribes in the bidding process for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The documentary claimed it was possible to bribe IOC members into voting for a particular candidate city. After being narrowly defeated in their bid for the 2012 Summer Games, Parisian Mayor Bertrand Delanoë accused the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the London Bid Committee of breaking the bid rules.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Turin bid for the 2006 Winter Olympics was also shrouded in controversy. A prominent IOC member, Marc Hodler, strongly connected with the rival bid of Sion, Switzerland, alleged bribery of IOC officials by members of the Turin Organizing Committee. These accusations led to a wide-ranging investigation. The allegations also served to sour many IOC members against Sion's bid and potentially helped Turin to capture the host city nomination.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Olympic logo also known as the Olympic rings, consists of five intertwined rings and represents the unity of the five inhabited continents (America, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe). The colored version of the rings—blue, yellow, black, green, and red—over a white field forms the Olympic flag. The flag was adopted in 1914 but flown for the first time at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. The flag has since been flown during every Games. The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius", a Latin expression meaning "Faster, Higher, Stronger".


title: Olympic Games

text: Before each Games, the Olympic flame is lit in Olympia in a ceremony that reflects ancient Greek rituals. A female performer, acting as a priestess, lights a torch with the use of the sun. The woman then lights the torch of the first relay bearer. Starting the Olympic torch relay that will carry the flame to the host city's Olympic stadium. The flame has been an Olympic symbol since 1928 and the torch relay was introduced at the 1936 Summer Games.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Olympic mascot was introduced in 1968. The mascot is either an animal or human figure representing the cultural heritage of the host country.


title: Olympic Games

text: As mandated by the Olympic Charter, various elements frame the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Most of these rituals were established at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. The ceremony typically starts with the hoisting of the host country's flag and a performance of its national anthem. The host nation then presents artistic displays of music, singing, dance, and theater representative of its culture.


title: Olympic Games

text: After the artistic portion of the ceremony, the athletes parade into the stadium grouped by nation. Greece is traditionally the first nation to enter in order to honor the origins of the Olympics. Nations then enter the stadium alphabetically according to the host country's chosen language. The host country's athletes are always the last to enter. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, which was hosted in Athens, Greece. The Greek flag entered the stadium first and last. When it came in to the stadium for the second time it was followed by the athletes. Speeches are then given formally opening the Games. Finally the athletes oath said. Following this the Olympic torch is brought into the stadium and passed on until it reaches the final torch carrier who lights the cauldron.


title: Olympic Games

text: The closing ceremony of the Olympic Games takes place after all sporting events have concluded. Flag-bearers from each participating country enter the stadium. They are followed by the athletes who enter together without any national distinction.


title: Olympic Games

text: Three national flags are hoisted while the corresponding national anthems are played. The flag of Greece to honor the birthplace of the Olympic Games. The flag of the current host country. The flag of the country hosting the next Summer or Winter Olympic Games is also flown.


title: Olympic Games

text: The president of the organizing committee and the IOC president make their closing speeches. The Games are officially closed and the Olympic flame is put out.


title: Olympic Games

text: In what is known as the Antwerp Ceremony (as this tradition was started in Antwerp), the mayor of the city that organized the Games transfers a special Olympic flag to the president of the IOC. The president then passes it on to the mayor of the city hosting the next Olympic Games.


title: Olympic Games

text: After these compulsory elements, the next host nation briefly introduces itself with artistic displays of dance and theater representative of its culture.


title: Olympic Games

text: A medal ceremony is held after each Olympic event is concluded. The winner, second and third-place competitors or teams stand on top of a three-tiered rostrum to be awarded their respective medals. After the medals are given out by an IOC member, the national flags of the three medalists are raised while the national anthem of the gold medalist's country plays.


title: Olympic Games

text: The Olympic Games program consists of 26 sports, 30 disciplines and nearly 300 events. For example, wrestling is a Summer Olympic sport, comprising two disciplines: Greco-Roman and Freestyle. It is broken down into fourteen events for men and four events for women. Each event represents a different weight class. The Summer Olympics program includes 26 sports, while the Winter Olympics program features 15 sports.


title: Olympic Games

text: Olympic sports are governed by international sports federations (IFs) recognized by the IOC as the global supervisors of those sports. There are 35 federations represented at the IOC. Changes can happen to the list of sports in the Olympics. Sports can be added or removed from the list on the basis of a two-thirds majority vote of the members of the IOC.


title: Olympic Games

text: The 114th IOC meeting, in 2002, limited the Summer Games program to a maximum of 28 sports, 301 events, and 10,500 athletes. Three years later, at the 117th IOC Session, the first major change to the list was performed. This resulted in the removal of baseball and softball from the list of sports for the 2012 London Games. Since there was no agreement in the promotion of two other sports, the 2012 program will feature just 26 sports. The 2016 and 2020 Games will return to the maximum of 28 sports given the addition of rugby and golf.


title: Olympic Games

text: The exclusion of professionals caused several controversies throughout the history of the modern Olympics. The 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon champion Jim Thorpe was stripped of his medals when it was discovered that he had played semi-professional baseball before the Olympics. His medals were restored by the IOC in 1983 on compassionate grounds. As class structure evolved through the 20th century, the definition of the amateur athlete as an aristocratic gentleman became outdated. The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Bloc countries further eroded the ideology of the pure amateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism.


title: Olympic Games

text: Beginning in the 1970s, amateurism requirements were gradually phased out of the Olympic Charter. After the 1988 Games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible for the Olympics, subject to the approval of the IFs.


title: Olympic Games

text: As of 2004, the only sport in which no professionals compete is boxing, although even this requires a definition of amateurism based on fight rules rather than on payment, as some boxers receive cash prizes from their National Olympic Committees. In men's football (soccer), only three professional players over the age of 23 are eligible to participate per team in the Olympic tournament.