title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany

text: The number of letters in the city/region code usually shows the size and location of the district: the largest German cities generally only have one letter codes (B=Berlin, M=München (Munich), K=Köln (Cologne), F=Frankfurt am Main), most other districts in Germany have two or three letter codes. Districts in eastern Germany usually have more letters, for two reasons:


title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany

text: This is only a rule of thumb, there are a number of exceptions e.g. Germany's second largest city Hamburg (HH, Hansestadt Hamburg, because of its historical membership in the Hanseatic League) or the west German district Ammerland (WST, Westerstede is the capital of the district).


title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany

text: The reason for this scheme is however not to display size or location, but simply to have enough combinations available within the maximum length of eight characters per plate.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany

text: After the location name there are the emission test and vehicle safety test stickers (see below), followed by one or two letters and one to four numbers. These letters and numbers can be chosen by the vehicle owner or if they prefer, random ones can be allocated by the licensing office. The total quantity of letters and numbers on the plate is never higher than eight. One letter with low numbers are normally reserved for motorcycle use since the plate space of these vehicles is smaller.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany

text: Various combinations that could be considered politically unacceptable—mainly due to implications relating to Nazi Germany—are disallowed or otherwise avoided. The district Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge uses the name of its main town, Pirna, in its code "PIR", to avoid the use of "SS", the name of the nazi group; similarly "SA" is also unused. This is why automobiles for the government and parliament in Saxony-Anhalt are registered with LSA (Land Sachsen Anhalt). In 2004 in Nuremberg, an automobile owner was refused a number plate beginning N-PD because of the connection to the political party, the NPD.


title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany

text: Banned combinations include the Nazi abbreviations HJ ("Hitlerjugend", Hitler Youth), NS ("Nationalsozialismus", National Socialism), SA ("Sturmabteilung"), SS ("Schutzstaffel") and KZ ("Konzentrationslager", concentration camp). Some registration offices have overlooked this rule by mistake, however; there are a few automobiles registered carrying prohibited codes, such as "B-SS 12". Some counties also allow these combinations if they are the initials of the owner (e.g., Norbert Schmidt might be able to get XX-NS 1234), but in this case, if the automobile is sold and re-registered in the same county by the new owner, the number can be changed (otherwise the number stays with the automobile until it registered in a different area).


title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany

text: The German Federal President's license plate is 0-1, the Chancellor's 0-2, the Foreign Secretary's 0-3. The plate of the President of the Bundestag is an exception: it shows 1-1. This is to show that the Bundestag's President is not part of the government but still ranks higher in importance than the Chancellor. These vehicles are tax-exempt and need not to be insured since the German government acts as insurer.


title: Arranged marriage

text: An arranged marriage is when a couple are decided to wed by people other than themselves. In most cases, this is decided by their parents or other elders in their families, but can also be decided by religious figures, teachers, close friends of the family or others. It is mostly practised in Southern Asian, African, East, and Middle Eastern cultures today, and in East and Southeast Asian cultures to some extent. Arranged marriages are not just an alliance between two individuals, it is an alliance between families. Unlike forced marriages, partners are usually only suggested to the single person in question. They can accept or refuse.


title: Arranged marriage

text: Many people in Western cultures disagree with arranged marriages. It is the social norm in the west to form a deep, emotional bond with someone before marriage is even considered. However, recent studies have shown that although arranged marriages start with a low level of love (using the American Rubin Love Scale), they usually have twice the amount of love as non-arranged marriages within 10 years. Whereas in non-arranged marriages the level of love seems to become less as time goes on.


title: Truffle

text: A truffle is the fruiting body of an underground mushroom. Its spores are dispersed by fungivores (animals that eat fungi). Almost all truffles are found in close association with trees (see mycorrhiza).


title: Truffle

text: Truffles are used as a food additive in cooking. The truffles improve the flavour. There are hundreds of species of truffles that can be used, but the fruiting body of some (mostly in the genus "Tuber") are highly prized. The 18th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin called these truffles "the diamond of the kitchen". Edible truffles are expensive because they are held in high esteem in "haute cuisine". They are used in the cuisine of many countries in Europe and worldwide.


title: Truffle

text: The "black truffle" or "black Périgord truffle" "Tuber melanosporum" is named after the Périgord region in France and grows only with oak. Specimens can be found in late autumn and winter, reaching 7 cm in diameter and weighing up to 100 g. Production is almost exclusively European, with France accounting for 45%, Spain 35%, Italy 20%, and small amounts from Slovenia, Croatia and the Australian states of Tasmania and Western Australia (see below). In 1900, France produced around 1,000 metric tonnes (1,100 short tons) of "Tuber melanosporum". Production has considerably shrunk in the past century, and is now around 20 metric tonnes (22 short tons) per year, with peaks at 46 metric tonnes (50 short tons) in the best years. About 80% of the French production comes from southeast France. The largest truffle market in France (and probably also in the world) is at Richerenches in Vaucluse. The largest truffle market in southwest France is at Lalbenque in Quercy. These markets are busiest in the month of January, when the black truffles have their highest perfume. As of December 2009, black truffles were sold for about €1,000 per kilo in a farmer's market and €3,940 per kilo in a retail saler.


title: Truffle

text: The "white truffle" or "Alba madonna" or "Tuber magnatum" comes from the Montferrat and Langhe areas of the Piedmont region in northern Italy and in the countryside around the city of Alba. It is also found in Croatia, on the Istria peninsula in the Motovun forest alongside Mirna river. They grow with oak, hazel, poplar and beech trees, and fruit in autumn. They can reach 12 cm diameter and 500 g, though are usually much smaller. The flesh is pale cream or brown with white marbling. Like the French black truffles, Italian white truffles are very highly esteemed ("illustration, left"). The white truffle market in Alba is busiest in the months of October and November, where a 1.6-pound white truffle sold to "The Cody" of southern California for $150,000 on November 8, 2009 during the 79th White Truffle Festival. In 2001, the "Tuber magnatum" truffles sold for between US$1,000 and $2,200 per pound; as of December 2009 they were being sold at €10,200 per kilogram.


title: Truffle

text: Giancarlo Zigante and his dog Diana found one of the largest truffles in the world near Buje, Croatia. The truffle weighed and has entered the Guinness Book of Records.


title: Truffle

text: The record price paid for a single white truffle was set in December 2007, when Macau casino owner Stanley Ho paid US$330,000 (£165,000) for a specimen weighing , discovered by Luciano Savini and his dog Rocco. One of the largest truffles found in decades, it was unearthed near Pisa and sold at an auction held simultaneously in Macau, Hong Kong and Florence. This record was then matched on November 27, 2010 when Ho again paid US$330,000 for a pair of white truffles including one weighing nearly a kilogram.


title: Truffle

text: Looking for truffles in open ground is almost always carried out with specially trained pigs (hogs) or, more recently, dogs. The Lagotto Romagnolo is the only dog breed recognized for sniffing out truffles (although virtually any breed could be trained for this purpose).


title: Truffle

text: The female pig's natural truffle-seeking, as well as her intent to eat the truffle, is due to a compound in the truffle. This compound is similar to androstenol, the sex pheromone of boar saliva, to which the sow is keenly attracted.


title: Truffle

text: In Italy, the use of the pig to hunt truffles is prohibited since 1985 due to damage caused by animals to truffle's mycelia during the digging that dropped the production rate of the area for some years.


title: Truffle

text: Truffles can be cultivated, but it is not easy. The two world wars disrupted the growing of truffles in Europe, and changes in land use has reduced the available area. Truffles are now being cultivated in Australia and New Zealand.


title: AOL

text: AOL Inc. (previously America Online) is a U.S.-based online service provider and Internet service provider. It has been in business since 1985. Important services in the early years were online chat and online games. Most connections were dial-up. In 2001 AOL bought Time Warner. In 2009 after a spin-off from Time Warner they changed their name to AOL Inc. It was announced in May 2015 that Verizon Communications purchased AOL.


title: AOL

text: AOL Instant Messenger was a service which allowed users to communicate with any user currently online. AIM had millions of users worldwide. There were also other computer programs that could be used to talk with your AIM account, for example Trillian, Pidgin, Digsby, and AIM+. AIM was shut down on December 15, 2017.


title: AOL

text: Other AOL products are AOL Spyware Protection, AOL Safety and Security Center, ICQ, AOl Computer Check-Up, AOL Explorer, AOL TopSpeed, AOL Dialer, AOL One-Click Fixes and AOL Openride.


title: Ángel Di Maria

text: Angel Fabian Di Maria Hernandez (born 14 February 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer. He plays for French Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Argentina national team. He can play as either a winger or attacking midfielder.


title: Ángel Di Maria

text: After beginning his career with Rosario Central, Di María moved to Europe in 2007 to play for Benfica of the Portuguese Primeira Liga. He made a €25 million move to Real Madrid three years later, in 2010. After winning the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid in 2014, he signed for Manchester United in summer 2014 for a national record £59.7 million.


title: Ángel Di Maria

text: A full international for Argentina since 2008, Di María has earned over 50 caps for his country. He scored the goal that gave Argentina first place at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and has also represented them at two World Cups and the 2011 Copa América, 2015 Copa América, and the 2016 Copa América Centenario.


title: Kale

text: Kale is a vegetable with green or purple leaves. It is also called borecole. It is in the group of vegetables called "Brassica oleracea" or wild cabbage. It is cruciferous because of the shape of its flowers.


title: Kale

text: A plant that would have been first cultivated in the Mediterranean area, it was called in these times cabbage well before the well rounded variety existed. Kale was a significant crop in Roman times; it became a basic staple for peasants in the Middle Ages and it was brought in the United States by the English in the XVII century.


title: Kale

text: Kale is one of the most resistant from the cabbage family; it can support temperatures as low as -15 °C but it doesn’t sustain high temperatures. Since it resists to cold temperatures and grows easily, kale was for a long time a very appreciated winter vegetable especially in Scotland, Germany, Holland and Scandinavia. Today, it is eaten the world over.


title: Kale

text: Kale has large stringy leaves, very curly, with a well-marked flavor. Their color varies from pale green to dark green, sometimes to blue-tinted green. Those leaves are not well rounded, a characteristic expressed by the Latin word which describes this variety of cabbage « acephala » and which means « without head ». Those leaves surmount a fine whitish and very fibrous stem, it can measure from 30 to 40 cm. Kale is so decorative that ornamental varieties were developed.


title: Kale

text: Kale is an excellent source of vitamin K, C, A and manganese; it is a very good source of fiber, copper, tryptophan, calcium, vitamin B6 and potassium. Kale is a good source of iron, magnesium, vitamin E, omega 3 fats, vitamin B2, protein, vitamin B1, folate, phosphorus and vitamin B3.


title: Kale

text: Kale is rarely eaten raw. We can add it sparingly to salads. It transmits its well-marked taste to soups and stews. You can blanch it to attenuate its flavour. Kale is delicious coated with sauce, sprinkled with cheese or in purée (alone or with mashed potatoes).


title: Kale

text: Choose kale with firm leaves, well colored and relatively small, without stain or mold. One cup cooked makes 130 grams. Cut the leaves around the stem, cut the core, separate each leaf. Wash well with running water or with vinegary water to remove dirt and bugs that could remain. We cook kale in water or we steam it from 20 to 30 min, braised in a slow cooker, stuffed or sautéed in a wok.


title: Kale

text: Put the kale leaves very tight rather than loose in refrigerator without washing it, inside a perforated plastic bag. It can be kept in this way from five to ten days, but it is more flavorful and less bitter when it is eaten rapidly. Kale can be frozen after having been blanched two to three minutes, until the leaves soften a bit.


title: Laurasia

text: Laurasia was a supercontinent. It had been the northern part of the Pangaea global supercontinent. Pangaea split into Laurasia and Gondwana to the south during the Jurassic period.


title: Laurasia

text: Laurasia included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the northern hemisphere, chiefly Laurentia (the name given to the North American craton), Europe, Scandinavia, western Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, and China.


title: Laurasia

text: Although Laurasia is known as a Mesozoic phenomenon, today it is believed that the same continents that formed Laurasia also existed as a coherent continent after the breakup of Rodinia around 1 billion years ago. To avoid confusion with Laurasia, that continent is referred to as Proto-Laurasia.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The Topkapı Palace is a palace in Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey. Topkapı Sarayı in Turkish means the "Cannongate Palace". It was built in 1465. The palace was the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire. It was turned into a museum at the request of Turkey's first President, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1924. It was built on the acropolis, the site of the first settlement in Istanbul. The palace has a very good view of the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara. The palace is surrounded by 5km of walls. It has an area of 700,000 sq. m at the tip of the historical peninsula.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The First Court (or "Alay Meydanı") spans over the entire Seraglio Point and is surrounded by high walls. This court was also known as the Court of the Janissaries or the Parade Court.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The main gate is called Bab-ı Hümayun, simply the Imperial Gate. Apart from the Topkapı Palace, the First Court also contains the old imperial mint (constructed in 1727), the church of Hagia Eirene, the Archeology Museum (constructed during the 19th century) and various fountains, pavilions (for example, the Çinili Pavilion, or Tiled Pavilion) and gardens (including the Gülhane Park, the old imperial rose garden).


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The Çinili Pavilion (1472) has many superb examples of Iznik tiles. It now houses the Museum of Islamic Art.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The Fountain of the Executioner is where the executioner washed his hands and sword after a beheading. The Fountain of Ahmed III is an example of Rococo work.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The huge Gate of Greeting ("Bab-üs Selam") leads into the palace and the Second Court ("Divan Meydanı").


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The second court is a park surrounded by the palace hospital, bakery, Janissary quarters, stables, the imperial Harem and Divan to the north and the kitchens to the south. The kitchens today contain one of the world's largest collections of Chinese blue-and-white and celadon porcelain, valued by the sultans because it was supposed to change color if the food or drink it contained was poisoned.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The Divan Salonu, or Imperial Council Chamber, was where the sultan's counselors and functionaries met to discuss the empire's affairs. The Sultan could overhear from a concealed grille.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: Beyond the Gate of Felicity ("Bab-üs Saadet") is the Third Court which is the heart of the palace, a lush garden surrounded by the Hall of the Privy Chamber ("Has Oda") occupied by the palace officials, the treasury (which contains some of the finest treasures of the Ottoman age, including the Sacred Trusts), the Harem and some pavilions, with the library of Ahmed III in the center.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The Treasury holds some of the most famous and spectacular jewels in the world, including the famous Topkapı Dagger. In 1747, the Sultan had this dagger made for Nadir Shah of Persia, but the Shah was assassinated before the emissary had left the Ottoman Empire's boundaries and so the Sultan retained it. There are three large emeralds in the hilt and the sheath is worked with diamonds and enamel. This dagger was the subject of the famous film "Topkapi".


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The Harem was home to the Sultan's mother, the Valide sultan; the concubines and wives of the Sultan; and the rest of his family, including children; and their servants. There are approximately 300 rooms (though only about twenty are open to the public), and the Harem housed as many as 500 people, which sometimes amounted up to 300 women, their children, and the eunuchs.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: Many of the rooms and features in the Harem were designed by Sinan, a famous architect of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Topkapı Palace

text: The Pavilion of the Holy Mantle holds the cloak of Mohammed, his sword, his teeth, his beard, and other relics which are known as the Sacred Trusts. Even the Sultan and his family were permitted entrance only once a year, on the 15th day of Ramadan, during the time when the Palace was a residence. Now any visitor can see these items and many Muslims come on pilgrimage for this purpose.


title: F minor

text: F minor is a minor scale based on F. The harmonic minor raises the E to E. Its key signature has four flats.


title: F minor

text: F minor is a key that people often link with passion. Some famous pieces in the key of F minor are Beethoven's "Appassionata Sonata", Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in F minor, "La Passione", and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.


title: F minor

text: In the Baroque period, music in F minor was usually written with a three-flat key signature. Some modern printings of such music keeps it written that way.


title: F minor

text: The enharmonic equivalent of F minor is E-sharp minor. It is a minor scale based on the musical note E♯. Its key signature has six sharps and one double sharp.


title: Kansas–Nebraska Act

text: The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 made the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, allowing the states to vote on whether slavery was legal or not. This law canceled the Missouri Compromise, which declared that slavery was not legal in those areas. It was passed on May 30, 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act angered many in the North who considered the Missouri Compromise to be a long-standing agreement. In the pro-slavery South, it was strongly supported.


title: Kansas–Nebraska Act

text: After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters rushed in to settle Kansas to affect the outcome of the first election held after the new law went into effect. Pro-slavery settlers carried the election but anti-slavery settlers claimed the results were fraudulent, and did not accept defeat. The resulting fighting in Kansas gave it the nickname "Bleeding Kansas".


title: Metamorphosis

text: Metamorphosis in biology means the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages. Good examples are insects and amphibians. Life for most insects begins as a larva or nymph then progresses to the pupa stage and ends as an adult.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Animals that metamormetamorphosize include tadpoles into frogs, caterpillars into butterflys, bee larva into bees, and more


title: Metamorphosis

text: Insects who go through simple (or incomplete) metamorphosis have three life stages. These insects start as eggs, which are usually very small. When the egg hatches, a larva or nymph comes out. Nymphs are just baby insects. Most of the time, the nymph looks similar to the adult, but it is smaller, may have different colouration, and does not have wings. The nymph grows through stages called "instars", shedding its 'skin' ("epicuticle") at each stage ("ecdysis"). Finally, it changes into a mature adult with wings.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Some insect nymphs are aquatic, which means they live in water. These nymphs usually have gills and look very different from the adults they will turn into. Nymphs that live in water are called "naiads".


title: Metamorphosis

text: Insects that have complete metamorphosis have four life stages. These insects start as eggs, which are very small. The egg hatches and a larva comes out. The larva looks like a worm and eats and eats so that it can grow much bigger. When the larva has grown it changes into a pupa. The pupa usually can not move or eat. The pupa is a special time when the insect is changing into an adult that will look very different from the larva or the pupa. Moth pupae (plural of pupa) are inside cocoons. When the pupa opens, the adult insect comes out.


title: Metamorphosis

text: The monarch butterfly goes through four stages of development. Life for a monarch butterfly begins as an egg hatched from an adult. This egg then develops into a worm-like larva caterpillar. In the pupa or chrysalis stage, the caterpillar spins a silk pad on a twig or leaves and hangs from this pad by its last pair of prolegs. It hangs upside down in the shape of a "J" and then molts leaving it encased in a green exoskeleton. The mature butterfly emerges after about two weeks and feeds on a variety of flowers including milkweed flowers, red clover and goldenrod.


title: Metamorphosis

text: In typical amphibian development, eggs are laid in water and larvae are adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. Frogs, toads, and newts all hatch from the egg as larvae with external gills. Afterwards, newt larvae start a predatory lifestyle, while tadpoles mostly scrape food off surfaces with their horny tooth ridges.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Many marine species have evolved a system where they release their eggs and sperm into the water at the same time, and fertilisation takes place in the sea over one or two days. This increases their chance of reproductive success.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Then, larvae join the other plankton, eating and growing before metamorphosing into adults. Most marine invertebrates and many fish have a life cycle with pelagic larvae or even pelagic eggs. These have the capacity to be transported long distances, and so spread the species around to other places.


title: Metamorphosis

text: The need for metamorphosis is clear when the relative size of eggs and adults is understood. A mature Atlantic cod can reach two metres long, and weigh over 200 pounds (96 kg). The female will produce over 100,000 eggs in a single spawning, and the resulting larvae are quite tiny. There is no way they could live like the adults, which are more or less top predators. The larvae cannot even swim against the current. Therefore, they must live a different kind of life before they can live as the adults do.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Their development is packaged into stages, and each stage has adaptations to life at its stage. The sharp distinction between stages (best seen in insects) is presumably because a longer transition would leave the juvenile less fit, either at its younger or older ways of life.


title: Boney M.

text: Boney M. was a R&B, disco and reggae group created by West German record producer Frank Farian. They were very successful in the 1970s.


title: Beijing National Stadium

text: Beijing National Stadium is a stadium in Beijing, China. It is officially called the National Stadium and also known as the Bird's Nest (鸟巢). The stadium was made for use during the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.


title: Beijing National Stadium

text: The stadium cost US$423 million. A shopping mall and a hotel are planned to be built. This will increase use of the stadium. There was trouble attracting events, football and otherwise, after the Olympics.


title: Beijing National Stadium

text: The eastern and western stands of Beijing National Stadium are higher than northern and southern stands. This is in order to improve sightlines. A 24-hour per day rainwater collector is near the stadium. After water is purified, it is used throughout and around the stadium. Pipes were placed under the playing surface to gather heat in the winter to warm the stadium and coldness in the summer to cool the stadium. The stadium's design originally could fit 100,000 people. 9,000 seats were removed from the design. Then 11,000 temporary seats were removed after the 2008 Olympics. Now the stadium can have 80,000 people.


title: Beijing National Stadium

text: The stadium hosted the 2009 Race of Champions. In July 2010, the stadium hosted a friendly football match between Premier League team Birmingham City and Beijing Guoan. In August 2011, the Bird's Nest hosted the Supercoppa Italiana. This was the stadium's second in three years.


title: Beijing National Stadium

text: The 2015 World Championships in Athletics took place at the Beijing National Stadium. It will also host the 2022 Winter Olympics and 2022 Winter Paralympics.


title: Pincer movement

text: The pincer movement, or double envelopment, is a tactic in which forces attack both flanks (sides) of an enemy formation at the same time. The pincer movement can be used when opposing forces towards the center of an army. That army responds by moving its outside forces to the enemy's flanks to surround it. At the same time, a second layer of pincers may attack on the more distant flanks to cut off the enemy .


title: Pincer movement

text: A full pincer movement leads to the attacking army facing the enemy in front, on both flanks, and in the rear. If attacking pincers link up in the enemy's rear, the enemy is . Such battles often end in surrender or destruction of the enemy force. The encircled force can try to break out or counterattack. A successful flanking maneuver can be difficult to accomplish.


title: Pincer movement

text: Sun Tzu, in "The Art of War", talked about the maneuver. But he made the point to leave a surrounded enemy an escape route. Otherwise, faced with death, a surrounded enemy would fight much harder. This advice seems to have been followed by General George Patton when his sweeping pincer movement trapped the German army in the Falaise pocket in August 1944.


title: My Heart Will Go On

text: "My Heart Will Go On" is a hit song by Canadian singer Celine Dion. It was in the movie "Titanic". Its music was composed by James Horner. The lyrics were written by Will Jennings. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.


title: My Heart Will Go On

text: The song reached number one in over 10 countries. It became Dion's signature song. It helped her become a popular singer. It was one of the best selling singles worldwide. It was the best-selling single of 1998.


title: Fire Country

text: Fire Country is an American drama television series created by Max Thieriot that is set to air on CBS on October 7, 2022. The series is produced by CBS Studios and Universal Television, with Thieriot, Tony Phelan, and Joan Rater serving as executive producers.


title: Fire Country

text: In "Fire Country", seeking redemption and a shortened prison sentence, young convict Bode Donovan (Thieriot) joins a firefighting program that returns him to his small Northern California hometown, where he and other inmates work alongside elite firefighters to extinguish massive blazes across the region.


title: Fire Country

text: Fire Country was created by Max Thieriot. On November 15, 2021, the show was put into development at CBS, with Thieriot serving as executive producer. Tony Phelan and Joan Rater were also announced as executive producers. On February 4, 2022, it was officially ordered to pilot. Shooting for the pilot took place from March to April 2022, in Vancouver, Canada. It was directed by James Strong.


title: Maggie Smith

text: Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is a British actress. She is better known as Maggie Smith. She made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 60 years. She has won many awards for acting, both for the stage and for movies, including seven BAFTA Awards (five competitive awards and two special awards including the Bafta Fellowship in 1996), two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, two Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, two SAG Awards and a Tony Award.


title: Maggie Smith

text: Her award winning movies include "Othello" (1965), "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969), "Travels with My Aunt" (1972), "California Suite" (1978), "Clash of the Titans" (1981), "A Room with a View" (1985) and "Gosford Park" (2001). She has also been in a number of widely-popular movies, including "Hook" (1991), "Sister Act" (1992) and as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the "Harry Potter" movie series. She currently stars in the drama "Downton Abbey" as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, for which she has won an Emmy.


title: Maggie Smith

text: Smith has been married twice. She married actor Robert Stephens on 29 June 1967 at Greenwich. The couple had two sons: actors Chris Larkin (born in 1967) and Toby Stephens (born in 1969). They divorced on 6 May 1974.


title: Movie release

text: A movie release (or premiere) is when a completed movie is released for the public to see. It may be in theaters or for home viewing. A movie's release date can affect how much money the movie makes.


title: Movie release

text: A movie's release date and how it is released is a part of the marketing of the movie. Often a movie will be tested on selected audiences to see how they like it. This is called a limited release. A movie might also be shown first at a film festival to see how it does. If an audience does not like something, the moviemakers can make changes before it is released to the public.


title: Movie release

text: Movie studios limit the number of major movies they release in a year. They also try not to release a major movie at the same time another studio does. The timing of when a movie is released can affect how much money it makes. When "A Little Princess" was released in 1995, the movie "Pocahontas" was released at the same time. Even worse (for revenues), both were aimed at the same target audience.


title: Movie release

text: There were traditional times of the year for releases of certain types of movies. Summer was the traditional time to release blockbuster movies. These are large budget movies with a great deal of publicity. Spring was the usual time for art films. Another major time of the year to release major movies is Christmas. Lately, however, the movie calendar has become very crowded with more new releases. This means that blockbuster movies now come out all during the year.


title: Movie release

text: A print is a copy of the physical film itself. Each movie theater needs a print for showing. This becomes expensive and along with advertising they are called 'P&A'. Advertising can include parties for the stars of the movie. It can also mean arranging interviews on talk shows and placing movie clips on video sharing websites like YouTube. This is to get people talking about the movie. The period of time for advertising a movie only a few weeks before it is released. After that time it is hoped will advertise the movie.


title: Movie release

text: The movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was released in the United States in 1994. The distributor, Polygram, had a limited P&A budget. They released the movie on a limited basis, in New York and Los Angeles. They spent heavily on advertising in these cities hoping the limited release would be a success. In this case it was and they used the profits to gradually release the movie all over the country. This is called a 'platform release'. It allows smaller movie studios to compete with the large P&A budgets of the big studios.


title: Jester

text: A jester, joker, fool, or buffoon, is a type of entertainer mostly (but not always) associated with the Middle Ages. Jesters typically wore brightly colored clothing. Their hats, sometimes called the "cap ’n bells" or "cockscomb", were special; made of cloth, they were floppy with three points (liliripes) each of which had a jingle bell at the end.


title: Jester

text: The three points of the hat represent the asses' ears and tail worn by jesters when they first appeared. Other typical things about the jester were his constant laughter and his mock scepter, known as a "bauble" or "maharoof."


title: Hairdresser

text: A hairdresser's job is to organise hair into a particular style or "look". They can cut hair, add colour to it or texture it. A hairdresser may be female or male. Qualified staff are usually called "stylists", who are supported by assistants. Most hairdressing businesses are unisex, that is, they serve both sexes, and have both sexes on their staff.


title: Hairdresser

text: Qualifications for hairdressing usually mean a college course, or an apprenticeship under a senior stylist. Some aspects of the job are quite technical (such as hair dying) and require careful teaching.


title: Bushel

text: A bushel is an imperial unit of dry volume, equal to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. It is most often used in agriculture. A bushel is abbreviated as bsh. or bu.


title: Bushel

text: Since the volume of a gallon in UK has been defined as the volume of ten pounds of water, the volume of a bushel in SI units is 36.3687 litres.


title: Bushel

text: The United States bushel is slightly smaller than the British bushel because the American gallon is smaller than the British gallon. Its volume has been defined as 2150.42 cubic inches, which makes 35.2391 litres.


title: Mysticism

text: Mysticism is the belief that people can "directly" experience God or true reality, rather than through books, ritual or other people. People who practice this are called "mystics".


title: Mysticism

text: Mystics exist within most religions, though not all people who practice religions are mystics. Mystics may experience visions or dreams, or hear God as a voice.


title: Mysticism

text: Islamic Mysticism is known as "Tassawuf" (or Sufism) and a detailed list of Muslim Sufi mystics is given on the Sufism page.


title: Tangled

text: Tangled is a 2010 American computer-animated musical fantasy adventure comedy movie about a princess named Rapunzel. It was produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 50th movie in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It is loosely based on the German fairy tale "Rapunzel" from the Brothers Grimm. The movie is about a lost princess with long magical hair who wants to leave her tower. Against her "mother's" wishes, she gets help from a bandit thief to take her out into the world.


title: Tangled

text: The movie was first titled and marketed as "Rapunzel". It was changed to "Tangled" shortly before its release. "Tangled" costed about $260 million to make. The movie earned about .


title: Tangled

text: "Tangled" was first played at the El Capitan Theatre on November 14, 2010. It went into public release on November 24. The movie was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 29, 2011.


title: Tangled

text: When a golden drop of sunlight falls from the sky, a magic flower grows. Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy), an elderly witch, has hoarded the flower's healing magic to keep herself young for many centuries, and is furious when soldiers from a nearby kingdom pluck it and give it to their sick, pregnant queen. Afterwards, the queen gives birth to a baby girl, Rapunzel, whose long, blonde hair contains the flower's healing properties. Gothel breaks into the palace at night to cut Rapunzel's hair and to use the magic once again, but discovers that cutting her hair will render it useless, so she steals the baby and isolates her in a tower in the woods, where she raises her, lying to the girl about the dangers of the outside world to keep her safe and content. Meanwhile, every year on Rapunzel's birthday, the king and queen release floating lanterns in the hopes their daughter will see them and come home.


title: Tangled

text: Knowing the lanterns are made for her, on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) plucks up the courage to ask Gothel's permission to see the lanterns and discover their source, but she refuses. Meanwhile, in the kingdom, the dashing bandit Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi), steals Rapunzel's intended crown from the palace, and abandons his partners, the Stabbington brothers, while they flee. He takes refuge with the crown in the tower, but Rapunzel knocks him out with a frying pan, and hides him in her wardrobe. Upon Gothel's return, Rapunzel tries to show Flynn to her to convince her she's ready for the "dangerous" world, but is still dismissed.


title: Tangled

text: Rapunzel sends Gothel away on a three-day trip to pick up some paints for her. When Gothel leaves, Rapunzel hides the crown from Flynn and uses it as leverage as a means to get him to take her to the lanterns on her birthday. On their journey, Flynn and Rapunzel stop over at the Snuggly Duckling, a tavern filled with menacing barbarian thugs, who initially try to capture Flynn, but Rapunzel charms them. Meanwhile, Gothel comes across Maximus, a palace horse who is pursuing Flynn. Realizing the palace guards may be closing on the tower, Gothel rushes back only to discover that Rapunzel is missing, but finds Flynn's satchel with the crown, and she goes after the pair.


title: Tangled

text: The soldiers, led by Maximus, search the tavern for Flynn. Rapunzel and Flynn escape through a secret passage, but end up trapped in a flooding cavern. Resigned to their fate, Flynn reveals his real name is Eugene, and Rapunzel reveals her hair glows when she sings. Using the light from Rapunzel's hair, they escape the cavern and take refuge in the woods. Meanwhile, Gothel teams up with the Stabbingtons and gives the crown to Rapunzel as a test of Flynn's loyalty.


title: Tangled

text: The next morning, Maximus arrives to arrest Flynn, but Rapunzel talks him into calling a truce with him for her birthday. Rapunzel and Flynn arrive at the kingdom and enjoy the festivities, culminating in an evening boat ride as the King, Queen, and citizens release lanterns. As a thank you for fulfilling her dream to see the lanterns, Rapunzel gives Flynn the satchel with the crown. They confess their love, and just as the two are about to kiss, Flynn sees the Stabbingtons on the lakeside, and rows the boat over to apologize and hand the crown over to them. However, the brothers assault him and tie him to a boat heading for the palace. While Flynn is taken into custody by the guards, Gothel stages a rescue by disabling the brothers, and returns to the tower with Rapunzel.


title: Tangled

text: Back at the tower, Rapunzel discovers the kingdom's sun symbol she has subconsciously incorporated into her artwork over the years, and realizes that she is the missing princess who the kingdom release the lanterns for, and angrily confronts Gothel. Meanwhile, Maximus and the thugs free Flynn, who rides back to the tower, and enters, where he discovers Rapunzel has been chained and gagged. After stabbing Flynn, and leaving him to die of his injuries, Gothel tries to flee with the captive Rapunzel, who agrees she will willingly go with Gothel, if she can be free to heal Flynn. Not wanting her to be a captive any longer, Flynn cuts Rapunzel's hair, turning it brown causing its powers to dissipate. Gothel ages rapidly, and falls out the tower window, and is reduced to ash.


title: Tangled

text: Flynn confesses his love for Rapunzel, and dies of his injuries. As the heartbroken Rapunzel mourns, her tears, infused with the healing magic, bring Flynn back to life. When the two return to the kingdom, Rapunzel is reunited with her parents, who pardon Eugene. The kingdom rejoices, and after a time, Rapunzel and Flynn wed.


title: Sarah Knauss

text: Sarah DeRemer Knauss (née "Clark"; September 24, 1880 – December 30, 1999) was an American supercentenarian, and the world's oldest living person between the death of Canadian woman Marie-Louise Meilleur on April 16, 1998, and her own death from natural causes aged 119 years, 97 days. Knauss is the oldest American ever and the third-oldest person in history, behind Jeanne Calment and Kane Tanaka.


title: Sarah Knauss

text: She, also along with Danish-born Americanman Christian Mortensen, who died just 9 days after Meilleur, were the last two living people born before 1884. During the last 40 days of her life, she was also the last living person born before 1885.


title: Sarah Knauss

text: Knauss was born as Sarah DeRemer Clark on September 24, 1880, as the third of seven children in Hollywood, Pennsylvania, US. Her family then later moved to South Bethlehem, Pennyslavia.


title: Sarah Knauss

text: Her only child, Kathryn, was born in 1903 and died in 2005, aged 101. After 64 years of marriage, her husband died in 1965 at the age of 86.


title: Sarah Knauss

text: At the age of 104, she moved in with her daughter, Kathryn Knauss Sullivan. At the age of 106, she was no longer able to walk and got about via wheelchair. She remained in relatively good health well into her 119th year, except for being almost totally deaf.


title: Sarah Knauss

text: On December 30, 1999, Knauss died from natural causes in her sleep, while sitting in the chair in her room. She died 48 hours before the year 2000 starts. With her death, British woman Eva Morris become the oldest living person in the world.


title: Ghetto

text: Originally the word 'ghetto' meant the Jewish quarter of Venice, and later of any European town. Many places had a ghetto. The term "ghetto" is now commonly used to refer to any poverty-stricken urban area with a concentration of minority groups. The word has a few possible sources:


title: Razia Sultana

text: Razia al-Din (or: Razia Sultana, Radia, Radhia) (1205-1240) was a ruler of the Mamluk dynasty (Delhi) of the Delhi Sultanate. She was the first and last Muslim lady to rule Delhi. A Persian historian called her brave, kind and just. She was the daughter of Iltumish. She ascended the throne in 1236 A.D. But the nobles who did not like to be ruled by Razia soon killed her in a war. Her husband name was Malik Altuniya.


title: Mime

text: Mime is a type of acting that does not use words or speech. Mime is all about physical movement and exaggerating your expressions. Mimes (people who practice mime) must use their actions to send a or tell a story. They are not allowed to speak directly to the audience.


title: Mime

text: Probably the most well-known mime was Marcel Marceau. Mime originates from Rome and Greece. Some people also believe that cavemen used mime to communicate as they could not talk.


title: Mesolithic

text: The Mesolithic was a period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age.


title: Mesolithic

text: In the Palaeolithic, people were pure hunter-gatherers. In the Neolithic they were farmers in settlements with domesticated animals and wheat, with over 100 kinds of tools and with pottery. The Mesolithic was a transitional period between the two. It happened at different times in different places. Mesolithic tools are small tools produced by chipping, and are hunter-gatherer tools, often arrowheads and points. Neolithic tools are often polished and far more varied. They are tools of more settled societies with some agriculture.


title: Mesolithic

text: The term 'Mesolithic' was introduced by Hodder Westrop in 1877, though the idea had been used earlier. It was not much used until V. Gordon Childe popularized it in his book "The dawn of Europe" (1947). There is another term, 'Epipalaeolithic', which is sometimes used instead.


title: Mesolithic

text: The type of tool is the diagnostic factor. The Mesolithic featured devices made with small chipped stone tools. The Neolithic mainly abandoned this mode in favor of polished, not chipped, stone tools.


title: Mesolithic

text: In some areas, such as the Near East, agriculture was already underway by the end of the Pleistocene, and there the Mesolithic is short. In areas with limited influence of ice age, the term "Epipaleolithic" is sometimes preferred.


title: Mesolithic

text: Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last ice age ended have a much more evident Mesolithic era. This lasted millennia. In Northern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours which are preserved in characteristic finds. These conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BC (6,000 before present) in northern Europe.


title: Mesolithic

text: Genetic research has been done on the skeleton of a 7,000-year-old man from north-west Spain. It shows he had blue eyes and a dark skin. The analysis showed that he had ancestral alleles in several skin pigmentation genes. This means he had dark hair and brown skin.


title: Mesolithic

text: Researchers were surprised because they thought that European populations evolved light skin quite quickly. In lower latitudes dark skin protects from UV rays in sunlight. In northern latitudes this is not such a problem, but the supply of vitamin D is a problem. Vitamin D is synthesised by the action of sunlight on skin. Therefore, it is an advantage in much of Europe to have a light skin.


title: Mesolithic

text: Earlier research was done on data using 2,196 samples from 185 diverse populations. It showed that at least three ancestral groups contributed to present-day Europeans.


title: Stop sign

text: The stop sign is a sign that is often placed at crossroads, when a road does not have traffic lights. This sign instructs the drivers to stop when they reach the crossroad and wait for other vehicles to pass. They can only proceed when the road is clear. This sign is one of the most significant and well-known signs of road traffic.


title: Stop sign

text: The stop sign is very common in every country. In some countries the stop sign is also written in the local language. For example in Japan, the stop sign is written in Japanese and English. Some decades ago a different symbol was used to indicate the stop sign.


title: Chiliagon

text: A "regular chiliagon" is represented by Schläfli symbol {1000} and can be constructed as a truncated 500-gon, t{500}, or a twice-truncated 250-gon, tt{250}, or a thrice-truncated 125-gon, ttt{125}.


title: Helm of Darkness

text: The Helm of Darkness or Cap of Invisibility. in Greek mythology, is a helmet that makes the person wearing it invisible. It is also called the Cap of Hades or Helm of Hades. It was said to be used by the goddess of wisdom, Athena, the messenger god, Hermes, and Perseus.


title: Helm of Darkness

text: According to mythology, it was made by the Cyclops. They had made a lightning bolt for Zeus, a trident for Poseidon, and the Helm of Darkness for Hades.


title: Physical quantity

text: In physics, a physical quantity is any physical property that can be quantified, that is, be measured using numbers. Examples of physical quantities are mass, amount of substance, length, time, temperature, electric current, light intensity, force, velocity, density, and many others. A physical quantity is always measured of natural non-living objects (Inanimate objects)


title: Physical quantity

text: The foundation of physics rests upon physical quantities in term of which the laws of physics are expressed. Therefore, these quantities have to be measured accurately. Physical quantities are often divided into two categories; base quantities and derived quantities. Derived quantities are those quantities which are derived from other physical quantities. Examples of derived quantities are force, velocity, acceleration etc.


title: Roman law

text: Roman law is the name used for a system of laws used by the Roman Empire. It started with the twelve tablets of civil law, . After the law code ordered by it continued as Byzantine law. Roman law is the foundation of most legal systems in Europe, and its former colonies, and it influenced many other countries.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine (Br) is a chemical element. Its atomic number (which is the number of protons in it) is 35, and its atomic weight is 80. It is part of the Group 7 elements (halogens) on the periodic table. It is diatomic, which means that two atoms are stuck together to make a molecule in any bromine sample.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is a red-brown liquid. Liquid elements are rare; only bromine and mercury are liquid at room temperature. It easily evaporates to make suffocating brown fumes. It has a bad smell. Its name means "stench of he-goats". It can become a metal at very high pressures.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is quite reactive. Its reactivity is between chlorine, which is more reactive, and iodine, which is less reactive. It reacts with metals and nonmetals. Phosphorus reacts violently with bromine. Aluminum reacts in a similar way. It can bleach things like chlorine. It reacts better in the light. It dissolves a little in water. Hot water makes it disproportionate into hydrobromic acid and hypobromous acid. Bromine can form compounds with substances such as sodium to form sodium bromide.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine forms compounds in many oxidation states: –1, +1, +3, +5, and (sometimes) +7. –1 is the most common. It is found as bromide. Bromides are not reactive. They are colorless solids that dissolve in water easily. Covalent bromides can be liquids or gases. The other compounds are all strong oxidizing agents. Their chlorine cousins are more common. +1 has the hypobromites, which are unstable. +3 has the bromites. Bromine dioxide is the only common bromine compound found in the +4 oxidation state. +5 has the bromates, which are more common than all the other ones except the bromides. Bromates are strong oxidizing agents and are sometimes added to flour. +7 has the perbromates. Perbromates are very unstable.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is found as bromide in the ocean and in brine pools. The Dead Sea has a lot of bromide in it. Bromine is not an important part of our body, unlike its relatives chlorine and iodine.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is made by bubbling chlorine gas through a solution of a bromide. The bromide is oxidized to bromine, while the chlorine is reduced to chloride.


title: Bromine

text: It is mainly used to make organobromine compounds, organic compounds with bromine in them. Organobromines are used to put out fires. They used to be added to gasoline. Some were used as pesticides. Some inorganic bromides were used as sedatives. Bromine can also be used as a disinfectant. Silver bromide is used in film.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is toxic and corrosive to skin. Bromine gas is irritating when it is breathed in, too. Bromine can react violently with many things.


title: Civil disobedience

text: Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary tactics of nonviolent resistance.


title: Civil disobedience

text: The American author Henry David Thoreau pioneered the modern theory behind this practice in his 1849 essay "Civil Disobedience", originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government".


title: Civil disobedience

text: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also known as Mahatma Gandhi) used non-violent civil disobedience in South Africa in a campaign for civil rights for the people who came from India and lived in South Africa. This campaign was from 1893 to 1914. When Gandhi returned to India, he used civil disobedience in the campaign for the independence of India in 1930 from the British rule, when India was a British colony.


title: Civil disobedience

text: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and young activists in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s also adopted civil disobedience techniques, during and after the Vietnam War.


title: French people

text: The term French people (, [the "French"]) refers to both an ethnic group in Western Europe and the citizens of France. There are about 100 million French people in the world.


title: French people

text: French people are a group of people who have a common French culture, history and lalnguage. French people can be found all over the world. The three countries, other than France, with the largest number of French people are the United States, Canada and Argentina.


title: French people

text: The term French people may also be used to describe a person who is a citizen of France. This is true no matter what their ethnicity. As long as they meet the requirements of French laws to be a citizen of France, they are French people.


title: Regency (brandy)

text: Regency is a Thai brandy brand from Singha Corporation. It is the company that produce the beer Singha. The brandy is moderately successful.


title: Sari (clothing)

text: A sari (also known as a saree or a shari) is a type of clothing for women. It is mostly used as a daily clothing in modern Republic of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka as well as formal clothing in Pakistan. It is a very long strip of cloth. Women wrap it around their body. It is the National dress-code commonly worn by Bangladeshi and Indian women alike respectively. Also some Urdu or Mohajir-speaking communities of Pakistani women also wear this garment.


title: Sari (clothing)

text: There are different kinds of saris for different occasions. The first mention of saris (alternately spelled sarees) is in the Rig Veda, a Hindu book of hymns dating to 3,000 B.C.; draped garments show up on Indian sculptures from the first through sixth centuries, too.


title: Sari (clothing)

text: At more than 5,000 years of existence, the Indian saree is considered to be among the oldest form of garment in the world still in existence. The Vedas – among the oldest literature composed by mankind – mentions it, and records from the Indus Valley Civilization (3300–1300 B.C.E.) also indicate its usage at the time.


title: Sari (clothing)

text: It is said that the Persians were the first one to introduce the art of stitching in India. During this period, the culture of wearing tight fitting blouses called 'Cholis' were introduced for the first time along with the then existing sarees.


title: Sari (clothing)

text: There are more than 30 types of sarees available in India they are Banarasi Silk Sarees, Kasheeda saree,Khun Saree, Kasuti Sarees, Chanderi Sarees, Tant Sarees,Kanjeevaram Sarees, Assam Silk Sarees, Batik Print Sarees, Tussar silk Sarees,assam muga silk sarees, Dhakai Jamdani Sarees,Panchampalli Sarees,Mysore Silk, etc.


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi( ' ) (c. 1942 - 20 October 2011) better known as Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan politician. He ruled Libya from 1969 to 2011.


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: Muammar al-Gaddafi was born in a tent near Qasr Abu Hadi. His family came from a small tribal group called Qadhadhfa. His family were Arabized Berber people in heritage. He joined the Libyan military in 1961; the military was one of the few ways for lower class Libyans like him to rise in social status. He became a colonel.


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: Gaddafi became head of state of Libya after removing King Idris from power in a 1969 bloodless coup. He ruled Libya from September 1, 1969 to August 23, 2011. After the coup, Gaddafi established the Libyan Arab Republic. He was one of the longest-serving non royal rulers in history, because he had ruled for more than 41 years. Gaddafi used Arab socialist and Arab nationalist ideas. He published a book about his philosophical views in 1975. This book is commonly known as "The Green Book". In 1977, he left the power of Libya, and continued playing role of revolutionary. People called him the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution".


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: The Libyan Arab Republic was renamed to the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 1977 later it was renamed again to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya by Gaddafi in 1986.


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: In the 1980s, he developed chemical weapons, because of it critics called Libya a pariah state. A Dutch investigation found that Gaddafi had built up a "billion-dollar empire", from assets in an international company in the oil industry. It also claims that his assets are scattered throughout much of Europe, Despite no trace or proof for even 1 billion have been found. Gaddafi had a strong interest in geo-political control, was a firm supporter of [OPEC] and led a Pan-African campaign for a United States of Africa. In 1986 Libya was bombed by US, home of Gaddafi was targeted but he survived. Bombing was condemned by many nations and also by UN.


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: In 1988, the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Libya. Gaddafi started to have closer economic and security relations with the West. He cooperated with investigations into alleged Libyan anti-western acts, by 1999 he offered to dismantle weapon of mass destruction of Libya, which would be inspected in 2003. As a result, the UN sanctions were lifted in the same year.


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: In February 2011 there were major violent protests against Libyan government. These came alongside other demonstrations in Tunisia, Egypt, and other parts of the Arab world. The protests quickly turned into a civil war. Gaddafi vowed to "die a martyr" if necessary in his fight against rebels and external forces; he also said that "peaceful protest is one thing but armed rebellion is another."


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: On 17 May 2011 the International Criminal Court issued a request for an arrest warrant against Gaddafi for alleged crimes against humanity, which was approved on 27 June and a warrant was issued by the court. On June 2011, according to investigation made by Amnesty International, it was found that there was no evidence for many of the alleged crimes, and that the rebels had falsely blamed Gaddafi as well as the government. He was accused of ordering the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland that killed over 200 people. The bombing targeted a civilian plane and it was downed.


title: Muammar al-Gaddafi

text: The Libyan Civil War (2011) erupted in February. The aim was to remove Gaddafi from power. Gaddafi was captured alive and killed by NATO backed rebels in Sirte, Libya, on 20 October 2011. Sirte was the last stronghold of the Gaddafi regime.


title: Liberian Girl

text: "Liberian Girl" is a song by Michael Jackson. It was the ninth single from "Bad". It was only released in Europe and Australia. It starts with the South African female singer saying "Nakupenda pia- nakutaka pia-mpenziwe", Swahili for "Love you too. I want you too, my love." Swahili is not actually spoken in Liberia. It reached number 1 in Ireland. The music video has lots of Jackson's celebrity friends in it. In 2009 the song came back into the charts in the UK, France, and Switzerland after Michael Jackson died. He initially wrote the song during the early 1980's "Thriller Era" as most Moonwalkers would say it.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Arlington National Cemetery is a cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia. People who served in the United States military are buried here. The cemetery started during the American Civil War. It is on a big farm called Arlington House. Arlington House was the home of Mary Anna Custis Lee. Mary Anna Custis Lee was a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. She was also the wife of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Although most of the farm now has graves, the old farmhouse still stands in the middle of the cemetery. The cemetery is across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C..


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The cemetery covers . People who died serving the United States in a war, and military veterans are allowed to be buried in the cemetery. People are buried here who fought in wars from American Civil War to the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. People who were buried here before the Civil War were reburied after 1900.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Arlington National Cemetery is taken care of by the United States Army. Arlington House (Custis-Lee Mansion) and its land are taken care of by the National Park Service as a memorial to Lee. Recently, the way the cemetery is managed caused controversy.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: George Washington Parke Custis was the grandson of Martha Washington, and grew up with Martha and George Washington. He got the land that now is Arlington National Cemetery in 1802. He began building Arlington House, where he lived with his wife Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis. The land and house was given to their only child that lived to be an adult, Mary Anna Custis Lee. She was married to Robert E. Lee, a West Point graduate and United States Army officer. When Fort Sumter was forced to surrender at the beginning of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln asked Lee to be the general of the federal army. Lee did not give an answer right away, but waited to see if his home state of Virginia would leave the Union.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Lee left the federal army when Virginia said it was leaving the United States. He decided he could not fight against his home state. He became the leader of the armed forces of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He then became commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee was a great commander and won several battles against the Union forces. Most Union officers thought Lee had broken his promises to the Union because he chose to fight against them. Part of Arlington was taken away from the Lee family and became a graveyard. Mostly Union dead are buried there.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Before the Civil War, the United States did not have large military-only cemeteries. Important generals were buried in the Congressional Cemetery with other important leaders. American military cemeteries were needed on distant frontiers, and near battles and hospitals where many soldiers died. When dead Civil War soldiers filled the burial grounds near Washington, D.C., Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs proposed in 1864 that of the Robert E. Lee family property at Arlington be taken for a cemetery.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: During the Civil War, people invented tricks to capture or to make life hard for Americans that fought on the other side of the war. The government assessed taxes on properties and insisted that the owners appear in person to pay them. If the plantation owner did not come, the government would sell the land. The government bought Arlington at tax sale in 1864 for $26,800. Mrs. Lee did not show up in person, but rather had sent an agent to pay the $92.07 in property taxes that were owed for the land. The government turned away her agent, refusing to accept the tax payment. In 1874, Custis Lee, heir under his grandfather's will passing the estate in trust to his mother, sued the United States claiming ownership of Arlington. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Lee's favor in "United States v. Lee", deciding that Arlington had been taken illegally, Congress returned the land to him. The next year, Custis Lee sold it back to the government for $150,000. Custis Lee and Robert Todd Lincoln, Secretary of War and son of President Lincoln, were both present when the property was officially turned over to the government.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: In 2011, Hurricane Irene killed six large trees at the cemetery. The 220-year-old "Arlington Oak" fell down near the grave of John F. Kennedy.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Arlington National Cemetery is divided into 70 sections, with some sections in the southeast part of the cemetery saved for future use. Section 60, in the southeast part of the cemetery, is the burial ground for military personnel killed in the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. In 2005, Arlington National Cemetery bought another from the National Park Service, along with from the Department of Defense that was part of Fort Myer and that is the site of the Navy Annex.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Section 21, also known as the Nurses Section, is the area of Arlington National Cemetery where many nurses are buried. The Nurses Memorial is there. In the cemetery, there is a Confederate section with graves of soldiers of the Confederate States of America and a Confederate Memorial. All Confederate headstones are peaked rather than rounded. In Section 27, there are buried more than 3,800 former slaves, called "Contrabands" during the Civil War. Their headstones are designated with the word "Civilian" or "Citizen".


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The United States Department of Veterans Affairs takes care of the National Cemetery Administration's requests for the words and faith emblems (a cross, Jewish star, etc.) at no charge to the family of the dead put on upright marble headstones or columbarium niche covers. There are 39 authorized faith emblems available for placement to represent the deceased's faith. "Available Emblems of Belief for Placement on Government Headstones" and "Markers" Markers


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The cemetery had allowed privately-purchased markers in certain burial areas. Since 2001, the areas that the cemetery permitted such markers in are filled. The older sections of the cemetery have many different private markers, including artillery pieces.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is also called the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier". It stands on top of a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. It honors soldiers who died without their bodies being identified.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The Tomb is one of the more popular sites at the Cemetery. The tomb is made from Yule marble quarried in Colorado. It consists of seven pieces, with a total weight of 79 short tons (72 metric tons). The tomb was completed and opened to the public April 9, 1932, at a cost of $48,000.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: U.S. Army guards have stood watch at the Tomb of the Unknowns at all times since July 2, 1937. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment ("The Old Guard") began guarding the Tomb April 6, 1948.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The Tomb of the Unknowns is part of the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater. The Memorial Amphitheater has hosted state funerals and Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. Ceremonies are also held for Easter. About 5,000 people attend these holiday ceremonies each year. The structure is mostly built of Imperial Danby marble from Vermont. The Memorial Display room, between the amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknowns, uses Botticino stone, imported from Italy. The amphitheater was the result of a campaign by Ivory Kimball to construct a place to honor America's soldiers. Congress authorized the structure March 4, 1913. Woodrow Wilson laid the cornerstone for the building on October 15, 1915. The cornerstone contained 15 items including a Bible and a copy of the Constitution.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The Netherlands Carillon is a carillon (bell tower) that was a gift from the Netherlands to the people of the United States in 1954, in thanks for their efforts during World War II. The bells are played by people with special training. This happens regularly during the summer and on special days. Recorded tunes are played on the hour and during the day. It is next to Arlington National Cemetery, on the north side.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: It is now hard to find space to build new memorials at the cemetery. The army worries that new memorials take up space that could otherwise be used for graves. The army requires a joint or concurrent resolution from Congress before it will place new memorials onto the cemetery grounds. Still, there are several memorials on the cemetery grounds, and groups regularly ask for space for new memorials.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The Space Shuttle "Challenger" Memorial was dedicated on May 20, 1986, in memory of the crew of flight STS-51-L, who died during launch on January 28, 1986. Written on the back of the stone is the text of the John Gillespie Magee, Jr. poem "High Flight". Although many remains were identified and returned to the families for private burial, some were not, and were laid to rest under the marker. Two of the crew members, Scobee and Smith, are buried in Arlington, as well. There is a similar memorial to those who died when the Shuttle "Columbia" broke apart during reentry on February 1, 2003. It was dedicated on the first anniversary of the disaster. Astronauts Laurel Clark, David Brown and Michael Anderson are also buried in Arlington.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The Cairn, the Lockerbie memorial is a memorial to the 270 killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The memorial is made up of 270 stones, one for each person killed in the disaster. In section 64, there is a memorial to the 184 victims of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon. The memorial takes the shape of a pentagon, and lists the names of all the victims that were killed.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: There are only two mausoleums located within the confines of the cemetery. One is for the family of General Nelson Appleton Miles in Section 3 and the other one belongs to the family of General Thomas Crook Sullivan and it is in Section 1.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: There is a Commonwealth Cross of Sacrifice with the names of all the citizens of the USA who lost their lives fighting in the Canadian forces during the Korean War and the two world wars.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The "Women in Military Service for America Memorial" is at the Ceremonial Entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: The first soldier to be buried in Arlington was Private William Henry Christman of Pennsylvania on May 13, 1864.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Whether or not they were wartime service members, U.S. presidents are eligible to be buried at Arlington, since they oversaw the armed forces as commanders-in-chief.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Four state funerals have been held at Arlington: those of Presidents William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy, that of General John J. Pershing, and that of U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: As of May 2006, there were 367 Medal of Honor recipients buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Nine of these recipients are Canadians.


title: Arlington National Cemetery

text: Warrant Officer Gregory S. Crandall's helicopter was shot down over Savannakhet province, Laos, on February 18, 1971. In May of that year the military listed him KIA. According to Arlington National cemetery records John Manning, chief of the Army's Mortuary Affairs Branch stated that witnesses to the crash reported that the ..."helicopter burst into flames and exploded when it hit the ground.". It was also reported that there were a series of seven explosions. The remains of Crandall and two other soldiers were recovered in February 1991 and on September 17, 1993, with full military honors, a full sized steel casket, and at the protest of the family, the remains of Warrant Officer Gregory S. Crandall, a single No. 4 maxillary premolar tooth, was buried.


title: Hagia Sophia

text: Hagia Sophia (Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, meaning the Holy Wisdom) is a religious building in eastern Bosporus of Istanbul, Turkey. It was originally a Byzantine Eastern Orthodox cathedral, and was turned into a mosque after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.


title: Hagia Sophia

text: The walls and floor of the building are from the Late Antiquity and the decorations, including mosaics and frescoes, are mostly from the Middle Ages.


title: Hagia Sophia

text: Hagia Sophia was the third church built on this location. It was built between 532 and 537 as the cathedral of Constantinople, the capital city of the Eastern Roman Empire during Late Antiquity. Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great ordered the construction. The architects were Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus. Greek historian Procopius wrote about Hagia Sophia's construction. The building's roof (a large dome) fell down and had been rebuilt many times. An earthquake in 994 damaged the cathedral, it was rebuilt by Trdat the Architect.


title: Hagia Sophia

text: Hagia Sophia was used as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral until 1453, except during the Latin Empire when it was turned into a Roman Catholic cathedral.


title: Hagia Sophia

text: In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror turned Hagia Sophia into a mosque.


title: Hagia Sophia

text: It became a museum in 1935 after the decision of the secularist Turkish government under Kemal Atatürk in 1934. In July 2020, the Islamist Turkish government under Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the Hagia Sophia to be turned back into a mosque following a supreme court annulment of a 1934 presidential decree that made it a museum.


title: Butterfly effect

text: The butterfly effect is an idea from chaos theory. A small change can "sometimes" make much bigger changes happen. One small incident may have a big impact on the future. The emphasis here is on the words "may" and "can". There is no general theory which tells us what is going to happen.


title: Butterfly effect

text: Weather and events are hard to forecast, but that doesn't mean when a butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo and Arsenal lose a match in EPL. That's just silly and impossible. However, what seem to be tiny changes in a planet's orbit can and do cause big changes to the weather: see Milankovich cycle.


title: Butterfly effect

text: Author Ray Bradbury wrote the short story "A Sound of Thunder" with this idea—time travelers make a very small change in the past that makes a large change in the present. However, remember that time travel is impossible, or at least has never been shown to be possible.


title: Disability

text: These conditions may be congenital (present at birth), cognitive (to do with the brain), developmental (appears as the person develops), physical (for example, caused by an accident or infection), sensory, or a combination of factors.


title: Disability

text: Invisible disabilities, or hidden disabilities are disabilities that are not immediately obvious. Some examples of invisible disabilities are intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mental disorders, asthma, epilepsy, allergies, migraines, arthritis, and chronic fatigue syndrome.


title: Disability

text: People with a disability or disabilities may need to use special equipment that can help them. This can include using a wheelchair, a cane or walking stick, hearing aids, a teletypewriter (TTY) and using specially designed software and hardware for the personal computer.


title: Disability

text: People who use a wheelchair cannot walk up or down stairs in a building. They need to use ramps and elevators (lifts) going into and moving around in a building. Wide doorways and accessible toilets also make it easier for people with physical disabilities to use.


title: Disability

text: Prejudice towards people with disabilities is common. This is sometimes called 'ableism'. People with such a prejudice are called an ablecentrists.


title: The Nightmare Before Christmas

text: The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 movie directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It is a 31st movie. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a skeleton from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town".This new town makes Jack realize he wants to do something different than Halloween every year. Jack tries Christmas out but soon realizes that Christmas may not be for him. Danny Elfman wrote the music to the movie and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other characters. Other voices in the movie include Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page and Glen Shadix.


title: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

text: The financial crisis of 2007–2008 was a major financial crisis, the worst of its kind since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Until the COVID-19 recession, the financial crisis of 2007-2008 is considered the worst financial crisis during the 21st century.


title: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

text: In September 2008 many large financial firms in the United States collapsed, merged, or went under conservatorship (a person is assigned to manage a company when it cannot manage itself). The factors that led to the crisis were reported in business journals many months before September 2008.


title: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

text: There are many reasons why the crisis happened. Most economists believe that it started in the United States. From 1997 until 2006, people bought expensive houses, even though they did not have enough money for it. Since the money had come from other countries, it was easy to have good credit. People used this credit for expensive loans, causing the price of homes to rise. This created an economic bubble. Because they had a lot of money, the loaning companies made it easier to get a loan, even if the borrower didn't have a good credit history. These loans are known as subprime loans.


title: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

text: During this time, many home owners refinanced their homes. This caused their mortgage to change, giving them lower interest. After they refinanced, homeowners could take out another mortgage, for spending money. The loaning companies changed their loans so that they would have low interest at first and then increase later. This is known as an adjustable-rate mortgage. The companies often used these to convince more people to take loans. Many people with subprime loans also took these adjustable-rate mortgages, hoping that the good price of housing would help them refinance later.


title: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

text: While the housing prices were still high, many American and European companies, including banks, invested in subprime loans. These investments gave more money to the loaning companies, who used it to give out more subprime loans. These investments would make a lot of money as long as the price of housing was high.


title: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

text: However, the housing companies built too many houses. This caused the price of housing to decrease beginning in the summer of 2006. The value of many homes dropped below the value of the remaining mortgage debt, so the owners were unable to sell and move away. This is called negative equity. About 8.8 million homeowners in the U.S. had zero or negative equity by March 2008. This caused the number of foreclosures on homes to increase, meaning that many people lost their homes. During 2007, almost 1.3 million U.S. homes began foreclosure proceedings. The number of houses for sale continued to increase, which made the prices decrease. The homeowners with subprime loans left their houses with less value than they had when they were bought, which meant that the loans were worth more money than the house. The loaning companies were not able to make money from these houses.


title: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

text: The collapse of the housing bubble caused the value of investments to fall. The companies that had invested in subprime loans lost a total of about $512 billion. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch were two companies that lost the most money. More than half of the money lost, $260 billion, was lost by American firms.


title: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

text: Total financial losses from lost economic activity and stock market declines have been estimated at $15 trillion.


title: English alphabet

text: The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet of 26 letters (each having an uppercase and a lowercase form) – exactly the same letters that are found in the ISO basic Latin alphabet:


title: English alphabet

text: The exact shape of printed letters changes depending on the typeface (and font). The shape of handwritten letters can be very different from the standard printed form (and between individuals), especially when written in cursive style. See the individual letter articles for information about letter shapes and origins (follow the links on any of the uppercase letters above).


title: English alphabet

text: Written English uses 18 digraphs (strings of two letters to represent just one sound), such as "ch, sh, th, ph, wh," etc., but they are not considered separate letters of the alphabet. Some traditions also call two ligatures, "æ" and "œ", and the ampersand (&) part of the alphabet.


title: English alphabet

text: The English language was first written in Anglo-Saxon futhorc runes, used since the 5th century. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with Old English itself, the earliest form of the language, by Anglo-Saxon settlers. Very few examples of this form of written Old English have survived, with most of these being short writings or pieces.


title: English alphabet

text: The Latin script, introduced by Christian missionaries, began to replace the Anglo-Saxon futhorc from about the 7th century, although the two continued to be used alongside each other for some time. Futhorc influenced the new Latin-based English alphabet by giving it letters "thorn" (Þ þ) and "wynn" (Ƿ ƿ). The letter "eth" (Ð ð) was later devised as a rewriting of the letter "dee" (D d), and finally "yogh" ( ) was created by Norman scribes from the insular "g" in Old English and Irish, and used alongside their Carolingian "g".


title: English alphabet

text: The a-e ligature "ash" (Æ æ) was adopted as a letter in its own right, named after a futhorc rune "æsc". In very early Old English the o-e ligature "ethel" (Œ œ) also appeared as its own letter, likewise named after a rune, "œðel". Also, the v-v or u-u ligature "double-u" (W w) was in use.


title: English alphabet

text: In the year 1011, a monk named Byrhtferð recorded the traditional order of the Old English alphabet. He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet first (including ampersand), then 5 additional English letters, starting with the Tironian note "ond" (⁊), an insular symbol for "and":


title: English alphabet

text: In the alphabet of Modern English, thorn (þ), eth (ð), wynn (ƿ), yogh (), ash (æ), and ethel (œ) do not exist. Latin borrowings reintroduced homographs of ash and ethel into Middle English and Early Modern English, though they are not thought to be the same letters but rather ligatures, and in any case are somewhat old-fashioned. Thorn and eth were both replaced by "th", though thorn continued in existence for some time, its lowercase form becoming more and more difficult to tell  from the minuscule y in most handwriting. "Y" for "th" can still be seen in pseudo-archaisms (modern writings spelled to look like older words or phrases), such as "Ye Olde Booke Shoppe". The letters þ and ð are still used in present-day Icelandic while ð is still used in present-day Faroese. Wynn disappeared from English around the 14th century when it was supplanted by "uu", which ultimately developed into the modern "w". Yogh disappeared around the 15th century and was typically replaced by "gh".


title: English alphabet

text: In the 16th century, the letters "u and j" were being written as letters distinct from "v" and "i "respectively, whereas before the former two letters were just different forms of the latter two letters. w also became its own letter, rather than be thought of as 2 different letters. With these changes, the English alphabet now has 26 letters:


title: English alphabet

text: The alternate lowercase form long s (ſ) lasted into early modern English, and was used in non-final position up to the early 19th century.


title: English alphabet

text: Diacritic marks (extra marks to help non-native speakers with pronunciation) mainly appear in loanwords such as "naïve" and "façade". As such words become a normal part of English vocabulary, there is a tendency to remove the diacritics, as has happened with old borrowings such as "hôtel", from French. Informal English writing tends to get rid of diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while professional copywriters and typesetters tend to include them, such as Microsoft Word. Words that are still thought to be foreign tend to keep them; for example, the only spelling of "soupçon" found in English dictionaries (the OED and others) uses the diacritic. Diacritics are also more likely to be kept where there would otherwise be confusion with another word (for example, "résumé" (or "resumé") rather than "resume"), and, rarely, even added (as in "maté", from Spanish "yerba mate", but following the pattern of "café", from French).


title: English alphabet

text: Sometimes, especially in older writing, diacritics are used to show the syllables of a word: "cursed" (verb) is pronounced with one syllable, while "cursèd" (adjective) is pronounced with two. "È" is used widely in poetry, e.g. in Shakespeare's sonnets. J.R.R. Tolkien uses "ë", as in "O wingëd crown". Similarly, while in "chicken coop" the letters "-oo-" represent a single vowel sound (a digraph), in outdated spellings such as "zoölogist" and "coöperation", they represent two. This use of the diaeresis is rarely seen, but is still used in the 2000s in some publications, such as "MIT Technology Review" and "The New Yorker".


title: English alphabet

text: An acute, grave, or diaeresis may also be placed over an "e" at the end of a word to indicate that it is not silent, as in "saké". In general, these markings are often not used even when they could ease some level of confusion.


title: English alphabet

text: The & has sometimes appeared at the end of the English alphabet, like in Byrhtferð's list of letters in 1011. Historically, the figure is a ligature for the letters "Et". In English and many other languages it is used to represent the word "and" and occasionally the Latin word "et", as in the abbreviation "&c" (et cetera).


title: English alphabet

text: The apostrophe, while not considered part of the English alphabet, is used to contract, or shorten, English phrases. A few pairs of words, such as "its" (belonging to "it") and "it's" ("it is" or "it has"), "were" (plural of "was") and "we're" (we are), and "shed" (to get rid of) and "she'd" ("she would" or "she had") are distinguished in writing only by having or not having an apostrophe. The apostrophe also distinguishes the possessive endings "-'s" and "-s'" from the common plural ending "-s", a practice that began in the 18th century; before, all three endings were written "-s", which could lead to confusion (as in, "the Apostles words").


title: English alphabet

text: The names of the letters are rarely spelled out, except when used in compound words (for example "tee-shirt, deejay, emcee, okay, aitchless," etc.), derived forms (for example "exed out, effing, to eff and blind", etc.), and in the names of objects named after letters (for example "em (space)" in printing and "wye (junction)" in railroading). The forms listed below are from the Oxford English Dictionary. Vowels stand for themselves, and consonants usually have the form "consonant + ee" or "e + consonant" (e.g. "bee" and "ef"). The exceptions are the letters "aitch, jay, kay, cue, ar, ess" (but "es-" in compounds ), "wye", and "zed". Plurals of consonants end in "-s" ("bees, efs, ems") or, in the cases of "aitch, ess", and "ex", in "-es" ("aitches, esses, exes"). Plurals of vowels end in "-es" ("aes, ees, ies, oes, ues"); these are rare. Of course, all letters may stand for themselves, generally in capitalized form ("okay" or "OK", "emcee" or "MC"), and plurals may be based on these ("aes" or "As", "cees" or "Cs", etc.")"


title: English alphabet

text: Some groups of letters, such as "pee" and "bee", or "em" and "en", are easily confused in speech, especially when heard over the telephone or a radio communications link. Spelling alphabets such as the ICAO spelling alphabet, used by aircraft pilots, police and others, are made to get rid of this confusion by giving each letter a name that sounds quite different from any other.


title: English alphabet

text: The names of the letters are for the most part direct descendants of the Latin (and Etruscan) names through French.


title: English alphabet

text: The novel forms are "aitch", a regular development of Medieval Latin "acca"; "jay", a new letter presumably vocalized like neighboring "kay" to avoid confusion with established "gee" (the other name, "jy", was taken from French); "vee", a new letter named by analogy with the majority; "double-u", a new letter, self-explanatory (the name of Latin V was "ū"); "wye", of obscure origin but with an antecedent in Old French "wi"; "zee", an American leveling of "zed" by analogy with the majority; and "izzard", from the Romance phrase "i zed" or "i zeto" "and Z" said when reciting the alphabet.


title: English alphabet

text: The letters A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowel letters, since (except when silent) they represent vowels; the remaining letters are considered consonant letters, since when not silent they generally represent consonants. However, Y commonly represents vowels as well as a consonant (e.g., "myth"), as very rarely does W (e.g., "cwm"). Conversely, U and I sometimes represent a consonant (e.g., "quiz" and "onion" respectively).


title: English alphabet

text: The table below shows the frequency of letter usage in written English, although the frequencies change somewhat according to the type of text.


title: Trigonometry

text: Trigonometry (from the Greek "trigonon" = three angles and "metron" = measure) is a part of elementary mathematics dealing with angles, triangles and trigonometric functions such as sine (abbreviated sin), cosine (abbreviated cos) and tangent (abbreviated tan). It has some connection to geometry, although there is disagreement on exactly what that connection is; for some, trigonometry is just a section of geometry.


title: Trigonometry

text: Trigonometry uses a large number of specific words to describe parts of a triangle. Some of the definitions in trigonometry are:


title: Trigonometry

text: There are three main trigonometric ratios for right triangles, and three reciprocals of those ratios, making up a total of 6 ratios. They are:


title: Trigonometry

text: Students often use a mnemonic to remember this relationship. The "sine", "cosine", and "tangent" ratios in a right triangle can be remembered by representing them as strings of letters, such as SOH-CAH-TOA:


title: Trigonometry

text: With the sines and cosines, one can answer virtually all questions about triangles. This is called "solving" the triangle. One can work out the remaining angles and sides of any triangle, as soon as two sides and their included angle or two angles and a side or three sides are known. These laws are useful in all branches of geometry, since "every polygon may be described as a combination of triangles".


title: Trigonometry

text: Trigonometry is also vital in surveying, in vector analysis, and in the study of periodic functions. It developed from a need to compute angles and distances in fields such as astronomy, mapmaking, surveying, and artillery range finding.


title: Trigonometry

text: There is also such a thing as spherical trigonometry, which deals with spherical geometry. This is used for calculations in astronomy, geodesy and navigation.


title: Far-right politics

text: Far-right politics are politics further right on the political spectrum than the usual political right. The term is often used to mean Nazism, neo-Nazism, fascism and other organizations that have reactionary views.


title: Far-right politics

text: Saying that superior people should have greater rights than inferior people is often associated with the far-right. The far-right have historically favored a society that believes in superior minority over inferior masses.


title: Far-right politics

text: Some aspects of fascist ideas have been identified with right-wing political parties. The fascist idea that superior people should have more power in society has led to genocide.


title: Far-right politics

text: In the United States, the term "hard right" has been used to describe some groups, such as the Tea Party and Patriot movements.


title: Proxy server

text: In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (computer) which clients (people or computers) use to access other computers. A proxy server that passes information to its clients without changing it is usually called a gateway or sometimes called "tunneling proxy".


title: Proxy server

text: Proxy servers get their name because they act like a proxy (a stand-in) and act on behalf of a Client's computer.


title: Proxy server

text: A client that connects to the proxy server will ask for some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, that is available on a "different" server. The proxy server then goes to the "other" server and asks for what the client wants for them.


title: Proxy server

text: A proxy server can change the information that it gives to the client, and if the same information is accessed many times or by many different clients it can use what is called a cache to make things faster. A cache is the term for information that has been accessed and saved for future use; if a proxy server has what the client is accessing in its cache, it will make it faster because it does not need to go and access the other server to provide what the client wants.


title: Proxy server

text: A proxy server can be placed anywhere in the connection between the client and the server, which could include software on the client computer itself or on any computer between.


title: Proxy server

text: Some proxy servers use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to secure the connection between the client and the remote server. This security layer helps to make sure that no other computers can read or understand what the client is asking from the server.


title: Proxy server

text: There are many benefits of using a proxy server. First, the client machine can exchange data with the remote server without making a direct connection. This way, the client's real internet address will not be known to the remote server. This is sometimes called anonymitizing because it makes the client anonymous.


title: Proxy server

text: A second advantage is that when the proxy server itself is able to serve the request made by the client, it will not contact the remote server any more. So the load on the remote server will be reduced by using a proxy server. This type of proxy servers are called "caching servers".


title: Proxy server

text: Big organizations (or even countries) sometimes use proxy servers to control access to the Internet. A large bank may use a proxy server that only allows connections to other websites relevant to banking. The proxy server might however block access to Websites offering free email or serving pornographic material. It might also block access to file sharing applications. Limiting access to specific content on the internet is also called "internet filtering".


title: Proxy server

text: A caching proxy server can service requests from clients, without contacting the remote server; instead, it sends the data which it has stored from a previous request. This is called caching.


title: Proxy server

text: Caching proxy servers reduce the work load of the remote server. However, they have their own problems, especially if they are not configured well. Some problems are described in .


title: Proxy server

text: A web proxy is a proxy server that focuses on the traffic over the World Wide Web. It may be used to block offensive web content, or to control access of clients to online content. They may be used by corporations or countries.


title: Proxy server

text: An anonymizing proxy server removes identifying information from the clients' requests, for the purpose of anonymity. They may also be used to break through filtered contents on the internet.


title: Proxy server

text: A proxy server is called an "open proxy" if everyone can connect to it and use it. Usually, open proxies are proxy servers which are badly configured. Open proxies may be abused easily; for example, a bad user may send a corrupting request to a remote server, but hide himself behind an open proxy, so the administrators of the remote server cannot stop him. Open proxies can also be used for spamming. For this reason, some websites do not allow connections to their web servers or to edit content on them through known open proxies, including on .