title: X

text: X is the twenty-fourth (number 24) letter in the English alphabet. It sometimes makes a sound like "ks" (for example: "exit", "next", "fox"), or if it is at the beginning of a word, it makes a sound like "zzz" (for example: "xylophone"). The language of origin is from the Greek and Latin language


title: Q

text: Q is the seventeenth (number 17) letter in the English alphabet. It is always followed by a silent letter U. Q makes a "kw" sound as in quick or a "k" sound as in unique.


title: Q

text: Some people say that the letter Q is not needed, because the sound it makes can be made with K or C and W instead. The same thing is said about the letter X.


title: Melanie Griffith

text: Melanie Griffith (born August 9, 1957) is an American actress. She is the daughter of Tippi Hedren. She has been in many motion pictures. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 movie "Working Girl".


title: Melanie Griffith

text: Griffith began work at nine months old in a commercial. In "Night Moves" she did racy nude scenes at age 17.


title: Melanie Griffith

text: At age 14, Griffith began dating 22-year old actor Don Johnson. He co-starred with her mother in "The Harrad Experiment". Griffith was an extra. They had a six-month marriage in 1976. Tatum O'Neal said in her 2004 autobiography that around that time, she (then 12) and Griffith (then 18) were in an opium-fueled orgy in a Paris hotel room.


title: Melanie Griffith

text: In September 1981, Griffith married Steven Bauer. He was her co-star in the TV movie "She's in the Army Now". They have a son, Alexander, born on August 22, 1985. The couple divorced in 1987. Griffith later said she had problems with cocaine and liquor after her divorce from Bauer. "What I did was drink myself to sleep at night," she said. "If I wasn't with someone, I was an unhappy girl."


title: Melanie Griffith

text: She checked into rehab in 1988. During this time, she got back together with Johnson, became sober and pregnant. They remarried in June 1989. Their daughter, Dakota Johnson, was born on October 4, 1989. They separated in June 1994. They divorced in 1996.


title: Melanie Griffith

text: Griffith and Antonio Banderas began a relationship in May 1995 when they began filming "Two Much". The couple has been married since May 14, 1996. Their daughter, Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith, was born on September 24, 1996. There are reports of trouble in the marriage due to Antonio's closeness to an Indian Actress Mallika Sherawat. In June 2014, Griffith and Banderas stated that they are to divorce. The divorce was finalized in 2015.


title: Melanie Griffith

text: In 1988, Griffith sought treatment for addiction to painkillers and alcohol after the filming of Working Girl. She went into rehab in 2000 for a painkiller addiction. She returned to rehab in August 2009 for substance abuse problems. She left three months later and underwent surgery for skin cancer in December 2009.


title: Calendar

text: A calendar is a tool for organizing days. People use calendars to say when something happened, and for planning things that have not happened yet. The calendar gives the days names and numbers, called calendar dates. The "dates" are usually made based on how things in the sky seem to move. The year and month are based on motions of the Sun and moon. By knowing what day something happened or will happen, people have an easier life. Since the beginning of history, knowing when the seasons would start for crops was very important for farmers.


title: Calendar

text: Calendar systems have a beginning time or era. The calendar era is often a religion-based event, such as the birth of Jesus, but it may be a political event such as a coronation or the founding of a state. Dates that are counted from the coronation are called "regnal".


title: Calendar

text: The three principal calendars most used today are the Gregorian, Hebrew, and Islamic calendars. Other calendar systems from many different parts of the world are also used.


title: Calendar

text: The Earth turns all the way around its axis about 24 hours. It is called the Solar Day. Days of most calendars are strongly based on the Solar Day.


title: Calendar

text: The Moon turns all the way around the Earth about 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2 seconds. Months of some calendars are still strongly based on the Moon. These are called Lunar calendars, which lasts about 354-355 days. Solar calendars ignore the moon, and depend entirely on the Sun.


title: Calendar

text: The Earth goes all the way around the Sun in about 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. This is called the Solar year. Years of most calendars are strongly based on the Solar year.


title: The Great Khali

text: Dalip Singh Rana (born August 27 1972) is an Indian professional wrestler, actor and powerlifter. He is better known by his ring name The Great Khali. He worked for the WWE from 2006 to 2014. Before he started his professional sports career, he was an officer in the Punjab state police.


title: The Great Khali

text: Under the ring name "Giant Singh", Dalip Singh became a pro wrestler for All Pro Wrestling in the United States. He made his first appearance in October 2000.


title: The Great Khali

text: On May 28, 2001, Brian Ong died while training with Singh. Ong had already suffered one concussion but was told to continue training. A second concussion was deadly for him. Because Singh caused his death, Ong's family brought a lawsuit against All Pro Wrestling. APW was made to pay the Ong family over $1.3 million.


title: The Great Khali

text: On January 2, 2006, Singh started working for WWE. He was assigned to Deep South Wrestling for training. Singh first appeared on WWE television on April 7, 2006. He attacked The Undertaker during his match with Mark Henry. Khali had his first WWE match on April 21, 2006 against Funaki.


title: The Great Khali

text: In July of 2006, Khali was removed from a match against the Undertaker because of elevated liver enzymes. On August 4, 2006, he returned to SmackDown. On August 29, 2006, it was reported that Khali would be out of action for several months due to surgery on both knees.


title: The Great Khali

text: In 2007, Singh was feuding with Batista in July before The Great American Bash. The two were scheduled for a match on PPV on Sunday, July 22, 2007. However, Edge had to give up the World Heavyweight Championship because of a pectoral injury. Khali had won the championship in a 20-man battle royal at the July 17 taping of SmackDown! He then went on to defend his title successfully against Kane and Batista at the Great American Bash.


title: The Great Khali

text: In 2005, Singh starred in the movie "The Longest Yard" as Turley, one of the prison's inmates. On March 16 2007, Singh starred in the 2007 remake of "Get Smart", a movie based on the 1960s classic TV show, alongside The Rock.


title: Pazyryk rug

text: The Pazyryk rug is one of the oldest carpets in the world, dating around the 4th–3rd centuries BC. It is now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Pazyryk rug was found in 1949 in the grave of a Scythian nobleman in the Bolshoy Ulagan dry valley of the Altai Mountains in Kazakhstan. The Pazyrk rug had been frozen in the ice and it was very well preserved. The rug has a ribbon pattern in the middle, and a border which has deer, and warriors riding on horses. All parts of the rug are made of wool, including the pile and the base.


title: Pazyryk rug

text: Being produced either in Ancient Armenia, Persia, or Central Asia, this carpet has 3600 symmetrical double knots per dm² (232 per inch²), in modern terminology also called "Ghiordes knot (or "Turkish knot"). The design and the systematic motifs of the Pazyrk rug would later be found in similar Turkmen carpets, carpets of the early Seljuq period, and subsequently modern Turkish carpets and kilims.


title: Pazyryk rug

text: The origin of the rug is unknown. There are different theories regarding the origin of the carpet. While a number of scholars presume a Oghuz-Turkic origin, Volkmar Gantzhorn assumes a Urartian and Armenian origin of the rug. A Persian theory also exists, but has not been further elaborated; The rug may have originated between the Iranian-Altaian corridor through ancient contacts. Some authors assume that the wool, the artistic conception, as well as the workmanship, may have been provided by Armenians of the Near East; The rug itself is considered as a Sakic funeral accessory. Although a previous study in 1983/1985 did not support an involvement of Armenian cochineal, a Soviet-based conference held in Riga (1987) still maintained the claim that the red threads of the rug resemble those of the Armenian cochineal type. Later it was found by an American research center (Bard Graduate Center, 1991) that the bluish-red color used for the rug and other felts was actually made from Polish cochineal ("Porphyrophora polonica"), a scale insect native to Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Western Siberia, or from one of the Porphyrophora species recently discovered in Kazakhstan: "P. Altaiensis", "P. Turaigiriensis" (Jashenko, 1988), "P. Akirtobiensis" (Jashenko, 1988), "P. eremospartonae" (Jashenko, 1989), and "P. matesovae" (Jashenko, 1989). Armenian authors, however, still insist in the Soviet-based perception of 1987. Further confirmation on the nature of "Ararat Kermes" of the Armenian cochineal gained by the analysis of "Porphyrophora hameli" insects in 1990 by Harald Böhmer, has shown that the Pazyryk rug cannot have been dyed with this insect.


title: Pazyryk rug

text: The numerical values of the carpet show striking genealogical parallels to the Oghuz-Turkic legend, perhaps based on an older version of the Massageteans. This genealogy is shown in the way the pattern is divided into 24 tribes. On the left and right their are groups of 12 tribes in each. According to Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, the founder of the Oghuz tribes had six sons, with each having four sons. As mentioned in the “Shiji” (“Historical Records”) of Sima Qian this scheme was a result of the military administrative reform of the Xiongnu leader Modu Chanyu in 209/206-174 BC which in turn originated from the Turkic primordial ancestor Oghuz Khagan. Many Turkic cultures today use his legend to describe their ethnic origins. Historian Sergei Tolstov writes that this scheme “...was preserved by the Aral foreland Huns, the Kidarites-Hephthalites, and was inherited by their descendants, the tribes of the Oghuz alliance in the 10th – 11th centuries AD and, finally, by the Turkmens of the 19th century AD – beginning of the 20th century AD.”


title: Pazyryk rug

text: Gantzhorn supports the view that the Pazyryk rug is of Armenian origin. He put forward the hypothesis that the rug is actually not depicting Scythians, but Armenians. He found similarities at the ruins of Persepolis in Iran where various nations are depicted as bearing tribute, the horse design from the Pazyryk carpet is the same as the relief depicting part of the Armenian delegation. Gantzhorn and Schurmann further stated, that the rug is weaved with the armenian double knot technique, and the red filaments color was made from Armenian cochineal.


title: Bear

text: Bears are a group of large mammals found all over the world in many different habitats. They form the family Ursidae, in the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora. There are 8 living bear species.


title: Bear

text: Bears usually have a big body with short and thick legs. They have a broad head and a very short tail. They have small eyes and round ears. They usually have longer, shaggy fur. On each foot they have five claws, which they cannot pull back. They use their claws for digging, climbing, and hunting. They can stand up on their back legs and their front paws are flexible. Usually bears can climb and swim very well. Males are usually bigger than females. Most bears except the giant panda are only one color. Most bears are russet, brown, or black.


title: Bear

text: Bears do not have good hearing. They have powerful senses of smell and sight. They have good sight and can see colors, which is different from other carnivores. Bears mostly use their sense of smell to know what is around them. They can smell better than dogs. Bears also have good memory, which lets them remember where they can find food.


title: Bear

text: They are mostly active at night, except for the Polar Bear. Some bears hibernate, that means they sleep during the winter to save energy.


title: Bear

text: Bears are usually omnivorous, which means that they eat plants and meat. They eat berries, grass, and fish. An exception is the polar bear, which eats mostly meat.


title: Bear

text: Bears usually live alone, except when they are mating season or if they have cubs. The father does not raise the cubs. The mother raises the cubs for months or a few years depending on how much food there is. The mother protects her young, even at the cost of her life.


title: Bear

text: Bears live all over the world, mostly in the Northern hemisphere. They are found in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. There used to be bears in northern Africa but they are now extinct.


title: Knowledge

text: Knowledge means the things which are true, as opposed to opinion. Information which is correct is knowledge. Knowledge can always be supported by evidence. If a statement is not supported by evidence, then it is not knowledge. The evidence makes it justified.


title: Knowledge

text: Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. This was the point of Ryle's distinction between "knowing that" and "knowing how". It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic. In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called epistemology. The philosopher Plato defined knowledge as "justified true belief". This definition is the subject of the Gettier problems.


title: Knowledge

text: All knowledge is a claim to be true, but the claim can be incorrect. The only claims (propositions) which are certainly true are circular, based on how we use words or terms. We can correctly claim that there are 360 degrees in a circle, since that is part of how circles are defined. The point of Aristotle's syllogism was to show that this kind of reasoning had a machine-like form:


title: Knowledge

text: The most widely accepted way to find reliable knowledge is the scientific method. Yet one thing all philosophers of science agree is that scientific knowledge is just the best we can do at any one time. All scientific knowledge is provisional, not a claim of absolute truth.


title: Knowledge

text: Knowledge in religion is different in that it depends on faith, belief and the authority of religious leaders, not on evidence of a scientific or legal kind. There are differing views on whether religious statements should be regarded as knowledge.


title: Knowledge

text: In many expressions of Christianity, such as Catholicism and Anglicanism, knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.


title: Knowledge

text: In the Garden of Eden knowledge is the factor that made humans greedy and treacherous. But in the Book of Proverbs it states: 'to be wise you must first obey the LORD' (9:10).


title: Knowledge

text: In Islam, knowledge has great significance. "The All-Knowing" ("al-ʿAlīm") is one of the Names of God, reflecting distinct properties of God in Islam. The Qur'an asserts that knowledge comes from God and various "hadith" encourage getting knowledge. Muhammad is reported to have said "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave" and "Verily the men of knowledge are the inheritors of the prophets". Islamic scholars, theologians and jurists are often given the title "alim", meaning 'knowledgeable'.


title: Aryan race

text: The Aryan race is an idea that was formed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The term "Aryan" comes from the Rig Veda and is the name of an ancient group of people in ancient Persia and India, who spoke an Indo-European language. It has been used to describe people of Iranian and Indian descent, but there was no record of Aryans in European history. Later it was used for Germanic peoples because of new ideas about the Aryans.


title: Aryan race

text: The term Aryan comes from the ancient Sanskrit word ārya, which was a term used by Sanskrit speaking people to distinguish themselves from other races. The Iranians also used the terms, and the name Iran means "land of the Aryans". The idea of an Aryan race was first used as a category of people but was later used by occult movements such as Theosophy. It was also later used by Nazis and white supremacists in racist ways.


title: Aryan race

text: The ideology of Nazism was based upon the idea of the Aryan race or Germanic peoples being a master race. The Nazi view of the Aryan race came from earlier racial theorists such as Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain.


title: Aryan race

text: As the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, became set in his ways, he decided with proclamations that some other groups of people were also Aryans along with Germanic peoples. He declared Hungarians to be "Aryan" in 1934, the Japanese were made officially "Aryans" in 1936, and the Finns were officially added in as "Aryans" by his proclamation in 1942. However, Nazi Germany did not regard Slavs as "Aryans", but as inferiors and non-Aryan. They were usually vague as to whether Italians were "Aryan", although Italy under Mussolini had a "Manifesto of Race" in 1938 that said they were.


title: Aryan race

text: Theosophy, a mystical occult society founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky believes that the Arabian people and the Jews are a part of the Aryan race. It is believed by Theosophists that the Arabians used the Semitic languages of the people around them. These people had moved to the area from Atlantis. Theosophists claim that the Jews began as a part of the Arabian subrace in what is now Yemen around 30,000 BC. They moved first to Somalia and then to Egypt where they lived until the time of Moses.


title: Lyon

text: Lyon (Arpitan: "Liyon") is a city in the southeast of France. It is the third-largest city in the country (behind Paris and Marseille), with about 513,000 people living there in 2015. It is the second largest "metropolis", or metro area, in France (behind only that of Paris), with about 2.3 million people in 2014.


title: Lyon

text: In ancient history, the name of Lyon was "Lugdunum". Someone who lives in Lyon is called a "Lyonnais" (male) or a "Lyonnaise" (female) in French.


title: Lyon

text: Lyon has a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa" in the Koeppen climate classification). It is between the Rhône and the Saône. It is about west of the Italian border.


title: Lyon

text: The central part of Lyon, located on the peninsula between the Rhône and the Saône, was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Carbon dioxide (CO) is a chemical compound and is acidic. It is a gas at room temperature. It is made of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. People and animals release carbon dioxide when they breathe out. Also, every time something organic is burnt (or a fire is made), it makes carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide to make food. This process is called photosynthesis. The properties of carbon dioxide were studied by the Scottish scientist Joseph Black in the 1750s.


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases trap heat energy. Greenhouse gases change the climate and weather on our planet, Earth. This is called climate change. Greenhouse gases are a cause of global warming, the rise of Earth surface temperature.


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Its concentration in Earth's atmosphere since late in the Precambrian was regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena (mainly volcanos).


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Carbon dioxide is an end product in organisms that obtain energy from breaking down sugars, fats and amino acids with oxygen as part of their metabolism. This is a process known as cellular respiration. This includes all animals, many fungi and some bacteria. In higher animals, the carbon dioxide travels in the blood from the body's tissues to the lungs where it is breathed out. Plants take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to use in photosynthesis.


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Dry ice, or solid carbon dioxide, is the solid state of CO gas below -109.3 °F (-78.5°C). Dry ice does not occur naturally on earth but is man made. It is colorless. People use dry ice to make things cold, and to make drinks fizzy, kill gophers, and freeze warts. The vapor of dry ice causes suffocation and eventually, death. Caution and professional assistance is recommended whenever dry ice is in use.


title: Carbon dioxide

text: At usual pressure it will not melt from a solid to a liquid but instead changes directly from a solid to a gas. This is called sublimation. It will change directly from a solid to a gas at any temperature higher than extremely cold temperatures. Dry ice sublimates at normal air temperature. Dry ice exposed to normal air gives off carbon dioxide gas that has no color. Carbon dioxide can be liquified at pressure above 5.1 atmospheres.


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Carbon dioxide gas that comes off of dry ice is so cold that when it mixes with air it cools the water vapour in the air to fog, which looks like a thick white smoke. It is often used in the theater to create the appearance of fog or smoke.


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Chemists can get carbon dioxide from cooling air. They call this air distillation. This method is inefficient because a large amount of air must be refrigerated to extract a small amount of CO2. Chemists can also use several different chemical reactions to separate carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is made in the reactions between most acids and most metal carbonates. For example, the reaction between hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate (limestone or chalk) makes carbon dioxide:


title: Carbon dioxide

text: The carbonic acid (HCO) then decomposes to water and CO. Such reactions cause foaming or bubbling, or both. In industry, such reactions are used many times to neutralize waste acid streams.


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Quicklime (CaO), a chemical that has widespread use, can be made heating limestone to about 850 °C. This reaction also makes CO:


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Carbon dioxide is also made in the combustion of all carbon-containing fuels, such as methane (natural gas), petroleum distillates (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, propane), coal or wood. In most cases, water is also released. As an example the chemical reaction between methane and oxygen is:


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Carbon dioxide is made in steel mills. Iron is reduced from its oxides with coke in a blast furnace, producing pig iron and carbon dioxide:


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Yeast metabolizes sugar to produce carbon dioxide and ethanol, also known as alcohol, in the production of wines, beers and other spirits, but also in the production of bioethanol:


title: Carbon dioxide

text: All aerobic organisms produce when they oxidize carbohydrates, fatty acids, and proteins in the mitochondria of cells. The large number of reactions involved are exceedingly complex and not described easily. (They include cellular respiration, anaerobic respiration and photosynthesis). Photoautotrophs (i.e. plants, cyanobacteria) use another reaction: Plants absorb from the air, and, together with water, react it to form carbohydrates:


title: Carbon dioxide

text: Carbon dioxide is soluble in water, in which it spontaneously interconverts between CO and (carbonic acid). The relative concentrations of , and the deprotonated forms (bicarbonate) and (carbonate) depend on the acidity (pH). In neutral or slightly alkaline water (pH > 6.5), the bicarbonate form predominates (>50%) becoming the most prevalent (>95%) at the pH of seawater, while in very alkaline water (pH > 10.4) the predominant (>50%) form is carbonate. The bicarbonate and carbonate forms are very soluble. So, air-equilibrated ocean water (mildly alkaline with typical pH = 8.2–8.5) contains about 120 mg of bicarbonate per liter.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: A sexually transmitted disease (STD) is a disease which spreads by having sex. STDs can spread through oral sex or anal sex, or when two people's genitals touch. Today, STDs are usually called sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In the past, they were called venereal diseases (VD).


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: STDs can be caused by viruses, bacteria, or parasites. Examples of the most common STDs are listed on this page.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: HIV causes the immune system - the system in the body that is supposed to fight off infection - to not work as well as it should. This makes people with HIV more likely to get infections and some other diseases, like some cancers. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: There are about 40 different kinds of HPV that can be spread through sex and affect the anus and genitals. Examples of diseases that HPV can cause include:


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: Hepatitis is an infection of the liver. There are three common types of hepatitis: hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: Hepatitis A causes a short-term liver infection. It can be spread by having sex, though this is not the most common way to get hepatitis A.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: Hepatitis B and hepatitis C cause much more serious, long-lasting liver problems. Both can cause very bad liver disease, like cirrhosis, and death. They are more likely than hepatitis A to be spread by having sex.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: The herpes simplex virus (HSV) causes genital herpes. Genital herpes can cause painful blisters on the genitals and anus. Herpes can also cause sores on the mouth.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: Chlamydia is one of the common STDs in the world. In humans, it is the most common STD caused by bacteria. In the United States alone, about 2.8 million more people get chlamydia infection every year.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: If chlamydia is not treated, it can cause serious problems, like diseases of the genitals and eyes. It can even cause blindness. Chlamydia can also cause permanent damage to a woman's reproductive system if it is not treated.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: Gonorrhea can infect the genitals, rectum, mouth, throat, and eyes. In bad cases, it can spread through the blood to infect the body's joints. In the worst cases, it can spread through the blood and infect the heart (causing endocarditis, an infection of the heart's valves) or the spinal cord (causing meningitis).


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: Syphilis can cause many serious problems if it is not treated. It makes a person much more likely to get HIV, because it causes sores on the genitals that make it easier for HIV (and other STDs) to get spread. After a few years, if people with syphilis do not get treated, they can have serious problems with the organs in their body. Eventually - without treatment - syphilis infects the brain and causes death.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: Trichomoniasis is the most common STD in the world that is not caused by a virus. It can cause inflammation swelling of the vagina (vaginitis, urethra (urethritis), or penis. It can also cause more serious problems. If it is not treated, it can cause permanent damage to a woman's reproductive system. It can also cause prostate cancer, and makes a woman more likely to give birth to a premature baby.


title: Sexually transmitted disease

text: The only way for a person to be sure they will not get an STI is for that person not to have sex. This includes sex of any kind.


title: Soft water

text: Soft water is water which has relatively low concentration of calcium carbonate and other ions . It contains less than 85.5 parts per million of calcium carbonate.


title: Soft water

text: The water that lathers with soap easily is called or known as soft water. It describes type of water that contain few or no minerals like calcium (Ca) or magnesium (Mg) ions. The term is usually relative to "hard water", which does contain significant amounts of such ions.


title: Soft water

text: Soft water mostly comes from peat or igneous rock sources, such as granite but may also come from sandstone sources, since those sedimentary rocks are usually low in calcium and magnesium.


title: Soft water

text: Hard water may be better for the heart than soft water. Its calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg)ions may be a dietary supplement for some.


title: Soft water

text: The main disadvantage of hard water is it deposits calcium carbonate on pipes, especially hot water pipes. This is called "scale formation". It may cause blockage of pipes and reduce boiler efficiency. Also, soap and detergents work less well in hard water. These effects increase as hardness increases.


title: Liberalism

text: Some liberals believe that freedom is impossible without equality, and that governments should promote egalitarianism by providing education and health care supported by taxes. Other liberals believe that taxes are bad, and that people should provide their own education and health care; these people are usually called libertarians today. Most liberal governments today do provide at least some education and health care, though not necessarily equally for all citizens.


title: Liberalism

text: In the old days, kings or queens told people what to do (a form of government called a Monarchy), and there was very little freedom. A few hundred years ago, philosophers such as John Locke, Simón Bolívar, John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham began to write about freedom. Earlier writers, such as Marcus Aurelius, had written about freedom, but this time the idea caught on. The United States of America was the first country to have a constitution which was based on the ideas of John Locke which were similar to those of Mill and Bentham, and which guaranteed certain rights to all citizens, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to assemble (get together in groups), the right to bear arms (weapons), and the right to ask their government to take action (right of petition) or to remove from office rulers they did not like (right of referendum).


title: Liberalism

text: Another idea that became popular around this time was the idea of free trade. A leading philosopher who promoted free trade was Adam Smith.


title: Liberalism

text: Most of the wealthy countries in the world today are liberal democracies with more or less free trade. An exception to this rule are the oil-rich countries, not all of which are liberal or democratic. Most of the poor countries in the world are dictatorships, with heavy restrictions on trade. China is a poor country which is rapidly becoming rich, and is trying the experiment of combining dictatorship with free trade. Whether it is possible to have the advantages of free trade without other freedoms remains to be seen.


title: Liberalism

text: All liberal governments support free elections, and this idea is defended in the legal systems of many countries. However, many countries have elections, but they are not free. This is because opposition candidates cannot use the mass media to publicize their ideas. This situation leads to long-term stability, and to rule by elite groups or dictators. That situation exists in Russia and almost all the former states of the Soviet Union to the east.


title: Liberalism

text: The government of the United States was created based on a belief in democracy and personal freedom. However the word "liberalism" has taken on a different meaning in modern times. Liberals in the United States still believe in supporting democracy and freedom, but many liberals also support other ideas. While not all liberals agree on everything, most liberals in the United States agree:


title: Liberalism

text: Liberals in the United States are also sometimes called "Progressives". The biggest liberal political party in the modern United States is the Democratic Party. However, the Green Party is seen to be more 'left', or liberal than the Democrats.


title: Liberalism

text: Liberals in Australia have many different ideas about government than liberals in the United States. Most liberals in Australia believe that government should not increase taxes, and would like a government that has lower taxes and less power over the economy. The main liberal political party in Australia is the Liberal Party of Australia. The Liberal Party also believes that government should support traditional values and morals, something which many conservatives believe as well.


title: Catalonia

text: Catalonia (; ; ) is a Spanish autonomous community. It is south of the eastern Pyrenees, and has a northern border with France.


title: Catalonia

text: Catalonia is made up of four provinces: Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona () and Lleida (). It has a population of over seven million people. Catalonia has three official languages: Catalan, Spanish and Occitan. The last is spoken in a small region of northern Catalonia that borders France and is known in Occitan as Val d'Aran.


title: Catalonia

text: The capital of Catalonia is Barcelona, on the Mediterranean Coast. Between Costa del Garraf and Costa del Maresme, Barcelona very popular in summer for tourists, foreign or national.


title: Catalonia

text: The Catalan people have autonomy within Spain and so they have their own local government and their own police and some control over their own community. In September 2005, the Catalan Parliament decided to call Catalonia a 'nation' in the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which was approved in 2006. According to the Spanish Constitution, Spain is a group of historical nationalities and regions, but that declaration has no judicial status since it only appears in the preamble to the constitution.


title: Catalonia

text: On 27 October 2017, Catalonia declared independence from Spain after a vote in Parliament, but that was not recognised by the international community. The Spanish Senate voted in favour of direct rule. It removed the Catalan government and called a snap regional election. The Spanish Supreme Court imprisoned seven former ministers of the Catalan government on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds. Several others—including then-President Carles Puigdemont—fled to other European countries.


title: Catalonia

text: Catalonia is one of Southern Europe's most prosperous regions. Industrialization, especially in the textile industry, began earlier and took place faster than in other Spanish territories. The region is also greener than Southern Spain as it gets more rain, and it has different kinds of crops grown. Catalonia, especially the northern part, is much less hot than the rest of Spain.


title: Manioc

text: Manioc (or Cassava, or Yuca, especially in Latin America) is a shrub. It belongs to the Spurge family of plants and it grows in tropical climates. It is cultivated for its edible root. The manioc must be cooked properly to detoxify it before it is eaten and can be used in dumplings, soups, stews and gravies.


title: Barcode reader

text: A Barcode reader or Barcode scanner is an electronic input device which is able to scan and decode barcodes. These devices use optical technology such as infrared light. Some readers use an integrated decoder, others have one unit for reading the barcode, and another one to decode the barcode. A barcode reader also called a price scanner or point-of-sale ( POS ) scanner, is a hand-held or stationary input device used to capture and read the information contained in a bar code. A barcode reader consists of a scanner, a decoder (either built-in or external), and a cable used to connect the reader with a computer. Because a barcode reader merely captures and translates the barcode into numbers and/or letters, the data must be sent to a computer so that a software application can make sense of the data. Barcode scanners can be connected to a computer through a serial port, keyboard port, or an interface device called a wedge. A barcode reader works by directing a beam of light across the bar code and measuring the amount of light that is reflected back. The dark bars on a barcode reflect less light than the white spaces between them. The barcode scanner then converts the reflected light energy into electrical energy, which is converted into data by the decoder and forwarded to a computer.


title: Barcode reader

text: There are five basic barcode readers -- pen wands, slot scanners, Charge-Couple Device ( CCD ) scanners, image scanners, and laser scanners. A pen wand is the simplest barcode reader. It contains no moving parts and is known for its durability and low cost. A pen wand can present a challenge to the user, however, because it has to remain in direct contact with the bar code, must be held at a certain angle, and has to be moved over the bar code at a certain speed. A slot scanner remains stationary and the item with the bar code on it is pulled by hand through the slot. Slot scanners are typically used to scan bar codes on identification cards. A CCD scanner has a better read range than the pen wand and is often used in retail sales. Typically, a CCD scanner has a "gun" type interface and has to be held no more than one inch from the bar code. Each time the bar code is scanned, several readings are taken to reduce the possibility of errors. A disadvantage of the CCD scanner is that it cannot read a bar code that is wider than its input face. An image scanner, also called a camera reader, uses a small video camera to capture an image of the bar code and then uses sophisticated digital image processing techniques to decode the bar code. It can read a bar code from about 3 to 9 inches away and generally costs less than a laser scanner. A laser scanner, either hand-held or stationary, does not have to be close to the bar code in order to do its job. It uses a system of mirrors and lenses to allow the scanner to read the bar code regardless of orientation, and can easily read a bar code up to 24 inches away. To reduce errors, laser scanning may perform up to 500 scans per second. Specialized long-range laser scanners are capable of reading a bar code up to 30 feet away.


title: Mexican peso

text: The $Mexican Peso (sign: $; code: MXN) is the currency, or money, of . The symbol used for the peso is "$", which is the same as for the US dollars it got its symbol from the Spanish-Mexican currency. It is one of the most traded currencies in the world. The current ISO 4217 code for the peso is "MXN"; before its value was changed in 1993, the code "MXP" was used. The peso is made up of 100 "centavos", represented by "¢". The name comes from the Spanish words "pesos oro" (gold weights) or "pesos plata" (silver weights). The meaning of peso in English is weight.


title: Employee

text: An employee is a term for workers and managers working for a company, organization or community. These people are the staff of the organization. In general, any person hired by an employer to do a particular job in exchange for payment is an employee, but there are different kinds of employees. In some countries, employers are required by law to do certain things, like obey minimum wage laws, provide a safe workplace, and sometimes pay a tax. Employers also have to give their official employees benefits, like paying for health insurance. Because of this, some employers like to hire independent contractors to do work instead of regular employees. In the United States, a worker is an employee if their employer gets to tell them what do do, how to do it, and when to do it in a material way and an independent contractor if they get to make their own decisions about how to do what the employer wants.


title: Employee

text: The relationship between employer and employee is different from that between the firm and a customer or client.


title: Employee

text: Some employers like to hire independent contractors, or workers who are technically running their own businesses, because they do not have to follow all of the same laws. For example, in the United States, an employer has to some of the employee's social security taxes and the employee pays the rest. A self-employed person pays for all of his or her own social security taxes.


title: Employee

text: For example, if a company hires a plumber every time they need a leak or pipe fixed in their building, that plumber is an independent contractor. If a company hires a plumber to be part of their company, then that plumber is an employee. They must pay the employee plumber whether there are leaks to fix or not. They must obey any minimum wage laws that the country has. They must provide other things. But the employer gets to tell the employee plumber what to do and how to do it much more than an independent contractor plumber. They can make the employee plumber follow a dress code, while the independent plumber gets to wear what he or she wants. They can make the employee plumber come in or leave on a set schedule like other employees. The independent contractor plumber gets to decide when to come to work, usually by making an appointment with the employer.


title: Employee

text: Some companies like to hire independent contractors and then tell them exactly what to do and when to do it, like regular employees. They can get in trouble for this. In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service can sue companies that lie about whether their employees really are independent contractors.


title: KGB

text: KGB is the Russian-language abbreviation for State Security Committee. It was the main internal security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. It was formed in 1954 as a successor of earlier agencies, the Cheka, NKGB, and MGB just after Joseph Stalin died in March 1953 and Lavrentiy Beria who died in December 1953 .


title: KGB

text: During the Cold War, the KGB suppressed "ideological subversion". This meant suppressing unorthodox political and religious ideas, and the people who held those ideas. It was Soviet policy for the KGB (and the secret services of the satellite states) to monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible counter-revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc.


title: KGB

text: The KGB was instrumental in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and the Prague Spring of "Socialism with a Human Face", in 1968 Czechoslovakia. A record of some of its doings is contained in the Mitrokin Archive.


title: KGB

text: From 13 March 1954 to 6 November 1991, KGB was the main name for the main Soviet security agency, intelligence agency or spy agency, and the secret police agency.


title: KGB

text: In March 1953, Lavrenty Beria merged the MVD and the MGB into one agencythe MVD. In December of that year, Beria and six associates were executed and the MVD split. The re-formed MVD retained its police and law enforcement powers, while the second, new agency, the KGB, did the internal and external security functions, and reported to the Council of Ministers.


title: KGB

text: On 5 July 1978 the KGB was renamed as the "KGB of the Soviet Union", with its chairman holding a ministerial council seat. The KGB ended when its chief, Colonel-General Vladimir Kryuchkov, used the KGB's resources to help the August 1991 coup attempt to overthrow Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. On 23 August 1991 Colonel-General Kryuchkov was arrested, and General Vadim Bakatin was appointed KGB Chairmanand mandated to dissolve the KGB of the Soviet Union. On 6 November 1991, the KGB officially ceased to exist, although Russia's new national security organisation, the Russian "Federalnaya sluzhba bezopasnosti" (FSB), works in the same things that the Soviet KGB did.


title: KGB

text: Belarus is the only post-Soviet Union era country where the national security organization is still called "KGB". Belarus is where Felix Dzerzhinsky started a group called the Cheka, which was an organization in the Soviet Union before the MVD or the KGB was started.


title: Blu-ray Disc

text: Blu-ray Disc is a high-density optical disc format similar to DVD. Blu-ray is the type of disc used for PlayStation 3 games and for playing high-definition (HD) movies. In the past, there were other standards for such movies, such as the HD DVD format. Blu-ray won what is called the "format war" between 2006-2008.


title: Blu-ray Disc

text: A dual-layer Blu-ray disc can store up to 50GB (gigabytes) of data. This is over five times the capacity of a DVD, and over 70 times more than a CD or VCD.


title: Blu-ray Disc

text: The disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers, and released in 2006. The format was developed for recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data.


title: Blu-ray Disc

text: Older optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM used a red laser to read and write data. The new format used a blu laser instead. This is where the name is from.


title: Equestrianism

text: Equestrianism is the sport of horseback riding. It is a popular sport in countries like the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe. Horses are used in many different competitions.


title: Equestrianism

text: Within the sport, there are several types of riding, such as English and Western. In English riding, there are three Olympic events: cross country, dressage and show jumping (in which competitors ride horses over obstacles). There are no forms of Western riding in the Olympics.


title: Equestrianism

text: In show jumping, a rider rides a horse over a set course of horse jumps while being timed. Riders win by having the fastest time without mistakes. There are many types of horse jumps such as the vertical (a jump which is straight up and down and has no depth), the oxer (a jump which is two or more rails deep, creating a wider jump), and combinations (2 or 3 jumps put right after each other). Courses will generally include more than 10 jumps, and require the horse and rider to do many complicated turns, jump at difficult angles, and perform more advanced tests of ability and communication.


title: Equestrianism

text: Not every type of horse can jump well, just like not all horses are able to do well at horse racing or farm work. Most horses seen in show jumping competitions are warmblood and thoroughbred horses which were bred for equestrian sports. The riding has been popular since 1900.


title: Equestrianism

text: Dressage is an event where horses are judged “on the flat” (no jumps) and where horse and rider are tested on their ability to talk to each other and perform specific tasks in a specific order within a time period. There is usually a sequence of activities that the horse and rider must complete. Letters are placed around a sand filled arena to show where movements should happen. In dressage the horse and rider can also perform a freestyle, which is also known as "Dancing on Horseback". Dressage riders usually wear tight pants called breeches, as well as a blouse, a top coat and a top hat. The moves of the horse should be very graceful. Horses and riders that compete at the Olympics in dressage have had many years of training to learn all the moves they must do together for the competition.


title: Equestrianism

text: Eventing (or 3-day-eventing) combines dressage, show jumping, and the horse version of cross country into one sport. This combined training is based on the old military tests of the cavalry where the rider's life depended on the horse listening to what the rider told it to do. In eventing, the horse and rider compete in three separate tests of skill typically over 2–3 days: Dressage, Show Jumping, and Cross Country.


title: Equestrianism

text: The cross country test makes this sport different from the other equestrian sports. It requires the horse to canter and gallop at a high speed over solid and complicated jumps and jump combinations. These jumps may be logs, stone walls, water, ditches, or banks. The cross country course is very long, and at the Olympics it may take as long as 10 minutes to complete the course.


title: Equestrianism

text: The dressage test makes sure that the horse is listening to the rider, is relaxed, and is able to do very difficult small tasks. It tests that the horse is very well trained. The cross-country course makes sure that the horse is fast, has long-distance endurance, and is brave. Cross-country fences may be very scary and the horses may become tired while running. The show jumping test makes sure that the horse and rider are in good physical condition, have excellent jumping skills, and are able to jump many high jumps in a short period of time without making a mistake. This is an especially difficult test as the athletes will be tired after completing the other tests. If the horse is too tired, he will hit the show jumps and make it harder for the rider to win.


title: Equestrianism

text: Sometimes bad accidents happen during the cross country course it is a huge risk if you join the course.


title: Equestrianism

text: In the Hunter-jumper discipline, people ride horses in various classes meant to test skills required in English fox hunting. Tests may be conducted over fences or “under saddle” meaning without jumps. In this discipline, the horse is being judged on how easy it makes each of the tests look. It is the job of the rider to make the test look as easy as possible, to not show signs of forcing the horse to do anything, and to let the horse show its ability.


title: Equestrianism

text: Under saddle, a horse should walk, trot, and canter in both directions easily and relaxed. The horse should not show signs of being annoyed, show anger, change speed, or misbehave in any other way. In some cases, riders may be asked to “jog” their horses, which is where they get off the horse, take off the saddle, and run on foot next to the horse to show that it has no injuries and so the judge can look at the horse to see if it has the right body for hunting.


title: Equestrianism

text: Over fences, riders will be asked to take the horses over a course of natural jump fences, made to look like the obstacles encountered in the English countryside. The courses are simple, with no tight turns, or complicated jumps, and usually only one or two changes of direction. The horse must keep the same speed throughout the course, they must not touch any of the jumps with their body, and the rider must make it look as easy as possible.


title: Equestrianism

text: Hunter-jumper is one of the most popular disciplines for children and teenagers. Classes are also offered at most shows for adults and professionals as well.


title: Equestrianism

text: Stock work began when horses were ridden on a ranch to round up cows, sheep, or other animals. Today, horse shows also have competitions for horses to show these skills. These include Cutting, Reining, Barrel Racing, Cattle Penning, Calf Roping, Campdrafting, and Pole Bending.


title: Equestrianism

text: Driving in the horse world means that a horse is pulling a type of wagon. It knows where to go by a person sitting on the wagon that tells them which direction they should turn. A horse used to pull a wagon is usually bigger and heavier than most other horses. The hooves are also much larger than a racing horse. Large horses are calm, trustworthy and good-natured. Types of heavy horses are: Belgians, Shires, Clydesdale, Friesian horse, and Gypsy Vanners. These horse breeds are generally quiet, strong, heavy, but gentle. Beginner equestrians may be able to communicate with these well tempered horses.


title: Equestrianism

text: Races of horses pulling carts are called harness races. Harness racing is typically done at a trot and by a single horse pulling a light cart with a single jockey.


title: Equestrianism

text: In other types of carriage or harness races, teams of multiple horses may race around figure 8 courses. Horses may also compete in individual driving competitions which require individual or teams of horses to be guided through a serious of tests.


title: Equestrianism

text: Horse racing tests the speed of a horse. Different breeds do different types of races. The most popular type in the U.S. is Thoroughbred racing, where only horses of this breed can participate in galloping around a track. There are also endurance races, trotting races and steeplechases (horses galloping around a track with jumps). Most horses that are used for racing are ridden by professional riders called jockeys. Usually the people that own or train the horse do not ride it in the races.


title: Equestrianism

text: Barrel racing is a sport where the rider rides the horse in a pattern around three barrels. The rider must be able to turn the horse very quickly around the barrels. The horse that does the pattern the fastest is the winner.


title: Equestrianism

text: Pleasure riding is riding for enjoyment, not for awards. People ride horses on trails in the forest, along quiet roads, or in an arena near their homes or barns. Horse back riding lessons could be considered pleasure riding. Pleasure riding can be called trail riding. Pleasure riding does not have to be for any specific reason, just for fun and enjoyment. Riding in a horse carriage may also be for pleasure.


title: Equestrianism

text: Endurance riding is an equestrian long-distance race. There are two main types of endurance rides which are competitive trail riding and endurance rides.


title: Equestrianism

text: If you join the Cross country course there is a huge risk of it. Lots of accidents happen during the course. Sometimes the horses die or need to be taken to the vet. But equestrians fall of very much.


title: Juventus F.C.

text: Juventus F.C., sometimes known as Juve, is an Italian football club that plays in Serie A. It was founded in 1897 and they play their home games at the Juventus Stadium in Turin.


title: Juventus F.C.

text: The club is the most successful team in the history of Italian football. Overall, the club has won 51 official trophies, more than any other team in the country; 40 in Italy, which is also a record, and 11 in European and world competitions. The "Old Lady" is the third most successful club in Europe and the sixth in the world with the most international titles officially recognized by one of the six continental football confederations and FIFA.


title: Juventus F.C.

text: The club was the first Italian to win the UEFA Cup. In 1985, Juventus, the only team in the world to have won all official international cups and championships became the first club in the history of European football to have won all three major UEFA club competitions.


title: Juventus F.C.

text: In Italy, Juventus is the club which has the biggest fan base, having also one of the largest numbers of supporters in the world, with a total of 170 million Juventus supporters (Italian "tifosi") worldwide. The club is a founding member of the European Club Association, which was formed after the dissolution of the G-14, a collection of Europe's most elite clubs. The Torinese side is also recognized for its huge contribution to the Italian national team.


title: Juventus F.C.

text: According to the all-time ranking published in 2009 by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, an organization recognized by FIFA, Juventus were Italy's best club and second in Europe of the 20th century.


title: Juventus F.C.

text: In more than 110 years of corporate history, at the helm of Juventus 23 presidents have come and gone and two management committees. The first president was Eugenio Canfari Juventus, one of the founding members.


title: Juventus F.C.

text: The longest period in office was dominated by Giampiero Boniperti, at the helm of Juventus for 19 years from 1971 to 1990 [117]; Boniperti, like its successor Caissotti di Vittorio Chiusano, president from 1990 to 2003, boasts the largest trophy the history of the club.


title: Juventus F.C.

text: The businessman Umberto Agnelli, who became chairman less than 21 years of age, in 1955, was the youngest to hold this office. Also noteworthy is the presidencies of the Swiss Alfred Dick and Giuseppe Hess and Frenchman Jean-Claude Blanc, the only non-Italian to become presidents of the club. In particular, Dick was the President of the "Bianconeri's" first championship (1905).


title: Juventus F.C.

text: Currently, the contractor in charge of Juventus is Andrea Agnelli, who was elected president on April 28, 2010 by the shareholders at the club.


title: Death (personification)

text: Death is a personificated creature that exists in a lot of societies all over history. In English Death is usually given the name Grim Reaper and from the 15th century to now, the Grim Reaper is shown as a human skeleton holding a scythe and clothed with a black cloak with a hood. It is also given the name of Angel of Death (, Mal'ach Ha'Mavett), that appeared in the Bible.


title: Death (personification)

text: In some beliefs, the Grim Reaper can cause the death of the victim, that created legends that he can be bribed, tricked and make deals to keep the life of someone. In other beliefs, the Grim Reaper guides the dead to the next world, without the knowing of the dead about his death?


title: Death (personification)

text: In Ancient Greek, the Greeks saw death as good. He is often shown as a bearded, winged man or a young, winged, boy. Death, or Thanatos, is the opposite of Life. Death is represented as a male, and life as a female. He is the twin brother of Hypnos, the god of Sleep.He is discripted as gentle, he escorts the dead to the Underworld, Hades.Then he hands the dead to Charon, who mans a boat that carries the dead to the underworld, through the river Styx. Thanatos' sisters, Keres, were the spirits of violent death, they were connected with deaths from battle, disease, accident, and murder. They were portrayed as evil, they were feeding on the body of the dead, after the soul was escorted to the Hades. They had fangs, talons, and would be dressed in bloody jewels.


title: Death (personification)

text: In Ancient Roman mythology, Death was known as "Mors", of which was the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Thanatos and the Hindu goddess Mara. Though the Latin noun for "death", "mors", is of feminine gender, the surviving ancient Roman art is not known to depict Death as a woman.


title: Death (personification)

text: The Welsh portrayed death as Angeu, and for the Bretons it was Ankou, they were the same one. He appeared as a man with a black robe, sometimes carrying a scythe, riding a cart which he collected the dead on it.


title: Death (personification)

text: In Scottish folklore there was a belief that a mystic black, dark green or white dog known as "Cù Sìth" took dying souls to the afterlife. Comparable figures also exist in Irish and Welsh stories.


title: Death (personification)

text: In Poland, Death, or "Śmierć", has an appearance that is similar to the our modern Grim Reaper, but instead of a black robe, he wears a White robe.


title: Death (personification)

text: Lithuanians call death "Giltinė", from the word "gelti" (to sting). Giltinė was shown as an old, ugly, woman with a long blue nose and a poisonous tongue. The legend tells that Giltinė was young, pretty and communicative until she was trapped in a coffin for seven years. The goddess of death was a sister of the goddess of life and destiny, "Laima", symbolizing the relationship between beginning and end.


title: Death (personification)

text: After it, the Lituanians and Latvians adopted the classical Grim Reaper with the black cloak and the scythe.


title: Death (personification)

text: In Hindu texts, the lord of death is called Yama. Yama rides a black buffalo and carries a rope to take the dead to his prison. There are many form of Reapers, they are his agents. They are called "Yamaduts". There, all the man good and bad are stored in an kind of archive. Then Yama take the records out and decides where the soul will be set in the next life, according to the Reincarnation of Hinduism. Yama is also mentioned in the Mahabharata as a philosopher and a devotee of Brahman.


title: Death (personification)

text: Our Lady of the Holy Death ("Santa Muerte") is a female deity or folk saint of Mexican folk religion, whose popularity has been growing in Mexico and the United States in recent years. La Calavera Catrina, a character symbolizing death, is also an icon of the Mexican Day of the Dead.


title: Death (personification)

text: In Meitei mythology (Manipuri mythology), death is personified with multiple deities, including Thongalel, the ruler of the underworld and the god of the death, along with his wives. In the underworld kingdom, he administers the souls of the death, either to resend them or to bring a new one to and from the human world. At these tasks, he is assisted by Thongak Lairembi and Khamnung Kikoi Louonbi. The underworld kingdom is called ""Khamnung kingdom"" and its capital city, ""Khamnung Sawa"" is in the middle of the river ""Ashi Turel"", which has only a single bridge made up of a thread. This should be crossed over by only those souls who do not commit suicide during their earthly life. Else, one has to struck over inside the underworld kingdom but outside the capital city ""Khamnung Sawa"", which is, of course, a painstaking life too for the souls.


title: Death (personification)

text: In the Kojiki, after giving birth to the fire god, "Kagu-tsuchi", Izanami dies from wounds of its fire and enters the perpetual night realm called Yomi-no-kuni (the underworld) that the gods retire to and where Izanagi, her husband, travels to in a failed attempt to reclaim her. He discovers his wife as not-so beautiful anymore, and, in a brief argument afterwards between them, she promises to take a thousand lives every day, signifying her position as the goddess of death.


title: Death (personification)

text: There are also death gods called "shinigami" (死神, "death gods", "death spirits"), which are closer to the Western tradition of the Grim Reaper; while common in modern Japanese arts and fiction, they were essentially absent in traditional mythology.


title: Death (personification)

text: Memitim is a type of angel from the Bible that is connected to the death of the humans. The words is from the Hebrew language ממיתים (English:Killers). They are mentioned to kill the people that their guardian angel no longer protects them. There is some debate about the nature of the Memitim among biblical scholars, but it is accepted that, as described in the Book of Job 33:22, they are killers of some kind.


title: Death (personification)

text: According to the Midrash, the Angel of Death was created by God in the first day of the creation. His house is in Heaven.He has twelve wings."Over all people have I surrendered thee the power," said God to the Angel of Death, "only not over this one which has received freedom from death through the Law".It said that the angel of death is full of eyes. In the time of the death, he stands over the dying one, and waiting for the man to see him. When the dying finally sees him, he drops a gall to the dying's mouth and that is what kills him finally The expression "to taste of death" originated in the idea that death was caused by a drop of gall.


title: Death (personification)

text: The Angel of Death, who is identified by some with Satan, right after the creation has a dispute with God about the light of the Messiah. When Eve touched the tree of knowledge, the Angel of Death talked to her, and she thought:"Now I shall die, and God will create another wife for Adam". Adam also talked to the Angel of Death. The Angel of Death sits before the face of the dead. While Abraham was mourning, for Sarah the angel appeared to him, which explains why "Abraham stood up from before his death". Samael told Sarah that Abraham had sacrificed Isaac in spite of his wailing, and Sarah died of horror and grief. It was Moses who most often had dealings with the angel. At the resistance of Korah, Moses saw him.


title: Death (personification)

text: In Islam there is the Archangel of Death, named Azrael. In the Qur'an, he is not mentioned by this name, but by "Mal'akkh al Mut" (Arabic: ملاك الموت, "Angel of Death"). He is also descripted in old Hebrew texts as Azrael, the Angel of Death. He is also called Azrael in early Christian texts.


title: Nicosia

text: Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia (; ) is the capital city and largest city of the island country of Cyprus. Niscosia is on the Pedieos (Kanlidere) river in the centre of the island. The city is the seat of government as well as the main business centre for Cyprus. Nicosia is capital of the administrative district (Nicosia District).


title: Nicosia

text: Nicosia is the only divided capital city in the world. It has a northern (Turkish) section and a southern (Cypriot) section. These sections are divided by the "Green Line". It is a demilitarized zone created by the United Nations. Nicosia (southern part) is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus while northern part is capital of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), a de facto state only recognized by Turkey.


title: Nicosia

text: Nicosia has many shops, restaurants and entertainment. The city is a trade center. It manufactures textiles, leather, pottery, plastic, and other items. Copper mines are nearby. The University of Cyprus (UCY) is in Nicosia.


title: Nicosia

text: Nicosia was a city-state known as Ledra or Ledrae in ancient times. The king of Ledra was Onasagoras in 672 BC. The city was rebuilt by Lefkos, son of Ptolemy I around 300 BC. Ledra in Hellenic and Roman times was a small, unimportant town, also known as Lefkothea. It got its first Christian bishop, Trifillios, in 348.


title: Nicosia

text: The city became the island's capital around the 10th century. It had grown in importance because of threats to the coastal cities Paphos and Salamis. These threats made many people leave the coast of the island and move to Lefkosia in the center of the island.


title: Nicosia

text: The city became a Venetian possession in 1489. It was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1571. During this time, the city grew culturally. In the 15th and 16th centuries, many palaces, churches and monasteries were built. About 20,000 people living in the city died because of the Ottoman attack of 1570.


title: Nicosia

text: Many disasters happened in the city during the 19th century. Cholera hit the city in 1835. Fire destroyed large parts of Nicosia in 1857.


title: Nicosia

text: The British Empire took control of the island in 1878. Nicosia was the capital of the new British colony.


title: Nicosia

text: In early 1974, a coup d'état instigated by the Greek junta overthrew the legal government and took control. Shortly afterwards Turkey invaded the island occupying a large part, with excuse that Turkish Cypriot people's safety was threatened. Because of this, Cyprus and the city of Nicosia are divided since. Cyprus with its legal government is part of the European Union. The northern area, controlled by Turkish Cypriots, exists as a unilaterally proclaimed "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" recognized only by Turkey.


title: Excalibur

text: Excalibur is a legendary sword, in the mythology of Great Britain. It was owned by King Arthur. The sword and its name have become very widespread in popular culture, and are used in fiction and films. Excalibur is a symbol of divine kingship and great power.


title: Excalibur

text: The sword was obtained by the king with the advice of his wizard-adviser Merlin. But it was considered that there existed two Excalibur swords. The first was the one Merlin put into the stone and said that the throne will be taken by the one who will take the sword out of the stone. Young Arthur was the one to do it. The second Excalibur was the one to which Merlin took the King. The sword was located at a magical lake where the Lady of the Lake gave it to Arthur. The Excalibur was made by an Avalonian elf. Later the sword was stolen by his sister and it was the time when the scabbard (sword coverage) was lost. In the battle of Camlann, Arthur was hurt, and he told Bedwyr (Griflet) to return the Excalibur to the lake.


title: Excalibur

text: One of the earliest names of King Arthur's sword was Caladfwlch. It is a Welsh word that comes from Calad-Bolg (Hard Lightning). Later it was changed to Caliburn by Geoffrey of Monmouth. And today we know it as Excalibur, due to French.


title: Excalibur

text: The legend of Excalibur is similar to the Irish hero, Cú Chulainn, who had a sword named Caladbolg; or to Norse Legend of Sigurd. All these swords were made by an elf. Sometimes he is named Wayland (Saxon myth); and Gofannon (Celtic myth).


title: Excalibur

text: Clarent is one of King Arthur's two mythic swords. The first is Excalibur, the sword of war, and the second Clarent, the sword of peace. The Clarent sword is less known because it was used for peaceful acts, whereas the Excalibur was well known because it was used to defend Camelot. But by the legend the Clarent Sword play a very important role. It was stolen by the traitor Mordred, who later used it against Arthur and cut him to death.


title: Excalibur

text: In some versions of the story of Excalibur, it is said that the sword was forged in dragon fire, though it is not commonly told of.


title: Gun

text: A gun (also called a firearm) is a weapon used to shoot one or more metal projectiles called bullets. Guns made of wood or bamboo are thought to have been made in China around 1000 AD. In the next few centuries they spread to other parts of Asia and to Europe where they were made of metal. Guns largely replaced catapults and bows and arrows when they became strong enough to reach out over longer distances to reliably hit a target. They are of many different sizes. Some are small enough to hold in one hand. Others are large enough to sink a warship.


title: Gun

text: In military usage, the word "firearm" is used for the type of weapons that soldiers carry. Most of them are either pistols or rifles. These small arms can be carried and used by one person. They have the same basic parts: a trigger, a barrel, and a handgrip or stock. The shooter's finger pulls the trigger to fire the weapon which releases a bullet. The barrel guides the bullet which then flies to the target. The shooter's hand holds the handgrip.


title: Gun

text: Guns can be very effective weapons. Their bullets fly faster than an arrow or spear. Their high kinetic energy makes them more lethal. They also shoot from far distances. Bullets are usually non-explosive pieces of metal.


title: Gun

text: A modern bullet is the front part of a "round" or cartridge. A cartridge consists of a "bullet", propellant and a primer. These are packaged in a metallic, paper, or plastic case which is sized exactly for the chamber of the firearm being used. When the rear of the case (containing the primer) is struck, an explosion in the back of the cartridge ignites the propellant. The controlled explosion forces the bullet out of the barrel. Cartridges have different ways of being loaded into different kinds of weapons. Cartridges can be loaded directly into a firearm into the chamber. Or, more commonly, into a clip, a magazine or other bullet container which is loaded into the firearm. Handguns known as revolvers have a cylinder with holes that the bullets are loaded into. Modern guns called pistols are handguns loaded with a magazine.


title: Gun

text: Guns have been used by armies since about the 14th century. Long barreled guns called muskets, that could be carried and used by one person, were in use by 1350. They became an important weapon in European armies about the 1600s.


title: Gun

text: Modern militaries use the word "gun" for larger artillery guns that need several people, and that fire big ammunition. For example, weapons on warships and tanks are called "guns". They may be in a "turret" (a rotating base). Big guns usually fire artillery shells, which explode upon impact.


title: Gun

text: In almost every country firearms are the main weapons used by armies. In modern armies, every soldier has at least one firearm as standard equipment. Soldiers are trained to use firearms, and to keep them clean and ready for use.


title: Gun

text: Shooting is a competitive sport involving tests of accuracy and speed. They use various types of guns such as pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns and airguns. Shooting sports are categorized by the type of firearm, targets, and distances at which the targets are shot. Target Shooting is an Olympic sport.


title: Gun

text: Since the first humans, hunting became a way of life. It was and still is in some places, the key to survival. Mankind is distinguished from other animals by the use of tools. At least 2 million years ago man learned to hunt animals for meat. They learned to create and use spears and axes. Bows and arrows were used at least 71,000 years ago. Modern hunting still uses more primitive tools. But many subsistence hunters have adapted to use modern firearms. In modern countries hunting is still allowed but is considered a sport. Hunting can be used to control the populations of many animal species. As with many aspects of gun ownership and use, modern hunting remains controversial. Handguns are not generally used for hunting.


title: Gun

text: Guns can be used to kill other people. For that reason many countries only allow soldiers, policemen, and certain social classes to have them. In some countries, a person must have a special permit (or license) if they want to own a gun. Depending on the gun, people need to be a certain age and may need to meet other criteria to get such a permit.


title: Gun

text: An example of this is that in the United States federal law allows buying rifles and/or shotguns at age 18—if purchased from a licensed firearms dealer. But a person must be age 21 or older to purchase a handgun—from a licensed firearms dealer. However, if purchased from an unlicensed person, with few exceptions, a handgun may not be sold to anyone under age 18. There is no age restriction on who may buy a rifle or shotgun from an unlicensed person. In the United States and other countries, people can buy guns for self-defense, hunting, and shooting sports like target shooting.


title: Gun

text: In some countries, such as Australia, people who live on farms are allowed to keep guns, but it is not easy for a person living in the city to get a gun without good reason. In the United Kingdom, access by the general public to firearms is tightly controlled by law. However, this is less restrictive in Northern Ireland. After the Dunblane school massacre in 1996 followed by the Hungerford massacre in 1987, Britain passed the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988. It required registration for shotguns and banned semi-automatic and pump-action weapons. A further ban on all handguns in mainland Britain came a year and a half later.


title: 51 Trouble Hoover Crip

text: The 51 Trouble gang is an American criminal street gang in Los Angeles, California. Most of the members of the 51 Street gang are African-Americans. The 51 Street gang is one of the oldest street gangs in Los Angeles and it has been occupying its territory since the 1990s.They are close allies with 52 Hoover gangster crips and sometimes this alliance is called 51-duece crips.They are actively at war with rollin 50s which resulted in many casualties.Also,they beef with all the Neighborhoods due to their bitter hatred for them. They protect their communities there from racism against African Americans, disrputive politics, and unjust socialism by urban warfare. The 51 street gang is a conservative movement and are backed and supported by Washington D.C. because of their ancestry in the American Indian wars and World War II.


title: Aspiration

text: Aspiration is a feature in languages where saying a consonant gives out a puff of air. For example, if you dangle a piece of paper in front of your mouth, you will see it move if you say an aspirated, or breathy, consonant. If the paper does not move, then it is unaspirated, or not breathy. In English, voiceless stops and fricatives that happen at the beginning of a word are aspirated, which are the sounds 'p', 't', 'k', and 'ch' (which are written as /p/, /t/, /k/, /t͡ʃ/ in IPA in the same order). In IPA, aspirated sounds can be written with an ʰ symbol afterwards, as in /pʰ/, /tʰ/, /kʰ/, and /t͡ʃʰ/. For example, the first sound in the words "pick", "tick", "kick", and "chick" are all aspirated. In IPA, they are written as /pʰɪk/, /tʰɪk/, /kʰɪk/, and /t͡ʃʰɪk/ in the same order. However, voiceless stops and fricatives that appear after the first sound are unaspirated. For example, while the /p/ in "pit" is aspirated, the /p/ in "spit" and the /p/ in "tip" are not, so they would not be marked with an ʰ symbol afterwards. Below are more examples of aspiration.


title: Aspiration

text: English has no aspirated voiced sounds, but Hindi does. They are normally written with an 'h' after the consonant letter. An example of this is the name Bhattacharya, in which 'bh' is an aspirated 'b' sound, so it would be written as /bʱ/ in IPA.


title: Aspiration

text: In Mandarin Chinese, there are no voiced stops, fricatives, or affricates, so the only way to tell them apart is by aspiration. In Pinyin, aspirated sounds are written like voiceless sounds in English, so the sounds /pʰ/, /tʰ/, and /kʰ/ are written as 'p', 't', and 'k' in the same order, but unaspirated sounds are written like voiced sounds in English, so the sounds /p/, /t/, and /k/ are written as 'b', 'd', and 'g' respectively. For example, the word "Gaokao" would be written in IPA as /kau̯.kʰau̯/. In Wade-Giles spelling, aspirated stops, fricatives, or affricates are written with an apostrophe after the letter instead of using a different letter like in Pinyin, so "Gaokao" would be written as "Kaok'ao" in Wade-Giles.


Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (, , – 17 July 1918) was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna. Anastasia was murdered with her family on 17 July 1918 by the Bolshevik secret police. She was a sister of Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, Grand Duchess Maria, and Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia.


title: Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia

text: During the years of Communist rule nobody knew where she was buried. This led to many stories that she could have escaped and still be alive. The bodies of the Tsar, Tsarina, and three daughters were found in a grave near Yekaterinburg in 1991; however, the bodies of Alexei Nikolaevich and one of his sisters (either Anastasia or Maria) were not there.


text: In January 2008, Russian scientists said that the remains of a young boy and woman found near Yekaterinburg in August 2007 might be the missing bodies. On 30 April 2008, Russian scientists used DNA testing to prove that they were the Tsarevich Alexei and his sister. In March 2009, the last results of the DNA testing were published by Dr. Michael Coble of the US Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory. This proved that all four Grand Duchesses were murdered.


text: Several women have claimed to have been Anastasia. The most famous was Anna Anderson. However, DNA testing in 1994 on pieces of Anderson's tissue and hair showed that she was not related to the Imperial family.


text: When Anastasia was born, her family was disappointed. They had hoped for a son who would be heir to the throne. In honor of her birth, her father forgave the students who had been put in prison for joining in riots in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Because of this, Anastasia's name means "the breaker of chains" or the "prison opener". It can also mean "of the resurrection". People often spoke of this when there were stories that she had not died. Anastasia was a Grand Duchess. Because this made Anastasia an "Imperial Highness", she was higher in rank than other Princesses in Europe who were "Royal Highnesses".


text: The Tsar's children lived very simply. They slept on hard camp cots without pillows when they were healthy, took cold baths in the morning, and had to clean their rooms and sometimes sew. Most of their servants usually called Anastasia by her first name instead of calling her "Her Imperial Highness". Sometimes they called her "Anastasie", "Nastya", "Nastas", or "Nastenka". Anastasia was also called "Malenkaya", meaning "little (one)", or "shvibzik", the Russian word for "imp".


text: Anastasia was a bright, lively child. People described her as short and plump, with blue eyes and blonde hair. Margaretta Eagar, Anastasia's governess, said that somebody had once called young Anastasia the most charming child he had ever seen. Lili Dehn said that Anastasia was "pretty", but had "more of a clever face, and her eyes were wells of intelligence".


text: Anastasia was clever, but she was never much interested in studying. Pierre Gilliard, Sydney Gibbes, and ladies-in-waiting Lili Dehn and Anna Vyrubova said that Anastasia was funny and good at acting. Some people did not like her sharp, quick remarks.


text: Anastasia's playful behavior was often punished. According to Gieb Botkin, "in naughtiness she was a true genius". He was the son of the court doctor Yevgeny Botkin, who later died with the family at Ekaterinburg. Anastasia tripped the servants, tricked her teachers, and climbed trees and refused to come down. Once at a snowball fight, she rolled a rock into a snowball and threw it at her older sister, Tatiana. Princess Nina Georgievna, Anastasia's cousin, said that "Anastasia was nasty to the point of being evil". She said that Anastasia would get angry when her friends won games, or when the younger Nina was taller than she was. She also cared less about her looks than her sisters. Hallie Erminie Rives, an American writer, described how Anastasia ate chocolates without taking off her white opera gloves at the St. Petersburg opera house when she was 10-years-old.


text: Anastasia's family called Anastasia and her older sister Maria "The Little Pair". This was because they shared a room, often wore the same dress, and played together a lot. Their older sisters Olga and Tatiana were known as "The Big Pair", because they shared a room as well. The four girls sometimes signed letters with their nickname, OTMA. They made this nickname from the first letters of their first names, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.


text: Anastasia was very energetic, but she was often sick. She had "hallux valgus" (bunions), which hurt both of her big toes. Anastasia also had a weak muscle in her back. Because of this, she had to be massaged twice every week. She disliked this, and when it was time to be massaged, she would hide under her bed or in cupboards. Anastasia's older sister, Maria, is said to have hemorrhaged in December 1914 during an operation to remove her tonsils. The doctor performing the operation was so shocked that Maria's mother, Tsarina Alexandra, had to order him to continue. Olga Alexandrovna said all four of her nieces bled more than was normal. She believed they had the hemophilia gene, like their mother. Some carriers of the gene are not hemophiliacs themselves, but they can have signs of hemophilia, like bleeding more than most people. DNA testing on the remains of the royal family proved in 2009 that Alexei suffered from Hemophilia B. His mother and one of his sisters were carriers. The Russians thought this sister was Maria, and Americans thought it was Anastasia. If Anastasia had lived, she could have passed on the disease to her children. Anastasia, like everyone else in her family, loved "Baby" Tsarevich Alexei very much. Alexei often had attacks of hemophilia and nearly died several times.


text: Her mother trusted Grigori Rasputin, a Russian peasant and wandering "holy man". She thought his prayers had saved her son when he was sick many times. Anastasia and her sisters were told to treat Rasputin as "Our Friend" and to tell him their secrets. In the autumn of 1907, Anastasia's aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia went to the nursery with the Tsar to meet Rasputin. Anastasia, her sisters and brother Alexei were all wearing their long white nightgowns.


text: "All the children seemed to like him," Olga Alexandrovna said later. "They were completely at ease (comfortable) with him." Rasputin's friendship with the Imperial children can be seen in some of the messages he sent to them. In February 1909, Rasputin sent them a telegram, saying, "Love the whole of God's nature, the whole of His creation in particular this earth. The Mother of God was always occupied with flowers and needlework."


text: But in 1910, Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva told other people in the family that Rasputin was allowed to see the four girls when they were wearing their nightgowns. Rasputin's visits to the children were completely innocent, but the family was shocked and angry. Tyutcheva told Nicholas's sister, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, that Rasputin visited and talked to the girls while they were getting ready for bed, and hugged and patted them. Tyutcheva said the children did not talk about Rasputin with her and kept his visits a secret. Tatiana wrote to her mother on 8 March 1910, that she was "so afr(aid) that S.I. (governess Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva) can our friend something bad". Xenia wrote on 15 March 1910 that she did not understand "the attitude (behavior) of Alix and the children to that sinister Grigory". Nicholas asked Rasputin not to go into the nursery after that, and Alexandra later fired Tyutcheva.


text: In the spring of 1910, Maria Ivanovna Vishnyakova, a royal governess, said that Rasputin had raped her. The empress did not believe her, saying that "everything Rasputin does is holy". Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was told that they had made an investigation to see if what Vishnyakova said was true, but that "they caught the young woman in bed with a Cossack of the Imperial Guard." Vishnyakova was kept from seeing Rasputin after she claimed that he raped her. She was fired in 1913.


text: But rumors still spread. People suggested that Rasputin had seduced the Tsarina and her four daughters. Rasputin had written warm, but completely innocent letters to the Tsarina and her four daughters. He released the letters, which made people gossip even more. "My dear, precious, only friend," wrote Anastasia. "How much I should like to see you again. You appeared to me today in a dream. I am always asking Mama when you will think of you always, my dear, because you are so good to me ..."


text: Soon after, pornographic cartoons were printed about Rasputin having relations with the Empress, her four daughters and Anna Vyrubovna. After the scandal, Nicholas asked Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg for a time. Rasputin went on a pilgrimage to Palestine. Alexandra was very angry at this. However, though the rumors continued, the imperial family continued to be friendly with Rasputin until he was murdered on 17 December 1916. "Our Friend is so contented (happy) with our girlies, souls have much developed," Alexandra wrote to Nicholas on December 6, 1916.


text: Later, A.A. Mordvinov reported in his memoirs that the four Grand Duchesses looked "cold and visibly terribly upset" by Rasputin's death. He added that they sat "huddled up closely together" on a sofa on the night they heard he was killed. Mordvinov remembered that they were sad and seemed to feel the beginning of great political troubles. Rasputin was buried with an icon signed on the back by Anastasia, her mother and her sisters. Anastasia went to his funeral on December 21, 1916. Her family planned to build a church over Rasputin's grave. After they were killed by the Bolsheviks, it was discovered Anastasia and her sisters were all wearing amulets with Rasputin's picture and a prayer on it.


text: During World War I Anastasia and her sister Maria visited hurt soldiers at a hospital at Tsarskoye Selo. Because they were too young to become Red Cross nurses like their mother and older sisters, they played checkers and billiards with the soldiers and tried to make them happy instead. Felix Dassel, who was treated at the hospital, remembered that Anastasia had a "laugh like a squirrel", and walked quickly "as though she "tripped" along."


text: In February 1917, Nicholas II resigned from the throne. Anastasia and her family were placed under house arrest at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo during the Russian Revolution. As the Bolsheviks came nearer, Alexander Kerensky moved them to Tobolsk, Siberia. The Bolsheviks grew more and more powerful. Anastasia and her family were moved to the Ipatiev House (House of Special Purpose), at Yekaterinburg.


text: Anastasia felt sad about her captivity. "Goodby," she wrote to a friend in the winter of 1917. "Don't forget us." At Tobolsk, she wrote a sad theme for her English teacher, filled with spelling mistakes, about "Evelyn Hope", a poem by Robert Browning about a young girl. "When she died she was only sixteen years old," Anastasia wrote. "Ther(e) was a man who loved her without having seen her but (k)new her very well. And she he(a)rd of him also. He never could tell her that he loved her, and now she was dead. But still he thought that when he and she will live [their] next life whenever it will be that ..."


text: At Tobolsk, she and her sisters sewed jewels into their clothes. This was because Alexandra, Nicholas and Maria had had their things taken away when they arrived in Ekaterinburg. Demidova wrote to Tegleva about this, using code words for the jewels such as "medicines" and "Sednev's belongings". Anastasia and her sisters dressed simply, and all three had their hair cut short. It had been cut when they were ill with measles in 1917, and they had kept it short. Pierre Gilliard remembered his last sight of the children: "The sailor Nagorny, who attended to Alexei Nikolaevitch, passed my window carrying the sick boy in his arms, behind him came the Grand Duchesses loaded with valises and small personal belongings. I tried to get out, but was roughly pushed back into the carriage by the sentry. I came back to the window. Tatiana Nikolayevna came last carrying her little dog and struggling to drag a heavy brown valise. It was raining and I saw her feet sink into the mud at every step. Nagorny tried to come to her assistance (help); he was roughly pushed back by one of the commisars ..." Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, too, spoke of her last sad memory of Anastasia: "Once, standing on some steps at the door of a house close by, I saw a hand and a pink-sleeved arm opening the topmost (highest) pane. According to the blouse the hand must have belonged either to the Grand Duchess Marie or Anastasia. They could not see me through their windows, and this was to be the last glimpse that I was to have of any of them!"


text: But even in the last months of her life, Anastasia could be happy. She and other members of her family performed plays for their parents and others in the spring of 1918. Her tutor Sydney Gibbes said that Anastasia's acting made everyone laugh. On 7 May 1918, Anastasia wrote a letter from Tobolsk to her sister Maria in Yekaterinburg. In the letter, she described a moment of joy, even though she was sad, lonely, and worried about her sick brother Alexei: "We played on the swing, that was when I roared with laughter (laughed loudly), the fall was so wonderful! Indeed! I told the sisters about it so many times yesterday that they got quite fed up (tired)", adding, "One could simply shout with joy." In his memoirs, Alexander Strekotin, one of the guards at the Ipatiev House, called Anastasia "very friendly and full of fun". Another guard said Anastasia was "a very charming devil! She was mischievous and, I think, rarely (not often) tired. She was lively, and was fond of (enjoyed) performing comic mimes with the dogs, as though they were performing in a circus." Another guard, however, called her "offensive and a terrorist" and complained about some of her sharp remarks. Anastasia and her sisters learned to wash their own clothes and make bread at the Ipatiev House.


text: In the summer, however, the whole family became much sadder. According to some accounts, Anastasia once became so unhappy about the locked, painted windows that she opened one to get fresh air. A guard is said to have seen her and fired, almost hitting her. She did not try to open the windows again.


text: On 14 July 1918, local priests at Yekaterinburg held a private church service for the family. They later said that Anastasia and her family fell on their knees during the prayers for the dead, which they had not done before. They also noted that the girls had become very sad and did not reply to the service. One of the priests said, "Something has happened to them in there." But the next day, on 15 July 1918, Anastasia and her sisters seemed happier. They joked and helped move the beds in their shared bedroom so that the cleaning women could clean the floors. Helping the women scrub the floors, they whispered to them when the guards were not watching. Anastasia even stuck her tongue out at Yakov Yurovsky, the head of the guards, when he turned his back and left the room.


text: Anastasia was executed with her family by a firing squad in the early morning of 17 July 1918. They had been killed by the Bolshevik secret police, commanded by Yurovsky.


text: In October 1917, the Bolshevik revolution struck Russia. A civil war began shortly after that. Plans to release the Romanovs slowed down. As the Whites (people who were still faithful to the Tsar and autocracy) came more toward Yekaterinburg, the Reds felt afraid. They knew that the well-prepared White Army would win. When the Whites reached Yekaterinburg, the Imperial Family were gone. It is thought that the family had been executed.


text: The "Yurovsky Note" was found in 1989 and described in Edvard Radzinsky's 1992 book "The Last Tsar". The "Yurovsky Note" was a description of the event by Yurovsky after the execution. According to the note, on the night of the murders the family was awakened and told to dress. They were told they were moving to a new place for their safety. They claimed it was because of the possible violence which might happen when the White Army reached Yekaterinburg. When they were dressed, the family and the few servants were led to a small room in the house's basement. They were told to wait there. Alexandra asked for chairs for herself and Alexei, and she sat next to her son. After a short time, the executioners entered the room, led by Yurovsky. Yurovsky quickly told the Tsar and his family that they were going to die. The Tsar cried "What?" and turned to his family, but was immediately killed when several bullets hit his chest. The Tsar, the empress, and two servants were killed in the first round of shooting. Maria, Dr. Botkin and Alexandra's maid Demidova were hurt. Thick smoke and dust filled the room from the shooting, so the gunmen left the room for a few minutes. They soon came back and shot Dr. Botkin. A gunman named Ermakov tried to shoot Tsarevich Alexei, but the jewels in the boy's clothes protected him. Ermakov tried to kill Alexei with a bayonet but failed again. At last, Yurovsky fired two shots into the boy's head. Tatiana and Olga were near the wall. They were holding onto each other and crying for their mother. Tatiana was killed by a shot to her head. Olga died when Ermakov shot her in the jaw.


text: Maria, Anastasia, and the maid Demidova were on the floor under the room's one window. Ermakov said that he killed Maria by shooting her head. Ermakov then tried to stab Anastasia, failed, and said he killed her by shooting her head. Maria's skull does not have any bullet wounds, though. It is unclear how she died. Ermakov was drunk during the murders, and it is possible his shot did not go entirely through her head. She might have become unconscious and bled greatly, but remained alive. Then, as the bodies were taken away, two of the grand duchesses moved. One sat up and screamed, throwing her arm over her head. The other, bleeding from the mouth, moaned and moved. When Olga and Tatiana were shot, they were killed instantly, so Maria was probably the one who screamed. Anastasia might still have been able to move. Ermakov told his wife that Anastasia was killed by a bayonet, and Yurovsky wrote that as the bodies were carried out, one or more of the girls cried out and were hit on the back of the head with a club. However, the back of Maria's skull does not show any signs of having been clubbed. The remains of Anastasia's burnt body do not show details of how she died.


text: One of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century was if Anastasia had survived or not. From 1920 to 1922, Anna Anderson, the most famous person who pretended to be Anastasia, grew very famous. She claimed that she had pretended to be dead, then escaped with the help of a kind guard that saved her from the dead bodies after seeing she was still alive. Her legal struggle to be recognized as Anastasia from 1938 to 1970 was a controversy for her whole life. It was the longest running case ever heard by the German courts. At last, the courts decided that there was not enough proof.


text: Anderson died in 1984 and her body was cremated. In 1994, a tissue sample from Andersen in a hospital was used for DNA tests with the blood of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip was a grandnephew of Empress Alexandra. Dr. Gill, who did the tests, decided that if "you accept that these samples came from Anna Anderson, then Anna Anderson could related to Tsar Nicholas or Tsarina Alexandra." Anderson's DNA matched with a great-nephew of Franziska Schanzkowska, a missing Polish factory worker. Some people who supported Anderson agreed that the DNA tests showed she could not have been the Grand Duchess.


text: At least 10 women claimed to be Anastasia. Less famous people who pretended to be Anastasia were Nadezhda Ivanovna Vasilyeva and Eugenia Smith. A priest took care of two young women who said that they were Anastasia and her sister Maria in the Ural Mountains in 1919. They lived there as nuns until they died in 1964. They were buried with the names Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna.