title: Anno Domini

text: Anno Domini (Medieval Latin : "in the year of the Lord"), shortened as AD or A.D., is used to refer to the years after the birth of Jesus. AD is also a shortening for Christian Era. Similarly, Before Christ, shortened as BC or B.C., is used in the English language to refer to all years before the start of the time period "Anno Domini". In past centuries, AD came before the year but comes after a century or millennium. For example, a person would write AD 2014 but 21st century AD or 3rd millennium AD. There is no zero year in this system. This means that the year A.D. 1 follows the year 1 B.C.


title: Anno Domini

text: Some people mistakenly interpret “A.D.” as standing for “after death.” The abbreviation “A.D.” was originally placed before the year number (e.g. A.D. 145); then “B.C.” often placed after the year number (e.g. 145 B.C.). Nowadays it is more usual to put both abbreviations after the numbers (e.g. 145 AD; e.g. 145 BC).


title: Anno Domini

text: This dating system was meant to signal the year of Christ's birth, but modern scholars have decided Jesus was actually born a few years earlier.


title: Anno Domini

text: The system for working out the years was invented by Dionysius Exiguus in about AD 525. He fixed the point Anno Domini, which is used to number the years of both the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar. He used it to identify the several Easters in his Easter table. He did not use it to date any historical event. When he devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by naming the consuls who held office that year — he himself stated that the "present year" was "the consulship of Probus Junior [Flavius Probus]", which he also stated was 525 years "since the incarnation [conception] of our Lord Jesus Christ". How he arrived at that number is unknown. He invented a new system of numbering years to replace the Diocletian years that had been used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians.


title: Anno Domini

text: The Anno Domini calendar era became dominant in Western Europe only after it was used by the Venerable Bede to date the events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. The French emperor Charlemagne made it popular in mainland Europe. Some parts of Europe did not use the Anno Domini system until the 15th century. For example, Portugal used a different system called the "Spanish era" until 1422.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul () is a mega city that sits in both Europe and Asia, divided by the Bosporus. Although it is the largest city of Turkey, it is not the capital. It is the largest city in Europe by population. It is also the 3rd largest European city in size. It was the capital city of the old Ottoman Empire until 1923. The city has been known since ancient times by the older names Byzantium and Constantinople (; , "Konstantinoúpolis"). Being a seaport, Istanbul is the main trade center of Turkey.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul faces the Golden Horn and the Bosporus strait. The Bosphorus connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and separates Europe and Asia. The city is actually in both Europe and Asia. One-third of the people live on the Asian side. Its population is between 11 and 15 million people, making it one of the largest cities in Europe. Many people migrate to Istanbul every year.


title: Istanbul

text: Its original name was "Byzantion" in the Greek language, known as "Byzantium" in the Latin language. Byzantium was originally settled as a colony by Greeks from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king, Byzas. In 196 AD, Byzantium was damaged by the Romans, then rebuilt by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. Constantine the Great thought this city was in a nice location, and in 330, moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to there, as "New Rome" (Latin: "Nova Roma"; "", "Nea Rómi"), renaming the city "Constantinople", after his name.


title: Istanbul

text: When the Roman Empire was later divided into two, the East Roman Empire was known as the Byzantine Empire, and its capital was in Constantinople, where Hagia Sophia had been built. Although it was captured by Crusaders for a time, it continued as one of the political, cultural, religious, and economic centers of Europe until it finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.


title: Istanbul

text: Istanbul became the capital of the Ottoman Empire in 1453. After the Ottoman Empire ended, the Republic of Turkey was started with its capital at Ankara. Later in 1930, Constantinople was renamed Istanbul.


title: Istanbul

text: The Romanlar (Turkish Gypsys) have lived in Istanbul since 1054 at Sulukule, well known for their Music and Dance style. After 1453, by order of Mehmed II, Roma was settled in Istanbul from other parts of the Ottoman Empire. In some cases, they live in several Mahallas (quarters) together with Turks in Istanbul in the European and Asian parts of this City.


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Stephen William Hawking (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018) was a British theoretical physicist and mathematician. He was born in Oxford. In 1950, he moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire. He was one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Hawking has written many science books for people who are not scientists.


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Hawking was a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge (a position that Isaac Newton once had). He retired on 1 October 2009.


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Hawking had a motor neurone disease, and because of that he could not move or talk very well. The illness worsened over the years and he was almost completely paralysed. He used a wheelchair to move, and an Intel computer to talk for him. He died on 14 March 2018.


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Hawking went to St Albans School, a local public school in Hertfordshire. At 17, he passed an exam to study at Oxford. He studied physics and chemistry there. Because he found it really easy at the beginning, he didn't study a lot for the final exams.


title: Stephen Hawking

text: In October 1962 he started his graduate course at Trinity Hall. It was at this time that his illness started to show up. He had difficulties in rowing and then even simply in walking. However, he finished his PhD and wrote about black holes in his thesis. He then got a fellowship (a job as a university teacher) at Gonville and Caius College in 1965.


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Hawking was a cosmologist—someone who studies the structure of the universe (stars and space). He invented important theories about the Big Bang (the start of the universe), black holes and how they work.


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Stephen Hawking predicted that black holes eject some radiation (energy), even though they normally swallow everything. That kind of radiation is named "Hawking Radiation."


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Hawking also worked on the problem of quantum gravity. Quantum gravity tries to explain how gravity works with quantum mechanics (physics of tiny things.) That is a hard problem that scientists have not solved yet.


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Hawking also wrote popular books about science for non-scientists. His first book, "A Brief History of Time," sold over ten million copies. Hawking had many other jobs as well. He was an Actor, Mathematician, etc. More info on the official site


title: Stephen Hawking

text: Hawking died on 14 March 2018 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire of complications from motor neuron disease at the age of 76. His ashes are buried in Westminster Abbey in London near Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Cleopatra (Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ) 69 BC – 10 August 30 BC was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. She was its last active ruler.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: She was one of the most famous women in history. Her full name was "Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator". She was the last of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Pharaohs set up in Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great. After her death, Egypt became the Roman province of "Aegyptus".


title: Cleopatra VII

text: "Antony and Cleopatra" is the famous tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in 1623.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Cleopatra was born in Alexandria, then the capital of Egypt. When she was 18 years old, her father, who was king, died. She and her brother, Ptolemy XIII, became the leaders of Egypt. She was queen and her brother was king. Her brother was only 10 years old, so she was the real leader.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Cleopatra made some enemies amongst the courtiers. The reign of Cleopatra was ended by a cabal of courtiers, led by the eunuch Pothinus. They removed Cleopatra from power, as her being a woman, and made Ptolemy sole ruler, in about 51 to 48 BC. She had to leave the country. Ptolemy was king, but because he was still a boy, Pothinus and his friends were the real leaders of Egypt.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: At that time, two Roman generals were fighting to be the leaders of the Roman Republic. They were Pompey and Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus in Greece, 48 BC. Pompey fled to Egypt from Pharsalus, and was murdered by the orders of Ptolemy.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Ptolemy and his supporters thought Caesar would be pleased, but that was a big mistake. Caesar had pardoned many of the senators who fought against him. His reason was to lay the ground for peace in Rome. The murder of Pompey cut right across Caesar's plans. Worse, Pompey was a Roman consul, and the widower of Caesar's only daughter, Julia. Worse still, Pompey was beheaded in front of his fifth wife and children, who were on the ship from which he had just disembarked. This made sure that Pompey's powerful family and supporters would never forget, and would always be enemies of Caesar.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Then Caesar came to Alexandria, the capital of Egypt. Economically, Egypt was a bread-basket which could feed the people of Rome. Cleopatra received Caesar in her own unique way. She lay down on a carpet. Then her servants rolled up the carpet with Cleopatra inside. Then the carpet was taken to the palace where Caesar was staying. The guards saw some people carrying a carpet and they did not stop them. They carried the carpet to Caesar. Then Cleopatra came out of the carpet. Caesar fell in love with her and they became lovers. At the time, Cleopatra was 21 years old and Caesar was 52 years old.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Caesar decided to make Cleopatra queen again. Ptolemy did not like that. There was a lot of fighting, but Caesar won. Ptolemy tried to leave, but he fell in the river Nile and drowned. Another younger brother became king, but Cleopatra was again the real leader of Egypt. Cleopatra did not marry Julius Caesar, but they did have a son. He was called Caesarion.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Soon after Caesarion was born, Caesar was murdered as he walked to the Senate in Rome. Cleopatra and her entourage were in Rome when Caesar was assassinated on 15 March 44 BC. Cleopatra fled back to Egypt.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Mark Antony, who was Caesar's military commander, and Octavian, Caesar's legal heir, defeated the group who had conspired against Caesar. This group was led by Brutus and Cassius, who took their army to the Eastern Mediterranean, and controlled much of that area. The issue was finally settled by the Battle of Philippi, fought in Macedonia.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Caesar's place was taken by three joint Consuls, the Second Triumvirate. Their names were Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. Lepidus was a minor character, and the long-term fate of the Empire was decided by a conflict between Antony and Octavian. Mark Antony came to see Cleopatra, and they fell in love, though Antony already had a wife. Cleopatra had three more children. Two were twins, and the father of all three was Mark Antony.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: The conflict between Octavian and Antony became serious, and soon there was war. Cleopatra was wealthy, and she used her money to help Antony. But Octavian won the war. He became the ruler of the Roman Empire and was known as Augustus or Caesar Augustus. He took control of Egypt from Cleopatra. After her kingdom was conquered, she committed suicide by letting an asp (a poisonous snake and small cobra) bite her. Antony also committed suicide.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: Ceasarion was murdered by Octavian, and her other children were taken as prisoners to Rome. Two of them died of illness, but her daughter, Cleopatra Selene II, married an African King Juba II of Numidia. The couple were sent to Mauritania to rule by Octavian. They lived a full life there, and had children.


title: Cleopatra VII

text: There are many stories told of how rich Cleopatra was, but we cannot be sure if these are true. For example, one story says that she took baths in milk, to make her skin softer. Another story says that she made a bet with Antony that she could make the most expensive meal ever. To win the bet, she took a pearl earring, dissolved it in vinegar, and drank it.


title: Continent

text: There are no strict rules for what land is considered a continent, but in general it is agreed there are six or seven continents in the world, including Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania (or Australasia), and South America.


title: Continent

text: The most populous continent by population is Asia, followed by Africa. The third most populous continent is Europe. The fourth most populous is North America, and then South America. In sub-Saharan Africa, the largest age group are denarians (in their teens). In north Africa, the largest age group are vicenarian (in their twenties). In Europe, most people are tricenarian (in their thirties) or quadragenarian (in their forties).


title: Continent

text: Geologists use the term "continent" to mean continental crust, a platform of metamorphic and igneous rock, largely of granitic composition. Continental crust is less dense and much thicker than oceanic crust, which is why it "floats" higher than oceanic crust on the underlying mantle. This explains why the continents form high platforms surrounded by deep ocean basins.


title: Continent

text: Some sources say that Australia is one of the seven continents. Others say that Australia is part of a larger continent, such as Australasia, or Oceania. Oceania is a region which includes Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Australasia includes at least all countries on the Australian continental plate. This includes the islands of New Guinea, Tasmania, New Zealand and a number of smaller islands. It is on the south-eastern side of the Wallace Line, with distinct differences in its biology from the Asian side of the line.


title: Continent

text: Zealandia is an almost entirely submerged land mass, and 93% of it still remains under water. Zealandia may have broken off the Australian plate between 85 and 130 million years ago.


title: Continent

text: North America and South America together are often described as one continent, "the Americas", or simply "America". This has the advantage of including Central America and the Caribbean islands. Otherwise, Central America is counted as part of North America.


title: Continent

text: Eurasia is not really an alternative, rather it is a recognition that the landmasses of Europe and Asia are continuous, and some of its largest countries are in both regions. Russia extends from eastern Europe to the far east of Asia without a break. The Ural Mountains, which run roughly north–south, are the traditional dividing-line between Europe and Asia. For many purposes it is convenient to consider the great landmass as a single continent, Eurasia.


title: Continent

text: When British people talk about "the Continent" (or "Continental" things) they mean the European mainland. This meaning is not used as much as it used to be, but is still seen in phrases like "Continental breakfast" (rolls with cheese, jam etc. as distinct from an "English breakfast" which is a cooked breakfast).


title: Continent

text: Continents not only move but also sometimes move against each other. The Indian subcontinent has been colliding with the Eurasian continent for a while now. As these continents push against each other, they buckle and bend. Because of this, the Himalaya Mountains, with Mount Everest, are still being built up today.


title: Continent

text: Antarctica is Earth's fifth largest continent. Antarctica, the coldest place on Earth, covers Earth's South Pole. The continent only have two seasons, summer and winter. Antarctica is a cold desert. It does not rain or snow much there. Ever since its discovery in 1812, Antarctica with a surface area of ~13.6 –14 million km about 1.4 times the size of Europe, was a great challenge for explorers. Despite being nearly completely covered by a thick layer of ice, Antarctica harbors a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial environement.


title: Continent

text: A craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere. It is the Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle.


title: Continent

text: There are various hypotheses of how cratons have been formed.. Continents may have been formed by giant meteorite impacts in the first billion years of Earth's existence. The question is not yet settled. What is clear is that the cratons are very old, and are the basis for the continents we see today.


title: A

text: A or a is the first letter of the English alphabet. The small letter, a or α, is used as a lower case vowel.


title: A

text: When it is spoken, ā is said as a long a, a Diphthong of ĕ and y. A is similar to Alphabet of the Greek alphabet. That is not surprising, because it means the same sound.


title: A

text: "Alpha and Omi" (the last letter of the Greek alphabet) means from beginning to the end. In musical notation, the letter A is the symbol of a note in the scale, below B and above G. In binary numbers, the letter A is 10000000894043221.


title: A

text: A is the letter that was used to represent a team in an old TV show, The A-Team. A capital a is written "A". Use a capital a at the start of a sentence if writing.


title: A

text: The letter 'A' was in the Phoenician alphabet's aleph. This symbol came from a simple picture of an ox head.


title: A

text: This Phoenician letter helped make the basic blocks of later types of the letter. The Greeks later modified this letter and used it as their letter alpha. The Greek alphabet was used by the Etruscans in northern Italy, and the Romans later modified the Etruscan alphabet for their own language.


title: A

text: The letter A has six different sounds. It can sound like æ, in the International Phonetic Alphabet, such as the word "pad". Other sounds of this letter are in the words "father", which developed into another sound, such as in the word "ace".


title: A

text: In algebra, the letter "A" along with other letters at the beginning of the alphabet is used to represent known quantities.


title: A

text: In geometry, capital A, B, C etc. are used to label line segments, lines, etc. Also, A is typically used as one of the letters to label an angle in a triangle.


title: A

text: Its letter shape is referred to abstractly in Sir William Vallance Douglas Hodge's 5th postulate, the basis for, as one of the Millennium Prize Problems, the Hodge Conjecture.


title: Puppet state

text: A puppet state is a country that is officially independent but is not so in practice. Puppet governments are usually kept in power by military force provided by an occupying country.


title: Puppet state

text: After Italy surrendered in World War II the Italian Social Republic was a puppet state created by Germany.


title: Puppet state

text: During the Cold War (1945-1989) these Eastern European countries were puppet states of the Soviet Union:


title: Puppet state

text: In some of these countries the people overthrew the government, but each time they did that (before 1989) the Soviet Union and some of its other puppet states invaded and put the old government back in power. The Soviet Union had also some puppet states outside Europe, such as Mongolia. Some of these countries had more independence from the Soviet Union. For example, the Romanian government sided against the Soviets when they went into Czechoslovakia.


title: Population

text: A population is the number of living people that live together in the same place. A city's population is the number of people living in that city. These people are called inhabitants or residents. The population includes all individuals that live in that certain area.The world population was estimated to have reached 7.5 billion in April 2017. Asia is the most populous continent, with its 4.3 billion inhabitants being 60% of the world population. The most populous country is China with 1.4 billion people.


title: Population

text: Population density is the average number of people in a place. Urban areas such as big cities have a high population density. People there live close to each other. In areas with a low population density, people usually live far away from each other, such as in rural areas out in the countryside.


title: Population

text: Usually population refers to the number of humans in a certain area. The maximum population that can be supported in an area is called the carrying capacity.


title: Population

text: Global population is going up, but the population growth rate is declining all over the world. Growth in poor countries is faster than in rich ones; some rich countries have a population pyramid that is nearly square. Urbanization is also common, and urban areas usually have lower birth rates. In population growth, births exceed deaths. In the modern world this is due to reduction of infant deaths, control of infectious diseases, and improved agriculture so more people can eat.


title: Population

text: Human population control is the practice of altering the rate of growth of a human population. Concerns about overpopulation and its effects on poverty, environmental degradation, and political stability led to efforts to reduce population growth rates.


title: Romania

text: Romania (old spelling: Rumania, Roumania; , ) is a country in southeastern Europe. It is north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube River. Western Romania is circled by the Carpathian Mountains. Romania also has a border on the Black Sea. Most of the Danube Delta is found inside Romania. Romania shares borders with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine to the far northeast, the Republic of Moldova to the near northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.


title: Romania

text: Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state. It was created when Moldavia and Wallachia joined together in 1859. It was given its independence in the Treaty of Berlin of 1878. At the end of World War II, some of its land (close by what is now known as Moldova) was occupied by the USSR. After the Iron Curtain fell in 1989 Romania was liberated from the communist regime. During the 2000s, Romania made changes to the country, such as reform the democratic system, human rights acts, freedom of speech acts, economy and law. That let Romania join the European Union on January 1, 2007.


title: Romania

text: Romania has the 9th biggest area of land and the 7th biggest population (with 19 million people) of the European Union member states. The capital and biggest city in Romania is Bucharest ( ), with a population of 1.6 million. One of the cities in Transylvania, Sibiu, was named a European Capital of Culture. Romania joined NATO on March 29, 2004.


title: Romania

text: The word "Romania" ("Rumania" or "România") comes from the Romanian word "Român", which comes from the Latin word "Romanus" which means "Roman". English texts still used the word "Rumania" during World War II. This came from the French word "Roumanie".


title: Romania

text: Some of the oldest human remains found in Europe were discovered in Romania. They were about 42,000 years old. This may have been when the first Homo sapiens came to Europe.


title: Romania

text: The world's first and oldest writing comes from people who lived in today's Romania. Approximately 5300 years BC. According to archaeology it is not a matter of symbols, but the world's first writings. It belonged to the Vinča culture which inhabited all of today's Serbia with over 150 Vinča sites and minor parts of Western Romania, northwestern Bulgaria, eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and Southeastern Hungary.


title: Romania

text: Herodotus in the fourth book of The Histories, written in about 440 . Herodotus wrote that the Getae were defeated by the Persian Emperor Darius the Great when he battled the Scythians. The Getae were called the Dacians by the Romans. They were Thracians who were living in Dacia, which is where Romania, Moldova and the northern part of Bulgaria are now. The Dacians attacked the Roman province, the border of which was formed by the Danube, in 87 . This was during Emperor Domitian's rule. The Dacians were defeated by the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan in two battles that lasted from 101 until 106 . The Roman Empire made Dacia into the province of Roman Dacia.


title: Romania

text: A lot of ore, such as gold and silver, were found in Roman Dacia. A lot of gold and silver were found in the Western Carpathians. Trajan went back to Rome with 165 tons (330,000 pounds) of gold and 330 tons (660,000 pounds) of silver after his conquest.


title: Romania

text: There were many Romans living in the province of Roman Dacia. They spoke Vulgar Latin. They began to write the local languages using the Latin alphabet. Writing languages with the Latin alphabet is called romanization. This became the first version of Romanian.


title: Romania

text: In the 3rd century, the province was attacked by groups of nomadic people like the Goths. They made the Roman Empire leave Dacia about 271 . This became the Roman Empire's first abandoned province.


title: Romania

text: The origin of modern Romanians is widely talked about by historians to this day. It is thought that the Romanians were formed from large ethnic groups that came from both the south and north parts of the Danube.


title: Romania

text: From 271 to 275, the Goths took over the abandoned Roman province. They lived in Dacia until the 4th century, when another group of wandering peoples, the Huns, came to Dacia. The Gepids, Avars, with the Slavic people, were in control of Transylvania through the 8th century. In the 8th century, however, the country was taken over by the Hungarian Empire. It was made part of the First Bulgarian Empire, which ended Romania's Dark Ages.


title: Romania

text: The Bulgarians held Transylvania until the 11th century. The Pechenegs, the Cumans, and the Uzes were a few of the people later noted in the history of Romania.


title: Romania

text: In 1310, now called the High Middle Ages, Basarab I started the Romanian principality of Wallachia. Moldavia was begun by Dragoş around 1352. During the Middle Ages, Romanians were living in three different areas: Wallachia (Romanian: "Ţara Românească"—"Romanian Land"), Moldavia (Romanian: "Moldova"), and Transylvania.


title: Romania

text: Transylvania belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary from around the 10th century until the 16th century, when it turned into the Principality of Transylvania. This lasted until 1711. Wallachia had been on the border of the Ottoman Empire since the 14th century. As the Ottoman Empire's influence grew, it gradually fell under the suzerainty (control) of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century.


title: Romania

text: The best known ruler of this period was Vlad III the Impaler, also known as Vlad Dracula, or "", , Prince of Wallachia, during the years of 1448, 1456–62, and 1476. While he was the leader of his people, he had an agreement with the Ottoman Empire to stay independent. Many people in Romania during this time thought of him as a ruler with a great sense of justice and defense for his country.


title: Romania

text: Moldavia was at its greatest when Stephen the Great was ruling between 1457 and 1504. He was a great military leader, winning 47 battles and losing only 2. After every battle he won, Stephen would build a church. Because he won 47 of the battles that he fought, he ended up building 48 churches. After Stephen the Great's death, Moldavia came under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century.


title: Romania

text: When Transylvania was the organic part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire was in control of Wallachia and Moldavia, almost all of the Romanians had limited rights as a citizen. They stayed this way even when they made up most of the people in those areas.


title: Romania

text: After the even more violent Revolution of 1848 did not succeed, so explained the Great Powers did not like the idea of Romania becoming a free nation and it was not a real possibility.


title: Romania

text: The people who voted in 1859 in Moldavia and Wallachia picked the same person – Alexandru Ioan Cuza – to be the prince in those areas. He managed to unite the people and nationalism was seen as a useful method.


title: Romania

text: Alexandru Ioan Cuza walked with cautious steps he was not proclaiming a declaration of independence immediately because he knew it would bring a new war. Instead he let Moldavia and Wallachia merged in the United Principalities of the Ottoman Empire and increasing self-government to a greater degree.


title: Romania

text: The new union was at the front of today's Romania. With cautious steps we freed itself more and Bucharest was established as the capital. However, farmers had more land when serfdom was abolished, which led to a coup d'état against the Alexandru Ioan Cuza staged by peasants who overthrew the regime.


title: Romania

text: Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen became the new leader, and was later called Prince Carol I of Romania. While the Russo-Turkish War was happening, Romania battled on the Russian side. When the Treaty of Berlin of 1878 was signed, the Great Powers made Romania an independent state. In return, they had to give Russia three of their southern districts of Bessarabia. In 1881, the principality became a kingdom, with Prince Carol ruling as King Carol I.


title: Romania

text: When World War I started in August 1914, Romania said it was a neutral country. In 1916, the Allies promised to give Romania parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where many Romanians lived, if Romania started a war against Austria-Hungary.


title: Romania

text: The military campaign ended in disaster after Romania's forces were defeated in 1917 and Moldova was one of the few parts of Romania that was not captured. When the Allies eventually won the war, the Austria-Hungarian Empire was dissolved and an independent Hungarian republic was proclaimed. Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Romania in 1918 as had been promised. After the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, Hungary formally gave up any claims over Transylvania. Romania and Bukovina were joined together in 1919 as a result of the Treaty of Saint Germain. Bessarabia joined with Romania in 1920 when the Treaty of Paris was signed.


title: Romania

text: After World War I was much bigger and more nationalist. The small Kingdom received ("major Transylvania"). The principalities Wallachia, Moldavia and Bessarabia (Moldova) together formed the "Greater Romania" 1918-1940. "Greater Romania" did not survive World War II.


title: Romania

text: Romanians called their country "România Mare", meaning "Great Romania" or "Greater Romania", in the time between World War I and World War II. They called it so because it controlled of land.


title: Romania

text: The Great Depression meant social unrest, high unemployment, strikes and riots, especially a miners' strike in 1929 in Valea Jiului and a strike in Griviţas maintenance workshops. By the mid-1930s, with a recovering Romanian economy, industry grew, although about 80% of Romanians still were engaged in agriculture.


title: Romania

text: In end of 1930s, Romania's liberal democracy was slowly being replaced by the fascist dictatorship. The Archangel Michael Legion, known as the Iron Guard organization, was led by Corneliu Codreanu Zelea. In 1937 elections the party supported Adolf Hitler and Nazism and got 15.5% of the votes and became the third biggest party. In 1938 king Carol II of Romania seized power over Romania. He dissolved all political parties and executed Corneliu Codreanu Zelea along with 12 other leaders.


title: Romania

text: Carol II of Romania declared the country as neutral when World War II broke out in 1939, but included since the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and northern Bukovina an alliance with Hitler's Germany. This occurred after field marshal Ion Antonescu forced the authoritarian Carol II of Romania to abdicate. Antonescu appointed himself "conducator", Romania's dictator, and signed at the November 23 of 1940 three-powers pact with Nazi Germany. Hitler's Germany was dependent on a continuous importation of fuel and crude oil from the Romanian oil fields of Ploesti. In 1940, yjr Kingdom of Hungary took over the legitimate domination in Northern Transylvania to the end of the World War II.


title: Romania

text: In summer of 1941, Romania join Hitler's war against the Soviet Union in combination also Finland, Slovakia and Hungary join Hitlers war. Romania built concentration camps and began conducting a massive persecution of Jews, of which became very extreme in the city of Iasi.


title: Romania

text: Romania participated in the Holocaust. The author of the book "The Destruction of the European Jews" Raul Hilberg writes follow: "There was / ... / moment when the Germans actually had to intervene and slow the speed with which the Romanian measures were taken." The hunt for Jews in eastern Romania (including Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transnistria and the city of Iasi) had more the character of pogroms than the German, well-organized camps and transport.


title: Romania

text: There were pogroms in the city of Iasi. The homes for the Jewish minority in Iasi were marked with crosses. On June 27, 1941, Ion Antonescu make a phone call with the city's mayor and Antonescu said into the phone: "clean the city Iasi from the Jews." And the Holocaust in Romania has began. Police officers and many civilians went to every Jewish home marked with a cross in the town and murdered thousands of Jews on the same day.


title: Romania

text: In June 1941, the Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu gave an "illegal secret order" to the special police force. He ordered the police in cooperation with the Romanian Army and the German SS troops to kill all Jews in east Romania within the next coming years. The Jews living on the countryside was being killed right on the spot. The Jews in the cities were first collected in the ghettos and later deported away.


title: Romania

text: On October 22, 1941 the Soviet union with bombs blow up the Romanian military headquarters in Odessa, and killed 66 Romanian soldiers. As revenge Ion Antonescu decided that for every dead Romanian officer, 200 Soviet communists must be killed and for each dead soldier, 100 communists must be killed. All other Communists were imprisoned and Jewish families were taken hostage in the hope that the partisan movement would cease its operations.


title: Romania

text: The day after in Bucharest, on October 23, 1941, around 5 000 people and the majority were Jews was arrested who later executed by hanging. In the Soviet village Dalnik, almost 20,000 Jews were incarcerated in to several locked buildings and burned alive.


title: Romania

text: After the massacre, many of the Jews who remained in Odessa were sent to various concentration camps. Nearby Odessa on October 25, 1941, approximately 40,000 Jews, was gathering together on a special closed military secured area, and the Jews had to stay outdoors for more than ten days without food or supply. Many died of cold and starvation. The survivors were murdered one month later.


title: Romania

text: Totally approximately 469,000 Jews had been murdered by the military and police in Romania between 1941 and 1944, including the 325,000 murdered Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina.


title: Romania

text: At the end of 1943, the Red Army liberated most of Soviet territory and started advancing westward from its borders to defeat Nazi Germany and its allies. It was in this context that the Soviet forces crossed Romania. If the Soviet Union could hit Romania, Nazi Germany's last hope is gone, said the military leadership of the Red Army. Russians deposited the entire 1.5 million soldiers in the attack against Romania and Romania last reserves consisting only of 138 000 soldiers. During the summer of 1944 it began the attack on Bessarabia (Moldova) and the Romanian army fled the area. On 2 August, the whole Bessarabia (Moldova) is captured by the Red Army. The Russians then went a long way in Romania and on 23 August they reached into the Romanian capital Bucharest. The public opinion turned in the country against Antonescu and of summer 1944 he was deposed and imprisoned. The new government signed a ceasefire and extradited itself to the Soviet Union. The Red Army killed the members from the old fascist regime (including Ion Antonescu) on June 1, 1946.


title: Romania

text: At the end of the war, Romania was allowed to keep the whole of Transylvania in west and Dobruja from south, but lost Bessarabia/Transnistria and Odessa Oblast in the east (with rich oil reserves) which became parts of the Soviet Union. Bukovina was split in half because in the north part the majority ethnic group was Ukrainian and in the south part Romanian.


title: Romania

text: The Soviet Union replaced the royal monarchy with a communist regime in 1947. The Soviet Union took the country's resources, which led to increased poverty in Romania.


title: Romania

text: Michael I abdicated the throne and had to leave Romania in 1947 because of the Communists. Romania changed from a monarchy into a republic. The USSR occupied Romania until the late 1950s, when Soviet troops left Romania. During this time, resources in Romania were taken by the Soviet Union due to agreements made by Communist leaders.


title: Romania

text: After the Soviet troops left Romania, Nicolae Ceauşescu wanted Romania to become more independent from Moscow. Romania started following slightly different foreign policies than Moscow. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Romania began talks with Israel and started relations with the Federal Republic of Germany. Romania started to have their own relations with Arab countries. Romania officials were allowed to participate in peace talks between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.


title: Romania

text: The national debt Romania owed to other countries went from $3 billion to almost $10 billion between 1977 and 1981. The amount of money that Romania owed other countries caused them to rely on banks and other lenders from around the world. President Nicolae Ceauşescu's autarchic ways meant he did not want to rely on other countries and Romania paid back money borrowed from other countries. This affected the Romanian economy. To try to stay in power, Ceauşescu had anyone who disagreed with him arrested and put in prison. Many people were killed or hurt. Almost 60,000 people were put in psychiatric hospitals. Ceauşescu eventually lost power and was killed in the Romanian Revolution of 1989.


title: Romania

text: In 1989, the National Salvation Front came into power. It was led by Ion Iliescu. When they came into power, several other parties from before World War II were remade. These included the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party, the National Liberal Party and the Romanian Social Democrat Party. In April 1990, as a result of several rallies, protests started. The people who protested did not recognize the results of the election. This was because they thought that members of the National Salvation Front were communists. More and more people protested, and it became a demonstration – a very big protest. This was called the Golaniad, and it became very violent.


title: Romania

text: When the National Salvation Front lost power, several other parties were made. These were the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic Party, and a couple of other parties from before the war. The Social Democratic Party ruled Romania from 1990 until 1996. Ion Iliescu was the head of state, or person in charge. After 1996, several other parties came into power and lost it. In 2004, Traian Băsescu became the president.


title: Romania

text: After the Cold War, Romania became closer friends with Western Europe. In 2004, Romania joined NATO and hosted the 2008 summit. The country applied in June 1993 for membership in the European Union and became an Associated State of the EU in 1995, an Acceding Country in 2004, and a member on January 1, 2007.


title: Romania

text: Romania is a part of southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea and the Danube River. The Carpathian Mountains lie in the center.


title: Romania

text: Romania is the biggest country in southeast Europe by population. It has an area of . It is the twelfth-largest country in Europe. Most of Romania's border with Serbia and Bulgaria is made by the Danube. The Danube joins the Prut River. The Prut River makes the Moldovan–Romanian border. The Danube then flows into the area of the Black Sea inside Romania. This makes the Danube Delta. The delta is a biosphere reserve and a biodiversity World Heritage Site. Some of the other major rivers in Romania are the Siret, the Olt, and the Mureş. The Siret River runs from the north to the south of Moldavia. The Olt River runs from the Carpathian Mountains to Oltenia. The Mureş runs through Transylvania from the east to the west.


title: Romania

text: The land in Romania is made up of equal parts of mountains, hills, and low-lying areas. The Carpathian Mountains make up a big part of the center of Romania. Fourteen of its mountain ranges are taller than . The tallest mountain in Romania is Moldoveanu Peak, with a peak altitude of .


title: Romania

text: The Danube is the longest river in Romania. Its length inside Romania is about . That is almost half of the length of the entire Danube. Almost all of the rivers in Romania are either direct or indirect tributaries of the Danube.


title: Romania

text: Romania has a climate that changes between temperate and continental climates. The reason for the climate changes is because Romania is near the coast. Romania has four different seasons. The average temperature during the year is in southern Romania and in the northern part.


title: Romania

text: Lots of rain and snow falls on the highest western mountains. Most of this falls as snow. In the southern parts of the country, the amount of rain and snow that falls is around .


title: Romania

text: The lowest temperature ever taken in Romania was , at Braşov in 1944. The highest temperature ever recorded in Romania was , near Calafat in the 1950s.


title: Romania

text: Romania has its own culture because of where it is found. It is the point where 3 different areas meet: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans. Romanian culture is a mix of all these areas. The culture of Romania was influenced by the Greeks, Romans, and Slavs.


title: Romania

text: Romania is a secular state. This means Romania has no national religion. The biggest religious group in Romania is the Romanian Orthodox Church. It is an autocephalous church inside of the Eastern Orthodox communion. In 2002, this religion made up 86.7% of the population. Other religions in Romania include Roman Catholicism (4.7%), Protestantism (3.7%), Pentecostalism (1.5%), Islam (1%) and the Romanian Greek-Catholicism (0.9%).


title: Romania

text: Bucharest is the capital of Romania. It also is the biggest city in Romania, with a population of over 2 millions peoples.


title: Romania

text: There are 5 other cities in Romania that have a population of more than 300,000 people. These are Iaşi, Cluj-Napoca, Timişoara, Constanţa, and Craiova. Romania also has 5 cities that have more than 200,000 people living in them: Galaţi, Braşov, Ploieşti, Brăila, and Oradea.


title: Romania

text: Romania joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. Romania's economy is healthy. Currently, Romania makes around $350 billion in Gross domestic product and a GDP per capita of $16,540.


title: Romania

text: Long into the 1900s, Romania was still a largely agricultural country. During Communism 1947-1989, the country had planned economy. The transition from planned economy to a market economy after the communist regime led to economic collapse in the 1990s, the reasons was that more money was printed, expensive prices and substantial privatization of the companies, which initially leads to skyrocketing unemployment. The reforms in the 1990s allowed foreign investors for the first time to buy land in Romania. When it was going explosively good for the industry in the Latin countries such as France, Italy and Spain, these countries began to trade with Romania because it is favorite voice country for them to grow in. Foreign companies expanding in Romania since then, and spurs the market.


title: Romania

text: The Romanian school is obligatory for 10 years. Children also have the opportunity to be part of a voluntary pre-school at an early age 3–6 years. After school, students can voluntarily take the entrance exam to high school, which has a range of practical and theoretical lines. There are over 40 higher educational institutions, including five universities and five technical colleges. Tuition is free and is a hot political commitment even at the university. The country's minorities have the opportunity to receive instruction in their native language. Since 1989, education has been reformed. But it has been slow and the standard of education varies greatly in different parts of the country, education has improved the standard of urban compared to rural areas where quality can be very low. Romania participates fully in the EU's education program.


title: Romania

text: The living standards were very low at the end of the Communist era, but the situation was just only improved a little bit during the 1990s. On the contrary, the living significantly due caused by the large privatization of jobs that resulted in high unemployment and rising prices. In later years lived yet 2010 nearly 10 percent of the population in absolute poverty and of these, 90% live in rural areas. The State social insurance system have relatively broad coverage but resources are extremely small.


title: Romania

text: Reforms have been initiated and in 1999 the health insurance became privatized and paid by the employers and the employees. Several thousand local trade unions were founded after the revolution, which were later amalgamated (combined) into federations. These unions and federations have helped organise students, pensioners and the unemployed; because these groups of people all have similar needs, concerns and goals.


title: Romania

text: By the first quarter of 2011 the average monthly household income is 2,318 Romanian leu (equivalent to approximately £862 USD).


title: Romania

text: The different between countryside and urban area may vary the income is 36 per-cent higher in the urban area than in the countryside.


title: Romania

text: The most worrying thing is the fact that there are more pensioners than the number of working people. because many who dismissed during the privatizations had per-retirement. Romanian Pensioners average pension at the month is at about 190 euros (equivalent to approximately £250-300 USD). The current low average retirement age (55 years for men and 57 years for women) will be gradually increased until 2014, when it gets 60 years for women and 65 years for men.


title: Romania

text: Many of the country's Gypsies have no identity cards and are therefore excluded from the social benefit systems, schools and health care. The State-run health care is free, but the care system is neglected and has deteriorated in recent years due to lack of resources and underpaid staff. In many cases,the patients paying "under the table" to get treatment. here is evidence to suggest that a patient's wealth plays an important role in how they receive medical treatment.


title: Romania

text: Historically, Romanian researches and inventors have made notable contributions to several fields, such as: aeronautics, medicine, mathematics, computer science/engineering, physics, biophysics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology. In the history of flight, Traian Vuia and Aurel Vlaicu built and flew some of the earliest successful aircraft, while Henri Coandă discovered the Coandă effect of fluidics. Preceding him, Elie Carafoli was a pioneering contributor to the field of aerodynamics in the world.


title: Romania

text: Victor Babeş discovered more than 50 germs and a cure for a disease named after him, babesiosis; biologist Nicolae Paulescu discovered insulin. Another biologist, Emil Palade, received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to cell biology. George Constantinescu created the theory of sonics, while Lazăr Edeleanu was the first chemist to synthesize amphetamine and also invented the modern method of refining crude oil. Costin Neniţescu found new methods for the synthesis of pirilium salts, of carbenes, tryptamine, serotonin, two new syntheses for the indole nucleus, and a new method of polymerisation of ethylene.


title: Romania

text: Several mathematicians distinguished themselves as well, among them: Gheorghe Ţiţeica, Spiru Haret, Grigore Moisil, Miron Nicolescu, Nicolae Popescu and Ştefan Odobleja; the latter is also regarded as the ideological father behind cybernetics.


title: Romania

text: Notable physicists and inventors also include: Horia Hulubei in atomic physics, Șerban Țițeica in theoretical physics, Mihai Gavrilă specialized in quantum theory and discoverer of the atomic dichotomy phenomenon, Alexandru Proca (known for the first meson theory of nuclear forces and Proca's equations of the vectorial mesonic field), Ştefan Procopiu known for the first theory of the magnetic moment of the electron in 1911 (now known as the Bohr-Procopiu magneton), Theodor V. Ionescu, the inventor of a multiple-cavity magnetron (1935), a hydrogen maser in 1947, 3D imaging for cinema/television in 1924 and hot deuterium plasma studies for controlled nuclear fusion, Ionel Solomon known for the nuclear magnetic resonance theory in solids, Solomon equations and photovoltaic devices, Petrache Poenaru, Nicolae Teclu and Victor Toma, with the latter known for the invention and construction of the first Romanian computer, the CIFA-1 in 1955.


title: Romania

text: The nuclear physics facility of the European Union's proposed Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) laser will be built in Romania. Romania currently has 1,400 MW of nuclear power capacity by means of one active nuclear power plant (Cernavodă) with 2 reactors, which constitutes around 18% of the national power generation capacity of the country. This makes Romania the 23rd largest user of nuclear power in the world.


title: Romania

text: The Constitution of Romania is found to be based from the Constitution of France's Fifth Republic. It was passed into law on December 8, 1991. after a referendum was held. 73 amendments were added to the constitution in October 2003 to bring the constitution of Romania up to code with the constitution of the European Union.


title: Romania

text: The legislative branch of the Romanian government is known as the Parliament. It contains two chambers – the Senate, containing 140 members, and the Chamber of Deputies, which has 346 members. The members of both chambers are elected every four years through party-list proportional representation.


title: Romania

text: The judicial branch of the Romanian government is separate from the other branches. It is made up of a system of courts. The court with the most authority is the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which is the supreme court of Romania. Other courts, including appeal, county, and local courts also make up the judicial branch of the Romanian Government. The way the system of courts works in Romania is modelled off of the French model of law. It is based on civil law.


title: Romania

text: Romania is divided into 41 counties, including the municipality of Bucharest, which is also its own county.


title: Romania

text: Romania is divided further into 319 cities and 2,686 communes. Each of the communes has its own council that is led by a mayor.


title: Romania

text: The Romanian Army is made up of Land, Air, and Naval Forces, which are all led by a Commander-in-chief. The commander-in-chief is given orders by the Ministry of Defense. During war, the President leads the Army. 90,000 people were in the Romanian Army in 2003: 15,000 civilians and 75,000 military people. Of the 75,000 military people in the Romanian Army, 45,800 are in the land forces, 13,250 are in the air forces, 6,800 are in the naval forces, and 8,800 in other areas of the military.


title: Renaissance

text: The Renaissance is a period in European history that followed the Middle Ages and ended in the 17th century. “Renaissance” is a French word for “cultural rebirth.” During this period, there was a “rebirth” of classical learning. People started relearning the teachings of scholars from Ancient Greece, Rome, and other ancient societies. The Renaissance is often said to be the start of the "modern age"


title: Renaissance

text: During the Renaissance, there were many advances in art, literature, the sciences, mathematics, and culture. Many famous artists, writers, philosophers, and scientists lived during this period. A person who is clever at a great number of things is sometimes called a "Renaissance man". The most famous Renaissance man is Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, a scientist, a musician and a philosopher.


title: Renaissance

text: The Renaissance started in Italy, but soon spread across the whole of Europe. In Italy, the period is divided into three parts:


title: Renaissance

text: Following the "Mannerist" period was the "Baroque" period, which also spread across Europe starting around 1600. Outside Italy, it can be hard to tell where the "Renaissance" period ends and the "Baroque" begins.


title: Renaissance

text: In the Middle Ages, most artistic, legal, and historical production took place in and around books. Monasteries, churches, universities, and people who could afford them produced and owned books. Books were produced entirely by hand, which is why they were called manuscripts; illuminated manuscripts include hand-colored, drawn, and gilded pictures.


title: Renaissance

text: Most books at that time were written in Latin, Greek, and Roman, which was used in the Catholic Church. Only priests and well-educated people read Latin then. People were forbidden by law from translating the Bible into Italian, English, German, French, or other "local" languages.


title: Renaissance

text: Around 1440 the first printed books were made in Europe. The printing press made it possible to print copies of large books like the Bible and sell them cheaply. It took 300 calf skins or 100 pig skins to print the Bible. Printers soon began to print everything that they thought was interesting: Ancient Greek and Roman writings, poetry, and plays; stories about the lives of the saints; mathematics textbooks; medical textbooks; Christian stories; erotic stories; books about animals and monsters; maps of the world; and advice to princes about how to rule their people.


title: Renaissance

text: Before the invention of the printing press, knowledge had belonged to priests, monasteries and universities. Suddenly many thousands of people, even merchants, could learn far more than they ever could before.


title: Renaissance

text: From about 400 B.C. to about 400 AD, Europe experienced a Golden Age. In Ancient Greece and Rome, there were many philosophers, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and mathematicians. Things were beautiful, well-organised and well-run.


title: Renaissance

text: However, by the year 1400, the city of Rome was in ruins. Inside the broken walls that had been smashed in 410 AD were the remains of huge temples, sports arenas, public baths, apartment blocks and palaces. Nearly all of them were half-buried and ruined, so they could not be used. Many were pulled down to use as building stone.


title: Renaissance

text: Among the ruins of this once-great city, the people of Rome lived in cottages. They still went to church in the huge churches (basilicas) built by the first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, in the 4th century. They still held market day in the Ancient Roman market place of "Campo dei Fiori" ("Field of Flowers").


title: Renaissance

text: In 1402, Filippo Brunelleschi and a teenage Donatello came to Rome. They were probably the world's first archaeologists. They were fascinated by everything that they saw. They measured ancient ruined buildings, drew things, and dug around for weeks looking for bits of broken statues and painted pottery that they could put back together. By the time they went back home to Florence, they knew more about Ancient Roman architecture and sculpture than anyone had known for about a thousand years. Brunelleschi became a very famous architect and Donatello became a very famous sculptor.


title: Renaissance

text: The "Renaissance" really began in the city of Florence. In those days, Italy was not one single country. It was made of many little states, all governed in different ways. These states were constantly making alliances and fighting with each other.


title: Renaissance

text: Rome was politically powerful, because Rome had the Pope, the person in control of the Roman Catholic Church. Because of his very great importance as a spiritual leader, most people and most cities did not want to argue with any pope. After a pope died, a new pope was elected. Everyone who was rich and powerful hoped a member of their family would be chosen. It was always a good idea to have several young men in the family trained as priests, just in case. It also helped to be good friends with other rich families. One way to do this was to have lots of daughters and get them to marry rich powerful men from different cities. This was the way that politics worked.


title: Renaissance

text: There were other powerful cities in Italy too. Venice had a large and powerful navy. Milan controlled trade with Northern Europe and was very rich. Genoa was also very rich, because it controlled trade with France and Spain. Florence, where many people say the Renaissance started, was another important city.


title: Renaissance

text: Florence’s strength did not come from a strong army, a strong fortress, or control over trade. It came from banking. The Medicis were an important banking family. They helped to make Florence a powerful city and the centre of Renaissance learning.


title: Onam

text: Onam is the most popular festival in the state of Kerala, India. Onam is the official state festival of Kerala. It is celebrated with joy and enthusiasm all over the state by Malayalees regardless of religion, caste or creed. According to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala in the time of Onam.


title: Onam

text: Onam is a 10 day long festival celebrated in the beginning of the month of Chingam, the first month of the Malayalam Calendar (Kollavarsham). This corresponds with the month of August to September according to the Gregorian Calendar. Of the 10 days, the first day, Atham and tenth day, Thiruvonam are most important of all.


title: Onam

text: The legend is of King Asura (popularly known as Maveli), a mythical king who ruled over Kerala. He was greatly respected in his kingdom and was considered to be wise, and extremely generous. Everybody was happy in his kingdom. There was no discrimination on the basis of caste or class. Rich and poor were treated equally. There was neither crime, nor corruption. Due to his popularity, the Gods became extremely concerned and jealous. They felt threatened and decided to end his reign. They asked Lord Vishnu to go to earth in the form of a dwarf Brahmin. Disguised as Vamana, Vishnu requested Mahabali for 3 feet of land. Kind Mahabali granted him the land, Vamana began to expand and eventually increased himself to the size of cosmic proportions. With his first step, the Brahmin boy covered the whole of earth and with the other step he covered the whole of the skies. He then asked the King where is the space for him to keep the third foot. King Mahabali with folded hands bowed before Vamana and asked him to place his last step on his head so that he could keep the promise. The brahmin placed his foot on the head of the King and trampled Mahabali to the netherworld. There, the King requested Lord Vishnu to be allowed to visit his land and people once a year, and Vishnu granted him his wish. It is the day of the visit of King Mahabali to Kerala that is celebrated as Onam every year. The origin of Onam is beliefs from the Thrikakkara Vamana Moorthi Temple in Ernakulam district of Kerala.


title: Onam

text: Elaborate feasts known as sadhya, folk songs, elegant dances, energetic games, elephants, boat race (Vallam Kali) and concentric floral decorations (Athapookkalam) are all part of this dynamic festival. Malayalees make all the efforts to celebrate the festival in a grand way and impress their beloved King that they are happy and to wish him well. People buy new clothes and sweets during the celebration of Onam. Popularity and presentation of rich culture of the state during the festival made Onam the official State Festival of Kerala in 1961.


title: Onam

text: The government promotes Onam internationally in a big way and celebrates 'Tourist Week' for Kerala during Onam celebrations. Thousands of domestic and foreign tourists visit Kerala to be a part of Onam every year.


title: Punjabi language

text: Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language. It is the first language of about 160 million people, and is the 9th most spoken language in the world. Most of the people who speak this language live in the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It is also spoken in Haryana, India Himachal Pradesh, India and Delhi, India, uttarpradesh rajasthan, Bihar, Jammu amd Kashmir and other states as well . It is spoken by the majority of the population of Pakistan.


title: Punjabi language

text: Punjabi is written in two different scripts, called Gurmukhī and Shahmukhī. Punjabi is the main language spoken by the Sikhs. Most parts of the Guru Granth Sahib use the Punjabi language written in Gurmukhī, though Punjabi is not the only language used in Sikh scriptures. The "Janamsakhis", stories on the life and legend of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), are early examples of Punjabi literature.


title: Punjabi language

text: Punjabi has many dialects. The dialects are similar enough to each other that speakers can understand most of the dialects that are related to theirs. Major dialects of Punjabi include Majhi, Puadhi, Malwai, Pothohari, Shahpuri, Jhangvi, Jatki, Doabi, and Pahari, among others.


title: Punjabi language

text: Majhi is Punjabi's standard dialect because it forms the standard for writing in Punjabi. It is spoken in the centre of Punjab, including the districts of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Okara, Nankana Sahib, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat, Pakpattan, Hafizabad and Mandi Bahauddin. In India it is spoken in Amritsar, Tarn Taran Sahib and Gurdaspur districts.


title: Punjabi language

text: Other dialects of Punjabi include Pahari, Rachnavi, Chenavari, Chhachi, Jandali, Ghebi. The Saraiki, spoken in southern Punjab, and Dogri, spoken in Kashmir, are closely related to Punjabi. The relation of several dialects to languages other than Punjabi creates problems in assigning them to one or another "language".


title: Punjabi language

text: Over 93% of people who speak Punjabi as their first language live in Pakistan and India. It is the most widely spoken native language in Pakistan. It is spoken as a first language by over 44% of Pakistanis. There were 76 million Punjabi speakers in Pakistan in 2008. In India, Punjabi is spoken as a native language by 3% of the population. This was about 33 million in 2011. It is the official language of the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.


title: Punjabi language

text: Punjabi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where large numbers of Punjabis have emigrated.In the United Kingdom, it is the second-most-commonly used language. In Canada, it is the fourth-most-spoken language. There were 2.2 million Punjabi speakers in the US in 2017. and 1.3 million in the UK in 2000.


title: Punjabi language

text: There are three ways to write Punjabi: Gurmukhi, Shahmukhi, and Devanagari. In the Punjab province of Pakistan, the script that is most used is Shahmukhī. The Majhi dialect is the written standard for Punjabi in both parts of Punjab.


title: Mebibyte

text: A mebibyte (a contraction of mega binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, symbol MiB.


title: Mebibyte

text: The mebibyte is closely related to the megabyte (MB). This can either be a synonym for mebibyte, or refer to 10 bytes = 1,000,000 bytes, depending on context (see binary prefix for background). The two numbers are relatively close together, but mistaking the two has nevertheless led to problems.


title: Mebibyte

text: The unit MiB was defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in December 1998. Use of mebibyte and related units is strongly endorsed by IEEE and CIPM and is becoming more common.


title: Mebibyte

text: Mibibyte is a common misspelling, presumably from the "i" in the abbreviation or confusion about how the surrounding prefixes (i.e., "kibi" and "gibi") were actually formed. The "i" is actually from the end of the prefix. Tebi- and pebi- are similarly abbreviated Ti- and Pi-, but they are not usually misspelled, as storage sizes (and corresponding terms) currently are only this large in specialized situations.


title: Cyclone

text: In meteorology, a cyclone refers to any low pressure area with winds spiraling inwards. Cyclones rotate clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. Cyclone is the general term for a variety of low pressure system types, such as tropical cyclones, extra tropical cyclones and tornadoes.


title: Cyclone

text: The largest of the low-pressure systems are the extratropical cyclones and the cold-core polar cyclones which lie on the synoptic scale which in meteorology is a horizontal length of 1000 km or more. The Warm-core cyclones are the tropical cyclones, mesocyclones, and the polar lows that lie within the smaller mesoscale. The Subtropical cyclones are intermediate in size. Cyclones have also been on other planets outside of the Earth, such as Mars and Neptune. For example the Great Red Spot of Jupiter and the Great Black Spot of Neptune.


title: Cyclone

text: Cyclones are also referred to as hurricanes and typhoons. They consist of the eye, eyewall and rainbands.


title: Cyclone

text: The process of cyclone formation and intensification is described as Cyclogenesis. The formation of Extratropical cyclones comes as waves in large regions of enhanced midlatitude temperature contrasts which are called baroclinic zones. These zones contract to form weather fronts as the circulation of the cyclone closes and gets more intense. Later in their life cycle, cyclones form what is called an occluded front. The cyclone's track is then guided over the course of an 2 to 6 day life cycle by its steering flow of the polar or subtropical jetstream. Cyclones destroy many things when they come into contact with land such as crops, buildings, trees, etc.


title: Flag of India

text: The modern Flag of The Republic of India has three colours, which are placed horizontally. At the top is saffron, which signifies sacrifice and patriotism. In the middle is white, which stands for truth in word and actions and purity in our thoughts. At the bottom is green, which stands for life and prosperity. In the middle of the white is a blue wheel, which is called the Ashoka Chakra. It has 24 spokes and it stands for progress.The Chakra or the wheel also symbolizes the Power of the State governed by Dharma. It is also called the tiranga or tricolour. The flag was discovered by Venkayya Pingali. Moirang in Manipur is the first place in India where the National Flag of India was first hoisted. It was in this place where the INA War Museum and the INA Martyrs' Memorial Complex were developed to commemorate the contributions of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army to the Indian Independence Movement.


title: Flag of India

text: Gandhi first in 1921, Congress spoke of their flag. The flag Pingali Venkayya, who had designed. There were two colours, red for the Hindus, and green for Muslims. Was in the middle of a cycle. For the other religions in the white paint was added. A few days before Independence, the Constituent Assembly national modified. The spinning wheel replaced by the Ashok Chakra Lee. The new flag of the country's second President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan explained again.


title: Flag of India

text: The national flag of India the top band of Saffron color, indicating the strength and courage of the country. The strip between the white is a symbol of peace and truth with Dharma Chakra. The lower green stripe fertility, growth and auspiciousness of the land exhibits. Built on the white strip cycle menstrual cycle says. Wheel of Dharma wheel of the law that says the third century BC Mauryan Emperor Ashoka built the Sarnath Temple was taken from. The Chakra intends to show that this is life in movement and death in stagnation.


title: Flag of India

text: Are estimated using the following transfer in Indian flag colors. In flag saffron, white, green and blue colors that HTML Arljilbi and Web colors in the (hexadecimal notation); CMYK equivalent; Dye color and Penton equal number.


title: Computer program

text: A computer program is a list of instructions that tell a computer what to do. Everything a computer does is done by using a computer program. Programs stored in the memory of a computer ("internal programming") let the computer do one thing after another, even with breaks in between. John von Neumann, a mathematician born in Hungary, came up with this idea in the late 1940s. The first digital computer designed with internal programming capacity was the EDVAC (which means Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), built in 1949.


title: Computer program

text: A computer program is stored as a file on the computer's hard drive. When the user runs the program, the file is read by the computer, and the processor reads the data in the file as a list of instructions. Then the computer does what the computer program tells it to do.


title: Computer program

text: A computer program is written by a programmer. It is very difficult to write in the ones and zeroes of machine code, which is what the computer can read, so computer programmers write in a programming language, such as BASIC, C, or Java. Once it is written, the programmer uses a compiler to turn it into a language that the computer can understand.


title: Computer program

text: There are also bad programs, called malware, written by people who want to do bad things to a computer. Some are spyware, trying to steal information from the computer. Some try to damage the data stored on the hard drive. Some others send users to web sites that offer to sell them things. Some are computer viruses or ransomware.


title: Quantum immortality

text: Quantum suicide is a thought experiment in quantum mechanics and the philosophy of physics. It was originally claimed that it can distinguish between the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. It is based on imagining oneself as the cat in the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. Quantum immortality refers to the experience of surviving quantum suicide.


title: Quantum immortality

text: The thought experiment was created by Max Tegmark. In the thought experiment, a person stands in front of a gun which fires if it detects a subatomic particle as having an upward spin, or does not fire if the gun detects a downward spin. The gun does this repeatedly. From an outside perspective, both outcomes are equally likely. However, according to the thought experiment, if the many-worlds interpretation is true, the person in front of the gun finds that the gun never fires, even though this is very, very unlikely. In the many-worlds interpretation, the gun fires in one world and does not fire in another, but the person can only continue being conscious in a world in which the gun does not fire. According to the thought experiment, such a person would find themselves to be immortal.


title: Quantum immortality

text: In response to questions about whether people should generally expect to be immortal, Max Tegmark stated that is flawed reasoning because dying is not an instantaneous event, and "fully dead" and "fully alive" are not the only possible outcomes, as in the thought experiment. Rather, it is a progressive process, with a continuous series of states of decreasing consciousness. In most real causes of death, one's self-awareness fades out gradually. It is only within this specific imaginary scenario that a person finds themselves surviving.


title: Quantum immortality

text: Max Tegmark now believes that from their own point of view, the person in the thought experiment should not expect immortality. Since they die in some worlds, they afterwards exist in much fewer worlds than they had before. People are less likely to find themselves in a world where their own existence is less likely. Therefore, it is only a possibility, not a certainty, that the person who does the experiment then goes on to feel like they survived. This same problem, of not existing as much afterwards, was pointed out by Lev Vaidman in the "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy".


title: Quantum immortality

text: Physicist David Deutsch, though in favor of the many-worlds interpretation, states regarding quantum suicide that it would not work under the normal probability rules of quantum mechanics. Instead, one would need to add an additional assumption of ignoring worlds where the experimenter is not there. He believes that assumption is false. Physicist David Wallace argues that a decision theory analysis shows that a person who prefers certain life to certain death must prefer to keep themselves alive in worlds that are more likely outcomes, not just in less likely ones.


title: Quantum immortality

text: Physicist Sean M. Carroll, though also in favor of the many-worlds interpretation, states about quantum suicide that neither experiences nor rewards should be thought of as being shared between future versions of oneself, because these future versions become distinct persons when the world splits. He then states that a person cannot pick out some future versions of oneself as really being oneself and not the others. He concludes that quantum suicide kills some of these future selves, which is a bad thing the same as if there were no other worlds.


title: Clitoris

text: The clitoris is a female genital organ. It includes erectile tissue, glands, muscles and ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels. In an embryo there is a small raised point that grows into a clitoris in girls or a penis in boys. Inside the penis, there is the urethra, but there is no urethra in the clitoris. In women, the urethra is hidden behind the clitoris and in front of the vagina. Penises with male urethras are used daily for urination, and can be used for sex: semen passes out of the body through the male urethra.


title: Clitoris

text: Although the parts are placed differently, the clitoris is a match to the male penis. The clitoris causes females sexual pleasure, arousal and orgasm. Rubbing or applying other consistent pressure to it is usually needed to help the female have an orgasm.


title: Clitoris

text: During sexual arousal, erectile tissue fills with blood. This causes the clitoris to grow. It grows until orgasm happens. Also during arousal, touching the clitoris and other sensitive areas of the female genitals makes a woman's vagina change shape and release a lubricant. The lubricant and change of shape makes it easier for a man to enter a woman and for sex to occur. Most of the clitoris is hidden inside the body. Only a small part of it is seen outside the body. Adding the outside and inside parts, the clitoris is about the same size as the penis. The clitoris and penis grow from the same tissue in the womb; they bear many similar parts.


title: Clitoris

text: The parts of the clitoris that can be seen from the outside are located from the "clitoral junction" (the point where the outer lips meet at the base of the pubic mound) to the "fork" (where the lower edges of the inner lips meet below the vaginal opening). The outside parts include:


title: Clitoris

text: The parts of the clitoris inside the body include erectile tissue, glands, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. In both the clitoris and the penis, there are two types of erectile tissue. These are "corpus cavernosum" (cavern-like body) and vestibular bulbs. These tissues fill with blood during sexual arousal. This causes an erection. The clitoral shaft is connected to the glans. It is just underneath the surface of the skin. The shaft is a round spongy erectile tissue. It is very sensitive like the glans. It feels like a hard ridge. The shaft is about long. It moves toward the pubic mound for a short distance, then bends sharply and divides. This forms two thin legs. These legs are also made of spongy tissue. The legs spread out like the wishbone of a chicken.


title: Brazil during World War Two

text: Brazil was one of the Allies of World War II. It was also the only Ally from South America to provide troops. The country made significant contributions to the war effort. They sent an expeditionary force to fight alongside the allies in the Italian Campaign. The Brazilian Navy and Air Force helped the Allies in the Atlantic from 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.


title: Brazil during World War Two

text: At the beginning of World War II Brazil was neutral. They traded with both the Allied and Axis Forces. But after 1939 the war made trade with Europe difficult. They turned to the United States as a trading partner. The Americans pressured Brazil to join the Allies. This led to the Joint Brazil-U.S Defense Commission, which was designed to counter Axis influence in South America. At the beginning of 1942 Brazil permitted the US to set up air bases on its soil. This came as an agreement that the US would help establishing a national steel industry in Brazil, the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional. This would initially help supply the Allies industrial demand for steel, and after the war, contribute to the country’s industrialization and development.


title: Brazil during World War Two

text: As a result of Brazil´s decision, from the end of January to July 1942, German navy U-boats sank 13 Brazilian merchant ships, causing severe damage to Brazilian shipping. In total, 21 German and two Italian submarines caused the sinking of 36 Brazilian merchant ships causing 1,691 drownings and 1,079 other casualties. The sinkings were the main reason that led the Brazilian government to declare war against the Axis. Finally, Vargas declared war on both Germany and Italy on August 22 1942. It is known that 9 U-Boats were sunk off the Brazilian Coast over the course of the war.


title: Brazil during World War Two

text: The Brazilian Expeditionary Force or BEF () was a force of about 25,344 men. They were organized as a division of the US Fifth Army. They were delayed in getting started by difficulties in getting organized. Some in Brazil thought the government was not that anxious to send troops into battle. A popular saying at the time was that it was more likely for "snakes to smoke" () than to get the BEF going. It is the same as the saying "When pigs fly", meaning it will probably never happen. When the BEF did enter the war, they proudly wore their arm patch showing a cobra with a pipe in its mouth. They called themselves the "Smoking Cobras".


title: Brazil during World War Two

text: They were organized as a standard American division. They wore American uniforms with Brazilian rank and unit markings. The BEF was divided into three battalions of 5,000 men each. They were the 1st, 6th and 11th regimental combat teams. Their record in Italy was impressive. At the Battle of Collecchio the BEF defeated the German 148th Division and the Italian Monte Rosa, San Marco and Italia divisions. They captured 14,700 troops and 800 officers (including 2 Generals). During the eight months of battle in Italy, the BEF captured a total of 20,573 Axis soldiers. 450 BEF troops and 13 officers died while fighting on the front.


title: Brazil during World War Two

text: The Brazilian Navy and Air Force played a large role in the Battle of the Atlantic. They started in mid-1942 and operated until the end of the war in 1945. They performed anti-submarine and patrol operations in the South Atlantic. They had American ships through the Lend-Lease program. They acquired several submarine-chasers, 8 destroyer escorts and 3 Fleet destroyers. The larger destroyers were built in Rio de Janeiro to US designs. Their Air Force received a number of modern plane types. These included Curtiss P-36 Hawks, Curtiss P-40 Warhawks and North American B-25 Mitchells. For patrol aircraft they received Lockheed Hudsons, Lockheed Venturas and long range Consolidated PBY Catalina Flying boats.


title: Brazil during World War Two

text: The effect was almost immediate. Between July and December 1943 alone, the Brazilian Air Force and Navy destroyed six German submarines. Of the 7,000 Brazilian sailors who fought, about 500 were killed in action. During the war the Navy protected 3,164 merchant ships. Only three were sunk while under their protection. Air Force pilots flew a total of 2,550 sorties. They flew only 5% of the missions in theatre. But they destroyed 85% of the ammunition dumps, 36% of the fuel depots and 28% of the bridges while they were active.


title: Running

text: Running is the way in which people or animals travel quickly on their feet. It is a method of travelling on land. It is different to walking in that both feet are regularly off the ground at the same time. Different terms are used to refer to running according to the speed: jogging is slow, and sprinting is running fast.


title: Running

text: Running is a popular form of exercise. It is also one of the oldest forms of sport. The exercise is known to be good for health; it helps breathing and heartbeat, and burns any spare calories. Running keeps a person fit and active. It also relieves stress. Running makes a person thirsty, so it is important to drink water when running.


title: Running

text: Many running injuries can be reduced through proper training, wearing of the correct gear and awareness of the running environment.


title: Running

text: Running is a part of many forms of competitive racing. Most running races test speed, endurance or both. Track and field races are usually divided into sprints, middle-distance races and long-distance races. Races held off the track may be called cross-country races. A marathon is run over 42 kilometres.


title: Running

text: Footraces have probably existed for most of human history. They were an important part of the ancient Olympic Games.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: The seven deadly sins, also known as cardinal sins, are types of sins within Christian teachings, although they are not mentioned in the Bible. Behaviors or habits are grouped into this category if they directly form other wickedness. According to the regular list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth, which are the opposite from the seven heavenly virtues. These types had their origins with the Desert Fathers, who recognized seven or eight evil thoughts. The seven deadly sins were portrayed in paintings and decorations on churches, as well as in older textbooks.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: Most of the seven deadly sins are defined by Dante Alighieri as wicked versions of love. The seven deadly sins from lust to envy are generally associated with pride.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: Ranked in order of least evil to most evil like in Dante's "Divine Comedy", the seven deadly sins are:


title: Seven deadly sins

text: People notice that some of these sins are connected. They have attempted to set down an order to them. Each of these cardinal sins are ways of not loving God and not loving others as much as oneself.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: The opposite of these sins are the seven heavenly virtues: chastity, moderation, charity, zeal, meekness, generosity, and humility.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: According to the Divine Comedy, there are punishments for those who die with unconfessed deadly sins.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: The Lustfuls are swept around by a strong wind, without ever resting. This is because lust is so powerful, that it can blow one around without need.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: The Gluttons are forced to lie down in a kind of snow, made by freezing rain, black snow, and hail. This symbolizes what they made with their life.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: The Greedy are in boiled in hot oil, it's the best oil that money can buy, but it's still pretty hot and you will be turned into gold.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: The Slothful are thrown into a snake pit where the indolent will have to move around to get the snakes off them eternally.


title: Seven deadly sins

text: The Wrathful’s limbs are ripped apart, because the furious use their arms and/or legs in their act of violence.


title: Latin

text: Latin is an Italic language that was used in Ancient Rome. Short Latin texts have been found from about the 5th century BC and longer texts from about the 3rd century BC.


title: Latin

text: Classical Latin was used in the 1st century BC and was the official language of the Roman Empire. It was widely used in the western part of the Mediterranean. The languages known as Romance languages developed from the spoken, informal version, called Vulgar Latin.


title: Latin

text: Latin was very important to Christianity for many centuries. It is still spoken today during some religious activities. It is an official language in the Vatican, where the Pope leads the Roman Catholic Church. People in the Vatican sometimes speak to one another in Latin (if they have different first languages). The mass of the Catholic Church may be done entirely in Latin. This is the Mass of the Roman Rite (Extraordinary Form).


title: Latin

text: Latin is called a dead language because no one speaks Latin as a first language anymore. Although it is a dead language, it is not an extinct language because it is still used in daily life by some people. In fact, many people still study it in school. Latin is still useful because it shows how society works. Knowing Latin makes it easier to learn the Romance languages.


title: Latin

text: People still read Latin classics such as the poems of Virgil, the memoirs of Caesar and the speeches of Cicero. Also, Latin is widely used as an international auxiliary language, notably in the Catholic Church, and by biologists when describing and naming new species.


title: Latin

text: Latin is still used in taxonomy to give scientific names to species and groups of species of living things. Some terms used in medicine to name parts of the body (such as bones) and names of some diseases are also written in Latin.


title: Latin

text: There are three types of Latin: Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin, and Ecclesiastical Latin. Classical Latin was used by the educated Romans and is still studied around the world. Vulgar Latin was the more common spoken variety used by the common Romans and was learned by the peoples conquered by the Romans. Ecclesiastical Latin is common in Italian schools and still used by the Roman Catholic Church.


title: Latin

text: Latin was once the most important language in most of Europe in the Middle Ages. It was taught in many European schools, and all universities used Latin as the teaching language. Latin began to lose its importance in the Reformation, but it was still often used by authors of scientific books and encyclopedias. Until about 1900 many universities accepted dissertations written in Latin.


title: Latin

text: As people from other regions of Europe learned Vulgar Latin during Roman conquests, each region developed its own language, a simplified form of Latin. Those languages are called Romance languages, and they are still spoken today. The five Romance languages with the largest number of speakers are Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian. The Romance languages are very similar to one another, and speakers of one Romance language can understand many words and sentences (in both texts and spoken conversations) from another Romance language. For example, speakers of Portuguese can often understand Spanish. It can be said that the Romance languages are modern dialects of Latin.


title: Latin

text: Latin has seven different noun cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and locative. The vocative case is almost always the same as the nominative case; however, if the nominative ends in -us, it changes to -e, and if the nominative ends in -ius, it changes to -i. The locative takes the form of the dative. Latin nouns are "declined", or changed, according to how they are used in the sentence. A noun can be declined five different ways. These ways are called declensions. The declensions are numbered 1 through 5 (first declension, second declension etc), each having different endings that identify the noun's declension. When a noun is declined, twelve forms are made, two for each of the noun cases (the locative is omitted).


title: Latin

text: A similar thing is done to verbs, called "conjugation". When a verb is conjugated, six forms are made. There are five factors that can change a verb: person, number, tense, voice, and mood. In all, there are 120 possible forms Latin verbs.


title: Latin

text: Latin used to be written on plates of wax. There was little space and so words were run together, with no space between words. Sometimes papyrus was used, but this was expensive. Punctuation was an ancient idea but came to Latin later. Lowercase letters (small letters) are relatively modern inventions. The Roman alphabet was derived from the Etruscan language.


title: Latin

text: The following is the introduction to the "Metamorphoses" by Ovid (Book 1, lines 89–100); it describes the Golden Age.


title: Latin

text: After the fall of the Roman Empire, many people still used Latin. Scholars such as Thomas Aquinas, Petrarch, Erasmus, Luther, Copernicus, Descartes and Newton wrote in Latin. As an example, Hugo Grotius published his "De jure belli ac pacis" (On the Law of War and Peace) in 1625, which is one of the bases of international law.


title: Sparrow

text: A sparrow is a member of the genus "Passer". They are small passerine birds which belong to the family "Passeridae". They are also known as old-world sparrows. Sparrows often make their nests near houses or buildings. This means they are one of the easiest birds to see in the wild.


title: Sparrow

text: The genus has about 30 species around the world. The best known of these is the house sparrow, "Passer domesticus".


title: Sparrow

text: Some authorities place other genera in the sparrow group: "Petronia", the rock sparrows; "Carpospiza", the pale rockfinch; and "Montifringilla", the snowfinches.


title: Sparrow

text: Sparrows are small birds. They are between 11–18 centimeters long. They can weigh between 13–42 grams. They are usually brown and grey. They have short tails and small, strong beaks. Most sparrows eat seeds or small insects. Sparrows are social birds and they live in flocks (groups).


title: Sparrow

text: The house sparrow ("Passer domesticus") is a species of sparrow. It lives all over the world. It originally lived only in Europe and Asia. However, people travelled to new places and the house sparrow went to those places too. It is now the bird with the widest distribution. This means it lives in the most places. The species has about 50 subspecies.


title: Sparrow

text: Sparrows can be seen on every continent on earth. A long time ago, they lived only in Europe, Asia and Africa. However, people traveled to Australia, North America and South America, and now sparrows are seen there too. The house sparrow is seen in every continent. In Australia, there are no sparrows in Western Australia, as they have not been able to travel across the deserts that separate that state from the eastern states. The government employs people to hunt and destroy any sparrows that might arrive.


title: Sparrow

text: The house sparrow was introduced to America in the late 19th century. It was introduced on purpose. It was imported by several people, including Eugene Schieffelin, who was a wealthy New York City admirer of Shakespeare. He wanted to introduce to America all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. Two of these species were great successes: starlings and house sparrows. He organized a society for the importation of foreign birds, incorporated in Albany.


title: Sparrow

text: Some ornithologists thought the "Estrildid finches" were in the same family as sparrows. However, they are now in a different family, the Estrildidae.


title: Sparrow

text: There is also a group called 'American sparrows', or New World sparrows. These are also in a different family, the Emberizidae (buntings).


title: Sparrow

text: The hedge sparrow (also known as the dunnock or accentor) "Prunella modularis" is also not a true sparrow. It is in a different family, the Prunellidae. It is only called a sparrow because people called all small brown birds 'sparrows'. Birdwatchers call then all LBJs (little brown jobs) because they are usually so difficult to tell apart.


title: Sparrow

text: The house sparrow is small bird. It is between 14–18 centimeters (5.5–7.1 in) long. It weighs between 24–39.5 grams (0.85–1.4 oz). Females are smaller than males.


title: Sparrow

text: Male and female house sparrows are different colors. The male is brown, gray and white. It has a black throat. The female and young house sparrows are brown and dark yellow or cream. They have streaks (stripes) on their heads and wings.


title: Sparrow

text: The house sparrow lives close to humans, often near human houses in towns or cities. It also lives near farms and makes a nest in a bush or small tree. It can have two or three broods per year. This means it has two or three sets of eggs and chicks each year.


title: Sparrow

text: Nest sites are varied, though cavities are preferred. Nests are most frequently built in the eaves and other crevices of houses. Holes in cliffs and banks, or tree hollows, are also used. A sparrow sometimes digs out its own nests in sandy banks or rotten branches. More often it uses the nests of other birds, such swallows' nests in banks and cliffs, and old tree nest holes. It often uses deserted nests. Sometimes it takes over active nests by driving away or killing the occupants. Tree hollows are more commonly used in North America than in Europe. This puts the sparrows in competition with bluebirds and other North American cavity nesters so the native bird population declines.


title: Sparrow

text: The number of house sparrows in the United Kingdom has gone down, perhaps because their hedgerow habitat has shrunk. They are now 'endangered' in the United Kingdom. However, in other countries, the bird is still very common. Hedges are necessary to the bird because predators cannot usually get at their nests. They would have no defence against magpies (for example) if face-to-face.


title: Sparrow

text: Sparrows eat some grain. So Mao decided that sparrows should be eliminated in China. The result was a disastrous famine, with grain yields a fraction of what went before. Apparently no-one knew enough about sparrows. They are major predators of locusts. With few sparrows, locusts thrived and ate much of the wheat. It is difficult in an autocracy to tell leaders they are wrong.


title: William Howard Taft

text: William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States. He was the only president who also served as a Supreme Court chief justice. He was tall and weighed over at the end of his presidency.


title: William Howard Taft

text: Taft served as Solicitor General of the United States, a federal judge, Governor of the Philippines, and Secretary of War before being nominated for president in 1908 by the man who preceded him, Theodore Roosevelt. As a Republican president, Taft was most notable for trust-busting, in which he broke up large businesses that had too much control over the economy. Taft also expanded the civil service, improved the United States Postal Service and promoted world peace. Taft also started the tradition of the president pitching the first ball of the baseball season. Early in life, Taft had played baseball. He was a good second baseman and could hit with power.


title: William Howard Taft

text: In 1908, with Theodore Roosevelt's support, William Taft was nominated as the Republican candidate for president. He easily won against William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 general election, and became president.


title: William Howard Taft

text: During Taft's presidency, his relationship with Roosevelt became bad, because Roosevelt thought Taft was not doing a good job and taking too little actions against so-called trusts. Taft was also more conservative and he did not continue all of Roosevelt's progressive policies. As a result, in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came back into politics and ran for president against William Taft. Many Republicans split their votes between Taft and Roosevelt, and the Democratic opponent Woodrow Wilson won the election.