title: Legislation

text: The act of making legislation is sometimes known as legislating. Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the law-making function is primarily the responsibility of the legislature. However, there are situations where legislation is enacted by other means (most commonly when constitutional law is enacted). These other forms of law-making include referenda and constitutional conventions. The term "legislation" is sometimes used to describe these situations, but other times, the term is used to distinguish acts of the legislature from these other lawmaking forms.


title: Alsace

text: Alsace (Alsatian and Alemannic German: "Elsàss", pre-1996 German: "Elsaß") was an administrative region of France. It is now part of the administrative region of Grand Est. Alsace was on the eastern border of France. It was on the west bank of the Upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland.


title: Alsace

text: Before the region merged with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine in 2014, data from INSEE stated that about 1.8 million people lived there as of 2013. Its capital was Strasbourg, the largest city. It changed hands between France and Germany many times. The people living there had an attitude and set of social values that was closer to the German ones, than the French. Language, cuisine, music, dress and customs were Germanic, and very close to the Swabian ones across the Rhine. The overall culture was generally more German than French, being somewhere between German and French.


title: Alsace

text: Alsace was part of the Holy Roman Empire and was still inhabited by people speaking a dialect of Upper German. In the 17th century, all of Alsace was annexed (in steps) under King Louis XIV of France. He made it one of the provinces of France.


title: Alsace

text: The Treaty of Verdun had divided the empire of Charlemagne in the 9th century, eventually causing Alsace to be frequently mentioned in conjunction with Lorraine, because the possession of these two "régions" (as "Alsace-Lorraine") was often contested in the 19th and 20th centuries.


title: Prime Minister

text: A prime minister manages the politics of a country and is the head of government. With countries that have kings and queens (known as monarchs), they are very important because they are in charge of most of the politics (they are "head of the government"). In countries with a president, they might be in charge of most of the politics (as in the Republic of Ireland), or they may be in day-to day charge but taking orders from the president as in France.


title: Kazakh language

text: Kazakh is a Turkic language that is mostly spoken in Kazakhstan, a country in Central Asia. It, along with Russian, is one of Kazakhstan's official languages.


title: Kazakh language

text: The Kazakh language had been written in the Cyrillic alphabet since the Russian Empire started to occupy that country in the 19th century. In 1917, people began to use the Arabic alphabet, but the Russians were not able to make them use Cyrillic.


title: Kazakh language

text: After World War I, the Turkic countries started to use the Latin alphabet, led by Kemal Atatürk of Turkey. Because of this, from 1927 to 1939, Kazakhstan, then part of the Soviet Union, changed from the Arabic to the Latin alphabet. But Stalin made a law in 1940 that all the countries that were part of the Soviet Union had to use Cyrillic, in order to bring Kazakhstan and the rest of the countries in Central Asia in line with the Russian style.


title: Kazakh language

text: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly-independent Republic of Kazakhstan allowed the old Latin alphabet to be used, but continued to use Cyrillic as the main alphabet. In 2006, president Nursultan Nazarbayev started a project to introduce a standard form of the Latin alphabet as the official script of his country. A version of the new Latin alphabet, which used apostrophes for certain sounds, was created in April 2017, but was replaced with another one in February 2018 which instead uses diacritics on certain letters. If all goes as planned, the Cyrillic alphabet will be fully replaced with Latin by 2025.


title: Mechanics

text: Mechanics is a branch of physics which looks at objects that are moved by forces (including other bodies, or forces of nature).


title: Mechanics

text: The discipline has its roots in ancient Greece where Aristotle studied the way bodies behaved when they were thrown through the air (e.g. a stone). However it was Galileo, Kepler and especially Newton who laid the foundations for much of the so-called "Newtonian mechanics" we know today.


title: Mechanics

text: Mechanics is the original discipline of physics, dealing with the macroscopic world that humans perceive. It is therefore a huge body of knowledge about the natural world. Mechanics encompasses the movement of all matter in the universe under the four forces: gravity, the strong and weak interactions, and the electromagnetic interaction.


title: Ektara

text: Ektara (literally "one-string", also called iktar, ', yaktaro gopichand) is a one-string instrument. It is most often used in traditional music from Bangladesh, India , Egypt, and Pakistan.


title: Ektara

text: The ektara was a regular string instrument of wandering bards and minstrels from India. It is plucked with one finger. The ektara usually has a stretched single string. An animal skin is over a head made of dried pumpkin/gourd, wood or coconut. The neck is a pole or split bamboo cane.


title: Ektara

text: Pressing the two halves of the neck together loosens the string. This lowers its pants. The sound can be changed many ways by slight changes in pressure.


title: Ektara

text: The various sizes of ektara are soprano, tenor, and bass. The bass ektara, sometimes called a "dotara" often has two strings.


title: Sobek

text: Sobek was the ancient Egyptian god of the Nile. In art, he was shown with the head of a crocodile. In temples to Sobek, live crocodiles were kept in pools to honor him.


title: Sobek

text: Sobek was worshipped wherever the Nile was presenting difficulties. Sobek was the ancient Egyptian god of crocodiles and controlled the waters. Sobek’s role was to protect the pharaoh from evil but it differs with each person. He was the most popular god in Arsinoe (Crocodilopolis in Greek), and was considered the Lord of Faiyu (a place in Egypt).


title: Sobek

text: One day when Sobek was in the Nile, he saw Osiris’ (who was murdered by Set, the god of chaos) body. He was so hungry he could not resist eating part of it. His tongue was cut off as a punishment, which is why crocodiles have no tongues in Egyptian myths. He also caught the sons of Horus when they were born.


title: Sobek

text: Sobek was seen as a crocodile headed man or very rarely a plain crocodile. Egyptians mummified crocodiles in honor of Sobek. Crocodiles were treated like household pets and were adorned with anklets and other decorative jewels. In temples people kept sacred crocodiles because they thought that they were images of Sobek on earth. The sacred crocodiles were a big attraction, the Egyptian’s believed that if the crocodiles were fed and they accepted their food, you would receive blessings from the God Sobek.


title: Sobek

text: Sobek was a friend of Horus. Sobek’s mother Neith was considered the sister of Isis, who was Horus’s mother. This made Sobek the cousin of Horus, which was a very important fact because Horus was a major God. In other myths, Sobek was allied with Set. Set was also sometimes thought of as Sobek's father.


title: Fire extinguisher

text: A Fire extinguisher is a device which can be used to control a fire. Fire extinguishers can help remove the fire, and may stop it from burning. Depending on the size, some fire extinguishers can be carried around and operated by hand. There are different kinds of fire extinguishers. Different kinds of fire can be controlled by different substances. There are color codes, the color tells what kinds of fires the fire extinguisher is useful for:


title: Fire extinguisher

text: There are also different sizes of fire extinguishers. Bigger fire extinguishers can be used for a longer time. Hand-held fire extinguishers vary between 0.5 and 14 kg. A 2 kg extinguisher works for about two to four seconds, the 12 kg model for about eighteen seconds. There are also bigger fire extinguishers, mounted on a cart or a vehicle. These are used to fight fires at airports, for example.


title: Fire extinguisher

text: To be useful, fire extinguishers need to be checked after a certain amount of time. Usually, for fire extinguishers in public buildings, there are laws about this amount of time.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: Los Angeles County is a county in California and is by far the most populous county in the United States. There are more than 10 million people living there. Its population is larger than that of 41 individual U.S. states. It is the third-biggest metropolitan economy in the world, with a Nominal GDP of over $700 billion larger than the GDPs of Belgium, Norway, and Taiwan.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: Los Angeles County is one of the first counties of California. It was created at the time of statehood in 1850.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: Los Angeles County includes San Clemente Island and Santa Catalina Island. They are part of the Channel Islands archipelago off the Pacific Coast.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: The 2010 United States Census says that 9,818,605 people lived in Los Angeles County. The people of Los Angeles County were 4,936,599 (50%) White, 1,346,865 (13.7%) Asian, 856,874 (9%) African American, 72,828 (0.7%) Native American, 26,094 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 2,140,632 (21.8%) from other races, and 438,713 (4.5%) from two or more races.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: The county has a lot of Asian Americans. It has the most amount of immigrants who are Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Korean, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, and Thai in the world.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: Los Angeles County has a large Latino population. 73% of the Latino population in Los Angeles County is of Mexican heritage, according to 2020 Census estimates. Another 9.6% were of Salvadoran heritage, 6.0% Guatemalan, 3.1% South American, and Honduran 1.3%. The remainder were of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, other Central American, or other Hispanic/Latino origin in Los Angeles County.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that in 2008, Los Angeles County had more than 1/3 of California's undocumented immigrants. They are more than ten percent of the population.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: In 2015, there were over 2,000 Christian churches. Most of those churches are Catholic. Roman Catholics are about 40% of the population. 202 Jewish synagogues, 145 Buddhist temples, 48 Muslim mosques, 44 Bahai worship centers, 37 Hindu mandirs, 28 Tenrikyo churches and fellowships, 16 Shinto worship centers, and 14 Sikh gurdwaras are in the county. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has about 5 million members, and it is the biggest diocese in the United States.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: Los Angeles County has voted for the Democratic candidate in most of the presidential elections in the past 40 years. It voted for the Democrat in every election since 1988. However, it did vote twice for Dwight Eisenhower (1952, 1956), Richard Nixon (1968, 1972), and Ronald Reagan (1980, 1984). Nixon and Reagan were from California.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: In the United States House of Representatives, Los Angeles County is split between 18 congressional districts: In the California State Senate, Los Angeles County is split between 15 legislative districts: In the California State Assembly, Los Angeles County is split between 24 legislative districts:


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: The following table includes the number of incidents reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: The entertainment and digital media industry are related to Los Angeles County. All six major movie companies Paramount Pictures, 21st Century Fox, Sony, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios are in the county.


title: Los Angeles County, California

text: 368,500 people work in high-tech in Los Angeles County. 365,000 people work in manufacturing in Los Angeles County.


title: King vulture

text: The king vulture ("Sarcoramphus papa"), is a large bird found in Central and South America. This vulture lives predominantly in tropical lowland forests stretching from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. It is the only surviving member of the genus Sarcoramphus, although fossil members are known.


title: King vulture

text: Large and predominantly white, the king vulture has gray to black ruff, flight, and tail feathers. The head and neck are bald, with the skin color varying, including yellow, orange, blue, purple, and red. The king vulture has a very noticeable yellow fleshy caruncle on its beak.


title: Waxing

text: Waxing is a method of removing hair from the body. Waxing removes the whole hair including the root. Both men and women engage in waxing, as do female children as young as eight. Any area of the body can be waxed but the more common areas are the legs, underarms, genitals, torso and face. There are health concerns about waxing such as pain, inflammation, infection and physical damage to the skin. At least two women have been hospitalized due to bikini waxing. The waxing of young girls has been criticized and concerns over emotional problems have been raised by parents and by doctors and psychologists. Although it is known as "waxing" not all treatments of this kind use wax. Some waxing treatments use a sugar mixture in the same manner as wax.


title: Waxing

text: Women in Ancient Egypt removed unwanted hair with a sticky mixture of honey and oil. Women in the Middle East have used a sugaring mixture which is made up of a paste of warm sugar, lemon juice, and water. In 1922 Sears started selling razors to women and the ability for them to remove unwanted hair began. Pubic hair removal began during World War II when the US government ordered less material to be used in making women's bathing suits and the bikini was invented, causing some women to have hair stick out the sides of the bikini bottom. In the 1960s, waxing products became available.


title: Waxing

text: A sphinx wax or Brazilian wax is a type of hair removal. When sphynxing or doing a Brazilian wax, all the pubic hair is removed. Sphynxing has many health benefits. One of the benefits of sphynxing is when someone has dermatophytes. Full hair removal when sphynxing can also help to avoid jock itch. Another benefit of sphynxing is that it usually involves individuals with experience. Some men have advocated there should be equal access to sphinxing services for men.


title: Waxing

text: Waxing rips the hair out of the skin and often causes pain. The pain increases in areas such as the genitals, especially for people who have not waxed before or do not wax often. Redness and swelling also often occurs at the waxing site. Waxing is itself a safe thing, but there are times when it is not safe to get waxed. When skin is sunburned, it is not good to get a wax treatment. Allegic reactions can also happen with waxing. People with medical problems such as diabetes, chronic kidney or liver disease, skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis, or weakened immune systems are advised not to get wax treatments at all. At least one woman, with diabetes, almost died due to getting a bikini wax and becoming infected and another woman was hospitalised after being waxed in her genital area. In 2007 the New Jersey State Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling came close to banning genital waxing based on health concerns. There is also concern about the trend to remove all or most of the pubic hair from a person's genitals. Dr. Linda K. Franks, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the New York University School of Medicine, says "Pubic hair is there for a reason—to protect the sensitive skin and mucous membranes in the genital region, getting a wax literally strips away that layer of protection." Waxing can pull small pieces of skin off the body. This is usually minor and is not usual. Skin infections can also occur such as staph, folliculitis (infection of the hair follicles). Ingrown hairs are also quite common and can become infected.


title: Waxing

text: Young children also get waxing treatment with children as young as eight receiving wax treatments such as eyebrows, legs and genital waxing. Such genital waxing on young girls has been called "virgin bikini" waxes, and is aimed at either reducing the girl's need for pubic hair removal in the future or stopping hair growth permanently with as few as five or six treatments as long as the child has never shaved before. The increase in demand for preteen waxing is being met by spas, with some 10,000 spas in offering services only for young girls and early teenagers in the United States of America alone. The International Spa Association has reported that 16% of teens who have had spa treatments have had waxing done. The association has not been able to give figures for younger children because it is illegal to survey them.


title: Waxing

text: Both parents and children say that young girls feel pressure from television shows and other children to look pretty and sexy and say that peer pressure, magazines, pop stars like Britney Spears and TV shows like Miley Cyrus' Hannah Montana increase children's demands to have spa treatments such as waxing, microdermabrasion and chemical peels. Such pressure has been reported to cause intense stress and emotional problems in young girls. The opinions of boys about girl's beauty is also a pressure to look their best with reports of boys rating girls on a scale of 1 to 10 at school.


title: Waxing

text: Dr. Diane Levin, professor of education at Wheelock College in Boston and co-author of the book "So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids" (a book critical of the sexualization of children), believes child waxing to be bad because it tells girls to “keep your bodies like little girls’ because that’s what men like.” This is backed up with surveys that show that 93% of men want women to, at least, remove some hair from their pubic area. Dr. Doris Pastor, a pediatrician, feels that the problem is not whether young children get wax treatments but that such events might encourage young children and preteens to take part in risky behaviour. Pubic hair waxing of children has caused concern with doctors. Dr. Janice Hillman, of the Penn Health System, a specialist in adolescent medicine, when checking for pubic hair on young girls as a sign of development has said she often has to ask the girls if they wax because it has become so common.


title: Waxing

text: Concern has also been raised by the cost of such treatments, making regular waxing often only available to children with well paid parents, leaving girls from poorer families unable to compete for beauty and so being made fun off by those who can afford them.


title: Ordinary least squares

text: Ordinary least squares or linear least squares is a method for estimating unknown parameters in statistics. It is a method used in linear regression. The goal of the method is to minimize the difference between the observed responses and the responses predicted by the linear approximation of the data. A smaller difference means that model fits the data better. Ordinary least squares is a special case of a method commonly called least squares. The resulting estimator can be expressed by a simple formula.


title: Clergyman

text: A clergyman is an ordained minister of the Anglican Church, or of some other Protestant churches. 'Vicar' and 'pastor' are other possibilities. 'Rector' is used in some Scottish Presbyterian churches. 'The clergy' is often used as a group term. The word 'cleric', meaning a clerk, is the root term. It comes from the fact that all clerics could read and write, at a time when this was a rare skill.


title: Clergyman

text: By general use and convention, Anglican ministers are not called priests. This is because the unqualified term 'priest' or 'father' is widely used as referring to the Catholic Church. Of course, in modern times an Anglican minister may be female, in which case the term 'reverend' or 'minister' may be used.


title: Dynamite

text: Dynamite is an explosive invented by Alfred Nobel, the creator of the Nobel Prize. Its main explosive component is nitroglycerin. Nitroglycerin is very sensitive to movement. It explodes very easily when it is moved. For this reason, it is absorbed into diatomaceous earth to make it less sensitive. Diatomaceous earth is a soft, sedimentary rock made of fossil diatoms. About one-quarter of dynamite is diatomaceous earth, the other three-quarters are nitroglycerin. A little sodium carbonate is added to stabilize the mixture.


title: Dynamite

text: Even though the diatomaceous earth takes away some of the dangers of nitroglycerin, there are still problems because the mixture is not stable in damp environments. Water causes the nitroglycerin to leak away. The nitroglycerin can build up, and explode unexpectedly.


title: Dynamite

text: For this reason, the formulation was changed. Instead of diatomaceous earth, gelignite was used to hold the nitroglycerin. Gelignite holds the nitroglycerin so that it cannot dissolve in water.


title: Dynamite

text: Today, dynamite is not much used. It has been replaced by explosives based on ammonium nitrate which use gelignite. These explosives cost less to make and are easier to handle than dynamite. However, works of fiction still show people using dynamite.


title: Domain name

text: A domain name is a human-readable web address (e.g. "google.com") that points to an IP address and helps users to access websites or other resources in a convenient way.


title: Domain name

text: Domain names have extensions (called "top-level domains") at the end of the URL. For example ".com", ".net" and ".org" are the most commonly used domain name extensions. The most popular domain extension is .com with more than 100 million domains registered. The .com extension stands for "commercial", .org for organization and .net for network.


title: Domain name

text: There are also country-specific domain name extensions. For example, the United Kingdom has the ".uk" domain extension and Japan has ".jp".


title: Greece national football team

text: Greece national football team is the national football team of Greece. They became European champions in only their second participation in the tournament in 2004. Their best result in the World Cup was in the 2014 FIFA World Cup where they made it to the Round of 16.


title: Magic Johnson

text: Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American retired NBA basketball player. He won the NBA Championship in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988 all with the Los Angeles Lakers. He played college basketball at Michigan State University where he developed a rivalry and friendship with Boston Celtics star Larry Bird when he faced him in the 1979 NCAA finals and three NBA championship games. Although Johnson was a versatile player who played all five positions occasionally, he is considered by many to be the greatest point guard, passer and playmaker in the history of the game.


title: Magic Johnson

text: In 1991, Johnson made public that he had been diagnosed with HIV. He is a supporter of AIDS prevention.


title: Magic Johnson

text: In 1992, Johnson was a member of the United States men's national basketball team. That team won an Olympic gold medal.


title: Magic Johnson

text: He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002 and was also named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.


title: Magic Johnson

text: On February 21, 2017, Johnson replaced Jim Buss as the president of basketball operations for the Los Angeles Lakers. On April 9, 2019, Johnson resigned from his role as president of basketball operations of the Lakers wishing to return to his role of NBA ambassador.


title: Alimentary canal

text: Alimentary canal is the term used in zoology for the gut of vertebrates. For humans in particular, see digestive system.


title: Alimentary canal

text: The canal (or tube) carries food through digestion and excretion. Into the tube come various digestive enzymes. Gut flora help digestion, and the production of vitamins. Muscular movements pass the material down the tube. The gut usually has an exit, the anus, by which the animal disposes of solid wastes. Some small animals have no anus and dispose of solid wastes by other means, for example through the mouth.


title: Alimentary canal

text: The gut evolved at least twice, an example of convergent evolution. Protostomes develop their mouths first, while deuterostomes develop their mouths second. Protostome include arthropods, molluscs, and annelids, and deuterostomes include echinoderms and chordates, including humans.


title: Mayan pyramid

text: The Maya pyramids are structures built in the jungles of Central America by the Maya civilization between 200 and 900 AD. Unlike the straight sides of the more commonly known Egyptian pyramids, the sides of Maya pyramids are stepped–sometimes for the purpose of enabling people to ascend to the top. Moreover, Egyptian pyramids have sharper tips, while Mesoamerican (including Maya) pyramids tend to have flatter tops. These flatter tops accommodate certain ceremonies, such as sacrificial rituals, and temples for gods.


title: Mayan pyramid

text: The pyramids served a variety of very important functions. Apart from the religious ceremonies, Maya pyramids were used as landmarks to aid in navigation. In the jungle where these pyramids were built, the pyramids were so tall that they could be seen above the trees. Finally, inside some of the pyramids, there were burial chambers for the highest-ranking officials, just as in Egyptian pyramids.


title: Mayan pyramid

text: A whole complex of Maya pyramids can be found at the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Tikal. The pyramids at Tikal were the tallest structures in all of the Americas for around 1,000 years, until 1903, when the Flatiron building was constructed in New York City. There are a total of sixteen pyramids at Tikal, which is now a national park in Guatemala.


title: Mayan pyramid

text: Tikal was one of the largest urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Its population may have reached 90,000 people, which is surprising because the swampland at Tikal was unstable for habitation or agriculture. It is located in the tropical rainforests which today is northern Guatemala. The name Tikal comes from "ti ak'al" which means "water hole".


title: Mayan pyramid

text: The pyramids at Tikal all face one another. The rooms at the top of the pyramids have depressions in the walls which amplify sound and project it in all directions. Because of this, the normal speaking voice of a person at the top of one pyramid can be heard by someone standing at the top of another pyramid a great distance away.


title: Burj Al Arab

text: The Burj Al Arab is a hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the fourth largest hotel in the world. It is very expensive to stay at the Burj Al Arab. It is known as the world's only 7 star hotel. On the top of the Burj Al-Arab there is a helipad which is sometimes used as a tennis court for high paying guests. The hotel was built by South African construction contractor Murray & Roberts. The hotel cost $650 million to build.


title: Apollo 14

text: Apollo 14 was the eighth crewed mission in the Apollo program. It was the third mission to land on the Moon. The nine-day mission left the Earth on January 31, 1971, and landed on the Moon on February 5. The Lunar Module landed in the Fra Mauro formation; this had been the target of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. During the two walks on the Moon's surface, of moon rock was collected. Several experiments, including seismic studies, were carried out. Commander Alan Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a makeshift club he had brought from Earth. Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa took several hundred seeds on the mission, many of which were planted on return, resulting in the so-called Moon trees. The pilot of the Lunar Module was Dr. Edgar Mitchell.


title: Apollo 14

text: In June 2009, the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to photograph the Apollo 14 landing site. The base of the lunar module and the astronauts footprints on the Moon's suface could be clearly seen.


title: Magpie

text: Magpies are birds in the crow family, Corvidae. They are general scavengers and predators of insects, small mammals, and other birds' eggs and young.


title: Magpie

text: The word "magpie" usually means the European magpie ("Pica pica"), which is a very common bird, found all over Europe. Elsewhere, there are other species of magpie. Most are black and white and are in the genus Pica.


title: Magpie

text: There are other species of bird that are called 'magpies', though they are not true magpies. Oriental "magpies" are green and blue in colour, and are in the genera "Urocissa" and "Cissa". There is also one blue and white magpie, the azure-winged magpie "Cyanopica cyana". There is the black magpie, which is really a treepie. There is also the Australian magpie. It is not a member of the crow family at all. It is in the Artamidae family. All these are in different genera from "Pica". This is a good example of the confusion caused by common names before the Linnaean system came into use.


title: Magpie

text: Magpies are large birds. They often have long tails. Magpies eat lots of different kinds of food. They may eat baby birds, eggs and carrion. They may also eat seeds and other parts of plants.


title: Magpie

text: Magpies are clever birds. They can pass the mirror test. This is when the bird sees itself in a mirror and understands that it is a reflection. Magpies do not have any attraction to bright, shiny things, contrary to popular belief.


title: BBC Proms

text: The Proms are concerts which are part of a big music festival. “Proms” is short for “Promenade Concerts”. The Proms are organized by the BBC, so they are called the “BBC Proms”. They take place in the Royal Albert Hall, in London from mid-July to mid-September every year.


title: BBC Proms

text: The Proms started more than 100 years ago, in 1895. Concerts were expensive in those days, and not many people had enough money to go and hear good music. Most people were only able to hear good music when they went for walks in the London parks where there were Promenade concerts. Orchestras and bands played in bandstands. Most of the music was popular and easy to listen to. People could enjoy the music while they walked about.


title: BBC Proms

text: In the centre of London there was a building called the Queen's Hall. A man called Robert Newman organized concerts there. He had an idea. He wanted to start a series of concerts which ordinary people (people who were not rich) could afford to go to. He wanted to start a series of “promenade concerts” (in French “se promener” means “to walk”). The idea was that people could have standing places which would not cost much money. There would also be seats for people who could afford to pay more.


title: BBC Proms

text: Robert Newman knew a very good young conductor, Henry Wood. He asked him to be the conductor of the Proms. A man called Dr Cathcart gave them enough money to get an orchestra together. On 10 August 1895 the first Promenade Concert took place in the Queen’s Hall. The price of a promenade ticket (a ticket for a standing place) was one shilling.


title: BBC Proms

text: The Promenade Concerts were a big success, and soon became known as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts". Wood conducted both popular music and the classical works of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Wagner, as well as some English composers. Wallace and Cowan, popular then, have today faded from the scene, although Elgar and Delius have survived due to Wood's Proms. This broke the convention that famous composers, conductors and singers could not be English.


title: BBC Proms

text: Some of the music Wood conducted was very new indeed. In 1912 he conducted a piece called “Five Orchestral Pieces” by an Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). Its initial lack of appreciation was overcome by inviting Schoenberg to come to England and conduct it himself in 1914.


title: BBC Proms

text: Henry Wood conducted almost all of the Proms for fifty years, until just before his death in 1944. His innovations with the orchestra staff were to abolish deputies (allegedly in 1904 when, at one rehearsal, none of the regular orchestra, and only deputies attended). Forty members of the orchestra were offended by that decision, and broke away to form what is now the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1913, Wood was also the first English conductor to appoint women to play in his orchestra.


title: BBC Proms

text: In 1927 the BBC started to fund Proms. The radio was a new invention (then termed the “wireless”). Radio broadcasts increased interest in attending live concerts. In 1930 the BBC Symphony Orchestra was formed, playing at a majority of Prom concerts.


title: BBC Proms

text: In 1941, during World War II, the Queen’s Hall was destroyed by bombs. The Proms continued to take place in the Royal Albert Hall. Then it became too dangerous in London and the Proms were held in Bristol and then Bedford. After the War the Proms went back to the Royal Albert Hall. They have been held there ever since. From the 1940s to the late 1960s the BBC Symphony Orchestra played at most of the concerts under the very popular conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent whose Last Night speeches became legendary for their wit.


title: BBC Proms

text: Today the Proms are very different from when they started. It is much more international. The BBC Symphony Orchestra play several concerts each season but there are lots of other orchestras from all over the world who come to play. People can hear different kinds of music at the Proms: not just classical music but jazz and music from far-away countries. In 2005 the famous Indian musician Ravi Shankar played the sitar at one of the Proms. In 2008 the violinist Nigel Kennedy played the "Violin Concerto" by Edward Elgar with the BBC Concert Orchestra, then came back an hour later to give a Late Night Prom of jazz music with the Nigel Kennedy Quintet.


title: BBC Proms

text: The Proms also include special activities for children. The television programme Blue Peter put on a Blue Peter Prom which is given twice during the weekend at the beginning of the school holidays in late July. In the 2007 season they organized a special Brass Day where children could take part with their instruments. BBC Music Intro put on workshops in the late afternoon for children and their families to learn about music. In 2008 there was a Dr Who prom which was extremely popular, especially with children. This theme will be repeated in 2010.


title: BBC Proms

text: Henry Wood encouraged composers to write new music by performing it at the Proms. Today this tradition continues as the BBC often commission composers to write new music for the Proms. Some pieces which had their first performance at the Proms have become very well-known, e.g. "The Confession of Isobel Gowdie" by James MacMillan (first performed in 1990), or John Tavener's "The Protecting Veil" (first performed in 1989).


title: BBC Proms

text: For many years now every Prom has been broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Some of them are shown on television, either on BBC2 or on BBC4 where viewers can, if they wish, read comments about the music as it is played. People can also listen to the Proms for several days afterwards on the Proms website.


title: BBC Proms

text: There is a Prom every night (i.e. every evening) for two months during the summer. The last concert is called the “Last Night of the Proms”. It is very famous and millions of people can watch it on television in lots of countries all over the world. Some people who go to the Last Night dress up in funny clothes and wave flags. They hear a piece of music called "Fantasia on British Sea Songs", written by Henry Wood in 1905. It is based on sailors' sea shanties including a 'hornpipe'. The dance that gets faster and faster and the audience clap along, trying to keep up with the orchestra. It includes the song "Rule Britannia". The orchestra always play Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March no 1" which has the tune "Land of Hope and Glory". The concert finishes with Parry's hymn "Jerusalem". The conductor also makes a speech.


title: BBC Proms

text: Since 1996 there have been Proms in parks in other towns in the United Kingdom to which thousands of people can go. These all take place on the same night, and there is interactive communication between them and the Prom in the Royal Albert Hall.


title: BBC Proms

text: One way to go to the Proms is to buy a ticket for a seat, just like any other sort of concert. But many people think the best way to go to the Proms is to be a promenader. This means having a standing place. There are two places to prom: downstairs in the arena and upstairs in the gallery. The Royal Albert Hall is round, and looks like an old Roman amphitheatre. That is why the floor downstairs is called the “arena”, like in an amphitheatre. The promenaders who stand downstairs are near the orchestra, especially the front rows. But it can be quite a squash when there are lots of people, and small children need to be near the front to see properly. The other place to promenade is upstairs in the gallery. There is more room there, and it is easy to see, and easy to sit down or even lie down when one feels tired.


title: BBC Proms

text: A ticket to promenade costs £5. People who want to be a promenader have to wait in a queue outside and buy their ticket as they go in. Anyone who wants to be near the front should join the queue early, especially for the very popular concerts, and at the weekend. Some people queue for hours. They pass the time by talking to one another, reading or playing games. It is all good fun and part of enjoying being at the Proms.


title: Swiss cheese

text: Swiss cheese is a name for a number of cheeses that are like Swiss Emmental cheese. This name is mostly used in the United States and Canada, and in most cases, the cheeses are made there and are not from Switzerland. Like it, they have holes, which are made by the bacteria that change milk into Swiss cheese. "Propionibacterium" uses the lactic acid that is made by other bacteria, and it gives off a gas called carbon dioxide. This slowly forms bubbles that become the holes. The holes in the cheese are called the "eyes", and a Swiss cheese that does not have holes is called a "blind" cheese.


title: Swiss cheese

text: Most often, Swiss cheeses with larger eyes have a better taste, as the same things that make the eyes bigger also make the taste of the cheese better. These include longer time and more warmth as the cheese is formed.


title: Swiss cheese

text: Emmental cheese has been produced in France, Germany, and Austria for a long time. This is why the names Emmental and Swiss Cheese can be used for kinds of cheese that are not made in Emmental in Switzerland but are made the same way.


title: Hulk (footballer)

text: Hulk (full name Givanildo Vieira de Souza; born 25 July 1986) is a Brazilian football player. He plays for Atletico Mineiro.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Randall William "Randy" Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American heavy metal guitarist. He was best known for performing with Ozzy Osbourne and the band Quiet Riot.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads first formed a band with Kelly Garni called Little Women. Kevin DuBrow was recruited into the band and they changed their name to Quiet Riot. The band became popular by playing in clubs in Los Angeles. By late 1976 they were signed to CBS/Sony Records.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Dana Strum contacted Rhoads to see if he was wanted to audition for Ozzy Osbourne's new band. He asked his mother if he should join Osbourne's band since he was still in Quiet Riot. She asked him if he would accept "an offer like this one" and Rhodes replied "Of course!"


title: Randy Rhoads

text: He went to audition in Osbourne's hotel room in Los Angeles with his guitar and a practice amplifier. As he started getting ready he was given the job. Osbourne was very drunk, and had fallen asleep during the audition. Rhoads remembered later, "I just tuned up and did some riffs, and he said, 'You've got the gig'; I had the weirdest feeling, because I thought, 'You didn't even hear me yet'".


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads flew to England on the November 27, 1979. He stayed with Osbourne, his wife at the time Thelma, and their two children. After a short while, Lee Kerslake joined the band, which was at the time called The Blizzard of Ozz. The band recorded their debut album "Blizzard of Ozz" which was released on September 20, 1980 and became a success. "Diary of a Madman", their second studio album, was recorded between February and March 1981. It was released on November 7, 1981.


title: Randy Rhoads

text: Rhoads died on March 19, 1982. He was touring with his band at the time. While driving in their tour bus, the band stopped in Leesburg, Florida, to fix the bus' air conditioner. Osbourne stayed asleep because he had been drinking heavily earlier in the evening. While stopped, their driver Andrew Aycock noticed an airstrip with small helicopters and planes. Aycock had previously worked as a commercial pilot. He decided to take a small Beechcraft F35 plane registered to a man named Mike Partin. He took it without Partin's permission. He took keyboardist Don Airey and tour manager Jake Duncan for a flight. He took Rhoads and makeup artist Rachel Youngblood on for the second flight. Aycock tried to fly the plane very low over their tour bus, where the other band members were sleeping. He made two close passes but caused an accident on the third one. One of the plane's wings had clipped the top of the tour bus. This broke the wing into two parts and sent the plane spiraling out of control. Both Rhoads and Youngblood were thrown out of the plane's windshield by the initial impact. While traveling at about , the plane crashed into a nearby garage. All three passengers were killed instantly. They were burned beyond recognition from the fire of the plane. The only person to witness the accident was keyboardist Don Airey.


title: 1930 FIFA World Cup

text: The 1930 FIFA World Cup was a football sporting event that was held in Uruguay from 13 July to 30 July 1930. Thirteen teams competed in the first World Cup. Seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America. The teams were split into four groups with the winner of each group entering the semi-finals. The final saw Uruguay winning the trophy after beating Argentina.


title: 1930 FIFA World Cup

text: This was the only World Cup to not have qualifiers. This is because every FIFA member was invited to join the tournament. Most of the interest came from South America where seven nations entered. This was the most South American nations that had entered the World Cup throughout its history. Few European nations took part because of cost from travelling the Atlantic Ocean from Europe.


title: 1930 FIFA World Cup

text: Group 1 was the only group to have four teams. They were Argentina, France, Chile and Mexico. Argentina won the group. This was because they won all three of their matches in the group, including a 6-3 win against Mexico. Guillermo Stábile scored 3 goals in that game. Chile finished 2nd, while France ended in 3rd.


title: 1930 FIFA World Cup

text: Yugoslavia won Group 2. They won both of the matches in their group. They were the only European team to qualify. This was after they won 2-1 against likely winners Brazil in the first game. They beat Bolivia 4-0 in the second game to win the group. Brazil beat Bolivia in the final game by the same score.


title: 1930 FIFA World Cup

text: In Group 3, the host nation (Uruguay) won both of their games to qualify for the knockout stage. After a one-goal win over Peru, they beat Romania in the last game of the group without giving away a goal. During that match, they scored with four different players in their 4-0 win. The other match in the group saw the smallest crowd at a World Cup with 2,459. The actual figure though is to be around 300 people.


title: 1930 FIFA World Cup

text: In the final group, the United States won the group with wins against Belgium and Paraguay by the same score (3-0). During the Paraguay game, Bert Patenaude was credited as the first player to score a hat-trick in a FIFA World Cup. The last match of the group saw Paraguay beat Belgium one to nil.


title: 1930 FIFA World Cup

text: The four winners, Argentina, United States, Uruguay and Yugoslavia met in two games to see who would make the final. In the first match, the pitch had puddles all through the pitch.


title: 1930 FIFA World Cup

text: won the championship. Although there was no third place play off, the United States are recognized as coming in third place (and Yugoslavia in fourth place) as the United States had better results in the tournament overall.


title: This Is the Life (song)

text: "This is the Life" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is the theme song in the gangster comedy movie "Johnny Dangerously". It was also re-released for Yankovic's album "Dare to be Stupid".


title: Common year starting on Thursday

text: This is the calendar for any common year starting on Thursday, January 1 (dominical letter D). Examples include years 1970, 1981, 1987, 1998, 2009, 2015 and 2026 in the Gregorian calendar,


title: Common year starting on Thursday

text: This is the only common year with three occurrences of Friday the 13th, in February, March and November. The other type of year with three occurrences of Friday the 13th is a Leap year starting on Sunday which has three Friday the 13ths in January, April, and July. Also interestingly, with the exception of skipped leap years, leap years starting on Sunday falls exactly three years either side of two consecutive common years starting on Thursday; the most recent occurrence was 2012 between 2009 and 2015. From February until March in this type of year is also the shortest period (one month) that runs between two instances of Friday the 13th.


title: Common year starting on Thursday

text: In this common year, February is rectangular in calendar where weeks start on a Sunday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is on January 19, Valentine’s Day is on a Saturday, President's Day is on February 17, Saint Patrick’s Day is on a Tuesday, Memorial Day is on its earliest possible date, May 25, U.S. Independence Day and Halloween are on a Saturday, Labor Day is on its latest possible date, September 7, Veterans Day is on a Wednesday, Thanksgiving is on November 26, and Christmas is on a Friday. This common year is also the only one where Memorial Day and Labor Day are not 14 weeks (98 days) apart: they are 15 weeks (105 days) apart in this common year. Leap years starting on Wednesday share this characteristic. Like leap years starting on Wednesday, this common year also has the shortest gap between Halloween (October 31) and the end of Daylight Saving Time in the US (November 1) by one day. Prior to 2007, this common year had the longest gap between the end of Daylight Saving Time in the US (October 25) and Halloween by 6 days.


title: Jenna Ortega

text: Jenna Marie Ortega (born September 27, 2002) is an American actress. She is noted for her roles on television as young Jane in "Jane the Virgin", Harley Diaz in "Stuck in the Middle" and Ellie Alves in "You". In 2016, she began voicing Princess Isabel in the Disney Channel animated series "Elena of Avalor". Ortega's movie work includes starring as Annie in "" (2013), Mary Ann in "The Little Rascals Save the Day" (2014) and Dawn in "Saving Flora" (2018).


title: Human migration

text: Human migration is people moving from one place to another to stay there. It often happens in large numbers. Migration can be within countries or between countries. Humans are known to have migrated extensively throughout history and prehistory.


title: Human migration

text: Sometimes, the movement is voluntary, but sometimes, people are forced to move. They may suffer warfare, religious and political persecution, famine, and other natural disasters.


title: Human migration

text: When people are forced to move, they are refugees. Many refugees are illegal immigrants and more than half are children and women. They may live in extreme poverty, lacking food, shelter, clothing, education and medical care.


title: Human migration

text: Rural-urban migration, or urbanization, is the movement from country areas to towns and cities. There are many reasons for people leaving the countryside. Often, they are overpopulation, high birth rates, and starvation. Mechanization has caused a reduction in jobs available in the countryside.


title: Human migration

text: Farming is hard work, with long hours and little pay. Many are subsistence farmers. In developing countries, a lack of money means a lack of machinery. Natural disasters, such as droughts, hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions, destroy villages and crops. There is a lack of services like schools and hospitals in the countryside.


title: Human migration

text: People move because they are looking for better-paid jobs and a higher quality of life. They have a better chance of services such as schools, medical treatment and entertainment. People are also attracted often by the advantages of a cosmopolitan lifestyle such as shops, restaurants, theaters, and nightlife.


title: Human migration

text: Many arrive with little money and so canmot buy or rent a house, even if one is available. They must usually make a temporary shelter with cheap or usef materials. Some give up and go home.


title: Human migration

text: In the new country, they often are not integrated and are treated like an underclass. However, they are needed even if the local population doe not like immigrants because they compete for the same jobs.


title: Human migration

text: More people means more traffic and more crime. Immigrants help to build up cities, provide cheap labour, invest money, buy products and services, pay tax, and help companies compete.


title: Human migration

text: The Proto-Indo-Europeans migrated many times between 4000 and 1000 BC, according to the Kurgan hypothesis.


title: Human migration

text: The movement of populations in modern times has continued under the form of both voluntary migration within one's region, country, or beyond, and involuntary migration, which includes slave trade, human trafficking, and ethnic cleansing. The people who migrate are called migrants or, more specifically, emigrants, immigrants or settlers, depending on the historical setting, circumstance, and perspective.


title: Christian calendar

text: A Christian calendar can be any calendar used by various Christian Churches for the Church year, called "liturgical year". For example, it can be used to find out what day Easter will be on, even though it is not the same in every Church.


title: Christian calendar

text: The church year is divided into seasons like Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Advent and Christmas, with other weeks being seen as ordinary time.


title: Christian calendar

text: The Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, is now a civil calendar that is used in many countries around the world.


title: Capacitor

text: A capacitor (also called condenser, which is the older term) is an electronic device that stores electric energy. It is similar to a battery, but can be smaller, lightweight and a capacitor charges or discharges much quicker. Capacitors are used in many electronic devices today, and can be made out of many different types of material. The Leyden jar was one of the first capacitors invented.


title: Capacitor

text: Capacitors are usually made with two metal plates that are on top of each other and near each other, but that do not actually touch. When powered, they allow energy to be stored inside an electrical field. Because the plates need a lot of area to store even a small amount of charge, the plates are usually rolled up into some other shape, such as a cylinder. Sometimes, other shapes of capacitors are used for special purposes. A capacitor-like effect can also result just from two conductors being close to each other, whether you want it to exist or not.


title: Capacitor

text: The type of capacitor used depends on the application. Capacitors come in many sizes. They can be as small as an ant or as large as a dustbin. A few capacitors are adjustable.


title: Capacitor

text: All capacitors have two connections, or leads. Most kinds of capacitors can be replaced easily by someone who has basic skills in electronics. However, one of the more powerful types - the electrolytic capacitor - must be used the correct way, or they can explode violently.


title: Capacitor

text: While capacitors can store energy, as batteries do, capacitors can release all their stored energy very quickly, even faster than a second. A defibrillator or a photoflash capacitor uses this ability. It gradually charges, until it cannot be filled any more, and then quickly discharges its stored power to a device that needs to have it quickly.


title: Capacitor

text: Supercapacitors hold a bigger charge than regular capacitors. They are used to store electricity for motors and other purposes when batteries won't discharge quickly enough.


title: Capacitor

text: This type of capacitor is not for use in high frequency circuits, being made with a coil inside. They can charge and discharge even more quickly than other capacitors. They are used in filter circuits or timing circuits which run at several hundred KHz or less.


title: Capacitor

text: Electrolytic capacitors use a conducting surface inside a liquid electrolyte. They do not charge and discharge as rapidly as film capacitors do. They have polarity and so they have to be attached correctly. There are two leads; one will have a + and the other a -. This means one lead is "positive" and one is "negative". There are two different styles: axial, where the leads are connected to each end, and radial, where the leads are connected to one end. Electrolytic capacitors are printed with capacitance and voltage rating.


title: Capacitor

text: Since the voltage rating can be low, it is important to check that the electrolytic capacitor is not overcharged. Capacitors can be separated from a battery, then connected in series. Because the capacitor is polarized, the positive terminal must be connected to a negative terminal. This creates "correct polarity" through the electrical circuit and prevents breakdown.


title: Capacitor

text: Some electrolytic capacitors are unpolarized, meaning that either side can be positive or negative. These are mostly used in loudspeakers to block low-frequency signals (bass) from reaching high-frequency (tweeter) drivers.


title: User (computing)

text: A user is a person who uses a computer or network service. Users of computer systems typically have no experience on how the software works.


title: User (computing)

text: In order to identify oneself, a user has an account (a user account) and a username (also called a screen name, handle, nickname, or nick on some systems), and in most cases also a password.


title: User (computing)

text: A user account allows one to authenticate to system services. It also generally provides one with the opportunity to be authorized to access them. However, authentication does not automatically mean authorization. Once the user has logged on, the operating system will often use an identifier such as an integer to refer to them, rather than their username.


title: Stereo Love

text: "Stereo Love" is a 2009 song recorded by Romanian musician Edward Maya featuring Vika Jigulina. It was his first single in late 2009 from his album "The Stereo Love Show". The refrain is from "Bayatılar", composed by Azerbaijani musician Eldar Mansurov. It became a worldwide hit in Nightclubs and rose to the top of Romanian, French, Dutch, Turkish, Finnish, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, and Irish singles charts.


title: Stereo Love

text: The song and the music video were both included on the compilation "NRJ Music Awards 2010". The music video was filmed in Greece, as Edward Maya stated in an interview that Greece "was a place that I fell in love with". In 2011, the song was awarded as top dance song at the Billboard Music Awards.


title: Fundamental rights

text: Fundamental rights are a set of rights that are recognized under the laws of a country to protect their citizens.


title: Fundamental rights

text: These laws protect these rights even from the governments themselves. These protected rights include the right to life, right to freedom, and the right to free will. Other generally agreed upon examples of fundamental rights include freedom of religion, the right to free speech, the right to travel and the pursuit of Happiness. Fundamental rights are different from human rights. Fundamental rights are those protected by laws of a jurisdiction. Human rights are usually not enforceable by courts. Sometimes fundamental needs are associated with the concept of maslowism.


title: Forced migration

text: Forced migration (also called displacements) is when people are made to leave their home or homeland. It is usually caused by violence, persecution, danger, or because an authority (such as a government) has told people to move. People are removed either by force or because of a threat or command. A person who has become forced to migrate is called a "forced migrant" or "displaced person". They may be called a refugee, but that term has a specific legal definition.


title: Forced migration

text: Migration of people is constantly happening, but in a stable society it usually happens because a person chooses to do it. Forced migration occurs when people's lives, well-being or freedom is endangered. They may have little or no choice but to move. In some cases, such as human trafficking and slavery, people are physically removed from their homes.


title: Forced migration

text: Occasionally a government forces people and communities out of their homes or homelands for the purposes of economic development or military. It has been most often been associated with the building of dams and military bases.


title: Forced migration

text: Migration can also be forced by natural disasters, when people are forced to evacuate an area. This is usually temporary, and people can return to their land once it is safe.


title: Forced migration

text: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says Afghanistan produces the most number of refugees each year. It has held that position for 32 years. Almost half of refugees are children under the age of 18. Many of these are separated from their parents.


title: Denis Healey

text: Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey CH, MBE, PC (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour politician. He was Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey was born in Mottingham, Kent, and moved with his family to Keighley in the West Riding of Yorkshire when he was five years old. He was given the middle name "Winston" after Winston Churchill, who was an important politician at the time Denis was born.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey was one of three children. Their father was an engineer who had worked his way up by taking extra lessons at night school.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healey went to Bradford Grammar School, and in 1936 he won a type of scholarship known as an "exhibition", which gave him enough money to take a degree at Balliol College, Oxford. At Oxford University he got involved in politics, and he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1937. In 1939, not liking the party's policies, he changed his mind. From that time on, he supported the Labour Party, even though one of his best friends at university, Edward Heath, supported the Conservative Party.


title: Denis Healey

text: After getting his degree, Healey joined the Royal Engineers, and served in the British forces in several countries during World War II. He took an important part in the Battle of Anzio, towards the end of the war. After the war, he joined the Labour Party, and made an important speech to the Labour Party conference in 1945, shortly before the United Kingdom general election, 1945.


title: Denis Healey

text: In February 1952, Healey became the Member of Parliament for Leeds South East. He supported Hugh Gaitskell, the leader of the Labour Party. When Gaitskell died in 1963, Healey became a supporter of Harold Wilson. When Labour won the 1964 election Healey was given the job of Secretary of State for Defence. Labour lost power in 1970, but Healey was given the job of Shadow Chancellor in April 1972.


title: Denis Healey

text: When Labour won a general election in March 1974 and came back into power, Healey became Chancellor of the Exchequer in March 1974. When Harold Wilson resigned as Prime Minister in 1976, Healey was one of those who hoped to take over, but he was not chosen. He continued in the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer when James Callaghan took over as Prime Minister.


title: Denis Healey

text: Healy married Edna Edmunds in 1945. Together, they had three children. They lived in Alfriston, Sussex. Edna died in 2010.


title: Denis Healey

text: On 14 June 1978, Healey likened being attacked by the mild-mannered Geoffrey Howe in the House of Commons to being "savaged by a dead sheep". Nevertheless, Howe appeared and paid warm tribute when Healey was featured on "This Is Your Life" in 1989. The two remained friends for many years, with Howe dying only a few days after Healey, in 2015.


title: Omelette

text: An omelette (also spelled as omelet) is a type of food that is mainly eggs, with various fillings. In the United States omelettes are usually eaten at breakfast. However omelettes can be eaten as a light lunch or late evening meal.


title: Omelette

text: An omelette is prepared from beaten eggs cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan. A thin, flat 'heavy' omelette is usually folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat, or some combination of these ingredients. In some traditions, omelettes are fried to cook the bottom and then flipped over or in half for final stage of cooking. However, in other traditions, omelettes is baked to cook it evenly or the top is cooked under a broiler. When making an omelette, it is best to use several eggs. Put a little water in with the eggs when you mix them up because the water helps the eggs to produce steam as they cook. The steam makes them lighter and fluffier. Using oil in the bottom of a nonstick omelette pan helps prevent the omelette from sticking.


title: Omelette

text: For a full light and fluffy omolette separate the egg whites and whisk to stiff peaks then fold in the yolks. Cook by frying in a knob of butter on a medium heat until center starts to dry then fold in half and cook until its hot in the middle.


title: Omelette

text: There are many different types of omelette, often with different names, depending on what is used as a filling.


title: Omelette

text: Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 - 27 March 1931) was a British writer. Often after having been to the theatre in London he visited the Savoy Hotel's Grillroom. The chef added haddock, cream and Parmesan cheese to the basic omelette and called the new dish "Omelette Arnold Bennett" in his customer's honour.


title: Omelette

text: When Napoleon Bonaparte and his army were marching through southern France, they stopped for the night near the town of Bessieres. A local innkeeper made Napoleon an omelette. Napoleon was so impressed by the cooking he ordered the townspeople to collect all the eggs in the village and to prepare a huge omelette for his army the next day.


title: Rick Ross

text: William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive.


title: Rick Ross

text: After releasing his debut single, "Hustlin'" in 2006, Ross became the subject of a bidding war, receiving offers from Diddy's Bad Boy Entertainment and Irv Gotti's Murder Inc., before signing a multi million dollar deal with Jay Z's Def Jam Records. Ross released his debut album Port Of Miami through the label later that year, debuting at the top spot on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 album chart, with sales of 187,000 units during the first week. Ross released his second studio album, "Trilla" in 2008, once again debuting atop the "Billboard" 200.


title: Rick Ross

text: In 2009, Ross founded the record label Maybach Music Group, on which he released his studio albums "Deeper Than Rap" (2009), "Teflon Don" (2010), "God Forgives, I Don't" (2012), "Mastermind", "Hood Billionaire" (2014), "Black Market" (2015), and "Rather You Than Me" (2017). Ross was also the first artist signed to Diddy's management company Ciroc Entertainment. In early 2012, MTV named Ross as the Hottest MC in the Game.


title: Juan dela Cruz

text: Juan dela Cruz is the national personification of the Philippines. He is often used to represent the common "Filipino". He is usually shown wearing the native "salakot" hat, "Barong Tagalog", long pants, and "tsinelas" ().


title: Juan dela Cruz

text: Activists often portray Juan dela Cruz as a victim of American imperialism. During the American period he is often shown with Uncle Sam in many editorial cartoons. of the often depicted him alongside Uncle Sam. In modern times, he is used to show the opinion and feelings of Filipino about their government and society.


title: Juan dela Cruz

text: Juan dela Cruz is the Spanish for "John of the Cross". The name is often used to refer to a anonymous Filipino, like how John Doe is used to refer Americans. For females the term María dela Cruz is used instead.


title: Diego Rivera

text: Diego Rivera (December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a famous Mexican painter and muralist. He was born in Guanajuato City, Guanajuato.


title: Diego Rivera

text: Rivera is famous for his 1933 mural, "Man at the Crossroads," for the lobby of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center. Before he finished the mural, people saw that there was an image of Vladimir Lenin and other communist images in it. Rivera was fired because of this and the mural was destroyed.


title: Diego Rivera

text: Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo, was also a famous Mexican painter. He died in Mexico City of congestive heart failure at the age of 70.


title: Good Friday

text: Good Friday is a religious holiday usually observed by Christians. It is also called Holy Friday, Black Friday, or Great Friday. It is observed to remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his death, and his rising from the dead. The holiday is often at the same time as the Jewish holiday of Passover.


title: Good Friday

text: The estimated year of Good Friday is AD 33, by two different groups, and at first as AD 34 by Isaac Newton by the differences between the Biblical and Julian calendars.


title: Good Friday

text: According to the Gospels, Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane by the Temple Guards. This was done through the help of his disciple Judas Iscariot. Judas received money (30 pieces of silver) () for betraying Jesus. He had told the guards that whomever he kisses was the one they were to arrest. Jesus was brought to the house of Annas. Annas was the father-in-law of the high priest at that time, Caiaphas. There he was questioned. However, it was with little result. Tied up, he was sent to Caiaphas the high priest, where the Sanhedrin had come together ().


title: Good Friday

text: Lots of people came and said conflicting things about Jesus to make him look bad. As he heard these, Jesus said nothing. At last, the high priest tells Jesus, "I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us, are you the Anointed One, the Son of God?" Jesus said yes: "You have said it, and in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, coming on the clouds of Heaven." The high priest ripped his clothes, crying out that Jesus had blasphemed God. The trial ended with a sentence of death (). While they were questioning Jesus, Peter was waiting in the courtyard. He also said that he did not know Jesus three times to people standing by. According to the Bible, Jesus already knew that Peter would say this.


title: Good Friday

text: In the morning, the people brought Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. They said he was troubling the nation. They also said he tried to stop people from paying taxes to Caesar, and wanted to make himself a king (). Pilate questioned Jesus. He told the people that Jesus had nothing to be sentenced for. When he learned that Jesus was from Galilee, Pilate said that Jesus should be judged by the ruler of Galilee, King Herod. At that time, Herod was in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Herod questioned Jesus, but Jesus did not answer. Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate. Pilate told the people that neither he nor Herod have found Jesus guilty. Pilate wished to have Jesus whipped, then let him go ().


title: Good Friday

text: It was a custom during the feast of Passover for the Romans to let one prisoner go free as requested by the Jews. Pilate asked the crowd whom they would like to go free. The crowd asked for Barabbas, another prisoner. He had gone to prison for murdering people. Pilate asked what they would have him do with Jesus. At this, and they demanded, "Crucify him!" (). Pilate's wife warned Pilate to "have nothing to do with this righteous man" (). She had had a dream about him earlier that day.


title: Good Friday

text: Pilate had Jesus whipped, then tried to let him go. The chief priests demanded that Jesus be sentenced to death "because he claimed to be God's son." This filled Pilate with fear. He brought Jesus back inside the palace and demanded to know from where he came ().


title: Good Friday

text: Coming before the crowd one last time, Pilate declared Jesus innocent. He washed his own hands in water to show he has no part in this. However, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified so that the crowd would not get angry () and that he could keep his job.


title: Good Friday

text: Jesus carried his cross a place of the Skull, or "Golgotha" in Hebrew. In Latin it is called "Calvary". There he was crucified with two criminals ().


title: Good Friday

text: Jesus is hung on the cross for six hours in extreme pain. During his last 3 hours on the cross there is darkness over the whole land (; ; ). At last, Jesus cried, "It is finished". He then "gave up his spirit". There is an earthquake. Tombs break open, and the curtain in the Temple is torn from top to bottom. The centurion on guard at the crucifixion declares, "Truly this was God's Son!" ()


title: Good Friday

text: Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin and secret follower of Jesus, who had not said yes to his death, went to Pilate. He asked for the body of Jesus (). Another secret follower of Jesus and member of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus brought a mix of spices and helped wrap the body of Christ (). Pilate asked the centurion to make sure that Jesus is dead (). A soldier pierced the side of Jesus, causing blood and water to flow out (). At this, the centurion told Pilate that Jesus was dead ().


title: Good Friday

text: Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus, wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and placed it in his own new tomb that had been carved in the rock (). The tomb was in a garden. Nicodemus () also came bringing 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes, and placed them in the linen with the body of Jesus, according to Jewish burial customs (). They rolled a large rock over the entrance of the tomb (). Then they went back home and rested, because at sunset began Shabbat (). According to the Bible, on the third day, Sunday, which is now known as Easter Sunday (or "Pascha"), Jesus rose from the dead.


title: Good Friday

text: Special prayer services are usually held on this day with readings from the Gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion. Major Christian churches say that Christ's crucifixion was a voluntary act that he did for everyone who believed in him. It is also said that his crucifixion and resurrection on the third day caused death itself to be crushed.


title: Cubic crystal system

text: In crystallography, the cubic crystal system is a crystal system where the unit cell is in the shape of a cube. This is one of the most common and simplest shapes found in crystals and minerals.


title: Nyx

text: In his theogony (How the gods came to be), Hesiod tells: "Night is born of Chaos; her offspring are many, and telling. With Erebus, Night gives birth to the following deities:"


title: Nyx

text: In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod says further that Hemera "day", who is now Night's sister rather than daughter, left Tartarus just as Nyx entered it; when Hemera returned, Nyx left. This mirrors the portrayal of Ratri "night" in the Rig-Veda, where she works in close cooperation but also tension with her sister Ushas "dawn".


title: Salvador Dalí

text: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989) was a Spanish painter who became famous for the unusual images he used in his paintings. He was born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. He was a key figure in surrealist art.


title: Salvador Dalí

text: His most famous work was "The Persistence of Memory" (1931), which is now in MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is a dream-like landscape with a soft, melted pocket-watch.


title: Grace Kelly

text: Grace Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress. She later married Prince Rainier III of Monaco and became Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco. With Prince Rainier, she had 3 children:


title: Grace Kelly

text: Kelly's father was an Irish American; her mother was a German American Her movies included three by Alfred Hitchock: "Dial M for Murder", "Rear Window", and "To Catch a Thief". In 1955 she won an Academy Award for "The Country Girl". She was the first actress to appear on a postage stamp. She was also mentioned in Billy Joel's song "We didn't start the fire" and in Mika's song "Grace Kelly" (2007). The classic head-cover of a silk scarf crossed under the chin and knotted at the side or nape of the neck is universally known as the "Grace Kelly." This chic look is still copied by many female Hollywood stars when they wish to retain a degree of anonymity in the public eye.


title: Zoë Kravitz

text: Zoë Kravitz (born December 1, 1988) is an American actress, singer and model. She is the daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet. She is of African-American, Afro-Bahamian and Ashkenazi Jewish (from Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Russia and Ukraine) descent. Kravitz first acted in the 2007 movie "No Reservations". She is known for her role as Catwoman in the 2022 movie "The Batman".


title: Zoë Kravitz

text: Kravitz' first big role was as Angel Salvadore in the 2011 superhero movie "". She later had supporting roles in movies, like "The Lego Batman Movie" and the "Harry Potter" spin-off movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". She also acted in independent movies, like "Dope" in 2015 and HBO's drama "Big Little Lies".


title: Zoë Kravitz

text: Kravitz was the face of Vera Wang's "Princess" fragrance in 2009. She later modeled for "Elle" magazine.


title: Zoë Kravitz

text: Kravitz is with the group Lolawolf. Lolawolf is an American contemporary R&B and electropop duo. They released their first album, "Calm Down", in 2014. The band toured with Miley Cyrus, Lily Allen and others.


title: Popsicle

text: Popsicle is a popular brand of ice pop in the United States and Canada. It is made of colored, flavored ice on a wooden stick. The brand name includes more than 30 different versions of the snack.


title: Popsicle

text: The Popsicle was accidentally invented in 1905 by 11-year-old Frank Epperson. Epperson left a mixture of powdered soda and water and a stirring stick in a cup on his porch. That night San Francisco went through unusually low temperatures, and Epperson awoke the next morning to find a frozen pop that would eventually become a favorite American snack.


title: Popsicle

text: At first, Epperson named his frozen snack the "Epsicle", and it became popular with his school friends. In 1923, while running a lemonade stand at an amusement park in Oakland, California, Epperson realized that he could earn money from his invention. Epperson changed the name of his treat to "Popsicle", after his children always asked for "Pop’s ’sicle", and signed up for a patent. The patent for frozen ice on a stick was issued August 19, 1924.


title: Popsicle

text: Around 1925, Epperson sold the popsicle rights to the brand name Popsicle to the Joe Lowe Company in New York. By 1928, Epperson had earned royalties on more than 60 million Popsicle ice pops.


title: Common sense

text: Common sense means what people would agree about. It is a personal judgement based on the facts of a situation. Common sense is usually the simplest and most direct account of a situation. It is the knowledge and experience which most people have, or should have. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as, "the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way".


title: Common sense

text: "Common sense" has at least two philosophical meanings. One is a capability of the mind to perceive things like movement and size. The second is our natural sense for other humans and the community. Both of these refer to a type of basic awareness and ability to judge. Most people are expected to share these things naturally, even if they can not explain why.


title: Common sense

text: It is quite possible for common sense to be wrong, and science often explains things in quite a different way from common sense. People lack any common-sense intuition of the universe at subatomic distances, or of speeds approaching that of light. Today it is well known that the Earth travels around the Sun but before the scientific revolution people thought that the Sun going around the Earth was common sense.


title: Common sense

text: According to the Simple English Wiktionary “Common sense is something that everybody knows and understands.”


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt is the capital city of the German state of Thuringia. It has an area of . In December 2015 it had a population of 210,000 people. The River Gera runs through the city.


title: Erfurt

text: People have lived in the area for about 100,000 years. The city was first mentioned in writing in 742, in a letter to the Pope from St Boniface. St Boniface established Christianity in the area. He set up a church in Erfurt in 742. Erfurt Cathedral was later built on the same site.


title: Erfurt

text: The city is in the centre of Germany. It was on the Via Regia, a medieval trade road network that stretched across Europe. It became an important trading centre in the Middle Ages. Erfurt was a member of the Hanseatic League, an alliance of trade associations and market towns. It was also famous for producing woad. Blue indigo dye is made from the woad plant.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt is on the Way of St. James pilgrams' path (Spanish: "Camino de Santigo"; German: "Jakobsweg"). In the Middle Ages a number of monasteries were set up in the city. Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation, lived at St. Augustine's Monastery from 1505 until 1511. A famous philosopher and theologian called Meister Eckhart lived at the Dominican Monastery from about 1275 until 1311.


title: Erfurt

text: The city was part of the Holy Roman Empire. It became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1802. From 1949 until 1990 Erfurt was in the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany).


title: Erfurt

text: Modern day Erfurt is a transport hub for high speed trains and other German and European transport networks. This makes logistics one of its main industries. Other important industries are agriculture, horticulture and microelectronics.


title: Erfurt

text: The University of Erfurt was first set up in 1379. It closed in 1816, but was reopened in 1994. Martin Luther studied there from 1501 to 1505. It is also thought that Johannes Gutenberg, who developed the printing press, enrolled there in 1418. Erfurt also has a "Fachhochschule", a University of Applied Sciences.


title: Erfurt

text: Many visitors come to see the historic medieval town centre. One of the main tourist attractions is the Krämerbrücke (the Merchants' Bridge). The bridge was built in its current form in 1472. It has buildings with shops and houses on it. People still live on it.


title: Erfurt

text: The city is well known for its festivals throughout the year. Two million people visit the Christmas markets each year.


title: Calcium carbonate

text: Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound, with the chemical formula CaCO. The elements involved are calcium (Ca), carbon (C) and oxygen (O). It is a common substance found as rock in all parts of the world, and is the main component of seashells, snails, and eggshell.


title: Calcium carbonate

text: Calcium carbonate is usually the main cause of hard water. It is used as a calcium supplement or as a treatment for antacid, but too much can be bad for your health.


title: Calcium carbonate

text: To test whether a mineral or rock contains calcium carbonate, strong acids, such as hydrochloric acid, can be added to it. If the sample does contain calcium carbonate, it will fizz and produce carbon dioxide. Weak acids such as acetic acid will react, but less quickly. All of the rocks/minerals mentioned above will react with acid.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Jeffrey "Jeff" Dunham (born April 18, 1962) is an American ventriloquist, comedian and actor. He has appeared on many television programs. He has four specials that are shown on Comedy Central: "", "", "Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special", and "Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos". Dunham also starred in "The Jeff Dunham Show", a series on the network in 2009. His style has been described as "a dressed-down, more digestible version of Don Rickles with multiple personality disorder". Describing his characters, "Time" observes, "All of them are politically incorrect, gratuitously insulting and ill tempered." Dunham has been credited with reviving ventriloquism, and doing more to promote the art form than anyone since Edgar Bergen.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham has been called "America's favorite comedian" by Slate.com, and according to the concert industry publication "Pollstar", he is the top-grossing standup act in North America, and is among the most successful acts in Europe as well. As of March 2009, he has sold over four million DVDs, an additional $7 million in merchandise sales, and received more than 350 million hits on YouTube (his introduction of Achmed the Dead Terrorist in "Spark of Insanity" is the ninth most watched YouTube video). "A Very Special Christmas Special" was the most-watched telecast in Comedy Central history, with its DVD going quadruple platinum (selling over 400,000) in its first two weeks. "Forbes.com" ranked Dunham as the third highest-paid comedian in the United States behind Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, and reported that he was one of the highest-earning comics from June 2008 to June 2009, earning approximately $30 million during that period.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham was born in Dallas, Texas on April 18, 1962. When he was three months old he was adopted by real estate appraiser Howard Dunham, and his homemaker wife Joyce, who raised him in a devoutly Presbyterian household in a rich Dallas neighborhood as an only child. He began ventriloquism in 1970 at age eight, when his parents gave him a Mortimer Snerd dummy for Christmas, and an accompanying how-to album. The next day he checked out a how-to book on ventriloquism from the library, and explained in 2011 that he still had it, remarking that he was "a thief in the third grade". By the fourth grade, Dunham decided he not only wanted to be a professional ventriloquist, but the best one ever. Dunham began practicing for hours in front of a mirror, studying the routines of Edgar Bergen, and the how-to record "Jimmy Nelson's Instant Ventriloquism", finding ventriloquism to be a learned skill, similar to juggling, that anyone with a normal speaking voice can acquire. Dunham explains that as an only child, he enjoyed being alone, likening his solitude to a "warm blanket" with which he could explore his own thoughts and ideas, which prepared him for the solitude of living alone when he later moved to Los Angeles as a struggling comedian.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: When Dunham was in the sixth grade, he began attending the Vent Haven ConVENTion in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, an annual international meeting of ventriloquists that includes competitions, where he met Jimmy Nelson in person. Dunham has missed only one ConVENTion since then, in 1977. The organizers of the ConVENTion eventually declared Dunham a "retired champion", ineligible from entering any more competitions, as other attendees were too intimidated to compete against him. The Vent Haven Museum devotes a section to Dunham, alongside Señor Wences and his idol, Edgar Bergen.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham began performing for audiences as a teenager, in various venues such as school, church, and during his job at Six Flags. By his middle school years, he began to perform for banquets attended by local celebrities such as Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, having developed his style of lampooning those he performed for, using the puppets to say things too risque for him to say without them. Dunham's television debut came in 1976 when the still prepubescent performer caught the attention of Dallas reporters like Bill O'Reilly, who interviewed Dunham for a local news story. Dunham later did commercials for Datsun dealerships in Dallas and Tyler while in high school. While emceeing a high school talent show, he dealt with a heckler, and won over the rest of the audience. During this period he became so associated with his craft that he and one of his dummies "cowrote" a column in the school paper, and he would pose with his dummies for yearbooks as an inexpensive way to acquire professional photos of his act for promotional purposes. He was voted Most Likely to Succeed, and in 1980, after he graduated from high school, Dunham gave himself a career goal of obtaining, within ten years, an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson", which was seen as the "holy grail" for comedians.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: That year Dunham began attending Baylor University, hoping to graduate with a degree in communications, while performing around campus. He would also fly around the country on weekends, doing up to 100 private shows a year, entertaining corporate customers such as General Electric, whose CEO, Jack Welch, he mocked during his routine. By his junior year in college (1983–1984), Dunham was making $70,000 a year, and as word spread of his act, he landed featured spots opening for Bob Hope and George Burns, though he still perceived his act as raw, as he did not have any knowledge of standup comedy beyond his Bill Cosby albums. He caught a break in 1985 when he was asked to join the Broadway show "Sugar Babies" with Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller, replacing the outgoing variety act. For the naive and devoutly-raised Dunham, Broadway was a new world filled with beautiful showgirls and crusty stagehands, and his first taste of entertainment industry egos came when Rooney called Dunham into his dressing room, and told him he was there for one reason alone: so that Rooney could change his costumes. Dunham also performed at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island. These early experiences, in which he used characters like José Jalapeño on a Stick, taught him the value of modifying his act regionally, as the jalapeño jokes that worked well in Texas were not as well received by audiences in Long Island.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: After graduating from Baylor University in 1986, he continued honing his act in comedy clubs in the Southwest with new characters such as Peanut and Jose Jalapeño, but struggled against the perception he relates from fellow comedians that he was not a true a comedian because he relied on props. His experience at Catch a Rising Star in New York City served as a bitter confirmation of where ventriloquists stood in the comedic food chain, as the emcee at that club gave Dunham little respect. According to Dunham, after he arrived at the club in the evening and informed the emcee that he was a ventriloquist, the emcee reacted with derision, telling Dunham that he would be given a late time slot, and after that time slot came and passed, kept postponing Dunham's stage time until Dunham left the club. By the end of 1988, Dunham felt his career went as far as it could go in Texas, and he moved to Los Angeles, California, never having, as he has commented, "a real job", much to the concern of his parents, who assumed he would relegate his act to local venues such as church groups. When he first arrived in Los Angeles, the comedy in his act bombed. Dunham attributes to his underdeveloped comedy, explaining that while the characters' personalities were developed at that point, his jokes were not. In addition to this, the comedy world was not welcoming to ventriloquists, and his manager, Judi Brown-Marmel, did not use the word "ventriloquist" when finding bookings for him, choosing to present him as a comedy duo. After Dunham became friends with Mike Lacey, the owner of The Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, Lacey gave Dunham a steady slot at the club, where Dunham sharpened his act by observing the techniques of comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, and taking the advice of colleague Bill Engvall, moving away from his G-Rated material toward edgier, more adult themes.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: At the end of 1988, Dunham was told by James McCawley, a talent booker for "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson", that Dunham would be given a spot on the program. Though the 26-year-old Dunham was elated that his 10-year goal was arriving two years early, McCawley later cancelled Dunham's appearance after attending, with Roseanne Barr, a public performance of Dunham's the day before Dunham's scheduled "Tonight Show" taping. McCawley informed Dunham on the day of the scheduled taping that he had been wrong in his initial assessment of Dunham, whom he now said was not ready for "The Tonight Show". His dreams dashed, the humiliated Dunham continued to tighten his act in Los Angeles clubs, performing same six minute segment with Peanut a total of nine times for McCawley over the next few months. Finally at the Ice-House in Pasadena in April 1990, after Dunham did the same segment, McCawley informed Dunham that he would finally get his "Tonight Show" appearance. Dunham and Peanut appeared on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" on April 6, 1990, alongside guests Bob Hope and B.B. King. Following his bit, he was invited to sit on Johnny Carson’s couch, a mark of approval that only three comedians had ever garnered during their first Carson appearance. Upon sitting down next to Carson's desk, Dunham pulled out Walter, who told Carson sidekick Ed McMahon, "Stop sending me all your damn mail." At the time, Dunham saw his "Tonight Show" appearance as his big break, but was frustrated at his parents' initial disapproval over Walter's use of the words "hell" and "damn", and he would toil in obscurity for another twelve years, continuing his stand up at venues such as The Improv chain, and appearing in small roles on TV. One of these was such as a 1996 episode of "Ellen", in which he appeared with Walter. Dunham also appeared with Walter in a TV commercial for Hertz. Dunham would appear on "The Tonight Show" a total of four times, as well as similar TV venues such as "Hot Country Nights", appearing in one segment on that show with singer Reba McEntire. This exposure helped make Dunham a large theater headliner, a rare accomplishment for a ventriloquist, but by the mid 1990s, his television appearances had dwindled, and with them, so did his stage audiences.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham moved back to clubs, more than 200 appearances a year. To maintain a connection with his fan base, he would use question cards that he had audiences fill out for his performances to build a database, which was tailor-made for the burgeoning World Wide Web. Though he was voted Funniest Male Standup at the American Comedy Awards in 1998, his club work kept him away from his wife and daughters between two and three weeks each month, which put a strain on his marriage, and made paying bills for his expanded family difficult. By 2002, Dunham was hoping to obtain more TV work to raise his profile and ease his standup schedule. Such exposure was elusive until a successful appearance on "The Best Damn Sports Show Period", where Dunham and Walter made jokes at the expense of co-hosts Tom Arnold, Michael Irvin, John Salley and John Kruk, generating laughter from them, and giving Dunham much-needed exposure. In 2003, Dunham was the frontrunner to replace Jimmy Kimmel on "Fox NFL Sunday", but hosts Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw were not amenable to the idea of being upstaged by a puppet, and, as Dunham tells it, did not provide a welcoming atmosphere to Dunham, nor allow him to get a word in edgewise during his appearance.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: On July 18, 2003, Dunham appeared on "Comedy Central Presents", his first solo appearance on Comedy Central. During his half hour piece, he showcased José Jalapeño on a Stick, Walter, an early version of Melvin the Superhero Guy and Peanut, whom Dunham had begun to merchandise into a line of dolls. The appearance was successful, but Comedy Central resisted giving Dunham more airtime, feeling that he was not a good fit for them. By 2005 Dunham decided to gamble on financing his own comedy DVD, "", which was taped in Santa Ana, California. Dunham’s manager, Judi Brown-Marmel, lobbied the network to air it, pointing to Dunham's drawing power and merchandising profits, and arguing that the network needed more diverse content. Surprised by the high ratings of the first Blue Collar Comics concert movie that same year, the network began to reconsider its brand. In late 2006, Comedy Central aired "Arguing with Myself", drawing two million viewers when it aired, and selling two million DVDs.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: In 2007, Dunham appeared as The Amazing Ken with José Jalapeño on a Stick in the Larry the Cable Guy feature film "Delta Farce".


title: Jeff Dunham

text: His second special, "", was taped at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. that same year. It served not only to cement Dunham's stardom, but to introduce his most controversial character, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, which became a viral Internet sensation. A clip of Achmed from "Insanity" attracted over 140 million hits on YouTube, making it the ninth most watched clip on that website as of October 2009. By 2008, Dunham's characters had crossed language barriers, with his specials dubbed for audiences in various countries such as France, and Dunham attracting requests for performances in South Africa, Australia, Norway, Denmark, China and the Middle East. "Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special" was taped at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that same year, and premiered on Comedy Central on November 16, 2008, watched by 6.6 million people. It became available on DVD and Blu-ray on November 18, 2008. The special's premiere was the highest rated telecast in Comedy Central's history.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: In September 2008, Dunham's career reached new heights as he began performing in arenas filled with tens of thousands of people. Dunham was somewhat wary of such large venues, but adapted by adjusting the timing of his often rapid exchanges with the puppets so that audience members farthest from the stage could have time to react.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: In addition to his comedy specials, Dunham also released his first music album, "Don't Come Home for Christmas", on November 4, 2008. It contains original Christmas songs as well as a parody of "Jingle Bells" by Achmed entitled "Jingle Bombs". All the songs, with the exception of "Jingle Bombs", were written and accompanied by Brian Haner, who joined Dunham's act as "Guitar Guy". His first onscreen appearance was in "Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special".


title: Jeff Dunham

text: In March 2009, Dunham signed a multi-platform deal with Comedy Central. It included a fourth stand-up special to air in 2010, DVDs, a consumer products partnership, a 60-city tour beginning in September 2010, and an order for a television series called "The Jeff Dunham Show" that premiered on October 22, 2009. Despite having the most-watched premiere in Comedy Central history, and higher average ratings than other shows on that network, the show was canceled after only one season, amid poor reviews and higher production costs than other Comedy Central shows.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham appeared in a guest role with Bubba J on NBC's sictom "30 Rock", playing a ventriloquist named Rick Wayne and his dummy Pumpkin from Stone Mountain, Georgia. In November 2009 Dunham also appeared with Walter in "Hart to Hart", an episode of the Disney Channel series "Sonny With a Chance", as two security guards.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham appeared in the 2010 Steve Carell/Paul Rudd comedy, "Dinner for Schmucks", as Lewis, with a new puppet named Diane.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: His fourth special, "Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos", premiered on September 25, 2011 on Comedy Central.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: In January 2008, Dunham was voted by fans the Top Comic in Comedy Central's “Stand-Up Showdown.” He is the only person ever to win the "Ventriloquist of the Year" Award twice, was nominated "Comedian of the Year" by the TNN Music City News Country Awards, and has drawn praise from the "Dallas Morning News" for his technique and timing.