title: Volleyball

text: Volleyball is a team sport. The teams are separated by a large net. It has six players on each side of the net. Each team is allowed twelve substitution players. The game starts when the captain from each team decides which side of the court they will play on, by the toss of a coin, which also determines who will serve (hit) the ball first. The point of the game is to keep the ball in the air. The ball can be played with any part of the body, with a maximum of three strokes a team. If at any point the ball hits the floor, the side that the ball landed on it is a point for the other team.


title: Volleyball

text: In 1895, William G. Morgan invented a new game called "Mintonette". However, when an observer named Alfred Halstead saw the game being played, he noticed the volleying action used to get the ball over the net, so he decided to change the name to "volleyball".


title: Volleyball

text: Morgan wanted to create a skilled activity, which required more players, less space, and less exertion than basketball. The first net was a “rope” and the first ball was a basketball air bladder. Until 1960, men and women played with different rules. Now the rules are the same except for the height of the net, the men’s net is higher.


title: Volleyball

text: A player cannot hit the ball twice. A point is gained when a team plays the ball in the opposition's court and the ball is not defended, therefore it lands within the court. The ball must be served (hit) from outside the court, otherwise, it will be regarded as a foul. The game is played in sets of 25 points (sometimes 21). The team that reaches 25 (or 21) points first, wins the set. Each game consists of 3-5 sets (or the first one to 3 in middle school). The fifth set is played to 15 points.


title: Volleyball

text: A player usually wears knee pads to protect their knees from becoming bruised during dives for the "volleyball". In order to win the game, the winners must be ahead by 2 points or the game goes on until you win by 2 points.


title: Volleyball

text: The sports governing body is the (FIVB). Digging is the ability to prevent the ball from touching one's court after a spike or attack, particularly a ball that is nearly touching the ground. Usually, the player is diving (throwing themselves towards the ground) to be the barrier to block the ball from hitting the court. In many aspects, this skill is similar to passing, or bumping: overhand dig and bump are also used to distinguish between defensive actions taken with fingertips or with joined arms.


title: Volleyball

text: Some specific techniques are more common in digging than in passing. A player may sometimes perform a "dive", i.e., throw his or her body in the air with a forward movement in an attempt to save the ball, and land on his or her chest. When the player also slides his or her hand under a ball that is almost touching the court, this is called a "pancake". The pancake is frequently used in indoor volleyball. Besides being one of the best-known sports in the world, and being a favourite to millions of people, it is in the Olympics.


title: Volleyball

text: The positions in volleyball are separated into 6 areas, the first being Position 1 which is the back right side on the side that you are. Position 2 is on the right side of the court closest to the net, Position 3 is in the middle of the front part of the court right beside the net, Position 4 is on the left side of the court right beside the net, Position 5 is in the back left side of the court, and Position 6 is in the middle of the back of the court.


title: Volleyball

text: The court is . A net is stretched tightly in the middle. The height of the net is for middle and high schools and college women, 7,11 feet (2.43 m) for college men.


title: Volleyball

text: The objective of the game is to legally return the ball over the net in such a manner that the opponent’s team cannot make a legal return. The main causes of illegal plays are: holding, carrying, or lifting with the palm of the hands, four touches on one side, and two consecutive touches by one player. A regulation game is played with six players on the court. They are to rotate to serve in a clockwise direction when facing the net. The server will come from the right front position, serve, then play the right back position.


title: Volleyball

text: Rally scoring is used in volleyball, which means a point will be awarded to one of the two teams when a rally ends or a mistake is made. A rally is a play in volleyball and can be started by a serve. A regulation game is played to 25 points and the winners must be ahead by 2 points. A middle and high school game is played best out of three games. If the games are tied at 1-1, the 3rd game is played to 15 points and the winners must be ahead by 2 points.


title: Volleyball

text: The libero is the player in the different color of jersey. The libero is only allowed to play backrow, and normally the libero is the best passer on the team. They can never rotate to the front. Typically, the libero plays backrow, left back, for the two middles. The libero is allowed to serve for one of middles, but not the other. The libero can only serve for one person.


title: Volleyball

text: Serving: may be underhand or overhand. If the serve touches the net and goes to the opponent’s side, it must be played. The server is not allowed to step on or over the end line when serving. In class, the server must say the score before serving.


title: Volleyball

text: Float: Similar to a knuckle ball in baseball, the server stands flat footed and contacts the ball with a stiff wrist and does not swing through after contact. This causes no spin to be on the ball, allowing it to catch any air current and causes the ball to change directional course throughout the whole air course.


title: Volleyball

text: Top Spin: This serve is executed by snapping hard on the ball during contact. This puts a forward spin on the ball, which causes it to drop faster than a float.


title: Volleyball

text: Jump Serve: A jump serve is used to assist the server get more height. By jumping they have a better angle to put the ball down into the court, and are less likely to be underneath the ball. This can be a float or topspin ball depending on the contact, arm swing, and approach.


title: Volleyball

text: Pass or Bump (underarm pass): This is a pass used when the ball approaches a player below their shoulders. You are to hold your fingers together, elbows straight, and contact the ball with the forearms with shoulders facing the net on impact. Defined as a dig when passing a hard driven hit. Also pancaking is a form of passing. This is when the player has sprawled out to the floor in a last hope type of decision for the ball to land on their hand and it pop straight up.


title: Volleyball

text: Set or volley: (overhead pass) direct the ball to a place specifically. Hands high, flex wrist, contact the ball with the finger pads, and elbows bent. Use your legs and arms to project the ball into the air.


title: Volleyball

text: Hit: A hard hit ball from a height above the net, straight to the opponent’s side. Contact the ball with the cupped fingers and a long arm swing.


title: Volleyball

text: Block: (defensive hit) Two hands above the head, jumping with arms reaching for a ball that has been spiked. A block is used to prevent a volley from crossing the net. it usually hits the ball straight down or up!


title: Volleyball

text: Dig: Digging is the ability to prevent the ball from touching one's court after a spike or attack, particularly a ball that is nearly touching the ground.


title: Laws of thermodynamics

text: There are four laws of thermodynamics. They talk about temperature, heat, work, and entropy. They are used in thermodynamics and other sciences, for example chemistry.


title: Laws of thermodynamics

text: Thermodynamics has three main laws: the first law, the second law, and the third law. Then there was another law, called the "zeroth law." The law of conservation of mass is also an important idea in thermodynamics, but it is not called law.


title: Laws of thermodynamics

text: The "zeroth law of thermodynamics" says temperature is an empirical parameter in thermodynamic systems. It says the transitive relationship between the temperatures of multiple bodies in thermal equilibrium. The law says: If two systems are both in thermal equilibrium with a third system, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.


title: Laws of thermodynamics

text: The "first law of thermodynamics" is a version of the law of conservation of energy, adapted for thermodynamic systems. The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant; energy can be transformed from one form to another, but can be neither created nor destroyed. It can also be stated in the following form:The energy gained (or lost) by a system is equal to the energy lost (or gained) by its surroundings.


title: Laws of thermodynamics

text: The "second law of thermodynamics" says that some things can't be undone after they are done. This indicates that entropy is real. It states that, in an isolated system, entropy can increase but cannot decrease. It can be stated as follows:Natural processes tend to go only one way, toward less usable energy and more disorder.


title: Laws of thermodynamics

text: The third law of thermodynamics "can be stated as:"A system's entropy approaches a constant value as its temperature approaches absolute zero.


title: Tamil Nadu

text: Tamil Nadu () is a state in the South of Indian Union. The capital of this state is Madras. Other large cities in Tamil Nadu include Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli, Salem, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Thanjavur and Thoothukudi. Tamil is the language spoken in Tamil Nadu. It is surrounded by the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south. A small part of Tamil Nadu borders the Arabian Sea to the west. It borders the Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The Tamilians are very proud of their language and heritage. In traditional Indian geography, it is part of the South Indian zone.


title: Tamil Nadu

text: The current chief minister of the state is M. K. Stalin. He is the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a political party. The leader of the opposition is Edappadi K. Palaniswami. He belongs to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIDMK), another political party. These two Dravidian parties have been in power alternately in Tamil Nadu since 1967.


title: Tamil Nadu

text: The eastern and western tips of the state are defined by the Point Calimere and Mudumalai wildlife sanctuaries while the southernmost tip is Kanniya Kumari (also called Cape Comorin) at the tip of the Indian peninsula. Tamil Nadu is the 11th largest state in India, with an area of 129,996 km and over 62 million people. The major river is Kaveri, which meets the needs of agriculture. Other important rivers include south Pennar, Palar, Vaigai, Tamira bharani, Manimuthar, Noyyal and Bhavani. Tamil Nadu, a South Indian state, is famed for its Dravidian-style Hindu temples. The three ancient Tamil empires of Chera, Chola, and Pandya were of ancient origins. In Tamil Nadu, the Neolithic period had its advent around 2500 BCE.


title: Venus

text: Venus is the second planet from the Sun. Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that has a day longer than a year. The year length of Venus is 225 Earth days. The day length of Venus is 243 Earth days.


title: Venus

text: Venus is a "terrestrial planet" because it has a solid, rocky surface like other planets in the inner Solar System. Astronomers have known Venus for thousands of years. The ancient Romans named it after their goddess Venus, goddess of love and beauty.


title: Venus

text: Venus is the brightest thing in the night sky except for the Moon. It is sometimes called the "morning star" or the "evening star" as at some elongations it is easily seen just before the sun comes up in the morning. At other times, it can be seen just after the sun goes down in the evening. Venus comes closer to the Earth than any other planet does.


title: Venus

text: Venus is sometimes called the sister planet of Earth as they are quite similar in size and gravity. In other ways the planets are very different. Venus' atmosphere (air) is mostly carbon dioxide with clouds of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is a chemical that is poisonous to life. For this it is sometimes known as the Earth's "evil twin".


title: Venus

text: The thick atmosphere makes it hard to see the surface. Until the late twentieth century many thought there might be life there. The pressure on Venus' surface is 92 times that of Earth. Venus is one of only 2 planets in the Solar System (the other being Mercury) that has no moons. Venus spins very slowly on its axis and it spins in the opposite direction to the other planets.


title: Venus

text: Venus is a terrestrial planet so, like the Earth, its surface is made of rock. Venus is much hotter than Earth. All the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere acts like a blanket, trapping heat from the Sun. This effect is called the greenhouse effect and it is very strong on Venus. This makes the surface of Venus the hottest of any planet's surface in the Solar System with an estimated average temperature of . This is hot enough to melt lead or zinc.


title: Venus

text: Venus has no oceans because it is much too hot for water. Venus' surface is a dry desert. Because of the clouds, only radar can map the surface. It is about 80% smooth, rocky plains, made mostly of basalt. Two higher areas called continents make up the north and south of the planet. The north is called "Ishtar Terra" and the south is called "Aphrodite Terra". They are named after the Babylonian and Greek goddesses of love.


title: Venus

text: The surface of Venus looks like it has been shaped by volcanic activity. Venus has a lots of volcanoes. The surface of Venus is estimated to be 300–600 million years old.


title: Venus

text: Unlike Earth or Mars, Venus does not have defined highlands or lowlands, and it does not have tectonic plates.


title: Venus

text: Venus' atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas with clouds of sulphuric acid. Because the atmosphere is so thick or dense the pressure is very high. The pressure is 92 times the pressure on Earth, enough to crush many things.


title: Venus

text: It is impossible to see the planet's surface from space as the thick cloud layer reflects 60% of the light that hits it. The only way scientists are able to see it is by using infrared and ultraviolet cameras and radar.


title: Venus

text: Scientists believe that billions of years ago, the atmosphere of Venus could have been like Earth's atmosphere. There may have been lots of water on the surface of Venus. But after 600 million to several billion years, the evaporation of the water put greenhouse gases into its atmosphere.


title: Venus

text: In 1967, Venera 4 found that the magnetic field of Venus was much weaker than that of Earth. This magnetic field is induced by an interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind. Venus' magnetosphere is not strong enough to protect the atmosphere from cosmic rays.


title: Venus

text: Venus can sometimes be seen passing between the Sun and Earth. Venus looks like a black dot when seen through a special telescope. These passages are called "transits". These "transits" happen in pairs eight years apart. Then it is more than a hundred years to the next pair.


title: Venus

text: Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 108 million km (67 million mi). It completes an orbit every 224.7 days. The rotation of Venus is slow. A Venusian sidereal day is longer than a Venusian year.


title: Venus

text: Mariner 2 was launched on August 27, 1962. It was made to study the atmosphere of Venus, its magnetic field, and mass. The last radio signal from Mariner 2 was received on January 3, 1963. Mariner 2 is still orbiting around the Sun today.


title: Venus

text: Venera 4 was a probe made by the Soviet Union to explore Venus. The probe had a two probes. One was designed to enter the atmosphere of Venus and use a parachute to land on the surface. Another received the information from the probe on Venus to mission controllers on Earth. Venera 4 was launched on June 12, 1967. The last radio signal from Venera 4 was received on October 18, 1967.


title: Venus

text: Mariner 5 was a spacecraft of the Mariner program. Mariner 5 was launched on June 14, 1967. The last radio signal from Mariner 5 was on October 14, 1968. Mariner 5 was made to study the magnetic field of Venus and to measure the hard ultraviolet spectrum, of the Venusian atmosphere.


title: Venus

text: Venera 9 was a spacecraft made by the Soviet Union. It consisted of a probe to orbit Venus which was called an orbiter and another probe that will land on Venus which was called a lander. It was launched on June 8, 1975. The last radio signal from the orbiter was on March 22, 1976. The last radio signal was on October 22, 1975. The orbiter was the first spacecraft to orbit Venus, while the lander was the first to return pictures from the surface of another planet.


title: Venus

text: Venera 10 was a spacecraft made by the Soviet Union. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It was launched on June 14, 1975.


title: Venus

text: Venera 13 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program. It was made to explore Venus. It was launched on October 30, 1981. The last radio signal from the lander was on March 1, 1982. The last radio signal from the spacecraft that took the lander to Venus was on April 25, 1983.


title: Venus

text: Venera 14 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program. It was made to explore Venus. It was launched on November 4, 1981. The last radio signal from the lander was on March 5, 1982. The last radio signal from the spacecraft that took the lander to Venus was on April 9, 1983.


title: Venus

text: Venera 15 was a spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. It was made to map the surface of Venus. It was launched on June 2, 1983. The last radio signal from Venera 15 was on January 5, 1985.


title: Venus

text: Venera 16 was a spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. It was made to map the surface of Venus. It was launched on June 7, 1983. Its last radio signal from Venera 16 was on June 13, 1985.


title: Cock and ball torture

text: Cock and ball torture is a sexual activity involving the penis. It is used in BDSM. Cock and ball torture works by constricting the penis or the scrotum. Methods for cock and ball torture usually involve causing pain to the male genitals, including wax play, kicking, and electrostimulation. The person who enjoys having these things done to them may feel physical pleasure from cock and ball torture via masochism, or emotional pleasure from knowing that the activity gives pleasure to a sadistic partner. Many cock and ball torture activities put the submissive person at risk of being injured.


title: 69 (sex position)

text: 69 (or spelled "sixty-nine") is a sex act in which two people align themselves so that each person's mouth is near the other's genitals (penis, vagina) performing oral sex. The 69 position can be used by a male and a female, two males, or two females. Both people are facing opposite directions which is like the numbers 6 and 9. This is where the name "69" comes from.


title: Water

text: Water () is a transparent, tasteless, odourless, and almost colourless chemical substance and covers over 70% of Earth's surface. No known life can live without it.


title: Water

text: Lakes, oceans, seas, and rivers are made of water. Precipitation is water that falls from clouds in the sky. It may be rain (liquid) if it is warm, or it may be frozen if it is cold. If water gets very cold (below ), it freezes and becomes ice, the frozen variant of water. If water gets very hot (above ), it boils and becomes steam or water vapor. It is moved around in the water cycle. Water is essential for life.


title: Water

text: Water is a fluid. Water is the only chemical substance on Earth that exists naturally in three states. There are over 40 anomalies (strange things) about water. Unlike most other liquids such as alcohol or oil, when water freezes, it expands by about 9%. This expansion can cause pipes to break if the water inside them freezes.


title: Water

text: Like other liquids, water has a surface tension, so a little water can make drops on a surface, rather than always spreading out to wet the surface.


title: Water

text: Things having something to do with water may have "hydro" or "aqua" in their name, such as hydropower or aquarium, from the Greek and Latin names for water. It is also called the "universal solvent", because it dissolves many other compounds.


title: Water

text: In small amounts, water appears to have no colour but in large amounts (such as seas or lakes), it has a very light blue color.


title: Water

text: Plants and animals (including people) are mostly water inside, and must drink water to live. It gives a medium for chemical reactions to take place, and is the main part of blood. It keeps the body temperature the same by sweating from the skin. Water helps blood carry nutrients from the stomach to all parts of the body to keep the body alive. Water also helps the blood carry oxygen from the lungs to the body. Saliva, which helps animals and people digest food, is mostly water. Water helps make urine. Urine helps remove bad chemicals from the body. The human body is between 60% and 70% water, but this value differs with age; i.e. a foetus is 95% water inside.


title: Water

text: Water is the main component of drinks like milk, juice, and wine. Each type of drink also has other things that add flavor or nutrients, things like sugar, fruit, and sometimes alcohol. Water that a person can drink is called "potable water" (or "drinking water"). The water in oceans is salt water, but lakes and rivers usually have unsalted water. Only about 3% of all the water on earth is fresh water. The rest is salt water.


title: Water

text: Many places, including cities and deserts, don't have as much water as people want. They build aqueducts to bring water there.


title: Water

text: Though people can survive a few months without food, they can only survive for a day or two without water. A few desert animals can get enough water from their food, but the others must drink.


title: Water

text: Water is used as both the coolant and the neutron moderator in most nuclear reactors. This may be ordinary water (called light water in the nuclear industry) or heavy water.


title: Water

text: Water is also used for washing a lot of objects. Goods, services and people are transported to other countries in watercrafts on bodies of water.


title: Water

text: Water is used in chemical reactions as a solvent or reactant. Water is also used in fire fighting. Water is also used for cooking.


title: Water

text: The dihydrogen monoxide parody involves calling water by the unfamiliar chemical name "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO) and listing some of its harmful effects in an alarming way. Some examples include talking about how "it causes burning, suffocation and corrosion," when it is actually just talking about hot water, drowning and rust. Sometimes the parody calls for it to be banned and/or labelled as dangerous.


title: Water

text: The prank works because it takes advantage of people's misunderstanding. Calling water by an unfamiliar name and making it sound like a harmful chemical can make people think it is dangerous.


title: Water

text: "Dihydrogen monoxide" is an alternative chemical name for water, but nobody uses it. The word "dihydrogen" means two hydrogens, and "monoxide" means one oxygen. The chemical formula of water has two hydrogens and one oxygen.


title: Water

text: The parody gained most of its popularity in the 1990s, when a 14-year-old named Nathan Zohner collected anti-DHMO petitions for a science project about gullibility. Zohner fooled a lot of people, which has led to his project being used in lessons about critical thinking and the scientific method.


title: Water

text: The website DHMO.org is a joke website which lists the harmful effects of water (DHMO), answers questions, and calls for it to be banned, among other things.


title: Water

text: A BBC short item explains that every molecule on Earth has existed for billions of years, and all of them came from elsewhere. Water is alien because it arrived on asteroids and comets. It is the second most common molecule in the universe. Why is it not a gas? It is made of two very light elements. Ice floating on water is also an oddity. Also, hot water freezes faster than cold, and no-one knows why this is. Molecules of water can move up against the force of gravity (that is due to surface adhesion).


title: Water

text: On 22 July 2011, a report described the discovery of a gigantic cloud of water vapor containing "140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined" around a quasar located 12 billion light years from Earth. According to the researchers, the "discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the universe for nearly its entire existence".


title: Water

text: Water has been detected in interstellar clouds in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Water probably exists in abundance in other galaxies, too. Its components, hydrogen and oxygen, are among the most abundant elements in the universe. Most other planetary systems are likely to have similar ingredients.


title: Water

text: We do not know exactly how the Earth came to have so much water. It is everywhere in the Universe, but it is uncommon for a place to have so much. Reasoning from first principles, every element except hydrogen has been formed in stars. Therefore, oxygen was originally formed in stars. The formation of water is not a problem: it is exothermic, so forming the molecule from its atoms does not need outside energy. But to explain why the Earth has so much compared to, for example, Mars, is not easy. It is an undecided problem in planetary geology.


title: Water

text: For a while, people thought Earth’s water did not come from the planet’s region of the protoplanetary disk. Instead, it was thought that water and other volatiles must have been delivered to Earth from the outer Solar System later in its history. But hydrogen inside the Earth did play some role in the formation of the ocean. The two ideas may each be partly right. Water was delivered to Earth by impacts from icy planetesimals (asteroids) in the outer edges of the asteroid belt. How much is not known.


title: Water

text: Liquid water is found on Earth. It covers about 71% of the surface of the Earth. Liquid water is sometimes found in small amounts on Mars. Scientists believe that liquid water is in the moons Enceladus, Titan, Europa and Ganymede.


title: Vertical bar

text: A vertical bar is the glyph "|". It has several other names besides vertical bar, such as "pipe", "vertical slash", and "bar". In mathematics, it may be put on both sides of a real or complex number to mean its absolute value. When applied on both sides of a matrix, it means its determinant. When placed in between two numbers, it means the divisibility relation (for example. formula_1 means ""a" divides "b"").


title: Vertical bar

text: In mathematics, double vertical bars are also used to refer to various mathematical concepts. These include the parallel relation (as in formula_2) and the norm of a vector (as in formula_3).


title: Tomato

text: The tomato ("Solanum lycopersicum") is a culinary vegetable/botanical fruit, or specifically, a berry (but not a fruit as ordinary people use the word).


title: Tomato

text: It is shiny and smooth. It has many small seeds. It is also very good for health. Most tomatoes are red. The tomato is green when it is unripe. It slowly changes color from green to red as it gets ripe, and as it gets ripe it gets bigger and bigger. There are many different types of tomatoes. Some kinds of tomato are yellow or orange when they are ripe. Tomatoes are used a lot in Italian food. They are also used to make ketchup. Tomatoes are called fruit, because they contain seeds. Tomato seeds are dispersed by being eaten by animals. After being eaten the seeds pass through the animal's digestive system. Although tomatoes are botanically fruits, many people consider them vegetables and treat them as such in cooking.


title: Tomato

text: The tomato is native to western South America. Wild versions were small, like cherry tomatoes, and most likely yellow instead of red. The Spanish first showed tomatoes to Europe, where they became used in Spanish and Italian food. The French and northern Europeans wrongly thought that they were poisonous because they are a member of the deadly nightshade family. The leaves and immature fruit contains tomatine, which in large amounts would be toxic. However, the ripe fruit contains no tomatine.


title: Tomato

text: The tomato is grown and eaten around the world. It is used in many ways, such as raw in salads or in slices, stewed, a part of a wide variety of dishes, or processed into ketchup or tomato soup. Unripe green tomatoes can also be breaded and fried, used to make salsa, or pickled. Tomato juice is sold as a drink, and is used in cocktails such as the Bloody Mary.


title: Boomslang

text: A boomslang ("Dispholidus typus") is a large venomous snake found in sub-Saharan Africa. Its name means "tree snake" in Dutch and Afrikaans. It is a colubrid, the largest family of snakes, found on every continent except Antarctica.


title: Boomslang

text: Boomslangs eat small animals like chameleons, frogs, and birds, and they also eat eggs. Like all snakes, boomslangs do not chew they swallow everything whole.


title: Boomslang

text: The venom of boomslangs can disrupt the clotting of blood, and this can kill a person. Even a small scratch can be fatal. After a bite, one can sometimes feel a headache, nausea, sleepiness, and get a mental disorder. This does not happen often, as boomslangs only bite humans when they feel attacked.


title: Boomslang

text: Its eyes are large in proportion to its head; they have binocular vision that helps them spot their prey. Its scientific name is "Dispholidus typus". A boomslang is a slender snake with large eyes on a large blunt head. The snake can grow to up to 2 metres long, but is on average about 1 to 1.6 m in length.


title: Iran

text: Iran officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (), historically known as Persia, is a country in Western Asia. It is part of the Middle East region. It shares borders with Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan.


title: Iran

text: Tehran is the capital and biggest city. Iran is the eighteenth largest country in the world. It has more than 84.9 million people. Iran has been a member of the United Nations since 1945. It is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It is an Islamic republic.


title: Iran

text: In Iran, Persians, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Mazandaranis, Gilaks, Lurs and Bakhtiaris make up the nations minority ethnic groups.


title: Iran

text: In the past, Iran was called "Persia" by people outside of the country. The people that lived there called the country "Iran". The official name was Persia, The name Persia was used when dealing with other countries and in government papers.


title: Iran

text: In 1935, Reza Shāh Pahlavi was Shah of Iran. He officially asked foreigners to call the country "Iran". This was done to show that Iran belongs to all the non-Persian Iranians as well as to Persian Iranians. The name Iran means "land of the Aryans". It is used in the ancient book of the Zoroastrians, the Avesta. In the 19th and early 20th century, the name "Aryan" was used by Europeans to mean "all Indo-Europeans". The "Aryan Race" was a term that Hitler used to describe his "Superior" or "perfect" race, but it first meant Iranians. "Aryan" means "noble" in Iranian languages.


title: Iran

text: Around 500 BC, the area that is now Iran was the center of the Achaemenid Empire. The Greek city states fought against the Persian armies led by Darius the Great and Xerxes. Then Alexander the Great took the country by fighting the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia. He ruled until he died,then the Greek Seleucids ruled until they were defeated by the Parthian Empire which later fought the Roman Empire.


title: Iran

text: After the Parthians, the Sassanian dynasty (224-651) took over. Other people took Persia by fi\ghting, like the Arabs (7th century), Turks (10th century) and Mongols (13th century). However, Iran has always had a different culture and continued to survive.


title: Iran

text: After the Arab Muslims conquered the Iranians, Persian women were enslaved as domestic servants while Persian men were forced to build and farm and engage hard labour. The Arab Abbasid Harun caliph had Persian concubines like Marajil al-Badghisiyya whom the later Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun descended from in the maternal line.


title: Iran

text: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) worked in Iran to create 1953 riots which led to the removal of Prime Minister Mosaddegh. The United States and Great Britain then made the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the most powerful person in Iran, again. The Shah left Iran in 1979 in the face of a revolt. The Iranian government was changed to an Islamic Republic by Islamic Revolution. Soon afterwards, the Iranian Students Movement (Tahkim Vahdat), with the backing of the new government, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. They held most of the diplomats hostage for 444 days.


title: Iran

text: Relations between the two countries have not been good since. For example, the United States claims that Iran supports terrorist groups against Israel. Iran does not see Israel as a country. Iran, along with most Arab countries, believes that Israel does not have the right to exist. However, Iran has collaborated with the West at times. These deals have been about energy or about fighting terrorism.


title: Iran

text: Now, the West is trying to prevent Iran from using nuclear technology, even though Iran is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported many times that there is no evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. However, it also says that it can not say for sure that Iran is not doing so in secret.


title: Iran

text: A December 2007 CIA report on nuclear activity in Iran said that Iran's secret program to get nuclear weapons technology was stopped in 2003. It said that Iran will probably not be able to build a nuclear weapon soon. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is a political strategy to deal with this issue.


title: Iran

text: Iran has the natural resource of oil. It is a member of OPEC. Oil is one of its main exports. Rice, handicrafts, carpets and crocus are important local products. Iran is the world's largest exporter and producer of caviar. Iran is also one of the world's biggest exporters of pistachio nuts.


title: Iran

text: Iran has factories that produce industrial products. Iran is also involved in the field of biomedical sciences.


title: Iran

text: About 90% of Iranian people are Muslim. The state religion is Shia Islam. It has been the state religion since the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century. This is the religion of about 75% of Iranians. They belong to the Twelver branch. About 9% of Iranians Muslim belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. The 9% of Iranians who are not Muslim are Bahá'ís, Mandeans, Zoroastrians, Christians and Jews. It is thought that there are between 300,000 and 350,000 Persian (Iranian) Jews.


title: Quickie (sex)

text: A quickie is a brief act of sexual intercourse. People will not usually have much foreplay with a quickie.


title: Quickie (sex)

text: A quickie may not always mean sexual intercourse. It may be oral sex or mutual masturbation. According to some, a quickie between a heterosexual couple generally satisfies only the man. Others claim that quickies (with intercourse or some other form of stimulation of the vulva) can also be "a major turn-on" for a woman. Since it may not give a woman enough time to lubricate naturally, she might need a lubricant. Some consider quickies a solution to unequal sexual desire in a relationship. If they become the only form of sex, the relationship may suffer. For gay men, a quickie sometimes means casual sex, like a hand job. It does not usually happen with lesbians, however.


title: Wiktionary

text: Wiktionary is a project in the form of a wiki to develop an online dictionary so that English-speakers can look up the meanings for words in any of the languages which Wiktionary supports (which is most of them). Wiktionary is also a thesaurus, so you can compare meanings within a language. Wiktionary is run by the Wikimedia Foundation, which also runs Wikipedia and other projects. The English Wiktionary has pages for over 7.1 million words and phrases, and 3.9 million users. Right now you are reading Wiktionary in Simple English, but like the other Wikimedia projects, the dictionary and thesaurus has projects run by speakers of several different languages; which language you are looking at can be selected from the main page.


title: Semen

text: Semen () is the fluid that comes out from the end of a man's penis when he has an orgasm (the height of sexual excitement) and ejaculates. It is usually a white or yellowish, sticky substance made up of sperm (male cells for sexual reproduction) floating in a fluid called seminal plasma that has water and different chemicals in it. Normally, an ejaculation makes between 1.5 and 5 millilitres (up to one teaspoonful) of semen.


title: Semen

text: Many cultures around the world once thought or still think that semen has special or even magical qualities. Showing semen in forms of popular culture such as art and movies has for a long time been taboo, that is, not generally accepted by society. However, since the late 20th century, artists and moviemakers have done so more often.


title: Semen

text: The English word "semen" comes from the Latin word "sēmen", which means "seed". In fact, "seed" was an old-fashioned name for semen. The Latin word "sēmen" itself came from another Latin word, "serěre", which means "to plant (a plant into the ground) or to sow (seeds in the earth)". It was once thought that semen was like a seed that grew into a baby after being "planted" inside a woman's body.


title: Semen

text: Another name for semen is "ejaculate". Some slang words for semen are "cream", "cum", "jism", "jizz", "jazz" "load", "spooge", "spunk", "nut", or "wad".


title: Semen

text: Semen is the fluid that comes out from the end of a man's penis when he has an orgasm (the height of sexual excitement) and ejaculates. It is usually white, but may also be slightly grey or yellow. If there is blood in the semen, it can look pink or reddish. This is a condition called hematospermia, and may be because of some blockage, inflammation, infection or injury to some part of the male sex organs, such as the urethra, epididymis, prostate or testicles. A doctor should be seen if the pink or reddish colour does not go away after a few days.


title: Semen

text: Men ejaculate different amounts of semen. Normally, an ejaculation makes between 1.5 and 5 millilitres (up to one teaspoonful) of semen. More semen usually comes out if a man has not ejaculated for many days, or if he has been stimulated (made sexually excited) for a long time. Older men make less semen. If a man ejaculates an unusually small amount of semen, this is a medical condition called hypospermia.


title: Semen

text: After a man has ejaculated, semen first becomes slightly thick and sticky, and may feel a bit like jelly and clump together in globs. Scientists think that semen does this so that if the man has had sex with a woman and has ejaculated inside her vagina, the semen stays in her vagina for longer and does not leak out. Between five and 40 minutes after this, semen becomes more liquid and watery. This probably allows the sperm in the semen to move through the vagina and into the woman's uterus and Fallopian tubes to try and fertilize an ovum (egg cell). If semen is ejaculated outside the body, after becoming watery it eventually dries up.


title: Semen

text: Semen is made up of sperm (male cells for sexual reproduction) floating in a fluid called seminal plasma. Sperm, also called spermatozoa, are made by a man's testicles and mature (grow up) in the epididymis. The fluids in seminal plasma come from different glands in the man's body: the seminal vesicles, prostate and bulbourethral glands (also called the Cowper's glands). (Glands are special organs in the body that make chemicals.) The table below shows the substances that make up semen and the glands that produce them:


title: Semen

text: Seminal plasma protects and provides food for sperm as they travel inside a woman's body. The inside of a woman's vagina does not suit sperm cells as it is acidic. To protect the sperm from the acid, seminal plasma is alkaline. A woman's immune system also tries to kill organisms (living things) that are not part of her body. Seminal plasma has chemicals called prostaglandins in it to stop the woman's body from killing the sperm.


title: Semen

text: Semen that does not have any germs in it (see below) is not harmful if it is swallowed, for example after a person has had oral sex with a man and the man ejaculates in that person's mouth.


title: Semen

text: "Semen quality" refers to how well the sperm in a man's semen can fertilize a woman's ova. The better a man's semen quality is, the better chances he has to make a woman pregnant. A 1992 World Health Organization book said that an ejaculation of normal human semen has:


title: Semen

text: If there are an unusually low number of sperm in an ejaculation, this is called oligospermia. If there are no sperm at all, this is called azoospermia. A man with oligospermia or azoospermia is usually infertile, and cannot or finds it very hard to make a woman pregnant by having sex with her.


title: Semen

text: If the semen does not have infections, it is okay to swallow semen. A woman cannot get pregnant from swallowing semen in her mouth. It is okay if a man swallows his own semen. Two doctors say it is good if a woman swallows semen often. They say women get breast cancer less if they swallow semen. The doctors don't know why. Other doctors must do more tests.


title: Semen

text: Studies seem to say that semen is an anti-depressant. This means that it causes women not to feel depressed or sad. The studies found that when men had sex with women without using condoms, and the men's semen was taken into the women's vaginas, the women had better moods and felt happier. Scientists do not yet know if the same thing happens when semen is swallowed after oral sex, but some of them think it may.


title: Semen

text: If a man has a sexually transmitted infection or STI (an infection that is passed from one person to another by sex), the germs that cause the disease can appear in his semen. If the person that the man has sex with touches the semen, he or she can become infected by the germs and pick up the disease. HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B, herpes and syphillis are examples of STIs. One of the ways for a man to lower the chance of passing on an STI to his sexual partner is to wear a condom on his penis when having sex. Getting semen in the mouth can be bad if the penis or semen has infections.


title: Semen

text: If semen gets in the eye, the eye will hurt. Wash the eye with warm water. Wash the eye for a few minutes. Some doctors say to get tested for infections.


title: Semen

text: Some scientists think that parts of semen, such as sperm and seminal plasma, can make another person's immune system weaker. Experiments show that when substances in a man's semen enter another person's body, that person's body makes antibodies. Antibodies are large Y-shaped proteins used by the body's immune system to stop foreign objects from harming the body. However, the antibodies made in response to substances in semen attack one of the body's own cells, called T lymphocytes. This weakens the body's immune system.


title: Semen

text: In a very small number of cases, people have experienced allergic reactions when they touched semen. This is called human seminal plasma hypersensitivity. The symptoms (signs of the medical problem) can either be near the part of the body which touched the semen, or all over the body. They may include itching of the vagina, redness, swelling or blisters within 30 minutes of contact. They may also include itching and hives (large, red, itchy patches) all over the body, and even difficulty breathing.


title: Semen

text: The best way to test for human seminal plasma hypersensitivity is for a man to use a condom when having sex. When a condom is used, after ejaculation the man's semen stays inside the condom and does not touch the body of the person he is having sex with. If the man's sexual partner usually has allergic symptoms to semen but does not have any when a condom is used, this may show that his partner's body is extra-sensitive to semen. A person can often get over a mild semen allergy by coming into contact with semen often. If the allergic reaction is very bad, the person should see a doctor, especially if she is a woman trying to get pregnant. In such cases, it may be necessary for the woman to have a baby through artificial insemination. This is a medical way of fertilizing a woman's ova using a man's sperm without the man and the woman having sexual intercourse.


title: Semen

text: Many cultures around the world once thought or still think that semen has special or even magical qualities. Some examples are set out below:


title: Semen

text: Displaying semen in forms of popular culture such as art and movies has for a long time been taboo, that is, not generally accepted by society. However, since the late 20th century artists and moviemakers have done so more often.


title: Semen

text: The American photographer Andres Serrano sometimes takes photographs of body fluids and displays them as artworks. One example is "Blood and Semen II" (1990), which is a picture of blood and semen mixed together. Some people are shocked by such pictures and think it is wrong of him to make them, while others think that as an artist he is free to create such works. Another of Serrano's pictures, "Blood and Semen III", was featured on the cover of the 1996 music album "Load" by the American heavy metal band Metallica.


title: Semen

text: The United Kingdom-based artists Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore, better known as Gilbert and George, have also used semen and other body fluids to create artworks.


title: Semen

text: Apart from pornographic movies showing people having sex, semen is usually not shown in movies as many people think that doing so is obscene (not decent). However, some movies that have shown semen are the American comedy movies "There's Something about Mary" (1998), "American Pie" (1999), "Scary Movie" (2000) and "Scary Movie 2" (2001). In the Spanish movie "Y tu mamá también" ("And Your Mother Too", 2001), there is a scene where two high-school boys who are friends lie on diving boards over a swimming pool and masturbate (make themselves sexually excited). Semen is later shown floating on the water. Such movies are usually not thought to be suitable for children to watch.


title: The Levant

text: The Levant is a term in geography that refers to an area in the Middle East. It includes the historic areas of Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine (region), Israel and Syria.


title: The Levant

text: The Levant is bounded by the Taurus Mountains to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the northern Arabian Desert to the south and Upper Mesopotamia to the east.


title: The Levant

text: The word "Levant" entered the English language in the 16th century, together with the first English merchant adventurers in the region. English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s and the English merchant company signed its agreement ("capitulations") with the Grand Turk in 1579 (Braudel).


title: The Levant

text: Today, the word "Levant" is usually used by archaeologists and historians who are talking about the prehistory and the ancient and medieval history of the region, as when discussing the Crusades. The term is also used sometimes to refer to modern or contemporary events, peoples, states, or parts of states in the same region, such as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.


title: Puberty

text: Puberty is what happens in children's bodies that changes them into adults. After puberty, people are able to make children. A girl who has gone through puberty can become pregnant and have a baby. At puberty, a boy's body begins making sperm, and he starts to be able to ejaculate, which is semen coming out from his penis when he is sexually excited. If he has sexual intercourse (sex) with a girl, he can make her pregnant.


title: Puberty

text: Puberty is started by hormones, which are chemicals that tell parts of the body to do things. Today, on average, girls start puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12. However, people all over the world start puberty at different ages. Changes that happen to boys and girls during puberty include the sex organs growing bigger, hair appearing on the body, and growing taller and stronger. These changes are called secondary sex characteristics. People often notice boys' voices getting deeper, and girls growing breasts and starting to menstruate (have periods).


title: Puberty

text: Because puberty is the time in a child's life when he or she becomes able to make children, this is seen as very important. Therefore, people in many countries around the world have different ways of marking this event.


title: Puberty

text: Puberty is started and carried on by different hormones. Hormones are chemicals that tell parts of the body to do things. Hormones are made by glands in the body. Glands are organs (special parts) of the body that make hormones.


title: Puberty

text: On average, girls begin puberty at ages 10–11; boys at ages 11–12. Girls usually complete puberty by ages 15–17, while boys usually complete puberty by ages 16–17. The major landmark of puberty for females is menarche, the onset of menstruation, which occurs on average between ages 12–13; for males, it is the first ejaculation, which occurs on average at age 13.


title: Puberty

text: In rich countries in the 21st century, the average age at which children, especially girls, reach puberty is lower compared to the 19th century, when it was 15 for girls and 16 for boys. This can be due to improved nutrition resulting in rapid body growth, increased weight and fat deposition, or eating meat from animals which have been dosed up with oestrogen.


title: Puberty

text: This is the general picture, but people round the world may start puberty at different ages. This is because their environment (things around them) may differ quite a bit. Here are some of the things that make puberty happen at different ages in people:


title: Puberty

text: Girls usually reach their adult height and become sexually mature (able to have babies) about four years after puberty starts. Boys keep growing for about six years after puberty starts. Puberty in boys starts off more slowly than in girls, but then speeds up later on. Although boys are usually about shorter than girls before puberty begins, men on average end up about taller than women.


title: Puberty

text: For most boys, puberty takes about six years and ends when they are about 17 or 18 years old. At the end of puberty, a teenager is usually about 10 to 30 centimetres (cm) (4 to 12 inches (in)) taller, 7 to 29 kilograms (kg) (15 to 65 pounds (lb)) heavier, and stronger. He is also able to make a woman pregnant (have a baby).


title: Puberty

text: The first sign of puberty in boys is that their testicles (also called the testes) and scrotum (the "bag" that the testicles are in) grow bigger. Before puberty, each testicle is about 1.5 to 2 cm (0.6 to 0.8 in) long and a volume of about 2 to 3 cubic centimetres (cc) (0.1 to 0.2 cubic inches (cu in)). About six years after puberty starts, the testicles reach their adult size. The volume of an average adult man's testicle is about 18 to 20 cc (1.1 to 1.2 cu in). However, it is normal for some men to have testicles smaller than this size, and for other men to have larger testicles.


title: Puberty

text: The penis also grows bigger during puberty. At the start of puberty, the average length of the penis is 6 cm (2.4 in). The penis reaches adult size about five years later. A study done in 1996 found the mean length of an adult man's penis is 3.5 in (8.9 cm) when it is flaccid (, ) (not erect or hard). The average length of an erect penis is about 12.9 to 15 cm (5.1 to 5.9 in).


title: Puberty

text: The testicles have two main jobs: to make hormones and sperm. The testicles make the hormone testosterone, which spreads around the body. This causes the changes in the body that make a boy grow into a man. Testosterone also makes a man feel like having sex. One year after puberty begins, when boys urinate (pee) after waking up in the morning, some sperm can be found in the urine. When a boy is about 13 years old his testicles will have grown to the stage that he may be fertile (able to make a woman pregnant). However, it will be still be difficult for him to do so. Boys usually only become fully fertile when they reach about 14 to 16 years of age. The sperm in the testicles mixes with other liquids in the body to form a whitish or yellowish and sticky fluid called semen. During puberty, two glands in the body called the seminal vesicles and prostate also grow bigger. These glands make a lot of the liquid that is in semen.


title: Puberty

text: When a man is sexually excited, he gets an erection – his penis becomes bigger, longer and harder. A male can become sexually excited if thinks about sex or sees a good-looking person, or if his penis rubs against something. During puberty, some boys also have spontaneous erections. These are erections that happen by themselves without any reason. This can be embarrassing when it happens in a public place.


title: Puberty

text: When a man's penis is sexually stimulated for some time, he has an orgasm and semen shoots out from the penis. This is called ejaculation. Boys who have not begun puberty cannot ejaculate. A boy's first ejaculation usually happens about one year after he begins puberty. For some boys, the first ejaculation takes place when they are sleeping. This is called a nocturnal emission or a wet dream. It happens without the boy's control, often when he is having a dream about sex. Scientists believe that wet dreams are the body's way of removing too much semen. A study done of 5,300 white men in the United States in 1948 found that 13% of them had their first ejaculation through a wet dream, This seems to tell us that most boys have their first ejaculation after masturbating. A male masturbates when he rubs his penis to make himself feel good sexually. The study also found that most boys who have their first ejaculation by masturbating do this a year or more earlier than boys who have their first ejaculation through a wet dream. A 2004 survey by a magazine in Canada found that most males (43%) started masturbating when they were about 12 to 13 years old. When a boy begins masturbating, wet dreams often stop happening because semen is taken out from his body regularly.


title: Puberty

text: When a boy starts to ejaculate, he usually produces only a small amount of semen. The semen is different from what an adult man produces. It is usually clear and stays sticky. It either has no sperm in it, or sperm that do not move properly or do not move at all. A boy's semen only becomes like an adult man's semen about two years after his first ejaculation.


title: Puberty

text: Not long after a boy's testicles and penis start to grow, pubic hair (, ) begins to appear. Pubic hair is hair that grows in the pubic region, which is the part of the body where the penis is. Pubic hair is shorter, curlier and rougher than hair on the head. It usually starts growing on the abdomen above the penis at the place where it joins the body. (The abdomen is the part of the torso where the navel or bellybutton is.) There may also be some hair on the scrotum. After about six months to a year, there will be a large triangle of hair in the pubic region. Within three to four years after puberty begins, there is a lot of pubic hair in the area above the penis. Later on, pubic hair also grows on the abdomen upwards towards the navel and on the insides of the thighs.


title: Puberty

text: The hair on the arms, legs, chest, abdomen and back may also become thicker. Different men have different amounts of body hair. Many boys begin shaving when hair starts growing on their faces.


title: Puberty

text: A larger amount of male hormones in the body cause changes to perspiration (sweat). This gives it a more "adult" body odor or smell. The hormones also cause sebaceous glands in the skin to make more sebum, a type of oil that keeps the skin from getting too dry. Sebum and dead skin cells can mix with a type of germ called bacteria and block pores (tiny openings) in the skin. This causes a skin problem called acne. Most people get acne during puberty. When a person has acne, he gets swellings on his skin called blackheads, whiteheads and pimples. Blackheads and whiteheads are painless, but pimples can be red and painful. They usually form on the face but can also appear on the neck, shoulders, upper back and chest. Oil glands on scalp – the part of the head on which hair grows – also make a lot of sebum. This can cause dandruff, in which small white bits of skin fall from the scalp.


title: Puberty

text: During puberty, a boy's larynx or voicebox also grows larger. This makes the laryngeal prominence or Adam's apple – the lump that sticks out of the front of his neck – larger too. As the larynx grows the vocal folds become longer and thicker, so they vibrate (move back and forth) more slowly. This causes the voice to lower in pitch or tone and become deeper. When this happens, it is sometimes said that the boy's voice has "broken". However, it actually does not happen overnight but over some time. During this time, the voice may sound scratchy. On average, a boy's voice normally reaches its adult sound when he is around 15 years old.


title: Puberty

text: Towards the end of puberty, boys go through a "growth spurt" which lasts for about two to three years. During this time, their body grows taller very quickly. When the growth spurt is at its fastest point, some people grow or more a year. This happens about two years after puberty starts, usually between the ages of 13 and 15. When a boy reaches the end of his growth spurt when he is about 18 years old, he will be at his adult height. His body will not grow much taller after that. Because of their growth spurt, boys' muscles can feel sore. These "growing pains" can feel worse if boys are active and do a lot of exercise. They go away after a while.


title: Puberty

text: Boys grow more slowly than girls, but for a longer time. That is why most men are taller than women. By the end of puberty, adult males have heavier bones and more muscle than females. In an average adult man, muscle makes up 50% and fat 15% of his weight. On the other hand, 40% of an average adult woman's weight is made up of muscle while 27% is made up of fat. Because men have less body fat than women, their hips do not grow bigger. Some bones like those in the jaw and shoulders grow more in males than in females. That is why males have wider faces and shoulders but narrower hips.


title: Puberty

text: The changes in a girl's body during puberty usually take place between the ages of eight and 18 years. Most girls will have finished puberty around the age of 15. They will have breasts and pubic hair, will menstruate (have a period) every month, and will be able to get pregnant. They will usually also have reached their full adult height.


title: Puberty

text: When the breasts start to grow, this is normally the first sign of puberty that can be seen on the outside of a girl's body. This usually happens when girls are about the age of 10.5 years. A lump that is a bit hard appears in each breast under the areola, which is the dark ring around the nipple. The lump in one breast may grow before the other one. This is called breast budding. Within six to 12 months, both breasts will have started growing. The swelling can be felt and seen outside the edges of the areolae. About one and a half to two years after the breasts first start growing, they are close to the shape and size of an adult woman's breasts. The nipple and areola may be on a smaller mound on each breast. This small mound usually goes away when each breast is fully grown. Whether the breasts are small or large depends on how much fat there is in the body.


title: Puberty

text: Between the ages of about eight and 14 (on average, at 11 or 12 years), pubic hair begins to grow along the labia (the "lips" of the vulva), usually a few months after the breasts start growing. At first the hair is thin and straight instead of curly, and there is not much of it. Within a year, the pubic hair becomes rough, dark and curly and grows in a triangle shape in the pubic region. About one year after pubic hair begins appearing, underarm hair also grows. The hair on the arms and legs also gets thicker, and some girls may have hair appearing on their upper lip and in front of their ears.


title: Puberty

text: Like boys, higher amounts of hormones in the body cause girls' perspiration (sweat) to change. This gives them a more adult body odor or smell. The hormones also cause the skin to produce more sebum (oil), which usually leads to acne.


title: Puberty

text: When girls are between eight and 11 years old, the two ovaries in their body begin to grow bigger. Each ovary is egg-shaped, and is attached to the side wall of the pelvis. The pelvis is a large set of bones in the hips. The ovaries are organs that make female hormones. These hormones cause a girl to grow into a woman, and make her feel like a woman. The hormones also make it possible for females to become pregnant and have babies. Inside the ovaries are about 200,000 ova (egg cells). For a baby to be formed, a woman's ovum and a man's sperm must come together. During puberty, the ova also grow bigger.


title: Puberty

text: Between the ages of nine and 15 years (on average, at 12 to 13 years), the vagina and uterus (womb) become bigger. The uterus is the organ in which a baby grows. The vagina is a tube leading from the uterus to the outside of the body. The opening of the vagina is inside the vulva, in between the legs. A clear or whitish fluid may start to flow out of the vagina to keep it clean. Then, about two years after the breasts start to grow, when a girl is between ten and 16 years old (on average, at 13 to 14 years), hormones made by her ovaries cause the ovaries to release an ovum, which moves into the uterus. Usually, only one ovum is released at a time. The hormones also tell the uterus to get ready for a baby, in case the ovum meets a sperm and gets fertilized. The walls of the uterus become thicker with extra tissue. Inside the thick part of the uterus are blood vessels and other nutrients that a baby will need to grow. If an ovum in the uterus gets fertilized, it sticks to the wall of the uterus and starts to grow. However, if the ovum is not fertilized, it does not stick. The uterus then gets rid of the ovum and the extra tissue by releasing it from the body. The tissue and blood flows out of the uterus through the vagina. This is called menstruation or having a period. The bleeding normally lasts for about three to five days, though some girls may bleed for longer or have a bit of bleeding between periods. The uterus then starts preparing for another ovum. For most girls, the time between their periods is about one month. For about two years after menstruation starts, the time between periods is not always the same. Some girls may skip a month, or have two periods close to each other. It is also normal to have cramps (rather painful squeezing feelings) or to feel bloated (swollen up) in the abdomen during periods. When many girls start having periods, they begin using sanitary napkins (also called sanitary pads) or tampons to soak up the blood and tissue. A sanitary napkin is a piece of material that is absorbent (able to take in liquids) which is worn between the vulva and underpants. A tampon is a stick of absorbent material that is placed inside the vagina.


title: Puberty

text: In 2004, a survey by a Canadian magazine found that most females (25%) started masturbating when they were about 12 to 13 years old.


title: Puberty

text: Because of more hormones in the body, girls start to have more fat in their breasts, abdomen, hips and thighs. At the age of ten years, the average girl has 6% more body fat than the average boy, but by the end of puberty the difference is nearly 50%. The fat makes sure that a baby growing inside a pregnant woman will have enough nutrients. Also, the bones in the pelvis move further apart to make room for a larger uterus and ovaries, and so there is space for a baby to grow in the uterus and to pass out of the body when it is born. The extra fat and wider hip bones that girls have give them a curvier shape.


title: Puberty

text: Girls also experience a growth spurt during puberty. In the first year after puberty begins, they grow about . They grow even faster the next year or so, then the growth slows down and almost stops when they start menstruating. After a girl's periods begin, she usually does not grow more than taller.


title: Puberty

text: The large amounts of hormones in the bodies of boys and girls during puberty can also affect their emotions. Young people begin to be attracted by (drawn to) each other and thinking about what it is like to have sex. They are often worried about what other people think about them. They can also feel an urge to do things that are dangerous, such as taking drugs or too many alcoholic drinks, or smoking. They sometimes want more independence – more power to decide things for themselves – and can get angry when their parents do not allow them to do things. The brains of teenagers are still growing, and it may take a while before they are mature enough to know how to make good choices about their lives. Therefore, it may be helpful for them to follow the advice of adults they trust, even if it does not make much sense to them at the time.


title: Puberty

text: Because puberty is the time in a child's life when he or she becomes able to make children, this is seen as very important. Therefore, people in many countries around the world practice Rites of passage to mark this change.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (, ) is the current President of Russia. Putin was born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, on 7 October 1952. He was the Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000, then President of Russia from March 2000 to May 2008, and Prime Minister again from 2008 to 2012. He became president again in 2012. He originally trained as a lawyer.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: Putin was born on 7 October 1952, in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). His parents were Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina ("née" Shelomova; 1911–1998). Spiridon Putin, Vladimir Putin's grandfather, was a cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: From 1985 to 1990, Putin worked for the KGB, the Soviet Union's secret spy service. Putin worked in Dresden, which was part of the former East Germany. After East Germany collapsed in 1989, Putin was told to come back to the Soviet Union. He chose to go to Leningrad, which is where he went to university. In June 1990, he started working in the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University. In June 1991, he was appointed head of the International Committee of the Saint Petersburg Mayor's office. His job was to promote international relations and foreign investments.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: Putin gave up his position in the KGB on August 20, 1991, during the putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1994, he became First Deputy Chairman of the city of Saint Petersburg. In August 1996, he came to Moscow, and served in a variety of important positions in Boris Yeltsin's government. He was head of the FSB (a secret spy service in modern capitalist Russia) from July 1998 to August 1999, and he was Secretary of the Security Council from March to August 1999.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: Putin is the leader of the ruling United Russia party. This party has been winning the Russian elections ever since the fall of the Soviet Union.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: Critics of Putin say that he has taken away people's freedoms, and that he has failed to make the country more developed. Russia makes lots of money from selling oil and gas to other countries, but because of corruption, this money is not used for improving living conditions.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: Recently, the Russian opposition has held anti-government rallies, campaigned against Putin on the Internet, and published independent reports for the general public. Because of censorship in the mass media, it's very difficult to get different information out to the public.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: On March 24, 2014, Putin and Russia were suspended from the G8. This was because the United States thought that the Ukraine crisis was Putin's fault.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: According to the Constitution of Russia, no-one can be president three times in a row. Because of this, Putin didn't put himself forward for the March 2008 election. However, you're allowed to be president as many times as you want, as long as it's not for more than two times in a row. In March 2012, Putin put himself forward for the elections, and won 64% of the vote. This means that he was the president of Russia until 2018.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: On December 6, 2017 Russia President Vladimir Putin announced he would run for a fourth term in the upcoming election, 2018 Russian Presidential Election.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: In July 2020, Russian voters backed a referendum that would allow Putin to serve as president until 2036.


title: Vladimir Putin

text: On 24 February 2022, Putin announced that his military was going to invade Ukraine. This happened after a year of tension and military buildup between the two countries. The invasion led to many calling Putin a war criminal and wanting him to be prosecuted as a war criminal.


title: 21st century

text: The 21st century started on January 1, 2001 and will end on December 31, 2100. It is the current century.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: The Protestant Reformation was a series of events that happened in the 16th century in the Catholic Church. Because of corruption in the Catholic Church, some people saw that the way it worked needed to change. People like Erasmus, Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw the corruption and tried to stop it. This led to a split in the church, into Catholics and various Protestant churches. The Protestant reformation triggered the Catholic Counter-Reformation.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: Martin Luther's posting of The Ninety-Five theses at Wittenberg is seen as the start of the Protestant Reformation. This happened in the year 1517. John Knox brought Luther's ideas to Scotland and founded the Presbyterian Church. As various countries adopted Protestant ideas, wars broke out between Catholic and Protestant factions and countries. Many people died in these wars, which included the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War. These wars were not just about religion. Since most countries have recognized (state) religion, many of the disputes were political. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 recognized Protestants when the signers agreed not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. This included their chosen religion.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: The recent invention of the printing press helped spread awareness of the Church's abuses. A start was made in translating the Bible into various local languages. For example, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale worked on translating it into the English language. Much of Tyndale's translation was used in the King James version of the Bible. Luther translated the Bible into German.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: The start of the 16th century, many events led to the Protestant reformation. Clergy abuse caused people to begin criticizing the Catholic Church. The greed and scandalous lives of the clergy had created a split between them and the peasants. Furthermore, the clergy did not respond to the population's needs, often because they did not speak the local language, or live in their own diocese. The papacy lost prestige.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: In 1515, the Pope started a new indulgence campaign to raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, a church in Rome. Preachers came to Germany to sell the indulgences, promising that money could release souls from purgatory. Martin Luther, a German Catholic monk thought this went too far. On October 31, 1517, he sent his 95 theses to the local archbishop in protest. It is said he nailed a copy to the door of a church in Wittenberg. These theses, written in Latin, were points that Luther wanted to debate. Most of them related to the problems caused by the sale of indulgences. Luther said that the idea the money could buy forgiveness prevented people from turning away from sins. He said that it also made people give less money to the poor. Luther did not attack the Pope. He blamed the abuses on others. Nevertheless, his ideas implied that the pope was corrupt also. Without Luther's permission, the 95 Theses were translated into German and sent to many places. Many people agreed with Luther. The Catholic Church tried to stop these new ideas, but without much result. Luther was considered an enemy of the Pope, and when he refused to change his ideas he was excommunicated (put out of the church). In the beginning, Luther had not planned to separate from the Catholic Church or to create a new religion; he wanted to reform the Catholic Church.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: In many countries, Christians put the needed reforms listed by Luther into practice. People began to read the Bible in their own language, and many could see for themselves how the Catholic Church had let the Christian faith become corrupted. Many who stayed in the Catholic Church adopted some of Luther's ideas. The Pope reestablished the Inquisition to combat heresy. The Catholic Church responded to the Protestant reformation with the counter-reformation. Between 1545 and 1563 the Council of Trent met to decide what to do. Some of the worst abuses were eliminated but many of the old teachings were kept. The Inquisition tried to force people to keep those ideas. Finding force not very successful, the Pope created new religious orders like the Jesuits. These new religious orders were told to combat Protestantism by educating the population to Catholicism. The Pope made the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of banned books. It had a big influence in its first centuries and was not ended until the 1960s. The Catholic Church used baroque art to touch the religious feeling of the faithful and bring them to the Catholic religion.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: In addition to the conflict in the churches, there were political consequences. Common people were made more open to questioning their leaders. In 1524-1525, millions of peasants rebelled against the nobles in the name of equality of humanity in front of God. Many countries in Europe choose Protestantism as the state religion and so Europe was divided by religion. This brought religious wars such as the French Wars of Religion. For a short time, Protestant and Catholic had managed to live with one another and with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. This Peace recognized the confessional division of the German states and gave the right to Protestants to practice their religion.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: Catholic countries such as Spain and Italy for a long time didn't allow Protestants to live there, and Protestant countries kept out Catholics. With the American Revolution the idea of freedom of religion began to expand. Protestants are influential in the United States and the English Canada. Quebec was a (formerly French) Catholic province of Canada. After the Seven Years War the British imposed the Quebec Act granting freedom of religion in Quebec, while including in Quebec some of the present day United States, for example Ohio and Michigan. Catholics were granted religious freedom in those areas. Protestant colonists saw this as one of the Intolerable Acts. In later centuries, many Protestant churches were established in the province of Quebec. Many Catholic churches began in Ohio and Michigan. Eventually most Christian countries allowed some religious freedom.


title: Protestant Reformation

text: Churches based on Reformation ideas have multiplied into different forms, especially in historically Protestant countries. Even in much of Latin America, which is historically Catholic, Evangelical churches, which follow many of the Protestant ideas have greatly expanded. In the 20th century, some countries still had state churches, but also allowed full freedom of religion. In these countries, conflict between Protestant and Catholic Christians have become less important. They have to work together to confront a more secular society. In 2016 Pope Francis praised Luther in a prayer service commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformatiom. In turn, some Protestant churches have embraced some Catholic worship traditions, and others have praised them for their stand on social issues.


title: Critical race theory

text: Critical race theory (CRT) is a way that scholars study and teach civil rights and the history of race, especially in the United States. Critical race theory shows another way of thinking and doing things than mainstream American liberal racial justice. CRT looks at social, cultural, and legal things and the way they affect race and racism. CRT says that the reason white people ended up and stayed richer and more politically powerful than people of other races was not only because of people acting racist on purpose. It was also because of complicated, changing social rules that people didn't always know were there.


title: Critical race theory

text: American legal scholars started CRT in the mid-1970s. Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, Cheryl Harris, Charles R. Lawrence III, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia J. Williams wrote about it. It became a movement by the 1980s. Critical race theory included some theories of critical legal studies (CLS) but it put more focus on race. CRT uses critical theory and scholars Antonio Gramsci, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and W. E. B. DuBois are in it, as well as the Black Power, Chicano, and radical feminist movements from the 1960s and 1970s.


title: Critical race theory

text: CRT scholars think about race as an intersectional social construct. "Social construct" means that it comes from society's rules and not from the physical world. For example, money is a social construct. A piece of paper is worth money because the society agrees that it is. For example, which continent someone's ancestors came from is a real thing. However, whether or not that is important is a social construct. When CRT says that race is not "biologically grounded and natural," it does not mean that human beings from different parts of Earth do not look different. It means that the rules around looking different are made up. Instead, they think of race as an idea that makes life easier for white people by making it worse for people in other races. In legal studies, CRT says that even laws that are color blind, meaning laws that look like they are not about race, can still have racist effects. CRT focuses on intersectionality, which means that race affects other identities, for example gender and social class, to produce complicated effects on power and advantage.


title: Critical race theory

text: Scholars who do not think CRT is good say that CRT acts as if storytelling is more important than evidence and logic, that it does not treat truth and merit as important enough, and that it opposes liberalism.


title: Critical race theory

text: Since 2020, conservative U.S. lawmakers have tried to keep CRT and other antiracism education out of primary and secondary schools. CRT is only taught at the university level, though some lower-level curricula do teach some CRT without calling it that. Supporters of CRT say these lawmakers don't talk honestly about CRT and that what they really want is for people to stop talking about racism, equality, social justice, and the history of race in America.


title: Critical race theory

text: In his introduction to the comprehensive 1995 publication of critical race theory's key writings, Cornel West describes CRT as "an intellectual movement that is both particular to our postmodern (and conservative) times and part of a long tradition of human resistance and liberation."


title: Critical race theory

text: Law professor Roy L. Brooks defines critical race theory in 1994 as "a collection of critical stances against the existing legal order from a race-based point of view". "Education Week" describes the core of CRT as the idea that that race is a social construct and racism is neither an individual bias nor prejudiceit is "embedded in the legal system" and supplemented with policies and procedures.


title: Critical race theory

text: University of Alabama School of Law professor Richard Delgado, a co-founder of critical race theory, defines it in 2017 as "a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power".


title: Critical race theory

text: Gloria Ladson-Billings, a pedagogical theorist who introduced CRT to the field of education in 1994, describes CRT as an "interdisciplinary approach that seeks to understand and combat race inequity in society."


title: Critical race theory

text: Delgado and legal writer Jean Stefancic wrote an article in 1998 called "Critical Race Theory: Past, Present, and Future." According to that article, CRT began with Derrick Bell in his 1976 "Yale Law Journal" article, "Serving Two Masters" and his 1980 "Harvard Law Review" article "Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma."


title: Critical race theory

text: Bell started out as a civil rights lawyer. He won 300 civil rights cases for the NAACP in Mississippi. Later, he worked as a professor at Harvard Law School. There, Bell made new classes about American law and how it worked with race.


title: Critical race theory

text: In 2001, Delgado and Stefancic also wrote "Critical Race Theory: a Introduction". That book talked about Bell's "interest convergence" as a "means of understanding Western racial history." The focus on desegregation after the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Educationdeclaring school segregation unconstitutionalleft "civil-rights lawyers compromised between their clients' interests and the law." Many Black parents wanted better schools for their children but the lawyers wanted a "breakthrough," a famous case that would change things for the whole country. In 1995, Cornel West said that Bell was "virtually the lone dissenter" because he wrote articles in famous law review publications challenging the ways people thought about the law and people of color.


title: Critical race theory

text: Bell wrote his own material for the classes he taught. In 1970, he turned them into a book called "Race, racism, and American law". He became Harvard Law School's first Black tenured professor in 1971. In 1980, Bell resigned from the university because he thought it was doing racist things, and he became the dean at University of Oregon School of Law. Later, he went back to Harvard as a visiting professor. While he was away from Harvard, his supporters organized protests against Harvard's lack of racial diversity in the classes, student body, and teachers. In 1981, one student protest started a new class based on Bell's course and textbook. In that class, students brought in visiting professors, such as Charles Lawrence, Linda Greene, Neil Gotanda, and Richard Delgado, to teach "Race, racism, and American law".


title: Critical race theory

text: The students asked faculty members who were people of color to teach the new courses. The university said no to the things the students wanted. They said there was no black instructor who was qualified to teach the course. Legal scholar Randall Kennedy wrote that some students had "felt affronted" by Harvard's choice to hire an "archetypal white liberal... in a way that precludes the development of black leadership."


title: Critical race theory

text: Delgado and Stefancic said Alan Freeman, who wrote in the 1970s, was also part of the beginning of critical race theory. In his 1978 "Minnesota Law Review" article, Freeman wrote about the Supreme Court and civil rights laws from 1953 to 1969. He said their interpretation of the law was too narrow to stop racial discrimination. In his article, Freeman said there were two ways to look at racial discrimination: victim and perpetrator. To the victim, racial discrimination was about real-world conditions and about the "consciousness associated with those objective conditions." To the perpetrator, racial discrimination was only about being able to perform actions without thining about the real-world conditions of the victims, such as the "lack of jobs, lack of money, lack of housing."


title: Critical race theory

text: In 1989, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, and Stephanie Phillips did a workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They called it "New Developments in Critical Race Theory." This was when people started calling it "Critical Race Theory." They said it would be an "intersection of critical theory and race, racism, and the law." Crenshaw chose Harvard to study under Bell because she had learned about him at Cornell. Crenshaw organized the alternative course using Bell's course materials. She was part of a group of students who considered themselves part of the "post-civil rights generation".


title: Critical race theory

text: After this meeting, legal scholars started writing more articles with critical race theory in them, including over "300 leading law review articles" and books. In 1990, Duncan Kennedy published an article about affirmative action in law schools in the "Duke Law Journal", and Anthony E. Cook published his article "Beyond Critical Legal Studies" in the "Harvard Law Review". In 1991, Patricia Williams published "The Alchemy of Race and Rights", while Derrick Bell published "Faces at the Bottom of the Well" in 1992. Cheryl I. Harris published her 1993 "Harvard Law Review" article "Whiteness as Property" in which she described how looking like a white person led to benefits similar to owning property. In 1995, 24 legal scholars contributed to a major compilation of key writings on critical race theory.


title: Critical race theory

text: Although CLS criticized the way the legal system had made and protected social structures that allowed racism or made it worse, CLS did not talk about how to solve this problems. Derrick Bell and Alan Freeman said that CLS could not provide solutions unless it talked about race and racism. CRT criticized CLS for focusing too much on class and economic structures and not enough on race.


title: Critical race theory

text: In 1995, Gloria Ladson-Billings and William F. Tate started using critical race theory in education. In an article they wrote in 1995, Ladson-Billings and Tate talked about why education focused on what white people think of as normal. They looked at how schooling was not always fair and equal. Other scholars have since spread this to school segregation in the U.S.; relations between race, gender, and academic achievement; pedagogy; and ways of studying social problems.


title: Critical race theory

text: According to University of Edinburgh philosophy professor, Tommy J. Curry, by 2009, many agreed with CRT's idea that race was socially constructed, not "biologically grounded and natural." "Social construct" means that even though how much dark pigment different people have in their skin is a real thing, and which continent their ancestors came from is a real thing, whether or not those facts are important is made up by society. For example, money is a social construct. A round piece of metal is real. A piece of paper with ink on it is real. But societies decide whether the metal is a coin and whether the paper is paper money.


title: Critical race theory

text: , over 20 American law schools and at least three non-American law schools offered critical race theory courses or classes. Critical race theory is also used in education, political science, women's studies, ethnic studies, communication, sociology, and American studies. Critical race theory also works with specific groups, for example Latino-critical (LatCrit), queer-critical, and Asian-critical movements. These groups work with with the main body of critical theory research. Over time, they found their own goals and ways of finding information. CRT has also been taught outside the United States, including in the United Kingdom and Australia.


title: Critical race theory

text: Scholar Karen Pyke studied and wrote papers about internalized racism or internalized racial oppression. This is when people who suffer from racism start to believe that they are not as good as whites or that their culture is not as good as white culture. They think this not because they are less intelligent or easier to trick than other people are. Instead, it is because this is how authority and power in society make people feel.


title: Critical race theory

text: In other words, institutionalized racism is when the society is set up to help some people more than others and hurt some people more than others and it isn't always easy to see this happening. With institutionalized racism, a white person does not need to do anything racist to a non-white person. The rules of the society do it for them. For example, the schools in white neighborhoods might have more and newer computers than the schools in black neighborhoods, which means the white schoolchildren will get better grades even if the black schoolchildren work just as hard. The people at the white school might not know that the people at the black school have worse computers. In English, we say this as, "this is not a level playing field."


title: Critical race theory

text: Critical race theory is like critical theory, critical legal studies, feminist jurisprudence, and postcolonial theory. Tommy J. Curry wrote that the epistemic ways in which these ways of thinking are similar come from idealism. Idealism is about discourse (i.e., how individuals speak about race) and the theories of white Continental philosophers and the way they talk about structural and institutional stories about white supremacy. These ways of speaking and thinking are important to realist analysis of racism from Derrick Bell's early writing. Black thinkers, for example, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Judge Robert L. Carter wrote about them even more.


title: Critical race theory

text: Critical race theory uses the things critical legal studies says are important. It also uses ways of looking at things from critical legal studies and civil rights scholarship, but it also argues with them. Critical race theory takes its theory from many places. Angela P. Harris says critical race theory has the same "commitment to a vision of liberation from racism through right reason" as civil rights tradition. It deconstructs some premises and arguments of legal theory and simultaneously holds that legally constructed rights are incredibly important. Derrick Bell says that Harris thinks critical race theory is committed to "radical critique of the law (which is normatively deconstructionist) and... radical emancipation by the law (which is normatively reconstructionist)."


title: Critical race theory

text: Scholars of critical race theory have used it to look at hate crime and hate speech. The U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling on hate speech in "R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul" in 1992. In that ruling, the Court struck down an anti-bias ordinance. In that case, a teenager who had burned a cross. Mari Matsuda and Charles Lawrence argued that the Court had not looked closely at the history of racist speech and the actual injury that racist speech can cause.


title: Critical race theory

text: Critical race theorists also say affirmative action is good. They say that rules for whom to fire or whom to let into a good school that are officially based only on "merit," for example grades alone, are not really race-neutral.


title: Critical race theory

text: According to the "Encyclopedia Britannica", "aspects of CRT have been criticized by legal scholars and jurists from across the political spectrum." Critics say it has a "postmodern way of looking at the truth. It also says critical race theory opposes "the traditional liberal ideals of neutrality, equality, and fairness in the law and legal procedures and of unreasonably spurning the notion of objective standards of merit in academia and in public and private employment, instead interpreting any racial inequity or imbalance in legal, academic, or economic outcomes as proof of institutional racism and as grounds for directly imposing racially equitable outcomes in those realms." People who want to use CRT have also been accused of calling criticism of CRT racist.


title: Critical race theory

text: In 1997, law professors Daniel A. Farber and Suzanna Sherry said that critical race theory did not have enough evidence to support it. Instead, they said, it was based on the belief that reality was a socially construct, that it pushed away evidence to use storytelling instead, rejected truth and merit as ways of looking at political dominance, and rejected the rule of law. In 1995, Farber and Sherry wrote that anti-meritocratic tenets in critical race theory, critical feminism, and critical legal studies may unintentionally lead to antisemitic and anti-Asian implications. They wrote in 1997 that if the system really is unfair in its structure the way critical race theorists say it is, then the success of Jews and Asians might make people say they cheated. In 2017, Delgado and Stefancic wrote a response: They said that there was a difference between criticizing an unfair system and criticizing individuals who do well inside that system.


title: Critical race theory

text: In a 1999 "Boston College Law Review" article called "Race, Equality and the Rule of Law: Critical Race Theory's Attack on the Promises of Liberalism", First Amendment lawyer Jeffrey J. Pyle said that critical race theory undermined confidence in the rule of law. He wrote that "critical race theorists attack the very foundations of the liberal legal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law."


title: Critical race theory

text: Critical race theory inspired many arguments in the United States. The first were in the 1980s. People argued about the way critical race theory questioned color blindness. Color blindness, in this article, means the idea that one person can completely ignore another person's race and treat them fairly no matter what. People also argued about how critical race theory used narrative in legal studies, advocating "legal instrumentalism" instead of ideal-driven uses of the law. People also argued about how critical race theory looked at the U.S. Constitution and other laws and they way they hleped white people keep power over other people. People also argued about how critical race theory encourages legal scholars to work for racial equity. One example of an instrumentalist approach is when lawyer Johnnie Cochran's defended O. J. Simpson in the O. J. Simpson murder case. Cochran told the jury to say Simpson was not guilty of killing his ex wife and her friend, even though there was evidence against him as payback for the way the United States and the Los Angeles Police department had treated black people. This was a form of jury nullification. Before and after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump opposed the teaching of critical race theory in schools as part of his platform. Other conservative politicians did so too on Fox News and right-wing radio shows.


title: Critical race theory

text: When Bill Clinton nominated Lani Guinier for Assistant Attorney General, Republicans said she should not get the job. One of their reasons was that she supported CRT. Clinton withdrew the nomination due to disagreements with her legal philosophy.


title: Critical race theory

text: In 2010, a state law stopped a Mexican-American studies university program in Tucson, Arizona because it said public schools could not teach race-conscious education by "advocat[ing] ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." The law banned books, including a book about CRT, from the school. State officials banned Matt de la Peña's young-adult novel "Mexican WhiteBoy" because they said it contained critical race theory. The rules against ethnic-studies programs were later declared unconstitutional because lawyers were able to prove that the state had meant to discriminate against some groups of people on purpose: "Both enactment and enforcement were motivated by racial animus," federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima ruled.


title: Critical race theory

text: In June 2021, the media reported that the proposed lessons for Australia's schools was "preoccupied with the oppression, discrimination and struggles of Indigenous Australians." The Australian Senate approved a motion from right-wing senator Pauline Hanson asking the federal government to not use CRT, even though there was no CRT in in the lessons.


title: Critical race theory

text: Conservatives in the government of the United Kingdom began to criticize CRT in late 2020. Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, who is of Nigerian descent, said during a parliamentary debate to mark Black History Month: