title: Gypsum

text: Gypsum (CaSO.2HO) is a common sulfate mineral made of calcium sulfate. Gypsum has been used as a building material for a long time, possibly since the neolithic. Today, it is an ingredient of plaster of paris. It can also be used as a fertilizer. It is softer than most minerals, with a value of 2 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. This mineral can be, somewhat, scratched with your fingernail. A fingernail, with a value of 2.5 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness is in fact higher than the mineral shown above. It is an ingredient of Portland cement.


title: Truro

text: Truro is the capital of Cornwall in South West England. It is the only city in Cornwall, and it is the most southerly city in the British Isles. The River Truro flows though Truro and boats can travel to Truro along the river.


title: Truro

text: Truro became a large town in the 19th century because of the tin mining industry of west Cornwall. When a new Church of England diocese for Cornwall was set up in 1876 Truro became the seat of the bishop. Truro Cathedral took many years to build but was finished in 1910. It is built in the Early English Gothic revival style. Truro also became the county town of Cornwall when a county council was set up in 1888. The Royal Cornwall Museum is Cornwall's county museum and is owned by the Royal Institution of Cornwall (founded 1818).


title: Dana Perino

text: Dana Marie Perino (born May 9, 1972) is an American journalist. She was the White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush, from September 2007 to January 2009. She is currently a political commentator working for Fox News. She works for the program "The Five".


title: Mass murder

text: The term mass murder refers to when a murder of four people or more happens by the same person or group at the same time. Usually the murders happen at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. The FBI defines mass murder as the killing of many people without any cooling-off period. By comparison a serial killer has a cooling-off period between murders. Murder can be done by a person, a gang, a terrorist group, a government or police. Mass murderers commit their crime for many reasons. Examples of why they do it include: politics/religion/ethnicity, sadism, being bullied, mental disorders and inceldom. In many cases, the killer commits suicide or is killed by police.


title: Mass murder

text: The University of Texas massacre in August 1966, the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, the September 11 attacks, the Virginia Tech massacre, the 2012 Aurora shooting and the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are some examples of mass murders that have happened in the United States.


title: Mass murder

text: The United Kingdom's mass murders include the Denmark Place fire in London in 1980, the Hungerford massacre in Hungerford, Berkshire in 1987 and the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Australia's mass murders include the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. France's include the November 2015 Paris attacks. Turkey's include the 2015 Ankara bombings.


title: Roman Wales

text: Roman Wales was an area of south western Britannia under Roman Empire control from the first to the fifth century AD. Romans called it Cambria but later considered it to be part of "Roman Britain" along with England. South east Wales was fully made Roman at the beginning of the fifth century.


title: Roman Wales

text: Up to and during the Roman occupation of Britain, the native inhabitants of Iron Age Britain spoke "Brythonic" languages (a sub-family of the Celtic languages) and were regarded as Britons (or Brythons). The area of modern Wales was divided among a number of tribes, of which the Silures in modern south-east Wales and the Ordovices in central and northwest Wales were the largest and most powerful. These two tribes were the ones who put up the strongest force to the Roman invasion: Mona (the island of Anglesey) was only conquered by Gnaeus Julius Agricola in 78 AD.


title: Roman Wales

text: The first attack on the Celtic tribes of what is now Wales was made under the legatus Publius Ostorius Scapula about 48 AD. Ostorius first attacked the Deceangli in the north-east, who appear to have surrendered with little resistance. He then spent several years campaigning against the Silures and the Ordovices. Their resistance was led by Caratacus, who had fled what is now southeast England when it was conquered by the Romans. He first led the Silures, then moved to the territory of the Ordovices, where he was defeated by Ostorius in 51 AD. Caratacus fled to the Brigantes, whose queen handed him over to the Romans.


title: Roman Wales

text: The Silures waged effective warfare against the Roman forces. Ostorius died with this tribe still unconquered; after his death they won a victory over the Roman Second Augusta Legion, Legio II Augusta. There were no more attempts to extend Roman control in Wales until the governorship of Caius Suetonius Paulinus, who attacked further north and captured the island of Anglesey in 60 or 61 AD. However he was forced to stop the offensive to meet the threat from the rebellion of Boudica.


title: Roman Wales

text: The Silures eventually came under Roman rule by Sextus Julius Frontinus in a series of campaigns ending about 78 AD. His successor Gnaeus Julius Agricola subdued the Ordovices and recaptured Anglesey by the beginning of 78 AD.


title: Roman Wales

text: The Romans occupied the whole of the area now known as Wales, where they built Roman roads and Roman forts, mined gold at Luentinum and conducted commerce, but their interest in the area was limited because of the difficult geography and shortage of flat agricultural land. Most of the Roman remains in Wales are military in nature.


title: Roman Wales

text: The area was controlled by Roman legionary bases at Deva Victrix (modern Chester) and Isca Augusta (Caerleon), two of the three such bases in Roman Britain, with roads linking these bases to Roman auxiliary forts such as Segontium (actual Caernarfon) and Moridunum (actual Carmarthen).


title: Roman Wales

text: Romans are only known to have founded one town in Wales, Venta Silurum (Caerwent) in Monmouthshire, although the fort at Moridunum (Carmarthen) was later superseded by a civilian settlement. The modern-day Wales is thought to have been part of the Roman province of "Britannia Superior", and later of the province of "Britannia Secunda", which also included part of what is now the West Country of England.


title: Roman Wales

text: The later part of the third century witnessed a new concern: defending the coast from seaborne marauders from Hibernia (actual Ireland). The response was a Saxon Shore-style fort at Cardiff and refurbishment elsewhere.


title: Roman Wales

text: It is not clear when the legionary garrison at Caerleon was finally withdrawn, possibly by the end of the third century, although it may have left a skeleton force there as late as the mid-fourth century.


title: Roman Wales

text: The military dispositions in late fourth-century Wales at Cardiff, Caernarfon, Holyhead and Caerhun seem to have been concerned with continuing incursions by Irish bands.


title: Roman Wales

text: The remaining recognisably military posts seem to have been abandoned c.AD 393 when soldiers were needed to counteract a rebellion in Gaul. There is some evidence that troops may have been left to guard the towns of Carmarthen and Caerwent into the fifth century.


title: Roman Wales

text: Wales was occupied by the Romans from the first century AD to the Roman withdrawal from Britain nearly four centuries later, leaving their province to develop into Sub-Roman Britain and the emergence of Wales in the Early Middle Ages.


title: Roman Wales

text: The only city founded by the Romans in Wales is Caerwent, called Venta Silurum in 75 AD when was created, and the last place to be left by the Romans.


title: Roman Wales

text: The town lacked substantial defences until the mid 4th century, when stone town walls were built. A small garrison may have been based in the town during that period. Large sections of the defensive walls are still in place, rising up to 5 metres (17 feet) in height in places.


title: Roman Wales

text: The walls have been described as ""easily the most impressive town defence to survive from Roman Britain, and in its freedom from later rebuilding one of the most perfectly preserved in Northern Europe.""


title: Roman Wales

text: Indeed, the Roman town remained occupied after the Roman troops left, until at least the end of the fifth century. Caerwent has been even called the possible Camelot of King Arthur, because it is located only ten miles from the Roman fort Isca Silurum (actually Caerleon), that Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote was the place of the Round Table.


title: Roman Wales

text: Furthermore, it appears that Christian worship was already established in the town in the fifth century, and it may have had a bishop. A monastery was founded by Saint Tatheus in the 6th century, and a Christian cemetery was also established around the site of the present church.


title: Roman Wales

text: The name "Venta" gave its name to the emerging Kingdom of Gwent, and the town itself became known as "Caer-went" or "Castra/Fort of Venta/Gwent". Tradition holds that Caradog Freichfras of Gwent moved his court from Caerwent to Portskewett during the second half of the 6th century, finishing in this way the last romanised presence in Wales.


title: Roman Wales

text: Finally, Gwyn A. Williams argues that even at the time of the erection of Offa's Dyke (that divided Wales from medieval England) the people to its west saw themselves as "Roman", citing the number of Latin inscriptions still being made into the 8th century.


title: Benedict Cumberbatch

text: Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. His most famous roles include Sherlock Holmes in "Sherlock" (2010), Peter Guillam in the spy thriller "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011), Stephen Hawking in "Hawking" (2004), William Pitt in "Amazing Grace" (2006), and his Academy Award-nominated role as Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game". He was nominated for another Academy Award for his role as Phil Burbank in "The Power of the Dog" in 2022.


title: Benedict Cumberbatch

text: He also played Stephen Ezard in "The Last Enemy" (2008), Paul Marshall in "Atonement" (2007), Bernard in "Small Island" (2009), as Khan in "Star Trek Into Darkness",


title: Benedict Cumberbatch

text: He voiced the character Smaug, and the Necromancer in "The Hobbit" (2012). Cumberbatch played Julian Assange in the 2013 movie "The Fifth Estate". He ranked #1 in Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars" in 2013. He was named one of the most influential people in the world by TIME magazine in 2014.


title: Benedict Cumberbatch

text: In 2000 Cumberbatch acted on TV for the first time in an episode of "Heartbeat", and was on the show again in 2004. He began acting in theatre in 2001. He played Ford in "12 Years a Slave". In 2013 Cumberbatch was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television at the Golden Globes.


title: Benedict Cumberbatch

text: Benedict Cumberbatch was born to a family that was already wealthy. His parents were both actors, and his ancestor Abraham Cumberbatch started a sugar plantation in the British colony of Barbados which was worked by slaves. As an adult, he dated actress Olivia Poulet. On 5 November 2014, Cumberbatch announced his engagement to Sophie Hunter. On 14 February 2015, Cumberbatch married Hunter. They have three sons, Christopher Carlton (born 1 June 2015), Hal Auden (born 3 March 2017) and Finn (born 11 January 2019).


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The Gunpowder Conspiracy of 1605 was a plan to assassinate King James I of England and VI of Scotland. Other names for the plot are The Powder Treason or The Gunpowder Plot. A group of Catholics wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605. This would have killed the king, and most of the Protestant aristocracy.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The conspirators also planned to kidnap the royal children, and lead a popular revolt in the Midlands.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Robert Catesby led the planning of the conspiracy, which started in May 1604. The people who helped him were either rich Catholics, or gentry families who had a lot of influence. Catesby may have come up with the plot when he saw that there was little hope that Great Britain would become more tolerant to Roman Catholics, under King James I. Many Catholics were disappointed about the situation. It is more likely though that Catesby simply wanted to give the Catholics in England a chance: The plot was to be the first step of a rebellion. Afterwards, James' nine-year-old daughter (Princess Elizabeth) could be put in as a Catholic head of state.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Other plotters were Thomas Winter (also spelled Wintour), Robert Winter, John Wright, Christopher Wright, Robert Keyes, Thomas Percy (also spelled Percye), John Grant, Ambrose Rokewood, Sir Everard Digby, Francis Tresham and Thomas Bates (Catesby's servant). The explosives were prepared by Guy "Guido" Fawkes, a man with 10 years military experience. Fawkes had fought with the Spanish against the Dutch in the Spanish Netherlands.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The main Jesuit in England, Father Henry Garnet was said to know the details of the plot. Oswald Tesimond, a fellow Jesuit had told him. Robert Catesby confessed them to Tesimond, and gave him the permission to tell Garnet. Although he was convicted, there has since been some debate over how much Garnet really knew. As the details of the plot were known through confession, Garnet was not allowed to reveal them to the authorities. He did not think it was a good idea. Nevertheless, the plot went ahead. Garnet's opposition to it did not save him from being hanged, drawn and quartered for treason in 1606, though.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: In the 17th century, the Palace of Westminster was made of many buildings, spread over a large area. They were grouped around the medieval chambers, chapels, and halls of the old royal palace. This palace housed both Parliament and the various law courts. The palace was also easier to access than it is today. Merchants, lawyers, and other people lived and worked on the palace grounds.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: As a member of the King's Bodyguard, Percy was able to lease rooms next to the House of Lords, in May 1604. The plotters' original idea was to dig their way under the foundations of the Lords chamber to put the gunpowder there. The main idea was to kill James, but many other important targets would be present, including most of the Protestant nobility and senior bishops of the Church of England. Guy Fawkes, as "John Johnson", was put in charge of this building, where he posed as Percy's servant. Catesby's house in Lambeth was used to store the gunpowder with the tools for digging.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: However, the Black Plague came back to London in the summer of 1604 and proved to be particularly severe. For this reason, the opening of Parliament was changed to 1605. By Christmas Eve, the miners had still not reached the buildings of Parliament, and just as they restarted work early in 1605, they learned that the opening of Parliament had been further postponed to 3 October. The plotters then took the opportunity to row the gunpowder up the Thames from Catesby's house in Lambeth, to hide it in their new rented house: they had learned (by chance) that a coal merchant named Ellen Bright had vacated a ground-floor undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords chamber. Presented with this golden opportunity, Percy immediately took pains to secure the lease. He created the story that his wife would join him in London and that he would need the extra storage space.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Fawkes assisted in filling the room with gunpowder, which was hidden beneath a wood store under the House of Lords building, in a cellar leased from John Whynniard. By March 1605, they had filled the undercroft underneath the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder, hidden under a store of winter fuel. Had all 36 barrels been successfully ignited, the explosion could easily have reduced many of the buildings in the Old Palace of Westminster complex to rubble, and would have blown out windows in the surrounding area of about a one kilometre radius.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The conspirators left London in May, and went to their homes or to different areas of the country, because being seen together would arouse suspicion. They arranged to meet again in September; however, the opening of Parliament was again postponed.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The weakest parts of the plot were the arrangements for the subsequent rebellion which would have swept the country and installed a Catholic monarch. Due to the requirements for money and arms, Sir Francis Tresham was eventually admitted to the plot, and it was probably he who betrayed the plot in writing to his brother-in-law Lord Monteagle. An anonymous letter revealed some of the details of the plot; it read: "I advise you to devise some excuse not to attend this parliament, for they shall receive a terrible blow, and yet shall not see who hurts them".


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: According to the confession made by Fawkes on Tuesday 5 November 1605, he had left Dover around Easter 1605, bound for Calais. He then travelled to Saint-Omer and on to Brussels, where he met with Hugh Owen and Sir William Stanley before making a pilgrimage to Brabant. He returned to England at the end of August or early September, again by way of Calais.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Guy Fawkes was left in charge of executing the plot, while the other conspirators fled to Dunchurch in Warwickshire to await news. Once Parliament had been destroyed, the other conspirators planned to start a revolt in the Midlands.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: During the preparation, several of the conspirators had been concerned about the safety of fellow Catholics who would be present in Parliament on the day of the planned explosion. On the evening of Friday, 26 October Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter while at his house in Hoxton.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Monteagle had the note read out loud, possibly to warn the plotters that the secret was out, and promptly handed it over to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, the Secretary of State. The conspirators learned of the letter the following day, but decided to go ahead with their plan, especially after Fawkes inspected the undercroft and found that nothing had been touched.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Having been shown the letter, the King ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament, which he did in the early hours of 5 November. Shortly after midnight, Fawkes was found leaving the cellar the conspirators had rented and was arrested, giving his name as John Johnson. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal. Far from denying his intentions during the arrest, Fawkes stated that it had been his purpose to destroy the King and the Parliament. Nevertheless, Fawkes maintained his false identity and continued to insist that he was acting alone. Later in the morning, before noon, he was again interrogated. He was questioned on the nature of his accomplices, the involvement of Thomas Percy, what letters he had received from overseas and whether or not he had spoken with Hugh Owen.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: A letter written by Gentleman of the Bedchamber, Sir Edward Hoby gave details of all those that would have been caught in the explosion:


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: On 5 November we began a Parliament, to which the King should have cometh in person, but refrained through a practice but that morning discovered. The plot was to have blown up the King at such time as he should have been sat in his royal throne, Nobility and Commons and with all Bishops, Judges and Doctors at one instant, and the blast to have ruined the whole estate and kingdom of England.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Fawkes was taken to the Tower of London and interrogated there under torture. Torture was forbidden, except by the express instruction of the monarch or a body such as the Privy Council or the Star Chamber. In a letter of 6 November, King James I stated:


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The people were happy to learn that the king and his sons survived the Gunpowder Plot. The next parliament had feelings of loyalty and goodwill, which Salisbury used to get higher subsidies for the king than those granted in Elizabeth's reign. In his speech to both Houses on 9 November, James talked about two main topics: the Divine Right of Kings and the Catholic question. He insisted that the plot had been the work of only a few Catholics, not of the English Catholics as a whole, and he reminded the assembly to rejoice at his survival, since kings were divinely appointed and he owed his escape to a miracle.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: On hearing of the failure of the terrorist plot, the conspirators fled towards Huddington Court near Worcester, a family home of Thomas and Robert Wintour. Heavy rain, however, slowed their travels. Many of them were caught by Richard Walsh, the Sheriff of Worcestershire, when they arrived in Stourbridge.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The remaining men attempted a revolt in the Midlands. This failed, coming to a dramatic end at Holbeche House in Staffordshire, where there was a shoot-out resulting in the deaths of Catesby and Percy and capture of several other principal conspirators. Jesuits and others were then rounded up in other locations in Britain, with some being killed by torture during interrogation. Robert Wintour managed to remain on the run for two months before he was captured at Hagley Park.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The conspirators were tried on 27 January 1606 in Westminster Hall. All of the plotters pleaded "Not Guilty" except for Sir Everard Digby, who attempted to defend himself on the grounds that the King had reneged on his promises of greater tolerance of Catholicism. Sir Edward Coke, the attorney general, prosecuted, and the Earl of Northampton made a speech refuting the charges laid by Sir Everard Digby. The trial lasted one day (English criminal trials generally did not exceed a single day's duration) and the verdict was never in doubt.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The trial ranked highly as a public spectacle, and there are records of up to 10 shillings being paid for entry. Four of the plotters were executed in St. Paul's Churchyard on 30 January. On 31 January, Fawkes, Winter and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster, in front of the scene of the intended crime, where they were to be hanged, drawn and quartered.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Fawkes, although weakened by torture, cheated the executioners: when he was to be hanged until almost dead, he jumped from the gallows, breaking his neck and killing himself, thus avoiding the gruesome latter part of his execution.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Henry Garnet was executed on 3 May 1606 at St Paul's. His crime was of being the confessor of several members of the Gunpowder Plot, and as noted, he had opposed the plot. Many spectators thought that his punishment was too severe. Antonia Fraser writes:


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Due to the Gunpowder Plot, many Catholics found themselves persecuted or imprisoned in the Tower of London, including the following:


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Greater freedom for Catholics to worship as they chose seemed unlikely in 1604, but after the plot in 1605, changing the law to afford Catholics leniency became unthinkable; Catholic Emancipation took another 200 years. Nevertheless, many important and loyal Catholics retained high office in the kingdom during King James' reign.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Interest in the demonic was heightened by the Gunpowder Plot. The king himself had become engaged in the great debate about other-worldly powers in writing his "Daemonology" in 1597, before he became King of England as well as Scotland. The apparent devilish nature of the gunpowder plot also partly inspired William Shakespeare's "Macbeth". Demonic inversions (such as the line "fair is foul and foul is fair") are frequently seen in the play. Another possible reference made in Macbeth was to equivocation, as Henry Garnett’s "A Treatise of Equivocation" was found on one of the plotters, and a resultant fear was that Jesuits could evade the truth through equivocation:


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The Gunpowder Plot was commemorated for years after the plot by special sermons and other public acts, such as the ringing of church bells. It added to an increasingly full calendar of Protestant celebrations which contributed to the national and religious life of seventeenth-century England. Through various permutations, this has evolved into the Bonfire Night of today.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Professor Ronald Hutton has considered the possible events which could have followed the successful implementation of the Gunpowder Plot, with the resultant destruction of Parliament and death of the king. He concluded that the violence of the act would have instead resulted in a more severe backlash against suspected Catholics. Without the involvement of some form of foreign aid, success would have been unlikely, as most Englishmen were loyal to the institution of the monarchy, despite differing religious convictions. England could very well have become a more "Puritan absolute monarchy", as "existed in Sweden, Denmark, Saxony, and Prussia in the seventeenth century", rather than follow the path of parliamentary and civil reform that it did.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: When Parliament met in January 1606 for the first time after the plot they passed an Act of Parliament called the "Thanksgiving Act". This made services and sermons commemorating the Plot an annual feature on 5 November. The act remained in force until 1859. On 5 November 1605, it is said that the people of London celebrated the defeat of the plot with fires and street festivities. The tradition of marking the day with the ringing of church bells and bonfires started soon after the Plot and fireworks were also included in some of the earliest celebrations. In Britain the fifth of November is also called Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night or Guy Fawkes Night.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: It remains the custom in Britain, on or around 5 November, to let off fireworks. Traditionally, in the weeks running up to the 5th, children made "guys"—effigies supposedly of Fawkes—usually made from old clothes stuffed with newspaper, and with a grotesque mask, to be burnt on 5 November bonfire. These effigies would be shown in the street, to collect money for fireworks, although this practice is becoming less common. The word "guy" came thus in the 19th century to mean an oddly dressed person, and in the 20th and 21st centuries to mean any male person.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Institutions and towns may hold firework displays and bonfire parties, and the same is done on a smaller scale in back gardens throughout the country. In some areas, particularly in Sussex, there are extensive processions, large bonfires and firework displays organised by local bonfire societies; the most extensive of which takes place in Lewes.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The Houses of Parliament are still searched by the Yeomen of the Guard before the State Opening of Parliament, however, this is done as a traditional custom rather than a serious anti-terrorist precaution.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: A commemorative British two pound coin was issued in 2005 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the plot.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The cellar in which Fawkes watched over his gunpowder was demolished in 1822. The area was further damaged in the 1834 fire and destroyed in the subsequent rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster. The lantern which Guy Fawkes carried in 1605 is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. A key supposedly taken from him is in Speaker's House, Palace of Westminster. These two items were shown in a major exhibition held in Westminster Hall from July to November 2005.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: According to Esther Forbes (a biographer), the Guy Fawkes Day celebration in the pre-revolutionary American Colonies was a very popular holiday. In Boston, the celebration took on anti-authoritarian overtones, and often became so dangerous that many would not venture out of their homes.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: In November 1930, taking advantage of the bonfires used on the holiday, Alfred Arthur Rouse murdered an unknown man and planted his body as a substitute for Rouse's in his Morris Minor (1928) automobile (which was then set alight). The scheme did not work out, and Rouse was arrested, tried and executed for the crime.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: Many at the time felt that Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury had been involved in the plot to gain favour with the king and enact more stridently anti-Catholic legislation. Such theories alleged that Cecil had either actually invented the plot or allowed it to continue when his agents had already infiltrated it, for the purposes of propaganda. These rumours were the start of a long-lasting conspiracy theory about the plot. Yet while there was no "golden time" of "toleration" of Catholics which Father Garnet had hoped for at the start of James' reign, the legislative backlash had nothing to do with the plot: it had already happened by 1605, as recusancy fines were re-imposed and some priests expelled. There was no purge of Catholics from power and influence in the kingdom after the Gunpowder Plot, despite Puritan complaints. The reign of James I was, in fact, a time of relative leniency for Catholics, few being subject to prosecution.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: This did not dissuade some from continuing to claim Cecil's involvement in the plot. In 1897 Father John Gerard of Stonyhurst College, namesake of a Jesuit priest who had performed Mass to some of the plotters, wrote an account called "What was the Gunpowder Plot?", alleging Cecil's culpability. This prompted a refutation later that year by Samuel Gardiner, who argued that Gerard had gone too far in trying to "wipe away the reproach" which the plot had exacted on generations of English Catholics. Gardiner portrayed Cecil as guilty of nothing more than opportunism. Subsequent attempts to prove Cecil's responsibility, such as Francis Edwards's 1969 work "Guy Fawkes: the real story of the gunpowder plot?", have similarly foundered on the lack of positive proof of any government involvement in setting up the plot. There has been little support by historians for the conspiracy theory since this time, other than to acknowledge that Cecil may have known about the plot some days before it was uncovered.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: According to the historian Lady Antonia Fraser, the gunpowder was taken to the Tower of London magazine. It would have been reissued or sold for recycling if in good condition. Ordnance records for the Tower state that 18 hundredweight (equivalent to about 816 kg) of it was "decayed", which could imply that it was rendered harmless due to having separated into its component chemical parts, as happens with gunpowder when left to sit for too long—if Fawkes had ignited the gunpowder during the opening, it would only have resulted in a weak splutter. Alternatively, "decayed" may refer to the powder being damp and sticking together, making it unfit for use in firearms — in which case the explosive capabilities of the barrels would not have been significantly affected.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: "", an ITV programme presented by Richard Hammond and broadcast on 1 November 2005, re-enacted the plot by blowing up an exact replica of the 17th-century House of Lords filled with test dummies, using the exact amount of gunpowder in the underground of the building. The dramatic experiment, conducted on the Advantica Spadeadam test site, proved unambiguously that the explosion would have killed all those attending the State Opening of Parliament in the Lords chamber.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The power of the explosion, which surprised even gunpowder experts, was such that seven-foot deep solid concrete walls (made deliberately to replicate how archives suggest the walls in the old House of Lords were constructed) were reduced to rubble. Measuring devices placed in the chamber to calculate the force of the blast were themselves destroyed by the blast, while the skull of the dummy representing King James, which had been placed on a throne inside the chamber surrounded by courtiers, peers and bishops, was found a large distance away from the site. According to the findings of the programme, no-one within 100 metres of the blast could have survived, while all the stained glass windows in Westminster Abbey would have been shattered, as would all windows within a large distance of the Palace. The power of the explosion would have been seen from miles away, and heard from further still. Even if only half the gunpowder had gone off, everyone in the House of Lords and its environs would have been killed instantly.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: The programme also disproved claims that some deterioration in the quality of the gunpowder would have prevented the explosion. A portion of deliberately deteriorated gunpowder, at such a low quality as to make it unusable in firearms, when placed in a heap and ignited, still managed to create a large explosion. The impact of even deteriorated gunpowder would have been magnified by the impact of its compression in wooden barrels, with the compression overcoming any deterioration in the quality of the contents. The compression would have created a cannon effect, with the powder first blowing up from the top of the barrel before, a millisecond later, blowing out. In addition, mathematical calculations showed that Fawkes, who was skilled in the use of gunpowder, had used double the amount of gunpowder needed.


title: Gunpowder Plot

text: A sample of the gunpowder may have survived: in March 2002, workers investigating archives of John Evelyn at the British Library found a box containing various samples of gunpowder and several notes suggesting a relation to the Gunpowder Plot:


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: The Provisional Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that wanted to unite Ireland, by using armed force to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, mainly during The Troubles era. It split from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1969. Its violent activities formally ended in 1997. During that time, about 10,000 people were members. In 2002, there were about 1,000 people left; 300 of them were still in active service. In July 2005 it destroyed all its weapons and bombs.


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: Its opponents were the British Army, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and loyalist paramilitary groups like the Ulster Volunteers. The PIRA aimed to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist republic within a united Ireland. It tried to do this through armed attacks and explosions and by using political persuasion.


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: The Provisional Irish Republican Army is also referred to as the IRA, the PIRA, the Provos, or by its supporters as the Army or the 'RA. The PIRA usually refers to its members as volunteers. The IRA is a listed in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000. It is also listed as an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland. The United States does not list the IRA as a "foreign terrorist organization", but includes them in the category of "other selected terrorist groups also deemed of relevance in the global war on terrorism.".


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: The IRA's first strategy was to use force to destroy the Northern Ireland administration and to hurt or kill enough British soldiers and police officers that the British government would leave. The IRA recruited volunteers. They got more volunteers after the 1972 Bloody Sunday attack, in which the British military fired on protesters. The IRA then attacked against British military and economic targets. They were supported by arms and funding from Libya and from some groups in the United States.


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: The IRA agreed to a ceasefire in February 1975, which lasted nearly a year. Then the IRA decided it could not meet its goals with the ceasefire. As a result, the IRA launched a new strategy known as "the Long War". This started a war of attrition against the British. As well, they did more political activity through the political party Sinn Féin.


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: The 1981 Irish hunger strike in helped the IRA to gain support and win elections. This led to the Armalite and ballot box strategy which aimed at doing more political activity. The unsuccessful attempt to do more military attacks led republican leaders to look for a political solution. Sinn Féin got more distanced from the IRA. Following negotiations with the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and with British civil servants, the IRA called a ceasefire in 1994. They expected that Sinn Féin would be included in political talks for solving the disputes. When the British government demanded the disarmament of the IRA before it allowed Sinn Féin into talks, the IRA called off its ceasefire in February 1996.


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: After the ceasefire was reinstated in July 1997, Sinn Féin was admitted into all-party talks. This produced the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The IRA's armed campaign, primarily in Northern Ireland but also in England and mainland Europe, caused the deaths of approximately 1,800 people. The dead included around 1,100 members of the British security forces, and about 640 civilians. The IRA itself lost 275–300 members, of an estimated 10,000 total over the 30-year period.


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: On 28 July 2005, the IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign. The IRA stated that it would use only political and democratic processes. Soon after, the IRA destroyed its guns and bombs.


title: Provisional Irish Republican Army

text: Two small groups split from the Provisional IRA, the Continuity IRA in 1986, and the Real IRA in 1997. Both reject the Good Friday Agreement and continue to engage in paramilitary activity.


title: Baking

text: Baking is a skill or way of cooking food in an oven. Sometimes, though, baking can also be done in hot ashes, or hot stones. It is used for making bread, cakes, pastries, pies, tarts, cookies, and much more. Such foods made by baking are called "baked goods".


title: Baking

text: The ingredients used in baking include flour, water, leavening agents (baker's yeast, baking soda, baking powder), shortening (fats, oils), eggs, milk, and sugars. These are all mixed together to create dough or batter, which is then put into a pan or a sheet and heated. Leavening agents produce gas that becomes trapped in the dough. This makes it rise. Shortening makes doughs more easily workable and the bread that comes out in the end more soft and tender. Egg whites are used to help make a light, airy texture.


title: Baking

text: Baked goods are sold at a bakery. A person who makes baked goods as a job is called a baker. It is also used for making baked potatoes, baked apples, baked beans, some casseroles and pasta dishes such as lasagna, and various other foods, such as the pretzel.


title: Baking

text: In ancient history, the first baking happened when humans took wild grass grains, and soaked them in water. Then they mixed everything together, and also mashed it. After that, this mixture was poured onto a flat, hot rock, and roasted on hot embers. This new way of making bread was much easier than the other ways of doing so. This was because bread could be made anytime if there was fire.


title: Baking

text: Around 2500 BC Egyptians had bread, and may have learned how to make it from the Babylonians. Also, the Greeks around 400 B.C. tarts with patterns and honey was included in Greek food. Dispyrus, another type of baked good, was also made by the Greeks around that time. It was popular. Dispyrus was a donut-like bread made from flour and honey and shaped in a ring. Soaked in wine, it was eaten when hot. The first proof of stone ovens was in Italy, where they made pizza and pasta.


title: Baking

text: Baking was very popular in the Roman Empire. In about 300 B.C., the pastry cook became a special job for Romans (called the "pastillarium"). Romans loved pastry, which was often cooked for large parties. Baking became so popular during the Roman Empire that someone who could think of a new kind of pastry was given an award. Around 1 AD there were more than 300 pastry chefs in Rome.


title: Baking

text: Eventually, because of Rome, the art of baking became known in Europe. It later spread to the eastern parts of Asia, too. Bakers sometimes bake goods at home and then sell them in the streets. In London, chefs sold their baked goods from handcarts. In Paris, the first café of baked goods was made. Baking became a real art in the world. Cakes can be actually mixed in just a few minutes, with only a small bit of skill needed, and it can be lifted fresh from the oven in less than 30 minutes. A basic loaf of bread may take slightly longer time, but it does not demand a lot of time from the cook.


title: Big Van Vader

text: Leon Allen White (May 14, 1955 – June 18, 2018) was a retired American professional wrestler. He was better known by the ring name, Big Van Vader.


title: Big Van Vader

text: Vader began his wrestling career at the World Heavyweight Championship (AWA) in (1985) and remained on the company for two years until (1987). He then traveled to Japan where he was hired by the New Japan Pro Wrestling. Vader won the final competition between eight men against Shinya Hashimoto and was crowned champion. Then a month after being crowned champion, Vader lost the title to the Russian Hashimikov Salman. Then recovered the titled against the winner of Hashimikov- Riki Choshu, thus becoming World Heavyweight Champion again CWA. Vader continued performing in Europe under the name of Otto Wanz. In 1990, Vader returned to America and was hired by World Championship Wrestling, in WCW Vader got a chance to face Sting in the July 12 event The Great American Bash 1992, where Sting defeated, and Vader and crowned as the new world champion heavyweight WCW. After having bloody battles against Mick Foley, Vader faced none other than Hulk Hogan in 1995. After leaving WCW, Vader returned to Japan in 1996.


title: Big Van Vader

text: In 1996, Vader was hired by World Wrestling Federation, Vader appeared at WrestleMania XII, in a fight between six Vader, Owen Hart, British Bulldog vs Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson and Jake Roberts. Vader's team won the match. Vader faced the champion of the WWF Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam in 1996, and then faced The Undertaker in the Royal Rumble.


title: Big Van Vader

text: In 1998 Vader returned to Japan in All Japan Pro Wrestling, then went to the Pro Wrestling Noah between 2000 and 2002 before being hired by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Vader turned to work for the WWE in 2003 performing in several episodes of Raw where he retired from the wrestling in 2012.


title: Big Van Vader

text: In 2016, Vader was diagnosed with congestive heart failure following a car crash. White went in for heart surgery on March 12, 2018 followed by another in May to treat an arrhythmia.


title: Big Van Vader

text: On June 18 2018, after being hospitalized in Boulder, Colorado for a month with pneumonia, Vader died at 63 years old.


title: Eunuch

text: A eunuch is a castrated man. His genitals have been removed. This can be cutting off the testicles. The term "castration" is sometimes used to refer to emasculation where both the testicles and the penis are removed together.


title: Eunuch

text: Over the millennia since, eunuchs had a lot of different functions in different cultures such as domestics, treble singers, religious specialists, government officials, military commanders, and guardians of women or harem servants. When eunuchs ran a harem, a monarch could be sure he was the one who fathered his wives' children since eunuchs were always infertile.


title: Black widow

text: Black widows are spiders. Their scientific name is "Latrodectus mactans". They share the genus name "Latrodectus" with several similar spiders (sometimes called "widow spiders").


title: Black widow

text: The female spider is shiny black and has a round abdomen with a red hourglass pattern on its underside. They are closely related to another group called "Steotoda" (sometimes called "false widow spiders). That group contains species that are not dangerous to humans. All of the true widow spiders can give bites that are harmful to human beings and may kill children or people who are not in good health.


title: Black widow

text: Female widow spiders are rather large. They have a body length of approximately 0.5 inch. The males of the widow spiders are much smaller than the females.


title: Black widow

text: Both the widow spiders and the "Steotoda" spiders belong to a larger group that includes many kinds of spiders that make similar kinds of webs and have the same general body shape.


title: Black widow

text: Black widow spiders live in warm places all over the world. They like to build their webs in safe places under something like an overturned box sitting on the ground. Often they are found under the seats of outdoor toilets. They like to be left alone, so they rarely come inside places where people live. They only bite when they feel threatened.


title: Black widow

text: Like other spiders, black widows bite for two reasons: to kill things to eat and to protect themselves. They catch flying insects in their webs and bite them so that they will stop fighting to get free. When people put their hands into this spider's web they might get bitten by mistake, but usually people get bitten when they squeeze a spider and the spider defends itself. Unfortunately, humans are very sensitive to the venom that the spider gives in its bite. The good thing is that widow spiders almost always run away if they can. If something big hits their web then they drop straight down to the ground and run away.


title: Black widow

text: Black widows eat mostly flies and moths. The female black widow is infamous for eating males of its kind, hence the "widow" in black.


title: Mad Libs

text: One player chooses a story and then replaces words with blanks containing (noun, verb, part of body plural, celebrity male, etc.). The other player fills in the blanks by saying the type of the word, but without showing where it is in the story and the words around it. A usually nonsensical story will be made.


title: British Rail Class 57

text: The British Rail Class 57 diesel locomotives is a diesel locomotive that was built by Brush Traction between 1997 and 2004. They are rebuilds, with new engines, of older Class 47 locomotives, originally introduced in 1964–1965. They are known as "bodysnatchers", or "Zombies" to enthusiasts, because the shell (body) of the class 47 has been stripped, rewired and re-engined. The first ever class 57 named was “Freightliner Envy” after the first one entering Freightliner.


title: Zico (footballer)

text: Arthur Antunes Coimbra (, born 3 March 1953), better known as Zico (), is a Brazilian football coach and former player. He played as an attacking midfielder. Zico is often called the "White Pelé". He was a very good playmaker. Zico had very good technical skills. He is regarded to be one of the most clinical finishers and best passers ever. He is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time. Zico is also widely known as the greatest Brazilian footballer to never win the World Cup. He was recognised as one of the world's best players of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Zico is recognized as one of the best playmakers and free kick specialists. He was able to bend the ball in all directions. Zico scored the most goals from direct free kicks, with 101 goals.


title: Football at the Summer Olympics

text: Football (soccer) has been included in every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932 as a men's competition sport. Women's football was added to the official program at the 1996 Atlanta edition.


title: Football at the Summer Olympics

text: Football was not in the original modern Olympic Games program as international football was not that popular in 1896. However an unofficial football tournament was organised during the first competition. Complete records have been lost and may not even be true but it seems that only two games may have been played. An Athens XI lost to a team representing Smyrna (Izmir), then part of the Ottoman Empire. Smyrna went on to be beaten 15-0 by a team from Denmark. Demonstration tournaments were played at the 1900 and 1904 games and the "Intercalated Games" of 1906, but these were contested by various clubs and scratch teams, and are not considered to be official Olympic events. Neither FIFA nor the IOC recognize the Intercalated Games. The first proper tournament is said to be in the 1908 Olympics, organized by the Football Association. It had 6 teams. The next tournament was organized by the Swedish Football Association in 1912. However, the tournament was very unbalanced, with some high scoring games such as 10-0 and 12-0, and all of the players were amateurs. The tournaments of 1924 and 1928 are the two only editions officially recognised by FIFA as championships of the world.


title: Football at the Summer Olympics

text: Since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, all teams have to be under-23 years old. Since 1996, three over 23 players are allowed.


title: Football at the Summer Olympics

text: A women's edition was added in 1996. The women's tournament has no age restrictions, unlike the men's tournament.


title: Our Lady of La Salette

text: Our Lady of La Salette is a title given to the Virgin Mary who is believed to have appeared at the village of La Salette, France. The apparition was reported by two children, Maximin Giraud, and Melanie Calvat. In French she is called "".


title: Our Lady of La Salette

text: On 19 September 1846, Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat reported seeing the Virgin Mary weeping on Mount Sous-les Baisses. According to their account, the Virgin Mary continued to weep as she spoke to them, first in French, then in their own dialect. After the woman spoke to them, she vanished. The following day the children's account of the apparition was put into writing and signed by the children and those who had heard the story.


title: Our Lady of La Salette

text: When Maximin and Melanie made the woman's message public, it caused a sensation in the community. Soon thereafter, the bishop of Grenoble began to investigate the apparition. During the investigation, several accusations were made against the children. One of the accusations was that the apparition was just a young woman named Lamerliere. In 1851, the bishop said that the apparition was worthy of belief. This was the first step in approval by the Catholic church.


title: Our Lady of La Salette

text: The visionaries sent two secrets to Pope Pius IX - one given to each of them, which they never revealed to one another. The Pope never made the two secrets public. However Melanie published the secrets in a pamphlet with the local bishop's approval. The Church condemned the published secret. Melanie, later in life, was known to have been disturbed by reading apocalyptic books and similar materials.


title: Our Lady of La Salette

text: John Paul II stated: As I wrote on the occasion of the 150th anniversary, "La Salette is a message of hope, for our hope is nourished by the intercession of her who is the Mother of mankind".


title: Our Lady of La Salette

text: The message of the visionaries of La Salette focuses on the conversion of all humanity to Christ. Though La Salette's message is embedded in the bygone environment of the nineteenth century, rural France, it has had a tremendous impact on the modern world. Saints (for example, John Vianney), pastors (such as Don Bosco), and religious writers (like J.K. Huysmans) have all been influenced by La Salette. The spirit of La Salette is one of prayer, conversion, and commitment.


title: Jerry Lee Lewis

text: Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935 – October 28, 2022) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. His best known singles were "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", and "High School Confidential". He was honored in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2022.


title: Jerry Lee Lewis

text: Like other music players who were known by many people around the same time as him Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins, Lewis sang gospel and country music before becoming well known for rock and roll. He was known for his wild style of piano playing and songs like "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" and "Great Balls of Fire".


title: Jerry Lee Lewis

text: Lewis got a career boost, when he performed on "The Steve Allen Show". His first son was named Steve Allen Lewis, as a tribute.


title: Jerry Lee Lewis

text: At a time when Lewis was very popular, people found out that his third wife, Myra Gale Brown, was a thirteen-year-old distant cousin of his. People thought this was bad. His career nearly came to an end. In the early 1960s, he made a comeback. Throughout the next two decades he suffered many personal problems, including health problems, and divorce.


title: Jerry Lee Lewis

text: On November 22, 1976, Lewis was arrested outside Elvis Presley's Graceland home for trying to shoot him.


title: Jerry Lee Lewis

text: Lewis died on October 28, 2022 at his home in Nesbit, Mississippi at the age of 87. At the time of his death, he was recovering from the flu.


title: Missionaries of Charity

text: Missionaries of Charity (MC) is a Roman Catholic Latin rite congregation started on 7 October in 1950. It was founded by Mother Teresa. It started in the slums of Kolkata (Calcutta, India) with Mother Teresa and 12 sisters. It now has a membership of nearly 5,000 sisters worldwide. Members of the religious order show they belong to this group using the order's initials, "M.C." A sister who belongs to MC must follow their vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. There is also a fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor." MC members all wear the same white and blue habit that Mother Teresa wore.


title: Missionaries of Charity

text: In 1948 Mother Teresa changed her Sisters of Loreto habit to a simple cotton white sari with one blue stripe. Blue is the color of the Virgin Mary. The sari covered an all white habit. She (and later, her sisters of charity) wore the habit for over ten years. But parents of several Bengali sisters pointed out that the sari with one blue stripe was also worn by poor women who swept the streets of Calcutta. Mother Teresa and her sisters officially adopted the three blue stripes in 1960.


title: HLN (TV network)

text: HLN (formerly "CNN Headline News") is an American basic cable and satellite television channel. It is owned by CNN, a unit of the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) division of WarnerMedia. It was first broadcast on television in 1982 as CNN2. The name was changed in 2008 to "HLN". This followed a pattern by Turner properties changing from their full names to acronyms. Turner Broadcasting System was changed to TBS, Turner Network Television became TNT, etc. It still runs quick news reports 24/7. It still has more headline news than its true crime shows.


title: Economic sector

text: Eight Core Industries are Electricity, steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas and fertilizers. The Index of Eight Core Industries is a monthly production index, which is also considered as a lead indicator of the monthly industrial performance. The Index of Eight Core Industries is compiled based on the monthly production information received from the Source Agencies.


title: Voiceless alveolar trill

text: The voiceless alveolar trill differs from the voiced alveolar trill in its phonation (whether or not the vocal chords are vibrating while pronouncing the sound). It is used in a few languages. In languages that also have the voiced alveolar trill, it can be a similar sound or an allophone (another way a certain sound can be pronounced).


title: Voiceless alveolar trill

text: In Proto-Indo-European, the sound *sr became a sound spelled , with the letter for and the diacritic for , in Ancient Greek. This sound was probably a voiceless alveolar trill. It became the regular word-initial (meaning "at the start of a word") allophone of in standard Attic Greek. This sound has disappeared in Modern Greek.


title: Voiceless alveolar trill

text: The voiceless alveolar fricative trill is not known to be a sound in any language, except maybe the East Sakhalin dialect of Nivkh. However, it is an allophone (another way of pronouncing a specific sound) in Czech.


title: Frank Ocean

text: Christopher Francis Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), known professionally as Frank Ocean, is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. He was born in Long Beach, California and moved to New Orleans, Louisiana when he was five. Ocean made an early career as a ghostwriter for artists such as Brandy, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and John Legend. In 2010, he became a member of Odd Future. His first mixtape, "Nostalgia, Ultra", was released in 2011.


title: Frank Ocean

text: In 2012, BBC said that Ocean finished second place in its Sound of 2012 poll. Ocean appeared at Coachella. He was scheduled for Lollapalooza at the end of his 2012 summer tour. His first studio album, "channel ORANGE", was a digital download only on iTunes for one week. Then it was a full release on July 17, 2012. It was nominated for six Grammy Awards.


title: Galia melon

text: The Galia melon, also known as sarda in Southeast Asia, is hybrid melon. It comes from a cross between the green-flesh melon cultivar 'Ha-Ogen' and the netted-rind melon cultivar 'Krimka'. It was developed in Israel at the Ne´ve Yaar Research Center of the Agricultural Research Organisation by Dr. Zvi Karchi. It was released in 1973, and named after Karchi's daughter, whose name means "God's wave" in Hebrew.The Galia melon can look like a cantaloupe the outside and a honeydew inside.


title: Galia melon

text: Ripeness is measured by color of the skin, when it starts turning from green to yellow. After cutting, uneaten pieces should be wrapped and refrigerated to keep flavor.


title: Galia melon

text: They are not difficult to grow. Galias are now grown in Algeria, Brazil, Guatemala, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Southern US regions, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt.


title: Sukkot

text: Sukkot (also known as Feast of Tabernacles) is a Jewish festival. In this event, people celebrate the gathering of the crops, and remember the time in the past when small shelters were made by the Jews when they were in the wilderness and had no homes. It happens 5 days after the Jewish festival Yom Kippur and lasts for 1 week.


title: Peregrine falcon

text: The peregrine falcon ("Falco peregrinus") is a cosmopolitan bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It can also be known just as the peregrine, and was once called the "Duck hawk" in North America. In Pakistan it is officially the military iconic symbol of the PAF and the unofficial territory bird of Gilgit-Baltistan.


title: Peregrine falcon

text: The peregrin is a crow-sized falcon, with a blue-grey back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache". It can go at up to 322 km/h (200 mph) in a dive, which means it is the fastest animal in the world. As with other bird-eating raptors, the female is bigger than the male. There are 17–19 subspecies recorded, and each varies slightly in appearance and where they live. There is disagreement over whether the distinctive Barbary falcon is a subspecies of the Peregrine or just a different species.


title: Peregrine falcon

text: The use of certain pesticides, especially DDT was not good for the animals. It could be shown that in areas where DDT was used, the thickness of the shells of their eggs was reduced. This caused a dramatic decline in their numbers, in certain countries. Since the use of DDT has been forbidden in many countries, their numbers are increasing again. This recovery was helped because their nesting places were protected in many countries; some countries also bred these falcons in captivity and released them into the wild.


title: Sentō

text: Sentō are Japanese public bathhouses. People take baths together there. Many Japanese people think of sentō as an important part of Japanese culture, with its manners and ideas about communities.


title: Sentō

text: Sentō are not the same as onsen. Onsen are baths built on natural hot springs. Onsen water has minerals in it. Sentō water is either tap water or well water. Some sentō may add good-smelling plants or bath salts to the water. Sentō cost less than onsen to visit.


title: Sentō

text: Today, sentō are not as popular as they once were. This is because people have bathtubs and showers in their homes. They do not need to go to a sentō to clean. Many people still go to sentō, but they go to enjoy the water and relax. The Tokyo Sentō Association makes sure going to a sentō does not become expensive because they want people to be able to go to sentō. Local organizations decide the price. For example, in Tokyo, the Tokyo Sentō Association decides the price. In 2020, the price to go to a sentō in Tokyo was ¥480, or a little over US$4.10.


title: Sentō

text: On the outside, some sentō look like temples. The entrance has a Japanese curtain called a "noren". Noren at sentō are usually blue. Most sentō have concrete or steel chimneys for the boilers that heat the water. Sometimes, a person can find a neighborhood's sentō by looking for a building with this kind of special chimney.


title: Sentō

text: The dressing area is usually made in the traditional Japanese style, with wood and dark colors. The bathing area are usually made with tiles and is full of light. Japanese people think of this style as Western.


title: Sentō

text: Sentō have separate places for men and women, but young children can go to either side. Babies often go with the women. Fathers take boys and very young girls to the men's side. Sometimes there is a door between the men's and women's sides. Children are allowed to go through the door.


title: Sentō

text: Many sentō have a large mural, or wall painting, near the tubs. Many are landscapes or pictures of Mount Fuji. The water in the air is bad for the paint, so the murals wear out. Repainting a mural in the one day a week that a sentō is closed is hard to do, so some sentō use tiled mosaics or a window that looks out on a garden for decoration instead.


title: Sentō

text: People built the first sentō during the Nara period, in the 700s. The first people to use sentō were monks. They used the sentō for ritual purification. Later, more sentō were built for ordinary people to go and get clean. By 1700, most of the neighborhoods in Tokyo, then called Edo, had their own bathhouse. Many of the sentō of that time were steam baths, not soaking baths. They did not have windows, so the bathers could not see very well. Sometimes the water was dark and dirty.


title: Sentō

text: In 1868, the Meiji Restoration took away some of the class system of Japan. After that, many former nobles or samurai took baths with the regular people in sentō.


title: Sentō

text: Tsurusawa Monzaemon had the idea for modern sentō in 1878. Instead of a steam bath, he built a big tub that the bather could sit down in. He put windows in his sentō so there would be light to see by. This made it easier to see whether the water was clean. People liked these new sentō and soon built many more of them. In 1885, the government said no one could build the old, dark sentō any more. All new sentō had to be light so they could be kept clean. They also passed a law against men and women bathing together, but no one cared about it until after many foreigners began to visit Japan later in the Meiji period (late 1800s).


title: Sentō

text: In the 20th century, sentō became less popular. To keep customers, sentō owners put in bubblers, exercise equipment, saunas, electric shocks and other things bathers could not get at home. In 1972, there were about 21,200 sentō in Japan. This went down to 13,250 in 1985. There were 499 sentō in Tokyo as of 2021.


title: Sentō

text: People began building super sentō in the second half of the 20th century. Super sentō have more things to do than regular sentō. Some have water slides, swimming pools, or restaurants. Super sentō are meant to be fun instead of relaxing.


title: Sentō

text: Before entering, visitors take off their shoes and put them in shoe lockers. At sentō in Japan today, it is not good manners to clean one's body in the bathtub. Bathers must shower before getting in the water. This keeps dirt, sweat and other things from making the water dirty. Many sentō provide soap and towels. Bathers sit on a stool in the shower. The bathers must not wear any clothes or swimsuits in the sentō. Bathers may use towels at the sentō or bring their own, but the towel must not go in the water. Bathers put the towels on their heads instead. People with long hair tie it up so it does not get in the water.


title: William Hague

text: William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond (pronounced "HAIG"; born 26 March 1961) is a British politician. He was Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He was the leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001. He was the Member of Parliament for the Richmond (York) constituency in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.


title: William Hague

text: William Hague was born in Rotherham in West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He first gained national attention when he spoke at the 1977 Conservative Party conference aged 16. He was educated at the University of Oxford. Hague first became a Member of Parliament at a by-election in 1989. In 1995, William Hague was made the Secretary of State for Wales until 1997 when the Conservatives lost the general election. He was elected as Conservative Party leader in 1997. Following the Conservative's defeat in the 2001 General Election, he resigned from the position and was succeeded by Iain Duncan Smith.


title: William Hague

text: He went on to write biographies of William Pitt the Younger and William Wilberforce. In 2005, when David Cameron became the Conservative Party leader, Hague was made the Shadow Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State.


title: William Hague

text: Hague became the Foreign Secretary after the 2010 election in the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition government. Issues that he was involved in included the Arab Spring and Syrian Civil War as well as the crisis in Crimea. Hague thinks Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be removed from power, and the Cameron government wanted to help the opposition with air strikes in 2013, but Parliament did not agree and the plans did not go forward. Hague did not run for reelection in the 2015 election and mostly retired from politics after that. He was made a member of the House of Lords as Baron Hague of Richmond, where he is a member today.


title: James Carville

text: James Carville (born October 25, 1944) is an American political consultant, commentator, actor, attorney, media personality and pundit. Known as the "Ragin' Cajun", Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the successful presidential campaign of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Carville was the co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" until its final broadcast in June 2005. Since its cancellation, he has appeared on CNN's news program, The Situation Room. As of 2008, he hosts a weekly program on XM Radio titled "60/20 Sports" with Luke Russert, son of Tim Russert who hosted NBC's "Meet The Press". He is married to Republican political consultant Mary Matalin.


title: James Carville

text: Carville is also a best-selling author. With his wife, Republican Mary Matalin, and writer Peter Knobler, Carville co-wrote "All's Fair: Love, War and Running for President", published in 1995. He later wrote: "We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives", published in 1996; "...And The Horse He Rode In On: The People vs. Kenneth Starr", published in 1998; With Paul Begala he co-wrote "Stickin". "Suck Up, Buck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up", in 2001, which detailed strategies for fighting and winning in business, politics, and life. In 2004, Carville released a political banter book entitled "Had Enough?", as well as a children's picture book, "Lu and the Swamp Ghost", with co-author Patricia C. McKissack and illustrator David Catrow. In January 2006, he released another book co-written with Begala, "Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future".


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: Ignoratio elenchi (also known as irrelevant conclusion or irrelevant thesis) is the informal fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but does not address the issue in question. "Ignoratio elenchi" can be roughly translated by "ignorance of refutation", that is, ignorance of what a refutation is; "elenchi" is from the Greek , meaning an argument of disproof or refutation. (Some sources give "by ignorance of the issues" or even "by ignoring the issues" as a translation of ignoratio elenchi.)


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: Aristotle believed that an ignoratio elenchi is a mistake made by a questioner while attempting to falsify a respondent's argument. He called it an ignorance of what makes for a refutation. For Aristotle, ignoratio elenchi amounts to "ignorance of logic". In fact, Aristotle goes so far as to say that all logical fallacies can be reduced to what he calls ignoratio elenchi.


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: Modern use limits this term much more narrowly to the kind of mistake described in the first paragraph above.


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: Similar to ignoratio elenchi, a "red herring" is an argument, given in reply, that does not address the original issue. Critically, a red herring is a "deliberate" attempt to change the subject or divert the argument. This is known formally in the English vocabulary as digression which is a neutrally connotated "Red herring". The actual problem is eclipsed by the process of re-focusing on something else.


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: Maher: It's arbitrary, isn't it? If you had been born in Pakistan, you wouldn't be believing in Jesus Christ. You would have been told another fairy tale and you would have been believing that.


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: "Whether Maher's argument is his opinion or not is irrelevant and does not address the argument made."


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: "The conclusion is ignoratio elenchi, since friendliness and charity are not the main qualifications for induction into the Hall of Fame."


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: "The existence of worse criminals is a secondary issue which has no bearing on whether the driver deserves a fine for recklessness. If the speaker were deliberately attempting to divert the issue, this would be an example of a red herring. While the argument about how the police should spend their time may have merit, the question of whom the police should prioritize pursuing and the question of what should be done with those the police have caught are separate questions."


title: Ignoratio elenchi

text: "A red herring, the unrelated alleged affair, attempts to change the subject away from the popular policies. However, if the original discussion were of the prime minister's public integrity (encompassing both popularity and conduct), this argument could be perfectly valid. Such as if a politician's election campaign revolved around family values. Then an argument about such an affair would be valid, as it is in direct conflict with a family values platform."


title: God Save the King

text: "God Save the King" has been the national anthem of the United Kingdom since 1745. Its also the royal anthem of the Commonwealth realms, played alongside their official national anthems. Its composer remains unknown to this date.


title: Cnidaria

text: Cnidaria is a phylum with about 11,000 species of animals. All of them are simple and aquatic, and most of them live in the sea. Some are colonial, composed of zooids which may be clones. Cnidarian zooids may take the form of polyps or medusae at different phases of their life.


title: God Save the King

text: When the ruling monarch is a queen instead of a king, the title of the anthem then becomes "God Save the Queen".


title: Cnidaria

text: Cnidaria take their name from special cells which have organelles that sting: the nematocysts. This device is largely responsible for their success: it is their main specialised and distinctive cell type.


title: God Save the King

text: The tune for "God Save the King" was used in many countries as a national anthem. Apart from the German state, many of which were linked to Great Britain by marriage, Liechtenstein and Switzerland used the tune. Switzerland changed to a different tune in the 1960s. Liechtenstein still uses the tune.


title: Cnidaria

text: The word Cnidaria is spoken without the initial "C", and with a long "i". So it sounds like "Naidaria". In a similar way, the term Ctenophore is pronounced as "Teenophore". Originally, a Greek kappa was in front of the words, and it was pronounced. The name comes from Greek language "knidi", "nettle", thus mening "nettle-like animals" as all cnidarians have stinging cells like nettles.


title: God Save the King

text: The tune is both American and British. In the 1930s the United States chose an official anthem. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was chosen instead of the equally popular "My Country 'tis of Thee" which used the "God Save the King" tune.


title: Cnidaria

text: Adult cnidarians are usually either free-swimming medusae or sessile polyps. Many alternate between the two forms. Both forms are radially symmetrical, like a wheel and a tube respectively.


title: Cnidaria

text: Most have fringes of tentacles equipped with cnidocytes around their edges. Medusae usually have an inner ring of tentacles around their mouth. Some hydroids may be colonies of zooids which serve different purposes: defence, reproduction and catching prey. The mesoglea of medusae is a thick and springy jelly, so it returns to its original shape after muscles around the edge have contracted. This makes a sort of jet propulsion.


title: Cnidaria

text: In medusae the only supporting structure is the jelly inside their cell layers. "Hydra" and most sea anemones close their mouths when they are not feeding, and the water in the digestive cavity then acts as a kind of skeleton, rather like a water-filled balloon. Other polyps such as "Tubularia" use columns of water-filled cells for support. Sea pens stiffen the mesogleal jelly with calcium carbonate spicules and tough fibrous proteins, rather like sponges.


title: Cnidaria

text: In some colonial polyps, a chitinous periderm gives support and some protection to the connecting sections and to the lower parts of individual polyps. Stony corals secrete massive calcium carbonate exoskeletons. A few polyps collect materials such as sand grains and shell fragments, which they attach to their outsides. Some colonial sea anemones stiffen the mesoglea with sediment particles.


title: Cnidaria

text: There is a long fossil record for the corals, and soft-bodied forms appear in some exceptional strata. Some are believed to be among the Ediacaran biota.


title: Anthony Bourdain

text: Anthony Michael Bourdain (June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author, and television personality, known as one of the most influential chefs in the world.


title: Anthony Bourdain

text: Bourdain first became known for his 2000 book "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly". His first food and world-travel television series was "A Cook's Tour", which ran for 35 episodes on the Food Network from 2002 through 2003.


title: Anthony Bourdain

text: In 2005, Bourdain began hosting the Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure programs "" (2005–2012) and "The Layover" (2011–2013). In 2013, he switched to CNN to host "".


title: Anthony Bourdain

text: On June 8, 2018, Bourdain was found dead of an apparent suicide by hanging in his hotel room in Kaysersberg-Vignoble, Haut-Rhin, France. He was working on an episode of "" in Strasbourg, France. He was 61 years old. At the time of his death, he was in a relationship with actress Asia Argento.


title: Curve

text: A curve is a line that turns or bends. A curved line is never straight, and a curved surface is a surface that is never flat. Some curves can be drawn on paper, but some curves, like a helix, can only be seen in 3-D. A circle is a curve that can be described with the formula "x" + "y" = "r". "x" and "y" are used as in a Cartesian coordinate system, and "r" is the radius of the circle (distance from the center to the outside). Many other curves can also be described with a formula like that.


title: President of Pakistan

text: The president of Pakistan (, "Sadr-e-Mumlikat") is the head of state of Pakistan. Pakistan has a parliamentary form of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a five-year term. The electoral college is made up of the Senate, National Assembly, and the provincial assemblies.


title: President of Pakistan

text: The position of president in Pakistan has usually been one of a figurehead. That is with real power being given to the Prime Minister. However the power of the president has changed over the years, due to the military changing the role.


title: President of Pakistan

text: In 1947, Pakistan became a dominion and part of the British Commonwealth with the British Monarch as head of state, represented by the Governor-General of Pakistan. In 1956 Pakistan established its first constitution and became a Republic, and the Queen and Governor-General were replaced by the president.


title: President of Pakistan

text: Pakistan's first president was Iskander Mirza, who was also the last Governor General. In 1958, he removed the constitution and declared martial law. A few weeks later, he was overthrown by General Ayub Khan, who then declared himself president. The constitution was changed and the president became the ruler of Pakistan. The constitution also said that the president be elected by the people. Elections were held in 1963, and Khan defeated Fatima Jinnah, sister of founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.


title: President of Pakistan

text: The President is now Arif Alvi, a former dentist. He has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018. Before, he was a member of the National Assembly from June 2013 to May 2018. He is a member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, a moderate Party with democratic ideals.


title: 2003 invasion of Iraq

text: The 2003 invasion of Iraq (March 20, 2003 - May 1, 2003) was the war fought by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Poland and some other countries against Iraq, to end the rule of Saddam Hussein. The main reason that the war started was said to be because the British and American Governments believed that Iraq had dangerous weapons of mass destruction (such as chemical or nuclear weapons) that could be used against other countries. This turned out after the invasion to not be true.


title: 2003 invasion of Iraq

text: Another reason for the start of the war was that many people thought that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda, was hiding in Iraq after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Though Saddam Hussein was not involved in the planning of the September 11 attacks, many people accused him of giving al-Qaeda a safe place to hide from the United States. The war was extremely controversial. Many British and American people blamed British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the American President, George W. Bush.


title: 2003 invasion of Iraq

text: Paratroopers landed in the far north of Iraq and a few soldiers attacked from the sea, but most invaded from Kuwait in the south. 4,734 NATO soldiers were killed in Iraq war including 4,600 U.S. servicemen, 179 UK servicemen and 139 Other NATO soldiers with a total of 4900 casualties. 31,882 U.S. servicemen and over 3,600 UK servicemen were wounded in Iraq. More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians who were not soldiers were also killed.


title: 2003 invasion of Iraq

text: On December 30 2008, US soldier Christopher Lotter was killed in Tikrit as retaliation for Saddam's execution on December 30 2006 Army Pfc. Christopher W. Lotter| Military Times.


title: 2003 invasion of Iraq

text: On April 18 2010, ISIS leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi were killed in a raid of Tikrit in a safe house.


title: 2003 invasion of Iraq

text: The United Nations Secretary-General said that, "[F]rom our point of view and from the Charter point of view [the war] was illegal."


title: Squanto

text: Squanto (or Tisquantum, 1580? – November 1622) was a Native American who helped the Pilgrims survive in the New World. He learned to speak English and was hired as a guide and interpreter. He taught the Pilgrims to plant corn. Squanto had much power among the Native Americans and the Pilgrims. He abused it, and barely escaped an Indian execution. He died in 1622 while making a trip around Cape Cod.


title: Squanto

text: Squanto was born around 1580 in the area of present day Plymouth, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Paxutet people. Little is known about his early life. Squanto is thought to have been kidnapped as a young boy along the coast of Maine, and taken to England in 1605. He was taught English. He was hired as a guide and interpreter. He returned to his homeland with John Smith in 1614.


title: Squanto

text: In 1614, Squanto and 23 other Indians were kidnapped by a lieutenant under Smith. This lieutenant sold him and the rest of the Indians as slaves in Malaga, Spain. Many historians have disputed what happened in this period of his life, as there is no written record. One theory is that once the Spanish found out these slaves were from the New World, Spanish friars rescued the remaining Indians, including Squanto, by purchasing them. They sent him on his way to England. It is not known what happened to the others. This is where he was taught English and the ways of the white man. He was employed by John Slaney of the Newfoundland Company, and was sent to Newfoundland around 1617, as an interpreter. He returned to his homeland in North America in 1619.


title: Squanto

text: Upon Squanto's arrival, he discovered his people had been wiped out by disease; he was the sole survivor of the Paxutet people. The Wampanoag people adopted him, although not without hesitation. The chief, Massasoit was suspicious of Squanto due to his exposure with the white man and his new ability to speak their language. He knew Squanto's knowledge of English would help with trade, so he kept him.


title: Squanto

text: In the spring of 1620, the Mayflower made landfall in Cape Cod, then mainland. They set camp on the same grounds of Squanto's people—they called this colony, Plymouth. After the harsh conditions of winter, about half of the colonists died. In the spring of 1621, an Indian who made friend with the English settlers, Samoset took Squanto to the Pilgrim settlement of Plymouth. Samoset could only speak broken English, while Squanto was seen as a master. Squanto was soon living with the people of Plymouth.


title: Squanto

text: He joined them in meeting with Indian tribes. He helped to keep the peace. Tradition says he taught the Pilgrims to catch eels. William Bradford wrote that Squanto was of great help in the first year's spring planting of corn. He showed the Pilgrims both how to plant it and how to tend it. He showed them how to use fish as a fertilizer.


title: Squanto

text: Over the year, Squanto's power went to his head. He told the natives that he had the power to send the white man's plague or to make them attack.This was one of many shady deals he conducted with both the Pilgrims and the natives. He was found out, and barely escaped an Indian execution.


title: Squanto

text: In November 1622, Squanto fell ill with a fever while on a trip around Cape Cod with William Bradford. He may have been poisoned by the Wampanoag. He bled at the nose, and said it was a certain sign of death. He asked Bradford to pray to the Christian god so he might enter Heaven. He gave some gifts to others. He died a few days later in what is now Chatham, Massachusetts.


title: Orleans (band)

text: Orleans are an American soft rock band who were extremely popular during 1970s. Their song, "Dance with Me" was a highly popular single, though they have had other songs.


title: Spear

text: A spear is a weapon used in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It is meant to primarily stab. Some spears can also slash. Some kinds of light weight spears were also meant to be thrown.


title: Daniel Radcliffe

text: Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Harry in the movies based on J. K. Rowling’s "Harry Potter" books.


title: Spear

text: A lance is a special spear used from horseback. Knights often used it during medieval times. A pike is a very big spear for infantry to fight horsemen.


title: Daniel Radcliffe

text: Radcliffe started acting in school plays when he was in primary school. When he was 10 years old, he played the part of the young David Copperfield in the television show "David Copperfield".


title: Daniel Radcliffe

text: In 2001, he played Mark Pendel in the movie "Tailor of Panama". Later that year, he was chosen to play Harry Potter in the movie "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" in the United States). He also played Harry in the other Harry Potter movies.


title: Aden

text: Aden ( "") is a port city in Yemen. It is at the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden). About 800,000 people live there. Aden was controlled by the British Empire from 1839 to 1967.


title: Thyroid

text: The thyroid is one of the largest endocrine glands in the body. This gland is found in the throat. The thyroid controls how quickly the body burns energy, makes proteins, and how sensitive the body should be to other hormones.


title: Thyroid

text: The principal hormones it makes are thyroxine (T4) an triiodothyronine (T3), which is more active. These hormones regulate the growth of many systems in the body. T3 and T4 are synthesised from iodine and tyrosine. The thyroid also makes calcitonin, which plays a role in calcium homeostasis.


title: Masaccio

text: Masaccio (, , ; December 21, 1401 – summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a famous painter of the Italian Renaissance. He worked in Florence. "Masaccio" was a nickname that meant "Fat Untidy Tom". He lived a very short life and only a few of his paintings exist, but they were so different to the style of other artists around him that they helped other painters to see things in a new way.


title: Masaccio

text: Masaccio was born on 21 December, 1401, in the town of San Giovanni Valdarno, in the valley of the Arno River, near Florence. He was the son of a "notary", a person who writes legal documents. His older brother became a painter and moved to Florence to the workshop of a painter called Bicci di Lorenzo. It is not known for certain, but it is thought that Masaccio may have trained at the same workshop. Masaccio's brother was nicknamed "Lo Scheggia" which means "The Splinter", so it is thought that he was a skinny as Masaccio.


title: Masaccio

text: In 1422, when he was 21, Masaccio was already known as a painter, because he joined the "Company of Saint Luke", which was a guild that helped artists and set down the rules for their employment.


title: Masaccio

text: The earliest known painting by Masaccio is the "San Giovenale Triptych", dating from 1422. A "triptych" is a painting in three parts, most often used as an altarpiece. This altarpiece has in the middle panel the Virgin Mary and Christ Child on a throne. The wings, or side panels, each show two saints. Kneeling in front of the Virgin Mary are two little angels. One of the things that makes this painting different from most other paintings of the same time is that the angels are shown from the back. Their position is an invitation for the viewer to kneel down and worship the Virgin and Child as well. Masaccio used this way of making the viewer feel part of the scene in many of his paintings.


title: Masaccio

text: The plump solemn Baby Jesus with his fingers in his mouth, the three-dimensional look of the figures and the lack of rich decoration make this picture look very different from most other altarpieces of this time, which were painted in a style called International Gothic.


title: Masaccio

text: In April 1422 an event took place in Florence that was to be important in Masaccio's life. A new church was opened, and there was a grand procession and feast to celebrate. The church was Santa Maria del Carmine and Masaccio went along with his good friends, the sculptor Donatello, the architect Brunelleschi and the painter Masolino.


title: Masaccio

text: After the feast day, it seems that Masaccio went to Rome, probably with his friends. Brunelleschi and Donatello like to spend a lot of time poking around among the ruins of Ancient Rome. It is believed that on this trip Masaccio also spent a lot of time poking around in the ruins. What he saw were the sculptures of a previous age- more lifelike and realistic than anything that he had ever seen before. Many of the sculptures showed pocessions of figures, but each figure was different from the next, so that they all looked like real "individual" people.


title: Masaccio

text: When Masaccio returned to Florence he was given a job, a "commission" to paint a fresco of the procession that had taken place for the opening of the new church. Masaccio was inspired by what he had seen in Rome.


title: Masaccio

text: The writer Vasari, who must have seen the picture before it was destroyed in the late 1500s, wrote that the people were in rows that were five or six deep, but painted in such a way that they were all different, fat ones and thin ones, tall ones and short ones, some in long cloaks, some in big hats, and every single one was a portrait of a real person who lived in Florence at the time. And of course, Masaccio put his friends Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masolino into the picture. Luckily, several artists made drawings at some time in the 1500s, so part of the design has been recorded, even though the painting itself has gone.


title: Masaccio

text: In the Uffizi Gallery in Florence is an altarpiece that shows the Madonna and Child with Saint Anne. The Madonna and Child are seated on a throne, as is usual. Saint Anne, who was the mother of the Virgin Mary, is shown standing behind Mary with one hand on her daughter's shoulder and the other hand above the head of the Baby Jesus in a sign of blessing. The painting may have been done for a convent of nuns who honoured Saint Anne.


title: Masaccio

text: It is believed that this painting is a "collaboration"; that two artists worked on it together. It is believed by Art Historians that Masaccio painted Mary and Jesus and the angel near the top right. It is believed that Saint Anne and the other four angels were painted by Masolino.


title: Masaccio

text: Masolino was 17 years older than Masaccio. His name was Tommaso da Panicale, so when the two began to work together, they were known as Masaccio and Masolino, which means "Little Tom". Those are the names by which they are remembered as painters.


title: Masaccio

text: "The Brancacci Chapel" is a large chapel at the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine where Masaccio had previously worked painting the procession. It was sponsored by the Brancacci family who paid for its decoration. There are no written records to show why or how it happened, but it seems that Masaccio and Masolino were given the job together. At first everything went very well and then things went very badly. It looked as if the job would never be finished. In fact, it is lucky that the paintings in the chapel survived at all.


title: Masaccio

text: The job seems to have started in 1423 or 1424 but this is not certain. The plan of the paintings was to show firstly how Sin came into the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. A painting by Masolino shows their disobedience in taking fruit from the forbidden tree. A painting opposite it by Masaccio shows Adam and Eve in disgrace, being chased out of the Garden of Eden. The rest of the paintings show "The Life of Saint Peter". This is because Saint Peter was the founder of the Catholic Church and the paintings were meant to show that the best way to know about God's love is through the Church.


title: Masaccio

text: It seems that Masaccio and Masolino happily planned a scheme of frescoes that went together is a pleasing way, even though they are in two styles. It is not hard to tell which scenes Masolino painted and which were done by Masaccio. Masolino's are prettier and more elegant. Masaccio's scenes show figures that are strong and have drapes like the statues that he saw in Rome. The thing that was most different in his painting to other artists of the same time was that the figures looked very solid and three-dimensional. He was influenced by the paintings of Giotto who had worked in Florence at the "Church of Santa Croce" nearly a hundred years earlier, but whose style of painting had given way to the International Gothic style.


title: Masaccio

text: Apart from the "Adam and Eve" scenes, which are the smallest of the pictures, the most famous is Masaccio's picture of "The Tribute Money". This large picture is set partly against a background of mountains and a lake, and partly against the background of a town which is similar to Florence. There are three scenes from the story. In the centre of the picture is a large group, Jesus and his twelve disciples. A tax collector has come to ask for a payment, but none of the men have any money. Jesus tells Peter to go fishing in the lake. Peter looks rather annoyed, wondering what good it will do. To the left, the small figure of Peter is kneeling at the edge of the lake with a fish he has caught. Inside the fish is a coin. To the right side of the picture, Peter is shown giving the coin to the tax collector. He no longer looks argumentative. Instead, he looks humble. Masaccio has expertly shown the feelings of the characters, not only by their faces, but also through body language.


title: Masaccio

text: Neither Masaccio nor Masolino were able to work on the frescoes continuously, as they both kept getting other jobs to attend to. In 1428 Masaccio was asked to go to Rome to paint an altarpiece for one of the most important and ancient churches, Santa Maria Maggiore. He only painted one panel, "Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist", before he died at the age of 27 years. Masolino and perhaps another artist, Domenico Veneziano worked on, and finished the altarpiece, which was later broken into pieces and scattered to galleries in different countries. Masaccio's panel is in the National Gallery, London.


title: Masaccio

text: Masolino lived for another 19 years, but he never went back to finish the Brancacci frescoes. The Brancacci family fell into disgrace and were chased out of Florence. One of Masaccio's pictures was attacked because it had portraits of some of the Brancacci family in it. Some 50 years later, in the 1480s, all the scenes that remained incomplete or not begun were painted by Filippino Lippi, who tried to respect the styles that Masaccio and Masolino had used before him.


title: Masaccio

text: The chapel, which was dedicated to Saint Peter, was re-dedicated to "Our Lady of the Common People" and to her honour a magnificent ancient altarpiece by Coppo di Marcovaldo, dating from about 1280 was put into place. Because this image of the Virgin Mary was said to work miracles, many hundreds of candles were lit in front of it which soon stained the frescoes so that their bright colours could no longer be seen. Eventually the painting was moved to a different church. Then part of the roof fell in and had to be replaced. More damage was done in re-decorating. In 1680 the Marquis Francesco Ferroni decided that the paintings were too old-fashioned and should all be pulled down. Luckily the Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere stopped this from happening. In 1734 a painter called Antonio Pillori cleaned the frescoes. Then in the 1770, there was a fire in the church, causing worse staining and some damage to the frescoes. (Luckily the precious altarpiece had been moved.)


title: Masaccio

text: In recent years there have been four interesting discoveries. During a minor cleaning in 1904 two slabs of marble near the altar were moved. Underneath were the bright colours that showed what the frescoes should look like. Examination of the areas where two windows had been changed showed the plans for two paintings that had been destroyed. The final discoveries in the chapel itself were two painted "roundels" with little angel faces in them, one by Masaccio and one by Masolino.


title: Masaccio

text: There was a problem to be solved in the minds of some art historians. Despite these interesting findings, there was a scene missing from the story of Saint Peter. It is the scene where Jesus says "You are Peter, and on this Rock I build my Church." This part of the story is of the greatest importance to the Roman Catholic Church because Peter was the first Bishop of Rome, and so the Pope rules as his direct line. The scene is usually shown by Jesus giving Peter the "Keys of Heaven". "The Keys", for hundreds of years, have been the symbol of the Pope. But the story of "the Keys" is completely missing.