Devon Island is one of the bigger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is the second-biggest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Nunavut, Canada, the 27th biggest island in the world, Canada's 6th biggest island and the biggest island in the world where nobody lives on. Devon Island has an area of . The highest point is the Devon Ice Cap at 6,299 ft/1,920 metres which is part of the Arctic Cordillera. Devon Island has many small mountain ranges, such as the Treuter Mountains, Haddington Range and the Cunningham Mountains.

Devon Island is also notable for having the Haughton impact crater, made some 39 million years ago when a meteorite about 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter crashed into what were then forests. The impact left a crater about 23 km (14 mi) in diameter, which was a lake for several million years.

Islands of Canada
Uninhabited regions
Arctic islands

Devon Island


The Citroën Jumpy (Citroën Dispatch in some countries) is a series of vans and passenger vans produced by Citroën in three generations since 1994. It is builded in cooperation with Fiat and Peugeot.

Fiat and Peugeot made the same vehicle but with different names, The names were  Fiat Scudo and Peugeot Expert.

First generation (1994–2006)
Citroën created the first generation Jumpy in June 1994, In 1995 Citroën renamed their model to "'Dispatch'" in some countries. Peugeot created Peugeot Expert in July 1995.

In March 2004, the model was improved at the front and back, It had a new grille, new bonnet, new bumper and different headlamps.

Second generation (2007–2016)
The second generation Citroën Junpy/Dispatch was created in November 2006, The Peugeot Expert was created in January 2007.

In February 2011, the model was improved at the front and back, It had a new grille, new bonnet, new bumper and different headlamps and brakelights.

In July 2013, Toyota made the same vehicle but with a different name, The name was: Toyota ProAce.

The PSA/Fiat joint venture ended in March 2016 which meant Fiat wouldn't be creating any more Fiat Scudos.

Third generation (2016–present)
The third generation Citroën Junpy/Dispatch, Peugeot Expert and Toyota Proace vans were introduced in 2016. The Opel Vivaro and Fiat Scudo versions were introduced in 2020.

The passenger vans were created in 2016 but they have different names, They are called: Citroën SpaceTourer, Peugeot Traveller, Fiat Ulysse (introduced in 2020), Opel Zafira Life (introduced in 2020) and Toyota Proace Verso.

References

Other websites

Front wheel drive vehicles
Vans

Citroën Jumpy


White Witch (Mysa Nal, originally Xola Aq) is a fictional character appearing in media published by DC Comics. Created by E. Nelson Bridwell and Curt Swan, she is usually depicted as a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th and 31st centuries. She is the sister of fellow Legionnaire Dream Girl and daughter of Kiwa Nal, the former High Seer of Naltor. Like Dream Girl, she is a native of the planet Naltor, where nearly everyone has the power of precognition, but unlike most Naltorians, Mysa cannot foresee the future.

Fictional character biography
To compensate for her inability to see the future, Mysa trained in the mystic arts on the planet Zerox, known as the 'Sorcerer's World', under the tutelage of five instructors (each having their own specialty - Air, Earth, Fire, Light and Water) and became an accomplished sorceress instead. Mysa showed a remarkable aptitude for magic and easily excelled in her studies — much to the chagrin of the envious Mordru. Originally, she had red hair, but as she trained in magic, her hair and skin became chalk white and her eyes bright red. This change happened gradually after Dream Girl freed her from the "Hag" guise.

She first appeared in Adventure Comics #350 as the Hag, an apparently ancient magic user and an agent of the villainous Prince Evillo. When the Legion fought Evillo, two mysterious "new" members, "Sir Prize" and "Miss Terious" (actually Star Boy and Dream Girl) cast a spell that restored her to her true form. It was later revealed that this transformation had been worked by the villainous wizard Mordru.

She joined the Legion after helping them defeat Darkseid in the famous Legion story, the Great Darkness Saga. Mysa proved herself a valuable member, often coming to member's aid with a handy spell or two. One feature that set the White Witch apart from the typical comic book sorcerer was a specific limitation on her spell-casting ability; she could only memorize a few spells at a time. Unlike characters like Dr. Fate, Mysa required study before casting a spell.

The White Witch played a prominent part in the so-called "Magic Wars", which concluded Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 3).

Some years later, after leaving the Legion, she married the presumedly-reformed Mordru and lived with him on the planet Tharn, which was, at that point, subdued and invaded by Mordru's magics. She was subjected to mystical imprisonment and manipulation during this period until the Legionnaires returned looking for her and their comrade Rond Vidar. Mysa was also a physical vessel for the disembodied soul of Amethyst, one of the Lords of Order who is currently active in the present day DC Universe. It was this incarnation of the Legion's near defeat that led Mysa to take up arms against her husband, and she later rejoined the group. Right before Zero Hour, she was de-aged by Glorith to a teenager and appeared happy with the change. She assumed the codename Jewel and went underground with her fellow Legionnaires.

Reboot version
In post-Zero Hour continuity, Mysa was no longer Dream Girl's sister from Naltor, but rather, the daughter of Mordru.

The only survivor of a group of sorcerers who imprisoned Mordru, she spent a century preparing for his return, including planting the seeds for Zoe Saugin's powers and manipulating much of the girl's life to make her an ally against Mordru's next rise. After Mordru rose again, Mysa (who resembled the pre-Zero Hour Hag at this point) was reverted to the age at which she first defeated him and helped the Legion imprison him once more.

Mysa settled on Sorcerer's World and fell in love with Dragonmage.

Threeboot version
In the "Threeboot" continuity, White Witch has appeared as a member of Mekt Ranzz's Wanderers. Her home planet is listed as "unknown".

Post-Infinite Crisis
In Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes story arc, featuring a group of Legionnaires based on the original, pre-Crisis incarnation, Spider Girl traded Mysa to Mordru in return for not attacking Earth. At the conclusion of the story, Wildfire comments to Superman that Dawnstar has a lock on Mysa's location, while Chameleon Girl assures Superman that the Legion will find their remaining lost teammates.

In the Legion of Three Worlds limited series, the White Witch is imprisoned on Sorcerer's World by Mordru until she is freed by members of the Legion, including Blok. It is revealed at this point that Blok and Mysa are in a relationship. Their escape, however, is thwarted by Mordru, and then Superboy-Prime's Legion of Super-Villains. Mysa uses Dawnstar's tracking ability to open a portal directly to Legion headquarters. Fellow Legionnaire, Green Lantern Rond Vidar, forces his teammates through the portal to prevent the LSV from following. Back at Legion headquarters, Mysa attempts another portal to rescue Rond but is too late as he is killed by Superboy-Prime.

Brainiac 5 then enlists the White Witch to cast a seance spell on an old Justice League space-time crystal ball to bring the "Reboot" and "Threeboot" Legions to aid in their battle against Superboy-Prime.

In the midst of battle, "Reboot" Legionnaire Kinetix, who possesses magic-based powers, is killed by Superboy-Prime while Mordru absorbs her life-force and all of her magical powers. Because her home reality was destroyed during the events of Infinite Crisis, Kinetix also possessed all of that universe's magic energies, now passed on to Mordru. Mordru began using his vastly increased powers in the villains' favor and launches a brutal attack on Blok to draw out Mysa. She reluctantly attacks Mordru with one of his own dark spells that allows her to steal his life-force and magics in a bright blaze of light. Mysa re-emerges as the Black Witch with a black costume and hair, using her increased powers to defeat most of the villains single-handedly.

At the conclusion of the story, the Black Witch remains a member of the Legion. However, Blok senses great trouble with his love's transformation. His concern increases as she returns to Sorcerer's World and claims Mordru's throne, vowing a vigilance against evil.

Later, Blok again reaches the Sorcerers' World, only to find the Black Witch sitting on a throne in front of several spellcasters imprisoned in the stone behind her. Poking out of the wall are the faces of Alan Scott, the Green Lantern wizard Torquemada, Blue Devil, Zatanna, Raven and Kid Devil. Later, both she and Blok cement their relationship, hoping to use Mordru's dark powers for the good of the planet.

Powers and abilities
Mysa Nal was trained by the master magician, Mordru. She can cast a variety of magic spells, such as creating force fields, transmuting matter, absorbing energy, and generating dimensional portals, among other feats. The only drawback is her memory, plus an additional time-consuming preparation for them, which could take up from minutes to hours. As the White Witch, Mysa possesses expertise in occultism.

Equipment
As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, she is provided her own Legion Flight Ring. It allows her to fly and survive in the vacuum of space and other dangerous environments.

In other media
The White Witch appears in the Legion of Super Heroes episode "Trials", voiced by Lauren Tom. This version is not a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and leader of the trials that banished wizards of Zerox can undergo to regain their magic.

White Witch appears in Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century #18.

Reception
Jesse Murray of Syfy placed Mysa Nal as the 22nd greatest Legion of Super-Heroes member of all time, noting her relationship drama with a "big-baddie" of the superhero team Mordru and calling her moment of her absorbing his powers as the Black Witch as one of the defining moments for her. Eileen Gonzalez of Comic Book Resources placed her as one of the "best" Legion superheroes out both a best and worst character list. Eileen noted her pivotal roles in "The Great Darkness Saga" with her role of stopping Darkseid and once again the role of "Final Crisis" stopping Mordru as defining moments as well. Caleb Bailey of Comic Book Resources placed her and her powers as a "powerful magic user who could probably give Zatanna a run for her top hat".

References

Comics characters introduced in 1966
DC Comics female superheroes
DC Comics witches
DC Comics characters who use magic
Characters created by Curt Swan
Fictional characters with dimensional travel abilities
Fictional characters with energy-manipulation abilities
Fictional characters with elemental transmutation abilities

White Witch (DC Comics)


Joseph Pisani (born November 17, 1976) is an American contemporary artist, abstract painter, and photographer, living in Zurich, Switzerland.

Life
Joseph Pisani was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, by a second-generation Italian family with strong ethnic roots. He was originally taught to draw and paint by his grandmother at around the age of seven.

He left New York in 1994 and traveled throughout America, including visits to forty-two of the fifty states, before setting off on a "backpack" solo tour of Western Europe. He stayed in Prague for a time, and in 1996 settled in the Rocky Mountains, West of Denver, Colorado. As well as painting and drawing, he began to design and produce furniture and experiment with wood sculpture and mixed media.

In 1998 he traveled again to Europe and the Middle East and found "an interesting spot hidden between two worlds" in South Sinai, Egypt, where he discovered scuba diving. The influence of the colorful underwater life of the Red Sea is apparent in paintings, such as "The Secrets of the Underwater World", and "Deep (Approximately 63 Meters Below the Red Sea)".

Pisani continues to travel extensively, visiting seventy-one countries to date  and using his travel, along with philosophy, as the main source of inspiration for his art.

Art
Pisani's is influenced by the Abstract Expressionism of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. However, unlike Rothko, who purposely avoided giving titles to his work, because he did not want to influence viewers, Pisani deliberately lends clues through the poetic titles of his paintings:

Recent exhibitions
(* denotes solo exhibition)
 2017 November 7. - 18., Kulturpark, Zurich, Switzerland, "art braille kanthari", charity auction and exhibition with Stefan Puttaert, Director of Sotheby's Zurich, and Christine Meier.*
 2017 January - 18. March, Galerie Le Sud, Zurich, Switzerland "The Smoke that Thunders", Under the patronage of the permanent mission of Zambia to the United Nations (UNO), Geneva.*
 2014 January, Kunstgalerie Bachlechner, Bergdietikon, Switzerland "How to do Everything in Just One Lifetime", Under the Patronage of the US Consulate in Zurich*
 2013 October, Galleria Fogga, Helsinki, Finland, "Oneironauts (Explorers of the Dream World)"*
 2011 Kunstgalerie Bachlechner, Bergdietikon, Switzerland, "Chaos Within - 40 Years Pisani", Under the Patronage of the US Consulate in Zurich*
 2011 Gallery Ferin, Helsinki, Finland, "When The Morning Star Begins to Fade"
 2009-28 November 2010, 2009 - January 16, 2010, Gallery Eule-Art, Davos, Switzerland "Fire & Ice"
 15 April 2009, Artseefeld, Zurich, Switzerland "AGENT 488"*
 4 February 2008, United Nations Office Geneva, "Oh Sweet Serendipity" Special Showing in Association with Sri Lanka's 60th Independence Anniversary* Info. and photos from exhibition
 19 January 2008 - February 23, 2008, Kunstgalerie Bachlechner, Weiningen, Switzerland, "Oh Sweet Serendipity" Under the Patronage of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations office in Geneva*
 29 September 2007 - December 23, 2007, Kunstgalerie Bachlechner, Ost Tirol, Austria, "Kunst Verbindet" — together with Le Corbusier, Hans Peter Profunser, Marianne Liegl...
 27 January 2007 - February 25, 2007, Kunstgalerie Bachlechner, Weiningen, Switzerland, "Magic Cube" — together with Jan Janczak, Paul Cartier, Paul Racle...
 26 October 2006–Present (Permanent Exhibit), Consulate of the USA in Zurich, Switzerland, "All the Colors of My Memories from Home"*
 18 November 2006 - December 23, Kunstgalerie Bachlechner, Weiningen, Switzerland, "Train Station" — together with Charles Sambono (Zambia), Gerry Mayer (Austria)
 2006 September - November, Zurich, Switzerland, *"That Lasting Tingle of Déjà Vu"*, Under the patronage of the consulate of the USA in Zurich

See also
Abstract Expressionism

Footnotes

 Mordasini, Marco, Ausdrucksstark mit Liebe zum Detail "Chaos Within" Eröffnung, Limmattaler Zeitung, August 30, 2011, Page 16 Article as PDF
 "Every Great Journey Begins with a Dream" Joseph Pisani Lecture sponsored by the US Embassy in Finland and conducted at the American Resource Center at the National Library of Finland, Helsinki, March 31, 2011 Link to US Embassy in Finland web site news
 Joseph Pisani: Guest on Swiss Television Talk Show "Aeschbacher", April 4, 2008 Swiss Television Video Portal
 Natalie Isenring "Ein Nomade mit satändigem Sitz in Zürich", Tages Anzeiger, January 24, 2008, Page 58 (Article as PDF)
 Santosh Brivio "Eine künstlerische Reiseerzählung", Limmattal Zeitung, January 21, 2008, Page 11 (Article as PDF )
 Kristina Pranter-Kreuzer "Kunstwelt zu Gast in Außervillgraten", Kleine Zeitung, October 2, 2007 (Article as PDF)
 Paulina Szczesniak, "Glanzlichter der Woche (Highlights of the Week)", Zueritipp, No. 43, October 26, 2006
 Sabine Schweizer, "Individuals: The Conceptual Artist", Inside Switzerland, Spring 2007, No. 1
 Vera Huotelin, "When the Sun is a Carpet", Schaffhauser Nachrichten, May 8, 2006 (article online in German)
 "Abstract Painter", Schweizer Touristik, April 7, 2006
 Silvano Cerutti, "World Traveling Painter", 20 Minuten Week, May 26, 2005

References

External links

 Joseph Pisani Official Web Site
 Listing at SIK ISEA - Swiss Institute for Art Research
 Joseph Pisani Official YouTube Channel

American contemporary painters
Abstract painters
Abstract expressionist artists
Living people
21st-century American painters
21st-century American photographers
Photographers from New York City
20th-century American painters
American male painters
1976 births
Painters from New York City
20th-century American male artists
21st-century American male artists

Joseph Pisani


Mount Silverthrone is a 20 km wide, deeply dissected caldera complex in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Most of its eruptions occurred during the last ice age. The products have since been heavily eroded. It is the highest peak in the Ha-Iltzuk Icefield, the largest icefield in the Coast Mountains south of the Alaska Panhandle.

References

Volcanoes of British Columbia
Mountains of British Columbia

Mount Silverthrone


The poetry of the Ottoman Empire, or Ottoman Divan poetry, is little known outside modern Turkey, which forms the heartland of what was once the Ottoman Empire. It is, however, a rich and ancient poetic tradition that lasted for nearly 700 years, and one whose influence can still be felt in the modern Turkish poetic tradition.

Even in modern Turkey, however, Ottoman Divan poetry is a highly specialist subject. Much of this has to do with the fact that Divan poetry is written in Ottoman Turkish, which was written using a variant of the Arabic script and made extensive use of Arabic and Persian words, making the language vastly different from modern Turkish. In its own time, knowledge of this form of literary Turkish was largely limited to the educated classes.

History
The Ottoman Divan poetry tradition embraced the influence of the Persian and, to a lesser extent, Arabic literatures. As far back as the pre-Ottoman Seljuk period in the late 11th to early 14th centuries CE, this influence was already being felt: the Seljuks conducted their official business in the Persian language, rather than in Turkish, and the poetry of the Seljuk court was highly inflected with Persian.

When the Ottoman Empire arose in northwestern Anatolia, it continued this tradition. The most common poetic forms of the Ottoman court, for instance, were derived either directly from the Persian literary tradition (the gazel; the mesnevî), or indirectly through Persian from the Arabic (the kasîde). However, the decision to adopt these poetic forms wholesale led to two important further consequences:

 the poetic meters (Persian: beher (Arabic: بَحْر); Turkish: aruz (Arabic: عَرُوض)) of Persian poetry were adopted.
 Persian- and Arabic-based words were brought into the Turkish language in great numbers, as Turkish words rarely worked well within the system of the Persian poetic meter.

Out of this confluence of choices, the Ottoman Turkish language—which was always highly distinct from standard Turkish—was effectively born. This style of writing under Persian and Arabic influence came to be known as "Divan literature" (Turkish divân edebiyatı), as divân was the Ottoman Turkish word referring to the collected works of a poet.

Beginning with the Tanzimat reform period (1839–1876) of Ottoman history and continuing until the dissolution of the empire in the early 20th century, the Divan poetic tradition steadily dwindled, and more and more influence from both Turkish folk literature and European literature began to make itself felt.

Divan

Mesnevi
Mesnevi (masnavi or mathnavi) in literary term "Rhyming Couplets of Profound Spiritual Meaning" is style developed in Persian poetry which Nizami Ganjavi and Jami are the famous poets of type. In Turkic literature first mesnevi was Yusuf Has Hajib's Kutadgu Bilig.  Generally social concepts Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Fuzûlî's Leyla ile Mecnun'u, military events, educational concepts such as Yusuf Nabi's  or related to religion or philosophy such as Mevlana's (Rumi) Masnavi is covered.

A peculiarity of the masnavi of the Ottoman period is that they almost always possess, beneath the literal meaning, a subtle spiritual signification. Many poems, of Mesnevi of Mevlana and the Divan of Aşık Paşha examples of confessedly religious, moral, or mystic but a much larger number are allegorical. To this latter class belong almost all the long romantic mesnevis of the Persian and mid Ottoman poets; in the stories of the loves of Leyla and Mecnun, Yusuf and Zuleykha, Kusrev and Shavin, Suleyman and Ebsal, and a hundred of like kind, can see pictured, if we look beneath the surface, the soul of man for God, or the yearning of the human heart after heavenly light and wisdom. There is not a character introduced into those romances but represents the passion not an incident but has some spiritual meaning. In the history of Iskender, or Alexander, we watch the noble human soul in its struggles against the powers of this world, and, when aided by God and guided by the heavenly wisdom of righteous teachers, its ultimate victory over every earthly passion, and its attainment of that point of divine serenity whence it can look calmly down on all sublunary things.

Kaside
Kaside is generally about God, religious or government leaders and their values. Most famous poets are Ahmed Paşa, Necati, Bâkî, Nedîm, most importantly Nef'i.

Terminology:
Tevhid: About the Unity of God.
Münacaat:  Prayer to God
Naat: About religious leaders and the prophet.
Methiye: About the sultan and government leaders.
Nesip or teşbib: Nature and environment descriptions.
Girizgah: Prelude to the topic.
Fahriye: Praising the poet himself
Dua: Prayer and well wishing for the subject of the poem

See also
 Kashifi
 Gazel
 Persian metres
 Şemi

Notes

Bibliography
 Gibb, E.J.W. Ottoman Literature: The Poets and Poetry of Turkey. .
 Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi. 19'uncu Asır Türk Edebiyatı Tarihi. İstanbul: Çağlayan Kitabevi, 1988.

External links
Divan-Full Text-Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism
Masnavi-Full Text-Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Poetry by country

Ottoman poetry


In cryptography, a key (or cryptographic key) is a piece of information that allows control over the encryption or decryption process.

There are two basic types of cryptographic algorithms.
Symmetric algorithm: If there is just one key for encrypting and decrypting, the algorithm is called symmetric.
Asymmetric algorithm: If there are two different keys, each of which can be used only to encrypt data or only to decrypt it, the algorithm is called asymmetric.  If an algorithm is asymmetric, one person publishes a key and accepts messages encrypted with that key.  Anyone can encrypt a message, but only the person who owns the other key can decrypt it.  This is how online stores, banks, etc., work.

Key sizes
For symmetric algorithms, a minimum key size of 128 bits is recommended. For applications that need extreme security, such as top secret documents, 256 bits is recommended. Many older ciphers used 40, 56, or 64-bit keys—these have all been cracked by brute force attack because the key was too short.

Asymmetric (public key) algorithms need much longer keys to be secure. For RSA, at least 2048 bits is recommended. The largest publicly-known key that has been cracked was a 768-bit key.

Related pages
 Key exchange

Cryptography

Key (cryptography)


Asia Kalér sakapeung sok dihartikeun minangka subwewengkon Asia nu ngawengku bagéan Asia Rusia. Istilah ieu teu dipaké sacara lega. Sakapeung, Asia kalérr dipaké keur netepkeun bagéan Asia Wétan jeung/atawa Asia Tengah, kalayan Rusia di Asia dibagi jeung Eropa Wetan.

Phillips Illustrated Atlas of the World 1988 ngadefinisikeun Asia Kaler minangka wewengkon nu lolobananana urut USSR, bagéan di wetaneun Pagunungan Ural. Definisi saméméh ayana USSR nyaéta taun 1882 ku Kéane jeung Temple, nu ngadefinisikeun Asia Kaler minangka "dua babageana dministratif gedé di Siberia Kulon jeung Wetan, nu ibukotana patuturut Omsk jeung Irkutsk". Ieu hartina, "hiji sistim pulitik nu lega, nu ngawengku ampir sapertilu buana, tur, kajaba ukur sabagean leutik wewengkon, langsung diparentah ku Rusia".

Demograpi
Taun 1875, Chambers ngalaporkeun yén populasi Asia kalér aya 8 yuta.

Géografi
Euweuh ranté pagunungan di Asia kalér nu gahalangan hawa angin ti Arktik nu ngalir turun ka daratan Siberia jeung Turkestan.

Lempengan jeung daratan Asia Kaler ngawengku dataran handap Siberia Kaler; Angara Shield,  jeung Tanjung Taimyr, dataran handap basisir, Putorama Range, Anabar Plateau, jeung Tunguska Plateau, katut Angara Plateau; jeung Lena-Vilyuy Basin.

Geomorpologi

The gemorphology of Asia in general is imperfectly known, although the deposits and mountain ranges are well known.

To compensate for new sea floor having been créated in the Siberian basin, the whole of the Asian Plate has pivoted about a point in the New Siberian Islands, causing compression in the Verkhoyansk mountains, which were formed along the éastern margin of the Angara Shield by tectonic uplift during the Mesozoic Era.  There is a southern boundary to this across the northern margin of the Alpine folds of Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, which at the éast of Brahmaputra turns to run south towards the Bay of Bengal along the line of the Naga hills and the Arakan Yoma, continues around Indonesia, and follows the edge of the continental shelf along the éastern séaboard of China.  The Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate meet across the neck of Alaska, following the line of the Aleutian Trench, rather than meeting at the Bering Straits.

Northern Asia is built around the Angara Shield, which lies between the Yenisey River and the Lena River.  It developed from fragments of Laurasia, whose rocks were mainly pre-Cambrian crystalline rocks, gneisses, and schists, and Gondwana.  These rocks can be found in the Angara Shield, the Inner Mongolian-Korean Shield, the Ordes Shield and the South-East Asia Shield.  The fragments have been subject to orogenesis around their margins, giving a complex of platéaux and mountain ranges.  One can find outcrops of these rocks in unfolded sections of the Shields.  Their presence has been confirmed below Mesozoic and later sediments.

There are three main periods of mountain building in Northern Asia, although it has occurred many times.  The outer fold mountains, that are on the margins of the Shields and that only affected Asia north of the line of the Himalayas, are attributed to the Caledonian and Hercynian orogenies of the late Palaeozoic Era.  The Alpine origeny caused extensive folding and faulting of Mesozoic and éarly Tertiary sediments from the Tethys geosyncline.  The Tibetan and Mongolian platéaux, and the structural basins of Tarim, Qaidam, and Junggar, are delimited by major éast-west lithospheric faults that were probably the results of stresses caused by the impact of the Indian Plate against Laurasia.  Erosion of the mountains caused by this orogeny has créated a large amount of sediment, which has been transported southwards to produce the alluvial plains of India, China, and Cambodia, and which has also been deposited in large amounts in the Tarim and Dzungarian basins.

Northern Asia was glaciated in the Pleistocene, but this played a less significant part in the géology of the aréa compared to the part that it played in North America and Europe.  The Scandanavian ice sheet extended to the éast of the Urals, covering the northern two thirds of the Ob Basin and extending onto the Angara Shield between the Yenesei River and the Lena River.  There are legacies of mountain glaciation to be found on the éast Siberian mountains, on the mountains of the Kamchatka Peninsula, on the Altai, on Tien Shan, and on other small aréas of mountains, ice caps remain on the islands of Severnaya Zemlya and Novaya Zemlya, and several Central Asian mountains still have individual glaciers.  Siberia itself has permafrost, ranging in depths from 30m to 600m and covering an aréa of 9.6 million km².

Several of the mountainous regions are volcanic, with both the Koryat mountains and the Kamchatka Peninsula having active volcanoes.  The Anadyr plateau is formed from igneous rocks.  The Mongolian plateau has an aréa of basaltic lavas and volcanic cones.

The Angara Shield also underlies the lowlands of the Ob River, but to the south and éast in the Central Asian mountains and in the éast Siberian mountains there are folded and faulted mountains of Lower Palaéozoic rocks.

Rujukan

Tempo ogé
 Rusia

Wewengkon di Asia

Asia Kalér


Nino Pisano (fl. 1349 – 1368) was an Italian sculptor, the son of Andrea Pisano.

He collaborated with his father in sculptures for the churches of San Zanipolo at Venice and in Santa Caterina at Pisa, and provided some panels for the bell tower of Santa Maria del Fiore. Nino succeeded his father in the works of the Orvieto Cathedral in 1349.

Works he made alone include a Madonna with Child in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, a Saint Bishop in the Cathedral of Oristano and a Monument to Bishop Scherlatti now in the Museum of Pisa Cathedral. His other attributed works include a Madonna of the Rose in Santa Maria della Spina, a Madonna with Child in Basilica of Maria S.S. Annunciata in Trapani and a Madonna del Latte in the Museum of St. Matthew, both in Pisa. An Annunciation, once in Santa Caterina, is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

14th-century births
14th-century deaths
Artists from Pisa
Italian sculptors
Italian male sculptors

Nino Pisano


Lincoln Thompson (June 18, 1949 - January 23, 1999) was a Jamaican reggae musician, songwriter and Rastafarian. He spent 2 years in the Tartans as a teenager before working under Coxsone Dodd in the early 1970s. In 1974 he released his first record, Humanity. The album had popular singles but it did not sell many copies until Thompson made a deal with Ballistics Records, a part of the record label United Artists, in 1979. This album was released commercially and there were 2 other albums recorded with Ballistics. These albums were recorded in 1979 and 1980. Experience was recorded in Jamaica. The next album, Natural Wild, was recorded in England with Joe Jackson. Ballistics went bankrupt, and Thompson returned to Jamaica. There, he recorded the album, Ride with the Rasses in 1982. The next year, he took his family to live in London where he recorded a 5th album, Rootsman Blues. He then set up an Ital grocery shop named The Rasses Fish and Grocery Store in London. Thanks to an American sponsor, a 6th album came out in 1996, called 21st century. He died in 1999 of cancer.

Other websites
 Album lyrics

1949 births
1999 deaths
Jamaican reggae musicians
Rastafari
Jamaican singer-songwriters

Lincoln Thompson


Computer jargon means words to do with computers and surrounding topics. Knowing what these words mean can help people know more about computers. Most people use these words to discuss computer ideas, but some people use these words to impress others (also known as buzzwords).

Some examples of jargon are:
Disk - a place to store data.
Data - information stored on a computer. The amount of data that is stored on a disk is measured with the following terms:
Bit - the smallest data unit, can either be a "0" or a "1."
Nibble, sometimes nybble - there are 4 bits in a Nibble. This is the amount of data that can be expressed in one hexadecimal (base 16) character.
Byte - there are 8 bits in a byte. One byte is enough to hold one single letter or number of text.
Kilobyte - there are 1024 Bytes in a Kilobyte.
Megabyte - there are 1024 Kilobytes in a Megabyte.
Gigabyte - there are 1024 Megabytes in a Gigabyte.
Terabyte - there are 1024 Gigabytes in a Terabyte.
Petabyte - there are 1024 Terabytes in a Petabyte.
Note that some people and some companies use a different version of these numbers, replacing 1024 with 1000 in each of the above numbers.
Upload - to put data on somewhere. For example, on the internet or a website, "I uploaded my pictures to Facebook."
Download - to copy data from somewhere. For example, "I downloaded a song from iTunes."
Load - to get data from, or put it on, a disk.
Save - to put data on a disk.
RAM - random access memory.
ROM - read only memory. This is memory that does not get changed.
Hardware - the solid parts of a computer, like monitors, fans, CPU, etc.
CPU - central processing unit, another name for processor.
GHz - gigahertz. Used to describe the speed of a processor. Some processors are capable of doing more than one thing at once, as they have multiple "cores", so a bigger number is not necessarily better. The bigger the GHz number, the faster it runs and the more energy it uses.

USB - universal serial bus, a method used to plug computer tools into a machine.
Email - electronic mail.
WWW - World Wide Web, part of the Internet.
Broadband - a fast internet connection.
WiFi - a way to connect to a network wirelessly.
Plug & Play - a function from the OS that auto-recognizes any change to the hardware of the computer.
OS - operating system. The main program that controls all the computer functions, it calls other programs.
Program - set of data that tells the processor what to do and call for in the rest of PC.
Software - another name for program.
Installation - the way a software sets the place for itself in a computer.
Malware bad software made to do something to a computer or destroy data

 Spyware Malware made to steal data
 Computer Virus - Malware that spreads automatically
 Hacker - people who search flaws in the way computers work. They can use their knowledge for evil, too.

Computer terminology

en:Computer jargon

Computer jargon


Francesco Maria Piave (18 May 1810 – 5 March 1876) was an Italian writer. He wrote the librettos (the story and words) for many operas. He is most famous for the librettos he wrote for operas composed by Giuseppe Verdi.

Life
Piave was born in Murano, an island in Venice. At first, he studied to be a Catholic priest. He stopped studying to be a priest and went to Rome. In Rome, he studied philosophy and writing. He wrote poems and stories for newspapers  but he is most famous for his opera librettos. He wrote more than 60 librettos. The first one was for Giovanni Pacini's opera,  in 1842. In 1844, he wrote the libretto for Verdi's opera Ernani. Piave and Verdi became very good friends, For twenty years, they wrote many letters to each other. Piave wrote nine more opera librettos for Verdi. The last libretto he wrote for him was .

Piave also worked as a stage director (someone who decides how plays and operas are performed). He worked as a stage director for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Later (1859), he worked as a stage director at La Scala in Milan.  In 1867, Piave had a stroke (a problem in the brain caused by lack of blood). He lived for eight more years, but he could not move or speak. Verdi gave money to help Piave's wife and family. In 1876, Piave died in Milan. Verdi paid for his funeral.

Piave's librettos for Giuseppe Verdi
Ernani (1844)
(1844)
Attila (1846)
Macbeth (1847)
 (1848)
 (1850)
Rigoletto (1851)
La traviata (1853)
Simon Boccanegra (1857)
La forza del destino (1862)

Sources
Budden, Julian (2008). Verdi, 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.
. "Piave, Francesco Maria". Treccani
Phillips-Matz,  Mary Jane (1993). Verdi: A Biography. Oxford University Press.

Italian writers
Librettists
1810 births
1876 deaths
People from Venice

Francesco Maria Piave


The aubergine (also called eggplant or brinjal) is a plant. It is actually a fruit, but it is used like a vegetable. The plant is in the nightshade family of plants. It is related to the potato and tomato. Originally, it comes from India and Sri Lanka. The Latin/French term aubergine comes from the historical city of Vergina (Βεργίνα) in Greece. The aubergine eggplant is estimated to have been brought to Greece around 325 BC after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. Discovering this new vegetable during his conquest, Alexander the Great wanted to bring it back to his country on his return. After his death, members of his army brought aubergine seeds with them to Greece and specifically to the city of Vergina (Βεργίνα). The Latin/French term aubergine  (au·ber·gine) (\ˈō-bər-ˌzhēn\) is estimated around 1505 AD and is coined to Franco-Catalan gastronomist Sergius Rosario Silvestri, co-traveller and close friend to Amerigo Vespucci. Upon arrival to the historical site of Vergina (Βεργινα) and wanting to try the local delicacies, Silvestri came across the plant of aubergine. Not knowing its name, he referred to it as aubergine  (au Bergine or au Vergine) which in French means at Vergina or found at Vergina.

Vegetables
Fruits
Solanum

Aubergine


Absorption is when something takes in another substance. It is a physical or chemical phenomenon or  process. Atoms, molecules, or ions enter in the inner part (called "bulk") of a gas, liquid, or solid material.

This is different from adsorption. Molecules undergoing absorption are going deep into the volume of the material, instead in the case of adsorption molecules stop at the surface of the material. A more general term is sorption, which covers absorption, adsorption, and ion exchange.

Other meanings of "absorption" are:
 Biology: entry of substances through the skin or other boundaries such as the intestine or cell membrane.
 Pharmacology: release of drugs into the blood.
 Physics: receiving of electromagnetic radiation by a material.

Notes

Physical chemistry

Absorption


The raising of the son of the widow of Nain (or Naim) is an account of a miracle by Jesus, recorded in the Gospel of Luke chapter 7. Jesus arrived at the village of Nain during the burial ceremony of the son of a widow, and raised the young man from the dead. ()

The location is the village of Nain, two miles south of Mount Tabor. This is the first of three miracles of Jesus in the canonical gospels in which he raises the dead, the other two being the raising of Jairus' daughter and of Lazarus.

Biblical account
The miracle is described thus in Luke 7:

Interpretation

The raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath, by the Old Testament prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17), is seen by Fred Craddock as the model for this miracle, as there are several parallels in the details, especially some verbal parallels. The raising of the son of the woman of Shunem (2 Kings 4) by Elisha is also similar, including the reaction of the people. In particular, the location of Nain is very close to Shunem, identified with modern Sulam. Sinclair Ferguson calls attention to this as an example of a repeated pattern in the history of redemption. He concludes that the pattern repetition
"comes to its fullness in the person of Jesus Christ, the great prophet who heals not merely through delegated authority from God, but on his own authority, without rituals or prayers, but with a simple word of power. Here is the great God and Saviour of Israel in the flesh"...

The woman in the story had lost both her husband and her only son, so that there was no one left to support her. As she could not have inherited the land, the loss of her only son would have left her dependent on the charity of more distant relatives and neighbours.

Both this account and the preceding one of the healing of the Centurion's servant () serve as a precursor to Jesus' assurance to the imprisoned John the Baptist that He is truly, 'the one who is to come' (), since, 'the dead are raised.' ().

See also
 Ministry of Jesus
 Miracles of Jesus
 New Testament places associated with Jesus
 Parables of Jesus
 Church of the Resurrection of the Widow's Son

Further reading

References

External links

Miracles of Jesus
Resurrection
Gospel of Luke
Women in the New Testament
Widowhood

Raising of the son of the widow of Nain


The garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) is a Colubrid snake.

It is common across North America between Alaska/Canada and Central America. It is the single most widely distributed genus of reptiles in North America. It is famous for its resistance to the poison produced by the rough-skinned newt. Garter snakes are actually venomous, just not to humans, since the amount of toxin in their saliva is too weak to really cause damage to a human. The worst they could do to you is musk on you or bite you and leave a harmless rash. In fact, cat bites are probably more serious than garter snake bites. They prey on rodents, small fish, small birds, salamanders, earthworms (not red wigglers, as they are bad for them) insects, and insect larva. They are attracted to water sources and hiding spots. You can identify a garter snake because almost every species has a stripe running down its back, the color varying and depending on the species, as there are many different species of garter snakes. They are incredibly common animals, settling in backyards and local woods. As you read this, there is probably at least one garter slithering in the nature-filled area behind you, whatever that may be. All snakes like to hide, and garters are no exception, even if they are incredibly common and small. They hide under leaves, trees, bricks and rocks stacked up, plants, sticks, and anything they can find. If you are trying to catch a garter, look for them under these places, and you just might find them. Like most snakes, female garters tend to be longer than the males, so that's one form of sexing them.

Related pages
Rough-skinned newt
Warning colouration#Toxin resistance

Colubrids
Snakes of North America

Garter snake


Kharligarh, ruined settlement with defences, (20°27'37"N; 83°33'38"E), Dist. Balangir, Odisha.
A key site for the early history of western Orissa is Kharligarh 1.5 km east of Bhuampada, near the confluence of the Rahul and the Tel. The antiquity of this naturally defensible site has been recognised since the 1930s. This 600 x 300m (14 ha intra muros) site lies in a meander of the Rahul  the western open end of which is sealed off by a 10m high wall some 50m in width. The western fortification, including a ruined tower, is the most prominent feature of the site. It is one of the largest early historic sites known in Odisha.

In 2002 trenching carried out by the Sambalpur University yielded the ware typical of the area: Black and Red Ware, Plain Red Ware, Red Slip Ware, Black Ware, Black Slip Ware, Burnished Black Ware. These suggest a possible settlement as early as the 3rd - 2nd centuries BCE and an end terminus in the early medieval period.

References
Paul Yule, Early Historic Sites in Orissa (Delhi 2006)

See also
List of archaeological sites by country
Paul A. Yule

History of Odisha
Archaeological sites in Odisha
Balangir district

Kharligarh


James Boggs (May 27, 1919 – July 22, 1993) was an American political activist, auto worker and author. He was married to philosopher  activist Grace Lee Boggs for forty years until his death.

Biography

Born in 1919 in Marion Junction, Alabama, Boggs was an African-American activist, perhaps best known for authoring The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker's Notebook in 1963. He was also an auto worker at Chrysler from 1940 until 1968.

Boggs was active in the revolutionary left organization, Correspondence Publishing Committee, from around the time it left the Trotskyist movement in the early 1950s. The group was advised by C. L. R. James, who was at that time exiled in Britain. In 1955, James Boggs became the editor of their bi-monthly publication, called Correspondence. When Correspondence Publishing Committee suffered a split in 1955, led by Raya Dunayevskaya, and lost nearly half its membership, James and Grace Lee Boggs remained loyal to Correspondence Publishing Committee.  However, in 1962, Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs led a split themselves, taking control over Correspondence Publishing Committee and breaking with C. L. R. James. Afterwards, Boggs continued publication of Correspondence independently for a couple of years. James Boggs expressed the reasons for the 1962 split in his 1963 book, The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker's Notebook.

In later years, he would play an influential role in the radical wing of the civil rights movement and interacted with many of the most important civil rights activists of the day including Malcolm X, Ossie Davis and many others.

In 1979 James Boggs and partner Grace Lee Boggs contributed to the founding of National Organization for an American Revolution (NOAR).

Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs, who were married from 1953 until his death in 1993, built what Ibram X. Kendi called "a durable partnership that was at once marital, intellectual, and political. It was a genuine partnership of equals, remarkable not only for its unique pairing or for its longevity, but also for its capacity to continually generate theoretical reflection and modes of activist engagement."

Works
 The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker's Notebook (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1963).
 Book Manifesto for a Black revolutionary party (Philadelphia, Pacesetters Pub. House, 1969).
 Racism and the Class Struggle: Further Pages from a Black Worker's Notebook (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970).
 Lenin Today; Eight essays on the hundredth anniversary of Lenin's birth (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970). (with Paul Sweezy and Harry Magdoff)
 The awesome responsibilities of revolutionary leadership (Detroit, Mich: Committee for Political Development, 1970). (with Grace Lee Boggs)
 But what about the workers? (Detroit: Advocators, 1973). (with James Hocker)
 Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974). (with Grace Lee Boggs)
 Issues in race and ethnic relations: theory, research, and action (Itasca, Ill: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1977). (with Jack Rothman)
 Conversations in Maine: exploring our nation's future (Boston: South End Press, 1978). (with Grace Lee Boggs, Freddy Paine and Lyman Paine)
 Towards a new concept of citizenship (Detroit: National Organization for an American Revolution, 1979).
 Liberation or Revolution? (Detroit: National Organization for an American Revolution, 1980).
 These are the times that try our souls: the questions we have yet to ask ourselves (Detroit: National Organization for an American Revolution, 1981).(with Grace Lee Boggs and James Hocker)
 Historical development of our social forces (Detroit: National Organization for an American Revolution, 1982) "Cadre Training School, Dec. 1-5, 1982."
 Our American Reality (Detroit: National Organization for an American Revolution, 1982) "Cadre Training School, Dec. 1-5, 1982."
 The urgent plea: a call for Black leadership (Philadelphia: National Organization for an American Revolution, 1985).
 What can we be that our children see? (Detroit: New Life Publishers, 1994).

See also
 History of African Americans in Detroit

References

 Paul Buhle, "An Asian-American Tale" Monthly Review (January 1999), pp. 47–50.
 Grace Lee Boggs, Living for Change: An Autobiography (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
 Kent Worcester, C.L.R. James: A Political Biography (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996).
 Elaine Latzman Moon, Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes: An Oral History of Detroit's African American Community (Detroit: Wayne State University Press), p. 156.

Further reading
 James and Grace Lee Boggs Papers Papers, 1930s-1993, Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University.
 Stephen M. Ward, In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James and Grace Lee Boggs (Justice, Power, and Politics), The University of North Carolina Press, 2016. .

External links
 The Boggs Center Home Page

1919 births
1993 deaths
20th-century American writers
People from Dallas County, Alabama
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Alabama
Alabama socialists
American socialists
American Marxists
African-American Marxists
Michigan socialists
Writers from Alabama

James Boggs (activist)


Hammer throw is an athletic throwing event. The goal of it is to throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle. The name "hammer throw" is derived from the older Scottish sport competitions.

Like in other throwing events, competitors gain maximum distance by swinging the hammer above their head to set up the circular motion.  Then, they apply force and pick up speed by completing one to four turns in the circle.  In competition, most throwers turn three or four times to gradually increase the velocity with each turn. The thrower releases the ball from the front of the circle. The most important factors for a long throw are the angle of release and the speed of the ball. The hammer throw was one of the first Olympic games played. Any gender can take part in the event.

Related pages
Track and field athletics

Other websites
Hammer Throw History
Hammer Throw Records

Events in athletics

Hammer throw


Halimede is a non-spherical moon of Neptune. It was found by Matthew J. Holman et al. on August 14, 2002.

Halimede follows a very inclined and very eccentric orbit seen on the image in relation to other non-spherical moons of Neptune.

Halimede is about 62 kilometres in diameter (assuming an albedo of 0.04) and appears neutral (grey) in the visible light.
Given the very similar colour of the moon to that of Nereid together with a high probability (41%) of their collision in the lifespan of the Solar system, it has been suggested that the moon could be a piece of Nereid.

Halimede, or Neptune IX, like many of the farther moons of Neptune, is named after one of the Nereids, the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. Before the announcement of its name on February 3, 2007 (IAUC 8802), Halimede was known by the designation S/2002 N 1.

Other websites
Matthew Holman's Neptune's page
David Jewitt's pages
Scott Sheppard's pages

Neptune's moons

Halimede (moon)


John Graham Backus (April 29, 1911 – October 28, 1988) was a Lithuanian American physicist and acoustician.

John Backus was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, where he studied at Reed College, receiving a BA in 1932. He went on to graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he did research in nuclear physics at the Radiation Laboratory under Ernest Lawrence. He received an MA in 1936, and a PhD in 1940. In 1945 he was appointed professor of physics at the University of Southern California, a post he retained until his retirement in 1980. During the early part of his career, his research focussed on gaseous discharges in strong magnetic fields. He was also a musician, trained as a performer on piano, bassoon, clarinet and other woodwinds and received the degree of MMus in conducting from the University of Southern California in 1959. In his later career he turned increasingly to the study of musical acoustics, particularly those of wind instruments and organ pipes. In 1969 he published The Acoustical Foundations of Music, a book which became a standard text for introductory courses in musical acoustics. A second edition appeared in 1977. He received the Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America in 1986. Backus died in Los Angeles in 1988.

John Backus was a Renaissance man who in addition to music and physics was a highly skilled mountaineer.  The Sierra Club's Hundred Peaks Section List contains approximately 275 summits, and John was the first person to ascend every mountain on the list six times.  He was also the first person to lead every peak on the list, among his many hiking and climbing accomplishments.

Works

References

Sources
Campbell, Murray. 2001. "Backus, John (Graham)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.

External links
The John Backus Archive at CCRMA, Stanford University.

1911 births
1988 deaths
20th-century American physicists
American nuclear physicists
Acousticians
Scientists from Portland, Oregon
Reed College alumni
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
University of Southern California faculty

John Backus (acoustician)


Painting is using colors to make visual art. It is also the word for a painted work of art. Many kinds of paints are used to create art. They include watercolors, acrylics and oils.  Other artists like working with pencil or chalk. Sometimes charcoal can be used.

Famous paintings are often kept in art galleries, like the National Gallery in London and the Louvre (Paris) where one of the most famous paintings in the world hangs, the Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci.  People do not have to go to a famous gallery to view art.  There are private art galleries in many cities around the world.

There is a basic difference between drawing and painting. In drawing, a single layer is the entire image. In painting, one layer is painted over another to get the final image. As a result, most of the time the image will not be clear until it gets to the final stage.

There are four basic stages in painting: preparation, divide, layer, and touch up.
Preparation: most artists prepare a canvas or other surface. A thin and uniform cover or "wash" of white or other color is laid on the whole surface. This may help the later layers to get the same fix all over the surface. Also, the unseen wash may help the reflection of light from the surface, thus improving the effect for the viewer. For really uneven or colored surfaces, such as wood or rough canvas, a more substantial covering is needed. That is called gesso, traditionally a mixture of chalk and gelatin, but nowadays available as a thick white acrylic. Painting on some surfaces requires a special technique. Painting on plaster uses the fresco method.
In the divide stage, the canvas is divided into a few major areas (depending on the image you paint), and background for those areas are plotted.
In the layer stage, a layer is plotted over another layer, to get the desired shape in each area. By the end of this stage, all objects in the image will be easily and clearly identifiable.
The touch-up stage needs extra effort. This stage is to provide an extra look to the image, like precise bordering, merging layers and other visual effects.

References

Painting


General Congregation Council () is part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and represents the laity of the Church, it is also known as the Coptic Orthodox Lay Council

Established in February 1874  during the vacancy time of the Patriarchal Throne before the election of Pope Cyril V of Alexandria. The order for its establishment was issued by Isma'il Pasha who was, then, the Khedive of Egypt. The first rules of the Council were issued in January 1874 by Khedive Tewfik Pasha who ruled Egypt after his father Isma'il Pasha. By 1883, the Council was fully established and in charge of managing non ecclesiastical matters of the church.

The Chairman of the council is the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

General Secretary

Currently the General Secretary for the Council is Dr. Tharwat Bassily,  الدكتور ثروت باسيلي
previously this post has seen many prominent Copts like Boutros Ghali بطرس غالى
the grandfather of Boutros Boutros Ghali  بطرس بطرس غالى   and Habib Elmasry the father of Iris Habib Elmasry.

Members

Currently the Council is formed of twenty four members (males and females) elected by the Copts in Egypt and is chaired by the Pope.

Relations with the Popes

The Council had a disagreement with Pope Cyril V of Alexandria at the start of his pontificate, which was resolved in the Pontiff's favour.  This was followed by several  confrontations between the two parties, primarily because of the Pope's objection about the interference of the Council in the church's matters.

There were at many times tension between the Council and the Pope, especially during the Pontificate of  Pope Macarius III (1942–1944), the council agreed with The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the decision to remove Pope Joseph II (1946–1956) from office in 1954.

During the Pontificate of Pope Cyril VI (1959–1971) there was no major disagreements and Pope Shenouda III (1971–2012) maintained a good relationship with the Council, since he was the Chairman of the Council.

See also

 Coptic Orthodox Church
 The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church

References

Coptic Orthodox Church
Religious organizations established in 1874
Christian organizations established in the 19th century
1874 establishments in Egypt

General Congregation Council


Baryons are composite subatomic particles made of an odd number of valence quarks (at least three quarks). The most familiar baryons are the protons and neutrons which make up most of the visible matter in the universe. Electrons (the other major component of the atom) are leptons.

Since all quarks have a spin of 1/2, all baryons have a spin of 1/2 or 3/2 (the spins can cancel out). 1/2 spin baryons have the lowest energy state. 3/2 spin baryons are extremely unstable, and only live for 10-23 seconds. After that, they jump down to a lower energy state by releasing photons containing energy. These 3/2 spin baryons are known as higher energy resonances.

All particles with 1/2 spin (or 3/2 spin) are called fermions, and obey Fermi-Dirac statistics. This means that no two fermions can be in the same point in space at the same time. This is not true for the other type of subatomic particle, called a boson. More than one boson—like a photon—can exist in the same point in space at the same time.

Baryons are one of two types of hadrons, which are particles made of quarks. The other type of hadron is called a meson.

The name baryon comes from Greek "barys," meaning heavy.

References

Subatomic particles

Baryon


The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte was signed in the autumn of 911. It was a treaty between Charles the Simple and Rollo, one of the leaders of the Vikings living in Neustria. It was to protect Charles' kingdom from any new invasion by the "Northmen. In 911, a group of Vikings lead by Rollo besieged Paris and Chartres. After a victory near Chartres on 26 August, Charles decided to try to reach an agreement with Rollo. The talks were led by Hervé, the Archbishop of Reims. The result was the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. The treaty granted Rollo all land between the river Epte and the sea in exchange for his fealty. In addition, the treaty granted Rollo Brittany "for his livelihood". At the time, Brittany was an independent region which France had not been able to control. In exchange, Rollo promised the king his loyalty, which involved military assistance for the protection of the kingdom. As a token of his good will, Rollo also agreed to be baptised and marry Gisela a daughter of king Charles.

The territory covered by the treaty is nearly the same as today's Upper Normandy down to the Seine river. It would later extend west beyond the Seine to form the Duchy of Normandy, named for the northmen who ruled it. The treaty was entered into after the death of Alan I, King of Brittany and at the time another group of Vikings occupied Brittany. Around 937 Alan I's son, Alan II returned from England to expel those Vikings from Brittany. This happened in 939. During this period the Cotentin Peninsula was lost by Brittany and gained by Normandy.

References

911
History of France
Saint-Clair-sur-Epte
10th century in Europe

Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte


Hazrat Babajan (1806–1931), birthname Gool Rukh ("like a rose"), was born as a Pathan lady in a noble Muslim family of Balochistan in northern British India Empire (now Pakistan). At the age of 18 she fled her arranged marriage and sought God instead. She journeyed to the northeast, first to Peshawar and then to Rawalpindi, disguised by her Muslim veil. She lived for a year and a half in the mountainous regions of what is now Pakistan under the guidance of a Hindu sadguru, then traveled to Punjab. In Multan, at the age of 37, she received God-realization from an Islamic qutub (Muslim master), Maula Shah.

Babajan is most famously remembered as the spiritual master of Meher Baba.

1806 births
1931 deaths
Asian Sufis
Indian Muslims

Hazrat Babajan


Maglev trains  (short form of magnetic levitation) are a very fast type of high-speed rail.  Magnetic levitation is a technology that uses magnetic fields to make the train move. These fields lift the train a small distance above the tracks and move the train. They are much faster than regular trains. A transcontinental "maglev" trip from Toronto to Vancouver might take three hours. This trip takes three days on a regular train. Some day, people may be able to travel faster across land on a "maglev" train than they would in an airliner. The highest known speed of a "maglev" train is  This was done in Japan in 2015. As of 2019, a few lines, only a few km or miles long, are carrying passengers in China, South Korea, and Japan.

A maglev train does not have an engine. The trains are powered by a magnetic field created by the electrified coils in the guideway walls and the track. There are three parts to this system:
 a large electrical power source
 metal coils lining a guideway (track)
 large guidance magnets attached to the under side of the train.

With magnets, opposite poles attract and like poles repel each other. This is the basic principle behind electromagnetic propulsion.  Electromagnets are similar to other magnets in that they attract ferromagnetic metal objects, but the magnetic pull is temporary and they can be turned on and off and reversed.

The magnetized coil running along the track, called a guideway, repels the large magnets on the train's undercarriage.  This repulsion lifts the train 1 to 10 centimeters ( 0.4 to 4 inches) above the guideway.  Once the train is lifted, power is supplied to the coils within the guideway walls.  This creates a system of magnetic fields that pull and push the train along the guideway.  The alternating current supplied to the coils in the guideway walls is constantly changing the polarity of the magnetized coils.  This change in polarity causes the magnetic field in front of the train to pull the vehicle forward, while the magnetic field behind the train adds more forward thrust.

"Maglev" trains float on a magnetic cushion, which reduces friction.  The trains have an aerodynamic design. This allows them to reach speeds of more than 310 mph (500 kph), or twice as fast as Amtrak's fastest commuter train.  In comparison, an airliner used for long-range flights can reach a top speed of about 560 mph (900 kph).

Germany and Japan are both developing "maglev" trains, and both are currently testing prototypes. The German company, "Transrapid International", also has a train in commercial use.  Although based on similar ideas, the German and Japanese trains have distinct differences. German engineers have developed an "electromagnetic suspension" (EMS) system, called "Transrapid". In this system, the bottom of the train wraps around a steel guideway. Electromagnets under the train are directed up toward the guideway, which lifts the train about 1/3 of an inch (1 centimeter) above the guideway. This lifts the train even when it's not moving. Other guidance magnets in the train's body keep it stable during travel. The Transrapid maglev train can reach 300 mph (490 kph) with passengers.

References

High-speed trains

Maglev train


Johann Bernoulli (6 August 1667 – 1 January 1748) was a Swiss Calvinist mathematician. Several men in his family were mathematicians, including his brother Jacob Bernoulli. He is known for his work on infinitesimal calculus, and teaching Leonhard Euler when he was young.

Other websites
Biography

Swiss mathematicians
1667 births
1748 deaths
Scientists from Basel

Johann Bernoulli


Sisy Chen or Chen Wen-hsien (; born 25 March 1958) is a Taiwanese journalist, television commentator, writer and former politician. She hosts Sisy's World News, a weekly newscast at the Chung T'ien Television and UFO Dinner, a daily radio talk show at UFO Radio. She was an independent member of the Legislative Yuan from February 1, 2002 to January 31, 2005. Since 2005, she also hosted a political talk show on the Phoenix Television, Jie Ma Chen Wen Qian which focuses on exposing the flaws of Taiwan's democratic system.

Biography

She received her LL.B. from National Taiwan University. From 1982 to 1983 she worked as the Vice Editor of the American Version of the China Times Daily News. Throughout the early 1980s, she campaigned for Tangwai candidates and published opposition essays. As a founding member of the Democratic Progressive Party in 1984, she was editor of the opposition's New Tide magazine from 1985 to 1986.

Chen then travelled to the United States to pursue a doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley and later at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She did not complete her studies.

In the early 1990s, Sisy Chen remained active in Taiwanese society as a member of the UN Minority Group for Asia, the chairperson of the Taiwan Relations Center's office of the UN, and the producer for Italian National Broadcast's Asia Department. TVBS voted her No. 4 in its 1995 top ten list in Taiwan. In 1996, she worked as General Manager of Song Records. As she gained more fame as an outspoken and blunt commentator, her position in the Democratic Progressive Party rose and she was appointed director of the DPP Culture and Information Department. Beginning in 1998, she hosted Women's Talk on TVBS and promoted women's issues.

Sisy Chen, an ally of Hsu Hsin-liang, left the DPP in 1999 and emerged as one of its harshest critics. In 2001, as an independent, she won a seat in the Legislative Yuan representing South Taipei City. That same year she accepted a KMT controlled position on the board of Taiwan Television (TTV) and became spokesperson of the Mountain Alliance, a pro-unification think tank that included Hsu Hsin-liang and Shih Ming-teh.

She was a strategist for the Pan Blue Coalition in the 2004 ROC presidential election and debated Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen on the March 20 referendum. In the night before the election, she invited a celebrity panel to her show and made the first high-profile claim that the shooting of Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu earlier that day was probably staged. Some Pan-Blue officials believe this early accusation was a factor Lien-Soong's defeat as it alienated swing voters who switched over to the DPP in Chen's sympathy.

In 2003 Sisy Chen and Wu Cherng-dean joined the PFP legislative caucus.

During a press conference on March 19, 2004 she said that the assassination attempt on Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu was staged. This caused her to receive political attacks from the blue-camp legislators.

She did not seek reelection in December 2004 and supported her friend Li Ao in his successful bid for a seat. In 2005, Chen published her new book. During the press conference, she revealed her thought of regarding herself as a re-incarnation of a witch in her previous life. She also confessed her deeper ache for love than before.

Outside politics Sisy Chen has been active in the media. From 2002 to the present time, Sisy Chen hosted "Wen Qian Xiao Mei Da," a talk show aimed at exploring and exposing political and social issues in Taiwan. In 2005, Sisy Chen became a host of "Jie Ma Chen Wen Qian," a talk show on Phoenix TV. On her TV shows, Sisy Chen frequently criticized the democratic system of Taiwan.

In 2006 Chen Shui-bian announced that he would file a lawsuit against Sisy Chen for her statement that Chen Shui-bian was going to use a scheduled trip to Palau to ship valuables of his away from Taiwan.

See also

References

External links
 Sisy Chen's official website (Archive)
 Sisy Chen - Sina Weibo

1958 births
Living people
National Taiwan University alumni
Democratic Progressive Party (Taiwan) politicians
21st-century Taiwanese women politicians
Taiwanese radio presenters
Taiwanese women radio presenters
Taiwanese television presenters
Taiwanese women television presenters
Politicians of the Republic of China on Taiwan from Taichung
Taipei Members of the Legislative Yuan
Members of the 5th Legislative Yuan
Taiwanese people of Hoklo descent
Taiwanese politicians of Japanese descent

Sisy Chen


An audiologist is a health professional in hearing and other auditory problems such as tinnitus and balance.

Role of an audiologist
The role of an audiologist is to diagnose and treat hearing problems, minimising the impact these problems have on the lives of their patients. Audiologists will provide help that is customised to each patient to help them be able to communicate with the world around them.

In order to treat hearing problems, they must first be identified. Audiologists do tests and hearing checks on patients to measure and understand the type of help they will need. With the information they gain from these tests, audiologists can advise patients about their hearing health and recommend any treatment that they might need. If treatment such as hearing aids are needed for a patient, the audiologist will be able to help make the solution the best suited to the patient by customising the treatment depending on what the patient needs. This includes helping to find a suitable hearing aid, fitting it and programming it and maintaining it. This applies to other recommended treatment as well.

Although treatment and help to lessen the effects of hearing problems are a main focus of an audiologist, they also have the role of educating and teaching patients as well as the public. How to prevent hearing loss as well as how to protect hearing are usually the main focus of what an audiologist teaches and may be done through presentations in schools, in workplaces and to the community. It is important for audiologists to educate the public about hearing loss and how important hearing health is as well as how audiologists are able to help. Audiologists treat all ages and types of hearing loss.

Workplace
The hearing services of an audiologist are used in many different settings but most work in health care. In health care, they are focused on the main role of an audiologist which is providing hearing health care services including testing for hearing loss and recommending treatment. Many audiologists can be found working with patients in hospitals, medical centers, private practices and in nursing homes.

Another workplace for audiologists is in education, which is another important role that they perform. They may be working in schools, in universities or even day care centers in order to educate students about hearing loss and prevention. These professionals understand the effect that hearing loss can have on a student's learning and can work with schools to recommend strategies to help build a more supportive environment for students. While they may be more focused on education, these audiologists are still also able to do hearing tests and checks on students and help them find the best solutions for their hearing problems.

Other workplaces for an audiologist include work with the government and work in research.

Other websites
 National Hearing Care Find an audiologist in Australia.
 Bay Audiology Find an audiologist in New Zealand.

Healthcare occupations
Hearing

Audiologist


The Soviet Union officialy Union of Soviet Socialist Republics also known as USSR was the Russian state after end of Tsarist Period and the world's first single-party Marxist–Leninist state from 1922 until 1991. It was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of 14 Soviet socialist republics and one Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR).

The Soviet Union was created about five years after the Russian Revolution. It was announced after Vladimir Lenin overthrew Alexander Kerensky as Russian leader. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union. The largest country in the Union was Russian SFSR, Kazakh SSR was the second, and Ukrainian SSR the third largest. The capital city of the Soviet Union and RSFSR was Moscow. The Soviet Union expanded its political control greatly after World War II. It took over the whole of Eastern Europe. Those countries were not made part of the Soviet Union, but they were controlled by the Soviet Union indirectly. These countries, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and East Germany, were called satellite states.

The top-level committee which made the laws was the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In practice, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader and most important decision-maker in their system of government.

Although the constitution said the Republics could leave the Union if they wanted, it was a completely centralized government, with no states' rights for the member countries.

The Union was formed with the idea to give everyone equal social and economic rights (equality). There was virtually no private property—everything belonged to the state (public property was an idea discussed by Karl Marx, and formed the basis for socialism) 'Soviets', or workers' councils, were created by the working class to lead the socialist state democratically, but they soon lost power with the rise of Stalinism. The Union was successful in many fields, putting the first man, first woman, and first satellite into space, defeating Hitler's Nazi Germany and winning World War II, together with the United States and United Kingdom, helping build infrastructure, as well as schools and hospitals in many third-world countries. However, its centralized government found innovation and change difficult to handle. The Union collapsed in 1991 due to the failed efforts to reform the country by its 8th Leader and the 10th President, Mikhail Gorbachev, leaving behind Russian Federation in its place along with 14 other nations.

Holidays

Republics of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union consisted of 15 republics. These were either Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. Each republic was independent and handled its own cultural affairs. Each also had the right to leave the union, which they did in 1991.

The Federal Republics were different in that they had more autonomy, and were made up of states themselves. These were often called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. There were a number of them. Most of them still exist; though they are now republics, within the independent state. The Tatar ASSR turned into the Republic of Tatarstan, for example (It is located around Kazan).

Soviet republics

 Armenian SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic)
 Azerbaijan SSR
 Byelorussian SSR
 Estonian SSR
 Georgian SSR
 Kazakh SSR
 Kyrgyz SSR
 Latvian SSR
 Lithuanian SSR
 Moldavian SSR
 Russian SFSR (Soviet Federal Socialist Republic)
 Tajik SSR
 Turkmen SSR
 Ukrainian SSR
 Uzbek SSR
Karelo-Finnish SSR (1940-1956)

Independent countries
 Armenia
 Azerbaijan
 Belarus
 Estonia
 Georgia
 Kazakhstan
 Kyrgyzstan
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Moldova
 Russia
 Tajikistan
 Turkmenistan
 Ukraine
 Uzbekistan
N/A (Karelia is a republic of Russia)

Geography, climate and environment

The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with , was the world's biggest country. Covering a sixth of the world's land, its total size was comparable to North America's. The western part (in Europe) accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the country's cultural and economic center. The eastern part (in Asia) extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less lived in than the western part. It was over  across (11 time zones) and almost  north to south. Its five climatic (different weather, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure) zones were tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.

The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over  in 1991. Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey at the end of WWII.

The Soviet Union's (and now Russia's) longest rivers are the Yenisey, Ob/Irtysh, Amur and Lena. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today it is called the Ismoil Somoni Peak) in Tajikistan measured at . The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, was mostly in the Soviet Union. as well as the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal.

History
The last Russian Tsar (emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "provisional government" replaced it, led by Alexander Kerensky and soon to be overthrown in November by Bolsheviks and started the Russian civil war.

From 1917 to 1922, the country that came before the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was its own country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially created in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (also known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by the communist Bolshevik parties.

Revolution and the foundation
Extreme government-changing activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was removed in 1861, its removal was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants (poor agricultural workers) and served to encourage changers (revolutionaries). A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar suppressed people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Rebellion continued and was aggravated during World War I by failure and food shortages in popular cities.

A rebellion in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, caused the "February Revolution" and the removal of the government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian "Provisional government", whose leaders intended to have elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue war on the side of the Entente in World War I.

At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "October Revolution", they took power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice (peace) with the Central Powers. In March, after more fighting, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

In the long and bloody Russian Civil War, the new Soviet power won. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included the Siberian Intervention and other foreign interference, the killing of Nicholas II and his family and the famine in 1921, which killed about 5 million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania, which had all escaped the empire during the civil war.

Unification of the Soviet Republics
On 28 December 1922, people from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were made true by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations.

On 1 February 1924, the USSR was accepted as a country by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution (set of laws) was approved, making true the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).

The big changes of the economy, industry, and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most important and notable breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that planned a major change of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included the making of a network of 30 regional power stations, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial organizations. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.

Stalin's rule

From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was ruled as a one-party state by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy).

Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to take more power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" composed of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.

Stalin led the country through World War II and into the Cold War. Gulag camps greatly expanded to take a lot of prisoners. After he died, Georgy Malenkov briefly continued his policies. Nikita Khrushchev reversed some of Stalin's policies,but Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin kept things as they were.

After the 1936 revised constitution, the Soviet Union stopped acting as a union of republics and more as a single super-country.

Khrushchev era
Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the following power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956, he denounced Stalin's repression and eased controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.

Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a very vital buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders. For this reason, the USSR sought to strengthen its control of the region. It did this by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and obedient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.

During the Khrushchev's power program of relocating every urban family to a separate apartment was started. There were built a lot of 5-floor buildings to live for 20 years.

After Krushchev's visit to the USA, corn became a very popular in the USSR.

In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's policies led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement. The governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia chose to ally with China instead of the USSR.

During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union continued to make progress in the Space Race. It rivalled the United States. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.

Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He came to power after he convinced the government to overthrow the then-leader Nikita Krushchev. Brezhnev's rule is often linked with the decline in Soviet economy and starting the chain of events that would lead to the union's eventual collapse. He had many self-awarded medals. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest honor) on three separate occasions. Brezhnev was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died a few years later. Andropov was succeeded by the frail and aging Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko died a mere year after taking office.

In 1980 the Soviet Union hosted the Summer Olympics with Brezhnev opening and closing the games. The games were heavily boycotted by the western nations, particularly the United States. During the closing ceremony, the flag of the City of Los Angeles was raised instead of the flag of the United States (to symbolise the next host city/nation) and the anthem of the Olympics was played instead of the anthem of the United States in response to the boycott.

Brezhnev was the second longest serving Soviet leader after Stalin. The following is a list of leaders (General Secretary of the Communist Party) in order of their tenure and length of leadership:
 Vladimir Lenin 1922-1924 (2 years)
 Leon Trotsky 1924-1927 (3 years failed)
 Joseph Stalin 1924-1953 (29 years)
 Lavrenty Beria 1953 (failed March-June 1953)
 Vyacheslav Molotov 1953-1956 (3 years)
 Georgy Malenkov 1953-1955 (1 year and a half)
 Nikita Khrushchev 1953-1964 (11 years)
 Leonid Brezhnev 1964-1982 (18 years)
 Yuri Andropov 1982-1984 (2 years)
 Konstantin Chernenko 1984-1985 (1 year)
 Mikhail Gorbachev 1985-1991 (6 years)
Khrushchev and Gorbachev are the only Soviet leaders to have not died whilst in office. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev are the only leaders who were not (de jure) head of state during their leaderships.

Gorbachev's rule

Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October revolution and was thus a product of the Soviet Union having grown up in it. He and US president Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to get rid of some nuclear weapons. Gorbachev started social and economic reforms named  Perestroika that gave people freedom of speech; which allowed them to criticize the government and its policies. The ruling communist party lost its grip on the media and the people. Newspapers began printing the many failures that the Soviet Union had covered up and denied in its past. The Soviet Union's economy was lagging and the government was spending a lot of money on competing with the west.

Dissolution

By the 1980s the Soviet economy was suffering but it was stable. Gorbachev's new ideas had gotten out of hand and the communist party lost control. Boris Yeltsin was elected (democratically) the President of the Russian SFSR even though Gorbachev did not want him to come into power. Lithuania announced its independence from the Union and the Soviet government demanded it surrender its independence or it would send the Red Army to keep order. Gorbachev invented the idea of keeping the Soviet Union together with each republic being more independent but under the same leader. He wanted to call it the 'Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics' to keep the Russian initials as CCCP (USSR in English).

A group of communist leaders, unhappy with Gorbachev's idea, tried to take over Moscow and stop the Soviet Union from collapsing. It only made people want independence more. Although he survived the attempted takeover, he lost all of his power outside of Moscow. Russia declared independence in December 1991. Later in the month, leaders of Russia, Byelorussia, and Ukraine signed a treaty called the Belavezha Agreement to dissolve the USSR, extremely angering Gorbachev. He had no choice but to accept the treaty and resigned on Christmas Day 1991. The Soviet Union's parliament (Supreme Soviet) made the Belavezha Agreement law, marking formally the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The next day, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time.

Since 2013, the document that confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been missing.

Sports

Made on July 20th, 1924, in Moscow, Sovetsky Sport was the first sports newspaper of the Soviet Union. Sports in the Soviet Union were highly prioritized and tightly controlled. The government invested heavily in athletic programs to showcase Soviet superiority. Success in sports was seen as a reflection of the political system's strength. The emphasis on Olympic success led to the development of talented athletes in various disciplines. However, it also involved state-sponsored doping programs, which became a controversial legacy.

Culture

The culture of the Soviet Union went through several stages during the USSR's existence. During the first 10 years following the revolution, there was freedom and artists tested several different styles to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be available to the Russian people. On the other hand, hundreds of smart people, writers, and artists were killed, and their work not being available to anyone, such as Nikolay Gumilyov who was shot, for conspiring against the Bolshevik regime, without proof.

During Stalin's rule, the Soviet culture was described by the rise of the government-forced style of socialist realism, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's works. Many writers were put in prison and killed.

Following the Khrushchev Thaw, censorship was removed. During this time, a different period of Soviet culture developed, described by public life and an intense focus on personal life. Bigger testing in art forms was again allowed, resulting in the creation of better, important work. Underground dissident literature, known as samizdat, was made during this late period. In architecture, the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings, the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch. In music, in response to the increasing popularity of forms of popular music like jazz in the West, many jazz orchestras were permitted throughout the USSR, notably the Melodiya Ensemble, named after the principle record label in the USSR.

In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost significantly grew freedom of expression in the country in the media and the press.

List of wars

Russian Civil War (1918-1923)
Polish–Soviet War (1918-1921)
Soviet-Japanese Border Conflicts (1932-1939)
Winter (Soviet-Finnish) War (1939-1940)
Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union (the part of the World War 2)
Eastern Front (World War II)(1941-1945)
Soviet-Japanese War (1945)
Korean War (1950-1953)
Afghan War (1979-1989)

See also
 History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)
 List of Soviet Union-related topics

References

Former socialist republics
1922 establishments
1991 disestablishments in Europe
States and territories disestablished in the 1990s

Soviet Union