1.
Estonia
–
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 of land and water, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The territory of Estonia has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, in 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Supreme Soviet issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in defiance of Soviet rule, and independence was restored on 20 August 1991. Estonia is a parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn, with a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OECD and Schengen Area. Estonia is a country with an advanced, high-income economy that is among the fastest growing in the EU. Its Human Development Index ranks very highly, and it performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, the 2015 PISA test places Estonian high school students 3rd in the world, behind Singapore and Japan. Citizens of Estonia are provided with health care, free education. Since independence the country has developed its IT sector, becoming one of the worlds most digitally advanced societies. In 2005 Estonia became the first nation to hold elections over the Internet, in the Estonian language, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians was maarahvas, meaning country people or people of the land. The land inhabited by Estonians was called Maavald meaning Country Parish or Land Parish, one hypothesis regarding the modern name of Estonia is that it originated from the Aesti, a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania. The historic Aesti were allegedly Baltic people, whereas the modern Estonians are Finno-Ugric, the geographical areas between Aesti and Estonia do not match, with Aesti being further down south. Ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland, as the country is called in Icelandic. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the name are Estia and Hestia, esthonia was a common alternative English spelling prior to 1921. Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, the oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in south-western Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11,000 years ago, the earliest human inhabitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to Kunda culture, which is named after the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in communities near bodies of water
2.
Proto-Germanic
–
Proto-Germanic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. The end of the Common Germanic period is reached with the beginning of the Migration Period in the fourth century, the Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any coherent surviving texts, it has been reconstructed using the comparative method. Fragmentary direct attestation exists of Common Germanic in early runic inscriptions, the Proto-Germanic language developed in southern Scandinavia, the Urheimat of the Germanic tribes. Proto-Germanic developed out of pre-Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe, Proto-Germanic itself was likely spoken after c. Early Germanic expansion in the Pre-Roman Iron Age placed Proto-Germanic speakers in contact with the Continental Celtic La Tène horizon, a number of Celtic loanwords in Proto-Germanic have been identified. By the 1st century AD, Germanic expansion reaches the Danube and the Upper Rhine in the south, at about the same time, extending east of the Vistula, Germanic speakers come into contact with early Slavic cultures, as reflected in early Germanic loans in Proto-Slavic. By the 3rd century, LPGmc speakers had expanded over significant distance, the period marks the breakup of Late Proto-Germanic and the beginning of the Germanic migrations. The earliest coherent text in Proto-Norse become available c.400 in runic inscriptions, the delineation of Late Common Germanic from Proto-Norse about then is largely a matter of convention. Early West Germanic becomes available in the 5th century with the Frankish Bergakker inscription, between the two points, many sound changes occurred. Phylogeny as applied to historical linguistics involves the descent of languages. The Germanic languages form a tree with Proto-Germanic at its root that is a branch of the Indo-European tree, borrowing of lexical items from contact languages makes the relative position of the Germanic branch within Indo-European less clear than the positions of the other branches of Indo-European. In the course of the development of linguistics, various solutions have been proposed, none certain. In the evolutionary history of a family, philologists consider a genetic tree model appropriate only if communities do not remain in effective contact as their languages diverge. The internal diversification of West Germanic developed in an especially non-treelike manner, Proto-Germanic is generally agreed to have begun about 500 BC. Its hypothetical ancestor between the end of Proto-Indo-European and 500 BC is termed Pre-Proto-Germanic, whether it is to be included under a wider meaning of Proto-Germanic is a matter of usage. The fixation of the led to sound changes in unstressed syllables. For Lehmann, the boundary was the dropping of final -a or -e in unstressed syllables, for example, post-PIE *wóyd-e > Gothic wait. Antonsen agreed with Lehmann about the boundary but later found runic evidence that the -a was not dropped, ékwakraz … wraita, I, Wakraz
3.
Finnic languages
–
The Finnic or Baltic Finnic languages are a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by about 7 million people. Traditionally eight Finnic languages have been recognized, the major modern representatives of the family are Finnish and Estonian, the official languages of their respective nation states. The other Finnic languages in the Baltic Sea region are Ingrian and Votic, spoken in Ingria by the Gulf of Finland, spoken farther northeast are Karelian, Ludic and Veps, in the region of Lakes Onega and Ladoga. In addition, since the 1990s, several Finnic-speaking minority groups have emerged to seek of recognition as distinct languages, Northern Karelian, Tver Karelian and Livvi represent the three main dialect groups of Karelian, which earlier had been an unwritten language. Võro and Seto are spoken in southeastern Estonia and earlier were considered dialects of Estonian, the Meänkieli dialects and Kven are spoken in northern Sweden and Norway and have the legal status of independent languages. They were earlier considered dialects of Finnish and are mutually intelligible with it, the last native speaker of Livonian died in 2013, and only about a dozen native speakers of Votic remain. Regardless, even for these languages, the shaping of a standard language, the geographic centre of the maximum divergence between the languages is located south of the Gulf of Finland. The Finnic languages are located at the end of the Uralic language family. Innovations are also shared between Finnic and the Mordvinic languages, and in recent times Finnic, Samic and Mordvinic are frequently considered together, there is no grammatical gender in Finnic languages, nor are there articles nor definite or indefinite forms. One of the important processes is the characteristic consonant gradation. Two kinds of gradation occur, the radical and suffix gradation and this is a lenition process, where the consonant is changed into a weaker form with some oblique cases. For geminates, the process is simple to describe, they become simple stops, for simple consonants, the process complicates immensely and the results vary by the environment. For example, haka +-n → haan, kyky + -n → kyvyn, vowel harmony is also an important process. The original Uralic palatalization was lost in proto-Finnic, but most of the diverging dialects reacquired it, palatalization is a part of the Estonian literary language and is an essential feature in Võro, as well as Veps, Karelian, and other eastern Finnic languages. It is also found in East Finnish dialects, and is missing from West Finnish dialects. A special characteristic of the languages is the number of diphthongs. There are 16 diphthongs in Finnish and 25 in Estonian, at the time the frequency is greater in Finnish than in Estonian. There are 14 grammatical cases in Estonian and 15 in Finnish, the Finnic languages form a complex dialect continuum with few clear-cut boundaries
4.
Courland
–
Courland or Kurzeme is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland as they were held by the same duke. Situated in western Latvia, Courland roughly corresponds to the former Latvian districts of Kuldīga, Liepāja, Saldus, Talsi, Tukums, when combined with Semigallia and Selonia, Courlands northeastern boundary is the river Daugava, which separates it from the regions of Latgale and Vidzeme. To the north, Courlands coast lies along the Gulf of Riga, on the west it is bordered by the Baltic Sea, and on the south by Lithuania. It lies between 55° 45′ and 57° 45′ North and 21° and 27° East, the area comprises 27,286 km², of which 262 km² is made up of lakes. The landscape generally has a low and undulating character, with flat, the interior features wooded dunes, covered with pine, spruce, birch, and oak, with swamps and lakes, and fertile patches between. Courlands elevation never rises more than 213 m above sea level, the Jelgava plain divides Courland into two parts, the western side, which is fertile and densely inhabited, except in the north, and the eastern side, less fertile and thinly inhabited. Nearly one hundred rivers drain Courland, but only three of these rivers – the Daugava, the Lielupe and the Venta – are navigable and they all flow northwestward and discharge into the Baltic Sea. Owing to its numerous lakes and marshes, Courland has a damp, often foggy, in ancient times the Curonians, a pagan tribe, inhabited Courland. The Brethren of the Sword, a German military order, subdued the Curonians, in 1237 the area passed into the rule of the Teutonic Knights owing to the amalgamation of this order with that of the Brethren of the Sword. The Livonian Confederation was a loosely organized confederation formed by the German-led Livonian Order and it existed from 1228 to the 1560s, when it was dismembered during the Livonian Wars. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a semi-independent duchy that existed from 1561 until 1795, encompassing the areas of Courland, although nominally a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the dukes operated autonomously. In the 18th century Russia acquired great influence over the Duchy, in 1795, the last Duke, Peter von Biron, ceded the Duchy to the Russian Empire. The former Bishopric of Courland was directly incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as the Piltyń County of the Wenden, after annexation by the Russian Empire, the territory of the former Duchy formed the Courland Governorate. From the time of the Northern Crusades in the early 13th century, in 1863, the Russian authorities issued laws to enable Latvians, who formed the bulk of the population, to acquire the farms which they held, and special banks were founded to help them. By this means, some occupants bought their farms, but the mass of the population remained landless. Agriculture was the occupation, with the principal crops being rye, barley, oats, wheat, flax. The large estates conducted agriculture with skill and scientific knowledge, excellent breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs were kept
5.
Finland
–
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
6.
Middle Ages
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
7.
Industrial Revolution
–
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and most of the important technological innovations were British, aided by these legal and cultural foundations, an entrepreneurial spirit and consumer revolution drove industrialisation in Britain, which would be emulated in countries around the world. A change in marrying patterns to getting married later made able to accumulate more human capital during their youth. The Industrial Revolution marks a turning point in history, almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth, mechanised textile production spread from Great Britain to continental Europe in the early 19th century, with important centres of textiles, iron and coal emerging in Belgium, and later in France. Since then industrialisation has spread throughout much of the world, the precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is the pace of economic and social changes. Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and plants. The term Industrial Revolution applied to change was becoming more common by the late 1830s. Friedrich Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 spoke of an industrial revolution, however, although Engels wrote in the 1840s, his book was not translated into English until the late 1800s, and his expression did not enter everyday language until then. Credit for popularising the term may be given to Arnold Toynbee, some historians, such as John Clapham and Nicholas Crafts, have argued that the economic and social changes occurred gradually and the term revolution is a misnomer. This is still a subject of debate among some historians, the commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations, beginning in the second half of the 18th century. By the 1830s the following gains had been made in important technologies, Textiles – mechanised cotton spinning powered by steam or water greatly increased the output of a worker, the power loom increased the output of a worker by a factor of over 40. The cotton gin increased productivity of removing seed from cotton by a factor of 50, large gains in productivity also occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton. Steam power – the efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one-fifth and one-tenth as much fuel, the adaptation of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them suitable for industrial uses. The high pressure engine had a power to weight ratio. Steam power underwent an expansion after 1800. Iron making – the substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost for pig iron, using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces, resulting in economies of scale. The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760 and it was later improved by making it double acting, which allowed higher furnace temperatures
8.
Finnish sauna
–
The Finnish sauna is a substantial part of Finnish culture. There are five million inhabitants and over three million saunas in Finland - an average of one per household, for Finnish people the sauna is a place to relax with friends and family, and a place for physical and mental relaxation as well. Finns think of not as a luxury, but as a necessity. Before the rise of public health care and nursery facilities, almost all Finnish mothers gave birth in saunas, the sauna in Finland is an old phenomenon and its roots are difficult to trace, but its earliest versions are believed to be from 7000 BC. Bath houses were recorded in Europe during the time period. It was during the Reformation in Scandinavia that the popularity of saunas expanded to other countries because the European bath houses were being destroyed. Hundreds of years ago, when bathing was something to be done only rarely or never at all, one reason the sauna culture has always flourished in Finland has been because of the versatility of the sauna. When people were moving, the first thing they did was to build a sauna, Finns would use the sauna to live in, eat, address matters of hygiene, and, most importantly, give birth in an almost sterile environment. Unlike many other, more populated places in Europe, the availability of wood needed to build. Another reason for its popularity is that in such a cold climate, however, it is just as popular in the summer as in the winter. Saunas are a part of the way of life in Finland. They are found on the shores of Finlands numerous lakes, in apartments, corporate headquarters, at the Parliament House. The sauna is an important part of the identity and those who have the opportunity usually take a sauna at least once a week. The traditional sauna day is Saturday, the sauna tradition is so strong that whenever Finns go abroad, they relish the chance to have a good sauna, even the Finnish Church in Rotherhithe, London, has its own sauna. Finnish soldiers on peacekeeping missions are famous for their saunas, even on the UNMEE mission in Eritrea, a sauna was one of the first buildings to be erected. A Second World War-era Finnish military field manual states that a break of eight hours is all that is required for a battalion to build saunas, warm them, saunas, even in the military, are strictly egalitarian places, no titles or hierarchies are used in the sauna. Taking a sauna begins with having a wash, followed by a sit in the steam room, water is thrown on the hot stones topping the kiuas, a special stove used to warm up the sauna. This produces great amounts of wet steam, known as löyly, increasing the moisture, only the word löyly is used for this particular type of steam
9.
Vaasa
–
Vaasa is a city on the west coast of Finland. It received its charter in 1606, during the reign of Charles IX of Sweden and is named after the Royal House of Vasa, today, Vaasa has a population of 67,495, and is the regional capital of Ostrobothnia. The city is bilingual with 69. 8% of the population speaking Finnish as their first language and 24. 8% speaking Swedish, the surrounding Ostrobothnia municipalities have a Swedish-speaking majority. Over the years, Vaasa has changed its name several times, due to alternative spellings, political decisions and language condition changes. At first it was called Mustasaari or Mussor after the village where it was founded in 1606, Mustasaari or Korsholm remains as the name of the surrounding mostly rural municipality, which since 1973 surrounds the city. In 1611, the town was chartered and renamed after the Royal House of Vasa, thanks to the sea connections, ship building and trade, especially tar trade, Vaasa flourished in the 17th century and most of the inhabitants earned their living from it. In 1683, the three-subject or Trivial school moved from Nykarleby to Vaasa, the first library in Finland was founded in Vaasa in 1794. In 1793, Vaasa had 2,178 inhabitants, and in the year of the town fire of 1852 the number had risen to 3,200. During the Finnish War, fought between Sweden and Russia in 1808–1809, Vaasa suffered more than any other city, in June 1808, Vaasa was occupied by the Russian forces, and some of the local officials pledged allegiance to the occupying force. On June 25,1808, the Swedish colonel Johan Bergenstråhle was sent with 1,500 troops, there was heavy fighting in the streets and in the end the Swedish forces were repelled and forced to retreat back the way they came. The massacre in Vaasa was exceptional during the Finnish war as the Russian forces had avoided that kind of cruelty that far and it was probably a result of the frustration the Russians felt because of intensive guerilla activity against them in the region. On June 30, the Russian forces withdrew from Vaasa, and all officials that had pledged allegiance to Russia were discharged, and some were assaulted by locals. On September 13, the Russian forces returned and on the day the decisive Battle of Oravais. By winter 1808, the Russian forces had all of Finland. Vaasa would now become a part of the newly formed Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire, the mainly wooden and densely built town was almost utterly destroyed in 1852. A fire started in a barn belonging to district court judge J. F. Aurén on the morning of August 3, at noon the whole town was ablaze and the fire lasted for many hours. By evening, most of the town had burned to the ground, out of 379 buildings only 24 privately owned buildings had survived, among them the Falander–Wasastjerna patrician house which now houses the Old Vaasa Museum. The Court of Appeal, some Russian guard-houses along with a gunpowder storage, the ruins of the greystone church, the belfry, the town hall and the trivial school can still be found in their original places
10.
Baltic states
–
The Baltic states cooperate on a regional level in several intergovernmental organizations. While the native populations of Latvia and Lithuania are known as Baltic people, another Baltic identity, Baltic German, began to develop during the Middle Ages after the Livonian Crusade. After the collapse of Livonia, parts of Latvia and Estonia came under influence of the Commonwealth and this lasted until the 18th century, when the lands of all three modern countries were gradually absorbed into the Russian Empire. The Baltic states gained independence after World War I, but were occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II, all three countries are members of the European Union, NATO and the Eurozone. They are classified as high-income economies by the World Bank and maintain high Human Development Index, Estonia and Latvia are also members of the OECD, while Lithuania is a prospective candidate. The term Baltic stems from the name of the Baltic Sea – a hydronym dating back to the 11th century, although there are several theories about its origin, most ultimately trace it to Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This meaning is retained in modern Baltic languages, where baltas, however the modern names of the region and the sea, that originate from this root, were not used in either of the two languages prior to the 19th century. In English Ost is East, and in fact, the Baltic Sea mostly lies to the east of Germany, Denmark, Norway, in the 13th century pagan Baltic and Finnic peoples in the region became a target of the Northern Crusades. In the aftermath of the Livonian crusade, a crusader state officially named Terra Mariana and it was divided into four autonomous bishoprics and lands of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. After the Brothers of the Sword suffered defeat at the Battle of Saule, Northern Estonia initially became a Danish dominion, but it was purchased by the Teutonic Order in the mid-14th century. The Lithuanians were also targeted by the crusaders, however they were able to resist and it allied with the Kingdom of Poland. After the Union of Krewo in 1385 created a union between the two countries, they became ever more closely integrated and finally merged into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. After victory in the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War, the Polish–Lithuanian union became a political power in the region. In 1558 Livonia was attacked by the Tsardom of Russia and the Livonian war broke out, the rulers of different regions within Livonia sought to ally with foreign powers, which resulted in Polish–Lithuanian, Swedish and Danish involvement. In the aftermath of conflicts of the 17th century, much of the Duchy of Livonia. These newly acquired Swedish territories, as well as Ingria and Kexholm, at the beginning of the 18th century the Swedish Empire was attacked by a coalition of several European powers in the Great Northern War. Among these powers was Russia, seeking to restore its access to the Baltic Sea, during the course of the war it conquered all of the Swedish provinces on the Eastern Baltic coast. This acquisition was legalized by the Treaty of Nystad in which the Baltic Dominions were ceded to Russia, under Russian rule these territories came to be known as Ostsee Governorates
11.
Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
12.
Continuation War
–
The Continuation War consisted of hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. The Continuation War began shortly after the end of the Winter War, in the Soviet Union, the war was considered part of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its war efforts on the Eastern Front. Acts of war between the Soviet Union and Finland recommenced on 22 June 1941, the day Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union, open warfare began with a Soviet air offensive on 25 June. Subsequent Finnish operations undid its post-Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union on the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia, on the Karelian Isthmus, the Finns halted their offensive 30 km from Leningrad, at the pre-World War II border between the Soviet Union and Finland. Finnish forces did not participate in the siege of Leningrad directly, in 1944, Soviet air forces conducted air raids on Helsinki and other major Finnish cities. A ceasefire ended hostilities on 5 September and was followed by the Moscow Armistice on 19 September, the 1947 Paris peace treaty concluded the war formally. Finland ceded Pechengsky District to the Soviets, leased Porkkala peninsula to them, shortly afterward, Germany invaded Poland and as a result the United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on 17 September, next, Moscow demanded that the Baltic states allow the establishment of Soviet military bases and the stationing of troops on their soil. The Baltic governments accepted these ultimatums, signing corresponding agreements in September and October 1939, the Finnish government refused, and the Red Army attacked Finland on 30 November 1939. Condemnation of the Soviets by the League of Nations and by all over the world had no effect on Soviet policy. International help for Finland was planned, but very little actual help materialized, the Moscow Peace Treaty, which was signed on 12 March 1940, ended the Winter War. By the terms of the treaty, Finland lost one eleventh of its national territory, however, Finland had avoided having the Soviet Union annex the whole country. Finlands foreign policy had been based on multilateral guarantees for support from the League of Nations, Finnish public opinion favored the reconquest of Finnish Karelia. Finlands government declared the countrys defense to be its first priority, Finland purchased and received donations of war material during and immediately after the Winter War. On Finlands southern frontier the Soviet Union had acquired a base in Hanko near the capital Helsinki. Finland also had to resettle some 420,000 evacuees from the lost territories, to ensure the supply of food, it was necessary to clear new land for the evacuees to cultivate. This was facilitated by the Rapid Settlement Act, the Finnish leadership wanted to preserve the spirit of unanimity that was commonly felt throughout the country during the Winter War
13.
Hanjeungmak
–
Intensely hot and dry, it uses traditionally burning wood of pine to heat a domelike kiln made of stone. The first mention of hanjeungmak, initially referred to as Hanjeungso, is found in the Annals of Sejong in the 15th century, the record also state that the Korean kiln saunas were used for medicinal purposes. At that time, hanjeungmaks were state-supported kiln saunas maintained by Buddhist monks, since 1429, the saunas were constructed separating facilities for men and women. There are a picture painted by Kim Jun geun in the 19th century depicting a hanjeungmak, nowadays, hanjeungmaks are incorporated into Korean-style spa, jjimjilbang rather than an independent facility. Bulgama installed in jjimjilbang is a variety of hanjeungmak, heated with higher temperature, sometimes the dome-shaped walls of kiln rooms are plastered with loam, salt, minerals
14.
Sejong the Great
–
Sejong the Great was the fourth king of Joseon-dynasty Korea. He was the son of King Taejong and Queen consort Min. He was designated as heir-apparent, Crown Prince, after his older brother Jae was stripped of his title and he ascended to the throne in 1418. During the first four years of his reign, Taejong governed as regent, after which his father-in-law, Sim On, Sejong reinforced Confucian policies and executed major legal amendments. He also created the Korean alphabet Hangul, encouraged advancements of scientific technology and he dispatched military campaigns to the north and instituted the Samin Policy to attract new settlers to the region. To the south, he subjugated Japanese raiders and captured Tsushima Island, during his reign from 1418 to 1450, he governed from 1422 to 1442 and governed as regent with his son Crown Prince Munjong until his death in either 1442 or 1450. Although the appellation the Great / was given posthumously to almost every ruler of Goryeo and Joseon, Sejong was born on May 15,1397, the third son of King Taejong. When he was twelve, he became Grand Prince Chungnyeong, as a young prince, Sejong excelled in various studies and was favored by King Taejong over his two older brothers. As the third son of Taejong, Sejongs ascension to the throne was unique, Taejongs eldest son, Yangnyeong, was named heir apparent in 1404. However, Yangnyeongs free spirited nature as well as his preference for hunting, though it is said that Yangnyeong abdicated in favor of his younger brother, there are no definitive records regarding Yangnyeongs removal. Taejongs second son Grand Prince Hyoryeong became a monk upon the elevation of his younger brother Sejong, following the removal of Yangnyeong as heir apparent, Taejong moved quickly to secure his youngest sons position as heir apparent. The government was purged of officials who disagreed with the removal of Yangnyeong, in August 1418, Taejong abdicated in favor of Sejong. However, even in retirement Taejong continued to influence government policy, Sejongs surprising political savvy and creativity did not become apparent until after Taejongs death in 1422. King Sejong revolutionized government by appointing people from different social classes as civil servants, furthermore, he performed official government events according to Confucianism, and he encouraged people to behave according to Confucianism. As a result, Confucianism became the social norm and he also published some books about Confucianism. The Huihui were forced to abandon their headgear, to close down their ceremonial hall, no further mention of Muslims exist during the era of the Joseon. In relationship with the Chinese Ming, he made some successful agreements that benefited Korea, in relationship with Jurchen people, he installed 10 military posts -4 counties and 6 garrisons - in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. He maintained good relations with Japan by opening three ports and allowing trade with them, but he also invaded Tsushima island with military forces in order to stop pirating in the South Sea since Tsushima island was a base for pirates
15.
Jjimjilbang
–
A jjimjilbang is a large, gender-segregated public bathhouse in Korea, furnished with hot tubs, showers, Korean traditional kiln saunas and massage tables. Jjimjil is derived from the words meaning heating, many of the sleeping rooms have themes or elements to them. Usually jjimjilbangs will have rooms with temperatures to suit guests preferred relaxing temperatures. The walls are decorated with woods, minerals, crystals, stones, the elements used have traditional Korean medicinal purposes in the rooms. Most jjimjilbangs are open 24 hours and are a weekend getaway for Korean families. During the week, many hardworking Korean men, whose families live out of the city for cost savings, the cost is around 8, 000-12,000 won to enter, and one can sleep overnight and enjoy the bathhouse and sauna. Jjimjilbangs usually operate 24 hours a day, in the entrance, there are the doors labelled “men” or “women” and shoes are to be stored using a given key. Once inside, the locker key is exchanged with another locker key to store clothes. Afterwards bathers walk into the bathhouse area and take a shower. Then, one should wear the clothes, which are received with the locker key. In the bathing areas, there are kiln saunas with themes including a jade, a salt, or mineral kiln, often there are several kilns with temperatures ranging from 60 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of the kilns is displayed on a sign at the entrance, jjimjilbangs are kept in a very sanitary condition for the health of patrons, and most are cleaned continuously. No harsh chemicals are used in the waters or saunas, all wet areas prohibit the use of clothing for safety reasons. With the extreme heat of the baths and steam rooms, it is believed that toxic chemicals can leach out of apparel and it is also believed that if you wear a swimsuit or cover up you may be trying to hide a disease. Recently, the quality and healthiness of some jjimjilbangs were questioned. Concerns about the clothes increasing atopy symptoms in patients, or even of accidentally hosting parasites, were voiced, iced Sikhye is a sweet rice beverage. Baked eggs are eggs slow-cooked in the hottest sauna and they are eaten like a hard-boiled egg. Miyeokguk is a made from miyeok, a type of seaweed
16.
Humidity
–
Humidity is the amount of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor is the state of water and is invisible. Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation, dew, or fog, higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of moisture from the skin. This effect is calculated in an index table or humidex. The amount of vapor that is needed to achieve saturation increases as the temperature increases. As the temperature of a parcel of water becomes lower it will not reach the point of saturation without adding or losing water mass. The differences in the amount of vapor in a parcel of air can be quite large. For example, a parcel of air that is near saturation may contain 28 grams of water per cubic meter of air at 30 °C, there are three main measurements of humidity, absolute, relative and specific. Absolute humidity is the content of air expressed in gram per cubic meter. Relative humidity, expressed as a percent, measures the current absolute humidity relative to the maximum for that temperature, specific humidity is the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the total mass of the moist air parcel. Absolute humidity is the mass of water vapor present in a given volume of air. It does not take temperature into consideration, absolute humidity in the atmosphere ranges from near zero to roughly 30 grams per cubic meter when the air is saturated at 30 °C. Absolute humidity is the mass of the vapor, divided by the volume of the air and water vapor mixture. The absolute humidity changes as air temperature or pressure changes and this makes it unsuitable for chemical engineering calculations, e. g. for clothes dryers, where temperature can vary considerably. Mass of water per unit volume as in the equation above is defined as volumetric humidity. Because of the confusion, British Standard BS1339 suggests avoiding the term absolute humidity. Units should always be carefully checked, many humidity charts are given in g/kg or kg/kg, but any mass units may be used. The field concerned with the study of physical and thermodynamic properties of mixtures is named psychrometrics
17.
Turkish bath
–
A Turkish bath is the Islamic variant of the Roman bath, steambath, sauna, or Russian banya, distinguished by a focus on water, as distinct from ambient steam. In Western Europe, the Turkish bath as a method of cleansing, the process involved in taking a Turkish bath is similar to that of a sauna, but is more closely related to ancient Greek and ancient Roman bathing practices. The Turkish bath starts with relaxation in a room that is heated by a flow of hot, dry air. Bathers may then move to an even hotter room before they wash in cold water, after performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation. The difference between the Islamic hammam and the Victorian Turkish bath is the air, the hot air in the Victorian Turkish bath is dry, in the Islamic hammam the air is often steamy. The bather in a Victorian Turkish bath will often take a plunge in a pool after the hot rooms. In the Islamic hammams the bathers splash themselves with cold water and it is not wet air, nor moist air, nor vapoury air, it is not vapour in any shape or form whatever. It is an immersion of the body in hot common air. One of the Five Pillars of Islam is prayer and it is customary before praying for Muslims to perform ablutions. The two Islamic forms of ablution are ghusl, a cleansing, and wudu, a cleansing of the face, hands. In the most extreme of cases, cleansing with pure soil or sand is also permissible, often, hammams are located close to mosques and other places for prayer for those who wish to perform deeper cleansing. Islamic hammams, particularly in the Moroccan case, evolved from their Roman roots to adapt to the needs of ritual purification according to Islam, for example, in most Roman-style hammams, one finds a cold pool for full submergence of the body. The style of bathing is less preferable in the Islamic faith, for al-Ghazali, the hammam is a primarily male experience, and he cautions that women are to enter the hammam only after childbirth or illness. Even then al-Gazali finds it admissible for men to prohibit their wives or sisters from using the hammam, the major point of contention surrounding hammams in al-Ghazalis estimation is nakedness. In his work he warns that overt nakedness is to be avoided, … he should shield it from the sight of others and second, guard against the touch of others. He focuses extensively in his writing on the avoidance of touching the penis during bathing and he writes that nakedness is decent only when the area between the knees and the lower stomach of a man are hidden. For women, exposure of only the face and palms is appropriate, according to al-Gazali, the prevalence of nakedness in the hammam could incite indecent thoughts or behaviours and so it is a controversial space. Ritual ablution is also required before or after sexual intercourse, during those centuries of war, peace, alliance, trade and competition, the two cultures had tremendous influence on each other
18.
Scalding
–
Scalding is a form of thermal burn resulted from heated fluids such as boiling water or steam. Most scalds are considered first or second degree burns, but third degree burns can result, most scalds result from exposure to high-temperature water such as tap water in baths and showers or cooking water boiled for the preparation of foods. Another common cause of scalds is spilled hot drinks, such as coffee, scalds are typically far more severe when caused by steam, because it has absorbed a great amount of latent heat, and is therefore far more effective at heating objects. Scalds are generally common in children, especially from the accidental spilling of hot liquids. Applying first aid for scalds is the same as for burns, first, the site of the injury should be removed from the source of heat, to prevent further scalding. If the burn is at least second degree, remove any jewelry or clothing from the site, cool the scald for about 20 minutes with cool or lukewarm water, such as water from a tap. With second-degree burns, blisters will form, but should never be popped, with third-degree burns, it is best to wrap the injury very loosely to keep it clean, and seek expert medical attention. Ice should be avoided, as it can do damage to area around the injury, as should butter, toothpaste. The carcasses of beef, poultry and pigs are commonly scalded after slaughter to facilitate the removal of feathers, methods including immersion in tanks of hot water or spraying with steam. The scalding may either be hard or soft in which the temperature or duration is varied. A hard scald of 58 °C for 2.5 minutes will remove the epidermis of poultry, scalded milk is milk that has been heated to 82 °C. At this temperature, bacteria are killed, enzymes in the milk are destroyed, in cooking, milk is typically scalded to increase its temperature, or to change the consistency or other cooking interactions due to the denaturing of proteins. Recipes that call for scalded milk include café au lait, baked milk, scalded milk is used in yogurt to make the proteins unfold, and to make sure that all organisms that could out-compete the yogurt cultures bacteria are killed. In addition, scalding milk improves the rise due to inhibition of bread rise by certain undenatured milk proteins
19.
Dew point
–
Dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor. When further cooled, the water vapor will condense to form liquid dew. Dew point is called frost point when the temperature is below freezing. The measurement of dew point is related to humidity, a higher dew point means there will be more moisture in the air. Given that all the factors influencing humidity remain constant, at ground level the relative humidity rises as the temperature falls. This is because water vapor condenses as the temperature falls. Dew point temperature is never greater than the air temperature because relative humidity cannot exceed 100%. In technical terms, the dew point is the temperature at which the vapor in a sample of air at constant barometric pressure condenses into liquid water at the same rate at which it evaporates. At temperatures below the dew point, the rate of condensation will be greater than that of evaporation, the condensed water is called dew when it forms on a solid surface. The condensed water is called either fog or a cloud, depending on its altitude, a high relative humidity implies that the dew point is closer to the current air temperature. Relative humidity of 100% indicates the dew point is equal to the current temperature, when the moisture content remains constant and temperature increases, relative humidity decreases. General aviation pilots use dew point data to calculate the likelihood of carburetor icing and fog, at a given temperature but independent of barometric pressure, the dew point is a consequence of the absolute humidity, the mass of water per unit volume of air. If both the temperature and pressure rise, however, the dew point will increase and the humidity will decrease accordingly. Reducing the absolute humidity without changing other variables will bring the dew point back down to its initial value, in the same way, increasing the absolute humidity after a temperature drop brings the dew point back down to its initial level. If the temperature rises in conditions of constant pressure, then the dew point will remain constant but the relative humidity will drop. For this reason, a constant relative humidity with different temperatures implies that when it is hotter, a higher fraction of the air is present as water vapor compared to when it is cooler. At a given barometric pressure but independent of temperature, the dew point indicates the fraction of water vapor in the air, or, put differently. If the pressure rises without changing this mole fraction, the dew point will rise accordingly, reducing the mole fraction, i. e. making the air less humid, would bring the dew point back down to its initial value
20.
North America
–
North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
21.
Western Europe
–
Western Europe, or West Europe, is the region comprising the western part of Europe. Below, some different geographic and geopolitical definitions of the term are outlined, prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture. This cultural and linguistic division was reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire. The division between these two was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, survived, in East Asia, Western Europe was historically known as taixi in China and taisei in Japan, which literally translates as the Far West. The term Far West became synonymous with Western Europe in China during the Ming dynasty, the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was one of the first writers in China to use the Far West as an Asian counterpart to the European concept of the Far East. In his writings, Ricci referred to himself as Matteo of the Far West, the term was still in use in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Post-war Europe would be divided into two spheres, the West, influenced by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain, behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Although some countries were neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political. This division largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Western Europe, the world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic, COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Several countries which had part of the Soviet Union regained full independence. Although the term Western Europe was more prominent during the Cold War, it remains much in use, in 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It was further revisited in 1954 at the Paris Conference, when the Western European Union was established and it was declared defunct in 2011, after the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Treaty of Brussels was terminated. When the Western European Union was dissolved, it had 10 member countries, six member countries, five observer countries. The CIA divides Western Europe into two smaller subregions, regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from different regional groups. The European Union is an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe, some Western and Northern European countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are members of EFTA, though cooperating to varying degree with the European Union
22.
Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
23.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
24.
South Africa
–
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa. South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
25.
Sport
–
Usually the contest or game is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other. Some sports allow a tie game, others provide tie-breaking methods, to one winner. A number of such two-sided contests may be arranged in a tournament producing a champion, many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs. Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of participants, either in teams or competing as individuals. In certain sports such as racing, many contestants may compete, each against each other, however, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first. It can also be determined by judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. Sport is also a source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sport drawing large crowds to sport venues. Sports betting is in some cases severely regulated, and in some cases is central to the sport, kearney, a consultancy, the global sporting industry is worth up to $620 billion as of 2013. The worlds most accessible and practised sport is running, while football is the most popular spectator sport. The word Sport comes from the Old French desport meaning leisure, other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling, hunting, and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise. Rogets defines the noun sport as an activity engaged in for relaxation, the singular term sport is used in most English dialects to describe the overall concept, with sports used to describe multiple activities. American English uses sports for both terms, the precise definition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources. They also recognise that sport can be physical, primarily mind, predominantly motorised, primarily co-ordination. The inclusion of sports within sport definitions has not been universally accepted. Whilst SportAccord recognises a number of mind sports, it is not open to admitting any further mind sports. According to Council of Europe, European Sports Charter, article 2, other bodies advocate widening the definition of sport to include all physical activity. For instance, the Council of Europe include all forms of physical exercise, in competitive events, participants are graded or classified based on their result and often divided into groups of comparable performance
26.
Swimming pool
–
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or paddling pool is a structure designed to hold water to enable swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground or built above ground, many health clubs, fitness centers and private clubs, such as the YMCA, have pools used mostly for exercise or recreation. Many towns and cities provide public pools, many hotels have pools available for their guests to use at their leisure. Educational facilities such as universities typically have pools for physical education classes, recreational activities, hot tubs and spas are pools filled with hot water, used for relaxation or hydrotherapy, and are common in homes, hotels, and health clubs. Special swimming pools are used for diving, specialized water sports, physical therapy as well as for the training of lifeguards. Swimming pools may be heated or unheated, the Great Bath at the site of Mohenjo-Daro in modern-day Pakistan was most likely the first swimming pool, dug during the 3rd millennium BC. This pool is 12 by 7 metres, is lined with bricks, ancient Greeks and Romans built artificial pools for athletic training in the palaestras, for nautical games and for military exercises. Roman emperors had private swimming pools in which fish were also kept, the first heated swimming pool was built by Gaius Maecenas of Rome in the 1st century BC. Gaius Maecenas was a rich Roman lord and considered one of the first patrons of arts, ancient Sinhalese built pairs of pools called Kuttam Pokuna in the kingdom of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka in the 4th century BC. They were decorated with flights of steps, punkalas or pots of abundance, Swimming pools became popular in Britain in the mid-19th century. As early as 1837, six indoor pools with diving boards existed in London, the Maidstone Swimming Club in Maidstone, Kent is believed to be the oldest surviving swimming club in Britain. It was formed in 1844, in response to concerns over drownings in the River Medway, the club used to swim in the River Medway, and would hold races, diving competitions and water polo matches. The South East Gazette July 1844 reported an aquatic breakfast party, coffee, the coffee was kept hot over a fire, club members had to tread water and drink coffee at the same time. The last swimmers managed to overturn the raft, to the amusement of 150 spectators, the Amateur Swimming Association was founded in 1869 in England, and the Oxford Swimming Club in 1909. The presence of indoor baths in the area of Merton Street might have persuaded the less hardy of the aquatic brigade to join. So, bathers gradually became swimmers, and bathing pools became swimming pools, in 1939, Oxford created its first major public indoor pool at Temple Cowley. The modern Olympic Games started in 1896 and included swimming races, in the US, the Racquet Club of Philadelphia clubhouse boasts one of the worlds first modern above-ground swimming pools. The first swimming pool to go to sea on an ocean liner was installed on the White Star Lines Adriatic in 1907, the oldest known public swimming pool in America, Underwood Pool, is located in Belmont, Massachusetts
27.
Jacuzzi
–
Jacuzzi Brands Corp. is an Italian-owned multinational corporation that produces whirlpool bathtubs and hot tub spas. Its first product was a bath with massaging jets and its name has become a generic trademark, used as a term for hot tubs. Founded in 1915 by seven brothers, led by Giocondo Jacuzzi, Jacuzzi and Brothers made wooden propellers under military contracts, based at 2043 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, California. In 1920 the brothers also dabbled briefly with aircraft design and manufacture, with a single-seat monoplane, both aircraft were noted for their use of laminated wood products for fuselage manufacture, but were essentially unsuccessful, with only one of each type being built. By 1923 the company was styled as Jacuzzi Bros Propellers, with headquarters at 1450 San Pablo Ave, the company survived to become famous as the whirlpool and bubble bath manufacturer of today, with the name Jacuzzi becoming synonymous with the bath products regardless of manufacturer. In October 2006, Apollo Management, a private equity firm. In 2008 Jacuzzi moved its headquarters to The Shoppes at Chino Hills. In May 2012, Jacuzzi Group Worldwide acquired the assets of ThermoSpas, Jacuzzi 1920 Single Seater Monoplane 1 Powered by a converted Ford Model T engine. Jacuzzi 1920 Single Seater Monoplane 2 modified aircraft with re-designed tail unit and powered by a Roberts 4-X engine Jacuzzi J-7 Reo Jacuzzi corporate website Jacuzzi Spa and Bath Ltd
28.
Geyser
–
A geyser is a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist in only a few places on Earth, generally all geyser field sites are located near active volcanic areas, and the geyser effect is due to the proximity of magma. Generally, surface water works its way down to a depth of around 2,000 metres where it contacts hot rocks. The resultant boiling of the water results in the geyser effect of hot water. Over one thousand known geysers exist worldwide, at least 1,283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States, and an average of 465 geysers are active there in a given year. Like many other phenomena, geysers are not unique to planet Earth. Jet-like eruptions, often referred to as cryogeysers, have been observed on several of the moons of the solar system. Due to the low ambient pressures, these eruptions consist of vapor without liquid, they are more easily visible by particles of dust. Water vapor jets have been observed near the pole of Saturns moon Enceladus. There are also signs of carbon dioxide eruptions from the polar ice cap of Mars. In the latter two cases, instead of being driven by energy, the eruptions seem to rely on solar heating via a solid-state greenhouse effect. The word geyser comes from Geysir, the name of a spring at Haukadalur, Iceland, that name, in turn, comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, to gush. Geysers are generally associated with volcanic areas, as the water boils, the resulting pressure forces a superheated column of steam and water to the surface through the geysers internal plumbing. The formation of geysers specifically requires the combination of three conditions that are usually found in volcanic terrain. The heat needed for geyser formation comes from magma that needs to be near the surface of the earth, the fact that geysers need heat much higher than normally found near the earths surface is the reason they are associated with volcanoes or volcanic areas. The pressures encountered at the areas where the water is heated make the point of the water much higher than at normal atmospheric pressures. The water ejected from a geyser travels underground through deep, pressurized fissures in the Earths crust, in order for the heated water to form a geyser, a plumbing system made of fractures, fissures, porous spaces, and sometimes cavities is required. This includes a reservoir to hold the water while it is being heated, Geysers are generally aligned along faults
29.
Therme Erding
–
Therme Erding is the second largest thermal bath complex in Europe at 145,000 square metres. It is 30 minutes northeast of Munich by car and is visited by around 4000 people every day, on 12 February 1983, the American oil company Texaco drilled 2,350 metres below ground, just outside the town of Erding, Bavaria, Germany. Instead of oil, they discovered sulphorous water, the complex has a clothed bathing area, and a no clothing sauna section. In 2007, Therme Erding underwent an expansion, on 31 March 2007, the waterslide section Galaxy opened, making it one of the biggest indoor waterslide parks in Europe. The newly expanded Saunaparadies reopened the day which, with an area of 12,900 square metres. Both these extensions meant that Therme Erding more than doubled in size, a section of the old sauna area was named the Vital-Oase, and is now designated only for clothed use. The exclusive beauty section Royal Day Spa has been open since 1 March 2009, more than €100 million has been invested in the park since its inauguration, and more than 600 jobs have been created. The baths contain four areas, the waterslide area Galaxy, the Thermenparadies, the Vital-Oase. The waterslide park Galaxy is covered by a 25-metre high metal dome, there are 20 waterslides, one of which is the longest tube slide in Europe at 360 meters long. The slides are divided into three different levels of difficulty, Family, Action, and X-Treme, huge expansion work is planned for 2012, to the east of the current Galaxy, and will have ten new slides with a combined length of over 2,750 metres. The Thermenparadies has an area of 27,500 square metres. The interior is covered by a dome which can be half-opened in the summer months. The interior is stands out, with a 1,450 square metres spa pool, pool bar, grotto, waterfall, neck showers, massage jets, Jacuzzi beds and current channels. Quiet rooms, an area, health baths, a steam room, bio-sauna, childrens area. The Vital-Oase is available only for the use of those aged 16 or over, there is a spa pool with a pool bar, a sulfur mineral spring, clothed saunas, quiet rooms and a restaurant. In September 2008, three pools were opened, which are enriched with minerals from the Dead Sea, such as selenium and calcium. The Saunaparadiess main building lies beneath a 60-by-40-metre large glass roof which can be opened in nice weather. In this building there are beds, a 1,200 square metres,34 °C swimming pool, whirlpools, neck showers
30.
Erding
–
Erding is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district Erding. It had a population of 34,122 in 2004 and it is twinned with Bastia in Corsica. The original Erdinger Weissbier is a well-known Bavarian specialty, grünbacher is one of the better-known local brands. Erding is located around 45 kilometers northeast of central Munich, about a 40-minute drive by car, regular S-Bahn trains connect to Munich and beyond. Tariffs and times may be found on the Munich Transportation and Tariff Website, evidence of prehistoric hunter/gatherers in the Erding area dates to c.6000 BC, findings including an axe made of deer antler. Erding was founded in 1228-1230 AD, developing as a township as a route from Landshut to Munich. Erding became known as a town, midway between the two rival cities. During the Thirty Years War, Erding was taken twice by Swedish troops, in 1945, several Allied air raids on the nearby military airport damaged the city and killed numerous inhabitants. On March 24,1950, three Douglas DC-3s from Czechoslovakia were simultaneously hijacked, all three planes landed in Erding, West Germany. 26 of 85 passengers stayed in West Germany to escape from the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, in 1972 Erding was connected to the Munichs S-Bahn network. In 1992 the Franz Josef Strauss Airport – more commonly known as Munich airport – was opened, the decision to build a major airport on the ecologically sensitive Erdinger Moos was a source of controversy during the previous decade. The airport has attracted new businesses and additional population to the area since it was opened,2005 - Felix Schutz was selected in the 2006 NHL entry draft 4th round making history as the first person from Erding ever drafted. Farm fields surround Erding and large vehicles are a common sight on local roads. Local crops include corn for animal feed, wheat, sunflowers, carrots, white/red/blue/green cabbages, strawberries, kohlrabi, turnips, farm animals are normally kept in stables and are mostly limited to pigs, chickens and cows. Fish farming in privately owned lakes is also practised, gardening is also practiced in Erding, but is limited by the relatively cool climate. Erdinger brewery GLS, General Logistics Systems, Therme Erding, Wellness-center, With an area of 36 acres, flughafen München Munich Airport Münchner Verkehrs- & Tarifverbund Munich Transport & Tariff Association IT-Service für Senioren
31.
Templin
–
Templin is a small town in the Uckermark district of Brandenburg, Germany. Though it has a population of only 17,127, it is with 377.01 km2 the second largest town in Brandenburg, the town is located in the south of the rural Uckermark region and its capital Prenzlau, north of the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve. The town was first mentioned in a 1270 deed issued by Henry of Ostheeren, heavily devastated by Danish troops in the Thirty Years War, Templin from 1816 on belonged to the Prussian province of Brandenburg near the border with Mecklenburg-Strelitz. From 1912 on, Templin was the seat of the Electoral Brandenburgian boarding school established in 1601 by Elector Joachim III Frederick of Hohenzollern at nearby Joachimsthal, the school was finally dissolved in 1953. Today, Templin has a grammar school built in 1997. 1990 -2010 Ulrich Schoeneich 2010 - today Detlef Tabbert Detlef Tabert was elected in 2010 with 63, templins city walls are small, but complete. There are 3 main gate towers and several entrances, where parts of the wall were torn down. The main Protestant church is the Marien Kirche, the town has many eastern era Plattenbau houses and smaller neighborhoods. The Lehmann-Garten, a garden was recreated in 1988 in the park of the former Joachimsthalsches Gymnasium. Hermann Göring from 1933 on had his country residence Carinhall erected in the forest south of Gollin, the building designed by Werner March was destroyed by Luftwaffe personnel in April 1945, just days before the Red Army reached the area. North of Groß Dölln is a built in the 1950s as a military airbase of the 16th Air Army of the Soviet Forces Templin has recently built a spa. It is a destination for day-trippers from Berlin to enjoy the many glacial lakes. There is no discothèque in Templin, the closest is in Milmersdorf, the town square with the old town hall building is surrounded by an active downtown. There are many shops and restaurants in the area and a market every week. Many neighbouring municipalities like Milmersdorf and several other villages rely on Templin for many services
32.
Banya (sauna)
–
Banya or banja ) is a small room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire, in the Russian language, the word banya may also refer to public bathhouse, most historically famous being the Sanduny. A mention of the banya is found in the Radzivill Chronicle in the story of Princess Olgas revenge for the murder of her husband, Prince Igor, the leader of the Drevlians had hopes of marrying the widow Olga and sent messengers to discuss the idea. When the Drevlians arrived, Olga commanded that a bath should be ready for them and said, Wash yourselves. The bath-house was heated and the unsuspecting Drevlians entered and began to wash themselves, men closed the bath-house behind them and Olga gave orders to set it on fire from the doors, so that the Drevlians were all burned to death. An early description of the banya comes from the East Slavic Primary Chronicle of 1113, wondrous to relate, said he, I saw the land of the Slavs, and while I was among them, I noticed their wooden bathhouses. They warm them to heat, then undress, and after anointing themselves with tallow, they take young reeds. They actually lash themselves so violently that they barely escape alive, then they drench themselves with cold water, and thus are revived. They think nothing of doing this every day, and actually inflict such voluntary torture on themselves and they make of the act not a mere washing but a veritable torment. The original bathhouses were detached, low-lying wooden structures dependent on a fire lit inside to provide heat, a stove in a corner is made of large round stones that, when heated, are lifted with iron rods and placed in a wooden tub. Once the fire is built, the bather then removes the fire, hence the soot and the term black bathhouses. Banya buildings can be large with a number of different bathing areas or simple wooden cabins like the traditional Finnish cottage saunas. Russian banyas usually have three rooms, a room, a washing room and an entrance room. The entrance room, called a predbannik or pre-bath, has pegs to hang clothing upon and benches to rest on. The washing room has a hot water tap, which uses water heated by the steam room stove and a vessel or tap for cold water to mix water of a comfortable temperature for washing. The heater has three compartments, a box that is fed from the entrance room, the rock chamber, which has a small hole to throw the water into. The top of the tank is usually closed to prevent vapour from infiltrating the banya. Water from a bucket by the stove is poured over the rocks in the stove
33.
Plunge pool
–
A plunge pool is a depression at the base of a waterfall created by the erosional force of falling water and rocks where it lands. The swirling water, sometimes carrying rocks within it, erodes the riverbed into a basin, often featuring irregular, plunge pools can remain after the waterfall has ceased to exist or the stream has been diverted. Plunge pools are erosional features which occur in the stage of a river. When soft rock has been eroded back to a knickpoint, water constantly bombards its base, because this rock is often less dense than surrounding strata, the water from the higher grade continues eroding downward. List of waterfalls by flow rate List of waterfalls by type Riffle Stream gradient Sustainable landscape architecture Tinaja USGS, Stream Modeling website
34.
Midsummer
–
The exact dates vary between different cultures. The Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr St John the Baptist, and these are commemorated by many Christian denominations. In Sweden the Midsummer is such an important festivity that there have been discussions to make the Midsummers Eve into the National Day of Sweden. It may also be referred to as St. Hans Day, european midsummer-related holidays, traditions, and celebrations are pre-Christian in origin. The fire festival or Litha – Summer solstice – is a tradition for many neopagans, Solstice celebrations still centered on the day of the astronomical summer solstice. Some choose to hold the rite on June 21, even when this is not the longest day of the year, and some celebrate June 24, in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Quebec, the traditional Midsummer day, June 24, is a public holiday. So it was also in Sweden and Finland, but in these countries it was, in the 1950s. In Wicca, practitioners celebrate on the longest day and shortest night of the year which has not had a set date since the retirement of the 13-month Celtic calendar, the celebration of Midsummers Eve was from ancient times a festival of the summer solstice. Bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southward again, in later years, witches were also thought to be on their way to meetings with other powerful beings. The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the cycle of the year since Neolithic times. In Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia, Midsummers Eve is the greatest festival of the year, comparable only with Walpurgis Night, Christmas Eve, Ancient Romans would hold a festival to honor the god Summanus on June 20. In the 7th century, Saint Eligius warned the recently converted inhabitants of Flanders against the pagan solstice celebrations. According to the Vita by his companion Ouen, hed say, on St. Johns Eve in certain regions the boys collect bones and certain other rubbish, and burn them, and therefrom a smoke is produced on the air. They also make brands and go about the fields with the brands, thirdly, the wheel which they roll. The fires, explained the monk of Winchcombe, were to drive away dragons, on St Johns Day 1333 Petrarch watched women at Cologne rinsing their hands and arms in the Rhine so that the threatening calamities of the coming year might be washed away by bathing in the river. In Austria the midsummer solstice is celebrated each year with a procession of ships down the Danube River as it flows through the wine-growing Wachau Valley just north of Vienna. Up to 30 ships sail down the river in line as fireworks erupt from the banks and hill tops while bonfires blaze, lighted castle ruins also erupt with fireworks during the 90-minute cruise downstream. This nationwide festival, called Festa Junina, or São João, rural life is celebrated through typical clothing, food, and dance
35.
Peridotite
–
Peridotite is a dense, coarse-grained igneous rock consisting mostly of the minerals olivine and pyroxene. Peridotite is ultramafic, as the rock contains less than 45% silica and it is high in magnesium, reflecting the high proportions of magnesium-rich olivine, with appreciable iron. Peridotite is derived from the Earths mantle, either as solid blocks and fragments, the compositions of peridotites from these layered igneous complexes vary widely, reflecting the relative proportions of pyroxenes, chromite, plagioclase, and amphibole. Peridotite is the dominant rock of the part of the Earths mantle. The word peridotite comes from the gemstone peridot, which consists of pale green olivine, classic peridotite is bright green with some specks of black, although most hand samples tend to be darker green. Peridotitic outcrops typically range from bright yellow to dark green in color. While green and yellow are the most common colors, peridotitic rocks may exhibit a range of colors such as blue, brown. Dunite, more than 90% olivine, typically with Mg/Fe ratio of about 9,1, wehrlite, mostly composed of olivine plus clinopyroxene. Harzburgite, mostly composed of olivine plus orthopyroxene, and relatively low proportions of basaltic ingredients, lherzolite, most common form of peridotite, mostly composed of olivine, orthopyroxene, and clinopyroxene, and have relatively high proportions of basaltic ingredients. Partial fusion of lherzolite and extraction of the melt fraction can leave a residue of harzburgite. Magnesium-rich olivine forms a proportion of peridotite, and so magnesium content is high. Layered igneous complexes have more varied compositions, depending on the fractions of pyroxenes, chromite, plagioclase. Minor minerals and mineral groups in peridotite include plagioclase, spinel, garnet, amphibole, in peridotite, plagioclase is stable at relatively low pressures, aluminous spinel at higher pressures, and garnet at yet higher pressures. Peridotite is the dominant rock of the Earths mantle above a depth of about 400 km, below that depth, olivine is converted to the higher-pressure mineral wadsleyite. Oceanic plates consist of up to about 100 km of peridotite covered by a thin crust, the crust, commonly about 6 km thick, consists of basalt, gabbro, and minor sediments. The peridotite below the ocean crust, abyssal peridotite, is found on the walls of rifts in the sea floor. Oceanic plates are usually subducted back into the mantle in subduction zones, peridotites also occur as fragments carried up by magmas from the mantle. Among the rocks that commonly include peridotite xenoliths are basalt and kimberlite, certain volcanic rocks, sometimes called komatiites, are so rich in olivine and pyroxene that they also can be termed peridotite
36.
Ancient Rome
–
In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
37.
Thermae
–
In ancient Rome, thermae and balneae were facilities for bathing. Thermae usually refers to the large bath complexes, while balneae were smaller-scale facilities, public or private. Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were not only for bathing. Roman bath-houses were also provided for private villas, town houses and they were supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or more normally, by an aqueduct. The water would be heated by a log fire before being channelled into the hot bathing rooms, the design of baths is discussed by Vitruvius in De Architectura. Thermae, balneae, balineae, balneum and balineum may all be translated as bath or baths, thus Cicero terms the baths at the villa of his brother Quintus balnearia. Balneae and balineae, which according to Varro have no number, were the public baths. Pliny also, in the sentence, makes use of the neuter plural balnea for public. Writers, however, use these terms without distinction, thus the baths erected by Claudius Etruscus, the freedman of the Emperor Claudius, are styled by Statius balnea, and by Martial Etrusci thermulae. In an epigram by Martial—subice balneum thermis—the terms are not applied to the whole building, a public bath was built around three principal rooms, the caldarium, the tepidarium and the frigidarium. Some thermae also featured baths, the sudatorium, a moist steam bath, and the laconicum. By way of illustration, this article describe the layout of Pompeiis Forum Baths adjoining the forum. The references are to the floor plan pictured to the right, the whole building comprises a double set of baths, one for men and the other for women. It has six different entrances from the street, one of which gives admission to the womens set only. Five other entrances lead to the department, of which two, communicate directly with the furnaces, and the other three with the bathing apartments. These together formed the vestibule of the baths, in which the servants waited and this atrium was the exercise ground for the young men, or perhaps served as a promenade for visitors to the baths. Within this court the keeper of the baths, who exacted the quadrans paid by each visitor, was also stationed. In this court, advertisements for the theatre, or other announcements of general interest, were posted up, one of which, announcing a gladiatorial show, at the sides of the entrance were seats
38.
Turkey
–
Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
39.
Arabs
–
Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
40.
Nahuatl
–
Nahuatl, known historically as Aztec, is a language or group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by an estimated 1.5 million Nahua peoples, all Nahuan languages are indigenous to Mesoamerica. Nahuatl has been spoken in central Mexico since at least the seventh century CE and it was the language of the Aztecs who dominated what is now central Mexico during the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history. This early literary language based on the Tenochtitlan variety has been labeled Classical Nahuatl, today, Nahuan languages are spoken in scattered communities, mostly in rural areas throughout central Mexico and along the coastline. There are considerable differences among varieties, and some are mutually unintelligible, Huasteca Nahuatl, with over one million speakers, is the most-spoken variety. They have all been subject to varying degrees of influence from Spanish, No modern Nahuan languages are identical to Classical Nahuatl, but those spoken in and around the Valley of Mexico are generally more closely related to it than those on the periphery. Nahuan languages exhibit a complex morphology characterized by polysynthesis and agglutination, through a very long period of coexistence with the other indigenous Mesoamerican languages, they have absorbed many influences, coming to form part of the Mesoamerican language area. Many words from Nahuatl have been borrowed into Spanish, and since diffused into hundreds of other languages, most of these loanwords denote things indigenous to central Mexico which the Spanish heard mentioned for the first time by their Nahuatl names. English words of Nahuatl origin include avocado, chayote, chili, chocolate, atlatl, coyote, peyote, axolotl, as a language label, the term Nahuatl encompasses a group of closely related languages or divergent dialects within the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The Mexican Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas recognize 30 different individual varieties within the language group labeled Nahuatl, the Ethnologue recognizes 28 varieties with separate ISO codes. Sometimes the label also is used to include the Pipil language of El Salvador, within Mexico the question of whether to consider individual varieties to be languages or dialects of a single language is highly political. This article focuses on describing the history of the group. For details on individual varieties or subgroups, see the individual articles, in the past, the branch of Uto-Aztecan to which Nahuatl belongs has been called Aztecan. From the 1990s onward, the alternative designation Nahuan has been used as a replacement especially in Spanish-language publications. The Nahuan branch of Uto-Aztecan is widely accepted as having two divisions, General Aztec and Pochutec, General Aztec encompasses the Nahuatl and Pipil languages. Pochutec is a scantily attested language, which became extinct in the 20th century, other researchers have argued that Pochutec should be considered a divergent variant of the western periphery. Nahuatl denotes at least Classical Nahuatl together with related languages spoken in Mexico. The inclusion of Pipil into the group is debated, current subclassification of Nahuatl rests on research by Canger, Canger and Lastra de Suárez
41.
Temazcal
–
A temazcal is a type of sweat lodge which originated with pre-Hispanic Indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica. The word temazcal comes from the Nahuatl word temāzcalli, or possibly from the Aztec teme, Temazcal in English is also written as temezcal, temascal, or temescal. In ancient Mesoamerica it was used as part of a curative ceremony thought to purify the body after exertion such as after a battle or a ball game. It was also used for healing the sick, improving health and it continues to be used today in Indigenous cultures of Mexico and Central America that were part of the ancient Mesoamerican region for spiritual and health reasons. It is currently being recovered by all sectors of society in Mexico and Central America and is used as a cleansing of mind, body, the temazcal is usually a permanent structure, unlike sweat lodges in other regions. It is usually constructed from rock and cement and is usually a circular dome, although rectangular ones have been found at certain archeological sites. To produce the heat, volcanic stones are heated, volcanic stones are safe because they do not explode from the temperature. They are then placed in a pit located in the center or near a wall of the temazcal, sauna Article on Temazcal Article on Oaxacan Temazcal Article on the use of the temazcal among the Tzeltal-Tzotzil Maya of Chiapas, Mexico
.jpg)
. PMID 1853995.
Media related to Saunas at Wikimedia Commons
