Stephen

Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. 　It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen (Greek: Στέφανος Stéphanos), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is widely regarded as the first martyr (or "protomartyr") of the Christian Church. 　In English, Stephen is most commonly pronounced as STEEV-ən (/ˈstiːvən/). 　The name, in both the forms Stephen and Steven, is often shortened to Steve or Stevie. 　The spelling as Stephen can also be pronounced /ˈstɛfən/ STEF-ən which is from the Greek original version, Stephanos. 　In English, the female version of the name is Stephanie. 　Many surnames are derived from the first name, including Stephens, Stevens, Stephenson, and Stevenson, all of which mean "Stephen's (son)". 　In modern times the name has sometimes been given with intentionally non-standard spelling, such as Stevan or Stevon. 　A common variant of the name used in English is Stephan /ˈstɛfən/; related names that have found some currency or significance in English include Stefan (pronounced /ˈstɛfən/ or /stəˈfɑːn/ in English), Esteban (often pronounced /ˈɛstɪˌbæn/), and the Shakespearean Stephano (/ˈstɛfənoʊ/).

Adult

An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. 　In human context, the term adult has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. 　In contrast to a "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible. 　They may also be regarded as a "major". 　The typical age of attaining legal adulthood is 18, although definition may vary by legal rights, country, and psychological development. 　Human adulthood encompasses psychological adult development. 　Definitions of adulthood are often inconsistent and contradictory; a person may be biologically an adult, and have adult behavior, but still be treated as a child if they are under the legal age of majority. 　Conversely, one may legally be an adult but possess none of the maturity and responsibility that may define an adult character. 　In different cultures there are events that relate passing from being a child to becoming an adult or coming of age. 　This often encompasses the passing a series of tests to demonstrate that a person is prepared for adulthood, or reaching a specified age, sometimes in conjunction with demonstrating preparation. 　Most modern societies determine legal adulthood based on reaching a legally specified age without requiring a demonstration of physical maturity or preparation for adulthood.

Netherlands

The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdərlɑnt] (listen)), informally Holland, is a country located in Northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean. 　It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 　The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east, and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. 　It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium in the North Sea. 　The country's official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. 　Dutch, English and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean territories. 　The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. 　Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and the nominal capital. 　The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. 　The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest seaport in Europe. 　Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest in Europe. 　The Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. 　It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centred in The Hague. 　Netherlands literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with nearly 26% falling below sea level. 　Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. 　In the Republican period, which began in 1588, the Netherlands entered a unique era of political, economic, and cultural greatness, ranked among the most powerful and influential in Europe and the world; this period is known as the Dutch Golden Age. 　During this time, its trading companies, the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, established colonies and trading posts all over the world. 　With a population of 17.7 million people, all living within a total area of 41,850 km2 (16,160 sq mi)—of which the land area is 33,500 km2 (12,900 sq mi)—the Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world and the second-most densely populated country in the European Union, with a density of 520 people per square kilometre (1,300 people/sq mi). 　Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture, and inventiveness. 　The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. 　The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion, prostitution and euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. 　The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919 and was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. 　Its mixed-market advanced economy has the thirteenth-highest per capita income globally. 　The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indices of press freedom, economic freedom, human development and quality of life, as well as happiness.

Coupling

A coupling is a device used to connect two shafts together at their ends for the purpose of transmitting power. 　The primary purpose of couplings is to join two pieces of rotating equipment while permitting some degree of misalignment or end movement or both. 　In a more general context, a coupling can also be a mechanical device that serves to connect the ends of adjacent parts or objects. 　Couplings do not normally allow disconnection of shafts during operation, however there are torque-limiting couplings which can slip or disconnect when some torque limit is exceeded. 　Selection, installation and maintenance of couplings can lead to reduced maintenance time and maintenance cost.

Bird

Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (/ˈeɪviːz/), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. 　Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5.5 cm (2.2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) common ostrich. 　There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. 　Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. 　Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. 　The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. 　Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. 　Birds are feathered theropod dinosaurs and constitute the only known living dinosaurs. 　Likewise, birds are considered reptiles in the modern cladistic sense of the term, and their closest living relatives are the crocodilians. 　Birds are descendants of the primitive avialans (whose members include Archaeopteryx) which first appeared about 160 million years ago (mya) in China. 　According to DNA evidence, modern birds (Neornithes) evolved in the Middle to Late Cretaceous, and diversified dramatically around the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 mya, which killed off the pterosaurs and all non-avian dinosaurs. 　Many social species pass on knowledge across generations, which is considered a form of culture. 　Birds are social, communicating with visual signals, calls, and songs, and participating in such behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. 　The vast majority of bird species are socially (but not necessarily sexually) monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, and rarely for life. 　Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous (one male with many females) or, rarely, polyandrous (one female with many males). 　Birds produce offspring by laying eggs which are fertilised through sexual reproduction. 　They are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. 　Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching. 　Many species of birds are economically important as food for human consumption and raw material in manufacturing, with domesticated and undomesticated birds being important sources of eggs, meat, and feathers. 　Songbirds, parrots, and other species are popular as pets. 　Guano (bird excrement) is harvested for use as a fertiliser. 　Birds figure throughout human culture. 　About 120 to 130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, and hundreds more before then. 　Human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them. 　Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry.

Bird (technology)

Bird is an interactive input device designed by Israel-based startup, MUV Interactive, which develops technology for wearable interfaces. 　Bird connects to computers to make any surface an interactive 3D environment. 　The device features remote touch, touchpad swipe control, gesture control, touchscreen capabilities, voice command recognition, a laser pointer, and other advanced options.

Factory

A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. 　They are a critical part of modern economic production, with the majority of the world's goods being created or processed within factories. 　Factories arose with the introduction of machinery during the Industrial Revolution, when the capital and space requirements became too great for cottage industry or workshops. 　Early factories that contained small amounts of machinery, such as one or two spinning mules, and fewer than a dozen workers have been called "glorified workshops". 　Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. 　Large factories tend to be located with access to multiple modes of transportation, some having rail, highway and water loading and unloading facilities. 　In some countries like Australia, it is common to call a factory building a "Shed". 　Factories may either make discrete products or some type of continuously produced material, such as chemicals, pulp and paper, or refined oil products. 　Factories manufacturing chemicals are often called plants and may have most of their equipment – tanks, pressure vessels, chemical reactors, pumps and piping – outdoors and operated from control rooms. 　Oil refineries have most of their equipment outdoors. 　Discrete products may be final goods, or parts and sub-assemblies which are made into final products elsewhere. 　Factories may be supplied parts from elsewhere or make them from raw materials. 　Continuous production industries typically use heat or electricity to transform streams of raw materials into finished products. 　The term mill originally referred to the milling of grain, which usually used natural resources such as water or wind power until those were displaced by steam power in the 19th century. 　Because many processes like spinning and weaving, iron rolling, and paper manufacturing were originally powered by water, the term survives as in steel mill, paper mill, etc.

Orange

Look up Orange or orange in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Orange most often refers to: Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species Citrus × sinensis Orange blossom, its fragrant flower Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum Some other citrus or citrus-like fruit, see list of plants known as orange Orange (word), both a noun and an adjective in the English language Orange may also refer to:

Admitted

Admitted is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language docudrama film directed by Chandigarh-based director Ojaswwee Sharma. 　The film is about Dhananjay Chauhan, the first transgender student at Panjab University. 　The role of Dhananjay Chauhan has been played by Dhananjay herself. 　Admitted was declared best documentary at 17th Mumbai International Film Festival, and won the Silver Conch award for Best Documentary Film (above 60 minutes) in the National Competition section. 　It won the National Film Award – Special Jury Award (feature film) at the 68th National Film Awards.

Cambridge

Cambridge (/ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ/ KAYM-brij) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. 　It is located on the River Cam approximately 55 miles (89 km) north of London. 　As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. 　Cambridge became an important trading centre during the Roman and Viking ages, and there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age. 　The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although modern city status was not officially conferred until 1951. 　The city is most famous as the home of the University of Cambridge, which was founded in 1209 and consistently ranks among the best universities in the world. 　The buildings of the university include King's College Chapel, Cavendish Laboratory, and the Cambridge University Library, one of the largest legal deposit libraries in the world. 　The city's skyline is dominated by several college buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, and the chimney of Addenbrooke's Hospital. 　Anglia Ruskin University, which evolved from the Cambridge School of Art and the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, also has its main campus in the city. 　Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology Silicon Fen, which contains industries such as software and bioscience and many start-up companies born out of the university. 　Over 40 per cent of the workforce have a higher education qualification, more than twice the national average. 　The Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest biomedical research clusters in the world includes the headquarters of AstraZeneca, a hotel, and the relocated Royal Papworth Hospital. 　The first game of association football took place at Parker's Piece. 　The Strawberry Fair music and arts festival and Midsummer Fair are held on Midsummer Common, and the annual Cambridge Beer Festival takes place on Jesus Green. 　The city is adjacent to the M11 and A14 roads. 　Cambridge station is less than an hour from London King's Cross railway station.

Galaxy

A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. 　The word is derived from the Greek galaxias (γαλαξίας), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. 　Galaxies, averaging an estimated 100 million stars, range in size from dwarfs with less than a hundred million stars, to the largest galaxies known – supergiants with one hundred trillion stars, each orbiting its galaxy's center of mass. 　Most of the mass in a typical galaxy is in the form of dark matter, with only a few percent of that mass visible in the form of stars and nebulae. 　Supermassive black holes are a common feature at the centres of galaxies. 　Galaxies are categorized according to their visual morphology as elliptical, spiral, or irregular. 　Many are thought to have supermassive black holes at their centers. 　The Milky Way's central black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, has a mass four million times greater than the Sun. 　As of March 2016, GN-z11 is the oldest and most distant galaxy observed. 　It has a comoving distance of 32 billion light-years from Earth, and is seen as it existed just 400 million years after the Big Bang. 　In 2016, using 20 years of images from the Hubble space telescope, it was estimated that there were in total two trillion (2×1012) or more galaxies in the observable universe, and as many as an estimated 1×1024 stars (more stars than all the grains of sand on all beaches of the planet Earth). 　In 2021, data from NASA's New Horizons space probe was used to revise the earlier estimate to roughly 200 billion galaxies (2×1011), Most galaxies are 1,000 to 100,000 parsecs in diameter (approximately 3,000 to 300,000 light years) and are separated by distances on the order of millions of parsecs (or megaparsecs). 　For comparison, the Milky Way has a diameter of at least 26,800 parsecs (87,400 ly) and is separated from the Andromeda Galaxy (with diameter of about 152,000 ly), its nearest large neighbor, by 780,000 parsecs (2.5 million ly.) The space between galaxies is filled with a tenuous gas (the intergalactic medium) with an average density of less than one atom per cubic meter. 　Most galaxies are gravitationally organized into groups, clusters and superclusters. 　The Milky Way is part of the Local Group, which it dominates along with Andromeda Galaxy. 　The group is part of the Virgo Supercluster. 　At the largest scale, these associations are generally arranged into sheets and filaments surrounded by immense voids. 　Both the Local Group and the Virgo Supercluster are contained in a much larger cosmic structure named Laniakea.

Galaxy (computational biology)

Galaxy is a scientific workflow, data integration, and data and analysis persistence and publishing platform that aims to make computational biology accessible to research scientists that do not have computer programming or systems administration experience. 　Although it was initially developed for genomics research, it is largely domain agnostic and is now used as a general bioinformatics workflow management system.

Snow

Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. 　It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout its life cycle, starting when, under suitable conditions, the ice crystals form in the atmosphere, increase to millimeter size, precipitate and accumulate on surfaces, then metamorphose in place, and ultimately melt, slide or sublimate away. 　Snowstorms organize and develop by feeding on sources of atmospheric moisture and cold air. 　Snowflakes nucleate around particles in the atmosphere by attracting supercooled water droplets, which freeze in hexagonal-shaped crystals. 　Snowflakes take on a variety of shapes, basic among these are platelets, needles, columns and rime. 　As snow accumulates into a snowpack, it may blow into drifts. 　Over time, accumulated snow metamorphoses, by sintering, sublimation and freeze-thaw. 　Where the climate is cold enough for year-to-year accumulation, a glacier may form. 　Otherwise, snow typically melts seasonally, causing runoff into streams and rivers and recharging groundwater. 　Major snow-prone areas include the polar regions, the northernmost half of the Northern Hemisphere and mountainous regions worldwide with sufficient moisture and cold temperatures. 　In the Southern Hemisphere, snow is confined primarily to mountainous areas, apart from Antarctica. 　Snow affects such human activities as transportation: creating the need for keeping roadways, wings, and windows clear; agriculture: providing water to crops and safeguarding livestock; sports such as skiing, snowboarding, and snowmachine travel; and warfare. 　Snow affects ecosystems, as well, by providing an insulating layer during winter under which plants and animals are able to survive the cold.

Symmetry

Symmetry (from Ancient Greek: συμμετρία symmetria "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. 　In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definition, and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations; including translation, reflection, rotation or scaling. 　Although these two meanings of "symmetry" can sometimes be told apart, they are intricately related, and hence are discussed together in this article. 　Mathematical symmetry may be observed with respect to the passage of time; as a spatial relationship; through geometric transformations; through other kinds of functional transformations; and as an aspect of abstract objects, including theoretic models, language, and music. 　This article describes symmetry from three perspectives: in mathematics, including geometry, the most familiar type of symmetry for many people; in science and nature; and in the arts, covering architecture, art and music. 　The opposite of symmetry is asymmetry, which refers to the absence or a violation of symmetry.

Bag

A bag (also known regionally as a sack) is a common tool in the form of a non-rigid container. 　The use of bags predates recorded history, with the earliest bags being lengths of animal skin, cotton, or woven plant fibers, folded up at the edges and secured in that shape with strings of the same material. 　Despite their simplicity, bags have been fundamental for the development of human civilization, as they allow people to easily collect loose materials such as berries or food grains, and to transport more items than could readily be carried in the hands. 　The word probably has its origins in the Norse word baggi, from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European bʰak, but is also comparable to the Welsh baich (load, bundle), and the Greek Τσιαντουλίτσα (Chandulícha, load). 　Cheap disposable paper bags and plastic shopping bags are very common varying in size and strength in the retail trade as a convenience for shoppers, and are often supplied by the shop for free or for a small fee. 　Customers may also take their own shopping bags to use in shops, these are more commonly known as tote bags or shoppers tote. 　Although, paper had been used for purposes of wrapping and padding in ancient China since the 2nd century BC, the first use of paper bags (for preserving the flavor of tea) in China came during the later Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD).

Fox

Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. 　They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or brush). 　Twelve species belong to the monophyletic "true foxes" group of genus Vulpes. 　Approximately another 25 current or extinct species are always or sometimes called foxes; these foxes are either part of the paraphyletic group of the South American foxes, or of the outlying group, which consists of the bat-eared fox, gray fox, and island fox. 　Foxes live on every continent except Antarctica. 　The most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) with about 47 recognized subspecies. 　The global distribution of foxes, together with their widespread reputation for cunning, has contributed to their prominence in popular culture and folklore in many societies around the world. 　The hunting of foxes with packs of hounds, long an established pursuit in Europe, especially in the British Isles, was exported by European settlers to various parts of the New World.

Princess

Princess is a title used by a female member of a monarch's family or by a female ruler. 　The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin princeps, meaning principal citizen). 　Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a monarch. 　A crown princess can be the heir apparent to the throne or the heir apparent's spouse.

Velocity

Velocity is the directional speed of an object in motion as an indication of its rate of change in position as observed from a particular frame of reference and as measured by a particular standard of time (e.g. 60 km/h northbound). 　Velocity is a fundamental concept in kinematics, the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of bodies. 　Velocity is a physical vector quantity; both magnitude and direction are needed to define it. 　The scalar absolute value (magnitude) of velocity is called speed, being a coherent derived unit whose quantity is measured in the SI (metric system) as metres per second (m/s or m⋅s−1). 　For example, "5 metres per second" is a scalar, whereas "5 metres per second east" is a vector. 　If there is a change in speed, direction or both, then the object is said to be undergoing an acceleration.

Rain

Rain Typical sound of rain with thunder Problems playing this file? 　See media help. 　Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. 　Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. 　It provides water for hydroelectric power plants, crop irrigation, and suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems. 　The major cause of rain production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts. 　If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds (those with strong upward vertical motion) such as cumulonimbus (thunder clouds) which can organize into narrow rainbands. 　In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation which forces moist air to condense and fall out as rainfall along the sides of mountains. 　On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by downslope flow which causes heating and drying of the air mass. 　The movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes. 　The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall, both in amounts and intensity, downwind of cities. 　Global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally, including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics. 　Antarctica is the driest continent. 　The globally averaged annual precipitation over land is 715 mm (28.1 in), but over the whole Earth it is much higher at 990 mm (39 in). 　Climate classification systems such as the Köppen classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. 　Rainfall is measured using rain gauges. 　Rainfall amounts can be estimated by weather radar. 　Rain is also known or suspected on other planets, where it may be composed of methane, neon, sulfuric acid, or even iron rather than water.

Sunday

Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. 　In most Western countries, Sunday is a day of rest and a part of the weekend. 　It is often considered the first day of the week. 　For most observant adherents of Christianity, Sunday is generally observed as a day of worship and rest, recognising it as the Lord's Day and the day of Christ's resurrection; in the United States, Canada, Japan, the Philippines as well as in most of South America, Sunday is the first day of the week. 　According to the Hebrew calendar and traditional calendars (including Christian calendars) Sunday is the first day of the week; Quaker Christians call Sunday the "first day" in accordance with their testimony of simplicity. 　The International Organization for Standardization, which is based in Switzerland, calls Sunday the seventh day of the week.

Darkness

Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black. 　Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are inactive when light levels are insufficient, in the range of visual perception referred to as scotopic vision. 　The emotional response to darkness has generated metaphorical usages of the term in many cultures, often used to describe an unhappy or foreboding feeling. 　Referring to a time of day, complete darkness occurs when the Sun is more than 18° below the horizon, without the effects of twilight on the night sky.

Pope

The pope (Latin: papa, from Greek: πάππας, romanized: pappas, lit. 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff (pontifex maximus or summus pontifex), Roman pontiff (Romanus pontifex) or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Catholic Church, and has also served as the head of state or sovereign of the Papal States and later the Vatican City State since the eighth century. 　From a Catholic viewpoint, the primacy of the bishop of Rome is largely derived from his role as the apostolic successor to Saint Peter, to whom primacy was conferred by Jesus, who gave Peter the Keys of Heaven and the powers of "binding and loosing", naming him as the "rock" upon which the Church would be built. 　The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013. 　While his office is called the papacy, the jurisdiction of the episcopal see is called the Holy See. 　It is the Holy See that is the sovereign entity by international law headquartered in the distinctively independent Vatican City State, a city-state which forms a geographical enclave within the conurbation of Rome, established by the Lateran Treaty in 1929 between Italy and the Holy See to ensure its temporal and spiritual independence. 　The Holy See is recognized by its adherence at various levels to international organizations and by means of its diplomatic relations and political accords with many independent states. 　According to Catholic tradition, the apostolic see of Rome was founded by Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the first century. 　The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in human history. 　In ancient times, the popes helped spread Christianity and intervened to find resolutions in various doctrinal disputes. 　In the Middle Ages, they played a role of secular importance in Western Europe, often acting as arbitrators between Christian monarchs. 　In addition to the expansion of Christian faith and doctrine, modern popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, and the defense of human rights. 　Over time, the papacy accrued broad secular and political influence, eventually rivaling those of territorial rulers. 　In recent centuries, the temporal authority of the papacy has declined and the office is now largely focused on religious matters. 　By contrast, papal claims of spiritual authority have been increasingly firmly expressed over time, culminating in 1870 with the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for rare occasions when the pope speaks ex cathedra—literally "from the chair (of Saint Peter)"—to issue a formal definition of faith or morals. 　The pope is considered one of the world's most powerful people due to the extensive diplomatic, cultural, and spiritual influence of his position on both 1.3 billion Catholics and those outside the Catholic faith, and because he heads the world's largest non-government provider of education and health care, with a vast network of charities.

Vampire

A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. 　In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods which they inhabited while they were alive. 　They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. 　Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world; the term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in Southeastern and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. 　Local variants in Southeastern Europe were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. 　In modern times, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures (such as the chupacabra) still persists in some cultures. 　Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalize this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. 　Porphyria was linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited. 　The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of "The Vampyre" by the English writer John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. 　Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend, even though it was published after fellow Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novel Carmilla. 　The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, television shows, and video games. 　The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.

Lane

In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. 　Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each direction, separated by lane markings. 　On multilane roadways and busier two-lane roads, lanes are designated with road surface markings. 　Major highways often have two multi-lane roadways separated by a median. 　Some roads and bridges that carry very low volumes of traffic are less than 4.6 metres (15 ft) wide, and are only a single lane wide. 　Vehicles travelling in opposite directions must slow or stop to pass each other. 　In rural areas, these are often called country lanes. 　In urban areas, alleys are often only one lane wide. 　Urban and suburban one lane roads are often designated for one-way traffic.