Iran

Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53 You may need rendering support to display the Persian text in this article correctly. 　Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. 　It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. 　It covers an area of 1.64 million square kilometres (0.63 million square miles), making it the 17th-largest country. 　Iran has an estimated population of 86.8 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. 　Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz. 　The country is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. 　It was first unified by the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, in the seventh century BC, and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which became one of the largest empires in history and a superpower. 　The Achaemenid Empire fell to Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC and was subsequently divided into several Hellenistic states. 　An Iranian rebellion established the Parthian Empire in the third century BC, which was succeeded in the third century AD by the Sassanid Empire, a major world power for the next four centuries. 　Arab Muslims conquered the empire in the seventh century AD, which led to the Islamization of Iran. 　It subsequently became a major center of Islamic culture and learning, with its art, literature, philosophy, and architecture spreading across the Muslim world and beyond during the Islamic Golden Age. 　Over the next two centuries, a series of native Iranian Muslim dynasties emerged before the Seljuk Turks and the Mongols conquered the region. 　In the 15th century, the native Safavids re-established a unified Iranian state and national identity, and converted the country to Shia Islam. 　Under the reign of Nader Shah in the 18th century, Iran presided over the most powerful military in the world, though by the 19th century, a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire led to significant territorial losses. 　The early 20th century saw the Persian Constitutional Revolution. 　Efforts to nationalize its fossil fuel supply from Western companies led to an Anglo-American coup in 1953, which resulted in greater autocratic rule under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and growing Western political influence. 　He went on to launch a far-reaching series of reforms in 1963. 　After the Iranian Revolution, the current Islamic Republic was established in 1979 by Ruhollah Khomeini, who became the country's first Supreme Leader. 　The government of Iran is an Islamic theocracy that includes some elements of a presidential system, with the ultimate authority vested in an autocratic "Supreme Leader"; a position held by Ali Khamenei since Khomeini's death in 1989. 　The Iranian government is authoritarian, and has attracted widespread criticism for its significant constraints and abuses against human rights and civil liberties, including several violent suppressions of mass protests, unfair elections, and limited rights for women and for children. 　It is also a focal point for Shia Islam within the Middle East, countering the long-existing Arab and Sunni hegemony within the region. 　Since the Iranian Revolution, the country is widely considered to be the largest adversary of Israel and also of Saudi Arabia. 　Iran is also considered to be one of the biggest players within Middle Eastern affairs, with its government being involved both directly and indirectly in the majority of modern Middle Eastern conflicts. 　Iran is a regional and middle power, with a geopolitically strategic location in the Asian continent. 　It is a founding member of the United Nations, the ECO, the OIC, and the OPEC. 　It has large reserves of fossil fuels—including the second-largest natural gas supply and the third-largest proven oil reserves. 　The country's rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 26 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 　Historically a multi-ethnic country, Iran remains a pluralistic society comprising numerous ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, with the largest of these being Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Mazandaranis, and Lurs.

Beauty

Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. 　Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. 　Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, one of the major branches of philosophy. 　As a positive aesthetic value, it is contrasted with ugliness as its negative counterpart. 　One difficulty in understanding beauty is because it has both objective and subjective aspects: it is seen as a property of things but also as depending on the emotional response of observers. 　Because of its subjective side, beauty is said to be "in the eye of the beholder". 　It has been argued that the ability on the side of the subject needed to perceive and judge beauty, sometimes referred to as the "sense of taste", can be trained and that the verdicts of experts coincide in the long run. 　This would suggest that the standards of validity of judgments of beauty are intersubjective, i.e. dependent on a group of judges, rather than fully subjective or fully objective. 　Conceptions of beauty aim to capture what is essential to all beautiful things. 　Classical conceptions define beauty in terms of the relation between the beautiful object as a whole and its parts: the parts should stand in the right proportion to each other and thus compose an integrated harmonious whole. 　Hedonist conceptions see a necessary connection between pleasure and beauty, e.g. that for an object to be beautiful is for it to cause disinterested pleasure. 　Other conceptions include defining beautiful objects in terms of their value, of a loving attitude towards them or of their function.

Cathedral

A cathedral is a church that contains the cathedra (Latin for 'seat') of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. 　Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches. 　Church buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first appeared in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa in the 4th century, but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the 12th century, by which time they had developed architectural forms, institutional structures, and legal identities distinct from parish churches, monastic churches, and episcopal residences. 　The cathedral is more important in the hierarchy than the church because it is from the cathedral that the bishop governs the area under his or her administrative authority. 　Following the Protestant Reformation, the Christian church in several parts of Western Europe, such as Scotland, the Netherlands, certain Swiss Cantons and parts of Germany, adopted a presbyterian polity that did away with bishops altogether. 　Where ancient cathedral buildings in these lands are still in use for congregational worship, they generally retain the title and dignity of "cathedral", maintaining and developing distinct cathedral functions, but void of hierarchical supremacy. 　From the 16th century onwards, but especially since the 19th century, churches originating in Western Europe have undertaken vigorous programmes of missionary activity, leading to the founding of large numbers of new dioceses with associated cathedral establishments of varying forms in Asia, Africa, Australasia, Oceania and the Americas. 　In addition, both the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches have formed new dioceses within formerly Protestant lands for converts and migrant co-religionists. 　Consequently, it is not uncommon to find Christians in a single city being served by three or more cathedrals of differing denominations.

Bowl

A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, or consuming food. 　The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom forming a seamless curve. 　This makes bowls especially suited for holding liquids and loose food, as the contents of the bowl are naturally concentrated in its center by the force of gravity. 　The exterior of a bowl is most often round but can be of any shape, including rectangular. 　The size of bowls varies from small bowls used to hold a single serving of food to large bowls, such as punch bowls or salad bowls, that are often used to hold or store more than one portion of food. 　There is some overlap between bowls, cups, and plates. 　Very small bowls, such as the tea bowl, are often called cups, while plates with especially deep wells are often called bowls. 　In many cultures bowls are the most common kind of vessel used for serving and eating food. 　Historically small bowls were also used for serving both tea and alcoholic drinks. 　In Western culture plates and cups are more commonly used.

Threat

A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. 　Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. 　The act of intimidation for coercion is considered as a threat. 　Threatening or threatening behavior (or criminal threatening behavior) is the crime of intentionally or knowingly putting another person in fear of bodily injury. 　"Threat of harm generally involves a perception of injury...physical or mental damage...act or instance of injury, or a material and detriment or loss to a person." 　Some of the more common types of threats forbidden by law are those made with an intent to obtain a monetary advantage or to compel a person to act against their will. 　In most US states, it is an offense to threaten to (1) use a deadly weapon on another person; (2) injure another's person or property; or (3) injure another's reputation.

Jose

Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name Yose, which is etymologically linked to Yosef or Joseph. 　The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. 　Jose ben Abin Jose ben Akabya Jose the Galilean Jose ben Halafta Jose ben Jochanan Jose ben Joezer of Zeredah Jose ben Saul

Residence

Look up residence or residences in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　A residence is a place (normally a building) used as a home or dwelling, where people reside. 　Residence may more specifically refer to: Domicile (law), a legal term for residence Habitual residence, a civil law term dealing with the status of refugees, and child abduction Residence in English family law, pertaining to where children should live in the case of disputes Residence or residence hall (UK) accommodating college or university students, known in the US as a dormitory Residenz, the German term for residence which normally means the city palace of a noble family Tax residence, to determine the location of someone's home for tax purposes

Lyrics

Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. 　The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. 　The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, as a "librettist". 　The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. 　Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression. 　Rappers can also create lyrics (often with a variation of rhyming words) that are meant to be spoken rhythmically rather than sung.

Staring

Staring is a prolonged gaze or fixed look. 　In staring, one object or person is the continual focus of visual interest, for an amount of time. 　Staring can be interpreted as being either hostile like disapproval of another's behavior, or the result of intense concentration, interest or affection. 　Staring behavior can be considered as a form of aggression like when it is an invasion of an individual's privacy in certain contexts, or as a nonverbal cue to convey feelings of attraction in a social setting. 　The resultant behavior or action defines whether it is aggressive in nature (e.g. leering that results in street harassment), passive or active expression of attraction, etc. 　However, to some extent staring often occurs accidentally, and often a person would be simply staring into a space for awareness, or could be lost in thought, stupefied, or be unable to see. 　As such, the meaning of a person's staring behavior depends upon the attributions made by the observer. 　In a staring contest, a mutual staring can take the form of a battle of wills. 　When eye contact is reciprocated, it could be an aggressive-dominating game where the loser is the person who looks away first. 　Staring conceptually also implies confronting the inevitable – 'staring death in the face', or 'staring into the abyss'.　[citation needed] Group staring evokes and emphasizes paranoia; such as the archetypal stranger walking into a saloon in a Western to be greeted by the stares of all the regulars. 　The fear of being stared at is called scopophobia.

Sarah

Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. 　While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woman, renowned for her hospitality and beauty, the wife and half-sister of Abraham, and the mother of Isaac. 　Sarah has her feast day on 1 September in the Catholic Church, 19 August in the Coptic Orthodox Church, 20 January in the LCMS, and 12 and 20 December in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Appeal

In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. 　Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and interpreting law. 　Although appellate courts have existed for thousands of years, common law countries did not incorporate an affirmative right to appeal into their jurisprudence until the 19th century.

Invasion

An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a territory; forcing the partition of a country; altering the established government or gaining concessions from said government; or a combination thereof. 　An invasion can be the cause of a war, be a part of a larger strategy to end a war, or it can constitute an entire war in itself. 　Due to the large scale of the operations associated with invasions, they are usually strategic in planning and execution.　[not verified in body]

Jason

Jason (/ˈdʒeɪsən/ JAY-sən; Greek: Ἰάσων, translit. Iásōn [i.ǎːsɔːn]) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. 　He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. 　He was married to the sorceress Medea. 　He was also the great-grandson of the messenger god Hermes, through his mother's side. 　Jason appeared in various literary works in the classical world of Greece and Rome, including the epic poem Argonautica and the tragedy Medea. 　In the modern world, Jason has emerged as a character in various adaptations of his myths, such as the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts and the 2000 TV miniseries of the same name.

Priest

A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. 　They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. 　Their office or position is the 'priesthood', a term which also may apply to such persons collectively. 　A priest may have the duty to hear confessions periodically, give marriage counseling, provide prenuptial counseling, give spiritual direction, teach catechism, or visit those confined indoors, such as the sick in hospitals and nursing homes.

Philippines

Coordinates: 13°N 122°E / 13°N 122°E / 13; 122 The Philippines (/ˈfɪlɪpiːnz/ (listen); Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. 　It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. 　The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest. 　It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. 　The Philippines covers an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) and, as of 2021[update], it had a population of around 109 million people, making it the world's thirteenth-most-populous country. 　The Philippines has diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. 　Manila is the country's capital, while the largest city is Quezon City; both lie within the urban area of Metro Manila. 　Negritos, some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. 　Adoption of animism, Hinduism and Islam established island-kingdoms called kedatuan, rajahnates, and sultanates. 　The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. 　In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villaloboscode: spa promoted to code: es named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. 　Spanish settlement through Mexico, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming ruled by the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. 　During this time, Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. 　In 1896, the Philippine Revolution began, which then became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. 　Spain ceded the territory to the United States, while Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. 　The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States establishing control over the territory, which they maintained until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. 　Following liberation, the Philippines became independent in 1946. 　Since then, the unitary sovereign state has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a decades-long dictatorship by a nonviolent revolution. 　The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized country whose economy is transitioning from being agriculture centered to services and manufacturing centered. 　It is a founding member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit. 　The location of the Philippines as an island country both on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons. 　The country has a variety of natural resources and is home to a globally significant level of biodiversity.

Desk

A desk or bureau is a piece of furniture with a flat table-style work surface used in a school, office, home or the like for academic, professional or domestic activities such as reading, writing, or using equipment such as a computer. 　Desks often have one or more drawers, compartments, or pigeonholes to store items such as office supplies and papers. 　Desks are usually made of wood or metal, although materials such as glass are sometimes seen. 　Some desks have the form of a table, although usually only one side of a desk is suitable to sit at (there are some exceptions, such as a partners desk), unlike most usual tables. 　Some desks do not have the form of a table, for instance, an armoire desk is a desk built within a large wardrobe-like cabinet, and a portable desk is light enough to be placed on a person's lap. 　Since many people lean on a desk while using it, a desk must be sturdy. 　In most cases, people sit at a desk, either on a separate chair or a built-in chair (e.g., in some school desks). 　Some people use standing desks to be able to stand while using them.

Stream

A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. 　Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. 　Long large streams are usually called rivers, while smaller, less voluminous and more intermittent streams are known as streamlets, brooks or creeks. 　The flow of a stream is controlled by three inputs – surface runoff (from precipitation or meltwater), daylighted subterranean water, and surfaced groundwater (spring water). 　The surface and subterranean water are highly variable between periods of rainfall. 　Groundwater, on the other hand, has a relatively constant input and is controlled more by long-term patterns of precipitation. 　The stream encompasses surface, subsurface and groundwater fluxes that respond to geological, geomorphological, hydrological and biotic controls. 　Streams are important as conduits in the water cycle, instruments in groundwater recharge, and corridors for fish and wildlife migration. 　The biological habitat in the immediate vicinity of a stream is called a riparian zone. 　Given the status of the ongoing Holocene extinction, streams play an important corridor role in connecting fragmented habitats and thus in conserving biodiversity. 　The study of streams and waterways in general is known as surface hydrology and is a core element of environmental geography.

Reform

Reform (Latin: reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. 　The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement which identified “Parliamentary Reform” as its primary aim. 　Reform is generally regarded as antithetical to revolution. 　Developing countries may carry out a wide range of reforms to improve their living standards, often with support from international financial institutions and aid agencies. 　This can include reforms to macroeconomic policy, the civil service, and public financial management. 　In the United States, rotation in office or term limits would, by contrast, be more revolutionary,[citation needed] in altering basic political connections between incumbents and constituents.

Poet

A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. 　Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. 　A poet may simply be the creator (thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or written), or they may also perform their art to an audience. 　The work of a poet is essentially one of communication, expressing ideas either in a literal sense (such as communicating about a specific event or place) or metaphorically. 　Poets have existed since prehistory, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and periods. 　Throughout each civilization and language, poets have used various styles that have changed over time, resulting in countless poets as diverse as the literature that (since the advent of writing systems) they have produced.

Dust

Dust is made of fine particles of solid matter. 　On Earth, it generally consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil lifted by wind (an aeolian process), volcanic eruptions, and pollution. 　Dust in homes is composed of about 20–50% dead skin cells. 　The rest, and in offices, and other human environments is composed of small amounts of plant pollen, human hairs, animal fur, textile fibers, paper fibers, minerals from outdoor soil, burnt meteorite particles, and many other materials which may be found in the local environment.

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. 　Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. 　Some historians are recognized by publications or training and experience. 　"Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.

Landing

Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. 　When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown"a or "splashdown" as well. 　A normal aircraft flight would include several parts of flight including taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent and landing.

Grounds

Look up grounds in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Grounds is the plural of ground Grounds may also refer to: Coffee grounds, granulated remains of coffee beans after grinding for coffee Grounds, in law, a rational motive or basis for a belief, conviction, or action taken, such as a legal action or argument: Grounds for divorce

Fly

Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- di- "two", and πτερόν pteron "wing". 　Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced mechanosensory organs known as halteres, which act as high-speed sensors of rotational movement and allow dipterans to perform advanced aerobatics. 　Diptera is a large order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies, crane flies, hoverflies and others, although only about 125,000 species have been described. 　Flies have a mobile head, with a pair of large compound eyes, and mouthparts designed for piercing and sucking (mosquitoes, black flies and robber flies), or for lapping and sucking in the other groups. 　Their wing arrangement gives them great maneuverability in flight, and claws and pads on their feet enable them to cling to smooth surfaces. 　Flies undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are often laid on the larval food-source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their food source. 　Other species like Metopia argyrocephala are ovoviviparous, opportunistically depositing hatched or hatching maggots instead of eggs on carrion, dung, decaying material, or open wounds of mammals. 　The pupa is a tough capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so; flies mostly have short lives as adults. 　Diptera is one of the major insect orders and of considerable ecological and human importance. 　Flies are important pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives. 　Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination. 　Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research, but less benignly, mosquitoes are vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and other infectious diseases; and houseflies, commensal with humans all over the world, spread food-borne illnesses. 　Flies can be annoyances especially in some parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers, buzzing and settling on the skin or eyes to bite or seek fluids. 　Larger flies such as tsetse flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle. 　Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other dipteran larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait and as food for carnivorous animals. 　They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds.