Maine

Maine (/meɪn/ (listen)) is the easternmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. 　It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and northwest, respectively. 　The largest state by total area in New England, Maine is the 12th-smallest by area, the 9th-least populous, the 13th-least densely populated, and the most rural of the 50 U.S. states. 　It is also the northeasternmost among the contiguous United States, the northernmost state east of the Great Lakes, the only state whose name consists of a single syllable, and the only state to border exactly one other U.S. state. 　Approximately half the area of Maine lies on each side of the 45th parallel north in latitude. 　The most populous city in Maine is Portland, while its capital is Augusta. 　Maine has traditionally been known for its jagged, rocky Atlantic Ocean and bayshore coastlines; smoothly contoured mountains; heavily forested interior; picturesque waterways; and its wild lowbush blueberries and seafood cuisine, especially lobster and clams. 　Coastal and Down East Maine have emerged as important centers for the creative economy, especially in the vicinity of Portland, which is also bringing gentrification. 　The territory of Maine has been inhabited by aboriginal populations for thousands of years after the glaciers retreated during the last ice age. 　At the time of European arrival, several Algonquian-speaking nations governed the area and these nations are now known as the Wabanaki Confederacy. 　The first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, founded by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. 　The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, established by the Plymouth Company in 1607. 　A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate and conflict with the local Indigenous people caused many to fail. 　As Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements had survived. 　Loyalist and Patriot forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution. 　During the War of 1812, the largely undefended eastern region of Maine was occupied by British forces with the goal of annexing it to Canada via the Colony of New Ireland, but returned to the United States following failed British offensives on the northern border, mid-Atlantic and south which produced a peace treaty that restored the pre-war boundaries. 　Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820 when it voted to secede from Massachusetts to become a separate state. 　On March 15, 1820, under the Missouri Compromise, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state.

Pine

A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus Pinus (/ˈpiːnuːs/) of the family Pinaceae. 　Pinus is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. 　The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts 187 species names of pines as current, together with more synonyms. 　The American Conifer Society (ACS) and the Royal Horticultural Society accept 121 species. 　Pines are commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere. 　Pine may also refer to the lumber derived from pine trees; it is one of the more extensively used types of lumber. 　The pine family is the largest conifer family and there are currently 818 named cultivars (or trinomials) recognized by the ACS.

Congregation

Look up congregation or kehilla in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. 　Congregation may also refer to: Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship Congregation (Roman Curia), an administrative body of the Catholic Church Congregation for Bishops Congregation for the Causes of Saints Sacred Congregation of Rites Religious congregation, a religious institute of the Catholic Church in which simple vows are taken Congregation (group of houses), a subdivision of some religious institutes in the Catholic Church Qahal, an Israelite organizational structure often translated as congregation Congregation (university), an assembly of senior members of a university The general audience in a ward in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Influences

Influences is the debut solo album by English musician Mark King, singer and bass player with Level 42. 　It was released by Polydor Records in July 1984. 　The album features a cover of the song "I Feel Free" by Cream, which was released as a single. 　King played most of the instruments on the album. 　Guest musicians include Level 42 keyboardist Mike Lindup and Drummie Zeb from Aswad, the latter of whom played drums on "Clocks Go Forward". 　The album charted at No.77 in the UK.

Stroke

A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. 　There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. 　Both cause parts of the brain to stop functioning properly. 　Signs and symptoms of a stroke may include an inability to move or feel on one side of the body, problems understanding or speaking, dizziness, or loss of vision to one side. 　Signs and symptoms often appear soon after the stroke has occurred. 　If symptoms last less than one or two hours, the stroke is a transient ischemic attack (TIA), also called a mini-stroke. 　A hemorrhagic stroke may also be associated with a severe headache. 　The symptoms of a stroke can be permanent. 　Long-term complications may include pneumonia and loss of bladder control. 　The main risk factor for stroke is high blood pressure. 　Other risk factors include high blood cholesterol, tobacco smoking, obesity, diabetes mellitus, a previous TIA, end-stage kidney disease, and atrial fibrillation. 　An ischemic stroke is typically caused by blockage of a blood vessel, though there are also less common causes. 　A hemorrhagic stroke is caused by either bleeding directly into the brain or into the space between the brain's membranes. 　Bleeding may occur due to a ruptured brain aneurysm. 　Diagnosis is typically based on a physical exam and supported by medical imaging such as a CT scan or MRI scan. 　A CT scan can rule out bleeding, but may not necessarily rule out ischemia, which early on typically does not show up on a CT scan. 　Other tests such as an electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood tests are done to determine risk factors and rule out other possible causes. 　Low blood sugar may cause similar symptoms. 　Prevention includes decreasing risk factors, surgery to open up the arteries to the brain in those with problematic carotid narrowing, and warfarin in people with atrial fibrillation. 　Aspirin or statins may be recommended by physicians for prevention. 　A stroke or TIA often requires emergency care. 　An ischemic stroke, if detected within three to four and half hours, may be treatable with a medication that can break down the clot. 　Some hemorrhagic strokes benefit from surgery. 　Treatment to attempt recovery of lost function is called stroke rehabilitation, and ideally takes place in a stroke unit; however, these are not available in much of the world. 　In 2013, approximately 6.9 million people had an ischemic stroke and 3.4 million people had a hemorrhagic stroke. 　In 2015, there were about 42.4 million people who had previously had a stroke and were still alive. 　Between 1990 and 2010 the number of strokes which occurred each year decreased by approximately 10% in the developed world and increased by 10% in the developing world. 　In 2015, stroke was the second most frequent cause of death after coronary artery disease, accounting for 6.3 million deaths (11% of the total). 　About 3.0 million deaths resulted from ischemic stroke while 3.3 million deaths resulted from hemorrhagic stroke. 　About half of people who have had a stroke live less than one year. 　Overall, two thirds of strokes occurred in those over 65 years old.

Ferry

A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. 　A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi. 　Ferries form a part of the public transport systems of many waterside cities and islands, allowing direct transit between points at a capital cost much lower than bridges or tunnels. 　Ship connections of much larger distances (such as over long distances in water bodies like the Mediterranean Sea) may also be called ferry services, and many carry vehicles.

Phrase

In grammar, a phrase—called expression in some contexts—is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. 　For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". 　Phrases can consist of a single word or a complete sentence. 　In theoretical linguistics, phrases are often analyzed as units of syntactic structure such as a constituent.

Crying

Crying is the dropping of tears (or welling of tears in the eyes) in response to an emotional state, or pain. 　Emotions that can lead to crying include sadness, anger, and even happiness. 　The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretomotor phenomenon characterized by the shedding of tears from the lacrimal apparatus, without any irritation of the ocular structures", instead, giving a relief which protects from conjunctivitis. 　A related medical term is lacrimation, which also refers to non-emotional shedding of tears. 　Various forms of crying are known as sobbing, weeping, wailing, whimpering, bawling, and blubbering. 　For crying to be described as sobbing, it usually has to be accompanied by a set of other symptoms, such as slow but erratic inhalation, occasional instances of breath holding and muscular tremor. 　A neuronal connection between the lacrimal gland and the areas of the human brain involved with emotion has been established.　[citation needed] Tears produced during emotional crying have a chemical composition which differs from other types of tears. 　They contain significantly greater quantities of the hormones prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and Leu-enkephalin, and the elements potassium and manganese.

Syria

Coordinates: 35°N 38°E / 35°N 38°E / 35; 38 Syria (Arabic: سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, romanized: Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية, romanized: al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. 　It is a unitary republic that consists of 14 governorates (subdivisions), and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. 　Cyprus lies to the west across the Mediterranean Sea. 　A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including the majority Syrian Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Albanians, and Greeks. 　Religious groups include Muslims, Christians, Alawites, Druze, and Yazidis. 　The capital and largest city of Syria is Damascus. 　Arabs are the largest ethnic group, and Muslims are the largest religious group. 　Syria is the only country that is governed by Ba'athism, an ideology that advocates Arab socialism and Arab nationalism. 　The name "Syria" historically referred to a wider region, broadly synonymous with the Levant, and known in Arabic as al-Sham. 　The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the 3rd millennium BC. 　Aleppo and the capital city Damascus are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. 　In the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. 　The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule. 　After a period as a French mandate (1923–1946), the newly created state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. 　It gained de jure independence as a democratic parliamentary republic on 24 October 1945 when the Republic of Syria became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the former French Mandate (although French troops did not leave the country until April 1946). 　The post-independence period was tumultuous, with multiple military coups and coup attempts shaking the country between 1949 and 1971. 　In 1958, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic, which was terminated by the 1961 Syrian coup d'état. 　The republic was renamed as the Arab Republic of Syria in late 1961 after the December 1 constitutional referendum of that year. 　A significant event was the 1963 coup d'état carried out by the military committee of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party which established a one-party state. 　Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending the constitutional protections for citizens. 　Internal power-struggles within neo-Ba'athist factions caused further coups in 1966 and 1970, which eventually resulted in the seizure of power by General Hafez al-Assad. 　Assad assigned Alawite loyalists to key posts in the armed forces, bureaucracy, Mukhabarat and the ruling elite; effectively establishing an "Alawi minority rule" to consolidate power within his family. 　After the death of Hafez al-Assad in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad inherited the presidency and political system centred around a cult of personality to al-Assad family. 　The Ba'ath regime has been condemned for numerous human rights abuses, including frequent executions of citizens and political prisoners, massive censorship and for financing a multi-billion dollar illicit drug trade. 　Syria is a member of one international organization other than the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement. 　Following its violent suppression of Arab Spring protests of the 2011 Syrian Revolution, the Syrian government was suspended from the Arab League in November 2011 and self-suspended from the Union for the Mediterranean in December 2011. 　Since July 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a multi-sided civil war, with the involvement of different countries. 　The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria in August 2012 citing "deep concern at the massacres and inhuman acts" perpetrated by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. 　As of 2020, three political entities – the Syrian Interim Government, Syrian Salvation Government and Rojava – have emerged in Syrian territory to challenge Assad's rule. 　Syria was ranked last on the Global Peace Index from 2016 to 2018, making it the most violent country in the world due to the war. 　Syria is the most corrupt country in the MENA region and was ranked the second lowest ("second to the worst") globally on the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index. 　The Syrian civil war has killed more than 570,000 people, with pro-Assad forces causing more than 90% of the total civilian casualties. 　The war led to the Syrian refugee crisis, with an estimated 7.6 million internally displaced people (July 2015 UNHCR figure) and over 5 million refugees (July 2017 registered by UNHCR), making population assessment difficult in recent years. 　The war has also worsened economic conditions, with more than 90% of population living under poverty and 80% of Syrians face food insecurity.

Maintaining

Maintaining is a 2007-2009 comic strip by cartoonist Nate Creekmore. 　Creekmore is a two-time winner of the Scripps College Cartoonist of the Year and an Associated Press award for achievement in college cartooning. 　Creekmore's strip first appeared in the newspaper at Lipscomb University in Nashville. 　Maintaining was later picked up for syndication through Universal Press Syndicate. 　It was launched on May 7, 2007, and canceled in August 2009 for poor sales. 　The last daily strip was August 1, 2009.

Discrimination

Discrimination is the act of making unjustified, prejudiced distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. 　People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, religion, disability, or sexual orientation, as well as other categories. 　Discrimination especially occurs when individuals or groups are unfairly treated in a way which is worse than other people are treated, on the basis of their actual or perceived membership in certain groups or social categories. 　It involves restricting members of one group from opportunities or privileges that are available to members of another group. 　Discriminatory traditions, policies, ideas, practices and laws exist in many countries and institutions in all parts of the world, including territories where discrimination is generally looked down upon. 　In some places, attempts such as quotas have been used to benefit those who are believed to be current or past victims of discrimination. 　These attempts have often been met with controversy, and have sometimes been called reverse discrimination.

Trinity

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Latin: Trinitas, lit. 'triad', from Latin: trinus 'threefold') is the central doctrine concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons sharing one homoousion (essence) "each is God, complete and whole." 　As the Fourth Lateran Council declared, it is the Father who begets, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds. 　In this context, the three persons define who God is, while the one essence defines what God is. 　This expresses at once their distinction and their indissoluble unity. 　Thus, the entire process of creation and grace is viewed as a single shared action of the three divine persons, in which each person manifests the attributes unique to them in the Trinity, thereby proving that everything comes "from the Father," "through the Son," and "in the Holy Spirit." 　This doctrine is called Trinitarianism and its adherents are called Trinitarians, while its opponents are called antitrinitarians or nontrinitarians. 　Christian nontrinitarian positions include Unitarianism, Binitarianism and Modalism. 　While the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament, the New Testament possesses a triadic understanding of God and contains a number of Trinitarian formulas. 　The doctrine of the Trinity was first formulated among the early Christians and fathers of the Church as they attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions. 　Though the Trinity is mainly a Christian concept, Judaism has had parallel views, especially among writings from the kabbalah tradition.

Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial /ˈmɑːrʃəl/; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet born in Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. 　In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. 　He wrote a total of 1,561 epigrams, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets. 　Martial has been called the greatest Latin epigrammatist, and is considered the creator of the modern epigram.

Collect

The collect (/ˈkɒlɛkt/ KOL-ekt) is a short general prayer of a particular structure used in Christian liturgy. 　Collects appear in the liturgies of Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches, among others (in those of Eastern Christianity the Greek term [déesis] synapté is often used instead of the Latin term [oratio] collecta, both having the same meaning).

Furniture

Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). 　Furniture is also used to hold objects at a convenient height for work (as horizontal surfaces above the ground, such as tables and desks), or to store things (e.g., cupboards, shelves, and drawers). 　Furniture can be a product of design and can be considered a form of decorative art. 　In addition to furniture's functional role, it can serve a symbolic or religious purpose. 　It can be made from a vast multitude of materials, including metal, plastic, and wood. 　Furniture can be made using a variety of woodworking joints which often reflects the local culture. 　People have been using natural objects, such as tree stumps, rocks and moss, as furniture since the beginning of human civilization and continues today in some households/campsites. 　Archaeological research shows that from around 30,000 years ago, people started to construct and carve their own furniture, using wood, stone, and animal bones. 　Early furniture from this period is known from artwork such as a Venus figurine found in Russia, depicting the goddess on a throne. 　The first surviving extant furniture is in the homes of Skara Brae in Scotland, and includes cupboards, dressers and beds all constructed from stone. 　Complex construction techniques such as joinery began in the early dynastic period of ancient Egypt. 　This era saw constructed wooden pieces, including stools and tables, sometimes decorated with valuable metals or ivory. 　The evolution of furniture design continued in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, with thrones being commonplace as well as the klinai, multipurpose couches used for relaxing, eating, and sleeping. 　The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented. 　Furniture design expanded during the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. 　The seventeenth century, in both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, often gilded Baroque designs. 　The nineteenth century is usually defined by revival styles. 　The first three-quarters of the twentieth century are often seen as the march towards Modernism. 　One unique outgrowth of post-modern furniture design is a return to natural shapes and textures.

Mo (Chinese zoology)

Mo (貘) was the standard Chinese name for the giant panda from the 3rd century BCE to the 19th century CE, but in 1824, the French sinologist Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat mistakenly identified the mo as the recently discovered black-and-white Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus), which never inhabited China in historical times. 　He based this misidentification on Chinese woodblock illustrations that depicted a mythological mo (貘) chimera with elephant trunk, rhinoceros eyes, cow tail and tiger paws (also known as the Japanese baku 獏), which the famous Tang poet Bai/Bo Juyi first described in the 9th century. 　The consequences of Abel-Rémusat's error were extensive. 　His presumption that mo meant "Chinese tapir" was immediately adopted in Western zoology, and by the end of the 19th century, it was accepted as modern scientific fact in China and Japan. 　In the 20th century, since mo had lost its original meaning, the giant panda was given a new Chinese name da xiongmao (大熊貓 lit. "large bear cat").

Subsidiary

A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. 　Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a same management being substantially controlled by same entity/group are called sister companies. 　The subsidiary can be a company (usually with limited liability) and may be a government- or state-owned enterprise. 　They are a common feature of modern business life, and most multinational corporations organize their operations in this way. 　Examples of holding companies are Berkshire Hathaway, Jefferies Financial Group, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. 　Discovery, or Citigroup; as well as more focused companies such as IBM, Xerox, and Microsoft. 　These, and others, organize their businesses into national and functional subsidiaries, often with multiple levels of subsidiaries.

Saving

Saving is income not spent, or deferred consumption. 　Methods of saving include putting money aside in, for example, a deposit account, a pension account, an investment fund, or as cash. 　Saving also involves reducing expenditures, such as recurring costs. 　In terms of personal finance, saving generally specifies low-risk preservation of money, as in a deposit account, versus investment, wherein risk is a lot higher; in economics more broadly, it refers to any income not used for immediate consumption. 　Saving does not automatically include interest. 　Saving differs from savings. 　The former refers to the act of not consuming one's assets, whereas the latter refers to either multiple opportunities to reduce costs; or one's assets in the form of cash. 　Saving refers to an activity occurring over time, a flow variable, whereas savings refers to something that exists at any one time, a stock variable. 　This distinction is often misunderstood, and even professional economists and investment professionals will often refer to "saving" as "savings". 　In different contexts there can be subtle differences in what counts as saving. 　For example, the part of a person's income that is spent on mortgage loan principal repayments is not spent on present consumption and is therefore saving by the above definition, even though people do not always think of repaying a loan as saving. 　However, in the U.S. measurement of the numbers behind its gross national product (i.e., the National Income and Product Accounts), personal interest payments are not treated as "saving" unless the institutions and people who receive them save them. 　Saving is closely related to physical investment, in that the former provides a source of funds for the latter. 　By not using income to buy consumer goods and services, it is possible for resources to instead be invested by being used to produce fixed capital, such as factories and machinery. 　Saving can therefore be vital to increase the amount of fixed capital available, which contributes to economic growth. 　However, increased saving does not always correspond to increased investment. 　If savings are not deposited into a financial intermediary such as a bank, there is no chance for those savings to be recycled as investment by business. 　This means that saving may increase without increasing investment, possibly causing a short-fall of demand (a pile-up of inventories, a cut-back of production, employment, and income, and thus a recession) rather than to economic growth. 　In the short term, if saving falls below investment, it can lead to a growth of aggregate demand and an economic boom. 　In the long term if saving falls below investment it eventually reduces investment and detracts from future growth. 　Future growth is made possible by foregoing present consumption to increase investment. 　However, savings not deposited into a financial intermediary amount to an (interest-free) loan to the government or central bank, who can recycle this loan. 　In a primitive agricultural economy, savings might take the form of holding back the best of the corn harvest as seed corn for the next planting season. 　If the whole crop were consumed the economy would convert to hunting and gathering the next season.

Tiger

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus Panthera. 　It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. 　An apex predator, it primarily preys on ungulates, such as deer and wild boar. 　It is territorial and generally a solitary but social predator, requiring large contiguous areas of habitat to support its requirements for prey and rearing of its offspring. 　Tiger cubs stay with their mother for about two years and then become independent, leaving their mother's home range to establish their own. 　The tiger was first scientifically described in 1758. 　It once ranged widely from the Eastern Anatolia Region in the west to the Amur River basin in the east, and in the south from the foothills of the Himalayas to Bali in the Sunda Islands. 　Since the early 20th century, tiger populations have lost at least 93% of their historic range and have been extirpated from Western and Central Asia, the islands of Java and Bali, and in large areas of Southeast and South Asia and China. 　What remains of the range where tigers still roam free is fragmented, stretching in spots from Siberian temperate forests to subtropical and tropical forests on the Indian subcontinent, Indochina and a single Indonesian island, Sumatra. 　The tiger is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. 　As of 2015, the global wild tiger population was estimated to number between 3,062 and 3,948 mature individuals, with most populations living in small isolated pockets. 　India currently hosts the largest tiger population. 　Major reasons for population decline are habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation and poaching. 　Tigers are also victims of human–wildlife conflict, due to encroachment in countries with a high human population density. 　The tiger is among the most recognisable and popular of the world's charismatic megafauna. 　It featured prominently in the ancient mythology and folklore of cultures throughout its historic range and continues to be depicted in modern films and literature, appearing on many flags, coats of arms and as mascots for sporting teams. 　The tiger is the national animal of India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and South Korea.

Mess

The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. 　The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the officers' mess, the chief petty officer mess, and the enlisted mess. 　In some civilian societies this military usage has been extended to the eating arrangements of other disciplined services such as fire fighting and police forces. 　The root of mess is the Old French mes, "portion of food" (cf. modern French mets), drawn from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send" and "to put" (cf. modern French mettre), the original sense being "a course of a meal put on the table"; cfr. 　also the modern Italian portata with the same meaning, past participle of portare, to bring. 　This sense of mess, which appeared in English in the 13th century, was often used for cooked or liquid dishes in particular, as in the "mess of pottage" (porridge or soup) or Eton mess.

Sphere

A sphere (from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra) 'globe, ball') is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. 　A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance r from a given point in three-dimensional space. 　That given point is the centre of the sphere, and r is the sphere's radius. 　The earliest known mentions of spheres appear in the work of the ancient Greek mathematicians. 　The sphere is a fundamental object in many fields of mathematics. 　Spheres and nearly-spherical shapes also appear in nature and industry. 　Bubbles such as soap bubbles take a spherical shape in equilibrium. 　The Earth is often approximated as a sphere in geography, and the celestial sphere is an important concept in astronomy. 　Manufactured items including pressure vessels and most curved mirrors and lenses are based on spheres. 　Spheres roll smoothly in any direction, so most balls used in sports and toys are spherical, as are ball bearings.

Christianity

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. 　It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. 　Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in Christianity) and chronicled in the New Testament. 　Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century Hellenistic Judaism in the Roman province of Judea. 　Jesus' apostles and their followers spread around the Levant, Europe, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the South Caucasus, Ancient Carthage, Egypt, and Ethiopia, despite significant initial persecution. 　It soon attracted gentile God-fearers, which led to a departure from Jewish customs, and, after the Fall of Jerusalem, AD 70 which ended the Temple-based Judaism, Christianity slowly separated from Judaism. 　Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches, as well as in its doctrines concerning justification and the nature of salvation, ecclesiology, ordination, and Christology. 　The creeds of various Christian denominations generally hold in common Jesus as the Son of God—the Logos incarnated—who ministered, suffered, and died on a cross, but rose from the dead for the salvation of mankind; and referred to as the gospel, meaning the "good news". 　Describing Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with the Old Testament as the gospel's respected background. 　Emperor Constantine the Great decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (313), later convening the Council of Nicaea (325) where Early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the State church of the Roman Empire (380). 　The early history of Christianity's united church before major schisms is sometimes referred to as the "Great Church" (though divergent sects existed at the same time, including Gnostics, Marcionites, and Jewish Christians). 　The Church of the East split after the Council of Ephesus (431) and Oriental Orthodoxy split after the Council of Chalcedon (451) over differences in Christology, while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism (1054), mostly over the authority of the bishop of Rome. 　Protestantism split in numerous denominations from the Catholic Church in the Reformation era (16th century) over theological and ecclesiological disputes, most predominantly on the issue of justification and the primacy of the bishop of Rome. 　Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages. 　Following the Age of Discovery (15th–17th century), Christianity was spread into the Americas, Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world via missionary work and European colonialism especially during the period of new imperialism. 　The four largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church (1.3 billion), Protestantism (800 million), the Eastern Orthodox Church (220 million), and the Oriental Orthodox churches (60 million), though thousands of smaller church communities exist despite efforts toward unity (ecumenism). 　Despite a decline in adherence in the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the region, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian. 　Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia, the world's most populous continents. 　Christians remain greatly persecuted in many regions of the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, and South Asia.

Conjecture

In mathematics, a conjecture is a conclusion or a proposition that is proffered on a tentative basis without proof. 　Some conjectures, such as the Riemann hypothesis (still a conjecture) or Fermat's Last Theorem (a conjecture until proven in 1995 by Andrew Wiles), have shaped much of mathematical history as new areas of mathematics are developed in order to prove them.

Luis

Luis is a given name. 　It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name Hludowig or Chlodovech. 　Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: Luís (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, Lluís in Aragonese and Catalan, while Luiz is archaic in Portugal, but common in Brazil.