16. Capital Cities

Afghanistan – Kabul
Albania – Tirane
Algeria – Algiers
Andorra – Andorra la Vella
Angola – Luanda
Antigua and Barbuda – Saint John’s
Argentina – Buenos Aires
Armenia – Yerevan
Australia – Canberra
Austria – Vienna
Azerbaijan – Baku
The Bahamas – Nassau
Bahrain – Manama
Bangladesh – Dhaka
Barbados – Bridgetown
Belarus – Minsk
Belgium – Brussels
Belize – Belmopan
Benin – Porto-Novo
Bhutan – Thimphu
Bolivia – La Paz (administrative); Sucre (judicial)
Bosnia and Herzegovina – Sarajevo
Botswana – Gaborone
Brazil – Brasilia
Brunei – Bandar Seri Begawan
Bulgaria – Sofia
Burkina Faso – Ouagadougou
Burundi – Bujumbura
Cambodia – Phnom Penh
Cameroon – Yaounde
Canada – Ottawa
Cape Verde – Praia
Central African Republic – Bangui
Chad – N’Djamena
Chile – Santiago
China – Beijing
Colombia – Bogota
Comoros – Moroni
Congo, Republic of the – Brazzaville
Congo, Democratic Republic of the – Kinshasa
Costa Rica – San Jose
Cote d’Ivoire – Yamoussoukro (official); Abidjan (de facto)
Croatia – Zagreb
Cuba – Havana
Cyprus – Nicosia
Czech Republic – Prague
Denmark – Copenhagen
Djibouti – Djibouti
Dominica – Roseau
Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo
East Timor (Timor-Leste) – Dili
Ecuador – Quito
Egypt – Cairo
El Salvador – San Salvador
Equatorial Guinea – Malabo
Eritrea – Asmara
Estonia – Tallinn
Ethiopia – Addis Ababa
Fiji – Suva
Finland – Helsinki
France – Paris
Gabon – Libreville
The Gambia – Banjul
Georgia – Tbilisi
Germany – Berlin
Ghana – Accra
Greece – Athens
Grenada – Saint George’s
Guatemala – Guatemala City
Guinea – Conakry
Guinea-Bissau – Bissau
Guyana – Georgetown
Haiti – Port-au-Prince
Honduras – Tegucigalpa
Hungary – Budapest
Iceland – Reykjavik
India – New Delhi
Indonesia – Jakarta
Iran – Tehran
Iraq – Baghdad
Ireland – Dublin
Israel – Jerusalem*
Italy – Rome
Jamaica – Kingston
Japan – Tokyo
Jordan – Amman
Kazakhstan – Astana
Kenya – Nairobi
Kiribati – Tarawa Atoll
Korea, North – Pyongyang
Korea, South – Seoul
Kosovo – Pristina
Kuwait – Kuwait City
Kyrgyzstan – Bishkek
Laos – Vientiane
Latvia – Riga
Lebanon – Beirut
Lesotho – Maseru
Liberia – Monrovia
Libya – Tripoli
Liechtenstein – Vaduz
Lithuania – Vilnius
Luxembourg – Luxembourg
Macedonia – Skopje
Madagascar – Antananarivo
Malawi – Lilongwe
Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur
Maldives – Male
Mali – Bamako
Malta – Valletta
Marshall Islands – Majuro
Mauritania – Nouakchott
Mauritius – Port Louis
Mexico – Mexico City
Micronesia, Federated States of – Palikir
Moldova – Chisinau
Monaco – Monaco
Mongolia – Ulaanbaatar
Montenegro – Podgorica
Morocco – Rabat
Mozambique – Maputo
Myanmar (Burma) – Rangoon (Yangon); Naypyidaw or Nay Pyi Taw (administrative)
Namibia – Windhoek
Nauru – no official capital; government offices in Yaren District
Nepal – Kathmandu
Netherlands – Amsterdam; The Hague (seat of government)
New Zealand – Wellington
Nicaragua – Managua
Niger – Niamey
Nigeria – Abuja
Norway – Oslo
Oman – Muscat
Pakistan – Islamabad
Palau – Melekeok
Panama – Panama City
Papua New Guinea – Port Moresby
Paraguay – Asuncion
Peru – Lima
Philippines – Manila
Poland – Warsaw
Portugal – Lisbon
Qatar – Doha
Romania – Bucharest
Russia – Moscow
Rwanda – Kigali
Saint Kitts and Nevis – Basseterre
Saint Lucia – Castries
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – Kingstown
Samoa – Apia
San Marino – San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe – Sao Tome
Saudi Arabia – Riyadh
Senegal – Dakar
Serbia – Belgrade
Seychelles – Victoria
Sierra Leone – Freetown
Singapore – Singapore
Slovakia – Bratislava
Slovenia – Ljubljana
Solomon Islands – Honiara
Somalia – Mogadishu
South Africa – Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judiciary)
Spain – Madrid
Sri Lanka – Colombo; Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte (legislative)
Sudan – Khartoum
Suriname – Paramaribo
Swaziland – Mbabane
Sweden – Stockholm
Switzerland – Bern
Syria – Damascus
Taiwan – Taipei
Tajikistan – Dushanbe
Tanzania – Dar es Salaam; Dodoma (legislative)
Thailand – Bangkok
Togo – Lome
Tonga – Nuku’alofa
Trinidad and Tobago – Port-of-Spain
Tunisia – Tunis
Turkey – Ankara
Turkmenistan – Ashgabat
Tuvalu – Vaiaku village, Funafuti province
Uganda – Kampala
Ukraine – Kyiv
United Arab Emirates – Abu Dhabi
United Kingdom – London
United States of America – Washington D.C.
Uruguay – Montevideo
Uzbekistan – Tashkent
Vanuatu – Port-Vila
Vatican City (Holy See) – Vatican City
Venezuela – Caracas
Vietnam – Hanoi
Yemen – Sanaa
Zambia – Lusaka
Zimbabwe – Harare

15. Political Ideologies

Anarchism –

Is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. It seeks to diminish or even abolish authority in the conduct of human relations.

Democracy –

Is a political form of government in which governing power is derived from the people, either by direct referendum (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy)

Communism –

Is a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classless society structured upon communal ownership of the means of production and the end of wage labour and private property. Communism is often mistakenly used interchangeably with socialism, however, communist theory contends that socialism is just a transitional stage on the way to communism. A variety of different forms of communism have developed, each based upon the ideas of different political theorists, usually as additions or interpretations of various forms of Marxism, the collective philosophies of Karl Marx. Marxism-Leninism is the synthesis of Vladimir Lenin’s contributions to Marxism, such as how a revolutionary party should be organised; Trotskyism is Leon Trotsky’s conception of Marxism and Maoism is Mao Tse Tung’s interpretation of Marxism to suit the conditions of China at that time. Communist theory generally states that the only way to solve the problems existing within capitalism is for the working class, who is the main producer of wealth in society and is exploited by the capitalist class to replace the bourgeoisie as the ruling class to establish a society without class divisions, called socialism, as a prelude to attempting to achieve the final stage of communism. Pure communism, or the stage in history after socialism, refers to a classless, stateless society, one where decisions on what to produce and what policies to pursue are made in the best interests of the collective society with the interests of every member of society given equal weight in the practical decision-making process in both the political and economic spheres of life.
According to The Communist Manifesto, Published by Karl Marx in 1848, Communism has ten essential planks:

• Abolition of Private Property.
• Heavy Progressive Income Tax.
• Abolition of Rights of Inheritance.
• Confiscation of Property Rights.
• Central Bank.
• Government Ownership of Communication and Transportation.
• Government Ownership of Factories and Agriculture.
• Government Control of Labor
• Corporate Farms and Regional Planning
• Government Control of Education

Conservatism –

Is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism and seek a return to the way things were.

Fascism –

Fascism is a form of extreme right-wing ideology that celebrates the nation or the race as an organic community transcending all other loyalties. It emphasizes a myth of national or racial rebirth after a period of decline or destruction. To this end, fascism calls for a “spiritual revolution” against signs of moral decay such as individualism and materialism, and seeks to purge “alien” forces and groups that threaten the organic community. Fascism tends to celebrate masculinity, youth, mystical unity, and the regenerative power of violence. Often, but not always, it promotes racial superiority doctrines, ethnic persecution, imperialist expansion, and genocide. At the same time, fascists may embrace a form of internationalism based on either racial or ideological solidarity across national boundaries. Usually fascism espouses open male supremacy, though sometimes it may also promote female solidarity and new opportunities for women of the privileged nation or race. Fascism’s approach to politics is both populist–in that it seeks to activate “the people” as a whole against perceived oppressors or enemies–and elitist–in that it treats the people’s will as embodied in a select group, or often one supreme leader, from whom authority proceeds downward. Fascism seeks to organize a cadre-led mass movement in a drive to seize state power. It seeks to forcibly subordinate all spheres of society to its ideological vision of organic community, usually through a totalitarian state. Both as a movement and a regime, fascism uses mass organizations as a system of integration and control, and uses organized violence to suppress opposition, although the scale of violence varies widely. Fascism is hostile to Marxism, liberalism, and conservatism, yet it borrows concepts and practices from all three. Fascism rejects the principles of class struggle and workers’ internationalism as threats to national or racial unity, yet it often exploits real grievances against capitalists and landowners through ethnic scapegoating or radical-sounding conspiracy theories. Fascism rejects the liberal doctrines of individual autonomy and rights, political pluralism, and representative government, yet it advocates broad popular participation in politics and may use parliamentary channels in its drive to power. Its vision of a “new order” clashes with the conservative attachment to tradition-based institutions and hierarchies, yet fascism often romanticizes the past as inspiration for national rebirth.

Green politics –

Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism and grassroots democracy. Developing in the western world in the 1970s, since then Green parties have developed in many countries across the globe, and have achieved some electoral success.

Islamism –

Is a set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system, and that modern Muslims must return to their roots of their religion, and unite politically. The term Islamism does not necessarily imply militancy. Some observers suggest Islamism’s tenets are less strict and can be defined as a form of identity politics or “support for Muslim identity, authenticity, broader regionalism and revivalism of the community”. Others define Islamism as “an Islamic militant, anti-democratic movement, bearing a holistic vision of Islam whose final aim is the restoration of the caliphate (the first system of goverment established in Islam, and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah (nation)).

Labourism –

Or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organisation of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour relations. Trade unions are collective organizations within societies, organised for the purpose of representing the interests of workers and the working class. Many ruling class individuals and political groups may also be active in and part of the labour movement.

Liberalism –

Is the belief in the importance of individual liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but most liberals support such fundamental ideas as constitutions, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights, capitalism, free trade, and the separation of church and state. Liberalism originated as a defensive reaction to the horrors of the European wars of religion of the 16th century (see Thirty Years’ War in Post 2). Its basic ideas were given formal expression in works by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, both of whom argued that the power of the sovereign is ultimately justified by the consent of the governed, given in a hypothetical social contract rather than by divine right. In Latin, liberal means freedom.

Nationalism –

Is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. Often, it is the belief that an ethnic group has a right to statehood or that citizenship in a state should be limited to one ethnic group. It can also include the belief that the state is of primary importance, or the belief that one state is naturally superior to all other states. It is also used to describe a movement to establish or protect a homeland (usually an autonomous state) for an ethnic group. In some cases the identification of a national culture is combined with a negative view of other races or cultures.

Socialism –

Is an economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources. Socialism includes a diverse array of political philosophies and social movements that are divided on the strategy for implementing a socialist economy. Libertarian socialists and anarchists reject using the state to build socialism altogether, arguing that socialism will, and must, arise spontaneously, while advocating for direct worker-ownership of the means of production through independent democratically managed cooperatives.

Utilitarianism –

Firstly, utilitarianism can be defined as an idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its usefulness in maximizing utility/minimizing negative utility (utility can be defined as pleasure, preference satisfaction, knowledge or other things) as summed among all sentient beings. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. In reference to a political ideology, Utilitarianism is an effort to provide an answer to the practical question “What ought a man to do?” Its answer is that he ought to act so as to produce the best consequences possible.

Left Wing Vs Right Wing

The right wing tends to be associated more with ‘conservative’ values, the status quo and tradition. They tend to be tougher on law and order than the left, and emphasise the importance of free trade and low taxation policies, often cutting tax when in power. The right essentially plays up the role of the individual, and in an extreme right wing view, like atomism, there may be no society, but only a collection of individuals. Extreme right wing views are those such as fascism. Most governments these days move away from the right to the centre.

The left wing, on the other hand, is associated much more with what may be termed more liberal values, the role of society, and the community as a whole. Law and order policies tend to be more relaxed, taxation is increased by large amounts as they look to create a safety net and look after the poorer members of society through a more robust healthcare system etc. The autonomy and role of the individual is undermined much more in such a system, and the state plays a larger role in people’s lives. Many governments of today occupy a centre-left position. These governments are more likely to experience poor law and order records, and declining success of businesses, due to the taxation policies and more relaxed approach to law and order. An extreme left wing view is something like communism, which looks exclusively at the community as a whole, to the detriment of the individuals that constitute that community.

Both extremes lead to very unpleasant systems under which to live. Traditionally, the Left includes progressives, social liberals, social democrats, socialists, communists and anarchists. The Right includes conservatives, reactionaries, capitalists, monarchists, nationalists and fascists.

14. Leaders during WW2

Allied leaders

Soviet Union: Joseph Stalin – Served as the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union, which he ruled as a dictator.
Soviet Union: Georgy Zhukov – Played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers’ occupation and conquer Germany’s capital, Berlin. He is the most decorated general in the history of both Russia and the Soviet Union.
United States: Franklin D. Roosevelt – As World War II loomed after 1938, with the Japanese invasion of China and the aggressions of Nazi Germany, FDR gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China and Britain, while remaining officially neutral. His goal was to make America the “Arsenal of Democracy” which would supply munitions to the Allies. In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany with Great Britain. He secured a near-unanimous declaration of war against Japan after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
United States: George Marshall – Marshall served as the United States Army Chief of Staff during the war and as the chief military adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As Secretary of State, his name was given to the Marshall Plan, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953
United Kingdom: Winston Churchill – He is widely regarded as one of the great wartime leaders. During his army career, Churchill saw military action in India, the Sudan and the Second Boer War. He gained fame and notoriety as a war correspondent and through contemporary books he wrote describing the campaigns. He also served briefly in the British Army on the Western Front in the First World War (WWI)
United Kingdom Alan Brooke
Republic of China: Chiang Kai-shek – After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Chiang attempted to eradicate the Communists. Ultimately, with support from the Soviet Union, the CCP defeated the Nationalists, forcing the Nationalist government to retreat to Taiwan, where martial law was continued while the government still tried to take back mainland China.
Free French Forces: Charles de Gaulle – Was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia: Josip Broz Tito – Was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. He was Secretary-General of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1939–80), and went on to heroically lead the World War II Yugoslav guerrilla movement, the Yugoslav Partisans (1941–45). After the war, he was the Prime Minister (1943–63) and later President (1953–80) of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Australia: Robert Menzies
John Curtin
Frank Forde

Axis leaders

Nazi Germany: Adolf Hitler – Was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was appointed chancellor on January 30, 1933, and transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideals of Nazism. Hitler ultimately wanted to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe. To achieve this, he pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum (“living space”) for the Aryan people; directing the resources of the state towards this goal. This included the rearmament of Germany, which culminated in 1939 when the Wehrmacht invaded Poland. In response, the United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.
Empire of Japan: Hirohito – At the start of his reign, Japan was already one of the great powers – the 9th largest economy in the world after Italy, the 3rd largest naval country and one of the five permanent members of the council of the League of Nations. He was the head of state under the limitation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan during Japan’s militarization and involvement in World War II. After the war, he was not prosecuted (as others were). During the postwar period, he became the “symbol” of the new state.
Kingdom of Italy: Benito Mussolini – Mussolini led Italy into World War II on the side of the Axis despite initially siding with France against Germany in the early 1930s. Believing the war would be short-lived, he declared war on France and Great Britain in order to gain territories in the peace treaty that would soon follow. Three years later, Mussolini was deposed at the Grand Council of Fascism, prompted by the Allied invasion of Italy. Soon after his incarceration began, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the daring Gran Sasso raid by German special forces. Following his rescue, Mussolini headed the Italian Social Republic in parts of Italy that were not occupied by Allied forces. In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape to Switzerland, only to be quickly captured and summarily executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans. His body was then taken to Milan where it was hung upside down at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.
Kingdom of Romania: Ion Antonescu
Kingdom of Hungary: Miklós Horthy
Finland: C.G.E. Mannerheim

13. Greatest Writers

TOP 100

1. William Shakespeare (Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Othello, Henry V)
2. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian crime and punishment novels)
3. Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist, Christmas Carrol, Tale of 2 Cities, David Copperfield)
4. Leo Tolstoy (Russian writer – War and Peace, Anna Karenina)
5. J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the rings)
6. Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice)
7. Ernest Hemingway (For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea)
8. John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath)
9. George Orwell (1984, Burmese Days, Animal Farm, A Clergyman’s Daughter)
10. James Joyce (Ulysses)
11. Mark Twain (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Dog’s Tale)
12. William Faulkner
13. Franz Kafka
14. Alexandre Dumas
15. Vladimir Nabokov
16. J.D. Salinger
17. F. Scott Fitzgerald
18. Kurt Vonnegut
19. Oscar Wilde
20. C.S. Lewis
21. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
22. Victor Hugo
23. J.K. Rowling
24. Edgar Allan Poe
25. Virginia Woolf
26. Agatha Christie
27. George Eliot
28. Marcel Proust
29. Joseph Conrad
30. Albert Camus
31. Ayn Rand
32. Ray Bradbury
33. Homer
34. Herman Melville
35. Thomas Hardy
36. Joseph Heller
37. Salman Rushdie
38. Anton Chekhov
39. Charlotte Bronte
40. Douglas Adams
41. Ian McEwan
42. Emily Bronte
43. W. Somerset Maugham
44. Cormac McCarthy
45. Honore de Balzac
46. D. H. Lawrence
47. Khalid Hosseini
48. Toni Morrison
49. Miguel de Cervantes
50. Phillip Roth
51. Evely Waugh
52. Stephen King
53. John Updike
54. Dante Alighieri
55. Edith Wharton
56. Henry Miller
57. Chuck Palahniuk
58. John Milton
59. Aldous Huxley
60. Saul Bellow
61. Paulo Coelho
62. Thomas Pynchon
63. Anthony Burgess
64. Jorge Luis Borges
65. Jodi Picoult
66. Jack London
67. Harper Lee
68. John Irving
69. Thomas Mann
70. Dr. Seuss
71. Graham Greene
72. Virgil
73. Mikhail Bulgakov
74. William Wordsworth
75. Jules Verne
76. Jack Kerouac
77. Philip Pullman
78. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
79. Willa Cather
80. Jean Paul Sarte
81. Sylvia Plath
82. Robert Heinlein
83. William Butler Yeats
84. Hunter S. Thompson
85. Philip K. Dick
86. Nathaniel Hawthorne
87. Henry David Thoreau
88. Tennessee Williams
89. H.P. Lovecraft
90. John Keats
91. Bram Stoker
92. Flannery O’Connor
93. Orson Scott Card
94. Robert Louis Stevenson
95. Rudyard Kipling
96. Robert Frost
97. E. M. Forster
98. Emily Dickinson
99. Raymond Chandler
100. Plato

12. Greatest philosophers

	Classical				Sophism, Cynicism, Epicureanism
1	469 BC	399 BC	Socrates		The founding father of philosophy. Known mostly only through Plato, he is renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics. He also made contributions to the field of epistemology (nature of knowlesge) and logic. He was convicted of heresy and corruption to local youth because of his discussions on self-analysis and sentenced to death by drinking Hemlock
2	428 BC	347 BC	Plato		Plato was originally a student of Socrates, and was as much influenced by his thinking as by what he saw as his teacher’s unjust death. He is one of the most important Greek philosophers. He founded the Academy in Athens, an institution devoted to research and instruction in philosophy and the sciences. His works on philosophy, politics and mathematics were very influencial and laid the foundations for Euclid’s systematic approach to mathematics.
3	384 BC	322 BC	Aristotle		a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato’s teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. He was the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.
4	205	270	Plotinus		Is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism
5	354	430	St. Augustine		Augustine is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. Augustine was heavily influenced by the Neoplatonism of Plontius. He framed the concepts of sin and just war. Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material City of Man. Augustine’s City of God was closely identified with the church, and was the community which worshipped God.
	Medieval				Scholasticism
6	1225	1274	Aquinas	Thomas	Was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He was immensely influential in the tradition of scholasticism
7	1596	1650	Descartes	Rene	Dubbed the “father of modern philosophy”. a major figure in 17th century continental rationalism, later advocated by Spinoza and Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke and Hume.
8	1632	1677	Spinoza	Baruch de	Rationalism
9	1588	1679	Hobbes	Thomas	Empiricist
	1632	1704	Locke	John	Considered the first of the British empiricists, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political philosophy. Locke’s theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant.
	Modern				Epistemology
10	1646	1716	von Leibniz	Gottfried	Rationalism
11	1711	1776	Hume	David	Influenced by Locke on empiricism. He was a source of inspiration for those in political philosophy and economics as an early and subtle thinker in the liberal tradition.
12	1724	1804	Kant	Immanuel	Last influential philosopher during the “age of enlightenment”. Kant suggested that metaphysics can be reformed through epistemology. He suggested that by understanding the sources and limits of human knowledge we can ask fruitful metaphysical questions like the principle of causality.
13	1770	1831	Hegel	Georg	Idealim
14	1813	1855	Kierkegaard	Soren	Beginning of existentialism
15	1798	1857	Comte	Auguste	Logical positivism
16	1788	1860	Schopenhauer	Arthur	Renunciation of desire
17	1806	1873	Mill	J. Stuart	Utilitarianism, empiricism
18	1818	1883	Marx	Karl	Marx’ ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism. He argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will inevitably produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction. Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, he believed socialism will, in its turn, replace capitalism, and lead to a stateless, classless society called pure communism.
19	1825	1895	Huxley	Thomas
20	1844	1900	Nietzsche	Friedrich
21	1844	1910	Rousseau	J.J.	Romanticism – revolt against rationalism
22	1842	1910	James	William	Pragmatism, the religious experience
23	1839	1914	Peirce	Charles	Originated concept of pragmatism
24	1853	1952	Santayana	George	Animal faith
25	1883	1969	Jaspers	Karl	Existentialism
26	1872	1970	Russell	Bertrand	Ethical relativism
27	1889	1976	Heidegger	Martin	Existentialism
28	1905	1980	Sartre	John Paul	Existentialism

11. Amphibians

Amphibians lead double lives—one in water and one on land. Many begin life with gills, then develop lungs as they age. They are vertebrate animals that include frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts as well as odd, wormlike caecilians. They are cold-blooded, using the environment to regulate their body temperature. Early amphibians were the first animals to leave the sea and venture onto land, forming a crucial link from fish to terrestrial reptiles.

Amphibians don’t have fangs and talons, but their subtle defense systems still function well. They have relatively small, slippery bodies and a generally quiet and retiring nature. Many species don’t show themselves in daylight. Amphibians also have other survival tricks, many involving coloration.

10. Aeroplanes

History

There have been many pioneers in the history of aeroplanes but the first to successfully fly an aeroplane were the Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur. Orville and Wilbur were skilled craftsmen and keen experimenters. They owned a business making and repairing bicycles. They were able to bring the value of a scientific approach to the invention of a heavier-than-air machine.

On the 17th of December 1903 they were successful in producing the world’s first powered flight. Wilbur ran alongside the plane, Flyer, as Orville took off on the sand dunes outside a town called Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, USA. The flight lasted just 12 seconds and travelled 37 metres. This distance is less than the wingspan of a modern airliner, but it was a major accomplishment at the time.

The brothers received very little recognition in their home country. People were very sceptical about their achievement. On the 8th of October 1908, Wilbur flew their famous plane, Flyer, in front of a large crowd in France. The next day it was all over the French newspapers.

How they fly

Aeroplanes planes are able to fly due to differences in air pressure. When a plane is on the ground, not moving, the pressure around it is the same top and bottom. The downward pressure of gravity is the same as the upward pressure of the ground. The plane has no lift.

The shape of the wing gives the aeroplane the ability to lift of the ground. The wings are more curved on top than they are the bottom. As the wings move through the air, the air that travels over the top of the wings has further to move than the air travelling below. Air that moves faster has lower air pressure than air that moves slower. This means that there is lower air pressure above the wing than below. The result is an upward force or pressure and the plane is able to lift.

A plane is able to move forward because of the engine powered propellor. As it starts to move forward, the air pressure on the plane starts to change as the air moves over the wings. The upward pressure is now greater than the downward pressure of gravity and the plane starts to lift of the ground and is able to fly.

Parts of an airplane

The airplane has six main parts—fuselage, wings, stabilizer (or tail plane), rudder, one or more engines, and landing gear. The fuselage is the main body of the machine, customarily streamlined in form. It usually contains control equipment, and space for passengers and cargo. The wings are the main supporting surfaces. Modern airplanes are monoplanes (airplanes with one wing) and may be high-wing, mid-wing, or low-wing (relative to the bottom of the fuselage). At the trailing edge of the wings are auxiliary hinged surfaces known as ailerons that are used to gain lateral control and to turn the airplane.

The lift of an airplane, or the force that supports it in flight, is basically the result of the direct action of the air against the surfaces of the wings, which causes air to be accelerated downward. The lift varies with the speed, there being a minimum speed at which flight can be maintained. This is known as the stall speed. Because speed is so important to maintain lift, objects such as fuel tanks and engines, that are carried outside the fuselage are enclosed in structures called nacelles, or pods, to reduce air drag (the retarding force of the air as the airplane moves through it).

Directional stability is provided by the tail fin, a fixed vertical airfoil the rear of the plane. The stabilizer, or tail plane, is a fixed horizontal airfoil at the rear of the airplane used to suppress undesired pitching motions. To the rear of the stabilizer are usually hinged the elevators, movable auxiliary surfaces that are used to produce controlled pitching. The rudder, generally at the rear of the tail fin, is a movable auxiliary airfoil that gives the craft a yawing (turning about a vertical axis) movement in normal flight. The rear array of airfoils is called the empennage, or tail assembly. Some aircraft have additional flaps near the ailerons that can be lowered during takeoff and landing to augment lift at the cost of increased drag. On some airplanes hinged controls are replaced or assisted by spoilers, which are ridges that can be made to project from airfoils.

Airplane engines may be classified as driven by propeller, jet, turbojet, or rocket. Most engines originally were of the internal-combustion, piston-operated type, which may be air- or liquid-cooled. During and after World War II, duct-type and gas-turbine engines became increasingly important, and since then jet propulsion has become the main form of power in most commercial and military aircraft. The landing gear is the understructure that supports the weight of the craft when on the ground or on the water and that reduces the shock on landing. There are five common types—the wheel, float, boat, skid, and ski types.

Types of airplanes

Land planes

Land planes are designed to operate from a hard surface, typically a paved runway. A land plane usually has wheels to taxi, take off, and land. Carrier airplanes have a strengthened structure, including their landing gear, to handle the stresses of catapult-assisted takeoff, in which the craft is launched by a steam-driven catapult; and arrested landings, made by using a hook attached to the underside of the aircraft’s tail to catch one of four wires strung across the flight deck of the carrier.

Seaplanes

Seaplanes are often ordinary land planes modified with floats instead of wheels so they can operate from water. A number of seaplanes have been designed from scratch to operate only from water bases. Such seaplanes have bodies, or fuselages, that resemble and perform like boat hulls. Known as flying boats, they may have small floats attached to their outer wing panels to help steady them at low speeds on the water, but the weight of the airplane is borne by the floating hull.

Amphibians

Amphibians, like their animal namesakes, operate from both water and land bases. In many cases, an amphibian is a true seaplane, with a boat hull and the addition of specially designed landing gear that can be extended to allow the airplane to taxi right out of the water onto land.

VTOLs

Vertical Takeoff and Landing airplanes typically use the jet thrust from their engines, pointed down at the earth, to take off and land straight up and down. For takeoff and landing, the engines and rotors are positioned vertically, much like a helicopter. After takeoff, however, the engine/rotor combination tilts forward, and the wing takes on the load of the craft.

STOLs

Short Takeoff and Landing airplanes are designed to be able to function on relatively short runways. Their designs usually employ wings and high-lift devices on the wings optimized for best performance during takeoff and landing, as distinguished from an airplane that has a wing optimized for high-speed cruise at high altitude. airplanes are usually cargo airplanes, although some serve in a passenger-carrying capacity as well.

9. Lightning, Rain and Storms

Lightning is  deadly natural phenomena, albeit beuatiful at times. With bolt temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun and shockwaves beaming out in all directions, lightning is a lesson in physical science. Beyond its powerful beauty, lightning presents science with one of its greatest local mysteries: How does it work? It is common knowledge that lightning is generated in electrically charged storm systems, but the method of cloud charging still remains elusive. Lightning begins with a process that’s less mysterious: the water cycle. To fully understand how the water cycle works, we must first understand the principles of evaporation and condensation.

Evaporation

Is the process by which a liquid absorbs heat and changes to a vapor. A good example is a puddle of water after a rainfall. Why does the puddle dry up? The water in the puddle absorbs heat from the sun and the environment and escapes as a vapor. “Escape” is a good term to use when discussing evaporation. When the liquid is subjected to heat, its molecules move around faster. Some of the molecules may move quickly enough to break away from the surface of the liquid and carry heat away in the form of a vapor or gas. Once free from the constraints of the liquid, the vapor begins to rise into the atmosphere.

Condensation

is the process by which a vapor or gas loses heat and turns into a liquid. Whenever heat is transferred, it moves from a higher temperature to a lower temperature. A fridge uses this concept to cool your food and drinks. It provides a low-temperature environment that absorbs the heat from your beverages and foodstuffs and carries that heat away in what is known as the refrigeration cycle. In this respect, the atmosphere acts like a huge refrigerator to gas and vapors. As the vapors or gases rise, the temperatures in the surrounding air drop lower and lower. Soon, the vapor, which has carried heat away from its “mother” liquid, begins to lose heat to the atmosphere. As it rises to higher altitudes and lower temperatures, eventually enough heat is lost to cause the vapor to condense and return to a liquid state.­

Let’s now apply these two concepts to the water cycle.

Water or moisture on the earth absorbs heat from the sun and the surroundings. When enough heat has been absorbed, some of the liquid’s molecules may have enough energy to escape from the liquid and begin to rise into the atmosphere as a vapor. As the vapor rises higher and higher, the temperature of the surrounding air becomes lower and lower. Eventually, the vapor loses enough heat to the surrounding air to allow it to turn back into a liquid. Earth’s gravitational pull then causes the liquid to “fall” back down to the earth, thereby completing the cycle. It should be noted that if the temperatures in the surrounding air are low enough, the vapor can condense and then freeze into snow or sleet. Once again, gravity will claim the frozen forms and they will return to the earth.

Electrical storms

In an electrical storm, the storm clouds are charged like giant capacitors in the sky. The upper portion of the cloud is positive and the lower portion is negative. How the cloud acquires this charge is still not agreed upon within the scientific community, but the following description provides one plausible explanation.

In the process of the water cycle, moisture can accumulate in the atmosphere. This accumulation is what we see as a cloud. Interestingly, clouds can contain millions upon millions of water droplets and ice suspended in the air. As the process of evaporation and condensation continues, these droplets collide other moisture that is in the process of condensing as it rises. Also, the rising moisture may collide with ice or sleet that is in the process of falling to the earth or located in the lower portion of the cloud. The importance of these collisions is that electrons are knocked off of the rising moisture, thus creating a charge separation.

The newly knocked-off electrons gather at the lower portion of the cloud, giving it a negative charge. The rising moisture that has just lost an electron carries a positive charge to the top of the cloud. Beyond the collisions, freezing plays an important role. As the rising moisture encounters colder temperatures in the upper cloud regions and begins to freeze, the frozen portion becomes negatively charged and the unfrozen droplets become positively charged. At this point, rising air currents have the ability to remove the positively charged droplets from the ice and carry them to the top of the cloud. The remaining frozen portion would likely fall to the lower portion of the cloud or continue on to the ground. Combining the collisions with the freezing, we can begin to understand how a cloud may acquire the extreme charge separation that is required for a lightning strike.

When there is a charge separation in a cloud, there is also an electric field that is associated with the separation. Like the cloud, this field is negative in the lower region and positive in the upper region.

The strength or intensity of the electric field is directly related to the amount of charge buildup in the cloud. As the collisions and freezing continue to occur and the charges at the top and bottom of the cloud increase, the electric field becomes more and more intense — so intense, in fact, that the electrons at the earth’s surface are repelled deeper into the earth by the strong negative charge at the lower portion of the cloud. This repulsion of electrons causes the earth’s surface to acquire a strong positive charge.

All that is needed now is a conductive path for the negative cloud bottom to contact the positive earth surface. The strong electric field, being somewhat self-sufficient, creates this path.

8. Atoms – Electrons, Protons and Neutrons

Atoms are the basis of chemistry. They are the basis for everything in the Universe as all matter is composed of atoms.

There are pieces of matter that are smaller than atoms – neutrons, electrons, and protons, they are the 3 basic parts of an atom. What are electrons, protons, and neutrons? A picture works best.

There are three pieces to an atom – electrons, protons, and neutrons. As you know, there are over 100 elements in the periodic table. The thing that makes each of those elements different is the number of electrons, protons, and neutrons. The protons and neutrons are always in the center of the atom. Scientists call the center of the atom the nucleus. The electrons are always found whizzing around the center in areas called orbitals. Electrons have a negative charge, protons have a positive charge. If the charge of an entire atom is “0”, that means there are equal numbers of positive and negative pieces, equal numbers of electrons and protons. The third particle is the neutron. It has a neutral charge (a charge of zero).

7. Matter

Matter is everything around us. It is anything made of atoms and molecules and it is anything that has a mass. Matter is also related to light and electromagnetic radiation. Even though matter can be found all over the universe, you usually find it in just a few forms. As of 1995, scientists have identified five states of matter.

1. Solids
2. Liquids
3. Gases
4. Plasmas
5. and a new one called Bose-Einstein condensates.

The first four have been around a long time. The scientists who worked with the Bose-Einstein condensate received a Nobel Prize for their work in 1995. But what makes a state of matter? It’s about the physical state of molecules and atoms.

Elements and compounds can move from one physical state to another and not change. Oxygen (O2) as a gas still has the same properties as liquid oxygen. The liquid state is colder and denser but the molecules are still the same. Water is another example. The compound water is made up of two hydrogen (H2) atoms and one oxygen (O2) atom. It has the same molecular structure whether it is a gas, liquid, or solid. Although its physical state may change, its chemical state remains the same.

So you ask, “What is a chemical state?” If the formula of water were to change, that would be a chemical change. If you added another oxygen atom, you would make hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Its molecules would not be water anymore. Changing states of matter is about changing densities, pressures, temperatures, and other physical properties. The basic chemical structure does not change.

Matter, the stuff around us, is used to create atoms. Atoms are used to create the elements. Elements are used to create molecules (2 or more bonded together). It just goes on. Everything you see is built by using something else.

You could start really small…
– Particles of matter
– Atoms
– Elements
– Molecules
– Macromolecules
– Cell organelles
– Cells
– Tissues
– Organs
– Systems
– Organisms
– Populations
– Ecosystems
– Biospheres
– Planets
– Planetary Systems with Stars
– Galaxies
– The Universe