(Freebase) A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs, among others. The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish. The world's largest wetland is the Pantanal which straddles Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay in South America. Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. Plant life found in wetlands includes mangrove, water lilies, cattails, sedges, tamarack, black spruce, cypress, gum, and many others. Animal life includes many different amphibians, reptiles, birds, insects, and mammals. In many locations, such as the United Kingdom, Iraq, South Africa and the United States, wetlands are the subject of conservation efforts and Biodiversity Action Plans. Wetlands also serve as natural wastewater purification systems—e.g., in Calcutta, India and Arcata, California. The...

(Freebase) What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng is a 2006 novel written by Dave Eggers. It is based on the real life story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee and member of the Lost Boys of Sudan program. As a boy, Achak is separated from his family during the Second Sudanese Civil War when the Arab militia, referred to as murahaleen (which is Arabic for traveller), wipes out his Dinka village, Marial Bai. He flees on foot with a group of other young boys, (the "Lost Boys"), encountering great danger and terrible hardship along the way to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Their inflated expectations are shattered by the conditions at the camp, and eventually they are forced to flee to another refugee camp in Kakuma, after the Ethiopian dictator is overthrown and soldiers open fire on them. They make it to Kenya and finally, years later, he moves to the United States. The story is told in parallel to subsequent hardships in the United States. In the preface to the novel,...

(Freebase) Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) is a Fortune 500 company and a global manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances with its headquarters in Benton Charter Township, Michigan, United States, near Benton Harbor, Michigan. The company has annual sales of approximately $20 billion, more than 70,000 employees, and more than 70 manufacturing and technology research centers around the world. The company markets Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Amana, Gladiator Garage Works, Inglis, Estate, Brastemp, Bauknecht, Consul, and other major brand names to consumers in nearly every country around the world. After acquiring the Maytag Corporation on March 31, 2006, Whirlpool Corporation became "the largest home appliance maker in the world", prior to which Electrolux was the largest home appliance maker in the world. In the U.S., Whirlpool has manufacturing facilities in Fort Smith, Arkansas; Evansville, Indiana; Iowa (Newton and Amana); Tulsa, Oklahoma; Ohio (Clyde, Findlay,...

(Freebase) Why Democracy? is a documentary film series produced by Steps International. The series consists of 10 films depicting independent documentary filmmakers personal perception of and experience with democracy, and was broadcast by 42 different broadcasters worldwide between the 8th and the 18th of October 2007. The series was accompanied by a global interactive conversation about Democracy which took place in real and interactive space. The series took almost four years to make. The Why Democracy? series was launched in November 2004 at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Through a democratic process the Steps International working group chose the ten best proposals, from a selection of 700. The filmmakers and movies are diverse in background, representing different experiences of contemporary democracy. Why Democracy? consists of ten feature films and a collection of short films. The ten movies are being made by independent award-winning filmmakers from different...

(Freebase) Why Women Count is a series of 41 x 5 minute programmes made by broadcasters and producers in 41 countries focusing on the theme of empowerment - and what it means in the lives of ordinary women and men around the world. The series aims to inspire, increase awareness and stimulate debate about the key role that women’s rights and gender equality play in the social, economic and political development of their countries, communities and families. The short documentaries were produced by the Broadcasting for Change Network, a unique group of international broadcasters and producers founded by TVE in 1995, and committed to producing and airing programmes on women's rights and equality worldwide. Since then the Network has collaborated on the production, exchange and broadcast of five series of programme exploring the status and condition of women in different parts of the world (see also Snapshots of Change, Reel to Real and Broadcasting for Change: From Rhetoric to Reality). In 2006 the...

(Freebase) A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed. The treatment of widows around the world varies, but unequal benefits and treatment generally received by widows versus widowers globally has spurred an interest in the issue by human rights activists. In societies in which the husband was typically the sole provider, his death could plunge his family into poverty. This problem can be aggravated by the general longer life spans of women, and that men in many societies traditionally marry women younger than themselves. However, even in some patriarchal societies, widows could maintain economic independence. A widow could carry on her late husband's business and consequently be accorded certain rights, such as the right to enter guilds. More recently, widows of elected officials have been among the first women elected to office...

(Freebase) The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) was founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society (NYZS), and is based at the Bronx Zoo. As of 2010, the Wildlife Conservation Society manages some 200 million acres (810,000 km) of protected lands around the world, with over 500 field conservation projects in 60 countries, and 200 scientists on staff. It also runs five facilities in New York City: the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo which together welcome over 4 million visitors per year. All of its New York City, USA facilities are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The stated mission of the Wildlife Conservation Society is: The Wildlife Conservation Society was originally chartered by New York on April 26, 1895 as the New York Zoological Society with a mandate to advance wildlife conservation, promote the study of zoology, and create a first-class zoological park. Its name was changed to the Wildlife Conservation...

(Freebase) William Kamkwamba (born August 5, 1987) is a Malawian secondary school student, inventor, and author. He gained fame in his country when, in 2002, he built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Masitala using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other windmills (the tallest standing at 39 feet) and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe. After leaving school due to his family not being able to afford the tuition (~80USD), he took up self-education by going to his village's library. There, he found the book Using Energy and in it discovered a picture and explanation of windmills. His story is told in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, written with journalist Bryan Mealer and published in 2009. Kamkwamba took part in the first event celebrating his...

(Freebase) Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, wind mills for mechanical power, wind pumps for pumping water or drainage, or sails to propel ships. At the end of 2009, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 159.2 gigawatts (GW). Energy production was 340 TWh, which is about 2% of worldwide electricity usage; and is growing rapidly, having doubled in the past three years. Several countries have achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration (with large governmental subsidies), such as 20% of stationary electricity production in Denmark, 14% in Portugal and Spain, 11% in Republic of Ireland, and 8% in Germany in 2009. As of May 2009, 80 countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis. Large-scale wind farms are connected to the electric power transmission network; smaller facilities are used to provide electricity to isolated locations. Utility companies...

(Freebase) A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: Today, these duties require an increasing amount of scientific knowledge, since laboratory tests are gradually supplementing or replacing traditional methods. Winemakers can also be referred to as oenologists as they study oenology - the science of wine. A vigneron is someone who cultivates a vineyard for winemaking. The word connotes or emphasizes the critical role that vineyard placement and maintenance has in the production of high-quality wine. The term, French for someone who works in a vineyard, is used in Australia and when referring to a winemaker from France. Vincent of Saragossa is the patron saint of vignerons.

(Freebase) Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material. Mead is a wine that is made with honey being the primary ingredient after water. Winemaking can be divided into two general categories: still wine production (without carbonation) and sparkling wine production (with carbonation). The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology (in American English, enology) and the oldest known winemaking operation, estimated to be 6,100 years old, was discovered in a cave in Armenia. After the harvest, the grapes are taken into a winery and prepared for primary ferment, at this stage red wine making diverges from white wine making. Red wine is made from the must (pulp) of red or black grapes that undergo fermentation together with the grape skins. White wine is made by fermenting juice...

A collection of the winners of the 2010 ViewChange Online Film Contest. These films explore progress in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and are the winners in six categories: Innovation, Sustainability, Local/Global Partnerships, Leadership & Governance, Empowerment & Overcoming Conflict.

(Freebase) A witch doctor originally referred to a type of cunning man who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. It is currently used to refer to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine. In the first world it usually refers to homeopaths, chriopractors and faith healers. In its original meaning, a witch doctor was emphatically not a witch himself. Witchcraft-induced conditions were his area of specialization. Recourse was had by the girl’s parents to a cunning man, named Burrell, residing at Copford, who has long borne the name of “The Wizard of the North:” but her case was of so peculiar a character as to baffle his skill to dissolve the spell, Application was next made to a witch doctor named Murrell, residing at Hadleigh, Essex, who undertook to effect a cure, giving a bottle of medication, for which he did not forget to charge 3s. 6d., and promising to pay a visit on Monday evening to the “old witch,” Mrs. Mole, and...

(Freebase) Wollo was a historical region and province in the northeastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Dessie. The province was named after the Wollo Oromo, who settled in this part of Ethiopia in the 17th century. An older name for Wollo is Lakomelza. Following the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian occupation in 1941, the provinces of Amhara Sayint, Azabo, Lasta, Raya Province, Wag, and Yejju were added to Wollo. A number of peasant rebellions rocked Wollo, which included the Woyane Rebellion in 1943, and revolts of the Yejju Oromo in 1948 and 1970. With the adoption of the new constitution in 1995, Wollo was divided between the Afar Region which absorbed the part of the province that extended into the Afar Depression, the Tigray Region, which annexed the northwestern corner, and the Amhara Region which absorbed the remainder of the province in the Ethiopian highlands.

(Freebase) A woman (irregular plural: women) is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. However, the term woman is also sometimes used to identify a female human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as "Women's rights". The English term "Man" (from Proto-Germanic mannaz "man, person") and words derived therefrom can designate any or even all of the human race regardless of their sex or age. This is the old usage of "Man" in English. It derives from Proto-Indo-European *mánu- 'man, human', cognate to Sanskrit manu, Old Church Slavonic mǫžĭ, 'man', 'husband'. In Old English the words wer and wyf (also wæpman and wifman) were used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, and "Man" was gender-neutral. In Middle English man displaced wer as term for "male human", whilst wifman (which eventually evolved into woman) was retained for "female human". ("Wif" also evolved into the word "wife".) "Man"...

(DBpedia) Women in Afghanistan have suffered through tremendous turmoil over the past century. Through different rulers such as the Mujahideen and the Taliban in the later part of the century, women have struggled to gain freedoms and reform a society that is primarily male dominant.