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Featured Article: Bedouin

Bedouin resting at Mount Sinai

Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawī بدوي, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to the eastern coast of the Arabian desert. It is occasionally used to refer to non-Arab groups as well, notably the Beja of the African coast of the Red Sea. They constitute only a small portion of the total population of the Middle East although the area they inhabit is large due to their nomadic, or former nomadic lifestyle. Reductions in their grazing ranges and increases in their population, as well as the changes brought about by the discovery and development of oil fields in the region, have led many Bedouin to adopt the modern urban, sedentary lifestyle with its accompanying attractions of material prosperity.

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Popular Article: Virus

Herpes virus

A virus is a submicroscopic particle that can infect the cells of a biological organism. At the most basic level, viruses consist of genetic material contained within a protective protein shell, which distinguishes them from other virus-like particles such as prions (only protein) and viroids (nucleotides of RNA without protein coat).

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, meaning they lack the means for self-reproduction outside a host cell. They infect a wide variety of organisms, both eukaryotes (such as animals, insects, and plants) and prokaryotes (such as bacteria). A virus that infects bacteria is known as a bacteriophage, which is used mainly in its shortened form: phage.

Examples of diseases caused by viruses include the common cold, the flu, Ebola, chicken pox, and AIDS.

While viruses are spread by a variety of means, including insect vectors, their prevention and spread is often tied to a failure of human responsibility. This responsibility can include the practice of good hygiene and sexual discipline, the prevention of mosquito bites through repellents and mosquito nets, the proper care of one's body to build up resistance, or even the taking of vaccines. In some cases, the susceptibility to viruses reflects the need for those individuals and societies with means to help those without means, such as in meeting the cost of purchasing effective mosquito nets or vaccines.

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Cicero suggested that the best orator should also be the best human being, understanding the correct way to live, acting upon it by taking an active role in politics, and instructing others through speeches, through his example, and through making (read more)

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