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Nigeria has experienced very high population growth and is now the most populous country in Africa (read more)

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Featured Article: Haggis

A cooked haggis

Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish. Extremely well known, it is perhaps the one food which most represents Scotland. Traditionally, the haggis is cooked in a sheep's stomach, rather like a very large oval sausage. The haggis was the subject of the Robert Burns' poem, Address To A Haggis, which is recited while the haggis is marched in, accompanied by bagpipes, to be served at a Burns supper.

The haggis is an example of human ingenuity in using every part of an animal for food, in a way that preserves the meat without spoiling for later consumption and in a manner that allows transportation. Also, the haggis has become a cultural icon. Its contents and preparation reflect the Scottish trait of thriftiness. Its popularity among expatriates is evidence of pride in their culture, particularly as represented by Robert Burns. Well-known throughout the world as typical Scottish fare, yet rather enigmatic in origin and flavor, the haggis also reflects not only the mystique but also the humor of the Scots, as tourists are often teased and tricked with tales of the fictional Wild Haggis.

Popular Article: Ancient Greece

The ancient Greek world circa 550 B.C.E.

Ancient Greece is the period in Greek history that lasted for around one thousand years and ended with the rise of Christianity. "Ancient Greece" refers not only to the geographical peninsula of modern Greece, but also to areas of Hellenic culture that were settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus and the Aegean islands, the Aegean coast of Anatolia (then known as Ionia), Sicily and southern Italy (known as Magna Graecia), and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of Colchis, Illyria, Thrace, Egypt, Cyrenaica, southern Gaul, east and northeast of the Iberian peninsula, Iberia and Taurica. It is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe.

The civilization of the ancient Greeks has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science, and arts, fuelling the Renaissance in western Europe and again resurgent during various neoclassical revivals in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and the Americas. Greek thought continues to inform discussion of ethics, politics, philosophy, and theology. The notion of democracy and some of the basic institutions of democratic governance are derived from the Athenian model. The word politics is derived from polis, the Greek city-state.

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