The Saron

The saron is a musical instrument that features prominently in Indonesian musical ensembles. It typically consists of seven bronze bars placed on top of a resonating frame, called a rancak. Sarons typically come in a number of sizes, and each size is pitched differently. A seated performer strikes the instrument with a tabuh, or mallet, to produce a musical note and uses his free hand to then grasp the ringing key and dampen the sound. What materials are used to make saron mallets? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

US Supreme Court Declares Standard Oil an “Unreasonable” Monopoly (1911)

By 1880, through elimination of competitors, mergers, and railroad rebates, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controlled the refining of up to 95 percent of all oil produced in the US. In 1892, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the trust dissolved, but it continued to operate. Exposed in Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904, it was broken up in 1911 after a lengthy antitrust suit by the US government. What current oil companies have ties to the former Standard Oil? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Sanja Matsuri

Sanja Matsuri, one of the most spectacular festivals in Tokyo, Japan, honors the three fishermen brothers who founded the Asakusa Kannon Temple in the 14th century. The festival has been held each year since the late 1800s. More than 100 portable shrines called mikoshi are paraded through the streets to the gates of the temple. Carrying them are men in happi coats—the traditional short laborers’ jackets—worn to advertise their districts. There are also priests on horseback, musicians playing “sanja-bayashi” festival music, and dancers in traditional costume. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

L. Frank Baum (1856)

Baum was an American author of more than 70 children’s books who is best known for penning The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He moved from New York to South Dakota in 1888. When his newspaper there failed, he moved to Illinois and found work as a journalist. His first children’s book, Mother Goose in Prose (1897), was followed by Father Goose: His Book, an immediate bestseller. In 2006, Baum’s descendants apologized for editorials in which he called for the extermination of whom? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Trepanation

The practice of drilling a hole into the skull to expose the dura mater surrounding the brain is an ancient surgical procedure dating back to prehistoric times. It is the oldest surgical procedure for which evidence (in the form of human remains) has been discovered. Modern physicians continue to perform trepanations, though the medical rationale surrounding the surgery has since evolved. Which artist gained notoriety for performing a self-trepanation and then screening a film of the procedure? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Jamestown, Virginia, Founded (1607)

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. It was founded by the London Company on a peninsula—now an island—in the James River and named after the reigning English monarch, James I. Disease, starvation, and Native American attacks wiped out most of the colony, but the London Company continually sent more men and supplies. A successfully exported strain of tobacco was cultivated there by a colonist named John Rolfe, who later married what Native American princess? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary