An Indian teenager has built what is thought could be the world’s lightest satellite, which will be launched at a Nasa facility in the US in June. Rifath Shaarook’s 64-gram (0.14 lb) device was selected as the winner in a youth design competition. The … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Catherine of Aragon is known as the first of King Henry VIII’s six wives, but before they were wed, she was married to his older brother Arthur. Catherine was the youngest daughter of Spain’s Ferdinand II and Isabella I, and her marriage to Arthur was primarily political. In fact, Arthur and Catherine were married by proxy before they had even met, in a ceremony attended by their representatives. The marriage was short-lived, as Arthur died young. When did Arthur and Catherine finally meet? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
St. Dunstan (c. 909-988) was the archbishop of Canterbury. According to legend, one day when Dunstan was working at the monastery forge, he looked up and saw the devil peering at him through the window. He quickly pulled the red-hot tongs from the coals and grabbed the devil’s nose with them, refusing to let go until he promised not to tempt him any more. Howling in pain, Satan ran and dipped his nose in nearby Tunbridge Wells to cool it off, which is why the water there is sulphurous. St. Dunstan is the patron saint of blacksmiths, jewelers, and locksmiths. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Malcolm X was an African-American activist. His home was burned by the KKK when he was a child, and he joined the Nation of Islam in prison as an adult. Upon his release in 1952, he renounced his “slave name,” Little, and took the surname X, representing his lost African ancestral surname. He became a minister and soon rose to prominence campaigning for black separatism, but he publicly broke with the militant Black Muslims in 1964 after a pilgrimage to Mecca. Who assassinated him the next year? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Sickle-cell disease is an inherited blood disorder in which abnormalities in the red blood cells’ oxygen-carrying hemoglobin protein cause the cells to assume distorted, sickle-like shapes. The abnormal cells can clog blood vessels, depriving tissue of blood and oxygen and resulting in painful “crises.” The genetic disease is found predominantly in the black community, especially among those of W African descent. Scientists believe the mutation may help protect against what infectious disease? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Definition: (adjective) Blemished by imperfections of the skin.
Synonyms: acned, pimpled.
Usage: She tormented her brother about his pustulate complexion until she herself developed a severe case of acne.
Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Monster of the deep? Or just a really funky dead whale? A monstrously huge creature that washed ashore on a remote Indonesian beach, oozing a mysterious red fluid, is probably a baleen whale in an advanced state of decomposition, experts said. The nearly … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Beginning in mid-March 1980, a series of earth tremors and steam explosions at Washington’s Mount Saint Helens suggested that the volcano—dormant since 1857—was on the verge of erupting. Then, on May 18, the entire north side of the mountain exploded in a cloud of ash, rock, and fiery gases that collapsed a good part of it and carried debris for many miles. About 60 people were killed, and millions of tons of ash blanketed much of the American northwest. How far did the ash eventually spread? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The annual Lilac Festival in Rochester, New York celebrates the abundance of lilacs in the city’s Highland Park. Horticulturalist John Dunbar began the garden in 1892; the festival began six years later as a one-day event for people to enjoy the recently adorned park. Today this is a ten-day festival during which visitors admire more than 1,200 lilac bushes of more than 500 varieties. In addition to viewing the flowers, visitors to the Lilac Festival can also sample a wide array of international foods and enjoy concerts, art shows, and other free festival events. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Gropius was the immensely influential director of the Bauhaus school of art and architecture in Germany. In 1937, he immigrated to America and became head of Harvard’s architecture department. He was an early exponent of the International style and believed that all design—whether of a chair, a building, or a city—should focus on the particular needs and problems involved, without regard to old styles. His 1923 re-design of what everyday object is now considered an icon of 20th-century design? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary