Widely revered in its native Southeast Asia as the “King of Fruits,” the durian is distinctive for its large size, thorny husk, and unique odor. Although durians contain an edible, custard-like pulp and have seed coverings that taste like a combination of banana, caramel, and vanilla, their unusual smell is very strong and penetrating. The odor has prompted many people to search for an accurate description, with widely divergent results. To what odors has the durian’s smell been compared? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Sony’s first truly portable cassette player, the Walkman, was originally developed for a company chairman who wanted to be able to listen to music on long plane rides. He was impressed, and less than a year later, the revolutionary device hit the market. Sales soon exploded, cementing the Walkman’s place in pop culture. It remained popular throughout the 1990s, before CDs and mp3s supplanted cassettes. Who invented the portable personal stereo cassette player years before the Walkman’s debut? 
Formerly an occupied territory of the 
Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician who greatly expanded the field of calculus. He also perfected the binary number system—the basis for modern computing—and constructed one of the first practical calculators. A jack-of-all-trades, Leibniz worked on mechanical devices, delved into the study of logic, was a historian and lawyer at times, and is considered one of the fathers of geology. In the early 1700s, he became embroiled in a controversy with Isaac Newton over what issue? 
Referenced in mainstream medical texts until the late 19th century and currently employed in homeopathic remedies, the Doctrine of Signatures is an ancient European philosophy that assigns healing properties to plants based on the association between their physical characteristics and those of the disease or affected body part. The red sap of the bloodroot, for instance, is said to cure diseases of the blood. According to this philosophy, what ailments are walnuts particularly suited for curing?