Octopuses are weird. This is not just because they look odd. It’s not because they’re disturbingly smart. It’s because they have a strange power. The ability to edit their own bodies. This has biologists scratching their heads. Evolution doesn’t work … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Composed by legendary songwriter Irving Berlin, “White Christmas” has been recorded by numerous singers. By far, the best known version is performed by Crosby. However, it is not his 1942 recording that American audiences hear endlessly during Christmastime, but rather the re-recording he made in 1947. The song was further popularized by the film of the same name—starring Crosby—released in 1954. How many copies is Crosby’s “White Christmas” single estimated to have sold worldwide? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The most important of the 12 Burmese festivals of the months, Kasone Full Moon Day celebrates the birth and the enlightenment of the Buddha at the foot of the banyan tree. Buddhists in Myanmar (Burma) gather at monasteries and precept halls to practice meditation, to make charitable donations, and to observe the precepts of Buddhism. Another ritual associated with this day is the pouring of water to celebrate the preservation of the banyan tree. Because Kasone is a hot, dry month, fish are often transferred from streams, ponds, and tanks to places where there is more water. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Xenakis was a Romanian-born French composer, architect, and mathematician. He started out studying engineering and music in Greece but was forced to flee in 1947 when he was denounced as a communist. He moved to Paris and, for the next 12 years, worked with the architect Le Corbusier. In his 30s, he began seriously studying composition with Olivier Messiaen and others and earned acclaim for his use of mathematical models in musical composition. What computerized composition tool did he develop? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
“Kilroy was here” is an American popular culture expression that is believed to have originated during World War II, when a US shipyard worker began scrawling the phrase on ships he had inspected. US servicemen then took up the saying and began scrawling it all over the world, wherever they were stationed or encamped. The phrase is usually paired with a doodle of a man peeking over a wall, a cartoon that was likely adopted from UK wartime graffiti that was often accompanied by what slogans? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Definition: (adjective) Feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for sins or offenses.
Synonyms: remorseful, rueful, ruthful.
Usage: He was so contrite that he wrote me a letter of apology.
Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
A 14-year NASA mission has confirmed that a massive redistribution of freshwater is occurring across Earth, with middle-latitude belts drying and the tropics and higher latitudes gaining water supplies. The results, which are probably a combination of … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Several monkeys were launched into space before 1959, but Able and Miss Baker became the first to survive such a trip—a 16-minute flight aboard a US missile. Able, a rhesus monkey, died just days after the flight while undergoing surgery to remove a medical electrode. Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, lived to the age of 27 and is buried on the grounds of the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where she spent most of her life. Able was preserved and can now be seen where? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Memorial Day is a legal holiday proclaimed annually by the president to honor U.S. citizens who have died in war. Both religious services and patriotic parades mark the day’s celebrations. In the national official observance, a wreath is placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. One of the more moving observances is at the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania, where schoolchildren scatter flowers over the graves of unknown soldiers of the Civil War. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
As the first set of quintuplets known to have survived infancy, the Dionne sisters of Ontario, Canada, garnered international attention. Sadly, they were exploited almost from birth. As infants, the quintuplets were removed from their parents’ care and made wards of the state. However, rather than protect them from parents it had deemed unfit, the government instead used the girls to establish “Quintland,” a popular tourist attraction. What killed one of the quints at age 20? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary