Last year’s Great American Eclipse drew hundreds of millions of eyes to the sky. But while people across the country “oohed” and “aahed” at the phenomenon, it appears the bees went silent. So found a new study that monitored the acoustic activity of … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The Anglo-American Convention was a treaty signed in 1818 between the US and UK resolving their standing border issues and allowing for joint rights to the Oregon Country. Though it marked the beginning of improved relations between the two countries, tensions remained over the shared territory in Oregon. The British-chartered Hudson’s Bay Company had already established a trading network there and sought to exclude US fur traders. What harsh policy did they implement to ward off competition? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
A harvest festival paying tribute to Georgia’s top crop is held in Sylvester, the Peanut Capital of the World—more peanuts are produced in the region around Sylvester than anywhere else in the state. This festival, which comes at the end of the peanut harvest time, began in 1964. Events of the festival include a beauty pageant to choose a Little Miss Peanut, Junior Miss Peanut, and Georgia Peanut Queen; a peanut-recipe contest for school children; clogging exhibitions; a kiddy parade and a grand parade with floats, horses, antique cars, and people dressed as peanuts. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Rimbaud may have put down his pen when he was just 19 to lead an international vagabond life as a merchant and trader, but in his few years as a poet, the precocious young Frenchman managed to create a literary legacy that would have a lasting influence on the symbolists and subsequent modern poets. He put his verbal virtuosity on display in works like “The Drunken Boat,” A Season in Hell, and Illuminations. Who shot and wounded Rimbaud during one of their many lovers’ quarrels? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Water intoxication is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by excessive ingestion of water. Too much water disturbs the body’s electrolyte balance, which in turn interferes with brain function and can lead to seizures, coma, and even death. Water intoxication is common in psychiatric patients as well as infants living in poverty whose parents “stretch” powdered formula by watering it down. What are some notable cases of death by water intoxication? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Definition: (noun) The upper part of a column that supports the entablature.
Synonyms: capital, cap.
Usage: Scattered throughout the ruins were ornately carved chapiters that had once supported a soaring coliseum.
Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The fundamentals of ballet haven’t changed all that much since its invention in 15th-century Italy. Yet the popular image of this deeply traditional medium has been largely defined by the talents of one thoroughly modern artist: Hilaire-Germain-Edgar … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
After years of designing cars for others, John DeLorean went into business for himself and designed the DeLorean DMC-12, a distinctive stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors that was immortalized in 1985’s Back to the Future. Prior to the film’s release, however, DeLorean was better known for his arrest for cocaine trafficking than for his cars. At the time, DeLorean’s car company was failing, and drug smuggling offered him much-needed cash. How did he manage to beat the rap? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
During the 10 days of Dussehra, scenes from the epic poem Ramayana are enacted. The epic tells the story of Lord Rama who wins the lovely Sita for his wife, only to have her carried off by evil 10-headed Ravana, demon king of Lanka. Ultimately, Rama slays Ravana, and the forces of good triumph over evil. The dramatizations with music, held throughout northern India, are considered at their best in Delhi. On the 10th day, immense effigies of Ravana, his brother, and his son (all of them stuffed with firecrackers) explode in dramatic bursts of flame and noise. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
In February 2003, Urbani, an Italian physician employed by the World Health Organization (WHO), was called to examine a man hospitalized in Hanoi, Vietnam, with what was initially thought to be the flu or pneumonia. Recognizing that it was in fact a new and highly contagious disease, Urbani immediately notified the WHO, prompting a rapid global response that ultimately saved many lives, though sadly not his own. The doctor himself soon succumbed to the disease he had identified. What was it? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary