Month: September 2019

The Radium Girls

The Radium Girls were a group of female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint at a New Jersey factory in 1917. The women, who had been told the paint was harmless, ingested deadly amounts of radium by licking their paintbrushes to sharpen them. Some even painted their fingernails with the glowing substance. After the risks were exposed, five of the women sued their employer in a case that led to the establishment of what right? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Bera Festival (Bera Utsav)

Wherever there is a large body of water in Bengal, agricultural communities are likely to celebrate the Bera Festival. Holy men known as fakirs supervise the preparation of ornately decorated floats (bera means “raft” or “float” in Hindi), which are constructed in honor of Khaja Khizir, the patron saint of the waters. The centerpiece of the festival, the raft, is made out of local banana trunks that are lashed together to make a square platform. The float is then decorated with flags, flowers, and other trappings, and finally is pushed into the water to be received by Khaja Khizir. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was an early 19th-century US religious evangelical revivalist movement. Founded on the belief that every person could, through a determined struggle with sin, achieve salvation, it drew millions of new members to a variety of denominations, including new ones like Adventism and Mormonism. In upstate New York, so few were left unconverted that the area came to be called the “burned-over district.” How did revivalists’ religious beliefs encourage wider social reform? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Born in 1835 in the Punjab region of India, Ahmad was the founder of the messianic movement known as Ahmadiyya. In his Barahin-i Ahmadiyya, he announced that he had received a divine revelation and declared himself the Mahdi and the promised Messiah of Islam. His doctrine, incorporating Indian, Sufi, Islamic, and Western elements, attempted to revitalize Islam in the face of the British Raj, Protestant Christianity, and resurgent Hinduism. What was Ahmad’s stance on jihad? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Fiesta de la Vendimia

Spain is famous for its sherry, and some of the best sherry comes from the southwestern part of the country, in a district known as Jerez de la Frontera. In mid-September Jerez de la Frontera holds its Grape Harvest Festival, or Fiesta de la Vendimia, which includes flamenco dancing, cante jondo singing (a variety of Spanish gypsy song), and bullfighting. There is also an official “blessing of the grapes” and the season’s first wine before the statue of San Ginés de la Jara, the patron saint of the region’s winegrowers. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Powerbocking

Powerbocking is a sport involving the use of spring-loaded stilt-like devices, which allow practitioners to run, jump, and perform acrobatic feats with superhuman ability. Known generically as jumping stilts and by hobbyists as bocks, after German inventor Alexander Böck, the stilts allow users to jump up to 5 ft (1.5 m) high and cover up to 9 ft (2.7 m) in a single stride. The closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing featured powerbockers. How fast can one run while wearing bocks? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary