Month: January 2021

Feast of Our Lady of Altagracia

A cloth painting of the Virgin Mary is the focus of a yearly celebration in the Dominican Republic. It was painted by a Spanish artist and brought to the Dominican Republic in the early 1500s. The portrait, which was crowned by a gold and silver tiara by Pope John Paul II in 1978, is located in a basilica in the city of Higuey, in the province of Altagracia. Every year on January 21, thousands of pilgrims visit the Higuey cathedral to worship. The feast day is a national holiday and is marked by all-night church services, singing, dancing, and festivals. Discuss

The Flywheel

A flywheel is a heavy metal wheel attached to a drive shaft to help steady the shaft’s rotation and store kinetic energy. Due to inertia, the heavy wheel resists changes in speed once it is spinning, and thus it helps to moderate fluctuations in the speed of an engine. By slowly increasing the speed of the flywheel over a period of time, a small motor can store up enough energy to perform a function for which it is ordinarily too small. What part of an automobile engine makes use of a flywheel? Discuss

Azerbaijan Day of the Martyrs

On January 20, 1990, Soviet troops entered the Azerbaijan capital city of Baku to quell protests by Azerbaijani nationals, who were agitating for freedom from Soviet rule. Soviet soldiers were responsible for the deaths of 131 people, and the events have come to be known as “Black January.” The national holiday on January 20 honors those who died at the hands of the Soviet troops. Flags are flown at half-mast across the country, and the tragedy is commemorated at Martyrs’ Lane, where photographs of the victims decorate the tombstones and the president lays a wreath at the Eternal Fire. Discuss

Cat's-Whisker Detector

Before the advent of vacuum tubes and transistor technology, early radio devices received signals with the help of the cat’s whisker detector. An early and somewhat unstable electronic component, the detector was an integral part of the crystal radio sets that came into use in the early 1900s. Though obsolete today, the detectors are still manufactured for antique radio hobbyists. The device consists of a thin wire that lightly touches a crystal of a natural semiconducting mineral such as what? Discuss