Month: April 2022

Uesugi Matsuri

This Japanese festival, held in Yonezawa, commemorates the illustrious warrior Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578). He is remembered for his role in a series of five battles, fought on a triangular island in the middle of the Matsukawa River, known as the Battles of Kawanakajima. The Uesugi Matsuri commemorates the warrior and his soldiers with mock battles and various costumed events, as well as a Musha Gyoretsu, a parade of warriors of the Sengoku (Warring States) Era. Discuss

Duke Ellington (1899)

Duke Ellington was an American jazz musician and composer. Among his best-known short works are “Mood Indigo,” “Solitude,” and “Sophisticated Lady.” He also wrote jazz works of complex orchestration for concert presentation and composed religious music, including three sacred concerts. Ellington toured Europe extensively, appeared in numerous jazz festivals and several films, and made hundreds of recordings. In 1969, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What was his real name? Discuss

The Cardiac Cycle

The sequence of events that occurs as the heart pumps blood through the body is called the cardiac cycle. A single “beat” involves systole, diastole, and an intervening pause. Systole is the contraction of the heart, during which blood in the chambers is forced onward. Diastole is the relaxation and dilatation of the chambers, especially the ventricles, during which they fill with blood. What onomatopoeic words are used in medical literature to describe the heartbeat sound heard during systole? Discuss

social

community – It can refer to group of animals or plants living together and was first used to refer to a “body of commons” or a social or political entity. More…

party – Latin partitum, “part, side,” became party, with the senses “political group” and, in the 18th century, “social gathering.” More…

mores, anomie – Mores is the Latin plural of mor/mos and means “acquired customs and manners”; social and moral conventions are mores, and the lack of these is anomie. More…

sociable, social, society – Sociable, social, society, etc. originate in Latin socius, “companion, fellow,” or “colleague.” More…

Dennis Tito Becomes World's First Space Tourist (2001)

American multimillionaire Dennis Tito gained celebrity status in 2001, when he became the first person to pay for his own ticket to space. The 60-year-old spent nearly eight days in space, most of them on the International Space Station. A former scientist of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tito made his fortune as a founder of Wilshire Associates, an investment management, consulting, and technology services company. How much did his ticket aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-32 allegedly cost? Discuss

Freedom of Entry Ceremony

Inaugurated in 2007, this ceremony honors the Royal Malaysian Navy with a series of traditional rituals that date back to medieval times. It takes place in the Malaysian seaport town of Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo. Along with the public symbolic gestures that confer the navy’s right to protect the city, the ceremony also features several entertaining exhibitions and shows intended to attract tourists, including a boat demonstration, helicopter aerial displays, tours of navy ships, and performances by the navy band and silent drill teams. Discuss

Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916)

Lamborghini was a successful Italian tractor manufacturer and sports car enthusiast who founded a luxury car company in 1963, allegedly after a spat with Enzo Ferrari. The story goes that Lamborghini was dissatisfied with the clutch in one of his Ferraris and voiced this to Enzo Ferrari, who dismissed the complaints as those of a mere tractor maker. Infuriated, Lamborghini decided to retaliate by creating his own superior sports car. Why did he choose the image of a bull for his company’s logo? Discuss