Month: October 2022

Stradivarius

A Stradivarius is a stringed instrument made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari. His “Strads” are famous for their tonal quality and are highly prized by world-class musicians and collectors. Many artisans have since tried to imitate his style of workmanship. Fewer than 700 genuine Strads are believed to be left in existence. Those that have survived are often identified by the names of previous owners. The famed “Lady Blunt” violin was auctioned in 2011 to help raise money for what cause? Discuss

PLoS Publishes Open Access Scientific Journal (2003)

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a nonprofit open-access scientific publishing project aimed at creating a library of scientific journals and other scientific literature under an open content license. Therefore, PLoS journals are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License. PLoS began as a petition urging scientists to stop submitting papers to journals that did not make the full text of their papers available within six months. What Nobel Prize winner helped found PLoS? Discuss

Anna Leonowens

Leonowens was a British teacher who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. Her personal diaries became the basis for the Margaret Landon novel Anna and the King of Siam, which in turn inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. Although Leonowens presented her memoirs as factual, it has been said that she exaggerated the importance of her role in the king’s court. After leaving Siam, Leonowens helped found what college? Discuss

Columbus Makes Landfall in the Caribbean (1492)

Believing that Asia could be reached by traveling westward, Columbus’s three-ship expedition set sail from Palos, Spain, in 1492. After a stop at the Canary Islands, Columbus sailed due west, turning in a more southerly direction after about a month at sea. Shortly thereafter, Columbus quelled a small mutiny, and, on October 12, landed at an island in the Bahamas. Columbus also explored nearby Cuba and Hispaniola before returning to Spain. How many ships set sail with his second expedition? Discuss

Aleister Crowley (1875)

Crowley was a 20th-century English occultist who developed a religious philosophy called Thelema. As a young adult, he was a member of the influential occult society the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn but later turned toward yoga and Asian mysticism. While visiting Cairo, Egypt, Crowley reportedly had a mystical experience involving a voice that dictated The Book of the Law, the central text of Thelemic religious philosophy. According to Crowley, what did the voice call itself? Discuss