Month: April 2024

Japanese Battleship Yamato Sunk (1945)

The largest battleship ever constructed, the Yamato was the lead ship of the Yamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. After taking part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Yamato was sunk during Operation Ten-Go, the last major Japanese naval operation in the Pacific Theater, while on its way to face the Allied fleet at Okinawa. How did the Allies know about the planned attack? Discuss

Gabriela Mistral (1889)

Born Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, Mistral was a Chilean poet who combined writing with a career as a cultural minister, diplomat, and professor. She established her reputation as a poet in 1914, when she won a prize for “Sonetos de la Muerte”—”Sonnets of Death.” Her passionate lyrics, with love of children and of the downtrodden as principal themes, are collected in many volumes. In 1945, Mistral became the first Latin American to be honored in what way? Discuss

Artificial Gravity

The weightlessness experienced by people in space can lead to a number of adverse health effects including nausea, muscle atrophy, and skeletal deterioration. In order to prevent astronauts from developing such health problems, engineers have proposed the development of artificial gravity devices that can simulate gravity in outer space. Theoretically, a rotating spacecraft could produce this sort of gravity inside its hull. How would a ship’s rotation exert artificial gravity on an object? Discuss

US Planes Embark on First Successful Aerial Circumnavigation Attempt (1924)

Just two decades after the first successful powered flight, pilots from the US Army Air Service completed the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. The trip took 175 days, and not all of it was smooth sailing—or flying, as it were. Weeks after the group of four airplanes set out from Seattle, Washington, one crashed in Alaska. Luckily, the crew survived, as did that of another of the planes, which later went down over the Atlantic. How many of the original planes completed the journey? Discuss

Philip Henry Gosse (1810)

An English naturalist, Gosse built the first marine aquarium and was an innovator in the field of marine biology. He was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian group that rejected the theory of evolution, and wrote many books on zoology, including Omphalos, an attempt to reconcile geological theories with the biblical account of creation. After his death, Gosse was caricatured as a despotic father in Father and Son, written by his son Edmund, who was also his what? Discuss

Sacrifice

Sacrifice, from the Latin word meaning “to make holy,” is the practice of offering food, or the lives of animals or people, to the gods as an act of propitiation or worship. Biblical accounts of sacrifice begin with Cain’s sacrifice of the fruit of the ground and Abel’s sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock. In the New Testament, the symbol of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb is frequently employed. What religion’s practice of animal sacrifice led to a US Supreme Court case? Discuss