Perhaps the most famous sheep in history, Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell through the somatic cell nuclear transfer technique, in which the nucleus of an egg cell is replaced by the nucleus of a cell from the organism to be cloned. In successful cases, the egg cell develops into a healthy fetus, but the success rate of cloning has been low. Of 277 eggs, only 29 created viable embryos, and Dolly was the only one to survive to adulthood. How did she get her name? Discuss
Month: July 2024
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou (1911)
Pompidou was premier of France from 1962 to 1968 and president from 1969 to 1974. As Charles de Gaulle’s chief aide from 1958 to 1959, he helped draft the constitution of the Fifth Republic. He secretly negotiated a cease-fire in the Algerian War in 1961 and was appointed premier the following year. In 1968, he skillfully negotiated an end to the French student-worker strikes. Elected president in 1969, he continued de Gaulle’s policies. What job did Pompidou hold before he entered politics? Discuss
The Great Train Robbery
Five days after one of the biggest heists in British history, an anonymous tip led police to a farm where they found the robbers’ fingerprints, including some on a Monopoly game that had apparently been played after the robbery—with real money. Thirteen of the criminals involved in the 1963 event now known as “the Great Train Robbery” were eventually caught, but the bulk of the stolen £2.6 million—the equivalent of US $80 million today—was never recovered. How did the robbers stop the train? Discuss
lanate
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass Published (1855)
Often considered the most influential volume of poetry in American literature, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was unconventional in both content and technique and initially scandalized the public with its frank celebration of sexuality. The first edition contained 12 poems, including “Song of Myself,” in which the author proclaims himself the symbolic representative of common people, but Whitman revised and expanded subsequent editions. How many poems are found in his “deathbed edition”? Discuss
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807)
Garibaldi is considered an Italian national hero for his role in the Risorgimento, the movement to liberate and unify Italy. In 1848, after having spent time in South America learning guerilla warfare tactics, he returned to Italy to fight for its independence. He fought Austria in Milan and France in Rome. In 1860, he raised an army of 1,000 and attacked Sicily. By the end of his campaign, he commanded 30,000 men, with whom he seized Naples, before handing all of southern Italy over to whom? Discuss
Bodie, California: A Preserved Ghost Town
Once boasting a population of nearly 10,000 during a mining boom in the late 1800s, Bodie, California, is now an authentic Wild West ghost town. Visitors can walk the deserted streets to see the remnants of a town whose mines produced more than $34 million worth of gold. That success brought to Bodie the amenities of larger towns, including a railroad, banks, a brass band, and a jail. What type of business had 65 different locations along Bodie’s main street at the peak of the city’s popularity? Discuss
ethereal
Quebec City Founded by Samuel de Champlain (1608)
Frenchman Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City as a trading post at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers. From this and subsequent settlements Catholic missionaries, explorers, and fur traders pushed across N America. Begun with just 32 colonists, the city is now home to about 500,000. Most residents are of French descent, despite the fact that the area was ceded to the British in 1763. By what name was Quebec originally known? Discuss
Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (1879)
Korzybski was a Polish-American linguist who developed a school of thought known as general semantics. He aimed to distinguish between words and the objects they describe, as well as between individual objects all described by the same word. He stressed the arbitrary nature of language and other symbols and the problems that result from misunderstanding their nature. Why did Korzybski once trick his students into eating dog biscuits during a lecture? Discuss