Month: October 2024

Pharming

Pharming is a type of cyber attack that aims to collect confidential user information by redirecting a website’s traffic to a different, bogus website that appears identical to the original site. By hacking into DNS servers—the “phone books” of the internet—and changing IP addresses, high-tech criminals can automatically redirect users to their phony sites. In recent years, pharming has become a major concern for e-commerce and online banking sites. How does pharming differ from phishing? Discuss

Arthur "Art" Buchwald (1925)

Buchwald was an American humorist who started as a columnist covering the lighter side of Parisian life. After moving to Washington, DC, in 1961, he began poking fun at issues in the news and soon became one of the sharpest satirists of American politics and modern life. His syndicated column of wry humor eventually appeared in more than 500 papers worldwide, and he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his work in 1982. What was unusual about his video obituary featured by The New York Times? Discuss

Korenizatsiya: "Putting Down Roots"

Meant to counteract decades of Russification—the promotion of Russian identity over indigenous culture during the imperial period—korenizatsiya was a Soviet policy that involved encouraging citizens to become literate and educated in the languages of their people and promoting members of the ethnic elite to positions of power. The policy began in the 1920s under Vladimir Lenin, who used it to spread communism. Who was the young revolutionary who conceived the policy—and later opposed it? Discuss

Streptomycin Is First Isolated (1943)

After coining the word “antibiotic” for bacteria-killing chemicals derived from micro-organisms, American microbiologist Selman A. Waksman, working with Albert Schatz, isolated streptomycin—the fourth antibiotic ever discovered. Waksman won the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery. Streptomycin acts by inhibiting protein synthesis and damaging cell membranes. Produced by soil bacteria, it was the first specific agent effective in the treatment of what disease? Discuss

Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (1897)

Siddiqui was a leading Pakistani scientist credited with the isolation of unique chemical compounds from various South Asian plants, particularly the neem tree. The extracts of this tree, a broad-leaved evergreen native to India and Myanmar, have been used for centuries in Asia as pesticides, medicines, and health tonics. In the 21st century, knowledge of the neem tree spread to the West, where it has been hailed as a “wonder plant,” largely due to the work of Siddiqui, who discovered what else? Discuss

Sennacherib

The son of Assyrian king Sargon II, Sennacherib spent much of his reign fighting to maintain the empire established by his father. Though he undertook many military campaigns, he was devoted to building projects and oversaw the construction of numerous canals as well as one of the world’s first aqueducts. Around 700 BCE, he built a magnificent palace, complete with a park and artificial irrigation, at Nineveh, which became the empire’s major metropolis during his reign. Who murdered Sennacherib? Discuss

Alaska Formally Transferred from Russia to US (1867)

In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7,200,000. The purchase was accomplished solely through the determined efforts of US Secretary of State William H. Seward, and for many years afterward the land was derisively called “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Icebox” because of its supposed uselessness. It was not until after the discovery of gold in the Juneau region in 1880 that Alaska was given a governor and a local administration. When did Alaska become a state? Discuss