Category: Article of the Day

In the second half of the 17th century, buccaneers began operating under a set of rules that eventually became known as Articles of Agreement, or the Pirate’s Code. While the rules generally varied from one captain to another, most contained provisions for discipline, specifications for each crewmate’s share of treasure, and rules regarding compensation for injury. According to records of the code, what was the punishment for striking another man while in the service of Captain John Phillips? Discuss

Karaoke, a form of entertainment in which amateur performers sing songs using pre-recorded music, was popularized by Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue in the 1970s. Inoue invented a coin-operated music player in 1971 after fans requested recordings of his performances—they wanted to sing along with the music on a company retreat. He never patented the karaoke technology and thus forfeited a potential fortune. What song has been banned at many bars in the Philippines for causing too many fights? Discuss

Influenza, commonly known as “flu,” is a highly contagious viral disease that is characterized by fever, respiratory symptoms, fatigue, and muscle pain. The word influenza stems from the Latin root influentia, meaning “influence of the stars,” because before people knew that organisms cause disease, they thought that the stars influenced the spread of influenza. Between 1918 and 1919, how many people were killed in a worldwide lethal flu pandemic? Discuss

Most bats navigate the world and locate prey through the use of echolocation, a biological sonar process in which an animal emits a sound and then uses the resulting echoes to establish the locations and identities of nearby objects. Ben Underwood, who lost his eyes to cancer at the age of three, is one of the few people who has honed his own echolocation skills and uses the technique to determine the position, size, shape, and composition of objects near him. What sports does Underwood play? Discuss

May 1968 is the name given to a series of protests and a general strike that nearly led to the collapse of the de Gaulle government in France. It began as a series of student strikes at a number of universities and lycées in Paris and quickly spread throughout the country. Within a matter of weeks, roughly two-thirds of France’s workforce, or 10 million people, were on strike. The vast majority of the protesters espoused left-wing causes and pushed for change in what areas of French society? Discuss

MOOSE, originally an acronym for Man Out Of Space Easiest and later changed to the more professional-sounding Manned Orbital Operations Safety Equipment, was a proposed emergency bail-out system capable of bringing a single astronaut safely back to Earth from orbit. The system required the astronaut to exit his spacecraft in a specially-designed suit, climb into a plastic bag filled with insulating foam, and reenter the atmosphere protected by a thin heat shield. Has anyone ever used the system? Discuss

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

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

Thermohaline circulation refers to the deepwater circulation of the oceans and is primarily caused by differences in density between the waters of different regions. It is mainly a convection process in which cold, dense water formed in the polar regions sinks and flows slowly toward the equator. The circulation of ocean waters is vitally important in dispersing heat energy around the globe. Two factors determine the density of ocean water; one is temperature, what is the other? Discuss

Nori is the Japanese name for an edible, dried preparation of red algae of the genus Porphyra. It is farmed in the sea, where Porphyra plants grow attached to nets suspended at the sea’s surface. Farmers operate from boats and use mechanical harvesters to collect their crops. The nori sheets are then produced in a process that is quite similar to papermaking and involves a shredding and rack-drying process. This “sea vegetable” is commonly used in the preparation of what foods? Discuss