During the 12th century BCE, Aramaean nomads, the native speakers of Aramaic, began to settle in modern-day Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. As Aramaic grew in importance, it spread throughout the Fertile Crescent as a lingua franca, or common language, and settlers and missionaries later brought the Semitic language to parts of N Africa, Europe, Persia, India, and China. What 2004 film became a major box-office success despite the fact that most of its dialogue is spoken in ancient Aramaic? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Originally reserved as a delicacy for the elite, edible mushrooms are now extensively grown on a commercial scale. There are, however, many poisonous species of mushroom, and the destroying angels of the Amanita genus are among the most toxic mushrooms known to man. Destroying angels are characterized by their white stalks and gills and have a telltale collar-like structure, or volva, at the base of their stalks. How soon after ingesting the toxic mushroom do symptoms of poisoning appear?
It is generally accepted that the first living cells on Earth were some form of prokaryote. In biology, a prokaryote is generally a single-celled organism that lacks membrane-bound organelles such as a nucleus, mitochondria, and chloroplasts. Genetic material is instead organized into a ring-like structure called a nucleoid. Most prokaryotes are bacteria, and the two terms are often treated as synonyms. What are the four basic shapes of prokaryotic cells? 
The Hadean geologic eon began when the Earth was formed an estimated 4.6 billion years ago and ended approximately 800 million years later. There remain few geological traces of this period on Earth, but toward the end of the 20th c, geologists identified a few rocks and zircon crystals that dated to the Hadean. The eon’s name is derived from Hades, a Greek word now used as a synonym for hell, and may be a reference to the conditions on Earth at the time. How hot was Earth’s surface then? 
In 1970, journalist Hunter S. Thompson was assigned to cover the Kentucky Derby for Scanlan’s Monthly. With a deadline fast approaching and his story still unwritten, Thompson desperately resorted to tearing out pages of his notes and sending them to his editor. The resulting story, titled “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” became the first example of Gonzo journalism. Whose belief that “fiction is often the best fact” formed the basis for Thompson’s subjective writing style? 
A meme is an idea, thought, or piece of information that is passed from generation to generation through imitation and behavioral replication. The terms memes and memetics, coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, are the cultural counterpart to the biological study of genes and genetics. In his book, Dawkins hypothesizes that human cultures evolve via “contagious” communications in a manner similar to the gene pools of populations. What is a memeplex? 
An automat is a fast food restaurant where food and drinks are served by coin- and bill-operated vending machines. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart opened the first automat in the US in 1902 and quickly popularized the notion of take-out food with their slogan “Less work for Mother.” The original automat machines, which had little windows containing the prepared meals, were filled from behind by workers who cooked the fresh food in an unseen kitchen. What led to the decline of automat dining? 
Synesthesia is a condition in which one type of sensory stimulus evokes sensations associated with a different sense, as when hearing a sound stimulates the visualization of a color. Approximately 1 in 2,000 people have the condition, and most of those affected are female. Synesthesia can result in a number of cross-sensory experiences, but it most commonly manifests as a grapheme-color interchange. Which Russian painter, regarded by some as the originator of abstract art, had synesthesia? 
Free running is a physical art in which practitioners use acrobatic movements such as vaulting, jumping, and somersaulting to interact with the environment and pass obstacles along a path in a smooth and fluid manner. The sport is sometimes described as a more adventurous form of jogging, often involving building-to-building jumps and one-story drops. What 2006 action film features Sébastien Foucan, the art’s founder, using his free running skills to escape from a construction site? 
Located in the remote, mountainous border region between the Jiangxi and Hunan provinces of China, Jinggangshan is known as the birthplace of the Chinese Red Army and the “cradle of the Chinese revolution.” In 1927, after an unsuccessful uprising against the Kuomintang, Mao Zedong’s army retreated to Jinggangshan and established a military base there. During the 1960s, the area became a place of pilgrimage for young Red Guards. Why did the government begin discouraging such pilgrimages?