Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher whose early interest in new scientific and philosophical ideas led to his expulsion from the synagogue in 1656. His philosophy represents a development of and reaction to the thought of René Descartes, and many of his most striking doctrines are solutions to difficulties created by Cartesianism. In his masterpiece, Ethics, he constructed a monistic system of metaphysics modeled on Euclid’s Elements. How did Spinoza earn a living? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The Han dynasty ruled China from 202 BCE to 220 CE. During the period of civil strife that followed the fall of the Ch’in dynasty, Liu Pang, a farmer and guerilla fighter, defeated his rivals for the throne and established himself as the first Han emperor. Under Han rule, the harsh laws of the Ch’in were repealed, taxes were lightened, and the absolute autocracy of the emperor was lessened. Which emperor is credited with China’s shift from the Taoist system to the Confucian ideal? 
Best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, Milton, a 17th-century English poet, was also a writer of several political and moral pamphlets. More than two decades before his poetic masterpiece was published, Milton wrote Areopagitica, his best known prose work. One of the great arguments in favor of the freedom of the press, it was published in 1644 in response to his dissatisfaction with the strict censorship of the press exercised by Parliament. For what is the pamphlet named? 
London native William Henry Pratt adopted the stage name Boris Karloff while touring as an actor in Canada. After settling in Hollywood in 1919, he began acting in silent films and achieved stardom playing the monster in Frankenstein (1931). Thereafter typecast as a horror movie villain, Karloff went on to appear in more than 100 films. His most famous television performance was in the 1966 animated special How the Grinch Stole Christmas, in which he voiced which characters? 
Light is any wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, though the word is commonly used to refer to the visible light spectrum. The human eye typically perceives electromagnetic wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers, interpreting them as a range of colors from red to violet. Light is understood to exhibit both particle and wave properties, and the fundamental particle, or quantum, of light is called the photon. What is the scientific study of light called? 
Before turning to piracy, Blackbeard, whose real name was probably Edward Teach, likely worked as a privateer in the War of the Spanish Succession. While marauding in the West Indies and along the Atlantic coast, Blackbeard enjoyed the protection of North Carolina’s governor—who partook of the booty. A British naval force eventually killed Blackbeard and took his head back to England as proof. Legend has since romanticized the notoriously cruel pirate. When was his wrecked ship rediscovered? 
According to her apocryphal acts, which date from the fifth century,