Sutton Hoo

The Sutton Hoo ship burial mounds of the 6th and 7th centuries, discovered in Suffolk, England in 1939, were the richest treasure found in British soil. It was the Royal Cemetery of the Wuffingas, early Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia. The largest of the burial mounds was found to cover a Saxon boat, its form preserved only by the impression left in the sand by its vanished timbers, with their iron bolts still in their original positions. The boat had been propelled by 38 oars; there was no mast. The grave goods include a decorated helmet, sword, and shield; ceremonial whetstone; gold belt buckle; purse and cloak clasps; Millefiori glass; cloisonné garnets; Merovingian gold coins; and Byzantium silver vessels and spoons. It is likely to have been prepared as a cenotaph in honor of Redwald (d. 625), an important East Anglian king. The treasure shows a higher cultural level and wider commercial contacts than had previously been figured for the early Saxon period in Engl and. This type of funerary ritual is known from Migration Period Europe and is described in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The ship and artifacts are now housed in the British Museum.

Odometer and Speedometer

An odometer registers the distance traveled by a vehicle. An odometer consists of a train of gears (with a gear ratio of 1,000:1) that causes a drum, graduated in 10ths of a mile, to make one turn per mile. A series, commonly of six, such drums is arranged in such a way that one of the numerals on each drum is visible in a rectangular window. The drums are coupled so that 10 revolutions of the first cause 1 revolution of the second, and so forth; the numbers appearing in the window represent the vehicle's accumulated mileage. A speedometer is an instrument that indicates the speed of a vehicle. The speed-indicating mechanism of the speedometer is run by a circular permanent magnet that is rotated 1,000 revolutions per mile of vehicle travel by a flexible shaft driven by gears at the rear of the transmission. The magnet turns within a movable metal cup that is attached to the shaft carrying the indicator. As the magnet rotates, it exerts a magnetic drag on the cup that turns i t against a spiral spring. The faster the magnet rotates, the greater the pull on the cup and the pointer. Thomas Jefferson was the first to use the word odometer in writing in 1791; speedometer did not appear in writing until 1904.

Pope

The pope is elected by the College of Cardinals. Nine days after a deceased pope's funeral, the cardinals gather to elect a new pope. The voting is very secretive and the new pope must get over two-thirds of the votes. If after a week, the cardinals still have not picked a new pope, then they can choose someone who only garners half of the votes. The results are sent to the people outside the Vatican using smoke signals. Black smoke means the cardinals have not made up their minds yet. White smoke means they have chosen a new pope. There have been more than 265 holders of the office of pope from Saint Peter to John Paul II.

Migration

Migration is the seasonal movement of a population of animals to a different environment, most common in certain species of birds - such as Arctic terns, which migrate annually 17,600 km between their breeding ground in the Arctic circle and the Antarctic. Migration is also observed in mammals such as porpoises, fish like eels and salmon, and some insects. Birds' migration is fascinating and it is based on their high metabolic rate, which means they require a rich, abundant supply of food at frequent intervals. Birds employ sighting - using landmarks and geographical features like rivers, coastlines, and mountain ranges. They also monitoring the Earth's magnetic field, apparently with their visual system and with tiny grains of a mineral called magnetite in their heads. Birds also observe the stars, use the Sun for guidance, rely on their sense of smell, and may follow their neighbors.

Academy Awards

v
Get Smarter!
Definitions At Your Fingertips.
Dictionary, Thesaurus & Translator.
Fast. Free. Easy.
Free Dictionary.com Toolbar

The first Academy Awards were held in 1929 with about 270 people attending at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The silent film Wings won Best picture and there were only 12 categories for awards the first time; there are now 25 categories (not including scientific and technical, special achievement, and honorary awards). The Academy Awards was first televised in 1953. The design for the award statuette - a knight standing on a reel of film and holding a sword - is credited to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) art director Cedric Gibbons. The statuette stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 pounds. The true origin of the nickname Oscar has not been determined.

Brown v Board of Education

In May 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregation of public schools "solely on the basis of race" denied "equal educational opportunity" even if "physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may have been equal." The case, Brown v. Board of Education, was argued by Thurgood Marshall, then director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who went on to become the first black appointed to the Supreme Court. Marshall presented evidence showing that separating black and white students discriminated against blacks, placing them at a severe disadvantage. He argued that segregated schools were not and could never be equal. Such schools, he said, violated the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment.

Gertrude Belle Elion

Gertrude Belle Elion (January 23, 1918 – February 21, 1999) was an American biochemist and pharmacologist, and a 1988 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Working alone as well as with George H. Hitchings, Elion developed a multitude of new drugs, using innovative research methods that would later lead to the development of the AIDS drug AZT. Rather than relying on trial-and-error, Elion and Hitchings used the differences in biochemistry between normal human cells and pathogens (disease-causing agents) to design drugs that could kill or inhabit the reproduction of particular pathogens without harming the host cells.

Gone With the Wind

After an ankle injury in 1926, Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) left the Atlanta Journal newspaper and for the next 10 years worked slowly on a romantic novel about the Civil War and Reconstruction as seen from a southern point of view. For six years after it was finished, the novel was set aside by Mitchell. But in 1935, Mitchell was persuaded to submit her manuscript for publication and it came out the next year. Within six months 1 million copies had been sold; 50,000 copies were sold in one day. It has sold more copies than any other novel in U.S. publishing history, and was eventually translated into 25 languages. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and made into a movie in 1939. Mitchell, who had trouble adjusting to her celebrity and never attempted another book, died after an automobile accident in 1949.

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, departing Newfoundland, Canada and landing near Londonderry, Ireland - 2026 miles total in a record time of 14 hours 56 minutes. Earhart refused to wear typical flying gear; she wore a suit or dress instead and a close-fitting hat instead of a helmet, and no goggles until landing. She died on July 2, 1937, en route from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island; the U.S. spent $4 million looking for Earhart, making it the most costly and intensive air and sea search in history to that date.

Nature 3

Preakness

The Preakness is a Triple Crown race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, annually. Fillies carry 121 pounds, colts 126 pounds. The course is 1 3/16-mile; the race was first run in 1873. It follows the Kentucky Derby and precedes the Belmont Stakes. The Preakness was the brainchild of Maryland governor Oden Bowie, a sportsman and racing entrepreneur. Governor Bowie, whose term had ended in 1872, named the race in honor of Preakness, an impressive colt who had won the Dinner Party Stakes in 1870, at the opening of the Pimlico Race Course.

Crater Lake

Crater Lake in Oregon was first discovered by white explorers in 1853. A couple of years later, William Gladstone Steele saw the lake and made it his mission to establish the lake (6 miles in diameter) and surrounding area (286 square miles) as a national park, which finally took place in 1902. The lake is within a volcanic caldera and it may be a remnant of Mount Mazama, a volcano that rose to probably 12,000 feet until an eruption about 7,000 years ago destroyed the upper portion - or it may be of meteoric origin. Its maximum depth is 1943 feet, making it the deepest lake in the United States and the seventh deepest in the world. Its waters are extremely clear and it is often possible to see to a depth of more than 100 feet.

Victoria Day

Victoria Day commemorates the birthday of Queen Victoria, the British sovereign, in 1819. After Victoria's death in 1901, an act of the Canadian Parliament established Victoria Day as a legal holiday, to be celebrated on the Monday before May 24. It has now become a day for Canadians to celebrate all British sovereigns' birthdays.

Geography Bee

In the last National Geographic Literacy Survey, about 11 percent of 18-to-24-year-old citizens of the U.S. could not even locate the U.S. on a map. The Pacific Ocean's location was a mystery to 29 percent; Japan, to 58 percent; France, to 65 percent; and the United Kingdom, to 69 percent. More young U.S. citizens in the study knew that the island featured in the TV show "Survivor" was in the South Pacific than could find Israel. Each year thousands of schools in the U.S. participate in the National Geographic Bee using materials prepared by the National Geographic Society. The contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography.

Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention met at the State House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and there were 55 delegates to the Convention. Twelve of the thirteen states were represented; Rhode Island did not send delegates to the Convention. The Constitution was drafted in 1787. The Constitution became law on June 21, 1788 after 2/3 of the states ratified it. Not all the states had ratified the Constitution by April 30, 1789 when George Washington became the first President of the United States. The structure of the document has not changed since it was written but amendments have provided the flexibility necessary to meet changing circumstances. The Constitution is preserved for all to view at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Star Wars

The first Star Wars movie was released in 1977. The studio was unhappy with Star Wars as a title after negative market testing. A competition was held during shooting for cast and crew to come up with a better one, but nothing stuck. The film was initially budgeted at $8 million but production problems forced the studio to contribute an additional $3 million. Within three weeks of the film's release, 20th Century Fox's stock price doubled to a record high. Its success spawned a host of other science fiction films using the same newly developed computer-based special-effects technologies that Star Wars had used so effectively. The famous opening title sequence of the Star Wars series was first used in a series called Phantom Creeps (1939). George Lucas is said to have based the character of Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) on his friend, director Francis Ford Coppola.

StratosphereStratosphere

In 1931, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer made the first manned balloon flight into the stratosphere. They were launched in a balloon, designed by Piccard, from Augsburg, Germany and in a pressurized cabin they rose almost 10 miles (51,775 feet) during the flight. During the flight, Piccard gathered valuable information regarding the intensity of cosmic rays in the stratosphere and also recorded a wide range of stratospheric temperatures.

Guillotine

The guillotine was named for Dr. Joseph Guillotin, the French physician and member of the National Assembly during the French Revolution, who proposed the method of decapitation for death sentences. He saw this method as less painful and more certain than previously used methods. The guillotine was first used in April 1792 for the execution of highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier. At first the machine was called Louisette, or Louison, but soon became known as la guillotine. In September 1981, France outlawed capital punishment and abandoned the use of the guillotine.

Indianapolis 500

The Indianapolis 500 is recognized as the world's largest one-day sporting event. First run in 1911, it is an annual Memorial Day weekend tradition. The race was not run in 1917-1918 and 1942-1945. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built in 1909 as a testing facility for the local automotive industry. The track was first paved with crushed rock and tar but then repaved with brick; hence the speedway is often called "the Brickyard." Resurfacing with asphalt has covered all but a 36-inch strip of bricks at the start/finish line. The 2 1/2-mile track has two 3,300-foot straightaways, two 660-foot straightaways, and four quarter-mile turns each banked to around 9 degrees.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was originally set aside to honor the Civil War dead from the North by decorating their graves with flowers and it at first called "Decoration Day." In 1866, the first commemorations were held in Waterloo, New York, and in Columbus, Mississippi. The American flag was flown at half-staff and a veterans' parade marched to the village cemetery, where patriotic speeches were given. The first national Decoration Day was held on May 30, 1868 by Union Army veterans known as the Grand Army of the Republic. The May 30 date was close to the date of the final surrender of the Confederate Army (May 26, 1865). The Southern states started remembering their soldiers on a Confederate Memorial Day on various dates. After World War I, the American Legion took over the observance, renaming it Memorial Day, setting it for the last Monday in May, and dedicating in honor of all those who died in U.S. wars. Some southern states continue to observe a separate day to honor the Confederat e dead.

COPYRIGHT

President George Washington signed the first U.S. copyright law in 1790, which gave protection for 14 years to books written by U.S. citizens. Copyright developed out of the same system as royal patent grants, though the purpose of such grants was not to protect authors' or publishers' rights but to give the government revenue and control over the contents of publication. In a major revision of copyright law in 1976, the U.S. Congress specified that copyright subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. The general term of copyright protection is now the life of the author plus 70 years. For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire, the term of copyright protection is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from the date of creation of the work, whichever is shorter.

Marsh Building in Monterey, CA

hoto Credit: Diane JP Photos
Location: Marsh Building in Monterey, CA

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
-- Henry David Thoreau

Orlando, Florida

Photo Credit: Sasha Rickard
Location: Orlando, Florida

Buy the ticket, take the ride.
-- Hunter S. Thompson

Bridge Creek Watershed area of Bend, Oregon

Photo Credit: Pete Marquess
Location: Bridge Creek Watershed area of Bend, Oregon

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.
-- Emily Dickinson

Toro Regional Park, CA

Photo Credit: Hilary Servatius
Location: Toro Regional Park, CA

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
-- Oscar Wilde

San Jose, CA

Photo Credit: Denise D. Greaves
Location: San Jose, CA

It’s all out there, floating free, waiting for you to pull it down and anchor it.
-- Ann Bernays

Las Vegas, NV

Photo Credit: Nils Ramstedt
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
-- William James