Friday, August 31, 2007

Too much going on to remember!

America the Beautiful

The national hymn, "America the Beautiful," was published in "The Congregationalist" in 1895. The poem was written by a Wellesley College English literature professor, Katharine Lee Bates, to commemorate the Fourth of July.



Museums, galleries

Ancient art was displayed in caves. As time went by, artists' work was displayed in homes and then in galleries and museums; art museums developed from great private collections assembled by royalty, the aristocracy, and the wealthy. A form of art collecting was practiced in the earliest civilizations, with precious objects and artworks stored in temples, tombs, sanctuaries, and the palaces and treasuries of kings. Such collections frequently included booty taken from conquered peoples, and served to exalt the power and glory of a king or a priestly caste rather than to display art objects for their innate significance. The great private collections of European royalty began to be opened to public viewing, and eventually monarchs and aristocrats began donating their holdings to the public. The movement of artworks from private collections into museums has been a dominant feature of art collecting ever since.



Airship

In July 1919, a British dirigible, R-34, made the first round-trip transatlantic flight. Despite great achievements, airships were virtually abandoned in the late 1930s because of their cost, slow speed, and intrinsic vulnerability to stormy weather.



Aborigines

Aborigines are those believed to have been the first inhabitants of a country ab origine, i.e., "from the beginning." The nomadic natives of Australia have been called Aborigines, which means "first people," but it was the original possessors of Greece and Italy who were first referred to by that name; the term was later extended to the original occupants of other countries such as Australia. The Australian aborigines arrived from Asia thousands of years before the Europeans discovered Australia at the end of the 18th century. They were expert hunters, even in the desert, and used the boomerang and the throwing spear as weapons.



Buddha's Eightfold Path

The Eightfold Path teaches that the way Buddhists lead their lives should be correct in eight important aspects. Those who follow the noble Eightfold Path are freed from the suffering that is an essential part of human existence and are led ultimately to nirvana, or enlightenment. The Eightfold Path consists of: (1) right understanding-faith in the Buddhist view of the nature of existence in terms of the Four Noble Truths; (2) right thought-the resolve to practice the faith; (3) right speech-avoidance of falsehoods, slander, or abusive speech; (4) right action-abstention from taking life, stealing, and improper sexual behavior; (5) right livelihood-rejection of occupations not in keeping with Buddhist principles; (6) right effort-avoidance of bad mental states and development of good ones; (7) right mindfulness-awareness of the body, feelings, and thought; and (8) right concentration.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

More Facts of the Day

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.

Stratosphere
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 straightaway’s, two 660-foot straightaway’s, and four quarter-mile turns each banked to around 9 degrees.

Fireworks
Fireworks originated with the ancient Chinese, from military rockets and explosive missiles. During the Middle Ages in Europe, fireworks spread as a type of military explosive. Later, pyrotechnics came to be used in celebrations of victory and peace.

Lax on Facts!

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.

Moving update

We are not moving after all. Hubby didn't get the job. It's good in a way. We won't have to deal with packing things up and moving them clear across the country. Our son won't have to leave his friends. And we won't have to worry about what to do with our house. I was getting kind of hyped up about moving though. I guess after spending 20 years with the military and having to move about every 4 years, you never really get over the moving bug. I was sort of looking forward to living in an area that had lots of big trees and not just the scraggly looking mesquites like we have here. At least now I don't have to worry about having to deal with the local public school superintendent. Whew! I haven't had to deal with the local school district in all these years and I wasn't looking forward to doing it now. Thank goodness! My son is happier too. Although I'm still not happy that my husband has to continue to work in another city and the fact that we only get to see him on weekends. We are still hoping that he will find a job that is closer to home. Until then, I'm happy to continue on with homeschooling my son in a state that is very homeschool friendly!

Monday, August 20, 2007

Oops, I'm still bad...Facts of the Day

Academy Awards

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 Elion

Gertrude Belle Elion, American pharmacologist who was the co-recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, was the first woman to be inducted as a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame (1991). Elion won the Nobel for developing drugs for the treatment of leukemia, autoimmune disorders, urinary-tract infections, gout, malaria, and viral herpes. Even in retirement, Elion helped oversee the development of azidothymidine (AZT), the first drug used in the treatment of AIDS.


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.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Oops, my bad...Facts of the Day

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 England. 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 monitor 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.

Hurricane Season
The hurricane season generally is from June to November, with a great many in September when the surface ocean temperature warms to over 27 degrees C. Meteorological and oceanographic conditions are conducive during most of this period to the formation of hurricanes. Tropical storms reaching a hurricane velocity of more than 75 miles per hour are common in the northern Caribbean as well as in the Gulf of Mexico; they are almost nonexistent in the far south. The Caribbean has fewer hurricanes than either the western Pacific (where these storms are called typhoons) or the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes are divided into five categories, ranging from minimal to catastrophic.

Moving?

There is a very big possibility that we will be moving to Georgia. Not that we really want to, but my husband may have a job there. He flies out there Wed. for a Thurs. interview. Now to me, that would indicate that he has the job if he wants it. A company doesn't spend all that money just to tell you no. I am really torn about it too. My son has said that he will not move (of course he will since he's underage) and I don't really want to leave my home. I'm not real concerned about the homeschool laws out there. I can circumvent those, but the "rules" are so ridiculous it's funny. I do object to having to report anything to the local school superintendent though. I've never had to do that.

Just in case we do move, I've been doing some research on local homeschool groups and other activities that my son can become involved in. If the job does happen, then I will be able to find out more about the area we will be moving to and also get connected to the homeschool community ahead of time. My son doesn't want to leave his friends...really I think it's his one best friend. It's taken him a while to make some friends and I really don't want to take him away from that. That's why I want to get involved before we would move so that he would have some connection beforehand with other kids out there. I think though that now that my son realizes that people do accept him for who he is, that he won't have any problem making new friends. He is more outgoing now. He may not go right up to someone and start talking to them, but if they talk to him, he will converse with them.

I considered the possibility of putting my son back in public school, thinking that would be easier for him to acclimate himself into the local teen scene. But after looking at the requirements for kids going into public school, I changed my mind. They require several vaccinations and a letter from the health dept. that the child received those vaccinations. Now my son has had almost all of his shots except chicken pox and meningitis. For one, I've heard that some people who have gotten the chicken pox vaccination still get the disease. So what's the point in getting vaccinated? I don't know about the meningitis one. I don't really believe that either vaccination has been around long enough to know what the side effects are of the shot. If it wasn't for the shots, I seriously might consider putting him in public school. He would hate it I'm sure. He doesn't like most p.s. kids. Guess he's prejudice. I told him not all p.s. kids are bad. Just look at his bowling teammate. She's a great kid, but then she is an exception. Anyway, the vaccinations are my main reason for NOT putting him into p.s. in Georgia.

I'm still checking into all of the other rules and regulations. I've got to really investigate the driving requirements. It may take longer for him to get a license out there. And I wouldn't be able to use the driving program I bought which would suck.

I think it's so much harder to move while homeschooling than it was when my kids were in p.s. Seriously! I didn't have to deal with the different rules and regulations when they were in p.s. They were up-to-date on their shots and I had all their school records either with me or sent to the new school from the old one. With homeschooling, you have to find out what the other state requires and if they are homeschool friendly (and Texas is!). I would have to keep records for things that I didn't do before. And then submit some of those records to the local superintendent! I really don't want anything to do with the local schools. A lot of them tend to overstep their bounds.

Guess there's no reason to get all worked up about it though. I will have to wait until hubby goes for his interview and then he should know something within a few days of that. I'll let you know what happens.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Facts of the Day!

Sack of Rome
The Renaissance ended with the Sack of Rome by the armies of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, in May 1527. In eight days, his Spanish troops and German mercenaries killed around 4,000 Romans and looted works of art and literature. Even the Pope, Clement VII, was imprisoned. Though the Renaissance was effectively ended,
Rome bounced back and by 1600, it was once again a prosperous city.

Inauguration
The first
U.S. inauguration was held in 1789 - for George Washington - at Federal Hall in New York City. Washington's second inauguration (and that of his successor, John Adams) was held in Philadelphia because the capital had been moved there. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. Any Presidents who assume office upon the death of their predecessor take the oath wherever they are and do not have inaugurations: Chester Arthur took the oath in New York City; Theodore Roosevelt in Buffalo, New York; Calvin Coolidge in Plymouth, Vermont; and Lyndon Johnson in Dallas, Texas. The word inaugurate is from Latin and it meant "to take omens from the flight of birds and to install or consecrate after takes such omens (or auguries)."

Mother's Day
The second Sunday in May is set aside in the
United States to celebrate mothers. There is also a Mother's Day celebration in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, and Belgium. England's "Mothering Sunday", similar to Mother's Day, is also called Mid-Lent Sunday and it is observed on the fourth Sunday in Lent, though it has largely been replaced by Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. Anna Jarvis, born in Grafton, West Virginia in 1864, started the movement to have a Mother's Day. She wrote letters to politicians, newspaper editors, and church leaders and organized a committee called Mother's Day International Association to promote the new holiday. She wanted Mother's Day to be close to Memorial Day so people would recognize mothers for the sacrifices they made for their families in the same way that service people had for their country. The first official Mother's Day observance was in May 1907. President Woodrow Wilson gave the day national recognition in 1914. Jarvis spent the last years of her life trying to abolish the holiday she had brought into being, because she protested its commercialization.

V-E Day
V-E Day stands for Victory in Europe Day, commemorating the unconditional surrender of
Germany to Allied forces on May 8, 1945. Adolf Hitler declared that Germany had proved unworthy of him and committed suicide in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945. Hitler's successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz, started negotiations with the Western powers, hoping to save as many troops and refugees as possible from Soviet reprisals. But the U.S.S.R. refused to recognize the surrender ceremony at U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters on May 7 (the hostilities set to end at one minute past midnight May 9, 1945 - or 9:01pm Eastern on May 8 in the U.S.). A separate German surrender to the USSR was signed and a separate Soviet V-E Day held, in Berlin on May 8 to end the war once and for all.

Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad Company extended the American railroad system to the Pacific coast - built westward from
Omaha, Nebraska, for 1006 miles to meet the Central Pacific Railroad's line, which was built from Sacramento, California, at Promontory Point, Utah. On that day, a golden spike was driven by Leland Stanford, present of the Central Pacific, to celebrate the linkage in 1869. This was a very important part (1800 miles' worth) of the first American transcontinental railway line.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Missed the weekend, so here's todays Facts of the Day

Skyscraper
The first skyscraper was built in 1884-1885 in
Chicago. The 10-story Home Insurance Company building was designed by William Le Baron Jenney. It had a steel frame (steel-girder construction) to carry the weight of the building. The walls provided no support, but hung like curtains on the metal frame. This method of construction revolutionized American architecture and allowed architects to build taller and taller buildings. This first skyscraper was demolished in 1931. From the debris of the 10-story Home Insurance Building rose a 43-story tower framed by four 22-story wings: the LaSalle National Bank Building, which was the last major skyscraper built in Chicago before World War II and the Great Depression. The term skyscraper, which came into use shortly after this first one was built, originally applied to buildings of 10 to 20 stories, but by the late 20th century the term was used to describe high-rise buildings of unusual height, usually greater than 40-50 stories.

Mother Goose
Who was Mother Goose? "Mother Goose" was first associated with nursery rhymes in an early collection of songs and lullabies sung by British nurses/caregivers, "Mother Goose's Melody" (or "Sonnets for the Cradle") published in 1781 by John Newbery. The Newbery Company may have derived the name "Mother Goose" from the title of Charles Perrault's French collection of fairy tales "Contes de ma mere l'oye," (or "Tales of Mother Goose" - which means fairytales or old wives' tales) published in 1697.


Orthodox Easter
Why is Easter on different dates for the Orthodox Church? Since the Council of Nicaea in 325, Easter has been the Sunday after the full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox. However, there is still a difference between Eastern Orthodox and Western Orthodox churches, mainly because almost all Orthodox Churches, even those who otherwise use the Gregorian calendar, use the Julian date for the equinox. Thus the date of Orthodox Easter sometimes coincides with the western Easter date, but it is usually one or four or five weeks later.


Pitcher's Elbow

Pitcher's elbow or thrower's elbow is a term used for the injuries associated with a baseball pitcher's throwing method or overuse. Professional baseball pitchers produce arm speeds of 7000 degrees per second as the arm rotates inwards. The elbow is subjected to violent forces during all phases of the pitching motion. There can be damage to the triceps muscle, its tendon, and the olecranon process (the tip of the elbow) which may suffer stress fractures. Pitchers are also predisposed to osteoarthritis in the arm. Until about 1870, the pitcher was merely a player assigned to put the ball in play by pitching it to the batter to hit. Now, until a batter hits the ball, the game is a duel between the pitcher (and catcher) and the batter. Of a major league's team roster of 25, usually 11-12 are pitchers.


James Beard
James Beard (1903-1985) was called the "Father of American Cooking." He wrote more than 20 classic cookbooks and appeared on television's first cooking show ("I Love to Cook") in 1946. He championed American cooking throughout the world. Beard's Greenwich Village (
New York City) brownstone was the site of his cooking school and is considered America's only culinary historic landmark. It is the headquarters of the James Beard Foundation.

Friday, August 3, 2007

End of the first week

Today is the end of the first week of the new school year. Even though he hasn't started todays work, it has been a fairly good week. There were only three days this week so it wasn't all that strenuous. My son managed to do all of one assignment in one day so that left him extra time the other days. In fact yesterday he only had to do Algebra, Geography and Biology. Even though I have things assigned on certain days, it doesn't mean that he can't work on the other days assignments that day too. He can work ahead all he wants but he is not to do so much work on one subject that he neglects the others like he has done in the past. I told him that I don't want him to become overwhelmed by the amount of work he has to do each day. He still hasn't started some of his other subjects like computer and foreign language. Those will come later when I see how well he is doing and what days he will have more time to work on other subjects. He hasn't started his outside classes yet either, so that will be a challenge for him once he begins those.

Now if I could just get him to get up out of that bed when I first wake him, instead of getting up an hour later!

Today's Facts of the Day

Audubon
John James Audubon (1785-1851) was a youngster growing up in
France when he developed an interest in drawing birds. At 18, he was sent to the United States to avoid having to serve in the army and he became fascinated with North American birds - which he studied from Florida to Labrador in Canada. In 1824, he started to consider publishing the exquisite drawings but was advised to seek a European publisher because the methods for printing the drawings were more advanced there. The engraver Robert Havell of London undertook the project and published the four-volume The Birds of America with its 435 hand-colored plates between 1827-1838. The Audubon Society was founded in 1905. Although Audubon had no role in the organization that bears his name, there is a connection: George Bird Grinnell, one of the founders of the early Audubon Society in the late 1800s, was tutored by Lucy Audubon, John James's widow.


Morse Code
There are actually two codes called "Morse Code," though Samuel F.B. Morse invented only one (during the 1830s) - which was for telegraphy. The second one, a variant that proved simpler and more precise than the original, the International Morse Code (or Continental Morse Code), was devised in 1851 and it is the one with which we are familiar. In both, dots, dashes, and spaces represent the alphabet, numerals, and punctuation marks. Except for some minor changes in 1938, the International Morse Code has stayed the same and is still used for certain types of radiotelegraphy, like amateur radio.


Biological Clock
In 1994, researchers at Northwestern University announced the discovery of the so-called biological clock. It is purported to be a gene that governs the daily cycle of waking and sleeping called the circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms are patterns seen in virtually all animals and plants. These rhythms are controlled by biological clocks - which are not perfect timekeepers. When there is an absence of external clues, as is the case in long airplane flights that cause jet lag - the rhythms tend to get off course and need to be reset. Light seems to be the key to reset many biological clocks - specifically, blue light. That is why jet lag can be helped by exposure to sunlight.


Arbor Day
Arbor Day is a day to honor and plant trees and its celebration (the last Friday in April, though dates can differ due to local climate) is generally a good time for planting trees in the U.S. J. Sterling Morton, the U.S. secretary of agriculture under President Grover Cleveland (1893-1897) was the founder of Arbor Day. An early proponent of forestation, Morton urged Nebraska, where he lived, to set aside a day to encourage the planting of trees. The holiday was first observed in April 1872 and was very successful; more than a million trees were planted on that first Arbor Day.


Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny debuted in 1938 in the theatrical short "Porky's Hare Hunt." Chuck Jones and Tex Avery further developed the character to ask, "What's up, Doc?" in 1940, when he also kissed his foe, Elmer Fudd. The rabbit's noisy munching on carrots was based on Clark Gable's carrot chewing in the movie It Happened One Night (1934).

Yesterdays Facts of the Day

Kindergarten
Kindergarten (German for 'children's garden') is a term coined by Friedrich Froebel of Germany, who was a pupil of the Swiss originators of the idea - though Maria Montessori had the same idea in Italy. In 1837 in Prussia, Froebel opened "a school for the psychological training of little children by means of play." By applying the name 'kindergarten,' he tried to describe it as an environment in which children grew freely like plants in a garden.


Daffodil
The daffodil's name is a variant of the obsolete affodill, from Latin asphodelus and Greek asphodelos. The daffodil is of the genus Narcissus and was first written about in English in 1548, though back then it referred to both the white daffodil and yellow daffodil. The term, which took an unexplained initial "d" somewhere along the line, now refers only to the yellow Narcissus pseudo-Narcissus, which has a long, trumpet-shaped central corona (outgrowth of the corolla). This flower is also playfully called the daffadilly.


Passover
In Judaism, Passover (in Hebrew, Pesach/Pesah) commemorates the Hebrews' liberation from slavery in
Egypt and the "passing over" of the forces of destruction, or the sparing of the first-born of the Israelites, when the Lord "smote the land of Egypt" on the eve of the Exodus. Passover starts on the 15th day of the month of Nisan (March or April) and extends for seven or eight days. All leavened products are prohibited but matzo may be eaten and it symbolizes the Hebrews' suffering in bondage and the speed with which they left Egypt. A special meal called the Seder is held on the first night, featuring foods also symbolic of the liberation.


Lunar Eclipse
When the Moon moves through the shadow of the Earth, it loses its bright direct illumination by the Sun, although its disk still remains faintly visible. Since the shadow of the Earth is directed away from the Sun, a lunar eclipse can occur only when there is a full Moon - that is, when the Moon is on the side of the Earth opposite to that of the Sun. The longest that the total eclipse can last is about one hour and 45 minutes. During the eclipse, the surface of the Moon cools, depending on the makeup of the lunar soil, which varies just like the Earth's soil varies.


ANZAC
ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and it is an abbreviation made famous during World War I in the Gallipoli (or Dardanelles) Expedition in 1915 in which combined Allied naval and military forces tried to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey so that a route would be opened to Russia. ANZAC, with a reputation of being elite troops, took much of the brunt of the battle, which lasted nine months and which was ultimately lost to the Turkish-German military.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Oops, forget Facts of the Day

Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was a comic actor, writer, director, and producer in motion pictures. His father was a music hall entertainer and his mother was a singer. Charlie made his stage debut at age five, filling in when his mother lost her voice on stage. By age eight, Chaplain became a professional entertainer when he joined the Eight Lancashire Lads, a clog-dancing act. Chaplin improvised an outfit with a too-small coat, too-large pants, floppy shoes, and a battered derby - plus a postage-stamp mustache and a cane as a prop. His screen alter-ego, the Little Tramp, appeared in the second of the Keystone comedy films (1914).


Verrazano
Giovanni Verrazano 1485-1528), an Italian navigator and explorer for France, was the first European to sight New York and Narragansett bays. In early 1524 he sailed to the New World and reached Cape Fear, then sailed northward, exploring the eastern coast of North America. He made several discoveries on the voyage, including the sites of present-day New York Harbor, Block Island, and Narragansett Bay, and was the first European explorer to name North American sites after persons and places in the Old World.


Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual foot race. It starts in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and goes eight cities and towns to the Back Bay section of Boston, a distance of 26 miles, 385 yards. It was first held in 1897 and is run on the third Monday in April - the date picked, basically, to honor the 1775 ride of Paul Revere. In 1972, it became the first marathon race to officially admit women runners.


Switzerland
Why is Switzerland the site of neutrality in time of war? The nation's geography determined its role as the guardian of Europe's natural trans-Alpine routes. The country's neutrality was sanctioned by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and reinforced in 1919 at Versailles and in World War II was the only democracy in central Europe to be left alone by Hitler.


Caddy
In France, military cadets carried golf clubs for royalty. Some speculated that Mary, Queen of Scots, who grew up in France, brought the custom to Scotland, where the term evolved into the word "caddie/caddy." However, the Oxford English Dictionary finds the word for golf player's attendant in writing in 1857 - and Mary, Queen of Scots, lived from 1542-1587. Though Mary's existence coincides with the origins of golf, it does not coincide with the recording of the word "caddy" in English.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Facts of the Day

Tour de France
The Tour de France, the most prestigious road bicycle race in the world, takes place for three weeks in July. The Tour de France was established in 1903 by Henri Desgrange and covers some 2,235 miles, usually in 20 stages of one day each.

Edible Flowers
Which flowers are edible? Among the most common edible flowers are peonies, pansies, carnations, chamomile, chrysanthemums, dandelions, daylilies, gardenias, geraniums, gladioli, lavender, lilies, nasturtiums, primroses, roses, squash blossoms, sweet violets, pot marigolds, and yucca blossoms.

Scrabble

Scrabble, originally called Criss Cross, was developed by Alfred M. Butts, an out-of-work architect, in 1931. It was redesigned, renamed as Scrabble, and marketed by James Brunot in 1948. A Macy's executive saw the game being played at a resort in 1952 and the store (the world's largest at that time) began carrying it. Manufacturing of the game was turned over to Selchow & Righter. Scrabble has 225 squares on a board and 100 letter tiles, each imprinted with a point value for different letters, approximately corresponding to the frequency of occurrence of the letter in English words. More than 100 million sets have been sold, in 24 languages. It is considered the world's most popular word game.

Khaki and Chino
Khaki (from Hindi 'dust-colored') is light brown fabric used primarily for military uniforms. Khaki uniforms were introduced in 1848 for British colonial troops in India. Chino (from American Spanish 'toasted') is a cotton twill fabric, usually khaki in color.

American Dictionary
The first dictionary of American English was published in April 1828. The two-volume dictionary was written solely by the American lexicographer Noah Webster. He began work on it in 1807 and finished in 1824-1825. It contained 12,000 words and 30,000-40,000 definitions that had not appeared in any earlier dictionary. The rights to the dictionary were sold in 1843 by the Webster estate to George and Charles Merriam.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Facts of the Day

Pirate
"A pirate or buccaneer was a person who seized a ship and took the property aboard. They stole from any ship that came by and disrupted the trade of many nations. There are many tales - tall and true - about pirates. The stories go back 4,000 years, but we are most familiar with those who were active between 1500-1800 - Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, and Jean Lafitte. Pirates used small, fast ships that were easy to maneuver. They had lots of weapons and cannons. There are still pirates today - especially in the South China Sea close to Vietnam. Pirates are often confused with privateers who have the blessing of their nation to seize enemy property. Famous ones were Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, and Sir Walter Raleigh. True pirates only stole for themselves. Pirates often buried their stolen treasure in secret places and some drew up treasure maps and charts marking the spot with an X."

Happy Birthday
Mildred J. Hill, a schoolteacher born in Louisville, Kentucky, composed the melody "Happy Birthday to You." Her younger sister, Patty Smith Hill, wrote the lyrics. The song was first published in 1893 as "Good Morning to All," a classroom greeting, in the book Song Stories for Sunday School. Mildred Hill died in 1916 without knowing that her melody would become the world's most popular song, but her sister Patty did not die until 1946. The lyrics were amended in 1924 to include a stanza beginning, "Happy Birthday to You." It is now sung somewhere in the world every minute of every day. Though its writers earned very little from the song, its copyright owner earns about $1 million a year. The song is expected to enter the public domain upon expiration of the copyright in 2010.

Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied and Associated Powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France. It took effect on January 10, 1920. The population and territory of Germany was reduced by about 10 percent by the treaty. The "war guilt clause" of the treaty deemed Germany the aggressor in the war and consequently made Germany responsible for making reparations to the Allied nations in payment for the losses and damage they had sustained in the war. The Treaty of Versailles was revised and altered over the years, mostly in Germany's favor. Numerous concessions were made to Germany before the rise of Adolf Hitler, and by 1938 only the territorial settlement articles remained in effect. The harsh treaty and its lax enforcement are blamed by many historians for Hitler's rise and his militarism setting the stage for World War II.

Leap Second
June 30 is one of the two times (the other being December 31) when the addition or subtraction of a second from our clock time is allowed to coordinate atomic and astronomical time. The determination to adjust is made by the International Earth Rotation Service of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Paris. A leap second is an intercalary, one-second adjustment that keeps broadcast standards for time of day close to mean solar time. Leap seconds are necessary to keep time standards synchronized with civil calendars, the basis of which is astronomical. The announcement to insert a leap second is given whenever the difference between UTC and UT1 approaches one-half second, to keep the difference between UTC and UT1 from exceeding ±0.9 s. After UTC 23:59:59, a positive leap second at 23:59:60 would be counted, before the clock indicates 00:00:00 of the next day. Negative leap seconds are also possible should the Earth's rotation become slightly faster; in that case, 23:59:58 would be followed by 00:00:00.

Postage stamp
The first postage stamps were issued for sale by the United States Postal Service in 1847. The 5-cent stamp depicted Benjamin Franklin and the 10-cent stamp depicted George Washington. Prior to this date, stamps were issued by private postal services.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Facts of the Day

Baby Boom
After World War II, many industrialized countries experienced a "baby boom." Four countries in particular - the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - experienced sustained and substantial rises in fertility from the depressed levels of the prewar period. In the U.S., for example, fertility rose by two-thirds, reaching levels between the 1950s and 1980 not seen since 1910, before World War I. Some even demarcate the Baby Boom period as being January 1, 1946-December 31, 1964 - in which over 77 million births occurred.

Tornado
Tornadoes are violent windstorms that are also called twisters or cyclones. Extremely fast, rotating columns of air descend from cumulonimbus clouds and the winds can either cause explosions within buildings or sweep objects up into its eye. A tornado sounds like a thundering train coming through. Tornadoes occur all over the world except on the two poles and are the most common in the U.S. A tornado over water is called a cyclone. They occur in unstable air, as that caused by a thunderstorm. In the center of a tornado, winds can get to 400 miles per hour (650 km).

Typewriter
In 1867, the American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes read an article in the journal Scientific American describing a new British-invented machine and was inspired to create what became the first practical typewriter. His second model was patented the next year and "wrote" at a speed far faster than a pen. Though the first typewriter was crude and large, it underwent improvements each year and in 1873 Sholes signed a contract with E. Remington and Sons for its manufacture and the machine was soon named a "Remington." It wrote capital letters only; the first shift-key typewriter (Remington 2) appeared on the market in 1878 and could write uppercase and lowercase. There was a serious problem with jamming, so one of Sholes's business associates, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together, thereby creating the slowest keyboard arrangement possible. This arrangement - known as the QWERTY keyboard - is still used in almost all computers today. Mark Twain purchased a Remington and became the first author to submit a typewritten book manuscript.

Custer's Last Stand
The Battle of Little Bighorn, otherwise known as Custer's Last Stand, was fought at the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory between federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and band of combined Indian tribes. Custer and all of his men were killed. The outcome of the battle was so upsetting to Americans that government troops flooded the area, forcing the Indians to surrender.

Korean War
The Korean War started out being between North Korea and South Korea. After World War II, Korea was hurriedly divided for administrative purposes at the 38th parallel. Almost immediately, the Soviets began a short-lived reign of terror in northern Korea that quickly politicized the division by driving thousands of refugees south. An independent South Korea became UN policy in early 1948 and southern communists opposed this, so warfare began in parts of every Korean province below the 38th parallel. The war became international in June 1950 when North Korea, supplied and advised by the Soviets, invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal participant, joined the war on the side of the South Koreans, and the People's Republic of China came to North Korea's aid. In 1953, Joseph Stalin died, and within weeks the Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party voted that the war in Korea should be ended. After more than a million combat casualties on both sides, the fighting ended in July 1953 with Korea still divided into two hostile states.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Facts of the Day

Watergate
Watergate is the political scandal involving illegal activities on the part of the incumbent Republican administration of President Richard M. Nixon during and after the 1972 presidential election campaign. The first inkling of the scandal was the arrests at Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., of five men who broke into the headquarters - which eventually led to Nixon's resignation in August 1974. So much did the Watergate scandal affect the national and international consciousness that many scandals since then have been labeled with the suffix "-gate."

War of 1812
"The War of 1812 was fought between the U.S. and Great Britain from 1812-14, though some fighting continued after the Treaty of Ghent was signed in December of 1814. Most of the fighting took place along the Canadian border, in Chesapeake Bay, and along the Gulf of Mexico. After the American Revolution, the U.S. was anxious for the British to withdraw from American territory and their unwillingness to sign trade agreements with the U.S. The British were keeping the U.S. from trade with themselves and with France, with whom they were battling (French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars). They captured U.S. ships and took hostages and goods and, by 1812, the British had blockaded America's coasts, ruining American trade and finances. So, the U.S. attacked the British colony of Canada. There was fighting on land and at sea - and though the Americans were not prepared at first, they started to gain power. There was strong opposition to the war from its citizens. In 1814, Britain defeated Napoleon and France. They could easily have turned all their force against the U.S., but they were tired of war. They signed the Treaty of Ghent (Belgium) in December, in which neither side gained anything, but the war ended. The War of 1812 marked the first time the U.S. got involved in foreign affairs and it was the beginning of its movement to becoming a world power."

Wagon Trail, Wagon Train
In U.S. history, the most famous wagon trail was the Santa Fe from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was an important commercial route (as were the Oregon Trail, Smoky Hill Trail, and later the Southern Overland Mail route) between the 1820s until railroads took over around 1880. Merchant wagon caravans traveled in parallel columns and when they were attacked by Indians, which was often, formed a circular line of defense. A wagon train was a caravan of settlers emigrating to the American West. One type of wagon, the Conestoga, became famous as a freight wagon and as part of wagon trains, and its descendant, the prairie schooner, was the most common vehicle used by settlers in the opening of the American West. Wagon trains tended to follow a fixed daily schedule from 4am rising to 7am departure, then 4pm encampment.

Ed Sullivan
The "Ed Sullivan Show" premiered in 1948 - but was first called "Toast of the Town" (till 1955). It became the longest-running variety show (through 1971) and showcased all types of acts. Thousands of performers made their television debut on the show, among them Fred Astaire, Irving Berlin, Victor Borge, Walt Disney, Hedy Lamarr, and Jane Powell. The largest audiences were attracted by the Beatles and Elvis Presley.

Wimbledon
Wimbledon, England, is the site of the All-England Championships in tennis. The tournament, first held in 1877, is now one of the four grand slam events in professional tennis. Wimbledon was originally played by amateurs but the championships were opened up to professionals in 1968. Women joined the tournament in 1884, mixed doubles and women's doubles in 1913. Rod Laver of Australia and Billie Jean King of the United States won the singles events in 1968.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Facts of the Day finally!

I missed a couple of days because our computer was messed up. Hubby had to restore/rebuild it. We think a cd game we bought from Best Buy (hate that place!) corrupted our cd drive. That's the only thing we can think of since we didn't have ANY problems before we tried to install that game. Of course no one is at fault for this (only the designer and manufacturer!) and we are out $30.00. When I tried to explain to the geek at BB, all he wanted me to do was bring my computer in for a diagnostic. Well I'm not so stupid that I will let some else work on my computer and my husband for sure isn't going to let someone else mess up the computer when he can do it all by himself! lol! From what I have read on the internet, you don't want to take your computer to BB to have them check it out. All they'll do is mess it up even more. Sure wish I could take that game cd back to them and have them try to install it on their computer. Then they'd find out that it was bad and refund my money!


Okay, so here are some Facts of the Day:

Mint
The first U.S. mint was established in 1652 - in defiance of English colonial law - by John Hull, a silversmith in Massachusetts. The first coin issued was the Pine Tree Shilling. The initial issue consisted of simple round planchets with NE punched on the obverse and the denomination on the reverse. John Hull's share in the profits of the mint was fifteen pence out of every twenty shillings and he rapidly amassed a fortune. With the exception of Maryland, where Lord Baltimore struck off a few silver coins, Massachusetts is the only one of the 13 colonies that had a mint before the American Revolution. The mint in Philadelphia was founded in 1792 and still makes the majority of the coins used in daily circulation in the United States. The mint in Denver, founded in 1906, also produces general coinage. The mint in San Francisco, founded in 1854, discontinued making general coinage in 1955; but was reestablished in 1965 to make proof sets of coins for collectors. The mint at West Point, New York, is now used primarily for gold minting.

Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York, in 1939. The year 1939 was chosen to celebrate the supposed centennial of baseball as it was then believed that Abner Doubleday had developed the game at Cooperstown in 1839 - a story that was later discredited. Of the 25 immortals who had been elected to the Hall of Fame up to that point, 11 were still living; and all of them journeyed to Cooperstown to attend the centennial celebration. Selections to the Hall of Fame are made annually by two groups: the Baseball Writers' Association of America and the Baseball Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans. More than 200 individuals have been inducted into the Hall of Fame and the first players chosen (in 1936) were Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson.

Flag Day
A Presidential Proclamation (1335) was issued in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson declaring June 14 as "Flag Day," but it was not until 1949 that President Harry Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14 of each year as National Flag Day. The idea started in 1885 when BJ Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of "The Stars and Stripes") as "Flag Birthday." In 1983, the world's largest flag was displayed in Washington, D.C. The flag, which measured 411 feet by 210 feet, weighed 7 tons and each star measured 13 feet across.

Magna Carta
In 1215, King John of England sealed the Magna Carta (Latin for "Great Charter") - the first charter of English liberties and one of the most important documents in the history of political freedom and human rights. It became a symbol and a battle cry against oppression. It guaranteed the freedom of the church, restricted taxes and fines, and promised justice to all. Four original copies of the 1215 charter survive; two are held at the British Library while the others can be seen in the cathedral archives at Lincoln and Salisbury.

Golf
Though the Dutch game of kolf has been claimed as the origin, the first undoubted reference to golf was in 1457 when the Scottish Parliament deplored its popularity, since it took young men away from archery practice. At first, golf was played on seaside links with their crisp turf and natural hazards. Later, play on downs, moorland, and parkland courses began. In the U.S., golf balls and sticks from Scotland arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in the mid-18th century, but not until the late 1880s did the nation's first permanent courses and country clubs get started, mainly for elite white males.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Facts of the Day

Drive-In Movie
The first drive-in movie theatre was opened in 1933 in Camden, New Jersey by Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr. Hollingshead designed it for his mother, who complained about the uncomfortable seats at theatres. A drive-in would allow her to enjoy the comfortable, plush bench seats of a vehicle of that era. Then known as an "automobile theater," the drive-in had room for 500 vehicles and charged a rate of 25¢ per person or $1 a car. The sound was provided by a public-address system with a single large speaker mounted on the projection booth. After the locals complained about the noise, Hollingshead tried other solutions before deciding to install smaller speakers mounted on poles at each parking spot. At the height of their popularity (1958), there were more than 4000 drive-in movies in the U.S. Now, only a few hundred still exist.

Volcano
"A volcano is an opening in the earth from which molten rock and gas erupts. The molten rock (magma) forms a hill or mountain around the opening and the burning gas, ash, and hot lava may explode out or pour down the sides. The explosion of a volcano is called an eruption and can do much damage, as seen in Pompeii and Washington state's Mount St. Helens. There are about 800 places in the world where volcanoes are active, including 80 below the sea. There are belts were there are volcanoes, including one large one circling the Pacific Ocean and others running east-west in Indonesia and the Mediterranean Sea. The materials deep underground move around and push up to the mouth of the volcano. The theory of plate tectonics says that huge plates of material making up the Earth's crust shift and volcanoes erupt where the plates meet and push together. Some can be dormant for years and then suddenly erupt. Others become extinct. Mauna Loa in Hawaii is the world's largest volcano. The study of volcanoes is called volcanology."

IMAX
IMAX is a cinematographic technique which produces an image approximately ten times larger than that from standard 35 mm film. The name is probably "i" as a representation of "eye" or "image," plus "max" as short for "maximum." It is a trademark for a giant-screen, large-format movie and motion-simulation entertainment complex, with a motion-picture screen that is eight stories high and compatible with 3-D technology. The first IMAX film was demonstrated in 1970 and first system set up in 1971 (in Toronto) on which was shown North of Superior. Film types are usually described by their gauge, or approximate width. The 65-mm format is used chiefly for special effects and for special systems such as IMAX and Showscan. It was formerly used for original photography in conjunction with 70-mm release prints; now 70-mm theatrical films are generally shot in 35-mm and blown up in printing. With some exceptions the 35-mm format is for theatrical use, 16-mm for institutional application s, and 8-mm for home movies.

Hong Kong
A lease was signed by Great Britain in 1898 for the 400 square miles of Hong Kong. The 99-year lease expired in 1997 and Hong Kong's sovereignty reverted to the People's Republic of China. Hong Kong Island was originally ceded by China to Great Britain in 1842, the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters (Ngong Shuen) Island (now joined to the mainland) ceded in 1860. The New Territories, which include the mainland area lying largely to the north, together with 230 large and small offshore islands were part of the 99-year lease. The name Hong Kong (in Chinese, Xianggang) means "fragrant harbor."

Pens
Reed was the first real "pen" (c 3000 BC) and the first inks contained a gelatin derived from boiled donkey skin, which gave the ink its viscosity - but also a very unpleasant odor that had to be perfumed with musk oil. Around the 6th century BC and for more than a thousand years thereon, the quill reigned as the standard writing instrument for people of many civilizations. Swans, turkeys, and geese's large wing feather made the best quill pens. Archaeologists discovered bronze pen points embedded in the ruins of Pompeii but not until the late 1700s were steel-point pens used. A century later, fountain pens were developed - the name chosen because the ink of these pens flowed continuously, like water in a fountain. L.E. Waterman, a New York stationer, devised the practical ink reservoir system. Lazlo Biro relied on improved methods for grinding ball bearings for machines and weapons and produced the first ball-point pens suitable for writing on paper around 1944. The Pentel, introduced by Tokyo's Stationery Company, was the world's first felt-tip pen, c 1960.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Facts of the Day

Spelling bee

The Scripps National Spelling Bee was actually started by The Louisville Courier-Journal with nine contestants in 1925. In 1941, Scripps assumed sponsorship of the program. There was no Scripps National Spelling Bee during the World War II years of 1943, 1944, and 1945. Co-champions were declared in 1950, 1957, and 1962. The word "bee" as in "spelling bee" is not referring to an insect but to a community social gathering at which friends and neighbors join together in a single activity (sewing, quilting, barn raising, etc.), usually to help one person or family. The first attested use of the term in writing dates to 1875.



Bahamas

"The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is a string of about 700 islands (and 2400 uninhabited islets) in the West Indies, spread across the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south of and north of Cuba. It is believed that Christopher Columbus first stepped on San Salvador when he found the Americas in 1492. The Arawak Indians were the first inhabitants of the Bahamas. Many of the islands are uninhabited and the rest are flooded with tourists looking for beautiful beaches. The main islands are New Providence, Grand Bahama, Eleuthera, Abaco, Andros, Cat Island, and San Salvador (Watling's Island. More than 80 percent of the 230,000 people are black, having descended from slaves brought to the island. The Bahamas were a British colony until 1973 when they became an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The capital is Nassau and there is approximately 5,380 sq. mi. of land."



Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway, June 3-6, 1942, was one of the decisive Allied victories of World War II. The battle, fought mostly with aircraft, resulted in the destruction of four Japanese aircraft carriers, crippling the Japanese navy. The Yorktown, which was damaged at the Battle of Coral Sea, was the U.S. carrier lost at the Battle of Midway at the hands of the Japanese carrier Soryu, which was also destroyed in the battle. The Battle of Midway brought the Pacific naval forces of Japan and the United States to an equal standing and was the turning point of the military struggle between the two nations. The islands are now administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.



Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square is an open square in the center of Beijing, China - one of the largest public squares in the world. It was originally designed and built in 1651, then enlarged to four times that size in 1958; it now covers 100 acres and each flagstone is numbered for assembling parade participants. The square gets its name from the massive stone Tiananmen ("Gate of Heavenly Peace"), which was once the main gate of the former Imperial Palace.



Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for outstanding public service and achievement in American journalism, letters, and music. The prizes, originally endowed with a gift of $500,000 from the newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, have been awarded each May since 1917. Currently there are 14 prizes in journalism, six prizes in letters, and one prize in music. The first prizes for letters went to Laura E. Richards and Maude H. Elliott for the biography Julia War Howe and to Jean Jules Jusserand for the history With Americans of Past and Present Days. The only U.S. president to win a Pulitzer was John F. Kennedy (1957) in Biography for Profiles in Courage.

Monday, July 16, 2007

It's getting closer!

The new school year is getting closer. My son finally picked up one of the novels he was suppose to have already read, and has started reading it. He still has to read "Antony & Cleopatra" and do the book study on "Hans Brinker". All this I want done by Aug. 1st. Think we'll make it? I'll make sure of it, even if it means cutting him off from the computer. He seems to think that I'll just let him carry over his work from this last year into his next year just because "we homeschool". He's got another "think" coming! Bwahahaha! lol!

I filled in and faxed the letter to the publisher of the biology book I wanted. I only ordered the teachers edition because my son is suppose to be able to access the book online at their website. I'll get the code when I get the book. That not only saved us money but I don't have to worry about having another book on my bookshelf. He'll be able to read his assignment online, then do whatever activities and tests he is required to do. If the internet is down for some reason, he can always use the teachers edition for that day. If the TE is like the others I have, the text will be the same but the answers will be in a different section.

I have already changed my mind on one of the books I had planned to use. After looking through the student workbook, I realized that I did not have the answers to the worksheets. I could probably figure out what is right or wrong, but just in case, I don't want to have him think it is correct (plus I don't want all that extra work!). Since I decided to discard that book, I decided to not do any of the lessons suggested in the teachers book I have too. It's not really necessary for me to use these books. He will already be doing a writing program that covers what was in these other two books. I'll have to throw in some vocabulary and maybe some grammar, but that's no big deal. I'll probably just go into that when he writes out his lessons or posts things to his journal/blog.

My next project is getting his assignments written up and all the other paperwork done. Since we have decided to go with a weekly assignment chart for each individual subject, I have to figure out what I want him to do when. That's not really that big of a deal. I did it when I had all of the subjects on the same chart. My problem is, he has two algebra books and he suggested that he do both at the same time. I'm a little concerned that he'll be going over the same topic at the same time and get bored, but then again having him go over the same thing might be a good idea since he had such a hard time last year with algebra. I just have to figure out how to assign these two books so that he doesn't go into overload. I'm thinking of doing it "2 on 2". Do two days out of one book, then the next two out of the other then just start over again. What I have to do is figure out how many pages/chapters he'll have to do each day. Then I'll have to divide up his schedule so that he does each book on different days.

I'm kind of trying to go by a regular 6 week, 2 semester schedule. I don't want my son to be in the middle of a chapter or lesson, then have the next week or two off and have to come back to what he was doing. That would mean reviewing what he had been doing which would take time away from his new stuff. That's part of my problem in this scheduling. I want to try and stay on this type of schedule because I want him to get use to it so that when he goes to college, it won't be that new to him. But we are also flexible and as long as he gets what I want him to get done before the "next semester", then I'll be okay with it. My schedule though is a little bit weird. I have him on a 6 week, then one week off type thing. I decided to put a week break in there just to have a kind of "vacation". He won't actually be on vacation. It will be for him to work on other stuff, catch up on work he hasn't completed, watch instructional videos, etc. It'll be time for me to have him do projects that don't actually follow what he's suppose to be learning this year. But it will be more relaxed (as if we aren't already relaxed!).

I am going to make myself be more involved this year. Last year I was kind of ho-hum in my involvement (slacker was more like it). I started off the year by checking his work and making sure it was correct but after a while I quit doing it. It just became too much work and I just didn't have the energy to do it. I'm sure that his answers were not what they were suppose to be on his lessons but hopefully he actually learned something. If not, then I'm in trouble! EEK! I'll especially have to be on top of things when it comes to his writing. I'm suppose to go over his writing and make sure he's doing what the lesson says he's suppose to do. That will be hard for me because I have such a hard time comprehending anything and I'm finding that things are just not clicking as fast as they use to. I'm going to have to rely on my husband to check some of these things. Thank goodness for the internet. I can type in my sons writing and email it to my husband to read. He can give me his opinions and suggestions. A homeschool friend is doing the literature class using "Movies as Literature" so I won't have to worry about anything there. I may have to help him format his reports or essays or whatever he decides to do but she'll be the main person to help him with all that.

Most of his work now is just reading the information and then telling others in some format that he knows what he just read. He's pretty smart about some things but it's his mechanics that need work. He has a hard time articulating what he has to say. That he will be working on this next year not only in that literature class but also in his theater and chorus class. He's also going to be doing Y.A.G. which is "Youth and Government" through the YMCA. He'll have to get up and speak in front of other people and that will help him in that area.

I'm also looking at some type of grading system. I'm not really keen on grades but I think he needs some type of good/bad, pass/fail type of thing. I may look at percentages. This will not only let him know what he's doing wrong, but will help me to know where he needs help. I'm not so interested in the grades for his transcripts though. I've already covered transcripts in another post so I won't go into that here. It will be just another little helper for me to gauge where he's at and what he needs to do.

Oh did I mention that my son took the exit exam for the Texas TAKS test? He passed all of them except the math which was no big surprise. I was really proud of him (am proud of him!). That told me that he was on track with the public schools. Now we are just filling in the blanks where his schooling is concerned.

It will be a busy year but I think it will be one of the best.

Facts of the Day

Buddhist Holidays
Buddha is Sanskrit for "the enlightened one," and he is regarded as the founder of Buddhism. Buddha's given name was Siddhartha, the family name Gautama, and the clan name Shakya or Sakya. Three major events of the Buddha's (c 563-483 BC) life - his birth, Enlightenment, and entrance into final nirvana - are commemorated in all Buddhist countries but not everywhere on the same day. In countries observing the Theravada tradition, the three events are all observed together on Vesak, the full moon day of the sixth lunar month, which usually occurs in May. Among Buddhist holidays, the birthday of the Buddha (Day of Vesak) is the most important.


Barbershop Quartet
Barbershop quartet (or barbershop) is unaccompanied male singing, with three voices harmonizing to the melody of a fourth voice. The voice parts are tenor, lead, baritone, and bass, with the lead normally singing the melody and the tenor harmonizing above. The musical arrangements usually use syncopated ragtime and nostalgic song styles. The exact origin is uncertain, but the style dates from a time when barbershops were an important social/neighborhood and, also, musical center. Barbers through history had a tradition of singing.


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 Confederate 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.


Heimlich maneuver
In the June 1974 issue of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Henry Heimlich published an article outlining a better method for aiding choking victims. The method up to that time had been sharp blows to the back - which actually pushed foreign objects further into the airway. Dr. Heimlich advocated "subdiaphragmatic pressure" to force objects out. Three months later, the method was dubbed "the Heimlich maneuver" by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Heimlich maneuver is used when the victim's airway is totally obstructed and he/she is unable to speak, breathe, or cough the object out.