Jason, the Argonaut

Jason taking the Golden Fleece

   Jason, in Greek legend the leader of the Argonautic expedition. Jason was the son of Aeson, a king of Thessaly. Aeson became tired of his responsibilities and gave up the kingdom to his brother, Pelias, on condition that he would yield it to Jason when he became old enough to reign.
   When Jason was grown, he demanded his rights. Pelias was unwilling to yield the crown, but he was a wily individual and laid plans for getting rid of Jason. He told the young man that he was ready to give up the kingdom, but that it would be much wiser if he, Jason, should perform some deed of valor by which he could win wealth and fame before he settled down to the duties of ruling.
   Pelias suggested an expedition in search of the golden fleece, which he said was in Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Jason thought well of his master's plan and fitted out an expedition.
   He built himself a ship that would hold fifty men. Jason won both the gold­en fleece and a wife, Medea, but he was not very happy with her. She restored his father to youth by her enchantments, but she slew his uncle. Jason finally deserted her for another. Medea, in rage at his unfaithfulness, killed her children, set fire to the palace, and departed never to return.
   Ja­son, according to some accounts, killed him­self soon after. Another version of the story is that he lost his life accidentally.

What is jasper?

Jasper pebble

   Jasper is a stone used for decorative purposes. Different varieties differ in color; it is found in dark green, grayish blue, brownish black, and reddish brown. Like jade it can be beautifully polished, and is used for vases, small boxes, belt pins, and like articles. It is also in demand for pillars, table tops and interior finshings. Owing to its strength, jasper is frequently used for the walls of buildings. Agate jasper is jasper in layers with chalcedony; this variety is also known as ribbon jasper; the yellow and brown varieties are known as Egyptian jasper.

   Jasper is found in many parts of the United States, the most generally known quarries being at Pipestone, Minnesota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and several places in Colorado.

Who built the missions?

Tumacacori Mission

   Scattered over southwestern United States there are a number of old Spanish missions. They all look much like those in the pictures. These missions were built over 200 years ago by Catholic priests.
   Places for the missions were chosen carefully. They were built in spots with good soil and plenty of water for irrigation. Soon each mission was the center of olive and orange orchards and fields of grain. The buildings had thick white walls and small Windows. The roofs were of red tile. The buildings suited a hot, dry climate well. Many houses in the southwest today are built in the same style.
   When the missions were founded, there were almost no white people in the region. But there were many Indians. The Spanish priests invited the Indians to worship with them. They also taught the Indians how to build better houses and how to make beautiful things of leather and silver. Once in a while at a mission there was a cheerful fiesta.
   The great days of the missions ended in 1822. The region was not yet a part of the United States. The Spanish priests were driven away by the Mexicans. The mission fields and some of the buildings were allowed to go to ruin. But some of the build­ings still stand. They are being well cared for today.

San Esteban Mission

Where does salt come from?

sea salt

   Salt comes from mines, from wells, from springs, from salt lakes, and from the sea.
   The tunnels and rooms of a salt mine sparkle as if they had been dug through ice. Miners, using drills, cut the solid salt away in great glistening chunks. Then power shovels scoop it up and load it into little railroad cars which haul it out of the mine.
   A salt well is very different from an ordinary well. It is a hole in the ground all right, but pumps force water down into it! This water dissolves salt which is buried in the earth. Then the salty water, called brine, is pumped back out and boiled in pans. The water evaporates, leaving the salt in the pans.
   Sometimes an underground stream flows through a bed of salt. When it comes to the surface it is a salt spring. Brine from these springs and from salt lakes and from the sea, can be boiled to make salt. More often. the naturally salty water is allowed to stand in the sun in big shallow reservoirs or ponds. The sun dries the water away, and the salt stays behind.
   In the old days salt was scarce. Only those people who lived near the sea could get it easily. But everybody needed it to preserve meat and fish because they had no refrigerators in those days. Salt was so valuable that it was used as money in some places

Sigmund Freud - biographical facts

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian psychiatrist and originator of psychoanalysis, born of Jewish parents in Freiburg, Moravia. Brought to Vienna at the age of four, he remained there—except for brief intervals devoted to study, lecturing, and conferences elsewhere—until 1938. That year, Freud, by then in his 80's, moved to London, the Nazis having annexed Austria as part of the Third Reich and confiscated most of Freud's belongings. He might have been placed in a concentration camp or killed had not the intercession of prominent persons in England, France, and the United States enabled him to leave Nazi territory.

Having graduated from the medical school at the University of Vienna, studied physiology at Vienna's General Hospital, and shared in the discovery of the anesthetic properties of cocaine, Freud might have devoted his life to the practice of medicine if he had not come under the influence of Charcot, the great French neuropsychiatrist. Returning to Vienna in 1886 after a year's study under Charcot at the Salpétriére Hospital in Paris, he became a
general practitioner of medicine but specialized in neuropathology. Shortly thereafter he became greatly interested in a case of hysteria in a young girl being treated by Josef Breuer. The temporary relief effected through catharsis, or hypnotizing the girl and persuading her while under hypnosis to recall the circumstances under which her symptoms of hysteria originated, impressed Freud tremendously. It led Freud to investigate and think through closely the problem of hysteria, and in 1895, in collaboration with Breuer, he published in German a book which years later was brought out in English under the title Selected Papers on Hysteria.

Hydroelectric power in the United States

Hydroelectric Power 
   Electricity generated by moving water from dams is called hydroelectric power. The sun provides heat energy that evaporates surface water from oceans, lakes, and streams. The water returns to the earth as rain or snow. Reservoirs behind dams built across river valleys collect and store the water.
The mechanical energy of the moving water as it leaves the dam is converted to electricity. The amount of kinetic energy in the falling water depends on the speed and the volume of the water available to turn the generators. About 10 percent of the electricity used in the United States is produced by hydroelectric power.
Generating electricity with water power is efficient and clean. Little energy is lost, and no pollutants are produced. Another advantage of hydroelectric power is its low cost. Although dams are expensive to build, hydroelectric plants have low operating costs.
   The lakes, or reservoirs, behind the dams also provide water storage for irrigation and serve as recreational areas. However, building a dam changes a river forever. It floods low-lying areas upstream, destroying farmland and wildlife habitats. Dams may also block the migration and survival of some kinds of fish, such as salmon.

What makes glaciers?

   Glaciers are rivers of ice. They actually flow, and they really are made of ice. Wherever glaciers are found, the average temperature for the whole year is below freezing. This means that ice can last, year after year, even if some of it melts in summer. But where does the ice come from in the first place?

   It comes from snow which can change into ice in two different ways. When the sun melts the surface of snow, water seeps down and melts more snowflakes underneath. But the temperature deep in the snow is still below freezing. When the seeping water reaches this super-cold snow, it changes to ice.

   But this is not the main way in which snow becomes glacial ice. Snow piles up so deep that the individual snowflakes are pressed close together. When this happens, the tiny snow crystals begin to act according to a special habit they have. The smaller snowflakes join larger ones. The result is new and larger snowflakes or crystals. These crystals then join still larger ones, and so on until solid crystals the size of marbles have been formed. Sometimes in very big glaciers the crystals grow to the size of baseballs.

   Glaciers would be mountains of ice getting higher every year if gravity didn't pull on them and make them move downward from the places where they form. Glaciers move slowly, compared to rivers of water, but they do move.

Profitable uses for agricultural wastes

   Until about the outbreak of World War II, nearly all the cigarette paper consumed in the United States was made by factories in France from old linen rags collected in Central Europe. The owner of one of the largest French factories was an American citizen; his customers were America's to­bacco companies. Perhaps he saw that the second World War was coming. At any rate, several years before the oulbreak of the war, he decided to bring his business to the United States.

The first civilizations

ancient ziggurat

   Civilizatíon is a word which means 'living in a city'. The first citíes grew up in the Fertile Crescent, an area which ran northwards from the Persian Gulf, through present-day Iraq and round to Egypt.
   The earliest civilizations were those of Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria, all in Iraq. The ruins of many of these cities have been found, such as those of Ur, birthplace of Abraham. These cities had ziggurats, great towering temples. The ancient Egyptians carried the ziggurat idea further by building pyramids, huge stone structures which served as tombs.
   Civilization spread gradually northwards through Palestine and the Bible lands. The first civilization in Europe was that of the Minoans, who lived on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean. They are famous for the Minotaur, a mythical monster, and for the dangerous sport of bull-leaping - jumping over a bull by holding on to its horns. The Cretan civilization was closely connected with that of mainland Greece. The Greeks were very clever people. They included some of the greatest architects and sculptors the world has ever known, and also some of the finest thinkers. Philosophy, the science of thought, and democracy, government by the people, were both evolved by the Greeks.
   The Romans, originating at Rome in Italy, were mighty soldiers and conquerors. They built up an empire covering a large part of Europe and North Africa. They were fond of sports such as chariot races, and fights between men known as gladiators. The Chinese civilization is also very old. The Chinese built their Great Wall to keep out invaders at about the time the Romans were creating their empire.

What makes lightning?

   Lightning is really electricity — lots of electricity that jumps through the air in huge sparks.
You can make little jumping sparks of electricity if you rub a cat's fur or comb your hair with a hard rubber comb. Probably the giant sparks of lightning are caused in somewhat the same way.
   Lightning sparks start in the clouds. Great winds blow through a rain cloud and whip the raindrops around and tear some of them apart. Tremendous action goes on, and this action electrifies the cloud. Weather-men don't know exactly how it happens, but great charges of electricity build up. Suddenly there comes a flash. The lightning jumps from one part of the cloud to another. Or it leaps between the cloud and the earth.
   Lightning usually seems like one enormous quivering spark, but it is really several sparks. It travels in a zigzag path, and that is what gives it a jagged look.
   If you could stretch electric cords from the ground to the clouds, there wouldn't be any lightning. The electricity would run through the cords into the earth. Of course, we can't plug cords into the clouds. But people often do have metal lightning rods that stick up above houses and barns. The electricity jumps from the cloud to the rod. Instead of hitting the building, it runs into the earth.

The spectacular fireworks

   The best part of a Fourth of July celebration, many people think, is the fireworks. No Fourth would be com­plete without them.
   Roman candles are a common kind of fireworks. They are made in this way: the inside of a hollow tube is divided into several separate little rooms. In the center of each room there is a hollow ball made of powder that will burn. The powder has gum and shellac mixed with it to hold it in shape. It has chemicals mixed with it to give it a pretty color when it burns. Packed around the ball there is loose powder. When the loose powder is set on fire, it explodes and shoots the ball out of the tube of the Roman candle. The powder in first one room and then another explodes. So one ball after another comes out. The balls themselves burn after they have been shot up into the air.
   There are fireworks of many other kinds. But they are all made of the same kinds of chemicals and other materials.
   Fireworks are dangerous. Most Ameri­can cities now have laws that keep stores from selling them. Nowadays, instead of having fireworks in their back yards on the Fourth of July, people go to see a fire­works display at some place where there are men who can handle fireworks safely.

How does a magnet work?

   If you experiment with a magnet, you will find that it picks up some things but not others. It picks up nails but not gold rings. It picks up needles but not silver spoons. Your magnet is made of a metal called iron, and it will only pick up other things that have a lot of iron in them.
   To see how your magnet works, you have to imagine some things first. Imagine that you could cut it in half. Scientists have done so, and they find that they get two separate magnets. Cut one of the halves in two and you get two more magnets. Now imagine you could go on dividing a piece of your iron magnet until you get the smallest possible bit of the metal. This smallest bit is a molecule. Even this molecule is a magnet, too! Every iron molecule is a tiny magnet. It pulls other iron molecules toward itself.
   If all iron molecules are magnets, then why isn't a nail a magnet? Why can't you pick up a pin with a nail? Scientists think that this is the answer: All the molecules in a nail are mixed up together helter-skelter. Each one pulls on others in a helter-skelter way. But in a magnet the molecules are lined up in an orderly way. They can all make their pull in an orderly way. Their combined pull is so strong that they can draw other separate pieces of iron toward them and pick them up.

What is a javelin?

The javelin is a short, light spear thrown from the hand. It consisted of a metal point fixed at the end of a wooden shaft or handle. A strap was sometimes attached to aid in flinging the weapon with force and accuracy. It is an ancient weap­on. Saul, it will be remembered, strove to smite David to the wall with a javelin. The pilum which was thrown by Caesar's soldiers, and which caused the attacking Gauls so much inconvenience by pinning their overlapping shields together, was a weapon of this sort. The javelin was a favorite weapon of the Persian horseman and may well be regarded as the forerunner of the knight's lance. In the Middle Ages the javelin or boar spear was the trusty weapon of the hunt.

To be advised, thou know'st not what it is 
With javelin's point a churlish swine to gore. 

—Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis.

Jiu-jitsu - "the gentle art"

   Jiu-jitsu or Ju-Jitsu, the Japaness art of self-defense. The word means "the gentle art," for no weapons are used in jiu-jitsu. Formerly the art was kept secret, and confined to the soldier class of Japan, but now its value for gen­eral training having been recognized, scarcely a Japanese can be found without at least an elementary knowledge of it. The principie of the system is merely to turn an opponent's strength against himself by a simple, well-directed movement requiring but slight exertion. In order to master it one must acquire a practical knowledge of the position of the nerves, joints, and muscles; quickness, suppleness, and presence of mind. The praactice of jiu-jitsu itself is good training in these things, as it is unquestionably one of the best systems of physical training known.

What are Fibers?

   The skins of animals made warm clothing for our early ancestors. There was no other material they could use. But in time people found that they could make certain threadlike fibers into cloth. Some of these fibers they got from animals. Some they got from plants. For thousands of years people have made linen cloth from fibers in the stem of the flax plant and cotton cloth from the fibers on cotton seeds. They have made woolen cloth from the wool of sheep and silk cloth from the fibers in the cocoon of the silkworm.
One by one other fibers came into use. Among the other plant fibers are jute, hemp, pineapple, kapok, sisal, and palm.
   Among the other animals that furnish fibers are the camel, yak, alpaca, goat, rabbit, and horse. Besides, there are now many man-made, or artificial, fibers. They are manufactured from such things as coal, petroleum, wood, and milk. Rayon and nylon are two of the best known.
   We use fibers for many things besides cloth. We make thread, twine, and paper of them. We weave them into carpets and rugs. They serve as bristles for brushes, and as stuffing for mattresses and upholstered furniture.

Simonides of Ceos

   Simonides of Ceos (556-468 b.c.), Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Ceos. For a time he lived in Athens at the court of the tyrant Hipparchus, and after the assassination of Hipparchus in 514 B.C. he attached himself to the ruling families of Thessaly, the Scopadae and the Aleuadae. Returning to Athens, he won great fame by lauding the heroes and the battles of the Greeks in their struggle with the Persians. The latter part of his life was spent at Syracuse in Sicily, at the court of Hiero I. Simonides wrote for many patrons in a great variety of poetic forms, including epigrams, hymns, paeans, scolia, triumphal odes, encomiums, dithyrambs, dance songs, and threnodies or dirges. Little of Simonides' work has survived.

What makes bread get moldy?

   When bread is several days old, you sometimes find little patches of green or gray mold on it. The mold is really a patch of tiny, tiny plants, which grow like weeds in a garden. Weeds grow wild. Nobody plants them in a garden.
   Nobody plants mold either. Where does mold come from? It comes from little specks that float around in the air — specks so small that you can't see them. When the specks land on a piece of moist bread in a warm room, they begin to grow. just as seeds grow in warm, moist soil. The tiny mold plants are shaped like flowers, but they are not really flowers. When they have grown, they send out more little specks into the air and onto the bread. The specks are called spores and they are like seeds.
   Sometimes mold spores fall onto very dry bread in a very dry room. Then they can't grow. They need moisture, just as all plants do.
   Mold grows on other things beside bread. It grows on meat and on vegetables stored in damp places. It grows on the top of home-canned foods that haven't been closed up tight. It can even grow on shoes and clothes and books in damp closets.

Simonides of Amorgos

Simonides of Amorgos (fl. 7th century B.C.), Greek poet, born in Samos, one of the founders of a Samian colony on the island of Amorgos. He composed elegiac and iambic poetry, ranking as the second, both in time and reputation, of the three prin­cipal iambic poets of the early period of Greek literature, the other two being Archilochus and Hipponax. His longest extant poem, about 100 verses written in iambics, is a satire on the female sex in which women are descended from various animals, such as the pig, fox, dog, horse, and ape, but the only decent women are those derived from bees.

Shock (health)

   Shock is a term applied to any of a number of abnormal body conditions commonly characterized by lowered blood pressure accompanied by weak, rapid pulse, lowered metabolic rate, depressed body temperature, collapse or varying degrees of weakness, pallor, "cold sweats", rapid, shallow respiration, and, often, nausea and vomiting.
   In primary shock, which occurs only immediately after injury or emotional disturbance, the symptoms are produced by the action of the nervous system on the blood vessels. Physical or psychic pain results in an expansion of the superficial capillaries of the body, which normally hold about twenty percent of the total blood volume at any one time; in shock these capillaries hold and retain over sixty percent of the total blood volume.

Origin of the metric system

   In the late eighteenth century in France, a new system of measurement called the metric system was invented. The standard of length was related to the dimensions of the Earth rather than to the dimensions of a man.
   The units in the system were defined so that they were related to each other in units of ten—that is, to fit into the decimal system of counting. In addition, an attempt was made to establish a simple relationship between the units of length, volume and mass.
   The basic unit of length is the meter, about 39.37 U. S. inches. Volume is based on the cube of a length measure, such as cubic centimeter. Mass and weight are based on the standard kilogram. Temperature is measured on the Celsius, scale with zero as the freezing point of water and 100° as the boiling point.

Eugene Field - some facts

   "Little Boy Blue" is a poem that many children love. Many grown people love it, too. It is the most famous of the poems for children written by Eugene Field (1850-1895).
   Eugene Field was born in St. Louis, but he spent most of his boyhood in New England. After college he went into newspaper work and worked in several cities. All the later years of his life he was with the Chicago Morning News.
   Field wrote many kinds of things well— stories, essays, poems. It is no wonder that he wrote especially well for children, for he had seven children of his own. He was very fond of them. The top of his desk was almost sure to have several of their toys on it—often broken ones.
   Field did not live to see his children grow up. He died when he was only 45. He was so well liked that thousands of people felt that they had lost a friend.

What is magnesium?

   Mag­nesium is a light and shiny metal element. It is chemically active and when heated burns with a blinding and brilliant white light. sir Humphry Davy first prepared elementary mag­nesium in 1807.
    Flash bulbs contain magnesium wire and oxygen. When the camera shutter is snapped, a small electric current from a battery ignites the wire and produces the flash. Incendiary bombs and flares also contain magnesium.
   Since magnesium is a light metal (density 1.74), it is used where lightness is important, as in airplanes. Magnesium compounds in­clude asbestos, talc and Epsom salts.
Magnesium (symbol Mg) is element number 12 and its atomic weight is 24.312 (24.32, O=16).

Ernst Mach - biographical facts

Ernst Mach was an Austrian physiciss and philosopher whose ideas about research and physical science made it possible for Albert Einstein to work out his theory of relativity. Mach's studies of bodies moving through gases at high speeds gave rise to the use of the term Mach Number. Mach 1, for example, is the speed of sound. Mach 0.5 is half the speed of sound. Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound.

Although the results of Ernst Mach's experiments were published, they were not noticed or used until airplanes began to approach speeds close to the speed of sound. His work has had great influence on modern scientific thought.

Born at Turos, Moravia, February 18, 1838, Mach was educated in Vienna. He served as professor of physics at the University of Graz from 1864-1867, at the University of Prague from 1867-1895, and as professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna from 1895-1901. In 1901 he was elevated to the Austrian peerage. He died near Munich, Germany, February 19, 1916.

Our flexible spine

   Maybe you thought your backbone was perfectly straight up and down. Well, it isn't. From a side view, you can see a long, S-shaped curve. The curve helps the spine stay strong, absorbs jolts when we walk and run, and makes the spine more flexible.

   The Human Spine is made of 33 bones or vertebrae

Neck — seven vertebrae
Upper back — twelve vertebrae
Lower back — five vertebrae
Sacrum — five vertebrae often fused together into one bone
Coccyx — four vertebrae frequently joined to one another
Total number of vertebrae = 33

The Origin of planet Earth

   Geologists believe that planet Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Since that time, its surface has been slowly shaped by several processes.
   The Earth was probably formed several million years after a massive explosión took place in space. The explosion created an immense cloud of gas and dust particles. Geologists think that the particles collided with each other, joining together to form huge clumps of melted matter which eventually became the present-day planets.
   It is thought that the newly-formed Earth was incredibly hot, with a sea of molten rock on the surface. About 4,000 million years ago, the Earth slowly began to cool down and separate into different layers. The heaviest matter sank to form the core, or central part, of the Earth, but still remained incredibly hot. The less dense matter formed layers around the core. At the surface, the molten matter cooled down sufficiently to form a solid, rocky crust, which Scientists believe was covered with many volcanoes.
   The first continents were probably formed from molten rock which flowed onto the surface through volcanoes, cooled on the surface and made the crust thicker. Oceans may have appeared in lower-lying areas, as tiny droplets of water condensed onto the cooling surface from gases escaping through volcanic eruptions. The Earth's first atmosphere was probably formed by these volcanic gases.

The motion of the stars

Apparent and Real Movement in Space
FOR many centuries, the stars were known as the fixed stars because they did not seem to change their relative positions in the heavens. They were contrasted by early astronomers with the planets. The latter could be seen to follow definite paths in the skies with reference to other heavenly bodies and therefore they were called "wanderers." (The literal meaning of the Greek word planetes, from which "planet" is derived, is "wandering.")

If the individual stars did not change their relative positions, they did apparently move around the Earth, which was thought of as a fixed body set in the center of the universe. The different constellations and other star groups rose and set just as the Sun did. They had to be looked for in different places in the heavens according to the time of day and also the season. These apparent motions of the stars have been known and recorded ever since the heavenly bodies were first studied.

What are hallucinations and delusions?

   A hallucination is in general, any belief or notion for which there is no foundation in fact. The word is used frequently as synonymous with illusion and delusion, but in its technical use there is a distinction to be made. An illusion is a false mental conception of something which really exists. If the stirring of a curtain by the wind makes one believe for a moment in a human presence, we describe his belief by the word illusion. If a person has a settled conviction that bis friends are trying to poison him, he is said to suffer from delusion, a word implying that the false conception is fixed and not susceptible to correction by the subject himself. An hallucination, specifically, is an apparent perception by the senses of some external object which does not exist as such. If one seems to hear bells ring when there are no bells, sees faces when there are no persons present, we call it hallucination. In other words, the sensation is real, but what psychologists call the "objective stimulus" is lacking.

The great eruption of Krakatoa

   The 1883 eruption of the volcano on the islet of Krakatoa was probably the greatest in historical times. Krakatoa is in the Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and Java. This island and several others in the vicinity are the remnant of an ancient volcano which was probably about 10,000 feet high and had a crater about 25 miles in circumference. For more than 200 years there had been no volcanic activity on the island; it was covered with rich vegetation.

   In 1880, Krakatoa was rocked by a se­ries of earthquakes; these were no slight tremors for they were felt as far off as northern Australia. The eruption proper began on May 20, 1883, with a series of explosions loud enough to be heard a hundred miles away. The next day ashes were scattered on both sides of the strait. An investigating party visited Krakatoa and the neighboring islands on May 26 and found them covered with snowlike white dust; a column of vapor rose 10,000 feet in the air, scattering showers of pumice stone and dust. This state of affairs continued through June, July and August.

The Three Graces - mythology

   The Three Graces were in Greek mythology, the goddesses of grace and beauty. They presided over the dance, the banquet, and all social pleasures. Their names are Aglaia, brilliancy; Euphrosyne, mirth; and Thalia, the blooming. They are usually described as in the service of other divinities, and are patrons of music, eloquence, poetry, and all arts that delight and elevate.

These three on men all gracions gifts bestow
Which deck the body or adorn the mind,
To make them lovely or well-favored show;
As comely carriage, entertainment kind,
Sweet semblance, friendly offices that bind,
And all the compliments of courtesy;
They teach us how to each degree and kind
We should ourselves demean, to low, to high,
To friends, to foes; which skill men call Civility.

—Spenser.

The Golden Fleece myth

The Golden Fleece was the subject of a celebrated Greek myth. A mother, whose boy and girl were in danger, appealed to Mercury for assistance. He gave her a ram with a golden fleece, on which she placed her two children to be conveyed to a place of safety. The ram sprang into the air and took his course toward the east. The girl, whose name was Helle, fell from her seat into the sea, in that part now called the Hellespont. The boy kept his hold and he reached the land of Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Here he sacrificed the ram and gave its fleece to the king of that country, who had received him hospitably. The fleece was hung up in a sacred grove and guarded night and day by a dragon that never slept. Later, Jason, with his ship, Argo, and his crew, known as the Argonauts, set out to obtain the Golden Fleece. The cruise of the Argo has been supposed by some to be another version of Noah's deluge; by others the Golden Fleece is held to typify the wealth-bringing caravan commerce of the East, the land of Colchis being the point at which this traffic reached the Black Sea.

Frans Hals - biographical facts

   Frans Hals (1580?-1666) was a famous Dutch painter. He studied at Haarlem under the best masters of the day, and soon became remarkable for bis fine draughtsmanship. His most celebrated pictures are portraits, many of which are of groups; his ability thus to handle many figures is almost unique. There are two marked periods in his work; his earlier pictures are chiefly remarkable for their good technique, while his later work shows even an added dexterity of touch, coupled with unusually fine effects of light and shade.

   Like most artists of the time he led a rough life, and his wife and children had a sorry time of it. Because of his Bohemian life, Hals' pictures treat of every sort of men and women. Among his best group paintings are A Banquet of Officers and The Regents and Regenteases of Oudemannenhuis at Haarlem. The Cavalier, The Toper, The Likenesses of an Old Man and Woman, The Flute Player, and the Hille Bobbe of the Berlin Museum are celebrated portraits.

What is a halo?

   The halo is a luminous circle seen sometimes to surround the sun or moon. Often two, or even three, circles are seen and occasionally bands of light, crosses, and arcs of circles tangent to or intersecting each other have been observed. Halos frequently show prismatic colors. In other instances they appear simply as white light. Halos are caused by rays of light falling upon crystals of ice, drops of rain, or the minute particles of moisture that form clouds. To understand the phenomenon fully one must understand the changes light undergoes when it comes in contact with new media.
   The halo, or nimbus, as it is called, has been used in art by both ancients and moderns to surround the heads of sacred per­sons. Ancient poets speak of their deities as being crowned with circles of light when they appear to mortal vision. In Christian art the halo, usually in circular form but sometimes as rays forming a cross, is represented about the head of Christ, and of the Virgin Mary, and often about the heads of saints and martyrs.

What is Halloween?

Halloween is celebrated on the evening of October 31st, which precedes November Ist, known as the festival of All Saints. On this evening witches and all sorts of mischievous spirits are supposed to be abroad. It was considered formerly quite as safe not to be caught out alone on Hallowe’en; and even now it is con­sidered good manners, at least, for elderly people to stay in doors. The belief in spirits abroad has faded out, yet the many pranks still played on this evening indicate that unusual agencies are at work.

Halloween facts

• Halloween is also know by other names: Samhain, All Hallows Eve, The Feast of the Dead, All Hallowtide, and The Day of the Dead.
• Halloween is correctly spelt as Hallowe’en.
• Orange and black became Halloween colours because orange is associated with harvests (Halloween marks the end of harvest) and black is associated with death.
• The biggest pumpkin in the world tipped the scales at a whopping 1,446 pounds (655 kg). 
• About 99 percent of pumpkins sold are used as Jack O' Lanterns at Halloween.

Edmund Halley - biographical facts

  Edmund Halley (1656-1742) was an English astronomer. He was born near London. His father was a wealthy soap boiler. Young Edmund was sent to St. Paul's School and to Queen's College, Ox­ford. He was a mathematical genius, nothing less. While a mere lad he noted the variation of the compass. At nineteen he computed the orbits of the planets. Becoming convinced that a more accurate determination of the position of the fixed stars was essential to progress in astronomy, he left the northern hemisphere to others already at work and prepared a cat­alogue of 360 stars visible in the southern hemisphere, thus winning the name of "Southern Tycho." Halley resided for a time at St. Helena, and noted that the London pendulum was too long for St. Helena; i. e., that the standard pendulum loses time when it is carried toward the equator, and hence farther from the center of the Earth.
   Halley was acquainted with Newton and stimulated him to publish his Principia— a great work on astronomy. Halley held various crucial positions—director of the mint, professor of geometry at Oxford, and, to pass by others, astronomer royal at Greenwich. Interest in Halley was revived in 1909-10 by the return of Halley's Comet, named for him.

The novae, or "new" stars

    A fascinating class of intrinsic variables are the exploding stars known as novae, or new stars. They were given that name because to the older astronomers they ap­peared to be newly created. We realize now, however, that a nova is not "new"; it is a pre-existing star upon which an ex­plosion has taken place.
    A faint star, perhaps too faint to be seen by any except the most powerful telescopes, begins to be more brilliant. Within the space of a few days it becomes thou-sands of times brighter than it was before. After some days of maximum brilliance, the luminosity begins to fade. Ultimately, the star is about as faint as it was before. This would seem to indícate that the outburst is far more superficial than it would appear to be. The explosion of novae occurs without warning. On the average, they increase about 60,000 times in bright­ness, corresponding to thirteen magnitudes. Always the growth of brilliance in a nova is extremely rapid and its fading is gradual.
    A nova is designated by the word "Nova," followed by the genitive (possessive form) of the constellation in which it occurs and the year in which the outburst took place. For example, when we refer to Nova Persei 1901, we have in mind the nova that appeared in the constellation Perseus in the year 1901.

What does FBI stand for?

   F.B.I. These letters stand for Federal Bureau of Investigation. The bureau is a part of the United States Government. In it there are 35,437 workers.
   If someone commits a crime against the United States, the F.B.I. tries to find out who the criminal is. It has solved many puzzling cases. The stories of a good many of these cases are just as thruling as any made-up detective stories.
   But the F.B.I. does much more than try to solve crimes after they are committed. It tries to prevent crime. In wartime, guarding against spies is an important part of the work of the F.B.I. Helping the govern­ment hire workers who will be loyal is another important task.
   The F.B.I. helps states and cities fight crime, too. One F.B.I. file is especially helpful. This is the fingerprint file. In it are the fingerprints of every known criminal in the whole country.
    F.B.I. agents have a nickname. It is "G men," short for "government men." G men do not wear uniforms.
As soon as he joins the F.B.I. a new agent begins a period of training. He learns what the duties of an F.B.I. man are and how to sort out and follow up clues. He also learns how to defend himself. He must be able to shoot with either hand and be able to handle a pistol, a rifle, a shotgun, and a submachine gun. He also must learn how to use jujitsu.
   There are strict rules an F.B.I. agent must follow. J. Edgar Hoover, the former head of the F.B.I., explained why: "One man didn't build the F.B.I., but one man can tear it down."

Caro­lus Linnaeus - biographical facts

  Caro­lus Linnaeus (17  Caro­lus Linnaeus07-1778) was a Swedish botanist who first classified plants by giving them a double Latin name. The first name was the genus, and the first letter was capitalized. The second name was the species, and the first letter was not capitalized. This two-name method of naming is called binomial, bi meaning "two." For example, Linnaeus put the flower known as the primrose into a genus he called Primula. One kind of primrose with purple flowers he called Primula versus. Thus Linnaeus was able to classify and name thousands of plants. Believing that everything in nature could be classified if the scientist had the time and patience, Linnaeus also began to classify animals in the same way
   Of his 180 books, Linnaeus' first, Systema Naturae, was the most important. It contained only twelve pages, but it marked the beginning of modern botany. In it he dealt with the sex and reproduction of plants, a field never before explored.
   Born in Rashult, Sweden, Carolus Linnaeus was the son of a village clergyman. His name originally was Cari von Linné, but he later took the Latin form of his name. A poor grammar-school student, Linnaeus could not decide what he wanted to do with his life. He was educated at great personal expense to his impoverished father, but he finally was graduated from the University of Uppsala and began to distinguish himself in botany until he finally became professor of botany and director of the university botanical gardens. An extremely popular teacher, he had huge classes of several hundred students from all over the world.
    World famous, Carolus Linnaeus was one of the best loved and most highly respected professional men of his day. In fact, he was the first scientist ever to be made a noble in the country of Sweden.

The three Fates

    Three of the Greek goddesses were called the Fates (or Moirae). One of them spun a thread. Her name was Clotho. The second one, Lachesis, stretched the thread out as long as she pleased. The third one, Atropos, snipped it off.
    The thread was supposed to be human life. The three Fates, then, decided when a person was to be born, how long he would live, and when he would die. Not even the king of the gods, the old Greek myths said, could make the Fates change their minds.

What is the Far East?

   China, Japan, India, the other countries of eastern Asia, and the islands nearby are often called the Far East. Before the days of easy travel these lands seemed very far away to the people of Europe. In Marco Polo's time it took a journey of many months to reach China by traveling eastward from Italy. From the United States the Far East is usually reached by traveling westward across the Pacific.
   Columbus was one of the first explorers to think that he could reach the Far East by traveling west, His idea was good, but the Americas were in his way.
    In the days of Columbus the Far East meant spices, silks, and jewels to the peo­ple of Europe. It meant strange people with strange customs. Today the people no longer seem strange. And their tin, oil, rubber, tea and electronics are far more important to us than their spices, silks, and jewels.
    Another name for the Far East is "the Orient." The word "Orient" comes from the Latín word for "rising." The east is the direction of the rising sun.

Interesting facts about skunks

The skunk is a genus of small carnivorous quadrupeds of the family Mustelidae. The body is elongated, and usually much arched; the tail long, and thickly covered with long, fine hair; the head small with thick, blunt snout; the legs short, and the paws comparatively large, with five incompletely divided toes. All the species are American, and, as they differ little in habit, the common skunk, M. mephitica, may be taken as typical of the whole genus. The common skunk, an animal about the size of a cat, has fur of a glossy black; on the forehead is a patch of white diverging into two lines which extend the whole length of the back and meet again in the bushy tail. All have nocturnal habits and are noted for excessive development of the anal glands from which an acrid fetid discharge may be projected a considerable distance and which is their chief defense against their enemies. They are trapped for their fur, which is sometimes sold as "Alaska sable".

some facts

• The keeping of skunks as pets is legal in only certain U.S. states.
• Skunks usually do not spray other skunks, with the exception of males in the mating season. 
• The word Zorrillo means 'little fox' in Spanish.

Skye terrier facts

The Skye terrier is a breed of terrier which originated many centuries ago in the Isle of Skye of the Inner Hebrides group off the N.W. coast of Scotland. The dog became a pet for the English aristocracy about the middle of the 16th century, and was generally popular in England and the United States until about the beginning of the 20th century; since that time the dog has been superseded in popularity by other breeds of terrier. The Skye terrier has a long and massive head; ears that are either erect ("prick") or hanging ("pen-dant"); hazel-colored, medium-sized eyes that are set close; short straight legs; a low body, 9 inches high at the shoulder in the male and 8 inches in the female, and 41 inches long in the male and 39 in the female; and a tail about 9 inches long. The Skye terrier dog weighs from 14 to 20 pounds. It has a double coat, an undercoat of soft, woolly hairs, and an outer coat of hard, straight hairs which are about 5 inches long; the hair growing on the head falls over the forehead and eyes. In color the dog is either light or dark gray or blue, or is fawn with dark points.

some facts 

• The Skye Terrier coat is resistant to tangling, and needs to be brushed at least once a week.
• There are concerns that the Skye terrier breed is under threat of extinction with only 30 born in the United Kingdom in 2005. It is today the most endangered of the Vulnerable Native Breeds of this country.
• The Skye Terrier was recognized by the United Kennel Club on January 1, 1993.

The Gobi desert facts

   The Gobi is a vast stretch of desert in central Asia. It was at one time, no doubt, the bed of an inland sea. The ancient coast line may still be traced. It still receives a number of streams whose waters sink finally beneath the sand. The largest lose themselves in the sand or empty into salt lakes. The more fertile parts of the Gobi Desert are inhabited by pastoral people with their flocks. Caravan routes leading from China across the Gobi westward to Russia are still important routes of commerce. The Russians, who are great tea drinkers, will have no other tea except that which has been brought by caravan. They claim that a sea journey ruins the quality of tea. Marco Polo, who visited this district, wrote as follows: "You ride some five days through the sands, finding none but bad and bitter waters; then you come to a city at the edge of the desert."
  The actual dimensions are about 1,800 miles from east to west, and 400 from north to south. The general surface is about 4,000 feet above sea level. It is largely composed of hills and valleys of sand.

Goat facts

   Goat is a hardy, horned animal, closely related to the sheep. The various domestic goats are thought to be descended from wild goat of Persia. Goats are favorites with the inhabitants of rocky, precipitous countries. The agile, sprightly, playful goat can make a living on scanty shrubs and coarse grasses where a sheep would not fare well. Goat's milk is considered healthful and nutritious. In many oriental cities the milkman drives his herd along the street and milks his goats at the customer's door. The flesh is valuable for food. The hair is spun and woven into clothing, and the hide makes famous leather. The male or he-goat is known colloquially as a "billy goat." His horns and beard give him quite a reverend appearance. The female is known as a "nanny goat," and the young, usually two in number, are called kids.
   The Cashmere goat of northern India and the Angora goat are famous for their long, silky hair. Mohair is an Arabic term applied to the hair of the Angora goat as well as to a kind of fine cloth made of goat's hair. Wool and cotton dress goods made in imitation of the genuine article are often called mohair. The term is closely akin to moire, a French name of watered silk.
   On account of their brush-eating propensities, goats are especially valuable in clearing up wild land, but, generally speaking, they are less profitable than sheep and are not raised extensively in America. The goat is an animal of endurance.

What is glucose?

Some facts

Glucose is the chemical name of several sugars, less sweet than cane sugar. Commercially speaking, glucose is a sirup, lacking in sweetness, produced by the action of sulphuric acid on the starch of grain or potatoes. Glucose is the base of most cheap sirups. It is not poisonous nor in any way unwholesome. The main prejudice against glucose arises from its extensive use as an adulterant or substitute for the higher priced maple, cane, and beet products. Glucose is distributed widely in nature. It is a constituent of grapes, cherries, plums, figs, and many other sweet fruits. The sugary sweet excretion on raisins is glucose. It is a constituent of honey. It occurs also in living animal tissues, and in the intestine, hepatic veins, and liver tissue of human beings. In the disease known as diabetes it exists in large quantities in the urine, and may be found in all fluids of the body.

Shamrock facts

• The shamrock is a trifoliate old white clover.
• Shamrocks are native to Ireland.
• The shamrock was originally chosen as the national emblem of Ireland because of the legend that Saint Patrick used the plant to illustrate the doc­trine of the Trinity.
• Most shamrocks, particularly the small-leaved white clover, Trifolium repens, nave been considered by the Irish as good-luck symbols since earliest times, and this superstition has persisted in modern times among people of many nationalities.
• Sham­rocks or various artificial representations of the plant are worn on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17th of each year, by Irishmen in most of the countries of the world, particularly those having large population groups of Irish descent, such as the United States and Australia.
• The hop clover, Trifolium dubium, is widely accepted as the original shamrock picked by Saint Patrick, but several other clovers are also called shamrock, including the wood sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, and the black medie, Medicago lupulina.
• The name shamrock is derived from Irish seamróg.
• The shamrock was traditionally used for its medical properties and was a popular motif in Victorian times.
• Former NBA player Shaquille O'Neal nicknamed himself the "Big Shamrock" after joining the Boston Celtics.
• In the fantasy novel series, Harry Potter, the fictitious Irish National Quidditch team use the shamrock as part of their emblem.

Glow worm facts

   The glowworm or glow worm is a beetle famous for emitting light. The common glowworm of English literature (Lampyris noctiluca) is the wingless and, therefore, wormlike female of a beetle closely related to our firefly. This insect is about half an inch long, black, with dusky reddish legs and a marginal line of the same color. Like our firefly, the glowworm is nocturnal. The last segments of its body emit a steady, strong, soft, bluish gleam. As the light-giving female has no wings, it is easily caught. A couplet from Hamlet gives a glimpse of the hours Shakespeare kept and of his keen observation:
    The glowworm shows the matin to be near, 
    And 'gins to palé his uneffectual fire.
  Evidently the poet did not know that it is the female that glows. "The glow­worm," said Mr. Edison, "can do something we have not learned to do. It can give light without heat."

Some glow worm facts

• Glow worms are actually glowing insect larvae.
• The chemical reaction in the glow worm is very efficient; nearly 100% of the energy input is turned into light (compared to the best light-emitting diodes at just 22%).
• Glow worms can be found living in woodlands and caves throughout the world, except for the New World.
• These little insects can even survive above the Arctic circle.
• Adult females that glow do so to attract a male for mating.
• The glowworm is usually about 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) in length and will survive for about five months.

Some facts about mercury (element)

The element mercury was named for Mercury, who, in Roman mythology, was the swift messenger of the gods. Anyone who has ever tried to pick up some spilled mercury will agree that the name is a good one.
Mercury is the only common metal that is a liquid at ordinary temperatures. When spilled it forms small balls which roll around so easily that they are hard to gather up. For this reason and because it has a shiny, gray color like solver, mercury is also called quicksilver.
 The chemical symbol for mercury, strangely enough, is Hg. The symbol was made from the Latin name for this metal — hydrargyrum — meaning watery silver.
  Mercury is used in many barometers for measuring air pressure. It is also used in many thermometers. Since it freezes at about 40 degrees below zero, however, it cannot be used in the Arctic or Antarctic where temperatures are often much lower. Some mercury is found free in nature. Most of it, however, is found combined with sulfur. The compound is called cinnabar.

What is shamanism? - some facts

Shamanism is the name given to the primitive religion of the Ural-Altaic peoples of northern Europe and northwestern Asia, including the Mongolians, Finns, Kirghiz, and Tungus. Shamanism is based essentially on the belief that numerous gods and ancestral spirits, both benign and malignant, affect man's fortunes, and can be swayed only through the intercession of men, or priestly magicians, called shamans. The power of the shaman to communicate with the gods and spirits is considered supernatural and is supposed to be acquired through heredity, the favor of a par­ticular spirit, or instruction by another shaman. The shaman is believed to medíate with supernal and infernal beings by means of incantations, dreams, and visions, and to be responsible for the cure of disease, augury, and the orthodox performance of ceremonies. The term "shamanism" is often applied to the religious practices of peoples not belonging to the Ural-Altaic family, such as the Eskimos and North American Indian tribes having medicine men whose role in the community is similar to that of the shamans.

Globigerina- some facts

Globigerina is a microscopic sea animal. It is something like an amoeba in structure, yet it is protected by a shell. It lives in myriads at the surface of the sea. At death the shell, which is as small as the finest dust—so small that it cannot be seen without a microscope —settles slowly to the bottom of the sea, where it forms deep beds of ooze or fine mud. The chalk cliffs of England and France consist largely of these shells. Enormous thicknesses of rocks appear to be composed of similar oozes hardened by heat and pressure. Geologists assert that if the world last long enough, the deposits of this sediment, now collecting so slowly on the floors of the oceans, may one day be hardened rock crumpled up into mountain folds of new continents.

The Globe Theatre

   The Globe Theatre was a theatre in Maiden Lane, London, erected in 1599, in which many of Shakespeare's plays were acted for the first time. It was a high, eight-sided, wooden affair, with a stage but without scenery. It was covered with a roof of straw thatch. In the prologue of Henry V, Shakespeare refers to the building as "this wooden O." It accommodated 2,000 spectators, and was uncommonly large for the time. Seats varied in price from two pence to half a crown. Shakespeare was allowed a salary and a share of the profits.
   On June 29, 1613, during the performance of the play of Henry VIII with immense pomp, cannon were fired by way of welcome at the entry of the supposed Henry. "Some of the paper or other stuff wherewith one of them was stopped did light on the thatch, where, being thought at first but an idle smoak, and their eyes more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house to the ground." The chronicler of the event deemed it worth while to record as the exciting incident of the occasion, that "one man had his breeches set on fire," but that "a provident wit put it out with bottled ale." The theatre was rebuilt but the new edifice never acquired the fame of that in which Shakespeare scored triumph after triumph. It was pulled down finally in 1642.
   A modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, named "Shakespeare's Globe", opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theatre.

Mermaids

   There are many old stories about mermaids. These stories come from different parts of the world. There are many pictures of mermaids, too. But there were never any real mermaids.
   Mermaids were supposed to be half maiden and half fish. They were supposed to live in palaces under the sea. In the pic­tures that were drawn of them they were always beautiful. In the stories about them they often came out of the sea to rest on the shore and comb their long golden hair.
   P. T. Barnum, the famous circus once had a "mummified mermaid" in an exhibit. But of course it was a hoax.
The idea of mermaids must have come from something the people of long ago really saw. Probably it was some mammal that lives in the sea. Mammals cannot breathe under water. They have to come to the top of the water to get air. Many people think that the mammal that gave people the idea of mermaids was a sea cow— either the manatee or the dugong. But of course no manatee or dugong ever had long golden hair!

Melon facts

   Melon is the popular name for the fruit of several climbing or trailing plants. The two most common varieties are muskmelon and watermelon.
   Muskmelon, often called cantaloupe, was native to Asia but now is being cultivated in all tropical, subtropical, and many temperate climates. It has long, running, prickly vines, roundish, heart-shaped leaves, and small, yellow flowers. The fruit of the muskmelon has a hard, warty, or scaly rind and the flesh is juicy, sweet, and most commonly yellow or orange in color. In the center of the fruit, a true berry, are a great number of seeds from which the melons are propagated. In this group the honeydew is one of the types developed.
   The watermelon vine produces a large, sweet-tasting, seed-filled fruit. The vines are hairy and long-running and have light green leaves. Watermelons may weigh fron twenty to fifty pounds. Melons need a light, sandy soil, sunligth, and a plant food.

Gregor Mendel experiments

Gregor Mendel

Why do radish seeds grow into radish plants and not into cabbages? How is it that one puppy can be a different color from another in the same litter? Why are no two oak trees exactly alike? Questions like these puzzled scientists for a very long time. One of the first scientists to find some of the answers was Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk.
Mendel spent a great deal of time experimenting with the plants in the monastery garden. He worked mostly with garden peas. He crossed many kinds and kept a record of his results. His experimenting gave him some ideas about the nature of heredity—about how plants and animals inherit such things as color and shape and size from their ancestors.
Mendel's findings were published in 1866. But no one paid much attention to his work for about 50 years. By that time other scientists had carried on experiments much like Mendel's and their ideas agreed with his. Then Mendel's work was praised. It was called one of the milestones of science. Gregor Mendel spent his last years as the abbot of his monastery. He did not dream that his name would someday be famous.

Some shrimp facts

Shrimp is a common name for any of several decapod shellfish belonging to the suborder Macrura. Shrimps are distinguished from lobsters and crayfish by the greater development of the paddlelike swimming appendages on the segments of the abdomen, and from the prawns by the inconspicuous rostrum, or beak, which is radically different from the large serrated rostrum of the prawns. In form the shrimps are long and tapering, with the abdomen arched, giving the shellfish a humpbacked appearance. In color shrimps are translucent gray, speckled with brown. The common shrimps are members of the genus Crago. In the United States the principal sources of shrimps are the warm waters off the southeastern and Gulf States.

Some facts about shrimps

• The term shrimp originated around the fourteenth century with the Middle English shrimpe, akin to the Middle Low German schrempen, and meaning to contract or wrinkle; and the Old Norse skorpna, meaning to shrivel up.
• Squilla is the Latin word for shrimp.
• Apicius, a famous Roman author, collected many shrimp recipes in his cookbook.
• The common shrimp is very active at night hours and hunts using its sense of smell
• The first reference to shrimp cocktail in the NY Times is an advertisement.
• The largest shrimps are cannibals, eating the younger shrimps.
• During the summer, the common shrimp eats ten percent of its own body weight daily
• The words prawn and shrimp are used almost interchangeable.
• Shrimp can be served cold or hot.

Percy Bysshe Shelley -bio-

Percy Shelley (1792-1822), British poet, son of Timothy Shelley, M.P., and Elizabeth Pilfold, born in Field Place, near Norsham. Sussex. In April, 1810, he entered University College, Oxford University. His friend, the British lawyer and poet Thomas Jefferson Hogg (1792-1862), who later wrote a vivid account of Shelley's life at Oxford, helped Shelley to publish his first volume of verse, Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson, a work of mingled seriousness and mockery. The anonymous publication in February, 1811, of The Necessity of Atheism, a pamphlet for which Shelley was held responsible, caused his expulsion from University College. During the same year he married Harriet Westbrook (d. 1816) in Edinburgh. In 1813 his philosophical poem Queen Mab was published. Shelley deserted his wife in 1814 and ran away with Mary Godwin, daughter of the British novelist and political economist William Godwin.
After a journey through France and a short stay in Switzerland, Shelley and Mary re­turned to England and settled at Bishopsgate, on the edge of Windsor Forest. He wrote "Alastor", his first notable poem, in the autumn of 1815. In May, 1816, Shelley and Mary visited Geneva, where they met the British poet George Gordon, Lord Byron. In the poems "Mont Blanc" and "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" Shelley left a poetic record of his exciting impressions of that period.

Iris flower

Vincent van Gogh irises

There are more than 150 kinds of irises. These popular, hardy flowers are easily grown in gardens throughout the United States. Most irises bloom in the early summer. The flowers appear in many colors and combinations of colors. Iris was a mythical messenger of the gods who traveled along the rainbow. Her clothing shimmered with colors of the rain­bow.
The iris flower has a distinct form which has been used in design for centuries. The fleur-de-lis is an iris design which is the national symbol of France.
Iris flowers are divided in threes. Three petal-like parts which droop down are called falls. The three which stand upright are called standards. Three straplike parts that are between the falls and standards are the style branches.




Some facts about irises

There are over three hundred species of irises.

In the U.S. irises are also known as Flags.

In ancient Egypt the iris flower was a symbol for life.

Fleur-de-lis means Flower of the Lily in French.

The Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted some pictures of irises.

What is Gin?

Gin is an aromatic spirit. It is prepared by redistilling rye whiskey and flavoring the product with juniper berries. The name is an abbreviation of the French word for juniper. This kind of ardent spirits was formerly manufactured largely at Schiedam, Holland.


Some gin facts

Similar in caracter to Hollands gin is Geneva gin whose name is corrupted from genièvre.

Gin is a colorless liquor distilled from various malted and fermented grains and redistilling.

Bathtub gin (a homemade spirit) first appeared in the prohibition-era.

Most American gin is made by the distillation of beer or wort, resulting from the fermentation of  a mash of malted barley, corn, and other grains.

The French people claim they have been involved in gin making for over 500 years dating back to the 16th century.

The English are famous for a very dry gin known as London Dry.

A dry gin is used tin making the various Martini cocktails.

A tequini is a martini made with tequila instead of dry gin.

The favorite cocktails of several former U.S. Presidents are reported to include:
Gin and tonic (Gerald Ford, 1974 – 1977)
Martini (Herbert Hoover, 1929 – 1933)
Rum and coke (Richard Nixon, 1969 – 1974)
Bourbon (Harry Truman, 1945 – 1953)

What is a daisy?

DAISY is a name given to many flowers. It means day's eye, because the daisy looks some-what like an eye, with its round yellow center. Its petals grow around the center like rays of the sun. The daisy opens its blossoms in the morning and closes them at night.
The American daisy is actually a wild chrysanthemum, and has several other names. Some people call it the oxeye daisy because of its yellow center. Farmers are troubled by daisies that grow in their fields. They call that flower the whiteweed. Some people give it the name of marguerite, because of its slender beauty. The American daisy has been improved by breeders, and there are many varieties of this flower. The daisy is a flower for the month of April.


Some facts about daisies

Daisies are found anywhere on the world except Antarctica.

Daisies are perennial bloomers, meaning they bloom yearly.

Daisies represents purity and innocence.

Daisy leaves are edible and can make a tasty addition to salads (they are high in Vitamin C).

The leaves of daisies are edible, and are commonly used in salads.

Ivy (plant)

English ivy

Ivy is the name for a number of plants grown for their interesting-looking leaves. Some ivy plants are grown indoors as house plants. Others are raised out-of-doors as a ground cover in place of grass. Climbing ivy is grown on walls and brick or stone f enees.
Ivy should be planted in rich, moist soil containing plenty of humus. New plants can be easily raised from cuttings. Climbers have rootlets already formed at leaf nodes. The rootlets support the plant as it grows up the side of the wall.
True ivy belongs to the genus Hedera. They are mainly evergreen shrubs. English ivy is the most commonly grown climber. It is hardy in all but the most northerly parts of the United States. English ivy has very inconspicuous yellow flowers and black berries.
Boston ivy, ground ivy, and poison ivy, are among the many plants that do not belong to the true ivy family. These plants are so named because they have ivy-like leaves.

What is ginger?

Ginger is a well known spice or flavoring. The common ginger plant is found in both the East and the West Indies. Thick, fleshy, root-stocks, the size of a man's finger, send up leafy, reed-like stems to a height of two or three feet; also leafless flowering stalks which bear conical spikes of white, purple-lipped flowers. The ginger of commerce is obtained from the root-stocks, either by drying the root whole, or by scraping and washing. The former plan yields what is known as black gin­ger; the latter, white ginger. The best article is known as Jamaica ginger, sold usually in the form of fluid extract. It comes from the island of that name. Ginger beer is made from ginger, sugar and lemons, cream of tartar, etc. Ginger-bread is a familiar sweet bread. Oil of ginger is used as a remedy to mitigate pain. Preserved ginger is a popular confection. It is imported from China in fancy jars. To prepare it the young root-stocks are boiled in sirup.