subaltern

burning sulfur

Chavez said that the podium reeked of sulfur because George W. Bush spoke the previous day.

whales

What is the term for this method of determining the morality of an issue that was first proposed by John Harsanyi and later made famous by John Rawls?

the veil of ignorance

For example, in the imaginary society, one might or might not be intelligent, rich, or born into a preferred class. Since one may occupy any position in the society once the veil is lifted, the device forces the parties to consider society from the perspective of all members, including the worst-off and best-off members. It is part of the long tradition of thinking in terms of a social contract.

'Babylon'

The original Rainbow Gathering was in 1972, and has been held annually in the United States from July 1 through 7 every year on National Forest land.

9/11/2001

The subject of the image, whose identity remains uncertain, was one of the people trapped on the upper floors of the skyscraper who either fell searching for safety or jumped to escape the fire and smoke.

Frédéric Bartholdi, best known for the Statue of Liberty

admittance of women/ coeducation

the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that sank in Jan 2012

It struck a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the western coast of Italy about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Rome. Of the 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew known to have been aboard, 30 bodies have been located, and two more passengers are missing and presumed dead.

helicopter parent

It is a colloquial term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to their child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions.

one in which the dreamer is aware that s/he is dreaming

In a lucid dream, the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over their participation within the dream or be able to manipulate their imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreaming has been researched scientifically, and its existence is well established.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dreaming)

cryptic crosswords

He provided crosswords for The Observer newspaper. As Ximenes, Macnutt's puzzles gained an enthusiastic following.

the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

Various methods have been proposed and implemented to reduce the number of suicides. Attempts to introduce a suicide barrier have been thwarted by engineering difficulties, high costs, and public opposition.

the gondoliers of Venice

The technique is considerably different from the style used in international sport rowing, due to the oarsman facing forward in a standing position. Competitive regattas are also held using the Venetian rowing technique, using both gondolas and other types of vessels.

smoking

It highlighted the negative health effects of smoking. Although it was not the first such declaration, or the first declaration by an official of the United States of America, it is notable for being arguably the most famous, and certainly had lasting and widespread effects on the tobacco industry and on the worldwide perception of smoking.
(Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States )

postmark

It was designed to show the date on which a letter was received by the post and to ensure that the dispatch of letters would not be delayed. These were the world's first handstruck postage stamps. Henry Bishop (1611–1691) was a Postmaster General of England.

belvedere

Belvedere is a luxury brand of Polish vodka produced and distributed by LVMH. It is named after Belweder, the Polish presidential palace, whose illustration appears on the company's bottles. A belvedere, Italian for 'fair view', is an architectural structure sited to take advantage of a fine or scenic view. The Apollo Belvedere is a celebrated marble sculpture from Classical Antiquity considered the greatest ancient sculpture. Clifton Webb received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1949 for Sitting Pretty, the first in a three-film series of comedic 'Mr. Belvedere' features with Webb portraying a snide and omniscient babysitter.

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

necks

Women of the Kayan Lahwi tribe are well known for wearing neck rings, brass coils that are placed around the neck, appearing to lengthen it. The women wearing these coils are known as giraffe women to tourists.

the number of fledglings was reduced from three to two

(http://www.etiziano.com/I_love_logo_design/history_of_the_nestle_logo.html)

air-traffic controllers

Pairs of aircraft to which these rules have been successfully applied are said to be separated: the risk of these aircraft colliding is therefore remote. If separation is lost between two aircraft, they are said to be in a conflict.

no first use

It is a pledge not to use nuclear weapons as a means of warfare unless first attacked by an adversary using nuclear weapons.

XXX. Today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. With interest rates at about half the record highs of 1980, nearly 2,000 families today will buy new homes, more than at any time in the past four years. This afternoon 6,500 young men and women will be married, and with inflation at less than half of what it was just four years ago, they can look forward with confidence to the future. XXX, and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago?

It's morning again in America

The ad was written and narrated by ad man Hal Riney, who also wrote and narrated Reagan's resonant "Bear in the woods" ad (titled "Bear") as well as his "America's Back" ad. It featured a montage of images of Americans going to work and a calm, optimistic narration that suggested the improvements to the U.S. economy since his 1980 election were due to Reagan's policies and asked voters why they would want to return to the pre-Reagan policies of Democrats like his opponent Walter Mondale, who had served as the Vice President under Reagan's immediate predecessor Jimmy Carter.

the Burj Khalifa in Dubai

Viewed from above or from the base, the form also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture.

Batman's Gotham City

'Gotham' had long been a well-known nickname for New York City prior to Batman's 1939 introduction. The nickname was popularized in the nineteenth century, having been first attached to New York by Washington Irving who took it from the village of Gotham in England, a place that, according to folklore, was inhabited by fools. The village's name derives from Old English gat 'goat' and ham 'home', literally "homestead where goats are kept". In Detective Comics #880, the Joker mentions to Batman that Gotham means "heaven for goats".

Hangar 18

bullfighters

The term originates from the sequins and reflective threads of gold or silver.

North Korea

The North Korean government grants the Korean People's Army the highest economic and resource-allocation priority, and positions it as the model for society to emulate. Songun is also the ideological concept behind a shift in policies since 1994 which emphasize the people's military over all other aspects of state and society.

At the lowest end of the scale is 'minor violation of law' with 11 points and in the second place is 'divorce' with 73 points. What event tops the list with 100 points?

death of a spouse

Marital separation is at 65 points and imprisonment at 63 points.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who called South Africa the 'Rainbow Nation'

The phrase was elaborated upon by President Nelson Mandela in his first month of office, when he proclaimed: "Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."
(http://www.andbeyond.com/christine_ross/292/south-africa-the-country-of-many-languages/)

the laugh track

Linus Pauling (a proponent of Vitamin C, among others)

Pauling is one of only four individuals to have won more than one Nobel Prize (John Bardeen, Sanger, Marie Curie). He is one of only two people awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields (the Chemistry and Peace prizes), the other being Marie Curie (the Chemistry and Physics prizes).

the Great Man theory

It was countered in 1860 by Herbert Spencer who said that great men are the products of their societies, and that their actions would be impossible without the social conditions built before their lifetimes.

According to their agreement, after the two missions were completed, Ballard could use the available resources to do what?

look for the Titanic (he was successful)

Ballard also discovered the wrecks of the battleship Bismarck in 1989, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1998 and John F. Kennedy's PT-109 in 2002.

silk

It is akin to the use of thread count to measure the quality of cotton fabrics, but is calculated in a very different manner. Instead of counting threads, the weight in mommes is a number that equals the weight in pounds of a piece of silk if it were sized 45 inches by 100 yards. This is because the standard width of silk is 45 inches wide, though silk is regularly produced in 55-inch widths, and, uncommonly, in even larger widths.

When the litters are overturned by the whirlwind
and faces are covered by cloaks,
the new republic will be troubled by its people.
At this time the reds and the whites will rule wrongly.

Nostradamus (1503-66)

(http://www.crystalinks.com/quatrains.html)

the Peripatetic school

The school dates from around 335 BC when Aristotle began teaching in the Lyceum. The Greek word peripatetikos refers to the act of walking, and as an adjective, 'peripatetic' is often used to mean itinerant.

the illusionist David Copperfield

He has been described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. He currently performs over 500 shows a year.

Henry Dunant (1828-1910)

Horrified by what he saw on the battlefield, Dunant set about a process that led to the Geneva Conventions and the establishment of the International Red Cross.

Paris - Bananas - Pet cheetah Chiquita

Josephine Baker (1906-75)

knots

Due to its scope and wide availability The Ashley Book of Knots has become a significant reference work in the field of knotting.

genealogy

The word means 'ancestor table' in German. The subject of the ahnentafel is listed as #1, the subject's father as #2 and the mother as #3, the paternal grandparents as #4 and #5 and the maternal grandparents as #6 and #7, and so on, back through the generations. Apart from #1, who can be male or female, all even-numbered persons are male, and all odd-numbered persons are female. In this schema, the number of any person's father is double the person's number, and a person's mother is double the person's number plus one.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnentafel)

the thistle (Scotland)

Encyclopædia Britannica originated in Edinburgh and CMU honors the Scottish heritage of its founder, Andrew Carnegie.

What is this object in question that was invented at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest in the 1970s?

Rubik's Cube

It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.

the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers.

Bermuda

The book's title is Into the Bermuda Triangle.

gothic

In English 17th-century usage, 'Goth' was an equivalent of 'vandal', a savage despoiler with a Germanic heritage, and so came to be applied to the architectural styles of northern Europe from before the revival of classical types of architecture.

Vitruvius

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, an illustration of the human body inscribed in the circle and the square is derived from a passage about geometry and human proportions in Vitruvius's writings.

kidnapping

It was done after the kidnapping of Lindbergh's baby. The theory behind the Lindbergh Law was that federal law enforcement intervention was necessary because state and local law enforcement officers could not effectively pursue kidnappers across state lines. Since federal law enforcement, such as FBI agents, have national law enforcement authority, Congress believed they could do a much more effective job of dealing with kidnappings than could state, county, and local authorities.

innocent passage

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea defines innocent passage as: Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. Such passage shall take place in conformity with this Convention and with other rules of international law.

death of Osama bin Laden

The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan was launched from Afghanistan.

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.

concrete

As of 2006, about 7.5 billion cubic meters of concrete are made each year—more than one cubic meter for every person on Earth.

foxtrot and tango

'Noble Savage'

Benazir Bhutto

In whose name was the prize created? (hint: not Buddha)

Confucius

Despite an announcement in September 2011 from the Chinese Ministry of Culture that the prize would no longer be awarded, the China International Peace Research Center awarded the prize to Vladimir Putin in November 2011.

Belgium

Hamas

It was founded in 1987 (during the First Intifada) as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia

The unsolved puzzle continues to attract would-be solvers.

diving

It was invented in 1969 by Mike Humphrey and Mike Borrow and was named after Jim Jarrett, Peress' chief diver. Because there is no danger of bends, the occupant does not need to decompress when returning to the surface.

Michael Jackson

On August 28, 2009, the Los Angeles County Coroner announced Jackson's death a homicide. Before his death, Jackson reportedly had been administered propofol, along with two anti-anxiety benzodiazepines: lorazepam and midazolam.

the Voynich manuscript

Generally presumed to be some kind of ciphertext, the Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers but has defied all decipherment attempts. The book is named after the Polish-Lithuanian-American book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912 and is owned by Yale University.

the Loch Ness monster

It is the most iconic images of Nessie as it was the first photo and only photographic evidence of a 'head and neck' – all the other purported evidences are humps or disturbances.

the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

It is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was founded in 1957 by Joseph Rotblat and Bertrand Russell in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, following the release of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955. Rotblat and the Pugwash Conference won jointly the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts on nuclear disarmament.

the Gulag

The camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners and are recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, introduced the term with the 1973 publication of his The Gulag Archipelago.

the Lima syndrome

Members of a militant movement took hostage hundreds of people attending a party in the official residence of Japan's ambassador. Within a few hours, the abductors had set free most of the hostages, including the most valuable ones, due to sympathy.

Archie

The characters were created by John L. Goldwater, written by Vic Bloom and drawn by Bob Montana.

Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914)

The system is called Anthropometry and it was the first scientific system used by police to identify criminals. The method was eventually supplanted by fingerprinting, but Bertillon's other contributions like the mug shot and the systematization of crime-scene photography remain in use.

Which personality?

Isaac Newton

Time Person of the Year

The idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year for not having aviator Charles Lindbergh on its cover following his historic trans-Atlantic flight. By the end of the year, it was decided that a cover story featuring Lindbergh as the Man of the Year would serve both purposes.

plowing of a field

Rather than going left-to-right as in modern English, or right-to-left as in Hebrew and Arabic, alternate lines in boustrophedon must be read in opposite directions. Also, the individual characters are reversed, or mirrored.

Xinhua

It was started in 1931.

the White House

The remarks were that of Thomas Jefferson.

Mossad

Bram Stoker's Dracula

There is no evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle, which has only tangential associations with Vlad III, the inspiration for Dracula.

workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

Pale Blue Dot

By request of Carl Sagan, NASA commanded the Voyager 1 spacecraft, having completed its primary mission and now leaving the Solar System, to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space. Subsequently, the title of the photograph was used by Sagan.

tabloid

Prior to compressed tablets, medicine was usually taken in bulkier powder form. While Burroughs Wellcome & Co. were not the first to derive the technology to make compressed tablets, they were the most successful at marketing them, hence the popularity of the term 'tabloid' in popular culture. The connotation of tabloid was soon applied to other small items and to the "compressed" journalism that condensed stories into a simplified, easily-absorbed format.

as a quarantine station

Until 1908, lazarets were also used for disinfecting postal items, usually by fumigation. A leper colony administered by a Christian religious order was often called a lazar house, after the parable of Lazarus the Beggar.

Kevin Bacon

Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun)

Cirque expanded rapidly through the 1990s and 2000s, going from one show to 19 shows in over 271 cities on every continent except Antarctica. The shows employ approximately 4,000 people from over 40 countries and generate an estimated annual revenue exceeding US$810 million.

at sea

Alain Bombard (1924–2005) was a Frenchman was famous for sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat. He theorized that a human being could very well survive the trip across the ocean without provisions and decided to test his theory himself in order to save thousands of lives of people lost at sea. His claim was later contested.

Cuba (from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base)

After the Cuban Revolution, some Cubans sought refuge on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. In the fall of 1961, Cuba had its troops plant an 8-mile barrier of cactus along the northeastern section of the 17-mile (27 km) fence surrounding the base to stop Cubans from escaping Cuba to take refuge in the United States.

Scrooge McDuck

Scrooge McDuck is named after the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character from Charles Dickens' 1843 novel A Christmas Carol.

the Vatican (the Swiss Guard)

kindergarten

dead reckoning

While traditional methods of dead reckoning are no longer considered primary means of navigation, modern inertial navigation systems, which also depend upon dead reckoning, are very widely used. A disadvantage of dead reckoning is that since new positions are calculated solely from previous positions, the errors of the process are cumulative, so the error in the position fix grows with time.

Greenpeace ('X' of course is Rainbow Warrior)

Reader's Digest

For many years, it was the best-selling consumer magazine in the U.S., losing the distinction in 2009 to Better Homes and Gardens. According to Mediamark Research, it reaches more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Inc. combined.

Cyprus

In legend, Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans) emerged from the sea on a crest of foam just off Cyprus.

This is the gloomy essence of which German philosopher's work?

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)

Schopenhauer's most influential work, The World as Will and Representation, claimed that the world is fundamentally what we recognize in ourselves as our will. His analysis of will led him to the conclusion that emotional, physical, and sexual desires can never be fulfilled. Consequently, he eloquently described a lifestyle of negating desires, similar to the ascetic teachings of Vedanta, Buddhism, Taoism and the Church Fathers of early Christianity.

Comic Sans

The font's widespread use, often in situations for which it was not intended, has been criticized.

the TGV

Expands to 'Train à Grande Vitesse', meaning high-speed train.

WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks was launched as a user-editable site, but has progressively moved towards a more traditional publication model, and no longer accepts either user comments or edits. Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales says it is not a wiki.
(Thanks to Chris from Hong Kong for pointing out the correct nationality of Assange.)

Chad

The word refers to paper fragments created when holes are made in a paper, card or similar synthetic materials, typically computer punched tape or punched cards.

the travelling salesman problem

The problem was first formulated as a mathematical problem in 1930 and is one of the most intensively studied problems in optimization. It has several applications even in its purest formulation, such as planning, logistics, and the manufacture of microchips.

Babel Fish

Halo

The games are considered Microsoft Xbox's "killer app".

writing paper

This statement made in 1929 is the core of which Indian philosopher's teaching?

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)

Maintaining that society is ultimately the product of the interactions of individuals, he held that fundamental societal change can emerge only through freely undertaken radical change in the individual. He constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasized that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social.

Papillon

According to its author, Papillon is an autobiographical novel. Charriere stated that all events are truthful and accurate, allowing for minor lapses in memory. Today, there has been controversy over its accuracy.

a stringer

The term is typically confined to news industry jargon, and in print or in broadcast terms, stringers are sometimes referred to as correspondents or contributors. At other times, they may not receive any public recognition for the work they have contributed.

Buckminster Fuller

René Descartes

John Dillinger

Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed, ...

Saint (these are the stages of Canonization in the Catholic Church)

Receiving the title Servant of God is the first of the four steps in the canonization process. The next step is being declared Venerable, upon a decree of heroicity or martyrdom by the honored. This is followed by beatification, with the title of Blessed, after the confirmation of miracles attributed to the honored. The final step is canonization, where the honored would receive the title of Saint.

Louis Braille

Cecil Rhodes

From 1910 to 1984, it was the official Cape residence of the Prime Ministers of South Africa and continued as a presidential residence of P. W. Botha and F. W. De Klerk.

Bringing Up Father

Some readers, however, called the strip Jiggs and Maggie after its two main characters.

the Brooklyn bridge

Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River.

The Mary Celeste

It was in seaworthy condition and still under sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar. She had been at sea for a month and had over six months' worth of food and water on board. Her cargo was virtually untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were still in place, including valuables. The crew was never seen or heard from again.

the Bow Street Runners

They were founded in 1749 and originally numbered just eight.

Vienna

a filibuster

Filibusters were irregular soldiers who acted without authority from their own government, and were usually motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. The freewheeling actions of the filibusters led to the name being applied figuratively to the political act of filibustering in the U.S. Senate. "Freebooter" is the more familiar term in British English, whereas "filibuster" normally refers to the legislative tactic.

Iran's

They are also known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Since its origin as an ideologically driven militia, the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution has taken an ever more assertive role in virtually every aspect of Iranian society. Its expanded social, political, military, and economic role under president Ahmadinejad's administration — especially during the 2009 presidential election and post-election suppression of protest — has led many analysts to argue that its political power has surpassed even that of the Shiite clerical system.

feudalism

A lord was a noble who owned land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief. In exchange for the fief, the vassal would provide military service to the lord. The obligations and relations between lord, vassal and fief form the basis of feudalism.

a Cinderella stamp

The term also excludes imprinted stamps on postal stationery.

instant runoff voting (IRV)

If no candidate is the first preference of a majority of voters, the candidate with the fewest number of first preference rankings is eliminated and that candidate's ballots are redistributed at full value to the remaining candidates according to the next ranking on each ballot. This process is repeated until one candidate obtains a majority of votes among candidates not eliminated. The term "instant runoff" is used because the method is said to simulate a series of runoff elections tallied in rounds, as in an exhaustive ballot election.

animals

Traditionally, the medal is presented by the Lord Mayor of the City of London. It has become recognized as "the animals' Victoria Cross". As of February 2008, it has been awarded 62 times.

a columbarium

Can you fill in XXX?

the Chatham House Rules

The rule originated in June, 1927, at what is now best known as Chatham House in London with the aim of guaranteeing anonymity to those speaking within its walls in order that better international relations could be achieved. It is now used throughout the world as an aid to free discussion. The original rule was refined in October 1992 and again in 2002.

the Voice of America

The Voice of America is fully funded by the U.S. taxpayer. Congress appropriates funds annually. VOA's FY 2007 budget was 172.4 million.

a majordomo

A majordomo often acts on behalf of the (often absent) owner.

Nixon was on it ('Executive One' is the designation given to a civilian flight on which the U.S. President is aboard)

On December 26, 1973, then-President Richard Nixon flew as a passenger aboard a Washington Dulles to Los Angeles International flight. It was explained by his staff that this was done in order to conserve fuel by not having to fly the usual Boeing 707 Air Force aircraft; however, the 707 followed behind in case of emergency.

the freshman fifteen

The term refers to the often-reported, yet unsubstantiated claim that freshman typically gain fifteen pounds during their first year. The purported causes of this weight gain are increased alcohol intake and the consumption of fat and carbohydrate-rich cafeteria-style food and fast food in university dormitories.

the beating of Rodney King that led to the subsequent trial and riots

(Hint: According to Garrison Keillor, the presenter of the show, here "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average")

tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities

gleaning

Some ancient cultures promoted gleaning as an early form of a welfare system. For example, ancient Jewish communities required that farmers not reap all the way to the edges of a field so as to leave some for the poor and for strangers.

the American mafia

It was attended by roughly 100 mafia crime bosses from the United States, Canada and Italy. Expensive cars with license plates from around the country aroused the curiosity of the local and state law enforcement, who raided the meeting, causing mafiosi to flee into the woods and the surrounding area of the Apalachin estate. Over 60 underworld bosses were detained and indicted due to the disastrous meeting. The direct and most significant outcome of the Apalachin meeting was that it helped to confirm the existence of a National Crime Syndicate, which some - including J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigations - had long refused to acknowledge.

prayer on behalf of another person

Blair House

During much of the presidency of Harry Truman, it served as the residence of the president of the United States, while the interior of the White House, which had been found to have serious structural faults, was completely gutted and rebuilt. The Chief of Protocol of the United States is responsible for the operation of Blair House.

the University of Oxford

a dowager

In loose popular usage, dowager as a stand-alone noun may refer to any elderly woman, especially one who is wealthy or behaves with dignity.

the rod of Asclepius (or) the staff of Asclepius

A 1992 survey of American health organisations found that 62% of professional associations used the rod of Asclepius, whereas in commercial organisations, 76% used the caduceus.

Good Girl Art

The term Good Girl Art describes the work of illustrators skilled at creating sexy female figure art; it is the art which is "good," not the girl. The term was first coined in the early 1970s by veteran comic book dealer and The Comic Book Price Guide advisor David T. Alexander, formerly co-owner of the American Comic Book Company, who inserted it his company's sale lists to highlight specific panels and covers with sexy women in comic books from Fiction House and other publishers.

a blue law

Most have been repealed, declared unconstitutional or are simply unenforced, although prohibitions on the sale of alcoholic beverages, and occasionally almost all commerce, on Sundays are still enforced in many areas. Blue laws often prohibit an activity only during certain hours and there are usually exceptions to the prohibition of commerce, like grocery and drug stores. In some places blue laws may be enforced due to religious principles, but others are retained as a matter of tradition or out of convenience. Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence to support the assertion that the blue laws were originally printed on blue paper. Rather, the word blue was commonly used in the 18th century as a disparaging reference to rigid moral codes and those who observed them (e.g., "bluenoses", blue movies).

the Templeton Prize

The prize is named after Sir John Templeton, an American-born British entrepreneur and businessman, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987 for his philanthropic efforts. Until 2001 the name of the prize was Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. It has typically been presented by Prince Philip in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The monetary value of the prize (795,000 GBP or approx. 1.4 million US dollars in 2006) is adjusted so that it exceeds that of the Nobel Prizes.

gerrymandering

Gerrymandering may be used to help or hinder particular constituents, such as members of a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group. The term gerrymandering is derived from Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), the governor of Massachusetts from 1810 to 1812.

the Knights of Columbus

For their support for the Church and local communities, as well as for their philanthropic efforts, the Order is often referred to as the "strong right arm of the Church".

Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

an ombudsman

An ombudsman need not be appointed by government; they may work for a corporation, a newspaper, an NGO, or even for the general public. In some countries, an Inspector General may be the same as or have overlapping duties with a government-appointed ombudsman.

Hogan's Alley

According to the FBI, they "borrowed it from the Hogan's Alley comic strip of the 1800s. The alley was located in a rough neighborhood, so we thought the name fit our crime-ridden town." While the comic strip was almost certainly the original source of the name, Camp Perry facility in Ohio was probably the more immediate source of the name.

Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779)

In 1754 he published the first of three editions of his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, a catalogue of English furniture design. This book is probably the major reason he is one of the world's best-known furniture makers.

sex change surgery

death from overwork

It is occupational sudden death. The major medical causes of karôshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoshi)

in Pyongyang, North Korea

The hotel's name comes from one of the historic names for Pyongyang: Ryugyong, or "capital of willows." Its 105 stories rise to a height of 330 m, making it the most prominent feature of the city’s skyline and by far the largest structure in the country. Construction started in 1987 and ceased in 1992 due to a combination of poor-quality construction and financial difficulties. The hotel is so massive that it is clearly visible from nearly everywhere in the city, but it is nearly impossible to get anyone to talk about it. It is often seen as a metaphor of the highly secretive nature of North Korea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel)

Gonzo journalism

The word Gonzo was first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style. Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered. It disregards the 'polished' edited product favored by newspaper media and strives for the gritty factor. The creator of the word Bill Cardoso claimed that "gonzo" was South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after a drinking marathon.

chartreuse

Chartreuse sits right in the middle of the frequencies of visible light. Eyes have receptors for blue, green and red. Being in the middle, yellow-green triggers the most of these receptors to fire, making it easy to spot. In some cities, firetrucks have been changed from red to a yellow-green color to make them more visible.

a Nile crocodile

Living in Burundi, it is estimated to be 6 m (20 ft) in length and weighing around 907 kg (1 ton) and is believed to be the largest crocodile in Africa. While the number of his victims is likely greatly exaggerated, Gustave has attained a near-mythical status and is greatly feared by people in the region.

the Dead Sea Scrolls

In the most commonly told story the shepherd threw a rock into a cave in an attempt to drive out a missing animal under his care. The shattering sound of pottery drew him into the cave, where he found several ancient jars containing scrolls wrapped in linen. They consist of roughly 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible. The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include practically the only known surviving copies of Biblical documents made before 100 AD, and preserve evidence of considerable diversity of belief and practice within late Second Temple Judaism. Many of the scrolls are now housed in the Shrine of the Book which is in Jerusalem.

an electric chair

First installed at the now-demolished Kilby State Prison in Montgomery, Alabama, Yellow Mama acquired its yellow color when painted using highway-line paint from the adjacent State Highway Department lab. The chair was built by a British inmate in 1927 and was first used to execute Horace DeVauhan that same year.

the Black Panther Party

Roswell

The United States military maintains that what was recovered was a top-secret research balloon that had crashed. However, many UFO proponents believe the wreckage was of a crashed alien craft and that the military covered up the craft's recovery.

the yakuza

They are members of traditional organized crime groups in Japan. Outside of Japan, the term also refers to traditional Japanese organized crime in general. Today, the Yakuza are one of the largest crime organizations in the world. In Japanese legal terminology, yakuza organizations are referred to as bôryokudan, literally "violence groups" -- and is considered an insult to Yakuza members as it can be applied to any violent criminal. Often as a misnomer in Western press, Yakuza groups are referred to as the "Japanese mafia" with reference to Italian-Sicilian organized crime.

a dragoon

The name derives probably from the dragoon's primary weapon, a carbine or short musket called the dragon. Dragon carbines are said to have been so-called because they "breathed fire" — a reference to the flames carbines emitted when fired.

he was the first space tourist

Tito himself opposes being called "tourist" and asks to be called an "independent researcher" since he performed several scientific experiments in orbit.

accepting the existence of other gods

Müller stated that henotheism means "monotheism in principle and a polytheism in fact." He made the term a center of his criticism of Western theological and religious exceptionalism (relative to Eastern religions), focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inherently superior to differing conceptions of God.

a vowel

This contrasts with consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract. A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel. In all languages, vowels form the nucleus or peak of syllables, whereas consonants form the onset.

the boat people

The term came into common use during the late 1970s with the mass departure of Vietnamese refugees from communist-controlled Vietnam, following the Vietnam War. Now it is also a widely used form of migration or escape for people migrating from Cuba, Haiti, Morocco, Vietnam or Albania.

a humidor

Humidors of all sizes use hygrometers to keep track of the humidity levels. The ideal humidity in a humidor is around 65-75%. The more empty space, the more readily the humidity will drop. Humidor cases are typically made of woodboard with an interior veneer of Spanish-cedar wood or mahogany.

a jamboree

The 1st World Scout Jamboree was held in 1920, and was hosted by the United Kingdom. Since then, there have been twenty World Scout Jamborees, hosted in various countries, generally every four years.

the tax imposed on able bodied non-Muslim men of military age

The tax is not supposed to be levied on slaves, women, children, monks, the old, the sick, hermits and the poor, though these provisions were abandoned in later periods of Muslim history. Non-Muslim citizens who pay the tax are permitted to practice their faith and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy as well as being entitled to Muslim protection from outside aggression and being exempted from military service amongst numerous other exemptions to levies upon Muslim citizens.

the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine

It is perhaps the most famous lost mine in American history: Byrd Granger notes that, as of 1977, the Lost Dutchman story was printed or cited at least six times more often than two other fairly well-known tales. The land is a designated Wilderness Area, and mining is now prohibited there.

Shaolin

The Shaolin Monastery was originally founded in AD 495 by the Buddhist monk Batuo, an Indian dhyana master. The introduction of fighting skills at the Shaolin Monastery has been attributed in legend to the Indian monk Bodhidharma, who went to the monastery in 527. On arrival at the temple he found that most of the monks were suffering from poor health and so he taught them a series of exercises based on the movements of five animals (tiger, snake, crane, eagle and monkey) to improve their levels of fitness. These exercises (wuqinxi, literally "five pure rivers") were later adapted into a combat discipline when, as the temple grew, it became subject to attacks from brigands against whom the monks needed to protect themselves.

Rainbow Nation

The expression has since entered mainstream consciousness to describe South Africa's ethnic diversity.

a whistle stop

Ordinarily, a flag or other visual indicator would be placed outside the station by the station master if the station had traffic. If a stop was requested by a passenger on the train, a whistle would be sounded by train personnel to alert the locomotive engineer to the need to stop.

the Yasukuni Shrine

Visits to the shrine by cabinet members have been a cause of protest at home and abroad. China, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan have protested against various visits since 1985. Despite the controversy, the former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made annual visits from 2001 to 2006.

a tint is the mixture of a color with white, and a shade is the mixture of a color with black

Mixing with white increases value or lightness, while mixing with black reduces chroma. Mixing with any neutral color, including black and white, reduces chroma or colorfulness. The intensity does not change.

Falun Gong (or) Falun Dafa

The Chinese government banned the group for allegedly engaging in "illegal activities, advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability." Several governments, international human rights organizations and scholars consider the ban a human rights violation.

the Electra complex

It was named the "Electra complex" by his contemporary Carl Jung, although Freud himself rejected the use of the term because it "seeks to emphasize the analogy between the attitude of the two sexes."

the katana

They are referenced in many films, including the popular 'Kill Bill'.

The Katzenjammer Kids

Leonardo Da Vinci's

Gates renamed it the Codex Leicester. It is a collection of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci and out of his 30 scientific journals, this one might be the most famous of all. The movement of water is the main topic of the Codex. Among other things, Leonardo wrote about the flow of water in rivers, and how it is affected by different obstacles put in its way. From his observations he made recommendations about bridge construction and erosion.

it is a law designed to keep criminals from profiting from their crimes

Such laws often authorize the state to seize money earned from such book deals and such and use it to compensate the criminal's victims. The first such law was created in New York after the Son of Sam killings. It was enacted after rampant speculation about publishers offering large amounts of money for the serial killer's story. The law was invoked in New York eleven times between 1977 and 1990, including once against Mark David Chapman.

Jihad Johnny

the duck

Richard Wiseman said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck.

the Great Pyramid of Giza built around 2500 BC

(Thanks to Don Corman for sending in a correction.)

the Library of Congress

It is the de facto national library of the US, the research arm of the United States Congress and is the largest by shelf space and one of the most important libraries in the world. Its collections include more than 30 million catalogued books and other print materials in 470 languages and more than 58 million manuscripts.

Siberia!

A prison at the ground floor of the building figures prominently in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's classic study of the Soviet police state, The Gulag Archipelago. Famous inmates held, tortured and interrogated there include Sidney Reilly and Raoul Wallenberg.

Yellow Peril (sometimes Yellow Terror)

The term refers to the skin color of East Asians, and the belief that the mass immigration of Asians threatened white wages and standards of living. Many sources credit Kaiser Wilhelm II with coining the phrase "Yellow Peril" (in German, "gelbe Gefahr") in September 1895.

the pope's

The Pope's summer residence (Residenza Papale in Italian) is a 17th century building designed by Carlo Maderno for Pope Urban VIII. The papal palace, and the adjoining Villa Barberini that was added to the complex by Pius XI have enjoyed extraterritorial rights since the signature of the 1929 treaty with Italy; the little piazza directly in front was renamed Piazza della Libertà in the first flush of Italian unity after 1870. The papal palace remained unused from 1870 until 1929. Popes Pius XII (1958) and Paul VI (1978) died at Castel Gandolfo.

Chang Bunker and Eng Bunker

In 1829, they were discovered in Siam by British merchant Robert Hunter and exhibited as a curiosity during a world tour. Upon termination of their contract with their discoverer, they successfully went into business for themselves. In 1839, while visiting Wilkesboro, North Carolina with P.T. Barnum, the twins were attracted to the town and settled there, becoming naturalized United States citizens.

the Amish

Every Amish church is its own governing authority and has its own set of rules; therefore, it follows its own Ordnung. Their lives are ordered by this code. These rules are largely unwritten. Because the Amish have no central church government, each community administers its own guidelines.

a photograph

The work depicts an interior of a supermarket with numerous aisles depicting goods resulting in a colorful work.

Jane Goodall

She also said that when she first began to live among and study the chimpanzees she was fulfilling her childhood dream of living among the great apes just as Tarzan did.

In which city did this incident take place?

Stockholm

The term Stockholm Syndrome was coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, who assisted the police during the robbery, and referred to the syndrome in a news broadcast.

Krazy Kat

Set in a dreamlike portrayal of Herriman's vacation home of Coconino County, Arizona, Krazy Kat's mixture of surrealism, innocent playfulness and poetic language have made it a favorite of comics aficionados and art critics for more than 80 years.

the lion, the African elephant, the African buffalo, the leopard and the black rhino

The members of the big five were chosen by big-game hunters for the difficulty in hunting them and not their size, which is why the leopard is on the list and the enormous hippopotamus is not.

daylight saving time

The practice is controversial. Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun.

Opus Dei

The organization is sometimes known simply as 'the Work'. It was founded in Spain in 1928 by a Roman Catholic priest Josemaria Escriva and given final approval in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.

Balmoral Castle

The estate was purchased by Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert, and remains a favorite summer royal residence. The Balmoral estate has been passed down the generations and has gradually expanded to more than 26,000 hectares (65,000 acres). The Queen was in residence at Balmoral at the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Her initial decision not to return to London or to mourn more publicly was much criticised at the time. Her private discussions with Prime Minister Tony Blair are dramatised in Stephen Frears' The Queen (2006).

the ouija board

Paranormal advocates believe that the planchette is moved by some extra-normal force. Skeptics attribute the motion to the ideomotor effect. Used since the beginning of the Spiritualism movement of the mid-nineteenth century, planchettes predate the invention of spirit boards. Although speculation exists that the planchette was named after its inventor, the French word "planchette" translates to English as "little plank."

a male part played by an actress

After breeches (knee-length trousers worn by men in the past), from breech (the lower part of the body).

Christopher Wren (1632–1723)

Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note.

the Alaskan king crab and the Opilio crab

The fishing is carried out during the winter months in the waters off the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The commercial harvest is performed during a very short season, and the catch is shipped worldwide. Fishermen spend days at a time on very rough seas working long hours with little rest time.

the maximum dimensions that will fit through the locks of the Panama Canal

This size is determined by the dimensions of the lock chambers, and the depth of the water in the canal. Panamax is a significant factor in the design of cargo ships, with many ships being built to exactly the maximum allowable size.

The Parthian archers, mounted on light horse, would feign retreat; then, while at a full gallop, turn their bodies back to shoot at the pursuing enemy.

The maneuver required superb equestrian skills, since the rider's hands were occupied by his bow, leaving only pressure from his legs to guide his horse. The modern term "parting shot" is probably a bastardization of "Parthian shot", which itself was used up to the 20th century to describe a barbed insult or bon mot given as the speaker departed.

the Bellevue

Founded in 1736, it is the oldest public hospital in the United States.

Graceland, the estate of Elvis

Koizumi, who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006, is an avid Elvis Presley fan and even shares Presley's January 8 birthday.

the Biafra secession

French doctor Bernard Kouchner witnessed many atrocities, particularly the huge number of starving children, and when he returned to France, he publicly criticised the Nigerian government and the Red Cross for their seemingly complicit behaviour. With the help of other French doctors, Kouchner put Biafra in the media spotlight and called for an international response to the situation. These doctors, led by Kouchner, concluded that a new aid organisation was needed that would ignore political/religious boundaries and prioritise the welfare of victims.

'jetsam' has been voluntarily cast into the sea by the crew of a ship, usually in order to lighten it in an emergency; 'flotsam' describes goods that are floating on the water without having been thrown in deliberately, often after a shipwreck

Ligan (or lagan), describes goods that have been marked by being tied to a buoy so that its owner can find and retrieve it later. Derelict is property which has been abandoned and deserted at sea by those who were in charge.

I. M. Pei

It is not well known that a baroque pyramid was proposed for the centennial celebrations of the 1789 French Revolution. It is possible that the architect, I.M. Pei, was aware of these designs when he chose a pyramid form, for the bicentennial celebrations of 1989. The construction of the pyramid triggered considerable controversy because many people feel that this futuristic edifice looks quite out of place in front of the Louvre Museum with its classical architecture.

Nelson Mandela

After assuming the presidency, one of Mandela's trademarks was his use of Batik shirts, known as "Madiba shirts", even on formal occasions.

Smokey Bear

The fictional character Smokey Bear is administered by three entities: the United States Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, and the Ad Council.

paddle steamers

Steamships powered by the steam turbine may be prefixed 'TS' (Turbine Ship).

the University of Oxford

Rhodes Scholars may study any full-time postgraduate course offered by the University.

John Reed (1887-1920), author of Ten Days that Shook the World

He and his wife Louise Bryant were the subjects of the film Reds (1981), directed by Warren Beatty.

scorched earth policy

Apparently a translation of Chinese 'Jiao Tu', the term refers to the practice of burning crops to deny the enemy food sources, although it is by no means limited to food stocks, and can include shelter, transportation, communications and industrial resources, which are often of equal or greater military value in modern warfare, as modern armies generally carry their own food supplies.

architecture

Created in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and run by the Pritzker family, it is considered the world's premier architecture prize. The Pritzker is sometimes referred to as "the Nobel Prize of Architecture".

the Darfur conflict

Since 2003 they have been one of the main players in the Darfur conflict, which has pitted the largely nomadic Arab-identifying Muslim Sudanese against the sedentary non-Arab Muslim Sudanese population of the region in a battle over resource and land allocation.

Alphonse

Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges, Capone's criminal career ended in 1931 when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income tax evasion.

Piltdown Man

The significance of the specimen remained controversial until it was exposed in 1953 as a forgery, consisting of the lower jawbone of an orangutan that had been deliberately combined with the skull of a fully developed modern human. It is perhaps the most famous paleontological hoax in history. It has been prominent for two reasons: the attention paid to the issue of human evolution, and the length of time (more than 40 years) that elapsed from its discovery to its full exposure as a forgery.

longitude

The problem was considered so intractable that the British Parliament offered a prize of £20,000 for the solution. John Harrison spent 31 years of persistent trial and error to perfect his instrument.

an Xbox

George Berkeley (1685-1753)

His theory contends that individuals can only directly know sensations and ideas of objects, not abstractions such as "matter." His most widely-read works are A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713). In 1734 he published The Analyst, a critique of the foundations of calculus, which was influential in the development of mathematics.

an early edition in the press cycle

Although the origin of the term is unclear, the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins suggests "the term dates back to New York City’s newspaper wars of the 1890s, when rival papers were competing for morning readers with special editions sold by street vendors very early in the day. These papers were baptized 'bulldogs' presumably because the publishers fought like bulldogs over circulation."

US Vice-President Dick Cheney shot him while participating in a quail hunt

Whittington was shot in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets from a 28-gauge Perazzi shotgun. He suffered a non-fatal "silent" heart attack and atrial fibrillation due to at least one lead-shot pellet lodged in or near his heart.

Blackbeard

He was a pirate who had a short reign of terror in the Caribbean Sea between 1716 and 1718, during a period of time referred to as the 'Golden Age of Piracy'. His best known vessel was the Queen Anne's Revenge, which is believed by some to have run aground near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina in 1718.

Braille

A dot may be raised at any of the six positions to form sixty-four combinations (including the combination in which no dots are raised). For reference purposes, a particular combination may be described by naming the positions where dots are raised, the positions being universally numbered 1 to 3, from top to bottom, on the left, and 4 to 6, from top to bottom, on the right. For example, dots 1-3-4 would describe a cell with three dots raised, at the top and bottom in the left column and on top of the right column (ie the letter 'm').

the United States Postal Service (USPS)

Employing 596,000 workers and over 218,000 vehicles, it is also the second-largest civilian employer in the United States (after Wal-Mart). Since its reorganization into an independent organization, the USPS has become self-sufficient and has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s. However it is currently borrowing money from the U.S. Treasury to pay its deficits.

an artificial island used as a settlement

a toothbrush mustache

This moustache is most famous for having been worn by German dictator Adolf Hitler, although it was already well-recognised as part of the movie star Charlie Chaplin's iconic Little Tramp costume (Chaplin did not wear the moustache in daily life).

magic

Before him, magicians performed in marketplaces and fairs, but Robert-Houdin performed magic in theatres and private parties. He also chose to wear formal clothes, like those of his audiences. The stage name of Harry Houdini was taken in tribute to him, though Houdini later denounced him.

Medellín

It existed in permanent conflict with the Cali Cartel and, from the early '80s onward, the Colombian government.

Mad

The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman after he spotted it in an the office of Ballantine Books. Since his debut, Neuman's likeness, distinguished by jug ears, a missing front tooth, and one eye disquietingly lower than the other, has graced the cover of all but a handful of the magazine's 450+ issues.

LexisNexis

LexisNexis is divided into two sites: Lexis.com, intended for legal research, while Nexis.com is intended for investigations into business dealings.

Mensa

a perpetual motion machine

The filing of a patent is a clerical task, and the patent office won't refuse filings for perpetual motion machines; the patent will be filed and then most probably rejected by the patent examiner, after he has done a formal examination. Even if the patent is granted, it doesn't mean that the invention actually works, it just means that the examiner thinks that it works, or that he couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work.

National Geographic

Gula was known throughout the world simply as the Afghan Girl until she was formally identified in 2002. The image of her face, with a red scarf draped loosely over her head and with her piercing sea-green eyes staring directly into the camera, became a symbol both of the 1980s Afghan conflict and of the refugee situation worldwide. The image itself was named as "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the magazine.

a series of high-altitude jumps

In one of these jumps Kittinger set world records for the highest parachute jump, the longest parachute drogue fall and the fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere, all of which still stand.

King Tut's tomb

Several months later after the excavation, Carnarvon died in Cairo in 1923. This led to the story of the "Curse of Tutankhamun", the "Mummy's Curse." His colleague and employee, Howard Carter, the man most responsible for revealing the tomb of the young king, lived safely for another sixteen years.

Eton College

It is often described as the most famous public school in the world and has a very long list of distinguished former pupils, including 19 former British Prime Ministers.

Gaddafi of Libya

They sparked an international incident in 2006 when Gaddafi landed in Nigeria with over 200 heavily armed female guards for a summit. Nigerian security officials refused to allow the Libyans entry based on their armaments, and Gaddafi angrily resolved to set off on foot 40 km to Nigeria's capital from the airport.

Tokyo

The movement was founded by Shoko Asahara in his one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo's Shibuya ward in 1984, starting off as a Yoga and meditation class known as Aum-no-kai ("Aum club") and steadily grew in the following years. It gained the official status as a religious organization in 1989. It attracted such a considerable number of young graduates from Japan's elite universities that it was dubbed a "religion for the elite".

Fill in X.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

He was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as an horticulturist, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor, and the founder of the University of Virginia, among other roles.

gardening

Adam was appointed by God to dress the garden of Eden, and to keep it (Gen. ii. 15); and after the fall he was sent out of the garden “to till the ground”(Gen. iii. 23).

the New York Times

Founded in 1851, the newspaper has won more than a hundred Pulitzer Prizes, far more than any other newspaper. The newspaper's name is often abbreviated to The Times, but should not be confused with The Times, which is published in London.

the Secret Service

The Secret Service was commissioned on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C. as the "Secret Service Division," to suppress counterfeit currency, which is why it was established under the United States Department of the Treasury.

a state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea

The term can also simply refer to naval supremacy, in either military or commercial senses of the word "supremacy." The word thalassocracy itself, deriving from the Greek thalassokratiâ—thalassa meaning "sea," and kratiâ meaning "rule" or "government"—first occurred amongst the ancient Greeks describing the government of the Minoan civilization, whose power depended on its navy. Herodotus spoke of the need to counter the Phoenician thalassocracy by developing a Greek "empire of the sea."

reading the entire Encyclopædia Britannica

The Britannica is the oldest English-language encyclopedia still in print. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh and is currently published from Chicago.

Buridan's ass

The paradox is named after the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan. It is first found in Aristotle's De Caelo where Aristotle mentions an example of a man who remains unmoved because he is as hungry as he is thirsty and is positioned exactly between food and drink.

the K-141 Kursk

Though a rescue attempt was made by British and Norwegian teams, all sailors and officers aboard the Kursk perished. The first investigations suggested that most of the crew had died within minutes of the explosion. However journal entries show that many survived in the rear of the ship for hours after the blasts. Kursk was eventually raised from her grave by a Dutch team using the barge Giant 4, and 115 of the 118 dead were recovered and laid to rest in Russia.

the Andrea Doria

Improvements in communications and rapid responses by other ships averted a disaster similar in scale to the Titanic disaster of 1912. Most passengers and crew survived. On the Andrea Doria, 1660 people were rescued and 46 died. The Andrea Doria was the last major transatlantic passenger vessel to sink before aircraft became the preferred method of travel.

the Maltese cross

The cross is eight-pointed and has the shape of four "V" shaped arms joined together at their bases, so that each arm has two points. The Maltese cross remains the symbol of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and other Orders of St John. In recent centuries it has come to be adopted as the insignia of numerous orders of chivalry, and appears on the coat-of-arms of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz district. In Australia the Maltese Cross is part of the state emblem of Queensland.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859)

He is also known for a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.

crop circles

Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god

According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is in fact the largest pyramid as well as the largest monument ever constructed anywhere in the world and it is almost one third larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

dead water

Much of the energy from the ships propeller only result in waves and turbulence between the two layers of water, leaving a ship capable of traveling at perhaps as little as 20% of her normal speed.

the tiger (Project Tiger)

The project aims at tiger conservation in specially constituted 'tiger reserves' which are representative of various bio-geographical regions falling within India. It strives to maintain a viable tiger population in their natural environment. Today, there are 27 Project Tiger wildlife reserves in India covering an area of 37,761 square kms. In recent times, however, critics have complained that officials have inflated India's wild tiger census so as to save their jobs.

Who is this illustrious candidate?

John Bardeen (1908-1991)

He is the only person to have won two Nobel prizes in physics: in 1956 for the transistor, along with William Bradford Shockley and Walter Brattain, and in 1972 for a fundamental theory of conventional superconductivity together with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer, now called BCS theory.

What resulted from this meeting?

Fallingwater

It is a famous house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. Despite its structural problems, Fallingwater is widely considered a master's masterpiece.

Taliesin

Today, the entire Taliesin estate is a National Historic Landmark in the US.

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard was founded along with the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel, with the help of Francois-Eugene Vidocq. It opened for business as administrative headquarters of the Service on 29 September 1829, housing the two commissioners and their administrative staffs in a complex of about 50 rooms. It was not (and has never been) a police station in the usual sense, with each division of the police instead operating their own local stations.

Doonesbury

Frequently political in nature, it features characters professing a range of affiliations, but the cartoon's editorial slant is primarily noted for a liberal outlook. The name "Doonesbury" is a combination of the word doone — 1960s prep school slang for "someone unafraid to appear foolish" — with the surname of the roommate who was given that nickname, Charles Pillsbury. The strip marked its official thirty-fifth anniversary on October 26, 2005.

Al-Jazeera

The original Al Jazeera channel was started in 1996 with a US$150 million grant from the Emir of Qatar.

red, green and gold (and) red, green and black

the Union Jack

The issue of whether it is acceptable to use the term "Union Jack" instead of "Union Flag" is one that causes considerable controversy. Although it is often asserted that "Union Jack" should only be used for the flag when it is flown as a jack (a small flag flown at the bow of a ship), it is not universally accepted that the "Jack" of "Union Jack" is a reference to such a jack flag.

the Swiss Army Knife

A Swiss Army knife has a blade as well as various tools, such as screwdrivers and can openers. These attachments are stowed inside the handle of the knife through a pivot point mechanism. The handle is usually red, and features a white cross, the emblem of Switzerland. It was originated in Ibach, Schwyz, Switzerland in 1897.

Which 20th century philosopher-mathematician wrote this in his autobiography?

Bertrand Russell

Russell's adolescence was very lonely and he remarked in his autobiography that his keenest interests were in sex, religion and mathematics. Russell is generally recognised as one of the founders of analytic philosophy, even of its several branches.

Barbie (the doll)

Barbie is a best-selling doll launched at the American International Toy Fair in 1959 and is produced by Mattel. The standard range of Barbie dolls and related accessories are manufactured to approximately 1/6th scale, which is also known as playscale. In Middle Eastern countries there is an alternative doll called Fulla who is similar to Barbie but is designed to be more acceptable to an Islamic market. Fulla is not made by the Mattel Corporation.

Cuban cigars

Cigars manufactured in Cuba are widely considered to be without peer, although many experts believe that the best offerings from Honduras and Nicaragua rival those from Cuba. The Cuban reputation is thought to arise from both the unique characteristics of the west of the island, where the microclimate allows high-quality tobacco to be grown as well as from the skill of the Cuban cigar rollers.

Pope Benedict XVI quoted from a dialogue of the emperor allegedly denigrating the Prophet Muhammad

In a lecture delivered in September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI quoted from a dialogue believed to have occurred in 1391 between Manuel II and a Persian scholar in which the Emperor stated: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Many Muslims were offended by what was perceived as a denigration of Muhammad, and many reacted violently.

Amnesty International

Founded in the UK in 1961 by Peter Benenson, AI compares actual practices of human rights with internationally accepted standards and demands compliance where these have not been respected.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law"

It is a product of the 'Miranda v. Arizona' case, that resulted in a landmark 5-4 decision of the United States Supreme Court in 1966. The Court held that criminal suspects must be informed of their right to consult with an attorney and of their right against self-incrimination prior to questioning by police.

safari

It usually refers to a trip by tourists to Africa, traditionally for a big-game hunt and in more modern times to watch and photograph big game and other wildlife as a safari holiday. It is an overland journey.

Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. He is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy and, by virtue of his magnum opus Ethics, one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists. Albert Einstein named Spinoza as the philosopher who exerted the most influence on his world view (Weltanschauung). Spinoza equated God (infinite substance) with Nature, consistent with Einstein's belief in an impersonal deity.

Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

On July 28, 2006, the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center ceased to be an operational base. NORAD officials no longer feel there is a threat of an intercontinental nuclear attack which could disrupt operations. The facility is on "warm standby" and could be reactivated if needed.

atheism!

Under Hoxha, whose rule was characterized by isolation from the rest of Europe and by his proclaimed firm adherence to Marxism-Leninism, Albania's government of the time projected the image that it had emerged from semi-feudalism to become an industrialized state. Albania became the only country to officially ban religion.

Methuselah

He reached the age of 969 years.

Who/what is XXX?

Einstein

on Mount Herzl

It is the final resting place of Theodor Herzl considered to be the founder of modern political Zionism, and the burial place of three Isreali PM's including Yitzha Rabin and Golda Meir. It is a place that is generally venerated by modern Israelis, and is the focal point of commemorative and celebratory proceedings related to the State of Israel.

shuttle diplomacy

It is often used when the two primary parties do not formally recognize each other but still want to negotiate. The term shuttle diplomacy became widespread following Henry Kissinger's term as United States Secretary of State. Kissinger participated in shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East and in the People's Republic of China.

Columbia University in New York City

Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of these, each winner receives a certificate and a US$10,000 cash reward. The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal, which always goes to a newspaper, although an individual may be named in the citation. The prize was established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911.

at the time of departure

It indicates that "All persons should report on board as the vessel is about to proceed to sea". At sea, it may be used by fishing vessels to mean: "My nets have come fast upon an obstruction".

the Institute for Advanced Study

There are other Institutes of Advanced Study in the U.S. and elsewhere which are based on the Princeton model.

Geraldine Ferraro

Ferraro and running mate Walter Mondale were defeated in a landslide by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush in the 1984 election.

the Tenerife accident that killed 583 people

The accident still has the highest number of fatalities (excluding ground fatalities) of any single accident in aviation history. The aircraft involved were Pan Am Flight 1736, named Clipper Victor, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 4805, named Rijn. KLM 4805, taking off on the only runway of the airport, crashed into the Pan Am aircraft which was taxiing on the same runway.