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.

Christopher Wren (1632–1723)

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

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."

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.

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.

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".

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.

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 Viper Room

Even following Phoenix's death, the club remained a hang-out for Hollywood hottest young actors. Regulars included Jennifer Aniston and Sean Penn.

An Xbox

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.

Can you fill in XXX?

Chatham House Rule

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.

Break a leg

The expression is a theatrical superstition that replaces the phrase "good luck" which is considered bad luck. The expression is sometimes used outside the theatre as superstitions and customs travel through other professions and then into common use.

Opus Dei

Opus Dei is Latin for "Work of God", and 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.

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.

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.

Red, Green and Gold; Red, Green and Black

Tangram

The Lion, the African elephant, the African buffalo, the leopard and the black rhinoceros.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Buridan's ass (X is 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.

Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

An 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."

Haifa, Israel

The Bahá'í World Centre is recognizable by the gardens that dominate the area of Mount Carmel directly above the sea port. The Bahá'í World Centre is also the current destination for Bahá'í pilgrimage.

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.

The Blue Peter

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".

Roulette

The first form of roulette was devised in 17th century France, by the mathematician Blaise Pascal, who was supposedly inspired by his fascination with perpetual motion devices.

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.

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.

Mimar Sinan (1489-1588)

During his tenure during 50 years of the post of imperial architect, Sinan is said to have constructed or supervised 476 buildings (196 of which still survive), according to the official list of his works, the Tazkirat-al-Abniya.

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.

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.

Proletariat

Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons; the term was initially used in a derogatory sense, until Karl Marx used it. In Marxist theory, the proletariat is that class of society which does not have ownership of the means of production.

Peanuts

At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages.

Frank Llyod Wright and Taliesin

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

Nelson Mandela

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 in Mad, 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.

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.

Majordomo

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.

'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 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.

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.

Lourdes

Today Lourdes has a population of around 1,000 inhabitants but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season.

Peter Sellers

The Playboy Mansion

The original Playboy Mansion was a 70-room residence in Chicago at 1340 North State Street. For a period in the 1970s, Hugh Hefner divided his time between the Chicago mansion and the Mansion West, moving full time to the California mansion in 1974.

In Doha, Qatar

Meaning 'The Island', the station gained worldwide attention following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it broadcast video statements by Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders. The original Al Jazeera channel was started in 1996 with a US$150 million grant from the Emir of Qatar.

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.

Doonesbury

Frequently political in nature, Doonesbury 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.

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.

Desmond Tutu

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

Germany

It was the idea of 20-year-old Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1807, at a time when the German states were defeated and occupied by Napoleon.

Sex change surgery

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 Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute is perhaps best known as the academic home of Albert Einstein and John von Neumann after their immigration to the United States. There are other Institutes of Advanced Study in the U.S. and elsewhere which are based on the Princeton model.

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.

Gaddafi of Libya

The Amazonian Guard 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.

It is a law designed to keep criminals from profiting from their crimes often by selling their stories to publishers.

Such laws often authorize the state to seize money earned from such a deal 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.

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.

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.

Jean Robert-Houdin (1805 - 1871)

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.

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.

White Elephant

The metaphor was popularized in the United States after New York Giants manager John McGraw told the press that Philadelphia businessman Benjamin Shibe had "bought himself a white elephant" by acquiring the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team in 1901. The Athletics manager Connie Mack subsequently selected the elephant as the team symbol and mascot. The team is occasionally referred to as the White Elephants.

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.

Toothbrush

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.

Bellevue Hospital Center

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

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

Janjaweed

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.

Iridium

The Iridium satellite constellation is a system of 66 active communication satellites and spares around the Earth. It allows worldwide voice and data communications using handheld devices. The Iridium network is unique in that it covers the whole earth, including poles, oceans and airways, however the service is interdicted due to American embargoes in North Korea, Iran, Libya and Sudan. The name was taken from the element Iridium, with the atomic number of 77 -- the size of the satellite constellation projected in the early stages of planning.

Daylight Savings Time

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Great Pyramid of Cholula in Puebla, Mexico

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, with a total volume estimated at 4.45 million m³, almost one third larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. (The Giza pyramid is taller, however.) The Aztecs believed that Xelhua built the Great Pyramid of Cholula.

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.

Call for the resignation of Nixon

Tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others

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.

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.

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.

Alaskan king 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.

Alfred Nobel

U.S. 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.

LexisNexis

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

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.

Only 2 men to have reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest point on the earth's surface.

They were aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste when it made a record-breaking descent into the Challenger Deep in 1960. The depth was measured at 35,813 ft (10,916 m), but later and more accurate measurements have put it at 35,798 ft (10,911 m). The dive has never been repeated, and presently no manned or unmanned craft exists capable of reaching such depth.

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.

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 New York Times

It is often regarded as a national newspaper of record in the US. Founded in 1851, the newspaper has won 94 Pulitzer Prizes as of 2006, 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.

Confessionalism

Posts in government and seats in the legislature are apportioned amongst different groups according to the relative demographic composition of those groups in a society, which is seen as a way of formally recognizing the communal political rights of indigenous groups. Currently, the political system of Lebanon is modeled in such a way, and the term is usually associated with Lebanon.

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.

Serial killer

It is widely believed that the term serial killer has been coined either by FBI agent Robert Ressler or by Dr. Robert D. Keppel in the 1970s.

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)

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 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.

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).

Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt built around 2500 B.C.

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.

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.

An artificial or natural island, used for a settlement.

The name can also be used to refer to wooden platforms erected on shallow loch floors, although understandably few remains of this sort have been found. The choice of an island as a home is thought to have been for defence as well as the availability of food in the form of fish nearby.

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)

Katana

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

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.

'jetsam' has been voluntarily cast into the sea by the crew of a ship, usually in order to lighten it in an emergency; while '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

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.

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.

A series of 3 high-altitude jumps

In the last jump, the Captain reached an altitude of 102,800 ft (31,300 m), or almost 20 miles before beginning his descent which was timed at 4 minutes and 36 seconds. He set world records for the highest parachute jump and the longest parachute freefall, both of which still stand as of 2007.

Until the early 1980's, visitors to Disneyland would purchase books of coupons that were in different denominations, from A through E, with E tickets being the most expensive and reserved for the newest, most expensive or popular rides and attractions.

Laos

Archaeologists believe that the jars were used 1,500–2,000 years ago, by an ancient Mon-Khmer race whose culture is now totally unknown. Anthropologists and archeologists have theorized that the jars may have been used as funeral urns or perhaps storage for food. The Plain of Jars remains one of the most dangerous archaeological sites in the world. Unexploded bombs, the results of massive US bombardment during the Secret War (of the Vietnam War), still cause injuries every week.

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.

Prayer on behalf of another person

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.

Lords, vassals and fiefs

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.

Methuselah

He reached the age of 969 years.

The Pope

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.

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.

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.

The Rhodes Scholarship

The scholarships were initiated after the death of Cecil John Rhodes and have been awarded by the Rhodes Trust in Oxford on the basis of academic qualities, as well as those of character. They provide the successful candidate with two years of study at the University of Oxford in England, possibly extended for a third year.

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.

Whose words?

Jesse Owens

John Walker Lindh

The Piltdown Man

The significance of the specimen remained the subject of controversy until it was exposed in 1953 as a forgery, consisting of the lower jawbone of an orangutan combined with the skull of a fully developed, modern man. The hoax 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 exposure as a forgery.

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.

Rod of Asclepius (or) 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.

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.

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.

Stockholm syndrome

The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg, Stockholm, Sweden, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28 in 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their victimizers, and even defended their captors after they were freed from their six-day ordeal. 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.

'contrition after a failed endeavour' or 'hangover' in German.

The University of Oxford

Charles M. Schulz

According to the book "Where Are They Buried?" (as well as other sources), Charles M. Schulz's income during his lifetime totaled more than $1.1 billion, a true testament to the impact Schulz had on three generations of Americans who grew up with the Peanuts gang and "good Ol' Charlie Brown."

Edmund Hillary to lifelong friend George Lowe, on returning from Everest's summit.

While stressing team work, Tenzing Norgay disclosed that Hillary was the first to put his foot on the summit and concluded: "If it is a shame to be the second man on Mount Everest, then I will have to live with this shame."

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), engineer, creator of Great Western Railway and other significant works

The 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.

Columbarium

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 Tenerife disaster 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.

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.

Pope Benedict XVI quoted from a dialogue involving the emperor and the Islamic world was not pleased.

There are several interpretations as to why the Pope did what he did.

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.

Paddle steamers

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

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.

Clash of Civilizations

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Huntington is increasingly regarded as having been prescient as the United States invasion of Afghanistan, 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the 2005 cartoon crisis, the ongoing Iranian nuclear crisis, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict and the Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy fueled the perception that Huntington's Clash is well underway. The Clash of Civilizations thesis may also be regarded as an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The ideas of Huntington and Bernard Lewis were already influential among American neoconservative figures such as Vice President Richard Cheney prior to September 11, 2001; Middle East scholar Gilles Kepel (2003) reports that many radical Islamists in the Middle East likewise viewed Huntington's thesis approvingly. Therefore, the fact that U.S. policymakers and radical Islamists have confronted each other in a certain way may be an indication that people on both sides were interpreting events according to the thesis, rather than that the thesis itself was especially prescient.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

Magellan

He was a Portuguese born maritime explorer who, at the service of Spain, attempted to find a westward route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. He did not complete his final, westward voyage; he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines. He did, however, die farther west than the Spice Islands, which he had visited from the west on earlier voyages, making him one of the first individuals to cross all the meridians of the globe. He became the first person to lead an expedition sailing westward from Europe to Asia and to cross the Pacific Ocean.

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.

Don Henley of the Eagles

The writer, transcendentalist, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau lived on the shores of Walden pond for two years starting in the summer of 1845. His account of the experience was recorded in Walden, or, Life in the Woods, and made the spot famous.

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.

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.

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.

Mensa

a Cinderella stamp

The term also excludes imprinted stamps on postal stationery.

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.

Unit 731

Headed by Shiro Ishii, it was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes ever carried out. In some of the 'experiments', prisoners of war were subjected to vivisection without anesthesia.

Six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two columns of three dots each.

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').

Medellín Cartel

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

Edition of a morning newspaper that is sold the night before the date it bears.

The actual origin of the name is uncertain, although some say it originated in New York City at a time when there were three morning newspapers-the World, the Herald, and the Journal-who "fought like bulldogs" to be the first to get their edition on the street. (Loosely, the term has come to mean the earliest edition of any daily paper, including afternoon papers.)

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.

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.

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.

The Penny Black

Although the Penny Black is readily available on the collectors' market today, because of its significance, it is in great demand by collectors and therefore not cheap; in 2000 a used stamp cost about US$200 (around £110), and an unused stamp about US$3,000 (around £1,600). (By contrast, a used penny red was $3 (£1.50).)

Gentrification

Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size decreases in the community, which may result in the informal economic eviction of the lower-income residents, because of increased rents, house prices, and property taxes.

Crop circles

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."

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.

Lubyanka

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.

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.

Einstein

Longitude

It was a long-sought and critically-needed key piece in the problem of accurately establishing the East-West position, or longitude, of a ship at sea. The problem was so intractable that the English Parliament offered a huge fortune for the day (£20,000, roughly £6 million in 2007 terms), for a solution.

Indira Gandhi

At the time of the assassination Ustinov was on an overseas phone call with his theatrical producer (and later manager) Douglas Urbanski, who heard all of the commotion in the background.

Aum Shinrikyo, now known as Aleph

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".

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).

Henotheism

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.

USA Today

Among English-language broadsheets, it comes second world-wide, behind the 2.6 million daily paid copies of The Times of India.

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.

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.

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.

Photography