... the extraordinary thing in this young woman is that she has made herself so thoroughly acquainted with the science that the moment she finds any bones she knows to what tribe they belong. She fixes the bones on a frame with cement and then makes drawings and has them engraved. . . It is certainly a wonderful instance of divine favour – that this poor, ignorant girl should be so blessed, for by reading and application she has arrived to that degree of knowledge as to be in the habit of writing and talking with professors and other clever men on the subject, and they all acknowledge that she understands more of the science than anyone else in this kingdom.
As time passed, her confidence in her knowledge increased, and in 1839 she wrote to the "Magazine of Natural History" to question their claim that a hooked tooth of the prehistoric shark "Hybodus" represented a new discovery. She had discovered years ago the existence of fossil sharks with both straight and hooked teeth. The extract from the letter that the magazine printed was the only thing that Anning ever published.
Mary Anning is the subject of the old tongue-twister, "She sells sea shells on the sea shore." It was composed in 1908, more than a half century after her death, by Terry Sullivan who was inspired by her life story. The lyrics have changed over time, but the original text was:<br>
She sells seashells on the seashore<br>
The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure<br>
So if she sells seashells on the seashore<br>
Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.<br>
Anning's life story was seen as inspirational by a number of writers in the 20th century. Most of this material was intended as inspirational literature for children, and tended to focus on her childhood and early career, neglecting her later accomplishments. Much of it was also romanticized and not always historically accurate. She appeared as a character in historical novels, perhaps most notably in "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1969) by John Fowles, which was made into a feature film in 1981. Fowles observed critically that no British scientist had named a species after Anning in her lifetime.
However, in the 1840s the Swiss-American expert on fossil fish Louis Agassiz did name two fossil fish species, "Acrodus anningiae", and "Belenostomus anningiae", after her, and another after her friend Elizabeth Philpot. Agassiz was grateful for the help the two women had given him in examining and understanding fossil fish specimens, during his 1834 visit to Lyme Regis.
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is the misuse of electronic information and mass media, such as e-mail, SMS, weblogs, cellphones and defamatory websites, to harass or attack a person or a group. It can cause emotional damage. Cyberbullying can include sending threats and unwanted sexual messages.
Some schools have started programs to teach students about cyberbullying and how to deal with it.
In 2006, a 13 year old girl in Missouri killed herself after receiving mean messages on MySpace from a woman pretending to be a teenage boy. The state of Missouri then made using technology like the Internet or text messages to harass someone illegal.
In New Hampshire, a law was passed in 2010 that said that schools must have rules against cyberbullying.
On October 12, 2012, a Canadian girl named Amanda Todd killed herself. A few years before this happened, she showed her breasts on a video chat, and a man later messaged her saying that if Todd did not show more parts of her body then he would post the pictures he had taken of her from the video chat to the Internet. She faced alot of bullying on the internet afterwards.
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) is a list of all the pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach that are known. In English it means Bach Works Catalogue.
The catalogue was made by Wolfgang Schmieder in 1950. He took all the music that is known by Johann Sebastian Bach (some of Bach's music has been lost) and gave each piece a number. Each piece of music by Bach therefore has a BWV number. For example, the "Mass in B minor" is BWV 232. Giving each piece a number helps musicians to know exactly which piece of music we are talking about. For example, there are several Preludes and Fugues in G major, but putting "Prelude and Fugue in G major BWV550" makes it clear which one it is.
The BWV numbers are not listed chronologically (in the order they were written). They are grouped according to what kind of music it is: all the cantatas together, all the concertos together, etc.
Some pieces of music may be written by Bach, but we are not sure. Those doubtful pieces of music are listed separately as "BWV Anhang" (BWV appendix). Some of what Schmieder wrote in 1950 has been updated because some new music by Bach has been discovered. Other pieces of music have now been proved not to be by Bach.
Bach, like many composers from long ago, did not use opus numbers, because very few of his works were published during his lifetime.
Some older books write "S" instead of "BWV" (S for Schmieder), but Schmieder did not want this. He wanted Bach's name to be used, not his own.
Han Fei Zi
Han Fei Zi (281 BC – 233 BC) was an early Chinese philosopher. He is part of a group said to have created of doctrine of the "School of Law" or Legalism.
Thomas Anders
Thomas Anders (born Bernd Weidung, 1 March 1963, Koblenz, West Germany) is a German singer, composer and record producer. Anders was the lead singer of Modern Talking, a famous German pop duo, between 1984–1987 and 1998–2003.
Despite the title, this DVD misses some videos by Thomas Anders: "Heißkalter Engel", "Es geht mir gut heut' Nacht", "Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)" and "Soldier".
Américo
Domingo Jonhy Vega Urzúa (December 24, 1977, Arica, Chile), commonly known as Américo, is a Chilean singer. He became known when he started leading the band "Américo y la Nueva Alegría". He is the son of the boleros singer Melvin "Corazón" Américo, who sings duets with his wife, Marcela Toledo.
Holodomor
The Holodomor (, which means "murder by hunger") was a man-made famine that happened in Ukraine in 1932 and in 1933. At that time, Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union. About seven million people starved to death in the Holodomor.
Joseph Stalin was the leader and dictator of the Soviet Union, which was a communist country. He made farmers in the Soviet Union change the way they farmed, then he tried to make the farmers work harder for the government-owned farms, for less money. Many people in the Ukraine did not want to go along with this. When the Ukraine had a famine, Stalin refused to help the people in the Ukraine. Instead, the government took food away from people. It became illegal (against the law) to pick up food from the ground of fields. The government also tried to stop people from moving around the country to look for food.
Scholars and politicians using the word Holodomor say the man-made aspects of the famine, was a genocide; some consider the huge loss of life comparable to the Holocaust. They argue that the Soviet policies were an attack on the rise of Ukrainian nationalism and therefore is a genocide.
Other scholars say that the Holodomor was an unexpected consequence of the rapid and massive industrialization started by Stalin, that brought radical economic changes to the farmers and the country, and which was not done on purpose.
Castling
Castling is a special move in chess that uses both a rook and the king. In castling, the king is moved two squares toward the rook, and the rook moves past the king to the square right next to where the king has moved. Castling takes one move, and is the only way for a player to move two of his own pieces on the same move. Castling can be done on either side of the board. Castling can either be done on the king-side (also known as castling short) or on the queen-side (also known as castling long).
Castling is only possible if each of the following things are true: