A quill pen is a tool used for writing, made from a flight feather of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before other pens were invented. They are still used in calligraphy sometimes. Today, most paper is made from wood plulp. Such papers use the quill rather rapidly. The hollow shaft of the feather (the "calamus") acts as an ink reservoir and ink flows to the tip by capillary action.
Flag of Kentucky
The Flag of Kentucky was adopted on March 26, 1918. It has a blue background, with Kentucky's seal in the middle. The seal shows a picture of two men hugging each other. Legend says that the two men were Daniel Boone and Henry Clay. Above their heads says "United We Stand". By their toes says "Divided We Fall". The phrase "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" is Kentucky's motto.
Illustrissimi
Illustrissimi ("To the Illustrious Ones") is a book written by Pope John Paul I when he was Patriarch of Venice.
The book is a collection of letters which were first published in the Italian Christian paper "Messaggero di S. Antonio" between 1972 and 1975. They were re-printed in book form in Italy in 1976.
The work was first published in English in 1978 when Cardinal Luciani was elected Pope, but it only reached the public after the death of John Paul I.
The 40 letters in all are addressed to people in Italian history and fiction, including
Self-similarity
Something is self-similar if it is similar (or very close) to a part of itself. For example, the Mandelbrot set is self-similar as it contains an infinite number of almost exact copies of itself.
Space Launch System
The Space Launch System (SLS) is a NASA rocket. It is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle. It is the most powerful rocket ever built. The SLS is a replacement for the retired Space Shuttle. Many parts are modified versions of parts designed for the Space Shuttle. Others are new designs.
The first flight of the SLS will be in November 2021.However, the first crewed (carrying people) flight will be in 2023.
The Space Launch System comes in many different types meant to launch different kinds of missions.
The least powerful kind of the SLS is the Block 1. The core stage will use the parts of the Space Shuttle External Tank. It will also use four Space Shuttle Main Engines. The rocket boosters are connected to the sides are the 5-segment Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters. The top stage will use is the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS).
Block 1B is similar to the Block 1. The top stage will change with Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). A crew version and a cargo version will be made.
Block 2 is similar to Block 1B. The 5-segment SRBs will be changed with advanced boosters.
Knuth's up-arrow notation
Knuth's up-arrow notation is a way of expressing very big numbers. It was made by Donald Knuth in 1976. It is related to the hyperoperation sequence. The notation is used in Graham's number.
One arrow represents exponentiation, 2 arrows represent tetration, 3 for pentation, etc.:
This notation is used to describe the incredibly large Graham's Number.
Bernie Madoff
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff (; April 29, 1938 – April 14, 2021) was an American former investor, former stockbroker and former non-executive chairman for NASDAQ Stock Market. He was the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme which is the largest financial fraud in United States history.
In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. Thousands of investors lost billions of dollars. Madoff said he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s. However, federal investigators believe the fraud began as early as the 1970s. The people who are hunting for the missing money believe the investment operation may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts, including fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. The court-appointed trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion. On June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.
Madoff was of Jewish descent. He was married to Ruth. The elder of their two sons committed suicide by hanging in 2010. The younger son died of lymphoma in 2014.
In December 2013, Madoff suffered from a heart attack. In January 2014, he said he has stage 4 kidney cancer.
Madoff died on April 14, 2021 at a prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina after suffering from kidney disease for many years, at the age of 82.
Duckboards
Duckboards are wooden walkways. They are usually put over muddy ground. Doing this means that people can walk on the dry duckboards instead of the muddy ground.
Duckboards are used to allow hikers to walk over wet and/or muddy ground, like a swamp or shores of a lake. Very wide duckboards are used sometimes so that wheelchair users can use them. Duckboards can be nailed into logs with wooden stakes.
During World War I, duckboards were put along the ground of trenches on the Western Front. This is because the trenches usually flooded. Mud and water would stay in the trenches for months. The boards helped to keep the soldiers' feet dry. It also helped stop soldiers get a disease called trench foot. Trench foot is caused by standing on wet, muddy ground for a long time. They also helped soldiers move along the trenches faster. Sometimes, falling from duckboards could be deadly. Some unlucky soldiers drowned in mud because of their heavy equipment.
Twenty Questions
20Q is a game where somebody thinks of an object and the goal is to figure out what it is in 20 questions or fewer. It is available as a handheld game, a website, and a game show. It usually starts out by asking whether the object is an "animal, vegetable, mineral, or other".
20Q website
Bill Clements
William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. (April 13, 1917 – May 29, 2011) was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction. Clements' eight years in office were the most served by any Texan governor prior to former Governor Rick Perry.
Clements was born in Dallas and worked as an oil driller for many years. He studied at Southern Methodist University (SMU) but did not finish a degree. He founded SEDCO in 1947, which became the world's largest offshore drilling company. He entered politics as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. From 1975-1977 he worked under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
In 1975, he married political organizer Rita Crocker Clements.
On January 16, 1979, Clements replaced Democrat Dolph Briscoe as governor of Texas. He defeated State Representative Ray Hutchison in the Republican primary by a vote of 115,345 to 38,268. Clements won the November 1978 general election defeating Democrat John Hill. Hill had been the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court and had been the Texas Attorney General for six years. Clements got 49.96% of the votes. With help from the votes of several minor candidates he narrowly won the election.
Clements ran for reelection in 1982 but was defeated by Democratic Attorney General Mark White. People think that he lost votes because the economy was bad.
After being defeated, Clements was chairman of the board of governors of SMU in Dallas. He ran again in 1986 and won a primary against U.S. Representative Thomas Loeffler of New Braunfels and former Democratic turned Republican Congressman Kent Hance of Lubbock. At the election Clements defeated Governor White getting 52.7% of the votes.