Friday, April 30, 2010

Apothecary

A historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients; now, a role served by a pharmacist:

Apothecary

Materia Medica

A Latin medical term for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing (medicines):

Materia Medica

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Jen McCreight

American girl who initialized Boobquake on April 2010:

Jen McCreight


References:
1. Boobquake
2. Jen McCreight

Apostle Paul

The earliest works which came to be part of the New Testament are the letters of:

Apostle Paul

Iowa

The Hawkeye State is a popular nickname for the state of:

Iowa

VBR

A term, relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding, which vary the amount of output data per time segment allowing a higher bitrate to be allocated to the more complex segments of media files while less space is allocated to less complex segments:

VBR (Variable Bitrate)
As opposed to constant bitrate (CBR), VBR files vary the amount of output data per time segment.

Literate Programming

An approach to computer programming that represents a move away from writing programs in the manner and order imposed by the computer, and instead enables programmers to develop programs in the order demanded by the logic and flow of their thoughts:

Literate Programming

Oracle Beehive

A collaboration platform software developed by Oracle Corporation that combines email, team collaboration, instant messaging, and conferencing in a single solution:

Oracle Beehive

hiberfil.sys

A file in Microsoft Windows 2000 and later which is used to store the contents of RAM when the computer hibernates, and is always the same size as the total RAM:

hiberfil.sys

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Dannebrog

The oldest state flag in the world which is still in use by an independent nation:

Dannebrog (the national flag of Denmark)

The national flag of Denmark (Dannebrog)

Rafflesia Arnoldii

It is noted for producing the largest individual flower on earth:

Rafflesia Arnoldii

Palace of the Parliament

A multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament in Bucharest, Romania:

Palace of the Parliament

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Bamboo

The fastest growing plants in the world:

Bamboo

Anaconda

The heaviest snake that is found in tropical South America:

Anaconda
The most familiar species is the green anaconda, "Eunectes murinus", notable for being one of the world's largest snakes. Green anacondas can grow to be 29 feet long and 550 pounds [Reference: "
Nat Geo Wild: Green Anaconda"]

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

OnLive

A gaming-on-demand game platform, announced at the Game Developers Conference in 2009; the service is a gaming equivalent of cloud computing as the game is synchronized, rendered, and stored on a remote server and delivered online:

OnLive

Alprazolam

A highly potent short-acting drug of the benzodiazepine class which is used to treat moderate to severe anxiety disorders:

Alprazolam (also known under the trade name Xanax)

Legal Tender

An offered payment that, by law, cannot be refused in settlement of a debt:

Legal Tender (or Forced Tender)

Store of Value

One of several distinct functions of money in which a form of money or currency, a commodity like gold, or financial capital must be able to be saved and retrieved at a later time, and be predictably useful when retrieved:

Store of Value

EPUB

A free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum, designed for reflowable content (the text display can be optimized for the particular display device):

EPUB (Electronic Publication, ePub, EPub, or epub)
EPUB files have the extension .epub.

Crisis of the Third Century

A period (235–284 AD) in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression:

Crisis of the Third Century

Principate

The first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate:

Principate

Gaius Plinius Secundus

A Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher who wrote an encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which became a model for all such works written subsequently:

Gaius Plinius Secundus (known as Pliny the Elder)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Google Nexus One

Just like the iPhone, Google's flagship phone that is a fast, powerful touch screen slab with an excellent web browser and thousands of apps:

Google Nexus One

Volatile Memory

A computer memory that loses its content when the computer power gets off:

Volatile Memory (also known as Volatile Storage, and sometimes called as Temporary Memory)
Volatile memory is computer memory that requires power to maintain the stored information.

Systems Management

Enterprise-wide administration of distributed systems and computers that involves hardware inventories, server availability monitoring and metrics, software inventory and installation, anti-virus and anti-malware management, user's activities monitoring, capacity monitoring, security management, storage management, and network capacity and utilization monitoring:

Systems Management

Friday, April 16, 2010

Alzheimer's Disease

The most common form of dementia:

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) (also called Alzheimer Disease, Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (SDAT), or Alzheimer's)

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Dear Reader,

Please recommend the following blog to the seniors in your family, relatives and friends. The exercises presented in this blog are not only to improve active and working memory but also to prevent the Alzheimer's disease:

Improve Your Memory (Level 1 of 3) (Kindle Edition)

It is also available on the Internet for free:

Improve Your Memory (Level 1 of 3)

Iberian Peninsula (Iberia)

The peninsula located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day states Portugal, Spain, Andorra, the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and a very small area of France:

Iberian Peninsula (or Iberia)

Ronald Reagan

The US president survived an assassination attempt in 1980s:

Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989).
On March 30, 1981, Reagan, along with his press secretary James Brady and two others, were shot by a would-be assassin, John Hinckley, Jr. Missing Reagan's heart by less than one inch, the bullet instead pierced his left lung. He began coughing up blood in the limousine and was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where it was determined that his lung had collapsed; he endured emergency surgery to remove the bullet. In the operating room, Reagan joked to the surgeons, "I hope you're all Republicans!" Though they were not, Joseph Giordano replied, "Today, Mr. President, we're all Republicans." The bullet was removed and the surgery was deemed a success. It was later determined, however, that the president's life had been in serious danger due to rapid blood loss and severe breathing difficulties. He was able to turn the grave situation into a more light-hearted one, though, for when Nancy Reagan came to see him he told her, "Honey, I forgot to duck" (using Jack Dempsey's quip) [
Reference].

Unix

The operating system that was conceived and implemented in 1969 at AT&T's Bell Laboratories in the United States by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna:

Unix

Pinus Palustris

The official U.S. state tree of Alabama:

Pinus Palustris

iPod Touch (iTouch)

A portable media player, personal digital assistant, and Wi-Fi mobile platform designed and marketed by Apple Inc, launched in September 2007, at an event called The Beat Goes On:

iPod Touch (also called as iTouch)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Nimbus Cloud

The cloud that produces precipitation that reaches the ground as rain, hail, snow, or may evaporate as virga:

Nimbus Cloud

Virga

An observable streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground:

Virga

Precipitation

Any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is pulled down by gravity and deposited on the Earth's surface:

Precipitation

MAC Address

A unique identifier assigned to most network adapters or network interface cards (NICs) by the manufacturer for identification:

MAC Address (Media Access Control Address)

Doppler Effect

The change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the wave, is known as:

Doppler Effect
[
more info]

Hobbit

A fictional diminutive race in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth:

Hobbit
In 2004, on the island of Flores in Indonesia, a team of Australian and Indonesian researchers discovered the remains of a hobbit-sized human, one that stood no more than a meter tall. Remarkable, these researchers determined that this new species of human lived as recently as 13,000 years ago, shattering the long-held belief that Homo sapiens have had the planet to themselves for the past 25,000 years [
Reference].

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Epidural Space

The outermost part of the spinal canal:

Epidural Space
The epidural space is the space within the canal lying outside the dura mater.
In humans, the upper limit of the epidural space is the foramen magnum, which is the point where the spine meets the base of the skull. The lower limit is at the tip of the sacrum, at the sacrococcygeal membrane.

Ectopic Pregnancy

A complication of pregnancy in which the pregnancy implants outside the uterine cavity:

Ectopic Pregnancy (or Eccyesis)

Cloud Computing

The Internet-based computing that is a paradigm shift following the mainframe and client-server, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like electricity:

Cloud Computing

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Adobe

A natural building material made from sand, clay, horse manure and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun:

Adobe
Adobe is a Spanish word that is from Arabic al-ṭūb (the brick), from Coptic tōbe (brick), from Egyptian dbt.
Learn Common Spanish Words by Solving Crosswords (Kindle Edition)

Coptic Language

The final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until the seventh century:

Coptic Language (or Coptic Egyptian Language)

Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century; the new writing system became the Coptic script.

Nibble

A four-bit aggregation in computer:

Nibble (also written as Nybble, or Nyble and also known as Hex Digit or Hexit)

In computer, a nibble is a four-bit aggregation, or half a byte (half an octet). As a nibble contains 4 bits, there are sixteen possible values, so a nibble corresponds to a single hexadecimal digit, and sometimes it is referred to as a hex digit or hexit.

Arabic

The most widely spoken Afroasiatic language is:

Arabic

Afroasiatic languages

A language family with about 375 living languages and more than 350 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Southwest Asia, as well as parts of the Sahel, and East Africa:

Afroasiatic Languages

Mozilla

During development, the Netscape browser was known by the code name:

Mozilla

Note 1: The Mozilla name was also used as the User-Agent in HTTP requests by the Netscape browser.

Note 2: Now, Mozilla is a generic name for matters related to the open source successor to Netscape Communicator.

Zune

A Microsoft entertainment platform and portable media player:

Zune
Zune HD, priced at $220(16GB) and $290(32GB), gives the Apple's iPod some worthy competition.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

The first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling and featuring Harry Potter, a young wizard:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Microsoft Surface

A multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of gesture recognition:

Microsoft Surface

Pacific Dogwood

A species of dogwood native to western North America from lowlands of southern British Columbia to mountains of southern California, that is the provincial flower of British Columbia:

Pacific Dogwood


Norway

The country that got the 4th rank in the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:

Norway

Reminder:
1 Canada
2 Germany
3 United States
4 Norway

The United States

The country that won the highest number of medals, Gold, Silver and Bronze in total, in the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:

The United States

ArcGIS

A suite consisting of a group of geographic information system (GIS) software products produced by ESRI:

ArcGIS

ESRI (the headquarters of ESRI is in Redlands, California) is a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System (GIS) software and geodatabase management applications. ESRI was founded as Environmental Systems Research Institute in 1969 as a land-use consulting firm. ESRI products, particularly ArcGIS Desktop, have a major share of the global market; some sources estimate that about seventy percent of the current GIS users make use of ESRI products.

Overclocking

The process of running a computer component at a higher clock rate than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer:

Overclocking
Overclocking is usually practiced by enthusiasts seeking an increase in the performance of their computers.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Review

Review Items No. 221-240


221. The stethoscope was invented in France in 1816 by:

Rene Theoplhie Laennec


222. The Land of the Golden Fleece is:

Colchis
The land of the Golden Fleece is a legendary country, but the Greeks were impressed by the Colchis region of Georgia (in ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region).


223. Japanese geometrical puzzles in Euclidean geometry on wooden tablets are:

Sangaku


224. The city of Chicago is widely recognized as:

Windy City


225. The lady who won the Miss Universe 2004 crown is:

Jennifer Hawkins


226. A linear-shaped lowland between highlands or mountain ranges, created by tensional forces that are strong enough to cause the plate to split apart, is called:

Rift Valley


227. The biggest state of US is:

Alaska


228. The most popular indoor sport in US is:

Basketball


229. A closed or exclusive set of information services provided for users is called:

Walled Garden


230. In December 2009, TimeWarner split from:

AOL


231. The city known as Holy Land is:

Jerusalem


232. One of the top wine regions in the United States and the world, located in Napa County, California, USA:

Napa Valley


233. The broad prehistoric time period during which humans widely used stone for toolmaking is:

Stone Age


234. A type of beer brewed from malted barley using a top-fermenting brewers' yeast:

Ale


235. An alternative name for measles in English-speaking countries is:

Rubeola


236. The huge bell on display on the grounds of the Moscow Kremlin (the largest bell in existence):

Tsar Bell


237. The great movie developed by director/star Kevin Costner over five years, high production values, won 7 Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama:

Dances with Wolves


238. Currently the World No. 1 American professional golfer and the highest-paid professional athlete in 2008 is:

Tiger Woods
Full name Eldrick Tont Woods
Nickname Tiger


239. The capital of the People's Republic of China is:

Beijing


240. The city where the first Modern Olympics was held:

Athens


Review Items No. 201-220


201. The world's largest furniture retailer is:

IKEA


202. The cracker-like flat bread made of white plain flour and water is called:


Matzo (also Matzah, Matzoh or Matsah)



203. The American punk rock band from Albany, California and formed in 1991 is:

Rancid


204. The main founder of Facebook is:

Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
Zuckerberg serves as Facebook's CEO.


205. The highest region on earth is:

Tibet
With an average elevation of 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), Tibet is the highest region on earth. It is referred to as the roof of the world.


206. The first Chinese leader who grew up in the aftermath of the revolution that established communism in 1949 is:

Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the President of the People's Republic of China since 2003.
He is also the Paramount Leader of China, holding the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.


207. The core of the Sun has a temperature of:

14,000,000 °C
The core of the Sun has a temperature of close to 13,600,000 Kelvin ([Kelvin] = [°C] + 273.15); roughly 14,000,000 °C or 14,000,000 Kelvin.


208. The Greatest Wrestler of the 20th Century in Freestyle is:

Alexander Medved
Alexander Medved is also considered by some to be the best freestyle wrestler of all time.


209. The densest natural element is:

Osmium
The density of osmium is 22.61 g/cm3, slightly greater than that of iridium, the second densest element.


210. The Internet and multimedia enabled smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. is:

iPhone


211. The son of Zeus and Leto is:

Apollo
In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo is one of the most important the Olympian deities.


212. The land of white elephant is:

Thailand


213. A set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals and actions and forms the basis of a political, economic or other systemis is called:

Ideology


214. Awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature:

Herta Müller


215. The river that was known as the River of Sorrows is:

Damodar River


216. The branch of health care devoted to the study, diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle and lower leg is:


Podiatry


217. The smallest extant bird species is:

Bee Hummingbird


218. The Land of the Morning Calm is:

Korea


219. The only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years is:

Vesuvius (east of Naples, Italy)


220. The sport term pertaining to winning of all the matches, championships, etc. in a group of sport matches is:

Grand Slam
The best known Grand Slams are those in Tennis (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open), Golf (US Open, British Open, Masters and PGA) and Rugby (Six Nations Championship).



Review Items No. 181-200


181. An acid derived from one or more inorganic compounds is called:

Mineral Acid
Commonly used mineral acids are nitric acid, sulfuric acid and hydrochloric.



182. The most popular mainframe operating system is:

z/OS



183. MVS stands for:

Multiple Virtual Storage

Multiple Virtual Storage, commonly called MVS, developed by IBM, was the most commonly used operating system on the System/370 and System/390 IBM mainframe computers. First released in 1974, MVS had been renamed multiple times, first to MVS/XA, next to MVS/ESA, then to OS/390 and finally to z/OS .



184. The largest desert in North America, located in the western United States is:

Great Basin Desert



185. The biggest coffee producers in the world is:

Brazil



186. The new crew launch vehicle being developed by NASA is:

Ares I
In October 28, 2009, Ares I-X was successfully launched. Ares I-X was the first test flight in the Ares I program.



187. The country known as "country of copper" is:

Zambia



188. The coldest place on Earth is:

Antarctica




189. COBOL, one of the oldest programming languages, was initially created by:

Grace Hopper

Grace Hopper (1906 – 1992)


190. The chain of islands in the Caribbean including ABC islands and Venezuelan archipelago is called:

Leeward Antilles



191. Vienna (local name Österreich) is the capital and also one of the nine states of:

Austria

Flag of Austria



192. The only animals other than humans that have been shown to transmit identity information independent of the caller’s voice or location are:

Dolphins



193. The nuclear reactor accident, occurred on 26 April 1986 in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) was:

Chernobyl Disaster



194. The animal, commonly known as the American Buffalo (although "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal), which were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century is:

American Bison



195. Any period marked by a greatly increased birth rate is called:

Baby Boom



196. The river that runs through Fort Benning (one of the largest military installations in the world) is:

Chattahoochee River



197. The first country to pursue Karl Marx's dream of a workers' state was:

Russia



198. Samuel Morse inaugurated his first telegraph line between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore in:

1844



199. The 1982 American science fiction film, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer and Sean Young is:

Blade Runner
Blade Runner was voted the sixth best science fiction film ever made as part of the AFI's 10 Top 10.



200. A form of jet engine that cannot produce thrust at zero airspeed and thus cannot move an aircraft from a standstill is:

Ramjet
A ramjet, also called a stovepipe jet, is a form of jet engine using the engine's forward motion to compress incoming air, without a rotary compressor.

Review Items No. 161-180


161. War and Peace, considered as one of the world's greatest novels, was written by:

Leo Tolstoy


162. Citizen Kane, considered as one of the world's greatest movies ever made, was directed and produced by:


Orson Welles


163. C++ (pronounced "C plus plus"), a general-purpose programming language, was developed by:


Bjarne Stroustrup

Bjarne Stroustrup


164. The capital, the largest city and the largest port of Azerbaijan (formally the Republic of Azerbaijan) is:

Baku


165. In 1973, the Cell Phone was invented by:


Martin Cooper



166. The longest river in Asia is:


Yangtze River
The Yangtze River is the longest river in China and Asia and the third-longest in the world, after the Nile and the Amazon.


167. The currency unit of Belarus, Russia and Transnistria is:

Ruble (or Rouble)


168. The most dangerous animal which is responsible for the most human deaths is:


Mosquito


169. The national currency used in China is:


Yuan


170. A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by:


Anthony Powell


171. In 2006, No. 5, 1948 was sold for $140,000,000; No. 5, 1948 is a painting by:


Jackson Pollock


172. Saving Private Ryan, a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II, was directed by:

Steven Spielberg


173. The third President of the United States (1801–1809) and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence is:


Thomas Jefferson
Reminder:
The First US President: George Washington
The Second US President: John Adams


174. One of the top ever French soccer players, manager and the current president of UEFA is:

Michel Platini


175. The highest mountain peak in the US and also in North America is:

Mount McKinley (or Denali)


176. The capital of Bangladesh is:

Dhaka
Dhaka was formerly known as Dacca and Jahangir Nagar, under Mughal rule.


177. The third most populated country in the world is:

United States
Remember:
The first and the second most populated countries in the world are China and India, respectively.

178. From the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD, the Olympic Games were held in:

Olympia (in Greece)


179. The last messages from the God, the creator of all creatures, are written in:

Quran


180. The prophet who the God, the creator of all creatures, spoke with him was:

Moses


Review Items 141-160


141. In zoology, the biological order of mammals that includes monkeys, apes and man is:

Primate


142. The sport involving four and sometimes up to six motorcycle riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit is called:


Speedway


143. The inventor of paper were:


Ancient Chinese


144. The second President of the United States was:


John Adams
John Adams (1735–1826) was an American politician and the second President of the United States (1797–1801), after being the first Vice President (1789–1797) for two terms. He is regarded as one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.


John Adams


145. U.S. President George H. W. Bush said, "For me, Magic is a hero, a hero for anyone who loves sports." In this quote Magic is:


Earvin Johnson (Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr.)
Earvin Johnson (1959-) is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA.


146. Blowin' in the Wind is a song written by:


Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, painter, poet and latter-day disc jockey who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades.


147. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) is written by:

Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet.


148. The actress who began acting in commercials at 3 years old and her performance received international acclaim and her second Academy Award for Best Actress in 1991 is:


Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster is the first actress to receive two Oscars before the age of 30.


149. Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of:


Argentina


150. The monument on the border between Argentina and Chile as a celebration of the peaceful resolution of the border dispute between the two countries is:


Christ the Redeemer of the Andes


151. The capital of the US state of California is:


Sacramento


152. D-Town and BIG D are nicknames for the US city of:

Dallas


153. In 1945, the conference for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization was:


Yalta Conference


154. A closed plane figure bounded by straight sides is called:


Polygon


155. Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character in a series of novels by author:

Thomas Harris


156. Canberra is the capital city of:

Australia


157. The Galileo Galilei International Airport is located in the city of:

Pisa (Italy)



158. The largest state of the US is:


Alaska


159. The country with the largest national economy in the world is:

The United States of America


160. The violence taking place in Darfur, Sudan began in 2003 is referred by:

The Darfur Conflict



Review Items 121-140


121. In tennis, the score that comes after deuce is:


Advantage


122. The Australian chicken breed, a large, soft-feathered and good egg-layer bird, is:


Australorp


123. The capital and the most populous city of the US state of Arkansas is:


Little Rock


124. The southernmost point of Asia is:


Pamana Island (Indonesia)


125. The Brothers Karamazov, a passionate philosophical novel, is written by:


Fyodor Dostoyevsky


126. In 1963, John F Kennedy assassinated in the city of:


Dallas (Texas)


127. The Scottish mathematician who invented logarithms was:


John Napier


128. The capital and largest city of Angola is:


Luanda


129. The Japanese call their country as:


Nippon


130. The city known as the City of Canals is:


Venice


131. The inventors of the hot air balloon are:


Montgolfier Brothers


132. The world’s largest dry desert is:


Sahara


133. Bride of Frankenstein, a 1935 horror film, was directed by:


James Whale


134. The animal that makes the loudest sound in the world is:

Blue Whale


135. The capital and largest city of the US state of Arizona is:


Phoenix


136. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by:


L. Frank Baum


137. The series of trials from 1945 to 1946 for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after its defeat in World War II was:


The Nuremberg Trials


138. The capital and largest city of Armenia is:


Yerevan
Yerevan is sometimes written as Erevan, Erewan, Ayrivan and Erivan.


139. The Hindu god of love, desire and lust is:


Kama


140. The capital of Alaska is:

Juneau


Review Items 101-120


101. The first President of the United States of America was:

George Washington

102. The study of horses is called:

Hippology


103. The animated cartoon character who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio is:

Woody Woodpecker


104. In 2003, The Da Vinci Code, a mystery-detective fiction novel, was written by:

Dan Brown


105. The capital of Alabama is:

Montgomery


106. The pastime which involves throwing a stone across a body of water in such a way that it bounces off the surface of the water is called:

Stone Skipping
Stone Skipping is also called Stone Skimming, Stone Skiting and Ducks and Drakes in the UK and Stone Skiffing in Ireland.


107. The first woman who hold a seat in the British parliament was:

Lady Nancy Astor

108. The capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania is:
Tirana

109. The capital and largest city of Algeria is:

Algiers

110. The jet engine was invented by:

Frank Whittle


111. The comedy of The Taming of the Shrew was written by:

William Shakespeare

112. The measuring instrument used to measure the electric current in a circuit is:

Ammeter
Electric currents are measured in amperes (A).

113. The sea that lies between Africa and Asia is:

The Red Sea


114. Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by:

Michael Curtiz


Michael Curtiz


Michael Curtiz (1886-1962) was a Hungarian-American filmmaker. He directed more than 150 movies such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca and White Christmas.



115. The mixed breed dog, a hybrid cross between a Golden Retriever and a Poodle is:

Goldendoodle


116. The first Zoroastrian Persian Emperor who respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered was:

Cyrus the Great

117. The first American to orbit the Earth is:

John Glenn


118. The author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion is:

J. R. R. Tolkien


119. The capital and largest city of Andorra, a small country in southwestern Europe, is:

Andorra la Vella


120. The largest lake in Alaska is:

Iliamna Lake or Lake Iliamna

Review Items 81-100


81. The largest eyes of any land mammal belong to:

Horse
Horses have the largest eyes of any land mammal and as their eyes are positioned on the sides of their heads, they have a range of vision of more than 350°.


82. In Earth’s history, the period by its end, most dinosaurs become extinct was:

Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 251 to 199 million years ago. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events.


83. A series of water waves that is caused when a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced is named:

Tsunami


84. The component added to some jet engines, primarily those on military supersonic aircraft, to provide a temporary increase in thrust, both for supersonic flight and for takeoff is:

Afterburner


85. The most common mammal in the world is:

Rat


86. The Spanish archipelago which forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union is:

The Canary Islands


87. Any of several carnivorous mammals of the weasel family is called:

Polecat


88. The most popular spice in the world is:

Pepper


89. The name for a baby after eight weeks is:

Fetus


90. The hybrid cross between a male lion and a female tigre is:

Liger
Liger


91. The song with music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin, originally written in 1973, in honor of Marilyn Monroe, is:

Candle in the Wind


92. The inferior maxillary bone which forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place is:

Mandible


93. The collection of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada – United States border is named:

The Great Lakes


94. The generic German term for an air force, also the name of the German Airforce in World War II, is:

Luftwaffe


95. The longest novel ever written is:

Artamène, or Cyrus the Great

Artamène, or Cyrus the Great is a novel in ten volumes by siblings Madeleine and Georges de Scudéry. At over 2,100,000 words, it is considered the longest novel ever written, with the possible exception of Henry Darger's unpublished The Story of the Vivian Girls.


96. Charles Darwin's book, published 24 November 1859, a seminal work of scientific literature considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology, is:

On the Origin of Species


97. The abbreviation E.G. stands for:

Exempli Gratia or For Example


98. Robinson Crusoe is a novel by:

Daniel Defoe


99. The capital of Afghanistan is:

Kabul


100. Africa's largest country is:

Sudan
Review Items No. 61-80


61. The device in which a moving fluid drives a wheel or motor is:

Turbine


62. The strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand is:

Cook Strait
Cook Strait is the strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the west with the South Pacific Ocean on the east.


63. Theoretical temperature corresponds to minus 273.15 degrees on the Celsius scale is:

Absolute Zero


64. A kind of small, flat-baked bread product that is named from Latin via Middle French meaning "cooked twice" is:

Biscuit


65. The language that has more native speakers than any other language is:

Mandarin


66. The smallpox vaccine was discovered by:

Edward Jenner


67. The romantic drama and the only novel written by Margaret Mitchell is:

Gone with the Wind


68. The largest planet within the Solar System is:

Jupiter

69. The Godfather films were directed by:

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola



70. The largest continent in area is:

Asia


71. The name of Roman god meaning "Shining Father", in Latin is:

Jupiter


72. The seven-a-side ball game that is played in a swimming pool is:

Water polo


73. The most populous city of the world is:

Tokyo


74. The animal that is found in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia and its name means "doesn't drink" is:

Koala


75. The smallest planet in the Solar System is:

Mercury


76. The largest kind of shark is:

Whale Shark


77. The longest bone in human body is:

Femur
In human anatomy, the femur is the longest and largest bone.


78. The show Sex and the City is set in:

New York City


79. The pharaoh of Egypt who killed herself by inducing an asp to bite her was:

Cleopatra


80. The author of David Copperfield is:

Charles Dickens



Review Items No. 41-60

41. All Saints' Day, often shortened to All Saints, is a feast celebrated on:

November 1


42. The fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Cervantes, who was Don Quixote’s squire is:

Sancho Panza


43. The Canadian city hosted the 1976 Olympics is:

Montreal


44. The substance released by body tissues in allergic reactions is:

Histamine


45. Golf was originated in:

Scotland


46. The smallest ocean in the world is:

The Arctic Ocean


47. A full moon that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern is called:

Blue Moon
A blue moon is a full moon that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern; most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but in addition to those twelve full lunar cycles, each calendar year contains an excess of roughly eleven days. The extra days accumulate, so that every two or three years (on average about every 2.7154 years) there is an extra full moon. The extra moon is called a "blue moon."


48. Chess was invented in:

India


49. The Iliad and the Odyssey was written by:

Homer


50. The first complete word in the dictionary is:

Aardvark


51. The author of Tarzan is:

Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 – 1950) was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan although he produced works in many genres.


52. The world's largest lake is:

The Caspian Sea


53. The most common element on the Earth is:

Hydrogen


54. The region of West Africa which is now the nation of Ghana was:

The Gold Coast


55. The longest river in the world is:

The Nile


56. Land of the Rising Sun is:

Japan


57. The longest highway in the world is:

The Trans-Canada Highway


58. Australia and New Zealand are seperated by:

The Tasman Sea


59. The train is a vehicle of transportation, which was invented in 1822 by an English inventor named:

George Stephenson


60. Relative to size, the strongest muscle in the body is:

Tongue
Review Items No. 21-40

21. The tallest statue in the world is:

The Spring Temple Buddha


The Spring Temple Buddha is a statue depicting Vairocana Buddha located in Henan, China (height: 128m / 420ft).

22. Because of its abundance of orchards and hop gardens, Kent is widely known as:

The Garden of England
(Kent is a county in southeast England.)

23. What was the name of the first computer game?


Tennis for Two

24. The Roman name for Portugal was:


Lusitania
(Lusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river, and part of modern Spain.)


25. The first official telephone call to the moon was made by:

Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States (1969–1974).



26. The Scottish city, Aberdeen, is known as:

The Granite City
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city. Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands.


27. The largest island in Canada is:

Baffin Island
It is the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world.


28. The person who first succeeded in transmitting a radio signala cross the Atlantic Ocean was:
Marconi
Marchese Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was an Italian inventor.

29. Burkina Faso was formerly called:

The Republic of Upper Volta
Burkina Faso, formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, it was renamed on August 4, 1984, by President Thomas Sankara to mean "the land of upright people" in Moré and Dioula, the major native languages of the country. Literally, "Burkina" may be translated, "men of integrity," from the Moré language, and "Faso" means "father's house" in Dioula.


Flag of Burkina Faso

30. In the Old Testament, the elder brother of Moses is:


Aaron31. The longest river in Europe is:

The Volga
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through the western part of Russia and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia.

32. The instrument in an aircraft that measures height above sea level is:

Altimeter
An altimeter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth underwater.


Altimeter


33. A stellar explosion is called:

Supernova
It is the end time situation of a star which is going to be exploded. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months. During this short interval, a supernova can radiate as much energy as the Sun could emit over its life span.34. Stocks or a financial market of a group of securities in which prices are rising or are expected to rise are called:

Bull Market


35. The abnormal fear of spiders and other arachnids is called:

Arachnophobia


36. The bird that is used as the sign of peace is:

Dove


37. The fastest animal on earth is:

Peregrine Falcon
It can reach speeds over 322 km/h (200 mph) in a dive, making it the fastest animal in the world.


Peregrine Falcon


38. The basic form of transport; a frame for restraining horses, used by Native Americans is:

Travois

39. The other word for an alligator pear is:

Avocado


Avocado/Alligator pear

40. The world’s deepest ocean is:

Pacific Ocean
Review Items No. 1-20

1. The sculptor of the statue of Liberty was:

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi


2. Brightest star as seen from the Earth:


Sirius (also known as Dog Star)



3. Inventor of dynamite:


Alfred B. Nobel

4. The god of love in Greek myth:


Aphrodite (Aphrodite is the goddess of love, known as Venus to the Romans.)



5. The largest sea in the world:


South China Sea



6. The world's oldest known city:


Damascus

7. The lowest point on earth is:


The coastal area of Dead sea


8. The first explorer to reach the South Pole was:


Ronald Amundson

9. The country known as the land of the midnight sun is:


Norway


10. The youngest President of the USA:


Theodore Roosevelt


11. A form of government in which the head of state is not a monarch and the people have an contribution to its government:


Republic

12. Nearest star to the Earth (other than the Sun):


Proxima Centauri


13. The author of Alice in Wonderland:


Lewis Carroll



14. It is now believed that dinosaurs became extinct because of:

A Meteorite (A large meteorite is thought to have collided with the earth.)

15. Charles Darwin began developing his theory of evolution while voyaging on a ship named:



The Beagle



16. A robot that is designed to look and act like a human is called:


Android

17. The largest museum in the world is:

The American Museum of Natural History

18. The country known as the Land of Cakes is:



Scotland


19. The actor who is considered as the biggest cowboy star of silent movies is:

Tom Mix

20. Coal is known as:

Black Diamond

Femto-

A prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of 10−15 or 0.000000000000001:

Femto-

It is derived from the Danish word femten which means "fifteen".
Example: A proton has a diameter of 1.6-1.7 femtometres.

My Ántonia

Well-known as one of the greatest novels by American writer Willa Cather which is the final book of the "prairie trilogy" of novels by Cather:

My Ántonia

Plot Summary [1]

My Ántonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a particular focus on a Bohemian family, the Shimerdas, whose eldest daughter is named Ántonia. The book's narrator, Jim Burden, arrives in the fictional town of Black Hawk, Nebraska, on the same train as the Shimerdas, as he goes to live with his grandparents after his parents have died. Jim develops strong feelings for Ántonia, something between a crush and a filial bond, and the reader views Ántonia's life, including its attendant struggles and triumphs, through that lens.
The book is divided into five volumes, some of which incorporate short stories Cather had previously written, based on her own life growing up on the Nebraska prairies. The volumes correspond roughly to the stages of Ántonia's life up through her marriage and motherhood, although the third volume, "Lena Lingard," focuses more on Jim's time in college and his affair with Lena, another childhood friend of him and Ántonia.
The five books, in order, are:
- The Shimerdas - the largest book of all. It covers all of the time that Jim spends on his grandparents' farm, out on the prairie.
- The Hired Girls - the second largest. It covers Jim's time in town, when he spends time with Ántonia and the other country girls who work in town. Language, particularly descriptions, begin to become more sexualized, particularly concerning Ántonia and Lena.
- Lena Lingard - this chronicles Jim's time at the university, and the period in which he becomes re-acquainted with the lovely Lena Lingard.
- The Pioneer Woman's Story - Jim visits the Harlings and hears about Ántonia's run-in and fateful romance with Larry Donovan. The shortest book.
- Cuzak's Boys - Jim goes to visit Ántonia and meets her new family, her children and husband.

[1] wikipedia.org

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Paraphilia

A biomedical term used to describe sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation and that may cause distress or serious problems for the person or other people associated with him or her:

Paraphilia

Pedophilia

A psychological disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a sexual preference for prepubescent children:

Pedophilia

California Poppy

The floral emblem of California:

California Poppy (scientific name: Eschscholzia Californica)

Hibernation

A feature of computer operating systems where the contents of RAM are written to the hard disk as a file before powering off the computer, and when the computer is restarted the contents are reloaded and so the state is restored:

Hibernation

Scancode

The data that computer keyboards send to a computer to report which keys have been pressed:

Scancode (or Scan Code)

Orlando: A Biography

An influential novel by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1928, which has been influential stylistically, and is considered important in literature generally, and particularly in the history of women's writing and gender studies:

Orlando: A Biography

Virginia Woolf

English novelist, essayist, diarist, epistler, publisher, feminist, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century, who put on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, then walked into the River Ouse near her home and drowned herself in 1941:

Virginia Woolf

Rose

The floral emblem of the United States:

Rose
President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in order to make the rose the floral emblem of the United States in 1986.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Word Sum Puzzle

A word game which has a clue and two or more hints, where the clue is a meaning for the solution (that is always a single word) and each hint gives the sum of the numbers assigned to the first two, four, etc. letters of the solution:

Word Sum Puzzle

Word Sum Puzzle

Omnivore

Species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source:

Omnivore
Pigs, crows and humans are also well-known omnivores.

Mary Anne Evans

English novelist and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era, better known by her pen name George Eliot:

Mary Anne Evans (1819–1880)

Emotional Intelligence

The skill, capacity, or self-perceived ability, to identify and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups:

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Vltava

The longest river in the Czech Republic; where Prague the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic lies on the banks of it:

Vltava (also known as Moldau as in German it is called Moldau)