What is a filibuster? Filibuster has two meanings that are connected. The original, historical meaning of the word filibuster, is someone who “engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foster or support a political revolution or secession”. The more modern meaning of the word filibuster is political, and it […]
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What is the Dewey Decimal system? It is a system used to classify books in libraries, so that they can be found easily. It was created by Melvil Dewey in 1876. Libraries have existed since writing was first invented. Whatever was written needed a place to be kept in. However, libraries were not public. Clay
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What did Florence Nightingale do? She managed to improve hospital hygiene, made nursing into a profession, used statistical analysis, and became the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society. Florence Nightingale was born in 1820. She was British, but she was born in Florence, Italy, during a family tour of Europe, hence her name.
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What is self-raising flour? Self-raising (self-rising in the US) flour is wheat flour that has the leavening agent (usually baking powder) and sometimes salt already added to it. The purpose of self-raising flour is to (as it says in the name) rise on its own, which means without adding any other ingredients. When you are
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Why do some plants have thorns? Plants generally have thorns to deter herbivores and insects from eating them. Plants usually have parts that they want to be eaten (the fruit, for example) and parts that they don’t want to be eaten (the stem and leaves). Plants have different methods of scattering their seeds. Some do
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When were the first colored cars? The first real colored cars became available in the 1920s, but before that, there was a choice of a few colors, although they had to be custom painted. When we go to buy a car these days, after we choose from the thousands of available models available, we then
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What was the Texas Revolution? It was a fight by Texas for independence from Mexico. It led to the Republic of Texas, which didn’t last long before it was absorbed into the growing United States of America. Texas is the second largest state in the United States, coming after Alaska. It is roughly 40% the
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What is a steppe? A steppe is a dry, grassy plain that is found in a temperate climate. It is one of the many biomes on Earth. The word “steppe” comes from the Russian word “step” (степь), which means low lying land. It came into English through German. In Russian, it us pronounced stjepj, and
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Why is Jakarta sinking? Jakarta is sinking by as much as 30 cm a year in some places, and the cause is overextraction of groundwater. Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia, and home to 11.3 million people, which is roughly 4% of all Indonesians. It is on the northwest coast of Java and is
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Why is the moon covered in dust? The fine layer of dust that the moon is covered with is called lunar regolith and it has been made by meteoroids and the solar wind. If you look at videos of the moon landings, the astronauts jump around, and every time they impact the surface of the
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