A Ton of Crap
Page 28
LESSON 26A
THE PANAMA CANAL
About Panama Panama is the southeastern end of the isthmus that bridges North America and South America. It is also between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean (when standing on the highest point, the summit of Volcán Barú, you can actually see both oceans). In its entirety, it is slightly smaller than the state of South Carolina. From 1538 to 1821, Panama was part of the Spanish Empire.
FANTASY
The Epic of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to ancient Sumer, is not only the oldest fantasy story ever written, but it is the oldest story ever written. Gilgamesh was actually found inscribed on clay tablets. The story revolves around Gilgamesh, a king who embarks on a journey to slay a horrible beast, Humbaba, and searches for immortality. Gilgamesh was, in fact, based on a king of that time, the king of Uruk, who ruled during the twenty-sixth century b.c.
STATISTICS
Mean In statistics, the mean is another way of saying the average. To find the average, you have to add up all of the numbers and then divide the sum by the amount of numbers that were just added together.
For example:
What is the mean of the following numbers?
9, 12, 14, 19, 20
First, you add all of the numbers together:
9 + 12 + 14 + 19 + 20 = 74
And then, since you added up 5 numbers, you will divide 74 by 5.
74 ÷ 5 = 14.8
EARLY MEDICINE
William Harvey William Harvey discovered that blood flowed in one direction in the body, and that the flow of blood was continuous. He made the discovery in 1616; however, his findings were not published until 1628, in his book, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus. Not only did Harvey discover that blood flowed in one direction, but he also explained that the transformation of venous blood into arterial blood actually took place in the lungs (at the time, it was believed that this occurred in the liver).
YIDDISH
The Origins Yiddish stems from the Ashkenazi Jewish community’s borrowing of words from both German and Hebrew. Thus, it is a Germanic language, and the Sephardic Jewish community does not speak it. It is believed that Yiddish was first used around a.d. 900 to 1100, and it was the spoken language, never the written language, of the people. As centuries passed, Yiddish grew away from German, developing its own linguistic rules.
LESSON 26B
THE PANAMA CANAL
The Earliest Proposal for a Canal The proposal to build a canal in Panama dates all the way back to 1534, when King Charles V of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor, sought a route that would ease traveling between Spain and Peru and give the Spanish military an edge on the Portuguese. From 1788 to 1793, Spanish naval officer Alessandro Malaspina demonstrated that a canal would in fact be feasible, and he began making outlines for its construction. Other attempts to make use of the location were made in 1698 by Scotland, and in 1855 a railway was built across the isthmus. That same year, an employee of the U.S. government proposed a canal in a report.
FANTASY
The Chronicles of Narnia The Chronicles of Narnia series is seven books written by C. S. Lewis. Included in that series are some of the best-known fantasy books of all time, such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; and The Magician’s Nephew. The books, written from 1949 to 1954, are set in the fictional world of Narnia, and throughout the entire series, the entire history of Narnia, from its beginnings to its end, are covered. The books often have children as the central characters, talking animals, magic, and good versus evil as a common theme.
STATISTICS
Median The median is another way of saying the middle. Before you can do anything, the numbers have to be put in order of value.
For example: 6, 8, 10, 13, 16
Since there are five numbers, the number 10 is right in the middle, and that is our median.
However, when you have a median in between two numbers, you then take the mean of those numbers.
For example: 9, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21
The median is between 16 and 17, so you take the mean.
16 + 17 = 33
33 ÷ 2 = 16.5
EARLY MEDICINE
Giovanni Morgagni Giovanni Morgagni is considered by many to be the father of pathology. His book De Sedibus et Causis Morborum (On the Sites and Causes of Diseases), published in 1761, is the foundation of pathological anatomy studies. Studying healthy and unhealthy bodies, Morgagni began to observe abnormalities and linked symptoms to them. The most famous discoveries to come out of this work involved myocardial degeneration, subacute bacterial endocarditis, and angina pectoris, and the impact of tuberculosis and blood clots. He also discovered that strokes came from alterations to cerebral blood vessels, and not a lesion of the brain as was believed.
YIDDISH
The Writing System Yiddish is written with the Hebrew characters; however, the vowels are used differently. Unlike Hebrew, the Yiddish alphabet (known as alef-beyz) uses letters to represent vowels and pronunciation aids (if the word is originally Hebrew, however, it remains the same).
LESSON 26C
THE PANAMA CANAL
The French Attempt to Build a Canal With the success of the Suez Canal, the French saw a canal as the best solution. They began constructing the canal on January 1, 1880, choosing Panama over Nicaragua because they believed it could best support a sea-level canal, meaning it had no locks (which raise and lower water levels in chambers in order to carry water over uneven terrain). Instead, this canal would maintain the same level all the way through and carve through the terrain. The construction was rushed and poorly planned, and the terrain proved too difficult to cut through with the machinery they had. The harsh weather and tropical fever left an estimated 22,000 people dead, and by 1888, the company funding the construction crashed, ending the building of the canal.
FANTASY
Harry Potter One of the most successful and popular fantasy series of today is Harry Potter, written by J. K. Rowling. These seven books chronicle the story of a wizard, Harry, and his two friends as they go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Harry embarks on a quest to defeat the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort. One noticeable difference between the Harry Potter series and other fantasy novels, is that the world Harry lives in is actually the present day. Unlike C. S. Lewis’s Narnia, Harry’s world takes place in present-day London.
STATISTICS
Mode The mode is the number that appears most frequently.
For example: 1, 3, 5, 9, 5, 6, 5
First, you put it in order of value: 1, 3, 5, 5, 5, 6, 9
The mode would be 5 because it appears the most.
You can have several modes in any problem. If there are no modes, then you put the numbers into groups.
For example: 1, 3, 4, 11, 13, 21, 22
There are no modes, so you group accordingly:
0–9: 3 values; 10–20: 2 values; 20–30: 2 values
EARLY MEDICINE
Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur is a name that is forever associated with changing the medical world. Pasteur is responsible for discovering the existence of germs. In 1856, a man from an alcohol factory approached Pasteur, the Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Lille, with a question about why his vats of fermented beer kept turning sour. After analyzing samples under a microscope, Pasteur found microorganisms which he believed were responsible. Though initially scoffed at by his peers, Pasteur proved that diseases were caused by these microorganisms, and in 1881, Pasteur announced that he had discovered a way to weaken anthrax germs so that a vaccine could be created.
YIDDISH
The Worms Mahzor A blessing found in a prayer book from 1272, the Worms Mahzor, is the oldest document of Yiddish that was embedded in a Hebrew text. This is significant for a number of reasons, one of which is that it shows that the Yiddish of this time closely resembled Middle High German and had Hebrew words infused into it. From the fourteenth and fifteenth centurie
s, poetry and songs written in Yiddish started appearing. The Dukus Horant is the oldest example of an epic poem written entirely in Yiddish.
LESSON 26D
THE PANAMA CANAL
Americans Take Over the Isthmus In 1902, Congress gave the authority to purchase the assets of the French canal company, but it required that the United States and Colombia first form a treaty for the control and use of the canal. As negotiations with Colombia failed, the United States supported Panama’s fight for independence. In the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, Panama gave the United States the rights to the area of the canal without having a Spanish translation. President Theodore Roosevelt backed a lock-based model for the canal, and in 1906, the area was cleared of yellow fever.
FANTASY
The Lord of the Rings In 1937, Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a book called The Hobbit, which was set in a fictional Middle Earth where wizards, elves, trolls, and hobbits lived. In 1954, a trilogy, and a sequel to The Hobbit, was published. It was known as The Lord of the Rings. The trilogy focuses on the events following those found in The Hobbit and a journey to destroy a powerful ring that could destroy the world if in the wrong hands. Frodo Baggins is the main character, and he is joined by his friend and two cousins as they embark on a journey to save the world.
STATISTICS
Basic Counting Principle The basic counting principle is very simple and is used to determine the number of outcomes. In essence, the principle states that when you have A ways to do something, and B ways to do another thing, then doing both would equal A × B.
For example:
If there are 5 types of ice cream and 2 types of cones, then there are 10 (5 × 2) different combinations you can have. This problem can also be written out with a tree diagram you saw earlier in the book.
An important thing to note about this rule is that it only works if the objects or things are independent from one another.
EARLY MEDICINE
Robert Koch Building on the work that Louis Pasteur had started, Robert Koch is most known for his involvement in anthrax and tuberculosis. While Pasteur was convinced that the microbes were the causes of disease, he was never successful in proving it. Koch however, was able to prove it. Whereas Pasteur was a research scientist, Koch was a doctor and had a great depth of knowledge relating to the human body. While studying anthrax, Koch realized that microbes from anthrax created spores that lived in the dead animal’s body. These spores then turned into germs, spreading the disease. Koch would then go on to discover the germs that caused tuberculosis, proving that it was not caused by “bad air.”
YIDDISH
World War II Prior to World War II, there were 11 to 13 million Yiddish speakers. The extensive toll on the Jewish community from the Holocaust, however, led to a dramatic decline. Five million Yiddish speakers died as a result of the Holocaust (around 85 percent of all of the Jews that died). Those Yiddish speakers that did survive the Holocaust either migrated or assimilated into other countries, and with the Zionist movement believing in a monolingual approach, use of Yiddish declined.
LESSON 26E
THE PANAMA CANAL
Construction of the Panama Canal Lieutenant Colonel George Washington Goethals was chosen to become the canal’s new chief engineer, and he split the work up into thirds: the Atlantic Division, the Central Division, and the Pacific Division. The Panamanian Railroad was a great help for the Americans, as were rock drills, steam shovels, and dynamite, without which the job would have been impossible. The extreme climate and horrible accidents gave it the name “Hell’s Gorge.” The three-part lock division Goethals created allowed for two-way traffic; the locks are powered by electricity.
FANTASY
A Song of Ice and Fire A Song of Ice and Fire is an ongoing series of books written by George R. R. Martin, first published in 1991. The books take place on a continent called Westeros, and a land mass east of Westeros called Essos. The main stories found in each of these books relate to a civil war in Westeros, the threat of a race of creatures known as the Others, and the quest of an exiled daughter of a murdered king to reclaim the throne. The books are told from the points of view of several characters, and all of the books are in the third person. The first book has recently been turned into a television show for HBO, Game of Thrones.
STATISTICS
Standard Deviation Standard deviation, represented by σ, is the measurement of how spread out the data is. To find the standard deviation, you take the square root of the variance. The variance is the average of the squared deviations that came from the mean. To find the variance requires a few steps, but it is actually quite simple. You first must find the mean. From there, subtract the mean from each number and then square those numbers. Then, find the average of those squared numbers.
EARLY MEDICINE
Alexander Fleming and Penicillin Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin, one of the most powerful antibiotics, on September 3, 1928. While cleaning his office, Professor Fleming found a glass plate from research he had been conducting. The plate had been coated with staphylococcus bacteria, and mold in the shape of a ring was growing on it. Around the ring, the plate was free of the staphylococcus bacteria. Fleming concluded that a substance in the mold was responsible for killing the bacteria. This mold was Penicillium notatum. Ten years later, the substance within the mold was found; penicillin.
YIDDISH
Yiddish Today It is unknown how many Yiddish speakers exist today. In 2009 it was estimated that there were 1,762,320 Yiddish speakers, with one-third of that population residing in the United States; however, other reports stated the number was less than 200,000 in the United States. Some countries, including Russia, Sweden, Lithuania, and Moldova, still have Yiddish-speaking communities. In 1999, the Swedish Parliament gave Yiddish legal status as an official minority language, and government documents are published in the language.
LESSON 26F
THE PANAMA CANAL
The Panama Canal Today In 1979, the Panama Canal Treaty went into effect, granting Panama complete control of the canal after twenty years. The Panama Canal Authority took full control of the waterway on December 31, 1999. The age of the canal and the volume of traffic are beginning to take its toll on the canal, and it has become an international traffic jam of trade. In 2006, Panamanians voted to modernize the canal, and a larger set of locks will double its capacity.
FANTASY
Inheritance Cycle The Inheritance Cycle is a series of ongoing books written by Christopher Paolini. The first book in the series, Eragon, was written by Paolini when he was just fifteen years old. After spending a year working on it, the book was self-published by his parents, and upon being discovered, was republished by a major publishing company. The books are set in Alagaësia, with the main character being Eragon, a teenage orphan, and his dragon, Saphira. The books follow Eragon as he becomes a member of the Dragon Riders and attempts to defeat the evil king who had killed past Dragon Riders fearing they would take the throne.
STATISTICS
Combinations For mean, median, mode, and standard deviation, you have had to put numbers in value order. But sometimes the value order is not important. When value order is not important, it is called a combination, and this is represented as C(n,r). The letter n represents the number of things selected at r. This also equals P(n,r)/r!
For example:
If four shirts are taken from a group of eight shirts and you want to figure out how many combinations of four there could be, you would do:
P(8,4)/4! = (8 × 7 × 6 × 5)/(4 × 3 × 2 × 1) = 1680/24 = 70 combinations
EARLY MEDICINE
Christiaan Barnard On December 3, 1967, Christiaan Barnard became the first surgeon to perform a human heart transplant. Born in South Africa, Barnard worked as a senior cardiothoracic surgeon in Cape Town. The operation lasted five hours, and even though the patient would die eighteen days later of double pneumonia, Barnard’s operation was considered a success and was celebrat
ed around the world. He introduced a new kind of surgery that has since become routine. In 1974, Barnard performed the first ever heterotopic, or “double heart” transplant, in which the patient effectively has two hearts.
YIDDISH
Useful Yiddish Phrases Here are some helpful Yiddish phrases to use. Note that these are spelled out phonetically:
Hello. A gutn tog.
Good morning. Gutn morgn.
Good afternoon/evening. A gut ovnt.
Good night. A gute nakht.
Pleased to meet you. Es frayt mikh dikh tsu kenen.
Cheers! Zayt gesunt!
Have a nice day. Hot a gutn tog.
Excuse me. Zayt moykhl.
Thank you. Nishto farvos.
How much is this? Vi tayer iz dos?
Where’s the toilet? Vu iz der tualett?
I don’t understand. Ikh farshtey dos nit.
Goodbye. Biz shpeter.
LESSON 26 QUIZ