Blue
While blue is one of the most popular colors, it is one of the least appetizing. Food researchers say that whenhumans searched for food, they learned to avoid toxic or spoiled objects, which were often blue, black orpurple. When food dyed blue is served to study subjects, they lose appetite
Carbon Emission
When countries assess their annual carbon emissions, they count up their cars and power stations, but bush fires are not included – presumably because they are deemed to be events beyond human control. In Australia,Victoria alone sees several hundred thousand hectares burn each year; in both 2004 and more recently, the figure has been over one million hectares.
Tesla and Edison
Tesla's theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current electric power systems. Thomas Edison promised him almost one million dollars in today's money to undertake motor and generator improvement. However, when Tesla, the ethical Serb, asked about the money, Edison’s reportedly reply was "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor." The pair became arch-rivals.
Productive Capacity
The core of the problem was the immense disparity between the country's productive capacity and the ability of people to consume. Great innovations in productive techniques during and after the war raised the output of industry beyond the purchasing capacity of U.S. farmers and wage earners.
Father
Every morning, no matter how late he had been up, my father rose at five-thirty, went to his study, wrote for a couple of hours, made us all breakfast, read the paper with my mother, and then went back to work for the rest of the morning. Many years passed before I realized that he did this for a living.
Himalayas
Although it comes from a remote region in the Himalayas, this plant now looks entirely at home on the banks of English rivers. Brought to the UK in 1839 (eighteen thirty-nine), it quickly escaped, colonising riverbanks and damp woodlands. Now it is spreading across Europe, New Zealand and Canada. In the Himalayas the plant is held in check by various pests, and it grows and reproduces unhindered.
Pluto
Pluto lost its official status when the International Astronomical Union downsized the solar system from nine to eight planets. Although there had been passionate debate at the General Assembly Meeting in Prague about the definition of a planet, and whether Pluto met the specifications, the audience greeted the decision to exclude it with applause.
Fiscal Year
At the beginning of each fiscal year funds are allocated to each State account in accordance with the
University's financial plan. Funds are allocated to each account by object of expenditure. Account managers are responsible for ensuring that adequate funds are available in the appropriate object before initiating transactions to use the funds.
Lincoln
Lincoln's apparently radical change of mind about his war powers to emancipate slaves was caused by the escalating scope of the war, which convinced him that any measure to weaken the Confederacy and strengthen the Union war effort was justifiable as a military necessity.
Shakespeare
A young man from a small provincial town, a man without independent wealth, without powerful family connections and without a university education, moves to London in the fifteen eighties, and becomes a remarkable playwright of all time. How is an achievement of magnitude made? How does Shakespeare become Shakespeare?
Domestication
Domestication is an evolutionary, rather than a political development. They were more likely to survive and prosper in an alliance with humans than on their own. Humans provided the animals with food and protection, in exchange for which the animals provided the humans their milk and eggs and, yes, their flesh
Akimbo
Akimbo, this must be one of the odder-looking words in the language and puzzles us in part because it doesn't seem to have any relatives. What's more, it is now virtually a fossil word, until recently almost invariably found in arms akimbo, a posture in which a person stands with hands on hips and elbows sharply bent outward, one signalling impatience or hostility.
Yellow
While yellow is considered an optimistic color, people lose their tempers more often in yellow rooms, and babies will cry more. It is the most difficult color for the eye to take in, so it can be overpowering if overused.
Elephant
The elephant is the largest living land mammal. During evolution, its skeleton has greatly altered from the usual mammal, designed for two main reasons. One is to cope with the great weight of huge grinding cheek teeth and elongated tusk, making the skull particularly massive. The other is to support the enormous bulk of such a huge body.
Avi Loeb
The situation is similar to a pregnant woman that has twin babies in her belly, says Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He's proposing the idea in a paper that's been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Yellow Tulip
How do we imagine the unimaginable? If we're asked to think of an object - say, a yellow tulip – a picture immediately forms in our mind's eye. But what if we try to imagine a concept such as the square root of negative number?
Grand Canyon
Few things in the world produce such amazement as one's first glimpse of the Grand Canyon. It took nature more than 2 billion years to create this vast wonder - in some places, 17 miles wide - largely through the relentless force of the Colorado River, which runs 277 miles along its length, a mile beneath its towering rims.
English Revolution
There are three main interpretations of the English Revolution. The longest lasting interpretation was that the Revolution was the almost inevitable outcome of an age-old power struggle between parliament and crown. The second sees it as a class struggle, and a lead-up to the French and other revolutions. Finally, the third interpretation sees the other two as too fixed, not allowing for unpredictability, and that the outcome could have gone either way.
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