Saturday, October 9, 2021

Michelangelo - Bacchus


We just learned a little about Michelangelo.

Another famous sculpture from Michelangelo was Bacchus.

While he was working in Florence, and before he made his famous Pieta sculpture, Michelangelo was hired to make a statue for the garden of a famous rich person.
He decided to make a sculpture of Bacchus, the mythical Roman god of wine.
The rich person did not like the statue and so he gave the statue to one of his friends.

Because it is one of his first sculptures it is very famous, and also a funny story because Michelangelo became one of the greatest artists of all time, and someone once refused one of his statues because they didn't think it was good enough.


(from: wikipedia - bacchus (michelangelo))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Georgia O'Keefe - Gaston Lachaise

Friday, October 8, 2021

Swahili - Vegetables


We just learned how to say some fruits to eat in Swahili.

Let's learn how to say some vegetables.

carrot karoti - sounds like kah-roh-tee 文A

corn mahindi - sounds like mah-hee-n-dee 文A

pea njegere - sounds like n-jay-gay-ray 文A


swahili
(from: wikipedia - swahili language)

Russian: морковь (morkov'), кукуруза (kukuruza), горох (gorokh)

Norwegian: gulrot, mais, erter

Greek: καρότο (karóto), καλαμπόκι (kalampóki), μπιζέλι (bizéli)

ASL: carrot, corn, pea

Italian: carote, mais, piselli

German: Karotte, Mais, Erbse

Spanish: zanahoria, maíz, guisante

French: carotte, maïs, pois

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Display Resolution


We just learned about the Pixel.

Another part of how a monitor works is the Display Resolution.

We learned that a pixel is a picture element that helps draw a picture on the computer screen.
When you are looking at the computer, the picture will look more like a real life image depending on the pixel size, monitor size, and colors you can use.

If you have a normal sized computer monitor but you can only fit 100 pixels across and 100 pixels down, that makes for 10,000 pixels.
That seems like a lot, but computers these days usually show anything from 480,000 pixels on one screen to over 2 million pixels on one screen!
You can have the same size monitor but switch between low resolution (bigger pixels) and high resolution (small pixels) to fit in as many as you can on the screen.

In the first computers, colors were really only white or black, or sometimes green or black.
Some of the first computers made just for video games like the Atari could use 256 colors.
That might seem like a lot, but the computers today can use about 16 million different colors!


(from: wikipedia - display resolution)


(from: wikipedia - list of video game console palettes)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Coupling Rod

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

White-Faced Saki


We just learned about the Bald Uakari.

Another kind of new world monkey is the White-Faced Saki, also called the Guinan Saki, Golden-Faced Saki or Pithecia Pithecia.

This kind of monkey lives in South America, spending most of its life in the trees eating fruits, nuts and bugs.
Just like you might have guessed from their name, these monkeys a very white face that is different than the rest of their black body.
Female monkeys aren't as brightly colored as the males and will usually just have grey fur.



(from: wikipedia - white-faced saki)



White face saki - Jexx Tay


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Calico Cat

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Organ of Corti


We just learned about the Ear Hair Cells.

Another part of the ear is the Organ of Corti.

This is the part inside the cochlea that holds on to all of the different types of ear hair cells.


(from: wikipedia - organ of corti)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lymphocyte

Monday, October 4, 2021

Yemen


We just learned about the country of Vietnam

Let's learn a little about the country of Yemen!

Yemen is a country in the middle east, bordering Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the Arabian Sea.
It is about 214,000 square miles, and has about 30 million people living there.
People in Yemen speak the Arabic language.


(from: wikipedia - yemen)

The flag of Yemen is sideways stripes of red, white, and black.
Red is for the blood of the people who fought for Yemen, white is for a bright future, and black is for a dark past.


(from: wikipedia - flag of yemen)

To eat in Yemen you might have saltah, which is a meat stew made with fenugreek, chilies, tomatoes, garlic and herbs. These are mixed in with rice, potatoes, eggs, vegetables and served with bread.

(from: wikipedia - saltah)

Visiting Yemen, you might go to the island of Socotra, where there is a large tree called a dragon blood tree, or dracaena cinnabari.
It is called a dragon blood tree because of the red sap that comes off of the tree.

(from: wikipedia - dracaena cinnabari)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Alexander Island

Sunday, October 3, 2021

O Holy Night


We just learned about the Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

Another famous Christmas song is O Holy Night.

The words for this song were first written in 1843 by a French poet named Placide Cappeau.
In Roquemare France the church organ had been fixed, and the priest asked Placide to write a poem to celebrate.
In French the poem started with the words "Minuit, chrétiens! c'est l'heure solennelle" which means "Midnight, Christians, is the solemn hour".

In 1847 a musician named Adolphe Adam wrote the music to go with the poem.
After it became famous in France, it was later written in English by John Sullivan Dwight in 1855.

The song was very popular in parts of America during the Civil War with people who thought slavery was bad,
because of the words from the song: "Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,"

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth;
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;
Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices! O night divine! O night when Christ was born.
O night, O holy night, O night divine.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming; With glowing hearts by his cradle we stand:
So, led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here come the wise men from Orient land,
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger, In all our trials born to be our friend;
He knows our need, To our weakness no stranger! Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King! your King! before him bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, And in his name all oppression shall cease,
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we; Let all within us praise his Holy name!
Christ is the Lord, then ever! ever praise we! His pow'r and glory, evermore proclaim!
His pow'r and glory, evermore proclaim!


(from: wikipedia - o holy night)



Josh Groban - O Holy Night [with lyrics] - Worship Videos


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Avignon Papacy