Michelangelo - Piccolomini Altarpiece

We just learned about Michelangelo's sculpture of Bacchus.

Another famous sculpture by Michelangelo was the Piccolomini Altarpiece.

In 1481 AD a famous church leader named Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini wanted to make a really big sculpture with lots of statues to honor the Poccolomini family name.
It was supposed to have 14 sculptures on it, and he asked sculptor Andrea Bregno to do it.
He worked on it for 4 years, but then had to quit because the work was too hard for him at the age of 70.

Next the artist Pietro Torrigiano was hired to work on the altarpiece, but he only made one sculpture and then quit.

Tdeschini tried for another artist, and hired Michelangelo to make the rest of the sculptures.
At the same time, many other people saw the Pietà sculpture he had just finished and were so amazed and also wanted him to sculpt other things.

He started working on sculptures for this Piccolomini Alterpiece, but when he was offered the chance to make the statue of David he didn't spend much time on this altarpiece because he liked that other sculpture better.

After he had worked for a few years on the David sculpture, the person who hired him died.
When Todeschini died, his family asked Michelangelo to just do 4 sculptures so they could be finished.
He did sculptures of Saint Peter, Saint Augustine, Saint Paul, Saint Gregory.



(from: wikipedia - piccolomini altarpiece)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Vision of Peace - Carl Milles

Hindi - Hello and Goodbye

We've now learned a whole year of Swahili!
Wow!

Let's try another language now, how about Hindi?

This is the language spoken by hundreds of millions of people acros the world, mostly in the country of India.

Hindi uses a different alphabet than English, called Devanagari.
It has 14 vowels and 33 consonants, and doesn't look at all like the English alphabet.

Let's learn how to say hello and goodbye in Hindi!

To say hello in Hindi you would say Namaste 文A

In the Devanagari letters it looks like this: नमस्ते
It's made up of letters like न na म ma स् sa ते ta, and when they are all together it sounds like nuh-mah-stay.

To say goodbye you can also say namaste, or you can say Alavida 文A

In the Devanagari letters it looks like this: अलविदा
It's made up of letters like अ a ल la वि vi दा da, and when they are all together it sounds like ah-l-vee-dah.



(from: wikipedia - devanagari)

Swahili: Jambo, Hujambo, Habari, Mambo, Shikamoo

Russian: Привет (privet), Здравствуй (Zdravstvuy), Пока (poka), до свидания (do svidaniya)

Norwegian: Hei, Hallo, Ha det, Ha det brah

Greek: Γειά σου (Geiá sou), Χαίρετε (Chairete), Αντίο (Antío)

ASL: Hello and Goodbye

Italian: Ciao, arrivederci

German: Hallo, Auf Wiedersehen

Spanish: Hola! Adiós!

French: Bonjour! Au Revoir!

Display Refresh Rate

We just learned about the Display Resolution.

Another part of a computer monitor is the Display Refresh Rate.

When the computer screen is playing a video, or opening up a web page or showing something on the screen, it has to re-draw the screen for that picture very fast so that your eyes don't notice that it is changing, and so that it just looks like a real picture.

In old computers, the screen was drawn fresh every time starting from the top left, and going row by row from the top to the bottom.
Newer computers with LCD and LED monitors have smarter ways to redraw just some parts of the screen, but they still can only "refresh" the image on the page at a certain speed.

The speed that the screen can change and show a new image is called the Refresh Rate.
Our human eyes can only really tell if something is flickering if it is changing less than about 60 times per second.
If you think of that like a paper flip book showing an animation, you can usually see the flicker for those.
But if they were flipping so fast you couldn't tell, it would just look like an animated cartoon.

60 times per second is called the frequency, and is also the same as saying 60 Hertz or 60 Hz because Hertz means "per second".
Most monitors these days have a refresh rate of at least 60 Hz.


(from: wikipedia - refresh rate)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Piston Rod

Black Bearded Saki

We just learned about the White-Faced Saki.

Another type of new world monkey is the Black Bearded Saki, also called chiropotes satanas.

This type of monkey lives only in some parts of Brazil by the Amazon river.
They have black fur, and a big bushy beard and a long black fluffy tail.

Their science name chiropotes means "hand drinker" because these monkeys have been seen using their hands to scoop water into their mouths.
This helps these monkeys keep their beards clean.


(from: wikipedia - black bearded saki)



A critically endangered black-bearded saki monkey (Chiropotes satanas) at Zoo Brasilia - Video Ark
Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Tabby Cat

Perilymph

We just learned about the Organ of Conti.

Another part of the ears is the Perilymph.

This is a gooey liquid that is inside the bony labryinth we learned about.
The perilymph helps control the electrical messages that are sent to the brain when the ear hears a sound and turns it into a message.


(from: wikipedia - perilymph)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: NK Cells

Nicaragua

We just learned about the country of Yemen


Let's learn about some more countries in North America.

One country is called Nicaragua!

This country borders Honduras, Costa Rica, and both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
It is about 50,000 square miles and about 6 million people live there.
People in Nicaragua speak Spanish.


(from: wikipedia - nicaragua)

The flag of Nicaragua is sideways stripes of blue, white and blue, with the a triangle in the middle of the white.
The two blue stripes are for the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
The white is for peace, and the triangle is the coat of arms for Nicaragua.


(from: wikipedia - flag of nicaragua)

To eat in Nicaragua you might have vigorón, which is a cabbage salad with pork all wrapped in a banana leaf.

(from: wikipedia - vigorón)

Visiting Nicaragua you might go see the Somoto Canyon National Monument, which is a canyon that covers about 420 acres.


(from: wikipedia - somoto canyon national monument)

In the town of Managua, there are fossilized footprints that were left in volcanic ash and mud, and scientists think they are from over 2,000 years ago.


(from: wikipedia - ancient footprints of acahualinca)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Berkner Island

O Come All Ye Faithful

We just learned about the Christmas song O Holy Night.

Another famous Christmas song is O Come All Ye Faithful.

This song was first wrirten in Latin, and was called "Adeste Fidelis" which means "All Ye Faithful".
No one is really sure who wrote the words or music for this song.
A bunch of different copies of it have been found in countries like England and Portugal, and no one is really sure who wrote it first.

In 1841 the priest Frederick Oakeley wrote it in English, and those are pretty close to the words and music we use today.

The song in Latin:
Adeste fideles læti triumphantes, Venite, venite in Bethlehem.
Natum videte Regem angelorum: Venite adoremus (3×) Dominum.

Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine Gestant puellæ viscera
Deum verum, genitum non factum. Venite adoremus (3×) Dominum.

Cantet nunc io, chorus angelorum; Cantet nunc aula cælestium,
Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo, Venite adoremus (3×) Dominum.

Ergo qui natus die hodierna. Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Patris æterni Verbum caro factum. Venite adoremus (3×) Dominum.

The song in English:
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant! O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him Born the King of Angels: O come, let us adore Him, (3×) Christ the Lord.

God of God, light of light, Lo, he abhors not the Virgin's womb;
Very God, begotten, not created O come, let us adore Him, (3×) Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation, Sing, all ye citizens of Heaven above!
Glory to God, glory in the highest: O come, let us adore Him, (3×) Christ the Lord.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning; Jesus, to thee be glory given!
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing! O come, let us adore Him, (3×) Christ the Lord.


(from: wikipedia - o come, all ye faithful)



Pentatonix - O Come, All Ye Faithful (Official Video) - Pentatonix

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