Marbled Cat

We just learned about the Oncilla.

Another type of wild cat is the Marbled Cat.

This cat lives in Asia, in the forest mountains near places like the Himalayas.
They are about the same size as a normal house cat, but they have more rounded ears and a really long tail.
Their fur is brown or grey, and they have stripes on their head neck and back.

Marbled cats weigh about 11 pounds, and are around 2 feet long with a 2 foot furry tail.
That means their tail is about as long as their whole body!
The extra long tail works kind of like a squirrel's tail and helps them balance when they are running around in the trees.


(from: wikipedia - marbled cat)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Diplulmaris Antarctica

Rheum

We just learned about the Eyelash.

Another part of the eye is Rheum.

This is what some people call sleep, sleepy seeds, sleepy bunds, sleepy sand, eye goop, sleep dust or sleepy dirt.

Sometimes when you wake up in the morning there is some hard crusty thing by the inside corner of your eye.
It is hard almost like a piece of sand, and you can wipe it away.

This is called rheum, and it is just the oils that come from your glands building up and drying by your eye.
These oils are coming out all day long, but when you blink they get spread out on your eye or they dry up.
When you sleep you aren't blinking so it dries up and gets crusty.

In the old days people made up a person called the Sandman that comes around and sprinkles sand on the eyes of kids to bring them good dreams.
When you wake up in the morning, that's the leftover sand from the sandman.


(from: wikipedia - sandman)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cupid's Bow

South Pole

We just learned about Pole of Inaccessibility Research Station.

We learned before about adventurers traveling to the South Pole.

The south pole is at the very bottom of the planet, and at the opposite end of the north pole.
We know the first person to get there was Roald Admundsen, and the Amundsen-Scott station is right at the south pole.

There is a red striped pole with a silver globe on top with flags all around for picture taking at the south pole. This is called the Ceremonial South Pole, and it is a few feet away from the real south pole.
The warmest the south pole has ever been is 9 F, and the coldest ever was -117 F.

There is also the South Magnetic Pole, which is in a different spot.
When you use a compass and one end points north, the other end points south.
This is because the earth's poles are magnetic which helps a lot for travel!
These north and south poles actually move a little based on the changes in the earth under the ground like the moving magma.

There is also the South Geomagnetic Pole, which is in another different spot.
The earth spins around and makes a magnetic field around it.
You can think about it like how static electricity can move things around.
This is really the true magnetic pole, but the moving of magma and other parts of the earth makes the magnetic pole move around and be different than the geomagnetic pole.

Another place is the South Pole of Inaccessibility.
This is the place in the south pole that is the hardest to get to, as it is the farthest place inland from the ocean.
There was a Russian base there for a while but it has been abandoned.




(from: wikipedia - south pole)


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Knights Templar

We just learned about the Knights Hospitaller.

Another part of early Christianity is the Knights Templar.

Just like the Knights Hospitaller, this was a group of people who fought battles for the church, usually for the Crusades.
They were known for the outfits they wore with a white background and a red cross on it.
Part of the meaning of the red cross was that they would go to war and kill people in the name of God, and he would reward them in heaven.

Some of the people in the Knights Templar did not fight battles, they were more like farmers or bankers.
Because a lot of people knew about them, people would give them money to help fight the Crusades that people thought were good.
With this money they built a lot of buildings and churches across all of Europe.

Later on one of the kings of France did not like the knights, so he said a lot of bad things about them, had many of them killed, and later on the church decided the knights should either quit or join the Knights Hospitaller and there would be no more Templars.


(from: wikipedia - knights templar)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saint Catherine's Monastery

Civil War Memorial - Martin Milmore

We just learned about the statue of Joan of Ark by Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Another famous American sculpture is the Civil War Memorial by Martin Milmore in 1873 in Pennsylvania.

After the civil war was over, many cities wanted to put up statues for memorials for soldiers that fought and died in the war.
In Chester cemetery in Pennsylvania, there is a statue of a Union soldier made by Martin Milmore in 1873.

Underneath the soldier is a stone base that has the words:

"The people of Delaware County erected this monument to commemorate the patriotism of their citizens, soldiers and sailors who fell in defense of the Union in the War of the Rebellion 1861-1865"

Martin Milmore was a sculptor who was born in Ireland and then moved to Boston.
His older brother helped him learn to be a sculptor, and then he took art lessons to keep getting better.

He was already getting jobs as a sculptor when he was 20 years old, and he became famous for making soldier's monuments.

Sadly he died very young at only 38 years old.

He was a good friend of sculptor Daniel Chester French, who made a famous sculpture at his grave site called Death and the Sculptor.
It shows an image of a woman who is supposed to be the spirit of death, coming to take a young Martin Milmore away.


(from: wikipedia - chester rural cemetery)



(from: wikipedia - death and the sculptor)


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Russian - March, April

Let's keep learning about the months of the year in Russian!

We already learned that January, February is Январь (Yanvar'), Февраль (Fevral')

Let's keep going!

March - Март (Mart) - sounds like mah-r-t 文A

April - Апрель (Aprel') - sounds like ah-p-ray-l 文A



(from: wikipedia - russian academy of sciences)

Norwegian: Mars, April

Greek: Μάρτιος (Mártios), Απρίλιος (Aprílios)

ASL: March, April

Italian: Marzo, Aprile

German: März, April

Spanish: Marzo, Abril

French: Mars, Avril

Sun and Planet Gear

We just learned about the Rotative Beam Engine.

Another part of the early steam engines is the Sun and Planet Gear.

After the rotative beam engine came up with a way to have a beam go up and down and spin a wheel around,
it was hooked up to a type of gear called a sun and planet gear.

It was called that because one gear goes around the other, kind of like a planet going around the sun.




(from: wikipedia - sun and planet gear)


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