A Ton of Crap (84 page)

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).

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