A Ton of Crap (86 page)

Alexander Fleming and Penicillin
Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin, one of the most powerful antibiotics, on September 3, 1928. While cleaning his office, Professor Fleming found a glass plate from research he had been conducting. The plate had been coated with staphylococcus bacteria, and mold in the shape of a ring was growing on it. Around the ring, the plate was free of the staphylococcus bacteria. Fleming concluded that a substance in the mold was responsible for killing the bacteria. This mold was
Penicillium notatum
. Ten years later, the substance within the mold was found; penicillin.

YIDDISH

Yiddish Today
It is unknown how many Yiddish speakers exist today. In 2009 it was estimated that there were 1,762,320 Yiddish speakers, with one-third of that population residing in the United States; however, other reports stated the number was less than 200,000 in the United States. Some countries, including Russia, Sweden, Lithuania, and Moldova, still have Yiddish-speaking communities. In 1999, the Swedish Parliament gave Yiddish legal status as an official minority language, and government documents are published in the language.

THE PANAMA CANAL

The Panama Canal Today
In 1979, the Panama Canal Treaty went into effect, granting Panama complete control of the canal after twenty years. The Panama Canal Authority took full control of the waterway on December 31, 1999. The age of the canal and the volume of traffic are beginning to take its toll on the canal, and it has become an international traffic jam of trade. In 2006, Panamanians voted to modernize the canal, and a larger set of locks will double its capacity.

FANTASY

Inheritance Cycle
The Inheritance Cycle is a series of ongoing books written by Christopher Paolini. The first book in the series,
Eragon
, was written by Paolini when he was just fifteen years old. After spending a year working on it, the book was self-published by his parents, and upon being discovered, was republished by a major publishing company. The books are set in Alagaësia, with the main character being Eragon, a teenage orphan, and his dragon, Saphira. The books follow Eragon as he becomes a member of the Dragon Riders and attempts to defeat the evil king who had killed past Dragon Riders fearing they would take the throne.

STATISTICS

Combinations
For mean, median, mode, and standard deviation, you have had to put numbers in value order. But sometimes the value order is not important. When value order is not important, it is called a combination, and this is represented as C(
n,r
). The letter
n
represents the number of things selected at
r
. This also equals P(
n,r
)/
r
!

For example:

If four shirts are taken from a group of eight shirts and you want to figure out how many combinations of four there could be, you would do:

P(8,4)/4! = (8 × 7 × 6 × 5)/(4 × 3 × 2 × 1) = 1680/24 = 70 combinations

EARLY MEDICINE

Christiaan Barnard
On December 3, 1967, Christiaan Barnard became the first surgeon to perform a human heart transplant. Born in South Africa, Barnard worked as a senior cardiothoracic surgeon in Cape Town. The operation lasted five hours, and even though the patient would die eighteen days later of double pneumonia, Barnard’s operation was considered a success and was celebrated around the world. He introduced a new kind of surgery that has since become routine. In 1974, Barnard performed the first ever heterotopic, or “double heart” transplant, in which the patient effectively has two hearts.

YIDDISH

Useful Yiddish Phrases
Here are some helpful Yiddish phrases to use. Note that these are spelled out phonetically:

Hello.
A gutn tog.

Good morning.
Gutn morgn.

Good afternoon/evening.
A gut ovnt.

Good night.
A gute nakht.

Pleased to meet you.
Es frayt mikh dikh tsu kenen.

Cheers!
Zayt gesunt!

Have a nice day.
Hot a gutn tog.

Excuse me.
Zayt moykhl.

Thank you.
Nishto farvos.

How much is this?
Vi tayer iz dos?

Where’s the toilet?
Vu iz der tualett?

I don’t understand.
Ikh farshtey dos nit.

Goodbye.
Biz shpeter.

1. Which of the following allowed the Americans to perform construction on the Panama Canal that the French did not have access to?
   

   1. Rock drills
      
   2. Steam shovels
      
   3. Dynamite
      
   4. All of the above
      

2. Which of the following describes Panama?
   

   1. Panama is the southeastern end of the isthmus that bridges North America and South America.
      
   2. Panama is between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
      
   3. Panama is the size of Texas.
      
   4. A and B.
      

3. Who wrote the Chronicles of
   Narnia?
   

   1. J. R. R. Tolkien
      
   2. George R. R. Martin
      
   3. J. K. Rowling
      
   4. C. S. Lewis
      

4. Who wrote A Song of Ice and Fire?
   

   1. J. R. R. Tolkien
      
   2. George R. R. Martin
      
   3. J. K. Rowling
      
   4. C. S. Lewis
      

5. What is the mean in the following number set: 6, 7, 9, 11
   

   1. 8.25
      
   2. 4
      
   3. 7
      
   4. 7.5
      

6. What is the median in the following number set: 9, 12, 12, 13, 14, 15, 29
   

   1. 14.9
      
   2. 13
      
   3. 13.5
      
   4. 12.5
      

7. Who discovered penicillin?
   

   1. Christiaan Barnard
      
   2. Robert Koch
      
   3. Alexander Fleming
      
   4. Giovanni Morgagni
      

8. What is Louis Pasteur responsible for?
   

   1. Performing the first open heart transplant
      
   2. Discovering germs
      
   3. Discovering the cause of tuberculosis
      
   4. Discovering that blood flows in one direction in the body
      

9. Yiddish is a combination of:
   

   1. Hebrew and German
      
   2. German and Russian
      
   3. Hebrew and Russian
      
   4. Russian and Polish
      

10. Which of the following was a prayer book that contained the oldest Yiddish writing?
    

    1. Ashkenazi
       
    2. Sephardic
       
    3. Worms Mahzor
       
    4. Alef-beyz
       

ANSWER KEY: d, d, d, b, a, b, c, b, a, c

HISTORY:
The Great Depression
Economic Boom, Black Tuesday, Hoovervilles, The Dust Bowl, The New Deal, World War II

LANGUAGE ARTS:
Alice in Wonderland
About “Lewis Carroll,”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
,
Through the Looking Glass
, Symbolism, The Significance, History of Publication and Beyond

MATH:
Game Theory
What Is Game Theory?, Cooperative Game Theory, Noncooperative Game Theory, Decision Theory, General Equilibrium Theory,
The Prisoner’s Dilemma

SCIENCE:
Archimedes
About Archimedes, The Archimedes Heat Ray, The Golden Crown, The Archimedes Screw, The Claw of Archimedes, Work in Mathematics

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
Arabic
The Origins, Classical Arabic, Modern Arabic, Colloquial Arabic, The Writing System, Useful Arabic Phrases

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Economic Boom
Following World War I, America faced a time of economic expansion and the stock market had become increasingly popular. Many saw the stock market as an easy way to get rich, and as stock prices rose, people viewed stocks as a safe way to invest. Stocks were being purchased on margin, meaning people didn’t have enough to actually pay for the stock, so they would pay 10 to 20 percent and the broker would pay the rest. Not only did individual people put their money in the stock market, but even companies and banks invested money in the stock market.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

About “Lewis Carroll”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) was the pen name of a shy man whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Dodgson was a math professor at Oxford who was partially deaf and had physical deformities and a stammer. His appearance made him uncomfortable and shy around adults, but around children he was very different. Around kids, Dodgson was full of humor, highly animated, and most of all, a great storyteller. In 1856, Dodgson became close with the children of Henry George Liddell, a classics scholar who had accepted a position at one of Oxford’s colleges. Liddell’s daughter, Alice, would become the inspiration for Dodgson’s greatest work. He would often take the children on boat rides, entertaining them with fantastical stories. Ten years later, these stories would be published.

GAME THEORY

What Is Game Theory?
Game theory is also known as the theory of social situations. Essentially, game theory involves determining the right strategies to use in situations while other competing strategies are also being used at the same time. Game theory also involves understanding how groups react. Game theory is a very useful tool, especially in economics. It can be used on a personal level, in business, and even at the national level. The assumption is that at all times, decisions made by the agents are rational. Of course, this is not always the case. Even when behavior is irrational, however, game theory can still lead to interesting findings about human nature. Though it might sound complex, game theory is actually fairly simple to understand.

ARCHIMEDES

About Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a physicist, astronomer, mathematician, inventor, and engineer, from Syracuse, Sicily, who lived from 287 to 212 b.c. He is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, on a par with Sir Isaac Newton. Though little is known about his early life, he studied in Alexandria, attending the school Euclid had established, before returning to Syracuse. His impact on the world has been incredibly long-lasting, and his inventions and principles in math and science can still be found today. Among his most famous inventions are the catapult and the compound pulley, and he made several important contributions to the lever.

ARABIC

The Origins
Arabic is a Semitic language in the Afro-Asiatic group; however, it has preserved much of its Proto-Semitic (the predecessor to the Semitic languages) qualities. While many Semitic languages died, Arabic flourished with the rise and spread of Islam and the use of Arabic in the Qur’an. The earliest form of written Arabic appeared in the fourth century a.d., and by the seventh century, it appeared in the Qur’an.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION