In 1917 the Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia forced the Tsar, Nicholas II, to abdicate, and then imprisoned him and his family, his wife, his son and four daughters, in various places in Russia. Then in 1918 an announcement came that all the royal family, as well as four of their servants, had been killed. No bodies were ever found, and …

How do mathematicians communicate? What is a googol? What is a prime number? How does algebra differ from arithmetic? What is plane geometry? What is polygon? What are quadrilaterals? What is a circle? What is solid geometry? How do mathematicians communicate? You would miss much of the enjoyment of traveling through any new land unless you knew enough of the …

What comes to mind at the mention of Varanasi? The peals of temple bells in this ancient pilgrim town; people performing puja at the ghats and elsewhere; bodies being cremated at the banks of the river Ganga. Do dolphins come to mind? Dolphins?! That happy looking performing artist which looks more like a shiny inflated balloon toy? Yes, and this …

Caviare is the role of the female members of the sturgeon family. These fish are found in northern and central Asia, Europe and North America. The best quality black caviare comes from sturgeon caught during the winter months in the estuaries of rivers which flow into the Baltic Sea. It is regarded as a great delicacy and has been known …

A newly-hatched crocodile is about eight inches long and can be found on the mud near the water’s edge of marshes, rivers, estuaries and lakes around the tropical regions of the world. For it is here that the female lays her eggs and buried them-to 70 at a time-in holes in the warm mud. Each of the hard-shelled eggs is …

A caterpillar starts to become a butterfly as soon as it enters the chrysalis stage, by wrapping itself in a cocoon. During this phase, known as pupation, the insect gradually develops all the butterfly characteristics, including wings. For some butterflies the transformation may be complete in one or two weeks. But others need many months before they are ready to …

Blue Nile and White Nile are two tributaries of the Nile that flow from the South into what is referred to as the Nile proper, the longest river in the world. While the White Nile is the longer tributary, the Blue Nile is the main source of water and fertile soil. The White Nile is called so because of the …

The War of the Pacific is a war that took place in the western region of South America from 1879 to 1884. The war was fought between Chile and Peru on one side with Bolivia on the other side. The war is also called Saltpeter War (Saltpeter is a mineral) because the main reason of the war was to win …

I’m OK means I’m fine. But if you say the weather’s OK in a lazy drawl, it could mean ‘so-so’. When you respond with an OK at the end of someone’s explanation, you could be saying, ‘Alright, I get what you’re saying’. And when someone explains that ‘This is the way to do it, OK?’ it means, ‘Have you understood?’ …

Philanthropy etymologically means “the love of humanity”, in the sense of “what it is to be human”, the essence of our humanity. In modern practical terms, it is “private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life” – balancing the social-scientific aspect emphasized in the twentieth century, with the long-traditional and original humanistic core of the word’s ancient coinage. …