Tag Archives: America

Shirley Temple

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Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple: a very young star of the depression era.

  • Shirley Temple, born on 23 April, 1928, in Santa Monica, in the USA’s California, was a juvenile actress from three years old.
  • Shirley Temple married first in 1945 to John Agar, had a daughter, and divorced a few years later, and remarried in 1950 to Charles Black whom she was married to for 54 years until he died, the marriage of which produced a daughter and a son.
  • Shirley Temple was the ‘world’s number one box-office star’ for four years in a row; the first juvenile actress to win an Oscar (Juvenile Oscar), an award she received in 1935 for ‘outstanding contributions to screen entertainment’; and she also won other notable awards.
  • Shirley Temple is known for her star role in the film ‘The Little Princess’, in 1939, which was her first Technicolour movie, and she featured in at least 40 films in her 19 years as an actress.
  • Shirley Temple retired from acting in 1950 after starring in a number of consecutive low profit films, and after losing an acting spot in ‘Peter Pan’.

Young, juvenile actress, Black and White, Shirley Temple Black, Kid, Ten Random Facts, Flickr

Young Temple
Image courtesy of Gushi Soda/Flickr
  • Shirley Temple ventured into the political industry in 1967, and was the first Chief of Protocol of the United States to be female in gender, from 1976 to 1977.
  • Shirley Temple was one of the first famous women to announce their breast cancer to the public, being diagnosed in 1972 and announced in 1973.
  • Shirley Temple died from natural causes on 10 February, 2014, in California, at 85 years of age.
  • As an adult, Shirley Temple became a diplomat, which included work as a United States ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia.
  • As an actress, Shirley Temple generally worked for 20th Century Fox, as well as Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros studios.
Bibliography:
Shirley Temple, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple
Brumfield B, Famed former child actress Shirley Temple dies, 2014, CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/11/showbiz/hollywood-shirley-temple-death/
Shirley Temple: the superstar who had her childhood destroyed by Hollywood, 2008, Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-560626/Shirley-Temple-superstar-childhood-destroyed-Hollywood.html

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Nikola Tesla

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Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was an inventor of many ideas and less inventions.

  • Nikola Tesla was a Serbian American who was a renowned inventor for his AC (alternating current) electrical system, and he was also an engineer, physicist, futurist and author.
  • Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July, 1856 in Smiljan in the Austrian Empire, now Croatia, in Europe, and died quietly on 7 January 1943 in America’s New York, but was not discovered dead until the next day, by a maid.
  • Nikola Tesla was to be a priest, like his father, but when Tesla caught life-threatening cholera; his father promised he could go to an engineering university.
  • Nikola Tesla spent much of his life in the United States, and became a citizen of the country in 1891 at age 35, originally working for future rival Thomas Edison in the 1880s, but later working for himself.
  • Nikola Tesla had at least 278 official patents for some of his inventions, with many being improvements to technology, in areas of radio, magnetism and, particularly electricity, and he also experimented significantly with x-rays.

Nikola Tesla, Greyscale, Painting, Ten Random Facts, Inventor, Flickr

Tesla
Image courtesy of Theirry Ehrmann/Flickr

  • The SI unit (System of Units) of measurement for the strength of a magnetic field was named after Nikola Tesla, and is known as a ‘tesla’.
  • Although Nikola Tesla earned much money from his patents, Tesla experienced bankruptcy and died in debt, since much of his money was spent on new experiments.
  • Nikola Tesla was primarily 1.88 metres (6 feet 2 inch) in height, 64 kilograms (142 pounds) in weight, had a liking for pigeons, did not generally sleep longer than two hours a night, is believed to have had obsessive-compulsive disorder and a photographic memory, and died unmarried.
  • Nikola Tesla has a planet, ‘2244 Tesla’, and a crater named after him, and he also a number of other honours and memorials, including a monument that was unveiled in September 2013 in New York.
  • Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre opened in 2006, in his hometown in Croatia, featuring Tesla’s inventions, innovations, statues and even his ashes.
Bibliography:Nikola Tesla, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
Vujovic L, Tesla’s Biography, 1998, Tesla Memorial Society of New York, http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm

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Buxus

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Buxus

Grow a hedge of buxus.

  • Buxus is a group of evergreen plants that contain 70 species that are native to parts of Europe, Asia, America and Africa.
  • Buxus suit a wide range of conditions and are generally best grown in full sun, although shady conditions can be tolerated by some species.
  • ‘Buxus’ is also known as ‘boxwood’ and ‘box’, and comes from the family Buxaceae, the box family.
  • Buxus are shrubs or small trees that grow to a height of 2 metres to a maximum of 15 metres (6.5 to 50 feet) in height, depending on the species and whether the plant is clipped to contain its size.
  • Buxus have flowers that are small and coloured in yellow-green shades, that generally appear in spring.

Buxus, boxwood, plant, hedge, white, green, Ten Random Facts, Australia

  • Buxus are slow growing and are popularly used as a decorative plant, particularly as hedges, topiary or bonsai.
  • Buxus plants have very good quality, hard wood, which is denser than water, and has historically been used to make boxes, chess pieces, printing using woodblocks, and musical instruments and parts, particularly form the strings and woodwind class and is still used for many of these purposes today.
  • Small branches of Buxus have been found in Ancient Romans’ tombs.
  • Buxus sometimes have a scent of a fox or cat urine, which displeases some people.
  • Buxus leaves have a low level of toxicity if consumed, although it can be fatal for small animals.
Bibliography:
Boxwood, n.d, BCI, http://www.bonsai-bci.com/files/Boxwood.pdf
Buxus, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buxus

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Tapir

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Tapir

Tapir: A piggish elephant.

  • Tapirs are typically nocturnal and solitary pig-like mammals, that are often great swimmers, and they have strange feet with four and three toes on the front and behind respectively.
  • There are five species of tapirs; the Mountain tapir, Kabomani tapir, Brazilian tapir, and Baird’s tapir, in Central and South America, and the Malayan tapir in South East Asia.
  • Tapir’ means ‘thick’, in the Tupi language belonging to some of the indigenous Brazilians, that refers to the animal’s hide, and the scientific name is ‘Tapirus’, from the family Tapiridae, the family of tapirs, that is also related to horses and rhinoceroses.
  • Depending on the species, tapirs grow to be approximately 0.8 to 1 meter (2.6 to 3.3 feet) in height, and 1.3 to 2.4 metres (4.2 to 7.8 feet) in length, and range from 110 to 320 kilograms (242 to 705 pounds) in weight, with females being generally larger than males.
  • Tapirs are typically red-brown to grey-black in colour, although the Malayan species are part white and part black, and the Mountain species have a woolly coat.

Tapir, Baby, Brown, Black, adult, Ten Random Facts, National geographic, Melbourne Zoo, Australia

Adult and Baby
Image courtesy of National Geographic
  • Tapirs have a free-moving snout to poke in hard-to-get places, grip vegetation, or use as a snorkel, and it is often raised when it smells something.
  • Tapirs live on vegetation, mainly fruit, berries and leaves, and can consume 34 kilograms (75 pounds) or more in a single day, and they have an approximate lifespan of 25 to 30 years.
  • Tapirs have an interval of at least two years after every birth of one calf, and the young have sand coloured stripey and spotty markings for up to six months.
  • Tapirs are mainly preyed on by jaguars, tigers, crocodiles and anacondas, as well as humans, who hunt them for their meat and hides, and along with loss of habitat, this is causing them to be either endangered or vulnerable, depending on the species.
  • Although tapirs do not generally attack humans, they have a bite that can cause severe damage, if threatened.
Bibliography:
Tapir, 2014, National Geographic, http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/mammals/tapir/
Tapir, 2014, San Diego Zoo, http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/tapir
Tapir, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapir

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Slender Vervain

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Slender Vervain

Slender vervain: a pest in some places, an ornament in others.

  • A ‘slender vervain’ is also known as a ‘tuberous vervain’, ‘purpletop’, ‘purple verbena’, ‘veined verbena’, ‘large-veined verbena’, ‘sandpaper verbena’, and it also has many other common names.
  • Slender vervains are native to many countries in South America, and more specifically Brazil and Argentina.
  • Slender vervains can grow up to 60 centimetres (24 inches) in height.
  • The scientific name for slender vervain is ‘Verbena rigida’, and it has also been known as ‘Verbena venosa’, and it comes from the family Verbenaceae, the family of vervains or verbenas.
  • Slender vervains have purple or magenta coloured flowers that bloom on the top of spikes at the top of the plant in summer and autumn, and the plants have rigid, rough and hairy leaves that have serrated edges.

Slender Vervain, Purple, verbena rigidia, weed, Australia, Flower, Ten Random Facts

  • In 1993, Slender vervains were awarded the United Kingdom Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
  • Slender vervains are best grown in areas with full sun and damp, well drained soil, and are often grown to add colour in the garden, in pots, or for cut flowers.
  • Slender vervains grow from rhizomes, and are herbacious perennials with parts of the plants dying off each year.
  • Slender vervains are classified as a weed in South Africa, Australia and some parts of the United States, and are found near roads, inhabiting forests, fields and river areas, as well as cotton farming land.
  • Slender vervains were introduced into Europe by Dr John Gillies, a Scottish botanist and retired navy surgeon, in approximately 1820.
Bibliography:
Bourne V, How to Grow: Verbena Rigidia, 2013, The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/3348813/How-to-grow-Verbena-rigida.html
Verbena Rigidia (Herb), 2010, Global Invasive Species Database, http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?fr=1&sts=&lang=EN&si=1371
Verbena Rigida, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbena_rigida

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Chichen Itza

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Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza is positively ancient, but these facts are not.

  • Chichen Itza is an ancient capital city that was built by the Mayan Mexicans, and is now an archaeological site, located in Mexico’s Yucatán state, in America.
  • Chichen Itza sees approximately 1.2 million tourists annually, making it the second most popular site of archaeology in Mexico.
  • Chichen Itza was among the biggest cities in the Mayan empire, and it also had a high population rate.
  • The literal meaning of ‘Chichen Itza’ is ‘at the mouth of the well of the Itza’ in the Mayan language; known as ‘Chichén Itzá’ in Spanish.
  • Chichen Itza was settled in the early to mid 5th century AD and became the capital of the area in the 10th century.

Chichen Itza pyramid El Castillo seen through ruin, Mexico, Maya, Civilsation, Ten Random Facts, Flickr

El Castillo seen through the ruins
Image courtesy of Avery Studio/Flickr
  • Chichen Itza’s power started to decrease from 1250 AD, and by the end of 15th century the city was abandoned.
  • The main structures of the city of Chichen Itza are located on an area of five square kilometres (two square miles) or more, and other residential buildings spread out from this boundary.
  • Chichen Itza is the home of a large temple pyramid, named ‘El Castillo’, which depicts a snake shadow twice a year, and the city has many ancient ball courts, including the largest in the region, originally used for an ancient Mayan ball game.
  • Chichen Itza became one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988.
  • Chichen Itza’s major water source came from two water-collecting sinkholes, natural wells, known as ‘cenotes’.
Bibliography:
Chichén Itzá, 2014, National Geographic, http://travel.nationalgeographic.com.au/travel/world-heritage/chichen-itza/
Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza, 2014, UNESCO World Heritage Convention, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/483
Chichen Itza, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza

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