#1 Question : Who invented the internet?
Answer :
As
you might expect for a technology so expansive and ever-changing, it is
impossible to credit the invention of the Internet to a single person. The
Internet was the work of dozens of pioneering scientists, programmers and
engineers who each developed new features and technologies that eventually
merged to become the “information superhighway” we know today.
Long
before the technology existed to actually build the Internet, many scientists
had already anticipated the existence of worldwide networks of information.
Nikola Tesla toyed with the idea of a “world wireless system” in the early
1900's, and visionary thinkers like Paul Otlet and Vannevar Bush conceived of
mechanized, searchable storage systems of books and media in the 1930's and
1940's. Still, the first practical schematics for the Internet would not arrive
until the early 1960's, when MIT’s J.C.R. Licklider popularized the idea of an
“Intergalactic Network” of computers. Shortly thereafter, computer scientists
developed the concept of “packet switching,” a method for effectively
transmitting electronic data that would later become one of the major building
blocks of the Internet.
The
first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960's with the
creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network.
Originally funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPANET used packet
switching to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single network. The
technology continued to grow in the 1970's after scientists Robert Kahn and
Vinton Cerf developed Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, or
TCP/IP, a communications model that set standards for how data could be
transmitted between multiple networks. ARPANET adopted TCP/IP on January 1,
1983, and from there researchers began to assemble the “network of networks”
that became the modern Internet. The online world then took on a more
recognizable form in 1990, when computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the
World Wide Web. While it’s often confused with the Internet itself, the web is
actually just the most common means of accessing data online in the form of
websites and hyperlinks. The web helped popularize the Internet among the
public, and served as a crucial step in developing the vast trove of
information that most of us now access on a daily basis.
#2 Question : Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th??
Answer :
Most
Christians today probably can’t imagine Christmas on any other day than
December 25, but it wasn’t always that way. In fact, for the first three
centuries of Christianity’s existence, Jesus Christ’s birth wasn’t celebrated
at all. The religion’s most significant holidays were Epiphany on January 6,
which commemorated the arrival of the Magi after Jesus’ birth, and Easter,
which celebrated Jesus’ resurrection. The first official mention of December 25
as a holiday honoring Jesus’ birthday appears in an early Roman calendar from
336 A.D.
But
was Jesus really born on December 25 in the first place? Probably not. The
Bible doesn’t mention his exact birthday, and the Nativity story contains
conflicting clues. For instance, the presence of shepherds and their sheep
suggest a spring birth. When church officials settled on December 25 at the end
of the third century, they likely wanted the date to coincide with existing
pagan festivals honoring Saturn (the Roman god of agriculture) and Mithra (the
Persian god of light). That way, it became easier to convince Rome’s pagan
subjects to accept Christianity as the empire’s official religion
The
celebration of Christmas spread throughout the Western world over the next
several centuries, but many Christians continued to view Epiphany and Easter as
more important. Some, including the Puritans of colonial New England, even
banned its observance because they viewed its traditions—the offering of gifts
and decorating trees, for example—as linked to paganism. In the early days of
the United States, celebrating Christmas was considered a British custom and
fell out of style following the American Revolution. It wasn’t until 1870 that
Christmas became a federal holiday.
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Monday, 18 November 2013
#1 Question : Who invented the toothbrush?
Answer :
Looking for an
innovative dental hygiene enthusiast to thank next time you polish your pearly
whites? Turns out it’s not that simple. People have been cleaning their teeth
for millennia, starting with the ancient Egyptians, who are thought to have
scrubbed their choppers with a special powder made from ox hooves and eggshells
as far back as 5000 B.C. The Romans opted for sticks with frayed ends, while
the Greeks used rough cloths. About 800 years ago, the Chinese began fashioning
proto-toothbrushes by attaching coarse animal hairs to bamboo or ivory handles;
during the Middle Ages, travelers brought these devices to Europe.
 |
| Toothbrush |
Fast-forward
to the late 18th century, when an Englishman named William Addis landed in jail
for inciting a riot. To while away the time—and freshen up in the process—he
carved a bone handle, drilled holes into it and inserted boar bristles that
were held in place by wire. Addis starting mass-producing his contraption after
leaving prison and died a wealthy man. In 1938 the DuPont company developed the
first toothbrush with nylon fibers, which proved sturdier and more efficient
than animal hairs. But in the United States, at least, it wasn't until soldiers
returned home from World War II indoctrinated with military hygiene habits that
brushing one’s teeth regularly became a widespread practice.
#2 Question : Is King Arthur of Camelot is a real person??
Answer :
We’ve all heard
stories about King Arthur of Camelot, who according to medieval legend led
British forces (including his trusted Knights of the Round Table) in battle
against Saxon invaders in the early sixth century. But was King Arthur actually
a real person, or simply a hero of Celtic mythology? Though debate has gone on
for centuries, historians have been unable to confirm that Arthur really
existed. He doesn't appear in the only surviving contemporary source about the
Saxon invasion, in which the Celtic monk Gildas wrote of a real-life battle at
Mons Badonicus (Badon Hills) around 500 A.D. Several hundred years later,
Arthur appears for the first time in the writings of a Welsh historian named
Nennius, who gave a list of 12 battles the warrior king supposedly fought. All
drawn from Welsh poetry, the battles took place in so many different times and
places that it would have been impossible for one man to have participated in
all of them.
Later
Welsh writers drew on Nennius’ work, and Arthur’s fame spread beyond Wales and
the Celtic world, particularly after the Norman conquest of 1066 connected
England to northern France. In the popular 12th-century book “History of the
Kings of Britain,” Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote the first life story of Arthur,
describing his magic sword Caliburn (later known as Excalibur), his trusted
knight Lancelot, Queen Guinevere and the wizard Merlin. An irresistible blend
of myth and fact, the book was supposedly based on a lost Celtic manuscript
that only Geoffrey was able to examine. A series of romances by the French poet
Chrétien de Troyes gave Arthur’s quest a spiritual motive by introducing his
search for the mysterious Holy Grail. Though Arthur may not have been a real
person, his mythic power would only grow stronger as the centuries passed.
English rulers from Henry VIII to Queen Victoria have appropriated the Arthur
legend for political purposes, while countless writers, painters,
photographers, filmmakers and other artists have produced their own versions
for posterity.
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Thursday, 14 November 2013
#1 Question : What is the smallest country in the world??
Answer :
It may be difficult
to imagine, but there is a country in the world smaller than our Kebun Raya Bogor!! and one with a population smaller than a typical high-school
class.
Based on landmass
 |
| Vatican City |
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world,
measuring just 0.2 square miles, almost 120 times smaller than the island of
Manhattan. Situated on the western bank of the Tiber River, Vatican City’s
two-mile border is landlocked by Italy. The official seat of the pope of the
Catholic Church since 1377, Vatican City was not declared an independent state
until the Lateran Treaty of 1929. After years of power struggles between popes
and the political leaders of Italy over who could claim supreme authority in
the region, Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI agreed to the Lateran Pacts on
February 11, 1929, which created the independent state of Vatican City for the
Catholic Church in exchange for the pope’s recognition of the Kingdom of Italy.
Today, nearly 75 percent of the Vatican’s citizens are members of the clergy.
Based on country population
In
comparing countries by population, however, Vatican City loses out to the
Pitcairn Islands for the title of smallest country. Compared to the 800-850
residents who live in Vatican City, the population of the Pitcairn Islands has
fluctuated between 40 and 60 inhabitants over recent years. This British
territory, located in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Peru and New Zealand,
is composed of four islands, but Pitcairn is the only one that is inhabited.
Pitcairn’s tiny population is also noteworthy due to its peoples’ heritage:
They are descended from Tahitians and the mutineers on the Bounty. Fletcher
Christian and eight other mutineers fled to Tahiti after their revolt at sea,
but when hostilities arose with their new neighbors and they began to fear
arrest, they escaped to the deserted island of Pitcairn to hide from British
authorities, bringing a handful of Tahitians with them. The British
rediscovered the islands in 1791 during a search for the mutineers, and they
were named a British colony in 1838. Though the population has swelled since
then to a whopping 223 just before World War II, the current population stands
at about 50.
Considering
the 50 smallest countries by landmass are each less than one-quarter of the
size of Rhode Island and the 50 smallest countries by population are each about
one-sixth the size of Washington, D.C., it really is a small world after all.
#2 Question : Where is Genghis Khan buried??
Answer :
The mystery began on
August 18, 1227, when Mongol leader Genghis Khan died of unknown causes while
leading a military campaign in China. According to legend, Khan’s successors
killed anyone who witnessed his funeral procession on its way back to the
Mongol capital of Karakorum. Some 800 soldiers are said to have massacred the
2,000 people who attended his funeral, before being summarily executed
themselves. Khan’s corpse was then placed in an unmarked grave to ensure his
rest would be undisturbed. Horses trampled all evidence of the burial, and some
say a river was diverted to flow over the site. As a result of these extreme
measures, the location of Khan’s tomb has remained unknown for almost 900
years.
 |
| Genghis Khan |
Most
experts believe Khan was buried somewhere near his birthplace in Khentii Aimag,
northeastern Mongolia, and that his descendants may be buried there along with
him—but they don’t have much more to go on than that. Researchers weren’t even
allowed in the area until after the Soviet occupation of Mongolia ended in the
1990's. And in the decades since, various groups have been pressured to give up
their searches due to protests from the Mongolian government and public that
excavation would disturb the rest of their national hero.
Such
opposition has not halted the hunt. In 2004 Japanese-Mongolian researchers
discovered the remains of what they think is Khan’s palace complex on the
grassy steppe of Khentii Province, 150 miles east of the Mongolian capital,
Ulan Bator; they believe his tomb may be somewhere nearby. And since 2008, the
Valley of the Khans Project has been using cutting-edge technology to search
for Khan’s final resting place. The project has enlisted thousands of “citizen
scientists” to comb through high-resolution satellite images of the region
looking for possible clues, giving amateurs with a home computer and an
Internet connection a rare chance to help solve one of history’s most enduring
riddles.
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