Locks are mechanical devices that secure doors. Once a lock is in place, it can only be opened with a key or secret code. The oldest known lock was discovered near the ancient Babylonian city of Nineveh. It may be 4,000 years old... Read more
The human skull has long served as a symbol of death and mortality in art. This is no more plainly seen than in the danse macabre or dance of death, an allegorical concept that arose in Europe during the Middle Ages... Read more
A UFO or unidentified flying object is "any aerial object or optical phenomenon not readily identifiable to the observer." The first UFO sighting of a "flying saucer" occurred in 1947, when a pilot reported several fast-moving objects. He described them as moving "like saucers skipping on water," and thus the flying saucer was born... Read more
Ballet, or danse d'cole is a type of theatrical dance. Ballet was developed as entertainment for the royal courts of Italy during the Italian Renaissance, during the 1500s. France soon became the center of this artistic movement... Read more
Lamps of various styles have been used for indoor lighting throughout history. The earliest lamps consisted of a vessel holding a combustible material such as oil, and a wick that soaked it up. The wick would be lit and slowly burn the fuel, giving off light... Read more
Cosmetics like lipstick have been used since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and others used lip color. Queen Elizabeth I of England used a red chemical called mercuric sulfide, a pigment also used to make vermillion paint. A cosmetic called rouge was used both as a lipstick and as a blush on the cheeks... Read more
The terms pants, trousers, trousers, or slacks, refer to lower body garments that are "divided into sections to cover each leg separately."... Read more
The DUALSHOCK 4 wireless controller is the newest in a long line of video game controllers. PlayStation released its first video game console in 1994. Since then, it has released second and third generation consoles, culminating in the current PlayStation 4, or PS4... Read more
Dice are "small cubes of plastic, ivory, bone, or wood, marked on each side with one to six spots, usually used in pairs in games of chance or in gambling." Dice can be used alone in gameplay, or they may be paired with a board game, such as Monopoly... Read more
The piano or pianoforte is a musical instrument played by striking keys with your fingers. Many people do not realize that the piano is actually a string instrument, like the guitar or violin. When the keys are pressed, wire strings are struck by a felt-covered hammer to produce the sound... Read more
