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... Read more
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, dolls are "perhaps the oldest plaything." The oldest date to 3000 to 2000 BC and include a Babylonian doll made from a mineral called... Read more
A pyramid is "a monumental structure" with triangular sides. In ancient Egypt, the pyramids were used as burial places for royalty... Read more
A bubble is "a globule of one substance in another, usually a gas in a liquid." Bubbles are common to the human experience - we see bubbles of air in water and bubbles of carbonated gas in a glass of soda... Read more
Sparta was a city in ancient Greece. The Spartan people were known for giving up many pleasures, such as art, literature, and philosophy, in order to expend more effort on military training. Theirs was considered the most powerful army in ancient Greece... Read more
The Vikings were a seafaring people known for being fierce warriors. They raided villages and built colonies throughout Europe - and according to some researchers, as far away as North America - during the ninth to eleventh centuries. The term "Viking" meant "pirate." Vikings were also known as Norsemen or Northmen... Read more
The stethoscope or phonendoscope is a medical instrument used to listen to the sounds produced inside the body, typically those of the heart and lungs but sometimes the intestines or blood flow. Listening to these sounds is known as "auscultation." The stethoscope was first invented in 1816... Read more
Scissors or shears are used for cutting hair, thread, fabric, paper, or even food items. Specialized shears may be used for cutting metal, pruning plants, or in surgery. This type of cutlery was first invented thousands of years ago during the Bronze Age, but scissors were not readily available to everyone until the 1700s... Read more
Bread is a dietary staple throughout much of the world and has been throughout history. This food can be made from the flour of grains such as wheat, corn, spelt, rice, millet, rye, or barley, or from nuts including almonds and coconut... Read more
A tea cup or teacup is a type of drinking glass especially designed for serving hot tea. Teacups are generally shorter but wider than coffee mugs. Morning tea cups may be larger than afternoon tea cups. Oriental tea cups are often smaller still and lack handles. Teacups are generally part of a tea set for preparing and serving the beverage. Such a set may include a teapot, saucers, teaspoons, and other paraphernalia... Read more
A tea pot or teapot is a special cooking vessel used for steeping leaves to make tea. It is similar to the tea kettle used for heating water over a fire or stove. The teapot, however, typically has a sieve built into it or one that can be used with it to strain the tea leaves from the water... Read more
Starbucks is a chain coffee shop known around the world. The company was named after a character in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Its logo is a "twin-tailed mermaid, or siren as she's known in Greek mythology." The green color represents the college of the founders... Read more