a. Answer: Samuel Clemens got his pen name, Mark Twain, from his experience working as a river pilot’s apprentice on the Mississippi River. According to The Official Website of Mark Twain, “It is a river term which means two fathoms or 12-feet when the depth of water for a boat is being sounded. ‘Mark twain’ means that is safe to navigate.”
i. http://www.cmgww.com/historic/twain/about/bio.htm
b. Search Process: I went to Internet Public Library and entered “Mark Twain” in the search field. Then I tried to find the answer using several of the websites found in the search. I would go to the website, click on the “biography” tab (if there was one), and skim the article. I was successful on my second try.
2. Do any words rhyme with “orange?”
a. Answer: It depends on who you ask. According to the website Rhyme Zone, there are no perfect rhymes for “orange.” However, there are approximately 120 near-rhymes, which end with the sound “*nge.” On the other hand, The Write Express “Free Online Rhyming Dictionary” says that “orange” has two last-syllable rhymes: “challenge” and “lozenge.” (Rhyme Zone lists these words as near-rhymes.) I think that subtle variations in pronunciation explain this discrepancy; many people pronounce the last syllables of “lozenge” and “orange” the same way, but that is because they are pronouncing the “short a” sound as a “short e” sound.
i. http://www.rhymezone.com/r/rhyme.cgi?Word=orange&typeofrhyme=perfect&org1=syl&org2=l
ii. http://www.rhymer.com/RhymingDictionaryLast/orange.html
b. Search Process: I Googled “rhyming dictionary” and clicked on the first link that came up, Rhyme Zone. At that website, I entered “orange” into the search field. To verify the results, I also visited the second link that Google found, “Free Online Rhyming Dictionary.”
3. How is the magnitude of an earthquake measured?
a. Answer: Overall earthquake magnitude is measured in terms of body-wave magnitude, surface-wave magnitude, and moment-magnitude. Body-wave and surface-wave magnitude are both based on seismometer readings; moment-magnitude is based on “total energy released in a quake.” While the original scale designed by Charles Richter in the 1930s has been discarded, the public and some media outlets still associate earthquake magnitude with the term “Richter Scale.”
i. http://geology.about.com/cs/quakemags/a/aa060798.htm
b. I went to About.com and entered the question (word-for-word) in the search field. To find my answer, I clicked on the first search result and read the article all the way through.
4. How many acres are in three hectares?
a. Answer: There are 7.5 acres in 3 hectares, according to a metric conversion chart on About.com.
i. http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/traveltips/l/blMetric_area.htm
b. Search Process: First I went to About.com and entered the question (word-for-word) in the search field. This did not yield relevant results. Then I tried “acres/hectares conversion.” The first search result contained a conversion chart with the necessary information: acres x 2.5 = hectares. I used a calculator to complete the equation, finding that there are 7.5 acres in three hectares.
5. What does this symbol mean?
a. Answer: This is a hamsa, also called a Hand of Fatima. It is an ancient symbol that originated in the Middle East to ward off the evil eye.
b. Search Process: I entered “hand with eye” in the search field of Google Images. This yielded various pictures; I clicked on one that looked similar to the picture on our handout. The image was from a business blog, but had a caption with an explanation and link. I clicked on the link in order to verify the information in the caption, which brought me to a Wikipedia entry for “hamsa.” To further verify this information, I Googled “hamsa” and found many search results relating to the symbol.
i. http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/03/index.html
ii. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa
* In terms of answering five questions on different topics, the internet was easier to use than print sources because all the answers could be found in one medium. To answer these five questions without the internet, I’d need an encyclopedia, a rhyming dictionary, and possibly a science factbook… and I still don’t know how I would have answered Question 5.
6. What are the significant world events of 1852?
a. Answer: Well, a lot of things happened in 1852. In Europe, Louis Napoleon declared himself Napoleon III, ruler of the second French empire; in South America, Argentina gave up trying to annex Uruguay. For more events, see Answers.com.
i. http://www.answers.com/topic/1852
b. Search Process: I Googled “1852,” then clicked on the first search result. This led me to Answers.com, which had a long article about the year 1852, with information divided into categories such as “Political Events,” “Human Rights and Social Justice,” and “Energy.”
7. Why is the murder of Francis Scott Key’s son historically significant?
a. Answer: Key’s son Phillip Barton Key II was killed by Congressman Daniel Sickles, the husband of a woman Phillip was having an affair with. Sickles pleaded temporary insanity and was acquitted; this was the first time in United States history that this defense had been used.
i. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Barton_Key_II
ii. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E04EFDA1E31EE34BC4051DFB4668382649FDE
b. Search Process: Since I was already on Answers.com, I typed “Francis Scott Key” into the search field. This yielded biographies of Key, but no information on the demise of his son – or even the names of his children. Then I tried “murder of Francis Scott Key’s son,” which got no results. “Who murdered Francis Scott Key’s son?” didn’t work either. Searches on About.com, FrancisScottKey.org, and Encyclopedia.com were similarly fruitless. Finally, Wikipedia came to the rescue! The entry on Francis Scott Key had a section for “other related items,” which led me to an article about Key’s ill-fated son. An article in the New York Times online archive, dated February 28th, 1859, verified this information.
8. What can a DVD do that a videotape can’t?
a. Answer: DVDs can be played more times than videotapes without breaking, and they have better image quality. Also, it’s easier to find scenes on DVDs because scenes can be selected from a menu.
i. http://www.taperesources.com/dvd_media.html#m7
b. Search Process: I Googled “DVD/videotape comparison” and clicked on the third search result, because that description was more relevant than the first and second search results. This brought me to the Tape Resources Frequently Asked Questions page, where I clicked on “How do DVDs compare to videotape?”
9. When and where was the latest suicide bombing?
a. Answer: A suicide bombing on March 12, 2010 killed 45 people in Lahore, Pakistan.
i. http://www.2facts.com/wnd_reuters_story.aspx?Type=1&ArticleTextID=NEWS-US-PAKISTAN-VIOLENCE&term=Suicide+Bombing&DaysBack=4
b. Search Process: I went to the Norwalk Public Library website (using my Delicious tag!), clicked “Databases,” and selected “Articles and News” from a list of topics. Then I picked World News Digest from a list of news databases. I entered “suicide bombings” in the search field and set date parameters from March 1, 2010 to March 16, 2010. The most recent article was about the March 12 incident in Pakistan.
10. When and where was the latest earthquake? What was the magnitude of the quake?
a. Answer: According to the Facts on File World News Digest, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile on February 27th, 2010.
i. http://www.2facts.com/wnd_story.aspx?PIN=2010513870&term=earthquake
1. “Chile Struck by 8.8-Magnitude Quake, Hundreds Killed; Coastal Cities Hit by Resulting Tsunamis.” March 4, 2010 issue.
b. Search Process: I went to the Norwalk Public Library website, clicked “Databases,” and then selected “Articles and News.” This led me to a list of news databases, from which I chose World News Digest. I entered “earthquakes” in the search field and set date parameters from February 1, 2010 to March 15 2010. This search yielded many articles about earthquakes; the most recent article about the occurrence of an earthquake (rather than earthquake aid or earthquake victims) was dated March 4, 2010, about an earthquake that occurred in Chile on February 27, 2010.
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