July 22- Geography

Ancient Greece had four main elements: earth, wind, water, fire. Actually, all of these could be proven by burning a tree. First, you can feel the tree is wet. Once you light it on fire, you can see the elements escape, the water through steam, the wind through smoke, the earth as ashes, and the fire as, well, the fire. However, there is a curve ball; the fifth element. The fifth element was aether, a kind of void element. It represented the vacuum of space, and made up all celestial bodies. Actually, we get the word quintessential from it. Quint, which meant 5, and essential, meaning it was an element. So, a word for the void element that is everywhere now comes to mean something that is typical.



Now, to compliment some classical Greek philosophy, how about some Civil War geography? During the Civil War, the Confederate States of America made their own flag reminiscent of the U.S.A. one, red with a blue x and white stars. Today, all southern states have officially given up this flag, except for one. So my question is: Which state still has a Confederate flag perched atop their capital building?

July 21- Tuesday

5 sets of presidents share names. I'll go in chronological order-



John Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams. Neither had a very successful presidency in my opinion. Next comes William Henry Harrison and his grandson, Benjamin. Both were elected partially because of their successes in battle, William in the Revolution and Benjamin in the Civil War. Moving right along, we have Andrew Johnson and Lyndon B. Johnson, the only presidents on the list who weren't related. After them the Roosevelts, Theodore and Franklin, whose terms were almost 40 years apart. They were 5th cousins. Finally, we have the George H.W. and George W. Bush, the most recent pair.


Now for today's question. I understand I am notorious for asking periodic table questions, but today is a variation on the subject. You see, back in the old days, the Greeks had their own version of the elements. Substances that could not be broken down anymore than they already were; the most basic parts of earth. And to prove it, all you had to do is burn a tree. So for today, I ask: What were the original Greek elements?

(Please Comment)

June 1- History

I don't mean to brag, but I have quite an extensive iTunes collection. Miles Davis, Grateful Dead, Talking Heads-you name it, its on there. But with a great iTunes library, also comes embarrassment. One time, I was talking to my friend on the phone and listening to my iPod on shuffle, and it was blasting over the speakers, and then, to my dismay and utter chagrin, ABBA pops on. I had a good reason, it was on there for a mix tape I had previously made for my mom, but the deed had been done. So why am I telling you this? Well, it's not an interesting story, but is in fact a quintessential anecdote! You see, the song that popped on was Waterloo, and being the history buff that I am, decided to check out the lyrics to see if there was any relation to the famous battle; and in fact, there was! The songs states: My, my/ At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender. Anyway, you can see where this is going. So for my daily question, I ask: Where was the Battle of Waterloo and what was it about?













The Battle of Waterloo was Napoleon's last ditch attempt to save his thrown on his 100 days back from exile during the Waterloo Campaign. Napoleon was eventually forced to surrender. It was fought just South of Brussels, Belgium in Waterloo. The sides were basically France against all the other major European powers to protect their interests.

May 27- Geography

All countries have their own special way of dealing with crime. For a fun social experiment, you can compare the crime rate to the justice method used, but we're about already proven facts here at The Daily Question. Now, most countries try to keep the crimes committed per person down, but the country that has the highest crime committed per person is 1.5! That means 1.5 crimes are committed for every person in that country. So, keeping in mind a bit of irony, which country has the highest crime rate in the world.






The country is in Europe, and is Vatican city. Most crimes are pickpockets, but count for a lot because the country is so small.

May 20- Geography

Last year, I was given a week to pick a country to study for the rest of the school year, and give numerous reports on. And I, being the procrastinator that I am, (which you can tell since I'm posting this at 10:08pm) Picked a country off the list 5 minutes before the choosing time was due. I mostly picked this country because it had a cool name, and I didn't know much about it. Later, as I would find out to my chagrin, there was almost no information online about it. However, I did find one fact about this eccentric little country, that has stuck with me today. So my daily question is: What is the only landlocked country to be landlocked by landlocked countries, in Europe?








The country I did a report on, and is landlocked by landlocked countries in Europe, is Liechtenstein.

May 18- History

This question entails a lesser known country, so bear with me. A few weeks ago, I was sitting around the table with my family, and we were debating why my ancestors left Germany. (We weren't exactly sure about the timeline, so it was up to guessing.) There were famine theories, over population, all the classic 1800's migration grounds, or trying to pinpoint the main raison d'être, if you will. Anyway, one of the ideas I threw out there was that it was the fall of the Holy Roman Empire that drove them away. That really got things confusing, since the Holy Roman Empire existed at a completely different time period than the real Roman Empire. And since I didn't know enough about the Empire at the time, that theory was entirely smooshed. (It was incorrect anyway, because my ancestors left 40 years after the disestablishment, but that doesn't matter right now.) So now, without further ado nor rhetoric, I give, the daily question: When was the Holy Roman Empire established, and how long did it last to?







Lasting for almost 1,000 years, the Holy Roman Empire spanned from around 962 AD to 1806 AD. (One famous leader of this country was Charlemagne, but you don't hear much about it otherwise.)
For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire

May 6- Geography

I was flipping through an atlas today, and was looking at some of the smaller country names. At this point, I was thinking of demonyms. A demonym is what you call a person from where they live. For example, I am from America, so I am an American. Someone from Spain would be a Spaniard, and so on. Anyway, one of the countries I noticed was Monaco. Monaco is a very tiny country that is entirely city and is on the Mediterranean Sea. And though I knew all of that, I didn't know what you called a person from Monaco, which brings me to my question of the day: What do you call a person from Monaco?





You call someone from Monaco a Monégasque or Monagasque.
If you would like to learn more about Monaco, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco