The term seemingly derives from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, who was celebrated as she escaped Winter’s harsh clutches. But Eostre wasn’t quite the pagan deity who, we are commonly told, transformed a bird into an egg-laying hare companion, e.g. the forerunner to the Easter bunny. 
In fact, the only actual surviving mention of Eostre comes from 8th-century monk the Venerable Bede, whose writings suggest the English people called the fourth month Eosturmonath or Eostre-Month (marking the spring equinox) after the goddess, and feasts were celebrated in her honour.

The Origin Of The Term "Easter"

The Last Supper was the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his Crucifixion, when the bread and goblet of wine were dispersed as elements of his own body on the day now known as Maundy Thursday, named from the Latin ‘commandment’ which Jesus gave to his disciples at the meal.
The New Testament gospels are clear that Jesus held the Last Supper; was crucified at Golgotha (Calvary) in Jerusalem (on Good Friday from the Old English ‘guode’ meaning ‘holy’) and resurrected three days later from the tomb in which he had been interred (on Easter Sunday) during preparations for Passover.

Easter And Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Easter is held on the Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon (which keeps, more or less, in step with the astronomical Moon) following the vernal (spring) equinox of the northern hemisphere, when the sun is exactly above the equator, and day and night are of almost equal length.

Easter Day

<ul>
<li>Emperor Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, convened the Council of Nicaea and decreed that Christ's resurrection was far too important to be connected with the festival of another faith.</li>
<li>Constantine ordained that Easter was to fall in close proximity to a similar significant time in the solar year.</li>
<li>Easter Sunday service then commenced at dawn, with the congregation gathering outside the church for hymns before entering for a joyful Mass. Dismissed in grace and forgiveness, worshippers filed out to begin celebratory feasting.</li>
</ul>

The Birth Of Easter Celebrations

<ul>
<li>Eggs were one of the foods forbidden during Lent, the 40-day fasting period of reflection and penitential preparation leading up to Easter.</li>
<li>In the medieval period, any eggs laid during Lent were boiled for preservation so that when Easter Sunday rolled around, eggs were back on the menu.</li>
<li>And eggs weren't just used as a food source: a rural practice known as 'pace-egging' was common, where costumed groups roamed villages for eggs then given as gifts to the church as Good Friday offerings and to the lord of the manor.</li>
<li>Many of these eggs were brightly painted; a practice truly ancient. Red was used to symbolise the blood of Christ, first by early Christians then the Orthodox Church.</li>
<li>There are suggestions that 16th-century German Protestant reformer Martin Luther organised egg hunts for his congregation.</li>
</ul>

The Easter Eggs Tradition

<ul>
<li>Hares became associated with Easter because of their powers of fertility.</li>
<li>But the entire concept of the ‘Easter Bunny’ is much more recent. It likely became the large colourful rabbit we know and love today due to American influence, but 17th-century Heidelberg-based physicians Georg Franck von Franckenau and Johannes Richier in De ovis paschalibus (‘About Easter eggs’) did describe hares hiding baskets of brightly painted eggs for children to find.</li>
<li>Yet there is an earlier reference (from 1572) to an Easter ‘Hare’ which appeared at night to ‘lay’ eggs, again for children to search. This continued as German settlers came to America and continued the tradition, thereby spreading it throughout the nation.</li>
</ul>

The Easter Bunny

When did Christians start celebrating Easter? How is it celebrated around the world? Where do Easter eggs and bunnies come from? Here's everything you need to know about the most important Christian holiday

history

History

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

food

Food

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

The Easter Celebration

Why do we celebrate Easter? When did we start eating Easter eggs? Where did the Easter bunny originate? Historian Emma J Wells explores the origins of this springtime celebration and explains its religious connections

The History and Origins of Easter

In its short lifespan, Wordle has already made the tricky transition from a cult phenomenon to an established part of our daily lives.Created by a software engineer in Brooklyn for his partner in October 2021, the online word puzzle game became a global overnight success.But the game’s swift pop-culture ascendancy, which led to it getting acquired by the New York Times for upward of $1 million in January, isn’t unprecedented. In fact, 100 years before Wordle entered the scene, an even bigger word puzzle craze swept the nation: the “cross-word mania” of the 1920s.

2022: Wordle Takes Over The Internet

The modern “word-cross” appeared for the first time in print in the December 21, 1913 edition of New York World’s FUN Supplement. Section editor Arthur Wynne, trying to fill the Christmas insert, drew inspiration from his native England, where Victorian newspapers and magazines regularly published word squares, acrostic puzzles where the same words can be read both across and down.Building on this prototype, Wynne debuted FUN’s Word-Cross Puzzle.

Word Cross In the 1920s

The word-cross—which eventually became cross-word, likely due to a type-setting accident, and later dropped the hyphen to become, simply, the crossword—wasn’t supposed to be a regular feature in the weekly supplement. Wynne found the prep work tedious, and typographers resented setting up the puzzle shape for print. But players were hooked; when the word game didn’t appear one Sunday, they demanded to know where it had gone, helping ensure that game stayed on as a regular feature for FUN.

The Word Cross Becomes Crossword

The editors of FUN supplement of New York World, who were trying to fill the Christmas insert, drew inspiration from native England, where Victorian newspapers and magazines regularly published word squares, acrostic puzzles where the same words can be read both across and downThe editors also began setting the puzzles a full week ahead, proofing them for errors and establishing uniform standards like only using dictionary words for gameplay

Making Crossword Sustain Its Popularity

<ul><li>The president of the British Optical Association blamed the crossword for eye strain.</li><li>A literary debate around puzzling also raged.</li><li>Some believed it was not taken seriously.</li><li>Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh "answered in the negative" when asked if they had any crossword books</li><li>Some claimed that the working of crossword puzzles is a childish mentality.</li></ul>

The crossword faced its critics in the 1920s

In its short lifespan, Wordle has already made the tricky transition from cult phenomenon to established part of our daily lives. Created by a software

communication

Communication

Before Wordle, There Was Cross-Word Mania

<ul><li>Both Orthodox Easter and Easter Sunday are Christian festivals where believers celebrate the resurrection of Jesus - it's the most important festival in the Christian Calendar.</li><li>In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the preparations begin with Great Lent, 40 days of reflection and fasting, which starts on Clean Monday and ends on Lazarus Saturday (eight days before Easter Sunday and signifies the end of Great Lent, although the fasting continues into Holy Week).</li><li>Next comes Palm Sunday, one week before Easter, remembering the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, followed by Holy Week, which ends on E<warningtag>aster Sunday.</warningtag></li></ul>

What is Orthodox Easter?

<ul><li>Orthodox churches in some countries including Greece, Cyprus, and Romania base their Easter date on the Julian calendar.</li><li>The Julian Calendar was designed by Julius Caesar in 45 BC - basing a year on the time it takes the Sun to go around the Earth.</li><li>The Gregorian Calendar was created by Pope Gregory in 1582 to fix some of the glitches in the Julian Calendar as astronomy became more accurate.</li><li>Great Britain changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.</li><li>Also in the eastern Orthodox Church, Easter must happen after the Jewish festival of Passover - as in the Easter story, Jesus celebrates Passover bef<warningtag>ore his death.</warningtag></li></ul>

Why are there two Easter Dates?

Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter later than the Western Church - here's why.

Recurrences take place due to ascertainable circumstances and chains of causality.An example is the phenomenon of multiple independent discovery in science and technology, . Indeed, recurrences, in the form of reproducible findings obtained through experiment or observation, are essential to the natural and social sciences; and, in the form of chance observations rigorously studied via the comparative method, are essential to the humanities. If history has lessons to impart, they are to be found par excellence in such recurring patterns. The reason why I like history.

The repetition of similar events in history

In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind." Discovery, like learning, is a phenomena that takes place in the human brain. The brain configures an event as a new pattern based on previous assumptions that were present at the onset of the event.

Chance Observation. 

History repeats itself. it's all about patterns. 

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

philosophy

Philosophy

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

Historic recurrences. 

The seat belt has become a key part of our lives, a strap of nylon webbing that has saved many lives in the years since they've been embedded into the mainstream. The fabric that seat belts are made out of is called webbing, referring to the weaving process. Often made of synthetic materials like nylon and polyester, the tensile strength of a seat belt has to meet specific standards. One benefit of this highly regulated material is that most problems have been solved, and much research has been done into edge cases.

The legacy of the seat belt

The design of seat belts has directly inspired the designs of other products. The modern seat belt invented over 100 years ago had inspiration from the defence industry, which tested different harnesses and other structures during WWII.

Design perspective of seat belts

<ol><li>The concept of the seat belt predates the automobile. The idea originated in 1840 when Sir George Cayley wrote about a safety mechanism for trains and suggested a "broad padded belt to be placed in front of each passenger."</li><li>Why your seat belt always gets stuck. A seat belt uses a retractor that is designed to lock up in case of a sudden jerk.</li><li>Airline seat belts aren't made equal. Airline seatbelts need a seat belt extender to get in the seat safely. It is an older design but can be taken off quickly and has less risk of accidental pressings.</li></ol>

Interesting facts about seat belts

Swedish inventor Nils Bohlin came up with the three-point seat belt which secures your waist and chest with a stretching belt mechanism that pulls out just as much slack as the passenger needs. The two-point seat belt, which went across your lap, was imperfect, especially in independently adjustable seats and was known to cause internal injuries during car crashes. Bohlin was granted a patent in 1962, but it soon became clear that the patent would be more useful as an official standard mandated at a regulatory level.

The seatbelt patent was given away

<ul><li>In 1955, Ford offered seat belts as a part of a safety campaign in its vehicles. It was a novel option at the time.</li><li>But Ford was also competing against General Motors, which focused on traditional concerns such as speed.</li><li>Speed won, and Ford executives blamed their declining sales on the safety campaign.</li><li>In 1967, Bohlin published a report on crash statistics involving Volvo’s three-point seat belt. The seat belt prevented fatal injuries in vehicles that crashed below 60 miles per hour.</li><li>The three-point seat belt became a part of the regulations and was soon replicated worldwide.</li></ul>

The automobile industry’s handling of seat belts

It highlights the value of creating consistent standards for the common good.  However, there's always room for innovation. For example, a Ford patent for a heated seat belt raised eyebrows in the automotive world.The patent discusses adding a heating mechanism to the webbing of a seat belt strap, but some sceptics noted obvious technical problems such as being wrapped up in electricity should you be involved in an accident.

The seat belt is an important innovation

creativity

Creativity

Seat Belt History

3D ultrasound is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_ultrasound">medical ultrasound</a> technique, often used in fetal, cardiac, trans-rectal and intra-vascular applications. 3D ultrasound refers specifically to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volume_rendering">volume rendering</a> of ultrasound data. When involving a series of 3D volumes collected over time, it can also be referred to as 4D ultrasound (3-spatial dimensions plus 1-time dimension) or real-time 3D ultrasound.

Ultrasound To Volume Rendering

When generating a 3D volume, the ultrasound data can be collected in four common ways by a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonographer">sonographer</a>. Freehand, which involves tilting the probe and capturing a series of ultrasound images and recording the transducer orientation for each slice. Mechanically, where the internal linear probe tilt is handled by a motor inside the probe. Using an endoprobe, which generates the volume by inserting a probe and then removing the transducer in a controlled manner. The fourth technology is the matrix array transducer that uses <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_steering">beam steering</a> to sample points throughout a pyramid shaped volume.

Generating 3D Imaging

The general risks of ultrasound also apply to 3D Ultrasound. Essentially, ultrasound is considered safe. While other imaging modalities use radioactive dye or ionizing radiation, for example, ultrasound transducers send pulses of high frequency sound into the body and then listen for the echo.

The Echo Of Echo Of Echo Of $Echo

In summary, the primary risks associated with ultrasound would be the potential heating of tissue or cavitation. The mechanisms by which tissue heating and cavitation are measured are through the standards called thermal index (TI) and mechanical index (MI). Even though the FDA outlines very safe values for maximum TI and MI it is still recommended to avoid unnecessary ultrasound imaging

Tissue Heating

Obstetrics3D US is useful among other things for facilitating the characterization of some congenital defects, such as skeletal anomalies and heart issues. With real-time 3D US, the fetal heart-rate can be examined in real-time

The Heart Beat

The application of three-dimensional ultrasound in cardiac treatments has done outstanding progress in scanning and treating the heart issues. When the 3D ultrasound technology is used to visualize the cardiac state, it is called 3D Echocardiography. With the integration of other technologies with the Ultrasound, it is now possible to track the quantitative measures like the chamber volume that occurs during the cardiac cycle. Also, it provides useful information like tracking blood flow, speed of contractions and expansions. The echo applications helps to give a real-time images.

Cardiology 

Blood vessels and arteries movements are not easy to track because of their distribution due to which capturing a real-time picture becomes difficult. Diagnosis is used in every kind of treatment and with 3D US. Now possible to track dynamic movement of blood cells, veins and arteries. Various types of diagnosis like measuring the diameter, diagnosing the wall between the arteries can be detected with a magnetic tracker integrated with 3D US that helps in accurate positioning. So the technology gives imaging assistance and also has a sensor that helps in tracking the position of vessel.

Vascular Imaging

Real-time three-dimensional ultrasound is used during peripheral nerve blockade procedures to identify relevant anatomy and monitor the spread of local anesthetic around the nerve. Peripheral nerve blockades prevent the transmission of pain signals from the site of injury to the brain without deep sedation, which makes them particularly useful for outpatient orthopedic procedures.

Regional anesthesia

Real-time 3D ultrasound allows muscles, nerves and vessels to be clearly identified while a needle or catheter is advanced under the skin. 3D ultrasound is able to view the needle regardless of the plane of the image, which is a substantial improvement over 2D ultrasound. Additionally, the image can be rotated or cropped in real time to reveal anatomical structures within a volume of tissue. Physicians at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville have been developing techniques using real time 3D ultrasound to guide peripheral nerve blocks for shoulder, knee, and ankle surgery.

Real Time

I remember once my ears began to lose hearing, and was told by the doctor that my eardrum was concaved inward. Nowadays I realize that Ultrasound was the more efficient and productive form to ruin my hearing. Ultrasound can be localized, is outta range by audibility, and can also be used for 3D imaging. Ultrasound can also be used for many other things since it has the ability to beamform and cause force, which is how they guide anesthesia or any other methods of delivery. It can be used to heat things as well.

health

Health

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

3D ultrasound - Wikipedia

The Regency refers to the years between 1811–1820 in British history, when George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland, was incapacitated by illness. His son, also called George, assumed the throne in a regency. George III was still the king in name, his son ruled as Prince Regent, and after George III’s death in 1820, the prince assumed the throne as George IV.More broadly, the Regency period refers to a subsection of the Georgian era (1714–c1830/37) and is often extended to the death of George IV in 1830, when the crown passed to William IV (the third son of George III, and younger brothe<warningtag>r to George IV).</warningtag>

When was the Regency era?

The Ton comes from the French phrase le bon ton, which roughly translates as “good manners” or “good taste”. It was the name given to elite society in the Regency period. During the early 19th-century, these were the values expected to be observed by members of the beau monde, or “beautiful world”, of fashionable society.As shown in Bridgerton, etiquette was rigorously observed in this world, and strict etiquette governed the social season: from which daughters were ‘out’ in society, to how many dances one person could allot to another, to the secret language of the fan.

What is the Ton?

The king and queen at the time Bridgerton is set are King George III and Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. However, George III is not the ruling monarch; his son is ruling Great Britain and Ireland as Prince Regent.Prince Regent is not shown on-screen; Bridgerton instead chooses to place his mother, Queen Charlotte (played by Golda Rosheuvel), at the centre of the drama. At Queen Charlotte’s court, protocol was everything. This sense of protocol is crucial in Bridgerton, as we see the queen dictate many of the rules of this society.

Who are the king and queen in Bridgerton?

In Bridgerton, it is the job of Queen Charlotte to name a debutante as the pick of the social season, a so-called ‘diamond of the first water’. While the phrase ‘diamond of the first water’ was never used to single out any one young woman who would top the season, it is true that certain women were marked by the press of the day as great beauties. Their names would appear in newspapers, they would be written about and publicly celebrated, becoming celebrities of the season; on occasion, they were ranked, with scoresheets.

What is the ‘diamond of the first water’?

Lady Whistledown’s scandal sheet underpins almost all the action in Bridgerton.
A key difference is that in the real scandal sheets and magazines of the day, the subjects of gossip would not have been named. Their identities might have been very loosely disguised; someone might have just printed their initials, like the Duke of H instead of the Duke of Hastings. But it was so obvious who they were talking about. It was a way to get around libel laws. There would have been no point in having these columns if we didn’t know who they were talking about.

Were there gossip sheets like Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers?

Is your knowledge of Regency history up to snuff? As we prepare to return to the opulent world of the Ton, we present a guide to the snippets of Georgian detail that you might spot on screen in Bridgerton…

movies

Movies & Shows

Bridgerton Real History & Historical Accuracy Explained

William Henry Harrison, an American military officer and politician, was the ninth President of the United States (1841), the oldest President to be elected at the time. On his 32nd day, he became the first to die in office, serving the shortest tenure in U.S. Presidential history.

What was the shortest US presidency?

Historians <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/william-henry-harrison">have long accepted </a>the diagnosis of Harrison’s doctor, Thomas Miller: “pneumonia of the lower lobe of the right lung, complicated by congestion of the liver.”

What killed him?

The accepted wisdom is that the shortest-serving president developed pneumonia after delivering a long Inaugural Address in cold weather. But that might not be true.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

THE 9TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Some of the oldest jokes in history are still in use today.It is striking that the earliest recorded joke is about toilet humour. The earliest jokes we have on record suggest that crude jokes stand the test of time. Flatulence, for example, is funny because it shows our "uncontrollable physicality".

The Oldest Jokes Are About Toilet Humor

<ul><li>Finding a universally funny joke is challenging.</li><li>Effective jokes are a "benign violation" always walking a delicate balancing act between too soft and too extreme.</li><li>The purpose of a benign violation is to elicit laughter and disgust at the same time.</li><li>Jokes in the times of all-powerful medieval monarchs were a risky business.</li><li>Many of the oldest written jokes were scribbled in the margins of ornate early Latin Bibles.</li><li>Raw intelligence is the most effective indicator of whether someone is funny.</li></ul>

Jokes Through The Centuries

Stand-up comedy in recent years has evolved at speed. Kylie Brakeman was one of the early adopters of a new kind of observational comedy that emerged at the start of the pandemic. Her to-camera Twitter videos have attracted millions of views and kicked off an era in which the day's events can be parodied within minutes. Online comedians are increasingly at the bleeding edge of satire. If something happened in the news you could jump on it right away. It's an advantage that online comedians have.

Stand Up Comedy Is Evolving

We are told "the old ones are the best ones" – and some of the oldest jokes in history are still in use today. It’s worth going back a few thousand years to find out why.

entertainment

Entertainment

The jokes that have made people laugh for thousands of years

A few years before the world’s most preeminent scientists met, a relatively unknown physicist called <a href="https://www.inverse.com/science/inverse-daily-031622">Albert Einstein</a> came up with a radical theory: General relativity. The theory goes that gravity isn’t just a force attracting two objects, but one that warps time. It could be proven, Einstein posed, by measuring the position of the stars surrounding the Sun both before and after a total solar eclipse. Even the slightest shift in the stars’ position would mean that light travelling near massive bodies, such as stars, bends as a result of gravity.

The First Theory From Einstein

In 1919, when Albert Einstein came up with a radical theory called General relativity, its fame catapulted the little known physicist into the public spotlight and helped make him into what he is today: America’s most celebrated scientist.His name became synonymous with science. If you ask kids to show you what a scientist looks like, the first thing they’ll draw is wild white hair.

The Most Famous Scientist

Einstein's theory of relativity gained instant fame when it was announced in the 1920s.Einstein rose to his rapid and sustained fame on the coattails of his theory, as it was so novel, so profound, and went so viral. It shifted our view of the cosmos from a fixed entity to a time-twisting mind-bending universe.Many new physics theories today bask in the same fame. LIGO's detection of gravitational waves in 2016 led to more coverage of the theory.

Einstein's Rise to Fame

Before Einstein, most coverage of science and technology in the mainstream press was limited to the inventions of figures like Michael Faraday, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison, and, starting in the early 20th century, Nobel Prize recipients. Einstein’s fame has led to more coverage in general of theoretical physics, albeit with a slant toward fields such as particle physics and cosmology.

Moving Beyond Tesla

As the world became curious about who was behind the novel time-bending theory, they did not get what they expected. Einstein was quiet, gentle, and charmingly awkward: He never wore socks, he made jokes and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/285389?read-now=1&seq=15#metadata_info_tab_contents">gave quotable quotes</a>. He was not dull, unapproachable, or stolid.It was the ideal combination of eccentric discovery paired with an eccentric human behind it.

The World Begins To Know Einstein

As the theory of general relativity has aged like a fine wine, so has Einstein’s celebrity — despite his later attempts to find theories of the universe that never bore the same fruit.Einstein spent years after proving general relativity seeking a unified field theory — a way to chart all forces into one theoretical equation — a concept that many other prominent physicists at the time criticized as lacking in evidence and less worthy of science’s time.Yet his persistent attempts to come up with this unified field theory received continued attention from the news media at the time regardless.

The Unified Field Theory

Einstein became the world's most iconic scientist seemingly overnight. Here’s how the physicist rose to fame and what it tells us about how science unfolds in the public eye.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

107 years ago, Albert Einstein created new physics — and a new cult of celebrity

Find 100+ fun History Facts - European, American, Black, Asian across various periods - Curated by our community from books, articles or documentaries