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Trustees of Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences are selling more than 15,000 minerals and gems that haven't been displayed for decades to raise money for the 194-year-old natural history museum's library. The cash-strapped academy must obtain court permission to sell its remaining 7,000-odd pieces because William S. Vaux, who donated them 123 years ago, requested that they never be sold.

DEFINITION: (noun) A cross with diagonal bars of equal length. SYNONYMS: St. Andrew's cross. USAGE: The roof was poor and thatched; but in strange contrast to it there ran all along under the eaves a line of wooden shields, most gorgeously painted with chevron, bend, and saltire, and every heraldic device.

Pelé is considered by many to be the world's greatest football (soccer) player. As a striker for the Brazilian team, he scored more than 1,000 goals over the course of his career and became the only player to win three World Cups with his team. His playing style was marked by superb ball control and great tactical ability. Waldemar de Brito, who scouted Pelé, predicted the then-15 year old would become "the greatest football player in the world." What did Pelé use for a ball when he was a boy?

The Smurfs, or Les Schtroumpfs in French, are a fictional race of small blue creatures that live in a forest somewhere in Europe. The Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced Smurfs to the world, but English-speakers perhaps know them best from the animated television series from Hanna-Barbera Productions. The Smurf franchise has spawned movies, television shows, figurines, and countless other merchandise. How did Peyo come up with the name for his famous creatures?

Rubik's Cube is a mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik. The standard 3x3x3 version is a plastic cube consisting of 26 smaller cubes that rotate around a typically unseen kernel. Each of the nine visible faces on each side of the Rubik's Cube exhibits one of six colors. When the puzzle is solved, all nine faces on a given side of the cube display the same color. What is "speedcubing?"