November 20, 2007

inculcate

DEFINITION: (verb) To teach (others) by frequent instruction or repetition. SYNONYMS: infuse, instill. USAGE: All of virtue and chivalry and true manhood which his old guardian had neglected to inculcate in the boy's mind the good priest planted there.

Doomsday Cult Threatens Suicide in Bunker

Twenty nine people, including four children, are holed up in an underground bunker near Russia's Volga River as they await the end of the world. Pyotr Kuznetsov ordered the members of his True Russian Orthodox Church, a doomsday cult, to enter the bunker last month and remain there until the world ends in May. Kuznetsov, who had not yet entered the underground hideout, was arrested and placed in a psychiatric hospital for evaluation; his followers remain in the bunker and are threatening to commit mass suicide if forced to leave.

The Climate of Antarctica

About 200 million years ago Antarctica was joined to S America, Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand in a single, warm continent called Gondwana. According to the plate tectonics theory, Antarctica split from Gondwana and drifted to its present location at the South Pole. Persistent westerly winds began to circle Antarctica, blocking heat transport to the continent and making it the coldest region on Earth. When was the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth, -89.4C (-129F), reported?