The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is the heir apparent to the Irish baronetcy Osborne of Ballintaylor and Ballylemon. If he survives his father, he will succeed as Sir George Osborne, 18th Baronet.
The term baronet has medieval origins. Sir Thomas de la Moore, describing the Battle of Boroughbridge, mentioned that baronets took part, along with barons and knights.
The knight is the only chess piece that can jump over all other pieces (of either colour) to its destination square.
A knight’s tour is a sequence of moves of a knight on a chessboard such that the knight visits every square only once. The knight’s tour problem is the mathematical problem of finding a knight’s tour. Creating a program to find a knight’s tour is a common problem given to computer science students.
The* School of the Air *is a generic term for various correspondence schools in Australia. They cater for the educational needs of primary and early-secondary students who live in remote outback areas where the school-age population is too small and geographically dispersed for a conventional school to be viable.
The School of the Air was established in 1951 and for many years its lessons were broadcast via radio. In recent years greater use has been made of internet technology.
There are School of the Air programs in all Australian states except Tasmania. Each student has direct contact with a teacher in a major inland town such as Broken Hill, Alice Springs or Meekatharra.
Alice Liddell, the “Alice” of Alice in Wonderland, married cricketer Reginald Hargreaves, on September 15, 1880. They had three sons: Alan Knyveton Hargreaves and Leopold Reginald “Rex” Hargreaves (both were killed in action in World War I); and Caryl Liddell Hargreaves, who survived to have a daughter of his own. Liddell denied that the name ‘Caryl’ was in any way associated with Charles Dodgson’s pseudonym Lewis Carroll.
British Olympic runners Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams were the central characters of the film Chariots of Fire. Liddell gave up his chance to win the 100 meters at the 1924 Paris Games because his preliminary heat was on a Sunday, allowing his close friend and closer rival, Abrahams, to win. In third place was Arthur Porritt, later Governor-General of New Zealand and Queen’s Surgeon.
The electronic music score for Chariots of Fire was written by Vangelis, who also wrote the music for Blade Runner, 1492: The Conquest of Paradise and Alexander.
South African Olympian and Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, whose running career would appear to be over following his manslaughter conviction, was nicknamed “The Blade Runner” for his use of springy carbon-fiber prostheses to replace the feet he had amputated as a child.
The term ‘Homeric laughter’ is used to denote boisterous, prolonged belly laughter, from its use by Homer to describe the “unquenchable laughter” (ἄσβεστος (ásbestos, “unceasing”) γέλως (gélōs, “laughter”)) of the Olympian gods e.g. *Iliad *I. 599, *Odyssey *XX. 346.
Olympian Jim Thorpe won gold medals for the Pentathlon and Decathlon in 1912. He was stripped of those medals for having been a (meagerly) paid athlete in Baseball in 1909 and 1910. College players, in fact, regularly spent summers playing professionally but most used aliases, unlike Thorpe.
His amateur status and medals were reinstated posthumously in 1983 and commemorative medals were given to two of his children. Thorpe’s original medals had been held in museums, but they had been stolen and have never been recovered.
When King Gustav V of Sweden congratulated Thorpe and presented him with his Olympic medal, he said, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” Thorpe reputedly replied, “Thanks, King.”
King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden was considered a world authority on Chinese porcelain.
In the 9th and 10th centuries, Swedish Vikings invaded and settled in parts of Eastern Europe as far as Constantinople and the Caspian Sea. They founded the first kingdom of Russia. All the Tsars of Russia until the last one, Nicholas II, were of Swedish Viking descent
*Prince Caspian *was the second of CS Lewis’ *Chronicles of Narnia *to be published. It tells the story of Caspian’s struggle to regain his throne from the wicked usurper, his uncle Miraz.
The second largest lake in the world, by area, is Lake Superior. 3 of the top 5 are Great Lakes, including Huron and Michigan at #s 4 and 5, respectively. Lakes Erie and Ontario are 11 and 13, respectively. The largest is the Caspian Sea.
A solar system body (particularly the inner planets Mercury or Venus) is said to be in *superior conjunction *when it lies along a straight line joining the Earth and the Sun, but is on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth.
*Inferior conjunction *occurs when the body lies along a straight line between the Earth and the Sun.
In 1972 NFL running backs Larry Csonka and Eugene “Mercury” Morris of the Miami Dolphins were the first-ever tandem to each rush for at least 1,000 yards. Csonka had 1,117 yards and Morris had exactly 1,000 yards that season.
Sir Eugene Goossens was the conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the director of the NSW Conservatorium of Music from 1947 until 1956.