The Cyrus Cylinder is a clay cylinder on which a declaration issued by the emperor Cyrus II of Persia is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform. It has been described as the world’s first charter of human rights, predating the Magna Carta by more than one millennium.

You have probably noticed ‘cuttlebone’ pushed between the bars of a budgerigar’s cage, or washed up on the beach. This ‘bone’ is not really bone at all but the shell of a cuttlefish, which is not a fish but a mollusc. The cuttlefishes, squids and octopuses belong to a group of mollusks called cephalopods and most characterized by a very …

It is an account a person sets aside which has no demands of monthly expenses on it, and is used as an emergency or luxury fund. A few business people set aside cushion funds to help their business grow, and for stability. The word ‘cushion’ is used as it gives a certain level of comfort to the person.

It is part of the Paris-Roubaix cycling race over 257 km, from Paris to Roubaix, near the Belgium border. Of this distance, nearly 53 km is over cobblestones, which is the most dangerous part. It is an annual race that started in 1896 and is one of the oldest. It is also called the ‘Hell of the North’. The winner …

A cloud burst is a form of torrential rainfall accompanied by hail and thunder. It is usually observed in high altitude areas and occurs due to the formation of a low pressure area on the top of a mountain. The low pressure zone attracts clouds to the top of the mountain with great force. When they hit the peak, the …

For many species of caterpillar, the first meal is their own egg shell. It is thought that the shell contains vital food substances.

A carrotmob is an event where environmentalists queue up to buy goods from a shop which goes green. This is a sort of incentive for their intentions. The concept uses the carrot and stick method, hence ‘carrot mob’. Environmentalists mob a ‘green’ store for mass purchases as a reward. This is planned in advance and executed as an event.

A camel uses its hump as a portable storehouse of fat from which to draw nourishment when food is scarce. A chemical process enables the camel to covert some of this fat into water, an advantage which enables it to survive for up to 17 days in the desert without drinking. The Arabian camel or dromedary, found in Arab countries …

The phrase Busman’s Holiday means to do the same thing on one’s day off as one does all week. The accepted origin of the phrase traces it to drivers of London’s horse-drawn omnibuses in the 19th century, who would supposedly spend their days off checking up on how the substitute drivers were treating their horses. In a nutshell, it refers …

It’s a Spanish dance and song in moderate tempo and triple metre that was popular at the end of the 18th and throughout the 19th century. Its rhythms are closely related to the polonaise, a Polish slow dance. The Cuban Bolero, which superseded the Spanish version in Latin America, is in double time. Beethoven wrote the ‘Bolero a solo WoO …