A marionette is a string puppet. It is worked from above by tilting a bar, which pulls the strings. This moves the puppet’s arms, legs, and head.

The director guides the actors’ performances and his actions on the movie sets. He also directs the camera angles, which gives style to the movie.

A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that can play specially selected songs from self-contained media. The traditional jukebox is rather large with a rounded top and has colored lighting on the front of the machine on its vertical sides. The classic jukebox has buttons with letters and numbers on them that, when combined, are …

When Lewis Carroll wrote Alice In Wonderland, he introduced the nicknames of some of his friends The Lory was young Lorina Liddell, the sister of Alice on whom Carroll based his look. The Eaglet was Alice’s other sister Edith. As for the Dodo, this was Carroll himself. Lewis Carroll was born January 27, 1832. In 1861, he decided to enter …

A countdown is loudly counting in reverse from 10 to 1, prior to an event. In a rocket launch, a countdown is a carefully devised set of procedures ending with the ignition of a rocket engine, which starts 72 to 96 hours prior to its launch time. During the countdown, step-by-step procedures like placing the vehicle at the launch site, …

In several countries, people cannot bring in animals freely from abroad. Any animal that does arrive must go into quarantine and spend several months in a cage before being allowed to mix freely with other animals and people. There is a very good reason for this law. It is to prevent the spread of a terrible disease called rabies. People …

The flowers appear at the times most suited to the production of seed for the continuation of the species. Before seed can develop the flower must be pollinated. This means that the dust-like pollem produce by the stamen of the flower must be transferred to the stigma of the ovary. Pollination is brought about by various means. Most plants are …

There is one theory that the eye patch was worn over one eye so the pirate could move between the darkness of below-deck to the brightness of topside without waiting for the eyes to adjust. Another theory: the eye patch stereotype predates the “Golden Age of Piracy” by some 200 years. Up until the 1500s one of the key tools …

Trees do not grow on mountain tops either because the situation is too exposed, or because the soil is too thin or too frozen to allow their roots to draw nourishment from the ground. In most mountainous areas there is usually a clearly marked timberline, a boundary above which there is no tree growth. Sometimes the height of the timberline …