Browsing: Science & Technology

A Brief History On October 6, 1994, The Open University of Catalonia headquartered in Barcelona, Spain was established as the first new and fully online university.  Today, continuous learning is no longer a personal whim, but a requirement of time.  Fortunately, you don’t have to go to college to get an online education.  Online courses allow you to continuously receive new knowledge.   The Pro-Papers team will tell you about all the advantages and disadvantages of such an online education. Digging Deeper Today, more and more people are studying online: taking courses, learning new programs, and even changing their profession. Technology is…

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A Brief History On February 6, 60 AD, in the Roman city of Pompeii, an unknown graffiti artist noted that the day was “dies Solis” (Sunday), the first known instance of being able to attach a date to a day of the week.  While this bit of graffito is the earliest recorded account of a day and date being matched up, people had been naming days of the week prior to this incident.  The Romans called Sunday “dies Solis” meaning day of the Sun.  Read on for more about what the names of each day of the week mean and…

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A Brief History On January 31, 1918, Britain’s Royal Navy “fought” a battle with itself in the Scottish Firth of Forth near the Isle of May, a series of naval accidents in the dark and the mist that led to the loss of 104 British sailors killed.  A total of 8 Royal Navy submarines and ships were involved in 5 collisions, resulting in the loss of 2 submarines and damage to another 4 submarines and a light cruiser.  Our retelling of tale after tale of Naval “Oops” Moments (we have many articles in addition to the one in this link,…

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A Brief History On January 29, 1886, Karl Benz, a German engineer, became the first person to patent a successful gasoline powered automobile.  Not counting impractical inventions and steam powered cars, the Benz Patent Motorcar was the first of what we would recognize as a “real” automobile,” although of course it looked a lot different from the sleek machines we see on the roads today.  A funny looking 3 wheeled flimsy vehicle, the Benz creation was the first internal combustion engine car built to actually be sold on the commercial market.  Its 1 liter gasoline powered engine produced a pathetic…

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A Brief History On January 23, 1556, China was rocked by a devastating earthquake that resulted in more human death than any other earthquake in recorded history.  Known as The Shaanxi Earthquake of 1556, the event is estimated to have caused the deaths of 830,000 people.  An area stretching an incredible 520 miles in diameter was largely destroyed, with minor damage extending much further.  By comparison, the second deadliest earthquake in human history was the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake, also in China, that killed somewhere between 250,000 and 700,000 people.  No other earthquakes are reported to have killed as many as…

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