Art & History

Great Women You Should Know… Hedy Lamar

You probably do not know who the actor Hedy Lamarr was as her last film credit was in 1958. If you ask your parents they may have a vague recollection or at least know her name.
What they probably don’t realize is that she wasn’t only an actor. She was a philosopher and, most importantly this month as we remember the World Wars and the sacrifices made during those wars, she was an inventor. She and avant-garde composer George Antheil worked together to create the first broad-spectrum frequency hopping wireless communications.
“What on earth is that?”, you’re probably thinking!

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Toys and Games

Princess Leia – The Warrior Princess

Princess Leia

I love Star Wars. It’s my favourite trilogy of films ever. At least, I loved it when I was 8 and 9 and played Star Wars in the park wit my friends. I wasn’t overly fond of it when I was 6 years old and saw Empire Strikes Back for the first time. I still fast forward through the beginning bit of the movie where Luke Skywalker gets kidnapped by an abominable snowman on the planet Hoth and has to be rescued by Han Solo. It terrified me so much when I was 6 and saw it the cinema that my dad had to take me out.

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Art & History

Prehistoric Art

When we visit art galleries or learn about art in school, we tend to think of paintings on canvas, sculpture or photographs.  Often these will be clearly recognisable as people or objects like food and flowers, and we can relate to them as familiar in some way.
Art and pictures have been around ever since people first were recognised as human by historians, in pre-historic times.  Prehistoric simply means history which dates before written accounts are available to study.  The earliest humans did not have writing with which they could communicate and this means that art and pictures were even more important to them.

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Science, Nature and Tech

What is a Stick Bomb?

11-year-old Andre Jefferson explained stick bombs as being, ‘a kinetic chain reaction that is weaved together with jumbo popsicle sticks, that creates tension, and when you take one of the sticks out, it releases potential energy and makes it pop up about this high’.
If you are thinking ‘What?’ then watch the rest of his TEDx talk to find out what a ‘Stick bomb’ is and what makes them jump. 

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