The Arctic tundra is a cold, vast, treeless area of low, swampy plains in the far north around the Arctic Ocean. It includes the northern lands of Europe (Lapland and Scandinavia), Asia (Siberia), and North America (Alaska and Canada), as well as most of Greenland. Another type of tundra is the alpine tundra, which is a biome that exists at the tops of high mountains. Special features: This is the earth’s coldest biome....

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While seers predict a catastrophic Apocalypse and curmudgeonly Luddites revel in the shutdown of a wired society, a few visionaries see the approaching millennium as a cause for change. Here’s a look at some of the more inventive projects that hope to mark the next 1,000 years. In France, Paul Chemetov had an idea: plant a (somewhat even) line of 1,000 trees marking the north-south Paris meridian, each tree representing one year of the millennium....

The earliest European settlers of New England were English Protestants of firm and settled doctrine. Many of them came in search of religious liberty. They gave the region its distinctive political format—the town meeting (an outgrowth of meetings held by church elders) in which citizens gathered to discuss issues of the day. Only men of property could vote. Nonetheless, town meetings afforded New Englanders an unusually high level of participation in government....

Iraq Edges Toward Stability Iraq was far from secure by the end of 2007, but for the first time since the war began, the country began to edge toward stability. The number of Iraqi civilian deaths began to decline by year’s end, violence had fallen to the lowest level since the spring of 2005, moderate Sunnis started to turn against the Sunni al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and formed what is called the Awakening movement and supported the U....

In Rome, Italy, adults drink coffee standing up at a coffee bar.Throughout Europe, people eat with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right.In India, women wear rings in their noses to show they are married.arttoday.comIn New Zealand, chewing gum in public is considered impolite.In Russia, powerful handshakes among men are often carried to extremes.In Brazil, kids do not have sleepovers.In most parts of Asia, it is taboo to touch people’s heads, especially those of children....

36.1 million Estimated population of California on July 1, 2005, making it our most populous state. 342,782 The population of San Francisco at the time of the 1900 Census, making the city the most populous in California and ninth most populous city nationwide. 744,230 As of July 1, 2004, the estimated San Francisco population. At that time, San Francisco was only the fourth most populous city in the state and the 14th most populous city nationwide....

Blacks Absent from History Books We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of Black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born to parents who were former slaves, he spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines and enrolled in high school at age twenty. He graduated within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. The scholar was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the Black American population-and when Black people did figure into the picture, it was generally in ways that reflected the inferior social position they were assigned at the time....

The idea that there are seven deadly sins was of great interest during the Middle Ages. At that time the deadly sins were a popular theme among Christian thinkers, artists, and writers such as Dante and Chaucer. PrideGreedLustEnvyGluttonyAngerSloth

Valentines Galore Which St. Valentine this early pope intended to honor remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb....

West Virginia’s early history from 1609 until 1863 is largely shared with Virginia, of which it was a part until Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861. The delegates of the 40 western counties opposed secession and formed their own government, which was granted statehood in 1863 as West Virginia. Celebrations in honor of the holiday include games, barbecues, concerts, art festivals, historic displays, exhibitions, guided tours, and reenactments of Civil War battles....

245 to 208 million years ago During the Triassic period, all land on Earth existed as one enormous mass. It was called Pangaea. The supercontinent slowly began to break up during the Triassic Period. Some reptiles, frogs, turtles and crocodiles existed earlier, but dinosaurs didn’t appear until late in the Triassic period. The period marked the rise of small, lightly built dinosaurs. The first mammals evolved during the Triassic period. Most of the plants that existed were evergreens....