Avi Cohen, best known for playing football for Liverpool, England, was killed today in a motorcycle crash.

Cohen began his playing career with Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Israeli national team, before joining Liverpool for a fee of £200,000 ($450,000) in July 1979, and became the first Israeli to play in England. He struggled to establish himself as a regular at Anfield and was released in November 1981, rejoining Maccabi. On 20 September 1980, Cohen stirred up controversy when he decided to play in Liverpool's away fixture versus Southampton, which fell on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

Liverpool FC marked the death of Cohen with a period of applause before their Premier League match against Wolves on 29 December 2010.


- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: How to throw a football
Subject: Engineering
Grade level: Middle School - Grades 7-9
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Experimenta
Cost: Medium
Awards: 2nd place, Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair
Affiliation: Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (VSF)
Year: 2005
Description: The objectives of this project are to determine the: proper location of the ball prior to cocking the arm, the best place for the quarterback to situate his hand along the laces, the ideal distance between the feet before releasing the ball, wrist flicking motion.
Link: http://www.odec.ca/projects/2005/papi5s0/public_html/

3,000 people were killed by a major eruption of Mount Vesuvius, on this day, in 1631

Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum that were never rebuilt. The towns' locations were eventually forgotten until their accidental rediscovery in the 18th century.

On December 16, 1631, another major eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried many villages under lava flows, killing around 3,000 people. Torrents of boiling water were also ejected, adding to the devastation.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Understanding Volcanoes
Subject: Earth Sciences
Grade level: Middle School Grades 7-9
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Descriptive
Cost: Low
Affiliation: Thinkquest
Year: 1998
Description: Main topics: plate tectonics, volcanoes, volcanic database.
Link: http://library.thinkquest.org/17457/

 

Samuel Johnson, best known for his dictionary of the English language, died on this day, 226 years ago.

After nine years of work, Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755; it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship." Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnson's dictionary was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Statistical estimation of the the growth of the English language vocabulary over the years.
Subject: Statistics / Lexicography
Grade level: Middle School - Grades 7-9
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Experimental
Cost: Low
Affiliation: Science Fair Projects and Experiments (juliantrubin.com)
Year: 2010
Description: A statistical estimation of the No. of headwords in a dictionary, the size of your vocabulary and the growth of the English language vocabulary over the years. This is achieved by using the systematic sampling method by counting the number of words on dictionary pages placed at regular intervals from each other, beginning at a random page number.
Link: http://www.juliantrubin.com/encyclopedia/mathematics/dictionary_statistics.html

 

The 2010 Mount Carmel (Israel) Forest Fire

The Mount Carmel forest fire was a deadly forest fire that started on Mount Carmel in northern Israel, just south of Haifa. The fire began at about 11:00 local time on 2 December 2010, and spread quickly, consuming much of the Mediterranean forest covering the region. The fire claimed at least 42 lives, making it the deadliest in Israeli history. The dead were mostly Israel Prison Service officer cadets, as well as three senior police officers, among them the chief of the Haifa District. More than 17,000 people were evacuated, including several villages in the vicinity of the fire, and there was considerable property and environmental damage. The fire was defeated on 5 December after raging for four days.

Israel Police suggested that the fire was caused due to a bonfire that was lit by local residents and not extinguished properly and in time.

The main cause for the large-scale fire was an unusually warm autumn and dry conditions Israel had been experiencing.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: The relationship between global warming and the emissions of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) by forest fires.
Subject: Ecology
Grade level: High School - Grades 10-12
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Experimental
Cost: Medium
Awards: 2st place, Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (2003)
Affiliation: Canada Wide Virtual Science Fair (VSF)
Year: 2003
Description: Fuel moisture determines a forest fire's depth of burn. Fires will burn deeper into the ground where global warming causes drought. Organic matter samples from different depths were burned to analyze the amount of carbon dioxide released. It was concluded that more carbon dioxide is released per unit volume of soil the deeper a fire burns.
Link: http://www.virtualsciencefair.org/2003/vanfr3j/public_html/

 

The Antarctic Treaty was signed, preserving the Antarctic continent for scientific research, 51years ago

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ATS, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty, entering into force in 1961 (opened for signature on December 1, 1959) and eventually signed by 47 countries, sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on that continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters have been located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since September 2004.

- Wikipedia

Science Fair Project Information
Title: Will Ice Melting at the North or South Poles Cause Sea Levels to Rise?
Subject: Earth Sciences
Grade level: Primary School - Grades K-3
Academic Level: Ordinary
Project Type: Experimental
Cost: Low
Affiliation: Science Buddies (Author: Kristin Strong)
Description: This project demonstrates that melting ice cubes elevate water level in a container.
Link: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/OceanSci_p015.shtml