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Keira Underwood-Big clock fixed with a few pennies

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Keira Underwood-Big clock fixed with a few pennies

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Recently BBC noticed a error with Big Ben. For 156 years the clock has been the most famous clock that people used back before the Revolutionary War. BBC noticed this problem when they going to do a broadcast at 6 o'clock. They trying to fix this problem because over the 156 years problems have been happening. The has been skipping some bongs due to repair or weather.

One connection I have is when there have been other problems with famous landmarks before

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Gage Weaver:Guinness RELEASES 2015 Records

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Gage Weaver:Guinness RELEASES 2015 Records

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Every year people do thier hobies and hopefully get recinized in the record book you can run,strenth ,bike,basketball something you can do really good it can go into the record book.

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Abby Reisbeck: Who was boss before the dinosaurs?

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Abby Reisbeck: Who was boss before the dinosaurs?

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This artical was about species, before dinosaurs. A crocodile-like mammal was discovered through fossils. Scientists think it lived 230 million years ago, in the Triassic period. This relates to the CNN Student News story about the human-like fossils a the cave.

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BrookLynn Gordon, What's Up With Saturn's Rings?

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BrookLynn Gordon, What's Up With Saturn's Rings?

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Saturn's rings can be seen by the naked eye, but Galileo was the first to see them. The Jude rings, are actually only 30 ft. night. The rings may look like the go on for ever, but the don't. Teack probes are advaning over time hepling with reasrch of plant's like Saturn.

I connect this with recent events that with the advance of technolg avicemnent. like the prove to Mars is advincing.

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What's Up With Saturn's Rings?-Lexi Scott

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What's Up With Saturn's Rings?-Lexi Scott

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You cannot see Saturn's rings with the naked eye because they are invisible without a telescope. In 1610, Galileo was the first to spot the 7 rings. These rings are made out of particles of dust-sized frozen grains, ice, and rocky particles wrapped in ice. Scientists that are researching Saturn are making new discoveries all the time, but they are not sure when or how the rings were formed. This relates to the blood moon/ super moon that we saw not too long ago because scientists are making new observations and figuring new things out about the blood moon and Saturn's rings.

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Roeyn Szumilas Guinness Releases 2015 Records

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Roeyn Szumilas Guinness Releases 2015 Records

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Ever since May of 1955 many people have been intrigued by the book of world records. Guinness says that they have up to tens of thousands of people submit requests in hopes of setting a new record. They have records for the longest burrito to the fastest talker to the shortest person. It seems people will do anything to get into the book of world records!

This article connects to diversity because it represents all the crazy, and different, abilities people and animals have.

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Kira Shuff   Big Clock Fixed with a Few Pennies

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Kira Shuff   Big Clock Fixed with a Few Pennies

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The famous clock, Big Ben has been slow by 6 seconds. This was noticed by BBC radio. They have corrected the clock to within 2 seconds of the correct time. They will continue adjusting the pennies by placing them on the pendulum or removing them.

Connection: This is kind of like how NASA built the disaster recovery robot, because both found a new way to fix problems that occurred.

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Harry Cone: Who was boss before dinosaurs 

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Harry Cone: Who was boss before dinosaurs 

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tis article is about what ruled over planet earch before dinosaurs.ssil evidence was found over 230 million years ago during the terrasic period. Animals such as huge crocodiles called smilosuchus they were at the top of the food chain back then.What happened was so important I caused half of all life on earth to go extinct.Scientists found fossils about these animals.

My connection is that dwarf crocodiles are going extinct.Theyare going extinct from being hunted.

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In the artical it talks about how the U.S. and other European countries made a "deal" with Iran telling the country to stop mining uranium and making bombs. Iran agreed, but currently Iran's leaders are seeing this as a "horrible mistake". However they keep the deal due to extremists in their country(ISIS).

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Braden Monahan: Guiness Realeases 2015 world records!

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Braden Monahan: Guiness Realeases 2015 world records!

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Crazy people come up with crazy things just to get their name and picture in a Guiness world record book. For instance, someone submitted world's fastest tortoise going at the speed of .28 meters per second! Another person has a foot size of 26! Want to know how world records started and came to be? In May 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, the owner of a beer brewery in England got into an argument with fellow members of his hunting party over the question - "Which is the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the grouse?" Realizing that there were no reference books that carried such information and how useful they might be to resolve debates such as his, he came up with the idea of a book of world records.

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Roeyn Szumilas:Guinness Releases  2015 records

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Roeyn Szumilas:Guinness Releases  2015 records

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Ever since May of 1951 when Sir Hugh Beaver created it

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I can connect to how the children must feel for getting books, because I enjoy reading books in my spare time, and without books I wouldn't be where I am now.

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The Iran deal is about Iran almost stopping their uranium production and their other nuclear weapon related production. The U.S, and several other countries think that it's too dangerous for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The deal states that that Iran must stop the uranium production by 98%, causing it's economy to fail. The prices of gas and food begin to rise.

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 Harry Cone:who was boss before dinosaurs

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 Harry Cone:who was boss before dinosaurs

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this article is about what ruled over planet earth before dinosaurs.Fossil evidence was found over 230 Million years ago during the terrasic period.Animals such as huge crocodiles called smilosuchas they were at the top of the food chain.

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Gage Weaver:Guinness RELEASES 2015 Records

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Gage Weaver:Guinness RELEASES 2015 Records

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Every year people

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Jordan Laessig  Guinness RELEASES 2015 Records

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Jordan Laessig  Guinness RELEASES 2015 Records

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Since May of 1955 many people have been intrigued by the Guinness Book of World Records. They state that every year they have up to tens of thousands of people submit requests in hopes of setting a new record. They have records for the biggest feet to the fastest tortoise to the shortest person. It seems as if people will do anything to get into the book of world records!

This article connects to diversity because it represents all the different, and crazy abilities people and animals have.

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Japan has a very interesting culture and beliefs. This article tells you a lot of information about Japan. The article tells a lot of information. I recommend that you take a look at the article and learn about Japan. It's very interesting information!

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Trace the history of Japan through its art. This concise summary begins with the Jomon period (from around 10,000 BC), named after the cord-markings on pottery produced during this period, and leads up to the present.

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In this article it talks about the most amazing people and how they broke the worked recorded for something, like holding your breath for 30 minutes or something like that

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Nepal: Finally, A New Constitution by Sophia Werner

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Nepal: Finally, A New Constitution by Sophia Werner

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Nepal has been trasitioning from a kingdom to a democracy since 2006. It started in the summer of 2001, when 10 royal members were assassinated and the King's younger brother tried to take over the government. He was ousted in 2006 by the rebels. After the devastating earthquake, Nepal decided that they really needed a new government after over 9,000 lives were lost in the quake. The new constitution is certainly a step in the right direction.

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The Guinness world record book every year people challenge theirselves to get into the book. In Venezuela a man made a pair of boots the size of 26 which means that a giant is in town. Then their is Bertie the fastest tortoise who is nicknamed the Usain Bolt of turtles and can reach speeds of 0.6 miles per mile move over hare. Sadly last month the smallest man in the world passed away at the age of 75 so at least he went out a record breaker. So people will do anything to show up in the record books and be memoralized in a weird and wacky way.

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Whats up with Saturn's rings? Clara brown

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Whats up with Saturn's rings? Clara brown

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Although Saturn can be seen with the naked eye, its rings however can not be. Its rings are about 175,000 miles wide. Thats roughly 3/4 of the distance between the earth and the moon. Although the rings were discovered in 1610 today we are exploring the 7.4 million wide behemoth that was found in 2009. This is realated to the blood moon because they are both about space and new discoveries.

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Abby Reisbeck: Who was boss before the dinosaurs

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Abby Reisbeck: Who was boss before the dinosaurs

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This artical was about species, before dinosaurs. A crocodile-like mammal was discovered through fossils. Scientists think it lived 230 million years ago, in the Triassic period.

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Pluto pictures are pouring in       Maggie Webster

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Pluto pictures are pouring in       Maggie Webster

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This article is about how scientists have discovered that Pluto has more diverse land than they ever imagined. Some scientists think that Pluto has had a thicker Atmosphere in the past than it does now. Scientists also have discovered what could be mountains on Pluto's surface however, it is possible that they are just huge blocks of ice.

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Hayden Sherman: Who Was Boss Before Dino

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Hayden Sherman: Who Was Boss Before Dino

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This article was very interesting it talks about who ruled the earth before dinosaurs. What lived before the dinosaurs was basically reptiles similar to dinosaures but what is interesting is that scientists think something wiped them out even before the dinosaurs existed.

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So a couple days back, the government signed the Iran nuclear deal, voting yes. Since 2002 Iran has been using weapon grade Plutonium to construct, you guessed it, weapons. However, this deal allows Iran to continue mining uranium and plutonium, but not enough to create a bomb for 15 years, while the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor what they do with it for 25.

This reminds me of a game called Fallout Shelter, where you need to create a bomb shelter, or "Vault", and manage everyone who lives there after a nuclear winter. While this won't happen in real life today, let's hope the same for 30 years later!

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What's up with Saturn's rings? - Rose Angelo

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What's up with Saturn's rings? - Rose Angelo

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Saturn's rings cannot be seen by the naked eye. The planet's rings are about 175,000 miles long and almost the entire way from Earth to the Moon. They're made up of little frozen particles as small as dust and big ice bergs orbiting around the planet. The rings are still forming - it is a continuous process. Advanced technology is always discovering new things about Saturn's rings.

This story reminds me of when I was in 4th grade. My teacher made us pick a planet to study and research and write a report on. I picked Saturn. My main focus in my essay was Saturn's rings.

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Ty West:  Who Was Boss Before The Dinosaurs

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Ty West:  Who Was Boss Before The Dinosaurs

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This article talks about who was the ruler of the land before the dinosaurs. Way back when when the dinosaurs were starting out there was other creatures that looked like huge crocodiles which have been named Smilosuchus. Also there was forerunners roaming the land but they weren't the main predators the Smilosuchus were. These reptiles were taken out by something big that happened about 200 million years ago. Most of the forerunners were killed and all of the Smilosuchus were killed. It was such a big change that half of earth's life die

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Kira Shuff  Big Clock Fixed with a Few Pennies

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Kira Shuff  Big Clock Fixed with a Few Pennies

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The famous clock, the Big Ben has been slow by 6 seconds. This was noticed by BBC radio. They have corrected the clock to within 2 seconds of the correct time. They will continue adjusting the pennies by placing them on the pendulum, or removing them.

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Guinness Release 2015 Records- by Kelsie Poole 

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Guinness Release 2015 Records- by Kelsie Poole 

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This article is about people who would do anything to get in the book of Guiness World Records. Safely the shortest man who was 21 1/2 inches. A man named Jesion Herandez has the biggest shoes, size 26, and A turtle went 0.6 miles per hour.

One connection I have about reading this article is when I was little I remember buying all of these books and just looking at the pictures for days.

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What's Up With Saturn's Rings?-Lexi Scott

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What's Up With Saturn's Rings?-Lexi Scott

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You cannot see Saturn's rings with the naked eye because they are invisible without a telescope. In 1610, Galileo was the first to spot the 7 rings. These rings are made out of particles of dust-sized frozen grains, ice, and rocky particles wrapped in ice. Scientists that are researching Saturn are making new discoveries all the time, but they are not sure when or how the rings were formed.

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BrookLynn Gordon

Saturn's rings can be seen by the naked eye, but Galileo was the first to see them. The Jude rings, are actually only 30 ft. night. The rings may look like the go on for ever, but the don't. Teck probes

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Guinness RELEASES 2015 Records-Abby Geiser

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Guinness RELEASES 2015 Records-Abby Geiser

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Tens of thousands of people request to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. Eighty percent of these people, however, are rejected. The first 197-page edition of the Guinness Book of World Records came out in May 1955, and since then, almost 100 million copies have been sold all over the world. In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver and his friends got into an argument over which of two birds were faster,and shortly after they realized that no such books occurred to give them this info, they created one.

Last year in Mrs. Curoe's Social Studies class, we watched a CNN Student News where they talked about who placed the 2014 World Records book, and the talents were similar to these.

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What's up with Saturns rings by Aidan Guerra

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What's up with Saturns rings by Aidan Guerra

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Saturn's rings are invisible to the naked eye. But that didn't stop Galileo from discovering them in 1610. The 7 rings span about 175,000 wide and only about 30 feet high. The aren't continuous though, they are made of billions of particles from dust sized frozen grain to chunks of frozen water and rocks. The rings don't have an exact date of appearance though. They could have been there when Saturn was formed or back when the dinosaurs were alive. A connection that I can make is, in a game I used to play, you had to navigate through Saturns rings and you could see everything in them

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Pluto Pictures Are Pouring In : Cailin Mallory

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Pluto Pictures Are Pouring In : Cailin Mallory

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Scientists have now made a space Craft that is able to go onto a dwarf planet we call pluto.

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Garbage Collector Creates library from rescued books -  Kaylee Everett

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Garbage Collector Creates library from rescued books -  Kaylee Everett

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Jose Gutierrez is a trash man, He started looking through the trash truck about 20 years ago. He thought that this would be a really good idea since the kids in Columbia were very poor. Jose's house is covered from floor to ceiling with over 20,000 books. He wants to give kids the gift of reading by letting them come into his "library" and get books. A connection that I can make is that one my friends they have a little box in front of their house that says library. Also it says take one get one.

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Garbage collector creates library from rescued books - Kendall Edwards

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Garbage collector creates library from rescued books - Kendall Edwards

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Jose Gutierrez found books while working, which he kept in his house. He decided to make a make shift library in his house, holding more than 20,000 books. Jose says his inspiration is when his mom read bedtime stories to him, and his love of books. Jose wants to give kids the gift of reading, as he states how books are luxury for boys and girls. He constantly donates books he does not have room for to libraries, and is helping poor children in his area enjoy what we all take for granted, books

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On July 14, seven countries, including the U.S and Iran, reached a historic agreement on Iran's nuclear program.

For a long time now, countries around the world have been concerned that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb. The U.S had been in negotiations with Iran for almost two years, with support from UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.

When the deal was announced in Vienna, Austria, there was jubilation on the streets of Tehran, Iran's capital. However, the deal sparked controversy all across the world. While many called it a 'win-win situation', others such as Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu perceived the deal as a 'historic mistake'.

In the U.S, Republicans vowed to block the deal with a vote. Last Thursday, the U.S Senate delivered a victory to President Obama, allowing the Iran deal to go through.

A Little Background

It was in 2002 that the world learned about Iran's secret plans for developing capability to build nuclear weapons. The matter came to light when a group opposed to the Government, revealed information about Iran's nuclear activity.

The country by that time had already acquired nuclear material and was making substantial progress to enrich uranium. Uranium is the fuel that is used by reactors to generate nuclear power. But it also has the capability to build weapons.

Worried about the safety and security in the region, US and its European allies began pressing Iran to stop enriching uranium. Talks failed to make progress and the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) referred the matter to the UN Security Council. Sanctions were imposed on Iran on several occasions, each one more severe than the previous one.

What Does The New Deal Involve?

Per the Vienna agreement, Iran has agreed to limit its uranium production and reduce its stockpile by 98%. It will also be required to shut down some of its most important nuclear plants, one of which will be converted for scientific research. In addition, Iran will stop manufacturing weapon-grade plutonium (another radioactive material), and not build any additional plutonium reactors for at least 15 years.

Iran has also agreed to provide greater visibility into its nuclear program. It will allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to keep constant surveillance and carry out inspections up to a period of 25 years. In return, the US and other countries will lift the harsh economic sanctions they have currently placed on Iran.

Why Did Iran Agree To The Deal?

The sanctions that had been in place so far were quite severe, and had crippled the country. Iran's ability to export oil was restricted, which in turn had affected the country's economy. Iranian banks could not work with the West, which affected the value of Iran's money. These sanctions had led to rising food and fuel prices which were affecting the common people.

Iran is also worried about the spread of ISIS extremists who have taken over large parts of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. ISIS extremists practice the Sunni form of Islam and could be a potential threat to Shia Iran's existence (Read about Sunni and Shia Islam here). Iran has been engaged in a war with ISIS, and support from the international community is important at this time.

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On July 14, seven countries, including the U.S and Iran, reached a historic agreement on Iran's nuclear program. For a long time now, countries around the world have been concerned that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb. The U.S had been in negotiations with Iran for almost two years, with support from UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.

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When we think of Nepal, the massive earthquake that devastated the country earlier this year comes to mind (read here). But, the country has also been in the midst of a political quake.

Nepal has been transitioning from a kingdom to a republic. The country has not had an official constitution, with the different political groups failing to agree on details. The earthquake in April 2015 was a wake up call. Nepal was ill-equipped to handle the scale of the disaster as 9,000 people died. The lack of a working constitution was blamed for the poor response.

This past week, Nepal's Parliament approved the country's first official constitution. The country has been divided into seven states, each with a legislative body and a Chief Minister (head of state). Nepal has also decided that it would be secular country - in other words, it will not have any official religion. This move has angered the majority Hindus, and led to protests.

A Royal Kingdom

Nepal lies on the crossroads of India and China. It is the starting point for trekkers eager to scale Mt. Everest, the world's highest peak. For centuries, the country has attracted settlers from India, and been a resting stop on trading routes. It is also the birthplace of Gautama Buddha - a royal prince who abandoned his kingdom in pursuit of enlightenment, and founded the religion of Buddhism.

In 1768, Prithvi Narayan Shah, the ruler of a tiny mountain kingdom, unified the country by attacking and conquering neighboring kingdoms. Nepal came under one ruling family - the Shahs. The Shahs, originally from India, practiced Hinduism (the main religion in India today). Hence Nepal became a Hindu kingdom.

For more than two centuries, the Shah dynasty enjoyed complete control. The King was considered an incarnation of God, and ruled by divine right. But all that changed in 2001.

The Dawn Of Democracy

When democratic movements started sweeping across the world in the late 1980's, Nepal was caught in the storm. Opposition groups demanded that the country be handed back to its people, and the King declared a constitutional head (similar to the British monarchy).

King Birendra of Nepal agreed to the will of the people and elections were held. But the King retained the right to dissolve the Parliament and controlled the army. The initial experiments in democracy failed, and the country fell into a long drawn civil war.

The beginning of the end for the Shah kings came in the summer of 2001. King Birendra, along with nine other members of the royal family, was assassinated in the palace by his son - crown prince Dipendra, who was drunk and later killed himself. The King's younger brother, Gyanendra took over the kingdom. Many in Nepal believe that Gyanendra had a hand in the assassination, and that he suspended investigations into the killings too quickly.

Gyanendra tried to change Nepal back into a monarchy and seized absolute power. But he did not succeed and was ousted in 2006 by the rebels. Since then, Nepal has been on a long and rocky road to democracy. The new constitution is certainly a step in the right direction.

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When we think of Nepal, the massive earthquake that devastated the country earlier this year comes to mind (read here). But, the country has also been in the midst of a political quake. Nepal has been transitioning from a kingdom to a republic.

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Talk about record breaking. It seems folks are willing to do anything - weird and wacky, to somehow get their names into the Guinness Book of World Records.

From flipping pancakes, to scaling Mount Everest twice in one year, or doing mass massage or line dancing, there is no dearth of ideas on what one can do to get into the record books! On September 11, the iconic book released its 2016 edition.

With 40,000 records being tracked, and more added each year, there is always something new. For one, the latest edition has an entry for the world's largest feet belonging to Jeison Hernandez of Venezuela - a size 26! It is not just people, but animals have been making their way into the record books too. Bertie is the Usain Bolt of tortoises, capable of reaching speeds of 0.6 miles per hour.

Unfortunately the world's shortest man passed away earlier this month. Chandra Bahadur Dangi of Nepal was 75 years old and measured 21-1/2 inches.

For The Records...

Wondering how the Guinness Book of World Records came to be? In May 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, the owner of a beer brewery in England got into an argument with fellow members of his hunting party over the question - "Which is the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the grouse?" Realizing that there were no reference books that carried such information and how useful they might be to resolve debates such as his, he came up with the idea of a book of world records.

Well as they say, the rest is history. The first 197-page edition of the Guinness Book of World Records came out in May 1955, and since then, nearly 100 million copies have been sold worldwide and updated annually. From the most tattoos and piercings, to the longest burrito, fastest talker, longest hair and more, there are nearly 40,000 record categories, some of which are not active.

The book however publishes only 4000 records each year and while some are standard fare -- like the tallest and the shortest, nearly eighty percent are new.

Want To Get In?

Well it may no be so easy as you may think. Guinness says it receives requests from tens of thousands of people each year who want to set a record. Guinness's motto for a record is that it should be "provable, quantifiable and breakable".

Once a request is made, Guinness officials take a month to decide whether to accept the request, eighty percent of which are rejected. If the request is accepted, detailed instructions follow. They may send an official to witness the record in public, or it has to be verified by witnesses not known to the individual and accompanied by photographs and video recordings.

Now, even if the record is verified, it may still not make it into the book! But that does not stop people from trying. Lets look at two records.

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Talk about record breaking. It seems folks are willing to do anything - weird and wacky, to somehow get their names into the Guinness Book of World Records. From flipping pancakes, to scaling Mount Everest twice in one year, or doing mass massage or line dancing, there is no dearth of ideas on what one can do to get into the record books!

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(NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute via AP)

Pluto pictures are pouring in

The spigot has opened again, and Pluto pictures are pouring in once more from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.

These newest snapshots reveal an even more diverse landscape than scientists imagined. New Horizons swept past Pluto in July. It became the first spacecraft to ever visit the distant dwarf planet.

"If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top. But that's what is actually there," said Alan Stern. He is the New Horizons' principal scientist from Southwest Research Institute. It is in Boulder, Colorado.

In one picture, dark ancient craters border much younger icy plains. Dark ridges also are visible. Some scientists speculate they might be dunes.

One outer solar-system geologist, William McKinnon of Washington University in St. Louis, said if the ridges are, in fact, dunes, that would be "completely wild." That is because of Pluto's thin atmosphere.

"Either Pluto had a thicker atmosphere in the past, or some process we haven't figured out is at work. It's a head-scratcher," McKinnon said in a written statement.

The jumble of mountains, on the other hand, may be huge blocks of ice. They could be floating in a softer, vast deposit of frozen nitrogen.

After several weeks of collecting engineering data from New Horizons, scientists started getting fresh Pluto pictures. The latest images were released Sept. 10.

Besides geologic features, the images show that the atmospheric haze surrounding Pluto has multiple layers. What's more, the haze creates a twilight effect. It enables New Horizons to study places on the night side that scientists never expected to see.

It has been more than two months since New Horizons' close encounter with Pluto. That was on July 14. Its journey began at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The flight has spanned 3 billion miles and 9 1/2 years. As of Sept. 11, the spacecraft was 44 million miles past Pluto.

So much data was collected during the Pluto flyby that it will take until next fall to retrieve it all on Earth. The spacecraft is operated from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. It is in Laurel, Maryland. The physics lab also designed and built it.

New Horizons' next target is awaiting formal approval by NASA. The plan is for it to reach a much smaller object that orbits 1 billion miles beyond Pluto. It, too, lies in the so-called Kuiper Belt. That is a frigid twilight zone on the outskirts of our solar system. Following a set of maneuvers, New Horizons would reach PT1 - short for Potential Target 1 - in 2019.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

Why did it take so long to get more photos from Pluto?

Write your answers in the comments section below

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(NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute via AP) Pluto pictures are pouring in The spigot has opened again, and Pluto pictures are pouring in once more from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. These newest snapshots reveal an even more diverse landscape than scientists imagined. New Horizons swept past Pluto in July.

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Big clock fixed with a few small pennies

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(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Big clock fixed with a few small pennies Don't set your watch by Big Ben. Officials say the famous clock at Britain's Parliament has recently been slow by as much as six seconds. It has been used by Londoners for decades to check the time.

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Who was boss before the dinosaurs?

The Jurassic witnessed a world populated by dinosaurs. While giant plant-eaters munched their way through ferns and conifer forests, large carnivores chased them down for lunch.

At the height of the Age of Dinosaurs, they were found on every continent. They thrived in the warm environments of the time.

But, dinosaurs were not always so prominent. Fossil evidence shows that they arose about 230 million years ago during the Triassic period. But they remained scarce as other reptiles took center stage. Many mammal forerunners, such as the large plant-eater Placerias, prospered. Huge crocodile-like animals like Smilosuchus were the top predators of the Triassic.

Paleontologists who study the fossil record have discovered that something big happened 200 million years ago. It radically changed life on land and in the sea. And it paved the way for dinosaur diversification and prominence.

What happened was so important that it caused more than half of all life on Earth to go extinct. The large crocodile-like reptiles that had dominated the landscape were eliminated. So were many of the mammal forerunners.

Find out more about the events that opened the door for the Age of Dinosaurs. Join us on Thursday, October 8, 2015, for a "Smithsonian Science How" live webcast on How Fossils Explain the Rise of Dinosaurs. It is airing at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. EDT on the Q?rius website. Paleontologist Dr. Hans Sues from the National Museum of Natural History will appear live to discuss and answer questions. Get teaching resources to support your webcast experience.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

To study dinosaurs, why do scientists rely on fossils instead of photographs?

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Who was boss before the dinosaurs? The Jurassic witnessed a world populated by dinosaurs. While giant plant-eaters munched their way through ferns and conifer forests, large carnivores chased them down for lunch. At the height of the Age of Dinosaurs, they were found on every continent.

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Garbage Collector Creates Library from Rescued Books

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Garbage Collector Creates Library from Rescued Books

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(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Garbage collector creates library from rescued books

A second-grade education has not stopped garbage collector Jose Gutierrez from bringing the gift of reading to thousands of Colombian children.

Gutierrez started rescuing books from the trash almost 20 years ago. He was driving a garbage truck at night through the country's wealthier neighborhoods. The discarded reading material slowly piled up. And now the ground floor of his small house is a makeshift community library. It is stacked from floor to ceiling with some 20,000 books. They range from chemistry textbooks to children's classics.

He says books are luxuries for boys and girls in low-income neighborhoods such as his. New reading material at bookstores is too expensive. There are 19 public libraries in Bogota. It is a city of 8.5 million. But the libraries tend to be located far away from poorer areas.

"This should be in all neighborhoods and on each corner of every neighborhood. In all the towns, in all departments and all the rural areas," says Gutierrez. "Books are our salvation. And that is what Colombia needs."

The 53-year-old Gutierrez has a love of reading that he says comes from his mother. She always read to him even though she was too poor to keep him in school.

"She used to read me stories every night," said Gutierrez. He has traveled to book fairs in Mexico and Chile to share his experience of starting a library with discarded reading material. "To me, books are the greatest invention and the best thing that can happen to a human being."

Gutierrez still sifts through the rubbish for additions to his library. But, his fame as Colombia's "Lord of the Books" has also brought him thousands of donated tomes. He has sent many to other libraries around the country. That is because he does not have room for them all.

Gutierrez is an avid reader of works by authors such as Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo and Mario Vargas Llosa. His favorite books include "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "The General in his Labyrinth" by Colombia's Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

He says he does not reject technology that allows books to be read digitally. But he prefers to read the printed word on paper.

"There is nothing more beautiful than having a book in your pocket, in your bag or inside your car," he says.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

Why does Jose think "books are the greatest invention and the best thing that can happen to a human being?"

Write your answers in the comments section below

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Garbage collector creates library from rescued books

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(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) Garbage collector creates library from rescued books A second-grade education has not stopped garbage collector Jose Gutierrez from bringing the gift of reading to thousands of Colombian children. Gutierrez started rescuing books from the trash almost 20 years ago. He was driving a garbage truck at night through the country's wealthier neighborhoods.

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What's up with Saturn's rings?

You asked us, "What's up with Saturn's rings?"

Although Saturn can be seen with the naked eye, its rings are invisible without a telescope. Galileo was the first to spot them. That was in 1610.

And there are 7 creatively named rings. They span up to about 175,000 miles wide, roughly 3/4 of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

The gigantic rings are super thin, though, and some are just 30 feet high.

The rings look continuous, but they aren't. They're made of billions of particles, from dust-sized frozen grains to much larger pieces of water ice and rocky particles wrapped in ice. The frozen grains whirl around Saturn in different orbits.

We don't know how the rings formed or when. It could have been as early as when Saturn came to be. Or as late as when dinos roamed the Earth.

But we do know that the rings aren't static - their formation is a continuous process.

Thanks to tech like the probes we've been sending to Saturn since the late 1970s, we're making new discoveries all the time.

We're even identifying new rings like the 7.4-million-mile-wide behemoth that was discovered in 2009.

And that's just one of the many reasons why you've gotta love science.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

How can particles appear as rings?

Write your answers in the comments section below

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What's up with Saturn's rings? You asked us, "What's up with Saturn's rings?" Although Saturn can be seen with the naked eye, its rings are invisible without a telescope. Galileo was the first to spot them. That was in 1610. And there are 7 creatively named rings.

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Teach current events in your elementary classroom, grades 1-6.

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Teach current events in your elementary classroom, grades 1-6.

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More Trouble in Greece: The Country is Facing New Financial Problems

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More Trouble in Greece: The Country is Facing New Financial Problems

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What's Happening in Europe? Here's What You Need to Know

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What's Happening in Europe? Here's What You Need to Know