Halcyon

It's a town also known as Aachen. It's important in European history, and I would like to know what is/if it has an English meaning.

I've heard through word of mouth that Napoleon's preference for tall soldiers actually changed the genetic makeup of the French population, since so much of the army died, decreasing the average height for French men today from what it would have been otherwise. Do you know of any sources for this?

...that is, any languages where the articles (a/an/the) follow the nouns that they are describing?

I know enough of the following languages to know that their articles precede their nouns:

English

German

French/Spanish/Italian

Hawaiian

And that the following languages have no articles:

Latin

Middle Egyptian

And I am 90% sure that in Late Egyptian, the articles precede the nouns, even though in Middle Egyptian (I have no idea about Late), the adjectives follow the nouns.

Thanks for your time!

Joe makes $60,000 as a florist. He donates $3,000 to charity. Are his social security/medicare contributions based on the $60,000 or on $57,000?

I know two generally accepted theories about gravity:

(1) Black holes have their incredibly high gravitational pull because they have infinite (or very very high) density, and hence, infinite (or very very high) mass.

(2) Mass does not affect gravitational pull, as shown by the experiment in which an early scientist dropped two cannonballs, with the same shape and volume but different masses, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the cannonballs hit the ground at the same time.

How and why can this be?

I need information about mourning periods in Victorian England/America. (If the customs in America were different, that is.)

-> On whose death would someone go into mourning?

-> How long did it last? Were there different lengths for different relations?

-> What could one do while in mourning?

-> Would Victorian people buy their mourning clothes while not in mourning, or just after the death of the loved one?

Any other relevant information would be wonderful.

I don't know WHAT I did, but my computer just switched into "insert mode" over on word, if that's what it's called. It's where I can't add a character in anything I've already typed, just change existing characters. How the heck do I turn it off?

I have a Mac, and Microsoft Word 2004. I do not see an "insert" button above the arrow keys, like on the computers at school, so I can't just do that. And it doesn't happen on any other application.

I'm working on a family tree of several important houses in Greek mythology, and I need help: no luck with Edith Hamilton or Encyclopedia Mythica. (No, it is not an assignment.)

Please keep in mind that I use "wife" in a very loose sense. "Woman who the guy got pregnant" is probably often more exact, but I'm running out of characters, so I will refer to them as wives unless I know otherwise.

Who was Pentheus's wife, the mother of Menoecceus 1?

Who was Menoecceus 1's wife, the mother of Creon?

Who was Creon's wife, the mother of Menoecceus 2 (the more famous one)?

Who was Labdacus' wife, the mother of Laius?

Who was the woman with whom Jupiter had an affair, producing Tantalus?

Who was Tantalus's wife?

Who was Thyestes's wife?

Who was Pittheus's wife?

Who was Catreus's wife?

Who was Deucalion's wife, the mother of Idomeneus?

Who was Sarpedon's wife?

Also, I have a recollection of father-daughter incest in the house of Atreus. Where?

Don't cite Wikipedia, please.

Thanks.

I cannot do a situp- low abdominal strength comes from both of my parents. I'm not fat, but this bugs me. I have three of my vertebrae fused (not sure how flexibility plays into sit-up-ing.). I am 15, have no equipment in the house, and can get to none. How can I improve these muscles?

I go to one of the top ten, if not five, high schools in the country, specializing in science, technology, and (unofficially) math. I am a sophomore, age 15 and a half. I was on the team that won National Latin Competition (Certamen) for my level last summer. I won States last year and in eighth grade. I love writing, reading, Latin, marine biology, and all non-math aspects of chemistry. My GPA is somewhere between a 3.6 and 3.8 on a 4.0 scale. I have not yet taken an AP. I am in the Fall Color Guard as a rookie. I have a part as an extra in a fall play. I do not know any of my standardized test scores, I took the PSAT this fall and that's it. I am an officer of a community service club and was last year, too. I am in a science competition club, though I have not yet actually competed. My school is an hour away if there is average traffic. What can I do to raise my chances of getting into college? Will my Latin help if I do not wish to major in Latin or the Classics?

I am 15.

I have a lump at the joint of my left leg and torso. It is a three-dimensional oval, regular as far as I can tell, and I cannot see it through the skin. It is slightly less prominent in the mornings, and I can see it most clearly if I lean backwards. It is a smaller than a foosball, but not by that much. It does not hurt, if I am jogging, if I push it, if I poke it, it has never hurt. There is no bruise, nor have I done anything to that hip that I am aware of. It is neither getting bigger nor smaller. I noticed it three days ago. What should I do in response to this?

This myth is pretty obscure. I learned about it from a children's book, similar to D'Aulares, (I can't spell French, sorry), but not. It has stumped a man who reads the Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology for fun, and describes it as "It's like meeting old friends. Adrastus, I remember you!", and the book itself.

I'm not sure about these details: In the myth a nymph annoyed Juno/Hera by talking a lot, or talking while Jupiter/Zeus escaped from a nymph so he wouldn't be caught cheating. Juno cut out her tongue in punishment, and she was sent to the Underworld.

I am pretty sure of these: On the way to the Underworld, Mercury was talking, and noticed that this girl never asked questions or talked back, so he fell in love, and did not take her to the Underworld, but

since it was a kid's book: married her, hid her from the other gods in a cottage in the woods, and they had children.

What was the name of this nymph?

Thanks.

Why do nutrition experts on Yahoo talk about why "liquid calories" are bad so much, and therefore you must drink water? I understand about soda, but why is it bad to drink a glass of orange juice, for example, instead of eating an orange and drinking a glass of water?

Read above.

I am the president of a high-school club, and the other officers thought it would be a good idea to have a professional face painter at our club fund-raising day. How much does it cost? If it's too much, I guess we'll just be practicing a lot.

For a homework assignment, I need the complete text of Romeo and Juliet Act IV scene v. I do not want Sparknote's version, with all the notes I have to remove. I just want the plain text, as I don't want to type it up from my copy of the book. Would you please link me to such a website?

Why does that mean that we should ban gay marriage? The Bible also says premarital sex and divorce are bad, and society certainly hasn't banned those! Christians don't do it, or they repent and stop doing so, and try to keep others from doing so, so why can't the same go for homosexuality?

Also, is the Bible's bashing of homosexuality a mistranslation? Please don't answer this part unless you or your direct source is a Hebrew dictionary or a person who speaks Hebrew.

Thanks!

I am a high school freshman. In 8th grade, a hispanic boy walked up to me as I was reading at my desk. He slammed his hand on my desk and yelled "YOU'RE A F***ING G R I N G O, WHITE GIRL! GO TO HELL!"

I looked up and replied, somewhat loudly, "Just because you're hispanic doesn't mean you can say that to me!"

He started screaming that I was a f***ing racist. The (white) teacher had been watching all of this, according to the other kids in class, not just my friends. She swooped down on me and started screaming about how racist I was. I asked why I was racist- he called me a g r i n g o, I said he was hispanic. She didn't reply, just took me to the principal's office. They, having been regaled with the tale of my horrible bias, gave me a stern lecture on why I shouldn't go around being racist, and threatened me with suspension if something similar happened again. Similar things happen frequently, that was just the worst example. Why is it that racist?

I'm a high school sophomore, and I'm attracted to geeky, shy guys. I am friends with the guy I like, and we talk, but there are a lot of other girls he likes talking to more (as it appears by the amount of time). I'm neither ugly nor pretty, fat nor skinny. I can only wear very modest clothes because I have a back brace for scoliosis. We share one interest, Latin, and I'm too nervous to talk to him in situations where I could find out more. I'm very shy about romance, very outgoing about friendship, usually. We have no classes together. Can you help me?

What does it mean, in relation to genetics and/or DNA technology, to say that an organism is 'transgenic' or 'transformed?' I have a test tomorrow. Thanks!

Radios are one way, right? They recieve signals? So how does an XM satellite know to stop broadcasting the signal to a radio if the subscription hasn't been updated?

PS, the XM salesperson at my local mall didn't know.