Week 9: Wikipedia Trail - Virus to Corona Virus

Virus: For this week I wanted to learn a little bit more about the thing that is causing so much change in our daily life. This is why I read a little about what a virus is.

Corona-virus: From there, I navigated to the page for corona virus. This is a specific type of virus that is commonly found in humans and birds. In humans it causes an upper respiratory infection. 

SARS-CoV-2: This is the strain that is currently causing the coronavirus pandemic in the world. This specific strain has very close similarities to a strain found in bats, indicating that bats might be the origin.

Coronavirus disease 2020: This page is all about the current pandemic. Currently the death rate is at about 4% but can increase closer to 15% in older or already immunocompromised populations. There are confirmed cases on all continents but Antarctica. 

A Picture of the Novel Corona Virus

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Week 8 Wikipedia Trail

Mahabharata: This week I wanted to learn a little bit more about the background of the Mahabharata. For instance I learned that the author of the original Mahabharata is Vyasa.

Vyasa: Veda Vyasa is said to be the one that compiled all of the ancient Indian epics. He is thought to be one of the seven Chiranjivi that are still alive.

Chiranjivi: A Chiranjivi is one of seven immortal being that are supposed to be alive until the end of the current earth stage. These beings are supposed to be unaffected by any ailment.

Kali Yuga: Kali Yuga is supposedly the fourth and last of the life stages of the Earth. Interestingly these 4 stages are clearly labeled and Kali Yuga is supposed to have started in 3102 BCE and last for 432,000 years.

A picture of Vyasa
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Week 7: Wikipedia Trail. SLAM to Louis IX

The SLAM: A lot of the twitter feed has stuff from the SLAM and I really like learning more about it because it is a place that I can visit and actually see the things I am reading about in real life. I think it is fun to learn the history of a place I have been to so regularly.

St. Louis: Similar to my sentiment with the SLAM, learning more about the city I grew up near to me is something that I enjoy. One thing new I learned with my reading of the article is that the St. Louis Botanical Garden is supposedly the second best in North America. I knew the zoo was one of the top zoos but I never realized the botanical garden was held so highly too!

Downtown St. Louis: In my reading of this article I learned more about WASHU and who it was named after and such. I didn't realize it was named after George Washington's birthday.

Louis IX of France: In this article I read about the namesake of St. Louis and a little more about who he was. 

The beautiful St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM)

Wikipedia Train: Yaure Language to Rugby World Cup

To begin this Wikipeida trail I looked through the Twitter feed and found the Yaure mask. I chose this piece as it is located in the St. Louis Art Museum, a place I have been to many times as I am from St. Louis. I then went on Wikipedia and then looked at the Yaure language. I learned that Yaure is a language of west Africa.

Ivory Coast: Then I clicked on Ivory Coast as I feel as though it is a country I do not know a lot about so I would like to learn more about it. I went through the table of contents and found out what sports they like to play as sports are one of those things that unify a whole group of people

1995 Rugby World Cup: From here I clicked on the 1995 Rugby World Cup as this was the first world cup that Ivory Coast qualified to play in. It was also the first major sporting even to be held in South Africa after apartheid ended which is a big deal.

Rugby World Cup: I wanted to learn a little more about rugby so then I went on to learn about the Rugby World Cup as a whole. The most recent competition took place in Japan where South Africa beat England to get their 3rd world cup.

The mask that started it all. Source