A total eclipse of the moon will be visible throughout North and Central America from 11:41 p.m. PST Monday, December 20 until 12:53 a.m. Tuesday, December 21 the first such eclipse in almost three years. Unlike during a total solar eclipse, when the sun is blotted out, in a lunar eclipse the moon rarely appears black. Because of sunrises and sunsets around the world that scatter and refract light from the sun, the moon generally appears bright and coppery orange, or sometimes brown or dark red-black, depending on how much pollution is in the atmosphere. Also unlike a solar eclipse, which can generally only be seen from select places on the Earth's surface, a lunar eclipse can be seen from anywhere on the side of the Earth facing the moon at the time. NASA will be hosting Web chats about the eclipse and, for those encountering bad weather, showing it live at http://www.nasa.gov/watchtheskies. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/18/science/la-sci-eclipse-20101218

Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) can be used as determiners. (Hand me that hammer.) Demonstrative pronouns can be used as qualifiers. (She wanted that much money?) See also information on personal, reflexive/intensive, indefinite, interrogative and relative pronouns at: http://www.towson.edu/ows/oronouns.htm

Christmas Island, named in 1643 for the day of its discovery, the island was annexed and settlement was begun by the UK in 1888. Phosphate mining began in the 1890s. The UK transferred sovereignty to Australia in 1958. Almost two-thirds of the island has been declared a national park. When the first settlers arrived, in 1897, it was covered with a dense forest of great trees and luxuriant under-shrubbery. Prior to colonization, the island had never been inhabited. http://www.historyofnations.net/asia/christmasisland.html The red crab is by far the most obvious of the 14 species of land crabs found on Christmas Island. Millions of these land crabs live over the island. They are a big crab with an adult body shell (or carapace) measuring up to 116mm across. Although most common in the moist environment of the rainforest, red crabs live in a variety of habitats including coastal shore terraces, and even domestic gardens. They dig burrows in soil or live in deep crevices in rock outcrops. The crabs' burrows have a single entrance tunnel which leads to a single chamber. Only one crab lives in a burrow and (except for the breeding season) red crabs are solitary and do not tolerate intruders into their burrows. See images including a crab crossing sign at: http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/christmas/nature-science/fauna/red-crabs.html

Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai (pronounced /ˈmoʊ.aɪ/), created by the early Rapanui people. It is a World Heritage Site (as determined by UNESCO) with much of the island protected within the Rapa Nui National Park. The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday 1722, while searching for Davis or David's island and named it Paasch-Eyland (18th century Dutch for "Easter Island"). The island's official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means "Easter Island". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island

Pentecost Island, which gets its name from the day on which it was first sighted by Europeans, is a mountainous, tropical island in the South Pacific republic of Vanuatu. There are no towns on Pentecost - most of the islanders live in small villages and grow their own food in small gardens. http://www.pentecostisland.net/

A small group of Cistercian monks in Austria made music history recently when their album of Gregorian chant climbed England’s pop charts, landing in the Top Ten for two months and selling more than a million copies worldwide. Directed by Dana Perry. the documentary TOP TEN MONKS takes an unprecedented look at the daily lives of these unlikely celebrities, who rarely allow cameras inside their wall. Top Ten Monks airs on HBO 2 on Wednesday December 22nd at 8 p.m. et/pt.
http://smallscreenscoop.com/gregorian-chants-history/312277/ You will find about 300 examples on YouTube when you type in Cisterian monks.

A four-year, $10 million effort to digitize the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum’s archives, making hundreds of thousands of documents, photographs, and recordings available online, is nearing completion of its first phase. A formal announcement will come Jan. 13, one week before the 50th anniversary of JFK’s inauguration, at a press conference in the nation’s capitol. “Access to a Legacy,” as the project is called, marks the first time a presidential library established in the paper age has fully committed itself to the digital era. The amount of material to be posted online in January is huge — 200,000 pages of text, 1,500 photos, 1,250 files of audio recordings and moving images, and 340 phone conversations totaling 17 1/2 hours — but represents just a small portion of the collection. Among the documents likely to draw intense interest is a draft, in JFK’s handwriting, of his inaugural address (“Ask not what your country can do for you ... ”). There are also notes, tapes, and maps made during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Oval Office phone conversations between Kennedy and other important historical figures, from foreign heads of state and former US presidents to key political allies and aides. Users will be able to print and copy material directly off the website, so they could download a personal note to JFK and make a copy for themselves. http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/11/28/10m_project_to_digitize_jfk_archives_underway/

tautology (taw-TOL-uh-jee) noun
1. Unnecessary repetition of an idea, especially in different words, for example, a good-looking beautiful woman.
2. In logic, a compound statement that is always true, irrespective of the value of its components, for example: Tomorrow either it will rain or not rain. From Greek tauto- (same), contraction of "to auto" (the same) + -logy (word). First recorded use: 1587
ontology (on-TOL-uh-jee) noun The philosophical study of existence and the nature of being. From Greek onto- (being) + -logy (study). First recorded use: 1663. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Diva or prima donna; a usually glamorous and successful female performer or personality Italian, literally, goddess, from Latin, feminine of divus divine, god first known use: 1883 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diva
Divo or primo don is the male equivalent.

Q. What is a yurt? A. a circular domed dwelling that is portable and self-supporting; originally used by nomadic Mongol and Turkic people of central Asia but now used as inexpensive alternative or temporary housing wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn See other definitions at: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:yurt&sa=X&ei=vg8JTeTOOcT48AbUoqGuAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CBkQkAE