Interesting Tab

INTERESTING - JUNE

6/18/25
Some More Stuff

Ninety-two percent of Americans say that they wash their hands after using public restrooms; observational research says that only 77% actually do.

A 2002 study at the University of Massachusetts found that 60% of people lied at least three times in a ten-minute casual conversation.

The same study found that while men and women lie with about the same frequency, men lie to make themselves look better, appear more likable, or seem more competent, while women lie to make others feel better.

The college professor who wrote the definition of lying for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy contends that an untrue statement isn’t a lie unless the person telling it knows that it’s false and says it anyway, with the intention to deceive another person.

            So, (according to this theory) if you believe something, it’s not a lie.

6/16/25
Just Stuff Q& A

Q: Joshua Pusey’s 1889 matchbook invention had one major problem. What was its sometimes fatal flaw?

A: Pusey’s patent for the first book of matches placed the striker on the inside, not the outside of the book. Consequently, would be smokers often accidentally lit all fifty matches – and sometimes themselves. It was the Diamond Match Company that first placed the striker outside the book. In 1896, the firm bought Pusey's patent for four thousand dollars and a job offer.

 

Q: Pres. William Howard Taft made a plea to the Diamond Match Company to do what?

A: In 1910, Pres. Taft made a public plea to the matchbook megalith to release their patent for the good of mankind. In January of 1911, Diamond Match Company granted the wish of the cigar smoking chief executive.

 

Q: What recent discovery was made concerning Stone Age inhabitants of the Mehrgarh archaeological site in Pakistan?

A: Stone Age people were using dental drills made of flint more than nine thousand years ago. Teeth from a Neolithic graveyard show clear signs of drilling and removal of decaying dental tissue. Archaeologists cite Mehrgarh as the earliest known farming settlement in South Asia.

 

6/12/25
Odd Stuff In History

Primitive man knew of poisons from his own daily experience. He thought that demons lived in the roots of plants and, when displeased, these demons would take revenge by inflicting madness, delirium or death on the offender. As far as he could tell the demons were easily aroused, because everywhere he looked, his comrades were dying of mysterious causes. What is understandable to the modern mind, which is familiar with the variety of poisonous nuts, berries, mushrooms and plants and the necessity for proper food preparation, was terrifying to our ignorant forefathers.

            So primitive man felt a deep need for something he could invest with spiritual powers to protect him from the beasts and the demons. Amulets and talismans were such divinely endowed objects. The first amulets and talismans had three main missions: to get the "demon" out of the affected person, to ward off evil, and to sway other spirits to do favors. These first primeval amulets were simple things: necklaces or pendants of bear’s claws or oddly shaped rocks, perhaps blood red or purple. Then, as time went on, the complexity of the amulets increased. They became more like ornate jewelry and, at the same time, each became associated with a ritual. Each disease required not only the right amulet but the right ritual – the words and actions to go with that amulet. At first ordinary men could manage, but soon these rituals required the services of a specialist. This was the origin of the witch doctor, medicine man, shaman, and other spiritual practitioner.

 

The last prisoner to be kept in the Tower of London – where Sir Walter Raleigh, Mary Queen of Scots, and Lady Jane Grey were once prisoners – was Rudolph Hess, the Nazi leader. He was parachuted into England and was jailed in the Tower of London during World War II.

 

6/11/25
Weather Facts About Lightning

As the name suggests, cloud-to-ground lightning stretches from a cloud to the ground – but the actual flash can sometimes travel upwards to the cloud base.

Ball lightning is the rarest form of lightning and looks like glowing globes of blue or orange light. The globes can range from the size of a ping-pong ball to a sphere several feet in diameter.

Ball lightning lets out a strange hissing sound, followed by a particularly loud thunderclap when the lightning disappears.

Sometimes ball lightning is seen forming around high current industrial machinery. Hydroelectric plants can often be visited by rolling ball lightning – particularly around large generators – if other atmospheric conditions are right.

 

6/9/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Uranus

THE STATS

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun.

Average distance from the sun – 1,785,000,000 miles (2,875,00,000 km)

Equatorial diameter – 31,744 miles (51,118 km)

Average temperature – -364°F (-220°C)

Length of a day – 23 hours 54 minutes

Length of a year – 84.01 Earth years

Atmospheric composition – 84% hydrogen, 14% helium, 2% methane

Number of moons – 27

Largest moon – Titania

 

6/5/25
Stuff About Animals

Why do we say a hysterical woman is acting like she's "having kittens"?

In medieval times and during the American era of witch trials in Salem, whenever an unfortunate pregnant woman began to have premature pains or extreme discomfort, the authorities suspected that she had been bewitched. Because witchcraft and cats were synonymous, they feared that she was about to have a litter of kittens and that the creatures were scratching to get out from the inside. They would say her hysteria was because she was "having kittens."

 

Why do we use the word wildcat to describe a risky venture?

Whether it's a strike or an oil well, the word wildcat describes anything that is considered risky and has a good chance of failing. It comes from a time before regulations, when state banks like the Bank of Michigan issued their own money. That bank’s notes had a panther on the face and were called "wildcats." When the bank went down, so did a lot of fortunes. From then on, all high risk ventures were dscribed as "wildcats."

 

Why do we call a computer problem a "bug"?

According to Grace Hopper, who led the team that developed the first large-scale computer for the American Navy in 1945, the word was coined when, after tracing an unexplained problem for days, they finally found the cause to be a 2 inch long bug, a moth, that had gotten stuck in the relay system. From then on, all unexplained computer problems were called "bugs."

 

6/4/25
More Stuff

Even though the administering of general anesthesia prior to surgery is intended to make the patient completely unaware of the operation, about one in every 863 patients under general anesthesia has some awareness or recollection of the surgical procedure.

There is only one you; and your germs prove it. Each individual carries about 150 species of bacteria on his or her hands, and every person’s combination of bacteria is unique. The germs aren’t necessarily dangerous, but they are distinctive; and scientists can tell where your hands have been simply by the germ samples they find on your phone, your computer, or other hard surfaces in your environment.

Germs that cause colds can live on hard surfaces such as faucets, handles, doorknobs, telephones, and television remote controls for as long as two days.

Just when they thought they could wipe out certain types of harmful bacteria, medical researchers discovered some that simply refuse to die. These are known as “persisters” because they seem to resist all antibiotic treatments that should kill them. Instead, persisters go into a dormant state – playing dead without actually dying – so that someday, under the right conditions, they can come alive again. 

 

6/2/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: One brand of beer calls itself "King of Beers." What brand is it?

A: Budweiser.

 

Q: Which beer is "the Champagne of Bottled Beers"?

A: Miller High Life.

 

Q: "The Rockies!" Is a slogan of which beer?

A: Coors.

 

Q:  A famous series of commercials featured sports celebrities in bars debating which of two attributes was the reason they made their beer choice. Can you name the beer and it's winning qualities?

A: Miller Light. "Great taste!" "Less filling!"

 

INTERESTING - MAY

5/28/25
Strange and Interesting Stuff About Sports

Who invented cheerleaders? Many sports historians believe the first cheerleaders were used by Princeton University in 1869 and 1870. In 1869, Princeton and Rutgers Universities met in New Jersey to play the first college football game in history. Part of Princeton's team strategy was to have its players yell loudly during the game to distract and frighten the opposition. The strategy didn't quite work, as Princeton lost that first game in 1869. All that yelling also wore out the Princeton players. However, the next year, the team brought a special group of spectators to the contest to do the yelling and the cheering for them. In 1870, with the help of its special "cheerleaders," Princeton defeated Rutgers in the gridiron.

 

A real contest of strength is one of the events at the Braemar games held in Scotland. It is called "tossing the caber." It consists of throwing the roughly trimmed trunk of a young tree as far as possible.

 

A college professor can be excused for being absentminded, but not a big league umpire during the course of a ballgame. Because Vic Delmore became absent minded at a St. Louis Cardinals – Chicago Cubs game played at Wrigley Field on June 30, 1959, he caused one of the strangest and most bizarre plays in baseball history.

            The Cards’ top hitter, Stan Musial, was at bat with a 3 – 1 count when the next pitch got away from Cub catcher Sammy Taylor and skidded toward the backstop.

            Umpire Delmore called ball four and Musial trotted toward first. But Taylor and pitcher Bob Anderson argued eminently with the ump that it was a foul tip.

            Since the ball was in play and Taylor had not chased it, Musial ran toward second. Fast thinking third baseman Alvin Dark then raced to the backstop and retrieved the ball. Meanwhile, Delmore was still involved in the argument with the Cub battery mates when he unthinkingly pulled a second ball out of his pocket and handed it to the catcher Taylor. Suddenly noticing Musial passing for second, pitcher Anderson grabbed the new ball and threw it to second – at the same time that Dark threw the shortstop Ernie Banks the original ball.

            Anderson's throw sailed over the second base into centerfield. Musial saw the ball fly past his head, so – not realizing there were two balls in play – he took off for third only to run smack into Banks, who tagged him out with the original ball.

            After a lengthy conference, the umpires ruled that Musial was out since he was tagged with the original ball.

            Also ruled out was Vic Delmore himself. Citing a lack of confidence in Vic, National League President Warren Giles fired him at season's end.

            

5/26/25
The Human Body Scientifically Speaking

In a human, the only cells without a nucleus are the red blood cells.

There are about five million red blood cells in a tiny droplet of blood.

It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circulate through the whole body.

A red blood cell has a lifespan of about 120 days.

Every square inch of human skin contains about 20 feet (6 mm) of blood vessels.

Average humans have 93,000 miles of blood vessels in their body.

 

5/22/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts About Saturn

Saturn has a rather strange family of moons that continues to grow as Earth-based telescopes and the Cassini spacecraft discover more and more.

 

Titan ~

Saturn's largest moon is also the second largest moon in the solar system.

Titan is the only moon with a thick atmosphere and the only one besides Earth's to have been landed on by a spacecraft. (The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe landed on Titan on January 14, 2005.)

It is also the only moon in the solar system with lakes. You wouldn't want to swim in these lakes, though. Found near the north pole and south pole of Titan, these lakes are filled with liquid methane and have an average temperature of -290°F (-180°C).

 

Enceladus ~

This moon has one of the brightest surfaces in the solar system. Interestingly enough, the south pole of Enceladus is warmer than its equator.

Heat from some unknown force near the south pole appears to be triggering ice geysers (where water seeps to the surface and freezes). In addition, scientists are trying to figure out how and why Enceladus is emitting large clouds of water vapor into space.

 

Rhea ~

Rhea has many craters on one side and very few craters on the other.

 

Iapetus ~

This moon is really dark on one side and really bright on the other.

 

Mimas ~

Mimas has a giant crater on one side. If the impact that formed the crater had been any larger, it would have destroyed this small moon.

 

Here is a list of all of Saturn's named moons, in order, starting with the closest moon to the planet: Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Methone, Pallene, Enceladus, Tethys, Calypso, Telesto, Dione, Helene, Polydeuces, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Kiviuq, Ijiraq, Phoebe, Paaliaq, Skathi, Albiorix, Erriapo, Siarnaq, Tarvos, Mundilfari, Narvi, Suttunger, Thrymr, and Ymir.

 

Instead of sheep, Saturn's Shepherd moons "herd" the planets giant ring system.

Without these small moons, the material in Saturn's rings would either fall into the planet or fly away from Saturn altogether.

The moons Prometheus and Pandora, for example, orbit Saturn on either side of the

ring.

As Prometheus passes a section of ring, its gravity pulls the ring particles in toward Saturn. Soon afterward, Pandora passes by the same section, but on the other side. It's gravity tugs the particles away from the planet.

This gravitational tug-of-war between the two moons keeps the particles trapped within a narrow ring.

Though not all of Saturn's moons act as shepherds, enough do to keep the rings in place for a long time.

 

5/21/25
Stuff About Animals

Why is misleading evidence called a "red herring"?

A "red herring" is a false clue leading detectives off the track during a criminal investigation. The term comes from a practice once used to train police dogs. When Herring is smoked it becomes red, and when the young dogs were being trained to follow a scent, the trainers tossed smoked fish around to test their ability to follow a trail. Escaping prisoners learned of the practice and often took red herring along to distract the dogs sent after them.

 

Why is "until the cows come home" considered a long time?

If left to their own devices, cows in pasture will regularly show up at the barn for milking twice a day: once in the morning and once in the evening. The expression "until the cows come home" first appeared in the sixteenth century when most people were familiar with the cycles of farm life. It was often used when a party went on long into the night – it would have to end in the morning when the cows came home and needed milking.

 

Why do we say that someone who has wasted his life has "gone to the dogs"?

In prehistoric China, for hygiene and safety reasons dogs weren't allowed inside the city walls. It was also forbidden to dispose of garbage within the city, and so the designated dump outside the walls was where the stray dogs found food. When undesirables and criminals were banished from the city and forced to compete with the dogs for food at the garbage dump, it was said that they had "gone to the dogs."

 

5/19/25
Just Stuff

DNA from Neanderthals found in Spain and Italy indicates that the gene for red hair dates back to prehistoric times.

Today, redheads make up about 2% of the world's population.

Scotland is considered to have the world's largest percentage of redheads. An estimated 11 to 13% of the Scottish population has red hair.

The amount of anesthesia given to a patient before surgery depends on a number of factors. One of them is hair color. A study at University of Louisville in Kentucky found that redheads require about 20% more anesthesia before surgery than blondes or brunettes.

 

5/15/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: What inspired David Mullaney to invent the Wiffle Ball?

A:  After watching his twelve-year-old son and friends playing joyfully with a perforated plastic golf ball and a broom handle bat, Connecticut resident Mullaney decided that they were onto something. He went to a nearby factory and commissioned plastic ball prototypes. In 1953 the first Wiffle Balls hit the streets.

 

Q: How many holes are there in a Wiffle Ball?

A: Eight.

 

Q: November 19, 1863 is the date when one of the most famous speeches in American history was given. What was Sen. Edward Everett's role that day?

A: Sen. Everett, a Whig senator from Massachusetts, was then considered to be one of our nation's top warriors. On that date, Everett gave the main speech, a two-hour Gettysburg Oration. It was followed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln's 2 min. Gettysburg address.

 

Q: What failure lay behind the discovery of Silly Putty?

A: In 1943, General Electric engineer James Wright was searching for an inexpensive substitute for synthetic rubber when he inadvertently concocted a strange goo. It's odd bouncing properties didn't fit the right requirements, so he set his accidental discovery aside. Years later, an advertising man named Peter Hodgson saw the commercial possibilities of this "nutty putty," and bought the rights from GE. Renamed Silly Putty, the unruly, rubbery eggs became an immediate success. To date, more than three hundred million globes have been sold.

 

5/14/25
Interesting Customs

The number of accidents involving the custom of bowing is growing rapidly in Japan. At railways and airports many people have been knocked down escalators, nudged in front of trains, and trapped in revolving doors. Authorities are planning to install "greeting zones" in potentially hazardous areas.

In Truro, Mississippi, before a man gets married, he must "prove himself worthy" by hunting and killing either six blackbirds or three crows.

When people go through all the rituals and ceremonies concerned with marriage, they do what is "expected." For example, it is expected that an engagement ring will have a diamond.

            Why the diamond? Of course it's a beautiful gem. But the diamond was considered the right stone for the engagement ring in Italy as far back as the Middle Ages. It was known as pietra della riconciliazione – because it was supposed to have the power to maintain harmony between husband and wife.

            But there is a superstitious tradition that gives another reason for using the diamond in engagement rings. According to this belief, the sparkle of the diamond is supposed to have originated in the fires of love – so only a diamond can hold the promise of enduring love and happiness for the engaged couple.

 

5/12/25
About Gems and Such Stuff

The most rare and expensive color of opal is black.

The most rare and valuable diamonds are either pale blue or colorless.

A clue to a diamond’s hardness can be found in its molecular structure. Every carbon atom is linked tightly to four other carbon atoms, forming a dense framework.

A diamond exposed to enough radiation will change from clear to yellowish.

Poor-quality diamonds become industrial diamonds. The diamonds are crushed and used to coat heavy duty cutting instruments.

Synthetic diamonds are made by subjecting graphite to extreme heat and pressure.

 

5/8/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts About Saturn

As the tiny particles within Saturn's rings revolve around the planet, Saturn's gravity and the gravity of some of its closest moons are constantly tugging on them, causing strange patterns to appear.

In some places, the gravity has swept an area clear of particles to form an empty space, or gap, in the rings.

Astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Johann Encke discovered the first two gaps – the Cassini division in 1675 and the Encke  gap in 1838.

Sometimes the gravity has concentrated the particles to form rings with kinks and twists.

Sometimes scientists really aren't sure exactly what is happening. Whatever is going on, the rings are still pretty to look at.

As we view Saturn from Earth, its larger rings are identified as D, C, B, Cassini division, A (which includes Encke’s gap), F, G, and E.

Are you wondering why astronomers didn't stick with the regular order of the alphabet?

Well, they did at first. When astronomers originally assigned letters to the rings, A ring was the outermost ring. Then, moving in toward Saturn, there were the B ring, C ring, and D ring.

But as the quality of telescopes improved, astronomers were able to see fainter rings beyond the A ring. This messed up the system, but it was too late to change.

The thousands of ringlets we see in spacecraft images are all located within the larger rings.

 

5/7/25
Stuff About Animals

Why when astonished would someone say, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle"?

During the famous Scopes trial in 1925, a Tennessee schoolteacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of breaking that state’s law by teaching Darwin's theory of evolution rather than the biblical origins of mankind. The trial was a sensation and astonished many who had never heard that humans might be related to the apes, and from this came the expression, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle."

 

Why when we have no choice at all do we say it's a "Hobson's choice"?

Thomas Hobson lived between 1544 and 1631 and was the owner of a livery stable in Cambridge, England. He was a very stubborn man whom Seinfield might have called a "Livery Nazi" because, regardless of a customer’s rank, he would rent out only the horse nearest the stable door. Hobson became famous for never renting horses out of order, so "Hobson's choice" came to mean, "take it or leave it."

 

How did pumpernickel bread get its name?

During the winter of 1812, while Napoleon's army was retreating from Russia, the only available food was stale, dark bread. Although his men were dying from hunger, Napoleon insured that his great white horse, Nicholl, always had enough to eat, which caused the soldiers to grumble that although they were starving there was always enough "pain pour Nicholl," or "bread for Nicholl." When annualized, pain pour Nicholl became "pumpernickel."

 

5/5/25
More Stuff

At a cave in Spain, archaeologists found shells that had been pierced to be strung as necklaces, as well as traces of pigments that they think were used as cosmetic body paint by Neanderthals fifty thousand years ago.

Ancient Greeks and Romans created a substance to darken hair and cover their grays by making a paste of slack lime (essentially limestone mixed with water) and lead oxide.

The Greek playwright Aristophanes mentions hair dye in the fourth century BCE. The Roman author Pliny the Elder and the Roman poet Ovid mention it in texts from the first century CE.

Premature gray hair is often caused by genetics. Although it happens rarely, some children are born with gray hair.

 

5/1/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: How many feet of wire does it take to make a Slinky?

A: The Slinky consists of 63 feet of tightly wound wire. To put this in perspective, the pitcher's mound in baseball is 60 feet 6 inches from home plate. A completely unfurled slinky would stretch 2 1/2 feet more than that.

 

Q: How was the Slinky discovered?

A: During World War II, engineer Richard James was experimenting with anti-vibration devices for a ship's sensitive instruments. When he accidentally knocked some of the test springs off a shelf, he was amused that they "walked", rather than fell. James couldn't sell his invention to the Navy, so he did the next best thing: he marketed it as a toy. It was first sold at Gimbel’s in Philadelphia in 1945.

 

Q: Where is the birthplace of the Slinky?

A: Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where the factory is still located. According to company statistics, about a quarter of a billion Slinkys have slunk.

 

Q: Who designed the first "Wienermobile"?

A: In 1936, Oscar Mayer's nephew, Carl, made automotive and frankfurter history with his 13 foot hot dog on wheels. In the decades since, the auto line has continued to progress. The futuristic, bubble nosed 1958 model was the first Wienermobile to add a bun.

 

INTERESTING - APRIL

4/30/25
Strange Things About Ordinary Stuff

Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

Some toothpastes contain antifreeze, which acts as an emulsifier to keep the ingredients of the toothpaste from separating in cold temperatures.

Ice is the only substance that expands when frozen instead of contracting. This is because lower temperatures change the tight tetrahedral arrangement of hydrogen and oxygen molecules into wide crystalline rings that take up much more space. This is also why ice, being less dense than liquid water, floats.

When exposed to electricity, the mineral quartz vibrates at regular intervals. The quartz crystal in your watch vibrates 32,768 times a second.

 

4/28/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts About Saturn

Today almost everyone knows that Saturn is the planet with the beautiful rings. That wasn't always the case.

When the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first turned a telescope to Saturn in 1610, all you saw was two bumps, one on either side of the planet.

Unable to figure out what he was seeing (the views through the first telescopes weren't very precise), Galileo wrote that it looked as if Saturn had ears.

By the mid-1600s, however, telescopes had improved enough to reveal that those bumps were actually a ring system circling the planet.

Today spacecraft flying past the planet reveal thousands of rings circling Saturn.

Saturn's rings stretch away from the planet for thousands of miles, yet they are only about 1 mile (1.6 km) thick.

To help put things on an earthly scale, imagine that Saturn's rings were as thin as a music CD. A "Saturn's rings" CD would be 904 feet (275.5 m) in diameter. That's about as long as three football fields. A regular CD is about 4.5 inches (12 cm) in diameter.

 

4/24/25
Stuff About Animals

Why is an unknown contestant called a "dark horse"?

Sam Flynn, a traveling Tennessee horse trader, often found a horse race planned in the same town as an auction. So, he mixed a coal black racing stallion named Dusky Pete in with his workhorses, then quietly entered him in the local races and wagered heavily on Dusky Pete, who would invariably win. As word spread of Sam's deception, so did the caution: "Beware the dark horse."

 

Why do we call all-male felines "tomcats"?

A 1760 book titled The Life and Adventures of a Cat became so popular that from then on, all unneutered male cats were called "Tom" after the book’s feline hero. A female cat that has procreated is called a "queen," a title easily understood by any cat lover. Legend has it that one such lover, the great prophet Mohammed, once cut off the sleeve of his shirt before standing rather than disturb a sleeping kitten.

 

Why do we say, "Never look a gift horse in the mouth"?

It's considered rude to examine a gift for value, and the expression "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" means just that. The proverb has been traced to St. Jerome, who in 400 A.D. wrote a letter advising a disgruntled recipient of the gift of a horse to accept it in the spirit given without looking for flaws. It was then, and is still, common practice to look into a newly acquired horse’s mouth, where you can tell its age by the condition of its teeth.

 

4/23/25
Just Stuff

Different systems of writing, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics and Babylonian cuneiform, were wiped out over time, even when the society's spoken language survived. One exception is the use of Chinese characters, which has continued for about three thousand years.

Archaeologists at the Maya site at Calakmul, Mexico, unearthed large painted murals with hieroglyphic captions describing the action in the artwork – most of which are related to food.

The Maya people of Central America had one of the first systems of writing in the New World. Evidence indicates that it could date back as far as 300 BCE. Archaeologists refer to the writing as hieroglyphs, even though the characters are unrelated to Egyptian hieroglyphics.

 

4/21/25
Just Stuff Q & A

Q: How did Barbara Handler earn a footnote in history?

A: After Ruth Handler saw her daughter Barbara playing dolls with her friends, she decided to design an adult looking, "girl-next-door" doll. The result was the Barbie Doll, named in honor of little Barbara

 

Q: When did Barbie make her debut?

A:  In 1959, at the American Toy Fair in New York City.

 

Q: Why is Barbie’s doll boyfriend named Ken?

A: Barbie Doll inventor Ruth Handler named Ken after her son Kenneth. The Ken Doll, with its perfectly molded hair, premiered in 1961.

 

Q: What was the first boys' action figure?

A: G. I. Joe, developed by Don Levine and a team of Hasbro designers in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, parents that designation. G.I. Joe was launched in 1964.

 

Q: How did G.I. Joe received his name?

A: This valiant little warrior was named after the 1945 film the story of G.I. Joe.

 

4/17/25
Strange and Interesting Stuff About Sports

Pro boxers Willie Pep and Willie Pastrano shared a superstition: – They both believed it was good luck to tie their wedding rings to their shoelaces for a prize fight.

A big thrill for visitors to Greenland is a ride on a dogsled. How fast can they go? On good firm ground, with a team of ten dogs – only about 12 miles an hour.

A crazy old baseball superstition concerned empty beer barrels. Baseball players of the past believed that seeing a truckload of empty beer barrels going by before a game was good luck and guaranteed a team would get a lot of hits. To take advantage of that silly superstition, manager John McGraw of the New York Giants once secretly hired a man to drive a truck filled with empty beer barrels past his team as the players entered the stadium for a crucial series against the Chicago Cubs. McGraw's trick worked, as the truck rolled past the Giant players before each contest of the four-game series. However, the secret was uncovered after the series’ end, when the truck driver showed up at the stadium looking to be paid for services rendered.

 

4/16/25
Weather - Facts About Lightning

Lightning can kill several people who are either touching each other or in close physical contact. This ground-spreading lightning is particularly dangerous at sporting events were groups of people sit together on benches.

Lightning kills an average of seventy-three people in the United States alone each year.

In-cloud lightning jumps from one charged region of a cloud to another. This is the kind of lightning that lights up a cloud like a lantern.

Cloud-to-cloud lightning jumps between oppositely charged clouds and is probably the most frequent type of lightning you see during an electrical storm.

Cloud-to-air lightning leaps from a cloud into the air, never touching the ground or another cloud.

 

4/14/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts About Saturn

What color is Saturn?

Don't know? You aren't alone. Many people tend to overlook the planet and focus on the bright, beautiful rings that surround it.

There is nothing wrong with that. But to give Saturn credit, without the planet, those beautiful rings wouldn't be there.

 

So, let's talk about Saturn the planet for a minute.

Saturn is a pale, yellowish white with a few faint bands of clouds circling the planet.

Though similar to Jupiter in size and composition, Saturn contains 70% less mass than its neighbor. Less mass means that Saturn has less gravity – which, believe it or not, affects its appearance.

Saturn's atmosphere, without a strong gravity (like Neptune’s) tugging on its clouds, is allowed to spread out, which dilutes its colors. A probe trying to make it through Saturn's cloud would have to travel almost 190 miles (300 km). In addition, Saturn is almost twice as far from the Sun as Jupiter, so it is much colder. Colder temperatures affect the chemical reactions within the atmosphere – which also affects the color.

All of these factors add up to give us the pale yellowish ball to which we don't pay much attention.

So, now you know. Aren't you glad that Saturn has those pretty rings to look at?

 

4/10/25
Stuff About Animals

Why do we say that someone with money is "well-heeled"?

Before cockfighting was banned in 1849, individual birds were often fitted with sharp heel spurs, giving them an advantage in mortal combat. They were "well-heeled." In the nineteenth century, the expression became slang for anyone armed with a weapon. Then, around 1880, the term began to mean someone who was well off financially and who could overcome any obstacle with money instead of a weapon.

 

Why is an innocent person who takes the blame for others called a "scapegoat"?

The term scapegoat or escape goat entered the English language with William Tyndale’s translation of the Hebrew Bible in 1525. Under the Law of Moses, the Yom Kippur ritual of atonement involved two goats. One was sacrificed to the Lord, while all the sins of the people were transferred to the other. The scapegoat was then led into the wilderness, taking all the sins of the Israelites with it.

 

Why do we say that something worthless is "for the birds"?

In the days before automobiles, the streets were filled with horse-drawn carriages, and these animals quite naturally left behind deposits from their digestive systems. These emissions contained half-digested oats that attracted swarms of birds, which took nourishment from the deposits. The people of the time coined the expression "for the birds" as meaning anything of the same value as these horse droppings.

 

4/9/25
Stuff About ~ Military/War

How did a crushing public humiliation become known as a "Roman holiday"?

The Etruscans of ancient Italy ritually honored their dead war heroes by sacrificing the lives of all prisoners seized in battle. After conquering the Etruscans, the Romans borrowed and embellished the ritual by having all prisoners kill each other. They turned the slaughter into public gladiatorial games and declared the spectacle a "Roman holiday," which became an expression synonymous with any cruel and crushing public destruction.

 

Why do we say, "It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"?

Early warships fired iron cannonballs from a stack piled next to the canon. To keep them in place, they used a square piece of rust-proof brass with indentations to secure the bottom layer of balls. This plate was nicknamed the "monkey." When it got cold enough, the mischievous brass monkey would shrink, causing the balls to fall out and roll all over the deck. It was "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."

 

4/7/25
Some More Stuff

An earworm is a repetitive, catchy song or piece of music that lodges itself in your brain and won't leave. Strategies such as listening to a different song or playing the earworm song in an effort to get it out of your head generally don't work, and might even make the situation worse.

Earworms almost always are songs or jingles with lyrics.

WARNING ~ this is kind of gross

Guinea worms enter the human body via drinking water. There swallowed as tiny larvae that begin to grow almost immediately, burrowing through the intestines and winding through the body until they measure more than 3 feet in length. The human host is almost always unaware that the worms are growing until the creatures burst through the skin. The only way to remove a guinea worm is to pull it out, but this must be done slowly and carefully, and it can take months to remove the worm completely.

Programs to ensure clean drinking water for communities have nearly wiped out guinea worm infestations in most of Asia and Africa. In 1986, when these programs began, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases of guinea worm disease in twenty countries; by 2009 that number was down to 3,500 cases in four countries. The aim is to eliminate guinea worm infestations entirely – and who could argue about that?

 

4/3/25
Just Stuff Q & A

Q: How often do total solar eclipses occur at any given location on earth?

A: Approximately every 400 years.

 

Q: Is the earth round?

A: No, it is flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator. Its shape is best described as an oblate spheroid.

 

Q: Boston photographer William Mumler took a picture of Abraham Lincoln in 1871 that attracted great interest. What was so special about the picture of the much photographed chief executive?

A: The 1871 photograph came famous because its subject had died in 1865. Spiritualist photographer Mumler claimed that when he took a picture of the president's widow Mary Todd Lincoln, the spirit of the Great Emancipator had appeared miraculously in the negative. Obligingly, the ghost of one of Lincoln's three deceased sons also posed for the photograph. Mumler’s critics were not convinced.

 

Q: In 1961, Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union was the first man in space. What was the name of his ship?

A: Vostok I.

 

4/2/25
Odd Laws & Lawsuits

If you're riding through Charleston, South Carolina, your horse better be wearing diapers.

In California, it is against the law to detain a homing pigeon.

In Massachusetts, all dogs must have their hind legs tied during the month of April.

Do you remember the old joke "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Well, in Quitman, Georgia, it's illegal for chicken to do so.

In Lang, Kansas, it is against the law to drive down Main Street on a mule during the month of August unless your mule is wearing a straw hat.

In Norfolk, Virginia, it is against the law for hens to lay eggs before 8 AM or after 4 PM.

 

INTERESTING - MARCH

3/31/25
Ready Set Invent

The crossbow was invented in China in around 500 BC and was made from highly tempered bronze. The invention reached Europe about four hundred years later.

The first scuba diving gear was invented in 1771 by the British engineer John Smeaton. The diver wore a barrel that was connected to a boat on the surface by a hose. Air was pumped through the hose by the diver’s companion.

One hour before Alexander Graham Bell registered his patent for the telephone in 1876, Elisha Gray patented his design. After years of lawsuits between the two inventors, the patent went to Bell.

For more than fifteen years after its invention, the telephone wasn't widely appreciated because people thought it was practically useless.

3/27/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Saturn

Average Distance from the Sun

887,400,000 miles (1,429,000,000km)

 

Equatorial Diameter

74,853 miles (120,536 km)

 

Average Temperature

-290°F (-180°C)

 

Length of a Day

10 hours, 14 min.

 

Length of a Year

29.5 Earth years

 

Atmospheric Composition

88% hydrogen

11% helium

1% other gases

 

Number of Moons

56

 

Largest Moon

Titan

 

3/26/25
Stuff About Military/War

Why is the secret enemy amongst us referred to as the "fifth column"?

Any secret force within an enemy’s midst during wartime is called a "fifth column." The phrase comes from the Spanish Civil War, when the general leading the 1936 siege of Madrid with four columns of infantry was asked if four were enough. He replied that he had a fifth column hiding inside the city. Since then, a "fifth column" has meant a secret organized force amongst the enemy or ourselves.

Why are those for and against war called "hawks" and "doves"?

Those who side with war have been called "hawks" since 1798, when Thomas Jefferson coined the term war hawk. The description of those who favor peace as "doves" is from the biblical book of Genesis. When Noah sent a dove over the water to see if it was receding, if returned with an olive leaf, indicating there was land nearby. The modern use began during the Cuban Missile Crisis and continues to the present.

 

What does the D stand for in "D-Day"?

Although "D-Day" has become synonymous with the Allied landing on June 6, 1944, in Normandy, it was used many times before and since. The D in D-day simply stands for "day," just as the H in H-hour stands for "hour." Both are commonly used codes for the fixed time when a military operation is scheduled to begin. "D minus thirty" means thirty days before a target date while "D plus fifteen" means fifteen days after.

 

3/24/25
Just Stuff

With eleven official languages, South Africa has the most official languages of any nation in the world. They are: Afrikaans, English, Ndabele, Sepedi, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu.

India has twenty-two commonly used languages, many of which are official languages in their particular states or regions; however, Hindi and English are the only designated official languages of India's national government.

Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language on earth. Spanish is second, followed by English, Arabic in all its forms, and Hindi.

The national anthem of the Republic of Kosovo has no lyrics. It was chosen so that no preference would be given to one language over another. Kosovo, which declared its independence in 2008, has several commonly used languages, including Albanian, Serbian, Turkish, Roma, and Bosniak.

The national anthem of Spain, "La Marcha Real,” also has no official lyrics, though there have been several attempts to introduce them, even as recently as 2008.

3/20/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q:  What is an Astronomical Unit?

A: The average distance between the Earth and the sun is 93 million miles, or one Astronomical Unit (A U). This measurement unit is often used to compare distances between objects in space, for example the sun is about 10, 20, 30 and 40 AU from Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, respectively.

Q: How long is a light-year?

A: Light-years are a measure of distance, not time. The term registers the distance that light travels in one year (a light-year) – about 6,200,000,000,000 miles.

 

Q: If you could travel at the speed of light, approximately how long would it take you to get to the nearest star (Alpha Centauri)? To the brightest star in the sky (Sirius)?

A: Four years to Alpha Centauri, nine years to Sirius.

 

Q: What is a parsec?

A: A unit of measurement used for stellar distances. One parsec equals 3.26 light-years.

 

Q: How wide an area does a solar eclipse cast into darkness?

A: It varies, but typically about 100 miles.

 

3/19/25
Some More Stuff

In Hialeah, Florida, a woman was admitted to the local hospital for abdominal pains. After coming up with baffling results to all their standard diagnostic tests, the doctors finally found that the patient was infested with termites.

The strangest task ever performed by monkeys was undertaken during the nineteenth century, in Africa. European visitors, returning from Ethiopia at the time, brought back the exotic news that monkeys were used as torchbearers during royal feasts. The animals were trained to sit absolutely motionless, waiting the scene, until after the guests had finished eating. Then the monkeys were rewarded by being allowed to finish off what was left of the sumptuous meal.

 

Fortunetelling the future is becoming a popular – and highly paid – business. But few soothsayers will ever be able to equal the record of Julius Verne in predicting what's ahead for the world.

            First and foremost, among all science fiction writers, Verne reached the peak of his writing career before the start of the twentieth century. In his books, he prophesies atomic submarines, the military tank, skyscrapers, aircraft, television, earthmoving machines, talking pictures, and a host of other modern inventions. And not only did he predict them, he explained how they work.

            But Verne’s most uncanny forecast of things to come was his detailed description of a voyage to the moon. Verne described a moon rocket long before anyone dreamed of such a thing, and even told of a dog that would be sent up first – as the Russians did – to test the projectile.

            Most amazing of all, however, in his book Round the Moon, this fantastic man actually described the place from which the moon rocket would take off. These are his words:

            "Everyone in America made it his duty to study the geography of Florida. As a point of departure for the moon rocket, they had chosen an area situated 27° North Latitude and 5° West Longitude."

            That location is only 80 miles from Cape Kennedy.

 

3/17/25
Computers ~ Yuk! Hmm…

In 1972, the first home video game console was released by the Magnavox Corporation. Called "Odyssey," it came programmed with twelve games and was designed by Ralph Baer.

In January 1975, the magazine Popular Electronics featured a picture of the Altair 8800 computer – the world's first small, self-contained computer – built by a company in New Mexico. It was sold by mail order, came with a build-it-yourself kit, including a front panel with a grid of lights (no monitor), and 256 bytes of memory. It costs $397.

The first person to use the word "virus" to describe a destructive piece of computer code was Fred Cohen, a student at the University of Southern California, in 1983. He used the word in his Ph.D. dissertation.

 

3/13/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Jupiter

Jupiter has sixty-three moons, more than any other planet. Most, but not all, of Jupiter's moons have names.

 The four largest moons of Jupiter were the first astronomical objects to be discovered with a telescope. Io, Ganymede, and Callisto and Galilean are called satellites in honor of their discoverer, Calileo Galilei.

The largest moon of Jupiter, Ganymede, is also the largest moon in the solar system. It is bigger than the planet Mercury.

Jupiter's moon Io is one of only three moons known to have active geysers. (Neptune’s Triton and Saturn’s Enceladus are the only other two active.)

It is believed that large oceans exist deep beneath the crust of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Many of Jupiter's moons are small and irregular in size with odd, retrograde (backward) orbits.  Astronomers believe these moons were originally asteroids that were captured by Jupiter's strong gravity

3/12/25
Stuff About Military/War

Why when two people share the cost of a date do we say they’re "going Dutch"?

War has influenced the slurs in our language more than anything else. For example, when a soldier runs from battle the French say he's gone traveling "English style," while the English say he's on "French leave." During the Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century, British insults were that "Dutch courage" came from a bottle, while a "Dutch treat" meant that everyone paid their own way, which of course was no treat at all.

 

Why do the military say "Roger" then "Wilco" to confirm a radio message?

During the Second World War, the U. S. Navy used a phonetic alphabet to clarify radio messages. It began Alpha, Baker, Charley, Dog, and went on to include Roger for R. Because R, or "Roger," is the first letter in the word received, it confirmed that the message was understood. On the other hand, "Wilco" is a standard military abbreviation for "will comply."

 

Why is the bugle call at day’s end called "taps"?

In the seventeenth century, the British borrowed a Dutch army custom of sounding a drum and bugle to signal soldiers that it was time to stop socializing and return to their barracks for the night. The Dutch called it "taptoe," meaning "shutoff the taps," and the abbreviated "taps" became a signal for tavern owners to turn off the spigot on their beer and wine casks. After lights out, taps signals that the soldiers were safely home, which is why it's played at funerals.

 

3/10/25
More Stuff

On earth, there are an estimated six thousand nine hundred nine living languages, meaning ones used as the primary language of conversation in a community and taught to babies when they're learning to speak.

More than four hundred and fifty languages have been designated as endangered; in other words, the number of people who speak these languages is dwindling and when those populations die out, there won't be anyone left who uses them. More than seventy endangered languages are (or were) native languages of the United States.

 Between 2005 and 2009 it's estimated that ninety-one languages went "extinct," meaning that there are no longer any living native speakers. With the death of Chief Marie Smith Jones in two thousand eight came the death of Eyak, the language of the Eyak people of central Alaska.

 The Bo or Aka-Bo language of India's Andaman Islands was classified as extinct in 2010 when the last native speaker died. Aka-Bo had been in use for more than sixty-five thousand years.

 

3/6/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: What are the most used letters in the English language?

A: The most used letters in the English language are E, T, A, O, I, and N, followed by S, H, R, D, U, and L.

Q: What are the five most commonly used words?

A: The, of, and, a, and to.

Q: From what languages did English borrow the words mattress; bizarre; sauna; boondocks and yogurt?

A: Arabic; Basque; Finish; Tagalog; and Turkish, respectively.

 

Q: Why was the QWERTY keyboard developed?

A: In the late nineteenth century, typewriters often jammed, so slower typing was necessary to keep them running. By spreading out the common letters and concentrating them on the left side of the keyboard (the left hand being slower), experts were able to alleviate the problem.

 

Q: What is the longest word in English that is typed entirely with the left hand?

A: "Stewardesses."

 

3/5/25
Just Stuff

Man can live practically anywhere he chooses on earth, but he can't always build up a community in faraway places. Where is the northernmost spot on earth, he has managed to establish a town?

            It is near the top end of Norway, called Hammerfest, and it's a nice little town with all the comforts of home – plus a few unusual ones.

            For one thing, the people in this town see sunshine around the clock from May 13 to July 29. But it's very quiet and dark – no sun at all – from November 18 to January 23.

            The temperature? Surprisingly enough, in January the average temperature in Hammerfest is just a little below the freezing point.

South American Indians use the chemical called bufotenine (from the skins of poisonous toads). It is also employed in their cohoba snuff (Piptadenia peregrine) to promote a feeling of well-being when they hold dances. In larger doses, cohoba induces trances during which the Indians speak with their gods and the spirits of their dead.

There are only about 1,200 people in Ushuaia, Argentina. But this makes it a "town."

    And so the natives of Ushuaia, which is at the very bottom of the southern tip of Argentina, claim that theirs is the southernmost town in the world. They say that the few communities that are farther south have so few people they are mere hamlets.

3/3/25
Some Animal Facts

The dragonfly can fly 50 to 60 miles (80 to 96 km) per hour and is one of the fastest flying insects in the world.

The common honeybee kills more people than all poisonous snakes combined.

Although there are three general types of spider web, every web is unique.

Only one of the queen bee’s eggs will survive to become the new queen. The first bee to hatch and emerge from the cell will break open the cells of the competing bees and bite them to death.

 

INTERESTING - FEBUARY

2/17/25
Strange Things About Space

Astronomers suspect that the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is the remains of a planet that either failed to form or was torn apart by the enormous gravitational pull of Jupiter.

The most distant objects in the known universe are quasars: stars that send out powerful radio waves. Because their distance makes them so ancient, quasars provide astronomers with extremely valuable information about the birth of the universe.

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because the methane gas released while passing wind can damage spacesuit material.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

It takes three minutes for the sunlight that is reflected from the moon to reach our eyes.

 

2/6/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: How did John Chapman transform himself into a part of American folklore?

A: Massachusetts born John Chapman (1774 to 1845) was a practical nursery man who, in the waning years of the eighteenth century, went westward. Until shortly before his death, he planted hundreds of apple orchards all over the Midwest, and distributed free seeds and religious literature everywhere he traveled. A symbol of generosity, austerity, and the American spirit, he became renowned as "Johnny Appleseed."

 

Q: Who was Parson Weems and what was his most famous lie?

A: Hoping to increase sales of his biography of George Washington, 19th-century preacher and book peddler Mason Locke Weems invented a now-ubiquitous story of the future president cutting down a cherry tree. Today, Weems is best remembered for this fib.

 

Q: Every year on November 5, England celebrates Guy Fawkes Day with bonfires and fireworks. Who was Guy Fawkes and why all the ruckus?

A: Guy Fawkes was a member of a group that plotted to blow up the British Parliament building in 1605. However, the revolutionary plan went for naught: Informed of the conspiracy, the government searched adjacent areas and Fawkes, who had fuses and kindling in his pockets, was arrested. He and other confederates were tried and executed, but every year since, on November 5, the English have celebrated not being blown sky high.

 

2/5/25
Just Stuff

St. Pantaleone was once the patron saint of Venice, Italy. He was later depicted in a play as a silly old man who wore long trousers. From the play, trousers were called pantaloons, later shortened to pants.

The Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, in London, England, contains the remains of many great writers and poets. This includes the ashes of Thomas Hardy. But his heart is not there. It is buried in a grave at Stinsford, in Dorset.

Kulang, China, runs seven centers for recycled toothpicks. People rummage through garbage cans to find toothpicks. They wash them, check for splinters, and are paid the equivalent of thirty-five cents a pound for usable toothpicks.

When you watch the Mehter band of the Turkish army on parade, their costumes will seem strange. That's because they are styled after those worn by soldiers during the sixteenth century. The Mehter band happens to be the oldest military band in the world.

 

2/3/25
Early Medicine Egyptian Style

Ancient Egyptian physicians treated night blindness by mashing an ox liver into a paste and frying it pancake style. Ox liver is known today to be rich a rich source of vitamin A, which is important for the health of the eyes.

Some language experts believe that the word chemistry comes from the word "Kemet," the ancient name for Egypt. Maybe this is because the Egyptians were such great mixers of potions.

Some basic Egyptian medicines were made from sulfur, antimony, and zinc, which are ground into powder and used as eye and skin ointments. More than 150 kinds of plants were used, such as senna, sycamore, castor oil, acacia gum, mint, and linseed.

The Egyptians used yeast internally to treat indigestion and externally to treat leg ulcers.