FEBRUARY

Why is extreme deference to someone in authority "kowtowing?"

If your etymological instincts suggest that kowtow might have been a Chinese word for towing away an illegally parked cow,
don't trust them. You're looking at an Anglicization--about as Chinese as Chop Suey. The word did originate in Chinese, but as kotow.

The custom behind this word startled Europeans who began to
visit China at the end of the Middle Ages. The visitors were used to bowing to people of noble rank, but the Chinese went
them one better, kneeling on the ground with their foreheads actually touching the ground.

The Europeans wisely observed this local custom and brought
back the word, or at least a bastardized form of it, to describe pronounced deference. Today we have earthier expressions in English describing such obsequiousness to a teacher or boss, but propriety stays my fingers from typing them.

(Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison)




FAST FACTS:

It would take a spacecraft traveling at the speed of light more than four years to reach the closest star. So if you make the trip you might want to pack a lunch because you'll need more than a bag of honey roasted peanuts.

The Cuckoo Bird doesn't build its own nest. It finds another bird's nest, waits for the parents to leave, swoops in leaves its own egg for the original owner to hatch. Let me get this straight, the cuckoo gets another bird to build its nest, sit on its egg, and raise its young...and this is the one they call a cuckoo?

(Source: 1001 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE)

What's the coldest biome (land-based ecosystem)?

Of all the kinds of ecosystems on land the coldest one is the tundra, found in the Arctic and at high elevations in the mountains. In these treeless regions, plants and animals are forced to survive on almost no available resources.

Because the climate is so harsh there is little extra energy for plants to put into large size or fancy flowers. They are generally small and grow only during a short part of the year. They have shallow roots because the soil is very shallow, resting on a layer of always-frozen ground called the permafrost.

Animals in the tundra are equally challenged. Many hibernate for almost the entire year, and some migrate when winter comes. Animal populations are subject to extreme population cycles, and the total mass of animal life is low compared to warmer biomes.

More about the tundra:
http://www.runet.edu/~swoodwar/CLASSES/GEOG235/biomes/tundra/tundra.html
http://www.uwsp.edu/acaddept/geog/faculty/ritter/geog101/modules/biosphere/biomes_tundra.html

The tundra provides interesting research opportunities:
http://www.colorado.edu/INSTAAR/TEAML/ITEX/

The oldest viable seeds were found buried in the tundra:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/2000/03/29.html

What's the difference between a cyclone, a hurricane, and a tornado?

Any of these windbags can blow you away. In each the wind spins around a low-pressure core. They differ in the speed of the spin, the size of the storm, it's duration, and how fast it travels.

A tornado has the tightest focus--generally less than a mile across. Although usually over in a few minutes, its wind can rotate at up to an incredible 300 mph and speed ahead at 40 mph. Hurricane winds typically may swirl at 100 mph, but that's over a diameter of maybe 600 miles. With a forward speed of 10-20 mph, they can last for at least a week. A cyclone moves ahead at about 25 mph. It's wind doesn't swirl at more than 60 mph - but that's over an area of as much as 1000 miles, and it can last a couple of weeks. If this one is forecast, build an ark.

(Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK)

What keeps the ice on a skating rink frozen?

The answer is a very efficient system because the ice, as you may have noticed, stays frozen even when the sun shines and the temperature borders on the balmy. The method they use to achieve this often has something in common with the process of producing pickles: brine.

When you lace up and balance yourself on a blade, you are literally skating on thin ice--about two inches worth. That sits on top of a concrete base. Within the concrete are thin pipes, about an inch thick, through which flows brine at temperatures as low as -15 degrees F. or a similarly cold glycol solution (yes, that's antifreeze!). The cold concrete keeps the ice frozen. It's that simple.

Isn't that cool?

(Source: HOW DO THEY DO THAT? by Caroline Sutton)




FAST FACTS:

Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone. That's actually what caused many of their deaths...pillow fights.

97% of the world's water is in the ocean. The other 3% is in my basement after every rainstorm.

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

How do parasites control their host's behavior?

Throughout the animal kingdom there are examples of parasites that take over the behavior of their hosts in order to improve their own chances of survival. These "body snatcher" parasites cause their hosts to act in ways that are very different from their normal behavior.

When a thorny-headed worm reaches maturity inside a pillbug, it causes the pillbug to move out into the light, against its normal
urge. Exposed, the pillbug is more likely to be eaten by a bird. If it is eaten, the thorny-headed worm then enters the next stage of its life cycle inside the bird, its new host.

There are dozens of examples of this kind of control. In most cases, the parasite controls its host's behavior by adjusting levels of hormones in the host's body. In at least one case, the parasite actually manipulates the host's DNA directly, turning certain genes on or off.

More weird parasitic manipulations:
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/MA99/curious.htm

Another kind of manipulative parasite:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/06/24.html

Was there really a King Arthur--and how about that round table?

There's so much debunking and myth-mashing these days that I'm pleased to tell you that this story may at least have had some roots in the exploits of a real person, although nothing like the one in the legend.

Ancient documents refer to an Arthur in the middle of the first millennium who fought to keep the Anglo-Saxons from conquering Britain. He appears to have been not a king but rather a brave mercenary and fierce warrior. He is certainly far from the romantic ruler who began in Celtic legend and was then embellished through epic poems and ballads as the centuries passed.

The round table, by the way, an early part of the myth, was a clever way of letting the knights feel that each was equally important: none sat near the head of the table.

(Source: FABULOUS FALLACIES by Tad Tuleja)




FAST FACTS:

Contrary to what many people believe, Roman emperors did not necessarily signal that a losing gladiator in the arena was to die by giving the thumbs down signal. "Pollice verso," the Latin phrase from which the thumbs down idea came, actually just means "thumb turned." Some scholars even think that thumbs down meant that the victor should put down his sword and spare the vanquished.

Regardless, no losing gladiator could expect good things if the emperor extended his middle finger.

(Source: FABULOUS FALLACIES)

What insect has been completely domesticated?

The silkworm moth (Bombyx mori) has been bred in captivity for thousands of years and probably no longer occurs in nature. During this time, like other domestic animals, it has evolved.

Today's silkworm moths are almost unable to fly, and cannot exist without human care. Each moth lives only a few days as an adult, and does not eat. After mating, females lay 300-500 eggs.

The caterpillars eat mulberry or osage orange leaves until they are ready to pupate. Then they enclose themselves in a cocoon made out of a single strand of silk about one kilometer long. Most silkworm pupae are destined to die, sacrificed so that their silk can be harvested.

The history of sericulture (silk production from silkworms):
http://www.bugbios.com/ced1/seric.html

More Cool Facts about insects:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1998/04/07.html
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1998/10/13.html
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1999/01/13.html

Why do we call someone who'll write almost anything for money a "hack?"

Well it's not because they sometimes feel like taking an axe to their clients. The origin of the word lies not in a sharp temper--or wit--but rather in the animal kingdom.

Hack is short for "hackney," a word that since the 13th century has meant an ordinary horse, an animal that was not a thoroughbred or war horse used by a knight but rather just an everyday nag useful for mundane tasks. In other words, a horse that did the drudge work. After a century or so the word also came into use for a horse that could be hired out. By the 16th century it was being applied to people who did work for hire, including prostitutes. Two hundred years later hackney became hack.

(Source: THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY)



FAST FACTS:

During the Cold War the Brits and Americans built what is thought to be the longest tunnel ever constructed for the purposes of spying. They began in West Berlin and dug 1,476 feet into East Berlin, intending to tap into underground cables used by the Communists to send messages.

What the intelligence agencies of both countries have suppressed to this day is an embarrassing fact: when a small test hole was dug to the surface, what they saw was not the Berlin Wall but the Eiffel Tower.

(Source: THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS)

Who built the first pendulum clock?

Although the Italian inventor Galileo Galilei studied the motion of pendulums in 1592, and actually designed a pendulum clock, he never built one. It was not until 1656 that the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens built a working clock regulated by a freely swinging pendulum.

Huygens' pendulum clock was revolutionary. Its error was less than one minute per day, and later refinements brought the accuracy within ten seconds per day. Improvements continued over the next century, including compensation for temperature changes and other environmental error sources. The most accurate pendulum clocks now keep time to within one hundredth of a second per day.

Pendulum clocks were the most accurate timekeepers until the
development of the electronic quartz oscillator in the 1930s.

A history of timekeeping:
http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/time.html

Christiaan Huygens is a Person of the Day:
http://www.LearningKingdom.com/person/archive/2000/05/19.html

Pendulum is a Cool Word:
http://www.cool-word.com/archive/2000/05/19.html

More Cool Facts about timekeeping:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/09/25.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/12/18.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/05/19.html

Does a cat's purr mean that it's contented?

Whatever it means, it sure makes the person living with the cat melt when they hear it. They know they're picking up good vibrations.

So what is kitty trying to communicate with this sexy sound?
In truth, just about anything. It's an all-purpose noise, first used by the mother to summon her newborn and still sightless and hearing-impaired kittens. The vibrations lead them to mama.

But don't try to tell that to a cat lover. They know it means that after six years of expensive cat food and unconditional love, Tabby may finally consent to sit on their lap.

Pretty please! Purr.

(Source: THE STRAIGHT DOPE by Cecil Adams)

FAST FACTS:

The Vikings have really had a bad press. They did more than just plunder, rape and pillage. They also dressed for success. They were even sensitive about putting a crease in their pants and employed an iron that looked like an upside down mushroom to make sure they looked natty. The wealthiest among them wore pleats.

Among Vikings, clothes made the man--along with a sufficient
number of smashed enemy skulls on the mantelpiece.

(Source: EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINS OF EVERYDAY THINGS)

Where is the driest desert on Earth?

At some places in Chile's Atacama Desert, it does not rain for centuries at a time. A long, narrow strip of land along the western coast of South America, the Atacama is protected from clouds by the Andes Mountains, the world's second highest mountain range.

Many parts of the Atacama Desert receive average annual rainfall of less than 0.004 inches (0.1 mm), and some spots have not seen rain in 400 years. Although the desert is located right next to the Pacific Ocean, the prevailing winds come down from the lofty mountains and sweep out to sea.

But as dry as it is, even the Atacama supports life. There are tiny pockets where fog from the sea creates enough moisture for plants and even some animals, and there are also a few humans living in the Atacama.

Where is the water, and why is it so dry?
http://www.extremescience.com/DriestPlace.htm

A robot crosses the Atacama:
http://img.arc.nasa.gov/Nomad/nomad_oldbrowsers.html

The driest continent is also the coldest:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1997/07/06.html

The largest desert in the world:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1999/09/30.html

Why is taking a nap "catching 40 winks?"

This business of napping by the numbers always seemed pretty
curious. Why 40 rather than 9, 11, 17 or 30?

There is a long tradition, starting with the Bible, of using 40 to stand for significant quantities. For example, when Noah took his boat ride, it rained 40 days and 40 nights. Moses had spent the same amount of time up on the mountain. In the Middle Ages an Englishman sure of something would bet 40 pence on it. And so on.

But the phrase 40 winks has a specific rather than general origin. It comes from an 1872 issue of Punch, the British humor magazine. Punch referred to the Thirty-nine Articles of faith of the Church of England, joking that actually reading through them would induce 40 winks. Call it a yawning gap between conscience and consciousness.

Sources: (HEAVENS TO BETSY by Charles Earle Funk)

What kind of spider steals food from other spiders?

If you look closely at the web of a giant golden orb spider (Nephila edulis), you might see much smaller spiders on it. These round, silvery nest parasites are droplet spiders (Argyrodes antipodianus) waiting for small prey that their giant host ignores.

Small prey insects are not the droplet spiders' only food. These
crafty little thieves sometimes band together and carefully steal large prey that the host spider has caught and wrapped, but not yet eaten.

One by one, they cut the lines between the catch and the main web, carefully repairing damage by bridging the gap with their own webs. Then they carry the prey off to a corner, where they can safely consume it.

Pictures of Nephila and droplet spiders:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/nephila/Nephila.html

A spider enthusiast's observations of spiders, including Nephila:
http://home.wxs.nl/~voort359/home22.html

More Cool Facts about spiders:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/07/08.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/07/29.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/02/17.html

Is it best to turn off your computer at night, or let it run all the time?

If your computer turns you off, you probably enjoy turning IT off for the night. But is it wise to do so? There are arguments on both sides. Take your pick.

Turning a computer on and off changes the temperature of its components, which stresses them. The fan keeps the temperature constant while the machine is running. Except for the monitor, which you should turn off or put in power-saving mode when not using it for an hour or more, computers don't use much electricity when run constantly.

On the other hand (or finger, since computers are digital) leaving it on can wear down the always-spinning hard drive, and dust on the fan can make it an inefficient cooler. If you leave it on you will also need to reboot periodically to flush the memory of digital garbage programs leave behind when you close them.

(Source: PC'S FOR DUMMIES by Dan Gookin)

FAST FACTS:

A lightning bolt embodies as much as 30,000 amps of electricity, reaches a temperature of 54,000 F., give or take a few degrees, and may be anywhere from 300 yards to 4 miles
long.

(Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK)

How are permanent tattoos applied?

Early methods of tattooing were much more painful than the modern approach. Some involved applying dye to open wounds, or pulling soot-covered threads through the skin with a needle.

A modern permanent tattoo is made of pigment that is injected between living skin cells in the dermis, the layer below the constantly-replaced epidermis. Because the dermis is not being constantly renewed, the dye is not dispersed and it can remain in place for many years.

A tattoo machine works much like a sewing machine: a steel needle vibrates up and down many times per second, penetrating about two millimeters deep (1/8 inch) and delivering dye particles. Thomas Edison invented the first such machine in 1876.

How tattoos work:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/tattoo.htm

Tattoo has become a "fine art" in recent decades:
http://www.tattooartist.com/history.html

What's the origin of the word tattoo?
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/word/archive/1999/03/24.html

How do chameleons change color?

There's a popular misconception that a chameleon's color will reflect their background, but the true causes are more than skin deep. After all, if they were only influenced by what they were standing on, what color would they change if they were standing on a mirror?

Chameleons are actually reacting to a variety of environmental
conditions, including light, temperature and emotion. The quick-change mechanism involves special cells that contain tiny little granules of pigment. The nervous system controls the dispersion (or concentration) of that pigment throughout the cells, leading to a true coat of many colors.

(Source: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA)

FAST FACTS:

The cockroach is an amazingly hearty creature. Take its head off in such a way that it does not bleed to death and it will go on haunting your cupboard for weeks on end. However, its life-force instinct will finally fail to compensate for the fact that it is now mouth-impaired and it will eventually starve to death.

(Source: ISAAC ASIMOV'S BOOK OF FACTS)

Who built the world's first motorcycle?

Most sources claim that the first motorcycle was built by Gottlieb Daimler, an assistant to Nicholaus Otto (who invented the Otto cycle, a kind of engine). In 1885, Daimler added a gasoline motor to a wooden bicycle, replacing the pedals. Daimler's motorbike was propelled by an engine, but it was not the first motor-driven cycle.

Actually, the first motorbike was built seventeen years earlier in 1868. It was not powered by a gasoline engine, but by a steam engine. Its builder was Sylvester Roper. His steam-powered bike did not catch on, but it anticipated many modern motorbike features, including the twisting-handgrip throttle control.

History of the motorcycle:
http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcmuseum/firstbike.html
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1286.htm
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi921.htm

Why are tires black?
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1999/08/13.html

The first skateboards:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1999/10/01.html

Do you really have to "lather, rinse, repeat" with shampoo?

It's amazing how much attention we pay to that often-unruly clump of dead tissue on top of our head. In fact, we pay a lot more than attention. Hair is big business, especially when it comes to shampoo.

You use shampoo at least several times a week. How does your hair and scalp look and feel after you apply it? Pretty clean, right? But invariably the instructions on the bottle advise you that you're not through yet: "Rinse and repeat."
They want you to go around again. Why? As I said, shampoo is part of a big business. If you use twice as much, they sell twice as much. In fact, confidential interviews with shampoo bigwigs--no names please--have revealed that it's the only reason they can give to apply it twice.

See, it all comes out in the wash.

(Source: IMPONDERABLES by David Feldman)

Where were maps deliberately published with errors?

In the old Soviet Union, maps were often made with deliberat errors. Towns, rivers, and roads were placed incorrectly, and entire towns would be missing in some versions. Moscow street maps were especially inaccurate.

The false maps were part of a plan to prevent foreigners and even the Soviet citizens from knowing the details of the geography of the Soviet Union. It was thought that this would increase security, but actually it made the whole country less efficient.

The false maps were part of a much broader concept called Maskirovka, a word that has meanings relating to misdirection, camouflage, misinformation, and diversion. According to some experts, the Maskirovka philosophy is still very much a part of Russian strategy, and influences many parts of the society.

Maskirovska deeply influenced Soviet military strategy:
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj88/smith.html

The first world map was inaccurate for different reasons:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1999/01/26.html

How can you tell real pearls from fake ones?

We hold pearls in very high regard, even using the precious little things as a synonym for something that is small and very valuable, as in pearls of wisdom. So it's important to be able to tell the real thing from the wannabes. After all, there's no point in your casting your costume jewelry before swine, is there?

The real pearl is a mollusk's concretion, the most essential ingredient of which is aragonite. Not clear enough criteria for you? Ok, check the price - real ones cost more.

All right, enough fooling around. Put the "pearl" in your mouth and slosh it softly across your teeth. (Be careful not to swallow it!) Does it feel totally smooth? If it does, it's fake. The real thing feels slightly gritty. You can trust this test because it's used all the time by people whose livelihoods depend on it: professional jewel thieves.

(Source: HOW DO THEY DO THAT? by Caroline Sutton)

FAST FACTS:

It's believed that pirates thought that piercing their ears and wearing earrings improved their eyesight.

Then again, they also thought walking the plank was a good form of exercise.

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

Where's the best place on Earth to find meteorites?

Meteors fall into Earth's atmosphere over every spot on the planet.
However, there is one place that's far better than anywhere else to find the meteorites that make it all the way to the ground. That place is a windswept field of ice near the edge of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.

There, near the Allan Hills (which are actually the tips of huge mountains buried in the ice) one can find hundreds of meteorites lying around on the surface of the ice. There are tons of them.
How did they get there?

Meteorites fall into the snow all across Antarctica, then sink down until they hit a layer of solid ice. That ice flows slowly across the continent, to certain places where ice-buried mountains push it up. The upthrust ice evaporates in the dry Antarctic wind, leaving the meteorites exposed.

More about Antarctic Meteorites and the people who hunt for them:
http://wwwdsa.uqac.uquebec.ca/~mhiggins/MIAC/antarc.htm
http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/curator/antmet/antmet.htm
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/ansmet/

NASA has a robot that searches for Antarctic meteorites:
http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/projects/meteorobot/

Why do we say that someone on a rampage has "run amuck?"

I love this expression. It sounds like somebody is dashing through a field of mud, oblivious to the mess they're making --a lot more fun than jogging. Anyway, not to dwell on my childish fantasies, it turns out that "muck" has nothing to do with muck and mire and any manner of messy things. In fact, it doesn't even come from English or a closely related language.

The word amuck, sometimes spelled amok, is from a 17th century Malay word, amoq, which means to fight furiously, almost in a bloodlust. Today, even if the person running amuck is not leaving a bloody wake, the implication is still that he or she is out of control, in a frenzy, leaving total chaos behind. In a word: nuts.

You know, that still sounds attractive. Excuse me while I run amuck.

(Sources: THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY)

FAST FACTS:

Nothing can be burned that has already been burned once.

Whoever decided that obviously didn't play the stock market much.

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

Do porcupines really shoot their quills at their enemies?

There are two denizens of the woods that are peculiar in their means of defending themselves. One is the skunk, who will put up a big stink when cornered. The other is the porcupine, which looks like a walking pincushion.

Most of us have come across the skunk's calling card in the country, but I'll bet you've never encountered a porcupine except in a zoo. So I'll just have to tell you: this little charmer does not launch itty-bitty guided missiles at its foes. In fact, the animal's first line of protection against an attacker is to run like the dickens in the opposite direction. But if cornered, the porcupine will turn its rear end to its enemy--mooned by a porcupine!--and whack it with its quill-covered tale. The other party usually gets the point.

(Sources: MYTH-INFORMED by Paul Dickson & Joseph C. Goulden)

FAST FACTS:

According to a professor at the University of Michigan, men are six times more likely than women to be hit by lightening.

Could that be because more women have the sense to come in
out of the rain?

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

What color is pure water?

You might think that absolutely pure water would be perfectly clear and utterly transparent, but it's actually blue. The blue color of the water in the oceans (and not the blue of the sky) is the reason why Earth is mostly blue as seen from space.

Pure water absorbs some of the light that passes through it. It absorbs red light more than yellow, yellow more than green, and green more than blue. Only the deepest blue light can travel very far through water, so a large mass of water takes on a deep blue color.

The blueness of water is easily visible in a swimming pool lined with white concrete. It's even visible in a white porcelain bathtub. But the bluest water of all is the clear tropical ocean far from land, where the sea is much bluer than the sky.

The color of the ocean is strongly affected by plankton and impurities:
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN_DOCS/OCDST/what_is_ocean_color.html
http://www.oceansonline.com/rainbows.htm

More Cool Facts about water:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/07/11.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/06/08.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/01/19.html

How do modern freezers remain frost-free?

If you own an old refrigerator you may need to defrost the freezer from time to time, a difficult task possibly requiring a lot of scraping and hot water. How do modern freezers stay free of accumulated ice?

Ice condenses in the freezer because cold air can't hold as much water vapor as warm air. In an older freezer frost forms on everything every time warm, moist air enters from outside. In a more modern freezer the air is circulated by a fan and the frost forms mostly on the coldest surface, which is the cooling coils in the back.

You might think that the coils would quickly be surrounded by solid ice, and they would, if not for the defrost function. Every so often a heating element warms up the air around the coils just long enough to melt the frost. The water trickles down the back of the freezer to a tray near the floor where it evaporates.

More about the auto-defrost function:
http://www.phoenix.net/~draplinc/defrost.html

Auto-defrost uses energy. Here are ways to save energy:
http://www.ladwp.com/resserv/coninfo/refrig/ecs2.htm
http://www.energydepot.com/Jackson/library/refrfrez.htm

More Cool Facts about household technology:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/03/24.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/04/15.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/05/25.html

Why does "knuckle down" mean get to work?

These days the workplace in many places is going through some drastic changes. For example, in the United States the dress code in many industries is becoming decidedly more casual. But employers still expect their people to remember that they are not at the office to play games. They have to knuckle down and get to work.

Well it so happens that if you knuckle down you're echoing an
old game: marbles. Played for many centuries in England and also popular in American cities till about 50 years ago, marbles involves hitting spherical pieces of colored stone or glass with a flick of the finger. If you're serious and want to shoot the marble the right way, you have to have your knuckles touching the ground. You have to knuckle down, an expression that began in the streets and ended up in the corporate suites.

(Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison)

FAST FACTS:

George Washington wasn't the first President of the United States. John Hanson was. He was elected by the Constitutional Congress to the office of the President of the US in Congress Assembled.

Maybe when they were writing history they asked who was the first President, Washington said, "It was me." Of course that also blows that "can't tell a lie" thing right out of the water, too.

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)