MAY

What's the purpose of that snap-box contraption they clack in front of a movie camera just before filming a take?

I don't know how many times I've seen one of these things in some TV documentary about the movies and never asked myself why the heck they needed it. But sure as shootin,' just before the camera roles, some fool sticks this box that has the title and take number printed on it in front of the camera and clacks it.

The key, it turns out, is in the clack. The purpose of this mysterious ritual is to synchronize the soundtrack with the picture. In the editing room during post-production, the editor can align the soundtrack for the entire scene by synchronizing the clack sound with the frame in which the box - it's called a clapboard - is snapped closed.

Then again, sometimes it's more fun if King Kong opens his mouth to roar and you hear instead someone ordering a coffee with milk and a piece of Danish.

Source: THE STRAIGHT DOPE by Cecil Adams



Didja Know...
The cap-and-gown uniform associated with school graduations dates to the 12th and 13th centuries?
(Uselessknowledge.com)

Why do we say that someone who is really wrong or out of line is "off base?"

I bet I know what you're thinking. This comes from baseball, and it describes a runner who is on base, has taken too big a lead away from the base, and is about to be picked off because he's too far off base. Guess what? You're out.

The "base" in this sense is your foundation, mooring, and anchor. You need it to function. It could be your common sense, sense of values, family, or just familiar surroundings. If you're detached from it you go wrong, drift, lose you're bearings -- are off base. If you still don't get it, imagine a head that's grown tired of being attached to it's neck and has decided to go off on its own (imagine also that it's not dripping blood all over the carpet!). It's likely to be wrong about most things (go ahead, ask it a question). And it's certainly out of line.

Source: HEAVENS TO BETSY! & OTHER CURIOUS SAYINGS by Charles Earle Funk

Why is the female side of something referred to as the "distaff side?"

They've been sticking it to women since the Garden of Eden, and this expression is just another verbal confirmation that women get the short end.

The "staff" in distaff is the stick on which women wound the material used to make yarn on the spinning wheel. The expression, which arose in the 16th century, thus equates women with an implement they used to use in a domestic chore.

Now you might say, "What's the equivalent expression for a man?" I don't know of any exact, mirror-opposite. But going back to the same period, one would think it would have something to do with a spear. It would perhaps be an expression indicating that back then giving people the shaft was a guy kind of thing.

Source: THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY



Didja Know...
One hundred cups of coffee over four hours contain enough caffeine to kill an average human?
(Source: Encarta.com)

Whatever happened to phone booths?

Phone booths once played an important cultural role in Western Civilization. Gang rubouts in the movies were more dramatic when the victim was neatly enclosed in a glass booth that shattered to hell when riddled with bullets. And college fraternities might have totally disappeared in the 1950s without phone booths into which to squeeze the "brothers" in an attempt to set a new campus record.

But now steel-plated, wall- or pole-mounted phones have replaced booths. One reason for this is that people were starting to use the phone booths to answer the call of nature. Imagine: They couldn't tell a toilet from a telephone!

Phone booths also occupied valuable space. In our spreadsheet world, everything has to justify its existence in the bottom line.

Source: WHY THINGS ARE & WHY THEY AREN'T by Joel Achenbach

Butter Sculpture
Who makes traditional sculptures out of butter?

The Tibetan culture is known for traditional sand paintings, in which multicolored sand is delicately arranged in intricate mandalas, displayed for a time, and then ceremoniously swept away. The short-lived sand paintings are said to reflect the temporary nature of all material forms.

A less well-known form of traditional art from the Tibetans is their butter sculpture. The largest and most elaborate of these are usually made around the time of the Tibetan New Year (Losar), when giant monuments are built of yak butter or ghee (clarified butter) mixed with fat and wax. Illuminated with colored lamps and decorated with colorful dyes, the intricate sculptures commemorate various traditional stories and fables.

Like the sand paintings, the butter sculptures are temporary. After days, weeks, months, or years, they are ceremonially destroyed.

More about Tibetan butter sculptures:
http://butter.wilsons.org/
http://www.themonasteryproject.org/butter.html
http://webfoodpros.com/wwwboard/greathal/messages/1797.html
http://www.friendsoftibet.org/butter.html

Another culture with unusual sculpture:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1999/09/22.html

Why do so many major train stations have high, often vaulted ceilings?

You'll encounter a lot of hot air if you research this question. And well you should, because the custom of building the stations this way arose in the nineteenth century, when trains produced a good deal of steam and smoke. Hot air rises, and the high ceilings allowed this potentially noxious stuff to drift safely away from the passengers.

When many of those stations were built - Grand Central, in New York, to name a famous one - they also had a symbolic as well as practical value. The automobile symbolizes our age, in which individuals are empowered with mobility previously unknown in world history. Trains 150 years ago symbolized the age of power produced by machines driven by steam. The cathedral-like ceilings in those stations express the faith that such power would elevate life in general.

With the hindsight available to us, of course, we know that they were a bit off-track on that one.

Source: WHAT ARE HYENAS LAUGHING AT, ANYWAY? By David Feldman



Didja Know...
People began to weave fabric during the Neolithic Era; domesticated cotton first came into widespread use in ancient India around 3000 BC.
(Source: Encarta.com)

When do bears emerge from hibernation?

Some trivia books still try to pose this as a trick question, stating that bears don't emerge because they never hibernated in the first place. The bear's body temperature doesn't fall as much as that of other hibernating animals, and this was once thought to disqualify them as true hibernators. But now we know that their higher body temperature is simply a function of their larger size.

Like other hibernators, bears don't sleep through the winter, but rather wake up periodically and eat what they've stored in their cave. They emerge for good when average temperatures are above freezing.

How does the bear determine the average temperature? Damned if I know. I'm more interested in how we knew about the bear's hibernating temperature in the first place. Would you enter the cave of a sleeping bear and stick a thermometer… well, wherever?

Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA



Didja Know...
The camel's hump(s) are used as fat storage? Thus, an undernourished camel will not have a hump.
(Source: didyouknow.com)

Why do we call a test for authenticity or usefulness the "acid test?"

Because if the thing being tested fails it must be a lemon? 
Not really, although this does remind me of my 10th grade
geometry teacher. We called any test she gave the acid test
because she was a real pickle-puss.

But enough of my adolescent bitterness. The origins of this
phrase were quite literal. More than a century ago, when much
of the population lived in rural areas, the itinerant peddler
was an important person. Not only did he sell all sorts of
manufactured goods otherwise unavailable, he also bought old
objects made of gold. For this purpose he needed an easy way to estimate the gold content of, say, an old spoon. He did it by nicking it slightly and pouring nitric acid on the
indentation. The color the liquid turned revealed the
percentage of gold present.

This acid test was as good as gold, to coin a phrase.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



Didja Know...
The Grammy Awards were introduced to counter the growing 'threat' of rock music? 
(Source: didyouknow.com)

Why do light bulbs come in odd-sized wattages, such as 40 and 60 watts?

"How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?"
I yelled to my friend at the other end of the bar. He didn't
have the faintest idea. "Just one," I chortled, "but it has
to REALLY want to change."

Well the bulbs may have changed, but those odd wattage
numbers have remained pretty steady since the commercial
development of the tungsten filament in 1907. That's when the
40-, 60- and 100-watt models came on the market. The best
explanation for these seemingly random numbers is that the
light they emitted roughly corresponded to that produced by
the standard-sized gas lamps then in use. A little
familiarity helped people accept the new technology.

It's like when PC's were introduced. The keyboard suggested
the typewriter, and Windows crashing reminded users of how
they would have to crumble up and discard the paper if they
made too many errors.

Source: IMPONDERABLES: THE SOLUTION TO THE MYSTERY OF EVERYDAY LIFE by David Feldman



Didja Know...
The saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words' is not an old proverb but was invented in 1921 by an advertising executive named Fred R. Barnard?
(Source: about.com)



Get the point?

The soft-skinned sea slug defends itself by appropriating
weapons from other creatures. For example, it makes a meal of
a jellyfish's sting cells but instead of breaking them down
as it would real food, absorbs them whole into its outer skin
and uses the stingers as if it were born with them.

Source: READER'S DIGEST BOOK OF FACTS

Do bananas grow on trees?

Sure, like money. Did you ever see a money tree? Well you
have as much chance of seeing a banana tree, or a monkey
reading the Wall Street Journal.

Bananas grow out of a trunkless plant - an herb, to be exact. 
The fruit comes out of the stem of the plant, appearing first
as flowers. They grow in bunches on the plant and are picked
when green so that they will be ripe by the time they reach
your cereal bowl.

Banana plants are transplanted by taking a piece of the
plant's underground stem and replanting it. These pieces are
called "suckers."  Which brings us back to those monkeys on
Wall Street . . . .

Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA



Didja Know...
The world's biggest pair of panties, made from acrylic and lace, measured 29.4 ft. (8.97 m.) x 14 ft. (4.26 m.)? They were strung across London's Oxford street as part of a promotion.
(Source: GuinnessWorldRecords.com)



Amazing

Ants can remember how they got through a maze if there was
food at the other end.  It's their amazing memory that also
enables them to score so well on short answer tests.

Cats, like a few other animals, have tear ducts allowing them
to clean their eyes by shedding tears.  Just don't let your
cat gain your sympathy when it cries these crocodile tears.

Source: THE JOY OF TRIVIA

Where in the world does it rain the most?

Anywhere I plan to have a picnic. Ok, rather than precipitate
a crisis with my colleagues, I'll give you the conventional
answer.

It's on the island of Kauai in sunny (?) Hawaii. There, on
the slippery slopes of Mt. Waialeale, you never have to get a
forecast to know if you should take an umbrella. You should
wear one all the time on your head because Waialeale gets an
average 472 inches of rain a year.

While we're into liquid data, note that the most rainfall in
a 24-hour period anywhere was the 46 inches that fell on
Bauio in the Philippines in 1911. The most in any place in a
given year was the 905 inches that went drippy-poo on
Cherrapunki, India in 1861.

In other words, if it's hard to spell or pronounce, plan to
stay indoors.

Source: DO FISH DRINK WATER? By Bill McLain



Didja Know...
The practice of breaking a bottle over a ship's bow was introduced by
the British navy in the late 1600s? (Source: ask.com)



Glowing idea

Believe it or not the Ford Motor Company considered
developing an atomic car in the early 1950s.  It would have
been powered by a nuclear reactor in the rear of the vehicle. 
But they dropped the idea, possibly fearing that it would
have bombed.

Most auto accidents happen near the driver's home because
that's where most driving is done.  One could also safely
conjecture that most drivers involved in auto accidents were
riding in a car.

Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES

Virus Passengers
How many viruses are there in most human cells?

You might expect that a healthy human cell would be free of viruses. But in every human cell there are thousands of them, in the form of dormant DNA embedded in the cell's own chromosomes. These are endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), many of which have been present in our cells for millions of years.

Most ERVs are completely inactive, but some seem to play a vital role in human reproduction. Recent research shows that when an embryo begins to grow, certain ERVs are activated. These viruses actually reproduce and bud off the embryo's growing cells by the thousands.

Retroviruses have a special talent that comes in handy during embryo growth: they can suppress the mother's immune system, so that the growing baby is not rejected by the mother's body. Through evolution these tiny passengers have become an important part of our earliest days.

Diagram of a retrovirus:
http://www.accessexcellence.com/AB/GG/diagram.html

College-level introductions to retroviruses:
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/335/Retroviruses.html
http://www.uct.ac.za/depts/mmi/jmoodie/hiv2.html

How empty virus "shells" can be useful to chemists:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1998/12/14.html

Why do they call that radioactive stuff "uranium?"

Uranium was all the thing in the 1950s. What with atom bombs tested in the atmosphere, uranium mines promising untold riches and science-fiction pictures about giant spiders and ants accidentally created by radioactivity, uranium was
really in its element.  Contemplating it now can give one a
nostalgic, uh, glow.

The surprising thing is that even way back then uranium was
nothing new. It was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, a
German chemist, who named it after the planet Uranus (how do YOU pronounce that word?).  Sir William Herschel discovered and named Uranus a few years previously. 

In fact, 150 years ago people were already practicing
radioactive medicine, treating everything from birthmarks to
ringworm with uranium.  No wonder they're all dead!

Source: THE SECRET LIVES OF WORDS by Paul West



Didja Know...
The 'Kilroy' of 'Kilroy was here' fame refers to one James J. Kilroy, a shipyard inspector from Massachusetts who marked his work thusly?
(Source: Yahoo.com)



Damned if you do and . . .

The Japanese kamikaze pilots who purposely crashed their
planes into U. S. ships toward the end of World War II
received special training to help them succeed in their
suicide missions. They were all volunteers, but anyone who
opted to drop out of the program once he joined was executed as a traitor.

Now that's what I like: options.

Source: ISAAC ASIMOV'S BOOK OF FACTS

Why do we joke about fools believing the moon is made from green cheese?

Well it would be interplanetary imperialism to say it was
composed of American cheese, and the holes on the moon's
surface don't go all the way through, so it can't be made of
Swiss cheese. Even a fool wouldn't believe Brie unless
there's wine on the moon to go with it (a very dry Chardonnay
would do). 

But it's not just green cheese by default. Did you ever stop
to think, just what is "green cheese," after all? There's no
such thing, right? Literally, that's true. The "green" in
this old proverb refers to the quality of "newness." 
Specifically it described a hunk of cheese that had not yet
aged, the appearance of which reminded people of what the
moon looked like from afar. But only a fool thought it was
really made from it.

Hey, I'm no fool. It's made of pizza, with extra green
cheese.

Source: DICTIONARY OF WORD AND PHRASE Origins by William and Mary Morris



Didja Know...
The first company ever to issue stock was "The mysterie and companie of Merchants adventurers for the discoverie of regions, dominians, islands, and places unknown" (later simplified to "The Russia Company"), which was chartered in 1553?
(Source: Encarta.com)



'SSSSS'

President Harry S Truman's middle name was "S." That's not an initial and there should not be a period after the S, as it
is often written. Perhaps the Democratic president adopted
the name after hearing the reaction to him when he campaigned in Republican districts.

Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS

Spider Eyes
How do hunting spiders find their way home?

Some kinds of spiders use the polarized light of the sky as a compass to find their way back to their nests. These spiders, who are active hunters at dusk and dawn, sense the light's polarization with a pair of special eyes.
The two direction-finding eyes are on the top of the spider's head, right behind its primary image-forming eyes, which are much larger. Each iridescent blue directional eye has a V-shaped crystal that only allows light through that is polarized in a particular direction. The two eyes have crystals whose polarizations are at right angles to each other. Because of their special construction, they can't form images.

In a study, spiders whose directional eyes were covered had trouble finding their way back to their nests. Since the sky's polarization is greatest right around dawn and sunset, it makes sense that these twilight-active hunting spiders would use polarized light as a directional clue.

More about the spider's compass eyes:
http://www.biol.lu.se/funkmorf/vision/spider.html
http://www.nature.com/nsu/990930/990930-8.html

Jumping spiders have the most acute vision:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1998/07/08.html

What's the point of daylight saving time?

Everything I learned in school I owe to nursery rhymes and
stupid word tricks.  How many days in a month? "Thirty days
hath September, . . ." Which way to move the clock when
daylight saving time starts? "Spring forward, fall back."

But why "spring forward" and lose an hour of sleep when you
would rather fall back and pull the cover over your head?  
To make the days longer when the evenings are warmer? But the days are naturally longer in summer without this time-
tampering maneuver. The point is to MOVE the extra daylight
from the early morning, when it would only benefit dairy
farmers, to the evening, allowing all of us to clog our
arteries with backyard barbecuing.

Source: WHY THINGS ARE & WHY THEY AREN'T by Joel Achenbach



Didja Know...
While fighting with the French underground during World War II, Jacques Yves Cousteau invented the aqualung?
(Source: UselessKnowledge.com)



Was that a right and then a left, or . . .

When times are tough people sometimes say, "Nowhere to go but up." Actually, there are two spots on Earth where there IS
only one direction to go. Do you know where?

At the North Pole you can only go south, no matter which way
you turn, and at the South Pole you can only go North. But
put me in a car at either spot and I would still find a way
to make a wrong turn.

Source: DO FISH DRINK WATER? By Bill McLain

Highest Metabolism
What mammal has the highest metabolism?

Of all the mammals, the ones with the highest metabolism are also the smallest. This makes sense, because the smallest mammals have to work the hardest to keep their body temperature up. These tiny, active animals are the shrews.

A shrew looks something like a very small mouse, but it is a very different animal -- more closely related to a weasel. Shrews are deadly predators, the most voracious for their size of all mammals. To keep its metabolism going, a shrew must consume several times its own weight in food every single day. If it goes for more than three or four hours without eating, it will die.

Although they are seldom seen, shrews are quite common. They forage through leaf litter, grassy meadows, and rotting wood, using their long, sensitive snouts to find insects and other prey. Some shrews are expert at hunting under water, where they catch worms, insects, and even fish. Some kinds of shrews have poison glands and can kill and consume salamanders, frogs, and even snakes several times their own size.

The shrews of North America:
http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/PGC/pubs/w_notes/shrews.htm

The vanishing shrews of Catalina Island:
http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/educ/docents/docman4m.htm

The bird with the highest metabolism:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/2001/02/20.html

Largest Landslide
What was the largest landslide in recorded history?

Although the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 was far from the largest volcanic explosion ever recorded, it triggered the largest landslide in history. By the time the eruption was over, there were 230 square miles (600 square kilometers) of fresh wasteland below the volcano, including mounds of landslide debris as tall as 240 feet (73 meters).

The eruption blew off the top 1,300 feet (400 m) of the mountain, and the landslide scoured a giant gash that turned the classically-shaped conical volcano into a rough, cratered mound with a large gap in one side. The entire north face of the mountain gave way, and the ensuing landslide raced as far as 15 miles downslope (24 km). Avalanche-related mudflows extended as far as the Columbia River, 48 miles away (77 km).

Since the eruption, life has returned to Mount St. Helens. The landslide debris is now covered by a young, healthy ecosystem of forests and meadows.

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument:
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/
http://www.gorp.com/gorp/resource/us_nm/wa_mount.htm

See how Mount St. Helens looks right now with this live webcam:
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/volcanocam/

The largest known volcanic explosion on Earth:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1998/06/12.html

What was so terrible about Ivan the Terrible?

They don't make historical names like they used to. "Charles
the Fat," "Good Queen Bess," "Jack the Ripper"  -- ah, those
were the good old days. The closest we get to such colorful
names today would be in professional wrestling - you know,
where a guy whose real name is Stanley Smith becomes
something like "Slimeball Harry."

Ivan the Terrible, who lived from 1530 to 1584 and was
Russia's first czar, earned his adjective. He was truly gosh
awful. How about killing your own son during an argument -
hands on? I mean what did the kid do, bring the car back late
on a Saturday night date? Ivan was also paranoid. He
suspected the nobility of plotting against him, so he had
1,000 of them killed.

Too bad he didn't survive into modern times. Had Ivan lived
long enough he probably could have become Ivan the
Misunderstood.

Source: BIG BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE

Didja Know...
Rosemary Clooney's signature song, "Come On-A-My-House," was written by Ross Bagdassarian, who, under the nom de chante Dave Seville, also gave life (and voices) to Alvin and the Chipmunks. (Bonus trivia: Bagdassarian shared the writing credit with his cousin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Saroyan) (Source: Hey, I just know this stuff)



The ABC of it

I am writing this using the Roman alphabet, but it certainly
is far from the only one in widespread use today. In Russia,
for example, they use the Cyrillic alphabet.

There are also alphabets that have come and gone. One such is the Runic alphabet, long ago used in northern Europe. This
one was often associated with witchcraft and magic.

Source: READER'S DIGEST BOOK OF FACTS

Visual Bats
What kind of bats navigate by sight and smell?

The bats that live in temperate climates are all night-flying bug catchers; they navigate and find their prey by listening to the echoes of ultrasound bursts (echolocation). But in the tropics, there are bats that use sight and smell to get around.
Megabats have large eyes and they are generally larger than microbats (the ones that use echolocation). They are herbivores that eat fruits and leaves and sip nectar from flowers. They also have a keen sense of smell that is useful for finding their scented foods. Like microbats, they require lots of energy to live their active lives, so they live only in tropical rain forests where flowers and fruit are available all year.

Recent research into bat DNA has shown that some microbats are more closely related to megabats than they are to other microbats. That means that either echolocation evolved twice in bats, or the megabats evolved from an ancestor that used echolocation, but lost that ability along the way.

The differences between megabats and microbats:
http://library.thinkquest.org/11922/mammals/bats.htm

The largest megabats are called flying foxes:
http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/chavez/batquest/megabats.html

Some kinds of bats can catch fish:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/2001/01/15.html

Why do we say that if you're annoying someone you're
"pestering" him or her?

We've all experienced pests at one time or another. They can get pretty onerous. I worked with a pest for years and at one
time I thought he would be the death of me. In fact, the word
"pest" comes from the Latin "pestis," or plague.

All of this is interesting but beside the point because pester doesn't come from pest. Instead it derives from another Latin word, "pastern," which was a device meant to hobble, or impede movement. The pastern was commonly placed on a horse's foot, allowing him to graze but also not get very far in the process.

The pastern was an annoyance for the animal, but it served
its purpose. Someone who pesters another person, in the
modern sense, also annoys. But the only purpose I can see to
it is neurotic. Pester ME on the wrong day and it could get
you worse than hobbled!

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



Didja Know...
Diversionary props such as the falcon in the "Maltese Falcon," or the glowing briefcase in "Pulp Fiction," are known as "McGuffins." The word was coined by Alfred Hitchcock, a true master of the form.
(Source: Ask Yahoo!)



On a clear day you can see . . .

It's time to lay to rest another myth. Many people believe
that there is one physical feature on Earth that is extensive
enough to be seen from the moon: the Great Wall of China. 
It's not true. No man- or woman-made structure can be seen
from there. The astronauts who went to the moon confirmed it.

Source: JUST CURIOUS, JEEVES by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett

Magnetic Moon

What is the only magnetic moon in the Solar System?
The largest planetary satellite in the Solar System is also the only moon known to have a substantial magnetic field. When the Galileo spacecraft first approached Jupiter's moon Ganymede, it recorded bursts of radio noise and magnetism that revealed a teardrop-shaped magnetosphere, just like Jupiter's.
Ganymede's magnetic field is embedded in the much vaster magnetic field of Jupiter, which in turn is embedded in the enormous magnetic bubble carved by the Sun from the galactic field. Earth's magnetic field is embedded in the same bubble.

It is not clear how Ganymede can generate a magnetic field. To do so, it must contain an inner core or layer that conducts electricity. Is its core made of metal? Is there a layer of salty water above the core? Future exploratory missions may help settle the mystery.

Galileo's Ganymede flybys made exciting discoveries:
http://www.science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast19may_1.htm

More about Ganymede:
http://www.planetscapes.com/solar/eng/ganymede.htm

Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1998/08/14.html

Why is it easier to tear an article from a newspaper from top to bottom than from side to side (try it!)?

Isn't it better that your newspaper doesn't give in so easily
to the right or the left? 

There are, naturally, reasons other than politics that make
top-down newspaper clipping easier.  In order to print the
news, you need newsprint, the wood pulp paper product on
which the opin . . . uh facts go.  That pulp is broken down
into many small fibers that tumble onto a conveyor belt. 
This process naturally aligns them in the direction the belt
is moving, a direction they retain when formed into sheets
and then large rolls of newsprint: straight up and down.

Thus when you clip an article from top to bottom you go with
the grain and achieve a smooth cut; tear it out from the side
and you are ripping against the grain and risk losing part of
the article. Of course, if that's a quote from a politician,
the loss is negligible.

Source: EVER WONDER WHY? By Douglas B. Smith


Didja Know...
The brain is surrounded by a membrane laced with nerves that transmit sensations to the organ. However, the brain itself has no feeling; if it is cut into, the person feels no pain.
(Source: UselessKnowledge.com)


Real Indian givers

All Americans owe a debt to Native Americans for their
contributions to American culture. For example, squash, corn,
and chili peppers all came from the Indians. That we have yet
to turn them into ice cream flavors is due to our own failure
of skill and imagination and cannot be laid at the feet of
the Indian.

Similarly, many English words, such as "skunk" and "caucus,"
come from North American Indian languages. I'm sure Indians
originated other words that describe politicians and what
they do, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Source: DO FISH DRINK WATER? By Bill McLain

Fresh Rain Smell
What causes the smell of new rain on dry ground?

It's been a warm, dry day but now the rain begins. As the first drops wet the ground, there is a sharp, fresh smell with a peculiar, almost metallic tang. It only lasts a few minutes, until the ground is fully wet. It is especially strong near sun-warmed pavement.

The smell is caused by the spores of a kind of filamentous bacteria called Actinomycetes that grow in warm, moist soil. When the weather dries out, these bacteria release vast numbers of extremely small spores that blow around, landing on everything.

When the rain hits the dry soil or pavement, the spores are kicked into the air along with tiny bits of soil. For just a few minutes (until the rain washes them out of the air) we can smell these pungent particles as they land in our olfactory sinuses.

Soil bacteria are absolutely vital to all land ecosystems:
http://www.id.blm.gov/soils/bacteria/
http://www.digitalseed.com/composter/biology/actinomycetes.html

There are a lot of bacteria on Earth:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/1999/01/25.html

First Electric Plant
What was the first electricity-generating station?

The world's first central electric generating station was Thomas Edison's coal-powered Pearl Street station, which opened in Manhattan in 1882. It supplied direct current (DC) to 59 customers, starting a revolution that would change the world.

One of the biggest problems with early electricity was that it was difficult to transmit the power farther than a few city blocks because of losses in the lines. Even so, by the end of the 1880s there were electric plants in many cities.

With the invention of alternating current (AC) by George Westinghouse, the transmission problem was solved. Because AC can easily be "stepped up" to much higher voltages, it could be sent across long distances. In 1896, the first long-distance AC lines were established between Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York, marking the beginning of today's continent-wide electric grid.

More about Pearl Street station and Edison's work:
http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/promo19.htm
http://www.ieee.org/organizations/society/power/subpages/resources-folder/edison-folder/elecpowr.htm
http://www.ul.cs.cmu.edu/webRoot/Books/CMU_Classics/Browse_By_Title/E/
Edison_His_Life_and_Inventions/16.html

The world's first geothermal generating plant:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/2000/07/14.html

Why do tennis balls feel fuzzy?

Did it ever occur to you that tennis balls might be perfectly
smooth and it's your fingertips that are fuzzy? Just a thought.

Tennis balls aren't completely bald for two reasons. The fuzz
is there, for one thing, to slow it down. You might find that
hard to believe had you ever had to receive a cannonball
serve from John McEnroe, but there you are. It facilitates
rallies by increasing wind resistance and preventing the ball
from leaving the stadium on one bounce.

The fuzz also increases racket control by holding the ball
against the strings for just a fraction of a second longer
than would happen with a smooth ball. 

As for me, I visit the bar in the clubhouse before the match. 
After that it's not just the balls that are fuzzy.

Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett

Didja Know...
The only US state with a single-syllable name is "Maine?" (Source: Look it up)



Cutting up

If all the blood vessel in your body were laid end to end
they would span the globe. But were this done, I doubt that
you would be in the mood to appreciate it.

If surgeons removed one of your kidneys, a lung, your spleen,
much of your liver, and more than half your intestines, you
could still live. But it wouldn't make you the best doubles
partner for tennis.

Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS by David Louis

Is there any difference between billiards and pool?

When I began to research this one I hadn't a cue, uh clue. 
All I knew was that my pockets are too often empty and I find
myself too frequently behind the eight ball of life. You
could have told me any kind of nonsense about these games and snookered me into believing it.

Now, having done my homework, I can tell you that if you're
playing on a table with six pockets and eight solid-color
balls and seven striped ones, and the object of the game is
to use the cue ball to knock the other balls, one by one,
into the pockets, you're playing pool.

Billiards is played with two white balls and a red one and
there are no pockets. The idea is to use one of the white
balls as a cue ball to hit the others in succession.

Now that I've learned to play, I cheat. My game is called
dirty pool.

Source: DO FISH DRINK WATER? By Bill McLain



Didja Know...
It is estimated that illiteracy costs U.S. businesses $225 billion a year in lost productivity?
(Source: Useless Facts)



Why, thank you

Wouldn't you like to know who originated the income tax? 
Well Prime Minister William Pitt devised the first one that
worked in England around 1800. The British government needed the revenue to prosecute its war with France.

Say, do you suppose that's where we got the slang expression
to describe something that's really bad: "It's the pitts?"

Source: THE JOY OF TRIVIA by Bernie Smith

What's the most powerful chemical explosive?

Until recently, the most powerful known chemical explosive was a substance called octogen, a military explosive.  But now there's a serious challenger on the scene.  Called octanitrocubane (ONC), it's the most energy-dense explosive known, and could be as much as 25% more
powerful than octogen and twice as powerful as trinitrotoluene (TNT).

ONC is a powerful explosive for two reasons: first, it is very dense, almost twice as dense as water.  Because of its density, it releases a large amount of energy in a small volume.

The second reason for its explosive power is in its molecular
structure.  A highly strained cube of eight carbon atoms is adorned by eight energy-rich nitrate (NO2) groups.  When it burns, ONC almost instantly turns into a very hot gas of nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

Octanitrocubane was recently synthesized for the first time:
http://www.sciencenews.org/20000122/fob6.asp

Animation shows how the nitrate groups rotate on an ONC molecule:
http://depts.washington.edu/chemfac/kahr_movie.html

Cubane, the base molecule of ONC, is a very strange substance:
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/local/projects/b_muir/Cubane/Cubanepro/Start.html
http://www.phys.uni.torun.pl/~jkob/physnews97/node101.html

Why large explosions create mushroom clouds:
http://features.LearningKingdom.com/fact/archive/2000/06/15.html