Not So Useless Trivia

10 Foods That Shoud Never Be Microwaved

2008-06-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

From Shine Yahoo -

Bread
Bread becomes as hard as a rock when you microwave it.

Pizza
Pizza is bread - so microwaving it has the same effect. Moreover, the toppings will taste dry and dreadful.

Chicken
Microwaving chicken will dry up all the juices inside, leaving you with extremely dry meat.

Ice cream/sorbet
While this is obvious, people still try to quicken ice-hard ice cream via the microwave. A better alternative is to dip your ice cream scooper in warm water to help soften the ice cream.

Fruit
Fruit is sweet and juicy. Nuked fruit is dry and nasty.

Cake
Cakes are for baking, not microwaving. To warm it, pop it in the oven.

Eggs
An egg in the microwave will explode. Trust us - you don't want to clean the mess.

Shellfish
Shrimp become rubbery when microwaved.

Ribs
When microwaved, the meat becomes indistinguishable from the bone and makes for an unappetizing meal.

Fish
The fish's natural oils dries up when it is microwaved. In addition, it generates a strong smell.

Bananas...

2008-06-04T03:26:00.000-07:00

Never put your banana in the refrigerator! This is interesting. After reading this, you'll never look at a banana in the same way again.

Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.
Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes. But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit.

It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressur! e and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest
ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking & Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

Dollar bill's secrets revealed

2008-02-13T00:15:00.000-08:00

From Yahoo -

The keepers of the Great Seal of the United States, the familiar emblem on the back of the $1 bill, want you to know what it is not. It is not a sign that Freemasons run the country, it has nothing to do with the occult, and it does not contain clues to a fabulous hidden treasure.

It is rather the nation's stamp of authority, sovereignty and power, gracing our cash and embossing the most important of documents from its home at the State Department, which has held it since the days of Thomas Jefferson, the first secretary of state.

Not that the Seal's symbols — the all-seeing eye, the unfinished pyramid, the Latin phrases, the bald eagle clutching an olive branch and arrows and the number 13 — aren't powerful.

They are, historians say. Yet their meanings have been misidentified, misunderstood and misrepresented almost since the Continental Congress first commissioned the Seal in 1776.

It would be another six years before the original design was approved and another 128 before it evolved into its current form. Along the way, a movement to decipher the Seal's meaning with ancient Egyptian, mystical and otherwise otherworldly explanations prospered.

Among them:

That the Seal proves the domination of the United States by a powerful, quasi-religious cult. The Ancient Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is a perennial favorite of conspiracy theorists as some Founding Fathers were Masons and the Seal uses several Masonic symbols.

That the Seal draws on Satanism or polytheistic ritual to promote a universal new world order under which Earth would be ruled by a single omnipotent government.

That repeated references to 13 — the number of steps in the unfinished pyramid, stars in the constellation over the eagle's head, arrows in the eagle's claw, stripes on the eagle's shield, letters in the phrase "Annuit Coeptis" — demonstrate the power of 13 American families.

That there are two seals: one in which the eagle's head faces the arrows for times of war and another in which the eagle's head faces the olive branch for times of peace.

All rubbish, according to historians, who say the Seal's symbolism is far less ominous or revelatory than many believe. The real facts include -

Known Masons like the first U.S. president, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin had no role in designing the final seal, which uses elements of traditional heraldry, such as the unfinished pyramid to symbolize a work in progress, arrows for war and an olive branch for peace. Masons share some of those symbols, but they have never been exclusively the domain of the order.

The phrase "Novus Ordo Seculorum" below the Roman numerals for 1776 at the base of the pyramid translates as "A New Order of the Ages" that began with independence and does not imply the United States will be the lynchpin of a sinister "New World Order."

The words "Annuit Coeptis" ("Providence favors") and the eye of providence that hovers over the pyramid refer to unexpected interventions of fate that assisted the colonists in creating a new country.

The references to 13 refer to the number of colonies that formed the original United States.

United Nations

2007-10-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

From the United Nations website, list of member states -

A

* Afghanistan (19 November 1946)
* Albania (14 December 1955)
* Algeria (8 October 1962)
* Andorra (28 July 1993)
* Angola (1 December 1976)
* Antigua and Barbuda (11 November 1981)
* Argentina (24 October 1945)
* Armenia (2 March 1992)
* Australia (1 November 1945)
* Austria (14 December 1955)
* Azerbaijan (2 March 1992)
B

* Bahamas (18 September 1973)
* Bahrain (21 September 1971)
* Bangladesh (17 September 1974)
* Barbados (9 December 1966)
* Belarus (24 October 1945)
* Belgium (27 December 1945)
* Belize (25 September 1981)
* Benin (20 September 1960)
* Bhutan (21 September 1971)
* Bolivia (14 November 1945)
* Bosnia and Herzegovina (22 May 1992)
* Botswana (17 October 1966)
* Brazil (24 October 1945)
* Brunei Darussalam (21 September 1984)
* Bulgaria (14 December 1955)
* Burkina Faso (20 September 1960)
* Burundi (18 September 1962)

C

* Cambodia (14 December 1955)
* Cameroon (20 September 1960)
* Canada (9 November 1945)
* Cape Verde (16 September 1975)
* Central African Republic (20 September 1960)
* Chad (20 September 1960)
* Chile (24 October 1945)
* China (24 October 1945)
* Colombia (5 November 1945)
* Comoros (12 November 1975)
* Congo, Republic of the... (20 September 1960)
* Costa Rica (2 November 1945)
* Côte d'Ivoire (20 September 1960)
* Croatia (22 May 1992)
* Cuba (24 October 1945)
* Cyprus (20 September 1960)
* Czech Republic (19 January 1993)

D

* Democratic People's Republic of Korea (17 September 1991)
* Democratic Republic of the Congo (20 September 1960)
* Denmark (24 October 1945)
* Djibouti (20 September 1977)
* Dominica (18 December 1978)
* Dominican Republic (24 October 1945)

E

* Ecuador (21 December 1945)
* Egypt (24 October 1945)
* El Salvador (24 October 1945)
* Equatorial Guinea (12 November 1968)
* Eritrea (28 May 1993)
* Estonia (17 September 1991)
* Ethiopia (13 November 1945)

F

* Fiji (13 October 1970)
* Finland (14 December 1955)
* France (24 October 1945)

G

* Gabon (20 September 1960)
* Gambia (21 September 1965)
* Georgia (31 July 1992)
* Germany (18 September 1973)
* Ghana (8 March 1957)
* Greece (25 October 1945)
* Grenada (17 September 1974)
* Guatemala (21 November 1945)
* Guinea (12 December 1958)
* Guinea-Bissau (17 September 1974)
* Guyana (20 September 1966)

H

* Haiti (24 October 1945)
* Honduras (17 December 1945)
* Hungary (14 December 1955)

I

* Iceland (19 November 1946)
* India (30 October 1945)
* Indonesia (28 September 1950)
* Iran, Islamic Republic of... (24 October 1945)
* Iraq (21 December 1945)
* Ireland (14 December 1955)
* Israel (11 May 1949)
* Italy (14 December 1955)

J

* Jamaica (18 September 1962)
* Japan (18 December 1956)
* Jordan (14 December 1955)

K

* Kazakhstan (2 March 1992)
* Kenya (16 December 1963)
* Kiribati (14 September 1999)
* Kuwait (14 May 1963)
* Kyrgyzstan (2 March 1992)

L

* Lao People's Democratic Republic (14 December 1955)
* Latvia (17 September 1991)
* Lebanon (24 October 1945)
* Lesotho (17 October 1966)
* Liberia (2 November 1945)
* Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (14 December 1955)
* Liechtenstein (18 September 1990)
* Lithuania (17 September 1991)
* Luxembourg (24 October 1945)

M

* Madagascar (20 September 1960)
* Malawi (1 December 1964)
* Malaysia (17 September 1957)
* Maldives (21 September 1965)
* Mali (28 September 1960)
* Malta (1 December 1964)
* Marshall Islands (17 September 1991)
* Mauritania (27 October 1961)
* Mauritius (24 April 1968)
* Mexico (7 November 1945)
* Micronesia, Federated States of... (17 September 1991)
* Moldova (2 March 1992)
* Monaco (28 May 1993)
* Mongolia (27 October 1961)
* Montenegro (28 June 2006)
* Morocco (12 November 1956)
* Mozambique (16 September 1975)
* Myanmar (19 April 1948)

N

* Namibia (23 April 1990)
* Nauru (14 September 1999)
* Nepal (14 December 1955)
* Netherlands (10 December 1945)
* New Zealand (24 October 1945)
* Nicaragua (24 October 1945)
* Niger (20 September 1960)
* Nigeria (7 October 1960)
* Norway (27 November 1945)

O

* Oman (7 October 1971)

P

* Pakistan (30 September 1947)
* Palau (15 December 1994)
* Panama (13 November 1945)
* Papua New Guinea (10 October 1975)
* Paraguay (24 October 1945)
* Peru (31 October 1945)
* Philippines (24 October 1945)
* Poland (24 October 1945)
* Portugal (14 December 1955)

Q

* Qatar (21 September 1971)

R

* Republic of Korea (17 September 1991)
* Romania (14 December 1955)
* Russian Federation (24 October 1945)
* Rwanda (18 September 1962)

S

* Saint Kitts and Nevis (23 September 1983)
* Saint Lucia (18 September 1979)
* Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (16 September 1980)
* Samoa (15 December 1976)
* San Marino (2 March 1992)
* Sao Tome and Principe (16 September 1975)
* Saudi Arabia (24 October 1945)
* Senegal (28 September 1960)
* Serbia (1 November 2000)
* Seychelles (21 September 1976)
* Sierra Leone (27 September 1961)
* Singapore (21 September 1965)
* Slovakia (19 January 1993)
* Slovenia (22 May 1992)
* Solomon Islands (19 September 1978)
* Somalia (20 September 1960)
* South Africa (7 November 1945)
* Spain (14 December 1955)
* Sri Lanka (14 December 1955)
* Sudan (12 November 1956)
* Suriname (4 December 1975)
* Swaziland (24 September 1968)
* Sweden (19 November 1946)
* Switzerland (10 September 2002)
* Syrian Arab Republic (24 October 1945)

T

* Tajikistan (2 March 1992)
* Thailand (16 December 1946)
* The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (8 April 1993)
* Timor-Leste (27 September 2002)
* Togo (20 September 1960)
* Tonga (14 September 1999)
* Trinidad and Tobago (18 September 1962)
* Tunisia (12 November 1956)
* Turkey (24 October 1945)
* Turkmenistan (2 March 1992)
* Tuvalu (5 September 2000)

U

* Uganda (25 October 1962)
* Ukraine (24 October 1945)
* United Arab Emirates (9 December 1971)
* United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (24 October 1945)
* United Republic of Tanzania (14 December 1961)
* United States of America (24 October 1945)
* Uruguay (18 December 1945)
* Uzbekistan (2 March 1992)

V

* Vanuatu (15 September 1981)
* Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of... (15 November 1945)
* Viet Nam (20 September 1977)

Y

* Yemen (30 September 1947)

Z

* Zambia (1 December 1964)
* Zimbabwe (25 August 1980)

American Football

2007-10-19T01:37:00.000-07:00

In 1905, 18 men died from injuries sustained on the football field. President Theodore Roosevelt stepped in and instituted safety measures to make the game safer.

The Vince Lombardi Trophy is awarded to the winners of the Super Bowl.

The first pick (by Eagles) in the first NFL draft in 1935, was Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago. He never played in the league

The first Rose Bowl game was held in 1902 in Pasadena, California. The University of Michigan beat Sanford 49-0.

The first Super Bowl was played in 1967. The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League, 35-to-10.

Paul Hornung holds the NFL record for the most points in a single season. He scored 176 points in 1960.

The first professional football team to sport an insignia on their helmets was the Los Angeles Rams in 1950, who hand painted yellow horns on their blue leather helmets.

The dimensions of a regulation football field are: 360 feet long and 160 feet wide.

Inventors

2007-10-19T01:02:00.000-07:00

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Cracking the Rubik's Cube

2007-08-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

David Kunkle, a computer scientist at Northeastern University in Boston, has proved that 26 moves are enough to solve any scrambled Rubik's Cube. That's one move below the previous record. In the process, he developed algorithms that can be useful for problems as disparate as scheduling air flights and determining how proteins will fold.

Rubik's Cube has approximately 43 quintillion possible configurations. Even a supercomputer can't search through every possible configuration to find the quickest way to unscramble a given starting arrangement in a reasonable amount of time.

Kunkle and his advisor Gene Cooperman approached the problem by applying various mathematical tricks. If each side of the cube is one color, the puzzle is solved regardless of which color is on which side. By considering configurations to be equivalent if they differ only in having two colors interchanged, they managed to reduce the number of truly distinct configurations to just over a quintillion.

Next, they looked at a simpler problem: they considered only configurations that could be solved by twisting facelets through half-turns only, with no quarter-turns. Only about 15,000 of the quintillion configurations can be solved in this way. The team found that any puzzle in one of those special configurations could be solved in 13 moves or fewer.

Then they figured out how many steps are required to turn any random configuration into one of the 15,000 special configurations. To do this, they first classified the configurations into sets, each containing configurations that can be transformed among themselves using only half-turns. These sets were constructed in such a way that a series of moves that gets from one member of any set to one of the special configurations will also turn any other member of the set into a special configuration. They ended up with 1.4 trillion of these sets, so they now had only 1.4 trillion problems to solve—far fewer than the original 43 quintillion, but still a formidable number.

Using a supercomputer, they found that it took no more than 16 steps to turn any random configuration into a special configuration that can be solved using only half-turns. And since those special puzzles can be solved in no more than 13 steps, this approach showed that 29 steps were enough to solve any Rubik's Cube. But this answer wasn't good enough to set a new record. So to set a new record, they would need to eliminate three steps.

Their existing method had established that all but about 80 million sets of configurations could be solved in 26 steps or fewer. By searching through all possible moves starting from those relatively few configurations, they succeeded in finding a solution for each one that took 26 steps or fewer. Kunkle and Cooperman now hope to knock the maximum number of steps down to 25. They think they can use their brute-force search method on all of the configurations that require 26 steps to find a quicker way to solve them.

Even if they manage this feat, however, it will probably leave room for improvement. Most researchers believe that just 20 steps are enough to solve any Rubik's Cube, but no one has proved it yet.

More details at MathTrek.

Sports Trivia

2007-07-17T04:37:00.000-07:00

Source: Phill's Info -

Badminton
Olympic badminton rules say that the bird has to have exactly fourteen feathers.

Baseball
The first perfect game in baseball history was achieved by John Lee Richmond on June 12, 1880.

Baseball rules were codified in 1846 by Alexander Cartwright of the Knickerbocker Baseball Club.

A baseball ball has exactly 108 stitches.

The record for the most major league baseball career innings is held by Cy Young, with 7,356 innings.

The baseball home plate is about 17 inches wide.

The first black player in the American League was Larry Doby with the Cleveland Indians in 1947.
With one pitch, Babe Ruth could throw two balls simultaneously, and they would stay parallel all the way to the catcher.

The distance between the pitcher's rubber and home plate in baseball is 60 feet, 6 inches.

Bullfrog Dietrich of the Chicago White Sox was the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter while wearing eyeglasses. He did it in 1937.

The Major League Baseball teams use about 850,000 balls per season.

In a typical season major league baseball will require 4,800 ash trees worth of Louisville sluggers.

Until the 1870s, baseball was played without the use of gloves.

The first players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson & Walter Johnson in 1936.

Baseball players have the longest lives of all occupations.

In July 1934, Babe Ruth paid the fan who caught his 700th career home run ball $20 to get it back.

Only six baseball teams remain from the original National League, which was founded in 1876.

Reggie Jackson holds the major league record for most strikeouts with 2,597.

When you hit a baseball really hard, it momentarily changes shape by as much as 25 percent.

When Henry Aaron hit his 715th Home Run, breaking Babe Ruth's record, the pitcher who served it up was Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They were both wearing number 44.

Basketball
Jerry West was the model for the official NBA logo. His silhouette appears dribbling a basketball.

The first NBA player to score 38,000 points was Kareem Abdul-Jabar in 1989.

Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith. He set out to invent a game to occupy students between the football and baseball seasons.

Moses Malone was the first basketball player to go directly from high school to a professional American team.

Basketball and rugby balls are made from synthetic material. Earlier, pigs' bladders were used as rugby balls.

Bowling
Bowlers are allowed to have a maximum of five finger grip holes on a regulation bowling ball.

The most common injury in bowling is a sore thumb.

Boxing
Muhammad Ali won his heavyweight championships on three continents: North America, Asia and Africa.

Sometimes boxers apply live leeches to their black eyes. This sucks out the blood from the crushed tissue, evidently lessening the blackness, or promoting healing.

Figure Skating
The first triple jump in figure skating competition was performed by Dick Button in 1952.

Golf
On February 6, 1971 the first golf ball was hit on the moon by Alan Shepard.

Golfers use an estimated $800 million worth of golf balls annually.

The early golf balls were not made from zillions of rubber bands. They were feather-stuffed leather balls.

Horse Racing
Eddie Arcaro, one of the greatest jockeys in horse race history, rode 250 losers before he won his first race. Ultimately, Arcaro won 4,779 races - including five Derby winners, six in the Preakness, and six in the Belmont Stakes, on such famous horses as Whirlaway, Citation, and Kelso.

The first reference to a monetary prize in a horse race was offered by Richard I in 1195.

The first Kentucky Derby was run at Churchill Downs in 1875 with Aristides as winner.

Ice Hockey
The Montreal Canadians of the mid-1950s are the only team to win five straight Stanley Cup championships.

Lacrosse
The ancient American Indian game of lacrosse involved teams of up to 1,000 players.

Olympics
The earliest recorded Olympic Games result was from the 180 meter sprint in the 776 B.C. The winner was a man named Coroebus.

The very first Olympic race, held in 776 BC, was won by Corubus, a chef.

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 311 male but no female competitors.

The 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles was the first time the three-level winner's stand was used for the medal ceremony.

The modern Olympic Games were held in the first time in 1896 at Athens and were then followed by the 1900 Paris games. The winter games were added in 1924.

Until 1967 it wasn't illegal for Olympic athletes to use drugs to enhance their performance during competition.

The Olympic Games were held in St. Louis, MO. In 1904, the first time that the games were held in the United States.

The motto for the Olympic Games is Citius - Altius - Fortius. Translated, it means Faster - Higher - Stronger.

The record for the most Olympic medals ever won is held by Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina. Competing in three Olympics, between 1956 and 1964, she won 18 medals.

Racing
The guy who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1915 had to get out and push his broken car for more than the last mile of the race.

Soccer
A soccer ball has 32 panels around it.

A soccer ball is made up of 32 leather panels, held together by 642 stitches.

The first Soccer World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 and attracted 13 competing countries.

Tennis
Most tennis injuries actually happen after the game when the winner tries to jump over the net.

When tennis was first invented in 1874, it was called sphairistike.

About 42,000 tennis balls are used in the plus-minus 650 matches in the Wimbledon Championship.

Volleyball
The game of volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan.

When volleyball was first invented in 1895, it was called mintonette.

Nine Brain Quirks You Didn’t Realize You Had

2007-07-12T05:12:00.000-07:00

The brain is most interesting when it doesn’t work the way you expect it should. Psychology often confirms our intuitions about how our minds work, but it offers quite a few surprises as well. Although some psychology buff’s will have heard a few of these before, here’s a list of quirks in your brain you probably didn’t realize you had:

1) Your short-term memory has a max capacity of seven.

Humans have three forms of memory: sensory, long-term and short-term. Long-term memory is like hard-drive space, while short-term memory works like a very small RAM. This short-term memory can hold only about five to nine (average is seven) items at a time.

2) Chartreuse is the most visible color.

Yellow-green, chartreuse, sits right in the middle of the frequencies of visible light. Your eyes have receptors for blue, green and red. Being in the middle, yellow-green triggers the most of these receptors to fire, making it easy to spot. In some cities, firetrucks have been changed from red to a yellow-green color to make them more visible.

3) Your subconscious is smarter than you are.

Or at least more powerful. In one study, a square was assigned to a location on a computer screen through a complex pattern. After watching it, people began to get results better than chance of picking out where the square would pop up next. But when asked to consciously determine the pattern, even given a few hours, nobody could do it.

4) You have two nervous systems.

One set controls excitation and the other controls inhibition. If you hold out your hand, you might notice minor tremors. This is caused by slight, random differences in the amount each of the two systems are firing.

5) Your brain is awful at probability.

Okay, so maybe your high-school math teacher could have told you this one. But, what’s interesting isn’t that your brain is bad at probability, but how.

6) Your memory isn’t great either.

Studies have shown that people are highly likely to misremember past events. Even worse, it is incredibly easy to suggest a memory that never happened. This is why so-called “repressed” memories should be given a lot of thought. It is far easier to suggest a memory of an event never happened, then it is to recover one that actually did.

7) You can perceive depth with one eye.

It’s a myth that depth perception is entirely the result of having two eyes. Binocular vision does assist in making a three-dimensional picture. However, most of your ability to perceive depth comes from inside your brain. It has been wired to look at angles and proportions to judge distance.

If you required two eyes to perceive depth then most optical illusions wouldn’t work and it would be incredibly difficult to gather information from flat photographs. Not to mention a lot more one-eyed pirates walking overboard.

8 ) Long-term memory shuts down during sleep.

The parts of the brain that transfer information to long-term memory shut down while sleeping. This is why dreams quickly fade away after you wake up. Although you may have several dreams in a night, they aren’t being recorded into long-term memory. Generally only the fragments of a dream left in short-term memory have a chance to be encoded after you wake up.

9) You have an instant playback feature.

At the beginning I mentioned that humans have three forms of memory, short-term, long-term and sensory. Sensory memory is your brain’s equivalent to an instant playback feature.

Imagine being at a party and overhearing someone say your name. Often you can recall what they said even though you were focused on another conversation. This is because your sensory memory re-sends the signals when it finds something important, such as your name. If you lacked this form of memory, activities such as multitasking or taking notes from a speaker would be impossible.

Complete story at Lifehack -

Animals

2007-07-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Source - Weird Websites

Anteater
Anteaters prefer termites to ants.

Bird
Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.

Bull
Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is - be it red or neon yellow.

Butterfly
The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby."

Camel
Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.

Cat
Cat urine glows under a black-light.

Cats, like humans, are either right or left handed.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

Chicken
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Cockroach
A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off - it dies from starvation.

Cricket
Crickets hear through their knees.

Crocodile
Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.

A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth.

Dog
Dogs, like humans, are either right or left handed.

Nose prints are used to identify dogs, just like humans use fingerprints.

Dogs have about ten vocal sounds.

Domestication
In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

Donkey
The placement of a donkey's eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all times.

Dragonfly
A dragonfly has a lifespan of twenty-four hours.

Duck
A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

Earthworm
A species of earthworm in Australia grows up to 10 feet in length.

Ferret
A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

Fish
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

Frog
The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.

Geese
A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein.

Goldfish
A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

Hedgehog
A hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average.

Hippopotamus
A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside.

Hummingbird
A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.

Hummingbirds can't walk.

Lion
A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away.

Mole
A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night.

Ostrich
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Porcupine
Porcupines float in water.

Rat
A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

Rhinoceros
A rhinoceros' horn is made of compacted hair.

Seagull
If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.

Shark
The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

Sloth
The sloth moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on its fur.

Snails
Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Termites
The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.

Seven Wonders of the World

2007-07-08T04:15:00.000-07:00

The New Seven Wonders of the World

The Great Wall of China
Taj Mahal in India
Machu Picchu in Peru
Statue of Christ Redeemer in Brazil
Rome Colosseum in Italy
The Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza in Mexico
Petra in Jordan

Ancient Seven Wonders of the World

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
Colossus of Rhodes
Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria
The Great Pyramids of Giza

Transformer trivia

2007-07-08T03:51:00.000-07:00

Some trivia from the movie Transformer (2007). Complete list at IMDB -
The slogan for the movie "Their War. Our World", was the original slogan for the movie AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004), but at the last minute it was switched to "Whoever wins...we lose."

It took approximately 38 hours for the animators ILM to render one frame of the CGI animation to portray the Transformers. This breaks the record set by Weta Workshop for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), where it took 20 hours to animate a frame of CGI to portray the Ent Treebeard.

Producer Don Murphy decided, after listening to feedback from Transformers fans, to use the voices from the "Transformers" (1984) (and its spin-off The Transformers: The Movie (1986)). Veteran voice actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who provided the voices for the iconic Transformer leaders Optimus Prime (Cullen) and Megatron (Welker), were auditioned personally by director Michael Bay, who feared that their aged voices would be noticeable. Cullen was confirmed to reprise his role, but Welker's voice had aged too much and besides didn't suit Megatron's new alien look, and so Hugo Weaving took the role of Megatron. However, Welker reprises his role as Megatron in Transformers: The Game (2007) (VG).

Two of the Decepticons in this film are named Bonecrusher and Devastator. In the original toy line and television series, Bonecrusher was one of six Decepticns, known as Constructicons, who combines to form Devastator.

WILHELM SCREAM: When Megatron flicks a human across the street like a bug (Megatron says "Disgusting," and the human in question is wearing green and slams into a taxicab).

Bumblebee doesn't actually talk in the film. He communicates through sound bites that include the voice of Lt. Uhura from "Star Trek" (1966) saying "Hailing frequencies open." and "Message from Starfleet." and bits of dialog from John Wayne, whom voice actor Peter Cullen used as an inspiration for Optimus Prime's voice.

In the "Transformers" (1984) series, the Autobots had blue optics (eyes) and the Decepticons had red optics. The animators created a new eye design resembling a camera shutter in order to make the robots more engaging; however, in a nod to the series, the color scheme remains the same. The only exception being Frenzy, who is a Decepticon, but has blue optics.

The gunship that successfully damages and drives off Scorponok during the attack on Captain Lennox and his men is the AC-130U Spooky II.

Josh Duhamel's character Captain Lennox first appeared in the comic book "G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers."

The F-22 Raptor that Starscream turns into is intended to replace the F-15 Eagle that Starscream originally turned into.

When Bumblebee is reactivated, one of the radio transmissions played back is a sound clip from “Star Trek”. The part of Megatron/Galvatron has been previously played by Leonard Nimoy and Frank Welker, who have also both played Spock on Star Trek.

Sam's eBay name LadiesMan217 refers to Michael Bay's birthday: February 17th.

In the Pre-Screenings of the movie, an additional scene showing Bumblebee scanning the older model was included just before the cut to Sam at school. This scene was left out of the general release.

Bumblebee is a 1974 Chevrolet Camaro and reforms into the new 2008 concept Camaro.

Peter Cullen described reprising his role as Optimus Prime as "slipping into an old pair of very comfortable shoes that you haven't worn for a while," and was grateful to the fans for wanting him back. His vocal performance consisted of much improvisation with Michael Bay and bringing a sense of humour to Prime, as well as his traditional heroism.

To prepare for his role as Sam 'Spike' Witwicky, 'Shia LeBouf' worked out five days a week for three months and gained 25 pounds of muscle, but he realized during shooting that Spike required agility rather than strength.

To prepare for her role as Mikaela Banes, Megan Fox gained ten pounds of muscle during filming due to the physicality of her role.

Michael Bay instructed the ILM animators to watch martial arts films to get an idea on how to effectively portray the Transformers' movements.

Charlie Adler, who voices the Decepticon Starscream in this film, voiced the Autobot Silverbolt in "Transformers" (1984). He was the only other voice actor from the series besides Peter Cullen to get a role in this film.

Michael Bay originally turned down directing the film, considering it "a stupid toy movie." However, as a young man he worked at Lucasfilm Ltd. and had a similar opinion about Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which became a classic hit. Realizing he was wrong about that film and perhaps about this one, he signed on to direct the film. He also took the job because he desired to make a family film, though he wanted to make it edgier than usual.

* Hasbro released several toys based on the movie's characters. These toys feature new "Automorph Technology," where moving parts of a toy in transformations allowed some other parts to shift automatically. This marks a rare time when Transformers toys are designed 'after' the characters in the fiction, whereas normally, the toys are designed first.

Optimus Prime's line before facing off with Megatron "One shall stand, one shall fall" is the exact some line he said before facing off with Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie (1986).

While the film's scriptwriters experimented with additional characters, their scripts always included the Autobots Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and the Decepticons Megatron and Starscream.

In terms of characterization all the Autobots in this film are based on their Generation One incarnations. However, their alternate modes have undergone modern interpretations and overhauls for a realistic portrayal in the live-action film; in particular, all their modes, except for Optimus Prime's Peterbilt truck, are now owned by General Motors as part of a tie-in deal.

The character of Arcee was included in the script, but poor fan reaction caused her to be cut out and replaced with Ironhide.

As part of the promotion campaign for the film, early trailers showed as little of the Transformers as possible. Many parts of the robots were hidden from view due to quick cuts. However, later trailers and commercials showed more of the Transformers.

Barricade's side reads; "To punish and enslave" rather than "To protect and serve".

The Optimus Prime portrayed in the film is a Peterbilt 379. In "Duel" (1971), directed by this film's executive producer, Steven Speilberg, the antagonist is a Peterbilt 281. This marks two Speilberg films with Peterbilt trucks as main characters, 36 years apart.

Don Murphy originally intended to do a "G.I. Joe" (1985) film in 2003, but he instead negotiated with the Hasbro Company to make a Transformers film.

The Decepticon Frenzy was originally named Soundbyte. The writers had Soundwave in the original script, but decided to change the character to one of his cassettes from the original '84 series due to the size the robot has in the role. They plan to "do Soundwave correctly" in the sequel.

Interesting Trivia

2007-07-08T03:37:00.000-07:00

Complete list at Shabbir -

Antarctica
Antarcitca is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.

Armadillos
Armadillos can be housebroken.

Barbie
Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.

Coca-cola
Coca-Cola was originally green.

Cows
It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.

Dogs
Smartest dogs: 1)border collie; 2)poodle; 3)golden retriever
Dumbest: afghan

Father's Day
There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year.

Harvard
Portion of Harvard students who graduate with honors: 4/5.

Hiccups
Men get hiccups more often than woman.

Honey
Honey is the only food that does not spoil.

Hummingbirds
The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards.

Money
Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the US Treasury.

Parachutes
The parachute was invented by da Vinci in 1515.

Pigs
Pigs are the only animals besides humans that can get sunburn.

Polar Bears
Polar bears are left-handed.

Rolls-Royce
City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong

Harry Potter Tidbits

2007-07-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

Sources - Chiff, Gryffindor Gazette

Easter Eggs
This was a sweet tribute from J.K. Rowling to a young girl who wrote to her. Natalie McDonald was a real girl who was suffering from a terminal illness; she knew she wouldn’t live to see the end of the Harry Potter series, so she wrote to Rowling and asked how everything would turn out. Rowling, who has a young daughter herself, wrote back to Natalie and detailed the whole remaining storyline for her. Unfortunately, Natalie died a few days before the letter arrived. Hearing of her death, Rowling did an edit on “Goblet of Fire” to include Natalie as a character. On page 180 (of the hardcover edition), you can see where Natalie is participating in the Sorting Ceremony at the start of Harry’s school year. Significantly, she gets sorted into Harry’s house — Gryffindor.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Ministry of Magic Dial-Up. Look on page 125 at the bottom. The quote is: “No, no, I’m sure it’s fine,” said Mr. Weasley, holding the receiver above his head and peering at the dial. “let’s see…six…” he dialed the number, “two…four…and another four…and another two…” The number they dial is 62442. If you look on a standard telephone, there are letters underneath the numbers. What five-letter word would JK Rowling use for the Ministry? MAGIC!

Flying Car
The make and model of Mr. Weasley's flying car is Ford Anglia.

Headmasters of Hogwarts
Before Dumbledore, Armando Dippet was the headmaster.

Names
The last name of Nearly Headless Nick is De Mimsy-Porpington

Presidential Trivia

2007-07-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

Sources: Infoplease, Maps of World.

Age
The oldest elected president was Reagan (age 69); the youngest was Kennedy (age 43). Theodore Roosevelt, however, was the youngest man to become president—he was 42 when he succeeded McKinley, who had been assassinated. THE OLDEST LIVING former president was Gerald Ford, who was born on July 14, 1913, and died on Dec.27, 2006, at age 93. The second oldest was Ronald Reagan, who also lived to be 93 years.

Ancestry
The ancestry of all 43 presidents is limited to the following seven heritages, or some combination thereof: Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, or German.

Arlington National Cemetery
Kennedy and Taft are the only presidents buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Assassinations
Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy were assassinated in office.

Assassination attempts were made on the lives of Jackson, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Truman, Ford, and Reagan.

British Subjects
Eight Presidents were born British subjects: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Jackson, and W. Harrison.

Children
Six presidents had no children. Tyler—father of fifteen—had the most.

Coins
Lincoln, Jefferson, F. Roosevelt, Washington, Kennedy, and Eisenhower are portrayed on U.S. coins.

Colleges
Nine Presidents never attended college: Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland, and Truman.

Harvard counts six presidents as its alumni - J. Adams, J. Q. Adams, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Kennedy, and G. W. Bush (business school). Yale is a close second, with five presidents as alumni: Taft, Ford (law school), G.H.W. Bush, Clinton (law school), and G. W. Bush.

Currency
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Jackson, Grant, McKinley, Cleveland, Madison, and Wilson are portrayed on U.S. paper currency.

Death in Office
Eight Presidents died in office: W. Harrison (after having served only one month), Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, F. Roosevelt, and Kennedy.

First Lady
The term "First Lady" was first used in 1877 in reference to Lucy Ware Webb Hayes. Most First Ladies, including Jackie Kennedy, are said to have hated the label.

Height
The tallest president was Lincoln at 6'4"; at 5'4", Madison was the shortest.

July 4th
Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe all died on the 4th of July; Coolidge was born on that day.

Marriage and Divorce
James Buchanan was the only president never to marry.

Five presidents remarried after the death of their first wives—two of whom, Tyler and Wilson, remarried while in the White House.

Reagan was the only divorced president.

Nobel Peace Prize
Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906; Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Jimmy Carter was awarded in 2002, after the tenure of his presidency.

Non-Elected
For two years the nation was run by a president and a vice president who were not elected by the people. After Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973, President Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as vice president. Nixon resigned the following year, which left Ford as president, and Ford's appointed vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, as second in line.

Number of Presidents
George W. Bush is the 43rd president, but there actually have only been 42 presidents: Cleveland was elected for two nonconsecutive terms and is counted twice, as our 22nd and 24th president.

Popular Vote
Four Presidents won the popular vote but lost the presidency: Andrew Jackson won the popular vote but lost the election to John Quincy Adams (1824); Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote but lost the election to Rutherford B. Hayes (1876); Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the election to Benjamin Harrison (1888); Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election to George W. Bush (2000).

Relatives
George W. Bush (the 43rd president) is the son of George Bush (the 41st president)

John Quincy Adams (the 6th president) was the son of John Adams (the 2nd president).

Benjamin Harrison (the 23rd president) was the grandson of William Henry Harrison (the 9th president).

James Madison (the 4th president) and Zachary Taylor (the 12th president) were second cousins.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (the 32nd president) was a fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt (the 26th president). He was also distantly related to a total of 11 U.S. presidents, 5 by blood and 6 by marriage: Theodore Roosevelt, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Ulysses Grant, William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, James Madison, William Taft, Zachary Taylor, Martin Van Buren, and George Washington.

Religion
The most common religious affiliation among presidents has been Episcopalian, followed by Presbyterian.

Tenure, Longest
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented four terms of office?

Vice-Presidents
Fourteen Presidents served as vice presidents: J. Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson, Arthur, T. Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Nixon, L. Johnson, Ford, and George H.W. Bush.

Vice Presidents were originally the presidential candidates receiving the second-largest number of electoral votes. The Twelfth Amendment, passed in 1804, changed the system so that the electoral college voted separately for president and vice president. The presidential candidate, however, gradually gained power over the nominating convention to choose his own running mate.

Washington Outsiders
18 presidents who would be considered "Washington outsiders" (i.e., who never served in Congress) are: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Taylor, Grant, Arthur, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, Hoover, F. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and G. W. Bush.

White House
John Adams was the first President to live in the White House.

Words, Names, Phrases

2007-07-07T02:30:00.000-07:00

Partial list from Phill's Info -

Q is the only letter that does not appear in the names of any state of the Unites States.

Pierre, the capital of South Dakota, is the only state capital name that shares no letters with the name of its state.

Hoful is an unusual word meaning cautious.

A panagram is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet. For example: Pack my red box with five dozen quality jugs.

Monday is the only day of the week that has an anagram, dynamo.

If you have had a haircut, you can be called an acersecomic.

"Fickleheaded" and "fiddledeedee" are the longest words consisting only of letters in the first half of the alphabet.

The Caesar family has two months named after them. July was named for Julius Caesar and August for Augustus Caesar.

The idiom "pillar of salt" means to have a stroke, or to become paralyzed and dead.

The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters.

The average American knows about one-tenth of a million words.

"Adcomsubordcomphibspac" is the longest acronym. It is a Navy term standing for Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command.

The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-last is the penultimate, and the second-to-last is the antepenultimate.

"Dreamt" is the only common English word ending in -MT. Others are the obscure "adreamt," "redreamt," "undreamt," or "daydreamt."

"Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.

Of all the words in the English language, the word "set" has the most definitions.

The word robot was invented in 1920, in an early science fiction play.

The study of word origins is called etymology.

SWIMS is the longest word with 180-degree rotational symmetry (if you were to view it upside-down it would still be the same word and perfectly readable).

The word "hypocrite" comes from Greek, in which it means "actor".

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.

Hydroxyzine (a prescription drug) is the longest containing "x-y-z" in exact order. Next in line line is xyzzors, a scientific name for a nematode worm in biology.

All except 15 percent of international phone calls are conducted in English.

The three-syllable word "hideous," with the change of a single consonant, becomes a two-syllable word with no vowel sounds in common: "hideout."

The shortest "-ology" (study of) word is oology, the study of eggs.

Honorificabilitudinitatibus is the longest word consisting entirely of alternating vowels and consonants.

A new high-tech term is "degrade gracefully" which is the opposite of a computer crash.

"Tautonyms" are scientific names for which the genus and species are the same.

The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."

A palindrome is a sentence that if read backward says the same thing. The following may be the stupidest palindrome on earth: "Straw? No, too stupid a fad, I put soot on warts."

The longest word in the Oxford dictionary is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." It has 45 letters.

This thing is not a slash: /. It is called a solidus or an obolus.

The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."

In German, "eins" and "acht" are the only numbers with their letters in alphabetical order.

A camera was originally called "camera obscura."

The word "earthling" was first found in print in 1593.

The expletive, "Holy Toledo," refers to Toledo, Spain, which became an outstanding Christian cultural center in 1085.

The word "paper" came from the papyrus plant from which paper was made. Papyrus used to be a common plant in Egypt, but no longer grows there.

The only countries in the world with one syllable in their names are Chad, France, Greece, and Spain.

The term "throw one's hat in the ring" comes from boxing, where throwing a hat into the ring once signified a challenge. Today it nearly always signifies political candidacy.

The word "bible" came from the Greek word "biblion" which means book.

"Four" is the only number whose number of letters in the name equals the number.

The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum.

The word "pen" came from the Latin "penna" which means wing, or feather.

"Asthma" and "isthmi" are the only six-letter words that begin and end with a vowel and have no other vowels between.

To the ancient Romans, the left side of the human body was thought of as evil and the right side was good. The Latin word for left is "sinister."

Architectural Tidbits

2007-07-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

In 1925, the 1st motel -- the "Motel Inn" -- opened in San Luis Obispo, California.

Although construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg started in 1015, it was not until 1439 that the spire was completed.

During a severe windstorm or rainstorm the Empire State Building may sway several feet to either side.

England's Stonehenge is 1500 years older than Rome's Colosseum.

Jayne Mansfield decorated her "Pink Palace" by writing to 1,500 furniture and building suppliers and asking for free samples. She told the donors they could then brag that their goods were in her outlandish mansion. The pitch worked, and Jayne received over $150,000 worth of free merchandise.

On July 28th, 1945, a US Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York's Empire State Building, killing 14 people.

The official name of the St. Louis Gateway Arch is "The Jefferson National Expansion Monument." The Gateway Arch looks taller than it is wider, but it is exactly 630 feet by 630 feet.

The estimated weight of the Great Pyramid of Egypt is 6,648,000 tons.

The first footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater (now Mann's Chinese Theater), were made by Norma Talmadge in 1927. Legend has it that she accidentally stepped in wet concrete outside the building. Since then, over 180 stars have been immortalized, along with their hands and feet and even noses (Jimmy Durante).

The great Gothic cathedral of Milan was started in 1386, and wasn't completed until 1805.

The largest movie theater in the world, Radio City Music Hall in New York City, opened in December, 1932. It originally had 5,945 seats

The largest stained-glass window in the world is at Kennedy International Airport in New York City. It can be seen on the American Airlines terminal building and measures 300 feet long by 23 feet high

Names of Things You Never Knew had Names

2007-07-07T02:04:00.000-07:00

Sources Wattpad , Phill's Info -

AGLETS - The plastic things on the end of shoelaces.

ARMSAYE - The armhole in clothing.

CHANKING - Spat-out food, such as rinds or pits.

CHEEK - The side of a hammer.

COLUMELLA NASI - The bottom part of the nose between the nostrils.

DRAGÉES - Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.

EPITHALAMIUM - A poem written to celebrate a wedding.

FEAT - A dangling curl of hair.

FERRULE - The metal band on a pencil that holds the eraser in place.

HARP - The small metal hoop that supports a lampshade.

HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER - A 64th note. (A 32nd is a demisemiquaver, and a 16th note is a semiquaver.)

KEEPER - The loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.

KICK - The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity. Also called PUNT.

LIRIPIPE - The long tail on a graduate's academic hood.

LUNULA - The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.

MINIMUS - The little finger or toe.

MILLING - The ridges on the sides of coins. Also called REEDING.

NEF - An ornamental stand in the shape of a ship.

OBDORMITION - The numbness caused by pressure on a nerve; when a limb is “asleep.”

OCTOTHORPE - The symbol '#' on a telephone handset. Bell Labs' engineer Don Macpherson created the word in the 1960s by combining octo-, as in eight, with the name of one of his favorite athletes, 1912 Olympic decathlon champion Jim Thorpe.

OPHRYON - The space between the eyebrows on a line with the top of the eye sockets.

PEEN - The end of a hammer head opposite the striking face.

PHOSPHENES - The lights you see when you close your eyes hard. Technically the luminous impressions are due to the excitation of the retina caused by pressure on the eyeball.

PURLICUE - The space between the thumb and extended forefinger.

PUNT - The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity. Also called KICK.

REEDING - The ridges on the sides of coins. Also called MILLING.

RASCETA - Creases on the inside of the wrist.

ROWEL - The revolving star on the back of a cowboy's spurs.

SADDLE - The rounded part on the top of a matchbook.

SCROOP - The rustle of silk.

SNORKEL BOX - A mailbox with a protruding receiver to allow people to deposit mail without leaving their cars.

SPRAINTS - Otter dung.

TANG - The projecting prong on a tool or instrument.

WAMBLE - Stomach rumbling.

ZARF - A holder for a handleless coffee cup.

A Bit of Trivia

2007-07-07T02:01:00.000-07:00

Just a mishmash of trivia gathered from here and there, both for personal consumption and for public reference.