In 1913, H. G. Wells wrote a book called Little Wars, which was the first book that provided rules for playing with toy soldiers. The full title of the book was ” Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys’ games and books”
Traveling salesman used to carry miniature versions of what they were selling. This included swimming pools, neon lights coffins, individual mausoleums, billiards tables, Persian rugs, toilets, and safety grating.
In the 70s, Winnebago developed a helicopter motor home called the Heli-camper. It slept 6, bathroom, full kitchen, and color TV. It costs between $185k-$300k or you could rent it for a week at $10k plus the cost of the pilot and fuel.
In the early days of television, stations would sign off at midnight.
During the era of black and white analog tvs after sign off, a test card would be displayed. The card was used to check different elements of the display like brightness/contrast, amplitude distortion of the receiver, vertical/horizontal resolution, high/low frequencies, etc.
Once tvs moved to digital, the channels would play a Star Spangled Banner video sometimes on a loop.
Cowboy boots are designed for safety. The high heel minimizes the risk of the foot sliding through the stirrup, which could be life-threatening if it were to happen and the rider were unseated. The tall shaft without laces prevents a cowboy from being dragged by allowing the rider to kick off the boot if it remains in the stirrup.
The first streaming music service started in 1897. People in New York could pick up their phones and listen to the Telharmonium, which was an electronic musical instrument being played by 2 people 24 hours a day. The Telharmonium was an instrument that electro-magnetically synthesized and distributed music over telephone wires. It was the first significant electronic musical instrument.
Norma Jean Mortensen, who later became Marilyn Monroe, was the first ever Artichoke Queen in Castroville. She wasn’t the first choice but she was available.
During WWII, Monroe worked in a munitions factory where the First Motion Picture Unit of the US Army Air Forces was sent to take morale boosting pictures of women workers. Monroe was a model for the project but none of her pictures were used. Although she began modeling for the photographer which led to signing a contract with the Blue Book Model Agency.
There are two common variations of the word tea around the world: tea and cha. And it based upon how tea was traded. Both versions have their roots in China. If the word is a variation tea, then it was spread by Dutch traders over water. If the word is a variation of cha, then it was spread by land. Other places that don’t have either version are places where tea grows naturally therefore no need for trading.
There is an art installation on the moon called “Fallen Astronaut.” In 1971, Apollo 15 left a piece of aluminum along with a plaque naming the 14 people, Soviet and American, who have died in the space program. Out of the 800+ man made items on the moon, it’s the only piece of art.
National Read Across America is celebrated on Dr. Seuss’ birthday which is today, March 2nd. Theodore Geisel was voted “Least Likely to Succeed” when he was at Dartmouth.
Facets on gemstones are done by hand. There are books that have patterns a person can follow.
A ventifact is a natural facet done by wind-blown sand and ice.
Today is Superman (the character’s) birthday. The creation of the concept of Superman was April 18, 1938. It’s argued that he is the first superhero. The creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, based him off of Moses and Hercules. Superman leaped before he could fly. And apparently he is wearing trunks not underwear.
There is a fungus that turns ants into zombies. Specific species of fungus attack specific species of ants.
The fungus spore attaches to and penetrates the exoskeleton. It proceeds to force the ant to go a humid microclimate beneficial to the fungus using a mind controlling chemical cocktail.
Once there the fungus forces the ant to sink its jaws in to the north side of a plant and wait to die.
The fungus continues to use the ant as food and 7 days later sends a fruiting body out of the through the base of the ant’s head where it can launch new spores.
Thursday is named after Thor, the Norse God of thunder. Old English uses God’s to name some days and astrology to name others. Sunday is “sun’s day”. Monday is “moon’s day”. Tuesday is “Tie’s day”, a on-handed god. Wednesday is named after the God, Woden. Friday is named after Frigg’s star, which is the Norse name for Venus. Saturday named after the god, Saturn.
Most languages with Latin origins name the day, Thursday, after Jupiter. All days of the week in most Latin languages are named after classical planets in Hellenistic astrology. Sunday is for the sun. Monday is for the moon. Tuesday is for Mars. Wednesday is for Mercury. Friday is Venus. And Saturday is Saturn.
The Church of Scientology owns the New Cult Awareness Network.
In the 70s, young adults were choosing to join these new religious organizations (cults) in response to the Vietnam War. Their parents thought the kids were being brainwashed due the parents anti-communist upbringing.
Ted Patrick (the father of deprogramming) was the premier deprogrammer even though he had zero experience or knowledge. He created the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) in 1978.
Parents would hire Patrick to kidnap their adult child and make them stop being in a cult. His tactics were abuse and torture.
Patrick went to court multiple times for kidnapping and assault, but judges and juries would not convict him because the kids were “brainwashed” and in the best interests of the “kids”.
In 1995, Jason Scott won civil trials against CAN ($3 million) and Ross ($1 million) , his deprogrammer.
Scott’s lawyer, Moxon, was the lead lawyer for the Church of Scientology. Moxon convinced Scott to go through the trial with a promise of a million dollars.
Moxon convinced Scott to sell his CAN judgement ($1.875 million) to another Scientology member for $25,000. The judgement forced CAN to go bankrupt where members of Scientology proceeded to purchase the debts. And renamed the Cult Awareness Network as the New Cult Awareness Network.
Scott fired Moxon. Scott reconciled with his mom and Ross, his deprogrammer. And Scott settled with Ross for $5,000 and 200 hours of Ross’ services which Scott used on his own daughter.
It costs $1 to search for 1000 images in Amazon’s Rekognition, their facial recognition software. Amazon was heavily marketing the product to law enforcement and it is currently unknown how many police departments are using it.
California and two other states have banned facial recognition on police body cams. Other cities (San Francisco, Oakland, Somerville MA) are moving further and doing an outright ban on all use of facial recognition in police departments.
Farmed shrimp uses more energy than livestock production. They also emit similar amounts of greenhouse gases.
In a 1951 book called Patterns of Sexual Behavior by Ford and Beach, it states that breasts are only sexually important in 13 of 191 cultures. 13 cultures also reported breast stimulation during sex, only 3 of those cultures overlap with the sexually important cultures. Large breasts were preferred but areola size and color were highly idiosyncratic.
Why did breasts get bigger from primates to humans? One theory is to prove to males that the woman has enough nutrition to be pregnant. The other theory is moving the “ready for sex” indicator from behind to the front due to bipedal walking.
Its known that oxytocin is released during breastfeeding assumed to be for bonding with a baby. Researchers think men through evolution are hijacking this neural circuit to make themselves more attractive. Recent studies have proven that nipple stimulation activates the same part of the brain as clitoral and vagina stimulation.
Why did this evolutionary change happen? Two theories are that humans are monogamous, unlike 97% of other mammals. And humans have sex face to face giving greater access to the breasts.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (born 1598) was the leading Italian sculptor and architect of his generation. He was a child prodigy and received his first papal commission at the age of 8.
The Rape of Proserpina was done when he was 23 and commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese.
Reading out loud was a social activity for many centuries and only recently did it become a silent, solo activity.
There is debate as to why silent reading started. One is because the layout of text changed to include spaces and punctuation. Others say it was the printing press that encouraged silent reading. There is also a debate as to when it started, somewhere between 1500-1800.
Reading out loud did not stop with silent reading due to the social nature of the task. People would take turns sharing passages while doing every day tasks. It was also encouraged to ensure young people were not corrupted by writers like Shakespeare.
Starting in 1865, Cuban cigar factory workers hire a lector to read books to them while they work and it still continues today. The leftist bent of the books caused a strike in 1931. Montecristo cigars company is named after the Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, which was read in the factory, and the logo depicts swords which is in reference to the book.
Larry Tesler, who invented cut, copy and paste, died on Monday. He was working for Xerox PARC in the 70s, on a word processing program called Gypsy where he developed the techniques of copy and paste with Tim Mott. He moved on to Apple in the 80s where he spent almost two decades developing accessible user interface designs. He also worked for Amazon and Yahoo.
Researchers at the University of Manchester determined the carbon footprint of 40 commercial and home made sandwiches.
Commercial sandwiches ranged from 731 g of CO2 for an egg and cress sandwich to 1441 g CO2 for a bacon, sausage and egg sandwich. 1441 g of CO2 is the equivalent of the emissions of driving a car 12 miles.
Home made ham and cheese sandwiches ranged from 399 to 843.
During the 80s in Sausalito CA, some wealthy people decided to buy houseboats on the bay. And they were in for a surprise when in April a loud humming sound would start after sunset and continue all night. The sound has been described as a chorus of Kazoos, B-29 airplanes flying in formation, a didgeridoo, a drone of bees and the chanting of monks.
They started a noise committee to determine where the sound is coming from. They eventually discovered that it was a toad fish in the water during mating season.
PS The fish has bioluminescent properties.
Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a plaque celebrating the Government Communications Headquarter’s (GCHQ) 100th birthday. It was placed at the original headquarters at Watergate House when it was known as Government Code & Cypher School (GC&CS). Hidden in the plaque are two codes. After the ceremony, the Queen posted coded tweets as did GCHQ.
PS At the Watergate House, people used to send each other dessert like chocolate eclairs through the pneumatic tube system.
Between the 1840s and the 1940s, people would exchange insulting Valentines Day cards called Vinegar Valentines.
In Hinduism, Lord Indra is known as the God with a thousand eyes but originally it was a thousand vaginas.
Lord Indra had a obsession with Ahalya, who was married to Sage Gautam. Indra tricked Gautam into leaving for the day and seduced/raped (it’s unclear) Ahalya. Gautam found out and cursed Indra with a thousand vaginas. (Gautam cursed Ahalya by making her invisible.) Indra was ashamed and asked Lord Brahma to help. Brahma convinced Gautam to turn the vaginas into eyes.
During WWII, the Japanese developed the AA Mine Discharger anti-aircraft weapon. It was a standard infantry mortar but instead of bombs, it was loaded with 7 mines with parachutes.
When fired the shell was thrown 3000 to 4000 feet in the air. The shell would eject the mines at the top of the arc. Then the mines would float down with their parachutes. The mines would detonate on contact or after a fixed period of time.
The issue with it was that planes could avoid the mines. Also, the winds would change sometimes sending the mines back to the location of where they originated.
The 27th president of the United States, William Taft, had pet cows while in the White House. The first one was Mooly Wooly, who provided milk for a year and a half before she died of too many oats. (She was kept with the horses.)
The second cow was Pauline Wayne. Miss Wayne grazed freely on the White House lawn during Taft’s presidency. Paula became popular and was invited to the International Dairy man’s Exposition of 1911. On her way back, her train car was sent to the slaughter house accidentally. Attendants finally convinced the stock yard after two days that it was the President’s cow. She was saved from slaughter.
The Washington Post had an obsession with Pauline Wayne and wrote 20 articles about her between 1910 and 1912. Including one where the cow denied that she was milked without her consent.
“I wasn’t milked on the White House lawn by a strange man,” declared Miss Wayne, tearfully, when she finally consented to talk in little moos and grunts between sobs., “because, in the first place I haven’t been on the White House lawn in more than a year, but have been enjoying life o. The pasture near the army quartermaster ‘s stables. Moreover, I’m a very able, athletic young lady and quite prepared to protect myself. There is absolutely not a word of truth in it, and, if you don’t believe me, ask the White House policeman. ”
-Washington Post, August 31, 1912
In the 40s, a group of researchers tried to create a quantitative pain scale called the dol (dolor is the Latin word for pain). The dol pain scale had a maximum of 10.5.One study burned medical students on their foreheads leaving 2nd degree burns to try to discern a scale as well as arithmetic conclusions like 8 dols of pain equaled four successive 2 dol experiences.The researchers also burned women in labor on their hand at the assumed pain level of her next contraction to be able to measure contractions in dols. Hardy, the researcher quantified that the first stage of labor is 2 dols, crowning is 10.5 dols, and 2 hours after pain is between 0 and 3 dols.
The Journal of Experimental Biology published an article that suggested fighting between males may have been a part of humans evolutionary history, which is why males punch with 162% more power than females.Past work has already proven that the proportions of a male’s hand is for manual dexterity as well as protecting the hand when formed into a fist. It’s already known that males have greater upper body strength than females.The research showed a great difference in punching power but not in overhead pulling strength between men and women of similar fitness levels showing that upper body strength is for punching not throwing weapons.
The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 in Boston killed 21 people and injured 150 more. A storage tank filled with 2,300,000 gallons of Molasses burst flooding the street at 35 mph. (A 2016 Harvard study concluded that the speed given in the original articles were credible.)
“Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage …. Here and there struggled a form—whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was …. Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings—men and women—suffered likewise.” – Boston Post
The cause is unknown but potentially due to a poorly constructed tank, warmer weather increasing the pressure inside, and/or a fatigue crack near a manhole cover.
Cleanup took weeks in the immediate area. They used salt water and sand to clean up the harbor, which was brown for 6 months. But the molasses had been tracked everywhere in the Greater Boston area and the suburbs and took months to clean up.
The smell remained for decades and some say they can still smell the molasses on hot, summer days.
137 million chickens are killed each day worldwide.
There are pterodactyls in the Citizen Kane film of 1941. Due to a limited budget, Orson Welles reused background footage from other movies including 1933’s The Son of Kong. A jungle scene with pterodactyls in the background in the Kong movie was reused for a swampy picnic scene in Citizen Kane.
The US government is responsible for spinach giving Popeye his strength. During the Great Depression, the government wanted people to eat spinach as a meat substitute due to high iron content. They hired Popeye to make it happen. American spinach sales increased by 33% and children rated it as their third favorite food after ice cream and turkey.
Other cultures and languages don’t say heads or tails in a coin toss. In most Spanish languages, they say “cara o cruz”, head or cross. Mexico says eagle or sun. Costa Rica is shield or crown. Lion or line is Persian. Japanese is front or back, but really prefer rock, paper, scissors. Crown or shackle in Seweden and Finland. Head or coin in Dutch. Israel says tree or Palestine.
Head, cross, crown, number, reverse, eagle are all common words used.
Australia throws two pennies into the air and call it Two-up.
The mosquito is the deadliest animal, killing 725,000 people per year. The human is the second deadliest animal, killing 475,000 people per year. Then the snake at 50,000.
Ghost planes occur when the crew and passengers are incapacitated (often cabin depressurization and often dead) midflight. The plane continues on autopilot and crashes when it runs out of fuel.
If the grounds crews can’t get hold of the plane, fighter jets are sent up to assess the situation. They look through the windows to see if there is life. Ice inside the windshield also indicates a loss of pressure. Then they sill have to let it crash.
The Easter Island heads have bodies hidden beneath the ground.
In 1862 during the Civil War at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, soldier’s wounds would glow blue. Those with more blue were likely to survive and it was called Angels Glow.
In 2001, a couple of kids and their microbiologist mom went on a mission to find out why. The soil contained Photorhadbus luminescens, a bioluminescent bacteria. They further found this bacteria lives in nematodes in the soil. The nematode burrows inside insect larvae then throws up this bacteria which releases chemicals that kill the host larvae and all the other bacteria.
Turtles eat jellyfish.
The paragraph mark icon is called a Pilcrow and has been around a shockingly long time. In the 1100s, the c was standard. It was eventually stylized with a couple of lines.
Ancient Greeks used to put a horizontal line in the left margin to indicate a new paragraph, then they used the Greek letter gamma, then they just made the first letter in a paragraph extra large.
Finally, it moved to a k for kaput or head eventually transitiong to c for capitulum or little head.
Tony Lommi lost the tips of two of his fingers in a metal factory accident. To be able to continue playing the guitar, he fashioned thimble-like prosthesis for his fingers. This made it difficult to feel and bend the strings. So he put banjo strings on his guitar and eventually slackened the strings making heavier sounds. This sound is a main element of Black Sabbath, which is credited with being pioneers of heavy metal music.
Chicken feed was the original name for candy corn.
In retirement, George Washington became one of the largest producers of whiskey.
In Greece, people’s shadows are unknowingly sacrificed for the foundation of a building. Shadows are meant to bring stability and strength to a building. If your shadow is used it is thought you will die within a year.
To sacrifice a shadow, the builders would convince a person to stand in a spot, while someone else laid down the cornerstone piece on top of the shadow.
There were also shadow traders that would measure a person’s shadow with a string. Then sell the string to the builder, who would bury it under the foundation.
Stephen King has a program called Dollar Baby where he gives students and aspiring filmmakers permission to use one of his short stories in a film for a dollar.
Vagina, in Latin, means sword holder.
Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web, originally wanted to name it The Information Mine, TIM for short. Other suggested names were Mine of Information (MOI) and The Mesh.
The difference between the internet and the web is that the internet is the infrastructure of networks (hardware) whereas the web is the way of accessing information over the internet (software). So the web is part of the internet.
Poisonous refers to animals that unload toxins when eaten whereas venomous refers to animals that inject their toxin by biting or stinging. So most snakes and spiders are venomous, while amphibians are generally poisonous.
Thomas Jefferson reordered the Bible by cutting up several copies and pasting it back together in chronological order. He left out the miracles, supernatural events, and the resurrection. It was called The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.