The word “spell” comes from the Proto-Germanic “spellan”, meaning “to tell”, which in turn gave rise to the Old English “spellian” and then “spell”. The first recorded instance of spell, being used to indicate writing or reciting the individual letters of a word, was in the early 15th century. It would later be given the meanings “incantation” (late 16th century) […]
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Along with Eric Clapton and Jack Nicholson, Ted Bundy was another famous person to have grown up thinking his mother was his sister. His father is unknown. His mother claims that it was a sailor she met named Jack Worthington, but his family suspected that was a cover up story and his real father is his grandfather, Samuel Cowell, who […]
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This Day In History: April 3, 1973 On this day in history, 1973, a Motorola employee, Martin Cooper, publicly demonstrated the world’s first handheld mobile phone by placing a call to Joel Engel, the head of research at AT&T’s Bell Labs using the phone. Engel and his team were Cooper’s chief rival and had also been attempting to make the […]
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Due to an injury in college, Mantle almost didn’t have the chance to play professional baseball. During a football game, Mantle was kicked hard in the shin, which, aside from being really painful, resulted in the leg becoming severally infected and doctors initially thought they were going to have to amputate it. Mickey Mantle Facts
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Today I found out Chuck Norris’ first name is actually Carlos. “Chuck” Norris was born Carlos Ray Norris all the way back in 1940 (yes, he’s 72 years old now and even recently had to have a hip replaced). Carlos Norris was named after Carlos Berry, a minister who was close to Norris’ father. He didn’t acquire the nickname “Chuck” […]
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Katy Perry’s real name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, but she created the stage name “Katy Perry” so as not to be confused with Kate Hudson. Before she did this, she did release an album under her real name, with the album called “Katy Hudson”. The album flopped. It wasn’t until she signed with Capitol Music Group in 2007 that she […]
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Today I found out there is a parody set of Nobel Prizes given out annually for trivial scientific achievements. These prizes (10 per year in a variety of categories) are called the IG Nobel Prizes (play on words: “Ignoble Prize”) and are given to those whose work “first makes people laugh, and then makes them think”. Essentially, they are given […]
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Mr. Rogers was a vegetarian. He didn’t smoke or drink or seem to have any major vices. He also stayed married to the same woman until his death; their marriage lasted 47 years. About the only even slightly “scandalous” thing Mr. Rogers seemed to do, which he revealed in an interview, was that he swam laps completely in the buff […]
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Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman, Nancy Cartwright, who also does the voices for Nelson, Ralph, Todd, and Flanders among others. Simpson Facts
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LEDs are much more efficient than “regular” incandescent light bulbs due to the fact that they give off almost no heat; so a much higher percentage of the electricity used goes towards making light, rather than in incandescent bulbs where a good percentage of it ends up being converted to heat. How an LED Works
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This Day In History: March 29, 1886 On this day in history, 1886, Dr. John Pemberton mixed the first batch of what would soon become Coca-Cola. Pemberton was a pharmacist and also a former Confederate soldier who was wounded in the Battle of Columbus. This subsequently led to him becoming addicted to morphine, as happened to many people at the […]
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Today I found out there once was a little person who played in Major League Baseball. This man was 26 year old, 3 feet, 7 inch tall Eddie Gaedel. Gaedel was signed by Bill Veeck to a Major League contract of $15,400 ($100 per game), which was the set minimum one could pay a little person performance act, per event. […]
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Despite their slightly unhealthy nature (150 calories each; with quite a dose of fat included), Hostess now churns out more than 1000 Twinkies per minute or about 500 million per year. The cakes are each baked for 12 minutes; injected with cream; flipped over so the round bottom is now the top; then packaged for shipping. Twinkie Facts
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Today I found out Eric Clapton was to meet up with Jimi Hendrix on the night Hendrix died. He was also with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the night he died. Clapton was good friends with Jimi Hendrix and was supposed to meet him on the night of Hendrix’ death at a Sly and the Family Stone concert. Clapton had bought […]
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TNT is poisonous and skin exposure will generally cause irritation and your skin will turn bright yellow or orange. Further, if you eat TNT, your pee will turn red and look like blood, though it is not. During WWI, munitions workers who handled TNT were called “canary girls” or “canaries” because their skin that was exposed to the TNT turned […]
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Light travels from the Sun to the Earth in about 8 minutes and 19 seconds. While it only takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds for the light from the surface of the sun to reach us, it actually takes about 10,000-170,000 years for a photon to travel from the core of the sun to the surface. Sources and Further Reading
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Today I found out the word “droid” is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. Shortly before Verizon launched their “DROID” line of mobile devices, Lucasfilm Ltd. swept in and filed a trademark on October 9, 2009 for the term “Droid”. Specifically claiming the term for: Wireless communications devices, including, mobile phones, cell phones, hand held devices and personal digital assistants, […]
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Today I found out what “E pluribus unum” means. E pluribus unum translates from Latin to English as follows: “e” meaning “from” or “out of”; “pluribus” being the ablative plural of the Latin for “more”; and “unum” meaning “one”. Thus, “E pluribus unum” simply means “from many, one” or “out of many, one”. This Latin phrase was once the United […]
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