ZZ Top Played the Square Dance Band in Back to the Future III
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn More Interesting ZZ Top Facts In Back to the Future III, ZZ Top played the Square Dance Band.
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LEGO Stole Their Bricks From Kiddicraft’s Patented Self Locking Building Bricks
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn More Interesting Lego Facts In the late 1940s, a company called Kiddicraft began manufacturing “Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Bricks”, which were patented by Hilary Harry Fisher Page. Kirk Kristiansen, the founder of LEGO, came across these bricks in a demo he was shown of an injection molding machine. He then copied these bricks […]
Read morePablo Picasso’s Full Name Is 103 Characters Long
##EMBED## Text Version: Pablo Picasso’s full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso Click Here for the source and to learn more about Picasso
Read moreWhat a White Dwarf Is
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Why the Hottest Part of the Summer is Called the “Dog Days” Text Version A white dwarf is a former star that is nearing the end of its life-cycle, with no further nuclear fusion going on at its core. Once most stars have used up the fuel at their core, they go […]
Read more“Wiki” is Pronounced “We-key” not “Wick-ee”
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Where the Word “Wiki” Comes From Text Version The proper pronunciation of “wiki” is actually “we-key” and is often mispronounced as “wick-ee”.
Read moreWhy the Same Side of the Moon Always Faces the Earth
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Why the Moon Looks Bigger on the Horizon Text Version The Moon always has the same side pointing towards the Earth due to its rotation speed matching its orbit around the Earth exactly. This isn’t by chance and it wasn’t always this way. When the Moon first formed, its rotation speed was […]
Read moreWhere “Upper Case” and “Lower Case” Came From
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn What the Dot Over the Lower Case Letter “i” is Called Text Version The terms “upper case” and “lower case” actually come to us quite recently, from the early days of the printing press. At this time, the letter blocks themselves were stored in specially organized boxes called cases. By convention, the […]
Read moreWhat Harry Houdini’s Real Name Was
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn More Interesting Harry Houdini Facts Text Version Harry Houdini’s real name was actually Erik Weisz. When his family immigrated to America, they changed the spelling to Ehrich Weiss, which eventually resulted in people calling him “Ehrie” and later “Harry”. He picked “Houdini” as his professional name in homage to the French magician […]
Read more“Hangover” Originally Meant “Unfinished Business”
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn What Causes a Hangover Text Version “Hangover” was a common term in the 19th century meaning “unfinished business”. Around the early 20th century, the common meaning shifted slightly to mean as it does today.
Read moreWhat Candy Corn is Made Of
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Where the Word “Witch” Comes From Text Version Candy corn is made from sugar, corn syrup, glaze, egg whites, honey glycerin, mineral oil, wax, and salt, with coloring added. Each piece of candy corn contains about 6 calories. About 20 million pounds of candy corn is sold annually, the vast majority of […]
Read moreWhere the Word “Cookie” Comes From
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Why Crackers Have Holes Text Version The word “cookie” comes from the Dutch “koekjes” which came from the Dutch “koek”, meaning “cake”; cookie was introduced to English in the very early 18th century. It is thought this term caught on more in the United States due to the strong Dutch heritage in […]
Read moreWhere the Word “Biscuit” Comes From
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Why Crackers Have Holes Text Version The term “biscuit”, derives from the Latin “bis coctus”, meaning “twice baked”, which is essentially what many types of biscuits are. The term first showed up in English around the 14th century. In America, the term biscuit now pretty much only means a small, quick rising, […]
Read moreWhere the Phrase “Polly Wants a Cracker” Came From
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Why Crackers Have Holes Text Version Nabisco originally released the saltine cracker in 1876. Their slogan for this new type of cracker was “Polly wants a cracker?”, which is where that saying came from. Saltine crackers were mildly successful after being released, but received a huge boost in popularity thanks to the […]
Read moreWhy Scantron Forms Traditionally Are Printed in Blue Ink
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Why You Used to Have to Use #2 Pencils With Scantron Forms Text Version Classically, scantron forms used blue ink for the lines and outlines to the circles because the original scantron systems couldn’t pick up the light in the blue spectrum. Modern systems are simply designed to ignore whatever color the […]
Read moreCarl Sagan Once Was Involved in a Plan to Nuke the Moon
##EMBED## Click Here for Source and to Learn More About the United States’ Plan to Nuke the Moon Text Version A young Carl Sagan was one of the scientists hired in the U.S.’s Cold War plan to drop a nuclear bomb on the moon. Specifically, Sagan was hired to study how exactly the mushroom cloud would expand on the moon, […]
Read moreWhere the Term “Cup of Joe” Comes From
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn Other Interesting Coffee Facts Text Version The term “cup of Joe” stems from American soldiers in World War II, “G.I. Joes” were known to consume a large amount of coffee, as Maxwell Instant Coffee was included in their rations.
Read moreWhat Makes Sourdough Bread Sour
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn What the Color of Bread Twist Ties Indicates Text Version The sour taste of sourdough bread comes from lactobacillus, which lives in symbiosis with yeast, feeding on byproducts of the yeast fermentation. The sour taste itself comes from the lactic acid produced by the lactobacillus. This also helps the bread last longer […]
Read moreThe Heroic Death of Pliny the Elder
##EMBED## Click Here to for Sources and to Learn What the Color of the Twist Tie on Bread Packaging Indicates Text Version Pliny the Elder, the famed author, naturalist, philosopher, and commander, died trying to rescue people stranded on the shores after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. While attempting to sail his ship near the […]
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