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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This Day In History: March 21, 1989 On this day in history, 1989, Sports Illustrated published an article alleging that Cincinnati Reds Coach and former star baseball player Pete Rose bet on Major League Baseball games. Pete Rose started managing in 1984, while he was still a player, and continued on managing until 1989, with the latter three years of […]
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The myth that baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday has been widely spread since 1907 and even today is sometimes stated by such people as former Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig. For instance, in 2010 he stated: “As a student of history, I know there is a great debate whether Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright really founded the game […]
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This Day In History: March 20, 1985 On this day in history, 1985, paraplegic Rick Hansen sets out to circumnavigate the land masses of the world in a wheelchair. Hansen was inspired by Terry Fox, the Canadian athlete who lost his leg due to bone cancer and subsequently set out on the “Marathon of Hope” in 1980, running across Canada to […]
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This Day In History: March 16, 1926 On this day in history, 1926, Robert Goddard performed the first flight test of a liquid-fuel rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. This gasoline and liquid oxygen fueled rocket burned for about 20 seconds before lifting off from the ground and subsequently rising to a height of 41 feet, reaching a top speed of 60 mph. […]
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Today I found out all snakes can swim. If you’re one of those people who are afraid to swim in lakes, rivers, and the like, here’s another reason for you to stay out of the water: all snakes can swim. Thus, all snakes are technically “water snakes”, even though only some are given that designation, usually due to their propensity […]
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This Day In History: March 13, 1962 On this day in history, 1962, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Lyman Lemnitzer, submitted a proposal to the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, developed by the Joint Chiefs and the Department of Defense, outlining plans to commit various acts of terrorism on U.S. soil and then to frame the […]
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Today I found out apple seeds contain cyanide. The seeds of apples, also known as “pips”, contain a sugar/cyanide compound called “amygdalin”, which turns into hydrogen cyanide when it is metabolized in your body. Hydrogen cyanide was one of the key ingredients to Zyklon B, the trade name of the pesticide used by the Nazis in their gas chambers. Other […]
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