Black Friday: History, Myths, and Facts

Embed This Infographic: Source: Today I Found Out How the Black Friday Tradition Got Started While it wasn’t called “Black Friday” until the 1960s, and then not popularly called such until the last two decades, retailers have been trying to push people to shop the Friday after Thanksgiving since the late 19th /early 20th century.  Around this time, it was […]

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How the Classic “Arrrrrr” Noise Worked Its Way Into Movie Pirate Speak

The classic “arrrrr” noise that accompanies pirate-speak in movies is thought to have its origins in the 1950s version of Treasure Island.  Actor Robert Newton played a particularly memorable pirate character, Silver. He later popularly reprised the role in sequels and on TV.  His accent on the films featured a very strong rolling of the R’s, which is thought to […]

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Mouse Urine Glows Under Florescent Light and Other Interesting Mouse Facts

Mouse urine glows under florescent light.  Further, despite their propensity to spread disease and the like, surprisingly, mice are very clean animals.  They clean themselves regularly, not unlike cats, and they organize their homes with specific areas for storing food, going to the bathroom, sleeping, etc. Another interesting mouse factoid is that the incisors in a mouse’s mouth never stop […]

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November 18th: The U.S. and Canadian Railroads Institute a Five Standard Time Zone System that Eventually Becomes the Official Standard Time System

This Day In History: November 18, 1883 The U.S. and Canadian railroads instituted a five standard continental time zone system on November 18, 1883, “The Day of Two Noons”, marking the beginning of the end for thousands of local times that were used by cities across North America at that point. Just one year later, 85% of all cities in […]

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November 17: Earth’s First Successfull Landing of a Remote Controlled Roving Robot on Another Astronomical Object

This Day In History: November 17, 1970 The Soviet Union successfully landed a remote controlled roving robot on the moon, making it the first roving robot from Earth to land on another astronomical object.  The robot was the Lunokhod 1, designed by Alexander Kemurdjian.  It was  launched during the Soviet Luna program, which ran from 1959-1976.  More specifically, the Lunokhod […]

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November 16th: LSD is First Synthesized by Dr. Albert Hofmann

This Day In History: November 16th LSD, more technically known as Lysergic acid diethylamide was first synthesized on November 16th, 1938 by Swiss scientist Dr. Albert Hofmann.  Dr. Hofmann was working at the Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland researching ergot alkaloid derivatives for use in pharmaceuticals.  Ergot alkaloid’s are a type of ergoline alkaloid which is found in a certain type […]

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November 15th: The First of the Modern Olympic Games are Played in Athens, Greece

This Day In History: November 15, 1859 The first of the modern Olympic games were played in Athens, Greece on November 15, 1859.  These were the first Greek Olympics in around 1450-ish years, with the original Olympic games beginning around 776 BC and ending around 393-426 AD.  The revival of the Olympics was primarily thanks to Evangelos Zappas and Panagiotis […]

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In Pinky and the Brain, Brain’s Name is an Acronym for “Biological Recombinant Algorithmic Intelligence Nexus”

##EMBED## In the cartoon “Pinky and the Brain”, Brain’s name is an acronym for “Biological Recombinant Algorithmic Intelligence Nexus”.  Pinky’s name is probably a reference to the fact that a “pinky” is another name for a baby mouse that has not yet grown fur.  However, in the cartoon itself, the name was given to Pinky when Brain was referring to […]

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