"After the disaster, Reagan said that the US would continue sending teachers into space. However, in 1990, NASA announced that they were discontinuing the program because they felt it was still too risky to send a civilian to space. Despite this, in 2002, NASA announced that Morgan, who had trained as McAuliffe's backup, would finally make it to space. After the Challenger disaster, Morgan had lobbied to reinstate the Teacher in Space program and had trained as a Mission Specialist. In August 2007, Morgan entered space aboard the STS-118, making her the first teacher to officially reach space."
"Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, was actually a direct descendant of John Hathorne, one of the judges who served in the Salem 1690s witch trials. Hathorne's rulings were responsible for the deaths of 24 women accused of being witches. Hathorne was known for asking the accused women who their "accomplices" were in order to increase the number of women being prosecuted. While many other judges later expressed their guilt and sorrow for their involvement, Hathorne supposedly never did. In 1851, Hawthorne published The House of the Seven Gables, a novel inspired by the Salem Witch Trials."
"Since Queen Elizabeth II's death last month, there has been tons of media coverage about royal lineages as her son Charles becomes king. Elizabeth's royal reign wasn't always a given. In 1936, King Edward VIII abdicated the throne after falling in love with Wallis Simpson, a married American woman. Although Simpson got divorced, the palace did not allow the pair to marry. Edward said that he refused to rule without Simpson by his side, and abdicated the throne on December 10, 1936. Prince Albert, Edward's brother and Elizabeth's father, was next in line, and was crowed king on December 11, 1936."
"So, what would the royal line of succession look like today had Edward remained king? While this is a hypothetical scenario, the Guardian determined that had Edward reigned as king until his 1972 death, then his oldest surviving brother, Henry, would have become king. Instead, Albert took the throne and served as king until his death in 1952, after which Elizabeth began her 70-year reign as queen."
"Before writing the legendary Goosebumps series, R.L. Stine was more into writing humor. In addition to writing joke books, Stine told NPR that he wrote the jokes on Bazooka gum wrappers. He started his pivot to horror after a lunch with his editor, who allegedly had gotten in a fight with one of her authors who wrote young adult horror. She told Stine that she believed he would be good at writing in that genre and even gave him the title for his first book: Blind Date. The book went on to become a bestseller and kicked off the Goosebumps series."
"Although hippos need to breathe air in order to survive, they typically sleep under water. While snoozing, hippos automatically close their nostrils. They come to the surface every few minutes to breathe. This all happens unconsciously, and it never wakes them up."
"Millvina Dean was the youngest survivor of the Titanic and ended up being the last living survivor of the tragedy before her death in 2009. Dean was just 9 weeks old when the Titanic sunk in 1912. Legend has it that Dean's mother and older brother got a lifeboat and waited for the infant to be lowered down to them in a canvas mailbag. Dean's father stayed behind and did not survive. When the story about Dean's survival broke, she became a pint-sized celebrity. After landing in America, Dean's mother decided she would return to England with her children."
"On their boat voyage home, people lined up to get the chance to hold her. "[She] was the pet of the liner during the voyage, and so keen was the rivalry between women to nurse this lovable mite of humanity that one of the officers decreed that first- and second-class passengers might hold her in turn for no more than 10 minutes," the Daily Mirror wrote. When Dean grew up, she worked as a cartographer during World War II. Later in her life, she made several public appearances related to the Titanic, but refused to see James Cameron's 1997 movie about the tragedy. Despite this, James Cameron and Titanic stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio all contributed to a fund to cover Dean's healthcare."
"Joshua Tree National Park is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. The park clocks in at 1,242.4 square miles, while Rhode Island is 1,214 square miles."
"While the lyrics of the 1972 hit song "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" certainly seem like they're inspired by history, Elliot Lurie, the guitarist and singer from the Looking Glass said that any parallels to history were a mere coincidence. The song is about a fictional barmaid, who, despite getting attention from many men, pines for her love, who left her because he claimed that his true love was the sea. Many believed that the Looking Glass were inspired by the story of Mary Ellis while writing this song. Ellis was a woman from New Brunswick, New Jersey who fell in love with a sea captain. When he left for sea, he promised her that he would marry her when he returned, but he never came back."
Ellis's story is apparently a New Brunswick legend, and her grave is even located right behind an AMC movie theater. To make things even more interesting, the members of the Looking Glass are from New Jersey. Case closed, right? Lurie told the Tennessean that he had never heard the story about Ellis. Instead, the song was inspired by his high school girlfriend, who was named Randy. When asked about Ellis's story, Lurie said that it did not play a role in writing his song. "If that story is true, it’s a remarkable coincidence," he said.
In 1981 a man named Roger Fischer had an idea for a volunteer to have ICBM launch codes put in their chest cavity. In the event of an emergency, the volunteer would carry a knife to be killed with. It was meant to force the personal killing of one man to start the impersonal killing of millions. (article)
Since suicide is an unforgivable sin for christians many people, especialy women in 18th century resorted to suicide by proxy. They would usualy murder a child, a crime punishable by death and ask for forgiveness right before the execution (article)
Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children. This myth is based on a single 1978 study; no subsequent study has shown a relationship (article)
Ray Lewis grew up using a deck of cards to do push ups and sit ups. If he drew a 7 he would do 7. An ace was 25 and a Joker 30. He would go through the whole deck. In the nfl, he would do it 3 times for each exercise. Also the reason he wore 52 was because of the number of cards in the deck (article)
The snow used in the Wizard of Oz was 100% pure asbestos (article)
That white stuff covering Judy Garland? Pure asbestos, of course—in chrysotile form, making the material a bit more dangerous than, say, in building material. (By the way, not exactly a nice gesture on the part of the Good Witch there, but odds are good she didn’t know about mesothelioma, because not a lot of people did.)
In defense of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and other users of asbestos snow in the 1930s, this stuff was common, and not only on film sets. It was not unheard of during this period to purchase Christmas supplies that included a form of fake snow made of asbestos.
The “Flynn Effect” which shows the average IQ is rising steadily each generation. IQ tests are continually made harder to keep the average at 100. Today’s children that take tests from past decades are averaging significantly higher than 100
The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century. When intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are initially standardized using a sample of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100 and their standard deviation is set to 15 or 16 IQ points. When IQ tests are revised, they are again standardized using a new sample of test-takers, usually born more recently than the first. Again, the average result is set to 100. However, when the new test subjects take the older tests, in almost every case their average scores are significantly above 100.
Test score increases have been continuous and approximately linear from the earliest years of testing to the present. For the Raven’s Progressive Matrices test, a study published in the year 2009 found that British children’s average scores rose by 14 IQ points from 1942 to 2008. Similar gains have been observed in many other countries in which IQ testing has long been widely used, including other Western European countries, Japan, and South Korea.
There are numerous proposed explanations of the Flynn effect, as well as some skepticism about its implications. Similar improvements have been reported for other cognitions such as semantic and episodic memory. Research suggests that there is an ongoing reversed Flynn effect, i.e. a decline in IQ scores, in Norway, Denmark, Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, France and German-speaking countries, a development which appears to have started in the 1990s.
Several computer algorithms have named Bobby Fischer the best chess player in history. Years after his retirement Bobby played a grandmaster at the height of his career. He said Bobby appeared bored and effortlessly beat him 17 times in a row. “He was too good. There was no use in playing him”
He was too good. There was no use in playing him. It wasn’t interesting. I was getting beaten, and it wasn’t clear to me why. It wasn’t like I made this mistake or that mistake. It was like I was being gradually outplayed, from the start. He wasn’t taking any time to think. The most depressing thing about it is that I wasn’t even getting out of the middle game to an endgame. I don’t ever remember an endgame. He honestly believes there is no one for him to play, no one worthy of him. I played him, and I can attest to that.
Most states require car manufacturers to sell through the dealers. Even if your order directly from the factory, the order must go through the dealer. This dealer distribution system adds around 30% to the price of the cars. (article)
Most states require car manufacturers to sell through dealers. Even if you order directly from the factory, the order must go through the car dealer. This expensive dealer distribution system adds about 30 percent to the cost of cars.
Until 1984, people bought home computers the way they buy cars, through retail dealers like Best Buy. Then, a 19-year-old named Michael Dell offered to sell computers directly to the public, by mail order. His recipe for success: build the computer exactly to the customer’s specifications, after the customer orders it; cut out the middleman and dramatically cut the price.
In 1985, Dell’s first year in operation, his company grossed more than $73 million. Now, many people buy their computers directly from the manufacturer, while others who prefer a different shopping experience buy from a local computer store. Computer prices have dropped dramatically, and Dell is a multibillion dollar company.
According to a study, strict parents can turn their kids into more effective liars because children who are afraid to tell the truth learn more deceptive behaviors to avoid getting in trouble. (article)
• Don't insult other visitors. Offensive comments will be deleted without warning.
• Comments are accepted in English only.
• No swearing words in comments, otherwise such comments will be censored.
• Your nickname and avatar are randomly selected. If you don't post comments for 7 days, they both are reset.
• To choose another avatar, click the ‘Random avatar’ link.
odd number pair of legs: so either 98 (49 x 2) or 102 (51 x 2) legs.