May 2013
5 tags
4 tags
Boomerang
A boomerang cannot return to the thrower after hitting anything.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
6 tags
Envelopes
A contrivance as simple as the envelope did not come into use until 1839. Up until then, people usually folded their letters both ways, sealed them with wax, and wrote the address on the back.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
5 tags
Plants & Oceans
The plant life of the oceans makes up about 85 percent of all the greenery on the planet.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
6 tags
Milia
The Romans’ milia (“thousands”) as come down to us as “mile.” A milia was the distance covered by 1,000 paces of a marching legionnaire.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
5 tags
Paper & Eunuchs
Paper was invented in China about 105 A.D., by Ts’ai Lun, a eunuch - the only eunuch of importance in the history of technology.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
7 tags
6 tags
Fresh Water Ocean
The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic that, more than a hundred miles at sea, off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean and drink it.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
6 tags
Pigeons & Mirrors
The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. In order for her ovaries to function, she must be able to see another pigeon. If no other pigeon is available, her own reflection in a mirror will suffice.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
7 tags
Temperance Beverages
The founding fathers of the United States encouraged the making and drinking of beer and ale as temperance beverages, preferable to hard liquor. To aid the establishment and growth of breweries in America, James Madison urged the first Congress to place a heavy tax on imported beer.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
6 tags
Frozen Nile
The Nile has frozen over at least twice, in 829 A.D. and in 1010.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
10 tags
Wage Motive
Henry Ford shocked his fellow capitalists by more than doubling the daily wage of most of his workers in 1914, eleven years after he established the first automobile factory. He knew what he was doing. The buying power of his workers was increased, and their raised consumption stimulated buying elsewhere. Ford called it the “wage motive.”
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
7 tags
February 29th
February originally had twenty-nine days every year. In 8 B.C., the Roman Emperor Augustus renamed the thirty-day month of Sextilis, giving it the name of August to honor himself. He took a day from February so that his month would have as many days as July, which had been named for Julius Caesar.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
7 tags
Egyptian Grave Robbers
The Egyptians were crippling their own economy when they buried quantities of gold and silver with their dead leaders for, presumably, their leaders’ use in afterlife. Grave robbers, whatever their motives, served to keep the wheels of Egyptian society turning by restoring the gold and silver to circulation.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
6 tags
Shattered Emeralds
Spanish soldiers in Francisco Pizarro’s expedition to Peru, in 1532, found emeralds as large as pigeon eggs. In the mistaken belief that true emeralds could not be broken, they pounded their finds with hammers and decided, when the stones shattered, that all they had found was colored glass.
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, 1979.
5 tags
5 tags
Wallop
In cookery, to boil violently with a noisy bubbling.
Penn Family Recipes (1702), edited by Evelyn Benson, 1966.
4 tags
Tiffany
A kind of thin transparent silk; also a transparent gauze muslin, cobweb lawn. A fanciful word derived from Epiphany, perhaps referring to the miracle of its delicacy when invented about 1600.
Penn Family Recipes (1702), edited by Evelyn Benson, 1966.
5 tags
Rase of Ginger
Apparently the same as a race of ginger, from racine, meaning root. Here it means a piece of ginger root thinly shredded.
Penn Family Recipes (1702), edited by Evelyn Benson, 1966.
5 tags
Hippocras
The wine takes its name from the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, indirectly, because it is filtered through a strainer of cotton, linen or flannel known as Hippocrates sleeve. Hippocras became a cordial drink made of wine flavored with spices, formerly much in vogue.
Penn Family Recipes (1702), edited by Evelyn Benson, 1966.
4 tags
Coffin
In cookery the crust of a pie, a pie dish or mould. Found as early as 1420.
Penn Family Recipes (1702), edited by Evelyn Benson, 1966.
4 tags
Colewart
A general name for any plant of the cabbage kind.
Penn Family Recipes (1702), edited by Evelyn Benson, 1966.
4 tags
8 tags
Abominable Snowman
A really thorough study of the philological problem of the snowman’s many names was published in 1955 by an Indian scholar Sri Swami Pranavananda in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. He went on to say that the name metoh kangmi (from metoh or meteh, “abominable,” kang, “snow” and mi, “man”) was an unjustifiable conjunction of different...
6 tags
Komodo Dragon
When the Komodo dragon was better known it was found that it was only rarely dangerous to man. It is now to be seen in several zoos, where you only have to watch at feeding time to witness its extraordinary gluttony, which may perhaps explain why, although Komodo means “rat island,” there is not a single rat there now.
On the Track of Unknown Animals by Bernard Heuvelmans, 1959.
7 tags
Venomous Lizards
Lizards are never venomous. This may be true as a rule, but there are two exceptions: the Gila monster of Texas and Arizona and the Mexican escorpion.
On the Track of Unknown Animals by Bernard Heuvelmans, 1959.
5 tags
12 tags
Tussie Mussies
Our great-grandmothers carried tussie mussies when they had to sit in long religious meetings. The crushed scent helped when they felt faint.
Take the tiny sweetheart rose for the centre and surround it with heliotrope, which in the language of flowers is ‘eternal love and devotion.’
Marjoram comes next, for it means ‘joy and happiness’.
Violets, third, are the symbol...
9 tags
Tea & Waltzing Matilda
Australians drink tea so strong that it tans the throat. The teapot is kept simmering on the fire all day. Australia’s hobo, the swagman, carries a billy can in which he makes his tea. He carries it on his hip and calls it ‘Matilda’. As the swagman walks, the Matilda seems to waltz around on his hip. ‘Waltzing Matilda’ has become a favourite Australian folk song.
...
7 tags
Crocus & Crocodiles
The crocus is apparently responsible for the crocodile’s name. It is said that the crocodile was named for the lovely purple crocus because the only sincere tears he ever shed were forced from him by the blissful fragrance of the saffron crocus.
Herbs, Flavours & Spices by Elizabeth Hayes, 1961.
7 tags
Dandelion Wine
1 gallon dandelion blossoms
1 gallon boiling water
3 lemons
1 orange
3 T. sugar
3 T. dry yeast
Put blossoms in the boiling water and let stand 24 hours. Cut lemons and oranges in thin slices and add to blossom liquid. Add sugar and yeast, then let stand ten days. Strain and put in jugs, but not airtight.
Herbs, Flavours & Spices by Elizabeth Hayes, 1961.
11 tags
Drink of the Gods
Hot chocolate a la Mexicano is made from the black buttery squares created just for the drink. It is served to you in a carved gourd bowl, dark and rich but not too sweet. Once, for the Aztec and Mayan rulers, it was served in solid gold chalices with tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl spoons.
Herbs, Flavours & Spices by Elizabeth Hayes, 1961.
7 tags
Coffee Icing
1 box confectioners’ sugar
1/8 stick butter
1/2 cup strong black coffee
Put sugar in a large mixing bowl. Melt butter and gradually add coffee and melted butter alternately until mixture is the right spreading consistency. Ice tops and sides of cake and decorate with English or black walnut halves.
Herbs, Flavours & Spices by Elizabeth Hayes, 1961.
8 tags
Sesame & Death
The historical background of sesame is intriguing. According to some, sesame was created by Yama, God of Death, who, after a long penitence, gave his blessing to its various uses, which included funerals and expiatory ceremonies in which it was used as a purifier and symbol of immortality.
Herbs, Flavours & Spices by Elizabeth Hayes, 1961.
4 tags
Oregano
Oregano is the Spanish name for marjoram - though the flavour is stronger and has a pleasantly bitter undertone.
Herbs, Flavours & Spices by Elizabeth Hayes, 1961.
7 tags
Crown of Mint
With its great importance since the earliest days of recorded history, it is natural that ancient scholars should have described mint. Many unusual claims were made for it. Pliny said that mint stimulates the brain and therefore students should wear a crown of mint while studying.
Herbs, Flavours & Spices by Elizabeth Hayes, 1961.
5 tags
Oswego Tea
A delicious tea can be made from the pungent tender leaves of bergamot; it was used on a large scale for tea when early colonists boycotted English importers. The colonists had learned of this tea from the Oswego Indians and named it Oswego tea after this tribe.
Herbs, Flavours & Spices by Elizabeth Hayes, 1961.
March 2013
5 tags
6 tags
Far Side of the Moon
Curiously, the near and far sides of the moon have vastly different appearances. In particular, the side towards us contains many large “maria” (relatively smooth areas that look like seas to ancient astronomers). In contrast, the far side has a blasted appearance with more craters.
The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
6 tags
Super Ball
If dropped from shoulder height, a super ball could bounce nearly 90% of that height and could continue bouncing for a minute on hard surfaces (a tennis ball’s bouncing lasts only ten seconds).
The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
6 tags
Fermi Paradox
Given that our universe is both ancient and vast, the physicist Enrico Fermi asked in 1950, “Why have we not been contacted by an extraterrestrial civilization?”
The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
7 tags
Quicksand
Quicksand is another example of a non-Newtonian fluid. If you are ever stuck in quicksand and you move slowly, the quicksand will act like a liquid and you will be able to escape more easily than if you moved around very quickly, because fast motions can cause the quicksand to act more like a solid from which it is harder to escape.
The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
4 tags
7 tags
Green Flash
Interest in the mysterious green flashes that are sometimes glimpsed above the setting or rising sun was kindled in the West by Jules Verne’s romantic novel The Green Ray (1882).
The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
February 2013
8 tags
5 tags
War Tubas
War tuba is the informal name given to a large variety of huge acoustic locators - many of which had an almost-conical appearance - that played a crucial role in the history of warfare. These devices were primarily used to locate aircraft and guns from World War I to the early years of World War II.
The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
6 tags
“To invent you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
– Thomas Edison. The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
4 tags
6 tags
Luna Moths
To our eyes, male and female luna moths are light green and indistinguishable from each other. But the luna moths themselves perceive in the ultraviolet range of light, and to them the female looks quite different from the male.
The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
9 tags
Laplace's Demon
In 1814, French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace described an entity, later called Laplace’s Demon, that was capable of calculating and determining all future events, provided that the demon was given the position, masses and velocities of every atom in the universe and the various known formulae of motion.
The Physics Book by Clifford A. Pickover, 2011.
