May 2010
4 posts
smart man
Max Factor, Hollywood’s celebrated make-up artist, was also known for his elaborate, hand-made, human-hair wigs. His rugs were commonly used in old Western flicks, but they came at a price: they could only be rented if the producers agreed to cast Factor’s sons as extras.
Before writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, author J.R.R. Tolkien worked for the Oxford English Dictionary with a focus on the etymology of Germanic words beginning with W.
Sorry!!
Sorry for the leave of abscense folks but i’m trying to get back on track! Spring semester was killer.
January 2010
15 posts
The smart ones are always a little off...
H. Cecil Booth, inventor of the first suction-powered vacuum, first experimented by covering his lips with various fabrics and taking giant gulps of detritus off his floor.
hmm...
There is actually a specific area of the brain known as the bilateral vomitation center. It notes when our tummy is upset and queasy, and it makes the final decision whether to barf or not to barf.
The eye chart with the big “E” on top is called a Snellen Chart.
Ludwig Van Beethoven originally dedicated his 3rd symphony to Napoleon. However, when Napoleon took the crown out of the Pope’s hands and crowned himself emperor, Beethoven was so disappointed in him that he changed the dedication to “Heroic Symphony… to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man.”
Is this my second cashew fact?
Cashews are always sold without their shells because the shell contains an oil that can cause a rash similar to poison ivy
The British actor Anthony Hopkins [who shot to fame as Hannibal Lecter] was delighted to hear that he had landed a leading role in a film based on the book The Girl From Petrovka by George Feifer. A few days after signing the contract, Hopkins travelled to London to buy a copy of the book. He tried several bookshops, but there wasn’t one to be had. Waiting at Leicester Square underground for...
I dont know if I should be frightened...
Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novella Futility had many parallels with the RMS Titanic disaster; the book concerned a fictional state-of-the-art ocean liner called Titan, which (like the Titanic) eventually collides with an iceberg on a calm April night whilst en route to New York, with many dying because of the lack of lifeboats. Various other details in the book coincide with the Titanic...
In April 1935, a ship named the Titanian, carrying coal from Newcastle to Canada, almost suffered the same fate as the Titanic when encountering an iceberg on the same area of the North Atlantic. Luckily, crewman William Reeves had a premonition of impending disaster and yelled “Danger ahead!” to the navigator shortly before the iceberg beamed visible in the darkness. Reeves was born on 15 April...
A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can’t
Sidetrack
I support!
Have you spotted a random color in a Facebook user status update today and don’t know what’s going on?
A message claiming to be a cancer awareness campaign is spreading through Facebook inbox messages, encouraging women to post the color of the bra they’re wearing in hopes of getting people talking.
“Something fun is going on,” the message reads....
Oh albert
Albert Einstein never learned how to drive a car
December 2009
38 posts
When asked to name a color, 3 out of 5 people will say red.
Men get hiccups more often than women do
if you keep a goldfish in the dark, it will eventually turn white
The majority of suicides occur on a Monday
The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you’ll have a bad dream.
Hey, Cougars!
Grapefruit scent will make middle aged women appear six years younger to men. The perception is not reciprocal and the grapefruit scent on men has no effect on women’s perception.
People with higher number of moles tend to live longer than people with lesser number of moles.
Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested? A. Obsession
I love facts about genetics
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
To assemble the Wizard’s wardrobe for The Wizard of Oz, MGM costumers shopped at thrift stores to find clothes that projected “shabby gentility.” In an incredible coincidence, the previous owner of the coat they purchased was Wizard of Oz writer L. Frank Baum.
Trees do not grow higher than 130m as it is physically impossible for the water to rise higher.
Despite what you may have heard about Bastille Day, the storming of the Bastille wasn’t nearly as heroic as it sounds. For one thing, very few guards were stationed around the place. Stranger still, there were only seven inmates inside.
!
Signs such as those that state “Not Responsible for Your Car or Its Contents” carry no weight in court; they are posted simply to discourage people from pursuing any legal action.
LOLOLOL
During childbirth scenes in movies and sitcoms, infant actors are smeared with cream cheese and red jam for an authentic “just born” look.
The poor French, always picking on them
The French Kiss isn’t from France; it’s actually a slur against the nation. In the 1920s, the English derided the French as the kind of people who’d go around sticking their tongues where they didn’t belong.
Dr. John Dee, a 16th century predecessor to James Bond, supposedly used the code 007 to send messages to Queen Elizabeth. The two zeros meant “for your eyes only.”
Ashrita Furman’s twelve-minute mile doesn’t sound all that impressive, unless it’s pointed out that he was riding a pogo stick at the time.
The small “You Are Here” sticker that indicates your position on a map has a name — it’s called an ideo locator.
I love burning calorie facts
Chewing gum does burn off calories, but it would take two weeks of continuous chewing to burn off the equivalent of one pound of fat.
#24
The Hard Rock Café got its name from a now-defunct bar that appeared on the back of the Doors’ album Morrison Hotel.
Despite being staples of the Old West landscape, neither horses nor tumbleweeds are native to North America.
get it straight
The “french” in french fries actually describes the way the spuds are sliced, not their country of origin.