June 2010
31 posts
8 tags
Hill vs Mountain (6/30/10)
Generally, in the United States, a hill becomes a mountain once it reaches 2000 feet (~610 meters). Ultimately, though, it depends on who you ask. If you ask me, I will tell you 2000 feet is the cut-off between a hill and a mountain…. as I have already told you.
Road Trip Lesson 2 (6/29/10)
It is really difficult to update with my phone. But today I learned that Columbus, Ohio is actually a good-sized city.
Yep.
Road Trip lesson 1 (6/28/10)
White Castle hurts.
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I'm Not Lovin' It (6/27/10)
McDonald’s has a lot of odd foods on their international menus. It’s really quite interesting. You should check it out. But one food item on the McDonald’s menu in Hong Kong stood out to me in particular— the Shake Shake Fries. Shake Shake Fries are basically flavored French fries. They come in flavors like salt and pepper, French onion, chargrill, and seaweed. I am...
13 tags
World Cup Refs (6/26/10)
It has been estimated by the U.S. Soccer Federation that, on average, the World Cup referees run 12 miles (19.31 km) in a soccer game. That’s 5 miles (8.05 km) more than the average player. They also get less rest too. For example, a soccer player from Ghana can lie on his back delaying the game for minutes…the refs don’t have this luxury.
I’m over it.
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Oldest Recorded Song (6/25/10)
The earliest known recorded song was made possible through the phonoautograph, which was a recording device invented in 1857 by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville. A recording of a French folksong, “Au Clair de la Lune” has been dated to April 9, 1860, making it the earliest recognizable recording of a human voice. Here it is:
...
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Stupid Fact #180 or something (6/24/10)
“The nose print of a dog is like the fingerprint of a person – no two are alike. Get a good relief and you can identify your dog by the mark it leaves behind!”
I’m guessing your dog’s face will help you distinguish your dog too. Or maybe its general appearance or its collar… Maybe this fact is supposed to help me track my dog…or help the police if my dog...
6 tags
Knotty Knotty (6/23/10)
A coastal state has jurisdiction over its territorial water, which extends up to 12 nautical miles out from the coast. A nautical mile is equivalent to 1.151 miles or 1.852 kilometers (which is the same as 1.151 miles…). The nautical mile is very helpful in navigation with charts and maps because the unit is roughly the same as a minute of latitude, thus it’s easy to measure...
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Horses and Dwarfses (6/22/10)
I’ve read way too much about horses today. I hate when I do that. Anyway, I knew the height of a horse was measured in hands, but I never knew a hand was equivalent to 4 inches. Maybe dwarfs primarily measured horses back in the day. I also learned that the only truly wild species of horses that still exists is the Przewalski’s Horse, although it’s currently listed as an...
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Cape Caught (6/21/10)
Excappare is the Latin root of the word “escape,” which literally means “out of one’s cape.” The ancient Romans would escape capture by dropping their capes when fleeing. I don’t really know how much time that would buy you. Couldn’t the person chasing you just drop his cape too? Or perhaps, you could just start off not wearing a cape in the...
10 tags
Gang-Signing (6/20/10)
Somniloquy is better known as sleep-talking. Sleep-talking is very common in young children and decreases in prevalence with age. I found this interesting: people who speak sign language have been known to sign in their sleep. Sleep-talking is so boring compared to sleep-signing. If you’re sharing a bed with someone who’s sleep talking, you can just play some music on your...
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Uranus (6/19/10)
The most hilarious planet, Uranus, is named after the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos. On this astronomy website, several astronomers discussed the pronunciation of the planet. Dr. Pamela Gay notes, “The safest way, the way that’s least likely to get us made fun of by any small children is to say Uranus (UR-uh-nis), but there’s also the famous ur-ANUS way of saying it.” I...
SmartestYear.com Twitter
Yeah, I made SmartestYear.com a Twitter account. The user name is SmartestYear. This way you can get SmartestYear posts straight to your phone (or Jitterbug for my superannuated readers). I don’t know if you actually get the posts or just a link to them. I had my interns make the Twitter account, so I’m not to blame.
I don’t have any interns.
Follow me anyway. If you have...
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Economics 101 (6/18/10)
In Middle English, the word pygg referred to a type of clay used in pottery. People often kept their money in jars made out of this clay. They were called “pygg jars.” Eventually this evolved into “pig bank,” and finally “piggy bank.” I remember seeing in cartoons people breaking their piggy banks open with a hammer to get the money. I always questioned the...
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The North Star (6/17/10)
I keep getting lost at sea. It’s getting ridiculous. I always forget how to find the North Star. The North Star, or Polaris, is a very useful navigation tool. You can use it to find your direction, and even determine your latitude based on Polaris’s angle of elevation relative to the horizon. The star can be found easily, as it’s the last star on the handle of the Little...
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Brown Egg vs White Egg (6/16/10)
Misunderstandings between brown eggs and white eggs have torn families apart for generations. Now it shall be settled. So what’s the difference between brown eggs and white eggs (other than the color…nice one)? The Egg Nutrition Board— yes, it’s a real thing— says that there is no difference in taste or nutrition. Simply, “white shelled eggs are produced by...
7 tags
Sister Cities (6/15/10)
Sister cities…why? The U.S. sister city program was originally proposed as a way to connect people internationally by President Eisenhower in 1956. Eventually this led to the creation of Sister Cities International in 1967, whose goal is to “promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation…” I am pretty sure that exact mission statment can be (and has...
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Copyright vs Trademark vs Patent (6/14/10)
This one comes up a lot in conversation around me. Apparently, I am extremely territorial and materialistic.
A copyright is a form of protection given to authors for their original literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and/or other published or unpublished intellectual works. The 1976 Copyright Act gives the author exclusive rights to the copyrighted work. A copyright only protects forms of...
12 tags
The Clap (6/13/10)
I always wondered why people loudly hit their hands together to show their approval of something. Why don’t we “armpit fart” or snort or just babble some gibberish when we are pleased? The act of clapping has been used as a sign of approval for basically all of recorded human history. There were even professional clappers. In France, for instance, a claque was a group of...
11 tags
The Flying V (6/12/10)
Geese and some other migratory birds fly in a V formation for a couple main reasons. First, the V formation reduces the drag force that each bird encounters compared to the force he would feel flying solo. In one study, the heart rates of pelicans was monitored. It was found that a flock of 25 birds in formation can fly 70% farther than a single bird using the same amount of energy. The second...
8 tags
Early Nintendo (6/11/10)
Nintendo started out as a playing card company in Kyoto, Japan in 1889. The cards were a hit. They were so realistic—- It was like you were actually playing them. If you moved the cards with your hands, the cards would move. The deck of cards was 3D. You could play with multiple people! The cards were rated E for Everyone.
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Bach That Thang Up (6/10/10)
To me, an orchestra, symphony, and philharmonic mean the same thing. But that’s because they don’t mean very much. I need to be more cultured, so I learned the differences between the groups. In today’s terms, an orchestra is a musical ensemble that includes a percussion, wind, and string section. A chamber orchestra is a smaller orchestra. A symphony orchestra (or simply, “symphony” for the...
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Righty vs. Lefty (6/9/10)
According to Scientific American, approximately 85% of people are right-handed. This majority appears to be a result of evolutionary natural selection which catered to the majority of people who have speech/language control in the left hemisphere of the brain. Because the left-hemisphere controls the movement of the right hand (and with it, the movement necessary for producing written language),...
10 tags
Road Rules 2 (6/8/10)
Continuing from yesterday’s post about driving on the right side of the road vs the left side…
In the feudal times, knights would ride their horses on the left side of the road. They usually kept their sword and scabbard on their left side, so the easiest way for them to climb onto the horse, without their sword getting in the way, was from the left. Driving on the right side of the...
6 tags
On The Road (6/7/10)
Currently 66% of the world’s population drives on the right side of the road, while 34% drive on the left side. Here is pretty cool picture of a cross over road at a border where the drivers must switch sides of the road to accommodate the rules of the road in a new country. It looks like a giant 7 year-old designed this with track used for Hot Wheels cars.
8 tags
Creeping Thing (6/6/10)
Herpetology is the study of reptiles, coming from the Greek herpeton, literally meaning “creeping thing.” This is also where herpes comes from. I mean the word. The actual viral disease comes in a much more informal way.
6 tags
Yeah Man (6/5/10)
In Old English, the word “man” simply refereed to the human race regardless of gender. The word wer meant adult male, as seen today in “werewolf.” Wif was the word for an adult female. The word “woman” derives from wifman, which just meant “female human.” Also I’d like to mention that the word “female” is unrelated to the word...
6 tags
Dead Pledge (6/4/10)
The word “mortgage” comes from the Old French, mort gaige, literally meaning “dead pledge.” The naming derives from the thinking that the deal dies when either the debt is paid or when payment is neglected. “Dead pledge” should have been saved for something way cooler. Like something a bunch of pirates created before they told the secret of where they buried...
6 tags
Stupid Fact Websites: Poor Taste (6/3/10)
I stumbled upon this life insurance website, and idly clicked through some pages. In the “Education Center” section there was a list of “things you didn’t know about death.” Here is the first one:
“After being decapitated the average person remains conscious for an additional fifteen to twenty seconds.”
Seriously? This isn’t something that makes...
7 tags
Doomsday Cults: Sparknotes Version (6/2/10)
Joining a doomsday cult may seem like a good idea, but it’s not. Actually, it doesn’t seem like a good idea at all. Let’s take a look at the True Russian Orthodox Church cult:
Pyotr Kuznetsov is the leader of this Russian doomsday cult.
He tells 30 of his followers that the world will end in May 2008.
In November 2007, his followers hole up in a cave (because that’s...
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RIP Prometheus (6/1/10)
Prometheus was the nickname given to the oldest living, single organism— a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine tree found in eastern Nevada. Judging by the growth rings, dendrologists figure the tree is about 4862 years old. Yes, the tree was cut down. In 1964, a grad student came across the really old looking tree, so naturally he cut it down to see just how old it was. Nice job, dude. So if...