Today I found out where the ampersand symbol and name came from. The symbol for “&” comes from combination of letters in the Latin for “and”, “et”. Specifically, in Old Roman cursive, it became common to combine e’s and t’s, which produced something like this: Over the next six centuries the ampersand gradually became more elaborate until we get the […]
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Today I found out the symbol on the “pound” or “number” key (#) is also called an “octothorpe”. The origins of this term date back to the 1960s and 1970s in Bell Labs with the first documented place this word showed up being in a U.S. patent filed by Bell Labs in 1973. The exact etymology of this word isn’t […]
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Today I found out what the “bee” in “spelling bee” means. While no one knows exactly where the word derives from, the “bee” in “spelling bee” simply means something to the effect of “gathering” or “get together”. The earliest documented case of this word appearing with this meaning was in 1769, referring to a “spinning bee”, where people would gather […]
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Today I found out Adolf Hitler had a British nephew who joined the U.S. navy during WWII. Hitler’s nephew, who he would come to call “my loathsome nephew”, was originally named William Patrick Hitler, but he later changed it to William Patrick Stuart-Houston to distance himself from his uncle’s name after WWII. William was born in Liverpool, the son of […]
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Today I found out Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister. After Fred McFeely Rogers, better known as Mr. Rogers, graduated from college in 1951, receiving a B.A. in Music Composition, he began working in television, at first for NBC and later for WQED, which was a Pittsburgh public TV station that was the U.S.’s first community supported TV station. […]
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Myth: Pasta originally comes from Italy. Worldwide, pasta has become synonymous with Italian cuisine. Italian immigrants themselves brought pasta everywhere they went. While it is true that the most famous varieties and recipes of cooking pasta really do come from Italy, surprisingly, the actual origin of pasta lies elsewhere! So how did pasta make its way to Italy? One of […]
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Today I found out the founder of FedEx once saved the company by taking its last $5,000 and turning it into $32,000 by gambling in Las Vegas. The man is Frederick W. Smith who is the founder and current CEO of FedEx. In 1971, Smith took his personal fortune of around $4 million and raised around an additional $90 million […]
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Myth: You lose body heat faster through your head than the rest of your body. It is very common for parents to advise their children to wear a hat or to cover their head when its cold outside, with the reasoning behind this advice often cited as “most of your body heat escapes through your head” or “you lose heat […]
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Today I found out New Mexico Whiptail lizards are all females. While this isn’t completely unheard of among various life forms on Earth, such as with certain plants, insects, and sea life, among others, what is particularly interesting is how the New Mexico Whiptail lizards go about reproducing. To do this, they will generally perform a type of pseudocopulation where […]
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During the Industrial Revolution, companies attempted to maximize the output of their factories by keeping them running as many hours as possible, typically implementing a “sun up to sun down” work day. Wages were also extremely low, so workers themselves often needed to work these long shifts just to get by, including often sending their children to work in the […]
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Myth: Your body uses more calories to digest certain types of foods, called “negative calorie” foods, than the actual calories contained in them. The concept of negative calorie food has recently been popularized by the media, around on Internet discussion boards, and from publications, such as “Foods that Cause You to Lose Weight: The Negative Calorie Effect“, by Neal D. […]
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Today I found out Dr. Seuss wrote “Green Eggs and Ham” on a bet that he couldn’t write a book with fifty or fewer distinct words. The bet was made in 1960 with Bennett Cerf, the co-founder of Random House, and was for $50 (about $382 today). Despite Dr. Seuss, a.k.a. Theodore Geisel, winning the bet by producing one of […]
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Today I found out the first speeding infraction in the U.S. was committed by a New York City taxi driver in an electric car on May 20, 1899. The driver was Jacob German who drove for the Electric Vehicle Company, which leased its electric taxicabs to be used around New York. German was driving his taxi at a blistering 12 […]
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Today I found out there once was a Major League Baseball player that was traded for himself. That player was Harry Chiti. Chiti was a catcher who played in the major leagues from 1950-1962, taking two years off in that span to fight in the Korean War. The momentous event of getting traded for himself happened in 1962 when Chiti […]
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Today I found out why the toilet is also often called “The Crapper”. It all started with U.S. soldiers stationed in England during WWI. The toilets in England at the time were predominately made by the company “Thomas Crapper & Co Ltd”, with the company’s name appearing on the toilets. The soldiers took to calling toilets “The Crapper” and brought […]
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Today I found out the words “blond” and “blonde” are not wholly synonymous. So what’s the difference between the words “blond” and “blonde”? (besides the obvious extra ‘e’) 😉 The difference is simply in what gender the word is referring. When referring to a woman with yellow hair, you should use the feminine spelling “blonde”. When referring to a male […]
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Today I found out that there is a protozoa that has seven sexes. This organism is known as Tetrahymena thermophila. They are species of ciliate protozoa, common in fresh-water. They are also known for being widely used in genetic and cytological research as model organisms. The seven sexes of Tetrahymena thermophila are somewhat uninventively named I, II, III, IV, V, […]
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Today I found out that 165 University Avenue, Palo Alto, California is generally considered the “luckiest” building in Silicon Valley to rent as a startup company. Located near Stanford University, 165 University Avenue has seen a surprising number of highly successful startups come through its doors in very recent history. The first famous tenant was Logitech, a now world famous […]
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