| I Bet Ya Didn't Know |
| It is commonly believed that the 4 suits in a deck of playing cards -- spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs, derive from French decks of cards. In French decks, the suits represent the four classes: Spades represent nobility, hearts stand for the clergy, diamonds represent merchants, and clubs are peasants. The standard deck of cards had a fifth suit added to it in 1937 but was eventually discarded since not enough people were willing to buy whole new decks. |
| White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas. The name was chosen carefully with “White” signifying purity, and “Castle” signifying strength, stability and permanence. Burgers were 5 cents in 1921 and that price was reduced and increased over the next several years. A big jump occurred in December of 1950 when burgers went from 10 cents to 12. In 1931, White Castle hired a renowned food scientist from a Big Ten university to run tests to determine the nutritional value of White Castle Sliders. One medical student lived on nothing but White Castle burgers and water for 13 weeks. Studies show conclusively that the student maintained good health. The burgers have five holes because they help the patties cook faster and more evenly while eliminating the need to turn them over. During World War II, White Castle sold hot dogs and eggs due to meat rationing. Coke has been the White Castle beverage of choice since 1921. |
| Why Sharks Circle You Before Attacking. Two great white sharks swimming in the ocean spied survivors of a sunken ship. "Follow me son" the father shark said to the son shark and they swam to the mass of people. "First we swim around them a few times with just the tip of our fins showing." And they did. "Well done, son! Now we swim around them a few times with all of our fins showing." And they did. "Now we eat everybody." And they did. When they were both gorged, the son asked, "Dad, why didn't we just eat them all at first? Why did we swim around and around them?" His wise father replied, "Because they taste better without the s--t inside!" Now you know... Why Sharks Circle You Before Attacking. |
| Shoemakers are commonly called cobblers but correctly speaking a cobbler is a shoe repairman. A shoemaker is a cordwainer – they also made leather bottles and harnesses. |
| The device at the intersection of two railroad tracks to permit the wheels and flanges on one track to cross or branch for the other is called a frog. |
| The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal is called a tragus – it also aids in capturing sounds that come from behind you. |
| YouTube, as you know, is the biggest online repository of videos. And they aren’t limited to particular time period. Believe it or not, you can find videos as old as when this thing called video started, on this site. And this is what YouTube Time Machine wants people to access and watch easily. YouTube Time Machine is unique site with a simple and intuitive interface that lets people browse through and watch popular videos from history. I really like its user interface and the way the site lets you jump to a video in any time period between 1860 and 2010. http://yttm.tv/ |
| Magnetic recording was invented in 1898 by Valdemar Poulson of Denmark. Called the “telegraphone,” it was used to record telephone messages by applying magnetic pulses to a steel wire. The patent for the invention of the phonograph was awarded to Emile Berliner in 1887. But the recording format of choice would become the iron oxide-coated tape, a paper version of which was invented in 1927 by Joseph A. O’Neill and a film version of which was invented in 1928 by Fritz Pfleumer. The tape recorder, or “magnetophone”, was invented in 1936, the year that the Volkswagen Beetle was launched. Dutch company Philips introduced the audio cassette in 1963. The video recording machine was invented by the Ampex corporation of California in 1956. The first video recorder, the Ampex VR1000, stood 3 ft 3 in high [or more than 6ft when fully assembled] and weighed as much as a small car: 1,466 lb. The home video recorder was introduced in 1972 by Philips. JVC introduced the VHS system in 1976. Sony introduced the first handheld film camera, the Sony Mavica camcorder, in 1981. The first musical film was made in 1896 by George Thomas. It was a series of still shots depicting the song The Little Lost Child by Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern. |
| The ruffed grouse, before the winter`s snows, develops a fringe of horn on each toe, which prevents the bird from sinking into the snow.
|
| For a short time in 1967, the American Typers Association made a new punctuation mark that was a combination of the question mark and an exclamation point called an interrobang. It was rarely used and hasn`t been seen since.
|
|