Fact of the Day

[lucaslink2]

Did you know... that we have not always been able to “cut and paste”, this action, which has saved millions of accumulated hours for users around the world, was developed in 1981 by Larry Tesler, an engineer. A hero to Humanity…. a hero indeed.

[Grundy]

Did you know... if there was a computer as powerful as the human brain , it would be able to do 38 thousand trillion operations per second and hold more than 3580 TB of memory ?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - RINGS

 

Did you know... that Saturn has an invisible mega-ring?  In 2009, Astrophysicist Douglas Hamilton and his team discovered the so-called Phoebe ring using infrared imagery from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and it was literally a big discovery. If Saturn’s famous rings were toe rings, the Phoebe ring would be a monster truck tire, for a simple comparison. The Phoebe ring, as its name suggests, may owe its existence to dust flaking off Saturn’s moon Phoebe. However, it’s also possible that smaller, undetected moons are also serving as feeders to the Phoebe ring — Saturndoes have 62 moons that we know of.

[Grundy]

Did you know... that the tradition of wearing the engagement ring and wedding band on the fourth finger of the left hand , can be traced to the Egyptians ? They believed the vena amoris ( vein of love ) ran directly from the heart to the top of this finger .
 

[(Kirito)]

A ring is an unbroken circle, which many cultures understand as representative of eternit.

[Grundy]

Fact of the Day - VHS ( tapes )

 

Did you know... that the best selling movie sold on VHS was The Lion King in 1995 ? 32 million copies were sold , generating 520 million in revenue . Hakuna Matata !

Edited April 1, 2019 by Grundy

[DarkRavie]

@Grundy: Thank you!

 

Did you know... that the first American films released on VHS: The Sound of Music, Patton, and M*A*S*H*?  Let’s be real: the 1970s wasn't a great time for ultra-classic movies until the Star Wars franchise came around. That’s why the first films from America on VHS were years old on their release. The Sound of Music, Patton, and M*A*S*H* were all older classics that were re-released to the public in this new, easy to consume format. We hope you saved up; a new VHS movie back then was around $72 each in today’s dollars.

[(Kirito)]

The first movie released on VHS was The Young Teacher, a South Korean drama about a teacher who organizes a volleyball game at her school to boost self-confidence and school spirit in her students. While the film received little recognition, the VHS format proved to be very successful and quickly became the number one format for buying and selling movies.

[lucaslink2]

Did you know... that the VCR was sold for $1000-$1400 in 1975 when they were first introduced? that's nuts!!! That's $4,444-$6,222 in today's economy.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PEZ DISPENSER

 

Did you know... that people often collect Pez dispensers to use as candy holders or collectibles?  Pez has been around for more than 50 years. That’s a long time. It was originally made in Austria, then it became worldwide.  The name “Pez” derives from the German word for peppermint, which is “Pfefferminz.”  The old dispenser style was simple like a box, but now they are fun and creative.  The Santa Claus Pez dispenser is the most popular and the Political Donkey Pez dispenser was once sold for $1,300. (There were only two ever made. Can you believe that?)

[(Kirito)]

At one point in time, it was possible, because PEZ offered chlorophyll-flavored candies. Other specialty PEZ flavors have included licorice, coffee, cola and pineapple. And peppermint PEZ has also made a comeback. Since PEZ is sold in 60 countries, flavors can vary; popular peach isn’t available in the U.S.

[lucaslink2]

Did you know... that pez dispensers didn't exist until world war II?

[Grundy]

Did you know... that Pez were originally anti-smoking mints ? Austrian inventor and businessman Eduard Haas III came up with the idea for Pez in 1927 . Haas came from a wealthy family of doctors and retailers , and as an anti-smoking advocate , he decided the small mints could help those trying to kick cigarettes . The 30-year-old Haas hired a chemist to perfect a cold-press process that would quickly and cheaply compress peppermint oil and sugar into peppermints . 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Grundy

[(Kirito)]

Fact of the Day - BLACK HOLES.

[(Kirito)]

This is best illustrated by one person (call them Unlucky) falling into a black hole while another person (call them Lucky) watches. From Lucky’s perspective, Unlucky’s time clock appears to be ticking slower and slower. This is in accordance with Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which (simply put) says that time is affected by how fast you go, when you’re at extreme speeds close to light. The black hole warps time and space so much that Unlucky’s time appears to be running slower. From Unlucky’s perspective, however, their clock is running normally and Lucky’s is running fast.

[DarkRavie]

Did  you know... that there are 3 types of black holes?

 

Primordial: Considered to be tiny – these range from the size of a single atom to a mountain. Mountains probably don’t seem tiny to you but space is a mighty big place!

Stellar: These are the ones most often found. They are about 20 times bigger than the Sun.

Supermassive: The recently discovered black hole falls into this category. To be amongst this group the hole has to be more than a million times heavier than the Sun.

[lucaslink2]

Did you know... that there is probably a huge supermassive black hole lurking in the middle of our galaxy. Luckily, we’re nowhere near this monster, we are about two-thirds of the way out from the center, relative to the rest of our galaxy but we can certainly observe its effects from afar. The European Space Agency says it’s four million times more massive than our Sun, and that it’s surrounded by surprisingly hot gas.

[Grundy]

Did you know... that you can’t directly see a black hole ? Because a black hole is indeed “ black ” ( no light can escape from it ) , it’s impossible for us to sense the hole directly through our instruments , no matter what kind of electromagnetic radiation you use ( light , x-rays , whatever ) . The key is to look at the hole’s effects on the nearby environment , points out NASA . Say a star happens to get too close to the black hole , for example. The black hole naturally pulls on the star and rips it to shreds . When the matter from the star begins to bleed toward the black hole , it gets faster , gets hotter and glows brightly in x-rays .

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TELEPHONE

 

Did you know... that “Ahoy” was the original telephone greeting? Alexander Graham Bell suggested ‘ahoy’ (as used in ships), but was later superseded by Thomas Edison, who suggested ‘hello’ instead. Also, the very first phone call was: “Watson come here, I want you!” It was made on March 10, 1876 in Boston, Massachusetts, between Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas A. Watson

Edited April 4, 2019 by DarkRavie

[(Kirito)]

The memorable Nokia tone for receiving SMS text messages is Morse code for ‘SMS’ Likewise, the ‘Ascending’ tone is Morse code for ‘Connecting People,’ (Nokia’s slogan) and ‘Standard’ is Morse code for ‘M’ (Message).