Fact O' The Day

[Krandall]

'No novel has been the object of more challenges to have it banned from libraries than The Great Gatsby. '

According to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, almost half of the Radcliffe Publishing Course's Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the subject of challenges, but none have as often as F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 classic. But it may be getting a run for its money in the 21st century from the oft-challenged Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.



'The Texas panhandle is home to the only facility in the U.S. authorized to disassemble nuclear weapons. '

The Pantex plant near Amarillo was established during World War II as a bomb construction facility. While it still stands guard over the nuclear stockpile, it is also the only facility authorized by the U.S. government to dismantle and destroy nukes. Scientists from the National Nuclear Security Administration will examine a warhead and determine how it should be disassembled, then ship it off to Pantex.

[Krandall]

There are an estimated 400 million dogs in the world. '

The estimated 400 million dogs in the world is fairly equivalent to the combined populations of the United States and Mexico. On average, the noses of dogs contain 40 times as many olfactory receptors as humans, and they can hear frequencies reaching 45,000 Hz, more than twice as high as humans.

[Krandall]

'The first player to record a World Cup hat trick was an American. '


Bert Patenaude, a member of the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame, scored the first hat trick in World Cup history in a match against Paraguay at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 in a U.S. win, 3-0. The achievement was in dispute for decades, in part because Argentina's Guillermo Stabile scored a hat trick two days later. However, FIFA officially confirmed Patenaude's hat trick in November of 2006.

[Peelz]

'The first player to record a World Cup hat trick was an American. '


Bert Patenaude, a member of the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame, scored the first hat trick in World Cup history in a match against Paraguay at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 in a U.S. win, 3-0. The achievement was in dispute for decades, in part because Argentina's Guillermo Stabile scored a hat trick two days later. However, FIFA officially confirmed Patenaude's hat trick in November of 2006.

   

One more week!!! England is going down....
























the path to victory over the USA.

[Spartan]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/heroin_for_dummies_oLIfe1Gxl7RMk9iJZiWlnL


Then.... is going on in that city?

[Krandall]

'At least one online bookmaker is offering odds that the Large Hadron Collider will discover GERD.'


Paddy Power, a large and popular online bookmaker, is offering odds on what CERN's Large Hadron Collider will discover in the year 2010. Assuming CERN confirms the discovery "without questionable doubt," they offer 11-10 odds of finding Dark Matter, 12-1 odds of finding Dark Energy, and 100-1 odds of discovering GERD.

[Krandall]

'The costliest event of 2009 was named Klaus. '

In January of 2009, the hard rains and flooding caused by winter storm Klaus in France and Spain killed 25 people and cost insurers over $3.3 billion, making it the costliest event, in economic terms, of 2009, according to insurance firm Swiss Re and published in The Economist.

[Krandall]

'In 2000, pharmaceutical companies spent $15.7 billion on drug promotion.'

That staggering figure is a direct result of these decisions by the Federal Trade Commission to relax the restrictions on how drug companies could promote their products: The 1985 decision to permit print ads and the 1997 decision to permit TV and radio spots. Of that $15.7 billion, $2.5 billion was spent on direct-to-consumer marketing.

[Krandall]

'Thirdhand smoke may be more dangerous than secondhand smoke.'


What is thirdhand smoke? According to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, thirdhand smoke comes from surfaces that absorb some of the chemicals in a room where people smoke. When they react with a common chemical known as nitrous acid vapor and are inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin, they become likely carcinogenic to humans.

[Krandall]

'The four suit designations in a deck of cards is an invention of the French.'


The suit designations we're all so familiar with are a French contribution (which they adapted from earlier Italian designs), according to Cecil Adams and The Straight Dope. Each suit points to a "principal division of medieval society": The clergy (Hearts); the peasantry (Clubs); the merchants (Diamonds); and the nobility (Spades). This last one was actually the sword for the French, but English speakers borrowed the Spanish equivalent, espada.

[Spartan]

No wonder someone always has to surrender at a card game

[Krandall]

'Band-Aids owe some of their success to the Boy Scouts.'


When first launched by Johnson & Johnson in 1920, Band-Aids were a commercial flop for the company, possibly because of the awkward packaging that required the user to cut a usable Band-Aid from a single large roll. The product only became a hit after the company began giving free Band-Aids to a group that found plenty of use for them: Boy Scout troops.

[Krandall]

'In the 1700s, people worried that youths were corrupted by a new trend: the sofa.'


As noted in The Economist, the newest fad or latest technology will inevitably instill in the older generation the belief that it will corrupt and corrode the minds of youth. Such was the case with the sofa in the early 18th century (the fear was that it would lead young people to "drift off into fantasy worlds"), just as movies, comic books and video games occupied the anxiety of adults in the 20th and 21st centuries.

[Krandall]

'Jimi Hendrix was discharged from the military for masturbating while on detail.'


In May of 1962, a discharge request was sent to the commanding officer of the famed 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, requesting that the future rock guitar pioneer be discharged, even though he had only served one of his three years. The reason given? "Behavior problems, little regard for regulations" and for having gotten caught masturbating when he was supposed to be on detail. He released his classic debut LP, Are You Experienced, five years later.




And how was Aaron never?

[Spartan]

You can't get discharged for discharging your pistol in another serviceman....in the US military anyways...