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March Madness Teams are Paid for Performance
By Kaye Nemec For the most part NCAA tournaments are money making events – for the NCAA. But the Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament is actually the only NCAA tournament that gives all of its...
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Military Tanks are Named after Water Tanks
By Chad Upton | Editor Characterized by its large size, rugged capabilities and literally bulletproof exterior, the military tank is the reference standard for anything that embodies similar qualities....
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What Does Esquire Mean?
By Chad Upton | Editor It’s a magazine. It’s a watch brand. It’s a title or a suffix that may follow a person’s name. Throughout time, the precise meaning of the title has fluctuated. In medieval...
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McDonald’s Imports One Third of Mexican Sesame Seeds
By Chad Upton | Editor Sesame seeds come from sesame plants where the seeds grow in pods. The seeds range in color from very dark to nearly white and are used in foods from Europe, Asia, The Middle...
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The Meaning of Care Symbols on Clothes Tags
By Kaye Nemec When it’s time to wash a new item of clothing, most people check the tag to see what the manufacturer recommends for washing and drying. Sometimes instructions are easily spelled out,...
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Shakespeare Coined Hundreds of Words and Phrases In Use Today
By Kyle Kurpinski Among high schoolers (and even among many adults) William Shakespeare’s writing has a reputation for being horrendously confusing. Consider this quote from The Tempest (IV, i, 51-54):...
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Indy 500 Winners Celebrate with Milk
By Chad Upton | Editor Forget champagne this Sunday, one of the most popular car races in the world will award the winner an unusual prize: milk. This Indiapolis 500 tradition was inspired by Louis...
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Starbucks is Named After a Moby Dick Character
By Chad Upton | Editor In 1971, an English teacher, a history teacher and writer started a coffee roasting business in Seattle. It’s not surprising that such an intellectual group would have an...
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Credit Cards Reveal Hidden Symbols Under Black Lights
By Chad Upton | Editor Many people know that paper money has markings that illuminate under a black light. These markings make it more difficult to counterfeit and thus easier to spot counterfeit...
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Your GPS Will Disable Itself If It’s Going Too Fast
By Chad Upton | Editor Whether it’s your windshield mounted Garmin or your pocket slung smartphone, your GPS device is programmed to disable itself under certain conditions. If it’s travelling faster...
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Niagara Falls Water Volume is Lower at Night
By Chad Upton | Editor The magnificent waterfalls known as Niagara falls are split on the US/Canada border. People come to see massive amounts of water flowing over the falls and that’s exactly what...
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Gold Record Awards Come From the Record Manufacturing Process
By Chad Upton | Editor When a recording artist sells 500,000 units of an album or a single, their “record” is eligible for “gold certification” by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)....
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The New World Trade Center Remembers What We Lost
By Chad Upton | Editor It has been ten years since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. Although the attacks happened in the United States, they were an attack on freedom everywhere. It is...
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The Plastic End of a Shoelace is Called an Aglet
By Chad Upton | Editor Originally and occasionally still, Aglets are made from metal, often copper or brass. The word Aglet (or Aiglet) comes from an old french word, aguillette and it’s root word is...
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How Steve Jobs Got His 2009 Liver Transplant So Quickly
By Chad Upton | Editor When I was about 7 years old, my grade school classroom had an Apple II computer stashed in the corner of the room. I remember the excitement when our teacher said we could use...
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Carrots Do Not Improve Eyesight
By Chad Upton | Editor Like many kids, I didn’t like vegetables — especially carrots and broccoli. Adults frequently told me that carrots would improve my eyesight, so that seemed like a good reason to...
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The QR in QR Code Means Quick Response
By Chad Upton | Editor Although we typically use QR codes with our mobile phones, they were actually invented by a Japanese company (Denso) for tracking products during manufacturing. Even though...
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Measuring Speed in Knots Started With Tying Knots in Rope
By Chad Upton | Editor Sailors have it easy these days — an inexpensive GPS will tell you how fast your ship is travelling. Heck, even your smartphone can do it if you have the right app. That’s how I...
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“Raisin Fingers” May Be an Evolutionary Advantage
By Kyle Kurpinski If you have ever gone swimming for several hours or taken a really long bath, then you are probably familiar with the phenomenon referred to as “pruney fingers” or “raisin fingers.” A...
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Some People Believe Running an Electric Fan in a Closed Room Can Kill You
By Chad Upton | Editor In South Korea, it is a commonly held belief that an electric fan can cause death if it is blowing on you overnight in a closed room. To prevent “fan death”, the Korean...
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