Tuesday Trivia

May 5, 2009 at 2:21 pm | In Tuesday Trivia | 1 Comment
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Can you see the image below? 

magic-eye

Remember Magic Eyes?  Did you know…

- Magic Eyes are technically autostereograms.  These are 2D images that require your eyes to diverge in order to see the hidden 3D image.

- Autostereograms were created by Christopher Tyler in 1979.  The first Magic Eye book was released in 1993.

- The image is created by repeating a horizontal pattern with slight differences in each repetition.  This pattern creates the illusion of depth.  Each of your eyes focuses on a different part of the pattern!

- Autostereograms are even used by vision therapists in the treatment of different vision disorders.

- Magic Eyes have appeared in shows such as Friends and Seinfeld as well as the movie Mallrats.

The autostereogram at the top of this post was created by yours truly with a little help from www.flash-gear.com/stereo.  Were you able to see the hidden message?  Have fun creating your own autostereogram!

Tuesday Trivia

April 21, 2009 at 9:00 am | In Tuesday Trivia | 4 Comments
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First, a quick confession. I am 26 years old and I still love cartoons. One of my recent favorites is a show my husband got me hooked on – Avatar: The Last Airbender. In a nutshell, the show is about a 12 year old boy named Aang and his friends, who must save the world by defeating the Fire Lord and ending the destructive war with the Fire Nation. You can get some more detail on the show here. My favorite character on this show is Sokka. He is a really funny character and has a lot of great one-liners. One of his most prized possessions is his boomerang.  Which brings me to today’s trivia. 

sokka_the_thinker

Did you know…

Boomerangs are made in several shapes depending on their origins and intended function. They also have many uses including hunting weapons, musical instruments, battle clubs, fire-starters, toys, and many more. The most recognizable type of boomerang is the returning boomerang, which is a throwing stick that travels in a elliptical path and returns to its point of origin when thrown correctly.

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Boomerangs are the first heavier-than-air flying machine ever invented.

Today, boomerangs are mostly used as sporting items. There are different types of throwing contests: accuracy of return, Aussie round, trick catch, maximum time aloft, fast catch, and endurance.

I found this information about boomerangs from Wikipedia.  There is a lot more interesting information about them.  Click here if you would like to learn more.

Tuesday Trivia

March 17, 2009 at 7:00 am | In Tuesday Trivia | 2 Comments
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Top o’ the mornin’ to you and Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 

Today is also my birthday!

Did you know…

St. Patrick’s blue, not green, was the color long-associated with St. Patrick?

The color green may have gained its prominence through the phrase “the wearing of the green” meaning to wear a shamrock on ones clothing.  At many times in Irish history, to do so was seen as a sign of Irish nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic faith.  St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish.  The wearing of and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the saint’s holiday.  The change to Ireland’s association with green rather than blue probably began around the 1750’s.

Some Protestants have begun wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day as a mark of defiance.  This relatively new tradition has its roots in William of Orange (William III), the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, who defeated King James II, a Roman Catholic, in the Battle of the Boyne near Dublin.  This is why orange now appears in the Irish flag – to symbolize the Protestant minority in Ireland.  The first group to take part in the tradition of wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day appears to have been the Orange Institution, a Protestant fraternal organization more commonly known as the Orange Order. 

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*Information provided by Wikipedia

Tuesday Trivia

March 10, 2009 at 6:00 am | In Tuesday Trivia | 7 Comments
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Today’s topic – Scratch and Sniff

- Scratch and sniff technology refers to things that have been treated with a micro-fragrance coating.  When scratched, the coating releases an odor that is normally related to an image being displayed under the coating.

- Scratch and sniff is created through the process of micro-encapsulation. The desired aroma is surrounded by tiny micro-capsules that break easily upon scratching. Because of the micro-encapsulation, the aroma can be preserved for extremely long periods of time.

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Tuesday Trivia

March 3, 2009 at 9:00 am | In Tuesday Trivia | 3 Comments
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It’s an old trick that everyone knows – you put a piece of bread in the container with home-made cookies to keep them soft.  But did you ever wonder why the bread gets hard while the cookies remain soft?

The answer has to do with humidity.  Bread is relatively moist and releases that moisture into the air.  This extra moisture is then absorbed into the sugar from the cookies allowing the cookies to maintain their softness.

Eric knew this, along with many others, but I did not until I looked it up.  Did you know the chemistry behind keeping cookies soft?

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Tuesday Trivia

February 17, 2009 at 9:30 am | In Tuesday Trivia | Leave a Comment
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20080922124268_pets003_jpg_w450Is she not the cutest thing ever??  Today I will share with you a few facts about Pugs.

- “Pug” may have come from the Old English “puge,” which was an affectionate term for a playful little devil or monkey.

- Pugs were bred in China during the Shang dynasty.  Their popularity spread to Tibet, where they were mainly kept by monks, then onto to Japan and eventually Europe.

- Pugs are prone to health problems that can include eye injuries, breathing issues, obesity and infections in their wrinkles.

- Some famous Pug characters in movies include:

Percy (Pocahontas),

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Frank (Men In Black) and

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Otis (Milo and Otis).

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Tuesday Trivia

January 6, 2009 at 10:10 pm | In Tuesday Trivia | Leave a Comment
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Do cucumbers really reduce the puffiness of your eyes?

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There is no special ingredient in cucumbers that reduces the swelling in your eyes.  Cucumbers are 90% water and it is the cooling effect of the water that constricts the blood vessels around the eyes which decreases swelling.

Today’s topic was inspired by the book Why Do Men Have Nipples?

Tuesday Trivia

December 16, 2008 at 4:26 pm | In Tuesday Trivia | Leave a Comment
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Have you ever wondered what the white half-circle shape is at the bases of your nails?  It is called the lunule and shows where the hardening process is not yet complete.  Below are some other facts about finger nails:

~ Nails grow about .1 mm per day

~ Fingernails tend to grow a bit faster than toenails, but toenails are twice as thick as fingernails

~ Men’s nails usually grow faster than women’s nails

~ The nails on your dominant hand tend to grow faster

Check out some of this fingernail art!

snacknails

Tuesday Trivia

December 2, 2008 at 8:26 pm | In Tuesday Trivia | Leave a Comment
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Today I will be sharing some weird laws in North Carolina:

~ It’s against the law to sing off key

~ Elephants may not be used to plow cotton fields

~ Bingo games may not last longer than 5 hours unless it is held at a fair

~ Women must have their bodies covered by at least 16 yards of cloth at all times (Charlotte)

Pretty weird, eh?  These laws were found on dumblaws.com.

Tuesday Trivia

November 25, 2008 at 8:53 pm | In Tuesday Trivia | Leave a Comment
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Thanksgiving edition!

~ Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States and the second Monday of October in Canada.

~ The Pilgrims were the first to celebrate Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621 – the celebration lasted 3 days!

~ The Wampanoag Indians were the ones who taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.  The Pilgrim leader, Governor William Bradford, organized the first Thanksgiving Day feast and invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians to the celebration.

~ The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving an annual custom in 1817.

~ The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920s

~ Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States, but it was Thomas Jefferson who opposed him. It is believed that Franklin then named the male turkey as ‘tom’ to spite Jefferson.

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