The Big Move (12/13/2000 2:01:25 PM)

In October 1800 the archives, general offices, and officials of the government were moved to Washington DC from Philadelphia. Pres. John Adams took up residence in the White House, and the Congress met for the first time in the newly completed Senate wing of the Capitol.

The Capital (12/12/2000 1:52:51 PM)

The'DC'in Washington DC stands for 'District of Columbia', not a State but an administrative district created specifically to avoid having the capital city in any one State.

Atlantic tradition... (12/11/2000 3:12:45 PM)

Dralion is the fusion of ancient chinese acrobatic traditions and the avant-garde approach of Cirque du Soleil. Dralion is a celebration of life and the four elements that maintain the natural order: air, earth, water and fire.

King's Highway (12/10/2000 1:52:21 PM)

The oldest road in the United States, the "Camino Real" or "King's Highway" leads through El Paso. The Spanish conquistadors once traveled north along this road on their search for gold and land.

Remember Pearl Harbor (12/9/2000 5:25:35 PM)

The Portland, Oregon newspaper "The Oregonian," is credited with the first use of the phrase "Remember Pearl Harbor" in its' December 9, 1941 afternoon edition. This phrase later became the slogan for the US involvement in WWII.

El Paso, El Paso... (12/8/2000 10:35:53 AM)

El Paso is located in the Chihuahuan Desert, one of the largest desert areas in the world.

The Spanish orignally named the area "El Paso del Norte" or the "Pass of the North" in the late 1500s.

Poppies (12/7/2000 12:08:59 PM)

Early sailors are said to have nicknamed California "La Tierra del Fuego," or "Land of Fire", for the rolling foothills carpeted with poppies.

The Golden Poppy is California's state flower.

Saved by baseball? (12/6/2000 9:39:29 PM)

The Loma Prieta earthquake in San Fransisco occured at 5:04 pm on October 17, 1989 and measured 7.1 on the Richter scale. Baseball's World Series was a local affair between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's, and the game was about to begin at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. Much of the Bay Area population was watching tv instead of being out on the sidewalks or stuck in traffic. 67 people died, and it surely would've been more if not for the game...

State Motto (12/5/2000 12:47:29 PM)

The Hawaiin state motto is: Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono [The Life of the Land Is Perpetuated in Righteousness].

LIONS and tigers and bears... (12/4/2000 6:17:42 PM)

The Hawaiian Lionfish is beautiful to look at, but don't touch! The feather-like spines on its back can be used to inject a powerful venom which causes a painful sting. Ouch!

Aloha, Hawaii (12/3/2000 6:21:11 PM)

Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee.

There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet:
Vowels (A, E, I, O, U)
Consonants (H, K, L, M, N, P, W)

Hawaii has its own time zone: Hawaiian Standard Time. The time runs two hours behind Pacific Standard Time and five hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Australian Rainforest Wildlife (11/30/2000 11:56:18 AM)

The Laughing Kookaburra is one of Australia's most recognizable birds because of its maniacal-sounding laughter.

The Giant white-tailed Uromy is amongst the largest rodents in Australia. It is a carnivorous marsupial, and arrived in Australia from Papua New Guinea approximately three million years ago.

Crocodiles!!!! (11/15/2000 9:53:15 AM)

A crocodiles mouth is attached to the roof of its mouth

The East Alligator River in Australia's Northern Territory, was misnamed. It contains crocodiles not alligators.

Every vote counts (11/7/2000 9:40:14 AM)

One vote made english the official American language.  It was almost German.

One vote kept President Martin VanBuren from impeachment.

The right to vote is our right as Americans, exercise it and get to the polls!

TODAY IN HISTORY: media, science, space, politics (11/3/2000 9:45:17 AM)

Media
1953 - 1st live color coast-to-coast telecast (NYC)

1956 - Wizard of Oz 1st televised

Science
1955 - 1st virus crystallized (announced)

Space
1957 - USSR launches Laika 1st animal in orbit

1973 - Mariner 10 launched-1st Venus pics 1st mission to Mercury

Politics
1903 - Columbia grants Panama independence

1978 - UK grants Dominica independence (Natl Day)

1979 - 63 Americans taken hostage at American Embassy (Teheran Iran)

1986 - Lebanese magazine Ash Shirra reveals secret US arms sales to Iran

The crazy world of volcanoes (11/2/2000 10:32:43 AM)

Kilauea (in Hawaii) is generally regarded as the world's most active volcano.

Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw beautiful young women into a volcano it would stop erupting.

The deadliest volcano eruption was that of Krakatau (Indonesia) in 1883.

The largest volcano known is on Mars: Olympus Mons, 370 miles wide and 79,000 feet high, is almost three times higher than Mount Everest.

The smallest volcano in the world is Taal.

Dia de los muertos (11/1/2000 8:29:20 AM)

Dia De Los Muertos is one of Mexico's traditional holidays reuniting and honoring beloved ancestors, family and friends.
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The historical roots of this celebration date back to the pre-Hispanic cultures of Meso-America of the indigenous people, especially the Nahua (Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecas, Tlaxcaltec, Chichimec, Tecpanec) and others native to Mexico more than 3,000 years. Life was seen as a dream. It was believed that only in dying, a human being was truly awake. The soul was set free.

Halloween (10/31/2000 9:02:14 AM)

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.


References: Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, 1987; and Dr. Joseph Gahagan, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Personal letter, 1997

Lions and Tigers and Bees? (10/30/2000 9:16:04 AM)

The world smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
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Tiger and Lions have successfully interbred to produce Tions and Ligers.  The only known hybrids are in captivity. 
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Do you know the difference between Tions and Ligers?

The Taj Mahal (10/26/2000 1:29:27 PM)

It is forbidden for aircraft to fly over the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal was actually built for use as a tomb.

Elephants (10/25/2000 9:26:06 AM)

All elephants walk on tiptoe, because the back portion of their foot is made up of all fat and no bone.

An elephant can be pregnant for up to two years.

An elephant can smell water three miles away.

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.

Elephants often communicate at sound levels as low as 5Hz. This means that if you flap your hands back and forth faster than five times a second, an elephant can actually hear the tone produced.

The elephant is the only animal with four knees.

Ziggy, the largest and oldest elephant ever in captivity, was taught to play Yes, Sir, That's My Baby on the harmonica.

From Arabia to India (10/24/2000 9:43:43 AM)

There are no rivers in Saudi Arabia.

Between 1902 and 1907 the same tiger killed 436 people in India.

In certain parts of India and ancient China, mouse meat was considered a delicacy.

Playing cards in India are round

India (10/22/2000 3:24:52 PM)

According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world.

Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century.

Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean.


For much of the way, the Lewis and Clark expedition was led by a woman, Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian. That's where that saying came from... "Behind every successful man, there is a woman with a road map."

Humans and Birds in flight (10/19/2000 10:16:04 AM)

The shortest Intercontinental Commercial Flight in the world is from Gibraltar (Europe) to Tangier (Africa.) Distance 34 miles, flight time 20 minutes.

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally nap in them, but they actually sleep in other places.

One of the most beautiful birds in the world is the white blackbird.

Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue.

What is Bahrain? (10/19/2000 8:40:41 PM)

Bahrain offers excellent educational facilities which includes two Universities, a banking institute and a catering institute.

Bahrain is a monarchy ruled benevolently by the Al Khalifa family.  Bahrain is a member of many International bodies, including the United Nations.

A third of the people in Bahrain work for the government.

The Earth (10/17/2000 11:40:22 PM)

At the equator the Earth spins at about 1,000 miles per hour.

Earth's atmosphere is, proportionally, thinner than the skin of an apple.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

The United States of America (10/17/2000 11:10:46 AM)

Before 1863, postal service in the United States was free.


Benjamin Franklin was the first head of the United States Post Office.


David Rice Atchinson was President of the United States for exactly one day.

Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president of the United States to wear contact lenses.


More people speak English in China than the United States.

The exact geographic center of the United States is near Lebanon, Kansas.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-George Santayana (1863-1952)

Ships (10/16/2000 8:37:38 AM)

All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel.

Fur seals get miserably sick when they're carried aboard ships.

Son of a Gun: This familiar designation implying contempt but now used with joculra familiarity derives from the days when women were allowed to live in naval ships. The son of the gun was one born in the ship often near the midship gun, behind canvas screen. If the paternity was uncertain, the child was entered in the log as son of a gun.

The term "the Boogey man will get you" comes from the Boogy people who still inhabit an area of Indonesia. These people still act as pirates today and attack ships that pass.

IN THE NEWS
Do you know what happened at the end of last week in Yemen (South of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain)????? Who? When? How? Why?

hint: it has something to do with a U.S. military ship.

Planes and Flying (10/13/2000 3:01:46 PM)

The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes take off, could throw a pickup truck over a mile.

IN ALASKA it is illegal to look at a moose from the window of an aeroplane or other flying vehicle.

Ten percent of frequent fliers say they never check their luggage when flying.

That condensed water vapor in the sky left behind by a high-flying jet is a contrail.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open.
-Sir James Dewar, Scientist (1877-1925)

The Sphinx and Sand (10/12/2000 9:42:24 AM)

The Sphinx at Giza in Egypt is 240 feet long and carved out of limestone. Built by Pharaoh Khafre to guard the way to his pyramid, it has a lion's body and the ruler's head.

There are more stars in the sky then grains of sand on earth.

Ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave.
-Baron Henry Peter Brougham

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (10/17/2000 1:32:32 PM)

The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes take off, could throw a pickup truck over a mile.


The term "the whole nine yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their planes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole nine yards."

160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road.


About seven million cars are junked each year in the U.S.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
-William Butler Yeats 

FACTS ABOUT Egypt and the Red Sea (10/10/2000 3:36:11 PM)

The Red Sea was originally named the Reed Sea.

Ramses II, a pharaoh of Egypt died in 1225 B.C. At the time of his death, he had fathered 111 sons and 67 daughters

In ancient Egypt, killing a cat was a crime punishable by death.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.
-Zadok Rabinwitz 

TODAY IN HISTORY (10/9/2000 6:00:11 PM)

1973 - Egypt & Syria invade Israel - The Yom Kippur war
1981 - Anwar Sadat assassinated Hosnai Mubarak becomes Egytian president