Website Survey
Cryonics is the theory that someone can be frozen soon after death, and then brought back to life once a cure is found for whatever it is that killed them. Do you believe that man will eventually be able to make this theory a reality?
Fun and Interesting Facts for Everyone
Welcome to Interesting Facts Online. We're still working on our site, so please pardon our mess while we make your visiting experience much more enjoyable. We now have both a Twitter and Facebook page, so if you like our website and content be sure to follow and like us on the respective social networks. On our home page you will find the three most recent content articles. If you'd like more facts, today in history entries, and more please visit the archives and appropriate links in the navigation menu above.
Interesting Facts about Hanukkah
Posted on Friday December 9, 2011
Hanukkah is a Jewish celebration commemorating the military victory of the Jewish Maccabees over the Greek-Syrians. Hanukkah also commemorates the re-dedication of the Second Temple in 164 BCE.
Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days. A Menorah, or a candelabrum is lit one at a time for eight nights. On the last day of Hanukkah all the candles are therefore lit. While the candles are being lit chants are sung and blessings are recited. Afterward, families can sit down to a prepared meal, play games or exchange gifts.
Unlike most spelling words you remember from school, Hanukkah can be correctly spelled many different ways, including Chanukah, Chanukkah, and Hanukah.
The word Chanukah means dedication. After Judah Maccabee and his band of revolutionary Jews defeated the Assyrian/Greek Empire they discovered that their beloved Holy Temple had been defiled and rendered spiritual impure. It was on the 25th of Kislev (the first day of Chanukah) that the Temple was purified and rededicated.
The first appearance of Chanukah at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was in 1951, when Harry Truman accepted a Menorah as a gift from the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben Gurion. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter was the first President to officially "recognize" Chanukah as an actual occurrence. Every president since has followed suit and attended a Menorah-lighting ceremony always making sure to give Christmas a shout out as well. In 1993, President Bill Clinton hosted the first Menorah-lighting ceremony in the White House. On December 10, 2001 while vacationing and war mongering President George Bush hosted the first ever Chanukah Party at the White House.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about hanukkah.
Interesting Facts about Golf
Posted on Thursday December 8, 2011
Millions upon millions of people take up the game of golf without knowing some of the most interesting facts and history of the game. Here are some of the facts about golf that make this game all that more attractive:
- On a regulation golf ball, there are 336 dimples.
- On October 1, 1976, Bob Cook recorded the longest putt in history with a 140 foot 2 ¾ inch screamer on the 18th green at the historic St. Andrews Links course.
- Even though more are being built, there are 11,000 golf courses in North America.
- Records reflect some 50 million golfers worldwide.
- American's spend more than $600 million on golf balls every year.
- In Japan resides the longest hole in the world. The par 7 seventh hole of the Sano Course at the Satsuki Golf Club, in Japan stretches 909 yards from the tee box to the green.
- The chances of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf are one in 67 million.
- In Japan they use plastic golf balls.
- The putter is the most-used club in golf.
- Putters generally come in three styles of club head, and three varieties of lengths. Club heads can be a traditional blade, a heel-toe club head, or a mallet club head.
- Initially golf balls were made out of wood. After that they were made out of leather which was stuffed with feathers.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Golf.
Interesting Facts about Pearl Harbor
Posted on Wednesday December 7, 2011
On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the Hawaiian U.S. naval base that would change the course of history.
The attack was planned by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who commanded the Japanese aircraft carriers during the raid on U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
The attack consisted of two waves of bombing aircraft, with a total of 353 planes used. It all began at around 7:55 am early on the morning of Sunday December 7 and lasted for 110 minutes.
Today the USS Arizona Memorial, located at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii, serves as a tomb for more than 1,000 crewmen who died that day. The very next day, on December 8, war was declared against Japan, and three days later U.S. Congress declared war against Germany as well.
Kazuo Sakamaki was the first prisoner of war of World War II. His submarine, HA-19, was captured and later on taken on a tour across the United States.
December 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, was known for the ‘Day of Infamy Speech’.
The United States and other nations had placed trade embargoes on Japan to check its expansion, but toward the end of 1941, Japan had managed to capture key territories and oil resources in parts of Asia. America had refused to lift existing embargoes unless Japan left some of these territories, so Gen. Hideki Tojo secretly decided that Nov. 29 would be the last date Japan would accept a settlement with America to lift trade embargoes.
- 2,388 Americans died in the attack
- 1,178 Americans were wounded
- 21 American ships were sunk or damaged
- 323 American aircraft were destroyed or damaged
- 1,177 Americans involved in the attack were serving on the USS Arizona
- 333 servicemen serving on the USS Arizona survived the attack
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Pearl Harbor.
Interesting Facts about the Euro
Posted on Tuesday December 6, 2011
With all the controversies surrounding the Euro or the Eurozone, it helps to know a bit of the facts surrounding its gestation, birth and maturity.
The Euro is the currency used in the 17 member states of the EU (European Union or Europa) that have signed up to full Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). People in all of these countries use the same coins and notes and business amongst companies in the designated Eurozone states takes place in the single currency. For many people, the most noticeable benefit is that money does not have to be changed when traveling within the designated Eurozone countries. The Euro economy relies on all members cooperating with one another, and obeying the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), a treaty that was cobbled together after many years of consideration.
The euro became the official currency for 300 million people in Europe the 1st of January, 1999. It replaced the former European Currency Unit (ECU) at a ratio of 1:1. But it was not until 2002 that the banknotes were launched in the Euro zone.
Since its inception, the Eurozone has welcomed other nations into its fold. Greece joined the Eurozone in 2001. Of the new member states that joined the EU in 2004, Slovenia adopted the Euro in 2007, Cyprus and Malta followed in 2008, Slovakia joined in 2009 and Estonia in January 2011.
The Euro is also the official currency in Monaco, San Marino, the Vatican City, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique, Réunion and Madeira. Just over 27% of world foreign exchange reserves are held in Euros.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about the Euro.
Facts About a Barrel of Oil
Posted on Monday December 5, 2011
Almost everyday we hear about the price and fluctuations of a barrel of oil. Because our society has such a dependency of this natural resource, it is helpful to know a few facts about that black gold.
Oil is made of compressed hydrocarbons, which are the remains of prehistoric animals and plants placed under extreme pressures and temperatures in the Earth's crust. Hydrocarbons take many forms, including coal, natural gas, crude oil and even diamonds. Elaborate systems have been developed to extract all of the above-mentioned byproducts.
Crude oil is the "black stuff" that comes out of the ground, also known as petroleum. When folks refer to a barrel of oil, this is what they are referring to.
Beside the expense of extraction from formidable rock formations, people must refine it in order to produce energy, a process that creates gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene and other products.
There are 42 gallons (159 liters) of oil in a barrel. And roughly 1 gallon (about 3.8 liters) of crude oil can be made into between .47 and .67 gallons (1.78 and 2.54 liters) of gasoline, depending on the refiner and the quality of the crude oil, among other factors.
Ultimately, the end products end up in the tanks of our cars – in the form of gasoline. Sometimes as the cooking source for our foods – in the form of natural gas for stoves. And sometimes as bobbles of vanity – in the form of diamonds.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about a Barrel of Oil.
U.S. National Parks Provide Respite to All
Posted on Friday December 2, 2011
For over 130 years, the U.S. National Park system has provided its citizens and tourists from around the world a wide variety of natural settings and beautiful landscapes to enjoy. Here are some interesting facts about the Park Services available to all:
- A national park is defined as a reserve of government-owned natural or semi-natural land that is restricted from most development. Instead, it is set aside for animal and environmental protection, along with general recreation and pleasure.
- The first national park established in the world was Yellowstone National Park in 1872.
- The National Park System covers more than 84 million acres of land in U.S. states and territories.
- The only state without a national park is Delaware.
- The largest national park is the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska, which covers 13.2 million acres. The smallest is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, which covers a scant 0.02 acres.
- There are 394 national parks in America, which includes national monuments, seashores, recreation areas, historic sites, military parks, and battlefields.
- In 2010, over 281 million visitors visited national parks in the United States.
- Visitors can only reach Alaska's Kobuk Valley National Park by foot, dogsled, or snowmobile.
- The Everglades National Park in Florida is the only habitat in the world where both alligators and crocodiles live.
- Over sixty percent of the endangered species in the U.S. are found in national parks.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about National Parks .
The Artist' Brings Silence Back to the Silver Screen
Posted on Thursday December 1, 2011
For more than 80 years, the silent film era has been, well, silent. But with the introduction of a new production called The Artist, the producers attempt to revive this movie genre. In it, they do not use recorded sound or spoken dialogue to get the movie's message across to the audience. In The Artist, a 2011 release, the cast and crew gets its message across to the audience through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards. Here are some other facts about silent films during its earlier times:
- The silent movie was created by a man called Louis Le Prince in 1888.
- The first time ever that people actually paid money to see a movie was at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City was on the 20 April, 1896 (Shakespeare's birthday)
- The first ever film company arrived in Los Angeles in 1907.
- In 1922 just some of the biggest hits were: 'Robin Hood', 'Oliver Twist', 'Manslaughter' and 'Orphans of the storm'.
- Chicago was the first city to censor movies: November 4, 1907
- While tickets nowadays can exceed $10, the average cost of a ticket in 1910: $0.07
- Top actresses today can make upwards of $20 million per movie while starlet of the day Mary Pickford's salary in 1910: $175 per week
- Charlie Chaplin's debut as "The Tramp": Kid Auto Races at Venice, 1914
- First motion picture theater in the United States: Vitascope Hall, New Orleans, LA, July 26, 1896 (location is now a Burger King)
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about the Silver Screen .
Interesting Facts About November
Posted on Wednesday November 30, 2011
In the Northern hemisphere, November separates Autumn from Winter. As the eleventh month of the year it also has a number of special days that only happen in November.
- In a long standing tradition in the United States, election days are scheduled on the first Tuesday after the first Monday.
- On November 11th, the U.S. Government has set aside a holiday for it veterans as Veterans Day.
- November also plays host to Thanksgiving, which is traditionally celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month.
- The physician Crawford Long, who first used ether as an anesthetic in surgery, was born November 1, 1815.
- American icon and frontiersman Daniel Boone was born November 2, 1734.
- French queen Marie Antoinette was born November 2, 1755.
- The Spanish claimed discovery of San Francisco Bay on November 2, 1769 during an expedition led by Gaspar de Portola.
- The 11th President of the United State, James K. Polk and the 29th President Warren G. Harding were born November 2, 1795.
- North Dakota became the 39th state, November 2, 1889.
- South Dakota became the 40th state, November 2, 1889.
- The French author and philosopher Voltaire was born on November 21, 1694.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about November .
Tripping the Light Fantastic to the Samba
Posted on Tuesday November 29, 2011
The history of Samba starts on the African continent and sashays its way into the heart, rhythm and nature of South America's Brazil. The exotic steps, movements and maneuvers have drawn comparisons to the tango, the flamenco and other two-person combinations on the dance floor. Here are some interesting facts about samba:
- The samba stands for dance to rhythm.
- The Samba is Brazil's national dance.
- Types of Samba: Pagoda, Batucado, Samba Enredo (Carnival's Samba), Chorinho.
- Samba is extremely popular in Japan.
- The samba bounce. The bounce action is rather difficult to produce, but it must be performed continuously in order to give the Samba its typical 'look'. The typical Samba Bounce Action is produced by the compression and straightening of the knee and ankle of the of the leg supporting the weight. Each compression and straightening takes a 1/2 beat of music. The degree of bounce used is not the same for all figures, some of them have a "slight" or "no" bounce action.
- Origin: from African slaves that came to Brazil on the 19th century.
- The first samba school was founded in the 1930's.
- Played at street carnivals whilst marching down a street.
- Played at special occasions to celebrate or to have fun.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Samba .
Interesting Facts About Cyber Monday
Posted on Monday November 28, 2011
Cyber Monday has become another profitable term of art for retailers. The Monday following Thanksgiving rewards those merchants who have online sales available to buyers. Cyber Monday has worked its way up the ladder to become the strongest online sales day of the year. Here are some interesting facts about how it earned its moniker.
- The day was introduced with the name in a November 28, 2005 Shop.org press release.
- In 2010, 9 million people made an online purchase on Cyber Monday.
- Twenty-nine percent (29%) of employees plan on doing online shopping while at work.
- Five percent (5%) of employers have fired someone for doing online shopping at work.
- Twice as many people shopped on a mobile device in 2010 than in 2009.
- In 2010, $1.03 billion was spent online on Cyber Monday.
- During this week's Cyber Monday, the National Retail Federation says nearly 80 percent of retailers plan to offer special promotions. And a record 122.9 million of Americans are expected to shop on the day, up from 106.9 million who shopped on Cyber Monday last year, according to a survey conducted for Shop.org.
- The average online transaction during Cyber Monday 2010 was $60.05.
- Americans spent an average of $688.87 on holidays gifts last year.
- Worldwide, 94.4 million people use Paypal as the preferred payment option.
- In 2006 it was only the 12th-biggest online spending day of the year. It's jumped in the rankings every year since, landing in the No. 1 spot last year for the first time.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Cyber Monday .
World's Most Expensive Dogs
Posted on Tuesday November 22, 2011
Sometimes man's best friend may not be the best friend of his wallet. Here are a collection of four pooches that hit the pocketbook pretty hard.
Pembroke Welsh Corgi: $1,000
A favorite of British royalty for more than seventy years, Queen Elizabeth II still owns a number of Pembroke Welsh Corgis. This breed hails from Pembrokeshire, Wales, where, according to legend, it served as a steed for fairies.
Saluki: $2,500
With Biblical roots and historical significance in Egyptian history, the Saluki breed is also known as the "Gazelle Hound," "Arabian Hound," or "Persian Greyhound." It has been considered one of the oldest breeds of domesticated dogs in the world.
Chow Chow: $1,000-$8,500
Appearing on Chinese pottery dating back to 206 B.C., the Chow Chow is an old breed and its Chinese name is Songshi Quan, meaning literally, "puffy-lion dog." The Chow is considered friendly and protective.
Egyptian Pharaoh Hound: $2,500-$6,500
It's name speaks for its ancestry, but the long lean Pharaoh Hound breed did in fact originate in ancient Egypt, where it served as the loyal companion to the royal pharaohs before being brought to the Mediterranean island of Malta. In 1974, the Pharaoh Hound was declared the national dog of Malta, as it had been exclusively bred there for 2,000 years.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Pharaoh Hound .
Trivia Masters Update
Posted on Monday November 21, 2011
Here are a collection of interesting facts that may help you toward your next victory in a trivia match with your friends.
- Ever since February 1, 1969, the Canadian Post eliminated Saturday mail delivery in Canada.
- Tokyo suffers from vehicle congestion on a level that has shown that a bicycle is faster than a care for most trips of less than 50 minutes.
- The array of different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo tops out at 18.
- Those who follow the British royalty scene know that Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane as a precaution against the lineage.
- Your body is always busy, creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second.
- The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache on a standard playing card.
- Next time you look in Sin City, you will discover that there are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
- Every day 20 banks are robbed. The average take is $2,500.
- The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad.
- Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating.
- Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult.
- One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year.
- The names of Popeye's four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye.
- The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Trivia .
The Brief Life of Vincent van Gogh
Posted on Friday November 18, 2011
Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. His father was a Dutch Protestant minister. In Van Gogh's early years, he was bent on following in those footsteps.
By the time he was 27, van Gogh had become a dedicated theology student, who was in training to become an evangelist, preaching in the slums of London and the mines of Wasmes (in Belgium). His grasp of the French language also allowed him to earn money as a French tutor. But his foray into selling art failed along with his amorous attempts to secure the love of a paramour.
In 1886, Vincent moved to Paris, where his brother, Theo, was an art dealer. In Paris, he developed his painting skills for the next two years before moving to Arles, in Provence. There, he turned out paintings non-stop. Better known works from his time in Arles include Bedroom at Arles (1888), The Night Café (1888) and Starry Night (1889). His painting increasingly showed a lack of brushwork as he, in his haste to capture it, spread the color he saw in life thickly on to the canvas with his palette knife - and even straight from the tube.
In the last two years of his life, van Gogh painted a number of self-portraits, had a brief, turbulent friendship with Gauguin, veered in and out of madness (institutionalizing himself from time to time) and continued to have a disastrous love life. He shot himself on July 27th in a bungled suicide attempt in 1890, but didn't die until two days later. Vincent van Gogh died having sold one painting in his lifetime Red Vineyard at Arles; Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
Van Gogh died July 29, 1890, in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Vincent van Gogh .
Samuel F.B. Morse Helps Invent the Telegraph
Posted on Thursday November 17, 2011
Not everyone is trained in the dots and dashes of the Morse code. But when Samuel F.B. Morse and his cohorts invented the first telegraph, his vision saw the benefit of a communication system that was novel in 1837. Ultimately, Morse successed in his use of electricity as the conduit to send pulse tones that could rely a message across long distances and then deciphered by the receiver.
During his formative period, Morse was a professor of art and design at New York University in 1835. The telegraphic device piqued his interests in 1832 before he started his concentrated efforts. He along with Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail came up with the unique solution of their device.
The trio developed a device that used an electric circuit, an overhead wire and Earth as another conductor to complete the circuit. A marker was moved to produce written code on a piece of paper using pulses of current to deflect electromagnet- this was Morse code. For one more year, the machine was worked on to emboss the paper with dots and dashes. In 1838, the first public demonstration of its capabilities were conducted.
By 1843, a coalition of investors secured enough funding and construction of the first telegraph lines were constructed. The initial communique via the recognized Morse code was, “What Hath God wrought?”
The company Western Union grabbed the lead and constructed the first transcontinental telegraph line along the railroads in 1851.
It didn't take long for the government to establish the regulatory board to govern telegraphic activity. In 1881, the Post and Telegraph department intervened. In 1943, the Post and Telegraph department and the Western Union joined hands.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Morse Code .
Chocolate Processing Stirs at Hershey
Posted on Wednesday November 16, 2011
The manufacturing of milk chocolate has been refined by the Hershey's company to the delight of millions for many years. Here is the process they have developed during their 118 years dedicated to chocolate manufacturing.
The process begins after receiving raw milk from tankers. The cold milk is tested for safety and quality before entering the elaborate pipes system at the plant. As the raw milk begins its journey through the labyrinth of pipes, its initial stop is the chocolate processing area.
When the milk gets piped into the chocolate processing area, sugar is added before heading into the pasteurization process. This process involves heating the liquid through an intricate pipe system while adding pasteurization agents and the chocolate liquor that makes the final product. Huge vats receive a thickened, sweeten milk and the liquor as a pasteurization agent is balanced. Pasteurization is actually adding heat to the product and holding it for a time certain.
Ultimately, what started out as white raw milk now takes on a thicker brown color that most associate with chocolate. During the heating processing the liquid is now becoming more solid, but still a liquid. This begins the drying process.
The drying process showers more heat on the thicker liquid as huge dryers agitate the product to make an almost cake like solution. The end result of the drying process turns the product into a drier gravelly mixture that is conveyed via a pipe system to the next step. The next part involves large steel rollers that break down larger chunks of the gravelly mixture into a finer and finer mixture. This process reduces a grainy mixture into a finer product that can be molded into your favorite candy.
Now the fine mixture is funneled to the finishing area where it can be distributed into a variety of molds shapes and configurations that the public gets to see in packaging.
Post your comments on the following page and give us some feedback - Interesting Facts about Hershey's chocolate .