I always thought Kahlil Gibran was Persian. Today I learned he was Lebanese. No matter. I've always been in love with him.
‘All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.’
Happy New Year!
December 31: Blogs
Technorati's Top 100 Blogs have an average age of 33.8 months. From Darren's ProBlogger article here.
December 30: Boleyn
Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, was the mother of the future Queen Elizabeth I, born in September 1533.
December 29: Mold
‘Mold will grow and multiply under the right conditions, needing only sufficient moisture (e.g., in the form of very high humidity, condensation, or water from a leaking pipe, etc.), and organic material (e.g., ceiling tile, drywall, paper, or natural fiber carpet padding).’
December 28: Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky Estates is set to open in Ontario's Niagara wine region. Bottles are already on LCBO shelves.
December 27: Jumping
Base-jumping refers to leaping from buildings, antennae, spans (bridges) or earth (cliffs). Norway, with its fjords and cliffs, remains the sport's spiritual home.
December 26: Bible
Gideon's International gives away a Bible every second. The Bible is available in 2,426 languages, covering 95% of the world's population.
December 25: Campus
Many schools hold the notion that the roommate of a student who dies (the story often specifies suicide as the cause) will receive straight As for that term. The tale is so widespread that it served as the premise for MTV Films' 1998 release Dead Man on Campus.
December 24: Lavalife
Lavalife dating service sees a 20 per cent spike in traffic as new clients look for a new relationship during what they call ‘the December 26 phenomenon.’ It's the only time of year they see such a change; the rest of the year, traffic is consistent.
December 23: Microdermabrasion
Microdermabrasion is best used as an anti-aging technique on mature skin; it is not as beneficial to younger skin.
December 22: Piranha
Piranha fish are known for their sharp teeth and an aggressive appetite for meat. If you keep one as a pet, you will likely feed it goldfish.
December 21: Tryptophan
Evidence shows that tryptophan, a chemical in turkey, can cause drowsiness, but turkey contains the same amount of tryptophan, gram per gram, as chicken and ground beef.
December 20: Stiff
15 per cent of Canadian working stiffs report that their jobs are ‘extremely boring.’
December 19: Falsies
Invention: Padded Bra
Inventor: D.J. Kennedy, G.B.
Year: 1929
How Invented: Learning that in the 1928 Oslo, Norway, Olympics, Sweden's foremost female athlete, Lois Lung, had lost the women's 400-meter hurdle when her knee had hit one breast on the last barrier and brought her writhing to the cinder path in pain, Kennedy conceived of a protective or padded brassiere.
Source here.
Inventor: D.J. Kennedy, G.B.
Year: 1929
How Invented: Learning that in the 1928 Oslo, Norway, Olympics, Sweden's foremost female athlete, Lois Lung, had lost the women's 400-meter hurdle when her knee had hit one breast on the last barrier and brought her writhing to the cinder path in pain, Kennedy conceived of a protective or padded brassiere.
Source here.
December 18: Head
Before the arrival of turkey, the traditional Christmas meal was a pig's head and mustard.
December 17: Angora
South Korean scientists have used a modified gene to create angora cats that glow in the dark.
December 15: 41%
Respondents who said children were ‘very important’ for a successful marriage: 65% in 1990; 41% in 2007. - Pew Research Center
December 14: Jersey
The state Senate has approved legislation that would make New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty since 1976.
December 13: Nanotechnology
‘Some nanotechnology products are applied directly to the skin, such as cosmetics and sunscreens. Titanium dioxide is commonly used as the white pigment in sunscreen. When it is ground into nanoparticles it can still block harmful ultraviolet radiation, but it allows visible light to pass straight through, which means modern sunscreens can appear completely transparent, while offering the same protection as the old white stuff.’
December 12: Anger
Women who show unexplained anger at work are thought to lack control, according to a report in Psychological Science.
December 11: Feist
Canadian musician Leslie Feist used to perform under the stage name Bitch Lap Lap; she now performs as simply Feist.
December 10: Slovenia
It is possible to go on a unique 5km underground mountain bike ride in the Julian Alps of Slovenia.
December 9: Ratio
Researchers at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark, have studied the influence of stress on women in relation to male and female babies conceived. Results suggest that acute stress to a woman at the time of conception shifts the sex ratio towards girls. A more recent study at Aarhus suggests that the same is true of chronic stress.
December 8: Telefilm
Telefilm's role is to foster the production of films, television programs and cultural products that reflect Canadian society, with its linguistic duality and cultural diversity, and to encourage their dissemination at home and abroad.
December 7: M&Ms
At SAS, the ritual of handing out free M&Ms every Wednesday began accidentally, when an assistant collecting supplies accepted a big bag of the chocolate sweets as a substitute from a local grocer who had run short of change.
December 6: Antioxidants
Martin Schaefer of the University of Freiburg set out to see whether creatures can sense antioxidants. His findings confirm birds can both see antioxidant foods and have a preference for it.
December 5: Coben
Harlan Coben sells about 2.7 million books each year. He says it always takes him nine months to write a book (like childbirth).
December 4: Adopt
‘According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are more than 500,000 children in foster care in the United States. Approximately 114,000 of those children will not be able to return to their parents and are waiting for families to adopt them.’
8,664 children previously featured on AdoptUsKids.org now live with permanent families.
8,664 children previously featured on AdoptUsKids.org now live with permanent families.
December 3: Oh
Sandra Oh's acting career began in the early 1990s when she beat out hundreds of other actresses for the coveted title role in the CBC movie The Diary of Evelyn Lau.
December 2: 10,000
‘Where in the free world can one see 10,000 children dancing in synchronisation, dressed as eggs? Such weirdness makes North Korea, a basket-case state, a must for a certain sort of backpacker. Tourist visas have been available for years; there is even a Lonely Planet chapter on the country. Some 2,000 Westerners will visit in 2007 – a tiny number, but about four times the total in 2002.’
December 1: Cord
Since the first successful transplantation of umbilical cord blood in 1987, cord blood has become an important source of haematopoietic stem cells for the treatment of blood and genetic disorders.
November 30: Laser
Some laser printers may damage your lungs in a manner similar to secondhand smoke. Almost a third of laser printers in a recent study released high concentrations of ultra-tiny particles that could infiltrate and damage lungs. - Environmental Science & Technology
November 29: Agriculture
Agriculture is thought to have begun around 8000 B.C., in the semi-arid mountains of Mesopotamia.
November 28: Waititi
Director Taika Waititi’s debut feature Eagle vs Shark is a deadpan comedy tracking the romance between self-aggrandizing computer store geek Jarrod and sweet, socially-challenged fast food clerk Lily.
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