Do
you like to waste time?
Our "Great Links" are interesting web places we've found:
January 31, 2008
The
Lost Bird of Wounded Knee
In the spring or summer of 1890, Lost Bird was born somewhere on the prairies
of South Dakota. Fate took her to Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge
Reservation on Dec. 29, 1890...
January 30, 2008
The
Top Baby Names of 2007
What happened in baby names in 2007? The results are in.
January 29, 2008
8
Chimpanzee Stars
Chimpanzees have some extra advantages in entertainment: they are small,
they look funny dressed as humans because of the relative size and shape
of their arms and legs, and they have few inhibitions. Plus, they don’t
demand large salaries or champagne in their dressing rooms!
(via)
January 28, 2008
Top
25 Most Beautiful Castles in the World
Everyone seems to know that the most luxurious castles are located in
Europe. Or, are they? As we travel the world we learn that castles exist
everywhere. From South Africa to Louisiana and from New Zealand to Iran,
a curious traveler can find a castle in just about every corner in the
world.
(via)
January 27, 2008
Top
Recipes 2007
The Food Network's top recipes.
January 26, 2008
Great Clocks of Christendom
Elaborate clocks - particularly the large, public clocks of the late Middle
Ages, and others inspired by them, tell not only the time, but
considerable astronomical information with various hand and dials - more
elaborate models including the month and date; the position of the sun,
moon, and zodiac on the ecliptic; the nodes and phases of the moon; and
even eclipses and the computus for Easter. The most beautiful have geocentric
models of the universe; medieval symbols of the zodiac and seasons; humorous
allegorical statues and automata, clock-jacks ringing bells on the hour,
crowing roosters or singing cuckoos, mechanical organs, and processions
of tiny statues. They are among the most engaging works of art or mechanics
ever created.
January 25, 2008
75 Tips to Keep Your Car in Top-Notch Condition
Reader's Digest best expert advice, surprising tricks, and maintenance
and fix-it tips to prolong the life of your car.
(via)
January 24, 2008
Scientology Recruits Hollywood
L. Ron Hubbard and his alter ego Scientology have always had a fixation
for recruiting Hollywood celebrities. As far back as 1955, Hubbard acknowledged
the value of famous people to his fledgling, offbeat group when he inaugurated "Project
Celebrity."
Time Cover Article 1991: Scientology - The Cult of Greed
January 23, 2008
A Virtuoso Muse
Bettina Brentano:
She was sister to one famous poet, wife to another and inspiration to others,
but declined to write poetry. What she did write has outraged and fascinated
people ever since. She was a supreme muse, a one-woman literary movement,
at once among the singular and most representative figures of the Romantic
century.
January 22, 2008
Medical Myths in Movies and Culture
Proving and disproving some common beliefs. Does chocolate cause acne?
Can you improve your vision by eating carrots?
Do hair and fingernails continue growing after death? Many others.
January 21, 2008
Restaurant Report Card
Men's Health calculated the total number of calories per entrée
in 21 fast-food and sit-down chains. This gave them a snapshot of how each
restaurant compared in average serving size—a key indicator of unhealthy
portion distortion.
January 20, 2008
Chicago
Postcard Museum
The Chicago Postcard Museum is a privately endowed, independent organization
devoted to collecting and presenting Chicago history through picture postcard
imagery and correspondence.
January 19, 2008
History
of Salt
Most people probably think of salt as simply that white granular food
seasoning found in a salt shaker on virtually every dining table. It is
that, surely, but it is far more.
January 18, 2008
The
Whipping Boy
The 1970's propelled a forgotten 15th century Romanian prince into international
stardom. No longer was Bela Lugosi the face of Dracula. Vlad III Dracula,
aka “Son of the Dragon” aka “Impaler Prince” aka
“Vlad Tepes” had stepped onto the stage.
January 17, 2008
New
study blames Columbus for syphilis spread
New genetic evidence supports the theory that Christopher Columbus brought
syphilis to Europe from the New World, U.S. researchers say, reviving
a centuries-old debate about the origins of the disease.
January 16, 2008
10
Popular Nursery Rhymes That are Incredibly Depressing, Terrifyingly Violent
and Disturbingly Tragic for Children
In most cultures, nursery rhymes feature children’s verses and songs
that are verbally passed down from one generation to another. But how
many of us realize that many of the most popular English nursery rhymes
for our kids are often extremely violent in nature, filled with tales
of death and suffering, and often contain quite disturbing and tragic
endings?
January 15, 2008
Darwin
Awards: 2007 Darwin Awards
Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin
Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves
from it.
January 14, 2008
A
Holy Dog and a Dog-Headed Saint
What is the context for animal saints and why, over the course of the
last few centuries, have these stories disappeared?
January 13, 2008
The
United States Mint 50 State Quarters® Program
honors the individual 50 states that comprise the United States through
a series of circulating quarters being issued from 1999 - 2008.
January 12, 2008
Medical History of American Presidents
This website tabulates the illnesses of American
Presidents and other
notable people. Both laypersons and physicians will find it interesting.
January 11, 2008
Cursed Hope Diamond blood glow explained
The famed Hope Diamond is a 45.52-carat, deep-blue diamond that sits in
the Smithsonian Institution's United States Gem Collection.
January 10, 2008
Confessions
of a Trader Joe's Junkie
Trader Joe’s was founded by Joe Coulombe. He was running a number
of Pronto Markets when 7-Eleven started to monopolize the market. He had
the idea for a grocery store with more exotic offerings but at decent
prices. It took off (obviously) and he started converting all of his Prontos
into Trader Joe’s.
January 9, 2008
Short, Stout, Has a Handle on Colds
Originally part of a millennia-old Indian yogic tradition, the practice
of nasal irrigation jala neti is performed with a small pot that
looks like a cross between Aladdin's lamp and your grandmother's gravy boat
- the neti pot.
January 8, 2008
Worms infect more poor Americans than thought
Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children,
tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and
other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting
Americans.
January 7, 2008
Ten dogs that changed the world
Several dogs have earned a spot in history starting with a Soviet dog named
Laika and 9 others.
January 6, 2008
Three
Kings Day (Mexico)
Three Kings Day is celebrated on January 6th, twelve days after Christmas.
It is often viewed as the last day of the Christmas season.
Three
Kings - Feast of the Epiphany (overview)
Epiphany,
from the Greek word Epiphania, meaning "revelation" is
based on the biblical story that tells of the Magi or Three
Kings - Caspar, (or Kaspar or Gaspar) Melchior and Balthasar - who
saw a bright star on the night Christ was born and followed it to Bethlehem.
Twelfth
Night (history)
Twelfth Night is a holiday in some branches of Christianity marking
the coming of the Epiphany,
concluding the Twelve
Days of Christmas, and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the
evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of
the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and
observed as a time of merrymaking".
La Befana (Italy)
On January 6, the Feast of Epiphany, La Befana goes out on her broom
to drop off stockings filled with treats to all the sleeping children of Italy.
January 5, 2008
The Hangover That Lasts
Just as the news is not so great for former cigarette smokers, there is
equally bad news for recovering binge-drinkers who have achieved a sobriety
that has lasted years. The more we have binged — and the younger
we have started to binge — the more we experience significant, though
often subtle, effects on the brain and cognition.
January 4, 2008
SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search
Hit the Search button to find songs and videos from your favorite artist
and enjoy them in the site's embedded media player.
January 3, 2008
100 things we didn't know last year
The BBC's list of the
most interesting and unexpected facts which emerged from the daily
news stories and the Magazine documents.
January 2, 2008
Popular New Year's Resolutions
From USA.gov, with links to helpful sites.
January 1, 2008
Welcome 2008! Here are some "eight" related links:
The Eight
A group of American painters who united to oppose various traditions
upheld by the National Academy. They exhibited together
only once — in 1908, but the effect of their gesture was to strengthen
the advance of modernism in
the United States.
The Eight Beatitudes
In the New Testament, the sayings of Jesus reported in Matthew 5:3–11 and
Luke 6:20–22, describing the spiritual qualities of character that should
characterize those influenced by the kingdom of God, and are the way to true
happiness. They form part of the Sermon on the Mount.
The Eight Planets
The definition of "planet" has been changed so that Pluto no longer qualifies.
There are now officially only eight planets in our solar system.
Eight O'Clock Coffee
For nearly 150 years, coffee lovers have begun their day in fine
style with Eight O'Clock Coffee.
Eight Ivy Leagues
The eight “Ivy League Colleges” are Brown (RI), Columbia (NY), Cornell(NY),
Dartmouth(NH), Harvard (Mass.), Univ of Pennsylvania, Princeton (NJ), and Yale
(Conn.)
Eights and Aces
"Aces and eights" is known as the dead man's hand in stud poker.
The phrase dates back to the murder of James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok by Jack
McCall Deadwood, Dakota Territory, on August 2, 1876.
From Trivial Trivia, "eight" related trivia:
Outdoor cats live an average of eight years.
Baseball's National League was born in 1876. Eight competing baseball
teams met in New York City's Grand Central Hotel. The first president
of the new league was Morgan Gardner Bulkeley, who later became a US
Senator. The eight original cities with teams were: Boston, Chicago,
Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Louisville and Hartford.
“Ough” can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following
sentence contains them all: “A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman
strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.”
If the sun stopped shining suddenly, it would take eight minutes for
people on earth to be aware of the fact.
Seven of the eight US Presidents who have died in office - either through
illness or assassination - were elected at precisely 20-year intervals.
In 1976, the first eight Jelly Belly® flavors
were launched: Orange, Green Apple, Root Beer, Very Cherry, Lemon,
Cream Soda, Grape, and Licorice.
The average human head weighs about eight pounds.
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