Inside an asbestos suit coated with aluminum, a fire fighter may experience a sweaty, but tolerable, 85 degrees to 100 degrees F, while attempting to extinguish an inferno of jet fuel raging at over 2,000 degrees. Aluminum's reflective qualities are used in hundreds of ways.

An observation by author Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852): "When a man is young, he is so wild he is insufferable. When he is old, he plays the saint and becomes insufferable again."

Don't use the on/off switch on your personal computer any more than necessary. There's a surge of electricity every time the switch is turned on. For fragile computer chips, it's much like starting the day by jumping into an icy pool. To prolong the life of your home computer, turn it on when you arrive home from work and turn it off again when ...Read more

There are 42 other year-round research stations on Antarctica. All told, about 4,000 people live on Antarctica in summer, 1,000 in winter.

The Official Preppy Handbook notes the bloody mary to be the favored mixed drink amongst preppies. The following liquor brands were cited to be "preppy" in a sequel to The Official Preppy Handbook, Tipsy in Madras: Gin (Gilbey's, Gordon's), Rum (Mount Gay & Bacardi), Scotch (Dewar's, J&B), Whiskey (Jack Daniel's & Jim Beam), Vermouth (...Read more

A "googol" is a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The name is said to have come from the nine-year-old nephew of the American mathematician, Edward Kasner. A googolplex is the number 1 followed by a googol of zeros.

More than 45 percent of the homes in the United States have dust mites residing in them in significant numbers. The microscopic creatures burrow themselves by the thousands into plush furniture and carpeting to consume flakes from human skin and animal dander. Though mites are harmless, many people are allergic to their waste. When a person ...Read more

A tanka is a Japanese verse form of 31 syllables in five unrhymed lines, the first and third having five syllables each, and the others seven.

Because of its use as a staple of U.S. Navy messes since the mid-nineteenth century, the humble white bean was christened "navy bean."

A convenient source of protein that required no refrigeration, 100 million pounds of Spam were shipped to Allied troops during World War II. Russian president Nikita Kruschev is quoted as saying, “Without Spam, we wouldn’t have been able to feed our army.” The emblematic hard-times food has

George Washington left no direct descendant. Though his wife Martha had four children by a previous marriage, Washington never sired a child to continue his family line.

It was Swiss chemist Jacques Edwin Brandenberger who invented cellophane, back in 1908.

After his death, Alexander the Great's remains were preserved in a huge crock of honey. Among the ancient Egyptians, it was common practice to bury the dead in this manner.

The females of many species of moths are wingless. To compensate for this, their bodies are always larger and heavier than those of their male counterparts.

North Carolina is the home of the Wright Brothers' National Monument and Visitor Center, near Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. The center contains a recently refurbished replica of the original Wright Flyer as well as other "First Flight" memorabilia. The center commemorates one of America's historic moments. A nearby sand dune supports the ...Read more

John Adams, credited by Thomas Jefferson as the unofficial, tireless whip of the independence-minded, wrote his wife Abigail on July 3, "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding

Halley's comet, one of the most famous ever known, returns to Earth every 76 years, and has been observed and recorded for more than 3,000 years.

When Princess Maria Theresa of Spain was betrothed to Louis XIV of France in 1615, she gave her fiancé an engagement gift of chocolate, packaged in an elegantly ornate chest. Their marriage was symbolic of the marriage of chocolate in the Spanish-Franco culture.

Before he catapulted to fame, Bob Dylan was paid $50 in 1960 for playing the harmonica on a Harry Belafonte album.

Praying mantids are one of the few insects that can turn their heads. They have excellent vision, and hunt insects (and sometimes small vertebrates) by stealth and a rapid striking attack. No mantis is poisonous.