NOVEMBER 2002
11/29
Sorry no fact today. I kind of spaced on trying to learn stuff. I watched a movie on channel 9 called 'Something to Talk About' which I thought was Steel Magnolias up until like the last 10 minutes. It was all cornygirlie.
Anyway, tomorrow I'll have a brand spanking new funky fresh ultra fly fact served up for ya with a side of slaw.
11/28
I watched a show about Bonobo chimps today. They called the Bonobo "new agey". The culture is dominated by the females and there are like no real fights and stuff. The males have all been calmed down by tons of sex whenever and wherever with whoever. Get in an argument? Sex. Wanna groom each other? Ok. Sex first though. Hey! There's only one banana left who gets it? Let sex decide. You awake? Ok good. Sex now. The males I guess all of a sudden said, 'Hey screw this fighting and yelling crap! We're all getting action! Coolio!'
Here's a new age bonobo.
11/27
I learnt on the History Channel that the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock were pretty much screwed because they didn't know how to take care of themselves- until this Indian named Squanto came along and taught them how do things like with the farming and the fishing and all that. This led up to the first Thanksgiving feast.
In retrospect, helping out might have been a bad call for Squanto considering like 20 years later the settlers in Manhattan were apparently kicking around Native American severed heads like 'soccer balls'. Here's a link to that story and other Thanksgiving day celebration activities.
11/26
The collapse of Enron and other major corporations have created a billion dollar industry. An industry of made up of bankruptcy lawyers.
If only these companies handled their business like CoffeeKid... we wouldn't be in this mess.
11/25
I learnt that cuttlefish are crazy like aliens or something they move all creepy hovery and they change colors to communicate with other cuttlefreaks all bizarre and they can get camouflage sneaky with the color change thing and then they squirt out ink all gross and squirty and I bet they smell bad and they got starey eyes like they know something or something and I don't trust them.
But we'll still eat em up. Here's a recipe. Pass.
11/24
I saw on the news tonite that the NY metro area ranks dead last in cellular phone coverage with like dead zones and stuff. I guess if you hit a dead zone you should just duck into a restaurant or movie theater because they always seem to work fine in there.
Here's a website that lets you know where your local dead zones are.
11/23
I watched a show called Rock The House on VH1 where Tommy Lee went to the house of a big fan and secretly redecorated a room all 'rock and roll'. It was a big surprise for the fan who has been a Tommy Lee/Crue fan since '83. He even has the same 'Mayhem' tattoo that Tommy has. The fan was freaked out by the room and speechless -especially when Tommy Lee walked in. The whole thing was surprisingly touching.
Here's how Tommy recommends steralizing yer piercing jewelry.
11/22
I watched this kids science show called Sci-Squad today and they taught me that if I take a plastic bottle of soda and poke a small hole in the top of the cap with a knife or something, then shake the bottle up like crazy- it will function as a 'supersoaker.' I'm sure parents will really appreciate that project.
Why searching around I found this thing that said it was the "safe way to let your kids play with fire". It's kinda cool.
11/21
I learnt that at the beginning of the Cold War we built NORAD inside a solid granite mountain in the Rockies. It was built to survive a nuclear strike. Its construction involved one of the greatest engineering achievements ever and the technology at NORAD is at the highest level- monitoring activities all over the globe to protect North America.
That's all well and good... but if they're so super advanced with technology at NORAD... why is their website so super sucky? Also NORAD stands for "North American Aerospace Defense Command" How they'd get N-O-R-A-D out of that?
11/20
Today I watched the Burt Wolf show and he talked about why we hold our knife and fork differently from the Europeans. In America most people cut their meat with their right hand then put down the knife and then put the fork in their right and eat. This was started up because people back in the day had issues with knives at the table and felt they should be in hand as little as possible. But then the Europeans changed to a new style that they considered more polite. But we were like, "Screw that! We're stickin with the switching!"
Here's some more forkin' history for ya.
11/19
I watched some BET today and saw the latest Missy Elliott video for her song 'Work It'. It was a most excellent video. I saw in the credits at the end that it was directed by 'Dave Meyers'.
This Dave Meyers guy has been way busy (also here's the Work It song. dig it.)
11/18
I watched a show about wine today and this snooty dude told me that I should never hold my wine glass by the 'bowl'- he said it should be held only by the 'stem'. He said that if I hold it by the bowl I get fingerprints on my glass and I heat up the temperature of my wine. What he didn't realize is... it's none of his frickin business! Maybe I like my fingerprints! Maybe I want to warm up my wine! I told him F-U and turned off the tv.
But if you wanna be a wine snob...
11/17
Sorry no fact today. I watched drag racing, bowling, and trick pool but I couldn't remember dang dang thang.
11/16
The first person to walk in space (more like float around in space but whatever) was this Russian dude named Alexei Leonov. The Ruskies bragged about how cool they were that they walked in space first. What they didn't tell the world was that Alexei's suit ballooned up and he freaked out cause he almost couldn't get back in the ship, and that tons of stuff failed on re-entry, and that the astronauts crashlanded 2000 miles off course and almost got eaten by wolves.
Like building things? Wanna go to Mars?
11/15
I watched a show about the Witness Protection Program today. It's a tough road for people who go into the program. (Not as tough as the people they rat out, but still pretty tough.) By the way if you ever end up in the program and the gov't dudes ask you where you want to live- what ever city you say you'd like to live in becomes a guarantee that you won't be living in that city.
Here's some FBI files on that class act Sammy the Bull (CW).
11/14
A pimp spit in Phoebe's mouth.
*lots of questions on this. this fact is from Friends.
11/13
On Montel today there was this woman Sylvia Browne who was analyzing people's dreams and stuff. Apparently most reoccurring dreams are caused by contact from people who have crossed over to the 'other side' and are trying to make contact. There is also a chance that it is a past life experience that was never resolved. Something like that...
Here's thing for you to find out what you were like in a past life. Me? Warrior. Wales. 1300AD.
11/12
Today I done learnt from TechTV that there is a really easy way to encrypt files and folders on your computer if you got secret stuff or whatever. You can keep your top secret stuff (wink wink) ... um... top secret.
Here's a link to the program that does done does it.
11/11
I found out today that it wasn't Hitler's marketing department that thought up the image of the swastika. It's actually been around for a long time usually representing good luck.
Here it be in its previous incarnation.
(Incidentally, the nazi marketing dudes almost went with a yellow smiley face with a german helment on top as a logo but they found out there were copyright issues there so they went with the swastika.)
11/10
I found out today that the smartest animal on the planet besides us isn't a monkey or a dolphin or something. It's a parrot. They showed this one that solves problems at the level of a six year old kid. But this is testing only on like a mensa type level. It doesn't account for crazy secret smarty smart weirdness that like elephants have or something.
Here's some info about Alex the parrot who knows alot of stuff.
11/9
On MTV I saw an hour long promo for Justin Timberlake and his new album. He was bitching on and on about how difficult and annoying it is to do a publicity tour and how terrible it is to answer the same questions over and over. Waah!! Bitchboy! Waaaaah!
As his new single says... 'Cry Me A River'... waah...
(download no longer available. other sites link to it for straight downloading so i can't keep it up cause it's uncool.)
11/8
I saw a show today on public access called 'Pet News' that was bashing Procter and Gamble for continuing to test products on animals. I guess P&G needs to put toothpaste in a rabbits eye to make sure they know what happens if we get toothpaste in our own eyes. My guess is.. it stings. Most corporations have cut the crap with this but P&G are apparently still dicks.
But I found this and this... so not sure wtf...
11/7
The most contaminated place in the country is the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state. We made alot of nuclear bombs there but apparently didn't know what to do with the waste. We put it in big tanks but they started leaking after ten years. The whole thing is a big screwup coverup shady lazy government type dealio and the guy on tv said the land around Hanford is now a 'National Sacrifice'.
Here's a site that is keeping an eye on what's up over there.
11/6
So there's this 'Stone of Destiny' that dates back to the bible. The Scots had it. Then like 700 years ago the Brits invaded and took the stone. It became the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey. The Scots were pissed and some Scottish dude in 1950 broke in to the Abbey and stole it back. Then the Brits got mad and the Scots gave it back. Then in 1996, the Brits wanted to make nice with the Scots and officially gave it to the Scots..
Here's the stone. Happy at home.
11/5
Around 500 people live in Talkeetna, Alaska and the men outnumber the women 5 to 1. So the guys organized an annual WinterFest to attract some single chicks. The one drawback about shacking up with a Talkeena dude is that most live with no heat and no indoor plumbing. So the WinterFest includes a competition for the single chicks to show off their survivor skills.
They also have the Annual Moose Dropping Festival which is probably less effective in terms of attracting chicks.
11/4
The TV told me that not all life forms have to compete and get crazy over the whole reproduction find a mate thing. This thing called a sea anemone reproduces by splitting itself in half and making a clone of itself. Probably genetically way back in the time of creation the early guy anemones just got sick of trying to figure out what makes chick anemones tick... and said screw it. So to speak. Kind of.
Here's some gibberish about asexual reproduction.
11/3
I watched Mail Call and today the sarge guy yelled at me about the new Marine uniforms. The new uniforms have a different kind of camouflage called 'Marpat'. They changed the pattern of the camouflage to add a better sense of 'disruption' and it apparently it's better for stealthing around.
Too bad they have to use overly recycled water to get them washed. Not that the Marines have been complaining...
11/2
I done watched a show about powertools on the History Channel. In the 1920's, this dude Edmund Michel was like checking out these dudes with machetes hacking away at sugarcane and he decided there had to be an easier way then with the whole machete thing so he thought up the idea of a circular saw. That eventually became the company called Skilsaw.
Whatever. Here's a picture of a goat.
11/1
I watched a show bout snakes in Costa Rica today and found out that the coral snake looks a heck of alot like a milk snake. Their markings are very similar. But a coral snake can kill you dead and milk snake is pretty much harmless. Doesn't really matter to me though. Either way... I'm running.
Here's a milk snake and here's the coral.
*Apparently my link to the coral snake picture was not a coral snake but a king snake. My apologies to anyone who got bit thinking a coral snake wasn't a coral snake. Here's a correct picture of a coral... and a poem someone sent in.
Red meets black, friend of Jack or
Red meets black, poison lack.
Red meets yellow, kill a fellow.