At what age do we do the most of our growing?
When does someone usually stop growing?
Who is the tallest person in the world?
Sunday, August 29, 2010
rest
How much sleep does the average american get a night?
How much sleep should we be getting?
Are naps healthy?
What is rest exactly?
Does our brain function differently when we're lacking sleep?
How much sleep should we be getting?
Are naps healthy?
What is rest exactly?
Does our brain function differently when we're lacking sleep?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Money
How many different currencies are there in the world?
How many different words are there for "money?"
Where is the most expensive place to live in the world?
What is the poorest country? the richest country?
Is a heads up penny lucky?
Who is the richest person in the world?
Does money separate us or bring us together?
How many different words are there for "money?"
Where is the most expensive place to live in the world?
What is the poorest country? the richest country?
Is a heads up penny lucky?
Who is the richest person in the world?
Does money separate us or bring us together?
Wishing
Where does the idea of a genie come from?
What was the first story with a fairy godmother?
Where was the first "wishing well?" Who came up with the idea of one?
Many cultures throughout history have regarded water as a sacred gift from the gods, because of its vital necessity to human existence and surprising rarity in a potable form. The idea of a wishing well, a body of water which will grant wishes, comes from this tradition. Wishing wells can be found all over the world, ranging from man-made fountains which are believed to be lucky to natural springs which are said to have unusual powers. Many people believe that wishing wells reek of superstition, but large numbers of them toss offerings of coins into fountains and wells anyway, just in case.
The idea of water as a sacred object is an ancient one. Many religions view water as pure, because of the clear color and minimal flavor. Drinkable water is also extremely rare, considering the abundance of water on Earth, so when early peoples found springs, wells, and other deposits of water, it is not surprising that they ascribed the appearance of water to the gods. Numerous superstitions were associated with water by pagan religions, including the belief that if someone looking into a wishing well on midsummer's day, the water would reveal the face of the viewer's spouse to be.
Because drinkable water is so vitally necessary, most cultures built structures such as wells to protect springs and other sources of water. In addition, religious beliefs about the power of the wishing well arose, to enforce the idea that water was a sacred and valuable resource. Water was also freely offered to guests, visitors, and travelers, regardless as to where they came from and what their intentions were. Religious pilgrims often stopped at wishing wells and sacred springs for fresh water, and sometimes stayed to contemplate nature and search for inner peace.
The idea of throwing a coin into a wishing well is also ancient. According to many cultures, a wishing well will grant the desires of someone who stands over the well and either speaks the wish aloud, or concentrates on it while drinking the water of the well. The gods, however, are unlikely to give away something for nothing, and therefore most wishers left offerings, which frequently took the form of food left next to the wishing well, although money was also an appropriate symbolic offering.
Although many people are unaware of the thousands of years of history behind the wishing well, visitors to wells and fountains around the world throw a substantial amount of currency into them. This can lead to problems, as coins can contaminate drinkable water, or clog fountain mechanisms. For this reason, some wells and fountains have signs requesting that visitors not throw offerings into the wishing well, although they are welcome to leave gifts next to the well.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-wishing-well.htm
Who began wishing on shooting stars?
Why do we make a wish when we blow out birthday candles?
Why do we wish with "wish bones?"
If you tell someone your wish will it not come true?
What was the first story with a fairy godmother?
Where was the first "wishing well?" Who came up with the idea of one?
Many cultures throughout history have regarded water as a sacred gift from the gods, because of its vital necessity to human existence and surprising rarity in a potable form. The idea of a wishing well, a body of water which will grant wishes, comes from this tradition. Wishing wells can be found all over the world, ranging from man-made fountains which are believed to be lucky to natural springs which are said to have unusual powers. Many people believe that wishing wells reek of superstition, but large numbers of them toss offerings of coins into fountains and wells anyway, just in case.
The idea of water as a sacred object is an ancient one. Many religions view water as pure, because of the clear color and minimal flavor. Drinkable water is also extremely rare, considering the abundance of water on Earth, so when early peoples found springs, wells, and other deposits of water, it is not surprising that they ascribed the appearance of water to the gods. Numerous superstitions were associated with water by pagan religions, including the belief that if someone looking into a wishing well on midsummer's day, the water would reveal the face of the viewer's spouse to be.
Because drinkable water is so vitally necessary, most cultures built structures such as wells to protect springs and other sources of water. In addition, religious beliefs about the power of the wishing well arose, to enforce the idea that water was a sacred and valuable resource. Water was also freely offered to guests, visitors, and travelers, regardless as to where they came from and what their intentions were. Religious pilgrims often stopped at wishing wells and sacred springs for fresh water, and sometimes stayed to contemplate nature and search for inner peace.
The idea of throwing a coin into a wishing well is also ancient. According to many cultures, a wishing well will grant the desires of someone who stands over the well and either speaks the wish aloud, or concentrates on it while drinking the water of the well. The gods, however, are unlikely to give away something for nothing, and therefore most wishers left offerings, which frequently took the form of food left next to the wishing well, although money was also an appropriate symbolic offering.
Although many people are unaware of the thousands of years of history behind the wishing well, visitors to wells and fountains around the world throw a substantial amount of currency into them. This can lead to problems, as coins can contaminate drinkable water, or clog fountain mechanisms. For this reason, some wells and fountains have signs requesting that visitors not throw offerings into the wishing well, although they are welcome to leave gifts next to the well.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-wishing-well.htm
Who began wishing on shooting stars?
Why do we make a wish when we blow out birthday candles?
Why do we wish with "wish bones?"
If you tell someone your wish will it not come true?
Trees
Where does the term "tree-hugger" come from?
Where is the oldest tree on earth? How old is it?
Where is the tallest tree on earth? How tall is it?
How many trees are cut down everyday?
How many trees are planted everyday?
How many trees are planted on Earth day?
Is Johnny Appleseed a real person?
Johnny Appleseed was a legendary American who planted and supplied apple trees to much of the United States of America. Many people think that Johnny Appleseed was a fictional character, but he was a real person.
Johnny was a skilled nurseryman who grew trees and supplied apple seeds to the pioneers in the mid-western USA. Appleseed gave away and sold many trees. He owned many nurseries in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana, where he grew his beloved apple trees. Although he was a very successful man, Appleseed lived a simple life. It is said that as Johnny traveled, he wore his cooking pot on his head as a hat!
Johnny Appleseed was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1774. His real name was John Chapman, but he was called Johnny Appleseed because of his love for growing apple trees.
Johnny died at the age of 70; he is buried in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He had spent 50 years growing apple trees and traveling to spread his precious trees around his country.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/school/usa/people/Appleseedindex.shtml
Where is the oldest tree on earth? How old is it?
Where is the tallest tree on earth? How tall is it?
How many trees are cut down everyday?
How many trees are planted everyday?
How many trees are planted on Earth day?
Is Johnny Appleseed a real person?
Johnny Appleseed was a legendary American who planted and supplied apple trees to much of the United States of America. Many people think that Johnny Appleseed was a fictional character, but he was a real person.
Johnny was a skilled nurseryman who grew trees and supplied apple seeds to the pioneers in the mid-western USA. Appleseed gave away and sold many trees. He owned many nurseries in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana, where he grew his beloved apple trees. Although he was a very successful man, Appleseed lived a simple life. It is said that as Johnny traveled, he wore his cooking pot on his head as a hat!
Johnny Appleseed was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1774. His real name was John Chapman, but he was called Johnny Appleseed because of his love for growing apple trees.
Johnny died at the age of 70; he is buried in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He had spent 50 years growing apple trees and traveling to spread his precious trees around his country.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/school/usa/people/Appleseedindex.shtml
Ain't no rest for the wicked
Where does this saying come from?
Meaning
Literal meaning - the wicked shall be tormented.
Origin
The phrase was originally expressed as 'no peace for the wicked' and refers to the eternal torment of Hell that awaited sinners. Not surprisingly, the it derives from the Bible - Isaiah 57. The expression was first printed in English in Miles Coverdale's Bible, 1535:
20: But the wicked are like the raginge see, that ca not rest, whose water fometh with the myre & grauel.
21 Eueso ye wicked haue no peace, saieth my God.
The phrase appears in print periodically of the centuries, often with direct reference back to the biblical text. Its use in a figurative secular sense became much more common in the 1930s and it is now usually used for mild comic effect. The 1930s usage picked up after 1933 when Harold Gray used the phrase as a title for one of his highly popular Little Orphan Annie cartoons, which was syndicated in several US newspapers.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/257500.html
Meaning
Literal meaning - the wicked shall be tormented.
Origin
The phrase was originally expressed as 'no peace for the wicked' and refers to the eternal torment of Hell that awaited sinners. Not surprisingly, the it derives from the Bible - Isaiah 57. The expression was first printed in English in Miles Coverdale's Bible, 1535:
20: But the wicked are like the raginge see, that ca not rest, whose water fometh with the myre & grauel.
21 Eueso ye wicked haue no peace, saieth my God.
The phrase appears in print periodically of the centuries, often with direct reference back to the biblical text. Its use in a figurative secular sense became much more common in the 1930s and it is now usually used for mild comic effect. The 1930s usage picked up after 1933 when Harold Gray used the phrase as a title for one of his highly popular Little Orphan Annie cartoons, which was syndicated in several US newspapers.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/257500.html
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Price is Right
When was the first episode of the Price is Right?
How have prices changed in the past 50 years? 100 years?
What would you do for a million dollars?
How have prices changed in the past 50 years? 100 years?
What would you do for a million dollars?
Loneliness
What makes us feel alone?
Can being lonely affect someone's life?
Loneliness
Social Isolation
What makes us happiest in life? Some people may point to fabulous fame and fortune. But, hands down, surveys show that friends and family are the real prize. Yet even though our need to connect is innate, some of us always go home alone. You may have people around you throughout the day or you may even be in a lifelong marriage, yet you may feel a deep down loneliness. Not surprisingly, isolation can affect one's mental and physical health to great detriment.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/loneliness
Can being lonely affect someone's life?
Loneliness
Social Isolation
What makes us happiest in life? Some people may point to fabulous fame and fortune. But, hands down, surveys show that friends and family are the real prize. Yet even though our need to connect is innate, some of us always go home alone. You may have people around you throughout the day or you may even be in a lifelong marriage, yet you may feel a deep down loneliness. Not surprisingly, isolation can affect one's mental and physical health to great detriment.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/loneliness
Out of the corner of my eye
Do our eyes really have corners?
Where did the game "I spy with my little eye" originate?
Origin
The game I Spy originated in the early 20th century. It remains a common pastime played by children - albeit often initiated by adults to occupy bored children on car journeys and the like. One person secretly choose an object that they can 'spy with their little eye' and the others take turns to guess the name of the object.
The game isn't especially old and the first record of it that I can find is in The Winnipeg Free Press, December 1937:
"Other games ... are: What is My Thought Like, I Spy With My Little Eye (children love this) and Bird, Beast, Flower or Fish."
The game spawned a highly successful series of I-SPY spotter's guide books made for British children. These were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
The guessing game was preceded by another children's game called I Spy (or Hy Spy). This was a variant of what is now called Hide and Seek and was known in the UK from the 18th century. John Brand refers to it in his
History and antiquities of the town and county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1789:
"'I spye', is the usual exclamation at a childish game called 'Hie, spy, hie'."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/192000.html
Why do we notice things out of the corner of our eyes?
When we direct our attention to an object, we usually look directly at it, but research just published in the journal Neuron looks at how we focus our attention on things that we notice ‘out of the corner of our eye’.
A research team, led by David Melcher from Oxford Brookes University, has been investigating this process, known to psychologists as implicit selective attention.
They found when focusing on a certain attribute of visual experience – such as colour, the visual system automatically groups other objects of the same colour that move together, even if they are not directly involved in the task at hand.
They also found that objects are understood by the visual system in different ways, depending on whether the object was the focus of attention, or outside of it.
Objects being focused on were understood as wholes by using the fact that all the visual elements have the same surface, whereas objects outside the current focus were grouped in a more basic way, using the fact that visual elements are close together or move in a similar way.
http://mindhacks.com/2005/06/08/out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye/
Where did the game "I spy with my little eye" originate?
Origin
The game I Spy originated in the early 20th century. It remains a common pastime played by children - albeit often initiated by adults to occupy bored children on car journeys and the like. One person secretly choose an object that they can 'spy with their little eye' and the others take turns to guess the name of the object.
The game isn't especially old and the first record of it that I can find is in The Winnipeg Free Press, December 1937:
"Other games ... are: What is My Thought Like, I Spy With My Little Eye (children love this) and Bird, Beast, Flower or Fish."
The game spawned a highly successful series of I-SPY spotter's guide books made for British children. These were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
The guessing game was preceded by another children's game called I Spy (or Hy Spy). This was a variant of what is now called Hide and Seek and was known in the UK from the 18th century. John Brand refers to it in his
History and antiquities of the town and county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1789:
"'I spye', is the usual exclamation at a childish game called 'Hie, spy, hie'."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/192000.html
Why do we notice things out of the corner of our eyes?
When we direct our attention to an object, we usually look directly at it, but research just published in the journal Neuron looks at how we focus our attention on things that we notice ‘out of the corner of our eye’.
A research team, led by David Melcher from Oxford Brookes University, has been investigating this process, known to psychologists as implicit selective attention.
They found when focusing on a certain attribute of visual experience – such as colour, the visual system automatically groups other objects of the same colour that move together, even if they are not directly involved in the task at hand.
They also found that objects are understood by the visual system in different ways, depending on whether the object was the focus of attention, or outside of it.
Objects being focused on were understood as wholes by using the fact that all the visual elements have the same surface, whereas objects outside the current focus were grouped in a more basic way, using the fact that visual elements are close together or move in a similar way.
http://mindhacks.com/2005/06/08/out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye/
Down the Street
Why do people say "down the street" instead of "up the street?"
Would you say down the street if you were walking up a hill?
Why do you say up the road?
Over the hill and through the woods?
Down the shore?
Would you say down the street if you were walking up a hill?
Why do you say up the road?
Over the hill and through the woods?
Down the shore?
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