[The Book of Unusual Knowledge]
WD-40
In 1953, the Rocket Chemical Company began developing a rust -prevention solvent for the aerospace industry. The name WD-40 indicates what the product does (water displacement) and how many attempts it took to perfect it.
Scotch Tape
When the purportedly penny-pinching executives, or "Scotch bosses," at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing company (3M) didn't put enough adhesive on their tape, people complained. The company responded by putting better adhesive on its new product. The tape stuck-- and so did the name.
Aspirin
In 1899, the German company Bayer trademarked the word aspirin as a composite of the scientific name of the drug. "A" indicates that it came from the acetyl group, "spir" represents its derivation from the plant genus spiraea, and "in" was a common ending for drug names in the 19th century.
In the 1930s, mathematician Edward Kasner asked his nephew to think of a word that could represent 1 followed by 100 zeros. The boy, Milton Sirrota, came up with the word googol. The creators of the popular search engine varied the spelling and adopted the word to represent an infinite amount of information.
Rubik's Cube
This brain-teasing toy is named after his creator, Hungarian architect Erno Rubik. First introduced in 1977, the perplexing puzzle was popular in the 1980s, and more than 100 million of the cubes were sold. It sparked a trend, and similar puzzles were created in various shapes. The Rubik's cube has seen a recent resurgence in popularity and retains a place of honor on many desktops.
Jeep
Eugene the Jeep, a character in a 1936 Popeye comic strip, was actually a dog that could walk through walls, climb trees, and fly. When US soldiers were given a new all-terrain vehicle in the early 1940s, they were so impressed that they may have named it after the Superdog.
Starbucks
Moby Dick was the favorite book of one of the three founders of this coffee empire. He wanted to name the company after the story's fabled ship the Pequod, but instead, he and his partners settled on the name of the first mate, Starbuck.
M&Ms
Chocolate pellets coated in sugar were popular in Britain for decades under the brand name Smarties. When Forrest Mars (the son of the founder of the Mars Candy Company) saw soldiers eating them during the Spanish Civil War, he and his business partner, R. Bruce Murrie, bought the US rights. But there was already an American candy product called Smarties, so Mars and Murray used their initials to form a new brand name.
GAP
Don and Doris Fisher opened their first store in 1969 to meet the unique clothing demands of customers between childhood and adulthood, which was identified and popularized as "the generation gap."
NIKE
In 1971, the founders of a small sports-shoe business in Beaverton, Oregon, were searching for a catchy company name. Designer Jeff Johnson suggested Nike, for the Greek goddess of victory. Nike is now the world's largest sportswear manufacturer.
For centuries, maps have provided critical pieces of information. In the past, cartographers used to visit far-flung places around the globe to be able to accurately place where they were. Nowadays, computers and specialized programs like Geographic Information Mapping System create the maps that you probably rely on every day without even thinking about it. Beyond just looking for the quickest route to work or the nearest local Starbucks, maps help us to understand the world, how its population is dispersed, and even how animals migrate. If you've ever wondered what the world looks like from different perspectives, then start scrolling this amazing collection of maps and infographs.
World maps have a tendency to be deceiving. They make some continents or islands look small, and others look gigantic by comparison.
Greenland, when placed in the Northern Hemisphere, always looks massive. Yet, when placed side by side with South America, it is clear that South America could completely swallow the island. It is a whopping 8.2 times bigger.
The United States has a population size of just over 300 million. You would think that Americans would be evenly dispersed throughout the States, but this is not the case.
If you look at the 'red' spots on the map, you will notice that most of the population is concentrated on the West and East coasts. The interior is not a hot spot for people to move to. The Midwest is excellent for farming, and if you're interested in leading a quiet life raising livestock and growing crops then that appears to be the place to be.
As the saying goes, "Everything is bigger in Texas," and that is true for things like trucks, belt buckles, and steak. When it comes to the actual area of Texas when compared to the continent of Africa, there is a clear winner.
Texas is the size of an African country, but it cannot compete with the entire continent. The continent itself engulfs Texas, as it is 45 times bigger. The continent of Africa is not shown to scale on most maps, which is why a misconception that it is so small exists.
To understand this map, you need to know what the orange and the red sections mean. Essentially, the population size in red is equal to the population size in orange. That means almost the same amount of people live on the coasts, as almost all of middle America.
If you're looking to buy some land and start a homestead, then head to the Midwest.
Hundreds of airports dot the continental United States, and instead of being in their own individual zones, they belong to this unique set of borders. Instead of being named after the states, they surround, they are named after the major city that they service.
There are 21 zones in total and within those, each airport is responsible for the airspace above it. That airspace has a radius of about five miles.
Throughout history, empires have risen and fallen. In 1279, the Mongolian Empire was the biggest empire by immediate landmass that the world had ever seen, and it retains this title to this day.
While empires like the Roman and the Greek were also large, they were dispersed and not a cohesive landmass like the Mongolian one. Genghis Khan was the mastermind behind much of this empire.
By now, we know that the United States of America is a massive country that dwarfs smaller nations. New Zealand, found in Oceania, has been superimposed over America to once more prove how big it is.
New Zealand, the country responsible for the magnificent landscapes in The Lord of the Rings sits comfortably inside the borders of America. In fact, it is 3,558 percent smaller, which puts it around the same size as the United Kingdom.
There are two systems of measurement used around the globe: the imperial system and the metric system. Most countries, with a few minor exceptions and one very big one, utilize the metric system of meters, liters, and grams.
The United States uses the imperial system which involves miles, yards, and gallons. What's interesting, is that the British are responsible for the introduction of the imperial system, and it continues to be a holdover from the colonial period. Liberia, in West Africa, and Myanmar, in Southeast Asia are the only other countries that use it.
Bright pink flamingoes can be found in the wild, but only in very specific coastal regions in the world. Flamingoes don't enjoy cold climates, which means their migratory patterns bring them to the sunny shores of the Southern Hemisphere.
The pink on this map shows that flamingoes enjoy hanging out in South America, Africa, and parts of Asia. Next time you see a flamingo perched on one leg, think about how far they have flown to get there.
There's a common stereotype that many Americans have never even left the country to travel the world. Everything they see is from the perspective of the US, including the oceans surrounding the country and the Great Lakes in the middle. So many Americans have trouble conceptualizing the size of other places around the globe. The Mediterranean Sea, for instance: how big is it really? It may not be so easy to grasp its true size from looking at a regular map.
With some complicated graphic manipulation and excellent Photoshop skills, this internet user has come up with a map to show the true scale of the Mediterranean Sea and its surrounding countries -- Overlaid perfectly on the contiguous United States. Goodbye Midwest, hello Italian Riviera!
By now, we know which countries are the most populous in the world: China and India. They also happen to be on the same continent, which means much of the world's population is located within the Asia-Pacific region.
The highlighted circle on this map is where the majority of the world's population resides, and it is all in Asia. If you thought the United States was densely populated, then think again. It only accounts for 5 percent of the global population.
Though there are more than 300 species of hummingbirds around the world, just one is known to frequent Pennsylvania. You’re most likely to see the ruby-throated hummingbird in your backyard; males of this species have distinctive red throats while females are more muted, with gray-tinged throats. Both have glistening, iridescent green backs.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds are the only species of hummingbird that breeds east of the Mississippi River, and these amazing, minuscule birds can flap their wings as fast as 80 times per second!
Ruby-throated hummingbirds nest, and are common, all across Pennsylvania, where they assist the entire ecosystem by pollinating many flowering plants.
Come late April, you may spot the tiny and elusive hummingbird flitting about your yard.
To learn more about these birds that nest in our state and how you can help them keep coming back, click the link below.
Don't even THINK about taking away my chocolate!
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