Trivia

The history of the brassiere, more commonly known as the bra, reveals that its form and purpose has been shaped by the current fashion trend. Along with the many changes to this female undergarment comes a debate over who should be credited with the creation of the modern bra.

Few disagree that the bra dates as far back as 2,500 BC, when Minoan women on the Greek island of Crete wore a garment similar to a bra, which lifted their busts out of their clothes, leaving them exposed. The custom of ancient Greek and Roman women, to minimize the bust size, completely reversed the Minoan trend. To minimize their chest size, these women strapped bands over their busts to rein them in.

The debate over the true inventor of the modern bra has not been entirely resolved. A gentleman named Hoag Levins spent a great deal of time in the U.S. Patent Office doing research for a book, and concluded that Marie Tucek obtained a patent for the first brassiere in 1893. She named her invention the "breast supporter," because it had separate pockets of each, straps that went over the shoulders, and hook-and-eye fasteners in the back. Unfortunately, Marie never marketed her invention, which very much resembled the modern bra.

In 1913, Mary Phelps Jacob, a.k.a. Caresse Crosby, a New York socialite who is credited with inventing the first modern bra, invented it out of necessity. For a prominent social gathering she planned to attend, she purchased a sheer evening gown. The undergarment at that time consisted of a corset stiffened by whaleback bones, one that would simply ruin the appearance of Mary's new gown. She enlisted the help of her French maid, Marie, and together they fashioned a basic, backless brassiere made from two handkerchiefs, ribbon, and cord.

The bra, not Mary, was the belle of the ball, and Mary began sewing bras for friends and family. When she received a request for a bra from a stranger, who enclosed money for the undergarment, dollar signs flashed in her eyes, Mary grabbed her sketches, and headed straight for the U.S. Patent Office. The Office granted the patent for the "Backless Brassiere" to Mary in November 1914. After making several hundred bras, and selling few, Mary closed the doors to her young business. She had made the fatal mistake of failing to publicize her venture and, in an unwise business move, she sold her rights to the brassiere to the Connecticut based Warner Brothers Corset Company for a token $1,500.

Since Mary's basic bra arrived on the scene, people have adjusted its design many times. For example, the fad in the roaring 1920s, the flat-chested "flapper" era, was to bind the bust. Sensibility came from Ida Rosenthal, an immigrant from Mother Russia, who, together with her husband, William, founded the a company called Maidenform. She felt strongly that all women did not fit into the same bust size category, painstakingly grouped women into different cup sizes, and engineered bras to fit females throughout all stages of life, from puberty to maturity.

Today, the types of bras available are too numerous to count, but concerns exist over potential health risks associated with wearing a bra. A 1994 study of 4,730 women, conducted by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijerin, suggests that wearing a bra may increase the risk of breast cancer. Critics found the study to be flawed, because the results did not include key criteria, especially that of the participants' lifestyles. Until there is conclusive evidence that the bra poses a serious health threat to women, it will continue to support them.

It is only appropriate that an Irish immigrant to the United States be the one credited with originating the dollar sign. Oliver Pollock sailed the high seas at the age of twenty-three, and settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This young entrepreneur rapidly established himself as a wealthy and influential West Indies trader.

Pollock moved his operation to Louisiana, where he amassed even more wealth as a trader, and as a plantation owner. His success enabled him to provide supplies to the Patriots’ cause in the Revolutionary War, and to maintain close contact and a degree of influence with Congress. Pollock’s success allowed him easily to purchase military supplies to support "the cause," as the Spanish Empire had an outpost in New Orleans, Louisiana. In his dealings with the Spaniards, Pollock used their currency, the peso.

In true Spanish tradition, Pollock used an abbreviation for pesos, yet his penmanship made the abbreviation appear to be the transposition of the letters "p" and "s."

Prior to 1775, the fledgling nations monetary system was in disarray, and needed to be revamped. By 1775, Congress decided to rectify the situation by backing all of its legal tender with the most commonly circulated coins that were, coincidentally, Spanish coins minted in the New World. Americans then began trading with "Spanish milled dollars," later termed "dollars," as Americans shed the "pounds" that were the vestiges of British rule.

Congressman Robert Morris, to whom Pollock addressed his billing records, perpetuated the use of the dollar sign, and was the first high government official to give his blessing to the "s" with the two lines through it.

The appearance of the dollar sign in print, in a 1797 book by Chauncey Lee, signified the acceptance of the dollar as a purely American symbol, much as is the bald eagle. And, no, the dollar sign formed by placing the letter "U" over the letter "S" is not an abbreviation for Uncle Sam, as some have suggested!

Yes!

At least three different plants turn the tables on insects and eat them instead of the reverse. Each passively, but cleverly, lures its prey, captures its kill with ease, digests its meal by using its plant juices, and then prepares for its next unsuspecting victim.

The pitcher plant of Borneo and of tropical Asia, which has a back-up lure in place should the first fail, is the most notorious of the trio. This plant exudes the scent of sweet nectar that most insects find appealing, and when one approaches to investigate, it finds an equally attractive pitcher-shaped plant with a red-hued rim and cover. Once the insect steps over the rim to drink from the plant, it loses its footing on the smooth interior, slides to the bottom of the abyss, and lands in a pool of liquid, which digests the victim once it has drowned.

The Sundew plant, aptly named for the sticky fluid on the upper part of each leaf that appears to the insect to be dewdrops, packages its victim before digesting it. Small, hair-like projections, which cover the surface of each leaf, are responsible for the sticky fluid on each leaf that lures the insect to the plant. Once the insect touches one of these "hairs," it is stuck, and the other hairs on the upper side of the leaf bend inward towards the center of the leaf, to wrap it in a neat, tight package, thus ensuring that it will stay for dinner. The "dew," which for the insect turned out to be a don't, digests it over the course of two days, after which the crafty hairs reopen for business.

The Venus's-flytrap, hailing from parts of North and of South Carolina, is the most gripping of these predatory plants, and practices true Southern hospitality by inviting any fly to stop by at any time. The plant waits for visitors with its leaves spread open and, when a fly happens by and touches one of the hairs that rim the plant's leaves, the Venus's-flytrap snaps its jaws shut, and has lived up to its name. After the plant's juices digest the fly, its leaves reopen, and the unassuming plant awaits its next caller.

Surface tension!

Surface tension plays matchmaker in changing the status of a bubble from being single and solitary, to being part of a couple, or part of a multiple bubble group.

Uniting the bubbles temporarily destroys the surface tension's equilibrium, but once the surface tension joins the bubbles, it establishes a new balance.

The internal air pressure of the single, solitary bubble slightly exceeds that of the air surrounding it, because the surface tension reduces the bubble's surface as it squeezes it into its round shape. The product of being squeezed is a buoyant bubble, which rises to the top of the water's surface, because of its own inner water level. The bubble happily floats about, surrounded by uniform surface tension, guided by the momentum it picked up when being formed, and by changes in air pressure.

In turbulent water, the surface tension pulls the water's surface into a slope, or meniscus, the bubble rides the wave, and floats to its crest.

The meniscus, though it does not extend far into the water, manages to divert the bubbles' attention away from each other to objects, such as the sides of the bathtub, a human body, a rubber ducky, etc. Because the slope's extension range is short, the range of the force between the bubbles is also short.

Two or more bubbles drifting close to each other do not pass each other like ships in the night if their surface tensions overlap. This overlap destroys their equilibrium, and, to compensate for the low tension between the bubbles, the high surface tension surrounding them forces them together and restores their equilibrium. If, however, the surface tension forces them together too rapidly, we have a case of fatal attraction, as the two bubbles collide and burst.

Technically speaking, when the bubbles meet, they join at the point of the smallest surface area and, if they join in the middle of calm waters, the energy level they give off as they connect can be seen to the naked eye as circular ripples. Alone together at last.

A sundial is a simple, yet accurate, instrument, which tells time by the movement of the shadow a pointer casts upon a dial, which marks the hours of the day. The shadow moves as the sun changes position in the sky throughout the day, and the dial tracks this movement.

For a sundial to be accurate, the pointer must be slanted at an angle equal to the latitude of its location. Vertical pointers are useful at showing the correct time only at one latitude and during one season, and flat dials must have unequally spaced hour marks upon them for accuracy.

Prior to the invention of the sundial, man guessed at the time of day by observing the sun's movement from morning until night. Sunrise and sunset required no calculation, but mid day, or noon, when the sun's position in the sky was at its peak, proved to be more difficult to predict. The times in between these three reference points left them baffled.

After scratching their heads for quite some time, it finally dawned on ancient man that shadows cast changed in length, and moved throughout the day. They concluded that, instead of craning their necks to watch the sun change position throughout the day, they could simply look down at the ground and note the passing of time by observing the change in shadow lengths. Additionally, this shadow clock method proved to be more accurate.

Prototypes of the sundial most likely consisted of poles stuck in the ground surrounded by rocks. The pole served as a pointer, and the stones as markers. The use of poles as pointers gave way to immense stone columns, one of which is Cleopatra's Needle in New York's Central Park. Sundials of smaller proportions were used, such as a "L" shaped Egyptian model dating back 3,000 years, which lays flat on the longer of its two legs, which bears marks indicating periods of time.

Around 300 BC, a Chaldean astronomer invented a bowl-shaped sundial with a pointer that cast a shadow onto the dial, which marked 12 hours of the day as the shadow inched along. Because this sundial proved to be highly accurate, its use continued for centuries.

More accurate, and portable, watches and clocks replaced sundials, as time telling instruments, but sundials still exist as ornamental additions to gardens. Oddly enough, some crude vertical sundials used for telling time, may be found on the walls and windowsills of old houses, and are configured so that a nail or the edge of the window casing casts a shadow. Perhaps, they served as the poor man's answer to the Swiss watch!

The story of how the song "Happy Birthday to You" came to be, began as a sweet one, that later soured. Two sisters, Mildred Hill, a teacher at the Louisville, Kentucky Experimental Kindergarten, and Dr. Patty Hill, the principal of the same school, together wrote a song for the children, entitled "Good Morning to All." When Mildred combined her musical talents, as the resident expert on spiritual songs, and as the organist for her church, with her sister's expertise in the area of Kindergarten Education, "Good Morning to All" was sure to be a success.

The sisters published the song in a collection entitled "Song Stories of the Kindergarten" in 1893. Thirty-one years later, after Dr. Patty Hill became the head of the Department of Kindergarten Education at Columbia University's Teacher College, a gentleman by the name of Robert H. Coleman published the song, without the sisters' permission. To add insult to injury, he added a second verse, the familiar "Happy Birthday to You."

Mr. Coleman's addition of the second verse popularized the song and, eventually, the sisters' original first verse disappeared. "Happy Birthday to You," the one and only birthday song, had altogether replaced the sisters' original title, "Good Morning to All."

After Mildred died in 1916, Patty, together with a third sister named Jessica, sprang into action and took Mr. Coleman to court. In court, they proved that they, indeed, owned the melody. Because the family legally owns the song, it is entitled to royalties from it, whenever it is sung for commercial purposes.

The reasons we laugh, including "contagious" laughter, may be products of evolution.

Natural laughter is a two-part, spontaneous, response to humor, that has physiological, psychological, and physical benefits.

Most agree that we laugh when we find something to be humorous, yet different reasons exist for what we find to be humorous. Additionally, different things are humorous to us at different stages of life.

Laughter, a physiological response to humor, can be broken down into two parts.

The first is a set of gestures, and the second is the production of sound. The brain forces to conduct both responses simultaneously. From a physiological standpoint, a "sensor" in the brain responds to laughter by triggering other neural circuits in the brain, which, in turn, generate more laughter.

Oddly enough, laughter is an orderly response, and almost occurs "spontaneously" during pauses at the end of phrases, earning it the name the punctuation effect. Human beings are the only species capable of laughter, and the average adult does so approximately 17 times per day.

Good health is one of the many benefits of laughter. Laughter reduces our stress levels by reducing the level of stress hormones, and also helps us cope with serious illnesses.

Physiologically, laughter promotes healing, by lowering the blood pressure, and by increasing the vascular blood flow and the oxygenation of the blood.

Physical fitness stemming from laughter is a benefit known to few. Scientists estimate that laughing 100 times is equivalent to a 10-minute workout on a rowing machine, or to 15 minutes on a stationary exercise bike. The mere act of laughing exercises the diaphragm, as well as the abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles.

Another benefit of laughter is that it improves our over-all mental health. Pent up negative emotions, such as anger, fear, and sadness, can cause biochemical changes in our bodies that can produce a harmful effect.

Laughter provides a harmless outlet for these negative emotions, and provides a coping mechanism for dealing with difficult or stressful situations.

Why are manhole covers round and not square or rectangular?

So they don't fall in!

Manholes, which interconnect underground sewerage pipes, and serve as a point of entry for cleaning the pipes, are located at every major sewer pipe junction, and are capped with round manhole covers. The reason for the circular construction of these covers is, quite simply, that covers of any other shape would fall through the manholes by virtue of their varying diameters. Circular manhole covers do not vary in width, or in diameter, as is the case with these other shapes, thus remaining in place despite the street traffic running roughshod over them.

Manufacturers craft the manhole covers together with the smaller sized lip, upon which they rest, at the same time to ensure a tightly sealed fit. Additionally, the manufacture of circular manhole covers is easier and more accurate than the manufacture of covers of any other shape. Lastly, round manhole covers, once removed, require less lifting and less manpower, as their shape allows them to be rolled.

Electricity shocks us, because it is an outside force that interferes with the internal electricity our bodies' nervous systems generate.

To fully understand why the chance encounter of these two electrical forces results in a shock to our systems, we must first understand the fundamentals of electricity itself.

In scientific terms, electricity is considered a fundamental force, one that is extremely basic, and has been in existence since the beginning of time. Further simplified, it is so basic, that it defies explanation, and is Mother Nature's way of saying "Because I said so"!

Electricity comprises positive and negative charges, opposite charges attract each other, and similar charges repel each other. Those charges attracted to each other can be separated, with the end product being potential energy, that is, energy that will be released as voltage, should the two reunite. We pay electric companies to separate the positive and negative charges for us, so that we have electrical energy at our disposal.

In order for the charges to reunite, and for the potential energy to be released as voltage, a conductor, a channel that they can flow through, is needed. Insulators, such as paper and glass make poor conductors, while wire and water make excellent conductors. Unfortunately, since the human body consists primarily of water, it too provides a superb conductor for electrical energy, or voltage.

If, by chance, outside electrical energy enters our bodies, now conductors, we will be shocked when the voltage encounters, and interferes with, the internal electrical energy our nervous systems produce. The shocks to our bodies, and the amount of damage the electricity does to them, depends upon the voltage our bodies are subjected to, upon its level of energy, and upon how much our bodies resist the flow of the electrical energy.

When we are shocked, a variety of things may occur, none of which is desirable. Our muscles may twitch, we may experience problems in the nerve centers that control our breathing, or we may experience problems with our heart rhythms. The worst case scenario from being shocked is death.

Ever hear the phrase "two are better than one"?

Having two eyes is certainly better than having just one because two eyes provide us with stereo vision and depth perception -- two things that just eye could not give us.

With 2 ½ inches separating our two eyes, each eye views an object from a slightly different angle. For instance, if you hold up a flower and look at it with just your right eye, the image is different from the image of when you look at it with just your left eye. The right eye sees more of the right side of the flower while the left eye sees more of the left side of the flower. If you placed the two different images on top of one another, they would not match and our vision would be out of focus. However, our brains sort out these varying visual messages from our two eyes, combines the images, and the recreates one three-dimensional image.

This is referred to as binocular vision. Just like your look through two lenses in binoculars, humans view the world through two lenses. The eyes of many other animals are placed differently than ours. Many birds have an eye on each side of their head. Each eye sees a completely separate area stretching out on the left or the right.

Viewing the world through two eyes provides us with depth perception. When you look at the flower through just one eye, it looks a lot flatter.

There are so many external and internal stimuli hitting you at once that your brain has learned to filter them out.

The first ones that get ignored are ones that you do; which is why you probably don't notice your vocal chords when you talk, your tongue movements when you chew and why you can't tickle yourself.

When you are tickled, your laughter is the reaction that occurred because that ticklish feeling sends us into a state of panic. You most likely weren't expecting that person to sneak up behind you and tickle your sides, were you? This was probably a defense mechanism that developed in our cave-men ancestors to detect predators.

When you try to tickle yourself you are in complete control of the situation, there is no need to get tense and therefore there is no reaction.

The part of the brain that cancels out stimuli it is expecting is called the cerebellum. The cauliflower-like mass can be found at the back, under the brain. The cerebellum is known to basically be the party planner, it coordinates movement control in relation to sensory signals received in other areas of your brain.

It is possible to tickle yourself though!!!

You would have to fool your cerebellum. Studies have shown that with as little of a 200-millisecond delay between you moving your hand and the tickling, you would react. However there is only one way to do this- by remote control.

Did you know? Science has been able to design a robot that allows people to tickle themselves. To use the machine you would have to lie on your back with your eyes closed. The robot, located near you, would have a piece of soft foam attached to a plastic rod which you would control by joystick. You would maneuver the remote control and after a short delay, would respond. This takes advantage of the delay in the cerebellum.

Whether they are on arms, legs, ankles or buttocks, tattoos are painted all over our bodies by injecting ink into our skin.

A needle attached to a hand-held tool injects ink into the cells of the dermis-a section of our skin that keeps tattoos from fading and stretching. The tool moves the needle up and down at a rate of several hundred vibrations per minute and penetrates the skin by about one millimeter. The ink that is left in the skin after the injection process is the tattoo.

Decorating our bodies with tattoos is a popular fad among many people.

The word, tattoo originates from the Tahitian word tattau, which means "to mark" and was first mentioned in explorer James Cook's records from his 1769 expedition to the South Pacific. However, some scientists believe that the earliest known evidence of tattooing dates back to markings found on the skin of the Iceman, a mummified human body that dates as far back as 3300 B.C.

More widely recognized are tattoos found on Egyptian and Nubian mummies dating from about 2000 B.C. Classical authors mention the use of tattoos in connection with Greeks, ancient Germans, Gauls, Thracians and ancient Britons.

Tattooing was rediscovered by Europeans when they came into contact with Polynesians and American Indians through their explorations. Because tattoos were considered so exotic in European and U.S. societies, tattooed Indians and Polynesians amazed crowds at circuses and fairs during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The practice of tattooing has different meanings to various cultures. Decoration was the most common motive for tattooing and that still holds true today.

In some cultures, tattoos served as identification of the wearer's rank or status within a group. For instance, the early Romans tattooed slaves and criminals. Tahitian tattoos served as rites of passage, telling the history of the wearer's life.

Helium is lighter than air and just as the heaviest things will tend to fall to the bottom, the lightest things will rise to the top.

Helium weighs 0.1785 grams per liter. Nitrogen, which makes up 80% of the air we breathe, weighs 1.2506 grams per liter.

Basically, if you were to fill a soda bottle with helium and another with air, the one filled with helium would weigh a gram less than the bottle with air. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that's usually why blimps and balloons are usually really big, the one-gram difference really adds up in large volumes. Helium balloons follow the same principle as you do when you float in the water; the law of buoyancy. If the water you displace weighs more than you do, you will float.

Helium isn't the lightest element, hydrogen, weighing a mere 0.08988 grams per liter, is.

Wondering why we don't use that instead of helium?

Well, hydrogen balloons used to be really popular, but it is extremely flammable. The slightest spark will set off a huge explosion. The Hindenburg catastrophe was a direct result of that.

Why is it "Where's the beef" when it should be where's the ham?

The answer is really quite simple: because Hamburg, Germany made the first hamburgers.

However, the history of the hamburger is actually more complicated. Who actually invented the first hamburger remains a mystery.

Some say it was a group of nomadic people called the Tartars who tenderized their beef by placing it under a horse's saddle--flattening it into a patty. Others believe it was the German immigrants who traveled to the United States during the 19th century bringing with them their favorite meal called Hamburg Style Beef-- a raw chopped, piece of beef. Some argue Americans placed the first cooked beef patty on a roll at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1921.

Although beef is the most popular meat used in hamburgers, other meats such as pork and turkey have been used.

Ever since Bob's Big Boy introduced the first double patty burger, new varieties of burgers have been created. Today people enjoy veggie burgers, turkey burgers, and quarter-pound burgers with many different toppings including lettuce, mushrooms, cheese, onions, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, and pickles.

Hamburgers remain one of the most favorite foods among Americans today.

Ranking #1 among all restaurants with 26,000 stores in 119 countries, McDonald's serves billions of hamburgers worldwide.

Holy Hamburger!

Pencil, a derivative of the Latin word pencillus for "little tail," originally described a small, fine, pointed brush.

N. J. Conte, in 1795, successfully produced pencils, after the later famed Faber family of Nuremberg, Germany, failed to do so, by using a pulverized graphite base to create a substandard, crude prototype of a pencil. Conte's method, the basic recipe used by all pencil manufacturers today, differed from the failed Faber fiasco, as he ground graphite, mixed it with certain types of clay, pressed the "dough" into sticks, and finished them in a kiln. The Faber family followed suit, and achieved the fame and fortune that previously eluded it.

The recipe used by modern pencil manufacturers, calls for dried, ground graphite, a form of carbon, mixed with clay and water in varying proportions. Pencils made with more clay produce a harder pencil, and, conversely, pencils made with more graphite produce a softer pencil. In either case, the ingredients are mixed until they reach a doughy consistency, then pass through a forming press, which presses the dough into a "pencil thin," smooth, glossy rope. After workers straighten the rope, they cut it into the desired lengths, and bake them in industrial ovens.

While the mixture is prepared and baked, workers prepare the casing that will house the lead. They shape the wooden casings, made from either red cedar or pine, into halves, and carve grooves in them to encase the graphite-based leads. The workers then carefully insert the finished leads into the grooves, glue the two wooden halves together, run the resulting slats through a saw that cuts them into single pencils, and finish them with a shaping machine that smoothes the pencils' surfaces.

Modern pencils come in over 350 flavors, each designed for a specific use, and may be purchased in over 72 colors. "Black pencils," graphite-based pencils, come in 19 degrees of hardness and of intensity. Specialty pencil leads are crafted to write on surfaces such as cloth, cellophane, plastics, and movie film. Architects, engineers, and those doing out door construction work primarily purchase these specialty leads, as they possess non-fade, weatherproof qualities. The versatility of Conte's brainchild, the pencil, makes it the essential, indispensable tool of these trades.

A rainbow is merely a large band of parallel stripes, blended at the rims, which displays the full spectrum of colors that make up the sun's white light. This brilliant display appears to the naked eye when the sun's light breaks up as it passes through, the prism-like raindrops during a rain-shower.

This immense, curved spectrum of light appears only when both the elements of sunshine and rainfall present. As the sunlight enters the falling raindrops, it breaks up into its true colors of red, orange, yellow, blue, and violet. These colors are always arranged according to their wavelengths, with red being at one end of the spectrum, and violet at the other. Once inside the droplet, the particles of colored light bounce from side to side, reflect off of the far side of the droplet, exit the droplet, and reassemble, according to their wavelengths, to form a rainbow.

Simply because you happen to be in the right place at the right time, when both elements necessary to form a rainbow are present, does not mean that you will actually see one. For the human eye to see these multi-colored bands, ranging from red to violet, his body must be strategically positioned between the sun and the rain, with his back to the sun.

If the sun, the eye, and the center of the rainbow's arc are not in a straight line, the show is over, before it began. This explains why we only see rainbows in the early morning or late afternoon…it is physically impossible for us to align our eyes with the sun at other times of day, as it is high above our heads! Logically, a morning rainbow appears when the sun shines in the east, and the rain falls in the west, and an afternoon rainbow appears when the sun shines in the west, and the rain falls in the east. If lucky, and a bit superstitious, and you do find a pot of gold somewhere over the rainbow, please let us know. After all, we gave you the directions!

With the exception of migraine headaches, which are a different type of headache, headaches are simply painful symptoms of an underlying systemic problem or cause.

No specific cause can be fingered as the culprit responsible for the end result of a painful headache.

A multitude of causes exist for a headache, each of which has a different trigger mechanism, but the resulting headache in all cases is a red flag signaling a disorder somewhere in the body or in the nervous system.

In most cases, the anatomy of a headache can be dissected and understood, once it is traced back to its physical or neurological origin. The actual pain we experience does not stem from the actual brain matter contained in the skull, but from the pain felt by the sensitive coverings of the brain, and of the large veins and arteries which drain fluid from the brain. Sinus, tooth, ear, and muscle pain produce headaches by radiating the pain to these sensitive coverings when they tense, and when the muscles spanning the neck and the base of the skull contract.

Complaints of headaches commonly fall under the heading of vascular headaches, and result when the arteries in the skull dilate, often because of triggers that include hunger, caffeine deprivation, and hangovers. Other cases simple to diagnose include cases where people experience the effects of sudden physical and emotional trauma from an automobile accident. The violent jolts their bodies sustain, or the effects of their necks twisting, often result in headaches, because the trauma from pulled or tensed muscles triggers pain in the sensitive brain structures.

Further, severe emotional trauma causes muscles over the back and at the lower part of the head and the neck to contract, resulting in an instantaneous headache.

The important thing to remember, when one experiences a headache, is that it is a symptom of underlying disorders, with multiple causes, that should command respect, and that merit diagnosis.

Truth is we really don't know where the tradition of playing pranks on people came from.

There are a few theories floating around though.

When the western world used the Julian calendar, the year began on March 25th because they celebrated the start of a new year with the start of spring. However since that fell in the Holy Week, the celebrated it on the first of April. However when we switched to the Gregorian calendar in the 1500s, we moved the New Year to the first of January. According to the most widely told story, those who still celebrated the New Year on April 1st were called April fools.

The Encyclopedia of Religion and the Encyclopedia Britannica thinks that the timing of April Fool's Day is directly related to the arrival of Spring, when nature 'fools' humans with erratic weather.

The Country Diary of Garden Lore has a theory that April Fools Day commemorates "the fruitless mission of the rook (the European crow) who was sent out in search of land from Noah's flood-surrounded ark."

So, on April 1st are you going to be the tricked or the trickster?

Zits are what happen when the oil glands in your skin get clogged and pus is what comes out when you pop them.

But don't pop them! It only spreads infection and can make your embarrassing zits even worse!

Zits do not care about color, sex, or age, everyone from teenagers to grannies get zits. In fact, zits can be found on the faces and bodies of over 70 million people!

A lot of things can cause zits. Including stress, and a build-up of toxins including infection. Stress is not just a mental state of being, it can also affect your physical wellness. If you have an infection, it will find an outlet through pimples.

During your teen years your body starts to do some funky things while it grows up, including producing more testosterone (a male hormone found in females as well as males, but in varying amounts), which tells your body to start producing more oil. As a result, the dead skin cells mix with the oil and clog your pores, causing zits.

There are a few kinds of zits, all undesirable, but some more than others. When your skin is clogged up with enough skin cells and oil, you get whiteheads; a small white bump under the surface of the skin. When it reaches the surface, it appears black and a blackhead develops. It isn't a dark color because of dirt, but rather from melanin pigments (the stuff that gives color to your skin and hair).

If the wall of the pore breaks, it can become inflamed and red. If it breaks further below the skin's surface acne nodules or cysts can form. It is important to get these treated, unless of course you want permanent scars.

Caffeine is an addictive drug, affecting 90% of all Americans, which alters the brain's natural state, and stimulates it in a manner similar to the amphetamines cocaine and heroin.

The mechanisms employed by caffeine, cocaine, and heroin, are to close blood vessels in the brain, so the brain and body cannot sleep, to cause the release of adrenaline into the body, so the body remains active and alert, and to manipulate dopamine production in the brain, so the person experiences a temporary "high."

Caffeine may be found in its natural state in many plants, including tea leaves, coffee beans, and cocoa nuts. The pure form of caffeine is a bitter, white, crystalline powder derived from the decaffeinating process of coffee and tea. The vast number of products in which caffeine comes, range from coffee, to tea, to colas, to milk chocolate, and to pain relievers, just to mention a few.

Most people are unaware of caffeine's addictive properties. Those who consume 300 mg. or more per day, suffer from withdrawal symptoms if they abruptly cut off their caffeine supply. Most users will suffer from symptoms of fatigue and depression, irritability, tremors, jumpiness, deprivation of deep sleep, and vascular headaches, as the blood vessels in the brain dilate. Caffeine, however, can be medically useful as a cardiac stimulant, and also as a mild diuretic used to flush the system.

One of the mechanisms that caffeine addiction, cocaine addiction, and heroin addiction share, is that they block an adenosine's ability to slow the nerve cells' activity in preparation for sleep, and instead increase the speed of their activity and of the neuron firing in the brain. The caffeine causes the blood vessels in the brain to constrict, because it has blocked the adenosine's ability to open them to allow sleep. The ability of caffeine to close the blood vessels is why many pain relievers contain caffeine. If a person has a vascular headache, the caffeine in the medicine will shut down the blood vessels, thus easing the pain.

The increased neuron firing in the brain triggers the pituitary glands to release hormones that tell the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline, also known as epinephrine. Adrenaline, the "fight-or-flight" hormone, gives the user's body a boost, and heightens the person's alertness.

One final mechanism caffeine, cocaine, and heroin share, is their ability to manipulate dopamine production. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, activates the "pleasure centers" in certain parts of the brain, and simply makes a person feel good. Naturally, the pleasurable effect produced by dopamine manipulation plays a prominent role in caffeine addiction.

The short-term effects resulting from caffeine consumption, such as alertness, renewed energy, and pleasure, may not necessarily outweigh the longer-term effects of caffeine addiction. Caffeine, despite its similarities to amphetamines, has side effects that are not nearly as severe, and withdrawal symptoms that are, generally, not life-threatening.

Some inventions begin as one thing, and wind up as another.

In ancient Greece, the toy was made of wood, metal, and terra cotta with the two halves of the yo-yo decorated with pictures of gods. As a rite of passage into adulthood, Greek children often gave up their toys and placed them on an altar to pay homage to their gods. Around 1800, the yo-yo made its way to Europe from the Orient. In Britain it was called the "bandalore," " quiz," or the "Prince of Wales' toy." The French used the names "incroyable" and "l'emigrette."

In the Philippines around 1500, the Yo-Yo was a weapon. It consisted of a four pound stone attached to a rope about 20 feet long. Tribesmen used it in two ways. When hunting, they stood off to one side, held one end of the rope and threw the rock towards the legs of an animal. The rope became tangled around the animals legs, and with a tug, the hunter brought the animal down. Against enemies, the stones would be dropped on their heads. The tribesmen would quickly recover the stones, ready for a second blow if necessary.

The modern story of the yo-yo starts with a young gentleman from the Philippines named Pedro Flores. In the 1920s, he moved to the USA, and worked as a bellhop at a Santa Monica hotel. Carving and playing with wooden yo-yos was a traditional pastime in the Philippines, but Pedro found that his lunch break yo-yo playing drew a crowd at the hotel. He started a company to make the toys, calling it the Flores Yo-Yo Company. This was the first appearance of the name "yo-yo," which means "come-come" in the native Filipino language of Tagalog.

Donald F. Duncan, an entrepreneur who had already introduced the Eskimo Pie, Good Humor Ice Cream, was co-patent holder of a four-wheel hydraulic automobile brake, and would later popularize the parking meter, first encountered the yo-yo during a business trip to California. A year later, in 1929, he returned and bought the company from Flores, acquiring not only a unique toy, but also the magic name "yo-yo." About this time, Duncan introduced the looped slip-string, which allows the yo-yo to sleep - a necessity for advanced tricks.

Throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Duncan promoted yo-yos with innovative programs of demonstrations and contests. All of the classic tricks were developed during this period, as legendary players toured the country teaching kids and carving thousands of yo-yos with pictures of palm trees and birds. During the 1950s, Duncan introduced the first plastic yo-yos and the Butterfly® shaped yo-yo, which is much easier to land on the string for complex tricks. Duncan also began marketing spin tops during this period.

The biggest yo-yo boom in history (until 1995) hit in 1962, following Duncan's innovative use of TV advertising. Financial losses at the end of the boom and a costly lawsuit to protect the yo-yo trademark from competitors forced the Duncan family out of business in the late 60s. Flambeau Products, who made Duncan's plastic models, bought the company and still owns it today.

The genuine Duncan yo-yo is a classic toy that has endured for 70 years. With more than 600 million sold, it is probably the most popular toy in history, and was recently inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

That little "a" with a circle curling around it that is found in email addresses is most commonly referred to as the "at" symbol.

Surprisingly though, there is no official, universal name for this sign. There are dozens of strange terms to describe the @ symbol.

Several languages use words that associate the shape of the symbol with some type of animal.

For instance, some quirky names for the @ symbol include:

apenstaartje - Dutch for "monkey's tail"
snabel - Danish for "elephant's trunk"
kissanhnta - Finnish for "cat's tail"
klammeraffe - German for "hanging monkey"
papaki - Greek for "little duck"
kukac - Hungarian for "worm"
dalphaengi - Korean for "snail"
grisehale - Norwegian for "pig's tail"
sobachka - Russian for "little dog"

Before it became the standard symbol for electronic mail, the @ symbol was used to represent the cost or weight of something. For instance, if you purchased 6 apples, you might write it as 6 apples @ $1.10 each.

With the introduction of e-mail came the popularity of the @ symbol. The @ symbol or the "at sign" separates a person's online user name from his mail server address. For instance, joe@uselessknowledge.com. Its widespread use on the Internet made it necessary to put this symbol on keyboards in other countries that have never seen or used the symbol before. As a result, there is really no official name for this symbol.

The actual origin of the @ symbol remains an enigma.

History tells us that the @ symbol stemmed from the tired hands of the medieval monks. During the Middle Ages before the invention of printing presses, every letter of a word had to be painstakingly transcribed by hand for each copy of a published book. The monks that performed these long, tedious copying duties looked for ways to reduce the number of individual strokes per word for common words. Although the word "at" is quite short to begin with, it was a common enough word in texts and documents that medieval monks thought it would be quicker and easier to shorten the word "at" even more. As a result, the monks looped the "t" around the "a" and created it into a circle-eliminating two strokes of the pen.

Another story tells the @ symbol was used as an abbreviation for the word amphora. Amphora was the unit of measurement that determined the amount held by the large terra cotta jars that were used to ship grain, spices and wine. Giorgio Stabile, an Italian scholar, discovered the @ symbol in a letter written in 1536 by a Florentine trader named Francesco Lapi. It seems likely that some industrious trader saw the @ symbol in a book transcribed by monks using the symbol and appropriated it for use as the amphora abbreviation. This would also explain why it became common to use the symbol in relation to quantities of something.

Well, Mexican food could do it, but doctors call it "borborygmi," which sounds a bit like the sound you hear.

According to Websters:
Main Entry: bor·bo·ryg·mus
Pronunciation: "bor-b&-'rig-m&s
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural bor·bo·ryg·mi /-"mI/
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek borborygmos, from borboryzein to rumble
Date: circa 1796
: intestinal rumbling caused by moving gas

It happens when your stomach walls squeeze together in an attempt to mix and digest food and there's no food there. Gases and digestive juices slosh around in your empty stomach and before you know it - borborygmi.

Yet hunger really has nothing to do with an empty stomach but, instead, is a product of certain nutrients missing in the blood. Our brains contain a "hunger center," which functions as an accelerator, or as a brake, for our stomachs and intestines. Once necessary nutrients are lacking from the blood, the dinner bell is rung, and the stomach and intestines come rumbling.

The now active stomach and intestine aren't picky as to what foods will satisfy they, and will grab anything they can. It is the role of the appetite to rein them in, and to ensure that the growling duo are satisfied, but with a healthy balance of the proper nutrients.

If ever in a situation where borborygmi kicks in, and there is no food in sight, remember to remain calm. The calmer you are, the more slowly your body will metabolize the protein it has stored, and the longer you will live!