a keynote about science

Science (from Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.^[1] In an older and closely related meaning (found, for example, in Aristotle), "science" refers to the body of reliable knowledge itself, of the type that can be logically and rationally explained (see History and philosophy below).^[2] Since classical antiquity science as a type of knowledge was closely linked to philosophy. In the early modern era the words "science" and "philosophy" were sometimes used interchangeably in the English language.^[3] By the 17th century, natural philosophy (which is today called "natural science") was considered a separate branch of philosophy.^[4] However, "science" continued to be used in a broad sense denoting reliable knowledge about a topic, in the same way it is still used in modern terms such as library science or political science.
In modern use, "science" more often refers to a way of pursuing knowledge, not only the knowledge itself. It is "often treated as synonymous with 'natural and physical science', and thus restricted to those branches of study that relate to the phenomena of the material universe and their laws, sometimes with implied exclusion of pure mathematics. This is now the dominant sense in ordinary use."^[5] This narrower sense of "science" developed as scientists such as Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton began formulating laws of nature such as Newton's laws of motion. In this period it became more common to refer to natural philosophy as "natural science". Over the course of the 19th century, the word "science" became increasingly associated with the scientific method, a disciplined way to study the natural world, including physics, chemistry, geology and biology. It is in the 19th century also that the term scientist was created by the naturalist-theologian William Whewell to distinguish those who sought knowledge on nature from those who sought knowledge on other disciplines. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the origin of the word "scientist" to 1834. This sometimes left the study of human thought and society in a linguistic limbo, which was resolved by classifying these areas of academic study as social science. Similarly, several other major areas of disciplined study and knowledge exist today under the general rubric of "science", such as formal applied science

notes about our solar system

ABOUT OUR SUN'S PLANETS Our solar system consists of a star - the Sun - with nine planets under its gravitational influence. Each planet is spinning on its own axis as it orbits the Sun. The planets are different from each other and are in different orbits although they all move around the Sun in the same direction. The four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are known as terrestrial planets. Of the remaining five planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) that spin in wider orbits, further away from the Sun, four are known as gas giants because they are huge, dense balls of hydrogen and other gases. Pluto, the furthest away from the sun is tiny and cold and perhaps is not truly a planet. Here is some basic information about each one, including Earth.

Mercury	Is the planet closest to the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 88 Earth days
	A waterless, airless world, heavily cratered.	Virtually no atmosphere but some argon, helium and neon
	Mercury has a magnetic field and is so dense for its small size that scientists think that it is mostly iron. It is seen as either a "Morning Star" or an "Evening Star". Pluto is the only planet smaller than Mercury.
Venus	The second planet from the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 224.7 Earth days
	The surface has mountains and plains	Atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide but clouds contain sulphuric acid and water
	Venus is the planet that passes closest to Earth as they both orbit the Sun. The planet surface is shrouded by clouds which move around the planet very fast producing constant strong winds. Like Mercury, Venus is seen either as a "Morning Star" or an "Evening Star".
Earth	The third planet from the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 365.26 Earth days
	A world of oceans and continents, with polar caps	Atmosphere is nitrogen and oxygen with clouds of water vapor
	Earth is the only planet of our Sun known to have organic life. From space it appears as a bright blue and white sphere. It appears blue because 75 percent of its surface is water, and white because 50 percent of its surface is covered by clouds.
Mars	The fourth planet from the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 687 Earth days (1.9 yrs)
	The surface is dry and cratered, has volcanoes and canyons	Atmosphere is thin; mostly carbon dioxide with some nitrogen
	Mars is the outermost of the four terrestrial planest. It has a reddish color (and so is sometimes called the Red Planet) because of the iron oxide (rust) in its soil. Olympus Mons is an inactive volcano as tall as Mount Everest. There are huge canyons one of which is four times deeper that Earth's Grand Canyon. The planet is very cold and has dust storms whipped by hurricane force winds. Mars has two satellites, Deimos and Phobos.
Jupiter	The fifth planet from the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 4,332.6 Earth days (11.86 yrs)
	Surface is ocean of liquid hydrogen	Atmosphere is thick and is mostly hydrogen, with some helium and traces of methane, water and ammonia.
	Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system - it is 11 times bigger than Earth. As Jupiter spins its thick clouds tend to form bands and give the planet its red-brown-white banded appearance. Jupiter's Great Red Spot was first observed about 300 years ago and appears to be a permanent hurricane. This planet has 16 moons (satellites). The four largest were described by Galileo. Ganymede, the largest of these four, is the largest moon in our solar system, larger than the planets Pluto and Mercury.
Saturn	The sixth planet from the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 10,759.2 Earth days (29.5 yrs)
	The surface is probably liquid and solid hydrogen	Atmosphere is mostly hydrogen with some helium
	Saturn is the second largest planet after Jupiter. It has a pale yellow color, and very dramatic rings containing ice crystals rotate around the planet. Tremendously strong winds blow constantly at the equator. Saturn has at least 15 moons most of them small and composed of rock and ice. Titan, the largest appears to be the only moon in our solar system to have an atmosphere.
Uranus	The seventh planet from the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 30,685.4 Earth days (84 yrs)
	The surface is probably a liquid or slushy hydrogen "crust"	Atmosphere is hydrogen, helium and methane; very clear with no clouds.
	Uranus, barely visible in Earth's night sky, was not discovered until 1781. It has a faintly greenish color due perhaps to the methane in its atmosphere. It has faint rings and 5 moons.
Neptune	The eighth planet from the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 60,189 Earth days (164.8 yrs)
	The surface is probably a slushy hydrogen "crust"	Atmosphere is hydrogen and helium
	Neptune was discovered in 1846. It has as a pale bluish color from space and its atmosphere often looks hazy. The planet is very cold but probably has a hot core. It has at least eight moons. Two (Triton and Nereid) were first observed from Earth and six others were observed by Voyager 2.
Pluto	The ninth planet from the Sun	Completes an orbit of the Sun every 90,465 Earth days (247.7 yrs)
	Is a ball of frozen gases	Frozen methane has been detected
	Pluto was discovered in 1930 and is about half the size of Earth's moon. It has one known moon, Charon, which was discovered in 1978. Some scientists think that although we call Pluto a planet, it was perhaps once a moon of Neptune and was pulled out of its orbit by the pull from some other celestial body

Natural disaster

DISASTER CAUSED BY RABBITS 1. Is it possible for rabbits to cause a natural disaster? Yes, if they occur in extreme numbers. In Australia in the 1950s rabbits, with few natural enemies, had multiplied dramatically. They are herbivores (they eat plants) and in some areas had picked the land so bare that erosion set in and the land could no longer be farmed. 2. How did the Australians deal with the rabbit plague? The government put up thousands of miles of wire fences but the rabbits burrowed beneath them to find their food. Farmers tried poisons but other animals found the poison too. Foxes were introduced but they preferred lambs and chickens which were easier to catch than the rabbits. Finally, in yet another attempt to reduce the numbers of rabbits they were intentionally infected with an experimental virus. 3. What was the most successful effort to deal with this plague? The virus infection. In 1950 Australian scientists infected some rabbits with a virus that had, for many years, been known to cause disease in rabbits and had been tested in Brazil in the late 1940s. They released the infected rabbits into the areas where the worst rabbit infestions existed. The virus, myxoma, was transmitted from rabbit to rabbit by mosquitos and rabbit fleas. Over the next three years rabbits died of myxomatosis by the millions, grass grew back on the pastures, and sheep farming began to flourish again.

Rabbits

4. What else happened as a result of the introduction of Myxoma to the rabbit population?

There was a sudden upset in the balance of nature. The Myxoma virus had been successfully introduced into European rabbits too and, especially in England, with a scarcity of rabbits, foxes began eating poultry, rats and mice. The resulting reduction in the numbers of mice caused a decline in the numbers of owls whose normal diet (mice) became less abundant - and the upset continued on down the food chain. Scientists believe that, as populations of rabbits with resistance to Myxoma increase, there will be rabbit plague problems again. [Top of page]

DISASTER CAUSED BY INSECTS

5. Do insects ever cause natural disasters?

Yes. Locusts periodically cause natural disasters in several parts of the world. Locusts (order Orthoptera) are identical in appearance to grasshoppers but locusts can exist in two different behavioural states (solitary and gregarious) whereas grasshoppers do not. When the locust population density is low the locusts behave as individuals. However, when the population density increases locusts form highly mobile swarms.The change from solitary to gregarious is generally accompanied by changes in body shape and colour.

6. What causes the increase in locust populations? In Australia locust plagues occur when widespread inland areas receive good rainfall in successive seasons. High rainfall stimulates the growth of grass which creates an ideal habitat for locust breeding. The timing of the rainfall is important. When there are several wet seasons (winter, spring and summer) locusts can complete several generations in a single year. This results in overcrowding of developing nymphs (young insect stage) and stimulates the change to the gregarious, swarming phase. If wet seasons continue the swarming phase is prolonged. A series of dry seasons is necessary for the locust population numbers to decrease thus stimulating the change to the solitary form of the insect. 7. What sort of natural disaster is caused by swarming locusts? Locusts are vegetarians. As they swarm and migrate they devastate grasslands and crops in the areas they pass through. The results are similar to the disaster caused by the rabbit plagues in Australia. Once started, a locust plague is just about impossible to stop. Various efforts have included destroying egg masses laid by migrating swarms. Hopperdozers can also be used. These are large screens on wheels and are driven into a moving swarm so that the insects hit the screens and drop into troughs containing water and kerosene. 8. Where in the world do locust plagues occur? The migratory (swarming) locust is widely distributed around the world. It is found in grasslands in tropical Australia and New Zealand, Africa, Egypt, India, Iran, Italy, Palestine, Syria, Central and South America, and, in the 1870s, the Canadian Prairies.

Grasshopper (same family as the locust) [Top of page]

DISASTER CAUSED BY BACTERIA

9. Are natural disasters ever caused by micro-organisms?

Yes. Our world is teaming with micro-organisms (one-cell organisms that are too small to see). Most are innocuous, many are beneficial either to plants or animal life, but a few are harmful. The micro-organisms at issue here are bacteria and viruses. The natural disasters that can be caused by bacteria or viruses include such devastating events as the Black Death which killed about one third of the population of Europe in the fourteenth century, and AIDS sometimes seen as the modern Black Death even though its causative factor is different from that of the medieval disease.

10. What micro-organism caused the plague known as the "Black Death"?

The "Black Death" was caused by Yersinia pestis (also called Bacillus pestis and Pasteurella pestis) which is a bacterium. Yersinia pestis has almost certainly been causing plague epidemics in human populations for more than 2000 years. It was an outbreak of this plague in Europe in the 14th century that was called "The Black Death".

11. When was this plague bacterium identified? It was identified in 1894 by Alexandre Yersin. 12. What makes this bacterium so dangerous? The Versinia pestis bacillus (bacterium) is remarkably stable and vigorous. In humans it causes three phases of infection. The bubonic phase involves swelling of the lymph nodes, the pneumonic phase involves the lungs, and in the third, most serious phase called the septicemic phase, the blood stream is invaded and death occurs quickly. The disease can now be controlled and cured with the use of antibiotics. 13. How does a person become infected with this bacterium? The disease is most commonly passed to humans through bites from fleas that have fed on the domestic rat, Rattus rattus. This was not fully realized until 1914. Today the disease is not common but small outbreaks can still occur in crowded, unsanitary situations where the rat populations are not controlled. [Top of page]

Plague bacteria. Image copyright Dennis Kunkel

VIRUS DISASTER

14. What modern natural disaster is caused by a virus?

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is caused by a virus which is currently (20th and 21st centuries) causing a modern natural disaster sometimes described as the modern Black Death. The AIDS virus is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and while there is no certain cure yet for AIDS, infection by the HIV does not always result in a case of AIDS.

15. Is a virus different from a bacterium? Yes. Bacteria are living, single-celled organisms. Viruses are much smaller than bacteria and are not living organisms in the generally accepted sense. Viruses are collections of protein molecules without the cell membrane, protoplasm, nucleus etc. normally considered to be part of the cell of a living organism. When a virus invades living tissue it is able to replicate itself and to affect its host in ways that are recognized as illness or disease. Outside its living host a virus is completely inert. Viruses invade all types of living organisms (plants as well as animals). Not all viruses cause disease but many do. Viruses are not affected by antibiotics. 16. What diseases are caused by viruses?. In addition to the very serious AIDS, viruses cause the more common, and less severe, common cold and warts as well as the extremely serious rabies, and some types of cancer. Of the several families (types) of viruses: papoviruses cause warts; adenoviruses cause respiratory and eye infections; herpesviruses cause cold sores, chickenpox, and shingles; orthomyxoviruses cause influenza; coronaviruses cause the common cold; and retroviruses cause AIDS.

AIDS virus [Top of page]

NATURAL FIRE

17. Fires can be disastrous. Do fires ever start without human intervention?

Yes. Fires can be initiated in many ways and the results, when controlled are can be beneficial but uncontrolled fires can be disastrous whether they are natural or man-made.

18. What is fire? Scientists, who use the term "combustion" instead of "fire", explain the phenomenon as a chemical reaction in which a combustible substance reacts rapidly with oxygen. The chemical reaction may need heat to get it started. For example, when striking a match, the friction provides sufficient heat to cause the chemicals in the match head to react. Energy stored in the match-head is released as heat energy which ignites the wood of the match stick. So long as sufficient heat energy continues to be available the wood of the match stick reacts with oxygen in the air in such a way that the substance of the wood is changed to ash and gases. Flames associated with combustion are a gaseous mixture of incandescent small particles often of carbon, and rapidly moving and fluorescing molecules and ions. The smoke associated with fire is comprised of cooling gases and small ash particles. 19. What are typical causes of naturally occurring fires? By naturally occurring fires we mean ones that are not 'man-made'. About 90 percent of wildfires are started by humans. The other 10 percent are started by lightning The necessary ingredients for combustion - a combustible substance, oxygen, and heat - are often present in situations where natural phenomena such as lightning, hot volcanic lava, or friction, are capable of intiating combustion. Lightning and hot lava are intrinsically hot enough to start fires. Friction produces heat that in some cases can be sufficient to start a fire. Biological activity can sometimes create enough heat to start a fire as, for example, in a damp haystack where microorganisms growing and reproducing can produce sufficient heat to set the haystack burning. 20. What are some specific examples of natural-fire disasters? Caused by the April 18, 1906 San Andreas Fault earthquake, a fire in San Francisco destroyed 28,000 buildings in 500 city blocks. The earthquake was a natural force and human action was not responsible for the fire. However, the fire only happened because of the presence of humans and their dwellings. Caused by lightning, a disastrous fire in 1910 swept across three million acres of Idaho for several weeks. Caused by an earthquake, a ferocious fire in 1923 destroyed more than half of Japan. [Top of page]

Notes about temperature may be useful for secondary school

1. Temperature is a measure of heat energy.
Temperature is measured in degrees Celsius (Centigrade), Fahrenheit, or Kelvin.
Some high temperatures:
Boiling water at sea level = 100 degrees Celsius;
Molten lava = 2,000 Kelvin;
Tungsten filament of a light bulb = 4,000 Kelvin;

2. The 18th-century French scientist Antoine Lavoisier used two large lenses to ignite a fluid in a container. How did he use the lenses to do this? (See 3. below)

3. In the 18th Century, Antoine Lavoisier used two large convex lenses to focus sunlight (heat energy) onto a container of alcohol and ignite it.

4. The lower the pressure the lower will be the temperature at which water boils. At sea level water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit; At 12,087ft in Tibet, water boils at 188.6 degrees Fahrenheit; At the top of Mt. Everest water boils at 159.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. The average body temperature of a sparrow is 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit; Butter melts at about 87 degrees Fahrenheit; Arctic seawater freezes at 30 degrees Fahrenheit. (It is salty and so freezes at a lower temperature than pure, freshwater.)

6. Silver melts at 962 degrees Celsius and boils at 2,210 degrees Celsius; Gold melts at 1,064 degrees Celsius and boils at 2,900 degrees Celsius.

7. Temperatures in our universe range from about 3,500,000,000 Kelvin (a supernova) to about 3 Kelvin (space). Our Sun is a class G yellow star and has an average surface temperature of 5,600 Kelvin.

8. The temperature of rock at the bottom of the deepest (12,600ft) mine in South Africa is 328 Kelvin (131 degrees Fahrenheit).

9. All animals need heat to keep their bodies alive but different animals tolerate or need different temperatures. In addition, some animals can maintain constant body temperatures under normal conditions. These animals are called warm-blooded. The body temperature of other types of animals varies with the temperature of their surroundings. These animals are called cold-blooded.

10. The average body temperatures of some warm-blooded animals:
Humans: 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit
Rabbit: 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit
Polar Bear: 99.1 degrees Fahrenheit
Blue Whale: 95.9 degrees Fahrenheit
Owl: 104.4 degrees Fahrenheit
Ostrich: 102.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

11. Some warm-blooded animals hibernate during cold weather and their body temperature falls to conserve energy. The normal temperature of a hibernating dormouse falls from 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to 64 degrees; The normal temperature of an opossum falls from 95 degrees Fahrenheit to 50.9 degrees.

12. Cold-blooded animals lack internal temperature controls so they bask in the sun to keep warm and then hide in the shade to keep cool. They are most active when when their body teperatures are greater than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The salamander is cold-blooded and can survive in temperatures of 42.4 through 79.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

13. Here are Celsius (Centigrade) and Fahrenheit comparisons:

Fahrenheit minus 40 0 degrees 32 degrees 50 degrees 95 degrees 140 degrees

Centigrade minus 40 minus 17.78 degrees 0 degrees 10 degrees 35 degrees 60 degrees

What is the temperature of freezing water on the Centigrade scale?

14. Absolute zero is a theoretical temperature. It is that temperature at which all substances have no heat energy. It is defined as zero Kelvin (0 Kelvin). 0 Kelvin is equivalent to -273.16 degrees Celsius, and -459.69 degrees Fahrenheit .

15. The temperature of a substance is a result of the speed at which its molecules are moving. The faster the molecules are moving, the higher the temperature of the substance.

16. Does hot water freeze faster than cold water? No, it does not. However, boiled water has less dissolved air and fewer air bubbles; for this reason water that has been boiled might freeze faster and will form ice that is more dense.

17. Combustion is a chemical reaction in which a substance reacts rapidly with oxygen releasing both heat and light energy.

18. In the 18th Century the German scientist George Stahl (1660-1734) developed the theory that combustion and rusting both involved a substance that he called phlogiston. He theorized that combustible substances contain phlogiston which is used up when they burn. (This theory intrigued scientists of the but was incorrect.)

19. The French scientist Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) showed that oxygen is the substance necessary for combustion. Lavoisier showed that the gain in weight when a substance was burned to ash was equivalent to the loss in weight of the air in his experiment. (The air had lost oxygen.)

20. The Celsius (originally called Centigrade) scale is a temperature scale in which 0 (zero) degrees is set at the freezing point of water, and 100 degrees is set at the boiling point of water at sea level. This scale is named after the Swedish scientist Anders Celsius (1701-1744)

21. The Swedish scientist Anders Celsius (1701-1744), who invented the Celsius temperature scale in 1742, actually set the scale with 0 as the boiling point of water and 100 as the freezing point. The scale was reversed soon after its invention.

22. The Fahrenheit temperature scale was devised in 1714 by the German scientist G.D. Fahrenheit. His scale has 180 degrees between the freezing point of water which he set at 32 degrees, and the boiling point of water which he set at 212 degrees. The Fahrenheit scale is still in general use but is not commonly in scientific use where Celsius and Kelvin are the preferred scales.

23. To convert Fahrenheit temperatures to degrees Celsius you can use the following calculation: 1. Subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit temperature; 2. multiply the result by 5; 3. Divide this result by 9. 4. The result is the equivalent in degrees Celsius.

24. The Kelvin temperature scale was devised in 1848 by William Thomson, Lord Kelvin. His scale was not based on any specific substance. Instead, the size of the units (degrees) was set at exactly the same as those of the Celsius scale. However, 0 (zero) on the Kelvin scale is absolute zero, a theoretical temperature at which all substances have no heat energy.

25. In 1967, by international agreement, The Kelvin temperature scale was decided to be a scale of units raher than degrees. It is proper therefore to describe the temperature of the boiling point of water at sea level as being 373.15 Kelvin (not 373,15 degrees Kelvin), and the freezing point of water as 273.15 Kelvin (or 273.15 K)

26. To all countries in the world (except the United States, Burma, South Yemen and Tonga) use the Systeme Internationale d Unites (International System of Units) or SI for short. SI uses the metric system which has all units in multiples of ten. The SI units used for temperature and heat measurement include: Kelvin, therms, and joules.

27. A Calorie (upper-case C) is a kilocalorie and is the unit of heat commonly used to describe the energy content of foods. The calorie and Calorie are being replaced by the joule and kilojoule. Here are some equivalents: 1 Calorie (kilocalorie) = 1,000 calories
1 Calorie = 4,184 joules or 4.184 kilojoules
1 kilojoule = 0.239 kilocalories or Calories.

28. Heat is a form of energy. There are several physical effects of heat including: 1. Changing the temperature of a substance; 2. Changing the state of a substance (as from solid to liquid); 3. Causing expansion of the substance;

29. Heat is transferred from a substance at a higher temperature to one at a lower temperature by conduction, convection, or radiation. Conduction occurs mainly in solids; convection occurs in fluids, and radiation occurs through space, Radiation occurs without the need for any substance to transfer the heat.

30. Water boils at lower temperatures as altitude (height above sea level) increases. This table shows the temperature of boiling water at various altitudes:

Place	Altitude	Water boils
London England Dead Sea Denver Colorado Quito, Ecuador Lhasa, Tibet Mt. Everest (top)	Sea level -1,296 ft 5,280 ft 9,350 ft 12,087 ft 29,002 ft	212.0šF or 100šC 213.8šF or 101šC 203šF or 95šC 194šF or 90šC 188.6šF or 87šC 159.8šF or 71šC

Note: The boiling points of all liquids will be similarly affected. What sorts of things might be affected by the lower boiling points of water and other liquids?

Another question for you guys: Our tears are mostly water but also contain a chemical infection. What is this chemical?

A question

A question for all of you guys:Which part of your eye is responsible for providing sharp central vision?

Random facts

Random Facts

Giraffes are the only animals born with horns. Both males and females are born with bony knobs on the forehead.

An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.

Golf was banned in England in 1457 because it was considered a distraction from the serious pursuit of archery.

When Coca-Cola began to be sold in China, they used characters that would sound like "Coca-Cola" when spoken. Unfortunately, what they turned out to mean was "Bite the wax tadpole".

The only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees is the praying mantis.

The short-term memory capacity for most people is between five and nine items or digits. This is one reason that phone numbers were kept to seven digits for so long.

Richard Milhouse Nixon was the first US President whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal". William Jefferson Clinton is the 2nd.

Bill Haley and the Comets, one of rock and roll's pioneer groups actually began their career's as Bill Haley's Saddle Pals - a country music act.

Grand Rapids, Michigan is the "SpaghettiOs Capital of the World" because per-capita consumption is highest in that city, per the Franco-American Company. Reportedly, there are more than 1,750 "O's" in a 15-ounce can of SpaghettiOs.

Hobbes originally had pads on his hands and feet but Bill Waterson (the creator) found them too distracting and removed them.

At Disneyland they have hundreds of wild domesticated cats running around the park. They never come out during the day because there's too many people, but the reason they're there is to catch the mice.

Despite the fact that 77 percent of Americans go to the grocery store with a list, it's estimated that half of everything bought there is bought on impulse. Supermarkets report very strong sales of almost anything they stock at the check-out line.

From Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me -- In the U.S., "shag" is far less offensive than in other English-speaking countries. Singapore briefly forced a title change to "The Spy Who Shioked Me." ("Shioked" means "treated nicely.")

In the movie "Toy Story", the carpet designs in Sid's hallway is the same as the carpet designs in "The Shining."

Alexander Hamilton and his son, Philip, both died on the same spot, and both during duels. Philip went first, 3 years before his father would be killed in that same field by Aaron Burr.

Mageiricophobia is the intense fear of having to cook.

Clinophobia is the fear of beds.

A "sysygy" occurs when all the planets of the our Solar System line up.

Charlie Brown's father was a barber.

In 1976 Rodrigo's 'Guitar Concierto de Aranjuez' was No 1 in the UK for only three hours because of a computer error.

Mario, of Super Mario Bros. fame, appeared in the 1981 arcade game, Donkey Kong. His original name was Jumpman, but was changed to Mario to honor the Nintendo of America's landlord, Mario Segali.

In 1970, "MCI" stood for "Microwave Communications, Inc." No longer used as an acronym, it now stands alone.

Dennis the Menace's favorite drink is Root beer.

The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Periwinkle Blue.

When the Hoovers did not want to be overheard by White House guests, they spoke to each other in Chinese.

Ice Cube's real name is O'Shea Jackson.

Mae West never said "Come up and see me sometime." She said "Come on up sometime and see me." Cary Grant never said "Judy, Judy, Judy," and Cagney never said "You dirty rat..."

Before 1859, baseball umpires were seated in padded chairs behind home plate.

Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000.

A teenager in Belmont, New Hampshire robbed the local convenience store. Getting away with a pocket full of change, the boy walked home. He did not realize, however, that he had holes in both of his pockets. A trail of quarters and dimes led police directly to his house.

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WARNING! There's a lot of facts here, and I can't say that I know for sure every one of them is accurate. I'd like to, but I know there's probably some error in here somewhere.

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