Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in FYI.
The reason we divide up our days into two sets of twelve.
As a great philosopher of our time put it, “Time is a valuable thing, Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings, Watch it count down to the end of the day, The clock ticks life away.” But why is time counted the way it is--the day first divided by two (AM and PM) then twelve (hours) then sixty (minutes) and then sixty again (seconds). It’s all so needlessly complicated. Why don’t we have a nice metric style system where everything is divisible by ten? To understand how we came to our current system of timekeeping we need to first ask this question:
By Buck Hardcastle5 years ago in FYI
Know It All
Growing up, I was called a know-it-all. In fact, for my 15th birthday, my dad got me a tee-shirt that said, "Feel free to ask me anything, I've reached the age, where I know it all." I would hope, after almost 30 years, I have grown out of that attitude of conceit, but considering the arguments I still have with the man-child husband, it is a problem I still struggle with. I find it difficult to just sit silently when hearing someone talk about, well, anything, that I have any knowledge about. I'm quick to interject a random factoid, or argue the case when someone states a fact that I object with; not based on any confirmed research, mind you - I simply just know it. Drives people crazy. I don't mean to be so aggressive; blame it my zodiac. The Aries in me despises to submit defeat and likes to be at the center of attention. "Hey, look at me! See what I can do!" Mother tells me I was a handful as a child; even at a small age, I knew how to command attention. Growing up in Alaska meant you found any ways possible to entertain yourself, and storytelling was one of my favorite things to do. Once during a 2nd or 3rd- grade recess, I commenced telling a group of younger kids that the woods surrounding our Christian school were filled with witches and demons, and on days that it rained, when the mist hung like spider webs in the blue spruce branches, you could hear them, pattering through the heavily mossed forest, approaching the fence that separated the trees from our playground, plotting which child to grab. On Kodiak Island, the smell of petrichor was always near, since it rained nearly every day. (see what I did there - I snuck in another bit of uncommon knowledge: that ozone-type smell of rain just before it arrives actually has a name. Petrichor). Needless to say, my mom got called to the school for that one. Alaska was a fantastic place to be a kid. The most amazing landscapes you could ever imagine were all around you; everywhere your eyes landed, was like an eyegasm. If that is not a real thing, it should be, because truly, your senses explode with overload at the colors and pristine beauty above and below. And the wildlife...I challenge you to find another place where a simple day trip into the woods to go ice skating during the winter, could produce 5 or more different species of wild critters. Speaking of critters and Alaska, did you know that the willow ptarmigan is its state bird? I think it is pretty cool that a group of about 6000 school kids had the say in that choice; they voted it to be and sent their choice to the Territory Legislature BEFORE Alaska was even given the title of 49th state in the USA. Another interesting bird factoid that I already know, having had lived in Alaska, is the puffin, (those cute little black and white birds with orange beaks that float in the ocean), lay eggs that hatch to become baby pufflings. Say it with me "pufflings". See, I'm loaded with a plethora of useless helpful information. I can cook up a bunch of stuff you may already know, but I bet some of it will be new. Speaking of cooking, you know those tall, white chef hats, usually worn by "professional" chefs? I use that term lightly these days, however, in this case, I'm referring to the actual pleated hat worn by pros. Those random folds actually serve a purpose - or they used to. Each fold on a chef's hat represents their level of experience; how many different ways they could cook an egg. I guess there are more ways to cook eggs than frying, scramble, poach or steam... Thanks to Google, anyone with access to a computer can type in "ways to cook eggs" and figure it out. Computers. If you were born anytime after 1990, having a computer in your house probably wasn't that big of a deal; a lot of people started buying them as prices came down. Did you know in 1977, the Apple II launched a personal computer that sold for about $1300.00 USD (today, that would be over $5000.oo USD), and that bad boy was considered by most, to be the first widely successful PC (personal computer). Nowadays, you can get a decent laptop for under $400.00 USD. When I was in high school, in the late 1990s, I could not 'Google' my research papers; I had to actually have my mom drive me to a brick -and- mortar building (called a library, for you tech-spoiled youngsters), to look up information. My senior year, I had to do a report on Scotland, so I had my mom drop me off after school at the library for a few hours so I could pull every book I could find on "Scotland". In doing so, I learned this little nugget - the unicorn is Scotland's national animal. Seriously. The unicorn stands for purity, innocence, as well as strength and its presence of importance goes way back to Celtic mythology. So far as national animals go, Scotland wins, in my book. All animals are pretty awesome. I mean, have you seen how many You Tube videos involving dogs and cats, alone, exist? Personally, I never get tired of seeing cats getting scared by plastic bags that wind up around their tails, and doing terrified zoomies throughout the house. I laugh so hard I cry at these videos. This topic leads me to insert my last bit of uncommon info - cats can be allergic to humans. I found that to be interesting while I was searching the web for cool bits of data. So, I leave you, reader, with this bit of wisdom: no matter how much knowledge you 'google', or how many bits of information you pick up online, know that only about 8% of it is actually available on the internet. Books, journals, and written text still have much to teach us, if we are just willing to look.
By Saundra M Bobbish - Dyer5 years ago in FYI
6 Women in History Who Adopted Male Personas
These women for a variety of reasons decided to adopt a male persona and (with one exception) dressed as and pretended to be men, often fooling their contemporaries. Some only did this for a short period, while others did this for their entire lives.
By Scarlett Callohan5 years ago in FYI
Did You Know Michigan Won the UP in a War With Ohio?. Top Story - March 2021.
That's right, friends, in 1835, the Michigan Territory went to war with the state of Ohio. One could make the argument that the hostility continues to this day, but the conflict was officially over in 1836.
By Crysta Coburn5 years ago in FYI
Nike Took a Murderer’s Last Words and Turned It Into a Simple Life Lesson
“In a plain T-shirt with a bag over his head, [Gary] Gilmore was strapped into a chair, waiting for a firing squad to execute him at Utah State Prison. It was the morning of Jan. 17, 1977, and Gilmore, convicted of murdering a gas station employee and motel manager in Utah the year before, was to become the first person in the United States to be executed in nearly a decade.” — Washington Post
By Alice Vuong5 years ago in FYI
In 1908 a school fire cost the lives of 175
One of my favorite things to do in the morning when I am trying to convivence myself to get on the treadmill is to drink coffee and look up what happened today in history. A lot of things I have no idea ever happened, mostly because the world is very old and I am only a little old, but it is fun to research some of the notables. Today’s stories, in one way or another, change the history of the U.S., fire departments and school safety codes, and it is with this mind that I want to talk about un-known moments in our history:
By Rose Loren Geer-Robbins5 years ago in FYI
4 Sayings You've Been Told Don't Mean What You Think They Mean, But They Do
We’ve all seen those clickbait stories on Facebook. You know the ones; big, bold headlines telling you you’ve been misusing common phrases your whole life. In each instance, they claim that most people are only familiar with an abbreviated version of a popular idiom, and that the whole, extended version of the saying actually means the opposite of what is commonly thought.
By Nicole Werner5 years ago in FYI
The Man, the Myths, the Mystery…Tesla
When we hear the name, “Tesla” the majority of us might associate it with Elon Musk’s iconic and impressive line of electric cars. Yet Mr. Musk was giving a nod to the namesake behind these innovative vehicles – Nikola Tesla. Among his many other innovations, Tesla invented the architecture of AC induction motors, the basis of the Tesla car. Indeed, Elon Musk believes that Nikola Tesla deserves more credit than he receives in our current society. Many agree.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.5 years ago in FYI
A Life Saving Change
It's no surprise we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are today without black inventors and their inventions. Such as Mary Brown and her invention of the home security system, which as a study done by the Alarm Industry Research and Education Foundation found in a study 60% of burglars choose houses without a home security system to rob.
By Madison Bishop5 years ago in FYI
Atlantis Is Real (Sort Of)
In approximately 360 BCE, the tale of the lost civilisation of Atlantis first made an appearance in the Socratic dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written by the well-known Greek philosopher Plato. The story tells of an ancient island located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. The island was once a mighty and powerful civilisation, until it attempted to wage war on Asia and Europe, where it was promptly defeated by the superior leadership of the Greek civilisation of Athens, and was swallowed by the ocean, never to be seen again.
By C.E. Tidswell5 years ago in FYI
Zombies: The Theory
The zombies in movies are the out of box things. They are just for entertainment purpose. But here we go deep into the facts about zombies. Here I will give real world references about zombies. I am not talking to act like horror, but in fact real horror.
By Zeeshan Mushtaq Lone5 years ago in FYI
