Forty Six States of America

Although it is a technicality, there are actually just forty six states. Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are all officially Commonwealths. This grants them no special constitutional powers; they simply chose the word to describe themselves at the end of the war of independence. Virginia, named after the ‘Virgin’ Queen Elizabeth I, was one of the original 13 states (hence the 13 stripes on the flag) and the first of the states to declare itself a Commonwealth, in 1776. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts followed suit shortly afterwards, and Kentucky, which was formally a county of Virginia, became a Commonwealth in 1792.

Texas Trivia

The Republic of Texas was an independent sovereign nation in North America, which existed after gaining independence from Mexico March 2, 1836 and lasted until February 19, 1846. It was bordered by the nation of Mexico to the southwest, the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, the two US states of Louisiana and Arkansas to the east and northeast, and the United States territories encompassing the current US states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico to the north and west.

In 1839, Texas became the first nation in the world to enact a homestead exemption under which a person's primary residence could not be seized by creditors.

On March 1, 1845, US President John Tyler signed a bill that would authorize the United States to annex the Republic of Texas on December 29, 1845. On October 13, 1845, a large majority of voters in the Republic approved both the American offer and the proposed constitution. As part of the Compromise of 1850 Texas dropped claims to territory which included parts of present-day Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Wyoming. On February 19, 1846, power was permanently transferred from the Republic of Texas to the State of Texas.

John Tyler, born in 1790, has two living grandsons: Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., born in 1924, and Harrison Ruffin Tyler, born in 1928. He also fathered 15 children, more than any president in history. Thanks to Mike McCormick for the trivia addition.

The compromise also stated that up to four additional states could be created from Texas' territory with the consent of the State of Texas. In addition, Texas did not have to surrender its public lands to the federal government. It did not cede any public lands within its current boundaries. The land in Texas owned by the federal government was subsequently purchased by it. This means Texas has control over oil reserves and control over offshore oil reserves that run out to 9 nautical miles.

Benefits of Peanut Butter

According to the US National Peanut Board, the average American eats about three pounds of peanut butter each year. Peanut butter is a great source of unsaturated fats and vegetarian protein. Over 80 percent of the fats found in peanut butter are unsaturated, with 50 percent being monounsaturated fats that can help cut bad cholesterol (LDL).

Peanuts contain B vitamins, potassium, and resveratrol a powerful antioxidant known to have cancer fighting properties. Check the amount of carbohydrates on the nutrition label, because less fat sometimes comes with not-so-healthy trade-offs, such as added salt and sugar. Instead of that PB&J, spread some peanut butter on apple slices for a great taste and fiber boost.

Novel Uses for Sugar

Healers in Africa have been putting crushed sugar cane on wounds for generations. Moses Murandu is a nurse who grew up watching his father use the remedy in Africa and was surprised to find that doctors in England didn't use it. He started a study to research the idea and tested it on patients with bed sores, leg ulcers, and amputations before dressing the wounds. They found that sugar can reduce pain and kill bacteria that slow healing. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it naturally absorbs water, which bacteria needs to survive. Sugar is also much cheaper than modern antibiotics. The next time you cut yourself, give it a sprinkle of sugar before putting on a band-aid.

Ten Interesting Facts About Humans

People with higher number of moles tend to live longer than people with fewer moles.

When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes just before the camera rolls. It cools their mouths so their breath doesn't condense in the cold air.

Thinking about your muscles can actually make you stronger.

Grapefruit scent will make middle aged women appear six years younger to men. The perception is not reciprocal and has no effect on women’s perception.

The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you will have a bad dream.

There are more people alive today than have ever died.

Women’s hair is about half the diameter of men’s hair.

Women blink twice as many times as men do.

The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

Wordology, Mondegreen

Mistakes due to mishearing or misunderstanding, are called mondegreens. Most people have at one time or another inadvertently made a mondegreen when singing songs without knowing the correct lyrics. American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," published in Harper's Magazine in 1954. She got the idea from a poem she misquoted when a child.

"Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
 Oh, where hae ye been?
 They hae slain the Earl O' Moray,
 And Lady Mondegreen."  The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green".

Here is an example: ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song “Purple Haze”, by Jimi Hendrix: “‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky”). The title of the animated Christmas show "Olive, the Other Reindeer", is a mondegreen on "all of the other reindeer", a line from the classic Christmas song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Nose Facts

Did you know we all have four nostrils? We have two you can see, two you can’t. This discovery came from watching how fish breathe. Fish get their oxygen from water, most of them have two pair of nostrils, a forward facing set for letting water in and two for letting water out.

Our other two nostrils, migrated toward the back of the head, to become internal nostrils called ‘choannae’ – Greek for ‘funnels’. They connect to the throat and allow us to breathe through our noses.

Wrong Way Corrigan

We have all seen football players running the wrong way on the field, and some announcer will refer to the unfortunate player as Wrong Way Corrigan.

The original ‘Wrong Way’ was not a football player; he was Douglas Corrigan, unemployed airplane mechanic. It was on a foggy day in 1938, that Douglas left Floyd Bennett Field in New York, supposedly headed for Los Angeles. He landed his monoplane about 28 hours later in Ireland at Dublin’s Baldonnel Field. He had originally been denied a flight plan to Ireland and some think he did it on purpose, because he was of Irish descent.

Corrigan made the 3,150-mile flight without benefit of a radio or navigational equipment other than a compass. His explanation for the monumental mistake was that he was following the wrong end of the compass needle.

He was welcomed home as a hero with a ticker tape parade and known became Wrong Way Corrigan.

Wordology, Sport

Speaking of sports, the word sport was formed as an abbreviated form of disport. It first appears in a Middle English romance called Ipomadon in about 1440, 150 years before Shakespeare.

Disport derives from Anglo Norman desporter "to carry away" or, metaphorically, "to divert, entertain", formed from des "apart" and porter "carry". The word originally referred to "amusement". It did not gain its modern use until the 19th century.

Where Water Does Not Mix

There is a place in the Gulf of Alaska where two oceans meet but do not mix. Fresh water glaciers melted and flowed to join the ocean water, but because of the difference in the salinity and densities of these two water bodies, a surface tension developed between them that acts like a thin wall which prevents them from mixing. The boundary between the two is outlined by a thin layer of foam.

According to scientists, given enough time, the differences between these two bodies will disappear and they will merge together.

Bugs and Pain

Bugs may be a pain to us, but they feel no pain. Pain is officially defined as, "An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage". It is experienced differently by each person and organism. Because of this it is extremely difficult to describe just how an animal experiences pain.

To study how an animal experiences pain, argument-by-analogy is applied. This means if the animal reacts in a similar way to how we would, we believe they are experiencing pain. An example might be if a dog is pricked with a pin and runs away, as a human would.

Insects have no capacity to feel pain. Nociceptors are what carry the feeling of pain to the brain. These are essential to experience pain, yet insects and crustaceans have never been found to have any nociceptors. This means most of these animals are unable to feel any sort of pain. Most insects do not possess nociceptors. I knew when I squished them they were not yelling.

Enlightening Idea

A multicolored interactive night light that comes with removable glow balls. The Glo Nightlight's balls will glow for 30 minutes, fading out while changing color. If you place the balls back to its place, they will start glowing again. The base is designed to charge the balls and they will not get warm or break.

It has three stems each holding a glowing ball. The base charges the balls up so at night, you can remove them and place them anywhere a little light is needed. It is 8.2 x 8.5 x 9.8-inch, made of BPA-free, Phthalate-free, PVC-free and includes a 9v power adapter and the low energy LED base. Cost is about $80 on the web.

Wordology, Buttload

A buttload is a real unit of measurement or unit of volume that is used for wines, ales, ciders, and other alcoholic beverages.

A butt is defined to be 2 hogsheads, which in the US is 63 gallons, so a butt is 126 gallons. A hogshead (corruption of the word oxhead) traditionally was two barrels and a hogshead of beer or ale is 54 gallons.

This has no relation to boatload, which is "the cargo that a vessel carries or is capable of carrying". A boatload might be about 54,107,280 gallons. It should also not be confused with butt that is a target for practicing archery, a part of the anatomy, or any other of the many definitions for butt.

Obsidian Knives for Surgery

Obsidian is a type of volcanic glass that has an extremely sharp edge when filed down. Some of the finest examples of blades made out of obsidian were discovered in Mesoamerica over 2,500 years ago. Dr. Don Crabtree re-discovered the ancient technology about twelve years ago, and along with other surgeons, believes there might be a place for obsidian blades in current medicine. Blades produced by Dr. Crabtree have been used in experimental microsurgery with excellent results.

The prismatic glass blade is infinitely sharper than a honed steel edge, and these blades can be produced in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. When used in experimental surgeries on animals, the blades yield comparable and even better healing than cuts made with traditional scalpels.