Yahoo! Answers

Hey Guys,

Food has a habit of falling on the floor (stupid gravity). The question then becomes: To eat or not to eat? Is there any truth to the adage that food that’s been on the floor for five seconds or less is safe to scarf?

According to legend, the idea originated with none other than Genghis Khan. According to The Citizen, historians have traced the maxim to the great military leader. Back then, it was known as the Khan Rule and it was a bit more liberal.

During post-victory banquets, Khan supposedly would declare that if food fell on the floor, it could stay there for 12 hours. Any longer than that, and you risked death.

Of course, that’s just a legend. Whether Khan actually had such a rule is anybody’s guess. What we do know is that the five-second rule (let alone the 12 hour rule) doesn’t make much sense. Snopes.com explains that researchers have done experiments and found that the amount of time a piece of food is on the floor really makes no difference. If the floor is dirty, so is the food.

“Bacteria and viruses grab on by contact, and even brief encounters of the split-second variety can be more than enough for them to claim a new home address. They harbor no respect for a time barrier of a specific number of seconds.”
Of course, a little bit of bacteria isn’t gonna hurt (well, probably not), but if the floor isn’t very clean, you’re probably better off tossing the food and starting again.

Thanks for reading,

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Hey Guys,

The holidays are fast approaching and millions of people will put their purchases on plastic. As of 2010, there were more than 600 million credit cards held by U.S. consumers, according to CreditCards.com. How did the trend get started? Who created the credit cards?

Believe it or not, Diners Club was the first real credit card. The story of its invention is the stuff of entrepreneurial lore. A businessman named Frank McNamara was eating dinner at a New York City restaurant called Major’s Cabin Grill. While eating, McNamara realized he’d forgotten his wallet.

McNamara called his wife, who came to the restaurant and helped pay the bill. Understandably embarrassed, McNamara vowed never to be in that position again. He and a partner created the Diners Club, which launched a year later, allowing members to sign a bill and pay later.

Of course, the first cards looked a lot different than they do now. Early Diners Club cards were cardboard and didn’t include a magnetic strip on the back.

Originally, Diners Club cards were accepted at 14 New York City restaurants and were held by just a select few. These days, cards of all sorts are accepted everywhere, from hotels to movie theaters to (much to McNamara’s delight) restaurants around the world.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Hey Guys,

Ever wonder why people say “Roger” to indicate that they understood what you said? No? Tough, because I’m gonna tell you anyway.

The tradition has its roots in the military. Back in the days of World War II, Morse Code operators used the letter “R” to indicate that they received (get it?) the last message. “Roger” is simply the letter R’s voice code equivalent.

At least it was. “Roger” was part of the phonetic alphabet used by the U.S. military, but around 1956, things changed. These days, “R” is represented by “Romeo.” Similarly, “B” is now “bravo” instead of “baker,” “Z” is “zulu” instead of “zebra,” and so on. And even then, the words vary by region, country, and military branch.

Still, while “roger” is no longer the official phoentic word for “R,” it is still commonly used both in the military by civilians to let a person know that you are totally clued into whatever they just said. Copy?

Thanks for reading,

Mike

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Hey Guys,

Wanna know the secret to avoiding torturous small talk? Always have a random fact ready. That way, instead of being the boring person who asks people what they think of the weather, you’ll be the interesting person who knows a surprising amount of information on [insert non-creepy topic here].

Here are a few examples…

Cows are far more dangerous than sharks. In an average year, around 20 people die due to cattle-related deaths (cows have a tendency to accidentally trample). Sharks, meanwhile, only account for about one death per year, according to WiseGeek.

In a standard deck of cards, the king of hearts is the only king without a moustache. Why? I have no idea, but he’s apparently quite upset about it. Note that he’s stabbing himself in the head.

You know the nonsensical mwa-mwa-mwa noises that adults make in “Charlie Brown” cartoons? Those sounds were made via trombone. A Peanuts fansite explains that the composer “directed his trombonist to ‘enunciate’ the teacher’s dialog as though it were a trombone riff.”

If you were a male born in Russia in 1923, you had only a 20% chance of surviving World War II, according to the folks at Random History. The numbers are truly sobering. Overall, around 21 million Russians died in World War II. American casualties, by contrast, numbered about 500,000.

Researchers for a 2009 study from Queens University Belfast watched cats attempt to free a bit of tuna from narrow-mouthed jars (nice work if you can get it). Female cats tended to use their right paw, while male cats were more likely to use their left.

There are five factoids to get you started. Got some of your own? Please leave a comment (and the source) below.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Hey Guys,

Some people dream of soaring like birds. Me? I’d rather be a bear so I can hibernate for months at a time. But is that really how hibernation works? And are bears the only species that does it?

Turns out hibernation isn’t limited to the fearsome bear. According to NOVA, plenty of other creatures settle down for long winter naps, including the woodchuck, chipmunk, and raccoon. But whereas these smaller creatures have to wake up every several days, the American Black Bears can sleep for as long as 100 days at a time.

To prepare for hibernation, a bear hits the buffet pretty hard. Bears pack on an extra 40 pounds of fat per week that can be slowly burned off while sleeping. A bear’s heart rate drops dramatically.

A common misconception is that a hibernating bear is in a state of deep sleep. Not so. “Bears do not enter a state of deep hibernation because they need a higher body temperature in order to meet the demands of pregnancy, birth, and the nursing of young,” according to PBI. Bears who are new moms still take excellent care of the cubs, waking up regularly during winter to make sure the babies are in good health.

According to Bear.org, “hibernation… can last over 7 months in the northern portion of the black bear range where abundant, high quality food is available only from May through August.” In other areas, the bear’s hibernation is considerably shorter.

Some experts argue that technically a black bear doesn’t hibernate at all. Instead, they enter “a state of sedation referred to as torpor.” But no matter what you call it, the bear doesn’t do a lot during the winter, and that sounds like a pretty nice life to me.

How about you guys? What sort of animals do you wish to be? Honey badger? Liger? Radioactive spider with the power to grant unsuspecting teenagers superhero-like powers? Leave a comment below.

Thanks,

Mike

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!