News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
So, Anthony, who was Edward Elgar? He was an English composer famed for his military marches who was big in the early 20th century. He was given an honorary degree at Yale University in 1905. A riff from his big hit March No. 1 in D was played in his honor. We know the tune as Pomp and Circumstance.
Yes, that is the start of the graduation ceremony tradition.
The Higgins boat which landed our troops on D-Day and freed Europe was originally designed to smuggle liquor into the U.S. during Prohibition.
At least that is the strong suspicion.
A diamond the size of the moon has been found in outer space.
The banana is the healthiest food, at least according to ThisWeek.com. Bananas are one of the few foods to contain all six major vitamin groups along with potassium.
September has twice as many summer days as June.
Light slows to less than 93,000 miles per second when passing through a diamond.
The average high in Timbuktu in May is 108 F.
1,354,664 Americans have died in war since 1776 according the latest statistics. Combat deaths account for 666,441 of them.
Yes Miranda, those Odd Thomas paperbacks are codices. A codex is merely Latin for book i.e. bound stacked pages. Codices started creeping into use at about the start of the 2nd century. They quickly became the preferred medium albeit scrolls managed to hang around for another 300 years.
Now it appears the codex is being replaced by digital publications. It’s a tad ironic as the word “code” comes from codex as it was books it which laws were record i.e. the legal code.
Public pool urine — A typical public pool contains about 17 gallons of urine but don’t let it keep you from the water. That pool holds about 219,000 gallons of water so the urine content is only about .008 percent. Consider that the FDA allows canned apricots to be 2 percent insect filth.