Notes from the Brooklyn Polygnostic Institute

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mikelibrarian

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#2,501
Fun fact

Today is Holy Thursday. Also known as Maundy Thursday.

Maundy comes from Middle English maunde, from Old French mandé, from Latin mandatum command, order; from the words spoken by Jesus to his disciples after washing their feet at the Last Supper, “a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another” (John 13:34 Authorized Version)

May be verified in the Merriam Webster Dictionary.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maundy
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,502
#2,502
Fun Fact?

A million years from now our most lasting relic may be a layer of out of place hydrocarbons, the remains of our plastics.

May be verified in What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe Pg. 21
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,503
#2,503
Fun Fact

Before a blight occurred in the early 20th century the hardwood forests of the North Eastern United States were about 25% chestnut. Now only the stumps survive. The stumps periodically sprout new shoots only to wither as the blight takes hold. Soon all of the stumps will be dead.

May be verified in What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe Pg. 16
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,504
#2,504
Fun Fact

Del Close had his improvisors, including John Belushi, Joe Flaherty, Harold Ramis and Brian Doyle Murray experiment with performing while on drugs. The drugs included acid, speed, angel dust, alcohol and marijuana.


May be verified in the book Improv Nation How We made A Great American Art by Sam Wasson pg. 164



Improvise safely oh seekers of knowledge
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,505
#2,505
In 2003 corn sold for $2 a bushell, while marijuana sold for at least $70,000 a bushell.

May be verified in Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, And Cheap Labor in the American Black Markjet by Eric Schlosser. Pg. 35
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,506
#2,506
Charles Manson learned to build his family while in prison. He learned from a Dale Carnegie course, Scientologists and pimps.

May be verified in Family Affairs by Dylan Landis a review of the book The Girls by Emma Cline that appeared in the June 5, 2016 NY Times Book Review
 
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mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,507
#2,507
The average medicare recipient receives treatment totaling his or her lifetime contribution plus a market rate of returnwithin the first two years after retirement.

May be verified in the the Bottom Line section of the December 22.December 29, 2017 issue of The Week magazine. The information originally appeared in The Atlantic.
 
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mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,508
#2,508
The three richest people in the United States: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet own as much weealth as the bottom half of U.S. population.


May be verified in the the Bottom Line section of the November 24, 2017 issue of The Week magazine. The information originally appeared in The Guardian
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,509
#2,509
Michele Ferrero the inventor of Nutella and Tic Tacs had an estimated personal fortune of 26.5 billion making him the 22nd richest man on tyhe planet and Italy's wealthiest man. His com[pany owns 15% of the world's hazelnut supply


May be verified in the the Bottom Line section of the February 27, 2015 issue of The Week magazine. The information originally appeared in The Times (U.K.)
 
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mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,510
#2,510
Fun Fact


The nucleus takes up around a thousand trillionth of the volume of an atom.


May be verified in: Atom land : a guided tour through the strange (and impossibly small) world of particle physics by Jon Butterworth. pg. 44
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
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#2,511
Fake fact.

Mary Shelley's book was originally named Franklin, after Ben Franklin due to his association with electricity. The scientist, Victor Franklin was supposed to be a grandson of his who reanimated a corpse using electricity, in an attempt to build upon his grandfather's work. Mary Shelley rewrote the book after being sued by Benjamin Franklin's own grandchildren. There are 19 known copies of the original book still surviving, not counting Mary Shelley's original manuscript which is currently house in the British Museum. One copy sold at auction for $175,000 to Stephen King.
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
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#2,514
Fun Fact

Scientists have determined that if a whale was more than 110 feet long it would not be able to close its mouth fast enough around quickly escaping prey and that a whale that big wouldn’t gain enough calories from the mouthful to make up for the energy lost from the act. The largest blue whale ever found was 109 feet long.

May be verified in the article

Wrap Your Mind Around a Whale By Nick Pyensonthat appeared in the June 23, 2018 New York Times.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/opinion/sunday/wrap-your-mind-around-a-whale.html
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,516
#2,516
Fun Fact

Half of the world's population, or 3.6 billion people use the internet.

May be verified in the June 13, 2018 issue of The Week Magazine. The Week got the information from axios.com
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,520
#2,520
Fun fact

Reportedly only one of the student subjects in the Stanford Prison Experiment went rogue. He claimed that acting like a good prison guard was boring and that Professor Zimbardo obviously wanted the experiment to break down so that he'd have something to write about. Later researchers have remarked that as the experiment went on he adopted more an more of a Southern accent. He claimed that he had watched Cool Hand Luke shortly before the experiment and was emulating Strother Martin's character. May be verified in Episode 302 of the Probably Science Podcast.

http://www.probablyscience.com/probablyscience/2018/7/25/episode-302-with-lisa-curry
 
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