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February 2 – Happy Woodchuck Day
Today’s Factismal: The woodchuck, or groundhog as it is often known, is the largest member of the squirrel family in North America. If you are a fan of holidays, or just of silly strange movies, then...
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May 25 – Proud and Loud
Today’s Factismal: Today is Geek Pride Day – let your geek flag fly! For many who were teenagers in 1983, one event shaped the rest of their year: the release of the final (until 1999) episode in the...
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June 1 – Heads for the Hills
Today’s Factismal: While he was a prisoner of war, John Kerrich flipped a coin 10,000 times and got 5,017 heads and 4,983 tails. You probably didn’t know that it is National Flip A Coin Day. Dedicated...
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June 30 – Ka-Boom!
Today’s factismal: It is World Meteor Day. Go out tonight and look for meteors! The world of meteors is a confusing one to the uninitiated. We speak of meteors and meteorites and falls and finds and...
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September 12 – Life’s a game
Today’s factismal: It is National Video Game Day. Want to play a game? There is something that is just plain fun about video games. They may be as simple as creating life or as complex as dodging...
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September 15 – How Clever!
Today’s factismal: The word engineer comes from the Latin word ingenium which means “cleverness”. If you want to start an argument at a science conference, as the folks there who the first scientist...
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September 21 – For Every Season
Today’s factismal: Today is the first day of autumn, the twenty-first day of autumn, and the forty-fourth day of autumn. Right now, you are probably scratching your head, wondering if I’ve lost my...
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October 13 – Getting Old
Today’s factismal: This is the start of Earth Science Week – have you hugged a geologist today? This week is Earth Science Week, celebrating all of the fun that can be found in studying the Earth....
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October 20 – That Stinks!
Today’s factismal: National Chemistry Week starts today – have a blast! October is a good month for science geeks. Not only is it the month when the Concorde first broke the sound barrier and when...
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November 15 – Trash Talking
Today’s factismal: Every year, Americans throw away 252 million pounds of Styrofoam cups. It is no secret that America is addicted to trash. Even if we ignore the daily doings of soi disant...
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December 6 – Merry Techmas!
Today’s factismal: X-mas was used as an abbreviation for Christmas around 1100 AD. Back in 1021, there wasn’t much to write on (to be fair, there weren’t many people who could write on what there was...
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December 10 – Stink, Stank, Stunk
Today’s factismal: Pâté made with stink bugs and chicken livers is considered a delicacy in many parts of the world. It is the holiday season once again, and we all know what that means – parties! And...
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December 13 – Pointers and settias
Today’s factismal: The poinsettia and the Chinese tallow tree come from the same plant family. For some folks, nothing says Christmas like a big, leafy poinsettia plant. These red and green bush has...
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December 18 – Mouse King
Today’s factismal: When the Nutcracker debuted on December 18, 1892, it was a flop. Ask someone about Christmas traditions today and odds are that they’ll mention going to see either a ballet of the...
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December 21 – Still Standing
Today’s factismal: The winter solstice has been celebrated for at least 10,000 years. Today is one of the more interesting days in the year. It is the day in which the Sun stops its apparent southward...
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December 24 – The Best Tradition of All
Today’s factismal: The longest running lecture series in the world are the Royal Institute’s Christmas Lectures which have been held since 1825. Back in 1825, Michael Faraday noticed a problem: people...
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December 29 – Fly the coop
Today’s factismal: There are twenty-three birds in “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. Everyone knows the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. (That’s no surprise, given that it has been a perennial...
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December 31 – Auld Lang Syne
Today’s factismal: There were 348 factismals posted in 2013 on this blog! Today marks the end of a year and an experiment. I wanted to see if it was possible to post a new science fact every day for a...
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February 2 – Happy Woodchuck Day
Today’s Factismal: The woodchuck, or groundhog as it is often known, is the largest member of the squirrel family in North America. If you are a fan of holidays, or just of silly strange movies, then...
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May 25 – Proud and Loud
Today’s Factismal: Today is Geek Pride Day – let your geek flag fly! For many who were teenagers in 1977, one event shaped the rest of their year: the release of Star Wars. The movie radically reshaped...
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