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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 today is National Flip A Coin Day, which...
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June 13 – Frightfully Fun
Today’s Factismal: Fear of Friday the 13th is known as paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia . One of the more interesting things about humans is that if something exists, there’s someone...
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June 18 – Making Sparks
Today’s Factismal: The first modern battery was built in order to investigate frog’s legs. If you’ve studied the history of science, then you know that nothing drives the discovery of new things like...
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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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July 2 – Is There Anybody Out There?
Today’s factismal: It is World UFO day. There is no doubt that UFOs exist; there are objects that are flying around that are not identified. But a far more interesting question is “Are there other...
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August 27 – School Daze
Today’s factismal: There are 49,600,000 school kids in the USA; 91% of them will graduate high school. At first blush, the number of schoolchildren that graduate high school looks good. Out of the 49.6...
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September 12 – Want To Play 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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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 14 – Acid Trip
Today’s factismal: Acid rain has about the same pH level as wine or beer. In the late 1800s, the fogs of London were notorious not just for their thickness (“pea soup” being about the kindest...
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October 21 – Ka-Boom!
Today’s factismal: The world’s most famous chemist is known mostly for his charitable work. Mining in the 1800s was a nerve-wracking job. Not only did you have to worry about bad air, cave-ins, and...
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October 23 – It Is Full Of Stars
Today’s factismal: There are about as many atoms in 16 grams of oxygen as there are stars in the universe. If you had been a chemist in the 1800s, you would have had a real problem. You knew for a fact...
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November 19 – 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 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 12 – 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 17 – 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 – On Donner
Today’s factismal: The word “reindeer” means “deer deer”. It is beginning to look a lot like Xmas and one of the most important parts of that look is the number of reindeer that are sprouting up. You...
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December 21 – Standing Still
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 Gift Of All
Today’s factismal: The Royal Institute has held Christmas Lectures every year since 1825, making it the longest running lecture series in the world. Back in 1825, Michael Faraday noticed a problem:...
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December 31 – The Year In Science
Today’s factismal: Today is December 31, 2014. It is also 9 Tevet, 5775, 9 Rabi al-Awwal, 1436, 10 Dey, 1393, and 10 Pausa, 1936. This is the two thousand and fourteenth year in the civil calendar – at...
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