Category Archives: Fun Facts

Who Started Oil Production Quotas?

You may have read that last week the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced they had agreed to cut oil production by about 1.2 million barrels a day.  For decades OPEC has been the organization we’ve all loved to hate.  But who was the first to come up with the idea of limiting oil

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Migrants and Europe’s Aging Population

With all the talk about immigration concerns in this country, I ran across an interesting article on The Christian Science Monitor website entitled “Could Embracing Migrants Help Solve Italian Villages’ Aging Problem?”  (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2016/1030/Could-embracing-migrants-help-solve-Italian-villages-aging-problem) In Italy, the birth rate is not high enough to prevent a shrinking population.  This is especially true in Southern Italy’s villages,

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Why Songs Get Stuck in Your Head

As a Disneyana fan, having songs stuck in my head comes with the territory (it’s what kind of world after all?).  I’ve always accepted it as part of my life.  But now, thanks to some new research,  there may be a scientific explanation. In a study published in the academic journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity

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Moving Toward a Cashless Society

I’ve recently heard a radical idea: we should become a cashless society. The technology is pretty much here, with credit and debit cards, PayPal, and even Bitcoins.  Other countries are moving in that direction.  South Korea has established a goal of becoming a cashless society by 2020 (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2016/03/488_199146.html).  India and the Scandinavian countries are also

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Can The Snooze Button Mess Up Your Mind?

Who hasn’t needed a little extra sleep?  That’s why snooze buttons were invented.  But what really happens if you push it? A recent post on the “Science of Us” website addresses this question.  It cites a Wall Street Journal column by behavioral scientist Dan Ariely that reports using the snooze button (especially multiple times) doesn’t

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Can You Be Allergic to Meat?

What if you were a real meat-lover, and one day, after decades of eating whatever you wanted, you suddenly developed what appeared to be an allergic reaction a few hours after eating a steak? Your family physician will tell you no, you’re wrong, you can’t be allergic to meat, it must be something else (or

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Why Are Insects So Scary?

Insects are tiny creatures.  So why are many people afraid of them? A recent article on the Science of Us website (http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/10/why-are-so-many-people-scared-of-bugs.html?) explores this phenomenon.  There are several reasons for an elevated fear factor. First, insects can be really dangerous.  The ones that bite or sting can cause real trouble, especially if an allergy is

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Halloween’s Origins

Happy Halloween!  I’m writing this after having spent two hours on the front lines, handing out candy at the bottom of a driveway.  This has become such a major holiday — I suspect number two now, behind Christmas — that it makes one wonder how we got here. The best explanation I’ve seen so far

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