Here's your (not so) totally useless fact(s) of the day:

[phkrause]

Before he wrote Goosebumps, R.L. Stine wrote the jokes for Bazooka Joe gum wrappers.

James

[phkrause]

The code word in international radio communications for "R" is Romeo. The
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assigned code words
acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet, so that critical combinations
of letters can be pronounced and understood by radio or telephone regardless of
language barriers or the quality of the communication channel. The 26 code
words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are as follows: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta,
Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar,
Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee,
and Zulu.

James

[phkrause]

The man who first gave names to hurricanes was an Australian weather
forecaster named C. Wragge in the early 1900s.

James

[phkrause]

At one point, Switzerland had an estimated 300,000 bomb shelters, with enough
space to provide shelter for all of its eight million residents.

James

[phkrause]

The New Jersey Hall of Fame honors individuals from the state of New Jersey
who have made contributions to society and the world beyond. The inaugural
class of inductees for the New Jersey Hall of Fame were honored in an
ceremony at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on May 4, 2008. The 15
people inducted into the inaugural class include: Clara Barton, Thomas Edison,
Albert Einstein, Buzz Aldrin, Malcolm Forbes, Robert Wood Johnson II, Frank
Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Meryl Streep, Yogi Berra, Bill Bradley, Vince
Lombardi, Toni Morrison, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Harriet Tubman.

James

[phkrause]

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Canada declared war on Japan before the U.S. did.

[phkrause]

Each anteater eats about 35,000 ants and termites each day.

James

[phkrause]

While many people might think that Kansas is the flattest state in the country,
they would be wrong. The flattest state is Florida, and Kansas isn’t even among
the top five.

James

[phkrause]

Al’Aziziyah in Libya has the highest recorded temperature on earth at a
sweltering 58 degrees Celsius/136 degrees Fahrenheit on September 13, 1922.

The lowest ever recorded world temperature was at Vostok Station, Antarctica on
July 21, 1983 at a bitter -89 degrees Celsius/-129 degrees Fahrenheit.

James

[phkrause]

Hollywood starlet Hedy Lamarr is often called the “mother of Wi-Fi.” She helped
invent a version of the frequency-hopping system that led to the creation of GPS,
Bluetooth, and wireless internet.
Link to some interesting facts about her.

James

[phkrause]

Hotfoot Teddy was the name given to a small bear cub that was found burned
and clinging to the top of a tree at a forest fire in New Mexico's Capitan
Mountains in 1950. The bear cub was rescued by fire fighters, and his survival
story had touched people’s hearts. He was donated to the National Zoo in
Washington, D.C. with an important job to do. Hotfoot Teddy became the mascot
and messenger for the Department of Natural Resources Fire Prevention
Program. He was later renamed to Smokey Bear. Today, Smokey Bear is widely
recognized as the symbol for forest fire prevention and is credited with
significantly reducing the number of forest fires each year.


I’m going to start adding a little “what have I gotten” part up here in the newsletter.
Only on certain days I’m thinking.

When I get a freebie or win something, I take a pic and add it to Instagram,
And if it’s still available, I’ll add the link as well. So it’s an extra chance
To get a freebie. You don’t need an Instagram account to see and follow
Links, but I’m sure you do if you want to comment.

So, for today…

Set of 4 Radeberger Beer Steins
Zazzle Highlighters
Outdoor Photographer Magazine

And oh yeah, the non believers can see that stuff does actually come  ?

James

[phkrause]

Lightning is a giant discharge of electricity accompanied by a brilliant flash of
light. The average lightning bolt is five miles in length and only 1 inch in width.
It only seems to appear bigger because the bolt is so bright. Lightning is extremely
hot—a flash can heat the air around it to temperatures five times hotter than the
sun’s surface. Lightning flashes more than 3 million times a day worldwide which
equates to about 40 times a second. The average American has about a 1 in
5,000 chance of being struck by lightning during a lifetime.

James

[phkrause]

The 'G' on the Green Bay Packer's helmets stands for "greatness," not Green Bay.

[phkrause]

McDonald’s distributes 1.5 billion toys annually, making them the largest
distributor of toys in the world. Approximately 20% of all purchases at
McDonald’s are Happy Meals, which comes with a toy. In the United States
alone, nine out of ten kids between the ages of 3 and 9 eat at McDonald’s at
least once a month. With 68 million Happy Meals sold on a daily basis, if you
do the math… that’s a lot of toys. McDonald's rolled out the first Happy Meal in
1979. The biggest hit toy that came from the Happy Meal was the Ty Beanie
Baby.

James

[phkrause]

Morris the Cat is the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on
its packaging and its television commercials. A large orange tabby tomcat, Morris
is "the world's most finicky cat", who would only eat 9Lives cat food. Morris
became a household name and a national celebrity that made it onto various talk
shows over the years. What you might not know is that the original Morris was a
rescue cat, who was “discovered” in an Illinois animal shelter in 1968. He went
on to film a whopping 58 commercials between 1969 and his death at the ripe old
age of 19 in 1978. The Morris character was later played by other rescue cats.

James

[phkrause]

In 1975, a new sitcom set in a Brooklyn high school came to television, called
Welcome Back, Kotter. Gabe Kaplan played Mr. Kotter, a teacher trying to reach
a group of underachieving students known as the "Sweathogs." The series
marked the beginning of John Travolta's career. Travolta played Vinnie
Barbarino, the leader and heartthrob of the Sweathogs. The line, “Up your nose
with a rubber hose” became his famous catchphrase. Gabe Kaplan even
recorded a song called “Up Your Nose” in 1977. It charted at 91 on Billboard’s
top 100.

James

[phkrause]

Captioning may be defined as transcribed text that runs simultaneously with
video. Those who are hard of hearing, deaf, or speak a foreign language can
benefit from the use of a captioning service. The first use of captioning occurred
in 1976, on Julia Child’s PBS show The French Chef. PBS sought approval to
use closed captioning on their programming to ensure that their deaf and hard-of
hearing audiences weren’t excluded from viewing. In 2014, the FCC updated
their rules to require that all digital services must provide closed captioning.


It’s also VERY helpful when trying to put a baby to sleep!
(yes, personal experience!)

James

[phkrause]

Henry John Deutschendorf is definitely not a name that any record company
would have an artist use as their stage name. A member of one of his favorite
musical acts, The New Christy Minstrels also agreed, and urged the folk singer to
adopt a more marketable name. He chose John Denver and began his musical
career. Denver recorded approximately 300 songs including his signature songs
"Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Annie's Song", "Rocky Mountain High",
"Calypso", "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", and "Sunshine on My Shoulders".
A longtime aviator, he died in a plane crash in 1997.

James

[phkrause]

Today, few people would consider buying a car that’s not equipped with air
conditioning. It’s seen as a necessity, not a luxury. That wasn’t always the case,
though. The 1940 Packard was the first car to offer factory-installed air
conditioning. Cadillac and Chrysler followed suit in 1941 with similar A/C
systems. But these setups were primitive and expensive, and they didn’t really
catch on. Luxury car buyers quickly came to see A/C as a highly desirable
feature, and by 1969, more than half of all new cars sold were equipped with
A/C.

James

[phkrause]

You burn 650 calories donating one pint of blood.

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Whether you love it or hate it, you probably think of candy corn as a Halloween
treat. But in the beginning, it was associated more with chickens than the spooky
holiday. When the Goelitz Confectionery Company (now Jelly Belly) first
produced candy corn, it was called "Chicken Feed." The tri-colored confection
was designed to look like chicken feed and came out at a time when about half
of Americans worked on farms. The boxes were illustrated with a colorful rooster
logo and a tag line that read: "Something worth crowing for."

James

[phkrause]

Arthur Guinness, founder of Guinness Brewery, had 21 children with just one wife.

James

[phkrause]

On November 7, 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to an
unprecedented fourth term in office. Just months into his fourth term, Roosevelt
would die from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. FDR, as he was often called,
served as President of the United States for 4,422 days, making him the longest
serving president in U.S. history. Roosevelt remains the only president to serve
more than two terms. In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was
passed, officially limiting a president’s tenure in office to two terms of four years
each.

James

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When Jeff Bezos was brainstorming names for his new venture in 1994,
Relentless was the company name that came closest to making the cut. Friends
warned Bezos that it sounded sinister, and Amazon was ultimately chosen to
become the history-making name. But something about Relentless spoke to
Bezos — so much so that he even registered a domain for the name. Type
Relentless.com into a search bar today, and you will be redirected to Amazon’s
website. Valued at nearly $1 trillion, Amazon is one of the most powerful
companies in the world.

James

[phkrause]

Pablo Picasso’s full name was Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan
Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisma Trinidad Ruiz
y Picasso.

James