5 Things You Need to Know About Thanksgiving

Turkey dinners, football games and parades — these are the modern-day trappings of the holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year. But Thanksgiving is more than just a day of food and festivity.

This new one-hour special traces the history of the holiday, from its origins in the early American colonies through the family feasts Americans enjoy today. The Real Story of Thanksgiving gives viewers a new understanding of how this much-loved holiday has changed over time.

Pilgrims Didn't Wear Buckled Hats 

It's true—buckles didn't even become a thing until the 18th century (200 years after the first Thanksgiving). Which means that somewhere over the last two centuries, someone just started adding buckles into these early American scenes, and the rest of us just went with it.

Native Americans Didn't Wear Loin Cloths

Yes, really. And it makes sense. Have you ever stopped to realize how utterly cold it is in New England during November? That Thanksgiving feast with the Pilgrims would have been super uncomfortable if the Native Americans arrived in nothing but a little fabric draped around their waists. Instead, historians are pretty positive they were fully clothed.

Minnesota Produces the Most Turkeys 

Yep, the North Star state of Minnesota produces the largest number of turkeys every year, with some 450 farmers raising a staggering 46 million turkeys annually. Needless to say, they do pretty well for themselves come Thanksgiving time.

Millions of Turkeys Are Eaten Each Thanksgiving

According to the National Turkey Federation (because yes, there is such a thing), 46 million turkeys were eaten on Thanksgiving in 2012 alone. That's 736,000 pounds of turkey consumed—in just one day!

Thomas Jefferson cancels Thanksgiving -

You've probably heard that Ben Franklin thought turkeys should be the American bird. But did you know Thomas Jefferson cancelled the holiday altogether? George Washington had declared a day of thanks but only did it on a year-to-year basis. Jefferson refused to celebrate it during the holiday and it wasn't until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the day a federal holiday.
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Infographic: 2014 FIFA World Cup

Football (soccer) enthusiasts around the world are eagerly waiting for the onset of the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be held in Brazil from June 12 to July 13. While anything is possible, all pointers are that Brazil will win this edition. This year’s world cup games are unique in many aspects and this could explain why many people are looking forward to it.

Did you know that only 8 countries have managed to take the world cup home since its inception of the tournament? These countries include the 2014 host Brazil, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, England, Argentina and Uruguay. FIFA and other organizers of this event believe that the viewership of the 2014 world cup finals will surpass the one billion mark after recording 715.3 million and 909.6 billion viewers in the 2006 and 2010 respectively.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will make history as the first tournament where goal line technology is used. Furthermore, fans for the first time got an opportunity to help in the naming of the official ball for the tournament called Brazuca. Addidas remains the official supplier of the balls to the tournament since they won the contract on 1970.

In terms of cost, ridiculous amounts were spent in construction and renovation of the stadia. The figure stands at $3.5 billion that is thrice the amount spent in South Africa in 2010. This amount can send you to space approximately 14,000 times. If you intend to watch the games in person, then you must be ready to spend like never before.

On average, a hotel room will cost you $282 on the opening day in Sao Paulo and $371 on final day at Rio de Janeiro. Even more amazing is that a 50-minute flight between these two cities will set you back $514. The average ticket cost across the tournament is $1,345.

If you decide to travel to Brazil for the live games then you need to cunning to save some money. Carryout research online to find hotels that offers the best deals. Travel with company as this will help you save some money on hotel expenditure. KNCTR will help you stay in contact with family and friend through free calls and keep you update on what matters on the ground.

All The Times Science Fiction Became Science Fact In One Chart

• You have an error with Waterbeds. The "Actual Discovery" is repeating the line above it about visual flight simulators.Not to mention the actual discovery of waterbeds was in 1832. I love Heinlein, but he erroneously gets credit for this one all the time.

• electric submarines were in use since at least the Holland in 1900; 

• the "discovery" of From the Earth to the Moon should be Apollo 8 in 1968, not Apollo 11 in 1969 (especially since Apollo 8 more closely matched the mission from Verne's book); 

• and Arthur C. Clarke invented communications satellites in a non-fiction proposal from 1945, not in 2001.

• Bionic limbs, predicted WAY earlier than 1972, I'd have to check source but you had them in the Cybermen from doctor who in 1965 and I'd wager a lot before that

• I remember an Ursula K. Le Guin short about clones ("Nine Lives") and I wonder who was the first to come up with that (I saw genetic manipulation on the chart, but it's not really the same).

• I'd add Wikipedia to Douglas Adams' 'predictions'. A massive electronic encyclopedia, accessible everywhere through small devices (phones/tablets/eBooks), updated wirelessly by a huge number of contributors and covering a vast range of topics. Also, a reputation as somewhat unreliable!

• Credit cards - There were similar systems before the year noted, but they were limited to credit with a particular merchant. The date given is for general-use cards good at a variety of participating merchants.

• Solar energy - I don't know if calculators were the first use of photovoltaic cells or not, maybe they were, but solar energy per se was in development long before the cited book was written, though I believe it was mainly for heating and such.

• Communications Satellite - The first dedicated to communications were the passive reflector Echo 1 launched in 1960, followed by the first active sat Courier 1B the same year. The first to actually relay communications was Project SCORE in 1958. Clarke proposed the idea in a non-fiction article published in 1945.

Satellite TV - 1962 from Europe via Telstar.
 

Infographic: Adults Under 30 Are Still Broke

Here Are 23 Awesome Things You Didn’t Learn In School. But You’ll Be Glad You Know Them

1.) This is how vining plants grow and find support.

YouTube

2.) This is how an ant walks.

Reddit

3.) If a star is devoured by a black hole, this is what it looks like.

wikipedia

4.) This is how chain links are put together.

boingboing

5.) As a cheetah runs, it will rotate its tail to cancel rotational inertia and minimize torque.

forumotion

6.) When dogs drink water, it is much more graceful than it appears.

9gag

7.) This could be how the Easter Island heads were transported.

scientificamerican

8.) If you cracked an egg underwater, this is what it would look like.

YouTube

9.) While in the womb, a human face starts out looking like a misshapen potato.

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10.) When a spring falls, this is what it looks like.

YouTube

11.) Flying snakes (chrysopelea) exist. You should probably run.

funnyflava

12.) The gas sulphur hexaflouride is much denser than air.

YouTube

13.) This is what happens when you throw boiling water into the air at -40 degrees.

folioolio

14.) This is how a key works.

gizmodo

15.) This is what happens when a ladybug flies.

YouTube

16.) Here’s an awesome example of linear momentum to angular momentum transition.

gifbin

17.) There are some octopi that are REALLY good at camouflage.

YouTube

18.) This is a neat trick you can do with some older computer monitors.

gizmag

19.) Delicious Pop-Tarts are made like this.

Reddit

20.) This is how big Earth is compared to the largest known star.

pandawhale

21.) The sun doesn’t set during an arctic summer.

huffingtonpost

22.) This is what the Pythagorean theorem (a² + b² = c²) looks like.

9gag

23.) Snake venom does THIS to blood.

YouTube

Read more at http://www.viralnova.com/new-school-facts/#XzEDYL4Y2PdbbYeF.99

77 Facts That Sound Like Huge Lies But Are Actually Completely True

Dave Stopera

1. If you put your finger in your ear and scratch, it sounds just like Pac-Man.

2. The YKK on your zipper stands for “Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikigaisha.”

3. Maine is the closest U.S. state to Africa.

4. Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barbara Walters were born in the same year, 1929.

5. The name Jessica was created by Shakespeare in the play Merchant of Venice.

6. Cashews grow like this:

View this image

Via hort.cornell.edu

7. And pineapples grow like this:

View this image ›

hiyori13 / Via Flickr: hiyori13

8. Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the iPhone than she did to the building of the Great Pyramid.

9. Russia has a larger surface area than Pluto.

10. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia.

11. Hippo milk is pink.

View this image ›

Via factslist.net

12. The toy Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

13. Woody from Toy Story has a full name too — it’s Woody Pride.

14. And while we’re at it, Mr. Clean’s full name is Veritably Clean.

15. Oh, and Cookie Monster’s real name is Sid.

16. Carrots were originally purple.

17. The heart of a blue whale is so big, a human can swim through the arteries.

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Via geekosystem.com

18. Vending machines are twice as likely to kill you than a shark is.

19. Home Alone was released closer to the moon landing than it was to today.

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20th Century Fox

20. Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.

21. Not once in the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme does it mention that he’s an egg.

22. France was still executing people with a guillotine when the first Star Wars film came out.

23. Armadillos nearly always give birth to identical quadruplets.

24. Betty White is actually older than sliced bread.

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Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images for TV Land

25. The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.

26. A strawberry isn’t a berry but a banana is.

27. So are avocados and watermelon.

28. New York City is further south than Rome, Italy.

29. North Korea and Finland are separated by one country.

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Via rsf.org

30. Mammoths went extinct 1,000 years after the Egyptians finished building the Great Pyramid.

31. There are more fake flamingos in the world than real flamingos.

32. Nintendo was founded as a trading card company back in 1889.

33. The man who voiced Fry on Futurama, Billy West, also voiced Doug on Doug.

View this image

Via funnyjunk.com

34. The last time the Chicago Cubs won the baseball World Series, the Ottoman Empire still existed.

35. And lollipops had not yet been invented.

36. And women did not have the right to vote in the United State

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Via theheckler.com

37. If you shrunk the sun down to the size of a white blood cell and shrunk the Milky Way Galaxy down using the same scale, it would be the size of the continental United States.

38. John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, has a grandson who’s alive today.

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Via geneamusings.com

39. Will Smith is now older than Uncle Phil was at the beginning of The Fresh Prince.

40. The show the The Wonder Years aired from 1988–1993 and covered the years 1968–1973. Today, in 2014, if one were to make a similar show, it would cover the years 1994–1999.

41. Humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas.

42. Duck Hunt is a two-player game. Player two controls the ducks.

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Nintendo

43. The difference in time between when Tyrannosaurus Rex and Stegosaurus lived is greater than the difference in time between Tyrannosaurus Rex and now.

44. One more fact about the Cubs: The last time they won the world series, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, and New Mexico were not yet states.

45. Speaking of Alaska — it’s simultaneously the most northern, the most western, and the most eastern state in the U.S.

46. Pluto never made a full orbit around the sun from the time it was discovered to when it was declassified as a planet.

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Via wishlist.soup.io

47. A thousand seconds is about 16 minutes.

48. A million seconds is about 11 days.

49. A billion seconds is about 32 years.

50. And one trillion seconds is about 32,000 years. A trillion is a lot.

51. But the good news is: Honey never spoils. You can eat 32,000-year-old honey.

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Via Flickr: sionakaren

52. There are more stars in space than there are grains of sand on every beach on Earth.

53. And there’s enough water in Lake Superior to cover all of North and South America in one foot of water.

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Via upload.wikimedia.org

54. There are more public libraries than McDonald’s in the U.S.

55. For every human on Earth there are approximately 1.6 million ants. The total weight of all those ants is approximately the same as the total weight of all the humans on Earth.

56. An octopus has three hearts.

57. Mario hits blocks with his hand, not his head.

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Via drheckle.net

58. The CEO of Food For The Poor is named Robin Mahfood.

59. One in every 5,000 babies is born with a condition known as “imperforate anus.” This means the baby is born without an anus and has to have one created manually in the hospital.

60. You can’t hum while holding your nose.

61. It rains diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter.

62. Also, this is what Jupiter would look like if it were as close to us as the Moon is:

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Via twistedsifter.com

63. And this is what sand looks like under a microscope:

View this image ›

Courtesy of Dr. Gary Greenberg / sandgrains.com / Via sandgrains.com

64. If a piece of paper were folded 42 times, it would reach to the moon.

65. The pyramids were as old to the Romans as the Romans are to us.

66. If you dug a hole to the center of the Earth and dropped a book down, it would take 42 minutes to reach the bottom.

67. There is 10 times more bacteria in your body than actual body cells.

68. And 90% of the cells that make us up of aren’t human but mostly fungi and bacteria.

69. Every two minutes, we take more pictures than all of humanity in the 19th century

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Via pinterest.com

70. Peanuts are not nuts. They grow in the ground, so they are legumes.

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Via cropsinpots.blogspot.com

71. Turtles can breathe out of their butts.

72. The dot over an “i” is called a “tittle.”

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73. There are more atoms in a glass of water than glasses of water in all the oceans on Earth.

74. The probability of you drinking a glass of water that contains a molecule of water that also passed through a dinosaur is almost 100%.

75. At the time the current oldest person on Earth was born, there was a completely different set of human beings on the planet.

76. And at the time you were born, you were briefly the youngest person in the entire world.

77. And, finally, “dog food lid” backwards is “dildo of God.”

Surprising Hobbies of Famous Authors

By Emily Temple

This week, we were surprised by the news that Emily Dickinson was a passionate baker, and it got us to thinking. Of course, some authors have exactly the hobbies you’d think they would — Hemingway was an avid hunter and fisherman, of course — but others are a bit more surprising. With so many cultural icons and celebrities, we tend to pigeonhole them like characters, fitting them into the roles they are most famous for instead of thinking of them as fully realized human beings — but famous authors have weird hobbies just like the rest of us, a few of which even make us think twice about that literary figure we thought we knew so well. Click through to see a few very surprising hobbies of famous authors, and let us know if you have the inside scoop on any more!

Though a recluse for most of her life, Emily Dickinson loved to bake, and would often lower a basket full of baked goods from her window to the children waiting in the street. Now, happily, you can recreate her coconut cake in your own kitchen — though you may not be able to recreate the poems it fueled quite so easily.

Vladimir Nabokov was an avid lepidopterist, once commenting, “The pleasures and rewards of literary inspiration are nothing beside the rapture of discovering a new organ under the microscope or an undescribed species on a mountainside in Iran or Peru. It is not improbable that had there been no revolution in Russia, I would have devoted myself entirely to lepidopterology and never written any novels at all.”

Franz Kafka apparently had an enormous collection of pornography, ranging from the run-of-the-mill (“girl-on-girl action”) to the more obtuse (“animals committing fellatio”). We imagine Franz as a meek, self-conscious man with a mind working a mile a minute, so we guess this makes sense, but we have to admit we’re surprised all the same.

Ayn Rand was a passionate collector of stamps, a hobby that seems altogether too mundane for her, as far as we’re concerned. From an article she wrote on the subject: “The pleasure lies in a certain special way of using one’s mind. Stamp collecting is a hobby for busy, purposeful, ambitious people…because, in pattern, it has the essential elements of a career, but transposed to a clearly delimited, intensely private world.”

Not only was she a skilled (and published) cartoonist, but Flannery O’Connor was obsessed with birds, and raised over 100 peacocks (in addition to ducks, hens, geese and any other kind of bird she could get her hands on) at her family’s farm, her ancestral farm, Andalusia, in Georgia. Her peacocks popped up more than once in her work, including in this passage from her short story “The Displaced Person”:
“What a beauti-ful birrrrd!” the priest murmured.

“Another mouth to feed,” Mrs. McIntyre said, glancing in the peafowl’s direction.

“And when does he raise his splendid tail?” asked the priest.

“Just when it suits him,” she said. “There used to be twenty or thirty of those things on the place but I’ve let them die off. I don’t like to hear them scream in the middle of the night.”

“So beauti-ful,” the priest said. “A tail full of suns,” and he crept forward on tiptoe and looked down on the bird’s back where the polished gold and green design began. The peacock stood still as if he had just come down from some sun-drenched height to be a vision for them all….

Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes were beekeepers, a hobby that was reflected in many of Plath’s poems and seems to have stemmed from a desire to feel grounded. When asked in a 1962 interview if she often hung out with other writers, she responded, “I much prefer doctors, midwives, lawyers, anything but writers. I think writers and artists are the most narcissistic people. I mustn’t say this, I like many of them, in fact a great many of my friends happen to be writers and artists. But I must say what I admire most is the person who masters an area of practical experience, and can teach me something. I mean, my local midwife has taught me how to keep bees. Well, she can’t understand anything I write. And I find myself liking her, may I say, more than most poets. And among my friends I find people who know all about boats or know all about certain sports, or how to cut somebody open and remove an organ. I’m fascinated by this mastery of the practical. As a poet, one lives a bit on air. I always like someone who can teach me something practical.”

In addition to being an avid runner, which is fairly unusual (at least in lore) for an author, Haruki Murakami really, really loves jazz — to the tune of listening to it for ten hours a day for many years. In an essay, he wrote, “It may sound paradoxical to say so, but if I had not been so obsessed with music, I might not have become a novelist. Even now, almost 30 years later, I continue to learn a great deal about writing from good music. My style is as deeply influenced by Charlie Parker’s repeated freewheeling riffs, say, as by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s elegantly flowing prose. And I still take the quality of continual self-renewal in Miles Davis’s music as a literary model.”

In her youth, Zadie Smith was obsessed with musicals and she trained as a tap-dancer for ten years, considering a career in musical theatre. As she grew up, however, she changed her focus to writing, as “Slowly but surely the pen became mightier than the double pick-up timestep with shuffle.”

Mark Twain, most famous for a novel about a kid floating down a river on a super low budget raft, was actually obsessed with science and technology and was great friends with Nikola Tesla. He also invented (and patented) a device to replace suspenders, which he called an “Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments.”