Thursday, July 10, 2003

In October 1994, Jeff Bezos wanted to name his new Web venture "Cadabra" – as in "abracadabra." But his attorney convinced him that this magical moniker sounder a bit too much like "cadaver." Reluctantly, Bezos went with his second choice: Amazon.com.

I thought that was pretty neat. Every so often I have to look up bits of trivia for our electronic signs here at work so I use coolquiz.com. the problem is I get so caught up reading all the trivia whole days pass before I realise I was supposed to get some work done That's what today was like.

Apparently, dating back to the 1600s, thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury. Fascinating. And it is believed that 90 percent of all scientists who have ever lived are alive now, and that as many scientific papers have been published in the years since 1950 as were published in all the centuries before 1950. How odd is that?

Mylar is a trademarked name for a certain type of polyester film, and should not be used when referring to all foil balloons. Remember that next time you go buy birthday balloons. And not until Herbert Hoover was U.S. president, in 1929, did the U.S. chief executive have a private telephone in his office. (The telephone had been invented 53 years earlier.) The booth in a White House hallway had served as the president's private phone before one was installed in the Oval office.

Must stop... Didn't get very much done today, ho hum.
Posted by Melia @ 04:17 PM CST [link] [4 Comments]