April 15, 2007

There are 17 different species of penguins.

Learned from: Researching the different types of penguins featured in Happy Feet.

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April 14, 2007

Actor Jeffrey Tambor guest starred in five episodes of Three's Company and only once played a recurring character.

Learned from: Watching Three's Company and researching Tambor's roles after seeing him in an episode.

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April 13, 2007

Joe Francis, creator of the raunchy and tacky Girls Gone Wild videos, is currently in jail because he couldn't make bond after being arrested for tax fraud. While in jail, he has been charged with jail bribery for trying to obtain a bottle of water from a guard by bribing the guard with a 500-dollar bill.

Learned from: The news in general

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April 12, 2007

The N Television Network premiered on April 1, 2002. The N is aimed at teenagers and runs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. At 6 a.m., the network switches to Noggin, its network for preschoolers.

Learned from: A very addictive Wikipedia game.

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April 11, 2007

Washington State University All-American pitcher and infielder John Olerud and Washington State University baseball coach Charles "Bobo" Brayton were elected into the second class of the College Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday. The induction ceremony will be held July 2-4 in Lubbock, Texas.

Learned from: My sports news ticker

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April 10, 2007

Atlanta Braves baseball play-by-play announcer Skip Caray hosted a pregame radio show until 2004.

Learned from: Researching Skip's contract with Turner Broadcasting Station and the Braves' organization.

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April 9, 2007

Matisyahu is a Jewish reggae artist.

Learned from: My friend Michael who is a fan.

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April 8, 2007

Bethune-Cookman College is located in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Learned from: ESPN news story on racial diversity in baseball.

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April 7, 2007

Yesterday, while playing the Cleveland Indians in a snowstorm at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio, Seattle Mariner Raul Ibañez had a forty-minute at-bat.

After Ibañez took one pitch for a strike from starting pitcher Paul Byrd in the second inning, the home-plate umpire called a timeout because of visibility issues. This delay lasted 22 minutes. When the game began again, Ibañez took one more pitch from Byrd, also for a strike and time was called again, this time delaying the game for 17 minutes. Once the game resumed for the third time, Ibañez finished his at-bat without getting on base.

Learned from: Mariners' news on the snow-out.

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April 6, 2007

Scott Amron invented the Endo Magnet Clip because he wanted a magnetic clip that was strong but simpler than the ordinary magnet clips.

Learned from: ApartmentTherapy.com

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April 5, 2007

As of April 4, 2007, Seattle Mariners' play-by-play announcer Dave Niehaus has viewed 4,601 Mariner games. He has been broadcasting for the Mariners since the club's inception in 1977 and has only miss 77 games throughout their 30 seasons.

April 4, 2007

Tarot readings use a "spread" format with cards being placed into a pattern to do a reading. The pattern includes spaces for "self," "opportunities" and "situation." Each card chosen is placed chronologically in the pattern and the meaning of the card is combined with its placement to perform the reading.

April 3, 2007

Dancing with the Stars two-time winning professional dancer Cheryl Burke will be featured in the men's magazine Stuff in May 2007.

Learned from: Dancing with the Stars "scandals" article.

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April 2, 2007

Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville is a chain of restaurants in the U.S. and Jamaica featuring themed merchandise.

Learned from: Downloading album art for my iPod.

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April 1, 2007

According to Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D., a leading medical authority, "all the enthusiasm for supplemental [human growth hormone] derives from a single published report in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1990," written by Daniel Rudman, M.D., et al.

Learned from: The current issue of AARP: The Magazine

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March 31, 2007

Washington State University's English Department holds a yearly contest for the Emmett Avery Writing Award.

Learned from: Browsing my alma mater's website.

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March 30, 2007

John Krasinski, best known for his role as Jim Halpert on the American version of The Office, has a cameo role in the Christopher Guest film For Your Consideration. He plays a police officer in the fake film The Paper Badge, which is reviewed on a Roper-and-Ebert parody show.

Learned from: Watching the film (the real one...not the fake one).

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March 29, 2007

There are twenty $5000 scholarships awarded yearly by the UCB pharmaceutical company, makers of Kreppa antiepileptic medication, to students with epilepsy.

Learned from: Researching scholarships and contests for educational funds.

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March 28, 2007

The George Mason University athletic program names its teams the "Patriots." The official school mascot, however, is not a patriot. It's merely a fuzzy green muppet-type thing called "Gunston."

Learned from: An Drivl.com article on the Dumbest NCAA-I mascots.

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March 27, 2007

The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing today regarding Major League Baseball's deal with DirecTV.

(Note: Sometimes we learn that something is just really, really stupid.)

Learned from: The news in general.

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March 26, 2007

The 2005 Advanced Placement English Language and Composition test for high schoolers included an article from the parody newspaper The Onion in its free response questions and asked students to analyze the article's use of satire.

(Oh, how I wish I could have gotten that question in 1998!)

Learned from: Researching situations where people have mistaken The Onion articles as factual accounts (after some of my friends did just that).

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March 25, 2007

The glycemic index and glycemic load of a food are two different measurements. The glycemic index determines the glycemic load using the following equation: the glycemic load of a food is calculated by multiplying the glycemic index by the amount of carbohydrate in grams provided by a food and dividing the total by 100.

Learned from: Researching the difference between the two measurements.

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March 24, 2007

A technique used to increase the benefit of acupuncture is called "moxibustion" where the practitioner to place mugwort herb on top of the acupuncture needle and burn the herb, heating the needle.

Learned from: My best friend, Brett, L. Ac.

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March 22, 2007

Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) is a rare disease where a person's soft tissue progressively becomes cartilage and then bone.

Learned from: Tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy.

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March 21, 2007

Bates College is in Lewiston, Maine.

Learned from: Researching graduate schools.

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March 20, 2007

The Rolling Stones' song is officially titled "Paint It, Black" and not "Paint It Black." Many people do not know there is a comma in the title.

Learned from: The Television Without Pity message boards

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March 19, 2007

Heather Mills, charity campaigner and ex-wife of Paul McCartney, lost her lower left leg after being hit by a police motorcycle.

Learned from: Mills's appearance on Dancing with the Stars.

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March 18, 2007

The 1979 film Breaking Away, about an Indianian guy who wants to beat the Italians in cycling, won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

Learned from: The film's DVD case.

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March 17, 2007

The Seattle Firefighters have a Pipe and Drum Corps.

Learned from: Celebrating at Fadò Irish Pub and Restaurant with all the Irishness.

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March 16, 2007

Benjamin Harrison was the first president to attend a Major League Baseball game. In 1892, he watched a contest between the Washington Senators and Cincinnati Reds.

Learned from: My MLB tear-a-page calendar.

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March 15, 2007

The Washington State University dance team, the Crimson Girls, is ranked second in the nation.

Learned from: the broadcast of the NCAA men's basketball championship first-round playoff between the Cougars and Oral Roberts University.

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