I did not know that yesterday!

Cut off your mattress tag already! Don't worry, you won't get locked up. As a consumer, it's perfectly legal to remove the tag from your own mattress. So why is it there? Well, the answer is somewhat involved.

Back in the 1900s, mattresses often contained a host of vermin and disease-carrying materials. To protect consumers, the government required dealers to post tags on their mattresses listing the contents. Later, the Feds added a warning to the content tag with the ominous message, "Do not remove under penalty of law," in big, black letters.

The move may have deterred duplicitous mattress dealers, but it only served to confuse consumers who didn't know that the threat wasn't meant for them. Confronted by fear of prosecution, consumers left the tags on their mattresses. Recently, the Feds addressed the misunderstanding by changing the label to: "This tag may not be removed except by the consumer."

Since then, the Feds have long abandoned the pursuit of tag-tearing merchants, though states like Texas still inspect mattresses for tags in stores. They're probably making sure their laws aren't full of fluff
Source: ask.yahoo.com

The word "picnic" is especially interesting because many believe it originally referred to a horrifying and racist act.

A popular email forward claims the word refered to the act of lynching African Americans while spectators watched and ate packed lunches. It turns out this is just an ugly urban legend. Indeed, African Americans were the targets of lynch mobs, but the word "picnic" has nothing to do with that.

In reality, "picnic" is just a simple adaptation of the French word piquenique, which may have been based on the verb piquer, to pick or peck. And while nobody knows for sure, the "nique" may have been added simply because it rhymed.

All About History explains that the word originally meant an "outing with food" that was held indoors, much like a modern-day potluck. It wasn't until the 19th century that picnics moved outside.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

We find nail polish to be a good enough reason for having them but thought you might be looking for a more scientific answer. We set out to find one by consulting the always reliable Britannica.com.

According to the online encyclopedia, the human and primate nail corresponds to the claw, hoof, or talon of other animals. Human nails protect the tips of the toes and fingers, while fingernails help us pick up small objects and scratch ourselves.

On the other hand, the feet of primates are capable of gripping objects, just like their hands, so their toenails have much the same function as fingernails. However, human toenails seem to be an evolutionary leftover.

We searched the Web on " toenails fingernails" and "toenail purpose." Both of these searches turned up sites devoted to diseases of the nails, which provided more opinions. On one such site, podiatrist Michael Zapf agrees that nails are essential for manipulation and scratching (and he points out the importance of scratching in a primate or human's life).

But the doctor debunks the notion that nails exist to protect the tips of toes and fingers. He argues that your digits wouldn't be especially sensitive without nails. Dermatologist Mitch Bender appears to agree: "People can get along without nails -- toenails more than fingernails -- but they do make daily life a bit easier."

So, though there's some disagreement about whether or not toenails and fingernails serve to protect our digits, our resources all agree that our nails help us pick up little stuff like pencils, peanuts, and even bottles of nail polish.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

Contrary to the sworn testimony of tobacco executives in 1994, nicotine is highly addictive. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, withdraw symptoms include "irritability, craving, cognitive and attentional deficits, sleep disturbances, and increased appetite." So, it's definitely addictive, but is it as addictive as heroin?

Britain's Royal College of Physicians has argued that nicotine should be treated like a controlled substance because "it's a powerful addictive substance like heroin and cocaine." The same article mentions that Britain's Tobacco Manufacturers Association disagrees. The tobacco group points out that unlike with hard drugs, people are able to give up tobacco every day.

Nevertheless, the American Heart Association states there are similarities between tobacco and heroin in terms of the "pharmacologic and behavioral characteristics that determine...addiction." Canada's Federal Health Department also agrees. Health Canada explains that "nicotine causes chemical or biological changes in the brain," a psychoactive effect. "Although it is less dramatic than heroin or cocaine, the strength of the addiction is just as powerful."

The moral? Don't smoke. If you do, seek help quitting. The benefits of quitting are both immediate and long term. For example, a "35-year-old man who quits smoking will, on average, increase his life expectancy by 5.1 years."

source: ask.yahoo.com

The Christian Science Monitor likens an icebreaker ship to a blocker on a football team -- the icebreaker plows through the defense to get the ship where it needs to go. But these ships don't use sheer force alone. A specially shaped hull, extra-strong steel plating, and powerful engines all work together to help ships break through thick Arctic and Antarctic ice.

Early icebreaker ships were made of wood, and the hull often had a rounded bow. These ships rammed into ice and tried to break it by brute force. Wood has some flexibility and resiliency, which helped the ships withstand some of the pressure of the ice. But the older shape and materials had their limits.

Modern icebreakers have a stepped hull designed to help the ship rise up on top of the ice and then crush downward through it. This allows the weight of the ship to break the ice like a giant sledgehammer. The hull is made of thick steel that has good low-temperature strength. Inside the hull is a massive support structure with closely spaced steel ribs. The thickness of the steel and the structure keep the ship from breaking under pressure.

The ship's powerful engines propel the hull up and forward, then gravity does the hard work of breaking thick polar ice. As many as six diesel-powered generators may be needed to run an icebreaker, and some ships are even nuclear-powered.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

While researching this question, we happened upon a word that made us feel old: vintage. It's hard to believe that our trusty math buddy is now considered vintage machinery.

According to Vintage Technology, both buttons are a way to clear or cancel an entry. The C button will clear all input to the calculator. The CE button clears the most recent entry, so if you make a mistake in a long computation, you don't need to start all over again.

Exactly when calculators began to use these buttons is hard to say. The Vintage Calculators Web Museum provides a timeline that seems to show that the Friden EC-130, which was introduced in 1964, included "clear entry" and "clear display" keys (as did its successor, the EC-132). Those may not be the exact C and CE keys we see today, but it sounds like they performed the same function.

Our nostalgia for the calculator led us to check out even older models -- just for fun. The futuristic sounding Comptometer, invented in 1884, definitely wouldn't fit into a pocket. And it looks like you could catch your tie in the 1874 Odhner. We'll stick with the credit-card-size models. They're less of a load.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

There are a few theories, though -- like this one from the MadSci Network .

The post argues that girls often have neater handwriting because they "tend to be more calm and patient at younger ages." Assuming that's true, girls may pay closer attention to lessons on penmanship. Of course, this is a generalization, and many other factors contribute to whether a person scrawls chicken scratch. Age, coordination, and personality each play a part.

Christina Hoff Sommers explains a few unfortunate side effects of poor penmanship in males. According to her article, handwriting appears to be correlated with a child's grades. "Several studies have confirmed that, when teachers are asked to grade papers of comparable quality, those that are neatly written get higher marks." Bad news for grade-grubbing boys.

While we wouldn't call poor penmanship a crisis, the gender discrepancy is cause for concern. Unless, of course, you're hoping your son grows up to be a doctor...

Source: ask.yahoo.com