I did not know that yesterday!

Once upon a time, many wondered if a company like eBay would even work. Since then, the online auction house has silenced the doubters. -- everything from fake vomit to Lamborghinis is just a click away. Ah, but of all those millions of sales, which was the very first?

EBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995. Though he's now a billionaire (of course), Pierre started AuctionWeb (as it was then known) as a simple "side hobby." In late '95, Pierre made history when he sold eBay's first item -- a broken laser pointer he had originally bought as a cat toy.


Amazingly, the buyer paid $14.00 for the kaput pointer. We imagine it was about this time Pierre realized he was on the cusp of creating something great.

It's true that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But if it is broke, maybe you should forget about the repairs and just sell it.

source: ask.yahoo.com

Science has come to few conclusions about the biology of itching. The itch reflex likely shares some of the same neural mechanisms and pathways as the pain reflex, but they're obviously not the same thing. A nasty cut will make you pull your hand back, while a mosquito bite provokes an itch.

So why does scratching seem to help, at least temporarily? According to a 2003 New York Times piece, the general theory is that scratching provides a "counterirritation" that distracts the brain from the original itch.

Others believe scratching releases pain-reducing endorphins. The pain neurons become temporarily overwhelmed, which masks the itching sensation.

But anyone who's dealt with a bad batch of poison ivy knows scratching can often lead to more itching, which leads to more scratching, leading to all manner of pain, discomfort, and misery. We know this, and yet we continue to scratch because we are weak.

In short -- leaves of three, let them be. Treat sun-damaged or dry skin with the appropriate ointments. Mosquito bites can be treated with topical antihistamines. And try not to scratch.

source: ask.yahoo.com

Although the term "rookie" is used mostly to describe first-year athletes, it can refer to anyone new on the job. There are rookie cops, rookie rodeo clowns, even rookie presidents. You name the occupation, and odds are it's got rookies in way over their heads.

ESPN credits author Rudyard Kipling with the first usage. In his "Barrack-Room Ballads," published in 1892, Kipling writes "So 'ark an' 'eed you rookies/Which is grumblin' sore."

Ask Oxford believes "rookie" might be an alteration of the word "recruit." Eh, maybe so, but that's a pretty dull explanation. The Word Detective postulates a different and far more interesting theory. They believe "rookie" comes from "rook," a European and Asian bird famous for annoying farmers.

According to the Word Detective, in the 16th century the word "came into use as a disparaging epithet for a person of low repute" and later applied to the easily conned or fooled. See the connection? 1.) A rook is an annoying bird. 2.) Rook becomes slang for a disliked person. 3.) Rook comes to mean a gullible person. 4.) Those with experience call the newer workers "rooks" because they're believed to be easily fooled.

And there ya have it -- the rookie's roundabout story.

source: ask.yahoo.com

According to Word Sources, the Old English word sandwic means "sandy place" or "place on the sand." The English town of Sandwich was first recorded around A.D. 640.

The food item has little to do with the town, but with John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. In fact, the first Earl of Sandwich (Edward Montagu) really wanted to call himself the Earl of Portsmouth, but for some reason, decided on Sandwich instead.

John Montagu didn't shrink from enjoying life. It's said that he was a corrupt, devil-worshiping sex fanatic who enjoyed gambling (he would have liked Vegas). The origin of the snack is attributed to his asking a waiter for meat between two slices of bread so he wouldn't have to put his hand of cards down. Was he lazy or smart? Probably a little of both.

On a voyage in 1778, Captain James Cook named the Hawaiian Islands after the fourth Earl of Sandwich.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

As kids, we were told women outnumber men. After looking up the actual stats, we're confident that's just something moms tell their sons to scare them.

According to GeoHive.com, a site specializing in population statistics, there are around 3,248,080,000 males on the planet and around 3,214,983,000 females. That translates to men accounting for 50.25% of the population.

Interestingly, ratios vary from country to country. For example, the United States has around 4.8 million more females than males. However, in China, males outnumber females by nearly 36 million. In Cuba, the number of males and females is about equal, give or take a few thousand.

Population growth is an interesting (and sometimes scary) topic. For those interested in learning more, the Web offers a slew of sites to aid in your research. This "population clock" allows visitors to compare past, present, and future populations. And who knows, by the year 3030, maybe our alien overlords will outnumber men and women put together.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

It's the night before final exams. You haven't studied and now you're looking at a disastrous GPA. Too bad your roommate's in perfect health. If he or she were to "kick the bucket," you'd be on easy street with a 4.0. Or so the legend goes. However, like that similarly morbid story about Pop Rocks and Coke , this one simply ain't true.

Snopes.com believes the legend started as a joke among stressed-out college students. Over time, the desperate and dimwitted started believing it. To be fair, it does have a certain kind of logic to it. The death of a roommate would be traumatic for anyone, so it makes sense for the administration to give the grief-stricken survivor a free pass. Alas, while bereavement leave is often granted in these situations, no school automatically gives out straight A's.

An article on urban legends mentions a few other tall tales from campus. Our favorite is the one about the two slackers who decide to ski instead of study. After a day on the slopes, they return to school, tell their professor they had a flat tire, and ask for a make-up exam. The understanding professor obliges and puts the two in different rooms. The last question on the test simply reads: "Which tire?"

Source: ask.yahoo.com

We always assumed desperate or delusional sailors started this tradition. After all, they're out to sea for months with nary a woman in sight. However, it turns out "ship as she" may have had more to do with linguistics than a longing for female companionship.

While we don't normally use kid's sites as sources (due mostly to pride), we found a shipshape explanation at BoatFriendlyKids.com. Many romance languages assign a gender to many words. In these languages, the word "ship" is always feminine.

A CNN article offers a few other theories, including that the ancient Greeks may have come up with the custom. Dr. Ronald Hope, a former director of the U.K.'s Maritime Society, seems to think so. But others think the tradition began when goddesses were carved on the bows.

Regardless of how the tradition came to be, the practice is apparently over now. The shipping industry newspaper, Lloyd's List, now officially refers to ships as "it." So much for the romance of the open sea.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

Many of us point to our jobs as the reason for gray hair, but we sought the biological cause of those pesky reminders of our own mortality. We typed "gray hair cause" into the Yahoo! search box and set off in search of some answers. We clicked around and learned the ugly truth about gray hair.

When our bodies are functioning well, cells in our hair follicles called melanocytes generate pigments -- the chief one being melanin. When the melanocytes stop producing these pigments, we sprout a transparent hair, which appears as an unsightly gray due to the color of the dead cells that comprise the strand.

Why does this happen? The most common reason is heredity; premature gray hair is yet another thing we can blame on our parents. But there are also several medical conditions characterized by graying of the hair. A B-12 deficiency, a thyroid imbalance, and anemia can all cause premature gray hair. And if you needed yet another reason to quit smoking, there is new evidence that smokers are four times more likely to go gray at a young age.

The common belief that psychological shock or trauma can turn hair gray overnight is cause for a fair amount of controversy. While some people claim such an occurrence, many scientists question the actual time frame involved.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

After browsing through the extensive directory of billiards equipment vendors, we noticed the same strange phrase popping up -- thermoset resin. A few Google web searches and online dictionary consultations later, we discovered the secret of pool balls.

"Thermoset" is an adjective used to describe synthetic substances that set permanently when heated. And resin, in addition to being the sticky stuff that comes out of trees, is a "solid or liquid synthetic organic polymer used as the basis of plastics, adhesives, varnishes, etc."

As it turns out, billiard balls have played a vital role in the creation of polymers, or synthetic plastics. An interesting tidbit from the Polymer Selection Database explains:

One of the first developments of plastics was as a replacement to ivory billard balls, due to the dwindling supply of ivory. As far back as 1866, elephants were being slaughtered at an alarming rate to keep up with the demand for ivory billiard balls, billards having become America's favorite pastime.

No more eight balls made from elephants. Ain't science grand?

Source: Ask.yahoo.com

They sound like the same thing, don't they? I typed the phrase "all-wheel drive vs. four-wheel drive " in the Google search box and clicked on the first web page listed in the results. The page happened to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject, called Introduction to All Wheel Drive Systems, by Eliot Lim.

As it turns out, "all-wheel drive" refers to vehicles that have permanently engaged or automatically engaging four-wheel-drive capability. "Four-wheel drive" implies the vehicle has manually engaging, temporary four-wheel drive. Your confusion is justified -- the auto industry, in their infinite wisdom, created these seemingly interchangeable terms.

What is four-wheel drive, exactly? According to a helpful 4X4 glossary* I jumped to from a link on Eliot's page, a four-wheel-drive vehicle has the ability to send power to all four wheels (not just the front two), giving the car more traction and stability. This helps when driving off road or on rough terrain.

Some current all-wheel-drive vehicles on the market are the Oldsmobile Bravada, the Toyota RAV-4, and the Mercury Mountaineer. If you're trying to decide between the two systems, Eliot suggests all-wheel drive over four-wheel drive: less hassle, better suspension, and better overall design. But he has a lot more to say on the matter -- read the whole article for the full skinny.