I did not know that yesterday!

While we suspected that credit cards were first invented in the mid-1980s to exploit the growing number of late-night infomercials and our own unquenchable thirst for instant gratification, it turns out that the practice of splashing plastic was pioneered a good deal earlier.

Running the phrase "credit card history" through the Yahoo! Search, we crossed our fingers and prayed we wouldn't be inundated with a long list of online credit-repair schemes. Happily, we met with the sweet beep of instant approval in the form of a snappy overview of credit through the ages.

It turns out that credit cards as we know them, good at multiple businesses, were first thrown down in 1951. That's when 200 brave, pre-approved souls were able to present their Diners Club cards at 27 different New York City restaurants and leave with the same amount of cash they walked in with.

According to credit card lore, in 1949, Frank McNamara went to dinner at Major's Cabin Grill and forgot his wallet. After talking his way out of doing the dishes to cover his tab, McNamara thought, "Never again!" In February of 1950, he and a partner founded Diners Club and returned to Major's with a small cardboard card. Frank signed for dinner, without a hassle, and the event was eventually dubbed "the First Supper."

A quick Image Search led us to a nice reproduction of an early Diners Club card and an explanation from the Smithsonian Institution about how money has evolved over the past 100 years. They report that credit cards added the now ubiquitous magnetic stripe in the 1970s and that the rise of plastic ended the production of all banknotes larger than $100.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

Our younger readers may not realize this, but there was once a time when you had to actually get up in order to change the channel. This pointless exertion is no longer necessary, thanks to one of the greatest inventions ever (move over polio vaccine) -- the remote control.

So who do we have to thank? According to the Great Idea Finder, the remote control was invented in the 1950s at Zenith Corporation. The first iteration, dubbed "Lazy Bones," used a cable that ran from the television set to the controller. In 1955, Eugene Polley, another Zenith employee, came up with the Flashmatic, the industry's first wireless remote. While it worked reasonably well, it did have limitations that kept it from being practical enough for everyday use.

The next year, Dr. Robert Adler unveiled the Space Command remote control. Instead of the photo cells used in the Flashmatic, the Space Command used ultrasound. This added 30% to the price of the TV, but it was considered a success and later adopted by other manufacturers."

Today, most remote controls are infrared, and according to Zenith, "more than 99 percent of all TV sets...are equipped with remote control." To that we say, "Hallelujah!"

Source: ask.yahoo.com

This timeline of military history, taken primarily from George C Kohn's "Dictionary of Wars," indicates that from roughly 2925 B.C. to, oh, now, an unbroken period of hostility between one group of people and another has existed.

A Short History of War, published by the U.S. Army War College, actually dates the advent of societal warfare back to 4000 B.C. Prior to that, "...warfare itself had not in any meaningful sense been invented. There were only the embryonic beginnings of a warrior class still loosely embedded in a tribal social structure that lacked both the physical and psychological requirements to produce war on any scale."

So do the 5000s B.C. and before represent a pax pre-historica? Maybe, maybe not. According to Wikipedia, "The beginning of prehistoric wars is a disputed issue between anthropologists and historians." The controversy includes purported archaeological evidence of a battle on the Nile that some sources date as far back as 12,000 B.C. 59 bodies were found at that site; compare that to the well over 100 million deaths attributed to war in the 20th century, and the pre-historic era
does start to sound like the good old days. Perhaps this century will be the one to reverse the trend.

Source: Ask.yahoo.com

We risk enraging hardcore Trekkies for even daring to mention life before "Star Trek," but the man who made James Tiberius Kirk a legend did play other roles both before and after he donned the good captain's uniform.

Way before Shatner's illustrious entry into the TV Hall of Fame, he was just another Jewish-Ukrainian kid from Quebec. He first made a name for himself on stage. Yes, the "Rocket Man" started out as a Shakespearean actor. From there, he branched out to Broadway and sci-fi TV shows, most notably "The Twilight Zone." Not long after, he was appointed captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

His career has certainly had its highs and lows. He's been a singer and a writer. He's auctioned his kidney stone for $25,000. But even those who giggle at some of Shatner's more curious career turns have to salute the captain's longevity. And through it all, he remains one of the most enduring stars in the sky.

source: ask.yahoo.com

This question brings to mind Aesop's fable about a cold, hungry man who was lost in the woods. A kind satyr took pity on him and invited him into his home. At one point, the man blew on his hands to warm them, and later, when the satyr served him dinner, the man blew on his soup to cool it.

The satyr kicked the man out, stating "I will have nought to do with a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath." (Hence the expression about an unpredictable person "blowing hot and cold.") But we digress, so let's get to your question. Did the man give up his nice warm accommodations for "nought," or did he know what he was doing when he blew on his soup to cool it?

It appears blowing on your soup does have a valid scientific effect. According to the light-hearted transcript from a scientific radio show broadcast by Indiana University, it's caused by evaporation.

When you sit down to that steaming bowl of soup, the faster-moving, hotter particles "leap off the surface," evaporating and leaving the slower-moving, cooler particles behind. But these evaporated particles form a little cloud of vapour above your bowl, saturating the air and preventing any more evaporation. When you blow on your soup, you disperse the vapour cloud. This clears the air, so to speak, for more hot particles to evaporate, thus cooling the soup.

Of course, just 'cause it works doesn't mean it's considered proper or polite.

Source: ask.yahoo.com