Did you know the Mediterranean cycles between being dry and flooded?

The climate has periodically flooded or dried out the Mediterranean by raising or lower the sea level at the Straits of Gibraltar (the piece of land jutting out from the southern part of Spain).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis

Where would you find Republicans in the United States?

Well there's plenty of places, but one interesting location of note is the Oklahoma Panhandle (that's the little "finger" that juts out eastward from the state).

The Oklahoma Panhandle is one of the most universally Republican areas of the nation. In the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the three counties gave a weighted average of 87.5% of their votes to John McCain and 12.5% to Barack Obama, with McCain carrying the state over Obama 65.6% to 34.4%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Panhandle

A space-like vacuum might be closer than you think

Specifically, in your Thermos.

The bottles that you use to keep hot liquids hot and cool liquids cool actually has two layers of metal or plastic with a "near-vacuum" in between them.  The lack of air makes heat transfer very slow, significantly helping to slow temperature change of the contents.

i.e. your coffee is surrounded by "nothing", which means there's nothing to lose heat to, which is why it stays warm inside the thermos!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_flask

Interesting facts about tea

Some neat facts:

• Ireland is the third highest consumer of tea per capita- behind Turkey and Morocco.  They drink a whopping 7 pounds of tea a year.
• Bottled ice tea originates from Switzerland.
• The tea in tea bags is usually the waste that is produced from the "sorting of higher quality loose leaf tea" and thus rarely of comparable quality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tea_consumption_per_capita

What's it like being a referee in the NFL?

Not one of my typical subjects that I cover on here, but I thought that this three article series by Peter King covering the life of a referee in the NFL to be too good not to bring attention to:

http://mmqb.si.com/2013/12/04/peter-king-spends-week-with-nfl-refs/

If you're at all interested in how the refs live, you should definitely read that.

Father of the US Air Force ended his career in disgrace

General Billy Mitchell was considered the "father of the U.S. Air Force" but lived his life vainly trying to convince others of the importance of air power.

Between WW1 and WW2 he widely championed the development of aircraft for use in war at both the military and media levels.  Unpopular with some of his superiors as a troublemaker and for being disobedient, he was ultimately court-martialed for "conduct of a nature to bring discredit to the military service".  Despite being a popular and effective leader in the first World War, he was found guilty and forced to resign in 1926.

He lived out the remainder of his life writing and pushing for a larger role of aircraft in military operations until his dead in 1936.  Mitchell died too early to see how true his predictions on the importance of aircraft were in World War 2.

http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/1996/June%201996/0696billy.aspx

Yao Ming had it rough

Yao Ming was billed as having the potential to be one of the best basketball players of all time and a symbol of a new era in Chinese athletics.  He was indeed quite good, but his career was cut short by nagging injuries.

However, did you know that he was legally required to play for the Chinese National team?  The extra strain that it put on his body was theorized by some to have led to his future injuries (like stress fractures).

He was also the "first international ever to be selected first overall [in the draft] without having previously played U.S. college basketball."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yao_Ming

OpenOffice discontinued... a while ago

Did you know OpenOffice was discontinued in 2011?  Oracle cancelled the project and fired the developers.  This was surprising to me since I still know many people using it and it comes up in the news occasionally as a free alternative to MS Office.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org#Market_share

Pad Thai not Thai?

It was believed to have been brough to Thailand by "Viet traders", and modified to fix the local culinary tastes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pad_Thai

Interesting Catholic demographics

All information from Time's recent article on Pope Francis.

• 33% of the world's population are Christian.  Half of them are Catholic.
• 24% of the United States is Catholic. It's concentrated mostly in the Northeast.  Rhode Island, New Jersey and Massachusetts are the most Catholic states (59%, 43% and 41% Catholic respectively).
• 58% of Latinos in the United States are Catholic.
• Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Spain and the Phillipines are the only countries which are more than 75% Catholic.

http://timepoy.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/graphic_1_1.jpg