qwertyuiop

The first typewriters had keys laid out in alphabetical order. Unfortunately, fast typists would get adjacent keys tangled when typing them in rapid succession. Seeking to separate common adjacent letters, Christopher Sholes devised the modern QWERTY layout.

Some people think that the QWERTY layout slows typists down, further ensuring that the keys won't get stuck. Arguably the arrangement would help in the two-fingered typing technique.

Midnight Ride and Subsequent Walk

Most American children hear of Paul Revere's midnight ride on April 18, 1775, to warn colonists of the British invasion. Few hear that Revere never actually completed his ride.

The Sons of Liberty had been watching the movements of the British army. When a battle seemed eminent, Dr. Joseph Warren instructed both Revere and William Dawes to ride to Lexington, Massachusets, to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Then they were supposed to ride on to Concord where the militia's weapons were stored.

Revere successfully made it to Lexington, making sure two lanterns were placed in the tower of the Old North Church, warning the revolutionaries that the army was advancing "by sea" across the nearby Charles River. At Lexington, Revere met back up with Dawes, who had come by a different route. The two headed to Concord along with Samuel Prescott, but were stopped on the way by British soldiers. Paul Revere was captured, his horse was confiscated, and he was forced to walk back toward Lexington at gunpoint. Dawes escaped, but soon fell off his horse and never made it to Concord. Samuel Prescott got away by jumping his horse over a wall and successfully reached Concord before the battle began.

Some forty years after Paul Revere's death, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned his highly famous yet highly romanticized version of Revere's ride:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere....

I guess it's too hard to rhyme with "Prescott".

The World's Largest Flower

The world's largest flower is called rafflesia arnoldi. The flower was named after Sir Stamford Raffles, a naturalist who founded the British colony of Singapore. Its petals can be a yard in diameter, and it can weigh up to 15 pounds! The flower only exists in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. The flower is much like a fungi, in that it has no stems, leaves, or roots. Rafflesia arnoldi is a parasite that attaches itself directly to Tetrastigma vines.

The common name for the world's largest flower is "corpse flower". The plant is pollinated by flies, so the flower emits the pungent aroma of rotting flesh in order to attract them. Corpse flowers are rare, and extinction may be eminent for these beauties as their natural habitiat continues to be destroyed.

The World's Smallest Country

In the North Sea, just outside England's territorial waters, Fort Roughs perches atop two massive concrete caissons. The 1800-square-foot platform was used as an artillery base during World War II, then abandoned. In 1968, Paddy Roy Bates seized the structure and dubbed it the Principality of Sealand. He named himself Prince and his wife Princess, and soon produced a constitution, a flag, a national anthem, stamps, money, and passports.

Sealand is the world's smallest nation, and it's sovereignty was upheld by a British court in 1968. The micronation even won a mini-war with the Netherlands and Germany in 1978.

Today Roy of Sealand lives in Spain because of his heath, and Roy's son, Prince Michael, has succeeded him to the Sealand throne. The fort houses an internet provider called HavenCo.

See Sealand's Official Site for more info.

White Elephants

Just about everybody has been to a white elephant party around Christmas time. You know, where everyone exchanges gag gifts. So where does the "white elephant" come in?

In Southeast Asia, white elephants were, and still are, considered sacred. On the eve of giving birth, Buddha's mother saw a white elephant in a dream. Supposedly the more white elephants a monarch possesses, the more blessed the kingdom will be. However, in the times when elephants were used as beasts of burden, white elephants were strictly prohibited from labor. If a monarch bestowed upon you the gift of a white elephant, it was a priceless present yet costly in upkeep and virtually useless for all practical purposes.

Toilet Lake

Lake Peigneur was an 11-foot-deep, 1300-acre lake near New Iberia, Louisiana. Then on November 21, 1980, an oil rig that was drilling in the middle of the lake hit a little snag. The drill seized up at 1230 feet, and when the workers tried to free the drill, they suddenly heard some popping noises, and the whole rig started tilting over. The men evacuated the rig, which soon turned completely over and vanished into the supposedly shallow water! In minutes, the water was spinning in a whirlpool like a giant toilet! Trees, structures, docks, a parking lot, 11 barges from a nearby canal, and a tug boat were flushed away!

What happened? Somebody on the oil rig miscalculated and accidently drilled into Diamond Crystal salt mine deep underground. What began as a 14-inch-wide hole was ripped wider and wider as the lake water melted away the salt. Soon the mine shafts started to collapse. It was perhaps a miracle that all 50 miners evacuated safely.

Lake Peigneur was completely drained of freshwater in 3 hours and soon began filling up with saltwater from the nearby canal. Nine of the sunken barges popped back up from the depths like coffins in a flood, but most of the property that was sucked into the salt mine was never seen again. Today Lake Peigneur is a 1300-foot-deep saltwater lake.

Brush Up

Toothpaste has been around at least since the 4th century A.D. Archeologists found a recipe for it in Egypt consisting of salt, pepper, iris flowers, and mint leaves. Later, the Romans used toothpaste with human urine in it. Why they would want to do something so utterly disgusting, I cannot say. Some 18th century toothpaste recipes have involved burnt bread, cinnamon, alum, charcoal, and dragon's blood (which is a type of resin). Modern toothpaste contains baking soda, calcium, enzymes, flouride, vitamns, herbs, and a few other ingredients.

Flavors of toothpaste are commonly mint, anise, apricot, bubblegum, ginger, vanilla, fennel, cinnamon, lemon, orange, pine, or fennel. Some of the worst flavors that manufacturers have tried to sell are whiskey, iced tea, and peanut butter.