What I Learned This Week - 4/29/16

1.  594 days until Star Wars - Episode VIII is in theaters. 
2. It drives several people nuts that this list doesn’t contain the same number of items each week or that number of items isn’t evenly divisible by five.
3. When sarcastically answering the question, “why is colonel spelled that way” with the default answer to any question of “blame the French” - you will be unknowingly correct. #SortOf
4. The use of my daughter’s tortoise as a prop in the older daughter’s presentation for no apparent reason, will have be giggling for weeks. #TimmyIsCool
5. In the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the computer HAL9000 sings "Daisy, Daisy..." when he gets turned off because it was the first song ever to be sang by a computer - by IBM7094 in 1961.
6. I have a condition that forces me to put my wallet back in the pocket the wallet came from – regardless if the transaction is complete. (EG: to pay for goods – reach into pocket and grab wallet, pull out credit card, hand credit card to cashier, put wallet back in pocket, cashier asks for ID, pull wallet out of pocket, show ID, put wallet back in pocket, sign receipt, pull wallet out of pocket, put receipt in wallet, put wallet back in pocket, receive credit card back from cashier, pull wallet out of pocket, put card in wallet, put wallet back in pocket –then realize I could have saved several steps. EVERY.TIME).
7. The interwebz has replaced the word, “birthday” with “cakeday”. 
8. My coworkers and IT department hate the fact I’ve discovered http://fakeupdate.net/
9. The highest salaries on the US Department of Defense payroll in 2013 were the head football coaches of the three military academies.
10. Oreos contain no dairy products and are completely vegan…..or so the vegans tell me.
11.  Even though Russia's area is larger than the total surface area of Pluto, it cannot be considered a minor planet. #SpaceRoolz
12. There is no US federal regulation defining the requirements of or labeling of food “expiration” or “best used by”. Generally the dates define quality of food, not safety.  Each state may or may not have regulation on the labeling. #ReallyConfused
13. M&Ms were created so that military soldiers could enjoy heat resistant and easy to transport chocolate during war.
14. Injuries from opening food packages hospitalize over 60,000 people a year.
15. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on 11 March 2011 was so powerful that its rumble was 'heard' in space by an orbiting satellite (GOCE), 161.6 miles above the Earth’s surface.
16. 601 days until Star Wars - Episode VIII is in theaters. 
17. A “beard-second” is the length that a beard hair grows in one second—or, according to Google’s unit converter, 5 nanometers.
18. A “Mickey” is the unit of measurement of a computer mouse movement.
19. The cross symbol in a document footnote or reference in called a “dagger”.
20. According to “researchers”, lap dancers earn significantly more per hour when ovulating (and most fertile) than during any other phase of their menstrual cycle. #creepy
21. Scientists have gathered substantial evidence supporting that once infected with a flu, the virus influences humans to be more social and come into contact with larger groups of people. #Outbreak
22. Brain scanners can detect the brain making a decision seven seconds before the person is aware of the choice, casting doubt upon the concept of "free will". #ThatWasSo7SecondsAgo
23. According to my middle daughter, growing hair long enough to put in a ponytail is a very big deal. #MustacheHairDoesntCount
24. The human brain processes swear words in a different place than normal words: the limbic system, which is also largely associated with emotions.
25. “Witch windows”, angled windows typically matching parallel roof lines, were created under a belief that witches can’t fly diagonally. 
26. The neurons in your brain are very specific to people and things in your life – e.g. I actually have a Mary neuron that fires only when I see or think of her – it’s a pretty big neuron.
27. On the movie poster for Silence of the Lambs, the skull on the moth is actually an image of some naked women arranged in the shape of a skull. 
28. I’m really not sure of the outcome when Pinocchio states, “my nose will grow”.  #PrettySureItThrobs
29. According to a coworker, the Girls Scout organization is basically a viral marketed cookie company that has found a way around child labor laws. #HeHasAPoint
30. When my lab brings me a ball over and over, I’m not sure if it is her favorite ball or she thinks it is my favorite ball.
31. The major modeling company, IMG Models, signed its first ever plus sized male model last month. #NoItsNotMe
32. With my exposure to many companies, it’s very easy to call in sick to those companies for people that don’t exist and then watch them squirm in meetings when you ask where that fictitious person is for the meeting.
33. Severely spraining your ankle on 4/20 is apparently the wrong joint to roll.