Never stop learning

• During the coming winter season, you are likely to get a runny nose that will require so much attention it will eventually irritate your skin.
• To alleviate this uncomfortable stinging and burning, rub some clear chapstick on the affected area a few times a day.
• The skin under your nose will no longer hurt, leaving you free to enjoy your holidays!

• If you buy cheap chicken (aka you’re a college student, or the economy just sucks that bad) make sure you don’t let it cook too long, especially if you cut it up into smaller pieces before baking.
• Most recipes will suggest baking at 350 for an hour, but cheap chicken is not as juicy as better quality stuff so it shrivels up faster.
• 25-35 minutes is long enough, or until the internal temperature is 160 degrees. Let the chicken sit for a few minutes once it’s out of the oven, until the internal temp is 170-180 degrees. (Although if you’re too poor to buy good chicken, I have no idea why you’d buy a meat thermometer.)

• Humanism can be considered the process by which truth and morality is sought through human investigation. It rejects dependence on belief without reason, the supernatural, or texts of allegedly divine origin.
• However, Religious humanism is the branch of humanism that embraces some form of theism or deism, without necessarily being allied with organized religion. Religious humanism is frequently associated with philosophers, academics and scholars in the liberal arts.
• Humanists have an optimistic attitude about people in general, but do not believe that human nature is purely good. They recognize that living up to one’s potential is hard work and requires the assistance of others.

• Extradition is the official process by which one nation requests and obtains a criminal from another nation.
• The same process between sub-national regions (like the states of the US) is called rendition.
• Extraordinary rendition is when a nation will send criminal suspects elsewhere to circumvent their own torture and interrogation laws.

• Means you are similar to your parents.
• Associated with a wood block used in carpentry
• Phrase was used by Dr. Robert Sanderson (Bishop of Lincoln) in a sermon in 1637, referring to Adam.

• The Canal Zone was an area around the canal controlled by the US from 1903 to 1979. It is currently neutral territory.
• John McCain was born here in 1936.
• Until riots in the 1960s, Panamanian flags were not allowed to be flown inside the Canal Zone. The US relinquished control of the area, which geographically split Panama in half, not long after.

• This was a navel battle fought during the American Civil War – the first ever between two ironclad warships.
• Neither ship sustained or took more damage than the other, thus the battle was considered a tie.
• The Merrimack was actually just a shell before it was repaired extensively, clad in iron and renamed the Virginia. However, the Union commonly still referred to it as the Merrimack, or Monster.

I was about to commit hari kari after three hours of grading these tests until I read yours (now the chorus comes in and the celestial light shines). You broke the test – A record 102. Needless to say, you have given me hope and have kept me alive long enough to suffer through the rest. Congrats.

—actual email from one of my college professors

Somewhere along my way in life I was given a photocopy of the appendix for “What Literate Americans Know.” It starts with topics like 1492, absolute monarchy and Achilles’ heel and ends with xenophobia, yin/yang and Zapata. The list is 63 pages long and covers a huge range of people, events and concepts. My goal, whenever I have five minutes to spare, is to choose one topic at random and read a Wiki article about it. I’ll try to post at least one interesting fact I learned from each topic. Hope this will be fun!

I’m a complete knowledge junkie! I check digg at least once a day, Wikipedia is on my bookmarks toolbar and I read anything I can get my hands on. Hooray for learning!!