SCIENCE: TOP-FUEL DRAGSTER

A top-fuel dragster is the fastest accelerating machine on Earth. It can go from 0 to 100 mph in .8 seconds. It accelerates faster than a rocket, a fighter jet or a bullet and takes off with the same thrust as the space shuttle at lift off--5 G's (5 times the force of gravity). [Source:
http://www.nhra.net/streetlegal/funfacts.html, et al.]

ENTERTAINMENT: RUPERT HOLMES, "ESCAPE (THE PINA COLADA SONG)"

Rupert Holmes, famous for the song "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," has said in a VH1 interview that he hates pina coladas. Often when people recognize him in bars or clubs they associate him with the song and automatically buy him pina coladas--which then go to waste.

PEOPLE: STEVIE WONDER

In his childhood Stevie Wonder's two brothers once started a fire in the family's home thinking he wasn't blind but simply needed more light.

ENTERTAINMENT: GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN/A GOOD RADIO STATION GONE BAD

The first place I heard "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" was in October 1983 on the San Antonio rock radio station 99.5 KISS-FM. KISS disc jockeys have included the late and legendary Joe Anthony. Joe Anthony, whose nickname was "The Godfather of Rock -N- Roll," was the first in the nation to play numerous well-known rock bands. These include AC-DC, The Scorpions, UFO, Judas Priest, Rush, Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush, Triumph, Budgie, Moxy, Legs Diamond, Krokus, Def Leppard, Accept, Saxon, Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate and Metallica. Joe Anthony's show is where I first heard Joe Satriani. As I recall the song was "The Snake." Many of the bands who got exposure on his show are still popular today. In the '70s and early '80s KISS-FM shows were simulcast daily on its now long-defunct sister station 60.1 KMAC-AM. The latter station's separate programming included blues, folk, roots rock, psychedelia, avant-garde--what many today might call an "alternative radio" format. KMAC-AM is where I first heard The Charlie Daniels Band's "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," in August '79. KISS-FM had been an independently-owned radio station from its inception until August or September 1980. That was when its owner, Howard G. Davis, died and a corporation that was then named Columbia Broadcasting Corporation bought the station. It has been a corporate radio station since then--and, strangely, pays no tribute to Joe Anthony. It once experimented with an unpopular and thus short-lived oldies format playing music such as The Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry."

BETTER WRITING?

Okay, here's some helpful tips for those seeking to improve their writing skills from blogger Rudra at http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Develop-Writing-Skills. Now, take notes.

SCIENCE: LIGHTNING

A lightning bolt is 50,000 times hotter than the sun's surface. Astronomers have discovered that lightning strikes more powerful than any on Earth occur on other planets--namely, Saturn and Uranus. Lightning safety tip: A charge from a single lightning strike can carry 100 million to 1 billion volts and heat the surrounding air to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightning is the second leading cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S., ahead of hurricanes and tornadoes. If you cannot get indoors when a thunderstorm is in the area avoid high places or trees, open gazebos, open fields, metal buildings, swimming pools and other bodies of water, bleachers, metal fences, flag poles, light poles, golf carts, convertibles, etc. and carrying an umbrella--especially a metal one, which can double as a lightning rod in a thunderstorm. Remember: if you can see lightning or hear thunder you're at risk of being struck by lightning, even when the storm is not directly overhead. Lightning can strike miles away from the storm. While indoors avoid using a land line phone, showering, bathing, dish washing and touching metal window and door frames, wiring and plumbing. [Source: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/images/lightningsafety.pdf, et al]

PEOPLE: ST PATRICK

The namesake of St. Patrick's Day wasn't Irish. The patron saint of Ireland, whose name was Maewyn, was born in Roman Britain in the 4th Century. In his Confesio writings he called himself patricius, Latin for "well-born." From that came "Patrick." He was a self-described pagan until age 16, when Irish raiders kidnapped him and took him to Ireland as a slave. He converted to Christianity after six years as a herdsman there. He eventually escaped back to Britain, but returned after a dream wherein God told him to return to Ireland. He devoted the rest of his life to converting the Irish to Christianity and eventually became a second bishop of Ireland. [Source: Biography magazine, March 2001]

SCIENCE: ANTI-FREEZE

The toxic engine coolant anti-freeze is sweet-tasting. Pets love it ... to death.

ENTERTAINMENT: LINK WRAY

Link Wray's '50's recordings had the earliest known intentional guitar feedback and distortion.

ENTERTAINMENT: JIMI HENDRIX

Jimi Hendrix wrote "The Wind Cries Mary" in the same English house where Handel composed The Messiah. [Source: Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story, a Hendrix audio-biography box set]

SCIENCE: THE BOTULIN TOXIN

The botulin toxin from the Clostridium botulinum bacterium is the most potent biological toxin known. One gram of the toxin--a raisin-size quantity--would suffice to kill 1 million people. Two pounds of the toxin would eradicate the human race. [Source: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/285/8/1059, et al]

SCIENCE: SPIDER WEB

Whoever figures out how to prevent cannibalism among spiders will be mega-rich. The spider web is finer than silk.

SCIENCE: ARROW POISON FROGS

Arrow poison frogs get their poison from their consumption of certain beetles and ants in the wilderness. They lose their poison in captivity.

PEOPLE: OJ SIMPSON

OJ Simpson had rickets as a child.

SCIENCE: CARPENTER ANTS

If you tap on a wall inhabited by carpenter ants they will tap back with their mandibles.

SCIENCE: NEUTRON STARS & BLACK HOLES

Matter from a neutron star--the core that sometimes survives a giant star's explosive end known as a supernova--is so dense that a teaspoon of it would weigh several million tons. If sufficient matter remains after a supernova the remaining debris can continue to collapse from its own gravity and be squeezed together within a single tiny point (singularity) known as a "black hole." Nothing--including light--can escape a black hole once it enters the "event horizon," the point where matter is pulled into the black hole. The "size" of a black hole refers to the size of its event horizon, not the hole itself. As the black hole traps more matter it gains more mass and therefore more gravity and a larger event horizon. Matter around the black hole forms a disk-shaped pattern called an "accretion disk." The rapid spiraling of matter entering the black hole from the accretion disk heats the matter to the point that it emits x-rays beyond the event horizon. Although astronomers cannot see a black hole they can see these x-rays outside of the event horizon with special telescopes. [Source: Will Black Holes Devour the Universe? & 100 Other Questions & Answers About Astronomy by Melanie Melton] More good information about black holes can be found at http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/black_holes.html.