May 31- Presidents

One of the main reasons I find presidential history so interesting, besides the word history being in it, is that I believe that whomever America elects as their leader shows where the nation is at that time. Just one example is the election of Thomas Jefferson after John Adams, two completely different presidents, but coming one after the other. That shows where America was in finding itself. I could go on all day, but alas, there is only 1 hour and 20 minutes left in that day, so I better speed it up. When electricity was brought into use for things like light bulbs, people didn't really understand it. Frankly, even people today don't really understand electricity that much. I'd sure have a hard time telling you how flipping the switch makes the light bulb turn on (perhaps that will be a Tuesday question...) The difference is, when electricity was first introduced, people were afraid of it. Actually, the president who had electricity put in the White House was so afraid of it, he wouldn't touch any of the switches (and he was a Civil War vet!) So for my daily question, I ask: Which president had electricity put into the White House?







The president who put electricity in the White House was Benjamin Harrison.

May 30- Random

Whether you oppose or support, one has to admit that McDonald's is convenient. If you're stopping for coffee, there is McCafe. If you want to run through a plastic tube, there is the PlayPlace. Or perhaps you want to stay awhile with your fancy laptop, you could go to the "linger" area with Wi-Fi. Now, I'm not trying to label myself a McDonald's supporter, I'm merely commenting on the speed in which things are done. And it is this infectious idea of speed that inspired McDonald's original mascot, before Ronald. So for my daily question, I ask: Who was McDonald's original mascot, and for a bonus, who were its original owners?







The mascot's name was Speedee, and the owners were Dick and Mac McDonald.
For more visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcdonalds

May 29- Music

Isn't the radio fun? You can listen to it in the car, outside, or anywhere with plugs or batteries. You can hear the Sox game, or any random assortment of musical goodness. And supposedly, AM and FM attempt to de-randomify the assortment, but in recent years, as you probably have noticed, the line has become blurred. Back in the good ole days, shows were allotted AM or FM according to what they were, like music on FM and talk on AM, but as you have undoubtedly noticed, there is plenty of talk on FM, and all sorts of music on AM. And why does this matter, you may be asking yourself (for good reason!) What could possibly be the difference a weary reader might ask. Well, there is a difference! So, I ask: What is the difference between AM and FM? (Besides the channel numbers, that would be cheap!)







The difference is how their frequencies are altered. With AM, the strength of the signal is changed with the sound information. FM's frequency is varied, and is less susceptible to static. Since I did a terrible job at explainging that, for more info visit: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/radio/radiorelayer.html

May 28- Sports

Have you ever noticed how strange the Olympics would sound to someone who has never heard of them? Now I know most people have heard of the Olympics, but think about how crazy it sound. Amateurs from all different countries gather in one host country to compete in a bunch of random sports, sometimes in freezing weather, and never for pay. And yet, every 4 years, the Earth is graced with either summer or winter Olympics, always a monolithic sporting, event, no, epic, no matter where you are on the planet. But as you might know, for over 1,000 years, the Olympics weren't around. It wasn't until recently that the "modern" Olympics were started. So with that, I ask my daily question: Where and when were the first modern Olympics held?







The first modern Olympics games were held in Greece in 1896.

May 27- Geography

All countries have their own special way of dealing with crime. For a fun social experiment, you can compare the crime rate to the justice method used, but we're about already proven facts here at The Daily Question. Now, most countries try to keep the crimes committed per person down, but the country that has the highest crime committed per person is 1.5! That means 1.5 crimes are committed for every person in that country. So, keeping in mind a bit of irony, which country has the highest crime rate in the world.






The country is in Europe, and is Vatican city. Most crimes are pickpockets, but count for a lot because the country is so small.

May 26- Science

Hello! Bonjour! Olá! Hallo! Ciao! Γειά σου! I don't know how many people have noticed the little spinning globe at the bottom of The Daily Question main page, but it is a very useful tool I am just utilizing the benefits of. Notice the orange dots scattered throughout? Those show where people have visited my blog. The flashing title is you, and any flashing title that is different from about where you are is someone else looking at the blog simultaneously. The reason I am saying all of this is that I am now proud to announce that we have international viewers! I think I know where the European dot came from, but I have no idea who looked me up in Asia. Who ever you are, thank you for your support in the global uplifting of The Daily Question, and thanks to all of those here in the "States" who read everyday also. It is daily readers whom I know are out there that give me the gumption to post everyday, regardless of the hour. (Let's just forget about Saturday for the moment.) In the spirit of this worldwide connectivity, I am going to ask a question about the Internet, which, after all, makes The Question possible. During the Cold War, the American government launched a boatload of new agencies to help get America ahead of the Russians technology-wise. Information Processing Technology Office was one such branch. (Click the link if you knew as little about IPTO as I did.) Long story short, a guy named Lawrence Roberts started a project to work on a new network (packet switching instead of circuit switching, apparently. Yet another thing I learned more about to write this post.) Anyway, on October 29, 1969-a good date to remember for a completely different reason- a connection was made using packet switching. So, for my daily question, I ask: Which two places was the connection made between?







The connection was made between UCLA and the Standford Research Institute.

May 25- History

Since it is Memorial Day, I'm going to ask a question about said holiday. And also by happenstance, it is history day here at the Daily Question, so today's question will be about the history of Memorial Day. Originally called "Decoration Day", no one is really sure exactly where the holiday originated. Some say Waterloo, N.Y. Others, in the deep South. Anyway, New York was the first state to officially recognize the holiday. By World War 1, all the states in the Union celebrated Memorial Day. Now, we celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May (Passed by Congress with National Holiday Act.) But for my daily question, I ask: Which war is responsible for spurring the idea of a Memorial Day?






On May 5, 1868, General John Logan declared Memorial Day, and it was celebrated on May 30th. General Logan the national commander for the Grand Army of the Republic. He originally started it for the fallen veterans of the Civil War.
For more info visit: http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

May 24- Presidents

Since I failed in my duties as blogmaster to report to you yesterday, I'll try to make this question a super hard one! Remember the days of old? Children played baseball in the streets, horses roamed cities as an everyday happening? Work was harder, play-time came with less batteries and packaging, and life was all but complex. And yet, a resounding similarity between the days of old and the calender boxes of now is public image. If any person wants to run for any sort of public office, image is the most important. After all, it is the first thing one sees about a candidate (for it is harder to delve deep into a politician's résumé.) And, looking back into the days of old, we can get a glimpse of a president who was a master of public image. So for my daily question, I ask: Which president was known for giving a flower off of his lapel to small children?






The president was William McKinley. (And for a side note, that was the last thing he did before he died.)

May 22- Music

Since this is in fact the Daily Question, I promise: no more poetics this week. So for now I'll stick with the basics, and today those basics happen to be about music. You hear about it all the time. An album went platinum. Who cares?! Not that that's not a big accomplishment, but you hear about it often, as I stated before. Now double platinum, that's cool. Triple platinum, you're getting up there. In case you don't know how many records it takes to make platinum, it's 1,000,000 (or about how many people took my presidents quiz on Facebook) . But this question has to do with insane sales. Only a few musical geniuses (or pop icons, if you are so inclined to be argumentative) can claim the title of a "Diamond Record". So, for my daily question, I ask: How many albums do you have to sell to get a Diamond Record?







The magic number is 10,000,000. (Oh, and by the way, Gold is 500,000. That's pretty cool too :)

May 21- Sports

It is my deepest pleasure to write this question today, because I believe it captures the essence of The Daily Question more than any question so far. The original reason I started the blog was so that I would have an excuse to ask questions, and, more importantly, have an excuse to look it up. The background of this story begins with my baseball team watching the Varsity Team during a game. Awhile into the game, (baseball is a dreadfully long sport) one of the guys looks up and says "I wonder if a bird has ever gotten hit by a pitch..?" Of course, I thought to myself wow that might be a pretty good daily question... has a bird ever gotten hit by a pi....
And then, before the thought could even be completed, another player looks up and says the date, the player who hit the bird, and team he was on. I was stunned. I certainly didn't know that, but someone else on my team did, and that is the point of the blog. To find the daily dose of intellectual awesomeness in each other. Not to post random facts each day, but to actively encourage myself, and hopefully my readers to search for the random, the ridiculous, the unknown, because isn't that what learning is about? So with that little sentimental Daily Thought, I give today's Daily Question: Who most recently hit a bird with a pitch in a major league game, and what team was he on?







His name was Randy Johnson, and he happened to be playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 24, 2001 when he hit an unlucky dove.

May 20- Geography

Last year, I was given a week to pick a country to study for the rest of the school year, and give numerous reports on. And I, being the procrastinator that I am, (which you can tell since I'm posting this at 10:08pm) Picked a country off the list 5 minutes before the choosing time was due. I mostly picked this country because it had a cool name, and I didn't know much about it. Later, as I would find out to my chagrin, there was almost no information online about it. However, I did find one fact about this eccentric little country, that has stuck with me today. So my daily question is: What is the only landlocked country to be landlocked by landlocked countries, in Europe?








The country I did a report on, and is landlocked by landlocked countries in Europe, is Liechtenstein.

May 19- Science

There are many ways to define worst, especially when dealing with hurricanes; How many homes were destroyed, how much it cost insurance companies, the possibilities are endless. So for this question, I won't ask which was the worst hurricane ever, this question will be more specific. The year is 1979. A tropical storm is building up steam in the Pacific Ocean. After it passes over Guam, it gains speed. Eventually, it becomes the "largest and most intense tropical cyclone on record". It also holds the lowest sea-level pressure on record of 870 mbar. (The average is 1013 mbar.) So for my daily question, I ask: What is the name of this tropical cyclone?







The name of the cyclone is "Typhoon Tip".
For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Tip

May 18- History

This question entails a lesser known country, so bear with me. A few weeks ago, I was sitting around the table with my family, and we were debating why my ancestors left Germany. (We weren't exactly sure about the timeline, so it was up to guessing.) There were famine theories, over population, all the classic 1800's migration grounds, or trying to pinpoint the main raison d'être, if you will. Anyway, one of the ideas I threw out there was that it was the fall of the Holy Roman Empire that drove them away. That really got things confusing, since the Holy Roman Empire existed at a completely different time period than the real Roman Empire. And since I didn't know enough about the Empire at the time, that theory was entirely smooshed. (It was incorrect anyway, because my ancestors left 40 years after the disestablishment, but that doesn't matter right now.) So now, without further ado nor rhetoric, I give, the daily question: When was the Holy Roman Empire established, and how long did it last to?







Lasting for almost 1,000 years, the Holy Roman Empire spanned from around 962 AD to 1806 AD. (One famous leader of this country was Charlemagne, but you don't hear much about it otherwise.)
For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire

May 17- Presidents

July 4th, 1776. A date known by most proud Americans as the beginning of the best country in the world. More specifically, 56 political radicals signed a piece of paper stating that America was its own country. 200 years after that, Americans rallied after Watergate to celebrate its 200 birthday. At that time, Gerald Ford was President. But this was only the 2nd party of the sort. 100 years earlier, however, was America's 100th birthday was at hand. Still recovering from the Civil War, the nation was in need of a big rally. Anyway, this brings me to my daily question: Who was president during 1876 (Bonus what was the name they were born with)?






The presidents name was Ulysses S. Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant.
For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant

May 16- Random

Remember Theodore Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss? Born in Massachusetts, Geisel went on to write many popular children's books. One such book has a particularly interesting story behind it. After the publication of The Cat in the Hat, Geisel's publisher made a bet with him, the bet being $50 that Geisel could not write a book only using 50 words. (The Cat in the Hat used 225 words) In the end, Geisel was able to accomplish his task, and the result was the fourth Best Selling Children's Book of all time. So, for my daily question, I ask: Which Dr. Seuss book was a result of a bet and only has 50 words?






The book was Green Eggs and Ham.
For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_eggs_and_ham

May 15- Music

Recently, I rediscovered a great album from the dark depths of my iTunes account. A hit in the U.K. (reaching #1) and #3 in America, Paul Simon's 5xPlatinum CD Graceland is one of my favorites of all time. To date it has sold over 14 million copies. Recorded mostly in South Africa by a large group of musicians, with all very diverse backgrounds, most from around Africa, Graceland experiments with many different kinds of music and rhythms. People liked it so much, it won The Record of the Year Grammy award for 1986 and 1987. Also in 1987, Paul Simon went on a tour of African, performing the songs from Graceland. Which brings me to the daily question: Which African country did Paul Simon perform the songs from Graceland to make the movie The African Concert in 1987?








It was filmed over the course 2 concerts in Harare, Zimbabwe.
To see clips from the movie, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w3CBdLfGqw
For more info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graceland_(album)

May 14- Sports and ONE MONTH ANNIVERSARY

In light of the one month anniversary of The Daily Question, I am going to ask a question about one of my favorite sports stories. The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin Germany, while Adolf Hitler was in power. During the Berlin Olympics, Nazi propaganda was being spread around Germany that only "superior" Aryan athletes would be the main winners of the various competitions, and Hitler himself had enormously high hopes for his athletes to come in first place, especially since the games were being held on his home turf. Enter Jessie Owens, the well known African-American 23-year-old track star from Ohio. With amazing skill, and stunning many, he wins 4 gold medals over the course of the Olympics. So for my question of the day, I ask: What were the 4 events Owens competed in?







The 4 events he competed in were 100m, 200m, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100m relay team.
For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Owens

May 13- Geography

I don't know how many Clash fans we have following this site, but I do hope there are a few, because this question entails a famous song by said band: Rock the Casbah. (Unfortunately, there were no good geography questions about "Should I Stay or Should I Go".) If you don't know the song, you might want to check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAkfHShATKY . There are several different theories about what the song is about. One is that it just sort of happened, and was created randomly after a producer's comment. Another is that it has to do with bans on rock music, and the Middle-East, and jets listening to music. Whatever the lyrics mean to you, you have to notice the eclectic, if not nonsensical word choice of "Rock the Casbah". Well, if you are a history/geography buff as I am, you might notice that Casbah is also a term for a fortress, one of which played a drastic part in the Operation TORCH during World War 2. During Operation TORCH, Allied forces were vying for a better hold in North Africa by landing on beaches and all that stuff. One of these landings was at a certain beach, and resulted in a fair sized battle, which finally concluded in Allied victory and taking the Casbah. So for my question, I ask: What is the name of the beach that held this famous Casbah and what country is it in?






The Casbah is in Morocco, and is on the beach Mehdia, about 80 miles East of Casablanca.

May 12- Science

Although I was very tempted to ask another question about the periodic table, or something of the like, I decided to restrain myself. Instead I will ask a question about biology. Have you ever noticed at the zoo, that without fail, people are attracted to large animals. Just think back into the Reptile Room. How many people gathered around to see the Poison Dart Frogs? (An inaccurately placed amphibian at that, but this is for another day) People were at the elephants, that's where they were! Or the Rhinos, people are always at those pens. So I thought that the Blue Whale was the largest living thing, until I heard it wasn't a couple months ago. So, without further ado, I give, zee daily question: What is the largest organism in existence?





The largest organism is the Aspen Tree. In fact, you could walk in a grove, and all the trees could be the same living thing. The largest exactly was called Pando, and is in Utah.

May 11- History

History is such a massive subject, sometimes it is difficult to delve deep into the catacombs of my brain to come up with a sufficient question for Mondays. So for my question today, I am going to ask a question about... PRE-history. A pre-historic question? Is this even possible? Alas my friends, it is, so with that sentiment I will be asking my question about Dinosaurs. Since science was making leaps and bounds in the 1700's, and fossils were being found, Dinosaurs became a hot topic. Were they cold or warm blooded? Tail carried up or down? Most of this we still don't know, but paleontologists (dinosaur researchers) are coming closer to finding the answers every day. (If you don't believe me, check out the New York Museum of Natural History) Anyway, one thing we were able to figure out over time was how to classify things using time periods. Scientists and historians just loving doing that. (Think Bronze Age, Romantic Era, Gilded Age) So even though you might think this question comes out of left-field, it really doesn't, considering all the things we use time periods for. And with that, I present this question: What are the three main periods in which Dinosaurs roamed the Earth?





The three are listed from most recent to least recent:
Cretaceous 65-145 million years ago
Jurassic 145-208 million years ago
Triassic 208-245 million years ago

May 10- Presidents

Sorry it took me so long to post today, but I got distracted, it being Mother's Day and all. Anyway, I spent today at the Sheep and Wool festival (it's the Mother's Day tradition), and everything reminded me of old "tymes". Herding dogs were about, just doing there thing, the smell of cooked meat lingered in the air, and if an alpaca roamed in front of you, who cares? In all of this quaint simplicity (wow, I'm on an adjective roll!) I was thinking of our Founding Fathers who grew up just this way, on a small farm, in a log cabin. Which brings me to my daily question: How many presidents, and which ones, grew up/ were born in log cabins?






Of all of our presidents, 8 have been born in a log cabin. Taylor (Ole Ruff n' Ready), Polk, Pierce, Garfield, Lincoln, Buchanan, Fillmore, Jackson. Ironically, William Henry Harrison was born in a Virginia mansion (one of the last "Virginian Elite" presidents), but won his campaign with a "log cabin and hard cider" slogan. Another interesting point is that of those 8, 4 were important generals.

May 9- Random

I was watching Modern Marvels the other day, and, it happened to be about the scientific aspects of, well... truck stops. Now I might have changed the channel to something more informative like The Simpsons or Everybody Loves Raymond, but the science part piqued my interest. Like right now, technology is in the works for truck so they don't even have to stop at weighing stations =o Anyway, one of the things I heard was about how many truck stops there are in the U.S. (There are quite a few) and I would like to relay that fact to you. So, my question of the day is: How many truck stops are there in the U.S.?






There are about 6,000 truck stops.

May 8- Music

ONNNN BROOOAAADWAAAY, ONNN BROOAAAD WAAAY. Sorry about that, but it was the only worthy way to open a daily question about Broadway. George Benson famously sang those words in his hit song "On Broadway" in 1978 (Though he wasn't the first.) to try to describe the sights, sounds and smells of the beloved Broadway Theater, (or Theatre if your fancy/British). Since the 1800's, companies that have morphed into the Broadway Theater in N.Y. City have been putting on plays, but it wasn't until The Gilded Age (Post-Civil War) that Broadway as we know it became popular. And some parts of Broadway are more popular than others. Which brings me to my daily question: Which MUSICAL has been preformed the most times on Broadway?





The most run musical is Phantom of the Opera with a whopping 8,771 showings since its debut in 1988. It also won that same year's Tony Award.

May 7- Sports

If you follow sports particularly close (don't worry, I don't either) you might know that drafting is going on in the NFL. One of my favorite sports to watch, if not the favorite, is football. One of my favorite parts about the sport to watch are the suspenseful plays, particularly field goals. It's crazy to watch how accurate the kicks can be, especially since I can't kick at all (which you might already know because I'm a blogger :) So, for my question of the day, I ask: Who kicked the longest field goal and how long was it?





Trick Question! Two people share the title for the regular season: Tom Dempsey in 1970 and Jason Elam in 1998. The distance was 63 yards.

May 6- Geography

I was flipping through an atlas today, and was looking at some of the smaller country names. At this point, I was thinking of demonyms. A demonym is what you call a person from where they live. For example, I am from America, so I am an American. Someone from Spain would be a Spaniard, and so on. Anyway, one of the countries I noticed was Monaco. Monaco is a very tiny country that is entirely city and is on the Mediterranean Sea. And though I knew all of that, I didn't know what you called a person from Monaco, which brings me to my question of the day: What do you call a person from Monaco?





You call someone from Monaco a Monégasque or Monagasque.
If you would like to learn more about Monaco, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco

May 5- Science

Recently, I was looking at the periodic table of the elements (I have a poster of it) and was looking at the pattern. How the lightest elements elements are at the top and the heavy in the middle, and the strip of medium ones on the bottom. One thing I noticed was that on most standard periodic tables, the element Lawrencium (Lr) is ALWAYS on the bottom right. This got me interested... because frankly, Lawrencium is strangely named. It doesn't have a normal name, like Hydrogen or Carbon or Lithium, but at the same time, it isn't clearly named after anything, like Americium; you know what that element was named after. Anyway, this brings me to my question of the day: For whom or what is Lawrencium named after?





First off, it was named after Ernest Lawrence (1901-1958) who invented the machine (cyclotron) that created Lawrencium. Lawrencium itself is Californium bombarded with Boron.

For more info (and to get all the fancy stuff) visit: http://homepage.mac.com/dtrapp/people/Lawrencium.html

May 4- History

For most of the 1800's, trouble had been brewing in America. Two distinct regions of the nation started growing apart, the North and the South. Ever since early colonization, these different regions were in for trouble. The Compromise of 1820 did little to offset the tension, neither did the compromise of 1850 or the Kansas- Nebraska act. New territories joining the union all the time didn't help it's problems either. And eventually, it came to war when the first Southern state seceded. Which brings me to my question of the day: Which was the first state to secede?





The first state to secede was South Carolina on December 20, 1860.

May 3- Presidents

Throughout U.S. history, many presidents have been related to other presidents. Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were 5th cousins. John Adams and John Quincy Adams were father and son, same with George Bush Sr. and George W. Bush. And, on the nation's 100th birthday, there was a president in office who was a grandson to one of our founding fathers (If not a bit of an obscure one), and a former president himself. So now, with all this presidential lineage, I give you my question of the day: Who are the only Grandfather-Grandson pair in U.S. history?





The Grandfather was William Henry Harrison and the Grandson was Benjamin Harrison.

May 2- Random

So today, after participating in town green-up day, the volunteers all gathered and had a big lunch. One of the things I enjoyed was a nice big sandwich with salami on it, a delicious meat with the shape of a sausage and fermented in bacteria. Anyway, it was pretty good. But after it, I began to wonder about the history of this noble meat. As it turns out, salami has a long and proud history, (It could only be made by the finest meat artists) starting in the Mediterranean area and working its way into the hearts and stomachs of the whole world. And all this salami history brings me to my question of the day: When and where was the worlds longest salami made, and how long was it?





The longest salami on record was 500 feet long, (200 longer than the Statue of Liberty). It was made in Denmark in 2003.

May 1- Music

The music of bluegrass. Coming from the state of Kentucky, The Blue Grass State, bluegrass music is a mixture of country, jazz, and blues. It also claims the deep roots of Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh traditional music (People from those countries were the first Europeans to pioneer the "backwoods", or west of the Appalachian). Incorporating many stringed instruments, bluegrass is quite a thing to listen to if you haven't before. Anyway, this all brings me to my question of the day: Who is often considered the "Father of Bluegrass"?




The artist Bill Monroe (1911-1996) is often referred to as the "Father of Bluegrass". He is most known for his band The Blue Grass Boys.