Bloggers Need Breaks Too

The Daily Question will be on vacation from June 28th until July 15th. Feel free to check out the archives in absence of a daily question. ENJOY THE SUMMER!

June 21- Presidents

Since it is The Daily Question's trend to incorporate questions with holidays, it would be a crime not to ask a presidential question about Father's Day. I was going to ask how many father/son pairs there were in the White House, but that's to easy. To Google I went. Originally, Father's Day (or Fathers' Day, if you're an English major) was started in Eastern Washington state in the 1910's. By the 1930's, companies had begun marketing the holiday as a commercial day. But who made it a "holiday"? With that, I ask the question: Which president made Father's Day a federal Holiday?








The president was Lyndon Johnson, and he declared it in 1966.

June 20- Random

Could you imagine a world without pens? More specifically, could you imagine a world without ballpoint pens? You may laugh, but there are many things that make pens more useful than pencils. You can sign papers with them, they don't have to be sharpened, and they aren't scarily sharp. But alas, there was a time where ballpoint pens didn't exist. In fact, it wasn't until 1938 that the ballpoint pen was invented by two brothers living in Europe. One was a newspaper editor, and the other a chemist. Their idea for a pen with a free moving ball and ink cartridge was patented in 1938. By 1940, they had started a successful pen company in Argentina. The idea was noticed by an American, who started selling the pens at Gimbels in 1949. But, for my daily question, I ask: what are the names of the brothers who came up with the original ballpoint pen idea?





The brothers were Lazlo and Georg Biro.
If you liked that fact, I noticed it while reading "The Mental Floss History of the World". It's a fantastic book. Pick it up at pretty much any bookstore, even if you don't like history.

June 19- Music

This question comes from true procrastinetic dismay. Originally, I was going to post something about musical theory- what the treble clef means, what 4/4 means at the beginning of a song, or in between certain measures. It's to late in the day for that. Next I wandered into the realm of bands, something I am more comfortable with. But all those questions are lame. What am I supposed to ask? Who is the drummer for The Police? That's a ridiculous question to ask such fine intellectuals like yourselves. We're about trivia here, not trivial! Anyway... I ended up going with something that isn't so much musical trivia, but something that might possibly make you hum a tune while surfing the web. So for my question today, I ask: How many times does a bell ring before the guitar starts on the song "Hell's Bells by AC/DC?


I'm truly sorry...



The bell rings 4 times, and continues ringing once the guitar starts.

June 18- Sports

Since I am blogging right now to avoid studying for French finals, it makes perfect sense that this question be about a sport loved by the French people, and pretty much every country outside the U.S.: Soccer/Football. Now for 1000's of years, countries from all over the world have developed their own versions of ball games. The Greeks and Romans are especially known for having games like modern day soccer/football. But, unfortunately, it is my unpleasant duty to announce today that though the word "ball" implies "sphere", the shape of a soccer ball is not a sphere. Which brings me to my daily question: What shape is a soccer ball?






The shape of a soccer ball is actually a, well, uhhh, it's a truncated icosahedron. Basically, a bunch of hexagons and octagons sewn together.
For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_icosahedron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football

June 17- Geography

Isn't the National Geographic Society great? From their Bees to their magazine, National Geographic is full of fun and useful information. How useful, you might just be asking. Well first of all, the magazine was great today when I was hanging out in a radio station after school. Second, the magazine came enclosed with a nifty little map of Asia. But more importantly, this most recent July '09 issue provided me with a cool question for today. Some of you might have heard of a place called Angkor. Old city. Destroyed. All that jazz. Anyway, when I first started reading the article, I could not place where Angkor was, until the article was significantly underway. So, for my daily question, I ask: Where is the destroyed city of Angkor located?


By the way, I'd just like to throw out a thanks to a certain radio station that did a shout out about The Question today... appreciate it!!!


Angkor is a region in Cambodia. Not to be confused with Angkor Wat, (as I was) which is a temple complex within the region of Angkor.
To read more about Angkor, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor
For Angkor Wat, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat
For National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ (also features a link to the Angkor Wat article.)

June 16- Science

I hope you are as excited as I am to be returning to the regular daily loop. Today's question is a bit of a cross-over question between science and music, so I did have a bit of turmoil coming down to the decision. As you can most certainly tell, I chose to put it under science. Since it was beautiful today, I decided to sit out on my sun porch and listen to music. And not just normally listening to music on a sissy iPod, I mean listening to music on the phonograph. If you've never listened to music on a record player before, you definitely should some time. Anyway, all this was brought on today when I was looking downstairs in my basement and found a container of jazz records. Well, you can bet I popped those guys in there as soon as I could get up the stairs. And as I watched the record spin tunes from the likes of Prima and Brubeck, I began to wonder how it was actually being brought to me. So for my daily question, I ask: How does a phonograph work?







There is an infinity of informational depth that you could get into on the subject of sound, and no one, me especially, likes hearing complexities that I couldn't care less about. So basically, a record is started with a sound. The sound travels down a tube, and makes a part called the diaphragm vibrate. The diaphragm is connected to a stylus, that then pushes down on the new record, at this point made out of wax. The record is on a platform being spun as the imprints are being made on it. Think of it as the childrens' song about bones: The sound is connected to the, diaphragm. The diaphragm's connected to the, stylus. The stylus is connected to the, record. This process makes a piece of wax with tiny little groves all over it. Now, do it in reverse. When you put the wax on a spinning platform, and let the stylus spin slowly down it, the sound is sent down a diaphragm, and out the horn. Then, a contented jazz enthusiast can obsorb the music.
For more info visit: http://www.pbs.org/weta/roughscience/series2/challenges/sound/page3.html