What I Learned This Week

• Languages with a concept of uppercase letters are called bicameral and those without are called unicameral.


• The antonym of miniscule is majuscule.


• The Roots have never had an album attain sales higher than gold (500,000+). Two albums, Do You Want More?!!!??! and Phrenology, reached this level. That means that only something like 1/600th of the population of the U.S. own these albums. That is sad.


• The average eighteen wheeler has 12 gears, 10 forward and 2 reverse. There are more in some, up to 18.


• It's common knowledge that when a honey bee stings you it dies. The interesting part is that the stinger has it's own "mini-brain" that allows it to continue sawing into the stung animals flesh and releasing venom after it is ripped from the bee.


• The term flak, a nickname for anti-aircraft guns, is derived from the german word Fliegerabwehrkanone, aicraft defense cannon.


• Modern lithium-ion batteries have 1/8th the energy density of TNT in their electric charge and are headed towards 1/6th. Yikes!


• A Top-Fuel dragster runs on a mixture of nitromethane and methanol. The engines produce in the neighborhood of 6000-8000hp. At top speed the upturned exhaust produces 800 pounds-force of downforce.