Not a Big Star

Note: I've decided to name each post in the "Did You Know?" series differently. I got to thinking that it would be hard to differentiate between all the posts named "Did You Know?"

Duh.  Too bad I didn't know that from the first.

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Did you know?

Tom Hanks has an asteroid named after him?












Hanks has had a lifelong fascination with space exploration: As a child, he wanted to be an astronaut; he played a real-life one in Apollo 13; he co-produced the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, as well as the IMAX feature Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3D. Heck, he's even on the the National Space Society Board of Directors. So to honor Hanks' commitment, the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid "12818 tomhanks" in 1996.

Image courtesy of Caricature Zone

October Trivia Quiz Begins!

New trivia tournament begins!

Play the ToTG Trivia Tournament and test your trivia knowledge against the smartest readers of this blog!

(well, there's me, too)





Easy to do: register, then sign-in and play the quiz. The categories change from day-to-day and are the most difficult the site has to offer.  Hurry as fast as you can through it, though, because the longer you take, the less points you get on the total.

ToTG Trivia Tournament

Did You Know?

That the polar bear is practically invisible to infrared? That's because a bear's (outward) body temperature is the same as the snow, with only their eyes, nose and breath visible to infrared vision.

This Study is Nuts

I guess this is why single men don't live as long as married guys.

If it had been up to my ex-wife, she would have had mine in the divorce settlement.

Men without testicles might live longer

Rockaria! - ELO

I feel like posting a little more Electric Light Orchestra.

This is a cool tune;  the references to the classical composers plus the following little snippets of their famous songs makes it unique.

Google Alerts

A few years ago, I discovered a very useful feature of Google, the Google Alerts. With it, I can keep up with the topics that interest me, such as specific news items, articles about Hank Skinner or anytime this blog is mentioned or linked to. (very rare).

Some webmasters also use the service to check for plagiarism or backlinks to articles they've written.  Companies can use it to see what others are saying about their products, especially useful when someone is unjustly smearing their reputation.

You can configure the results to show up in your reader feed or delivered to your email inbox.

From the site:

Monitor the Web for interesting new content

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries.

Enter a search query you wish to monitor. You will see a preview of the type of results you'll receive. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

    *monitoring a developing news story
    *keeping current on a competitor or industry
    *getting the latest on a celebrity or event
    *keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams



Google Alerts