Give thanks for the Shovel!

For those of us on the east, it is no secret that the shovel has a very special meaning to us. Could you imagine moving all three feet of snow we’ve gotten in the past few weeks? And although we use this wonderful tool to get snow out of the way that was not what it was originally created for.

We first see the shovel in Neolithic times, or better said the New Stone Age, when a large animal’s shoulder blade was used as a crude shovel. But it wasn’t until the late 19^th and early 20^th century that shoveling was looked upon as a science by scientific managers such as Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor saw the potential that the shovel had for the industrial era, and so, he studied the most efficient ways to use the shovel.

If you are looking for someone to thank for the miraculous invention of this life changing tool, I would give thanks to those in the New Stone Age, but also to Taylor. When other managers looked away from the potential the shovel had, Taylor focused on and made the world see how much easier it would be to move things around, including the three feet of snow in your driveway.

How the Luck of the Irish Was Born

Every year, on March 17, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated. During this time, people get together and celebrate the Irish Holiday, but those anyone know what they are celebrating? It turns out that the holiday was created to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick. St. Patrick's Day officially became a Christian feast day in the early seventeenth century and is celebrated by Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox and Lutheran Churches.

There is also history behind the shamrock and beautiful green color that is used on St. Patrick's day. It is told that St. Patrick used a three leafed shamrock to explain the holy trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Also, the color green has been associated with Ireland since the 1640s, but the original color the represented Ireland was blue. It wasn't until a republican organization launched a rebellion against Britain.

Now for some fun facts!

• For every 10,000 three leaf clover there is 1 four leaf clover
• The highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14
• There are more Irish in the USA than in Ireland

Hope you enjoyed the history lesson! Remember to comment and subscribe!

Did you know...

In honor of International Women's Month, here a ten random facts about women.

1. Women speak about 20,000 words a day. That's 13,000 more than the average man
2. The average time a women can keep a secret is 47 hours and 15 minutes
3. In 1920, women gain the right to vote in the U.S.
4. Women spend nearly one year of their lives deciding what to wear
5. Women lie, on average, 3 times a day while men lie double that
6. The world's first novel was written by a female
7. A woman's heart beats faster than a man's
8. The symbol for woman is also the symbol for the planet Venus, named after the Roman  goddess
9. Women ALWAYS enjoy a good bargain
10. The average number of items in a women's bathroom is 437.

The Saint Valentines

With St. Valentine’s Day coming up this Friday, we thought it would be a good idea to take a step back in history and see where St. Valentine’s Day comes from!

 In all honesty, the Catholic Church has three different Saint Valentines, or Valentinus, one of them being from Rome. The story is that when Emperor Claudius II was in power, he found that single young men fought better than men with families. He then banned any young man from getting married. Saint Valentine, believing the banishment of marriage was unjust, continued to marry young couples in secrecy. When he heard of this, Emperor Claudius II ordered Saint Valentine’s death. It is obvious that this Saint stood up for love.

Another story involves the Saint being in love. It is told that this Valentine was the first to send a valentine to young girl he fell in love with. He was imprisoned and this girl, most likely the jailor’s daughter, would visit him during his confinement. Before his death, he sent a letter to his love signed “from your Valentine”. Sound familiar?

So there you have it! It turns out that the day we dedicate to celebrate our love of others comes from inspiring stories. Whether they are real or not, the stories, in my opinion, are a testament to true love. Remember; Valentine’s Day is the day of love, but it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate the love you have for someone else on any other day of the year.

Hope you enjoyed this blog! Remember to comment and subscribe; we love to hear from you all!

Look at that Tricycle!

New York Times had an awesome article on how the tricycle was originated. Look below to read the awesome article by Daniel Engber.

In March 1877, James Starley, a sewing-machine maker in Coventry, England, unveiled a strange offshoot of the tricycle. It had one large wheel on the left and two much smaller ones on the right. The rider sat between the wheels, driving with a pair of levers and steering on a crank. A few years later, Starley’s new designs had grown so popular that the queen bought two for herself.

Whereas the history of two-wheeled vehicles starts in 1817, when a German named Karl Drais devised a “running machine” that worked like a Flintstones car, inventors had long been much more forward-thinking when it came to trikes. A watchmaker, Stephan Farfler, built a three-wheeled, hand-powered vehicle in the 17th century, and lever-driven, three-wheeled “pilentums” or “accelerators” were around by 1820. “There were half a dozen kinds of tricycles in Germany and France and England,” says Glen Norcliffe, a geographer and tricycle historian at York University, “but they never really took off. They were prototypes.”

By the 1860s, biking was a mainstream pastime. Huge front wheels made for fast machines, with riders perched unsteadily on top. As the hobby grew more popular, some sought a safer ride — for women and older men. “At first, Starley tried to do this with a sort of sidesaddle penny-farthing, a crablike machine that never worked,” Norcliffe says. “Eventually he decided that he needed another wheel to balance it.” So he produced something more like the old pilentums. Soon Starley had a three-wheeled vehicle that worked with pedals and a chain and rack-and-pinion steering. The boom that he created quickly ended, though. By the turn of the century, both men and women were riding safety bikes, with wheels of equal size and better tires. And the market for bigger, more expensive machines shifted from the trike to the automobile.

The tricycle ended up a child’s toy. It reached its apogee when Louis Marx & Company made the Big Wheel out of molded plastic in 1969. Kids could now sit just off the ground and skid their way around tight corners. In 1974, The Times called the Big Wheel “a fast-moving, three-wheel plastic riding toy that is the tricycle of the throwaway generation.”

Talk about creative! Let us know what you think, leave comments below!

Happy Anniversary Texas!

In honor of Texas’ anniversary as the 28^th state, here are 10 things you didn’t know about Texas.

1.       Dr. Pepper was ‘invented’ in Waco, Texas in 1885.

2.       Texas has three of the top ten most populated cities in the U.S.L Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.

3.       Central Texas is referred to the “Silicon Valley of the South.”

4.       The battle of the Alamo occurred in San Antonio, TX and almost lasted two weeks.

5.       The final battle of the Civil War took place near Brownsville, TX.

6.       Because Texas is so big, the climate can vary dramatically throughout the state.

7.       El Paso, TX is closer to Needles, CA than it is to Dallas, TX.

8.       74% of Texas is covered in farms and ranches.

9.       Texas was an independent nation from 1836-1845, until December 29, 1845.

10.   The city of Slaughter, Texas has never had a homicide.

History of Halloween

Let’s talk Halloween, since it is right around the corner!!!!

We celebrate it with such enthusiasm every year. Whether it is the thrill of being someone else for a few hours or the AMAZING candy, everyone has a reason why they love Halloween. But do you know how the holiday originated?

It turns out that Halloween’s origins dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. To the Celts, this was their celebration of the New Year. They believed that on the day before the New Year, the boundary between the living and the dead was blurred (spooky!). On October 31, the Celts celebrated Samhain for two main reasons; (1) to prevent the ‘ghosts of the dead’ from damaging their crops and (2) to make it easier for Druid, the Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. On Samhain, the Druids would build huge sacred bonfires where people would burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the deities. During their celebration, the Celts would wear costumes.

Around 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered to majority of the Celtic territory. Of course, when the Roman Empire conquered an area, they took the best of the conquered culture and mixed it with their own. The Romans had a celebration in late October called Feralia to commemorate the passing of the dead. The Romans also dedicated a day in October to the Roman goddess of fruit and trees called Pomona. Pomona’s symbol is the apple. Can anyone guess how that is reflected in our Halloween celebration today? Think of a huge bucket, filled with water and topped off with a few apples.

Then, around 1000 A.D., the Catholic Church made November 2 All Souls’ Day. The Catholic Church wanted to get rid of Samhain by providing another holiday that would celebrate a similar cause and be sanctioned by the church. The All Souls’ Day soon became the All Saint’s Day which was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas. They got these names from the Middle English translation of All Saints’ Day, Alholowmesse. The night before the celebration eventually became all-hallows eve and then Halloween.

So there you have it! Halloween History in less than a page. If you would like to read more into the history of Halloween, checkout the History Channel's website.

History of the Dragon Boat

A couple of weeks ago in New York, the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival took place. My manager told me about them, and it interested me. It turns out that the Dragon Boats are more complex than just any boat. They can weigh anywhere from 650 to 800 pounds where a canoe can weigh anywhere between 65 to 90 pounds. Also, the dragon boat can be recognized by its oval shaped, slim curved dragon tail in the back and a dragon head in the front.  It can be built from either wood or fiber glass. The wood version tends to be made in Taiwan. The fiberglass versions tend to be made in China and Hong Kong and are a lot faster.

Now that you know a few specs about the dragon boats, let me tell you the story as to how it the dragon boat racing came to be. Racing originated about 2500 years ago, when the poet, Qu Yuan, jumped into the Milou River to commit suicide. This act was Qu Yuan’s way of protesting. Qu Yuan’s follower’s actually raced to the spot where he jumped and threw sticky rice so that the fish wouldn’t each his body.

And thus, dragon boat racing was born. So the next time you see a dragon boat, you will be proud to know how they came to be and all of the interesting fact about them.

Social Networking in the 1600s

There was an article in The New York Times last week about Social Networking in the 1600s. The article addresses the concern that some people have about today’s social media networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. According to the article, websites like Facebook and Twitter will cost our economy about $650 billion every year.

 

Not only are they costly to keep running, but they, the social media websites, seem to have an effect on our attention spans and tests scores negatively. This is not the first time that social networking has gained a bad reputation.

 

Back in the 1600s, the idea of coffeehouses was imported from Arab. Coffeehouses were a place where people would go to discuss an array of thing including pamphlets, news-sheets, and catch up on gossip.

 

 At the time, an Oxford academic, Anthony Wood blamed the decline in the drive to learn on the coffeehouses, but many great things occurred because of the coffeehouses as well. Isaac Newton had an argument with fellow scientist that prompted him to write the “Principia Mathematica.” Also, everyone, no matter who you were status wise, was able to have conversations with each other.

 

The coffeehouses were something like an "in person Facebook". It is simply something that has changed over time like hand written letters have changed into emails, and how I am writing this blog instead of standing up on a soap box. On the contrary to the beginning of the article, today’s or the old age’s social networking has not put a damper on our learning, it has more to do with the drive of a particular person.

 

What is truly amazing is how things may evolve, but they do not become extinct. Who knew that Facebook existed in a different form hundreds of years ago? Cool, right?

 

This is definitely history repeating itself.

The History of the Portable Toilet

When attending an event where portable toilets are lined up and ready to serve their purpose, one does not think of how they came to be. Who would sit and ponder as to how they evolved? No one. 

So I figured I’d give you all a crash course on, wait for it, the “History of Portable Toilets.” 

Did you hear the trumpets? Good. 

Portable toilets are first seen 3500 years ago in Ancient Egypt. Imagine a stool with a hole in the middle and on the receiving end, a clay pot. 

Next we have, the Middle Ages. They were a bit classier than the Egyptians with a chamber pot, or portable toilet, which contained a small round vessel made out of metal and sometimes, if a family of money, even glass. Where’d the contents go? Out the window along with the baby. 

During World War I, U.S. infantrymen would use toilets with “T. Crapper” printed on them. The plumber and company that manufactured those toilets was Thomas Crapper. Lucky name, right? This is where we, the Americans, gave birth to the idea of a toilet. 

Thomas Crapper

The last stop on our journey through history is in Long Beach, California. Here, shipbuilders created a wooden cabana with a drainable waste bin. This cabana was placed close to a job site so workers wouldn’t have to wander far from their job. 

Today, we see the shiny plastic portable toilets and do not realize how good we have it. So, the next time you use one, think of having to use one in Ancient Egypt, and I promise, you will enjoy the experience a lot more.