It’s an all-new 5-day trivia hunt,
with an all-new set of puzzles, prizes, and now, a major sponsor!

Co-puzzle Master Josh Halbur and I are thrilled to announce that How Did You Know? now has its very own Geritol. Yes, the extraordinary video sharing site motionbox.com, which I’ve written about on this site before, is now sponsoring our monthly 5-day trivia hunt.

>> What does that mean for HDYK? We’ve got an investor interested in helping us take the game to the next level. So please, before you do anything else, mosey on over to motionbox.com and see all the amazing services they offer, most for free!

>> What does that mean for you gamers? Better prizes! Each month, motionbox.com will be giving out 3 prizes: a free premium subscription on their site; a Vado 8GB HD cam. Plus, the winner of the cam will get the opportunity to purchase a discounted premium membership on motionbox, as well.

>> How do you win? We’ve got new rules, so pay attention: anyone who submits any kind of answers at all, right or wrong, is now eligible for a prize. So long as you submit, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win the free, premium subscription to motionbox.com, worth $49.99. Next: the $199.99 Vado 8GB HD cam. Anyone who submits all the correct answers within 24 hours of the final puzzle post on day 5, will be eligible for a drawing for the this amazing little gadget that holds up to 2 hours in brilliant HD.

>> So what’s in it for the person/team who finishes first with all the correct answers? Bragging rights, as always, with your photo/bio posted on our site. But also two chances to win the motionbox.com prizes, and, as is our tradition here at the _floss, your pick of any t-shirt from our store.

There you have it! If you’re not a Fan of our Facebook page , be sure to add us so we can keep you updated, and you can get in on some pretty nifty clues throughout the week. If you’re new to our five-day hunt, you can read up on our new Rules page here. You’ll also want to check out last month’s hunt and read up on our defending champion Daniel Wilson. If you missed Day 1, that’s right this way; Day 2 is down yonder; Day 3 over here; Day 4 is this-a-way. Okay, ready to get your final Hunt on? Click on through.

It’s no secret that Barack Obama has penned a couple of books – they flew off of the shelves during his bid for the presidency. In fact, most presidents have ended up writing their memoirs at some point after leaving the White House. But some presidents have chosen to write about the things that really interest them – fly-fishing, for instance. Here are 10 of those books (kind of refreshing, really, when a president chooses to not write about himself).

1. Letters on Freemasonry, John Quincy Adams. A member of the Anti-Masonic party, no doubt this book contains Adams’ criticisms of the secret society.
2. Fishing for Fun And To Wash Your Soul, Herbert Hoover. Really.
3. Thomas Jefferson’s Gardening Book, Thomas Jefferson. If you’ve ever wondered what Jefferson’s diary of his gardening attempts, plant sketches and general musings looked like, wonder no more.
4. Through the Brazilian Wilderness, Teddy Roosevelt. OK, this one is about Teddy, but not about his presidency or politics. As you might suspect from the title, this book covered Teddy’s 1913 Brazilian jungle expedition, a mission to bring back specimens for the American Museum of Natural History.

(more…)

Another month is in the books. In case you missed a day or two here or there, these are the top 12 stories originally posted in October:

1. The Origins of All 30 NBA Team Names
by Scott Allen

Why is a team in Los Angeles named the Lakers, and what’s a team called the Jazz doing in Utah? As another NBA season tips off, here are the stories behind the nicknames of all 30 teams.

2. 10 Awesome Homemade Halloween Costumes
by Miss Cellania

If you have the time and tools to make your own Halloween costume, all you need is a little inspiration to make it awesome, like these ten.

3. Scientific Reasons to Believe in Vampires, Werewolves & Zombies
by Matt Soniak

(more…)

Our Steven or Stephen? Quiz has challenged more than 20,000 players out there in WWW-land, so we thought we’d try something similar, this time with a trio of related names. Here are ten famous gentlemen whose first or middle names are either ALAN, ALLAN, or ALLEN. Can you properly identify the spelling for each of them? Good luck!

Take the Quiz: Alan-Allan-Allen

This bit of musical virtuosity blew my mind, and I urge you to spend two minutes watching and listening. In the video below, 26-year-old Ukrainian Aleksandr Hrustevich plays a Bayan “Jupiter-Lux,” a sort of mega-accordion with the capacity (in the right hands) to stand in for an entire orchestra (in this case, he’s playing parts written for violin, string orchestra, and basso continuo). In this clip, Hrustevich is playing a portion of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” (Concerto in G Minor), I believe it’s from the “Summer” movement, played in Presto tempo (aka wicked fast). (Note: classical music fans, please share more info about the specifics of which portion he’s playing in the comments!)

Anyway, just click on this and be amazed.

You can view more accordion virtuosity on Hrustevich’s YouTube Channel. For more amazing Ukrainian talent, check out Drawing in Sand: Kseniya Simonova.

(Via the amazing Word Surgery blog.)

There may be baseball movies that offer a more accurate portrayal of the big league game, but it’s hard to argue against The Sandlot as one of the funniest family-friendly sports movies ever. Let’s see how well you remember the adventures of Smalls, Benny, and the Beast.

Take the Quiz: The Sandlot

Reader Meredith wrote in with a question: “Why can boat captains marry people? Can other people in charge of other large vessels perform weddings?”

Meredith, if you plan to have a boat captain officiate your wedding (how Jim and Pam of you), I hope you read this before leaving port. While a good sailor knows that the captain is the ultimate authority on a ship, his or her power extends only so far. At one point, the United States Navy explicitly stated, “The commanding officer shall not perform a marriage ceremony on board his ship or aircraft.”

What about non-Navy captains, though? Well that depends on the captain. They can’t perform marriages at sea (or on dry land) by virtue of their maritime license alone, and no state has enacted a statute explicitly authorizing ships’ captains to officiate marriages. However, if a captain also falls into one of the categories of “persons qualified to solemnize marriages” prescribed in laws of the state they’re in, then they’re good to go.

In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, my home sweet home, these qualified persons are: (more…)

It’s an all-new 5-day trivia hunt,
with an all-new set of puzzles, prizes, and now, a major sponsor!

Co-puzzle Master Josh Halbur and I are thrilled to announce that How Did You Know? now has its very own Geritol. Yes, the extraordinary video sharing site motionbox.com, which I’ve written about on this site before, is now sponsoring our monthly 5-day trivia hunt.

>> What does that mean for HDYK? We’ve got an investor interested in helping us take the game to the next level. So please, before you do anything else, mosey on over to motionbox.com and see all the amazing services they offer, most for free!

>> What does that mean for you gamers? Better prizes! Each month, motionbox.com will be giving out 3 prizes: a free premium subscription on their site; a Vado 8GB HD cam. Plus, the winner of the cam will get the opportunity to purchase a discounted premium membership on motionbox, as well.

>> How do you win? We’ve got new rules, so pay attention: anyone who submits any kind of answers at all, right or wrong, is now eligible for a prize. So long as you submit, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win the free, premium subscription to motionbox.com, worth $49.99. Next: the $199.99 Vado 8GB HD cam. Anyone who submits all the correct answers within 24 hours of the final puzzle post on day 5, will be eligible for a drawing for the this amazing little gadget that holds up to 2 hours in brilliant HD.

>> So what’s in it for the person/team who finishes first with all the correct answers? Bragging rights, as always, with your photo/bio posted on our site. But also two chances to win the motionbox.com prizes, and, as is our tradition here at the _floss, your pick of any t-shirt from our store.

There you have it! If you’re not a Fan of our Facebook page , be sure to add us so we can keep you updated, and you can get in on some pretty nifty clues throughout the week. If you’re new to our five-day hunt, you can read up on our new Rules page here. You’ll also want to check out last month’s hunt and read up on our defending champion Daniel Wilson. If you missed Day 1, that’s right this way; Day 2 is down yonder; Day 3 over here; Day 4 is this-a-way. Ready to get your final Hunt on? Tune back in at 8pm ET!

Dog blogs always get emailed lots of photos, and, naturally, the Halloween season brings about a barrage of photos of costumed pups. Being one of the largest pet blogs on the net, Dogster’s blog decided to collect some of the most embarrassing, yet most endearing photos that were sent to their inbox this holiday season.  From Star Wars characters to pups in banana costumes, the results are priceless.

The French maid costume is pretty funny, but it brings up a weird issue recently brought up over at Consumerist, why would you want to put your dog in sexy clothes? I know I’m not the only one who finds this a little creepy. Then again, some people just like to weird people out with weird and creepy costumes.

See Also: Our Readers’ Favorite Halloween Costumes

Every now and then I run across a toy that’s not exactly an earth-shattering technological breakthrough, but looks like so much fun that I immediately want one. That would be the Mini HoverDrone from the playful minds at Think Geek. They call it the smallest flying remote control device they’ve seen. Only 60 millimeters wide and 65 millimeters tall, that’s a little over two inches. It will easily fit in your palm, but you won’t lose it because of the flashing LEDs. In action, the Mini HoverDrone looks like a cross between a movie UFO and a shuttlecock. With a little imagination, it could be an alien invasion, a nano-robot, or Tinkerbell herself. Without any imagination at all, it’s just cool.

Oh yeah, my cats would have a great time with this. Kids would enjoy it, too. But of course Think Geek was thinking about grown-ups kids like themselves when they came up with this. They suggest you get several and fly them all together in a swarm. That conjures up images of a real-life Space Invaders game. The remote can control two drones at once. Requires 6 AA batteries. I can think of three or four people in my family who would love to get a Mini HoverDrone for Christmas. Including myself. $19.99 at Think Geek.

(via Coolest Gadgets)