Pollen can be difficult to avoid since, during allergy season, it's everywhere. Avoid outdoor activities in the morning, between 5 to 10 a.m. It's also good to avoid being outside on dry and breezy days. The best time to go outside is in late afternoon or after a heavy rain. Of course, when pollen is at its peak, it's best to go outside as ...Read more

France had the first supermarket in the world. It was started by relatives of the people who started the Texas Big Bear supermarket chain.

The human heart rests between beats. In an average lifetime of 70 years, the total resting time is estimated to be about 40 years.

The Green Man motif has many different faces and variations. Found in many cultures around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetative deities springing up in different cultures throughout the ages. Primarily it is interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, or "renaissance", representing the cycle of growth being reborn anew each ...Read more

The first VCR, or video cassette recorder, was made in 1956 and was the size of a piano.

The new year is the most important holiday in Japan, and is a symbol of renewal. In December, various Bonenkai or "forget-the-year parties" are held to bid farewell to the problems and concerns of the past year and prepare for a new beginning. Misunderstandings and grudges are forgiven and houses are scrubbed. At midnight on Dec. 31, Buddhist ...Read more

A recent study found that 75 percent of headache patients felt relief when they rubbed capsaicin (the component that makes chile peppers hot) on their nose.

Rugby, North Dakota is the geographical center of North America, not the geographical center of the United States. That is located in Butte County, South Dakota, on the state's western border. If only the 48 contiguous states are included, the point is in Smith County, Kansas.

Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.

The color combination with the strongest visual impact is black on yellow. Next to follow black on white, yellow on black, white on black, dark blue o

There are 284 restrooms along the 17.5 miles of corridors in the Pentagon.

A kangaroo cannot jump if its tail is lifted off the ground. It needs its tail for pushing off.

Each red blood cell lives an average of 4 months and travels between the lungs and other tissues 75,000 times before returning to the bone marrow to die.

Male monkeys lose the hair on their heads in the same manner men do.

When she was a young woman, sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer once lived in Israel. There, she was a trained sniper. She was so adept at handling a Sten gun — a British submachine gun — that she could quickly assemble one while blindfolded.

U.S. Army doctor D.W. Bliss had the unique role of attending to two U.S. presidents after they were shot by assassins. In 1865, he was one of 16 doctors who tried to save Abraham Lincoln; in 1881, Bliss supervised the care of James Garfield.

The title Mona Lisa stems from the Giorgio Vasari biography of Leonardo da Vinci, published 31 years after Leonardo's death. In it, he identified the sitter as Lisa, the wife of wealthy Florentine businessman Francesco del Giocondo. "Mona" is a common Italian contraction of "madonna," meaning "my lady," the equivalent of the English "Madam," so ...Read more

To assure full flavor, chill wine appropriately. Observe the 20-minute rule: Pull whites out of the refrigerator 20 minutes before serving; put reds in 20 minutes before serving.

After Helen Keller graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1904, she began writing about blindness, a subject taboo in women's magazines because so many cases were related to venereal disease.

It was Swiss chemist Jacques Edwin Brandenberger who invented cellophane, back in 1908.