How do you wash a commercial airplane? According to USA Today’s Captain Cox, most major airports have wash bays. Because special care has to be taken not to get water in places where it could cause problems – such as airspeed or altitude sensing ports – trained personnel work from scaffolding. They use long brushes, as well as extendable buckets, to apply the water and soap. Airlines have different wash schedules based on maintenance cycles and time of year. For example, planes – like cars – get dirtier in winter. Most airlines, however, take pride in how their planes look – they have “high” standards.
Why do auctioneers talk with a unique cadence and at a tongue-twisting speed? According to Slate magazine’s “Explain 2009”, auctioneers chant in a rhythmic monotone to hypnotize the bidders – to lull them into a conditioned pattern of call and response similar to that in the game “Simon Says”. The speed of the cadence is meant to create an atmosphere of urgency among the bidders. The speed also benefits the auctioneers. The more items they sell, the more money they make because auctioneers typically take home 10%-20% of the sales price of each item. It’s all about “sales-manship”.
Who invented Post-it notes? In 1970 Spencer Silver, a 3M employee, created an adhesive that would stick but could also be easily removed. For 4 years no one knew what to do with it. Then Arthur Fry, another 3M employee, used the adhesive to stick a bookmark in his church hymnal. It worked so well that Fry made samples for co-workers. After another 5 years spent on perfecting the product, Post-it notes were introduced nationwide. Post-its went from a canary yellow, 3-inch-square pad in 1980 to a line of more than 4,000 products in 2010 – a fact that is Post-it “note-worthy”.
Finally, which are smarter, cats or dogs? Oxford University scientists tracked the evolution of the size of animal brains over millions of years. They determined that social species like monkeys, dolphins and dogs have developed larger brains relative to their body size than have more solitary animals like deer and cats. Having descended from pack animals such as wolves, dogs developed larger brains to handle constant social interaction. Bigger-brained humans are more social than monkeys and apes from which they descended and “this ability to get on with each other has helped them dominate the planet” – with several “cat-astrophes” along the way.
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