Nephrite is a mineral, also called jade, which was once thought to cure kidney stones (the name comes from the Greek "nephros," or kidney).

In 2008, Lousiana's House of Representatives designated the sazerac --- a mix of rye whiskey, absinthe, and bitters --- as New Orleans' official cocktail.

The word "yoga" is taken from the cognate Sankrit word originally meaning a yoke, from a root meaning to join or attach. It is thus typically translated as "union."

The Hawaiian island of Lanai was once known as "Pineapple Island" because it was owned by the Dole corporation, governed by James Dole, and was the world's foremost exporter of pineapples. Yep, just sittin' on the porch, eatin' pineapples.

Brazil nuts contain trace amounts of radium, up to 1,000 times the amounts found in other foods, possibly due to the extensive root systems of the nut tree.

The modern day trampoline was invented by an American gymnast called George Nissen who purportedly got the idea after seeing trapeze artists fall into safety nets. He named it after the Spanish word for diving board.

Aquavit

Aquavit is a spirit principally produced in Scandinavia, flavored by caraway seeds or dill.

Sacagawea was honored with a 2000 U.S. dollar coin, bearing the face of a Shoshone-Bannock woman. In 2001 she was given the rank of Honorary Sergeant by Bill Clinton.

Sapphire is a gemstone of the mineral corundum, an aluminum oxide colored other than red or pink. It is a 9.0 on the Mohs Hardness Scale, as is ruby, the red variant of corundum.

Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist, is credited with first proposing the emoticon on a Carnegie Mellon message board in 1982. He proposed :-) as a a "joke marker," because it warned reader that an email was not intended to be taken seriously.

Nathaniel Wyeth, who invented the recyclable PET plastic soda bottle, was the brother of painter Andrew Wyeth.

Pan-pan is a radiotelegraph call sign indicating a state of urgency with no immediate danger to life, which is one degree less urgent than a call of Mayday.

Montgomery Ward, later known as Ward's, was the first mail order business, and the first major business to use the slogan "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back," in 1872.

Lohengrin

"Lohengrin" is an 1850 opera by Richard Wager. It is based on the Germanic folk hero, son of Percival, who memorably rides in a boat pulled by swans. The most famous part of the opera is the Bridal Chorus, popularly known as "Here Comes the Bride" (in a boat pulled by swans!).

A Cobb salad is made from greens, tomato, bacon, chicken, eggs, avocado, and Roquefort cheese. Its origin is unknown, but typically its birth is associated with the Brown Derby Diner in Los Angeles.

A lava lamp works because the colored wax inside liquid rises and falls as its density is changed by its light bulb's heat.

Criosphinx

In Egyptian mythology, a criosphinx is a sphinx with the head of a ram instead of a human. This comes from the Greek word krios for ram.

Under Gerald Ford, Dick Cheney was appointed White House Chief of Staff in 1975, making him the youngest to hold the post at 34. He is also an evil lying bastard who hates the poor and likes to shoot people in the face.

Vitamin D is classified as a hormone because it is produced by the body (under the ultraviolet light of the sun), as well as being synthesized when taken in.

The Moro are an indigenous Muslim population in the Philippines, compromising about 5-10% of the total population. There is an organization called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which demands autonomy for the Moro peoples.

The Mayflower was originally meant to land at the mouth of the Hudson River, near present-day New York City (part of what was then called the Virginia Colony), but was blown off course and dropped anchor in the hook of Cape Cod Bay. There they named Plymouth rock and the settlement, current-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. (The Mayflower Compact was drawn up because they did not actually have the right to settle there, not being where they had intended.)

Bayer developed heroin, presumably named for how "heroic" it made testers feel, from morpheine and codeine. Bayer marketed it as a cough suppressant from 1898 to 1910. It was claimed that heroin was ten times more effective against tubercular cough than codeine.

Benihana is named after the coffee shop that the founder's parents owned in Tokyo. "Benihana" means "red safflower." Many of the restaurants have plates that feature a stylized image of this flower.

Since 2003, Ronald McDonald has been designated McDonald's "Chief Happiness Officer."

Cyber Monday

The term Cyber Monday was coined by Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation and Scott Silverman, and made its debut on November 28, 2005, in a Shop.org press release entitled "Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year."  Cyber Monday takes place the Monday after Thanksgiving

United States Social Security cards have a blue border. The three parts of a Social Security Number are the area, group, and serial number.

Edo

Edo is the former name of Tokyo, becoming the stronghold of power of Japan in 1603.  On September 3, 1868, the name was changed to Tokyo.

Calvin Coolidge's pets

Calvin Coolidge kept a menagerie of exotic animals during his tenure at the White House, including a pygmy hippopotamus named Billy, a wallaby, lion cubs, and a raccoon. He also had several cats and dogs.