The IFOD
The Interesting Fact of the Day Blog
Happy Backward Day!
Today is National Backward Day, a national holiday that has been celebrated since 1961. The point of Backward Day is to look at how we usually do things and consider doing them backward. My morning guided meditation -- the Daily Calm on the Calm app -- mentioned the...
The Surprising Origin of The Beatles Song “Come Together”
Come Together is the opening track on The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road. It's pretty catchy and is considered one of the band's top songs (Rolling Stone ranked it their ninth best). The song's origin is interesting. Its genesis involved Timothy Leary....
Is Barbed Wire The Greatest Modern Invention?
I'm on a ski trip, and one of my ski buddies claims that barbed wire is the most important invention of all time. While I'd put indoor plumbing, glass, and the clapper above barbed wire, he's not crazy to think that barbed wire ranks as a hugely important invention....
Do You Have a Job, a Career, or a Calling?
The Mega Millions jackpot for Friday's drawing is $1.35 Billion. If you won, would you quit your job? How you answer this question depends on your work orientation: whether your work is a job, a career, or a calling. Work as a Job A job orientation is a transactional...
Can You Inherit Fears and Phobias?
Human fears fall within two broad categories: prepared and learned. In other words, we are hardwired to have some fears while others must be learned through personal experience. Many fears are primarily learned. For instance, a plane flight with horrible turbulence...
Are New Year’s Resolutions Stupid?
Are New Year's Resolutions stupid? NO! New Year's Resolutions are a powerful way to make positive changes in your life. For why this is the case, this IFOD will draw heavily on the book How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be...
One Dietary Habit That Will Improve Your Health and Help You Live Longer
This picture was created with OpenAI's Dall E 2 Artificial Intelligence program. I asked it to "paint a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, and beans." What's the one dietary habit? Eat more fiber. There is a lot of confusing information about what healthy eating looks...
Favorite Books Read in 2022
So far in 2022 I've read 69 books: 37 fiction and 32 non-fiction. Here's the full list: Books Read 2022. All but one was published in 2022. Below are my six favorites in no particular order. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel, by Gabrielle Zevin. This was...
Does the Constant Snapping of Photos Undermine Our Happiness?
The rise of the digital camera and then cameras on our phones has led to an explosion of picture-taking. Having a high-quality camera in our pockets has led to our snapping pictures to memorialize or share nearly every experience we have. Here are some stats: on...
Five Holiday Gift Ideas
Christmas is less than two weeks away and Hanukkah is in six days! Are you done with your shopping (or maybe you haven't started)? Fear not -- below are some ideas that may make good gifts. 1. Charging Station for Electronics Modern life involves charging a lot of...
Why Soccer Goalies Should Just Stay in the Middle Against a Penalty Kick
Soccer goalies almost always dive to one side or the other when defending penalty kicks. Instead, they should just stay put. This is the conclusion by Israeli academics after analyzing 311 soccer penalty kicks in their fantastic paper "Action Bias among Elite Soccer...
Why Do the Wealthy Live Longer?
There's a strong correlation between wealth and longevity. For example, a study out of the University of Wisconsin that tracked nearly 5,500 adults over 24 years found that every $50,000 of additional net wealth accumulated in midlife was associated with a 5%...

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