WWII did not start as a world war. When Germany attacked Poland the French and British declared war on Germany. But almost everyone else wanted to remain neutral. Germany then went on a ‘one at a time’ strategy. First Norway was attacked and conquered. Then Belgium and Netherlands (as they were in the way to get to France). Then Yugoslavia and Greece (although Greece was already at war with Italy). In each case the British wanted to assist these countries BEFORE the Germans invaded but in each case the country was afraid of angering Germany and thus be attacked. They each thought they could remain neutral. Each of them was wrong. By allowing Germany to attack countries one by one the Germans were able to move troops to the next position without fighting on multiple fronts. Their luck ran out with the attack on Russia but how much of a difference would it have made if all these countries had stuck together from the start of the war to stop Germany? And during all this time the United States was following the same official path of neutrality.

(Book – The Second World War – Winston S. Churchill)

A shrew is the smallest mammal and there aren’t any smaller because there cannot be a smaller heart which can still pump blood.

(Great Courses – Chaos)

You get more calories in cooked food than if it is raw. You get 30 percent more energy from cooked oat, wheat or potato than the raw version. You get up to 78 percent more protein from a cooked egg. Animal experiments showed animals gained more weight eating cooked food than those getting the same foods uncooked. This is an important discovery for scientists who are trying to investigate the evolution of humans and their brains along with the use of fire.

(Magazine – Smithsonian June 2013)

A human body at rest devotes about 1/5 of it’s energy to the brain regardless of any thinking activity.

(Magazine – Smithsonian June 2013)

The earliest know air pollution is from lead created from metalworking 3900-3500 years ago. The largest lead air pollution occurred in the 1950’s-1970’s from leaded gasoline use. However the current lead air pollution is LESS than from ancient Roman mining activities.

(Magazine – Archaeology magazine July/August 2013)

Fractals have dimensions other than integer numbers. Examples: The coastline of Norway has a dimension of about 1.52 and the human brain has a dimension of about 2.3. I am not going to try and explain this in this blog post but it makes sense if you research how dimensions are REALLY calculated.

(Great Courses – Chaos – Lecture 15)

The opera composer Verdi was so popular in the late 1800’s that when an American conductor asked him where to send something to him Verdi replied “Send it to Maestro Verdi, Italia”.

(Great Courses – How to Listen to and Understand Opera)

The Chapter and Verse numbers in the Old Testament were not in the original manuscripts. They were added in the Middle Ages for easy referencing.

(Great Courses – The Old Testament)

Before the Baroque era (which started in 1600) there was no thing as instrumental music for performance purposes. All music was used to accompany vocals.

(Great Courses – How to Listen To and Understand Great Music)

During WWII in 1940 the Irish would not allow the British to use their ports for refueling their ships. Winston Churchill was afraid that the Irish night allow the Germans to use the ports and he was trying to decide what to do if that happened.

(Book – The Second World War Volume II – Winston Churchill)