20 Facts about The Simpsons:

• The Simpsons actually started off as animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. Watch these animated shorts at SimpsonCrazy.com.
• The couch gag at the beginning of each episode makes it easier for production to extend the length of the episode if needed. The typical couch gag lasts about 5 seconds while the longest one on record lasts 46 seconds.
• The Simpsons holds the world record for the “Most Guest Stars Featured in a Television Series.”
• There are a total of 121 Springfields in the United States. In 2007, the official state of The Simpsons’ Springfield was revealed as Vermont. This city hosted the premiere of The Simpsons Movie.
  
• The Simpsons is dubbed in many other languages- including Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Quebec French, and Arabic. In the Arabic broadcast, Homer drinks soda instead of beer and eats Egyptian beef sausages instead of hot dogs. What?!
• The Simpsons became the longest running primetime animated show passing The Flinstones in 1997. The Simpsons have aired over 434 episodes in 20 seasons.
• Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, allegedly designed the Simpson family in ten minutes.
  
• Groening named the characters after people in his own family. Although instead of using his name, he used Bart which is an anagram of brat.
• Groening refused to name Grandpa Simpson after his own grandfather. He left the naming of him to other writers who coincidentally chose Abraham which is actually Groening’s Grandpa’s real name.
• The character of bartender, Moe Szyslak, was based on Louis “Red” Deutsch. Deutsch was bartender who is remembered for his profane tirades against prank calls in the mid-70′s.
• On January 14, 2000, the Simpson family was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  
• The Simpsons have six main cast members. These six people do the voices for almost all of the characters.
• The series recently just switched to HD on February 15, 2009 at the start of the 20th season.
• The first season of The Simpsons had an average of 13.4 million viewers while the nineteenth season had an average of 7.7 million viewers.
• Development of The Simpsons Movie began in 2001. The script was rewritten over a hundred times before being finalized.
• The Empire State Building was illuminated yellow as part of the DVD and Blu-ray Disc promotion for The Simpsons Movie. That was the first time the Empire State Building was used for a film promotion
  

• The Simpsons is the only non-variety show to guest star George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr.
• On December 31, 1999, Time Magazine named it the 20th century’s best television series.
• Episodes of The Simpsons are ready up to year in advance since they take so long to produce. This is why they weren’t effected by the writer’s strike.
• In 2008, the main voice actors for The Simpsons recieved a pay raise to $400,000 per episode.

The 21st season of The Simpson’s begins September 27, 2009 on Fox. The 21st season holds a few surprises for fans. Seth Rogen, the popular comedic actor from movies such as Pineapple Express and the new film Funny People, co-wrote a Simpsons episode. The excited Rogen is quoted as saying, “We sat down for a read-through and three hours later I’m in a studio improv-ing with Homer Simpson, it was the single greatest day of my life.”

The Simpsons have been renewed through the 22nd season.

To bring in the new season, we have compiled a list of interesting Autumn facts for you to enjoy!

• During Fall, the days shorten therefore the sun does not stay in the sky for as long.
• Due to the lack of sunlight, leaves can no longer maintain support for itself. Leafs become weak and fall to the ground.
• Due to the wide variety of trees in the Northeastern U.S., this is one of the best areas in the world to view colorful leaf displays.
• Autumn starts on or around September 15 and lasts until about December 20.
• The color change in fall foliage is due to chemical changes.

• When Disney’s Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, a general admission ticket cost only $3.50.
• Walt Disney World Resort is roughly the size of San Francisco at 30,500 acres.
• There is an 8,500 acre preservative just south of Disney World called Disney Wilderness Preserve.
• Roughly 46 million people visit Walt Disney World every year.
• Workers hand sort the trash at Disney World to separate the recyclables from the trash.
• The Tower of Terror was originally planned to be taller but was reduced in height to avoid having to add a blinking light to the top to notify airplanes.
• Walt Disney World Resort is the largest single-site employer in the United States.
• Walt Disney World contains 4 theme parks, 2 water parks and 23 themed hotels.
• To stop land speculation around Orlando during the purchase of the land for Walt Disney World, phony companies were made up to purchase the theme park land.
• Walt Disney died before he could see Walt Disney World completed.

• The New York Stock Exchange wasn’t actually the first stock exchange in the United States. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange came first in 1790.
• The first stock market in New York came in 1792 with 24 stock brokers meeting in the Tontine Coffee House.

  

• December 15, 1886 was the first day over a million shares were exchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
• Since October 10, 1953, there has not been a day were less than a million shares have been traded.
• If there is a 30 percent drop in the market, the NYSE will close down for the rest of the day.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average began in 1896 to track the success of the market on any given day.
• The first female joined the NYSE in 1967 and the first black joined in 1970.

Wall Street Today

• In 1626, the Dutch purchased Manhattan Island from Native Americans for about $1,000. It was originally called “New Amsterdam.”
• In 1664, the English took over the city from the Dutch and renamed it “New York.”
• New York City served as the first capital under the Constitution from March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790.
• Of NYC’s current population, 36% were born outside of the United States.
• New York City’s subway station is the largest in the world. It has 468 stations with 842 miles of track.
• The subway runs 24 hours a day and 365 days a year- making it the only subway system in the world to do so.
• On average 4.9 million people ride the subway everyday.

• The city’s estimated population in 2007 is over 8.3 million people.
• New York City has been the country’s largest city since 1790 when it surpassed Philadelphia.
• In 2007, an estimated 46 million people visited New York City, and spent approximately $28 billion while there.
• There are more than 12,700 licensed taxi drivers on the city’s streets.

• 1,000 people die in the world from drowning for every shark attack related death.
• In 2005, there was an average of 10 deaths per day from drowning.
• Males are four times more likely to die from drowning than females.
• In coastal states in the U.S., lightning strikes and kills more than 41 people per year.
• During an average year, vending machines fall and kill 13 people at the beach.
• 1,533 children are reported missing at the beach every year. It’s often due to kids wondering off or getting lost at crowded beaches.
• Florida has the most shark attacks out of all the states.
• One out of three beachgoers do not know how to swim.
• According the National Resource Defense Council, pollution cause 6,160 beach closings in 1999 in the U.S.

Here’s our list of the most interesting Babe Ruth facts for you to enjoy:

• While Ruth is best known for his hitting, he was an outstanding pitcher early in his career having an overall 94-46 record and an ERA of 2.28.
• On April 18th 1923, Yankee Stadium opened for its first game. A crowd of 74,200 got to watch Babe Ruth hit the first home run on opening day. A sportswriter at the time referred to his first blast in his news story as “The House That Ruth Built.” The saying stuck.
• In 1927, Ruth set the home run record with 60 home runs that season. This record stood until 1961.
• The first home run in an All-Star was hit by Babe Ruth at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1933.
• Ruth was a part of the 1934 All-Star team that went to Japan to play an 18 game series. Babe Ruth hit 13 home runs during the series and the Americans won every game.
• Babe Ruth’s pay was big news in 1930 because it was greater than the President’s. When asked about it, Ruth responded, “I know, but I had a better year.”
• Supposedly (so, maybe not exactly a fact but..), Ruth once ate 12 hot dogs and drank 8 bottles of soda between games of a doubleheader (source ESPN).
• The Yankees retired Ruth’s number 3 on June 13, 1948.
• When Babe Ruth died in 1948, more than 100,000 people came to Yankee Stadium to pay their respects.

Babe Ruth played with the Boston Red Sox from 1914-1919, New York Yankees from 1920-1934 and Boston Braves in 1935. He is surely one of the most remembered and well-known baseball players in history, if not the most.

Hubble was recently serviced in May of 2009 to install two new instruments and make a few repairs. Since the servicing, Hubble was undergoing testing and calibration. It stayed this way until July 23, 2009 when NASA engineers woke the telescope up to snap a few photos. Hubble captured images of a scar in Jupiter’s appearance. It seems that a small comet or asteroid disintegrated in Jupiter’s atmosphere leaving behind the fairly large black scar. Waking the Hubble Space Telescope up for the photo shoot will add delays to the calibrating and getting the telescope fully operating. NASA scientists find it worth it though as this is only the second time debris colliding with Jupiter has been recorded.

Interesting facts About The Hubble Space Telescope

• Hubble was funded for in the 1970′s but did not launch until April 1990 due to technical delays and the Challenger Disaster.
• Hubble is the only satellite designed to be serviced in space by astronauts.
• The orbit height of Hubble is 347 miles.
• The orbit length of Hubble is 96 to 97 minutes long.
• The orbit velocity is 25,000 ft/s (or 7,500 m/s).
• Hubble Space Telescope is named after Edwin Hubble who help change understandings by demonstrating the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way.
• Hubble originally cost $1.5 billion to build, but costs for maintenance and repairs have already added up to around $10 billion
• Hubble is so accurate that aiming it is like holding a laser on a dime that is 200 miles away.

What has the Hubble Space Telescope discovered?

• Hubble has discovered the rate of expansion of the universe to an accuracy of within 10%.
• Hubble has taken images of galaxies that are billions of light years away.
• Hubble discovered that dark energy is a constant presence in our universe.
• The telescope helped astronomers put an age on the universe of about 13 or 14 billion years old.
• Hubble has taken pictures of large gamma ray explosions.

NASA has a webpage telling you the location including the altitude. You can check it out by clicking here. Very Cool!

• The Summer Solstice occurs on June 20th or June 21st every year. This day marks midsummer and is also the longest day of the year.
• Although the sun is hottest at mid-day, the warmest temperatures occur during mid-afternoon because the Earth continues to retain heat from the sun quicker than it dissipates.
• Wearing light colors will keep you cooler because light colors reflect light while dark colors absorb light.

The following facts are from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics about summer travel:

• 97% of summer trips are to domestic locations with only 3% of trips to international destinations.
• The average summer long-distance trip is 284 miles away one-way.
• 2% of summer trips are by bus, 7% of trips are by plane and 91% are by car.

Facts about the “Year Without a Summer”, 1816:

• In 1816, due to the large volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora, there was a historic decrease in solar activity which resulted in extremely low temperatures during summer months particularly in the United States, Canada, and Northern Europe.
• In July and August, lake and river ice was observed as far south as Pennsylvania.
• Some days could see temperatures in excess of 90F dropping close to freezing within hours.

Boston in early June after a snowstorm

The following is the current list of living WW1 veterans as of July 26, 2009:

Encyclopaedia Britannica puts the total number of personal in WW1 at 65,038,810. The number of deaths during the conflict is listed at 9,750,103. Of the 65 million people who fought in the war, there are only the five veterans listed above left today. For more information, visit this chronicle focusing on the remaining living veterans of World War 1.