Who was Michael Jackson?



Michael Jackson is famous for becoming the “King of Pop” in 1958 to 2009 in United States. Like the “King of Rock” Elvis Presley before him, Michael Jackson dominated his own genre of music – pop music – and spread its influence and popularity around the globe. He was the artist behind the best-selling album of all time (1982’s Thriller). He popularized the “moonwalk” and “robot” dance moves. He helped turn music videos into a new kind of mainstream entertainment. Michael Jackson was a pop phenomenon for most of his life, going back to his childhood with his siblings in the Jackson 5. He passed away in 2009, but the King of Pop’s legacy still reigns.



 



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Why does time fly when you’re having fun?



For the same reason car trips and lame chores seem to take forever. Studies show that your brain perceives the passage of time at different speeds depending on whether you’re bored or busy. When you’re taking a timed test or focused on accomplishing a complex goal, the minutes seems to race by. Likewise, time flies when you’re playing a fun game, watching an exciting movie, or engrossed in a good book.



On vacation, you made lots of memories and there are many events to recover and remember. These many events make your vacation seem longer in memory than it felt as it was occurring. Conversely, when you look back over a typical week with few specific memories, those few memories make that time seem like it passed much more quickly than it did when those days seemed to inch by as you experienced them.



 



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Why is Peter Pan usually portrayed by a female on stage?



The Harry Potter of his day, Peter Pan – aka “the boy who wouldn’t grow up” – was introduced to the world by Scottish author and playwright J.M. Barrie in 1904. The Broadway producer who funded the play thought that a male actor didn’t fit the part of an eternal boy, so he suggested that Peter Pan should be play thought that that a male actor didn’t fit the part of an eternal boy, so he suggested that peter Pan should be played by a woman. An actress was chosen for the role in both the American and English versions, and the tradition of casting a woman to play Peter ha continued almost ever since (although Peter has been played by a man in nearly every movie version of the tale).



 



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Why were female roles played by men in classical theater?



If you saw a performance of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in the 1500s, you might wonder why the production wasn’t called Romeo and Romeo. Women weren’t allowed on stage during the period known as the English Renaissance (or in ancient Greece or during many other periods in history). The reasons were often rooted in religion (England at the time was under the influence of a devout group known as the Puritans) or a strange sense of propriety. It was thought that women on stage demeaned themselves or somehow tempted the male members of the audience. The result: Female roles went to men or boys who pretended to be women. Women didn’t first take the stage until the end of the Renaissance, in the late 1600s.



 



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Do animals have a sense of rhythm, too?



Anyone who’s stumbled across a video online of snowball the dancing cockatoo knows the answer to this question. Parrots and sea lions have demonstrated the ability to bob their heads to a beat (Snowball likes to boogie to “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys). Our close primate relatives chimps and bonobos also seem to have a simple sense of rhythm. Scientists are still trying to figure out why these and possibly other animals know how to boogie, but in the meantime we can all enjoy the silly videos online.



 



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Why does music make me move?



We tap our toes. We sway in our seats. We shimmy across the dance floor. Grooving to the beat engages the parts of our brains that process speech and movement, which leads some scientists to believe our sense of rhythm is simply a fringe benefit of having communication skills. Other researchers believe humans developed the ability to boogie to strengthen our social bonds, which helped us work together and flourish as a species. After all, every culture in history has developed some sort of music. But whether you think you can dance or not, we all have rhythm. One study suggests we’re born with it.



 



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Why do figure skaters spin faster when they pull in their arms and legs?



It’s a simple but crowd-pleasing trick from Figure Skating 101. Skaters pull into a spin, cross their free leg over their other knee, then tuck in their arms. The tighter the tuck, the faster the spin, until the skater looks like a tornado on ice. But while the “scratch spin” – aka the “blur spin” – is relatively easy to pull off, the physics behind it goes by the complicated name of the “conservation of angular momentum.” We’ll keep it simple: Because of a force known as inertia, wider objects require more energy to spin than narrower ones. Apply the same amount of spin force to two objects – a wide one and a narrow one – and the narrow one will spin much more rapidly. So when figure skaters perform scratch spins, their goal is to start wide – with arms and leg outstretched – and end narrow. As they pull in their arms and free leg, they gradually require less energy to spin, which increases the speed of their rotations until they’re a blur of sequined tights and pearly whites.



 



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Why do baseball and American football players smear black stuff under their eyes?



Before the game, players apply a stripe of “eye black” grease under each eye to reduce glare from the sun and stadium lights. This makes it easier to track the ball in midair.



Eye black is also common in baseball and lacrosse. In fact, one of the first people to wear it was Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth began the trend back in the '30s but the first scientific analysis didn't turn up until 2003. Since then, a few small studies have tackled the topic.



The MythBusters even did their own test. While eye black does not appear to reduce glare, it does improve the ability to differentiate between light and dark.



The dark fur around the eyes of a meerkat, a sort of African mongoose, works just like a football player’s eye black: reducing glare as it scans the skies for threats. 



 



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Why do racehorses need jockeys?



The diminutive athletes who ride thoroughbreds at the Kentucky Derby and other horse races admit that they play just a small role in each event. But while horses in other parts of the world have been trained to race without riders (and robots have replaced jockeys in camel races), racing experts claims thoroughbreds are so fast (up to 35 mph/56 kph) that they require some human guidance to get around the turns. Indeed, horses that buck their riders at the start of a race will usually stop once they reach the first turn. Jockeys also develop deep relationships with their horses, keeping them calm during the hectic events of race day.



 



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Why do basketball hoops have nets?



To make every shot count. Basketball nets have a slight funnel shape so that they flutter when the ball passes through them. The fluttering lets players, fans, and referees know when the ball actually went into the basket.



The purpose of the net is to simply make it easier for players, officials and fans to tell when the ball has passed through the rim. If a ball sails through a net-less rim it might look like an "air ball" or missed shot. The NBA and NCAA rules both state that the net "shall be constructed to check the ball momentarily as it passes through the basket." This means that the net must be tight enough that the ball pushes its way through, giving a clear visual indicator that a basket has been scored.



 



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Why do surfers wax the tops of their boards and snowboarders wax the bottoms?



For two very different reasons: stickiness versus speed. Surfboards are (usually) made of fiberglass, which gets slippery when wet. A layer of sticky wax – often mixed with a little sand – creates some traction on top of the board, making it easier for surfers to paddle, pop up, and scoot around without slipping overboard. Snowboarders (and skiers), on the other hand, apply wax to the bottoms of their boards to create a waterproof barrier. This barrier reduces friction between the board and the snow, boosting speed and improving control for sick tricks in the terrain park.



 



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Why does the Zamboni machine take to the ice during Hockey games?



You think hockey players take a beating during a typical game? Take a look at the ice after the first period! The skate blades carve chasms into the ice as the players race around the rink, body checking each other and performing zigzagging fake-outs known as dekes. Repairing the mini-crevasses would take more than an hour by hand, so in the 1940s inventor Frank Zamboni developed a machine that smoothed the ice in minutes.



The Zamboni is a mechanical ice resurfacer. It works by scraping the ice surface and collecting the snow (which is later discarded). Next, it "cleans" the ice, by putting down water which flushes the grooves deep in the ice, loosening any dirt or debris. The excess water and dirt is then collected. Finally, the Zamboni puts down a thin layer of heated water--which freezes and creates a smooth surface. 



 



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Why is the sport of football called “soccer” in the United States and Canada?



The name “soccer” isn’t an American invention. It originated in England, where in 1863 the Football Association formed to promote and standardize the game we play with our feet today. That form of the sport became known as “association football or “soccer” as recently as 40 years ago.



Now British school boys of the day liked to nickname everything, which is still somewhat common. They also liked to add the ending “er” to these nicknames. Thus Rugby was, at that time, popularly called “Rugger”. Association football was then much better known as “Assoccer”, which quickly just became “Soccer” and sometimes “Soccer Football”.



The inventor of the nickname is said to be Charles Wredford Brown, who was an Oxford student around the time of Association Football’s inception. Legend has it, in 1863 shortly after the creation of Association Football, Wredford-Brown had some friends who asked him if he’d come play a game of “Rugger”, to which he replied he preferred “Soccer”. The name caught on from there.



 



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Why do baseball players tap their shoes with the bat before hitting?



Like most athletes who compete in outdoor sports, baseball players wear shoes bristling with cleats (or spikes) to give them traction on the soft ground. Before they step up to home plate, batters usually trek through the soft dirt surrounding the on-deck circle (where they warm up). By knocking each shoe with the bat at home place, players shake the soil off their cleats, improving their traction for the mad dash around the diamond.



 



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Why is baseball called “America’s pastime”?



Good question, considering that the slow-paced sport has been surpassed in popularity by American football (according to fan polls and ratings for televised games, anyway). Yet professional baseball has been mixed up with American culture – and history – longer than any other sport. Soldiers played it to pass the time during the American Civil War. American football, basketball, and soccer might deliver faster action and greater spectacle, but baseball leagues have more team rivalries, a greater wealth of stats for true fans to memorize, and a richer roaster of heroes (such as Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play Major League Baseball). Teams play just about every day during baseball season, making the game more accessible to fans who want to spend the afternoon at the ballpark – a classic American setting.



 



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