The term "Muggle" has existed for a while. It used to be this insult.

The term "Muggle" has existed for a while. It used to be this insult.

In the Harry Potter world, a muggle is someone who wasn't born with any magical powers and wasn't born in the magical realm.

J.K. Rowling said she got the term from British slang "mug" which means "an easily fooled person."

An article from 1931 in Time magazine said that prison authorities found "muggle smuggling a perplexing problem."

Back then, muggle was a term for marijuana.

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Today's Daily Brain Teaser (Dec 23, 2013)

Triples



A Triple is a Series with 6 sets, each with 3 numbers apiece. The relationship between the first two numbers is the same throughout all of the sets, and the relationship between the last two numbers is also the same, however, it is different than the first relationship. Try and find the missing numbers:







2 5 10

3 10 20

4 17 34

5 __ __

_ 37 __

_ __ 100





Check Braingle.com for the answer.

Today's Daily Trivia Quiz (Dec 23, 2013)

Friends and Neighbors

Can you name the television shows that made these friends and neighbors famous?



Take the Quiz at Braingle.com

Creativity : Negative Thinking

Negative thinking is usually a bad thing, especially if it occurs in the form of premature judgment of an idea. However, sometimes intentionally thinking negatively can help you find weak points in your solution.



Think about the worst parts of your idea. Try to identify all the defects that you can. Be as critical and superficial as possible and keep a list of all the negative aspects of your idea. Once you are done, go over your list and identify the key defects. See if you can improve them.



This can be especially helpful if you are going to present your idea to a group or person who is going to judge it. If you already know the top few things that are wrong with it, you can have some arguments or alternative solutions prepared in your defense.

Vocabulary : Word of the Day : Obloquy

ob-lo-quy



noun :: Abusively detractive language or utterance.



"He earned a bunch of obloquy by enacting a big tax increase."

Memory : Repeat Their Name

Have you ever been introduced to someone and then forgotten their name a minute later? Here's a little tip to help you remember. When you are introduced, make an effort to repeat their name out loud.



For example:

"It's nice to meet you, Bruce. My name is..." or

"My sister's name is Karin too!"



By just saying their name out loud, you will be reinforcing it in your memory and it will be much more difficult to forget. If you can link it to someone else that you know (like your sister in the above example), you will have one more way to help you remember.

Pandas are a pathetic excuse for an animal. This is why.

Pandas are a pathetic excuse for an animal. This is why.

Giant pandas lack the genes necessary to completely digest bamboo.







It is commonly known that giant pandas maintain a diet of almost strictly bamboo.

However, recent research has revealed that they are not physically capable of fully digesting this plant.







Geneticists have successfully sequenced the Panda's genome and have learned that pandas lack the genes necessary to digest bamboo.

At the genetic level, pandas are actually bears and they are carnivorous, but their actual diet is almost exclusively herbivorous.







One explanation for this is that mutations in the pandas' genes may have caused them to lose the ability to taste meat.

As for why they eat bamboo when they can't digest it?

While their bodies can't completely digest bamboo, scientists theorize that the digestion may be taken care of by microbes in it's digestive tract.







Despite all that, apparently pandas can digest cake better than I can. :(



(source)

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When You Fall in Love You Lose Two Close Friends

When You Fall in Love You Lose Two Close Friends

Researchers at Oxford University conducted a survey asking people to describe their close circle of friends, and compared the difference between people who were in romantic relationships.







On average, when asked to list the members of their core group of friends, people name 5 friends. People in romantic relationships could only name an average of 4 close relationships.

That's an average net loss of 1 person in your friend circle as a result of adding a new person into your life.

Typically this means that you lose 2 friends from your group of 5 and then add your new lover to get to a total of 4.







This core group consists of people that you see at least once a week. You may of course have many more peripheral friends.

Adding a new lover into the mix will force you to budget your time differently, forcing you to lose touch with an average of 2 people in your core group.







Read more about this study here .

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The Titanic will completely disappear in a few years! How much longer does it have?

The Titanic will completely disappear in a few years! How much longer does it have?

The wreck of the Titanic will be nothing more than a rust stain on the bed of the Atlantic within 50 years.

A newly-discovered species of rust-eating bacteria is slowly consuming the 50,000 tons of iron that makes up the sunken liner.

Experts now believe the invasive group of micro-organisms will eventually cause the shipwreck to completely decompose.

The bacteria was identified using DNA technology, and it has been found on clumps of rust known as rusticles, those have covered Titanic's iron hull in the century since it sunk in 1912.

The bacteria - Halomonas titanicae - is said to be fast consuming the rust and the iron. Consequently, scientists believe the wreck will be nothing more than a huge 'rust stain' on the seabed within 50 years.

(Source)

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Giant Squids have nerve cells 39 feet long!

Giant Squids have nerve cells 39 feet long!

The largest biological cell is often cited as the ostrich egg, which is about 6 inches long and weigh about 3 pounds. This is a myth.

There are at least several biological cells larger than an ostrich egg, despite the fact that even many scientists and laypeople believe the ostrich egg is indeed the biggest. The ostrich may actually be the heaviest cell, but this has not yet been tested.

Largeness refers to size, not weight, so the ostrich egg is definitely not the largest. The first type of cell larger than the ostrich egg are nerve cells in especially long animals, such as the Giant Squid, which may have nerve cells as long as 39 feet, about 80 times larger than an ostrich egg.

(Source)

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The KKK was originally formed by Southern Democrats!

The KKK was originally formed by Southern Democrats!

At the time of Ulysses S. Grant's election to the presidency, white supremacists were conducting a reign of terror throughout the South.

In outright defiance of the Republican-led federal government, Southern Democrats formed organizations that violently intimidated blacks and Republicans who tried to win political power.

The Ku Klux Klan was originally founded as a social club for former Confederate soldiers in 1865, the Klan evolved into a terrorist organization.

It would be responsible for thousands of deaths, and would help to weaken the political power of Southern blacks and Republicans.

Across the South, the Klan and other terrorist groups used brutal violence to intimidate Republican voters. It was not until 1882 that the United States Supreme Court declared Ku Klux Klan Act unconstitutional.

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The US only has one black billionaire. Who is it?

The US only has one black billionaire. Who is it?

It seems that not too long ago if you had a million dollars - you were among some of the richest people in the world.

Today, a million dollars doesn't seem like so much money to have lying around. Rich people are all about the billion dollars.

Whether it is intentional or unintentional that there are a select few people on this planet worth more than a billion dollars, the fact remains that billionaires have too much money.

Some billionaires include Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, but there is only one American billionaire who is of Black descent. Who is it?

You may have guessed - it's Oprah. Her networth is around $2.5 BILLION, but makes a modest $75 MILLION salary. Oprah is a former television host, and current CEO of Harpo Productions and of the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Not only is Oprah considered the most influential woman in the world, but in 2013, Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Do you think he was more excited to meet Oprah, than she was to meet the President?

(Source)

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Proof That Every Country Song Was Exactly The Same In 2013

Pickup trucks, dirt roads, girls in tight jeans, and that “good stuff.” Over and over and over and over again.

youtube.com

LINK: 26 Reasons Country Music Was Great In 2013

There was plenty of wonderful country music too!

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A 6 year old girl has a strand of marijuana named after her! Why?

A 6 year old girl has a strand of marijuana named after her! Why?

When she was only 3 months old, Charlotte Figi had her first seizure. Unfortunately, these seizures would continue through her childhood, and they only seemed to get worse and more frequent as time went on.

For her distressing parents and the doctors they asked on numerous occasions, there didn't seem to be a cure. Charlotte was suffering from what is an incredibly rare condition called Dravet Syndrome.

Charlotte's seizures would sometimes last up to two hours, and she was frequently going to the hospital.

Out of options, Charlotte's parents - who initially voted against a bill to allow medical marijuana use in their state, applied for a medical marijuana prescription for their daughter.

A strand of marijuana originally called R4 would later treat Charlotte, causing her seizures to stop almost entirely.

Instead of having multiple seizures per hour, she was only having a handful of them every single month. The marijuana strand that was used to treat Charlotte became known as Charlotte's Web, and is used to treat other patients with Dravet Syndrome

(Source)

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This guy was challenged to a quick draw duel. He won. And got arrested for it.

This guy was challenged to a quick draw duel. He won. And got arrested for it.

Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt were once good friends who played poker together. But according to history reports, the two men had an argument because Hickok fathered an illegitimate child with Tutt's sister.

Eventually, the situation escalated to the point where Hickok refused to play a game of cards if Tutt was involved. The two men would later engage in one of the only recorded quick draw duels in the Wild West.

Wild bill Hickok and Davis Tutt stood across from each other before the first shots of the duel were fired. Tutt motioned for his pistol, and Hickok grabbed his.

The two men fired at almost exactly the same time, except Tutt missed - and Hickok hit Tutt in the ribs. A fatal wound.

Despite the lawless stories of the Wild West, quick draw duels very rarely happened - and when they did, the winner was arrested for manslaughter.

To summarize the legal case, Bill Hickok was acquitted of his charges after a judge ruled that Hickok didn't grab his pistol first, so he was acting in self defence when he fired his gun.

(Source)

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Child's puzzle stool

Ok Let’s see how LJ decides to put these pics up. I know that i loaded them right side up. Anyway this is a puzzle stool that I made for my niece for Christmas this year.

http://lumberjocks.com/assets/pictures/projects/446674-196x130.jpg