Interesting Facts – Amazing Facts, Random Facts and Funny Facts

What are the Emmy Awards?

The Emmy Awards is a ceremony held in America in recognition of various sections of television and broadband programmes, which include the Television Academy and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, programmes like daytime, sports, news and documentary pieces.

The founder of the Emmy awards was Syd Cassyd in 1948.

Although the Emmy name derived from a suggestion by Harry Lubcke, a former television engineer and third academy president who wanted to use the name Immy, as this was a term used for the image orthicon tube used in early cameras.

However, it was changed to the more feminine name Emmy as this related to the female statuette, which was the design of a television engineer named Louis McManus, it showed a winged woman holding an atom. This was to symbolise the status of the uplifting form of art and science in television.

It now costs around $400 to make an Emmy statuette and takes five-and-a-half hours of labour to create. They are made at R.S. Owens of Chicago. After the employees have molded the statuette they then carefully hand paint each figure in copper, nickel, silver, and gold.

2018 is the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, and the annual event normally take place during September.

The first ever Emmy Award ceremony was held on 25th January 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club in Los Angeles, California and was hosted by Walter O’Keefe.

The first Emmy to be awarded went to Shirley Dinsdale and her puppet Judy Splinters for the Most Outstanding Television Personality.

There are many different categories within the Academy Awards ceremony, which include the Prime time Emmy Awards, the Creative Arts and the Engineering Emmy Awards.

Lorne Michaels has been nominated for the most individual Emmy Awards of all time for his creation of Saturday Night Live, a total of 78 nominations so far and was nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for SNL in 2017.

Since it was broadcast 42 year ago, Saturday Night Live has been nominated 231 nominations and has come away with 52 awards. This makes the show the most nominated one in Emmy history.

However, the person who has collected the most Emmy Awards to date is HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins. She has a total of 30 Emmy Awards, compared to Lorne Michaels’s 14 awards.

If an Emmy winner wants to take their award statuette home they have to pay the $400 to do so.

What is the meaning of Ikigai?

Ikigai is a Japanese word which translates into meaning “a reason to live” or a “reason to get up in the morning”.

There is an island on Japan’s southernmost region called Okinawa, and here some of the longest living Japanese people live. The people on this island believe that if you keep yourself busy doing the things you love and asking questions of yourself, giving you a sense of purpose, it will lead to a more full filled and purposeful life.

Ikigai is broken down into four questions or areas of your life that you should ask yourself.

Firstly, what do you love? That is if you didn’t have to work and make money, which path would your heart follow?

Secondly, what are you good at? This for many is an easier question to answer as it is a practical question with less emotion attached. You may have a passion to create something or do a certain job which you believe you will be great at, but you may be better at organising or managing people to do the things you are passionate about and this would become your vocation.

Thirdly and this is where the question becomes more difficult is, what does the world need from you? How do you think you can contribute to the world and make it matter. Also, aking questions of yourself like why are you here on earth? can you achieve something that will help others and make you socially important, and help make the world a better place?

Sometimes others will see things in you and value them when you don’t see them yourself, so reflect on how others perceive you and how that may help your society.

Finally, the fourth question is probably the easiest to answer, what can you get paid for? What occupation have you got? What value do you bring to your job that helps and assists your company in working well.

These questions are set as a way of getting your “Ikigai”, which is an equal balance in your life, pursuing your passion, enjoying your life with the least stress and anxiety possible. If you find the right combination of doing what you love, being paid for it and helping other as well as yourself reaching where you want to be, it may enhance your life and your health for longer.

If you would like to learn more about the subject, then the excellent ‘Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life‘ book is a great place to start.

What is Kefir?

Kefir is a fermented milk food, derived from cow, goat or sheep’s milk and is thought to have originated in the Caucasus Mountains in West Asia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

It is made from gelatinous white particles called “grains”. Kefir is unique, as no other milk culture form grains.

Within these grains are a bacteria/yeast mixture which when they clump together with casein (milk proteins) and complex sugars form the Kefir grains.

It has high levels of vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium, vitamin K2, biotin, folate, enzymes and probiotics and tasted a bit like yoghurt.

Fermented foods are great for boosting the immune system, the gut which then improves digestion and helps build up bone density.

Little wonder then that Kefir is now considered as a trendy health drink in the UK, with brands such as Nourish Kefir and Bio-tiful Kefir proving extremely popular in supermarkets.

Top Baby Names for 2016 and 1017

It should be one of the easiest things for you to decide – your baby’s name!

But it is a minefield, especially as these days, so many names seem to be “made up” of either your favourite food, place name or just something so random, often silly enough to leave you flabbergasted and asking yourself WHY a parent would do that to their newborn.

However, this is a list of the most popular and traditional names given to children in England and Wales over the past 12-18 months according to the ONS – Office for National Statistics.

For girls the names in order of popularity are – Olivia, Amelia, Ella, Ava, Isla, Emily, Evie, Mia, Lily and Isabelle.

For the boys names are – Oliver, Jacob, Noah, Jack, Oscar, Harry, Charlie, Alfie, George and William.

It’s funny that the most popular girls and boys name, Olivia and Oliver (the male version of Olivia) derive from the same meaning, which is Elf Army.

In fact, the names Olivia and Oliver are also very popular names for twins.

Random facts about inventions

Here are some random facts about various science related inventions used in the world today.

When was the first attempt to propel a ship by water-jet propulsion?
It was in 1782, on the Potomac River in the United States. This followed a suggestion of Benjamin Franklin’s that a ship with a pump mounted at the bows could suck in water and expel it via a tube at the stern, thus propelling it forwards.

Who invented the pneumatic tyre?
In 1845, Robert Thomson, a London engineer invented the rubber tyre which was filled with air, but the first successful pneumatic tyre was devised by John Dunlop, a Scottish veterinary surgeon working in Ireland in 1888.

Who first produced a striking match?
It was probably the Hon. Robert Boyle, called the father of modern chemistry. With his assistant Godfrey Haukewitz, they carried out some experiments with phosphorus and sulphur, and this was the start of the idea of a striking match.

Who first devised the universal joint?
Robert Hooke, a well-known English physicist (1635-1703) invented the helioscope, which is an instrument used for examining the sun through a system of reflecting glasses, making it safe to look at it and he suggested that this should be operated by a means of ‘universal joint’. This was a metal joint that made it possible to communicate motion in all directions.

When was the first lawn mower invented?
The first to be patented was by Edwin Budding, a Gloucestershire gardener in 1830. His 51cm (20 inch) roller mower looked a lot like today’s push grass cutter.

When was the first telegraph operated by electrical current set up?
W.F.Cooke an amateur engineer and Charles (later Sir Charles) Wheatstone, a professor of experimental philosophy at King’s College in London, worked together and in 1837 the first electrical telegraph was set up.

Who invented the seed drill?
Around the 1700’s a retired lawyer named Jethro Tull from Berkshire near London, invented the first draft of the seed drill. These were changed throughout his generation but it was thought to revolutionise farming.

Who designed the first practical artificial limbs?
Around 1517-1590 a French surgeon and physician named Ambrose Paré, devised a number of well-made and practical artificial limbs for injured soldiers.

Who invented the knitting machine?
An English cleric named Reverend William Lee, invented a knitting frame during the reign of Elizabeth I. Unfortunately Lee had difficulty in getting anyone interested in making his knitting machine but after his death in 1610, his brother managed to persuade a merchant to back the idea.

Have you got any random facts that you would like to share with us for publication on the Interesting Facts website? If you have then get in touch with us with your interesting fact.