RANDOM FACT #11 - THERE'S A TREE THAT GROWS 40 KINDS OF FRUITS

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Artist rendition

Sam Van Aken, an artist and professor at Syracuse University, uses "chip grafting" to create trees that each bear 40 different varieties of stone fruits, or fruits with pits. The grafting process involves slicing a bit of a branch with a bud from a tree of one of the varieties and inserting it into a slit in a branch on the "working tree," then wrapping the wound with tape until it heals and the bud starts to grow into a new branch. Over several years he adds slices of branches from other varieties to the working tree. In the spring the "Tree of 40 Fruit" has blossoms in many hues of pink and purple, and in the summer it begins to bear the fruits in sequence—Van Aken says it's both a work of art and a time line of the varieties' blossoming and fruiting. He's created more than a dozen of the trees that have been planted at sites such as museums around the U.S., which he sees as a way to spread diversity on a small scale.

Primarily composed of native and antique varieties the Tree of 40 Fruit preserves heirloom stone fruit varieties that are not commercially produced or available.

Source(s): youtube | treeof40fruit

RANDOM FACT #9 - THERE'S A PENCIL YOU CAN GROW - AFTER YOU'RE DONE WITH IT

RANDOM FACT #5 - DURING WORLD WAR II, THE BOARD GAME MONOPOLY WAS DISTRIBUTED TO PRISONERS OF WAR CONTAINING SECRET ITEMS TO HELP THEM ESCAPE.

RANDOM FACT #2 - BASKETBALL IS THE ONLY MAJOR SPORT THAT'S COMPLETELY AMERICAN IN ORIGIN

In early December 1891, Canadian Dr. James Naismith, a physical education professor and instructor at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (YMCA) (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters.
After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom, and balls had to be retrieved manually after each "basket" or point scored; this proved inefficient, however, so the bottom of the basket was removed, allowing the balls to be poked out with a long dowel each time.


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Photo 1-"First basketball court": Source

RANDOM FACT #1 - WRIGLEY'S CHEWING GUM WAS THE FIRST COMMERCIAL USE OF A BAR CODE...

The shopper was Clyde Dawson and cashier Sharon Buchanan who made the first UPC scan. The entire shopping cart also had barcoded items in it, but the gum was merely the first one picked up. This item went on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Source | Source