Business & Money

Pre-electricity theatre spotlights produced light by directing a flame at calcium oxide (quicklime). These kinds of lights were called limelights and this is the origin of the phrase "in the limelight" to mean "at the centre of attention". May 9, 2019

Pencils are yellow because in the 19th century, the best graphite came from China. Because yellow was a royal colour in China, pencil companies began to colour their pencils yellow to show both high quality and an association with China. April 29, 2019

Check out Dmitry Argarkov who scanned a credit card agreement, edited it, and returned it with a 0% interest rate and no limit in the new terms. The bank signed and approved without reading and a judge held them to it. April 12, 2019

A UK man found a way to earn money off telemarketers who were constantly calling him. In 2011 he set up his own personal 0871 line - so to call him now costs money to the caller. Every time a bank, gas or electricity supplier asked him for his details, he submits it as his contact number. March 30, 2019

Warren Buffett plans on giving only a small fraction of his weath to his children when he dies, stating "you should leave your children enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing." He instead will donate nearly all of his wealth to charitable foundations. March 18, 2019

The Japanese bullet train system is equipped with a network of sensitive seismometers. On March 11, 2011, one of the seismometers detected an 8.9 magnitude earthquake 12 seconds before it hit and sent a stop signal to 33 trains. As a result, only one bullet train derailed that day. March 11, 2019