Interesting Things with JC #501: "Candy Canes" - The candy cane was created in the 17th century in Germany and popularized in the early 1900s with added red stripes.

Interesting Things with JC #477: "Zurich and the Museum of Nothing" - The No Show Museum in Zurich features galleries filled with empty picture frames and white rooms.

Please visit noshowmuseum.com for more information.

Interesting Things with JC #275: "The First Colour Photograph” - On May 17th 1861 Scottish physicist James Maxwell revealed the first colour photograph at King's College in London. The photo is actually a composite of three black and white pictures, each taken through a red, green and blue filter. The images were overlayed through projection of three similarly filtered lenses, which resulted in display of a colour photograph.

Interesting Things with JC #268: "Neuschwanstein Castle” - Schloss Neuschwanstein means "New Swan Castle", it's a long standing wonder and landmark on a rugged hill, rising majestically above the village of Hohenschwangau in the Southwest Bavaria of Germany. Neuschwanstein Castle was built in the 19th century by the desires of Ludwig II of Bavaria. The Castle is tremendous, at approximately 6,039square meters / 65,000 square feet, and is said to have inspired Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland!

Interesting Things with JC #222: "The Château Laurier" is said to be haunted by the ghost of Charles Melville Hays, the president of the company that built the hotel. Hays died on the Titanic, 12 days before the hotel's opening. The Châteauesque rooflines of several federal government buildings in Ottawa, Canada were inspired by the commanding presence of this hotel.

The four leaf clover is one of the most common good luck symbols of the Western world. An independent study carried out by Swiss researchers looked at 5.7 million clovers and found that the likelihood of finding one four-leaf clover was one in 5,076.

It's the surface of an object that reflects some colors and absorbs all the others. We perceive only the reflected colors. Perceived color depends on how an object absorbs and reflects wavelengths. Human beings can only see a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, from about 400 nm to 700 nm, but it’s enough to allow us to see millions of colors!