The History Channel had a really cool program on last night called, Dead Men’s Secrets
Operation Bodyguard: D-Day Deception. This is the description of the program from the History Channel: “Operation Overlord, the 1944 Allied invasion of Western Europe, culminated from five years of armed struggle against the Axis juggernaut. But the odds seemed stacked against a successful storming of Hitler’s awesome beach defenses. To insure victory, the Allies convinced Hitler that the invasion would take place at Pas de Calais. We examine the elaborate system of hoax and deception devised by the Allies to trick the Nazis–including fake armies, dummy landing craft, and false intelligence.” Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

From another site, another quote: “The unmitigated success of the Allies’ “Operation Overlord”–the Normandy Invasion that cracked the Nazis’ Atlantic defense–depended on an elaborate plan to fool the Germans as to when and where the assault would hit. We’ll investigate deception plan “Bodyguard” which included a million-man army of inflatable men and equipment!”

Here’s some cool things that I remember from watching for a little bit: British intelligence planted an already dead British agent with fake classified material about an Allied invasion into Norway. The Nazi believed this hook, line, and sinker. To keep the Nazis thinking that an invasion of Norway was in the progress, a real army division was made to take station near where the fabled attack on German forces in Norway would take place. The true purpose of this army was so highly classified that even the people in that army division had no idea that they were just a diversion. Furthermore, the general of the U.S. Army, George S. Patton was put in charge of this fake army. Patton didn’t appreciate this position too much, but knew of the true purpose of his army and realized that the Nazis knew that he would be a logical candidate for the commander of the entire Allied forces, so the illusion of the fake assault into Norway held. Also, all the Nazi spies in Britain had either defected to the British (due to resentment against Nazi principles) and became a double agent or were forced into becoming one. So, besides the obvious movement of the fake army into attacking position, double agents sent Hitler information supporting the troop movements. Ski bindings (for the Norwegian winter) were also ordered, reinforcing the illusion. And, probably the most incredibly, Scotland’s stock market was rigged to have stocks dealing in “securities” rise in anticipation of Norway being freed. Hitler and his generals fell for this illusion and split their huge army to cover the anticipated attack into Norway. This allowed for the men that stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day to accomplish their mission. This elaborate hoax changed the course of the war.

The 5 Second Rule? Fact or Fiction? (I hope that’s not copyrighted from Ripley’s).

Jillian Clarke, a senior at Chicago H.S. for Agricultural Science says “The 5 Second rule can be applied.” She tested the rule for a summer internship. Food was dropped onto floors, 5 seconds was elapsed, and the amount of microorganisms on the floor and food was determined. The floors tested were at the University of Illinois near vending machines, in the library, computer lab, and cafeteria. So, the moral of the story, if you are ever at the UI, don’t worry about dropping any food. “But, if there is known E. coli or something on the floor, use common sense and don’t eat any food dropped there,” reminds Miss Clarke.

Where did rule start?

Origin is difficult to pinpoint, but a similar reference dates back to Genghis Kang, the creator of the Mongol Empire. He didn’t believe in wasting food, so he had a 20 hour rule (MSNBC commentary: “Shows how fast paced our society has gotten, 20 hours down to 5 seconds.”

While the common phrase is “You’re comparing apples and oranges!,” it turns out that apples and oranges are more similar than the rather common analogy would dictate. See below for the infrared spectra of a Granny Smith apple and a Sunkist Navel orange.

Originally published in Annals of Improbable Research by Scott A. Sandford of the NASA Research Center at Moffett Field in California. Reprinted in the Washington Post.