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This universe is very weird...so weird, in fact, that we often don\u2019t question its weirdness even though it\u2019s right in front of us...we\u2019re completely caught up in it...\nFor example, when someone takes a group picture, there\u2019s always that person that demands that everyone \u201csay cheese\u201d....that\u2019s a way to get everyone to smile...you can\u2019t help but smile when you say \u201ccheese\u201d.\xa0\nNo one is really sure who was first to employ the \u201ccheese\u201d trick for photography... In the early days of the camera, it was considered undignified to be captured with any kind of grin...the command from the photographer used to be \u201csay prunes\u201d...that\u2019s why so many old photos have people doing duck lips...\nThe earliest reference to \u201csay cheese\u201d comes from a Texas newspaper report in October 1943...Joseph E. Davies, a former ambassador to Moscow, was interviewed gave away his secret to look pleasant no matter what the circumstances... \u201cjust say \u2018cheese\u2019\u201d, he advised...Davies wasn\u2019t the inventor of the phrase, though...he says he learned it from some politician...\nLet\u2019s try something more current...when we enter the full address of a website in a browser, we go\xa0http://www. Whatever\u201d...that\u2019s a bit unwieldy...the story of the URL is very complicated, but it breaks down like this...\nThe \u201chttp\u201d stands for \u201chypertext transfer protocol,\u201d the set of rules that govern transferring files over the internet...the \u201cwww\u201d is \u201cworld wide web,\u201d which is where the url lives...but what\u2019s with \u201c//\u201d?...that\u2019s a holdover from the computer code that was written for the Apollo missions to the moon...\nAnd by the way, the guy who first put all this together is Tim Berners-Lee back 1992...he\u2019s really, really sorry for all the confusion and if he had it his way, he\u2019d go back and come up with something better...\nSince we\u2019re on the topic of rockets, why is there a countdown to launch?...seems obvious, right?...tick down the seconds until the engines fire...but get this: nasa took this idea from a 1929 silent film called \u201cfrau im mond\u201d\u2014which translates as \u201cwomen in the moon\u201d...it\u2019s considered to be one of the first serious sci-fi films...for its rocket launches, it features a countdown from \u201csix\u201d...6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, now!\u201d\nAgain, this is stuff right in front of our faces that we\u2019ve just accepted as part of life without ever really questioning what\u2019s going on...now let\u2019s extend this to the world of music...there are many strange things that we just accept as fact and protocol...but why?...let\u2019s find out...\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices