… Calculator Anniversary, MIT Entrance Exam, the Old Tablecloth Trick, Corporate Slogans, Cost of Living, Loonie Dollars, Dancers, Dawn and MORE.

Calculator Turns 40, Celebrates at Museum
The humble hand-held calculator, first developed by a small team at Texas Instruments, has just turned 40.

Examples of the first two programmable calculators, the TI-58 and TI-59, have been added to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to celebrate the anniversary.

In 1965, personal calculators weighed 55 pounds, had to be plugged into the wall and cost $2,500, according to AXcess News. Eighteen months later, Texas Instruments engineers Jerry Merryman and James Van Tassel filed a patent for the first prototype of the hand-held calculator.

‘Else we’d still be stuck with an abacus.

Think You’re Smarter than a 5th Grader 19th-Century College Freshman?
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Institute Archives & Special Collections (via Boing Boing) offers anyone the ability to take the prestigious school’s 1869-1870 entrance exam.

There are four tests: Geometry, Algebra, Arithmetic and English (suggested for this Yale fella).

Interesting note regarding the answers, from the folks at the MIT institute: “Please note that the questions have been answered by 20th century persons and won’t always match those that might have been given by 19th century applicants (or 21st century applicants).”

News: on Corporate Slogans
The following are the nine “most meaningless corporate slogans,” according to Cracked.com:

9) Hilton: Travel should take you places
8) Holiday Inn: Look again
7) Lockheed Martin: We never forget who we’re working for
6) Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there
5) American Eagle Outfitters: Live your life
4) eBay: Whatever it is…you can get it on eBay
3) H&R Block: You got people
2) Captain Morgan: Drink responsibly – Captain’s orders!
1) Cingular: Now the new AT&T

News: on Cost of Living and Economy
In our recent coverage of CEO pay, we tried to understand the difficulties of being filthy rich:

Those of us who live off of take-out when we’re too tired to actually go to the supermarket ourselves after a long day’s work should keep in mind that it is damn expensive to be rich and extravagantly expensive to be