The pontiff has 18 scheduled stops in three states over six days. While in our country, he will meet with the president, address Congress, speak at the United Nations in New York and take part in a Vatican-sponsored conference on the family in Philadelphia.

He is the fourth pope ever to visit the United States.

That last sentence got me wondering…How many popes have there been? Let’s find out (in what could be the shortest answer to a Wonder Why Wednesday question ever)…

How Many Popes Have There Been In The History Of The Catholic Church?

266.

Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, is the 266th pope in the history of the Catholic Church. The first pope was St. Peter, the apostle. Since St. Peter, there has been a continuous line line of apostolic succession spanning almost 2000 years.

Here are some fun pope facts:

– The youngest pope ever was either Pope Benedict IX, who was elected pope somewhere between age 11 and 20, or Pope John XII, who was 18.

– The oldest pope ever at the time of his election was Clement X, who was 79 years, 290 days young when he became pope in 1670.

– Benedict IX was the only pope to serve more than one term as pope, having served 3.

– In 236 A.D., a man named Fabian, who was not even a candidate at the time, was selected as pope after a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, landed on his shoulder.

– The longest deliberation on choosing a pope lasted two years and nine months, between 1268 and 1271. During that time, the cardinals meeting in Viterbo, a town outside Rome, could not agree on who to choose. Eventually they were forced to do so by the king of France and other rulers.

– The first pope to change his name was a man named Mercury. He was elected in 533 and didn’t think it was a good idea to be named after a Roman god so he changed his name to John II.

– The shortest term as pope goes to Urban VII, who died after just 12 days in office, in 1590.

– If you become pope, you have a 1-in-3 chance of becoming a saint. Out of the 265 former popes, 81 are saints.

Click here for a list of all the popes.

Sources: Fallible Blogma, Wikipedia, Huffington Post, Yahoo!

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The post How Many Popes Have There Been? appeared first on Attention Land.

Who better to provide those words than Kid President…

Photo credit: Wikipedia

The post A Message To Graduates appeared first on Attention Land.

You are caught in that foggy stage of life between childhood and adulthood. You probably could use a little help. Luckily for you, there are a lot of people who want to help. And I mean A LOT.

Recently I’ve read a number of lists directed at people 20-29 years old. Lists of lessons to learn, tips to try and details that will help define you.

I’ve compiled a list of all these list in what I am calling 20 links for people in their 20’s.

The point of this post isn’t to go through all of these links in one sitting. That would be exhausting and would take forever. The point is that there are many things to learn in your 20’s and thankfully, there are a lot of people out there who have provided tips to help you learn those things.

(If you are not in your 20’s, this post can still be for you. You remember your roaring 20’s. The good times and the bad. The amazing adventures and the terrifying trials. Hopefully this list will bring back some memories, and who knows, you might be able to learn a thing or two.)

1. What I Wish I Knew In My 20’s – By Jenna Lucado Bishop

2. 20 Hard Lessons Everyone Should Learn In Their 20’s – By Richard Feloni, Business Insider

3. The 10 Most Important Lessons For 20-Something Workers – By Meg Jay, Forbes

4. 20 Tips To Make The Most of Your 20’s – By Ashley Crouch, Huffington Post

5. 20 Lessons To Learn In Your 20’s (And Remember Forever) – By Shivani Kothari, Thought Catalog

6. 21 Secrets For Your 20’s – By Paul Angone, All Groan Up

7. 10 Smart Things You Should Do In Your 20’s – By Jessica Stillman, Inc

8. 20 Life Lessons From My 20’s – The Skool Of Life

9. What I Wish I Knew About Creativity When I Was 20 – By Kevan Lee, Fast Company

10. 11 Ways To Set Yourself Up For Success In Your Early 20’s – By Richard Feloni, Business Insider

11. 10 Of The Most Important Life Lessons I Learned From My 20’s – By Mark Manson, Life Hacker

12. 20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get – By Jason Nazar, Forbes

13. What 21 Extremely Successful People Were Doing At Age 25 – By Vivian Giang, Business Insider

14. 20 Life Changing Pieces Of Advice For People In Their 20’s – By Ariel White, Playbuzz

15. 29 Life Lessons I Learned In My 20’s – By Caroline Casper, Mind Body Green

16. Sage Advice To People In Their 20’s From People In Their 30’s – By William Goodman, Huffington Post

17. 15 Things Every Man Should Know By The Age Of 30 – By Patrick Smith, The Telegraph

18. 6 Things To Do In Your 20’s To Make Your 30’s Good – By Penelope Trunk

19. 30 Things You Should Learn Before You’re 30 – By Rohin, Medium

20. 30 Things You Should Learn By The Time You Turn 30 – By Kelly Blinson, Thought Catalog

The post 20 Links For People In Their 20’s appeared first on Attention Land.

I’m also fascinated by them. I know they were worn by professional basketball players in the 1970s. They are now considered antiquated for the game of basketball. There are too many specialized shoes from too many shoe companies for Chuck Taylors to ever be used to play professionally. Plus, they would be uncomfortable has hell to run up and down a basketball court in.

I do find it quirky that these shoes have made the transformation from basketball shoe into fashionable shoe. The adoption rate of Chuck Taylors in every day fashion is sky high. Don’t believe me? Spend a whole day looking at people’s shoes. You will see multiple pairs. For an added bonus, walk into any creative or tech agency and try to find someone who isn’t wearing them.

Yup, Chuck Taylors are so popular that a pair is sold every 43 seconds. Two have probably been sold in the time you’ve been reading this.

I came across this stat on Complex.com, in the article “50 Things You Didn’t Know about Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars.”

This show has a pretty complex history. A few of my favorite antidotes from the story:

• The shoe was first introduced in 1917 and its basic design hasn’t changed since 1949.
• The shoe was worn by the first USA Men’s Basketball team, by both teams in the first-ever NCAA Championship game and by the first ever professional basketball team.
• By 1960, the shoe was worn by 90% of college and professional basketball players.
• Converse had 80% of the shoe market in the late 1960s.
• U.S. soldiers trained in Chuck Taylors during WWII.

These are only a few of the interesting facts curated by Complex, go check out the rest of them if you have time.

The rich history of the Chuck Taylor All Stars got me thinking, how many other fashions have maintained its popularity for fifty years? Jeans, baseball caps, the suit and tie? I can’t think of too many. I think it is kind of cool that I can look down at my Chuck Taylors and think “someone like me probably wore this same shoe in the 1950s.”

When we wear Chuck Taylors, we are connected to past generations through a fashion trend that may never die.

Why do these shoes have such staying power? Probably because of their simple, clean design. The noisier something is, the less likely it is to make it out of the era it was created in. Think of the Boston Celtics jersey as compared to the 1990s Toronto Raptors jerseys.

I hope in the future, when our technology has become so advanced, when our world looks so different, when our minds have become so evolved, that we are still wearing beat up pairs of Chucks that connect us to a past we should never forget.

The post Why Chucks are Timeless appeared first on Attention Land.