Bones of the wrist

Trapezium Trapezoid Capitate Hamate Scaphoid Lunate Triquetral Pisiform

Tall thin colored hangars stretch limp tiny papayas
Tiny transparent colored hammers scoot lazy temporary pianos

Five drafters of the US Declaration of Independence

Franklin Jefferson Livingston Adams Sherman

Known as the "Committee of Five", these men from different states were tasked to draft the Declaration for presentation to the second continental congress. They are also shown in the foreground of "Declaration of Independence", a painting by John Trumbull that was used on the face of the US $2 bill.

floppy jellyfish lick adorable spaceships

Scientific method

Purpose research hypothesis procedure analysis conclusion

Pink robotic hamsters proofread airborne crayons.
Plaid round helicopters engulf arbitrary customers.

OSI model

Application Presentation Session Transport Network Datalink Physical

I love the OSI model. I was an electrical engineer so I only got to learn about it in my random little computer crossover classes but I liked that we had a hierarchy of our own. I also liked that I could take established standards for a physical layer and toss everything above that if I felt like it.

Active potent spiders tickle nifty dreamy pandas
Angelic plush sponges tighten neat delicious potatoes

Human organ systems

skeletal digestive muscular endocrine circulatory nervous reproductive urinary respiratory integumentary

I saw this and thought to myself, "Oh finally, an anatomy topic for the people!" Then I tried to verify that there are indeed 10 organ systems in the human body and got into this whole classification mess because no one can agree on how many systems there are or that these are some kind of "top ten". Some sites I found said there were 9 major systems, some 11, some 13. Oh well. If you like these 10, here's a mnemonic.

Slimy drugged mean esoteric chickens nudge repetitive ugly red inchworms
Scary distasteful magenta external cubes navigate rural unusual radioactive islands

Six models of the Catholic church

Since the mid-1970s, Catholics have been taught that there are different models of understanding the church. Originally five, there are now six models. Each one is important to the church, and should be kept in balance with the others. These were introduced by Cardinal Dulles in his 1974 book, Models of the Church.

Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, Servant, Community of Disciples

Invisible medical staffs hush strange cows? You all know how I feel about religious mnemonics... you should probably just remember the terms! But I love writing about them because it gives me a chance to learn about another religion, these models can certainly be applied to any church or religious organization. I am not Catholic but there's a great deal of wisdom in that faith.

More info...

Symptoms of psychosis

Hallucinations, Delusions, (Disorganized) Speech, (Disorganized) Catatonic Behavior

huge daughters snort chocolates

Cranial nerves

Olfactory
Optic
Oculomotor
Trochlear
Trigeminal
Abducens
Facial
Auditory
Glossopharyngeal
Vagus
Spinal Accessory
Hypoglossal

There's actually a whole page on Wikipedia for this: List of mnemonics for the cranial nerves. The most famous one is Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel A Girl's Very Soft Hands.

But what the heck.

Obese orderly old transparent tall Americans fold abstract gentle vertical swollen hats
Omnipotent organized operational tainted tingly aubergines feel airborne grounded vacant sickly hands

I don't think I can beat the classics at this one.

Baltic states

These countries have access to the Baltic Sea:

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden

Determined educated friendly gifted iguanas lick lonely northern popular ruined sheep.

Or if you're only interested in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania:
Eskimos lack lawnmowers (which is true)

Bookkeeping errors that do not affect a trial balance

Omission
Commission
Principle
Original entry
Reversal
Compensation

These spell out "OCPORC" (which I assume is pronounced oak-pork).

But we also have: Oozing cyan peppers operate repetitive cows

Void where prohibited, exceptions apply, please consult your legal council for more information.

Functions of political parties

In honor of 4/20 day, we'll have a government mnemonic.

Things political parties do
Fundraising
Candidate selection
Campaign
Voter cues
Articulate policies
Policy-making coordination

I didn't make this list, that's why "drive wedge issues into the mainstream so the people can't tell how ineffective government is" didn't make the list. Oh did I say that out loud? Oh well, a mnemonic:

Fantastic costly chains visit abstract places

Seven Grandfather Teachings

The Anishinaabe people, made up of several indigenous tribes in what is now the northwest United States and Canada, teach seven basic principles about how we are to treat others:

Wisdom love respect bravery honesty humility truth

I think applying a mnemonic in our normal random funny way might be a little sacrilege, so why not make the words themselves into a sentence?

Wise loving rhythms birth honest humble truths

Cardinal directions

North East South West

I was taught "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" but I think we found an even better one: "Nutty eskimos smell whales".

Sinners in Dante's Hell

I am not terribly familiar with the writings on Dante, but make sure you're not one of these people:

Panderers Flatterers Simoniacs Astrologers Barterers Hypocrites Thieves Fraudulent Scandal Falsifiers

The mnemonic:
puffy fat squishy amusing bubbles hump tingly flat sad figs
plush frigid squishy active babies hork toxic fat spiney footballs

Grocery list?

People type this in all the time. And I don't mean "things like this", I mean this, exactly:

Milk eggs margarine oranges rhubarb ice cream eggplant sausage

It spells "MEMORIES". What's that about? There's got to be a backstory here. Anyway there's no sense making mnemonics for it, because it is a mnemonic, but I have some anyway. They also spell MEMORIES.

magenta early missed opportunities read invisible eloquent snakes
metallic eastern minuscule oboes rectifying involved eastern symposiums
malevolent educated mad obsessive roommates imply esoteric acrobatic soybeans

By the way "esoteric" was a new word to me, it basically means "understood by an elite inner circle". Like acrobatic soybeans. That last one is a real story.

Endochondral ossification

Endochondral ossification is a process that creates fetal bone tissue in mammals. There are zones, or types, of cartilage that can be seen at a microscopic level during this process:

reserve proliferation hypertrophy calcification ossification

Or:

Radioactive planets hush clean oboes.
Runny patterns hurl cyan oranges.
Righteous pillows hide colossal opportunities.

Better info is at Wikipedia.

Effective Listening Skills

These are commonly discussed components of effective listening & communication skills:

• Mindfulness
  
• Physically receiving messages
  
• Selecting and organizing information
  
• Interpreting communication
  
• Responding
  
• Remembering

Mnemonic: Marked paranoid secretaries improve required reports
Many puny singers ignore remedial rolls

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

gamma x-ray ultra violet visible ultraviolet microwave radio

gentle xenophobic ugly violets vacuum unusual malevolent ravens

Petroleum products

These are some common byproducts are obtained by petroleum distillation but may be used outside the refining industry.

LPG petroleum kerosene diesel fuel lube bitumen

lazy public kites defend foxy lovesick buses

Hierarchy of life

Also referred to as "biological organization". It leads up an interesting idea about how one atom could change an entire ecosystem.

Atom Molecule Cell Tissue Organ Organism Population Community Ecosystem Biosphere

Athletic mad cold troubled oranges open pristine cute eccentric brushes

Meiosis phases

Meiosis is a cell creation process, like Mitosis, except it is used to create cells with only half the chromosomes as the parent scale. It is used to create reproductive cells like sperm and egg. It ensures that the genetic material contained in these cells is insufficient to make a genetic clone of the parent.

The first stage of meiosis has five phases:
leptonema zygonema pachynema diplonema diakinesis

Lacey zucchinis ponder deep doormats

Taxonomic Hierarchy

This is how we name living things. Various disciplines use slightly different systems for ranking species on the hierarchy, for instance there is an "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature" which is different from the "International Code of Botanical Nomenclature", but most codes at least include something along the lines of:

Kingdom phylum class order family genus species

kinky plush chairs obfuscate furry gassy speakers
killer purple clocks open frail gleeful sponges

Boy Scout Law

A boy scout's law is to be:

Trustworthy loyal helpful friendly courteous kind obedient cheerful thrifty brave clean reverent

Twirly loud happy full curly kites obfuscate creative tangential beautiful carpeted robots

Tall lunchboxes hide frosted cyan kings once crazy teachers build colored roads

Trying librarians hear flaming crispy kitties once crimson teacups bring clear results

We gotta think up some more for this, it seems to be an important one!

SI Prefixes

The system prefixes for 10 raised to every 3rd power between 10¹² and 10^-12 are:

Tera giga mega kilo milli micro nano pico

Tiny green mad keys measure mainly necessary people
The gigantic mean kites manipulate militant normal programs

Layers of the Earth's Atmosphere

From the ground up, layers of the Earth's atmosphere are:

Troposphere stratosphere mesosphere thermosphere exosphere

Tiny stars mesmerize twirly eels
Tainted sandwiches move toxic Eskimos

Equal opportunity discrimination basis

US Federal Laws prohibits discriminatory practices on the basis of:

Race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital status

Under Equal Opportunity Employment laws, you should not ask a candidate about these things in a job interview.

red colored runny goldfish navigate amusing depressed microwaves
radioactive clean rural ghosts narrate active deaf mice

Properties of metals

Some, but not all, properties of metals. "Dense" frequently makes the list also.

hard shiny malleable ductile conductors

hollow spiders measure drugged caterpillars
happy sheep mangle dreamy cars
holy sunflowers make dictatorial customers

Criteria used in naming muscles

Location Shape Size Direction (of fibers) Origin Number Action

limp shiny snakes drive orange nervous aardvarks
lazy sugary sheep dive onto nifty apples

Organizing an informative speech

Topical
Chronological
Spatial
Classification
Problem-Solution
Cause-effect

I wonder if these could be applied to stories also.

Anyway: Turbulent colored sweatpants control popular cities.

Introduction

A long while back, I wrote a script on my website to help people remember things... a mnemonic device generator. If you want to use it it's here: spacefem.com/mnemonics.

It got popular, and I got curious about what people were using it for. Everything, it turns out! People are always trying to commit words to memory. Then I decided that since it's all general knowledge anyway (not like I'm stealing anything) I might as well blog about the highlights. So each day I will tell you about something someone wanted to remember. I may not know anything about it, except what the terms have in common... if you want to know more you'll have to do your own research. The mnemonic may not be fabulous... these are computer-generated after all. Very few of them many any sense. But they're a start, and hopefully you'll find these things as fascinating as I have. Let's see how it goes.

I welcome comments, questions, suggestions. If you can think of a better mnemonic, post it. If you can give us more information on the topic, feel free. We're all experts in something.