Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY

Did you know... that Laverne & Shirley (originally Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney) is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley followed the lives of Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams), two friends and roommates who work as bottle-cappers in the fictitious Shotz Brewery in late 1950s Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From the sixth season onwards, the series' setting changed to mid-1960s Burbank, California. Michael McKean and David Lander co-starred as their friends and neighbors Lenny Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman, respectively; along with Eddie Mekka as Carmine Ragusa, Phil Foster as Laverne's father Frank DeFazio, and Betty Garrett as the girls' landlady Edna Babish. (Wikipedia)

 

things you might not know about 'Laverne & Shirley'
Get ready to incorporate some Hasenpfeffer.
By MeTV Staff  |  June 3, 2020

 

"Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!" So sang Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney as they skipped along a Milwaukee sidewalk together. Where did that silly chant come from, you ask? We'll get to that. In 1976, Laverne & Shirley debuted in the top slot of the Nielsen ratings, pulling in some of the biggest numbers television had seen in a decade. The Happy Days spin-off was an immediate smash, spawning merchandise, cartoons and music albums. For eight seasons, the roommates and Shotz Brewery coworkers got into uproarious, I Love Lucy–like high jinks in Wisconsin (and, eventually, in California). Much of the show's success was due to Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, who brought personal touches to their title characters. As zany as the show could get, these felt like real people. They were believable.

 

1. Marshall and Williams first worked together as writers for Francis Ford Coppola

Around the time of our nation's bicentennial, Godfather director Coppola was producing a spoof dubbed "My Country Tis of Thee." Marshall and Williams were on the writing team, along with Steve Martin, Martin Mull and Harry Shearer. Garry Marshall, Penny's brother, would pluck the two and cast them as Laverne and Shirley. The characters made their debut in a third-season episode of Happy Days titled "A Date with Fonzie" in 1975.

 

2. Spinal Tap appeared together in one episode.

Speaking of Harry Shearer, the writer/actor guest-starred in the season-three Laverne & Shirley episode "Bus Stop." Also appearing in that episode was Shearer's longtime collaborator Christopher Guest. Of course, Guest, Shearer and Michael McKean, a.k.a. "Lenny," would soon go on to make the cult classic mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap — which was directed by Penny Marshall's ex-husband, Rob Reiner. Lenny does not appear much in the eighth season, as McKean was busy filming Spinal Tap.

 

3. Lenny and Squiggy were created long before the show.

Michael McKean and David Lander were friends going back to college in Pittsburgh. As students at Carnegie Mellon University, the two were part of a comedy troupe named the Credibility Gap and created the characters Lenny and Squiggy (original name: Anthony Squiggliano) for skits. McKean and Lander were brought on as writers for Laverne & Shirley, after which their old alter-egos were revived and injected into the sitcom.

 

4. The show recycled scripts from a 1966 Garry Marshall flop.

The forgotten 1966 sitcom Hey, Landlord! had two things going for it. Quincy Jones wrote the theme music, for starters. Secondly, its creator was TV icon Garry Marshall. However, the show was a bust. The material couldn't have been so bad, though, as some scripts were reused for Laverne & Shirley. For example, Landlord's "Testing…One, Two" was turned into "Guinea Pigs," right down to using the same character, Dr. Sandor.

 

5. The apartment set was recycled, too.

Though it was obviously completely redecorated, the guts of The Odd Couple condo was used to craft Laverne and Shirley's garden apartment. You can spot the similarities in the entryways to the right, seen here, which feature two doors at a right angle on a raised platform.

 

6. Most of the Marshall family was involved in the making of Laverne & Shirley.

Obviously, Penny Marshall starred — and she directed some episodes, too. Her brother Garry created, produced, directed and scripted. Ronny Hallin, their sister, served as the show's casting director. Oh, and Anthony Marshall, their father, produced as well.

 

7. Laverne and Shirley joined the Army for a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

Marshall and Williams actually voiced their animated incarnations for Laverne & Shirley in the Army, which appeared on Saturday mornings in the fall of 1981. As it was a cartoon, the plots got quite surreal — the two military newbies faced off against aliens, werewolves and Bigfoot. Commanding over them was Sgt. Squealy, a talking pig, who was voiced by Ron Palillo — a.k.a. Horshack of Welcome Back, Kotter.

 

8. Pepsi Milk was an actual favorite of Penny Marshall's.

Pepsi Milk, which is just what it sounds like, was Laverne's comfort drink of choice on the show. The treat was an old favorite of Marshall's. She got in the habit of drinking it as a child, when her mother would make her drink a glass of milk before having some soda. Young Penny would top off her unfinished milk with a splash of cola and — voila! — a new treat. Here's a recipe if your tastebuds are curious. Or, you could head to Japan, where Pepsi made a strawberry milk flavor.

 

9. "Schlemiel! Schlimazel!" also comes from Marshall's childhood.

As Cindy Williams herself explained to us in an interview, the duo's hopscotch mantra was from Marshall's youth. "[Garry's] the one who told Penny, 'Teach Cindy that little ditty you used to do on the way to school. We'll shoot that.'" Williams said. "Penny taught me 'Schlemiel! Schlimazel!' I had no idea what it meant and I'm still kind of shaky on it…. When Penny and her school chums would walk to school, they'd link arms and count off their steps, '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, schlemiel, schlimazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated!' Then they'd run and stop and start counting again. Garry remembered that."

 

10. It was mostly just 'Laverne' in the final season.

After years on the air, sitcoms tend to shake up the formula. In the fall of 1980, the entire Laverne & Shirley gang moved west, from Milwaukee to Burbank, California. Laverne and Shirley went from bottle-cappers to aspiring actresses and department store employees. Two years later, early in the eighth and final season, Cindy Williams became pregnant and left the show. Originally, there were plans to have her character Shirley pop in here and there, but that did not come to fruition. Instead, her parts were rewritten for guest stars, most notably in "The Baby Show," where Vicki Lawrence played an expecting mother.

 

11. The theme song by Cyndi Grecco hit the Billboard charts.

In July of 1976, "Making Our Dreams Come True" climbed to No. 25 on the charts. The tune would make singer Cyndi Grecco a one-hit wonder. The single was co-produced by Jose Feliciano's wife, Janna Merlyn Feliciano, and released on the Private Stock label, which was known for celebrity crooners. (Private Stock put out the debut full-length of Blondie, too.) The imprint also released singles by Vicki Lawrence, including "The Other Woman" — perhaps foreshadowing her fill-in role mentioned above?

 

12. Cyndi Grecco was discovered at Six Flags.

As Grecco herself explained to Dick Clark in a 1976 interview on American Bandstand, the singer had a gig at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. She was performing there by the roller coasters when Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, the ace songwriters, discovered her. The duo, who had previously written "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Happy Days," quickly asked her to sing "Making Our Dreams Come True."

 

13. Both Laverne & Shirley and Lenny & Squiggy released albums.

Williams and Marshall recorded a rock & roll album as Laverne & Shirley. That LP is a story unto itself, with its ties to The Beach Boys, Phil Spector and Kenny Loggins. Lenny & Squiggy Present Lenny and the Squigtones was more of a success. The Squigtones even performed on an episode of American Bandstand.

 

14. Fred Dryer made his acting debut on the sitcom.

NFL defensive star Fred Dryer — the first man to record two safeties in one game in 1977 — decided to give acting a go late in his career. In 1980, as he was still played for the Los Angeles Rams (he would retire in 1981), the defensive end appeared in the sixth-season premiere of Laverne & Shirley, "Not Quite New York," the one where they move to California. Dryer appears as a lifeguard in Laverne's dream sequence. He would later be considered for the lead role on Cheers — which eventually went to Ted Danson, of course — but he ended up going the action route as the star of Hunter.

 

15. Laverne and Shirley reunited on Ariana Grande's Nickelodeon show.

Sam & Cat was a spin-off of the popular teen sitcom iCarly. In a 2013 episode, Marshall and Williams appeared together as the feuding co-creators of a 1970s children's show called Salmon Cat. As you can see in this boxing scene, the two proved they still had those physical-comedy chops.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Laverne & Shirley  |  What You Might Not Know About Laverne & Shirley

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LIMERICK

Did you know.... that a limerick is a form of verse, usually humorous and frequently rude, in five-line, predominantly anapestic trimeter with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA, in which the first, second and fifth line rhyme, while the third and fourth lines are shorter and share a different rhyme. The following example is a limerick of unknown origin:

 

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical. (Wikipedia)

 

Fascinating Facts about the Limerick

By Dr Oliver Tearle  |  Interesting Literature  |  Year 2015

 

1. Nobody knows for sure why limericks are named limericks.

There have been numerous theories put forward for why the five-line verse known as the ‘limerick’ is so named, but none of them is conclusive. The name ‘limerick’ was first applied to the five-line form in the late nineteenth century, and one theory holds that comic verses once contained the line ‘Will [or won’t] you come (up) to Limerick?’ But although the poems are almost certainly named after Limerick in Ireland, whether this is the true explanation of the name’s origin remains unproven. One thing’s for sure: the limerick, unlike the sonnet or other poetic forms, seems to be a peculiarly English form. It has even been described by Brander Matthews as perhaps the only original verse form in the whole of English literature. (Or is even this absolute fact? Below there is some cause for doubt…)

 

2. An early example of a poem which resembles a modern limerick was written by Queen Elizabeth I.

In ‘The Doubt of Future Foes’, written in around 1571, Elizabeth (who reigned from 1558 until 1603) writes of Mary, Queen of Scots:

 

‘The daughter of debate,

that eke discord doth sowe,

Shal reape no gaine

where formor rule hath taught

stil peace to growe’. 

 

The rhythm and basic form, if not the rhyme scheme, anticipate the modern limerick.

 

3. However, the germ of the modern limerick form goes back even further than the reign of Elizabeth I.

For instance, this fourteenth-century poem comes pretty close to the limerick:

 

‘The lion is wonderliche strong,

& ful of wiles of wo;

& whether he pleye

other take his preye

he can not do but slo.’

 

However, the limerick form predates even the fourteenth century, as this Latin prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274 demonstrates): 

 

Sit vitiorum meorum evacuatio
Concupiscentae et libidinis exterminatio,
Caritatis et patientiae,
Humilitatis et obedientiae,
Omniumque virtutum augmentatio.

 

So, is the limerick truly an English form? Well, its comic spirit appears to be – there aren’t many gags in Doctor Angelicus’ works. Another quality associated with many limericks is their scurrility: limericks are frequently ‘dirty’ and transgressive, addressing taboo issues.

 

4. There’s even a limerick in Shakespeare’s Othello.

In William Shakespeare‘s great tragedy, written in around 1604, Iago sings a drinking song which he claims he heard in England: ‘

And let me the canakin clink, clink;

And let me the canakin clink:

A soldier’s a man;

A life’s but a span;

Why then let a soldier drink.’

 

And from the Roxburgh Ballads, published in 1640, we have this poem, ‘Mondayes Worke’:

 

Good morow, neighbour Gamble,
Come let you and I goe ramble;
Last night I was shot
Through the braines with a pot,
And now my stomacke doth wamble.

 

(‘Wambly’ is an old word for ‘afflicted with nausea’.)

 

5. Edward Lear made the form famous in the nineteenth century.

One of the best-known facts about limericks is that Edward Lear wrote them. In his 1846 Book of Nonsense, Edward Lear included dozens of limericks involving various characters who came from all over the globe. The first book of limericks had been published in 1821 by John Harris, The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women. 

 

These limericks end in the same way as Lear’s, with the rhyme in the last line being the same as the line at the end of the first line, and suggest a possible origin for this kind of limerick, which Lear did so much to establish. Lear’s limericks, being written for children, are often transgressive (like much good nonsense verse) but not ‘dirty’.

 

For some of Robert Conquest’s outrageous limericks (a twentieth-century master of the form), see here.

If you enjoy limericks, have a look also at our limericks telling the lives of Victorian writers.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Limerick (poetry)  |  A Few Limerick Facts

 

 

[DarkRavie]

Facts of the day - VOICE-OVER

Did you know.... that voice-over is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative —is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations? The voice-over is read from a script and may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor. Synchronous dialogue, where the voice-over is narrating the action that is taking place at the same time, remains the most common technique in voice-overs. Asynchronous, however, is also used in cinema. It is usually prerecorded and placed over the top of a film or video and commonly used in documentaries or news reports to explain information. (Wikipedia)

 

VOICE ARTISTS OF FAMOUS ANIMATED CHARACTERS
by UNBELIEVABLE FACTS |  July 2018

 

Megamind (Will Ferrell)

 

Cartoons have always brought a smile on the faces of millions across the globe. Seeing our favorite characters, some almost a century old, on the screen gives great joy even today. The millennials had a plethora of animated shows to see, as back then, entertainment was watching television and not social media. Some of the characters like Mickey Mouse or Scooby-Doo have become more famous than the most Hollywood movies! Behind every successful character, there is a human voice. And it is these voice artists which make the characters more enjoyable and relatable. Here is a list of fascinating facts and stories about 10 great voice actors behind some of the most famous cartoon characters:

 

1. Dan Castellaneta, the voice artist behind the famous Homer Simpson, made some spelling mistakes while recording the show which went on to become iconic lines of the longest-running animated show.

Dan Castellaneta, the famous voice actor and comedian, provided the voice for Homer Simpson of The Simpson cartoon series. He also provided the voice for several other characters in the show like Abraham Simpson, Krusty, Mayor Quimby, and Hans Moleman. Though Dan gave some memorable moments to the characters, this particular incident in the fifth season’s opening episode was unintentional but became extremely popular. During the “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet” episode, Dan misspelled the word “Smart” as “S-m-r-t” while recording the song “I am So Smart” which Homer sings while burning his degree. The outcome sounded so funny the writers felt that it was perfectly suited for the character of Homer, and so retained it without correction. The song became an instant hit and went on to become a favorite among the fans. 

 

2. Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, the voices actors for Mickey and Minnie Mouse respectively, are married in real life.

Mickey and Minnie have been a part of the childhood of millions around the globe. The cartoon pair has been a favourite among children for almost a century. Mickey’s voice has been supplied by Wayne Allwine since 1977 and Minnie’s by Russi Taylor since 1986. Wayne continued to provide the voice Mickey for a record 32 years until his death in 2009, Russi still provides the voice for Minnie! Interestingly, Wayne and Russi got married in real life, just like Mickey and Minnie, and had been married until Wayne’s death. In 2008, they were named as “Disney Legends” and inducted in the Hall of Fame of the Walt Disney Company. They are one of a rare list of couples who played and provided the voice for couples in both professional and personal lives.

 

3. When trapped in a coma, Mel Blanc, the voice behind the famous Bugs Bunny and several other iconic characters, was unresponsive, but then a doctor asked, “Can you hear me, Bugs?” And Blanc responded weakly, “Myeeeeh. What’s up doc?”

Looney Toons has been one of the best cartoon shows of all time, and Bugs Bunny has been among the best animated characters of all time—the cheeky voice, witty dialogues, and brains faster than a computer. Bugs has been a favourite of people across ages.  And the man behind this magic voice was Mel Blanc, who apart from Bugs, voiced many other characters like Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Porky Pig, and many more. He is often credited as “The Man with 1,000 Voices,” and rightly so! Known for his unparalleled hard work and dedication for his work, Mel Blanc probably worked the most for Bugs Bunny. This was evident when Mel met with a near-fatal accident in 1961. After suffering fractures in his skull and several other bones, he went in to a coma for two weeks. One day, the neurologist tried a unique way of waking him up and asked, “Can you hear me, Bugs?” Surprisingly, after a slight pause, Mel replied, “Myeeeh… What’s up Doc?” Doctors treating Mel said that Bugs Bunny saved his life!

 

4. Matthew Lillard, the voice artist behind Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, originally screamed until his voice went hoarse and scratchy to achieve his voice for the iconic character. He even did it in his car before his audition at Warner Bros in L.A.

Almost every kid from the 90s has seen The Scooby-Doo Show, and Shaggy is probably the funniest and most enjoyable cartoon character of the lot. When Casey Kasem, the voice behind Shaggy since 1969, retired in 2009, Matthew Lillard was called for an audition. However, the preparation that Matthew did was unheard of. Usually, voice artists always want their throats to be clear and in good condition, Matthew Lillard did the opposite. He screamed at the top his voice just before the audition. He wanted to his voice to become hoarse as he thought it would perfectly suit the weirdly funny character of Shaggy. He was right and has been the voice for Shaggy since 2009. 

 

5. Tara Strong, the voice artist behind some blockbuster characters like the Powerpuff Girls, Rugrats, Teen Titans, Hello Kitty, Ultimate Spider-Man, Princess Mononoke, and many more, was given a visa to the U.S. as an “Alien of Extraordinary Ability.”

Tara has been the voice behind powerful animated characters like Bubbles (Powerpuff Girls), Raven (Teen Titans), and even Ben Tennyson (Ben 10)! She started working when she was 13 and first voiced the famous cartoon character, Hello Kitty. Ever since, she has grown to be at the top of her industry, and deservedly too. Tara Strong is a Canadian and migrated to the US to pursue her career as a voice artist. Interestingly, because of her phenomenal talents, she was granted the visa as an “Alien of Extraordinary Ability.” This type of visa is granted by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services to any foreigner who possesses and demonstrates extraordinary skills in the field of sports, science, or the arts. So, only elite individuals make it to this list. Some other names living or having lived under this unique visa category include singer John Lennon (the UK), fitness expert Avtar Nordine Zouareg (Algeria), and tennis star Monica Seles (Yugoslavia). 

 

6. Matthew Broderick, who voiced Simba of The Lion King (1994), was a trained Broadway singer but could only voice the speaking role of adult Simba in The Lion King and Simba’s singing voice was provided by Joseph Williams and Jason Weaver.

The Lion King is one the most iconic cartoon series on the Jungle System. The storyline of the series has been quite engaging and appealed to audiences of all ages. The lead animated character, Simba, was voiced by the renowned actor Matthew Broderick in all three movies of The Lion King franchise. However, it is lesser known that though Broderick is a trained singer, he decided not to sing for the movie. Therefore, in spite of the fact that Broderick often sang in his own movies, to dub the songs for The Lion King, Toto lead singer Joseph Williams and actor Jason Weaver were invited. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” was recorded by Joseph and “Hakuna Matata” by Jason. 

 

7. Robin Williams, the voice behind genie from Aladin, agreed to voice the iconic cartoon only after Disney synced the genie doing actual stand-up comedy from Williams before ever approaching him.

After seeing Aladdin, most of the viewers yearned and wished they had the magical lamp. And frankly, we all wanted to have a genie, didn’t we? The concept narrated in the film was mind-blowing, especially the character of the genie. The genie was voiced by actor and comedian Robin Williams, but his selection has an interesting story to it.  While preparing the script and storyline, the writers had already chosen Robin for the genie’s voice but decided a unique way to approach him. Eric Goldberg created animations of the genie doing stand-up comedy from Williams’s shows. When Williams saw it, he was so impressed that he immediately agreed to do it. The genie went on to become one of the most famous animated characters of all time. However, there were other unique stipulations in the contract between Disney and Williams, like the genie wouldn’t be used in merchandising, etc. 

 

8. Peter Cullen, the voice actor behind Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, is the same voice as Optimus Prime of the Transformers, and the Predator movies!

Remember that sad donkey with no hopes and a low voice? Eeyore is whom we’re talking about! The only character in the Winnie the Pooh series which was dull and boring, yet an iconic win. The trademark depressing body language and low heavy voice made Eeyore an important part of the series. However, it is quite contrasting that Eeyore shares his voice with a cartoon character none other than Optimus Prime from Transformers. Peter Cullen voiced Eeyore first from 1988-2011, and second from 2017 until today. He had great versatility in his voice which he used with great success. Apart from the depressed grey donkey, Cullen has voiced several other epic animated characters like Optimus Prime and even the Predator. Some of the other characters which Cullen voiced are KARR in Knight Rider and Red Skull from Spider-Man. 

 

9. Adriana Caselotti, the voice artist behind Snow White, was forbidden by her Disney contract from appearing in films or on radio or television because it would spoil the illusion of Snow White.

Snow White is one of the oldest and most famous animated characters of all time. Even after almost a century since its release, the beautiful princess has continued to capture the hearts of the audiences even today. In the early days, the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a huge hit and has constantly adapted in different forms. However, for Adriana Caselotti, the voice behind Snow White, the movie was a bitter-sweet experience. Though she was chosen for the legendary character, it had its own cons. Disney wanted the realistic illusion surrounding the character of Snow White unspoiled, and so Caselotti’s contract forbade her from appearing in any film, radio channel, or television! This hampered her growth as an artist. As a result, even after the Snow White success, she couldn’t get the deserved recognition, and she could do only two other cartoon films. In 1994, she was named as a “Disney Legend,” though. 

 

10. Mary Gibbs, who voiced Boo from Monsters Inc., was just a toddler during the production. Since the crew couldn’t get her to sit still and read her lines, they let her toddle around in the studio while following her around with a mic.

A little girl playing around and creating havoc in the monster world was what Monsters Inc. portrayed as a film, and in the funniest way. Audiences were mesmerized by the movie depicting wonderful animated characters, especially Boo, the little toddler. The cartoon character of the baby girl struck a chord with the masses unlike any other. The artist who created that cute voice for Boo was just a toddler herself, only three years of age. She was the daughter of one of the film’s story artists, Rob Gibbs. Unable to make her sit in one place, the crew followed her everywhere on the sets with a mic and recorded the voices she created while playing. Boo, or Mary Gibbs, is now a grown-up college student and has left her career as a voice artist far behind! 
 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Voice-over  |  Facts About Voice Artists

Edited August 10, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - YOGA

Did you know.... that yoga, Sanskrit for "yoking" or "union", is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated in ancient India, aimed at controlling and stilling the mind. Yoga is one of the six orthodox philosophical schools of Hinduism. There are a broad variety of yoga schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and traditional forms and modern methods of yoga are practiced worldwide. There are broadly two kinds of theories on the origins of yoga. The linear model argues that yoga has Aryan origins, as reflected in the Vedic textual corpus, and influenced Buddhism; according to Crangle, this model is mainly supported by Hindu scholars. The synthesis model argues that yoga is a synthesis of indigenous, non-Aryan practices with Aryan elements; this model is favoured in western scholarship. (Wikipedia)

 

Mind-Blowing Facts About Yoga Everyone Should Know

by Blueosa |

 

Here are many facts about yoga that many people do not know.

For example it’s estimated that some 36 million Americans practice yoga. That’s a pretty significant number. What’s even larger is the amount they spend annually on yoga products—27 billion USD! And that’s just in one country. (That number continues to grow!) Don’t get me wrong. I love that yoga has and continues to be on the rise. I also honestly believe the world would be a much happier place if everyone incorporated a bit more downward dog into their daily lives. But with the rise of yoga’s popularity in the West, there comes with it an increase in misconceptions. What yoga is really all about. Maybe you’re exploring yoga for the first time or you’ve read the Sutras cover-to-cover. Take a moment to make sure you’re up to date on these mind-blowing facts about yoga. You might be surprised at what you learn!

 

1. Yoga isn’t just a fitness fad.
CrossFit. Zumba. Pilates. Is yoga just another fitness fad passing through? Well, yes and no. Yoga’s global popularity is unprecedented, with yoga retreats and studios on the rise around the world. Whether it’s a sweaty hot yoga session or a relaxing, restorative class, everyday people are donning their Lululemon and dropping in to see what all the fuss is about. So maybe yoga has become a bit of a craze, but the ancient tradition of yoga is more than a fitness trend alone. The tradition of yoga dates back nearly 5,000 years to the time of pre-Vedic Indian traditions. We then find Yoga to be the central theme of the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture appearing around 500 B.C. Further development of yoga emerged roughly around 100 B.C. At this time, Patanjali wrote the Yoga Sutras in an attempt to define and standardize classical yoga. It was the esteemed Swami Vivekananda, an Indian Hindu Monk and mystic, who is credited for bringing yoga to the Western world in the late 1800s. His message, that all beings are an embodiment of the divine self, remains a focal element of the practice today. As yoga continues to grow and become more mainstream, its uses will continue to change and evolve. What’s clear is that those who experience the powerful mind-body-spirit transformation that yoga brings, will continue to be forever touched by it.

 

 

2.SHAVASANA (CORPSE POSE) IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT YOGA POSES OF ALL TIME. IT’S ALSO ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING.
Shavasana is that signature pose at the conclusion of every yoga practice. And if you’re anything like me, then you’re guilty of slipping out of class to carry on with your busy life the moment the teacher instructs you into it. I always knew Shavasana was important, but it’s only recently I learned why. Shavasana is a pose of ultimate relaxation, which is why it is so difficult for many of us to release into the pose. While in Shavasana, your mind and body calm. You allow your body to de-stress and return to its natural state as a human being and not a human doing. Your body also cements the effects of your yoga practice, processing and remembering the information it needs. Finally, Shavasana is the ultimate form of rejuvenation, healing, and relaxation for the body. If you only learn how to do one yoga pose, make is Shavasana. The healing benefits of yoga are not only about relaxation and focus, they are also cross-cutting. Today, yoga is known to positively affect the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of medical patients. The practice of yoga is being incorporated into many health centers as a complementary treatment for illnesses.

 

 

3. When in doubt, come back to one-to-one breathing.
Learning to breath is one of the most powerful things you can do. Not only does breathing supply us with our life force, oxygen is also responsible for eliminating waste and toxins, bringing oxygen to the blood and the brain, rejuvenating our organs, and reducing stress, anxiety, and disease…and that’s just the start! It’s hardly any wonder the ancient yogis devoted serious time to understanding and practicing the relationship between the inhale and exhale. There are numerous Pranayama (breathing) exercises, some of which are very simple, others that should only be practiced under the guidance of a teacher. However, if you only learn one breathing exercise, make it one-to-one breathing.

 

 

How to practice 1:1 Breathing?
The idea is that for however many counts you inhale, you exhale for the same duration. So if you inhale for five counts, you would then exhale for five counts, and so on and so forth. Not only is it calming and grounding, it also improves the quality and duration of your breath. One study found that the emphasis of deep breathing in Iyengar yoga helped individuals suffering from depression and anxiety. So, next time you find yourself about to lose your cool, break out the one-to-one breathing first and then see how you feel.

 

4. No one cares how awesome you look in your postures.
Believe it or not, no one really cares what you look like in your Revolved Half Moon pose. Maybe you’re super-flexy, capable of bending in ways that the mind previously couldn’t have imagined possible. Or maybe you can’t even touch your toes. It really doesn’t matter. Yoga is for every body, and because of that, the way you move in and out of the different postures will vary according to you and how you are feeling on a given day. Undoubtedly, yoga improves flexibility and posture and helps to prevent injuries by strengthening core muscles used for support and weight-bearing. When I tell people I’m a yoga instructor, the number one thing I hear is: “I’m not flexible enough for yoga.” When it comes down to it, yoga is about the flexibility of the mind, not the body. We all start from somewhere. Wherever you’re starting from today is exactly where you’re supposed to be. why more men should practice yoga

 

 

5. And speaking of postures, yoga is more than just moving from one pose to the next.
Yoga poses are powerful, poignant, and beautiful, especially when expressed thoughtfully and with proper alignment. However, yoga is not about asanas (postures) alone. Yoga’s ultimate contribution to our wellbeing is the unification of body and mind into a state of flexible and activated focus. Some yoga practices like Ashtanga Yoga or Bikram Yoga (also known as Hot Yoga) originated as a practice of discipline, breathing, and the repetition of poses intended to purify the system. There are over 100 different types of yoga in practice today. So, it’s certainly possible to find the type and approach that’s right for you. Classic practices like hatha yoga, raja yoga, and karma yoga appeal to many yoga practitioners.  They integrate the spiritual and emotional elements people are looking for.

 

 

6. Yoga makes you younger.
Yoga is the fountain of youth – you’re only as young as your spine is flexible. It’s a quote that’s been floating around yogi Pinterest boards and quote walls for a while. But there is a verifiable essence of truth to it. Not only does yoga keep your spine young and flexible, it also directly correlates to numerous other health benefits.

 

For example, yoga:

• protects your bones and spine
• increases blood circulation
• boosts immunity
• drops blood pressure
• maintains your nervous system
• improves lung function
• prevents disease
• connects you to your inner spirit and more!

Yoga might not actually make you younger. (Sorry folks!) BUT according to the United States National Library of Medicine, a combination of yoga and meditation does help slow the aging process. Yoga has been shown to also slow the onset of several different diseases.

 

 

7. How you act on the mat is how you act in real life.
It’s true—your yoga mat is a dress rehearsal for real life. How we act while on the mat is a mirror for how we will handle both negative and positive experiences in our lives. When we learn to stay present on the mat, we learn to stay present in the office. When we choose to open our hearts in Camel Pose, we begin to show a touch more love and kindness to those in need. When we sit with our discomfort on the mat, slowly, we begin to sit with the discomfort in our lives—and then we can understand why it’s there in the first place. And our Ego?  When we begin to let that go, that’s when powerful transformation can really happen. It’s clear that people are feeling a need to connect more deeply with life’s experiences, and in a way that practicing yoga makes possible. The numbers alone speak for themselves.  In 2016, nearly 53,000 yoga teachers registered with the Yoga Alliance and over 36.7 million adults were actively taking regular yoga classes. Don’t roll up your yoga practice with your mat; instead, take it out into the world and live your yoga every day!

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Yoga |  Facts About Yoga

Edited August 11, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LYRIC

Did you know... that lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, as a "librettist". The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression. Rappers can also create lyrics (often with a variation of rhyming words) that are meant to be spoken rhythmically rather than sung. (Wikipedia)

 

Things You Probably Didn't Know About Popular Song Lyrics
Some songs were meant to be confusing. Others were just written by Max Martin.

by Nora Whelan  |  BuzzFeed Staff  |  March 2017

 

1. "...Baby One More Time" is supposed to be a totally different phrase, but was mistranslated.

 

Swedish songwriters Max Martin and Rami Yacoub apparently thought "hit" was American slang for "call." That's right; Britney Spears' first big hit is supposed to be about pre-text communication.

 

2. The same songwriter is the reason "I Want It That Way" makes no sense.

 

 

Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean told the Huffington Post that at one point, Jive Records staff actually had Max Martin's lyrics changed (you can see the alternate version, conspicuously lacking both fire and desire, here). But upon hearing the recording of that version, the band decided they, strangely enough, preferred Martin's lines.

 

3. Similarly, Swedes were responsible for DNCE's confusing but delightful "Cake by the Ocean."

 

 

"Working on the record, these Swedish producers that we were working with, they kept confusing 'sex on the beach' with 'cake by the ocean,'" DNCE singer Joe Jonas told MTV in late 2015. "Then, it became this kind of lyrically wacky song, and it kind of embodies the band."

 

4. Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" may actually be about birth control.

 

Marley made contradicting statements about the song's meaning while he was alive, but Esther Anderson, his girlfriend when the song was written, offered another perspective in the documentary Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend. Anderson says Marley was upset that she sought contraception, as he thought it was sacrilegious — hence the "seed-planting" reference. According to Anderson, the subject of the song was her doctor, who later became a sheriff.

 

5. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was inspired by a friend of Kurt Cobain's writing on the singer's wall, "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit."

 

 

Teen Spirit was the brand of deodorant worn by the Nirvana singer's girlfriend at the time, but he didn't take it quite so literally. Also, the friend who wrote on his wall was Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill.

 

6. The Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" was written purposely to confuse people.

 

 

In the late 1960s, John Lennon learned about a class on analyzing Beatles lyrics at Quarry Bank High School (his own alma mater). In response, Lennon decide to write something nonsensical just to confuse people.

 

Click the link Surprising Hit Song Facts below  to learn about other Things You Probably Didn't Know About Popular Song Lyrics.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Lyric  |  Surprising Hit Song Facts
 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - HELEN KELLER

Did you know.... that Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and hearing after a bout of illness at the age of nineteen months. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan, who taught her language, including reading and writing; Sullivan's first lessons involved spelling words on Keller's hand to show her the names of objects around her. She also learned how to speak and to understand other people's speech using the Tadoma method. After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, she attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She worked for the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) from 1924 until 1968, during which time she toured the United States and traveled to 35 countries around the globe advocating for those with vision loss. (Wikipedia)

 

Things You Might Not Know About Helen Keller
BY SUZANNE RAGA  |  JUNE 27, 2016 (UPDATED: JUNE 11, 2020)

 

Even if you’ve watched The Miracle Worker a handful of times, you probably still have a sizable gap in knowledge about Helen Keller’s life. History’s most famous deaf-blind person was an inspiring author and activist, a vaudeville performer, a close friend of Mark Twain, and a world traveler investigated by the FBI for her political views. Here are 11 things you might not know about Helen Keller.

 

1. HELEN KELLER BECAME DEAF AND BLIND WHEN SHE WAS 19 MONTHS OLD.
Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880. When she was 19 months old, an unknown illness caused her to lose her hearing and sight. The Keller family lived fairly modestly, as they lost part of their wealth during the Civil War (Helen's father, Arthur H. Keller, served in the Confederate Army). After the war, he bought and became editor of The North Alabamian, a weekly local newspaper.

 

2. HELEN KELLER WAS FRIENDS WITH ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.

When Keller was 6 years old, her parents took her to Julian John Chisolm, Professor of Diseases of the Eye and Ear at the University of Maryland. The renowned physician recommended that Keller see Alexander Graham Bell. Because Bell’s wife was deaf, the inventor founded schools for the Deaf (as well as their teachers) and was involved with teaching deaf children. Following Bell’s suggestion, Keller’s parents enrolled her at the Perkins Institution for the Blind, through which she met her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Bell mentored Sullivan and was friends with both her and Keller until his death in 1922.

 

3. HELEN KELLER WAS ALSO GOOD FRIENDS WITH MARK TWAIN.
In 1895, as a teenager, Keller met Twain at a lunch in New York. Later, she wrote that he “treated me not as a freak, but as a handicapped woman seeking a way to circumvent extraordinary difficulties.” Twain had a daughter the same age as Keller, and eventually the two bonded over their political views and mutual admiration for each other. She recognized the author by his scent, as he often reeked of tobacco. Twain convinced the industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers to help pay for Keller’s education, and was also the first person to call Sullivan a miracle worker. Twain even gave Keller a blurb for her 1903 autobiography, which she wrote at age 22.

 

4. HELEN KELLER FELL IN LOVE WITH HER SECRETARY.
In 1916, at 36 years old, Keller fell in love with Peter Fagan, a former newspaper reporter in his late twenties. Fagan was working as Keller's temporary secretary while Sullivan was sick. The couple secretly got engaged and even took out a marriage license before Keller’s family found out and forbade the marriage. Keller regretted that she never married, reportedly remarking, “If I could see, I would marry first of all.”

 

5. HELEN KELLER WAS A MEMBER OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF AMERICA.

Keller focused a big part of her life on politics. She belonged to the Socialist Party of America, helped found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and was investigated by the FBI because of her far-left views. Keller also supported industrial workers’ rights, women’s suffrage, and birth control, and she wrote essays about her socialist views and admiration of Vladimir Lenin.

 

6. HELEN KELLER WAS A VAUDEVILLIAN “EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD.”
Keller and Sullivan made a career in writing and lectures, but this still didn’t earn them a viable income. So for four years in the 1920s, they hit the vaudeville circuit. Keller would speak about her life, Sullivan would translate, and audiences could ask questions as part of a Q&A. They traveled from town to town, and Keller was billed as “the brightest star of happiness and optimism” and “the eighth wonder of the world.”

 

7. HELEN KELLER’S IMAGE (WITH BRAILLE) IS ON U.S. CURRENCY.
Keller’s image is on the Alabama state quarter (part of the 50 state quarters program). She appears as an old woman sitting in a rocking chair, holding a book (Keller died at age 87 in 1968). Introduced in March 2003, the words “Helen Keller” are on the quarter in the Latin alphabet and in braille.

 

8. HELEN KELLER TRAVELED THE WORLD TO ADVOCATE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.
Keller was a major globetrotter. She traveled to 39 countries, from the UK to Japan to Syria. During her travels, Keller met with presidents, prime ministers, and other government leaders to advocate for educating blind people, deaf people, and people with disabilities. In 1952, during her visit to the Middle East, she gave lectures at medical schools, visited schools for disabled students, and met with organizations that helped blind people. Keller wrote about her experiences in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, emphasizing the kindness of the locals and the majesty of the places. As she wrote: “It was more wonderful than I had dreamed for us to travel through semi-legendary lands … I could still feel something of the old picturesqueness, the poetry, the oriental atmosphere and the spirit of prophecy, and I was fascinated by the power of the Moslem religion.”

 

9. HELEN KELLER INTRODUCED THE AKITA DOG TO THE U.S.

In the 1930s, Keller toured Japan to give speeches and visit schools, and was met with incredible warmth and reverence. A Japanese police officer gave her an Akita dog named Kamikaze-Go as a present, and she fell in love with him. She became the first person to bring the dog breed to the U.S. Sadly, Kamikaze-Go died shortly after Keller’s return to the States, so Japan’s government gifted her another Akita from the same litter. In 1948, a few years after World War II ended, Keller visited Japan again to meet with the war's disabled veterans in military hospitals.

 

10. HELEN KELLER LIVED TO BE 87 YEARS OLD.
Keller died of natural causes on June 1, 1968 in Easton, Connecticut. According to Winifred Corbally, her companion after Sullivan’s death, she “drifted off in her sleep.”

 

11. HELEN KELLER’S LIFE STORY INSPIRED A BOLLYWOOD FILM.
Released in 2005, the Bollywood film Black is about a young deaf-blind girl named Michelle, her relationship with her teacher, and how she deals with her inability to hear and see. Inspired by Keller’s life, Black’s director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, read her autobiography and visited The Helen Keller Institute for the Deaf and Blind before writing and directing the film. It premiered at the Cannes Festival, and won both lead actors Indian Filmfare awards.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Helen Keller  |  Facts About Helen Keller
 

Edited August 13, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - QIXI FESTIVAL

 

Did you know... that the Qixi Festival also known as the Qiqiao Festival, is a Chinese festival celebrating the annual meeting of the cowherd and weaver girl in mythology. The festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month on the Chinese calendar. The festival was derived from worship of the natural astrology. It is the birthday of the seventh elder sister in the traditional significance. It is called "Qixi Festival" because of the worship of the seventh elder sister held on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month. Gradually, people celebrated for the romantic legend of two lovers, Zhinü and Niulang, who were the weaver girl and the cowherd, respectively. The tale of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been celebrated in the Qixi Festival since the Han dynasty. The earliest-known reference to this famous myth dates back to over 2600 years ago, which was told in a poem from the Classic of Poetry. The Qixi festival inspired the Tanabata festival in Japan, Chilseok festival in Korea, and Thất Tịch festival in Vietnam. (Wikipedia)

 

QIXI FESTIVAL FACTS
Interflora  |  August 2017

 

The legend of Qixi Festival actually doubles as an explanation of the origins of the Milky Way.
 The legend explains that The Goddess of Heaven used a hairpin from her hair to create a divide in the sky to separate the lovers Niulang and Zhinü from reuniting. In doing so, the Goddess created the Silver River between the constellations Altair and Vega – the Silver River is actually the Chinese name for the Milky Way.

 

Qixi Festival has many different names.

 These include: Double Seventh Festival, Chinese Valentine’s Day, Night of Sevens, Magpie festival and Young Girl’s Festival. While many of these names act as synonyms, there are some that more specifically refer to some of the festivals original traditions such as, “Begging for Skills Festival”.

 

Qixi Festival traditions vary from place to place. 

In some south-western parts of China for example, painting toenails and washing hair with tree sap are local customs. In southern China, weaving small crafts with coloured paper, grass and thread was a part of Qixi Festival celebrations. Afterwards, the girls would participate in a competition to pass a thread through the eyes of seven needles in a single breath. Another Qixi Festival tradition in some parts of China is for girls to throw a sewing needle into a bowl full of water. If the needle floats, it means that the girl is skilled in embroidery. These traditions are believed to increase the individual’s attractiveness and help girls to find a satisfied husband.

 

Qixi Festival was once very much considered a festival for young girls. 

But today many of the original customs have disappeared from urban cities. These days Qixi Festival is more commonly considered a festival for lovers where the most popular traditions are to send flowers and go out to dinner.

 

The villain differs.  

In some versions of the Qixi Festival Legend the villainous character is the Goddess of Heaven, however in other versions the Jade Emperor is cast as the individual who keeps the lovers apart.

 

Want to know more about Qixi Festival? Read next: Qixi Festival Legends - Chinese Valentine's Day, Qixi Festival Traditions, Qixi Festival Food or take a look at our Qixi Festival Pinterest Board. 

 

Facts You Should Know About Qixi Festival
By Kou Jie (People's Daily Online)  |  August 2020

For most young Chinese people, the Qixi Festival, which celebrates the annual gathering of the mythological Cowherd and Weaver Girl, has become a romantic occasion for expressing their affection to their beloved ones. But do you know the origins of this traditional Chinese festival? Is it really the Chinese version of Valentine’s Day? What do people usually do on this unique occasion? Please join us to explore the fun facts and mythology behind the Qixi festival!

 

Origins

The festival originated from the tale of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, one of the four most famous pieces of ancient Chinese folklore. The earliest known reference to this famous myth dates back to over 2,600 years ago, and was told in a poem from the Classic of

Poetry. The story tells of the love between Zhinü (the Weaver Girl, symbolizing Vega) and Niulang (the Cowherd, symbolizing Altair). As the most capable weaver fairy in heaven, Zhinü’s love for Niulang, a mortal, enraged the gods, who separated the couple with the Silver River (symbolizing the Milky Way). Although the gods were consumed with fury, the couple’s love did win some of their sympathy, and they allowed the two to meet over the Silver River once a year. On the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, a flock of magpies would form a bridge so that the lovers could be reunited. As far back as the Han Dynasty, the practices of the festival were conducted in accordance with formal ceremonial state rituals. Over time, the festival activities also came to include customs practiced by the common people. Though it originated in China, the Qixi Festival inspired the Tanabata festival in Japan, Chilseok festival in Korea, and Thất Tịch festival in Vietnam.

 

Literature

This beautiful tale of forbidden love has been passed down from generation to generation in China for thousands of years, inspiring Chinese writers, artists and poets to create countless masterpieces on the subject. Since the Zhou Dynasty in the 11th century B.C., poems, popular songs and operas depicting the Qixi Festival’s atmosphere and activities have left us valuable resources with which to better understand how the ancient Chinese celebrated the festival and exactly what they thought about it.

 

One well-known example comes from the famous Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu, who wrote a poem called “An Autumn Night” to celebrate the Qixi Festival:

• 银烛秋光冷画屏， A candle flame flickers against a dull painted screen on a cool autumn night,
• 轻罗小扇扑流萤。 She holds a small silk fan to flap away dashing fireflies.
• 天阶夜色凉如水， Above her hang celestial bodies as frigid as deep water,
• 坐看牵牛织女星。 She sat there watching Altair of Aquila and Vega of Lyra pining for each other in the sky.

(Translated by Betty Tseng)

 

Tradition

Romantic as it sounds, the festival was not originally aimed at lovers, but a festival for girls to demonstrate their domestic skills and to worship the Weaver Girl for her wisdom. Traditionally, girls would take part in worshiping the celestials during rituals, and go to local temples to pray to the Weaver Girl. Paper items were usually burned as offerings, and the girls would recite traditional prayers to bring dexterity in needle work, which in ancient China symbolized the talents and virtues of a good spouse. Sometimes, contests were held to see who was the best at threading needles under low-light conditions, such as the glow of a half-moon. On this day, Chinese would gaze into the sky to look for Vega and Altair shining in the Milky Way. If it rained on the festival, it meant the couple had been moved to tears by their precious reunion. In some places, people would build a four-meter-long bridge with large incense sticks and decorate it with colorful flowers. After the proper ritual was observed, the bridge would be burned to bring happiness.

 

Modern celebration

In modern times, businessmen in China have used the opportunity to market the festival as “China’s Valentine’s Day”, turning it into a highly profitable annual shopping festival. According to a Xinhua report in 2019, on Alibaba's two major e-commerce platforms Tmall and Taobao, sales of Qixi gifts reached their peak a week before the festival, registering an increase of 118 percent from the previous year. Among them, domestic products were most popular, with sales of traditional Han clothing jumping by 184 percent, while Chinese rouge, an ancient-style blush, saw its sales up over 37 percent from a year earlier. Compared with the West’s Valentine's Day, data showed that Chinese couples prefer to celebrate Qixi in a more traditionally Chinese way. A report on the consumption habits of the 2018 Qixi festival published by online food delivery platform Meituan said 42 percent of food consumption on Qixi in 2018 was spent on Chinese cuisine, while on the Western Valentine's Day, it was 35 percent. 

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Qixi Festival  |  Facts About Qixi Festival  |  What to Know About Qixi Festival
 

Edited August 14, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BIRDS

Did you know... that birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. (Wikipedia)

 

Amazing Facts About Birds
BY ANNA GREEN  |  JANUARY 5, 2019

From brilliantly colored hummingbirds to farting thrushes, birds are among the most beautiful and bizarre creatures on Earth. With over 9000 species, our fine feathered friends inhabit almost every inch of the planet, making their homes in the frozen expanses of Antarctica, the humid rainforests of South America, and every climate in between. 

 

1. RAVENS ARE GREAT AT MIMICKING HUMAN SPEECH AND SOUNDS.

While ravens in the wild are unlikely to pick up human language, in captivity they can become quite talkative. Some ravens are even better than parrots at mimicking human speech, not to mention sounds from the human world like car engines revving or toilets flushing. In the wild, meanwhile, ravens sometimes imitate other animals, mimicking predators like wolves or foxes to attract them to tasty carcasses they're unable to break open on their own.

 

2. OSTRICHES HAVE THE LARGEST EYES OF ANY LAND ANIMAL.

Ostrich eyes are the largest of any animal that lives on land (though they can't rival some of the massive creatures that inhabit the depths of the sea). Approximately the size of a billiard ball, their eyes are actually bigger than their brains.

 

3. CARDINALS LIKE TO COVER THEMSELVES IN ANTS.

Cardinals (along with several other bird species) sometimes cover themselves in crushed or living ants, smearing them over their feathers, or allowing living ants to crawl on them. While scientists still aren't sure what the purpose of "anting" is, some believe the birds use the formic acid secreted during their ant bath to help get rid of lice and other parasites.

 

4. OWLS DEVOUR THEIR PREY WHOLE.

When owls catch larger animals (raccoons and rabbits, for instance), they tear them up into more manageable, bite-size pieces. But, they've also been known to simply swallow smaller animals, from insects to mice, whole. Owls then regurgitate pellets full of indigestible elements of their meal like animal bones and fur.

 

5. SOME DUCKS SLEEP WITH ONE EYE OPEN.

When they nap in groups, the ducks on the perimeter keep guard by sleeping with one eye open. While the other ducks sleep more deeply, those on the outside of the circle also keep one side of their brain awake, even as they doze, so that predators won’t be able to sneak up on them.

 

6. KIWIS ARE SOMETIMES CALLED "HONORARY MAMMALS."

Native to New Zealand, kiwis are a bizarre, land-bound bird. Scientists, so mystified by the kiwi's strange properties—which include feathers that feel like hair, heavy bones filled with marrow, and nostrils on the tip of their nose (rather than on the base of their beak like most birds)—have sometimes called them "honorary mammals."

 

7. MOST HUMMINGBIRDS WEIGH LESS THAN A NICKEL.

Hummingbirds are incredibly lightweight. The average hummingbird is around 4 grams (one gram less than a nickel), while the smallest, the bee hummingbird, is closer to 1.6 grams, less than the weight of a penny. The largest member of the hummingbird family, meanwhile, is the aptly named giant hummingbird, which can get up to 24 grams—enormous for a hummingbird, but only equivalent to about a handful of loose change.

 

8. IN ANCIENT GREECE, PIGEONS DELIVERED THE RESULTS OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES.

Believed to be the first domesticated bird, pigeons were used for millennia to deliver messages, including important military information, and the outcome of the early Olympic games. Though non-avian mail delivery has become more popular over time, pigeons were used as recently as World War II to carry select messages.

 

9. PARROTS CAN LEARN TO SAY HUNDREDS OF WORDS.

While most parrots only learn around 50 words, some African grey parrots have been known to learn hundreds. Einstein, a brilliant African grey parrot at the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee, can say around 200 words.

 

11. BASSIAN THRUSHES FIND FOOD BY FARTING.

Worm-eating Bassian thrushes have been known to dislodge their prey from piles of leaves by directing their farts at them. The excretion of gas shifts the leaf-litter on the ground and apparently provokes worms to move around, revealing their location.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Bird  |  Brief Facts About Various Species of Bird
 

Edited August 15, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - MASK

Did you know...  that a mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes, as well as in the performing arts and for entertainment. They are usually worn on the face, although they may also be positioned for effect elsewhere on the wearer's body. More generally in art history, especially sculpture, "mask" is the term for a face without a body that is not modelled in the round (which would make it a "head"), but for example appears in low relief. (Wikipedia)

 

Fascinating Cultural Masks from Around the World
BY STEFAN ZECHNER  |  JULY 2016

Putting on a mask is a transformative experience. It allows us to be someone we’re not for a moment, changing both how we see ourselves and how we behave outwardly. Many of us know this feeling from Halloween in America, but it’s a universal feeling shared across cultures throughout human history. While some masked ceremonies have died out over the years, others cultures have held onto their traditions. Learn the meanings behind some of the most fascinating masks from around the world and find out where and when you can see them.

 

1. Venetian Carnival Masks

 

Worn during Carnival in Venice, these world-famous masks date back to the 13th century.  The origin of the masks is unknown, but some theories suggest that they were donned in rebellion to the rigid society of the times. Venetian masks range in quality, size and material, from cheap papier-mâché eye masks to porcelain face masks with long noses or elaborate feathers. Venetian masks were originally made by skilled craftsmen called the mascherari. Today they can be purchased as shops throughout Venice to wear during the 11 days of Carnival, which happen in January or February, depending on where Easter falls.

 

2. Mexican Day of the Dead Masks

 

Dia de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead) masks represent calaveras, or skulls. The celebration originated as a way to honor the deceased and acknowledge death as a natural part of life. The festivities are on November 1st and 2nd throughout Mexico and Latin America, with celebrants wearing skull-shaped masks or face paint and colorful costumes and hats.

 

3. Chinese New Year Masks

 

On the biggest holiday of the year in the most populous country in the world, various masks are worn during week-long celebrations to ring in the new year. Made from materials including stones, metal and leather, these colorful masks are designed to display the moods and emotions associated with the festival. The masks represent the deities, spirits and fabled animals that Chinese New Year mythology originated from.

 

4. Brazilian Carnival Masks

 

Similar in style to Venetian masks, Brazilian masks are also worn in celebration of Carnival during the week before lent. Their origins, though, are vastly different. Brazilian Carnival first occurred in the 17th or 18th century in Rio de Janeiro, but masks weren’t observed until the 19th century. Lower-class parading revelers, called Cordões, wore these masks in contrast to the more organized and lavish parades held by the aristocratic and working-class people. It’s the Cordões’ parties, where samba was also born, that the street parties in Carnival as we know them today more closely represent.

 

5. Filipino Dinagyang Masks

 

Celebrated in Iloilo City on the fourth weekend of January, Dinagyang revelers wear dazzling masks made of colorful materials, including feathers, beads and sequins. The festival brings music and dancing in the streets with participants wearing full-body costumes or body paint along with the exquisite masks.

 

6. African Festima Masks

 

Festima is the festival of all festivals for mask lovers. Officially dubbed the International Festival of Masks and Arts, Festima is a centuries old tradition celebrated in several West African countries, including the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Mask making is an ancient custom in Africa, and Festima is celebrated to protect the tradition. Festima masks made of wood, straw, leaves and textiles represent animals and ancestral spirits. Many locals believe that mask wearers embody the subject of the masks.

 

7. Bahamian Junkanoo Masks

 

The origins of this festival may be hotly debated in the Bahamas, but one thing’s not debatable: Junkanoo masks are amongst the most ravishing in the world. Junkanoo masks range greatly in design, size and color, but they’re generally very colorful and part of a full-body costume. The masks are shown off in street parades during choreographed dances that last all evening on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

 

8. Austrian Krampusnacht Festival Masks

 

In parts of Austria, there’s a dark side to Christmas. Krampusnacht festival masks are based on their namesake, a mythical horned demon figure called Krampus. As folklore goes, Krampus contrasts St. Nicholas by punishing misbehaving children. In early December, Krampusnacht celebrators adorn handmade, wooden Krampus masks and goat or sheepskin suits to the dismay – or delight – of onlookers who are simultaneously celebrating St. Nicholas day.

 

9. Venezuelan Dancing Devils of Yare Masks

 

Diablos Danzantes, or dancing devils, are the theme of the masks worn in this festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil in the city of San Fransisco de Yare, outside of Caracas, Venezuela. Diablos Danzantes masks resemble winged dragons and vary in size based on how long a confradia, or group, has been participating in the festival. The masks, which have been worn since the 1700s, are meant to represent the confradia’s order in the devil’s hierarchy. They often take all year to craft by hand.

 

10. Japanese Shimokita Tengu Matsuri Mask

 

Shimokita Tengu Matsuri is also known as the long red-nosed goblins festival, which describes the design of the masks on parade floats and festival-goers alike. The long red nose on the mask is a portrayal of a bird’s beak, and the facial features resemble a human, following the mythological Tengu, a bird-like anthropomorphized creature in Japanese folklore. Shimokita Tengu Matsuri is held in Tokyo over three days in late January and early February. The festival centers around a parade, drum performance and the throwing of edible, roasted soy beans into the crowd.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Mask  |  Fact About Masks From Around the World

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - HISTORIC SITE

Ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

 

Did you know... that historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been recognized with the official national historic site status. A historic site may be any building, landscape, site or structure that is of local, regional, or national significance. Usually this also means the site must be at least 50 years or older. (Wikipedia)

 

Facts You Didn't Know About National Historic Landmarks
Buildings, sites, and structures with fascinating backgrounds

by Country Living  |  MAY 14, 2020

Thanks to the Historic Site Act of 1935, the United States could begin safeguarding buildings and other culturally significant sites and open them to the American public to help preserve physical pieces of the nation's history and educate its citizens on their heritage. Since then, 2,600 National Historic Landmarks have been established all over the 50 states as well as commonwealths and territories. Ranging from the humble home where a famous writer was born to awe-inspiring overlooks traversed by Lewis and Clark on their legendary exhibition, it may seem like the only thing these landmarks has in common is the unmistakable bronze plaque that marks their designation and historical significance. How varied can they be? There's tugs, schooners, victory ships—and those are just the boats (yes, there are boats). Due to the diversity of these sites, there is variety in the histories they are designated by the Department of the Interior to preserve. It's a big part of what makes National Historic Landmarks so interesting. You never quite know what a landmark has in store for you until you read the plaque—and even then there's often more to the story. One that can only be told by an expert guide or in the following gallery.

 

Alcatraz Island — San Francisco, California

Perhaps most famous for the maximum-security prison it housed from 1934-1963, Alcatraz Island also boasts the West Coast's first lighthouse, built in 1854 to help ships navigate the notoriously foggy San Francisco Bay. The bay, of course, helped make Alcatraz impossible to break free from. Despite what you might think from the movies, there were no confirmed prisoner escapes from the island, which became a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

 

Ernest Hemingway House — Key West, Florida

Built in 1851, this Spanish Colonial was a residence of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway from 1931 until his death in 1961. While the house, which was added to the registry in 1968, has many of the writer's many hunting trophies on display, it is also home to a number of living creatures as well. Said to be descendants of a six-toed cat that belonged to Hemingway, a crew of 50-60 cats with an extra digit roam the property. The cats are given names by the museum staff and cared for by a veterinarian.

 

Tremont Street Subway — Boston, Massachusetts

Tremont Street Subway was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 for its place in transportation history as the oldest subway in North America. Opened in 1897, over 100,000 Bostonians traveled in the underground trains on their first day in action, which was more than 1/5th of its population.

 

Hotel Del Coronado — San Diego, California

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, this beachfront hotel opened in 1888 and remains a popular destination for visitors looking to soak up the Southern California sun. The hotel has many ties to Hollywood, it was and still is a favorite retreat for the stars, but what many might not know is that Hotel Del Coronado lit up the silver screen itself. Though the setting was said to be Florida, this hotel is where the legendary film Some Like It Hot (1958) took place.

 

Green-wood Cemetery — Brooklyn, New York

Green-wood Cemetery opened in 1838, well before the buildings that make up the Manhattan skyline you can see from its Brooklyn hills, and became a National Historic Landmark in 2006, but its much more than a resting place for New Yorkers—including Boss Hogg and Jean-Michel Basquiat—it's the location of the Revolutionary War's Battle of Long Island. Fought in late August of 1976, this was the first major battle between the British and Americans since the colonies declared its independence and it did not go well for the new nation as over 300 of its soldiers died (650 were wounded and 1,100 captured).

 

Beale Street Historic District — Memphis, Tennessee

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, Memphis, Tennessee's Beale Street is famous all over the world for the blues music artists like W.C. Handy created there. No one would dare deny that it's "Home of the Blues," but if they did, they would have to take it up with the United States Congress, which officially bestowed that moniker upon the Beale in 1977.

 

The Alamo — San Antonio, Texas

This tiny limestone church was built as part of a Franciscan mission established in 1718, but most know The Alamo as the site of the eponymous 1836 battle and as a symbol of Texas independence. 190 men died during The Battle of the Alamo, one of whom being Davy Crockett, a frontiersman and representative of Tennessee. In 1954, Walt Disney created a television series that portrayed a fictionalized version of Crockett the frontier adventurer. The show was a smash-hit and led to thousands of American children donning the coonskin caps their hero wore in "Davy Crockett."

 

Monticello — Albermarle County, Virginia

Thomas Jefferson began building Monticello in 1770, three decades before he would become the third President of the United States, and it would serve as his home until his death in 1826. Though he was not the first to bring the dish to the United States, Jefferson is believed to have helped popularize macaroni and cheese in America by serving it to his many houseguests. The Founding Father even wrote out his own recipe.

 

Eastern State Penitentiary — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965, Philadelphia's Eastern State is thought to be the world's first penitentiary. Unlike other prisons at the time, there was a real focus on getting the prisoners to feel penitence or remorse for their actions as part of their rehabilitation. Eastern State was founded 1829 and remained in use until 1971, which means many were imprisoned inside its intimidating walls. Most notably, Al Capone. The prominent crime boss spent 1929-1930 there after being arrested for carrying a concealed, deadly weapon. Though it was only his first prison sentence, his cell was outfitted with luxurious rugs, furniture, and even a radio. Needless to say, this does not reflect the state of the other cells.

 

Wrigley Field — Chicago, Illinois

Known as the "Friendly Confines" of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, Wrigley Field has served the North Side of Chicago its summer sports needs since 1914—though the Cubbies didn't move in for two years after that (it was called Weeghman Park then and was built for a now-defunct baseball team called the Chicago Whales). Wrigley, which the Secretary of the Interior determined to be eligible for designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1987, is famous for the century (and then some) of baseball played inside its ivy-covered outfield walls, but the Chicago Bears football team also called Wrigley Field home from 1921-1970.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Historic site
 

Edited August 17, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - JIMI HENDRIX

Did you know.... that James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music". (Wikipedia)

 

Fast Facts About Jimi Hendrix
BY JENNIFER M WOOD  |  SEPTEMBER 2019

 

Though he’s widely considered one of the most iconic musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix passed away as his career was really just getting started. Still, he managed to accomplish a lot in the approximately four years he spent in the spotlight, and leave this world a legend when he died on September 18, 1970, at the age of 27. Here are 10 things you might not have known about the musical legend.

 

1. JIMI HENDRIX DIDN'T BECOME "JIMI" UNTIL 1966.
Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle on November 27, 1942 as John Allen Hendrix. He was initially raised by his mother while his father, James “Al” Hendrix, was in Europe fighting in World War II. When Al returned to the United States in 1945, he collected his son and renamed him James Marshall Hendrix. In 1966, Chas Chandler—the bassist for The Animals, who would go on to become Jimi’s manager—saw the musician playing at Cafe Wha? in New York City. "This guy didn't seem anything special, then all of a sudden he started playing with his teeth," roadie James "Tappy" Wright, who was there, told the BBC in 2016. "People were saying, 'What the hell?' and Chas thought, 'I could do something with this kid.’” Though Hendrix was performing as Jimmy James at the time, it was Chandler who suggested he use the name “Jimi.”

 

2. MUDDY WATERS TURNED JIMI HENDRIX ON TO THE GUITAR—AND SCARED THE HELL OUT OF HIM.

When asked about the guitarists who inspired him, Hendrix cited Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Elmore James, and B.B. King. But Muddy Waters was the first musician who truly made him aware of the instrument. “The first guitarist I was aware of was Muddy Waters,” Hendrix said. “I heard one of his old records when I was a little boy and it scared me to death because I heard all these sounds.”

 

3. JIMI HENDRIX COULD NOT READ MUSIC.

In 1969, Dick Cavett asked the musician whether he could read music: “No, not at all,” the self-taught musician replied. He learned to play by ear and would often use words or colors to express what he wanted to communicate. “Some feelings make you think of different colors,” he said in an interview with Crawdaddy! magazine. “Jealousy is purple—‘I'm purple with rage’ or purple with anger—and green is envy, and all this.”

 

4. JIMI HENDRIX USED HIS DREAMS AS INSPIRATION FOR HIS SONGWRITING.

Hendrix drew inspiration for his music from a lot of places, including his dreams. “I dreamt a lot and I put a lot of my dreams down as songs,” he explained in a 1967 interview with New Musical Express. “I wrote one called ‘First Look’ and another called ‘The Purple Haze,’ which was all about a dream I had that I was walking under the sea.” (In another interview, he said the idea for “Purple Haze” came to him in a dream after reading a sci-fi novel, believed to be Philip José Farmer’s Night of Light.)

 

5. "PURPLE HAZE" FEATURES ONE OF MUSIC'S MOST FAMOUS MONDEGREENS.
In the same interview with New Musical Express, it's noted that the “Purple Haze” lyric “‘scuse me while I kiss the sky” was in reference to a drowning man Hendrix saw in his dream. Which makes the fact that many fans often mishear the line as “‘Scuse me, while I kiss this guy” even more appropriate. It was such a common mistake that Hendrix himself was known to have some fun with it, often singing the incorrect lyrics on stage—occasionally even accompanied by a mock make-out session. There’s even a Website, KissThisGuy.com, dedicated to collecting user-generated stories of misheard lyrics.

 

6. JIMI HENDRIX PLAYED HIS GUITAR UPSIDE-DOWN.

Ever the showman, Hendrix’s many guitar-playing quirks became part of his legend: In addition to playing with his teeth, behind his back, or without touching the instrument’s strings, he also played his guitar upside-down—though there was a very simple reason for that. He was left-handed. (His father tried to get him to play right-handed, as he considered left-handed playing a sign of the devil.)

 

7. JIMI HENDRIX PLAYED BACKUP FOR A NUMBER OF BIG NAMES.
Though Hendrix’s name would eventually eclipse most of those he played with in his early days, he played backup guitar for a number of big names under the name Jimmy James, including Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner, and The Isley Brothers. In addition to the aforementioned musical legends, Hendrix also helped actress Jayne Mansfield in her musical career. In 1965, he played lead and bass guitar on “Suey,” the B-side to her single “As The Clouds Drift By.”

 

8. JIMI HENDRIX WAS ONCE KIDNAPPED AFTER A SHOW.

Though the details surrounding Hendrix’s kidnapping are a bit sketchy, in Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix, Charles R. Cross wrote about how the musician was kidnapped following a show at The Salvation, a club in Greenwich Village:

“He left with a stranger to score cocaine, but was instead held hostage at an apartment in Manhattan. The kidnappers demanded that [Hendrix’s manager] Michael Jeffrey turn over Jimi’s contract in exchange for his release. Rather than agree to the ransom demand, Jeffrey hired his own goons to search out the extorters. Mysteriously, Jeffrey’s thugs found Jimi two days later … unharmed. “It was such a strange incident that Noel Redding suspected that Jeffrey had arranged the kidnapping to discourage Hendrix from seeking other managers; others … argued the kidnapping was authentic.”

 

9. JIMI HENDRIX OPENED FOR THE MONKEES.
Though it’s funny to imagine such a pairing today, Hendrix warming up The Monkees’ crowd of teenybopper fans actually made sense for both acts back in 1967. For the band, having a serious talent like Hendrix open for them would help lend them some credibility among serious music fans and critics. Though Hendrix thought The Monkees’ music was “dishwater,” he wasn’t well known in America and his manager convinced him that partnering with the band would help raise his profile. One thing they didn’t take into account: the young girls who were in the midst of Monkeemania. The Monkees’ tween fans were confused by Hendrix’s overtly sexual stage antics. On July 16, 1967, after playing just eight of their 29 scheduled tour dates, Hendrix flipped off an audience in Queens, New York, threw down his guitar, and walked off the stage.

 

10. YOU CAN VISIT JIMI HENDRIX'S LONDON APARTMENT.

In 2016, the London flat where Hendrix really began his career was restored to what it would have looked like when Jimi lived there from 1968 to 1969 and reopened as a museum. The living room that doubled as his bedroom is decked out in bohemian décor, and a pack of Benson & Hedges cigarettes sits on the bedside table. There’s also space dedicated to his record collection. Amazingly, the same apartment building—which is located in the city’s Mayfair neighborhood—was also home to George Handel from 1723 until his death in 1759; the rest of the building serves as a museum to the famed composer’s life and work.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Jimi Hendrix  |  Facts About Jimi Hendrix

 

NOTE: Forgive the lines through the sentences.  I've not figured out how to fix it yet.

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FAMOUS BASEBALL PLAYERS

Heyward lines into double play.

 

Did you know.... that the number of players on a baseball roster, or squad, varies by league and by the level of organized play. A Major League Baseball (MLB) team has a roster of 25 players with specific roles. Most baseball leagues worldwide have the DH rule, including MLB's American League, Japan's Pacific League, and Caribbean professional leagues, along with major American amateur organizations. The Central League in Japan and the National League do not have the rule, and high-level minor league clubs connected to National League teams are not required to field a DH. In leagues that apply the designated hitter rule, a typical team has nine offensive regulars (including the DH), five starting pitchers, seven or eight relievers, a backup catcher, and two or three other reserve players. (Wikipedia)

 

Greatest Baseball Players of All Time
BY Adam Augustyn

Ah, the crack of the bat. The smell of fresh-cut grass. Munching on Cracker Jack while trying to avoid being splashed by the massive beer barely clung onto by the inebriated fan sitting behind you. Nothing says summer quite like baseball, the American national pastime. Baseball’s place in the American zeitgeist comes, at least in part, from its long history and the general consistency of the game over decades—it’s quite likely that your great-great-grandfather would be able to easily follow a modern game if he were magically plopped into the stands. This history and consistency make it a bit easier to compare players from much different eras than it is to do so for other sports, which is what I’ll be attempting here. Let’s see how it goes!

 

Roger Clemens

2007

Over the course of his illustrious 24-year career, Roger Clemens amassed a record seven Cy Young Awards as the best pitcher of the year in either the American or National League and threw 4,672 strikeouts, the third most of all time. In 1986 he became one of the rare starting pitchers to win a league MVP award after he posted a 24–4 record with a 2.48 earned run average (ERA) and 238 strikeouts for the Boston Red Sox. Moreover, he did all this while a number of opposing batters were taking steroids, which resulted in offensive statistics going through the roof at the time. So why isn’t he higher? Well, it’s very likely that Clemens himself took steroids, so his accomplishments aren’t quite as stunning for the era as they appear. Plus he’s quite possibly the player I’ve hated the most during my baseball fandom, so he gets a deserved place here but can’t go any higher lest I render this list incomplete by tossing my keyboard out a window in a tizzy. Hurrah for subjectivity!

 

Honus Wagner

A number of modern fans probably know Honus Wagner best as the subject of the most-valuable baseball card in history, the rare 1909–11 T206 Wagner card that was produced by the American Tobacco Company. The scarcity of the card is a big reason why it can fetch upwards of $2 million in a sale, but it wouldn’t be nearly as valuable if the person depicted on it was just a run-of-the-mill player and not one of the best to have ever stepped on a diamond. “The Flying Dutchman” (god, they came up with such good nicknames back in the day) led the National League in batting average eight times over the course of his career and retired with a stellar .328 average despite having played during the offense-killing “dead-ball era.” At the time of his retirement in 1917, he had tallied the second most hits (3,420), doubles (643), triples (252), and runs batted in (1,732) in major-league history, and all of these totals still rank among the top 25 of all time. A measure of Wagner’s greatness is found in the 1936 balloting for the inaugural class of the Baseball Hall of Fame, where he was one of the five players selected for that honor among the thousands who had played the game up to that point.

 

Stan Musial

Quite possibly the greatest person on this list, “Stan the Man” was a historically good player as well as a model citizen. The beloved St. Louis icon played his entire 22-season career with the city’s Cardinals franchise and is as inextricably linked with his town as an athlete ever has been. Stan Musial led the Cardinals to three World Series titles (1942, 1944, and 1946) while racking up just as many MVP awards (1943, 1946, and 1948) and amassing a lifetime .331 batting average. As evidence that he was a man with a keen eye for the ball, Musial’s highest single-season strikeout total was a paltry 46 (in 505 plate appearances) as a 41-year-old who started in the Cardinals’ outfield. (He still hit .330 that year.) His hitting was so consistently good that opponents often resigned themselves to their fate, as noted by pitcher Carl Erskine: “I've had pretty good success with Stan by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third.”

 

Ty Cobb

1918

And now here’s possibly the greatest humanity drop-off in list-item history. If Musial was a fairy-tale prince when it came to comportment, Ty Cobb was the evil troll under the bridge chucking boulders at passing children. An unrepentant racist who routinely sharpened his spikes to maximize potential injury to opponents on hard slides and who once fought a fan in the stands, Cobb was nevertheless a supremely talented player who has the greatest lifetime batting average in major-league history (.366). He led the American League (AL) in batting average a ridiculous 12 times in his 24-year career but was by no means merely a singles hitter, as he also led the AL in slugging percentage (a statistic that measures a hitter's power production) on eight occasions. He batted over .400 in three seasons (1911, .420; 1912, .409; and 1922, .401) and, in addition to his batting-average record, he retired in 1928 as the all-time leader in hits (4,189), runs scored (2,246), and stolen bases (892), all of which were broken only late in the 20th or early in the 21st centuries.

 

Walter Johnson

The flame-throwing Walter Johnson was a generational talent who defined dominant pitching for decades. He was so great that he led the AL in strikeouts more often than not, topping the league 12 times over the course of his 21-year career. Pitching his entire professional life for the Washington Senators, “Big Train” threw 110 career complete-game shutouts, still the most in major-league history and a record that will never be broken. (As of this writing, the current active leader, Clayton Kershaw, has 15 over eight and a half seasons.) In 1913 he won 36 games with a 1.14 ERA and an eye-popping 0.78 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched; a WHIP below 1.00 is considered stellar) to win the Chalmers Award, the equivalent of the modern MVP. He took a second MVP in 1924 as he led the Senators to their first World Series championship. Johnson’s 3,509 career strikeouts set a record that lasted 56 years, and his win total of 417 is second only to Cy Young’s 511.

 

Hank Aaron

As the owner of the title Home Run King for a generation, Hank Aaron is often thought of as simply a tremendous power hitter, albeit arguably one of the best ever. However, his 755 career homers (a record for 33 years) are just the tip of the iceberg for “Hammerin’ Hank.” His all-time-best 2,297 runs batted in and 6,856 total bases are, of course, indicative of his legendary power, but he also put up a solid career .305 batting average and won three Gold Gloves for his play in the outfield. The consistently great Aaron was selected to the All-Star Game 21 straight years and hit at least 30 home runs in 15 seasons. In addition to his standing records, Aaron finished his career in 1976 with what were then the second most hits (3,771) and runs scored (2,174) in major-league history.

 

 

Ted Williams

Ted Williams has long been called “the greatest pure hitter who ever lived.” His .482 lifetime on-base percentage is the highest of all time, and he ranks in the top 20 in total runs scored, home runs, runs batted in, and walks despite having missed almost five full seasons of his prime to military service. ”The Splendid Splinter” (see what I mean about the nicknames?) was renowned for his uncanny eye, which helped him post the last major-league season with a .400 batting average (.406 in 1941). Overall, the Boston Red Sox icon led the AL in batting average 6 times, slugging percentage 9 times, and on-base percentage 12 times in his 19-year career. Not content with simply being the best hitter ever, Williams has also been called both the best fisherman and best fighter pilot ever. Despite all the accolades (or perhaps because of them), he had a notoriously prickly relationship with the public. But as famed author John Updike put it when Williams refused to come out for a curtain call after hitting a home run in his final career at bat: “Gods do not answer letters.”

 

Barry Bonds

Yeah, I get it. He was cantankerous, preening, and almost assuredly a steroid user—not exactly the kind of guy who should get the benefit of the doubt and earn spot number three on this list. Barry Bonds is, in the eyes of many baseball fans, the poster boy for the steroid era and its supposed illegitimacy. But, well, he was already a surefire Hall of Famer before he allegedly began juicing, and steroids would have had no effect on the unparalleled eye-hand coordination that produced an all-time high 2,558 career walks and staggering .444 lifetime on-base percentage. And that’s the thing about steroids—you can never definitively say exactly what impact they have on a baseball player’s performance. So let’s just appreciate the incredible statistics Bonds piled up: an unsurpassed 762 home runs (including a single-season record 73 in 2001), a record seven career MVP awards, and 688 intentional walks, which is more than double the amount given to the player with the second most of all time and a striking testament to the unparalleled fear Bonds instilled in opposing pitchers.

 

Willie Mays

1961

Unlike his godson Bonds (whose father, Bobby, was Willie Mays’s teammate from 1968 to 1972), Mays needs to be subjected to no mental gymnastics to justify his place on this list. Not only did Mays rack up astounding totals at the plate—including 3,283 hits, 660 home runs, and 1,903 runs batted in—but his outstanding play in the outfield produced 12 consecutive Gold Glove Awards (1957–68) and led many observers to call him the greatest all-around player the game has ever seen. In fact, the most-iconic moment in Mays’s career (and one of the most iconic in baseball history) came on defense: his over-the-shoulder catch at the warning track in the eighth inning of a tied 1954 World Series game that helped the New York Giants win that contest and, eventually, the championship. That was the only title of his career, but a relative lack of team success does nothing to tarnish the reputation of the 20-time All-Star and two-time MVP (1954 and 1965).

 

Babe Ruth

Well, here’s a no-brainer if there ever was one. Yes, he played among an artificially limited talent pool before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 and decades before advanced training regimens produced athletes who looked like, well, athletes, but Ruth was such a historic talent that he transcends these qualifiers. In fact, his arrival in the major leagues was so seismic that it marked the end of the dead-ball era. When he joined the majors in 1914, the all-time record for home runs in a season was 27. Within seven years he had more than doubled it with 59, and he eventually produced a personal-high 60 dingers in 1927. All told, he led the AL in home runs 12 times. He was such a prodigious power hitter that his astounding .690 career slugging percentage remains the best of all time, and the gap between his mark and second place is larger than the one between second place and ninth. Oh, and he also was a great pitcher during his early years, leading the AL with a 1.75 ERA in 1921 and pitching 29 and two-thirds consecutive scoreless innings across two World Series—because when you dominate the game as much as the Babe did, you may as well do so in all facets, right? Moreover, the charismatic Ruth was the first transcendent American sports superstar, routinely garnering headlines across the country for both his on-field exploits and his off-field celebrity. His play with the storied New York Yankees teams of the 1920s catapulted baseball to the prominence in the national consciousness that it still enjoys today. Not only was Ruth the greatest baseball player of all time, but he was the most important one too.
 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Baseball  |  Greatest Baseball Players of All Time
 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - MANATEES

Did you know.... that manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species in the order Sirenia: the Amazonian manatee, the West Indian manatee, and the West African manatee. They measure up to 4.0 metres (13 ft 1 in) long, weigh as much as 590 kilograms (1,300 lb), and have paddle-like flippers. (Wikipedia)

 

Facts About Manatees

By Jennifer Kennedy  |  Updated April 05, 2019

Manatees are iconic sea creatures—with their whiskered faces, broad backs, and paddle-shaped tail, it's hard to mistake them for anything else (except perhaps a dugong). Here you can learn more about manatees.

 

Manatees Are Marine Mammals

Like whales, pinnipeds, otters, and polar bears, manatees are marine mammals. Characteristics of marine mammals include that they are endothermic (or "warm-blooded"), give birth to live young and nurse their young. They also have hair, a characteristic that's evident on a manatee's face.

 

Manatees Are Sirenians

Sirenians are animals in the Order Sirenia—which includes manatees, dugongs, and the extinct Steller's sea cow. Sirenians have broad bodies, a flat tail, and two forelimbs. The most obvious difference between the living sirenia—manatees and dugongs—is that manatees have a round tail and dugongs have a forked tail.

 

The Word Manatee Is Thought to Be a Carib Word

The word manatee is thought to come from the Carib (a South American language) word, meaning "woman's breast," or "udder." It may also be from the Latin, for "having hands," which is a reference to the animal's flippers.

 

There Are 3 Species of Manatees

There are three species of manatees: the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), West African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis) and Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis). The West Indian manatee is the only species that lives in the U.S. In actuality, it is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee—the Florida manatee—that lives in the U.S.

 

Manatees Are Herbivores

Manatees are probably called "sea cows" because of their fondness for grazing on plants such as seagrasses. They also have a stout, cow-like appearance. Manatees eat both fresh and saltwater plants. Since they only eat plants, they are herbivores.

 

Manatees Eat 7-15% of Their Body Weight Each Day

The average manatee weighs about 1,000 pounds. These animals feed for about 7 hours a day and eat 7-15% of their body weight. For an average-sized manatee, that would be eating about 150 pounds of greenery per day.

 

Manatee Calves Can Stay With Their Mother for Several Years

Female manatees make good mothers. Despite a mating ritual that has been described by the Save the Manatee Club as a "free for all," and a 30-second mating, the mother is pregnant for about a year and has a long bond with her calf. Manatee calves stay with their mother for at least two years, although they may stay with her for as long as four years. This is a long time compared to some other marine mammals such as some seals, who only stay with their young for a few days, or a sea otter, which only stays with its pup for about eight months.

 

Manatees Communicate With Squeaking, Squealing Sounds 

Manatees don't make very loud sounds, but they are vocal animals, with individual vocalizations. Manatees can make sounds to communicate fear or anger, in socializing, and to find each other (e.g., a calf looking for its mother).

 

Manatees Live Primarily Along Coastlines in Shallow Water

Manatees are shallow, warm water species that are found along the coast, which is where they are in close proximity to their food. They live in waters that are about 10-16 feet deep, and these waters can be freshwater, saltwater, or brackish. In the U.S., manatees are found primarily in water above 68 degrees Fahrenheit. This includes waters from Virginia to Florida, and occasionally as far west as Texas.

 

Manatees Are Sometimes Found in Strange Places

Although manatees prefer warm waters, like those in the southeastern U.S., they are occasionally found in strange places. They have been seen in the U.S. as far north as Massachusetts. In 2008, a manatee was seen regularly in Massachusetts waters but died during an attempt to relocate it back down south. It is unknown why they move north, but is possibly due to expanding populations and a need to find food.
 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Manatees  |  Manatee Facts
 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SIMPLE MACHINES

Did you know.... that one of the most important reasons that human being have become the most successful species on Earth is due to our mastery of tools and simple machines. (CoolKidFacts)

 

Simple Machines

by Science Trek

Once upon a time a person needed to move something heavy. He or she picked up a long stick and stuck it under the edge of the heavy object and then pushed down on the other end of the stick. And the first simple machine was invented. Simple machines are just that. The simplest form of using one thing to accomplish something faster or better. A tool. They were the first ones created and we still use them today. There are 6 basic simple machines; the lever, the wheel and axle, the inclined plane, the wedge, the pulley, and the screw. Several of these simple machines are related to each other. But, each has a specific purpose in the world of doing work. But what is work? Work is the amount of energy necessary to move an object. The further you move it, the more work is required. Work is measured in Newtons. More about that later. First let's look at each of the 6 simple machines in detail.

 

The Lever

Lever and fulcrum trying to raise a camel
 

The lever is a long tool such as a pole or a rod put under an object to lift it. The lever is more efficient when combined with a fulcrum. The fulcrum is another object, perhaps a rock, used to brace under the long tool. This gives the long pole something to push down against. The location of the fulcrum helps determine how well the lever will perform work. The closer the fulcrum is to the object being lifted, the easier the person can lift the object. The longer the lever, the higher the object can be lifted. Do the math — it's really all in the distance between the object, the fulcrum and the lever. Levers are all around us. Some examples of levers are: door handles, the claws of a hammer (for removing nails), crowbars, light switches, bottle openers and hinges.

 

 

 

The Wheel & Axle

The wheel has always been considered a major invention in the history of mankind. But it really would not work as well as it does had it not been for the axle. An axle is a rod or pole centered in the wheel that allows the wheel to turn around it. The wheel then spins in a balanced circle to be used as transportation on a bike or to turn the hands of a clock. Gears are a form of the wheel and axle. Wheels are found where things turn in a circle such as an electric fan, a motor, a revolving door, a merry go round, and any wheel — on the car, on your skateboard, or on a bicycle.

 

The Inclined Plane

 

The inclined plane is simply a ramp. One end is higher than the opposite end. This allows things to go from a low point to a higher point. Or vice versa. It takes the same amount of work, but less force, to move an object up a ramp than to move it vertically. Gravity makes it easier to move an object down a ramp than up that ramp. Ramps are used in skateboard parks, wheelchair ramps and to get heavy equipment in and out of the back of trucks. But a modified version of a ramp is also found in stairs, escalators, ladders, walking paths, even chutes used for dropping your mail into the mailbox.

 

 

 

The Wedge

Some people might see the wedge as just an inclined plane, although it is actually two inclined planes. However, the use of a wedge is actually different in nature. The wedge is used to separate an object apart. This is needed to cut, tear or break something in two. A wedge can also be used to keep things together or secure things from movement. Some examples of wedges that are used for separating might be a shovel, a knife, an axe, a pickaxe, a saw, a needle, scissors, or an ice pick. But wedges can also hold things together as in the case of a staple, push pins, tack, nail, doorstop, or a shim.

 

 

 

The Pulley

The pulley is actually a version of a wheel and axle that is combined with a rope, chain or other cord to allow moving something up and down or back and forth. The pulley can be combined with other pulleys to reduce the amount of work necessary to lift huge amounts of weight or to lower them down. It can also make moving something such as a flag up the pole convenient to do from the ground. It changes the direction of the force necessary to do the work. I pull down on the rope, but the flag goes up. Pulleys are used in window blinds and drapery to move them up and down or back and forth. Pulleys are also used on ships to raise and lower sails, in industry to raise and lower heavy cargo, or on cranes for use in moving construction equipment. Elevators also use pulleys to move the car up and down from floor to floor.

 

 

 

The Screw

The screw is really a twisted inclined plane. It allows movement from a lower position to a higher position but at the same time it moves it in a circle. That makes it take up less horizontal space. A screw can also act to hold things together in some cases. Some examples of the uses of a screw are in a jar lid, a drill, a bolt, a light bulb, faucets, bottle caps and ballpoint pens. Circular stairways are also a form of a screw. Another use of the screw is in a device known as a screw pump. A huge screw shape is lowered into the water and by turning the screw the water is moved up the twisted shaft and lifted to where it is needed. Screw pumps are often used in agricultural settings such as farms and for irrigation.

 

 

Measuring Work

Work is the amount of energy necessary to move an object. A person can push against a brick wall until they sweat. But unless they moved the wall — even a tiny bit — they did no work. But at the same time, if you scoot the computer mouse even a part of an inch, you have done work. Work in the scientific sense. Don't try to convince your parents or your teachers that you have done a lot of work by playing video games. Work can be measured. It is measured by the amount of distance that a force moves an object. Sir Isaac Newton was a very famous scientist who had a wonderful understanding of the relationship between force and motion. For this reason, the measurement is known as a Newton. It is abbreviated with a capital N. The term joule is often used to measure work as Newtons per meter. If it takes 1 Newton to move any object 1 meter, then that is equivalent to a joule. There are special tools for measuring the force necessary to move an object. These are known as force meters. They use a spring and a hook to determine how much pull is required to slide an object up an inclined plane. Really very simple to use.

 

Compound Machines

Simple machines can be combined together to form compound machines. Many of our everyday tools and the objects we use are really compound machine. Scissors are a good example. The edge of the blades are wedges. But the blades are combined with a lever to make the two blades come together to cut.

 

A lawnmower combines wedges (the blades) with a wheel and axle that spins the blades in a circle. But there is even more. The engine probably works in combination of several simple machines and the handle that you use to push the lawnmower around the yard is a form of a lever. So even something complicated can be broken down into the simplest of machines.

 

Stapler

Take a look around you — can you figure out what simple machines make up a can opener, the hand cranked pencil sharpener, the ice dispenser in the refrigerator or the stapler? Just be careful, though. In our modern times, many things rely on electronics and light waves to function and are not made of simple machines. But even then, you may be surprised. The turntable in your microwave oven is a wheel and axle. The lid to the laptop is connected to the pad by a hinge or lever. Simple machines may be simple — but they are simply everywhere.

 

A Word or Two About Rube

Self-making bed
Rube Goldberg was a famous cartoonist who lived between 1883 and 1970. His life was spent creating art and sculptures, but his most famous work was for his "inventions." These inventions were a series of simple machines put together in a complex fashion to accomplish something very simple, but it took many steps to get there. Contests have been run for many years since Mr. Goldberg first created his unique ideas. In the contests people try to come up with new ways to turn on a light, or start a toaster using these combinations of the simple machines to wow judges and audiences for their unique way of doing these simple tasks. Rube Goldberg machines are fun to watch and to build. Visit this site for some fun — see if you can identify each of the simple machines as they work together in this animation of a Rube Goldberg gadget designed to get this guy out of bed in the morning. Click here.

 

For more information about Rube Goldberg's life and his art, click here.

 

Source: CoolKidFacts  |  Simple Machine Facts

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ICE CORES

Did you know... that an ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier. Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper, and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years. Cores are drilled with hand augers (for shallow holes) or powered drills; they can reach depths of over two miles (3.2 km), and contain ice up to 800,000 years old.

 

Ice cores: A window into climate history
by Eric Wolff  |  August 04, 2010

Eric Wolff, leader of the British Antarctic Survey’s Chemistry and Past Climate team, explains how to decipher the ultimate climate time capsule.

The embedded pebbles and dingy ice tell

researchers that this portion of the ice core

is from the bottom of the glacier, right

above bedrock. This chunk comes from

the first ice core drilled at Mt. Hunter,

Alaska; the core's total length was 682 feet.

 

Allianz Knowledge: How important are ice cores for climate science?

Eric Wolff: There are things ice cores can tell you that nothing else can. In particular, they allow us to see the composition of the atmosphere in the past. There is no other way of getting that information. Ice cores are an unusually pure way of measuring the atmosphere but when it comes to climate they really only tell you about the polar climate. People have collected ice cores from mountains in the tropics but they tend to be partly melted and refrozen and are hard to interpret.

 

So ice cores are historical climate documents. How far back can they take us?

The oldest ice collected is from a core in Antarctica, which is three kilometers deep and contains 800,000 years of ice. We would like to get to ice 1.5 million years old. I’ll explain why. In the last 800,000 years ice ages came and went roughly every 100,000 years but before that we know from marine sediments that ice ages came and went every 40,000 years. Why this change? One theory is that CO2 levels decreased so the ice sheets got larger, and the Earth system had a longer time scale. If we could get an ice core from that era we could say whether that is correct.

 

How do you drill ice cores?

To drill for very old ice you go somewhere with a low snowfall rate, like ice domes on top of ice sheets where the ice has not flowed from anywhere else. We only drill about two to three meters of ice at a time. The drill is actually quite short. It is on the end of a wire. It takes about one hour for the drill to go down three meters, so most of our time is spent waiting for the drill to go down and come back up again. The longest core took three summer seasons to drill. The core comes to the surface and we then cut the ice into sections with saws. It then goes back to Europe frozen. We want to keep it frozen to the last possible moment before analysis.

 

 

 

How do you date an ice core?

If somewhere has quite a high snowfall rate you can count back the summer and winter snowfalls like tree rings. In Greenland researchers have counted back 60,000 years. But in the oldest ice cores there is not enough snowfall. There we estimate age by measuring how much snow falls each year, calculating how it thins through ice physics, and checking the results by comparing with other data. For example, the 800,000-year old ice core can be dated because we know that 780,000 years ago the Earth’s magnetic field reversed. That increased the amount of cosmic rays that entered the Earth’s atmosphere and formed the radioactive isotope beryllium-10, which can be measured in ice cores.

 

 

How exactly do ice cores tell us about the past climate? Aren’t they just water and air?

First, the water molecules tell us about temperature because the balance of different isotopes of water reveals the temperature when the snow fell. We can see the composition of water changing from summer to winter, and from warm period to ice age. Second, every snowflake has at its center a particle of sea salt or dust, and particles attach to it as it falls. Those tell us about the composition of the atmosphere. For example, after a big volcanic eruption the amount of sulfuric acid in the ice increases for a couple of years. Finally there is the air itself. In Antarctica snow never melts, it gets buried by more years of snow and the weight crushes the snowflakes into a solid matrix which traps air bubbles. Those air bubbles contain a record of every stable molecule in the air: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, methane.

 

So what key climate facts have ice cores revealed?

We all take for granted that CO2 and methane levels have increased in the last 200 years.  But only from ice cores can we be absolutely sure. Regular measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere started just 50 years ago. Ice cores show CO2 levels in the atmosphere started increasing in about 1800, from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to 390 ppm today. Methane concentrations have more than doubled. And ice cores have shown that the recent warming of the last 50 years in the Antarctic Peninsula region is unusual in the context of the last few hundred years. In Greenland ice cores from the last ice age—between 80,000 and 30,000 years ago—have revealed climate jumps of 10 degrees Celsius within 30 to 40 years. Nobody would have believed that possible.

 

How could the climate transform so quickly?

People think that the ocean circulation system that transports heat in the oceans—what we in Europe experience as the Gulf Stream—was switching from a strong to a weak mode and back again. The reason was probably because in the last ice age large amounts of ice melted off the North American ice sheet into the North Atlantic. That can’t happen now because we don’t have that ice sheet.

 

Can ice cores tell us much about the climate future?

Yes and no. What climate history can tell us is what has happened and what can happen; and we can then compare climate models with the ice core record. What it can’t tell is what will happen under precisely the conditions we have now because we don’t have any ice core samples with levels of CO2 as high as they are today.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Ice Core  |  Brief Facts About Ice Cores

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - XYLOPHONES

Did you know.... that The xylophone literally meaning ("sound of wood") is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel, the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use.

 

About the Xylophone

by Other  |  March 2021

 

The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets.

It is essentially consists of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children’s instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use. The term xylophone may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term xylophone refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused.

 

 

The origins of the xylophone lie in the far distant past and are difficult to trace.

Most historians believe that the first xylophones appeared in eastern Asia, whence they are thought to have spread to Africa. In around 2000 BC a kind of wood-harmonicon with 16 suspended wood bars is said to have existed in China. At the same time a xylophone-like instrument called the ranat is reputed to have existed in Hindu regions. Proof that xylophones were widespread in south-east Asia is provided by numerous temple reliefs depicting people playing such instruments.

 

 

The first definite proof of the xylophone’s existence was found in the 9th century in south-east Asia.

These primitive instruments were as simple as wooden bars laid across the player’s legs. The design began to evolve as resonators were added to the bottom of the bars. These increased the sustain of the notes. The early resonators were hollowed out gourds. Additionally, the instrument was placed on a stand. In the 14th century, the xylophone began to gain popularity. Throughout the years, many different materials, such as bamboo and natural rubber, were used to construct different types of xylophones and mallets. This created many different variations of the xylophone, many of which still exist today. Some of these include the Mbila, Gyil, Marimba, and Gambang.

 

 

Although the exact date is not known, the xylophone was introduced to Europe sometime during the Crusades.

The xylophone became very popular in Europe due to its use in folk music. However, these xylophones were still very simple and did not have resonators. Many different designs were created in Europe, including the creation of Michael Josef Gusikov, which was a four-rowed xylophone, and used the same notes as the piano. This was a major step towards the modern xylophone, as Gusikov was a well known virtuoso, and exposed the instrument to European concert audiences. In the 17th century, African instrumentalists took the xylophone with them to Central America where it was modified and became known as the marimba. The marimba remains popular throughout Mexico and Central America and is considered the national instrument of Guatemala.

 

 

In 1886, Albert Roth introduced the idea of a two-rowed xylophone with a chromatic note pattern.

This instrument is the modern instrument that we call the orchestral xylophone. The xylophone was created, and soon became a part of many orchestras and theater performances. In 1903, the American John Calhoun Deagan began to mass produce xylophones, and soon they were a part of nearly every orchestra. The xylophone is a precursor to the vibraphone, which was developed in the 1920s. In its 21st-century form the Western xylophone’s keys are usually arranged in two rows, somewhat like piano keys, on a stand – to improve the tone, a hollow groove is cut along the underside of each plate. Although rosewood is the favourite choice for plates, synthetic materials can be used. Tube resonators may also be provided. Xylophones are tuned to different scale systems depending on their origin, including pentatonic, heptatonic, diatonic, or chromatic. The arrangement of the bars is generally from low (longer bars) to high (shorter bars).

 

 

They should be played with very hard rubber, polyball, or acrylic mallets.

Sometimes medium to hard rubber mallets, very hard core, or yarn mallets are used for softer effects. Lighter tones can be created on xylophones by using wooden-headed mallets made from rosewood, ebony, birch, or other hard woods. Notable works that use the Western xylophone prominently include Le Marteau sans maître (1954 – The Hammer Without a Master) by Pierre Boulez, The Golden Age (1930) by Dmitry Shostakovich, and the solo piece Fantasy on Japanese Wood Prints (1965) by Alan Hovhaness. Western metallophones related to the xylophone include the glockenspiel and vibraphone. The xylophone itself is an established player in an orchestra’s percussion array – but its range, repertoire, and opportunities for significant growth are limited by both tradition and possibility. In recent years, its close cousin the marimba has grown considerably in popularity because of the interest in Latin, jazz, and percussive music and a broadening of the repertoire. Music enthusiasts hope the xylophone will also increase in popularity, but it will assuredly be a valued orchestra member because of its unique musical voice.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Xylophone  |  Facts About the Xylophone

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ARTIC GROUND SQUIRREL

Did you know... that the Arctic ground squirrel is a species of ground squirrel native to the Arctic and Subarctic of North America and Asia. People in Alaska, particularly around the Aleutians, refer to them as "parka" squirrels, most likely because their pelt is good for the ruff on parkas and for clothing. (Wikipedia)

 

The Animal With The Longest Hibernation Of All!

by admin
 

Arctic Ground Squirrel Facts At A Glance

• Scientific name: Urocitellus parryii
• Other Name(s): parka squirrel
• Type of Animal: Mammal, Rodent
• Animal Family: Sciuridae (the squirrel family)
• Where Found: Arctic regions of North America and Russia
• Average Length: 33.2 to 49.5 cm (13.1 to 19.5 in)
• Weight: 524 to 1500 g (1.2 to 3.3 lb.)
• Conservation Status: Least Concern

 

Meet The Arctic Ground Squirrel: Introduction

 

 

The Arctic ground squirrel is a rodent that lives in Arctic regions of North America and Russia. It is found further north than any other ground squirrel, and is known for its exceptionally long hibernation period. In fact, this Arctic rodent can hibernate for almost three quarters of the year; that’s longer than any other animal! The species’ coat is traditionally used in the ruffs of parka jackets. This practice has led to the species’ alternative name of ‘parka squirrel’.

 

What Does The Arctic Ground Squirrel Look Like?

The Arctic ground squirrel’s coat becomes

paler in the winter.

 

The Arctic ground squirrel has a cylindrical body and short, powerful limbs. Its snout is short and its ears small and round. White rings surround its large eyes. The feet have sharp claws and soft pads on the soles. The tail is flat, bushy and relatively short. Male Arctic ground squirrels are larger than females. The Arctic ground squirrel’s coat is reddish-grey and silver with red-brown patches on the head and legs. The undersides are pale grey / white, the tail dark. The squirrel molts twice a year. Its summer coat is soft and fine and reddish-brown in color. In winter the coat is thick and stiff, and becomes more silver-grey in color.

 

Where Is The Arctic Ground Squirrel Found?

The Arctic ground squirrel is found in

Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada and Russia.

 

The Arctic ground squirrel is found in Alaska and in Arctic regions of eastern Russia and Canada. Although the species is found across an extremely wide area (covering an estimated 2 million km2 / 770,000 sq. mi.), its distribution is patchy; it is present in high numbers in some areas but absent in others.

 

Arctic Ground Squirrel Habitat
The Arctic ground squirrel is found in a wide range of both open and forested habitats. These include: mountain slopes, river valleys, lake shores, open meadows, coastal sand ridges, forest clearings and meadow steppes. It lives at elevations of up to 1,400 m (4,600 ft.). Ideal habitat for the Arctic ground squirrel consists of sloping ground with sandy soil and sparse vegetation (the sandy soil is easy to burrow in and the lack of thick vegetation makes it easier to spot predators).

 

Behaviour

The Arctic ground squirrel often

stands on its hind feet to get a

better view of its surroundings.
 

The Arctic ground squirrel lives in colonies consisting of a dominant male, several closely-related females and their young. The colonies live in shallow burrow systems. The burrows are used for escaping from predators, as a den for expectant mothers, and as a winter refuge. Burrows used for hibernating are between 5 and 8 feet below the ground. Nests within the burrow systems are lined with dry grass, leaves, lichens and fur. During summer, the squirrels are generally active between 5 am and 11 pm. They return to their burrows at night and during periods of bad weather.

 

Arctic Ground Squirrel Hibernation

The Arctic ground squirrel hibernates for up to nine months of the year. This ‘extreme hibernation’ is an adaptation that enables the species to survive long periods of extreme cold and lack of food. Females hibernate longer than males, retreating to their burrows in early August only to emerge in late April. Males hibernate from late September to early April. The squirrels may wake and emerge from their burrows for short periods during the hibernation period. During hibernation, a squirrel’s heart rate slows and its core body temperature falls to as low as -2.9°C (37.2°F): the lowest recorded body temperature in a mammal.

 

Communication

The Arctic ground squirrel communicates

with scent and a variety of sounds.
 

The Arctic ground squirrel communicates via scent, touch and a range of vocalizations. Male squirrels use scent glands on their cheeks and back to mark their territories. When individuals meet, they often press their noses together. Vocalizations used by the squirrel range from screeches to rattles. Arctic ground squirrels vary their alarm calls depending on the type of threat they are facing. A deep guttural sound indicates a land-based predator, while a whistle-like call warns of a bird of prey.

 

Arctic Ground Squirrel Life Cycle
The Arctic ground squirrel mating season begins when the squirrels first emerge from hibernation and lasts for around 2 weeks. Violent encounters between males are frequent during this time as they fight for control over territories and access to the females that reside there. The female is only receptive for 12 hours and may mate with multiple males during that time. Gestation lasts 25 to 30 days, after which the female gives birth to a litter of 5 to 10 pups in an underground burrow. The young weigh around 10 g (0.35 oz.) at birth and are hairless, toothless and blind. The female nurses the pups for up to 35 days. Maternal responsibilities are often shared with related females. The young grow extremely fast. By 8 to 10 weeks of age they are independent and appear above ground. After leaving their mother, male squirrels are more likely to disperse while females tend to stay in the same area.

 

What Do Arctic Ground Squirrels Eat?

The Arctic ground squirrel is an omnivore. Its varied diet includes

grasses, seeds, fruit, mushrooms, insects and small vertebrates.

The Arctic ground squirrel is an omnivore. Its diet includes grasses, sedges, lichens, mosses, flowers, seeds, fruit, berries, mushrooms, insects, small vertebrates, eggs and carrion. During the summer, the squirrel’s diet contains a larger ratio of seeds and fruit. The animals increase their body fat by 30 to 41.5% in preparation for hibernation. Male squirrels also store grass and nuts inside their hibernation chambers – they rely on this cache of food when they re-emerge from hibernation before the females.

 

Predators
The Arctic ground squirrel is an important prey species to many animals. The species’ land-based predators include the Arctic fox, red fox, wolverine, lynx and grizzly bear. Aerial predators include the golden eagle, great horned owl, snowy owl, northern goshawk and peregrine falcon. The main anti-predatory strategies of the squirrels are constantly scanning the environment when above the ground and using alarm calls.

 

Is The Arctic Ground Squirrel Endangered?
The Arctic ground squirrel is rated ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN. The species is found across a wide range and has a large population. Although unsustainable hunting (both for the squirrel’s meat and for its skin) threatens some local populations, it does not threaten the species as a whole.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Arctic ground squirrel  |  Arctic Ground Squirrel Facts
 

Edited August 24, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LUCILLE BALL

Did you know... that Lucille Désirée Ball was an American actress, comedian, model, studio executive, and producer. She was the star and producer of sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, and Here's Lucy, as well as comedy television specials aired under the title The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. She was also the first female head of a major Hollywood studio, Desilu Productions, which she also owned. (Wikipedia)

 

What You Didn't Know About Lucille Ball
Take a wild guess how old she was when I Love Lucy first aired.
BY SAM ESCOBAR  |  Aug 6, 2015

 

We all know her as America's favorite redhead, but did you know Lucille Ball's hair wasn't really red? Along with that surprising tidbit, here are few more facts you might not know about the Queen of Comedy.

 

1. At 12, she auditioned for her first role.
After being encouraged by her stepfather, Lucille auditioned for a spot in the chorus line of a local stage production. Naturally, she won the role, and that experience led her to seek a career in showbiz.

 

 

2. She was the first female to run a major Hollywood studio.
Desilu Productions — named for its founders, Lucille and Desi — was formed in 1950. And until its reincorporation into Paramount Television in 1967, it not only produced I Love Lucy, but it also brought Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and The Untouchables to the small screen.

 

3. She celebrated her 40th birthday before I Love Lucy began airing.
It's oddly comforting to know that in a world where youth is idolized, those older and wiser can also get a slice of glory. Just a couple months after Lucille's 40th birthday, I Love Lucy debuted — and the rest is history.

 

4. Desi and Lucy were TV's first interracial couple.
Before her show began production, Lucy insisted that her then-husband, Cuban-American actor Desi Arnaz, be cast as her onscreen husband.

 

 

5. Her natural hair color was brown.
Before she made a big splash in the comedy world, Lucy appeared as a brunette in her earlier head shots

 

 

6. ...And it wasn't actually all that red on I Love Lucy.
Lucy originally dyed her locks for a role in Du Barry Was a Lady, then kept it that way for I Love Lucy. But rather than the vibrant red we all envisioned it to be, her hairstylist Irma Kusely described it as more of a "golden apricot" shade.

 

7. She was an avid gardener.
Just look at these gorgeous, lush plants in this photo taken of Lucy at her Hollywood home in 1950.

 

 

8. She nearly drowned during the famous grape-stomping scene.
Lucille would do just about anything for a good laugh. In the famous grape stomping fight scene in season 5's episode, Lucy's Italian Movie, she nearly drowned when the other actress in the scene accidentally held her under the smooshed grapes for too long. Apparently, the other actress involved didn't speak English and some direction was lost in translation, so one actually held Lucy's head underneath the grape juice.

 

 

9. Lucy was the first pregnant actress to play a pregnant woman on television.

When Lucy was expecting her second child, son Desi Arnaz, Jr., writers wrote the pregnancy into the show instead of hiding it. Of course, they used the word "expecting" rather than "pregnant" to keep everyone happy. 

 

10. She actually had both of her children later in life.

Her first baby, daughter Lucie Désirée Arnaz, was born when she was 40. And her second was born when she was nearly 42. And clearly, she and Desi were so inspired by their own names that they gave them to their children, too. 

 

 

11. She kept her trademark hair color for more than four decades.
Some prefer to go gray as they get older, but Lucy kept her stunning hue all the way until 1989.

 

 

This is me speaking now:  One movie I will always remember and love and have seen many times is "Yours, Mine, and Ours".  That movie to me, is a classic and will never get old.  Lucille Ball was fabulous in that movie!

 

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Lucille Ball

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SITCOM

Did you know... that a sitcom, clipping for situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. (Wikipedia)

 

Entertaining Facts About Sitcoms

by Chanell Alexander

Love them or hate them, sitcoms will always be a significant staple of pop culture. The golden days of the sitcom remind many people of a time when it was impossible to binge watch their favorite show, and they instead had to sit in anticipation for the next week’s offering. Even though the medium of their delivery may change, their impact will always last. As new sitcoms seek to make their mark, let’s take a look at some of fascinating facts about some of the most iconic sitcoms to ever grace television.

 

1. Making “Progress” With This First Across the Pond
While most of us can think of our favorite sitcom, many of us probably have no idea how it all got started. The sitcom reaches all the way back to 1946 with the airing of Pinwright’s Progress, a show that aired on BBC in the UK. It told the story of J. Pinwright, the owner of a tiny shop.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264290/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

 

2. A New “Frontier” For American Television
The United States was not too far behind when it came to developing sitcoms. Mary Kay and Johnny, a show that told the story of a pair of New York-based newlyweds, premiered in 1947.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128883/

 

 

3. A Monumental First
The first sitcom to feature an African American in a recurring role was The Laytons. Because of its premiere in 1948, not much is known about it today outside of this milestone.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438714/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

 

Amanda Randolph

 

4. One of the First Sitcom Juggernauts
I Love Lucy is one of the most famous sitcoms of all times. However, what many don’t know is that episodes were filmed from start to finish non-stop. Because of this, episodes rarely ever needed to be re-taped. I Love Lucy is also the first show to end at number one.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043208/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

 

5. A Memorable First Portrayal
One of the most popular shows of the early 1970s was All in The Family. The show handled a lot of controversial and sensitive topics for the time. In only the show’s fifth episode, All in The Family became the first sitcom to feature a gay character.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066626/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

 

 

6. The Golden Era of the Spinoff
Many of the most popular sitcoms of the 1970s and 80s were spinoffs. Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Diagnosis Murder, Maude, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Empty Nest all came from the concepts of other shows.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070992/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

 

 

7. One of The Largest “Farewells” in History
The sitcoms of years past held such a poignant place in our lives that their finales nearly made the world stop. Many have caused audiences to pause in front of their televisions to watch their send-offs, but only one broke the 100 million viewer mark. The show, M*A*S*H, had the most watched finale of all time at 105.9 million. Click to watch the last M*A*S*H Farewell episode on YouTube.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3

 

 

8. When Fandom Goes Remarkably Far
On the iconic sitcom Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld was such a fan of the hero Superman, that he included a reference to the character in every episode of the show.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

 

 

9. Who Ruled the Early ‘90s Theme Song Music Scene?
If the theme songs of early 90s sitcoms sounded a bit familiar, that’s because the same two composers created a bunch of them. Jesse Frederick and Bennett Salvay developed the theme songs for Family Matters, Full House, Step-by-Step, and Perfect Strangers.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096579/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

 

 

10. A Star Character Owes His Existence to Culture Shock
Perfect Strangers was created as a response to the 1984 Olympics. Producers for the show saw international athletes trying to navigate life in Los Angeles during the event, and wanted to explore this concept in a show—and there was a connection to another popular sitcom of the era. A woman named Mrs. Harriett Winslow was the elevator operator at the apartment the two main characters shared.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090501/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3

 

 

Click below  on Sitcom Facts to read other interesting facts about sitcoms.

 

Source: Sitcom Facts  |  Wikipedia - Sitcom

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NINTENDO

Did you know... that Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto. The company was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Karuta by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company under the current company name, Nintendo distributed its first video game console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of Donkey Kong in 1981 and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. in 1985. Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, such as the Game Boy, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo DS, the Wii, and the Nintendo Switch. It has created numerous major franchises, including Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Kirby, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Star Fox, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Super Smash Bros. The character of Mario is internationally recognisable, and serves as the company's mascot. Nintendo has multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, in addition to business partners such as The Pokémon Company and HAL Laboratory. Nintendo and its staff has received awards including Emmy Awards for Technology & Engineering, Game Awards, Game Developers Choice Awards and British Academy Games Awards. It is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market. (Wikipedia)

 

What You Didn't Know About Nintendo
By Evan Scott Schwartz  |  March 2014

Nintendo is one of the oldest and most beloved companies around. Seriously, after 120 years and counting, there are more than 200 Mario games alone and dozens of consoles and handhelds. But did you know that the original Mario and friends celebrated their victories with a bottle of bubbly? Here are a few things you probably didn't know about (nearly) everyone’s favorite video game company.

 

1. Way before video games, Nintendo made sexy playing cards.
Most people know that Nintendo started off as a playing card company, but did you know they made cards with sexy pinup models? That fits into Nintendo's history of weird sexual stuff, like the fact that they owned "Love Hotels" at one point and were party to some weird, vaguely pornographic games in the early years of NES.

 

2. Donkey Kong basically invented jumping.

Mario made his debut in Donkey Kong in the early 1980s as a sprightly fellow by the name of "Jumpman." Why Jumpman you might ask? It's because he was one of the first characters to ever actually jump up in a game. Sounds crazy now, but that was apparently all it took to completely blow someone’s mind in the 1980s.

 

3. Bushes and clouds are literally the same thing in Super Mario Bros.
The limits of game memory back then led to many, many shortcuts in early Nintendo games. For instance, the distinctive puffy clouds in the original Super Mario Bros are the exact same thing as those little green bushes on the ground. It's not just the bushes and the clouds though; multi-use objects are all over the original Mario universe.

 

4. Luigi is the lovechild of a Mario and Koopa.

Not literally – that would be gross. But in another shortcut due to limited memory, the Mario designers had to get creative with the second character. They used Mario’s general body shape and the color palette from the yellow and green Koopas to create Luigi. Poor guy can never get out of Mario’s shadow.

 

5. Game Boy was invented by a janitor.
Okay, so that’s a slight overstatement, but it's not far off. Gunpei Yokoi was working maintenance on the assembly line in a Nintendo factory when company president Hiroshi Yamauchi came around. Yamauchi noticed a toy that Yokoi had built in his spare time. That toy became the Ultra Hand, a best seller for the company, and Yokoi moved from the assembly line to the design suite. Yokoi then turned a boring old calculator into Game & Watch, another huge best seller, and then created the Game Boy: the crown jewel of handheld gaming devices.

 

6. Duck Hunt was somehow a remake of another shooting game.

Duck Hunt and its iconic zapper pistol are part of the NES legend, but the NES version was based on a different game from 1973 called the Laser Clay Shooting System. Not quite as catchy as "Duck Hunt," but probably just as addictive.

 

7. Nintendo really thought about making a phone.
Instead of an iPhone or Android, you could have had a, um, Donkey Kong Mobile in your pocket. The idea was a Game Boy merged with a smartphone, which is basically every phone on the market these days. With Nintendo announcing a renewed mobile gaming strategy, maybe a Nintendo phone isn't so far fetched anymore. The company has had its hands in a lot of different projects (they own the Seattle Mariners, for one thing) but a Nintendo phone would've been a game-changer.

 

8. The NES held the record for most console sales in history all the way through 2006, when Nintendo released the Wii.

For kids who grew up in a Super NES/N64 world, that should be surprising. But the original NES system was the king for decades, until the Wii set the world on fire. The two combined have sold more than 130 million units.

 

9. Mario has a 27-foot vertical leap.
A fun fact based on some research into Mario’s height in pixels. In the original Super Mario Bros., our portly plumber friend can apparently jump higher than LeBron James and Michael Jordan combined. For reference, Mario could probably touch the rim on three basketball hoops stacked on top of each other. Get that man a Knicks contract!

 

10. Nintendo made a LEGO ripoff.

LEGO is as iconic as it gets, but Nintendo gave their own interlocking block system a try. It clearly didn't sour any feelings, as myriad LEGO games now exist on Nintendo systems. Bricks can't get in the way of good business.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Nintendo  |  Facts About Nintendo You Might Not Know