Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - 'RUN' MOST COMPLEX WORD

Did you know.... This pithy word may only be three letters long, but it’s deceptively complex: According to one lexicographer, it has 645 distinct definitions.

 

English can be hard for other language speakers to learn. To use just one example, there are at least eight different ways of expressing events in the future, and conditional tenses are another matter entirely. For evidence of the many nuances and inconsistencies of the English tongue, look no further than this tricky poem penned in 1920. (For a sample: “Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!”)

 

As author Simon Winchester wrote for The New York Times, there’s one English word in particular that’s deceptively simple: run. As a verb, it boasts a record-setting 645 definitions. Peter Gilliver, a lexicographer and associate editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, spent nine months sussing out its many shades of meaning.

 

“You might think this word simply means ‘to go with quick steps on alternate feet, never having both or (in the case of many animals) all feet on the ground at the same time,’ ” Winchester wrote. “But no such luck: that is merely sense I.1a, and there are miles to go before the reader of this particular entry may sleep.”

 

This wasn’t always the case, though. When the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published in 1928, the word with the most definitions was set. However, the word put later outpaced it, and run eventually overtook them both as the English language's most complex word. Winchester posited that this evolution is partly due to advancements in technology (for instance, “a train runs on tracks” and “an iPad runs apps”).

 

He believes the widespread use of run—and its intricate web of meanings—is also a reflection of our times. “It is a feature of our more sort of energetic and frantic times that set and put seem, in a peculiar way, sort of rather stodgy, rather conservative,” Gilliver told NPR in an interview.

 

So the next time you tell your boss you “want to run an idea” by them, know that you’re unconsciously expressing your enthusiasm—as well as all the other subtleties wrapped up in run that previous words like set failed to capture.

 

 

Source: Why ‘Run’ Is The Most Complex Word in the English Language

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ORDER DYNOMITE

Did you know... Throughout more than a century of publication, the Sears catalog was a go-to source for American shoppers seeking out standard home goods. But in addition to those traditional products, the catalog also offered some curious items for sale, including live chickens, 14-room mail-order houses, and even highly explosive dynamite. A 1902 edition of the catalog advertised dynamite as a tool for removing tree stumps, claiming it to be “far superior to any other agent.” The company also offered more powerful varieties that could be used for blasting into hard rock and even underwater. Sears sold dynamite for as little as 13 cents a pound — less than $5 today — along with all of the electric fuses, connecting wires, and blasting machines required for operation.

 

There were no prerequisites for purchasing this dynamite, despite the obvious safety risks associated with amateur use. Instead, Sears promised to “mail a booklet giving full information” to “those who are not familiar with handling dynamite,” hoping buyers would carefully follow the instructions. The dynamite could be found in the catalog’s “sporting goods” section, just a few pages away from comparatively mundane products such as baseball uniforms and hammocks. Dynamite and other more unusual items were phased out as Sears largely trended toward selling housewares. In future editions of the catalog, Sears noted that “to conform with the insurance laws,” it had been “forced to omit carbide from [its] stock,” which prevented it from selling explosives and combustibles. The traditional Sears catalog was discontinued in 1993.

 

Dynamite was invented by the namesake of the Nobel Prize.
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist whose legacy consists of two major achievements: inventing dynamite and establishing the Nobel Prize. In 1862, Nobel opened a factory to produce nitroglycerin — an explosive liquid compound used in blasting mines. But the product was infamously unstable, and Nobel’s factory exploded in 1864. He spent the following years researching safer alternatives, and in 1867, he invented a more stable product by mixing nitroglycerin with kieselguhr (a porous rock). Nobel named this new compound dynamite — taken from the Greek dynamis, meaning “power” — and it earned him both global recognition as well as a staggering fortune. 

 

After Nobel’s death in 1896, many wondered what would happen to his vast wealth. To the surprise of many, including his family, Nobel’s will mandated the money be used to establish a series of new international awards honoring annual achievement in topics including science, literature, and peace. After years of debated legal claims, the inaugural Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901.

 

 

Source: You could once order dynamite through the Sears catalog.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BUTTERFLIES

Did you know.... The animal kingdom is a wide and varied world, and Mother Nature has come up with some surprising ways to accomplish a variety of feats. Bats “see” with their ears, snakes “smell” with their tongue, and perhaps most strangely of all, butterflies “taste” with their feet. Although some of a butterfly’s taste receptors are located on its tube-shaped mouthparts and antennae, most are found on its tarsus, or the bottom segment of its legs. The location of these receptors may seem odd, but they’re vital to a butterfly’s survival. 

 

Before a butterfly transforms into an adult, it spends its early days as a caterpillar gorging on surrounding plant material and growing, in some cases, around 1,000 times its birth weight. Some caterpillars can munch on a family of plants; the black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), for example, is also known as the “parsley worm” because it will eat several plants related to parsley, such as carrots, celery, and parsnips. However, the caterpillar of an endangered monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) only eats milkweed. Whether a “generalist” or a “specialist” eater, a butterfly uses its feet to analyze a leaf’s chemicals, a process called “contact chemoreception.” The chemoreceptors are especially important in allowing female butterflies to “taste” if a plant is safe for her larvae, who will start eating it shortly after hatching. The process isn’t perfect, however. In the monarch butterfly’s case, it can sometimes be tricked into laying its eggs on an invasive plant species, such as black swallow-wort, causing the larvae to die within a few days. That’s why ongoing conservation efforts focus on both planting native milkweed and eliminating any invasive competitors, to make the world safer for monarchs — and their feet.

 

Human feet produce half a pint of perspiration a day on average.
With some 250,000 sweat glands between the two of them (more than any other part of the body), human feet are sweat-producing machines that pump out upwards of a half-pint of sweat a day. If you happen to be one of the unlucky few afflicted with excessively sweaty feet via plantar hyperhidrosis, that number is even higher. Don’t get too grossed out, though — most of that sweat is lost to evaporation (or soaked into your socks). To a certain degree, sweaty feet are normal. Sweat protects skin from germs, provides an avenue for the body to release water and salt, and most importantly, keeps us cool. Some scientists think sweat on the soles of our feet may also have helped early ancestors increase their foot grip when running. Along with all those sweat glands, the human foot is loaded with 7,000 nerve endings. So besides being somewhat sweaty, feet are also devilishly ticklish.

 

Source: Butterflies taste through their feet.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TITANIC OWNERS

Did you know..... Forty years ago, a crew of American and French researchers led by oceanographer Robert Ballard reported some astonishing news: 73 years after hitting an iceberg, the wreck of the RMS Titanic had been found in the North Atlantic Ocean.

 

Almost immediately, questions regarding who had the right to dive to depths of over 12,000 feet and retrieve artifacts—or even the ship itself—were the subject of public, ethical, and legal debate. Could anyone actually own the remains of the most infamous ocean liner in history?

 

The ship’s original owner, White Star Line, had evaporated, bought out by rival Cunard; insurance companies covering both the ship and freight had an unknown number of underwriters. The paper trail was so pockmarked by the time of the 1985 discovery that it would’ve been difficult for any one of them to make any substantial claim. And even if they could, the challenge was making a case that would supersede admiralty law, which specifies that a sunken vessel located in international waters belongs to no one.

 

“Any financial records and the actual certificates of insurance are now lost,” said Paul Louden-Brown, a maritime historian and a former vice president of the Titanic Historical Society. “It would be expensive to pursue a legal claim ... particularly through the U.S. court system and any positive financial outcome is questionable.”

 

Naturally, not everyone agreed with that assessment.

 

A Deep Dive into Salvage Rights
In the 1980s and 1990s, several entities challenged the newly formed RMS Titanic, Inc., which had been recognized in court as being the salvor-in-possession after a 1987 dive in tandem with the French research team that had helped Ballard. (It didn’t give them ownership of the ship itself, but they had exclusive American rights to any artifacts retrieved during a dive.) A company named Marex said the ship had been abandoned by RMS Titanic, Inc. (previously known as Titanic Ventures) because it had waited too long to return; another company fought to charge “tourists” $32,500 to visit the wreck in a submersible; insurer Liverpool and London, who had paid out on some passenger policies, pursued the company in court before settling.

 

It took years, but RMS Titanic, Inc. successfully fought off their remaining challengers and recovered thousands of items during dives performed from 1987 to 2004. Bags that had been recovered were opened by Telly Savalas during a live television special. (They contained some coins, jewelry, and Italian lire.) In 1998, RMS Titanic, Inc. was able to successfully raise a portion of the ship’s hull that weighed 15 tons. For a time, it was part of a Titanic exhibition at the Luxor in Las Vegas.

 

The company has brought up over 5500 artifacts, with the most recent haul in 2010. In January 2025, RMS Titanic, Inc. put those operations on hold, citing a legal challenge over a 2017 U.S. law prohibiting salvors from retrieving objects due to the wreck’s status as a memorial. Previously, RMS Titanic, Inc. had been required to make efforts to visit the wreck to maintain salvage rights—but that jurisdiction applies only to dives in the United States. “There is nothing to prevent a company based in the UK or any other country from diving and recovering material from the vessel,” Louden-Brown said. “If the items recovered were landed in a U.S. port, then they would be seized and possibly the diving vessel impounded. So any operations would have to begin and end in a country other than the U.S.”

 

So who owns the Titanic itself? Right now, no one. If someone figured out a way to raise the 66,000-ton ship without destroying what remains, they’d likely be able to claim it—until the inevitable legal challenges came their way. Personal effects and other items are yours for the taking providing you dive for them without entering the U.S. and don’t mind some harsh criticism.

 

When Ballard returned to the site in 1986, his expedition placed a plaque on the ship’s stern to honor the dead. Like most everything else, it was eventually removed.

 

 

Source: Who Owns the ‘Titanic’?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - 'ZZZZZZ'

Did you know.... We have American comics to thank for introducing this one.

 

In the 1890s, a distinctly American art form emerged: the comic strip. But artists quickly ran into a particular difficulty. Some comic characters’ hijinks required a sleeping victim for full comedic potential.

 

But how could an artist convince the audience that a character was asleep and blissfully unaware instead of merely lying down? Visually—and, importantly for comics, dynamically—portraying a state in which most people are usually silent and still isn’t easy. So, in the end, the answer was to highlight the noisy part of it: snoring.

 

The Origins of Zzz
Comic artists tried a variety of representations for snoring before there was an accepted convention. Often, it was some combination of imitative letters, including zzggrrhh, ur-r-r-awk, or z-z-c-r-r-k-k-k-k. But symbols were also used, like stars and musical notes. Some artists even drew a log getting sawed above the person’s head in reference to the popular idiom for sleeping. The less imaginative sometimes simply wrote, “snore.”

 

One representation ultimately stuck, though: the letters Zzz. Its first use can be traced back to 1903 in the comic Katzenjammer Kids, created by Rudolph Dirks. In it, the snoring Captain sleeps peacefully in his hammock, emitting z’s, while the mischievous Katzenjammer kids cut his beard with a mower and then cut the hammock’s strings. 

 

Dirks didn’t use Zzz exclusively in his portrayals of snoring, but he often relied on variations of it. Other comics, such as The Fineheimer Twins, Krazy Kat, and the humor section of Boy’s Life, the Boy Scout Magazine, all followed suit by using z’s throughout the 1910s. By 1918, we know its place was solidified in the lexicon, having earned its own entry in the American Dialect Society’s notes: “z-z-z (sound of whispering or snoring).”

 

Do Other Languages Use Zzz to Represent Sleep?
Despite the letter Z being more of a visual representation of sleep than a verbal one, it has influenced language across the globe.

 

In the 1940s, the verb zonk (out) emerged to convey suddenly falling into a deep sleep. The phrase catch some Zs is also one of the most obvious results of Zzz’s popularization, though it’s pronounced a little differently in many English-speaking countries around the world, like the UK, Canada, and Australia. There, a tired person needs to catch some “zeds,” and a nap has even come to be called a “zizz.” 

 

Many languages have their own unique noises or representations for snoring aside from Zzz as well. Germans, for example, use chrr, and French and Spanish speakers also lean into their r sounds with variations of a sound like roon or just plain rrr. The Japanese, meanwhile, use characters that sound like guu-guu, and in Mandarin it’s akin to hu-lu. But even though the regional onomatopoeia may vary, Zzz has made its mark; it’s recognized internationally as a symbol for sleep.

 

Source: Why Does ‘Zzz’ Mean Sleep?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SNOWSHOES

Did you know.... A regular boot plunges straight through deep snow, while a snowshoe sits securely on top. To understand why, you need a brief physics lesson.

 

Snow is exhausting. It’s beautiful to look at and almost magical to experience, but still, exhausting. .

 

It’s a truth our ancestors had a rather ingenious answer for thousands of years ago, back when staying cozy indoors and ordering delivery wasn’t an option in wintry weather. Instead of trudging through inches of freshly-fallen flakes and having every step sink through the powdery quicksand, they invented the snowshoe, a piece of footwear we’ve spent millennia adapting and outfitting to help us traverse the slush and fluff of the colder months. 

 

The practice of snowshoeing popped up roughly 4000 to 6000 years ago in Central Asia, and from there it spread to Europe and North America. Indigenous people needed a way to get around while trapping, hunting, and traveling over treacherous terrain. Made from wood slats and animal rawhide, early snowshoes resembled oversized tennis rackets, and different models were named after members of the animal kingdom. The snowshoe hare may have been the inspiration for a common Native American showshoe, its shape and size resembling the creature’s large hind feet. Other designs that originated on the continent were named after bear claws and beaver tails [PDF].

 

Despite its long, rich history—it won wars, became a national pastime in Canada, and even graduated to its own sport in some parts of the world—the basic concept of how the snowshoe works hasn’t changed that much. To understand it, you just need to know a bit about physics. 

 

Imagine you’re trying to make a hole in a sheet of paper. You have a pencil and a penny. The pencil punches right through, while the penny requires more effort. That’s the driving science behind snowshoes. Normal boots have a small surface area, which means the pressure per square inch (or PSI) of every step is greater, or more forceful. Snowshoes are wider and bigger, distributing that pressure across a larger surface area easier—gentler, even—on the snow itself. This is called flotation. The deck of a snowshoe is responsible for distributing your weight, and the larger the deck, the more flotation the shoe provides. Modern snowshoes are even more lightweight than their predecessors, made from inflatable fabrics, plastics, aluminum, and durable polymers that allow them to hold more weight and cross a variety of surfaces. 

 

So, the next time you feel like traipsing through the woods on a serene, snow-covered day—or you have to trudge through icy glop to cross your yard—make sure to bring your snowshoes and take time to appreciate the science behind them.

 

 

Source: How Do Snowshoes Work?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PURPLE

Did you know... If you want your flag to fit in, go with red, white, and blue, the three most popular colors found on the world’s flags. If you want to go a more distinctive route, add a dash of purple, because only one national flag in the world sports this hue. That flag belongs to the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, and features the country’s national bird, the purple-plumed sisserou parrot (Amazona imperialis). This endangered bird is one of the oldest Amazon parrot species in the world, and can be found only in the remote mountain forests of Dominica. 

 

Eagle-eyed flag experts might note that the flags of both Nicaragua and El Salvador feature volcano-traversing rainbows, which (theoretically) contain the full spectrum of visible color. However, Dominica still wins out on a technicality. These two countries officially label the last shade of the rainbow on their flags as “violet” and “blue,” respectively, and the color purple is a nonspectral color, meaning it isn’t represented by a specific wavelength of light (and therefore not part of a rainbow). Instead, the color purple is a construction of our brain and the limitations of the cones in our eyes. So unless some country opts for a purple-centric redesign, the chromatic glory of the sisserou parrot will remain a flag favorite.

 

Only one national flag in the world isn’t a rectangle.
Flags come in many different colors and a variety of designs, but most of them are rectangular. The flag of Nepal is a truly incredible departure, however. The double pennon-shaped flag, which looks like two differently sized triangles stacked on top of one another, represents both the Himalayan mountains as well as the country’s two major religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. (The exact mathematical proportions of the triangles are actually enshrined in the country’s constitution.) Just like the vast landscapes that fill the country, the Nepalese flag is certainly one of a kind.

 

Source: Purple is the rarest color on national flags.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - THE FLU

Did you know.... Like clockwork, flu viruses seem to strike more people in winter than in any other season—and there are several reasons for that.

 

The current flu season is shaping up to be a doozy: According to the Washington Post, the hospitalization rate is three times higher for flu than for COVID-19 as of January 2025. But why does the flu even have a season?

 

Influenza viruses travel the globe.
In the temperate regions of the world, the flu tends to strike hardest in the autumn and winter. The conventional wisdom used to be that the influenza viruses either went into a dormant state or persisted at very low levels during the summer months before flaring up again. Scientists have since figured out that, instead of simply lying low during their “off season,” the viruses also go globe-trotting, and get transmitted throughout populations all over the world.

 

In 2007, researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the National Institutes of Health found that the influenza A virus uses its summer travels to meet exotic viruses in tropical areas (which experience year-round flu virus activity), swap genetic information with them, and then roll back into town with enough genetic differences to fool our immune systems. Scientists are still working out what exactly triggers the reintroduced viruses to infect people during the fall and winter.

 

Weather and climate influence influenza.
Influenza viruses do very well in cold winter temperatures and the dry air that goes with them. They can survive longer in dry air than moist air, and hold out longer on exposed surfaces (counters, doorknobs, keyboards, etc.) when they're cold. For humans, dry air means dehydrated mucus and drier nostrils and airways, which could make it easier for the viruses to make themselves at home once they're passed to us. A study on guinea pigs at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine showed that the transmission of influenza is enhanced in cold (41°F), dry (20 percent humidity) conditions and declines as temperature and humidity rise (at 86°F or 80 percent humidity, it wasn't transmitted at all).

 

Human behavior spreads the virus.
Fall and winter bring a new school year and cooler outside temperatures, and more people spend more time indoors in close contact with each other, giving the viruses an easy route for transmission between hosts. Even in tropical regions that don't have a winter and where flu occurs throughout the year, illness tends to spike during the rainy season when people spend time together indoors.

 

Human physiology leaves us susceptible.
Thanks to all that time indoors and the short winter days, our bodies’ Vitamin D decreases in the winter. This decrease, or any number of other seasonal tweaks to our immune systems, could leave us more susceptible to the virus for a few months out of the year and act as a “seasonal stimulus” for flu infection. 

 

Source: Why Is the Flu Seasonal?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - OREGON TRAIL DISEASES

Did you know... Spoiler alert: They’re still around.

 

These are five words familiar to anyone who has attempted to caulk a wagon and ford rivers en route to the Willamette Valley. Oregon Trail not only taught generations of kids about Western migration in 19th-century America, it also introduced them to various strange-sounding diseases. Let’s catch up with some of those diseases and find out if they’re just as nasty today.

 

Cholera
Then: One of the biggest killers on the actual Oregon Trail, cholera is an intestinal infection caused by ingesting the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. Spread through contaminated food or water, the pathogen releases an enterotoxin that effectively floods the intestines with excess water. This leads to continual watery diarrhea, causing severe dehydration and often death.

 

Now: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cholera remains a global pandemic. Today, we have vaccines for the disease, and symptoms can be treated with a regimen of fluids and electrolytes, as well as antibiotics. The best defense remains stringent sanitation regulations, a luxury afforded primarily to industrialized countries. Between October 23 and November 25, 2024, nearly 29,000 new cholera cases were recorded worldwide.

 

Diphtheria
Then: Caused by a toxin produced by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, diphtheria is an airborne bacterial disease. It usually shows up first in the nose and throat, but can also surface as skin lesions. A gray, fibrous material grows over airways, causing difficulty breathing and sometimes uncontrollable drooling, as well as a deep cough and chills. Diphtheria was most common on the Oregon Trail during the winter months.

 

Now: Routine childhood immunizations have nearly erased diphtheria in the U.S. In 2023, there were nearly 25,000 cases of diphtheria worldwide. The disease is rarely fatal if a person is vaccinated and receives treatment.

 

Dysentery
Then: Dysentery (a.k.a. shigellosis) is caused by Shigella bacteria and results in bloody diarrhea, which can lead to severe dehydration and death. Like cholera, dysentery spreads via contaminated water and food, but it was not as widespread on the trails as cholera. Dysentery was a bigger problem on Civil War battlefields.

 

Now: Dysentery is still a major threat to the developing world. Not only is there no effective vaccine; recent strains are increasingly resistant to antibiotics—the only proven line of defense in tandem with fluids. 

 

Measles
Then: Highly contagious measles ravaged the United States in the 19th century. Complications from measles, like bronchitis and pneumonia, made the disease life-threatening. Measles spreads through contaminated droplets when people cough, sneeze, wipe their nose and then touch anything. It causes nasty rashes, fever, and conjunctivitis.

 

Now: A vaccine was discovered in the mid-20th century, virtually eradicating measles from the developed world. It is now part of the trifecta inoculation MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) that most American children receive in infancy and again at age 6. There were 285 reported cases of measles in the U.S. in 2024. (Most of the people who got measles were unvaccinated and got the disease while traveling; measles then spread among unvaccinated members of the community when the travelers returned home.) Measles is still a problem around the world: According to the World Health Organization, there were more than 100,000 measles deaths in 2023, “mostly among unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children under the age of 5 years.” WHO estimates that “Measles vaccination averted more than 60 million deaths between 2000 and 2023.”

 

Typhoid Fever
Then: Oregon Trail pioneers contracted typhoid like many other diseases—from contaminated water. The disease, caused by Salmonella serotype Typhi, spreads when an infected person sheds the bacteria in their stool. The major symptom is high fever, followed by weakness and loss of appetite. In the warmer months, typhoid was a real killer.

 

Now: Globally, there are around 9 million cases of typhoid fever and 100,000 deaths caused by the disease annually. There is a vaccine, and the disease can be treated with antibiotics (though it, like dysentery, is becoming resistant to antibiotics). People in the U.S. might pick it up when traveling in developing countries, so it’s key to check on your vaccination status and avoid any tap water or food cooked in unclean water when traveling.

 

 

Source: Where Are They Now? Diseases That Killed You in ‘Oregon Trail’

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - DEAD WEIGHT

Did you know.... Limp bodies can feel heavier. Here's why.

 

Funeral directors and criminals have at least one thing in common: They’re tasked with transporting corpses around. Sometimes, the act of picking up a dead body or other inert cargo is referred to as dead weight. But does dead weight literally mean dead? And is it possible for a dead or unconscious body to somehow be more difficult to lift than if the person were alert?

 

Yes and no.

 

Per the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase dead weight can be traced back to the 1600s and is defined as the “weight of something which does not move by itself; a heavy, inert weight.”

 

A firefighter, for example, may have to carry a person overcome by smoke out of a burning building. While they don’t weigh any more than they did prior to the fire, the first responder might have more difficulty carrying them because their weight is now unevenly distributed. Someone awake might hold their head up or otherwise cooperate by instinctually making themselves easier to carry; someone who is passed out might have it lolling off to the side. Limp arms and legs cause further imbalance.

 

This really isn’t an issue of a person (or object) being without consciousness, as it is about not having a proper center of mass. Moving or fluctuating weight causes a person’s own muscles to shift and adjust in order to balance the load, leading to increased effort. The center of mass is no longer static: Instead, it’s shifting. It’s not that the weight is different—it’s that the weight is no longer predictable.

 

As Parade columnist Marilyn vos Savant once observed, one way to visualize dead weight is to think of carrying 40 pounds of books in a compact box. The weight, which is centered, can be handled without much difficulty. But those same books in a laundry bag will be harder to lift because the weight is distributed unevenly.

 

Dead weight can take on other meanings. It might be a kind of burden, as in the case of an unproductive employee. It might also be used as a kind of measuring stick for physical inventory, as in train or ship cargo or the weight of a vessel minus its contents or crew.

 

Most people, however, associate dead weight with limp bodies. They don’t have to be dead, just resistant, such as a protester who lies down in the street to make it harder to be dragged off. If knowing how to move dead weight truly concerns you, you can take some first aid classes to learn various transportation or carry techniques. Most instructors will likely tell you to avoid pulling, as it can result in injury. If the dead weight is metaphorical in nature, you’ll have to figure out something else.

 

 

Source: What Exactly Is ‘Dead Weight’?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CONVENIENCE STORE

Did you know.... The company now known as 7-Eleven has a history of being ahead of the curve. Back in 1927, when its founders were running the Southland Ice Company in Texas, an executive recognized the potential of selling basic provisions like milk and bread alongside the ice blocks that were so essential to households in the days before refrigerators were common. With a little company restructuring, the first convenience store chain was up and running. (The name was changed to 7-Eleven, a reference to the hours of operation, in 1946.)

 

In 1963, 7-Eleven opened its 1,000th store, but a more significant milestone in the convenience store realm was also about to happen. Around this time, according to Oh Thank Heaven!: The Story of the Southland Corporation, one store located near the University of Texas campus in Austin found itself unusually busy in the hours after a school football game, to the point where employees never had the chance to shut the doors for the night. When this situation unfolded again following the next football game, the company's brain trust sniffed a potentially transformative moment for the business, and established 24-hour shops near Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

 

Meanwhile, another 24-hour experiment was unfurling at a 7-Eleven near the Strip in Las Vegas, a move that yielded an increase in profits and the surprise side effect of deterring burglaries. Eventually, both 7-Eleven and their competitors realized that it wasn't just the amped-up college students and gamblers who sometimes needed a 24-hour pit stop, paving the way for the proliferation of these ever-open outposts to provide soda, chips, and a range of other goodies to help folks everywhere make their way through the night.

 

A Swedish entrepreneur fueled the rising trend of unmanned convenience stores.
In 2016, IT specialist Robert Ilijason rolled the dice on a new business model by opening a nonstaffed, 24-hour convenience store in the small town of Viken, Sweden. Registered customers used their smartphones to enter the store and scan items, for which they received a bill at the end of the month, while a half-dozen security cameras served to dissuade shoplifters from snatching freebies. At the time, Ilijason was hopeful his idea would spread to other villages, but the appeal turned out to be far broader than he thought. After selling his business in 2017 to a Swedish startup, which promptly opened an unmanned store in Shanghai, China, Ilijason founded his own startup to send a wave of these phone-operated shops snowballing through his home country. But the biggest sign that his idea was here to stay? When the big dog of the industry, 7-Eleven, decided to make another corporate leap with the opening of its first unmanned branch in Seoul, South Korea, in 2017.

 

 

Source: A college football game helped launch the 24-hour convenience store.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ANYONE CAN BE SUED

Did you know... In the world of politics, nobody is safe from a well-executed smear campaign.

 

In 2007, Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers sued God. As KETV Omaha reported at the time, Chambers’s lawsuit sought “a permanent injunction ordering God to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.”

 

According to the mortal plaintiff, the immortal defendant had caused “fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like” [PDF]. Chambers claimed he had tried to alert God of the impending lawsuit by shouting, “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” but the attempt failed to get the deity’s attention. Chambers further claimed that he had jurisdiction to sue the Almighty, since, “being Omnipresent, {He} is personally present in Douglas County."

 

The lawsuit was absurd, but that was the point. The deliberation came in the midst of a controversial sexual assault case in which a district judge had barred the plaintiff, a Nebraska woman, from using the words rape or victim during trial. After two mistrials, the accuser sued the judge for violating her rights to free speech—but a federal judge deemed that lawsuit legally “frivolous” (that is, without merit). This came in the wake of a Nebraska statute that further restricted such frivolous lawsuits.

 

For Chambers, this appears to have been a flashpoint. By suing God, he hoped to make a political statement: That a court should be required to hear a case, no matter how frivolous it might be. “The Constitution requires that the courthouse doors be open,” he said, “so you cannot prohibit the filing of suits. Anyone can sue anyone they choose, even God.”

 

It wasn’t the first—or last—time somebody had sued a supernatural being. In 1971, a Pennsylvania inmate named Gerald Mayo sued “Satan and his servants” because they had “placed deliberate obstacles in plaintiff’s path and caused his downfall.” In 2007, a Romanian murderer attempted to sue God for “not protecting him from the Devil’s influence,” Eric Grundhauser wrote in Atlas Obscura. Both cases were dismissed.

 

In August 2008, Chambers and God got their day in court, with Douglas County District Court judge Marlon Polk presiding and “an empty table reserved for God and God’s attorney,” according to the Associated Press. In a four-page decision, Polk dismissed the lawsuit because God’s home address was unlisted. Since the deity could not be properly summoned, the case could not move forward.

 

Chambers saw this coming. Since God is omniscient, Chambers argued, He doesn’t need to be served because He already knows it’s coming. Judge Polk, however, didn’t budge. “Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice,” he wrote.

 

It should be noted that Chambers has a history of using absurdity to make broader political points. In his opposition to the state’s Concealed Handgun Permit Act [PDF], Chambers once offered an amendment suggesting a formula that claimed to help determine the maximum number of pistols a person could carry: It involved “multiplying the size of the licensee’s right shoe by three-times the girth of the licensee’s waist after a full meal, measured and certified by a professional tailor” [PDF].

 

Source: The Politician Who Sued God

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - DOGS AND WINTER

Did you know... Keeping their paws safe and warm is one of the biggest priorities.

 

For most people, freezing temperatures mean the added burden of scraping ice off cars, making sure plumbing pipes don’t freeze, and keeping snow cleared from driveways. Lingering in the cold weather is kept to a minimum.

 

For dog owners, the objective is to give their pets a chance to exercise while they’re bundled in all manner of dog winter jackets and boots. If you’re one of the many who are curious about what additional precautions you need to take to walk your dog in unforgiving conditions, check out these methods for winterizing your furry family member.

 

Buy your dog a winter jacket

Pet accessories are usually designed to be adorable without a lot of practical functionality. The exception is a dog winter jacket or coat. Short-haired pups and smaller breeds are particularly prone to being uncomfortable in frigid conditions and need help conserving their body heat. Select a waterproof winter coat that covers the chest and abdomen. Brighter colors are better for visibility, especially if your dog has light-colored fur. (If they go off-leash, they’ll be easier for you and others to spot.)

 

Use boots or gel to protect their paws from snow, ice, and rock salt

A dog’s paws can stand up to some pretty tough terrain, but prolonged exposure to snowy, icy surfaces will eventually prove uncomfortable. You can apply a wax or gel (petroleum jelly will work) to help protect their skin, but make sure you wash it off when you’re done. Some pet owners opt for dog winter boots, which can help keep paws dry and weather-resistant. If your dog resists the idea of wearing booties, you can put them on and then divert their attention to a meal, treat, or going out the door right away.

 

Choose the right leash for winter walks

If your dog is the type who winds up walking you, make sure you have a leash that allows you to retain more control over unpredictable winter surfaces. A harness takes the strain off the dog’s neck and makes it easier for you to direct its path. Avoid retractable leashes, as it’s harder to control the slack. If you’re prone to walking over really precarious areas, a jogger’s leash that fits around your waist will keep your dog tethered in the event that you fall and lose your grip.

 

Do a post-walk check

If you opt to let your dog go barefoot, make sure you wash off any salt or antifreeze when you get home. Wipe down their belly, too, since it can also come in contact with de-icing products. These compounds are irritating to their paws and toxic if ingested. Make sure you keep them away from any chemical puddles they encounter outside, too.

 

Watch for signs your dog is uncomfortable

Dogs tend to shake, turn toward your house, or leave their paws raised when the cold is getting to be too much. Certain breeds may also be more tolerant to colder temperatures than others, particularly if it’s below 30°F. (You can view this chart for information on weather conditions and the potential risk to animals.) If you observe any of these signs, it’s best to finish the walk and let your pet warm up back home.

 

 

Source: Tips for Safely Walking Your Dog in Winter

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SLOTHS

Did you know.... Sloths are masters of living life in the slow lane. These tree-hugging mammals, split into two-toed and three-toed varieties, travel only about 125 feet a day — so slowly that moss and algae grow on their fur. This lethargic lifestyle is actually a survival strategy suitable for their slow metabolisms and low-calorie diets, which are mostly based on tree leaves. In fact, three-toed sloths have the slowest metabolism of any mammal (followed closely by pandas and two-toed sloths). 

 

Their sluggish metabolism, as well as their ability to slow their heart to one-third its normal rate, give sloths an unexpected superpower — they can hold their breath for an impressively long time. With estimates suggesting that some two-toed sloths can hold their breath for upwards of 40 minutes, this makes sloths better at conserving oxygen than even some marine mammals such as dolphins, who can only hold their breath for 15 minutes, max. The sloth breathing technique, aided by the design of their lungs, helps make sloths excellent swimmers. So while their leisurely lifestyle may seem a bit lazy to the untrained eye, don’t blame the sloths — they’re just built that way. 

 

Some sloths used to be the size of elephants.
Megatherium americanum, which in Latin means “great beast of America,” is a fearsome name for a fearsome animal — a giant ground sloth that weighed around 8,000 pounds. This gargantuan creature appears in the fossil record in the Middle Pleistocene around 400,000 years ago, and for hundreds of thousands of years, roamed the lightly wooded areas of South America. The beast fueled its massive bulk mostly by scavenging for meat left behind by top predators, but eventually died out at the beginning of the Holocene Epoch, around the same time as the arrival of Homo sapiens on the continent. Because it could stand and walk on its hind legs (though it was usually a quadruped), this ground sloth is considered the largest bipedal mammal that’s ever existed on Earth.

 

 

Source: Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins can.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - STICK OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB

Did you know... The phrase dates back to the 19th century, but it took a fictional 20th century detective to take its popularity to new heights.

 

When we say something “sticks out like a store thumb,” we mean it’s conspicuous, obvious, or unusual (and typically not in a good way). It’s an expression you’ve probably used before without thinking—but if you do stop to think about it, you quickly realize that it’s a fairly bizarre thing to say. As Willow put it in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Sore thumbs. Do they really stick out? I mean, have you ever seen a thumb and gone, ‘Wow! That baby is sore!’”

 

So where does stick out like a sore thumb come from? Ultimately, its origins are unclear, but we likely do have one person to thank for popularizing the phrase.

 

A History of Sticking Out, Sore Thumbs and All
Conspicuous things have been “sticking out” in English since the 17th century. And over the years, everything from “a lighthouse” to “a fly in the cream” to “a bumble bee on a bald man’s head” have been added to the end of sticking out to create a more memorable metaphor. Sore thumb is no exception: It calls to mind a painfully bright red digit—perhaps the result of being hit with a hammer by a clumsy DIY-er—held away from the rest of the hand.

 

The sore thumb version of the phrase seems to have first popped up in newspapers in the U.S. around the mid 1800s. In March 1874, California’s The Oakland Tribune declared that an unfinished courthouse dome “may stick out something like a sore thumb.” The phrase even made it to the Australian papers in 1884, when they quoted “a New York trader” who opined that “an advertisement … should stick out like a sore thumb.”

 

According to Google Ngrams, the more popular version of the phrase at the time was stick up like a sore thumb, which spiked in usage in the 1920s. It was used in the 1926 novelization of a Broadway play called The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart, when one character declares that “A good many people rather fancy themselves as detectives and run around looking for clues under the impression that a clue is a big and vital factor that sticks up like—well, like a sore thumb.” The novel, though credited to Rinehart, was actually ghostwritten by the author and poet Stephen Vincent Benét (better known for his Pulitzer-winning epic John Brown’s Body).

 

Stands out like a sore thumb was also popular at the time—and it’s that version of the phrase that was snapped up by different author, who would go on to take sticks out like a sore thumb to a different level entirely.

 

Enter Perry Mason
In the 1930s and ’40s, the author Erle Stanley Gardner repeatedly used sore thumb expressions in a handful of his Perry Mason series of legal thrillers; his earliest usage was in 1936’s The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece: “ ‘No,’ he said, ‘that’s the one thing in the case that stands out like a sore thumb, now that I stop to think of it.’ ” In 1941’s The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Husband, Gardner used the version of the phrase we’re most likely to use today: “A private detective in that atmosphere would stick out like a sore thumb on a waiter serving soup.”

 

Gardner’s Perry Mason novels, which number more than 80, proved enormously successful: They sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world, and were adapted for television (first in 1957, with Raymond Burr as the titular detective, and then again in 2020, with Matthew Rhys). Ultimately, the author’s apparent fondness for sticks out like a sore thumb phrase helped to popularize it even more widely in informal English in the mid-20th century—and conspicuous things have been sticking out like sore thumbs ever since.

 

Source: Where Did the Saying ‘Stick Out Like a Sore Thumb’ Come From?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SHOWERING IN SPACE

Did you know.... Getting clean isn’t so easy without the force of gravity helping you out.

 

Here on Earth, we tend to take showers for granted. But for astronauts stationed in space, taking a quick rinse—much like cooking, eating, using the toilet, and just about every other mundane, everyday task—becomes a lot more complicated due to the near-absence of gravity. 

 

On Earth, gravity keeps our pans on the stove, food on our plates, and water falling from the shower head in a straight, uninterrupted line. In space, on the other hand, water not only floats around like dust but also sticks to itself due to surface tension, forming bubbly spheres that are every bit as mesmerizing to watch as they are ill-suited for washing. 

 

Before space expeditions came equipped with their own filtration systems, astronauts had to conserve as much water as possible. Crew members on NASA’s Gemini and Apollo missions, which took place during the 1960s, opted for sponge baths, cleaning themselves with soap and towels just as one would on Earth, only a bit more laboriously. 

 

A diagram of the shower aboard Skylab during the Saturn Workshop mission in the 1970s. | NASA // Public Domain

 

To make the astronauts feel more at home in orbit, Skylab—the first U.S. space station—came equipped with a contraption more closely resembling a shower [PDF]. A floor-to-ceiling, cylinder-shaped tarp acted as a shower curtain to prevent water from escaping, and a nitrogen-pressurized water bottle functioned as a shower head, substituting propelling force for gravity.

 

Although some astronauts appreciated the space shower, most found it impractical and cumbersome (the average shower time reportedly lasted over two hours). As a result, Skylab’s successor, the International Space Station, ended up reverting back to sponge baths, with astronauts cleaning themselves using rinse-free soap and shampoo. 

 

Where Skylab astronauts relied primarily on pre-loaded water tanks, the ISS is equipped with a filtration system that captures the moisture that evaporates from astronauts’ hair and bodies and turns it into clean drinking water. The system also filters moisture from the astronauts’ breath, as well as their urine. In all, 80 percent of the ISS’s water supply (530 gallons in total) is recycled. 

 

“A Glob of It Will Go Flying Off”
Living in a microgravity environment doesn’t mean you don’t sweat. Astronauts perspire just as much as us earthlings do. Worse, sweat, like water, sticks to their bodies, clumped into spheres and held together by surface tension. “You have pools of sweat on your arms, your head, around your eyes,” astronaut Mike Hopkins, who was stationed at the ISS from September 2013 to March 2014, wrote in The Atlantic. “Once in a while, a glob of it will go flying off.” 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, no matter how thoroughly astronauts clean themselves, the ISS’s facilities are unable to rival the efficiency of bathrooms down on Earth. While space itself is a vacuum and therefore devoid of odors, which travel to our nostrils by way of oxygen, the interior of space stations and exploration vehicles are said to smell like a combination of antiseptic, garbage, gunpowder, barbeque, and BO. 

 

Even with modern toiletries, the inside of the ISS probably smells similar to the earliest crewed spaceflights, as today’s astronauts wash themselves in the same manner as those in the 1960s.

 

“The [Gemini and Apollo] astronauts had been in their suits so long without changing their clothes that the scent lingered the entire time,” said Jennifer Levasseur, a curator in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Space History Department. “It was a slap in the face to those who greeted them upon their return because the scent was so strong.”

 

Source: How Do Astronauts Shower in Space?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - IS THAT MY VOICE?

Did you now.... The first known recording of a human voice (a 10-second clip of someone singing the French folk song “Au Clair de la Lune”) was captured on April 9, 1860, using a device called a phonautograph. Until that point, people remained blissfully unaware of what their voices sounded like to other people.

 

Fast forward from phonautographs to smartphones, and we can now obsess over how our recorded voice just sounds off. Yet audio recordings are more reflective of your real speaking voice than the voice you hear in your head. Let’s get into why there’s a difference between the two sounds and why many of us cringe when we hear what our voice sounds like to others.

 

It All Starts With the Ossicles

The smallest bones in the human body, the ossicles, transmit sound to the inner ear. The cochlea, a kind of spiral-shaped organ, then transforms this vibration into electrical impulses using 25,000 auditory nerves that send a signal through the auditory nerve to the brain. This entire process is known as auditory transduction, and it all occurs within just a few milliseconds. 

 

The ear achieves transduction through two means: bone conduction (movement of ossicles) and air conduction (movement of air outside the ear). When a person speaks, the ear uses both those methods to make sense of the sound. But because your mouth is close to your ear, the ossicles vibrate more, distorting your voice to a lower pitch inside your head and giving you a “false sense of bass,” according to the BBC. Audio recordings, on the other hand, directly convert sound waves into digital data, so they capture your voice exactly as it sounds to others. This explains why your voice is usually a slightly higher pitch than what you’re used to hearing in your head.

 

Why You Might Not Like Your “Real” Voice

This difference in sound often makes people dislike their recorded voice, and studies suggest that auditory “ick” has a psychological component as well. Because voices are central to self-identity, hearing the higher, thinner sound (less full and rich due to the lack of aforementioned “bass”) compared to your internal perception of your voice can be exceptionally jarring. However, a series of studies have found we’re particularly biased in assessing the quality of our recorded voice. 

 

A 2005 study, for example, asked patients to rate their voice quality before asking clinicians to rate those same voices. Overwhelmingly, the patients rated their own voices more negatively compared to the clinicians. And in another study in 2013, participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of an array of different voices, with their own voice secretly included in the mix. People rated their voices significantly higher in quality when they were unaware the voice was their own. 

 

You Have Many Kinds of Voices

Throughout life, your voice changes. The most dramatic example of this is during puberty; as the larynx grows and moves down lower in the neck, vocal cords lengthen and thicken, and as a result, your voice deepens. However, this process continues as we age, as vocal cords become thinner and cartilage becomes less flexible. This makes women’s voices slightly lower and men’s voices slightly higher. 

 

Your voice can also change depending who you’re talking to, a concept known as “speech accommodation.” For example, a 2017 study concluded that conversations where perceptions of social status are present, such as a manager speaking with a potential hire, can affect the pitch of someone’s person’s voice, and some experts even say people have a unique voice for every single relationship in their life, whether it’s their boss, their mother, or their best friend. Another concept known as “phonetic convergence” explains how people who spend a lot of time together begin to sound alike.

 

Even armed with the knowledge that your voice is a mutable rainbow of textures and tones, hearing it on a recording may still give you pause. Thankfully, some evidence suggests you can get used to your true voice through sheer exposure. Once you get over the shock of your thinner, higher voice, you may slowly learn to love it — or at least tolerate it.

 

 

Source: Why Your Voice Sounds Different to You Than to Others

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - DISH SOAP

Did you know.... Even cleaning products expire. Here’s what to keep in mind with dish soap.

 

When it comes to product expiration dates, consumers are usually worried about food and medication, the former for spoilage and the latter for dwindling effectiveness. As you’re (ideally) not consuming cleaning products, their decreased usefulness is a little more abstract. So, when should you worry about things like dish soap or laundry detergent going bad?

 

When Does Dish Soap Expire?
According to Real Simple, dish soap and other cleaning products often have an expiration date. But if the date isn’t legible, is missing, or only the manufacturer’s date is present, it’s best to assume dish soap has a shelf life of 12 to 18 months, while automatic dishwasher detergent can last as little as three months. Laundry detergent can last six to 12 months. Cleaning sprays can be good for up to two years. A simple bleach product is typically good for just six months.

 

One way to help keep products stable is to store them in a cool, dry place and away from direct sunlight. If no date is stamped on the package, you can write down your date of purchase to assess when it’s time to replace it.

 

Are Expired Cleaning Products Still Safe to Use?
It’s not that these products go “bad,” only that their active ingredients—much like a drug—can begin to wane.

 

“Like many products purchased at the grocery store, cleaning products can degrade over time,” Brian Sansoni, senior vice president of communications, outreach, and membership at the American Cleaning Institute (ACI), an industry group, told Real Simple. “Even if they contain preservatives, that doesn’t mean they last forever. As they begin to break down, it might affect how well the enzymes work or change the pH, resulting in a less effective product.”

 

For products intended to cut down on grease, like dish soap, you may not necessarily notice its reduced usefulness. But if a product actively kills bacteria, like Lysol, you’ll want to make sure it’s still effective.

 

 

Source: Does Dish Soap Ever Go Bad?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BAGGED LETTUCE

Did you know... You might have doubts if the bag is labeled as “pre-washed” or “pre-rinsed,” and you aren’t alone.

 

Food safety can be a confusing issue—especially when you’re grabbing things out of the produce aisle. Even though lots of fruits and vegetables seem good enough to eat straight from the stand, they can often still be covered in bacteria like E. coli, chemicals, and other things you probably don’t want to think about.

 

To make things even more complicated, some veggies in particular—like lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens—might come labeled “pre-washed” or “triple-washed” in bags or salad mixes, suggesting they’ve been cleaned before being packaged. But what does that even mean, and more importantly, does that make it safe to eat these supposedly pre-washed veggies directly out of the bag?

 

If you find yourself unsure which guidelines to follow or what those guidelines really mean, you’re not alone. Below, we break down what you need to know, like what the triple-rinsing process does to bagged produce, plus how rinsing helps remove germs and more.

 

What does pre-washed even mean?
In the U.S., all food production is covered by GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) and a Food Safety Plan, a set of guidelines falling under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

 

Bagged produce that has been labeled “pre-washed” or “triple-washed” typically undergoes a commercial rinsing process in facilities that follow certain standards. It can be a three-step approach: first, produce is rinsed with clean water to get rid of dirt, sediment, or other debris, then washed in water with small amounts of food-safe sanitizer, such as chlorine or fruit acids, before being rinsed again. According to Consumer Reports, this washing process is pretty extensive. In addition to removing soil and dirt, it can also help get rid of up to 99 percent of unwanted bacteria, including E. coli and salmonella.

 

That being said, surface bacteria can still linger on produce that has undergone the process. It should also be noted that the term triple-washed does not necessarily mean that these goods are any safer than single-washed foods, too.

 

Is it OK to eat pre-washed produce without rinsing?
The short answer is yes. Firstly, your home kitchen, as lovely as it may be, likely doesn’t adhere to the same rigid safety standards that are outlined in the GMP. In fact, rinsing off bagged greens could create bigger opportunities for cross-contamination, meaning existing bacteria gets transferred to your food. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends cleaning and sanitizing countertops, utensils, and around the sink area to minimize all potential cross-contamination risks.

 

If a bag is marked “pre-washed,” “triple-washed,” or “ready-to-eat,” then it’s safe to assume it’s been thoroughly cleaned (and with food-safe sanitizers). And in that instance, most experts maintain that rinsing again would probably do more harm than good.

 

However, if your bagged greens aren’t labeled in that way, then rinsing at home under the tap is definitely a wise idea. To do that, start by washing your hands first with soap and warm water for about 20 seconds, then rinse the leaves under cool water, paying special attention to folds and wrinkles. According to the USDA, you don’t need to use any soap or special cleaning solutions; produce may absorb residue from those substances, which could pose a potential health risk.

 

Overall, though, seeing that “ready-to-eat” or “triple-washed” label on a bag can be a good thing. And it’s one instance where you can actually have a little trust in what you read on the label of a package.

 

Source: Does Bagged Lettuce Still Need to Be Rinsed?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WINTER HACK

Did you know... You might have everything you need for this winter car hack already—and right in your kitchen.

 

Advocates for safe winter driving will tell you that being able to see out of your car’s windshield is a high priority before getting behind the wheel. In snowy climates, that can be a little bit of a problem thanks to frost build-up. While a defroster or ice scraper can restore visibility, they can add a few minutes to your commute.

 

You can, however, take a preventive measure with something you probably have right in your kitchen: an onion.

 

According to Today, you can cut an onion in half and rub it over your windshield to prevent frost. The onion will leave behind an invisible residue. When water or snow comes in contact with the glass, it will have a harder time forming solid ice.

 

The same principle applies to wiping your car down with a potato, though you may want to wait until your neighbors are back inside before doing this.

 

While this is most likely safe on your car’s windshield, you might want to try it on a small test spot first. And take caution when trying other prophylactic measures, like road salt or vinegar: Those can be corrosive and damage the glass, the car’s finish, or both. Warm or boiling water is even worse. You’ll be able to see out of the windshield, but only because it’s shattered.

 

Source: Frost on Your Car’s Windshield? An Onion or Potato Can Prevent It