Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the day - WHALES AND DOLPHINS

Did you know.... An analysis of nearly 200 photos and videos shows that whales and dolphins engage in more playful interactions than previously thought.

 

Whales and dolphins don’t just share the ocean; they appear to enjoy each other’s company, too. A new paper published in the journal Discover Animals provides insights into the social dynamics of these marine mammals.

 

Whales and Dolphins Have Fun Together
According to Smithsonian magazine, researchers from Griffith University in Australia pulled nearly 200 videos and photos of whale and dolphin interactions from the internet for their study. The posts were made over 20 years across 17 different countries, though most were from the U.S. and Australia. Additionally, the scientists obtained footage from cameras attached to two humpback whales. 

 

 

 

What they found was surprising. Per a statement from the university, the videos showed interactions between six baleen whale species (including humpback, gray, and fin whales) and 13 dolphin species (like bottlenose, common, and Pacific wide-sided dolphins) that appeared to be playful. 

 

What’s more is that dolphins were usually the ones to begin these encounters, and humpbacks appeared to be their preferred playmates. It seems that humpbacks are game to goof around, as they were the least likely whale species to show behaviors that may indicate aggression (e.g., tail slaps or headbutts) in repsonse to the dolphins. The cameras on the humpback whales even showed footage of them swimming to the bottom of the ocean with bottlenose dolphins to engage in apparent play. 

 

The most common type of social interaction between dolphins and whales involved the former swimming near the latter’s heads. This action could be perceived as a dolphin’s one-sided way of playing as well as a more efficient mode of swimming.

  

That said, a quarter of these social interactions appeared to be mutual, implying that playful encounters between whales and dolphins might be more common than scientists previously believed. 

 

Source: Study Reveals Surprising Dynamic Between Whales and Dolphins

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ARTIFICIAL BANANA FLAVOR

Did you know.... Artificial banana flavoring was first sold in the United States around the 1850s, predating the widespread availability of the tropical fruit itself by more than two decades. Bananas were a known commodity in the United States for most of the 19th century, as the first recorded shipment arrived in New York City in 1804. But those shipments were rare and limited, and the fruit remained a highly desirable exotic luxury that few Americans had access to. 

 

In an effort to capitalize on these culinary curiosities, a so-called “banana essence” was created and sold in the U.S. by 1855. This flavoring was added to sugar candy and marketed as a purportedly authentic alternative to the fruit itself before advances in shipping and refrigeration made it easier to import bananas en masse.

 

Real bananas only became widely available in the United States beginning in the 1870s. As noted by historian John Soluri in his 2005 book Banana Cultures, the fruit was slowly but surely introduced to the country through Central America via small-scale farms in Cuba and Jamaica. Bananas were later unveiled to the masses at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, where they were wrapped in foil and sold for a dime each. The fair helped the formerly exotic fruit gain widespread popularity throughout the U.S. decades after the artificial flavor first came on the scene.

 

The odorous durian fruit is banned in public areas throughout Asia.
Durian is a fruit native to Southeast Asia that’s highly desired for its unique flavor — but along with that flavor comes an intense and pungent aroma that’s been compared to sewage or rotten food. This odor is so potent that the fruit is banned in public spaces throughout the region, including on public transportation and in hotels.

 

Singapore is among the places with notably strict durian bans, having prohibited the fruit on public transport since 1988. Many Singaporean hotels charge lofty cleaning fees if a durian odor is detected in a guest’s room; the city’s Carlton City Hotel, for instance, imposes a fine of 500 Singapore dollars (roughly $391 USD). Despite the food’s notorious smell, however, it remains a popular and desirable item at many local restaurants and marketplaces.

 

 

Source: Artificial banana flavoring was common in the U.S. long before real bananas.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - EARTH'S SHAPE CHANGING

Did you know... At a glance, the universe looks pretty well organized, with perfectly spherical planets orbiting in concentric circles around a glowing orb. But things are a lot more complicated in reality. For example, while our Earth looks like a sphere when viewed from space, it’s actually an irregularly shaped ellipsoid (think a flattened sphere) because of the centrifugal force of its rotation. And its weirdness doesn’t stop there: The precise shape of the Earth is also changing all the time.

 

Many things affect the shape of the Earth. The drifting of tectonic plates form entirely new landmasses, and the Earth’s crust is still rebounding from the last ice age 16,000 years ago. While these minute adjustments go mostly unseen, other shape-altering events — such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and asteroid strikes (RIP to our Cretaceous friends) — are hard to miss. But the Earth also changes shape by the hour, and humans can watch it happen … sort of. Every day (roughly), the Earth experiences two periods of high and low tide, where the gravitational effects of the moon and sun affect the movement of our oceans, and as a result, the shape of the planet, if only temporarily. So even if the Earth’s shape isn’t exactly perfect, it's certainly dynamic.

 

The Earth’s orbit around the sun also changes shape over time.
All planets travel in an ellipse around the sun, and the amount this elliptical journey departs from a perfect circle (represented by the value “0”) is known as an orbit’s “eccentricity.” This elliptical orbit means the Earth is closer to and farther from the sun at certain times of the year. Perhaps counterintuitively, the Earth’s closest approach to the sun, also known as its perihelion, occurs in early January, and its farthest distance (aphelion) happens in early July. Over the course of roughly 100,000 years, due to gravitational forces, the Earth’s orbit will fluctuate between almost 0 and 0.07 (which is still a nearly imperceptible ellipse). But these small numbers are much bigger when multiplied by the size of the solar system. Currently, the Earth at only about 0.017 eccentricity is enough to make the planet 3.1 million miles closer to the sun at perihelion compared to aphelion. Still, that difference isn’t enough to affect the seasons on Earth — those are caused by the planet’s axial tilt, and not the relatively small changes in our planet’s distance from the giant ball of gas at the center of our solar system.

 

 

Source: The Earth’s shape is constantly changing.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LITMUS TEST

Did you know... A popular idiom, explained.

 

In a 2024 New York Times piece exploring the controversy over married couples in Japan using separate surnames, the Times headline read: “A Litmus Test in Japan: Should Spouses Have Different Surnames?” Likewise, a story about the Los Angeles Kings dropping a hockey game to the Las Vegas Knights was described as a “litmus test” for the California team.

 

In the media and elsewhere, various parties seem to constantly be faced with a litmus test about their political views, athletic prowess, or overall capabilities. But what exactly is litmus, and why is it constantly being invoked as a metaphor for testing one’s worth?

 

The Origin of Litmus Test
While litmus test is typically used as an idiom, there’s actually a literal meaning to it. Litmus is a kind of coloring or dye derived from lichen, the hybrid fungi-algae growth commonly found on rocks. It’s used in chemistry to differentiate an acid from a base. If one dips litmus paper in a solution and it turns red, it’s acidic, but if it turns blue, it's alkaline. The litmus test is binary, or a kind of pass-fail measure.

 

 

The Oxford English Dictionary cites litmus as being derived from the Dutch leecmos and dates use of litmus in the literal sense to the 1500s. The figurative term first shows up in print in the late 1800s. (“The alleged investigation will not stand the litmus paper test of public opinion,” asserted an 1896 Pittsburgh Press article.)

 

To put something to a litmus test is to imply the situation relies solely on one single determining factor. Something is, or something is not—the litmus test determines which. The Kings failed their litmus test of getting past the Stanley Cup champions the Knights; voters in Japan will or will not vote for a prime minister candidate based on the litmus test of how they feel about separate surnames.

 

One could also go on a date and see how their company treats waitstaff. If they’re kind, that could mean passing a litmus test of compatibility. A literal litmus test essentially sets a goal that has an objective value: The solution is or is not acidic. A figurative litmus test sets a subjective threshold.

 

If you use litmus test to refer to worthiness or quality, you might be thinking of another, similar idiom: the acid test.

 

Litmus Test vs. Acid Test
Like litmus test, acid test is another term borrowed from chemistry, where nitric acid is used to evaluate the presence of gold. The idiom acid test is to challenge the value or quality of something. You may find an acid test incorporates several factors whereas a litmus test is nominally used for a single determining factor. Voters, for example, may weigh several issues during a presidential debate, meaning the candidates will be undergoing an acid test. If they’re asked one pointed question about a single incendiary topic, that may be the litmus test of the debate.

 

 

The two idioms otherwise hew fairly close together, with each used to assess the overall quality or worth of an opinion, person, or event. Because the literal term is so easily applied—the litmus test is merely watching a cheap piece of paper change color, or not—a figurative litmus test is also typically something relatively easy to arrange or witness. A 20-page quiz on history is not exactly a litmus test of one’s knowledge. If anything, it’s more of an acid test—or just a plain test.

 

Sitting down to eat at a new restaurant, on the other hand, might prompt one to choose a single dish as a litmus test. If a new eatery makes a hard-to-prepare meal, a patron may use that as evidence of its overall competency. But another customer may want to eat several meals or courses and assess a business’s overall service, making it an acid test.

 

If you label something a litmus test, it’s probably something easily applied, evaluated, and experienced that will help others form an opinion. Asking someone if they know the etymology of the litmus test is, in its way, a method of measuring their grasp of linguistics—a litmus test of a litmus test.

 

Source: Why Is It Called a “Litmus Test”?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SLEEPING DOLPHINS

Did you know... Metallica lyrics notwithstanding, most humans would find it impossible to sleep with one eye open. Dolphins, on the other hand, can’t sleep any other way. That’s because, unlike us, they don’t breathe automatically and have to remain conscious in order to do so actively. The solution to this predicament is called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, in which one half of the brain rests while the other remains awake. When the right half of a dolphin’s brain is sleeping, its left eye is closed, and vice versa; they periodically alternate which side of the brain is asleep in order to rest fully while retaining consciousness. While sleeping, dolphins may rest motionless or swim slowly and steadily near the water’s surface.

 

Dolphins aren’t the only species with strange sleeping patterns. A number of their fellow sea creatures, from beluga whales to sea lions, also exhibit unihemispheric sleep. On the extra adorable end of the spectrum are otters, who float belly-up and often hold hands with one another so as to not drift apart while snoozing. Great Frigatebirds, meanwhile, sleep in 10-second bursts while remaining airborne for as long as two months at a time. And, like dolphins, they do it with one eye open.    

 

Bottlenose dolphins call each other by unique names.
Bottlenose dolphins are talkative creatures. Their communication skills, which have been called “sophisticated” and “novel,” include referring to each other by unique names. These “names” consist of learned, distinctive whistles that individual dolphins both broadcast and respond to, and they’re smart enough to not respond to other whistles. Researchers have also noticed that individual bottlenose dolphins copy the signature whistles of others, as a way of finding lost friends and family in the sea.

 

Source: Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - COCKROACHES

Did you know.... Cockroaches have a reputation for being indestructible. But they may not be as totally immune to radiation as people think.

 

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice; still others say in a nuclear apocalypse that will annihilate humanity while leaving cockroaches intact. It’s an unhappy picture, Homo sapiens being completely wiped out by its own technology as the little pests inherit the Earth, but is the possibility fact, or just science fiction?

 

Long Live the Cockroach
Unfortunately, it looks like the bugs win this one. They’ve already survived one nuclear attack: The cockroach survival theory surfaced in the wake of the 1945 atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when reports began to circulate that the only signs of life remaining between the two cities were cockroaches scurrying among the ruins. With that kind of evidence, it’s reasonable enough to infer that even more nuclear weapons won’t be enough to keep them down, but it always helps to test a hypothesis. As usual, that’s where the Mythbusters stepped in. 

 

The Discovery Channel team conducted an experiment on German cockroaches to see just how much radiation they can stand before kicking the tiny bucket, and it’s a lot—more than we frail humans can handle, for sure. A month after their initial exposure to 1000 radon units (rads) of cobalt 60—an amount sufficient to kill a human in just 10 minutes of exposure—about half of the cockroach sample was still alive and thriving, which is all the more impressive considering the normal mortality rate of insects with only a 6-to-9-month life span.

 

 

 

The second condition upped the dose of radiation to 10,000 rads, about the equivalent amount of exposure that would result from an atomic bomb, and 10 percent of the cockroaches were still around to tell the tale a month later. The 100,000 rads condition proved that at least cockroaches aren’t invincible: None of them made it through, which would be more tragic if they didn’t still possess superhuman levels of radiation immunity.

 

Could Other Animals Survive Extreme Radiation?
Detractors from the theory that roaches will someday rule the Earth don’t disagree with the findings that the little creepy-crawlies would easily outlive us after nuclear fallout; their argument is that there are other, even more radiation-resistant organisms out there.

 

 

Tardigrades—which have been shown to survive in space—would have a good chance. Some wood-boring insects, as well as their eggs, can survive exposure to as much as 68,000 rads, while it would take about 64,000 to take out the common fruit fly. Habrobracon hebetor, a type of parasitic wasp, easily takes the radiation-resistance championship with its ability to survive up to 180,000 rads—somewhere around 200 times as much resistance as any human possesses.

 

But, even if they did make it through a gnarly nuclear blast, a lack of food (and a severely changed environment) could hinder their ability to survive longterm. “It is difficult to know what the long term impacts of the radiation would be on those animals and how this would ripple up the food chain,” Corrie Moreau, a professor of arthropod biosystematics and biodiversity at Cornell University, told Newsweek. “We really have to hope we do not see this experiment play out.”

 

 

Source: Could Cockroaches Really Survive a Nuclear War?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WHITE ON LABOR DAY IS A NO-NO

Did you know... After the Civil War, the wives of the super-rich came up with a number of fashion laws to separate the old money crowd from those with vulgar new money.

 

Wearing white in the summer makes sense. Desert dwellers have known for thousands of years that white clothing seems to keep you a little bit cooler than other colors. But wearing white only during the summer? While no one is completely sure when or why this fashion rule came into effect, the best guess is that it had something to do with snobbery in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

 

After the Civil War, the wives of the super-rich ruled high society with an iron fist. As more and more people became millionaires, though, it was difficult to differentiate between respectable old money families and those who only had vulgar new money. By the 1880s, to tell who was acceptable and who was not, the women who were already “in” felt it necessary to create dozens of fashion rules that everyone in the know had to follow. That way, if a woman showed up at the opera in a dress that cost more than most Americans made in a whole year, but it had the wrong sleeve length, other women would know not to give her the time of day.

 

Not wearing white outside the summer months was reportedly another one of these silly rules. White was for weddings and resort wear, not dinner parties in the fall. Of course, it could get extremely hot in September, and wearing white might make sense. But if you wanted to be appropriately attired you just did not do it. Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, and society eventually adopted it as the natural endpoint for summer fashion.

 

Not everyone followed this rule. Even some socialites continued to buck the trend—most famously Coco Chanel, who regularly wore white year-round. Though the rule was originally enforced by only a few hundred women, over the decades it trickled down to everyone else. By the 1950s, women’s magazines made it clear to middle class America: White clothing was dug out on Memorial Day and went back into storage after Labor Day.

 

These days the fashion world is much more relaxed about what colors to wear and when, but every year you will still hear people say that white after Labor Day is unacceptable, all thanks to some snobby millionaires who decided that was a fashion no-no more than 100 years ago.

 

 

Source: Why Can’t You Wear White After Labor Day?

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Fact of the Day - DREAM IN BLACK AND WHITE

Did you know.... Whether they’re about showing up to school in your underwear or having your teeth fall out, most dreams have one thing in common: They’re in color. Not for everyone, though. Roughly 12% of people dream entirely in black and white, making their nightly visions much like watching an old movie. That comparison isn’t a coincidence, either. The number used to be much higher: In the 1940s, 75% of Americans reported seeing color in their dreams only rarely or never, and some researchers believe that black-and-white television is part of the reason why. Color TV didn’t become common until the 1950s and ’60s, so for many years, most people’s most common experiences with visual stories were in gray scale.

 

A 2008 study found that people 25 and younger almost never dreamed in black and white, while those 55 and older who didn't have color TV in their younger years had black-and-white dreams about a quarter of the time. Yet the television connection is difficult to prove for certain, as are many things related to dreaming. For everything we have learned about this nightly phenomenon, scientists have still yet to conclusively determine why we dream at all.

 

Some people can control their dreams.
It’s called lucid dreaming, which is when you’re aware that you’re dreaming — and, in some cases, can control what happens next. Studies suggest that roughly half of people have had at least one lucid dream, and it may have to do with their brain. Lucid dreamers tend to have larger prefrontal cortexes, a part of the brain that plays a central role in cognitive tasks such as recalling memories and making decisions. Some consider lucid dreaming to be a learnable skill, with how-to guides available for those who want to emulate Inception.

 

Source: Around 12% of people dream in black and white.

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LABOR DAY

Did you know.... Labor Day falls on September 1 in 2025. While the exact date changes each year, its position in the week has stayed the same since the 19th century.

 

Whether you treat Labor Day as a time to honor workers or your last chance to wear white for the year, the day is worth celebrating. The holiday is a day off for many Americans, but not everyone knows why it lands on a Monday each year. If you’re enjoying a three-day weekend this September, you have activists and politicians to thank.

 

The Origins of Labor Day
Labor Day’s origins can be traced back to Tuesday, September 5, 1882. On that date, workers’ rights activists organized the first Labor Day parade in New York, demanding more pay for fewer hours. Labor Day was celebrated on September 5 again the following year, and in 1884, the Central Labor Union decided to move the holiday to the first Monday in September.

 

 

It would be another decade before the U.S. government recognized Labor Day as an official holiday. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law establishing an annual day commemorating workers. Labor organizers were rapidly gaining influence in U.S. politics, and Cleveland knew he needed to do something to acknowledge the growing movement.

 

To some, International Workers’ Day on May 1 may have seemed like the more obvious holiday to recognize. It had been established by the Second International Socialist Conference five years earlier, and it celebrated the same movement. But International Workers’ Day—or May Day—was chosen to honor the Haymarket affair, in which seven police officers and at least one civilian were killed during a labor protest in Chicago in 1886. Hoping to appease workers without supporting the more radical and controversial side of the labor movement, politicians chose to recognize Labor Day instead. Cleveland and Congress kept in line with the Central Labor Union by making it the first Monday in September.

 

Why Are So Many Holidays on a Monday?
After decades of the holiday falling on a Monday, Lyndon B. Johnson reinforced Labor Day’s spot on the calendar. The president signed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act into law in 1968, moving several federal holidays from specific dates to Mondays:

 

• Memorial Day
• Veterans Day
• Washington’s Birthday (which would become Presidents Day)
• Columbus Day

 

Labor Day was also included, though the act merely confirmed its date at the beginning of September rather than changing it.

 

Celebrating Labor Day at the tail-end of a three-day weekend makes sense; it gives many workers a day off on what would normally be the start of the workweek. But not everyone was content with celebrating on a Monday. In 1909, the American Federation of Labor tried to make Labor Sunday a thing. The push was unsuccessful. Here are more facts about the holiday you should know.

 

 

Source: Why Is Labor Day Always Celebrated on a Monday?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - UNIQUE BREATHING

Did you know... Although you do it tens of thousands of times a day, you probably rarely even notice when you breathe in and out. So it may come as a surprise to learn that the way you breathe is as unique as your fingerprints. Research has shown that individual breathing patterns — including the timing, volume, and rhythm of chest movements — can be used to identify people with up to 97% accuracy. Over the course of a day, the way you inhale and exhale creates a distinct respiratory signature as recognizable as your voice, walk, or facial features.

 

As it turns out, the subtle ways humans breathe reflect a variety of influences. Your lung capacity, posture, muscle tone, emotional state, health conditions, and daily habits such as smoking or exercise all shape the unique way you breathe. Those small differences work together to create a remarkably consistent personal breathing pattern.

 

Although those patterns fluctuate with activity, mood, or stress, the unique recovery rhythms and variability in each person’s breath weave together into a biometric signature that may one day rival fingerprints or facial recognition as a secure method of identification.

 

Japan’s "ama" can spend up to two minutes underwater on a single breath.
Ama (“women of the sea”) are freedivers in Japan who have practiced breath-hold diving for centuries, employing their abnormal lung capacities to harvest shellfish and seaweed without any breathing gear. This practice likely began in coastal hunter-gatherer communities wherein women gathered seafood near the shore. While male divers also existed, women’s higher percentage of body fat made them better suited to withstand the cold waters.

 

Over time, the role became the exclusive domain of women, often passed down from mother to daughter, with some divers starting as early as age 12 and continuing into their 60s or 70s. Their incredible lung control and calm mindset enable them to dive deep in cold waters, preserving a 5,000-year tradition that continues today.

 

Source: The way you breathe is unique to you, like a fingerprint.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - IT'S SO RAINY

Did you know.... Two factors explain why Seattle, Portland, and surrounding areas get all that precipitation.

 

The Pacific Northwest is home to some of the most breathtaking scenery in the United States, but that greenery comes at a cost. It rains in the Pacific Northwest, and it rains a lot. Despite the gorgeous landscapes and cosmopolitan cities, the western parts of Washington and Oregon get a bad rap for how gray and dismal they can be. But why exactly does it rain so much in the Pacific Northwest?

 

How the Jet Stream and Terrain Control Weather
The reason gloomy weather is so common boils down to prevailing weather patterns and the unique terrain that makes this part of the world so gorgeous. This stretch of land between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, usually finds itself directly under the track of the jet stream. The jet stream is a fast-moving river of air that encircles the Northern Hemisphere right around the latitude of the U.S.-Canadian border.

 

 

Whenever the jet stream swoops to the south, creating a trough, it can generate low-pressure systems at the surface that produce heavy rain and high winds. These troughs and resulting low-pressure systems often intensify in the Gulf of Alaska and over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington, allowing large storms to crash into the coast with ease. Most of these storms are run-of-the-mill rainmakers, lasting for a day or two before moving on, but some of them can be enormous and cause significant wind damage and flooding.

 

While the photogenic low-pressure systems that swirl into the coast are the driving force behind the Pacific Northwest’s seemingly endless rains, it’s the region’s terrain that locks in those dismal weather conditions. When moist winds blow inland with an approaching storm, the high terrain of the Cascade Range forces the moist air to rise into the atmosphere, enhancing the thick clouds and steady rainfall.

 

How Much Does It Rain in the Pacific Northwest?
Even though it rains quite a bit along the northwestern coast, actual rainfall totals in the Pacific Northwest vary wildly from place to place due to changes in elevation. Some spots at high elevation right along the coast or along the Cascade Range can see more than 10 feet of precipitation in a single year, accounting for both rain and the equivalent amount of liquid in snowfall.

 

 

Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, each see around 36 inches of rain every year, which hardly makes these bustling metro areas the wettest in the country. Compare their rainfall totals to New York City’s Central Park, which measures nearly 50 inches of rain every year, and Mobile, Alabama, commonly one of the wettest cities in the United States; its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico gives it nearly 66 inches of rain every year.

 

The rain that does fall in Seattle and Portland, though, falls over a longer period of time. Between 1981 and 2010, both cities saw a little more than 150 days with measurable precipitation per year, compared to about 122 rainy days in New York City and just 115 in Mobile. This accounts for the Northwest’s reputation as the gloomiest part of the country—but makes for spectacularly green landscapes when the skies clear out.

 

Source: Why Is the Pacific Northwest So Rainy?