Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SANTA APPEARED ON CURRENCY?

Did you know.... The United States and its currency seem inseparably linked, but for much of the country’s history, an official, standardized U.S. dollar didn’t exist. In its place was a Wild West of currencies from competing banks located across several states. In their zeal to earn goodwill and customers, a few of these institutions even minted some rather creative banknotes. Instead of the chiseled visage of General Washington or other real-life American leaders, these notes featured the pudgy, bearded face of St. Nick, among other figures.

 

For the St. Nicholas Bank of New York City, featuring the bank’s namesake on its currency made some sort of sense. But other banks, seemingly unaffiliated with Father Christmas, also issued Santa money. For example, the Howard Banking Company issued its Sinter Klaas note in the 1850s, which depicted a St. Nick scene from Dutch legend. A total of 21 banks in eight states created notes featuring Santa Claus, with seven of them even printing an entire Santa Claus vignette on their currency. These fun funds came to an end in 1863, when the National Bank Act created a national currency in an effort to standardize banking throughout the U.S. While these Santa bills are now considered “obsolete,” the notes remain highly prized in certain collecting circles and are doing much more than just ho-ho-holding their value. 

 

Paper money isn’t made out of paper.
Most paper — think newspapers, cardboard, and notebooks — is primarily composed of wood pulp. But this kind of paper could never handle the rough life of a U.S. dollar. Instead of relying on trees, all U.S. currency uses the same blend of cotton (75%) and linen (25%) with red and blue synthetic fibers running throughout. This blend is what gives greenbacks their distinctive feel as well as their increased durability compared to normal paper. According to the U.S. Currency Education Program, USDs can survive 4,000 double folds (front and back) before tearing.

 

Source: Santa Claus has appeared on U.S. currency.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - REASONS MOVIES OPEN CHRISTMAS DAY

Did you know... Desperate to escape your family for a few hours? Head to the movie theater.

 

When Paramount decided to release the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby comedy Road to Rio in theaters on December 25, 1947, studio executives were slightly concerned. Would moviegoers consider the premiere of a film on Christmas Day to be in poor taste? Would it be offensive to some?

 

They shouldn’t have worried. The film was a hit, making an impressive $4.5 million, and Hollywood has made Christmas Day (or near-Christmas Day) releases a major part of their financial strategy ever since.

 

’Tis the Season for a Box Office Hit
While Christmas is a sacrosanct holiday for many, the closing of businesses creates a vacuum. Few stores are open and diversions are hard to come by, making a trip to the movies one of the only ways families can congregate somewhere other than home during a holiday break. Some theaters report business picks up after 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. in the afternoons, when presents have been unwrapped and people with free time are in search of something to do.

 

 

Because of time off from work and school, movies also have a chance to achieve “legs,” or the ability to stretch their success over a longer period. While big-budget films are often deemed a success or failure based largely on their opening weekend box office tallies, a smaller film, like 2007’s P.S. I Love You, can open small and still come out ahead. That particular film made just $6.5 million during its opening weekend, but wound up with $53.7 million through January.

 

If past box office trends hold, it could be a very profitable season for studios. Of the five biggest box office hits of all time—2009’s Avatar, 1997’s Titanic, 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame—all but the Avengers films were late-season holiday releases.

 

An Eye Toward Awards Season
While there’s lots of family fare, studios also look to the season to highlight movies that might be in awards contention. From 1986 to 2005, half of all the Best Picture winners at the Academy Awards were released on or after December 15. When the Oscars were moved up a month from March to February, studios moved award hopefuls back. Now, prestige pictures arrive in theaters in October and November, too.

 

 

Of course, whether a movie can enjoy a financial windfall during Christmas depends a lot on what part of the world you’re in. While a Christmas run works in America, China tends to fill theaters during the Chinese New Year in late January or February. The French line up over Labor Day weekend, whereas Russia prefers New Year’s Day. For the Japanese, the April and early May Golden Week holiday is a prime theater window. But in all territories, the motive is largely the same: People want something to do with—or a way to briefly get away from—family.

 

Source: The Reason So Many Movies Open on Christmas Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CHINESE TAKEOUT CONTAINERS

Did you know... In the U.S., plenty of Chinese restaurant fare features produce that doesn’t grow in China, such as broccoli. Thus it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that Americans also took liberties with how Chinese food is packaged. While plastic containers are utilized to hold delivery and takeout dishes in China, diners in the States prefer a folded, six-sided box with a slim wire handle. Chicago inventor Frederick Weeks Wilcox patented this “paper pail” on November 13, 1894. Borrowing from Japanese origami, Wilcox elected to make each pail from a single piece of paper. This decision eventually proved critical in the transportation of Chinese cuisine, lessening the likelihood of leaks and allowing steam from hot foods to escape through the top folds. Another probable source of inspiration was the oyster pail, a wooden bucket with a locked cover that people used to carry raw oysters in the 19th century. Shortly after 1900, the company Bloomer Brothers started mass-producing Wilcox’s design specifically for toting oysters. 

 

As Americans began taking more advantage of suburban living and consumer conveniences after World War II, Chinese food delivery became an increasingly popular dinner option, with Wilcox’s containers of leftovers soon lining refrigerator shelves. During the 1970s, a graphic designer at Bloomer Brothers’ successor, the Riegel Paper Corporation, embellished the boxes to include a pagoda and the words “Thank You” and “Enjoy” — all in red, a color that represents luck in China. The Riegel Paper Corporation evolved into Fold-Pak, the world’s top producer of takeout containers, which assembles millions of cartons per year. Composed of solid-bleached-sulfate paperboard and boasting an interior polycoating, each food carrier expands into a handy plate if you remove the wire handle. 

 

It’s very likely that fortune cookies were invented in Japan.
Numerous descendants of Chinese and Japanese immigrants to the U.S. contend that their relatives created or sold fortune cookies in California between 1907 and 1914. However, Dr. Yasuko Nakamachi, a Japanese researcher who wrote her thesis on the origin of fortune cookies, has found evidence that the crispy treats were present in her home country many years prior. Fortune cookies in Japan go by several names, including tsujiura senbei (“fortune cracker”). They are mentioned in a story written in the early 1800s called “Haru no wakagusa,” known in English as “The Young Grass of Spring,” and in an illustrated storybook from 1878 called Moshiogusa Kinsei Kidan. In the book, a bakery apprentice is pictured working at a station labeled “tsujiura senbei,” grilling wafers in irons while surrounded by baskets of the finished product. This image is similar to what Nakamachi witnessed when she visited centuries-old family bakeries outside Kyoto: Cooks working over flames would dispense batter into grills containing round molds. Eventually, tiny paper fortunes were placed inside the warm cookies.

 

 

Source: Chinese takeout containers were invented in America.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day -ARACHNOPHOBIA

Did you know.... Arachnophobia is among the most common phobias, and not just among humans. Spiders can have it too, and with good reason — spiders of certain species regularly eat each other (for food, after mating, and for other reasons scientists don’t fully understand). A 2021 study found that fear of fellow arachnids is prevalent among common zebra jumping spiders (Salticus scenicus), who were observed leaping away from larger jumping spider species in recognition of the latter’s status as potential predators. Even when placed near deceased Marpissa muscosa and Phidippus audax, the spiders froze up or ran away. The same effects were found even when baby Salticus scenicus were presented with 3D models that somewhat resembled the predators. Like their adult counterparts, baby jumping spiders have extremely strong eyesight and use their keen vision to detect and avoid threats — even when those threats aren’t actually moving.

 

When it comes to humans, acrophobia (fear of heights), aerophobia (flying), trypanophobia (needles), and social phobias like public speaking also consistently rank among the most common fears. Approximately 19 million Americans have at least one phobia, most of which emerge when a person is between the ages of 15 and 20. Exposure therapy has been shown to help reduce these fears, at least when it comes to humans — jumping spiders may not be as lucky.

 

There’s a (mostly) vegetarian spider.
There are more than 45,000 species of spiders, and all but one of them are carnivores. The sole known exception is Bagheera kiplingi, which prefers a plant-based diet — for the most part, at least. Found across Latin America, the jumping spider is named in honor of both The Jungle Book’s black panther (Bagheera) and the book’s author (Rudyard Kipling). The arachnids reside in acacia trees and dine on nutrient-rich delicacies known as Beltian bodies (tips of the leaves of certain acacia species), which they steal from the ants who protect said trees. While these nutritious nodules make up 91% of their diet in Mexico and 60% in Costa Rica, B.kiplingi will occasionally drink nectar and, much more rarely, eat ant larvae, flies, or fellow spiders.

 

 

Source: Spiders can have arachnophobia.