Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Did you know... that in 1891 the first automatic dialing system was invented by a Kansas City undertaker. He believed that crooked operators were sending his potential customers elsewhere. It was his aim to get rid of the operators altogether.

[lucaslink2]

Did you know... that as a tribute to Alexander Graham Bell when he died in 1922, all the telephones stopped ringing for one full minute. As a result, 14 million telephones in US and Canada were affected.

[Grundy]

Did you know... that the first phone book was only 20 pages long , was issued in 1878 and was apparently very short ? Since the phone was only invented two years before , it makes sense that not everyone was on board with the new technology yet . Strangely enough , the first phone book also instructed readers to “commence the conversation by saying , ‘'Huolla!''
 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ACUPUNCTURE

 

Did you know... that historically, Chinese medical practitioners didn't get paid and that the very first acupuncture needles were made of stone? Back in the day, Chinese medicine practitioners were paid to keep people healthy. People paid their doctor a regular fee unless they got sick. Then the doctor would not be paid until they were better. Clearly, this shows that Chinese medicine is a preventative form of medicine.  Bian Shi (stone needle) was a sharpened, polished stone used to treat illness during the New Stone Age in China. Much later, needles were made of silver and gold. Some practitioners still use silver or gold needles on occasion, but most opt for stainless steel. Much more comfortable for patients than getting poked with sharp stones!

[Grundy]

Did you know... that licensed acupuncturists attend a rigorous 3-4 year graduate program and complete over 2.000+ clinical internship hours and maintain their licensure with continuing education ? Part of the education includes standard medical history gathering , safety , ethics and recognition of when to refer patients to other health care professionals .

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - THE CALENDAR

 

Did you know... that the calendar used in most countries now is the Gregorian Calendar and was proposed by the Catholic Church and introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and adopted by several Catholic countries. Its predecessor was the Julian Calendar which had been introduced hundreds of years earlier by Julius Caesar.  The reason for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was because the old Julian one "lost" days. This is because there were too many Leap Years using the Julian Calendar. Earth was thought to take roughly 365.25 days (365 days, 6 hours) to orbit the Sun, so an extra day was added every four years to compensate for the extra quarter of a day of an actual year. However, Earth actually takes just under 365 days and 6 hours to complete an orbit (365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes), so adding an extra day every four years was too much. The solution was to skip some Leap Years. Basically, every year divisible by 4 is a Leap Year. However, years divisible by 100 aren't, but years divisible by 400 are. So, 1800 wasn't a Leap Year, nor was 1900, but 2000 was.

 

[Grundy]

Did you know... that in ancient times , a month was calculated roughly by the length of time it takes the Moon to orbit Earth and begin a new phase ? This occurs about every 29 and a half days . Although the length of a month now varies , the word month comes from the word "moon" ( a "moonth" ) .

[(Kirito)]

You’re probably pretty familiar with number prefixes that we use in English—uni-, mono-, di-, tri-, hexa-, octo-, and so on. And many of you have undoubtedly been reciting the Gregorian months of the year since before you could tie your shoes. But did you ever stop to think about how these do not match up at all? The first eight months are named after various gods, goddesses, festivals, and rulers. For instance, January (Januarius) is named for Janus, the god of doorways and beginnings. February (Februarius) is named for Februa, a feast of purification. September, on the other hand, literally means “seventh month,” October likewise means “eighth month,” and I’m sure you can see where this is going for November and December. This would be awesome and super easy to remember if those weren’t the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th months, respectively. So what the heck happened? As you may have guessed, the original Roman calendar, said to have been invented by the first king of Rome, had 10 months. It started with March, which may seem kind of strange to us now. Later, Roman ruler Numa Pompilius added January at the beginning and February at the end of the calendar. Eventually February was moved between January and March.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SUPERSTITION

 

Did you know... that superstition is a pejorative term for any belief or practice that is considered irrational or supernatural? For example, if it arises from ignorance, a misunderstanding of science or causality, a positive belief in fate or magic, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy, and certain spiritual beings, particularly the belief that future events can be foretold by specific (apparently) unrelated prior events. The word superstition is often used to refer to a religion not practiced by the majority of a given society regardless of whether the prevailing religion contains alleged superstitions.  The superstitious practice of placing a rusty nail in a lemon is believed to ward off the evil eye and evil in general, as detailed in the folklore text Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from Utah.  Due to the pejorative implications of the term, items referred to in common parlance as superstition are commonly referred to as folk belief in folkloristics

[(Kirito)]

In the olden days there was no electricity and shaving or cutting nails would result in cuts after sunset because of darkness. Hence our ancestors advised not to cut nails or shave after sunset. In Later days it was believed that the night spirits will be awaken and come in the search of flesh. People have been warned to get attacked by these evil spirits in the darkness of night if people cut nails or shave hair after sunset which continues as a superstition.

[Grundy]

Did you know... that in Japan , letting a sumo wrestler make your baby cry is said to bring good health as well as warding off evil spirits ?

[lucaslink2]

Did you know... that in some parts of Asia, many couples plan to have children during “lucky” years. 

[Grundy]

Fact of the Day - THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

 

Did you know... that although the official number of the length of the Great Wall is 8851.8 kilometers ( 5500 miles ) , the length of all the Great Wall , built over thousands of years , is estimated at 21.196 kilometers ( 13.170 miles ) ? The circumference of the Equator is 40.075 kilometers ( 24,901 miles ) .
 

[(Kirito)]

There most popular Great Wall legend is about Meng Jiangnv, whose husband died building the Wall. Her weeping was so bitter that a section of the Wall collapsed, revealing her husband's bones so she could bury them.

[DarkRavie]

Did you know... that the Chinese don’t call the Wall ‘the Great Wall’?  The Chinese term for the Wall emerges from a distant past – long before “the Great Wall” was used – when every city had its own wall. 
So fundamental was the connection between walls and cities that the Chinese used one word to cover them both, and they still do.  There it is, in the Oxford Union Press’s standard concise dictionary: Chéng: “ 1. city; 
2. city wall”.  The Wall, of course, is rather more than a city wall, so Chinese adds an adjective, not “great” but “long”.  So the Chinese for “the Great Wall”, cháng chéng, means Long City.  And Long Wall.  And Long Cities, or Long Walls, plural.  There is a way to resolve the contradiction: peel back a city wall in your mind, stretch it out, put farms and garrisons along it, and there you have it – Great Wall(s) equals Long City/ies.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PAPER

 

Did you know... that archaeological evidence of papermaking predates the traditional attribution given to Cai Lun, an imperial eunuch official of the Han dynasty (202 BCE – CE 220), thus the exact date or inventor of paper can not be deduced?  The earliest extant paper fragment was unearthed at Fangmatan in Gansu province, and was likely part of a map, dated to 179–141 BCE.  Fragments of paper have also been found at Dunhuang dated to 65 BCE and at Yumen pass, dated to 8 BCE.  "Cai Lun's" invention, recorded hundreds of years after it took place, is dated to 105 CE.  The innovation is a type of paper made of mulberry and other bast fibres along with fishing nets, old rags, and hemp waste which reduced the cost of paper production, which prior to this, and later, in the West, depended solely on rags.

Edited April 9, 2019 by DarkRavie

[(Kirito)]

Largest producers of paper by quantity in the world are US and Canada. After them come Finland, Japan and Sweden. Largest producer of paper by volume is not America, but China. As of 2011 they have 24.9% market share of paper production, with US having 18.8%.

[Grundy]

Did you know... that paper produced from raw material uses far more energy and water than if we recycle our unwanted paper ?

[lucaslink2]

Did you know... that the US paper money isn’t paper at all. United States currency paper is composed of 75% cotton and 25% linen.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - AURORA BOREALIS

 

Did you know... that the Aurora Borealis makes sound ?  The answer is yes!  However, not everyone hears the sound and not all aurora produce it.  Several credible witnesses in both the Northern Hemisphere (aurora borealis) and Southern Hemisphere (aurora australis) report hearing a sound accompanying the Northern Lights and Southern Lights.  According to Neal Brown, former director of the Poker Flat Research Range, which conducts extensive experiments on the aurora borealis, witnesses say they hear the sound of the aurora when it is visible. Since the lights we see from the aurora are produced at 60 miles (100 kilometers) and higher up in the atmosphere, it’s unlikely the sound is coming directly from the aurora. This is simply because the light reaches an observer much faster than any sound. However, the reports of sounds, usually described as a hissing or crackling, are credible. Certain blindfolded subjects, unable to see the aurora, correctly announced the presence of the aurora, based on sound. Not everyone hears the aurora, plus it seems likely the conditions aren’t right for all aurora to produce the sound. The sound has been reported in both summer and winter, on a variety of terrains.