Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - GET OLDER AND SHRINK

Did you know... Humans tend to stop growing in height between the ages of 16 and 21. And from there, it’s more or less expected we’ll remain at that stature until we die. But that’s not quite how it works. Many people actually begin shrinking as they age, losing up to 3 inches in height by the time they’re in their 70s.

 

Why can’t our bodies seem to remain vertically stable? Why do we get smaller as we get older?

 

According to Live Science, diminished height is a multifactorial process. But the main culprit is a loss of bone mass. Between the ages of 40 and 50, our bodies start to lose more bone than they can make. The loss is not just about decreased bone density: It also weakens what’s known as the bone matrix, or the collagen infrastructure that connects bone tissue. With less structural support, bone can suffer microfractures that gradually decrease bone mass. The resulting damage can lead to osteoporosis and a loss in height when vertebrae are involved: The compression can shave millimeters, and even inches, off one’s height.

 

A 1999 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology examined 2084 men and women who had their height measured on a regular basis over 35 years as part of their enrollment in an aging research project. Between the ages of 30 and 70, men lost 1.2 inches and women 2 inches. By 80, the loss had progressed to 2 inches for men and 3 inches for women. If you spend adulthood over 6 feet tall, it’s possible you might be present at your funeral at 5 feet, 10 inches. (Good thing you’ll be lying down.)

 

But bone loss isn’t the only cause. Poor posture can lead to curvature of the spine, which results in being hunched over and a loss of height; normal degradation of discs between vertebrae can also contribute to shrinkage.

 

For women, menopause can also usher in a loss of height: Estrogen, which diminishes with age, helps protect bones.

 

Can you avoid it? Not necessarily, but you can do things to mitigate the damage. Bone loss is correlated with loss of muscle mass. If you maintain muscle through exercise, you might stave off bone atrophy and have an easier time standing upright thanks to abdominal muscle, which supports and improves posture.

 

While some loss of height is normal, losing it earlier or faster is not. Anyone noticing a radical decrease in height should be examined by a medical professional.

 

If you’re determined to offset shrinkage, consider a sabbatical in space. Astronauts often experience an increase in height due to the lack of gravity on the vertebrae, leading to a gain of up to 3 percent. Once they return to Earth, however, the gains typically vanish.

 

Source: Short Order: The Reason Why We Shrink in Height As We Get Older

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SNAIL MAIL

Did you know.... Did young Lydia ever learn that Ewart was doing alright with his 10 shillings of pocket money? That’s what internet sleuths are currently trying to find out after a postcard arrived at its destination a full 121 years late.

 

As The Guardian reports, the note appeared in the mail on August 16 at the offices of Swansea Building Society in Swansea, Wales. It’s addressed to Miss Lydia Davies at 11 Cradock Street and dated August 1903, long before that stretch of homes was bombed during World War II. The postcard bears a stamp of King Edward VII, who ruled the UK between 1901 and 1910, and the front is print of Sir Edwin Henry Landseer’s 19th-century painting The Challenge, depicting a stag in a snowy landscape. 

 

“Dear L.,” the postcard reads. “I could not, it was impossible to get the pair of these, I am so sorry, but I hope you are enjoying yourself at home. I have got now about 10 [shillings] as pocket money not counting the train fare so I’m doing alright. Remember me to Miss Gilbert + John with love to all from Ewart.”

 

 

 

According to Swansea’s West Glamorgan Archives, Lydia was the oldest of John and Maria Davies’s six children; she was 16 years old in August 1903. Ewart’s identity hasn’t been confirmed, though people have put forth their theories on the Swansea Building Society’s Facebook page. One commenter suggested that the sender was William Ewart Morris, a solicitor’s clerk who lived about a tenth of a mile from Lydia’s house. Another found a census reference to a Ewart Davies who would’ve been about 13 years old in 1903. Written in pencil along the top edge of the postcard is “Fishguard PEM,” referring to Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, and Ewart Davies lived in Pembrokeshire (though not in Fishguard). Lydia’s father, coincidentally, was born in Fishguard—so it’s possible that Lydia and Ewart were related.

 

Other key elements of the mystery remain unsolved. What, for example, did Ewart fail to procure a pair of? Swansea Building Society communications manager Henry Darby shared his best guess with CBC: shoes. And did Lydia ever actually receive Ewart’s message? For what it’s worth, the Royal Mail doesn’t think the postcard languished in some corner of a processing center for the past 121 years. “It is likely that this postcard was put back into our system rather than being lost in the post for over a century,” a spokesperson told the BBC. Assuming the postcard reached Lydia back in 1903, then, who slipped it back in the mail in 2024—and where did they find it in the first place?

 

If you have any tips, feel free to share them on the Swansea Building Society’s Facebook post.

 

 

Source: Snail Mail: Welsh Postcard Sent in 1903 Arrives 121 Years Later

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TWITCHING EYELIDS

Did you know.... Caffeine is just one of the things that may be to blame for the irritating spasms.

 

It usually comes out of nowhere. You’re reading a book, or staring at the computer, or driving to work, when suddenly, your eyelid starts quivering uncontrollably. It’s an unwelcome (not to mention annoying) occurrence. And unfortunately, no one has a clear explanation for what causes these odd little tremors—but there are theorieS.

 

What could be causing eye twitching?
Research has suggested that cutting back on afternoon lattes might help. Dr. Wayne Cornblath of the University of Michigan’s Kellogg Eye Center told TIME in 2015 that too much caffeine appears to be a possible cause of these tiny muscle spasms because it’s “a stimulant, and it increases reactivity within the muscles and nerves,” Cornblath said. Exactly how that happens is unclear, but it could be the reason why your eyelid goes haywire after you’ve enjoyed a venti Starbucks.

 

Stress may also be a contributing factor, since it ramps up production of epinephrine, a molecule connected with the fight-or-flight response that can cause muscle contractions or spasms. There’s also a correlation between eyelid-twitching and a lack of sleep, but researchers still haven’t figured out the specific underlying explanation.

 

Meanwhile, the Mayo Clinic offers a litany of other potential causes, which include:

 

• alcohol consumption
• smoking
• bright light
• physical exertion
• irritation of the eye surface or inner eye
• wind or pollution

 

It’s also possible that eye twitching is hereditary. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, the condition “may run in families” and “can originate in the motor nerves of the brain.”

 

The Types of Eye Twitching
The Kellogg Eye Center divides the spasms people might experience in their lids into three categories. The most common eyelid twitch is “a unilateral slight spasm of your lower or upper eyelid, or occasionally both eyelids” that “usually resolves in a few days.”

 

Then there’s essential blepharospasm, which “starts as an increased blink rate and eventually leads to closing of the eyelids as well as squeezing of the muscles around the eyes” that “may cause a temporary inability to see.” The condition isn’t caused by stress or caffeine, but by the area of the brain that controls movement—and while it’s rare, it can be debilitating for those who experience it. According to The New York Times, severe, disruptive blepharospasm “can be treated with Botox, which is injected into the muscles of the eyelids to quell the spasms.”

 

Finally, there’s hemifacial spasm, which the Kellogg Eye Center characterizes as “a condition that involves involuntary closure of the eye along with muscles in the cheek, mouth, and neck, but on only one side of the face” that could be caused by “abnormality in the nerve to the facial muscles.” Botox can be used as a treatment here, too.

 

How do I stop my eyelid from twitching?
If you find that your eye is twitching, you can try cutting back on caffeine and alcohol, getting more sleep, and/or reducing stress by exercising. A warm compress or lubricating eye drops may also help, and if you find your eyes twitch more in bright light, throw on some sunglasses. While the first type of eyelid twitching is common, you should consult a doctor if spasms spread down your face and neck, if your whole eyelid starts involuntarily blinking, or if the twitch doesn’t go away for weeks. These may be symptoms of a more serious condition.

 

Source: Why Does My Eyelid Sometimes Twitch?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CHIMPANZEES VS. BONOBOS

Did you know... Humans are closely related to bonobos and chimpanzees, but it’s not always easy for us to tell the difference between the other great apes. Here are a few clues.
Chimpanzees and bonobos are amazingly similar to us—and each other: The two species of great ape have genomes that are nearly the same as ours, and they resemble each other to the point that bonobos were once called “pygmy chimpanzees.” But chimps and bonobos also have some not-so-subtle differences. Let’s take a look.

 

The easiest way to spot a bonobo (Pan paniscus) is by their straight black hair, which lies flat on their heads with a distinct middle part like Alfalfa’s in The Little Rascals. They’re born with hairless black faces and pink lips that they retain through adulthood. In contrast, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are born with pink, hairless faces and dark hair, both of which get darker as they get older. 

 

Bonobos are about the same size as chimps but are more slender and lithe, with longer legs and smaller, rounder heads. Chimps have a heavier build and a more pronounced brow ridge. 

 

Behavior and Personality
Both chimps and bonobos live in fission-fusion societies, meaning that the main groups of about 20 to 80 members will often split up into smaller groups for part of a year for a particular purpose, such as searching for food. The smaller groups will then rejoin the larger group. 

 

These apes, though, are better known for their stark differences in behavior and personality.  Bonobo society is matriarchal, while males dominate chimpanzee society. Bonobos will share resources and bond with members of other groups; they often employ sex as a way of quelling conflict and bonding. Chimps are extremely territorial—they patrol the borders of their domains and have violent conflicts with outsiders.

 

Bonobos have a reputation as the peace-loving “hippie” ape, but they can be aggressive, too. Male bonobos will fight among themselves even more than chimps do and females will quell trouble with physical force.

 

Diet
Chimps and bonobos both eat a lot of fruit and plants, which helps distribute seeds throughout their forested habitats. Fruit is the majority of the bonobo diet and scientists long believed they weren’t meat eaters, but, like chimpanzees, they will eat insects and earthworms, insect larvae, eggs, small mammals, and even other primates.

 

Chimpanzees in Guinea have been observed drinking palm wine, the naturally fermented sap of raffia palms. According to a 2015 paper in Royal Society Open Science, the chimps fold leaves into a cup to sip the liquid.

 

Evolution
Chimpanzees and bonobos split into different species about 1.7 million years ago. The widely accepted hypothesis is that their common ancestor lived north of the Congo River.

 

A 2015 study in Evolutionary Anthropology examined the origins of the river—which is the world’s deepest with a maximum depth of 720 feet—and its role in primate evolution. Researchers looked at river sediments and suggested that, at times when the river’s flow decreased, some brave individuals of the common ancestor species were able to migrate to the other side. Then, they were permanently separated from the larger group when the river rose again. (Modern chimps and bonobos are poor swimmers.)

 

The group that crossed the river evolved into bonobos. Life was pretty breezy on the south side. There was plenty of uninhabited rainforest and food was abundant. Females developed social networks that ensured their mutual safety from pushy males. Skills like cooperation and sociability were able to flourish. A 2012 study on bonobo brains found more gray matter in the regions that perceive distress in others and one’s self, and larger pathways to aggression control and biases against harming others.

 

The group that didn’t venture forth ended up evolving into chimpanzees, and they had a tougher go of it. Food was less plentiful and there were gorillas to fight against for territory. Strength and aggression were valuable survival traits.

 

Today, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers both of our closest relatives endangered with decreasing populations. The primates are poached and hunted for meat, and they must contend with an environment altered for human uses like mining, ranching, and housing. Bonobos in particular are in danger from from civil unrest and military activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

Can chimps and bonobos interbreed?

Chimps and bonobos are known to interbreed in captivity, and a study published in 2016 in the journal Science found that it’s happened in the past among wild populations. Scientists studying the genomes of 75 wild bonobos and chimpanzees from various regions of Africa found that there was likely a crossover of genes between 200,000 to 550,000 years ago, and another less than 200,000 years ago, leaving a small (less than 1 percent) contribution of bonobo genes in the central African chimpanzee genome.

 

Are chimps or bonobos closer to humans?
Bonobos share about 99.6 percent of their genome with chimpanzees and 98.7 percent with humans, while chimps share 98.8 percent of their genome with humans. 

 

A 2021 paper in the journal Nature showed, via new bonobo genomic data that allowed comparison with the genomes of other ape species, that 2.52 percent of the human genome is more similar to bonobos than chimps, and 2.55 percent is more similar to chimps than bonobos. Chimpanzees thus have a very slight edge over bonobos as our closest living relatives.

 

Source: Chimpanzees vs. Bonobos: What’s the Difference?

Edited September 1 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PHILLIPS HEAD

Did you know... The popular screw design has a twisty history. If you’ve ever undertaken any sort of home repair project, it’s all but assured you have either used or heard the following phrase: “Hand me the Phillips head screwdriver.” This distinction is key, as one cannot rotate a flat-head screw with a cross-patterned Phillips head tool nor use a flat-head driver with a Phillips screw.

 

But why have two different kinds of screws at all? What benefits does one have over the other? And why do we call the crosshead screw a “Phillips head”?

 

Why It’s Called a Phillips Head

According to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the Phillips in Phillips head refers to Henry Phillips, an inventor who undertook a radical rethink of fasteners. In 1933, Phillips obtained the rights to a socket screw invented by John Thompson that had a cross-slotted rather than slit head. To turn the screw, one had to use a tool that resembled an arrow at the end. (This wasn’t entirely a novel concept, as an inventor named John Frearson patented a cruciform screw in the late 1800s.) 

 

Why did Thompson sell the patent? Apparently he had trouble getting manufacturers interested, as they feared such a screw might be damaged during production due to the deep depression needed in the center.

 

Phillips tweaked Thompson’s design further, implementing what the NIHF calls a “cruciform recess” in the head that was shallower than Thompson’s invention, making it both easier to mass-produce as well as turn by hand. He formed the Phillips Screw Company and eventually convinced major manufacturers to switch to his now-patented design.

 

This was a boon for Phillips, who licensed his patent throughout the world. But it wound up being a mixed blessing: Following World War II, tensions with some foreign powers meant he was unable to collect royalties. Even the U.S. government was at odds with him, accusing his company of engaging in anticompetitive practices. Still, his improvement on Thompson's design transformed the world of tools.

 

Why the Phillips Head Is Superior
Phillips was so enthusiastic about his design because the screw could be self-centered. As anyone who has driven in a flathead screw can testify, slotted screws need to be centered in their hole and the screwdriver aligned with the head before pressure can be applied. With a Phillips head, the crosshead doesn’t allow for slippage, and the screw is automatically centered.

 

This was more than just user convenience. Phillips (correctly) anticipated a rise in automated manufacturing, particularly with automobiles, in the coming decades. Having a screw driven in automatically is far easier when a crosshead is used, as the end of the tool can quickly find its place. General Motors was among the first carmakers to be convinced of Phillips’s argument, crafting its 1937 Cadillac with Phillips-style fasteners. The screw became available to the public at large around the same time.

 

Even if you’re not using power tools, a Phillips head has a distinct advantage over a flathead screw. Because the driver and fastener fit snugly, there’s little chance for the tool to slip and gouge the surface of whatever it is you’re working on: a kitchen cabinet, for example, or a bookshelf.

 

The Evolution of the Phillips Head
The Phillips head screw is no longer the exclusive purview of Henry Phillips, who died in 1958 and whose patent expired in 1966. In fact, there are variations in the crosshead screw, including one known as the Japanese Industry Standard (JIS). The JIS tends to grab onto the driving tool more securely, which may come in handy if you’re working by hand. (You can spot a JIS screw by the small pinhole off to the side of the crosshead.) In Canada, you may be more likely to find a Robertson-style screw, which is also a crosshead but in more of a square notch. Other designs with deeper notches have also supplanted the Phillips head, though its basic appeal—a no-slip drive—remains.

 

It's very likely that the Phillips head led to the proliferation of do-it-yourself home improvement projects. With a power driver and a crosshead, you can fasten things far more quickly—and with far less damage—than if you were driving a flathead screw.

 

The next time you find yourself completing a project and finding that you didn’t have a screwdriver slipping and scratching anything, you should probably remember Henry Phillips, who took John Thompson’s design to another level. “Hand me the Phillips-Thompson,” however, doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

 

Source: Why Is It Called a “Phillips Head” Screwdriver?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - L.A. TAKEDOWN

 

Did you know.... Before there was ‘Heat,’ there was ‘LA Takedown,’ a TV pilot-turned-TV movie that aired on NBC in 1989. 

 

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, undeniably two of the finest actors of their generation, finally got to share the screen together over a coffee in Michael Mann’s 1995 film Heat. The former played professional thief Neil McCauley, the latter a police officer named Lt. Vincent Hanna who had spent years on McCauley’s tail. “Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner,” McCauley says in the film’s most memorable line.

 

It was the moment cinephiles had been waiting for since the actors had appeared (separately) in The Godfather Part II in 1974. But for those who’d watched a certain TV movie six years previously, their conversation may have sparked a sense of déjà vu.  

 

The greatest scene from what many consider to be the greatest ‘90s film (despite its remarkable snubbing at the Academy Awards) was copied almost verbatim from 1989’s LA Takedown. This wasn’t an open-and-shut case of cultural theft, though: The forgotten NBC picture was also Mann’s brainchild, one that he skillfully remodeled into an engrossing big screen crime saga worthy of its A-list talent. 

 

From TV Pilot to TV Movie
Mann had actually started working on the idea before his directorial debut, Thief, hit theaters in 1981 (interestingly, he initially wanted friend Walter Hill to direct it, but Hill said no). It was based on a real-life ’60s manhunt involving former Chicago cop Chuck Adamson and prolific robber Neil McCauley—including the coincidental moment they bumped into each other on the street. “I didn’t know what to do: arrest him, shoot him or have a cup of coffee,” Adamson reportedly once said. At that time, they chose coffee, but Adamson would fatally shoot McCauley a year later following an attempted heist at a supermarket. 

 

Mann continued to hone the screenplay throughout the following decade, and as his slightly more pastel-colored TV crime drama Miami Vice was nearing the end of its five-season run, its home network decided to commission the idea as a potential show. To make LA Takedown (known at that point as Hanna) work for a TV pilot, Mann took his original script and trimmed it by more than 100 pages. But after some creative disputes with NBC president Brandon Tartikoff—including the choice of leading man—its pilot episode wasn’t deemed worthy of a pick-up to full series. (Mann would later scratch his police procedural itch as executive producer of CBS’s one-season wonder Robbery Homicide Division.) 

 

LA Takedown did eventually surface as a 97-minute television movie, with Alex McArthur and Scott Plank taking on the roles of the hunted Patrick McLaren and the hunter Lieutenant Vincent Hanna, respectively. Plank (and several other cast members) had also appeared on Miami Vice, while Michael Rooker, who played second-in-command Bosko, had worked with Mann on his other, grittier cop show, Crime Story. (Only one LA Takedown actor, however, made the leap to Heat: Xander Berkeley played gang member Waingro in the TV movie before taking on the role of Justine’s one night stand, Ralph, in the film.) 

 

Reviews were mixed, with the Los Angeles Times describing LA Takedown’s bank shootout scene as “riveting” and praising the chemistry between McArthur and co-star Laura Harrington (who played Eady, his character’s girlfriend). The review also argued—rather presciently, as it happens—that both deserved a “different, better picture.” 

 

Bringing the Heat

 

 

That “better picture” arrived in 1995, joining the likes of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, and Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments in the club of directorial do-overs, and 12 Angry Men and Marty on the list of theatrical films adapted from TV movies. LA Takedown has since drawn multiple unfavorable comparisons with Heat, with The New York Times writing that its “themes are bluntly stated, complex relationships are sanded down, and the good guy-bad guy dynamic is vastly simplified.”

 

LA Takedown (which, despite Mann’s standing as one of Hollywood’s greatest crime storytellers, is currently unavailable to stream) is indeed a conventional, bare-bones watch, far more interested in the cat than the mouse. Heat, meanwhile, allows both protagonists to drive the narrative while cleverly filling in more of the gaps, reinstating subplots such as Robert Van Zant’s (William Fichtner) double-crossing antics, Chris’s (Val Kilmer) gambling problems, and the suicidal tendencies of Hanna’s stepdaughter Lauren (a young Natalie Portman). 

 

Its ending is also less satisfactory: McLaren meets his maker not at the hands of his law-enforcing nemesis, but his volatile partner-in-crime Waingro. Heat, on the other hand, sticks closer to real-life events by having McCauley be gunned down by Hanna (albeit on an airport runway rather than in the wake of a supermarket shootout). 

 

 

 

Of course, contrasting like for like could be considered a little unfair. LA Takedown had a considerably lower budget and just a 19-day shoot. Following his Oscar-winning success with Last of the Mohicans, Mann was given $60 million and nearly four months to make Heat. LA Takedown was bound by the constraints of network television, and because it was only intended to be a taster of a full series, it had 73 minutes less to tell its story.

 

And there’s one way in which LA Takedown could never compare: It’s the frisson of knowing that De Niro and Pacino are about to butt heads for the first time that makes Heat so compelling. Several decades younger, and without the shared history, poor Plank and McArthur were never going to be able to compete. “Like comparing freeze-dried coffee with Jamaican Blue Mountain,” Mann later explained about the two experiences. “It’s a completely different kind of undertaking.”

 

As he also acknowledged, LA Takedown gave Mann the stuff of filmmakers’ dreams: a trial run that provided invaluable lessons for the real thing. “I charted the film out like a [two-hour, 45-minute] piece of music,” the director once said about how he restructured the original story. “So, I’d know where to be smooth, where not to be smooth, where to be staccato, where to use a pulse like a heartbeat.” Without the opportunity to iron out the script’s problems, the long-awaited coming together of two Hollywood titans is unlikely to have created such a sizzle. 

 

 

Source: How An Unsuccessful TV Pilot Spawned One of the Greatest Films of the 1990s

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - GONG FU CHA

Did you know... In the serene realm of tea, where time slows down and ancient customs intertwine with the present, there exists a captivating tradition known as Gong Fu Cha. Originating from the heartland of China, this artful practice transcends the mere act of brewing tea, elevating it to a profound sensory experience. Gong Fu Cha, meaning "making tea with skill," invites us to embark on a journey of patience, mindfulness, and precision. As we delve into this age-old tradition, we will uncover its rich history, discover the meticulous rituals that accompany it, and embrace the profound beauty that lies within every delicate sip. Prepare to immerse yourself in the captivating world of Gong Fu Cha, where the art of tea transcends the boundaries of time and space.

 

What Exactly is Gong Fu Cha?
Gong Fu Cha, also known as Kung Fu Tea or Gong Fu Tea, transcends being a mere tea brewing method—it is a way of tasting tea that reverberates with centuries of Chinese tea history. Rooted in ancient traditions, Gong Fu Cha is a meticulously ritualistic practice that embraces the art of extracting the fullest flavors and aromas from tea leaves through a series of precise brewing techniques. With unwavering attention to detail, practitioners employ specific utensils like Yixing clay teapots and tiny tea cups, creating an optimal sensory experience. More than a tea-making process, Gong Fu Cha invites individuals on a profound meditative journey to slow down, savor each moment, and forge a deep connection with the exquisite heritage of Chinese tea culture.

 

The History and Origins of Gong Fu Cha
The history of Gong Fu Cha can be traced back to ancient China, where tea cultivation and consumption were deeply rooted in the country's cultural fabric. The tradition of Gong Fu Cha flourished during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and continued to evolve through the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Gong Fu Cha's origins can be attributed to the scholarly class and Buddhist monks who sought to enhance their tea experiences.

 

During this time, tea preparation was transformed into a refined art form, emphasizing the importance of mindfulness and precision. Tea connoisseurs developed specific rituals and techniques to extract the best flavors and aromas from the tea leaves, using small teapots, tiny cups, and various utensils to brew and serve tea. The Gong Fu Cha method gained popularity across China, especially in the southeastern provinces of Fujian and Guangdong.

 

The intricate nature of Gong Fu Cha was further enhanced during the late Qing Dynasty when Yixing clay teapots from the Jiangsu province became an integral part of the practice. These teapots were highly valued for their porous nature, which allowed the tea's flavors to be absorbed and released over time, enhancing the overall tea experience.

 

While Gong Fu Cha experienced a decline during the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), it underwent a resurgence in the late 20th century as China began to embrace its cultural heritage. Today, Gong Fu Cha continues to thrive both in China and around the world, with tea enthusiasts and practitioners valuing its meticulous rituals, emphasis on sensory experience, and connection to Chinese tea history.

 

Why is it Called Gong Fu Cha and Kung Fu Tea?
The name "Gong Fu Cha" or "Kung Fu Cha" has its roots in the Chinese language. The term "Gong Fu" (功夫) is often associated with martial arts, translating to "skill" or "achievement through hard work." In the context of tea, "Gong Fu" refers to the skillful and dedicated approach employed in brewing and serving tea.

 

The use of "Cha" (茶) in the name signifies "tea" in Chinese. Combining "Gong Fu" with "Cha" suggests that Gong Fu Cha is a method of making tea that requires skill, precision, and a level of mastery similar to that found in martial arts.

 

The term "Kung Fu Cha" is an alternate transliteration of "Gong Fu Cha" and has gained popularity outside of China, particularly in English-speaking countries. The term "kung fu" itself has been widely adopted to describe Chinese martial arts, and "Kung Fu Cha" draws a parallel between the artistry and dedication required in both tea preparation and martial arts.

 

Tea Pets and Gong Fu Cha
Tea pets are traditionally used in Chinese Gong Fu Cha. Tea pets, also known as tea mascots, are small clay figurines placed on the tea tray during the Gong Fu Cha ceremony. They serve both decorative and functional purposes. Tea pets are often made of porous clay, such as Yixing clay, and are believed to absorb the tea's essence over time. They can symbolize good luck, prosperity, or offer a sense of companionship during the tea brewing process. Tea enthusiasts often pour the first brew over the tea pet as an offering or gesture of gratitude. The tea pet's appearance may change or develop a patina over time, reflecting the tea brewing journey and adding a unique charm to the Gong Fu Cha experience.

 

Chinese Gong Fu Cha vs Japanese Chanoyu
Each ceremony represents a distinct cultural expression of tea appreciation, highlighting the unique histories and philosophies of both Chinese and Japanese tea cultures:

 

• The Japanese tea ceremony, also known as "Chanoyu" or "Sado," have their foundations in Zen Buddhism and were greatly influenced by Chinese tea culture. The Japanese tea ceremony can be traced back to the 13th century, and it embraces principles of harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility.
• The Japanese tea ceremony places emphasis on the preparation and serving of matcha, a powdered green tea made from shade-grown tea leaves. The ceremony is often conducted in a purpose-built tearoom, where the aesthetics of simplicity and minimalism prevail. The host meticulously performs each step of the ceremony, including the precise whisking of the tea, in a serene and meditative atmosphere. Guests participate by observing and appreciating the beauty of the tea utensils, the tranquil surroundings, and the flavors of the matcha.

• In contrast, Gong Fu Cha, focuses on the art of brewing loose-leaf tea, particularly oolong and pu-erh teas, though it can be applied to other varieties as well. Gong Fu Cha emphasizes the mastery of brewing techniques, the appreciation of the aroma of the tea leaves, and the pursuit of the fullest flavors. The ceremony typically takes place in a more casual setting, often in the home, where tea enthusiasts showcase their skills and knowledge.

• Gong Fu Cha involves multiple short steepings of tea leaves in a small clay teapot, with careful attention to water temperature, infusion time, and the arrangement of tea cups. The ceremony celebrates the artistry of tea preparation, allowing participants to experience the unfolding flavors and aromas of the tea through successive infusions. Gong Fu Cha also places importance on the aesthetics of tea utensils, such as the Yixing clay teapots and tiny cups, which can enhance the overall tea experience.

 

How to Enjoy Gong Fu Cha at Home
Enjoying traditional Gong Fu Cha at home can be a delightful and immersive experience. Here are simple step-by-step instructions to help you embark on your Gong Fu Cha journey:

 

1. Gather your supplies: Prepare the necessary equipment, including a small clay teapot (such as a Yixing teapot) or a Gaiwan (lidded tea bowl), tea cups, a tea tray, a tea strainer, tea pitcher (Cha Zhong), and high-quality loose-leaf tea (preferably oolong or pu-erh).
2. Warm up your teaware: Rinse your teapot and cups with hot water to warm them. This step ensures that the tea is brewed in clean and warm vessels.
3. Measure the tea: Depending on the size of your teapot or Gaiwan, measure an appropriate amount of tea leaves. A general guideline is to use 1 gram of tea for every 15-20 ml of water (around 6-8 grams in a small teapot). Adjust the amount according to your taste preferences.
4. Rinse the tea leaves: Place the tea leaves in the teapot or Gaiwan and briefly rinse them with hot water. This step helps awaken the tea leaves and removes any impurities or dust.
5. Infuse the tea: Fill your teapot or Gaiwan with hot water, ideally at the recommended temperature for the specific tea you are brewing. Allow the tea leaves to steep for a short time, usually between 10-30 seconds, for the first infusion. Gradually increase the steeping time for subsequent infusions, as desired.
6. Pour and share: Pour the brewed tea into the tea pitcher using a tea strainer if needed to catch any leaf particles. Distribute the tea evenly into the small tea cups, ensuring each cup receives an equal amount.
7. Appreciate the aroma: Before taking a sip, gently raise the cup to your nose and inhale the tea's aroma. Allow the fragrant notes to captivate your senses and prepare you for the tasting experience.
8. Savor the tea: Take small sips of the tea, allowing it to roll across your tongue and explore the intricate flavors. Notice the evolving taste with each infusion and appreciate the nuances of the tea leaves.
9. Repeat the process: Gong Fu Cha involves multiple infusions. Repeat steps 5 to 8 for subsequent brews, adjusting the steeping time to your preference. Each infusion will reveal different layers of flavor and complexity.
10. Reflect and enjoy: As you continue to savor the tea, take the time to reflect on the experience, the flavors, and the sensations it evokes. Gong Fu Cha is a mindful practice that encourages relaxation and appreciation of the tea's beauty.

 

When practicing Gong Fu Cha, there are several popular Chinese teas that are particularly well-suited for this brewing method, these include:

• Tie Guan Yin: This oolong tea from Fujian province is known for its floral aroma, smooth texture, and lingering sweet aftertaste. It is often regarded as one of the finest oolongs, with a delicate balance of flavors that evolve beautifully through multiple infusions.
• Da Hong Pao: Hailing from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian, Da Hong Pao, or "Big Red Robe," is a highly revered and sought-after oolong tea. It boasts a rich, roasted aroma and a complex flavor profile, often described as mineral, fruity, and slightly smoky. Each steeping reveals new layers of taste, making it perfect for Gong Fu Cha.
• Sheng Pu-erh: Sheng Pu-erh, also known as raw Pu-erh, is a type of fermented tea that originates from Yunnan province. It undergoes a natural aging process, resulting in a tea that develops a unique earthy, mellow, and sometimes slightly astringent taste. Gong Fu Cha is an ideal method to appreciate the evolving flavors of Sheng Pu-erh over several infusions.
• Longjing (Dragon Well): Originating from Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Longjing is one of China's most famous green teas. It features a smooth, delicate taste with a hint of chestnut and a refreshing, sweet aroma. The brewing techniques of Gong Fu Cha accentuate the nuances of this tea, providing a delightful sensory experience.
• Huangshan Maofeng: This green tea comes from the Huangshan Mountains in Anhui province and is known for its distinct appearance of small curly leaves. Huangshan Maofeng offers a fresh, floral aroma and a delicate, mellow flavor. Gong Fu Cha allows you to appreciate its subtle qualities through multiple infusions.

 

Brewing Beauty and Serenity through the Art of Chinese Tea
In the intricate world of Gong Fu Cha, the ancient art of Chinese tea brewing, we discover a captivating journey that transcends time and connects us to centuries of tradition. This meticulous practice, with its precise rituals and devotion to the mastery of tea preparation, invites us to slow down, savor each moment, and appreciate the rich flavors, aromas, and textures that unfurl with each infusion. Gong Fu Cha is more than a mere tea ceremony; it is a meditative experience, a profound exploration of the senses, and a gateway to the vibrant heritage of Chinese tea culture. As we embrace the artistry of Gong Fu Cha, we unlock the transformative power of tea and create moments of tranquility and connection, ultimately discovering a profound harmony within ourselves and the world around us.

 

Source: The Serenity of Gong Fu Cha: Exploring the Timeless Tradition of Chinese Tea Brewing

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the day - SAGUARO CACTUS

Did you know.... It’s not easy to be a cactus — surviving in a scorching environment with little water is a pretty tough task for most plants. Some cacti, like the saguaro, have adapted by taking their sweet time to grow. In fact, saguaro cacti often reach just 1.5 inches in the first 10 years of their lives. Growing their iconic arms — often featured in old Western films and desert art landscapes — can take 50 years, or even up to 100 years in drought-like conditions.

 

Many saguaros do not flower until they reach 35 years old. And although they produce some 40 million seeds over their lifetime, odds are that just one of their cacti descendants will survive to adulthood after battling arid conditions, trampling, human interference, and invasive species that threaten their environments. Reaching their maximum size — upwards of 45 feet tall and more than 2 tons in weight — can take 175 to 200 years, close to the end of a saguaro’s lengthy lifespan. But there is perhaps one consolation involved in that long journey: Saguaros are the largest cactus species in the U.S.

 

These slow-growing giants are found wild only in the Sonoran Desert, which stretches from southeastern California across southwestern Arizona and into Mexico. Despite their vulnerabilities, saguaro are important plants in the Sonoran ecosystem, providing fruit for birds, nectar for bats and other pollinators, and superb nesting spots for wildlife — which is why these colossal cacti are legally protected native plants in Arizona.

 

There’s a special census for saguaro cacti every 10 years.
How do scientists know how many saguaros exist in the U.S.? Turns out, they count and record them, in a fashion similar to how the federal census estimates the nation’s population of humans. Scientists at Saguaro National Park in Arizona first began the cactus count in 1990 as a way to track species health and numbers, syncing the enumeration with the federal census. Every 10 years, scientists and volunteers count the number of cacti in randomly selected areas of the park to calculate how many saguaro likely exist in the preserve as a whole. The work is labor-intensive, requiring census-takers to hike to desolate areas of the park and record each cactus’ GPS coordinates, height, number of arms, and other information. In 2020, that work totaled more than 3,500 hours from staff and a group of more than 500 volunteers. The most recent report shows the saguaro population nearly doubled from the 1990 count, totaling around 2 million in 2020, though it’s possible up to 20% of baby saguaro could be missed, since they’re so small and difficult to spot.

 

 

Source: It can take 50 years for a saguaro cactus to grow one arm.

[DarkRavie]

Friday's Fact of the Day - DISNEY FACTS

Did you know.... On October 16, 1923, Walt Disney formally agreed to send a new series of short films to a New York distributor, thereby launching the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Needless to say, a few things besides the company name have changed since then, as Disney has gone from a bare-bones operation to the creator of groundbreaking talking funnies, the stewards of iconic characters and franchises, and, finally, the overlords of a sweeping enterprise with interests all over the globe. With 100 years of movie magic in the rearview mirror, here’s a look at six facts about all things Disney.

 

Animator Ub Iwerks Was Integral to Disney’s Early Success

Disney’s history is filled with the hard work of unsung geniuses, but none was as integral to the company’s foundational success as Ub Iwerks. Indispensable to Walt Disney since their days together at Kansas City’s Laugh-O-Gram Studio, Iwerks joined his friend in Hollywood in the 1920s to produce a groundbreaking live-action/animated series of short films called the Alice Comedies. Iwerks remained loyal to Disney after a distributor stole their creation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and hired away the studio’s animators. He’s credited with sketching the very first Mickey Mouse, and single-handedly animated the landmark 1928 Mickey cartoon Plane Crazy, with an output that reached 700 drawings in a single day. Although personal and creative differences prompted Iwerks to branch out on his own in 1930, he returned to the fold 10 years later as a special effects expert, and went on to bolster the studio’s animation capabilities with his innovations in optical printing and xerography.

 

Disney Has Created More Than 800 Films

More than 800 feature films have been made under the Disney banner since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs hit theaters in 1937. The studio’s first full-length, live-action feature was Treasure Island, in 1950. Its first R-rated flick was Down and Out in Beverly Hills, developed under the then-recently inaugurated Touchstone Pictures subsidiary in 1986. Disney’s highest-grossing entry was (unsurprisingly) a Marvel movie, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, while its highest-grossing animated feature also arrived that year with Frozen 2.

 

Disney Essentially Served as a Media Branch of the U.S. Military During World War II

After the attack on Pearl Harbor led to the requisitioning of Disney’s Southern California studio as an anti-aircraft base in late 1941, the company turned its focus to supporting the war effort. Several films produced during this time were used to train Army and Navy personnel; others, like Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943), were propaganda fare that portrayed stereotyped and inept versions of enemy leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Additionally, the studio designed more than 1,200 insignia for various military units and helped raise funds by permitting its characters to appear on war bonds. All told, Disney was devoting more than 90% of its output to war-related material by 1943, enabling the studio to weather lean financial times and survive to deliver the next wave of classics, which included Cinderella (1950) and Peter Pan (1953).

 

Disneyland’s Disastrous Grand Opening Was Dubbed “Black Sunday” by Employees

Although Walt Disney’s long-gestating dream of a theme park was realized with the televised grand opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in July 1955, the disaster that unfolded was better suited for a nightmare. Most attractions remained unopened despite the rushed construction, and the sweltering heat transformed the fresh asphalt of Main Street, USA, into a sticky mess. Meanwhile, overcrowding from thousands of counterfeit tickets contributed to a 7-mile backup on the Santa Ana Freeway, and resulted in the park’s restaurants running out of food. But Disney remained unbowed by what was internally dubbed “Black Sunday,” and apparently so did the paying public: Disneyland surpassed 1 million in attendance just seven weeks later, and the company eventually doubled down on the theme park experience with the unveiling of Florida’s Walt Disney World in October 1971.

 

Disney Kick-Started the Careers of Numerous Celebrities

The House of Mouse has nurtured an impressive roster of young talents since Annette Funicello emerged as an original Mouseketeer in 1955. A teenaged Kurt Russell became a Disney film regular in the 1960s, before subsequent incarnations of The Mickey Mouse Club fueled the rises of mega pop stars Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera, along with A-list actor Ryan Gosling. Miley Cyrus and Olivia Rodrigo both starred on their own Disney shows before becoming chart-topping singers, while fellow Disney alums Zac Efron, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, and Zendaya achieved fame as musicians, actors, or both. And then there’s Steve Martin, who didn’t appear in a Disney feature until 1991’s Father of the Bride, but nevertheless learned to perform in public as a Disneyland employee from ages 10 to 18.

 

Disney Is a Very, Very Big Business

It’s been a long time since Disney was merely a studio of ink-stained animators and noisy voice actors, but even its visionary founder would likely be staggered by its multifaceted presence across numerous businesses today. Along with resorts in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, the Mouse Kingdom oversees a line of cruise ships, Hollywood Records, the Adventures by Disney travel company, and the Steamboat Ventures venture capitalist firm. Among its media subsidiaries, Disney owns 20th Century Studios, ABC, National Geographic, LucasFilm, and the massive cash cow that is Marvel Studios. Altogether, the century-old conglomerate was valued at just under $150 billion as of September 2023.

 

Source: Magical Facts About Disney

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PEAK FOLIAGE

Did you know... Peak foliage starts in the northernmost parts of the U.S. in early September this year. Use this interactive map from SmokyMountains.com to catch the most colorful leaves of the season when they appear in your neck of the woods.

 

 

The season of scarves, sweaters, and pumpkin spice everything is almost upon us. No matter how you feel about the end of summer, it’s hard not to appreciate the colorful foliage when it reaches its peak in autumn. Those red, orange, and gold leaves may be visible outside your window sooner than you think, and this interactive map from SmokyMountains.com shows you exactly when to expect them.

 

Fall foliage normally peaks some time after the autumnal equinox, which falls on September 22 in 2024; but exactly when depends on variables like rainfall and temperature. Each year, the SmokyMountains.com tourism website looks at weather forecasts and historical trends from NOAA and puts together an interactive map showing when foliage is predicted to peak across the contiguous United States.

 

 

According to the map, the northernmost parts of the northern states—like Montana, Maine, and North Dakota—should already see minimal autumn foliage by early September. Fall colors at these latitudes will peak between late September and early October. Meanwhile, mid-Atlantic states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia won’t be treated to the best of the season’s offerings until the middle of October. By the end of that month, most of the northern half of the country will have already had its share of fall colors. Peak foliage won’t arrive in southern states like Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana until early November.

 

By sliding the scale beneath the map at SmokyMountains.com, you can see when foliage is expected to peak in your part of the country. You can also use the tool to plan trips around the changing leaves.

 

If you can’t pick just one spot to take in the foliage this fall, you don’t have to—here are the best spots around the world for watching the leaves change.

 

Source: Get Excited for Fall With the 2024 Peak Foliage Map

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - POPULAR BIRTHDAY MONTH

Did you know.... There are a lot of Virgos and Libras out there.  Maybe you’ve come across one or two people over the years who share your birthday. If you were born in September, that number might be a little higher.

 

In 2016, data journalist Matt Stiles analyzed the number of U.S. births by day from 1994 through 2014 and found that September is the busiest month to bring home a bundle of joy. September 9 is the most popular birthday overall, with 12,301 births on average, and eight other September dates surpassed an average of 12,000 births, too.

 

So why exactly is September such a high-traffic time to experience the miracle of childbirth? Flipping through the calendar could give us a hint. Pregnancies are supposed to last 38 weeks from conception, which means that babies born on September 9 would’ve been conceived on December 17. The conception date for the second most popular birthday, September 19, should technically be December 27. Of course, babies don’t always decide to make their appearance precisely at the 38-week mark, but the gist is that September babies were conceived in December. As Motherly points out, people tend to work less during the holidays, leaving more time to bounce from party to party, drink a few extra cocktails, and further the family line. It’s also a romantic season in general; according to a 2018 survey by Brides, December is the most popular month to get engaged.

 

Scientists have proposed their own hypotheses to explain the high conception rates in December, but they’re still mostly speculation. One theory suggests that sperm are less potent during the summer; according to another, the mother's eggs or uterine lining is less receptive to sperm during those months. Others think shorter daylight hours during the winter could affect our hormone functions.

 

It’s also possible that some people simply think September is an opportune time to have kids. As Experian explains, there aren’t any huge holidays to celebrate, so you can plan an induced or elective birth without worrying about short-staffed hospitals.

 

Whatever the reason, if you’re tired of having to schedule your birthday shindig around all the other ones in September, you can always throw yourself a half-birthday party, instead—far fewer people were born in March.

 

 

Source: Why Is September the Most Popular Birthday Month in the U.S.? People Have Theories

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - EGG BABIES

Did you know... To simulate parenting, schools once handed out eggs to kids. Many puns followed.  Whether you’re familiar with the phrase “egg baby” depends largely on whether you attended middle or high school in the 1980s or 1990s. If you did, there’s an excellent chance your health or sexual education teacher required you to “adopt” a chicken egg on the premise it could teach you about the responsibility of caring for a newborn.

 

As you’ve likely figured out on your own, the difference between a human baby and an egg is rather substantial. So did the “egg baby” trend actually make a difference in the teen pregnancy rates it was trying to curb?

 

Hatching the Egg Baby
When teen pregnancies spiked in the U.S. in the 1940s and 1950s, and again in the late 1980s and early 1990s, schools came up with creative ways to discourage them. Sex education for preteens and teens became more pervasive, and curricula devoted to imparting the consequences of caring for a child when one is a child themselves was seen as crucial.

 

The actual inception of the egg lesson is hard to identify. One story published in a Connecticut newspaper in 1979 mentioned a course at East Lyme High School that had been going on for four or five years, with home economics teacher Betty Sweet dispensing eggs because it was “the closest thing I could find as fragile as a baby.”

 

 

Another early mention of the egg baby concept came in 1977 when students at North Bend High School in Oregon got their lesson in egg-sitting. The raw eggs were toted around for two weeks straight, and any accidents were reported to the faculty. The shells were in attendance during gym class and at part-time jobs. Should a student be unable to care for their egg, they’d have to hire a babysitter.

 

It was in the 1980s, however, that the idea really took hold. A 1985 Morning Call story reported that kids at Quakertown High School in Pennsylvania were busy tending to eggs handed to them during home economics class. The students were expected to carry the eggs with them 24 hours a day. If mishandling resulted in a crack in the shell, it was perceived as a symbolic death and a failure.

 

Some students would get upset when their egg baby expired. While that may sound ridiculous, part of the exercise was for the kids to develop some emotional investment in the perishable good. The soft-boiled (sometimes emptied) eggs were named (Eggbert was a popular choice), given faces (in marker), and appeared in scrapbooks. A crack, or death, resulted in its caretaker having to pen an obituary.

 

Eggs could “die” in any number of ways, ranging from collisions in high school hallways to not being properly secured during car rides. In at least one case, the egg baby was eaten by a dog.

 

Cracking Under Pressure
Anecdotally, the experiment had some effect: Kids who were considering starting a family in the near future reconsidered. “A lot of students have come back saying they’ve re-evaluated their plans,” Quakertown teacher Gloria Peck said. “The majority come to the decision that they’re definitely not ready for children.”

 

 

It was not necessarily a cracked egg that drove home the pitfalls of parenthood but the constant minding of the eggs. Many students observed that needing to find someone to “watch” their egg emphasized how much attention a real baby would demand.

 

As schools entered the 1990s, the experiment evolved. At the turn of the decade, students at Dunedin High School in Florida tackled a slightly more sophisticated version of the lesson, with certain variables accompanying their eggs. One egg baby might have food allergies; another practice parent might have “twin” eggs.

 

Not everyone was a fan of the egg project. “No eggs!” one internet message board for teachers cautioned in 1999. “The custodians will hate you forever!” Instead, some teachers utilized sacks of flour or sugar to mimic the physical and emotional toll of a fragile dependent. Some crafty students, however, wound up siphoning out the sugar to make their “baby” easier to carry.

 

Shellshocked
Eggs and other grocery items were perceived as the most economical way of imparting parental responsibilities on to kids. But at the end of the 20th century, such experiments lost ground to realistic infant simulators, including a high-tech doll named Baby Think It Over (now RealCare). Rather than relying on the pretend parent’s imagination, the plastic newborns made audible pleas for attention. They could also track when caretakers were ignoring demands like diaper care. While more effective than coddling an egg, they were also hundreds of dollars each. (Today, a RealCare doll is listed at $1200 via the manufacturer.)

 

It’s difficult to say whether such lessons have any real effect on teen pregnancy rates, though they’re likely to prompt would-be parents to think twice. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the teen birth rate was 15.4 in 2020, or 15.4 births for every 1000 girls aged 15 to 19. That’s down 75 percent from the 1991 high of 61.8, and the rate has dropped yearly since 2009. The government credits the downward trend to teens delaying sex and the increased use of contraceptives. While egg babies and infant simulators are likely not an overwhelming factor, they probably didn’t hurt.

 

Nor has the baby egg gone completely out of style. While not nearly as common as they once were, some schools still make use of them, including Germantown Elementary in Illinois, which handed out eggs in 2021.

 

Source: When Schools Made Kids Care for ‘Egg Babies’ to Thwart Teen Pregnancies

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CTACKERS PREVENT VICES?

Did you know.... You can tell this tale as you enjoy some s’mores while gathered around the campfire.

 

Social media users might have noticed a recurring trend, specifically on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, where users joke about the origins of the simple graham cracker as a way to curtail sexual impulses. And while it might sound bizarre, this is one viral trend that is based in truth. Long before they were used to make s’mores or the tasty crust of a Key lime pie, graham crackers served a more puritanical purpose in 19th-century America.

 

Why were graham crackers invented?
Graham crackers were invented by Sylvester Graham, an American Presbyterian minister whose views on food, sex, alcohol, and nutrition would seem a bit extreme to today’s cracker-snackers. Graham and his thousands of followers—dubbed Grahamites—believed it was sinful to eat decadent foods. To combat this moral decay, Graham started a diet regimen of his own.

 

While graham crackers were invented to curb vices such as smoking and drinking or bad behaviors like masturbation and impure thoughts, the answer goes much deeper than that.

 

Graham ran health retreats in the 1830s that promoted a bland diet that banned sugar and meat. According to Refinery29, Graham’s views ultimately inspired veganism in America as well as the “first anti-sugar crusade.” He condemned alcohol, tobacco, spices, seasoning, butter, and “tortured” refined flour. Caffeine was also a no-no. In fact, Graham believed that coffee and tea were just as bad as tobacco, opium, or alcohol because they created a “demand for stimulation.” However, the worst vice, in Graham’s opinion, was overeating. “A drunkard sometimes reaches old age; a glutton never,” he once wrote.

 

 

Graham’s austere philosophy was informed by the underlying belief that eating habits affect people’s behaviors, and vice versa. He thought certain foods were “overstimulating” and led to impure thoughts and passions, including masturbation—or “self-pollution,” as he called it—which he believed to be an epidemic that caused both blindness and insanity.

 

Graham’s views directly influenced Victorian-era corn flake inventor John Harvey Kellogg, who was born a year after Graham died. Like his predecessor, Kellogg also believed meat and some flavorful foods led to sexual impulses, so he advocated for the consumption of plain foods, like cereals and nuts, instead. (Unsurprisingly, the original recipes for both corn flakes and graham crackers were free of sinful sugar.)

 

In one lecture, Graham told young men they could stop their minds from wandering to forbidden places if they avoided “undue excitement of the brain and stomach and intestines.” This meant swearing off improper foods and substances like tobacco, caffeine, pepper, ginger, mustard, horseradish, and peppermint. Even milk was banned because it was “too exciting and too oppressive.”

 

What could Sylvester Graham’s followers eat?
The core component of Graham’s diet was bread made of coarsely ground wheat or rye, unlike the refined white flour loaves that were sold in bakeries at that time. From this same flour emerged Graham’s crackers and muffins, both of which were common breakfast foods. John Harvey Kellogg was known to have eaten the crackers and apples for breakfast, and one of his first attempts at making cereal involved soaking twice-baked cracker bits in milk overnight.

 

However, Kellogg was one of the few remaining fans of Graham’s diet, which began to fall out of favor in the 1840s. At Ohio’s Oberlin College, a Grahamite was hired in 1840 to strictly enforce the school’s meal plans. One professor was fired for bringing a pepper shaker to the dining hall, and the hunger-stricken students organized a protest the following year, arguing that the Graham diet was “inadequate to the demands of the human system as at present developed.” Ultimately, the Grahamite and his tyrannical nutrition plan were kicked out.

 

Much like Kellogg’s corn flakes, someone else stepped in and corrupted Graham’s crackers, molding them into the edible form we now know—and, yes, love—today. In Graham’s case, it was the National Biscuit Company, which eventually became Nabisco; the company started manufacturing graham crackers in the 1880s. But Graham would likely be rolling in his grave if he knew they contained sugar and white flour—and that they’re often topped with marshmallows and chocolate for a truly decadent treat.

 

Source: Graham Crackers Were Invented to Combat the Evils of Coffee, Alcohol, and Masturbation

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ANIMALS ASSOCIATED WITH HALLOWEEN

Did you know.... Halloween is packed with spooky charm—it’s the season where mythical beings like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts reign supreme. It’s also a fairly animal-centric time of year, as several real (and often misunderstood) creatures have come to symbolize the holiday. Here’s how black cats, bats, owls, and more became linked to Halloween.

 

Black Cats

Black cats are probably the most iconic Halloween animal. The superstition that these dark creatures bring bad luck dates back to Greek mythology, where they were associated with Hecate, the goddess of magic, witchcraft, and sorcery. By the time the Middle Ages rolled around, black cats were commonly linked to Satan and witches—so much so that a 13th-century church decree was put out labeling them as demonic incarnations of the devil. This superstition spread to the New World with Puritan colonists and was compounded by the erroneous belief that killing cats could curb the Bubonic plague. These days, black cats are more often seen as spooky Halloween mascots or even lucky charms, depending on who you ask. 

 

Bats

Bats are another animal deeply tied to Halloween. The main reason may simply have to do with how bats look and behave, as these nocturnal animals can be quite startling at first glance. Their association with spooky season may have started with the Celtic festival Samhain, where large bonfires attracted insects, which in turn attracted bats; these were thought to be spirits disturbed by the fires. Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula cemented their sinister reputation by portraying them as vampires, although real vampire bats feed on the blood of other animals (human bites are rare) and don’t turn them into the undead in the process.

 

Spiders

Spiders have a deeper connection to Halloween than just being creepy crawlies—although their appearance is certainly a factor. Spiders and spiderwebs are often associated with dark places, old buildings, and other spooky locations. You’re also more likely to see spiderwebs in the fall months; it’s the time of the year many start mating, which means the arachnids may be more visible throughout September and October. And though their silky creations do make great Halloween decor, make sure you don’t try to recreate their handiwork with artificial spider webs, as those can be dangerous for wildlife. 

 

Owls

Owls can partially thank their large eyes, haunting hoos, and nocturnal behavior for their association with Halloween. But their association with the holiday is based on more than just appearances. Like many of the animals on this list, the birds been linked to witchcraft and the supernatural throughout history—although people have been conflicted about their reputation. In Greek mythology, owls served as the symbol of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, while ancient Romans believed the animals could predict someone’s imminent death. Many Native American cultures believe the raptors have a correlation to death and the afterlife, further cementing their status as otherworldly beasts. 

 

Toads

These warty creatures have long been linked to witches in various cultures, and are often depicted as companions believed to assist in their magical practices. This association was popularized in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where a toad is mentioned in the context of a witch’s brew, reinforcing the idea that the amphibians can be ingredients in dark magic and potions. It also doesn’t help that many toads have toxic substances in their skin that can be poisonous to humans—although you’d have to eat (or lick) them to be affected.

 

Crows

If you’ve ever seen a group of crows—called a “murder”—circling around the carcass of a dead animal, you understand why they’re associated with Halloween. The birds will eat anything from berries to live snakes, but they’re also scavengers and will often feed on roadkill and garbage. While they may have a worse public image than they deserve (crows are considered one of the most intelligent animals on the planet), there’s no denying they have a foreboding presence. And it certainly doesn’t help that people often confuse them with ravens, another corvid with an eerie reputation.

 

Rats

Rats—another remarkably intelligent animal—have long been associated with disease and decay. This may be largely due to their role in spreading the Black Death in the 14th century. Although it was technically the fleas on the rats that carried the disease, the rodents became sort of a scapegoat during this period of history; many have considered them to be disease-ridden ever since. Even today, while you can purchase rats in most pet stores, plenty of people consider them too creepy to live in their homes. (For the record, they can be excellent pets for those who can give them the care and attention they deserve.) 

 

 

Source: Why Some Animals Became Associated With Halloween

Edited Wednesday at 02:20 PM by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - GH SPELLING IN WORDS

Did you know... Only a handful of English words start with ‘gh’—what gives?

 

Gh is a strange way for an English word to start. There are only a handful of commonly used words that begin with this spelling. Beyond the spirit cluster of ghost, ghastly, and ghoul, we have borrowed words like ghetto, gherkin, and ghee, some place names like Ghana and Ghent—and that’s about it. Which may have made you wonder: What’s up with the gh? Turns out, it has a little something to do with a 15th-century publisher.

 

Ghoul was borrowed into English in the 1700s from the Arabic ghul (meaning “shape-shifting desert demon, monster,” per the Oxford English Dictionary), but initially, it was used without the h, as goul or goule. It was later lured over to the gh group by its semantic similarity to ghost.

 

But how did ghost get its gh? Compared to the other gh words, ghost is both a lot more frequent and a lot older, going all the way back to Old English gást. Until the 1500s, over a few centuries of language change, it was spelled gast, gæst, gost, goste, goost, and goist. Ghastly—from the related, Middle English gastliche—also came in h-free spellings until the 1500s. 

 

We can trace the introduction of the h in ghost and ghastly back to William Caxton, the man who brought the printing press to England in the 1470s. He had established his first press in Bruges, and he brought some Flemish typesetters back with him when he returned to set up business in Westminster. In his history of spelling, Spell It Out, linguist David Crystal writes that “in Bruges they would all have been used to reading manuscripts in Flemish spelling. So if a word reminded them of its Flemish counterpart, why not spell it that way? The boss wouldn’t mind, as long as the words were intelligible. He had more to worry about than spelling.”

 

The typesetters also used gh in their spellings of goose, goat, and girl, but those spellings never caught on. For some reason, only ghost and ghastly kept the h. Maybe because the words looked spookier that way. Indeed, a story about the ghost of a “ghoos ghoot gherle” sounds downright terrifying. Thank ghoodness those spellings have ghone.

 

 

Source: Why are ‘Ghost,’ ‘Ghastly,’ and ‘Ghoul’ Spelled with ‘gh’?

Edited Friday at 01:16 PM by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - MUSHROOMS VS. TOADSTOOLS - DIFFERENCE

Did you know... Mushrooms and toadstools are quite similar, but one is typically described as edible while the other isn’t.

 

According to the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, there are more than 6 million species of fungi worldwide, many of which are mushrooms. People tend to confuse them with toadstools because they look similar. Their definitions aren’t clear-cut, but knowing the general differences between the two can possibly prevent sickness.

 

The Difference Between Mushrooms and Toadstools
While there are no biological differences separating toadstools and mushrooms as groups, the former label often refers to poisonous fungi. The latter typically defines an edible fungus. Again, these explanations aren’t definitive, as there’s no scientific way to differentiate the two categories. Things get complicated when you factor in poisonous mushrooms like the death cap mushroom, which can cause kidney damage and—as the name suggests—death.

 

As GroCycle puts it, you can say that “all toadstools are types of mushrooms, but not all mushrooms are toadstools.” However, both are classified as the fruiting bodies of a fungus. 

 

The Origins of Toadstool
So where did the term toadstool come from, anyway? The exact history of the word is hazy, but experts have some ideas. Some believe the name toadstool came from toads. The amphibians were known for carrying toxins and disease, so toxic fungi became associated with them. Fungi were also tied to witches and evil spirits in the Middle Ages, as they caused deaths and illnesses that were poorly understood at the time.

 

Consuming poisonous mushrooms or toadstools can lead to many issues, like vomiting, diarrhea, hallucinations, liver failure, and death. No home test can determine if a fungus is poisonous, so it’s recommended that you don’t forage for them unless you are an expert. Consider only eating mushrooms from a grocery store, farmers market, or supermarket. 

 

If you feel confident in your foraging abilities—or if you’re working with an expert—you can check out regional fungi guides or these mushroom identification apps for tips on finding edible mushrooms in the wild.

 

 

Source: Mushrooms vs. Toadstools: What’s the Difference?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - THE RED DOT

54

Did you know.... Watching your cat chase a laser pointer is undeniably hilarious, but these popular pet toys remain controversial.

 

“Are laser pointers cruel?” a user named Rundo5 asked on the CatAdvice subreddit. Their cat was “behaving quite oddly around it, she does that 'chirrup' thing a lot, as in she seems to be constantly talking to it?! … is my cat ok with it? Is that just a normal reaction that cats have?”

 

Many cats become so entranced by laser pointers that just seeing one can illicit this Pavlovian response. The device is believed to unlock a cat’s primal instinct: to observe, stalk, chase, and kill prey. For cat owners, the devices may seem like a cheap and easy way to provide stimulation and exercise. But are they really safe?

 

Laser toys remain somewhat controversial in cat-owner circles. The main concern is that the pointers do not complete the hunting cycle: The feline chases the dot but never feels the reward of going in for the kill, which some cat owners theorize could leave the animal frustrated or confused. And there is some concern the laser could damage a cat’s eyes.

 

One (and possibly the only) study that tackled the animal psychology end of the dilemma, published in the journal Animals in 2021, did not definitively answer the question, but it did raise some concern about distress in cats that often interacted with laser pointers. 

 

Tallying online survey responses from 618 cat owners, the authors found that the frequency of laser play was correlated to more abnormal repetitive behaviors, including spinning and tail chasing, pursuing lights and shadows, and staring obsessively at lights or electronics. 

 

The authors concluded, “These results, although correlational, suggest that laser light toys may be associated with the development of compulsive behaviors in cats.” They also couldn’t mark a threshold for the amount of laser time that might be unwise.

 

The bigger names in the YouTube cat-o-sphere, including Jackson Galaxy and wildlife biologist Marci Koski, largely endorse laser pointers but recommend switching to a tangible toy, like a feather at the end of the string, at the end of the play session, to allow the cat to live out the thrill of capturing prey. Commentors in these spaces have chimed in with the recommendation of giving a treat so they feel the expected reward of some protein. 

 

Veterinarian Luqman Javed, of the Catster YouTube channel, is more skeptical, suggesting that “[T]hey never, ever get to catch the elusive laser pointer and they become stressed.” 

 

As for the potential damage to a cat’s eyes, the consensus is that laser toys can cause damage, but cats should be fine if you have common sense not to point it in their eyes and, Javed said, “if you inadvertently do shine it somewhere [near the eye], the odds of damage to your cat's eye would then be minimal.”

 

In the places where people go for authoritative guidelines about pet care—like PetMD and the websites of the Humane Society and ASPCA (sorry, Reddit)—there are no strong warnings about laser pointers. It seems like with good sense and consideration for the cat’s naturally encoded hunt cycle, they are generally OK

 

 

Source: Is Playing With a Laser Pointer Safe for Cats?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CAPTAIN MORGAN

Did you know.... Today Captain Morgan is one of the world’s most well-known buccaneers — not for the Welshman’s very real 17th-century exploits (of which there were many), but because of the spiced rum bottles that bear his name. History knows him as Sir Henry Morgan, lieutenant governor of Jamaica and arguably the most infamous buccaneer who ever lived. In the 17th and 18th centuries, buccaneers were a distinct flavor of privateer (sort of a legal pirate), usually bankrolled by the English, who harassed the Spanish Empire in the Caribbean. 

 

Morgan first arrived in the Caribbean around 1654, and became captain of a privateer vessel eight years later. Soon, he was plundering Spanish colonies in the Caribbean with support from the English crown. Morgan proved so adept at the trade that he amassed a great fortune, established sugar plantations in Jamaica, and by the decade’s end, had 36 ships and around 1,800 men under his command. Then, in 1671, Morgan attacked Spanish-held Panama City, not knowing that England had signed a treaty with Spain a year earlier. To appease the enraged Spanish, England arrested Morgan and sent him to London, but he received a hero’s welcome there, with King Charles II knighting him in 1674. Morgan soon returned to Jamaica, where he lived out the rest of his days. Even before his death in 1688, published stories detailed Morgan’s buccaneering career. Around 250 years later, in 1944, a distiller named Seagram’s bought a spiced rum recipe from a Jamaican pharmacy. The infamous Captain Morgan seemed a fitting namesake for the Caribbean-born liquor.

 

Rum was the most popular liquor in colonial America.
Today the U.S. is known for its world-class whiskey and craft beers, among other beverages, but in colonial America, rum was king. By the 1630s, distilleries in the West Indies began transforming molasses into rum, a liquor perfectly suited for colonial society. Rum kept better than beer and cider, and with easily available raw materials (due to the grossly exploitative Atlantic slave trade) and a higher alcohol by volume than its competition, the liquor quickly became popular with colonists as both a libation and a medicine. The first colonial rum distillery opened on Staten Island in 1664, and another opened in Boston three years later. By one account, colonists drank 3.7 gallons of the stuff annually per person by the time of the American Revolution, and the sweet liquor was so valuable that it was sometimes even traded as currency. As the colonies’ relationship with Britain soured — most directly in the forms of the Molasses Act (1733), the Sugar Act (1764), and eventually a wartime blockade — distillers moved away from increasingly costly rum. Instead, they began producing more of a corn-based alcohol known as whiskey, a liquor that soon became synonymous with American patriotism. With that, the reign of rum was more or less over.

 

 

Source: Captain Morgan was a real person.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CLASSIC PHRASE

Did you know.... For this classic phrase, we might be able to credit a Victorian-era children’s game ... and some tree gods.

 

Traditionally, when you speak of your own good fortune, you follow up with a quick knock on a piece of wood to keep your luck from going bad. More recently, simply saying the phrase knock on wood—or touch wood in the UK—has replaced literal knocking. So, where’d all this come from?

 

Before modern religions came around to spoil the party with their rules about idolatry, many pagan groups and other cultures—from Ireland to India to elsewhere in the world—worshipped or mythologized trees. Some people used trees as oracles. Some incorporated them into worship rituals. And some, like the ancient Celts, regarded them as the homes of certain spirits and gods.

 

Authors Stefan Bechtel and Deborah Aaronson both suggest two connections between knocking on wood and these spirits in their respective books, The Good Luck Book and Luck: The Essential Guide.

 

The first possible origin of the phrase knock on wood is that it’s a more modern equivalent to the ruckus that pagan Europeans raised to chase evil spirits away from their homes or to prevent them from hearing about, and thereby ruining, a person’s good luck.

 

The other suggested origin is that some of these tree worshippers laid their hands on a tree when asking for favor from the spirits or gods who lived inside it, and they would touch and thank the tree after a run of good luck as a show of gratitude to these supernatural powers. Over the centuries, the religious rite may have morphed into the superstitious knock that acknowledges luck and keeps it going.

 

“In either case, you are seeking protection against envy and anger,” Bechtel wrote. “The envy of evil spirits and the anger of the gods, who take a dim view on mortals bearing too much pride, and who get especially annoyed when they’re responsible for your run of good luck and you’re not grateful.”

 

Another possibility? That it simply came from Tig Touch-Wood, a Victorian-era children’s game. As described in the 1891 book The Boy's Modern Playmate, “Tig” is the person who is “It,” and after a number of trees have been chosen as bases, “as long as the player is touching one of these authorized posts, Tig cannot touch him; his only chance is to catch him while flitting from one post to another.”

 

But for anyone who may be superstitious, we’re sure knocking on wood is no child’s play.

 

 

Source: Why Do We Knock On Wood?