Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SASQUATCH

Did you know... Every state has an official bird or tree, but only one state’s governor has declared a state monster. Washington state is home to some impressive forests, and it’s within these misty woods that a legend has grown about an apelike man known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch (sasq'ets means “hairy man” in the Halq'emeylem language of British Columbia). The myth of the Sasquatch began centuries ago with West Coast Indigenous peoples, and gained steam in the 19th century when British explorers (allegedly) discovered “Sasquatch prints” during explorations of the Columbia River. However, the modern legend really kicked into high gear in 1958, when a journalist for the Humboldt Times in northern California pondered if a set of mysterious footprints, mentioned by a reader, could be a relative “of the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas.” Almost a decade later, the famously grainy video shot in Bluff Creek, California — known as the Patterson-Gimlin film (named for its creators) — cemented the iconic status of this hirsute creature.

 

Today, Bigfoot’s image can be found throughout the Pacific Northwest, emblazoned on festival signs and gift shop tchotchkes. In 1970, Washington’s governor issued a proclamation declaring Sasquatch the state monster of Washington; he even affixed a lock of the legendary monster's supposed hair to the document. (The proclamation also deemed “all Sasquachii” a protected state resource.) More recent endeavors, in 2017, attempted to solidify that official status when state Senator Ann Rivers introduced bill SB 5816, calling for Sasquatch to become the state’s official monster. The bill was referred to committee but has yet to be signed into law, which means that for now, the Sasquatch’s official status — much like the creature itself — remains elusive. 

 

Washington state is also the birthplace of the modern UFO craze.
The Pacific Northwest is well known for its cryptids, but this region of the U.S. also birthed another realm of paranormal fascination. On June 24, 1947, a fire extinguisher salesman named Kenneth Arnold flew past Mount Rainier in his single-engine CallAir plane, en route to an air show, when he spotted something out of the ordinary — nine metallic discs whose trajectory appeared to defy known physics. Days later, Arnold told the story to two reporters at the East Oregonian newspaper, using phrases like “pie pan,” “disk,” and the now-familiar “saucer.” One of the reporters wrote a story for the Associated Press wire service, and by the afternoon, the nation was abuzz with the possibility of unknown “flying saucers” hovering above the U.S. A month later, allegedly extraterrestrial events at Roswell, New Mexico, fanned this smoldering craze into a full-blown blaze. Although Arnold at one point lamented his role in this “flying saucer” obsession — he often found himself the subject of ridicule — later in life he saw his otherworldly report as a necessary patriotic duty, saying: “If I had not reported it, it would have constituted a disloyalty to my country. Wouldn’t you think so?”

 

 

Source: Washington state proclaimed Sasquatch its official state monster.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LATIN AMERICA

Did you know... If asked to name a language spoken in Latin America, you’d probably say Spanish first, then maybe Portuguese. Latin wouldn’t make the list.

 

If you knew nothing about Latin America, you might assume the region was once occupied by Latin-speaking colonizers. While Latin was never widely spoken across the region, the area did receive its name through it’s connection the dead language. 

 

Where is Latin America?
Latin America refers to a group of countries stretching from Mexico to the tip of South America. Categorized by their Romance language origins, people in these regions generally speak Spanish, Portuguese, and French, reflecting the area’s cultural and political history following the Columbian Exchange. 

 

 

The name Latin America was borne from the European invasion that began in the 15th century. The term likely was used to distinguish the area from other parts of the Americas (named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci) that were colonized by countries that spoke Germanic languages like English. In fact, the use of the name began as a display of opposition against Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic countries, fostering a regional alignment that was distinct from that of other colonized territories.

 

A Political Ploy
Despite the common use of the term Latin America today, it did not appear in literature until the mid-19th century, around the time that political economist and philosopher Michel Chevalier began popularizing the description [PDF].

 

His characterization of the region may have been a ploy to convince those from Latin America to align themselves with the French, potentially expanding Napoleon III’s empire in the process. 

 

American scholar John Leddy Phelan aptly explained Chevalier’s intentions in 1968: “France must reassert in a vigorous fashion that hegemony over the Latin world which belonged to her since the time of Louis XIV. Chevalier exhorted, ‘Only she {France} can prevent this whole family {the Latin nations} from being engulfed in the double inundation of the Germans or the Anglo-Saxons and the Slavs.” This strategy didn’t lead to French domination of the New World, but it did bolster the idea of a unified “Latin” identity.

 

By 1856, Francisco Bilbao, a Chilean writer and philosopher, used the term Latin America in a speech. Around the same time, writer José María Torres Caicedo, used it in a poem, marking the embrace of the Latin label by those who lived in the region. 

 

In the 1920s, José Vasconcelo, one of the most controversial and influential writers and philosophers of the Mexican Revolution, made the Latino term central to his concept of La Raza Cosmica (“the cosmic race”)—a racially-inclined theory that aimed to erase Indigenous culture to create a new race that transcended them all. Vasconcelos' essay claimed that a mestizo (“mixed”) race would prove to be superior to all others. His writing may have influenced eugenics in Latin America in the first half of the 20th century.

 

The term Latino is divorced from these racist connotations today, and it’s now used to describe anyone with a Latin American background, regardless of their race and ethnicity.  

 

 

A Controversial Legacy
Despite the shift in meaning around Latino, the term Latin America is still steeped in controversy today due to its long and complicated history. Opponents of the label claim it was coined to describe a region that was only bound by its history of colonization, simplifying the cultural depth of many countries. Although less widely debated than terms like Hispanic and Latinx, some people believe that Latin America creates a stronger connection to Europe than many natives prefer. 

 

Latin America vs. Hispanic America
Latin America and Hispanic America are erroneously used interchangeably in much of the world today. While Hispanic America refers to countries with a cultural or historical link to Spain where Spanish is the predominant language, Latin America can encompass a broader range of languages, with the common connection being European colonization. The reality is that both terms have evolved to include a variety of definitions and ties. 

Somewhere around 660 million people live in the region that’s classified as Latin America today, according to data from the United Nations. There are about 33 countries that make up the territory, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and others. Although Indigenous populations significantly declined following colonization, many native cultures still persevere there today. 

 

 

Source: How Did Latin America Get Its Name?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SILLY STRING

Did you know.... There's nothing silly about a broken bone, but if laughter is the best medicine, then the creators of Silly String may well have helped more people than they ever envisioned. In the 1960s, inventor Leonard A. Fish and chemist Robert P. Cox set about producing a mixture that would rapidly harden after delivery via a spray can, providing a near-instant cast for anyone unfortunate enough to sustain a broken limb. They came up with a sticky concoction that set quickly and held, then tested some 500 nozzles in search of the best application from a pressurized can. When one nozzle propelled a stream 30 feet across the room, Fish and Cox had another idea — maybe this stringy goo would work better as a plaything?

 

After tweaking their recipe, the duo arranged a meeting with an executive at Wham-O, the company behind such popular toys as the Frisbee and Hula Hoop. At first, a business relationship seemed unlikely; overeager to demonstrate, Fish and Cox all but decorated the office with loads of colorful string, and were unceremoniously shown the door. Fortunately, the company's owners later spotted some leftover gunk and were intrigued enough to seek a larger sample. The next day, Fish and Cox received a telegram from Wham-O requesting 24 cans of the stuff for a market test. By 1972, when a patent was granted for this "foamable resinous composition," Silly String had clearly moved on from its roots as a tool for healing and was well on the way to its destiny as a mess-making accoutrement for partygoers of all ages.

 

Silly String is used by the military to detect booby traps.
Although Fish and Cox chose the path of entertainment for their creation, they may have been heartened by news of a real-world application that fulfilled their original goal of helping people. As far back as 1997, the U.S. military used Silly String to weed out the presence of dangerous improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in hostile areas. A spritz of the stringy stuff is light enough to drape across nearly invisible trip wires without setting them off, calling attention to these deadly traps often nestled in doorways and gates. While the military has been quiet about publicizing this use, the revelation of its effectiveness prompted one mother, whose son was stationed in Iraq in the early 2000s, to collect 80,000 cans of Silly String and nearly identical products to send overseas to aid the war effort and save a few more lives.

 

 

Source: Silly String was invented for broken bones.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NORTH POLE BALLOON MISSION

Did you know... Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée and two companions wanted to fly a hydrogen balloon over the North Pole. Their Arctic mission didn’t go as planned.

 

Reaching the North Pole was an international obsession during the late 19th century. Various countries devised plans for becoming the first to reach the pole, but no journey was as fascinating (or as doomed) as the Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée’s mission to cross the Arctic in a hydrogen balloon.

 

The balloons of the day were certainly exciting for riders, but they had a fatal flaw as vehicles for exploration: Nobody had figured out a good way to steer them yet. Once a balloon was up in the air, it was at the mercy of the wind and simply drifted. As Sweden’s most prominent balloonist, Andrée had put quite a bit of thought into this conundrum.

 

He eventually sidestepped this problem.

 

On the Ropes

He devised a scheme to steer the balloon by suspending ropes from the basket and dragging them on the ground. The weight of the rope and the friction it generated as it dragged across the ground would enable Andrée to steer his balloon. After a series of test runs, he became convinced he could steer a hydrogen-filled balloon across the Arctic and over the North Pole.

 

Andrée’s idea captured Sweden’s imagination, but building the balloon and buying the necessary equipment and provisions would be an expensive task. Luckily for Andrée, some of Sweden’s biggest names opened their wallets. He received large contributions from King Oscar II and Alfred Nobel to build his balloon, the Eagle.

 

Andrée found two additional crew members, engineer Knut Fraenkel and a young photographer named Nils Strindberg. The three set sail in their balloon on July 11, 1897, from Danskøya, an island in the Svalbard archipelago.

 

 

Astute readers have probably realized that they’ve never seen a balloon that is steered via drag ropes. There’s a good reason why you haven’t; the method is wildly ineffective. The three drag ropes on the Eagle didn’t even work long enough for the balloon to fully clear its launch area. The balloon drifted into a downward draft almost immediately after taking off and nearly dipped into the icy water. Andrée and the crew had to dump sand overboard just to keep the balloon afloat.

 

The loss of the needed ballast was problematic, but there was even worse news for the Eagle. In just the few moments the balloon had been afloat, all three drag ropes had managed to twist and fall off. In other words, Andrée no longer had any way of steering the balloon.

 

Emergency Landing
The lost drag ropes would have offered at least some modicum of steering ability, but they were also needed as ballast. After losing more than 1000 pounds of rope and several hundred pounds of sand in the botched takeoff, the balloon developed a tendency to rise too high above the ground. These high altitudes sped up the leakage of hydrogen from the balloon, and after just 10 hours the balloon had lost so much gas that it was frequently bumping and skidding across the Arctic ice. The balloon finally crashed 65 hours into the trip.

 

 

That final crash was fairly gentle, and all three crewmembers and their equipment were unharmed. The balloon had been equipped with provisions, guns, tents, sleds, and even a portable boat in case of an emergency landing. Andrée had also arranged for two extra depots of emergency supplies to be left for the men on the ice. The crew piled hundreds of pounds of provisions and equipment on the sleds and began the arduous trek to one of the depots. Strindberg used his camera to snap photos of the crash and the team’s progress.

 

The same lack of foresight that plagued the aerial part of the mission continued into the journey across the ice. None of the men was exactly what you’d call rugged Arctic explorers; they were scientists and engineers who had planned on drifting across the North Pole while seated in a basket. Their clothing wasn’t warm enough for the hike. Their supplies were woefully inadequate, although they were able to feed themselves by shooting polar bears and seals. Their sleds, which Andrée had designed, were so rigid that they made traversing the ice needlessly difficult.

 

 

Worse still, the ice was drifting away from the depot rather than towards it; much of the group’s forward progress evaporated in the face of the backward movement. They eventually decided to reverse course and head for the second depot, but shifting winds made that destination similarly hopeless. After nearly two months of futile hiking, the crew decided to set up a winter camp complete with a makeshift igloo on an ice floe.

 

This plan worked reasonably well for thee weeks, but in early October the floe began to break up. The crew moved its supplies to Kvitøya, a nearby island, and hoped to winter there. The move to the island is the last reliable record left by the crew. Their cause of death isn’t clear—historians have speculated that the men fell ill from eating tainted polar bear meat, exhaustion, or hypothermia—but the three crew members didn’t survive for more than a few days after moving to the island.

 

 

Meanwhile, nobody back home knew what had become of the three men. They obviously hadn’t returned, but their fate was a great mystery. It took over three decades for sailors to find the crew of the Eagle. In 1930 the crew of the sealing ship Bratvaag discovered a dilapidated campsite, the remains of the three explorers, their journals, and Strindberg’s undeveloped film.

 

The seal hunters carried the remains of the three men back to Sweden, where the crew of the Eagle were celebrated as heroes. Amazingly, 93 of Strindberg’s 240 photographs were salvageable and, combined with the crew’s diaries and journals, they make an eerie record of the men’s demise and the dangers of experimental travel through the Arctic.

 

Source: The Disastrous North Pole Balloon Mission of 1897

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON

Did you know.... It takes a little sleuthing to deduce that the iconic phrase “elementary, my dear Watson” never actually appears in any of the original Sherlock Holmes books. This oft-repeated misquote is generally believed to be what Holmes said to his trusted assistant, Dr. John Watson, when explaining how he’d solved a crime. But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — who created the character of Sherlock Holmes and penned all the original stories — never wrote those four words in that exact order. The closest instance can be found in the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Crooked Man,” where the phrases “my dear Watson” and “elementary” appear 52 words apart. The line “exactly, my dear Watson” is used in 1904’s “The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter,” but that too falls short of the famous quote.

 

The reason “elementary, my dear Watson” came to be associated with Holmes likely has to do with the phrase popping up in various newspapers, novels, and films in the early 20th century when referencing Doyle’s character, who had already become a fixture of pop culture by that point. An exact match for the line, and perhaps the earliest example, appears in a 1908 edition of The Globe and Traveller in an article about a sleuthing legal counsel. The phrase was later penned in a 1915 book by P.G. Wodehouse titled Psmith, Journalist, as well as in Agatha Christie’s 1922 novel The Secret Adversary. And the 1929 film The Return of Sherlock Holmes ends with the line, “Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary.” All these instances, and many more, have made it impossible to separate the quote from the character, despite it never appearing in Doyle’s original oeuvre.

 

Sherlock Holmes was based on a real-life surgeon.
Though the name “Sherlock Holmes” is entirely fictional, the character’s mannerisms were partially modeled after a real surgeon named Joseph Bell. While attending medical school at the University of Edinburgh, Arthur Conan Doyle took classes under Bell, who was said to possess an inherent ability to diagnose various diseases. He was also known for studying a patient’s appearance and making educated assumptions about their personal lives, such as their occupation.

 

Doyle drew inspiration from these traits as he conceived of Sherlock Holmes — a character renowned for deducing answers to complex mysteries through simple observation. In 1892, five years after the first Sherlock Holmes story was published, Doyle wrote a letter to Bell saying, “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.”

 

 

Source: “Elementary, my dear Watson” never actually appears in the Sherlock Holmes books.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ONE-TRICK PONY

Did you know.... Ponies have come to represent a very low bar for performance.

 

In the 2021 film Wrath of Man, Jason Statham portrays a highly-skilled executor of violence who speaks sparingly and is bent on revenge. These traits also apply to roles in Parker, Wild Card, The Beekeeper, A Working Man, and likely another dozen films in the actor’s filmography. In the realm of action movies, Statham is a one-trick pony, or a performer with a very narrow area of specialty.

 

But why do we use one-trick pony to describe someone with a single point of expertise? And is it always disparaging?

 

The Origins of One-Trick Pony

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase one-trick pony was initially literal. It referred to a performing show pony seen in traveling circuses displaying a minimal skillset.

 

The OED cites this 1905 passage from the Oregon Pioneer Association 32nd Annual Reunion as the first to use the phrase in print: “Among the earliest of mundane things remembered are the resplendent red shirts of the volunteer firemen, conspicuous in every Fourth of July parade; the marvels that were seen at the first one-tent, one-clown, one-trick-pony, pioneer Oregon circus.”

 

(There are earlier uses of the phrase, notably in an 1869 advertisement for a Nottingham traveling show that featured “two ring horses and one trick pony.” However, this likely meant a single pony that knew tricks, rather than a pony that knew just one trick.)

 

Horses had been a part of the modern circus since the 18th century, having entered with ex-military members who had learned how to demonstrate certain tricks. But there was often more than one trick: Horses could pull off a trainer’s clothing, walk on their hind legs, or remove their own saddle.

 

A one-trick pony, in contrast, would be a smaller breed that might have more limited range and indicated the circus in town was not sprawling. As the Oregon Pioneer Association noted, you might get just one clown, not a whole car’s worth.

 

But as circuses of such limited means fell by the wayside, so did the literal use of the term. The OED dates the first use of one-trick pony as an colloquial saying to 1950, meaning “a person or thing specializing in only one area, having only one talent, or of limited ability.”

 

Curiously, print use of the idiom was scarce until 1980, when musician Paul Simon wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony, about a once-famous singer (Simon) who grapples with personal and professional break-ups. Simon also recorded a soundtrack and a song with the name, which included the following lyrics:

 

He's a one-trick pony
One trick is all that horse can do
He does one trick only
It's the principal source of his revenue

 

Did Simon help popularize the term? Perhaps. While newspaper mentions of the phrase picked up in the 1980s, the OED denotes the sharpest uptick in usage from 2000 to 2010.

 

Dog and Pony Show
A close cousin to one-trick pony is dog and pony show, which often refers to a pandering or simplistic attraction or attempt. This, too, has origins in the circus, when traveling show might offer only a modest animal attraction consisting of dogs and ponies.

 

It took on a different and more disparaging meaning around 1949. The New York Times is cited: “Dr. W. Y. Elliot of Harvard University told the bankers that ‘the present Russian peace offensive, which has been launched through the sponsorship of many misguided intellectuals, by what looked like trained dog and pony shows ... is dangerous if it misleads American opinion.’”

 

These various idioms don’t do much for the reputation of the pony, which has now become synonymous with a person or situation of limited ability. Of course, equine intelligence is well-documented and impressive. One 2017 study found that horses could use physical cues to alert a caretaker to the location of carrots.

 

Even a metaphorical one-trick pony is still nothing to be ashamed of. According to Forbes, Jason Statham earned $41 million in 2023. That’s a pretty good trick.

 

 

Source: Why Do We Call Someone a “One-Trick Pony”?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - "CUP OF JOE"

Did you know.... If you‘ve ever wondered what some guy named Joe has to do with coffee, you aren‘t alone.

 

Coffee is an essential part of many people’s daily routines. The caffeinated beverage is so popular it has earned several nicknames, including “jitter juice,” “bean juice,” and “brain juice.” The origins of many coffee slang terms are obvious, but that’s not the case when it comes to cup of joe. While no one knows exactly where the name stemmed from, there are a few theories.

 

According to All Recipes, one widely spread theory comes from the 1900s. The U.S. Secretary of the Navy, Josephus “Joe“ Daniels, banned alcohol on ships in 1914. As a result, sailors had to make do with coffee—the strongest drink available. They mocked Daniels by nicknaming the beverage a “cup of Joe.” This theory is a popular one, but it’s unlikely. Many sources, including the fact-checking website Snopes, point out that the phrase cup of joe didn’t enter the English language until the 1930s. 

 

Another theory from BostonbeaN Coffee Company dates back even further, to 1898. According to this bit of java lore, shop owner Joe Martinson, who ran Martinson Coffee in New York City, allegedly popularized the phrase cup of Joe. The phrase started as a marketing strategy and eventually gained traction.  

 

Perhaps the simplest theory is that cup of joe derives from a portmanteau, a term that combines two words to make a new one. BostonbeaN Coffee Company writes that the words java (which refers to the Indonesian island that grows coffee) and mocha (a reference to the city in Yemen, also known for its coffee) were commonly used for “coffee.” People eventually combined the two words, calling the drink “jamoke,” which later became “joe.” 

 

Another straightforward theory states the nickname refers to the “average man’s drink.” All Recipes explains that Joe—a common name—took hold when coffee was considered a basic beverage. People thus often linked the two common things and formed the phrase. 

 

Source: Why Is Coffee Called a “Cup of Joe”?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - GUNG HO

Did you know... We get this byword for enthusiasm from an officer in the Marines named Evans Fordyce Carlson.
 

When someone says they’re “gung ho” about something, they tend to mean they’re especially enthusiastic or dedicated to it, or have no qualms or hesitancy in their willingness to do something.

 

If you think that expression doesn’t look like it originated in English, you’d be right. Gung ho is a form of a Mandarin Chinese expression, gōnghé, which was in turn clipped from the name of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, or Zhōngguó Gōngyè Hézuò Shè. Gung ho is therefore effectively a Chinese acronym: the gung comes from the first part of gōng yè (工业, “industry”), while the ho comes from the first part of hezuo (合作, “cooperative”).

 

But how did that name come to be used to mean “enthusiastic”? The answer lies with a decorated U.S. military figure named Evans Fordyce Carlson.

 

Born in New York in 1896, Carlson enlisted in the U.S. Army in the early 1900s (and was awarded a Purple Heart for his service in Europe during the First World War) before joining the Marines in 1922. By the time the Second World War broke out, Carlson was a highly respected and well-established military figure in the United States (and a close friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his family) with almost two decades of service in the Marines under his belt—several years of which had been spent on three tours of duty in China.

 

It was during those decades in China that Carlson encountered the Industrial Cooperative, or Zhōngguó Gōngyè Hézuò Shè. And, having studied a little Mandarin, he picked up on the term gōng yè in particular, which he interpreted (incorrectly) as meaning “working together.”

 

 

As the Second World War raged in the early 1940s Carlson became one of a handful of high-ranking officers put in charge of a series of elite battalions known as the Marine Raiders. Looking for a motto with which to rally and encourage his troops (known as “Carlson’s Raiders”), Carlson ultimately returned to gōng yè—or rather his anglicized version of it, gung ho. The term soon became an expression of military enthusiasm and zealousness among his men.

 

“I was trying to build up the same sort of working spirit I had seen in China where all the soldiers dedicated themselves to one idea and worked together to put that idea over,” Carlson explained to Life magazine in 1943. “I told the boys about it again and again. I told them of the motto of the Chinese Co-Operatives, Gung Ho. It means Work Together—Work in Harmony. … My motto caught on and they began to call themselves the Gung Ho Battalion.”

 

From there, the word quickly entered wider currency among the U.S. military, and the 1943 movie Gung Ho!: The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders exposed it to an even wider English-speaking audience. Gung ho has remained in use as a byword for any especially enthusiastic or eager attitude ever since.

 

Source: Where Did the Expression ‘Gung Ho’ Come From?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the day - VCR

Did you know... In the 1950s, long before they were compact and more affordable, the earliest VCRs took up as much space as a piano and cost more than a house. We can trace the technology to engineer Charles Ginsburg, who was hired by electronics company Ampex to work on the development of a new video tape recorder (VTR). The resulting machine, called the Ampex VRX-1000, debuted in 1956 and allowed users to edit and play back recorded video on tape reels. However, these devices were humongous and cost roughly $50,000 (around $580,000 today), making them out of reach for personal use. Instead, Ampex found a market in large television networks such as CBS, which used the VRX-1000 to replace costly live broadcasts with prerecorded, edited content that could be re-aired.

 

The personal VCR market developed further into the 1960s, starting with the work of Sony engineer Nobutoshi Kihara, who unveiled the CV-2000 in 1965. This was a smaller and more affordable device priced at $695 (around $7,000 today), capable of recording and playing back black-and-white images. But the CV-2000 still relied on tape reels; it wasn’t until 1971 that the first VCR to use cassettes debuted. This was the Sony VO-1600, which incorporated Sony’s new U-matic technology, in which the tape was encased inside a cassette — a direct predecessor to modern VHS tapes. The retail price of the Sony VO-1600 was still in excess of $1,000. But as the technology continued to develop throughout the 1980s, the cost of a new VCR dipped into the low hundreds.

 

The first and last VHS movies released in the U.S. came less than 30 years apart.
VHS tapes made their commercial debut in the United States in 1977, one year after they first hit shelves in Japan. Some of the earliest titles from that year included indelible classics such as The Sound of Music, Patton, and the film version of M*A*S*H. The VHS format exploded in popularity throughout the 1980s and 1990s, though it began to wane in the early 2000s when DVD sales overtook VHS sales for the first time.

 

Studios continued to produce feature films on VHS until the mid-2000s before they stopped manufacturing VHS versions of feature films altogether. According to the Los Angeles Times, the last major Hollywood movie released on VHS was the 2005 David Cronenberg thriller A History of Violence, which was brought to market on VHS the following year, marking the end of the medium’s 30-year production run.

 

Source: The first VCR cost $50,000 and was the size of a piano.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TENTACLES OR ARMS

Did you know.... The most distinguishing feature about an octopus is its set of eight appendages — after all, they’re right there in the name. But don’t confuse that tangle of limbs for tentacles, because octopuses don’t have those — they have arms. For us armchair biologists, the two words seem interchangeable, but there’s an important difference. On animals such as squids, tentacles are usually longer and have suckers only on their clubbed ends; they’re primarily used for hunting. By contrast, a cephalopod's arms have suckers that smell, taste, and feel all the way down. Squids, for example, have both eight arms and two tentacles.

 

Of course, an octopus’s “arms” are nothing like the two appendages dangling from your torso. For one, octopus arms are entirely soft tissue, and that absence of bone makes octopuses incredibly flexible. But the most striking difference between octopus arms and our own is that all eight arms contain more than half of an octopus’s total neurons, cells that are usually concentrated in a central brain. This has led some scientists to theorize that octopuses essentially have nine brains — a centralized one and eight mini ones located in each arm. Recent research suggests that there might be more connection between these “brains” than previously imagined, and that an octopus’s arms are, at the very least, “clever” (a very peculiar adjective to describe an arm). Whatever the IQ of an octopus’s arms, it’s clear that they’re just as strange, and incredible, as the creatures themselves.

 

Octopuses can fit into an inch-wide hole.
Octopuses are master contortionists with the ability to fit into incredibly small spaces — in fact, they can fit inside holes only an inch wide. A majority of an octopus’s body is soft tissue that can lengthen, contract, and contort in any way necessary. The only hard part on their body is the beak, which gets its name because these mouth parts resemble the beaks of parrots. The octopus uses its beak, made up of a fibrous substance called chitin (which also forms the exoskeletons of arthropods), to eat crunchy prey like crabs and clams. Because the beak is the only octopus part that can’t contort, it essentially sets the minimum size of the hole an octopus can squeeze into. To capture this amazing ability on camera, in 2010 National Geographic filmed an octopus as it passed through a plexiglass hole. The 600-pound creature squeezed itself through an opening the size of a quarter.

 

 

Source: Octopuses don’t have tentacles; they have arms.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BRAIN FREEZE

Did you know... No matter what you call it, it hurts like hell.

 

You may know brain freeze by one of its other names: an ice cream headache, a cold-stimulus headache, or sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, but no matter what you call it, it hurts like hell.

 

Brain freeze is brought on by the speedy consumption of cold beverages or food. Ice cream is a very common cause of head pain, with about one third of a randomly selected population succumbing to ice cream headaches.

 

What causes ice cream headaches?
As far back as the late 1960s, researchers pinned the blame on the same vascular mechanisms—rapid constriction and dilation of blood vessels—that were responsible for the aura and pulsatile pain phases of migraine headaches.

 

When something cold like ice cream touches the roof of your mouth, there is a rapid cooling of the blood vessels there, causing them to constrict. When the blood vessels warm up again, they experience rebound dilation. The dilation is sensed by pain receptors and pain signals are sent to the brain via the trigeminal nerve. This nerve (also known as the fifth cranial nerve, the fifth nerve, or just V) is responsible for sensation in the face, so when the pain signals are received, the brain often interprets them as coming from the forehead and we perceive a headache.

 

With brain freeze, we're perceiving pain in an area of the body that’s at a distance from the site of the actual injury or reception of painful stimulus. This is a quirk of the body called “referred pain,” and it's the reason people often feel pain in their neck, shoulders, and/or back instead of their chest during a heart attack.

 

Tips for Preventing Brain Freeze
Brain freeze is harmless, but you probably want to avoid the pain if you can. Here are a few hacks:

 

• Slow down. Eating or drinking cold things slowly allows your mouth to get used to the temperature.
• Hold cold food or drink in the front part of your mouth and allow it to warm up before you swallow it.
• Avoid hot rooms and climates. Brain freeze requires a warm ambient temperature to occur, so it's almost impossible for it to happen if you’re already cold.

 

Source: What Causes Brain Freeze?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - JALAPEÑOS

Did you know.... Jalapeños are often the pepper of choice for adding a little spice to any dish — a fact that’s probably been true for millennia. The horticulture of chile peppers in general dates back to between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, and they may even have been one of the first crops domesticated in America. Chile seeds have been found in 9,000-year-old Mexican archaeological sites, uncovered in 7,000-year-old caves in South America, and described in the myths and rituals of Indigenous cultures in Central and South America. But although there are many members of the Capsicum genus, only one eventually became the predominant pepper for nachos and tacos in the U.S. — and its namesake is the capital of the Mexican state of Veracruz, Xalapa (pronounced with an “h”). 

 

“Xalapa” comes from the Nahuatl (a language spoken by the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican groups) word xalli, meaning “sand,” and apan, meaning “spring,” and it was from this fertile “spring in the sand” that jalapeños first took root. Even today, residents of Xalapa are known as “Xalapeños,” which simply means “from Xalapa.” Although first domesticated in the Americas, jalapeños made the eastward journey across the Atlantic sometime in the mid-16th century, then spread worldwide through the vast expanse of Spanish and Portuguese empires. Today, their popularity comes in part from their versatility — they’re delicious fresh, roasted, or pickled. They’re also milder than some other popular peppers: Compared to habanero peppers (which, coincidentally, mean “from Havana”), jalapeños are 35 times less spicy, according to the Scoville scale used to measure spiciness. That helps make them the go-to pepper for any Mexican-inspired recipe, at least for those of us who can’t stand the heat.

 

Chile peppers trick the body’s nervous system into experiencing heat.
Compounds in chile peppers bind to pain receptors in our tongue and stimulate heat sensors called polymodal nociceptors. Together, they send a chemical signal to the brain that roughly translates as “Pain! Hot!” The brain, thinking the body is experiencing an intense heat increase, springs into action by dilating blood vessels, increasing sweat production, and ramping up respiration — all biological strategies to help lower body temperature. The body also tries to flush out the fiery substance by increasing saliva production and ejecting these compounds through the nose. That’s why your nostrils might run when you chow down on a particularly spicy plate of pork vindaloo. Not all animals experience the same physiological reaction to spicy foods as humans, however. Birds, for example, have fewer taste buds, and don’t have the same pain receptors found in mammals, so our avian friends could munch on a habanero all day without a problem.

 

 

Source: Jalapeños are named for the city of Xalapa, capital of the Mexican state of Veracruz.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ORANGE OF GREEN

Did you know... You might be used to people wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, but some sport orange instead. Here’s why.

 

St. Patrick’s Day is filled with rich traditions, from eating corned beef to attending parades. If you venture outside to celebrate the holiday—perhaps to swing by a pub for a pint of Guinness—you’re bound to find yourself amid a sea of people wearing green. While most St. Patrick’s Day enthusiasts bust out their green clothing on March 17, there are some who would rather wear orange. The reason has everything to do with religion.

 

St. Patrick’s Day is a Roman Catholic feast day that began in 1631. It celebrates the patron saint of Ireland—even though St. Patrick wasn’t actually Irish. Irish Catholic tradition has strong associations with the color green, which is why you’ll often see people sporting it to celebrate the holiday. But not every Irish person is Catholic. Some are Protestant and wear orange to honor William of Orange, a Protestant who deposed King James II, a Roman Catholic, in 1688. 

 

The national flag of Ireland represents both religions. According to Britannica, the green side of the tricolored flag represents Roman Catholics, while the orange part stands for Protestants. The white center symbolizes peace and unity between the religions.  

 

You may also wonder why people get pinched for not wearing green. Many sources, including National Geographic, suggest that the pinching trend stems from folklore about leprechauns. According to the legend, the fairies can’t see people wearing green. Therefore, those individuals cannot be pinched. However, Elizabeth Stack, the executive director of the American Irish Historical Society, told History that the pinching phenomenon probably originated in America, rather than in Ireland. 

 

Neither green nor orange were originally associated with St. Patrick. The 5th-century missionary and bishop actually sported sky blue and even had a light blue shade named after him. It wasn’t until the Irish independence movement that green became associated with March 17.

 

 

Source: Here’s Why Some People Wear Orange—Not Green—On St. Patrick’s Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CANNED OR BOTTLED

Did you know... If you prefer a canned soda over one in a plastic bottle, you aren’t alone.

 

Although soft drink consumption has steadily declined, IBIS World reports that the average American consumes about 42.2 gallons a year. Soda fans—whether they're into regular soda or zero-sugar soft drinks—swear that some beverages taste different depending on the container material. But why would a canned Coke’s flavor vary from the same drink in a plastic bottle? 

 

According to All Recipes, the answer is not because of different soda ingredients. Companies use the same recipe for their sodas, regardless of what type of container the product will go in—so a Pepsi in a can has the same ingredients as one in a plastic bottle. But hot temperatures, storage durations, and product age can change a soda’s taste. The materials a container is made of, such as plastic or metal, can have a significant impact as well when it comes to their effect on flavor.

 

The distinct taste of a canned soda comes from a water-based polymer (or a chemical compound bonded by molecules) inside the product. Manufacturers coat the inside of aluminum cans with the polymer to prevent the soda’s moisture from corroding it; the compound also prevents the drink from tasting like metal. If you think canned sodas tend to be on the subtle side, it’s likely because of the polymer.

 

Plastic bottles contain a different chemical. As All Recipes reports, scientists believe a compound called acetaldehyde (also known as aldehyde) might be the reason for its unique taste. It doesn’t help that carbon dioxide—which makes soda fizz—can more easily escape a plastic bottle than an aluminum or glass container because plastic is more porous than other materials. This could explain why some people believe soda in plastic bottle containers tastes stale. 

 

If you want the closest thing to a company’s original soda recipe, opt for a glass bottle. Unlike canned and plastic bottles, glass contains no lingering chemicals, so nothing gets into the liquid.

 

 

Source: What Makes Canned and Bottled Sodas Taste Different?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SHOPPING CART

Did you know... Those 25 cents actually help shoppers save money.

 

Those who shop at other major grocery stores like Walmart, Kroger, or Trader Joe’s might be shocked when they enter Aldi for the first time. Rather than simply grabbing a cart from the corral, shoppers must first insert a quarter to access the handy objects.

 

Aldi charges a quarter per shopping cart so it can actually save its customers money. According to the official website, the 25-cent requirement makes it much more likely that shoppers will return carts to corrals to get their quarters back. Because of this rule, Aldi doesn’t need to hire staff members to collect abandoned carts. As a result, Aldi stores and parking lots are largely cart-free, and groceries remain affordable.  

 

But what do you do if you forget a quarter at Aldi? Daily Meal suggests simply asking an employee for a coin. According to the source, many customers swear by the hack, and a few Reddit users claim that Aldi staff members can hand out $5 worth of quarters to customers. The policy is ideal, as workers don’t have to deal with shoppers complaining about carrying everything to their vehicles without a cart.

 

You can also ask another shopper for a quarter. People usually understand the struggle of looking for spare change when coming to Aldi’s, so you’ll likely find someone willing to help. Some kind customers will even leave 25 cents for the next person who forgets to bring change. (Aldi also has a keychain quarter holder for 99 cents for those worried about forgetting a coin.)

 

You might have heard of a hack that involves sticking the back of your house key into the cart slot to unlock it. But this isn’t such a good idea. According to All Recipes, Aldi employees tend to switch carts during checkout. If you forget to ask for the cart with your key, you could end up losing it. There’s also the possibility of your key getting stuck or damaged, so it’s best always to use a quarter to unlock carts at Aldi. 

 

Source: Why Does Aldi Charge a Quarter to Use Their Shopping Carts?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - UV LIGHT

Did you know... Cats can do a lot of things their human friends can’t: They can purr, sleep all day without consequence, and jump up to six times their own height in a single leap. But perhaps most impressive of all is their ability to see ultraviolet light thanks to UV-transparent lenses in their eyes that allow UV light to reach their retinas. This will come as little surprise to anyone who’s ever noticed their cat staring at seemingly nothing for minutes at a time, but it’s a fascinating insight into how our feline friends view the world all the same. In fact, their UV vision actually allows them to see their prey’s urine trail while hunting and distinguish between their prey and a similarly colored background. 

 

This ability may not help your housecat in any practical ways on a daily basis, as being fed from a can doesn’t require much in the way of hunting, but it’s still a cool evolutionary trick. And cats aren’t the only animals with this ability. Bees, birds, reindeer, and mice have this enhanced vision as well, though for some of them it comes with the trade-off of not being able to see the color red.

 

Humans have kept cats as pets for at least 9,500 years.
When we think of cats in the ancient world, Egypt tends to come to mind first. Egyptians considered felines sacred and some even mummified their pets, but they weren’t the first to hold cats in such high regard. There’s evidence to suggest they were beaten to the punch by at least 4,000 years: A grave in Cyprus dating back some 9,500 years contained the remains of a human and cat alongside decorative objects such as seashells and polished stones.

 

Cats aren’t native to the island, meaning they must have been brought there by humans — perhaps “on a kind of Noah’s ark,” as archaeologist Melinda Zeder told National Geographic, theorizing that a number of non-native animals were transported to Cyprus.

 

 

Source: Cats can see UV light, which is invisible to humans.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the day - FBI

Did you know.... Agrandson of Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother Jérôme, Charles Bonaparte lacked his famous relative's ambition for world domination yet displayed a talent for visionary authority that might have impressed the Little Corporal. In the late 19th century, Charles Bonaparte, then a lawyer from Baltimore, came into the orbit of fast-rising New York politician Theodore Roosevelt through their shared interest in civil service reform. Bonaparte later became President Roosevelt's secretary of the Navy and then attorney general, a position that thrust "Charlie the Crook Chaser" into the spotlight as a face of the administration's trust-busting efforts. 

 

Behind the scenes, the attorney general fumed at the lack of an established investigative team within the Department of Justice, which often led to the borrowing of spare Secret Service agents from the Treasury Department for investigating cases that involved federal law. Congressional leaders also frowned on what they felt was becoming an overreach of the executive branch, and in May 1908, Congress passed a bill that halted the DOJ's ability to commandeer Secret Service personnel. Seizing the opportunity, Bonaparte culled together a "special agent force" of 31 detectives, and on July 26, 1908, he issued an order that directed DOJ attorneys to refer investigative matters to his chief examiner, Stanley Finch.

 

Bonaparte's oversight of this unit was short-lived, as he exited the federal government at the end of the Roosevelt administration in March 1909. Nevertheless, his special agent force remained in place under new Attorney General George Wickersham, who began referring to the group as the Bureau of Investigation. By 1935, the now-renamed Federal Bureau of Investigation was firmly embedded as a U.S. law-enforcement institution under director J. Edgar Hoover, another authoritarian presence who surely would have piqued the interest of the former French emperor.

 

Other descendants of the Bonaparte lineage have found success in science, the arts, and finance.
Like the FBI’s founding figure, other members of the Bonaparte family tree managed to forge their own distinguished careers in the outsized shadow of the esteemed military commander. The best-known is Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, who became president of France in 1848 before taking a page from his uncle and claiming absolute power for 18 years as Emperor Napoleon III. Another nephew, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, eschewed military glory to become a renowned expert on birds, as illustrated by his four-volume American Ornithology. More recently, René Auberjonois, a descendant of Napoleon’s sister Caroline, enjoyed a long run as a successful character actor in Hollywood, highlighted by roles in Benson and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. And while it’s highly unlikely the French monarchy will be restored, the current head of the once-royal family, Napoleon’s great-great-great-nephew Jean-Christophe Napoleon Bonaparte, seems to be getting along just fine as the managing partner of a private equity firm.

 

Source: Napoleon’s grandnephew created the forerunner of the FBI.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - EASTER DATE

Did you know... It involves some complicated moon math.

 

Easter—with its pastel colors and imagery of flowers, bunnies, and hatching chicks—is a sign that spring is here. For those who celebrate it for religious reasons, the holiday marks the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb in Christianity; those who enjoy it for secular reasons embrace the joy of eating rabbit-shaped chocolate and dyeing eggs. 

 

But when exactly Easter Sunday occurs during the season changes each year. In 2025, the holiday is April 20, which is one of the latest dates it can fall on. 

 

Why isn’t the date for Easter fixed in the same way as other Christian holidays? Christmas, for example, is always December 25, whereas the date of Easter can vary within a wide range of days in March and April under the standard calendar. The earliest it can be is March 22; its latest date possible is April 25. The holiday is what is known in religious terms as a moveable feast, meaning it can shift around the calendar, as opposed to a fixed feast like Christmas Day. 

 

Easter’s changing date is an issue that began long before the Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII) was instituted in 1582. (The Julian calendar—named for Julius Caesar—was the standard format for centuries before then.) Official formulations for working out Easter’s date were first established in 325 CE at what was known as the First Council of Nicaea in Ancient Rome; the council was held to try and reach agreement on a number of issues in the Christian church. 

 

The council determined that Easter should always be celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. (The same council meeting also decided on December 25 as the date for Christmas.) The vernal equinox happens between March 19–21, depending on the year.

 

To make things more complicated, the full moon and spring equinox in question do not refer to the astrological ones. They instead follow ecclesiastical rules. According to these rules, an ecclesiastical full moon is always the 14th day of the ecclesiastical lunar month and the ecclesiastical equinox always falls on March 21. A complex formula that has evolved over the years is used to determine the date of future Easters (and someone even devised an algorithm that can help you find Easter dates for the years 1900–2099).

 

The calendar someone uses can change the date of Easter even more. Different branches of Christianity use different ones: Western churches use the Gregorian calendar, while the Eastern Orthodox Church continues to use the Julian calendar. Those within Catholic and Anglican churches, for example, may wind up celebrating the holiday on a different date than those in the Eastern Orthodox Church. But there are some years when the date of Easter in both the Gregorian and Julian calendars happens to fall on the same day—and such will be the case for 2025. 

 

Source: Why Does Easter’s Date Change Every Year?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - 'GIFT OF GAB'

Did you know.... Kissing a giant block of limestone in Ireland can be a great conversation starter.

 

If you’re lucky enough to have the gift of gab, you’re likely familiar with the idiom. This fun-to-say, alliterative phrase refers to the valuable ability to speak eloquently, especially when it comes to flattering or persuading others. But there’s a little more to it than you might have initially considered.

 

What Is ‘Gab,’ and Why Exactly Is It a Gift?
The term gab, in this instance, comes from Middle English. Gob was originally the word for “mouth,” and gabbe was used to suggest idle gossip or conversation. Gabbe only came to mean “chit-chat” in the 14th century; however, in the 13th century, it had a more negative connotation, suggesting someone who talked too much, or even a taunt or an outright lie. These Old English words were, in turn, probably influenced by Old Norse and Old French. Old Norse used gabb to mean mockery, and in Old French, to gap meant “to joke.”

 

The whole phrase gift of the gab seems to have emerged around 1680, and by the late 1700s, gab was frequently used in English to refer to chatter. Likewise, the adjective gabby came about to describe someone who is particularly talkative. Nowadays, all of these terms are staples in the English language.

 

But the gift of gab isn’t just something you’re born with. According to legend, you can acquire it at any point in your life; all you have to do is kiss the famous Irish Blarney Stone.

 

 

Why Do People Kiss the Blarney Stone?
Blarney is a small town in Ireland with a big reputation. Its significance dates back to 1314, after the historical kingdom of Desmond assisted the Scots against England in the Battle of Bannockburn. As a token of appreciation, Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, gifted Cormac McCarthy, King of Desmond, with a 6.5-pound rock alleged to have magical properties. His descendant, Dermot McCarthy, proceeded to build the castle that houses it in 1446. The stone was put into the castle battlements, where it remains today.

 

It was also Dermot who propelled the stone into lasting notoriety. It’s said that, despite promising to deliver the castle to the English Crown, he managed to perpetually delay the transfer of ownership through his eloquent exchanges with the English official, the Lord President of Munster. His way with words was so notable that it was said that if you hung upside-down and kissed the castle Blarney Stone, as it came to be called, you would be endowed with lifelong solabharthact—Gaelic for the gift of gab. The same story is what led to the English word blarney, meaning flattery.

 

Nowadays, the Blarney Stone still gets around 400,000 visitors per year, most of whom line up to give it a kiss. In fact, famous figures like Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, and Mick Jagger have all taken their turn smooching the stone. Kissing it isn’t as easy it may seem, however—in order to do this time-honored ritual justice, you first need to scale up to the top of Blarney Castle, then lean over it backwards. Though there are iron railings there now to help, this wasn’t always the case, and the act of trying to kiss the stone could lead to real injuries, as people were traditionally lowered head first—with the help of friends—and dangled over the battlements by their ankles to pull it off.

 

Regardless of whether you try to do it with a pal or not, you could join the tradition and make your way to Blarney Castle if you’re looking for a fun way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year. Who knows? You may even come home with some newfound oratorical skills for your troubles.

 

 

Source: Where Does the Phrase ‘Gift of Gab’ Come From?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - STINGRAYS

Did you know... Despite their near ubiquity — they’re found in every ocean except the Arctic and Antarctic — stingrays remain enigmatic creatures. In fact, it was only recently discovered that one type of stingray, the cownose ray, appears to use its distinctive tail as an antenna to sense danger. That information comes to us from a 2025 paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society by Júlia Chaumel and George V. Lauder, who write that the tails are “able to detect water disturbances resulting from prey, predators, body movements, and near body flow dynamics.”

 

For most types of stingrays, it has long been known that their tails are used to defend against would-be predators such as sharks. But in the Myliobatiformes order, which includes manta rays, devil rays, and cownose rays, the purpose of the tail was not previously clear. The study focused on cownose rays, whose tails are made up of stiff tissue covered in small holes; 3D scans revealed these holes are connected to the lateral line canal, a series of sensory organs that extend the length of the ray’s body, including receptors in its skin that detect movement. That’s especially useful for cownose rays, which bury their heads in the sand to feed on burrowing bivalves. Lacking eyes in the back of their heads, they rely on their antennae-like tails to warn them of incoming predators before it’s too late.

 

Rays and skates have one important distinction.
Though they look nearly identical to the untrained eye, rays and skates have a key distinction: Skates are oviparous and rays are ovoviviparous, meaning skates lay eggs and rays give birth to live babies.

 

Female stingrays typically give birth once a year to around two to 13 babies at a time, depending on the species. The infants, known as pups, are quite developed (and, it must be said, cute) at the time of their birth. Rays are also larger and have spines, whereas skates are characterized by their fleshy tails and lack of spines.

 

 

Source: Some stingrays use their tails as antennae to sense danger.