Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - THEY CAN'T SEE RED

Did you know.... If the very idea of bullfights makes you see red, you’re not alone — even though bulls themselves can’t actually see the color. As is the case with other cattle and grazing animals such as sheep and horses, bulls' eyes have two types of color receptor cells (as opposed to the three types that humans have) and are most attuned to yellows, greens, blues, and purples. This condition, a kind of colorblindness known as dichromatism, makes a bullfighter’s muleta (red cape) look yellowish-gray to the animals. 

 

So why are bulls enraged by the sight of matadors waving their muletas? The answer is simple: motion. The muleta isn’t even brought out until the third and final stage of a bullfight. The reason it’s red is a little unsavory — it’s actually because the color masks bloodstains. In 2007, the TV show MythBusters even devoted a segment to the idea that bulls are angered by the color red, finding zero evidence that the charging animals care what color is being waved at them and ample evidence that sudden movements are what really aggravate the poor creatures. 

 

Most colorblind people are men.
One in 12 men are colorblind, while only one in 200 women are. That’s due to the fact that the red-green variant of colorblindness (in which people have trouble telling red, green, and sometimes other shades apart) — which is by far the most common type — is usually passed down via genes located on the X chromosome. Men only have one X chromosome and women have two, and in women, both X chromosomes need to have the relevant genetic issues for them to be born with red-green colorblindness. Blue-yellow colorblindness (confusing blue with green and yellow with red) and complete colorblindness (the inability to see any colors), meanwhile, are passed down via other chromosomes and affect men and women at roughly the same rate.

 

 

Source: Bulls can’t actually see the color red.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FACE DISTORTING

Did you know.... You may have grown up testing your nerve in front of the mirror by chanting in the dark to see if any spirits would appear. And while this may not summon ghosts, it turns out it can summon illusions. Staring into a dimly lit mirror for an extended period of time can distort your perception of your own face, making it appear to warp, blur, or even morph into someone — or something — else.

 

This phenomenon, dubbed the “strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion,” was first described in a 2010 study by Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo. Subjects were placed in a room lit by a 25-watt lamp behind them with a mirror about a foot in front of them. They typically began to perceive the illusion after less than a minute, and after 10 minutes of gazing, many reported eerie changes. 

 

More than 60% of participants saw “huge deformations” to their own faces, while others saw someone else entirely in their reflection, such as an old woman or a child. Almost 20% described seeing animal faces such as a cat, pig, or lion, and almost half experienced distorted perceptions of monstrous beings.

 

The effect may seem frightening, but it isn’t supernatural — it’s neurological. When the brain is deprived of dynamic visual input, it quickly starts to adapt. Think of the optical illusions you’ve likely tried: In the lilac chaser, for example, a ring of lilac dots seems to vanish and a green dot appears in their place. This happens because of a process called the Troxler effect, in which staring at a fixed point can make surrounding details fade. 

 

At the same time, because our brains are wired to search for faces, the experiment can also result in subjects seeing the faces of their own parents or other loved ones staring back.

 

Interestingly, this kind of illusion isn’t limited to mirrors. Caputo found in another study that staring into someone else’s eyes in dim light can trigger similar — or in some cases, even more dramatic — hallucinatory experiences. Many participants saw facial deformities and monsters, but they also reported that colors seemed muted, the volume of surrounding sounds noticeably increased or decreased, time felt stretched, and they felt spacey and dazed.

 

Those tiny specks in your vision are shadows inside your eyes.
The tiny dots that occasionally drift through your vision may seem to be specks of dust in the atmosphere, but those eye floaters, as they’re called, are actually shadows cast on your retina. They’re caused by clumps of collagen fibers floating around inside the gel-like vitreous body between the lens and retina.

 

When light passes through the eye, those tiny clumps block or scatter it slightly, creating the little shapes you see. The clumps also move as your eyes move, darting across your field of vision, and they’re more visible against bright backgrounds such as a clear sky or a white wall.

 

Source: Staring in a dimly lit mirror too long can distort your perception of your face.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - THROUGH THICK AND THIN

Did you know.... Lots of stuff can be thick or thin. But what inspired the expression?

Through thick and thin might not be included in traditional marriage vows, but it sends the same message as expressions that are: “for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health.” They all basically mean “through the good and the bad” or just “in any circumstances.”

 

You might assume that thick here is good—thick walls, thick wallets, thick scarves, thick stews. You’re safe and warm, fat and happy. Thin, by contrast, evokes lean times: threadbare apparel, watery broth, and a shack that practically death-rattles at every stiff breeze.

 

And sure, the beauty of such a vague cliché is that you can beef it up with whatever visuals you want. But through thick and thin originally meant something pretty specific.

 

The Original Meaning of Through Thick and Thin
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, usage of through thick and thin was “apparently originally with reference to ‘thicket and thin wood.’” Some sources have taken this to mean that the original phrase was through thicket and thin wood, which people eventually simplified to through thick and thin.

 

This doesn’t seem to be the case. Nobody, not even the OED, cites any direct reference to through thicket and thin wood. If people used that phrase with enough regularity to engender a shortened version, we have yet to find evidence of it in the written record.

 

 

More likely, the OED just means that through thick and thin itself originally involved traversing dense and sparse terrain. Traipsing through a thicket, with its tangle of crowded foliage, is much tougher than strolling through a thin wood with ample space between its trees. So thick refers to difficult circumstances, while thin implies easy going.

 

In early usage, though, the expression wasn’t a metaphor.

 

Through Thick and Thin to Chaucer, Spenser, and More
The Oxford English Dictionary’s oldest reference to through thick and thin comes from “The Reeve’s Tale” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In it, a thieving miller thwarts two students’ attempt to prevent his treachery by untying their horse.

 

“And whan the hors was laus, he gynneth gon
Toward the fen, ther wilde mares renne,
And forth with ‘wehee,’ thurgh thikke and thurgh thenne.”

 

Paraphrased in modern English, the loosed horse heads toward the fen, where wild mares run, and goes forth with a gleeful neigh “through thick and through thin.” (While the students are busy chasing the horse, the miller steals some of the flour he ground from their grain and tells his wife to make a cake.) A fen is a marsh, so picture the horse slogging through reed-covered sludge and galloping across more solid ground.

 

 

 

There’s another great example in Amoryus and Cleopes, John Metham’s mid-15th-century English take on Greek mythology’s star-crossed lovers Pyramus and Thisbe (later an influence on Shakespeare). One night, Amoryus and Cleopes—whose families don’t approve of their love—hear each other on either side of a very tall, very thick wall separating their families’ land. Cleopes tells Amoryus to find the hole in the wall, and “forth thru thyk and thyn” he leaps, letting no “nettyl busche ner thorn” stop him from reaching it.

 

Edmund Spenser used through thick and thin in Book III of his epic poem The Faerie Queene, published in 1590. Knights Arthur and Guyon have just watched a fair-haired lady (later identified as Florimell) crash through “the thickest brush” on a white steed. She’s terrified, clearly fleeing some evil, and soon the knights learn what: a forester “breathing out beastly lust” as he chases her on a weary horse.

 

“His tyreling [j]ade he fiersly forth did push,
Through thicke and thin,
both ouer banck and bush
In hope her to attaine by hooke or crooke … ”

 

 

All three references to through thick and thin evoke a rushed, chaotic journey toward some highly coveted pursuit, be it the simple freedom of Chaucer’s horse or the nefarious aim—rape, namely—of Spenser’s forester.

 

The Figurative Thick and Thin
It’s hard to pinpoint who first used through thick and thin figuratively. One early example is from John Dryden’s play The Spanish Friar, published in 1681. “If you want a [thorough paced liar] that will swear through thick and thin, commend me to a Fryar,” says the moneylender Gomez, lambasting the corrupt Father Dominic for lying about him. By the 19th century, people had even started using thick-and-thin as an adjective meaning “steadfast.” You could, for instance, be a thick-and-thin friend or a thick-and-thin supporter of a political party.

 

It’s also hard to pinpoint exactly when everyone forgot that the idiom once referred to varied terrain—maybe it happened gradually as cars supplanted horses in the 20th century. We just don’t trample through brambly underbrush like we used to.

 

Source: ‘Through Thick and Thin’ Once Had a Literal Meaning

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - DIVE BARS

Did you know.... We dive in to this not-very-sobering linguistic mystery.

If you’re in a tavern and find yourself surrounded by ripped upholstery, a stained counter, and dirty glasses, chances are you’re in a dive bar. As drinking establishments go, dives aren’t necessarily a bad thing: Some people enjoy the gloomy ambiance of a well-worn pub and its well-worn patrons. But why do we refer to these lived-in spaces as dive bars?

 

The Origin of Dive Bar
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, dive bar was preceded by dive, a colloquial term for “an illegal drinking-den, or other disreputable place of resort, often situated in a cellar, basement, or other half-concealed place, into which frequenters may ‘dive’ without observation.”

 

The term first saw print in 1871, when the New York Herald observed that a local bar was “one of the gayly decorated dives where young ladies ... dispense refreshments to thirsty souls.”

 

Dive in this context took on two separate—but often related—meanings. One was literal: In order to gain entry to a dive, one must descend into a subterranean location the way an ocean explorer must dive into the depths. The other was more metaphorical; entering a dive meant lowering oneself into a less reputable area of society where vices like drinking, narcotics, and gambling prevailed. To dive implied that you’d sooner not be seen or recognized.

 

Because dive could refer to any number of seedy locations, it became necessary to distinguish them from one another. The OED dates dive bar, a “shabby, cheap, or disreputable bar,” to 1940, but printed mentions appeared long before that. In a 1902 edition of The Daily News out of Perth, Australia, a travel column featuring its author in London mentioned that “Australians who are not quite at the top of the finance go to the Fleapit, a dive-bar and billiard-room and restaurant ... ”

 

What Makes a Dive Bar a Dive Bar
Not all dive bars start out as dive bars. “Their first [life] is as a tavern, mom-and-pop shop, roadhouse, speakeasy, juke joint, nightclub, honky tonk, club, lounge, pub, beer hall, fern bar, gay bar, tiki joint, inn, or saloon,” wrote T.J. Flynn in Thrillist in 2016. “At some point in time, unforeseen circumstances lead to compromises in upkeep, inventory, and clientele. This can occur slowly or swiftly, but the consequences are lasting. Often it is the result of changes occurring in the neighborhood in which the bar is situated, but many a dive was borne of divorce, health crises, or legal judgments.

 

 

Flynn’s additional criteria for a dive bar: no craft beers, no branded bar merchandise, no kitchen menu, and plenty of dirty windows.

 

In 2015, a (loosely) organized dive bar crawl in Syracuse, New York, offered some other parameters, as did citizens of Reno, Nevada, in 2025. A sampling:

 

Feature                         Regular Bar          Dive Bar

Pickled Bar Food                                             X

Clean Bathrooms                 X

Franchise                             X

Indoor Smoking                                              X  

Worn Furniture                                               X

Cheap Drinks                                                  X    

Open for Two Decades or More                     X

Condom Vending Machines in Bathroom      X

Craft Beers                          X

Weird Smell                                                    X

Drunk People                     X                          X

 

Is Dive Bar an Insult or a Compliment?
Whether dive bar is a pejorative term or a compliment depends a lot on who’s using it and why. For some, dive bars conjure up images of a homey, unpretentious setting. For others, it’s like saying you might get stabbed.

 

 

The lack of pretense is usually the selling point. “It’s our view that today the term has mostly and rightly shed its negative connotations, and we take a flexible approach in part to avoid the exhausting semantics of it,” wrote Chris Drosner in Milwaukee Magazine in 2022. “A dive bar needn’t be lowbrow; it’s just a brow without judgment. A dive is natural, authentic, comfortable in its (usually wrinkled) skin ... And because people make a bar tick, not feeling judged is one of the things that really makes a great dive bar.”

 

For some, dive bar is a synonym for neighborhood bar—a place that doesn’t need any fancy décor or a particularly clean bathroom in order to attract customers. “A dive bar,” wrote the Staten Island Advance in 2019, “is a low-key neighborhood spot were locals gather to drink and socialize—often sipping on a simple selection of drinks. Dive bars are the beloved pubs and taverns that have operated within a community for years because they have their regulars and know how to keep it simple.” In this context, dive bar means “longevity.”

If a bar owner wants to cultivate a reputation for being a dive bar, however, they probably need to avoid calling themselves a dive bar. Opening Dave’s Dive does not automatically bestow dive status. That’s up to the customers.

 

 

Source: Why Do We Call Sketchy Pubs “Dive Bars”?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - IT'S A SAUSAGE?

Did you know... When you think of Volkswagen, sausage probably isn’t what comes to mind. But since 1973, the car company has been producing its own prize-winning currywurst at its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, which also happens to be the globe’s largest car-manufacturing plant. The location was once considered remote, so the company has always provided on-site meal options; today, thousands of currywursts are made daily at the plant, using a secret recipe of pork, curry, pepper, ginger, and other spices, and typically served ladled with spicy ketchup. (Both the sausage and the ketchup even have their own VW part numbers.)

 

The currywurst is not just a staple dish among assembly line workers and executives — five-packs are often given to customers and sold at dealerships, sports stadiums, and grocery stores. In 2018, Volkswagen sold 6.2 million cars and about 6.5 million of the 10-inch sausages; in 2024, it sold 5.2 million Volkswagen-branded vehicles and a record 8.5 million sausages. (The Volkswagen Group, which includes several other car brands, collectively sold 9 million cars in 2024.)

 

The sausages are so popular, in fact, that when the company announced in August 2021 that it was removing meat products, including the traditional currywurst, from its menus at the Wolfsburg canteen, there was an uproar. Even former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder weighed in, and the sausages were eventually brought back in 2023. Don’t look for them in the U.S., though: While the currywursts are available in at least 11 countries, Volkswagen is not on the list of suppliers allowed to export processed pork stateside. You can still get a taste of another European company with a surprise food bestseller, though: IKEA’s bestselling product is actually its meatballs.

 

Oscar Mayer Wienermobile drivers take a crash course at Hot Dog High.
Each year, a class of 12 Hotdoggers — recent college grads chosen to steer the promotional Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles across the country — relish the chance to learn the inner workings of their new vehicle. Before hitting the road in a 27-foot-long, 11-foot-high fiberglass frankfurter, the Hotdoggers attend a two-week training camp in Madison, Wisconsin, home of Oscar Mayer’s headquarters. The Hotdogger program was established around 1987; in 2019, the company received thousands of applications for the paid, full-time, year-long brand ambassador positions. During their time at Hot Dog High, attendees become well-versed in wearing their “meat belts,” riding “shotbun,” and operating the “bunroof.” They also select Hotdogger names, such as Jalapeño Jackie, Cookout Christian, and Spicy Mayo Mayra. Afterward, six Weinermobiles roam the U.S., spending every week in a different city and piling on about 50,000 miles annually.

 

 

Source: Volkswagen’s bestselling product isn’t a car — it’s a sausage.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - IS IT SAFE?

Did you know... Look before you leap.

 

If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with iconic, vibrant autumns, you’re probably familiar with the other side of that experience: leaves everywhere. Watching those orange, yellow, and red leaves fall to the ground can feel a little less gratifying knowing you’ll have to rake them all into piles later.

 

Still, those raked leaf piles present their own opportunities for fun. From Charlie Brown and Snoopy to Calvin and Hobbes, leaping full-force into a mound of leaves is a classic way to enjoy the outdoors once summer wanes. 

 

It’s hard to imagine that this iconic pastime could pose any serious threat, but there are actually some risks involved for both children and adults. Below, we’ll go over some of the biggest concerns around jumping in leaf piles and what you can do to be as safe as possible while soaking up the autumn season.

 

Beware of hidden creatures—especially ticks.
Unfortunately, leaf piles are the perfect environment for ticks to thrive. When jumping in, you may inadvertently present yourself as their next meal on a silver platter. It’s an increasingly likely risk because of the explosion in tick numbers due to the warming climate, especially in the Northeast United States. 

 

Out of all the dangers, ticks may be the most serious concern for potential leaf-jumpers due to the risk of contracting Lyme disease. A recent Dartmouth study found that the percentage of blacklegged (deer) ticks carrying Lyme disease in the Northeast has risen. This means that not only are there more ticks out there, but each one is more likely to transmit the disease if it bites you.

 

There are measures you can take to protect yourself from ticks if you still want to jump in, though. Firstly, cover as much skin as possible by tucking your pants into your socks and your sleeves into gloves. It’s also a good idea to put on tick repellent. In addition, it’s ideal to wait until temperatures have dropped below 40°F, as that’s when ticks enter semi-hibernation. And of course, always perform a thorough tick check once you get inside. A tick needs to latch to your skin for roughly 24 hours to transmit Lyme disease, so if you spot one quickly, there it should reduce the danger after effectively removing it.

 

If a leaf pile has been sitting around for awhile, though, other animals may also have found it a perfect place to call home. From the innocuous, like frogs and harmless insects like beetles, to the more serious, like spiders and snakes, there’s no telling what may be dwelling in the leaves until you’re actually in them. And the longer they sit out, the longer the pile has to acquire new residents. For that reason—in addition to the risk of mold growth over time—it’s best to jump into fresh leaf piles exclusively.

 

Location matters.
Finally, it’s important to consider the location of a leaf pile before jumping in and playing around. For one, the surface under it could pose an injury risk. If the leaves have all been raked onto concrete, for example, they may not provide enough cushion to soften a jump, and the ground underneath won’t be forgiving.

 

 

Similarly, you want to avoid any leaf piles raked onto the curb or otherwise near roads. It’s tempting to put the leaves there for removal, or just to get them off the lawn, but you should resist if you or any children may jump in them later. The leaves can make it difficult for drivers to see that there’s someone there. It’s better to be safe than sorry and only interact with leaf piles far removed from any moving vehicles.

 

So is jumping in leaf piles safe?
Jumping in leaf piles, like many other outdoor activities, poses risks. But with the proper precautions, it doesn’t have to be particularly dangerous. Instead, it can be the key to enjoying a crisp fall day—just make sure to check for ticks afterwards.

 

Source: Is Jumping in Leaf Piles Safe?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - MARBLES

Did you know.... If you think the Electoral College is confusing, perhaps you’ll take a liking to The Gambia’s method of choosing its leaders: marbles. The small West African nation eschews paper ballots in favor of this novel approach, which was introduced in 1965 due to the country’s low literacy rate. Voters are given a marble upon checking in at their polling station, with each candidate represented by a photo affixed to a color-coded drum. Once the marble has been dropped into the voter’s drum of choice inside a private booth, a bell sounds to confirm it went through — and prevent anyone from attempting to vote twice. As simple as it is effective, the system has even been credited with ending The Gambia’s former dictatorship and keeping its democracy thriving.

 

Other countries have adopted unique electoral processes as well. Aspiring presidential candidates in France need to secure 500 endorsements from elected officials, a time-consuming process meant to discourage fantasy candidates. In neighboring Germany, the Bundestag (lower house of the Parliament) requires two votes per ballot: one for a district representative and one for the voter’s preferred political party, which determines how many seats each party gets in the Bundestag overall. In general, half of the Bundestag’s 598 seats are determined by the first vote and half by the second.

 

Only two countries’ names officially begin with “The.”
And The Gambia is one of them. The use of the definite article isn’t entirely uncommon when referring to countries — the Netherlands and the United Kingdom come to mind — but it’s mostly used on an informal basis or because the grammar of the sentence requires it. According to such authoritative sources as the U.S. Department of State and the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, the only two countries that should officially be referred to with the definite article are The Gambia and The Bahamas. (It’s also appropriate when the place in question is a geophysical entity, such as groups of islands like the Maldives, but that’s again a matter of grammar rather than official naming practices.) The Gambia’s article comes in part because it was named after the River Gambia, and in part because of a request from the prime minister to avoid confusion with another African country that also earned its independence in the 1960s — Zambia.

 

 

Source: The Gambia conducts elections using marbles instead of paper ballots.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - VENUS (PLANET)

Did you know..... There are entire websites devoted to whether or not Mercury is in retrograde at any given moment, and all the while Venus is spinning backward (compared to most other planets). As a result, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east on the second rock from the sun. Though no one’s entirely sure why our fiery neighbor rotates to the beat of its own drum, it’s been theorized that it originally spun in the same way as most other planets (counter-clockwise when viewed from above), but at some point flipped its own axis 180 degrees. So while its rotation appears backward from our earthbound perspective, it might be more accurate to say that Venus spins the same way it always has, just upside-down.

 

Some scientists think the flip might have been the result of a situation arising from the planet’s extremely dense atmosphere along with the sun's intense gravitational pull, though the scientific community has yet to reach a consensus. For all that, Venus has often been referred to as Earth’s sister planet — even more so than Mars. We’re the two closest neighbors in the solar system, have similar chemical compositions, and are roughly the same size. One crucial difference: Venus probably cannot support life.

 

Venus is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky.
If you can only make out one object in the night sky other than the moon, it’s almost certainly Venus. It has the highest albedo — a term used by astronomers to describe a planet’s brightness — of any planet in the solar system, reflecting approximately 70% of the sunlight that hits it and its highly reflective clouds. (Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn, outshines it by reflecting a full 90% of sunlight, making it the most reflective body in our solar system.) Venus is also relatively nearby and can sometimes be seen during daytime with the naked eye. Because it’s easiest to see just before sunrise and just after sunset, Venus has been nicknamed both the morning star and evening star (ancient people actually thought it was two separate planets).

 

 

Source: Venus spins backward.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FAKE FLAMINGOS

Did you know.... If you’ve ever strolled through a market in the touristy part of a major city, you know that knockoff Gucci handbags and fake Rolexes are more abundant than real ones. The same can be said for flamingos, as the pink plastic lawn decorations made in their image far outnumber the actual birds. The exact number of real flamingos is hard to quantify given the animal’s broad global range and migration patterns, but estimates suggest there are roughly 3.45 million to 4.68 million flamingos in the wild.

 

Those numbers pale in comparison to plastic flamingos, of which tens of millions exist. The item was created in 1957 by artist Don Featherstone based on an image in the October issue of National Geographic. Initially, the flamingo was sold with a plastic duck for $2.76 (roughly $31.73 as of 2025). Some consumers purchased the bird as a way to make their homes stand out in cookie-cutter housing developments, while others just liked the way it looked on their lawns.

 

The 1960s saw a bit of backlash, as members of the counterculture movement rejected the ornaments for being tacky — but the flamingos were reembraced in the 1970s as people once again came to appreciate their kitsch. Sales spiked in the wake of the 1972 John Waters film Pink Flamingos and again rather inexplicably in 1985. In that year, several companies noted a confusing albeit welcome increase in purchases of the plastic bird, including big-box retailer Canadian Tire, whose sales jumped a whopping 70% year over year.

 

When Featherstone passed away in 2015, The Washington Post reported that upward of 20 million fake flamingos had been sold since their debut, and that number continues to grow. Several species of real flamingo, however, find themselves in a population decline, including the lesser, Chilean, and Andean varieties.

 

Flamingos aren't born pink.
The colorful pink plumage of a standard flamingo has to do not with genetics, but with the bird’s diet. Flamingos are born with gray feathers and gradually develop their pink hue over the next two or so years. This happens as they consume more beta-carotene — a red-orange pigment that’s abundant in the many algaes, brine shrimp, and brine fly larvae flamingos eat.

 

Once consumed, the pigments are broken down and absorbed by fats in the liver, which deposits the color into the bird’s feathers and skin. Zoos often serve a soupy, nutritious mixture with high levels of carotenoids to flamingos in captivity to promote good health and maintain the birds’ vibrant pink color.

 

 

Source: There are more fake flamingos in the world than real ones.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - STOP SIGN

Did you know.... Few people have had a larger or more positive impact on the way we drive than William Phelps Eno, sometimes called the “father of traffic safety.” The New York City native — who invented the stop sign around the dawn of the 20th century — once traced the inspiration for his career to a horse-drawn-carriage traffic jam he experienced as a child in Manhattan in 1867: “There were only about a dozen horses and carriages involved, and all that was needed was a little order to keep the traffic moving,” he later wrote. “Yet nobody knew exactly what to do; neither the drivers nor the police knew anything about the control of traffic.” 

 

After his father’s death in 1898 left him with a multimillion-dollar inheritance, Eno devoted himself to creating a field that didn’t otherwise exist: traffic management. He developed the first traffic plans for New York, Paris, and London. In 1921, he founded the Washington, D.C.-based Eno Center for Transportation, a research foundation on multimodal transportation issues that still exists. One thing Eno didn’t do, however, is learn how to drive. Perhaps because he had such extensive knowledge of them, Eno distrusted automobiles and preferred riding horses. He died in Connecticut at the age of 86 in 1945 having never driven a car.

 

Stop signs have eight sides to indicate danger.

Though the first stop sign was a humble square, that design didn’t last long. In addition to being easily recognizable from both sides and easy to see at night, the octagon was chosen in the 1920s as part of a still-influential initiative in which the number of sides a sign has indicates the level of danger it’s meant to warn against. Train crossing signs were circles (which can be thought of as having an infinite number of sides) because those crossings were considered the most hazardous, followed by octagonal stop signs for intersections and the like; diamond-shaped signs were used for less perilous crossings, and rectangular ones were posted simply to convey information.

 

Source: The inventor of the stop sign never learned how to drive.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - COMIS SANS (font)

Did you know... There are some things in modern culture that people just love to hate, like Nickelback, cargo pants, and the most derided typeface of all: Comic Sans. At first glance, this fun and childlike font — originally designed to mimic the script found in comic books — seems to serve a lighthearted purpose. But for more than a decade, it’s been derided as one of the worst typefaces ever. It turns out that Comic Sans doesn’t even hold a particularly warm and fuzzy place in its own creator’s heart — typographer Vincent Connare only used the font once in his life, in a letter complaining to his broadband internet provider. 

 

Connare originally created the font for Microsoft Bob, a short-lived operating system designed to make computers more user-friendly. The desktop resembled a family room with icons representing certain computer programs. When someone clicked on a pen and paper icon, for example, it opened a word processor. Users were assisted by a cartoon dog named Rover, and during the software’s development, Connare decided that dogs “don’t talk in Times New Roman” — so he created Comic Sans. Although the final version of Microsoft Bob didn’t include the font, it appeared as an additional typeface in Windows 95.

 

Yet Comic Sans slowly garnered derision in the years following its initial release, and was often perceived as overly childish, visually chaotic, and an affront to good typeface design. Hate for the typeface drove reliable traffic on Twitter (now called X), inspired entire websites, and even prompted one vitriolic manifesto — but maybe times are changing. One reformed Comic Sans hater (and co-author of the aforementioned manifesto) changed his Facebook group “Ban Comic Sans” into “Use Comic Sans” in May 2019, telling The New York Times, “It’s gotten to be so bad that it’s almost cool again.”

 

Movable type was invented in China — not Germany.
The invention of the printed word is often inexorably linked with 15th-century German printer Johannes Gutenberg and his press, but the first evidence of movable type — arranging separate letters on metal pieces — predates the Teutonic inventor by several centuries. Although the first printed (or at least not handwritten) books date back to the ninth century, the invention of movable type arrived in 11th-century China, as the creation of artisan and engineer Bi Sheng (970 to 1051 CE). To create this early printing press, Sheng hand-carved letters into clay and then baked them into reusable bricks. During the Nan (Southern) Song dynasty, which stretched from 1127 to 1279, these printed books helped create a scholar class in Chinese society, and the size of book collections became entwined with a person’s social status.

 

Source: The creator of Comic Sans only used the font once.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - 'TZATZIKI' PRONOUNCIATION

Did you know... Get the scoop on the history, ingredients, and multiple pronunciations of this delicious Greek dip.

 

Tzatziki sauce: it’s a mouthful, both literally and figuratively. Let’s dig into the dip’s origin, ingredients, and, of course, the proper way to say it.

 

What is Tzatziki Sauce?
Tzatziki sauce is a yogurt-based sauce that’s quite common in Greek culture. The main ingredient is Greek yogurt; some additional ingredients include cucumber, olive oil, salt, garlic, and sometimes lemon juice. You can also find herbs, such as dill, thyme, parsley, and mint, in the dip. Although there are tons of versions of tzatziki, many people typically describe the dip as tangy, creamy, and refreshing.

 

One dish that pairs well with tzatziki sauce is the gyro (pronounced as “year-oh,” by the way), a pita wrap with meat sliced from a vertical rotisserie. It’s usually topped with onions, tomato, and a decent helping of the yogurt sauce. Another food that pairs well with tzatziki sauce is souvlaki, a skewer of marinated and cubed meat pieces. 

 

How Do You Pronounce Tzatziki?
There’s more than one way to pronounce the Greek dip. According to Merriam-Webster, some people pronounce it as “dzad-zee-kee,” with the “d” sound at the beginning of the word just barely coming through. Other sources, such as Cambridge, indicate that it’s pronounced as “tsat-see-kee.” This way of saying the word merges the “tz” sound and makes the second “z” sound more like an “s.”  

 

The Oxford English Dictionary reports that the earliest known use of tzatziki was in the 1960s, when Robin Howe wrote a recipe book called Greek Cooking. Many sources, including Sporked, credit cacik—the Ottoman Empire’s version of the food—as the origin of tzatziki, despite the dip being associated with Greek cuisine. Cacik usually features labneh, a tangy “yogurt cheese” that’s strained for a long time, resulting in a consistency between that of cream cheese and yogurt. 

 

 

Source: How to Properly Pronounce ‘Tzatziki‘

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SEA OTTERS

Did you know... A sea otter’s fur is an evolutionary marvel. Within just 1 square inch, otter fur contains 850,000 to 1 million hairs, making it denser than that of any other mammal on land or in the sea. The aptly named fur seal comes in a distant second, with only about 300,000 hairs per square inch. Humans, meanwhile, have only about 80,000 to 120,000 hairs on our heads (if we’re lucky).

 

But the number of hairs per square inch is only one aspect of sea otters’ complex, luxurious coat, because their fur has two distinct layers. The outer fur is called guard hair, which protects the second layer, or the undercoat, from getting wet. This double-layer system, and the tiny barbs on the guard hair, trap air next to an otter’s skin, which helps them withstand chilly waters without the blubber found in other aquatic animals such as walruses, whales, and seals. However, their fascinating fur has historically made otters a target, especially during the fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries. Sea otters are also vulnerable to oil spills, which effectively destroy the insulating abilities of their fur. Since the 1970s, sea otters have slowly recuperated from near-extinction in the U.S. (at one point, California’s population was only 50 — it’s now 3,000), but they still have a long way to go before reaching their former abundance. 

 

90% of all sea otters in the world live along the coastal shores of Alaska.
Before Europeans arrived in the western United States, sea otters numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Their native range stretched from Mexico’s Baja California to the coastal waters of Japan, following the horseshoe-shaped path of the Pacific Rim (which includes California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Russia). Since then, the sea otter hasn’t had an easy go of it, for the reasons mentioned above. Today, sea otters in the U.S. are split into two main groups. Southern sea otters call central and Southern California home, whereas northern sea otters — representing 90% of all sea otters in the world — live along Alaska’s coast. Scientists and environmentalists are still hard at work reintroducing sea otters to the rest of their once-sprawling coastal domain.

 

 

Source: Sea otters have the thickest fur of any mammal.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SEAGULLS

Did you know... Yes, they are waiting for your french fries.

 

Technically, seagull is a misnomer. Birds in the subfamily Larinae are called “gulls,” and while they do like to be near water, they don’t strictly live by the sea.

 

Some populations of the ring-billed gull prefer the interior of the U.S., and some never even get near the ocean. The American herring gull, which the Cornell Lab of Ornithology calls the quintessential “seagull,” can be found pretty far inland. While there, they often congregate in parking lots. Why?

 

Plentiful Pickings
The gulls are drawn to parking lots mainly for two reasons. The first is food. Gulls are opportunistic feeders and will eat most things that are available to them, rather than specializing in one kind of food source. They’ll feed on fish, crustaceans, small rodents, fruit, and even other gulls. They also go after a lot of things discarded by humans, from straight-up trash to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Along England's seacoasts, gull have become adept at dive-bombing beachgoers and stealing their chips right out of their hands.

 

Parking lots are smorgasbords of food wrappers and scraps, especially if there’s a supermarket or restaurant nearby. Lots are often adjacent to dumpsters or municipal trash cans and frequented by motorists who can’t be bothered to use either of those. Plus, manicured grass and other landscaped patches around the pavement can be good places to look for bugs or fruit as they drop from ornamental trees. 

 

There’s one more aspect to the appeal of parking lots as bird buffets. People actually feed them—on purpose. In a 2015 study, researchers in Massachusetts looked into why big groups of ring-billed gulls were gathering in area parking lots. They found that many drivers were tossing food out of their windows at the waiting gulls, but the bigger contributors were people who showed up at the parking lots and dumped out tons of food, including multiple loaves of bread, whole boxes of cereal, leftover spaghetti, and pizza. The researchers put up signage prohibiting the feedings to see if it changed people’s behavior, but it didn’t have much of an effect on the number of gulls in the parking lots.

 

Like a Beach, but Paved
The second thing that parking lots have going for them is that they’re spacious, open, and flat, like their more natural beach or marshland habitats. These factors allow gulls to congregate near food sources and gives them clear views in all directions so they can keep an eye out for danger. (Apparently, they don’t considers cars or pedestrians dangerous.)

 

Overall, parking lots offer the benefits of gulls’ natural habitats—like space and a general lack of predators—with constantly replenished food sources that they don't need to spend energy to find.

 

 

Source: Why Do Seagulls Hang Out in Parking Lots?

Edited September 25 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ETHIOPIAN CALENDAR

Did you know.... It’s taken a few centuries, but the Gregorian calendar, first instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, is now the official calendar used by most countries — emphasis on “most.” A notable exception is Ethiopia, which uses its own calendar. The Ethiopian calendar shares some similarities with the Gregorian: They’re both based on the solar year and on ancient Rome’s Julian calendar, and they’re both 365 days long (366 during a leap year). But Ethiopia’s calendar has an extra month, its new year is celebrated on September 11, and, most notably, it’s seven to eight years behind most other nations, depending on the time of year. 

 

This temporal difference is a feature, not a flaw, and stems from something Ethiopians call Bahere Hasab (“Sea of Thoughts”), the method used to calculate the calendar. Both the Gregorian and Ethiopian calendars recognize Jesus’ birth as a key date in their calculations, but they differ on when this event is supposed to have occurred. In the Gregorian calendar, Jesus’ birth year divides B.C. from A.D. (or BCE from CE). The Ethiopian calendar instead places Jesus’ birth around 7 BCE. This event is supposed to have happened 5,500 years after Adam and Eve repented for their sins in the Garden of Eden. Many of the atypical features of the Ethiopian calendar are shared by the Coptic calendar, including its 13-month construction and mid-September new year. However, according to the Copts — an ethnoreligious Christian group native to North Africa — it’s currently the year 1741.

 

Ethiopia is home to 80% of Africa’s tallest mountains.
Known as the “cradle of humanity,” Ethiopia is both incredibly old and incredibly mountainous. Some 75 million years ago, magma from the Earth’s crust lifted up a dome of rock known today as the Ethiopian Highlands, which was then split in half by the Great Rift Valley. These highlands are home to nearly 80% of Africa’s tallest mountains — though the very tallest is Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania — and some fascinating species, such as the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), one of the most endangered animals in Africa. The mountains have also played a key role in human history by providing a geographic deterrent to European colonialism. Ethiopia is one of only two countries in Africa (the other being Liberia) to never be successfully colonized, which allowed its ancient culture to flourish to this day.

 

 

Source: The Ethiopian calendar is seven to eight years behind the calendar used in the U.S.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TOTO

Did you know.... The Wizard of Oz featured more than 600 actors, some of whom were bigger stars than others. Near the top of that list was a cairn terrier appropriately named Terry. The pup who played Dorothy’s loyal companion Toto — and who, unlike the character she portrayed, was female in real life — received a weekly salary of $125 for her work on the perennial classic, which was more than many of her co-stars (including all the actors playing Munchkins, who were paid $50 a week). At about $2,885 in today’s money, the pup’s pay was also 10 times the minimum wage at the time.

 

Terry had already appeared in seven films — Ready for Love, Bright Eyes, The Dark Angel, Fury, The Buccaneer, Barefoot Boy, and Stablemates — prior to 1939’s Oz, which helps explain her salary. She also performed her own stunts, which resulted in an injury when one of the Munchkin actors stepped on her paw. 

 

The pup was out of action for two weeks, during which time Judy Garland helped nurse her back to health. The actress was so smitten with her canine co-star that she attempted to buy her from Carl Spitz, her owner and trainer, but he refused.

 

Toto is replaced by a cow in one theatrical Oz adaptation.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was hugely successful upon its publication in 1900, and a number of adaptations quickly followed. In addition to the several silent and animated films that preceded the 1939 classic movie, the book was initially adapted for the stage — with several changes. In the theatrical version, the Wicked Witch of the West is only ever mentioned by name, and Toto is replaced by a cow named Imogene.

 

Baum, who wrote the play himself, thought a cow would make for a bigger in-person spectacle. The play also marked the introduction of Dorothy’s last name, “Gale,” as well as the first time the word “Wonderful” was dropped from the story’s title. Both Toto and Imogene appear in the first film adaptation of the story, which was made in 1910 and runs just 13 minutes.

 

 

Source: ‘Toto’ was paid a higher salary than most human cast members in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SILLY PUTTY

Did you know... World War II ran on rubber. From tanks to jeeps to combat boots, the Allied Forces needed an uninterrupted flow of rubber to supply fresh troops and vehicles to the front lines. Then, in late 1941, Japan invaded Southeast Asia — a key supplier of America’s rubber — and what was once a plentiful resource quickly became scarce. Americans pitched in, donating household rubber (think old raincoats and hoses) to help the war effort, but it wasn’t enough. So scientists set to work finding an alternative. A pair working separately at Dow Corning and General Electric independently developed a silicone oil/boric acid mixture that appeared promising. It was easily manipulated and could even bounce on walls, but in the end its properties weren’t similar enough to rubber to be useful in the war.

 

U.S. government labs eventually found a workable rubber substitute using petroleum, but the previously developed “nutty putty” stuck around until it fell into the hands of advertising consultant Peter Hodgson. Sensing an opportunity, Hodgson bought manufacturing rights, renamed it “Silly Putty,” and stuck some of it inside plastic eggs just in time for Easter 1950. But it wasn’t until Silly Putty’s mention in an issue of The New Yorker later that year that sales exploded, with Hodgson eventually selling millions of this strange, non-Newtonian fluid (fluids whose viscosity changes under stress; ketchup and toothpaste are other examples). Since then, Silly Putty has found various serious uses, from teaching geology to physical therapy, and even took a ride on Apollo 8 in 1968, when it was used to keep the astronauts’ tools secure. A pretty impressive résumé for a substance that was initially considered a failure. 

 

Daylight saving time was first instituted to ration energy during wartime.
On March 19, 1918, the Standard Time Act was signed into law, establishing the five time zones of the U.S. along with instituting daylight saving time, a method designed to conserve energy during World War I. But after the war, the energy-saving portion of the act was repealed and states were once again permitted to create their own standard time. Fast-forward to February 1942, only three months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and Congress once again instigated a year-round daylight saving time, nicknamed “war time.” The time zones were even renamed to “Eastern War Time,” “Pacific War Time,” etc. At the war’s end in 1945, states once again regained the right to set their standard time, until 1966 when Congress passed the Uniform Time Act.

 

 

Source: Silly Putty was developed during World War II as a potential rubber substitute.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BALLPARK FIGURE

Did you know.... We ballpark the origins of a popular phrase.

 

Anyone who has ever had a skilled laborer eyeball a plumbing problem or had a body shop assess car damage is probably familiar with the phrase ballpark figure. It’s what you ask for when you want a rough idea of the cost, time, or dimensions of an unrealized project.

 

“What’s the ballpark figure on fixing my garage door,” you might say. Or, “Ballpark, how long it will take to get me a ballpark estimate.” But why do we use ballpark as a verb or as a means of making guesstimations?

 

The Origin of Ballpark Figure

 

As you no doubt know, ballpark figure stems from a long list of slang terms derived from baseball. The Oxford English Dictionary dates its earliest use as a figurative term to 1943, citing it as United States Air Force slang for a general and inexact geographical area. It was later adopted by the space program: A capsule expected to land in a general part of the ocean might be said to be landing “within the ballpark area.”

 

Ballpark as a verb, or what the OED defines as “to estimate the approximate value, amount, extent, etc.” of something, dates to 1957, when Aviation Week wrote that “Once this pattern is ‘ball-parked’ for approximate actual size, it’s ready for detail design.”

 

The same year also saw a syndicated newspaper columnist alert readers to new “Pentagon language” in circulation in Washington, defining the government’s use of ballpark figure as a “very rough estimate” of program costs.

 

A scintillating citation also comes from 1973’s Basic Electronic Test Procedures, which states “Since we are ‘ball-parking’ rather than making a precise measurement, the physical position of the rheostat wiper arm will give us the desired information.”

 

Ballpark, it seemed, was a favorite among bureaucrats and engineers who liked it as a euphemism for estimate.

 

Numerous phrases and metaphors populate ballpark in this context. One might get or offer a ballpark figure, ballpark a number, and find that dueling figures are either in the same ballpark—or not even in the ballpark.

 

But what does a ballpark, which since the late 1800s is widely known to mean a baseball field with spectators, have to do with making rough estimations? That’s a bit trickier to answer.

 

In the Ballpark
Columnist and wordsmith William Safire touched on the topic back in 1981, broaching it with lexicographer Stuart Flexner. According to Flexner, to be in the ballpark meant being within a wide but reasonable spectrum of assessment, just as being in a literal ballpark offered some idea of geographic location without being overtly specific. In both cases, allowances were being made for being inexact.

 

 

Inside Baseball: Slang Terms Unique to the Game
Slang: Chin Music

Definition: A ball that comes uncomfortably close to a batter’s chin

 

Slang: Hose

Definition: A player’s throwing arm

 

Slang: Nubber

Definition: A pathetic ground ball

 

Slang: Aspirin Tablet

Definition: A fastball so quick it looks like a tiny white pill

 

Slang: Eephus

Definition: A slow, arching pitch

 

The in-or-out-of-ballpark origin is sensible, but there are alternative explanations. One possibly-apocryphal origin has it that when baseball team owners or managers called in scores and attendance numbers to reporters, they might inflate or otherwise fudge the latter to hide a low turnout. A ballpark figure was therefore one that shouldn’t be counted on for accuracy.

 

Another possibility is that it was difficult for teams or stadium owners to perform an exact headcount of attendees at games, leading commentators or reporters to take a rough guess. The phrase to ballpark came to mean “making an inexact observation,” and one that shouldn’t hold anyone responsible for any error.

 

The Grim Origins of Murderers' Row

In baseball, murderers’ row is an idiom that was once used to describe a formidable line-up of batters. In common usage, it can summarize any impressive group of people. But its origins actually date to the 1830s, when a new Manhattan prison, formally known as the Halls of Justice, opened. Inside its walls was a corridor devoted exclusively to killers, which was declared “murderers’ row” by staff and press alike.

 

However ballpark figure originated, it’s clearly become one of the most ubiquitous metaphors around. Sports idioms are common, but what helped phrases derived from baseball take off was how heavily the game—which predated subsequent pastimes like football or basketball—was covered in the magazines and newspapers of the 1800s and 1900s. Papers didn’t have sports sections so much as they had baseball sections, making the terminology hard to miss.

 

While this might not be the most concrete etymology in the world, it’s certainly in the ballpark.

 

 

Source: Why Does ‘Ballpark Figure’ Mean “a Rough Estimate”?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CATS

Did you know... Cats sometimes act like a bowl of water is something to approach with extreme caution. There’s a reason for it, though.

 

Cats: People love them, but few understand them. From chilling out in bathroom sinks to having their tongue hang out of their mouth, felines have certain behaviors that can be puzzling to owners. One common cat habit is to stick a paw in a bowl of drinking water. Is the cat afraid their owner is poisoning them? Do they realize this is not hygienic behavior? Why do cats do this?

 

The Cat Behavior, Explained
According to cat behavior expert Pam Johnson-Bennett, cats have a number of motivations for wetting their paw. One relates to the sensitivity of their whiskers. If a cat dips their head into a bowl before sampling how shallow or deep it might be, they run the risk of feeling pressure on the hairs from the sides or bottom of the bowl. To avoid the discomfort, cats will assess the bowl’s “feel” or just use their paw like a spoon, slurping water from it to avoid irritating the hairs.

 

Cats dislike deep water bowls for another reason. If lowering their head inside one means they can no longer visualize their environment, they might feel vulnerable, especially in a multi-cat household. If the bowl is too close to the wall, this may motivate them to use the paw-as-utensil trick as well, otherwise they’d have to keep their back turned toward the room in order to drink from it.

 

Cats may also dip their paw because it creates ripples in the water. This may be of interest to them for two reasons. One, cats may have an instinct from an evolutionary standpoint to choose water sources that are flowing rather than stagnant and potentially harmful. (If they prefer moving water, you might catch them drinking out of faucets.) Two, the cat may be doing it for amusement.

 

How to Stop Your Cat From Dipping a Paw in Its Water Bowl
If you’re displeased with your cat’s habit, you can try using a wide, narrow water bowl to relieve any whisker discomfort. If you think it might be for personal security reasons, try having multiple water bowls for the cats in your home. If the cat is doing it for stimulation, then maybe more recreation time is in order.

 

 

 

In rare cases, cats might be interacting with their water bowl owing to poor eyesight due to age or a health condition. You can always get them checked out, but in most cases, cats pawing at their bowl is typical cat behavior—slightly weird but mostly justifiable.

 

 

Source: Why Do Cats Dip Their Paw in Water Bowls?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WORKER ANTS

Did you know... While ants can be annoying (see: showing up at your picnic table), humans generally regard them as good workers, which is how they’ve often been portrayed in folklore and fables such as Aesop’s “The Ants & the Grasshopper.” So it may come as a surprise that not all worker ants are performing at peak productivity; in fact, some research shows that up to 40% of worker ants in a colony may remain idle while other ants trudge on with their duties. 

 

Biologists with the University of Arizona observing ant colonies in 2015 found that many of the ants seemed to slack while other ants performed chores. And in research published two years later by some of the same scientists, the team examined 20 ant colonies, marking some of the creatures with tiny paint drops and observing their movements. When the “lazy” ants were removed from their nest, life and work continued on more or less as before. But scientists discovered a major shift when actively working ants were whisked away; the once-idle ants stepped into their missing counterparts’ roles, assuming tasks that were going uncompleted. That encouraged scientists to view them not as lazy, but as part of a reserve force. 

 

One theory for the behavior change is that keeping a team of workers on standby allows ant colonies to remain productive. A similar study in 2018 found that only 30% of workers in fire ant colonies dug tunnels, while other members of the nest waited nearby in a move that actually sped up work by preventing traffic jams in the narrow spaces. And some scientists believe that it’s possible certain ants are hard at work at nonvisible jobs that we humans just haven’t figured out how to recognize yet. Despite ants outnumbering humans 2.5 million to one, there’s much we don’t know about how they work together for their tiny, greater good.

 

Some ants can explode.
Most ants have a defense mechanism of one kind or another. Some sting, like fire ants, while Formica archboldi ants spray acid onto potential predators. Few, however, can do what “yellow goo” ants can: explode. Found in Southeast Asia, Colobopsis explodens are tree-dwelling ants that build their nests high up in the canopies. As a last-ditch effort to protect their homes from invaders, Colobopsis ants apply pressure to their abdomen, bursting their bodies in a self-sacrifice that releases a sticky, odorous, and toxic substance. Researchers have known about exploding ants for at least 200 years, though the first documented research on their unique ability appeared around 1916. However, little is known about “yellow goo” ants, who spend their days foraging for food as one of 15 known species of exploding ants in South Asia.

 

 

Source: Some worker ants don’t work.