Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NOSELESS

Did you know.... Many old statues from past civilizations have been disfigured in a remarkably similar way.

 

Many statues that have survived for thousands of years—including Greek, Egyptian, and Roman works—have not always made it to the modern era completely intact: A fair number are actually missing their noses. (Various museums and cultural institutions have such specimens in their collections, including a statue in the possession of the Acropolis Museum in Athens.)  But where have all these old statues’ noses gone? There are several reasons that could explain the disfigurement. 

 

Bad Reputation
One of the reasons stems from a common belief in antiquity that to damage the image of a person was also to damage that person themselves. This became a practice in Ancient Rome, where the defilement and destruction of statues was connected to the reputations of the people embodied in those artifacts. The removal of noses has also been linked with the real-life penalty of facial mutilation that also existed during these ages and continued through the time of the Byzantine Empire.

 

Stopping the Supernatural
There is another reason for the iconoclasm of noses that goes beyond attitudes toward people in the physical world: The belief in the connection between the physical form of a statue and who it represented extended past human beings and into the realm of statues of the gods. Some past civilizations, including Ancient Egypt, believed souls could inhabit statues and that it was therefore possible to communicate with the gods via effigies of their forms. 

 

 

The disfigurement of a statue could thus sometimes be a superstitious act, one designed to halt or thwart the presence of a deity or a supernatural being. People specifically targeted the nose because of how crucial the appendage was to the process of living; noses do, after all, play a significant part in how people breathe. To remove the nose was therefore seen as a way to kill the spirit the statue was believed to represent. 

 

Got Your (Plaster) Nose
There was a period during the 19th century when some museums attempted to repair the missing noses by adding replacements to these statues—the Glyptotek in Copenhagen contains a cabinet of more than 100 of such plaster appendages that were once used to perform these artistic nose jobs.

 

The cosmetic repairs were partly done because the financial value of a statue during this period increased the more complete it was. As such, people had some additional motivation to add fake noses to any less-than-whole faces. 

 

By the 20th century, however, cultural preference had shifted back to displaying these sculptures in the condition in which they were left in antiquity. Today, it’s more likely you’ll see a statue missing its nose than one sporting a fake schnoz.

Source: Why Are So Many Old Statues Missing Their Noses?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WATERMELON SNOW

Did you know.... Watermelon snow may sound like something from the Candy Land board game, but the phenomenon is very real — Aristotle even wrote about a “reddish” snowbank he found on Mount Parnassus in the fourth century BCE. Visitors to Antarctica, the Himalayas, the Rockies, the French Alps, and Yosemite National Park have also glimpsed this colorful occurrence. In the 1800s, Scottish botanist Robert Brown finally determined the culprit: a species of algae called Chlamydomonas nivalis. Under a microscope, single-celled C. nivalis appear green, but they also feature a secondary red pigment, astaxanthin, which is a carotenoid, part of the chemical family that can make carrots orange. This astaxanthin is dormant for much of the year, but when winter ice and snow start to thaw and the algae surface to divide and photosynthesize, they trigger their astaxanthin as a barrier against the sun’s harsh UV rays, turning red in the process. Some say this rosy snow smells sweet and fruity, although experts warn that eating large amounts can cause digestive problems. 

 

Algae is responsible for creating much of the world’s oxygen and forming the basis for most food webs; thousands of species exist. Algae is also often a factor associated with major color changes: Dunaliella algae are believed to be one origin for the pink lakes that draw shutterbugs to places such as Australia, Senegal, and Spain, and many experts hypothesize that Trentepohlia algae led to the red rains that fell in Kerala, India, between July and September 2001. Recently, cold climates on different continents have witnessed an increase in clusters (or blooms) of C. nivalis algae, and scientists are working to understand why. Besides red, the blooms can appear green, gray, or yellow. 

 

Watermelon seeds were found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb.
King Tut was just 19 years old when he died in approximately 1324 BCE. When British archaeologist Howard Carter unsealed his tomb in 1922, he found 116 baskets and 12 additional containers full of goods and treasures that were meant to help the late pharaoh transition to the afterlife. In 1988, a graduate student in London named Christian Tutundjian de Vartavan came across 30 small cardboard boxes that had been languishing in a Royal Botanic Gardens storage room since their contents were discovered by Carter. Within the boxes, de Vartavan found around 25 plant food species that had once been inside the tomb, including sesame seeds, millet, barley, black cumin seeds, coriander, and watermelon seeds. However, more than 3,300 years ago, wild watermelons were the opposite of the juicy, sweet produce we think of today, and were likely included less for their deliciousness than for their hydrating properties.

 

 

Source: Some parts of the world have pink snow, known as ‘watermelon snow.’

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - 911

Did you know... Should you ever have to call 911, don’t worry about how many bars you have — you can make emergency calls even without cell service or a SIM card. This has been the case since the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999 took effect, as one provision of the law required the Federal Communications Commission to make 911 the universal emergency number for all telephone services. This is why iPhones sometimes say “SOS only” and Android phones display the message “emergency calls only” when you don’t have reception.

 

There’s a caveat, however: Calls made from phones without active service can’t automatically deliver your location to the dispatch center, which also won’t be able to call you back if you become disconnected. Another unfortunate side effect is an increase in prank calls made from phones without service, as they’re essentially untraceable; children given phones without service as toys can sometimes make errant emergency calls as well. 

 

Because call centers are required to find out whether an emergency actually exists, such calls are a burden on the system — so use this safety net responsibly if you ever have to use it at all. Nonetheless, this is still an improvement on the pre-911 system, which required people to remember the phone number of their local police or fire station.

 

911 was chosen as the emergency number by AT&T.
The idea of implementing a nationwide emergency number dates back to 1957, when the National Association of Fire Chiefs suggested adopting a single number for reporting fires. It took another decade for the FCC to formally meet with AT&T about doing so, and in 1968 the company established 911 as the chosen digits. There were several reasons for this: 911 is short, easy to remember, and a number that can be dialed quickly, and it had never before been used in any other context prior to its implementation.

 

 

Source: You can call 911 in the U.S. even with no cell service.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - HEMINGWAY ADAPTATIONS

Did you know... While Hemingway wasn’t generally a fan of the adaptations of his works, these five films are must-watches.

Ernest Hemingway wasn’t a huge fan of cinema. According to his son Patrick, “pictures on the silver screen were nothing but pure illusion (…) and not to be taken seriously.” 

His relationship with the screen, which over the course of his lifetime developed from a technological curiosity into a cultural force, was undoubtedly shaped by his identity as a writer—as an artist who expressed himself not in images but in words, and by the time of his death saw his age-old trade swept aside by a new, different medium. While the author himself would probably have begged to differ, the following five films are considered some of the best Hemingway adaptations out there. 

 

A Farewell to Arms (1932) 

 

 

Originally published in 1929 and based on his experience serving as an American ambulance driver during the First World War, A Farewell to Arms follows a wounded lieutenant who falls in love with the nurse who nurses him back to health, culminating in the couple’s ill-fated attempt to leave the war behind.

 

This adaptation, directed by Frank Borzage and starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes in the two leading roles, was nominated for four Academy Awards and ended winning two: one for Best Cinematography, and another for Best Sound. Made before the existence of codes, the film was—for a time—banned on account of its portrayal of sexuality and violence.

 

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

 

 

Like A Farewell to Arms, this novel was released only a few years before its big screen adaptation, in 1940. Also steeped in personal experience, it follows an American volunteer fighting against fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. This soldier, too, falls in love, forcing him to choose between duty and happiness.

 

Directed by Sam Wood, this adaptation was nominated for Best Picture. Gary Cooper returns to play the leading role, this time starring alongside Ingrid Bergman—seen for the first time in Technicolor. Aside from faithfully adapting the story, it sticks close to its themes of pacifism and the futility of war.

 

The Killers (1964)

 

 

Unlike most of the other entries on this list, this film isn’t based on a novel or novella but a short story. First seen in 1927 in Scribner’s Magazine and later republished alongside other stories as part of the Men Without Women collection, it tells the story of two hitmen who set out to kill a former boxer—a premise revisited by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction.

 

This film, directed by Don Siegel, is actually the story’s second big-screen adaptation. The only adaptation Hemingway somewhat liked (thanks in no small part to Gardner), it stars U.S. President Ronald Reagan in one of his last acting roles before he began focusing exclusively on his political career.

 

The Old Man and the Sea (1958)

 

 

Arguably Hemingway’s best-known literary work, ultimately earning him the Nobel Prize in Literature, The Old Man and the Sea follows an elderly Cuban fisherman who spends 84 days out at sea trying to catch a giant marlin, only to see the object of his obsession devoured by sharks. 

 

Brought to the big screen by John Sturges, this adaptation stars Spencer Tracy as the fisherman (named Santiago) and Felipe Pazos as Manolin, the young boy whom he refuses to bring along onto the water. Winning an Academy Award for Best Score, the film preserves and effectively communicates its source material’s musings on courage, perseverance, and loneliness.

 

Captain Khorsid (1987)
The only entry on this list produced outside of Hollywood, as well as the only one to bear a different name, Captain Khorsid is loosely based on Hemingway’s 1937 novel To Have and Have Not, about a cash-strapped boat captain forced to take up illegal smuggling during the Great Depression.

 

Filmed in Iran and directed by Nasser Taghvai, this adaptation transplants the story from Cuba to the Persian Gulf and reimagines the captain as a one-handed sailor transporting wanted criminals. Captain Khorsid is not just one of the best Hemingway adaptations; it’s also widely considered one of the best Iranian movies ever.

 

Hemingway’s gripes with cinema were deeply personal for other reasons, too, including the fact that he famously disliked most Hollywood adaptations of his work. He once told Ava Gardner, who played Lady Brett Ashley in an adaptation of The Sun Also Rises, that one of the only things he liked about the film was her. 

 

A stickler for realism, Hemingway was happy to learn that a TV version of The Killers cast an actual Swedish boxer in the role in the role of a Swedish boxer, and saddened to hear that The Old Man and the Sea would not be directed by Vittorio De Sica—known for Bicycle Thieves—nor star nonprofessional actors. 

 

Whether he liked it or not, though, Hemingway was one of the most frequently adapted writers of the 20th century—a feat attributable to his popularity as much as his curt, direct, no frills writing style, not unlike the language style of screenplays.

 

 

Source: Best Ernest Hemingway Adaptations

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LESSER KNOWN VERSES

Did you know.... It’s easy to bungle or forget the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” But it may shock you to learn that most people only know a quarter of the song to begin with. The U.S. national anthem actually contains four stanzas, the last three of which are almost always omitted in live performances for brevity’s sake. Despite one verse being favored, however, all four are part of Francis Scott Key’s original 1814 poem that the national anthem is based on.

 

Key wrote the poem soon after the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, during which British forces bombarded Maryland’s Fort McHenry for 25 hours. As the smoke cleared in the wake of the battle, Key saw the American flag still flying over the fort, signifying a U.S. victory.

 

The familiar first verse begins with “O say can you see” and ends with the question, “O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave / O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” It refers to “bombs bursting in air,” while the second verse discusses the “dread silence” after battle. The second verse also celebrates the flag still flying as a symbol of a U.S. victory after the fighting. 

 

In Key’s original manuscript, he swapped out the question mark in the first verse with an exclamation point in the second, thus ending with a definitive and joyous declaration: “‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave / O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”  With two additional verses, the song ultimately totals 32 lines and 32 bars of music. If you were to perform it in its entirety, the anthem would take around six minutes or sometimes far more to sing — a long time to be on your feet at the start of a game.

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a fifth verse for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Nearly 50 years after Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the esteemed American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. penned an unofficial fifth verse. Holmes wrote the verse in 1861 at the start of the U.S. Civil War, advocating for freeing enslaved people in the name of liberty.

 

Holmes wrote about “a foe from within” — a stark contrast from Key’s original poem about the British invading America. Holmes’ fifth verse also speaks of “the millions unchain’d who our birthright have gained,” and how their freedom is essential for keeping the flag’s “bright blazon forever unstained!”

 

 

Source: ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ contains several lesser-known verses.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CRYSTALS IN YOUR EARS?

Did you know.... Did you know that hidden within your inner ear are microscopic crystals called otoconia? These tiny grains of calcium carbonate help your brain sense gravity and linear movement. 

 

The crystals rest on a gelatinous membrane above sensory hair cells inside two small chambers called the utricle and saccule. When you tilt your head or move forward, backward, or sideways, the otoconia shift slightly, moving the membrane and bending the hair cells beneath them. That movement sends signals to your brain about your body’s orientation relative to gravity, helping you stay balanced and aware of your position in space.

 

That process is just one component of your balance system, which also relies on the semicircular canals (SCC) to detect rotation, the eyes to track visual movement, and sensory feedback from the muscles and joints. But without otoconia, your sense of “up” and “down” would blur, and even small motions could leave you disoriented.

 

With age — or occasionally after a head injury — some otoconia can become dislodged and move into the nearby canals. Once there, they disrupt normal fluid movement, sending conflicting signals to the brain and causing sudden spinning sensations known as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). Though the dizziness can be startling, BPPV is common and treatable. A series of gentle head and body movements can use gravity to guide the stray crystals back to their proper chamber, often relieving symptoms within minutes.

 

So yes, you really do have tiny “ear rocks” — and though they’re microscopic, they play a surprisingly large role in keeping your world steady. 

 

Astronauts often have trouble with balance and coordination when they return to Earth.
After months in weightlessness, the body’s vestibular system — including the otoconia — is no longer calibrated to the pull of Earth’s gravity. In space, those crystals don’t settle downward the way they do on Earth, so they send mixed signals to the brain about which way is up. When astronauts reenter Earth’s gravitational environment, they may feel dizzy, off-balance, or unsteady while their brains and vestibular systems readjust.

 

To help reduce those effects, NASA uses simulations that create brief moments of weightlessness to challenge the inner ear. That training helps astronauts’ brains adjust more quickly once they return to Earth. Even with such preparation, though, it can take days or weeks for the otoconia to “relearn” how to respond to gravity and for the brain to interpret those signals correctly again.

 

Source: You have tiny crystals inside your ears.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PICASSO? A THIEF?

Did you know.... When the “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre on August 21, 1911, the art world immediately went into mourning — and began wondering who was behind the dastardly deed. One man soon under suspicion was none other than Pablo Picasso, whose name was given to the authorities by Honore-Joseph Géry Pieret, the former secretary of Picasso’s friend (and famed poet) Guillaume Apollinaire. Pieret had previously stolen at least two Bronze Age Iberian sculptures from the Louvre and sold them to the then-up-and-coming cubist artist, who used them as inspiration for his painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” (At the time, the Louvre security was rather lacking; the paintings weren’t even bolted to the walls.) A terrified Picasso and Apollinaire were eventually brought to court, where it was determined that Picasso was indeed in possession of stolen art — just not the “Mona Lisa.” (The Iberian statues were quickly returned, and the judge let both Picasso and Apollinaire off with a warning.)

 

The search for the mysterious “Mona Lisa” took two years, during which time its popularity grew exponentially as reproductions were splashed across newspapers worldwide. In December 1913, Vincenzo Peruggia — an Italian employee of a firm that cut glass for the Louvre — emerged as the real thief after he tried to sell the painting to an antique dealer in Florence. (Peruggia is said to have believed that the “Mona Lisa” rightfully belonged to Italy and expected a reward for “returning” it.) Fortunately, the antiques dealer called the police. Peruggia later served eight months in prison for his crime.

 

Napoleon once hung the “Mona Lisa” in his bedroom.
When the portrait (painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503–1519) was first displayed at the Louvre in 1815, it didn’t take long for admirers to become smitten by it — and her. Shortly thereafter, a number of “suitors bearing flowers, poems, and impassioned notes climbed the grand staircase of the Louvre to gaze into her ‘limpid and burning eyes,’” according to Dianne Hales, author of Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered. It wasn’t just museumgoers who developed a fancy for the painting, though: Napoleon once hung it in his bedroom and referred to its subject as “Madame Lisa.” Years later, Hales adds, he became “infatuated with a young Italian woman who bore a remarkable resemblance to the lady in the painting.” That woman was Teresa Guadagni, who just so happened to be a descendant of Lisa del Giocondo, the actual subject of da Vinci’s masterpiece.

 

 

Source: Picasso was once suspected of stealing the ‘Mona Lisa.’

[DarkRavie]

Fact oof the Day - POMATOES

Did you know... Tomatoes: so easy a potato can grow them. Well, not quite, but the two do occasionally join forces and result in the aptly named “pomato” plant. That two-for-the-price-of-one hybrid occurs when a tomato plant is grafted onto a potato plant, which is relatively easy to do since both belong to the Solanum genus of the nightshade family. 

 

The pomato isn’t its own fruit, however — it’s a plant that grows both foods at the same time: tomatoes on the vine and potatoes under the soil. Peppers, eggplants, and tobacco are also members of the Solanum genus, and tomato plants can be grafted onto them as well.

 

Nicknamed the “ketchup ’n’ fries” plant and sometimes called “tomtatoes,” these plants have been grown since at least 1833. In addition to the novelty of growing two things at once, pomatoes can benefit from both plants’ natural advantages: potatoes’ cold resistance and tomatoes’ heat resistance. The potatoes and tomatoes grown from these hybrid plants don’t taste any different than their normal counterparts, but they are more convenient to grow.

 

Heinz ketchup has a speed limit.
As the brand practically synonymous with ketchup, Heinz has a reputation to uphold. A big part of that image is the consistency and viscosity of its flagship product, which is meant to be thick enough to pour onto your fries at a diner by turning the bottle upside down but not so smooth that the ketchup splatters everywhere.

 

As part of its quality control process, the company has even imposed a speed limit on the condiment of 0.028 mph, which is checked at its factories. That’s the exact speed at which Heinz ketchup should move when poured upside down from its bottles. This speed limit even inspired a promotional campaign in collaboration with Waze, in which anyone forced to go 0.028 mph while stuck in traffic could get a free bottle of ketchup.

 

 

Source: ‘Pomatoes’ are potato plants that can also grow tomatoes.