Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - HE DIED IN 1956

Did you know.... One Gettysburg memorial stands out for its strikingly modern appearance, featuring a man in a midcentury suit and tie, no musket or battle flag in hand. The statue honors Albert Henry Woolson, the last surviving Civil War veteran, as he appeared at age 106, nine decades after the war’s end. At the time of his death in 1956, Woolson had outlived more than 2 million Union Army soldiers. 

 

Born in New York in 1850, Woolson (like many young recruits) likely lied about his age to enroll in the Union Army in 1864. He was accepted into the ranks at age 14, served as a drummer boy and bugler, and eventually was stationed in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a commission that kept him from combat.

 

After the war, Woolson held a variety of jobs, including teaching both mechanical engineering and music. He also became a living link with history, speaking at local schools about his experience and receiving letters and visits from around the country. As a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternity for Union veterans, Woolson met with other surviving veterans; the group, which had more than 400,000 members in 1890, had whittled down to only 16 men by 1949. Six of the Civil War veterans met in Indianapolis that year, including Joseph Clovese, the last formerly enslaved soldier. Called the “Grand Old Men,” the group paraded through the streets one final time. Woolson’s funeral a few years later would also attract a crowd. More than 1,500 people attended the burial, including the grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, who helped lay the soldier to rest as an honorary pallbearer.

 

Abraham Lincoln helped turn Robert E. Lee’s home into a cemetery.

Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 400,000 soldiers and their family members, but at one time, the Virginia military cemetery was an estate run by Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his wife, Mary. The couple abandoned the property as the war broke out, and shortly afterward the U.S. Army seized the Arlington estate to protect nearby Washington, D.C., which it overlooked. The U.S. government took hold of Arlington after the Lees failed to pay taxes on the land, and turned some portions into a village for formerly enslaved people; the government also soon created plans for a potential military cemetery there. When presented with the idea, Lincoln gave presidential approval for the concept, with the idea that if Lee ever returned, the burial ground would force him to reconsider his role in the war — though Lee never made any effort to reclaim the land. Arlington became a national cemetery in June 1864, and today is the second-largest national cemetery in the U.S.

 

 

Source: The last surviving Civil War veteran died in 1956.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - KEVLAR

Did you know.... Few synthetic polymers have saved as many lives as poly-para-phenylene terephthalamide, better known as Kevlar. These super-resilient, nylon-like threads are five times stronger than steel, lighter than fiberglass, incredibly heat-resistant, and fantastically flexible. Although the material is found in a variety of items from kayaks to NASA spacecraft, Kevlar has arguably made the greatest impact in bulletproof vests and body armor. But Kevlar’s incredible, lifesaving superpower is only a happy byproduct of its original purpose — creating a new kind of car tire.

 

In the mid-1960s, chemist Stephanie Kwolek was working in a Wilmington, Delaware, research lab for the textile division of the chemical company Dupont, which had invented another “miracle” fiber called nylon 30 years earlier. Fearing a looming gas shortage — one that arrived in earnest in 1973 — Dupont was searching for a synthetic material that could make tires lighter and stronger, replacing some of their steel and improving overall fuel efficiency. One day, Kwolek noticed that a particular batch of dissolved polyamides (a type of synthetic polymer) had formed a cloudy, runny consistency rather than the usual clear, syrupy concoction. Although colleagues told Kwolek to toss it out, she persisted in investigating this strange mixture closely, discovering that it could be spun to create fibers of an unusual stiffness. Thus, Kevlar was born. Dupont introduced the “wonder fiber” in 1971, and the material began undergoing tests in ballistic vests almost immediately. By one estimate, it has saved at least 3,000 police officers from bullet wounds in the years since. Despite its myriad applications, Kevlar still delivers on its original purpose as an automotive component, whether baked into engine belts, brake pads, or yes, even tires.

 

The top speed of the world’s fastest cars is mostly limited by their tires.

Rubber tires can go only so fast. The centrifugal force of speeds approaching 300 mph creates an incredible amount of pressure and heat that normal tires just can’t handle. Because of this, supercars such as the $3.8 million Bugatti Chiron can’t reach the top speeds its 1,500-horsepower engine might technically achieve (around the 310 mph mark). This physical limitation is why land speed record-breaking vehicles — which are more like wheeled rockets than cars — get rid of rubber entirely and ride on aluminum alloy wheels instead. Undeterred, the tire company Michelin developed all-new tires for the Chiron, reinforcing the rubber with carbon fiber and testing them with the same equipment NASA used to test the wheels for space shuttles. In 2019, these reinforced tires helped the Chiron reach 304.77 mph — a new speed record for any car with street-legal tires (rocket cars not included).

 

 

Source: Kevlar originally had a different purpose.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LONDON BRIDGE

Did you know.... If you want to see the 19th-century version of London Bridge, don’t travel to London — or even England, for that matter. Instead, head to Lake Havasu, Arizona, where a U.S. businessman by the name of Robert McCulloch moved the bridge after buying it in 1968. That the landmark structure was even for sale was the result of English officials realizing the bridge was sinking, albeit at the relatively slow pace of 1 inch every eight years. And so, after a tenure of some 130 years — a bit shabby, when you consider that its medieval predecessor stood for more than 600 — that iteration of London Bridge was put on the market after London City Councilor Ivan Luckin convinced his colleagues that he could persuade someone in America to buy it. 

 

He was right, of course, and it made sense that McCulloch would be the one to purchase it. An eccentric industrialist who once attributed his success to “booze and broads,” McCulloch jumped at the opportunity to bring a piece of history to a patch of land he was hoping to turn into a haven for tourists. Buying the bridge for the princely sum of $2.46 million was the easy part — it was disassembling and moving it, granite brick by granite brick, that turned out to be a logistical nightmare. Three years and another $7 million later, London Bridge settled in its (apparently) final resting place on October 10, 1971. Today, it’s one of Arizona’s top attractions.

 

No one knows who the “fair lady” in “London Bridge Is Falling Down” was.

As is the case with many nursery rhymes, the precise origins of “London Bridge Is Falling Down” are hard to pin down. Also as with many nursery rhymes, they’re assumed to be fairly dark. Though everything from a bridge suffering normal wear and tear to child sacrifice has been floated as a possible interpretation, the most widely held belief is that “London Bridge” is about King of Norway Olaf II and his fellow Vikings allegedly destroying said bridge in the early 1000s. As for the fair lady, there’s even more disagreement about her true identity. Some think the reference is to the Virgin Mary, whom Londoners credited with protecting the rest of their city from similar destruction, while others believe Eleanor of Provence or another royal consort is the lady in question.

 

 

Source: The old London Bridge is in Arizona.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CAN CATS RECOGNIZES VOICES

Did you know.... While dogs are often touted as man’s best friend, cats can be so aloof that they seem like little more than a passing acquaintance. However, there is more going on between felines and their human owners than a cat’s sometimes steely exterior may suggest. In October 2022, researchers from France published results from an experiment examining the relationship cats have with their owners’ voices. In the study, cats responded more positively to a familiar human voice (swishing tails, pivoting ears, pausing grooming) than when they heard the voice of a stranger. 

 

This builds on previous research from 2013 that found a similar connection between a familiar voice and its effects on a cat — though none of the felines in that study even bothered to get up in response to the voices they recognized. Unlike dogs, cats were never domesticated to follow a human’s orders, and instead were the product of a more symbiotic relationship, as the rise of agriculture gave rise to rodents and other pests for cats to hunt.

 

The French researchers also studied how owners spoke with their pets; specifically, if they used cat-directed speech — aka baby talk — which is known to positively impact both babies and canines. (In fact, babies learn words more quickly when listening to baby talk.) Owners’ voices were recorded asking questions such as “Do you want to play?” and “Do you want a treat?” using both cat-directed speech and human-to-human conversational speech. Like dogs and babies, cats reacted more positively to cat-directed speech than to an owner’s normal speaking voice.

 

There’s a scientific reason why you hate listening to your own voice.

Hearing a recording of your voice can be an unpleasant experience, as the sound isn’t usually what you expect. To put it simply, hearing works by something called “air conduction,” in which sound waves travel to our ears’ cochleas, which in turn stimulate nerve axons that send signals to the brain — but that’s not what happens when we speak. While some air conduction occurs when we hear ourselves talking, most sound is translated through “bone conduction,” particularly our skull bones. This blend of both air and bone conduction gives our voice a deeper, richer low end, which explains why most people perceive their voices as higher-pitched when listening to a recording.

 

 

Source: Cats can recognize their owners’ voices.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - EASTER

Did you know.... There’s a good, if complicated, reason Easter can be celebrated anytime between March 22 and April 25. It’s a movable feast, meaning it doesn’t take place on the same day every year, but it does always fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. 

 

That means the holiday can fall on 35 possible dates, some of which don’t repeat for centuries. In 2025, it landed on April 20, which was also the date of Easter in 2014 and 2003; before the 21st century, though, Easter hadn’t been on April 20 since 1930. The date is tied to the lunar cycle, a repeating pattern that tends to coalesce around a relatively small number of days even over long periods of time, and the fact that Easter always falls on a Sunday limits the likely number of days more than the possible number of days.

 

Much more rare is the earliest possible date: March 22. Easter was most recently celebrated on that date in 1818, but that won’t happen again until 2285. The latest possible date, April 25, is also exceedingly rare: The last time Easter was observed on that date was in 1943, and it won’t be again until 2038. Even more extreme is March 24, which is in the middle of a nearly five-century gap from 1940 to 2391.

 

Switzerland has an Easter bird instead of a bunny.

Not every country acknowledges the Easter Bunny. In Switzerland, for example, Easter eggs are instead brought by a cuckoo — which, when you think about it, makes more sense considering the fact that rabbits don’t lay eggs.

 

Easter celebrates rebirth, hence the focus on eggs, which in Switzerland are hard-boiled and decorated. The cuckoo is considered a symbol of growth and renewal in Switzerland, which explains its connection to Easter.

 

 

Source: Easter can fall on 35 possible dates, some of which don’t repeat for hundreds of years.

Edited April 3 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - THUMBS

Did you know... If you’ve ever seen someone track their pulse (in real life or on a crime drama), you’ll notice that the index and middle finger are always pressed on the neck’s carotid artery, which is responsible for transporting blood to the brain. There’s a reason why doctors (and actors who play doctors on TV) use these fingers and not, say, their thumbs. While your thumb is good for many things, taking your pulse isn’t one of them. Unlike the other four digits, the thumb has its own exclusive artery, the princeps pollicis, which makes it biologically unreliable as a pulse reader — because you’ll feel it pulse instead of the artery in your neck.

 

Among the 34 muscles, 29 bones, and three major nerves in the hand, there are also two key arteries supplying blood to the area: the ulnar and the radial. The ulnar artery branches at the wrist into a network of blood supply vessels called the superficial palmar arch, which then branches to supply blood to the top four fingers. The radial artery, meanwhile, branches at the wrist into the deep palmer arch, which then branches into the princeps pollicis artery, sending blood to the thumb. But today, there are more modern methods of tracking your pulse that use technology in lieu of touch. The Apple Watch, one of the most popular consumer fitness-tracking devices, relies on a process called “photoplethysmography,” which leverages the fact that blood reflects red light and absorbs green light. The watch uses green LED lights that flash hundreds of times per second, as well as light-sensitive photodiodes that help measure the amount of green-light absorption, and thus blood flow and pulse — no fingers (and definitely no thumbs) required.

 

Thumbs gave humans a significant evolutionary advantage.

Of the many biological advantages human evolution has brought us, two of the biggest are our brains and our thumbs. While the utility of our brain is pretty obvious, it’s our opposable thumbs that do much of the work of day-to-day life. In fact, some scientists credit our thumbs as a driving force behind human culture. Around 3 million years ago, early hominids such as Australopithecines used primitive tools — basically just sticks and rocks — and possessed hands similar to a chimp’s. A million years later, as our early ancestors began migrating out of Africa, increased manual dexterity thanks to improved opposable thumbs gave rise to more complex culture, because of the variety of tools these early species could now manipulate. Eventually, starting some 300,000 years ago or so, Homo sapiens began grasping all the tools that make modern life possible — whether a philosopher’s quill, a carpenter’s hammer, a warrior’s weapon, or a TikToker’s iPhone.

 

 

Source: One finger has its own pulse.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - EASTER BONNETS

Did you know.... Head to New York’s Fifth Avenue on Easter Weekend and you’ll find what looks like an explosion of life-sized confetti. It’s the annual Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival, and “the only requirement” to participate, notes a guide, “is a bonnet, the more whimsical the better.”

 

But what exactly are Easter bonnets and where did they come from?

 

From New Clothes to Hats on Parade

Western culture has linked Easter with new threads for centuries. In Europe, people donned fresh outfits on the holiday as a symbol of renewal and rebirth. One piece of folklore from 1830 warns that “Every person must have some part at least of his dress new on Easter Sunday, or he will have no good fortune that year.”

 

In the U.S., the tradition took on a distinctively performative bent in the years following the Civil War. It was already common in New York for wealthy city-dwellers to spill out onto the streets after church to see and be seen in their Sunday best. And if Fifth Avenue was their weekly red carpet, Easter Sunday was their Met Gala; it was the day to show up in the boldest, most fashion-forward outfit you could muster.

 

Perhaps no part of an Easter Sunday outfit was more important than the hat. Women already wore hats in public; in the late 1800s, those head coverings were often bonnets, a name that came to encompass any Easter hat. The holiday presented an excellent opportunity to buy the first non-winter hat of the year.

 

People opted to get whimsical and extravagant with their holiday headpieces. In the late 19th century, volume was in vogue. A magazine print from 1897 featured a large Easter bonnet adorned with flowers floating above a group of people and the caption, “The easter hat throws everything else in the shade.” With size came with risk, though. In 1889, a woman in Chicago was alarmed to discover that “the nodding plumes of a new Easter bonnet” had been set on fire by the end of a nearby cigar. 

 

An Enduring Tradition

 

Even as styles morphed, the importance of the hat remained. “It is Time to Plan the Easter Bonnet,” announced a New York Times headline in February 1924. The accompanying article, which filled the majority of a page in the Sunday paper, offered an array of instructional pictures showcasing the latest fashions. 

 

Conformity, however, has never been the point. “The changes of style in gowns are important and permanent,” noted the article. “But the bonnet! That is so … individual a matter.”

 

Despite waves of alarm over the years that the Easter bonnet is a dying tradition (“Mothers…say that their little girls will never know what it is to wear an Easter bonnet,” lamented a museum curator in 1975), the commitment to over-the-top headwear remains.

 

Every year on Easter, parades and other hat-showcasing opportunities abound, from the New Orleans Gay Easter Parade to New York’s iconic Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival. Whether you opt for feathers, flowers, or sparkles this Easter, one thing’s for sure: As long as you love your hat, it will always count as Easter finery.

 

 

 

Source: What's the Deal With Easter Bonnets?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - IMMORTAL JELLYFISH

Did you know.... Immortality is the dream of ancient mystics and futuristic transhumanists alike, but for humans and most other animals on Earth, the promise of such longevity remains out of reach — that is, unless you’re a jellyfish known scientifically as Turritopsis dohrnii, nicknamed the “immortal jellyfish.” The life cycle of most jellyfish begins with a fertilized egg that grows to a larval stage called a planula. Eventually, the planula attaches itself to a surface, and forms into a tubelike structure known as a polyp. These polyps eventually bud and break away into an ephyra, aka a young jellyfish, and these floating youngsters then develop into adult medusae capable of sexual reproduction.

 

Most species of jellyfish call it quits at this point, and eventually die like every other species on Earth — but not Turritopsis dohrnii. Instead, when this creature becomes damaged for whatever reason, it can revert to a blob of living tissue that eventually turns back into a polyp, and once again its developmental process repeats. Of course, this jellyfish isn’t immune to the numerous dangers of the ocean — whether from predators or climate change — but if left to their own devices, these incredible creatures can just go on living forever. 

 

Although the immortal jellyfish is a longevity outlier in the animal kingdom, there are a few other organisms that can pull off similar feats. Planarian worms display a limitless ability for regeneration, and can become two worms when cut in half. Additionally, the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is resistant to basically everything, as it can reassemble its genome and effectively return to life even after intense heat or radiation — a feat that earns the hardy bacterium the fitting nickname “Lazarus microbe.” Maybe immortality isn’t so impossible after all.

 

Jellyfish do not have a brain (or a heart).
Most animals, whether a minuscule fruit fly or a complex human, have a central nerve center known as the brain. However, jellyfish don’t follow this seemingly basic biological blueprint. Instead, jellyfish rely on two separate nervous systems: The “large nerve net” controls swimming, while the “small nerve net” is essentially responsible for everything else. Even without a brain, jellyfish perform complex actions, especially when feeding and mating, suggesting that brains aren’t a requirement when it comes to defining life on Earth. In fact, jellyfish might be better at the whole “living” thing than many animals — biologists say that they’ve survived every single extinction event in Earth’s history.

 

 

Source: There’s a jellyfish that’s considered biologically immortal.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - KANGAROO RATS

Did you know....  In the scorching deserts of North America, where summer temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit and rainfall is scarce, a small rodent the size of a hamster is thriving — and it’s possible that it’s never taken a sip of water in its life. The kangaroo rat, named for the powerful hind legs that allow it to bound across the arid desert landscape, has solved one of survival’s trickiest problems: how to live in an environment that provides almost no water at all.

 

This seemingly miraculous feat is achieved through various evolutional adaptations. One of the kangaroo rat’s key characteristics is its ability to get all the moisture it needs from its primarily seed-based diet. When it breaks down those seeds during digestion, one of the byproducts is a small amount of water — just enough to sustain the animal.  

 

But producing small amounts of metabolic water alone isn’t enough; kangaroo rats have also developed clever adaptations for conserving water. They don’t sweat or pant like other animals, preventing the loss of much-needed liquid from their bodies, and their kidneys concentrate their urine to an almost crystal-like consistency, with very little water lost through waste. Even their exhaled breath is partially recycled thanks to specialized nasal cavities, which condense moisture to be reabsorbed rather than escaping the body through breathing.

 

The small, mostly nocturnal rodents also escape much of the daytime heat by remaining in their underground burrows out of the scorching sun. The combination of all these evolutionary and behavioral adaptations allows kangaroo rats — which have a lifespan of between two and six years — to survive in some of Earth’s hottest and harshest environments without drinking a drop of water.

 

 

Source: Kangaroo rats can live their whole lives without drinking water.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the day - CATS

Did you know.... Everyone with a cat knows that felines love running around at night, especially when their so-called owners are trying to sleep. Despite that, cats aren’t actually nocturnal — they’re crepuscular, meaning they’re most active during dusk and dawn. The reason they prefer twilight has to do with their hunting instincts, as their eyes are well attuned to low-light conditions that allow them to see their prey while remaining hidden themselves. And because they’re descended from desert hunters, dusk and dawn are also favorable due to cooler temperatures. This doesn’t stop them from sleeping all day, of course, but they’re always ready to wake up in an instant — an adaptation that helps keep them safe from predators and alert to opportunities for tiny prey.

 

Cats are hardly the only crepuscular creatures. Deer, rabbits, bears, skunks, and possums are among the other mammals you can see out and about as the sun is rising or setting. Birds such as barn owls and common nighthawks can also be crepuscular. Animals you might be surprised to learn are mostly nocturnal include koalas, beavers, and scorpions, among others — and some of them exhibit a level of nighttime activity that could even tire out your cat.

 

Cats’ eyes have a reflective layer that makes them glow in the dark.
It’s called the tapetum lucidum (Latin for “shining layer”) and it works like a small mirror to reflect light, helping cats see in the murk — another evolutionary adaptation that partially explains why your feline is so wired while you’re snoozing. Cat eyes are special in other ways, too. Their pupils grow up to 50% larger in dim light than ours do, allowing them to see more clearly, and they have more light-sensing rods in the back of their eyes. Dogs, cattle, deer, ferrets, and horses have the tapetum lucidum as well, but their eyes don’t all glow the same color. The hue has to do with the amount of pigment in their retina, as well as other substances in the tapetum, meaning that even two dogs of the same species might have eyes that reflect a different color.

 

 

Source: Cats aren’t nocturnal.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ARE YOU RELATED TO YOUR ANCESTORS?

Did you know.... You inherit half of your DNA from each parent, 17% to 34% of which comes from each grandparent for an average of 25%, and 12.5% from each great-grandparent. Beyond that, it gets murky — so much so that you aren’t genetically related to all your ancestors. 

 

The farther up the family tree you go, the more diluted your genetic link becomes; once you get past your great-great-great-grandparents, with whom you share about 3% of your DNA, the more likely it becomes that you aren’t genetically related to your relatives. For example, the percentage drops to a meager 1.56% with your fourth great-grandparents. If you ever see a picture of your great-great-great-great aunt and can’t detect a family resemblance, it may very well be because you didn’t actually inherit any of her DNA.

 

The chance becomes greater with each generation you go back, of course. It increases from a 17.76% chance of not sharing any DNA with one of your sixth great-grandparents to a 37.43% chance with your seventh great-grandparents and a 57.53% chance with your eighth great-grandparents. The DNA you share with most of your cousins is also fairly meager: an average of 14.4% with first cousins, 3.4% with second cousins, and just 0.8% with third cousins.

 

There are more than four DNA bases.

You may be familiar with the four main DNA bases, but there’s more to our genes than ATGC, aka adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. (Fun fact: The sci-fi movie Gattaca got its name by artfully combining those four letters.)

 

At least 17 modified DNA letters (aka bases) have been found to date, including 5-formylcytosine (5fC), which was discovered in 2011. Technically a transitional form of cytosine that was corrected by repair enzymes, 5fC is an intermediate base that was found by researchers from the University of Cambridge to exist in tissue as a stable structure.

 

 

Source: You aren’t genetically related to all your ancestors.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the day - MAN'S BEST FRIEND

Did you know.... A Chihuahua can weigh as little as 2 pounds. A Great Dane-Mastiff mix can tip the scale at 250. Some dogs chase anything that moves, while others won’t budge from their bed. Despite that range, their DNA connects them in ways that aren’t always obvious. Here are eight surprising facts about your furry companion.

 

Dogs and Humans Share About 84% of DNA
Scientists estimate that humans and dogs share about 84% of their DNA, including more than 17,000 similar genes. 

 

Embark, a canine genetics company, highlights several shared variants within its canine DNA database. Both species, for example, carry multiple copies of the AMY2B gene, which supports starch digestion — a useful adaptation as dogs evolved alongside agricultural societies. Other shared genes include EPAS1, linked to high-altitude adaptation, and POMC, associated with food motivation and metabolism.

 

Most Dogs Still Have a Little Wolf in Them
Genetic and archaeological evidence suggest that domestic dogs could have descended from gray wolves sometime between 27,000 and 40,000 years ago. 

 

“Surprisingly, Pomeranians have 10 times more wolf-like genetic variants in regions linked to domestication compared to other breeds like Bullmastiff and Irish Setter,” Brett Ford, senior scientist at Embark, said.

 

In other words, even the tiniest lap dog carries traces of its wild ancestry.

 

Your Dog Could Have Relatives Living Across the World
Your dog’s family tree may stretch farther than you think. In fact, 94% of dogs tested through Embark were matched with at least one genetic relative. 

 

“Among dogs whose DNA has been tested through Embark, around 1 in 3 have an immediate family member who has also been tested,” Thom Nelson, Ph.D., senior scientist at Embark, said. “And around 1% of dogs have a close family member living in a different country.”

 

A cross-continental canine connection isn’t just a modern phenomenon. A University of Oxford study found that dogs migrated southward through the Americas over thousands of years, moving alongside human communities as agriculture spread in parts of the continent. Some modern Chihuahuas still carry genetic traces of pre-European-contact dogs in Mesoamerica.

 

Some Behavioral “Problems” Are Actually Inherited Job
Barking, digging, and fixating on movement are tendencies that often trace back to breed history. 

 

“In mixed-breed dogs, having even some Greyhound ancestry can make dogs more likely to chase animals like squirrels and rabbits,” Nelson said. “Nipping or ankle biting has been bred into some breeds, like the Australian Cattle Dog, whose job it is to herd cattle and livestock in tight quarters.”

 

A review from the National Human Genome Research Institute suggests that breed-specific behaviors are shaped, at least in part, by inherited genetic differences. So, a job that once mattered can still manifest in your dog’s daily habits generations later.

 

Dogs Can Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field When Choosing Where To Poop

A peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers in Zoology observed 70 dogs across 37 breeds over two years, recording more than 7,000 bathroom breaks and noting the direction of each dog’s body alignment. 

 

When those observations were compared with daily geomagnetic readings, dogs showed a consistent directional preference under calm magnetic conditions — a pattern that disappeared when the magnetic field fluctuated. Simply put, dogs pick where to poop according to their built-in compass.

 

“Yes, dogs may have a built-in compass. When Earth’s magnetic field is calm and stable, dogs often align along the North-South axis when they poop,” Thom Nelson, Ph.D., senior scientist at Embark, said. “This ability to detect Earth’s magnetic field may contribute to their impressive navigation skills.”

Dogs Show More Variation in Size and Shape Than Any Other Land Mammal
Domestic dogs display extraordinary variation in size and shape, from toy breeds weighing just a few pounds to giant breeds exceeding 200 pounds. Much of this dramatic size difference is driven by genes and amplified through centuries of selective breeding.

 

Embark data illustrates how wide that range can be. The smallest dog in the dataset was a Chihuahua at 2 pounds with a predicted weight of 3.7 pounds. The largest was a Great Dane-Mastiff mix, weighing 250 pounds and predicted to weigh 187 pounds. 

 

At the extremes, the largest dogs can weigh more than 200 times as much as the smallest.

 

Not All Dogs Sniff the Same 
According to Embark’s data, 94% of dogs from scent-hound breeds, such as Bloodhounds and Beagles, keep their noses to the ground, while other breeds and mixes only sniff about 71% of the time. 

 

That difference goes deep: Dogs possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors, compared with roughly 5 million in humans, and devote a much larger portion of their brains to processing scent. Selective breeding reinforced those scent-tracking abilities in certain groups, particularly hounds developed to follow ground trails over long distances. For some dogs, following a scent isn’t a hobby; it’s hard-wired. 

 

Your Dog Might Be Your Next Binge-Watching Buddy
Dogs can perceive and respond to images on screens, and some might be big fans. An Embark survey shows that only 27% of dog parents report their dogs never watch TV, while 9% say their dogs binge their favorite shows (occasionally alongside their owners). 

 

Terriers, for example, bred to hunt vermin, may respond to movements on the screen or squeaky noises. But Bloodhounds, known for scent-trailing abilities, may not be interested in what’s on the TV because there’s no odor.

 

 

Source: Paws-itively Fascinating Facts About Man’s Best Friend

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - APRIL 11TH, 1954

Did you know.... What’s the most boring day in history — a day where truly nothing important happened? That was the question posed in 2010 to a computer program named True Knowledge. Designed by computer scientist William Tunstall-Pedoe, the program contained 300 million facts, many of them tied to dates. After scouring those facts and comparing them to their respective dates, True Knowledge decided that April 11, 1954, was the most boring day in the 20th century. Belgium held a general election, some sports events happened, a coup in India was possibly planned but not carried out until two days later, and no notable births or deaths occurred — at least as far as the computer program could figure out. 

 

However, scientists may have some other days to suggest when it comes to the most boring day in history ever. The period from around 1.8 billion to 800 million years ago is known to geologists as “the Boring Billion,” because very little happened on Earth in terms of evolution, atmospheric chemistry, or geologic formation. Basically, it’s like the Earth was on pause for a billion years. It wasn’t until the Cambrian explosion some 530 million years ago, when most major animal groups started to appear in the fossil record, that things really started to get exciting. So chin up, April 11, 1954: You weren’t very interesting, but there’s at least a billion years that you easily beat. 

 

Boredom may be good for your brain.

Today, boredom is under threat, with billions of smartphones bringing nearly limitless distraction to us worldwide. But while boredom may be uncomfortable, it can also be good for our brains. These precious moments of downtime give our brains a much-needed chance to rest, consolidate memories, and reflect on lessons learned throughout the day. Studies have shown that those who experience boredom spend more time thinking about their future, and boredom is also known to spur creativity as well as altruism. So the next time you’re feeling a mind-numbing sense of restlessness, don’t reach for your phone. Instead just let your mind wander — who knows what you’ll dream up?

 

 

Source: April 11, 1954, may have been the most boring day in the 20th century.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BOOKS THAT WOULDN'T EXIST

Did you know.... Anne Rice's classic novel helped shape the brooding, romantic vampires of 'Twilight' and many other contemporary vampire stories.

 

Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire revolutionized the horror genre when it was published in 1976. The book resonated with many thanks to its introspective and nuanced take on vampires, and helped kick off a wave of books that gave their monstrous protagonists a sense of complexity and profound humanness. 

 

Vampires have existed in folklore for a very long time. Early vampires were always the subject of tales about terrifying monsters and sudden, brutal deaths, and like many monsters in early folktales, these creatures were easy ways to explain tragedy, violence, and death.

 

Formative 19th-century stories like John Polidori’s The Vampyre—which was written as part of the same ghost story competition that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein—helped establish an association between vampires and aristocracy, seduction, and manipulation. But it was Bram Stoker’s Dracula that truly helped establish the traditional vampire archetype, developing a vampire who was intelligent, wealthy, and completely ruthless. 

 

Rice’s Interview sparked a sea change in vampire and monster literature on the whole by giving voice to Louis, a vampire plagued by his conscience and tormented by his ostracization from society. Ever since then, vampires have been frequently portrayed as much more than horrifying creatures of the night—and often, in contemporary literature, they’ve been love interests endowed with rich and sympathetic inner worlds of their own. Here are four books that owe a great deal to Rice’s classic tale.

 

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

These books may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s undeniable that the series made waves and kicked off an absolute vampire craze in the late 2000s and 2010s. The Twilight Saga tells the story of Bella, a human teenager who falls for a centuries-old vampire named Edward who survives on animal meat and has to constantly stave off cravings for Bella’s blood. 

 

It’s easy to see these books’ parallels to Interview with the Vampire. Edward and his family bear a significant resemblance to Rice’s brooding, melancholy, and elegant vampires, especially when it comes to their existential struggles with immortality and their decision to eat animals instead of humans, a choice Louis also makes in Interview. Bella and Edward’s tortured romance also clearly echoes the longing and desire threaded throughout Rice’s text. If Interview injected its characters with elements of eroticism, Twilight built on that by making vampires into teenage dreamboats. 

 

The Vampire Diaries by L. J. Smith

This series, which was made into a successful television show, echo Interview with the Vampire’s central dichotomy by featuring two vampires: Stefan, who tries to be ethical and controlled and fends off his dark side, and Damon, who is an impulsive and dangerous rebel at the start of the series. Their duality clearly resembles Louis and Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, as the former is constantly trying to control himself while Lestat is perpetually wreaking havoc, causing chaos, and indulging his desires. 

 

The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

These books, which were the source material for the TV series True Blood, told the story of a Southern town that becomes divided when vampires decide to “come out of the closet” and reveal their existence. Here, vampires survive off a synthetic, bottled beverage that simulates human blood, and they clearly take some inspiration from Interview with the Vampire’s embattled subjects. 

 

In this series, protagonist Sookie Stackhouse is forced to navigate her affections for the highly ethical, brooding vampire Bill Compton amid all sorts of supernatural interferences. This series’s emphasis on vampires’ ability to be compassionate and ethical in the face of great prejudice and hatred—and their struggles with doing just that—echo the complexity that Rice conceptualized in Interview with the Vampire.

 

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Interview with the Vampire was the first in a sprawling series, the second of which took a closer look at the character Lestat. From there, the following books describe everything from the origins of vampires in Rice’s universe to crossovers with characters from Mayfair Witches, another one of Rice’s bestselling creations.

 

Along the way, she brings in everyone from body-swappers to the Devil himself. While the series’ first three books are its most popular and highly praised, devoted fans who read them all are in for a sweeping treat that certainly would not exist if Rice hadn’t poured her grief into one of the most influential horror novels of all time. 

 

 

Source: Books That Wouldn’t Exist Without 'Interview With the Vampire'

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the day - ABOUT WIND

Did you know.... A howling wind can make it seem as though the air itself is roaring across the landscape. But what we hear on a gusty day isn’t the moving air itself — it’s the way that air interacts with the environment. And the different sounds we associate with wind depend on exactly what the air encounters along the way.

 

Sound is produced when vibrations travel through a medium such as air to reach our ears. Wind, by itself, is simply air that flows from areas of higher pressure to lower pressure. Smooth air moving uniformly doesn’t vibrate in a way that produces sound waves our ears can detect, so in perfectly unobstructed conditions, the wind could move past you without making any audible noise at all.

 

The familiar sounds we associate with wind come from friction. As moving air collides with buildings, rustles leaves, squeezes through cracks, or rushes past uneven surfaces, it creates tiny pressure changes and vibrations. Those disturbances generate sound waves, which is why wind can whistle through a narrow opening or roar through a forest canopy. The faster and more chaotic the airflow becomes, the louder those interactions tend to be.

 

That’s also why different environments give wind different “voices.” A city full of buildings produces whistles and echoes, forests produce rustling and rushing sounds, and open plains may seem almost silent even when the air is moving quickly.

 

The idiom “tilting at windmills” comes from "Don Quixote."

In one memorable episode of the 1604 novel by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, the title character mistakes windmills for fearsome giants and charges at them with his lance. Today the phrase “tilting at windmills” means battling imaginary enemies or pursuing an unrealistic goal. The novel also birthed the term “quixotic,” which refers to someone who is foolishly idealistic and impractical.

 

 

Source: Wind itself is silent.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BREAK THE ICE

Did you know..... From literal beginnings to social icebreakers, the phrase has come a long way.

 

It’s common to begin gatherings of unfamiliar people with an icebreaker. Sometimes this takes the form of a brief introduction or a game to help people remember who you are and what you do. These get-to-know-you activities take their name from the phrase “breaking the ice.”

 

But where exactly does that phrase come from? None of those games involves shattering ice blocks, nor do they have anything obvious to do with breaking anything. To understand why we use this phrase and its variants, we have to look back at maritime safety measures and 16th-century literary references.

 

What did it originally mean to "break the ice"?
The early modern period was in many ways defined by the expansion of travel routes, which is precisely where we find the origins of this phrase. While many early European seafarers were familiar with the equatorial waters of the Mediterranean Sea, sailors were beginning to navigate far more complex waters as colonialism became a dominant force.

 

The earliest icebreakers came from those in Northern climates, where they would often have to break up the ice on a river or canal to facilitate travel and trade. In those cases, workers would be enlisted to shatter the ice with axes and hooks. As sailors began traveling over larger bodies of water, more extreme measures were required.

 

As vessels were created to move across oceans, this became an even greater problem. Ice posed a great danger to large ships and could either trap them in place or result in their sinking. To combat this, smaller boats would be sent out ahead of the larger ships, literally breaking pieces of ice apart to create a safe passageway for those behind them. Many naval forces still use some form of icebreaking vessels when navigating polar regions today.

 

The earliest records of figuratively breaking the ice come from the 16th century, although they differ on precisely what task was being completed. There are multiple instances, in both English and Latin, where the phrase was used in a similar manner to what we would call being a trailblazer. The person breaking the ice was essentially the first to tackle a hard task, making it easier for those behind them.

 

This meaning was invoked in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, wherein Tranio implores Petruchio to "break the ice and do this feat, / Achieve the elder, set the younger free." The context for this line is that Lady Bianca's suitors can only propose to her once her sister Katherina is wed. Thus, they are asking Petruchio to woo the elder sister, who is the titular "shrew," to clear the path for Bianca's wedding.

 

This is a very natural extension of the phrase's literal meaning. There are dangers to being on the boat breaking the ice, and there are likewise risks involved in those who first attempt a new and treacherous task. However, it began to evolve more closely to our modern usage over the next few centuries.

 

The Oxford English Dictionary claims that the earliest use of this phrase in the social setting is from Samuel Jackson Pratt’s 1795 work Gleanings Through Wales, Holland and Westphalia, where he announced: "there is an air of distance, reserve, and even coldness, they are all … replete with an anxious desire to break the ice."

 

In this context, breaking the ice is an end in its own right. While there might be tangential benefits to developing closer social dynamics, the primary goal is to relieve social tension. The earliest uses sometimes implied that the coldness was caused by previous negative interactions, but the phrase became increasingly associated with first encounters as time went on.

 

This meaning was used by Mark Twain in his 1883 novel Life on the Mississippi, where two men were discussing the river as "a mere ice-breaker and acquaintanceship-breeder" before moving on to topics they actually cared about. This is the context in which we usually use the phrase today, having stuck around thanks to its utility in turning strangers into friends.

 

 

Source: Why Do We Say “Break the Ice”?

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - HUMAN BITES

Did you know... Even among those who brush and floss every day, the human mouth isn’t exactly clean. It contains about 700 different kinds of microbes, including bacteria and fungi, some of which are helpful — but not so helpful that you’d ever want to be bitten by another person. Human bites are in fact even more dangerous than other animal bites, as they’re more likely to become infected as a result of that bacteria. Maybe all those zombie movies are onto something.

 

Health care providers treat roughly 250,000 human bites each year, around 10% of which result in an infection among children, who are more likely to be bitten than adults (usually by another child). Humans account for only 3% of all bites seen in emergency rooms, however. Dog bites are by far the most common, followed by those of cats, while bites from smaller animals such as mice, rabbits, and hamsters are more rare.

 

If any creature has put its teeth on you and broken the skin, you’re advised to seek medical treatment regardless of how cute the offending animal was — better safe than sorry.

 

Zombie folklore originated in Haiti.

Though we tend to think of them as cinematic creations, zombies predate motion pictures and can be traced back to Haitian folklore, which is itself rooted in African religious practices. According to the mythos, dead people can be brought back to life by voodoo sorcerers known as bokors.

 

The zombie (originally spelled “zombi”) was first written about in America in an 1838 article called “The Unknown Painter” published by the Alton Telegraph. In it, a person enslaved by the Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo claimed that a “zombi” made nightly appearances in Murillo’s studio to work on his apprentices’ paintings, a fantastical notion that was dismissed.

 

Source: Human bites are one of the most dangerous animal bites in the world.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - STATE OF OREGON

Did you know.... Many U.S. state flags have some strange quirks. The Virginia flag, for example, contains some tasteful nudity (thanks to its depiction of the famously bare-chested Amazons), and Maryland’s flag — a concoction of red crosses and black-and-yellow block patterns — looks more at home on a medieval battlefield than in 21st-century Annapolis. But Oregon has one of the most unusual state flags of them all. True, at first glance it looks relatively unremarkable: Emblazoned with the phrase “State of Oregon” on top and “1859” on the bottom, the blue-and-gold flag displays 33 stars, representing its admittance as the 33rd state in (you guessed it) 1859. These five-pointed stars encircle Oregon’s state seal, which features an ox and wagon traveling the Oregon Trail, while other natural elements including trees, mountains, and the Pacific can be seen in the distance. An eagle is perched atop the vignette for good, patriotic measure. 

 

But what makes the flag stand out among all the other 49 state flags is that it has a separate image on the reverse side — a giant golden beaver, one of the state’s symbols and an important animal in Oregon’s history thanks to its role in the fur trade. Many flags used to have different images on the obverse (front) and reverse sides, but the cost and complexity of manufacturing two-sided flags led to an array of single-sided redesigns. Oregon became the last state with a two-sided flag after Massachusetts changed its banner in 1971. However, it shares some camaraderie with the South American country of Paraguay, the only nation in the world with a two-sided national flag. Based on the French tricolore but arranged horizontally, the obverse side of the flag features the country’s national coat of arms, while the reverse displays the seal of the treasury.

 

No one knows for sure where the word “Oregon” originated.

The origin of the word “Oregon” is still a mystery, but not for lack of trying. Historians and linguists have offered up several possible solutions, though no definitive answer exists. The first reference to a similar word appears on a 1715 French map naming the Wisconsin River as “Ouaricon-sint.” The French also referred to the Columbia River, which borders northern Oregon, as “Le Fleuve aux Ouragans” (“Hurricane River”). Other theories for the origin of the term connect it to the herb oregano (although the reason for the link is unclear), Aragon (a French synonym for Spain), or a portmanteau of the Shoshone words ogwa, meaning “river,” and pe-on, meaning “west.” But the leading theory comes from a 1765 proposal to King George III from a colonial major named Robert Rogers, asking for funds to find the elusive Northwest Passage by means of exploring “the River called by the Indians Ouragon.” The word “ouragon” was likely derived from the Mohegan word wauregan, meaning “the beautiful.” Originally, the Mohegans, a tribe based in Connecticut, used the word to describe the Allegheny-Ohio River, but Rogers’ experience using Mohegans as troops during the French and Indian War (1754–1763) possibly influenced his description of a watery pathway to the Pacific, perhaps because he thought using a transplanted but “authentic” Indigenous name would strengthen his request for funds.

 

 

Source: Only one state flag has a design on both the front and back.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BRASS DOORKNOBS

Did you know.... Brass fixtures have seen a resurgence in home design in recent years, especially in their natural, unlacquered form. But those warm, timeless decor pieces aren’t just stylish — they also happen to be natural germ fighters, a handy feature for surfaces our hands frequently come into contact with.

 

Brass is a durable metal known as an alloy, which means it’s made by combining different metals — in this case, copper and zinc. Copper has antimicrobial properties and can disinfect itself over time, and brass can too. This phenomenon is known as the oligodynamic effect; metals with this ability release ions that disrupt and kill bacteria and viruses.

 

Studies have shown that, within as little as two hours, more than 99% of germs on copper and brass surfaces were gone. Within eight hours, 100% of previously detectable microbes were eliminated. That includes some of even the nastiest germs: MRSA and regular staph, which can cause deadly infections; VRE, a type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria; and E. coli, the foodborne troublemaker that can cause severe stomach illnesses. 

 

We should note that lacquered finishes block this property, so brass doorknobs, handles, or other fixtures must remain in their natural finish for the antimicrobial properties to work. Unlacquered brass is known to tarnish and get discolored, but since it doesn’t contain iron, it won’t rust, and it can easily be polished — a small tradeoff for fewer germs in the home.

 

The total bacteria in your body weigh about as much as your brain.

Scientists once thought bacterial cells outnumbered human cells in our bodies by as much as 10:1. More recent estimates suggest the split is closer to even, so the human body contains roughly as many bacterial cells as human cells.

 

We have roughly 37 trillion cells in our bodies that act as foundations of our tissues, organs, and blood. By comparison, about 38 trillion microbial cells — bacteria, fungi, and viruses — live in and on our bodies. The vast majority of those are concentrated in the gut, where microbial densities are far higher than elsewhere in the body.

 

A stomach full of bacteria may sound troublesome, but those bacteria actually help break down food, produce essential nutrients, and support the immune system. The bacteria are collectively known as the microbiome, and they add up to weigh roughly 2 to 4 pounds — roughly the same weight range as the average human brain.

 

Source: Brass doorknobs can sterilize themselves after about eight hours.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PEZ CANDY

Did you know.... Decades before doctors began to publicize the harmful effects of cigarettes, a 30-year-old Austrian executive decided to invent a refreshing alternative. In 1927, Eduard Haas III was managing his family’s baking goods business — the Ed. Haas Company — when he expanded the product line to include round, peppermint-flavored treats known as PEZ Drops. The German word for peppermint is “pfefferminz,” and Haas found the name for his new candies by combining the first, middle, and last letters of the German term.

 

Clever advertising built national demand for the candy, which adopted its iconic brick shape in the 1930s and eventually nixed the “Drops.” They were marketed to adults with slogans like, “Smoking prohibited, PEZing allowed!” Originally, they were packaged in foil paper or metal tins until Haas hired engineer Oscar Uxa to devise a convenient way of extracting a tablet single-handedly. Uxa’s innovation — a plastic dispenser with a cap that tilted backward as springs pushed the candy forward — debuted at the 1949 Vienna Trade Fair. 

 

A U.S. patent for the dispenser was obtained in 1952, but Americans of the day showed little interest in giving up smoking. So PEZ replaced the mint pellets with fruity ones and targeted a new demographic: children. In 1957, after experimenting with pricey dispensers shaped like robots, Santa Claus, and space guns, PEZ released a Halloween dispenser that featured a three-dimensional witch’s head atop a rectangular case. A Popeye version was licensed in 1958, and since then PEZ has gone on to produce some 1,500 different novelty-topped dispensers. An Austrian original that was revolutionized in America, PEZ is now enjoyed in more than 80 countries — and it’s still owned by the Ed. Haas Company.

 

Hollywood almost made an animated PEZ movie.
The Lego Movie exceeded all box-office expectations by becoming the fourth-highest-grossing domestic film of 2014. Producers immediately started brainstorming about other nostalgia-inducing objects that could anchor an animated comedy. Envision Media Arts found a worthwhile property in PEZ, greenlighting a feature and hiring a screenwriter in 2015, yet no director or cast was ever announced. According to the Envision Media Arts website, “PEZ” remains in development, though it’s now listed as a TV show. In the meantime, anyone seeking a big-screen PEZ tribute can revisit the 1986 classic Stand by Me. In the Rob Reiner-directed film, 12-year-old Vern Tessio (Jerry O’Connell) contends, “If I could only have one food to eat for the rest of my life? That’s easy, PEZ. Cherry-flavor PEZ. No question about it.”

 

 

Source: PEZ candy was created to help people quit smoking.