Jump to content

Fact of the Day


DarkRavie

Recommended Posts

Fact of the Day - EXTINCTION

extinct-animals-1280x720.jpg

Did you know... that extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds, usually a species? The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. (Wikipedia)

 

Earth is a pretty volatile place. Animals and other organisms fight a daily battle to survive, both individually and as whole populations. Sometimes they just don't win that battle, and when an entire group or species of organisms completely dies out, we say that they have become extinct.

 

Extinction has thrown a wrench in animal evolution many times over the course of Earth's history, but it makes sense! If no species had ever gone extinct, we would have a very crowded planet with no room for expansion and adaptation. In the battle to survive, some animal species find ways to adapt and this helps them gain an evolutionary edge and avoid extinction.

 

But other animals are not so lucky. Thanks in part to natural extinction and the folly of humankind, many fascinating and unique animals have been eradicated from the planet altogether. Let's take a look at some examples of extinct animals, discuss a few facts about them, and review the causes of their demise.

 

Natural Extinctions
Natural extinction is a sad but inevitable fact, and one that sometimes plays out dramatically. Natural extinctions have happened throughout Earth's history--sometimes via a natural catastrophe that wipes out whole groups of organisms (think dinosaurs). Other natural extinctions happen very slowly, as natural selection favors survivors with helpful adaptations. Natural selection is the selective process that leads to species developing new physical or behavioral traits that can give them the edge to survive.

 

Here we'll look at two of the most famous examples of natural extinction: the trilobites and the dinosaurs.

 

Trilobites

trilobite_walliserops_trifurcatus_resize

The trident-headed trilobite Walliserops trifurcatus

 

If you've ever seen a spider or a horseshoe crab, you've observed a distant cousin to one of the most diverse and successful animal groups ever to have lived: the trilobites. Trilobites got their name from having three (tri-) lobes, and although they look like insects, they're a group all on their own.

 

Trilobites were aquatic animals with a tough, protective exoskeleton, or exterior shell, surrounding their soft insides. They scuttled around the ancient oceans from 521 million years ago to the end of the Permian Period, just before the age of dinosaurs, about 250 million years ago. While many trilobites came and went throughout their long history, all of the trilobites became extinct at the end of the Permian. We call it the 'great dying' --and it really was catastrophic. The Earth's most devastating bout of climate change decimated almost all life on Earth. It's no wonder the last of these little guys kicked the bucket.

 

Dinosaurs

330px-microraptor_gui_holotype.png

The feathered dinosaur Microraptor gui

 

Who doesn't love dinosaurs? These hugely diverse and successful reptilian animals enjoyed a reign of almost 200 million years, across almost all of the Mesozoic Era, 230 to 66 million years ago. Most readers will be familiar with the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period, around 66 million years ago, which killed off almost all of the dinosaurs. Humans and dinosaurs are therefore separated by more than 60 million years.

 

The current consensus is that an asteroid or meteorite struck the Earth, and the resulting cloud of dust and debris enveloped the atmosphere in a sunlight-blocking shroud. Several other animals became extinct at this period, which we call the K-Pg or K-T boundary, short for Cretaceous-Paleogene or Cretaceous-Tertiary. Of course, many avian dinosaurs still live on in the form of birds.

 

Human-Caused Extinctions
Even more cringe-worthy than the loss of animal species by natural causes are the extinctions that humans have caused. These animals were once abundant but were killed off by humans for food, from fear, or simply because of a lack of understanding. By learning about more about the motivations behind human-driven extinctions, we can learn how to protect the animal species we have today.

 

Dodo Birds

1280px-oxford_dodo_display_resize.jpg

Dodo skeleton cast and model based on modern

research, at Oxford University Museum of Natural History

 

The dodo was a large bird related to the pigeon and it lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately when European sailors reached Mauritius in the late 1500s and early 1600s, they saw the dodo as a slow and easily caught food source. The introduction of foreign animals to Mauritius and destruction of habitat were huge detriments to the dodo.  Source: Extinct Animal: Facts and Causes

 

Extinction Crisis

Rhino_Horn.jpg
It's a dreadful reality. We are going through our sixth period (Holocene extinction) of plant and animal mass extinction, the sixth to happen in the last 500 million years. The current wave is considered to be the worst series of species elimination since the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago.

 

Granted, extinction is a phenomenon that occurs naturally, however it normally happens at a rate of 1 to 5 species every year. But, as scientists estimate, we are currently losing species 1,000-10,000 times faster than that, which means that literally tens of species are vanishing from the face of the Earth every day. We could be looking at a frightening future. By this rate, almost one third to one-half of all species could become extinct by 2050.

 

We must act now, before it's too late.

 

The difference with past extinctions, which were caused by catastrophic natural phenomena like volcanic eruptions, asteroid strikes, and violent climate changes, is that the current crisis is caused almost entirely by humans. As a matter of fact, as many as 99% of the species at the threshold of extinction are there due to human activities, particularly the ones that drive the introduction of exotic species, loss of habitat, and global warming. With the increasing rate of change in our biosphere, coupled with the fact that every species’ extinction may trigger a cascade of subsequent extinctions due to inter-species dependence in the complicated web of the ecosystem, it’s not unlikely that extinction numbers in the future will increase exponentially.  

 

The variety of species safeguards the resilience of the ecosystem, providing ecological communities the breadth needed to endure stress. Although the efforts of conservationists are often focused on ecosystems with high numbers of species, like coral reefs and rainforests, preserving biodiversity must not leave other habitats with fewer species out, like tundra, grasslands, and polar seas. Devastating consequences stem from any species loss. What’s more, most of the focus regarding extinction is on what’s happening globally, but the vast majority of biodiversity’s advantages are seen locally. Keeping local populations safe is the sole way of ensuring a species’ survival in the long term, via the maintenance of genetic diversity.

 

Over the last 500 years, as many as one thousand species vanished, without even accounting for many thousands more that went extinct before science discovered and described them. Almost 38% of all known species on a global scale are on the verge of extinction. This puts many thousands of unique species in the dire position of being gone forever.

 

Amphibian Extinction Crisis

golden_toad_large.jpg

Golden Toad


Amphibians have the sad privilege of being endangered more than any other animal group. At least 30 percent of all amphibian species are now threatened to disappear. Toads, frogs, and salamanders are vanishing due to animal agriculture, habitat loss, air and water pollution, global warming, UV light exposure, disease, and the introduction of exotic species. Because this group of animals is overly sensitive to environmental change, they should be regarded as the canary in the global coal mine. Amphibians alert us to minor but definite changes in the ecosystem that could lead to the extinction of many more species, not excluding humans.

 

Mammal Extinction Crisis

ChimpBaby2.jpg
Probably the most characteristic element of the current extinction crisis is that most of our primate relatives are in serious danger. Almost 90% of the primate population lives in the tropical forest, which are disappearing fast due to animal agriculture, deforestation and development. About half of all the primate species on Earth are at the brink of extinction. 50 percent of all known mammals see rapidly decreasing populations, and almost 20 percent are close to extinction. Marine mammals – including dolphins, whales, and porpoises – are particularly close to becoming extinct.

Want to read more on Extinction?  Click below. ⬇️

 

Source: World Animal Foundation

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - PRIMATES

eastern-gorilla-shutterstock.jpg

Did you know... that a primate is a eutherian mammal constituting the taxonomic order Primates. Primates arose 85–55 million years ago first from small terrestrial mammals, which adapted to living in the trees of tropical forests: many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging environment, including large brains, visual acuity, color vision, altered shoulder girdle, and dexterous hands. Primates range in size from Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs 30 g (1 oz), to the eastern gorilla, weighing over 200 kg (440 lb). There are 190–448 species of living primates, depending on which classification is used. New primate species continue to be discovered: over 25 species were described in the first decade of the 2000s, and eleven since 2010. (Wikipedia)

 

The Word Primate Means "First Rank"

Chimpanzee-facts-main-image-dceffe9.jpg?

Just how egocentric are human beings? Well, it's telling that "primate," the name employed for this order of mammals, is Latin for "first rank," a not-so-subtle reminder that Homo sapiens considers itself the pinnacle of evolution. Scientifically speaking, though, there's no reason to believe that monkeys, apes, tarsiers and lemurs—all of the animals in the primate order—are more advanced from an evolutionary perspective than birds, reptiles or even fish; they just happened to branch off in a different direction millions of years ago.

 

There Are Two Major Suborders of Primates

Screen-Shot-2019-01-04-at-2.45.18-PM-550

Until recently, naturalists divided primates into prosimians (lemurs, lorises and tarsiers) and simians (monkeys, apes and human beings). Today, though, the more widely accepted split is between "strepsirrhini" (wet-nosed) and "haplorhini" (dry-nosed) primates; the former includes all the non-tarsier prosimians, and the latter consists of tarsiers and simians. Simians themselves are divided into two major groups: old world monkeys and apes ("catarrhines," meaning "narrow-nosed") and new world monkeys ("platyrrhines," meaning "flat-nosed"). Technically, therefore, all human beings are haplorhine catarrhines, dry-nosed, narrow-nosed primates. Confused yet?

 

Primates Have Bigger Brains Than Other Mammals

Mountain_Gorilla_Uganda_WW267058.jpg?157

There are many anatomical characteristics that distinguish primates from other orders of mammals, but the most important is their brains: monkeys, apes and prosimians have larger-than-average brains compared to their body size, and their gray matter is protected by comparably larger-than-average craniums. And why do primates need bigger brains? To process the information required to effectively employ (depending on the species) their opposable thumbs, prehensile tails, and sharp, binocular vision

 

The First Primates Evolved at the End of the Mesozoic Era

440px-Plesiadapis3_NT.jpg

Plesiadapis is one of the earliest identified primates.

 

The fossil evidence is still disputed, but most paleontologists agree that the first ancestral primates evolved during the middle to late Cretaceous period; a good early candidate is the North American Purgatorius, followed ten million years later by the more recognizably primate-like Plesiadapis of North America and Eurasia. After that, the most important evolutionary split was between old world monkeys and apes and new world monkeys; it's unclear exactly when this happened (new discoveries are constantly changing the accepted wisdo), but a good guess is sometime during the Eocene epoch.

 

Primates Are Very Social Animals

Chimpanzee.jpg?w=650&h=433&fit=fill

Perhaps because they rely more on their brains than on their claws or teeth, most primates tend to seek the protection of extended communities, including male- or female-dominated clans, monogamous pairs of males and females, and even nuclear families (mom, dad, a couple of kids) unnervingly similar to those of humans. However, it's important to realize that not all primate communities are oases of sweetness and light; murder and bullying are distressingly common, and some species will even kill the newborns of other members of the clan.

 

Primates Are Capable of Using Tools

Capuchin3000yoStoneAge_1024.jpg

You can write an entire book about what constitutes "tool use" in the animal kingdom; suffice it to say that naturalists no longer claim this behavior only for primates (for example, some birds have been known to use branches to pry insects from trees!) Taken as a whole, though, more primates use more tools than any other type of animal, employing sticks, stones and leaves for various complicated tasks (such as cleaning their ears and scraping dirt from their toenails). Of course, the ultimate tool-using primate is Homo sapiens; that's how we built modern civilization!

 

Primates Develop at a Slower Rate Than Other Mammals

dac2a3828c7e197ff13b1729d2bd319a.jpg

Bigger brains are both a blessing and a curse: they ultimately aid in reproduction, but they also require an extended amount of time to "break in." Newborn primates, with their immature brains, would be unable to survive without the help of one or both parents, or the extended clan, over the course of months or years. Also, like humans, most primates give birth to only one newborn at a time, which entails a larger investment of parental resources (a sea turtle can afford to ignore its hatchlings, by contrast, because only one newborn out of a clutch of 20 needs to reach the water in order to perpetuate the species).

 

Most Primates Are Omnivorous

413E397D00000578-0-image-m-33_1496952212

One of the things that makes primates so widely adaptable is that most species (including great apes, chimpanzees and human beings) are omnivorous, feasting opportunistically on fruits, leaves, insects, small lizards, and even the occasional mammal. That said, tarsiers are the only primates to be entirely carnivorous, and some lemurs, howler monkeys and marmosets are devoted vegetarians. Of course, primates of all shapes and sizes can also find themselves on the wrong end of the food chain, preyed on by eagles, jaguars and even human beings.

 

Primates Tend to Be Sexually Dimorphic

gorillas-grooming.jpg

It's not a hard and fast rule, by any means, but many primate species (and most species of old world monkeys and apes) exhibit sexual dimorphism—the tendency for males to be bigger, nastier, and more dangerous than females. (The males of many primate species also have differently colored fur and larger teeth.) Curiously enough, human beings are among the least sexually dimorphic primates on the planet, males outweighing females by an average of only 15 percent (though you can make your own arguments about the general aggressiveness of human males vis-a-vis females).

 

Some Primate Species Have Yet to Be Discovered

A-new-species-of-monkey-k-007.jpg?width=

Of all the orders of mammals on earth, you'd think that primates would be the best accounted for: after all, they're far from microscopic in size, and most human naturalists have a special interest in tracking the comings and goings of our closest relatives. But given the predilection of smaller primates for dense, remote rain jungles, we're only fooling ourselves if we think we've collected them all. As recently as 2001, for example, there were 350 identified primate species; today there are about 450, meaning that about a half-dozen new species are discovered every year, on average.

 

Source: Facts About Primates: Bob Strauss

 

Edited by DarkRavie
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - FATHER'S DAY

fathersday.jpg

Did you know... that Fathers' Day is a day of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society? In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on March 19 as Saint Joseph's Day since the Middle Ages. (Wikipedia)

 

Though Father’s Day wasn’t made a national holiday until 1972, the efforts of one woman in Washington sparked a movement to celebrate dads long before then.

 

The first known Father’s Day service occurred in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908, thanks to the efforts of Grace Golden Clayton. The service was to honor all fathers, especially those hundreds who were killed during a devastating mine explosion in Monongah (just a few miles from Fairmont) the previous year. However, the observance did not become an annual event, and it was not promoted—very few outside the local area knew about it.

 

fathers-day.jpg?itok=kyrnWq5P

Left: Sonora Dodd - Right: William Jackson Smart

 

In 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, also was inspired to create a holiday honoring fathers. William Jackson Smart, her father, was a farmer and Civil War veteran that raised Sonora and her five younger brothers by himself after his wife, Ellen, died giving birth to their youngest child in 1898. While attending a Mother’s Day church service in 1909, Sonora, then 27, came up with the idea.

 

Within a few months, Sonora had convinced the Spokane Ministerial Association and the YMCA to set aside a Sunday in June to celebrate fathers. She proposed June 5, her father’s birthday, but the ministers chose the third Sunday in June so that they would have more time after Mother’s Day (the second Sunday in May) to prepare their sermons. So it was that on June 19, 1910, Sonora delivered presents to handicapped fathers, boys from the YMCA decorated their lapels with fresh-cut roses (red for living fathers, white for the deceased), and the city’s ministers devoted their homilies to fatherhood.

 

Fathers-Day-feature_b.jpg

 

A NATIONAL HOLIDAY
The widely publicized events in Spokane struck a chord that reached all the way to Washington, D.C., and Sonora’s celebration started its path to becoming a national holiday.

 

  • In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and his family personally observed the day.
  • Eight years later, President Calvin Coolidge signed a resolution in favor of Father’s Day “to establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.”
  • In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order that the holiday be celebrated on the third Sunday in June.
  • Under President Richard Nixon, in 1972, Congress passed an act officially making Father’s Day a national holiday. (Six years later, Sonora died at age 96.)

 

DIFFERENT DAYS FOR DIFFERENT DADS
North America is not the only place where Father’s Day is celebrated.

 

In traditionally Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal, Father’s Day is observed on March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph.
Taiwanese celebrate Father’s Day on August 8, the eighth day of the eighth month, because the Mandarin Chinese word for eight sounds like the word for “Papa.”
In Thailand, Father’s Day is celebrated on former King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birthday, December 5.

 

Source: THE HISTORY OF FATHER'S DAY By Aurelia C. Scott

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - WEST SIDE STORY

WSS-Graphic-1024x796.png

Did you know... that the story West Side Story is like a modern Romeo and Juliet? This story/musical takes place in upper west side neighborhood in New York City in the 1950's - early 1960's. This story is about the rivalry between the Sharks ( Puerto ricans ) vs. Jets ( Americans ) with there racist feuds.

 

Conceived in 1949, West Side Story has a serious message that pleads for racial tolerance, delivered in unforgettable song and dance. People have been listening to that message, and humming the songs, ever since the show premiered on Broadway in 1957 and debuted on the silver screen in 1961.


 

Composer Leonard Bernstein and his co-creators, Jerome Robbins (director, choreographer and original idea-man) Arthur Laurents (who wrote the book) and Stephen Sondheim (lyricist) aimed for lofty ideals in the show’s themes and every detail of its production. But West Side Story, winner of two Tony and 10 Academy Awards, has endured because it's also incredibly entertaining. 


 

Here's a closer look at West Side Story and some of the surprising elements that make it one of the most memorable works of musical theater.

A dancer came up with the idea. Director Jerome Robbins, who first proposed the idea for West Side Story, was at the same time choreographer of New York City Ballet. As a result, dance tells the story of this musical at the sophisticated level of ballet, not only in obvious dance numbers like "Mambo!" but in narrative scenes of escalating gang tension and warfare. We see it from the opening “Prologue,” when rival gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, stake out their territory.

 

 

 

West Side Story was originally East Side Story. When they first conceived the show in 1949, Robbins, Bernstein and Laurents set their story on the east side of Manhattan, and gave it the working title East Side Story. They planned to stage the conflict between rival Catholic and Jewish groups.

 

However, this concept never gained traction, and the project foundered until 1955, when teenage Latin gang violence in L.A. made the news. Laurents then presented the idea of changing the conflict to involve Puerto-Rican versus white gangs on the then-grungy Upper West Side of Manhattan. All at once, the project took off.

 

In Bernstein’s words: “Suddenly it all springs to life. I can hear the rhythms and pulses, and -- most of all -- I can feel the form.”

Shakespeare and Sondheim. Most of us know that the show, with modifications, is a modern take on William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. But did you know that its tragic plot almost caused West Side Story not to see the light of day?

 

The show's original producer pulled out because she thought the story was too dark and would flop. Producer after producer turned it down. When Hal Prince and his co-producer finally swept in and raised sufficient money for West Side Story's first run, it was the first of Prince's many successful collaborations with Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim, then only 25-years-old, came on board fairly late in the process as lyricist for Bernstein’s melodies. Bernstein wrote about Sondheim: “What a talent! I think he’s ideal for this project, as do we all.”

Bernstein’s deeply felt Jewish heritage forms an integral part of the music of West Side Story. A basic shofar call, the Tekiah, provides the musical motif that many of the show’s most important songs are based on. The shofar, a hollow ram’s horn, is one of the world’s most ancient instruments, and is still played today in Jewish religious ceremonies during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The motif is known in musical terms as a “tri-tone” (the interval of the augmented 4th.) In various forms, it can be heard in the opening “Prologue,” in songs like “Something’s Coming,” “Maria,” and “Cool.”

 

 

Conducting notes. The same day Bernstein saw his first run-through of West Side Story, he signed his contract to become the first American-born music director (and conductor) of the New York Philharmonic.

 

On a somewhat humorous note, the conductor for West Side Story’s opening run, former Philadelphia Orchestra violinist Max Goberman, had it written into his contract that Lenny was not allowed to take over the conducting of the production.

America. One of the most infectious songs in the show is based on the rhythms of a Mexican dance called the huapango. It’s just one example of how the United States of America and the show itself is a melting pot of influences: jazz, Latin rhythms, as well as established Broadway style make the tunes infectious, the music memorable.

 

The Philadelphia Connection. The show had a two-week, pre-Broadway run at Philadelphia's Erlanger Theatre
 before it moved on to NYC to open at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1957.

 

Love. In the end, West Side Story is a love story, and the prime example of how Bernstein loved the genre of musical theater, where he had his beginnings as a composer. Did you know that Bernstein first began writing music for theatrical productions when he was a teenage counselor at summer camp? He brought his deep understanding of high art to popular culture, and forever changed the shape of musical theater.

 

Take a look at this behind-the-scenes West Side Story documentary featuring Bernstein in action with opera stars in 1984:

 

 

 

Source: The Surprising Backstory to West Side Story

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - MUSICAL THEATRE

Musical-Theatre-Facts.jpg

Did you know... that musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance? The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. (Wikipedia)

 

Music has been a part of drama since ancient times, but modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century.

 

Around 1850, the French composer Hervé was experimenting with a form of comic musical theatre that came to be called opérette. The best known composers of operetta were Jacques Offenbach from the 1850s to the 1870s and Johann Strauss II in the 1870s and 1880s. Offenbach's melodies, and his librettists' satire, formed a model for the musical theatre that followed. Adaptations of the French operettas (played in mostly bad, risqué translations), musical burlesques, music hall, pantomime and burletta dominated the London musical stage into the 1870s.

 

"Offenbach is undoubtedly the most significant figure in the history of the 'musical'." 
 

Important influences were the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the musical theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan.

 

Circa-1879-DOyly-Carte-HMS-Pinafore-from

1879 Woodblock-print advertisement for an

American production of en:H.M.S. Pinafore, housed

at the en:Library of Congress.

 

In America, mid-19th century musical theatre entertainments included crude variety revue, which eventually developed into vaudeville, minstrel shows, which soon crossed the Atlantic to Britain, and Victorian burlesque, first popularized in the US by British troops. A hugely successful musical that premiered in New York in 1866, The Black Crook, was an original musical theatre piece that conformed to many of the modern definitions of a musical, including dance and original music that helped to tell the story. The spectacular production, famous for its skimpy costumes, ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy." Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 (The Mulligan Guard Picnic) and 1885. These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from the everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward towards a more legitimate theatrical form. They starred high quality singers (Lillian Russell, Vivienne Segal and Fay Templeton) instead of the ladies of questionable repute who had starred in earlier musical forms.

 

As transportation improved, poverty in London and New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays ran longer, leading to better profits and improved production values, and men began to bring their families to the theatre. The first musical theatre piece to exceed 500 consecutive performances was the French operetta The Chimes of Normandy in 1878. English comic opera adopted many of the successful ideas of European operetta, none more successfully than the series of more than a dozen long-running Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Mikado (1885). These were sensations on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia and helped to raise the standard for what was considered a successful show. These shows were designed for family audiences, a marked contrast from the risqué burlesques, bawdy music hall shows and French operettas that sometimes drew a crowd seeking less wholesome entertainment. Only a few 19th-century musical pieces exceeded the run of The Mikado, such as Dorothy, which opened in 1886 and set a new record with a run of 931 performances. Gilbert and Sullivan's influence on later musical theatre was profound, creating examples of how to "integrate" musicals so that the lyrics and dialogue advanced a coherent story. Their works were admired and copied by early authors and composers of musicals in Britain and America.

 

CL66321.jpg

 

1890s to the new century

A Trip to Chinatown (1891) was Broadway's long-run champion (until Irene in 1919), running for 657 performances, but New York runs continued to be relatively short, with a few exceptions, compared with London runs, until the 1920s. Gilbert and Sullivan were both pirated and imitated in New York by productions such as Reginald De Koven's Robin Hood (1891) and John Philip Sousa's El Capitan (1896). A Trip to Coontown (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans on Broadway (largely inspired by the routines of the minstrel shows), followed by ragtime-tinged shows. Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century, composed of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley, including those by George M. Cohan, who worked to create an American style distinct from the Gilbert and Sullivan works. The most successful New York shows were often followed by extensive national tours.

 

Meanwhile, musicals took over the London stage in the Gay Nineties, led by producer George Edwardes, who perceived that audiences wanted a new alternative to the Savoy-style comic operas and their intellectual, political, absurdist satire. He experimented with a modern-dress, family-friendly musical theatre style, with breezy, popular songs, snappy, romantic banter, and stylish spectacle at the Gaiety and his other theatres. These drew on the traditions of comic opera and used elements of burlesque and of the Harrigan and Hart pieces. He replaced the bawdy women of burlesque with his "respectable" corps of Gaiety Girls to complete the musical and visual fun. The success of the first of these, In Town (1892) and A Gaiety Girl (1893) set the style for the next three decades. The plots were generally light, romantic "poor maiden loves aristocrat and wins him against all odds" shows, with music by Ivan Caryll, Sidney Jones and Lionel Monckton. These shows were immediately widely copied in America, and Edwardian musical comedy swept away the earlier musical forms of comic opera and operetta. The Geisha (1896) was one of the most successful in the 1890s, running for more than two years and achieving great international success.

 

220px-Cover_of_the_Vocal_Score_of_Sidney

Cover of the Vocal Score of

Sidney Jones' The Geisha

 

The Belle of New York (1898) became the first American musical to run for over a year in London. The British musical comedy Florodora (1899) was a popular success on both sides of the Atlantic, as was A Chinese Honeymoon (1901), which ran for a record-setting 1,074 performances in London and 376 in New York. After the turn of the 20th century, Seymour Hicks joined forces with Edwardes and American producer Charles Frohman to create another decade of popular shows. Other enduring Edwardian musical comedy hits included The Arcadians (1909) and The Quaker Girl (1910).

Want to learn more about Musical Theatre?  Click the link below. ⬇️

 

Source: Wikipedia: Musical Theatre

 

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

1059_image1_hans_christian_andersen550.j

Did you know... that Hans Christian Andersen, in Denmark usually called H.C. Andersen, was a Danish author? Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories express themes that transcend age and nationality. (Wikipedia)

 

Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark. His father was a shoemaker, and his mother washed clothes for customers. The family was poor. When Andersen was 11, his father died. At 14, Andersen left his mother and his home. He moved to Copenhagen.

 

The king helped Andersen finish his education. Andersen wanted to be an actor or dancer. He did not have the talent for either. He started to write novels, plays, poems, short stories, and travel books. In 1835, he published four fairy tales that were liked by the readers. After this success, he wanted to write more fairy tales.

 

Andersen's stories were popular all over Europe. He was invited into the homes of rich and powerful people. He fell in love with several men and women. He was in love with singer Jenny Lind. He also fell in love with ballet dancer Harald Scharff.

 

Andersen was a sad and lonely man. He travelled all over Europe. He wanted to see the sights. He hoped travelling would make him happier. He always carried a rope with him. He planned to use this rope as a fire escape if needed. In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell off of his bed and did not recover. Soon after that, Andersen showed signs of liver cancer. He died on 4 August 1875 from complications following a fall and from liver cancer.

 

Early life

300px-H.C._Andersens_Barndomshjemmet2.JP

Andersen's childhood home in Odense

 

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805. He was an only child. Andersen's father, also Hans, considered himself related to nobility (his paternal grandmother had told his father that their family had belonged to a higher social class, but investigations have disproved these stories). A persistent speculation suggests that Andersen was an illegitimate son of King Christian VIII, but this notion has been challenged.

 

Andersen's father, who had received an elementary school education, introduced Andersen to literature, reading to him Arabian Nights. Andersen's mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, was an illiterate washerwoman. Following her husband's death in 1816, she remarried in 1818. Andersen was sent to a local school for poor children where he received a basic education and had to support himself, working as an apprentice to a weaver and, later, to a tailor. At fourteen, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor. Having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet. Taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing.

 

Jonas Collin, director of the Royal Danish Theatre, held great affection for Andersen and sent him to a grammar school in Slagelse, persuading King Frederick VI to pay part of the youth's education. Andersen had by then published his first story, "The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave" (1822). Though not a stellar pupil, he also attended school at Elsinore until 1827.

 

He later said his years in school were the darkest and most bitter of his life. At one school, he lived at his schoolmaster's home, where he was abused, being told that it was "to improve his character". He later said the faculty had discouraged him from writing, driving him into a depression.

 

Early work

Hans_Christian_Andersen_-_The_Shepherdes

Paper chimney sweep cut by Andersen


A very early fairy tale by Andersen, "The Tallow Candle" (Danish: Tællelyset), was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012. The story, written in the 1820s, was about a candle that did not feel appreciated. It was written while Andersen was still in school and dedicated to a benefactor in whose family's possession it remained until it turned up among other family papers in a local archive.

 

In 1829, Andersen enjoyed considerable success with the short story "A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager". Its protagonist meets characters ranging from Saint Peter to a talking cat. Andersen followed this success with a theatrical piece, Love on St. Nicholas Church Tower, and a short volume of poems. Although he made little progress writing and publishing immediately thereafter, in 1833 he received a small travel grant from the king, thus enabling him to set out on the first of many journeys through Europe. At Jura, near Le Locle, Switzerland, Andersen wrote the story "Agnete and the Merman". He spent an evening in the Italian seaside village of Sestri Levante the same year, inspiring the title of "The Bay of Fables". In October 1834, he arrived in Rome. Andersen's travels in Italy were to be reflected in his first novel, a fictionalized autobiography titled The Improvisatore (Improvisatoren), published in 1835 to instant acclaim.

 

Fairy Tales and Poetry

 

Andersen's initial attempts at writing fairy tales were revisions of stories that he heard as a child. Initially his original fairy tales were not met with recognition, due partly to the difficulty of translating them. In 1835, Andersen published the first two installments of his Fairy Tales (Danish: Eventyr; lit. "fantastic tales"). More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1837. The collection comprises nine tales, including "The Tinderbox", "The Princess and the Pea", "Thumbelina", "The Little Mermaid" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". The quality of these stories was not immediately recognized, and they sold poorly. At the same time, Andersen enjoyed more success with two novels, O.T. (1836) and Only a Fiddler (1837); the latter work was reviewed by a young Søren Kierkegaard. Much of his work was influenced by the Bible as when he was growing up Christianity was very important in the Danish culture.

 

51d3ElmI7ML._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg8756269544.jpg4170RwbU5OL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

After a visit to Sweden in 1837, Andersen became inspired by Scandinavism and committed himself to writing a poem that would convey the relatedness of Swedes, Danes and Norwegians. In July 1839, during a visit to the island of Funen, Andersen wrote the text of his poem Jeg er en Skandinav ("I am a Scandinavian") to capture "the beauty of the Nordic spirit, the way the three sister nations have gradually grown together" as part of a Scandinavian national anthem. Composer Otto Lindblad set the poem to music, and the composition was published in January 1840. Its popularity peaked in 1845, after which it was seldom sung.

 

Andersen returned to the fairy tale genre in 1838 with another collection, Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. First Booklet (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Ny Samling), which consists of "The Daisy", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", and "The Wild Swans". He went on to publish "New Fairy Tales (1844). First Volume. First Collection", which contained "The Nightingale" and "The Ugly Duckling". After that came "New Fairy Tales (1845). First Volume. Second Collection" in which was found "The Snow Queen". "The Little Match Girl" appeared in December 1845 in the "Dansk Folkekalender (1846)" and also in "New Fairy Tales (1848). Second Volume. Second Collection".

 

1845 saw a breakthrough for Andersen with the publication of four translations of his fairy tales. "The Little Mermaid" appeared in the periodical Bentley's Miscellany, followed by a second volume, Wonderful Stories for Children. Two other volumes enthusiastically received were A Danish Story Book and Danish Fairy Tales and Legends. A review that appeared in the London journal The Athenæum (February 1846) said of Wonderful Stories, "This is a book full of life and fancy; a book for grandfathers no less than grandchildren, not a word of which will be skipped by those who have it once in hand."

 

Andersen would continue to write fairy tales and published them in installments until 1872.

Source: Wikipedia: Hans Christian Andersen and Kids Encyclopedia

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - HASBRO

gF_qz-UupuwKhfyIHGBWOAuLCZLFoo97l60I3f8_

Did you know... that Hasbro, Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate with toy, board game, and media assets? Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of Kenner, Parker Brothers, and Milton Bradley, among others. Among its products are Transformers, G.I. Joe,  Power Rangers, Rom, Micronauts, M.A.S.K., Monopoly, Furby, Nerf, Twister, and My Little Pony. The Hasbro brand also spawned TV shows to promote its products, such as Family Game Night on the Discovery Family network, a joint venture with Discovery, Inc.. As of 2019, it is also the parent company of mass media and entertainment company Entertainment One. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. (Wikipedia)

 

Truly successful toy companies do not just make toys; they manufacture popular culture. Hasbro, Inc., which is the second largest toy maker in the world, behind only Mattel, Inc., certainly fits that description. From America’s Action Hero to a plastic anthropomorphized potato to vehicles that transform into robots to the largest bird in the world, Hasbro toys are instantly recognized by millions of Americans. Hasbro makes G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head, and Transformers, and owns licenses for Sesame Street characters. Thanks to numerous acquisitions in the 1980s and 1990s, it also makes Playskool and Romper Room preschool toys, Tonka trucks, Kenner’s Nerf toys, and Cabbage Patch Kids (by way of Coleco). Hasbro has become dominant in the area of board games and puzzles through its ownership of Milton Bradley (maker of Scrabble and Parcheesi) and Parker Brothers (maker of Monopoly). Into the late 1990s and early 21st century, Hasbro has continued to acquire popular brands, adding Pokemon game cards with their procurement of Wizards of the Coast and reacquiring the license to toys developed from Disney Studios movie releases.

 

a256eff110574d05bc2cf26d614f9b97.jpg

Original Monopoly Board Game

 

Early History From 1923 To The 1930s
Hasbro traces its origin to an enterprise founded in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1923 by Henry, Hilal, and Herman Hassenfeld, brothers who had emigrated to the United States from Poland. The Hassenfeld brothers engaged in the textile remnant business, selling cloth leftovers. By the mid-1920s they were using the remnants to make hat liners and pencil-box covers. After realizing the popularity of the covers, they soon began making the boxes themselves with eight employees—all family members. In 1926 the company incorporated under the name Hassenfeld Brothers Inc.

 

Hilal Hassenfeld became involved in other textile ventures, and Henry took control of the new company. Although a paternalistic employer, Henry Hassenfeld was also a tough and shrewd businessman. During the Great Depression—with 150 employees in 1929 and 200 employees in 1930—Hassenfeld Brothers commanded annual sales of $500,000 from sales of pencil boxes and cloth zipper pouches filled with school supplies. At that point, however, the company’s pencil supplier decided to raise its prices and sell its own boxes at prices lower than Hassenfeld’s. Henry Hassenfeld responded with a vow to enter the pencil business himself, and in 1935 Hassenfeld Brothers began manufacturing pencils. This product line would provide the company with a steady source of revenue for the next 45 years.

 

26435834b836e15c9481d6bb5e3d1d65.jpg

Vintage Hasbro Pencil Case

 

Transformation To Toy Manufacturing From The 1930s To 1960
During the late 1930s the Hassenfeld Brothers began to manufacture toys, an extension of the company’s line of school supplies. Initial offerings included medical sets for junior nurses and doctors and modeling clay. During World War II Henry’s younger son, Merrill Hassenfeld, acted on a customer’s suggestion to make and market a junior air raid warden kit, which came complete with flashlights and toy gas masks.

By 1942, as demand for school supplies tapered off, the company had become primarily a toy company, although it continued its large, profitable pencil business. Hilal Hassenfeld died in 1943, at which point Henry Hassenfeld became CEO and his son Merrill Hassenfeld became president. Also during World War II, the company ventured into plastics, but was forced, due to labor shortages, to reduce employment to 75.

After the war Merrill Hassenfeld began marketing a girls makeup kit after seeing his four-year-old daughter play with candy as though it were lipstick and rouge. In 1952, the company introduced its still-classic Mr. Potato Head, the first toy to be advertised on television. In 1954 Hassenfeld became a major licensee for Disney characters. By 1960, revenues hit $12 million, and Hassenfeld Brothers had become one of the largest private toy companies in the nation.

 

09f82fd4c07b50924fe4317279f93986.jpg

Vintage Girls Make-Up Kit

Turbulent Times During The 1960s And 1970s
Henry Hassenfeld died in 1960. Merrill Hassenfeld then assumed full control of the parent company, while his older brother Harold Hassenfeld, continued to run the pencil making operations. Merrill Hassenfeld’s succession was logical given his interest and expertise in the toy business, but it also marked the beginning of an intramural rivalry between the two sides of the company. Harold Hassenfeld would come to resent the fact that the pencil business received a lower percentage of capital investment even though it was a steadier performer and accounted for a higher percentage of profits than toys.

 

In 1961 Hassenfeld Brothers (Canada) Ltd., now Hasbro Canada Inc., was founded. Hassenfeld Brothers seemed to defy the vagaries of the toy business in the early 1960s when it introduced what would become one of its most famous and successful product lines. According to author Marvin Kaye in A Toy Is Born, the company conceived G.I. Joe in 1963 when a licensing agent suggested a merchandise tie-in with a television program about the U.S. Marine Corps called “The Lieutenant.” The company liked the idea of a military doll, but did not want to pin its fate on a TV show that might prove short-lived; so, it went ahead and created its own concept, and in 1964 Hassenfeld unleashed G.I. Joe, a 12-inch “action figure” with articulated joints. In its first two years, G.I. Joe brought in between $35 and $40 million and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the company’s total sales.

 

4502a21e8c7c402f9ce665b4a066a654lg.jpg

G.I Joe Action Figures

 

Click below ⬇️ to read more on the Hasbro Toy Company

 

Source: Encyclopedia: Hasbro inc.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - THE MUNSTERS

58f7da5de503423c411868d1c142166b11981015

Did you know... that The Munsters premiered on September 24, 1964, and was an immediate ratings success? The wacky antics of childlike patriarch Herman and his unusual (but not really scary) family originally ran for two seasons (70 episodes), but has remained on the air in some form ever since in syndication. The family at 1313 Mockingbird Lane is a little... different. Dad Herman looks like Frankenstein's monster; mom Lily and her dad, Grandpa, are vampires; and son Eddie is a werewolf. Poor Marilyn, their niece, is the odd one out -- she's just a normal girl. And the family doesn't like to call attention to her unfortunate looks.

 

The Munsters is an American sitcom depicting the home life of a family of benign monsters starring Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein's monster-type head-of-the-household Herman Munster; Yvonne De Carlo as his vampire wife, Lily Munster; Al Lewis as Grandpa, the over-the-hill vampire who relishes talking about the "good old days"; Beverley Owen (later replaced by Pat Priest) as their teenage niece Marilyn Munster, whose non-monster persona made her the family outcast; and Butch Patrick as their half-vampire, half-werewolf son Eddie Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and the wholesome family fare of the era, and was produced by the creators of Leave It to Beaver. It ran concurrently with the similarly macabre themed The Addams Family (which aired on ABC) and achieved higher figures in the Nielsen ratings.

 

(Pat Priest, the daughter of Treasurer of the United States Ivy Baker Priest, was not only blonde (brunette Owen had worn a wig as Marilyn), she was also the same height and had almost the exact same measurements as Owen. Which meant that all of the existing “Marilyn” costumes and accessories fit her perfectly, so there would be no need to spend money on a replacement wardrobe once she was hired.)

 

In 1965, The Munsters was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series, but lost to The Rogues. In the 21st century it received several TV Land Award nominations, including one for Most Uninsurable Driver (Herman Munster).

 

 

 

The series originally aired on Thursday at 7:30 pm on CBS from September 24, 1964, to May 12, 1966; 70 episodes were produced. It was cancelled after ratings dropped to a series low, due to the premiere of ABC's Batman, which was in color. Though ratings declined by the end of its initial two-year run, The Munsters found a large audience in syndication. This popularity warranted a spin-off series, as well as several films, including one with a theatrical release.

 

On October 26, 2012, NBC aired a modern reimagining of The Munsters called Mockingbird Lane as a pilot. The series failed to be picked up by NBC due to disagreements on the dark nature and inconsistent tone.

 

Plot

The Munsters live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in the city of Mockingbird Heights, a fictional suburb in California. The running gag of the series is that the family, while decidedly odd, consider themselves fairly typical working-class people of the era. Herman, like many husbands of the 1960s, is the sole wage-earner in the family, though Lily and Grandpa make short-lived attempts to earn money from time to time. While Herman is the head of the household, Lily makes many decisions, too. According to the episode in which Lily and Herman were trying to surprise one another for their anniversary, they were married in 1865. Despite the novel approach of the family being mostly supernatural creatures (except for niece Marilyn, who is "normal"), the show followed the typical family sitcom formula of the era: the well-meaning father, the nurturing mother, the eccentric live-in relative, the naïve teenager, and the precocious child.

 

The costumes and appearances of the family members other than Marilyn were based on the classic monsters of Universal Studios films from the 1930s and 1940s. Universal produced The Munsters as well and was thus able to use these copyrighted designs, including their iconic version of Frankenstein's monster for Herman. Other studios were free to make films with the Frankenstein creature, for example, but could not use the costume and style of make-up originally created by Jack Pierce for the 1931 Universal Studios film Frankenstein. The make-up for the show was created and applied to the actors by Bud Westmore, who pioneered many make-up effects and designs for many of the Universal monster movies.

 

Development
The idea of a family of comical monsters was first suggested to Universal Studios by animator Bob Clampett, who developed the idea from 1943 to 1945 as a series of cartoons. The project did not take off until the early 1960s, when a proposal for a similar idea was submitted to Universal Studios by Rocky & Bullwinkle writers Allan Burns and Chris Hayward. The proposal was later handed to writers Norm Liebman and Ed Haas, who wrote a pilot script, Love Thy Monster. For some time, there were executives who believed the series should be made as a cartoon and others who wanted to see it made using live-action. Finally, a presentation was filmed by MCA Television for CBS, using live-action.

 

 

 

The show was produced by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who were already known for creating the Leave It to Beaver television series. Prior to that, they wrote over 1,500 episodes of Amos 'n' Andy, a presence on network radio for nearly its entire history.

 

Filming

Originally conceived as a color show, The Munsters was ultimately filmed in black-and-white to save money and to resemble the old B&W monster films Universal and other studios used to make. Over the course of season one (completed by Season 1, Episode 7 "Tin Can Man"), makeup for Herman, Lily, and Grandpa was changed. Some of the changes included Lily's hair becoming all black instead of having a gray/white streak on the right side of her head, a change of jewelry to a bat instead of a star, and angled eyebrows. Grandpa was given more exaggerated makeup and heavier eyebrows, and Herman's face was widened to give him a dopier and less human appearance. He also added a stutter to bolster his character whenever he was angry or wanted to make a point, and he frequently left his mouth open, adding to the effect of a more goofy, less frightening, figure.

 

 

While its humor was usually broad, the series was visually sophisticated. The Munsters' home was a crumbling Second Empire Victorian mansion, riddled with smoke, filthy with dust and cobwebs. A running joke was that when Lily "dusted" the house, her Electrolux emitted clouds of dust, which she applied to surfaces most people would clean. As a running gag, parts of the house would often be damaged (mostly by Herman's tantrums or clumsiness), but the damage would not exist later. Although many episodes featured scenes outside the house, much of the action took place within the walls of the Munsters' home.

 

The Munster family's multi-level Victorian home had the fictional address of 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Mockingbird Heights. (The town's location is not specified in the series, but in later incarnations, it is described as a small town outside Los Angeles. Leo Durocher, who was then coaching with the Los Angeles Dodgers, guest-starred as himself in one episode, further hinting that the show was set in, or near, Los Angeles.) The exterior shots were filmed on the Universal Studios backlot. In the 1950s, it was assembled with other homes on the backlot. Until production of The Munsters in 1964, the house could be seen as a backdrop on many shows, including Leave It to Beaver. It was also the home of the family in Shirley (NBC, 1979–80) and has appeared in other TV shows such as Coach and (after a remodel) Desperate Housewives. The interiors for the Munsters' mansion were filmed entirely on an enclosed sound stage.

 

Props
In the fourth episode ("Rock-A-Bye Munster"), Lily buys a hot-rod and a hearse from a used car dealership and has them customized into one car (Munster Koach) for Herman's birthday present. The Munster Koach and DRAG-U-LA were designed by Tom Daniel and built by auto customizer George Barris for the show. The "Munster Koach" was a hot rod built on a lengthened 1926 Ford Model T chassis with a custom hearse body. It was 18 feet long and cost almost $20,000 to build. Barris also built the "DRAG-U-LA," a dragster built from a coffin (according to Barris, a real coffin was, in fact, purchased for the car), which Grandpa used to win back "The Munster Koach" after Herman lost it in a race.

 

3eacaa56eec8fb473ef33325d9ab57f2-700.jpg

Munster Koach

 

Theme song
The instrumental theme song, titled "The Munsters' Theme", was composed by composer/arranger Jack Marshall. The theme song's lyrics, which the sitcom's co-producer Bob Mosher wrote, were never aired on CBS. Described by writer Jon Burlingame as a "Bernard-Herrmann-meets-Duane-Eddy sound", the theme was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1965. A sample of the theme was used in the song "Uma Thurman" by Fall Out Boy.

 

Butch Patrick later recorded a song called "Whatever Happened To Eddie?," which is set to The Munsters theme.

 

 

 

Source: Wikipedia: The Munsters

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - HAIR DRYER OR BLOW DRYER

bbrezgx42ajplpaghckd

Did you know.... that hair dryers were first invented in 1888 by French hairstylist Alexandre Godefroy, and although his invention produced heat, it did not blow air. Hair dryers are often made with attachments that may spread air, that helps to maintain hair shape; or focus air, which allows quicker drying. (Wikipedia)

 

There was a time when washing your hair was seen as a perfectly acceptable excuse to decline an invitation out. It wasn’t so much the washing that was taking up your time, but the drying.

 

Naturally, the French, with their impeccable sense of style, were the first to come up with a solution. Blow dryers were invented in the late 19th century. The first model was created by Alexander F. “Beau” Godefroy in his salon in France in 1890. His invention was a large, seated version that consisted of a bonnet that attached to the chimney pipe of a gas stove. Godefoy invented it for use in his hair salon in France, and it was not portable or handheld. It could only be used by having the person sit underneath it.

 

625d7442b196aaffb5043b593639288c.jpg

 

Around 1915, hair dryers began to go on the market in handheld form. This was due to innovations by National Stamping and Electricworks under the white cross brand, and later U.S. Racine Universal Motor Company and the Hamilton Beach Co., which allowed the dryer to be small enough to be held by hand.

 

Even in the 1920s, the new dryers were often heavy, weighing in at approximately 2 pounds (0.9 kg), and were difficult to use. They also had many instances of overheating and electrocution. Hair dryers were only capable of using 100 watts, which increased the amount of time needed to dry hair (the average dryer today can use up to 2000 watts of heat).

 

256px-AEG_Foen_Nr72355_03_mod03_res.jpg

 

Since the 1920s, development of the hair dryer has mainly focused on improving the wattage and superficial exterior and material changes. In fact, the mechanism of the dryer has not had any significant changes since its inception. One of the more important changes for the hair dryer is to be made of plastic, so that it is more lightweight. This really caught on in the 1960s with the introduction of better electrical motors and the improvement of plastics. Another important change happened in 1954 when GEC changed the design of the dryer to move the motor inside the casing.

 

2d0aa99c813c507594743e86eebf748b.jpg

 

The bonnet dryer was introduced to consumers in 1951. This type worked by having the dryer, usually in a small portable box, connected to a tube that went into a bonnet with holes in it that could be placed on top of a person’s head. This worked by giving an even amount of heat to the whole head at once.

 

3899be1b96bfd44919ce958570b57649.jpg

The 1950s also saw the introduction of the rigid-hood hair dryer which is the type most frequently seen in salons. It had a hard-plastic helmet that wraps around the person’s head. This dryer works similarly to the bonnet dryer of the 1950s but at a much higher wattage.

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTj7Dy-RqE7dUvbOu9NOCH qweVJZgwJ0FgbHnVhE9FtnLkYAdxUB0Q25itU8ss

 

In the 1970s, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission set up guidelines that hair dryers had to meet to be considered safe to manufacture. Since 1991 the CPSC has mandated that all dryers must use a ground fault circuit interrupter so that it cannot electrocute a person if it gets wet. By 2000, deaths by blow dryers had dropped to fewer than four people a year, a stark difference to the hundreds of cases of electrocution accidents during the mid-20th century. Faster, more efficient and certainly less lethal, there’s now no excuse to refuse an invitation as you tend to your crowning glory.

 

Source: Veronica's Blog

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - CARE BEARS

2-19.jpg

Did you know... that the Care Bears are a very successful toy franchise from the 1980s. Over forty million of these stuffed teddy bears, made with a variety of colours, were sold from 1983 to 1987. Each Bear had a name, a job, and a symbol tied to it. For example, Funshine Bear helps people wake up, and has a sun on his stomach.

 

The toys began life as characters on cards in 1981; the original artwork was done by Elena Kucharik. Later, other toys called the Care Bear Cousins were introduced.

 

They also gave way to three animated movies for the cinema in the mid-1980s. A related TV series from DIC and, later, Canada's Nelvana Limited came out at almost that same time.

 

Recently, Care Bear toys have been brought back in a new edition for the twenty-first century. As part of this comeback, the Bears have appeared in their first two DVD movies (both computer-animated), as well as a few video games.

 

 

 

 

They Started Out As Characters On Greeting Cards
The Care Bears were originally created by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards, and it wasn’t until later that they were used for toys and brought to TV.

 

dd57b1f3e1114ddbd208bc3ce8e77123.jpg

 

They Each Had Their Own Personality
Every Care Bear was a different colour and had a different symbol on their stomachs that represented their specific personality, known as their ‘tummy symbol’. The names of the original 10 Care Bears were Bedtime Bear, Birthday Bear, Cheer Bear, Friend Bear, Funshine Bear, Good Luck Bear, Grumpy Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, Tenderheart Bear, and Wish Bear.

 

4-97090R.jpg

 

They Had Some Cousins

As well as the Care Bears themselves, there were also the ‘Care Bear Cousins’, which were other animals such as a Lion, Monkey, Cat, Dog, Pig and Elephant.

original.jpg

 

They Taught People How To Care
The Care Bears actually live in a place called the ‘Kingdom of Caring’. Within this kingdom is ‘Care-a-lot’, where the Care Bears themselves lived, and the ‘Forest of Feelings’. The stories they took part in also focused on caring and helping, showing us as young children how to be aware of the feelings of others around us. The Care Bears had a ‘Care Bear Stare’, which was where they would all stand together and project light from each of their individual symbols. This combined ray of joy would bring love and happiness into even the hardest of hearts.

0szyJkG74vQYh_FkKrjpoJg832JDYRfOMpGHJKej

Care Bear Stare

 

They Appeared On The Big Screen

The Care Bears also appeared in TV Movies called ‘The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings’ and ‘The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine’. They also came to our cinemas with ‘The Care Bears Movie’ in 1985, ‘Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation’ in 1985, and ‘The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland’ in 1987.

MPW-36541_large.jpg?v=1459249605

 

The Care Bears Movie Was One Of The First Films To Be Based On Toys…
The Care Bears existed as toys before they ever made it to the big screen, and The Care Bears Movie was one of the first times that toys came before a film.

d0a1aa58-ec8e-4944-a857-5fa1c651dd58_1.b

 

Although It Took A Number Of Years To Get Made
Despite the toys being popular, The Care Bears Movie took a while to get made, as although it was planned as far back as 1981, its creators were initially unable to find a studio that was willing to finance the film.

 

There Was More Merchandise Than You Probably Remember…
Of course one of the main reasons the Care Bears were so popular were the lovely toy bears we could add to the cuddly collection of animals on our bed. But, aside from the cuddly toys, we could also get our hands on, among other things, Care Bears books, sweets, stationery, stickers and clothes.

 

51LiMTwVUfL.jpg950c9e4986fa4dcb3b485c475b2ecdb8.jpg

 

And Some Of The Toys Are Now Worth A lot Of Money
For example, a ‘Care Bear Cousins Proud Heart Cat’ 13 inch toy sold for a whopping £255 on eBay in August 2017.

 

41aWYjR+E-L._AC_.jpg

 

They Weren’t Always Child Friendly
Shockingly, ‘The Care Bears Movie 2’ has a storyline where a young girl sells her soul to a shape shifting demon named Dark Heart so she can get better at sports.

 

care-bears-dark-heart-03.jpg

 

A Number Of Music Albums Were Released
In the 1980s a number of Care Bears music albums were released. These included ‘Introducing the Care Bears’, ‘The Care Bears Care For You’, ‘Adventures in Care-a-lot, ‘The Care Bears’ Birthday Party’, ‘The Care Bears’ Christmas’ and ‘Friends Make Everything Better’.

 

 

 

The Care Bears Movie Was A Massive Hit…
The Care Bears Movie made $23 million in the US alone, although it wasn’t the highest grossing kids film of 1995, losing out to a re-release of 101 Dalmatians.

 

And Had Two Tie-In Books
The books ‘Meet The Care Bear Cousins’ and ‘Keep On Caring’ were released to coincide with the film hitting the big screen.

 

21414-xpft.jpeg

 

Source: 80s Kids - Matt Parker

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - FRUITS BASKET

5LYzTBVoS196gvYvw3zjwMOq6dVP6aHOYDJnVkwJ

Picture 1: 2001 - Picture 2: 2019

 

Did you know... that Fruits Basket, sometimes abbreviated Furuba or Fruba, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya? It was serialized in the semi-monthly Japanese magazine Hana to Yume, published by Hakusensha, from 1998 to 2006. The series' title comes from the name of a popular game played in Japanese elementary schools, which is alluded to in the series.

 

K_b25eugVpSLqEe4uWp-qF9VskTfZzI_crR8Qcxm

 

Fruits Basket tells the story of Tohru Honda, an orphan girl who, after meeting Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Soma, learns that twelve members of the Soma family are possessed by the animals of the Chinese zodiac and are cursed to turn into their animal forms when they are weak, stressed, or when they are embraced by anyone of the opposite sex that is not possessed by a zodiacal spirit. As the series progresses, Tohru learns of the hardships and pain faced by the afflicted Somas, and through her own generous and loving nature, helps heal their emotional wounds. As she learns more about Yuki, Kyo, and the rest of the mysterious Soma family, Tohru also learns more about herself and how much others care for her.

 

The series was also adapted into a 26-episode anime series in 2001, directed by Akitaro Daichi. A new anime television series adaptation produced by TMS Entertainment and directed by Yoshihide Ibata premiered on April 2019, which will adapt the entire manga. The first season of the 2019 reboot was 25 episodes long. The second season premiered on 6 April 2020. The reboot anime series is a co-production of Funimation, who released the series through Crunchyroll-Funimation partnership.

 

Production

The title of the series is taken from a children's game, Fruits Basket (フルーツバスケット, furūtsu basuketto, where the 'tsu' represents the 't' in "fruit", making it plural in an incorrect way), in which the participants sit in a circle, and the leader of the game names each person after a type of fruit; when the name of a child's fruit is called, that child gets up and has to find a new seat. When the protagonist, Tohru Honda, first plays this game in kindergarten, she is assigned "onigiri", by her cruel classmates, but she doesn't mind because she thinks onigiri are delicious. Once the game is finished, and all of the children but Tohru are called, Tohru realizes that onigiri are not a type of fruit at all, and she realizes that she doesn't belong. Tohru comes to associate this game with the Soma family, and that she does not fit in among them any more than an onigiri does in a basket of fruit. In volume 1 of the manga, after Yuki and Kyo bring Tohru home from her grandfather's house, she begins to feel like she belongs with the Soma family. After this, she imagines herself as a child hearing "onigiri" called in the game, symbolizing that she has finally found her place.

 

Natsuki Takaya named most of the twelve Somas cursed by zodiac animals after archaic names of month in the former Japanese lunisolar calendar that corresponds to their zodiac animal. The exceptions are Kureno and Momiji, whose names were swapped by mistake; Kyo, because he's the cat, is not part of the official zodiac.

 

poster,210x230,f8f8f8-pad,210x230,f8f8f8

 

Manga

836606.jpg

Fruits Basket Volume 2

 

The 136 chapters of Fruits Basket were originally serialized in Japan by Hakusensha in Hana to Yume from July 1998 to November 2006. These were collected into 23 tankōbon volumes, released from 19 January 1999 to 19 March 2007. On 4 September 2015, the first two volumes of Fruits Basket: Collector's Edition (愛蔵版 フルーツバスケット, Aizōban Furūtsu Basuketto) were released in Japan under the Hana to Yume Comics Special imprint. The 12th and last volume was published on 20 July 2016.

 

The series is licensed in English in North America and the United Kingdom by Tokyopop and in Singapore by Chuang Yi. The Singapore edition is licensed to be imported to Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. All 23 English-language volumes have been released in North America and Singapore. In addition, Tokyopop released a box set containing the first four volumes in October 2007, and started re-releasing earlier volumes in "Ultimate Editions" combining two sequential volumes in a single larger hardcover volume with new cover art. The first Ultimate Edition release met with mixed reviews, however, because they exactly reproduce the first two volumes without correcting changed page numbers or prior errors. As of June 2008, six Ultimate Editions have been released, covering the first twelve volumes of the series. After Tokyopop ceased publication, the series was re-licensed by Yen Press, with plans to release it as twelve omnibus editions corresponding Hakusensha's collector's editions. Starting in June 2016, Fruits Basket: Collector's Edition was released in English by Yen Press.

 

Chuang Yi also publishes in Singapore a Simplified Chinese edition as well as English. In Europe, Fruits Basket is licensed in French by Delcourt, in Spanish by Norma Editorial, in Italian by Dynit, in Dutch by Glénat, in German and Swedish by Carlsen_Comics, in Finnish by Sangatsu Manga, and in Polish (the Collector's Edition version) by Waneko, and in Danish by Mette Holm [Carlson Manga]. In Latin America, Editorial Vid has released the complete series in Mexico in Spanish, and Editora JBC has released the complete series in Portuguese in Brazil with the first volume released in April 2005.

Anime

Fruits-Basket-Season-One-Part-One-DVD-Se

 

Directed by Akitaro Daichi, the twenty-six episode Fruits Basket anime series was animated by Studio Deen and produced by NAS and TV Tokyo. It premiered on TV Tokyo on 5 July 2001, with the final episode airing on 27 December 2001. Some parts of the plot deviated from the manga and were portrayed differently, such as Momiji and Shigure's mannerisms. Throughout production, Daichi and Takaya ran into disagreements, including the cast, coloring details, and Daichi's storytelling style, leading Takaya to disliking the series.

 

The series was released in Japan in nine individual DVD volumes by King Records, with each volume containing three episodes except for the first volume, which contained two. The first volume was released on 29 September 2001, with subsequent volumes released on a monthly basis until the final volume was released on 22 May 2002. A series box set was released on 25 April 2007, containing all twenty-six episodes, as well a message card from Natsuki Takaya, a 60-page deluxe booklet, and a bonus Fruits Basket CD soundtrack.

 

Funimation aired the series with their English dub on the Funimation Channel as well as on Colours TV and also licensed it for Region 1 DVD release. It released it in the form of four individual volumes containing 6-7 episodes and a complete series box set. On 20 November 2007, Funimation re-released the series as part of their lower priced Viridian line, with the new release containing the complete series in a thin-packed box set, and then in 1 August 2017 on an upscaled Blu-ray in a standard and collector's edition. In the United Kingdom, Funimation originally distributed the series through MVM Entertainment, but then changed distributors in November 2006 to Revelation Films. Revelation re-released the four individual volumes under their label. They also released the series box set on 22 January 2007.[51] MVM re-licensed the series in late 2011. In Region 4, the series was released as a complete series box set by Madman Entertainment on 15 October 2003.

 

Second series (2019)
A new anime adaptation was announced in November 2018. Funimation announced that the new adaptation would air in April 2019, and would adapt the entire manga. For the Japanese version, due to Takaya's disagreement and disappointment with the staff and studio over the original anime, the new adaptation features a new cast and staff, with TMS Entertainment handling the production. Yoshihide Ibata is directing the series, with Taku Kishimoto handling series composition and Masaru Shindou handling character designs. In contrast, the English dub features many of the English voice actors that voiced in the first Fruits Basket series. Funimation has licensed the series for streaming and home video distribution. The new adaptation aired from April 6 to 21 September 2019 on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, and TV Aichi. The new series' first season is listed for 25 episodes. Crunchyroll is streaming the English-subtitled version, while Funimation is streaming the English-dubbed version. Episodes 9 and 10 were temporarily delayed internationally due to the French Open tennis tournament coverage in Japan. The anime is set to air in Australia on ABC ME on 19 June 2020. The second season premiered on 6 April 2020.

 

Click below ⬇️ to read more on Fruits Basket.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Fruits Basket

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - PHOSPHORUS 

e7d4d0c4f990b9722b77bad2af3aa8a0.jpg

Did you know... that phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Earth. (Wikipedia)

 

Phosphorus, the 15th element on the periodic table, was first distilled by an alchemist searching for gold — searching, that is, in at least 60 buckets of urine. 

 

Hennig Brand, a German, discovered phosphorus quite by accident in 1669 while processing urine in search of a compound that would turn ordinary metals into gold. According to the Jefferson National Linear Accelerator Laboratory, there would have been an easier way: Phosphorus is now mostly isolated from the rock phosphate.

 

220px-Fossiliferous_peloidal_phosphorite

Phosphorite or Rock Phosphate

 

There's even a 1795 painting devoted to phosphorus' discovery, titled "The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher's Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful Conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the Ancient Chymical Astrologers."  (The Philosopher's Stone is the mythical substance said to turn metals into gold.) 

 

The painter, Joseph Wright, left out some of the details, as recorded in the 1796 paper "Phosphorus Elementals" and re-described in the 2006 textbook "Chemistry" by Kenneth Whitten and colleagues. The first step in the process was to steep the urine for two weeks, until it putrefied and bred worms.  

 

phosphorus.jpg

The Alchemist Discovering Phosphorus

 

Just the facts
According to the Jefferson Lab, the properties of phosphorus are:

 

siaRL5AMnYeXXUc2Kd4pxd-650-80.jpg

Element of light
The world phosphorus comes from a Greek word meaning "bearer of light," and this element delivers on that promise. The most common forms are white phosphorus, made up of phosphorus atoms arranged like a tetrahedron (a four-sided pyramid), and red phosphorus, a solid but non-crystalline form of the element. Less common is black phosphorus, which is made of atoms arranged in a ring structure and looks a bit like the graphite at the point of a pencil. 

 

White phosphorus is waxy and gives off a slight glow in air, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. It's also capable of self-igniting in air once the temperature reaches about 86 F (30 C); the only safe storage is under water. As a result, white phosphorus is used in fireworks and weaponry. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it smells like matches or garlic. Inhalation or contact with the skin is toxic, causing burns that can quickly turn fatal. 

 

Red phosphorus is far more stable at room temperature — in fact, it's found on the side of any box of safety matches. The friction of the match against the red phosphorous transforms a little bit of the red phosphorus into white phosphorus, providing the ignition needed to light the match, according to Michigan State University's Science Theater. Red phosphorus is made by heating white phosphorus under controlled conditions. 

 

Bp%2004081%204-280x280.JPG

Black Phosphorus

 

In certain combinations, though, red phosphorus is still very dangerous. When exposed to enough heat (500 F or 260 C), it will ignite. It explodes when combined with other compounds such as chlorine, sodium and ammonium nitrate, according to California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which flags red phosphorus as one of the dangerous ingredients used in making methamphetamines

 

The non-illicit uses of phosphorus include steel-making and the production of flares. The most common use, however, is in fertilizers, according to the RSC. Despite its fiery properties, phosphorus is crucial to life. As phosphate, a charged molecule, it combines with sugar to form the backbone of DNA. It's also part of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the molecule that stores and releases energy to allow cells to function. 

 

DNA_animation.gif

The structure of part of a

DNA double helix.

 

Who knew?  

  • There are about 26.5 ounces (750 grams) of phosphate in the average human body, mostly in the bones, according to the RSC.
  • Earth may be approaching "peak phosphorus," after which the element will be harder and harder to mine. Mineral reserves of phosphorus are estimated to last between a few decades and 300 years at the most. Increasingly rare and expensive phosphorus would throw the global agriculture system into disarray, experts worry.
  • Strike-anywhere matches can ignite on any surface because they contain a small amount of white phosphorus built in to the match head. 
  • Meteorites may have brought phosphorus to Earth, according to a 2013 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By 3.5 billion years ago, the element was abundant on the planet, the study found.
  • Phosphorus can be used as a warning signal for heart disease. According to a 2009 study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, higher blood-phosphorus levels indicate higher rates of calcification of the coronary arteries.

 

Current research
Human phosphorus use has created problems for wildlife and people, alike. In August 2014, the city of Toledo, Ohio, had to warn citizens against using the city's water due to a toxic algae bloom. Such blooms, which occur in other drinking-water lakes across the country as well, are often caused or exacerbated by phosphorus from fertilizers and livestock waste flowing into waterways. 

In many streams and lakes, "phosphorus is the nutrient that is the most scarce, and therefore it is often the most important nutrient," said Dan Obenour, a professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University


Obenour and his colleagues have studied the algae blooms of Lake Erie, which is where Toledo gets its drinking water. The dominant source of phosphorus running into the lake is from agricultural fertilizers, Obenour told Live Science, though lawn fertilizers, pet waste and even treated wastewater contribute. 

 

Other factors, such as water temperature, can influence the timing and size of toxic algae blooms, so Obenour and his colleagues wanted to isolate the effects of fertilizer runoff. They used computer models to relate the amount of phosphorus flowing into Lake Erie to the size of the late-summer algae blooms in the lake. 

 

T7I32ZRXQAJ2TJELN6A3MYVYW4.jpg

Algae Bloom

 

The results, published in October 2014 in the journal Water Resources Research, showed a link: The more phosphorus early in the year, the larger the algae bloom in late summer. What's more, Obenour said, "the lake is becoming more sensitive to cyanobacteria [algal] blooms." 

 

In other words, less phosphorus is necessary to create ever-larger blooms — a fact that could influence regulations on agriculture upstream from the lake. The reason for the increased sensitivity remains somewhat mysterious, but invasive species could be one factor, Obenour said. Invasive zebra and quagga mussels feed on non-toxic algae that compete with the toxin-generating cyanobacteria. Thus, when a rush of phosphorus enters the lake, toxic algae have little competition in gobbling it up. The algae blooms would likely be a quarter or less the size of the peak blooms seen in Lake Erie in 2011 without human influence, Obenour said. 

Source: Live Science

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - CALCULATORS

citizen_lc-310n_dual_power_handheld_calc

Did you know... that an electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics? The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. (Wikipedia)

 

Where it all began - The venerable Abacus

The history of the calculator, or what we know of it, began with the hand-operated Abacus in Ancient Sumeria and Egypt in around 2000-2500 BC.

 

These are very simple devices compared to modern calculators consisting of sets of ten beads on a series of rods held in place on a quadrilateral frame usually made of wood.

 

The Abacus was the first purpose-built device for counting yet discovered with the exception of the counting boardPrior to this is likely humans used their fingers or piles of stones, seeds or beads (or anything really). 

16a9d7f52c87140844f87c261377e657.jpg

Ancient Chinese Abacus

 

The principle is very simple - at least for addition. The topmost rod represents the number of small units. By moving them from one side to the other the user can quickly keep track of any unit numbers between one and ten.  Once ten is reached a single bead on the next rod can be slid across to represent a unit of ten. The topmost beads can then be returned to the opposing side and small units can be counted again. Each lower rod represents ever larger powers-of-ten with the third representing hundreds, the next thousands and so on. 

 

Chinese Abacus (Suanpan) vary in design and are used in a slightly different manner western versions, but the principle is the same. It is believed that the Abacus was introduced to the Chinese by Roman merchants in around 190 AD.

 

The Abacus would remain as the de facto counting device for over four and half millennia.

 

It is still the counting device of choice throughout many parts of Asia (some devices even combining the two).   That was, at last in Europe, until 1617.

 

John Napier and his fancy bones
In 1617 a Scottish Mathematician, John Napier, published his seminal book Rabdology (calculating with rods). This book described the workings of a device that would come to be known as Napier's Bones.

 

The bones (rods) were very thin with each being inscribed with multiplication tables. Users could make quick calculations by adjusting each rods' vertical alignment in order to read off the multiplication total in the horizontal.

 

They were primarily developed as a calculation method to find the products and quotients of numbers. The beauty of them was their simplicity.

 

 

After only a matter of a few hours of practice, anybody could quickly make fairly complex multiplication and division calculations. An expert could even use them to extract square roots for pretty large numbers, not bad for the 17th Century!

 

They enabled a user to break down multiplication into much simple addition operations or division to simple subtractions.  

 

As impressive as this simple invention was it was not technically speaking a calculator as the user still needed to make mental calculations in order to use them. They did, however, offer a shortcut methodology to help speed multiplication and divisional problems.

 

The slide rule was the next big advancement
Europe saw the next stage in the development of Mechanical calculators during the 17th Century. With the help of Napier and his algorithms,  Edmund Gunter, William Oughtred and others, were able to make the next significant development in calculators - the slide rule. The slide rule was an advancement to the abacus as it consisted of a sliding stick that could perform rapid multiplications by using logarithmic scales.

turkey-1349801_1280.jpg

 

On the surface, slide rules look like pretty complex devices but that betrays the pure utility of them. They are, in effect, a sliding stick (or disk as above) that make use of logarithmic scales to quickly solve multiplication and division problems.  They would undergo a series of advancements that would enable them to be used to perform advanced trigonometry, logarithms, exponentials, and square roots

 

As late as the 1980s the use of slide rules was part of many countries school curricula and was considered a fundamental requirement for millions of school children to learn.  This is quite interesting as other mechanical and electronic calculators were in existence at this time. However, often, these were not the most portable devices when compared to the slide rules of the time that could easily fit into a breast pocket or button-down shirt. 

 

Slide rules were of fundamental importance to the NASA space program with them being heavily relied upon during the Apollo program. A Pickett model N600-ES was even taken along with the crew on the Apollo-13 moon mission in 1970. 

 

 

Blaise Pascal and the rise of the true mechanical calculator
In 1642 one Blaise Pascal created a device that could perform arithmetic operations with just two numbers. His machine comprised of geared wheels that could add and subtract two numbers directly and also multiply and divide them by repetition.

 

The inspiration for Pascal's calculator, arithmetic machine or Pascaline, was his frustration with the laborious nature of arithmetical calculations his father had to perform as the supervisor of taxes in Rouen.

 

The key part of his machine was its carry mechanism that adds 1 to 9 on one dial. When the dial is turned to reach 0 the next dial is able to carry the 1, so on so forth. His innovation made each digit independent of the state of the others, which enabled multiple carries to rapidly cascade from one digit to another regardless of the machine's capacity.

 

Between 1642 and 1645 he would create no less than 50 prototypes, finally presenting his final piece to the public and dedicating it to the then chancellor of France, Pierre Seguier.

 

He would continue to improve his design over the next few decades and was eventually presented with a Royal privilege (the equivalent of a patent) to allow him exclusive rights to design and build mechanical calculators in France.

 

Today nine examples of his original machines exist with most displayed around museums in around Europe.

 

history_of_the_calculator_Pascaline.jpg

Pascaline's carry mechanism. Source: Wikimedia Commons

 

Click below ⬇️ to read more on Calculators.

 

Source: Interesting Engineering - The Calculator's Brief History

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - PRAIRIE DOGS

fb_img_1494850979706.jpg?itok=-0lyDPRC&t

 

Did you know... that prairie dogs are herbivorous burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America? The five species are: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah, and Mexican prairie dogs. They are a type of ground squirrel, found in North America. They eat grasses, seeds, leaves, flowers, fruit, eggs, and some insects. (Wikipedia)

 

Underground Burrows

Prairie dogs tend to be celebrated for their larger ecological virtues. In the grasslands across the central and western United States, their intricate underground colonies—called prairie dog towns—create shelter for jackrabbits, toads, and rattlesnakes. The bare patches of ground created by their grazing and burrowing attract certain insects that feed a variety of birds

 

3c3824d0f7a000acd72edbfa0d0a666b.jpg

The downtown Panhandle Pete's Amarillo, Texas - Premier Prairie Dog Town

allows visitors to get underground with plastic protection for an up-close view

of the prairie dogs.

 

Their extensive warrens of tunnels and chambers marked by many mounds of packed earth at their surface entrances. Burrows have defined nurseries, sleeping quarters, and even toilets. They also feature listening posts near exits, so animals can safely keep tabs on the movements of predators outside. Prairie dogs spend a lot of time building and rebuilding these dwellings. Other animals benefit from their labors. Burrows may be shared by snakes, burrowing owls, and even rare black-footed ferrets, which hunt prairie dogs in their own dwellings.

 

Family groups (a male, a few females, and their young) inhabit burrows and cooperate to share food, chase off other prairie dogs, and groom one another. These group members even greet one another with a prairie dog kiss or nuzzle. Young pups are very playful and can often been seen romping near their burrows.

 

PrairieDogsKissing_D2H0254w.jpg

North Prairies

 

Prairie dogs are found in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In Mexico, they are mostly found in the northern states, which are the southern end of the great plains: northeastern Sonora, north and northeastern Chihuahua, northern Coahuila, northern Nuevo León, and northern Tamaulipas; in the U.S., they range primarily west of the Mississippi River, though they have also been introduced in a few eastern locales. They will eat all sorts of vegetables and fruits.

 

Biology and behavior

Highly social, prairie dogs live in large colonies – collections of prairie dog families that can span hundreds of acres. Families usually are made up of one male and two to four females living in a strict social hierarchy. Prairie dog pups reach sexual maturity at about 3 years of age, and after their third winter the dominant male in a given family will drive them away, forcing them to establish their own families on the edges of the colony. The dominant male will defend the family's borders against rival prairie dogs, and disputes are resolved by fighting. Prairie dogs are also aggressive against predators such as badgers and snakes.

 

 

Prairie Dog Fight

 

Prairie dogs are social animals, and often make social visits with each other, and greet each other with a sort of kiss. Prairie dogs employ a complex form of communication that involves barks and rhythmic chirps.

 

 

 

Prairie dog tunnel systems usually have several rooms. Tunnels can go down as far as 5 metres (16 ft), and can extend laterally as much as 30 metres (98 ft). Prairie dogs line their burrows with grass to insulate them, and the earth excavated from the burrow is piled up in mounds around the burrow's entrance. The prairie dogs use these carefully maintained mounds as observation posts.

 

The prairie dog is well adapted to predators. They can detect predators from a far distance and alert other prairie dogs to the danger with a special, high-pitched call. Prairie dogs use different calls to identify specific predators. Prairie dogs also trim the vegetation around their colonies, perhaps to remove any cover for predators. Their burrows generally contain several routes of escape.

 

 

Prairie dogs even help aerate and fertilize the soil, allowing a greater diversity of plants to thrive. But the widespread destruction of prairie dog colonies and the arrival of the exotic disease plague in the 1900s reduced prairie dogs by more than 95 percent. 

 

Defenders' Impact
Poisoning prairie dogs can be bad for the environment with impacts to native grassland birds, it is expensive, and rarely offers a long-term solution to conflicts with livestock operations. Defenders is working with national grasslands on non-lethal alternatives to poisoning.

 

Because prairie dogs hesitate to make homes in or go through tall grass, creating tall-grass buffers between prairie dog colonies and adjacent private properties is one way to keep prairie dogs out of where they are not wanted without resorting to killing them. Growing tall grass is difficult in areas frequented by grazing livestock, so Defenders has purchased and installed several miles of solar-powered portable electric fencing along buffer areas to keep livestock out, allowing the grass to grow tall.

 

tallgrass-2-750x500.jpg

Tall grass

 

Defenders also promotes relocation rather than poisoning of prairie dogs from conflict areas to core areas that are fully protected. We have helped move hundreds of prairie dogs out of harm’s way and we hand-dig starter burrows to promote new colonies. 

Prairie Dog Species

mi-prairie-dog.jpg

Black-tailed prairie dog

 

Black-tailed prairie dogs, the best known of the five prairie dog species, live in larger communities called towns, which may contain many hundreds of animals. Typically they cover less than half a square mile, but some have been enormous. The largest recorded prairie dog town covered some 25,000 square miles. That Texas town was home to perhaps four hundred million prairie dogs.

 

Another prairie dog species, the white-tailed prairie dog, lives in the western mountains. These rodents do not gather in large towns but maintain more scattered burrows. All species hunker down in winter and burn the reserves of fat they have stored during more plentiful seasons. White-tails may hibernate for up to six months on their mountain plains, while their black-tailed cousins sometimes emerge to feed on especially warm days.

 

Threats to Survival

Much of the Great Plains has been converted to farming or pastureland, and prairie dogs are not often welcome in such places. Because of their destructive landscaping, they are often killed as pests. During the 20th century, about 98 percent of all prairie dogs were exterminated, and their range subsequently shrunk to perhaps five percent of its historic spread.

 

Source: Kids Encyclopedia Facts, Defenders - Prairie Dog, National Geographic

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - PLESIOSAURS

340?cb=20170512065216

Did you know.... that the Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia? Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period, possibly in the Rhaetian stage, about 203 million years ago. They became especially common during the Jurassic Period, thriving until their disappearance due to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 66 million years ago. They had a worldwide oceanic distribution. (Wikipedia)

 

In 1719, William Stukeley described the first partial skeleton of a plesiosaur. The great-grandfather of Charles Darwin, Robert Darwin of Elston told him about it. Mary Anning was the first to discover a fairly complete plesiosaur. She found it on the 'Jurassic Coast' of Dorset, England in the winter of 1820/21. The fossil was missing its skull, but in 1823 she found another one, this time complete with its skull. The name Plesiosaurus was given to it by the Rev. William Conybeare.

 

617px-Stukely_plesiosaur.jpg

First published plesiosaur skeleton, 1719

 

pli%20pli.JPG

Mary Anning's Plesiosaur
London, England - Atlas Obscura

 

The earliest plesiosaur remains are from the Middle Triassic period, and the group was important through the Jurassic and Cretaceous. They had two large pairs of paddles, short tails, short or long necks, and broad bodies. They died out at the K/T extinction event, 65 million years ago.

 

Plesiosaurs had many bones in their flippers, making them flexible. No modern animal has this four-paddle anatomy: modern turtles use their forelimbs for swimming. They were mainly piscivorous (fish-eaters).

 

Pliosaurs

The pliosaurs were a group of mostly large submarine predators with short necks and large heads. Their sizes ranged from two to 15 metres, and they were predators of large fish and other reptiles. Their streamlined body shape suggests they swam and ate under water.

 

 

Long-necked plesiosaurs

Art_Plesiosaurs_grande.jpg?542

Plesiosaur Fossils: Long-Necked Marine Reptiles 

 

There were three families of long-necked plesiosaurs, who evidently had a different life-style from the pliosaurs. It was suggested by D.M.S. Watson that their method was as surface swimmers, mostly eating with their head above water, darting down to snatch smaller fish which were feeding on plankton. It is hard to see the benefit of a long neck under water; aquatic mammals operating under water all have a streamlined torpedo-shape, as did pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs. All the longer-necked familiers were, from the setting of the teeth and jaws, eaters of small fish. However, some at least were bottom-feeders, consuming various prey. Digestion of shellfish was aided by gastroliths.

 

Plesiosaurids: neck not so long as the other two families, and not so flexible: a more general all-round plesiosaur. Head of medium size, neck fairly thick and strong, up to 30 vertebrae.

Cryptoclidids: longer necks, with more than 30 vertebrae.

Elasmosaurids: very long necks; some later forms have as many as 76 cervical (neck) vertebrae and quite small skulls.p30 Watson and Alexander's ideas apply especially to this group.

800px-Elasmosaur.jpg

Elasmosaurus, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

 

Gastroliths

Gastroliths.jpg

Plesiosaurs have been found with fossils of belemnites (squid-like animals), and ammonites (giant nautilus-like molluscs) associated with their stomachs. But plesiosaurs could not crack shells. Instead, they probably swallowed them whole. In the belly of a plesiosaur were "stomach stones", which are called gastroliths. These stones moved around in the plesiosaur's stomach and cracked or crushed the shells of the animals it ate. One plesiosaur fossil found in South Dakota had 253 gastroliths weighing a total of 29 pounds.

 

Source: Kids Encyclopedia Facts

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

Dragon-Boat-2017-1080x675.jpg

Did you know... that the Dragon Boat Festival is also called Duanwu Festival, and is famous for both the Dragon Boat Races and an exiled poet Qu Yuan who committed suicide in the Pre-Qin Period. There is a joke circulating the Web in China: “Karl Marx left us tons of inscrutable texts to rack our brains, and Qu Yuan gave us three days off.”

 

Origin and History of the Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and the accurate time is at noon on the day. It coincides with the annual flood period and midsummer when insects and bacteria breed fast and people easily catch infections. In times gone by, with poor hygiene and limited technology, people could not understand what caused disease.

 

While the climate served up dreadful weather in the fifth lunar month, it was also an important season for the growth of the crops. Thus, the fifth lunar month was considered an unfortunate month. The natural phenomena were regarded as disturbing signs, and ancestors performed a sacrifice to heaven. They thought that the high mountains and the bank of a long river were excellent places for offering sacrifices. Northern tribes and ethnic groups in mountainous areas of China prayed on the top of mountains, and people in southern areas prayed on the river bank, as they believed that they were descendants of the Chinese dragon (a legendary creature depicted as having a snake-like body with two talons, fish scales, a tail, and two antlers on its head). They rowed the dragon boats in the hope that the real Chinese dragon would appear and protect them.

 

Dragon-boat-Festival-in-Kaohsiung-Taiwan

Dragon boat Festival in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

 

After the ancient poet Qu Yuan’s great deed touched people deeply, they combined his tale with their customs to commemorate his death.

 

Who was Qu Yuan?

001ec94dfbee109f14bc17.jpg
Qu Yuan, a great patriotic and romantic poet, created Chu Ci, which was a new genre of poetry based on the folk songs in the State of Chu in the late Warring States Period (475-211AD). He was of noble birth and engaged in both domestic and foreign affairs. At that time, the State of Qin in the west was bent on annexing the other states, and Qu Yuan asserted that the Chu State should firmly resist Qin, instead allying with the State of Qi to the east. So he was marginalized by other aristocrats and banished from Chu. Eventually, after Qin conquered the State of Chu, Qu Yuan mourned and committed suicide by drowning himself in Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Legend has it that the Chu people were so affected by his loyalty, that they wanted to save his life and rowed boats on the river to save him, but it didn’t work. Then they started to throw glutinous rice dumplings into the river for feeding the fish, in case his body was eaten. It said that Zongzi were developed from the rice dumplings. Since then, this popular story of Qu Yuan is deemed to be the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival.

 

sticky_rice_wrap.jpg

Zongzi - Sticky Rice Dumplings

 

Traditional Things to do during the Dragon Boat Festival

Due to a lack of resources, the ancient Chinese used Realgar Wine to disinfect their homes, wore scented sachets containing various herbs, showered with water of wormwood, and a lot of other old customs which are still observed today.

 

Dragon Boat Racing

Banner-42.jpg
The Dragon Boat Racing during the Duanwu Festival is the most festive event. Players paddle furiously and chase each other. Audiences bang drums on the bank. What a bustling and lively scene!

 

Eating Zongzi

1213075279524_1213075279524_r.jpg
In northern China, people like eating sweet zongzi with red bean and dried jujube paste. However, the folks in southern China prefer their zongzi savory and filled with fatty pork and green bean paste.

 

Wearing Scented Sachets

5f928d1430d43040aed9a4d33b4783e8.jpg
Scented Sachets are the characteristic ornaments on the Festival, and are filled with aromatic herbs and decorated with exquisite embroidery in various designs. It is believed that hanging scented sachets with five-color silk is able to scare evil away.

 

Hanging Wormwood on the Door

0*CSfIIeFdfDAIBIaL.jpg
Wormwood is an herb with a bitter taste and a particular smell, and hanging it on the door is useful for repelling flies, mosquitoes, and insects.

 

Spraying Realgar Wine

dragon-boat-festival-rice-dumpling-and-r
Realgar is an arsenic poison that has an increased effect after mixing with alcohol. Realgar wine is a traditional Chinese drink containing fermented cereals and powered realgar that was used in ancient times.

 

It is also used as a disinfectant to spray into the corners of the room. Elders dip a finger into realgar wine and write a character on the children’s foreheads and spread it on their ears, noses, hands, and feet. It is believed that it will protect children from harm and diseases. There is an old saying that states, “Drinking realgar wine drives evils and diseases away.” Unfortunately, it is poisonous to drink, as has been proved by modern medicine.

 

Regional Customs

 

Climbing a Mountain for Good Fortune

depositphotos_215093630-stock-photo-trek
In the north of China, as the fifth lunar month is thought to be a period of misfortune, so that the ancient Chinese people prayed for peace for the next year on top of a mountain. On the way, they collected medicinal herbs such as wormwood and peach branches.

 

Balancing Eggs

Balanced_eggs.jpg
In the southern region of the Yangtze River, balancing eggs is an interesting game for children. It is easier to keep eggs standing up on the day at high noon. People in folk stories think that you will be lucky if you can balance your eggs before noon.

 

Tying Five-Color Silk

Hweix8pQmGWpisbVy7VTvhm1Qbn53oG6jZTTMYK_
This custom prevails in the north of China, with children tying five-color silk to their hands and feet until the first rainfall during the summer season. People consider that it can protect children from plague and misery.

 

Source: China Educational Tours

 

 

Edited by DarkRavie
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Friday's Fact of the Day - CALLIGRAPHY

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSLA_XGhCmW1WYm6oMO2IE

 

Did you know... that calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad-tipped instrument, brush, or other writing instrument? A contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner". (Wikipedia)

 

Calligraphy, the art of beautiful handwriting. The term may derive from the Greek words for “beauty” (kallos) and “to write” (graphein). It implies a sure knowledge of the correct form of letters—i.e., the conventional signs by which language can be communicated—and the skill to make them with such ordering of the various parts and harmony of proportions that the experienced, knowledgeable eye will recognize such composition as a work of art. Calligraphic work, as art, need not be legible in the usual sense of the word.

 

In the Middle East and East Asia, calligraphy by long and exacting tradition is considered a major art, equal to sculpture or painting. In Western culture the plainer Greek- and Latin-derived alphabets and the spread of literacy have tended to make handwriting in principle an art that anyone can practice. Nonetheless, after the introduction of printing in Europe in the mid-15th century, a clear distinction arose between handwriting and more elaborate forms of scripts and lettering. In fact, new words meaning “calligraphy” entered most European languages about the end of the 16th century, and in English the word calligraphy did not appear until 1613. Writing books from the 16th century through the present day have continued to distinguish between ordinary handwriting and the more decorative calligraphy.

 

5d5cb7ecc3fa8725a858afdc5052c84f.jpg

“Spieghel der Schrijfkonste” (“Mirror of the Art of Writing”)

by Jan van de Velde, 1605; in the Columbia University Libraries,

New York City.

 

It has often been assumed that the printing process ended the manuscript tradition. This is not quite true: for example, most of the surviving books of hours (lavish private devotional manuscript books) date from the period after the introduction of printing. Furthermore, certain types of publications, such as musical scores, scientific notation, and other specialized or small-audience works, continued to be handwritten well into the 19th century. Thus, although handwritten books could not be reproduced in quantity or with complete uniformity, they did survive the introduction of printing. Printing and handwriting began to influence each other: for example, modern advertising continues to incorporate calligraphy, and many calligraphers have through the years designed typefaces for printing.

 

spread-Geoffroy-Tory-Book-of-Hours.jpg

Two-page spread from Geoffroy Tory's Book of Hours (1531).
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

 

Early Semitic Writing
During the 2nd millennium BCE, various Semitic peoples at the eastern end of the Mediterranean were experimenting with alphabetic writing. Between 1500 and 1000 BCE, alphabetic signs found in scattered sites showed a correspondence of form and provided material for sound translations. Bodies of writing from this period are fragmented: a few signs scratched on sherds or cut in stone. Few of these are celebrated in terms of aesthetic value.

hieraticostrakon1-other-side.jpg

First written record of Semitic alphabet,

from 15th century BCE, found in Egypt

 

One interesting set of Semitic inscriptions was discovered in 1905 at an ancient mining site on the Sinai Peninsula. A sphinx from that discovery yields the taw, nun, taw, or t, n, t, meaning “gift.” It is evident that the nun, or n, sign is a rendering of a serpent. Most of the early Semitic alphabetic signs were similarly derived from word signs of more ancient vintage.

 

The several Semitic peoples in the Middle East area spoke languages that were closely related, and this enabled them to use the same set of alphabetic signs. After some experimentation the alphabet was reduced to 22 signs for consonants. There were no vowel signs. The tribes of Canaan (Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Aramaeans) were important in the development of alphabetic writing, and all seemed to be employing the alphabet by 1000 BCE.

 

The Phoenicians, living along a 20-mile (30-kilometre) strip on the Mediterranean, made the great sea their second home, giving the alphabet to Greeks in the mutual trading area and leaving inscriptions in many sites. One of the finest Phoenician inscriptions exists on a bronze cup from Cyprus called the Baal of Lebanon (in the Louvre, Paris) dating from about 800 BCE. The so-called Moabite Stone (also in the Louvre), which dates from about 850 BCE, has an inscription that is also a famous example of early Semitic writing.

 

200px-P1120870_Louvre_st%C3%A8le_de_M%C3

The Mesha Stele or Moabite Stone

in its current location: The brown

fragments are pieces of the original

stele, whereas the smoother black

material is Ganneau's reconstruction

from the 1870s.

 

Old Hebrew
Old Hebrew existed in inscription form in the early centuries of the 1st millennium BCE. The pen-written forms of the Old Hebrew alphabet are best preserved in the 13th-century-CE documents of the Samaritan sects.

The exile suffered by the Israelites (586–538 BCE) dealt a heavy blow to the Hebrew language, since, after their return from exile, Aramaic was the dominant language of the area, and Hebrew existed as a second and scholarly language. Aramaic pen-written documents began to appear in the 5th century BCE and were vigorous interpretations of inscription letters. Typically, in the surviving documents, the pen was cut wide at the tip to produce a pronounced thick and thin structure to the line of letters. The writer’s hand was rotated counterclockwise more than 45 degrees relative to vertical, so that vertical strokes were thinner than the horizontal ones. Then, too, there was a tendency to hold these strong horizontals on the top line, with trailing descenders finding a typical length, long or short on the basis of ancient habits. The lamed form, which has the same derivation as the Western L, resembles the latter and can be picked out in early Aramaic pen hands by its characteristic long ascender.

 

The traditional square Hebrew, or merubbaʿ, pen hand was developed in the centuries preceding the Common Era. This early script may be seen in the famed Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947. These scrolls are associated with a group of dissident Jews who founded a religious commune on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea about 180 BCE. The commune had an extensive library. Pens were the instruments of writing, and, as in earlier Aramaic documents, leather provided the surface. In these documents the lamed form remained visually prominent.

 

Chapter-Isaiah-Scroll-Dead-Sea-Scrolls-S

Chapter 49 of the Isaiah Scroll from

the Dead Sea Scrolls; in the Shrine of the Book,

D. Samuel and Jean H. Gottesman Centre for

Biblical Manuscripts, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

 

There are no Hebrew manuscripts from the first 500 years of the Common Era. Most of the development in the square Hebrew script occurred between 1000 and 1500 CE. The earliest script to emerge from the Dead Sea writing was the Early Sefardic (Spharadic), with examples dating between 600 and 1200 CE. The Classic Sefardic hand appears between 1100 and 1600 CE. The Ashkenazic style of Hebrew writing exhibits French and German Gothic overtones of the so-called black-letter styles (see below Latin-alphabet handwriting: The black-letter, or Gothic, style [9th to 15th century]) developed to write western European languages in the late Middle Ages. German black letter, with its double-stroked heads and feet, was difficult for the scribe. Hebrew scripts from this period exhibit some of the same complicated pen stroking and change of pen slant within individual characters. Some decorative qualities of medieval French writing are seen in this Hebrew script.

 

script-Sefardic-Hebrew-Vatican-City-Bibl

Hebrew Sefardic script, before 1331;

in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,

Vatican City (7. Vat. Heb. 12. Hagiographa).

 

Click below ⬇️ if you'd like to read more on Calligraphy.

 

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica - Calligraphy

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - MEDICINAL PLANTS

ef31e8_54b85cd0d451407a823bbe5d3c07488b~

Did you know... that medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times? Plants synthesise hundreds of chemical compounds for functions including defence against insects, fungi, diseases, and herbivorous mammals. (Wikipedia)

 

Numerous phytochemicals with potential or established biological activity have been identified. However, since a single plant contains widely diverse phytochemicals, the effects of using a whole plant as medicine are uncertain. Further, the phytochemical content and pharmacological actions, if any, of many plants having medicinal potential remain unassessed by rigorous scientific research to define efficacy and safety.

 

The earliest historical records of herbs are found from the Sumerian civilisation, where hundreds of medicinal plants including opium are listed on clay tablets. The Ebers Papyrus from ancient Egypt, c. 1550 BC, describes over 850 plant medicines. The Greek physician Dioscorides, who worked in the Roman army, documented over 1000 recipes for medicines using over 600 medicinal plants in De materia medica, c. 60 AD; this formed the basis of pharmacopoeias for some 1500 years. Drug research makes use of ethnobotany to search for pharmacologically active substances in nature, and has in this way discovered hundreds of useful compounds. These include the common drugs aspirin, digoxin, quinine, and opium. The compounds found in plants are of many kinds, but most are in four major biochemical classes: alkaloids, glycosides, polyphenols, and terpenes.

 

Arabic_herbal_medicine_guidebook.jpeg

Dioscorides's 1st century De materia medica, seen here

in a c. 1334 copy in Arabic, describes some 1000 drug

recipes based on over 600 plants.

 

Medicinal plants are widely used in non-industrialized societies, mainly because they are readily available and cheaper than modern medicines. The annual global export value of the thousands of types of plants with suspected medicinal properties was estimated to be US$2.2 billion in 2012. In 2017, the potential global market for botanical extracts and medicines was estimated at several hundred billion dollars. In many countries, there is little regulation of traditional medicine, but the World Health Organization coordinates a network to encourage safe and rational usage. Medicinal plants face both general threats, such as climate change and habitat destruction, and the specific threat of over-collection to meet market demand.

 

Prehistoric times
Plants, including many now used as culinary herbs and spices, have been used as medicines, not necessarily effectively, from prehistoric times. Spices have been used partly to counter food spoilage bacteria, especially in hot climates, and especially in meat dishes which spoil more readily. Angiosperms (flowering plants) were the original source of most plant medicines. Human settlements are often surrounded by weeds used as herbal medicines, such as nettle, dandelion and chickweed. Humans were not alone in using herbs as medicines: some animals such as non-human primates, monarch butterflies and sheep ingest medicinal plants when they are ill. Plant samples from prehistoric burial sites are among the lines of evidence that Paleolithic peoples had knowledge of herbal medicine. For instance, a 60 000-year-old Neanderthal burial site, "Shanidar IV", in northern Iraq has yielded large amounts of pollen from eight plant species, seven of which are used now as herbal remedies. A mushroom was found in the personal effects of Ötzi the Iceman, whose body was frozen in the Ötztal Alps for more than 5,000 years. The mushroom was probably used against whipworm.

 

Ancient times

170px-PEbers_c41-bc.jpg

The Ebers Papyrus

(c. 1550 BC) from

Ancient Egypt describes

the use of hundreds of

plant medicines.


In ancient Sumeria, hundreds of medicinal plants including myrrh and opium are listed on clay tablets. The ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus lists over 800 plant medicines such as aloe, cannabis, castor bean, garlic, juniper, and mandrake. From ancient times to the present, Ayurvedic medicine as documented in the Atharva Veda, the Rig Veda and the Sushruta Samhita has used hundreds of pharmacologically active herbs and spices such as turmeric, which contains curcumin. The Chinese pharmacopoeia, the Shennong Ben Cao Jing records plant medicines such as chaulmoogra for leprosy, ephedra, and hemp. This was expanded in the Tang Dynasty Yaoxing Lun. In the fourth century BC, Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus wrote the first systematic botany text, Historia plantarum. In around 60 AD, the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides, working for the Roman army, documented over 1000 recipes for medicines using over 600 medicinal plants in De materia medica. The book remained the authoritative reference on herbalism for over 1500 years, into the seventeenth century.

 

Middle Ages

170px-Physician_talking_to_a_female_pati

Illustration of a 1632

copy of Avicenna's 1025

The Canon of Medicine,

showing a physician

talking to a female patient

in a garden, while servants

prepare medicines.


In the Early Middle Ages, Benedictine monasteries preserved medical knowledge in Europe, translating and copying classical texts and maintaining herb gardensHildegard of Bingen wrote Causae et Curae ("Causes and Cures") on medicine. In the Islamic Golden Age, scholars translated many classical Greek texts including Dioscorides into Arabic, adding their own commentaries. Herbalism flourished in the Islamic world, particularly in Baghdad and in Al-Andalus. Among many works on medicinal plants, Abulcasis (936–1013) of Cordoba wrote The Book of Simples, and Ibn al-Baitar (1197–1248) recorded hundreds of medicinal herbs such as Aconitum, nux vomica, and tamarind in his Corpus of SimplesAvicenna included many plants in his 1025 The Canon of MedicineAbu-Rayhan BiruniIbn ZuhrPeter of Spain, and John of St Amand wrote further pharmacopoeias.

 

Early Modern

170px-The_Grete_Herball,_Title_Page,_152

An early illustrated

book of medicinal plants, 

The Grete Herball, 1526

 

The Early Modern period saw the flourishing of illustrated herbals across Europe, starting with the 1526 Grete Herball. John Gerard wrote his famous The Herball or General History of Plants in 1597, based on Rembert Dodoens, and Nicholas Culpeper published his The English Physician Enlarged. Many new plant medicines arrived in Europe as products of Early Modern exploration and the resulting Columbian Exchange, in which livestock, crops and technologies were transferred between the Old World and the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. Medicinal herbs arriving in the Americas included garlic, ginger, and turmeric; coffee, tobacco and coca travelled in the other direction. In Mexico, the sixteenth century Badianus Manuscript described medicinal plants available in Central America.

 

220px-Badianus.jpg

A page of the Libellus illustrating

the tlahçolteoçacatl, tlayapaloni,

axocotl and chicomacatl plants,

used to make a remedy for lęsum

& male tractatum corpus, "injured

and badly treated body"

 

19th and 20th centuries
Further information: Pharmacognosy

 

The place of plants in medicine was radically altered in the 19th century by the application of chemical analysis. Alkaloids were isolated from a succession of medicinal plants, starting with morphine from the poppy in 1806, and soon followed by ipecacuanha and strychnos in 1817, quinine from the cinchona tree, and then many others. As chemistry progressed, additional classes of pharmacologically active substances were discovered in medicinal plants. Commercial extraction of purified alkaloids including morphine from medicinal plants began at Merck in 1826. Synthesis of a substance first discovered in a medicinal plant began with salicylic acid in 1853. Around the end of the 19th century, the mood of pharmacy turned against medicinal plants, as enzymes often modified the active ingredients when whole plants were dried, and alkaloids and glycosides purified from plant material started to be preferred. Drug discovery from plants continued to be important through the 20th century and into the 21st, with important anti-cancer drugs from yew and Madagascar periwinkle.

51DOC7tMW9L._AC_SY450_.jpg

Madagascar Periwinkle

 

Click below ⬇️ if you are interesting in reading more of Medicinal Plants.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Medicinal Plants

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I don't remember if I've done this one before and I'm not trolling back to check.

 

Fact of the Day - CANADA DAY

d60b4150de621b01337396103d804227-1.jpg

 

Did you know... that Canada Day is the national day of Canada? A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of July 1, 1867, the effective date of the Constitution Act, 1867, which united the three separate colonies of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a single Dominion within the British Empire called Canada. Originally called Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), the holiday was renamed in 1982, the year in which the Canadian Constitution was patriated by the Canada Act 1982. Canada Day celebrations take place throughout the country, as well as in various locations around the world, attended by Canadians living abroad. (Wikipedia)

 

Canada Day is often informally referred to as "Canada's birthday", particularly in the popular press. However, the term "birthday" can be seen as an oversimplification, as Canada Day is the anniversary of only one important national milestone on the way to the country's full independence, namely the joining on July 1, 1867, of the colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a wider British federation of four provinces (the colony of Canada being divided into the provinces of Ontario and Quebec upon Confederation). Canada became a "kingdom in its own right" within the British Empire commonly known as the Dominion of Canada. Although still a British colony, Canada gained an increased level of political control and governance over its own affairs, the British parliament and Cabinet maintaining political control over certain areas, such as foreign affairs, national defence, and constitutional changes. Canada gradually gained increasing independence over the years, notably with the passage of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, until finally becoming completely independent with the passing of the Constitution Act, 1982 which served to fully patriate the Canadian constitution.

 

Under the federal Holidays Act, Canada Day is observed on July 1, unless that date falls on a Sunday, in which case July 2 is the statutory holiday. Celebratory events will generally still take place on July 1, even though it is not the legal holiday. If it falls on a weekend, businesses normally closed that day usually dedicate the following Monday as a day off.

 

150logothumbnail.jpg?w=1040&quality=70&s

Add 3 more years since we are in 2020 now. :big_smile:

  • The name Canada derives from an Iroquoian word for "village," kanata, that French explorers heard used to refer to the area near present-day Quebec City.
  • On June 20, 1868, Governor General the Viscount Monck issued a royal proclamation asking for Canadians to “celebrate the anniversary of the confederation."
  • This holiday was given the statutory value on 1879 and was designated as the Dominion Day.
  • Canada was known as officially as Dominion Day until October 27, 1982. However, many ordinary Canadians have considered it as Canada Day long before the official name change.
  • The move to change the celebrations name to its present name was greatly inspired by the Canada Act.
  • Cross-country television transmission by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation began on Canada Day in 1958 while Color television was first introduced in Canada nine years later on Canada Day in 1967. (FIY: that's the year I was born!)
  • The year 2011 marks the 144th celebration of Canada Day which commemorates the day that Canada became a nation.
  • On July 1st, 1923, the Canadian government enacted the Chinese Immigration Act, stopping all immigration from China. Chinese-Canadians began to refer to July 1 as Humiliation Day and refused to participate in Dominion Day celebrations, until the act was repealed in 1947.
  • Some famous people born on Canada day: Pamela Anderson, Dan Akroyd, Lady Diana the Princess of Wales, Missy Elliott, Jamie Farr (aka Klinger), Rod Gilbert, Debbie Harry, Olivia de Havilland, Estee Lauder, Carl Lewis, Sydney Pollack, Alan Ruck, Liv Tyler. And my sister Sheila was born on July 1st too!
  • Canada Day kicks off, what Canadians call, “those two months before winter starts

 

CanadaDay_Webstie.png

 

There are many ways to celebrate Canada Day.

First: What's a patriotic celebration without a parade? There will be parades held in cities, towns, and villages all over Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have an established group called the RCMP Musical Ride. These 32 officers, who are rotated after three years' service, perform equestrian drills for the public throughout Canada.

 

 

The lyrics to "O Canada" can be found here. Hear the French version as well.

 

 

 

Source: Mental Floss - Canada Day, Wikipedia - Canada Day

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fact of the Day - RUBBER BANDS / ELASTICS

rubber-bands-money-isolated-on-260nw-125

Did you know... that the first rubber band was invented by Englishman Stephen Perry in 1845 - they continue to enjoy popular use today. Rubber bands have even been used to break records, with the largest rubber band ball consisting of more than 175,000 bands and weighing a whopping 4,594 pounds.  Most rubber bands are manufactured out of natural rubber or, especially at larger sizes, elastomer, and are sold in a variety of sizes.

 

  • Rubber bands are typically circular bands that stretch and are generally used to hold groups of items as one, or holding items in position.
  • It is said that the biggest consumer of rubber bands on earth is the US Postal Service that use them to sort and group mail, and they are also used in the floral industry and newspaper delivery services, and for holding other items together, like cut asparagus and other food stalks; pens and pencils and decks of cards.
  • ‘Rubber bands’ are also known as ‘elastic bands’, ‘lackey bands’, ‘laggy bands’, ‘binders’, and ‘elastic’.
  • Rubber bands release heat energy when stretched, but absorb heat energy when retracted.
  • Rubber bands are found in many different sizes, shapes, colours and stretchiness, and can be larger than 43 cm (17 inches) or as small as 3 mm (1/8 inch), although they typically range from 3 to 18 centimetres (1.25 to 7 inches) in length.
  • In Britain, the use of rubber bands by the Britain’s Royal Mail postal service has caused significant media attention in the country, due to the large quantity of elastic bands found discarded on the ground everyday, so much so, that at one stage they changed the bands from brown, to red, to make them more visible, and therefore more likely to be picked up by postal workers.
  • Rubber bands are created by heating a mixture of rubber, sulfur and other chemicals into strips, that are then extruded into tubes, cured and cut into bands.
  • Rubber strips, similar to rubber bands, were first historically made by the Maya people, Aztecs and other Mesoamericans thousands of years ago.

 

5f15ee54c334e78d0e2d162b660e07f6081dd98e

Red Rubber Bands

 

March 1845, the London industrialist Stephen Perry was granted the patent for the production of elastic bands from vulcanised natural rubber. Since then, he has been considered the inventor of the rubber band, although he benefited from the work done previously by one of his compatriots. The English-speaking world still continues to dominate the headlines where rubber bands are concerned: the biggest manufacturer in the world is based in the USA. And a world record associated with rubber bands was also set in the country where opportunities are said to be unlimited.

 

They are used to keep bank notes, letters and newspapers together, to make bunches of herbs, to braid hair into pigtails or to tie it into ponytails. They stop underwear slipping down, make sure that jars of preserved food are given an air-tight seal and have recently found a new application as the mounting for hard drives in computer housings: rubber bands of varying length and thickness, with the basic shape of an uninterrupted ring, hold everyday things together reliably. Their versatility and ubiquity mean that they are taken for granted almost as much as natural objects that are simply there without anyone having to invent or make them. One of the reasons for this is that rubber bands have been in common use for many generations now and it is already almost 175 years since the patent for producing them was granted.

 

s-l300.jpg

Ponytail

 

The initial patent holder was the London industrialist Stephen Perry, together with the engineer Thomas Barnabas Daft (1816-1878), who also worked in London. The British patent no. 13880 of 17. March 1845 that was granted to the two of them related to improvements to rubber bands for straps, belts and bandages as well as to the production of elastic bands. But how were the “rubber rings” produced that were unknown until then? Very simply: by slicing hollow rubber tubing into narrow strips. In the beginning they were still anything but a mass product and were used almost exclusively to hold loose sheets of paper, newspapers and other paper products together.

41v7iFOca5L._AC_.jpg

Elastic Bandages

 

Perry has been forgotten almost completely in the meantime and has been overshadowed by such more well-known contemporaries as Charles Nelson Goodyear (1800-1860) and Thomas Hancock (1786-1865), the discoverers of the vulcanisation of rubber, or Charles Macintosh (1766-1843), the manufacturer of the first impermeable raincoat that was impregnated with rubber. So who was this Stephen Perry, about whom no biography has been written to this day and of whom no photos can be found – even in the World Wide Web? He was, first of all, the son of James Perry, who in 1824 founded a company in Manchester that specialized in the production of steel pens. They had a good reputation throughout Europe, so that “Perry pen” soon became the international synonym for steel pens. When James Perry died in 1843, his son Stephen took over management of the company and expanded the operations to include rubber bands after he received the above-mentioned patent. They were soon to become known as “Perry & Co’s Royal Aromatic Elastic Bands”. From now on, the company was called “Messrs. Perry and Co., Rubber Manufacturers of London” and co-operated first with Charles Macintosh & Co., Manchester, and later with William Warne & Co., Tottenham, where rubber bands were concerned.

 

Perry-1890.jpg

Perry Pen

 

It was no coincidence that Stephen Perry focused on rubber, because he knew Thomas Hancock, who is now considered to be the “father of the British rubber industry”. Although Perry did not intervene in the latter’s priority dispute about vulcanization with the American Charles Goodyear with his patent (“we make no claim to the preparation of the India rubber”), he benefited from this dispute. Because Hancock invested so much energy and time in the controversy with Goodyear that he failed to secure other rights for himself.

 

In 1820, he had obtained his first rubber patent, which enabled him to incorporate fine rubber threads in textile fabrics and thus to produce the predecessors of our present-day stretch fabrics. A process that, incidentally, goes back to Johann Nepomuk Reithoffer (1781-1872), the master tailor from Moravia. Hancock then established a company in London that he called “James Lyne Hancock Ltd.” after his brother and that acted as the production facility for such products as elastic garters and rubber bands for boots. He bought the raw rubber he needed for this purpose in Brazil: big lumps, in the processing of which considerable amounts were left over that were no longer any use for the production of threads of sufficient length. In order to enable the left-over rubber to be put to a different use, Hancock shredded it in an enclosed, crank-driven, hollow cylinder – and was surprised, when he opened it, to find a single, hot ball of rubber instead of the small strips he had expected. As can be explained from what we know today, the shredding operation had shortened the long molecule chain of the rubber particles – a process that takes place with the generation of a large amount of heat and increases the plastic properties of the rubber, so that it was now much easier to shape and process, as Hancock found out.

 

In 1821, the Briton therefore replaced the hand-operated apparatus with a capacity of barely five kilograms by a larger horse-driven kneading machine that could be heated from the inside and that he called a “masticator” (from the Latin word “masticare”, which means “to chew”). Hancock gradually increased its capacity to 90 kilograms and processed the masticated rubber into a wide variety of different products at his facility.

 

He started to manufacture rubber tubing and piping as early as 1822. It was not long until he had the idea of cutting them into bands and rings. Hancock was, however, unable to think of any practical use for them, particularly in view of the fact that vulcanisation was still unknown and the rubber therefore remained an extremely inconsistent material – in spite of mastication – which became hard and brittle on cold days and became very soft on warm days. So it is no surprise that Hancock did not try to market his rubber bands. What is surprising, however, is that he was not foresighted enough to secure the rights to them for the future, in the same way that he also failed to do so with the masticator – probably for secrecy reasons.

 

In 1845, Stephen Perry closed this gap with his patent application about elastic bands – with the crucial difference that they were in the meantime made from vulcanised rubber. So Perry, who died in 1873, really does deserve the credit for being the inventor of the rubber band, even if he – ironically enough – had obtained the material licence from Hancock.

 

As is generally known now, it is vulcanisation – i.e. heating with sulphur – that makes rubber more elastic and durable; a thermoplastic becomes an elastomer. What is behind this is a chemical crosslinking reaction: the linear polyisoprene chains of the natural rubber are crosslinked with each other by the addition of bridge-building sulphur, encouraged by high temperature and pressure. In order to make them particularly stretchy, most rubber bands are, incidentally, still manufactured from natural rubber, although synthetically produced rubber has been available for a long time now too, synthesised from, for example, butadiene and sodium.

 

btech-ii-engineering-chemistry-unit-3-b-

Made of Synthetic Rubber

 

It is standard procedure for rubber rings for preserved food jars to be made from vulcanised natural rubber too, so that they have tensile and tear strength properties and remain elastic for many years. The sealing of glass containers containing preserved food was invented by Rudolf Rempel (1859-1893), a chemist from Gelsenkirchen in Germany. His 1892 patent was later passed on to Johann Carl Weck (1841-1914), Rempel’s first major customer, who established the company J. Weck & Co. in Öflingen, Germany, on 1. January 1900. In 1907 the verb “einwecken” was added to the Duden German dictionary as a synonym for “to preserve”. More than 100 million rubber rings for this purpose are now sold in Germany every year.

 

Canning-Jar-Gaskets-Rubber-Rings.jpg

 

Rubber factories that manufacture them frequently produce rubber rings for bottles too, that are used to seal flip-top closures to the tops of beer and mineral water bottles. This is another example of how the rubber ring has continued to exploit its potential since Perry’s day and has been put to further uses, e.g. to align teeth in orthodontics or to shoot balls of paper around in school.

 

The biggest producer in the world is now Alliance Rubber Company in the USA, which was established in 1923 in Alliance/Ohio by William Spencer (1891-1986) and used the slogan “Holding your world together” to advertise the rubber band. A second plant was added in Hot Springs/Arkansas in 1944. In 1957, Spencer patented a standardised rubber band called the “Open Ring” that he had developed. The company reports that it manufactured rubber bands with a total weight of 6.8 million kilograms in 2017. The figure was considerably higher in 1999 at 11.6 million kilograms. The biggest customer is the United States Postal Service (USPS).

 

rubber-bands-2.png

 

The biggest rubber band ball in the world, for which Joel Waul from Lauderhill/Florida was included in the Guinness Book of Records in November 2008, was two metres high, had a circumference of 6.30 metres and weighed as much as 4,100 kilograms. He was 27 years old at the time and called the monster he created “Megaton”; it is supposed to consist of more than 700,000 intertwined rubber bands. Pretty irresponsible from both the environmental and economic points of view: Stephen Perry would certainly be astonished if he knew that we live in an age in which art for art’s sake justifies the senseless waste of a valuable raw material.

 

Source: K-Online - M. Weber

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...
Please Sign In or Sign Up