Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BABY POWDER

Did you know....  that baby powder is an astringent powder used for preventing diaper rash and for cosmetic uses. It may be composed of talcum or corn starch. Baby powder can also be used as a dry shampoo, cleaning agent, and freshener. Talcum powder, if inhaled, may cause aspiration pneumonia and granuloma. (Wikipedia)

 

Facts You Didn't Know About Johnson & Johnson
By Margaret Gurowitz  |  Jul 28, 2009

 

Strange But True:  The Baby Powder that Helped

Launch a Rocket

 

1. JOHNSON’S® Baby Powder was used by NASA to help insure the successful launch of the Apollo 8 spacecraft in 1968.  The rocket had a rubber strip holding together a covering that protected a measuring instrument.  NASA needed a means to insure that the rubber strip could slide off freely during the rocket’s launch.  A NASA engineer used some JOHNSON’S® Baby Powder that he brought in from home.  It did the job so well that he planned to use it on all subsequent Apollo launches.  [The Bulletin, The J&J Employee Magazine, February/March 1969, Vol. XXVII, No. 2, p. 10]  

 

2. In 1970, advice columnist Ann Landers noted in her nationally syndicated newspaper column that Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, N.J. had “the most immaculate and best laid out ladies room I’ve ever seen anywhere….”  Ann Landers presumably travelled quite a bit, so that recognition was a singular honor.  [The Bulletin, the Johnson & Johnson Employee Magazine, August 1970, Volume 28, No. 6]

 

Some of the Company's Early

Medicated Plasters

 

3. Medicated plasters, one of our earliest products in the 1800s, could not be manufactured on very humid days, because the humidity interfered with the manufacturing process.  (Which must have been challenging in the pre-air conditioning days over 100 years ago in humid Central New Jersey, where the plasters were manufactured.)

 

James Wood Johnson

 

4. In 1918 Company president James Wood Johnson was presented with an award by the Russian government for supplying something that helped the Russian army during World War I.  (Russia and the U.S. were allies during World War I.)  Was it sterile bandages or dressings?  No:  it was horseshoes.  Johnson had bought an interest in the Neverslip Horseshoe Company in New Brunswick, which had filled the largest order in its history for the Russian cavalry. We still have one of the horseshoes in our archives today.

 

McNeil family pharmacy: the origin of one of our operating companies

 

5. Company founder Robert Wood Johnson, Scientific Director Fred Kilmer, Revra DePuy (founder of our affiliate company DePuy, Inc.), and the McNeil family (founders of McNeil Laboratories, which became part of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies in 1959) all had one thing in common.  What was it?  They all started their careers in retail pharmacies.

 

Philip B. Hofmann

 

6. Philip B. Hofmann, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson from 1963 to 1973, spent part of his early career here successfully selling the Company’s most notoriously hard to sell product:  Lister’s Dog Soap.  And by the way, Hofmann’s father -- who steered his son toward joining Johnson & Johnson -- was a retail pharmacist too.

 

 

7. When television became part of American life in the early 1950s, Johnson & Johnson became one of its first major sponsors with TV ads and sponsorship of specific shows.  Some of the early shows the Company sponsored were The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Donna Reed Show, Cheyenne and Gunsmoke.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Baby Powder  |  Facts You Didn't Know

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WHISTLE

Carved whalebone whistle dated 1821. 8 cm long.

 

Did you know... that a whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a large multi-piped church organ. (Wikipedia)

 

Whistle History

The whistle originated in ancient China around 5000 years ago.

 

• In cs. 200, TS' AI Yen, an Ancient Chinese Woman Poet refers to the Tatar Reed Whistle in her poem titled, "18 Verses Sung To a Tatar Reed Whistle." It appears that the whistle got it's name during a war torn time during the Han Dynasty when the soldiers and civilians were fleeing death and suffering. It was used as an alert for people to know when the barbarians where sited.
•  By the 11th century, it had made it's way to Europe. Stone high crosses in Ireland have carvings of players blowing on bone pipes with narrow conical bones.
• With the 12th century, bird bone whistles were used. The High Street excavations in Dublin's old Norman quarter have yielded the oldest specimens of this Irish version of the whistle .
• In the 19th century, the "Feadan" was whistle made from from hollowed stalks of such plants as cane, elder, and wild reeds and grasses.
• As craftsmen became more proficient in bone carving and woodworking, new materials were used for the exterior, reeds and fipples or flageolets. The newer ones were made of clay.
• In 1843, the tin whistle was made by Robert Clarke after he modified the design of a wooden whistle he himself owned and played. The Clarke Tinwhistle Company is one of the largest manufacturers today.
• By 1870, the Boatswain's Pipe was used to give commands to the crew of ships. Even though the name has the word "pipe" in it, it's truly a unique whistle. The high pitched notes can be heard in the worst gales. Today it's used mostly for ceremonial purposes.
• Joseph Hudson, a Birmingham, England toolmaker, revolutionized the world of whistles in 1884. This was the world's first and leading pea whistle called the Acme Thunderer. In order to supplement the family income, Joseph had done everything from watch repair to cobbling shoes. It was his passion for whistles that prompted him to try numerous designs to perfect a whistle for the London Police
• One day while playing his violin, he dropped the violin, and the broken violin emitted a high-pitched sound, that he knew was unique and would carry a long way. He had the perfect sound for his police whistle! His whistle when tested, was heard over a mile away, and became the official whistle of the London Bobby, which is still used to this day. In 1995 Acme celebrated 125 years of whistle manufacturing.
• Plastic whistles were first manufactured in Britain in 1914, after earlier attempts to produce a satisfactory model from vulcanite (hardened rubber) had failed. This allowed design variations and colors that became popular with consumers. The components of modern plastic whistles may be either glued or ultrasonically welded together.
• Soccer games used to be refereed with white flags until 1878, when a whistle was used for the first time at the English Football Association Cup 2nd Round game between Nottingham Forest (2) vs Sheffield (0). Prior to this, games were refereed using a white flag. In 1930, the 'Pro-Soccer' whistle had a special mouthpiece and a barrel for even greater power and a higher pitch for use in a noisy stadium
• In 1935, the Acme Silent Dog Whistle became available. This is still the ultimate in training and commanding for sporting and domestic dogs. Ultra sonic adjustable frequencies features allow it to be heard for long distances.
• The first life-saving whistle was developed for use on life-jackets and flotation devices in 1949.
• By 2002, Whistle Away Crime was established in response to the communities' desire for safety in an unsafe world. We have searched and extensively tested many products on the market and have discovered that our product is far superior and unique. It's a 3 chamber whistle made of a durable plastic that is virtually indestructible. Combined with empowerment training, the Whistle Away Crime® safety training is even more unique and the perfect tool for a safer, more confident environment.

 

1860

In the 1860s, Joseph Hudson, who was a Birmingham trained toolmaker, converted his washroom at St. Marks Square, which he rented for one shilling and six pence per week, into a workshop. Here he did anything he could to supplement the family income from watch repairing to cobbling shoes. For reasons now lost in the mists of antiquity, whistles were his passion.

 

1870

The Boatswain Pipe was first designed in 1870. It was used to give commands to the crew of ships. The high-pitched notes can be heard in the worst gales. Today it is used mostly for ceremonial purposes.

 

1883

In 1883 the London Police were looking for an idea to replace the hand rattle. Inspired by a sound derived from his violin, Joseph Hudson created the perfect sounding whistle for police use. A slightly jarring, discordant trill, that would be unique and far-carrying. When tested by the Metropolitan Police in London, the whistle was heard over a mile away and immediately adopted as the official whistle of the London Bobby. It can still be seen on duty in the streets of London, and occasionally even heard.

 

1884

In 1884 the ACME Thunderer, the world's first pea whistle, was launched. Offering total reliability, control and power to the referee, it is now the world's biggest selling whistle. There is not a major league sport that has not been graced by this whistle.

 

1895

The ACME Siren, sometimes known as the cyclist's road clearer, was introduced in 1895. The unmistakable sound still finds numerous uses today. From tribal dances to marine signaling, this complex whistle made with watchmaker's precision, was the beginning of the ACME range of orchestral whistles and musical sound effects that remain popular to this day.

 

1935

Up until the 1930s, dog whistles had not been specialized. Almost anything that made a sound was used. In 1935 ACME invented the Silent Dog Whistle, another world first. Having a highly tuned and adjustable frequency range has made this the most effective whistle for trainers to communicate with their dogs, dolphins or whales.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Whistle  |  Whistle Away Crime  |  ACME Whistles

 

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - OF MICE AND MEN

Did you know... that Of Mice and Men is a novella written by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States. (Wikipedia)

 

Fascinating Facts about Of Mice and Men

Interesting Literature  |  2015

 

John Steinbeck’s original title for his classic novella, Of Mice and Men, was ‘Something That Happened’. This deliberately nondescript title was intended to remove any sense of individual blame for the events that occur in the novella (something quite different from the ironic intention behind the similarly titled play Stuff Happens, David Hare’s recent play about the Iraq War). Of Mice and Men, as the novel came to be known, focuses on two migrant workers, George (a smart, quick-thinking man) and his friend Lennie (a simpler man, who is mentally disabled but physically big and strong – ironically, his surname is ‘Small’), who work on various farms during the Great Depression in America in the 1930s (Steinbeck was drawing on his own experiences as a ‘bindlestiff’, as he also would for his next novel, The Grapes of Wrath). Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22, was possibly alluding to Steinbeck’s working title when he called one of his own later novels Something Happened.

 

 

The novel’s eventual title, Of Mice and Men, is taken from a (frequently misquoted) poem by Robert Burns. Steinbeck knew Burns’ poem ‘To a Mouse’, which describes the poet’s sadness and sense of remorse over having destroyed the mouse’s habitat when ploughing a field. In the poem, Burns concludes, ‘The best laid Of Mice and Menschemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley’ – i.e., ‘go often awry’. The lines are often misremembered and misquoted (or, if you will, adapted) as ‘the best laid plans’. But the allusion to the Burns poem neatly sums up Lennie Small’s personality in the novel: he is kind to animals but doesn’t realize his own strength, and often unintentionally ends up killing them (like Burns’ mouse).

 

The first draft of the novel was eaten by Steinbeck’s dog. Sticking with our animal theme, but moving from mice to dogs … as we revealed in our list of fascinating Steinbeck facts, Steinbeck’s dog Max chewed up and devoured the original draft of Of Mice and Men. Thankfully, Steinbeck was able to rewrite the draft!

 

 

It was published in 1937 and was an immediate hit. Of Mice and Men was a bestseller then and sales remain steady today, thanks largely to its popularity as a set text in schools and universities. The novella sold a whopping 500,000 copies in its first edition alone; in 1999, sales figures for the book in the USA alone were put at 7.5 million.

 

Despite the novel’s popularity, Of Mice and Men is – officially – the fourth most challenged book in America. According to the American Library Association in 2003, Of Mice and Men is the fourth most controversial book in the United States – ‘controversial’ in that it is one of the most challenged titles in schools and libraries, a book that many people want removed from public libraries. Of Mice and Men has been challenged largely because of the language used in the book – its use of ‘vulgar’ profanity – but also for a whole host of other perceived taboo issues: ‘promoting euthanasia’ and being ‘anti-business’ among the more unusual. What constitutes a ‘challenge’ to a book? According to the Library Association, ‘Challenges are defined as formal, written complaints filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.’ You can read the ALA’s top ten most challenged books/book series here – the Harry Potter series tops the list. You can also read more about where Of Mice and Men has been challenged, and why, here. The fact that, after J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men has the longest entry on the entire page, says much about the novella’s continued, if controversial, popularity.

 

Our recommendation for a good (annotated) edition of the novel is Of Mice and Men: With Notes. You can read more about Steinbeck in our post about him here. Learn more about American literature with these noteworthy film adaptations of classic American novels.

 

Poster of 1939 film Of Mice and Men

 

Movie available on YouTube.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Of Mice and Men  |  Facts About 'Of Mice and Men'

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PERMAFROST

Slope failure of permafrost soil, revealing ice lenses.

 

Did you know... that permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0°C for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Permafrost does not have to be the first layer that is on the ground. It can be from an inch to several miles deep under the Earth's surface. Some of the most common permafrost locations are in the Northern Hemisphere. Almost a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere is underlain by permafrost, including 85% of Alaska, Greenland, Canada and Siberia. It can also be located on mountaintops in the Southern Hemisphere. Permafrost frequently occurs in ground ice, but it can also be present in non-porous bedrock. Permafrost is formed from ice holding various types of soil, sand, and rock in combination. (Wikipedia)

 

Permafrost: Everything You Need to Know
The “permanently” frozen earth at our planet’s poles and in other cold climes is thawing, with big consequences to our climate, ecosystems, and health.
June 26, 2018  |  Melissa Denchak

 

 

Earth’s permafrost is turning out to be not so permanent in many parts of the world. As global temperatures rise, the once always-frozen ground that covers a good chunk of the world’s northern latitudes is thawing. That might not sound like such a big deal, but as our underground ice turns to squelchy muck, it’s exposing long-hidden threats to our climate, ecosystems, and health. Here’s a look at what permafrost is, why it matters, and what we can do about it.

 

What Is Permafrost?
Permafrost is any type of ground—from soil to sediment to rock—that has been frozen continuously for a minimum of two years and as many as hundreds of thousands of years. It can extend down beneath the earth’s surface from a few feet to more than a mile—covering entire regions, such as the Arctic tundra, or a single, isolated spot, such as a mountaintop of alpine permafrost.

 

How Does Permafrost Form?
Just as a puddle of water freezes on a frigid winter night, water that is trapped in sediment, soil, and the cracks, crevices, and pores of rocks turns to ice when ground temperatures drop below 32°F (0°C). When the earth remains frozen for at least two consecutive years, it’s called permafrost. If the ground freezes and thaws every year, it’s considered “seasonally frozen.”

 

Where Is Permafrost Found?
About a quarter of the entire northern hemisphere is permafrost, where the ground is frozen year-round. It’s widespread in the Arctic regions of Siberia, Canada, Greenland, and Alaska—where nearly 85 percent of the state sits atop a layer of permafrost. It’s also found on the Tibetan plateau, in high-altitude regions like the Rocky Mountains, and on the floor of the Arctic Ocean as undersea permafrost. In the southern hemisphere, where there’s far less ground to freeze, permafrost is found in mountainous regions such as the South American Andes and New Zealand’s Southern Alps, as well as below Antarctica.

 

 

How Much of the Earth’s Surface Is Permafrost?
In the northern hemisphere, permafrost covers an estimated 9 million square miles—nearly the size of the United States, China, and Canada combined. However, that footprint is rapidly shrinking. While global warming is upping temperatures around the world, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else—and faster than it has in the past 3 million years. And when surface air temperatures rise, below-ground temperatures do, too, thawing permafrost along the way. Scientists estimate there is now 10 percent less frozen ground in the northern hemisphere than there was in the early 1900s. One recent study suggests that with every additional 1.8°F (1°C) of warming, an additional 1.5 million square miles of permafrost could eventually disappear. Even if we meet the climate targets laid out during the 2015 Paris climate talks, the world may still lose more than 2.5 million square miles of frozen turf.

 

What Are the Impacts of Permafrost Thaw?
 

The loss of greenhouse gas stores
When plants and animals die, the microbes that decompose their bodies release carbon dioxide, methane, and other global warming gases into the air. A deep freeze effectively hits the pause button on that process and preserves organisms and the gases they would otherwise emit underground. When frozen soil thaws, the microbial decomposition of those organic materials—and the release of greenhouse gases—starts anew.

 

Packed with many thousands of years of life, from human bodies to the bodies of woolly mammoths, permafrost is one of earth’s great stores of global warming gases. Indeed, permafrost in the Arctic alone is estimated to hold nearly twice as much carbon as exists in the atmosphere now, as well as a sizable amount of methane—a powerful greenhouse gas that traps more than 80 times more heat on the planet than carbon does. But our warming world may jeopardize these stores. Estimates on how much carbon and methane will be released by thawing permafrost vary, but according to one study, as much as 92 billion tons of carbon could be emitted between now and 2100. For perspective, that’s equal to nearly 20 percent of all global carbon emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

 

The problem doesn’t end there, however. Looking forward, as thawing permafrost dumps more of its massive supply of greenhouse gases into the air—warming the climate and melting even more carbon- and methane-emitting permafrost—an unstoppable feedback loop may be triggered, one that could ultimately turn the Arctic from a carbon sink that absorbs emissions to a carbon source.

 

Carbon and methane aren’t the only pollutants trapped in permafrost. A recent study found that Arctic permafrost is a massive repository of natural mercury, a potent neurotoxin. Indeed, it’s estimated that some 15 million gallons of mercury—or nearly twice the amount of mercury found in the ocean, atmosphere, and all other soils combined—are locked in permafrost soils. Once released, however, that mercury can spread through water or air into ecosystems and potentially even food supplies. 

 

Crumbling infrastructure
In northern Russia, city buildings are crumbling. In Alaska, roads are turning into rollercoasters. When water turns into ice underground, it expands and the ground swells. When water thaws, the ground contracts, which can make the earth crack or cave in—as exemplified by potholes that form in the spring. About 35 million people live in a permafrost zone, in towns and cities built on top of what was once considered permanently frozen ground. But as that solid ground softens, the infrastructure these communities rely on grows increasingly unstable.

 

 

 

In Canada, disappearing permafrost is estimated to cause tens of millions of dollars in damage to public infrastructure across Northwestern Territories each year. And in Alaska, one study puts the cost of repairing public infrastructure―such as roads, train lines, buildings, and airports—damaged by thawing permafrost and other climate-related factors at as much as $5.5 billion by the end of this century. Meanwhile, as the fossil fuel industry continues to drive climate change, contributing to the warming of the planet and the melting of the world’s permafrost, it only increases the odds that its very own Arctic-based energy infrastructure will fail, imperiling local ecosystems with oil and gas leaks.

 

Altered landscapes

Thawing permafrost alters natural ecosystems in many ways as well. It can create thermokarsts, areas of sagging ground and shallow ponds that are often characterized by “drunken forests” of askew trees. It can make soil—once frozen solid—more vulnerable to landslides and erosion, particularly along coasts. As this softened soil erodes, it can introduce new sediment to waterways, which may alter the flow of rivers and streams, degrade water quality (including by the introduction of carbon), and impact aquatic wildlife.

 

 

Wetlands also deteriorate along with permafrost, as the water sinks further underground without a frozen buffer to keep it in place. This can create drier terrain more susceptible to wildfires, which expose even more permafrost to warming. The loss of permafrost can also contribute to sea level rise. Indeed, it’s estimated that if all of the earth’s permafrost thaws, sea levels could rise by as much as four inches, enough to double the flood risk for cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

 

Risk of disease?

Just as permafrost locks in carbon and other greenhouse gases, it can also trap—and preserve—ancient microbes. It’s believed that some bacteria and viruses can lie dormant for thousands of years in permafrost’s cold, dark confines before waking up when the ground warms. As scary as the notion of “zombie” pathogens sounds, however, questions remain about how great a risk these ancient microbes pose. A 2016 anthrax outbreak in Siberia, linked to a decades-old reindeer carcass infected with the bacteria and exposed by thawed permafrost, demonstrated the potential threat. But when it comes to other diseases, such as smallpox and the 1918 Spanish flu—known to exist in the frozen tundra, in the mass graves of those killed by the disease—scientists are still uncertain how likely these pathogens are to cause outbreaks. What is certain, however, is that developing the Arctic—and extracting millions of tons of permafrost to mine for precious metals and petroleum—will increase human contact with thawed, ancient, and possibly zombie pathogens.

 

How Can We Stop Permafrost from Thawing?
For most of us, the tundra and the permafrost beneath it may seem a million miles away. But no matter where we live, the everyday choices we make that contribute in some small way to climate change collectively can add up to a big impact on the world’s coldest climes. By reducing our carbon footprint, investing in energy-efficient products, and supporting climate-friendly businesses, legislation, and policies, we can help preserve the world’s permafrost and avert a vicious cycle of an ever-warming planet.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Permafrost  |  NRDC - Permafrost Facts

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PRESSURE COOKING

A stovetop pressure cooker.

 

Did you know... that pressure cooking is the process of cooking food under high pressure steam, employing water or a water-based cooking liquid, in a sealed vessel known as a pressure cooker. High pressure limits boiling, and permits cooking temperatures well above 100 °C to be reached. (Wikipedia)

 

Pressure Cooker Facts

#EveryDayThings  |  March 12, 2015

 

The regulator in this pressure

cooker is a weight on a nozzle

next to the handle on the lid.

 

Cook for 2 whistles is the mantra of Indian cooking. Any Indian origin cook will not miss a blink when they hear or read this sentence. That is because anyone who was born after 1960 in India grew up with the pressure cooker.

Hard to imagine an Indian Kitchen without pressure cooker now. It is the first utensil that would be brought for setting up the kitchen. The one dish we cannot cook without the pressure cooker is Daal or Lentils. Daal or Lentil in its many flavors and forms is the main/a source of protein in most Indian kitchens.  Just like the different ways daal is cooked, brands of Pressure cookers in India also have the North South Divide. Hawkins in the North. Below the Vindhyas, Prestige rules the roost.

 

Since pressure cookers are a boon for us in our cooking, I just thought about doing a bit of research and summarizing how they came into existence.

 

1. From authentic records, it has been established that the pressure cooker was invented by a French Physicist and Mathematician called  Denis Papin. The first version of the pressure cooker was unveiled publicly in 1679; it was called the ‘steam digestor’ to Royal Society in London for cooking bones. Denis Papin discovered a way to design a vessel made from cast iron that had the features of a pot. He also developed a suitable lid for this vessel with features that ensured it could be tightly sealed when locked. Denis Papin was able to achieve a high boiling point when water was heated in this early version of the pressure cooker. At such a high-temperature tough foods and bones cooked in the vessel became remarkably softer after cooking for a short time. The new invention was promoted as a “New Digester” for use in the kitchen, confectionaries, chemical labs, and in breweries. The humble pressure cooker has a long and checkered history after all. The same ‘steam digestor’ is also a precursor for the steam engine.  We would neither recognize the name or the object if we see it now. 

 

 

Denis Papin's steam digester (1679)

 

Using the first versions of the pressure cooker required a lot of effort. The users had to find a source of heat, usually a big burning furnace, and it was quite dangerous because of the hot steam generated while cooking. There were notable challenges in regulating the steam and temperature in the early versions of the pressure cooker. This led to the invention of a safety valve, Papin found a way to incorporate a safety valve in the newly invented digester. His efforts at inventing the pressure cooker were recognized by the Royal Society in 1680, and Denis Papin was offered a membership at the organization.

 

In a demonstration of his invention, Denis Papin cooked a meal with the pressure cooker. The audience at the performance were the members of the Royal Society and King Charles II, as well as other members of the aristocratic group. :

John Evelyn, a highly recognized Horticulturist, was present at the event. In his diary, John Evelyn noted that the supper prepared by Denis Papin revealed how the pressure cooker could be used to cook and soften the hardest bones found in beef and mutton. In his words, “the hardest bones of beef itself, and mutton were made as soft as cheese without water or other liquor, and less than eight ounces of coal.” From his descriptions, it was obvious that John Evelyn and many other guests were impressed with the outcome after using a pressure cooker.

2. 1915: The term ‘pressure cooker’ first appeared in the ‘Journal of Home Economics’.

 

 

3. 1917: USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) establishes 15 psi as an operating pressure standard for pressure cooking. This standard is followed even today.

 

4. 1939: The shape settles : In late 1930s, an engineer with National Pressure Cooking Co., E.H. Wittenberg, developed an easier sealing mechanism with a rubber gasket clamped between upper and lower handles. Wittenberg’s “home-ec seal” meant that pressure cookers, which provided the fastest as well as the safest method of preparing food, could be used for everyday cooking. In 1939, the company also introduced the first saucepan-style pressure cooker for home use, which it marketed under the trade name “Presto.”

 

 

In 1950 about 37% of the American households had a pressure cooker. So why is it that pressure cookers that were Made in America, went out of fashion? Few pressure cookers that were shoddily made without any safety standards gave the bad rep. With the introduction of microwaves and frozen food in the 1950’s , pressure cooker did not really stand a chance.

 

Vintage--1950--4 Quart WEAR-EVER

PRESSURE COOKER

 

5. The most important safety component of the pressure cooker is the “safety valve”. The average India Sati Savitri – would  regularly call it weight or whistle. This is a relic of the first generation pressure cooker. When the pressure reaches 15 psi, then the weight lifts and the pressure is released, creating the whistle or the hiss or the sound.

 

Safety valve

 

Now most of them come with an additional safety valve. The small round steel circle that pops out.

 

Coming to the Pressure cookers in India.

1955: TTK imported pressure cookers from England. Thus started the pressure cooker revolution in India.

 

1959: HD Vasudeva starts to manufacture ‘Hawkins Cookers’ in India in collaboration with LG Hawkins of England. The same year TK group starts to manufacture ‘TTK Prestige’ pressure cookers in India in collaboration with Prestige UK.

 

Parts of a Hawkins pressure cooker.

 

Hawkins based in Mumbai catered to the North and Prestige based in Chennai to the south. Thus started the North – South Divide in the pressure cookers. Now you see osmosis happening and some Hawkins end up on the Deccan Plateau too. And the same can be said about Prestige.

 

Parts of a Prestige pressure cooker.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Pressure Cooking  |  Facts about Pressure Cookers

[DarkRavie]

Fact  of the Day - SITCOMS

The main cast of M*A*S*H in 1974

 

Did you know... that a sitcom, clipping for situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. (Wikipedia)

 

Fun Facts About Our Most Loved T.V Sitcoms
by Emmy Lovein  |  FUN FACTS, HUMOR  |  September 14, 2019

 

 

We all love to watch the entertaining sitcoms with the family in the evening. And, many times, we get addicted to these popular shows. People often fall in love with the shows that have a strong connection with our imagination, and we can relate to some of these iconic characters sense of humor. The chances are you might have grown up watching some of these classic sitcoms, and even today, they are a part of your vocabulary. Well, the entertainment industry is loaded with funny and engaging shows; however, here we are going to discuss some interesting, funny, and hilarious facts about the most loved sitcoms!

 

#1. Seinfeld (1989 - 1998)

The composer of the show tweaked the theme music by some extent for every new episode, and Jerry Seinfeld himself was the only cast member to star in all 180 episodes!

 

#2. Friends (1994 - 2004)

Director James Burrows brought the six cast members on a trip to Las Vegas so they could enjoy themselves anonymously before friends got famous. Which it did! Meanwhile, Jennifer Aniston was not expected to play the role of Rachel as she was in another pilot. Even when the director shot the promo pictures for the show, she was given an option that if she cannot be in the show for the long run, she can step out of those promo collections.

 

#3. The Muppet Show (1976 - 1981)

You might have observed that most of the Muppets you have seen around are left-handed. Why so? Actually, most of the puppeteers use their right hand to operate the mouth of the puppet. It clearly means that they will use their left hand to give movement to the left hand of the puppet.

 

#4. The Cosby Show (1984 - 1992)

Bill Cosby helped compose the shows theme song and insisted that the show be filmed in New York as he didn’t like Hollywood. Famous celebrities who appeared on the show was the then 4-year-old Alicia Keys, and it was also the first professional debut for the comedian Adam Sandler!

 

#5. The Nanny (1993 - 1999)

After the cancellation of Fran Drescher’s sitcom Princesses (1991), she flew to Europe to meet her former co-star Twiggy. On her flight there she sat next to CBS executive Jeff Sagansky and talked him into a development meeting on her return to L.A. It was that trip that Dresher came up with the idea of The Nanny, which she later pitched to Jeff Sagansky, which consequently got the popular sitcom produced!

 

#6. The Simpsons (1989 - Present)

If we look at the scripts of this iconic sitcom, the catchphrase pronounced by Homer was actually written as “annoyed grunt,” but it was pronounced as “D’oh” in the show.  Bart Simpson’s name is also an anagram of the word BRAT and his full name is Bartholomew Jojo Simpson. While some audiences may think Bart’s voice is from a male, it’s actually from a talented actress Nancy Cartwright, who originally auditioned for the role of Lisa Simpson.

 

#7. The Office (2005 - 2013)

Your favorite character, Phyllis Smith in The Office, was actually working as an assistant casting director for this hilarious show. But while she was reading the lines with the actors at the time of auditions; she appeared so perfect that producers offered her to play the role of Phyllis Vance. NICE!

 

#8. The Flintstones (1960 - 1966)

As per the real story, Pebbles was expected to be a boy in the show; but then a toy company said that a girl would be more suitable for the popularity of the show as the character can be sold in the form of dolls! As per the facts disclosed by Joseph Barbera, the creator of The Flintstones, these dolls generated the overall profit of $3 million in just two months.

 

#9. The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (1990 - 1996)

Will Smith agreed to star in the show because he was in serious debt. Luckily he did as not only was the show a great success but he also met his wife Jada Pinkett Smith during auditions and they married in 1997.

 

#10. Cheers (1982 - 1993)

Ted Danson took his role seriously playing the famous role of Sam by attending a bartending school for two weeks prior to filming the hit sitcom!

 

Bonus Sitcoms

Family Matters (1989 - 1998)

Family Matters co-creator Michael Warren named the character after his friend, writer and director Steve Erkel. Due to the show and the character's tremendous popularity during the early 1990s, Erkel encountered difficulties using his own name; he received many prank phone calls from "Laura" asking for "Steve", and businesses found his name to be suspicious. Warren stated that had he known that the character would reappear for years he would not have named him after his friend.

 

Happy Days (1974 - 1984)

When "Happy Days" creator Garry Marshall first developed the series, it was initially called "Cool." That title didn't go over well with focus groups, however, and the show was soon renamed. In his book "Wake Me When It's Funny," Marshall joked that "test audiences thought ["Cool"] was about Eskimos who might have smoked."  

 

Getting clearance for popular '50s tunes was expensive, so Anson Williams, who played Potsie, would sometimes provide the singing voice heard coming through the jukebox at Arnold's.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Sitcom  |  Sitcom Fun Facts

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - OUTER SPACE

Part of the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

image showing a typical section of

space containing galaxies interspersed
by deep vacuum. Given the finite speed of light,

this view covers the past 13 billion

years of the history of outer space.

 

Did you know... that outer space is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles, predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, neutrinos, dust, and cosmic rays. (Wikipedia)

 

Facts About Outer Space
Eclipses are basically cosmological miracles.

BuzzFeed Staff: Terri Pous | August 1, 2017

 

1. We're able to have solar eclipses because the sun is exactly 400 times the size of the moon, but the moon is 400 times closer to Earth.

That's right, you can thank simple geometry for one of the most stunning natural phenomenons. The perfect matchup of those proportions is why it appears that the moon perfectly obscures the sun during a total eclipse. But thanks to the moon's changing orbit, in about 50 million years, it will no longer blot out the sun perfectly.

 

2. The sun makes up more than 99% of the solar system's mass.

The sun is frickin' HUGE. The rest of the solar system's mass is split among the eight planets and their own little moons, comets, asteroids and assorted dust and gas surrounding the sun.

 

3. And if the sun were the size of a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a nickel.

Hey everyone, we're living on a tiny planet. So tiny, in fact, that more than one million Earths could fit inside the sun.

 

4. There's an asteroid that has rings, like Saturn.

Chariklo is a "small object" (aren't we all) that has two icy rings around it (don't we all). It orbits between Saturn and Uranus, and it's only about 154 miles across.

 

5. There's also a planet made of diamonds that's two times the size of Earth.

Artist's impression of 55 Cancri e near its host star

 

The "super earth," aka 55 Cancri e, is most likely covered in graphite and diamond, making our dirt and water planet look like a real dud.

 

6. And it rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn.

Hailstones made of diamond form when "lightning storms turn methane into soot (carbon) which as it falls hardens into chunks of graphite and then diamond," according to the BBC. The largest diamonds are about one centimeter in diameter.

 

7. Oh, and there's another planet where it rains glass sideways

Artist’s impression of the deep blue planet

 

In 2013, the Hubble telescope spotted a blue planet that kind of looked a lot like Earth — except that that planet has a temperature of about 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit, and it rains glass sideways, at about 4,300 miles per hour.

 

8. All of space is almost completely silent.

In space, no one can hear you scream, but no one can really hear anything, anyway. There are some vibrations and sound waves that are imperceptible to humans, but overall, space is a vacuum, and it's pretty darn quiet.

 

9. One of Saturn's moons is walnut-shaped because it's absorbed some of Saturn's rings.

Look at the little UFO-shaped planet! Pan's distinctive equatorial ridge isn't because it really wants to look like a ravioli; instead, it's because the moon accumulates some of Saturn's runoff ring particles as it orbits. Scientists first theorized that Pan had its unusual shape in 2007, but it wasn't confirmed until it was photographed for the first time in March 2017.

 

10. The largest asteroid in the solar system is a whopping 329 miles in diameter.

Vesta

It's called Vesta, and yes, 329 miles is really big — that's about 25 times the length of Manhattan.

Click the link  below to read more facts about outer space.

 

 

Source: Facts About Outer Space  |  Wikipedia - Outer Space 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CREATION MYTH

The Creation (c. 1896–1902)

painting by James Tissot

 

Did you know... that a creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths – metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally. (Wikipedia)

 

Creationism

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

 

Creationism, the belief that the universe and the various forms of life were created by God out of nothing (ex nihilo). It is a response primarily to modern evolutionary theory, which explains the diversity of life without recourse to the doctrine of God or any other divine power. It may also reject the big-bang model of the emergence of the universe. Mainstream scientists generally reject creationism.

 

Biblical, or young-Earth, creationists believe that the story told in Genesis of God’s six-day creation of all things is literally correct and that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, as extrapolated from the biblical genealogies that begin with Adam, the first man. Others, such as old-Earth creationists, believe that a creator made all that exists, but they may not hold that the Genesis story is a literal history of that creation. These creationists often accept fossils and other geological evidence for the age of Earth as factual and may or may not hold that God used the big bang in the creation of the universe. Both types of creationists, however, believe that changes in organisms may involve changes within a species (often understood as the “kind” mentioned in Genesis 1:24) or downward changes such as negative mutations, but they do not believe that any of these changes can lead to the evolution of a lower or simpler species into a higher or more-complex species. Thus, the theory of biological evolution is disputed by all creationists.

 

“Adam and Eve,” detail by Giulio Clovio from the Book of Hours of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese

 

Creationism became the object of interest among conservative religious groups following the publication in 1859 of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1809–82), the first systematic statement of evolutionary theory. Within two decades most of the scientific community had accepted some form of evolution, and most churches eventually followed suit. In the early 20th century, some state legislatures in the United States banned the teaching of evolution on the ground that it contradicted the biblical creation story, which they considered a revealed truth. The result was the famous Scopes Trial (the so-called “Monkey Trial”) of 1925, in which a high-school teacher, John T. Scopes, was convicted of unlawfully teaching the theory of evolution (he was later acquitted on a technicality). Creationism has largely been promulgated by conservative Protestant Christians.

 

Charles Darwin cartoon "Man is but a Worm"

 

In 1950 Pope Pius XII released an encyclical confirming that there is no intrinsic conflict between the theory of evolution and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, provided that Catholics still believe that humans are endowed with a soul created by God. In 1996 Pope John Paul II expanded and reiterated the church’s position, affirming evolution as "more than a hypothesis."

 

William Paley.
From The Works of William Paley, D.D., by The Rev. Edmund Paley, A.M., 1838

 

Beginning in the late 20th century, many creationists advocated a view known as intelligent design. This view, which claimed to draw from modern science, was a contemporary interpretation of the argument from design for the existence of God as set forth by the Anglican clergyman William Paley (1743–1805). Intelligent design is not accepted by all creationists, however, because many of its proponents leave open the identity and nature of the “intelligent designer” of the universe, rather than equating it with the God of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Today most creationists in the United States favour the elimination of evolution from the public school curriculum or at least the teaching of creationism alongside evolution as an equally legitimate scientific theory.

 

 

Source:  Wikipedia - Creation Myth  |  Britannica - Creationism

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - DISCO ERA

The ceiling of an Arlington, Texas discothèque.

 

Did you know... that Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars. (Wikipedia)

 

DISCO: A COMPLETE HISTORY

Vis for Vintage  |  June 7th, 2012

 

Disco music is still enjoyed today in the 21st century, but the flamboyant fashions have been relegated to vintage fancy dress and costume parties. However, disco fashion is so popular because the clothes are so fun and flamboyant you can really show your extrovert side. Disco is not dead. Here is a complete history of disco and disco fashion.  The heyday of disco fashion blossomed from the music played at gay underground New York clubs such as The Loft, The 10th Floor, and 12 West in the early 1970s. Other clubs such as Infinity, Flamingo, The Paradise Garage, Le Jardin, and The Saint launched a disco culture that brought with it an anything-goes attitude and all-night dancing.

 

 

Studio 54 became the place to be seen in disco clothing such as boob-tubes, platform shoes, flared trousers and body-conscious shapes dressed in lurex, glitter and crazy patterns or colours. Studio 54 played an essential role creating the nightclub scene that is still with us today – a place where people dress to be noticed and in the latest fashion.

 

The successful movie Saturday Night Fever (1977) ensured that disco hung around for a few years before becoming very unfashionable when Punk Rock and New Wave became the new anti-fashion fashion. But what happened before the 1970s to influence the style of disco that we are so familiar with today? Let’s go back in time and take a look……….

 

THE DAYS BEFORE DISCO

1900-1933: In the US, people dance in clubs to a piano or jukebox. This nightclub scene goes underground with Prohibition until 1933 when nightclubs become popularised again with the use of big bands and swing music.

 

 

Spring 1939 – The Swing Kids are a small middle-class German youth movement dedicated to jazz and the flamboyant fashion that accompanies the music. They come together to dance and to show off their latest moves and jazz clothes. The Swing Kids are reacting against the growing Nazi movement (which saw jazz culture as a bad influence with it’s ethnic and international culture). Despite being a non-violent refusal of the dominant culture, the group is closed down by the SS (try the movie Swing Kids (1993) to see the story).

 

In Occupied France, jazz and bebop music and the jitterbug dance are banned by the Nazis. They are labelled as degenerate influences. French Resistance groups meet at hidden underground dance clubs called ‘discotheques’. They dance to swing music played either on a juke box or on a single turntable. Dancers wear zoot suits just like the swing dancers in America.

 

Edward James Olmos

 

1942 – La Discotheque, a basement nightclub with only one turntable opens in Paris. The term ‘discotheque’ is used in Europe to describe clubs where there is no live music played. Later in Paris (1947) Paul Pacine opens the Whiskey A-Go-Go club – one of the first ever nightclubs.

 

At Whiskey A-Go-Go in 1953 DJ Regine uses two turntables with no breaks between the music. There is a dance-floor, coloured lights and no juke-box.

 

Late 1950s. Meanwhile in London, coffee bars in Soho become the trendiest places to be seen such as was Les Enfants Terribles at 93 Dean St. However, these cafes are unlicensed. Frequented by French and Italian immigrants, they cater to the very young who want to dance in the afternoon. In 1950s London, the rock and roll hipsters prefer bars and taverns to nightclubs (the nightclub is not really mainstream here until the 1970s).

 

It is early 1960s, and Mark Birley opens a members-only discotheque nightclub, Annabel’s, in Berkeley Square, London. 1961: the US goes Twist crazy. By 1962 New York’s Peppermint Lounge becomes the hip place to be seen twisting the night away on your own or with a partner or two – anything goes. So now people are dancing frequently without a partner. The Peppermint Lounge is witnessing the birth of go-go dancing. In the UK, Roger Earle DJs at The Twisted Earle in Manchester UK, and creates the foundation of the Northern Soul scene (which would have a big impact on Disco).

 

 

The Twist                                    Go-Go dancing

 

THE DAWN OF DISCO
It is 1965 and Arthur opens in New York City with DJ Terry Noel (the first DJ to mix records). Other clubs such as Regine’s, Le Club, Shepheard’s, Cheetah, Ondine also open in the mid-1960s. Meanwhile over in Europe in 1966 records such as Hold Me Closer and Baby Come Back become hits and kickstart the Euro disco scene. The club scene in Paris hots up with new clubs named Chez Castel and Chez Regine.

 

New York, 1969, and a club named The Continental Baths opens and The Sanctuary opens on West 43rd Street with now legendary DJ Francis Grasso. Jerry Butler’s Only The Strong Survive record is released. It pioneers the Philly Sound that would become one of the most important elements of Disco music history.

 

Such clubs entertain and engage the growing confidence of marginalised groups at this time. African American, lesbian and gay, psychedelic, Latino mix with hipster heterosexuals in the New York City and Philadelphia clubs during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In a decade of growing social fragmentation and lifestyle choices, the reaction against the dominant white rock music and culture in America champions the dance music scene of the jazz heyday. Disco also appeals to women, newly liberated by the pill and feminism now a topic of the modern workplace. Women seek to go out unchaperoned, get dressed up, spend their hard-earned wages and dance the night away to funk, Latin and soul music.

 

Many disco sounds and sights also take inspiration from hippy culture elements such as psychedelia, free love, colourful clothing and drug-taking. It is the era of the counter-culture, the dawning of the Age of Aquarius and emancipation and freedom. Meanwhile, back in Paris, clubs are playing erotic tracks like Serge Gainsbourg’s Je T’aime,...Moi Non Plus and long, smooth tracks such as Isaac Hayes’s Walk On By.

 

By 1970, DJ David Mancuso and his Loft parties begin in New York, becoming a forerunner of many more private clubs to come. His parties are members-only affairs at his home.

 

Early songs hinting at a disco sound include Bla Bla Diddly (Giorgio Moroder, 1966), You Keep Me Hangin’ On (The Supremes, 1966), Only the Strong Survive (Jerry Butler, 1968), Message to Love (Jimi Hendrix’ Band of Gypsys, 1970), Soul Makossa (Manu Dibango, 1972), Keep on Truckin’ (Eddie Kendricks,1973) and The Love I Lost (Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes,1973).

 

1971: Disco reaches television with the Soul Train music and dancing show. 1973: The first article about disco is written in  by Vince Aletti for Rolling Stone.

 

DISCO DANCING
1973: Karen Lustgarten introduces her disco dance lessons in San Francisco. Her book, The Complete Guide to Disco Dancing (Warner Books, 1978), is the first to name, break down and teach popular dances from disco. The book is a bestseller and translated into several languages.

 

 

Individual styles are choreographed to match the different disco sounds and vocals. The Hustle becomes a common name for a number of stylized moves. This partner-dance uses elaborate hand movements and funky twists and turns, influenced by swing dancing of the 1930s and 40s. Other dances also influence the style of disco dancing such as the Latino moves of Mambo and Salsa. Dancing in a line is popularised first in Florida and then New York City, during the early 1970s.

 

DISCO FEVER 1974-77

 

From 1974 – 1977, disco music continues to increase in popularity as many disco songs top the charts. In late 1977 disco fever peaks with the release of the movie Saturday Night Fever. Seen as a marketing tool to broaden disco’s popularity beyond the counter-culture, it is a huge success and the Bee Gees soundtrack becomes one of the best-selling albums of all time.

 

In the late 1970s disco becomes firmly fixed into the mainstream pop culture. Existing non-disco songs are frequently given the disco treatment. The rich orchestral accompaniment that identifies with the disco era conjures up the memories of the big band era. In turn, several big band artists record disco arrangements including Perry Como. Classical orchestral arrangements also become disco-fied as long musical tracks gain popularity on the dancefloor. Even Ethel Merman is at it, releasing an album of disco songs The Ethel Merman Disco Album in 1979. It would seem that everyone is doing disco.

 

1970S DISCO FASHION
Disco fashions are very popular by the mid-1970s. Even Elvis is wearing a flared jumpsuit cut to the navel. Discotheque-goers of New York are wearing expensive and extravagant fashions for nights out: slinky, wrap dresses by Diane von Furstenberg; flowing Halston dresses for women and polyester, patterned Qiana shirts for men with pointy collars, preferably open at the chest. The leisure suit becomes popular with double-knit polyester shirt jackets and matching trousers.

 

The trend for these ready-to-wear accessible couture styles quickly filter down into affordable high street fashion for this anything-goes era of fashion. Men become peacocks displaying bright colours, flamboyant patterns and showy jewelry.

 

For women, 1970s fashion began with a continuation of the mini skirts, bell-bottoms and the androgynous hippie look from the late 1960s. But the 1970s trend for disco brings fashion to a new level of flamboyance. The fashionable turn away from the childlike look of the late 60s to a more sophisticated, sexually-aware and mature style. These styles become part of popular culture until everyone and their grandma is wearing them.

 

 

Here’s a rundown of these distinct must-have items that have come to define the disco era of the 1970s:

HOTPANTS:

Hotpants were popular among young women since 1971. These shorts were very tight and very short (as short and as tight as possible). Originally designed to be worn with thick opaque tights, the anything-goes attitude meant that hotpants would get worn any way possible – tights or no tights.

 

PLATFORM SHOES:

Appearing in fashion in 1971 platform-soled shoes elevated both men and women at least 2-4 inches from the ground. Despite helping to keep wide-long flares from trailing on the ground, there was little practicality in these shoes.

 

FLARED JEANS/TROUSERS:

 
Trousers were fast becoming a more popular choice for women in the early 70s. Labels became important as a fashion status symbol with Vanderbilt and Fiorucci jeans becoming must-have items. Trousers are practical and freeing for the liberated working woman.

In a departure from the 1960s hipster trousers, styles were high-waisted and tight-fitting around the hips and thighs, flaring out to cover those lofty platform shoes. The width of flares got so silly that people were falling over them whilst getting their platform shoes caught in all the extra fabric.

 

There was a choice of flexible man-made fabrics allowing for anything from the plain white satin look to full psychedelic colours and floral patterns. Flared trousers lost their fashion edge in the mid 1970s, however, and skin-tight trousers became the must-have item for dancing (women) and a more roomy/less structured trouser shape (for men).

 

 

Click the link below  to read more about the History of Disco.

 

Source: Disco History  |  Wikipedia - Disco

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SOAP

Bar of hand-made soap.

 

Did you know... that soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are used as thickeners, components of some lubricants, and precursors to catalysts. (Wikipedia)

 

Facts about soap, the most popular hygiene product in the world.

Rompa Group  |  June 2020

 

For years, soap has been a core aspect of many people’s personal hygiene routine. Especially in times that require extra hygiene, we cannot do without soap. At first glance, there is nothing unusual about this common product, but its history is indeed quite interesting. 

 

Soap Proctor Gamble

 

1. Soap has been around for at least 4,800 years: even the ancient Egyptians used a substance that was similar to our modern soap.

Records show ancient Egyptians bathed regularly. The Ebers Papyrus, a medical document from about 1500 BC describes combining animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to form a soap-like material used for treating skin diseases, as well as for washing.
 
2.  Soap is made from alkali and animal fat (tallow). Because of its natural origins, soap is both environmentally friendly and biodegradable.

Tallow soap was traditionally made from fat sourced from sheep or cows. Tallow is the marbled white fat you see on cuts of meats in a butchery. It’s solid at room temperature. As we mentioned, soap is made from a chemical reaction between a fat and an alkali ingredient. Tallow soaps are made by mixing animal fat with sodium hydroxide, more commonly known as lye. Lye is highly corrosive, but when it mixes with tallow it undergoes a reaction called saponification. After the reaction, a fatty acid salt is formed, known as sodium tallowate.

 
3.  The name “soap” is derived from the fictional Mount Sapo, which is mentioned in an ancient Roman legend.

Mount Sapo is a fictional mountain supposed to exist somewhere near Rome, presumably in Italy. It appears in a fanciful rewriting of the history of soap, and it is often claimed to explain the origins of the name. The tale occurs in a number of online sources, including the website of The Soap and Detergent Association. The story about Mount Sapo explains that upon its slopes, ancient Romans used to sacrifice animals as burnt offerings. Wood ash from the fires of their altars mingled with the grease from the animal sacrifices, forming a primitive kind of soap. This soap found its way to the clays of a nearby stream, where local people found that it helped them get their laundry cleaner. Soap gets its Latin name, sapo, from the name of the mountain.
 
 4. Candlemaker William Procter and soap manufacturer James Gamble founded Procter & Gamble – better known as P&G – way back in 1837.

The history of the Procter & Gamble Company, formed in 1837, is not nearly as well known as its wide variety of products. With over 250 brand names Procter & Gamble is the largest consumer goods company in the United States; virtually every American uses a Procter & Gamble product every day. Pringles potato chips, Sunny Delight citrus drinks, CoverGirl makeup, Crest toothpaste, and Tide detergent are some of Procter & Gamble's most popular brands.
 
 5. In the nineteenth century, Italy, Spain and France were the soap capitals of the world.

Two discoveries by French chemists helped elevate the progress of commercial soap making. In 1791, the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc discovered a process for transforming common salt (sodium chloride) into an alkali called soda ash. Since alkali was critical in the manufacture of soap as well as other products, this discovery became one of the most important chemical processes of the nineteenth century. In 1811, Chevreul discovered the chemistry behind the relationship of glycerin to fatty acids. With the advent of the industrial revolution, the stage was now set for mass soap production.

 

6. In 1865, American William Shepphard received a patent for the first liquid soap, also known as “improved liquid soap.” It was not like the liquid soap we know today, but rather a viscous, syrupy substance. The soap was mainly used in public places where proper hygiene was important, e.g. hospitals and restaurant kitchens.

The first liquid soap was patented in 1865, by William Shepphard. He’s often credited for inventing it, but considering his patent was officially listed as “Improved Liquid Soap,” it seems clear there was liquid soap around already. In his patent, Shepphard announced he’d discovered that adding “small quantities of common soap to a large quantity of spirits of ammonia or hartshorn” produced a thickened liquid comparable in consistency to molasses. Much of the liquid soap that preceded Sheppard’s patent was used for industrial purposes, and much that followed it was as well, with hospitals and public places included in bottle of oranges essential oil - beauty treatment.
 
7. In 1927, P&G was one of the first soap brands to sponsor radio broadcasts and advertise its soap products to housewives.

Count soap operas among Procter & Gamble’s many successes. P&G was one of the first companies to sponsor daytime serial dramas on the radio in the 1930s to advertise their products to housewives. The shows were associated with sponsors such as P&G’s Oxydol, Daz and Ivory soaps and were dubbed “soap operas.” P&G was prolific, producing several long-running soap operas for radio and television. The company first dipped into radio in 1927, underwriting NBC’s “Radio Beauty School” to advertise Camay perfumed soap.

 
8. The radio broadcasts took the form of soap operas, the most successful of which was The Guiding Light. This show was developed by Irna Philips in 1937 and was sponsored by P&G White Naphta Soap. From 1952, the show was also broadcast on television. To this day, we still refer to such shows as “soaps.”

• “Guiding Light” (1952 to 2009) is listed in the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the longest-running TV drama, running 57 years. Including radio, it ran 72 years, a total of 18,262 episodes.
• “Search for Tomorrow” (1951-86) advertised P&G’s Joy dishwashing liquid and Spic and Span household cleaner.
• “The Brighter Day” (1954-62) was created by Phillips for radio in 1948, and was the only soap with an overt religious theme.
•  
• "The Edge of Night” (1956-84) was conceived as a daytime version of “Perry Mason,” but Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner had a fight with CBS and backed out. Instead, “Edge” was a thinly veiled copy with John Larkin, who portrayed Mason on radio. The show was set in the fictional Midwestern town Monticello, but the opening credits showed the Cincinnati skyline.
• “As the World Turns” (1956 to 2010), Phillips’ sister show for “Guiding Light,” debuted the same day as “The Edge of Night” and became the second-longest running show, lasting 54 years. “As the World Turns” ended its run on Sept. 17, 2010, the last P&G-owned soap opera.
• “Another World” (1964-99) was supposed to be a spinoff of “As the World Turns,” thus the name, but it was picked up by a different network.

 

9. From 1964, American entrepreneur Robert Ridgely Taylor invented and developed hundreds of variants of the common bar of soap at his own kitchen table. His real success was still to come, though.

A former Johnson & Johnson salesman, he struck out on his own in 1964 and formed Village Bath Products, later renamed the Minnetonka Corp. The classic American entrepreneur, he started out small, hand-rolling balls of soap, but was determined that he could compete with hulking conglomerates, such as his former employer and Procter & Gamble. One day, he had an epiphany. “I thought how ugly bar soap is, and how it usually messes up the bathroom,” he told the New York Times years later. “I thought, ‘Why not a high-quality liquid soap that comes in an attractive bottle?’ ” He described Softsoap — dispensed with the gentle press of a miniature pump — as “soap without the soapy mess.” Its arrival was heralded by a staggering $6 million advertising campaign. Even more staggering was a go-for-broke gamble by Mr. Taylor that became a twice-told tale of business school.

10. In 1966, P&G spent $161 million on TV ads for soap.

 

 

Click the link below  to read more about Historical Soap Facts.

 

Source: Historical Soap Facts  |  Wikipedia - Soap 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SEXTANT

Did you know... that a sextant is a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measures the angular distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant is to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of celestial navigation. (Wikipedia)

 

FACTS ABOUT SEXTANTS

Sea Chest  | August 2017

 

 

A classic piece of nautical navigation, the sextant is an intricate and fascinating device that has been used since the eighteenth century to measure the altitude of celestial bodies, as well as horizontal and vertical angles and heights of shore objects. From the origins of the first ever sextant to the evolution of the design that led to their beautiful construction, Sea Chest has put together a list of the most interesting facts to celebrate this iconic marine instrument - and who knows?  Maybe you'll want to buy one for yourself!

 

#1. When translated from Latin it means "sixth part" because the shape of the instruments arc is one sixth of a circle. The term is also used to include other similar reflecting instruments such as the quadrant - used to measure angles up to 90 degrees - as well as the quadrant, quintant, and octant.

 

Octant

 

#2. Sextants can be used to measure the distance between the moon and other celestial bodies to determine Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Map of current official time zones.

 

#3. Unlike most modern navigation tools such as GPS, the sextant doesn't require any electrical power to function, meaning they still serve as a great reserve navigational tool on board ships to this day.

 

#4. Sextants are incredibly precise due to their clever construction - measuring celestial objects relative to the horizon and not the instrument itself.

 

#5. The first sextant was made in 1759 by John Bird, one of the most famous craftsman of mathematical instruments. His early sextant designs were made from a heavy mahogany and ivory construction before being streamlined later on by other instruments makers to lighter wooden frames, and then in the nineteenth century they were crafted from fine brass.

 

 

#6. Sextants can be used at night to observe the stars.

 

#7. To use a sextant correctly, navigators lift it using their left hand and then hold it in their right hand by the handle and look at the sea horizon.

 

 

#8. A sextant doesn't require that you use it with perfect aim, making the instrument incredibly effective on a moving vessel - both the horizon and the stars or planets will remain steady in their relative position.

 

#9. In hot and tropical climates, sextants were often painted white to reflect sunlight and stay cool, preventing a change in temperature from warping the frame or arc.

 

#10. Although heavy, the classic brass construction of a sextant means they are less susceptible to shaking when being used at sea compared to lighter materials.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Sextant  |  Facts about Sextants

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NATURE

A winter landscape in Lapland, Finland

 

Did you know.... that nature, in the broadest sense, is the natural, physical, material world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. (Wikipedia)

 

Nature Facts
BY LISA FELDKAMP  |  APRIL 22, 2018

 

 

All year the Cool Green Science team has been bringing you stories of nature’s quirky, unexpected, alright sometimes just downright weird side. We’re celebrating Earth Day with nine stories that prove science fact is sometimes stranger than science fiction.

 

Really Weird Anthropocene Animals

 

FACT: Male mallards are extremely aggressive during breeding season, to put it mildly. So aggressive that they’ll readily breed with other species, resulting in some really wild-looking hybrids.  From cloned wolves to high-cholesterol foxes to radioactive pigs, learn more about the weirdest creatures now roaming the age of humanity.

 

Owls in the Outhouse

 

FACT: Owls and other cavity nesting birds are sometimes attracted to and fall down the vent pipe on public outhouses.  There’s an owl in the toilet – and that’s not a joke. Here’s why birds get into outhouses and what we can do about it.

 

Strange Shrews Facts

 

FACT: Some shrews use echolocation: they emit sounds producing sonar that helps them navigate their world (much like bats).  They walk on water, they’re one of the few venomous mammals in the world, and they can win epic battles with snakes and scorpions. Learn more about one of the most ferocious and bizarre predators, and it’s probably roaming near you.

 

The Magnificently Weird Mola Mola

 

FACT: The mola’s odd shape disguises its true claim to fame: it’s the heaviest bony fish in the world.  Slimy and brimming with parasites, they’re shapeshifters that out-gun every vertebrate fish in the ocean and even dupe unwitting scientists. Meet the Mola mola, quite possibly the weirdest fish in the sea.

 

Insanely Weird Plants

 

FACT: Instead of capturing insects, like most pitcher plants, Nepenthes lowii evolved to capture the excrement of tree-dwelling mammals and birds, like the Mountain Treeshrew.  Meet the plant that eats shrew poo, the orchid that has sex with itself, and the embarrassingly phallic titan arum.

 

Cyanide Millipede

 

FACT: If you were to pick up a yellow-spotted millipede, it would likely curl into a spiral and exude hydrogen cyanide on you, accompanied by the strong scent of toasted almonds.  Cyanide millipedes use chemical warfare to ward off predators. They also make critical nutrients available in forest ecosystems. Read more about these amazing, yet understudied, critters.

 

Fantastic Fecal Phenomena

 

FACT: Each day a single wombat lovingly deposits between 80 and 100 cube-shaped pellets all around the edge of its territory.  Where there is life, there is also poop. And that’s where things get interesting. Read on for seven incredible tales of excrement from the natural world.

 

Cool Facts About Water Striders

 

FACT: The water skipper’s legs are so buoyant they can support fifteen times the insect’s weight without sinking. Even in a rainstorm, or in waves, the strider stays afloat.  They walk on water, they devour mosquito larvae and they have one of the most disturbing mating rituals on earth. Take a close look at this common insect of Northern Hemisphere ponds, creeks and puddles.

 

 

Herbivorous Swamp Wallaby

 

FACT: Though rare, there are documented reports of other generalist macropods eating carrion: In 2013 a western grey kangaroo was filmed eating a dead seabird on the beach in Western Australia. Several tree-kangaroo species are reported to eat birds and reptiles in captivity.  The first detailed recorded observation of a swamp wallaby eating carrion. Have you ever observed a macropod consuming carrion?

 

Source: Wikipedia - Nature  |  Strange and Surprising Nature Facts
 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - AMERICAN FRONTIER

 

Did you know... that the American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, includes the geography, history, folklore, and cultural expression of life in the forward wave of American expansion that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few territories as states in 1912. This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase, giving rise to the expansionist attitude known as "Manifest Destiny" and the historians' "Frontier Thesis". (Wikipedia)

 

Things You Didn’t Know About the Old West

ELIZABETH HANES  |  ORIGINAL:SEP 17, 2013  |  UPDATED:MAY 20, 2019

 

 

1. Failed bandit Elmer McCurdy’s corpse had a more interesting life than the man did.

In 1911, Elmer McCurdy mistakenly robbed a passenger train he thought contained thousands of dollars. The disappointed outlaw made off with just $46 and was shot by lawmen shortly thereafter. McCurdy’s unclaimed corpse was then embalmed with an arsenic preparation, sold by the undertaker to a traveling carnival and exhibited as a sideshow curiosity. For about 60 years, McCurdy’s body was bought and sold by various haunted houses and wax museums for use as a prop or attraction. His corpse finally wound up in a Long Beach, California, amusement park funhouse. During filming there in 1976 for the television show “The Six Million Dollar Man,” the prop’s finger (or arm, depending on the account) broke off, revealing human tissue. Subsequent testing by the Los Angeles coroner’s office revealed the prop was actually McCurdy. He was buried at the famous Boot Hill cemetery in Dodge City, Kansas, 66 years after his death.

 

2. Feral camels once roamed the plains of Texas.

One of the wackier ideas in American history, the U.S. Camel Corps was established in 1856 at Camp Verde, Texas. Reasoning that the arid southwest was a lot like the deserts of Egypt, the Army imported 66 camels from the Middle East. Despite the animals’ more objectionable qualities—they spat, regurgitated and defied orders—the experiment was generally deemed a success. As the Civil War broke out, exploration of the frontier was curtailed and Confederates captured Camp Verde. After the war, most of the camels were sold (some to Ringling Brothers’ circus) and others escaped into the wild. The last reported sighting of a feral camel came out of Texas in 1941. Presumably, no lingering descendants of the Camel Corps’ members remain alive today.

 

3. Thanks to a Winchester rifle, we know Billy the Kid wasn’t left-handed.

A famous tintype photograph of Billy the Kid shows him with a gun belt on his left side. For years, the portrait fueled assumptions that the outlaw, born William Bonney, was left-handed. However, most tintype cameras produced a negative image that appeared positive once it was developed, meaning the end result was the reverse of reality. There’s another reason we know the picture was a mirror image and that Billy the Kid was thus a righty: he poses with his Winchester Model 1873 lever-action rifle. The weapon appears to feature a loading gate on the left side, but Winchester only made 1873s that load on the right.

 

4. The California Gold Rush of 1849 wasn’t America’s first gold rush. It wasn’t even the second.

Reed Gold Mine

When young Conrad Reed found a large yellow rock in his father’s field in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, in 1799, he had no idea what it was. Neither did his father, John Reed. The family reportedly used it as a doorstop for several years, until a visiting jeweler recognized it as a 17-pound gold nugget. The rush was on. Eventually, Congress built the Charlotte Mint to cope with the sheer volume of gold dug up in North Carolina. In 1828 gold was discovered in Georgia, leading to the nation’s second gold rush. Finally, in 1848, James Marshall struck it rich at Sutter’s Mill in California, and thousands of Forty-Niners moved west to seek their fortunes.

 

5. The famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral wasn’t much of a shootout and didn’t take place at the O.K. Corral.

One of the most famous gunfights in history—the shootout between the three Earp brothers (Morgan, Virgil and Wyatt), Doc Holliday, Billy Claiborne, the two Clanton brothers (Billy and Ike) and the two McLaury brothers (Frank and Tom)—didn’t amount to much. Despite the involvement of eight people, the gunfight only lasted about 30 seconds. Furthermore, the shootout didn’t take place within the O.K. Corral at all. Instead, all the shooting occurred near the current intersection of Third Street and Fremont Street in Tombstone, Arizona, which is behind the corral itself. Bloodshed made up for the brevity, though: three of the lawmen were injured and three of the cowboys killed.

 

6. The Long Branch Saloon of “Gunsmoke” fame really did exist in Dodge City—and still does. Sort of.

 

Anyone who watched the television show “Gunsmoke” growing up is well acquainted with Miss Kitty’s Long Branch Saloon of Dodge City, Kansas. What viewers may not have realized is that the Long Branch really did exist. No one knows exactly what year it was established, but the original saloon burned down in the great Front Street fire of 1885. The saloon was later resurrected and now serves as a tourist attraction featuring a reproduction bar with live entertainment. According to the Boot Hill Museum, the original Long Branch Saloon served milk, tea, lemonade, sarsaparilla, alcohol and beer. Marshal Matt Dillon and Festus sporting milk mustaches? Now there’s a storyline.

 

7. One pivotal Civil War battle was fought in an unlikely place: New Mexico.

Depiction of the Battle of Glorieta Pass during the campaign, dubbed the "Gettysburg of the West"

In a bold move designed to fill rebel coffers with Cripple Creek gold, Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley invaded New Mexico Territory from the south in early 1862, believing he could march right up the Rio Grande and take Colorado. Unbeknownst to Sibley, however, the First Regiment of Volunteers in Colorado caught wind of the scheme and marched 400 miles south in just 13 days to join the Yankees at Fort Union, near Santa Fe. Instead of a cakewalk, Sibley’s forces wound up fighting what many historians call the “Gettysburg of the West.” After just two days of skirmishing, Union troops—probably relying on local ranchers as guides—outflanked the Confederates and burned their supply train. After that, it was a long, slow march back to Texas for the rebels, who never returned.

 

8. Forget Jamestown. The oldest settlement in the United States is Acoma Pueblo.

It’s no revelation that Native American settlements predate European ones, but it may surprise some people that Acoma Pueblo, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been continuously occupied since the 12th century. The Acoma still inhabit their “Sky City,” a settlement of about 4,800 people that sits atop a 365-foot high mesa. Traditionally hunters and traders, the Acoma people now make their income from a cultural center and casino complex. Coincidentally, the oldest state capital in the United States is Santa Fe, which recently celebrated its 400th anniversary.

 

9. The first film cowboy wasn’t a cowboy at all.

Widely credited with inventing the Western film genre, Broncho Billy Anderson, star of 1903’s “The Great Train Robbery,” was born Maxwell Henry Aronson in 1880, the son of a traveling Arkansas salesman. As soon as Aronson was old enough, he hightailed it to New York City, where he produced or acted in literally hundreds of films. Cast somewhat by chance in “The Great Train Robbery,” Aronson decided to capitalize on its success by creating the Broncho Billy persona. Aronson ended up writing and starring in dozens of short Western films, becoming the first cowboy matinee idol.

 

10. Jesse James was larger than life—so much that his body required two graves.

James' farm in Kearney, Missouri, pictured in March 2010

Few outlaws were as notorious during their own lifetimes as Jesse James. Though he lived a quiet existence in Kearney, Missouri, after his bank robbing days were over, old friends—and enemies—never forgot him. After Jesse was murdered, he was buried in the front yard of his farm to thwart grave robbers. As the years passed and his enemies died off, he was reinterred in a Kearney cemetery by his family. So who’s that lying in the Jesse James grave in Granbury, Texas? A man named J. Frank Dalton who came forward around 1948, at age 101, claiming he was the “real” Jesse James. A court even allowed him to legally adopt the bandit’s name. No one knows why Dalton made this claim or if he ever had any link to Jesse James. Regardless, mitochondrial DNA showed decades later that James is indeed buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kearney—but his legend also lives on in Granbury.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - American Frontier  |  Facts About the Old West

Edited February 2, 2021 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CANADIAN FRONTIER AND PIONEER LIFE

Did you know... that Canadian frontier thesis was developed by Canadian historians Harold Adams Innis and J. M. S. Careless. They emphasized the relationship between the center and periphery. Katerberg argues that "in Canada the imagined West must be understood in relation to the mythic power of the North." [Katerberg 2003] This is reflected in Canadian literature with the phrase "garrison mentality". In Innis's 1930 work The Fur Trade in Canada, he expounded on what became known as the Laurentian thesis: that the most creative and major developments in Canadian history occurred in the metropolitan centers of central Canada and that the civilization of North America is the civilization of Europe. Innis considered place as critical in the development of the Canadian West and wrote of the importance of metropolitan areas, settlements, and indigenous people in the creation of markets. Turner and Innis continue to exert influence over the historiography of the American and Canadian Wests. The Quebec frontier showed little of the individualism or democracy that Turner ascribed to the American zone to the south. The Nova Scotia and Ontario frontiers were rather more democratic than the rest of Canada, but whether that was caused by the need to be self-reliant at the frontier itself, or the presence of large numbers of American immigrants is debated.  (Wikipedia)

 

Fort “Whoop-Up”

Gerry Bernie  |  September 2014

 

Canada’s bad ole days…

The exterior of Fort “Whoop-Up” around

1873-4. Notice the trade flag flying above

the turret.;

 

Established by Montana fur traders in 1869, Fort Whoop-Up was a whiskey post founded  by a group of unscrupulous traders bringing the proud Blackfoot Indians to a state of degeneration, taking their furs and guns in exchange for a potent drink called “Whoop-Up bug juice.”  This was made by mixing a quart of whisky, a pound of chewing tobacco, a handful of red pepper, a bottle of Jamaica ginger and a quart of molasses; the mixture was then diluted with water and heated to make “fire water.”

 

Fort Whoop-Up” reconstruction.

 

There were terrible massacres among the Indians and the white traders.  One of the worst was a battle at Cypress Hills, in May 1873, between a party of “wolfer” and a tribe led by Chief Little Soldier.  The “wolfers” were men who killed animals for their furs by spreading strychnine poison over the ground.  They were hated by the Indians and the other white fur traders.

 

The battle was started when a “wolfer” accused Little Soldier’s band of stealing his horse.  Later it was found grazing on a hillside, having just strayed away.  The “wolfers” rushed the Indian camp, killed Little Soldier and cut off his head, which they mounted on a pole.   They then murdered the women and their children.

 

The 778-mile “Great March” undertaken

by the North West Mounted Police in 1874.

 

This prompted the fledgling Canadian government to pass a Bill in May, 1873, that sought to bring order to the frontier, encourage settlement, and to establish Canadian authority through the creation of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP). One of the NWMP’s first goals was to control the trade at Fort Whoop-Up, but after a arduous march from Fort Garry, Manitoba, to Alberta (778 miles, and including Samuel Steele)  they found that it had been essentially abandoned. After unsuccessfully trying to buy it, the NWMP rented accommodations at the fort until 1888, when fire destroyed a large portion of the structure. By the early 1900s, the fort had become uninhabitable, with many of the early buildings removed or destroyed by flood or human salvage. In 1946, a commemorative cairn and plaque were placed at the fort, and in 1967 a replica was built in Indian Battle Park, nine kilometres to the northwest of the original location.

 

Pioneer Life

Article by Susan Jackel  |  February 7, 2006
Updated by Julia Skikavich  |  March 4, 2015

 

As each new area of Canada was opened to European settlement, pioneers faced the difficult task of building homes and communities from the ground up. Pioneer life revolved around providing the basic necessities of existence in a northern wilderness — food, shelter, fuel and clothing. Pioneering life was integral to family life and provided social stability for the settlement of a larger population across the country.

 

 

Founding and Settlement
Some pioneer settlers brought personal belongings, including furniture, kitchen utensils, books and ornaments. Some settled on land prepared by Colonization Companies or within reach of villages or towns. For most, however — especially before roads, canals and railways provided communication and transportation of goods — pioneering on all of Canada's frontiers meant isolation, deprivation and hardship. Success was often measured by sheer survival. Yet, usually within a few years, primitive pioneering was followed by relative comfort, and the prospect of security and even prosperity for one's children. Persistence, optimism, thrift, resourcefulness and the acceptance of unremitting hard work became character traits valued by succeeding generations long after pioneer conditions had passed.

 

 

Pioneer houses varied according to local building materials and the newcomers' origins and means. But in all cases, dwellings had to be designed to withstand Canada's long, cold winters. A settler's first house was usually a one-room structure made of logs, fieldstone, spruce poles or prairie sod (see Log Houses; Sod Houses). Frame or brick houses with partitions, second storeys, glass windows and shingled roofs signaled the end of pioneering. The original dwelling was often then converted to a stable.

 

 

Furniture was often homemade. Consider, for example, the chair made from a barrel, described by Catharine Parr Traill in The Female Emigrant's Guide (1854). Cloth for blankets and clothing, carpets to cover wood floors, pails, and children's toys were also homemade. The mending of boots, harnesses and tinware sometimes had to await the arrival of a travelling tradesman.

 

 

 

Providing fuel for the huge fireplaces, which were usually the dwelling's only source of heat, was a constant chore. Timber was plentiful in many areas but still had to be felled, trimmed, cut into lengths and carried home.

 

Pioneer diet depended on local produce and was generally nourishing but monotonous. Diaries and travelers' accounts (see Exploration and Travel Literature) tell of pork served three times a day, month-in and month-out. The meals varied only by incorporating coarsely ground meal cakes, stewed dried apples, preserved small fruits and berries, and potatoes and other root vegetables. But game, fish and wildfowl were abundant in most places, and home gardens, dairy cattle and domestic fowl soon led to a more rounded and appetizing menu.

 

 

Culture and Economy
Pioneers adapted familiar institutions such as churches, schools, local government, and the web of social manners and customs, to new conditions. The characteristic co-operative principle found expression in community work parties — also known as bees — for house building, barn raising, clearing fields and making quilts. It was also reflected in local organization and relations between the sexes. A church might serve Presbyterians in the morning and Methodists at night. A school district would be speedily formed, with the teacher being paid by local assessment and boarded around the community. Settlers worked together to build roads, to attract tradesmen and small industry, and to promote the prosperity of their district.

 

 

Pioneers on fur-trading, lumbering, mining and ranching frontiers were usually single men. But women joined in the settlement of New France in the 17th and 18th centuries. They also were pioneers in the Maritimes and Upper Canada from 1760 to 1860, and throughout the prairie homesteading era, from 1870-1914. Women's work was essential to the comfort and long-term success of a farm operation.

 

Canadian immigration and the Dominion Lands Policy encouraged family life as a guarantee of social stability and a larger population. Pioneer women worked tirelessly for their family's material and cultural betterment. Although they suffered loneliness and hardship, the women’s courage and strength gave them a place of respect in Canadian life.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Canadian Frontier  |  Canadian Frontier History  |  Pioneer Life

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SEA SHANTY

Did you know.... that a sea shanty, chantey, or chanty is a type of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor on board large merchant sailing vessels. The term shanty most accurately refers to a specific style of work song belonging to this historical repertoire. (Wikipedia)

 

What are Sea Shanties?
By Shamseer Mambra  |  In: Life At Sea  |  Last Updated on January 15, 2021

 

 

Long before the arrival of Radio, Television and other technological marvels as a medium of entertainment, it was those folk songs and other traditional art forms kept us delighted. Such traditional art forms were developed according to local cultures in another particular environment. Mostly, these songs and stories were existed and practiced within specific communities who share something in common such as ethnicity, region, religion, or occupation.

 

In particular, a large number of such folk songs were created as a means of entertainment during work hours. These songs, commonly known as work songs, were used to coordinate people working together and also improve the efficiency of the job. Additionally, these songs helped workers to relieve the boredom of a tedious job.

 

What Is a Sea Shanty?

Sailors lived before the era of digital entertainments also developed work songs which helped them to work smoothly abroad the vessels throughout the months-long journeys. Sea Shanties are similar work songs that were created and used by sailors on the square-rigged ships of the Age of Sail, a period (16th to the mid-19th century) in which the international trade and warfare were dominated by the sailing ships.

 

The usage of a sea shanty is believed to have started as a way of combating the monotonous nature of the arduous marine requirements. These were the songs sung by seafarers to give their mundane chores a semblance of pleasure and merriment. Though, contrary to people’s interpretation, these songs were used only when the seafarers were working or in the process of fulfilling certain prescribed tasks, instead of being used a tool for whiling away time aboard a vessel.

 

Here is an example of a Sea Shanty appeared in the movie Moby Dick:

• Shantyman: Our boots and clothes are all in pawn
• Sailors: Go (pull) down ye blood red roses, go(pull) down.
• Sailors: A'-rovin'

 

Origin of Sea Shanty
The origin of the word shanty still remains unknown despite the existence of a number of inconclusive theories. According to the consistently offered claim, the etymological origin of the shanty is from the French word Chanter, which means “to sing.” It is believed that the word shanty was introduced in the mid-19th century to denote a distinct genre of work song, which was developed especially in American-style merchant vessels. However, while the evolution of chanter to shanty is accepted widely across the world, in the then-modern American marine lingo, the term chanter was transformed to “chantey,” as a way of separating contextual connections with the British jargon.

 

Types and Usage of Sea Shanties
Among other work songs, the shanty genre remains distinct due to its formal characteristics and the specific manner of use, among others.

 

Typically, a shanty was performed in a call-and-response format, in which one sailor would call out a verse, prompting other sailors to respond in unison. Within these two parts, knows as the chant and the chorus, a shantyman would start the lyrics establishing the beat only to let the chorus to join in.

 

The songs were divided into several categories according to the group of labourers' it belonged to. In general, the shanties are divided into three categories: the long haul, short-haul and Capstan shanties.

 

The long haul shanties (or long-drag shanty), also known as halyard shanties were sung during heavy jobs carried out for a long time. Mostly, the halyard shanties are used to coordinate hauling and often used to set sails. For this type of shanty, a chorus comes at the end of each line. Also called a "halyard shanty". Sung with the job of hauling on halyards to hoist, over an extended period, topsail or topgallant yards. Usually there are two pulls per chorus as in "Way, hey, Blow the man down!" Examples: "Hanging Johnny," "Whiskey Johnny," "A Long Time Ago," and "Blow the Man Down."
 

Sample: "Hurrah for the Black Ball Line" (video), led by Peter Kasin on the ship Joseph Conrad at the Mystic Sea Music Festival, 2010.  This helps the sailors coordinate themselves by taking a deep breath and getting a fresh grip in between pulls. ‘Blow the Man Down’ is one of the popular long-haul shanties.

 

The short-haul or short drag shanties were used for tasks that need quick pulls over a relatively short time. Sung during the unfurling or shortening sail, these songs feature steady rhythm, helping the sailors work at the same pace to get the job done safely and efficiently. Also called a "[fore/main]sheet shanty". Sung for short hauling jobs requiring a few bursts of great force, such as changing direction of sails via lines called braces, or hauling taut the corners of sails with sheets or tacks. These are characterized by one strong pull per chorus, typically on the last word, as in "Way, haul away, haul away "Joe"'!" Examples: "Boney," "Haul on the Bowline," and "Haul Away Joe."
 

Sample: "Haul Away Joe" (audio), sung by A. Wilkins, Eastern U.S., ca. 1930–32. From the U.S. Library of Congress, R. W. Gordon Collection.

 

‘Paddy Doyle’s Boots’, is one of the short-haul shanties and it was specifically used for furling the sails. Sailors used the Capstan or the Windlass shanties for long repetitive tasks that required a sustained rhythm. The song was used when the crew around the capstan to raise and lower heavy sails or the ship’s anchors. ‘Drunken Sailor’ is perhaps one of the most famous capstan shanties known to the public.

 

 

In addition to these, there were also songs known as Pumping shanties, which were practiced when battling with leaks in the wooden ships. As the old wooden sailing ships slightly leak naturally, it was grueling work for the seamen to drain out the water in the bilge of the vessel. Similarly, the whaling shanties denote the difficulties of working aboard a whaling ship.

 

Sailors abroad whaling ships, which undertake months-long journeys, face worst and life-threatening circumstances. It was these whaling shanties gave them the strength to overcome and survive the harshness and dangers. As mentioned earlier, the sea shanties’ rhythms helped sailors coordinate the efforts abroad the vessel. Thus, the focus of these working songs was on the rhythm and beat, allowing every sailor to sing and be part of the group. Similarly, it wasn’t expected of the seafarers to possess really great singing skills, as the sole purpose of these songs was to maintain a unique line of command which would help the seafarers carry out their work in a more orderly manner. Likewise, the melody and the lyrics of every song used to be an impromptu conjuring instead of a planned and detailed composition.

 

 

 

The ditty’s lyrics and the tune used to follow the pattern and the movement of the chore. As we discussed, right from the movement of the horizontal windlasses to the raising of the winches and sails, each chore had a sea shanty composed and belted out by the sailors.

 

With the huge role that the sea shanties have to play abroad the sailing vessel, the integration of sea shanties in the day-to-day lives of the sailors was an important feature of the marine days of the 19th century. Apart from tagging and composing verses while carrying out sailor duties, seafarers also used sea songs as a way to reconnect with their kith and kin left behind on land. Such sailor songs were different from sea shanties and were called as fo’c’sle, the tag derived from the housing accommodations of the seafarers on the vessel. These songs were poignant and highly emotional and helped the sailors to develop an additional sense of belonging in the vast ocean.

 

The Decline of Sea Shanties Culture
Like work songs, shanties flourished during a period of about five decades since its birth, minimizing the burden of work aboard ships. However, the development of the vessel construction and use of technology aboard the ship paved the way for more streamlined vessels. The resultant reduction in time and effort took by the seafarers to carry out even the simplest of the routine tasks led to the decline of the sea shanties towards the 1900s. 

 

Still loved by modern sailors, the sea shanties are now rarely used as work songs since the modern vessels do not require a large group of people to complete as task aboard. Though presently there is no active use of sea shanties, there exists a vast repertoire of such sailor songs collected and presented to the world by sea shanty enthusiasts.

 

Through the videos and even though the available lyrics put down, one can try and connect with these song marvels, whose actual glimpse the maritime community will never be able to hear or visualize.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Sea Shanty  |  Marine Insight

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ARMADILLOS

A Nine-banded Armadillo in the Green

Swamp, central Florida.

 

Did you know.... that armadillos are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths. (Wikipedia)

 

Odd Facts and Stories About Armadillos
BY MISS CELLANIA  |  AUGUST 13, 2015

 

Three-banded Armadillo - Paignton Zoo

 

Armadillos are small New World mammals often called speed bumps for their habit of crossing roads too slowly, and they carry their own suits of armor around with them. And that's just the beginning of what makes these animals really, really interesting.

 

1. The name armadillo came from the Spanish terms meaning “little armored one.” They eat grubs and insects, small reptiles, worms, and sometimes plants. They have a keen sense of smell but poor eyesight, which is common among animals that dig in the dirt.

 

Nine-banded Armadillo

 

2. You can eat armadillo, called “possum on the half-shell,” or, during the Great Depression, “Hoover hogs.” They are said to taste somewhat like pork. Find some recipes for armadillo meat at Eat the Weeds. 

 

Armadillo Species

 

3. The giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) is the biggest species of armadillo, growing up to 39 inches long.

 

Giant Armadillo

 

4. The pink fairy armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus) is the smallest of the 20 or so armadillo species, growing to only about six inches long! It is found in central Argentina. These tiny ‘dillos have pink armor and feet, and fluffy white fur. By the way, most armadillos can grow hair, particularly on their undersides, but most have sparse, spiky hair. 

 

Pink Fairy Armadillo

 

5. The screaming hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus vellerosus) can be found in Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia. As its name might suggest, the animal has long hair growing out from between its armor scales and screams loudly when threatened.

 

Screaming Hairy Armadillo

6. The Brazilian three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus) and the southern three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes matacus) are the only armadillo species that can roll themselves up in a ball. Both are found in South America. It had to have been one of these species that inspired Rudyard Kipling's Just So story "The Beginning of the Armadillos,” in which Kipling wrote that armadillos were created when a turtle and a hedgehog taught each other how to defend themselves by growing armor and rolling up in a ball.

 

Three-banded Armadillo

 

7. The three-banded armadillo was the mascot of the 2014 World Cup tournament in Brazil. Because it curls up in a ball, see?

 

Three-banded Armadillo

 

8. The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) is the only species common in the U.S. It ranges throughout the American South, from Texas to the Atlantic and as far north as Nebraska. It is also common in Mexico. Though their name would suggest otherwise, nine-banded armadillos can have anywhere from seven to 11 bands in their armor.

 

Nine-banded Armadillo

 

9. Nine-banded armadillos always give birth to identical quadruplets. That’s a litter of four developed from a single fertilized egg.  

 

Nine-banded Armadillo and babies.

 

Armadillos in the News

 

10. The armor that an armadillo carries around is tough and then some. In April of this year, Larry McElroy fired a 9mm pistol at an armadillo in his yard in Georgia. The bullet ricocheted off the animal’s armor and into a mobile home belonging to his mother-in-law, 100 yards away. The bullet went into the back of the recliner McElroy’s mother-in-law was sitting in. She was taken to a hospital with minor injuries; the armadillo did not survive the encounter. Then, in July, a man in Cass County, Texas, attempted to shoot an armadillo and ended up shooting himself in the head when the bullet ricocheted back at him. Or at least, those were the stories both shooters told the police.

 

 

11. Armadillos are the only animals besides humans that are affected by Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy. Nine people in Florida have tested positive for leprosy this year; all report encounters with armadillos. However, it’s not a situation that should cause panic. There are normally 150 to 200 cases in the U.S. every year, and Hansen’s disease is quite treatable if caught early. There are also millions of armadillo encounters, but since 95 percent of people are already immune to leprosy, the odds of catching it from an armadillo are small.

 

12. Armadillos may be brave and determined, but they aren’t known for their intelligence.

 

 

This critter in Jackson, Mississippi, recently found himself in a deep, underfilled water fountain outside City Hall. The videographer was rather far away, so the camera doesn’t stay steady. He manages to get out, but can he stay out?

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Armadillo  |  Odd Facts About Armadillos

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FISHERY

Salmon spawn in a salmon fishery within

the Becharof Wilderness in Southwest Alaska.

 

Did you know..... that a fishery is the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life. Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both in fresh water and the oceans. About 500 million people worldwide are economically dependent on fisheries. (Wikipedia)

 

Shocking Facts About Fishing That You Need to Know

Kim Johnson  |  May 29, 2020

 

Trillions of fish are killed every year for human consumption, with no consideration given to the pain inflicted on the animals and little thought to the environmental impact. Since fishing occurs typically out at sea, it’s easy to distance ourselves from the problem – out of sight, out of mind. However, the truth is that fishing impacts all of us. Here are three shocking facts about the fishing industry.

 

 

20 PERCENT OF FISH COMES FROM ILLEGAL FISHERIES: Up to one in five internationally traded fishes come from illegal fishing. Protected species are also fished en masse and end up on our plates. In addition to animal suffering, there is the exploitation of people: people living in poverty are lured into illegal fishing with false promises, and once they’re on board, there is no going back. Former workers report how entire teams were enslaved and forced to work without wages. Abuse, beatings and work until complete exhaustion are commonplace on such ships. Workers in these situations get very little sleep and some of them are still children. In addition, illegal fishing causes extreme damage to the ocean, as environmental regulations are typically not followed.

 

 

THE FISHING INDUSTRY POLLUTES THE OCEAN: 10 percent of the world’s plastic waste in the ocean comes from so-called “ghost nets,” nets lost or abandoned at sea. This lost fishing gear decomposes very slowly and can remain in the oceans for several centuries. Countless sea animals get caught in the nets and die in agony from starvation or suffocation. Once the fishing gear has shrunk, small pieces of it are ingested by fish, marine mammals and birds, causing many of the animals to get sick and die. The plastic even eventually gets into the systems of humans who eat fish. Marine ecosystems are extremely damaged by the garbage from fishing, which in turn has a major impact on our environment and the climate.

 

 

FISHLESS OCEANS ARE A REAL POSSIBILITY: In commercial fishing, huge nets don’t discriminate – they capture everything in their path. This creates incredible amounts of so-called “by-catch,” marine animals who were not the actual “catch target” and are therefore thrown overboard dead or injured. Aquaculture, also known as “fish farms” where tens of thousands of fish are held together in overfilled tanks or sea pens, also contribute to the overfishing problem. This is because the majority of fish raised on fish farms eat smaller species. These smaller fish are still caught via commercial fishing and fed to the farmed fish. For every 2 pounds of farmed fish, up to ten pounds of wild marine animals are caught. If we continue our excessive consumption of fish at the current rate, experts predict we will see fishless oceans by the year 2048. This is important because the ocean plays a big part in regulating temperature—it also creates fifty percent of our oxygen on Earth. 

 

 

ACT NOW TO CHANGE THINGS: Fishing exploits the underwater world and is an industry based on the cruel mass killing of innocent living things. In addition, fishing greatly contributes to the destruction of our only home! In order for conditions within the industry to improve, our voices need to be heard. Fish are capable of feeling pain and emotions in the same capacity as other animals, and they deserve  protection and respect. Use your purchasing power and say NO to eating fish, and switch to healthier, plant-based alternatives. The fish and the planet will thank you.

 

Canadian Fishery Facts You May Not Know

by Oceana

 

 

A recent survey by Oceana Canada found that eight out of 10 of us agree that fishing is an important part of our Canadian identity. While you may think fishing is important, how much do you really know about Canadian fisheries? Read on to impress your friends and family by sharing these fun facts at your next cocktail party or gathering.

 

1. We are in the top 25 fish-producing countries in the world. Canada has the world’s longest coastline and is responsible for 2.76 million square kilometres of ocean. This real estate makes us one of the world’s major fishing nations, catching 1.1 million metric tons of fish each year and consistently ranking within the top 25 fish-producing countries in the world.
2. Our fisheries produce delicious and nutritious low-cost food. Wild seafood is a renewable resource that requires minimal freshwater to produce, emits little carbon dioxide, uses no arable land and produces a lean protein at a cost-per-pound that is lower than other animal proteins.
3. They’re part of our everyday life. Fishing weaves into Canadians’ lives in many ways — 53 per cent of us eat seafood regularly, 23 per cent of us fish for recreation and 8 per cent know someone who works in the commercial fishing sector. While men are more likely to fish recreationally, one in five Canadian women also enjoy the sport.
4. They’re in trouble. Canadian fish stocks are in bad shape — only 24 per cent are considered healthy, and the abundance of our marine stocks has declined by 55 per cent since 1970.
5. You can help. Eat sustainable seafood by buying products certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or with the SeaChoice logo, or look for farmed fish approved by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. Start a conversation with your loved ones in person or on social media, or join an organization that protects our fisheries, like Oceana Canada. 

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Fishery  |  Shocking Fishing Facts  |  Canadian Fishery Facts

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WHALING

Eighteenth-century engraving showing

Dutch whalers hunting bowhead whales

in the Arctic.

 

Did you know... that whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil which became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. It was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16th century, it had risen to be the principal industry in the coastal regions of Spain and France. The industry spread throughout the world, and became increasingly profitable in terms of trade and resources. Some regions of the world's oceans, along the animals' migration routes, had a particularly dense whale population, and became the targets for large concentrations of whaling ships, and the industry continued to grow well into the 20th century. The depletion of some whale species to near extinction led to the banning of whaling in many countries by 1969, and to a worldwide cessation of whaling as an industry in the late 1980s.

 

The earliest forms of whaling date to at least c. 3000 BC. Coastal communities around the world have long histories of subsistence use of cetaceans, by dolphin drive hunting and by harvesting drift whales. Industrial whaling emerged with organized fleets of whaleships in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of factory ships along with the concept of whale harvesting in the first half of the 20th century. By the late 1930s more than 50,000 whales were killed annually.  In 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling because of the extreme depletion of most of the whale stocks.

 

Contemporary whaling is subject to intense debate. Canada, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea, the United States and the Danish dependencies of the Faroe Islands and Greenland continue to hunt in the 21st century. Countries that support commercial whaling, notably Iceland, Japan, and Norway, wish to lift the IWC moratorium on certain whale stocks for hunting. Anti-whaling countries and environmental groups oppose lifting the ban. Under the terms of the IWC moratorium, aboriginal whaling is allowed to continue on a subsistence basis. Over the past few decades, whale watching has become a significant industry in many parts of the world; in some countries it has replaced whaling, but in a few others, the two business models exist in an uneasy tension. The live capture of cetaceans for display in aquaria (e.g. captive killer whales) continues. (Wikipedia)

 

Whaling

WRITTEN BY Gordon Jackson
Reader in Economic History, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Author of The British Whaling Trade and others.

 

Whaling, the hunting of whales for food and oil. Whaling was once conducted around the world by seafaring nations in pursuit of the giant animals that seemed as limitless as the oceans in which they swam. However, since the mid-20th century, when whale populations began to drop catastrophically, whaling has been conducted on a very limited scale. It is now the subject of great scrutiny, both by formal regulatory bodies and by nongovernmental organizations.

 

Japanese factory ship hauling a minke whale through a slipway in the ship's stern, 1992.

 

Whaling has been documented in many sources—from Neolithic cave art to present-day annual reports of the International Whaling Commission—but there is no firm proof as to what people first engaged in the practice. Prehistoric inhabitants of far northern coastal regions, lacking adequate agriculture, developed successful whaling techniques using Stone Age weapons. By the time the Inuit (Eskimo) of eastern and western North America were first encountered by Europeans, they had already mastered whale hunting, and many Inuit methods were used as recently as 1900. For the Inuit, a captured whale supplied food, fuel, and light; sinews provided cordage, and bones were used for tools and construction. Not until the 20th century, when floating factory ships came into use, did other civilizations succeed in the same efficient use of the whole carcass. Elsewhere, from the first intensive hunting of whales in the early 17th century to the early 20th century, little more than blubber and baleen was used, and the remainder of the animal was discarded. Each successive discovery of new whaling grounds resulted in the near disappearance of a particular species. The efficiency of modern hunting methods hastened this trend to the point that the industry has all but taken its place in history, leaving only a few enterprises to carry on in a limited fashion.

 

The History Of Whaling

International whaling developed in stages that were determined by changing demand, diminishing stocks, and advancing technology. A lengthy primitive stage eventually led to commercial whaling; new markets and technical and chemical advances then produced modern whaling, which led to virtual extinction of the quarry and a return to a primitive stage. The commercial stages were dominated overwhelmingly by northern Europeans and Americans—first the Dutch, then the British and Americans, and finally the Norwegians and British. Only at the very end, when Europeans no longer found the trade profitable, did they surrender the remaining whales to the Russians and Japanese.

 

whaling history
A brief history of whaling.

 

Primitive whaling
Archaeological evidence suggests that primitive whaling was practiced by the Inuit and others in the North Atlantic and North Pacific by 3000 BCE, and it continues in a number of remote cultures to the present. The quarry has always been small, easily beached whales, such as belugas and narwhals, or larger species that would come close to shore to breed in sheltered bays. The Japanese used nets, and the Aleuts used poisoned spears. The Inuit successfully hunted large whales from skin boats, employing toggle-head harpoons attached by hide ropes to inflated sealskin floats. A number of harpoons were darted into a whale, impeding its escape until a safe kill could be made with a lance. In Europe, Nordic people hunted small whales, and in Iceland laws addressed whaling in the 13th century.

 

The forerunners of commercial whaling were the Basques, who caught northern right whales as they gathered to breed in the Bay of Biscay. Docile, slow-moving, and sleeping on the surface, the whales were chased by rowboat, struck by harpoon, “played” like fish, and then lanced. Their bodies, which floated after death, were towed to shore for stripping and boiling of the thick blubber and processing of the baleen. When seaworthy oceangoing ships were built, Basques set off in search of other whaling bays and found them—perhaps as early as the 14th century and certainly by the 16th—across the Atlantic off the coast of southern Labrador.

Early commercial whaling
While the Basques acquired experience, northern Europeans developed more capital and better markets. Drafting Basque whalemen for Arctic explorations, the English Muscovy Company initiated the exploitation of whaling bays around the island of Spitsbergen in 1610. The Dutch followed immediately and, with a combination of violence and better business organization, broke the English monopoly, which had already stifled competition. Smeerenburg (“Blubbertown”) was built on Spitsbergen after 1619. In its heyday during the 1630s and ’40s, Smeerenburg had 150 men servicing whalers that hunted the Greenland right, or bowhead, whale in the surrounding Arctic Ocean.

 

Photo of a working whaling station in

Spitzbergen, Norway, 1907.

 

The demise of Arctic bay whaling in the mid-1650s owed less to overfishing than to a miniature ice age that lasted for the rest of the 17th century. Smeerenburg shut down in the 1660s, although Dutch and German whalers navigated the open-sea ice. Whales were flensed (stripped) alongside the vessels, and their blubber, preserved to some extent by the cold, was taken home in barrels. This Greenland phase of whaling extended into the Davis Strait after 1719 and was dominated by the Dutch and Germans until the 1780s, when Britain forged ahead in order to service its industrial revolution.

 

Since the 1690s the British had pursued extensive “fishing” from bay stations in the North American colonies, and Cape Cod, Long Island, and Rhode Island became new centres of activity. There a new type of whaling was inaugurated in 1712, when a Nantucket vessel caught the first sperm whale, whose waxy oil and spermaceti were worth far more than right whale oil. Sperm whales are smaller than right whales and are pelagic, living in the open ocean. Sperm whaling lured expeditions into warmer waters, where rapid putrefaction of blubber was overcome in midcentury by the introduction of onboard rendering. Henceforth, voyages were limited only by the whaler’s capacity and the crew’s endurance. Hunts extended into the whale-rich seas of the Pacific, and four-year cruises became common, often mixing pelagic whaling with sealing and bay whaling for right whales. This vanguard incidentally opened the Pacific to British and American explorations and annexations.

 

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, whaling vessels were chiefly merchant ships (occasionally barks) transporting equipment, crews, and catch. They were double-hulled and reinforced with beams against sea ice and were heavily armed against attack. Displacing 250–350 tons, these vessels were two or three times the tonnage of the average merchant ship for the sake of cargo capacity. Three tiers of barrels could be crammed below deck, while crews berthed on the half deck. American whaling ships were initially smaller than British vessels and were painted to look like warships. During the 19th century purpose-built barks measuring 30–45 metres (100–150 feet) and displacing 300–400 tons became more common, and in the 1850s clipper ships gained favour.

 

After being killed by whaleboat crews, the whale was secured alongside the ship and cut

into pieces, which were cooked in the try-pots. The resulting oil was casked and stored

below the decks.

 

Throughout this period, catching was by hand-thrown harpoon from double-ended boats carrying five to seven men. The boats usually measured seven to nine metres long, and in America they were made of half-inch cedar planks. European Arctic boats were stronger, carver-built craft with oak frames and three-quarter-inch fir planking. Harpooners and boatsteerers were the key men when the strike was made. After the harpoon hit its mark, the whale was “played” at the end of ropes and killed by lance when exhausted. The catch was then towed to the whaler, where blubber and baleen were cut away by men either working from fragile platforms or walking with spiked boots directly upon the carcass. Finally, what was left of the animal was winched on deck for cutting, casking, and carrying home. From about 1760 onward, sperm whales were rendered in “try-works”—a pair of very large cast-iron pots (try-pots) on a water-filled brick structure approximately two by three metres situated near the forward hatch. The only other technical innovation of this period—the harpoon gun—was introduced around 1800 but proved to be a failure.

 

The whaleboat was towed by a harpooned whale until the animal tired. Lances

were then used for the kill.

 

Both northern and southern whaling entered the doldrums about 1860. The U.S. fleet of over 700 vessels (New Bedford alone registered 429 in 1857) declined rapidly, owing principally to the discovery in Pennsylvania of petroleum (1859), which replaced sperm oil and spermaceti candles. The British Arctic fleet was devastated in the 1830s and ’40s by overfishing and frozen seas. The introduction of whale-product substitutes, such as vegetable oil, steel-boned corsets, and gas lamps, was partially offset by rising industrial demand. Residual whaling activity continued in the South Pacific and the Davis Strait until about 1914, and the taking of North Pacific right whales from San Francisco continued into the 1920s.

 

Click the link below  and scroll down to Modern Whaling to read more about Whaling.

 

Source: Britannica - Whaling  |  Wikipedia - Whaling  |  History of Whaling

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - JERRY LEWIS

Did you know... that Jerry Lewis, nicknamed "The King of Comedy", was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, who appeared in over sixty films and other media, from the Martin & Lewis partnership with singer Dean Martin to on his own as a soloist. In addition to his work behind the scenes as director, producer and screenwriter, Lewis helped develop and popularize "video assist", the closed-circuit apparatus enabling film directors to see what had been shot without waiting for developed film footage.

He raised awareness for muscular dystrophy during his 55 years as national chairman and spokesman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, most notably through his Labor Day telethon. (Wikipedia)

 

Jerry Lewis
BY Michael Barson
Michael Barson is the author of more than a dozen books that examine various facets of American popular culture in the 20th century, about which he has been interviewed by National Public Radio on several occasions.

 

Jerry Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly (1964),

directed by Frank Tashlin.

 

Jerry Lewis, original name Joseph Levitch, (born March 16, 1926, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.—died August 20, 2017, Las Vegas, Nevada), American comedian, actor, and director whose unrestrained comic style made him one of the most popular performers of the 1950s and ’60s.

 

Lewis was born into a vaudeville family, and at age 12 he developed a comedy act in which he mimed to records. He dropped out of high school in order to perform his specialty in New York City theatres, burlesque shows, and nightclubs. He first met singer Dean Martin in 1944, and two years later they officially became a performing team. Their act consisted of Martin singing, Lewis clowning, and both joining forces for a rousing finale of music and comedy. Well-received performances in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and at New York City’s Copacabana nightclub resulted in an offer from Paramount.

 

Their first film, My Friend Irma (1949), established Martin and Lewis as box-office stars, and the follow-ups My Friend Irma Goes West and At War with the Army (both 1950) were equally successful. Martin and Lewis became the most popular comedy team of the decade and appeared in 16 films in eight years, including The Stooge (1951), Scared Stiff (1953), Living It Up (1954), Artists and Models (1955), and Hollywood or Bust (1956). They were also frequent television guests and part of a series of rotating hosts of NBC’s The Colgate Comedy Hour. It was during their stint with NBC that Lewis began his long involvement with the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).

 

Dean Martin (left) and Jerry Lewis in The Stooge (1952).

 

After making Pardners (1956), Martin and Lewis had a much-publicized falling-out and dissolved their partnership. Lewis then began a series of solo comedies, starting with The Delicate Delinquent (1957) and often working with director Frank Tashlin. In 1959 he signed a new contract with Paramount that gave him 60 percent of box-office profits and allowed him to write and direct his own films, beginning with The Bellboy (1960). Many of his pictures employed the formula of loose strings of gags and routines centered on Lewis’s bungling character in a new job, such as the title character in The Bellboy, a Hollywood messenger in The Errand Boy (1961), and a handyman at a girls’ school in The Ladies Man (1961). His films displayed an inventive use of locations, such as the Florida hotel in The Bellboy, and sets, such as the full-size 60-room school built for The Ladies Man. His comedy version of the Jekyll and Hyde story, The Nutty Professor (1963), opened to good reviews and is generally considered to be his best film, with the hapless Professor Kelp (Lewis) transformed through the magic of chemistry into the smarmy, egocentric Buddy Love—a parody of Martin—whose smug confidence helps attract a beautiful student (Stella Stevens).

 

Jerry Lewis in Cinderfella (1960), directed by Frank Tashlin.

 

The box-office success of The Nutty Professor boded well for Lewis, but his later movies were not as successful. The Patsy (1964) was a mild farce about a bellhop who is trained to replace a recently deceased star, and in The Family Jewels (1965), Lewis essayed seven roles. After the box-office failures of The Family Jewels and Boeing, Boeing (1965), Lewis left Paramount for Columbia. However, audiences grew disenchanted with his films. Three on a Couch (1966) cast him as an artist trying to woo a psychiatrist (Janet Leigh); The Big Mouth (1967) saw him searching for treasure; and Which Way to the Front? (1970) was a World War II comedy. He also directed the comic mystery One More Time (1970), starring Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis, Jr., the only film Lewis directed without also acting in it.

 

After Which Way to the Front?, Lewis did not appear in another film for some 10 years, though in 1972 he did film The Day the Clown Cried, the story of a clown (Lewis) who must lead concentration-camp children to the gas chambers during the Holocaust. The Day the Clown Cried became a legendary unseen film; it was reportedly so bad, by Lewis’s own admission, that he refused to allow its release. He returned to the screen in the episodic comedy Hardly Working (1980), which was a hit, but his next film (and his last as director), Smorgasbord (1983; also known as Cracking Up), another sketch-comedy film, in which Lewis appeared with Milton Berle and Davis, was released directly to cable television in the U.S.

 

Jerry Lewis and Stella Stevens in The Nutty Professor (1963), directed and cowritten by Lewis.

 

Most of the critical accolades Lewis would receive in the next two decades would be for dramatic or offbeat performances. He essayed an acclaimed supporting role in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1983), skewering his own reputation as a show-business mandarin of little warmth. He also played a mob-connected businessman in the television series Wiseguy (1988–89), a car dealer in the surrealistic comedy Arizona Dream (1993), a successful comedian in Funny Bones (1995), and an elderly jazz musician in Max Rose (2013). In 1995 a revival of the musical Damn Yankees gave Lewis his first taste of Broadway success. He also wrote an autobiography, Jerry Lewis: In Person (1982; with Herb Gluck) and an account of his partnership with Martin, Dean and Me (A Love Story) (2005; with James Kaplan).

 

In 1966 Lewis hosted his first annual Labor Day Weekend telethon for the MDA, and he continued hosting the telethon until 2010. (During the 1976 telethon, Frank Sinatra famously surprised Lewis by bringing Martin onstage for the duo’s first appearance together in public since their breakup.) In 2011 Lewis stepped down as the national chairman of the MDA.

 

Lewis was both critically lauded and beloved in France, where he came to be seen as an heir to the cabaret tradition of slapstick and physical comedy. As a director, he was also well regarded there as an authentic auteur. Lewis was inducted as a Commander in the Legion of Honour in 2006. Among his other honours were a Career Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival in 1999 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2009.

Other films:

Rock-a-Bye-Baby (1958)

Hook, Line and Sinker (1969)

The Geisha Boy (1958)

Cinderfella (1960)

The Disorderly Orderly (1964)

Sailor Beware (1952)

Slapstick of Another Kind (1982)

You're Never Too Young (1955)

 

Source: Wikipedia - Jerry Lewis  |  Jerry Lewis - American Comedian

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - STAND-UP COMEDY

George Carlin performing his stand-up comedy routine in April 2008

 

Did you know.... that stand-up comedy is a comedic style in which a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them through a microphone. The performer is commonly known as a comic, stand-up comic, comedian, comedienne, stand-up comedian, or simply a stand-up. Comedians give the illusion that they are dialoguing, but in actuality, they are monologuing a grouping of humorous stories, jokes and one-liners, typically called a shtick, routine, act, or set. Some stand-up comedians use props, music or magic tricks to enhance their acts. Stand-up comedians perform quasi-autobiographical and fictionalized extensions of their offstage selves. (Wikipedia)

 

Things You Didn't Know About Stand Up Comedians
"Tell me a joke, come on, do the stand up thing you do"
Carey Wells  |  Aug 22, 2016
 

 

"Tell me a joke, come on, do the stand up thing you do."

I can't tell you how many times people have said this to me the second they find out I do stand up comedy. It always makes me feel a bit weird, almost like a dancing monkey of sorts, when someone asks me to, on cue, recite my routine like a party trick. Comedy is often looked at as a lesser performance art, which I'm sure is in large part due to the fact that it looks easy. I mean, we've all been hanging out with a group of friends and told a joke that has everyone laughing. We think to ourselves "that wasn't so hard, I could totally do stand up comedy". Sadly, it isn't that easy, there's a lot more that goes into it.

 

 

Every comedian has bombed more times than you could count
Every comedian from the greats like George Carlin to the lowly bottom feeders such as myself have bombed. It's just part of "paying your dues". The problem with comedy is you don't know if a joke is funny until you tell it to someone, hence the open mic. Open mics are where comedians go to work on their jokes, whether that be fine-tuning them or trying completely new stuff. Sometimes the jokes just aren't funny, and the audience lets you know through its soul-crushing silence; other times you bomb because of a drunk and belligerent audience that is so far gone they are unable to comprehend an entire sentence. Which brings me to my next point...

 

 

 

Dealing with hecklers is a learned skill
Heckling, for those of you who don't know, is when an audience member decides he should give feedback to the performer right now and proceeds to interrupt the performer with thoughtful criticisms such as "You look like the weird kid from the Sopranos!" or " Why is your head so big?". I once had a drunk guy walk up on stage and whisper in my ear about how he really needed to hear funk music and that he'd really appreciate it if I stopped my routine to play some funk. Dealing with people like this is like walking a very fine line. You want to keep the audience laughing and not kill the mood. Often times a comedian will end up making fun of the heckler in hopes of getting him to shut up; however, if you're too mean, the audience will turn on you. It is truly a skill that takes practice and a thick skin to learn.

 

 

Comedians don't like to listen to other people's stand up comedy
This was something that really took me by surprise when I first joined the stand-up world. I grew up listening to all the comedy I could. I thought when I met other comedians that they would be big comedy nerds like myself. I quickly learned that most comedians don't listen to much comedy outside of where they are performing. I found myself doing the same, after a year or so. See, when you listen to comedy regularly, then you go and try to write your own jokes, you start to worry that you're subconsciously ripping off a joke you heard earlier. There is no quicker way to become hated by comedians than to steal jokes. So, to protect yourself from being too heavily influenced by outside sources, you end up not listening to much stand up comedy.

 

 

 

There is no standard method to writing jokes
Each comic writes jokes in their own way. Some comics just write rough outlines and riff about the subjects on stage, Robin Williams was known for this improvisation stand-up of sorts. On the other hand, you'll have some guys who will spend an hour trying to re-word a single punchline. Everyone has their own routine and creative process, and it's all about trying to find what you're comfortable with.

 

The best advice I ever received in regards to doing stand up is to just do as many shows as you can. Every chance you get, take it, because you can learn something from every performance. After dealing with hecklers and drunk audiences you come to find that experience is the best teacher in the end.

 

 

 

 

Things a Stand-Up Comedian Won’t Tell You
Shaun Eli Breidbart  |  Updated: Mar. 01, 2019

 

We’ll do almost anything to get onstage

When we’re starting out, we’ll hand out fliers for the club, answer phones, and work the door. At one club, comics cleaned toilets—until a guy said that he would clean the toilets only if he could do so using the manager. Surprise! That comic isn’t there anymore. And the toilets are filthy.

 

Please buy something from us after the show

 

Those T-shirts and CDs we sell are what we make our real money on. “We’re often paid $5 or a drink for stage and mic time,” says comic Dan Upham. And when we do book a paying gig? We spend most of the money on transportation to get there.

 

Supply and demand applies to comedy

 

Comedians scrape for gigs because there are so many of us, says Comedy Central’s Ophira Eisenberg. “Few club owners have the time to develop a comic’s career. In this economy, they need to develop their own business, and their business is basically a bar. And some of those bars charge as much as $17 for a Cosmopolitan.”

 

Some club owners dictate our material

“An owner told me to do family-appropriate material,” says Craig Sharf. “I asked her to be specific. She said that after telling a joke, I should look at her face, and if she was frowning, it wasn’t appropriate.” Check out the most hilarious jokes of all time.

 

Joke stealing is rare, but it does happen

 

Jeff Caldwell, who was a Letterman regular, says, “I had a joke stolen and done on the Tonight Show years ago. I sent the guy a nasty letter, and he sent me $500. With as little money as I had back then, I was praying he’d steal a few more jokes.” Check out these surprisingly inspirational quotes from top comedians.

 

We don’t care who your favorite comedians are

 

Would you go up to a model and say, “You know who’s pretty? Someone else.” However, don’t be afraid to say hi if you recognize us somewhere, but don’t expect us to start performing at the gas station, please. Musicians won’t sing to you, and surgeons won’t operate.

 

When did we know we had made it? When we were on Letterman

 

“For most stand-ups, it was the end of the rainbow,” says Andrea Henry. “That said, if they ever brought back Hollywood Squares, that would be at the top of my list. Every episode looked like a party.” Next, don’t miss the 9 secrets to telling a great joke, according to stand-up comedians.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Stand-up Comedy   | A Few Things about Stan-up Comedians  |  What Stand-up Comedians Won't Tell You