Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TURTLES

Did you know... that turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the side-necked turtles and hidden neck turtles which differ in the way the head retracts. There are 360 living and recently extinct species of turtles, including land-dwelling tortoises and freshwater terrapins. They are found on most continents, some islands and, in the case of sea turtles, much of the ocean. Like other reptiles, birds, and mammals, they breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water. Genetic evidence typically places them in close relation to crocodilians and birds. (Wikipedia)

 

Fascinating Facts About Turtles

by Interesting Facts

Also known as Testudines, turtles and tortoises are ecologically important. In the ocean they eat seagrasses that thrive on coral reefs and clean up dead fish; on land they dine on invasive plants and provide burrow homes for other animals, such as owls and bobcats. Celebrate these slow-moving dinosaur descendants by learning more about them below.

 

1. The Largest Turtles Weigh More Than Some Cows

Turtles come in all sizes — with more than 356 species, there’s bound to be variation. But leatherback sea turtles, a roaming breed, are the kings of the Testudines order. Feeding mostly on jellyfish, these turtles reach lengths above 6.5 feet and a staggering 2,000 pounds. (For reference, the average Holstein cow — the black-and-white ones on the Ben & Jerry’s containers — are less than 5 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh about 1,500 pounds.) Their massive size doesn’t keep them in one place, though; leatherbacks are incredibly migratory, traveling more than 10,000 miles each year and clocking in swimming speeds of 22 miles per hour. Even though their bulk (and hard, leathery shells) makes them predators more often than prey, leatherback sea turtles are recognized as an endangered species due to threats from fishnets, ocean pollution, human consumption, and destruction of shorelines where they nest and lay their eggs.

 

2. Turtles Don’t Have Teeth

Just like birds, turtles have beaks, which they use to tear into food or defend themselves against predators. And even though they don’t have any teeth, turtles grind down their dinners easily thanks to mouth ridges that vary based on diet. Carnivorous turtles have more pronounced beaks and ridges, while turtles on a plant-based diet have flatter faces that excel at mashing fruits and greens. In fact, turtles are the only toothless reptiles. While some young turtles have a single “egg-tooth” that helps them break through shells while hatching, it’s really a hardened scale that falls off soon after.

 

3. Most Turtles Live (Happily) Alone

While turtles can be found living near one another in plentiful habitats, they’re not known for thriving in communities. Most turtle species are happy living independent lives as solitary creatures, only interacting with other turtles to mate, travel to nesting grounds, or fight for resources. African helmeted turtles may be the exception, though — these carnivorous reptiles work together in groups to take down larger prey, like birds, at the edges of lakes and ponds.

 

4. The Oldest Living Turtle Was Born Before Electricity Was Invented

Turtles hardly seem to be in a rush, and maybe that’s because days pass slowly over the course of their long lifespans. While age varies by species, turtles can live for decades. Sea turtles sometimes reach 100 years, while the North American Blanding’s turtle can live to age 70. Countless turtles have been documented for their old age in captivity, and one in particular holds the record for oldest living land animal. Named Jonathan, the 189-year-old (his precise species is up for debate) was born around 1832 and has lived on the island of St. Helena since 1882. While able to roam freely on the estate of the island’s governor with a few tortoise friends, 1,100-pound Jonathan is blind and has lost his sense of smell, although he can still hear and enjoys munching his fruit and vegetables.

 

5. Turtle Shells Are Similar To Human Hair

A turtle’s most distinctive feature is its shell, which protects the slow-moving reptiles from predators and weather. Turtles are born and die with the same shell; contrary to what cartoons might have us believe, they can’t physically leave their shell in pursuit of a larger one. Shells are made from keratin, the same protein found in human hair and nails, and are connected to the turtle’s spine by about 60 bones. Because turtles can’t separate from a broken shell, punctures or injuries can be a problem, although some species, like the Eastern box turtle, can regrow entire shells if injured.

 

6. Turtles Are Often Confused With Tortoises

Tortoise or turtle — or terrapin? In everyday North American usage, “turtle” is often used as an umbrella term that encompasses all three. But shelled reptiles are also grouped more specifically into these three groups based on their water needs. Turtles spend most of their time in water, with most species usually leaving the ocean only to lay eggs along shorelines. Tortoises are land-based creatures that occasionally get in the water. Terrapins do a little of both, finding their ideal habitat along waterways or swamps, but still laying eggs on land. Over time, tortoises, turtles, and terrapins adapted to their habitats based on this relationship with water; turtles have legs more developed for swimming, tortoises have larger shells protecting them from predators, and terrapins have features that help them do both.

 

7. Turtles Are Neglectful Parents

Turtles are unlikely to win any “Parent of the Year” awards. They don’t raise their young — they don’t even stick around to see them hatch. Female turtles can lay hundreds to thousands of eggs in their lifetimes; Eastern box turtles have clutches of four or five eggs at a time, while sea turtles lay around 100 eggs at once. After the eggs are hidden in sand or dirt, the mama turtle moves on, leaving the eggs unguarded and the juvenile turtles to fend for themselves. You can help unaccompanied hatchlings by looking for turtles when mowing your yard, reducing pesticide use on weeds they might eat, and planting bushes or grasses that tiny turtles can seek out for refuge.

 

8. Turtles Have Been to Space

Turtles are found on every continent, and for a short time, two were even in space. In September 1968, the Soviet Union launched its Zond 5 spacecraft on a mission to orbit the moon. The shuttle wasn’t the first to make the journey during the space race of the ‘60s, but it did have a notable achievement: It was the first spacecraft to circle the moon with living beings on board. Along with mealworms, plants, and bacteria, two Russian steppe tortoises survived the journey, returning to Earth unharmed (though they did weigh slightly less).

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Turtle  |  Facts About Turtles

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PLANET EARTH

Did you know.... that our home, Earth is the only place in the universe where we know for certain that life exists. Earth formed a bit over 4.5 billion years ago from a swirling cloud of gas and dust that gave rise to our entire solar system, including our star, the sun. According to scientists' best theories, this gas and dust collapsed into a disk, with different parts of the disk coalescing into each of the planets in our solar system. (Adam Mann  |  November 01, 2019)

 

Amazing Facts About the Earth, Explained

by Interesting Facts

From the upright-walking Australopithecus afarensis to the Tik-Toking Zoomer, we all have one thing in common — we’re from Earth, the third rock from the sun. All recorded (and unrecorded) history has taken place on Earth’s surface, and our very bodies are molded to its particular blend of atmospheric gasses, its constant gravitational pull, and its temperature-perfect distance from the sun. These eight facts will make you appreciate the Earth more than ever, and maybe even make you feel a little bit of pride in being called an Earthling.

 

1. The Earth Isn’t a Perfect Sphere

If you had to make a model of the solar system in an elementary science class, your nine planets (or eight, depending on your age) were likely perfect foam spheres. While that’s a pretty good approximation, it’s not entirely accurate. The Earth is actually an irregularly shaped ellipsoid — its middle bulges due to the centrifugal force of its constant rotation. Scientists have determined that the Earth’s sea level is actually about 13 miles farther from its center at the equator than at the poles. Plus, the Earth’s shape is constantly changing.

 

2. One Day on Earth Wasn’t Always 24 Hours Long

When Homo sapiens began walking the Earth some 400,000 years ago, a day was basically 24 hours long — but that hasn’t always been the case. Scientists from Kyoto University estimate that when the moon first formed a few billion years ago, it spun around the Earth at a much closer distance than it does today, which affected the Earth’s own rotation. By their calculations, when life first appeared 3.6 billion years ago, an Earth day (one full rotation of the planet) was only 12 hours long. As the moon slowly distanced itself from Earth, the days grew longer, lasting 18 hours around the emergence of photosynthesis and 23 hours when multicellular life first took form. Research in 2021 discovered that the Earth is now spinning ever-so-slightly faster than it was 50 years ago, a major headache for physicists, astronomers, and computer programmers everywhere.

 

3. Earth May Have Once Been a Giant Snowball

The Earth has experienced plenty of Ice Ages throughout its existence, with the most recent reaching its apex 20,000 years ago. But none of these world-changing cold snaps were quite like the Cryogenian Period, when some scientists believe the Earth froze over to the point where there was ice near the equator, a phenomenon known as “Snowball Earth.” Studies have shown that during this period Earth experienced a runaway temperature effect as ice sheets reflected sunlight before it could warm the ground, which in turn created more ice … which in turn created more surface area to reflect incoming sunlight.

 

4. 100 Lightning Bolts Strike Earth Every Second on Average

The Earth’s atmosphere is filled with electricity. Every second, 100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes hit the Earth. Considering that most lightning only takes place in clouds and never hits the ground, that makes the Earth quite an electrifying place. Lightning happens because air in clouds acts as an insulator between positive and negative charges that exist within clouds and between clouds and the ground. When these opposite charges build up enough, the air can no longer insulate and breaks down — a phenomenon we experience as lightning. To add even more drama, lightning traveling at 200,000,000 mph superheats the surrounding air to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit — that’s nearly five times hotter than the surface of the sun — but only for a fraction of a second. This intense heat causes air to expand and vibrate, creating thunder. But while lightning is indeed common, only one out of every 5,000 Americans will be struck by it during their lifetime.

 

5. The Earth’s Surface Is “Recycled” Every 500 Million Years

Approximately every 27 days, humans replace their skin, and the Earth undergoes a similar process — it just takes 500 million years. As tectonic plates ram into each other, creating what’s called subduction zones (the Ring of Fire volcanic chain, for example, is a series of subduction zones bordering the Pacific Plate), the plates dip below lighter continental plates. The subducted rock is heated into magma and becomes future lava plumes forming new land masses. Scientists used to believe that this process took nearly 2 billion years to complete, but new analysis of basaltic lava on Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii proves that Earth recycles its “skin” in about a quarter of that time, or every 500 million years.

 

6. The Earth’s Core Is as Hot as the Sun’s Surface

The core of the Earth contains two parts. First is the inner core, essentially a dense ball of iron with a radius of 758 miles that’s under incredible pressures of 3.6 million atmospheres — about 360 million times more pressure than on the Earth’s surface. Although the temperature far exceeds the heat required to turn iron into molten goo, this intense pressure keeps the iron from melting. Second is the liquid outer core, which separates the inner core from the mantle. Using x-rays to determine the melting point of iron at various atmospheric pressures, scientists discovered that the boundary between the inner and outer cores is in the ballpark of 10,800 degrees Fahrenheit — a little hotter than the surface of the sun. Of course, comparing core to core, the sun scorches the competition at 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, making the Earth’s core feel comparatively temperate.

 

7. The Earth Is 10,000 Times Older Than Humans

Some 4.5 billion years ago, gravity attracted various space gasses and dust to form the Earth, kickstarting the Hadean eon. This eon is fittingly named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, because of the hellish 600 million years of hard work required to form the Earth’s crust. From there, it took another 300 million for microbial life to show up, another 3.2 billion years for life to take off thanks to the Cambrian explosion, and yet another 525 million years or so for a particular ape-like species to walk upright. A few million years after this ancient ancestor, the first modern humans began populating the planet some 400,000 years ago. All told, that makes Earth more than 10,000 times older than humans.

 

8. Earth Is the Only Known Planet That Supports Life

Maybe the most amazing fact about Earth is that it’s the only planet we know that supports life at all. A lot of things had to go right for this to be possible. For one, it’s perfectly distanced from the sun in what scientists call “The Goldilocks Zone,” because it’s not too hot but also not too cold (most life has a tough time living in temperature extremes). The Earth is also protected from solar radiation thanks to its magnetic field, and kept warm by an insulating blanket we call the atmosphere. And most importantly, it has the right building blocks for life — mainly water and carbon. While this is Earth’s most distinguishing feature among all the known planets, moons, and exoplanets, it might not always be an outlier. Scientists have classified some exoplanets as “superhabitable,” meaning they have conditions greater than Earth’s for supporting life. Even places like Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, or Europa, a moon of Jupiter, could possibly be hiding life somewhere on its surface or in its oceans. For now, Earth is the lone world teeming with life that we know of — and we couldn’t ask for a better one.

 

 

Source: Earth: Facts About Our Planet  |  Facts About Earth

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - INTELLIGENT ANIMALS

Did you know.... that from detecting tuberculosis in humans to outperforming us in memory tests, we aren't the only intelligent creatures on this planet. Truth be told, we're far from it. We tend to believe we're the smartest species on Earth, using traditional classroom intelligence as the benchmark to measure an animal's brainpower, but those tests just scratch the surface. For example, while we can create sonar technology to track an enemy submarine, dolphins are born with it. All animals make their own decisions – whether it's instinctual or well thought out – just like us. We have all evolved throughout the years, continue to learn from one another and have formed friendships with each other. You're might be reading this with your own intelligent little friend (your pet) by your side. So, while some of the animals on this list have smaller brains than us, or vastly larger ones, each animal is intelligent and unique in its own way. After all, groundhogs still predict our weather, right?

 

The World's Most Intelligent Animals

by Interesting Facts

Humans may be considered the most intelligent animals on Earth, but other species are not far behind. Scientists measure animal intelligence by looking at an animal’s self-awareness, self-control, and memory, all of which influence how well a creature processes information and solves problems. Judging an animal’s smarts is still a gray area, however. It’s pretty difficult to get a large number of wild animals together for a controlled behavioral experiment, and sometimes the tests scientists devise to judge a species’ intelligence don’t jive with the way animals perceive things. But the species included here have consistently impressed us with their smarts.

 

1. Dolphins

Dolphins have one of the largest brains relative to body mass in the animal kingdom, which is thought to be partly responsible for the mammals’ highly developed intellect. Captive dolphins are taught tricks, have been trained to detect underwater explosives, and have even starred in TV sitcoms. They can also recognize themselves in a mirror, a basic test of self-awareness that indicates intelligence. Wild dolphins have been observed using tools, hunting cooperatively, and communicating in a variety of squeaks, squawks, and whistles, all pointing to dolphins’ cognition.

 

2. Ravens

In some Native American folklore, ravens are known as tricksters — a reputation that may stem from these birds’ intelligence. Ravens and their relatives in the family Corvidae, which include crows and jays, have the same brain-to-body-size ratio as apes, suggesting a high level of cognition. Ravens are known for their complex social behaviors, such as holding apparent grudges against people who cheat them (a sign of their memory) and enacting “funerals” over dead members of their species, from which they pick up social information. They even recognize human faces. Corvids also understand cause and effect, plan for the future, and make and use tools, like fashioning sticks to help them extract food from tight spaces.

 

3. Chimpanzees

Jane Goodall’s observations of chimpanzees using blades of grass to tease tasty termites out of their mound revolutionized our views of animal intelligence. And since her discovery in 1960, chimps have shown that their cognitive abilities rank pretty close to our own. In addition to the grass, chimps create special tools from leaves, twigs, and tree branches for different tasks. They also throw rocks at trees, perhaps to communicate to other chimps across a large area, and crack open nuts against anvil-like stones. Recently, scientists observed wild chimpanzees applying squashed insects to wounds as a form of self-medication. In addition, chimps interact with complex vocalizations and gestures and have even learned to “speak” with trainers in rudimentary pictorial or sign languages.

 

4. Pigs

Pigs’ intelligence hasn’t been studied as thoroughly as that of primates, rodents, and birds, but analyses suggest that their performance on some psychological tests is on par with dolphins. A 2009 study found that seven out of eight pigs could process reflections of objects in a mirror and use the information to find food hidden behind a wall. Pigs can discern objects based on different characteristics and remember their choices over time, which demonstrates long-term memory. They can also prioritize which memories are important, like how to access desired food when presented with different options. Anecdotally, pigs have appeared to show empathy for humans, such as when naturalist Sy Montgomery’s normally active 750-pound porker, Christopher Hogwood, became quiet and docile while Montgomery grieved the loss of loved ones.

 

5. Octopuses

What octopuses lack in exoskeletons, they make up for in brains. These eight-armed cephalopods not only have the biggest brain-to-body-size ratio among invertebrates, but they also have multiple brains — a central neurological organ and one “mini-brain” in each arm. Octopuses can perceive and react to information quickly — by suddenly changing their color and pattern to camouflage themselves, for example — which suggests superior cognitive abilities. They’re famous for getting into and out of tight spaces, unscrewing jar lids, manipulating objects to solve puzzles, stealing crabs out of fishermen’s traps, and even escaping their aquarium tanks. A 2010 study of eight giant Pacific octopuses found that they could even recognize individual people.

 

6. Elephants

Elephants are famed for their excellent long-term memory, a key indicator of animal intelligence. They can also solve practical problems. In a famous 2010 study, Kandula the Asian elephant figured out how to reach food on a high branch by pushing objects, like a large plastic cube, under the food and then using the cube as a step stool. Another well-known experiment found that elephants can grasp the need for cooperation and alter their behavior to achieve a shared goal. Observations of elephant social groups over decades have revealed tight relationships between different elephant generations, in which ecological knowledge is transferred from matriarchs to younger individuals.

 

Source: Facts About Smart Animals  |  Brief Facts About Intelligent Animals

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BUBBLE WRAP

Did you know.... that bubble wrap is a pliable transparent plastic material used for packing fragile items. Regularly spaced, protruding air-filled hemispheres provide cushioning for fragile items. "Bubble wrap" is a generic trademark owned by Sealed Air Corporation. (Wikipedia)

 

Bubble Wrap was invented as wallpaper.

by Interesting Facts

Bubble Wrap is one of the 20th century’s most versatile — and dare we say most beloved — inventions. The pliable, air-pocketed sheets have been used for decades to insulate pipes, protect fragile items, and even make dresses. And that’s not to mention the fascination some people have with popping its bubbles (both competitively and for fun). But when it was first created in 1957 in New Jersey, inventors Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes had a different vision in mind for their ingenious padding: home décor. The pioneering duo hoped their creation — which trapped air between two shower curtains run through a heat-sealing machine — would serve as a textured wallpaper marketed to a younger generation with “modern” taste. The initial idea was a flop, however, and Fielding and Chavannes soon pivoted to promoting Bubble Wrap, then called Air Cap, as a greenhouse insulator (another idea whose bubble would quickly burst). 

 

It took another invention of the time — IBM’s 1401 model computer  — to seal Bubble Wrap’s fate as a packing material. Under the company name Sealed Air, Fielding and Chavannes approached IBM about using the air-filled plastic in shipping containers, replacing traditional box-fillers like newspaper, straw, and horsehair. After passing the test of transporting delicate electronics, Sealed Air became a shipping industry standard. Over time, Fielding and Chavannes were granted six patents related to Bubble Wrap manufacturing, and Sealed Air continues to create new versions of the remarkable wrap — including a cheaper, unpoppable version that’s popular with cost-minded shippers (but not so much with bubble-popping enthusiasts).

 

Bubble Wrap was nominated to the Toy Hall of Fame.

Some of the best toys aren’t toys at all — a phenomenon well-known to people who spend painstaking hours selecting gifts for kids only for the items to sit ignored in favor of the toy’s packaging. That allure among the younger set helped secure Bubble Wrap a nomination to the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2016 as a non-traditional toy (akin to honorees such as the stick and the cardboard box). The poppable plastic didn’t become an official inductee, but its appeal has been replicated by the Pop It!, a squishable popping toy with a feverish following. The silicone poppers provide endless snaps that some psychologists say can reduce tension and anxiety, making them especially popular during a stress-inducing pandemic. While the fidget toy seems like a modern solution to everyday jitters, Pop-Its were actually invented in 1975 by a former classmate of Anne Frank. Five decades later, reduced manufacturing costs have given the bubble-bursting toy a second chance at soothing anxious minds of all ages.

 

Surprising Facts About Bubble Wrap
By Jake Rossen  |  Stacy Conradt  |  Jan 28, 2019 | Updated: Jan 27, 2020

Outside of cats making their home in empty shipping boxes, no packaging tool has brought more joy to consumers than Bubble Wrap, which has been protecting fragile goods—and relieving stress—with its air-filled chambers since 1960. Here are 50 things you might not know about this shipping institution.

 

1. It was originally supposed to be wallpaper.

Wallpaper may have lost some of cachet (though it's making a comeback), but in the 1950s, gluing patterned rolls to your living room was a decorating win. In 1957, an engineer named Al Fielding and a Swiss inventor named Marc Chavannes wanted to bring a wallpaper to market with a raised texture. As an experiment, they glued two shower curtains together, sealing them so tightly that air bubbles were created. But few consumers wanted to cocoon themselves in a padded room, and the wrap-as-wallpaper idea never took off.
 

2. It was used as greenhouse insulation.

With their wallpaper dreams dashed, Fielding and Chavannes decided to take their glued-curtain idea and transfer it to greenhouses, where the material could be used to insulate buildings and retain heat. This worked, but it was still hard to convince buyers to enclose their environment in plastic. For a time, it seemed like Bubble Wrap would remain a good idea without much of a purpose.

 

3. IBM changed everything.

By 1959, Fielding and Chavannes had incorporated Sealed Air, a business umbrella for marketing their Bubble Wrap product. Their marketing expert, Frederick W. Bowers, learned that IBM was preparing to ship their 1401 decimal computer to buyers. Realizing the item was both expensive and fragile, Bowers pitched the company on the idea of shipping them wrapped in Sealed Air’s trademark product. (Previously, shippers used newspaper, sawdust, or horse hair to protect delicate items.) Impressed, IBM soon began using Bubble Wrap to protect delicate electronics from damage during transit. By the mid-1960s, Bubble Wrap had become a shipping institution.

 

4. "Bubble wrap" is trademarked.

Like Xerox, Kleenex, Coke, and other brand names that became so ubiquitous that they began to slip into day-to-day vocabularies, Bubble Wrap is actually a trademarked product of Sealed Air. No competing air-cushioning company can use the term.

 

5. Bubble Wrap comes in handy on film sets.

The next time you watch a movie or television show set in a high school, it's possible you’re looking at a bunch of extras toting Bubble Wrap around campus. Actors sometimes carry backpacks stuffed with the product so they're not forced to lug around heavy books during a long shooting day.

 

6. Bubble Wrap could (maybe) save your life.

Could Bubble Wrap cushion a fall? While we would never recommend you put it to the test, one theory says maybe. In 2011, WIRED contributor Rhett Allain crunched the numbers and estimated that one might need 39 layers of Bubble Wrap in order to survive a fall out of a sixth-story window.

 

7. An air force base once mistook its pops for gunshots.

In December 2015, security officials were called to the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after reports of gunshots were heard. High-powered weapons and Humvees were assembled before officials determined that the “threat” had been someone on base popping Bubble Wrap.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Bubble Wrap  |  Facts About Bubble Wrap  |  Snapping Facts About Bubble Wrap

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - DESSERTS

Baked Alaska

Did you know... that whether you're partial to a zingy key lime pie or creamy crème brûlée, you probably haven't considered the origin story of your go-to treat. But your prize pudding might have a tale to tell, from being the result of a delicious accident to the sweet evolution of an ancient delicacy over the decades. Here we reveal the roots of 15 of the world's classic desserts.

 

The Sweet Stories Behind 5 Desserts, From Cheesecake to Pumpkin Pie

by Interesting Facts

Desserts have long reigned as the pièce de résistance of suppertime, encouraging picky eaters to clear their plates in anticipation of a bubbling pie, warm cookies, or decadently sweet puddings. While the dessert course seems like an ages-old staple, finishing off a meal with dazzlingly decorated cakes and sugary sweets is a relatively new concept attributed to French royalty. Turns out, the word “dessert” —  meaning “to clear the table” after a meal — didn’t even hit the modern lexicon until the 17th century, a time when French nobles feasted on a post-dinner selection of preserves, jams, and cookies, calling the course “le fruit.” Renaming the serving of sweets gained popularity as chefs crafted painstakingly designed sugar sculptures, cakes, and treats — though the term wouldn’t take off until the French Revolution, when commoners more easily gained access to sugar. By the late 1700s, the idea of dessert had spread through Europe and to young America, where home cooks were dishing up cakes, cookies, and tarts once only seen in aristocratic dining rooms. In the centuries since, some sugary dishes have come and gone (like tomato soup spice cake and mock apple pie), while others have maintained their place in dessert history. Here’s the sweet story behind several classic and beloved dessert dishes.

 

1. Cheesecake

New York City may be the world’s cheesecake capital, but the classic delight was actually created and shared thousands of years before the city’s founding. Originating with the ancient Greeks, early cheesecake was constructed from cheese that had been beaten until smooth and then blended with honey and flour. The crustless delight was served at special events, weddings, and even the first Olympic Games in 776 BCE. But like any food that has transcended the centuries, the cheesecake morphed into the dessert we know today only slowly. By 160 BCE a newer version emerged with a separately baked crust, and an English recipe from 1390 blended sugar and dried elderflowers with cheese curds before baking the entire dish in a pie shell. When mass-produced cream cheese emerged in the 1870s, cheesecake recipes underwent another change. By the 1930s, New York bakeries had fully adopted the use of a cream cheese and sour cream base paired with a Graham cracker crust — creating the cheesecake we enjoy today.

 

2. Ice Cream

Ice cream may seem like a modern culinary invention considering its need for refrigeration, but food historians believe it appeared sometime within China’s Tang Dynasty, between 618 and 907 CE. Early ice cream blended goat, buffalo, or cow milk with flour and camphor harvested from evergreen trees, and it reached its creamy state after being plunged into ice pools. Cultures throughout Asia and Europe made similar frozen treats; Arab chefs created fruit sherbets during the Middle Ages, and sugary, milk-infused ice drinks became known as the first Italian sorbettos during the mid-1600s. By the time ice cream reached North America in the 1700s, similar treats such as gelato had been popular in Italy and France for decades. But upgrades to icehouse technology in the 1800s allowed the American masses to finally enjoy ice cream more regularly. That same century saw a deluge of related innovations. Paper companies produced foldable “ice cream satchels” complete with wire handles for easily transporting the cold confection, and in 1897, Black inventor Alfred L. Cralle patented the Ice Cream Mold and Disher — the original ice cream scoop (from which he never made any money). And while waffle-style ice cream cones likely existed before the 20th century, the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis was so successful at popularizing the edible containers that it’s often credited as the site of their invention.

 

3. Doughnuts

Whether you enjoy them for breakfast or as a workday snack, doughnuts have become an iconic treat. World War I catapulted doughnuts to the front of our taste buds, but the circular sweets are actually much older. Archaeologists have unearthed fossilized remnants of prehistoric doughnuts from Indigenous communities in North America, while ancient Romans and Greeks paired fried dough with sweet and savory sauces. A plethora of fritters and fried pastries spread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages before early Dutch settlers brought them to the American colonies under the name “olykoeks,” describing how they were cooked in oil. By 1750, the first American doughnut recipe was published, allowing cooks to create the desserts at home. But it wasn’t until World War I that doughnut popularity skyrocketed; the Salvation Army’s volunteer “doughnut girls” cooked and distributed the fried rings along trenches and frontlines to homesick soldiers. Shortly after the war’s end, the first doughnut machine popped up in New York City, cementing the dessert as a culinary mainstay.

 

4. Jell-O

Gelatin-based foods have a long, unsavory history. First emerging in medieval Europe, wiggly foods were hard to come by unless you were nobility. That’s because early gelatin dishes were based on livestock bone collagen; boiling the bones to extract the substance took days of labor-intensive work. Hours of boiling, straining, and mixing with other ingredients required a large kitchen staff, making gelatin dishes a status symbol for upper-class diners. Fast forward hundreds of years to 1845, when inventor Peter Cooper (who also created America’s first steam locomotive) crafted the first gelatin powder, which required little time to set after being mixed with just hot water. Cooper’s “portable gelatin” wasn’t a big hit, and the patent was sold to Pearle and May Wait, owners of a cough syrup and laxative company. The Waits added fruit syrups to the powdered gelatin, launching Jell-O as a jiggly dessert product before selling off the brand in 1899. With the help of magazine ads and radio jingles, the confection became a household name, its popularity rising in the 1920s and remaining a household name for decades to follow.

 

5. Pumpkin Pie

While apple pie may have misappropriated origins (the first recipe appeared in England around 1381, not the U.S.), pumpkin pie deserves more credit as a purely American dessert. The spiced autumnal pie that now inspires countless fall desserts and drinks was concocted by early English colonists who encountered native pumpkins for the first time. Accounts from the mid-1600s suggest that newcomers to young America were reliant on pumpkins, brewing them in ale and baking them into pies. Because of their easy-to-grow nature, pumpkins became popular throughout Europe, where countless recipes for the baked squash pies directed chefs to boil pumpkin flesh in milk or mix pumpkin puree with baked apples. Modern pumpkin pie construction became significantly less laborious around the 1920s, when Libby’s brand launched its first canned pumpkin puree. Most cooks today continue to opt for the store-bought ingredient, though pie purists may just opt to roast their own pumpkins, considering commercial purees actually consist of a sweeter, butternut-like squash. Pumpkin pie may be seasonal, but the tradition of adding your own flair is what keeps it around from year to year — just like every other popular dessert.

 

Source: Stories Behind Cakes and Desserts  |  Facts and Stories of Desserts

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL

Did you know... that in 1975, an up-and-coming filmmaker named Steven Spielberg invented what would soon become known as the "summer blockbuster" by scaring people out of the water with Jaws. Two years later, he raised his profile yet again with Close Encounters of the Third Kind then proved that he would dominate the box office throughout much of the 1980s with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which arrived in theaters on June 11, 1982. 

 

Otherworldly Facts About “E.T.”

by Interesting Facts

Four decades ago, an unlikely character wove its way into film history with its glowing heart and desire to phone home. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opened in theaters on July 11, 1982, and won over audiences with his penchant for Speak & Spells and Reese’s Pieces. The film was another breakthrough for Steven Spielberg, who had been on a roll with Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). It also marked the star-making turn for Drew Barrymore, who was just 7 years old when she played Gertie, as well as Henry Thomas, who won the title (human) role at the age of 9 of Elliot, the boy who bridges worlds by forming a tight friendship with an alien. Here are 10 facts you may not know about the Academy Award-winning film, which grossed almost $800 million worldwide (roughly $2.3 billion today).

 

1. Spielberg Came up With the Idea While Directing Another Movie

While working on his 1977 sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the director wondered about another alien concept and played out what could happen if the creature didn’t go back to the mothership. Also around that time, he had been thinking of making a film exploring the impact of divorce on teens, since his own parents had gotten divorced when he was 15. Combining the two, he created “the most personal thing I’d done as a director,” he said.

 

2. Everything Was Filmed With Code Names for Fear of Plagiarism

Spielberg was worried that his innovative plot might be ripped off quickly, so he had the production go to great lengths to keep everything under wraps while they filmed from September to December 1981. Actors had to read the script behind closed doors and everyone on the set also had to wear an ID card to ensure no unauthorized people snuck in for a peek. And the entire project was filmed under the codename “A Boy’s Life.”

 

3. One of the Movie’s Posters Was Inspired by Michelangelo

If the movie’s poster of the universe with a human hand reaching out looked familiar, it’s because the late artist John Alvin was inspired by Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam,” the centerpiece of his Sistine Chapel fresco masterpiece. Alvin’s daughter was the hand model for the image that was used to promote the film. The original artwork hung on writer and producer Bob Bendetson’s office wall until it was auctioned off for $394,000 in 2016.

 

4. Another Actor Was Almost Cast as Elliot

The on-screen chemistry between the child actors was crucial to the film. So before casting director Marci Liroff finalized her choices, she invited the finalists — including a boy she had honed in on to play Elliot — over to screenwriter Melissa Mathison’s home to play the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. “In about three minutes, it became very clear that nobody liked this little boy,” Liroff said. “I just think when you play a game sometimes, your true character comes out … He became very bossy. It just showed that he was not our kid. So I basically had to start over.”

 

5. Thomas Nailed the Role With a Teary Audition

Soon, they called in Thomas, who had just been in a film called Raggedy Man, and flew him in from Texas for the audition. Liroff said they set up an improv-like scenario about the NASA officials coming to take E.T. away. The young Thomas stepped into the character so deeply that he had tears in his eyes — which, in turn, led all the others in the room to bawl as well. “He just became this little boy. He used, I think, his fear and anxiety, to really push further in the role and he moved us so deeply and so fully,” she said and called it one of the most moving auditions she’d ever experienced.

 

6. Barrymore Was Cast After Being Turned Down for “Poltergeist”

Although Barrymore and Spielberg ended up having such a close relationship that he later became her godfather, she had first auditioned for the role of clairvoyant Carol Anne (“they’re heeeere!”) in his 1982 horror classic Poltergeist. Heather O’Rourke got the role, but the director turned to Barrymore for his following project, E.T. Barrymore now remembers her time fondly with a souvenir she took from the set: the red cowboy hat. “It is in [my daughters’] room somewhere and reminds me that I was 6 years old wearing that hat," she told Domino. "I'm so glad I still have it."

 

7. Eighteen People Contributed to E.T.’s Voice

The primary voice behind the alien was an older woman named Pat Welsh, who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day to get that certain vocal timbre. But when it came to E.T.’s other sounds, like burping and snorting, they were sourced from all over, including from the film’s sound effect creator’s wife and Spielberg himself. Ultimately, there were a total of 18 people who took part in giving the fictional friend a voice, and at some points, even sea otters, raccoons, and horses were used.

 

8. Thomas Ate a Lot of Candy on Set

E.T.’s favorite treat, Reese’s Pieces — which became the choice snack after Mars. Inc passed on the use of M&Ms — also became Thomas’ obsession. “I made myself sick from eating them because we always had those two-pound bags lying around,” Thomas told CNN. “They were set dressing in Elliott’s room, so in between takes, I was constantly eating those things.“

 

9. The Movie Was Shot From a Kids’ Eye Level

To emphasize the story from Elliot’s point of view, the entire movie up until the final act was shot from the eye level of a child. In fact, no adult face was ever shown in the film with one big exception: Elliot’s mom, Mary. “She was like one of the kids,” Spielberg told Entertainment Weekly.

 

10. Harrison Ford Had a Cameo That Was Cut

 

Among the grown-ups who appeared without their faces shown was Harrison Ford — then at the peak of his Indiana Jones fame — playing the part of the school principal who scolds Elliot after the frog rescue scene. In the cut scene, Elliot’s chair starts to levitate until he hits the ceiling and crashes down with a perfect landing. Ford’s character was oblivious to it all since he was too busy reprimanding the child to notice.

 

 

Source: What You Might Not Know About E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial  |  Out There Facts About E.T.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CATS EXPLAINED

Did you know... that your cat really does love you? Food is what first brought humans and cats together, but that doesn’t mean they see you as an oversized tin opener. Chemical analysis of the bones of 5,300-year-old cats from China has shown that these ancient felines were rodent-hunters that lived within grain stores. In essence, we gave them shelter and they took care of the pests. As time passed, in Western cultures at least, house cats became selected for cuddles as well as their claws. And, from this point onwards, something deeper than cupboard love appears to have emerged. (Science Focus

 

Important Questions About Cats, Answered

by Interesting Facts

Cats have strange habits that defy easy explanation. No matter how much water you put out for your kitty in his own fancy bowl, he’ll insist on drinking from a faucet. Despite buying Princess (or Luna, or Bella) a steady supply of expensive toys, she still prefers the shipping boxes they came in. Scientists have tried to get to the bottom of some of these bewildering behaviors. Let’s take a look at what they’ve found.

 

1. Why Do Cats Purr?

Purring is a specialty among cats in the subfamily Felinae, which includes domestic cats (Felis catus) as well as lynxes, bobcats, and other small wild cats. In these species, a bone in the throat called the hyoid is fixed in position; in non-purring cats like lions and jaguars, the hyoid is somewhat flexible. This difference suggests the bone has something to do with purring, but scientists are still debating the mechanism behind it. One theory holds that laryngeal muscles can rapidly open and close around the vocal cords, resulting in a purr. Cats purr for several reasons: when they are content, want food, feel nervous, or are in pain. Experts say cats also purr just after they give birth or when they’re injured or sick, leading bioacoustician Elizabeth von Muggenthaler to suggest that purring might be a way for a cat to heal itself.

 

2. Why Does Catnip Make Cats High?

About 70% of cats are susceptible to the intoxicating effects of nepetalactone, the active compound in catnip. One whiff and these kitties are temporarily reduced to drooling, meowing messes, often rolling around in or rubbing their faces on the catnip source. That’s because nepetalactone is a volatile organic molecule that binds to receptors in a cat’s nose, stimulating neurons that activate the olfactory bulb, amygdala, hypothalamus, and other areas of the brain, causing a euphoric effect. The buzz seems to wear off after 10 or 15 minutes, leaving cats extremely chill thereafter.

 

3. Why Do Cats Love Boxes?

Not just boxes — cats will gladly jump into an open suitcase, storage bin, paper bag, or even a square-shaped optical illusion painted on the floor. Cats have an instinct to hide, and boxes offer a semi-enclosed space where they can huddle into a corner and have a good vantage point for spotting danger. Boxes also present a cozy spot to curl up for a nap. In the past decade, a few researchers have looked into how cats seem to squeeze themselves into uncomfortable or too-small containers. One 2014 paper even asked if cats were actually liquids since they appear to adapt their shape to fill a container. More research is needed.

 

4. Why Do Cats Knead?

A nursing kitten often presses its mom’s belly with its front paws; this kneading action stimulates the flow of milk. But many full-grown cats continue the behavior, “making biscuits” on pillows, soft blankets, towels, or their owners. Veterinarians think adult cats knead when they’re feeling safe and relaxed and to show affection to humans and other cats. The act of kneading can also calm cats, like a form of feline self-care. Making biscuits may also be a sign that a cat is marking its territory with the scent glands located between its toes.

 

5. Why Do Cats Drink Out of Faucets When Their Water Bowl Is Right There?

You take great care in providing fresh, filtered water to your finicky feline. But they still prefer to perch on the bathroom sink and awkwardly drink from the faucet. The reason might be linked to domestic cats’ evolution from their desert-dwelling ancestors. According to veterinarian Marty Becker, cats may sense that still water is stagnant and unhealthy. Kneeling down at a water bowl to drink might make them feel vulnerable, especially if they can’t see other cats or people behind them. Running water might signal a fresher source of hydration, and the sound and movement of a dripping faucet may pique their interest. On the other hand, your cat might simply prefer the taste of the dripping tap, or just doesn’t like the water bowl you picked out. To keep your cat out of the sink or bathtub (and save water), try a recirculating fountain.

 

6. Why Do Cats Typically Land on Their Feet?

In his book Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics, Gregory J. Gbur suggests that falling cats land on their feet due to a combination of four movements identified by earlier physicists: pulling in paws to rotate its body, tweaking its momentum by extending paws at certain moments, bending at the waist to counter-rotate the front and hind sections of its body, and rotating its tail to change direction. The key movement, he told Ars Technica, is the “bend and twist”: “The cat bends at the waist and counter-rotates the upper and lower halves of its body in order to cancel those motions out. When one goes through the math, that seems to be the most fundamental aspect of how a cat turns over.” The whole chain of movements is called the cat righting reflex — and though they instinctively land right side up, they don’t always land on their feet.

 

Source: Mind-Blowing Facts About Cats, According to Science  |  Facts About Cats Answered

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - LIBRARIES

Did you know... that libraries come in all shapes and sizes, from the humble village library to the biggest library in the world, the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C., but each represents a gateway to infinite knowledge. My latest book, A Library Miscellany, is a celebration of libraries, packed full of illuminating lists, fun facts and potted histories. In the link below are my ten favourite facts about libraries. (Claire Cock-Starkey | 12 February 2018)

 

A Few of the World's Most Unusual Libraries

by Interesting Facts

For avid readers, libraries are a place of sanctuary. They can unlock a world of imagination, investigation, and learning. Much like the books they hold inside, library buildings can also be wondrous creations, boasting magnificent and creative architecture. Others are noteworthy for their quirky designs or the innovative methods they use to inspire their communities to read. Take a journey to six of the most unusual libraries in the world.

 

1. Biblioburro (Colombia)

Luis Soriano, a teacher from the rural northern Colombia town of La Gloria, was determined to give his students access to books, so he set up an unusual library called Biblioburro. Soriano owned two donkeys, whom he renamed Alfa and Beto — combined, the names form the Spanish word for “alphabet.” Loading the donkeys with about 70 books from his own bookshelves, Soriano saddled up and rode them to local elementary schools to read students stories. Twenty-five years later, Soriano’s book collection has grown considerably, and he is still spreading his love of reading. Even a riding accident that left him with a prosthetic leg hasn’t stopped this determined educator from inspiring young Colombian children with the joy of reading.

 

2. Epos Library Ship (Norway)

Until the pandemic shut down operations in 2020, a library ship called Epos sailed through Norway’s many fjords to deliver books to fjordside communities. Built in 1963, it superseded two earlier ships that had been in service since 1959. Some of the country’s more isolated places are easier to reach by boat than by road, and this service meant that villagers had access to reading material, particularly during the winter months. Epos carried approximately 6,000 books and visited 250 villages two times per year. Given the unusual circumstances, one qualification for taking a job as one of its librarians was not suffering from seasickness. Similar “libraries” exist in Chile’s Chiloé Archipelago and on the Nam Khong River in Laos.

 

3. Camel Library (Kenya)

In rural northeast Kenya, camels, nicknamed “ships of the desert,” once carried unusual cargo as part of a Kenya National Library Service initiative. Concerned by poor literacy rates and lack of access to reading materials in and around the town of Garissa, the local government adopted a novel approach. Camels are well-suited to the harsh terrain and hot summer temperatures in the region, so they were an ideal choice to transport hundreds of books along with a tent and reading mat to the area’s nomadic communities. Eventually, after many years of success, improvements to the local road infrastructure meant that the camel library could be phased out and replaced by motorbikes.

 

4. Lire à la Plage (France)

Each summer, Lire à la Plage (“Reading at the Beach”) brings the library to more than a dozen of Normandy’s coastal resorts. The colorful beach huts, umbrellas, and deck chairs are easy to spot, and though people are not allowed to take books away from the beach, the librarians are happy to make a note that you’re coming back the following day, mark your place, and put it aside for you. The program has been running in France since 2005, but similar reading initiatives have spread as far as Australia’s Coogee Beach, the tourist resort town of Albena on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, and Tel Aviv, Israel, a city that had previously installed books at bus stops.

 

5. Chained Libraries (England)

The practice of chaining reference books to library shelves was common in medieval times. Though it mostly ended in the 18th century, there are around a dozen chained collections that still exist in England. The oldest is the Francis Trigge Chained Library, founded in 1598 at St Wulfram’s Church in Grantham, Lincolnshire. The largest chained library in England, meanwhile, is located inside Hereford Cathedral; its oldest book dates back to the eighth century. Another chained library at Wimborne Minster in Dorset dates from 1686. The books in these libraries were chained to the shelves to prevent theft, which is perhaps preferable to the methods used in Marsh’s Library in Dublin, Ireland, where three wire alcoves were installed in the 1770s. If readers wanted to look at some of the library’s rarest books, they’d be locked up in these cages so they couldn’t walk off with them.

 

6. Nanie’s Reading Club (The Philippines)

In 2000, a Filipino man named Hernando “Nanie” Guanlao was looking for a way to honor his beloved parents, who had recently passed away. While some people might pay for a plaque on a park bench or make a charitable donation, Guanlao had a more unusual idea: He decided to set up a library outside his home to thank his parents for instilling in him a lifelong passion for reading. Guanlao initially gathered up his own modest collection of books and placed them on the sidewalk for neighbors to borrow. When his neighbors returned them, they also brought some of their own books, and the collection grew rapidly. Two decades later, Nanie’s Reading Club is more popular than ever, and every inch of space in his home, inside and out, is covered with books. There’s no charge to borrow one, and Nanie even ventures out into other Manila districts on a specially adapted “book bike” to spread his love of reading further.

 

 

Source: Fascinating Facts About Libraries  |  Facts About Unusual Libraries

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CANDIES

Did you know... that you might be able to rattle off the names of a bunch of candies, but do you know anything else about them? Here, you’ll find a ton of fun facts about your favorite sweets. Brush up on your candy trivia and learn a new thing or two with our original infographic (below) and trivia fact breakdown. (Candy Fun House | Sep 29, 2021)

 

Why Is Bubble Gum Pink? Your Candy Questions, Answered

by Interesting Facts

Have you ever wondered why people give bags of Jordan almonds as wedding favors? Or why circus peanuts taste like bananas? Pop an after-dinner mint and settle in as we dive into these and other common candy questions.

 

1. Why Is Bubble Gum Pink?

In 1928, an accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company began toying with new recipes. At the time, chewing gum was extremely sticky. But this accountant, a man named Walter Diemer, found a recipe that was less gluey and more stretchy, qualities that allowed him to do something unprecedented — blow bubbles. The color of the gum (the original Dubble Bubble) was supposedly born out of necessity: A diluted red dye was the only food coloring Diemer had available, which thankfully turned the grayish concoction pink.

 

2. Why Are Gummy Bears Shaped Like Bears?

In 19th-century Europe, it wasn’t uncommon to see trained bears frolicking down the streets in celebration of a parade or festival. Called “dancing bears,” these animals would skip, hop, whirl, twirl, and perform an array of tricks. Fast-forward to the 1920s, when German candymaker Hans Riegel was searching for a clever way to sell his gelatin-based confections to children. Recalling the two-stepping bears of yore, Riegel decided to make an Ursus-shaped candy called Tanzbär (literally “dancing bear”). The snacks were a huge success. Today, you probably know Riegel’s company as Haribo.

 

3. What’s the Origin of the After-Dinner Mint?

Invented in Great Britain, the “curiously strong” Altoid has been freshening mouths since the 1780s. But foul-smelling breath isn’t the reason candied mints became a mainstay at restaurants. In the mid-20th century, peppermint oil was touted as a digestive aid. In the early 20th century, sprigs of mint were offered to diners at the end of meals; eventually restaurants began offering buttermints, scotch mints, polo mints, and After Eights with the bill. (The creators of Altoids, however, were ahead of the pack. They had been marketing the mints as a “stomach calmative to relieve intestinal discomfort” for decades.)

 

4. Why Are Jordan Almonds So Popular at Weddings?

Jordan almonds are a type of dragée, a French confectionary technique that involves coating a treat in a hard decorative shell. Their name has nothing to do with the Middle Eastern country. Rather, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word is a descendant of the French and Spanish words for garden: Jardin. (Centuries ago, a “jardyne almaunde” referred to a specific variety of almond grown in the yard.) Eventually, a sweetened variety would become popular at Italian weddings. According to The Knot, “fresh almonds have a bittersweet taste, which represents life; the sugarcoating is added with the hope that the newlyweds' life will be more sweet than bitter.” Greek wedding guests are often given gift bags with odd numbers of Jordan almonds in them to represent indivisibility, while Italian guests receive five almonds representing five wishes: health, wealth, happiness, fertility, and longevity.

 

5. Why Do Circus Peanuts Taste Like Bananas?

The circus peanut is like a Zen koan: The more you think about it, the more your brain hurts. After all, it’s an orange peanut-shaped marshmallow with a taste reminiscent of banana. While the peanut’s origins are murky, the Wall Street Journal suggests that the “peanut-shaped marshmallows … were actually supposed to taste like peanuts … but the flavoring wasn’t stable. So they used banana oil instead, which was inexpensive and didn’t degrade.” There's also a rumor, shared by Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern, that the odd flavoring was the result of a "freak banana-oil accident."

 

6. What Is Black Licorice?

Redundant, for one. The extract from the licorice root, which comes from an herbaceous shrub grown in balmy climates, is naturally black. (Other confections with a “licorice” identity — like red licorice, Twizzlers, and other rope candies — don’t contain licorice at all.) Real licorice contains a natural sweetener called glycyrrhizin, which is significantly sweeter than sugar, making it a favorite of candymakers for centuries.

 

7. What Is the Origin of the Idea of a “Sweet Tooth”?

Back in the late 14th century, English speakers began using the word “tooth” as a way to say “has a taste for.” (Such as: “Jim has a tooth for steak.”) This is where we get the word toothsome, to describe a pleasant meal. It’s also the origin of “sweet tooth.” In 1390, author John Gower had the first known usage in print, when he included the phrase in his lengthy poem Confessio Amantis: “Delicacie his swete toth Hath fostred.”

 

 

Source: Facts About Candy  |  Candy Facts

Edited May 1, 2022 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TIME CAPSULES

Did you know... that a time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy relics dates back for millennia, but the practice of preparing and preserving a collection of everyday artifacts and messages to the future appears to be a more recent practice. Time capsules are sometimes created and buried during celebrations such as a world's fair, a cornerstone laying for a building, or at other ceremonies. (Wikipedia)

 

Revealing Time Capsules

by Interesting Facts

Time capsules bring history to the present and provide future generations insight into what life was like in the past. In 2122, if one were to dig up a time capsule that encompassed 2020 to 2022, it would undoubtedly tell the story of the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps with a face mask, a home testing kit, and a computer fully equipped with Zoom. Oh, and let's not forget a recipe for sourdough starter and a phone with TikTok installed. Time capsules have been around for centuries, and some of the oldest have included items that date back to the 1600s. Here are a few of the most fascinating time capsules in history.

 

1. Paul Revere and Samuel Adams Time Capsule, (1795–2015)

On July 4, 1795, American patriot Paul Revere, Massachusetts Governor Samuel Adams, and Revolutionary War Colonel William Scollay created what is considered the world’s oldest known time capsule. At a ceremony marking the completion of the Massachusetts State House, they placed items underneath the cornerstone of the building. It remained there until 1855, when it was dug up during emergency repairs. Then-Governor Henry Gardner added more objects to the collection, and the capsule was eventually reburied. During repairs in 2014, the time capsule was retrieved again, and its contents were finally revealed. It included coins minted as early as 1667, an engraved silver plaque, and a medal depicting George Washington. Following an exhibit of the artifacts at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the time capsule was replaced in the state house.

 

2. The Century Safe, (1876–1976)

In his book Time Capsules: A Cultural History, William E. Jarvis identifies The Century Safe as the first modern time capsule, due to its specified reopening date. Magazine publisher Anna Deihm chose the items — including photos of government leaders and inkstands belonging to famous writers — as part of the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. She enclosed them in a 5-foot-tall iron safe, which she gave to the U.S. House of Representatives to reopen in 1976. The huge, heavy box ended up stored on the Capitol’s east portico for the next eight decades. When the time came to open it during the nation’s bicentennial, no one remembered where the keys were, and a locksmith had to crack it open.

 

3. Westinghouse Time Capsule, (1938–6938)

George E. Pendray coined the phrase “time capsule” when he coordinated the Westinghouse Time Capsule at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The 7.5-foot-long, tube-shaped container was made of the company’s new copper alloy, Cupaloy, designed to withstand burial for 5,000 years. Pendray solicited suggestions for its contents from leading thinkers, and ended up with a mix meant to represent life in the 1930s, ranging from a can opener and textiles to seeds. Microfilms of written material and newsreels completed the contents. The capsule was buried on September 23, 1938, on the World’s Fair grounds, where it remains today. Westinghouse added a second time capsule to the vault during the 1964 World’s Fair. The items are intended to be dug up around 6938.

 

4. Crypt of Civilization, (1940–8113)

In 1936, inspired by the discoveries of ancient Egyptian tombs in the 1920s, Oglethorpe University president Thornwell Jacobs imagined a collection of items that would show future archaeologists life in the 20th century. He stipulated that this “crypt of civilization” should be opened in the year 8113, a date he determined by doubling the number of years between what was believed to be the start of the Egyptian calendar (4241 BCE) and 1936, so that his collection would represent the midpoint of world history. Over three years, Jacobs amassed donated items as diverse as dental floss, beer, and an original script of Gone With the Wind, and built an impenetrable chamber on the university’s Georgia campus in which to store them. In May 1940, the crypt was sealed behind a steel door for (almost) all eternity.

 

5. Expo ’70 Time Capsule, 1970–6970

The time capsule craze was still going strong in 1970 when the Panasonic Corporation and Mainichi Newspapers assembled two identical capsules during the Japan World Exposition in 1970. The first will remain sealed until 6970, while the second was reopened for inspection in 2000 and is scheduled for regular maintenance every 100 years. Organizers included an extensive selection of Japanese cultural objects, literature, and modern inventions in two large steel cylinders, which were lowered by crane into the ground next to Osaka Castle in January 1971.

 

6. Millennium Vault, 2000–3000

Along with the fear of malfunctioning computers, Y2K brought on a wave of interest in time capsules commemorating the 20th century. Organizers in Surrey, U.K., assembled an especially nostalgic collection of objects for Europe’s — and the world’s — largest time capsule vault on the grounds of Guildford Castle. Behind the brick façade, scheduled to be reopened in the year 3000, are a rust-proof Cooper Mini, a Rolls Royce hood ornament, a Sony Walkman, a life-size photograph of World War II-era singer Vera Lynn, and other artifacts. The U.S. had its own — and much smaller — millennium time capsule containing a chunk of the Berlin Wall, Ray Charles’ sunglasses, a Twinkie, and more, due for unearthing in 2100.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Time Capsule  |  Facts About Time Capsules
 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FAVORITE FOODS

Did you know... that in the time it will take to read this sentence, roughly 1,465,9484 tonnes of water will be used around the world for the purpose of growing crops. This is just one of the fascinating facts featured on interactive infographic the World Food Clock, where you can explore the state of food in the world in real time. Here are 7 more astonishing facts about global food resources.  (Goodnet.org  | May 2014)

 

Which Country Produces the Most of Your Favorite Foods?

by Interesting Facts

Not all countries are agriculturally equal, and a handful of places — China, the U.S., India, and Brazil — dominate global food production and exports. Yet smaller players also contribute to stocking the shelves with our favorite foods, thanks to native plant species, environmental factors, and infrastructure investments. Take, for instance, Canada’s abundance of lentils or Peru’s booming quinoa industry. Here are 13 foods and their top-producing countries. Do you know where your favorite snack comes from?

 

1. Turkey: Hazelnuts

Turkey is the world's leading hazelnut producer, by a large margin. The transcontinental country, which straddles Asia and Europe, accounts for about 72.9% of the total global supply. By comparison, Italy, the second-highest hazelnut-producing country in the world, yields just 20% of the world’s supply each year. About 60% of Turkey’s crop comes from the Eastern Black Sea region; the persistent rainfall, moderate temperatures, and hospitable soil on the steep hills create the perfect growing conditions for the nut. It’s likely you’ve sampled Turkey’s supply and not even realized: Companies like Nestlé, Ferrero, and Godiva primarily source hazelnuts for their candy bars, Nutella spread, and decadent chocolates from the region.

 

2. Indonesia: Coconuts

Coconuts have created a heated agricultural competition between Indonesia and the Philippines over the past several years. In 2019, Indonesia edged out the Philippines as the top producer in the world, growing around 19 million tons versus the Philippines’ 14 million tons. (The Philippines, however, remains the world’s top producer of coconut oil.) The coconut is a resilient fruit, and while the palm tree it grows on doesn’t require a specific soil, a high amount of rainfall is needed to properly sustain growth. The trees thrive in humid coastal areas; India, Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Thailand also rank among the world’s major coconut producers. The coconut is extremely versatile; everything from the tree’s leaves and wood to the fruit’s water, meat, and shell can be used, giving the palm tree its nickname, the “Tree of Life.”

 

3. Madagascar: Vanilla

If you love the smell and taste of vanilla, you can thank Madagascar. Though it originated in Mexico, 80% of the enduringly popular spice is now grown in the East African country. Anyone who has ever sought natural vanilla extract or beans knows that the prices are not always consumer-friendly, but it’s for good reason: Vanilla isn’t an easy crop to grow. Vines take anywhere from two to four years to mature, pollination is done artificially by hand (flowers open only one day a year, and the plant’s natural pollinator, the Melipona bee, is found only in Mexico), and the beans take nine months after pollination to be ripe for picking. It then takes many more months of preparing and drying the vanilla beans in the sun for their aromatic appeal to be just right, meaning the process from pollination to shipment takes about one year.

 

4. Costa Rica: Pineapples

Although pineapples are native to South America, Costa Rica leads the world in pineapple production and exports. The small Central American country leans heavily on the crops, which generate an estimated $1 billion USD a year for their economy. While the crops are bountiful for the country (as well as for Brazil and the Philippines), they require a significant amount of time and effort to produce fruit — one plant typically produces only one or two pineapples every 18 to 24 months. In an effort to speed up the growth, some producers have used artificial fertilizers, but not without criticisms and concerns over the toxicity to the famously environmentally forward country. In response, the Costa Rican pineapple industry is working toward implementing regulations to ensure more sustainable practices.

 

5. Mexico: Avocados

Avocados have become so ubiquitous in food culture that their consumption was once cited as a reason for Millennials not being able to buy homes. But before they became a so-called luxury grocery item for hip young people, avocados were a long-running staple of the Mexican diet, and to this day, Mexico is the leading avocado producer and exporter in the world. Avocados weren’t always so popular outside of their native land, though — it wasn’t until a PR campaign and Super Bowl commercial in the early 1990s that guacamole became a game-day staple. Today, a staggering 87% of the U.S. supply comes from Mexico, where the avocado industry provides 40,000 jobs and 70,000 seasonal jobs during harvest.

 

6. Peru: Quinoa

In the mid-to-late 2000s, quinoa enjoyed a huge popularity surge in Europe and the U.S., where it was touted for its health benefits. Since 2015, Peru — the native region for the Andean plant — has emerged as the largest quinoa producer and exporter in the world. The “superfood” is a grain crop, the edible seeds of which are high in protein, amino acids, fiber, iron, and antioxidants. The ancient grain is so revered that it even received a special honor from the United Nations General Assembly, who named 2013 the International Year of Quinoa. The popularity and production boom has been financially beneficial to Peruvian farmers, who previously grew quinoa primarily for their own family’s use.
 

 

Source: Facts About the State of Food  |  Facts About Top Foods

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FAMOUS LANDMARKS

Atacama Desert in Chile (Giant Hand)

Did you know... that these recognizable natural or artificial sites have long been used as useful tools of navigation and have stood out of their surrounding environment for a variety of reasons. Be it a prehistoric archaeological site, a dormant volcano, or an opulent manmade palace, these destinations are lionized throughout the world and share one common attribute – an interesting backstory! (Selina | 16 February 2022)

 

Secrets of Famous American Landmarks

by Interesting Facts

You might be fooled into thinking you know everything about these iconic U.S. landmarks, but despite their international fame, there’s more to these hotspots than meets the eye. There are hundreds of hidden features inside our nation's most renowned sites that only the most dedicated visitors will ever find. Here are a few of the most interesting and mysterious.

 

1. The Empire State Building Has a Secret 103rd Floor

Although the Empire State Building is advertised as having 102 floors, that's not quite the case. There's actually another floor that was originally constructed for building maintenance. It now acts as an ultra-exclusive hotspot for the rich and famous. Unlike floor 102, which features a wrap-around balcony and glass windows, floor 103 is ultra-thin with only a knee-high railing separating observers from the sky surrounding them. Inside the building, there's a small room used for housing electrical equipment, but most celebrities just stay on the balcony and enjoy the adrenaline-inducing photo op.

 

2. There's a Time Capsule at the Top of the St. Louis Arch

Most visitors to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis don’t realize that the monument also provides a look back in time. In October 1965, a time capsule was added to the top of the Arch. The contents aren’t exactly major historical relics, but they’re surprisingly sweet — the capsule contains the signatures of more than 700,000 citizens of St. Louis, many of them schoolchildren. The capsule is permanently welded to the Arch, so it will remain intact as long as the Arch stands.

 

3. Grand Central Terminal Has a Tennis Club

Roughly one million people pass through Grand Central Terminal every day, but almost nobody knows about the tennis club that exists above their heads. Founded in the 1960s by a wealthy Hungarian immigrant, the tennis club consisted of two simple clay courts and existed for the public to enjoy while waiting for their ride. In 1984, however, Donald Trump purchased the space and redeveloped it into a luxurious locale for celebrities — charging upwards of $130 per hour to rent it out. The courts stayed under his control until 2009 when they were renovated and reopened to the public. Although it's open (it’s now called Vanderbilt Tennis), you'll still need some luck in order to find it since many employees don't even know it exists.

 

4. A Cave Lies Beneath the Lincoln Memorial

Most people who visit the Lincoln Memorial spend all of their investigative energy trying to find the famous typo carved into the walls. However, underneath the memorial, there's an even better-hidden gem — a full cave complete with stalactites. Construction workers stumbled upon the cave in the 1970s when digging out an elevator shaft for disabled visitors. Apart from the gorgeous nine-foot stalactite rock formations, the most fascinating part of the cave is the graffiti that adorns the 122 supporting columns. Visitors who embark on a cave tour can view these original World War I-era scribbles made by an unidentified construction worker. They include caricatures of everyone from Woodrow Wilson to the monument's construction foreman.

 

5. There Are Wine Cellars in the Base of the Brooklyn Bridge

Engineer Washington Roebling had some serious business smarts when he created the Brooklyn Bridge. When he first started construction, he faced two major problems: There wasn't enough money in the city to pay for the full project and two local wineries refused to move their facilities out of the path of construction. In a stroke of genius, Roebling solved both problems by incorporating two full wine cellars into the base of the bridge on each side. To help finance the bridge, he rented the cold, dark cellars out to local businesses who needed some extra storage and generated profit for the city until the Prohibition Era. Today, the city of New York has taken ownership of the cellars, stripping the caverns of their functionality and leaving them as a dry, empty reminder.

 

6. Disneyland Has a Secret Members-Only Club

Club 33 is an inconspicuous little room at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, but the people who enter are anything but low-profile. This exclusive clubhouse boasts an invite-only guest list where members must pay anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 to get initiated and $12,500 to $30,000 in annual membership dues after that. Even if you do have hundreds of thousands of dollars to fork over for this exclusive experience, the waitlist is six years long and spots rarely open up for new members. On top of that, the activities of the members are held in top-secret status within the park's administration, which means you never quite know what you're getting into when you sign up. There's only one thing we do know for sure about Club 33 — it's the only place in the park to serve alcohol, which means it just might be worth the investment.

 

 

Source: Famous Landmarks Around the World  |  Facts About American Landmarks

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FINGERPRINTS

Did you know... that human skin has several layers, and each layer has sub-layers. A developing fetus is constantly straining and stretching these layers, which can snag on each other. Scientists believe fingerprints form when the bottom layer of the epidermis grows at a different rate than the rest of the skin, causing it to buckle and tug on the dermis. Your fingerprints are made up of several skin layers twisted together [PDF], kind of like a soft-serve swirl. (Kate Horowitz | Apr 15, 2016)

 

Gripping Facts About Fingerprints

by Interesting Facts

You’ve probably heard that your fingerprints are unique, and that no one else in the entire world shares the same pattern of ridges as you have on your fingertips. This certainty is so absolute that fingerprints have been used as a means of identifying people for thousands of years — Chinese societies used them for this purpose possibly as early as 300 BCE. But beyond their individuality, fingerprints continue to be a mystery to scientists and are constantly being studied. That being said, here are a few facts we do know.

 

1. Your Fingerprints Contain Whorls, Arches, and Loops

Technically, the patterns of ridges on your fingertips are called dermatoglyphs, from the Greek roots derma (skin) and glyph (carving). Fingerprints are the impressions left by the dermatoglyphs, though people often refer to both the ridges and their impressions as fingerprints. The ridges follow three universal patterns: loops, whorls, and arches. Loops are curved ridges that fall back on themselves in an elongated C shape, with the open ends of the C pointing either toward or away from the thumb. Whorls are ridges in concentric circles or spirals. Arches look like the contour of a mountain. Of the three types, loops are the most common (60% of fingerprints), followed by whorls (35%), and arches (5%).

 

2. It’s Almost Impossible to Change or Eliminate Fingerprints

Fingerprints don’t change pattern or naturally disappear over the course of a person’s life, and it’s incredibly difficult to get rid of fingerprints, as some famous criminals could attest. The gangster John Dillinger attempted to hide his identity by burning off his fingerprints with acid (it didn’t work). At least two other Depression-era murderers tried to obliterate their prints with knife cuts. All found out the hard way that it’s almost impossible to eliminate fingerprints on purpose. The ridges will eventually grow back into the same patterns. However, there are a few scenarios in which someone may lack them. People with a genetic condition called adermatoglyphia are born without ridges in the skin of their fingertips, palms, or soles of their feet. Skin conditions like psoriasis and repetitive manual labor can also change or wear down the ridges. Some chemotherapy drugs cause hands to swell and blister, resulting in the loss of fingerprints.

 

3. Fingerprints Form Before You’re Born

Studies have suggested that genetic and environmental factors guide the formation of ridges on the fingers, hands, toes, and feet between the third and sixth months of fetal growth. Genes that control the development of dermal layers in these body parts seem to dictate the size, shape, and pattern of the ridges. The chemical balance in the mother’s uterus probably plays a role, too. All of these influences add up to the creation of a set of dermatoglyphs that is totally unique — even identical twins have different fingerprints. Though it should be noted that despite the fact that scientists have studied fingerprints for a few centuries, they still don’t agree on how they form.

 

4. The Function of Fingerprints Is Still a Mystery

Scientists also don’t agree on why we have fingerprints in the first place, but they have some theories. For decades, biologists assumed that dermatoglyphs evolved to give people a better grip on things. Two University of Manchester researchers tested this idea in 2009 by running hard plastic sheets over their fingertips and measuring the amount of friction. They found that their ridges actually decreased the contact area between the fingertip and plastic, reducing grip power. More recent research has suggested that fingerprints improve our sense of touch. For a 2021 study, researchers at Sweden’s Umeå University recorded 12 participants’ nerve responses while finely textured cards were run over their fingertips. The responses revealed hotspots of sensitivity that matched the ridge patterns of the subjects’ fingerprints — supporting the idea that they enhance our tactile feeling.

5. Animals Have Unique Fingerprints, Too

One reason that scientists thought fingerprints helped our grip ability is that other primates who climb and hang on to trees also have them. Gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees have dermatoglyphs on their fingers and toes that are unique to each individual.

Koalas also have fingerprints that look remarkably human, even though humans aren’t related to koalas. Biologists believe their dermatoglyphs represent convergent evolution, in which unrelated organisms independently develop similar traits.

 

 

Source: Unique Facts About Fingerprints  |  Fingerprint Facts

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SOUNDSCAPE OF JAPAN

Evening bell of Mii (sound) 

Did you know... that in 1986 Japan's Ministry of the Environment decided to do something about noise pollution and came up with the idea of creating a national list of sounds representative of the nation, its environment, culture and heritage. Putting it to the people, thousands of entries were whittled down to a final 100 sounds. With an aim to increase awareness, respect and pride in the local environment, the 100 Soundscapes of Japan come from all 47 of the nation's prefectures and represent all four seasons, the natural world, intangible historical artefacts as well as local crafts and cultural traditions. ( Sleiman Azizi | Jul 20, 2019 )

 

Sounds You Can Only Hear in Japan

by Interesting Facts

Shamisen

Following France’s lead, several European countries have granted protected status to traditional products made within their borders — items such as olive oil, sausages, cheeses, regional wines, chocolates, and hams. The protections preserve authenticity and promote locally grown and produced foods as a source of pride for the country.  Japan — though also rightfully proud of its food and drink culture — has taken a different tack: preserving traditional sounds. Between 1994 and 1997, in a reaction to growing noise pollution in the modern world, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment set out to identify and designate 100 soundscapes throughout the country as distinctly Japanese. The final list of 100, winnowed down from 738 applications, provides a unique guide to Japan by revealing treasured elements of its distinctive culture and natural environment. Take a tour of Japan through seven of its most unusual protected soundscapes, and be sure to click on the links at the end to hear the sounds yourself.

 

1. Drift Ice in the Sea of Okhotsk, Hokkaido

The description on the original application for this northernmost soundscape probably sealed its place on the list. The sheet of Arctic ice that replaces the usual splashing and gurgling of the ocean makes noises described as “whining and wailing,” and “creaking, squeaking, and groaning.” The phenomenon attracts tourists to the city of Monbetsu, which holds a Drift Ice Festival every February. The winter ice, which used to bring dread and economic hardship to this fishing region, has instead become something to celebrate. However, a noisy festival or a sightseeing trip on an icebreaker ship is not the best way to hear it. Your best bet to fully appreciate the sound of the icy surface is to bundle up and stand perfectly still on the shore to listen. Click here to listen.

 

2. The Whistles of Female Free Divers, Shima

A tradition of women free-diving in the ocean for seafood and pearls has been part of the culture of Japan’s Shima Peninsula since the eighth century. The women, called ama, begin training with their mothers and grandmothers from adolescence. They can dive as deep as 60 feet without oxygen tanks and — until the latter part of the 20th century, at least — without the benefit of flippers or wetsuits. They often swim well into their 80s. The breathing technique that the ama have developed includes a release of breath in a long whistle as they resurface after a dive. Though their numbers have dwindled in modern times, their work as harvesters of Mikimoto pearls has led to a resurgence (especially when Mikimoto’s marketing department recognized their potential appeal to tourists). There is also a growing interest of urban women in taking up the tradition. Click here to listen.

 

3. Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Kyoto

This otherworldly bamboo forest outside of Kyoto is a popular spot for photographers. The sunlight filters to the forest floor through the dense grove, contrasting with the visual drama of the ruler-straight walls of bamboo plants crowding either side of the winding paths. Another reason to visit this remarkable natural site? The soundscape created by the wind — both the rustling of the bamboo leaves high overhead, and the gentle clacking of the stalks themselves. The grove is so dense that visitors often cannot feel the breeze behind the harmonious sound, but the pleasant music it elicits has been deemed a national treasure worth protecting. Click here to listen.

 

4. Shiira River, Iriomote Island

An aural counterpoint to the groaning sea ice at the northern tip of Japan, this southernmost protected soundscape comprises the squawks, chirps, songs, and buzzing of a subtropical island. The Shiira River winds past stands of mangrove and through overgrown jungle — lush habitats for a variety of rare (and delightfully noisy) animals, insects, and birds. The sounds of spotted belly Yaeyama frogs, ruddy kingfishers, Iriomote cats, crested serpent eagles, and cicadas rise and fall in the steamy landscape, cresting in a raucous cacophony before winding down to a whirring calm again. Since the river was cited among the list of protected soundscapes, most of the tourist boats that used to chug up and downstream to view wildlife have been replaced by canoe and kayak tours. Now, paddlers can pause along their journey to hear the solitary plop of a flower falling into the brackish water, before a rousing accompaniment by the jungle birds and frogs. Click here to listen.

 

5. Yamabushi Conch Trumpets, Yamagata Prefecture

The mountainous region of Dewa Sanzan is overseen by three peaks — Gassan, Haguro and Yudono — which, in the local religion, represent the past, present, and future. The mountains are home to a sect of ascetic monks who live simply, eating only plants and berries, and worship the sacred force of nature. These Yamabushi monks sound conch trumpets (horagai) as they walk through the dense cedar forests and visit the stone statues, sacred trees, and temples within. Blowing the conch can accomplish a few things: It can signal one monk’s position to others, or it can be a sonic prayer of praise to Buddha and the gods of the forests, or its clear tone can act as a purification of the site. Click here to listen.

 

6. Suikinkutsu at Suikintei Garden, Gunma Province

Gunma, a mountainous prefecture, is known for numerous hot springs and the onsen resorts centered around them. This draws visitors from nearby cities, including Tokyo, which is less than three hours away. Part of the allure is seeing how the hot spring baths inform the local culture — in one tradition, women sing and dance while using large paddles to stir the steaming waters. In the town of Kusatsu, a network of open troughs, built from wood, distributes gushing spring water into channels that lead to private onsens and public baths. With all the focus on flowing springs and bathing, it’s not surprising that the Suikintei botanical garden in Takasaki has a tranquil feature based on the sound of falling water, a traditional Japanese garden ornament and musical device called suikinkutsu. It can be a carefully placed bamboo pipe that trickles a stream into a pool, or an earthenware vessel that’s buried in the garden. A stream dripping into the vessel’s belly resonates pleasantly, like the plucking of an instrument’s string. Click here to listen.

 

7. Thunder Rock (Kaminari Iwa), Goishi Coast

The Goishi coastline is broken up by dramatic outcroppings of rock, like those along Northern California and Southern Oregon on the opposite side of the Pacific from Japan. The lush green land drops off suddenly in rocky cliffs, with stone arches and lonesome monoliths standing offshore amid swirling waters. Kaminari iwa, or Thunder Rock, is among the most famous of the coastline’s attractions because of the percussive booming created when the surf rushes in and out of its gullies and caverns. Click here to listen.

 

 

Source: Soundscape of Japan  |  Facts About Japan Sounds

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FAMOUS TREES

The Judean Date Tree is an ancient species of date palm.

Did you know... that trees provide humans and other animals with food, shade and shelter. They take in carbon dioxide we breathe out and release the oxygen we breathe in. They prevent flooding, filter water and stabilize land. Some are thousands of years old and others tower over 300 feet above the Earth! These facts are just a few of the things that make all trees majestic and special in and of themselves. But, there are some trees that are not just incredible specimens, they also have an amazing story to tell. Below are 6 such trees. (The Environmentor)

 

The Amazing Stories Behind 5 Famous Trees

by Interesting facts

Boab Prison Tree

Here’s what we know about trees: They clean the air we breathe, provide us with snacks, and supply the lumber for our homes. But trees also hold secrets — scientists are still studying how their roots work and how they share resources with one another. We might not understand all their hidden abilities, but one thing we can take away from some of the world’s most famous trees is their resilience, surviving in the most rugged conditions and standing witness to humanity’s most difficult moments. These famed trees are reminders of how we, too, can stand tall and keep growing.

 

1. Endicott Pear Tree

Early settlers in America hoped to put down long-lasting roots. Some, like Massachusetts Governor John Endecott, did so literally. After arriving in the colonies in 1628, Endecott was granted 300 acres outside Salem, where he built a homestead and planted pear trees in the 1630s, likely in order to produce perry, a cider-like alcoholic drink. Endecott hoped his orchard would continue to produce for generations to come. That hope was at least partially satisfied. Some 131 years after his death, a local reverend noted in his diary that the governor’s plantings had dwindled save for one lone pear tree. In 1809, pears from that remaining tree were harvested and sent to former President John Adams. At the turn of the 20th century, newspaper reports highlighted the tree’s longevity, noting it still produced pears with “not of too pleasant flavor.” In the centuries since its planting, the pear tree has survived years of neglect, harsh New England weather, and vandalism to become the oldest living cultivated fruit tree in America. (The tree’s name is now usually spelled “Endicott,” the family’s modern spelling of their name.)

 

2. Methuselah

Methuselah, a bristlecone pine hidden within California’s Inyo National Forest, takes its name from the Bible’s longest-living figure, though it put down roots some 2,700 years before the birth of Jesus. Nestled within California’s White Mountains, the nearly 4,800-year-old tree lives within a grove of fellow bristlecones that may reach around 5,000 years of age. That long lifespan isn’t because of their location — the Inyo National Forest is known for being a hostile environment for plant life, combining high altitude with extreme temperatures that only the most persistent lifeforms can endure. Bristlecone pines grow slowly, an estimated inch per century, in effect making these resilient trees defenseless against vandalism and over-trafficking (one reason the U.S. Forest Service gives for not publicizing Methuselah’s exact location). The Guinness Book of World Records currently considers Methuselah the oldest living individual tree in the world.

 

3. Emancipation Oak

Trees provide oxygen, shade, and in some cases, a refuge from the world around us. The Emancipation Oak, shading the entrance of Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, is one such tree; its limbs offered sanctuary to Black students during the height of the Civil War. Mary Smith Kelsey Peake, a free Black woman, began teaching formerly enslaved students at the base of the tree in 1861, a risk she undertook at a time when laws forbade the education of Black and enslaved people. The tree’s proximity to a Union Army base offered security — earlier in 1861, Union leaders had declared that enslaved people who reached Union lines would not be returned, bringing a wave of escapees to Fort Monroe, located in Confederate territory.

In 1863, an audience gathered beneath the tree's branches to hear the Emancipation Proclamation — the first reading of the document in a southern U.S. state. Five years later, Mary Smith Kelsey Peake’s efforts would be recognized with the opening of what would later become Hampton University, near where she began teaching. The Emancipation Oak is now on the Virginia Landmarks Register, and in 2010, President Barack Obama recognized the tree’s significance by planting a sapling from the Emancipation Oak on White House grounds.

 

4. Hyperion 

Finding the world’s tallest tree is no easy feat, but one section of California keeps unearthing record-breaking trees that compete for the title. Countless timber titans are hidden deep within Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park along the state’s northwest coast. Researchers believe the area provides the perfect conditions for sky-high coast redwood trees: mild 40- to 60-degree temperatures paired with 60 inches of rain each year that allow for continuous growth. That’s likely how Hyperion, the world’s tallest tree, reached its stunning height of over 380 feet, far surpassing landmarks like the Statue of Liberty or Big Ben. Discovered in 2006, Hyperion replaced the former reigning champ Stratosphere Giant, a fellow redwood that held the title for four years. But it’s unsurprising that any redwood tree receives the designation; many are able to reach staggering heights thanks to their generous 700-year lifespans, with some surpassing 2,000 years old. If you’re interested in hiking out to find Hyperion, know that it won’t be easy. Efforts have been made to keep the tree’s location secret in an effort to protect it from vandalism and foot traffic that could degrade its surrounding ecosystem.

 

5. Hibakujumoku

Ginkgo biloba trees are known for their ability to survive earthquakes, fires, and all manner of natural disasters. But no one could have guessed the slender trees with fan-shaped leaves would endure one of the darkest moments in modern human history: the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The devastation in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, left 5 square miles of destruction and an estimated 140,000 people dead. The initial blast, paired with high levels of radiation, killed off most trees and vegetation within the area. But by the following spring of 1946, Hiroshima residents realized that their singed, barkless ginkgo trees had once again bloomed, inspiring hope among survivors in the difficult days ahead. The surviving 170 trees, called hibakujumoku or “survivor trees,” are labeled with plaques that share their story and stand as reminders of resiliency, reconciliation, and peace — themes that transcend any season.

 

 

Source: Amazing Stories and Folktales About Trees  |  Facts of Stories Behind Famous Trees

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - MEANINGS OF SONGS

Did you know... that whether it’s a sexual innuendo or just a lost-in-translation moment, sometimes we have to look a little closer at the lyrics of our favorite pop songs to really understand the real message. (SHANEE EDWARDS | JENNIFER EDELSTON | OCTOBER 7, 2021)

 

Little-Known Meanings Behind 6 Famous Songs

by Interesting Facts

You’ve heard them a million times. You may even know all of the lyrics. But no matter how often you’ve encountered these songs, there’s a good chance you’ve been interpreting them incorrectly. The “hidden” meanings and stories behind these six tunes will make you think twice the next time they cross your path.

 

1. “Walk This Way,” Aerosmith (1975)

In late 1974, Aerosmith was messing around during the soundcheck at a show where they were opening for The Guess Who. They managed to land on the iconic guitar riff and drum beat that would eventually become “Walk This Way.” The lyrics, however, took a little longer. For a while, as they worked on the song, Steven Tyler would just scat nonsensical words — but then Mel Brooks came along. After seeing Brooks’ Young Frankenstein in early 1975, the band members were quoting lines from the movie at each other, including the part where Marty Feldman’s Igor tells Gene Wilder to “walk this way” and Wilder begins to imitate Igor’s hunched steps. Aerosmith’s producer heard the quote and suggested that it could make a great title for the song. Tyler worked his spontaneous scatting into lyrics, and a classic tune was born. When Run DMC covered the tune a decade later, it became a hit all over again — and helped revive Aerosmith’s sagging career.

 

2. “Philadelphia Freedom,” Elton John (1975)

With lyrics like “From the day that I was born/I’ve waved the flag/Philadelphia freedom,” and because the song came out just a year before America’s bicentennial, it’s easy to assume that Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” is about patriotism. In reality, it’s about tennis legend Billie Jean King. After becoming friends with King in the early ’70s, the British-born John told her that he wanted to write a song in her honor and came up with the idea to name it after her tennis team, The Philadelphia Freedoms. He debuted the rough cut of the song for King and her team during the 1974 playoffs; King immediately fell in love. “He said, during the part where he goes ‘Philadelphia’… ‘That’s you getting upset with an umpire.’ Walking up to the umpire … stomping: ‘PHIL. UH. DEL-phia.’ I was laughing so hard,” she said in an interview with eltonjohn.com. King knows most people don’t know the song was written for her — and she doesn’t care. “We didn’t want it to be anything about tennis. No, it’s a feeling. It’s a great song for a team. It’s a great song if you’re not a team.”

 

3. “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Bonnie Tyler (1983)

This epic ’80s ballad is certainly a heartbreaker, but the lyrics are just vague enough that it’s not entirely clear what the heartbreak is. In 2002, lyricist Jim Steinman — who was also responsible for Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” (1983) and Meatloaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” — came clean about the song’s origins to Playbill. “I actually wrote ["Total Eclipse of the Heart"] to be a vampire love song. Its original title was 'Vampires in Love' because I was working on a musical of 'Nosferatu,' the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they're really like vampire lines. It's all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love's place in [the] dark.” Steinman revived the idea for a musical called Dance of the Vampires that opened on Broadway in December 2002, but despite starring the legendary Michael Crawford (of Phantom of the Opera fame), the brief, 56-performance show was a flop. Costing $600,000 per week to produce, and ultimately producing a loss of $12 million, the New York Times deemed Dance one of the most expensive Broadway flops of all time.

 

4. “Sweet Caroline,” Neil Diamond (1969)

The story of “Sweet Caroline” seems to be ever-evolving. For decades after the song first charted in 1969, no one knew who the mysterious Caroline was. Diamond managed to keep his inspiration a secret until 2007, when he played at a very famous 50th birthday party and revealed that the woman of the hour — Caroline Kennedy — had been his muse all of those years ago after he saw a picture of her riding a horse in a magazine. The claim was a little suspect; Caroline was only nine in the photo, and the lyrics contain some decidedly adult lyrics. But the rest of the story came together in 2014 when Diamond told the Today show that the song itself was about his then-wife, Marsha. Because the two syllables in her name didn’t fit the scheme of the song, the singer racked his brain for a three-syllable substitute that would roll off the tongue. He recalled the famous photo of the young Caroline Kennedy, and that’s when he realized that her name was so good, so good, so good.

 

5. “Blackbird,” the Beatles (1968)

The lyrics “Take these broken wings and learn to fly” have inspired many people from many different walks of life in the 50-plus years since Paul McCartney wrote “Blackbird.” But at a concert in 2016, he revealed that he had written the song with a very specific issue in mind: civil rights in the U.S. Although he has mentioned the connection several times over the decades, it was particularly poignant when he talked about his inspiration during a 2016 concert in Little Rock, Arkansas. “Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock,” McCartney said. “We would notice this on the news back in England, so it’s a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started,” he told the crowd, which included two members of the Little Rock Nine (a group of Black students whose enrollment at a previously all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 drew national attention). “We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those troubles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those troubles, it might just help them a little bit, and that’s this next one.”

 

6. “Sabotage,” the Beastie Boys (1994)

The subject of this 1994 classic with the even more iconic video was a mystery until the Beasties’ memoir was released in 2018. As it turns out, it was their creative response to a producer who was rushing them to finish Ill Communication. While working on their fourth album, the group was having some trouble making decisions about their songs, and producer Mario Caldato was over it. In order to move things along and complete the album, he pushed on tracks that weren’t ready or good enough — much to the Boys’ chagrin. To protest, Ad-Rock penned the famous “I can’t stand it” opening scream with Caldato in mind. “I decided it would be funny to write a song about how Mario was holding us all down, how he was trying to mess it all up, sabotaging our great works of art,” he wrote.

 

 

Source: Hidden Meanings Behind Your Favorite Pop Songs  |  Facts of Little Known Meaning of Famous Songs

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FRANCE

Did you know... that as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, millions opt to visit France on an annual basis in order to enjoy the country’s rich culture, wonderful landscapes, and vibrant cities. However, much like anywhere, there are some rather strange France facts that even many locals don’t know about! Here are some fun, cool, weird, and interesting facts about France (and you really won’t believe some of them!) (Sophie Nadeau | updated: 26th January 2022)

 

Facts About France You Might Not Be Aware Of

by Interesting Facts

How well do you know France? This perennially popular country is the most-visited nation in the world, with 212 million people arriving in 2018 (the most recent year data is available). Here are a few things you might not know about the land of baguettes, crepes, and the Eiffel Tower.

 

1. It’s Home to One of the Oldest Department Stores in the World

The first department store to open in Paris was Le Bon Marché, which Aristide Boucicaut founded in 1838. Some say it was the first store of its kind in the world, although there had been a small department store in London called Harding, Howell & Co. that operated in the same way, but on a smaller scale, from 1796 to 1820. Boucicaut learned his trade from his father, who had a small shop selling accessories such as ribbons and buttons. At 18, Boucicaut peddled fabric on the streets before moving to Paris in the hope of making it big. He believed in the success of  bulk buying, which would allow customers to browse before purchasing, and insisted on fixed prices with seasonal sales. These ideas were revolutionary and eventually made him a fortune.

 

2. There Are a Lot of Weird Laws

France has some peculiar laws. In 1954, the mayor of the wine-growing town Châteauneuf-du-Pape issued a decree banning the “flying over, landing, or taking off of flying saucers.” No one since has thought to overturn it, let alone consider what they’d do if a flying saucer actually landed. Another famously odd law concerns transporting your pets by train. You need to purchase a ticket for your furry friend, and as long as your fellow passengers don’t object, you can board with your dog, cat, hamster, guinea pig, or even snail. It’s worth an appeal, however, if it’s the latter; in 2008, someone scored a refund after they were forced to buy a ticket for their snails.

 

3. The French Eat a Lot of Cheese — But Not the Most

Perhaps surprisingly, the people of France aren’t the top consumers of cheese, nor the biggest exporter. That said, the French do eat and sell a lot of the stuff. In 2018, France was the third-largest exporter of cheese after Germany and the Netherlands, sending approximately 689,000 tons abroad. According to the International Dairy Federation, the French ate roughly 57 pounds of cheese per capita in 2013 alone, though they have since slid down the rankings despite eating more and more of the stuff. The country that consumes the most cheese per capita? Denmark.

 

4. There’s a Competition Devoted to Black Pudding

Like many other countries, France has a love of black pudding, which is also known as blood sausage. There’s even a festival devoted to this love-it-or-hate-it culinary treat in the town of Mortagne-au-Perche in Normandy. The Boudin Noir festival in March features a competition to see who can eat the most, and it’s conducted under the watchful eye of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte-Boudin — which translates to the Fraternity of the Knights of the Blood-Sausage Tasters. It’s common for contestants to consume up to three miles of black pudding between them.

 

5. The International Distress Call Has French Origins

“Mayday” is the international distress call and it derives from the French phrase “M’aider,” which translates to “Help me.” Despite its French origins, it’s commonly agreed that the first person to introduce the term was not a Frenchman, but rather a Brit named Frederick Stanley Mockford. He worked at Croydon Airport near London as a senior radio officer. He coined the phrase in 1923 and chose French over English since a significant amount of air traffic at the time originated from the opposite side of the Channel. To this day, if an aircraft is in trouble, the word is repeated three times.

 

6. The Country of Pommes Frites Once Made Potatoes Illegal

The French government banned potatoes in 1748, believing that they caused leprosy. In those days, the now-popular tuber was deemed “hog feed” in France and considered unfit for human consumption. But thanks to the work of French pharmacist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who was fed a potato-heavy diet while a prisoner of war and went on to publish a prize-winning, potato-promoting essay called “Inquiry into Nourishing Vegetables That in Times of Necessity Could Substitute for Ordinary Food,” the potato eventually gained both scientific approval and public acceptance. Parmentier also held dinners featuring potatoes in a bevy of different dishes (Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson attended a few). In 1794, a woman named Madame Mérigot published the first potato cookbook, and the rest is history. Today, as an alternative to pommes frites, you can eat Parmentier potatoes — named after the man himself.

 

 

Source: Weird & Interesting Facts About France  |  What You Might Not Know About France

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BEVERAGES

Did you know... that everyone needs to stay well hydrated daily, but not everyone enjoys drinking the same beverages. (Maxine | March 2022)

 

The Countries That Consume the Most Coffee, Tea, Wine, and Other Drinks

by Interesting Facts

We know that the French love their wine, and that the U.S. is on a big sparkling water kick. But that doesn’t necessarily make them the top consumers of those drinks worldwide, at least on a per-capita basis (the average amount each person consumes). From the surprising reasons Finnish people are coffee-crazy to the Turkish love of tea, learn which countries around the world consume the most per capita of a dozen popular beverages.

 

1. Coffee: Finland

Coffee isn’t just popular in Finland — it’s taken very seriously. The European country is one of the only in the world where coffee breaks are mandated or considered working time by some labor unions. In the 1970s, President Urho Kekkonen established a law doing away with bitter dark roasts, instead requiring coffee beans to be lightly roasted for better taste. Considering that — and the fact that Finland has some of the world’s cleanest tap water for brewing a cup — it makes sense that the average Finn consumes almost 27 pounds of the caffeinated beverage every year. The Finnish aren't the only Europeans who love their java: Europe is the most caffeinated continent overall, with nine of the 10 top coffee-consuming countries. Canada, where the Tim Horton’s coffee chain famously predominates, comes in 10th place at just over 14 pounds per capita per year. The U.S., despite the saturation of Dunkin’ and Starbucks, takes the 25th spot with 9.2 pounds of coffee consumed per person.

 

2. Tea: Turkey

Aside from water, tea is the world’s most consumed beverage, and the country that drinks the most of it is Turkey. Turks consume 6.96 pounds each year on average — almost an entire pound more of the hot, comforting drink than the Irish, who come in second. The United Kingdom — with a widely documented tea-time culture — ranks third, at just under two pounds per capita annually. Tea only became common in Turkey in the 1900s. Instead of coffee houses, the Turks favor tea houses; they are hubs of socialization and a major part of the country’s tea-drinking ritual. Turkish tea is traditionally black tea served in tulip-shaped glasses on a small saucer, with two cubes of sugar but no milk. The average Turkish tea drinker consumes three to five cups a day, but this number can increase to up to 10 during the colder winter months.

 

3. Hot Chocolate: Portugal

Hot chocolate is a decadent treat for children and a guilty pleasure for adults, and no country in the world drinks more of it per person than Portugal. The Portuguese drink a whopping 100.2 cups per capita annually — an amount that sounds either soothing or sickening, depending on your sweet tooth. The hot chocolate that originated in Spain during the 1600s consisted of ground cocoa beans, water, wine, and chili peppers. Although the powdered packets today are quite different, Spain is fourth worldwide in per-capita consumption (76.6 cups). Ahead of Spain are Finland (90.1 cups) and Colombia (84 cups).

 

4. Beer: Czech Republic

Beer is by far the most popular alcoholic drink around the world. For over 25 years running, the country that drinks the most beer per capita — by quite a large margin — is the Czech Republic. The average resident there guzzles 142.6 liters of the golden bubbly beverage annually. By comparison, people in other major beer-drinking countries such as Austria and Germany barely crack 100 liters. It’s fair to say that the Czech Republic has a strong beer culture. After all, it is the birthplace of pilsner, one of the most popular styles of beer, and in many Czech cities, a beer will set you back less than a bottle of water. And it doesn’t seem likely that the country will reverse course anytime soon. Each year, consumption is increasing, although trends in recent years favor take-home bottles from breweries rather than old-fashioned pints at a local pub.

 

5. Whiskey: France

Both the U.S. and the U.K. have storied whiskey-making traditions, but it’s France that takes the top spot for whiskey consumption per capita. The average French person consumes about 2.15 liters of the spirit per year. Recently, the country’s production has started to catch up with its tastes: A crop of new distilleries began making their own whiskeys in the past decade, and sales of French whiskey quadrupled between 2010 and 2017. Behind France, Uruguay is the second-biggest whiskey consumer at 1.77 liters per person, followed by the United States (1.41 liters), Australia (1.3 liters), and Spain (1.29 liters). Perhaps surprisingly, the U.K. lands in the seventh spot, drinking 1.25 liters annually.

 

6. Bottled Water: Mexico and Thailand

Water is the most-consumed beverage in the world. In many countries, however, public services struggle to provide clean and safe drinking water, so bottled water consumption is often much higher. Mexico and Thailand are tied in first place with 72.4 gallons of bottled water per person per year. (Both countries also count tourism as a primary economic driver, although tourism’s exact impact on those figures is unknown.) In Mexico overall, it’s estimated that eight out of every 10 residents relies on bottled water, or as many as nine out of 10 in the capital, Mexico City. On the other hand, the U.S. leads the world in per-capita tap water consumption — although a major contributor to that number is the water usage required for certain industries. (Meat production alone accounts for 30% of the total, for instance, while sugar production contributes 15% to the figure.)

 

 

Source: Haley's Daily Blog  |  Facts About Countries That Drink the Most Coffees, Teas, and Wines

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SPORTS TEAMS NAMES

Did you know... that when the expansion NFL team in Dallas named their head coach, the headline in the next morning’s Dallas Morning News read: “Rangers Hire Tom Landry.” But after some thought, the front office decided there would be confusion with an existing minor league baseball team (the Dallas Rangers). Cowboys was actually only the third choice. The original name was actually “Steers” but Tex Schramm said you don’t want your whole football team being castrated.” Good call, Tex. My gracious, just think of the Tony Romo headlines. (Chris Chase | February 9, 2015)

 

How 6 Sports Teams Got Their Distinctive Names

by Interesting Facts

You don’t have to actually watch sports to be aware of the country’s most famous teams — or wonder how they got their names. While some are obvious (the Boston Red Sox wear red socks), others are anything but. If you’ve ever wondered what a knickerbocker is or what the 2020 World Series champions have been “dodging” all these years, read on for the story behind six teams’ unique names.

 

1. New York Knickerbockers

Though almost always called the Knicks these days, New York’s oldest basketball team is still officially known as the Knickerbockers. If you don’t know what a knickerbocker is, you’re hardly alone — the team even has an explanation on its NBA page. History buffs will remember that New York was settled by the Dutch and was even known as New Amsterdam for a time; the “knickerbocker” name is in honor of that history. The term refers not only to the distinct style of pants worn by those settlers but also to the pseudonym Washington Irving used for his 1809 book A History of New York From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty: Diedrich Knickerbocker. At the time, the word was used as an affectionate term for both New Yorkers in general and the settlers’ descendants in particular.

 

2. Green Bay Packers

Corporate sponsorship is nothing new. Just ask the NFL's third-oldest franchise, which celebrated its centennial in 2019 and has been winning championships since long before the Super Bowl became football’s top prize. The team was cofounded in Wisconsin by George Whitney Calhoun and Earl “Curly” Lambeau, the latter of whom struck a deal with the company he worked for at the time: The Indian Packing Company would provide $500 for uniforms, equipment, and the right to use their athletic field, and in return, Lambeau would name his team the Packers. It was quite the bargain. (For context, SoFi recently paid $400 million for the naming rights to the new stadium where the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers play.) Alas, the meat-packing company ceased to exist just two years later, when it was absorbed by the Acme Packing Company — whose name briefly appeared on team uniforms in 1921 — but its legacy lives on through the Packers to this day.

 

3. St. Louis Blues

Lots of teams are named after fierce animals and local landmarks. Not many are named after songs. The rare — and possibly only — exception would be the St. Louis Blues, a hockey team whose moniker is derived from W.C. Handy’s song of the same name. First recorded in 1914, the classic tune has been covered by everyone from Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby to Dizzy Gillespie and Bessie Smith. Blues owner Sid Salomon Jr. chose it as the team's namesake because "no matter where you go in town there's singing. That's the spirit of St. Louis." Unlike most expansion teams, the Blues were instantly successful — they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1968, 1969, and 1970, but were swept in all three series. Don’t feel too bad, though — they finally won the big one in 2018.

 

4. Los Angeles Dodgers

Not unlike the Utah Jazz, the Dodgers trace their name to their original city — Brooklyn, where the team was founded as the Grays (and later the Bridegrooms) in 1883. Writers began referring to them as the "Trolley Dodgers" in 1895, when trolley cars became ubiquitous in the borough. At the time, the subtle art of evading those vehicles was as much a pastime in Brooklyn as playing baseball. The team officially adopted the nickname and became the Dodgers in 1932, ultimately keeping the title even after their 1958 move to Los Angeles, despite now being in a city that isn’t exactly known for its public transportation. Although the name sounds quaint, historical context reminds us that it had a far different connotation at the time. “In the 1890s, the electric trolley terrified many New Yorkers,” Joseph P. Sullivan wrote in his essay “The Terror of the Trolley.” “The electric streetcar was much faster than a horse streetcar and caused many accidents. In Brooklyn especially, the trolley frequently killed or maimed young children. As a result, the electric trolley became a symbol of the chaotic nature of modern, urban life.”

 

5. Indiana Pacers

When basketball came to Indianapolis in 1967, it was probably inevitable that the new franchise would draw inspiration from the city’s most famous event: the Indy 500. Indiana’s capital and most populous city has long been synonymous with the annual race, which was established in 1911 and is billed as the Greatest Spectacle in Racing to this day. Among the Indy 500’s many traditions is the pace car, which has been used in the race since its very first edition. The pace car’s purpose is both ceremonial and highly important: Its appearance on the track signals a caution period during which racers aren't allowed to pass either it or the competitor in front of them, often to allow safety technicians to clear the track of obstructions or wait until it’s safe to drive at full speed again. It’s considered an honor, as well as an advertising opportunity, for a manufacturer to provide the Indy 500’s pace car — the vehicle will be seen by millions, after all.

 

6. San Francisco 49ers

If you aren’t up to date on your California history, the number 49 might not carry much significance. But there's a reason it's called the Golden State, and that reason is the gold rush that began in 1848 and reached its peak in 1849. The California Gold Rush brought some 300,000 people to the state over the course of seven years, with hopeful prospectors becoming known as forty-niners. Formed nearly a century later in 1946, San Francisco's first major sports team took its name from those prospectors. Seventeen years later, the Philadelphia 76ers followed suit by naming themselves after the year America declared its independence from Great Britain.
 

 

Source: Strange-but-true origin stories of 19 sports team names  |  Facts About Sports Teams Names

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - M*A*S*H

Did you know... that in 1968, surgeon H. Richard Hornberger—using the nom de plume of Richard Hooker—collaborated with writer W.C. Heinz to create the book MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, based on his experiences with the 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. Two years later, Robert Altman used the book as the basis for a movie about the fictional 4077th unit (he cut the number 8055 in half). Two years after that, M*A*S*H came to life again in the form of an 11-season television series. And 35 years ago today, that show culminated in the most-watched series finale in television history. Here are some facts about the show that won't get you a Section 8. (Roger Cormier | February 28, 2018)

 

Facts You Might Not Know About “M*A*S*H”

by Interesting Facts

From its premiere on CBS in September 1972 through its historic series finale watched by more than 106 million Americans in February 1983, M*A*S*H changed television forever. The series followed the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War of the early 1950s and seamlessly blended comedy and drama like never before. Nominated for more than 100 Emmys and winning 14, the show was embraced by critics and viewers alike, with characters such as Hawkeye and “Hot Lips” becoming small-screen favorites. Airing in syndication, available on DVD, and streaming on Hulu, M*A*S*H has been a gold standard for television for more than three decades — and the six facts below reveal how the sitcom became a cultural landmark.

 

1. “M*A*S*H” Is Based on a True Story

M*A*S*H was loosely based on the 1970 Robert Altman film of the same name, which was an adaptation of the 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker, the pen name of former U.S. Army surgeon H. Richard Hornberger. The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or MASH (the asterisks between the letters were a creative design element used in the fictional versions), was first deployed by the U.S. Army during World War II as an attempt to move surgical care closer to the wounded soldiers. The charismatic character of Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (played by Alan Alda) was created by Hornberger based on his own medical heroics. During the Korean War, Hornberger was assigned to the 8055th MASH, which traveled the 38th parallel dividing the Korean Peninsula, now the demilitarized zone that divides North and South Korea. His novel took 12 years to write and five years more to find a publisher, and eventually, Hornberger sold the television rights for the incredibly low amount of $500 (still only a few thousand dollars today) per episode.

 

2. Colonel Blake's Death Was Kept a Secret From the “M*A*S*H” Cast

In the 1950s and ‘60s, death rarely came for popular television characters, and especially not the members of beloved sitcom ensembles. When actor McLean Stevenson told producers he would be leaving M*A*S*H after season three, the departure of his beloved character Colonel Henry Blake was originally planned as an earned discharge allowing him to return home. However, in continuing to push the envelope of television dramedy, Reynolds and Gelbart decided to kill off the colonel in the season finale, “Abyssinia, Henry.” After first distributing the script without the final page and shooting all other scenes, Gelbart asked the cast to wait before starting the end-of-season wrap celebration. He then gave the actors a copy of the final page where Radar (played by Gary Burghoff) announces that Blake’s plane home has crashed. The final scene was filmed in two takes, capturing the immediacy of the actors’ emotions. Despite the groundbreaking nature of the episode, the decision proved controversial and CBS was inundated with complaint letters.

 

3. Only One Actor Appeared in Every “M*A*S*H” Episode

Despite the show’s success, and perhaps due to its long run, M*A*S*H experienced several significant cast changes, and several favorite characters were replaced with equally dynamic new ones — a standard practice on long-running shows today, but rare back then. In addition to Stevenson’s departure, Wayne Rogers (Captain “Trapper” John McIntyre) abruptly quit after season three, reportedly due to dissatisfaction with the development of his character. (Production planned a multimillion-dollar breach-of-contract lawsuit against the actor, but he revealed he never signed his contract, which made the matter moot.) Stevenson’s Colonel Blake was succeeded by Colonel Potter (played by Harry Morgan), while B.J. Hunnicutt (played by Mike Farrell) took Trapper John’s place in the 4077th. Radar, the only main character transferred from the movie to the TV series, left the show in 1979. Of the many actors who appeared on the show, Alda was the only star to appear in every episode. Through its run, the actor took increasing creative control of the series, directing 31 episodes including the finale, and co-writing 13 episodes. He became the first person ever to win Emmy Awards for acting, directing, and writing for the same show. Loretta Swift (Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan) was a close second in terms of longevity; she appeared in all 11 seasons but missed a handful of episodes along the way.

 

4. You Can Visit the Original Set Location

Before M*A*S*H, most sitcoms were filmed on stage sets in front of a live audience. To enhance the wartime realism of the show, exterior and tent scenes were shot on location in the mountains near Malibu, California. On October 9, 1982, as the series was wrapping production, a sweeping brush fire destroyed most of the outdoor sets. The fire was written into the final episode as being caused by enemy bombs that forced the 4077th to move out. The site today is known as Malibu Creek State Park, and some of the original set locations are still intact and open to visitors.

 

5. The Cast Voted to End the Series

The actors worked closely as an ensemble and also became friends off-set. As Alda remembered, “Most of the time actors disperse and go to their dressing rooms between shots. We sat around in a circle of chairs making fun of one another, having fun.” The cast was so close that they voted as a team to end the series; many of them believed they had exhausted all stories for their characters. The cast members who wanted to continue starred in the series AfterMASH, which ran from 1983 to 1985.

 

6. The Show Lasted Longer Than the Actual Korean War

In its first season, M*A*S*H aired on Sunday night against ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney. Ratings were near the bottom of the list and the series was almost canceled. In its second season, M*A*S*H was moved to the powerhouse CBS Saturday lineup, just after All in the Family, and followed by The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. As a result, M*A*S*H became one of the top 10 programs of the year and mostly stayed in the top 20 throughout the remainder of its 11-season run. This remarkable achievement far surpassed the span of the Korean War, which lasted just over three years (June 1950 to July 1953).

 

 

Source: Painless Facts About M*A*S*H  |  Fact You Might Not Know About M*A*S*H