Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PEPSI

Did you know... Pepsi was originally called “Brad's Drink.”
Pepsi has been nearly synonymous with cola for more than a century, but it wasn’t always called that. We have pharmacist Caleb Bradham to thank for the bubbly beverage, as well as its original name: Brad's Drink. Believing that his concoction had digestive benefits, Bradham sold it at his pharmacy in New Bern, North Carolina. Brad’s Drink didn’t last long, however — it was renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898. The new name was partly derived from the word “dyspepsia,” a technical term for indigestion, and was meant to convey the tasty beverage’s supposed medicinal properties. Bradham trademarked the name in 1903, and the company grew exponentially over the next few years, with 240 franchises opening across 24 states by 1910. Pepsi isn’t the only major company to undergo a name change, of course — 7-Eleven used to be known as Tote’m Stores, Nike was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports, and Canon was originally called Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory, among others.

 

Dr. Pepper used to be served warm.
Dr. Pepper used to be advertised as a hot holiday drink, a response to declining sales in the winter months. The original ad from the 1960s even came with helpful instructions: Simply warm the beverage in a saucepan until it steams, then pour it over a lemon slice. The result was a “distinctively different hot Dr. Pepper” and “the holiday favorite of the proud crowd,” per the festive commercial. Heating the drink to 180 degrees Fahrenheit eliminated the carbonation, leaving behind a sweet, flat flavor that was especially popular in the South. ( Interesting Facts )

 

Things You Probably Didn't Know About Pepsi

By Andrew LaSane | Apr 12, 2016

From the classic commercials featuring Michael Jackson and Ray Charles, to the long-standing rivalry with Coca Cola, the 120-year-old beverage has become an iconic part of global pop culture and shows no signs of stopping. Here are 11 things that you may not know about the drink that has been hitting the spot for generations of soda drinkers.

 

1. PEPSI-COLA WAS ONCE CALLED "BRAD'S DRINK."

The inventor of Pepsi-Cola was a druggist in North Carolina named Caleb Davis Bradham. In 1893, Bradham began selling “Brad’s Drink” at the soda fountain in his store. The beverage was a mixture of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg, kola nuts, and a few other ingredients. Five years later, Bradham renamed the drink Pepsi Cola because he believed that it helped to stave off dyspepsia (indigestion).

 

2. WORLD WAR I COULD HAVE BEEN THE END OF THE COMPANY.

The price of sugar increased significantly during the war, and Bradham used the opportunity to buy more of it, thinking that the price would continue to climb and he would be able to sell for a profit. The gamble didn’t work out in his favor, and in 1923 Bradham declared bankruptcy. The company was purchased eight years later by the Loft Candy Company.

 

3. PEPSI STAYED AFLOAT BY OFFERING MORE COLA FOR LESS MONEY. 

 

While competitors were selling 6-ounce bottles for a nickel during the Great Depression, Pepsi began selling 12-ounce bottles for the same price. Their profits doubled. They even had a catchy jingle to make sure that consumers never forgot that their price was right.

 

4. THE BRAND GAVE SOFIA VERGARA HER FIRST ACTING JOB.

 

The Modern Family star was only 17 when she starred in her first commercial. The 30-second Pepsi ad ran in South America and featured Vergara in a bikini trying to get across the hot sand to a Pepsi cart. Vergara said that the commercial made her famous and that it was one of the reasons why the company approached her to be a spokesperson for Diet Pepsi in 2011.

 

5. PEPSI WAS THE FIRST SOFT DRINK COMPANY TO USE TWO-LITER BOTTLES.

In the 1970s, an inventor named Nathaniel Wyeth developed a bottle made of polyethylene terephthalate, which was lighter than glass, wouldn’t shatter if dropped, and wouldn’t contaminate its contents. By 1976, Pepsi was selling the bigger bottles to thirsty consumers everywhere.

 

6. THERE WERE PEPSI MASCOTS IN JAPAN.

 

In the 1990s, Pepsi Japan approached Canadian comic book artist Travis Charest to create a character to be used in their television commercials. Charest came up with a faceless superhero named Pepsiman, who ran around bringing the beverage to anyone in need. Pepsiwoman made her debut in a later commercial for Diet Pepsi Twist, and there was even a 1999 video game that involved guiding Pepsiman through obstacles so that he could deliver the carbonated drink to fans.

 

Want to read more of your favorite Pepsi drink?  Click the link below 

 

 

Source: Interesting Facts About Pepsi | What You Might Not Know About Pepsi

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NO EXPIRATION DATE

Did you know... The next time you go to the grocery store, you might notice something curious about how it's arranged: The outside of the store is filled with expensive foods that expire in a week or less, but as you head towards the center of the store, the expiration dates loom further and further into the future. In fact, many of the foods found here use a different type of grading altogether. Instead of telling you when they expire, manufacturers slap a "best-by" or "sell-by" date onto their products. That means you don't have to throw it away if you exceed the date — it's still safe to eat — but it may be past its prime in terms of quality and flavor. Many of us stock our pantries with these staple foods, like cereal, pasta, and rice. Doomsday preppers go one step further and keep stores of it on hand. But you might be surprised to learn that many of these foods don't last forever: White rice is only good for four to five years (unless it's stored in an oxygen-free environment), and dried pasta only lasts for a few years. So what foods truly never (or almost never) expire? Here's what you can keep in your cupboards indefinitely — or at least a decade or two.

 

Honey is liquid gold that never expires

 

Honey is one of the few foods that really never expires. Technically, sugar also lasts forever, although its quality starts to deteriorate after two years. That's not the case with honey: Give it 20 years, 50 years, or 100 years, and it'll still taste the same way it did when you bottled it up. Don't believe it? National Geographic reported that archaeologists found 3,000-year-old pots of perfectly edible honey when unearthing Egyptian tombs. And yes, even crystalized honey is perfectly safe to eat. What makes honey different from just about every other food on this list? For starters, it has a very low water content. Microbial growth requires water, which is why fresh fruits and vegetables expire so quickly. Combine that with honey's low pH, and you've got an environment where its nearly impossible for bacteria to grow. Finally, add in honey's antibacterial properties and the presence of hydrogen peroxide, and you have a product with an eternal shelf life.

 

Salt never expires (unless it's iodized)

There's a reason we've been using salt as a preservative for hundreds of years. Natural salt — meaning that it has no additives — will never go bad. Like honey, salt doesn't contain any water, preventing the conditions that cause food to spoil. And because salt isn't plant-based (it's a mineral extracted from seawater), it won't lose its flavor over time, either. If you store it correctly, salt will always taste like salt, no matter how old it is. That being said, anyone who lives in a humid environment will want to keep salt in an airtight container to prevent it from clumping up and absorbing water. So why does some salt have a best-by date? It may have additives. Iodized salt was introduced in the 1920s to prevent thyroid conditions. Because iodine and other anti-caking agents that might be added to the salt do degrade, the shelf life of salt containing those additives is reduced to about five years. Some retailers also refuse to carry products without a sell-by date, so you may find a sticker slapped on your additive-free salt. As long as there's only one item on the ingredients list (salt), it should be safe to eat after that date passes.

 

Instant coffee might be foul, but it never expires

We can only think of a couple reasons to keep a package of instant coffee on hand: backwoods backpacking trips and doomsday prepping. Its portability can't be questioned, but few people know that instant coffee will stay fresh forever — even after opening the packaging. We use the word "fresh" here lightly, though, because it's made by drying a concentrated solution of pre-brewed coffee. The coffee extract is then spray-dried using hot air to transform the liquid into a fine powder, or it's frozen and dried under vacuum. Either way, once the process is finished, the coffee lacks any water that could lead to spoilage. Consuming expired whole bean or ground coffee won't make you sick, but it also won't taste that great. Fresh coffee loses flavor pretty rapidly — as quickly as three months once you grind it or open the bag. In the case of very oily coffee beans, the grounds can also grow mold over time. Best to have the instant stuff on hand to get your caffeine fix if your regular coffee goes stale.

 

It might get weaker over time, but hard alcohol never expires

If your favorite vodka or whiskey is on sale at the local liquor store, you may want to stock up, because hard alcohol is one of those things that almost never expires. Even those dusty bottles at the back of your grandparent's liquor cabinet are likely still good to go. So long as it's pure alcohol and doesn't have any added ingredients (like fruit or cream liqueurs, or alcohol with mixers added in), it should last indefinitely. That said, it might not look or taste quite the same as it did back in the day, especially if you've opened the bottle. Some alcohol will get weaker after a few decades, and it can also lose its flavor and change color. If the alcohol content drops below 25 percent alcohol, it can also become a breeding ground for yeast and bacteria. As a general rule of thumb, if it looks weird or smells funky, it might be time to toss it out. 

 

Non-fat powdered milk lasts forever in the freezer

You might want to keep a package of non-fat powdered milk in your pantry for emergencies. This process starts by removing water from the milk and separating out the milk fats, the two components that can cause dairy to spoil. Then, the milk is dried using an evaporator to turn it into powder. It is easily reconstituted with water, and it will stay good for two to 10 years after its best-by date, especially if you store it in an airtight container. Keep the powdered milk in a cool place below 60 degrees F to extend the storage life even further. Pop it in the freezer, and it will last forever. Rehydrated powdered milk won't taste as good as the fresh stuff, but it's super helpful to have some on hand. Add water to turn it into drinkable milk, or stir it directly into your coffee. You can also cook with it: Add it to ice cream to make it creamier, use it to thicken yogurt, or whisk it into soups and sauces to give them a rich finish.

 

Virgin coconut oil never really expires

There are various types of cooking oil, and they all have their pros and cons. When it comes to shelf life, though, coconut oil should be at the top of your list, because it lasts longer than most cooking oils. After two to three years past its best-by date, olive oil will go rancid, and vegetable oil only has about a year. Virgin or extra-virgin coconut oil, on the other hand, really never expires. The key here is to make sure you're picking up unrefined coconut oil if you want it to last forever. That's because the refining process weakens the saturated fats' ability to stave off oxidation and makes the product susceptible to rancidity, especially if the oil has been expeller-pressed rather than cold-pressed, as heat also speeds up oxidation. Many people are attracted to refined coconut oil because of its neutral aroma and flavor, but it's only good for about 18 months. While unrefined oil has a very coconut-forward flavor, it also has a significantly longer shelf life. For some, that's totally worth it.

 

Soy sauce is fermented, so it never expires (if it's unopened)

Most of us don't think about soy sauce as we're drizzling it on our rice or mixing it with wasabi for sushi dunking, but it's actually a fermented product. Soy sauce starts as a combination of soy beans, wheat, salt, water, and yeast (toasted wheat gives the sauce a pleasing aroma and a sweet flavor). After the ingredients are cooked, an edible mold known as koji is introduced to the mash. A whole bunch of science follows, but in short: The koji converts starches into sugars and develops all kinds of complex flavors that make soy sauce so lovable. Because of that fermentation process, and its high sodium content that prohibits microorganisms from growing, soy sauce is unlikely to spoil if it's unopened. Open the bottle, though, and the oxidation process starts immediately, which impacts the quality of fermented foods. It can darken in color and the flavor can intensify over time, too, so it'll taste best if you use it within six months of opening. Store it in the refrigerator, and you'll extend the life to two years.

 

Microwave popcorn expires, but loose kernels don't

That bag of buttery popcorn in the back of the pantry might go bad over time, but the loose kernels can last virtually forever. When it comes to the microwave packets, we can't recommend using them past the best-by date, as these products contain added oils and fats that can go rancid over time. The loose kernels, on the other hand, will last indefinitely if you store them in an airtight container or a cool, dry area. There's one caveat here: You'll have a better chance of getting all the kernels to pop if they're fresh, and they'll transform into larger, fluffier pieces of popcorn when they're young, too. That makes them best consumed within about a year. If you find yourself having trouble getting older kernels to pop, don't toss them out — they may just need to be rehydrated. In What Makes Popcorn Pop?, David Woodside suggests adding a tablespoon of water to a few cups of popcorn kernels. Place the contents in a jar and shake it until the kernels absorb the water. Let them sit for a few days, then pop as normal.

 

Dried beans last indefinitely if they're stored right

Despite their flatulence-inducing properties, dried beans are an excellent source of protein, fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants, making them a great product to stock up on. And they can last indefinitely if stored in a cool, dry place. Sounds like a wonder food, right? When it comes to quality, though, decades-old beans may not be quite as good as fresh.  A study by Brigham Young University prepared 32-year-old pinto beans for a group of 58 people, and the beans still had an 80 percent acceptance rate for use in emergency situations when it came to taste and overall quality. Not only that, the study found that beans retain their protein content over time, making older varieties just as nutritious as the younger beans. But that's emergency situations, and you may be willing to eat sub-par beans. When it comes to everyday cooking, conventional wisdom says that you probably don't want to store dried beans for longer than a couple years, and that's because older beans may never get as tender as freshly harvested beans, no matter how long you cook them. They'll definitely take longer to cook, so you should always soak older beans for at least 12 hours before cooking them, and you may want to add baking soda to the mix if your beans have been in the pantry for a while, as it will help to soften them.

 

Vinegar's shelf life is almost indefinite

Vinegar is one of those pantry ingredients that's always good to have on hand. It's used in cooking, it's a key ingredient in salad dressings, and using it to make pickles is an easy way to preserve food for later use. It also has a variety of household uses: Apple cider vinegar can be used as a hair rinse or mouthwash, and even turned into a multi-purpose cleaner. Consuming it may also have some health benefits. The best part about vinegar? According to studies conducted by the Vinegar Institute, vinegar's shelf life is almost indefinite. It's also self-preserving because of its acidic nature, which means it never needs to be refrigerated. Over time, you may notice some color changes, the development of sediment, or a hazy feature in some types of vinegar, but these changes don't affect the safety of the acidic liquid itself. If they bother you, stock up on white distilled vinegar, which will remain completely unchanged over time.

 

Textured vegetable protein won't expire for 20 years or more

Textured vegetable protein (TVP) may not be as sexy as a beefy burger or a juicy chicken breast, but it lasts significantly longer than meat and it doesn't require any refrigeration. This soy-based meat alternative was invented in the 1960s as a "meat extender." Since it's a dehydrated product made from soybeans or soy flour, it has an unusually long shelf life. Store it in an oxygen-free environment, and it will last 15 to 20 years. Keep it at temperatures colder than 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and it will last longer than that. Not sure how to use this high-protein, high-fiber food? It cooks up similar to ground meat, so you can use it as an inexpensive meat substitute in chili, casseroles, stews, or soups. If you want to go all in on plant-based cooking, try forming it into patties for veggie burgers or turning it into meatless meatballs.

 

Whole grains won't expire for up to 12 years

Surprisingly enough, flour doesn't last forever. All-purpose flour only has 10 to 15 months before it goes rancid, and wheat flour only lasts six to eight months (although both will keep indefinitely in the freezer). If you want to extend the shelf life to over a decade, you'll want to invest in a grain mill. Hard grains like wheat, buckwheat, millet, and spelt are good for 10 to 12 years when stored whole in an oxygen-free environment. Once you grind the grain, you remove that built-in protection. Without its hard outer shell, the germ of the seed has nothing to keep it from releasing its volatile oils, and over time those oils will turn rancid and create off flavors. Soft grains still have a pretty long shelf life, too — you can expect about eight years of storage from quinoa, oats, and barley — but their soft outer shell doesn't protect the seed as well as the hard varieties.

 

Spam lasts many years past its best-by date

Spam was introduced to the world in 1937, and it only took a few short years for it to become a household staple. During World War II, Hormel estimates that more than 100 million pounds of Spam was shipped abroad to feed Allied troops, and they've sold over 8 billion cans to date. What makes people love Spam so much? It's a ready-to-eat, shelf-stable, inexpensive meat product, and it actually tastes pretty good, too. Despite the common misconception that Spam lasts forever, Hormel recommends eating it by the "best by" date stamped on the can to enjoy it at its best quality. Like other canned meats, you can usually go two to five years after that date as long as the can isn't bulging. There are die-hard preppers debating the value of 30-year-old cans of Spam, and some sound willing to give it a whirl if necessary. Personally, we wouldn't dig into a can that old, but apparently a 100-year-old tin of veal that was analyzed and found to be perfectly good was fed to a cat in the late 1930s. Apparently, the cat didn't complain, so maybe it's fine.

 

 

Source: Foods That Surprisingly Never Expire

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - YOUR BONES

Did you know... Babies are born with almost 100 more bones than adults.
The human body has 206 bones — unless you’re talking about babies, in which case the number is closer to 300. Many of a newborn’s bones are actually made of cartilage, which is much more malleable and allows fetuses to curl inside the womb as they develop. As children grow, cartilage turns into bone in a process called ossification, and the excess bones fuse together. (If you’ve ever wondered how those “soft spots” on an infant’s head — technically known as fontanelles — become stronger, bone fusion is the answer.) This is also a big part of why calcium is so important for babies: New bone tissue can’t grow without it. Ossification doesn’t happen overnight, however — it continues until a person reaches their mid-20s, which is around when humans reach their peak bone mass. In much the same way that we’re constantly shedding our skin, our bones are constantly changing as well, with old bone gradually destroyed and new bone material formed. The process is called remodeling, and it helps keep the skeletal system healthy long after we’ve settled down at 206 bones.

 

Humans and giraffes have the same number of neck bones.
Despite having the longest necks in the animal kingdom — they can reach a length of eight feet, twice as long as the neck of any other creature — giraffes have the same number of cervical vertebrae as humans: seven. The key difference is that giraffes’ vertebrae are much longer, with each of them measuring close to 10 inches in length; in humans, the entire vertebral column is around 28 inches for men and 24 inches for women. We have the same number of neck bones as our tall, spotted friends for the simple reason that we’re both mammals — sloths and manatees are the only members of this particular class that don’t have seven. ( Interesting Facts )

 

Interesting Facts About the Squelletal System
by Orthopedic Care | November 19, 2015 

An adult's skeletal system consists 206 bones, 32 teeth and a network of other structures that connect the bones together. This system performs a number of vital functions, such as giving the body its form, assisting with bodily movements and producing new blood cells.

 

Babies have more bones than adults.

Adults have 206 bones in their bodies, but the same is not true for infants. The skeleton of a newborn baby has approximately 300 different components, which are a mixture of bones and cartilage. The cartilage eventually solidifies into bone in a process called ossification — for example, the kneecaps of newborns start off as cartilage and become bone in a few years. Over time, the "extra" bones in infants fuse to form larger bones, reducing the overall number of bones to 206 by adulthood.

 

The hands and feet contain over half of the body's bones.

Bones come in all shapes and sizes, and are not evenly distributed throughout the body; some areas have far more bones than others. Coming out on top are your hands and feet. Each hand has 27 bones, and each foot has 26, which means that together the body's two hands and two feet have 106 bones. That is, the hands and feet contain more than half of the bones in your entire body.

 

Some people have an extra rib that can cause health issues.

Most adults have 24 ribs (12 pairs), but about one in every 500 people has an extra rib, called a cervical rib. This rib, which grows from the base of the neck just above the collarbone, is not always fully formed — it's sometimes just a thin strand of tissue fibers. Regardless of its form, the extra rib can cause health issues if it squashes nearby blood vessels or nerves. This results in a condition known as thoracic outlet syndrome, which is marked by pain in the shoulder or neck, loss of limb feeling, blood clots and other problems.

 

Every bone is connected to another bone — with one exception.

The hyoid is a horseshoe-shaped bone in the throat, situated between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. It's also the only bone in the human body not connected to another bone. The hyoid is often considered the anatomical foundation of speech; because of where it's located, it can work with the larynx (voice box) and tongue to produce the range of human vocalizations. Neanderthals are the only other species to have hyoids like humans, and its presence in those hominids has led scientists to speculate that the Neanderthals had complex speech patterns similar to modern humans.

 

Ancient Egyptians developed the world's first functional prosthetic bone.

Prostheses are artificial devices that take the place of missing or injured body parts. Some prosthetic body parts are merely cosmetic — artificial eyes, for example — but prostheses that replace bones, such as prosthetic limbs or joints, have a functional purpose. About 3,000 yeas ago, ancient Egyptians developed the first functional prosthesis: an artificial big toe. In 2011, researchers showed that Egyptians with the fake toes would have had a much easier time walking around in sandals than people who were missing their big toes but didn't get prostheses.

 

Human species have been dealing with bone tumors for 120,000 years.

Bones are made of active, living cells. And like the other cells in your body, the cells of your bones are susceptible to benign tumors and even cancer. But this is nothing new: Modern humans and their relatives have dealt with tumors for thousands of years.

In 2013, scientists found a tumor in a Neanderthal rib bone dating back 120,000 to 130,000 years. It is the oldest human tumor ever discovered.

 

Animals with internal, bony skeletons are in the minority.

The bony skeletal system in humans is hidden under layers of skin and muscle. The same is true for other vertebrates, or animals with backbones, including amphibians, birds, reptiles and fish. But vertebrates only account for 2 percent of the animal species on the planet; the other 98 percent are invertebrates, including insects, arachnids and mollusks. This means that the vast majority of the animal species on the planet lack an internal or external skeleton made of bones. Some invertebrates have exoskeletons made of a fibrous substance called chitin, while others have a fluid-filled skeletal structure, as do jellyfish and worms.

Read more on the human body by clicking the link below. 

 

 

Source: Facts About Human Bones | Interesting Facts About Bones

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CROCODILES

Did you know... Crocodiles can’t stick out their tongues.
The jaws of a crocodile are an amazing specimen of evolution. With a second jaw joint unlike anything found in mammals, a crocodile can spread the force of its tremendous bite throughout its mouth. In fact, crocodiles have the most powerful chomp in the animal kingdom, at 3,700 pounds per square inch for a saltwater crocodile — 30 times the force of a human bite. But that’s not the only interesting thing about a crocodile’s mouth: Their tongues are incapable of getting between those devastating jaws thanks to being permanently rooted to the floor of their mouths. Their tongues are also held in place by a membrane attached to the roof in the back of the mouth, which keeps the throat closed when the crocodile is submerged. A crocodile’s immobile mouth muscle isn’t a new trait — its most famous ancient ancestor, the Tyrannosaurus rex, also couldn’t move its tongue (a fact Jurassic Park got very wrong). Researchers in 2018 compared the T. rex’s hyoid bones, the bones responsible for supporting the tongue, to those of modern birds and alligators, and found they exhibited tongue inhibition like the kind seen in modern crocodilians. The king of dinosaurs likely had an immovable tongue for similar reasons. With a bite that delivered 12,800 pounds of force per inch — four times that of even the crocodile — T. rex biology made sure to keep crucial body parts (i.e. the tongue) out of the way of the most powerful bite to ever walk the Earth.

Crocodiles actually do cry “crocodile tears.”
When someone is feigning sadness, they’re sometimes said to be “crying crocodile tears.” This phrase linking crocodiles to their often teary-eyed display occurs in literature over the past several centuries. One of its earliest mentions appears in The Voyage and Travels of Sir John Mandeville, published in the 14th century, which says “these serpents slay men, and they eat them weeping.” Even William Shakespeare makes note of crocodile tears in Othello. Crocodiles do “cry,” but it’s mainly to keep their eyes lubricated if they’ve been out of water for long periods. In 2007, a zoologist from the University of Florida also proved that crocodiles weep when snacking, but theorized that the tears come from forced airflow (from a croc’s copious hissing and huffing), which in turn affects the reptile’s tear glands. ( Interesting Facts )

 

Cracking Facts To know About Crocodiles
BY CHIARA FIORILLO | November 17, 2021

Crocodiles are fascinating animals that once lived along with dinosaurs, but survived the mass extinction which wiped many species out. These reptiles are very versatile and can live in multiple environments, including lakes, rivers, freshwater bodies, salt water and brackish water (a salt and freshwater mix).

 

1.They Are the Largest Reptiles on Earth

Crocs were around before the dinosaurs; and while they might not be as big as a T-Rex, they have lasted a lot longer. The saltwater crocodile is the largest aquatic reptile on Earth. It can reach lengths of more than 23 feet (7m) and weights over 2,200 pounds (1,000kg). Saltwater crocodiles of this size are capable of eating just about any animal that strays too close and are particularly adept at drowning terrestrial creatures like birds and mammals. Named for its ability to survive in full salinity seawater, saltwater crocodiles typically live in brackish (low salinity) water near the coast.

 

2. Crocodiles Really Do Produce Tears

Ever heard about the expression "Crocodile tears"? In our culture, it means showing insincere remorse and comes from the fact that crocodiles produce tears when they eat their prey. However, it doesn't mean they actually cry.  UF zoologist Kent Vliet carried out a study and found the tears in crocodiles may occur as a result of the reptiles hissing and huffing, a behavior that often accompanies feeding. Air forced through the sinuses may mix with tears in the crocodiles' lacrimal, or tear, glands emptying into the eye. The glands produce a fluid that helps to clean the eye and lubricate the passage of the nictitating membrane across the eye's surface.

 

3. The Oldest Crocodile Lived 140 years

The saltwater crocodile has an average lifespan of 70 years. The Nile crocodile can live up to 100 years. But over the years, some crocodiles have broken those records. Mr. Freshie was a freshwater crocodile residing in the Australia Zoo. He lived to be 140 years old, making him the oldest known crocodile to be put in captivity. He lived long despite being shot twice in the tail and left eye, leaving him blind and badly injured, Oldest reports.

 

4. They Can't Chew Food

Crocodiles' jaws can't move sideways, meaning these reptiles can't grind food down in a traditional chewing motion. Most of them tear off chunks from their prey and then swallow them whole. It isn't difficult for them, since crocodiles have the strongest bite in the animal world.

 

5. They Can Hold Their Breath for an Hour

Crocodiles can hold their breath underwater for at least one hour without coming up for a breath of air as they can reduce their heart rate to 2-3 beats per minute. Researchers found that the reptiles can adjust their oxygen consumption, enabling them to dive for longer. The longest recorded time a crocodile held its breath is eight hours in cold water, as they use less energy and oxygen compared to when they are in warm water.

 

6. They Swallow Stones to Improve Digestion

Crocodiles swallow stones to help with basic digestion, according to the Miami Science Museum. Rocks in a crocodile's stomach help crush and grate food and are particularly useful for those who eat whole prey. The stones, known as 'gastroliths' when they settle in the reptile's stomach, can remain in the stomach for years.

 

7. They Have Special Hearts

A crocodile's heart has four chambers with two atria and two ventricles. Unlike birds and mammals, which have a single aorta - the main artery that supplies blood to the circulatory system - crocodiles have two. It is considered to be the most sophisticated heart in the animal world.

 

8. It Is Illegal To Hunt Crocodiles for Their Skin

In most parts of the world, it is illegal to hunt crocodiles for their skin. Under the Endangered Species Act, it is illegal to bring into the United States many products made from the skin of alligators, crocodiles or related reptiles called caimans. Items made from the American alligator can be brought into the country as long as they are for personal, non commercial use. The skins of most crocodile species are prohibited.

 

 

Source: Facts About Crocodiles | What To Know About Crocodiles

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - MOUNT RUSHMORE

Did you know... There's a secret room behind Mount Rushmore.
While the sculptor Gutzon Borglum was working on Mount Rushmore, he had the idea of adding a special room where future generations could learn about the significance of the United States as well as his own creation. The Hall of Records was intended as its own architectural wonder, accented with double doors, a long staircase, and a gold-plated eagle with a 38-foot wingspan. The inside would serve as a museum, housing bronze and glass cabinets full of the country’s key historical documents, busts of important Americans, a list of notable U.S. contributions to the world, and more. Armed with dynamite, miners laid the groundwork for the Hall of Records in 1938 — to the displeasure of Congress, who saw only a 70-foot-deep cave beyond President Lincoln’s hairline. Borglum was instructed to devote his time and federal funding to finishing the quartet of faces. Soon after he died in March 1941, the monument was deemed complete. The Hall of Records remained an empty granite pit for more than half a century.  At the behest of Borglum’s family — who worried that the sculpture’s significance “would become a riddle” to historians — the artist’s vision for the room was partly realized on August 9, 1998. A teak box was filled with 16 porcelain enamel tablets containing documents including the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address, plus details about Borglum and the forging of Mount Rushmore. The box was placed in a non-corrosive titanium container, which was lowered deep into a hole at the Hall of Records’ entrance. To seal the opening, a 1,200-pound granite capstone was added, etched with a quote from Borglum. Alas, tourists are not able to explore the hall that might have been.  

 

Mount Rushmore’s workers assembled their own baseball team.
Lincoln Borglum spent his young adulthood assisting his father on Mount Rushmore, ultimately overseeing the monument’s completion. To increase worker morale, on game days Lincoln parked his car close to the hoist operator and left the radio tuned to baseball; the hoist operator then phoned game updates to those stationed on the mountain. In 1938, Lincoln started recruiting amateur baseball players to work on the monument, and soon founded the Rushmore Drillers. Six days a week, practices followed the 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. work shifts, and games were played on Sundays. The team was good enough to make it to the semifinals of the State Amateur Baseball Tournament in 1939, but the Drillers disbanded when the government declared Mount Rushmore finished in 1941. ( Interesting Facts )

 

Key Facts About Mount Rushmore

By Martin Kelly | Updated on March 06, 2021

Mount Rushmore is located in the Black Hills of Keystone, South Dakota. The sculpture of four famous presidents—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln—was carved into the granite rock face over many decades. According to the National Park Service, approximately 3 million people visit the monument each year. Also in the national park is the Avenue of Flags, representing the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. In the summertime, the monument is lit up at night.

 

History of Mount Rushmore National Park 

Mount Rushmore National Park was the brainchild of Doane Robinson, known as the “Father of Mount Rushmore.” His goal was to create an attraction that would draw people from all over the country to his state. Robinson contacted Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who was working on the monument at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Borglum met with Robinson during 1924 and 1925. He was the one who identified Mount Rushmore as a perfect location for a grand monument. This was due to the cliff's height above the surrounding area; its composition of granite, which would be slow to erode; and the fact that it faced southeast, to take advantage of the rising sun each day. Robinson worked with John Boland, President Calvin Coolidge, Rep. William Williamson, and Sen. Peter Norbeck to gain support in Congress and the funding to proceed.

 

Congress agreed to match up to $250,000 of funding for the project and created the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission. Work began, and by 1933 the Mount Rushmore project became part of the National Park Service. Borglum did not like having the NPS oversee the construction. However, he continued to work on the project until his death in 1941. The monument was deemed complete and ready for dedication on October 31, 1941. The eventual cost was nearly $1 million.  Despite its "perfect" location, Mount Rushmore was built on land that was sacred to the Indigenous peoples who lived there. To this day, many consider the construction of the monument a desecration of the land. "The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota Sioux, the original occupants of the area when white settlers arrived," notes PBS on its "American Experience" website. In an 1868 treaty, the U.S. government had "promised" the Lakota Sioux land that included the Black Hills as well as the site where the Mount Rushmore monument now sits, PBS notes. Yet Congress did not even consider this fact when granting funds for the project.

 

Why Each of the 4 Presidents Was Chosen

Borglum made the decision about which presidents to include on the mountain. According to the National Park Service, here's his reasoning:

• George Washington: He was the first president and represented the foundation of American democracy.
• Thomas Jefferson: With the Louisiana Purchase, he greatly expanded the nation. He was also the author of the hugely influential Declaration of Independence. 
• Theodore Roosevelt: He not only represented the industrial development of the nation but was also widely known for conservation efforts. 
• Abraham Lincoln: As the president during the U.S. Civil War, he represents the preservation of the nation above all costs. 

There was certainly pushback as to the choice of figures to represent on the monument. Even the "Father of Mount Rushmore" had concerns, as PBS notes:

 

"At the outset of the project, Gutzon Borglum had persuaded...Robinson the presidents would give the work national significance, rejecting Robinson's initial suggestion that the sculpture honor the West's greatest heroes, both Native Americans and pioneers."

 

Indeed, PBS further explains, that "in 1939 Sioux Chief Henry Standing Bear invited sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski...to carve a memorial to the Sioux nation in the Black Hills." Though Ziolkowski died in 1982, that project—the Crazy Horse Memorial, a sculpture of the famous Sioux chief Crazy Horse—is still under construction today (as of March 2021) and "is the world’s largest mountain carving in progress," according to the Crazy Horse Memorial website.

 

Carving Done With Dynamite

With 450,000 tons of granite that needed to be removed, the sculptor found out early on that jackhammers were not going to take care of the job fast enough. He employed a munitions expert to insert charges of dynamite into drilled holes and blasted the rock off when the workers were off of the mountain. Eventually, 90% of the granite removed from the rock face was done with dynamite.

 

Changes to the Design

During production, the design went through nine changes.

• Entablature

What appears isn't exactly how the sculpture was conceived by sculptor Borglum, who also had plans for wording to be etched into the rock face, called the Entablature. It was to contain a brief history of the United States, highlighting nine important events between 1776 and 1906, carved into an image of the Louisiana Purchase. Given issues over the wording and funding and the fact that people wouldn't be able to read it from a distance, that idea was scrapped.

• Hall of Records

Another plan was to have a Hall of Records in a room behind Lincoln's head that would be accessed by the public via a staircase from the base of the mountain. On display would be important documents in a room decorated with mosaics. It too was discontinued, in 1939, due to a lack of funding. Congress told the artist to concentrate on the faces and just get it done. A tunnel is what remains. It does house some porcelain panels giving the background about the building of the monument, the artist, and the presidents, but it's inaccessible to visitors due to the lack of a staircase.

• More Than Heads

Mock-ups of the design include the four presidents from the waist up. Funding was always an issue, and the directive was to just stick with the four faces.

 

Jefferson Was Moved Over

Thomas Jefferson was originally started on George Washington's right, and the carving of Jefferson's face began in 1931. However, the granite there was full of quartz. Workers kept blasting off the quartz, but after 18 months they realized that the location was just not working. His face was dynamited off and carved on the other side.

 

Carving

Workers hung from a 3/8-inch steel cable in bosun's chairs as they worked with jackhammers, drills, and chisels and carried dynamite. To their credit, no one died during Mount Rushmore's construction—or the mountain's destruction, as the case may be. A crew of 400 worked on the sculpture.

 

Facts About Borglum

 

• Art Background

Gutzon Borglum studied in Paris and became friends with Auguste Rodin, who heavily influenced the young artist. Borglum was the first American sculptor to have his work purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

• Stone Mountain

Although Borglum had begun the sculpture on Stone Mountain, Georgia, he never finished it. He left on bad terms, and his work was cleared away from the mountain face. Another sculptor, Augustus Lukeman, was called in to finish the work.

• Tempestuous Boss

Borglum was often away during the sculpting of Mount Rushmore. While it was being completed, he also made a sculpture of Thomas Paine for Paris and Woodrow Wilson for Poland. His son supervised the work on the mountain during his absence. When he was on site, he was known for his mood swings and was continuously firing and rehiring people. His energy for the project and persistence, through many years of trials and issues with funding, eventually led to the project's completion. Unfortunately, he died seven months before it was done. His son completed it.

• Origin of the Mountain Name

The mountain took its name—incredibly—from a New York attorney there on business who asked the name of the location in 1884 or 1885. A local man with the group looking at the mountain informed him that it didn't have a name but said, "We will name it now, and name it Rushmore Peak," according to a letter from Charles Rushmore, the lawyer who was in the area for a client researching a mine.

 

 

Source: Interesting Facts About Mount Rushmore | Facts About Mount Rushmore

[DarkRavie]

Facts of the Day - SNOW

Did you know... Love it (like when you’re curled up by the fire) or hate it (when you’re on the road), snow is a major part of winter for many people. Get to know the flurries and flakes on a deeper level. Snow can also precipitate as graupel or sleet. Not to be confused with hail, graupel (or snow pellets) are opaque ice particles that form in the atmosphere as ice crystals fall through freezing cloud droplets—meaning cloud particles that are colder than the freezing point of water but remain liquid. The cloud droplets group together to form a soft, lumpy mass. Sleet, on the other hand, consists of drops of rain that freeze into small, translucent balls of ice as they fall from the sky. ( Editorial Staff | January 15, 2015 )

 

Frosty Facts About Snow

by Interesting Facts

Snow has a habit of sticking around for a while after it falls, sometimes for weeks — or even just in our mind’s eye. It’s often a symbol of calm, quiet, and fresh beginnings; famously, the impressionist painter Monet completed more than 100 snowy landscape paintings in his lifetime. As the winter season gets into full swing, gain a new perspective on cold-weather precipitation with these six cool facts about snow.

 

1. Snow Isn’t Really White (And Sometimes It’s Orange)

Most holiday carols allude to blankets of pristine white snow — an image that’s entirely charming but scientifically a bit misleading, because snow is actually translucent. The way light passes through snow crystals causes it to bounce back and reflect the whole color spectrum at once, which is what makes it appear white to the human eye. Most snow discoloration appears in the days after it has fallen, as snow is driven or walked over, but it’s not entirely uncommon for the powdery precipitation to take on unusual shades as it’s falling from the sky. Take, for instance, the orange snow that fell throughout Eastern Europe in 2018, tinted thanks to dust from the Saharan Desert being whipped up into the atmosphere by storms. A similar phenomenon caused brown snow to fall in Minnesota in 2019 thanks to dust storms in Texas.

 

2. Snowflakes Can Be Massive

Temperature has the biggest influence on a snowflake’s size. When the thermometer drops below freezing, individual flakes are generally smaller and more dry; when temperatures creep upward during a snowstorm, snow crystals end up having a higher water content, giving them a chance to clump together to produce larger snowflakes. Generally, snowflakes are dime-sized or smaller, though it’s not uncommon to witness jumbo crystals anywhere from two to six inches wide. The world’s largest snowflake reportedly reached a massive 15 inches wide; while no photographic evidence exists, reports from an 1887 snowstorm in Fort Keogh, Montana, claim the flake was “larger than milk pans.” Some skeptical scientists say the record-breaking water crystal likely wasn’t an individual snowflake, but a lump of many, since it’s normal for snowflakes to clump together as they fall at different speeds.

 

3. The First Snowflake Photos Were Taken by a Farmer

We know that all snowflakes have six sides thanks to Wilson Bentley, a Vermont farmer-turned-photographer and weather scientist. As a teenager, Bentley was fascinated with snow, viewing individual snowflakes under a microscope and eventually developing his own technique to photograph the magnified images. Credited with capturing the very first photo of a snowflake in 1885, Bentley spent four decades photographing more than 5,000 unique flakes, recording climate conditions for each one and publishing his findings on snowfall. (Not surprisingly, he was nicknamed “The Snowflake Man.”) Bentley’s crystal-clear images — many of which are now housed in the Smithsonian — were referenced by scientists for decades.

 

4. Earth Isn’t the Only Planet With Snow

Earth is the only planet in our solar system known to sustain life, but it’s not the only cosmic sphere with a form of snow. In 2017, scientists discovered Mars likely experiences snowstorms at night; even though the red planet is exceptionally arid, much of its polar ice caps are made of carbon dioxide, and it snows up to seven feet of the dry ice-like stuff each winter. Venus also has its own — albeit unusual — snow, which covers the planet’s highest mountain ranges. Minerals from the planet’s surface vaporize due to the extreme temperatures (reaching nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit), entering the planet’s atmosphere. When they float back down, the dust-like particles collect as a metallic version of snow along high-altitude ridges.

 

5. Many of the World’s Snowiest Cities Are in Japan

A severe snowstorm can grind even the busiest cities to a halt, though colossal snowfall is the norm in many parts of Japan, including populous cities. That’s because the country is in the line of cold air coming from Siberia, which pushes across the Sea of Japan’s warmer waters to create the perfect conditions for heavy snowfall in certain areas from December through March. Snowstorms can dump exceptionally large loads of snow at higher elevations, which is why some regions, like the northern Aomori City, get more than 26 feet of snow each year. The city of Sapporo takes advantage of its 16 feet of snow by hosting an annual winter festival complete with towering snow and ice sculptures. And the coastal city of Toyama, nestled below the Hida Mountains (which get as much as 125 feet of snow annually), gets a hefty 12 feet each winter, which road crews plow into canyon-like walls along a stretch of highway called “Snow Canyon.”

 

6. Milwaukee Popularized the Snow Plow

Long before cars, snowy roads were less of a hassle — mostly because they made travel easier. At a time when horse-drawn carriages were the main mode of getting around, travelers could easily swap the wheels on their carts for ski-like runners, which worked best when heavy snow was compacted onto streets. (In many regions, a “snow warden” was responsible for packing down fresh snow with a snow roller — a giant, weighted wheel.) But for people making their way by foot, trudging through a city’s snow-laded walkways was a tiresome ordeal. By the mid-1800s, several inventors had designed their own horse-drawn plows to clear pedestrian paths, and in 1862, Milwaukee became the first major city to test such a contraption. Considered a success, the snow plow concept spread through many of the Great Lakes’ snowiest cities, eventually paving the way for the modern motorized version, which would emerge in the 1920s as automobiles became popular.

 

 

Source: Incredibly Cool Facts About Snow | Facts About Snow

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - MARIE CURIE

Did you know... Marie Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive.
Nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie's papers are still radioactive — and will be for another 1,500 years. The pioneering scientist initially had no way of knowing just how dangerous her research on radioactivity (a word she and her husband coined) truly was. She walked around her lab with radioactive elements in her pockets and stored them out in the open, in part because she enjoyed how they “looked like faint, fairy lights.” For safety reasons, France’s National Library stores Curie’s notebooks in lead-lined boxes. Anyone wishing to view her manuscripts must sign a waiver and wear protective gear. Her clothes, furniture, and even cookbooks are also radioactive. 

 

Marie Curie went to a “flying university.”
As the child of teachers and a brilliant student, Marie aspired to enroll in the University of Warsaw — a dream that was dashed by Russia-occupied Poland’s policy banning women from receiving a higher education. A group of professors, philosophers, and historians skirted this rule in the 1880s by founding the clandestine Flying University, which met in private homes and constantly moved locations to elude the authorities. Marie and her elder sister Bronislawa attended; Marie later continued her education in Paris at the Sorbonne. ( Interesting Facts )

 

Astounding Facts About Marie Curie

by Science Focus |  August 24, 2020

Curie, who won two Nobel prizes, is the subject of the 2019 film Radioactive. Marie Skłodowska Curie is recognised throughout the world not only for her ground-breaking Nobel Prize-winning discoveries but also for having boldly broken many gender barriers during her lifetime. Here are five fantastic facts about the amazing scientist.

 

Curie was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes

Curie won her first Nobel Prize in 1903, sharing the physics prize with her husband Pierre and physicist Henri Becquerel. After becoming the first woman to be granted a Nobel Prize, Curie later became the first person to earn a second one. In 1911, she received her second of the prestigious award – in chemistry this time – for her isolation of radium.

 

She managed it all without a fancy lab
Curie and Pierre conducted the bulk of their ground-breaking research and experimentation in a lab that was described by chemist Wilhelm Ostwald as “a cross between a stable and a potato shed.” In fact, when he first saw the lab, he thought it was “a practical joke.”

 

Nobel Prizes were a family affair

Curie with her daughter Irène

By 1925, Curie’s daughter Irène received her doctorate, having joined her mother in the field of the study of radioactivity. Ten years later, she and her husband, Frédéric, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the breakthroughs they had made in the synthesis of new radioactive elements.

Curie was the first female professor at Sorbonne University
Following her husband’s tragic death in a 1906 accident, Marie was appointed to Pierre’s seat at the Sorbonne, making her the university’s first female professor. Just three years earlier, she had been the first woman in France to earn a doctorate.

 

Curie is buried in the Panthéon in Paris

In 1995 the remains of Curie and her husband were enshrined in the Panthéon in Paris, a mausoleum reserved for distinguished French thinkers. She became the second woman to receive this honour and the first to earn it through her own achievements. Among her writing, Curie left behind this thought: "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

 

 

Source: Facts About Marie Curie | Brief Marie Curie Facts

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SHOPPING MALLS

Did you know... Few places encapsulate American consumer culture as well as the shopping mall. The “shop 'til you drop” craze may have reached its peak in the 1980s, but enclosed malls have been a part of the country’s landscape for more than 60 years. In the latest title in Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series, author Matthew Newton covers the storied history of the mall, from its birth in 1950s suburbia to its modern appeal for urban explorers. In honor of the release of Shopping Mall, we’ve selected some fascinating facts from the book that will put you in touch with your inner mallrat. ( Michele Debczak | November 26, 2017 )

 

Interesting Facts About Shopping Malls

by Interesting Facts

The iconic American mall emerged in the 1950s as a “third place” — a social environment separate from home and work — for the growing suburbs. Typically anchored by a department store, malls offered shoppers a chance to reach multiple places on foot, at least once they parked their cars in the giant surrounding parking lot. Over time, malls grew into community hubs and hangout spaces in suburban and urban environments alike, offering a growing list of amenities such as food courts, multiplexes, and fun little playgrounds. At their peak in the 1980s and 1990s, they became essential teen hangouts, cementing their neon place in popular culture. The mall as we know it is changing with the rise of e-commerce, but new malls are still being built with evolved features for 21st-century shoppers. How did malls become a place to not just shop, but hang out? Which state has the most malls for its size? How big can malls really get? These six facts about malls might just give you a new perspective in time for the holiday shopping season.

 

1. Malls Were Always Intended as Gathering Spaces

In their heyday, malls became best known as teen hangout spots, and social places as much as shopping centers. While retail sales were always the central goal, having space for the surrounding community to gather was also part of the plan. Plantings, fountains, seating, and other non-retail draws were staples of mall design from the beginning. “Between each of the buildings, landscaped plazas with fountains, flowers, sculpture, and trees offered seating and shade,” writes architecture critic Alexandra Lange in her book Meet Me by the Fountain, describing one of America’s first malls. The designer, Victor Gruen, was a pioneer in mall design, and called these in-between spaces a vital “town-building element.” Air-conditioning also became a major draw, and in enclosed malls, environmental controls became more efficient, eventually leading to indoor environments that mimicked bustling town centers. They even got their name from the linear, landscaped promenades referred to as “malls” long before shopping malls existed, like the National Mall in Washington, D.C., or Pall Mall in London. “The malls of the late 1950s and early 1960s were Main Street under glass, their dimensions taken from the street fronts of prewar downtowns but without the clamor,” Lange notes.

 

2. Early Malls Were Praised by Architecture Critic

While malls have a complicated architectural legacy, they seemed to provide a uniquely pedestrian-level shopping experience when they first emerged. The carefully curated indoor environments of early malls were praised by critics at Architectural Forum, Fortune, Architectural Record, and other publications. Even Jane Jacobs, an urbanist best known for her efforts to protect people-centric neighborhoods from predatory developers and urban renewal, had exciting things to say about Victor Gruen’s first mall project, Northland in Detroit, in the June 1954 issue of Architectural Forum. “Northland is a planning classic because it is the first modern pedestrian commercial center to use an urban ‘market town’ plan, a compact form physically and psychologically suited to pedestrian shopping,” Jacobs wrote. “Other points about Northland will become yardsticks. For instance, its high standards in public signs; its uninhibited, generous, and lighthearted use of art.” “Shopping traffic has come full circle. It is right back where it started — with the pedestrian,” she added. Not everyone was happy though, even at the beginning; Frank Lloyd Wright notably called the first fully enclosed mall “desolate-looking” and said that the building’s garden court “has all the evils of the village street and none of its charm.”

 

3. New Jersey Has More Malls Per Square Mile Than Any Other U.S. State

The state of New Jersey packs around 28 malls into its relatively small size (just 7,354 square miles of land area), giving it the most malls per square foot out of any state in America. Some of these malls have seen better days — but even in an era of “dead malls,” Jersey is still getting new ones.

The American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, now the second-largest in the United States at 3 million square feet, finally opened in 2019 after more than a decade sitting partially built. Like in many megamalls, its attractions go way beyond retail. This one is home to a Nickelodeon theme park, a Dreamworks water park, an NHL-size skating rink with its own women’s hockey team, a 300-foot observation wheel, an 18-hole miniature golf course, a fountain that converts into a fashion runway, and even a 16-story indoor ski and snowboard slope, in addition to more than 450 shops.

 

 

The World’s Biggest Mall Is 15 Million Square Feet

 

While the title of World’s Largest Mall was held by the Dubai Mall in United Arab Emirates for around a decade, the Iran Mall in Tehran, Iran, unseated it in 2018 when it opened its 15 million-square-foot first phase. When completed, the whole project will be close to 21 million square feet. So far, the mall boasts a rooftop sports complex with a path for hiking and jogging, a musical fountain, a mosque, a traditional bazaar, a giant library with elaborate millwork, and picturesque gardens, including green space and areas designed to showcase Persian architecture. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire facility was temporarily transformed into a 3,000-bed treatment center in just around five days, but the stores have since reopened. The New Century Global Center in Chengdu, China, is the world’s largest building by land area at around 19 million square feet, but malls are only parts of that gargantuan facility.

 

5. The Mall of America Has Its Own Counterterrorism Unit

Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, the massive Mall of America, which gets around 40 million visitors a year, has been treated as a potential terrorist target. As a result, it has its own private counterterrorism unit — although the results have been mixed. Having a specialized team certainly came in handy when an actual threat was issued, but ordinary visitors have also been flagged for suspicious behavior and detained in the mall’s basement police station over normal activities like taking videos or forgetting a cellphone on a table. Even without the specialized unit, Mall of America security is much beefier than that of a typical mall. All security officers get 240 hours of training, and they even have a canine bomb detection unit.

 

6. “Dead Malls” Are Finding New Lives as Housing, Health Care Facilities, and More

Although reports of the mall’s death are somewhat exaggerated, many are shuttering or coming close to it. But that doesn’t mean the buildings, or even still-operational malls, have outlived their usefulness. Some companies, governments, and organizations are finding plenty of use for all that space to address gaps in housing, health care, and even community gathering spaces. One former mall in Rochester, New York, has become senior housing. While much of the construction was new, 73 of its 157 units were built within a former Sears department store. The complex as a whole includes three courtyards, two large patios, a gym, and community space. Other parts of the mall have become a rec center and a nursing school. Alderwood Mall near Seattle still operates as a mall, but it’s adapting as it goes (and preparing for incoming light rail) by replacing the former Sears with new construction containing around 300 apartments and ground-floor retail. Another mall in Providence, Rhode Island, converted its existing building into mixed-use residential and retail, converting unused retail spaces upstairs into itty-bitty microlofts. Meanwhile, more than 30 malls across the country have converted into medical complexes; the properties tend to be easy to get to and, when the original buildings stick around, they’re designed to be easier to navigate than many medical buildings. Other uses of former malls include a proposed medical marijuana farm and dispensary, a tech company campus, and a civic center that includes a city hall, municipal court, and library alongside residential, retail, and office spaces.

 

 

Source: Fabulous Facts About Shopping Malls | Shopping Mall Facts

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CLEOPATRA

Did you know... Cleopatra lived closer to the iPhone's debut than she did to the building of the Pyramids of Giza.
When we think about nations and empires, we’re usually thinking in terms of centuries, but ancient Egypt stretched on for three millennia. The empire’s first pharaoh, Menes, united the country and formed the first dynasty on the Nile around 3100 BCE. Nearly 500 years later (more than double the entire history of the United States), the first of the Great Pyramid’s 2.3 million stone blocks was put into place. These blocks were the beginnings of an illustrious tomb for the Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu. Within the next century, two other pyramids (along with an equally impressive sphinx) were completed nearby. Today, the three Pyramids of Giza are regarded as the oldest — and the only surviving — of the Seven Wonders of the World. It wasn’t until about 2,500 years after that first block was wedged into place that Cleopatra VII was born around 69 BCE. Although the world of Cleopatra feels more comparable to the ancient reign of Khufu than the technological reign of the iPhone, first introduced in 2007, she’s about 400 years closer to our hyper-technological age than to the creation of Egypt’s most famous wonders — which have now been standing for an incredible 4,500 years.

 

Cleopatra’s reputation has a lot to do with Roman propaganda.
Today Cleopatra is often thought of as a seductress, a woman who used her sex appeal to manipulate those around her in search of power. In reality, Cleopatra was a lot more complicated than that stereotype, but she’s had a bad rep for millennia thanks to Roman propaganda. To solidify his grasp on power, Octavian — the soon-to-be-first emperor of Rome, later known as Augustus — used every weapon available against his rival, Mark Antony, and Antony’s wife, Cleopatra, launching a “fake news” campaign to discredit them both. Today, historians recognize the last active Ptolemaic pharaoh of Egypt as a ruler loved by her people, an effective politician, and a polymath capable of speaking several languages, including Egyptian (the only Greek ruler of Egypt to do so). Sadly, the propaganda-tinged Roman reputation is the one that persists more than two millennia after her death. ( Interesting Facts )

 

Little-Known Facts About Cleopatra

by EVAN ANDREWS | UPDATED:AUG 10, 2021 | ORIGINAL:AUG 12, 2015

 

1. Cleopatra was not Egyptian.
While Cleopatra was born in Egypt, she traced her family origins to Macedonian Greece and Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great’s generals. Ptolemy reigned Egypt after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., and he launched a dynasty of Greek-speaking rulers that lasted for nearly three centuries. Despite not being ethnically Egyptian, Cleopatra embraced many of her country’s ancient customs and was the first member of the Ptolemaic line to learn the Egyptian language.

 

2. She was the product of incest.
Like many royal houses, members of the Ptolemaic dynasty often married within the family to preserve the purity of their bloodline. More than a dozen of Cleopatra’s ancestors tied the knot with cousins or siblings, and it’s likely that her own parents were brother and sister. In keeping with this custom, Cleopatra eventually married both of her adolescent brothers, each of whom served as her ceremonial spouse and co-regent at different times during her reign.

 

 

3. Cleopatra’s beauty wasn’t her biggest asset.

Roman propaganda painted Cleopatra as a debauched temptress who used her sex appeal as a political weapon, but she may have been more renowned for her intellect than her appearance. She spoke as many as a dozen languages and was educated in mathematics, philosophy, oratory and astronomy, and Egyptian sources later described her as a ruler “who elevated the ranks of scholars and enjoyed their company.” There’s also evidence that Cleopatra wasn’t as physically striking as once believed. Coins with her portrait show her with manly features and a large, hooked nose, though some historians contend that she intentionally portrayed herself as masculine as a display of strength. For his part, the ancient writer Plutarch claimed that Cleopatra’s beauty was “not altogether incomparable,” and that it was instead her mellifluous speaking voice and “irresistible charm” that made her so desirable.

 

4. She had a hand in the deaths of three of her siblings.
Power grabs and murder plots were as much a Ptolemaic tradition as family marriage, and Cleopatra and her brothers and sisters were no different. Her first sibling-husband, Ptolemy XIII, ran her out of Egypt after she tried to take sole possession of the throne, and the pair later faced off in a civil war. Cleopatra regained the upper hand by teaming with Julius Caesar, and Ptolemy drowned in the Nile River after being defeated in battle. Following the war, Cleopatra remarried to her younger brother Ptolemy XIV, but she is believed to have had him murdered in a bid to make her son her co-ruler. In 41 B.C., she also engineered the execution of her sister, Arsinoe, who she considered a rival to throne.

 

5. Cleopatra knew how to make an entrance.
Cleopatra believed herself to be a living goddess, and she often used clever stagecraft to woo potential allies and reinforce her divine status. A famous example of her flair for the dramatic came in 48 B.C., when Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria during her feud with her brother Ptolemy XIII. Knowing Ptolemy’s forces would thwart her attempts to meet with the Roman general, Cleopatra had herself wrapped in a carpet—some sources say it was a linen sack—and smuggled into his personal quarters. Caesar was dazzled by the sight of the young queen in her royal garb, and the two soon became allies and lovers. Cleopatra later employed a similar bit of theater in her 41 B.C. encounter with Mark Antony. When summoned to meet the Roman Triumvir in Tarsus, she is said to have arrived on a golden barge adorned with purple sails and rowed by oars made of silver. Cleopatra had been made up to look like the goddess Aphrodite, and she sat beneath a gilded canopy while attendants dressed as cupids fanned her and burned sweet-smelling incense. Antony—who considered himself the embodiment of the Greek god Dionysus—was instantly enchanted.

 

 

6. She was living in Rome at the time of Caesar’s assassination.
Cleopatra joined Julius Caesar in Rome beginning in 46 B.C., and her presence seems to have caused quite a stir. Caesar didn’t hide that she was his mistress—she even came to the city with their lovechild, Caesarion, in tow—and many Romans were scandalized when he erected a gilded statue of her in the temple of Venus Genetrix. Cleopatra was forced to flee Rome after Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman senate in 44 B.C., but by then she had made her mark on the city. Her exotic hairstyle and pearl jewelry became a fashion trend, and according to the historian Joann Fletcher, “so many Roman women adopted the ‘Cleopatra look’ that their statuary has often been mistaken for Cleopatra herself.”

 

7. Cleopatra and Mark Antony formed their own drinking club.
Cleopatra first began her legendary love affair with the Roman general Mark Antony in 41 B.C. Their relationship had a political component—Cleopatra needed Antony to protect her crown and maintain Egypt’s independence, while Antony needed access to Egypt’s riches and resources—but they were also famously fond of each other’s company. According to ancient sources, they spent the winter of 41-40 B.C. living a life of leisure and excess in Egypt, and even formed their own drinking society known as the “Inimitable Livers.” The group engaged in nightly feasts and wine-binges, and its members occasionally took part in elaborate games and contests. One of Antony and Cleopatra’s favorite activities supposedly involved wandering the streets of Alexandria in disguise and playing pranks on its residents.

 

8. She led a fleet in a naval battle.
Cleopatra eventually married Mark Antony and had three children with him, but their relationship also spawned a massive scandal in Rome. Antony’s rival Octavian used propaganda to portray him as a traitor under the sway of a scheming seductress, and in 32 B.C., the Roman Senate declared war on Cleopatra. The conflict reached its climax the following year in a famous naval battle at Actium. Cleopatra personally led several dozen Egyptian warships into the fray alongside Antony’s fleet, but they were no match for Octavian’s navy. The battle soon devolved into a rout, and Cleopatra and Antony were forced to break through the Roman line and flee to Egypt.

 

 

9. Cleopatra may not have died from an asp bite.
Cleopatra and Antony famously took their own lives in 30 B.C., after Octavian’s forces pursued them to Alexandria. While Antony is said to have fatally stabbed himself in the stomach, Cleopatra’s method of suicide is less certain. Legend has it that she died by enticing an “asp”—most likely a viper or Egyptian cobra—to bite her arm, but the ancient chronicler Plutarch admits that “what really took place is known to no one.” He says Cleopatra was also known to conceal a deadly poison in one of her hair combs, and the historian Strabo notes that she may have applied a fatal “ointment.” With this in mind, many scholars now suspect she used a pin dipped in some form of potent toxin—snake venom or otherwise.

 

10. A 1963 film about her was one of the most expensive movies of all time.
The Queen of the Nile has been portrayed on the silver screen by the likes of Claudette Colbert and Sophia Loren, but she was most famously played by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 sword-and-sandal epic “Cleopatra.” The film was plagued by production problems and script issues, and its budget eventually soared from $2 million to $44 million—including some $200,000 just to cover the cost of Taylor’s costumes. It was the most expensive movie ever made at the time of its release, and nearly bankrupted its studio despite raking in a fortune at the box office. If inflation is taken into account, “Cleopatra” remains one of the priciest movies in history even today.

 

 

Source: Facts About Cleopatra | Facts You Might Not Know About Cleopatra

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WILLY WONKA

Did you know... More than 50 years after it premiered on June 30, 1971, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory continues to treat kids and adults alike to a deliciously bizarre viewing experience. Here are a handful of facts you might not know about this candylicious classic.

 

1. The Movie Was Part of a Massive Advertising Scheme

At the time Willy Wonka was being developed, Quaker Oats was tinkering with a new chocolate bar. After discussions with the production company, Quaker realized that the movie could serve as a massive marketing machine for a new line of sweets. They went all in, funding the whole project. Quaker’s involvement is why the movie was called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory instead of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the title of the 1964 book by Roald Dahl); because of the $2.9 million investment, Quaker wanted the brand name right in the movie title. Ironically, Quaker ran into some issues with the chocolate formula they were developing, so their Wonka Bar wasn’t released until four years after the movie came out. The only Wonka-related products Quaker had on the market around the time the movie was released were Peanut Butter Oompas and the Peanut Butter Super Skrunch.

 

2. The Movie Wasn’t a Huge Hit

It’s hard to imagine Wonka as anything but a runaway success these days, but the initial response to it was a bit mediocre. After earning just $4 million at the box office (compared to a budget just under $3 million) and seeing little public interest in the film in the years that followed, Paramount failed to renew the distribution rights and Warner Bros. scooped them up in 1977. Warner Bros. knew just what to do with them — once they brought the movie to TV and VHS, the film gained a new audience and went on to become a cult classic.

 

3. Author Roald Dahl Was Not a Fan

It’s not an uncommon phenomenon for authors to be disappointed in the movie adaptations of their books. Roald Dahl, for one, called Wonka “crummy.” He didn’t care for the music, the director, or the casting choice of Gene Wilder. “I think he felt Wonka was a very British eccentric,” Dahl’s friend and biographer Donald Sturrock has said. “Gene Wilder was rather too soft … His voice is very light and he’s got that rather cherubic, sweet face. I think [Dahl] felt … there was something wrong with [Wonka’s] soul in the movie – it just wasn’t how he imagined the lines being spoken." It’s said that Dahl eventually grew to “tolerate” the movie, but never liked it. In turn, Gene Wilder wasn’t a fan of Tim Burton's 2005 remake of the movie, calling it “an insult.” He later clarified, “Johnny Depp, I think, is a good actor, but I don’t care for that director. He’s a talented man, but I don’t care for him doing stuff like he did.”

 

4. Director Mel Stuart Was a Documentaria

Stuart was well-known in cinema circles for films like 1963’s The Making of the President (the story of the 1960 U.S. presidential election) and 1968’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. So, how did he end up directing one of the most beloved children’s movies of all time? At the insistence of a child, of course. Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a favorite of his daughter Madeline’s, and she told him what a great movie it would make. She eventually even landed a small speaking role in the film. “I’m very proud of that movie,” Madeline said when her father died in 2012. “I think it’s absolutely brilliant and charming and a bit dark and very funny — and all those things describe my father.”

 

5. Much of the Chocolate Factory Set Really Was Edible

According to Gene Wilder, about a third of the candy factory floor set truly could have been eaten, including the chocolate river. But although the river certainly looked dreamy, none of the actors were too tempted to eat it, what with all the people walking through it during filming. One element that wasn’t edible? The yellow tea cup flower Wilder sinks his teeth into during the song “Pure Imagination.” It was wax, which Wilder had to chew on until the take was complete.

 

6. The Fake-Out Stumble Was Done at Gene Wilder’s Insistence

 

Many actors wanted the part of Willy Wonka, but director Mel Stuart desperately wanted Wilder. After reading the script, Wilder agreed to the role — but only if he could orchestrate Wonka’s grand entrance. “I will do it if I can come out, and all the crowd quiets down, and I am using a cane,” Wilder told Larry King in 2002, recalling his conversation with Stuart. “And I walk slowly and you can hear a pin drop. And my cane gets stuck in a brick. And I fall forward onto my face and do a forward somersault and jump up, and they all start to applaud.'” Stuart agreed, but didn’t quite understand the motivation behind the grand deception. “I said, ‘because no one will know from that point on whether I am lying or telling the truth,'” Wilder explained.

 

7. Gene Wilder Was Very Specific About His Wardrobe

 

Wonka’s entrance wasn’t the only part of his iconic character that Wilder vividly envisioned. He also had very specific thoughts on Wonka’s wardrobe, which he revealed in a letter to director Mel Stuart after seeing the initial costume sketches. Some of the highlights:

• “Slime green trousers are icky. But sand colored trousers are just as unobtrusive for your camera, but tasteful.”
• “The hat is terrific, but making it 2 inches shorter would make it more special.”
• “Also a light blue felt hat-band to match with the same light blue fluffy bow tie shows a man who knows how to compliment his blue eyes.”
• “To match the shoes with the jacket is fey. To match the shoes with the hat is taste.”

Perhaps most revealing about how Wilder viewed his portrayal are his views on keeping the costume timeless: “I don't think of Willy as an eccentric who holds on to his 1912 Dandy's Sunday suit and wears it in 1970, but rather as just an eccentric — where there's no telling what he'll do or where he ever found his get-up — except that it strangely fits him: Part of this world, part of another. A vain man who knows colors that suit him, yet, with all the oddity, has strangely good taste. Something mysterious, yet undefined.”

 

8. Violet Really Did Turn Violet

Life imitated art when Violet Beauregard actress Denise Nickerson couldn’t seem to ditch her blueberry hue. Two days after shooting the famous scene where she goes full berry, Nickerson was sitting in math class when a friend looked at her, alarmed. “You’re turning blue,” she said. The blue makeup had been so thoroughly applied that it was resurfacing through her pores and took another 36 hours to disappear again. “Needless to say, I didn’t get asked out for a date in that school,” Nickerson later said. “They thought, ‘If I take her out, she could turn polka dots!’”

 

 

Source: Facts About Willy Wonka

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WRIGHT BROTHERS

Did you know... Before they built airplanes, the Wright brothers owned a bicycle shop.
The Wright brothers are best known for their historical flight over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, but years before the siblings made aviation history, they were busy running a bicycle shop in western Ohio. Wilbur Wright and his younger brother Orville had long dreamed of gliding through the wild blue yonder, but it would take years of work to finance their costly first attempts. In the 1880s, the brothers undertook their first joint business, a small printing shop in Dayton that churned out local newspapers, church pamphlets, and bicycle parts catalogs. By 1892 the brothers had moved from printing for bicycle companies to starting their own, inspired by their shared passion for cycling; Wilbur reportedly loved leisurely rides through the countryside, while Orville was known for participating in bike races. The Wright Cycle Company initially offered repairs and rentals, but as cycling became more popular, the brothers turned to manufacturing their own designs in an effort to compete with the dozens of nearby bike shops. Their first model, the “Wright Special,” was released in May 1896, followed by the “Van Cleve.” Together, Wilbur and Orville hand-built around 300 bikes per year during their peak production years before 1900, using the profits to fund their flight experiments. By 1908, they had abandoned their shop to focus solely on aeronautics. Today, only five antique Van Cleve bikes exist, two of which remain in the brothers’ hometown at the Wright Brothers National Museum in Dayton.

 

Wilbur and Orville Wright flew together only one time.
Before takeoff at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Wright brothers had to decide who would man their one-passenger plane for the first time, making the decision with a coin toss. But even when the duo expanded their planes to two-seaters, they were rarely skyborne together, sharing only one flight during their lives. Orville and Wilbur reportedly promised their father they would never fly together because of the risk of a plane crash; the brothers gave their word, which also ensured that one of them could continue their aeronautical work in case of a fatal accident. In September 1908, Orville did survive the world’s first deadly plane crash, during a demonstration for the U.S. Army (his passenger was U.S. Army Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge). The accident, however, didn’t deter Orville or his brother, and two years later the siblings shared their only joint flight, soaring for six minutes while their father watched from the ground. Afterward, Orville took the excited 82-year-old on the sole flight of his life.

 

Wright Brothers Fun Facts

1. Taking Flight Solo.

Heads or tails? The two brothers flipped a coin to determine who would take flight first on the maiden voyage that made history. The lucky winner of the coin toss was Orville! On top of that, the two brothers only flew together on an airplane one time. Their father, who feared losing both of his sons, made them promise they would not fly together.  
 

2. A Toy Inspired Their Interest in Aviation.

Did you know that a toy helicopter inspired the Wright brothers’ lifelong interest in flight? In 1878, the boys’ father gave them a rubber-band-powered helicopter made of paper, bamboo, and cork. Fascinated by the toy, the brothers began building their own paper helicopters, improving on the original design and learning some basic concepts about aeronautics in the process. 
 

3. Wright’s Style of Problem-Solving.

The brothers’ experience with manufacturing and riding bicycles helped them solve a critical problem in early flight. They were the first inventors to understand that, like a bike, the airplane’s movement must be constantly controlled on three axes—horizontal, vertical, and lateral. 
 

4. Their First Patent.

Experimenting with biplane box kites, reading everything about flight that was available to them, and observing birds in flight, the Wright brothers discovered that twisting or warping a kite’s wings would allow them to make the kite dip and turn as a bird dips one wing to turn. After a lot of trial and error, they developed a system of cables and pulleys to control “wing warping” and lateral movement; a hinged rudder to aim the plane during turns; and a forward elevator to control up and down movement, or pitch. In fact, this control system was so important that the brothers patented it before patenting the plane itself. 
 

5. Wright Brothers’ Wind Tunnel and the Science of Aerodynamics.

The shape of the wings influences the plane’s lift and drag—the forces that push an object upward or slow it down as air moves past it. To find the best shape for aircraft wings and correct their predecessors’ previous miscalculations, the Wright brothers sought an efficient way to measure the effect of these forces. So, in 1901, the brothers built an ingenious, six-foot wind tunnel and balances that allowed them to measure lift and drag on dozens of different wing shapes. 

 

 

Source: Facts About the Wright Brothers } Brief Facts About eh Wright Brothers

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - THE IRON GIANT

Did you know... When Brad Bird's feature directorial debut arrived in theaters on August 6, 1999, the film was a critical success. But due to misdirected marketing from Warner Bros., that positive reception didn't carry over into the box office. The Iron Giant would have to wait until the next millennium to achieve its cult status as a modern animated classic. Here are 10 facts worth knowing about the beloved cartoon. ( By Michele Debczak | July 31, 2019 | Updated: Aug 6, 2019 )

 

1. The Iron Giant is based on a Ted Hughes novel.
Nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes—and his mother, Annie Hughes—both share a name with the British Poet Laureate who wrote the children’s book the film is based on. Published in 1968, Ted Hughes penned The Iron Man to comfort his children after the suicide of his wife, Sylvia Plath. The novel tells the story of a mysterious metal monster who befriends a young boy and becomes the world’s most unlikely hero, but its similarities to the film end there. When Hogarth first encounters the Iron Man in the book, he tricks him by leading him to a covered pit and burying him alive. The robot remains buried for months, eventually digging himself out in time to save the planet from an extraterrestrial invader dubbed the "Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon." The alien later reveals that it had been drawn to the planet by the warfare it witnessed there. The Iron Giant’s anti-war sentiments are slightly more straightforward, with the Giant (*spoiler alert*) protecting the world from a nuclear bomb instead of an interstellar dragon.

 

2. Hughes praised The Iron Giant's screenplay.
Sadly, Hughes passed away a year before the movie was released. He did, however, live long enough to read the script. Despite its departure from the source material, Hughes was impressed. He expressed his approval in a letter to the studio: "I want to tell you how much I like what Brad Bird has done … He’s made a terrific dramatic situation out of the way he’s developed The Iron Giant. I can’t stop thinking about it."

 

3. The Iron Giant was originally meant to be a Pete Townshend musical.

 

Before The Iron Man was reimagined as an animated children’s film, it was adapted by The Who guitarist Pete Townshend into a solo concept album of the same name. The 1989 rock opera feature such tracks as "Man and Machines," "A Friend Is A Friend," and "I Eat Heavy Metal." In the early 1990s, Townshend relaunched his musical concept as an onstage production. This attracted the attention of Warner Bros., and the studio secured the rights with the intention of turning it into an animated musical. But Townshend’s rock opera vision never did make it onto the big screen. After Bird signed on to direct, he scrapped the musical numbers and reworked the script, further removing the story from both the rock album and the children’s book upon which it was based. Townshend remained credited as an executive producer, and after seeing the movie he reportedly commented, "Well, whatever, I got paid."

 

4. The Iron Giant marked Brad Bird's feature directorial debut.
As the director of two beloved Pixar films, The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007), Bird—a two-time Oscar winner—is considered one of the most respected figures in the animation biz. But it was The Iron Giant that proved his directing chops and instinct for story to the Pixar team. Before directing his first feature for Warner Bros. animation, Bird got his start at Disney. He sent an animated short to the studio and Disney legend Milt Kahl was so impressed that he took on a teenaged Bird as his protégé. His first animation job was working on The Fox and the Hound (1981), and a few years later he was offered his first shot at writing and directing for the Steven Spielberg series Amazing Stories. Bird really began to receive recognition in the industry after joining The Simpsons. He directed the classic episode “Krusty Gets Busted," which paved the way for him to direct his first feature. For a while that was shaping up to be Ray Gunn, a retro-futuristic film noir inspired by a misunderstanding of a B-52s lyric. He was developing the script for Turner when the studio merged with Warner Bros., and they transferred him to work on an in-development project called The Iron Giant instead.

 

5. The Iron Giant's title character was computer generated.
Despite being considered one of America’s last great traditionally animated films, The Iron Giant’s title character was created entirely with a computer. The creators took careful steps to make sure the Giant blended in seamlessly with the hand-drawn world. They even went so far as to develop a computer program to make the character’s lines wobble slightly, producing a crude, hand-drawn effect.

 

6. The Iron Giant features a pre-Fast and Furious Vin Diesel.

 

Before making a name for himself as an action star, Vin Diesel provided his voice to the towering robot in The Iron Giant. Not counting groans and grunts, the Giant utters a grand total of 53 words in the entire film. When Diesel returned to feature voice acting 15 years later for Guardians of the Galaxy, he played Groot—a character whose vocabulary is even more severely limited.

 

7. The Iron Giant's design was inspired by the art of Normal Rockwell.
The Iron Giant takes place in an idyllic Maine town in the 1950s—a perfect contrast to the themes of McCarthy-era paranoia the film explores. To give the setting more of a wholesome, Americana look, the creators drew inspiration from the art of Edward Hopper, N.C. Wyeth, and Norman Rockwell. Even the fictional town’s name—Rockwell—is a nod to the iconic American artist.

 

8. Brad Bird rejected the comparisons to E.T.
It’s easy to see how a movie about a misunderstood boy who befriends a visitor from outer space, hides him from the government, then says a tearful goodbye following a climactic aerial chase scene would draw comparisons to Steven Spielberg's E.T. CNN’s review mentions the "charming E.T.-like friendship between the boy and the intimidating but apparently benign metal giant," while Roger Ebert said, "Imagine E.T. as a towering metal man, and you have some of the appeal of The Iron Giant." While these comments aren’t exactly negative, Bird apparently didn’t find the comparisons too flattering. He told Salon, "E.T. doesn't go kicking ass. He doesn't make the Army pay. Certainly you risk having your hip credentials taken away if you want to evoke anything sad or genuinely heartfelt."

 

9. The Iron Giant includes cameos from two Disney animators.

 

Though the film was produced by Disney’s historic rival Warner Bros., Bird managed to slip in cameos from two of the studio’s greatest animators. The train workers Kent interviews at the train crash scene are voiced by and modeled after Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of Bird’s mentors during his early years at Disney. They also make an appearance at the end of The Incredibles.

 

 

10. The Iron Giant gained a cult following after it left theaters.
By the time Warner Bros. realized they had something special on their hands with The Iron Giant, it already was too late. The film was criminally under-marketed and performed poorly at the box office as a result. The studio had learned its lesson when it came time to promote the movie’s home video release. They partnered with big-name brands like General Motors, Honey Nut Cheerios, and AOL, and even distributed $2 off coupons at screenings of Pokémon: The First Movie. Then in 2000, the rights to the film were sold to Cartoon Network and TNT. Cartoon Network started airing Iron Giant marathons on Independence Day and Thanksgiving, and as more children (and adults) were introduced to the film it eventually gained a devoted fan base.

 

Source: Towering Facts About The Iron Giant

 

 

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ELVIS

Did you know... Elvis never performed outside of the U.S. and Canada.
Despite being beloved around the world, Elvis Presley never performed outside of the United States and Canada. The prevailing (though never officially confirmed) belief is that the King of Rock ’n’ Roll had to turn down every offer he received to play abroad because his controversial manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was an undocumented immigrant from the Netherlands who didn’t have a passport and feared he would be denied re-entry to the U.S. if he left. (If Elvis ever had a fear of flying, he evidently got over it, purchasing and customizing several planes over the years, including the especially tricked-out Lisa Marie, a Convair 800 jet.) Other than three 1957 shows in Canada (in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver, B.C.), Elvis only ever performed stateside. And perform he did. In addition to his legendary Las Vegas residency, which consisted of 636 sold-out concerts between 1969 and 1976, Elvis toured extensively throughout the country and starred in two concert documentaries, 1970’s Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and 1972’s Elvis on Tour (not to mention also starring in 31 feature films). Following his untimely death in Memphis at the age of 42 in August 1977, CBS aired the posthumous television special Elvis in Concert on October 3 of that year. Filmed during two performances on his final tour, it features several of his most beloved songs — “Jailhouse Rock,” “Hound Dog,” and “Can't Help Falling in Love” among them — and was watched by more than 24 million viewers. Today, more than 40 years after his death, Elvis continues to earn new fans — and of course, some believe he’s still with us.

 

Elvis received extremely negative reviews at first.
To say that music critics were unkind to the burgeoning hip-swiveling superstar — whose telegenic sexuality sometimes shocked the nation — would be an understatement. A columnist from Miami wrote in 1956 that Elvis' fans deserved a “solid slap across the mouth.” The vitriol extended to the Los Angeles Mirror News, whose Paul Coates had this to say about the King on October 31, 1957: “If he was my kid (and I was a helluva lot better shape than I am), I’d smack that sneer off his face and send him out for a haircut. In all, I consider him a very distasteful individual.” Dorothy Ricker of the Tampa Bay Times was kind enough to avoid ad hominem attacks and simply focus on her belief that Elvis “cannot sing and his whole performance is crude and disgusting” before predicting that “in a comparatively short time he will be forgotten.” Well, not quite. ( Interesting Facts )

 

Fascinating Facts About Elvis Presley
by ELIZABETH NIX | UPDATED:JUN 28, 2022 | ORIGINAL:JUL 1, 2014

The rock 'n' roll troubadour altered the course of music history—despite never performing outside the U.S. or Canada. He also starred in 31 films, served in the Army (after he was already famous) and once bought a presidential yacht. Check out more facts about Elvis that might surprise you. 

 

1. Elvis had a twin.
On January 8, 1935, Elvis Aron (later spelled Aaron) Presley was born at his parents’ two-room house in East Tupelo, Mississippi, about 35 minutes after his identical twin brother, Jesse Garon, who was stillborn. The next day, Jesse was buried in an unmarked grave in nearby Priceville Cemetery. Elvis, who spoke of his twin throughout his life, grew up an only child in a poor family. His father, Vernon, worked a series of odd jobs, and in 1938 was sentenced to three years in prison for forging a $4 check (he spent less than a year behind bars). In 1948, the Presleys moved from Tupelo to Memphis in search of better opportunities. There, Elvis attended Humes High School, where he failed a music class and was considered quiet and an outsider. He graduated in 1953, becoming the first member of his immediate family to earn a high school diploma. After graduation, he worked at a machinist shop and drove a truck before launching his music career with the July 1954 recording of “That’s All Right.”

 

2. Elvis bought Graceland when he was 22.
In 1957, Elvis shelled out $102,500 for Graceland, the Memphis mansion that served as his home base for two decades. Situated on nearly 14 acres, it was built in 1939 by Dr. Thomas Moore and his wife Ruth on land that once was part of a 500-acre farm dubbed Graceland in honor of the original owner’s daughter, Grace, who was Ruth Moore’s great-aunt. The Moores’ white-columned home also came to be known as Graceland, and when Elvis purchased the place he kept the name. The entertainer made a number of updates to the property over the years, including the addition of music-themed iron entrance gates, a “jungle room” with an indoor waterfall and a racquetball building. After finding out President Lyndon Johnson enjoyed watching all three network news programs simultaneously, Elvis was inspired to have a wall of built-in TVs installed in his home. In 1982, five years after Elvis was found dead in a bathroom at Graceland, his ex-wife Priscilla Presley opened the estate to the public for tours. Some 600,000 fans now flock there each year. Elvis’ only child, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited Graceland when she turned 25 in 1993 and continues to operate it today. In 2006, George W. Bush became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Graceland, when he traveled there with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a die-hard Elvis fan.

 

3. Elvis’ controversial manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was a former carnival barker.

Born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk in the Netherlands in 1909, Elvis’s future manager immigrated illegally to America as a young man, where he reinvented himself as Tom Parker and claimed to be from West Virginia (his true origins weren’t known publicly until the 1980s). He worked as a pitchman for traveling carnivals, followed by stints as dog catcher and pet cemetery founder, among other occupations, then managed the careers of several country music singers. In 1948, Parker finagled the honorary title of colonel from the governor of Louisiana and henceforth insisted on being referred to as the Colonel. After learning about the up-and-coming Elvis in 1955, Parker negotiated the sale of the singer’s contract with tiny Sun Records to RCA, a major label, and officially took over as his manager in 1956. Under the Colonel’s guidance, Elvis shot to stardom: His first single for RCA, “Heartbreak Hotel,” released in 1956, became the first of his career to sell more than 1 million copies; his debut album, “Elvis Presley,” topped Billboard’s pop album chart; and he made his big-screen debut in 1956’s “Love Me Tender.” The portly, cigar-chomping Parker controlled Elvis’ career for the next two decades, helping him achieve enormous success while at the same time taking commissions of as much as 50 percent of the entertainer’s earnings and drawing criticism from observers that he was holding Elvis back creatively. Parker outlived his protégé by 20 years, dying in 1997 at age 87 in Las Vegas.

 

4. Elvis served in the Army after he was already famous.
In December 1957, Elvis, by then a major star, was drafted into the U.S. military. After receiving a short deferment so he could wrap up production on his film “King Creole,” the 23-year-old was inducted into the Army as a private on March 24, 1958, amidst major media coverage. Assigned to the Second Armored Division, he attended basic training at Fort Hood, Texas. That August, while still at Fort Hood, he was granted emergency leave to visit his beloved mother, who was in poor health. Gladys Presley passed away at age 46 on August 14, 1958. The following month, Elvis shipped out for an assignment with the Third Armored Division in Friedberg, West Germany, where he served as a jeep driver and continued to receive stacks of fan mail. While in Germany, he lived off base with his father and grandmother Minnie Mae Presley. It was also during this time that Elvis met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of a U.S. Air Force captain. (After a lengthy courtship, Elvis and Priscilla married in 1967; the couple divorced in 1973.) Elvis was honorably discharged from active duty in March 1960, having achieved the rank of sergeant. His first post-Army movie, “G.I. Blues,” was released that November of that same year. The film’s soundtrack spent 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard album music chart and remained on the chart for a total of 111 weeks, the longest of any album in Elvis’ career. Elvis eventually starred in a total of 31 films.

 

5. Elvis never performed outside of North America.
An estimated 40 percent of Elvis’ music sales have been outside the United States; however, with the exception a handful of concerts he gave in Canada in 1957, he never performed on foreign soil. A number of sources have suggested that Elvis’ manager, Colonel Parker, turned down lucrative offers for the singer to perform abroad because Parker was an undocumented immigrant and feared he wouldn’t be allowed back into the U.S. if he traveled overseas.

 

6. Elvis was burned in effigy after an appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

In the summer of 1956, Colonel Parker arranged a deal for Elvis to make three appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for a then-whopping fee of $50,000. Although Sullivan previously had said he wouldn’t book the hip-swiveling, lip-curling singer on his family-oriented TV variety show, he relented after competitor Steve Allen featured Elvis on his show in July 1956 and clobbered Sullivan in the ratings. When Elvis made his first appearance on Sullivan’s program on September 9, 1956, 60 million people—more than 80 percent of the TV viewing audience—tuned in. (As it happened, Sullivan, who had been injured in a car accident that August, was unable to host the show.) After the singer made his second appearance in October, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis, outraged by the singer’s sexy performance and concerned that rock music would corrupt America’s teens, burned and hanged Elvis in effigy. The singer made his final appearance on Sullivan’s show in January 1957, and this time network censors demanded he be filmed from the waist up. Despite this requirement, at the end of the program, Sullivan gave the entertainer a special nod, telling the audience Elvis was “a real decent, fine boy,” and letting him know that “we’ve never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we’ve had with you.”

 

7. Elvis bought FDR's presidential yacht 
In 1964, Elvis paid $55,000 for the Potomac, the 165-foot-long vessel that served as FDR’s “floating White House” from 1936 to 1945. Constructed in 1934, the Potomac originally was a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. After the president’s death in 1945, the ship was decommissioned and had a series of owners before Elvis bought it. However, he soon donated it to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, which in turn sold the vessel to raise money. (In 1980, the Potomac, then being used by drug smugglers, was seized in San Francisco by U.S. Customs. It later was restored and opened to the public.) Elvis’ yacht donation was one of many charitable acts after he would make during his life. In addition to giving away cars, jewelry and cash to friends and strangers, he performed a number of benefit concerts. One such performance, in 1961, generated more than $50,000 toward the completion of the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. Work on the project, a tribute to the more than 1,100 men who died aboard the USS Arizona during the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, had begun years earlier and then stalled due to a lack of funds. Elvis’ concert, for which tickets ranged from $3 to $100, helped reinvigorate fund-raising efforts for the memorial, and it was dedicated the following year.

 

 

Source: Facts About Elvis | Fascinating Facts About Elvis Presley

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SANTA CLAUS

Did you know... Santa Claus has appeared on U.S. currency.
The United States and its currency seem inseparably linked, but for much of the country’s history, an official, standardized U.S. dollar didn’t exist. In its place was a Wild West of currencies from competing banks located across several states. In their zeal to earn goodwill and customers, a few of these institutions even minted some rather creative banknotes. These bills didn’t feature the chiseled visage of General Washington or other real-life American leaders, but instead the pudgy, bearded face of St. Nick, among other figures. For the St. Nicholas Bank of New York City, featuring the bank’s namesake on its currency made some sort of sense. But other banks, seemingly unaffiliated with Father Christmas, also issued Santa money. For example, the Howard Banking Company issued its Sinter Klaas note in the 1850s, which depicted a St. Nick scene from Dutch legend. A total of 21 banks in eight states created notes featuring Santa Claus, with seven of them even printing an entire Santa Claus vignette on their currency. These fun funds came to an end in 1863, when the National Bank Act created a national currency in an effort to standardize banking throughout the U.S. While these Santa bills are now considered “obsolete,” the notes remain highly prized in certain collecting circles and are doing much more than just ho-ho-holding their value. 

 

Paper money isn’t made out of paper.
Most paper — think newspapers, cardboard, and notebooks — is primarily composed of wood pulp. But this kind of paper could never handle the rough life of a U.S. dollar. Instead of relying on trees, all U.S. currency uses the same blend of cotton (75%) and linen (25%) with red and blue synthetic fibers running throughout. This blend is what gives greenbacks their distinctive feel as well as their increased durability compared to normal paper. According to the U.S. Currency Education Program, USDs can survive 4,000 double folds (front and back) before tearing. ( Interesting Facts )

 

Jolly Facts You Didn't Know About Santa Claus

By The Daily Meal Staff | November 5, 2020

During the Christmas season, no figure is more iconic to children than Santa Claus. Parents teach their children the importance of being polite and well-behaved throughout the year in hopes of making his "nice" list. Children sing songs about him and set out a plate of holiday cookies for his arrival. But where exactly did Santa get his start, and how has he persisted as an iconic Christmas figure over the years? Check out these facts you might not know about jolly ol' Saint Nick.

 

1. He’s based on a real person

We best know Santa as the character who delivers presents every Christmas Eve, but it turns out his origins are far from fiction. Santa's story dates back to 280 A.D. in what today would be Turkey. Saint Nicholas was a monk who traveled the countryside to assist the poor and sick. One story claims he even used his wealth to provide a dowry for three impoverished sisters, saving them from being sold by their father. He became known as a protector of children and sailors, and by the Renaissance, he was among the most popular saints in Europe.

 

2. His name came from the Netherlands

When people from the Netherlands migrated to New World colonies, they brought with them the legend of Sinterklaas, which is Dutch for Saint Nicholas. By the late 1700s, the story of the generous Sinterklaas reached American pop culture as Dutch families gathered to honor the death of the saint, and, over time, the name evolved to Santa Claus.

 

3. Christmas wasn’t always about Santa bringing gifts

In early America, Christmas wasn't the festive holiday we know and love today. It was shunned in New England, lacked a cheerful figure who brought gifts and was celebrated outdoors with alcohol. A string of poems and stories in the early 19th century redefined the holiday by giving St. Nick a makeover and focusing on the themes of family and togetherness.

 

4. He didn’t always have a round belly

In 1809, author Washington Irving helped to shape Santa's image in his book "Knickerbocker's History of New York." In the novel, he described St. Nicholas as a pipe-smoking, slim figure flying over rooftops in a wagon delivering presents to good children and switches to the bad.

 

5. A poem popularized his imag

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote a poem for his children called "A Visit From St. Nicholas." In the poem, Moore described St. Nicholas as a "jolly old elf" who has supernatural abilities like being able to enter a chimney with a nod of his head. The poem was published anonymously and is popularly known today as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

 

6. He didn’t always wear a red suit

Moore's poem created an American icon, but it didn't standardize depictions of Santa. In the 19th century, some images portrayed a man in different colored suits, others saw him miniature-sized and sometimes he rode a broomstick instead of a sleigh.

 

7. The poem introduced his reindeer as well

Irving's book described Santa as having a small wagon with only one reindeer guiding him along the way. Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" changed that narrative. In his poem, Santa is guided "on a miniature sleigh" by eight flying reindeer.

 

8. Santa’s favorite reindeer is 80 years old

The most famous reindeer of all, Rudolph, came more than a century after his eight counterparts. In 1939, Robert L. May, a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward Department Store, wrote a story-poem to drive traffic to the store during the holidays. May used a similar rhyme pattern to '"Twas the Night Before Christmas" to tell the story of Rudolph, a young reindeer who is teased because of his bright, red nose, but on a foggy night, he guides Santa as he delivers his gifts. The story sold more than 2 million copies and, in 1949, it was made into the popular song sung around Christmas to this day.

 

9. A political cartoonist drew his iconic look

In 1881, Thomas Nast — the acclaimed political cartoonist famous for creating the elephant that represents the Republican Party and the donkey for the Democratic Party  — brought to life the image of the Santa that we know today. Nast drew Santa as a round, jolly man with a full, white beard, undersized longjohns with white trimming and a sack full of toys.

 

10. Sending him letters started with a drawing

Nast would go on to illustrate many of the things we associate with Santa today. In an illustration featured in Harper's Weekly in 1871, the jolly fellow is shown sitting at his desk, smoking a pipe and sorting letters from "Good Children's Parents" and "Naughty Children's Parents." This image helped to popularize the idea of sending letters to Santa. And in an 1886 illustration titled "Santaclausville, N.P," Nast gave children and parents alike a location to send their mail: the North Pole.

 

To read more about what you didn't know about Santa Claus, click the link below 

 

 

Source: Facts About Santa Claus | What You Might Not Know About Santa Clause

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - ICE SCULPTURES

 

Did you know... Ice sculptures can be beautiful pieces of art that take a lot of time and effort to make. They are only limited by the artist’s imagination and can have a variety of themes. No two ice sculptures are alike; they can be as varied as a character from a popular comic book or TV show to a recreation of a historical site. Unfortunately, these pieces of art only last a limited amount of time due to their building material. Thankfully, there are many pictures online people have taken of beautiful ice sculptures from all around the world. 

 

1. This is a colorful ice palace that was made for the Harbin Ice Festival in China. The amount of detail and work involved in making this sculpture is amazing.

 

2. This beautiful Yule Ball ice sculpture is a recreation from “The Goblet of Fire” of the Harry Potter series.

 

3. Created by Rhea Thierstein from Vogue, this ship sculpture is an amazing work of art.

 

4. This picture was taken in Fairbanks, Alaska at the World Ice Art Championships, and was made from a single block of ice.

 

5. This ice sculpture is called “Chasing the Wind” and it was made for the 2010 World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska.

 

6. An amazing Japanese-themed ice castle.

 

7. Here is a very detailed and amazing sea horse ice sculpture.

 

 

Click the link below to see other Ice Sculptures. 

 

 

Source: Most Spectacular Ice Sculptures

[Emilybarton]

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Edited December 19, 2022 by Emilybarton

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - RANDOM FUN FACTS

Did you know... Miss Piggy's full name? Have you heard about Liam Payne's severe phobia? Do you know how many species of fish can walk on land? We rounded up the most interesting facts we could find. Scroll to learn new fun facts ASAP!

 

1. Ketchup was sold as medicine in the 1830s.

Thirty years before Heinz started bottling and selling the stuff as a condiment, an Ohio physician named Dr. John Cook Bennett thought the tomato-based product was as good as Pepto-Bismol. He said it could cure diarrhea and indigestion, and even concentrated ketchup into pill form to sell to the stomach-achy masses.

 

2. Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, was in close proximity to three out of four presidential assassinations.

Lincoln, his parents' eldest son, was supposed to be at Ford's Theater with his mom and dad the night the president was assassinated, but he stayed back at the White House, less than a mile away, instead. Sixteen years later, he watched President James Garfield get fatally shot at Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C. Even weirder? Lincoln was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York when President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

 

3. Clownfish can change their sex, including their reproductive organs, and the process is irreversible.

 

4. If you're being violent or drunk in Japan the police will get a futon and roll you into a burrito.

In fact, Japanese police officers are rarely known to use guns or violence at all. If you're drunk (or acting violent), they'll wrap you up in the futons and carry you over to the station to calm you down instead of potentially instigating more hostilities.

 

5. Male ducks have corkscrew-shaped penises.

 

6. All mammals take about 12 seconds to poop, regardless of size.

The science journal Soft Matter found that the diameter and length of feces are always comparable to those of any mammal's rectum and that no matter a mammal's size or weight, the pressure used to push out a bowel movement is equal. So whether it's an elephant or a mouse, it doesn't need too long to pop out poop.

 

7. Snakes can help predict earthquakes. They can sense them up to five days before, from up to 75 miles away.

 

What to read more random fun facts? Click the link below 

 

 

Source: Extremely Fun And Interesting Facts That I'll Be Telling Everyone I Know

Edited December 20, 2022 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - HANUKKAH

Did you know..... In late November and December (depending on the year), millions of Jewish people around the world celebrate the eight-day-long Festival of Lights known as Hanukkah. For each of the eight nights, Jewish families light the menorah in remembrance of an important moment in their history that took place some 2,200 years ago. During the 19th century, Jews usually simply lit a special type of menorah, a hanukkiyah, during the celebration, but by the 1920s gift-giving had become a common practice, especially in North America, where the holiday was influenced by Christmas. Heard of “Elf on a Shelf”? Well, meet the “Mensch on a Bench.” But at its core, Hanukkah is a time to be with family and observe Jewish traditions. Here are seven interesting facts about this ancient holiday.

 

1. Hanukkah Means “Dedication”

The word “Hanukkah” is a transliteration of the Hebrew word for “dedication.” This is a reference to the historical moment at the heart of the holiday, the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt of the second century BCE. At the time, the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire was forcibly oppressing the Jewish population by trying to eradicate their religious practices; as part of this effort, they defiled the temple and placed an idol on its altar. In 164 BCE, the Maccabees (a group of Jewish warriors) recaptured Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, and rededicated it on the 25th day of Kislev, a month in the Hebrew calendar (and the date used today to mark the beginning of Hanukkah). The eight candles on a hanukkiyah commemorate the moment when Jews relit the temple’s ner tamid (Hebrew for “eternal light”), a lamp meant to burn perpetually in a synagogue. Although they had only one day’s worth of oil, the flame miraculously burned for eight days — enough time to get more purified oil to feed the flame.

 

2. There Are Around 14 Different Ways to Spell "Hanukkah"

Because “Hanukkah” is a transliteration of a Hebrew word (not a direct translation), there’s technically no “correct” way to spell it. Although the Merriam-Webster dictionary prefers “Hanukkah,” other spellings such as “Chanukah,” “Hanukah,” or even “Hannuka” may also be considered correct. According to Time magazine, there are technically about 14 different ways you can spell the name of the holiday. Traditionalists prefer “Chanukah,” which used to be the preferred spelling, but since many English speakers have trouble pronouncing the “ch” as it would be in Hebrew — with a guttural sound — “Hanukkah” became the more common spelling, as the “h” sound was easier to pronounce for English speakers. (Whatever you do, don’t pronounce the “ch” as a tch sound, like the start of “child” — think “Happy Hanukkah,” not “Chappy Chanukah.”)

 

3. It’s a Minor Jewish Holiday

Although Hanukkah is one of the most talked-about Jewish holidays because of its proximity to Christmas, it’s far from the faith’s holiest of days. The two High Holy days for Jews are Rosh Hashanah, which is a new year celebration, and Yom Kippur, or “Day of Atonement,” when Jews seek reconciliation with God for their sins. Even somewhat lesser-known holidays, such as Sukkot, are considered more religiously important than Hanukkah. However, the holiday’s commercialization (in lock step with Christmas) during the 20th century has made it one of the most well-known celebrations of Judaism around the world.

 

4. Jelly Doughnuts, or “Sufganiyot,” Are a Popular Hanukkah Treat

During Hanukkah, Jews also enjoy a traditional sweet called sufganiyot, a name based on words found in the Talmud meaning “spongy dough.” A cross between a beignet and a doughnut, sufganiyot are fried in oil (the same as latkes), which represents the oil central to the miracle at the heart of the holiday. They are then filled with a jam or custard before being dusted with powdered sugar. Hanukkah is about tradition, but no one said it had to be healthy.

 

5. The First Day of Hanukkah Sometimes (But Rarely) Falls on Thanksgiving

Although Hanukkah is usually more aligned with Christmas, on very rare occasions it can fall on Thanksgiving instead. The date for Hanukkah is based on the Hebrew calendar, which is known as a lunisolar calendar because it uses the sun and the moon to determine dates. The dates in the Hebrew calendar don’t necessarily match up with the Gregorian calendar from year to year, which means that Hanukkah, which begins on 25 Kislev, can fall on various dates from late November to late December. In 2013, the first day of Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving in the U.S., giving rise to the popular portmanteau “Thanksgivukkah.” The next Thanksgivukkah won’t occur until the year 2070.

 

6. The Letters on a Dreidel Form a Meaningful Acronym

Playing the dreidel is a popular Hanukkah game that involves a spinning top and a good bit of luck. The letters on the dreidel themselves relate to the holiday. Nun, gimel, hei, and shin form an acronym that is said to mean Nes gadol hayah sham, or “a great miracle happened there.” This is a reference to the miracle of the oil that fueled the ancient ner tamid thousands of years ago. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Major League Dreidel is a thing.

 

7. You Need 44 Candles to Celebrate Hanukkah

The menorah holds eight candles and a shamash, or “helper” candle that lights the other candles and sits either higher or lower than the other eight. Candles are traditionally placed in the menorah right to left, the same way Hebrew is read, but the candles themselves are lit left to right. Because you light a new candle every day, multiply these candles (and shamash) across eight days and the typical Hanukkah celebration will melt through 44 candles. No need to count out all those candles though — Hanukkah candle boxes are typically sold with exactly 44 candles already tucked inside.

 

 

Source: Facts You Might Not Know About Hanukkah

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WHO PLAYED SANTA?

Did you know... Santa Claus is a fixture of the holiday season, especially when it comes to Christmas movies. Onscreen, Saint Nick has been portrayed by a motley mix of actors, from Tim Allen to Leslie Nielsen. 

by Zoë Miller | December 19, 2018

 

1. Tim Allen wore the red suit in the "Santa Clause" series.

"Home Improvement" star Tim Allen wore the red suit in all three "Santa Clause" movies (released in 1994, 2002, and 2006). The family-friendly fantasy trilogy tell the story of a toy salesman who becomes Santa after accidentally causing the real Saint Nick to fall off his roof. Holiday hijinks ensue from Illinois to the North Pole.

 

2. Ed Asner played Santa in several movies, including "Elf."

Ed Asner, famous for portraying Lou Grant on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," first dressed up as the big guy in "The Christmas Star," a 1986 movie about a counterfeiter who escapes from prison before Christmas by wearing a Santa costume. More recently, Asner played Santa in the beloved 2003 flick "Elf." Alongside a voice cast that included Jim Parsons and Mark Hamill, he reprised the role in "Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas" (2014), a stop-motion TV special based on the first film and its subsequent Broadway musical adaptation. Lifetime fans might have also caught Asner's appearance as Santa in "Christmas on the Bayou," which aired on the network in 2013.

 

3. In the original "Miracle on 34th Street," Edmund Gwenn starred as Kris Kringle.

In the 1947 holiday classic "Miracle on 34th Street" (which was remade in 1994 starring Richard Attenborough), Edmund Gwenn played Kris Kringle — the real Saint Nick pretending to be a department store Santa at Macy's Herald Square flagship in New York City.

 

4. Jim Broadbent was Santa in "Get Santa."

Actor Jim Broadbent, who you may recognize from his role as Archmaester Ebrose on "Game of Thrones," played Santa Claus in the family comedy "Get Santa."

 

5. Paul Giamatti played Santa's brother in "Fred Claus."

Paul Giamatti is known for a diverse range of roles, from the eponymous Founding Father in the miniseries "John Adams" to the comic book writer Harvey Pekar in "American Splendor." Giamatti even played Santa's brother in "Fred Claus," a 2007 comedy adventure movie co-starring Vince Vaughn. Fred Claus performed many of Santa's typical duties. 

 

6. Chevy Chase dressed up as Santa in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

As his "National Lampoon" character Clark "Sparky" Griswold, Jr., Chevy Chase dressed up as Santa in the comedy series' third installment, "Christmas Vacation" (1989).

 

7. In "Bad Santa," Billy Bob Thornton played a thief who dressed as Saint Nick to rob malls.

Billy Bob Thornton starred as a not-so-saintly Nick in the dark comedy "Bad Santa." The 2003 movie centers around a professional thief who dresses as a department store Santa in order to rob malls at night.

 

8. Tyler Perry's tough persona works as a mall Santa in "A Madea Christmas."

Madea — actor and comedian Tyler Perry's persona — gets a job as a mall Santa in "A Madea Christmas" (2013), the eighth movie in the franchise.

 

9. Kurt Russell portrayed the title character in Netflix's "Christmas Chronicles."

"The Christmas Chronicles," a 2018 Netflix original movie starring Kurt Russell as Saint Nick, focuses on siblings who are tasked with saving Christmas after crashing Santa's sleigh.

Read More: All the Netflix original Christmas movies, ranked

 

10. Leslie Nielsen appeared as Santa in two movies.

Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen (of "Airplane!" fame) played Santa in two movies, 1991's "All I Want for Christmas" and "Santa Who?," a made-for-TV flick released in 2000.

 

 

Source:  Actors Who Have Played Santa Claus in Movies

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WINTER SOLSTICE

Did you know... Winter is coming. Our ancestors celebrated the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, with festivals marking the cycle of death and rebirth. Since then, astronomers have determined the scientific basis for Earth’s seasons, and even discovered winters on other planets. This year, snuggle up under a cozy blanket with a toasty cup of hot cocoa and learn more about the science and culture behind this annual event.

 

1. The Winter Solstice Occurs at a Specific Moment

Most people observe the winter solstice as a day on the calendar — usually December 21 or 22 in the Northern Hemisphere — that marks the beginning of the coldest season. Astronomically speaking, however, the winter solstice occurs when the sun appears directly overhead at noon at the Tropic of Capricorn. This invisible line circles the planet at 23°26’22” south latitude and runs through Paraguay, Namibia, Australia, and other countries. The winter solstice corresponds with the exact moment the Northern Hemisphere reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun. In the Southern Hemisphere, the timing and location are reversed. The winter solstice there occurs around June 20 or 21 at the moment when the sun appears overhead at noon at the Tropic of Cancer, which circles Earth at 23°26’22” north latitude (crossing Mexico, Saudi Arabia, India, and other places). The timing coincides with the Southern Hemisphere’s maximum tilt away from the sun.

 

2. The Winter Solstice Marks the Shortest Day and Longest Night of the Year

When either hemisphere is tilting away from the sun to its greatest possible extent, people who live there experience the least daylight and most night of the year. But just how short the day is depends on your precise location — specifically, how close you are to the equator. More southerly locations in the Northern Hemisphere have longer shortest days; the shortest days in northerly locations last only a few hours. For example, Manila in the Philippines lies near the equator and experiences 11 hours, 15 minutes, and 57 seconds of daylight on the winter solstice. In Reykjavik, Iceland, daylight lasts just four hours, seven minutes, and nine seconds.

 

3. Winter Starts Earlier for Meteorologists

Astronomers and meteorologists have different criteria for determining the seasons. Technically, the cold season that begins on the winter solstice is astronomical winter, determined by the position of the sun. Astronomical spring, summer, and fall begin on the vernal equinox, summer solstice, and autumn equinox, respectively. But the varying dates of the equinoxes and solstices make it difficult to compare weather data from one year to the next, so weather forecasters typically use meteorological seasons based on temperature averages and the regular calendar. In the meteorological calendar, each season is assigned a three-month period: Winter is December through February, spring is March through May, summer is June through August, and fall is September through November.

 

4. Ancient Monuments May Mark the Winter Solstice

Human civilizations around the world built monuments that may have noted the change of seasons as they related to planting and harvesting crops. Newgrange, a 5,000-year-old dome-shaped monument in Ireland, features a small opening in its roof through which the sun shines on the winter solstice. Stones at Stonehenge, built around 2500 BCE in southern England, are aligned to the sun’s angles on the summer and winter solstices. Indigenous peoples in North America also built monumental calendars. The Chaco Culture of northwest New Mexico recorded the winter solstice at special observatories built between 800 and 1100 CE. The Mississippian Culture established “Woodhenge,” a calendar of upright logs, around 1000 CE at Cahokia in modern-day Illinois. In southeast Ohio between 100 BCE and 400 CE, the Hopewell Culture built earthworks that aligned with the rising sun at the winter solstice.

 

5. Many Cultures Observe the Winter Solstice With a Festival

Winter solstice celebrations often note the passage of time with feasts and gatherings. People in ancient Rome held Saturnalia, a holiday on which social conventions were turned upside down to honor Saturn — the god of the harvest — and the conclusion of the planting season. The Venerable Bede, an English monk who lived in the eighth century, wrote about the Germanic winter solstice festival called Yule; over time, Europeans blended Yule and Christmas traditions. Celebrants of the Chinese festival Dongzhi observe the winter solstice by making holiday foods, including tangyuan (glutinous rice balls served in a sweet broth), wontons, nuts, and soups. Scientists in Antarctica celebrate Midwinter Day in June with a holiday meal, athletic events, and movie marathons.

 

6. Other Planets Have Winter Solstices

Each planet in the solar system has seasons determined by the tilt of its axis and the shape of its orbit, just like on Earth. Smaller tilts and more circular orbits correspond with less-noticeable seasons: On Venus and Jupiter, with minimal tilts and roundish orbits, summer and winter are pretty similar. On Mars, the tilt of 24 degrees and oval orbit give it dramatic seasonal shifts. Seasons on the solar system’s outer planets are not well understood, but scientists do know their winters last a lot longer than on Earth — about seven years on Saturn, 20 years on Uranus, and more than 40 years on Neptune.

 

 

Source: Facts About the Winter Solstice