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Fact of the Day - PICASSO

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Did you know.... Picasso was once suspected of stealing the “Mona Lisa.”
When the “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre on August 21, 1911, the art world immediately went into mourning — and began wondering who was behind the dastardly deed. One man soon under suspicion was none other than Pablo Picasso, whose name was given to the authorities by Honore-Joseph Géry Pieret, the former secretary of Picasso’s friend (and famed poet) Guillaume Apollinaire. Pieret had previously stolen at least two Bronze Age Iberian sculptures from the Louvre and sold them to the then-up-and-coming cubist artist, who used them as inspiration for his painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” (At the time, the Louvre security was rather lacking; the paintings weren’t even bolted to the walls.) A terrified Picasso and Apollinaire were eventually brought to court, where it was determined that Picasso was indeed in possession of stolen art — just not the “Mona Lisa.” (The Iberian statues were quickly returned, and the judge let both Picasso and Apollinaire off with a warning.)

 

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The search for the mysterious “Mona Lisa” took two years, during which time its popularity grew exponentially as reproductions were splashed across newspapers worldwide. In December 1913, Vincenzo Peruggia — an Italian employee of a firm that cut glass for the Louvre — emerged as the real thief after he tried to sell the painting to an antique dealer in Florence. (Peruggia is said to have believed that the “Mona Lisa” rightfully belonged to Italy and expected a reward for “returning” it.) Fortunately, the antiques dealer called the police. Peruggia later served eight months in prison for his crime. Suffice to say that the Louvre’s security has vastly improved in the century since, and the painting isn’t leaving its exhibit any time soon.

 

The “Mona Lisa” receives so many love letters that she has her own mailbox.

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When the portrait (painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503–1519) was first displayed at the Louvre in 1815, it didn't take long for admirers to become smitten by it — and her. Shortly thereafter, a number of “suitors bearing flowers, poems and impassioned notes climbed the grand staircase of the Louvre to gaze into her ‘limpid and burning eyes,’according to Dianne Hales, author of Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered. It wasn’t just museumgoers who developed a fancy for the painting, though: Napoleon once hung it in his bedroom and referred to its subject as “Madame Lisa.” Years later, Hales adds, he became “infatuated with a young Italian woman who bore a remarkable resemblance to the lady in the painting.” That woman was Teresa Guadagni, who just so happened to be a descendant of Lisa del Giocondo, the actual subject of da Vinci's masterpiece.

 

Source: Interesting facts

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Fact of the Day - TREES

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Did you know.... The world's most massive plant is a stand of 47,000 genetically identical aspen trees.
In central Utah, state highway UT-25 cuts through a stand of quaking aspens near the alpine Fish Lake. Many travelers driving south from Salt Lake City looking for a relaxing weekend getaway likely drive by this stretch of forest unaware that they’ve just seen one of the greatest — and strangest — natural wonders in the world. That’s because this particular stand of quaking aspens (Populus tremuloides), known as “Pando,” is the world’s largest plant, containing some 47,000 trees spread across 107 acres. At first glance, the aspens look like any other forest, but hidden wonders are locked inside their DNA. Although scientists first recognized Pando’s extraordinary qualities in the 1970s, only in 2008 did they confirm that the aspens are all genetically identical. Unlike many other trees that reproduce sexually — using seeds and pollen — these aspens reproduced asexually, by sprouting from Pando’s underground root system. That means they’re genetic clones of the same original aspen, now long-dead. (While asexual reproduction is far from rare for aspens, a clone of this size is.) Because the trees are genetically identical, and because they all share a root system, they’re considered one plant, no matter how separate they may appear aboveground. Pando has been growing for tens of thousands of years to create the “Trembling Giant” that now awes both tourists and scientists today. (Interesting Facts)

 

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

 

1. Endicott Pear Tree

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

 

2. Methuselah

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

 

3. Emancipation Oak

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Trees provide oxygen, shade, and in some cases, a refuge from the world around us. The Emancipation Oak, shading the entrance of Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, is one such tree; its limbs offered sanctuary to Black students during the height of the Civil War. Mary Smith Kelsey Peake, a free Black woman, began teaching formerly enslaved students at the base of the tree in 1861, a risk she undertook at a time when laws forbade the education of Black and enslaved people. The tree’s proximity to a Union Army base offered security — earlier in 1861, Union leaders had declared that enslaved people who reached Union lines would not be returned, bringing a wave of escapees to Fort Monroe, located in Confederate territory. In 1863, an audience gathered beneath the tree's branches to hear the Emancipation Proclamation — the first reading of the document in a southern U.S. state. Five years later, Mary Smith Kelsey Peake’s efforts would be recognized with the opening of what would later become Hampton University, near where she began teaching. The Emancipation Oak is now on the Virginia Landmarks Register, and in 2010, President Barack Obama recognized the tree’s significance by planting a sapling from the Emancipation Oak on White House grounds.

 

4. Hyperion

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

 

5. Hibakujumoku

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

 

 

Source: The Amazing Stories Behind 5 Famous Trees

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Fact of the Day - HAIR

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Did you know...

Long, beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming
Streaming, flaxen, waxen

Give me down to there (hair)
Shoulder length or longer (hair)

No, these aren’t the words of a shampoo commercial. When American men were drafted to fight in Vietnam, their hair was cut short. Long locks on men became a sign of defiance, and such hairdos seemed thrillingly shocking to theatergoers, who flocked to the rock musical Hair (which featured the song above) when it opened on Broadway in 1968. Hair has sent cultural messages for millennia. It also sends signals about our body chemistry, including our age and health (which may be the unconscious reason some of us get so upset about “bad hair” days). Let these six facts about hair show you a whole new side of your crowning glory.

 

1. Human Hair Contains Silicon and Gold

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Although each person’s hair is a bit different, one strand usually contains 45% carbon, 28% oxygen, and 15% nitrogen. Hair also contains up to 12% to 15% water and traces of mineral elements, including copper, zinc, iron, and silicon. Our hair even contains gold, which is excreted from our bodies through both hair and skin. Babies have more gold in their hair than adults, because gold is passed along in breast milk. Overall, the average human body is said to contain around .2 milligrams (less than the weight of a poppy seed) of gold.

 

2. Some Hair Loss Is Normal

During your life, your hair grows, falls out, and regrows around 20 times. In fact, it’s normal to lose 100 hairs a day, and even more during the fall and spring. The reason may be that in areas with four seasons, the sun damages the hair bulbs during the summer, leading to hair loss in the fall. Winter cold restricts blood flow to the scalp, causing the spring shedding. The solution: Cover your head! However, if you’re suddenly noticing much more hair in your brush or in your shower drain, you may be suffering from low iron, or anemia. This is more likely in people who menstruate if they have heavy periods. People also can experience temporary shedding after a sickness like COVID-19, with a change in estrogen levels after pregnancy or stopping birth control pills, or during menopause.

 

3. Hair Reveals Stress

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It’s true: Stress can make hair go gray or white faster. But there’s good news, too. Gray or white strands can sometimes turn back to their previous color, according to a large international study in 2021. “Just like tree rings hold information about past decades, and rocks hold information about past centuries, hairs hold information about past months and years,” the researchers wrote. These transformations can happen on hair anywhere on the body — sometimes quickly. One person in the study regained five hairs with color after they took a two-week holiday.

 

4. We Can Go White Overnight

Extreme stress can even turn hair white overnight (or at least very quickly). This may have happened to Queen of France Marie Antoinette before the morning she walked to the guillotine. Sir Thomas More’s hair is also said to have turned white overnight in the Tower of London before his execution. Dermatologists now call this rare phenomenon “Marie Antoinette syndrome.”

 

5. Wigs and Hair Dye Are Nothing New

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Because hair reflects our mental and physical health, people have gone to great lengths throughout history to change its appearance. We dye away gray, use chemical products to fight hair loss, or wear wigs. Dye to camouflage gray dates back at least to the ancient Egyptians, who used henna. The ancient Greeks used henna too (and even colored their horses’ tails with it). In the Roman Empire, blond was a popular hair color. It had an exotic allure, and was associated with people from Gaul (modern France and Germany). Roman prostitutes were also required by law to have yellow hair to signal their status. Some very wealthy Romans even powdered their hair with gold dust. That was a more pleasant option than one dye that was used to turn hair black: fermented leeches. The first commercial hair dye was created in 1907 by a French chemist, Eugene Schueller. He initially called his creation Aureole, but later renamed it L’Oréal, which was also the name of the company he founded two years later.

 

6. People Save Their Cut Hair

Among the sentimental Victorians, it was common to give locks of your hair to friends, family members, or lovers. The New York Public Library’s archives contain, for example, an auburn lock from Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein; a lock from Walt Whitman, author of Leaves of Grass; and a lock from Charlotte Bronte, who wrote Jane Eyre. To this day, we continue to value hair as a memento. In 2009, a bidder paid $15,000 for a lock of Elvis Presley’s hair at an auction. That’s actually cheap: In 2021, a jar of the rock icon’s hair sold for $72,500.

 

 

Source: Interesting Facts About Our Hair

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Fact of the Day - X-RAYS

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Did you know... When X-rays were first discovered in 1895, the “X” stood for “unknown.” Today, scientists know a lot more about them. X-rays are a kind of electromagnetic radiation, part of a spectrum of waves of various wavelengths. Longer wavelengths in the spectrum include radio waves, ultraviolet waves, and visible light. X-ray wavelengths are much smaller — between 0.03 and 3 nanometers — and that means they’re also higher in energy than many other waves. That high-energy attribute, while not exactly healthy for humans, is also what makes X-rays so useful. When X-rays hit an object, their energy is absorbed or scattered at different rates by different components of our bodies. X-rays have a harder time passing through bones, which show up as white on the resulting images, while they more easily penetrate our skin and internal organs, which show up darker. X-rays revolutionized medicine upon their discovery, but that’s only one aspect of their amazing story. These six facts showcase just how important X-rays are to modern life, and how they’ve made the invisible visible.

 

1. The Discovery of X-Rays Was an Accident

Many of the world’s most important discoveries came about by accident, and you can add X-rays to that list. On November 8, 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was experimenting with cathode rays in his laboratory in Würzburg when he noticed that a nearby screen had begun to glow. Not knowing what the mysterious rays causing the effect could be, he eventually called them “X-rays,” with the “X” referring to an unknown item (as in solving for “X” in mathematics). Röntgen noticed that these rays passed through soft tissue, like human skin, but didn’t penetrate harder materials such as metal and bone. For the next seven weeks, Röntgen continued working in his lab in complete secrecy. When Röntgen’s wife asked what was the matter, he answered that if people knew what he was doing, they would say, “Röntgen must have gone mad.” Finally, on December 28 of that year, he published a paper titled “On a New Kind of Rays.” The world was never the same. Later, when asked what went through his mind when he first discovered X-rays, Röntgen answered: “I didn’t think; I investigated.”

 

2. The Discoverer of X-Rays Won the First Nobel Prize in Physics

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In December 1896, a year after Röntgen published his groundbreaking paper, Alfred Nobel — famous for inventing dynamite — died in Sanremo, Italy, bequeathing his fortune to the establishment of a prize awarding the greatest advancements in literature, chemistry, physics, medicine, and peace (economics was added in 1969). Following five years of legal wrangling, in 1901 Wilhelm Röntgen became the first recipient of the Nobel Prize for physics, an award that eventually honored such titans of science as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Niels Bohr. Röntgen also received an honorary degree of medicine from the University of Würzburg because of his invention’s immense medical benefits, but he never took out patents related to his invention.

 

3. People Used to Take “Bone Portraits” Using X-Rays

Many X-ray entrepreneurs and photo studios began offering “bone portraits” in the early years of the 20th century. The fad didn’t last, though, and that’s probably a good thing, because frequent, intense exposure to X-rays isn’t healthy for you. Those who regularly operated early X-ray machines developed skin lesions and other maladies because of prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation. However, humans are constantly exposed to what’s called “background radiation.” The American Cancer Society estimates that today’s chest X-ray is the equivalent of 10 days of normal exposure — not terrible, but also not something you want to expose yourself to many times a day. So wearing those heavy X-ray vests probably isn’t a bad idea.

 

4. There Are “Hard” and “Soft” X-Rays 

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Not all X-rays are alike. Medical X-rays, CT scans, airport security scanners, and other devices most commonly associated with X-rays use what are known as “hard X-rays,” because they have smaller wavelengths and can therefore carry more energy. This makes them perfect for penetrating soft tissue to examine the harder structure lying underneath. Soft X-rays, on the other hand, have longer wavelengths, almost approaching the length of UV light. These X-rays can’t carry very much energy at all. However, these X-rays also have their uses in catalysis — the study of chemical reactions caused by catalysts — and biology.

 

5. X-Rays Helped Scientists Discover the Structure of DNA

On May 6, 1952, British chemist Rosalind Franklin at King’s College London took her 51st X-ray diffraction pattern of deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as DNA. For the first time in history, the image revealed DNA’s double helix structure. Known simply as Photo 51, the image had been produced by scattering X-rays off a pure fiber of DNA using a process known as X-ray crystallography. Franklin’s colleague Maurice Wilkins showed the photo to two other scientists without her knowledge, and it was those three men who then won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1962 — without any mention of Franklin’s contribution. (Sadly, she had passed away four years earlier.) Although she never received recognition from the Nobel Prize committee, scientists and historians now recognize her crucial contributions to molecular biology; the European Space Agency even named its Mars rover the Rosalind Franklin.

 

6. X-Rays Revolutionized the Study of Art History

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Although X-rays have an obvious application in hospitals, art historians also have a need for technology that can delicately penetrate layers on a canvas to reveal the secrets beneath. X-rays are perfect at surpassing low-density materials to reveal high-density pigments (such as those containing metals like mercury, iron, zinc, and lead) below. This is particularly useful at uncovering underpaintings — the first layer of paint on a painting, often done historically with lead white — and other painted-over areas, which reveal an artist’s step-by-step approach to creating a masterpiece. The technology has been used to examine the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, and a variety of Dutch masters.
 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About X-Rays

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Fact of the Day - CINDERELLA

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Did you know.... Readers love a rags-to-riches story — which could be why “Cinderella” has such a cultural hold on us, even centuries after the tale was first recounted. Most versions of the famous fairy tale follow the same pattern: A destitute girl yearning for a better life makes a magical friend and gets a boost into better circumstances thanks to a shoe. But not every detail of the fictional servant-turned-queen’s background is predictable — here are six fascinating facts you might not know about the “Cinderella” folktale and movie.

 

1. The First Cinderella Story May Have Come From Ancient Greece

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The ball-gown-bedazzled Cinderella we know today is far from her origins, which may have been in ancient Greece. Some researchers point to the tale of Rhodopis, a story recorded by Greek geographer Strabo around the first century BCE, as a possible beginning. In that account, Rhodopis is a courtesan whose shoe is stolen by an eagle and dropped into the lap of an Egyptian pharaoh. Seeing the shoe as an omen from the gods, the royal sends soldiers throughout the kingdom to track down the shoeless woman, who eventually becomes his wife. However, not everyone agrees that the tale of Rhodopis is truly the first “Cinderella” story. Some historians say that Strabo’s brief description of the tale is only similar to today’s version in that it hinges on a shoe; the centuries-old version lacks a fairy godmother, cruel stepmother, and other key components we now think of as standard.

 

2. There Are More Than 700 Versions of the Story

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Whether or not Rhodopis was the first Cinderella, she certainly wasn’t the last. Fairy tales with similar shoe-based plots have cropped up worldwide — some librarians count more than 500 versions found in Europe alone, while global counts are as high as 700. Culture has played a heavy role in each story’s details. One Italian rendition renames the princess “Zucchettina” because she was born inside of a squash. In the Danish tale, Cinderella (there called “Askepot”) wears rain boots, a detail particularly fine-tuned to Denmark’s rainy climate. However, in the version that has had the most recent popularity, first penned by French author Charles Perrault in 1697, “Cendrillon” is eventually found by her prince thanks to a glass slipper — the first edition of the story to include such a delicate shoe.

 

3. The Famed Glass Slipper May Have Been a Political Statement

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Perrault’s choice to cast Cinderella’s sparkling shoes from glass may have been less about fashion and more about politics, according to some academic researchers. Historian Genevieve Warwick at the University of Edinburgh believes that the detail was actually meant in part to poke fun at Louis XIV, king of France from 1642 to 1715. During his reign, Louis XIV (who was responsible for developing Versailles into a lavish palace) was known for donning extravagant clothing, particularly shoes. Perrault, who worked as a secretary overseeing construction at Versailles — known for its Hall of Mirrors — and the Louvre (especially glasswork), may have added the glass slipper detail as a bit of satire, mocking the increasingly ostentatious and impractical French fashions of the time; after all, it would be incredibly difficult to actually dance in shoes made of glass. Yet there may have also been a layer of economic nationalism: Perrault was in charge of setting up a royal glassworks for France, which meant the nation no longer needed to be dependent on the glassmakers of Venice. Warwick thinks Cinderella’s transformation may have been read by contemporary readers as a metaphor for France’s self-determinism, and newfound ability to make the king’s beloved luxury products for itself.

 

4. Walt Disney Sketched His First Cinderella Nearly 30 Years Before The Feature Film

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Disney’s feature-length adaptation of “Cinderella” premiered in 1950, though the illustrator actually began tinkering with the story some three decades before. At Laugh-O-Gram, Disney’s first studio in Kansas City, the artist tested out his animation skills through an interest in fairy tales. In 1922, the young animator produced a silent, seven-minute version of “Cinderella” in which her only friend was a cat who helped with housework, and her fairy godmother sent her off to the ball in flapper attire and a car instead of a pumpkin. That same year, Disney also put out cartoon shorts of “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Beauty and the Beast” (which the company would successfully return to in 1991).

 

5. “Cinderella” Saved Walt Disney From Bankruptcy

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Cinderella was Walt Disney’s sixth full-length animated film (following Snow White and Bambi, among others), but it was the project that finally solidified his studio’s success. Disney and a team of animators spent six years developing Cinderella before its 1950 premiere, and the production wasn’t just a major investment of time — it was a huge financial gamble. World War II had slowed the studio’s projects and Disney had racked up nearly $4 million in debts to keep the business running; Cinderella cost around $2 million to produce and would likely have shuttered Disney’s business if it flopped. Luckily, the film grossed more than $4 million at the box office and gained three Oscar nominations for its soundtrack, which helped usher in a new era for Disney’s studio.

 

6. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Adaptation Was Their Only TV Musical

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Broadway superstars Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote 11 musicals during their partnership, though the duo created only one specifically for television viewers: Cinderella. The 90-minute production featured actress Julie Andrews in the leading role, to glowing reviews. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s sole TV musical debuted on March 31, 1957, and drew more than 100 million viewers — more than 60% of American households tuned in. Like the everlasting story, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s version has been remade for TV and stage time and again in the decades since it aired.

 

 

Source: Facts About "Cinderella"

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Fact of the Day -  SHORTEST WARS

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Did you know... When tensions escalate into full-fledged war, series of gruesome battles often ensue that sometimes may last for years on end. Some wars, however, are settled much more quickly, whether due to one side's absolutely dominance over their opposition, or lack of enthusiasm and commitment from military leadership on either side to begin with. Each of the wars listed below lasted no longer than a matter of weeks, with the shortest on the list being discussed in terms of minutes.

 

1. Falklands War, 1982 (10 Weeks)

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Argentine soldiers and Falklanders in 1982
The Falkland Wars took place starting on April 2nd, 1982, when Argentinian forces landed on the Falkland Islands off of the coast of Argentina under the authorization of President Leopoldo Galtieri. At the time, the islands were British territory, and after the Argentinians captured two of the islands, the British responded by dispatching troops into the area. They sent part of their navy for support, as well as an amphibious task force. After ten weeks, on June 14th, the British forces had the Argentinians surrounded on land and barred at sea. During these 10 weeks, the British suffered 258 casualties and 777 wounded, while the Argentinians suffered 649 casualties, 1,068 wounded, and 11,313 captured.

 

2. Polish-Lithuanian, 1920 (37 Days)
Depending on which side is telling the story, the Polish-Lithuanian War in 1920 ranges in length. According to the Polish, the war only consisted of the fight for the Suwałki Region, which took place from September to October of 1920 as part of the Polish-Soviet War. The Lithuanians, on the other hand, argue that the war was fought from the Spring of 1919 until November of 1920 as part of their war for independence. The aftermath of this war saw an uneasy armistice between the two countries in October, followed by a break in diplomatic relations after the events and ceasefire in November.

 

3. Second Balkan, 1913 (43 Days)

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Serbian troops with wireless field telegraph station during the Second Balkan War, in June 1913.
Spanning from June 29th to August 10th of 1913, the Second Balkan War took place as a result of unsettled disputes lingering from the First Balkan War. Therein, Bulgaria had had its sights set for the land of Macedonia, but walked away with far less than it had expected. In retaliation, Bulgaria attacked its former allies of Serbia and Greece. The war did not last very long, with Romania, Montenegro, and the Ottoman Empire joining in to add those being attacked, nearly doubling Bulgaria in manpower. The short, but violent, war left a number of places razed. In the face of enemies on all sides, Bulgaria soon surrendered and called for an armistice. This was soon followed by the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest.

 

4.  Greco-Turkish, 1897 (34 Days)
Known by a number of other names, including the Thirty Days’ War, the Black ’97, and the Unfortunate War, the Greco-Turkish War was fought between the Kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire. The combatants' immediate concerns were for the possession of Crete, which was then under Ottoman Turkish rule yet considered itself Greek (as shown in the Cretan Revolt that took place from 1866 to 1869). Taking place beginning on April 5th, 1897, the Greco-Turkish War did not last very long. In the end, the Ottoman Empire came through with a decisive military victory, and took parts of Thessaly from Greece as well. However, through diplomacy and the intervention of other European nations, Crete was later given autonomy.

 

5. Sino-Vietnamese, 1979 (27 Days)

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Ma Quanbin, a Chinese PLA officer reports to his command after a battle against Vietnamese forces on 14 October 1986
Taking place from February 17th until March 16th of 1979 between the People’s Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Sino-Vietnamese War was a retaliation to the Cambodian-Vietnamese War of 1978. In that earlier conflict, the Khmer Rouge had demanded land and massacred ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia, and Vietnam had responded by invading and occupying Cambodia and persecuting ethnic Chinese therein. The majority of the fighting took place along the Chinese-Vietnamese border, and both sides claimed to have won the war. There is no exact number of causalities, as both sides downplayed their own losses while exaggerating those of their rivals. Although China eventually withdrew, there continued to be skirmishes on the border until as late as the 1990s.

 

6. Georgian-Armenian, 1918 (25 Days)
The Georgian-Armenian War of 1918 took place between the Democratic Republic of Georgia and the First Republic of Armenia over the border territories of Lori, Javakheti, and Borchalo. Georgian-Armenian relations had already been strained since the time of Russian dominance in the region before the Russian Empire had been overthrown in the Russian Revolution. On December 5th, Armenian troops moved into Borchalo, and two days later war was declared. Both the Armenians and the Georgians living in the borderlands suffered from both of the invading armies, and the war lasted until December 31st, when both sides finally agreed to a British-mediated ceasefire. In the end, the disputed land of Lori became a neutral zone, which was later divvied between the countries when they were Sovietized.

 

7. Serbo-Bulgarian, 1885 (15 Days)

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Street fighting in Pirot.
On November 14th, 1885, the Kingdom of Serbia declared war on the Principality of Bulgaria. Although the Bulgarians had a younger, less experienced army, they did not suffer as much division amongst themselves. War was not a popular option in Serbia, but Serbian King Milan mobilized his army anyway, as he was expecting a quick victory. The Serbs expected to occupy Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, but after suffering a decisive defeat at Slivnitsa, they started retreating. They retreated until November 28th, when Austria-Hungary stepped in and threatened Bulgaria with military action if it did not stop its own advances. Winning the war did much to further reinforce the patriotism of the Bulgarians, further solidifying the nationalist bonds of their recent unification.

 

8. Indo-Pakistani War Of 1971 (14 Days)
One of several conflicts between the two nations since the partition of British India following World War II, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 took place during the same time as the Bangladeshi Liberation War in 1971. This occurred when India supported separatists in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh who were engaged in a civil war and fighting for their autonomy. On December 3rd, as a preemptive attack, Pakistan launched airstrikes on multiple Indian airbases, which led to India joining the civil war. Quickly outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the war came to an end on December 16th, when Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender, which marked the separation of East Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh as a new nation. However, as a result of the fighting and violence, millions of civilians were killed, injured, or displaced. Even today, tensions remain high along the Indo-Pakistani border. In fact, even well before the partition and independence of British India, religious and ethnic strife had become well-entrenched between the predominately Hindu populations of what is now India, the predominately Muslim populations of what is now Pakistan, and the ethnically Bengali, religiously Muslim populations of what is now Bangladesh.

 

9. Six Day War, 1967 (6 Days)

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The Six Day War took place between June 5th and June 10th in 1967, when tensions boiled over and Israel nearly wiped out the Egyptian air force by way of preemptive attacks. The war took place on three fronts. Namely, these were the Egyptian Front, the Syrian Front, and the Jordanian Front. Although the war began in June, the conflict between Israel and the other Arab nations can be traced back several decades to even before the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. The United Nations immediately began working on ceasefire resolutions to the war as soon as the Israeli army had started to advance, and by the time all of the concerned parties had signed the ceasefire, Israel had captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank.

 

10. British-Zanzibar, 1896 (38 Minutes)
Also known as the Anglo-Zanzibar War, the war is estimated to have lasted for 40 minutes (+/- 5 minutes), occurring in the archipelago of Zanzibar, off the coast of what is now Tanzania. On August 25th, 1896, two days before the war commenced, the sultan of Zanzibar had died, and his cousin, Khalid bin Bargash, took over the throne. This was despite a treaty that had said all successors had to be British-approved prior to their ascension to the throne. The British saw this violation as a proclamation of war, and gave Khalid until 9:00 am to surrender the throne. Khalid barricaded himself inside his palace, not believing the British would open fire. The British called his bluff, and the palace was decimated. By the time the shelling stopped around 9:45 am, over 500 Zanzibaris were either killed or injured, and Khalid had fled from the palace to the German consulate. Zanzibar would remain a British protectorate until becoming the People's Republic of Zanzibar in 1964, merging with the also newly independent United Republic of Tanzania later that year.

 

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Decimated palace of Zanzibari Sultan Khalid bin Bargash following the ~38-minute long British-Zanzibar War on August 27th, 1896.

 

 

Source: Shortest Wars In Human History

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Fact of the Day - COLLEGE MASCOTS

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Did you know... From the Michigan State Spartan to the Duke Blue Devil, college sports are full of charismatic mascots that exemplify school spirit. Among those legendary characters are several oddball creatures boasting amorphous shapes and unlikely origin stories. These wacky sideline staples are beloved by students at their respective institutions. In their honor, here are some spirited facts about seven of the most endearing and unusual college mascots.

 

1. Sammy the Banana Slug, University of California, Santa Cruz

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Banana slugs aren’t the most animated creatures — National Geographic deems them among the slowest beings on Earth — but that reputation hasn’t stopped Sammy the Slug from riling up fans on the sidelines. Sammy has been the official mascot for UC Santa Cruz’s athletic program since the mid-1980s, though the slug was once a point of contention between students and members of the administration. As far back as 1965, students noticed banana slugs crawling around local hiking trails; given that UCSC had no NCAA sports teams at the time, they felt that the mollusk’s low-key, docile nature suited the school well. But when UC Santa Cruz joined several Division III sports leagues in 1980 and had to submit an official team name, it settled on the Sea Lions — a nod to the school’s geographic proximity to the Pacific Ocean. That’s when the protests (in good fun) began: Students would show up to basketball games and chant, “Slime ’em!” in support of their beloved banana slugs. The school ultimately held a vote in 1986 that ended up overwhelmingly in favor of adopting the banana slug as the official mascot, and Sammy the Slug was born. Sammy has since appeared in publications such as People and Sports Illustrated, and in the character’s 25th year, the Santa Cruz City Council declared September 27, 2011, the “Day of the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slug.”

 

2. Big Red, Western Kentucky University

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Few college mascots are more mysterious than Western Kentucky University’s Big Red. Though WKU’s athletic teams are the Hilltoppers, Big Red is a huge, furry, red, amorphous character who was intentionally designed to be unlike other college mascots. Big Red’s creator, Ralph Carey, didn’t want to go with a tired animal mascot, and also wanted to avoid any “hillbilly” stereotypes. So, after spending $300 on foam, fake fur, plastic tubing, and aluminum framing, Carey fashioned a unique costume and debuted Big Red on the sidelines at E.A. Diddle Arena on December 1, 1979. Known for its signature belly slide and belly shake, Big Red has appeared on ESPN, been named to the Capital One All-America Mascot Team, and even reportedly inspired a beloved Italian children’s television character named Gabibbo.

 

3. WuShock, Wichita State University

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WuShock is an anthropomorphized, muscular bundle of wheat that represents the Wichita State Shockers athletics program. A reference to the practice of “shocking” or harvesting wheat, the “Shockers” nickname first appeared on a poster advertising a football game in 1904. It wasn’t until 1948, however, that WuShock debuted as the official mascot, named for the abbreviation “W.U.,” from a time when the school was known simply as “Wichita University.” For the first few years, WuShock appeared as just a drawing on promotional materials, but in 1954, cheerleader Dave Johnson finally brought the character to life using a prototype outfit made for $20. In the years since, WuShock has undergone several redesigns, only a few of which have been considered official. The mascot now wears a black turtleneck with the letters “WSU” emblazoned on the front, and dons a messy, wheat-like haircut as he patrols the sideline rooting for his beloved Shockers.

 

4. Artie the Artichoke, Scottsdale Community College

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Artie the Artichoke was the culmination of an act of protest. In the 1970s, disagreements over intended budget priorities at Arizona’s Scottsdale Community College led to a period of unrest. During a 1972 vote to determine a school mascot, disillusioned students selected “the Artichokes” in an effort to embarrass school leadership, with other finalists including “the Scoundrels” and “the Rutabagas.” The administration was not happy and called for a second election, but the result was once again the same. And despite the initial discord, Artie has become beloved by students and administrators alike. Fans now colloquially refer to the school as “Artichoke Nation” and the sports teams as the “Fighting Artichokes.”

 

5. Otto the Orange, Syracuse University

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New York’s Syracuse University first adopted the color orange in 1890, in part to stand out from other schools, none of which used the hue as their sole primary color for collegiate sports at the time. In the decades after, Syracuse’s mascots included a gladiator, a goat, and even a dog wearing a football helmet. None had as big of an impact, however, as the school’s current mascot, Otto the Orange. The character, an anthropomorphic orange wearing a blue baseball cap, made its debut in the early 1980s, and is said to have been designed by a former SU student named Eric Heath. Known as “Clyde” or simply “the Orange” in those early days, the mascot quickly became universally beloved across campus — so much so that in 2004, when Nike proposed redesigning Otto, objections from students and alumni alike ensured that the Orange remained largely unchanged.

 

6. The Stanford Tree, Stanford University

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Though California’s Stanford University doesn’t have an official mascot — its athletic teams are known as the Stanford Cardinal, a reference to the color, not the bird — the school’s unofficial symbol is the Stanford Tree. First created in 1975, the Tree is technically a member of the Stanford Band, and was originally meant to be a spoof on mascots, before its popularity made it what it is today. It’s supposed to represent a famous redwood tree called El Palo Alto, but the costume (which is remade by each student who performs as the Tree) tends to be more goofy than majestic, boasting big eyes, big lips, buck teeth, and other striking features that add to its cartoonish nature. Several past Tree costumes are now preserved and stored in the school library, where current and former Trees can access them for special occasions. The mascot is not without controversy, however. In 2022, the 44th Stanford Tree was suspended for displaying a sign that read, “Stanford Hates Fun,” during halftime of a football game. A previous Tree was also busted for drinking alcohol on the sidelines. But despite these follies, the Stanford Tree remains as popular among students as it ever was.

 

7. The Blue Blob, Xavier Universit

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Cincinnati’s Xavier Musketeers have long featured a swashbuckling mascot named D’Artagnan. But in 1985, the school spirit squad coordinator decided they needed a new mascot that wouldn’t scare children like D’Artagnan did — and thus the Blue Blob was born. The Blue Blob — who, true to its name, is blue and amorphous, with a furry white nose and a wide smile — is known to “lick” fans with its 22-inch-long tongue and has even starred in a SportsCenter commercial for ESPN, alongside former NFL quarterback Jim Kelly. Blobby’s main job, however, is to act as a mischievous and childish foil to the more serious, sword-wielding D’Artagnan. When the Blob isn’t posing for photos with kids, you’ll find it sitting alongside the cheerleaders at each Xavier basketball game, or rolling around the court (its signature move) as fans chant, “Roll, Blob, Roll!”

 

 

Source: Spirited Facts About 7 Unusual College Mascots

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Fact of the Day - SENSES

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Did you know... We’ve all heard that we have five senses — sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. That idea goes back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle. However, it’s wrong. Modern science has identified as many as 32 senses, by looking at receptors in our bodies with the job of receiving and conveying specific information. Our senses also tend to work in tandem without us noticing a connection. We mostly take this intricate system for granted — until something goes wrong, and we gain a deeper appreciation of the complexity of the human body. Learning more about our senses can help us both understand health problems and appreciate the many ways our bodies perform beautifully. Here are six senses you probably didn’t know you possess.

 

1. Vestibular Sense (Equilibrioception)

The vestibular sense is one of balance and orientation. Whenever we move our heads, we activate a set of receptors in the inner ear that allow us to balance. The vestibular sense is also activated by the downward force of gravity. It allows us to know which way is up or down, right or left. Balance exercises can help boost the vestibular sense, which begins to decline after age 40. That’s why the elderly may be unsteady on their feet. Side note: “Out of body” experiences may be episodes when the vestibular sense doesn’t work normally. It’s a scary sensation, not feeling “grounded.”

 

2. Proprioception

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Our muscles and joints contain receptors that deal with how our bodies occupy space. These proprioception receptors make it possible to walk down the street without constantly banging into someone (although cell phones don’t help), climb stairs without looking down, or touch our fingers to the tip of our noses. These same receptors provide feedback about how our muscles are affecting the environment. A child who uses too much force when writing or coloring, for example, may need proprioception coaching. Football players, on the other hand, are proprioception experts. They move fluidly around obstacles, seeing them from afar, and know exactly how hard to throw the ball.

 

3. Inner Sensing (Interoception)

People also vary a great deal in their awareness of inner body signals, known as interoception. Someone who doesn’t pick up on stomach fullness may eat or drink too much. Someone who doesn’t notice a stomach rumbling may eat too little. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) sometimes need to be reminded to eat, for example. We also notice when our hearts are beating faster or when we need the toilet.

Meditation practices that teach us to notice our breathing are, in effect, boosting our awareness of one kind of interoception signals, a system of body-wide receptors that communicate with a spot deep in the brain called the insular cortex. This inner sensing doesn’t just tell us if we’re hungry or tired. It allows us to note our own emotions, which often begin as physical sensations. That’s why meditation can help with both body awareness and emotional self-knowledge.

 

4. Thermoception

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We have special receptors in our skin that communicate with an area in the hypothalamus (known as the thermoregulatory center) to monitor temperature. There are at least six different kinds of external temperature receptors in our skin, each designed for a different temperature range. If the air gets cold, the appropriate cold receptors fire more to signal a change. If receptors for outer temperature are exposed to a sensation for a long time, they stop firing as much. That’s why we can get used to cold if we’re patient. But nerve damage can take that too far, and lead us to miss important information. People who don’t feel cold sufficiently can get frostbite or, if they don’t feel heat quickly enough, a bad burn.

 

5. Nociception

We actually know we have this one — it’s called pain. But for some time, pain wasn’t understood as being its own sensory system. Pain receptors can be classified into three distinct types: cutaneous (skin), somatic (bones, joints, muscles, and beyond), and visceral (body organs). People vary in what’s called their “pain tolerance.” Nociceptors each have a minimum intensity of stimulation before they trigger a signal that gets passed along into the spinal cord to the brain. Different kinds of nerve fibers are responsible for fast, localized, sharp pain and slow, poorly localized, dull pain.

 

6. Time

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We speak of a “body clock,” but actually our bodies are full of clocks with different functions. Our circadian clock is tuned to the rise and fall of daylight and is disrupted when we cross several time zones or lose sleep. Other clocks are tuned for tiny intervals. Our sleep includes multiple 90-minute cycles; we have rhythms for blood pressure, hormone secretion, heart rate, and more. But how do we perceive time? It’s a mystery. Many people have had the experience of waking up a second before the alarm goes off when they’re nervous about catching a plane — even if that’s not their usual wake-up time. Somehow, we can perceive time accurately while asleep. Some people know exactly how long a conversation has lasted and others have no idea. When we’re bored, time moves slowly. When we’re intensely engaged, time seems to stop and hours pass. Scientists are pinpointing areas of the brain that may provide our sense of time through body processes like breathing and heart rate. Although we don’t know how we perceive time, it’s clear that we do have a sense of time passing.

 

 

Source: Senses You Might Not Know You Had

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Fact of the Day - BLUE JEANS

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Did you know... While many types of apparel go in or out of fashion, blue jeans retain a timeless appeal. Denim pants are not only versatile, fashionable, and comfortable, but they also have a rich history dating back to the 1800s, evolving from a workwear staple into one of the world’s most popular clothing items. From the U.S. President who once banned them in the Oval Office to the legendary crooner who inspired the Canadian tuxedo, zip up these six fascinating facts about blue jeans.

 

1. Blue Jeans Were Initially Called “Waist Overalls”
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When businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davies received their patent for denim pants with metal rivets at the stress points to make them more durable on May 20, 1873, they marketed the trousers as “waist overalls,” intended for miners and other workers. The utilitarian pants underwent their first marketing shift in 1890, when the company introduced Levi’s 501 waist overalls made from blue denim, a move to widen their appeal in advance of the patent’s imminent expiration. (Why Levi’s chose the number 501 is unclear; many of the company’s records were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.) This marked the start of a shift in blue denim’s fashionability. In the following decades, the pants began to grace the silver screen, worn by movie stars such as Marlon Brando (in 1953’s The Wild One) and James Dean (in 1955’s Rebel Without A Cause). As the product garnered mainstream attention, the focus of marketing campaigns transitioned away from the working man to a wider audience interested in everyday fashion. By 1960, the pants became known as  “blue jeans” — a term that originally referred to a type of twilled cloth from Genoa, Italy — replacing the “overalls” designation for good.

 

2. George W. Bush Banned Blue Jeans From the Oval Office

Shortly after assuming the presidency in 2001, George W. Bush banned jeans from the Oval Office, reverting to a dress code that was set in place during his father’s administration but had been relaxed during the Clinton years. (The stricter dress code also required men to wear neckties and women to wear “appropriate business attire.”) Prior to Bush taking office, several Presidents publicly sported blue jeans, including Jimmy Carter, who donned the pants to embrace his farming roots, and Ronald Reagan, who owned a ranch in California and was frequently seen wearing blue jeans while riding on horseback. President Clinton was the first to flaunt blue jeans around the White House, and he was even known to wear them while working from the Oval Office on weekends. While Bush’s executive order sought to restore more of a classic formal atmosphere for official business at the White House, he was often seen wearing blue jeans at his Texas ranch. And he did make at least one notable exception to the White House dress code — in 2005, he welcomed U2 lead singer Bono to the Oval Office, despite the rocker being clad in black jeans and sunglasses.

 

3. A Denim-Themed Car Hit the Market in the 1970s

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In 1970, the American Motors Corporation unveiled an unusual-looking two-door subcompact car called the Gremlin, which was met with mixed reactions. Three years later, the company debuted an even more distinctive version of the vehicle that was the result of a partnership with Levi’s. The new automobile was advertised as an “economy car that wears the pants,” and featured Levi’s-inspired trim lining each seat along with orange stitching, copper buttons, and denim pockets affixed to the blue color-coordinated doors. Due to concerns regarding denim’s flammability, AMC and Levi’s were forced to use a lookalike material in lieu of actual denim, though the visual similarities were spot-on. The AMC-Levi’s partnership would further extend into the motor company’s Jeep division years later, and limited-edition denim-themed cars were also introduced by other brands including Mitsubishi.

 

4. Bing Crosby Helped Define the “Canadian Tuxedo”

Legendary crooner Bing Crosby wasn’t just a music icon — he inadvertently popularized the “Canadian tuxedo,” an all-denim outfit that consists of blue jeans and a blue jean jacket. The reason the outfit boasts its regional moniker is because its creation was inspired by a 1951 incident in which Crosby attempted to check into a hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia — only to be turned away by the front desk for wearing Levi’s jeans. Because denim went against the hotel’s dress code, the staff refused to admit Crosby, despite his megastar status. When Levi’s caught word of the kerfuffle, the company designed a custom full-body denim outfit for Crosby, which would later come to be known as the Canadian tuxedo. The jacket even featured a message inside stating, “Notice to All Hotel Men: a perfectly appropriate fabric and anyone wearing it should be allowed entrance into the finest hotels.”

 

5. The FBI Analyzed Faded Blue Jeans to Catch Criminals

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Forensics analysts at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have examined the unique patterns of faded blue jeans in an effort to nab fugitives. The method was first developed in 1996 after a series of bombings and bank robberies in Spokane, Washington, and the findings played a part in the successful conviction of a group responsible for the crimes. Knowing that blue jeans fade in unique patterns after being washed, the FBI analyzed fade marks and dark splotches on the hems of jeans seized during a search warrant and  matched them to photographs taken from the crime scenes. While the FBI has employed the technique in other investigations, its usefulness is often limited because it requires high-quality photographic surveillance. The reliability of the technique has also recently come under scrutiny.

 

6. The Largest Pair of Jeans Ever Made Was Over 200 Feet Tall

Measuring 214 feet and 10 inches tall by 140 feet and 1 inch wide, a pair of jeans sewn together by the Paris brand department store in Lima, Peru, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest pair of jeans ever created. The trousers were unveiled on February 19, 2019, in a mall parking lot, where they remained on display for the following week. It took a team of 50 people around six months to craft the enormous pair of pants, which weighed a whopping six tons. Beyond just a publicity stunt, the effort had a positive environmental impact: The giant jeans were subsequently broken down and converted into 10,000 reusable bags to be sold at Paris’ line of department stores in an effort to promote the reduction of plastic bag use.

 

 

Source: True-Blue Facts About Blue Jeans

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Fact of the Day - INVENTIONS

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Mary Kies' patented technique wove silk and straw together to make fetching bonnets like this 1815 specimen.

Did you know.... Women have created or improved near-countless contraptions, tools, and procedures, from fashion innovations to kitchen implements to life-saving medical advancements. But recognition of early female inventors was far from a given. Thanks to laws that governed women’s legal rights to patenting, manufacturing, and property ownership, it wasn’t unusual for a male spouse or relative to be credited for a woman’s work. Then, in 1809, Mary Dixon Kies became the first woman to receive a patent in the United States, for her weaving technique that paired straw and thread to produce trendsetting hats. Unfortunately, Kies’ original patent has been lost to history, thanks to an 1836 fire that claimed thousands of documents in the nation’s patent office. In the years since Kies’ historic milestone, however, women have followed suit to patent-protect their innovations. According to a 2020 U.S. Patent Office report, more women are filing for patents than ever before. Many of those technological breakthroughs, like the ones explored below, have become common conveniences that make our lives easier and safer.

 

1. Disposable Coffee Filters

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A Melitta coffee filter

Melitta Bentz’s invention is one coffee drinkers now take for granted, but it was revolutionary in the early 1900s. At the time, other home brewing methods required a lot of time and cleanup — not to mention a tolerance for bitter coffee and sludgy grounds at the bottom of your mug. While pricey cloth coffee filters were available, they were used like tea bags, steeping grounds in hot water that produced a subpar cup and an extraordinary mess. Many coffee connoisseurs brewed their morning java in percolators, but those could leave a burnt taste and failed to filter out smaller grounds. Bentz, a German woman with an affinity for coffee, was determined to find a better brewing process that didn’t require extensive cleanup. During one experiment, she reached for notebook paper as a potential liner, filling the makeshift filter with coffee grounds. She placed the filter inside a pot she had punched holes in and poured hot water over the grounds, allowing brewed coffee to cleanly drip through to a cup below. With the creation of drip coffee brewing, Bentz began producing the paper filters at home, and was granted a patent for her drip-cup apparatus in 1908. With help from her family, she launched a line of drip-coffee makers and filters in 1909, branding the items with her own first name. Bentz died in 1950, but her company — now run by her grandchildren — produces nearly 50 million coffee filters each day.  

 

2. Modern Dental Fillings

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Getting a filling at the dentist’s office is universally dreaded, but thanks in part to Dr. Sumita Mitra’s work, modern dental repair is longer-lasting and less conspicuous than ever before. Mitra, who was born in India, credits her father’s job at a woodworking factory with jumpstarting her childhood interest in technology and science. As an adult, she immigrated to the U.S., where she received a Ph.D. in chemistry. While working for 3M, Mitra began exploring nanoparticles — ultrafine, microscopic particles — and their potential use in dentistry. Her research led to the development of Filtek, a stronger, tooth-like composite filling that could withstand chewing and brushing better than previous dental filling materials while also being safer. Filtek was first marketed to dentists in 2002 and is now used in fillings worldwide. Mitra also holds nearly 100 other patents, many related to dental technology, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2018.

 

3. Non-Reflective Glass

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Katharine Burr Blodgett’s best-known invention is one you can hardly see, yet rely on all the time: non-reflective glass. Born in New York in 1898, Blodgett followed an unusual trajectory for a woman born at the turn of the 20th century. Her father, a prominent patent attorney, was murdered shortly before her birth, and Blodgett spent much of her childhood in France. She pursued an education in math and science, fields that women of the time were often dissuaded from, and completed a master’s degree at the University of Chicago before becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate in physics from Cambridge University. In 1918, Blodgett was recruited by General Electric’s Research Lab, becoming the first woman scientist to work for the company. She specialized in monomolecular coatings — chemical compounds that adhere to surfaces while remaining incredibly thin. That research led her to create super-thin glass coatings that prevented glare and reflection. Her improved glass was used by filmmakers to shoot film with minimal visual feedback, and had a major impact on military actions during World War II. Engineers used the crystal-clear glass on periscopes and airplane spy cameras to improve intelligence gathering; in decades to follow, it would also become a popular coating for microscopes, glasses, projectors, and more. Blodgett received patents for her coated glass, as well as five other inventions, including a method to de-ice airplane wings.

 

4. User-Friendly Diabetes Testing

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Chemistry wasn’t initially Helen Free’s passion. In fact, the woman who co-invented glucose testing — a tool that helps people with diabetes manage their blood sugar — previously planned to become an English and Latin teacher. But with fewer men in college classrooms thanks to the World War II draft, women at some colleges were encouraged to pursue male-dominated majors. Free’s interest in chemistry soon became her full-time field; after graduation, she worked as a quality control chemist monitoring vitamins. In the 1940s, Free met her husband, Albert, through her lab work, and the pair became married research partners and experts in urinalysis. Together, they created some of the first urine-based medical tests, including, in 1956, Clinistix, an at-home test for people with diabetes to monitor excess sugar in their urine. Free’s dip-stick tests were used for nearly two decades before blood droplet testing was introduced in the 1970s.

 

5. Dishwashers

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Clearing away dinner dishes is easier (and faster) today than it was in 1886, when Josephine Cochrane patented the first mechanical dishwasher. As a frequent host of dinner parties at her Shelbyville, Illinois, mansion, Cochrane was concerned about maintaining her fine dishware’s pristine condition. But as a busy socialite, she didn’t want to do the tedious work of scrubbing each piece herself to ensure it stayed that way; instead, she relegated the task to servants whose work occasionally caused chips and cracks. Cochrane’s solution was to create a dishwashing unit that kept her costly tableware out of the slippery sink and instead stationary while being sprayed with jets of water. Cochrane, the daughter of an engineer and granddaughter of a steamboat innovator, was likely familiar with inventive tinkering despite lacking formal education in science or math. But after her husband’s death in 1883 left her with looming debt and few resources to pay it off, her dishwashing contraption transformed from a timesaving idea into a path for financial security. Cochrane was awarded a patent for her dishwasher design three years after being widowed and displayed her innovation at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, where visitors marveled at the event’s only machine created by a woman. With exposure from the fair, Cochrane began marketing her contraptions to hotels, restaurants, and hospitals. (The cost was often too much for homemakers.) After her death in 1913, Cochrane’s company was purchased by Hobart Manufacturing Company, the original producer of KitchenAid brand products.

 

 

6. Home Security Systems

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If you’ve ever checked in on your home from vacation or caught a porch pirate making off with a recent delivery, you have Marie Van Brittan Brown to thank. As a nurse in New York City in the 1960s, Brown worked irregular shifts that often had her coming home at odd hours while her husband, an electronic technician, was away. Concerned about crime in their neighborhood and a lack of help from law enforcement, the Browns worked together to create the first home security system. Marie’s design was extensive: It featured a motorized camera that could be repositioned among a set of peepholes, a TV screen for viewing outside in real-time (one of the earliest examples of closed-circuit TV or CCTV), and a two-way microphone for speaking to anyone outside her apartment. The security system also included a remote-controlled door lock and an alarm that could reach a security guard. (One newspaper account of the Browns’ invention suggested the alarm could be used by doctors and businesses to prevent or stop robberies.) Brown was awarded a patent for her thoroughly designed security system in 1966 but never pursued large-scale manufacturing of her product. Regardless, she still receives credit for her ingenuity, with a significant number of security system manufacturers recognizing her device as the grandmother of their own security tools.

 

Source: Everyday Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Women

Edited by DarkRavie
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Fact of the Day - MILK

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Did you know... Milk plays a major part in human life — even for the most dedicated of vegans. Homo sapiens are biologically wired to be raised on our mother’s milk; the substance protects against short- and long-term illnesses while also sharing the mother’s antibodies with the newborn. Milk has also been the backbone of entire empires, and the substance even describes the very galaxy in which our planet resides. Here are seven amazing facts about milk (and its tasty plant-based alternatives) that’ll make you appreciate that carton in your fridge in a whole new way.

 

1. Milk Is Mostly Water

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Although milk tastes much different than the H2O that comes out of the tap, the beverage is mostly water. Whole milk, for example, is 87% water, and the other 13% contains protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Because of its high water content, milk is also a good hydration source during hot summer days. For all the talk of different milk types (whole, 2%, or skim), the difference in water content is only 3% at most.

 

2. Protein and Fat Content Is What Makes Milk White

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Milk looks white because it’s reflecting all the wavelengths of visible light, and the combination of reflected colors creates white. The particles in milk — including the protein casein, calcium complexes, and fat globules — scatter light, much as light scattering on snow makes it appear white. Sometimes milk can have a slight yellow hue caused by a cow’s diet — the pigment carotene, found in carrots and other vegetables, can cause color variations — and the vitamin riboflavin can also cause a yellowish-green hue. Skim milk, which is low in fat content, can sometimes be a bluish color because casein scatters blue slightly more than red.

 

3. Humans Are the Only Mammals That Drink Another Animal’s Milk

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Humans stand alone as the only mammals that drink the milk of another mammalian species. This is due to our history of animal husbandry, along with a genetic mutation that allows some humans to retain the enzyme lactase — which breaks down milk’s lactose sugar in the digestive system — beyond infancy. However, this mutation is not found in the majority of the 8 billion Homo sapiens on planet Earth — in fact, 68% of us experience some form of lactose malabsorption. Although humans stand alone when it comes to mammals, some other species do drink milk from other animals. The red-billed oxpecker is known to steal milk from the udders of impala, and shorebirds such as seagulls have similarly swiped milk from the teats of elephant seals.

 

4. Milk Helped Build the Mongol Empire

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The horse tribes of the Eurasian Steppes were one of the first cultures to adopt dairying, some 5,000 years ago. Because their vast plains weren’t fertile ground for agriculture, these nomadic tribes instead relied on animals and their milk for sustenance. Because they received much-needed calories from horse’s milk, these tribes could travel across land more quickly and maintain larger empires than their neighbors. One of the remaining mysteries of milk’s importance in this era of human history is that 95% of Steppe people today lack the gene variant for digesting lactose, yet the population still gains a large portion of their calories from dairy products. One theory is that the microbiome found in the gut of Mongolians has somehow adapted to a millennia-long, dairy-heavy diet.

 

5. Dairy Milk Was Revolutionized by Bacteriology

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In 1857, French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur discovered that microorganisms in the air caused lactic acid fermentation, aka the souring of milk. Pasteur also discovered (after a request from Emperor of France Napoleon III) that certain microbes caused wine to go bad, but by briefly heating the libation to around 140 degrees Fahrenheit, those microbes died off, leaving behind a sterilized (or as it would be later known, “pasteurized”) liquid that would stay fresh for longer. Pasteurization for milk wasn’t introduced until 1886, but it was a game-changer, as diseases introduced via contaminated milk killed scores of infants in the 19th century. With the introduction of pasteurization, that number dropped significantly.

 

6. Plant Milks Have Been Around for 5,000 Years

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For years, dairy producers have sued alternative milk companies for using the word “milk” on their packaging — but history is not on their side. Evidence suggests that Romans had a complex understanding of the word “milk,” as the root of the word “lettuce” comes from “lact” (as in “lactate”). Many medieval cookbooks make reference to almond milk, and the earliest mention of soy milk can be found on a Chinese stone slab from around the first to third century CE. However, coconut milk has the longest history; archaeologists have recovered coconut graters among relics from Madagascar and Southeast Asia that date back to around 3000 to 1500 BCE.

 

7. Our Galaxy’s Name, “Milky Way,” Comes From a Greek Myth

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The galaxy is home to hundreds of billions of stars, and stretches for truly mind-boggling distances. If you traveled the speed of light, it’d still take you 200,000 years just to cross its entirety. Its Western nameMilky Way — comes from a Greek myth in which the queen goddess Hera, while nursing the hero Heracles, pulled away her breast and sprayed her divine lactation across the cosmos. In fact, the root of the word “galaxy” is the Greek gála, meaning “milk.” The Romans also referred to the cosmos in Latin as Via Lactea, or “Road of Milk.” However, other cultures use different names to represent the great expanse of the starry sky. China, for example, calls it “銀河,” meaning “silver river,” and Sanskrit’s “Mandākinī” roughly means “unhurried.”
 

 

Source: Amazing Facts You Might Not Know About Milk

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Fact of the Day - LOST CITY

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Did you know.... It’s not difficult to see why Petra, Jordan, was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World — along with the likes of the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Taj Mahal, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, and Rome’s Colosseum. This sprawling archaeological site contains as many as 800 tombs and temples (and its famous treasury) carved directly into the vibrant sandstone cliffs and mountains of the rugged southern Jordan desert. Once a thriving cultural and economic hub in prehistoric times, Petra was later abandoned and left to ruin. The city remained “lost” to the Western World until it was rediscovered in the early 19th century. Today, this fascinating UNESCO World Heritage Site attracts visitors from all over the globe. If a visit is on your bucket list, start by uncovering these eight amazing facts about Petra, Jordan’s “Lost City.”

 

1. For Centuries, Petra Was Home to the Ancient Nabataeans

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From the 4th century BCE, Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans, and its strategic location helped their civilization flourish, putting them at the center of trade throughout the Middle Eastern region. Its narrow canyon entrance also served as a natural fortification that protected it from attacks. The city’s population grew rapidly — it’s thought that up to 30,000 people may have once lived there. Everything went swimmingly until the Romans muscled in on Petra in 106 CE and swallowed it up into their own empire. Trade continued, but not at the same level as before, and an earthquake in 551 was perhaps the final nail in the coffin for this city in decline.

 

2. The Nabataeans Had an Ingenious Water System

It’s hard to imagine how the desert site we see today could ever have supported such a large settlement. But the Nabataeans knew that for their city to have any chance at success, they had to solve the thorny issue of water. Carefully conserving precious water in this desert environment was a given, but they were also masters of irrigation, creating a clever system of channels and dams to reroute water from the surrounding mountains. The cisterns they used to store water also helped keep it from being lost in the flash floods that were — and still are — a relatively common occurrence in the area.

 

3. We Know of Petra Thanks to a Swiss Explorer

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For centuries, all except the local Bedouin people forgot Petra — its tombs were abandoned and buildings fell into ruin, hidden by the surrounding canyons. Then, in the early 19th century, a Swiss explorer named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt set off on an expedition in search of the source of the River Niger. In preparation, he’d studied Arabic at Cambridge University and then honed his vocabulary on the streets of Aleppo in Syria. In 1812, on his way to Cairo, he heard rumors from locals of secret ruins of a grand city in the desert, so he hired guides and disguised himself as an Arab to gain access to what was considered a sacred place, forbidden to Westerners. They brought him to Petra. However, wary of pushing his luck too far, he didn’t stop to excavate. Five years later, Burckhardt died of dysentery in the Egyptian capital, but his “discovery” paved the way for future exploration of the site.

 

4. Petra Is Also Nicknamed the “Rose City”

Petra’s abandonment led to its nickname of the “Lost City,” but you’re also likely to hear it referred to as the “Rose City.” The nickname refers to the reddish-pink sandstone cliffs, but it originates from a poem written by an English cleric named John William Burgon. The poem won the prestigious Newdigate Prize for Poetry in 1845, awarded by Oxford University. Although Burgon had never set eyes on Petra, he wrote: “Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose-red city half as old as time.” The nickname stuck, and we’ve referred to Petra as the “Rose City” ever since. The color of the rock changes as the sun goes around the horizon, with the reddish hue most noticeable at sunset.

 

5. A Large Part of Petra Has Yet to Be Uncovered

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Some reports suggest that archaeologists have excavated as little as 15% of Petra thus far. Visitors enter through a narrow slot canyon known as the Siq, view the 130-foot-tall rock facade of the treasury head-on, and then amble along a street lined with tombs. The path leads to a temple called Al-Deir, or the monastery, reached by climbing more than 800 steps. Impressive as the site is, however, that hardly scratches the surface. As recently as 2016, archaeologists discovered a previously unknown monument at Petra thanks to the magic of satellite imagery. It’s thought the huge platform, measuring 184 feet by 161 feet and flanked on one side with columns, could be more than 2,150 years old, based on fragments of pottery found nearby.

 

6. There Are Bullet Holes at the Treasury

Not all of what’s been uncovered remains in pristine condition. Most famously, a giant urn carved into the sandstone above the treasury is riddled with bullet holes. They offer a clue as to what was hidden inside this imposing façade. According to sources such as Burckhardt’s diary entry of his first encounter with Petra, it was a long-held belief among Arabs (and the Turkish, when Petra was part of the Ottoman Empire) that the urn contained hidden gold; in fact, it is made of solid stone. The urn is badly damaged as a result of those gunshots but a breathtaking sight, nonetheless.

 

7. Petra Was a Filming Location for an Indiana Jones Movie

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The approach to the treasury along the Siq is a dramatic one, so it’s no surprise that location scouts have recognized its potential for filming movies. Perhaps most famously, scenes for the 1989 blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were shot here. In the film, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery make their way through the narrow passageway to search for the Holy Grail. Other famous films shot in Petra include 2001’s The Mummy Returns and 2009’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

 

8. There’s Also a Little Petra

Even ancient cities had suburbs, and Petra’s was called Little Petra. While most of the action took place over in the Nabataean capital, visiting traders would have probably found accommodation in Little Petra, perhaps close to some of the city merchants’ own homes. Abandoned after the Nabataean decline, it remained largely hidden until archaeologists started to uncover its rock-hewn dwellings, water channels, and wall paintings in the 1950s. These days, few tourists visit the narrow space where Little Petra sits, as it receives little direct sunlight — a fact that is perhaps hinted at in its name, Siq al-Barid (Cold Canyon). Nevertheless, the treasures its sandstone reveals, such as the Painted House, are well worth the trek.

 

 

Source: Fascinating Facts About Petra, Jordan's “Lost City”

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Fact of the Day - BREAKFAST FOODS

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Did you know.... While health experts don’t always agree that it’s the most important meal of the day, breakfast is often a favorite meal, one filled with crowd-pleasers such as pancakes, doughnuts, bacon, eggs, and all the sugary concoctions that fill the cereal aisle. But the stories behind some of our favorite breakfast foods go far beyond the modern grocery store, spanning nearly the entire human story from the Stone Age to the space race. Here are six amazing facts about some of the foods that fuel our mornings.

 

1. “Continental Breakfast” Is a British Term for Breakfast on the European Continent

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Many hotels offer guests a free continental” breakfast with their stay, but what exactly makes a breakfast “continental”? The term originated in the mid-19th century in Britain as a way to distinguish the hearty English breakfast — typically consisting of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and beans — from the lighter fare found in places like France and other Mediterranean countries in continental Europe. It typically consists of pastries, fruits, toast, and coffee served buffet-style. As American breakfasts also tended to feature outsized helpings of protein and fruits, the “continental” moniker proved useful for hotels on the other side of the Atlantic as well.

 

2. The First Breakfast Cereal Was Called “Granula” and Had to Be Soaked Overnight

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Today, hundreds of varieties of breakfast cereal — both hot and cold — can be found in supermarkets around the world, but the very first manufactured cereal was quite different from the ones we’re used to eating today. In 1863, a nutritionist named James Caleb Jackson, who ran a health spa and resort in upstate New York, came up with the idea to bake graham flour into brittle, flaky cereal, which he thought would aid in digestion. The one downside of his “granula” concoction was that it had to soak in milk overnight to be edible. Around the late 1870s, another nutritionist and sanitarium owner, John Harvey Kellogg, created a similar cold cereal concoction using wheat flour, oatmeal, and cornmeal. He also called it “granula.” After a legal battle between these two cereal pioneers, Kellogg changed the name of his invention to “granola,” and, later, patented his invention as Corn Flakes.

 

3. Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Once Flew to the Moon

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Not content with just filling breakfast bowls on Earth, the Kellogg brand exported its Corn Flakes to space as the breakfast of choice for the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Fruit-flavored Corn Flakes (as well as Frosted Flakes) were part of the astronauts’ recommended 2,500-calorie daily diet. The cereal was stored in packets, and astronauts needed to add 3 ounces of water before eating them. Corn Flakes were an attractive candidate for space food because they were nutritious, lightweight, compressible, and zero-gravity edible. On early missions, they also needed to go without refrigeration. Today, the National Air and Space Museum still has packets of unopened Corn Flakes from the Apollo mission in its collection.

 

4. French Toast Wasn’t Invented in France

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Contrary to its name, French toast — sliced bread soaked in milk and beaten eggs and then pan-fried — existed before modern-day France ever took shape. Historians trace the dish to a fourth-century Roman cookbook called

Apicius, which describes a recipe similar to French toast called pan dulcis. Once France coalesced into a nation, the French called the recipe pain a la Romaine (“Roman bread”) before eventually adopting its modern name pain perdu, or “lost bread.” In fact, many countries around the world use a translation of that name, because the dish was originally made with stale bread being saved from going to waste. North America refers to the concoction as French toast in the same way that fried potatoes are also decidedly “French” — French immigrants popularized both dishes in the 17th and 18th centuries.

 

5. Humans Have Been Eating Pancakes for Several Thousand Years

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Although French toast has origins in the Roman Empire, it’s likely that no breakfast food is as old as the humble pancake. Although scholars can’t be certain, pancakes — or at least a close approximation of them — likely existed in the Paleolithic era because of their relatively simple ingredients. Stone Age cooks probably created flour from nearby plants, mixed it with water, and cooked pancakes on a hot rock. Those same basic ingredients are what make up the pancake today. The first documented evidence of the pancake comes from Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old human mummy encased in ice in the Italian Alps. After his discovery in 1991, scientists examined his stomach and determined that his last meal contained wheat mixed with charcoal, suggesting Ötzi had eaten a pancake cooked over coals.

 

6. Donuts Were Originally Called “Oily Cakes”

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The doughnut made its first appearance in North America in 17th-century New York City, then a Dutch colony known as New Amsterdam. This fried dough recipe was known in Dutch as olykoeks, or “oily cakes.” However, oily cakes were missing one important innovation of the modern doughnut — the hole in the center. That particular characteristic didn’t take shape until the 19th century. Although there are several competing theories, it’s likely that New England ship captain Hanson Crockett Gregory, spurred on by indigestion due to his mother’s oily cakes, decided to cut out the doughier middle of the cake. Gregory soon discovered that his mother’s cakes received a more even fry, and thus the modern doughnut was born.

 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About Breakfast Foods

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Fact of the Day - EARS

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Did you know.... Most of us don’t think about our ears much until we have trouble hearing. But ears are more important than many of us know. They allow us to balance, and monitor the environment for threats while we’re asleep. Here are six fascinating facts about these indispensable organs on either side of our head.

 

1. Ears Provide Our Sense of Balance

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Within the ear are three semicircular canals filled with fluid. They lie at different angles, and each one monitors when we move our heads in a specific direction. Together, they send information about body position to the brain, which then sends it on to our eyes and muscles. That’s how we keep our balance. All together, this network is called the vestibular systemMotion sickness arises from a mismatch in signals coming from our eyes and ears. When you’re in a ship’s cabin, for example, your inner ear picks up on rolling motions and sends one set of signals to your brain. Your eyes see motion, too, but not to the same degree. As a result, you might become dizzy or nauseated.

 

2. Ears Are Full of Delicate Hairs

On average, we’re born with about 16,000 tiny sensory receptors, called hair cells, in a hollow spiral-shaped bone located in the inner ear and called the cochlea. These hair cells allow our brains to register sounds. They’re delicate and can be easily damaged to the point where they break and don’t grow back. However, up to half of those cells can be damaged or destroyed before changes in your hearing show up on a hearing test.

 

3. Ears Respond to Changes in Air Pressure

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The air around us has weight. It presses against everything it touches, as gravity pulls it down. When we go deep into the water, or high up in a plane, or even just into the mountains, that pressure changes dramatically. Small tubes on each side of our faces, called Eustachian tubes, respond to changes in pressure. They connect our ears to the back of our throats. Normally, they’re closed, but when we yawn, chew, or swallow, they open. They also open when the air pressure in the environment changes. This equalizes the pressure on the two sides of the eardrum, a thin tissue that vibrates in response to sound waves. If the pressure becomes unequal, the drum could tear, causing hearing loss.

 

4. Everyday Noise Can Damage Ears

About a quarter of American adults aged 20 to 69 suffer from hearing loss linked to noise. Loud sounds can hurt hair cells, which means the bad effects continue long after the noise stops. According to the CDC, noise above 70 decibels for a prolonged period can start to damage hearing. That level of noise can be produced by washing machines, dishwashers, city traffic (from inside the car), lawnmowers, and more. Loud clubs or bars can produce noise around 105 to 110 decibels, which can cause hearing loss in less than five minutes. A dog’s loud barking in the ear can cause hearing loss after two minutes.

 

5. Ear Wax Is Good

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Everybody has earwax, which keeps the ears clean and moisturized. It traps and prevents dust, bacteria, and anything else that gets into your ear from irritating the delicate skin inside. If you try to pry it out with a cotton swab, you’ll just stimulate your ear to make more wax. However, wax buildups can occur. If you wear hearing aids, they may be stimulating your ears to produce too much wax. Some people just tend to produce too much wax naturally, and it can harden and block sound. Hardened earwax can also give you an earache, aggravate tinnitus, and make your ears feel too full. If you have those symptoms, try using earwax drops available in drugstores, or asking an ear, nose, and throat doctor to clean your ears.

 

6. Your Ears Don’t Sleep

When we’re asleep, our ears stay awake. They’re on the job, taking in possible threats while our eyes are shut. Our brains are also on the job, judging which information is important. It’s work — which is why noisy bedrooms are bad for our health. Noise doesn’t have to wake you up to affect your sleep. It doesn’t even have to be loud. In one study, the murmur of hospital equipment showed a measurable impact in encephalographic measurements of brain activity in sleeping healthy adult volunteers. Their ears heard the noise and their brains measured mild alarm.

 

 

Source: Interesting Facts About Ears

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Fact of the Day - INSECTS

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Did you know.... Whether you love bugs or they give you the heebie-jeebies, they are everywhere — and they’re fascinating. Some are smaller than a grain of sand, while others can be mistaken for a sizable stick. While many are major nuisances, plenty of them are cute, beautiful, or even helpful. Each one has a unique life cycle and thrives in a different environment. Which common pollinator communicates by shaking its booty? How far can butterflies travel? How much can ants really carry? What bug has the highest body count? These seven intriguing insect facts will have you thinking differently about your exoskeletal friends… for better or for worse.

 

1. Ants Can Carry 10 to 50 Times Their Body Weight

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Estimates vary on how much hardworking ants can actually carry, but the consensus is that it’s a lot — anywhere from 10 to 50 times their own body weight. They’re so tiny that their muscles are thick compared to their body size, leading to a disproportionate amount of strength for their size. One 2014 study suggests that an ant’s neck joint can withstand pressure from up to 5,000 times their own body weight. In the big picture, however, the numbers are still pretty small: Individual worker ants generally weigh 1 to 5 milligrams, so while it’s pretty impressive that a 5-milligram creature can carry perhaps 250 milligrams (about a quarter of the weight of a jellybean), they’re not exactly going to be robbing any museums.

 

2. Honeybees Communicate With Dance

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When honeybees find a really, really great stash of nectar, they’re eager to share the news with their hivemates, and they give their directions in a very cute (and stunningly accurate) way. Once a worker bee finds an ideal flower, she returns to the hive and performs the “waggle dance.” After getting her siblings’ attention by standing on top of them and vibrating, she hops down and wags her abdomen while walking a straight line, then circles around and repeats the movement. The direction of the line communicates the direction of the source in relation to the sun, and the length the distance from the hive. Her fellow bees sense every vibration, and get a secondary signal from the lingering scent of the pollen. The dance can reference distances nearly 4 miles away with surprising accuracy, although it’s more difficult to give precise directions when the source is relatively nearby, the bee is sleepy, or because of human interference. Fortunately, one study suggests that the bees may be able to assess the reliability of each dance, and lose interest if the dancer seems disoriented.

 

3. The Longest Insect Measures Nearly 2 Feet Long

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Stick bugs, sometimes known as walking sticks, tend to be bigger than other insects, but in parts of Southeast Asia, that can be a bit of an understatement. The world’s longest known insect, Phobaeticus chani, familiarly called Chan’s Megastick, measures 22 inches long with its legs outstretched, and 14 inches in its body alone. The only known specimen was found around the 1970s by a local collector in Borneo, but it wasn’t acknowledged as a possible new species until a Malaysian naturalist saw the collection in 1989. It was passed off to British scientists soon after (and now lives at the Natural History Museum in London), but wasn’t recognized as a record-holder until 2008. It’s a testament to the insect’s camouflage abilities that it took so long for it to be discovered; Chan’s Megastick likely lives high up in the forest canopy, easily blending in as, well, a very large stick. While it’s the longest insect recorded, it’s not alone in its giganticness. The previous record-holder, also a stick bug from Borneo, was less than an inch shorter. Currently in second place is a 21-inch stick bug discovered by Belgian entomologists at Vietnam’s Tay Yen Tu Nature Reserve in 2014.

 

4. One Ladybug Can Eat 75 Insects Per Day
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Lady beetles may be one of the most adorable insect species on the planet, but they’re also very effective predators. A single adult ladybug can eat up to 75 insects a day (up to 5,000 in its lifetime), and during the two-week larval stage, each one eats around 350 to 400. Their absolute favorite food is aphids, a common garden pest that, in large numbers, can spread disease and cause major damage to plants — and attract droves of ants, who farm aphids for their sugary excretions — but they’ll also eat other pests like fruit flies, mites, and thrips. Because of this, ladybugs are one of the more common “beneficial insects” used by gardeners as natural pest control.

 

5. Luna Moths Have No Mouths

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Luna moths can be stunning creatures, instantly recognizable for their wide span of pale green, almost iridescent wings. What’s not quite as obvious is that they have no mouth, and no digestive system, either. As caterpillars, they eat ravenously and spend a month munching on leaves before building up their cocoon, where they spend three weeks. In their adult stage, they need to rely on the food stores they ate as caterpillars, and they live for only about a week. During this time, their top priority is mating — although tricking bats out of eating them is a close second.

 

6. Painted Lady Butterflies Can Travel 7,500 Miles in a Single Migration

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Painted lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui), sometimes known as cosmopolitan or thistle butterflies, can be found all over the world — and each year, their colonies travel an impressive distance. In the spring, they fly northward to Europe, and in the late summer, they start their journey back down to sub-Saharan Africa. The whole journey is around 7,500 miles round-trip, and involves crossing both the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea. Like the similar but not-quite-as-long migration of monarch butterflies, the trip occurs over several butterfly generations, although the occasional extra-sturdy bug stays alive for the whole return trip. The American lady (Vanessa virginiensis), a similar species of butterfly that’s also known as the American painted lady, travels impressive distances as well, sometimes overwintering in the American South and traveling well into Canada during warmer months. On the West Coast, they’re known to travel from western Mexican deserts all the way up into the Pacific Northwest.

 

7. Mosquitoes Are the World’s Deadliest Animal

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Which animal counts as the most dangerous in the world depends on which metric you’re using, but going by pure annual body count, mosquitoes win by a large margin. By transmitting severe diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, Zika virus, and West Nile virus as they feed on human blood, the tiny pests are responsible for around 725,000 deaths each year. Certain mosquitoes even prefer humans to other animals and, unsurprisingly, these insects end up being the ones that tend to spread diseases that affect humans. It’s not just semantics: Mosquitoes have been called the world’s deadliest animal by both the CDC and the Gates Foundation. Some argue that mosquitoes should be disqualified from the list because they don’t exactly attack humans, per se — they don’t turn to deliberate violence because of a perceived threat, and technically it’s the pathogens they carry that are doing the killing — but the issue of mosquito culpability is perhaps more of an existential quibble.

 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About Insects

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Fact of the Day - PHILOSOPHERS

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Did you know..... The name Confucius is a familiar one in the world of philosophy. For most people, the famous Chinese thinker conjures wisdom and morality, and although his teachings date as far back as the fifth century BCE, his perspective on the importance of a harmonious relationship between the individual and society remains as relevant as ever today. But Confucius is only one of many Eastern philosophers whose influence has been felt around the world. Since antiquity, great thinkers and spiritual leaders such as Gautama Buddha, Lao Tzu, and others have imparted meaningful insights on how to live a happy and fulfilled life from within. Read on to learn more about the lives and lessons of five prominent Eastern philosophers worth exploring.

 

1. LAO TZU
"To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day."
Lao Tzu, also known as Laozi, was a Chinese philosopher believed to have lived between the third and sixth centuries BCE. He is often credited with founding Taoism (or Daoism), a philosophy and religion whose core principles are detachment (or inaction — letting things happen as they may), simplicity, and living in harmony with nature. Lao Tzu is thought to have been a contemporary and even a teacher of Confucius. According to Lao Tzu’s teachings, the Tao (or Dao) is the way of the universe. Taoism teaches that all living creatures thrive when living in a state of harmony with the universe and its energy (its “ch'i,” or “qi”). To obtain this version of totality, Lao Tzu taught that we must let go of conventional societal concerns and instead find a rhythm with the Tao. The school of thought is still relevant to this day, and Taoism has been influential throughout centuries of Chinese culture, art, and religion.

 

2. ZHUANGZI

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"Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream."
Zhuangzi, also known as Chuang Tzu or Zhuang Zhou, was a Chinese philosopher in the fourth century BCE. His study and interpretation of Taoism is considered the most comprehensive and influential of the time, and his eponymous work Zhuangzi is considered one of Taoism’s definitive texts. The philosopher’s beliefs can most simply be summed up in the modern phrase “go with the flow.” Building on Lao Tzu’s belief of inaction, Zhuangzi felt that humans’ pursuit should never go against the universe’s inherent procession — that things should be left to follow their own course. A truly virtuous person, he said, should be free from the limitations of circumstance, personal belongings, traditions, and ambition. His teachings had a major influence on the development of Chinese Buddhism as well as on centuries of Chinese art and literature. Despite his image as a great and wise teacher, Zhuangzi was also seen as an unpredictable and unkempt eccentric — though with a good sense of humor about it all. When faced with his own death, Zhuangzi did not believe that burying his body should be prioritized over leaving it out to let nature take its course. Above ground with the buzzards or below with the worms, he believed, is all the same.

 

3. ZHU XI
"Wash away your old opinions to let new ideas in."
Zhu Xi was a 12th-century philosopher, historian, politician, and poet who lived and made his mark during China’s Song dynasty. He was devoted to investigating philosophical questions about humanity’s relation to the larger universe, as well as how we can develop moral superiority. His work in these areas helped form what is known as neo-Confucianism, a revival of Confucian thinking that took place between the 11th and 18th centuries. Because of this, his influence on Chinese intellectual life is generally considered second only to Confucius’ influence. Zhu Xi’s philosophies prized sincerity, logic, and consistency. His pontifications about our place in the universe hinged on a combination of the formless, or the “li” (the underlying order of nature), and the “qi,” or the formed material energy of the world. Zhu Xi believed the inherent li was pure by default and was at risk of being corrupted by the impurities of qi, or external forces. In his teachings, he emphasized the importance of deeply examining all things in order to perfect our knowledge; through this process, he believed the human mind and the universe could together eliminate ethical imperfections.

 

4. DALAI LAMA

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"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet and the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, a form of Buddhism that began in the seventh century CE. The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the 14th Dalai Lama; it is the religion’s belief that each leader is a reincarnation of the first, who died in 1475. The current Dalai Lama was chosen when he was just 2 years old. The Dalai Lama’s core beliefs center on compassion, tolerance, peace, and contentment, and these tenets have been central to not only his teachings, but also his global legacy. The leader’s nonviolent attempt at stopping the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989; the Nobel committee noted his willingness to compromise and reconcile despite harsh conditions. To this day, the Dalai Lama travels around the world to promote peace and nonviolence.

 

5. GAUTAMA BUDDHA

"Conquer anger with love, evil with good, meanness with generosity, and lies with truth."
The Buddha, also commonly known by his birth name, Siddhartha Gautama, is the founder of Buddhism and one of the most important spiritual thinkers in history. Gautama was born near the border of Nepal and India, and though not much is known for certain about his life, which was sometime between the sixth century and fourth century BCE, there are many stories that contribute to his legend. It’s believed he was raised in luxury and shielded from much of life’s hardships until his late 20s. At this time, he witnessed the reality of human suffering and decided to live an ascetic life to discover how to live in peace even among the world’s pain. The Buddha developed and taught the Four Noble Truths: The first is that life is full of suffering; the second is that suffering is caused by human desire; the third is that we have the power to free ourselves of desire and therefore suffering; and the fourth is the way to achieve this freedom. He went on to teach many his way, with the end goal of enlightenment, or the elimination of all ego. Buddha remains a celebrated figure for his reexamination of the rigidity and ritual of human life, and for inspiring people to seek higher levels of human consciousness.

 

 

Source: Eastern Philosophers You Should Know

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Fact of the Day - DOGS

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Did you know..... Some dogs can understand 250 words.
Dogs are man’s best friend, and the canine ability to understand human words has gone a long way to solidify that world-changing relationship. According to the American Psychological Association, the average dog can understand 165 words, and “super dogs” — those in the top 20% of canine intellect — can understand around 250 words. Dog intelligence can be divided into three main types: instinctive (what the dog is bred to do), adaptive (what a dog learns from its environment), and working/obedience (what a dog is trained to do). Research into the levels of working/obedience intelligence in various dog breeds shows that border collies displayed the highest levels, followed by poodles, German shepherds, and golden retrievers. With the ability to also understand simple math (1+1 = 2, for example), these “super dogs” have an estimated cognitive ability of 2- to 2.5-year-old humans.  Although 250 words is already impressive, it’s by no means the absolute limit. The Einstein of the dog world is a border collie named Chaser. According to the journal Behavioural Processes, Chaser had the ability to recall and correctly identify 1,022 words. This far exceeds the vocabulary of any known dog, and pushes Chaser into the cognitive ability range of a 3-year-old. Now, that’s an extremely good girl. (Interesting Facts)

 

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Dogs are great – they provide us with love, companionship and are always there when we need them. But did you know there’s far more to dogs than meets the eye? We all know dogs have been ‘man’s best friend’ for thousands of years, but there’s loads more to our four-legged friends which makes them really amazing. We’ve put together some of our favourite canine facts so you can learn a little more about your pooch.

 

1. Their sense of smell is at least 40x better than ours

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The area of cells in the brain that detect different smells is around 40 times larger in dogs than humans. This means that your dog can pick up on way more smells than we ever could. This is why dogs are often used to sniff out people, drugs and even money! In fact, a number of our own hero hounds were awarded PDSA medals for their noses! Arms and explosives search dog Buster (pictured above) was awarded his PDSA Dickin Medal in 2003 for his remarkable service in Iraq – he located a large amount of weapons and explosives linked to an extremist group, saving the lives of many civilians and service personnel. Read more stories about our incredible medal recipients.
 

2. Some have such good noses they can sniff out medical problems

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Yup, medical detection dogs are a thing. Because their sense of smell is so great, some dogs can be trained to sniff out medical conditions. They are used to diagnose a particular condition or to alert their owners if they need more medication. Some are even being trained to sniff out Covid-19! One of these incredible dogs is Medical Detection Dog Pal (pictured above), who was awarded the PDSA Order of Merit. Pal played a vital role in diabetic owner Claire’s life by alerting her of changes in her blood sugar. If not caught in time, these changes could have killed her. Read more about their incredible bond.

 

3. Dogs can sniff at the same time as breathing

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Dogs rely a lot on their sense of smell to find food, potential dangers, and friends, so needless to say they sniff a lot. Their noses are designed so smells can stay in their nose while air can move in and out of their lungs at the same time, which means they can breathe freely and still work out what that smell is!

 

4. Some dogs are incredible swimmers

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So, not all dogs like water, but the ones that do tend to be pretty good swimmers (but again, not all are so always keep an eye on your dog in case they decide to take a dip out and about). Newfoundlands' are so good in the water that for years they’ve been used as water rescue dogs. In 2016, a brave Newfoundland called Whizz was awarded the PDSA Order of Merit for saving nine people from the sea over his career as a water rescue dog. Read more about Whizz’s amazing rescues.

 

5. Some are fast and could even beat a cheetah!

Most dogs could easily outrun a human – they’re built to run and chase! The fastest breed of dog by far, though, is the Greyhound. These speedy sight hounds can reach a top speed of 45mph within seconds of starting to run

But how does this beat a cheetah?’ we hear you ask. Well, while a cheetah can get up to almost 70mph, they can only keep this going for around 30 seconds. Greyhounds, on the other hand, could easily run at speeds in excess of 35mph for seven miles. So despite the cheetah’s head start, they’d soon overtake!

 

6. Dogs don’t sweat like we do

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While dogs do sweat, don’t expect them to be getting damp armpits any time soon. Where humans sweat watery liquid to cool down, dogs produce a pheromone laden oily substance that us humans can’t detect (dogs know it’s there because of that great sense of smell). The only place that dogs sweat like us is on their paws, so instead they pant to cool down. This is why it’s so important to keep your dog cool on those warmer days to make it easier on them.

 

7. Your dog could be left or right-pawed

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There have been a few studies around this and it turns out that just like us, dogs have a preferred hand (well, paw) to lead with. You can find out whether your dog is left or right-pawed by giving them their favourite toy or interactive game and seeing which paw they use to help them first.

 

8. Along with their noses, their hearing is super sensitive

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We all know dogs can hear much higher frequencies than us, but did you know they can also hear further? Generally, dogs can hear much softer sounds than we can, so they can hear things that are much further away. This is another trait that makes them great search and rescue dogs. While they will mainly use their nose for tracking, their hearing can also be a real help (especially as they get closer to whatever they are looking for!). Dogs like K9 Killer (pictured above), who was awarded the PDSA Gold Medal for helping to track down Rhino poachers, are excellent at tracking using both smell and hearing. Read more about K9.

 

9. Dogs have 18 muscles controlling their ears

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If you have a dog, you might notice that their ears move around a lot. They actually have around 18 muscles responsible for moving their ears. These help them to change the direction of their ears slightly to hear noises around them better, and play a really big part in telling us how our dogs are feeling. A lot of a dog’s body language is expressed through what their ears are doing so a dog’s ears are vital in helping them communicate both with us and other dogs. Read more about canine body language.

 

10. Dogs are about as intelligent as a two-year-old

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Studies have shown that dogs can learn over 100 words and gestures, which puts their intelligence and understanding of us on a par with a two year old. However, dogs are much easier to train than a two year old! They’re used for all sorts of jobs, from military roles to assistance dogs, because they’re both clever and extremely loyal animals. To start training your pup the basics, take a look at some top tips from our qualified behaviourist

 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About Dogs

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Fact of the Day - ANIMAL LIFEMATES

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Did you know... Animals are not normally known for exercising restraint when it comes to reproduction. But for all the attention paid to the promiscuity of busy breeders like dogs and jackrabbits, some critters display a different side of animal nature by sticking with one sexual partner for the duration of their lives. Here are six such creatures who know a thing or two about monogamy.

 

1. Bald Eagles

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Although Benjamin Franklin once disparaged (possibly in jest) the bald eagle's "bad moral character," America's national bird upholds a high standard for family life by (mostly) remaining faithful. Following a kamikaze courtship ritual in which two birds lock talons and tumble end-over-end until they nearly hit the ground, the male and female settle into a period of domestic bliss marked by dad's willingness to undertake incubation and feeding duties. The "divorce" rate for these birds is less than 5%, according to scientists. And while they spend large chunks of the year alone, bald eagles mark their fidelity with a shared long-term commitment to nest building: One such home put together by an eagle couple in Florida was found to measure 9.5 feet long and 20 feet deep. It holds the record for the largest bird's nest ever documented.

 

2. Shingleback Lizards
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Also known as sleepy lizards or two-headed lizards, shingleback pairs are a common sight on the back roads of southern Australia. As with bald eagles, these bulky reptiles largely prefer to remain alone, until reuniting with the same partner for the mating season. Unlike those raptors, however, shinglebacks share virtually no child-rearing duties (there aren’t any — the offspring quickly strike out on their own), so it's unclear what draws the same couples back to one another. One theory suggests that it’s simply a matter of safety with these slow-moving animals, who trust their partners to be on the lookout while they fill their bellies.

 

3. Coyotes

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Unlike some of their human counterparts who enjoy "playing the field" amid the social opportunities of big-city life, urban-dwelling coyotes have demonstrated that they'll stick with one mate for the long haul. This likely has to do with the large litters birthed by females, who need help feeding and caring for the young'uns. It also explains why coyotes are known to be unusually aggressive during and after the winter breeding season; as devoted family animals, the males are simply doing their best to divert danger from the dens of their vulnerable partners and pups.

 

4. Prairie Voles

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Although the lives of prairie voles can end after a few months in the unforgiving wild, these North American rodents make the most of their brief time on Earth by forming powerful connections with a mate. This attachment becomes even more pronounced in captivity, with voles showing signs of empathizing with a stressed partner or grieving after the partner’s death. Thanks to decades of research, scientists have a good idea about the hormones that fuel such strong animal bonds, and even use them as clues to help decipher the ongoing mystery of human relationships.

 

5. White’s Seahorses

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Fish in general aren't wired toward mating for life, but certain species of seahorse, including the White's or Sydney seahorse (Hippocampus whitei) in Australia, are known to engage in such behavior. This can be explained by factors such as a shrinking population and poor swimming capabilities, which make finding another mate difficult, as well as the quirk of nature that thrusts the burden of seahorse pregnancy on males. While the guys are tied up in a gestation process lasting from two to four weeks, female seahorses continuously prepare another round of eggs for insertion, ensuring the propagation of the species with an invested partner.

 

6. Gentoo Penguins

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The third-largest penguin species, gentoos are best known for a distinct mode of courtship in which the male presents the female with a pebble. If accepted, the pebble marks both a symbolic gesture of a lifelong relationship and a practical tool for family building, as pebble nests serve to keep eggs and hatchlings off the cold ground. As with many other would-be monogamous animals, gentoo penguins are known to occasionally stray from their long-term mates, particularly in the controlled, predator-free environs of captivity. Regardless, the penguins almost always return to the same nesting site, suggesting that maybe it’s all about the pebbles, after all.

 

 

Source: Animals That Mate for Life

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Fact of the Day - FAMOUS TOYS

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Did you know.... Think back to holiday seasons and birthdays past — what was the toy you dreamed of unwrapping? Year after year, the “it” gift that every parent scrambles to find changes, from Cabbage Patch Dolls to Beanie Babies and Game Boys to Tamagotchis. While many are soon forgotten, others have stood the test of time. Discover how breakthrough experiments, bold innovation, and even bizarre accidents created some enduringly popular classic toys.

 

1. Slinky

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As the famous jingle goes: “What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound? A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.” But did you know the beloved toy was created by accident? In 1943, while stationed at a Philadelphia shipyard, U.S. Naval engineer Richard T. James was searching for a way to use springs to help sensitive equipment hold up in turbulent seas. One day, Richard knocked a spring off a shelf and watched as it gracefully “stepped” from a stack of books to a table and then to the floor, where it landed upright. James told the story to his wife, Betty, who wondered if the industrial spring could be transformed into a toy.   Richard soon took that idea and designed a machine to coil 80-feet of wire into a 2-inch spiral, which Betty namedSlinky,” inspired by the flowing movement and distinct sound of the spring in motion. The toy was introduced during the 1945 Christmas season at a Gimbels department store in Philadelphia. Priced at $1, the Slinky was an immediate hit, with 400 Slinkys selling out in just 90 minutes. However, in 1960, Slinky sales began to decline when Richard left his family to become a missionary in Bolivia. Betty took over the business, even mortgaging her home to keep it afloat. She reintroduced the Slinky at a 1963 New York Toy Show. The Slinky toy line expanded through the decades with plastic Slinkys and Slinky animals. In 1995, the Slinky Dog became a hot ticket item after it was featured in Pixar’s Toy Story, with 800,000 Slinky Dogs selling that year. Today, more than 300 million Slinkys have been sold, enough to circle the globe 150 times if stretched.

 

2. Candy Land

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Candy Land is one of the top-selling children’s board games of all time, wIth an average of one million games sold a year. Players began traveling through the Peppermint Stick Forest and the Molasses Swamp in 1948, when retired schoolteacher Eleanor Abbott invented Candy Land in the polio ward of a San Diego, California, hospital. Abbott’s hand-crafted game became a welcome distraction for the sick children during their most difficult moments. This inspired Abbott to bring the game to Milton Bradley, and it debuted on shelves in 1949. The post-World War II Baby Boom created a huge market for children’s games, and Candy Land quickly became Milton Bradley’s highest-selling game. Marketed as the “sweet little game for sweet little folks,” Candy Land’s legacy is even sweeter because Abbot donated all the royalties she received from her invention to children’s charities.

 

3. Magic 8 Ball

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Since the 1950s, the Magic 8 Ball has been a consistent source of advice for all of life’s problems. The toy’s inventor, Albert C. Carter, was the son of a Cincinnati clairvoyant, and completely fascinated by her work. Carter’s mother, Mary, would often use the fortune-telling invention the Psycho-Slate — a small chalkboard sealed inside a container — with her clients. When someone asked a question of the “other world,” Mary would reveal the answer on the Psycho-Slate, as if the spirits scribbled it down themselves. Thus inspired, in 1944, a grown-up Carter completed his version of a fortune-telling tool called the Syco-Seer, a liquid-filled tube with a window allowing a view of two floating worded dice. The Syco-Seer attracted the attention of Cincinnati store owner Max Levinson, who turned to his brother-in-law Abe Bookman to help with production. Under the company name Alabe Crafts, the Syco-Seer’s design was further tweaked to a smaller tube with only one floating die inside a crystal ball. In 1950, Chicago company Brunswick Billiards was looking for a promotional item to give to their customers and came across the Syco-Seer. Brunswick Billiards tweaked the design once more and replaced the crystal ball with a black eight billiards ball. After ending its contract with Brunswick, Alabe Crafts went on to market the now-named Magic 8 Ball as a paperweight before repositioning it as a children’s toy, which launched its international popularity. Today, the Magic 8 Ball continues to respond with its 20-sided die that includes 10 positive, five negative, and five vague responses. Now owned by Mattel, over a million Magic 8 Balls are sold every year.

 

4. Play-Doh

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In the early 20th century, Cincinnati’s Kutol Products was known for its pliable compound used for cleaning coal soot from wallpaper. But by the 1950s, during the transition to cleaner heating fuels, there was far less demand for Kutol’s cleaner.  When Joseph McVicker was tasked with turning the company’s fortunes around, his sister-in-law Kay Zufall, a nursery school teacher, read that wallpaper cleaner could be used as a type of modeling clay, and tested the nontoxic material in her classroom. The children loved it, and Zufall suggested a new name for the product: Play-Doh. When Play-Doh was launched in 1956, the product was only available in white and would harden when left exposed to air. In 1957, chemist Dr. Tien Liu tinkered with the formula allowing Play-Doh to remain pliable longer and make its color more vibrant. Initially, sales were modest, but in 1958, they began to soar when Play-Doh was featured in ads during the hit TV show Captain Kangaroo. Eventually, additional colors were included in the line, and in 1960, the first Play-Doh Fun Factory set hit shelves. In 1965, McVicker sold his Play-Doh company to General Mills, with Hasbro taking the brand in 1991. Today, more than 3 billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold in more than 80 countries.

 

5. The Easy-Bake Oven

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The Easy-Bake Oven debuted in stores in November 1963. It was inspired by Norman Shapiro, a sales manager at toy manufacturer Kenner, who saw a New York City vendor warming pretzels in a cart’s tiny oven and thought it would make an excellent toy. The original oven was made up of three cubes with a stovetop and carry handle, all painted bright teal. While users were invited to come up with their own recipes, the oven came with mixes for baked goods, bubble gum, candy bars, and complete “kiddie dinners” of meat, macaroni, and peas. Packet contents were mixed with water, poured into supplied bakeware, and cooked by the heat of two lightbulbs, with temperatures reaching up to 350 degrees. The toy was originally priced at a then-high $15.95 (around $115 in 2022), which surprisingly did not deter sales of 500,000 units in the oven’s first release. The quick-baking toy’s popularity paralleled America's interest in kitchen technology and the increased use of mixes and packaged products. In 1968, Kenner was acquired by General Mills, who introduced Betty Crocker recipes into the Easy-Bake Oven’s repertoire. Over the years, production increased along with changes to the toy’s design to reflect the interior design trends of the time, from the harvest-gold and avocado tones of the 1970s to a redesign of the oven to resemble the new microwaves of the 1980s. Recently the Easy-Bake Oven, now owned by Hasbro, has adopted a more gender-neutral design, acknowledging its popularity with both girls and boys. Since its inception almost 70 years ago, more than 30 million Easy-Bake Ovens have been sold and more than 150 million mixes have been cooked.

 

6. Nerf Balls

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After the incredible success of the game Twister, its Inventor Reyn Guyer wanted to create another sensation. In 1968, Guyer and his team began work on a game they called “Caveman,” using “rocks” cut out of mattress foam which were to be thrown at opponents. During development, Guyer thought the rocks would be better shaped into balls for safer indoor use. The original concept was scrapped in favor of making an indoor game using the newly named Muffball.   Parker Brothers acquired Guyer’s ball, and in 1969, introduced the renamed Nerf ball in four colors: yellow, orange, red, and blue. While some think the name is an acronym for “non-expanding recreational foam,” Guyer says it came from the foam-padded roll bars on Jeeps, known as “NERF bars.” With ad copy of “throw it indoors; you can’t damage lamps or break windows. You can’t hurt babies or old people,” 4.5 million Nerf balls were sold in the first year of production.  In 1971, Parker Brothers expanded the product line to include a Super Nerf Ball and Nerf Disk. In 1972, Fred Cox, former Minnesota Vikings field-goal kicker, came up with the idea of making a football out of foam, using an injection molder to give the soft ball a durable surface that could be gripped. Cox brought the invention to Parker Brothers, where it became the Nerf Football which further propelled its international fame. Today, NERF is probably best known for its series of foam dart blasters, which debuted in 1992.

 

7. Simon

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In the 1960s, Ralph Baer, a military engineer, would spend his free time developing early video games, dreaming of a system that would allow gameplay on a television. He eventually succeeded and in 1971, Baer and his employer Sanders Associates received the first-ever video game patent for the Magnavox Odyssey, which went on sale in 1972. In 1976, Baer, who was now working as a consultant for toy company Marvin Glass and Associates, took inspiration from an Atari arcade game called Touch Me, where players had to repeat a bright light and annoyingly loud musical sequence. Over the next two years, Baer worked on a portable game with four pleasing bugle horn notes. Originally called Follow Me, the new game was licensed by Milton Bradley as Simon, after the children’s game Simon Says. In 1978, Simon debuted at the disco palace Studio 54 in New York City. That Christmas season, stores reported long lines of people hoping to nab one of the highly desired machines, despite its original price of $25 (around $90 in 2022). While Simon could only play one sequence, was bulky, and required many D batteries, it was a huge step forward in home electronic gaming. The popularity of Simon was boosted by its coincidental connection to Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. During the science-fiction classic’s finale, aliens communicate using a sequence of musical notes and lights on their spaceship that resembles Simon’s gameplay. By the end of the 1980s, 10 million Simons were sold despite many knock-offs of the original game entering production. Newer versions of the game, including Simon Optix, where users wear a virtual reality-style headset to play, have brought the game to new audiences — but the retro appeal of the original remains.

 

 

Source: The Origins of 7 Famous Toys

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Fact of the Day - WOMEN IN HISTORY

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Did you know.... Women have contributed to almost every facet of life, from sports and science to art and politics. While some female role models are starting to get more recognition, we still tend to gloss over history’s supporting female characters — women who broke their own glass ceilings while serving others, smashing records, and pursuing personal passions. Here are a few stories you may have missed in history class.

 

1. First Known Female Postmaster in Colonial America

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Mary Katharine Goddard was among the first female publishers in the U.S., a socially precarious venture for a colonial woman during the country’s fight for independence. Working with her mother, Sarah, and brother, William, Mary Katharine founded multiple publications starting in the 1760s. William frequently traveled between cities to establish new papers, leaving the bulk of news collecting and printing to his sister. In 1774, he appointed Mary Katharine to run The Maryland Journal while he focused on other pursuits (such as lobbying for a national postal service) and served time in debtor's prison. During the height of the Revolutionary War, Mary Katharine made a name for herself with fiery anti-British editorials. In 1775, she was appointed Baltimore’s first postmaster — likely the first woman to hold such a position in colonial America — and in 1777, Congress commissioned her to print copies of the Declaration of Independence. (Surviving copies feature her printer’s mark at the bottom.) Despite her success, however, Mary Katharine was pushed out of both roles at the war’s end. In 1784, William rescinded her title as publisher, creating a lifelong rift between the siblings. Not long after, she was also removed from her postmaster job on the basis of sex. She wrote to George Washington asking to be reinstated, but the President passed her complaint to the postmaster general, who left her plea unanswered.

 

2. First Woman Surgeon and Female Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
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Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was the second U.S. woman to receive a medical degree (following Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell), but she became known as the country’s first female surgeon. Following her medical school graduation in 1855, Walker went into practice with her husband and fellow doctor Albert Miller, though the Civil War would change the course of her career. Despite having a medical degree, Walker was denied work as a military surgeon in the Union Army because she was a woman. Instead, she volunteered at field hospitals in Washington, D.C., and Virginia until 1863, when Tennessee accepted her medical credentials and designated her as the Army’s first female surgeon. Walker’s proximity to battlefields put her at risk — in 1864, she was captured by Confederate troops and spent four months at the notoriously brutal Castle Thunder prison, where she suffered injuries that plagued her for the rest of her life. At the war’s end, Walker was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service, an honor that Congress revoked in 1917 on the grounds that her medical work was not directly on the front lines. She refused to return the award for the remaining two years of her life and was posthumously re-awarded the medal in 1977. More than 100 years later, Walker remains the only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

3. First Female TV Game Show Host

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Actress Arlene Francis found her footing in entertainment as a radio host, but it was a TV first that catapulted her career to new heights. In 1949, Francis became the first woman to host a television game show in the United States. On Blind Date, a show Francis originally hosted over radio airwaves, male contestants competed for an all-expenses-paid outing with women hidden behind a wall, the obvious catch being that they couldn’t see their prospective dates and had to answer a litany of questions with the goal of being picked. Francis hosted the show for three years before moving on to films and Broadway stages, but her best-known role was a 25-year stint as a panelist on What’s My Line?, another TV game show.

 

4. First Native American Woman to Argue a Supreme Court Case

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Lyda Conley’s legacy was preserving that of her ancestors — specifically their final resting place. Conley acted as a staunch (and armed) defender of the Wyandot National Burying Ground, a Kansas cemetery at risk of sale and destruction some 60 years after its creation. The cemetery was established in 1843 following typhoid and measles outbreaks that took hundreds of Wyandot lives; the loss was a particular blow to an Indigenous community that was forcibly relocated thanks to broken treaties with the U.S. government and the cruel Indian Removal Act of 1830. In 1890, Kansas senators introduced legislation to sell the burial ground; although it failed, the effort encouraged Lyda Conley to attend law school to defend the very cemetery in which her own parents, siblings, and grandparents were interred. Conley was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1902, and within four years put her legal skills to work as the federal government moved to sell the cemetery. Conley and her sister Lena began a legal and physical siege for its protection, building an armed watch station called Fort Conley on the grounds and warning, “woe be to the man that first attempts to steal a body.” In 1910, her legal fight made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she became the first Native American woman (and third woman ever) to argue a case before the judges. While the court ruled against her, years of media coverage about the cemetery worked in her favor. In 1913, the Kansas Senate passed legislation protecting the cemetery, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2017.

 

5. First Woman to Break the Sound Barrier

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Aviator Jacqueline Cochran set more than 73 flight records during her lifetime, most for altitude and speed. In 1953, she also snagged the title for first woman to break the sound barrier. Her success was a product of her determination, which may have been honed during a difficult childhood; raised in Florida by a family with modest means, Cochran began working in a cotton mill at just six years old. At 10, she struck out on her own, working in salons for several years before launching her own cosmetics company in the mid-1930s. Around this time, in 1932, Cochran pursued her pilot's license with the goal of more easily reaching cross-country clients and business partners. Instead, she found a new passion that led her to compete in air racing, where she began setting speed records. When World War II started a few years later, she shifted her focus again to find ways to put her talents to practical use. In 1941, Cochran recruited two dozen female pilots for the Air Transport Auxiliary, a World War II program that utilized civilian pilots to transport military planes. That same year, she became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean. And by late 1943, she was commander of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots. Cochran continued flying after the war, with a renewed focus on speed; her reputation gained her access to military jets that helped her break records — including the sound barrier feat.

 

6. First Woman to Win Three Track-and-Field Olympic Gold Medals in a Single Year

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No one would have guessed that Wilma Rudolph would be known as the fastest runner in the world by age 20 — most doctors believed she’d never even walk as an adult. After contracting scarlet fever, pneumonia, and polio when she was young, Rudolph lost much of her mobility, then slowly recovered with the help of leg braces she wore for several years. By the time she was nine years old, the determined future athlete had regained her ability to walk and began playing basketball; in high school, she was scouted by coaches for her speed on the court. One of those coaches invited Rudolph to train at Tennessee State University, where she refined her high-speed sprinting skills. She and her track teammates made two trips to the Olympics — first in 1956, when she was still in high school, and again in 1960. It was at the 1960 Games in Rome that Rudolph claimed three gold medals in track-and-field: one each in the 100-meter and 200-meter races, and another in the 4x100-meter relay. She became the first U.S. woman to do so at a single Olympics, simultaneously breaking three world records for speed. Rudolph retired from sports two years later but took up coaching and became a goodwill ambassador to French West Africa. Her Olympic achievements helped pave the way for the Black female athletes who would eventually break her records.

 

 

Source: Lesser-Known Firsts in Women’s History

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