Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - VINCENT VAN GOGH

Did you know.... Few artist names are as recognizable (and as difficult to pronounce) as Vincent van Gogh. The Dutch painter’s name is synonymous with the art movement known as post-impressionism, and van Gogh made an incredible impact on the art world despite an abbreviated life. For all of the beautiful color, expression, mood, and extravagant wonder that filled his canvas, van Gogh struggled with mental illness. Despite these trials, he was an engine of creativity, and the strokes of his brush bestowed upon the world such gifts as “The Starry Night,” “Vase With Fifteen Sunflowers,” “Wheatfield With Crows,” “Irises,” “Café Terrace at Night,” and dozens of mesmerizing self-portraits. These seven facts explore the fascinating life of this self-made artist.

 

1. Van Gogh Started Painting at 27 And Was Mostly Self-Taught

Born March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, Vincent van Gogh arrived at art through a more circuitous route than most of his contemporaries. Although exposed to the art world at a young age by his mother’s interest in watercolors and his work at his uncle’s art dealership in The Hague, van Gogh suffered a nervous breakdown after a failed marriage proposal and instead started studying to become a preacher. It wasn’t until 1880 — after facing another rejection, this time from the evangelical committee itself — that van Gogh took up the pencil and paintbrush and began experimenting with art at the age of 27. Many of van Gogh’s early works were actually drawings; he believed the art form to be “the root of everything.” However, these drawings, some of which were masterpieces in their own right, were largely eclipsed by the incredible oil paintings that he created over the next decade. This body of work, considered by some to be one of the greatest ever created, eventually earned van Gogh a spot among the pantheon of history’s greatest artists.

 

2. Van Gogh Created 900 Paintings in Less Than 10 Years

Seemingly making up for lost time, van Gogh painted around 900 paintings from November 1881 until his death in July 1890 at the age of 37. Van Gogh often depicted subjects like peasants or farmers (one of the most famous examples being “The Potato Eaters”), or even himself, because he was too poor to pay any models. Flowers were also a frequent subject.

Although museum-goers can glimpse some of van Gogh’s most famous paintings crafted during these incredible years of creativity, many of the artist’s works were destroyed either after his death or during World War II. In addition to these lost works, another 85 van Gogh pieces are considered “missing” to this day.

 

3. Van Gogh May Have Sold Only One Painting in his Lifetime

Although a number of theories suggest van Gogh sold or bartered a few paintings, the only verified account of a painting being sold during his lifetime was when “The Red Vineyard” sold at a Brussels exhibition for 400 Belgian francs in March 1890, only a few months before the artist’s death. Although a small amount today, those francs amounted to essentially two months’ living expenses in 1890. Overall, van Gogh was famously underappreciated as an artist during his lifetime. The popular conception of him is as a solitary genius who was shunned by the art community at large, and his combative and antisocial personality didn’t ingratiate himself to others. However, evidence exists that van Gogh was beginning to gain wider recognition a couple of years before his untimely death. An article published in the January 1890 issue of Mercure de France acknowledged van Gogh’s detractors but noted that he was ultimately understood by “his brothers, the true artists.”

 

4. Van Gogh Had an Intense Friendship With Famous Painter Paul Gauguin

Much like van Gogh, Paul Gauguin was also unappreciated during his lifetime, but gained fame after his death for his inventive use of color, among other things. Gauguin arrived in the French town of Arles in October 1888 at the behest of Theo van Gogh — Gauguin’s art dealer and Vincent’s younger brother and benefactor. Theo promised Gauguin a small sum to look after his brother, and the artist saw the opportunity as a way to raise money for his return trip to Martinique, an island in the Caribbean that served as Gauguin’s muse. Vincent, however, had other ideas, and hoped Gauguin would stay and be the leader of a new artistic community based in Arles. The two settled in a small house in the center of town, immortalized by van Gogh’s painting “The Yellow House,” and both artists painted similar subjects, developing a sort of rivalry. Gauguin even captured van Gogh in the creative process in his portrait titled “The Painter of Sunflowers.” However, van Gogh’s increasingly erratic behavior caused Gauguin to eventually flee Arles, but not before one of the most dramatic moments in art history unfolded. Speaking of which…

 

5. The Story About Van Gogh’s Ear Is Still a Mystery

When people think of van Gogh, their minds usually meander among his masterworks, such as “The Starry Night” and “Sunflowers,” along with the infamous incident involving his severed ear. Today the story is filled with hyperbole and hearsay, and that’s largely because no one is exactly sure what took place on the evening of December 23, 1888. What we do know is that a fight erupted between Gauguin and van Gogh, and the latter suffered what some historians have called a “cataclysmic breakdown.” Gauguin’s first-hand account says van Gogh approached him with a razor before pausing and retreating back to their home. Understandably freaked out by the incident, Gauguin decided to check himself into a hotel and call it a night. It was at some point soon after this altercation that van Gogh took the razor to himself and mutilated his left ear. Some reports say the troubled artist only severed his ear lobe, but further analysis has uncovered that van Gogh in fact removed his entire ear, leaving only a piece of the lobe behind. The story goes that van Gogh then delivered the ear to a prostitute before collapsing at his home in a pool of blood. Although van Gogh did travel to Arles’ Red Light District that night, historians believe that he actually delivered the ear to a cleaner — not a prostitute. The details of the event will always remain hazy, but the dramatic moment is a powerful reminder of the mental illness van Gogh suffered from for his entire life.

 

6. Van Gogh painted “Starry Night” While in an Asylum

That December night was a bloody tragedy for van Gogh, but it was only a chapter in the life of an artist who experienced dismal lows followed by unprecedented artistic highs. While staying at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy, France — recovering from the ear incident — van Gogh painted roughly 150 paintings at a pace of about one painting every other day. Sometime in mid-June of 1889, he painted his most well-known masterpiece: “The Starry Night.” The Dutch master was inspired by the view outside his second-story asylum window, which he had painted several times before. Because he couldn’t paint in the dark, he actually painted the view from memory during the day. The painting takes drastic departures from the actual view from his window, with the most obvious being that the dominant cypress trees in the foreground were actually much smaller in real life. Van Gogh also couldn’t glimpse a village from his window, and instead drew an idealized village (as it doesn’t resemble nearby Saint-Rémy). The night sky itself is also an amalgamation of nighttime and early dawn views, and while the swirls throughout the heavens might seem like a clear example of artistic license, some art historians argue that van Gogh — who was passionate about astronomy — would’ve likely known about the swirling depiction of spiral galaxies found in popular French astronomy books of the day.

 

7. Vincent’s Sister-in-Law Made Him Famous

Theo van Gogh was Vincent’s constant companion and benefactor throughout his life. Theo supported his brother’s art and also sought care for Vincent’s mental illness. However, Theo himself wasn’t exactly a paragon of perfect health, and after Vincent’s suicide on July 29, 1890, Theo developed complications from syphilis and died only six months after his brother, at age 33. It’s very possible Vincent van Gogh would have remained a little-known Dutch post-impressionist if not for the tireless work of Theo’s wife and widow, Johanna “Jo” van Gogh-Bonger. After her husband’s death, Jo inherited Vincent’s paintings, and spent the rest of her life fulfilling her late husband’s wish to promote his brother’s art. Jo made strategic sales to collections that were visible to the public, and in 1905, she secured a Vincent van Gogh retrospective at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, which showcased more than 480 works. As Vincent’s popularity rose, she also published, in 1914, a collection of letters written between him and her husband, which only raised appreciation for the artist. After Jo’s death in 1925, her son carried on her work and became one of the founding members of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About Vincent Van Gogh

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CREATIVELY ALTERED TV SHOWS

Did you know... On March 7, 1988, the longest strike in the history of the Writers Guild of America began, and lasted a full 155 days, affecting everything from MacGyver to Tim Burton's Batman. Writers strikes have a major impact on TV and film production, as the most recent strike—which began on May 2, 2023—has made clear. Depending on the strike’s length, dozens of film and TV projects can be suspended, delayed, or even canceled, and rebounding when a strike is over isn’t exactly easy, either. (Many people have cited the 1988 strike as part of the reason for the cancellations of both Moonlighting and Kate & Allie.) Numerous TV series have had to return from strike to a kind of creative reboot, from rewriting single episodes to devising entirely new finales. Here are eight of them.

 

1. Breaking Bad
An enduring legend about Breaking Bad sprung up around the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. According to that version of events, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was originally set to be killed off by the show’s writers, but when the strike occurred and forced the show to cut its first season from nine to seven episodes, some hard thinking about the show’s structure led to the decision to keep Pinkman around. It turns out that’s only partially true, as creator Vince Gilligan has since noted that he had decided not to let Paul go by the second episode of the show. The strike did fundamentally alter the show’s overall plot progression, though. Those final two episodes in season 1 would have originally given us two fast-paced hours in which Walter White (Bryan Cranston) would have very quickly become the drug kingpin known as Heisenberg. With the strike standing in the way of that, Gilligan and company threw those episodes out and took a more careful approach to bringing out Heisenberg. That meant a slower pace, but an awesome three-episode arc to kick off the second season.

 

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation
The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was the longest in the organization’s history, and its long run cut into the production of a number of series, among them the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As a result of the strike’s duration, the season order was shortened from 26 episodes to 22, and with a shorter production window, the show went looking for script sources beyond the standard writers room. As a result, the season premiere episode “The Child” was adapted from a script originally written for Star Trek: Phase II, a planned TV series that was aborted in the late 1970s. Producers also began mining the “slush pile” of submitted spec scripts from outside writers and found “The Measure of a Man,” by attorney-turned-writer Melinda M. Snodgrass. The script became the ninth episode of the season, and Snodgrass was hired as the show’s story editor.

 

3. Heroes

 

After starting off red hot with huge ratings and critical acclaim, the second season of the comic book-inspired NBC series Heroes suffered a ratings decline and attacks from fans due to new characters that took time away from the old ones, a time travel storyline that seemed to drag on too long, and romances that pulled attention way from the show’s super-powered action. It got so bad that creator Tim Kring admitted mistakes in an interview. But the writers strike offered Kring and company a chance to rethink and restructure. The strike limited the show’s second season to just 11 episodes, and sensing that a change needed to come, Kring reshot the ending of that season’s eventual finale, ”Powerless,” in order to scrap a planned plague storyline that would have made up the second half of season 2. The planned fourth “volume” of the series, “Villains,” became the third, and the show carried on for two more seasons.

 

4. Battlestar Galactica
The hit sci-fi series only had one episode of its final “Season 4.5” run completed when the 2007–08 strike hit, and the situation felt so dire at the time that the cast was convinced during filming that said episode—“Sometimes A Great Notion”—would be the show’s last. The series did return to produce 10 more hours to end its run, and, like Heroes, the strike actually gave creator Ronald D. Moore a chance to rethink the planned ending of the show.

“There was a different ending that we had, it was all about Ellen aboard the Colony,” Moore told io9 in 2009. “She was sort of turned by Cavil, because she found out that Tigh had impregnated Caprica Six, and that deeply embittered her. And she sort of became dedicated to the idea of destroying Galactica and the fleet out of revenge. And [she and Cavil] got Hera, and then the final confrontation became very personalized between Tigh versus Ellen, and should they forgive.” “That was the story, generally speaking. We didn't have a lot more than just what I spun out to you, when the writers strike hit. Over the course of the writers strike, I rethought about it and thought, ‘That's not going to do it. It's not epic enough. It's not interesting enough.’ That's when we decided to start over, and reinvent the last arc of the show.” Moore and his writers ultimately devised a different series finale, featuring the daring rescue of Hera Agathon and the discovery of our prehistoric Earth.

 

5. Pushing Daisies

When it premiered in the fall of 2007, Bryan Fuller’s inventive fantasy series was hailed as one of the most original new shows on TV, and developed a rabid fan base eager to learn more about the love story between the Pie Maker (Lee Pace) and the Dead Girl (Anna Friel). Initial enthusiasm for the series led to a full season order in October 2007, just weeks before a writers strike was declared. This meant that the series had to halt production with only nine of its 22 ordered episodes completed. Fuller rewrote episode nine to serve as a season finale, leaving lots of loose ends to entice viewers back. It worked. Pushing Daisies got a second season, but unfortunately didn’t get a third.

 

6. Scrubs

 

The 2007–08 strike interrupted production of the NBC medical sitcom, leaving it hanging in the midst of what was, at the time, expected to be its final season. Creator Bill Lawrence was offered the chance to film an alternate final episode to serve as a series finale should the strike limit the seventh season, but Lawrence declined, hoping he would eventually get to do things his way. When the strike ended, the future of was still uncertain. Season seven ended at just 11 episodes, but the show continued to shoot episodes for season eight even as it no longer officially had a network. Ultimately, ABC picked up the series for an eighth season in the spring of 2008, and Scrubs finished its run on that network after a ninth season featuring new lead characters was also produced.

 

7. 30 Rock

Tina Fey’s Emmy-winning comedy shut down production during the 2007–08 strike, but the biggest creative consequence of that break wasn’t felt until 2010. While the show was shut down in early 2008, the cast performed a live episode as a benefit at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City. When the strike ended and production resumed, Fey and co-showrunner Robert Carlock began having serious discussions with NBC about a live episode broadcast. Though it was originally planned for season 4, the episode was rescheduled for season five. Titled “Live Show,” it was finally performed (twice, once for the east coast and once for the west) on October 14, 2010.

 

8. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the musical webseries from Joss Whedon, wasn’t so much altered by the 2007–08 strike as it was born out of it. Whedon conceived the series, which he has referred to as his “midlife crisis,” during the strike, and actually first mentioned it to co-star Felicia Day on the WGA picket line. “I asked if you’d seen The Guild. You didn’t have to say anything! But you said, ‘Oh yeah, I saw it and loved it,'” Day recalled in 2015. “You said ‘I’m actually working on a supervillain musical’ and I pooped myself. Later I got an email that was just, ‘Can you sing?’ Signed, ‘J.’ Then I pooped again.” Whedon financed the series himself, and it was produced in just five months. Today, it remains an early example of the reach and profitability of web-distributed programming.

 

 

Source: TV Shows That Were Creatively Altered by a Writers Strike

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PRESIDENTS & FOOD

Did you know... With great power comes great responsibility — and, in the case of the U.S. President, a slew of great perks, too. Among them? An executive chef at the White House whose job it is to cater to the President’s every craving and culinary whim. Richard Nixon, for one, was known to eat cottage cheese topped with ketchup, while Ronald and Nancy Reagan reportedly treated guests to persimmon pudding. Of course, presidential preferences are as much a reflection of an era as they are a product of the commander in chief’s individual appetite. Some foods, like chicken and ice cream, have been staples of the White House kitchen for two centuries, while others — such as turtle, squirrel, and opossum — have been mostly relegated to history. Here are some of the favorite foods of U.S. Presidents.

 

1. Hoecakes

The very first U.S. President, George Washington, favored a staple of his home state, Virginia: hoecakes, a type of flat griddle cake made from cornmeal. The dish originated with Indigenous peoples in North America but quickly grew in popularity among both colonists and enslaved communities. In fact, some accounts claim hoecakes got their name because enslaved folks would cook them on the blade of a gardening hoe over an open fire. Historian Rod Cofield notes, however, that “hoe” also referred to a kind of cooking equipment at the time, which is the more likely source of the name. In any case, hoecakes were common throughout colonial America and were particularly beloved in Virginia; writer and diplomat Joel Barlow even described them as “fair Virginia’s pride” in his 18th-century poem “The Hasty-Pudding.” Washington, for his part, liked his hoecakes with butter and honey, and was known to eat them for breakfast with a cup of tea. His step-granddaughter Nelly Parke Custis provided a recipe in a letter: “Add as much lukewarm water as will make it like pancake batter, drop it a spoonful at a time on a hoe or griddle (as we say in the South). When done on one side, turn the other — the griddle must be rubbed … with a piece of beef suet.”   Cornmeal was a key ingredient in other presidential favorite foods, too. James Monroe, another President from Virginia, enjoyed spoon bread, a cornmeal souffle made with milk, butter, and eggs. Abraham Lincoln, born in Kentucky, once said, “I can eat corn cakes as fast as two women can make them.” And Rutherford B. Hayes, who came from Ohio, liked corn in many forms; his wife’s recipes included corn fritters, corn bread, and corn soup.

 

2. Rice Pudding

When Ulysses S. Grant became President after leading the Union to victory in the Civil War, his wife, Julia Grant, sought to increase the visibility and prestige of the role of the First Lady. She organized and hosted both informal receptions and formal events, including the first-ever state dinner for a foreign head of state, a lavish feast of more than 20 courses in honor of Hawaii’s King David Kalakaua on December 22, 1874. Julia became known for opulent dinners and gatherings such as that one, and even replaced the Army cook her husband had hired with an Italian chef. Grant himself liked simplicity, though. No fancy dessert pleased him so much as rice pudding. One contemporaneous source wrote that the rice pudding served in the Grant White House was “such a pudding as would make our grandmothers clap their hands with joy.”

 

3. Ice Cream

Thomas Jefferson is often credited with helping to popularize ice cream in the United States. He likely encountered the frozen treat when he lived in France in the 1780s, and when he returned to the U.S., he brought with him a handwritten recipe and four ice molds. The dessert became a regular part of his menu and was served on at least six occasions to guests at the President’s House, often inside pastries. One visitor described the dish as “balls of the frozen material enclosed in covers of warm pastry, exhibiting a curious contrast, as if the ice had just been taken from the oven.” Jefferson’s cook, Honore Julien, later opened a catering and confectionery business that advertised ice cream, and recipes increasingly appeared in American cookbooks in the early 19th century.

 

4. Squirrel Soup

You won’t find squirrel on many American menus today, but it was a popular option as recently as the mid-20th century, especially among people who grew up hunting. (Instructions for preparing the animal even appeared in Irma S. Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking until 1996.) James Garfield, for one, loved squirrel soup — a recipe for which appears in The Original White House Cook Book, published in 1887. (It begins: “Wash and quarter three or four good sized squirrels; put them on, with a small tablespoonful of salt, directly after breakfast, in a gallon of cold water…”) According to an old exhibit at the White House Visitor Center, Garfield’s doctors even suggested that the soup might “revive his appetite” after he was shot in 1881.

 

5. Opossum

William Howard Taft, a great gourmand, loved many foods, but steak most of all, according to White House housekeeper Elizabeth Jaffray. He reportedly ate steak for breakfast — he hated eggs — but he also had a taste for opossum, which he may have served alongside turkey at Thanksgiving. On a visit to Atlanta soon after he was elected, he attended a large dinner in his honor, for which he requested a meal of “possum and ‘taters” — specifically, baked possum with baked sweet potatoes. Describing the feast, the Topeka State Journal wrote, “…there came a waiter who fairly staggered under the weight of the choicest ‘possum of the very choice one hundred, dressed whole and properly garnished with rich golden Georgia yams, and followed by another waiter with a flagon of persimmon beer.”

 

6. Turtle Soup

More than one President considered turtle to be a special, celebratory meal. In fact, turtle soup inspired the founding of a dining group, the Hoboken Turtle Club, which counted John Adams and George Washington among its members and served turtle soup with boiled eggs and brandy. Legend has it that Adams even ate turtle soup for dinner on July 4, 1776, a date we still honor today as Independence Day. Abraham Lincoln similarly celebrated his second presidential inauguration in 1865 with turtle stew, and ate mock turtle soup — typically made with a calf’s head, a much cheaper protein — at his first inauguration in 1861. (Mock turtle soup inspired the Mock Turtle character in Alice in Wonderland, which had the shell and flippers of a turtle and the face of a calf.) The turtle-eating trend accelerated from there. Between the mid-1800s and 1920s, Americans turned a sea turtle called the diamondback terrapin into a delicacy akin to the best lobster today. Rich soups made with cream, butter, and sherry or Madeira wine showed up on the menus at expensive restaurants, and Heinz and Campbell’s jumped in with their own (considerably more affordable) canned versions. As a result, diamondback terrapins dwindled to near-extinction, until Prohibition and the Great Depression reduced the demand for such luxuries.

 

 

Source: Foods Loved by U.S. Presidents

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - WHEN YOU SLEEP

Did you know... We spend more than a third of our lives unconscious, sleeping in beds (or elsewhere) to prepare our minds and bodies for the day ahead. Although this activity takes up a significant portion of daily life, scientists are still discovering fascinating attributes of the human sleep-wake cycle, developing a more nuanced understanding of dreams, and coming to grips with the devastating effects of sleep deprivation and disorders. These five facts delve into the science of sleep.

 

1. 12% of People Dream in Black and White

Dreams are an important mechanism of the human mind. What seems like a series of random thoughts and events is actually the brain trying to make sense of the day, remembering things that are important, forgetting things that aren’t, and overall preparing our biological computers for tomorrow. While most people dream in full color, around 12% of the population is tuned to TCM (so to speak), and often experiences dreams in only black and white. The analogy to television is an apt one, as researchers discovered in 2008 that people under the age of 25 almost never dreamed in monochrome, while members of the boomer generation and older had dreams devoid of color roughly a quarter of the time. Although it is difficult to prove definitively that TV is to blame, the number of people who reportedly dream in grayscale has slowly fallen over subsequent decades.

 

2. Poor Sleep Reduces a Human’s Pain Threshold

Having a poor night’s sleep comes with a multitude of real-world side effects, including sluggishness, irritability, and poor concentration. Over the long term, things get even more dire, as poor sleep can contribute to obesity, high blood pressure, and an overall weaker immune system. Sleep can also have a surprising correlation with how much pain a human can withstand. In 2015, a National Sleep Foundation poll discovered that two out of every three people experiencing chronic pain also suffered from sleep deprivation. Statistics like this inspired scientists from UC Berkeley to figure out how exactly sleep is entwined with pain tolerance. After studying two dozen healthy young adults, the researchers realized the neural mechanisms that evaluate pain signals and activate appropriate relief measures are disrupted when someone doesn’t get enough sleep. Just another reason (among many) that you should always try to get a good night’s rest.

 

3. Not Every Person Needs the Same Amount of Sleep

Some people seem to tick along just fine on five hours of sleep while others can’t even think straight on anything less than nine hours. That’s because the common recommendation of getting eight total hours of sleep is really an average — not a rule. Although a common indicator for how much sleep you need is often based on age (for example, kids need more sleep than adults because they’re still growing), differences also occur from person to person. Scientists have identified a significant portion of humans who require less than six hours to feel well rested because these sleep champions actually have a mutated gene that codes certain receptors that affect the sleep-wake cycle. These people experience higher-quality sleep that takes up less time than the average human needs to spend getting shut-eye.

 

4. Your Muscles Are Paralyzed During REM Sleep

Dreaming occurs during a process known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. The name comes from the physical movement of our eyes while experiencing dreams. During these bouts of REM sleep, of which there are four to six per night, brain activity changes and causes paralysis in our muscles. This normal effect of REM sleep is what’s known as muscle atonia, and it’s designed to keep humans from injuring themselves in their sleep. However, sometimes a person’s muscles still retain function during REM sleep and can cause a person to act out their dreams. This is known as REM sleep behavior disorder, and can be a real danger to the dreamer, or in some cases, the dreamer’s partner. The reverse is also possible, as sleep paralysis occurs when someone wakes from REM sleep only to discover that they can’t move their body or speak. Both of these sleep disorders (along with many others) are types of parasomnias.

 

5. Extreme Sleep Deprivation Can Lead to Psychosis

While being a poor sleeper can have serious side effects, getting no sleep at all can be downright deadly. Throughout the day, our bodies burn energy and create a byproduct in the brain known as adenosine. The buildup of this nucleoside is what causes us to feel sleepy. In fact, caffeine works by blocking adenosine from binding, making us more alert as a result. While we sleep, a waste clearance system known as the “glymphatic system” essentially removes this buildup of adenosine while using cerebrospinal fluid to remove toxic byproducts throughout the central nervous system. After sleeping the required eight (or so) hours, the brain is refreshed and ready for the day ahead. However, if someone puts off going to sleep for a long period of time, adenosine builds up in the brain and eventually disrupts our visual processing system, which in turn triggers hallucinations and, in rare cases, even death. In other words, spending one-third of our lives in bed may seem like a waste of time, but sleeping may be the most important thing we do every day.

 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About What Happens to Your Body When You Sleep

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TWINS

Did you know.... Twins are something of a natural phenomenon. While scientists understand the egg-splitting process that creates twins, researchers aren’t so sure why it happens. That fascination has been with humans for thousands of years — if you need proof, just look to the night sky, where the constellation Gemini (Latin for “twins”) shows how our interest in these duos has become part of both the astronomical and astrological world. Regardless of your own twin status or horoscope sign, you can celebrate Gemini season — usually around May 21 to June 20 — with these five facts about twins.

 

1. The World Currently Has the Most Twins It’s Ever Had

Many humans know the joy (and occasional annoyance) of having siblings. But some of us have a particularly unique relationship thanks to being half of a twin set. Being born a twin is relatively rare; in the United States, just 3.2% of new deliveries are twin births. But while that number may seem low, the world is actually experiencing the largest number of twins in known human history, largely influenced by advances in assisted reproductive technology. Researchers believe the number of twins born each year has increased over the last five decades, particularly when it comes to fraternal twins. A 2021 survey of 165 countries — about 99% of the world’s population — found that 1 in 42 babies born today is a twin, a statistic that equates to 12 twin births for every 1,000 pregnancies. That number is up from the 1980s, when just nine sets of twins were born for every 1,000 pregnancies. And it adds up — scientists believe some 1.6 million twins are born each year.

 

2. Identical Twins Have Different Fingerprints

Only 1 in 3 sets of twins are identical; the remaining two-thirds are considered fraternal, essentially siblings born at the same time who may or may not look alike. But even if identical twins seemingly appear as carbon copies, they do have some differences — such as their fingerprints. The patterns on our fingertips develop in utero, and how they look for the rest of our lives is heavily affected by our environment before birth. Blood pressure, umbilical cord length, and how fast a fetus grows all impact the final print design. Because identical twins share the same DNA, it’s likely their prints will be similar, though they’ll never be duplicates. In the history of fingerprint studies, no two people have ever had matching marks, including twins.

 

3. Ohio Hosts an Annual Twin Festival

The city of Twinsburg lives up to its name each summer, beckoning thousands of twins to northwestern Ohio to celebrate their distinctive sibling relationships. Since 1976, the Twins Days Festival has been the world’s largest gathering place for twins. Event organizers believe more than 2,145 twins (and other multiples, like triplets and quadruplets) attended the three-day fest in 2022, participating in events like the twin talent show, parade, and award ceremony. The event has also come to serve another purpose — by gathering so many multiples in one place, scientists have a chance to collect data on twins’ genetic and behavioral similarities (and differences), giving researchers more insight into how our DNA and environment may play roles in our health and well-being.

 

4. Where You’re Born Increases Your Odds of Being a Twin

While the global number of twins is higher than ever before, there’s one part of the globe that holds the record for having the highest concentration of twins. Scientists believe the west coast of Africa, which includes countries such as Benin and Nigeria, beat the odds by a landslide on twin births. Studies from the 1970s on have pointed to both countries as the twin capitals, having anywhere from 27 to 40 sets of twins per every 1,000 births. It’s unclear to researchers why twins are more abundant in that region of the world, though doctors and citizens point to possible cultural factors, like the regional diet that includes okra leaves and yams (which may have plant compounds that play a role in maternal fertility).

 

5. Time Makes Twins Less Alike

Similarities and differences can be an endless topic of conversation for twins, though some research suggests that twins become less alike the older they get — at least, genetically. As they grow older, twins often make contrasting life choices and have different environmental exposures (aka interactions with chemical or biological substances, like cigarette smoke or UV radiation from the sun). This can cause differences in appearance or behavior as they age, or lead one twin to develop a medical condition the other does not have. A 2005 study from the Spanish National Cancer Center analyzed blood samples from twins and found that younger twins had more identical genes than older twins, especially those who lived apart  — meaning that despite being born a duo, all twins eventually blaze their own paths in the world.

 

 

Source: Fascinating Facts About Twins

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - NOT ENDANGERED ANYMORE

Did you know.... When Congress passed the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1966, many Americans understood for the first time the perils facing wildlife. Habitat loss, pesticide use, hunting, and other human activities were threatening iconic species, including the bald eagle, American alligator, Florida manatee, California condor, and dozens of others. The 1973 Endangered Species Act strengthened the earlier act’s provisions and laid out a framework for protecting many more plants and animals. Since then, some once-endangered species have made impressive comebacks. Here are just a few examples.

 

1. Bald Eagle

Our national symbol’s comeback from near-extinction is one of the best-known conservation success stories. Bald eagles have been protected from hunting and poaching under several U.S. laws, including the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, and the 1973 Endangered Species Act. But even these measures didn’t save eagles from the ravages of pesticides. In the mid-20th century, agricultural use of DDT led to contamination of waterways and the fish in them. Eagles ate the poisoned fish and laid eggs with extremely thin shells, which caused the eaglets to often die. In 1963, only 417 breeding pairs of bald eagles lived in the lower 48 states. Since then, bans on harmful pesticides and blanket protection of eagles and their nests — plus restoration of their habitats — have allowed bald eagles to rebound. They were removed from the Endangered Species List in 2007, with an estimated 316,700 in the lower 48 alive today, but biologists are still keeping a close eye on their recovery.

 

2. Lesser Long-Nosed Bat

These 3-inch-long bats are major pollinators of saguaro cactus and agave plants in their desert habitat. Some populations of these mammals migrate from Central America to southern Arizona and New Mexico by following a “nectar trail” of night-blooming flowers. They need safe places to rest together during the day, but the destruction of roosting sites along their route caused their numbers to plummet. By the time they were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1988, there were fewer than 1,000 left. Conservationists in the U.S. and Mexico worked together to locate the remaining roosting sites and protect them from disturbance. The bats rebounded to an estimated 200,000 individuals. In 2018, the lesser long-nosed bat became the first bat species removed from the endangered list.

 

3. Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel

Found only in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, southern Delaware, and a smidgen of Virginia, the Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel is huge — about the size of a house cat with a super-fluffy tail. In the mid-20th century, much of its habitat — mature hardwood and pine forests — was cleared for farming and suburban development, reducing its range by roughly 90%. Its population dropped so drastically that the squirrel was designated for protection under the 1966 Endangered Species Preservation Act, the precursor to the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Efforts by government and private landowners to preserve large forest tracts, foster new squirrel populations, and limit hunting brought the cute critter back from the brink. Conservationists counted about 20,000 Delmarva fox squirrels at the time it was delisted in 2015.

 

4. Oregon Chub

This little minnow lives in the floodplains of Oregon’s Willamette River Valley, where it had evolved to survive in slow-moving marshes, beaver ponds, and oxbow lakes. Human infrastructure to control floods and dam rivers, straighten out waterways for navigation, and drain wetlands — as well as the introduction of non-native bass and bluegill — contributed to the fish’s decline in the 20th century. The Oregon chub landed on the Endangered Species List in 1993, which triggered efforts to help it recover. Government agencies worked with landowners to protect and restore its habitat. By 2014, when the Oregon chub became the first delisted fish, its population had rebounded from fewer than 1,000 fish in eight locations to more than 160,000 in 83 known places.

 

5. Channel Islands Foxes

Three subspecies of tiny foxes call California’s Channel Islands National Park home. They’re perfectly adapted to the unusual coastal Mediterranean climate, but the foxes have not had an easy time over the past couple of centuries. Ranchers and farmers altered the landscape and introduced sheep, pigs, and deer and the military set up defenses at the park during World War II. In the 1990s, golden eagles migrated from the mainland and preyed on feral pigs and foxes. By 2004, when the foxes were placed on the Endangered Species List, there were only 15 individuals each on Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands and 55 on Santa Cruz. An intensive plan to cull pigs, remove golden eagles, and breed the foxes in captivity led to the fastest recovery of an endangered mammal. All three fox subspecies were removed from the list in 2016, as the population grew to more than 2,800.

 

 

Source: Endangered Animals That Made a Comeback

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - JUNE

Did you know... “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over,” as the song goes, and it’s one of the most fascinating months on the calendar. Filled with holidays and long days in the U.S., the month is known best for the arrival of summer, and it’s long awaited by the many sun lovers among us. Here are a few fascinating facts about the month of June, from its ancient Roman moniker to its role as host to the newest national holiday in the U.S.

 

1. June Is Named After a Powerful Roman Goddess

The inspiration behind the name of the month of June likely comes from a Roman deity — in this case, Juno. Roughly equivalent to the goddess Hera in Greek mythology, Juno is the goddess of marriage and childbirth. She is one of the most powerful deities in the Roman pantheon, being part of the Capitoline Triad along with her husband Jupiter and Jupiter’s daughter Minerva. Although Juno is the leading theory behind June’s ancient etymology, another idea, from the Roman poet Ovid, suggests that the month’s name could come from the Latin word iuvenes or iuniores, meaning “younger ones.” This theory also states that the preceding month of May could come from the Latin word maiores, meaning “the elders.” A third hypothesis is that June could be named after the semilegendary figure Lucius Junius Brutus, founder of the Roman Republic in the sixth century BCE.

 

2. June Is a Month of Solar Extremes

June is famous for being the transition month between spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Every year, this seasonal switch occurs between June 20 and June 21, otherwise known as the summer solstice. This solstice (from the Latin solstitium, meaning “stationary sun”) takes place the exact moment the sun finally reaches the Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees latitude north. (In 2023, that moment is Wednesday, June 21, at 10:57 am EDT.) Because this is the farthest the sun travels northward, this particular day in June has more daylight than any other day on the calendar.

 

3. Pride Month in June Commemorates a Historic Moment in LGBTQIA+ History

Many places around the world commemorate the month of June as Pride Month, celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community while highlighting the many struggles yet to be overcome. The month of June wasn’t arbitrarily chosen, but grew out of a famous uprising in New York City in the summer of 1969. During the late 1960s, anti-gay legislation and policing policies were widespread, and gay bars such as New York’s Stonewall Inn served as some of the few refuges where LGBTQIA+ people could be themselves. Yet these urban havens were also the target of police raids, and on June 28, 1969, the NYPD came for Stonewall Inn. The bar’s patrons had finally had enough, and the raid ignited six days of protests on Christopher Street in NYC’s Greenwich Village. The energy unleashed that June night also fueled a gay rights march weeks later, and led to the formation of groups like the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance. To remember the Stonewall Uprising a year later, on June 28, 1970, protesters created the annual Christopher Street Liberation Day march, which eventually evolved into the worldwide Pride parades and monthlong celebrations we know today.

 

4. June 7 Is the Wettest Day on Average in the U.S.

Everyone’s heard of April showers, but it turns out June is the wettest month of the year in the U.S., though results vary by location. Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider analyzed 30 years of data from 8,535 official National Climatic Data Center weather stations and found that 2,053 of those sites reported June as their wettest month (only 76 sites reported April as the wettest). Not only did he discover that June is the wettest month on average in the contiguous U.S., but Brettschneider also calculated that June 7 was the wettest day overall. June produces so much rain because warm, humid air travels up through the Gulf of Mexico, creating an uptick in thunderstorms that unleash rain across the Great Plains, the Midwest, and the Northeast. That’s why June is often the wettest month in cities such as Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City. June heat also instigates downpours along the Gulf Coast in places like Houston, New Orleans, and Orlando. Things start to dry out as spring turns to summer, but June makes sure that seasonal transition is a tempestuous one.

 

5. The Full Moon in June Is Called the “Strawberry Moon”

The full moon in June is known as a “Strawberry Moon,” but don’t expect a ripe red lunar hue. Instead, the name originates from Algonquin tribes living in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada, because the full moon often coincides with the region’s June strawberry harvest. In other parts of the world, the June full moon goes by different monikers. Some Europeans, for example, call this moon the “rose moon,” as the flower usually blooms in the month of June, while other regions use the name “hot moon,” in reference to the hot months that follow its appearance.

 

6. June Is Host to the Nation’s Newest Federal Holiday

June is already full of holidays — both cultural and astrophysical — but in 2021, the U.S. government recognized another one: Juneteenth. Months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger issued “General Orders, Number 3” on June 19, 1865. The order proclaimed to the “people of Texas” that “all slaves are free.” Arriving nearly two-and-a-half years after Abraham Lincoln’s initial proclamation, this general order is seen today as the moment when the last vestige of slavery in the U.S. was wiped away for good. Although some former enslavers resisted the order, Granger backed up the command with 2,000 federal troops, and soon newly freed Americans began celebrating throughout the Lone Star State. The next year, the free people of Texas celebrated the anniversary of what they called “Emancipation Day” or “Jubilee Day”; the name “Juneteenth” (a blend of “June” and “19th”) began to be used by Black people during celebrations commemorating the day in the early 1890s. More than 150 years later, in 2021, the entire nation officially joined the celebrations when Juneteenth became a federal holiday.

 

7. Spokane, Washington, Celebrated the First Father’s Day in June 1909

On May 9, 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd patiently listened to a Mother’s Day sermon at Central Methodist Episcopal Church in Spokane, Washington. As the preacher extolled the virtues of America’s mothers (the holiday was only created the previous year), Dodd thought about her own upbringing and how her father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, raised her and her siblings alone after her mother died in childbirth 11 years earlier. Inspired by her father’s example, Dodd worked with the local YMCA to petition for the creation of a day to honor dads as well. Within a year, the mayor of Spokane, along with the governor of Washington, signed proclamations for celebrating the first Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. For more than 50 years, Dodd continued pushing for the holiday to become a national one. She finally got her wish in 1966, when President Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day, and the holiday became a permanent one six years later.

 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About June

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SALARY

Did you know... Most of us are used to our wages or salary being paid directly into a bank account. Some might still receive a check in the mail. A few might even get an envelope at the end of each week or month containing their pay. But forms of payment in the past varied enormously, and some would seem downright strange to us in the 21st century. From salt to knives, here are six unusual ways people used to be paid for their labor.

 

1. Salt

The word “salary” is derived from the Latin word salarium. This translates to “allowance” or “salt money,” and literally meant the allowance given to buy salt (sal is the Latin word for “salt”). Historically, salt was of great importance because it allowed for the preservation of food. Without salt, soldiers would need to fish or hunt for their food each day. Therefore, being paid in salt or with enough money to buy salt (which was an expensive commodity) made life more convenient. The word salarium made its way into French and then English, and by the Middle Ages “salary” was being used to refer to compensation for work. This is also the root of the phrase “worth your salt.”

 

2. Beer

After a hard day’s work, you might sit back and relax with a beer. In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it might have been your payment. Egyptians considered beer a food of the gods (the deity Osiris supposedly taught people how to brew), and used it as both medicine and a type of currency. London’s British Museum holds a 5,000-year-old Sumerian stone tablet that historians think is a pay stub, and one that indicates payment made in beer. Early beers (often brewed by women) were thick, yeasty concoctions — almost meals in themselves — that were enjoyed by adults and children.

 

3. Knives

Receiving a knife as payment for your services was a common occurrence in ancient China from about the seventh to the second century BCE. In fact, money knives were often carried on a belt around one’s waist, providing easy access to them as currency or for more traditional purposes. According to legend, the practice may have originated when a prince who was running low on currency allowed his soldiers to use knives to barter with villagers. It then became more widespread, until the metal knives were a currency in their own right. Made of bronze, copper, or tin, segments of the knife could be cut off to use as payment, while the knife still retained its usefulness. Eventually the knives shrunk, until they became more like small knife-shaped pieces of metal used for currency than actual knives meant for cutting.

 

4. Squirrels

It may sound gruesome to modern readers, but in Russia and Finland, squirrel pelts were once used as a form of currency. Fur was a valuable commodity in the frozen tundra, providing a source of clothing and blankets. Therefore, the pelts became important in trading. Sometimes those using pelts as currency went even further, using the ears, snouts, and other parts to make change. There was an incredible benefit to this system of currency: Some have speculated that it helped prevent plague. As the Black Death swept through most of Europe, the lack of squirrels to carry infection via fleas meant that people in Russia suffered from the devastating disease less than people in some neighboring countries.

 

5. Katanga Crosses

If you were to see a Katanga Cross in a museum or gallery, you might think it was a piece of art, perhaps religious in nature. In fact, these striking copper crosses were a form of currency in parts of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Katanga region is rich in copper, so the metal was frequently used in payment. Coppersmiths made the crosses by pouring molten metal into sand molds. Each one weighed about 2 pounds, and one cross could buy about 22 pounds of flour or six axes. In case of an emergency, the cross could also be melted down to craft into a spear or tool.

 

6. Notgeld

Currency is usually based on something that has perceived value. But what do you do when you can’t access the material used to make that currency? In the case of Germany and some parts of Europe after World War I, they improvised with notgeld (necessity money). Coins were hard to come by at the time, as they had been melted down for their metal during the war. Postwar financial woes also meant that paper money had little value. And so, localities began to use alternative forms of currency made out of whatever they had access to. Silk, foil, wood, and many other materials were used as notgeld. Although not official currency, their use was widespread within communities as a means to pay for goods and services.

 

 

Source: Unusual Ways People Used to Be Paid

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - AIRPLANES

Did you know..... The modern airplane is an airborne chariot made of steel. We’re so used to these impressive machines ferrying passengers, mail, and commerce, it can be difficult to fathom that they’re barely more than a century old. And while airplanes need to operate in some of the most extreme temperatures on or near Earth (it’s -70 degrees Fahrenheit at an airliner’s cruising altitude of around 40,000 feet), planes are by far the safest way to travel. Here are six facts that’ll make you marvel at airplanes, and explain why they’re one of the most impressive technological achievements in human history.

 

1. Flying on Planes Affects Your Sense of Taste

Humans aren’t designed to cruise comfortably at around 40,000 feet, and some strange biological phenomena can occur when airplanes take our bodies out of their terrestrial-based environment. Studies have discovered that our ability to sense sweet and salty foods diminishes by significant percentages when we fly in an airplane. That’s because at high altitudes, air inside an airplane cabin hovers at around 12% humidity — drier than most deserts on Earth. Since taste is also closely entwined with our sense of smell, the extremely dry air messes with our odor receptors and makes food taste more bland. Surprisingly, even the constant drone of airplane engines can cause some foods to taste less intense, according to a separate study on the “effects of background noise on food reception.” Long story short, an airplane does not release the inner gourmand in humans, so maybe it’s best to stick to those small packets of (highly salted) peanuts.

 

2. Planes Are Struck by Lightning One or Two Times a Year

Lightning seems like one of the obvious hazards of pointing a plane nose-first into a storm cloud — and the fear is at least somewhat warranted. In an average year, a plane experiences one or two lightning strikes (though geographic location is an important factor). However, commercial aircraft are designed to handle this unexpected electrical load, so passengers experience little more than the bright flash of the lightning itself. Many airplanes are made of aluminum, which is an excellent conductor and will direct the current of a lightning strike through the skin and toward the tail. Airplanes designed with composite materials include conductive fibers that pull off the same trick. Other grounding and shielding technologies also help protect sensitive wiring and instruments on board the aircraft. If a lightning strike occurs, the aircraft is thoroughly inspected on the ground. This can cause significant delays, but there hasn’t been a lightning-related accident on a commercial aircraft for decades.

 

3. Planes Can Fly With Just One Engine

Your average airliner can take a significant amount of punishment and keep on flying. For example, commercial airliners are designed so that if one entire engine malfunctions for whatever reason, whether a bird strike or just a technological snafu, the plane can continue flying using its other engine. This isn’t just a safety feature agreed upon by the world’s airline manufacturers; it’s the law. Although a plane likely wouldn’t have the thrust necessary to take off on one engine, it can fly and land without problem.

 

4. Contrails Come From Water Vapor

Glance at the sky on a clear day and you’ll likely spot a contrail. This ice cloud forms as water vapor dispersed by an aircraft’s engine, and in the surrounding air, condenses around tiny exhaust particles from the engine. Contrails were discovered during the first high-altitude flights in the 1920s, and became a particular nuisance in World War II, when contrails effectively gave away a bomber’s strategic location. Contrails are categorized into three groups, and each group is essentially defined by how long the contrail lasts in the air. Contrails have been the subject of an erroneous yet persistent conspiracy theory around “chemtrails,” which involves the belief that these clouds are actually some sort of biological agent deployed over the Earth for some undefined, nefarious purpose. Fortunately, water vapor is generally pretty benign.

 

5. Black Boxes Are Not Black

When an aircraft crashes for any reason, investigators and ground crews will hunt for what’s called a “black box.” The term refers to an airplane’s dual flight recorders, which together contain crucial data regarding transmissions, the pilot’s voices, aircraft sounds, and other important information. However, a “black box” isn’t black (and sometimes  isn’t even shaped like a box). Instead, “black boxes” are usually bright orange so they’re easy to find after a crash. So where does this misnomer come from? No one knows for sure, but one guess dates back to 1939, when aviation engineer François Hussenot developed the means to record flight information onto photographic film. Because this film was sensitive to light, this box needed to be pitch black inside — hence the name.

 

6. Flying at 33,000 Feet, Planes Are About 10% of the Way to Space

Traveling around 8 miles above sea level, planes easily traverse even the most impressively high natural features on Earth. At its lowest cruising altitude, around 33,000 feet, an airliner still clears Mount Everest by a comfortable 4,000-foot margin. Space begins at the Kármán line — the boundary where Earth’s atmosphere ends — at about 62 miles up, so an aircraft has a long way to go (not that it’d have any hope of getting there). The highest-altitude flight of any aircraft, not including rocket-equipped spacecraft, belongs to a Soviet MiG E-266M that flew up to 123,523 feet above sea level in 1977. While 24 miles up is an impressive feat, it’s not even halfway toward the outer reaches of space.

 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About Airplanes

Edited June 9, 2023 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PHOTOGRAPHY

Did you know.... Imagine a world without cameras — it’s almost impossible. Film, television, history, news, and even our memories are influenced by a technology that has been around for less than two centuries. Here are five facts that explore the amazing history of photography, and how it grew from a quirky laboratory experiment to redefining the human experience.

 

1. We Don’t Know the Names of the First People Ever Photographed

One day in 1838, Louis Daguerre — physicist, photography pioneer, and inventor of the daguerreotype (the earliest form of practical photography) — stood in a window overlooking Paris’ Boulevard du Temple and snapped a photograph. Since this was one of the first photographs ever taken, the image was actually less of a “snap” and more of a slog, as the process required around 10 minutes to gather enough light to produce an image on a highly polished silver-plated copper sheet. Because of this long exposure time, Daguerre’s photo captured what appeared to be an empty street, as the hustle and bustle of passing traffic didn’t stay long enough to show up in the photo. In fact, the only thing in the image except for immobile trees, sky, and concrete is a lone shadowy figure getting his boots shined, which explains why he stood still long enough to be fixed in the photo. Upon closer inspection, viewers can just barely make out the shoeshiner hard at work. Today, of course, no one knows the name of that man getting a shoeshine, or the person giving it.

 

2. The First True Digital Camera Was Invented to Photograph the Aurora Borealis

The advent of the digital camera was made possible by the invention of a little-known piece of technology called a charged-couple device (CCD) in 1969. At its most basic, a CCD is a light sensor that sits behind a camera lens and effectively replaces the need for film. Eastman Kodak engineer Steven Sasson built the first digital camera prototype in 1975, but his creation was unwieldy, requiring 16 batteries and a special screen just to view the images. The first “true” digital camera came two years later, when the University of Calgary Canada ASI Science Team created the Fairchild All-Sky imager for snapping photos of the aurora borealis. A little more than a decade later, the technology came to consumers when Fujifilm released the FUJIX DS-1P in 1988.

 

3. In 1995 a 1 Megapixel Camera Cost $20,000

Every new technology comes with an early adopter tax. The price of the first Macintosh in 1984 comes out to about $6,000 in today’s dollars, and the first cellphone, the Motorola Dynatac 8000x, would cost around $12,000 today (with only 30 minutes of battery life). But those costs pale in comparison to the first 1MP pro camera. Released in 1995, this Fuji X/Nikon hybrid camera had a 1.3 megapixel sensor and a 131 MB removable memory card (capable of storing 70 photos), all for the eye-popping price of $20,000, which is around $38,000 today. Only 12 years later, Apple — which also made the impressive QuickTake camera in the mid-’90s — introduced a 2 megapixel camera on its original iPhone for a fraction of the cost. Today, professional photographers use cameras with 24 megapixels (or more).

 

4. The Most-Viewed Photograph in History Is Probably the Windows XP Wallpaper

The most-viewed photo isn’t from the lens of legendary photographers like Ansel Adams or Jacob Riis, but a simple picture of a field in Sonoma, California — and chances are you’ve seen it, too. The photograph, originally captured by photographer Charles O’Rear and named “Bliss,” was taken in 1996. Four years later, Microsoft paid O’Rear an undisclosed (but north of $100,000) amount of money to use the image as the default desktop wallpaper for Windows XP in 2002. O’Rear says the image was so valuable that FedEx refused shipment, so he hand-delivered the photograph to Microsoft’s offices near Seattle, Washington. The brilliantly bright green rolling hill (which is now a vineyard) accompanied by a picturesque bright blue sky has likely been seen by billions of people around the world due to the software’s global ubiquity.

 

5. We Probably Take More Photos Every Minute Than Were Taken in the Entire 19th Century

Two centuries ago, imaging pioneers were only beginning to tinker with ways to capture the world around them using chemicals and light, and now cameras are embedded in our daily lives. We don’t know how many photos were taken in the 19th century, but it’s likely it was a few million at most. In 2014, it was estimated that humanity took a staggering 1 trillion photos that year, which means that every two minutes of 2014, we likely took more photos than were taken in the entire 19th century. Experts believe that the number of cameras in the world passed 45 billion in 2022 (that’s more than five cameras for every person). As cameras continue to get better while shrinking (sometimes to the size of a grain of sand), that number is only increasing, with estimates suggesting humans will take 2 trillion photos in 2025. When that happens, every single minute of the day will create more photos than an entire century of human history.

 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About Photography

Edited June 10, 2023 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SKIN

Did you know.... They say beauty only runs skin deep, but learning even a little bit about your largest organ may give you new appreciation for the external. From literally holding us in to protecting us from the ravages of the world without, our skin is pretty incredible. Here are six beautiful facts you might not know about human skin.

 

1. Skin Really Is Your Biggest Organ

It can be tempting to think of skin as the scientific equivalent of the frosting on your body’s cake, but it’s an organ as complex and important as the heart or liver. It’s also really heavy: The scientific consensus is that the entire, three-layer organ makes up about 16% of a human’s weight — equal to about 20 pounds for a 125-pound person. That’s the equivalent of four bricks or a miniature schnauzer. If you consider only the external surface of the skin, that weighs about 6% of the weight of any given person. Your next-heaviest organs — the liver (3 pounds), brain (3 pounds), and lungs (2.2 pounds) — don’t even compare. Thanks to its vast surface area and triple-layered composition, your skin efficiently keeps your other organs from getting out and other stuff from getting in, all while flexing, stretching, and renewing itself continuously.

 

2. Skin Is a Habitat All Its Own

You may have heard of the gut microbiome, but did you know your skin has its own microbiome, too? Your skin plays host to millions of microorganisms — tiny microbial communities that hitch a ride on, and even help, the exterior of your body. The types of microorganisms that live on your skin vary depending on what type of terrain they encounter: moist or oily, exposed or enfolded, hairy or bare. They fall into four categories: viruses, bacteria, fungi, and mites. And they don’t just live there rent-free: Some of the critters crawling on your skin right now are thought to perhaps even play a part in teaching your T cells how to respond to harmful invaders. Others, like the common S. epidermidis, actually help your body defend itself against water loss and other damage. Your skin colonies also change as you age. In fact, baby skin is thought to be sterile until the moment it encounters the world outside the womb. That’s when an important time for skin microbiome growth begins — a developmental heyday for your skin’s immune system. As a result, the skin microbiomes of babies and adults are thought to vary significantly, though research on both is still in its infancy.

 

3. Your Diet Can Influence Your Skin’s Color

Folktales about carrots improving your night vision are mere propaganda. But there’s truth to the old line that you “are what you eat” — and it can be found on your skin’s surface, which can actually change color when you consume lots of the pigments found in red, yellow, and orange veggies like carrots. Known as carotenoids, these pigments impart what scientists call an “attractive yellow-orange color to skin.” Sound like a ploy by Big Carrot? It isn’t. Carotenoid pigments can build up in the skin, producing a yellowish hue that is associated with a healthier body. That’s where the attraction part comes in: In a variety of studies, researchers have shown that people prefer the appearance of people who eat lots of carotenoids, likely because they signal a person has a healthy diet and higher perceived health. Both indicate the person is a desirable mate — all the more reason to grab a carrot and chow down.

 

4. If We’re Going to Mars, We’re Going to Need Better Skin Care

Astronauts returning to Earth don’t just have to readjust to gravity: Many contend with skin issues. In fact, researchers note that skin problems are the most common health conditions experienced by astronauts, far outpacing skin ailments on Earth. Astronauts’ skin has endured everything from irritation due to on-board equipment to dryness and infections on space flights and at the International Space Station. Research has even shown that the complex skin microbiome undergoes changes while in space. Microgravity, radiation, and the harsh environment of spacecraft seem to be the culprit, but scientists are still learning more about how space travel affects skin. With long-term space missions to Mars and elsewhere on the horizon, finding out how space affects skin has become a priority for researchers and private industry alike. As a result, a Colgate-Palmolive skin care company staged the first-ever in-space skin care experiment in 2022, and in 2023 another private sector experiment on the International Space Station is expected to test how lab-grown skin tissue grows in space. Insights from those studies and future inquiries could lead to the development of new skin protectants or inform skin care products down here on Earth, helping the planet-bound protect themselves against the ordinary ravages of aging.

 

 

5. Tattoos Are Permanent Thanks to Dead Immune Cells

If your mom warned you that your ink is forever when you announced your intention to get a tattoo, she was right. But not for the reason you might think. While common wisdom has it that tattoo ink bypasses the permeable top layers of the skin and remains embedded in the dermis, the second skin layer, the truth is a bit more complicated — and more interesting. Recent research has revealed that macrophages, a type of white blood cell that specializes in gobbling up invasive pathogens, mistake tattoo ink for an infectious cell and flock to the scene to protect the body from the foreign substance. They show up, encircle the ink, and process it. If macrophages clean up the ink, and the immune cells aren’t immortal, then why do tattoo markings last so long? Scientists asked the same question, and mouse studies led to an eerie answer: Once the macrophages die off, even more macrophages are thought to swoop in, eating the ink their dead brethren once contained. This generational turnover means tattoo ink can last for years with minimal fading — and keep Mom’s name intact for a lifetime.

 

6. The Bible Contains Ancient Skin-Care Advice

The Bible may be a religious text, but it’s also packed with information and stories about skin care. Researchers consider the Book of Job’s description of the long-suffering Job’s chronic skin boils an accurate and early depiction of an actual genetic disease called AD-HIES (loss-of-function, autosomal dominant hyper-IgE syndrome). Nicknamed Job syndrome, the genetic disorder causes, you guessed it, boils all over the body. A slightly lovelier tale can be found in the Old Testament story of Esther, which refers to a 12-month-long beauty and purification ritual undergone by would-be concubines of King Ahasuerus of Persia. Along with her fellow applicants to the king’s harem, Esther spends six months applying oil of myrrh to her body, and another six months putting on perfumes and other cosmetics. Only after the women have spent months doing the biblical equivalent of a makeover are they qualified for the king’s romantic consideration. But what is myrrh, and why was it part of the elaborate beauty ritual? The name comes from Commiphora myrrha, a spiny, squat tree with fragrant sap that was used in religious rituals, to perfume cosmetic oils, and even as medicine to treat achy muscles and wounds. It wasn’t just placebo: The prized resin is stuffed full of substances that have anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, which may also have improved the look of the skin.

 

 

Source: Beautiful Facts About Our Skin

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - CELCIUS SCALE

Did you know.... On Christmas Day 1741, Anders Celsius, a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, took the world’s first temperature measurement using degrees Celsius — well, kind of. His scale had one big difference compared to the system we use today: It was backward. Instead of 0 degrees marking the freezing point of water, it instead marked the boiling point, while 100 degrees marked the freezing point. The reason for this arrangement may have been in part to avoid using negative numbers when taking temperature readings. After all, it’s pretty cold in Sweden a majority of the year, and air temperature never gets hot enough to boil water (thank goodness). 

 

Celsius’ scale, then known as the centigrade (or “100-step”) scale, remained this way for the rest of his life, but in 1745 — one year after his death — scientist Carl Linnaeus (of taxonomy fame) ordered a thermometer with the scale adjusted to our modern orientation. Several other scientists also independently reversed the scale. Yet it wasn’t until some two centuries later, in 1948, that the International Bureau of Weights and Measures decided to rename “centigrade” to Celsius, in part to fall in line with the other major temperature scales named after their creators, such as Daniel Fahrenheit and William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. 

 

Although the Swedish scientist didn’t invent, or even use, the precise scale that now bears his name, his groundbreaking work is still worthy of the accolade. Before Celsius, a couple dozen thermometers were in use throughout the world, and many of them were frustratingly inaccurate and inconsistent (some were based on the melting point of butter, or the internal temperature of certain animals). Celsius’ greatest contribution was devising a system that could accurately capture temperature under a variety of conditions, and his name now graces weather maps around the world (excluding the U.S., of course).

 

There was once such a thing as a decimal time.

Today’s second is derived from a sexagesimal system created by the ancient Babylonians, who defined the time unit as one-sixtieth of a minute. Fast-forward to the tail end of the 18th century, and the French Revolution was in a metric frenzy. In 1795, France adopted the gram for weight, the meter for distance, and centigrade (later renamed Celsius) for temperature. However, some of France’s decimal ideas didn’t quite stand the test of, er, time. By national decree in 1793, the French First Republic attempted to create a decimal system for time. This split the day into 10 hours, with each hour lasting 100 minutes, and each minute lasting 100 seconds (and so on). Because there are 86,400 normal seconds in a day, the decimal second was around 13% shorter. Although it was easy to convert among seconds, minutes, and hours, France’s decimal time proved unpopular — after all, many people had perfectly good clocks with 24 hours on them — and the idea was abolished two years later. Since then, a couple of other temporal decimal proposals have been put forward, including watchmaker Swatch’s attempt to redefine the day as 1,000 “.beats” (yes, the period was included) in 1998 in response to the internet’s growing popularity. However, ancient Babylon’s perception of time is likely too ingrained in human culture to change any time soon. 

 

 

Source: The Celsius scale was originally backward.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - GROWING OLD

Did you know.... It’s a fact of life — people grow old. While modern society tends to obsess about the negatives of aging, studies suggest that we often experience more happiness and contentment in our later years. These six facts investigate the phenomenon of growing old, debunk some persistent myths about aging, and explore the brighter side of those golden years.

 

1. Old Age Isn’t a Modern Phenomenon

A common misconception about old age is that it’s a relatively modern phenomenon, as our predecessors lived brutish lives cut short by disease and war. While modern medicine has certainly expanded life expectancy, many people in the past lived as long as people live today. For example, some ancient Roman offices sought by politically ambitious men couldn’t even be held until someone was 30 — not exactly a great idea if people didn't live many years beyond that. Scientists have analyzed the pelvis joints (a reliable indicator of age) in skeletons from ancient civilizations and found that many people lived long lives. One study analyzing skeletons from Cholula, Mexico, between 900 and 1531 CE found that a majority of specimens lived beyond the age of 50. Low life expectancy in ancient times is impacted more by a high infant mortality rate than by people living unusually short lives. Luckily, modern science has helped more humans survive our vulnerable childhood years and life expectancy averages have risen as a result.

 

2. Older People Requiring Less Sleep Is a Myth

Another myth about getting old is that as we age, humans need less and less sleep, somehow magically subsisting on six hours or less when we enter our senior years. The truth is that the amount of sleep a person needs is only altered during childhood and adolescence as our bodies need more energy to do the tough work of growing. Once we’re in our 20s, humans require the same amount of sleep per night for the rest of their lives (though the exact amount differs from person to person). In fact, the elderly are more likely to be sleep-deprived because they receive lower-quality sleep caused by sickness, pain, medications, or a trip or two to the bathroom. This can be why napping during the day becomes more common as we grow older.

 

3. Some of Our Bones Never Stop Growing

The common perception of human biology is that our bones put on some serious inches in our youth, and then by the time we’re 20 or so, nature pumps the brakes and our skeleton stays static forever. While that’s true of a majority of our bones, some don’t quite follow this simplistic blueprint. A 2008 study for Duke University determined that the bones in the skull continue to grow, with the forehead moving forward and cheek bones moving backward. Unfortunately, this imperceptible bit of a facial movement exacerbates wrinkles, because as the skull shifts forward, the overlying skin sags. The pelvis also keeps growing throughout your life. Scientists analyzing the pelvic width of 20-year-olds compared to 79-year-olds found a 1-inch difference in width, which adds an additional 3 inches to your waistband. That means our widening in the middle as we age isn’t just about a slower metabolism.

 

 

4. Pupils Get Smaller As We Age

While our hips get bigger, our pupils get smaller. The human pupil is controlled by the circumferential sphincter and iris dilator muscles, and as we add on the years, those muscles weaken. Because of this loss of muscle function, pupils get smaller as we age, and are also less responsive to light. Smaller pupils make it harder to see at night, so people in their 60s need three times as much light to read comfortably as people in their 20s. Reading a menu in a dimly lit restaurant? Forget about it. Other eye changes include an increased likeliness of presbyopia, or farsightedness (which can often be resolved with readers), and cataracts, or a clouding of the eye's lens. In fact, half of people over the age of 80 will have experienced a cataract of some kind.

 

5. Older People Have a Stronger “Immune Memory”

Although the body experiences some slowing down as we age, growing old isn’t all bad news. Researchers from the University of Queensland found that older people had stronger immunities than people in their 20s, as the body keeps a repository of illnesses that can stretch back decades. This extra line of defense begins to drop off in our 70s and 80s, but until then, our bodies generally just get better and better at fighting off disease due to biological experience. Additionally, as we age we experience fewer migraines, the severity of allergies declines, and we produce less sweat. Older people also exhibit higher levels of “crystalized intelligence” (or what some might call “wisdom”) than any other age group.

 

6. The Atoms That Make Up All of Us Are Already Billions of Years Old

It’s true that age is just a number, and in the cosmic view of the universe, human age is pretty insignificant. The atoms that make up the human body are already billions of years old. For example, hydrogen — one of the key components of our bodies — formed in the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. Likewise, carbon, the primary component of all known life, formed in the fiery cauldron of stars at least 7 billion years ago. So when someone says we’re all made of “star stuff,” they’re very much telling the truth (we’re also made from various supernovae). And while we grow old on Earth, this is only the latest chapter of a story that stretches back to the beginning of everything — and it’s a story that’ll continue until the universe ends.
 

 

Source: Amazing Facts About Growing Old

Edited June 14, 2023 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SUMMER BLOCKBUSTERS

Did you know... There are a few different ways to tell that summer has nearly arrived: a look at the calendar, a glimpse at the thermometer, and the influx of movie trailers on TV. Between May and September, an overabundance of films call to us, offering a two-hour escape from the heat and an adventure only available on the silver screen. Catching the biggest films of the summer is practically an American tradition — but it wasn’t always that way. Here are five things you may not know about the summer blockbuster.

 

1. The Word “Blockbuster” Once Had a Different Meaning

The English language is constantly in a state of change, which is why the word now used to describe hugely successful films has veered from its original meaning. The term “blockbuster” emerged in 1942 in the midst of World War II, used to describe exceptionally destructive bombs. As the word implies, blockbusters were powerful enough to destroy entire city blocks, and within a year, writers began using the descriptive word as a way to describe explosive, shocking, or otherwise massive news events. However, the use of “blockbuster” would soon change; some historians believe the word temporarily fell out of popularity and was considered insensitive following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But by the 1950s, “blockbuster” reemerged, entering common vernacular (possibly thanks to Hollywood film producer Max E. Youngstein) to describe films that generated huge returns at the box office. The word became so synonymous with movies over the next few decades that by 1985 it was the name of the largest movie rental chain in the U.S. at the time. (Alas, there is now just one remaining location of the Blockbuster chain.)

 

2. Summer Used to Be Slow for Movie Theaters

Escaping the scorching heat in a cool movie theater (with a refreshing side of soda and popcorn) hasn’t always been a summer pastime. Prior to the 1970s, movie theaters experienced seasonal slowdowns, since many Americans preferred to spend their summer days outdoors. Knowing this, Hollywood studios of the 1950s and ’60s reserved their biggest releases for the last quarter of the year, pushing films into theaters in October, November, and December with the goal of capturing ticket sales from holiday shoppers. A second major reason to avoid a summer release: Films debuted at the end of the year were freshest in the minds of film awards voters, giving late-year releases a better chance at taking home an Oscar. All this would change in the latter third of the 20th century, however ….

 

3. “Jaws” Created the Summer Blockbuster

Steven Spielberg was a fledgling film director when he released Jaws in 1975, but the movie — his second full-length theatrical feature — would go on to change how Hollywood operated. As the first-ever film to earn $100 million at the box office, Jaws greatly encouraged the idea that summer was the perfect time to catch a film in theaters. In the lead-up to the movie’s release — pushed to June of 1975 due to production delays — Universal Studios spent upwards of $2 million on television trailers to generate excitement, an unusual tactic at the time, and it paid off big. Moviegoers literally lined up around the block to see Spielberg’s tale about a human-hungry great white shark, which made more than $7 million in the film’s opening weekend. But Jaws didn’t just make money; it also gave studios the green light to heavily fund and advertise their projects, and paved the way for future summer blockbusters, such as Star Wars (1977), Grease (1978), and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

 

4. Most Summer Blockbusters Are Action Films

After the Jaws and Star Wars successes of the 1970s, Hollywood was quick to lock in its blockbuster formula, often releasing its most enterprising, big-budget films between May and September. By the 1980s, studios realized that fast-paced action and adventure films drew in the largest audiences, with moviegoers often returning to see the same film again and again. Comic book characters began their blockbuster debuts in the 1990s, dominating screens in the decades ahead with a glut of never-ending sequels and universe expansions. And it’s no surprise: Action films have reigned supreme with summer film fans since 1975, accounting for 46% of all summer blockbuster releases (adventure films rank a close second, at 42%). While it’s possible to cool off with a romantic comedy this summer, don’t anticipate a wide selection — the romance genre historically accounts for just 15% of all summer releases over the past five decades.

 

5. “Jurassic Park” May Be the Most Successful Blockbuster Series

Summer flicks bring in the big bucks for film studios; take, for example, 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, which raked in $1.49 billion worldwide following its May debut. However, one franchise may be the most successful of all time: Jurassic Park. Originally released in 1993, Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi and adventure film grossed $978 million worldwide, catapulting it into the record books as the highest-grossing film ever (a title it held until James Cameron’s Titanic in 1997). The five following Jurassic Park franchise films (all summer blockbusters, released in 1997, 2001, 2015, 2018, and 2022) have, on average, brought in $1 billion in global ticket sales. But even with new spins on the dinosaur-inspired story, Spielberg’s original script remains incredibly popular with new (and old) audiences. Jurassic Park once again hit No. 1 on the box-office charts following a 2020 re-release, nearly three decades after it first wowed summertime crowds.

 

 

Source: Epic Facts About Summer Blockbusters

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - PRIDE MONTH

Did you know... June is Pride Month, 30 days of celebrating and recognizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, two-spirit, and other communities. What started as primarily protest marches has turned into a worldwide phenomenon, with people of all sexual and gender identities participating in bigger and bigger festivals. Parades have moved out of “gayborhoods” and onto prominent downtown streets as they go mainstream. While there’s plenty to celebrate, it’s important to not lose sight of the challenges that LGBTQ+ people still face. In a recent survey, more than one in three LGBTQ+ Americans reported experiencing discrimination over the past year. This discrimination impacts their ability to stay safe in the public sphere, access critical medical care, and more. It wasn’t until 2020 that the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace, applies to gay, lesbian, and transgender people. But there is, and always has been, plenty of queer joy and affirmation to go around. These six facts about Pride’s origins, LGBTQ+ history, and queer icons will help you kick off Pride Month celebrations.

 

1. Pride Month Commemorates the Stonewall Uprising

In the wee hours of June 28, 1969, nine police officers raided the Stonewall Inn — a refuge for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers — in New York City’s Greenwich Village. At the time, soliciting same-sex relations was a crime in New York City, as was cross-dressing; Stonewall and many other gay bars also reportedly operated without a liquor license, in part due to historical laws against serving alcohol to gay people. At the time, it was commonplace for police to raid gay bars, and the ones in Greenwich Village had already been raided several times that month. This time, the clientele at the Stonewall Inn saw their community members being violently arrested for “offenses” like dressing in clothing that didn’t align with what the cops perceived their gender to be, and fought back. What started as a vocal response escalated to throwing coins and bottles, and the officers barricaded themselves inside. The gathered crowd outside grew and eventually reached 400 people, and the resistance lasted five whole days. It wasn’t the first queer uprising in response to violent police raids, but this one galvanized communities across the United States. New York’s first gay pride march, then called the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, took to the streets in Greenwich Village exactly one year later.

 

2. The “P” in Marsha P. Johnson Stood for “Pay It No Mind”

One of the most prominent Stonewall-era activists was a Black trans woman named Marsha P. Johnson. She was present at the initial Stonewall Inn uprising, but she, along with close friend Sylvia Rivera, continued to speak out against trans and Black erasure in the gay rights movement through the 1970s. Johnson adopted her name when she first arrived in New York in the 1960s, with the middle initial “P” standing for “Pay It No Mind.” The phrase became her motto. Nearly 30 years after her death, the city of New York named a small park for her. And while the city announced a plan for a memorial statue of her and Rivera, a group of activists, frustrated by delays, put up their own bust, sculpted with loops designed to hold flowers in the shape of a crown.

 

3. The Original Pride Flag Included 8 Color Stripes

Today, there’s a veritable cornucopia of pride flags for all kinds of sexual, gender, and intersectional identities — but when most people think of the original pride flag, they’re thinking of a six-striped rainbow flag originally designed by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker. At its 1978 debut, it had not six, but eight colors, each with specific symbolism: hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. Each flag was handmade the first year, but as the design went into mass production the next year, hot pink disappeared and a simple blue replaced indigo and turquoise, partly due to the availability of fabric colors. Other pride flags, like those for the bisexual and transgender communities, started appearing in the late 1990s. In 2017, the Philadelphia flag brought the stripes back up to eight, adding black and brown stripes to the top of the rainbow to recognize people of color that often faced discrimination within LGBTQ+ communities. Increasingly, pride flags feature multiple flag designs merged into one omnibus flag.

 

4. Trans, Non-Binary, and Gender Nonconforming People Have Existed Throughout History

Evidence of gender identities that don’t conform to traditional ideas of “male” and “female” appears throughout communities dating back to ancient times. Explicit petroglyphs in China’s Xinjiang region that may date back as far as the Bronze Age include figures with both male and female elements. The third-century Roman Emperor Elagabalus actively sought out what today we might call gender-affirming surgery. Fourth-century St. Mary of Egypt is often depicted as a masculine figure. Medieval records describe many gender-fluid identities, including people assigned female at birth living as men in monasteries. Medieval records from London describe a person assigned male at birth who lived much of their life as a woman. An ancient Viking warrior tomb, previously thought to belong to a man because of the artifacts buried within it, was found to actually belong to a biological woman in 2017. More than 150 Native American tribes recognize genders with both male and female spirits, often referred to collectively as “two spirit” people.

 

5. Dolly Parton Once Lost a Dolly Parton Drag Contest

Dolly Parton, while not gay herself, has been vocally supportive of her gay fans — and her over-the-top aesthetic has made her not only a gay icon, but a staple in drag performances. Once, on a whim, Parton entered a drag look-alike contest, but ended up getting a very lukewarm reaction compared to the Dolly-portraying drag queens. "They had a bunch of Chers and Dollys that year, so I just overexaggerated — made my beauty mark bigger, the eyes bigger, the hair bigger, everything," she told Nightline in 2012. “All these beautiful drag queens had worked for weeks and months getting their clothes. So I just got in the line and I just walked across… but I got the least applause."

 

6. As of 2023, the U.S. Has 13 Openly Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Congresspeople

America has come a long way in mainstream LGBTQ+ representation. The 118th United States Congress (2023 to 2024) includes 13 members — two in the Senate and 11 in the House — who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, compared to 11 the previous year. That includes Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay person to be elected to the Senate, and Kyrsten Sinema, the first openly bisexual congressperson ever. While the United States Congress has no openly trans members, at least three are making waves in state government: James Roesener in New Hampshire is the first trans man to be elected to any state’s legislature, Leigh Finke is the first trans person elected to the Minnesota Legislature, and Zooey Zephyr is the first out nonbinary person to be elected to the Montana Legislature.

 

 

Source: Facts to Celebrate Pride Month

Edited June 15, 2023 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - TASTE BUDS

Did you know.... The human body is an amazing powerhouse fueled by important organs like the heart, lungs, and brain. However, some of its most vital work is done by a body part you might not expect — our taste buds, a set of microscopic organs that do more than help us savor our food. Scientists believe human taste buds also have a bigger purpose: protecting us from poisoning. These microscopic sensors tell our brains that food is safe to eat based on flavor, encouraging us to consume sweets (potential sources of calories and energy) and alerting us to spit out bitter or unpalatable substances that could make us sick. 

 

Taste buds are such hardworking organs that their cells die off quickly. As they work, they age and lose sensitivity, which is why the body regenerates them about every two weeks. However, taste buds aren’t all replaced at once; on any given day, about 10% of the sensors expire, while 20% to 30% are in the process of developing, leaving us with 60% of the buds active to analyze the food we consume. 

 

Want to examine your taste buds? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not as easy as sticking out your tongue. That’s because the visible bumps aren’t sensors themselves; instead what you see are the papillae, which cover the taste buds. Each papillae can house hundreds of taste sensors, with the average adult having between 2,000 and 10,000 — a number that generally decreases with age. However, there’s one upside to losing some taste sensitivity as we get older: Foods we once avoided in childhood, like Brussels sprouts, become a bit more palatable.

 

Taste buds aren’t just on your tongue.

It makes sense that taste buds are generally found in our mouths; after all, they help encourage us to eat and can sense potential poisons. However, researchers have found that taste buds don’t just exist on our tongues — they can be found all over the body in unexpected places. Taste buds can be found in our stomachs, and in 2007 researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine discovered sweet-sensing taste buds inside the intestines. It’s believed that those sensors monitor glucose and help the body control blood sugar. Taste buds also exist in the muscled walls of our lungs, where they work to protect breathing; upon sensing a bitter substance, the taste buds tell the body’s airway to open — a breakthrough some researchers say could be used to develop more effective asthma medications.

 

 

Source: Taste buds are replaced every two weeks.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - HUMAN BODY

Did you know.... The human body holds a host of extremes. The smallest muscles and bones stretch only a few millimeters, while other structures could wind around the Earth twice. Some organs in the body are completely vestigial, their use rendered obsolete by evolution, while others are largely responsible for what makes us human. These six facts explore those biological extremes, and illuminate the importance of the tiniest bones as well as the most vital organs.

 

1. The Smallest Muscle Stabilizes the Body’s Smallest Bone

The smallest muscle and the smallest bone in the human body form a convenient pair. The inner ear is home to the body’s three smallest bones, known collectively as the ossicles. Taken together, these bones are about the size of an orange seed, but the stapes is the smallest of them all. The stapes, which means “stirrup” in Latin (a reference to its shape), is essential to human hearing. Sound initially vibrates the tympanic membrane, otherwise known as the eardrum, and then travels through the ossicles. The stapes is the last bone in this chain, and causes a wave of fluid to generate in the inner ear that begins a process of converting sound waves into electrical signals that can be read by the brain. This incredibly tiny bone is supported by an equally tiny muscle called the stapedius. At less than 2 millimeters long, the stapedius is the smallest muscle in the human body.

 

2. The Human Body’s Veins Could Stretch 60,000 Miles

There are some surprising lengths packed inside the human body. There’s the small intestine, for example, which could stretch 22 feet end to end (though hopefully it never has to). Not to be outdone, our nerves could stretch 37 miles if laid end to end. However, none of this compares to our circulatory system. According to the British Heart Foundation, the veins in an adult human could stretch an astonishing 60,000 miles — that’s farther than it takes to circumnavigate the globe twice. Capillaries, which transport blood between arteries and veins, make up 80% of this length.

 

3. Even Ancient Greeks Knew About the Body’s Smallest Organ

The smallest organ in the human body is located in a place you’d never think to look — the brain. The pineal gland, named after its pinecone-like appearance, is in charge of regulating our circadian rhythm by secreting melatonin. The Greek physician Galen originally named the pineal gland in the second century CE, and believed it regulated the flow of “psychic pneuma.” Descartes elaborated on the pineal gland’s function in the early 17th century, believing it was the point of contact where the soul met the body and was primarily where thoughts were formed. The gland’s true powers weren’t discovered until 1958.

 

4. The Heel Hosts the Most Variety of Fungus of Any Body Part

Not every bodily superlative is a happy one. In 2013, scientists analyzed the human body to discern what nook or crevice played host to the greatest variety of microscopic fungi. After conducting close inspections of palms, feet, toenails, groins, nostrils, and more, the researchers determined that the human heel is the body part most ripe with fungi. The heel of the foot contains 80 different types of fungi, and that number only increases when you include the rest of the foot, as toenails were found to provide refuge for 60 types of fungi (the space between toes adds another 40). While not all fungi are necessarily harmful, about half of them can be, and these numbers may help explain why feet are prone to fungal infection such as athlete’s foot.

 

5. The Hand Has the Most Bones of Any Body Part

There are 206 bones in the average adult human body, and our hands take up the lion’s share. Each hand is home to 27 bones, along with 34 muscles and 123 ligaments. Some experts estimate that a quarter of the motor cortex, the part of the brain responsible for voluntary movement, is devoted to the manipulation of our hands alone. Although hands are impressive structures, they only just beat our feet by one measly bone. Because Homo sapiens’ primate ancestors walked on all fours, human hands and feet developed in similar ways. In fact, almost every bone in the palm is arranged in a pattern similar to the metatarsals in the foot. The only exception is a bone located at the edge of the wrist called the pisiform, which attaches various ligaments and tendons.

 

6. The Largest Lobe in the Brain Is What Makes Us Human

The frontal lobe is the largest lobe in the human brain, with studies placing its size between 25% to 40% of the cerebral cortex. Although all parts of the human brain work together, the frontal lobe is the region most associated with distinctively human characteristics such as language, creativity, and abstract thought. That’s why common systems of illnesses or injuries affecting the frontal lobe can affect someone’s personality, behavior, and in some cases, memory. A famous medical case representing early investigations into the importance of the frontal lobe happened when a 19th-century railroad worker named Phineas Gage was severely injured after a premature explosion drove an iron bar through his skull. Though he survived the experience, Gage’s personality was irreparably altered to an almost childlike state, and his friends and family declared he was “no longer Gage.” His condition upended long-standing theories regarding the relation of the human mind and the brain, and today the case remains one of the greatest medical curiosities in history.

 

 

Source: Fascinating Facts About Extremes of the Human Body

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - AMUSEMENT RIDES

Did you know... Aday at the amusement park once meant a stroll down the midway to play games and win prizes, a thrilling spin on the Ferris wheel, or a dizzying one on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Fueled by popcorn and spun sugar, the day would end in sunburns and candy-colored memories. These days, the simple rides loved by our grandparents have evolved into adrenaline-charged, super-caffeinated extreme versions. Even the spark-flinging bumper car has been juiced up by a Top Gear mechanic to achieve speeds of 100 mph on its undersized wheels. If you want to get in on the fun, board one of these record-breaking amusement park attractions and get ready for the ride.

 

1. Longest Roller Coaster: Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land (Mie, Japan)

Japan’s Steel Dragon 2000 roller coaster was named for the year it opened: 2000 was the year of the dragon on the lunar calendar, and of course, much of the structure is built from steel.  The Steel Dragon’s out-and-back run is 8,133 feet long — more than 1.5 miles —  making it the longest roller coaster in the world. The cars reach heights up to 307 feet on several climbs and, after a nerve-wracking second of hesitation at the top of each rise, they plunge passengers back earthward at speeds that top 95 mph.

 

2. Oldest Carousel in the U.S.: Flying Horses Carousel (Oak Bluff, Massachusetts)

The oldest carousel in the world, built in 1780, still exists but is locked behind a gate in a park pavilion in Hanau, Germany. But the oldest one in the U.S., made in 1876, is still spinning, full of happy children mounted on painted wooden horses that go around and around all summer long in Martha’s Vineyard. The merry-go-round began its run as one of 25 carousels in operation on the Coney Island boardwalk in the 1870s, before being relocated to the summer resort area of Oak Bluff in 1884. Since then, its horses — with real horsehair tails, real leather stirrups, and glass eyes — have been a popular fixture in their island home.

 

3. Tallest Ferris Wheel: Ain Dubai (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

The original Ferris wheel, which debuted in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, measured 250 feet tall and was a hit with riders. But it was less than half the size of the world’s tallest Ferris wheel, Ain Dubai, which began spinning on the waterfront in Dubai in October 2021. Ain Dubai measures 820 feet tall, and riders can enjoy the air-conditioned 38-minute ride in a few different ways — by riding in one of the regular cabins, renting a private cabin, or buying a ticket for the Skybar, a pod that includes a full bar, a bartender, and music. The wheel, whose name translates to "the Dubai Eye," rises twice as high as the London Eye.

 

4. Steepest Log Flume Ride: Chiapas - DIE Wasserbahn at Phantasialand (Brühl, Germany)

Log-flume rides — modeled after historic lumber-cutting operations, in which logs are floated downriver to sawmills — are a surefire hit on hot summer days. Passengers ride in hollowed-out “logs” on submerged tracks that run along watery paths, usually through artificial caves and mountains, slowly climbing uphill until a speedy and steep descent brings the ride to its splashy conclusion. Phantasialand’s Chiapas breaks convention in a few ways: Instead of a logging operation vibe, it has an elaborate theme based on an archaeological dig of Maya ruins, complete with an orchestrated soundtrack. In the course of its six-minute run, passengers experience three steep drops (including one from 66 feet, the steepest drop in the log-flume world). Adding to the unique design of Chiapas, at different points of the ride, the log vehicle moves forward and backward.  

 

5. Slowest Roller Coaster: Tiger and Turtle Magic Mountain (Duisberg, Germany)

Perched atop the grassy dome of a former slag heap, the Tiger and Turtle looks like a normal roller coaster from a distance. It has extensive and shiny tracks that loop and turn back on themselves and soar as high as 69 feet above the hill. Upon closer examination, however, you notice the silence — there’s no clacking of cog wheels climbing the tracks, nor is there the moving doppler effect of passenger screams as the cars whip past. That’s because instead of being a roller coaster, the Tiger and Turtle is a human-powered stroller coaster: an elevated metal walking track, conceived and created by artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth. Don’t be scared to take a walk along the ride’s twists and turns. It’s perfectly safe and free, the views along the Rhine River are expansive, and the quiet is pretty refreshing.

 

6. Tallest Freefall Water Slide: Kilimanjaro at Aldeia das Aguas Park Resort (Barra Do Pirai; Brazil)

First-time visitors to water parks may be startled to discover that they are the ride. With little more than a rubber mat or an inner tube — and sometimes without even those — your body is the vehicle that careens down slides, slips around chutes, and bobs along “lazy rivers.” Some water parks up the excitement even further with slides that drop you down nearly vertical chutes, cushioned only by a cascade of water and the sound of your own scream. On the tallest of these freefall waterslides, located in a water park outside Rio de Janeiro and aptly named Kilimanjaro, you’ll begin at the top of an enclosed slide, so you cannot yet see the drop ahead. When you slip down into the tunnel and see light ahead, you have just enough time to notice that the bottom part of the tunnel drops away at a 60-degree angle, and then suddenly, so do you — until you bob to the surface of a frothing pool, 164 feet below.
 

 

Source: Record-Breaking Amusement Park Rides From Around the World

Edited June 18, 2023 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - SENSE OF TIME

Did you know... History, at first glance, is a simple enough concept — a series of events that happen in chronological order and that eventually add up to the overarching story of humanity. However, sometimes it doesn’t take much to throw off our sense of that timeline. Historical outliers, anachronisms, and different types of development made by disparate cultures can intersect in ways that make you question your hold on temporal reality. These six facts will challenge your perception of time, and prove that history isn’t always as simple as it may seem.

 

1. George Washington Didn’t Know Dinosaurs Existed

The birth of the United States dates back little more than 245 years, but a lot has happened since then. One of the big paleontological updates, for example, is the discovery of dinosaurs. The first dino fossil ever discovered was in 1677, when English naturalist Robert Plot found the femur of what we’d now call a megalosaurus. However, Plot believed that this bone belonged to some ancient race of giant humans — not the animals we know today as dinosaurs. It wasn’t until the 1820s, when geologists in England uncovered more megalosaurus fossils, as well as bones belonging to the iguanodon, that they correctly identified the remains as belonging to some sort of giant extinct reptile. Even then, it’d take nearly two decades before the word “dinosaur,” meaning terrible lizard, was officially coined by Richard Owen. That means George Washington, and most of the founding generation of the United States, didn’t know anything about dinosaurs, and may have even believed an ancient race of human giants once roamed the Earth.

 

2. Woolly Mammoths Were Alive After Egyptians Built the Pyramids

Woolly mammoths were once hunted in Europe by Neanderthals, so it seems weird that they overlap with the recorded history of Homo sapiens. Yet the gargantuan beasts still roamed the Earth when the Egyptians toiled away on the Great Pyramid of Giza. Though “roam” may be a bit of an exaggeration: By the end of their natural time on Earth, woolly mammoths were completely confined to Wrangel Island off the coast of northeastern Russia. This small island, roughly the size of Crete, saw the last gasps of this species, as the ice age that sustained the creatures’ survival completely receded. Sadly, the few mammoths on the island suffered what scientists call a “genomic meltdown,” as inbreeding affected the species’ ability to mark territory and mate. It’s estimated that the last woolly mammoth died around 1700 BCE, about 800 years after the completion of the Great Pyramid. However, new advancements in genetics could see the return of these woolly beasts to the planet.

 

3. The First Computer Was Invented Before the Roman Empire

A computer found in an ancient shipwreck among the islands of Greece sounds like a sci-fi story with a dash of time travel — but in this case, reality is stranger than fiction. Now regarded as one of the most astounding archaeological finds in history, the Antikythera Mechanism, named after the nearby island where the shipwreck was discovered, is an ancient analog computer built around the second century BCE. The machine was used to calculate eclipses, moon phases, and the movements of the five planets known to antiquity: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. This means humanity’s conception of a computer predates the rise of the ancient Roman Empire, which began with the reign of Emperor Augustus in 27 BCE. When the mechanism was discovered in 1900, no one knew how these strange, greenish pieces of bronze fit together, and the mystery wasn’t solved until historian Derek J. de Solla Price figured it out in the 1950s. Yet to this day, experts aren’t sure who originally created the Antikythera Mechanism; the famous mathematicians Hipparchus and Archimedes are good guesses. The next analog computer to rival the complexity of the Antikythera Mechanism didn’t arrive until the astronomical clocks of the Renaissance, more than 1,500 years later.

 

4. The Fax Machine Was Invented the Same Year the First Large-Scale Wagon Train Traveled the Oregon Trail

Although we often associate it with the late 20th century, the fax machine is surprisingly old, and it arrived little more than a decade after the invention of the telegraph. In 1843, Scottish mechanic and inventor Alexander Bain received a patent for a device now regarded as the first fax machine. This machine worked differently than today’s digital machines, however; Bain leveraged his experience as an amateur clockmaker to synchronize pendulums with a clock. One pendulum scanned an image, while another created a copy of the image. That same year, on May 22, 1843, a wagon train left Missouri on its way west toward Oregon. The nearly 1,000 settlers were part of the first large-scale expedition to travel along what became known as the Oregon Trail, a route that wound through Wyoming’s South Pass and circumvented the Rocky Mountains. (While migrants had been using the Oregon Trail since the 1830s, numbers increased significantly with this Great Emigration of 1843.) Meanwhile, in England, Bain’s machine — and subsequent machines like it — were labeled “copying telegraphs,” though they became obsolete by the early 1860s, after Italian inventor Giovanni Caselli invented the telefax machine, known at the time as the pantelegraph.

 

5. The First University in Europe Was Founded 7 Years Before the Crusades

Universities, which served as centers of learning for the intellectual revolutions of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, seem like institutions founded after the unenlightened barbarism of the Crusades. However, the University of Bologna predates Pope Urban II’s call to retake the Holy Land by about seven years. The university formed as an affiliation of guilds mostly studying civil and canon (aka religious) law. By the 12th and 13th centuries, the University of Bologna attracted students from all over the world, and subsequently became a model for other Italian universities and centers of learning further abroad. The only university older than Bologna is the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fes, Morocco, which was originally founded in 859 CE.

 

6. Nintendo Existed Before the Death of Civil War General William T. Sherman

On September 23, 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Karuta in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Many decades removed from the creation of the first video game, Nintendo’s early years focused on producing hanafuda, or Japanese playing cards. Two years later and half a world away, one of the most influential generals in the U.S. Civil War — William Tecumseh Sherman — died at the age of 71. Nintendo remained relatively unknown in the U.S. until the mid-20th century, when the company began exploring ways to expand, and even struck a deal with Disney to create hanafuda with its characters on them. But it wasn’t until the 1970s, when Nintendo became the Japanese distributor of the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first home video game console, that the company took a hard right turn into the new entertainment industry.

 

 

Source: Historical Facts That Will Challenge Your Sense of Time

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - FATHER'S DAY

Did you know... Father’s Day doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. A modern, secular holiday that arrives on the third Sunday of June, sometime between the end of school and the summer solstice, the day can be overlooked by kids who are immersed in vacation activities or otherwise inclined to take dad’s support for granted. Yet the (mostly) grown-up boys who rule the roost deserve their moment of recognition too, so as a service to the 70 million-plus dads in the United States, here are six fun facts to muse on for Father’s Day.

 

1. Father's Day Was First Celebrated in the Early 20th Century

The first known Father's Day commemoration, held in West Virginia on July 5, 1908, was a one-off event to honor the roughly 361 men who had died in a coal-mining disaster the previous year. But the version of the holiday that took root is largely credited to a Washington state woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower. Inspired by a sermon celebrating Mother's Day — itself a recent concept — Dodd set about drumming up support for a similar day for dads among local church leaders and government officials. Although her request to establish the occasion on her dad's birthday of June 5 was rejected (pastors reportedly wanted more time to prepare another sermon after Mother's Day), Dodd's efforts led to the first major Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington, on June 19, 1910.

 

2. It Took Several Decades for Father’s Day to Become a Holiday

Although Mother's Day became a national holiday in 1914, Father's Day failed to garner the same official backing for several decades. This was largely due to American notions of masculinity; in the words of History.com, many men initially "scoffed at the holiday's sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products — often paid for by the father himself." Nevertheless, commercialization of the day was established by the 1930s, and by World War II, Father's Day was being promoted as a way to honor servicemen. In 1972, President Richard Nixon finally formalized the widespread observations and declared the day a holiday.

 

3. Dads Want to Be Honored With a Card and a Phone Call (and Maybe a Slab of Meat)

What do dads desire most for their designated day in the sun? If the results of two recent polls are to be trusted, they want to keep things simple. A 2021 YouGov survey revealed the top answers, tied at 28% among responders, to be a card and a special experience with the family. Meanwhile, a 2019 questionnaire found that dads most wanted a phone call from their children (47%), followed by "a big juicy steak" (41%), the latter choice perhaps unsurprising given that the poll was instigated by Omaha Steaks.

 

4. Father's Day Was Once the Busiest Day of the Year for Collect Calls

According to the experts at Hallmark, Americans now honor their fathers by way of 72 million greeting cards purchased annually, making it the fourth-largest such occasion on the holiday calendar. And according to the researchers at Snopes, previous generations of children went the extra mile for dear old dad by inundating him with collect calls on his special day. While that habit has largely died out with the rise of cellphones, an AT&T spokesperson summed up the way of the world back in 1998 by noting: "Father's Day is our biggest day for collect calls — not just the biggest holiday, but the biggest day of the year."

 

5. The Best Dads Can Win a Father of the Year Award

While getting a child through the day without incident is enough of a victory for some dads, the National Father's Day Committee has sought to recognize the best in this demanding field by bestowing Father of the Year honors on multiple recipients since General Douglas MacArthur claimed the inaugural award in 1942. Sure, the opportunity for recognition increases if you're a famous dad — previous winners include Humphrey Bogart, Arthur Ashe, Peter Jennings, and Joe Biden — but regular Joes also get a shot at consideration by way of the "All-Star Dad" essay submitted by children.

 

6. Father's Day Is Celebrated in Different Ways Around the World

While families in Canada and the United Kingdom celebrate Father's Day at the same time of year and in a similar manner to Americans, other cultures have their own ways of honoring the man of the household. In countries with large Roman Catholic populations, like Spain, Portugal, and Italy, patriarchal contributions are noted on the annual March 19 Feast of St. Joseph, which honors the earthly father of Jesus, Joseph of Nazareth. The German celebration of "Vatertag" is held on Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter, and marks the start of a four-day holiday weekend. And the Thai version of the holiday, which falls on the December 5 birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, is marked by children gifting canna lilies to their fathers and grandfathers.

 

 

Source: Formative Facts About Father’s Day